Chapter 36 – The Wrongs of a Lover
Lenne both blushed and cringed at his advance. Her heart pounded in her chest; she wasn't sure how to respond. She glanced down to see her mask lying beside her feet. She wondered what conspiracy against Spira he constructed in the shadows. From her prior encounter with him in the Farplane, she knew he recaptured Vegnagun. His plan for the destruction of Spira, the one he proclaimed before, showed plainly in his eyes. She realized, or rather, came to accept, the fact he may never relent from his desire for revenge.
As his face came into focus, Lenne questioned whether this was the same man she dreamt about when she passed out in the desert. He had the same spiky blond hair, the same facial features, the same color of eyes—but not the same look in his eyes. His clothing colors seemed similar, but he wore no sash on his right leg. Around his neck hung no necklace with the symbol from Zanarkand.
Could she be mistaken and this was Tidus? Her heart raced to see the man she loved again. For a moment, it felt like butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Then her senses shifted—Tidus wasn't the man she lost to the Farplane. Driven by confusion, her head began to feel light and dizzy like it floated on a gust of air. Countless memories flashed again and again in her mind.
She lit up with swirling rays of pyreflies bursting from her glowing body. It was the same as the last time she entered the Farplane, just as it was when she dreamed in the desert. Lenne looked on in dismay as the specks of dream light twirled around her luminescent body. Her matted hair, no longer bound by her desert clothing, cascaded down her head. Once again dressed in her songstress dressphere, she felt overwhelmed by the flood of emotions Shuyin produced.
"To see you again makes my heart race. I've longed for so many years to be with you. Soon we'll never be apart again," he declared, still marching closer to Lenne.
Hesitantly she took a step backward in cowardice. "Shuyin please, don't do this for me."
"Why not?" he asked, shaking her further with his direct firmness. "Spira gave us no refuge. We were never allowed to fulfill our love together because of the battle between Zanarkand and Bevelle. I want to cast all that misery to oblivion!"
"I know you do. But please, how can Vegnagun do that for us? We can still live together without destroying Spira."
"No we can't!" he snapped back. "The fighting continues on and on in a never-ending spiral. Has it not been a thousand years, and still do they fight?"
Lenne remained silent to his question, only the soft echoing of the waterfall sounded in her ears. The incessant bickering and bludgeoning between one sect of Spira against another were all too apparent. The Youth League and New Yevon fought the same way as Zanarkand and Bevelle did a thousand years ago. She desperately didn't want to admit the truth in his words.
Her expression grew grave. She believed fully in his ability to destroy Spira with Vegnagun. Looking up at him, her eyes locked with his. Her entire existence seethed with tragedy and unrequited love. Lenne always prayed that one day she could break free from it. Even after all this time, the people of Spira still fought one another. In the back of her mind, she felt that her life-long hopes had betrayed her.
"It has been countless generations, and if they cannot free themselves of their petty debts, then I will do it for them," he growled, clenching his hand into a fist in front of him. "I will march on their land, or raze it to ashes!"
Lenne solemnly shook her head. "No, that is no more right than what was done in the past. That is why I continued my summonings all those years ago. It was to save Spira, not to destroy it."
Shuyin closed his eyes. "I know. That's why it has pained me to waste this past millennium, knowing how you've eternally longed to aid this sorrowful land. But no matter how hard you try, no good can come from helping this world."
"How can you say that? Why would you even try to save me if all you're going to do is destroy the place I've sacrificed so much to protect? Please, you must see the foolishness in that!" she yelled, tears forming in her eyes.
His voice roared with indignation. "Foolishness? The foolishness is believing that Spira can be saved. It is they who bind themselves to the spiral of death. Sin was just the latest symbol of that. Surely you have not forgotten what that spiral did to us?"
Stepping closer to him, she whispered. "Yes, what happened to us was tragic, but that doesn't give you the right to repeat it. Do you truly want our fate to happen to someone else?"
"Does this world even have someone else who could possibly be so full of love that they would devote themselves to saving Spira? Even at the cost of their life?"
