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OoOoO

Chapter 10

Kira felt herself being deposited on a hard dirt floor, her knees buckling under her as she fell to her knees. Kira hiccuped slightly as she forced herself to stay up, using her arms to prop her up off the ground as she tried desperately to calm herself.

Never before had she felt such inner turmoil. She had long since known that this day would come, the day when she and Larsa would have to say good bye forever, but she would never have imagined it would hurt so much. Kira felt tears building up behind her eyes as the tightness in her chest worsened. She heard herself sob a dry hoarse sob that burned her throat and felt the tears finally begin to poor from her as she cried, her emotions running high, chaos in her mind, an unfathomable pain in her chest, her heart racing as her entire body trembled.

Why did he have to ask that question? For what reason, what was he expecting to hear? What did he want to hear? It hurt so much that she'd had to say good bye like that. It hurt so much that she'd had to say goodbye any at all, especially now. It was now that she would need him. Kira needed Larsa more than ever right now. Old Dalan, her father and last blood relative was dead. All of Low Town would now look to her, whether it was physical, mental or emotional support that people used to get from Old Dalan, they would turn to her for it. How was she, a mere sixteen year old girl supposed provide all that for the people of Low Town, plus all the people she already cared for all over Ivalice? Kira hiccuped slightly as she thought of the pressure, how hard things were going to be from now on. People would look to her to be their light in times of darkness, but how was she to be the light for everyone else whilst she herself was lost in the shadows, stripped of everything she once held dear?

Kira felt her chest tighten further as her mind raced. How was she to coop? How could they expect her to handle everything that has happened? The death of her father, separation from her long time friend, ally, confidant, supporter...the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Larsa was everything to her. He was everything she'd ever needed and more, she grown to understand and trust him, to know that he was there to support her when she needed it. But now that he was gone... she was lost. She had no one to tell her that things would be ok, or to tell her to stop deluding herself and face the fact that she was screwed. How was she to coop without him, especially now that she was struggling through the emotional trauma of losing her father.

Kira cried as she thought of Larsa, of how she'd never see him or talk to him again, of how he was due to get married in a couple of days, of how he'd most likely forget all about her as he ruled over his country, his beautiful wife by his side, supporting him like she wished he was her at the moment. Kira cried for longer than she could remember and suddenly woke to the warm feeling of the afternoon sun on her face.

She sat up suddenly, realizing with a shock that she'd cried herself to sleep and had been sleeping since morning 'til noon it seemed. Kira rubbed the sleep and dried tears form her eyes before she looked around, finally taking stock of where she was.

Kira looked around at the dirt covered concrete floor, the one and two trees that stood in full bloom, flowers glowing brightly in the afternoon sun as if trying to cheer her up, ancient architecture stripped of its once vibrant colour by time and weather and finally the towering structure of fantastic proportions and brilliant architecture that she immediately recognized as the Pharos of Ridorana.

Kira was on the Ridorana Cataract and she had absolutely no idea why. She was quite alone, not a monster in sight, which she found to be rather odd considering her whereabouts, but she was grateful either way. She stood up slowly and stretched out her lazy muscles before taking a closer look at where she was. Upon further inspection, she realized that this was the place where she, Larsa and Catherine had been running from that supposed rank III mark and fell through the floor. She walked over to the whole and looked down. It was deep, very deep and narrow, as if someone had dug out a well and then covered it back up before they fell through it.

Kira contemplating going down there to check it out but decided against it as she took another look at the depth of the hole. She stood akimbo and looked around her again, as if looking for whatever might've drawn her there in the first place. She remember how she'd gotten there and why and frowned. She shook her head and decided that she shouldn't dwell on it.

After inspecting the area a third time, Kira sighed and decided that she might as well return to Low Town. She stuck her hand into her pocket and felt around for any teleport stones, she stopped however and decided that she might as well just make her way to the teleport crystal on the Ridorana Cataract. As she began to walk in the direction she thought she remembered the crystal being, she noticed a tree a little ways to her left, that at a glance, she swore had a key hole.

