The Crossing of the Paths
Second Edition
By MMM/AJ
Part I: Desert Wind
A/N: Good evening dear readers, I hope you've been well! This chunk is going up a little bit late in the day this time since I stumbled into a big mistake I'd made while I was working to port it over to FFN's formatting. When I first wrote this chunk for AO3 I accidentally misnumbered the chapters, creating two chapter 18s. I had to basically go back onto the AO3 version and re-edit every single chunk after this one to correct all the chapter numbers before I could get myself to post this one here. Thankfully the chapters are all fixed there and in my local chapter files, so future postings will no longer be affected by this silly little goofy goober moment.
Also, there is gonna be another big CONTENT WARNING attached to this chunk. More really intense stuff is coming! This time I'm attaching my content warning to the Author's Notes at the BOTTOM of this chunk, to avoid people being spoiled. Please scroll down to the bottom and read it before proceeding to the chunk itself if you are sensitive to intense content. If you're not sensitive to intense content, then read on!
Chapter 19: The Partisan
Mewtwo could immediately tell something was wrong as he and Kalana flew back to Ven'vha. Dread and horror welled up in his stomach as he saw a few small plumes of smoke rising from the top of the mesa, as well as the glimmering glow of fires. He couldn't bring himself to believe that the timing of his spy mission could be so perfectly terrible that the Sulaaq would attack while he was gone!
"Oh no, no no no no!" Mewtwo gasped as they grew closer and heard the sound of Gerudos shouting and swords clashing.
Kalana gripped his hand tightly as they approached, though she too was too horrified to find any words. She used her free hand to draw her scimitar and stared intensely at the approaching scene. Mewtwo raised a psychic cloaking field around himself as they finally got close, not wanting any Sulaaq to spot them. Fortunately, the scene they arrived in wasn't an attack on Ven'vha, there were no Chosen or Immortals flooding the streets. Instead he saw the Gerudos angrily fighting among themselves. Small groups of people were crowding the streets in distinct, separate spots. A large majority of those groups were merely content to be shouting at each other, shaking their fists and brandishing their weapons. Most of what they were saying was in the Gerudo tongue but too much of it was overlapping and chaotic for Mewtwo to properly translate. But as they descended toward the square Mewtwo immediately saw that that was where the actual fighting was taking place. Two groups of Gerudos had coalesced in the square and were clashing violently. Most were merely fist-fighting but there were a few in the middle with blades drawn and swinging. There were two fires, both in the square, that seemed to have been set on market stalls and were relatively contained. A few guards on the edges of the crowd were bringing in buckets of water and hurling them onto the flames, which fortunately seemed to be receding. There were absolutely no Sulaaq in sight, a fact which almost entirely quenched the dread in Mewtwo's guts. A little nugget of that dread remained though; it was rooted in his fear that somehow this fight could be related to his arrival.
"Sa'sheer! What's gotten into everyone?" Kalana whispered softly.
"I'm not sure! What do we even do? If I show myself or use my telepathy to try and interrupt it could cause a panic instead." Mewtwo asked quietly.
"We should get the chiefs out here immediately, though I'd assume they're on their way already."
Mewtwo nodded in agreement and turned to start flying toward Chief Lasheera's home. He was interrupted before he could get too far by a deafening yell that blasted out over the entire town.
"ENOUGH!"
The sound was so intense that it jarred Mewtwo to a halt midair and forced him to grip his ears in pain. It was clearly recognizable as Chief Lasheera's voice, but it was so supernaturally loud that it had to have been magically amplified. The entire crowd of bickering Gerudos stumbled to a halt and turned to look toward the source of the shout. There was Kamilia standing atop the roof of a house at the edge of the first tier, overlooking the square and the myriad people it contained. Hadara and Lamira were standing alongside her in supportive roles, remaining silent so she could speak. Mewtwo used a touch of his psychic energy to use Recover on himself at this point, wanting to clear the ringing out of his ears so he could hear what was about to be said.
"Stop this madness now! If we allow petty divisions like this to drive a wedge between us then the Sulaaq will have won without even lifting a finger! It's exactly in dire times like these that we most need to unite and present a common front against them!"
One of the Vha'an Gerudos pushed her way to the forefront of her group so she could speak to the trio of chiefs more directly. She was taller than the average tribe member and carried a spear at her side that was even more decorated than the Vatorsa spear. She was covered in scars and seemed to be missing several fingers on her right hand, and her eyes were a deep green. She shouted back angrily at the chiefs as she raised her spear.
"This isn't some petty squabble Kamilia, this is a struggle for the entire future of our people! Those Doomseers want to hunt down and kill the Traveler tonight and I won't allow it!"
"Then you should have used your authority as Arbiter to level a challenge to them and their leader, not started a gang war in the streets! I am disappointed in you, Nereti!" Kamilia growled.
Nereti angrily slammed the brass claw on the bottom of her spear against the cobblestones in response. "I had no time, they were planning to place archers on the town's watchtowers immediately and open fire the moment the Traveler returned! He could arrive again at any second and I will not see him slaughtered while still trying to gather the guard and sort them all out in this massive crowd!"
"Who is leading these Doomseers?" Hadara suddenly asked.
"I am!" a different voice called from the other crowd.
A younger Gerudo woman stepped out of the Doomseer crowd and approached the chiefs. She was younger even than Kalana, looking to be the human equivalent of 18 or 19. She was less muscular than most guards and had fewer scars. Her clothing was green, marking her as a member of the Suulan tribe, and she was wielding a smaller scimitar and a buckler that she was putting away as she walked. Lamira seemed taken aback at the sight of her emerging from the crowd.
"I am Kurala Tusuní, Arbiter of the Suulan Tribe! I intend to kill the Traveler myself!"
The conviction of her words caused the blood to rush in Mewtwo's veins. He didn't want to fight this woman, but threats to his life were enough to set his instincts ablaze with the excitement for battle.
"Kurala, do you realize just how improper and wrongful it is to act so violently and rashly while our tribe are the guests of Chief Kamilia and her people?! You are violating the spirit of Taji Alirha!" Chief Lamira shouted angrily.
"Taji Alirha means nothing when the fate of the entire world is at stake, My Chief! You know I can't sit idly by while a Sulaaq infiltrator prepares to bring ruin to all our people!"
"And I suppose your conviction in those beliefs is strong enough that you would be willing to cast all the traditions and laws of our people aside and risk shattering the peace between the tribes?" Lamira asked.
"We will all die if nothing is done!"
"You fool, you are going to be the one who causes those deaths!" Nereti shouted at her, pointing her spear.
The gesture caused more members of the crowd to draw weapons and clamor for violence. Hadara raised her voice next in an attempt to prevent the fight from erupting again.
"Arbiter Kurala, I am warning you! The one you call Traveler is an honorary member of the Rakeshan Tribe! If you raise your weapon against him while speaking for the Doomseers of Ven'suul then I will consider it an act of war against my entire tribe! Do you really wish to bring the wrath of every able-bodied Rakeshan warrior down on your head?!"
This was more than Mewtwo could handle, he lowered his cloak and appeared floating above the three Chiefs. Kalana was still floating at his side, though he lowered her to the ground and set her alongside Hadara so that he was floating alone above everyone. He also raised a telekinetic force field around himself as he did this, anticipating that some of those archers might open fire. A series of gasps rushed through the crowds and Mewtwo saw several Gerudos in the Doomseer side start to raise their bows. He reached one hand out quickly and pointed at them as he used his telekinesis to snatch their weapons from their hands. Bows, spears, scimitars, and even some Sulaaq guns were ripped out of their hands and floated up ten feet into the air above their heads. Numerous Doomseers shouted angrily and swore as they desperately jumped and reached for their weapons, but all of them failed to reach. Mewtwo suddenly sensed a scant few of them using some strange form of telekinesis of their own to try to grab their weapons out of the air but he was able to easily overpower them and then toss the weapons aside into a pile behind the Hopeseer crowd.
