**
Part Seven: A Mirror for the Mind
**
The Al-Bhed airship was late picking Rikku and her team up from the island where they had been sitting, boredly, for two hours until the craft arrived. They had struck the camp some time earlier, and had resorted to playing counting games with pebbles that the found on the beach in order to pass the time. Rikku had tried to resume her mentally alphabetising fiends. She had this time reached Malboro before giving up in frustration.
By the time that the airship did arrive, all Rikku wanted was to be able to sit with a mug of something hot in her hands, and go to bed dreaming of the nice warm Sanubia desert. She made a mental note to tell her father that if he tried to build Home in the polar regions, she would run away and become a nun for whatever remained of Yevon.
Cid found her as she was in the room where they were storing equipment, trying to extricate herself from the complicating straps and layers that made up cold-weather gear, feeling uncomfortably hot wearing it in the temperatures of the airship and distinctly damp as her sweat soaked into the garments.
She had just pulled off her gloves when he arrived in front of her, looking at her expectantly.
"What?" she said, around a mouthful of glove, having gripped them in her teeth in order to pull them off.
Cid wordlessly extended the missive for her to read. Rikku took it, sticking her gloves under one arm, trying to fold out the creases that the paper had sustained after being held by several people. The handwriting was messy and barely legible, but Rikku, used to her brother's hand, could read it well enough.
"Guadosalam?" Rikku looked up from the paper at her father, frowning slightly. "Why does she want to go there?"
"How should I know?" Cid snapped. Rikku guessed that he wasn't feeling very agreeable after the absolute derth of suitable locations that the Al-Bhed had uncovered. "But we'll take her. We have to pass through anyway."
Rikku tried not to smile. "I'll go with her," she said firmly, refolding the copied-out message and dropping it into a pouch by her side. "She needs a Guardian to protect her if Wakka and Lulu aren't coming along. If she's sneaking around, then she obviously doesn't want to be bothered by people."
Cid snorted. "And a little thing like you'll protect her?"
Rikku knew he was teasing, being fully aware of her skills in battle, and having let her roam free on Spira to help her cousin. "I was taught by the best," she said, pointedly.
"Auron? Guy was dead."
Rikku glowered at him. "Vydran, don't you dare say anything mean about Auron!"
Cid shook his head. "Wouldn't think of it," he said, gruffly, and Rikku wasn't entirely sure whether he was being sarcastic or not. "We're going to be in Besaid in a few hours." He glanced her up and down, eyeing her thermal clothing. "Might want to dress appropriately."
Rikku huffed, and threw her gloves into a nearby bin.
**
Rikku had thrown her arms around Yuna and given her cousin a huge hug upon seeing her standing there nervously on the jetty on Besaid Island, flanked by Wakka and Lulu, the former looking a little tired. Rikku had started babbling happily to Yuna about what she had been up to since they had last parted, before Lulu had hurried them aboard the airship. It had been the dead of night, and Rikku was a little confused about why Yuna was so eager to get away unseen, but when Yuna passed some of the time in transit to Guadosalam telling her about the near constant visits she had been receiving, she nodded in understanding and then pulled a face.
"You just saved them all, Yunie. You think they'd let you have a little rest."
Yuna had just gripped her cousin's hand and smiled. "We all saved Spira, all of us."
Rikku had giggled lightly and told her not to say that to Brother, or they'd never hear the end of it.
"So," she eventually asked, "Why are you going to Guadosalam? The Farplane?" Yuna nodded. "To see who?"
Yuna just sighed sadly, and Rikku was surprised as she rested her head on Rikku's shoulder. "I think I just need to see." She said, and would expand no more upon that.
**
Yuna stood at the entrance to the Farplane, staring at the oil-on-water colourings that shaded the entrance, seeming to create a barrier that was only an optical illusion for the living, but very real for the dead. Just behind her stood Rikku, eyeing the geometric portal that hid the entrance with distrust. Yuna focused on breathing slowly and evenly in an attempt to quell the rising sense of panic she felt. As much as she feared seeing /him/ there, the one she had come to see, perhaps the greater fear was that he wouldn't be there, and he had managed to cheat death once again.
"Yunie?" Rikku was shifting from foot to foot behind her, obviously having picked up on her cousin's retinence. "Do you want me to go in with you?"
Surprised, Yuna turned to stare at the young Al-Bhed. "I thought you didn't like the Farplane," she asked, quizzically.
"I don't!" Rikku said, hastily. "I just... thought you might need a little support is all. And isn't that my job?"
