It wasn't long before word came from the Ronso clans that Sin had been spotted from Mt. Gagazet. A courier had been dispatched, a sturdy young man who had no trouble crossing Spira on foot. To see a Ronso charging full speed down the path to Djose had come as a surprise to everyone involved, but the news he brought was too important.
It had only been about a month, but Tana was already emotionally exhausted.
Respira had put a lot of pressure on her to aid them in distributing the Fayth stones to the temples that had lost theirs, but she was doing everything in her power to forestall their efforts. She was lucky that those leftover from the Machine Faction were mostly on her side - all too happy to prevent the pilgrimage from beginning again. That made it much easier to turn away cart drivers attempting to take the shipments to their destinations.
For a little while, anyway. Until Respira got an idea of what was going on, and appointed a scout to keep an eye out for their deliveries.
That was how Kilika had received their stone.
She couldn't make any excuses for her own town, which threatened to keep its stone in Respira's basement, since Djose's temple served as a source of power to the town. This one she had given them to deflect suspicion that she was entirely opposed to the idea of training new summoners.
It was when Tana recruited a mischievous group of kids from town to stand farther down the road to stop the poor old hypello driving the cart from reaching the scout, by any means necessary, that they started to apply more pressure. Not that their efforts hadn't been successful, turning away at least one cart before it could reach the gate, but it didn't take long to figure out what was going on.
Tana had never expected her plans to become a permanent solution, but she didn't really have a backup plan. Though few people believed that Sin had returned, even after word from the Ronso, to oppose their fallback plan to fight off a currently invisible threat looked bad.
It wasn't long before someone showed up at Tana's doorstep to complain to her personally. A young man, named Eden, stood behind the door. She couldn't say she hadn't expected the visit, since this man was more or less in charge of Respira's activities, now that Mobius was gone.
A devout Yevonite, but not a holy man. Mobius had a certain charm, but a distaste for other people - she was sure now that this man was the one who had written his speeches, when he performed for his followers. She didn't know how much Eden knew about Mobius' true goal, and couldn't find out with revealing her own knowledge, but she was certain he knew nothing about her efforts to stop him only a month earlier.
He knocked on the wooden door fitted into the rocky cavern's entrance just a little more forcefully than she cared for.
"Eden," she greeted him, once the door was opened. She knew this might take longer than she wanted, so she stepped back to let him in. "Still having trouble getting someone to take care of your cargo?"
Eden scowled, but she ignored it. She wasn't exactly teasing him, but she wasn't going to pretend she had no idea why he was here. It was a game, but not one she cared to play.
"I expect you would know a lot about that, wouldn't you?" he gruffed, though he followed her inside politely. "Since you're the one who keeps sending the caravans away."
He was a broad shouldered man in colorful robes that reminded Tana of a parrot. His eyes were just a little too far apart, but other than that, he was totally normal looking - if a religious figure was supposed to look like a bouncer from Luca. He was more clever than his muscle suggested, however. She had spoken to him only briefly before, but she knew from experience that if he opened his mouth too widely, his silver tongue would probably end in a fork.
Tana smiled sweetly and showed him to a seat where she began pouring a cup of tea for him. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Eden rubbed his eyes with one hand tiredly, only stopping when the tea was placed before him seconds later. "Tana, we've hardly spoken before now, so I'm going to come clean to you. If you would just hear me out for a moment."
Tana's smile fell, but she tried not to look as unpleasant as she felt, taking her seat across from him at her table. "Go on."
"I've been tasked with the burden of running Respira ever since our leader left. He left us nothing - the house he owned was turned into an inn by you , so we can only make use of the lower levels," he said, heaving his shoulders in a heavy sigh. "The Fayth stones in the basement are very important. You know what the Ronso said about Sin's return. Do you want to leave Spira undefended against a monster that's hunted our skies and seas for a thousand years?"
Tana made a face. "No, of course not. Believe me, I've looked into the rumors myself. I don't plan on leaving the people of Djose or the rest of Spira defenseless."