"That will not be necessary, though I appreciate the solidarity, my Chief. I can defend myself from their attacks without any help. I would rather not have the people I care about endanger themselves needlessly on my behalf."
"You coward! Come down here and face us like a warrior!" Kurala yelled.
"Only if you swear on your honor as Arbiter that you will not raise a finger to harm any Hopeseers or neutral Tribeswomen. If we are to fight then I will not have any collateral damage."
Mewtwo then gestured briefly at the remaining fires in the square and used telekinesis to produce puffs of violent wind that snuffed the flames out. A few carts were knocked over, sending charred wooden chunks and scorched items all over the ground, but now the threat posed by the flames was fully removed.
"Mewtwo you don't need to do this, all three Tribes can unite against these separatists!" Hadara called out to him.
"I don't intend to kill them, My Chief. Merely...pacify them." Mewtwo replied.
He turned his gaze directly to Kurala and descended quickly to the cobbled ground of the square between the two groups. "Do you swear to agree to my terms?"
Kurala spat bitterly and then drew a dagger from a small sheath strapped to her hips and charged at him! Mewtwo didn't even flinch when she leaped at him wildly and tried to bring the dagger down on his head. The telekinetic barrier caught the blow and flashed softly with psychic power as the tip glanced off. Kurala didn't even nick the surface of the spherical barrier; her dagger was deflected sideways and slipped out of her fingers, clattering to the ground. The momentum of her leap caused her to body-slam into his barrier violently and fall back onto her posterior with enough force to bruise her tailbone. More gasps echoed through the crowd; not even the three chiefs could come up with words as they watched this play out.
Kurala sat up and groaned in pain, then tried to reach for the dagger. Mewtwo simply kicked it aside. She turned and shouted back to her Doomseers, "Now you fools! Secondaries!"
Several Gerudos in Blue and Green in the Doomseer crowd began to scramble through their gear for any weapons that Mewtwo might have missed. He simply watched them, ready to grab those weapons and toss them aside too. He took heart from the fact that there were no red outfits among the group, implying that he had managed to win the trust of the entire Rakeshan people so that none would join such a movement. He saw a few more daggers produced in the forefront of the crowd, some of which were slid across the stone toward Kurala to help her. But he didn't see it in time when one of the people in the back of the crowd produced a Sulaaq pistol and aimed it at him. A hair-thin beam of red light lanced out of the Doomseer crowd with a sharp CRACK! The beam struck Mewtwo's barrier with enough force to significantly bend and stretch it inward for a brief moment, but fortunately the sheer power of his fresh psychic reserves managed to hold it at bay. Mewtwo was amazed by the force that the beam had exerted, it took a significant burst of psychic power to hold it back. If the entire Doomseer crowd opened fire with these he actually didn't think he could block them all.
Of course the people in the crowd who were grazed by the beam were terrified by the sudden deafening report going off between them. Dozens of them dove to the ground to protect themselves, revealing the shooter to Mewtwo so he could disarm her. He grabbed the pistol with telekinesis and tossed it aside too.
"There, are you all satisfied now? This violence is pointless! Not even the weapons of the Sulaaq can defeat me, what makes you think your blades and brute strength could be enough? Moreover, perhaps now you can see that I would have no reason to waste time garnering trust and subverting your tribes from the shadows when I have access to these powers! If I had wanted to slaughter you all I could have done it the moment I arrived and there would be nothing any of you could do to stop it! Open your eyes, I am here to help you!"
Mewtwo's voice thundered angrily throughout the village as he spoke. He was using some of his own psychic energy to amplify the sound now to make sure even those hiding in buildings could hear him. He was at his wit's end at this point, being utterly sick of going through this same merry-go-round of distrust and having to prove himself. The grief for Ruisa gnawing on the back of his mind was making his patience wear thin. Fortunately nobody else dared draw any additional weapons or shout any challenges at him. Silence fell over the crowd and every single person stared at him in awe.
Mewtwo almost didn't know what to say next. He had expected at least one more challenge or attack, but now he was the center of attention for three entire tribes and nobody knew what to say. Then an idea struck him; he knelt down to where Kurala was sitting on the ground and lowered his shield before offering his hand to her to help her to her feet. She looked up at him and locked eyes with him for a brief moment, then with lightning quick reflexes drew another dagger and slashed at his arm!
The blow opened a bleeding gash four inches long across Mewtwo's forearm between his wrist and elbow. This drew another series of gasps from the crowd; people seemed shocked by the dishonorable act that Kurala had committed. Mewtwo reeled backward and raised his shield again before she could strike another blow.
"You're not so impervious to our weapons! Look, you bleed just like the rest of us!" Kurala shouted, pointing at the wound as she regained her footing.
Mewtwo gripped the wound and grimaced angrily as the blood poured down his arm. "I bleed like you, but can you do this without a potion?"
He then held his arm out and used his Recover ability again. The flesh swiftly knitted itself back together before their eyes, leaving only the dripping blood that had already flown out before the wound had sealed. He wiped the blood away with one hand, showing them how the skin had regenerated without even leaving a scar. Kurala opened her mouth as if about to speak again, but this time Mewtwo cut her off.
"Perhaps you could kill me if you decapitated me, but you would need to sever both my necks instantly with one single blow to prevent me from healing it like this again. But once again, why would I tell you such things if I wanted to kill you all?!" Mewtwo demanded.
Kurala glared at him with her second dagger still drawn and ready to attack but his interruption seemed to have robbed her of what she had been preparing to say.
Mewtwo nearly ran out himself now as well, but then suddenly he heard another, much younger voice call out to address the crowd.
"Doomseers, listen to me!"
Mewtwo turned and saw that it was Indiru who had spoke. She was standing on another building a few dozen feet to the left of where the three chiefs were. She was wearing a much fancier set of clothing than before, consisting of flowing blue silk robes that draped down all over the ground around her, as well as an ornate silver headdress.
"I am Indiru Lasheera and I possess the gift of Foresight! If you will not listen to anyone else, listen to the words of a Seer! I have seen the future and I know the true ending of Mireth's Prophecy! The Hopeseers are correct! The Traveler is among us and it will be by his hand that the Sulaaq will fall!"
"Indiru! What are you-" Kamilia gasped.
"I am sorry mother, this has to be done. They need to know, nothing else will stop the bloodshed."
Kurala lowered her dagger and shot Indiru a mistrustful glare. "Are the people of Ven'suul really expected to take the words of a child as truth!? You are too young to possess the gift!"
"Am I? What of you, are you not too young to possess the authority of an Arbiter? I have seen visions of you too, I know you took the mantle upon yourself out of guilt after you failed to save the last Suulan Arbiter from the blades of a Lizalfos war party!" Indiru replied, spite and anger tinging her tone.
Kurala's jaw dropped suddenly and she completely froze in place. The dagger dropped from her hands and landed dramatically on the sandstone cobbles with a pronounced clang. This finally seemed to rob the wind from the sails of the Doomseers; several of the Suulans in the crowd gawked in amazement while the Vha'ans lowered their heads in shame.
"If you want to save this wretched old world from any more suffering, you will stand down and not interfere with the Traveler again. If you desire any additional proof of the legitimacy of my power then I welcome you to come and seek my words in private so that I do not reveal any of your secret shames in front of the three assembled tribes!"
Indiru then turned to leave with a sharp, vindictive speed to her movement. She began to walk away, but then paused as though another thought struck her. She turned toward the three chiefs, who were still dumbstruck themselves, and spoke loudly to address them.
"Mother, Chiefs Quindalo and Nurali, take heed of one last piece of advice. Do not cancel the traditional Festival Games. Now more than ever we all need something to reunite our people after the blood that was shed tonight. Hold the first games tomorrow as planned and invite all three tribes to participate. The joys of competition will go far toward mending the emotional wounds that were torn open on this night."
