Touch of the Divine
There was a small table in the shared room occupied by Yuffie and Aeris, so the five had chosen to congregate there to discuss their chosen routes. A map had been produced from inside of Cloud's cape, and was unrolled carefully to display its contents to the assembled group.
"This is where we are," the blond swordsman said, putting his gloved finger on the spot where Gongagga was. "This village is northeast of Gainsborough, about four days ride from the coastal border. That puts us about three more days ride to Cosmo Canyon, where we'll be meeting up with the convoy. We have approximately four days before the caravan leaves, and we best make the most of the time and leave as soon as night falls."
"We don't have any reason to believe Kadaj and his group has given up on us," Vincent added, explaining Cloud's reasoning. "It's going to be much harder to track prey in the dark of night, so from here on end, we're going to be traveling in the darkness and sleeping in the day."
"I know all three of you are anxious to find out what our final destination will be," Cloud continued, steepling his fingers. "But I assure you, as soon as we reach the convoy, we'll have all the time to talk on this in the world. It's just that there is no safety for us until we become part of the numbers that the caravan protects."
"A caravan normally has its own guards and hired hands to help protect its cargo and people who journey together with it," Zack observed, nodding his head at the logic of it. "It would make sense to rush to meet it just to be sure we would be safe. But ideally, is a day's allowance truly enough to make up for anything that might happen in the meantime?"
There was a tone of challenge in that statement, one which Cloud might not have chosen to acknowledge. "No its not," the blond admitted. "But then again would another day make a difference if we end up fighting against the same class of people Kadaj and his cohorts represent? Or two more?"
That remark was met with silence.
"Okay," Yuffie perked up. "We're just going to be riding hard until we can get to Cosmo Canyon right? It's no big deal then! We'll make it for sure!" The Wutain princess punctuated the last sentence by pumping her fist.
Aeris watched the exchange go back and forth. She felt like a fifth wheel in this conversation. Her tutoring in the arts of combat were limited mostly to military strategy (most of them theoretical at best) and some lessons on using the rod. Zack had assured her she was one of the best students he's taught, but the heir to House Gainsborough could never be too sure how much of that was honest praise at her skills or Zack being accommodating to help encourage her.
Yuffie had no such problem. Her education in her native Wutai included training in several fighting styles, four of which was exclusively taught only to her family line. Vincent, thought he tried to appear every bit the quiet craftsman, had a deadly air about him Aeris only usually associated with Continental Knights, of which Zack himself was a member. And Cloud…
Cloud could handle his monstrous crystalline sword one handed.
Aeris missed the closing parts of the conversation, understanding only that they would be leaving as soon as the sun set, and that they needed to be packed by then. The men left the room, leaving her and Yuffie alone.
"Gil for your thoughts?"
The older girl smiled at her closest friend. "I was just thinking," Aeris said.
"Seemed like a pretty depressing line of thought back there. Wanna talk about it?"
"It's nothing, really."
"Suit yourself," Yuffie shrugged. "Get some rest if you can. I've been on this kind of trip before, and trust me when I say that sleeping will be the one thing you'll be missing most when we start riding hard. You've already packed anyway, right?"
The auburn-haired girl nodded, folding up her traveling cloak and laying down on the bed. It was three in the afternoon, more than enough time to get at least three more hours of sleep. Aeris also considered that sleeping may also take away her anxieties of the moment.
At least until she can wake up.
xxxxx
"Do you really think Lady Aeris can stand four days of hard travel?"
Cloud ignored the knight and kept stuffing items in his rucksack. "If you were paying attention a while ago you'd have remembered we were only riding for three days," the blond commented. "The fourth day is allowance for if something goes wrong."
Zack frowned. "Three days of hard travel isn't something any of us can handle easily in any case," the other man said, leaning against the wall for support. "Why the rush Master Strife?"
Blue eyes met brown. "I told you already," he said. "The entire story becomes clear once we get to Cosmo Canyon. I will not share any details sooner than that."
"You should stop convincing him to tell you anything," came the voice of Vincent Valentine, as the man walked in their shared dorm. "Strife will not share any details until absolutely necessary. Take it from someone who knows him well."