"Yes, I've heard you've been practicing your swordsmanship skills. Don't tell me you're planning on abandoning the town and challenging Sin on your own," he said, a dull look in his eyes. "This isn't about fame and glory. If we want another Calm, there must be summoners. We are the only ones who can restore that power to Spira - who have the ability to bestow a Final Aeon."
That caught her attention, and she stared at him for a few moments of terrible silence. "I thought only Mobius knew how to create a new Aeon. Who taught you?"
Eden took a long drink of his tea. "Technically, no one knows how, but there are former summoners in our ranks, and Mobius gave us the rites to perform before he left. There's no need to practice such a grim process without a reason."
"A lot of the people Mobius brought with him were apprentices from Bevelle, right?" asked Tana. "Are you a former summoner yourself?"
His expression turned almost embarrassed as he shook his head. "Not myself, no, but my brother was. Everything I do for this organization is for him, after all."
Her eyebrows went up, and she fidgeted with one of her long braids, almost embarrassed. "I didn't know you had a brother."
"You probably don't remember him from when we first arrived in Djose," said Eden, wearing a surprisingly somber smile that she could tell was genuine. "He is one of the few who became Children of the Fayth to protect Spira, in Sin's wake."
"Oh," she murmured, looking from him to the mess of twine and beads between them on the table. She could have done a better job of clearing it for him. "I'm sorry, I had no idea."
He shook his head. "It was more or less a secret, until recently, when we received word that Sin had truly returned. But this is the reason I will not rest until I see each stone placed in a temple, where they belong."
Tana almost felt guilty, but only for not being able to be completely honest with this man, who clearly didn't want his brother's sacrifice to be wasted. If Eden was from Bevelle's orphanage, she wondered if he once could have been his brother's guardian.
She sighed noisily.
She had already known that she couldn't put this off forever, but she'd really hoped her group would be ready to go before she had to worry about giving them a new answer.
"I will let you send them off without interfering on two conditions," she said, slumping back in her chair. "The first is that I want you to keep this quiet, until you've finished moving the stones. Don't let any prospective summoners in until a full pilgrimage can be completed."
Eden nodded. "Summoners must visit every temple in order to complete their pilgrimage, so we want to be sure it's ready before they're allowed to officially begin. I've actually corresponded with Bevelle on that subject already."
Tana hummed in approval before continuing. "Secondly, I would like to see the stones for myself. I understand that they're kept beneath our town's new tourist trap?"
His face contorted into a scowl once again, a face that she may have flinched away from, if she wasn't winning already. "No one is allowed into our halls except our highest ranking members."
She gave him a petulantly doubtful tilt of her head. "I just need to know exactly what is coming and going out of my town. Just one peek, and I'll be out of your hair."
He rolled his eyes. "I suppose I can show them to you, if that's what it will take to convince you."
Tana smiled. "Then we have a deal."
Twill and Chia hadn't returned to Zanarkand since they'd packed up their campground and left the city behind. Until word from the Ronso arrived, there was no reason to go back.
After spending a lot of time trying to convince people that their lives really and truly could be at risk, they had only mixed results to show for it. It was exhausting, and troubling, when Tana gave them the news that despite the refusal to believe they were in danger, Bevelle had given permission to install Respira's Fayth stone in the grand temple.
"They wouldn't even let us see the council without causing a scene first," Chia complained.
The CommSphere Chia had mounted in the Hyacinth's control panel was a little too low to capture both of them with Twill standing at their full height. They had to lean down low over her shoulder to be visible, and to see Tana at the same time. "At that point, they weren't very interested in listening to us anymore."
Tana's image through the little sphere was difficult to make out, but it was her. They talked as often as they could, but it still left each of them wishing it was the real thing. "Yeah, that's what I thought. When he told me he'd been talking to someone in Bevelle about it, I realized he's already gone through official channels; I can't delay them anymore."
