"When the hume soldiers came to the Wood, the village took small heed of them. So long as the Wood herself is not harmed, the viera give little care to goings on beyond Her." Mjrn's eyes fall to the rough floor, her white ears a stark contrast to the darkness surrounding us. "But in me an uneasiness stirred. I had to discover why they had come." Balthier rests his hands on hips.
"So you came here hoping to find something out, and got yourself caught." Mjrn nods. "You're as foolhardy as your sister." His smile is light and friendly, though the viera's cheeks are still flushed with both shame and exhaustion.
"They took me then, and set close beside me a stone." She stands, looking around at each of our faces. "They said its Mist would be drawn into me, that the viera well suited this end. I saw the light coming from the stone, and then..." Her voice trails off as she turns to her sister, who nods.
"We have seen this. On Leviathan, the Mist released from the Dawn Shard drove me, too, into such a rage." Fran nods toward Mjrn. "She was taken not by the Dawn Shard."
"Manufacted nethicite," Larsa muses. Fran nods. "Then that means—Penelo, the stone I gave you, do you still have it?"
"Sure, it's right here," Penelo replies, pulling the blue stone from a pouch strapped to her leg. Balthier's eyes follow the glow of the nethicite closely, narrowed, and he crosses his arms. Larsa snatches it away sharply, swiveling around so Penelo can't see it. His gloved fingers trace over its grooved surface gingerly, his thin black brows falling heavy.
"This is a thing more dangerous than I had imagined. I should never have given it to you." He sighs, hanging his head. "Forgive me, I did not know." Penelo smiles.
"I'd always thought of it as sort of a good luck charm," she reassures him. "And even if it is dangerous, on the Leviathan it kept us safe." Larsa turns and smiles back at her, satisfied by her answer. Ashe sighs, bowing her head.
"There is a place for all things, even danger such as this."
"I hope you're right about that," Vaan murmurs, gray eyes falling to the tips of his rapidly wearing boots. A long pause in conversation follows shortly afterward, Mjrn sinking back down onto the crate she sat on before she leaped to her feet. Finally, Balthier sighs, shaking his head.
"Can't be helped here. How about we get you back home, Mjrn?"
The viera village of Eruyt holds a whole new air as we trek through it for the second time, now with a second shamed viera in our midst. Eyes constantly turn toward us, each far less than welcoming. As the third hume visit they've experienced in a week, I don't think we're doing anyone any favors. Our party comes to a stop upon seeing Jote and two other viera waiting for us at the tall house we stopped at during our first visit. The sisters stare at each other in a long silence before Jote breaks it.
"I heard the Wood's whispers." A viera strides toward us, clutching something in a cage of her clawed fingers. "Take it."
"Lente's Tear is a permission." The second viera speaks as the first hands the charm to Vaan. "Pass through the Wood and leave. To other places go."
"That cannot be all!" Mjrn protests, stepping past the Dalmascan thief. "I saw it when I left the village. Ivalice is changing! How can the viera stand and do nothing at all?"
"Ivalice is for the humes," Jote replies coldly. "The Wood alone is for us."
"But that is wrong!" Mjrn persists. "How can we just hide here in the trees when all the world outside is on the move!? I, too, wish to live freely—to leave this Wood!"
"Do not do this," Fran cuts in calmly. "You must remain away from the humes. Stay with the Wood. Live together with the Wood. This is your way."
"But Fran—my sister!" Mjrn protests.
"I am no longer of you," Fran shakes her head. "I have discarded Wood and village. I won my freedom. Yet my past has been cut away forever. No longer can my ears hear the Green Word. This... solitude, you want, Mjrn?"
"Sister—"
"No, Mjrn. Only one sister remains to you now. You must forget my existence." Choking on tears, Mjrn turns and runs away, throwing the doors to the building open and rushing to hide inside.
"I am sorry to make you do this," Jote says, though her voice carries no remorse.
"She goes against the laws of the Wood," Fran replies, thoughtfully scanning over her familiar surroundings. "I threw down these laws. It is better that I do this. Better I than one who must uphold these laws herself."
A heavy silence falls over us and Jote nudges her assistants away. I feel a hand rest on my shoulder gently, my signal to turn and follow the others. Balthier drops his hold easily, glancing over his shoulder at his partner one last time before motioning toward the exit to the village.
