Blessings of Eos
Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy.
Aerith was gravely concerned about the incident with the tonberry. Mainly because it shouldn't have happened. Daemons weren't like wild animals; they only appeared when they sensed people they can infect. She had thought that Her Presence would be enough to cover Prompto's. Could it have sensed him despite him being in close proximity to Her?
She turned Her head to look at him. He hadn't moved since falling asleep. She found Herself watching his chest rise and fall, the most visible sign of life beyond the glow of his aura in Her Sight.
She would not find answers this way.
She sat up, clasped Her hands together, bowed Her head, and Looked. Following the stream back, past the encounter, seeking the reason for the tonberry's presence.
She Saw a hunter, woefully inexperienced, lured into accepting the hunt by someone he trusted, who promised to meet him at the location.
Needless to say, the other hunter never shown. The tonberry was all that was left of the ill-fated hunter.
The kind of daemon one turned into was a combination of the kind of person someone was and the type of daemon that turned them. In general, goblins created more goblins, nagas created more nagas, and so on. The target hadn't been a tonberry, but in his last moments the hunter swore revenge on his untrustworthy companion, and how better to take revenge than by luring him to his death, much as he himself had been lured.
All because the person the tonberry had been married the woman his friend desired. The friend saw this as a great betrayal, seducing her away from him, when in reality the woman never regarded him as more than a brother.
And into the aftermath of the tragedy the three of them had walked.
Aerith could See that the tonberry never noted their presence, fixated on his revenge. Prodding the stream, She was satisfied that it had just been coincidence. Not a plot of the Corrupted, and not a sign that She had less Time than She thought.
She wasn't brave enough to Look at the stream that showed Her Corruption. It was still blurred and faint, nothing more than a Possibility…for now.
But a Possibility that would exist as long as the Star Scourge remained and the Corrupted unpurified.
She opened Her eyes, back in Her body. In this form She didn't really need sleep or food, but it offered more possibilities for direct interaction. Even if Her conscious mind rested, the rest of Her was still active. It was only when She was Between worlds that She truly slept.
It was around midnight, the rain a light platter against the tent. It had only been about an hour since She entered Her trace, and Prompto still slept. If he had started to wake, She would have been drawn back.
He was no longer still. His arms were tossed up by his head, hands grasping and ungrasping at something, face twisted in a grimace. She laid a hand on his chest. "Prompto."
He awoke with a strangled scream, and She was reminded of how he had said he had been in isolation until he stopped waking up screaming.
She knew that the methods used were not kind ones.
His eyes were frantic, his breathing harsh, until he focused on Her face and remembered where he was. "Did I wake you up?" He whispered.
"No, I was already awake. Bad dreams?" She whispered back.
"Yeah…" Prompto sat up. "There was a woman, one of the doctors I think. She was always kinder than the others, and tried to keep them from hurting us too much. But that man from the restaurant…he didn't like that. He had a snake eat her in front of everyone. He…he said it was an example. I don't know what kind of example, but…I try to save her from the snake, but when I reach her, her eyes and mouth leak with the blackness, like the unit I told you about…" He trailed off, trying to hold back tears.
Aerith pulled him into Her arms, and said "It's okay to cry. Let it all out." And he did.
A few tears of Her own fell, falling into his hair. She could See what happened. The woman he spoke of was his biological mother, the source of maternal line 'P', with 'A' representing his paternal line. Ardyn realized her heart was too soft for the work involved, now that it was her own children involved. He brought in a naga to change her. Prompto remembered it as a snake eating her, but his description of her face in the dream meant that a part of him realized what had really happened.
The Corrupted had Fallen so far from what he had been. He may have his machinations, his plots of revenge on the line of Lucis, but in the end, all that really drove him was spreading the infection.
His mind may rationalize it as thinking that if everyone was like him, then they couldn't reject him, but he was ultimately at the mercy of the Scourge, an instrument of its Will.
She ended up holding him as he fell back asleep, exhausted from a crying spell that was long overdue. Loathe to set him back down in his own sleeping bag, She maneuvered him into Hers. She let Her conscious mind drift asleep, subliming into the ebbs and flows of the Planet.