Zack watched the red-eyed man carefully. "Master Valentine," he asked. "I know some of Strife's story and why he wants to escort the Lady Aeris out to gods knows where. What about you? Why are you even helping him out?"
"Ah yes. You see, the reason is…"
Zack leaned forwards. "…a secret."
The knight huffed petulantly despite himself. "I can't decide what's worse," Zack snorted. "Strife and his annoying way of keeping all the information to himself, or your way of mocking people while doing the exact same thing."
"Which reminds me," Vincent said. "I'll need to borrow your sword Master Fair."
"What for?'
"We have six hours free to do what we want," the man explained. "I've found a public smithy we can have your weapon sharpened at. I've seen the kind of damage it took from those monsters back at the palace."
Zack took a look at his Zweihander's blade and winced. The metal was chipped in several places, the monsters were harder than their faux-wooden appearance seemed to be. "Don't worry about your blade," Strife assured him. "Valentine used to be the very best weapons smith there was. No other person would be more trustworthy in a smithy."
Vincent took the blade from the knight in silence, and leaned into Cloud's direction to listen to a whispered comment before leaving.
Zack had not let on that he caught a few of the words, but they were in no language he could recognize. Strife's Common was oddly accented, as if used to speaking a completely different language. If he listened closely, despite the underlying tones of the Gainsborough regional dialect, Valentine had the same accent as well.
There was no way to be completely sure at this point what the situation was. A possible state of calamity within a single nation, Strife and Valentine being citizens was not terribly unlikely a scenario. But which nation was it? Zack had heard many accents during his stay in a court that regularly interceded between warring nations, but to date there was nothing resembling the one he noticed from the two men they were traveling with.
All of this leads to something.
But to what?
xxxxx
She ordered a cup of tea and took a seat in an isolated corner in the common room, a position sheltered by the shadows of the failing daylight. She spoke to no one and kept to herself, sipping at the cup every so often and asking for a refill when it ran out. The other inn workers kept away from her when the initial attempts at conversation failed, though the woman did seem polite enough.
It was just that she did not want to be disturbed.
The watcher suppressed the desire to leap from her seat when three men walked downstairs from the main rooms and separated near the doors leading to the main streets of town. The blond knight was talking with Master Fair, and said a quiet farewell to the third one, the man dressed in scarlet robes and wearing the strange gauntlet on his left hand.
When Master Fair had been left alone, she rushed to his side and grabbed his arm. It took superb reflexes and a lucky glance to the side to prevent the woman from taking a blow to the face by a leather gloved hand. "Tifa?" Zack said incredulously. "Tifa Lockheart?!"
Indeed, his liege lady's personal handmaiden and bodyguard stood before him. Tifa was dressed in what looked like a fine traveling cloak, which was right now dusty from use. She had a small pack with her, which presumably contained what little supplies she had managed to spirit away in her attempt to follow them.
"Master Fair," she managed to get out, her eyes clearly strained from holding back tears, embraced him hard. "I had been following you and Lady Aeris for five days! I hoped against hope that I'd be able to find you, and…and…" The last sentence was choked out by a flood of desperate weeping.
Zack stroke her hair back behind her ears in as comforting a gesture as he could manage. Gods! She didn't belong here any more than Lady Aeris did. "Tifa," he got out. "Listen to me. It's not safe for you to be here. You need to return to Gainsborough and report to the Lord Gast what has happened. That his daughter is safe and—"
"Lord Gast is dead!"
Staring at her in open shock, the knight barely managed to be led back to an empty table by the very distraught handmaiden. "Lord Gast?" he managed, his own emotions rushing to the fore. "How?"
"The Shin-Ra Imperium had moved their armies across our borders in secret for weeks it seemed," Tifa explained haltingly. "They were seeking to eliminate our fiefdom for what they've done in stopping their war with Wutai. And after Lady Gainsborough disappeared that night in the ball...they…they saw fit to attack."
Zack Fair could see it in his mind. The attack on the castle after large portions of the forest was burned down left the area open. The soldiers were still in a state of confusion after the heir to the House was taken away, and Lord Gast would not have been in a proper state of mind to order a defense of his household in any case. He clenched his fists until his nails almost tore through the rough leather gloves.
