Chapter 15: Bond of Trust

Lenne overshot her time limit to get to the concert hall, despite her attempt to keep an eye on the clock. And now, as she and Shuyin stopped to catch their breath from running, they could see that a large number of people were already clustered at the front doors of the Zanarkand Concert Hall. She needed a strategy for entering the building before getting any closer. Making sure her hair was tucked under her hat and pushing her sunglasses a bit higher on her nose, she tapped the shoulder of the elderly gentleman in front of her. "Excuse me. Could you tell me what time it is?"

"Well, it's ... let's see." He smiled pleasantly and showed her his watch. "How is that?"

Lenne's eyes widened, and she looked back to the growing crowd waiting for the doors to open. "Could you do me a favor?"

"If I can aid a young maiden in distress … certainly," he answered in a very proper tone.

"Could you look around the side to the back entrance and tell me if it's just as crowded there?"

"I just came from there, and I can tell you it is indeed. The concert is about ready to start, but they haven't started seating people yet. I consider myself quite fortunate to be able to attend this evening. Lenne is quite a talented young woman."

Shuyin's nose scrunched. "Aren't you … kinda old to be attending these kinds of things?"

Lenne cuffed him on the arm and scowled at him. "Rude," she whispered in admonishment.

The old man merely chuckled. "When you've been around as long as I have, you learn that talent is admirable at any age. Are you here for the concert, too?"

Lenne smiled in embarrassment, but she was glad that her simple disguise was enough to hide her true identity. "Absolutely. Could I ask another favor of you? Could you go to the back area and look for a little boy about so high with black hair and dark brown eyes?" She held a hand level to her waist. "He's probably wearing his favorite purple hoodie and shorts. His eyes are light-sensitive, so he usually wears the hood up. If you see him, could you please tell him his sister is here, and bring him back with you?"

"No trouble." The old man nodded and left to search the area.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Lenne turned on Shuyin again for his comment about the man's age. "I can't believe you said that."

"How was I supposed to know he wasn't some old geezer that just came to look at your legs? If I was a hundred years old, I'd think watching a nineteen-year-old girl on a stage is great entertainment, too."

"You are so bad. He is a nice man."

Shuyin chuckled and shrugged. "I didn't say he wasn't. In fact, I think I've found my role-model. I'll grow a long, gray beard that I can paint yellow and black. I'll sit in the stands and yell at all the Abes's new, bad players. And then, I'll use my cane to show them how to do a real sphere shot. After the game, I'll head down to the concert hall and enjoy a great show."

Lenne was distracted, seeing the elderly gentleman return with Bahamut in tow. "He found him!" She bowed in gratitude and shook his hand as he came near. "Thank you so much, Sir."

"You are quite welcome. It was no trouble—no trouble at all."

"You're late," the boy told his sister. "People are getting impatient."

"I know, but there's still time," she apologized.

The man's attention returned to Shuyin, and his expression lit with recognition. "Now, I know who you are. I thought you looked familiar. You play for the Abes, do you not? Jecht's son, defender of the family name in the blitzball arena ... and sports cafes." He chuckled lightly.

"Yep, that's me," Shuyin admitted with a small head bob greeting, not proud of the fact.

"My name is Maechen. I'm a scholar by trade." The old man bowed, then held out his hand to shake Shuyin's. "How very nice to meet you. I always admired your father's abilities in the sphere pool, and I have been following your progress with much interest. I believe you are destined for great things. But if you are that certain blitzball player, then ... " He adjusted the small, round spectacles on the end of his nose to take another look at Lenne. "… you must be that certain singer."

She put a finger to her lips but smiled. "Please don't tell anyone I'm here, okay? I need to get inside quickly, but the show will only be delayed more if everyone comes over here." She drew a backstage pass out of her handbag and clicked a pen to sign an autograph for him. "We can talk more later if you like. And I hope you enjoy the show … if I can ever get inside."

"It was enough to simply shake your hand, but ... thank you. It has been an honor to speak with you directly." Maechen smiled, happy with the gift.

