Note: There are English-Al Bhed translators around the internet, so if you don't read their language fluently, don't worry. Go find one.

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Chapter VI

"Rao. Ed'c paah y muhk tyo," I said conversationally, sitting next to Rikku.

We were in the court now, waiting for our trial to begin. I saw a chance to practise my Al Bhed language, since Lulu was talking to Wakka and anyway everyone would be listening to us if I tried to have a conversation with her. With Rikku I could always speak Al Bhed so no one would understand us, even if listening.

"Oayr. Oui denat ymnayto?" she asked me.

"Hu fyo!" I objected, with a slight smile.

"Uv luinca, oui't hajan ytsed ed," she noted, smiling. She knew me better than I had thought.

We were silent for a while. Suddenly, I was tempted by a chance to speak without anyone else understanding us. I felt a need to talk, about all this I had been bearing for the last few days. And, suddenly, Rikku seemed a suitable person to share this burden with. She certainly knew what it was like to be hated by the followers of Yevon because of something you were born with and can do nothing about. And she was nice. You know, you always feel nice people would understand you.

"Yldiymmo, E ryja paah y meddma denat uv paehk sa mydamo," I said.

"Rao, oui'na cdyndehk du cuiht kuut eh uin myhkiyka," Rikku noticed.

I smiled at the compliment, and I was honestly happy to hear her praising me...hear anyone praising me by then.

"Dryhgc," I thanked her. "Pid, E vaam mega E haat cusauha du dymg du. Oui ghuf? Drana'c paah...drehkc. Dryd rybbahat."

"Ur? Oui'ja muugat cyt dra mycd vaf tyoc, E hudelat."

"Oui hudelat?" I asked, amazed. She had been watching me?

"E fuimt cyo ed'c ypuid Lulu. Ech'd ed?" she asked.

I jolted up. Was it that obvious to everyone? I was lucky I wasn't dead already, killed by the others. Well, no point in denying now, I gathered...

"Oayr... Ruf tet oui kiacc? Ruba ed yeh'd xieda dryd upjeuic..."

She gave a sad laugh.

"Hu ed'c hud... E'ja zicd paah...ryjehk so aoac uh oui."

Oh I see, I thought. Having your eyes on me, huh? I smiled. She was so cute.

"Ur?" I couldn't think of much else to say.

"Oayr, famm, E kiacc oui'na rybbo fedr ran, drah. Ed'c ymm nekrd, E sayh, E's ymm nekrd."

Now it was proved. Rikku did have a crush on me. What a triangle.

"E's cunno," I said. "E teth'd naymeca oui fana..."

"Tuh'd," she said, looking away. "Tuh'd ybumukeca."

We sat quiet for a while. I had started speaking before I realized I had.

"Ed'c cu cdibet oui ghuf. Du ryja y lnicr uh ran. Cra'c cu...banvald, cu ypuja ymm. Hu fyo y kio mega sa luimt ajan kad ran."

She said nothing, so I went on.

"Yht, famm, drana'c cusadrehk amca ycfamm. ...E'mm ryja du fynh oui, ed'c bnupypmo kuhhy ibcad oui," I said.

"Oui'na kuhhy damm sa oui'na hud y puo? Famm, dryd'c hu hafc du sa, Tidus," she said.

I was startled. She already knew?

"Oui ghaf!" I gawked. "Ruf ec dryd buccepma?"

"E...E gaab so aoac ubah, oui caa. Oui tu ryja y fusyh'c puto, oui ghuf?"

"Ir. Nekrd." I was uneasy about speaking about this; I had been that since I could remember.

"Ur, cunno. E kydran oui tuh'd mega du dymg ypuid ed."

"Oui ghuf ajah dryd? Kucr," I was amazed. "Rumo cred."

"Tuh'd kad ibcad, ruhao, E ghuf y mud uv drehkc ypuid oui. Pid dryd'c hud pyt. E fuimth'd damm yhouha."

