Chapter 6: The Prison
"Kupo, it's time."
Matt awoke with a start, and blinked the sleepscum out of his eyes to find his moogle hovering over him.
"What time is it?"
"Almost 11:30."
Matt laid his head back on his pillow and let out a deep sigh. He was really not in the mood for this. "All right. Did you wash what I was wearing earlier?"
"Washed and dried kupo! And polished where applicable. The mithra's blood took some work to wash out but I got it."
Matt sat up in his bed and sat the edge. With obvious displeasure he began to buckle on his dark armor. "So I was right. This is more than a social visit. Secretive, late night meeting… that's not Perih's style. Nor Semih's for that matter." Matt pondered that for a moment, as he began to put on his cloak.
Matt had dealt with Perih Vashai a lot in the past. He first met the blind chieftainess years ago, during one of his first trips to Windurst, during which time he had been shown the fragility of life, and appreciation of the cycle of nature. Later on he would deal with her again, when he helped her with an investigation for which he was rewarded richly, and then during his recent adventures to battle the emptiness. She had always been extremely courteous, and very straightforward.
Slinging his scythe onto his back, he stood up and stretched his taut muscles. "Hope that fight earlier didn't scare you too much."
"Oh no kupo. It was quite fun to watch. I'm pretty bored usually just hanging out at the house, nice to see some excitement."
"Yeah. Always nice." Somehow Matt felt there would be no shortage of excitement in the near future.
Shaking his head, he headed out the door and headed towards Perih Vashai's residence in Windurst Woods. This time, no one followed.
****
"Perih Vashai," Matt said as he knelt down on one knee before her.
"Rise, Matthias. You need never kneel before anyone in this city1," said Perih Vashai in mithran with a deep bow. The two mithra guards flanking her followed suit.
With a slight nod, Matt arose and faced the mithra chieftainess, whose sightless eyes returned his look with an alertness that always caught him off guard. Though she had lost her sight during the Great War, her other senses remained keener than ever, allowing her full awareness of her surroundings, despite her inability to see them. And this late at night when one could not fully rely on sight anyways, she was still more than a match to anyone who might disturb her.
"Where is Semih Lafihna?" Matt asked. "It was my understanding that she wanted to meet me here."
Keeping her gaze in Matt's direction, the chieftainess sat back in her chair and said, "As you were no doubt informed earlier, the leader of the Sibyl Guards has accompanied the Star Sibyl on her recent journey. Though the matter for which you have been requested here falls under her jurisdiction, in her absence I am overseeing it."
Matt groaned inwardly, his hesitations confirmed. He nodded and asked, "And how may I be of service to the Star Sibyl?"
"Actually the Star Sibyl is not who you're here for. It was Semih who wanted to see you."
Matt's eyes narrowed, "Then what did the Star Sibyl want with me?"
Perih smiled, "Exactly what the communiqué said; she wanted to hear about your recent journeys. But it was Semih who convinced her that such a meeting would be fortuitous."
Matt's mind raced at this turn of events. The Star Sibyl being manipulated by her most trusted and loyal servant… This was tantamount to treason!
"This matter must be urgent for such subterfuge to be employed."
"It is, but not really for us," Perih rose and began to walk past Matt towards the residence behind him, as her guards followed. "Please follow us."
Mystified, Matt followed Perih and her guards into the house. Reaching a room in the back, they lifted a trap door and descended the stairs to the basement. They came to a torchlit hallway with what looked like rows of prison cells. In the years that Matt had served the Star Sibyl, he had made acquaintance with every level of the Windurstian infrastructure, and yet he had never seen, or even heard of, this place.
"What is this place?"
"One of Windurst's great secrets," Perish said. "It was built during the Crystal War, to house prisoners of war. Now it's used for temporary detainment of criminals who are awaiting trial or judgment. We may be a peaceful nation, but we have our criminals like anyone else. Not to mention the occasional yagudo or goblin raiders. But currently we only have one prisoner."
The cells were in surprisingly good condition. They were clean and well-kept, with comfortable furnishings and functional facilities. The designers obviously had a concern for the comfort and well-being of its prisoners. Nothing like the cells at Bostaunieux Oubliette, Matt thought. "How do you keep a place like this a secret?" he asked.
As they reached the last cell, Perih reached her hand between the bars and snapped her fingers. It made no sound. She turned to Matt and said, "Occupied cells are enchanted with a potent spell of silence2, which is renewed twice a day."
"Impressive," Matt said quietly, appalled. "That must be an interesting torture for the prisoner to have to live in complete, oppressive silence."
"We are not an aggressive or violent society, but that doesn't mean we are lax on discipline," Perih replied. She motioned for Matt to take a look inside the cell, where a small hume figure lay asleep on the bed.
"And who's this?" Matt asked.
"Her name is Karana3," Perih replied. "She had been living on the streets for the last three years or so, stealing what she needs. Quite the skilled thief actually. Various groups have been hunting for her for some time now. We finally caught her just last week."
"She's… she looks like a child!"
Perih smiled sardonically "You can imagine our frustration and embarrassment."
"She must be highly skilled to have confounded even mithran trackers for so long."
"Yeah and she doesn't exactly blend in with the rest of the population either."
"So what's her story?"
