~Chapter 18~
The group stared at Yuna, stunned. Auron angrily looked away from Yuna and focused on Seymour. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked.
"Please consider it. It would be so good to distract Spira from all of the pain and death that Sin has brought. A marriage of this magnitude would. Give the people something nice to talk about for a change. That's all."
Yeah, right, Tidus thought.
"Distract them all you want. In the end, it goes back to the same story. What of her pilgrimage, eh?"
"Please, I am not asking for an immediate response," Seymour said. "Just consider it."
It seemed to Tidus that Seymour and Auron were in nothing short of a verbal jousting match, and Auron's temper was starting to flare. "This proposal does nothing at all for Spira and you know it," he said hardly. He turned to the others.
"We leave," he said shortly. The others piled out of the room, leaving only Tidus, Auron, Seymour, and Rikku, who was hastily snatching and stashing apples. Auron had apparently struck a nerve with Seymour, because he suddenly called out, "Why are you still here, sir?" Auron stopped dead in his tracks, just as Rikku had run out the door. "Forgive me," Seymour said, no hint of apology in his voice, "but we Guado are keen to the scent of the Farplane."
Auron's fist was balled. Tidus, unsure of what Seymour had just said, stepped forward and sniffed his mentor. Unsatisfied, he said to Seymour, "I don't smell anything."
Auron angrily brushed Tidus out of his way and exited the room. Not wanting to stay there alone with Seymour, Tidus hurried out after him.
Outside, Yuna was sitting on a bench made of stone surrounded by the others. "Boy, he sure chose a great time to lay this one on us!" Wakka said, his hand on his forehead.
"Yuna, the daughter of High Summoner Braska, Maester Seymour, son of Lord Jyscal and a human woman, brought together in wedlock, overcoming the barriers of race. It would indeed give Spira something to talk about," Lulu said.
Tidus wanted to yell out, "Do you even like the guy? Do you even know him?" But the words wouldn't come out of his mouth. Yuna was still silent. She finally stood.
"I want to go to the Farplane. I want to see my father," she said at last.
Tidus looked up. "Isn't the Farplane where dead people go?"
"Yes," Auron answered. Tidus wasn't sure, but he thought he had heard a slight hint of fear in his mentor's voice.
"Alright," Wakka said. "We'll go there. C'mon, guys!"
The group made its way to a higher level in the city. A large ornate door stood in the rock, leading down a dark corridor. The group walked down into this corridor, before finally emerging into a brightly lit chamber. It seemed to be only a single stairway leading to a huge, swirling blob of color. "Question!" Tidus said suddenly, making the group pause. "The Farplane is where dead people go, right? And Yuna's father is there, right? So.They're all in there?" he asked. He suddenly had a vision of a dark room with ghosts flying all around him.
"You'll see for yourself," Wakka said, grinning. They all started up the stairway. Tidus was about to ask Auron a question when he suddenly realized he wasn't there. Looking around, he found his mentor seated on the stairs. He seemed to be breathing very quickly, as though something was physically wrong with him. "Why aren't you going?" Tidus asked him.
"I do not belong there," he said hurriedly. He seemed to have lost his cool manner.
"What, are you scared?" Tidus asked, grinning. Auron drew himself up importantly.
"Searching the past, to find the future. that is all that is there. I need it not."
"It's not like you're going to see the dead," Rikku said, coming down the stairs to join them; apparently, she hadn't gone in either. "You're just seeing a memory. You see, the pyre flies react to your thoughts, and the show you an image of the person. that's all." She paused, and sat next to Auron. "Well, have fun!" she said brightly.
"You aren't going either?" Tidus asked in bewilderment.
"I like to keep my memories. inside," Rikku said. She took out one of her stolen apples and began to munch on it. Tidus shook his head, and started up the stairway again. He finally came to the blob, which he hesitantly put his finger to. Satisfied that it hadn't eaten him, he stepped through onto what he saw to be a rocky floor. Looking around, he saw Wakka chatting to an image of someone who looked remarkably like him. Suddenly, Wakka's words came screaming back to him:
"My little brudda, Chappu. he looked like you."
