Chapter 29 – Unveiled
The pattering of a diminutive presence sounded down the corridor to the lift. It muttered to itself in some kind of fit. Panic bumbled in its eyes as it entered. Poking a button, it went upwards, still frantically stirring about. In short succession, it made its way to the bridge. The door swooshed open, giving it a clear view of everything. Buddy and Brother sat at their stations, while Shinra was busy hammering away on his keyboard. Paine watched him from behind, occasionally scratching her head in bewilderment. Yuna and Rikku were elsewhere.
The presence crept down the stairs and approached Paine. Inching closer and closer, its miniature size masked its movement. It finally came within arm's reach of her. Reaching out, it grabbed her by the leg. In a panic, Paine shrieked while jumping back. Ready to pounce, she noticed the tiny entity scrambling around in fright. She realized this was no fiend—it was Tolbi!
"What are you doing, Tolbi?" she questioned, still exasperated. "You scared me half to death!"
He picked himself off the ground. "Heh, I apologize for my sudden appearance. There's something I need to ask you."
Paine just stood there, half-holding her breath at his remark, listening to him clamor. Stranded in the Calm Lands, Tolbi needed to return to the Moonflow. Because of his bad venture in partnering up with the company that ran the Cavern of the Lost Fayth attraction, he had to refund an undisclosed amount of money, which meant all of it. Therefore, he found himself dead broke and couldn't afford a ride back to the Moonflow. Paine shook her head.
"Please, please, take me there," he pleaded, on his knees begging at Paine's feet. "How will my Hypello manage without me?"
Paine believed they could manage just fine, but instead looked over to Brother and Buddy. They were both rolling their eyes at the sad sight of Tolbi. Brother turned to Buddy and shrugged, with a shrug in return from Buddy. Brother then looked back at Paine and gave an uncomfortable nod. She sighed and smiled down at Tolbi.
"Alright, alright, we'll give you a ride to the Moonflow. Just stop grabbing onto me!"
Elsewhere in the Celsius, Rikku monitored her cousin staring out the window. Yuna could feel her cousin's gaze burning a hole in her back. A hint of animosity crept into her mind, which was already filled with negativity. Closing her eyes, Yuna felt as if there was a vent in her chest, hemorrhaging any hope or happiness she used to feel. Worse yet, she knew she hurt Rikku by keeping herself at arm's length. Being so close for so long, they shared a strong connection. What one felt, the other gathered pieces of. Although Yuna had always preferred not to be forthcoming with her thoughts and emotions throughout her life, she built up walls now for a different reason. No longer was it due to her personality, or some teaching of Yevon.
Just as Yuna was destined to die by the fate of the Final Summoning over two years ago, she now faced another dark obstacle. She often wondered if she was living on borrowed time after cheating death inside Sin. Guilt replaced the animosity simmering within Yuna. Just like two years ago, Rikku couldn't save her cousin, and Yuna knew it. If she should succumb to the dark cloud smothering her life, then so be it. But for her inner darkness to harm her friends, she could no longer bear it.
In the beginning, Yuna was aware they thought it would all pass. With the horrifying experiences at the Besaid and Kilika temples, they believed the trauma tormented her, but that it could be healed. Then the incident at Mount Gagazet occurred. With her accidental killing of Garik, they decided to attempt a more proactive approach. Relations between everybody and Yuna soured despite their best intentions. In the past few days, the crew stewed in a dire state of silence. Paine was burning out from trying to help her friend. Rikku began to squander in her worry. Buddy and Brother also tried to help but found themselves incapable of bouncing Yuna out of her state of misery.
Now, as Yuna watched the raindrops plunge against the Celsius' windows, Rikku sighed quietly to herself. She walked up behind Yuna, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts. Noticing Rikku's reflection close in the window, Yuna turned around to face her.
"Hey," she whispered, flashing a fake smile.
Rikku nodded and replied with a half-hearted smile of her own. This further compounded the agony in her mind, feeling guilty for her inability to share joy. It weighed heavy on her heart. She looked down, shuffling her foot gently across the floor, waiting for the nervous silence to end.
