Chapter 14
Paine felt her body being gently pushed up and lowered down, a hard and jagged bunk, and the warmth of a prickly blanket. When her vision came to she found herself in a dimly lit room. There was a soft light emanating a bare-boned lamp placed on what had looked to be a tattered writing desk. A hard bank to the left threw Paine into a cold metal wall. Wherever she was, she was sure it was a ship of some sort.
The last thing she remembered was a blow to the side of her head, there was a gashing wound. But as she reached to feel where the wound should be, she felt nothing, no sign of any injury.
A sudden burst of light came shot out as the door crept open and a young man walked in. Two steps across the threshold a jovial voice echoed from the hallway. The voice spoke in Al-Bhed, to which the young man also respond just as jovially in Al-Bhed. After that he closed the door lightly and flicked on a switch to turn on a light installed on the ceiling, brightening up the room considerably.
The set of ruby red eyes staring into the back of his skull must have startled him. "Oh, you're awake" he recovered, speaking in perfect English.
Paine had trouble recognizing the features of his face. The man was unmistakably Al-Bhed. He was also quite tall and definitely lean and muscular, an athlete maybe. Early-twenties, well-proportioned features, strong jaw, she leafed through her memory and came up with only vague names to match the face to, all of which were probably wrong.
"Who are you?" She asked in her usual straight-forward manner.
"I can't tell you that." He bluntly told her while striding over to the writing desk. He pulled out a locked metal box from under the shanty piece of furniture and opened it with a key tied retrieved from his pocket. Then he reached in for a neatly folded orange and blue jumpsuit and placed it beside Paine on the bunk.
"Get out of your clothes and put those on. I snuck it away, it should be your size and help you blend in." He all but commanded.
"Blend in? What am I blending into exactly?" Paine inquired further.
"A Children of Sin ship."
Morning came in the form of light kisses for Yuna. First it was on her forehead, then her temple, followed by her cheek and her nose. Tidus grew bolder and bolder with each kiss, and even with several cracked ribs and a broken collar bone, he still made his moves.
"Mmm, stop." Yuna whispered sleepily. The sun was rising fast and she wanted some more shut eye before getting up to face the day. However her voice sounded about as convincing as six-year-old denying candy, which Tidus took for a green light to roam about underneath her clothes with his one good hand. His gentle pecks reached her lips, and she didn't put up much of a fight before allowing him to dive into the kiss.
"Seriously, I don't think this is the time to do this." Yuna spoke up with more clarity after they separated for some air. "I have ten layers of dried sweat and dirt caked onto me, you have an entire side of your body practically in pieces, and we both had the most uncomfortable sleep in years. It's really not the time to have morning sex underneath a rock. Plus, I think you actually drooled on me last night."
"You are such a spoiled princess." Tidus quipped, stretching out his back, arms, and legs. Yuna wasn't kidding about the uncomfortable sleep. The last time he had slept like this was when they had rested for the night in the ruins of old Zanarkand.
Yuna took her weight off his uninjured side and stood up to take the few strides from where they had slept to the watering hole Tidus had built. She took a refreshing drink before bunching up the hem of her tank top and lifting it over her head.
"You change your mind, my princess?" He half joked, half begged.
"One-track mind huh? Well for your information I'm just cleaning off some of the mud on me." She informed him with some finality. Cupping some water into her hand she scrubbed away at the darkened patches of skin underneath her bra. "Your watering hole works great though. It fills up pretty fast from the flow from the river."
"Whatever, move over. I need to clean myself up too." Tidus ordered with a spirited nudge of the hip. "Here, have some breakfast." He said as he tossed a sliced open fruit of some kind they had found last night growing by their spot. The fruit was not very sweet and stringy in texture but very juicy. It wasn't their favourite thing in the world but the stringiness of the fruit meant high starch content – important for what could be a long day of trekking.
Yuna bit into her breakfast and held it between her teeth, bent down to pick up her tank top, and rolled her eyes at Tidus for his playful bossiness for good measure. Planning ahead she made her way to the tree the fruit she was munching down on came from and picked out the ripest ones she could see.
"Hey," she shouted back to Tidus, who was had his entire head of hair wet and stuck to his face. "I think I'm ready to heal your injuries. That way we can use your shirt as a canvas to carry these fruits." She suggested while gently laying her armful of pickings onto the ground.
Without much of a fuss Tidus complied. He was getting tired of having one good arm to use and having to wince every time he takes but the shallowest of breaths anyways. Soon the familiar feeling of Yuna's soothing magic flowed into his body, worked its way around the fracture in his collar bone, melding the pieces together almost effortlessly before being redirected to his ribcage. He had to admit the sensation of being healed by her magic was like nothing else. All the other healers that had ever tended to his wounds wielded their magic with a cold, forced focus, but Yuna's magic always felt warm and serene. She was ever the meticulous caregiver and almost assuredly leaves him feeling nothing less than perfect.