Yuna smiled, knowing what the offer had cost her friend. "It's alright, Rikku. You're not my Guardian anymore. And I'll be fine. Nothing on the Farplane can hurt me."
Rikku's mouth twisted slightly. "Sure about that?" she asked.
Yuna knew that Rikku did not fear for her physical safety.
She gave her cousin an encouraging smile, and stepped through the barrier, feeling as if she had stepped through a film of silk that slipped over her skin with ease even as it tried to cling to it. She closed her eyes as she walked. It was too disorientating to move from the world of the living to the realm of the dead to do otherwise. It was easier for her, as a Summoner, but she always felt a slight turning of her stomach as she stepped through, and felt the pyreflies shifting and keening in reaction to the entrance of a stranger into their realm.
Though, she reflected in amusement, she had probably sent half of the pyreflies that floated in the air currents, after they had burst apart in the wake of Sin's demise. She picked up her skirts and ascended the steps to the platform.
She wasn't quite sure why she expected to be alone; perhaps it was more the case that she wished to be alone. There were others there, staring out into what looked to be empty space before one approached and realised they stood face to face with some person from their past. There were two middle-aged women, a young Guado male, and a child, barely able to ascend the steps, by the looks of her, staring watery-eyed at two people Yuna assumed were her parents.
She turned away, leaving the child to herself. She picked a spot on the platform reasonably far away from anyone else, so that she could ignore them as she called upon the pyreflies.
Yuna swallowed fearfully, closing her eyes. This was the moment she had been dreading. She tried to breathe calmly as she had before stepping into the Farplane, but found that she couldn't achieve the same level of inner peace as she had before. Her nerves were frayed, playing havoc with her and she could few her stomach twist in a new direction every few seconds.
Carefully, she built a picture in her mind, of a man she had seen for the last time only hazily, lost, as she had been, in the Sending and so not very aware of much outside of the world of the dead and the pyreflies which had keened their song to her so loudly it felt as if they were screaming. It was that way with every Sending. When she thought she could see him clearly in her own mind, she heistated, before sternly telling herself not to be afraid of Farplane spirits.
She opened her eyes to look straight into those of Seymour Guado.
She couldn't stop herself from taking half a step backwards before her intellect reasserted control over her instincts. Seymour's body was hazy, washed out, and indistinct in form. Pyreflies wended their way around and through him. His face held none of the hunger that Yuna remembered seeing so often in him, instead wearing a visage of abstract calm.
Yuna found that she could breathe again. Seymour hadn't found a way to continue lingering in the world of the living, and had taken his place on the Farplane. She had sent him successfully, though she told herself not to doubt her abilities, there had been that nagging doubt.
Yuna, despite her mixed feelings for the man, couldn't help but wonder if he was happy. Was he rejoicing at being with his mother again? Was he at peace? He had seemed oddly resigned when Yuna had sent him; she had felt that as his body had dispersed and his spirit fled.
In spite of the horrible things he had done, and what he had tried to become, Yuna pitied him and suspected she always would.
The was some whispering from the pair of women on the far side of the platform. Perhaps they were unaware of the peculiar acoustics of the Farplane, or perhaps some attribute of the pyreflies caused them to carry the women's mutterings to Yuna's ears, but she could clearly hear them as if she had been standing beside them.
"That's the High Summoner, I tell you! Oh, she looks as pretty as she did on all those sphere recordings."
"I got some of those. Something to give to the grandkids, I say."
"Who's that she was talking to? Her father?"
"Oh my, you know who I think that is? It's Maester Seymour!"
"Her husband? Oh, I saw that wedding. Went all the way to Bevelle when I heard the tidings. I want a dress like her's for my daughter."
"You know, there were rumours going around. That he did something terrible in Bevelle and to the Ronso."
"Don't be silly! He was a Maester! Besides, would she be visiting now, would she have even married him if he was as horrible as those dreadful rumours make out? Honestly, you shouldn't believe everything you hear."
And that, Yuna reflected sadly, probably summed up most of Spira's thoughts regarding the late Guado Maester. She wondered if the truth would ever come out. Perhaps Maechen would tell them all, as he collected Spira's history.
"I..." For the first time, she sought to address the apparition before her. "I hope you're happy."
Maybe it was her imagination, but suddenly it seemed as if Seymour were staring deep into her soul, and it made her feel desperately uncomfortable.
"I could be happier," she said thoughtfully, "I don't know how to be a mother. I don't have a guide for that."
A flicker in the corner of her eye made her turn her head, and she could see her father and mother hovering there in the space above the Farplane. If she unfocussed her eyes, Yuna imagined she could see Sirs Auron and Jecht in the ether somewhere behind them. She closed her eyes sadly and turned away.
