The Going Water and The Gone
the end is the beginning is the end
can't you see where memories are kept bright? ... time in her eyes is spawning past life ... come over here to where When lingers, waiting in this empty world, waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools for Now does ride in on the curl of the wave ... holding all the love that waits for you here.
A man in a red cloak inches along the catwalk-like extension of a building's roof, his innate and almost conquered fear of falling swelling and seizing him at every step. Despite this, his movements appear composed and only the injured arm hanging close to his heart belies his confidence. And for all the wrong reasons.
He succeeds in beating the fear down once more and looks out at the sea to behold the strangely shaped tsunami as his old friend and enemy rises from a time long gone by and still to come. He can feel his friend call the very atoms of the air towards the bubble.
Memories of the future pull and tug at his mind as the moon pulls the water. Wisps of things to come silently crash over him like the tide over a swimmer. He drowns in visions of his past, of nine hundred and ninety years in the future.
fast forward
i know your face well i know it well … now is the place where the crossroads meet will you look into the future?
Auron speaks ((look)). He turns his gaze to the luminous ball of water that floats in the air. After a moment the boy's eyes follow his own and widen in amazement.
Again Auron speaks (we called it Sin), his voice distant as his mind's eye turns to a time that to him was long ago, and to the world, has not yet come.
His words confuse the boy, a native of the dying city. In Zanarkand, the capital of Sapporo and its city of corruption— possessing the highest crime rate in the world— 'wrongdoing' and 'monster' are concepts. They are concepts far too abstract for most citizens to grasp in everyday situations.'Sin' is not a word the boy has encountered, and so he does not understand how Sin got its name, or even if there is a reason for Sin's name.
Huh? He asks, but his tutor and tormentor is already running towards the source of destruction.
rewind
catch us now for I am your future ... we are of the going water and the gone we are of water in the holy land of water and all that's to come runs in with the thrust on the strand
The pale, shimmering orb hangs in the sky above the city like a second moon. Like the moon, it pulls sky and sea and land towards it. Were not everyone on the ground running away screaming, the scene would appear almost serene.
Adding to the jumble of serenity and discord, deep within this luminous ball of water swims a monster. The monster's mouth opens, revealing teeth that would make a freshly sharpened long sword seem dull.
The monster unleashes a series of missiles, causing the towers where hundreds of lives once dwelt to explode. Hundreds of souls drift into the pull of the sphere with the rising smoke.
fast forward
tripping on the water like a laughing girl ... one with the ocean and the woman unfurled ... a kiss on the wind and we'll make the land … and you will dance with me in the sunlit pools
The people, the custom goes, locked the bodies away in coffins crowned with flowers and dumped the coffins into the source of their deaths— the sea. The waves that once fiercely crashed over and drowned them now gently make the dead bob and weave beneath the water.
Where in the water's movements the living find irony, the dead find insult.
The girl waves her wand and calms the waves into smooth glass. She steps onto the water, her foot sending ripples throughout the seemingly solid surface.
The dance begins.
It is beautiful and horrible. Her movements send shivers of arousal and horror tingling down the spines of the witnesses standing on the docks. The Summoner's feet step lightly on the glassy water in a dance that both affirms life and acknowledges death. She sheds a few nearly invisible tears of sorrow and rapture even as she charms and teases the reluctant souls from their corpses.
The children who watch the souls of their parents rise to the Farplane fall to their knees and sob. They sob for the sense permanence of the Sending brings and for the feelings the dance awakens within them.
She spins a tower of frozen waves, whirling her staff as the tower raises her high enough to guide the spirits that she took into her charge. The souls rise high enough in a vortex that they have opened their paths to the Farplane, and no longer need her guidance.
The dance ends and she returns to the land.
=====
Not my usual style. I occasionally try for the Technomancy obscurity style, but rarely actually get it right. This is the second (maybe third) time I've done it. And I wasn't too terribly confusing, was I?
The very beginning got me because I love time paradoxes. Jecht and Auron are time paradoxes of supreme parodoxism.
The Sending in Kilikia caught me, too. It seems to fit Kate Bush's Jig of Life. For some reason, though, I find myself disliking Yuna and Lulu (Lulu is much too short-tempered and Yuna manages to be too cheerful and too timid), but the Sending and shortly after are their best moments.
I've got something similar to this planned for Kimahri. He amuses me. His Lancet is blue magic, and he's got blue fur! Ha-ha!
The unpunctuated sentences in italics come from Kate Bush's Jig of Life. I displayed the lyrics out of order in the story. This is the correct order:
"I know your face well./I know it well./ ... /Now is the place where the crossroads meet./Will you look into the future?/.../Can't you see where memories are kept bright?/ Tripping on the water like a laughing girl./Time in her eyes is spawning past life, /One with the ocean and the woman unfurled, /Holding all the love that waits for you here./Catch us now for I am your future./A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land./Come over here to where When lingers,/Waiting in this empty world,/Waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools./For Now does ride in on the curl of the wave,/And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools./We are of the going water and the gone./We are of water in the holy land of water/And all that's to come runs in/With the thrust on the strand."
Pl.ease note that I did not list the entirety of the song's lyrics.