"Hey, Yunie. Please . . . tell me what's wrong."
Yuna immediately turned back around to the grey window, the rain-soaked sky still pummeling the ship with an unrelenting shower. Such was the repugnance that ran boundlessly within her heart. She inhaled deeply, and let out a long, unsettling sigh.
"No. There's no point in discussing with you how troubled I am. You already know. Besides, there's nothing you can do, or myself for that matter."
"Don't say that, Yunie! Just let it out. It doesn't matter what it is. Don't think about me—think about yourself! I don't care if I can help you or not. I just want to see you happy again.
Barely getting out her words before an unyielding stream of tears, Rikku dismantled into a balling fit. Yuna curled her up into her chest, gently stroking her head. What good are words, she thought, if all they can do is cause pain?
A force inside her pushed her to speak. "I just want some peace in my life. That's all."
"Is it because of me dragging you out for sphere hunting?" asked Rikku, peeking her teary head up from Yuna's chest.
She shook her head. "No, this has nothing to do with you or any of the Gullwings. I guess it's with myself. All this time I've been searching for Tidus, and wrestling with my self-doubt, I thought I'd find a solution to things."
"I know that. We all have with the Calm. But I remember you used to be fine. And now, you just . . ."
Yuna didn't need Rikku to finish her sentence; she realized all too well what the words would be. Those words resonated with a great shuttering inside Yuna. Biting her lip, her mind degenerated into a crumbling mess. Doing the only thing she knew, she held tightly onto Rikku, nuzzling her face against her cousin. Such an enrapture provided a temporary comfort. Even though she both knew it wouldn't last, she didn't care. Any comfort would do, if only just for a short time.
During all this discomfort, Shinra worked unaffected at his console, ripping through pages of information. Flashing by his eyes scrolled a millennium's worth of data—decades' worth of pictures, charts, and references passing with every blink. Determined to understand the plot that was unfolding behind the scenes, he resolved to destroy the iron curtain shrouding the mystery of Kinoc and Shuyin. His best weapon against them was information and knowledge.
It's what drove him to spend the last three days completely fixated on his screen, digging through thousands upon thousands of documents and records dating back to near the original inception of Sin and Spira's long-forgotten past. Putting the finishing touches on what he believed to be a serious set of findings, he swiveled around his chair. He wiped the sweat off his goggles and waved his hand in the air.
"I think I've got it!" he declared with pride.
"Eh? Got what?" asked a very startled and confused Rikku.
"Some insight into Kinoc's scheme," he answered with esteem.
"You do?" replied Yuna, surprised at his statement. "What kind of insight?"
"Gather around and let me show you!"
Shinra pulled up onto the screen a record on New Yevon. On it was a picture of an old man. Nobody recognized him, to Shinra's disappointment. He then pointed to the caption, which read, "Former leader of the sphere collecting group The Seekers, Trema is now leader of the fledgling New Yevon sect."
"I remember now," said Paine, pointing at the image. "Yeah, he was the one who searched Spira for old spheres of the past."
"Huh? So he's like the original sphere hunter or somethin'?" asked Rikku with a raised eyebrow.
"Something along those lines," explained Shinra. "You see, when he created the Seekers, he scoured Spira for its history. After collecting many spheres, he created New Yevon."
"Then what happened to those spheres?"
Shinra shrugged. "No one really knows. That's probably the biggest reason the Youth League is at odds with New Yevon. They want Spira's history released to the public, and New Yevon is refusing."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," clamored Brother impatiently. "But what does this all have to do with Shuyin and Kinoc?"
"I was getting there," grumbled Shinra.
He now brought up some old scanned documents. Even with his enhancements, they were far from readable. With some magnification, he cleared up the words. These words were nothing short of terrifying. As the Gullwings skimmed the ancient texts, their stomachs curdled with nausea. Yevon long ago had experimented with controlling people's fayth. Deep within the confines of Bevelle, the Maesters had long been contriving ways to what amounted to hijacking an unsent fayth and animating it to their control.