Kira stopped and looked over at the tree for a moment before she made her way over to it to further inspect the strange marking on the tree. When she come close enough, Kira realized with a jolt that it was indeed a key hole in the unnaturally straight bark of the tree. She traced the outline of the key hole with her fingers and suddenly got a crazy idea.

Kira took out the big old brass key that Old Dalan had given to her and tried to fit it into the key hole. She smiled widely when she felt the key slip in quite easily and wondered slightly if Old Dalan could some how see into the future. It wouldn't really surprise her if he could considering some of the things he could "guess".

Kira licked her lips nervously, feeling an ominous aura coming from the tree as she slowly turned the key. She listened as she heard seven strange wooden clicks in quick succession before a rectangular shaped piece of the bark suddenly popped out of the tree. Kira stared at it for a moment, then took quick glances around her as if to make sure no one was watching before she gingerly slid the rectangular shaped wooden box out of the tree.

When the box had come out completely she looked at it for a while, trying to figure out how to open it. She turned it over and looked at all the side at least three times in search for some sort of opening, a seam, a lock, another key hole, anything, but she found nothing. It was a cube of seamless wood. Kira frowned and sighed resting her wrist a little and letting the box sort of hang from her fingers. It was then that she saw it. The way the light glimmered off it. Kira took the box and lifted it up to her face as she moved into the sun and noticed that there was the faintest outline of a hand print on the top of the box, much like the one she saw on the door under the Pharos when they'd fallen through the floor running from that mark.

Kira looked around her again, not entirely sure why she was doing it herself and slowly placed her hand over the imprint and gasped as a flash of light erupted form under her hand. She then felt the wooden beneath her hand burn suddenly and quickly removed her hand as she watched, completely amazed as an inch of wood was burned off the top of the box, leaving the rest of the box unscathed, not even smoke was allowed to mar the surface of the rest of the box as it opened.

Inside was hollow and strangely white with a small rolled up piece of parchment taking up no more than five percent of the space in the box. Kira took out the piece of paper and put down the box gently, reverently before unfurling the paper and reading what was written inside.

When the time is ripe, let it fall, it shall guide you.

Kira read it twice before sitting down under the tree, taking a moment to retrieve the key from its key hole. She read the note again, and again, and again, trying to understand what it all meant. Kira sighed and stared up at the tree above her. "Only when the time is ripe...what is that supposed to meant? Old Dalan said it too. Ripe...why ripe and not right?" Kira pouted and search the sky through the tree branches hoping that she would find the answer in the dwindling clouds somewhere. It was then that she took notice of a dieing flower on the end of a branch and she remembered that Old Dalan had told her once that when you see the flowers dieing, that means that Spring is ending and Summer is approaching, hence, there would be free fruits to pick.

"That's it!" Kira smiled widely as she made sense of the short riddle. She jumped up and picked one of the flowers. "I know this flower, the seed of its fruit has natural veins of Magicite running through it, making it magnetic. So if I were to drop the seed then maybe it would lead me north or south or something, hence, 'Let it fall, it shall guide you.'" Kira smiled broadly as she marvelled at her own genius, then looked up at the tree and the ones around it and realized that none of the trees bore any fruit yet. Kira huffed as she heard the distinct sound of her bubble being popped ruthlessly.

She looked around at the flowers on the tree in front of her and realized that some of them were dieing and looked as if they would shrivel up and fall off in a couple of days if so much, which meant that the fruit was in development, so pretty soon she'd be able to see where the riddle was leading her.