She Saw a distant chance, in the King's journey, where She stood in front of Prompto, now a young man, offering a choice. It was too far into the future for Her to See clearly, but one thing stayed with Her.
The prophecy only says the King and the Oracle have to die. It says nothing about the two of them staying dead. If She caught them between Life and Death, if they agreed…if She had a Chosen.
It was a tempting proposition. But there were many roads between the Now and that chance, with no guarantee of success.
Aerith had learned one thing throughout the ages, and it was that to know something was in order to make it happen.
Prophecy existed in order to ensure an outcome. If She Sees a chance, it is because the tides of Life want it to happen.
How could She be a goddess, when She was but an instrument of a higher power?
Prompto starting stirring about an hour past dawn, drawing Her conscious mind back. He blinked up at Her, baffled at the proximity. "Good morning Prompto." She greeted him.
"How'd I end up in your sleeping bag?" He asked, wriggling out of the sleeping bag.
"You wouldn't let go when you fell back asleep, so it was easier just to put you in my sleeping bag then trying to get you to let go." She stretched as She answered him.
She unzipped the opening of the tent. It stilled rained, but more of a drizzle compared to what fell during the night. Prompto stuck his head out, quickly pulling back in as he got wet. "Why is there water falling from the sky? Is it leaking?" He patted at his head where the rain landed.
"It's rain. It falls from the clouds." She exited the tent, the chocobo kweh-ing in greeting.
She turned back to him. "See?" Smiling and holding out Her hand. "It's okay."
He crawled out of the tent, taking Her hand as he looked up, squinting at the sky. "Can you make it stop? I don't like being wet." He asked.
Technically She could, but the area was a little overdue for some rain. "Nope. It happens regardless of what we want. Nothing would grow otherwise."
"Really?"
"Yep. Everything needs water, whether from rainfall, rivers, or lakes, Life cannot Be without water." The current drizzle eased up, leaving behind mist and a general sense of 'wet'.
"Once I pack up the sleeping bags and tent it will be time to leave, okay?" She told him. "Stick with the chocobo if you want to explore."
He nodded before running off, the chocobo close behind.
So much for not liking being wet.
After packing everything up, Aerith checked the saddlebag She had taken off the chocobo the night before. There was a poncho meant for use while riding the chocobo in the rain. It was meant for one, but it was little effort to change it to one that could accommodate an adult with a child. Donning the poncho, She called for Prompto. He had been content to poke around the haven, fascinated with the element points. "What are these things? And what do they do?" He asked as She walked over to him.
"These are element points. If someone has a magic flask, they can collect the element and use it against the animals and daemons. But you have to be careful when using a magic flask; the energy hurts everything close to where it lands, yourself included."
"Why would you use it if you can get hurt by it?"
"Most of the time, you toss it as far from you as you can manage, meaning you're clear of the energy when it triggers. Other times, the damage it can do to whatever's attacking you is far greater than the damage it can do to you." She explained as She got first the supplies, then themselves situated on the chocobo. "These points are at every haven." She didn't bother with the poncho's hoods for now.
The rain would cycle between mist and showers for the rest of the day, so there would be enough warning before they wound up drenched.
Spurring the chocobo, they continued on their way.
They had only been traveling a few moments when Aerith brought up something he had said after he woke up from his dream. "So you've seen the man that was in the restaurant before?"
Prompto nodded. "Yeah…he didn't come around very often, but…he doesn't feel right."
"How so?" Aerith asked, curious. Ardyn's general manner and the personality he had cultivated were usually enough to put off most people.
"…it's like he's wearing a mask, but over his whole body. Sometimes, when I saw him out of the corner of my eye, he looked like the units do after the blackness takes over, before they get covered in metal."
"Well, he's scared of me, so we won't see him again." She told him. "I promise."
"How can he be scared of you? You're really nice and pretty and sparkly." He said.
"Sparkly?" She asked, bemused.
"Yeah, you have pretty green sparkles floating around you. Can't you see them?" He asked
"I can see them, but most people can't see them." She usually altered Her sight so they wouldn't distract Her.
"Is it because I have the blackness in me that I can see them?" He asked, worried.
She shook Her head. "Some people are just born with the ability to See things most people can't, or something happens to them that makes them able to See what they couldn't before."
"Like the sparkles?"