So that was Chappu, the one who had died a year before in an attack against Sin. Thinking of this made Tidus think of Operation Mi'hen, and to his surprise, the pyre flies formed an image of Luzzu in front of him. Scared, he fanned the flies away, and caught the attention of Lulu in the same instant.
"This place. This is where the fallen are sent. Summoners send their souls to this place of eternal rest. The pyre flies that reside here take on the form of the person you wish to see," Lulu said.
"Yeah, I know," Tidus said. "Rikku told me."
"He really does look like you," Lulu said, looking at Chappu. "When I first saw you, I thought maybe, somehow, he had survived. but, he's here." Lulu looked away. "This, Chappu, is my good-bye. you always said I looked grumpy. but those were the best days of my life."
Tidus left Lulu and walked over to Yuna. She was talking to the images of the same robed person whose statues graced the temples. Lord Braska and his wife floated in front of Yuna, looking on as she talked. Tidus slowly came up next to her.
"Hey," he said. She looked at him.
"Hello."
Tidus wasn't exactly sure what to say next. The two of them stood there in silence for a while, until Yuna finally said, "I have made my decision."
"Already?" Tidus asked, shocked.
"Yes. I will tell Maester Seymour before we leave."
"You don't have to tell him right away," Tidus said reasonably. "I mean, you could always just come back. right?"
Yuna shook her head. "No," she said. "I must tell him now."
The images of Braska and his wife disappeared. Yuna looked at Tidus curiously. "Try calling him," she said.
Tidus looked at her. "Who?" he asked.
"Sir Jecht!" she said. "Auron said he might not be dead. so try calling him, Tidus!"
Trying not to think about his father only made him just that. The pyre flies just simply floated around him, doing nothing.
"See?" Yuna asked excitedly. "He isn't dead! He's still alive!"
No, Tidus thought glumly, He's Sin.
Tidus now believed Auron about his father completely. "I really hate him," Tidus said quietly.
"Why?" Yuna asked.
"It was always him, him, him! He always put everyone down around him! When he disappeared, mom and me-"
Tidus suddenly stopped. The pyre flies had finally reacted to his thoughts and the image of his mother appeared in front of him. "No," he whispered.
"She's very beautiful," Yuna said quietly.
"How could. she be here?" Tidus asked Yuna. "No one was there to send her."
"She must have accepted death," Yuna said. "She didn't want to live any longer."
"Hey, that's my mom you're talking about," Tidus said sullenly.
"I'm sorry," Yuna said, shrinking away.
"It's OK," Tidus said, his memory kicking into overdrive.
Back when he was young in Chicago, his mother had always been attached to his father. When Jecht was around, she would not focus on anything else except Jecht, Jecht, Jecht. When he disappeared, she gave up. The neighbor lady across the hall had once told him that when two lovebirds lived together, and one died, the other gave up living so it could be with its mate.
Pondering this, a seven-year-old Tidus found his way to the balcony in his apartment. His mother was in the hospital and doctors feared the worst. He remembered Auron had been there. Tidus wasn't exactly thrilled to see him.
"What do you want?" He had grumpily asked.
"Is she all right?" Auron asked in concern.
"Whatta you care?" Tidus asked.
"If she dies, I won't know what to do," Auron said, a bit of hysteria in his voice.
Tidus whirled around to face him. "Don't say mom's gonna die!"
"My apologies," Auron said. "I shall keep her in my prayers."
Auron stayed with Tidus that night, keeping watch over him. Finally, at one o'clock in the morning, they received the call: Tidus' mother had passed away. The weeks after that had escaped Tidus in a blur, but he could remember feeling so terrible.
Outside the Farplane, Rikku had noticed something. Auron seemed to be breathing in short, ragged breaths. He was shaking, too; it seemed he was not well. "Are you OK?" Rikku asked in concern.
"I'm fine," Auron answered shortly. Sweat rolled off of his brow like a waterfall. Rikku raised her eyebrows.
"Are you sure?"
Auron looked at her. "Yes," he said coldly.
