Author's Notes: Yeah... I didn't see that last part coming either. It's changed the way that this is going to play out. Enjoy.
Hyne's War: Chapter 35
Life as a mercenary was painful. It was something that Nida had spent the last several years becoming far too familiar with. He'd had arms and legs broken, he'd been stuck in bed for a week because of internal trauma, there had been concussions, and one couldn't ignore the suffering that Joshua's poison had done to him. While he hadn't been through quite so much as Squall or the others, but that didn't mean that Nida didn't know how to handle pain.
That didn't make the pain he was feeling now any less. The second he'd hit the wall he'd heard as much as felt the sickening crack that could only mean a broken bone. What made it worse was that as he slid down the wall it wasn't his legs or arms that hurt, or at least they only hurt as much as they were supposed to when a body was thrown against the wall. No, the flare of pain was in his chest, and the second it started to hurt to breathe. Which really could only mean one thing: a broken rib.
"Nida!" Irvine shouted, and were it not for the fact that Nida almost instinctively waved him back, he was certain the gunner would have come to help him.
He could taste blood in his mouth. That was the most worrying part. Nida turned his head and spit to the side, trying to get as much blood out of his mouth as possible. Unfortunately that didn't help too much, he could still taste blood. The question was whether it was because he had bit his cheek or tongue open, or if it was coming from some internal damage. Oh well, there wasn't much he could do about it right now. Slowly Nida pushed himself to his feet, taking a moment to wipe blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and doing it as casually as he could manage despite the pain. Make it look like nothing or people would make something of it. There would be time to deal with the pain and injuries later, if he won.
"How does someone like you survive the Zebalgans? If memory serves they have a particular vendetta against your kind."
"They hate what they cannot understand," Ashura countered, smiling triumphantly. "But you understand. Or at least you recognize me for what I am."
"How could someone not? The eyes give it away," Nida agreed, his eyes already casting around for Rupio. Unfortunately when he had been sent flying, the sword had as well, and not in a direction that he liked. The thing was across the room, and not in the kind of way that would make it easy, or even possible, for him to retrieve. Fuck. Things just weren't going his way today. Well, he'd just have to make do with what he had.
"You'd be amazed the wonders that can be wrought by colored contacts."
A point to be conceded, and Nida just shrugged at her response. "Still, sort of ironic for you to be a member of a group that would want your head if given the chance. Must have been hard to get by without a knight to anchor your power on top of that."
"Who said I lacked one? No, I had one, a quite talented young man, until someone saw fight to deal to him a death that was, ironically enough, the one reserved for Sorceress Knights... Was that a deliberate choice, or just luck?"
Joshua... Well, that explained some stuff. Maybe. No, it just really didn't. There was little Nida could do about that now anyway. At least he had the advantage on her in that respect. Sorceresses without knights were supposed to be less powerful, their magics with less of an edge to them. Still, it made Nida wish he'd asked Seifer and Squall more about how the dynamic between Sorceress and Knight played out.
More than that he wished that he'd had any experience at all with fighting a Sorceress.
"Just luck I guess," Nida said, smirking. Keep her attention on him, that was the key. Carefully, deliberately, he made casual gestures, like dusting off the shirt he was wearing, pointedly ignoring the blood. "My limit break changes depending on the specific weapon I'm wielding. Joshua managed to get me at a bad weapon choice. You, though, you're luckier. Death won't be so quick."
"Nida..." Irvine whispered, and Nida just shook his head.
"Don't you have something to do?" he demanded, not even turning to glare at Irvine despite wanting to.
"I..."
"Go," he snapped angrily. "That's an order."
It was weird to realize now that he still had that power over Irvine. If everything had gone the way it should have, that they'd planned it, then Nida wouldn't have been able to make it an order. Irvine was supposed to be the one that made Rank A, not Nida. Irvine was supposed to be the one who amounted to something. Nida was the one who had started to question what he was fighting for, what he was still going for. The one who had been thinking about running away, about giving up the life of a mercenary. And here they were instead, Nida his superior in multiple ways, and yet still fighting to protect him.