Lenne pulled Shuyin and her little brother with her as she led the way to a different building under a flashing billboard on the other side of the high road. "When all else fails, door number three."

"Um ... the concert hall was that way?" Shuyin pointed behind them.

"I'll never make it through the front doors in a reasonable time, and the door behind the building is for the stage crews and musicians when they arrive before the crowds. Otherwise, there's a third entrance no one else knows about. These are the recording offices, but they connect to the concert hall." Pulling open the doors, she showed her pass to the security guards posted at the building's entrance, then hurried down the stairs to the long underground corridor toward the main building.

"Shuyin, want to see a special kind of polymer I made today with my chemistry kit?" Bahamut held up a handful of green slime that held together in a lump form but also dripped slowly between his fingers.

Shuyin put a hand to the back of the kid's neck to keep him moving quickly behind Lenne. "Polymer? Hm, looks more like shoopuff snot, if you ask me."

Lenne glanced over her shoulder and made a face of disgust, but shook her head in amusement and continued her relentless pace, alternating between a fast walk and a light jog.

"How do you know what shoopuff snot looks like?" Bahamut challenged.

"Figure of speech, kid." Shuyin took the goop from his hand to examine it more closely.

"I'd like to have it back, please." Bahamut reached for it.

Twice the boy's height, Shuyin raised it out of his reach. "Why?"

"Because I made it myself."

"Is it toxic?"

"No."

"Does it wash off easily?"

"It depends on what you put it on. Why?"

Shuyin pushed the boy's hands aside and then slapped it into his face with a loud slop! Bahamut winced at the awful sound and sensation, which made Shuyin giggle. But then Bahamut released a rare giggle, too, and scraped the goop from his face. The boy reached high to slop it back into Shuyin's face, but the blitzball player dodged and jogged ahead of him. Bahamut ran after him, but Shuyin kept hopping a few paces ahead just beyond reach, making taunting gestures. Within seconds they were both laughing and running down the corridor in a full-speed chase.

"Shuyin!" Lenne laughed in mid-complaint when she saw what he had done to her little brother, but she could tell the blitzball player was proud of himself for being able to make the serious boy laugh. "Gah! Get that stuff off of him. It's disgusting." Stopping at her dressing room, she fumbled with her key-card to open it. Then, she threw open the door to let them in. "Sometimes I think I'm babysitting two children, only you're worse than he is."

"He started it." The blitzball player chuckled as he walked back to the door, thinking their little game was over. Shuyin popped the back of the boy's head lightly as he passed him, but now that he was no longer a running target, Bahamut slopped the goop into his face. "Oh, gross." Shuyin winced as he scraped the polymer goop off of his cheek, making Bahamut giggle even more. "She's right. This really is disgusting."

Lenne entered the dressing room to face an unhappy stage production crew who all made a point of checking their watches in unison. Bahamut started to follow when Shuyin wrapped him in a surprise headlock and slapped the goop back into his face a second time. Then Shuyin casually strolled into the room ahead of him with a smug, satisfied chuckle.

Dori, Lenne's manager, stared at the trio's dramatic entrance as if torn between sighing with relief and cursing them out. "Where have you been?"

"I was at Shuyin's." Flustered, Lenne quickly pulled off her shoes, hat, and sunglasses and hopped into the make-up chair. Then she remembered she needed to put on her stage costume first, grabbed a feather-fringed garment from the rack, and ran behind a dressing screen.

"Oh. Well, that answers my next question about what you were doing," the manager muttered under her breath, casting the blitzball player a mildly accusatory glance.

Shuyin flushed slightly and innocently scratched the back of his head.

"He was playing a song that he'd written," Lenne explained as she stepped out of her skirt and tugged at the sleeves of her shirt to remove it. "It's a really pretty song, too! If you're nice to him, he might play it for you."

Shuyin frowned at the dressing screen for her mentioning it to anyone else.

"Oh, honey, you don't need to feed me excuses." Dori waved away the news of the song and turned around to shut the door. "If I had someone like him and a few idle hours, I'd be doing more than listening to music. The problem is you don't have a few idle hours." She walked past him with a sarcastic expression and pinched his cheek as she headed to the dressing screen.