Suddenly, the Summoner party returned from the Farplane. They began walking down the stairway towards Auron and Rikku. Auron stood. He was about to say something, when suddenly, a Guado starting to enter the Farplane cried out:
"Lord Jyscal!"
The others turned, and to their surprise, the ghost of the late Lord Jyscal was trying to break through the barrier of the Farplane and join them in this world. Auron looked to Yuna.
"He does not belong here. Yuna-send him."
Yuna hurriedly dashed up the stairs to see him. The ghost looked imploringly at her, but said nothing.
"Lord Jyscal," she said in pity.
"Do it now!" Auron cried, almost in desperation.
Yuna began dancing the Sending Dance. Jyscal started to breakdown into the same kind of multicolored light that fiends did when they had been killed. It was a sad sight to watch.
Another strange sight was going on behind the Summoner party. Unseen by the others, Auron had collapsed to his knees. His breathing was even shallower now. It literally took everything he had to watch Yuna send Jyscal.
When the deed was done, Jyscal disappeared in front of Yuna, but as he did, his ghost dropped a sphere at her feet. When Jyscal was completely gone, Yuna picked the sphere up, and looked at it curiously.
Auron had finally found the strength to stand. "We leave," he said, "now."
As the group walked back through the dark corridor, all they could talk about was the mysterious reappearance of Lord Jyscal. Yuna had decided to keep the sphere she had obtained a secret for now, but the rest of the group wanted to talk all about the strange events that seemed to be happening.
"If Jyscal came back as a ghost, it means he wasn't sent. but how could he end up on the Farplane?" Lulu asked.
"I would say that he probably was sent once before. but a strong emotion or desire kept him bound to this world," Auron said. He seemed to have recovered miraculously since leaving the presence of the Farplane.
"So. maybe he was concerned about Seymour," Wakka said.
"I doubt it," Auron said. "There is only one explanation."
"And that is." Tidus asked.
"It means he died an unclean death," Auron said in a low voice.
The Summoner party was, to say the least, rattled. Seymour's proposal, Lord Jyscal, and the strange disappearances of the Summoners. what did it mean?
The group stopped outside of Seymour's manor. "I will go discuss the proposal with Maester Seymour," Yuna said. "I will be back shortly."
She disappeared into the manor and the Guardians sat around, looking like traveling salespeople that wouldn't go away. Finally, after an eternity, Tidus got bored, and started looking around Guadosalam. He found a tunnel the group had not yet explored, seemingly rising out of the city. A Guado man stood guard. "Hey," Tidus asked him, "where does that go?"
"The Gandof Thunder Plains," the Guado responded. "As a matter of fact, Maester Seymour and his Guardians just left a few minutes ago, headed for the temple at Macalania. Maester Seymour is the High Priest of that temple, you know."
"Uh-huh. Thanks," Tidus said, and dashed back to the group, just as Yuna was coming out of the manor. "I can't find him!" she said.
"Hey guys! The guard up there said he went to the temple at Macarena!"
"That's Macalania," Wakka corrected.
"Aight! Aight!" Tidus said. Auron cast him a look.
"Maester Seymour went Macalania?" Yuna asked quietly. Auron stepped forward.
"We'll meet him there," he said. "Macalania is the next stop, anyway."
Yuna nodded. "Very well. We shall continue on to Macalania."
"I have an idea! Let's see how many more times we can say 'Macalania!'" Tidus said enthusiastically. Rikku laughed, and the rest of the group just stared at him.
After the group went through the stone tunnel that led back to the ground, Tidus expected to see another Highroad; however, there was no Highroad on this side of Guadosalam, only a dark, vast plain filled with lightning. Just as they emerged, a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky. Rikku cowered away in fear.
"Do we have to go this way?" she whined.
"This is the only way to go," Auron answered, surveying her. She looked pleadingly at him. "Can't we wait a while?"
"Nice knowing you," Auron said coldly. Rikku sighed.
"Fine! You big jerk!" she said to Auron, who had already started across. Tidus looked at Wakka.
"If you think the storm is bad," he said, "get ready for this."
