IV.

The sun was shimmering off of the water as the citizens of Luca threw flowers into the bay to honor their slain leader, who had died doing what she did best: protecting them. There were loud sobs even before the young female Summoner began to walk out on the water, her bare feet floating onto of the illuminated waves as if it contained too much salt. She extended her arms; already the sound of crying was dimming to the sound of people singing the Hymn of the Fayth.

Pray to Yu Yevon. They began to sing as the Summoner began the dance that would remove Vania's spirit from this world forever, and prevent her from turning into a fiend that would grow to terrorize the city she fought to valiantly to keep safe. Dream, Fayth.

For Tavist it was a beautiful and necessary moment, but it was so final. Forever, and Ever. He knew, that this was what would bring her to the Farplane. He remembered trying to summon her there, trying to have just a glimpse of her; because he could not believe that she was gone. She never appeared, and he foolishly held on to hope, never thinking once of the Sending Ceremony. Grant us prosperity.

A single tear rolled down his pale cheek as the crowd repeated the verse and the New Crusade Ships far out, securing the bay, fired a round of blanks in memorial of the fallen mayor of Luca. Zaon looked to Tavist and whipped the tear from his eye, pulling the smaller man toward him in a sideways hug.

They said nothing, and while Zaon was not crying Tavist could feel the great sorrow radiating from within his body, and where their bodies touched the sadness gripped Tavist from within like a frigid cold, all the way to his bones.

The water swirled and rose around the Summoner, lifting her high into the final beams of light that would bless the day. Tavist seen no point in hiding his tears now, he let them fall freely saying his last goodbye to Vania.

Waves came crashing in all at once, and at first it seemed like it was part of the Sending, but then a great vine tentacle reached out from below the water, the flowers thrown in by the citizens of Luca had swirled and formed into a great mass of a fiend; many of its appendages quickly wrapped around the summoner, her young pretty face already blue and lifeless.

"Fiends!" Someone shrieked before the chaos ensued.

Tavist and Zaon stayed near one another, both of them drawing their weapons. Zaon was surveying the harbor with a solemn look on his face. Their backs were touching, but Tavist no longer felt the cold of his sadness.

"Apostles." Zaon said as he struck down the first fiend, a crab like creature from the water, with the blade of his spear.

Tavist unleashed a bolt of thunder from the tip of the sword in his right hand, frying another crab like creature as it came from the water. "How can you tell he asked?"

Zaon pointed up, "They're on the wall."

Tavist's eyes shot up toward the wall that separated the city from the harbor, and there they were. Where Zaon's own men had been not thirty minutes before stood a number of Apostles, though some were dropping down from the wall to flank the citizens who tried to escape the harbor.

"They mean to overrun the harbor and keep us trapped in here." Zaon observed. He directed his attention to the water. "More and more coming." He said pointing out to the largest of Fiend's that had killed the Summoner. "And even with Captain Dax's ships coming in." The New Crusade Ships were approaching rapidly. "They'll have to get around that thing."

It did not look good to Tavist. "What do you purpose?" He asked the more experienced commander Zaon.

"We make for the gate and break through, we have to get as many of these people to safely as we can." Zaon responded without much thinking.

Tavist nodded, zapping another crab like fiend as it approached. "For the gate then." He said as they set off through the crowd, taking down any fiends that came close enough to them. As they drew nearer Zaon pulled his crossbow and was rapidly firing and reloading it picking the Apostles from the top of the wall. Tavist followed suit and channeled twin bolts through the tips of his swords, the current passing through three enemies before it dissipated.

Two screamers leaped from the wall for Tavist, but Zaon was too quick, he heaved one clear in half before he had even landed, and came at the surviving one with such a flurry of spear jabs, that he was run through a dozen times before he even thought to counter, and by then he was bleeding out.

"This seems too easy!" Zaon called to Tavist.

Tavist looked over his shoulder and seen that the New Crusade had engaged with the big fiend, and that the crab like fiends were now swarming the decks of the ships in the harbor. "Let's finish them while we can!" Tavist called back.

He directed his blades points high on the wall and with a howl of concentration large flames grew from the blades until they formed a single fifteen-foot long flame that swept over the wall like water on a beach. The remaining Apostles either perished in shrieking agony or fled down the other side of the wall.

"Move now!" Zaon's voice boomed over the crowd. "Flee the harbor to safety!" He shouted as people rushed for the opening back toward the city.

The sudden influx of people was so great the crowd at the entrance to the city quickly multiplied and Zaon and Tavist were pulled apart.

As Tavist was pushed back toward the water he felt the blade slip from his left hand and in a panic he lost his balance and was off the side of the dock into the cold clear water.

Underwater there were a great many aquatic fiends that he could see were assisting in attacking the New Crusade vessels from below. They hardly seemed to notice him, nor did the floral fiend, and he had half a mind to swim out to them to try and cut a few down even with only one weapon. Then he felt a firm and large hand pull him from the water as easily as plucking a weed.

Zaon pushed Tavist's second sword into his chest as he propped him up on his feet. "Lost something." He said light heartedly.

"More fiends, in the water." Tavist had not realized how much water he had taken in, nor how out of breath he was. "Things do not look good." He said aloud.

Zaon gave him a stern look for a moment that made Tavist flush in the cheeks. Tavist's mind raced, but so far he did not have any solutions. Desperate and waiting for Zaon to speak he began to look around, thinking that the environment might give him some inspiration. When just a ways out on the deck of the largest New Crusade Ship he spotted Dax, fighting off an overgrown crab like fiend. He somehow knew Tavist was looking at him, because he looked up from the fight and they made eye contact, Tavist's swirling eyes for a moment getting lost in Dax's amethyst colored eyes which appeared to Tavist to be much closer than they really were. Dax gave a crooked smile and nodded pointing to large malfunctioning Machina on the deck of his ship as he made twirling heave that cut the fiend in half and sent both of the new pieces onto the deck of the ship.

"That's it!" Tavist exclaimed. "Get it in the water!" He yelled as loudly as he could to Dax.

"What do you mean?" Zaon asked

There was no time to explain. With a leaping swing Dax clubbed the device in to the clear blue water. Still looking upon one another Tavist dipped both of his swords into the water and using all his concentration he let a great pulse of magical electricity from his body. His muscles all tensed on the constraint of his mana quickly draining, but he knew that he was going to have to push it to the limit if his plan was going to work.

Smoke started to rise from the water and the largest of the fiends wilted and turned to pyre flies as did the smaller fiends who were still trapped in the water. Dax's men began to clear the decks of their ships.

With the same crooked smile on his face Dax called. "Return to Port, secure the harbor!"

The battle at the bay was won, but the battle for the city had only just begun.