She moved another step closer to him, this time her face grew cross with anger. "Yes, there are many who have the same love as I! They were my guardians. They protected me with all their body and soul as I walked my pilgrimage against Sin!"
"Pilgrimage?" His eyes widened in surprise. "What are you talking about? These events of Spira had nothing to do with us."
Lenne gasped, putting her hand to her lips. Her grasp on reality fell through her fingers. She couldn't discern whether she perished below Bevelle a thousand years ago or defeated Sin forever two years ago. All that echoed through her mind was who was she?
Shuyin paused with silence briefly, pondering her remark more. "This world has you so torn, Lenne. I see you in bondage to the suffering inflicted upon you. You are caught in its cage so deeply that you wallow away in sadness with no way out."
"I—" choked Lenne, but she was unable to further respond.
Her suffering had built up for so long, that his falsity had become truth. She never realized it until he put it into words. She collapsed to the ground, trying to hide her reddened face from him, but Shuyin moved away her hands. Finding herself in his embrace, she was unable to deny herself the comfort he provided. Her chest ached from each wound propelled into her in the darkness of Bevelle a thousand years ago. The pain clawed into her skin so deep, that she wanted to scream—just like Tidus taught her to do.
Closing her eyes, Lenne heard a whistle in her mind. She imagined herself standing on the outskirts of Zanarkand, listening to Tidus recount his story. In her mind, Zanarkand wasn't a ruin overrun by fiends but stood as a bright metropolis full of light and life. She shook her head, spreading her tears across Shuyin's chest. The duplicity of her memories antagonized her.
Shuyin leaned in and whispered into her ear. "You know now what I'm talking of. It may have been Sin for the first thousand years, but it will be me for the second."
She heard his words, but they didn't register in the maelstrom raging inside her mind. Becoming Sin or some other sort of tyrant was what she already expected. The words themselves mattered not. She simply flung herself into his chest and sobbed. Lenne cried her heart out, for the first time in a long, long time. Not holding back, she remained in his arms for a time, with Shuyin caressing her hair softly. His gentle strokes eventually comforted her to a calmer state, and she was able to speak again.
"What will you do with Vegnagun?" she muttered feebly.
He smiled. "I will conquer this world. There will be no more wars, only I will be the dominant force in Spira. This world will be ours Lenne, just for you and me. I couldn't protect you before, but I will now. Now and forever."
She looked up at him through her tears. Pyreflies began to fly around him. He stepped back from her, his smile still penetrating her soul. She rose to her feet to follow after him like a lost puppy with no direction to lead herself. He shook his head.
"No, don't follow me yet. Soon we will be together. As much as it pains me, that time is not now," he said softly.
She wiped the remaining tears from her face, clearing up her sight. Lenne called out for him to come back. Shuyin's body faded into the light cast by the droves of pyreflies surrounding him and he vanished away into the depths of the Farplane. She wondered where he hid Vegnagun. A vast and unknowable place, he could conceal his secret anywhere in the Farplane and nobody would find it. Two straggling pyreflies twisted their paths around her.
Memories of the past flooded back into her mind. Emotions from herself being torn between her love and her duty, soldiers firing upon her in Bevelle, and watching her friends see her crumble in front of them stuck like daggers in her heart. The swell had reached its peak and could no longer be contained. If anything could rid her of that tormenting pain, it would have to be herself. She couldn't let Shuyin destroy the world she dearly cherished and sacrificed so much for.
All she could do for the time being was to find a way out of the Farplane. Noticing she had returned to her normal clothing, Lenne picked up her mask and put it back on. The sand of the desert still stuck to her shirt and pants, just as it had before the Farplane. Placing her boots on either edge of the slide, she timidly walked on all fours up the slide. Although her feet slipped out from beneath her a few times, she navigated the winding path back up into the buried complex.
With a shuttering crash, the glimmering void which led to the Farplane closed just as abruptly as it had opened. A decrepit stony wall replaced its space. Searching around, she wandered down several series of passageways until she found a small door. Following the tunnel which lie beyond, she came to a tall, wooden ladder. A splinter poked into her skin the moment she gripped its railing. She climbed up into a shaft before poking her head above to see what surrounded the exit way. In the distance, somewhere at the other end of a corridor, she spotted a shadowy figure wandering.