The group stared at Yuna, stunned. Auron angrily looked away from Yuna and focused on Seymour. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked.
"Please consider it. It would be so good to distract Spira from all of the pain and death that Sin has brought. A marriage of this magnitude would. Give the people something nice to talk about for a change. That's all."
Yeah, right, Tidus thought.
"Distract them all you want. In the end, it goes back to the same story. What of her pilgrimage, eh?"
"Please, I am not asking for an immediate response," Seymour said. "Just consider it."
It seemed to Tidus that Seymour and Auron were in nothing short of a verbal jousting match, and Auron's temper was starting to flare. "This proposal does nothing at all for Spira and you know it," he said hardly. He turned to the others.
"We leave," he said shortly. The others piled out of the room, leaving only Tidus, Auron, Seymour, and Rikku, who was hastily snatching and stashing apples. Auron had apparently struck a nerve with Seymour, because he suddenly called out, "Why are you still here, sir?" Auron stopped dead in his tracks, just as Rikku had run out the door. "Forgive me," Seymour said, no hint of apology in his voice, "but we Guado are keen to the scent of the Farplane."
Auron's fist was balled. Tidus, unsure of what Seymour had just said, stepped forward and sniffed his mentor. Unsatisfied, he said to Seymour, "I don't smell anything."
Auron angrily brushed Tidus out of his way and exited the room. Not wanting to stay there alone with Seymour, Tidus hurried out after him.
Outside, Yuna was sitting on a bench made of stone surrounded by the others. "Boy, he sure chose a great time to lay this one on us!" Wakka said, his hand on his forehead.
"Yuna, the daughter of High Summoner Braska, Maester Seymour, son of Lord Jyscal and a human woman, brought together in wedlock, overcoming the barriers of race. It would indeed give Spira something to talk about," Lulu said.
Tidus wanted to yell out, "Do you even like the guy? Do you even know him?" But the words wouldn't come out of his mouth. Yuna was still silent. She finally stood.
"I want to go to the Farplane. I want to see my father," she said at last.
Tidus looked up. "Isn't the Farplane where dead people go?"
"Yes," Auron answered. Tidus wasn't sure, but he thought he had heard a slight hint of fear in his mentor's voice.
"Alright," Wakka said. "We'll go there. C'mon, guys!"
The group made its way to a higher level in the city. A large ornate door stood in the rock, leading down a dark corridor. The group walked down into this corridor, before finally emerging into a brightly lit chamber. It seemed to be only a single stairway leading to a huge, swirling blob of color. "Question!" Tidus said suddenly, making the group pause. "The Farplane is where dead people go, right? And Yuna's father is there, right? So.They're all in there?" he asked. He suddenly had a vision of a dark room with ghosts flying all around him.
"You'll see for yourself," Wakka said, grinning. They all started up the stairway. Tidus was about to ask Auron a question when he suddenly realized he wasn't there. Looking around, he found his mentor seated on the stairs. He seemed to be breathing very quickly, as though something was physically wrong with him. "Why aren't you going?" Tidus asked him.
"I do not belong there," he said hurriedly. He seemed to have lost his cool manner.
"What, are you scared?" Tidus asked, grinning. Auron drew himself up importantly.
"Searching the past, to find the future. that is all that is there. I need it not."
"It's not like you're going to see the dead," Rikku said, coming down the stairs to join them; apparently, she hadn't gone in either. "You're just seeing a memory. You see, the pyre flies react to your thoughts, and the show you an image of the person. that's all." She paused, and sat next to Auron. "Well, have fun!" she said brightly.
"You aren't going either?" Tidus asked in bewilderment.
"I like to keep my memories. inside," Rikku said. She took out one of her stolen apples and began to munch on it. Tidus shook his head, and started up the stairway again. He finally came to the blob, which he hesitantly put his finger to. Satisfied that it hadn't eaten him, he stepped through onto what he saw to be a rocky floor. Looking around, he saw Wakka chatting to an image of someone who looked remarkably like him. Suddenly, Wakka's words came screaming back to him:
"My little brudda, Chappu. he looked like you."
