Author's Note: This little ditty takes place many years in the future of FFX-2. It also follows along after Ikonopeiston's fic "The Dynast". In order to avoid confusion, probably read "The Dynast" first, as this is a fic of a fic, essentially.
Taydrcuikrd
A Result
A.S.12.10.5
Gippal decided to tell Nooj on the day that he brought Jarl back from a trip to visit Home. Often, Gippal did this sort of thing for Nooj and Paine's oldest son – the boy loved to travel, and Gippal had a sort of affection for the young man anyway. He was much like his mother, who Gippal had the same sort of affection for. Besides, Jarl called Gippal Ihlma, which automatically made Gippal care about him.
Also, Gippal knew, the boy needed a distraction from recent events. A terrible illness, they called it, had infected his mother, causing her to lose Jarl's youngest sister before she was even born. Gippal had heard the story told time and time again – a shadow had infested Nooj's mind, causing him to lose consciousness several times, and then it had also invaded their unborn child, causing her to be a stillborn.
Jarl's parents were still grieving, but Jarl was ready to move on. He was too young to understand, and Gippal knew that. He was happy to do what he could for the boy.
What he wasn't happy with was Nooj.
Gippal watched as Nooj helped Jarl take his belongings upstairs; he assumed that Nooj thought Gippal was leaving after this. Gippal had not said that he would be waiting. He wanted to take Nooj by surprise.
As he waited, he looked around the room and was forced to contemplate. How was he going to tell Nooj? He just wanted to grab his old friend and shake him awake, bring him back to the world, maybe knock his brain back into place. He and Paine had called it a sickness, the thing that invaded Nooj and then the baby girl, but Gippal knew what it was. He knew too well – Nooj had lied to Paine. He had sworn that he had given up seeking death, and now it was rather evident to everyone that he was wrong.
Gippal had thought all along, somewhere in the back of his mind, that there might be another reason. This reason was absurd – Nooj wasn't Al Bhed, and neither was Paine. The sickness that came to unborn Al Bhed children – even the youngest ones, still new to the world – couldn't have hit these Spirans.
Gippal remembered losing a sister to the reod, only a few months before Sin claimed his parents, and the descriptions were the same. He hadn't been there for his sister's death, and he hadn't been there for little Polarok's death either, but the imagery of the black shadow attacking her…
…Taydr. Death. Nooj had been seeking it all his life, and Gippal had been running from it. They should have compared notes. Gippal hated it that he hadn't come to this conclusion earlier. With age comes wisdom, Gippal had heard, but he hoped he wouldn't lose something else in return for gaining that wisdom.
He remembered the journal entry that he had written – and people wondered what the benefit was to being a diarist! – and the conclusions became even clearer. Nooj had sought death for so long, being Taydrcaagan, that Death herself had taken note of him. Now, just as she pursued the Al Bhed, she pursued Nooj.
The hatred of the Spirans had been the hand of death – no, Gippal knew, it was more than that. It gave power to Death, created her form, and sent her after the Al Bhed. Death, once, had looked like Sin, but it came in many other forms too. Baralai had called it a Soul Shadow, and had connected it to Shuyin. Gippal didn't know the mechanics of such things, but he knew what the shadow was like. He knew it from his darkest nightmares as a young man still coping with the loss of his eye, was a dark shadow. He remembered the description of it attacking his baby sister and could only imagine it attacking him…
He shook his head. There was no use in remembering that now. He uncrossed and recrossed his legs, waiting for Nooj to come down the stairs. He had to talk to him.
"Gippal, what are you still doing here?"
The time had come. If Gippal was good at anything, it was talking. "Nooj, I…" He swallowed. "Look, listening to Jarl talk about you and Paine, and the problems you're experiencing… do you want to talk about—"
"It's between Paine and me," Nooj interjected.
"No," Gippal replied, perhaps a bit too petulantly. "It's not. Not anymore. Your family is suffering, because you have no idea how to control what's happening."
"And you probably think you know the answer," Nooj replied, too hastily for Gippal's comfort. The man was on edge.
It took Gippal a fraction of a second longer to reply. "No," he started. "I don't. But I have information for you which might help." To Nooj's inquisitive glance – Gippal knew that he was often relied on for information when none was to be had – he added, "It's called the reod. It doesn't translate into Spiran."
"What is it?"
"The sickness, as you call it." Gippal focused hard on Nooj's left eye. He could only look into one eye, and he often chose the left. He wondered vaguely what that said about him. "It's not a sickness at all. It's a physical manifestation of hatred."
"Hated?" Nooj turned away, breaking eye contact. "What are you talking about, Gippal?"
"The reod hit the Al Bhed," he said simply. "A dark shadow, attacking the helpless. Unborn children. Young kids, barely days into the world. Sometimes, an adult soul so lost in depression that it abandoned life. It was called the reod, and it only affected the Al Bhed." He paused, probably for effect. "It's death, Nooj. Death incarnate. And we spend our whole lives running from it, afraid that whenever we turn a corner in our lives, it will be there, waiting."
Nooj just stared at him.
Gippal felt compelled to continue. "Do you understand? I am not a Deathseeker, but I am a Deathsought. Taydrcuikrd."
"What does this have to do with… with Polarok?" It was obvious that Nooj was having trouble speaking his unborn daughter's name out loud.
"It has to do with you," Gippal replied quickly. "You've spent so much time wrapped up in your own quest for Death, thinking you're in control, that you didn't realize that you've drawn attention to yourself. Now, you are the one being sought."
Nooj was silent after this proclamation. He did what Gippal had seen him do a million times – he crossed the room to the window, and looked outside. Gippal sighed, and waited. It was the best thing to do now.
But Gippal couldn't wait forever. He was an impatient man, and that was part of his virtue, really. Eventually, he gave Nooj the answer that the man was probably going to ask him for eventually. "There is no cure," he said. "But it's caused by hatred. For the Al Bhed, it was the hatred of everybody in the whole world for our race. I've never heard of it attacking any Spirans, but if the hatred is strong enough…"
Nooj was uncomfortably silent. Gippal couldn't stand not having the other man say something – anything.
"…you just need to find out who hates you enough to cause Taydr to come for you."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, and as soon as he looked at Nooj again, Gippal knew who it was with that much hatred.
In this case, he thought, it could turn out to be that the hater and the hated were one and the same.