Greetings to my faithful readers and reviewers. Currently, I am nearing the end of what will almost certainly be the last chapter of this folly. I can't think when I've enjoyed writing a story more. As you might note, I have taken off my metaphorical corsets, like the drunken prince in "The Great Race", and just let the words flow. I shall not say how many chapters are yet to come because that is always subject to change. However, I will say that I continue to be grateful for and humbled by your interest and comments. Thank you all.
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After
Chapter VI
Paine opened her eyes with a start. They had fallen asleep. Asleep. For the first time since they had arrived on the FarPlane, they had slept. Nooj had said sleep was 'another of those luxuries missing from this so-called Heaven, like food and drink' . Well, he was wrong and not for the first time. He was still sleeping, his spectacles askew on a face as open and innocent as that of a child. She looked at him for a long time. It was rare to see him like this, without his defenses deployed. She thought this must have been how he looked when he was young, before she met him, before he had fallen in love with death.
He was still wrapped around her, caging her with the prosthetic arm and leg, making her feel secure and cherished. She was reluctant to wake him, wanting to hold on to this enchanted time for so long as possible. When he woke, he would be his mocking self again. That would be all right too but it would not have the sweetness of this moment.
She must have made a move or else he felt her gaze upon him, for his lids raised and he focused on her face without surprise. "We slept? I didn't think it was possible in this place. How do you feel?"
"Strange. It's peculiar to wake up in a place without sleep. Did you notice we have our clothes?"
"That's because we didn't take them off."
"Oh. For a minute there I thought we'd either pleased or offended whoever's in charge of wardrobe for this production." She snuggled closer to him, not wanting to disturb the dream-like trance that still possessed her.
He, less sentimental than she, turned over on his back and looked up at the sky between the canopies of the glowing trees. "Still in the forest, I see. Did you notice the sky appears almost pea-green in this section of Heaven?"
Paine sighed and sat up, tilting her head back, "So it does. And is it my imagination or are these trees brighter and aren't there more colors?"
"I think you're right. The set designer must be re-doing the whole thing. Well, shall we be on our way? Are you over the visit with Baralai?" He accepted her hand as he scrambled to his feet.
She hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Don't start with that again. I was over him long ago. I honestly don't know why he chased me here."
"Ah, but I do." He caught her by the waist and, pulling her nearer, kissed her with conviction. "He's remorseful over letting you escape. You do have that effect on your admirers."
"Stop talking and start walking," she muttered into his chest, her arms locked around his neck.
"Immediately – when you unhand me, woman."
They stood among the delicate trees, holding one another for a long time, as time is understood in the place without time.
The decision as to which direction to go through the forest was made by the simple method of just facing a random clearing and putting one foot before the other. When all ways are the same, there is nothing to be gained by agonizing over the making of a choice.
It was pleasantly otherworldly strolling among the silvery trunks of the graceful trees beneath the brilliant foliage. The light passing through the leaves cast stained-glass patterns on the moss underfoot and the two people wandering hand in hand as through a kaleidoscope. The temperature was as mild as that of a perfect spring day back on Spira and the delicately perfumed air completed the effect of an idealized Paradise.
They had been walking for a considerable time without speaking, content in their companionship. Their progress was necessarily slow due to Nooj's inability to move at a greater speed. After a while, Paine became impatient and ranged a short distance ahead.
"Nooj! There's a brook over here!" She called back to him.
Shortly they both stood on the bank of a purling stream, observing a golden liquid chuckle its way toward an unknown destination.
"Shall we follow it?" Nooj asked almost to himself.
"Let's. Maybe it leads somewhere interesting."
This time the decision as to which way to go took on portentous importance in this world of no decisions. Nooj argued that upstream could only lead to the headwaters, probably a seepage or small spring while downstream might bring them to something new. Paine found that convincing so the final choice was for downstream. After a hundred paces of so, Paine gathered up her skirts and waded into the liquid.
"Oh! It's warm! No – it's cool. Nooj, it feels lovely! The bottom is like finely packed sand on the beach at Besaid and the water – or whatever it is – is warm and cool at the same time." A slight frown appeared between her brows, "I can't really tell but it feels lovely. I wish you could wade with me. Want to try?"
"Better not. I might rust. Actually, my foot has been showing some signs ..." He lifted the hem of his cassock and she could se that the machina foot was discolored with an odd scaly pattern spreading from the sole up to the ankle pivot. "It's been getting more difficult to move it as time passes."
"When did that happen?" She was immediately alert.
"I noticed it not long after we woke from that strange sleep."
"Then why didn't you say something? For god's sake, Nooj, we're supposed to level with each other." She was almost crying in her frightened anger.
