Author's Notes: I forgot that I needed to upload this chapter, whoops. Good thing I actually went and looked which one was up. I do think that once I'm done with the end of this I'm going to go back and edit the earlier chapters, though. My writing has improved so much over the years.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Final Fantasy franchise
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Chapter 4: To Hell and Beyond
Drake groaned as he shut the book and rubbed at his eyes. He knew he wasn't the only one feeling the strain of looking through the tiny text of the books in this massive library. They were only there overnight, on their way back to the Mist Continent finally, albeit through a roundabout way that allowed the cartographer to map certain places that were arrayed on islands.
Everyone had agreed that it would be a good idea to stop by Dageurreo so that they could try to find any information on the sealed eidolon that they would have to face. So far, no one had been able to find anything useful, but not for lack of trying.
Eiko and Vivi had gotten bored quickly, and went to look for stories. Drake was sure that they had found a scholar that wasn't busy and pestered him until he found a book of legends to read aloud to them, because he hadn't heard from them in several hours. He was looking over old maps to try to figure out where Vile Island was. He probably would recognize it if he'd had the map from the game in front of him, but he didn't. Most of the maps were half-filled, missing or warping most everything except for either the Mist Continent or Caledonia, depending on where the cartographer had been from.
After he'd looked at all the maps, he'd tried searching for any indication of Yans, which were few and far between. Most of the scholars had given him a blank look when he had asked for their help on the matter. He'd finally found someone who recognized the word enough to point him at a bestiary that had mentioned them. The book hadn't been useful in the least, the writer had been going off of legends told to him by an unnamed person.
"Well, you look frustrated." Drake turned to level a flat glare at Edgar. "What were you looking for?" Drake heaved a sigh and gestured at the book he'd just shut. Edgar tilted his head to the side so that he could read the title.
"Trying to figure out what a Yan is like, because one of the last two summoners we need to find is one. Absolutely nothing concrete in this book, though." Edgar chuckled a bit at that. "All I've got is that they're apparently terrifying creatures."
"Well, we'll figure out soon enough. Zidane told me to come find you." Drake frowned and looked around in case there was a clock. "The sun came up an hour ago. You really had your nose in that book, didn't you?" Drake nodded and carried the book to the desk the librarians had told him was for returning books so they could be put back into their proper places and left it there.
"Well, the garuda we're supposed to find apparently knows where to find the last summoner we need to find, but still, it'd be nice if we had an idea of where to go first." Edgar shrugged, and they took a lift down to the entrance floor, where the rest were waiting for them.
"At least you can sleep while we're traveling. I don't think I've ever known you to stay up all night reading anything. Is that a new thing?" Drake automatically shook his head without thinking about how he was going to explain why it wasn't a new thing. "I'm surprised that the librarians didn't come by to tell you to put the lamp out to save oil." Drake shrugged.
"For all I know, they could have. I was too busy scowling at tiny writing." Drake ran his fingers through his hair and smiled sheepishly at the people that were waiting for them. Odette looked sleepy but amused, and Sabin looked grumpy. Zidane had started to herd people out as soon as he'd seen Edgar herding Drake towards the exit.
"You didn't sleep at all, did you," Odette said with a small smile. Drake shook his head a little, and Odette sighed a bit, still smiling. "Once we get back on the Invincible, I'm going to make sure you at least nap. The light controls have to be decently easy to control, I've seen Zidane play with them while half asleep before." Drake blinked at that.
"...I thought they were automatic." Odette snorted, and the four of them started across the bridge to where the Invincible had been parked. "Well that just shows how much I pay attention to technology." The rest of what Drake was going to say was swallowed up in a yawn that made his jaw creak.
"You're still more used to it than anyone else, you've got more recent memories of such things than I do, and everyone else is learning about it for the first time." Drake shrugged and rubbed at his face. It took them a while to get to the Invincible, but few monsters bothered them. Odette was able to handle most of them on her own, but those that took a bit more, Sabin jumped in to help.
Drake managed to fall asleep before the ship even took off, and didn't wake back up until noon, when they stopped at Alexandria. The cargo bay was darker than he was used to seeing it during the day, so he didn't know what time it was until he stumbled out to the dining area and was told what time it was.
They parked over by Burmecia that night, and Drake watched the rain sliding down the windscreen of the Invincible until the fading light made it impossible to see aymore. Then he went and laid down and was surprised when he was able to sleep, and slept deeply enough that he spent time on the battlefield.
The Einherjar that had been ignoring him before deigned to talk to him finally. Lyn, the red mage, still ignored Jay, the dragoon, but cast annoyed looks at the dancer that was teasing her. Apparently Lyn and Jay were together, and Lyn was shy about displaying any sort of affection in public. Key, the soft-spoken chemist, tried to distract Tess from teasing by reminding her that they still had to talk to Drake. The scholar of the group, Violet, seemed oblivious to the teasing.