He winced and rubbed his cheek. "Why do I feel like I've just been violated?"

Dori chuckled low and looked over the top of her glasses at him. "You're going to feel more than that the next time you make her late for a concert." She pushed her glasses back up. "Lenne, we had to do the soundcheck without you, so you better hope everything works the way it's set up. Quick make-up, and you're on in fifteen minutes." Dori touched a com sphere and spoke to it. "Open the doors. She just came in. Tell everyone the show's going to start in about ten minutes."

"Just make-up? What about my hair? What about my nails?" Lenne rushed to pull on a sleek, white mini-dress that was decorated with a top layer of little, colorful feathers that dangled from the empire waist to the lace hem.

"Well, you should have worried about that before day tripping your way over here." Dori stepped behind the screen and zipped up the back of the dress for her.

Lenne drew in a sharp breath for the last bit of zipper. "Did this thing shrink overnight? I shouldn't have eaten that second doughnut." Pulling the uncomfortable dress down and twisting it into a slightly more comfortable position, she hurried from behind the screen to the make-up chair. "I can do my nails while you work, right?"

"Wrong." Graig, the make-up artist, cloaked her shoulders and costume to begin work on her face, giving her a nasty look for even suggesting such a thing.

"But I have these cute little feathered nail accessories that all you have to do is press them on. They're in my purse." She tried to hold her head still while she extended an arm and groped toward the counter. "Shu?"

The blitzball player moved to the make-up counter, opened her handbag, and found the box of nail accessories she mentioned. "What are you supposed to be? A peacock?"

"It's a native Besaid-style costume." She stretched her hand to accept the box, but he wasn't offering it.

Grinning with mischief, he held the box at her fingertips so she could touch the box, but not actually grasp it. "Nail feathers?"

"They're not actually feathers, they're just little fluffy bits that ..." She was getting frustrated at being able to feel the box but was unable to take it, no matter how much she leaned toward it. When she heard his snickers and saw his grin in the mirror, she realized the problem was him, not her. With a small snarl, she turned her chin away from the make-up artist and snatched the box from his hand. "You are in rare form today, Shuyin!"

"Lenne." The make-up artist scolded, grabbed her head, and pulled her shoulders to the back of the chair once more. "If you don't want to look like a clown, don't move." Graig turned her head toward the mirror.

She didn't move, but her eyes met Shuyin's reflection in the mirror. He whispered something into Bahamut's ear, and the boy smiled. As Lenne continued watching, the boy handed the goop back to the blitzball player. Shuyin balanced and flattened the slime in his hand, preparing for some new prank as he moved at an angle between her and Graig. "Shu, so help me, if you put that stuff on my face, you will find it up your nose the next time you take a nap." But she was trying not to laugh with him as he delivered the threat.

Graig gave him a daggered look of warning.

"You know what? You guys are no fun," Shuyin returned. "But that's okay because it's more fun to catch someone unsuspecting."

The comlink in the dressing room chirped with an incoming message, and Dori answered it. "No time for chat. Make it quick."

In the mirror, Lenne saw Shuyin casually draw alongside the manager, slap the substance onto the side of her cheek, and hop back a few steps to avoid her fury. Dori's expression remained flat, but eyes slowly turned toward him. Everyone else in the room cracked up—everyone except Graig, who was even more frustrated now that his model was laughing.

"Can you hold for a minute?" Dori told the caller.

Shuyin giggled at the manager's calm and gingerly peeled the slime off of her cheek. "It's, um ... shoopuff poly-snot-something. Sorry. Couldn't resist."

"Are you familiar with water balloons?"

"I love water balloons!" He grinned and handed the slime back to Bahamut.

"Be afraid." She wiped her cheek. "Be very afraid, Shuyin." Returning her attention to the comlink, Dori moved to the other side of the room.

"Now see what you've done?" Lenne told him via the mirror. "You've earned the wrath of my manager. She's going to stalk you with water balloons."

"Dori and me on the beach with a bucket full of water balloons. Bring it." Shuyin folded his arms at his chest and leaned against the edge of the make-up mirror.