The magic left his body far too soon, like it always does. He tested his body with a few quick imaginary swings of a sword and, as he had come to expect, Yuna's work was flawless. Not long after the couple set on their plan to follow the stream.
The orange and blue once-piece jumpsuit fit decently on Paine, and with a utility belt the mystery man snatched up from a closet nearby tied around her waist she looked like she really belonged on the ship, easily passed off as a mechanic. There wasn't exactly an overbearing amount of conversing going on between the two, so Paine was left wondering if it was actually possible she was told the truth about her whereabouts. More of what happened before everything went black came to. She recalls stumbling around mechanically, at first being dragged along by someone – probably Yaibal – but then she remembers supporting her own weight with a hand on the side of a cliff, down by the beach a little ways from Mushroom Rock most likely. That was where Operation Mi'ihen had failed so spectacularly, where Nooj had promised to stage some form of evacuation.
So why would she be on a Children of Sin ship?
She would have inquired further as she stood in the middle of that darkly lit room in her disguise, but her companion dismissed any questions by turning around. Motioning for Paine to follow, he opened the door for the two of them and tuned left towards a set of stairs leading downwards, below the waterline of the ship. The deep rumbling of the engines gradually grew louder and louder as they descended down the staircase. At the bottom the only light available was coming from the level they just descended from and a few display panels scattered throughout. The space was certainly claustrophobic with machinery bolted to the metal floor that gridded the floor with narrow walkways with only enough room for one person. The light coming from above the stairs quickly faded as Paine was led this way and that, finally stopping at solid iron door with two small vertical panes of glass built in for windows. It took quite an effort from her companion to slide the door open, revealing a deceptively large room that is empty for all Paine could tell.
The contrast in machinery density made Paine suspicious. "Why is there so much unused space behind this door?"
She got nothing in return, not that she had expected an answer from her terse guide. Instead of asking more questions that she knows she won't get answers to she picked up her feet and followed as her guide travelled to the back wall of the room. As her eyes adjusted to the near complete darkness Paine noticed how impossibly high the ceiling was. In the obscurity of the lightless environment it extended for as far as the eye can see, easily surpassing the height of the Ascension and then some before fading away with no end in sight.
With his hands on the wall the young man searched for something, and with a "whoosh" of air, Paine knew he had found some sort of invisible button. Instantly the entirety of the wall she was facing lit up with a soft glow, causing her to reactively shield her eyes.
Then for the first time since they had left the room she had woken up in, the young man spoke. "Stand back please, you are in the way."
"In the way of what?" Paine responded, a bit shocked at the demand.
Deciding he would rather not waste more time, her companion grabbed the wrist of the hand Paine was shielding her eyes with and pulled her towards him, placing her back flush against the illuminated wall. A series of keystrokes – probably some kind of a password, thought Paine – the room roared to life, along with the many machines outside it seemed.
"I am going to show you the Children of Sin's greatest secret."
Paine blinked once and forced away the rush of blood that rushed to her head in light of what she was just told. Despite her normally unwavering composure she was still uncharacteristically incredulous. It was difficult to put the questions floating in her head into words. What kind of secret could be possibly be housed in a huge room like this?
Amidst the questions Paine managed to take note of the changes of the space taking place around her. The most tangible of which was the uncovering of several large fans mounted within the two side walls. There was also a palpable drop in the temperature as cool air began funneling in from every direction. When the cooling finally settled down it felt like they were on top of the peaks of Mt. Gagazet.
Then Paine found out what she was in the way of. The square section of floor she was just standing upon simply dropped off just like many others of the same size. The vacant segments lined up in rows of ten closely spaced together, stretching from one side of the room to the other. There must have also been ten of these rows counting from the door the glowing back wall.
"This is the gift the Shinra Corporation bestowed upon the Children of Sin."
The mid-day sun crested over Tidus and Yuna's heads and settled back down. Their supply of fruit had disappeared, the last of which they had split between the two of them for a makeshift lunch and a break in the shade from the intense heat under the sun. Thankfully water wasn't a problem because of the clear running water the river supplied. Being so close to water, however, was both a blessing and a curse, as the moisture in the air was so dense that the couple were practically drowning in their own sweat and condensation. Even with the temperature having already peaked for the day and ample shade provided by the thick canopy of branches and leaves above Tidus and Yuna were creeping dangerously close to heat exhaustion.
"Hey, isn't there some ice spell you can cast? We could really use some black magic right now." Tidus half-jokingly panted out, trying to distract Yuna and himself from the dizzying heat and humidity.
The joke was lost on Yuna, who was walking ahead but turned to shoot him with an unamused look. "If you are making fun of my black magic I'm going to kick you off any bed we get to sleep on tonight. You know I don't have enough confidence in my control to do something that precise."
