Chapter 38 - Cleansing
Soon after Cloud and Yuffie's return, those currently in Midgar gathered at Elmyra's house to discuss their next move.
Aerith laid a rumpled notebook in the middle of the dining room table. "I talked to Odin and a few of the other summons. This is at least part of what we'll need."
Kunsel flipped through several pages. "Hang on. This big, potentially deadly cure involves herbal tea and a sauna?"
Aerith more coughed than laughed. "When you put it that way... it does sound silly. But it worries me. I think most of those herbs are poisonous."
"Oh. Of course they are."
"Even if they aren't, they're probably gross." Yuffie craned her neck over Kunsel's shoulder and stuck out her tongue. "What's a corn-cockle? Sounds like a dirty joke."
Tifa shook her head. "There are so many details. Even down to what kind of wood to use for the fire. Though that one makes sense, I suppose. Weren't there stories about yew being connected with Odin?" She glanced at Cloud.
"I don't remember."
Before the resulting silence could grow too awkward, Zack picked up the notebook. "It'll take a while to collect everything, mostly just from figuring out where, but that should be the hardest part. Well, aside from, you know." He cleared his throat. "So, any ideas?"
"Cosmo Canyon is probably our best bet." Kunsel pulled out his phone. "Even if they don't have the materials, they should know where to get them."
The discussion trailed off after that. Aerith pulled Yuffie aside to plan a 'treasure hunt' for some of the stranger items. Tifa wandered outside, Cloud trailing after her.
She stopped in a corner on the second level of Aerith's garden. Her hair and the flowers around her swayed in the light breeze. Cloud waited behind her at the top of the wooden steps.
"I'm scared, Cloud." She turned just enough to look back at him. "I know this is necessary, I know it's the best option we have, but... It's selfish. I wish you could just stay here. With me."
"Yeah." Cloud stepped closer, his eyes on the flowers. "I wish... I wish I could say 'we'll be fine' or 'it'll turn out all right.' I don't know what'll happen. But I do know that, if I make it through this, I want to be with you."
Tifa slid her hand into his. "I'll be here."
*7*7*
The sun burned red behind the canyon walls. Deep shadows engulfed the village except for the flickering orange and yellow of torches and the Cosmo Candle. Young men with drums of stretched skin and hollow logs kept a solemn beat as the elders directed the construction of a ring of stacked stone.
Young tree trunks were bent over the stone walls to form the ribs of a roof. The village women donated what furs and blankets could be spared. They passed each through the sacred fire. Once. Twice. Purifying them before laying them across the wooden ribs.
They set a wood stove in the center of the newly formed lodge and stoked the fire with yew wood. Then they covered the stove with clean river stones.
When the lodge filled entirely with smoke, they pulled back the fur covering the doorway. Soon, with the smoke cleared and the fire reduced to embers, the elders called for Zack and Cloud.
Both men hesitated to emerge from the changing tent covered only in a towel and a thick layer of medicinal oil. In step to the drums, they marched to their fate.
Once inside, attendants beat their backs with a massaging birch broom. The attendants poured more water on the stones. They left just long enough to bring two bowls of brown sludge.
Zack and Cloud gulped it down before the smell and taste could overwhelm them. The medicine burned across their tongues and scraped against their throats.
No light. Only heat and the hollow thump of drums. Breathing grew more difficult as the steam thickened.
The toxic brew in their stomachs churned. Their heads throbbed to the beat.
Cloud felt the rest of the world crumble away to the single spire of rock on which he sat, spinning and tipping around in the void.
Zack couldn't straighten his legs. Razor sharp bands seemed to dig into his muscles. Needles stabbed his joints.
Both struggled to hold in the contents of their stomachs. Concepts like up and down started to lose their meaning.
They were drowning. Sinking into an ocean knives and sandpaper. Worms as dark as the void that swallowed them oozed from their pores and slithered across their skin.
The darkness undulated around them. Swirling shadows of color appeared and disappeared in the void. Their bowels clenched until they thought their abdomens would implode. Acid ran down their legs.
Cloud curled in on himself. He clawed at his burning skin and stinging hair. Memories of a time tinged green blurred with the present darkness until he couldn't tell which was which.
Zack just tried to breath and will his heart down from its frantic pounding against his sternum. Every sound, every phantom shape, set his nerves on fire.
They were melting. Cloud could feel his body sinking into the stone floor. Zack thought he saw his skin sluff off along with his sweat.
Sand filled their mouths. Water flooded their lungs and drained from every other part of their bodies.
Zack heard a moan from somewhere. He couldn't tell direction or distance.
They were going to die here. Dissected and put in jars.
"Nnooo..." He had a promise to keep. He had to see her again.
Cloud grasped at every thought that slipped passed him like water. Some hint to where he was, why he was here. It felt like something he'd already escaped from. Or had that been a dream?
Too hot. Too cold. No sense of time or place. Endlessly drifting as his mind fell away piece by piece.
Again.
Still.
Failing. Dying. Over and over until he couldn't tell one event from another. Blood-soaked hands clutching fragments of a life he never lived.
"I'll be here."
There were people waiting for him. Someone in particular. Someone he didn't want to hurt ever again.
Someone he wanted to see smile.
Floating. Rising and sinking in a sea of green.
"... over here..."
"... running low on..."
"... towels..."
"... hope they're..."
"... temperature..."
"... Cloud..."
*7*7*
Tifa laid a fresh damp cloth across Cloud's forehead. When he and Zack were dragged from the sauna, motionless and covered in their own filth, she'd feared the worst. Even after cleaning them and making sure they were breathing she couldn't help but worry.
Now, she sat tending him in the flickering lamp-light of the Shildra Inn. His skin felt too dry and looked far too pale. His pulse fluttered against Tifa's finger tips as she held his wrist.
On the next bed over, Zack lay in a similar state. Aerith brushed his hair with gentle fingers.
"Please come back, Cloud."
Aerith turned to smile at Tifa. "He will. They both with."
"I hope so." Tifa twisted a corner of the sheets between her fingers. "It just seems like I'm always waiting for him."
"When he comes back, maybe you should go to him." Aerith checked the cold packs under Zack's armpits and tisked. "We're going to need more ice. I wish the ice from blizzard materia didn't disappear so quickly, it would make this so much easier."
Tifa opened and closed her mouth, unsure if she should offer to fetch it.
What if Cloud woke up while she was gone?
What if Aerith wanted to escape the oppressive atmosphere as much as she did?
Further 'what ifs' were interrupted by Aerith's understanding smile. "Could you get more bags? When you're back, I'll head down and ask about supper."
"Oh. Right. Of course."
Tifa stretched as she stood up, joints popping the entire time. She'd definitely been sitting far too long. With a final glance at Cloud, she walked out the door.
*7*7*
Down in the tavern, Kunsel saw Tifa just as he stood from one of the rough wooden tables.
"Hey! Any news?"
Tifa shook her head. "I was just getting more ice."
Suddenly, Kunsel blocked her path. "I'll do it. You and Aerith need a break, anyway."
"I am..."
"A real break. Neither of you have slept since we got here."
"We..."
"You're worried. So am I. Why do you think I'm offering to sit watch for a while?"
Tifa bowed her head. "I suppose..."
Kunsel turned toward the kitchen. "I'll let you know right away if anything changes."
Used a mix of info on Lakota sweat lodges and Scandinavian saunas along with a variety of traditional herbal remedies for things like cancer and possession. Most of those herbs are definitely poisonous, by the way. A few are hallucinogenic. I don't have much experience with saunas or poisoning, but I do have first-hand experience with a lot of the symptoms. My medical history is fun.