Mewtwo was grateful for the peaceful silence inside Chief Kamilia's home once he and the chiefs returned to it. The crowds were dispersed, wounds were healed, and workers assigned to rebuild the stands that had been burned. Arbiter Kurala had pledged to spend her own rations and labor to make amends for what she had done, though Chief Lamira still seemed to be saving some future punishments for her later on if her lethal glares were anything to go by. Now it was time for Mewtwo to sit down and relay what he had seen in the tower to the assembled chiefs.
"I apologize for my daughter's intrusive behavior, Mewtwo. She was merely doing what she thought was right." Kamilia said first, lowering her head penitently.
Mewtwo gave her a confused look. "Why would you apologize? Her help has been vitally important twice now tonight. I wouldn't have found any information in the Sulaaq tower at all if she hadn't given me the password to their computers that she had seen in her visions."
"Then you were quite fortunate. She has been wrong many times in the past; children aren't meant to be Seers after all. She still suffers greatly under the weight of the responsibility and every mistake she makes hangs heavily on her brow." Kamilia replied, shaking her head sadly.
"Still, we need to know what you found. Please tell us everything." Lamira interjected.
"Of course. Unfortunately I was unable to find anything regarding Ven'ravé or any of the plans the Sulaaq may have. They seem to have recently purged all their historical records, leaving almost nothing behind."
"Sheer!" Hadara growled with a disappointed, frustrated tone.
"Well, what was left?" Kamilia asked.
"Schematics and technical data about the tower. Fortunately I was able to read them all quite clearly, but the information I found there was... disturbing to say the least. I now know how the towers operate and what they are designed to do."
"What do you mean? They're mining facilities and factories, we know that already. Our people have delved into the tunnels and seen the smelteries firsthand." Kamilia said.
"Yes, but that's not all they're for. Haven't you wondered why a mining facility needs to reach hundreds of feet into the air and have rooms upon rooms filled with huge bulky machinery that has nothing to do with smelting?" Mewtwo asked.
"Well, I always assumed that the machinery was necessary to making the smelteries work."
Mewtwo shook his head. "No. Those machines are batteries, they store energy. It's the same type of technology as the "Reservoirs" as you call them in the Sulaaq guns. Those conduits in the tower's center suck energy out of the world, the large machine that everyone thought was the entirety of the drain device is an energy transformer, and the batteries store the energy that the system siphons out of the world. The horror comes in when you realize what they can do with all that stored energy."
"It's a weapon, isn't it?" Lamira asked.
"Not just any weapon. Each tower is a part of a massive grid of superweapons designed to bathe the entire world in a colossal lethal firestorm. If it's as I suspect, then they have the ability to end the world with a simple press of a button."
All three chiefs were again dumbstruck, though Hadara spoke up before the silence could linger for long. "I don't understand. The towers have been standing for hundreds of years! Nearly 500 years in fact, if my memory serves me. If the towers have had that ability for the entire time, then why haven't they used them?"
"Let's think of this analytically. The towers have mines underneath them, perhaps they planned to use the mines to dig up as many mineral resources as possible before they fire their weapons?" Kamilia suggested.
"Perhaps, but the smelteries have been cold for centuries, I don't think any of us have seen them forging metals within living memory. Doesn't this mean they've already dug up everything of value? Even then, if they already had the stockpiled metals to build literally thousands of these towers, why bother mining at all?" Lamira retorted.
All four of them paused to think. Mewtwo furrowed his brow and flicked his tail around energetically as he tried to come up with an idea. Hadara wrung her hands and hummed softly, while Kamilia scowled and buried her face in one palm.
"Kalana once told me that the Sulaaq often work their thralls to death in factories and in the tunnels beneath the towers though, wouldn't that contradict what you said about the mines being shut down?" Mewtwo asked.
"There are more than just mines down there, they often build many different kinds of structures beneath the sands in order to avoid the harsh desert sun. All their Helmsaurs are usually stored underground, for example. But this doesn't explain why they wouldn't have killed us all once they were finished digging up everything they needed." Hadara replied.
Silence returned as they continued to ponder. That little tangent hadn't gotten them any closer to finding the answer. Then suddenly an idea came to Mewtwo that made it all come together.
"I think I have it. This world of Hypalia isn't a mining colony, nor is it particularly strategically important to them. This is a slave farm. Think about it, they designed and created the Mind Control Incantation in order to gather thralls, and thralls are their primary staffing source. Hadara told me they don't seem to be able to breed their thralls in captivity, perhaps as a side effect of the Incantation itself, so it makes sense to intentionally leave a minimal breeding population free and uncontrolled out in the wild. Moreover, they keep the world in its current devastated state because it ensures you are trapped in dependence on the supplies you steal from them. They know you will never ever completely destroy all the towers they have built because you will all starve to death without them. And if you ever somehow develop magic powerful enough to be a threat to them, they have their superweapon network ready to fire at any time to put down your rebellion with ease. This is also why you have never seen a Chosen or Immortal for hundreds of years, not counting the one I battled at the tower with Kalana. Why should they do their own fighting or their own work when they have an endlessly self-renewing supply of slaves they can harvest any time they like? I would wager that the raid on Ven'ravé was explicitly slave harvesting simply to renew their stock, perhaps to replace all the thralls they killed when I tried to liberate them during my first raid on the tower in Rakeshan territory. The mines were probably merely built just to recoup the resources they spent to build the tower network in the first place."
"That...that makes a shocking amount of sense. It strikes me as horrifically inefficient though; we lose so many of our people to the beasts of the desert every year. Disease and starvation take even more of us when we botch a tower raid and fail to steal enough supplies to survive. Why would they allow so many of us to die when their goal is to enslave us?" Kamilia asked.
"Sadism. I saw it in the eyes of the Chosen when I battled him. He took a sick and twisted enjoyment in it when he slaughtered the thralls that I was trying to save. They probably don't need that many slaves, so the suffering and death is a feature rather than a design flaw." Mewtwo replied with a grim tone.
That was enough to send icy chills of horror down the spines of everyone in the room. They all took a second to process the idea, then Hadara gave a dark chuckle before chiming in again.
"The one upside to this theory is that they're at least unlikely to raid us into extinction or activate their superweapons anytime soon. Why go to all this trouble to build a slave farm only to arbitrarily wipe it out?"
"Oh I can think of one reason. Mewtwo already said it. If we ever were to become a real threat to their supremacy they would have no reason not to fire the towers to stop that threat. It also just so happens that there is one here sitting among us who the Sulaaq felt threatened enough by to send a Chosen to fight in person. One who we have an ancient prophecy about, predicting his journey to end the Sulaaq once and for all." Lamira pointed out, turning her gaze sharply to Mewtwo.
The other two both turned to look at him too. Their worried gazes cut right through Mewtwo's emotional defenses. He suddenly found himself stammering a little now as he tried to come up with a response.
"Yes but...I don't really...I never said I would-"
Hadara raised one finger to silence him softly, then spoke.
"Kalana told me that during your raid with her on the tower in our territory, you initially planned to use your powers to leave our world and find your way back home. She also told me that the reason you decided to stay was that your conscience wouldn't let you leave our people here trapped under the control of the Sulaaq. She told me that you want to find a way to bring the fight to them and free our people."
"Yes...it's true."
"You realize now why we can't allow you to blunder right into such an effort without a plan, yes?"
"I do, yes."
"Even if there wasn't any risk that the Sulaaq might decide to fire their superweapons to stop you, it's not feasible to destroy all their towers. Like you said, our people have grown wholly dependent on the food we steal from them. If you destroyed their towers we would all die agonizing, drawn out deaths of starvation." Hadara added.
