A/N: Well, this had been a long time coming. It actually took a rather encouraging review and some PMs to get me here for this one. The chapter seems much shorter than I'd like, but it is the end of the beginning arc after all so I suppose I don't mind. There is a lot going on before and behind the story in this fic so there may seem to be a lot of hand-waving and ass-pulls, but they aren't without consequences and will most likely be explained later. So here's a shout out to Ijustwannahelp for the review and series of PMs as well as EvaShinobiKaiserKnight, DschingisKhan, and many others for their active support. Thank you all.
FATE Encountered
"Remnants of the Dark pt. 1"
Eleanor found herself shoved back violently as Louise shoulder tackled her. As she recovered from skidding backwards several feet on her rear, Eleanor let out a furious growl.
"LOUISE! Seriously what is wrong with..," her tirade was interrupted by a sharp twang of metal bouncing off the marble floor.
As her own vision slowly adjusted, she had witnessed the mass of bright pink that was her sister stumble to her feet, with a flash of sparks accompanied with a startled yelp as Louise managed to swat away the swing of a short sword.
"W-what is going on!?" Eleanor struggled to bring herself to her feet while watching her sister fend off something in the dark.
The shock of seeing someone so small and normally seen as rather delicate move with such agility nearly caused her mind to grind to a halt, yet as her eyes fully adjusted to the dark she found her sister's opponent to be the thing that nearly broke her mind. Beady red eyes that dimly glowed, a rusted and chipped short sword, and yellowed dirty bone.
'Is that...a skeleton? A damned skeleton! There is undead down here?' Eleanor grit her teeth as she brought her hands over each of her various pockets and hiding places. Only to find her only wand shattered and useless from her fall.
"Oh, by the founder," she gulped and shuddered as her eyes shot back to her sister.
Louise yelped, squealed, and panted as she struggled to parry or block every strike sent her way. Her body simply couldn't keep up with her mind, despite whatever sorcery granted her the knowledge of dagger use and the accompanied skills and movements. She simply didn't have the training and muscle memory to keep up, and her muscles and bones ached and burned with the effort.
The clicking multiplied and echoed elsewhere, causing Louise to panic. It wasn't coming from her current foe.
"Louise! Look out!" The voice of Eleanor rang out from behind, followed by the sound wood shattering against bone.
Seeing a second skeleton behind her sister, Eleanor had grabbed a chair in panic and rushed at the newcomer sending it rolling back onto the floor and obliterating the chair in the process.
SCREEEEE~
The momentary respite caused by Eleanor's intervention was short lived as something black and about the size of a house dog slammed into her back, causing her to fall forward with something that clawed, hissed, and screeched from her back.
He watched from the outskirts of the room, relatively safe in the darkness, clutching his most precious tome to his chest. The various creatures that invaded his home before now had free reign over the area, his lantern having been the only thing keeping them at bay for so long. How long he simply didn't know, time no longer mattered to the tonberry. The two strangers in his domain that caused this mess however, did matter.
The pink haired Hyur seemed to have the makings of a novice rogue, though did the Rogue's Guild even exist anymore? Hadn't they been wiped out with the rest of the city? Could she be an Adventurer? And what of the blonde one? She shown no inclinations towards any vocation, and despite her apparent age shown even less experience than the Pink one.
With a low whine he shoved those thoughts from the forefront of his mind, instead he decided to think of a solution to this dilemma. It was something he believed his beloved would approve, she wouldn't allow anyone to suffer a death at the whims of darker beast.
'But...what CAN I do?'
He gulped heavily as he realized the young Hyur had taken his knife, and his own magicks had atrophied with time. He clutched his tome deeper towards his chest. It was all that remained of his beloved, the one that sought to cure his rancor curse of the tonberry. Shuffling his feet to affirm his posture upright, having noticed the elder Hyur taken down by a vilekin. He couldn't determine what kind exactly, but a fate left to one of those wasn't particularly pleasant.
With a deep breath and briefly closing his eyes, he determined just what he would do. The Pink one could hold off the Ashkin for some time now, but her companion seemed nigh helpless. So he started his mad dash straight at the pinned Hyur. The jolt of the impact forced his tome from his fin-hands, but his resolve to live up to his late beloved's desires drove him further as he tumbled with the Vilekin across the floor, managing to topple it onto its back. He then proceeded to bash his fin-hands into its many eyed face, panicked squeals pealing out in the darkness from both tonberry and beast.
Eleanor had been beset by panic and pain ever since that THING latched onto her back. Unable to reach the creature as it tried its best to rend open her back, she had begun to sob pathetically as she was forced to consider the fate she and her sister may have to face. Unable to buck the creature from her back she had laid her head down in acceptance when a squeal rent through the air and the weight on her back was relieved. In confused panic she whipped her head around to see an odd green thing pummeling the beast that tormented her earlier.
'This..I have to do something!'
As if a fire had been lit within her she started to scramble to her feet, only for her leading hand to grasp at the leathery surface of a book that wasn't there before. At the single touch, her mind reeled back in pain as her world ground to a halt around her
Dearest sister of the favored child, please heareth mine words...
Eleanor paled at the voice, and paled even further as the darkness was slowly replaced by an endless void of blue.
In the distance in all direction, tiny shards of crystalline stone floated listlessly, devoid of any shimmering light they normally would have held, save for a single shard that floated before her.
I beg thee, the lady doest not accept mine gift. Wilt thee accept?
Her eyes widened the more the voice spoke to her. The desperation almost palpable in the tone. Eleanor's lips moved voicelessly in attempt to answer, yet no sound came at her command.
'Please, if it'll help Louise...I'll accept anything!'