Twill sighed. "I'm sure they're excited to get a new spectacle to bring in tourists - I wonder if the council even knew anything about Mobius and his actions before forming Respira, if they have dealings with his underlings."
Tana shook her head. "I doubt it. I talked the new leader into letting me into the Hall of the Hymn. It's eerily quiet down there, without the couple of stones that are missing."
"If they take the other stones out, I guess it'll just be 'the Hall,' won't it?" asked Chia, under her breath. "What'd you want to go back down there for?"
With a sort of sheepish look, Tana gave a shrug. "Can I just say I was curious? Apparently, Eden is the brother of one of the Children of the Fayth Mobius created."
"Which one?" asked Twill.
"Leviathan," said Tana, lowering her voice like it was a great secret. "Anyway, you know how Amalthea's stone was dead center, in the entrance?"
"Who's Leviathan?" asked Chia.
Twill put a hand on Chia's shoulder, but didn't answer. "Yes, I remember."
"The stone hasn't been moved, but for whatever reason, they've got it covered, and she isn't singing anymore," said Tana, showing her palms in a sign of confusion. "I asked them if they were moving that one soon, and he said that they'd come down the lift one day and the stone had just split straight down the middle."
"Just like the one in Zanarkand," murmured Twill.
Tana nodded vigorously. "Exactly! What do you think that means? He said it happened about a month ago, around the same time we were in Zanarkand."
Chia looked up at Twill, hunched over the back of her chair and stood up, offering to switch seats with them while they thought.
"It's definitely connected," they said, frowning. "The one in Zanarkand used to hold a Final Aeon, right? I hate to say it, but… I wonder if Amalthea's Aeon was the one Mobius used to create Sin."
Chia flashed them a confused look. "I thought you said Mobius couldn't use her Aeon. Does that mean Wren helped him?"
"No!" said Twill, maybe a little too hastily. "She'd never do that. Her mother was killed by Sin, she'd never help him bring it back."
"It sounds worse than that," said Tana, wincing. "If only Wren can summon Amalthea, and Mobius created Sin from her Aeon… Do you think Wren is still alive?"
This question, Twill was more hesitant to answer. "I don't know. All I can say for sure is that if Wren had any hand in this, Mobius must have tricked her."
Tana sighed, adjusting the CommSphere so she could see while she rested her chin in her palm. "Better hope she's alright, wherever she is. I don't have to tell you all that Mobius is dangerous."
"Our only clue is those weird dreams," said Chia, dragging a hand down her face. "Have we figured that one out yet?"
Tana paused, then shrugged. "I started writing the dreams down as soon as I woke up. I thought maybe there might be some clue, but my memory is kind of fuzzy, and it's not like I have them every night."
"That's still a good idea. Maybe we can put our heads together and compare notes," said Twill.
As Tana started to answer, the image on the little sphere grew hazier for a moment, and then snapped back to normal just as Tana finished speaking, rendering whatever she'd said inaudible.
"Hey, we're getting some interference from Zanarkand," said Chia, leaning over the controls to get a better look. "Go ahead and call Merris, we'll call you back when we wrap up here, okay?"
Tana nodded, then opened her mouth again to speak, but the audio was once again too garbled to make out. She smiled when she realized they hadn't heard her, then waved, before hanging up herself.
Twill glanced at the readings on the sensors in front of them, unable to make any sense of them. "Is the interference from the pyreflies around the citadel?"
"I don't know, maybe?" shrugged Chia, moving around Twill to see a different dial. "Shinra said the signal might have issues in places like the Thunder Plains, but I didn't think it would matter, since there's no way I'd ever fly us into a storm anyway."
"It's a little cloudy right now, that could be it," offered Twill.
"Mm, yeah, maybe?" she said. "I had to recalibrate some of my equipment after we first installed this thing, so I haven't had a lot of time to test this all out either."
Ahead of them was a huge bank of dark clouds, and Chia stared into it for a moment to frown. "Yeah, we're gonna stay away from that whole mess. I'm gonna take us a little lower. Hop up, okay?"
