A spatter of cold water was hurled at Tashi, awaking him in a state of shock and drenching him from head to toe. All his delirious mind could make sense out of the blurriness around him was the lambent of flames blazing on structures attached to the walls of the chamber. The lack of eyesight sharpened his olfaction. He almost retched when the offensive stench of decaying animals assaulted his senses. Drifting in the air was another familiar smell – one that made him recall the last few moments before he shut his eyes: the metallic tang of blood. Shuddering in fear, he frantically searched for any sign of life nearby.
"You're finally awake."
Tashi's breath hitched in his throat. He turned to his left, where the voice speaking to him was heard. His visions were recovering… and he could see Zako looking up at him with arms crossed against his chest. The vicious scowl that Zako would normally wear on his face in times of anger was absent. Instead, he gave Tashi a forbidding stare through his desert-sand brown eyes.
"You'll tell us everything that you know," Zako pressed, moving closer to Tashi. "Word of advice… don't make it any more difficult than it already is."
Driven by desperation, Tashi hurtled to make his escape… a decision he quickly learned to be a mistake. A force pulled his arms to a stop and his feet could hardly move. Almost too tardily, he realized that he was restrained on a wall by his wrists and ankles with cold chains that grazed his skin red. His plight simmered his fear into rage, spurring growls of frustration out of him as he thrashed his arms and legs around.
"It's pointless. Freeing yourselves from those tethers will be an impossible feat. It'll do you better to save your energy for something else," Zako remarked, grinning afterwards when Tashi casted him a glare.
Zako's regard drifted to a surveillance camera somewhere above Tashi's head. "I'm not keen to delay this any further," he said, as if speaking to whoever was behind the object. He crossed his arms behind his back and started his interrogation with a predictable question, "Who sent you to Bevelle and why?"
Minutes went by after Zako's initial query, yet not a word was spoken. Tashi's mouth was sealed shut with him having no intention of loosening his tongue.
Zako scoffed, evidently frustrated by Tashi's resistance. "You're not in a position to defy me," he warned. When Tashi remained unmoved, he was running out of patience. "Since you're unwilling to talk on your own terms… I'll make you talk."
Tashi foreknew that Zako had devised a specific method of torture to pry his mouth open. When he saw that Zako made a nod to the surveillance camera, he braced himself for any pain that might soon be inflicted onto his body. He was unafraid, owing to many years of training in the art of espionage that had steeled him.
He could never be more wrong.
The chains around his wrists and ankles tightened and what came after was an excruciating pain he had never endured before. He broke into a ceaseless screech as flux of electricity zapped into his veins like eels slithering in water – only this time, they were coursing through his blood; as his heart was pounding violently to a point where it felt like it could be ripped out of his chest; and as his body suffered under a searing heat, almost splitting his head into half. He nearly begged for Zako's forgiveness just to make it all stop. When the torment was put on hold, he was too weak to open his eyes properly.
"I'm all ears if you want to start talking now."
Zako's voice came to Tashi in the form of a blur, as if he was hearing it while trapped in a bottomless cave. He barely understood what it meant… but even with the slightest idea that he had about what was said to him, he remained unshakeable. The torture would continue and he might have just signed his death warrant… still, he was bent on carrying the secrets he bore to the grave.
Zanarkand will not fall because of him.
Zako made a nod again, allowing electrical currents to strike his body with another round of paralyzing pain. With his lips tipping and freezing to one side, he could only groan.
The torture went on for as long as he could remember… until he was too exhausted to retain his consciousness and the world around him faded into pitch black.
Wake up! Wake up, Tashi!
Tashi sluggishly uncovered his eyes to find himself staring at a high ceiling adorned with an illustration of a man in a hooded white cloak, holding the celestial man with Juggernaut horns by his head, with hands framed in blue aureole.