Drake felt like his mind was stuffed to bursting by the time he woke up. He was one of the last ones to get up, and accepted the mug of coffee that Quina offered him as he yawned. The cartographer had been dropped off at Alexandria, but had managed to make a copy of his map that he had left with them.
That map went into Drake's belt pouch where it would be safe from the rain, and they dropped half of the group off at Burmecia to see how the reconstruction was going. Drake and the other half of the group went to the place where they'd been told the Garuda they were looking for lived.
Zidane seemed pleased to be able to go out and wander around instead of having to babysit the cartographer, and spent at least part of the trip jumping from tree to tree just because he could. When Odette informed him that she didn't have the skill to put back together more than a couple of bones at a time, he climbed back down.
Drake felt like his skin was crawling after a while because of the Mist around them, and called a stop just inside of a small clearing. He rubbed his bared skin, grimacing a bit. Odette looked unnerved as well, but the only reason Drake could tell was because he knew how to read her properly.
"So anyone seen a colorful Garuda yet? Or any sign of one?" Zidane sounded perkier than normal, much to Drake's disgust. Still, he accepted a tart that Quina had made that morning and chomped into it instead of snapping at his blood brother. Odette sat next to him, quietly taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
"No sign of any Garuda yet. This is Popos Heights, right?" Drake frowned and squinted up at the sky, chewing still. He was pretty sure that they were on Popos Heights, they had climbed up the side of the mountain right by Gizamaluke's Grotto.
"I saw a dragon's territorial marking," Amarant said finally. He was still trailing along after Drake to make sure he didn't get into trouble, but having Zidane around made him quieter than normal. Drake half suspected he was studying the Genome to try to understand him still.
"Hmm...I remember there being mentioned that Garuda and a certain type of dragon share territory," Odette mused before taking another bite of food. Drake just winced. Dragons tended to dislike him, so he tended to avoid them as much as possible.
"That we do!" Everyone jumped, and Drake's eyes snapped to the source of the voice. A Garuda with the coloration of a parrot was perched on a tree in front of them, rocking from side to side. "I understand you're looking for me? What for?" Drake blinked for a moment. He wasn't quite sure what to say for a moment. Each of the summoners had been different. This one was cheerful and friendly.
"Uh." It took a few moments for Drake to gather his thoughts. "The Constellato told us to look for summoners from amongst non-humanoids. There was a Feather Circle by Esto Gaza that told us to find you, and also said you'd be able to tell us where to find a summoner among the Yans." Garuda clacked his beak for a moment, shifting from foot to foot as they thought.
"Nymph did mention something about that last time I talked to her. I can't tell you exactly where to find Yan, but I know where they live near. Also..." Garuda squinted at Drake until the archer pulled out the teardrop-shaped lapis lazuli stone. Garuda fluttered down to land in front of Drake and gingerly took the stone from him, tucking it under its wing somewhere. "Thank you. I loaned this to Feather Circle last time I saw them. Here, give this to Yan when you see them."
Drake blinked at the stone that was dropped in his hands after Garuda had pulled it from under their wing. A square cut stone that he almost thought was quartz lay in his palm. His memories told him that it should be a diamond, but he had never heard of a diamond that big. It was heavy, too.
"You should find them on an island near a really really big tree. With a mountain. None of us ever go to visit them there, it's too dangerous for us, but they always talk about two things. A big tree that can be seen even though it's not on the island, and the mountain on the island." Drake blinked, and his eyes widened all of a sudden.
"Oh! I know where that is!" He was surprised that it had taken him so long to remember where Vile Island was. Now that he was thinking, though, perhaps he'd mistaken another destination for Vile Island. That one would be a pain to find.
"I'm glad you do, because I don't," Zidane drawled, staring at the stone Drake held. The archer handed him the stone to look at before looking back at Garuda, who was staring at him intently. Drake tilted his head to the side, wondering what had the Garuda staring at him so much.
"You should bring things that protect against darkness. It's the rare eidolon that has power over it, but a proto-eidolon would have power over every element." Garuda's wings flicked for a moment. "Either that or something with the reflect status built into it. Humanoids are so good at making things." Drake blinked a little at that.
"We'll try to remember that, thank you." Garuda clacked their beak, looking pleased, and then took off in a shower of colored feathers. Drake picked a couple up off the ground to look at them as Zidane held the stone up to the light.
"I have no idea what this is, but it's not quartz. Or glass." Drake glanced back at Zidane and handed the feather to Odette, who tucked it into her braid with a small smile. Zidane handed the stone back to Drake when the archer gestured for it, but jumped as Drake found a stone to strike the gem against. "Woah, hey, careful with that!" Drake blew dust off of the gem and held it up before nodding. There wasn't so much as a scratch on it.
"Thought so. Diamond. It's the hardest stone. Unless there's a type of stone that's here on Gaia but not on Earth, but I'm starting to doubt that." Drake grinned at Zidane, who frowned. "This particular stone would be worth so much money on Earth. For some reason, people like diamonds there." Odette giggled.
