Chapter 6: All Alone
I woke up some time later to find myself in darkness once more. I didn't know where Zidane was, but I had a feeling he was ok; my eidolons never failed me. Exhaustedly I looked around; I was alone. The thought of being by myself made me shiver; I didn't want to be alone in the darkness after what had just happened. I had almost lost everything; escaping death can make even obstinate hermits yearn for the company of others.
Madeen? I called. No one answered.
Carbuncle? Iifa Root? I called again.
No one seemed to hear.
Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself. They were probably as exhausted as I was. Turning inward, I strained towards that warmth that was my eidolons; it wasn't there. Inside of me where my eidolons should have been was a cold emptiness that chilled me to the bone and more –to my very soul.
I wailed with more sorrow and fear than I have ever known in my life.
I could hear them. They were calling me, their voices haunting with the melodies of life I remembered so well. I opened my eyes and sat up. I was in darkness, but that didn't matter. I had to go; I had to go to them. Standing, I moved towards them like a sleepwalker.
They were so far off, so far off. Halfway around the world it seemed. That didn't matter though. I'd arrive in time. I had to go for they were calling me with those haunting melodies. So far and away, see the bird as it flies by...
I closed my eyes. There was no need to see. I could feel them, so far off as they were. Through my eyelids I could sense the pearl light of trance as the wings of my childhood I still wore grew and stretched. I let the power of the trance and the calm of their voices soak into me. Gliding through the shadows of the clouds up in the sky...
The wings Grandpa had given me spread out to their full wingspan and gave a powerful beat of their feathered surface, sending me soaring into the sky. They were so far away, haunting me with those melodies, telling me through their notes to come. So I came.
"To the sky beyond the flying birds –forever and beyond," Garnet sang softly to herself. She sat in the corner of Eiko's room, a stack of papers before her. Eiko hadn't woken up yet, but Garnet was sure that she was ok. She was just exhausted from her spell.
"So far and away," she continued. She didn't know why she was singing the old song from her childhood. It had merely come to mind. In a way, it comforted her. Everything was ok again. Zidane's fever had broken and he and Eiko just needed to rest.
"See the bird as it flys by," Garnet was singing when Eiko sat up. "Eiko," Alexandria's queen said happily, greeting the summoner. Eiko didn't respond, but stood. Her lips moved in silent words that brought the next phrase of the song to Garnet's mind.
Suddenly a brilliant light flared from the younger summoner's body as she tranced and wings the white of doves flashed in the room. Feathers flew through the air and a light of pearl colored the walls as the song Garnet had been singing earlier seemed to fill the air in an especially loud chorus. "Agh...Eiko!" Garnet yelled, clamping her hands to her ears as the younger woman jumped out the window and flew away into the distant clouds.
Outside the room, Freya and Vivi heard Garnet's cry. Slamming open the door, they found the queen standing at the window, white feathers floating in the afternoon's light around her. "Where's Eiko?" Vivi asked. Garnet turned towards them, the two lines of the song Eiko had been mouthing on her own lips. "So far and away, see the bird as it flys by. Gliding through the shadows of the clouds up in the sky..." she whispered.