"I wish that you hadn't left me," she told them, and by the time she reopened them, the pair had disappeared.
She turned back to Seymour, staring at him thoughtfully. "And I'm not sure that I should be glad you did."
She started to leave.
The pitch of the pyreflies' song changed suddenly and slightly, imperceptibly perhaps to anyone save a Summoner. It seemed to carry an almost wistful, longing overtone. Yuna didn't turn around, afraid to see who was there. There was one person she thought of with longing now, and if she turned and saw him on the Farplane, it would crush all hopes for her to find him one day. She would rather live in ignorant hope than forever in knowing that she could never hold him again.
**
Rikku was sitting in the same spot Yuna had left her in when she had entered the Farplane, only now her cousin was staring at the rainbow swirled barrier between the realms of the living and the dead with something akin to curiosity in her eyes. It was of a fearful sort, though, and Yuna found she couldn't ignore it.
Yuna touched Rikku's arm to get her attention. "I won't think any less of you if you choose to go inside," she said, gently.
Rikku turned her head and blinked dazedly up at Yuna, as if she had forgotten that the other girl was there. "No thanks." Her attmpts at her usual cheeriness seemed hollow, somehow.
Yuna would normally have accepted, but something nagged at her. "Are you sure?"
Rikku smiled a bit easier this time, but Yuna wasn't sure how much of it was down to good acting. "I'm sure," she said firmly, and got to her feet, starting down the path back to Guadosalam.
Unable to argue with that, Yuna simply followed her. Though she couldn't help but wonder who it was that Rikku thought she might see on the Farplane.
**
Yuna was walking a little way ahead of Rikku, but the girl wasn't especially worried. They weren't in any danger here. The Guado had never been violent towards them, even when they had been labelled as traitors, and since arriving Yuna had been treated with almost ridiculous levels of reverence with her new status of High Summoner.
A Guado male was walking towards the Farplane, his eyes flicking around nervously as he traversed the path almost hurriedly. Rikku tried not to smile. The Farplane tended to be unnerving on the first visit. Rikku had become somewhat accustomed to the sensation that there were people watching you all the time, and the feeling of hearing whispering just beyond hearing, but it was still very disconcerting. Maybe this one had never been here before.
At which point, he walked into her, glancing around so much he had forgotten to take heed of the person he had been walking straight towards.
Rikku was all smiles and apologies as she crouched down to help the young Guado with his dropped possessions. He wouldn't meet her eyes as he fumbled amongst them, trying to get them into some semblence of order. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there-"
She froze as he finally looked up from the dusty floor and into her eyes, and she saw the depth of the hatred that dwelt there, so close to the surface. His teeth were bared, and there was a malice in his expression that told Rikku to flee, but she didn't, transfixed by the sight. The Guado, agressive and threatening, reminded her of so many fiends she'd had to face, but there was one difference she saw which she had never glimpsed in fiends: purpose.
"Heathen!" he growled.
She didn't see him produce the knife, but she certainly felt it. Not the moment when he plunged it into her abdomen, puncturing skin and muscle as easy as if he was cutting meat to cook. There was a curious unreality to the situation, and she could only make a small choked gasp, and the bizarre thought that he 'wasn't supposed to do that'. The pain made itself felt as he pulled upwards, forcing the blade through organs until the metal grated against her ribs. Blood flowed freely from the wound, a curiously warm sensation.
It was like no pain she'd felt before. She'd been raked and clawed by fiends, brought back from the very brink of death by battle magics, and was no stranger to injury and pain in battle. But perhaps the worst of the pain, the burning that ran through her, came from the knowledge that when she had looked into his eyes, she had seen a hatred for no other reason than for hatred's sake. Fiends hated the living and attacked indiscriminately. But her Guado assailant hated /her/, and hurt her because of that.
As he yanked the knife out of her, she distantly heard a scream, and wondered if it was her or some passerby on the road to and from the Farplane that had seen the situation. She brought her hands to her abdomen, feeling the thick fluid coating her fingers and tasting the distinctive metallic tang on the air. She felt so very heavy that she found her limbs had trouble supporting her as she slumped to the ground, trying to clutch at her stomach, still unconsciously attempting to stop the bleeding.
Perhaps, if she had been more coherent, she would have wondered what had happened to Yuna.
**
There had only been three times in Rikku's life where she was absolutely certain she was going to die. Even facing Sin, she had been surrounded by people who were her friends and had become almost as close as family, with powerful weapons and the knowledge that they had to succeed to support her. She had not feared death then.
