Chapter 22- Pleasure and Pain
As the fireworks continued to light up the darkened sky in Bevelle Spira's newest couple watched from their high balcony. Seymour sighed heavily and stepped back. Yuna looked nervously towards him as he did so.
"It has been a long day, I am going to retire." He said turning and entering back into their room disappearing into the darkened doorway.
Yuna looked towards the doorway and then down towards her feet which were still being lit by the different glows of the fireworks overhead. She pondered to herself for a moment and awkwardly stood holding her gloved hands. Yuna thought to herself what her guardians were doing and where they might be in the large city below, this was the first night she had been separated from them in a while. She was sure they were probably somewhere close by, in case she might need them for whatever reason.
Yuna sighed and held her hands together and finally stepped back into the room from the balcony. The air inside felt much cooler and cleaner than the slightly humid air outside. There inside the room she saw the figure of Seymour, her husband. His back was facing her and she took a sharp breath of surprise as she saw him bare from the waist up. It was silly she thought because his normal clothes showed his bare chest all the time but yet seeing him without his large robes on seemed strange, with the long sleeves that seemed to cover his arms and hands as if he were ashamed of them. It seemed that all Guado wore such long sleeves too.
With his long fingers Seymour removed his tall white embroidered headdress that he had worn for the ceremony and pulled it off of his long hair spikes carefully and sat it on the dresser in front of him. Seymour looked up into the mirror in front of him and saw Yuna looking at him curiously in the background, a slow smile grew across his face and he turned to face her. Yuna gasped slightly as he looked at her and turned her eyes away and started blushing madly. Seymour narrowed his eyes slightly and let out a small chuckle as he shifted his weight on his hips and he stared at her.
"Your shyness is really unnecessary lady Yuna." He said watching her bright red face.
"Your grace! Forgive me I-I-" she said holding her hands nervously feeling the heat in her blushing cheeks.
Seymour tilted his head and stared at her silently. Yuna felt his eyes upon her and finally looked up and met his gaze, his piercing beautiful eyes met hers and stared her down. "Lord Seymour.." She mumbled softly as she got lost in his gaze. Yuna opened her mouth to speak but found herself unable to in his presence as she saw him looking at her. The warm glow and flicker of the candles illuminated their figures as they stared silently at each other from across the room. Seymour blinked slowly and his violet-blue eyes glowed slightly in the low light. Finally, Seymour took his long clawed hand and extended it slowly out to Yuna without saying a word.
Yuna emitted a nervous sigh as she looked at him with his hand stretched towards her for her to take. Slowly she walked towards him and hesitantly placed her gloved hand within his clawed hand. She watched as his long clawed fingers curled around her hand slowly. She turned her gaze up at him, realizing again just how much taller he was as he towered over her. She became lost in the sight of him as she looked up at him. Without his large robes she could now see the entirety of the tattoos on his chest, swirls of black ink across his muscular frame in the shape of tribal dragons with gaping maws and claws outstretched to each other almost as if they were guarding the great Maester. Yuna's eyes trailed lower and couldn't help but stare curiously at Seymour's bare abdomen and its strange muscle groups, which was one of the things that truly identified him as not being human, yet as strange and different as it looked she found it attractive. Yuna found herself completely enamored with the handsome Maester and looked up at him in wonderment. Seymour had a way of carrying himself in a constantly calm and confident sense and it washed over Yuna as he bent over her slowly. She felt all the pressure and stress of being a Summoner and the expectations of others suddenly flow away as she felt his sweet breath against her neck. Yuna closed her multi-colored eyes as she felt Seymour's warm lips slowly press against her neck softly kissing her.
"My soul…finally becomes whole with your bond Yuna." Seymour said in his calm yet stern tone to her as he kissed her.
Yuna suddenly became concerned with his statement. "B-but Seymour…" she said with guilty feelings rising upwards from her. She realized with fear that with Seymour's power he might try and stop her from continuing her journey. "You know I must…" She said trying to form the words in protest, her face reddened with embarrassment. "I won't stop my pilgrimage for you, I must defeat Sin!" she blurted out to him. Seymour stopped and pulled away from Yuna with her statement he took her by the shoulders with his clawed hands. He looked deeply at her with a strange smile across his face and chuckled slightly with her protest.
"Your eyes, they burn with resolve, beautiful!" Seymour exclaimed as he looked at her and rushed forward placing his lips on hers for a long kiss. Yuna struggled slightly in protest, but as Seymour's warm soft lips intertwined with hers she melted into his embrace. Yuna's eyes closed once again in sheer pleasure as her mind drifted into a calm.