Mewtwo hung his head in shame and wordlessly nodded. Now he felt utterly defeated. All the excitement and idealistic hope that he had been clinging to for the future of the Gerudo people had been dashed to ribbons. Worst of all was the fact that he knew that the drain devices were what was causing the energy sinkholes that were keeping him trapped on this world. He was facing a choice too terrible to grasp: either he remained trapped for the rest of his life on Hypalia with the Gerudos as another member of their slave fodder tribes constantly fearing the next harvest, or he destroyed the Sulaaq in order to get home, dooming the Gerudos to extinction via starvation. All the facts had been there before of course, but now he had just finally put them all together and truly realized just how horrifically cornered he really was.
"So what do we do now then? Your daughter just gave every single person in all three of our tribes a colossal sense of false hope! Everyone is going to be buzzing about how Mewtwo is about to bring an end to the Age of the Sulaaq!" Lamira said, pointing her finger at Kamilia.
"Long term? I have no idea. Nothing comes to me. But at least in the short term she was very clear that we should still hold the Festival Games, and I agree with her. Not only will it give everyone a reason to relax and smile after the terrible events that transpired tonight, but it will be a distraction while we try to come up with a plan for what to do next." Kamilia said.
"Agreed. We'll need to retool our entire tournament bracket in order to accommodate the Rakeshan people though. Given this was all your daughter's fault, I think you should be responsible for redrawing the tournament plans tonight." Lamira said.
"Fine, I'll do it, but would you watch your tone for once Lamira? If my daughter hadn't done what she did then we could all be out there stabbing our sisters to death right now!"
"She does have a point." Hadara added, backing Kamilia up.
"As you wish, I am but a humble guest in your domain after all Kamilia. As for you, Traveler. I expect you to help us out with our planning sessions too. If you really do know so much about the Sulaaq then it behooves you to contribute your expertise." Lamira said.
"Of course. I take it then that you want to adjourn for now?" Mewtwo asked.
"Indeed. I am tired and stressed and I still have a problem with my Tribe's Arbiter that needs some additional addressing in private." Lamira replied as she stood to leave.
Chapter 20: Set it Down
Accommodations for the Rakeshan Tribe were slapdash, to say the least. With no available buildings anywhere in Ven'vha and no space in the alleyways due to Suulan tents, the Rakeshan people were forced to raise their own tents on the roofs of Ven'vha's buildings. They had to avoid the topmost tier as well out of fear that a sandstorm could roll in overnight and rake the top of the mesa with winds strong enough to collapse their tents. Mewtwo's tent was located on the second tier just to the North of the main square, squeezed right next to Hadara and Ruru's tent on top of an alchemist's shop. Since the Gerudos were only able to brew potions during times when the Sulaaq drain devices were inactive it meant that they couldn't afford to shut down the shop at night. This caused a constant acrid stench of chemical reagents to waft up out of the chimney next to their tents the entire night. Mewtwo tried to use a telekinetic barrier to keep it out of his sleeping space at first, but since he couldn't use his powers while sleeping it meant that the barrier would fall as soon as he drifted off and the stink would return to disturb his sleep. He did manage to grab a few hours of sleep eventually but they were so broken up that he didn't have any dreams to speak of.
When the dawn broke Mewtwo was awoken by the sound of live music radiating up from the town's main square. A jubilant and energetic melody was being woven by a whole ensemble of different instruments. The rousing charm of the music would have been lovely if it hadn't been dragging him out of a fitful and tenuous slumber that his body desperately needed. He mumbled angrily to himself as he sat up and saw the daylight pouring through the thin stretched animal hide that composed his little shelter. His memory told him that the music most likely marked the beginning of those tournament games he had heard the chiefs talking about last night and it was probably therefore going to continue unabated for an extended period of time. Getting back to sleep with the sun beating down and the games blaring was improbable to say the least, so Mewtwo got up and began to slide on his cloak and chew on his morning rations.
Once finished, he slipped open the flap of his tent and stepped out into the scorching sunlight. He could see that the Suulan vehicles were currently being moved to the edges of the square while all the wooden market stalls were being packed up and moved out of the way. They were clearing the center of the square out to make room for the games. Workers were also erecting huge, seven foot tall wooden poles in the middle of the square, which fit snugly into small round holes between the cobbles. There was a troupe of nearly two dozen musicians near the middle of the square as well; they were performing the song that had awoken him. He could see the colored garb of all three tribes among them, and Sumati was there dancing to their music during the portions of the song that didn't require singing. An audience was already beginning to gather for the games; people were taking seats on the edges of all the rooves surrounding the square to watch. Here and there he could see them bickering with Rakeshan Gerudos over the placement of their tents. Mewtwo figured the tents were in the way of the audience and people were harassing and waking up those who were still asleep. It seemed he was fortunate enough to have beaten the crowd in this regard. He pondered taking a seat on the edge of the alchemist shop roof and watching, but then he heard a voice call out his name behind him.
"Mewtwo?"
Mewtwo turned and saw that it was Indiru again. She was standing next to the open wooden hatch in the back of the roof, just behind his tent. She was no longer wearing the same set of blue ornate robes as last night, but she did look fretful and concerned. He strolled over to her to see what she needed, but before he could ask her what she wanted she began to climb down the ladder into the alchemist shop.
"Come, follow me." She whispered.
Tilting his head curiously, Mewtwo did as she asked and climbed down after her. He found himself in the back room of the shop alone with Indiru. Huge barrels of reagents and sour-smelling chemicals were surrounding them, making the space unpleasant to breathe in and quite claustrophobic. He found himself idly hoping that they didn't stay in there for long.
"What is it Indiru?"
"I...I wanted to apologize to you. I have done you a great disservice."
"Huh? What do you mean? As far as I can tell you've done nothing but be a tremendous help."
Indiru gave him a baleful frown and turned her gaze down at the floor as if deeply ashamed. He could then see a barely perceptible quiver dart over her shoulders, as if she was holding back a great cascade of emotion.
"No...I have lied on your behalf and embroiled you in our peoples' war with the Sulaaq. My words last night have trapped you into Mireth's prophecy and I did it without actually knowing how it would turn out."
Her voice faintly quavered with suppressed sadness as she spoke. The sound was heartbreaking to Mewtwo, who realized that she was absolutely suffering under the weight of what had happened. He knelt down in front of her now in order to look her eye to eye and did his best to come up with comforting words.
"It's alright Indiru. You did what you had to do to stop the bloodshed. Besides, I already made my choice to involve myself in this war; you didn't trap me in anything. I could have left last time we raided a tower and restored my abilities but my conscience wouldn't allow me to turn my back on the suffering of the Gerudo people. It is a weight of responsibility I willingly took upon myself."
He was of course failing to mention how the energy sinkholes were keeping him trapped, but it wasn't as important as comforting her in that moment. A few tears were starting to gather in Indiru's eyes and Mewtwo reached out to take one of her hands and give it a comforting squeeze.
"So many terrible things are going to happen to you, it's not fair. I can't even properly see the exact moments when they will happen or how. I want to help you but I am terrified that my visions won't be reliable enough." She said, her voice starting to break as her facade continued to crack.
"It's ok, I understand that your powers don't work perfectly on command. You don't need to do any more for me."
He paused for a brief moment, then continued. "The world often asks us to carry too much weight upon our shoulders. It is clear to me that you carry a drastically unfair share of that load. Please, if only just for a moment, set it down."
She looked back up at Mewtwo and locked eyes with him. Now he could see all the uncertainty and sadness in those eyes. They were the eyes of a scared child again, not the weary eyes of an older woman.
"Just set it down." Mewtwo said in a softer tone.
The facade finally shattered and Indiru began to quietly cry. She stood up and wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him just as tightly as Ruru had done when the Molduga was about to catch them. He put his arms around her and returned the embrace, not caring as her tears soaked into his cloak. She cried and cried and cried for what felt like an hour, but even at the height of it she kept her voice down low enough to avoid being heard by the alchemists still working in the shop.