Tidus sheepishly put his hands up in a peace offering, knowing he had accidentally hit a soft spot. For as much as she had learned from Lulu in the past few years, Yuna simply wasn't as gifted in black magic as she was in white magic. Normally she wouldn't mind being the butt of a few jokes, but the shear enervation from the day's travels has made her more than a bit irritable.
It would be another half hour of trekking along the river bank before the couple stopped for a much needed break. Relying on nothing but fumes at this point, they looked around for anything that resembled something edible but came up empty handed. What sparse fruit trees they could find all had their fruits picked off. Conserving the little energy left, they frustratingly settled with a quick drink and a cooling splash of the river water.
Then, off to the distance, Yuna saw the faint outlines of something promising.
She nudged Tidus and pointed not too down the river, "That…looks like an aqueduct."
Tidus stared off into the wilderness in the direction of Yuna's outstretched finger. Sure enough there was an aqueduct guiding water from above the river valley – from a lake of sorts most likely – and criss-crossing the skyline in the distance at a constant and gentle angle about three or four times before disappearing underneath the horizon.
Reinvigorated by the potential of civilization where the water flowed, Tidus and Yuna continued on, even picking up their pace somewhat, towards the bottom of the construct.
It didn't take long for the two of them to cover most of the distance and the cooled air brought about by the setting sun certainly uplifted their spirits. What was even more uplifting was the abrupt disappearance of the rain forest, giving way to dirt roads and sand-blasted brick houses. There was definitely people around. It also explained the lack of fruits dangling from the trees, having been previously picked off by the townspeople.
Just when their feet touched the nearest dirt path running adjacent to the forest someone yelled for them to get out of the way. Turning their heads Tidus and Yuna saw a slow moving machina driven by two men, father and son probably, in an open cabin sitting at the top rumbling closer and closer. Being the first one to react Tidus pulled himself and Yuna out of the way and waved apologetically as the strangers drove by. Dragged behind by the machina was a huge open trailer that had boxes stacked on top of one another and loose pieces of junk scattered about. When the trailer passed by Tidus snatched a couple of hooded cloaks made from the roughest fabric he could imagine.
"Here put this on." He instructed Yuna, handing her the smaller one of the two, the son's from the looks of it. Tidus put on the larger one that belonged to the dad himself. "We might want to conceal our identities if there are more people up ahead."
Despite wanting to protest the fact Tidus had just stolen the articles of clothing, Yuna agreed with his logic. Being recognized here won't do them any good when their best advantage right now was being dead in the minds of the Children of Sin.
With their heads down Tidus and Yuna made their way down several dirt roads weaving in and out between the houses. As evening took hold, lights began popping up one by one, the biggest congregation of which told them where to go.
Tidus could tell Yuna was labouring. She was having trouble simply putting one foot in front of the other and hadn't utter a single sound since diverting away from the river banks they had followed all day. While Tidus was keeping his eyes glued to the tips of his boots to keep his face hidden, he was pretty sure Yuna was doing so because she didn't want to focus on the distance they still have yet to cover, short as it may be with the buzzing of evening activity in the town centre already clearly audible.
Slowing down his pace, Tidus moved to wrap a ginger hand around Yuna's waist and squeezed a little to encourage her to shift some of her weight onto him. Half expecting her to act out a bit in defiance, Tidus was surprised when she leaned into it – she almost welcomed the respite, and it scared him. Yuna was always fiercely against receiving any help or special treatment, in fact Tidus was the one who would complain about being tired – and she would just smile, knowing it would help push him a little further. Yet as the couple arrived in the town centre, Yuna's body had finally reached its limit of adrenaline, injuries, use of magic and lack of proper rest, hunger, and fatigue. There was nothing short of a roof and a bed that he could offer to push her on.
And how exactly was he going to do that? There was little chance any townsfolk would offer up their homes for two strangers dressed and muddied as they were. Even if there was an inn of some sorts around they had no gil to speak of.
There was a bench nearby sitting under a big tree – the only tree in town it seemed – which offered Tidus and Yuna some much needed relief from the constant weight on their legs.
"Get your top of the line merchandise right here!" A familiar voice bellowed out amongst the evening crowd, and Tidus had to hear it again just to make sure lady luck was actually smiling upon them. "You won't find any better prices anywhere on the frontier! Just remember the name…"
"O'aka!" Tidus shouted as he leapt and bounded towards the self-proclaimed merchant extraordinaire.
"…the Thirteenth." The slight and tubby man uttered before being bear hugged by his younger friend. Struggling to hold enough air in his lungs he managed to spout out "legendary guardian Tidus, my…my pleasure…please put me down."
"Shhh… don't say my name, I need to make sure everyone think me and Yuna are dead."