The second time was when she had been sitting underwater in a claustrophia-inducing machina, aging and clanking, and the cockpit barely large enough to allow her to move the controls, she had realised that the two Guardians who had followed her after she had secured her cousin might have just caused her death. Blunt force impacts and great slashes at the hull had caused too much internal damage, and she could hear the sound of the pressure seals cracking.
She had tried to desperately use the eject system that her brother had forced to memorise, for just such an eventuality. But that system was as old as the rest of the machina vessel. It hadn't worked, and the creaking and straining had only become louder and more distressing as the craft sunk further below the surface of the Moonflow.
Then the cracks in the hull had given way, water pushing its way into the inner hull and eventually breaching the pressure seals and spraying her with powerful gushes of water. With the eject system broken, there was one other way for her to escape. But it was a hatch that opened outards, and so the internal pressure had to be the same as the external for her to even be able to open it. That meant allowing the cockpit to fill with water. And at the rate the craft was sinking, that might not happen until she was practically at the bottom of the Moonflow.
Rikku knew she was an excellant swimmer. Her father had insisted she train with the Al-Bhed Psyches, learning from them the 'trick' which allowed them to stay underwater for so long periods of time even while exerting themselves. She had been a natural it seemed, and she quickly learned to match them for their stamina. But there was so little oxygen in the craft already, and Rikku would have to extricate herself from the cramped and awkward position she was seated in before swimming all the way to the surface, even while she ascended slowly, so as not to make herself sick. She wasn't sure she would be able to do that. The cold of the water felt like it was draining her life away, and she had momentarily wondered if saying some sort of prayer for her loved ones would be in order.
Finally, she had settled on, "Father, I'm sorry for failing," not knowing quite what else she could say.
In the end, it was possibly luck that saved her. As the water level was approaching her chin, the craft jolted and crunched. She knew that the impact had likely increased the damage of the ship and let water in faster, but it meant that the craft was now resting on an outcropping of the city lost beneath the currents of the Moonflow. As the water level rose to the point where there was no air left, and she could open the hatch, she found herself much closer to the surface than she had thought. Still, by the time she crawled, hacking and coughing to collapse on the banks of the Moonflow, she was still disbelieving of the fact that she had actually survived.
The first time she had thought she was going to die was when her brother had accidentally electrocuted her, and left her in the medics' care and in a coma, drug-induced for fear she would start screaming in pain again, for three weeks.
And the third time was when a Guado she didn't know stabbed her for no reason.
**
Pyreflies danced about her, intruding on her vision, and Rikku suddenly wondered if the Al-Bhed had been wrong, and she had indeed gone to the Farplane after dying. She wondered if Yuna had performed the Sending herself, and now she was residing on the Farplane.
Rikku was surprised to find the idea wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. Was it so terrible to spend eternity in an ethereal dimension, surrounded by the essence of those you had once loved?
And then she realised why she felt like a gutted fish.
Rikku whimpered softly in pain and tried to roll onto her side, the fact that she was still alive becoming very apparent. She was still lying on the road to the Farplane, and pyreflies drifted on the air currents lazily, passing through walls and floors indiscriminately. She was rather disconcerted to feel a warm tickling sensation as one moved upwards from the floor beneath her to pass straight through her chest before spiralling away to join a small swarm nearby. She wondered if it was anyone she knew.
A crowd was gathered around her, anxious faces staring down at her, a mixture of Human and Guado, though the majority were of the former. A Human female in the white robes of one who had devoted their lives to healing magic was knelt beside her, and the green glow of healing spells still lingering in the air, along with the fresh scent of evergreens.
The mage smiled kindly down at her, resting a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Oh my! You shouldn't move. Magic can knit skin and bone, but it can't do anything about the blood you've lost. You should be resting, or you'll simply collapse."
Rikku knew she had lost a lot of blood. It still coated her body and clothing, warm and sticky.
"What... happened?" she croaked.
"You were stabbed," said the white mage, with a bright smile.
Rikku would have punched the woman if she'd had the strength. "I gathered," she said, wryly. "What happened to the man who attacked me?"
It was a Guado who spoke this time. "The criminal who would harm a Guardian of the High Summoner fled, like the coward he undoubtedly is. He ran into the Thunder Plains, and there are soldiers giving chase now."
"High Summoner," Rikku repeated dumbly, wondering why that point was sticking in her mind. She gasped. "Yuna!" She forced herself to sit up, brushing aside the restraining hand of the healer, and looked around frantically.
Yuna was nowhere to be seen.