Kira laughed slightly as she realized how childish she was being, going on this adventure, hunting for clues and solving riddles, it was all fun and games but did she have the time or the luxury for that right now. Kira thought hard on her situation. Everyone in Low Town was in mourning, things would be rather dreary there and she'd recently made an awesome kill on a long standing mark and got a handsome reward for it that could last at least a week, so she really wasn't needed much in Low Town at the moment. She remembered the letter from Basch that morning about the Senate sending a 'search party' to Low Town and figured that Larsa would have everything under control by now, considering that it was already past noon, he'd probably already spoken to them about it and told them to hold it off, no one but them knew about it so there was no chance of news spreading and causing a panic, so everything was okay. Her greatest and only worry was Tihana, but the little girl knew her surrogate mother and father and would understand if they both disappeared for a couple days, she wouldn't be happy, but she wouldn't hold it against them. Kira thought of how she deserved a break, a vacation to just unwind and de-stress before she could go back to being the back bone of the community, so why not take it now, why not just go all out and have fun, take her mind off things, go wild, have an adventure? Kira smiled to herself and nodded as she decided that Low Town and anywhere else that she had a hand in could do without her for a couple of days.

Kira then decided that she would take her time exploring the Pharos, going straight up to the top and then maybe back down in order to give the fruits time to bare. She checked her supplies, she had none. Kira sighed and shook her head, all she had on her was a couple of throwing knives and the dagger she always kept tucked away...well, somewhere, she would never tell anyone where it was, not even Larsa, just for the fun of having a secret and the element of surprise of course. Kira smiled wryly however and said to herself as she took out her dagger, "Well, I suppose this just makes it all the more fun."

It took Kira a full two days and a half to reach the top of the Pharos where the Sun Cryst once sat over looking the sea and the great water fall that no one bothered to name. She stood there, staring out at the as she stood high, high above ground level, the sea breeze unable to reach her at that height. She breezed in the fresh, but somehow suffocating high altitude air and stretched. She felt good. Aside from dieing of hunger and being heavily loaded with loot, Kira felt quite refreshed and alive. It had been a long time since she'd just gone out on her own to just go wild and wonder about, it was refreshing to not have anything to think about, to not wonder if anyone needed her at the moment, to not be planning her next hunt or how next she was going to sneak into the House Solidor Palace.

Kira smiled brightly as she finished stretching and only noticed the red tailed hawk soaring high in the sky, heading straight for her when she heard its shrill screeching over the soft sound of the sea breeze and the waves below her. Kira glanced around and found the bird at ten o'clock as it flew straight towards her at break neck speed. Kira frowned slightly, she recognized the bird as it began to slow down, gearing up for the landing on Kira's now out stretched arm. It was Kairos. Larsa's beloved red tailed hawk whom he'd gotten for his tenth birthday from his father. Kira had absolutely no idea what kind of letter Larsa would be sending to her, but she had a bad feeling about it and hesitated to take the letter from Kairos as he landed gently on his arm, a lock of Kira's glossy red hair in his beak and a letter tied around his left taloned foot.

Kira glanced at the lock of red hair and smirked slightly. She had long since suggested to Larsa that he find a way to make sure that Kairos could always find her when he needed her to know something. Considering that Kira was almost never in one place for more than say two, three days, they had to find a suitable means of communication to be a good hunting team. So when he'd suddenly cut a lock of her hair and tied it with a string and explained that Kairos would never have to look too long to find her again, she laughed and agreed.

Kira finally took the letter off Kairos' leg and sent him off to find some other perch while she read the letter. Kira unfurled the slightly tattered piece of parchment and immediately knew it was bad news. Larsa's hand writing was only ever this crazy when he was in a rush, and why would he be rushing if it were good news?

Kira, there's a lot going on and I have little time to write this. The senate is planning something, likely something they hope will conclude with their leader on the throne instead of me. Now I don't yet know what
Dalmasca has to do with this but they sent an entire platoon into Low Town the day after Old Dalan's death and reeked havoc. No one was injured, no casualties, but they were looking for something. We don't know what they were looking for but either way they need you down there. I know that you aren't in the best of conditions right now and I hope that you have been taking time off to help yourself coop with all that's happening because I feel as if things will only get worse.

They need you there and I can't be in two places at once. You must hurry Kira, Tihana misses you.

Larsa

Kira read the letter twice, unable to believe what she was reading. She couldn't believe it. She just couldn't believe it. A coup d'etat? A platoon of Archadian soldiers in Low Town? How could so much have happened in such a short space of time? She'd only been gone for two and a half days and all of this happens? Kira shook her head and decided that none of that mattered at the moment, what mattered was that she found herself back in Low Town as soon as possible. She was needed so she'd better make herself available and fast.