But that was what a SeeD caliber mercenary did. Fought for what they were told to, struggled to give those who didn't have a chance on their own. Sacrificed themselves to see the job done.
It was what family did as well.
"Sir," Irvine agreed at last, though not before Nida felt the faint and soothing brush of a curative spell against his skin. That was something. Not much of something, but enough that it took the edge off of the pain.
"Who said that I'm letting either of you leave this room alive?"
"Who said you got a vote?" Nida countered, rolling his shoulders be reaching behind his back and slipping his tambo free. "I don't remember giving you one. Completely slipped my mind. Oh well, it is what it is. Let's face it, Ashura, this isn't about you and him. It's about you and me. Irvine's going on and dealing with Boyce. We get stuck with each other."
"I'm not letting him..."
"I'm not giving you a choice," Nida growled, twirling the tambo through his fingers.
Her hand raises again, clearly ready to show Nida just who was in charge in this situation. The problem was that for all that Ashura was certain that she was the one in control, she couldn't have been more wrong. Nida knew better than anything what he was doing here, and it wasn't aiming to win. No, the goal was to stall, and while he couldn't do much with tambo against a sorceress, he could definitely stall. Even as she's moving to attack he's lunging across the room, his mind immediately shifting the ways his magic tied him to the Guardian Forces in his mind. Spells shifted at the speed of thought, pulling the power away from his vitality, magic, evasion, pushing it in to strength, spirit, speed, all in the hopes that it would be enough. That once or twice he might get through her defenses to land a telling blow. So that the magic she hit him with wouldn't be so bad. Hoping that there would be more than enough speed to get into her defenses, and away before the next blast of magic threw him halfway across the room and ruined him further. All or nothing, because that was the only way to do this.
Because he wasn't Squall. Because he didn't have two other people to back him up. Because he had to do this and it didn't matter whether he made it through this or not.
Nida... Siren whispered in his ear, but he blocked it out. Tried not to think about how this was a lot like the encounter in Haven. Tried not to think about how much it was like that moment a while ago, back in the forest outside of Garden, when he'd been playing cat and mouse with Quistis, Zell, and Selphie, and had laughingly pointed out to them that sometimes one had to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the mission.
Before her hand is up all the way he's lashing out, elbow rotating, shoulder throwing as much strength as he could to supplement the momentum that would be the main source of the force. The short iron staff moved toward her hip, even as Nida swung with the other, aiming for her ribs. Speed, accuracy, getting in and out was the goal.
Not that he got out. The hand came up, almost in his face and it came up even as the tambo struck nothing but hard air at her sides. Immediately he twisted to the side, out of the immediate area of her hand, changing his point of view on Ashura. The targets changed from her hips, her shoulders, her sides, to the stomach, the back of the head, the back of the knees. More than that, there was the outstretched arm. Both tambo come up, around, slam down toward her arm, a flick of his wrists adding even more force. This didn't hit either, but instead of blocking with magic, Ashura actually tried to avoid the blow, dancing a step away. It wasn't much, but it was more than enough to make him smile. Half a step and he was back in range, twirling on the balls of his feet, bringing the tambo with him, and aiming to slam them into her back.
It connected. There was a shout of pain for the briefest of moments, and then he was left stumbling as Ashura literally disappeared. Something in reports he could barely remember reading had warned him about the possibility of a move like this, and immediately he was turning, tambo held like a shield between his hands. It was the right move, as the second he had turned around he saw the flash of movement and felt, heard, easily took the force of a blow from Ashura's short staff. For half a second their eyes met, hers flaring with outrageous fury, Nida smiling, and then she was gone in a flash of light.
To say that it wasn't fair to be fighting someone who could literally disappear around the room might have been an understatement. No, the honest truth was that it was an understatement. Yet there was little that was fair about being in a fight with a sorceress. They had advantages that even a well junctioned SeeD couldn't begin to rival. In the speed, in the magic, in their ability to hold back blows however it was that they did it... No, none of it was fair. None of it was right. Not that a SeeD didn't have their own ways to combat a sorceress, ways that were to their own advantage.
His hand comes up, tambo held loosely, and his fingers pressed lightly against his temple. Almost instinctively his breath slows, his eyes flicker closed, and on one exhalation it comes, in a rush: Salamander's name.