The sight was a relief to him. He gathered that he had escaped from Zako's torture chamber and made it to somewhere safe. He browsed through his surroundings and noticed sets of clay jars arranged neatly in a cabinet, a jug of water on the side table to his right, and a colourful floating digital screen displaying figures that he could not read.
Mounting doubt started nagging at him.
How did I get here?
Tashi hardly pondered, when a man in a white hooded cloak entered, almost like a walking replica of the one he saw in the illustration above him. The man hovered by his bed, before placing a palm onto his forehead. He listened as a peculiar hymn was recited, and felt the release of the pressure knots that had been wringing his head.
"How are you feeling?" the man asked, passing him a glass of water.
"Much better… thanks to you," he answered, and then chugged down the entire glass out of thirst. "Mind telling me where I am…?"
The man looked at him like he just spat out a drunken gibberish. "You're in Zanarkand…"
"Zanarkand… how did I get here?"
"That's for us to find out." The man walked to the floating screen, where his fingers flitted about until the previous displayed figures were updated. "Do you think you'll be able to talk to someone presently with a clear mind?"
"I think… I can but I would rather not."
The man nodded. "Very well. I shall inform Lord Yevon that you'll only speak to him once healthfulness permits you to."
His eyes widened at the mention of the notable name. "No, wait!" he protested, forestalling the man from leaving. "I'll… speak to him."
Tashi was left on his own again, drifting along his train of thoughts when the man departed. Stagnancy made him aware of the harsh croaking of Pteryx birds from outside, marking the breaking of dusk. He speculated that he had been out cold for quite a while… though for how long exactly, he could not recall. In fact, he could not remember the episodes before he lost consciousness, except for the unbearable period of torture. Suddenly, he regretted his decision to speak to Yevon. What can he tell if he has no recollection whatsoever of what happened?
It was too late for him to change his mind, for Yevon soon came, bringing with him Uma, Zaon and Yunalesca. The head of the city-state left an instruction to someone outside the door about not letting anyone else near the chamber, then joined his companions to face Tashi. Strained smiles were exchanged between them.
"How are you feeling, Tashi?" Yevon queried, sounding genuinely concerned about his well-being.
"I'm in better health now, my lord. All thanks to the White Mage who treated me."
Uma, who was settled on a cushioned chair next to the bed, asked somewhat tentatively, "Tashi, are you aware… of how we found you?"
"I'm… afraid not, my lady."
"A Warrior found you unconscious outside the city gates," Yunalesca revealed. "The state of you… it was alarming."
Tashi frowned. "What happened to me, my lady?"
"Your forehead was swollen, bulging with veins. If left untreated… it could have ruptured."
Disquiet hung in the atmosphere when Zaon asked, "Did something happen with Lord Zako?" Heads were all turned towards him but he countered them all with a brazen manner – back leaned against a corner wall and arms attached across his chest.
Tashi gulped, arching his head down. Their gazes had returned to him as they awaited for his answer, but he was too ashamed to tell the truth. Admitting that his carelessness had compromised the safety of the city would mean to put himself under scrutiny for his incompetence.
Yevon seemingly comprehended his quandary. The head of city-state caught Tashi by surprise as he unassumingly crouched by the bedside, allowing both of them to stare directly at one another. Yevon was neither angry nor in despair; only resolve was expressed through his eyes.
"I understand how difficult this must be for you, Tashi. But it's incredibly important for us to know what happened so that we'll be able to determine our next course of action."
Absorbed by the intensity of Yevon's amber eyes, how could Tashi refuse? He let words flow out of his mouth like water would out of fountains. He recounted about what transpired – the weapon testing session for Vegnagun and its failure; his attempt to surreptitiously send a recorded account of it; his real identity unmasked by Ahura; and the torture by electrocution he endured under Zako's hands. They fully heeded him until he was finished and had nothing further to say.
"If you can't recall making your way to Zanarkand after falling unconscious, it means Lord Zako must have assigned someone to bring you here," Uma observed, with one hand cupping her chin.