O'aka nodded in acknowledgement, it was true that a great number of the populace thought the worst when legendary guardian and high summoner dropped out of the sky on every sphere vision across Spira. Still he had held out faith that they had survived. Hadn't he been crushed by the blitz player, O'aka probably wouldn't have been able to stop himself from shedding a few elated tears.
"Listen, Yuna and I need some help. We are both starving and dead tired – any chance you can get us into an inn of some kind?" Tidus pleaded, glancing in the direction of the large tree planted in the centre of the square where the high summoner sat, her legs curled under her body and her elbows supporting the heaviness of her head. She sat there listless and half asleep, keeping her head down mostly, but occasionally looking up in an effort to keep herself awake.
"Say no more, I will be happy to oblige." O'aka proclaimed in his usual salesman bravado. "The best rooms available in this shanty port coming right up!"
That proclamation brought up some more questions, but Tidus decided to keep them to himself and fetched Yuna to follow O'aka around the corner deeper into the open square in the centre of the town. There were several large ships anchored in between a dozen make-shift docks made out of nothing but driftwood, answering one of the questions that had popped up.
As they walked the merchant took it upon himself to keep the silence at bay by blurting as much information as he possibly could about the town. "This little settlement is pretty young. The story is a couple of lost ships landed here and found some gold nuggets the size of my fist. Just like that! Lying in the sand, washing down here by some dried up stream.
"Imagine that! Shit out of luck and lost at sea with nothing but a bucket of bolts you call a machina. And you find fistfuls of pure gold. You can imagine the flood of prospectors when people heard of that story. The settlement rose up so fast they needed an aqueduct and no one bothered to give the town a name. Most just call it 'the frontier'."
O'aka would go on talking about his business in the area and his partnership with Rin and Wantz, but neither of his two haggard audience members were particularly interested in what he was saying. When he abruptly stopped walking and proudly declared they had arrived Yuna and Tidus were snapped out of their trances. Looking up, they noticed the giant wooden sign that advertised where they were as the "NO. 1 Hotel in the Frontier" but not a name anywhere in sight. It doesn't even have one, much like the town.
The interior decorations are frugal and sparse but clean a tee. Much of the space was occupied by a great hall that extended upward about three stories. About a half a dozen doors and windows lined the surrounding walls. The entire building, while not obvious from the outside due to it being nighttime, was made from exposed wooden logs large and small with large pieces of woolen cloth insulating between the logs. The construction was certainly sturdy enough, and the way it was built gave the place a nice cottage lodging feel.
"You two just wait here, I'm gonna order us another room for the two of you."
O'aka walked up to the reception lady, a middle-aged woman with a warm smile that she shared with the merchant, and proceeded to chat her up a bit. They are obviously acquainted judging from the way the receptionist threw her head back for a hearty laugh. When the laughter died down she reached underneath the counter and pulled out a small paper packet and slid it across the polished surface in exchange for a handful of gil and a small nod of appreciation.
O'aka strode towards a set of stairs and waved for Yuna and Tidus to follow. Handing them each a key he led the couple to a darkened oak door just above the flight of stairs labelled two-fourteen.
"This here is your room, mine is just across," O'aka said while pointing across the dominating cavity that extended from the lobby. "If there's anything I can do for you, just come knocking."
Yuna muttered a quiet thank you and sent the merchant on his way. Turning the key in the lock she opened the door to their room. Neither couple spent long admiring the cabin-like furnishing and layout, it was a brisk dash to the shower – which they took together for the sake of brevity – followed by throwing their bodies onto the bed. The fresh linens was fast beckoning them to sleep, but Tidus managed to muster enough clarity to take some safeguards. Sneakily getting back up because he was sure Yuna had fallen asleep instantly, he stalked over the entrance and clicked in the dead bolt on the door. For good measure, he also summoned one of his swords and jammed it in below the hinges.
When he traced his steps back to the bedroom, however, he could see Yuna was still and had propped herself up with an elbow.
"Everything okay?" she asked, concerned because her senses were dulled by a haze of drowsiness.
"Yeah, just taking a few precautions."
Tidus scooted back under covers and gave his fiancé a quick kiss on the lips. He wrapped an arm around her lithe frame and pulled her in close to his chest, allowing her head to rest comfortably on the crook of his neck. Both of them had chosen to throw away much of their clothing in the interest of cleanliness, and it was in this moment that Tidus came to appreciate the fact she was completely naked save for a pair of panties. Those she kept on just to be a little cheeky, and the thin smile Yuna wore on her lips told Tidus just as much.
And just before she drifted off into sleep she ritualistically took off the same engagement ring she had almost lost forever and slipped it under her pillow.
Despite everything that has happened, this was the same Yuna that was sentimental to a fault, oddly bashful when she wants to be, yet modest when the occasion calls for it.