She nodded. "Some people can See the light of souls as they travel to the afterlife. Others can See if someone isn't human. That's what My sparkles mean to those who can See them. Humans just have a steady glow." She found Herself asking, "Do they bother you? My sparkles?"
Prompto shook his head violently. "No way! It makes you prettier." Aerith found Herself blushing. "You're going to grow up into a charmer, aren't you? And have the girls falling all over you?"
He looked back to Her, confused at Her statement. "Why would girls fall over me for saying things? It's true. And what's a charmer?"
"A charmer is someone who can make people happy with their words." It was the best definition of a charmer she could give without having to explain dating and romantic relationships.
Not that She had much experience with them. The ones who had made her smile had long faded back into the Lifestream, worlds ago.
The pair lapsed into silence, as She considered his words.
Having the ability to See what others could not…small wonder Ardyn had been planning to pull him from the production units. Such an ability would be wasted if he was made into a normal magitek trooper. Having the Sight wasn't that unusual, but most lose It as they age, shutting out what they were told couldn't be there.
The ones who didn't tended to have an Oracle's son somewhere in their ancestry. The King and his Men were shaping up to be an unusual bunch if the Mind and Body She Saw were the ones She thought they were.
The Mind, being a distant-and unknown- relative of the King, through a bastard daughter, respectably married into the Scientia family after discussion between her real father and her legal one.
The Body, of a family that had perfected their manner of guarding and supporting the King over generations, with several marriages and other more illicit relations over the years strengthening that bond, albeit none happening in the last three hundred years.
The Soul, though intended as little more than a mass-produced puppet, bearing the Sight and most likely a descendant of an Oracle's son and destined for more, whether it had been at Ardyn's hand or Hers.
The King himself, the Heart, bearing the spirit of the King that had had one of the strongest bonds to the Crystal ever recorded among the Kings of Lucis, with an Oracle's son among his mother's ancestors.
Aerith shivered. No wonder the Lifestream guided Her to Prompto. This was shaping up to be one of the most carefully aligned groups the Lifestream had brought together. She supposed it had good reason, the risk of corruption the greatest it had ever been, higher than the risk brought by the Calamity and the machinations through its Son.
"Miss Aerith?" She was drawn out of Her thoughts by Prompto's voice. "Yes, Prompto?" She asked.
"What's that?" He pointed at the Disc of Cauthess before them.
"It's called the Disc of Cauthess." She brought the chocobo to a halt. "A long time ago, a meteor fell from the sky, threatening the people of the region. The Astral Titan caught the meteor before it could impact the ground, reducing the amount of damage inflicted on the region. He's said to still be there, holding up the meteor."
"Woah…" He took in the rock formations created by the meteor's impact with Titan. Such energy had to go somewhere. Titan's intervention may have limited the damage to the region he had claimed for his own, but fragments of the meteor still left a mark. "Can't he put it down?'
"I don't know." The effort of stopping the meteor had left Titan in a state of dormancy, which would continue indefinitely without an Oracle communing with him.
"What is an Astral anyway?" He asked.
"They are said to be the embodiment of the power of the stars. They are guardians of the Planet, and have their own agendas and plans. Generally they are indifferent to the lives of humans, and most people worship them as gods."
"If they don't care about people, then why are they worshiped?" He frowned. "Wouldn't it be better to worship something that helps you?"
"Astrals exist on a different level from humans, so their actions appear incomprehensible to people. People have a great fear and respect for them, and worship them out of the respect they feel and in hopes of receiving the blessings they have been known to grant humans." She told him. "They are worshiped as gods because those higher than them have left the world mostly alone since the Astrals descended."
The Astrals had been people selected by the Creators of Eos to receive their power and act in their stead. In life they had been heroes, who managed to impress the Creators.
Technically She would be regarded as one of the Creators, heralding the first dawn of Eos and nurturing the humans born of Etro's blood after the rest of the world had been created.
In reality the Lifestream consulted with the Creators before bestowing Its Blessing of Life on Eos. Eos was in fact one of three worlds created by the same set of Creators. She was vaguely aware of those worlds, each having its own branch of the Lifestream, but Eos had been the one She was chosen to walk.