When Kira arrived in Low Town, naturally spawning in the South Sprawl after teleporting herself she took in her surroundings and what was going on and felt her blood boil as it coursed through her like fire. It was pure chaos in the south sprawl; there were Archadian soldiers everywhere, all of them heavily armed and aggressive while the people of Low Town, enraged by the invasion of their home fought back with nothing but their fists and the occasional knife. There was noise, lots and lots of noise as different people screamed and yelled for different reasons. The Archadians were screaming and yelling, asking questions and demanding answers and screaming as if they were fighting a war while the poor, helpless Rabanastrans cried and pleaded with them to stop and listen or shouted out in anger as they invaded their home. They was the smell of blood in the air as soldier cut down anyone in their path, a path of needless, senseless destruction.

Kira watched for a moment, stunned into stiffness as three soldiers commenced to beat a man down with the but of their guns, not so much as flinching as blood sprayed up into their faces as they busted up the poor harmless man. Kira felt herself tense and watched as all three of the soldiers suddenly burst into flames, their screams of agony a soothing melody to her ears as she reduced their life to nearly zero. She walked passed the man and cast cure on him to restore enough of his life so that he might escape from the mayhem. The man gave a weak thank you and ran in the opposite direction.

Kira could feel the power of myst course through her very veins as she cast magick after magick, burning, freezing, shocking and drowning any Archadian solider that got in her way as she made for Old Dalan's place where she knew without a doubt Tihana and the other orphans would've gathered.

A pair of soldiers spotted her through a plume of smoke as she walked through her magick induced fire completely unscathed and shouted, "That's her! After her!" the stupid war mungers ran straight at her wielding their heavy broad swords and screaming. Kira took a deep breath and slid out her dagger while ducking as one of the soldiers, the first to reach her, swung his blade at her, the razor sharp edge missing the top of her head by a hair. She swung under his arm and slashed at his armour, hardly making so much as a dent in it before she choose a more practical method and stabbed him in between the layers of metal somewhere in his abdomen. She spun around then, her leg out stretched to sweep the other soldier and watched as he fell clumsily to the floor before stabbing him in the same place she'd stabbed the other one, efficiently immobilizing them both without signing their death warrants. Kira then kicked off into a run as she saw the steadily growing crowd in the distance just around Old Dalan's place.

Kira dodged, skidded and blew her way through the chaos until she reached the huge crowd consisting of smaller groups of people immersed in combat. Kira pushed her way through the crowd, attacking the occasional Archadian that got in her way. She would deal with them later, her current priority was Tihana, Tihana had to be safe.

It wasn't until she reached half way through the crowd did the Archadian soldiers notice her presence and suddenly they all turned their attention to her. Kira gasped as she dodged a heavy axe as it came swinging down on her. "Be careful, they want her alive!" One of them shouted and Kira spun around to try and see who it was that spoke and realized too late that they had surrounded her. Kira took up a fighting stance and nearly growled as she geared herself up for the fight of a life time. There were a lot of Archadian soldiers that surrounded her, more than just a platoon, that was for sure, and there were even more outside the circle of death who worked on keeping the people of Low Town 'at bay' or so they would've called it. Kira looked around at all of them, her purple grey eyes ablaze with rage and passion. She had to get to Tihana, she had to make sure she was safe, Kira didn't know what she would do if she ever lost her.

Suddenly things got quiet, well inside the circle at least. Outside the circle people where still raging, the people of Low Town still fighting a losing battle for their freedom. Kira huffed slightly and watched them as they watched her, realizing that they were probably contemplating how best to approach her considering that they seemed to want her alive and any false moves on their accounts would result in their asses being charred severely as Kira stood on guard, her eyes open wide and relaxed so that she could see everything around her, her ears perked up so that she could hear everything behind her. Kira began to unnoticeably gather the necessary myst and inner power needed to cast strong magicks as she decided on the most effective magick that she could use to eradicate them all at one time.