Twill shifted to get out of Chia's seat, but something parted the clouds before either of them could move, a shape larger than they could fathom.
"What was that?" asked Twill, gaping as the shape disappeared again, parting the clouds that obscured it.
"Move, move!" urged Chia, hopping up and down as Twill scrambled to comply.
Chia only waited until they were on their feet before shoving them away from the controls with a mumbled apology.
Below them was open sea, but they had to be nearing the land. Trouble was, as the dark shape in the clouds appeared again, all of the sensors went nuts at once. And Chia had figured out what the shape was.
"It's like a giant flipper," she said, watching it breach the cover of the clouds again. "Is that Sin?"
She clapped her hands on her cheeks and put on a serious face, focusing herself. Taking control of the ship, she pulled the wheel as hard as she could without putting their lives in danger as they descended.
Twill turned away, towards the cabin's entrance, about to try and get a better look at the creature, before Chia shouted incoherently not to touch the door. "If you go out, you could get swept overboard. Don't you dare open that door."
Twill complied, but pointed outside in the direction of the giant creature. "Look! Chia, it's not doing anything. I don't even think it knows we're here."
Chia steadied the ship once they were clear of Sin's path, turning her head to look.
"I'm not taking my chances with that just because it looks calm," she said, frowning.
Twill nodded in agreement. "You should definitely avoid it, but what must this mean? Mobius made his intentions pretty clear. Why isn't it attacking?"
"How should I know?" she said, making a face. "Either way, we should call Tana back and get out of here."
"We found what we were looking for," they said, folding their arms thoughtfully. "It looks like the Ronso's claims are the only reliable sightings right now."
Chia rolled her eyes. "Great. Now if only we could get anyone to take us seriously."
Twill rested their hand on the back of Chia's chair while attempting to reach Tana again. The line seemed to be busy, with no answer from the other.
"She's probably still on the line with Merris," they said, giving up their attempt for the time being.
They didn't mind not getting attention for their efforts, if things could stay as relatively peaceful as they were. If things stayed normal, no one else should ever have to worry about Sin at all.
Merris had kept fairly busy, for the month of so after being forcibly removed from Zanarkand. When he had a lot on his mind, he needed to find something to occupy his time.
At first, he'd set out on foot from Djose, beginning a new trek across Spira. He picked up bounties of unusual fiends, using that as an opportunity to hone his skills. It helped to clear his head, as long as it was enough of a distraction.
That was how it started, but it wasn't long before he started to miss the company of other people. Without even realizing it, he found himself gravitating towards Luca again.
It was depressing, going from traveling with a small group to being alone again. Especially after losing one of his traveling companions. With only the odd stay at an inn or travel agency, he didn't have anywhere to consistently rest his head. And when he did, he was plagued by the same strange dreams as the rest of Spira, reminding him of what had happened.
He had ignored the dreams when they'd first begun. It wasn't common for him to remember his dreams, until then, so when the news came out that it wasn't just him, then he started paying more attention. Even afterwards, he didn't usually see anything worth remembering. Just the city, which he was certain was Zanarkand, as there was no other city in Spira like it, Wren, always asleep, and Mobius.
Both of them, Wren and Mobius, appeared differently from how he remembered. Not just in appearance, but there was a certain atmosphere around them that made them feel far away and out of focus. They seemed… weary. What he remembered of Wren's appearance was that she was asleep, no matter where he found her, and Mobius' serene aura had been interrupted by his tireless work in the library. It made Merris feel tired, watching him, but always going unseen.
Frankly, he was tired of sleeping under the stars, so as soon as he was back in Luca, he searched out Wren's home. It felt a little creepy, but he needed a place to stay, and he knew her old home would be empty. Working backwards from her workplace at the stadium, it wasn't difficult to find.
It was strange that somehow, it still looked lived in.