"Just a minute." Dori covered the sphere with one hand and walked to Lenne's side, placing it before her. "It's the temple." Her mildly irritated expression shifted to concern.

Lenne knew the temple would not have contacted her during a concert if it wasn't important. "Lenne here." She cupped the item in her hands, and Shuyin drew near in curiosity to see who it was.

The man visible in the sphere was dressed in the typical robes of his office, and he looked grave. "Lenne, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm trying to contact all the summoners in my sector. There haven't been any public announcements yet, but negotiations with Bevelle have ended. High Summoner Yevon has declared that Zanarkand will be a self-governing city, no longer bound by the rules that govern the rest of Spira."

"What? How is that even possible? We're all on the same ship. We can't go in one direction, while the rest of Spira goes another."

"High Summoner Yevon has rejected the restrictions placed on magic by the Founders and the Bevelle governing council."

"And Bevelle is okay with that?"

"Of course not." He sighed. "They haven't done anything about it yet, but they're saying Zanarkand is trying to run though there's no place to hide. Read into that what you will, but Yevon's council is split down the middle on what to do next. The temple will hold a meeting with all summoners and their guardians tomorrow morning."

"I'll be there," she promised.

"Thank you, Lenne. We'll speak more tomorrow. Try not to let it trouble you tonight."

When the comlink blinked off, Lenne passed it back to Dori and stared at herself in the mirror.

The room fell silent and still.

After a long pause, Dori checked her watch. "You heard the man. Nothing you can do about it tonight. The show must go on. We'll have plenty of time tomorrow to worry about what in the world the High Summoner thinks he's doing."

Graig reluctantly returned to his work, but everyone remained silent.

As soon as he released Lenne from her chair, she grabbed a hairbrush and touched up her appearance a little. Then, she opened the accessories box and quickly pressed the delicate little bits of fluff onto her nails. When she finished, a strange fear swept over her, and she drew a breath to calm her nerves.

Shuyin slipped his arms around her waist from behind.

Turning around, she looked deep into his eyes, then hugged him close. "For Zanarkand to completely break away from Bevelle when they were paranoid about us being out of control in the first place … that can't be a good thing."

"Save your questions for the meeting. Right now, half of Zanarkand is out there waiting to hear a great concert. You can't let them down."

A knock on the door indicated that it was time for her to be escorted onto the stage.

Lenne was glad Shuyin understood what it meant to be an entertainer. It was their job to give people a short-term escape from their worries and troubles. Giving him a kiss, she drew back and tried to smile ... for the sake of her audience. "Go take your seats. It's showtime. Oh, did you bring the other concert sphere?"

Shuyin dug his birthday present from his pocket and reluctantly released it.

Lenne checked the concerned faces of her crew, then hurried out the door.

))((

"This changes everything," Bahamut quietly stated, reminding Shuyin that he, too, was studying to become a summoner. Therefore, the boy was also aware of how the High Summoner's decision would be interpreted by the rest of the governing bodies of Spira.

Determined to remain upbeat, Shuyin put his hand on the boy's head and directed him toward the door. "Come on. We're going to miss the opening song." Waving to Lenne's crew, he passed through the backstage area, exiting discreetly to their reserved seats just as the lights began to flicker on the stage over her entrance.

Everyone else in the concert hall was already standing and dancing. Shuyin glanced down at Bahamut and saw he was preparing to sit down, as always. Shaking his head, he caught the shy boy's hands to pull him back out of his seat and make him dance. Bahamut was embarrassed, of course, especially when Shuyin inserted his little victory dance. But it did make him laugh again. Finally, the boy gave in and imitated the blitz player's dance, without needing a fish dropped down his shirt this time.

))((

Up on stage, Lenne grinned from ear-to-ear watching Shuyin's antics bring the boy out of his shell. And that put an extra bounce in her own choreography. When she glanced up at the camera and lights balcony, the recorder from the crew gave her a thumb's up. The sphere was recording everything. Winking at Shuyin, she gave him an 'okay' sign in the middle of her song. No worries tonight. Plenty of time for that tomorrow.