For a moment his mind roars with fire and energy. Then absolute silence. Then, finally, he's groaning, his stomach is roiling his head spinning, and he's slipping into trained instinct instead of real thought. Eyes search the room even as he instinctively slips into a defensive stance. Already he could see the damage Salamander had wrought on the room: the char marks on the floor, the sparks coming off of the computer systems, and even the walls seemed to have been kissed by smoke. And there, halfway through the turn, he finds her. Doubled over in pain, looking up at him with pain and hatred, she looked ready for murder, and he was sure she was capable of it. Worse, he was certain he was capable of it too. This was a situation of kill or be killed, and Nida had no intention of letting the latter happen.
Better, in the end, that he killed her and they had a sorceress that was new to their powers wandering around than to let a powerful one come up behind Irvine, ruin everything, and get away with other SeeDs not knowing about it. After all, it was not only his responsibility as a member of Squall's alliance and a son of Vascaroon to stop the Zebalgans, but a more pressing and memorable goal of stopping Sorceresses who would seek to bring war to the world.
"Know that I take no pleasure in this," he apologized, advancing with his tambo held carefully in his hands. "It is my duty."
"Say what you will, but we all know that we take pleasure in the power we have over others. I know better than most!"
Even as he's lifting the tambo for a quick but fatal blow Ashura's hand swings up. Her defenses were strong, but he was certain he could break through them with as tired as the Zebalgan sorceress looked, and so he didn't bother to find a way around her defense. Worse, he didn't consider how she could turn the attack to her advantage. He wasn't expecting her hand to spark with energy. Wasn't expecting the flash of blinding light that came the same moment as his body went rigid save for his open and screaming mouth.
There were few pains that quite rivaled that of a lightning spell. Wind cut and battered. Water battered and made one panic for the fear of drowning. Ice chilled, threatened one with frostbite, and stung terribly. Fire seared and scorched, a lingering kind of pain that left one moaning and weak. Earth magic shook and broke bones, a deep and unrelenting ache. Poison had its own way of sticking with a body, or so Nida had learned since encountering Joshua. But lightning... It made you want to fall to your knees screaming as your body felt like it was being torn apart by fingers of burning pain. Even when it was done it didn't mean you were free of what it did to you. The brain, the body, all of your muscles ran on electrical impulses. For minutes after the magical energy died down the body still twitched. Fingers didn't obey the command to grip. Legs had trouble coordinating to stand. The mind span as it tried to figure out just what had happened. In the end you were left with your skin burnt from the energy, your body shaking, and trying to figure out how to overcome what had happened.
If it hadn't been for training, for experience, it might have been the end of him. And if it wasn't for the GFs it would have been terrible. As it was he could feel Siren and Salamander almost winding themselves around his mind, cutting him off from the pain. Not before it had started, not before it had left him screaming, not before he wanted to just end himself. This wasn't emotional pain, it wouldn't end just because the beings in his mind sought to protect him. But it was enough for him to almost distance himself from it as he felt the tambo tumble from his spasming hands. Because of them he knows an instant before it happens that his knees are going to give, and he collapses to the ground, his hands not even reaching to catch him. He even enough left in his mind to almost wince as his head slammed against the floor, he bit the inside of his cheek pretty painfully, and his mouth all but lolled open from the pain.
Then, it's gone. No more pain, only the ghost of it. Well, no, that isn't quite right. His head hurts, his body hurts, his mouth tastes more like blood than it had when he'd been slammed against the wall. His fingers are still twitching, as if grasping after something that wasn't there. Not that he let it stop him. He'd experienced this kind of pain before, and while it was a strain, he immediately started to push himself up. Who knew how much breathing time he'd have before Ashura started into him again.
Getting his head up was the hardest part. Pushing his arms under him was difficult, but lifting his head from the floor was hard. His vision was swimming, his head spinning, and when he tried to breathe he tasted blood. When he lifted his eyes he found Ashura's there, golden and gleaming, staring down at him in triumph. Problem was that he had no intention of rolling over and dying right now.