There were even some dishes still left out that had been cleaned, but never put away, like at any minute Wren would come home from work. Merris was determined to leave the place in better shape than when he found it, and even went as far as to tend to the small altar dedicated to her deceased mother. He was careful not to disturb it too much, leaving the sphere in the altar's center alone past his initial dusting of the display.
It was interesting to see this space that had been so uniquely hers, but with the dreams that still bothered him even here, he had to once again find some kind of distraction.
The blitzball stadium was always hiring. Ever since the security had been assigned to the public instead of the now defunct Crusaders, there would always be an open position - people didn't tend to stay long in a port town.
This combination of things made the job a perfect fit for Merris. The job was boring and mostly amounted to him giving directions to lost tourists, but since the blitz season was starting up soon, there were a lot of people coming into town. Practices had started for the Goers, so of course they needed security.
It was a good distraction, but it was too easy to fall into a routine of practicing his skills before work, and then going to bed the second he got home. It wasn't like he was very eager to sleep, but he was ready for the day to end.
The task ahead of all of them was a daunting one. It was far easier not to think of what circumstances had led to their new goal of defeating Sin. Just like before Yuna's Calm, blitzball was an excellent distraction.
That was the pattern for a few weeks after arriving in Luca, until nearly a month had passed without him hardly even noticing.
Merris had been one of two on duty when he was approached by the captain of the Goers, Bickson. It was rumored that this season was likely to be his last with the team. He'd been there for so long that Merris couldn't judge if the rumors were true or not.
"Hey, man," came Bickson's greeting. He wasn't known as a man who lacked confidence in any capacity, but Merris had never really spoken to any of the blitzers, and it was his tone that tipped him off to the impending request.
"What's going on?" asked Piet, the other guard who was posted beside Merris at the arena's doors.
Bickson nodded his head upwards at Merris briefly. "I need to borrow your buddy for a little while. Think you can manage without him?"
Merris wouldn't say he was very good friends with Piet, but he wouldn't complain too much about being taken away from his post. "Why me?"
Bickson raised an eyebrow at his obviously feigned reluctance. "Our goalie hurt his ankle, so now he can't swim or really even get it wet, if he can help it. He'll be fine by the time the season starts, but we need everyone else on the field during practice, so we really just need someone who can stand in front of the goal."
The player beside him, Balgerda, spoke up. "A couple of us saw you playing with a practice ball the other day when you were off duty."
Merris had to think for a moment. Not a week earlier, he had gone after a ball thrown by a couple of tourist kids, but he didn't think that was the best demonstration of his skills inside the sphere pool.
Not that he was complaining, of course.
Piet simply shrugged. "There's really not a lot going on out here. If you wanna help 'em out, I'll be alright by myself. I'll cover for you."
Merris rolled his shoulders with a small nod. "Yeah, okay. You just need me to stand in front of the goal, right?"
Bickson gave a relieved grin when he accepted. "Pretty much. We've got some extra gear you can borrow too."
Piet took over both posts as Merris followed the Goers to their locker room.
To accommodate blitzers without gills (all of them), each game always consisted of two five minute rounds, with a half time in between, for the health and safety of the players. It turns out that a practice match was very much the same, but it didn't end after only two rounds. They could go for hours as long as they only played in increments of five minutes.
Merris learned quickly that they were pro blitzers for a reason. None of the Goers seemed as worn out as he felt by the end of the practice. They hadn't pulled any punches either, so it had been all he could do to keep up with them.
All in all, he didn't think he'd done too bad for an amateur. If he had more experience playing with a real team like the Goers, he probably could have kept up with them without a problem.
Of course, he had no idea how he would stack up against the Aurochs, who had gone from dead last to essentially the Goers' rivals only a few years earlier, when the other blitzball player among High Summoner Yuna's guardians had joined the team officially. That wasn't a matchup he envied at all, but he wouldn't want to go against any of the other teams without practice
The adrenaline and euphoria from the match managed not to wear off too early before practice was over, even though he was exhausted by that point.
They team thanked Merris for his assistance, and Piet for loaning him out. They ribbed just a little about recruiting him, just enough that Merris wondered if he really could play with a team after all. Maybe they would consider him for the next season, if he tried out.
