Yuna closed her eyes and took slow, deep breaths in a futile attempt to retreat from the din of the crowd of city ambassadors, Guild leaders, and officials of various high-profile businesses filled the room. So many people were filing inside, but there was not a single Ronso or Guado amongst them. Both groups seemed to have disappeared—the only Guado remaining in Bevelle were the Glories, the blitzball team. The Ronso had disappeared entirely. The Al Bhed had drawn away from the public, as well, but they were still active. Everyone knew that the islands west of the mainland were Al Bhed territory. The tribal people mostly stayed away from the mainland. There were likely Al Bhed in the assembly, though; it was almost impossible to tell them apart from former-Yevonite Spirans—the eyes were less noticeable than one would think. It was also likely that many used lenses to hide their eyes, and some probably even changed their hair color. The Al Bhed probably had informants in every corner of Spira.
Sadye stood faithfully at Yuna's side, watching over the proceedings. She readied herself to speak on Yuna's behalf as she almost always did. Despite the fact that she could easily word decisions—or even completely make her own—in such a way that she would benefit, she loved Yuna far too much to risk not truly speaking for her. It would not do to be voted off the advisory council by the other top members of the cabinet. Yuna had sworn she would never overturn their votes; she was steadfast in honoring her promises.
Resting a hand on Yuna's shoulder, Sadye bit her bottom lip. For some reason, she was on edge every time she saw the man who was first on the list to speak. He was standing directly in front of her, just on the other side of the ring of Crusaders, between Rin—the successful owner of the Travel Agency chain of rest stops—and the former summoner Dona. She swore to Yuna and the security commander Nooj that she did not personally know the man, but she still did not like being near him. He made her extremely uncomfortable.
Yuna reached up and placed a hand on top of Sadye's. "I need to get this done soon, don't I?"
"Milady, do not trouble yourself with the less important matters. They will take my word as your own, so I can deal with most of it. I know how tired you must be. It was a long trip." Sadye moved a strand of her friend's long, brown hair back behind her ear.
"Thank you, Sadye," she said, moving her head away from Sadye's hand. It would not do to show too much affection in public. Thing could be assumed…incorrect things.
In the years since Yuna was given leadership of Spira to replace the ousted and humiliated Maesters, she had held dozens of mass audiences. They were so taxing on her but she felt the need to speak personally to the people—or as many of them as was rational. She was deathly afraid of becoming a near-unreachable ruler like the leaders of Yevon had been. The meetings would be held whether she felt physically and emotionally up to it or not; Sadye was more than able to answer concerns if she could not.
For once, Yuna cursed the magic-dampening machine Sadye had bought and had installed. She wished there was something she could do to refresh herself and white magic would have easily been a temporary cure for her fatigue. It was, of course, unhealthy to rely on magic; nothing revitalized the body and mind like a good, long sleep. The machine made her feel so isolated, as well. Magic was a part of her and she was separated from it whenever she was inside the capitol. And she had just begun getting used to not having the Fayth around….
The woman slowly rose to her feet to welcome the assembly. Sadye's immediate reaction was to help her up but she refrained from doing so. The last thing the people needed to see was their wondrous, youthful savior requiring help just to rise from a chair. Yuna calming steadied herself, managing to retain her noble stature all the while. The movements and words came to her automatically—she thanked people for bringing their concerns before her and assured them that they would all be addressed, and that her people would do all they could to make Spira even better.
The room grew silence, except for a few scattered whispers. Yuna sat and beckoned the first man forward. As he walked up to the bottom step, he bowed his head. Sadye's muscled tensed; she could not help but feel that he was up to no good.
The man spoke and Yuna could see his lips move. She could hear the words. For some reason, though, they made no sense in her ears. She stared at him, brow furrowed so it did not look as though she was not paying attention. Sadye was there at her side, leaning over and whispering into her ear a summary of what the man said.
"He is asking for more resources to continue research on the new airship discovered by Rikku's expedition in the northern sea last year. Apparently most of the inside has been spared from flooding and it is possible that they can raise it from the ocean floor and get it working again."
Yuna nodded. "I remember him…. He should be funded more; airships are incredible relics."
"Yes, but we cannot afford to simply throw gil around. Not if we do not directly benefit."
She thought over it for a moment before asking the inevitable question. "What do you think I should do?"
Sadye smiled, happy to be making yet another of Yuna's decisions. "We can give him what he wants, but he must take a Crusader detachment with him and when the ship is working, ownership will be turned over to us."
"I don't think he'd do it, then. Tell him that he must turn it over to us if we ever ask. That way there's still reason for him to the work himself."
