You guys I'm so excited!! Everyone's writing FFIV fics and this makes me so happy I could dance! In fact I did!
This chapter's a tad bit more fluffy…since I don't believe I've fluffed in a while (and by fluff it's kind of like a dilapidated marshmallow…)
Also, to answer Freida Right's question, one year has passed for Rydia and the Summons, but not for Cecil :)
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Chapter Thirty Six
The next morning when the crowd finally thinned and the conversations had died down, Rydia was left to return to her home, and more importantly, her bed. Stumbling back, she felt drained. All the guests had returned home, the festivities had ended, and it was back to life as usual. She hated that feeling, always had. She remembered asking her mother long ago why festivities couldn't go on forever, and why, at the end of the day, everyone had to leave, taking all the happiness with them. Her mother's smile had been a knowing one then, and she'd only tousled Rydia's wispy hair and said that all things came to an end eventually.
All things come to an end, Rydia thought as she pushed the door to her home ajar. Why did it have to be so painful to say goodbyes? Mist's return made her proud and determined, but the summon's return meant that Rydia's leave-taking was edging closer. She was going to have to leave the confines of the city and venture into the much larger world. But not seeing the faces of the people she'd come to adore every day, how could she do it? The Summons had become her family, her home, her livelihood. Being apart from them seemed unimaginable—like the worst sort of torture. She loved them too much to leave.
It didn't escape her that some years before she would have done anything to run and return to the human world, leaving the rules and the training behind her. When had her love grown so great for these people? When had she begun to view herself as one of them, that she belonged here? One year had passed, and her absence had already been sorely felt. What would a longer time away do to them?
She was still standing dumbly in the doorway, staring at the floorboards, contemplating the worn out boots on her feet, when she noticed that the air held a fragrance different than what she remembered. She idly lifted her gaze, catching snatches of color emerging from unexpected places. A single tear slipped from one eye, and she hastily rubbed it away with a now-calloused hand.
There on the table and on every surface of her home, flowers from her mother's garden has been placed in vases and pitchers. There were daisies, lilies, foxglove, lupine, and a dozen other varieties brightening the room with their colors and fresh scents.
Rydia started to laugh and cry at the same time, her cheeks reddening. How she loved her family! How could she not? She walked to the table in the center of the room and gently toyed with a stray lily petal, admiring its bold spotted pattern. Her thoughts drifted back to her mother's smile, and the question she'd asked so long ago.
Why people had to leave each other in the first place…Still, it was hard for Rydia to frown at the idea when she felt so warm and welcomed, surrounded by gentle reminders of the people who held her up when she fell short. They had given her a gift from the gift her mother had once given them, and the weight of all that history, of the intricate connections they all shared was enough to give Rydia pause. Perhaps that was why her mother hadn't frowned then, either, knowing that partings made the reunions even more heartfelt and appreciated. You rediscovered a part of you that had been missing.
Rydia delicately brushed her fingers past waxy leaves and feathery petals, fully realizing that they would soon wither and fade to brown. For now all she could do was acknowledge their short lives and fragile beauty. Rydia still had time left with the Summons, time to enjoy all of their company and their good advice, but most of all, their love. Her mother had meant for her to enjoy things while they lasted, taking nothing for granted. Besides, wouldn't her leaving make for a grand return when everything was finished?
Rydia's melancholy lifted, but it was a bittersweet revelation. Was that all of life? Fleeting moments of happiness divided by loss and separation? Rydia allowed her fingers to fall to the tabletop where they traced invisible patterns across the wood before returning to her side. She wanted to bottle up this feeling inside her and save it for later, to remind her of the good things she had and all she had to look forward to. She would definitely come back here when her journey was finished, and there would be celebrations to last through the night—several—if she had anything to say about it.
It was a long moment that she remained where she was, letting the feeling of home sink into her. After a while she became distinctly aware of the state of her body and clothing. She was covered in dust and dirt and smelled of swamp water. She made a face of disgust and longed for a bath and a chance to shed her filthy tattered clothing. All of her physical wounds were healed, but the grime of her travels through the Void had not yet been cleansed from her skin and she wished to be free of it forever. She walked through the room, searching for a wash basin, and found to her surprise, that someone had raised a partition and drawn a bath in a tub made of some great tortoise shell. Who had done all this for her in the short hours she'd been back? There was also a stack of clean clothing waiting for her, all green, and various accoutrements. Rydia picked through them and felt the softness of the fabric. It must have been woven by the Sylphs, she marveled.
