Chapter Thirty-One: Ascending Madness; a Lighthouse on the edge

'And if I should choose revenge, what then?'

Ashe asked in a bloodless voice as the party stood staring up at the magnificent structure of the Pharos rising up like a pinnacle of carven stone from the Ridorana.

'Your woes will be your own.' Reddas replied with judgemental reproach.

The sermon and the warning finished for the day the rest of the party followed Reddas up towards the Ridorana and the entrance of the Pharos.

' Vaan. A word.'

Balthier called to the boy as they both hesitated under the protective shadow of the Strahl.

'If something untoward should happen, you're taking the Strahl.'

Balthier murmured immediately suppressing his own muted surprise at his words, eyes glued to the heights of the Pharos, the jutting points of stone that seemed to stab upwards at the sky.

' Untoward?' Vaan sounded worried, which was heartening at least.

Balthier shrugged, ' I am the Leading Man,' he mocked dryly, though even Balthier was not sure who it was that mockery was directed at himself, Vaan, the world?

' I may have to do something heroic.'

He watched Fran moving ahead, head high, eyes fixed on the Pharos. It seemed to Balthier that his partner was leaving him behind.

' Don't worry. I'll show you how to fly her.' He nodded to the Strahl before setting off to join the rest of the group.

'I can't believe they call these things Cassie's. They don't look like any Cassie I've ever met.'

Vaan muttered tugging Diamond blade from the split skull of one of the pink and white and fiercely ugly Marlboro fiends with the misleadingly gentle name.

Balthier smirked, checking on the Spica, it was good to have a gun in his hands again. Blades were fine and good, but Balthier only ever felt truly comfortable with a gun.

' They have a woman's temper though.'

Balthier opined nodding his head in the direction of Penelo and Ashe who were tearing into a Deathclaw with unrestrained vigour.

'Yeah, I guess.'

Vaan's own lack of experience with those of the female persuasion accenting the doubt in his words; seeking firmer ground Vaan's eyes alighted on the blade strung to Balthier's belt.

'Hey, Balthier, what's that sword?'

Balthier allowed himself a grim smile as he stroked a hand over the sheath.

'This? This is a last resort, Vaan. All good pirates have one.'

'Huh?'

He chuckled at Vaan's blank expression, then feeling generous and perhaps motivated by Reddas' words back in Balfonheim, though Balthier's front brain refused to admit to seeing Vaan as any form of apprentice, he pulled the Deathbringer sword loose.

' Wow.' Instantly Vaan's grubby little hands came out to touch.

Balthier moved the sword from his reach and held it out so the sun caught on the heavy black iron hilt and chased over the darkened blade.

'Where'd you buy that? I didn't see that in Balfonheim.' Vaan sounded almost aggrieved.

'No, these are rare swords Vaan and damned expensive. On occasion they have been known to bring instant death to those they strike, hence the name, Deathbringer.'

' Really?' Vaan was captivated.

Balthier threw the blade in the air, let it cartwheel end over end, the sunlight flashing like cut diamond on the blade, and caught the sword neatly, offering the blade, hilt first, to Vaan.

'The situation doesn't appear to call for either heroics or last resorts at the moment Vaan, so you can borrow her for the time being.'

He fixed the delighted boy with a quelling glare before relinquishing his grip on the sword.

'I trust I don't need to remind you to take care of her? If anything happens to this sword instant death will be the least of your worries, understood?'

'Totally.' Vaan nodded vigorously, ' You can trust me, Balthier.'

'Hmm.' Balthier sighed doubtfully, Vaan already running off with Deathbringer to show the ever attentive Penelo.

'In generous spirits today, are we?' Fran murmured as he finally caught up to the group.

Her enormous, and in Balthier's view, quite ugly Traitor's bow strung to her back, she stood hip cocked and confident in the shadow of the sun and the Pharos.

'Leading Man, Fran, just setting the scene.' Balthier shrugged.

She quirked an eyebrow questioningly and he dutifully elaborated.

' It appears as though we are reaching the conclusion of this story Fran, a leading man needs his wits about him. It wouldn't do to let things slide in the closing act.'

For a moment both Balthier and Fran were drawn to look up at the Pharos.

It's shadow cast long across the Ridorana. Even the thunderous roar of the waterfall seemed muted in its dark and patient presence.

Allowing himself a moments honesty Balthier turned to Fran, ' I like this not, Fran.'

' This is not the end of our story, Balthier.'

Fran replied calmly and with the utter confidence he had come to depend on at the times his own stock of bravado simply wasn't enough.

'It is perhaps premature to be bequeathing the Strahl and Deathbringer to young Vaan.' She added pointedly.

'Ah, so you overheard that little tete-a-tete did you?'

' You suspect we shall encounter Dr Cid within, do you not?' Fran fixed him with her unflinching and all-knowing regard.

'Call it a son's intuition, if you will.'

Balthier attempted to make light of the truth she had revealed that he would have preferred to ignore.

Fran cocked her head, ' do not worry. I shall be with you.'

'Hey, Fran!'

Vaan called from where the rest of the party had gathered about the gigantic entrance gateway to the Pharos.

' There's something written here.'

Vaan was standing peering at an engraved plaque set into the gateway of the door. Fran left Balthier's side to read the ancient writing.

' Engraved it would appear. It is old.'

She murmured walking towards the plaque and studying the inscription.

Balthier found himself drifting silently up to stand by Ashe; he waited with the Princess for Fran to finish reading aloud the cryptic warning supposedly left by Raithwall.