"That's not the case here, though. People aren't as fond of colorless stones, unless they're using it for magic." Drake shrugged and put the stone in his belt pouch. This particular stone was spoken for anyhow. "Well, shall we get going? Preferably before any of the local dragons take notice of us?" More than one person glanced at the sky before they started back to where they left the Invincible.
Drake was distracted by the map for most of the trip back to Burmecia. Quina had apparently spent the entire day cooking for the people building Burmecia back up, and had brought some of that back to the ship in a large clay pot that Sabin had to carry.
Everyone was more occupied with eating as soon as possible than they were about finding out about the summoner. Quina's food was better than usual, probably because he/she had had more time to make the meal and had been cooking for more people than usual. Only once they were mopping up the last of the stew in their bowls with stale bread.
"So, you find that summoner today?" Drake nodded and dug in his belt pouch to find the diamond that Garuda had given him. Edgar leaned forwards at the object, looking fascinated. "Woah, that's a big stone. So where's the next summoner?" Drake sighed and leaned back as much as he could on a bench.
"You're not gonna like it." Both Sabin and Edgar gave him flat looks. Drake smiled wryly. "Vile Island." Sabin choked on his roll, and Edgar's face went white. "Yeah. Garuda didn't know our name for it, and has never been there, but it's kind of hard to recognize 'island with a mountain able to see a really big tree that doesn't grow on the mountain' as anything other than it." Sabin finally caught his breath and Edgar groaned, leaning forwards to place his forehead on the table.
"Why there?!" Drake shrugged as everyone else stared at the three of them. Edgar must have felt their stares, because he explained with his face still against the tabletop. "Vile Island is kind of a legend from Figaro. No one really talks about it anymore because most of the people that knew about it were killed. No one has ever come back from Vile Island, dead or alive. The only information we have about it comes from people who had gone past the island on a ship." Now everyone else seemed to understand why the brothers had had that particular reaction.
"Wait, so we have to go someplace that no one really knows what's there?" Drake nodded and sighed as Edgar finally sat up to glare at him. Zidane rubbed at his face with a groan. "Okay, so we need to approach this kind of like how we approached going to Terra. Not like we've only ever gone places where people went before us." Drake tilted his head to the side, Zidane had a point there.
"So back to Alexandria, get some supplies, and then head back over to Caledonia?" Everyone nodded, and Drake slid off of his bench. "Awesome. I'm gonna go crash, I haven't exactly slept very well lately." Drake walked off with a small smile and a wave, even though a couple of people looked slightly concerned that he had actually admitted he hadn't been sleeping well.
They spent only the morning gathering supplies from Alexandria. Drake wasn't part of the group that went into town, which he didn't mind. It gave him a chance to go over the map to see how many islands were even near the Iifa tree. They would have to do some hunting, yes, but if he managed to find the island before they got there, it would take less time to find the Yan so they could get off the island before anything horrible happened to them.
As the sun set, they saw the crown of the Iifa Tree peek over the horizon, casting a shadow on the sky as the sun sank behind it. Drake frowned at it, even as Zidane ordered the ship to land for the night, perched on a mountain that Edgar and Sabin had assured him wasn't habitated by a clan.
Drake found it nigh impossible to sleep that night, laying awake for a while before getting up to pace around the bridge. Eventually, he sat in front of the massive window and folded his legs in front of him. Meditation was significantly easier to manage than sleep, even if it did leave him somewhat tired once everyone else woke up. The coffee that Quina gave him helped a great deal, at any rate.
The ship skirted around the Iifa tree, and after a while, Drake spotted the island he was pretty sure was Vile Island. They flew over the island before Zidane finally found a place to set down near the shore. Drake had to take a few deep breaths before leading the group that had volunteered to go looking for the summoner off the ship. Sabin was still sulking that he'd been ordered by both Drake and Edgar not to come with.
The Mist made Drake jumpier than usual, especially when the wind stirred it up so he thought he saw movement where there was none. Even taking deep breaths didn't help much when most of what he was breathing in was what made him so jumpy in the first place. Getting to the forest did, for some odd reason, even though it increased the likelihood that they would get ambushed.
They didn't see anything for quite a while, which actually started to strike Drake as unusual. He wasn't the only one needing to stop to rest at that point, either, so they stopped in a clearing to sit and have some of the tea that Quina had made for them.
Drake was starting to feel the lack of sleep in a serious way, and was starting to nod off despite the dangerous situation. He ended up leaning against Edgar as he tried to keep from falling asleep as his companions talked quietly to each other. Some time later, he came awake with a start, listening intently. The others hadn't stopped chatting, though Edgar did notice when Drake tensed up. Shortly, everyone was looking at him as he scanned the forest in front of him.
"The birds stopped singing," was all that Drake said, though he kept his voice low. Edgar stiffened at that, knowing what Drake meant by it. Odette hadn't ever learned woodcraft, so she was understandably confused, though by the way that Amarant went silent, he had at least a vague idea of what Drake was warning them about.