She poked a finger into the water of the bath, and even though it had cooled to lukewarm, she didn't mind. She removed what was left of her clothing and stepped into the water, reveling in it. A bath. She slipped beneath the water's surface and stayed there for a while, letting it soak into her skin and slide through her hair. She washed with the soap she'd been given, a scent of new spring green filling her nostrils. Had even the soap been enchanted to produce this effect? When she finally finished, she stepped out of the bath feeling clean and invigorated. She slipped on one of the tunics left for her and noticed how it fit her just-so, amazed that her year's absence and room for growth had been taken into account when it was sewn. Wringing the water out of her long and now tangled hair, she felt truly exhausted and walked toward her bed. The blankets were all fresh and folded back, crisply prepared, and Rydia collapsed into them, smelling the clean linens and feeling their softness on her skin. After what she had endured, it was the simple things that eased her mind and soothed her worn-out body. She closed her eyes and felt herself fall into a numbing sleep, the first respite in a year's time.
She wasn't sure how long she slept, but someone sitting down on her bed and dipping the mattress was enough to bring her awake.
She blinked bleary eyed at the person and saw it was Mist sitting next to her. Rydia sat up and swept her rebellious long hair behind her back.
"Come now, you don't want to keep a queen waiting," Mist gently prodded, tapping Rydia's chin with a finger. "Get up and eat something, sleepy head."
Rydia rubbed her eyes and looked at the table where fruit and fresh bread had been placed. "The queen?"
"Asura wished to speak to us both. Go on, get up!"
Mist stood and walked to the table, waiting for Rydia to pry herself out from under the covers. Rydia followed a few minutes later, groggy, but hungry. The bread smelled delightful, and she could only imagine where the Summons had acquired it or how. She took hold of it and tore off an end, munching on the crust, while Mist walked around the room and looked at things here and there, wearing a different garment than the previous evening that shimmered in the light from the window.
"This house…" she was saying, when she found the stack of clothing left for Rydia and pulled up one of the tunics. "This is Shiva's doing," she smiled.
Rydia took a swig of water and looked up. "So those were left by Shiva," she said in surprise, astonished anew by the woman's foresight with the garments. "I wonder about the rest of it, though."
"The rest?" Mist asked.
Rydia pointed to other corners of the room. "The flowers, the bath, everything."
Mist returned to Rydia's side and patted her head. "There are many people who love you," she answered with a grin. "Are you finished? Wear this, it should suit you."
Laying across Mist's arms was one of the green tunics that Shiva had laid aside. She took it from Mist's hands and walked behind the partition to change. When she had slipped it over her head she looked down in surprise. This was the same tunic she'd worn in the Void. One she hadn't been wearing when she left it, having returned in tattered old training gear. This was fresh, completely new, and cut in a fashion that hugged Rydia's newfound curves. She spun in place a little, looking at the new outfit from both sides. How could Shiva have known?
When she stepped out from behind the partition, Mist looked her up and down and nodded.
"I was right. It suits you."
Rydia wasn't used to the form fitting outfit and nervously tugged at her hair while Mist held out a beckoning hand.
"We should straighten out that nest of tangles before we leave," she remarked with a grin.
Rydia walked toward Mist and waited while the Summon produced a fine ivory comb and began to tug out the snarls in her hair. "Will it just be the two of us?" Rydia asked, finding herself nervous about this visit with the queen.
Mist nodded and turned Rydia's head to the side again to finish combing. When she finally set the comb aside on the burnished table top, she took Rydia's hand in hers.
"Shall we?"
Rydia swallowed hard and followed Mist toward the door. "I don't know what to tell Asura," she hastily added. "I wasn't supposed to venture to the Void in the first place…"
Mist's smile was as soft as her reply. "Simply tell her the truth."
Stepping out her door was almost a battle in itself for Rydia. She and Mist together, about to tell their queen the tale of their exploits for the year of which Rydia had little account. What was she going to say? How would the queen react to her wild tale? She was still coming to terms with the fact that a year had passed, it was so surreal. She did feel older, somehow wiser, or maybe more stern, but a whole year?
Stepping into the city made her realize that the Summoned Land was different somehow as well. There was an anxiety in the air, an expectant buzz of activity. Summons on the streets moved with a driven purpose and Rydia could only imagine what events had happened in her absence.
Mist moved with similar purpose as she guided Rydia not to the library, but down a series of planked streets. Where were they going?