Seymour pulled away slowly from the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, his blue veined markings rubbing gently against her skin, as he breathed deeply in ecstasy. Seymour reached and took Yuna's hands and gently pulled her white silken gloves off one at a time and placed them on the dresser. Yuna watched with half-lidded eyes as he took her hand in his long delicate hand and kissed it gently. His hands seemed even larger without being dwarfed by the sleeves of his large robe. Still they were not as large as she remembered Trommel's to be as he had extended his hands out once in the manor and she saw they must've been as long as her whole torso!
"You shouldn't worry, I have no intention of stopping your pilgrimage." Seymour said as he touched and looked at her hands carefully. Seymour's eyes darted up from Yuna's hands to her gaze. "I was hoping you would give me the honor of becoming your Guardian." He said with his mouth forming a hopeful smile.
"I-I of course…" Yuna said taking a small gulp as the Maesters eyes watched her.
"Good, I wouldn't have taken no for an answer. " Seymour said with a somewhat cold amusement in his eyes. "But I'm sure you know that my assistance in your pilgrimage will make the journey…less difficult." He said trailing on the last words.
"Y-yes." Yuna said meekly in response to him.
Seymour let out a sigh dreamily. "But let us forget these things for tonight…the wedding night is supposed to be filled with…happiness." He said with a warm smile while touching the side of her face gently with his clawed hand.
"Mmhm." Yuna said weakly looking up at him.
Meanwhile in the sprawling city of Bevelle the shops and cafés were still bustling with activity the streets bathed in light from the signs overhead. In a small café Yuna's guardians sat around a small table talking to one another. Tidus sat with his arms crossed and a pouting look on his face while Wakka poked at him with his finger jestingly.
"Will you stop it with that pouting bra?" Wakka said as he continued to harass Tidus.
"Enough Wakka! Leave him be." Lulu said from across the table scowling at both of them.
"So does anyone know how long we will be in Bevelle?" Rikku questioned from her side of the table as she nibbled on a colorful looking cupcake. "I kinda like it here."
"We've already spent too much time here." Auron spoke up gruffly with his back to them seated near the corner. "Yuna must leave by tomorrow." He said holding a cup of black coffee blankly.
"Tomorrow!" Rikku squeaked surprised and turned to look at him. "What about their honeymoon?" she questioned him throwing her hands up in outrage.
"Hmph." Auron mumbled back with a slight laugh in his voice.
"Hey I'm with Auron, we should leave tomorrow." Tidus spoke up raising his blonde head up from the table.
"You only say that cause your jealous!" Rikku jeered at him from across the table.
"Am not!" Tidus argued back starting to blush slightly.
Rikku giggled and stuck her finger in the icing on her cupcake and pointed it at him. "You are too! And you do a terrible job of hiding it!" she said laughing.
"Haven't you had enough to eat Rikku?" he said folding his arms and sitting back. "If you keep eating like that you're going to start looking like an ochu!" he said laughing.
Rikku scowled at him and started to blush. "Hey!" she said slamming her hand on the table.
"I've had enough of this for one night." Lulu said getting up from the table. "I'm going to bed." She said as she walked away from the table. Wakka's eyes followed Lulu as she walked out of the café sadly and as he turned his head back to the table he heard a familiar voice in the background.
"I just have a silly craving that's all." He heard the figure say to her taller companion.
"Hey isn't that Seymour's aunt?" Rikku commented as she heard the voice also. The guardians turned to see Meena with her face pressed against the glass of the display case looking at the sweets for sale in the café, her Guado escort standing beside her looking quite embarrassed as he sunk his head lower within his high collar.
"What do you want Adihu? I'm buying." She said turning to him with a smile, her eyes almost as big as the cakes on display.
"Nothing Lady Meena. Please, we shouldn't be out so late we must leave first thing in the morning." He pleaded with her.
"Oh that reminds me! What should I get for Trommel? We don't have cakes like this back in Guadosalam!" she said continuing to look at the cakes.
The Guado let forth an irritated sigh and put his large hand to his face and shook his head.
"I don't know how Trommel puts up with you." He mumbled to himself.
Wakka turned to Rikku. "Yea that's her all right." He said chuckling. "And its Maester Seymour ya?" he said scolding her.
Rikku rolled her eyes and got up from the table. "Ya…I'm gonna go say hi." She said as she skipped away.
"The pink ones are really good." Rikku said as she walked up beside Meena looking at the sweets. Meena turned to Rikku with a surprised look.