The creators would never return to Eos. Drawn into schemes of their own Maker in the other two worlds, their own existence, plus that of the Maker's, had ended. Only Etro still existed in some form. This left the Lifestream as the only thing higher than the Astrals in Eos. Aerith supposed this also put Her above the Astrals, for all She regarded Herself as an instrument of the Lifestream.
Shaking Her head to clear those thoughts away, She told Prompto, "We'll be stopping at the next rest area to get you a wristband and breakfast. I also need to quiz you."
"Quiz?" He asked.
"I need to see what you know, so I can teach you what you'll need to know before we reach Insomnia." She answered.
"…Insomnia?"
She nodded. "That's where I'm taking you to live, where you'll go to school and do things everyone else does. You won't be going back to where you were before."
"Can I live with you there?" He asked.
She shook Her head. "No, I can't stay with you there." They hadn't even been together forty-eight hours. It was amazing how quickly he warmed to Her, and how attached She became to him.
He pouted. "Why not?" He looked down. "Don't you want to stay with me?"
She stopped the chocobo by a mostly flat, mostly dry rock. Getting both of them down, She sat him on the rock and sat down facing him. "Prompto, there is nothing more I would love to do than stay with you. But I can't." She bit Her lip. "You know how I told you I'm not human?"
He nodded.
"I have special things I have to do, things that only I can do." She paused here to consider Her words. "You remember that I told you I was looking for someone? I was looking for someone for a very important task, that only that special someone can do. And you're that special someone."
She tilted his chin up so She could see his face. "That task is in Insomnia. Looking for you, and taking you to Insomnia, that's my current task. But, once you're safely in Insomnia, I'll have another task I'll have to do, and another after that, and so on. And it's not always safe."
"You mean like that thing from last night?" He asked.
She nodded. "What is it you need me to do there? I'm just a kid, and not even a normal one."
"I'm not going to tell you, because I want doing that task to be your choice."
"Won't you get in trouble if I don't do it? Won't a snake eat you like the other woman?"
"No. Life is all about choices, and what I do is make sure that certain people are in the right place make certain choices. But ultimately, whatever choice happens, it happens because the person chose to do it. The magitek troopers, what the units are turned into, they can't make any choices. The things they include in the metal means they have to do whatever they're told to do."
He was quiet. "But how will I know if I'm doing the right thing? If I've found that task you want me to do?"
"In the end, you will have to look in your heart and ask yourself if what you're doing feels right. But right now, what I want you to do live."
"Live…?"
"There's a difference between being alive and living. You can be alive as long as your heart beats and your body survives. But you're not really living." She looked up at the sky. "Living is…getting scared by tonberries during the night. It's meeting new people and trying different foods. It's sharing a laugh with friends and being a shoulder to cry on when bad things happen. Ultimately, Life is change and different experiences."
There was quiet as Prompto took in everything She said. "…will I see you again?"
"Yep. I don't know where or when, but we will meet again. Besides," She added, "We're nowhere close to Insomnia; we've still got several days to go."
Standing up, Aerith said smiling, "Let's go and get some breakfast. I'm hoping to reach the chocobo post tomorrow."
"You mean there's more chocobos?" He sounded excited at the prospect.
She nodded. "That's where the chocobos stay when they're not being rented out for people to ride." She giggled. "You've really changed your mind about chocobos since first meeting one yesterday."
He had a sheepish look on his face. "I thought it was going to eat me when it went for my hair."
Aerith had to laugh. "You're not the first person a chocobo decided to try and groom. I had one friend whose hair was spiked up like the feathers on a chocobo's head. The joke was that we didn't need any greens or whistles to call a chocobo; we just had to get him to make chocobo noises. Though it took a lot of convincing to get him to do it. It worked too."
"I don't think I want chocobos trying to groom me all the time." Prompto said as they climbed back on the chocobo.
"Well our chocobo claimed you as a chick, so she'll be the only one grooming you, if your head is close enough." She told him.
He eyed the chocobo. "Do I want to know why she thinks I'm her chick?"
"You're just too cute to resist." Considering the sky, She spurred the chocobo a little faster. "We should reach the rest area before the rain really start up again."
I swear the characters have hijacked the story and are doing what they want. The tonberry wrote itself in at knifepoint. Someone please tell me if Prompto is a believable five year old.