Another "chapter" and I'm sorry the beginning has been so slow, and that there's so much exposition, but it really is my favorite part. I have good news though, we meet Gippal next chapter, so he's always fun. We're getting there slowly. I just love these characters too much not to dwell on them a bit. I know you're reading and I love you for it, but if you have time, please review. I'm feeling a bit insecure and want to know whether I'm boring you to death or actually doing something good. For those that have reviewed, you have made my day every time. I promise that it gets so much better and fast-paced after this.
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Of Fire and Light
Rikku lay in bed, trying to put her mind at ease and trying to forget that the room in which she slept, blue walls stenciled with golden designs and its windows draping with thick blue curtains, was undeniably one in Bevelle. After Baralai left her at the inn, he promised to come by at night and show her a little bit of the city that she may have never seen. An uncomfortable feeling arose from the proposition, because in truth, she didn't want to change her mind about Bevelle; she didn't think she could. However, the fate of the spheres was in his hands, so she couldn't entirely say no to him. Actually, when he asked, there was a twinge of excitement, and she impulsively said yes. It was only the afterthought that brought on all her dread about the coming night.
But she finally hushed her thoughts after a good hour of tossing and sprawling in several different positions on the bed, and she finally came to the conclusion that she might as well go for it, because there was nothing she could do to avoid it anyway. Besides, too many others things were distracting from the much-needed slumber after slaving away over the Gullwings' engines all night. In her half-sleep blurry-eyed state, the pottery on the table across from her bed shook and spun, and the red curvy designs on her blue bed sheets slithered up to her, wrapping around her neck. After a few attempts of ridding her imagination of these visions, she finally succumbed to her exhaustion and awoke from a dreamless sleep a few hours later. Not feeling all that rested, she decided to shower and rejuvenate herself. She took careful note of what she would wear, but no matter what she picked, nothing in the world would ever make her less of a sore in the city of Bevelle. She didn't have the benevolent and loved-by-all Yuna on her side to distract attention anymore.
Baralai agreed to meet her at the inn at sundown, and dressed in her jean skirt and button-up shirt, she sat in the lobby in a small corner hidden behind the marble staircase. She was a bit early, actually, neither of them had quite agreed on a specific time, so she played with the buckles of her utility belt, watching people come in and out of the inn, and occasionally stopping all movement whenever her stomach growled a little too loudly. Maybe I should get something to eat, she thought, but someone her interrupted her before she could decide.
"You're Lady Rikku!" a voice said above her. A woman peered down from the railing over at her. She quickly descended, bunching the skirts of her violet robe in one hand. "I'm so happy to meet you." Rikku stood up and chuckled awkwardly.
"How did you know?" she asked the young woman. She had auburn hair tightly wrapped into a neat bun, a cordial smile and a knowing glint in her blue eyes, and freckles that gave her a more youthful appearance.
"Oh, I know all about the famous people in Spira, especially someone like you, but you do kind of stand out in these surroundings." She glanced all around her and smiled again. She said it so simply that it surprisingly implied no mean-spiritedness. "My name is Castalia. May I ask what brings you to Bevelle?"
Before Rikku could answer, she saw Baralai, through the railing of the staircase, enter the inn, and she raised her hand to catch his attention. Baralai smiled as soon as her saw her, and headed to the corner of the stairs. Rikku turned back to the woman, who observed Baralai closely and then faced Rikku again with a bow and a smile.
"I see your company has arrived," Castalia said. Once Baralai reached them, she bowed both to greet him and excuse herself, and left them.
"I see you met Castalia," he said as they exited the inn.
"You know her?" Rikku asked, following him, unhesitant, but without any idea of where they were going.
"She's the editor of the Spiran Triune, a network of newspapers and the first free press of Spira," he said as he led her through the lighted streets of nighttime Bevelle.
"Ah, that explains how she knew me," Rikku said. Baralai regarded her for moment, before commenting.
"I take it not many people recognize you. I would think they would."
"Oh, with Yuna around, there's hardly any room for anyone else." She stopped, afraid that it may have sounded too resentful. "Not that I mind, particularly now, when people seem to be staring a little too much my way." It was odd to her that it didn't happen around him, that the one person everyone should have questioned who he walked with, was the one most readily left alone. She knew that the people they walked by recognized him, but besides a few bows or curt nods, nobody's glare lingered for too long.
"This place is like another world," she whispered, observing the women in their night dresses glide like fairies through the palatial glowing buildings, and the men standing upright in their colorful vestments, similar to Baralai's, talking and laughing while the hums and whirs of lifts rode above them.