The name comes to his lips, unwanted, unsought, but undoubtedly needed. For the shortest of moments his mind starts to feel warm and fuzzy, cushioned and cradled and safe. The pain is distant, fading, almost a memory as he's wrapped in the immateriality that came with summoning.
The relief is gone before he can even process what it means. In his mind Siren's voice screamed with unconcealed frustration and sorrow. Something had gone wrong, horribly wrong, and Siren was, for a lack of a better way to describe it, pounding at the borders of his mind, demanding to be released. Something had sealed her in, and from the way that he could still hear himself coughing, it wasn't a silence spell that held her at bay.
His eyes opened, and in at brief moment he almost had to stare in shock at what was presented to him. Ashura was gone, and in her place stood a towering woman that could only be a Guardian Force. Towering was the only way to describe her, as her head came just short of the ten-foot ceiling. For a long moment the woman stood there, looking down at him with something akin to pity in her face, and giving him an almost painfully long moment to examine her. Her skin was the color of rich mahogany, her hair like spun gold, and her eyes a painful sight, a poisonous sorceress gold that every now and then flickered to a clear and pure green. She was clad in a simple robe of white that flowed around her like it was caught up in the wind, except the air around them was still. But what marked her, more than anything else, as a Guardian Force was the thin, transparent, fluttery wings upon her back.
At last the summon moved, raising a hand towards him. He could see her lips moving, in an incantation or an apology, and he felt the air in the room seem to pull in towards her. For a moment he couldn't breathe. Then the winds screamed back out from her with a force that almost lifted Nida to his feet before slamming him into a wall. But it didn't end there. The GF's hand cut through the air, slashing out at him. An arc of water formed along the path that her hand cut, and as she raised her arm in another cut the arc of water shot through the air, slamming into him with almost bone-breaking force. Four such blows slammed into him before the air seemed to sigh in the way that it did when a GF withdrew.
Nida was left to collapse into an almost boneless heap on the floor of the room.
Do not hold the actions she was compelled to take against her, Salamander's voice crackled in his head, quiet and low as if to protect him. Such is what can happen when the powers of a corrupted Sorceress force one of our kind against their nature.
Is Siren...
What is it about your bloodline that leads you to regard ancient spirits such as us with such kindness? Many others view us more as a tool. A utility. Nevermind. There is something that your kind is not aware of that relates to GFs. But now is not the time to speak of it. What needs concern you is that Siren cannot be wielded against the holder of Sylph. You will have to face this without her strength.
Not exactly the most heartening news.
Nonetheless I am certain you will prevail.
Nida was far less certain. There was really only one choice left to him, and he didn't even want to contemplate the costs of it.
"You have a beautiful determination to you," Ashura crooned as Nida slowly started to push himself to his feet. "A fire that keeps you moving despite the fact that we both know your body is about to fail. If you could only see how broken you are. Tell you what, child, I shall offer you a trade. Your life for your service. I lack a knight, and while I do not require one, you are proving yourself more than worthy of serving me. You have displayed a foresight that, while unable to rival that of the true heir, will benefit me in my ends. Join me here and now and..."
When Nida reached his feet he turned his head to the side and spat, half to clear the blood from his mouth, half to show his disdain for the offer. Ashura glowered at the action, and raised her hand to charge a spell.
"Do you really think I'm going to fall for that offer?" he asked, casually slipping his hands into his pockets. Or at least he hoped the gesture looked casual. "I'd sooner die. You forget, I've known three knights. I've seen one brought low mourning for his wife and Mistress. I've seen another forced to become something he was not in the service of another before he found a way to break free of her. And the final had the worst side of him drawn forth. I know the world you want to see come forth, I know what the powers you seek can do to this world. Really, did you even begin to think that the offer would be even slightly tempting?"
"I know more about how the minds of men work than they care to admit. With enough pressure even you would fold. Unfortunately I don't care enough to see to providing that pressure. So I shall simply do away with the annoyance that you represent. And in the process claim two new sources of raw power for myself."
And that is why GFs are not to fall into the hands of a sorceress. They not only can corrupt our power, but draw upon it to fuel their own, Salamander observed, in an almost off-handed manner. Now, are you going to drink or not?