"Who is that?"
The knight whipped around, his face a mask of anger as he faced down Cloud Strife. The blond swordsman tilted his head, staring at him with as curious an expression as his blank face could provide. "You," Zack growled. "This is all your fault!" The brunette screamed as he let fly a furious haymaker at the blond's face.
It never connected.
The next thing he knew, Zack was facing the ceiling inside the shared dormitory he used with Valentine and that bastard Strife. "I hope you'll be more rational this time," said his hated voice.
Zack tried to rise, but found he was bound hand and foot on the metal support structures of the bed. Tifa was there with a worried expression on her face, but seemed afraid to take down the blond swordsman herself. She had been there at the fight, and the surprising speed the blonde had used had not been forgotten.
"Master Fair," she said pleadingly. "Please calm down! Nobody's at fault for what happened! The Imperium had been planning this for years ever since the truce at Wutai coast! It was their betrayal, not Master Strife's!"
The now former knight stopped struggling, but Cloud made no move to cut his ropes. "What now Strife?" the bound man taunted. "Will you let Lady Aeris know that her father is dead and that she could do nothing to change it?"
The blond stayed silent for a few moments before saying "no. That is not my intention."
"But as soon as we find her place amongst her kinsmen in my land, all things will change."
xxxxx
"Here."
Yuffie took the proffered packages and frowned. "What is this?" the Wutain asked.
"Weapons for you and Lady Aeris," Vincent explained, turning away to check the saddles of the Chocobo they had been using. An extra one had to be purchased after Mistress Lockheart's arrival, but otherwise there hadn't been much of a dent in their individual purses to take note of. "There would be a chisakatana for you to use with your Wutainese martial arts, and a metal quarterstaff for the Lady Aeris."
Unwrapped, the smaller of the bundles did reveal a scabbarded short sword of Wutain design, so the heiress to the House of Wutai did not bother opening the other one.
"Ris-chan did mention Zack taught her some moves with the staff," Yuffie said absently as she slipped the weapon in a gap in her robes' sash. She drew the sword and admired the way it was designed. An engraved relief of one of Leviathan's myths was carved in the central parts of the blade itself, but the ornamental design did nothing to change the sharpness of the blade.
"The goddess Lucretia," Yuffie said, admiring the story carved in the blade. "She always had a special liking for the Wutai. It was said that her divine blacksmith came down and taught the people the ways of metalworking, and that was why our weapons were the best in Midgard."
Vincent kept his eyes averted. "Send for the others," he said, checking the straps on the last Chocobo. "I think we should be ready to leave any minute now."
The six travelers left the inn when the clock in the common room struck eight, leading their Chocobo by the reins. When they had reached the edge of the town, all of them mounted up and spurred their avian steeds to what amounted to a leisurely run.
They needed to cross several plains in the distance between them and Cosmo Canyon, plus actually climb up the mountains that bordered the desert settlement. The choice of the steed was no accident, as horses took a lot of time to cross the kind of rugged terrain they would be traversing. The Chocobo could, to a measure, climb better than a horse, has better agility because of their bipedal statures, and could probably outrun one given the right conditioning. The only disadvantage was that all the provisions they were carrying had to be evenly distributed to all, the one thing the Chocobo did not hold over a horse was its capacity to carry heavy loads.
They'd done the equivalent of a full run throughout the night, stopping every two hours to rest the birds and plot their course on the map, and to pitch camp once the morning came too close. Tifa was taking the decision to be secretive about the fate of Aeris' father rather well, her own face betraying nothing of what happened back home. She stuck to the story that she left on her own, to follow her lady to seek her fate.
Which was true, in a sense, but was not the entirety of it.
The group took the time to teach Aeris the intricacies of combat whenever they had to rest the Chocobo. Zack was renewing his teachings with the quarterstaff, Yuffie and Tifa teaching her about hand to hand when she grew tired from exhertion and Cloud giving lectures on using the terrain. One day Cloud and Vincent watched a Lady who was growing more and more skilled by the day throw her own bodyguard over her shoulder. Tifa shook the impact off and grinned, acknowledging the point.