Perih's sightless eyes turned towards the prisoner, "We don't really know actually. The few hume families that live in Windurst don't know who she is, and she isn't particularly talkative. However, we think she may be Bastokan."
"Why's that?"
"Her accent. We hear traces of two different accents. One is Bastokan, and the other…" Perih's eyes narrowed, as if trying to recall something. "Well I'm not entirely sure."
Matt nodded, "So what exactly does she have to do with me?"
Perih turned to Matt, "We would like you to escort her to Bastok."
Matt stared at Perih incredulously, "Why?"
"The Windurstians will demand such a criminal be thrown out of the city to fend for herself-"
"-so you want me to take such a criminal to Bastok?"
"We are hoping someone in Bastok will be able to take her in, or perhaps even figure out who she is and return her to her family. Like you said Matt, she's just a child. And she may have lived in desperation for years, but we sense a good spirit within her. She deserves some kind of second chance in life, and she won't get that here. She has a better chance in Bastok."
"So this is why I was called here? To escort a prisoner? With the way you guys are sneaking around I figured there must have been more."
Perih's face remained impassive, "Her best chance at finding a new path requires secrecy regarding her circumstances. We needed someone we could trust explicitly to do this."
Matt turned back to Karana with a sigh, "I'm guessing she doesn't have a Dem Gate Crystal, or an airport pass, or even a chocobo license?"
Perih smiled, "Unfortunately none of those were found on her person. But we've reserved a chocobo in the stables that's big enough to carry both of you. At least for a while."
After some internal wrestling, Matt realized he had no real choice, "When would we leave?"
"We can be ready to shove off by dawn."
"Why so quickly?"
"She's been in here for a week now. We don't want to keep someone her age at a place like this any longer. Plus word is starting to get around that we have this famous thief in custody. Citizens will start demanding action."
After a pause, Matt asked softly, "The mithra who asked me to be here… Leah. She told me, 'You bring death upon us'. What could she have meant?"
With a deep sigh, Perih responded, "She said that to you did she. She's new to the Patriarch Protectors… in fact she's sort of new to Windurst. She'd been stationed out in Kazham most of her life. She doesn't know much about you and your heroics, and so has little respect for your history. She sees any arrival of some kind of hero to Windurst as a prelude to a disaster."
I'm with her on that one, Matt thought wearily. "Alright. We'll leave at dawn."
"Are you sure Matt? We know you just got here this evening."
"Yes let's get this over with."
Perih paused a moment, and then turned and nodded to her guard, who raised her hand towards the cell and whispered a few words. Within moments, Matt could hear Karana's slow, steady breathing4. The guard tapped the bars with her sword, awaking Karana with a start. "Time to get up," the guard said in common with a thick mithran accent.
Karana bolted upright on her bed and stared around vaguely. She stared at the entrance and squinted, trying to focus her eyesight in the dim light. As she sat up, her blanket fell to her lap, and in the dim light Matt could barely make out long dark hair that fell about her shoulders and what looked like little more than a ragged shirt and trousers.
"Perhaps you could fix her up a bit. It's going to be a long journey."
"We thought of that. She'll be given the chance to wash up and there are clothes set aside for her." Perih turned to Matt, "Please, get some rest. It's still hours before dawn, and there is a room set up for you upstairs. We'll wake you up when it's time. In the meanwhile we'll get her ready and explain to her what's going on."
"Sure," said Matt. As he turned and walked back where they had come from, he heard Perih tell one of her guards to lead him to his room and to go tell the tarutarus. Had Matt's mind not been distracted by so much else, he might have pondered the significance of that order. As the two of them began walking back down the hallway, he could hear Perih and the remaining guard giving Karana instructions. Matt looked back, and saw Karana holding her hands through a gap in the bars, and Perih's guard tying them together.
The guard led Matt to his room and bid him goodnight, and then headed out of the residence. Before falling asleep, Matt sat up and pondered the events of the day. Something just doesn't seem right, he thought. He was called all the way here, through means that would put Semih's position as the Star Sibyl's personal guard at risk, not to mention her potential succession of Perih Vashai's position as the mithra chieftainess once she steps down. All so that, within twelve hours of his arrival, he could sneak out a child thief out of the city and back to his hometown, without even being sure of what that might accomplish. Something's just not right.
1 A reference to Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien.
2 Silence: WHM Lv. 15 / RDM Lv. 18, Silences an enemy. Spell cost: 16 MP, Spell element: Wind, Magic skill: Enfeebling Magic, Casting Time: 3 seconds, Recast Time: 10 seconds.
3 Karana, you'll recall, was the name of the main character of a 6th grade level reading book called Island of the Blue Dolphins. I typically name my fantasy characters after Biblical figures but there aren't too many cool-sounding female names in the Bible, and the few I've found tended to be antagonists. Luckily I rarely make female characters (this is the first, in fact). Plus I just like the name, it's purdy. Also the name of my first guitar, a Hamer Slammer.
4 Silena: WHM Lv. 19 / SCH Lv. 22 (Addendum: White), Removes silence and mute from target. Spell cost: 24 MP, Spell element: Light, Magic skill: Healing Magic, Casting Time: 1 seconds, Recast Time: 5 seconds.