"Why does that matter?" Drake sighed and heaved himself to his feet, feeling better for the brief nap. He stretched, though he was still looking around as he did so. The problem with noticing danger because the birds shut up was that you still had to spot the danger yourself. "Oh look, a sheep got lost." Drake tensed and turned to look at what Odette had noticed.
It was a Yan, and judging by the light coloration of its head, it wasn't the one they were looking for. Drake turned his head and saw two more stepping out of the brush. He reached out and stopped Odette as she was about to start towards them.
"I think we should get going," he said softly, starting to back up. "I don't think those are friendly." Drake turned his head to look at Amarant. "And please, no repeats of Ipsen." The monk scoffed under his breath, but backed away from the Yan anyhow. Their wariness didn't work to keep them out of the fight; the Yans charged.
If not for the protective spell that Odette threw up, Drake was pretty sure that one of them would not have made it back to the ship. Odette mixed a wind spell and a protect spell to launch the Yans away from them as they rushed back towards the ship. Edgar had to shove Drake to get him moving when he otherwise would have run alongside Odette.
Magically-hurled rocks nearly killed them as they ran. Odette had to use wind spells to knock the rocks away as Amarant watched her back. Drake scanned ahead of them as they ran, but didn't watch where his feet were landing. He yelped as his foot broke through a thin crust of plants and protected his head and face as he plummeted. He heard Edgar yell from above him, and stopped falling finally.
"I'm alright!" He pushed himself up and shook his head a bit before looking around. It looked like he had fallen into a den of some sort, but he didn't see what it belonged to. Looking up, he could see the hole he fell through, and Edgar glancing between him and the fight that was headed towards him. He had fallen quite a ways, and the wall looked crumbly. "I don't think I can get back out the same way I came down, though."
"No, you likely can't." Drake jumped at the voice, and spun to look at who had spoken. A Yan with a dark head got up from what looked like a nest with a small grunt. "It's been a very long time since I saw humans here. Tell your friends they can hide down here, I'll deal with my kin for you later." Drake blinked a couple of times before looking up.
"There's a friendly down here, offering us a hiding spot for the time being." Edgar stared at him for a moment, and Drake smiled wryly. "Yeah, not the most elegant way of finding a hiding spot, but any port in a storm, right?" Edgar groaned and looked up again, whistling to get Odette and Amarant's attention. They made it to where Edgar was pretty quickly, and Ed showed them the hole by jumping down it. Odette didn't seem to want to take the plunge, but Amarant picked her up and jumped down with her.
Interestingly enough, the hostile Yans didn't stick around after sniffing around the hole. Drake peered up for a moment after they left before turning to look at the Yan that was moving around nudging things. A soft light made him blink as a cast-off horn was tipped off of a fungus of some sort that glowed. He glanced around before sitting down in a cleared spot, adjusting his bow on his back.
"They won't try to attack you around me," their host said finally, moving to sit in front of them. "I wish I had food or something to offer, but I've never been host to anyone before. Usually the only humans I see are...well, what's left of them after my kin get to them." Drake grimaced at that. "They don't dare anger me, even though we Yan were blessed by the gods with power unlike any other species. I'm the only one that has studied the summoning arts." Drake blinked.
"Oh, then you're the one we came to speak to!" The Yan nodded, and Drake reached into his belt pouch to pull out the diamond that Garuda had given him. The archer set it in front of Yan, who got up and nosed it a bit. "Garuda told us to bring this to you." Yan nodded and sat back down.
"Yes, Nymph informed me of your request. With this stone, I should be able to lead the other summoners in placing a brief seal on Ozma. It will take a few days before we will be prepared, though. I'm afraid we aren't privy to where Ozma was sealed, though, so you ought to search for that while we do so." Drake nodded, and glanced upwards as the sounds of angry Yans filtered down.
"I believe we can ask for some help from the Constellato for that. Garuda suggested that we find things to protect against dark magic. Can you think of anything else that might help?" Yan shifted their feet a few times, blinking slowly as they thought.
"Regenerative magic would go a long ways in helping. Having it on a charm or something like that would help a great deal if you're using Reflect spells, too." Drake blinked at that. It sounded like it was the same type of advice that Garuda had given them. "Everything else is dependent on the area that Ozma was sealed into. You will need all the combatants you have, though. We will pray for your success."
Yan got up and started to walk to one side of his den. Drake turned his attention that way as there was a scuffling sound, and tensed as another Yan appeared. Their new friend stepped between the new Yan and the visiting adventurers and lowered its head, presenting its horns while growling. The new Yan tried to edge past the friendly one, magic crackling around its horns.
Another pulse of magic from the friendly Yan scattered the magic from the aggressive one, and the intruder was forced back out of the den. There was a loud thump noise of air being displaced from above ground, and silence suddenly fell over the forest. The friendly Yan came back down looking self-satisfied and proud of themself.
"Sorry about that, every once in a while I need to remind them that there's a reason they don't anger me. Now would be the best time to get you back to your ship, while the lesson is still fresh in their minds." Drake blinked before nodding and looking at the others. Odette was already starting to stand up and brush herself off.