Sadye nodded and turned to the man. Just as she started speaking, the room began to shake. An explosion ripped through the side wall of the chamber, booming as flaming debris and members of the assembly were hurled through the air. The thunderous racket nearly drowned out the screaming of those who were not killed instantly. Fire erupted from the site of the detonation and spread through the room, over the assembly like water from a tipped cup. Sadye seized Yuna roughly and pulled her to the floor behind the chair. She covered the ex-summoner's body with her own and tried to push Yuna to slide across the floor toward the small exit at the back of the platform. The noise of the roaring explosion had died down but it still rang in her ears just as loudly. In the seemingly infinite moment of the blast, fire had washed over most of the assembly hall, burning many of the crowd. From the size of it, Sadye expect most to be wounded, if not dead.
The dark-haired woman cough as the dust and smoke threatened to fill her lungs and suffocate her. She got up off of Yuna and hauled the women to her feet. She held her sleeve to her mouth and breathed in steadily; Yuna did the same, coughing only slightly. Sadye tried to peer through the thick smoke but she could hardly see anything. Suddenly, a hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. A face appeared through the smoke—it was the Crusader guard captain. She grabbed Yuna's arm and pushed the two together. The captain understood and guided Yuna out the back exit.
As the ringing in her ears became less overwhelming, she could hear the screams and moaning of the wounded in the room. She accidentally took a deep breath and burst into fits of coughing. She followed Yuna out, desperate for fresh air.
It was not for another five minutes that an alarm went off.
-x-
Yuna was put onto a stretcher by a Crusader medic. They were still in the passageway behind the assembly hall—the corridor had become a triage area for those who had been closest to the chair platform. The medics, too, now cursed the magic-inhibiting machines Sadye had had installed. She had to give them permission to turn off the dampening network after seeing all the wounded in the hallway alone. She could only imagine the how many casualties were on the other end of the assembly chamber.
"We need to get you to your chambers as soon as possible, Lady Yuna. It's not safe here, especially with the network shut down." Commandant Nooj was in the corridor with a heavily armed squad of Crusader security. Every room in the capitol except for Yuna's suite had been left unprotected so that the medics could spread out the wounded and attend to them all.
Sadye shooed away a medic who was fussing over Yuna. Yuna had been declared perfectly fine but some of the white mages and surgeons were extremely overprotective of their beloved leader. Two members of the security force lifted up Yuna's stretcher and followed Nooj and Sadye down the maze of passages to Yuna's private rooms.
Nooj handed Sadye a sphere as they walked. He said, "I don't want you both in private just for her safety. That message sphere was delivered by official courier. We haven't tracked down the courier yet but I really don't think he had any idea what he was carrying."
"What are you talking about?"
"Wait just a moment. It'll make more sense once we get that playing."
By the time the group got into Yuna's chambers, Yuna tired of being carried. She stood up the moment they stopped and she sat on the room's sofa. Sadye placed the sphere on the player and stood back to watch the recording.
There was a masked figure, female, as the ample chest indicated. The mask was carved wood and had the symbol of Yevon painted on the forehead. The woman spoke with a distorted voice, "This is a warning to all those who oppose the true Almighty Yevon. The Heretic Summoner has betrayed all of Spira, attacking and killing our great ruler in his mortal form. Yevon shall return to Spira, however, and He will wreak swift, deadly vengeance upon all those who oppose Him."
The speaker was silent for a second as she stared directly into the recorder. Yuna could see a certain familiarity in her eyes. It was not the kind of familiarity which would suggest she knew the speaker—no, she recognized the look of those eyes. She could not pinpoint exactly why it was familiar, but she had seen it before. Sadye, however, knew exactly what it was. It was the same expression as the man who had attempted to assassinate Yuna at the blitzball game.
"What is about to occur is merely a sample of what we are capable of. You are not safe; you will never be safe. All true Spirans will heed the call of Yevon and rise up if the Summoner does not abdicate and return power to the hands of the Yevon elite. If you do not submit to our demands then you will die. No heathen will escape."
The recorded zoomed outward slowly and panned to the left. An increasingly large number of masked and heavily armed individuals filled the space. They cheered and yelled unintelligibly—obviously in support of the speaker. Then the recording stopped.
Sadye sat down heavily beside Yuna. No one spoke for a minute that seemed to last forever. The silence was finally broken by her.
"This cannot be more than an empty threat meant to follow up the bombing. No one would dare attack us."
Nooj bowed his head as one of the guard captains spoke up. "Your ladyships, if I may comment?"
"Hmm?" Yuna looked up at him.
"There were a lot of people in that recording and they were all armed. I don't think it was just a thread. They've already proved willing to kill indiscriminately."
