'Pisces adapts to their surroundings, good or bad. They have an uncanny sense of perceiving what a person is in need of, and delivering it. They are not initiators, but rather allow circumstances and events to motivate them, and then they respond.'
Zodiac Signal
A Final Fantasy Tactics fanfic
By Tenshi no Ai
I don't own the characters and locations in the game that are presented in this work, Square-Enix does.
XII. The Fish, Pisces
Rafa Galthana was wide awake in her bed. Blankets as white and fluffy as fallen snow were piled on top of her small body, burying her in their warmth.
She was cold.
Riovanes Castle was alive at night, sentient in ways humans could easily pick up on if they stopped for a moment during their daily hustle. Every creak, every moan told its own story, whether it be about neglect and ill treatment or gentle devotion. She could hear them all, interpreting the sounds with an ease expected from someone as well trained as herself. After all, she was skilled in the arts of murder, of magic, of life. A creaking door was nothing for her.
But no matter how much one thought they knew about life, there was always someone willing to teach them how little they truly knew.
There were different creaks now, caused by the weight of a human. Under the pile of blankets Rafa shivered, closing her eyes with a brutal finality. Her small hands curled into tight fists by her sides, knowing how inefficient they had been the first time. She cringed as she heard the doorknob turning, a prolonged squeak like the death cry of a rat vibrating in her ears. In her mind she chanted a spell: No not again please not again--
It hadn't worked the first time.
She could hear his footsteps as he entered her room, slow and ponderous. It was no surprise to her, as his feet supported a nearly suffocating weight. In the days that had passed that first night, she had wished she had suffocated, had died. But then, what would've become of Malak?
"Are you cold, daughter?"
She heard him ask this and she nearly laughed and cried in revulsion. How could he call her that after what he'd done to her? How could he dare-- But the rage shriveled away, only to be replaced with fear as he began to peel off each blanket hiding her body in an almost loving manner. He could dare, he was one of the most powerful men in Ivalice.
Layer after layer was stripped from her until there were only thin white bedclothes left as a last, desperate shield, and the only thing she could do was swear that she would never go through what was about to happen ever again.
-----------
Under the moonlight, Rafa flung herself up from the bedroll, panting as she desperately fought to control a sudden bout of nausea. With trembling hands she pushed back the crimson band that held her hood in place, running her fingers through her dark hair. It was a ritual, one she always employed after the nightmares. While it never worked as much as she wanted it to, lately there had been something soothing in waking: the realization that she and Malak were free, and that Barinten was dead.
There was a soft groan from the bedroll beside hers, and a small smile touched her eyes when she looked over and saw her brother. He was sleeping fitfully as always, his blanket haphazardly twisted around his body. This was a common scene when she looked around the small campsite; Ramza had decided against buying new tents after the last ones had been destroyed in a windstorm at Zeklaus Desert, and it hadn't helped that no one wanted to lug around any new ones after they were forced to eat their last chocobo. All the members of Ramza's troop had their bedrolls set up in a circle around the fire, and although some people had grumbled Rafa secretly liked the new arrangement. She liked seeing that she wasn't alone.
She sighed, knowing that it would be a while before she could force herself to go back to sleep. Keeping first watch was Meliadoul, who was sitting by the fire, her back to Rafa. The younger girl decided not to talk to her; while she could tell the female knight had no quarrel with her, she knew that Meliadoul despised Malak. Rafa had no clue why, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know either. She looked away from the Divine Knight, her gaze traveling over the sleeping bodies of her companions.
And almost instantly her gaze locked with another's.
Rafa did not dislike anyone easily. Mustadio had once joked that she was like a female Ramza, though she had adamantly denied it. She felt that she wasn't anywhere near the level of kindness and moral character of that young man. The only person she had ever hated was Barinten, and he had taken her hometown, the lives of her family, her innocence and her brother's loyalty before a black rage had pulsed within her to make him pay for his crimes.
She generally liked everyone. However, the woman named Reis Dular made her very uncomfortable.
That woman was staring at Rafa now, long blond hair loose and falling over her shoulders. So wild even in that aspect, when the other women of the group bound or hid their hair. There was a lazy sensuality about the woman who was once enchanted as a dragon, something unspoken lingering about her bare shoulders and steady gazes. Despite the delicate features of the woman's wholly human face, there was a blandness to her eyes that had stayed after her dragon form had been dispelled, a cold intelligence lurking within those eyes that scared the girl who had known her as a monster first. And that was what the woman called Reis truly was in the end despite her seductive humanness, wasn't she? A dangerous monster, made all the more worse with the beautiful guise she wore.