Kira was more than ready to cast her magick and the soldiers themselves seemed to have been very on edge, especially by the way Kira stood there, shock still in her fighting stance in the dead silence within the circle when a small, high pitched voice suddenly echoed around to them all.

"Leave my mommy alone!!!!!" Kira swivelled around instantly. She watched everything in slow motion as her beloved, blessed daughter ran out of Old Dalan's place and threw a large enough rock at the nearest soldier. Kira had just barely kicked off her feet when the soldier turned around seemingly slowly and raised his rifle at her. Kira heard self screaming as and felt everything go back to normal as she burst forward in a mad dash towards Tihana, the echoing sound of the firing rifle reverberating through her chest. Kira shoved the solider out of the way and dived for her child, tears already streaming from her as she saw the child blown nearly a full three feet away by the blast, a distance she cleared in a record breaking dive to catch the little girl before she fell.

"Tihana!!!" Kira screamed as she shook the girl, her mind in shambles as she tried desperately to think of what next to do while still trying to process what had just happened. On instinct Kira cast her strongest protect, shell and reflect spells around the two of them as the Archadians suddenly opened fire on the pair, apparently only just realizing that their target had broken through their choke hold. Kira paid them little attention as she stared down at her child, now covered in blood, they bullet having gone straight through her tiny body, into the chest and out of her back, Kira could just glimpse the blood splatter on the wall behind them on the inside of Old Dalan's place.

Kira stared down at Tihana as the little girl smiled sweetly at her mother with what little strength she had left and said, "Don't cry mommy..." Kira watched, terrified and horror-stricken as she watched the life slowly fade from Tihana's once vibrant blue eyes. Kira felt her entire body go cold as she watched the little girl's body go limp in her hold as all life left her system. Kira could feel the very frayed ends of her sanity begin to burn away as her entire world crashed around her. She felt the myst develop and gather around her but she had no control over it; she felt the sorrow, the pain, the horrors, the guilt, the anger; she could feel them all being channelled through the myst around her. Kira felt her chest tighten, she felt her throat close up like her fist had, she could feel her heart pounding, tearing itself away from her as if trying to give back the life that was lost. Kira could feel her tears evaporating off her face as the myst burned around her, hot with vengeance.

Kira looked up slowly, her neck muscles tight, pulsing. She hardly noticed that the soldiers had now formed a semi-circle around her and were staring wide eyed at her, shocked at the strength of her protective magicks as anything they through at her simply bounced right off as if she had made a completely impenetrable wall around herself in the space of about five milliseconds. Kira stared down the soldiers in front of her and could almost see the fear swirling off of them as they watched half in wonder and half in horror as seemingly angry myst gathered visibly around the girl, their own frightened faces reflected back at them by the dense myst.

There was only one other time during which she'd felt this angry, this horrified, this vengeful, and that night she had done something terrible and horrifying. She vowed to herself that she would never let it happen again and she intended to keep that promice. Kira held back her power just a notch before she let loose her relentless rage and revenge. She watched as every Archadian soldier in sight was suddenly wrapped in spires of darkness shooting up from the earth, the spires sucking the very life out of each and every one of them ruthlessly, leaving them with little more than one HP point to survive on until they could get back to where they'd crawled from.

Kira watched them all collapse to the floor as the spires of darkness receded, their bodies too weak to even twitch as they all lay blissfully unconscious. Kira used the last of her vengeance fuelled powers to teleport them all back in the general area of Archadia, expecting them to probably land somewhere on the Phon cost instead.

Kira looked around to find shocked and horrified expressions on the faces of the people of Low Town as they discovered the awesome and terrifying power that Kira held. They were afraid of her now; she had never openly showed her powerful magicks to anyone, fearing it may be too dangerous, but now everyone was there to witness it and they were all shocked that a young girl with such a brave, loving heart could cause such damage, could show such hatred and cause such blood shed.