"I want to show you something," he said as they finally stopped in front of a building in one of the main streets of Bevelle about ten stories high with a crimson dome roof and a small minaret rising from the back. It was to the minaret that they were headed, climbing a long set of stairs to get to the balcony. At first, she had feared that the building might be some kind temple, but it was a library filled with stacks upon stacks of books and scrolls, and beautiful crystal desks with people sitting at them reading quietly.
She reached the top with rising expectation, already taken with the splendor of the Bevellian streets and structures, despite her instilled intimidation and dislike for the city. Rikku could focus on nothing but the glow of lights around her, and she immediately leaned on the stone rails of the tower, slowly circling all sides and watching the tall dome roofs that rose like mountains among the twinkling of the street lamps.
"I had never seen it at night," she said absentmindedly, recalling what Tidus said about his Zanarkand and thinking it should be something similar to this sight. Baralai smiled, pleased with her reactions, and released unclasped his hand from hers, which she'd only then realized she had been holding.
"That's not all," he said and pointed to a long telescope aimed at the yellowish moon. She giggled excitedly, having heard of the contraptions, but never before had she the chance to press her eyes against one. She looked into the round lens and with a mechanical whirr, it focused on the moon, showing her its deep craters, wide mountains ranges and jagged cracks.
"This is incredible," she exclaimed and he nodded, grinning at her.
"Like the city a little better?" he asked. Aesthetically, perhaps.
"It's beautiful," she said, gazing all around her again.
"I want to make peace and show the Al Bhed that this isn't such a bad place anymore," he said while leaning on the stone rail and looking out toward his city. The comment puzzled her at first, suspending the magical atmosphere she had been drawn into, and then she became angry. She had forgotten in his company why she had hated this city for so long. It stood for everything she wasn't and for everything her people had been discriminated for. It was to be expected that he only saw her as an Al Bhed, not his equal, but someone to be taught of the knowledge she had been deprived of. However, she was much more than his equal. She was the person that had contributed to save his life and the damn city he lived in.
"It's hardly only the Al Bhed that dislike Bevelle, and I certainly don't represent the reaction of my people," she said this more venomously than she had intended, and when he stared at her with widened eyes and growing disappointment, she regretted she had said anything. There went the possibility of getting the spheres.
"I'm sorry," he said, confused and with a somber face. She could think of nothing to say to retract her comment and so she just allowed him to lead her back in silence to the streets.
"I'm sorry I offended you. It wasn't my intention," he said, meeting her gaze for the first time since in a way that only worsened her guilt.
"Wait," she said as they were about to head out of the minaret.
"It was really nice of you to do this, and I nearly had a conniption on you about it." Smiling, she added, "I'm sorry. I haven't been myself, and of course that sounds like a lame excuse and I also sort of lied to you, because," she stopped. She had no idea what she was saying anymore. "Cred," she whispered.
"Rikku, why are you really in Bevelle?" he asked her while searching her gaze for a clue.
"It does have to do with the Den of Woe, but I don't really want to go to the meeting. I didn't know what else to say, but really, politics bores me to death. That's Yuna's thing." She cleared her throat. "I need the spheres for the entrance."
"Okay, but why?" He ran his fingers through his silver hair, his brown eyes laden with confusion.
"I want to camp out in the Den of Woe for a week," she said decidedly. Baralai regarded her for moment, as if waiting for her to continue. She remained quiet, her smile trembling with a bit of embarrassment.
"You're not joking," he finally uttered. "Yevon, that's—" he cut himself off.
"Insane?" she said, cocking her head to the side. "Yeah, I get that a lot lately."
"No, well, yes," he said and then after a sigh, "why would you ever want to go back there?" She told him about her thunder phobia and about the Thunderplains and her success in beating that fear.
"I don't want to go back there, that's the point," she said. He shook his head, still not comprehending. "I mean that I'm scared of it and if I don't get over it, I won't be able to…" She trailed off, but Baralai seemed to finally understand or relent, and didn't press it any further.
"We're planning to demolish the place. We're not like you, you know. We just want to get rid of it. There's other reasons, but, well, I'll fight to delay it and lend you the spheres." Rikku sighed with relief, hugged him, thanked him, and he promised to meet with her again tomorrow evening. He laughed awkwardly at her embrace, but she had felt too thankful to mind it.