"U-ugyo. E kiacc ed fuimt pa duu silr ev E ycgat oui du vaam lusbycceuh. E sayh, dra fyo oui vaam..." I said, sounding clumsy.

"Crid ib. Zicd crid ib, ugyo?"

I saw her wiping something off her eye. But that very moment we got interrupted.

"Summoner Yuna. You have sworn to protect the people of Yevon, true?"

Maester Kelk Ronso, as Lulu told us quietly. Yuna answered to his question, of course saying yes.

"Then, consider: You have inflicted dire injury upon Maester Seymour Guado, conspired with the Al Bhed and joined in their insurrection. These are traitorous and unforgivable crimes that disturb the order of Yevon," he said. "Tell this court what possessed you to participate in such violence."

But Yuna had an answer to his confrontation.

"Your Grace... The real traitor is Maester Seymour! He killed his father Jyscal with his own hands!"

"What is this?" exclaimed Kelk in anger, turning to Maester Seymour and Maester Mika. And Seymour showed us he was still able to be as disgusting as we remembered him. He said to Maester Kelk in his fag-like high-pitched voice,

"Hmm? Hadn't you heard?"

I gave a quiet laugh. Right. I killed my father, hmm, hadn't you heard? Ain't that great, folks?

"Not only that..." Yuna went on. "Maester Seymour is already dead!"

"It is the summoner's sacred duty to send the souls of the departed to the Farplane. Yuna was only doing her job as a summoner," said Lulu in her usual calm tone.

"Grand Maester Mika, please, send Seymour now," Yuna begged.

Maester Kelk gave room for Maester Mika who came to face Yuna.

"Send the unsent to where they belong?" he said, sounding amused.

"Yes!" said Yuna, to which Maester Mika gave a quick laugh. "Maester?"

"Send the dead...hmm?"

Maester Mika seemed to taste the words, enjoying the way they sounded crazy to him. Suddenly, several pyreflies left Mika's body. Yuna gasped in disbelief.

"You would have to send me, too," noted Maester Mika.

"What?" exclaimed Wakka.

I was starting to wonder if they would ever stop. The way things were going, Wakka was going to kill himself within seconds. But the Maesters just began a lecture about dead people, and death in general.

"Grand Maester Mika is a wise leader. Even in death, he is invaluable to Spira," Kelk started.

"Enlightened rule by the dead is preferable to the misguided failures of the living," Maester Kinoc went on supporting him.

"Life is but a passing dream, but the death that follows is eternal," said Seymour as if that was new to us, and the wisest thing one could ever say. Though I have nothing against fags, I started to hate his high-pitched voice real bad.

"Men die. Beasts die. Trees die. Even continents perish. Only the power of death truly commands in Spira. Resisting its power is futile," said Maester Mika.

What is this? I asked myself. A bunch of mentally unsteady old men, fascinated by the thought of living forever and being in charge of a world forever? Have they no idea how unoriginal their attempt is? Everyone wants to live forever. Everyone wants to be the leader. That's human nature, nothing new under the sun.

"But what of Sin?" inquired Yuna. "I am a summoner, my lord, like my father before me! I am on a pilgrimage to stop the death that Sin brings." She paused. "Are you...are you telling me that, too, is futile? Grand Maester Mika, I am not alone! All the people who have opposed Sin... Their battles, their sacrifices – were they all in vain?"

"Not in vain," said Maester Mika, "no matter how many summoners give their lives, Sin cannot be truly defeated. The rebirth cannot be stopped. Yet the courage of those who fight gives the people hope. There is nothing futile in the life and death of a summoner."

"Never futile...but never ending," noted Auron dryly.

To that, Maester Mika nodded.

"Indeed, that is the essence of Yevon," he said, and I really felt sorry for Wakka. "Yevon is embodied by eternal, unchanging continuity, summoner."

"No, that can't be right!" Yuna protested.

"Those who question these truths – they are traitors!" Maester Mika told us.

Fine. That's it. We were traitors, no way out of it. Instead, the Maesters using machina they had by themselves forbidden were not traitors. We were. We alone.