"He's suspecting Tashi's working for Zanarkand and is testing whether his assumption is true or not," Yunalesca chimed in.
Zaon appeared sceptical. "Lord Zako isn't ambivalent about these matters. If he knew Tashi moves under the commands of Zanarkand, he would have executed Tashi without mercy."
Yevon was in agreement with the words of his advisor. "Are you certain that they did nothing else to you after you fell unconscious?" he asked, convinced that there were details missing in Tashi's account.
"I'm certain, my lord," Tashi affirmed, holding onto his story.
He had no reason to engage in deceit… at least not in speaking about his capture.
Darkness fell onto the plateau between Zanarkand and the summit of Mount Gagazet as the evening came. Whistling in the air was the spring breeze, filling in the silence that would otherwise be disrupted by eerie howling from ferocious Bandersnatches. Tashi was seated facing a pit he left unlit, hoping that no one would catch his presence. He pulled his robe tighter around his frame and started second-guessing his decision to be there. Gazing up at the sky, he pleaded to those Worshipped that this would not be another one of his errors.
The wind was no longer making a sound. Supplanting it in the creation of noises were approaching footsteps marching against the ground. Tashi counted that they belonged to two people – less than he expected, which caused him to doubt whether they were truly those he had made arrangements with. He readied his hand over his blade, all set to pounce in case they dared to mug him.
One of them who had white locks spoke first. "Good to see you all well, Tashi."
He recognized the voice to be the person who had tried to nudge him awake before he roused and learned that he had returned to Zanarkand. "You're the Warrior who took me to the medical centre."
Jinhai smiled. "I'm glad you remember." He gestured at his companion, who was slightly shorter and had bright blonde hair that would stand him out in a crowd. "I brought just one comrade with me. His name's Shuyin."
"I thought you had four others with you."
Jinhai squatted by the pit, then drew out an oval scrap metal from his pouch. "We're trying to be as discreet as we possibly can. Moving in a group wouldn't help," he explained, abrading the scrap against a flint. Flames ignited the pit in bright orange, and Jinhai called for both Shuyin and Tashi to sit nearby.
"Enlighten us," Jinhai said, drinking rum out of a steel flask he pulled from underneath his belt and passing it to Tashi.
Tashi declined the offer. "I learned, by chance, that there might be an opening when we would be able to infiltrate Bevelle without sounding the alarms."
"And when will this take place?"
"Three months from now, ahead of the fifty-first Congregation of Spira. Lord Zako's planning to pay the Ronsos a visit to convince them to switch their alliance. It'll be a close door negotiation. They'll be bringing quite a number of their armed forces – I suspect, it's to intimidate the Ronsos – making the Headquarter less impenetrable than it usually is."
"Why are you telling us this?" Shuyin quizzed, rightfully cynical of Tashi's intentions. "You could have told Lord Yevon and made him mobilize the army to invade Bevelle. So why us?"
"That was my plan, initially…" Tashi admitted, eyes fixed onto the dancing flames. "But my capture might have potentially disclosed a martial scheme employed by Zanarkand that may not be received well by others. Committing any more offense would shine an unfavourable light to our city in Spira and we can't afford that, especially not with the pending congregation."
Jinhai took another swig from his flask. "Since we operate outside of official commands, our actions against Bevelle would not be considered as sanctioned by Zanarkand?"
"At least that's how I believe things should be. If you're lucky, they might even have no clue that you're all from Zanarkand. Bevelle has many enemies, after all."
Jinhai passed the flask to Shuyin who gratefully took up the offer by guzzling one long round. "Looks like we'll need to come up with an elaborate plan within these three months," the blonde said, his voice oozing with thrill.
"We'll need to thoroughly learn about the layout of the Headquarter first," Jinhai suggested.
"Don't worry," Tashi assured, tapping his temple, "I've had it stored at the back of my head."