"That sounds like a good idea, actually. The only reason we came here was to deliver the diamond to you." Drake stood and bumped his head against the roof as he straightened up. "Ow." Edgar chuckled a bit at that and stood as well, though he didn't hit his head on the roof of the cave.
There weren't any Yans besides their guide by the time they crawled out of the den, and the trip back to the Invincible was calm enough. When he turned to wave to Yan, though, he saw a crowd of unfriendly Yans just outside the forest they had walked into. Drake eyed them for a moment before stepping into the ship.
"We'll have to write down what's there," Edgar was telling Sabin. "We know why no one's come back before. If not for finding the summoner, I think we'd have joined the list of people that disappeared here." Drake made a headcount before waving to Zidane that they could leave. Then he went and sat down on a bench with a sigh.
After a while, he started to feel better. He had stopped being aware of the effect the Mist had on him while he was down there, but now he could feel himself unwinding. He still felt like he needed a shower in the worst way possible, but at least he no longer felt like he had to have eyes on the back of his head to stay safe.
Drake pulled a piece of wood from his belt pouch and started to sketch on it with the tip of his beltknife. In a moment, he had the outline of a Yan as seen from the side on one end and the outline of a Yan from the front on the side next to it.
"So, did we get any suggestions about how to tackle Ozma?" Drake glanced up from his little block of wood as Zidane walked over to sit next to him. A glance towards the controls got Zidane grinning. "There's a thing that flies the ship automatically if it's to a previously logged point. We're on our way to Dageurreo." Drake sighed a little at that.
"Both Yan and Garuda suggested we either find a way to protect against dark magic or have regenerative magic charms and reflect magic charms. We'll probably also need lots of potions and the like, even with regen spells." Drake twirled his knife in his fingers as he looked at the piece of wood without seeing it. "Lots of ethers as well. Gods only know where the fight will be, though. Or, well, to be more specific, I think the Costellato are the only ones that know where it is." Zidane sighed at that.
"Well, Dageurro has a pretty good stockpile of stronger potions and the like, and has some of the best artisans in the world, it's not a bad idea to stock up there. That's where Leviathan is, unless I'm mistaken, too." Drake thought for a moment before nodding.
"That sounds like a good idea. I'm pretty sure I can get a bath there, too. Every time I go into the Mist, I feel like it sticks to me." Drake rubbed the bare skin of his draw arm as if that would get rid of the feeling. "I'm looking forwards to not having to deal with that feeling anymore." Zidane grimaced a little at that.
"I've never felt that, to be honest. To me it just feels like I'm walking through a cloud, like what you get at the higher altitudes." Drake shrugged a bit and glanced subtly at Odette. She kept trying to wipe off her bared skin, a slightly strained look of polite interest on her face as she listened to Eiko.
"I think it might have something to do with the differences Odette and I have compared to the rest of you." Zidane frowned a little at that and glanced at Odette. "I've had this problem with the Mist ever since the two halves of my soul merged the first time, in Lindblum. I don't think it happened beforehand." Drake sighed and put his beltknife away, spinning the block of wood in his fingers.
"Makes sense. What type of person does Leviathan bless, anyhow? I don't think I've heard." Drake tilted his head to the side and put the piece of wood away before he got a splinter from it. Part of him was trying to figure out when they would get to the ancient library.
"Scholars. Doctor Tot is Leviathan's Chosen right now." Zidane rocked back with an odd look, and Drake blinked at him. "What were you expecting, with Leviathan residing in a library?" Drake shook his head with a small smile and stretched his legs out in front of him, taking a deep breath to try to work out the last of the anxiety that always gripped him in the Mist. "I'm gonna go walk around the ship, I don't think sitting is going to help right now." Zidane shrugged, and Drake patted the switch to open the door leading to the hallways.
Moving both helped Drake and didn't. The Mist clinging to his skin kept making him think that he saw things out of the corner of his eye, and the feeling was already natural to the ship, so it just intensified things. Keeping moving did allow him to get rid of the extra energy that the adrenaline gave him.
Eventually he adjusted to the feeling and made it back to the common area of the ship in time for a quick meal. Then he went pacing again. Odette looked concerned as he left again, but he noticed Zidane talking to him. Amarant found him after a while when he sat to rest his legs, still feeling fidgety.
"This thing with Ozma," Amarant began, and Drake looked up. The monk crouched to sit on the other side of the hallway. "Did you know about it?" Drake took a deep breath in as he rubbed at his calves, feeling them twitch under his boots.
"Yes and no. Not all iterations of the story included them. Most preferred to err on the side of accuracy, seeing as there isn't much about them that even we know. I'm sure you remember that there were things that the stories left out. For the most part, what happened with you was glossed over. The stories always followed Zidane more than anyone else. That's how I knew what was happening in Terra. I know only a little of what Kuja is doing. I know how he gets taken down in the stories, but those stories don't include me and Odette, let alone Sabin and Edgar." Drake sighed and folded his legs in front of him.