"Easy, Paine. You know I'm not accustomed to complaining about personal problems. Old habits are hard to break. Besides, there's nothing to be done about it; there aren't any Healers here, not even any Al Bhed technicians."
She dropped to her knees on the stream bank and began frantically scrubbing at the apparently malignant growth, first with her skirt, dampened in the liquid of the creek, and then with her fingernails.
"Don't do this, Paine. It's not worth it."
"I'm not going to let something happen to you without at least trying ... I think it's coming off! ... Here. Where I wet it. Nooj, step in the water, please ..."
He did as she asked and she knelt in the flow, continuing to rub at the scale with her now soaked dress.
"Yes! It's going away. Look!"
"I can't feel anything and you know my vision ..."
"Well, I can see and it's completely gone! What is this stuff anyway?" She scooped up a palmful of the liquid. "It smells like water." She inserted a tentative tongue. "It tastes like water. But it's gold and it got rid of that mess on your foot. What do you think it is?"
Nooj tasted the fluid in the hand she held out to him. "I agree; it tastes like water. But it's acting like that material the Al Bhed put in the shower they designed for me back on Spira. You remember, the one that cleaned my natural skin as well as the machina with no harm to either. We might as well refer to it as water since that's what it mainly is, that and a few things the Al Bhed never explained."
She nodded sagely, "Stands to reason that with so many Al Bhed dying some of them must be working on engineering problems over here. Well, that settles it – you can wade with me."
"I suppose so," he stepped into the water. "We've getting extremely damp and bedraggled."
She stooped and, picking up a double handful of liquid, splashed him from his spectacles to the already soaked bottom of his robe. "Just another excuse to send out for fresh clothes."
"You're a shameless hussy ... however, there's often merit in your ideas." With a quick movement, he swept her out of the stream and deposited her on the mossy bank.
A while later, she looked happily up at him, "What do you suppose would happen if one of us got a Call while we were otherwise engaged?"
"What a thought! Your mind does run on strange tracks. I suspect it wouldn't be permitted to happen. Remember time is malleable here and I imagine the Gatekeepers have a Call waiting function. Although truthfully, I don't know. Let's hope we never have to find out. Why? Are you expecting another summons from your former lover?" He ground his teeth.
"No. I was thinking about LeBlanc; she hasn't butted in recently – if recently still means anything." Paine fluttered her eyelashes with limited success.
He laughed at her. "Stop trying to do that. You never were much of a flirt. Your greatest successes came when you tackled your prey and pinned them down – like you did me."
"Oh, yes, you put up such a struggle," she poked him in the ribs and stretched. "Guess I'd better go get us something to wear. Hope whoever didn't do away with the hooks again. And gave me a size larger."
When she trotted back with the fresh garments and dropped them across his body, still supine on the moss, he lazily inquired, "Are they to your satisfaction this time?"
"Yes, I think so. There is a bit of green braid on my dress, still hooks and the skirt is a little shorter, thank Yevon. And it's not as tight in the top!" She made the prayer gesture, bowing to an unseen deity, then dancing a few steps. "How about yours?"
Nooj had observed her mock devotion with a frown and a disgusted grunt. He shook out the cassock. "Much the same as before. Like yours, a little shorter both in the length and the sleeves. Maybe next time, we'll get boots or shoes."
"Shall we try?" She laughed as she presented her back for his assistance in fastening her dress.
"I've already said you're a hussy. Now, I have to dredge up an entirely new set of words to describe your appetites." He quickly completed the task. "I'm getting good at this. Practice. In the meantime, I think we should seriously consider how we're going to find Lenne."
"I thought you had decided to leave that to Shuyin."
"I had but I really doubt he's capable of even making it down the stairs and you did tell him we'd do what we could. That makes it one of your jobs to complete before we can leave this level. Oh, hell... now who?"
"You just get a Call?"
"Yes. Do you see the curtain anywhere about? It's probably LeBlanc again – maybe she's had the boys this time."
But it was not LeBlanc. When he had passed into the private meeting room, Nooj was astonished to find Baralai waiting for him, standing on the other side of the table, his clenched fists planted firmly on the glossy surface.
"What in the hell are you Calling me for?" the dead man demanded with some justification.
"I want to know how you explain Paine killing herself." Baralai's normally dark face had bleached to an alarming sickly pallor. "She had no reason to want to die at her age."
Nooj paused for a moment. "How long have Paine and I been dead?"
"Why? Don't you know? She's been gone for a week and a day and you one day longer. Are you trying to change the subject?" The Praetor was showing signs of anger and his color was returning.
"No. I wondered because time doesn't seem to have the same duration or direction on both sides of the divide. How's LeBlanc?"