So that was Chappu, the one who had died a year before in an attack against Sin. Thinking of this made Tidus think of Operation Mi'hen, and to his surprise, the pyre flies formed an image of Luzzu in front of him. Scared, he fanned the flies away, and caught the attention of Lulu in the same instant.
"This place. This is where the fallen are sent. Summoners send their souls to this place of eternal rest. The pyre flies that reside here take on the form of the person you wish to see," Lulu said.
"Yeah, I know," Tidus said. "Rikku told me."
"He really does look like you," Lulu said, looking at Chappu. "When I first saw you, I thought maybe, somehow, he had survived. but, he's here." Lulu looked away. "This, Chappu, is my good-bye. you always said I looked grumpy. but those were the best days of my life."
Tidus left Lulu and walked over to Yuna. She was talking to the images of the same robed person whose statues graced the temples. Lord Braska and his wife floated in front of Yuna, looking on as she talked. Tidus slowly came up next to her.
"Hey," he said. She looked at him.
"Hello."
Tidus wasn't exactly sure what to say next. The two of them stood there in silence for a while, until Yuna finally said, "I have made my decision."
"Already?" Tidus asked, shocked.
"Yes. I will tell Maester Seymour before we leave."
"You don't have to tell him right away," Tidus said reasonably. "I mean, you could always just come back. right?"
Yuna shook her head. "No," she said. "I must tell him now."
The images of Braska and his wife disappeared. Yuna looked at Tidus curiously. "Try calling him," she said.
Tidus looked at her. "Who?" he asked.
"Sir Jecht!" she said. "Auron said he might not be dead. so try calling him, Tidus!"
Trying not to think about his father only made him just that. The pyre flies just simply floated around him, doing nothing.
"See?" Yuna asked excitedly. "He isn't dead! He's still alive!"
No, Tidus thought glumly, He's Sin.
Tidus now believed Auron about his father completely. "I really hate him," Tidus said quietly.
"Why?" Yuna asked.
"It was always him, him, him! He always put everyone down around him! When he disappeared, mom and me-"
Tidus suddenly stopped. The pyre flies had finally reacted to his thoughts and the image of his mother appeared in front of him. "No," he whispered.
"She's very beautiful," Yuna said quietly.
"How could. she be here?" Tidus asked Yuna. "No one was there to send her."
"She must have accepted death," Yuna said. "She didn't want to live any longer."
"Hey, that's my mom you're talking about," Tidus said sullenly.
"I'm sorry," Yuna said, shrinking away.
"It's OK," Tidus said, his memory kicking into overdrive.
Back when he was young in Chicago, his mother had always been attached to his father. When Jecht was around, she would not focus on anything else except Jecht, Jecht, Jecht. When he disappeared, she gave up. The neighbor lady across the hall had once told him that when two lovebirds lived together, and one died, the other gave up living so it could be with its mate.
Pondering this, a seven-year-old Tidus found his way to the balcony in his apartment. His mother was in the hospital and doctors feared the worst. He remembered Auron had been there. Tidus wasn't exactly thrilled to see him.
"What do you want?" He had grumpily asked.
"Is she all right?" Auron asked in concern.
"Whatta you care?" Tidus asked.
"If she dies, I won't know what to do," Auron said, a bit of hysteria in his voice.
Tidus whirled around to face him. "Don't say mom's gonna die!"
"My apologies," Auron said. "I shall keep her in my prayers."
Auron stayed with Tidus that night, keeping watch over him. Finally, at one o'clock in the morning, they received the call: Tidus' mother had passed away. The weeks after that had escaped Tidus in a blur, but he could remember feeling so terrible.
Outside the Farplane, Rikku had noticed something. Auron seemed to be breathing in short, ragged breaths. He was shaking, too; it seemed he was not well. "Are you OK?" Rikku asked in concern.
"I'm fine," Auron answered shortly. Sweat rolled off of his brow like a waterfall. Rikku raised her eyebrows.
"Are you sure?"
Auron looked at her. "Yes," he said coldly.