Rydia walked shoulder to shoulder with Mist, discovering her height in comparison to the other woman's, as the homes of Summons passed them by. Passages and narrow alleys began to intertwine like a maze, replacing the main thoroughfares with a circuitous but far more interesting route. Rydia had never been to this portion of the city before, and was more intrigued by its existence than she was curious about why Asura had chosen to meet with them here.
Mist slowed their progress on a long and wide avenue far from where Rydia had ever ventured on her walks with either Shiva or Ramuh. How far did the city stretch? Just how many Summons lived within the spell of concealment that she wasn't aware of?
Rydia saw the queen standing at the side of the avenue, this roadway paved with stone rather than wood, and paused to admire the queen's comportment. She was clothed in the richest of blues, and her dark hair was pinned back with tiny glistening combs crafted with the finest precious stones and gems, most notably, lapis lazuli on consideration of her husband, the king of all waters. She was waiting patiently, lithe hands clasped in front of her with two fingers steepled at the tips. Leviathan stood beside his queen wearing the same regal purple Rydia remembered from the day he had led her into the city. His amber hair streaked with white sat atop his head like wild ocean waves, while his dark eyes watched her calmly, as deep and fathomless as ever. Rydia found the presence of both of them daunting. It was only under times of great change, and mostly changes concerning her, that they gathered together to speak to her in private.
She and Mist closed the distance between them and bowed before both king and queen.
Their expressions were passive, no anger present in either Summon, and Rydia waited anxiously for one of them to speak and break the tension in the air. It was Leviathan who spoke first, with the rumble in his voice that Rydia remembered so well.
"Rydia, I must tell you that we are relieved beyond words to see you safe. Asura knew since your disappearance where you'd gone, but we could only hope that you would succeed in your efforts in the Void and return to us here. It has been a long year of waiting."
"That's how Black knew, and the others," Rydia wondered aloud.
The king nodded. "They knew what had happened, though none of us knew how it had happened. Asura did not sense your powers at work but someone else's."
Asura's gaze went to Mist. "It was your power that pulled her through the divide, wasn't it."
"I am sorry, my queen, but she and I had crossed paths once before. All that was required was to draw her back again. I saw the chance and took it. She is Arya's daughter, I had much faith that she would succeed."
"You took an awful risk with all of our futures," the queen warned, her voice strained.
"She would not have perished. I'd have seen to that."
"How did you manage such a feat?" Asura inquired. "I'd heard of mages finding ways to transport themselves into the forbidden realm, but not of beings trapped within calling outsiders in."
"It's true, it was not easy, but it wasn't impossible by any means. I was a sentient being, the first to arrive in many years, and among the chaos, I found I had some control over my senses. It was my consciousness that was able to carry beyond the threshold, but very little of my magic. Rydia, already being sensitive to stray thoughts was brought close to the dimension of the Void by the crystals themselves, and I had but to call and have her answer to know a bridge had been made between us. Such a chance would not have been offered me again, so I beckoned her to enter the chaos and unlock the path to freedom. Only a mage who enters willingly, who remains dominant over their own faculties has such a chance."
"Rydia, you had said that your travels hadn't felt the length of a year at all," Leviathan interceded.
Rydia shook her head, strands of hair bouncing against her face. "No, not at all. Everything in the Void happened so quickly, I was whisked from place to place without a second thought. It only could have been the space of a day or so."
Rydia looked imploringly at Mist, and saw the woman's gray eyes staring back at her apologetically.
"I can explain that," Mist offered. "Your Majesties, to be able to cross into the Void a price must be paid. Arya spoke of it in the old Summoner's texts, that all those who succeeded in entering the white plains and returned, did so at the expense of their years. Mostly, those who had attempted the journey were already advanced in years and many perished soon after their return. Rydia is young and attuned to the natural rhythm of power that courses through the world. For her, the price would not be as great, I knew this. She also had myself to serve as a guide, where others did not. However, an extra price was added to her trespass. In order to give me form, much of the year she lost was used to give me life and a corporeal form. Her missing time became the start of my new life, and that is how I was able to leave the Void at her side."
"An exchange of power," the queen murmured.
Leviathan wrinkled his brow. "To accomplish all this, it truly is a legendary feat. We will have to devote a tomb to its telling, certainly."
Asura chuckled softly. "The guardian of Mist and the High Summoner together again. What a sight."
Rydia's eyes went wide at the queen's words. Certainly the queen hadn't meant…
"A High Summoner at her age? Queen Asura, how generous of you," Mist teased.
A smile crept across Asura's lips that creased her eyes. "Soon enough, I think. Soon enough."
