It had taken several hours of effort from both Joshua and Dion, as well as the uncaring rise of the tides spilling water into the wolf's chosen place to lay, to convince Torgal to retreat from the beach and to the camp that Dion had set up as the sun began to set.
Joshua sat with Torgal's head in his lap once more, though the wolf's ears were pinned back and his tail was still as Joshua pet him. He had refused all manner of food offered him and only moved to join Joshua by the fire. The finest hound in the realm was despondent, and Joshua felt rather the same.
"Forgive me," Dion began, "but what should our goal be now?"
Joshua looked up at the sky. A thin layer of clouds covered the moon and blotted out most of the stars, as well.
"Torgal's aim was that place on the beach," Joshua thought aloud, "but we found nothing there, even after hours of searching. However, for it to smell strongly enough to catch Torgal's attention, something must have been there, and it must've been recent."
"You think your brother…?" Dion asked.
"I'm uncertain what I think," Joshua shook his head. "My brother himself, something he owned, or what remained of him after his fight with Ultima…something was on that beach. Torgal seems unable to locate the scent, now, so…"
And the two of them had found no answers about the state of the realm, so focused they had been on Torgal's path and what it could have meant. Joshua was lost once more.
Dion turned one of the skewers in the fire.
"Well, were I well-intentioned wandering physicker stumbled upon a cold corpse, or ill-intentioned scavenger discovered a dead man's belongings, I can think of only one place to which I would deliver my spoils," Dion offered.
"Where?" Joshua asked.
Dion gestured in the direction of Boklad, to the north. "The nearest town, of course."
Joshua buried his fingers in the deep fur on Torgal's neck. The wolf huffed but otherwise did not react. He refused to even open his eyes when Dion held a meat skewer in front of his nose.
"Then we shall set out at first light. Mayhap Torgal shall find a scent along the way, or in the town proper," Joshua said. "We will also be able to gather some information and send notice to the Hideaway of our survival."
Joshua wished again that he would find his brother alive. They had lost so much time; eighteen years spent apart. Joshua had grown up in the company of the Undying on a quest for knowledge and Clive had spent the remainder of his youth in the cruel grip of the Imperial army on a quest for vengeance. Not for the first time, Joshua felt a measure of disbelief that Clive's inclination to be kind to all those he met had survived such extreme deprivation and servitude. All the horrors, darkness, and tragedy that Clive had faced had not been able to wring the kindness from him. More than admirable, it was extraordinary.
Joshua would find it unfair if Clive had been the one to rid the world of its threat but had been killed while doing so; if there was anyone who deserved to live in the world he had saved, it was Clive. How unfair it would be to Torgal, as well, who had been nothing but the most loyal and fine hound the realm over.
Though, Joshua thought solemnly while brushing Torgal's fur up the wrong way, as life had been quite unfair up until that point, he could not imagine that it would start being fair simply at his whim. Joshua also had a suspicion that his newfound good health was Clive's doing, and he should very much like to express his gratitude in person. And if he discovered that his own good health had come at the cost of Clive's life, he felt that he would return that gift without hesitation.
If the world would be unfair, then Joshua would have to make it fair on his own.
((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))
"Whatever godless bastard first said 'let's put saddles on bloody big birds and ride 'em where we're going' should count themselves lucky they never met me!" Mid ground out. "Me saddle sores have saddle sores! How much further!?"
From near the front of their convoy, one of the Undying called back, "Another day's ride, Miss Telamon!"
Mid groaned and slumped forward, earning a loud, indignant "kweh!" from the bird upon whose back she rode. Jill silently agreed with Mid's foul mood, though she was also endlessly thankful that the remaining journey was that short in the first place.
The Undying were apparently privy to a great many more secret paths and passageways than was standard for travelers, and the combination of their knowledge and Jote's experience with the land would cut the journey from the Hideaway to Kanver in half. It made a sort of sense when Jill thought about it – a secret organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Phoenix would seek out and store information about anything it could realistically use in its goal. Jill, bereft of both the might of her magic and Shiva, would have preferred if the pathways they made use of did not contain so many bloodthirsty creatures. However, she did deeply appreciate the swiftness with which their party moved across Storm.
Jill felt, for the first time since Origin's fall, something akin to hope building in her chest. All they had was a description – a golden-haired man in a red tunic and an Imperial dragoon traveling alongside Torgal – yet that was enough to spark something. It was enough to drag Jill, Gav, Mid, and Jote from the Hideaway with a company of the Undying. The simple message from Gav's scout about Torgal had launched what everyone thought to be an impossible theory – that Dion Lesage and Joshua Rosfield were alive. Alive and accompanying Torgal to some unknown end.
Desperately and silently from the back of a chocobo, Jill prayed that at the end of this journey, wherever that may be, they would discover more things that Jill had thought impossible. Clive had returned to her once before, when she believed that her fate had been determined by her slavers, and Jill was certain that Metia had heard her childish wish all those years before and had brought them back together. Jill had been certain that the heavens had a plan for her and Clive - how quickly that thought had soured with a plan so grim! How foolish she had felt when fate reared its head and bared its fangs!