- End of Part Seven
Part Seven: A Mirror for the Mind
**
The Al-Bhed airship was late picking Rikku and her team up from the island where they had been sitting, boredly, for two hours until the craft arrived. They had struck the camp some time earlier, and had resorted to playing counting games with pebbles that the found on the beach in order to pass the time. Rikku had tried to resume her mentally alphabetising fiends. She had this time reached Malboro before giving up in frustration.
By the time that the airship did arrive, all Rikku wanted was to be able to sit with a mug of something hot in her hands, and go to bed dreaming of the nice warm Sanubia desert. She made a mental note to tell her father that if he tried to build Home in the polar regions, she would run away and become a nun for whatever remained of Yevon.
Cid found her as she was in the room where they were storing equipment, trying to extricate herself from the complicating straps and layers that made up cold-weather gear, feeling uncomfortably hot wearing it in the temperatures of the airship and distinctly damp as her sweat soaked into the garments.
She had just pulled off her gloves when he arrived in front of her, looking at her expectantly.
"What?" she said, around a mouthful of glove, having gripped them in her teeth in order to pull them off.
Cid wordlessly extended the missive for her to read. Rikku took it, sticking her gloves under one arm, trying to fold out the creases that the paper had sustained after being held by several people. The handwriting was messy and barely legible, but Rikku, used to her brother's hand, could read it well enough.
"Guadosalam?" Rikku looked up from the paper at her father, frowning slightly. "Why does she want to go there?"
"How should I know?" Cid snapped. Rikku guessed that he wasn't feeling very agreeable after the absolute derth of suitable locations that the Al-Bhed had uncovered. "But we'll take her. We have to pass through anyway."
Rikku tried not to smile. "I'll go with her," she said firmly, refolding the copied-out message and dropping it into a pouch by her side. "She needs a Guardian to protect her if Wakka and Lulu aren't coming along. If she's sneaking around, then she obviously doesn't want to be bothered by people."
Cid snorted. "And a little thing like you'll protect her?"
Rikku knew he was teasing, being fully aware of her skills in battle, and having let her roam free on Spira to help her cousin. "I was taught by the best," she said, pointedly.
"Auron? Guy was dead."
Rikku glowered at him. "Vydran, don't you dare say anything mean about Auron!"
Cid shook his head. "Wouldn't think of it," he said, gruffly, and Rikku wasn't entirely sure whether he was being sarcastic or not. "We're going to be in Besaid in a few hours." He glanced her up and down, eyeing her thermal clothing. "Might want to dress appropriately."
Rikku huffed, and threw her gloves into a nearby bin.
**
Rikku had thrown her arms around Yuna and given her cousin a huge hug upon seeing her standing there nervously on the jetty on Besaid Island, flanked by Wakka and Lulu, the former looking a little tired. Rikku had started babbling happily to Yuna about what she had been up to since they had last parted, before Lulu had hurried them aboard the airship. It had been the dead of night, and Rikku was a little confused about why Yuna was so eager to get away unseen, but when Yuna passed some of the time in transit to Guadosalam telling her about the near constant visits she had been receiving, she nodded in understanding and then pulled a face.
"You just saved them all, Yunie. You think they'd let you have a little rest."
Yuna had just gripped her cousin's hand and smiled. "We all saved Spira, all of us."
Rikku had giggled lightly and told her not to say that to Brother, or they'd never hear the end of it.
"So," she eventually asked, "Why are you going to Guadosalam? The Farplane?" Yuna nodded. "To see who?"
Yuna just sighed sadly, and Rikku was surprised as she rested her head on Rikku's shoulder. "I think I just need to see." She said, and would expand no more upon that.
**
Yuna stood at the entrance to the Farplane, staring at the oil-on-water colourings that shaded the entrance, seeming to create a barrier that was only an optical illusion for the living, but very real for the dead. Just behind her stood Rikku, eyeing the geometric portal that hid the entrance with distrust. Yuna focused on breathing slowly and evenly in an attempt to quell the rising sense of panic she felt. As much as she feared seeing /him/ there, the one she had come to see, perhaps the greater fear was that he wouldn't be there, and he had managed to cheat death once again.
"Yunie?" Rikku was shifting from foot to foot behind her, obviously having picked up on her cousin's retinence. "Do you want me to go in with you?"
Surprised, Yuna turned to stare at the young Al-Bhed. "I thought you didn't like the Farplane," she asked, quizzically.
"I don't!" Rikku said, hastily. "I just... thought you might need a little support is all. And isn't that my job?"