But Rafa could see something else in Reis' eyes now, highlighted by the campfire: a curious light of concern. Unnerved by this sudden display of human empathy, the girl looked away, lying back down in an attempt to escape that gaze. Not a minute passed by before she heard footsteps approaching, and she froze as the memory rose up from the pit of her stomach.
No. It was different now. He was dead.
"Miss Rafa?" The voice was velveteen, a siren's song in a whisper. "Are you alright?"
Rafa felt odd as she raised her head and looked straight at Reis' face. The firelight played over the dragoner's features, highlighting her humanity. It comforted the girl even as she wondered what lay behind that mask. "I...I'm fine, Miss Dular," she whispered, "you don't have to worry about me."
No, not anymore. Nobody was going to hurt her anymore.
She saw the woman doubt, lips pressed into a thin line. Then Reis smiled. "I want to take a walk, but I don't think Miss Meliadoul will let me go out there alone. Would you like to come with me?"
The first answer, the one that nearly burst out in a horrified tone, was NO! Traipsing about the darkness with someone who still clung to the monster's ways scared her. But as she studied the face in front of her, something calmed down inside of her. It would be alright, wouldn't it? Whatever Reis was, the woman was still her teammate. And sleep would not be forthcoming for a while anyway...
Rafa nodded weakly. "Let me just get my shoes on." The woman nodded and walked away, heading towards the Divine Knight. There was something of envy in the girl as Reis did the very thing she couldn't, talking to Meliadoul next to the warmth of the fire. Rafa turned away and tugged her shoes on before standing, stretching out the kinks in her body before taking one last look at her friends. She noticed the Temple Knight-turned-hunter sleeping heavily, one side of his bedroll gleaming empty past the flames, and realized that it was more than a little odd that Reis had wanted to walk with her.
Presently, the woman left Meliadoul's side and walked up to Rafa. "Shall we go?" she asked, and Rafa nodded. They walked out, towards the river that was Bariaus Valley's sole landmark.
It was quiet as they walked. Rafa had become too used to the chatter and battle cries of the group she traveled with to become comfortable with the dark stillness that surrounded them. Motivated by this singular need to fill the void, she attempted to converse with the normally reserved woman. "S-so, why did you want to take a walk at this time of the night?" she asked, turning to Reis while attempting a smile.
"I feel something out here...a kindred spirit." The woman's tone was low, despite the distance they had walked away from their camp, and its haunting inflection unnerved Rafa.
"Oh," the girl murmured, unsure of how to respond to that interesting claim. "Why didn't you ask Sir Beowulf to accompany you?"
"Well, you were awake." Reis' voice was now softer instead of just low, tempered by a creeping affection. "Besides, he has the next watch. He needs his rest."
"Ah." The consideration Reis had for her lover appealed to Rafa. "What were you doing awake, Miss Reis?"
Reis ran her fingers through one of the locks of hair that dangled beside her face, almost looking nervous to the former Kamyuja assassin's observant eyes. "I'm used to going to sleep later whenever we're in a town."
"Oh," Rafa murmured, thinking about how a monster would naturally be more comfortable outside of the walls humans erected. "The atmosphere is really different from the country."
She caught the odd glance the woman threw at her. "Yes, naturally," Reis said, Rafa's well-trained ears picking up a timbre of confusion along the words. "Oh, here's the river."
During the day the river was the image of tranquility, cerulean-blue and barely moving in the mild, sunny days the Lionel region was treasured for. At night, however, the water was dark and foreboding, an inky hue that promised something sinister lurking beneath its depths. Rafa looked to Reis, hoping that this was the end of their journey. Her glance went unnoticed as the woman walked downstream, towards the tall island that was separated from their part of the valley by the water. Confused, Rafa followed Reis, calling out to her in a loud voice lest her words be obscured by the night, "Miss Reis? Where are you going?"
Reis pointed to the island. "I'd like to go to that place. The presence is there."
"But how would we cross the river?" Rafa protested, suddenly feeling like she was the only one with common sense. She wasn't going to dip her feet into that night-stained water, not for some 'presence' that she couldn't even feel.
"Hm...well, let me try this." The dragoner walked up to the shore and rolled up the sleeve of her right arm, kneeling down and plunking her arm into the water nonchalantly. She bent low, over the water's surface, and Rafa was close enough that she could see the woman pucker up her lips. There was a silvery-blue translucence drifting out of her mouth, a strange crackling sound the only noticeable effect from Reis' actions. Pulling her arm out of the water with a small cracking sound, the dragoner continued blowing into the water for a minute longer before stopping. "There," she said before turning her head to the side and coughing.
Rafa peered over the shore and saw, with the help of the moonlight, a glittery bridge leading to the island. "You froze a path?" she exclaimed, amazed at the idea. "I didn't even think that you could do that with your...powers."