Mewtwo didn't need to use his telepathy to understand and feel her pain. A few tears rolled down his cheeks as he held her tightly, not letting go until her crying had eased. He had never truly regretted his decision to stay on Hypalia but that moment was a powerful affirmation that he had made the right choice. No matter how many horrible things the Sulaaq had in store for him he had to repay the kindness they had shown him.
"I'm... I'm sorry." Indiru said softly once her sobs had faded away.
"There is nothing to apologize for, Indiru."
She slowly let go of him and sat down on the floor again. He followed her example and sat down across from her.
"I... I haven't talked to someone like this in a long time. Not even mom."
"Why not? She loves you doesn't she?"
"Yes but... she hasn't been the same since my sister Ciela was taken by the Sulaaq last year. Something broke inside her when we lost her. She still tries to be there for me but... I feel like it's my fault that my powers can't seem to tell me what happened to Ciela. Mom has asked me to sit down with her and attempt to conjure visions of Ciela, but the gift has shown me no signs of her. I'm already struggling to cope with the things that it shows me; being asked to seek more of it out is difficult. Worst of all, I know that the longer it's been since Ciela was taken, the smaller and smaller the chances are that she is still alive."
"Perhaps, but I will point out that Chief Hadara's daughter Ruru survived two years under the yoke of enthrallment and came through just fine. If she can survive it then your sister might too."
Indiru sighed and lowered her gaze again, pulling her hand away from him. She didn't seem to believe him so he didn't press it.
"I have grieved for her already and tried my best to move on. I do feel better after talking to you about this though Mewtwo. I should be ok from now on. For now you should go to the square, they have probably already begun accepting signups for the festival games; I wouldn't want you to miss your chance to participate because of me."
"I'm not exactly confident I'd do well in any sort of contests of physical strength. My skills are purely telepathic and it sounded like most of the games were physical in nature." He replied.
"Very well, it's not my place to dictate what you are allowed to enjoy. But... you should come with me out there anyway. I want to watch the games."
Indiru wiped her eyes and then stood up and offered him her hand. He smiled warmly as he followed suit and grasped it again.
She led him out of the alchemist shop's back door and down a small alley until they were standing at the edge of the square. Now all the Suulan Helmasaurs and Terrapins had been moved into the periphery of the clearing, giving plenty of room for the gathered crowd. Kamilia was standing in the center of the square with a pen and a roll of paper, eagerly scribbling down names as volunteers pressed in close and shouted their names to her. Rather than leading Mewtwo to the crowds or up to the rooftops to find a seat though, she tugged on his hand and took him over to watch the musical troupe that was still performing.
"They're about to play my favorite song, 'Goddess's Pledge.'" She explained, cutting him off just as he was about to ask her about it.
The troupe finished their current song right then with perfect timing, causing Mewtwo to suspect that Indiru had foreseen the song coming. He began to ask about it too, but she cut him off a second time.
"Yes, I did foresee the song coming. I saw you about to ask too."
She turned up and smiled happily at him, clearly proud of her abilities.
"Impressive. You really do have a talent." Mewtwo replied as the musicians quickly checked their instruments and shuffled around a bit.
"Mother told me to never use my power for idle recreation. But... for the vast majority of the time I can't choose what visions are given to me after all."
The song then began with a soft crescendo of strings and building drums. It had a slow, mystical cadence to it that fit the religious overtones of the title. It was pleasant enough, but it didn't immediately strike Mewtwo as anything special. But then he saw one of the Vha'an musicians pick up a Buzán and start playing a haunting melody atop all the other instruments. It wasn't particularly complex; it was composed of three ascending low notes followed by a brief rest and then six more that accentuated it. Those nine notes created a musical phrase that seemed to speak a profound, spiritual truth to the ears of those who listened. What finally elevated the song to that of a true masterpiece was Sumati's voice. She began to sing just as the Buzán's melody had become familiar enough to blend together with it.
"You're with me and I'm with you
I walk alongside you
You're with me and I'm with you
I'll always protect you"
"You are the sun, the wind, and the clear streams
You are the divine goddess in my dreams
You are the sand, the sky, and the moonbeams
You are the spirit of hope that's inside me"
"You're with me and I'm with you
I'll always exalt you
You're with me and I'm with you
You're the one I turn to"
"I'll always be with you."
Mewtwo settled down on a small fabric cushion and dangled his legs over the ledge where he was sitting. Indiru sat on his right and Kalana sat on his left. Ruru was bouncing with excitement on her seat next to Kalana.
"Come oooon, when do they start?" Ruru asked.
"Soon, Vála! Sa'oten you are so impatient!" Kalana scolded lightly.
Indiru smirked slightly and looked up at Mewtwo with a playful look in her eyes.
"Aren't you glad I have learned patience and propriety more than that little moblin?"
"I don't pick favorites among my friends Indiru, and there is something to be said about the infectious ebullience of her energy." Mewtwo replied.
"Hah! You can't break up the alliance of the three heroines that easily!" Ruru called out, then leaned forward to blow some raspberries at Indiru.
Indiru crossed her arms indignantly, then said "You're about to fall off the ledge after leaning forward too much."
Kalana's eyes widened a little bit in response and then she whipped her arm over and caught a hold on Ruru's shoulder just as she began to teeter forward and lose her balance.
"Hey, you caused me to almost fall!" Ruru said, pointing an accusatory finger once she had regained her balance.
"By the Goddesses Ruru, just be careful alright?" Kalana scolded her again.
Mewtwo turned and gave Indiru a sideline smile. She saw it and smiled back, then returned to watching the crowd peacefully. It was good to finally see Indiru acting like a child for the first time since Mewtwo had arrived. He reached over and tousled her hair.
"She has ebullient joy, but you have cleverness and a steel-strong sense of morality, Indiru. That's why I'm happy to call you both my friends."
"Oh, Kalana! Look there's mom! I think they're gonna start soon!" Ruru shouted, pointing down at the figure of Hadara walking across the square.
"Good, I've gotten a little tired of waiting. I know the retooling of the entire bracket probably took a long time, but the signup should have been relatively quick." Kalana replied.
"How does this work anyway? Are there different games on different days?" Mewtwo asked.
"Yes. Traditionally the games are spread over three days, with the Trial of Skill on the first day, the Trial of Combat on the second, and the Trial of Magic on the third. Today is the Trial of Skill, which is usually a race. Two competitors start on the western side of the square and jump from the starting point on a roof to the various wooden poles placed strategically in the center. The goal is to jump from pole to pole in order to reach the other side. There's a vast number of potential routes to take, and different poles are easier or more difficult to stand on due to varying thickness. The more direct routes are usually more difficult, with longer jumps and thinner poles. The first one to make it to the roof on the opposite side is the winner. There's a lot of factors to the game and historically people have won using different strategies, including taking risky routes for speed or taking safer routes and hoping their opponents fall." Kalana explained.
"Things are probably gonna be weird and different this year with three tribes competing instead of two though." Ruru pointed out.
"I overheard my mom talking about it last night though, it won't be too different. They're just gonna have three people in each race, one per tribe, with only one being declared the winner each time. Each win is tallied across all Trials, and the tribe with the most winners at the end is crowned the overall winner and rewarded with a feast on the evening of the final day." Indiru explained.
"Makes sense. Why aren't you down there competing, Kalana?" Mewtwo asked with a smile.
"Chiefs and their families aren't traditionally allowed to participate in order to avoid conflicts of interest. The only exception is for tiebreakers, where any member of the tribes in question can step up and volunteer"
"Shhh, they're getting ready to start!" Ruru said, pointing to the first three competitors lining up on the roof at the starting point.
Mewtwo didn't recognize any of the initial trio, a fact which made it a little bit difficult to feel invested in the first race. But he was impressed by the grace and skill all three of them put on display. He found himself engaged in watching despite his typical lack of interest in activities of sport mainly because he wanted to root for the Rakeshan people to win. The cheering of the crowd was also infectious; he couldn't help but feel a growing sense of excitement simply because of the energy of the crowds around him.