Jill no longer wanted nor needed the heavens to have designs on her life. The curse had faded along with Shiva and Jill's command of aether – she was free of the burden of magic. The Blight which had encroached on the lands of the realm each day was fading with great speed, leaving new green growth and clean waters. Indeed, Jill felt as though her part of the grand scheme had ended. She could leave Valisthea unburdened and journey elsewhere if only to see the rest of the world for herself; Clive had promised her that. When she imagined her future, she imagined a ship on open water and Clive standing beside her.
If some ineffable force had further plans for the realm, Jill would have no part of them. And for the horrors, sorrow, and pain she had endured to that point, she asked only one impossible, childish, foolish thing in return.
()
As it had been for the first day of travel, the small group of travelers stopped only to rest themselves and acquire new chocobos for the following day's trek. Jill was no stranger to sleeping outside under the stars, though this night sleep was difficult to come by. The former Dominant laid awake, staring at the celestial bodies slowly moving across the night sky. Metia had not regained its glow. Not for the first time, Jill wished she knew what that meant.
Mid, her bedroll next to Jill's, asked in a whisper, "How are you handlin' all the chocobo travel?"
"Well enough, I suppose," Jill whispered back. "But I am glad we shall be done soon."
"Chocobos - so poorly designed, them," Mid criticized. "I could do so much better."
Jill huffed out a laugh. "I dare say you could."
"Already got designs on attachin' an engine to a carriage!" Mid said, "Not a mythril one, mind, but an engine no less!"
"Soon we shall be moving across the land as well as the Enterprise moves in the water," Jill replied.
Mid hummed and fell silent, long enough that Jill thought sleep may have claimed her. Then, Mid asked, "What d'you think we'll find?"
Jill said nothing.
"D'you really think we're gonna find 'em?"
"I have to believe we will find them," Jill answered finally, "and more, besides."
Sleep eluded her.
((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))
It was, indeed, another full day of traveling on chocobo-back to reach the Free Cities of Kanver. When at last the small company arrived at the Ironworks, the sun had begun to set once more. In spite of the fatigue and aches felt by every member of the party, Mid took up the captaincy of the Enterprise once more and had the magnificent ship cast off from its mooring within an hour. She did retire to a cabin shortly thereafter after confirming their heading with Gav.
"Last sightin' I've heard put them near Dzemekys," Gav had said. "Not got any word since. And it'll be hard to get a stolas when we're at sea."
"So we'll have to search near Dzemekys, then," Jill had sighed.
"No need!" Gav had insisted. "I just said it'll be hard to get a stolas, not that me mates aren't scoutin' ahead for us, still. We'll find my man in Dzemekys right quick and if they've moved on, we'll jump right back on the Enterprise and follow!"
"Well, long as we've got a plan," Mid had said, and then yawned. "I'll find a place to kip for now – don't wake me unless some mad bastard splits the sea again." The captain had left with a wave.
Jill glanced out at the main deck to see Jote standing at the bow where she had been for the past hour, alone. The Knight of the Undying faced the Naldia Narrow's churning black waters and did not move despite the chill of the night air on the sea. Jill retrieved a quilt from a container near the door and made to join her.
"The night is cold," Jill said by way of explanation as she handed Jote the quilt.
Jote hesitated for a moment but wrapped herself in the quilt at Jill's insistence.
The two of them stood on the bow of the Enterprise and watched the sea part beneath her for several moments before Jill decided to speak.
"I would like to apologize, if you will allow me," Jill said quietly.
Jote turned her head in confusion. "My Lady?"
"After the aether of the Eikons had faded completely, and Origin disappeared from the sky, and the magic vanished…I had thought that none of them could have survived," Jill admitted. "I fear I have caused you much pain, Jote, and I am truly sorry."
"I am no stranger to pain, My Lady," Jote said. She pulled the quilt more tightly about her shoulders and stared off into the evening sky. "I attribute no fault to you; in light of the knowledge we had, assuming the worst was the best we could do – all of us." Jote closed her eyes and bowed her head slightly, as though her words weighed her down. "Perhaps…if my own faith in His Grace was as strong as it should have been, I would have been searching like this since Origin's fall."
"I have…seldom found it useful to muse on that which may have been, especially now," Jill offered, "It is of much greater comfort to consider what is and what may be."
"That is very wise of you," Jote said, "though I am afraid knowing the most beneficial way of thinking does not always hold at bay what darkness may gather over the mind."
"Indeed not," Jill said.
"I hope we can find them," Jote said, "all of them."
They watched the night slowly fade into dawn as the Enterprise continued on its journey northward.
((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))
There was a slow moment between sleep and wakefulness wherein only peace lived.
The light of the dawn was soft behind his closed eyes, he laid upon a comfortable bed, and there was nothing of great concern pressing at his mind. If this peace could last forever, he may have been able to fool himself into believing that he was lounging in his chambers in Rosalith Castle just after midday meal, waiting for Joshua's etiquette teacher to finish scolding him for neglecting the vegetables on his plate. How scandalized the matron would have been to learn that Joshua's distaste for carrots persisted across decades.
But he was not in Rosalith Castle.
Clive opened his eyes.