"I needed to use my fingers to guide a path, or else I might have had to freeze the whole lake," Reis said, looking pleased with herself. This bit of self-indulgence was uncommon from the woman, and that human spark charmed the Heaven Knight.
Rafa smiled. "Why didn't you?"
"...This is the only place where the monsters can drink," the dragoner stated shortly, stepping onto the ice bridge. Knowing that she had said something that had offended the woman, Rafa followed without a word. However, while Reis seemed comfortable with the path, Rafa's shoes couldn't hold to the ice very well, forcing her to cross inch by laborious inch.
Don't think of falling in, she chanted to herself, just a bit more...
"Do you need help?" Reis called, already at the end of the path. She held out a hand, but Rafa timidly shook her head. The woman did seem to be nice enough, but Rafa just couldn't force herself to trust so easily.
No, not after last time.
Reis' face was calm when Rafa looked past the outstretched limb, though her eyes were ringed with shadows. "I should tell you now that we're going to meet a draconic creature."
"...What?" Rafa could only manage out, her mind stumbling upon itself with her fears, with the knowledge that even the kindest faces can be mere masks for an evil beyond comprehension...
"Above us," the dragoner explained kindly, lowering her hand. "It's just a bit farther."
Rafa certainly didn't want to meet a dragon, but she could sense Reis' happiness and felt...as if she couldn't disappoint the woman. She made her way to the end of the icy path, and they quickly climbed the bluff, although Reis' skirts hindered the dragoner's progress.
There was a tiamat waiting for them when they reached the top of the island. It was ivory-white and as huge as one of Goland's infamous snowdrifts, its three heads peering at them curiously. Reis stepped forward, looking as calm as ever. "Hello there. We've met before," she started, cocking her head slightly to the left as the tiamat grunted something. "Yes, I was that dragon."
Rafa lowered her head as she watched Reis and the tiamat converse, feeling lost. It was like she was on the battlefield, unable to do anything more than to watch Ramza and the others demolish the opposition. It was like Malak not listening to her, telling her that she was lying, that their father would never do anything to harm them. It was like that cold night, burrowed underneath blankets and waiting for the creaking footsteps.
Unwanted. Alone. Lost. Always...
"Miss Rafa?"
Startled out of her thoughts, the girl looked up into Reis' questioning gaze. "Yes, what?" she asked, wanting nothing more than to leave.
"Well...the tiamat asked us for a favor," Reis answered, leading the girl toward the giant monster, "it would like us to scratch it behind the ears."
"It has ears?" Rafa asked, stunned and her earlier thoughts forgotten. The tiamat growled, sounding almost haughty.
"That's not nice," Reis told the monster before turning her attention back to the Heavenly Knight. "Just behind the spikes. You take the head on the left, and I'll take the one on the right." The tiamat grumbled, and the dragoner sounded almost exasperated as she walked over to the head on the right and said, "As you can see, we don't have three people. You're supposed to be a proud dragon, so please don't whine."
Rafa, with all the strange things she had seen in her young life, thought that there was nothing weirder than watching a woman talk down to a fearsome monster. She did as she was told to do, cautiously approaching the tiamat head she was assigned to and timidly touching it behind the spikes. It seemed to like that, lowering its head to give her better access. "Wow, I never imagined it would be so...tame," she whispered.
"Monsters are generally afraid of humans. They only fight because they want to protect their land," Reis said quietly, tending to her own tiamat head, "they tend to see humans as dangerous creatures."
The memories came back, exploding within Rafa's mind with such force that her eyes filled with tears. "Maybe we are."
"Maybe. But there are also good people, aren't there?"
"O-oh, yes," she tried to regain her composure, "like Ramza."
"Yes, Ramza's very kind." A pause, and then, "Your brother is kind too, isn't he?"
Rafa laughed; it was the first time she had ever heard anyone other than herself claim such a thing. "Well, he's a bit gruff around people he doesn't know, but he's really very nice." She peeked at the woman through the spikes of the three heads, noting the way Reis scratched the tiamat's head and resolved to try that out. "Sir Beowulf is very friendly," she remarked in turn, "I was surprised...he seemed so silent when he first joined us."
"Beowulf and silence...I can't imagine it," Reis mused, the comment surprising Rafa into a startled little giggle. "But I'm glad he's happy now. His happiness is my happiness."
"Oh..." Rafa blushed, almost embarrassed by the dragoner's declaration. It wasn't so much the words that brought this effect as it was the sweet tone Reis had used. "You must really love him to say that."
"Hm? But, if your brother is happy, aren't you happy as well?"
"Well...I never thought of it that way. That's true."