Sadye's lip almost curled up into a snarl, but she controlled it. She didn't like it when others opposed her opinions. "We cannot make such an assumption," she said quickly.
"We can't just assume that were safe behind these walls."
Yuna stood, "I don't know how to handle this. This has not happened any time in our history. Not since the Great War, at least. Nooj, please take your captains and do whatever you can to protect us. Question people….whatever else you can think of. It's scary to think that a terror group has grown without us knowing about it. What if they have someone close to us?"
Sadye shook her head. "Impossible, I questioned and approved all advisors and aides myself."
"But the bomb…."
"Do you not trust me, milady? What have I done that you doubt me?"
Yuna took one of her friend's hands into her own. "Please, Sadye, don't. I trust you with all my heart. That's why I want you to stay here with me. I trust you, I swear."
The Crusaders in the room stood at attention, pretending to not notice any feeling of closeness between the two women. Though Yuna had no true feelings for Sadye, her behavior appeared quite contrary to that truth to a person who had not found that perfect friend—a kind of platonic soul mate. Yuna and Sadye were closer than most people, male or female, were and that was the only real explanation for it.
Sadye nodded and stepped back. She bowed, her black hair shifting forward and covering her face and shoulders. As she rose, she parted her hair and moved it back behind her ears. Nooj could not help but notice how incredibly appealing this woman was. She was a beauty in a uncommon way—far from perfect, so far, in fact, that her imperfections made her unique and just plain sexy. There was more than that, though. When he shifted from her unyielding, powerful grey eyes to Yuna's mismatched blue and swirled green, he could see strength and passion burning within her. It was no wonder this woman had been able to solidify Yuna's hold on Spira in such a way that no one publicly spoke out against her. The bombing and message sphere were the first real signs of unrest since Yuna had been given leadership of the people.
Nooj turned to Yuna and saluted. "I won't disappoint you. We'll track down whoever these people are and they'll get what they deserve."
He took Yuna's hand gently and pressed his lips to her middle knuckled. Stepping back, he spun on his heel to face the other Crusaders in the room. They moved apart to let him through and then followed him out. Sadye moved after them to shut the door.
Outside, the hallway was heavily patrolled and the magic-blocking machina whirred calmly. Inside, Yuna paced slowly across the front room. She was tired of ruling Spira; it was an incredible opportunity, leading her people through the beginning of the Great Calm, a Calm she herself produced after casting off the beliefs she had held so sacred in her heart.
Yuna sighed and looked up at Sadye. "I'm going to take a bath."
As she walked back to the bath, Sadye followed her. Yuna retried a long, thin metal rod and moved to the candles and incense placed around the large bath. With a quick movement of her fore- and middle fingers, the rod produced a small flame. She lit the candles slowly and moved to the brown sticks of fragrant incense. Bevelle was so much more civilized than the rest of the continent—only in the city could someone have the luxuries of private baths and incense. She lit a stick and watched the flame slowly die down to a red-orange flow. Grey smoke rose and swirled through the air and the woody aroma spread out through the room. Yuna breathed in the pleasing scent as Sadye started drawing out the bath.
As the warm, slightly steaming water splashed into the tub, Yuna began undressing. Sadye moved behind her and took the heavy robe from her. "I'll be just outside if you need me," she told Yuna, leaving the bathing room.
Standing in her purple top—which looked a lot like a giant handkerchief—and undergarments, she ran her hand through the water, testing its warmth. Finding it perfect, she left the water level to rise a few more inches. The woman untied the back of her top and let it fall to the black marble-like tile; she slipped from her underclothes, casting them aside, and waiting the for the basin to finish filling up.
The mirror on the wall on the other side of the bath reflected the image of her small, tight frame. She ran her hands over her naked hips and struck an odd, yet appealing pose. She was quite proud that, despite her constant fatigue, she was in good physical shape. Yuna was full aware that she was an attractive young woman, though she never actively thought about it. It was on rare occasions when she was left alone to calm herself that she noticed anything about herself. Gazing at her reflection, the pains and problems of the world, especially the recent occurrences, seemed to disappear. For once, she was able to admire her life. There was no media to hype her image, no yes-men to tell her she was right no matter what she said…. That's what she liked about Sadye: the dark haired woman was not afraid to speak her mind. She wasn't shy about her opinions like Yuna was. The young former-summoner found it refreshing.
The water stopped pouring out automatically in less than a minute. Yuna turned to see herself in profile, just to judge how well she had been keeping up. She then slid into the bath and breathed in deeply, relaxing her muscles. Closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the rim of the tub, she drifted off into her imagination.