Nida wasn't even remotely surprised that the GF in his mind had seen through to the heart of the matter. After all, the creature had a unique seat to view the conflict from. Any action that Nida took, any thought he had, the spirit was privy to. In fact, Nida realized he'd almost been waiting for the ancient creature's input on the scheme. The edge of approval in its voice, approval mixed with worry, was all he needed to pull the vial of what looked like water from his pocket.
"A curative? How cute. I doubt that it will help you much, but by all means, give me a bit more fun," Ashura laughed as Nida uncorked the vial and lifted it in a mocking toast in her direction.
For all that the liquid looked and smelled like water, it tasted like bad gin and burned like fire going down. That and the way that the burning spread rapidly through his body assured him that this was the vial he'd been looking for. The sensation was the textbook description of what it felt like to consume one of the rare, potent, and frightfully dangerous concoctions known as a Hero Drink.
Of all of the magical concoctions that Esthar had developed through the use and manipulations of para-magic, there was nothing that had quite the same effects as a Hero Drink. Potions were distilled medicinal tonics that were a mixture of actual herbs and chemicals known to speed the body's healing processes that were infused with curative magic. There was, supposedly, a GF retained by the Esthari government known as Unicorn that worked with trained technicians to create the healing properties of various levels of potions. Phoenix Downs and Pinions were known to be the physical echoes of the power of the Phoenix summon, freely and happily given by the GF to the world. Other magical concoctions were the result of years of experimentation, careful chemistry, and magic. All of them placed a cost upon the body. Healing potions made one tired later, as they drew on the body's own resources, just like a spell. Poison curatives and other 'status' healing items left a mental or physical burden upon the body later. Aura spells channeled adrenaline into an easily focused form that left one tired and confused afterward. None of them compared to what this rare item did.
SeeDs that might find themselves on critical missions that absolutely had to be completed were often given a tiny vial of Hero Drink, called a Hero Trial, in the hopes that it not be needed but in case it was. The liquid was commonly said to make one invincible. Any SeeD worth their training knew it wasn't true. It didn't make one immune to damage. It made the body completely capable of ignoring it. It was a mixture of chemicals and magic that made the body release a potent and potentially deadly combinations of hormones, endorphins, and chemicals that forced the body to ignore pain, to move as much as possible except in situations where the body was actually physically incapable of it, and narrowed the mind to a razor sharp focus. The duration depended upon the amount consumed, and the vial that Nida had was a full sized one. It would grant him up to five minutes of unrestrained energy, of power, of force that he would pay for. Enough to put him into a coma if he wasn't careful of how he treated his body. Because every blow was still a blow. Every drop of blood lost was still a drain. He wouldn't feel the pain, couldn't understand how badly he was hurt unless he actually lost his ability to move a body part.
A Hero Drink let you keep moving, keep fighting, beyond the point when the body realized it was dead.
"Alright... Are you ready to resume?" Nida asked, striding forward to where Rupio lay on the ground. Slowly he bent over, resisting a sigh of relief as the burning sensation spread through his chest and across his back, taking away the terrible pains that had been there only moments before. Yes, this should be enough, just enough, to end this.
"What did you..."
The second his fingers wrapped around the hilt he was spinning, bringing the blade up, lunging forward. Faster than even he could believe he was inside Ashura's range, the crimson blade dancing through the air to try and cut at her flesh. The speed was what got her. She hadn't expected it, nor had Nida, and so the blade had cut across her chest—albeit shallow—before she could react and disappear out of his range.
Seven o'clock, Siren shouted. Maybe he couldn't use her against the sorceress, but apparently her senses were as sharp as ever.
He span again, the blade lashing out almost of its own accord, striking the place that the Sorceress arrived. Again the blade met flesh, he could feel the resistance of her skin for the half-second before it split before the sharp edge of the sword, then she was gone again. Another time Siren's voice called out to him, and Nida moved before thought, scoring another blow as Ashura appeared out of thin air. Again and again this happened, until at last Nida felt it, a swelling of energy that he hadn't expected. A fire in his veins that cut across even the feeling free burning void of the Hero Drink. An energy that could only be from the mixture of natural adrenaline and a motivating fact that was always hard to put into terms.
