"Does that mean we can't help?"
Cloud watched her for an answer; Aeris did not have one to give. No desire to disappoint so bluntly. No. He could not help. Nor could any of Avalanche. Or Zack. She focused back on the Cosmo Candle. Gongaga's revelations so unexpected; both for finding Zack's home town but also discovering his absence was more serious than she suspected. She moved on – five years was more than enough time. His parents – they might see him again one day. Though where could he be?
A shift on the other side of the flame. Try as she might, she could not ignore them forever. They must have built up by now; so many to deal with. Cloud was talking to Tifa; Aeris murmured an excuse and hurried from the fire before any of Avalanche could comment. The other figure shifted and after a delay moved to follow.
A snippet of conversation from behind her. "Off to pray I think?"
Pray. Yes.
Easier to let them think such a thing. Praying to the Planet or the long-lost deity whose worship required her church's construction. Doing something else. The fire and babble of conversation faded away; Aeris headed for the edge of the bluff furthest from the inhabitants. She let her posture slump. The news from earlier had made her near smile fade already. No need to try and recreate it.
A glance around. Avalanche still by the fire, no one looking in her direction. She knelt down and clasped her hands together. But her eyes remained open. "I'm here." Her voice little more than a murmur, but they could hear her.
The first ghost slid in front of her. An approximation of walking, of human movement, but rendered somehow wrong by a last tenacious defiance before the spirit merged back into the Lifestream. A human who diverted from their path; they should be seeking out a loved one in their final dwindling moments. Instead they clustered to her, like moths to a flame.
Aeris must blaze in the hazy afterlife between death and the Lifestream. Sufficiently so, the recently dead sought her instead. Their final words, desires, aspirations, secrets; she presented a chance to relay them to the loved one. And from today, it was clear she alone could offer this service.
The words came from the ghost; not as sounds, more as senses. The more recent the death, the more vivid, clear and distinct the meaning. Sufficient to glean names and locations. Sufficient for a mental image of the person they sought. Many were nothing but emotion, the ghost in question stalking Aeris and Avalanche for days. Until they caught up and she 'prayed'.
She could ignore them for a time, ignore the increasing cluster of out of place figures, their forms slipping in and in front of anyone living, their gazes fixed on her no matter where she was. Ignorable, but the desperate look in their eyes would make her succumb eventually.
A seeming balance for deviating from the norm; her life was selling flowers in Midgar, not trekking across the wilderness in pursuit of a man thought long-dead. At first the outside of Midgar offered new experiences and sights. Later, it provided the ghosts. Had it been fortuitous so few found her when she lived inside the city? Or was the increasing number because of so many new people she now encountered?
How had the Cetra of the past handled this burden? Did they take turns, was there a designated member of a community who could talk and allay the ghosts? And why certain, strange oversights? Clear now the reason President Shinra and those murdered in the Shinra never appeared among those waiting to talk because of the debilitating effect of Midgar. Dyne wanted desperately to say something to Marlene, but his ghost had little desire to communicate with her.
Her mother and Zack; neither appeared amongst the ghosts. Her mother had long since merged with the Lifestream, but surely Zack's absence pointed to his continued existence? Should she have told his parents? But told them what? That she could see those who died before they returned to the Planet? Zack assuredly not dead because she had never seen his ghost?
But; there would have been some who died as she wandered Junon. While she wandered Kalm. Died in Costa del Sol- So many died in the Gold Saucer, but their ghosts never reached out to her. She could not say if Zack lived.
Aeris blinked. Focus. Pay attention to the ghosts. To the fragments of memories, impressions and senses. To a never ending list of people she should seek, people she might one day meet. But again, to what end? What could she tell these people and have them believe her? How had this ability worked when the Cetra remained? Was this burden ever supposed to fall on her shoulders?
But what could she do except bear with it? The first ghost's form wavered, its final words delivered. "I'm here." The next ghost slid in front of her. So many more to come.