"Oh, Yevon! I can't stand this!" Baralai ran his hands through the stiff spikes of his pale hair. "I come all this way to demand satisfaction about Paine and you want to talk about another of your women. Have you no shame?"
"Not much. Not here. And certainly not on this subject. How is LeBlanc?"
The other sank into the chair behind him and buried his face in his hands. "She's fine. Showing quite a lot. Complaining but well cared for. Now that your selfish concerns have been eased ... what do you intend to do about Paine?"
Nooj leaned back in his chair and laughed until he could no longer catch his breath. Baralai had never, in his wildest fantasies, thought he would see his grim and taciturn teammate laugh like that.
Finally, "Only a religious could think of such a question. 'What am I going to do about Paine?'" he weakly choked out another snort of laughter. "What do you want me to do? Abandon her so her purity won't be compromised by my vile presence? Leave her to fend for herself, lorn in this unfamiliar world? Baralai, she's dead – and so am I. We're traveling through the FarPlane together both for convenience and because we enjoy one another. You can't have her back no matter how hard you beg or how much you threaten. Why not take up with LeBlanc? She's alive and unattached and, when my sons are born, she'll be free to make whatever arrangements she wishes. She's not a bad person once you get past that shell she uses to keep people at a distance. And once you get past those goons she keeps around for vanity's sake."
Baralai was nearly speechless with fury. He had stood up again at the first mention of Paine's death and was leaning over the table hissing at Nooj like an enraged Madagascar cockroach. "How dare you! I'm not looking for your hand-offs! I love Paine; she and I were building a good life together before we had that small quarrel which would have been patched up if you hadn't chosen just that moment to die. Leave her alone – I'll be joining her soon. When I get Bevelle back on the right track, I'm planning to jump off the high tower and follow my love."
"You're really a revolting hypocrite, Praetor. You know you won't kill yourself; you're too much in love with your own importance as the great holy man. If you don't want LeBlanc, there must be hundreds of potential or actual nuns who would offer themselves as the brides of the Praetor. Go home and practice good works; you're boring me."
"You unspeakable heretic, you have no right to Paine. You threw it all away and don't deserve any joy on that side. I notice you're still a cripple." Baralai smirked self-righteously, "The decent ones who pass into the FarPlane are perfected in body and mind. What does that tell you?"
"That you worship and promulgate the most inadequate, small-minded, vicious deity ever conceived by the collective stupidity of man. And I'm a heathen, not a heretic; I never believed. Goodbye, Baralai." Nooj pushed back the chair and stalked with what scornful dignity he could muster from the room.
"I was just coming to get you," the familiar basso of the Gatekeeper rang in his ear. "Have a little spat with your guest? Happens all the time. Trifling failures of communication."
Back in the forest, Nooj drew a deep calming breath and leaned against a convenient tree trunk. "Come on, Paine. Let's find Lenne."
"Ah, I was right – it was LeBlanc. What did she want?" Paine took his hand.
"It was Baralai and he wants you. He ordered me to stay away from you until he can screw his courage to the sticking point and kill himself at which time he will descend upon this place and take you away from my shameful, corrupting influence." In retrospect, it all seemed terribly funny again.
"What! Has he lost his mind? What makes him think I want him back. I told him I was happy with you and I told you that my affair with him ended long ago. What's he going on about?"
"Just what I told you. He's blaming me for your death and has deluded himself into thinking you were on the point of returning to his embraces when, in a fit of lunacy, you decided to follow me here. ... Let it go; it's not worth the thought."
Paine huffed and fumed for a few yards further then dropped the topic, seduced by the beauty of her surrounding and the comfort of her new dress.
Keeping the murmuring brook on their left, they continued to walk through the exquisite, if somewhat tedious, forest until they became aware of a strengthening glow up ahead.
Nooj spoke first, "I believe we may be coming to the end of this place and the beginning of somewhere else. Your eyes are better than mine; can you make out any details?"
"I think you're right. It looks like some sort of drop-off up there." Paine shielded her eyes and squinted.
As they approached the light, they heard the increasingly loud sound of water falling as from a great height.
Nooj stopped and looked at his companion. "Could it possibly be that we have walked around the entire circumference of this place and are now at the top of the falls we bathed in when we first got here? That would explain why the falls didn't affect the machina. If so, this is a cramped and limited afterworld. I told you this so-called Heaven was a fraud."
But Paine was not listening. Her gaze was fixed on a small figure seated on the ground before a backdrop of rising mist. "Nooj! I think that's Lenne. Can you see her yet?"
"Just barely but I'll trust your judgment. What's she doing here?"
"Just sitting there, looking decorative. Why do you ask? What are any of us doing anywhere for that matter? She has as much reason to be there as we do to be here."
He chucked her under the chin, "You're nattering, my dear. Let's go see what we can do with her."
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