"Why-Rikku!" she said with a friendly smile her sapphire eyes twinkling. Meena reached out with her long sleeved arms and hugged her gently. "I didn't expect to see you here, and—" she said looking past Rikku to the other seated guardians at the table nearby. "Oh hello!" Meena smiled and waved to them. Tidus and Wakka waved back while Auron gave a slight look in her direction and did a double take and turned his whole body away in fright.
Meena looked back at Adihu whom had a mortified look in his eyes. "Rikku this is Adihu." She said reaching back and touching his large hand.
"Eh-heh." Adihu said weakly raising his enormous hand to her to wave.
"Wow you're tall!" Rikku said giggling slightly.
Adihu let forth an annoyed sigh as his arms hung at his sides in defeat and irritation.
"Sorry Adihu, I'll try to be quick." Meena said sensing Adihu's mood. It was funny she thought, suddenly she could sense the mood of others around her much more easily. Meena ordered two cakes and while they waited to for the clerk to package them Meena started to smell something very strange. The smell almost knocked her backwards. It made her feel pain as she smelled it and she clutched her stomach and doubled over. "Oh!" she exclaimed alarmed.
"Lady Meena!" Adihu said snapping from his bored stare and grabbed her up into his arms. Rikku shouted in horror as she saw Meena. The other patrons of the café turned to see what was going on.
"What's wrong?" Rikku asked jumping over to her and grabbing her hand.
"I-I do not know." Meena said still clutching her stomach.
Adihu looked around the café quickly as if searching for something and sniffed the air curiously.
"We must leave." Adihu said quickly as his eyes widened. He rushed Meena out of the café with his arms around her defensively.
As Meena passed through the door and the night air hit her she felt the pain in her stomach leave as she breathed in slowly. Adihu kneeled down and draped his huge hand around Meena's back and leaned towards her and watched her with a concerned look.
"What in the world!" She exclaimed alarmed shuddering to herself.
"Perhaps it might be best if we left tonight…" Adihu remarked as her looked at her with a worried look.
"Adihu did you smell that! It …hurt!" Meena looked up at him with watery eyes.
"I did indeed, that was the smell of…an unsent." Adihu said looking back towards the cafe. "It seems that since you are carrying a Guado child your smell has become like that of a Guado." He said placing his hand on her head.
"B-but w-why didn't it hurt you?" she said with a small tear falling from her eye.
As Adihu looked down at Meena he felt a sharp pain in his stomach as her pained eyes looked up at him. "I-It hurts, but I am used to these things." He said choking on his words almost feeling heartbroken for the small pained woman whom he had found so annoying earlier. "I know it hurts but p-please don't cry." He pleaded to her "I-It will be alright." He said patting her head gently with his enormous hand nervously.
Just then Tidus and Wakka came rushing out the door with Rikku and the store clerk.
"Are you alright!" The clerk said concerned. "Should I call for a healer?"
Meena blushed slightly in embarrassment "Oh-I will be alright…"
"What happened?" Tidus said crouching down to her with his hands on his knees.
"I—" Meena said not knowing if she should divulge information about her condition.
"-She's alright, just a cramp." Adihu said quickly trying to cover up what had happened.
"I know some stretches you can do ya?" Wakka said trying to help.
"Oh thank you but—I think it's time that we left….I miss Trommel." She said looking down towards her hands.
"I will get the carriage." Adihu said quickly running off into the night streets, his Guado legs carrying him at breakneck speed.
"You leavin' this late?" Wakka questioned unbelievingly as he looked down at her.
Meena silently nodded as she looked downwards at her hands still visibly shaken from the experience she just had.
Meena stood up straight and brushed herself off. As she looked back towards the café she jumped back slightly at the figure of Auron in the window. She felt a terrified feeling as she looked at him and shuddered slightly. She wondered to herself if he was the unsent that she had smelled. She stared at him through the window, his dark glasses preventing her from seeing his eyes.
Tidus looked curiously at Meena's terrified expression and then to the window at Auron's figure.
"Eh..Hey! Quit that Auron you're scaring her!" He said waving his arms to him from outside the glass.
Auron shook his head and stepped back from the window, Meena's terrified feeling leaving with him.
"He's not as scary as he seems, he just comes across that way sometimes." Tidus said scratching the back of his head nervously as he looked onwards at Meena.
Meena hoped to herself she would never have to smell the scent of unsent ever again. But she wondered to herself if the pain that she experienced was the pain of the unsent. If Auron was the unsent that she had smelled was he indeed living in pain and grief? She had been taught long ago that unsent didn't belong in Spira, they must be sent lest they become fiends that prey on the living. Meena gripped her arm with the thought, could they be in danger?