Yuna smiled, knowing what the offer had cost her friend. "It's alright, Rikku. You're not my Guardian anymore. And I'll be fine. Nothing on the Farplane can hurt me."
Rikku's mouth twisted slightly. "Sure about that?" she asked.
Yuna knew that Rikku did not fear for her physical safety.
She gave her cousin an encouraging smile, and stepped through the barrier, feeling as if she had stepped through a film of silk that slipped over her skin with ease even as it tried to cling to it. She closed her eyes as she walked. It was too disorientating to move from the world of the living to the realm of the dead to do otherwise. It was easier for her, as a Summoner, but she always felt a slight turning of her stomach as she stepped through, and felt the pyreflies shifting and keening in reaction to the entrance of a stranger into their realm.
Though, she reflected in amusement, she had probably sent half of the pyreflies that floated in the air currents, after they had burst apart in the wake of Sin's demise. She picked up her skirts and ascended the steps to the platform.
She wasn't quite sure why she expected to be alone; perhaps it was more the case that she wished to be alone. There were others there, staring out into what looked to be empty space before one approached and realised they stood face to face with some person from their past. There were two middle-aged women, a young Guado male, and a child, barely able to ascend the steps, by the looks of her, staring watery-eyed at two people Yuna assumed were her parents.
She turned away, leaving the child to herself. She picked a spot on the platform reasonably far away from anyone else, so that she could ignore them as she called upon the pyreflies.
Yuna swallowed fearfully, closing her eyes. This was the moment she had been dreading. She tried to breathe calmly as she had before stepping into the Farplane, but found that she couldn't achieve the same level of inner peace as she had before. Her nerves were frayed, playing havoc with her and she could few her stomach twist in a new direction every few seconds.
Carefully, she built a picture in her mind, of a man she had seen for the last time only hazily, lost, as she had been, in the Sending and so not very aware of much outside of the world of the dead and the pyreflies which had keened their song to her so loudly it felt as if they were screaming. It was that way with every Sending. When she thought she could see him clearly in her own mind, she heistated, before sternly telling herself not to be afraid of Farplane spirits.
She opened her eyes to look straight into those of Seymour Guado.
She couldn't stop herself from taking half a step backwards before her intellect reasserted control over her instincts. Seymour's body was hazy, washed out, and indistinct in form. Pyreflies wended their way around and through him. His face held none of the hunger that Yuna remembered seeing so often in him, instead wearing a visage of abstract calm.
Yuna found that she could breathe again. Seymour hadn't found a way to continue lingering in the world of the living, and had taken his place on the Farplane. She had sent him successfully, though she told herself not to doubt her abilities, there had been that nagging doubt.
Yuna, despite her mixed feelings for the man, couldn't help but wonder if he was happy. Was he rejoicing at being with his mother again? Was he at peace? He had seemed oddly resigned when Yuna had sent him; she had felt that as his body had dispersed and his spirit fled.
In spite of the horrible things he had done, and what he had tried to become, Yuna pitied him and suspected she always would.
The was some whispering from the pair of women on the far side of the platform. Perhaps they were unaware of the peculiar acoustics of the Farplane, or perhaps some attribute of the pyreflies caused them to carry the women's mutterings to Yuna's ears, but she could clearly hear them as if she had been standing beside them.
"That's the High Summoner, I tell you! Oh, she looks as pretty as she did on all those sphere recordings."
"I got some of those. Something to give to the grandkids, I say."
"Who's that she was talking to? Her father?"
"Oh my, you know who I think that is? It's Maester Seymour!"
"Her husband? Oh, I saw that wedding. Went all the way to Bevelle when I heard the tidings. I want a dress like her's for my daughter."
"You know, there were rumours going around. That he did something terrible in Bevelle and to the Ronso."
"Don't be silly! He was a Maester! Besides, would she be visiting now, would she have even married him if he was as horrible as those dreadful rumours make out? Honestly, you shouldn't believe everything you hear."
And that, Yuna reflected sadly, probably summed up most of Spira's thoughts regarding the late Guado Maester. She wondered if the truth would ever come out. Perhaps Maechen would tell them all, as he collected Spira's history.
"I..." For the first time, she sought to address the apparition before her. "I hope you're happy."
Maybe it was her imagination, but suddenly it seemed as if Seymour were staring deep into her soul, and it made her feel desperately uncomfortable.
"I could be happier," she said thoughtfully, "I don't know how to be a mother. I don't have a guide for that."
A flicker in the corner of her eye made her turn her head, and she could see her father and mother hovering there in the space above the Farplane. If she unfocussed her eyes, Yuna imagined she could see Sirs Auron and Jecht in the ether somewhere behind them. She closed her eyes sadly and turned away.