As Ashura appeared this time, Nida let the feeling overflow him, filling and screaming in his head for release. All he had to do was embrace the energy. Close his eyes and give in to the force that wanted to propel him forth.
When he opened his eyes the world around him was different. It seemed to be moving in slow motion, no, slower than that. It hardly seemed to be moving at all. The only reason he could see that time was still flowing was because of the smoke that seemed to fill the air around him. Either he was dreaming or the visions of the future were starting to leak into the waking world. Not that it mattered in this moment, Nida pushed the concern aside and let his mind revel in the way that the tendrils and coils of smoke slid through the air, wrapping everything and yet hiding nothing from him. The smoke slid easily apart as the barely moving world passed through it, moving up and around, and coiling into turbulence in the wake of whatever moved.
Yet what was truly amazing in the moments he lived in it was the movement that existed faster than time seemed to. Shadows cut through the smoke at what seemed to be normal speed. They whispered to him of possible futures. Where Ashura would go, how she would react, to different blows, where he had to move to be where he needed to catch her despite her bests efforts. In the space of that smoke he knew exactly what he had to do, how he had to move. A quiet corner of his mind told him that it wasn't possible to move as fast as he needed, to get to where he had to be. That he was never good enough with a sword to achieve this. No, this needed the speed that Elijah had, a speed Nida had only ever seen twice, that he'd only faced once, that he'd barely managed to protect himself from. Elijah had once told him that when he moved that fast it didn't matter how good the other person was, they were dead by the third blow if he wanted them to be. The only reason Nida had been able to face the thing the first time had been because his dreams had hinted at where he had to be to defend himself. He'd had an edge then. Now the question was whether he could use this energy, this vision of potential futures, to end this fight?
Carefully he watched the different paths of the future, chose, and started to move, echoing the paths of the shadows. The first blow slashed across the stomach of the sorceress. The second slashed at, and through, an arm that was lifting to block his attack.
The final blow started to cut through the air even as time fitted itself back into place around him. Nida watched his own arm become practically a blur, black turning into crimson, moving to meet the pale column of Ashura's neck. It wasn't a cut that was far enough forward to have to deal with her spine, but he wasn't surprised to feel the blade easily part the flesh of her throat. There was blood, almost everywhere, but that didn't bother Nida so much as the shadow that seemed to pour from Ashura's throat with the blood.
Almost immediately the air was filled with a sickening, cloying scent that made his body shake despite the effect of the Hero drink. The shadow rose from the blood, a cloud of pitch black smoke that screamed of evil as it filled the room. After a moment the shadow seemed to pull itself into a tighter form and it hurtled right at his chest. For all that Nida couldn't feel when it struck him, he still collapsed as the shadow passed through him. His knees failed, tumbling him to the floor even as his stomach rebelled. He emptied the contents of his stomach and the heat of the Hero Drink faded from his body. For all that he'd had more time, something in the hateful presence that was the escaping power of the Sorceress had cleared the power from his body.
The dark energy swirled through the air, spinning back before him. Clearly the thing wanted another go at him. It wasn't hard to tell from what it had done to the power of the Hero Drink and what he'd heard from others who had faced a sorceress before. The power of this had knocked out a full squad of SeeDs, leaving them weak and powerless to stop the power of Ultimecia from entering Rinoa's body. Not for the first Nida was certain that this was an event that he didn't want to experience for himself.
Even as the energy seemed ready to lunge forward—how could he even tell—something changed. A point of light rose from Ashura's body. Well, no, light wasn't fully the right term for it. Light was kind of a pure thing, and this was almost oily. Yet the longer the light existed free of the body, the more pure, radiant, white it became. At last the light seemed to resolve into the ghostly form of the GF that had been so recently used against Nida. Ghostly and far smaller form, making the summon look like a little fairy. This time her eyes were only a vibrant green rather than flashing with gold.