They kept working, and Rafa began to feel almost happy. The tiamat head she was scratching seemed visibly happy at her ministrations, its tongue lolling out of its mouth, and it seemed ridiculous to be scared of such a creature. It was a fearsome monster and yet it looked cute, all because of a small action on her part. She glanced at Reis, and instead of feeling conflicted between how the woman looked and what she knew of that woman, she felt comfortable.
How strange, she thought, I should've always felt this way. Happy, useful, seeing others happy...why isn't it like this more often?
Can I always be like this?
"I'm sorry, but we need to go," she heard Reis say to the tiamat. Reluctantly, Rafa moved away from the monster, feeling a pang of regret at its sad growl. "Miss Rafa? I'm sorry, but I need to get back before Miss Meliadoul wakes Beowulf for his shift."
"I'm here," Rafa said, meeting Reis at the edge of the cliff they had climbed from. She looked up at the woman's face and smiled. "Thank you for this."
Reis inclined her head slightly before moving to climb down the cliff. Surprised at the cold gesture after the way the woman had been acting, Rafa frowned. It was then that she remembered something. It was after the events at Nelveska Temple, when Beowulf was explaining to the group about the events that led up to Reis' transformation. The woman herself was standing beside him, head lowered in what seemed like a submissive gesture, not once interrupting her lover's words. Only once he had faltered in his explanation, while talking of how long it had taken him to look for her. Rafa had noticed how Reis had moved her hand so that her fingers were brushing against his palm. He had entwined their fingers then, a genuine smile on his lips as he continued.
If she wasn't there before Sir Beowulf awoke, he'd be worried, Rafa realized. And how would she feel about that?
--Hm? But, if your brother is happy, aren't you happy as well?--
Closing her eyes, Rafa remembered the dragoner's words. The woman had been right; Rafa had known happiness, but never as strongly as she did whenever she and Malak were together. They were connected, not just through their familial bonds but through their genuine love for each other. It was this love that could cause one sibling to make a choice that was morally wrong, just as long as it benefitted the other. Stay as an assassin to keep one fed and clothed, kill a man to free the other. She had scars and nightmares, but she knew that submitting to their lessons of fear and hatred would mean to leave her brother with only a shell of who she was. She couldn't do that; they were finally united and free to live their lives.
And that was all she had ever wanted.
-Pisces fades into Aries...-
I formally apologize to all the Arians, Cancerians, and Scorpios who are wondering why their signs' stories were so short compared to...this. I think I went a little crazy here.
Out of all the signs, I would say that Pisces is the most feminine of them all (and Aries would arguably be the most masculine). Piscean women are said to have a delicate, almost helpless look about them, but in actuality they're very strong on the inside, especially when it comes to the people they love. It's said that Pisceans have the most extreme choice to make when it comes to their lives; they can rise to the top and transcend, or sink and live a life of illusion. It's my humble, unbiased opinion that Reis has transcended at least literally, having blurred the lines between human and monster. Unbiased, really. Rafa may or may not be a different case, hence this story.
Let's look at our Pisceans. Yeah, Rafa's not the most useful character battle-wise, but plot-wise she does everything in her power to get her brother away from Barinten's clutches. What's amazing is that she does this even after--or because of--Barinten's involvement in burning down her village, killing her family, turning the siblings into assassins, and, as the game implies, raping her. We don't know much about Reis other than what is revealed in the Brave Story. She worked for the Church, she was Beowulf's fiancé, and she does no less than to sacrifice her humanity to save him from the spell Priest Buremonda casts.
Interestingly enough, both women have intimate run-ins with the zodiac stones, actually using their power to restore life and body respectively. There are only four times in the game where the power of the stones is used for something other than summoning Lucavi, and two of these times involve machines (Worker 8 and the Celestial Globe). I can't help but wonder if this has to do with the Piscean involvement with magic and mystical things--compounded by the fact that they're women and in FFT terms would naturally be more inclined for that sort of thing. And finally, I don't know why people say this after seeing the cutscene 'Reis' curse', but Beowulf didn't use the stone to break the curse, Reis did. He just claimed the stone in one of the oddest assumptions I've ever seen anyone make.
Pisces is the mutable water sign of the zodiac, which translates to easily changing emotions and versatility. Its opposite sign is Virgo. Agrias' tagalong knight Alicia is another Piscean.
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and reviewing Zodiac Signal. I didn't expect it to become this popular, especially considering that astrology is one of those few things that everyone's a cynic about, something I've certainly noticed from the reviews. I'm honored to write for all of you, and I thank all of you for your kind words and willingness to keep reading. I won't be responding to reviews this time around, but if you have any questions or comments I will get back to you.
...Oh, what the hell. There will be a bonus part available next week. Even bulls can be tamed with kind words, I suppose.