"Full of traditions, aren't they?" he mutters, noticing my frown.
"Far too many," I huff, uneasily staring back at an icy glare directed straight at me. "I don't know how they can stay here."
"And so you agree with Mjrn." Balthier sighs, shrugging. "I suppose I'd never understand it myself. Guess it's good I'm no viera."
"Good thing," I repeat, fighting a smile at imagining Balthier as a hare-hume mash-up.
Not long after we leave, Fran joins us, stepping between me and Balthier to walk beside her partner in silence. As we exit the Eruyt Village, Fran keeps her eyes forward and her chin up; there's no going back. Not now, not ever.
The jungle is heavy with humidity yet again, sticking my clothes to my skin and making the already worn skin beneath my armguard itch terribly. With the token the viera gave us, we can pass the barriers blocking the paths we couldn't cross before we visited. Twice. Dim lanterns light our way through the darkened woods and illuminate the hordes of panthers and malboros and treants that attack us left and right. Ashe refuses to stop for the night, pressing us to hurry on our way to Mount Bur-Omisace.
"How much longer," Vaan whines, crossing his arms. He traces the flat of his dagger across his bare arm. A pair of viera eyes us as we walk past, most likely scouts or wardens for the Wood.
"It depends on how long you stand around complaining," I retort, tearing my eyes away from the viera and looking at Vaan pointedly.
"She does have a point," Penelo adds sweetly, smiling sheepishly at her friend. Larsa wrestles with a smile. We cross a grassy threshold into an oasis of moonlight, a thick carpet of green leading across the gap to the next path into the jungle. "Beautiful..." Penelo whispers, eyes wide with wonder as she looks around the colorful scene. The flower bed of pinks, purples, and yellows moves; rather, it breathes.
"Alive," I correct, snatching Penelo's elbow and jerking her back to the group as the mass stands, shaking just enough grass away to reveal a rough, its stone face resembling that of the mine monster's. It shakes its entire stone and plant body, shrieking a roar that crackles and groans with every second it lasts.
"Move!" Basch shouts, shoving us into the ring with the beast as two massive pillars of old stone crumble down and block the way we came. A couple of trees come to life, peeling off the wall to reveal towering stone bodies and gleaming foliage no doubt full of poisonous sap.
Vaan dives right in, slicing through the thick vines and flowers to reach the stone flesh of the beast. As with the scaly monster before it, Fran and I decide targeting its eyes would be best. As Basch and Ashe tag team its looser joins with their blades, Balthier and Vaan keep it busy with their bullets and daggers. I dive around the other side of the enormous creature and clutch a handful of stiff moss, pulling myself up onto its back. Below, Penelo and Larsa defeat the first poisonous tree.
Grabbing and pulling and kicking, I fight my way to the top of the giant creature, clinging to a hollow log on its head when it groans and kicks against a particularly hard strike from Basch. Gritting my teeth, I press on, grass tearing under my grip as I cling tightly. With one hand, I reach back to pull my spear free. My other holds me steady as the monster whips around to lash out at my companions, finally seeing us as a real threat.
Just as I get my weapon out, the beast lurches forward and sends me toppling from its forehead to its broad snout. Struggling to my feet, I find myself flying through the air when the monster rears its head and snaps its jaws down on the back of my shirt. I barely have time to think as I shaken back and forth violently. Dizzy and disoriented, I hardly notice I'm flying again until I slam into the stone wall and crumple on the ground, breathless.
Choking on air, I shove myself upward and try to clamber to my feet, only to feel a snap in my lower right leg. I clamp my teeth down on the inside of my cheek, barely ducking under a swing of the monster's tail. Penelo winds up separated from Larsa and next to Vaan on the other side of the cavern. My brother wasn't lucky enough to miss the blow, but he heals himself and hurries to draw his sword once more. Shuddering, I watch the bout of bad luck unfold before me in mere seconds that take a century.
As Larsa rushes back toward the battle, the creature whips its tail around dangerously close to him and knocking Ashe clean out. The second poisoned treant clambers toward Balthier from behind, the sky pirate too busy glaring into his jammed gun to pay much attention to his impending pain. My eyes dart back to my brother; he's too far. Then I catch Vaan's eye, nodding toward Larsa as I push off my wall. He nods back and hurries toward the youngest of House Solidor.