Kira was hurt by the expression on their faces, yes, but all thoughts of their faces suddenly left her mind as she remembered the limb body in her arms. Kira glanced down at Tihana's face, her expression peaceful as if she were only asleep, and felt all her anger, all her hatred and vengeance melt away to sorrow and heartache as she felt the tears begin to flow once more. Kira could not think, she was in too much pain; she couldn't speak either, she could hardly do anything other than scream. Kira screamed, her voice shrill as it rang through the suddenly silent halls of the south sprawl, the sorrow and pain laced through it hurting everyone that heard her.

Kira bent low over Tihana's body, the girl's still warm blood getting all over Kira's bare stomach and armoured shirt as she held the girl close to her body, trying desperately to feel the warmth of her daughter's love again. Kira cried and screamed as she mourned the loss of her beloved daughter. Later she would cry again as she thought of breaking the news to Larsa, but now all she could do was scream, her cries of pain and anguish shuddering through all the on lookers as they too began to cry, mourning the death of such a young and promising child.

It wasn't really the death of the girl that really shook the people of Low Town however, it was the sight of Kira that truly tore them apart. Kira was a person, an icon that everyone saw as being strong; the tough one who could smile through anything; the one you could turn to when you needed a shoulder to cry one while everyone else was crying too; the only one that could smile and try to cheer others up on the day of her fathers death; 'in Kira lies all the strength of Dalmasca herself' Lady Ashe had once said. It was hard to watch the very back bone of their community completely broken and distraught as she mourned, her anguish and sorrow echoing through out all of Low Town.

It was then that many of the people of Low Town realized with a shock that they had been treating Kira more like a symbol than an actual person. Kira to them was the one that represented the very essence of Dalmascans and what it meant to be a hume, everyone had almost forgotten that she was a hume herself, and now, they were rudely awakened as they watched her, completely broken, tired, stripped of everything dear to her, completely alone and suffering, she more than any of them needed support.

Vaan and Penelo knew, however, that she would not accept it, they knew exactly what she was coming to them to say now, three hours after all of the Archadians were teleported away and some of the mayhem and chaos quieted down, Kira somewhat settled but far from herself. Vaan and Penelo had been there the whole time and had seen the whole thing but could do nothing. They were the first ones to reach Kira during her moment of despair and had taken Tihana's body from her with some difficulty as she refused to let go of her. They watched as Kira moved towards them, her face a cold stone mask while her eyes still betrayed the sorrow and pain she felt at the loss of her daughter. The sight of her covered in blood and completely stone faced chilled their bones, this was not the Kira they knew.

"They were after me. Do you have any idea why?" Her words were soft, hoarse and short, cut to the point as if she was afraid to use her mouth in her current condition.

Vaan spoke first, "No...but it might've been you they were looking for when they came first." Kira nodded her head slowly, a raging headache rocking her brains as she feared too much movement might worsen it.

"In that case, I'll have to leave. If it's me they're looking for then..."

"Kira don't do this to yourself!' Penelo said as she grabbed Kira's upper arm, fully aware that that wouldn't do much if she decided she was going to teleport away. "you don't have to leave, you can't leave, you need us right now! You've been through too much it's not right and it's not fair! You can't handle this alone!"

Kira looked at Penelo and Penelo was completely taken aback by the suddenly tired and sorrowful expression on Kira's face, her eyes dull and lifeless, glossy with unshed tears and blood shot. "You're right, I can't handle this alone, but I have to, for the sake of the people of..."

"Oh don't give us that crap!! You've been working for us since before you remember! You've been living this selfless life for so long that you've forgotten how to be selfish! Kira please let us help you!!" Vaan said sounding frustrated, unsure of how to deal with these sort of situations.

"If they're after me then I cannot stay here. I cannot risk another death, just because I need comforting. I'm leaving, and you can't stop me." Kira was already half way through her teleportation magick when Vaan reached out to grab her arm, begging her not to go.

Both Vaan and Penelo cursed loudly as Kira vanished before their very eyes and wondered if they'd ever see her again before this was all over, because it was now clear to them that this plan that the Senate spent God knows how long developing was a lot bigger than either of them could have ever imagined.

OoOoO

To be Continued...