The Calm
My terminus. The ancient city Zanarkand, once just an imagination, now reality right in front of my eyes. The sun was setting and sent his final rays through the dead ruins. All the hard times we had gone through, all leading to this point. My final steps I would take, the final yards of the path of a summoner.
We slowly descended towards the ruins, careful not to wander of the path. Pyrefly was running ahead jumping at the pyreflies floating through the air. So many souls lingering here. After all, this was where it all started. The beginning of Sin's terror. A great machina city long gone. Many summoner's are not even able to witness this place. I was the youngest summoner who ever lived. The youngest one who'd give her life for the Calm.
"Fire!" The firewood burst into a nice warm crackling fire. Audax stood up and looked around, then found me standing a few feet away, on top of a small slope. "This is the place, Audax," I whispered as he stepped up beside me. "When morning comes we leave. Take the final steps." He said nothing, just nodded, but his presence was soothing. From that small hill I could see the old stadium, where blitzball games used to be held. Unbelievable how it used to be back there. All those people probably didn't have a clue of what was going to happen. How history was going to change in just one tiny day, one moment. They died in their ignorance.
Audax held my hand and I looked up at him. "Everything's going to change, won't it?" I had pittied him the entire journey but never before had my compassion been this great. I had felt so comfortable when in his presence for so long, and most of my journey I had wished he shared my feelings. Now I knew he did, now I had proof, all I wanted was that he didn't care about these feelings I experienced.
I nodded and then all of the sudden Audax turned around and hushed me. "You hear that?" I thought he was talking about some fiend, sneaking up on us but saw nothing he could hide behind. Then I looked at the sky and heard it. "The hymn…" From far in the distance, the hymn was heard; it was coming from all around us. "It feels like… Entire Spira is singing." He nodded. The song of the fayth, now crossing entire Spira in one great symphony. I slipped down the hill and sat down close to the fire. "Come sit with me, Audax." He did so and wrapped one arm around my shoulder.
"You've been the best guardian I could've ever wished for," I whispered. Pyrefly yelped and laid his head on my lap. I chuckled and scratched him behind his ear. "And you too, Pyrefly." I watched the fire burning, while the hymn slowly began to fade. "Let's sleep. Before we leave for the ruins of Zanarkand." I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes for my final sleep, before the eternal rest came.
The fire had stopped burning, but no light reached my eyes except that of the stars high above us. I had woken, but morning was far from being. Audax had left and I was now lying on the hard cold ground. With a moan I got up and found his standing on the small hill, not looking at Zanarkan, but something in the West.
"Audax?" He noticed I was awake and beckoned me.
"Come on, over here!"
I quickly leaped up the small hill at his side and found whatever he had been looking at. Sin. Somewhere in the far distance he floated. Audax clasped my arm tightly. "Something's happening." Indeed, although he was so far away, he seemed to be falling. Slowly but still very clearly falling.
Then an explosion, reaching for the corners of Spira, blowing in my face and made me crawl up close against Audax. The ground shook underneath my feet and the light shone brightly through my closed eyelids. For seconds that seemed to be minutes, all that was heard was the noise of the wind blowing, and small rocks rolling over the ground. When it had passed, we looked up again, stunned and unable to speak.
Was Sin… defeated? Then, the final remainings of Sin dissolved into pyreflies and disappeared into the night. The following moment we were found in complete silence. Even if a summoner had finally brought the calm again, not ever had it been this amazing. Not ever had entire Spira been able to witness it. Of course, I had only once experienced it before, when I was very little.
But I could remember someone coming to announce it, not all of us seeing it happen in the sky. After what could've been half an hour we were finally able to speak. Well, we did not really speak. Just jumped up laughing and embraced each other, happier than we could've ever imagined. The Calm had come! And it couldn't have chosen a better time to do so.
The sun was shining brightly, illuminating the old city of Zanarkand. The ruins were covered by a warm amber glow, almost brought back to life. Audax got up and rubbed the sand from his pants as I casted one finally look at the place that would've been my terminus.
"Jentl, come on. We have to get to Luca!"
I looked down at the sphere in my hands, and saw my reflection in the blue globe. The goodbye sphere I had made what seemed to be like a century ago, in a different life. I threw the sphere away, somewhere in the distance it fell into a pile of rubble. Audax was right. I jumped down with a smile and together we walked back home, Pyrefly running after us at a trot.
Things were going to change.
The end