"These are some old allegations I found, back when Yevon was still under heavy protest. These may be just allegations, but I would bet there's at least some truth to them. Furthermore, more documents add to this. Others say Yevon planned to gather an army of unsent to attack the Al Bhed."
Rikku growled at this remark. The rest of the crew shared in her outrage. Whatever the truth may be behind such documents, it didn't matter. Every single one of them believed Yevon would plot such dastardly acts.
"So, what's Kinoc got to do with this?" Rikku inquired.
Shrina rubbed his head. "Well, I can only speculate. As we all know, there's lots of fun stuff underneath Bevelle. Besides machina, it has also been rumored that various prisoners and unsent Maesters are kept there. Seymour was one, in particular, imprisoning people in the catacombs of Bevelle . . ."
I figure Seymour must have stuck Kinoc down there somewhere. Also down there are believed to be the ancient spheres Trema captured. He mysteriously disappeared after he finished collecting them. It isn't certain what happened to him or the spheres. Possibly Kinoc captured them. Perhaps he found a way to control the fayth and studied how to manipulate them.
Still, how he freed himself from the underground of Bevelle is a mystery unto itself. My guess has been, just as Yuna's aeon suggested, he was unleashed by Shuyin for some reason. Maybe he needed Kinoc for some purpose, like gaining access to Vegnagun. Since you've never seen either of them together, I bet they ditched each other once they both got what they wanted. Even though I can't be sure, there's one thing for certain—this is bad news for Spira.
The Gullwings nodded at each other. There would be no more time to fool around; Kinoc was bound to strike at any time. Worse yet, they came to realize, was that they had no clue as to where or when. Buddy suggested after they were done giving Tolbi a ride, they would go full-time on investigating Kinoc.
"I agree, but where do we start?" questioned a worried Paine, her arms folded as she spoke.
Rikku threw her arms behind her head. "Yeah, seriously! I mean, with so many nooks and crannies in Spira, he could be plotting anywhere."
Buddy rubbed his chin. "Well, I'd say he would be somewhere secluded like perhaps Zanarkand. With no more tourists around, he could amass some troops without being found out."
"I don't know. He seems like a sneaky one. Maybe he is hiding under Bevelle again since that's where he could find many unsent fayth?" interjected Brother with surprising insight.
Shinra nodded and concluded that either of these places could be potential spots for Kinoc to begin his conquest. He also went on to suggest the ancient Baaj Temple ruins, where Seymour first claimed his aeon, Anima. With all these possible locations, the Gullwings found themselves no closer to determining where to start than before. Rather than arguing about it for hours, they instead set a course for the Moonflow. The quicker they dumped the shyster Tolbi, in Brother's words, the sooner they could pursue Kinoc. Impressed with Brother's abnormal intellect, they agreed. Hopping into his seat, Brother started up the Celsius.
When the rain eased, Brother lifted the airship from the drenched fields of the Calm Lands. Its soaked, rocky walls faded into the distance. More rain followed them, crashing down hard against the hull of the ship. Poor visibility hampered their flight. This forced Brother to concentrate harder than ever before in his life, as navigation was slow and cumbersome in the pouring rain. Small chunks of hail began to hammer against the windows, causing Buddy to become jittery after every bounce.
No one had noticed Yuna's silence. Although she was not one of many words, she certainly was not one of complete taciturnity either. During the discussion, she stood by quietly, her arms behind her back. Even though the issues were gravely important, she felt no sense of urgency. Only images of the past flashed in her mind. At first, it was the little fayth she met in the Farplane, who offered to grant her ultimate wish. She decided she must sneak out to seek him again. This time she would ask for her only desire: her reunion with Tidus.