That growing sense of excitement finally came to a head when someone he recognized came up to compete. A few rounds into the competition, a grudge match of sorts seemed to have been arranged between Arbiters Nereti and Kurala, and the Rakeshan competitor that was chosen to get involved with them was Madiri. Mewtwo forgot the grudge she held against him for now and cheered loudly for her as Hadara announced her name. Of course the cheers for Nereti were the loudest that day, primarily since the Vha'an people mostly cheered for their own and their population significantly outnumbered the other two tribes. It was also clear that the Hopeseers from all three tribes were rooting for Nereti to take a little extra revenge on Kurala for her actions last night.
Hadara, still officiating the match, stood at the edge of the roof and called out "Bulaar!", the Gerudo word for "Prepare", to instruct the trio to get ready to sprint. Nereti and Kurala eyed each other jealously as they lined up and knelt down to prepare to jump, while Madiri focused her gaze laser-sharp on the poles in front of her. A couple of tension-filled seconds passed, then Hadara shouted "Qada!" to command them to proceed. All three bounded from the roof to a pole and began to maneuver themselves with well-trained agility.
Madiri banked hard left, immediately opting for a safer, more circuitous route. Nereti and Kurala meanwhile began to head through the center. The two arbiters' paths were nearly parallel; for the first few seconds they began to gain significant ground over Madiri. Excitement began to rapidly build, resulting in a swarm of people shouting out Nereti's name in a rhythmic chant. "Ne-re-ti! Ne-re-ti!" Nobody shouted Kurala's name though, perhaps out of a sense of shame or remorse for last night.
Kurala began to fall slightly behind at around the halfway point, giving Nereti an even bigger edge than before. Mewtwo began to feel his heart pound as he watched, hoping that Nereti could at least shut Kurala out if Madiri couldn't manage to win. Nereti began to make her way into the second half until an especially long and difficult jump caused her to wobble and nearly lose her balance. She managed to steady herself just in time to avoid toppling over, but Kurala narrowed the gap with the time this afforded her. By the time Nereti was lining up her next jump Kurala was right beside her on the pole just to her right. Both contestants then made a fatal mistake; in the heat of the moment where they were eager to regain the lead over each other they both chose to jump toward the same pole. The chant from the crowd immediately stopped, replaced by a collective gasp as the two women collided and tumbled off the pole together. They fell seven feet to land hard on the stone ground with bone-shattering impacts. Nereti's leg was immediately twisted out of shape while Kurala's tailbone took the full brunt of her fall and both of them yelled out in agonizing pain. Healers from all three tribes rushed out of the sidelines and made their way toward the two injured contestants. Mewtwo gasped in shock at the sight of those wounds and turned to whisper to Kalana.
"Those injuries look serious! Is it worth the cost of potions to play such dangerous, injurious games just for a festival? I thought you told me potions were rationed and difficult to brew?"
"Oh, our people don't need to use potions while the drain device is down, there's direct healing magic too. It's vastly preferable for incidents during the games since it works quickly, it just can't be bottled and stored for later like a potion can." Kalana explained.
She pointed down at the healers as they crouched down next to Kurala and Nereti. They laid their hands on Nereti's contorted leg and began to chant in Gerudo, then their hands began to glow. It looked just like the glow Mewtwo's hands took on when he used his psychic Recover ability. Suddenly he felt mortified when he realized that his little display of using Recover to seal the wound that Kurala had given him last night probably wasn't as impressive as he had thought. He inwardly winced at his own foolishness, but fortunately the race kept him from focusing on it for long.
"Madiri's gonna make it! Look at her! Look!" Ruru shouted, tugging on Mewtwo's arm.
Madiri had noticed her two competitors' fall and was actually slowing down, taking her time to avoid unnecessary risks now that time pressure had been removed as a factor. Mewtwo assumed that the rules required her to finish the race in order to count as a win even if her competitors had failed, perhaps to ensure she didn't also fall and fail too. Ruru was absolutely hyped up regardless of Madiri's slower pace though, she stood up and tossed her fists in the air while giving her own chant.
"Ma-di-ri! Ma-di-ri!"
The rest of the Rakeshan Gerudos in the crowd heard that call and joined in, eager to show their support for their sister. Kalana too joined, and Mewtwo allowed himself the indulgence of adding his voice as well. It felt good to chant along with them, almost like he was serving some higher purpose or was a part of a greater whole.
"Ma-di-ri! Ma-di-ri!"
Mewtwo could then see just the slightest smile form on Madiri's face as she neared the finish. Bolstered by the rising voices of her Rakeshan sisters, she took a risk and made the last three jumps with running speed. She landed on the ending roof with a crane pose, finishing the race and causing the Rakeshan crowd to erupt in a bevy of cheers and shouting. Kalana and several others jumped to their feet and hurled their fists into the air to celebrate, even though this wasn't even the last round of the day and hadn't really been enough to get the Rakeshan people a lead. It must have felt symbolic to score a win over the woman who had tried to openly slaughter one of their own people.
"Yeah she really showed that Kiharé how the Rakeshan people do things!" Ruru shouted.
"Ruru, watch your language." Kalana scolded, though she was still smiling broadly.
"Soooorrry!" She replied with a sheepish grin.
The races lasted through most of the daylight hours. The Vha'an people continued to accumulate wins over the course of the day, and by the time lunch had rolled around it was clear their lead had become practically insurmountable. This had the effect of putting a damper on the excitement of the competition since there was no longer any tension about who would come out the winner at the end of the first day. That, combined with the fact that Mewtwo didn't recognize most of the competitors, created a boredom problem as the matches dragged on. Ultimately the problem didn't have a chance to come to a head, since he was interrupted by the games pausing for dinner. People crowded into the square to eat their shares of roast Lizalfos flanks and canned fruit raided from the Sulaaq towers, and before Mewtwo could finish his helping he was interrupted by Chief Lasheera seeking him out. She was holding Indiru's hand now, implying that she had sought her out and gathered her before coming to find him.
"Mewtwo, I would like to speak with you in private briefly if you would." She said.
"Of course."
Kamilia then led them down an alley and up a long staircase toward the top tier. Mewtwo noticed that Indiru's previously relaxed and sincere expression had returned to the same rigid formality as before, a fact that didn't seem to bode well to him. He mentally braced himself for a serious conversation as the three of them sat down at the dinner table in the lower floor of Kamilia's home.
"Indiru tells me that you have a Seer's gift as well Mewtwo. Is that true?" Kamilia asked.
"In a sense. It's one small aspect of my powers, but I have learned to avoid relying on it heavily. There's been one recent time that it has saved my life during the raid that Kalana and I conducted on the tower in Rakeshan territory, but aside from that it has had a very poor overall track record for accuracy." Mewtwo replied.
"Hmmm, this is consistent then with everything I know about Seers. Do your visions come to you spontaneously or do you will them?" Kamilia asked.
"Most of the time I will them, but there have been a rare few spontaneous ones too, one of which was the one in the tower I mentioned earlier."
"Can you attempt to bring one forth now?" Kamilia asked.
"I can certainly try, but the experience isn't exactly pleasant as I'm sure Indiru can attest."
"I don't disbelieve you, but I would like you to at least make an attempt, if only as a favor to me."
Mewtwo furrowed his brow. "I suppose I can do that much, but it may not even work at all. Usually the intentional ones are focused around combat. Future Sight is the name of a specific combat technique where I attempt to foresee the best opportunity to land a psychic attack on my opponent for maximal effect, but it is easily interrupted if combat circumstances change. I've not attempted to use it intentionally for other purposes outside of combat. What were you even seeking to achieve?"