"Nhadala!" she screamed, her echo filling the temple. "Nhadala! I'm over here!"
Gawking around, Nhadala could not find the owner of the voice. Lenne climbed up fully and started waving her arms in the air, catching the light from Nhadala's flashlight. She raced down the corridor towards Lenne with a terrified look on her face.
"Where have you been? I've been so worried about you!" she huffed out exasperatedly.
"Sorry, I fell. I, um, was just been able to climb back up," Lenne replied, cognizant not to mention any reason for Nhadala to go down to where the portal resided.
Nhadala nodded, relief returning into her expression. "Good, good. Are you sure you're not hurt?"
Lenne shook her head to Nhadala's satisfaction. The two made their break to leave the temple. Before they left, Nhadala showed Lenne what she stumbled upon while searching for her. Through a broken wall she discovered an old pedestal holding a sphere. The sphere itself barely glowed, declaring its frail and antique condition. Nhadala's eyes gleamed much brighter, however, as the thought of sphere hunting crept into her mind.
"If there's one sphere in this rickety old temple, there must be more," she stated, while carefully freeing the sphere from its hole.
She decided that they should make a permanent camp at this buried structure until it could be properly excavated. Lenne worried that Nhadala would discover the tear into the Farplane, but knew there was nothing she could do about it. She hoped they would never come across it, not at least until she could confront Shuyin again to stop his madness. Her love, she prayed, would be able to overcome the vengeance which swelled mercilessly in his heart.
Lenne crawled out of the hatch first before helping Nhadala climb out after her. Emerging back into the desert, they quickly noticed the sun had all but set. In the frigid night air, Keppel and Nomma shivered uncontrollably, watching their breath form white clouds in the air. Pilot stood on top of the hovercraft, rubbing his hands together while gazing over the desert.
Lenne's skin formed goosebumps from the cold air. She quietly watched the men run over to check on the condition of their boss. To their delight and relief, Nhadala was unharmed. Nhadala didn't bother to acknowledge their concern; she was still enthralled by the sphere hoisted in her hand. Nomma suggested they hurry up and head back before they all froze to death. Nhadala paused her examination long enough to agree. Once aboard Sally, they returned to camp. Nhadala played with the sphere the entire trip, trying her best to get it to reveal its secrets, but to no avail.
"I don't understand, why can't I get it to turn on?" Nhadala wondered.
Lenne took a closer look at the sphere. "Well, perhaps it's too old to function any longer."
Her boss sighed. "I hope not. You can't make money off of broken spheres no matter how old they are."
Keppel laughed. "I thought we were searchin' for treasure, not junk."
Nhadala sneered at his joke. Nomma couldn't help but laugh as well. He took a peek at the sphere but hadn't a clue as to how to work it even if it was brand new. Nhadala snatched it hastily back from him, worried that he would end up breaking it. Everyone chuckled at her overprotective nature over a tiny crystal ball.
Over the coming weeks, Nhadala had a satellite encampment set up next to the structure for a complete excavation. Her diggers drove in heavy equipment to hasten the excavation. Working day and night, the parted sand gave way to a massive stone temple. To Lenne's relief, nobody went deep enough inside to discover the way into the Farplane. During those weeks, they discovered many more spheres resting in various rooms. Yet none of these spheres would function like the first. Nhadala couldn't determine whether they were all too deteriorated because of age, or if it was something else that caused their dysfunction.
"I just don't get it," Nhadala mumbled in frustration to herself, the temple's shadow crossing over her. "These things last a long time, shouldn't they?"
Lenne smiled under her mask. "Well, I suppose some do and some don't. But it's odd that all these spheres no longer work."
Keppel cracked a laugh. "Ah well, it was a good waste of time. So what are we going to do now?"
"Don't count this over yet," snapped Nhadala. "I still have a few other people I need to take a look at these."
Nomma wrinkled his nose. "Huh? Who are they?"
She shot him a mischievous look. "The best sphere hunters in Spira I know. The Gullwings!"