"I wish that you hadn't left me," she told them, and by the time she reopened them, the pair had disappeared.
She turned back to Seymour, staring at him thoughtfully. "And I'm not sure that I should be glad you did."
She started to leave.
The pitch of the pyreflies' song changed suddenly and slightly, imperceptibly perhaps to anyone save a Summoner. It seemed to carry an almost wistful, longing overtone. Yuna didn't turn around, afraid to see who was there. There was one person she thought of with longing now, and if she turned and saw him on the Farplane, it would crush all hopes for her to find him one day. She would rather live in ignorant hope than forever in knowing that she could never hold him again.
**
Rikku was sitting in the same spot Yuna had left her in when she had entered the Farplane, only now her cousin was staring at the rainbow swirled barrier between the realms of the living and the dead with something akin to curiosity in her eyes. It was of a fearful sort, though, and Yuna found she couldn't ignore it.
Yuna touched Rikku's arm to get her attention. "I won't think any less of you if you choose to go inside," she said, gently.
Rikku turned her head and blinked dazedly up at Yuna, as if she had forgotten that the other girl was there. "No thanks." Her attmpts at her usual cheeriness seemed hollow, somehow.
Yuna would normally have accepted, but something nagged at her. "Are you sure?"
Rikku smiled a bit easier this time, but Yuna wasn't sure how much of it was down to good acting. "I'm sure," she said firmly, and got to her feet, starting down the path back to Guadosalam.
Unable to argue with that, Yuna simply followed her. Though she couldn't help but wonder who it was that Rikku thought she might see on the Farplane.
**
Yuna was walking a little way ahead of Rikku, but the girl wasn't especially worried. They weren't in any danger here. The Guado had never been violent towards them, even when they had been labelled as traitors, and since arriving Yuna had been treated with almost ridiculous levels of reverence with her new status of High Summoner.
A Guado male was walking towards the Farplane, his eyes flicking around nervously as he traversed the path almost hurriedly. Rikku tried not to smile. The Farplane tended to be unnerving on the first visit. Rikku had become somewhat accustomed to the sensation that there were people watching you all the time, and the feeling of hearing whispering just beyond hearing, but it was still very disconcerting. Maybe this one had never been here before.
At which point, he walked into her, glancing around so much he had forgotten to take heed of the person he had been walking straight towards.
Rikku was all smiles and apologies as she crouched down to help the young Guado with his dropped possessions. He wouldn't meet her eyes as he fumbled amongst them, trying to get them into some semblence of order. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there-"
She froze as he finally looked up from the dusty floor and into her eyes, and she saw the depth of the hatred that dwelt there, so close to the surface. His teeth were bared, and there was a malice in his expression that told Rikku to flee, but she didn't, transfixed by the sight. The Guado, agressive and threatening, reminded her of so many fiends she'd had to face, but there was one difference she saw which she had never glimpsed in fiends: purpose.
"Heathen!" he growled.
She didn't see him produce the knife, but she certainly felt it. Not the moment when he plunged it into her abdomen, puncturing skin and muscle as easy as if he was cutting meat to cook. There was a curious unreality to the situation, and she could only make a small choked gasp, and the bizarre thought that he 'wasn't supposed to do that'. The pain made itself felt as he pulled upwards, forcing the blade through organs until the metal grated against her ribs. Blood flowed freely from the wound, a curiously warm sensation.
It was like no pain she'd felt before. She'd been raked and clawed by fiends, brought back from the very brink of death by battle magics, and was no stranger to injury and pain in battle. But perhaps the worst of the pain, the burning that ran through her, came from the knowledge that when she had looked into his eyes, she had seen a hatred for no other reason than for hatred's sake. Fiends hated the living and attacked indiscriminately. But her Guado assailant hated /her/, and hurt her because of that.
As he yanked the knife out of her, she distantly heard a scream, and wondered if it was her or some passerby on the road to and from the Farplane that had seen the situation. She brought her hands to her abdomen, feeling the thick fluid coating her fingers and tasting the distinctive metallic tang on the air. She felt so very heavy that she found her limbs had trouble supporting her as she slumped to the ground, trying to clutch at her stomach, still unconsciously attempting to stop the bleeding.
Perhaps, if she had been more coherent, she would have wondered what had happened to Yuna.
**
There had only been three times in Rikku's life where she was absolutely certain she was going to die. Even facing Sin, she had been surrounded by people who were her friends and had become almost as close as family, with powerful weapons and the knowledge that they had to succeed to support her. She had not feared death then.