Then with the mentioning of Kinoc, she winced at the image formed in her mind of the decapitated priest, his head rolling in a bloody pool beneath his feet. She wanted peace, not violence. It took all her might not to shout at the top of her lungs that she wasn't going to fight Kinoc again. She instead stood without a sound, filled with a sense of demoralized obedience she had not been inflicted with since her beginnings as a priestess of Yevon.
Due to such inclement weather, they arrived at the Moonflow at the start of dusk. Much of the crew, except for the mentally-exhausted Shinra, were still in some state of consciousness. Tolbi slept quite well in Yuna's bed. Annoyed at his takeover, she felt like tossing him out of her bed. Although that would play much to Paine and Rikku's amusement, she decided not to. Yuna relegated herself to sleeping on the deck. The storm front the Celsius had flown through already passed through the Moonflow. High clouds blanketed the moon above, keeping out most of its light from shining on the river below. The air smelled fresh as always here. Barely a breeze had shaken the night air, as it stood with as much stagnant silence as the surroundings in which it flowed.
Yuna wasn't sure what to make of such sudden placidity. She gazed around, watching the pyreflies dance above the river amongst the moonlilies. Their tiny reflections banded together in a spectrum of colors. With total freedom, they swayed and swiveled in tandem to no beat or command.
A shot of cold wind enraptured her, causing her to shiver. Looking up, the moon's light struggled to shine down through the breaks in the cloud cover. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the stars that did peak through the clouds seemed to shine with a dim resignation. Yuna still had to squint to see their light. She inhaled deeply and shook with an unsettled sadness as she released her breath. Much like the stars in the sky, she felt the same dimming of her own light. For a time, she sat watching the moonlilies sway until her eyes felt too heavy to keep open. She lay down on the deck, curling up with the blanket she brought with her.
The sharp, hopeless air of the night frightened her. Struggling with the conscious knowledge of the pain she spread to her friends like a sickening contagion, a solution to all her woes snuck into her thoughts. She finally had a request to make to the little fayth hidden in amongst the trees. Yuna found no comfort in her resolution; she prayed for a pacifying dream before she drifted off to sleep.
"Now now dear...don't go too far out into the water," said the gentle voice of a woman.
Yuna's eyes began to tear up at the sound of this voice. Her view turned around to show the image of a gorgeous Al Bhed woman, her feet traipsing through the golden sand of a beach.
"Don't worry honey, the water is always calm around here," replied a man's voice behind the sphere camera.
Now Yuna genuinely cried inside, as she knew her father's voice better than any. It had been so long since she heard her mother's voice. Her mother turned around, flashing an elegant smile at the lucky man behind a camera.
She cheerfully walked close to the camera. "It's such a lovely day. I'm glad we decided to do this, especially since—"
"Ah, ah! Not one mention of that. Today, all that matters is spending time with my beautiful wife and little girl," Braska stated.
"Daddy, daddy," rang the voice of a little Yuna, racing towards her parents. "Lookie what I found. It's a seashell!"
Yuna looked upward to see herself, so small, being cherished by her parents. Her mother embraced her child self, lifting her into the air so she could see her father better.
"That isn't a seashell, Yuna. It's an old machina part," he chuckled heartily.
"And there ain't a toot wrong with it!" yelled another familiar voice from afar.
"It's Uncle Cid!" the young Yuna exclaimed, pointing to the Al Bhed man approaching them.
The older Yuna had to laugh, as Cid was still as bald as ever, with the same stern expression written all over his face. A hand outstretched from the camera view, gesturing for Cid to come to Braska.
"Cid, take the camera. I want a shot with my wife and daughter for the road."
"Gotcha, Braska," acknowledged Cid.
He handed the camera sphere off to Cid, who bumbled around with it for a moment. Yuna's whole family came into view. There she was, in her mother's and father's arms, smiling so joyously.
"See the camera, Yuna? I'm going to take this sphere with me on my journey, so I can always see your beautiful smile," he said, pointing to the camera.
"But daddy, I don't want you to leave!" the young Yuna cried, her eyes beginning to tear up as much as her older self.
Her father paused, soothing her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Yuna. I'll always be with you . . ."