"Come, let us walk a ways and talk of these adventures you had," Leviathan invited, sweeping his arm and an impressive sleeve in the direction of the avenue.
Mist followed with Rydia at her side, and for many hours they wove their tale together for the king and queen—Mist including aspects of the journey that had been unknown to Rydia at the time, and Rydia adding her own thoughts and perceptions. Asura and Leviathan asked few questions, and mostly listened intently to the details of the combined story.
By the time the telling was complete, they had walked the entire distance of the avenue and arrived at the husk of an enormous tree. Rydia looked up at the gnarled and desiccated tree in wonderment. Had it been alive, its branches would have soared into the sky. Its death left a pang of sadness in her chest. Everything in this part of the city was the same way, quiet, dead, waiting. She looked at the queen, inquiring.
Asura caught her gaze and rested an understanding hand on the giant tree's trunk. "This tree once lived and flourished. It stood in the center of my village long ago, so long I can barely remember. It was our symbol of power and vitality. Now it stands here as a reminder of the days spent in yester years and of the wars that decimated our numbers to what you see now. This entire city was filled with people and creatures of every kind, shape, and color. That was until the war...when our servitude became a curse, when we allowed this tree that had been given to us as a token of good faith to wither and perish."
Rydia listened to the queen's words and felt pain constrict her lungs as she tried to hold back her emotions.
The queen looked at her and then at Mist. "It is time to revive the dead."
Asura closed her eyes and drew upon her power until a fiery green glow erupted from her fingertips still resting on the tree's trunk. A few moments later Leviathan's hand joined Asura's on the trunk, and together they spun a web of magic so powerful that the entirety of the tree began to shine in hues of green and blue, intermingling to a blinding white, and springing to life. Twigs sprouted from skeletal branches, growing, stretching, until new branches replaced the old, covered in new life. Leaves sprouted in great swathes, stretching proudly into the sky like tendrils or banners at last unfurled. It was such a spectacle that Rydia had to step back to catch her breath. It was the most impressive tree she had ever seen, and its symbolic importance to the queen and the others filled her with deep respect.
Asura and Leviathan finally stepped back from their work and joined the green haired summoner and silver dragon heiress. The four of them gazed with pride at the canopy stretching far beyond their heads, burying them in shade.
Asura turned to Rydia at last and rested a hand on her shoulder. "With this we start again. Welcome home, the both of you. Welcome back to the war."
"There is much to tell the both of you. We have tales of our own to share, and there are others who would like a chance to speak with you as well," Leviathan explained. "The time is coming when all paths will cross and there are preparations to be made. Rydia of Mist, the time to realize your powers is swift approaching and you must be ready for that day when you will claim the title of High Summoner and lead us into battle. You have done enough already to make us proud, and we will accompany you to the ends of the earth and beyond if we must, but first there's some business to take care of. Come, the both of you, we have much to discuss," the king beckoned, leading them away from the tree, speaking of the past year's events and preparations for the immediate future.
Rydia glanced behind her shoulder at the tree retreating in the distance. New life from death, she marveled. Endings given a new start. Long separation ending with joyous reunion. She would cherish this forever, she promised herself. No matter where she went, everything she had learned here would hold a place in her heart and get her through the dark times ahead. It was yet another gift they had given her, and she silently thanked them for it.
………………………………………………
Author's Note:
Not my favorite ending…but oh well. I'm going to be cheating again with the next chapter. I'm skipping ahead again. Considering that not much happens except for Rydia recapping with her friends, studying again, and honing her magic…yeah…that can all be handled with a wonderful summary paragraph!
I forgot to mention this in the text, but the wound Rydia received in her shoulder was to the front of her shoulder, not the back.
Not too delayed by the release of FFIV! I wasn't able to get my hands on the game until Thursday of last week, and I wasn't able to borrow a DS until Friday night…but after spending 27 hours over the weekend playing and putzing around the last few days, I have finally arrived at the final dungeon…but because I'm now at the point where I have to level up madly, I can take a break, lol. Those random encounters on the moon…ouch…hence the leveling up. BUT that means I can do some more writing to space out my gaming frustrations!
Oh, and as I've come to discover that they've actually given the Land of the Summoned Monsters A NAME I might eventually go back and change this fic's title…as well as the city's to the Feymarch. I am not, however, writing in the character of Whyt…because it was an added minigame/summon…and yeah…not so much a fan…in fact, I've never used that summon at all…
I don't know how far into FFIV DS a lot of you are, and I don't want to give you TOO many spoilers…but let's just say…Mist is awesome :)