After the first two songs, Lenne paused to take a sip of water from the side stage and reached for one of the acoustic guitars propped in stands. A stagehand brought out a stool for her to sit on, and she greeted the audience, welcoming them to her show. "The next song is one that came to me after I met someone very special to my heart. I already had parts of this song floating in my head for some time, but meeting him kind of made everything fall into place." She smiled and strummed the opening chords. The concert hall became quiet and still except for the soft echoes of the song.

"Whispers from a childhood long ago

Cobwebs in the mind's distant attic corners

How long will you run to escape your memories?"

))((

Shuyin was silently awed. It was the song she sang to him after the fight fiasco, but with the guitar accompaniment, and then the entire band swelling into crescendo behind it, the music came to life in multiple layers of incredible beauty and strength. Hearing it sung this way, before thousands of people, truly humbled him. Palms together, fingers against his lips, he smiled and nodded in gratitude for the gift.

When the song was done, the audience cheered and applauded, Lenne wiped a small tear from her eye and grinned back at him.

Shuyin gave a shrill wolf whistle and applauded along with everyone else. Bahamut winced at the ear-piercing noise, but then stood on his seat and tried, unsuccessfully, to copy the blitzball player's whistle.

))((

The following afternoon, as Lenne strolled down the pier toward the houseboat, lost in her thoughts, she spotted Shuyin outside on his deck practicing with a bo against a padded central mast. She was relieved he had decided to learn some method of self-defense, and she was impressed with how fluidly the practice staff spun circles around him in a choreography that almost put her backup dancers to shame. Realizing she had stopped walking to watch, she continued across the deck to stand a safe distance in front of him. "You're getting pretty good at that. Course you'd do more damage if you traded the stick for a sword."

He spun the bo to a stop behind his shoulder and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Sticks are less expensive to replace than swords, and masts are stronger than both."

"Do you practice against actual opponents, or do you expect your foes to line up like poles?"

He smirked at her sarcasm. "I've used a bokken and padded sword against Luperis at the gym, and we both pray that the padding doesn't come off. How'd your meeting go?"

She walked to the mast to lean against it. "Well, it's true. High Summoner Yu Yevon has declared Zanarkand an independent city, and he's breaking off all negotiations until the Founders and Bevelle recognize us as such. He has been busy setting up new task offices to be sure that Zanarkand can continue to function without Bevelle's support in any way. Bevelle has had little to say about it, except that their machina is far more advanced than ours."

Shuyin shook his head at the news. "You're kidding, right? Koji and I used to do that 'my gun's bigger than yours' crap when we were, like ... five."

"That's what frightens me. Look at what happened when Koji's paranoia made him snap. It nearly destroyed both of you. The Founders have already stepped up the guards around Bevelle because they think we're going to attack them as an act of rebellion."

Shuyin lifted a brow as he squinted into the sun. "… Are we?"

Lenne shook her head. "High Summoner Yevon says Zanarkand will maintain a peaceful stance, but that all summoners should maintain diligence in the defensive practice of our skills." She paused, curious. "Have you ever fought any fiends … other than the one that attacked you and Koji?"

He was silent for a moment as he tapped the end of the bo against the side of his calf. "Does the drunk in the bar count?"

She chuckled glad to see his humor bounce back. "No. Would you like to try out your skills on a real fiend?"

"Well, from what I remember, there used to be a lot of fiends in the mountains. When we go camping, I might get my chance there."

She smiled slyly. "Would you like to fight one that won't try to kill you?"

His chin tilted in confusion. "Come again?"

Lenne backed up a few steps, closed her eyes, and summoned an elegant staff with an opalescent handle. Then, she chanted an invocation and swirled around, drawing magical glyphs out of the air onto the floor of the deck.

As a large, lion-like creature rose from the glyphs, Shuyin stumbled backward and landed on his rear. The beast roared at him, but then sat on its haunches and glared at him instead of attacking. Its red eyes held a disturbing intelligence that bore down on him as the spines on its back opened into a wing-like fan. The spines were not bone, though. They moved of their own accord with pulses of light, more like thin tentacles.