Suddenly, the Summoner party returned from the Farplane. They began walking down the stairway towards Auron and Rikku. Auron stood. He was about to say something, when suddenly, a Guado starting to enter the Farplane cried out:
"Lord Jyscal!"
The others turned, and to their surprise, the ghost of the late Lord Jyscal was trying to break through the barrier of the Farplane and join them in this world. Auron looked to Yuna.
"He does not belong here. Yuna-send him."
Yuna hurriedly dashed up the stairs to see him. The ghost looked imploringly at her, but said nothing.
"Lord Jyscal," she said in pity.
"Do it now!" Auron cried, almost in desperation.
Yuna began dancing the Sending Dance. Jyscal started to breakdown into the same kind of multicolored light that fiends did when they had been killed. It was a sad sight to watch.
Another strange sight was going on behind the Summoner party. Unseen by the others, Auron had collapsed to his knees. His breathing was even shallower now. It literally took everything he had to watch Yuna send Jyscal.
When the deed was done, Jyscal disappeared in front of Yuna, but as he did, his ghost dropped a sphere at her feet. When Jyscal was completely gone, Yuna picked the sphere up, and looked at it curiously.
Auron had finally found the strength to stand. "We leave," he said, "now."
As the group walked back through the dark corridor, all they could talk about was the mysterious reappearance of Lord Jyscal. Yuna had decided to keep the sphere she had obtained a secret for now, but the rest of the group wanted to talk all about the strange events that seemed to be happening.
"If Jyscal came back as a ghost, it means he wasn't sent. but how could he end up on the Farplane?" Lulu asked.
"I would say that he probably was sent once before. but a strong emotion or desire kept him bound to this world," Auron said. He seemed to have recovered miraculously since leaving the presence of the Farplane.
"So. maybe he was concerned about Seymour," Wakka said.
"I doubt it," Auron said. "There is only one explanation."
"And that is." Tidus asked.
"It means he died an unclean death," Auron said in a low voice.
The Summoner party was, to say the least, rattled. Seymour's proposal, Lord Jyscal, and the strange disappearances of the Summoners. what did it mean?
The group stopped outside of Seymour's manor. "I will go discuss the proposal with Maester Seymour," Yuna said. "I will be back shortly."
She disappeared into the manor and the Guardians sat around, looking like traveling salespeople that wouldn't go away. Finally, after an eternity, Tidus got bored, and started looking around Guadosalam. He found a tunnel the group had not yet explored, seemingly rising out of the city. A Guado man stood guard. "Hey," Tidus asked him, "where does that go?"
"The Gandof Thunder Plains," the Guado responded. "As a matter of fact, Maester Seymour and his Guardians just left a few minutes ago, headed for the temple at Macalania. Maester Seymour is the High Priest of that temple, you know."
"Uh-huh. Thanks," Tidus said, and dashed back to the group, just as Yuna was coming out of the manor. "I can't find him!" she said.
"Hey guys! The guard up there said he went to the temple at Macarena!"
"That's Macalania," Wakka corrected.
"Aight! Aight!" Tidus said. Auron cast him a look.
"Maester Seymour went Macalania?" Yuna asked quietly. Auron stepped forward.
"We'll meet him there," he said. "Macalania is the next stop, anyway."
Yuna nodded. "Very well. We shall continue on to Macalania."
"I have an idea! Let's see how many more times we can say 'Macalania!'" Tidus said enthusiastically. Rikku laughed, and the rest of the group just stared at him.
After the group went through the stone tunnel that led back to the ground, Tidus expected to see another Highroad; however, there was no Highroad on this side of Guadosalam, only a dark, vast plain filled with lightning. Just as they emerged, a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky. Rikku cowered away in fear.
"Do we have to go this way?" she whined.
"This is the only way to go," Auron answered, surveying her. She looked pleadingly at him. "Can't we wait a while?"
"Nice knowing you," Auron said coldly. Rikku sighed.
"Fine! You big jerk!" she said to Auron, who had already started across. Tidus looked at Wakka.
"If you think the storm is bad," he said, "get ready for this."