Gritting my teeth and forcing myself to endure the pain, I rush toward our resident leading man and clutch my spear between my two hands. Once I've just about reached him, I use my momentum to shove him toward the ground a few feet away with the edge of my spear, losing my balance and toppling down beside him. The treant's raised stone arm slams to the dirt only to meet nothing. Balthier's gun suddenly fires right beside my ear, leaving my head ringing. The treant collapses with a groan.
"Impeccable timing," the pirate mutters, pushing himself to sit up. I do the same, clutching my ear.
"I'll say," I huff, turning back toward the fight. I turn just in time to see Vaan fail, to see a healing spell flitter to the ground, to see Larsa slam into the wall and fall into a limp pile. Unable to breathe a cheer when Fran and Basch finally topple the monster, I desperately drag myself toward Larsa's side, clutching the small frame of the unconscious boy. A final stone from the creature breaks the blockade in front of the way we came while the others hurry to help Ashe as she awakens. Vaan skids to a stop beside me, panting.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't get—" he starts. I shake my head, staring up at Penelo when she kneels on my other side. I press my palm to a bleeding wound on the back of the boy's head as Penelo clasps her hands together and murmurs incoherent words under her breath. A wave of green light washes over Larsa, bathing him in healing magick. I feel the cuts on his skin pull tight into narrow lacerations and pale scars as the magick works.
"He'll be okay," I choke out, brushing the dark strands of hair from his face. The last time I saw him like this... I shake my head. We were only children then, him far more so than I. I told him it'd be fun outside Archades. And then the pirates came. Vayne somehow always managed to come to my rescue, and to his. The last time I sat here clutching his unconscious, wounded body, I promised he'd never get hurt again. I guess Fate really doesn't give a damn about what we want.
"Is everyone alright?" Basch asks, Ashe and Fran trailing behind him. "We received more than we bargained for."
"We're fine," I nod, tugging an x-potion free from the pocket beneath my sash and chugging the bitter substance. My bones realign slowly, pulling and snapping and moaning. Vaan reaches forward and gently loosens my grip on Larsa, grinning.
"Pen just healed him and here you are giving him more bruises."
"What say we leave before another one of those comes along," Balthier suggests, fastening his gun to his back.
"Best idea I've heard all day," Vaan huffs, standing and dusting off his pants. "I can get him, Shae."
"Alright," I nod, letting Vaan lift Larsa from my lap and starting to stand. Suddenly, a hand lowers before my face. I follow the long arm up a ruffled white sleeve and to a raised eyebrow and the slightest of smiles.
"I suppose it's the least I could do," Balthier shrugs. I take a deep breath, shaking my flooding thoughts from my head, and take hold of his hand. The pirate pulls me to my feet, nodding for the group to keep moving, and eyes me as we walk behind the others. "That's twice now you've saved my hide with no obvious motivations."
"I prefer not to witness the death of those I've spent a decent amount of wasted time with," I retort, earning a scoff.
"Unfortunately, Shera, you don't strike me as a woman to deliberately waste her time. At least, not for this long." He shakes his head, adjusting the cuff on one of his sleeves. "So why bother with the heroics? For the sake of adventure?"
"Like I said, I'd prefer not to witness too much death," I shrug. "I've seen far too much already, and I'm hardly much older than Vaan." I kick at a rock, tugging at the armor over my left arm uncomfortably. "I suppose... I've ruined enough lives as it is." I flash a grin. "I guess it's easy enough to save an incompetent oaf's ass every once in a while, yeah?" He chuckles.
"By your standards, you're asking the wrong man."
"Oaf," I correct, winking. I turn my eyes to Vaan and Larsa, sighing. Balthier hums the same tune he first sang under his breath in the sewers beneath Rabanastre, scanning the changes in scenery. A familiar melody I find myself both hard-pressed and unable to remember. Oh well.
A familiar growl from the bushes rumbles through my ears and cuts off all thoughts. Vaan groans, turning to Balthier.
"I think we gotta run this time."
Balthier sighs, running a hand through his short hair and nodding.
"Running it is, then." He turns to the glowing pairs of amber eyes in the greenery to his right and shakes his head. "You'd best provide a new wardrobe to fix these cuffs you've ruined, cat."