Her face contorted to that of sorrowed anguish as she let her head sag on in shame. Her only wish at the moment was the safety of her sister, the sister she was guilty of hurting so many times before.
Then lift thy head proudly. Protect that lady best thee can. I bestow mine blessing onto thee. If't be true thee allow, then I shalt help thee ever further this once, as more would breaketh thee...
'Please, anything...'
Then hark, the echos of time shall speaketh to thee!
Once more pain returned to her mind, but this time she was too enthralled by the images that accompanied it. A giant of a woman fighting alongside the green beast she seen earlier, casting magic she couldn't quite comprehend using a book and quill as a medium. Massive motes of light smashed against every manner of undead, instectoid, and demonic beasts. All the while bringing in an ambient aura of green light that invigorated herself and the green one and stitching up wounds even as they were inflicted.
But then it all faded and the darkness returned. Her eyes still retained the acclimation towards the dark as they had before, and in her sight was surreal. She found she had made it to her feet at some point during her hallucinations.
Before her was a stunned Louse, staring at her with wide eyes and a dagger hanging in the air mid-parry, the skeleton she had been fighting was but a smoldering pile of ash before her. To her side was the green thing with equally wide eyes that seemed to shimmer in awe. In her hands however was the final nail in the coffin so to speak, a glowing tome opened wide in one hand and an ethereal pen hovering above it gripped tightly in her other hand.
'It...was no hallucination...'
Glancing down at the pages before her, she found the vast majority of it foreign to her, yet a couple of lines seemed to call to her. Eleanor smiled wickedly at what she could understand, what came next seemed borne out of instinct from an unknown source. Her lips mouthed the foreign words in an inaudible whisper as she scribbled in the air runes that corresponded to those in the tome. And her smile widened when she finished.
"PHYSICK!" With the final word she nearly screamed.
Louise was enveloped in an emerald light as she shivered in the sensations that flowed over her in waves. The superficial wounds she had accumulated nit closed and bruises faded as she felt her energy slowly return.
"S-sis?" Louise stammered in confusion as she dodged the swing of another skeleton.
"Louise! You're not crazy! Ah-I heard it too! The voice, just accept it as real! Because IT IS!" Eleanor nearly screamed as she let loose more healing magic and motes of light that set the offending creatures staggering.
In the midst of the tirade an impish beast had snuck up on her, only to be tackled from the air by the green thing, catching Eleanor's attention.
The green thing looked up into Eleanor's eyes with a gleam of hope.
"Th-thank you?" She smiled as the thing yipped at the acknowledgment and took up a protective stance behind her.
'The voice? Is real? I'm not going crazy!? Does she really mean she heard it too?'
Between swatting away the rusted blades of the skeletons, Louise stole looks at her eldest sister as she fervently cast impossible magic and the green thing seemingly protecting her back.
'Then that means...the Gift?'
Doth thee believeth now?
She was already used to the somewhat invasive presence, but the voice never got any easier to understand, with such odd dialect.
"I-I think I do...now...," she all but whispered.
(Final Fantasy XIV – FATE (Boss Battle))
Before, every action she had taken during the fight felt like she had been swimming up stream or moving against the grain of sand paper. Difficult mostly, but painful at times. But now, with her acceptance, it seems as though she felt herself being swept up in the flow of the stream. Her dreams had slowly melded into her own self with each stroke of one of her knives. As though the cat-woman in her dreams guided each movement, each strike of the blade, kick, and dodge.
From the haze that clouded her consciousness she only scarcely realized the extent of the havoc she brought upon the monsters that surrounded her sister and herself. A skeleton was shattered as she vaulted over and behind it, a swift kick shattering it's spine before it the rest of it scattered about the floor. A spider found a dagger lodged in the midst of it's many eyes as Eleanor sent a bolt of light that nearly vaporized the beast. After that, several of the impish devils backed away in confusion and fear, showing a level of intelligence and preservation instinct she hadn't thought they had. The din of battle slowly ebbed to silence as Spiders and Imps retreated to the darkness and the skeletons lay broken around them.
Only the sound of panting from the two women and squeaky gasps of the green thing echoed in the chamber could be heard, having earned some semblance of safety Louise collapsed to her knees.
"Louise!" Eleanor darted to her sister's side in panic.
"I'm alright big sis, I think...ouch...," Louise cringed as she clasped at her right thigh.
In her panic Eleanor pulled up the pants leg of Louise's guard uniform to reveal a growing patch of blue-grey bruises that spread across her sister's leg. Soon after Louise's arms fell limp and the soft but pained breathes of sleep reached Eleanor's ears. Quickly examining her sister's arms Eleanor found similar bruising on both and only assumed the same for her other leg as a voice in the back of her head chimed in.
Nev'r again wilt I doth this. The risk, much too high.
Eleanor understood well enough as a warm wetness streamed from above her upper lip. A quick swipe of her thumb revealing blood as her head was wracked by a splitting migraine. She hugged Louise close as she barely registered the panicked yelling of her assistants finally returning. She allowed herself to be engulfed in darkness as she slowly succumbed to her own pain.
POST A/N: Figured I'd include these because some people seem to like them.
Louise
LVL 5 Rogue (LVL 26 via ECHO)
Hyur Midlander (channeling Miqote Seeker of the Sun via ECHO)
Like sharp things.
Eleanor
LVL 6 Arcanist (LVL 34 via ECHO)
Hyur Midlander (channeling Roegadyn Sea Wolf via ECHO)
Has yet to summon a Carbuncle
Mr. Tonberry
LVL ? Scholar
LVL ? WTF he a Tonberry
He's a Tonberry, and awesome for it. Also likes being praised.