"So tell me." Drake blinked at Amarant, who sat as well. "Pacing isn't going to help you with the anxiety that's eating you. There isn't much that's left for you to hide, is there?" Drake shook his head and took a deep breath, his mind whirling.
"No, there really isn't. I'm just...not sure where to begin." Drake rubbed at his face for a moment, and closed his eyes, trying to sort out his thoughts. "My memories of it are a little on the foggy side as well, which doesn't help a whole lot. Basically, what Kuja is doing up there is opening a portal through time and space to that which birthed all life. On Gaia, on Earth, on Terra, too, I think. I don't know how he came to know about it. I don't think anyone can really wrap their minds around exactly how we're going to get there. All I know for sure is that there are a lot of enemies that will stand in our way." Amarant stared at him before sighing.
"If you can't put it into words, I'm sure it's truly bizarre. What have you heard of Ozma that wasn't here?" Drake drummed his fingers on his boot, chewing on his lower lip. His eyes were focused on the wall above Amarant's head.
"They were described as a sphere of swirling, constantly changing color. That's really the only thing I can remember." Drake grimaced. He had never looked into what it took to beat Ozma, and he had a feeling that it was about to come back to bite him in the ass.
"Huh. And the summoners said that it fights using magic?" Drake nodded, though he was still frowning. He had no idea how it actually fought. The summoners would know better than he would about that. The problem still lay in how to get where Ozma was, and finding it in the first place.
"Drake! Amarant! We're almost to Daggureo!" Both of them turned to look down the hall. Sabin had spotted them. Drake heaved himself up onto his feet with a grunt, wondering just how long he had spent pacing around the ship. Amarant padded along after Drake quietly enough that rake had to wonder if he'd been trained to be the Gaian equivalent of a ninja.
"That's good, means I get to take a shower soon. I need one." Drake ran his fingers through his hair, shuddering just a little bit. "I still feel like it's sticking to me." Both of them stared at him, and he shrugged. "Can't explain why, but the Mist just creeps me out."
"Well, the shower is waiting." Sabin shrugged a little at Drake with a small grin. Drake rolled his eyes and shoved his blood brother as he fell in step alongside him. The others were waiting by the warp down to the ground, and Drake smiled sheepishly at them.
There was a small scuffle with a Gimme Cat halfway to Daggureo, but shouting at it to go away whenever it begged for precious stones kept it from bothering them too much. As soon as they got into the library, Drake asked around until he was shown where the librarians took their baths. There was even hot water, hot enough that he had to slide into it slowly so that he could adjust to it.
He got the feel of the Mist off of his skin first and the soaked for a bit before pulling himself out and drying off. It would be kind of ridiculous if he'd needed someone to pull him out if he allowed the heat to sap all his strength. He got dressed in a clean change of clothes and stepped out to find his friends.
Odette wasn't present, probably still bathing and cleaning her hair, though the rest of the group was there, gathered around the map that Zidane had asked for before Drake went to bathe. Drake peered over Edgar's shoulder before hooking an arm around his neck and tugging to the side a little. He grunted as that got him an elbow to the gut and everyone's attention.
"Don't do that, Drake." Edgar sounded a little shaken, glaring at the archer until he got an apologetic smile. "With how tense everyone is, I might have hurt you." Drake shrugged and glanced at the map. There was nothing set on it besides at the corners to keep it from rolling back up.
"So, brainstorming? Has one of the Constellato stopped by to give information?" Edgar shook his head at that. "So why is everyone staring at the map? We don't have anywhere to start." Drake was aware that his voice sounded light and care-free. He felt the exact opposite, but if he acted as serious as the rest of them, they wouldn't be able to think straight for the stress.
"Not much else we can do, Dagger and Freya are off trying to find the equipment we need. Dagger has the funds, and Freya's got an eye for enchanted gear." Drake grimaced a little and ran his fingers over the edge of the map.
"Makes sense. Eiko, do you think you could get Leviathan's attention? He's a summon as well as a Constellato, after all." Drake scratched the back of his neck, leaning his weight on his other hand. "I have a vague idea of how to get Lady Maria's attention, but she's the one I bow to."
"I don't think so. I can't summon him, but Dagger can. Maybe we should ask the scholars? They ought to know how." Drake shrugged, then winced as his stomach growled. "Though maybe we should get some food first." Eiko was grinning as Drake rolled his eyes.
"I probably could use a bit of food, yeah. I didn't eat that much on the ship." Sabin laughed an moved away from the table. He hooked an arm around Drake's neck to drag him along. "H-hey!" Drake hopped a bit before turning around and ducking out from under Sabin's arm.
By the time the two of them came back from hunting down food, Dagger and Freya were on their way back, with a basket full of potions each. Drake lifted his eyebrows at that, though he also had a basket of bread rolls hanging from his elbow. Odette was standing next to Edgar at that point, her hair braided and pinned up to keep from dripping on her clothing.
"Ooh, food!" Odette smiled at Drake, her eyes flicking between his face and the basket he held. Drake chuckled and set the basket down next to her so she could dig into it. Drake waved to Dagger as she set her basket down with a sigh.