"I would like you to attempt to divine the fate of my other daughter, Ciela, who was enthralled by the Sulaaq fourteen months ago." Kamilia replied in a lower, more grave tone.
Mewtwo immediately gave her a deep, disturbed frown. He had had a hunch this was coming as soon as Indiru had told him about Ciela. He felt hesitant to get himself involved in Kamilia's family affairs too deeply, but then he saw a hint of emotion showing in Indiru's eyes for a brief moment. It was a glimmer of hope of some kind. It almost seemed like Indiru was relying on him here; maybe if someone as powerful as he couldn't see Ciela's fate either then maybe Kamilia would believe Indiru too and stop pressuring her. He caved in and nodded in agreement, if only to help Indiru.
"Very well, I will try. Do you have anything that once belonged to Ciela? It may aid me in my attempt to tap into any lingering psychic residues she might have left behind. The more emotionally meaningful an item the better."
"Yes of course. I think I know the perfect thing." Kamilia replied.
The old blue-garbed chief got up from her chair and walked through a door not too far behind her to the left. Soon Mewtwo could hear the sounds of rustling things through the open door. He looked back to Indiru again as they waited; she reached out and grabbed his hand under the table to squeeze it tightly. That gesture communicated an immense gratitude more easily than any words she might have said. Kamilia then returned with a sheet of parchment about six inches square and laid it out on the table in front of him. It was a drawing, simplistic and crude. The medium was charcoal and the lines were sloppy, but it was clearly recognizable as a longsword with a regal blue handle and crossguard colored with dye. The sword's crossguard was shaped like an upward-pointing pair of stylized wings, and there was a mark on the blade just above the crossguard that consisted of three stacked triangles. There was almost no background scenery included with the drawing, just the crude outlines of a cavern chamber of some sort.
"Ciela drew this a few months before her enthrallment. She was obsessed with it, said it was her own vision just like Mireth's, even though she'd never had any other prophetic visions before or since. She always kept it with her, and I found it in the remains of the battle where she was taken." Kamilia explained.
Indiru saw the drawing and a look of immediate worry crossed her face. She turned to look at Kamilia and spoke.
"Mom...do I need to-"
"If there's even the slightest chance that gathering two seers together could enhance or clarify their visions I can't afford to ignore it. You don't even need to do anything Indiru, just sit with us and let him do his work."
Indiru gave a slight sigh and nodded. Mewtwo felt an increasing sense of unease and distrust of Kamilia now as she openly used her last daughter like a tool in front of him. He reminded himself that at least part of this was driven by Kamilia's trauma over the loss of Ciela though. The pain of a mother who lost her daughter was perhaps so far outside of his perspective that it might be impossible for him to fully understand. But making an attempt at understanding why people did the things they did was very useful for tempering his reactions to them, even it didn't excuse what they did.
Mewtwo took a deep breath and centered himself, then picked up Ciela's drawing with both hands. He began to focus his psychic senses onto the paper, starting gradually and increasing in intensity. He knew this would be difficult; he had spent his entire life cultivating most of his psychic abilities on combat and had neglected to train them for other purposes. He was therefore surprised when his gaze began to pick something up immediately. Mewtwo's hands instinctively clenched the paper a little bit tighter as the vision began to cloud his senses and push reality out of focus.
"I... I think I'm seeing something." He mumbled.
"What is it? What do you see?" Kamilia asked quietly.
"Darkness... It's pitch black. No wait, there's a faint red light."
He paused for several seconds as he tried to sharpen his focus even more. His head began to ache from the effort.
"I see a few blurry dark figures in the shadows... Is that a table?"
The further the vision progressed the clearer it became. Mewtwo suddenly began to feel a horrible, stomach-churning dread coagulating in his belly. Horror and white hot fear were beginning to bleed through the vision into his mind. His fingers gripped the drawing tighter, lightly crumpling the paper.
"Mom!" Indiru said, her voice now tinged with dread too.
"Shush Vehví!" Kamilia whispered angrily, then turned back to Mewtwo. "Focus, Mewtwo! What else do you see?"
"I see...oh no...I see a Gerudo woman being strapped down to the table by clawed hands..."
Mewtwo had to struggle to maintain focus now as the palpable dread grew stronger and stronger. He didn't want to keep going, his gut was telling him that he was about to witness Ciela's gruesome demise. But Hadara kept urging him and he didn't want to disappoint her.
"Focus on the woman. What does she look like?"
"She's a young adult... Seems to be in her mid twenties... Sorry, forties in Gerudo years... Wearing blue Vha'an garb and-"
Suddenly Mewtwo's blood ran cold in his veins as a moment of recognition jolted through him. There were scars dotting the woman's face, familiar scars. A few were missing but some were the exact same as the ones that he had seen on the face of the Mad Thief! He was shocked silent by the revelation and his brain was unable to process just how he could tell Kamilia that her daughter was insane and had been trying to murder him.
"What else? Does she have any distinguishing features? Any special items of clothing?!" Kamilia urged.
Mewtwo couldn't pause the vision to get a moment to gather his thoughts though. Some form of twisted momentum was dragging him through it. At this point Kamilia's voice faded into an indistinguishable muffled background noise as his vision gained sound of its own. He was in too deep now, it was too late to stop it. He had to ride the vision out. He heard Ciela speaking in a low, panting tone to herself. Her voice was ragged and worn as if she had been straining it for some time now.
"Mine is a faith unshakable
Mine is a will unbreakable
Mine is a stone uncrackable
Mine is a strength implacable"
She repeated those words again and again like a mantra, almost as though they were an anchor she was using to retain her sanity. Mewtwo then realized that all the horror and dread that he was feeling wasn't just a latent part of the vision itself, but was the same emotional state that Ciela was in. The vision was making him share her misery. The thought made him mentally struggle to cut it off; he wanted no part of what she was about to feel next. He didn't even realize it, but now he was speaking the same mantra as Ciela's out loud in reality.
Then Mewtwo saw something even more inexplicable and terrifying. One of the figures off to the left of Ciela opened its mouth to speak, revealing a tongue that appeared to be made of pure flickering orange flames. Glowing orange firelight poured out of the figure's mouth as he spoke with a deep, menacing male voice. The light of that flaming tongue contrasted incredibly sharply with the choking darkness that enshrouded him, preventing Mewtwo from making out any of his other features. He looked like a blurred shadow with a nightmarish flaming maw, and yet somehow he still was able to speak clearly as if those flames were capable of acting like a solid, physical tongue.
"Your Highness." the figure said briefly.
Ciela opened her eyes and verbally lashed out at the shadowy figure. "You will not break me! I am the steel of the blade that shall cut your throats, Sulaaq!"
The fire-mouthed one merely smiled. His long jagged fangs blocked most of the light in his mouth, casting thin, narrow strips of orange light out onto Ciela. Mewtwo then saw him produce what looked like a cast iron tiara shaped just like the ones that the daughters of chiefs sometimes wore. He connected two thick electrical cables to the tiara, one at either end, using sturdy copper clamps. After a few moments the iron began to heat up and glow a dull red.
Seeing this, Ciela squeezed her eyes shut again and resumed chanting her mantra. Mewtwo could feel his heart rate skyrocket as her panic and terror flooded his veins with adrenaline. He was still chanting with her.
"Your birthright, my lady." said the fire-mouthed one.
Mewtwo tried desperately again to stop the vision. He struggled to raise his psychic defenses as the nightmarish Sulaaq raised the glowing hot tiara and brought it toward Ciela's head. He could hear it as the Sulaaq hummed a mocking, twisted version of the Goddess's Pledge, focusing on the last line.
"I'll always be with you."
Mercifully Mewtwo didn't see it when the searing metal met Ciela's skin, the fire-mouthed one had positioned himself between Ciela and his viewing position. But he could hear the blood-curdling scream of agony and the sound of sizzling flesh once it made contact. He could feel the scorching pain coursing through his own forehead as the vision shared Ciela's pain with him. The pain was at least brief however, as the sensation jarred his psychic defenses to life at last. His brain snapped shut its psychic sense, cutting off the vision after less than a second of that burning sensation.