The presence of the ghostly GF seemed to upset the darkness, as it almost seemed to start trembling at the very sight of the miniscule woman. The GF's hands rose, held out as if trying to cup water, and from her hands shone forth a great light. The light almost seemed to quest out, searching for something, until at last it almost engulfed the darkness. The cloud of malevolent energy started to writhe, attempting to escape, only to be drawn in as the light started to fill the room.
What's going on? Nida demanded of the presences in his mind.
One of the true purposes of our kind being fulfilled.
It was all the answer Salamander gave, and the way his voice was almost reverent worried Nida as he watched the being the GF had referred to as Sylph suck in the darkness. Then, once the cloud was finally gone, fully absorbed into the hands of the sparkling creature, there was a blinding flash of light, and a mournful goodbye that seemed to echo in the air.
For a moment he stayed there, doubled over as the pain returned to his body, his eyes useless from the flash of light. Then, at last, he could open them and see. There was blood everywhere. From the Sorceress, from himself, from places he couldn't remember. There were char marks on all of the walls, and the wall that he'd been slammed into by Slyph's power had a dent in it.
"What in Hyne's name just happened?" he managed to gasp out around the pain suddenly surging to life in his chest.
Do not remain still. There is much left that you much accomplish. The coyote will need your assistance. Hurry, Salamander insisted. I will speak as you work to catch up with the other. I fear that he is in far greater danger than even you were.
No shit. Hadn't Irvine already admitted that he wasn't sure he could stop his grandfather? While he claimed that he would see Boyce stopped or dead, Nida wasn't sure he could kill the man.
All he could do was turn his attention inward, gathering the energy he could command from Siren, to reach for the higher end curative spells he had access to. Carefully he directed it about his body, trying to shore it up against the worst of the pains he'd been able to catalog during the fight. Even as strong as the magic was, he knew it wasn't enough to wash away the fatigue, or to deal with all of the ills. His body was sore, there was still blood in his mouth, and the healing would only manage to help him if he kept himself out of combat from now until he was healed properly.
There are many things about we being you call Guardian Forces that are unknown to mortals. No, Salamander corrected himself, not unknown. Forgotten. Once humanity knew more of our secrets, in the days between when your ancestor walked the face of the planet and the believed fall of the Cetra. But the world has changed greatly since then, and knowledge that should not be lost was. It as forgotten that when one of our kind is possessed by a Sorceress we are a two edged sword. We grant them power despite our desires, and in turn if we are with them upon their deaths, we absorb their power. No Sorceress can pass along her power in this way, even in the presence of one who could take it on.
Once this was something that the so called daughters of Hyne were willing to embrace. The power we gave them helped them to live their lives without the need for a knight to ground them, allowed them to live in secret and peace, and still allow them to help their people in silence. And upon their deaths they gave themselves over to our kind, making us stronger in turn. Those GFs which absorb the magic of a sorceress become more powerful, greater than we ever were before.
Nida could sense Siren's affirmation of Salamander's tale as he pushed another wave of curative energy through his body. At last he felt strong enough to move, and slowly he rose to his feet. Elijah's sword was carefully lifted and cleaned his blade on the cleanest part of Ashura's robe that he could find.
The strongest of GFs are those who have absorbed the most power from Sorceresses, Siren offered. It is that which creates the division that the human Veringas has noted. Salamander has taken in more than Ifrit, and is thus stronger. But there is a side effect. When we absorb the power of a Sorceress, we fade back into the place we come from for a time, so that we may grow and change as we are fated to do. When the right time comes, Sylph shall again be upon this world, to fight beside those who would stand against those who would use their god-gifted power against others. Or to willingly join into bond with a Sorceress who wishes to not see their power pass on to another. Such is our role.
Silently he contemplated the information that the pair of GFs gave him even as he gathered up and cleaned his tambo. Once they were back in place in the harness on his back Nida wiped the blood on his hands across Ashura's robes. Then, sword in hand and another curative spell falling from his lips, he turned toward the door that Irvine had fled through. Though his body begrudged him every step he still forced it forward. There was no chance in hell he was going to abandon Irvine when his cousin and fellow SeeD might need him most.
"Now," he said as he passed through the door and looked at the stairs leading deeper into the complex, "tell me what happened with Siren..."