"The best potions money can buy, lots of ethers, and we've talked to the synthesist so he's making the charms we need. Turns out that Odette only needs something to hold a Reflect spell over her without her having to pay attention to it, he looked amused when we described the ring she wears." Drake felt his ears heating up.
"That's probably because he's the one that made it." Drake ran his fingers over his ear cuff, avoiding looking at anyone. He had thought he'd lost the shyness about having proposed to Odette, but apparently not.
"Makes sense. The charms aren't all in the form of rings, right?" Freya and Dagger both shook their heads to Sabin's question. "Good. Rings would probably break my fingers if I had to fight with them on." Drake glanced over at Sabin before shrugging a little. He didn't like wearing a ring because it pinched when he used his bow.
"We thought as much. He said he'd charm some ribbons to hold all the charms needed. It'd be easier to keep on than a set of rings." Drake blinked a bit at that, and his had went to the ribbon he was wearing on his arm again. "Has anyone been able to get in contact with the Constellato?"
"No. We were hoping you'd be able to get Leviathan's attention, Dagger, seeing as you can summon him." Dagger blinked at that then paused for a moment before pulling an aquamarine out from her belt pouch. Drake was pretty sure that it had the same type of magic on it as his did. It glinted as she set it on the table next to the map.
A few moments after it was set on the table, it glowed softly. Drake blinked and glanced around subtly, wondering if the Constellato was going to appear. The thing that changed was a drip of water that landed square on the map, and more than one person rushed forwards to dry it off quickly. Drake was one of them, and paused as he saw where the water drop landed. Zidane was already patting the water off of the map so that the ink wouldn't run.
"Hey, Ed." Drake leaned forwards and shoved Zidane's hands aside, leaning over the map. The ink hadn't even smudged. "What's this little island in the strait between Caledonia and the moogle homeland?" Everyone blinked at that, but the paper around the island was wet from the drop of water.
"Oh, that's the Pillar of the World. No one knows what's on top, it's impossible to climb it and the top is up above the clouds. Why?" Drake straightened back up and glanced at the aquamarine. It wasn't glowing anymore.
"I think we just got our answer of where Ozma is. Does Figaro have any legends about it?" Ed paused and thought for a moment before frowning and shaking his head. Drake looked to Sabin who shook his head with a clueless look on his face.
"There might have been one, but all Ed and I ever heard about it was its name. It wouldn't hurt to try looking there once we're prepared, though. We do need to get back in contact with the summoners, though." Drake nodded at that and ran his fingers through his hair as he looked at the map. "It is kind of weird that Leviathan didn't bother to talk, though." Drake laughed at Sabin's griping.
"I dunno, it seems kind of fitting. He's the Constellato of scholars, so he was probably a bit busy when we bothered him." Dagger shrugged, a small smile on her face, and picked the stone back up. She rolled it around on her hand before putting it back in her belt pouch.
"Okay, can you spread out the potions and such you got? We should organize them according to who holds them. And figure out what role everyone is going to have in the battle." Zidane switched tracks pretty quickly, and everyone blinked at him before accepting that they apparently found where the fight was going to be.
Hours later, Drake went exploring, and found his way to the very top of the library. He wasn't terribly surprised to find that there was an observatory up there. He sat on the edge of a wide, open window, and looked out over the ocean. Or, well, the Mist that covered the ocean. From the distance he was from it, it did look an awful lot like clouds.
"You have something on your mind." Drake twitched a little at the voice, and turned his head to look at the person that stood at the head of the stairs. He blinked, and realized that the man had fish scales along his jawline.
"Not as much as usual, but yes." Drake turned away from Leviathan, now that he had recognized him, and looked over the Mist again. "How many people like Odette and I have been born since the Iifa Tree began filtering out souls?" He had to hope that Leviathan wouldn't tell him to figure it out on his own.
"Ten at the most, I believe. You and your fiancé are the first to have had an explanation of how it happened." Drake frowned a little at that, and Leviathan sat on the sill at the other end of the same window, his legs draped out over the outside of the window.
"Did they have problems with the Mist as well?" Leviathan didn't answer for a while. Eventually, he nodded. Drake sighed through his nose at that and turned his eyes from the Mist to the moon as it rose. "So it is because we are different."
"The Mist is made of the dregs of souls. It clings to everything, but those who have not had the lost half of their soul mesh together don't notice because there is space for extra within them. They feel the effects of the Mist stronger than most." Drake nodded at that, accepting it.
"I'd been aware of that, at least, even before I was aware I was a Whole Soul. The feel has changed on occasion. When I was in the Iifa Tree itself, it felt self-aware, and aware of us. After we came back from Terra, though, it's been different once again." Drake frowned, trying to put the feeling into words. "It feels...driven. Scared. Much more aware than I had felt outside of the Iifa Tree before." Leviathan hummed a bit at that.
"The fragments of souls in the Mist that had covered the Mist continent had had time to cease their awareness of their surroundings. The Mist that now covers the world is newer, younger." Drake paused at that, pieces clicking together in his head.