Mewtwo was slammed back into reality in the most jarring and uncomfortable way he'd ever experienced. The Gaze nightmares weren't even close. He was sitting in the same chair in Kamilia's home as before, holding the arms of the chair with a white-knuckled panic grip. Sweat was coursing over his body and his heart was racing wildly. He felt his throat ragged and sore, and realized he had been screaming just like Ciela. Kamilia and Indiru were clutching their hands over their ears in response to his scream. Once he had stopped Kamilia raced over to his side and grabbed his shoulders to brace him and comfort him.
"Mewtwo it's alright! It's over! You're ok!"
He panted raggedly for a few moments and slumped over the table as his mind desperately tried to process the traumatic experience he had just endured. His thoughts were a wretched, jumbled cacophony that he couldn't mentally sort out. He pushed himself and his chair back away from the table to get himself some breathing room. Then he suddenly felt a small pair of arms wrap around him. Indiru had come up and embraced him. She wordlessly buried her face in his shoulder and held him tightly. Just like before she didn't need to say anything to communicate her intent. She had seen terrible things like this before too and finally had someone she knew could understand this pain. That gesture of empathy and understanding helped to soothe his brain and rinse away some of the lingering terror. He gradually raised his arms and returned the embrace, grateful for the few extra seconds that this bought him to straighten out his mind and regain his coherence. Before anything else could happen though the door to Kamilia's house slammed open. Indiru suddenly let go and Mewtwo jumped to his feet to see who it was. A group of Vha'an and Rakeshan guards were pushing into the room with Arbiter Nereti at the head.
"Is everyone alright?! We heard a terrible scream!"
"Yes I'm alright. I'm sorry for making such a terrible din, my powers got out of control." Mewtwo replied.
"Out of control? How?" Nereti asked, furrowing her brow.
"He had a terrible vision, just like mine. Please forgive him like you forgive me, Arbiter." Indiru said.
Kamilia nodded and gestured to the group of guards to leave. Nereti gave Mewtwo a concerned look, then turned to lead the guards out and shut the door behind her. Once they were alone again Kamilia returned to her gaze to Mewtwo and asked him the questions that he knew were coming.
"Did you see Ciela? Is she alive?"
Mewtwo took a deep breath before he replied. He was worried that giving too many details about the torture he had witnessed would be unnecessarily disturbing for Kamilia, but he didn't want to lie to her.
"She still lives, yes."
"Thank the Goddesses!"
Kamilia then came up and wrapped her arms around Mewtwo for her own embrace. This was less surprising than when Indiru did it, but he was still grateful for the warmth regardless. The terror was still fresh in his mind, but it felt less raw and bloody while the arms of another were wrapped around him. She held him like that for a handful of seconds before letting go. He saw a few tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she wiped them away with practiced speed before speaking again.
"Did you see any other details? Like where she is?"
"Not in this vision, but I do have an idea where she could be regardless. If I tell you though, the details will not be pleasant. Are you sure you wish to know?"
She furrowed her brow in confusion. "Why wouldn't I? I would shatter mountains to bring her back if I could."
"She...didn't fare well during her time with the Sulaaq." Mewtwo replied, choosing his words carefully. "I will tell you the rest, but I want you to agree to stop asking Indiru for visions about Ciela from now on. Even though I haven't had time to get to know Indiru very well, I know that if she's been getting subjected to experiences like the one I just endured that it must be incredibly traumatic for someone so young. It has to stop."
A tinge of righteous anger colored Mewtwo's words when he spoke that last sentence. Guilt flashed over Kamilia's face. Her brows knitted and sadness welled up in her gaze as she cast her eyes down at the ground remorsefully.
"You are right. I will agree to those terms."
"Good. Indiru you should leave the room now, I'm going to tell your mother the contents of what I just saw and I don't think you would enjoy hearing it."
She nodded and then quietly walked over to climb the little wooden ladder that connected to the second floor. Once she was gone Mewtwo sat back down at the table with Kamilia and gave her a complete explanation of his vision and all his previous encounters with Ciela leading up to their arrival at Ven'vha. Sadness and pain played over the chief's features as the full scope of Ciela's tragic state was laid out before her, but she remained silent and didn't interrupt his retelling. Once he finished, she reached over and grabbed the crumpled sword drawing off of the table where Mewtwo had dropped it.
"No wonder you were reciting the Litany of Fortitude during your vision. I taught her that during training sessions when she was learning the blade. The torment she has endured cannot be imagined. I knew that the depravity of the Sulaaq was beyond words, but by the sound of what you described they must truly enjoy our suffering."
Mewtwo nodded in agreement, though didn't have a reply for her. Kamilia gazed at the drawing for a second or two before continuing.
"This sword you said she mentioned, it must be the same one she drew here. I don't recall any stories or prophecies about a blade that looks like this, but I can search through my archives later on. Though now I fear my mind will be dominated by thoughts of how to find where she is hiding out there in the desert and how to reach her through the madness that the Sulaaq wrought upon her mind. I still don't even have any new ideas about how to proceed against the Sulaaq since our planning meeting."
"Don't worry yourself too much, we still have two more days of festival games after all. We can have another meeting tomorrow, and perhaps this time we can invite the Arbiters. They might bring fresh perspectives that could give new insight. If we're truly lucky, Ciela might choose to follow the Rakeshan caravan here and make another attempt on my life here in Ven'vha. If she does this while the drain device is still down I can use my powers to capture her without harming her in order to return her to you."
Those hopeful words brought a warm smile to Kamilia's face. She bowed her head to him before replying.
"Your words bring hope where little else can. I thank you Mewtwo. You have done a great kindness for my family and I on this day. Is there anything I can possibly do to repay you?"
It only took a moment for Mewtwo to think up an idea.
"Can you grant me honorary brotherhood in the Vha'an tribe as well? Assuming that this is not mutually exclusive with my brotherhood with the Rakeshan Tribe that is."
"Of course I can, there's no law against dual membership. I would be honored to call you brother."
"Thank you." Mewtwo replied with a warm smile. "Oh, and there is one other thing you could do for me. I know you've mostly put aside your differences with Chief Hadara for now in the face of more pressing matters, but can you find it within yourself to completely forgive her? She and her family have become close to me since I came to Hypalia and I don't think I could stand to see you fighting with them."
That got a more mixed reaction from Kamilia, who paused briefly to sort out her gut reaction from her other emotions.
"I suppose for one who has given so selflessly to my family I can make an effort. But if I do, can you use your closeness with Hadara to convince her to show some more respect to my ancestors? She has willfully propagated false and defamatory myths about the Lasheera bloodline for the better part of a century."
"I know, she has told me about your family's feud with hers. By her own admission she is filled with remorse for her mistakes and even admitted to me in personal confidence that she would be willing to concede her wrongdoings in order to make amends."
"Good. Then it seems like at least some good is coming of this accursed year's Taji Alirha. Come, let us go speak to Hadara about what has taken place. The games should be resuming soon and I think I would quite like to see at least a few of my peoples' victories before the sun sets."
CONTENT WARNING: This chunk contains a scene of implied, indirectly shown torture! No actual physical descriptions of torture imagery are included, but the sounds of it are described, making it clear that horrible violent things are taking place just outside of view. There are also references to mild child mistreatment, childhood trauma, and extreme emotional distress. Please read with discretion and caution if you are sensitive to these things!
This chunk also contains some heavily edited song lyrics from the song "I am you" by the band Shpongle. I used their lyrics as the base and edited them heavily to create the "Goddess's Pledge." I would like to credit them and thank them for their amazing music. Hopefully I've edited the lyrics enough to count as fair use, like a fanfic of a song!