Piet only humored him, but he was obviously joking with him once their shift was over. Even with the playful teasing, he was more than glad just to have gotten to play.
It was once he was back in Wren's empty home that his mood came crashing back down, and reality set back in.
This home was borrowed from an owner who would likely never return to it. He felt a little guilty for staying there, even though he had put some of his own funds towards keeping it in her name, and was taking care of it in her stead. More than that, he felt that he had slipped. They had confirmation from a Ronso scout that Sin really was out there in the world, and he was playing blitzball. It wasn't like he hadn't made any progress, and not much time had passed in truth, but Sin's return brought more than a little added pressure to improve.
He sat down unsteadily by the cooking fire in the middle of the room, poking at the slowly roasting piece of meat that he'd purchased on his way home. He'd helped himself to Wren's spice cabinet, so the whole room was filled with a hearty aroma already.
He concluded that the group shouldn't be so split up. Twill and Chia were together for the time being, playing the most frustrating game of messenger Merris had heard of in a long time. They had set out to look into various rumors of Sin sightings, but so far had turned up nothing. He knew both of them were practicing with their fair share of fiends as well.
It was more than he'd done, even if it was only by a little. He'd just been getting by, with his own training pushed over to the side. Tana's situation couldn't be helped, he knew she couldn't get away from her job so easily - but he could do something. He could, at the very least, rejoin the two on the airship.
While he was lost in thought, the smell of something burning hit his nostrils, causing him to recoil hard enough to come back to what he was doing at present.
He cursed quietly as he salvaged the smoking mound of meat and overly aromatic spices. It wasn't too badly burned, but it would be a little tough, and he immediately propped open a couple of windows to give himself more room to breathe.
Waving the smoke away, he went to the low dining table with his meal, and pulled the CommSphere on its surface closer to himself. He first tried to reach the Hyacinth , his conscience getting the better of him while he felt useless in a tourist town, but there was no answer. This wasn't unusual, as any area with dense clouds or a high concentration of pyreflies could prevent their signals from connecting, so he moved onto Tana.
Before he could touch anything, the staticy signal of the sphere let out a shrill, but cheerful little jingle. She had beaten him to it.
He pressed the button on the side to let the signal through, and Tana's face appeared on the projection while he tucked into his dinner.
He waved at her, his mouth full but still trying to smile through it.
"-a bad time?" asked Tana, her connection cutting in.
Merris shook his head as he swallowed, but hoped that the rough image quality was enough to obscure the lingering fog of smoke in the room.
"I've got time. What are you up to?" he asked, grinning.
Tana smiled tiredly, recounting to him the events of her conversation with Eden. From the difficulties she'd had preventing them from encouraging a new wave of summoners, to her surrender upon hearing his story.
He picked at his food while she went through her story again.
"I've already told Twill and Chia, but they started losing signal, so I'm going to check in on them a little later," she hummed, twisting one of her braids.
"I'm thinking of joining up with them again soon," he said.
"You're not tired of Luca already, are you?"
He snorted just a little. "It's fine. If that were all, I'd probably come back home to Djose. No, I just don't feel like I'm being very useful. You know I've been staying in Wren's old place? I've been taking care of it, but it just doesn't feel right."
Tana leaned against her palm. "You just feel guilty?"
He shrugged just a little. "I think she wouldn't mind me staying here, but… I kinda keep wondering if she's really gone."
Her expression fell when he said that. Death was never an easy subject. Suggesting that the dead weren't entirely at rest was another matter. "You think she became a fiend? Wren had a lot going on, but I don't think she was restless enough to become a fiend, and if she had become Unsent, I think we would have found her by now."
Merris grimaced. "Actually, I didn't even think about that. It's just - and I know this sounds stupid - but don't you think those dreams have something to do with this whole thing?"
Tana scoffed. "It would be way weirder if the dreams were completely unrelated."