"They're the souls of those killed by war. There's a delay in the release of Mist from the Iifa Tree. So those who had died when Kuja plunged the Mist Continent into war, those that weren't sucked into the engines of the Invincible, it took time to convert them into Mist." There was a feeling of dread building in his gut.
"Yes. With time, they will coalesce into proper souls again, provided they are not used as fuel. The influx of souls coming from Earth shall help, certainly, though it will take some time before an equilibrium is found between the two." Drake sighed and pulled a knee up to his chest.
"The only way I can see the population on Earth dropping is either plague or war." Drake opened his mouth and then closed it again, taking a deep breath. "What do you think happened to my body there? Or Odette's body there?" Leviathan was silent for a while, though his expression closed off.
"...The only way that a soul can travel between worlds to mesh with its other half is if the body the soul abandoned dies." Drake felt his heart thump for a moment, and he let out a short sigh. Part of him had been expecting that. The other part was in denial still.
"I see...So there's nothing there for me anymore. Somehow that's...hard to swallow." Drake's voice trailed off, and he sighed again. "I wonder how they're all coping." His thoughts went to the mother he'd had on Earth, and his father there. Odette - Cass's family, they would be even more heartbroken, losing her only a few years after her grandparents.
His mother would blame herself, he suddenly realized. She'd gone to take a nap when he and Cass had gone to play that game. She would have found their bodies and thought that if she'd just been there she might have been able to save them. His mind followed that possibility, and he closed his eyes, rubbing at them as he felt tears well up in them.
Leviathan left him to process the information on his own. Drake stayed up at the observatory until the moon set. By then he'd managed to compose himself. He didn't want to have to explain to his friends that he was grieving the life he had had on Earth, and the people that thought him dead.
Drake slept without dreams that night, and woke up well after the others. He felt lighter than he had in ages, though he didn't move any faster. That was proved when he sparred with Sabin a little that morning while Odette went with dagger to check on the synthesist's progress.
He started to notice the anger whenever Earth crossed his thoughts. He had to stop and take deep breaths to calm himself, but he didn't push the thoughts, or the anger, away. He needed to come to terms with this before they went to fight Ozma or Kuja. At the very least, he had to get past the anger stage of things so that he could think clearly. The chances of getting completely through the grieving process so quickly was pretty much impossible. Even though he'd been in denial of it for so long.
He found himself wondering how to tell Odette after a while, but he couldn't get much privacy with anyone, let alone his fiancé, as the inn at the library was pretty much just a section of more common books with hammocks strung up between them. Eventually he sighed and told himself that he'd talk to her about it after they were done with Ozma.
Finally, the synthesist was done with the charms. Drake received a purple ribbon, which he put on his arm so that he could retire the old green ribbon. The texture was odd to him, but the pressure felt better than the old, worn-out ribbon. Odette had a ring that she placed on the ring finger of her other hand, to balance out the Rebirth Ring that she already wore. Drake didn't pay much attention to what the others did with their charms, though there were more ribbons than there were anything else.
It was too late to leave that night, so they had one last meal at the library. Quina had apparently invited everyone else that had been staying there to eat with them, and had made more than enough food for an army. Drake ate his food and went to the observatory. He felt better up there than he did among the stacks of books. The wind that swept through the space reminded him of the mountains of Caledonia, for certain, but there was something singularly wonderful about that space.
After a while, Odette came up the stairs, looking amused as soon as she saw where Drake was sitting. She moved to the other side of the window and perched there, drawing her legs up to her chest as she looked out over the Mist. She looked peaceful, with the moonlight catching on her hair.
"You've been feeling off lately." Drake twitched at her words. "Is it because you found out we can't go back?" Drake's eyebrows slowly came together in a frown. Odette didn't look at him. "Kuja told me years ago, before suppressing my memory. I've had enough time to get used to it." Drake sighed and looked out over the Mist again.
"I thought I was going to have to tell you," he finally said softly. Odette chuckled a little, spinning her newer ring around on her finger. "I think- no, I know I'd already known, I just refused to accept it. I don't think I'm going to completely come to terms with it before we fight Kuja." Odette shrugged and closed her eyes as a breeze swept through the window.
"You don't have to worry about rushing it. I'll be by your side." Drake sighed, though this time it was with a bit of relief. He lifted his hand up to run his fingertips over the ribbon around his bicep. "No matter what happens. We left Earth together, we'll stay together." Drake frowned a little.
"Right." Drake's eyes slid towards Caledonia. Towards the Iifa Tree, and the Pillar of the World. Everything kept coming back to Caledonia. His past, their quest, their future. It was where Earth was tethered to Gaia. It was where Terra had latched onto Gaia. It was his home.
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End Notes: I'll try to remember to put out the next chapter in a few days. I'm actually very close to the end of the story with where I am in writing now. Still a bit annoyed at how little the last disk has on it, though. Lots of pretty videos, yes, but not a whole lot of plot.