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Five years ago, he would have never thought he'd be sitting in a conference room with a senator and other prominent representatives of Spira, and even more as a praetor no less of the religion he had disliked all his life. It amazed him how one moment could change a person's entire outlook. Everyone in this world always faced death, but the kind of betrayal and death he had seen over three years ago in the Den of Woe had been something completely different. After that, he needed to find some kind of purpose or he would sink in his own desolation, wandering aimlessly without anything left to fight for. He joined the Crimson Squad, because he thought it would make a difference, because he thought he didn't need an ounce of Yevon's teachings to defeat Sin. What they needed, he said to himself back then, was an army. The Crimson Squad was supposed to be that army.
Baralai's father had been one of those unsuccessful summoners. He set out on his mission when Baralai was only six during the times of Lord Braska. His family had been one of those pure blood believers, clean and blindly devoted, just how Yevon liked them. To hell with Yevon, he had said after his father hadn't returned. Perhaps it was out of shame, but most likely, because he wanted his father back.
Then, when his mother died near his fifteen birthday, he called it quits. No more Yevon. No more belief in anything. There was just killing and no reason behind it. The maesters were all liars that consumed people's hope like nourishment for their lies. He would have done anything to stop Sin, but the Crusaders were out of the question. They didn't accept him either, because they knew he was not only the son of a failed summoner, but a juvenile delinquent that had tried to deface, on several occasions, the holy temples of Spira (it had only been Bevelle, where he was born and lived all his life).
But then, the Den of Woe happened, and it was like that place just drained any determination from them. They had survived and made it out, but only to learn about Mi'ihen and get shot by Nooj, who at the time was possessed by a thousand year-old spirit, though he didn't know it, and he supposed had he known it, he wouldn't have hated Nooj any less for it. Everyone went his or her way, but he couldn't just stand by and do nothing. There was not only corruption in Yevon, but they also had a weapon bigger than anything he'd seen. Did they know? Would they use it? He would stop it, no matter what. Those dark, but good intended, feelings led him to Seymour. Baralai's sole mission was to infiltrate Yevon, undo it from within, until he could find Vegnagun and defeat Sin once and for all. And then Seymour turned against Yevon, and he was left with nothing. He was completely lost and he wondered for a few months around Spira, and then he heard of the Youth League forming. The people needed a new hope, and Yevon was completely dried out. He was glad, but the group was violent and when he heard about Nooj, well, he felt even worse.
One day in Bevelle, he heard two people arguing, one of them was a youth league member. He said Yevon had been nothing but lies and Spira needed a reformation, a clean start without the naiveté and dirt of religion. For some reason, Baralai snapped.
"Yes, Yevon was rotten! Yes, they contributed to the cycle, but it was faith that helped those summoners bring you the Calm each time! It was faith that brought you the peace you have now. You're going to strip Spira of that? Then it'll be all the worse for it. Then you're no better than Yevon!"
The man quieted down and walked away thinking Baralai nothing but an eccentric Yevonite. It was that fateful day when a priest approached him and his ideas for a true reformation were born.
"That place meant the death of a lot of soldiers. The Crimson Squad was nothing but a way to get rid of loud 'unfaithfuls.' Now, it's causing odd rumors around Mushroom Rock and Mi'ihen and I say the only way to stop it is to burn it down." Nooj spoke, and like always, he had that command that made everyone listen. However, one person in the conference did not agree still. Since, the New Yevon council felt that Baralai had been too involved and therefore had a conflict of interest regarding the matter, they had sent an extra representative with the permission of the Senate and the High Council of Current Affairs.
"We must preserve the small treasures of Spira. I would think that the Meyvn, who for so long has emphasized the importance of history, would agree," high priest Michel said.
"And I would think New Yevon would be a little afraid of the rumors surrounding this cave of a new religion rising," Nooj countered and the man's mouth stayed shut.
"Any others," the senator, head of the council, asked.
"The occurrences of the cave are well documented in its spheres and those of us that survived can do better to give our own accounts. I think that is enough preservation of history without keeping the cave open and potentially endangering others." Baralai was always the compromiser. He found a way to make it work somehow. That skill definitely took a lot of practice, because his old stubbornness would have spoken for him instead. Now all that was left was to talk to Nooj and convince him to delay the demolition for a week or two.
"All right, I think discussion is done for now, all in favor?" The senator inquired and all raised their hands, but the high priest. "Motion approved by majority. It's settled. Meyvn Nooj and Praetor Baralai, since this regards you so personally, I will leave you two to work out the details with the Machine Faction."
It was just another day in his life of politics, except that for once, he wasn't striving for the general good, but to help one person. There was something incredibly satisfying about that thought.