"She would have been most at home in the arts of combat," Cloud said, lapsing into the Noble Tongue of Asgard in his distraction. "Her own mother wouldst be most proud seeing her today."
"Watch your language Strife," Vincent cautioned, glancing around to check if any of the others had been close enough to hear. Zack was several yards away, putting a whetstone to his sword and Yuffie was helping Aeris pick up the downed Tifa to prepare for another round.
"Do you ever stop to wonder," the blacksmith said after a fashion. "That perhaps we are placing a burden on young Aeris' shoulders too great for her to carry? That this entire thing would unravel at the slightest touch should her own will not be strong enough?"
"Every day."
"Well then why?"
"There is no other choice," the spiky-haired blond shook his head in distaste, clearly at odds with himself despite the determination to bring his liege's daughter home. "With Lady Infalna's death there is little else to be done but try to fill the gap in the void of power. Anything else would cause the total destruction of our realm and thus ignite the flaming furies of Ragnarok ten thousand years early."
"So its either she grows strong enough or all of us will perish," Vincent said almost laconically. Cloud remained silent, his green eyes trained straight at Aeris' direction.
"A heavy burden indeed, Master Einharjar."
"Okay I think that's enough for tonight," Zack said, breaking the silence as he noticed the dawning of the next day from the light in the east. "Everyone has to pack it in. We have only tonight to travel and we should reach Cosmo Canyon by early morning tomorrow."
Muttered verbal agreements punctuated the knight's request, and the ladies went to their tents to leave the men to discuss the rotating watch. Vincent stared at the whetstone in Zack's hand as the larger man approached. "Were you even using that thing?" he inquired. That got a grin out of him.
"The blade is flawless, absolutely flawless," Zack said. "I never remembered my old blade having a balance quite like this one, and once or twice I cut into the whetstone by accident." The whetstone was held up, a single notched groove was marring the surface of the smooth stone.
Zack's grin turned serious as he faced Cloud. "Well Master Strife," he said casually. "The web of deception is about ready to unravel, I think. One more night before you need to tell Lady Aeris everything. Not just about your own purposes, but about everything."
"I remember the bargain we made."
"Remembering a bargain is not the same as committing to it," came the knight's counter.
"True, true," Cloud grudgingly admitted, as he drew the short straw to assign him first watch. Over the horizon the plateaus of Cosmo Canyon lay, the red rocks of the valleys shining in the early light of the dawn.
Though he wouldn't admit it then, he really hoped something would happen before the night was through.
xxxxx
"The stars are different tonight."
Erich glanced in the direction of the village leader gazing into his telescope. Bugenhagen strode down the stepladder and stopped in front of the desk they shared. "Elder?" the apprentice scribe asked. "Was there anything you wanted?"
"No dear boy," the wizened old man said, waving a hand dismissively. "I was just saying that the stars are different tonight."
"I don't know what you mean, Elder."
"Of course you don't," came the answer with a snort. "I haven't done any explaining yet."
Erich shook his head, trying to decide if his Elder has finally gone off the deep end. The man had ruled (or, in the words of the citizenry, acted as its adviser) for the better part of almost fifty years. In all that time he had managed to keep the peace and settle the small tribe's disputes, but even then the scribe wondered if Elder Bugenhagen even kept all his marbles in one bag.
In retrospect, maybe he never did.
"Have you ever read of the legends of the War of the Hundred Years?"
"Of course Elder," Erich cocked his head inquiringly. "I believe the village stores some of the most expansive of the ancient texts on the subject. If I recall, two clans of gods fought each other for a full hundred years, before reaching a peace that lasted a thousand. One clan, the Aesir, controlled the heavens and the elements, the other, the Vanir, controlled the earth and life on it. I believe there are festivals on the subject as far away as the Wutain continent in the west and Junon harbor in the east."
Bugenhagen chuckled, his spectacled eyes twinkling knowingly. "Ah yes," he declared. "You do know of the legends."
Erich furrowed his brow as he went back to work, his quill pen making scratchy noises as he wrote. He stopped after barely five minutes, totally unable to concentrate. "I give up," he admitted, shooting an annoyed glare at his Master. "What don't I know about the legends?"