'Those without power seek it not. Those with power trust it not.'

Fran intoned, her odd inflections giving ominous accent to already unfriendly words.

'By Raithwall's hand.' Fran murmured thoughtfully.

'Raithwall?' Ashe staggered forward as if struck by some hidden force.

'This surprises you?' Fran almost laughed.

Yet Balthier wondered at the slightly mocking undertone to her words. It seemed, suddenly to Balthier, that he did not know Fran as well as he thought.

'Mysterious words.' Fran mused aloud as she almost circled Ashe.

' Their meaning shrouded, yet Raithwall's blood flows in your veins. This warning he left for you. He must have known he would not be the last the Occuria would call.'

Balthier repressed the frown that wanted to make its presence felt upon his brow as he stood at Ashe's side and looked over the Princess' head to Fran.

Fran looked back implacably but something in her eyes as she briefly met his gaze recognised the question in his and promised him answers.

Answers which would have to wait, for as soon and the party attempted to enter the Pharos' first ascent they were accosted by a surprisingly spritely desiccated Wyrm corpse.

' Nice to have such a warm welcome, eh, Princess?'

He drawled as he blasted at the creature, sending flakes of dried and mummified flesh into the air.

' Less talk more killing Balthier.'

Ashe grumbled hauling herself up from where one heavy blow from the creature's skeletal wing had sent her tumbling head over heels to land at Balthier's feet.

The fight was not too terribly life threatening, Vaan proving surprisingly adept at handling Deathbringer and Basch hacking off dusty clumps of undead Wyrm with his Defender great sword.

'What I want to know.'

Ashe admitted as she backed off to cast a curative spell on herself to remove the sapping effects of the creature's talons.

'Is how these things seem to know to come alive when we approach, I have seen no evidence of magicked sensors or the like.'

'Ah, well the current prevailing theory favoured by Vaan and Penelo, who you shall be delighted to hear have given this excessive thought.'

Balthier began as he and Ashe picked themselves up from dodging a fire ball ejected from the Wyrm's mouth. ' Is that it is all your fault Princess.'

'Mine?'

Ashe demanded as she cast a quick healing spell on Basch who, alongside Reddas, was landing the finishing blows to the creature.

' Yes, I believe they are calling it the Raithwall affect. The oft remarked upon shared blood being something akin to a tracer that sets off these guardian beasties.'

Balthier quickly beat at his sleeves growling in frustration as he looked upon his singed cuffs; around them both the rest of the party dusted themselves off and recovered from the battle.

Ashe paused in the process of smoothing her collar. ' Vaan and Penelo came up with this notion?'

'And a great many others.' Balthier mock shuddered.

'Like I predicted back in the Sandsea, Ashe, they are fulfilling the duties of entertainers very well.'

Ashe watched the couple in question, Vaan was busy being treated for a profusion of cuts and scrapes by Penelo, the boy taking pains to carefully wipe clean Deathbringer's blade.

Ashe looked thoughtful, ' It is strange to think that had it not been for the Empire I would never have met them both, my own subjects.'

'Yes. The Empire has many heinous crimes to answer for, doesn't it?'

He smirked; Ashe actually rolled her eyes at him before striding off to the front as they entered the first ascent.

'Now this is impressive.'

Balthier was forced to admit on a breath of awe walking over to the swirling, upward funnel of water droplets that filled the inner circle of the Pharos.

Fascinated Balthier came up to the railing and craned his neck to look up towards the distant heights of the Pharos. Water vapour was cool and refreshing on his face.

' How do you suppose this works, hmm?' He asked Fran as she silently joined him by the railings.

The rest of the party, perhaps tired from the day's activities, were more pre-occupied with setting up camp in the entranceway.

' I do not know. I sense the Occuria's hand in its design.'

The doorways to a tightly packed system of passageways and corridors to the east and west of their current location were blocked by a paling.

Fran suspected that the means to remove the paling would be easy enough to find but had suggested it was better to do in the morning with clear heads. No one had argued.

'A little heavy-handed for you, wasn't it?'

He murmured in aside as he glanced back to make sure none of the other party was in earshot.

Fran gave him nothing but an impassive mask, Balthier felt something that might almost have been annoyance if it had been anyone but Fran standing there.

' Raithwall leaving warnings for his descendants against the Occuria, a tad unlikely don't you think? Especially as he used their stones to carve himself out a kingdom. Ashe is not a fool.'

Balthier's voice was light as the water spray from the funnel cloud before them, his fingers itched upon his cuffs and he instead curled them around the railing.

Fran remained quiet for a second, then nodded, conceding the point.

' I believe this Sun Cryst is a danger Balthier, as much a danger as the Manufacted Nethicite. It must be sundered, not used.'

He let out a deep breath he had not realised he was holding. ' If that is the case Fran then I trust your judgement. The Cryst must be destroyed.'

He caught in his peripheral vision Fran's slight smile, the almost imperceptible relaxing of her stance that suggested she may have been worried he would disagree.

Balthier found his eyes rooting out Ashe, who was helping to lay out cutlery for the meagre rations they had packed.

'I dare say this compact we have made shall leave our Princess and her beleaguered kingdom high and dry.'

He pushed himself away from the railing and went to claim his share of the rations. 'Can't be helped I suppose.'

Balthier turned back to Fran, ' Just promise me, Fran, that when you decide it is time for us to deal with the Cryst, you give me sufficient warning, hmm? We are still partners after all.'

Fran watched him, her gaze spearing from him to look over his head to the Princess. She nodded once.

'We are partners still.' She agreed.