The blitzball player stared in wide-eyed amazement.

"Shuyin, this is Ryuo. He's an aeon." Lenne patted the creature's shoulder, which was higher than her head. "His spirit lives in a statue in the sacred water gardens east of the city. You should practice fighting him. He won't try to kill you. And if you defeat him, he won't die. He'll simply go back to the plane of magic where he lives. I can always summon him again after he has rested."

"You want me to fight that thing?"

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a little challenge."

"Little? He's so big he's going to sink the boat!" Shuyin fussed, pointing to the way that the boat was tilting to one side under the monster's weight.

"Hm, you've got a point there. But he'll give you a more realistic combat experience. You have to try to defeat him, Shuyin."

"Can you defeat him?"

"No, but that's not the point."

"Then why pit me against him? I've had less experience with fiends than you have."

Lenne became irritated that he was arguing about it. "Because … Because I want you to be my guardian!"

Standing, Shuyin walked a wide and cautious circle around the beast, jumping slightly at the throaty growl it gave when he approached Lenne with a questioning look.

She sighed, but then answered his doubt with a pout. "Summoners are supposed to have a least one guardian when they enter battle. Otherwise, they could get struck during spell casting and die before the spell even materializes. That's especially true in the case of aeon summoning because it takes a few minutes for the creature to manifest into reality. Because the bond between a summoner and guardian is essential for them to be able to work as a team, summoners choose only people they trust. I've met with a few candidates from other temples that had good warrior skills, but the bond of trust just wasn't there." She lowered her gaze.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You would trust me ... with your life?"

She lifted her chin and returned a single nod.

Shuyin grew quiet as he gave it some thought. It was a heavy responsibility—one he clearly doubted he could handle. "Why me?"

"You are the person closest to my heart. You are my best friend, my partner, my lover … the one I want and need by my side during difficult times." She shrugged, helpless to explain any better. "It doesn't seem right to keep looking for someone else."

))((

Shuyin saw something akin to desperation in Lenne's eyes. It wasn't something he usually saw in her confident countenance. "If it means that much to you, I'll do it." He looked at the bo he held, and then studied the aeon, still watching him with that intense gaze. "But there is no way I can defeat that thing. I'm just not good enough at this yet," he admitted instead of boasting about his abilities, for once.

"You can train." She sounded hopeful, folding her hands over her staff. "You can practice and learn, right?"

"I guess so. As long as you're able to control it, so it doesn't eat me."

She smiled. "I promise I won't let it eat you."

He brushed a finger over her cheek. "Then I promise I'll do my best to make sure nothing ever harms you."

Lenne sighed, overwhelmed with relief and hugged his neck. "Thank you. Just knowing you'll be there means a lot to me."

Shuyin held her for a moment but then released her and stepped back to face the beast once more. "All right, Big Guy. Show me what you got." After tapping the bo on the deck, he raised it in a defensive posture and carefully approached the aeon. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I was expecting something more like a dead spirit, not something built like a blitzball stadium."

The aeon growled and crouched into a pounce-ready position. Shuyin struck the beast across the shoulder, hesitating to actually hurt it. The "winged" lion-creature responded by springing against his chest with enough force to thrust him overboard with a big splash.

Lenne gasped and ran to the rail, joining the aeon in the search overboard.

Shuyin surfaced, spit out a mouthful of seawater, and squinted up at them. "Okay, this isn't going to work." Diving under again, he swam to the small ladder on the side of the boat and climbed it back up to the deck, where he sniffled with a slight cough. Hooking his fingers in his belt loops, Shuyin pulled his loose shorts from his hips back up to his waist and ignored Lenne's muffled giggle. "We're going to need to do this on solid ground—preferably soft ground—or Godzilla over there is going to capsize the entire boat. Let's crank her up and take her to the beach. Hopefully, the maintenance done so far will be enough."

The aeon growled and licked its lips as if trying to say something in response.

"Yeah, well, who asked you." Shuyin snorted and stepped inside the houseboat for a towel before heading for the cabin to start the boat's engine.