Bugenhagen sighed, palming his face. "Ah the impertinence of youth," he muttered to himself.
"Beyond the myth there are always realities," the Elder explained, his tone of voice like that of a parent to a recalcitrant child. Considering Bugenhagen had watched the teenager's grandparents grow up, that wasn't too far off the mark. "Quantifiable observations that have long since passed on to recorded history. Tell me dear boy, what have you remembered of the time of civilization as far back as a thousand years before?"
Erich scrunched his forehead in thought, chewing on the tip of his quill. "I remember something mentioned in the texts about a time of peace unheard of in any time in history," the apprentice began. "The first five hundred years were the pinnacle of civilization, the Elder Cities were theorized to have been built by that time frame. Of all of the Elder Nations only Wutai, the Shin-Ra Imperium and the remains of what may be a temple southwest of Junon harbor still exist, close to Mideel. There is also another set of ruins thought to be found northeast of Cosmo Canyon itself, and a fabled city being excavated in a continent to the far north of this one."
"Very good," Bugenhagen said approvingly. "And if you notice as well, astronomers in that specific time period made mention of a certain alignment of stars, coinciding with what they termed as 'Descent of the Gods.'"
"Look here," the Elder gestured towards the telescope's eye piece, motioning for the young man to climb the step ladder. "Watch the constellations of Infalna the Warrior Queen, Loki the Trickster and Jormagund the Serpent. Note their positions carefully."
Erich did as he was bade, noting the positions of the stellar avatars of the known pantheon. Somewhere amongst the group was the great ash tree Yggdrasil, the very foundations upon which the realms where held up. When he felt like he remembered enough, he went to see what Bugenhagen was gesturing towards, in a star chart on his own desk.
"The positioning fits!" the old man said excitedly. "And look here, the positions of the planet's own moon coinciding with a calendar event that hadn't happened in well over a thousand years!"
"But what does it all mean?" Erich asked, exasperated. Hearing the old man speaking in riddles wasn't exactly the best way to endear one's self to him. "This is all a mass of gobbledegook to me Elder."
"Don't you see?" Bugenhagen implored, thumping his fist on the oak desk. "All the signs are there! The increased level of activity in the warlike nation of Shin-Ra! The near collapse of the ancient kingdom of the Wutai. The odd weather patterns the past few months and the sudden battles for power that started nigh eighteen years before! This isn't just random coincidence. This is a signal that the world has been touched…"
"By the hand of the divine."
"The touch of the divine?" Erich asked incredulously. "Do you mean to say gods walk the earth again? That's just insane!"
"I never said anything about gods, dear boy," Bugenhagen replied, his old eyes twinkling merrily. "I said divine. There are other things besides gods that rank in that category, and you'd best remember that."
Before Erich could ask his master anything further, a village watchman knocked on the door. "Elder Bugenhagen," he reported. "The convoy to Mt. Nibel has arrived."
xxxxxx
Author's Note: Again, an unbeta'ed chapter. This is more of a transition to what's going to come. A big part of the story will be the pilgrimage back to Infalna's lands, which, by now, I'd made clear as a place not really of this world. Any mistakes in grammar fall to the fact that English is not my first language (and that I've been too lazy to countercheck what I write).
Incorporating what I've been able to read on Norse myth, I'd managed to find a lot of texts on what the Aesir and the Vanir used to stand for, and decided to just divide them into two clans with two specific jurisdictions that meshed in with what I've managed to write previously. Still, I hope I can expand on the story a bit more by the next chapter so I don't have to explain as much in the author's notes.
Some Definitions
Aesir – a clan of gods in the Norse pantheon which includes Odin the All Father, Thor and most of the major gods
Vanir – another clan of gods in the Norse pantheon which includes the brother and sister Freya and Freyjr (hope I'm spelling that right)
Einjarjar- a hero who has died and had been claimed by the Valkyries. Assigned to do battle on the side of the gods come Ragnarok, the end of the world.
Valkyries- Traditionally seen as warrior maidens, also in charge of gathering the heroes who fell in battle to Valhalla, a place where they will stay training and feasting until the end of the world when they must fight on the side of the gods.