The second time was when she had been sitting underwater in a claustrophia-inducing machina, aging and clanking, and the cockpit barely large enough to allow her to move the controls, she had realised that the two Guardians who had followed her after she had secured her cousin might have just caused her death. Blunt force impacts and great slashes at the hull had caused too much internal damage, and she could hear the sound of the pressure seals cracking.
She had tried to desperately use the eject system that her brother had forced to memorise, for just such an eventuality. But that system was as old as the rest of the machina vessel. It hadn't worked, and the creaking and straining had only become louder and more distressing as the craft sunk further below the surface of the Moonflow.
Then the cracks in the hull had given way, water pushing its way into the inner hull and eventually breaching the pressure seals and spraying her with powerful gushes of water. With the eject system broken, there was one other way for her to escape. But it was a hatch that opened outards, and so the internal pressure had to be the same as the external for her to even be able to open it. That meant allowing the cockpit to fill with water. And at the rate the craft was sinking, that might not happen until she was practically at the bottom of the Moonflow.
Rikku knew she was an excellant swimmer. Her father had insisted she train with the Al-Bhed Psyches, learning from them the 'trick' which allowed them to stay underwater for so long periods of time even while exerting themselves. She had been a natural it seemed, and she quickly learned to match them for their stamina. But there was so little oxygen in the craft already, and Rikku would have to extricate herself from the cramped and awkward position she was seated in before swimming all the way to the surface, even while she ascended slowly, so as not to make herself sick. She wasn't sure she would be able to do that. The cold of the water felt like it was draining her life away, and she had momentarily wondered if saying some sort of prayer for her loved ones would be in order.
Finally, she had settled on, "Father, I'm sorry for failing," not knowing quite what else she could say.
In the end, it was possibly luck that saved her. As the water level was approaching her chin, the craft jolted and crunched. She knew that the impact had likely increased the damage of the ship and let water in faster, but it meant that the craft was now resting on an outcropping of the city lost beneath the currents of the Moonflow. As the water level rose to the point where there was no air left, and she could open the hatch, she found herself much closer to the surface than she had thought. Still, by the time she crawled, hacking and coughing to collapse on the banks of the Moonflow, she was still disbelieving of the fact that she had actually survived.
The first time she had thought she was going to die was when her brother had accidentally electrocuted her, and left her in the medics' care and in a coma, drug-induced for fear she would start screaming in pain again, for three weeks.
And the third time was when a Guado she didn't know stabbed her for no reason.
**
Pyreflies danced about her, intruding on her vision, and Rikku suddenly wondered if the Al-Bhed had been wrong, and she had indeed gone to the Farplane after dying. She wondered if Yuna had performed the Sending herself, and now she was residing on the Farplane.
Rikku was surprised to find the idea wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. Was it so terrible to spend eternity in an ethereal dimension, surrounded by the essence of those you had once loved?
And then she realised why she felt like a gutted fish.
Rikku whimpered softly in pain and tried to roll onto her side, the fact that she was still alive becoming very apparent. She was still lying on the road to the Farplane, and pyreflies drifted on the air currents lazily, passing through walls and floors indiscriminately. She was rather disconcerted to feel a warm tickling sensation as one moved upwards from the floor beneath her to pass straight through her chest before spiralling away to join a small swarm nearby. She wondered if it was anyone she knew.
A crowd was gathered around her, anxious faces staring down at her, a mixture of Human and Guado, though the majority were of the former. A Human female in the white robes of one who had devoted their lives to healing magic was knelt beside her, and the green glow of healing spells still lingering in the air, along with the fresh scent of evergreens.
The mage smiled kindly down at her, resting a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Oh my! You shouldn't move. Magic can knit skin and bone, but it can't do anything about the blood you've lost. You should be resting, or you'll simply collapse."
Rikku knew she had lost a lot of blood. It still coated her body and clothing, warm and sticky.
"What... happened?" she croaked.
"You were stabbed," said the white mage, with a bright smile.
Rikku would have punched the woman if she'd had the strength. "I gathered," she said, wryly. "What happened to the man who attacked me?"
It was a Guado who spoke this time. "The criminal who would harm a Guardian of the High Summoner fled, like the coward he undoubtedly is. He ran into the Thunder Plains, and there are soldiers giving chase now."
"High Summoner," Rikku repeated dumbly, wondering why that point was sticking in her mind. She gasped. "Yuna!" She forced herself to sit up, brushing aside the restraining hand of the healer, and looked around frantically.
Yuna was nowhere to be seen.
- End of Part Seven