Merris pressed his lips together uncertainly. "Yeah, but have you ever noticed any patterns or similarities in the dreams? Like how Wren is always asleep, no matter where she is?"
"I mean… I guess it's true to life. But yeah, since I started writing down what I see in them, I've noticed a few things like that."
Merris nodded. "I probably wouldn't notice there was anything different between each dream, except that the two of them kinda seem to move around. Mobius isn't always in the same part of the library, and Wren always looks like she just took a nap wherever she fell."
"So what are you thinking?"
He drummed his fingers absently. "I don't really remember much of the dreams very well, but it usually feels less like a dream and more like I'm spying on someone."
"I know what you mean - they don't seem to see me, and I've tried calling out to them, but they probably can't hear either," said Tana. "It's kind of scary, being ignored like that."
Merris would admit he didn't remember anything like that, but it didn't surprise him. He'd never gotten the attention of either figment, he was sure.
"I was kind of just thinking… doesn't the dream feel really realistic? It feels like how I'm talking to you right now, like I'm watching a live recording on a sphere, right in front of my eyes."
Tana sat up, an incredulous look on her face. "So wait, you think what's happening in the dream is really happening somewhere out there?"
Merris made an innocent, skeptical look as he stared back at her. "I don't know how that could be possible. I'm just telling you what I've seen."
"I mean, you know… The way we use spheres is directly based off of how pyreflies change shape to reflect memories in nature, like in the Farplane," said Tana, trying to be helpful even though she was also at a loss.
He shrugged. "Yeah, that's true. I guess we've even found naturally occurring video spheres, as rare as that is. I don't know anything about the Farplane, but maybe it is a memory, somehow. But I couldn't tell you whose memory it could be - no place like that city exists in Spira, and I'm sure Mobius and Wren have never coexisted in the same ghost town like that before."
"But you think there might be a chance that Wren is still alive?" she asked, the tiniest bit hopefully, as though looking for confirmation.
"I couldn't say that for sure," admitted Merris, frowning. "As much as it doesn't feel real, I really don't know what happened."
A light flashed across Tana's eyes briefly. "I don't know what's going on with the dreams, but I can find out once and for all whether she's alive or not." A new energy had entered her voice.
"Huh?"
"I'll go to the Farplane entrance in Guadosalam," she said, clasping her hands together. "If she's alive, she wouldn't appear if she's beckoned right?"
Merris tried not to look doubtful. The image that appeared in the popular tourist attraction was just a memory, but… it did only tend to conjure images of the dead. Maybe there was a chance, but apart from that.
"You don't have to do that- if you're really curious, I'll go there myself when I get back to Twill and Chia," he winced.
He knew she was still terrified of being isolated there again. There was no reason for her to torture herself like that.
She shook her head. "It's not even a day away from here on foot. I can make the trip. It'll be a good excuse to look for a replacement for when we go after Sin."
He couldn't say he liked that response either. She probably would be alright going to the Farplane alone. Mishaps had become uncommon, since the Guado had returned to tend to its entrance. Her aptitude depended solely on her, now.
Worse, he knew she was planning for the possibility that she wouldn't come back from Sin. It was more than a possibility, if they weren't careful.
"Be careful, if you're serious about going," he said, frowning.
She smiled softly, hiding how much his concern touched her. "Hey, I'll be alright. And if you're serious about getting back on the ship, you'd better give Chia a call, if their signal is back up."
He snorted, waving his hand even though he was still worried. "Yeah, I tried earlier, but they didn't answer. I'd better give it another shot before I go to bed, I guess."
As they said goodbye, he reinforced his well-wishes to her. He knew things would be alright for now, but that didn't quell the anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was just going to have to trust her.
He scarfed down the last of his dinner as he called up the Hyacinth again.
This time, when the image flickered on, there was an answer.
Chia, in the captain's seat, and Twill, behind her, both looked bewildered, but somehow triumphant.
Chia grinned at him. "You'll never guess what we just ran into without getting a scratch on us."
