Chapter 17

New Oaths

It took three days for Rhodry to reach Winter Island. After fleeing Adaryn, Shiva had carried him from the bloodbath, dropping below the treeline when safely away. Rhodry had reached a logging site several miles north and hired a new chocobo, proceeding to the nearest settlement with a train station. From there, he had used the rail network to reach the northernmost trading settlement on the continent, crossing the frigid strait via a daily ferry to the shumi territory.

He had been in frequent contact with Xu and had checked in with Thalassa once. Xu would not give him Battleship Island's location, even on an encrypted line. Instead, the Torama Fang had given him new orders from the Lionheart. Rhodry was to covertly enter occupied Dollet from the northeast and rendezvous with three individuals currently in search of Siren – two of whom he wished to never associate with again, for a multitude of reasons. Not least because he would now no longer think twice about killing their long-lost daughter. But if the Bloodhound and the Cyclone were truly helping the Knight of Quistis acquire a GF, Rhodry would play along for now.

Rhodry traversed Winter Island on his new chocobo. It may have been spring, but this landmass only saw the bleakest of seasons, and Shiva needed to shield him from the increasing intensity of the blizzards. Winter Island was the coldest and most arid place on the planet. Two hours from the ferry dock, Rhodry had the beetle-shaped entrance to the shumi settlement, just before the mountain range, within sight. Still called Shumi Village several millennia after its founding, it was in fact a thriving underground city, with innovative technology rivalling Esthar's. Narrow plumes of smoke arose from various flutes and holes from the structure covering the entrance.

Rhodry was unchallenged as he approached, but knew he was in full view of their high-definition surveillance cameras. He bridled the chocobo at a rarely used stable on the right side of the forecourt. There were no buttons for the huge elevator that provided the quickest access to the settlement. To the left was a large blast door that presumably led to a series of stairwells, should the elevator be out of operation. But it was sealed shut and made no move to open as he approached.

Looking up to the camera above the elevator, Rhodry put his feet together and gave the lens a long SeeD salute, the back of his palm facing directly forward. He held it until lights blinked above the substantial doors, which slowly opened. He entered, a monitor on the far wall of the lift switching on to reveal what appeared to be a very unusual person.

At first glance, the Shumi Elder looked to be human. Yet he had the yellow skin of a shumi, was dressed in their jade green robes and his hands were abnormally large. He also had the large black eyes of a shumi. As a servant to his predecessor, he had vowed to be the first shumi to evolve into a human, in attempt to improve future relationships with their fellow sentient race. Except the rise of Sorceress Reina and a new world war had put a swift halt to that.

'What business do you have with us, SeeD of Squall?'

'Greetings, Elder,' Rhodry responded. 'My name is Rhodry Blaen, proudly a member of SeeD since before Balamb Garden's fall, and I am now the vessel of Shiva. I have fled Trabia as the accursed Sorceress Reina pushes farther north, in the hope you would give me board on one of your submarines, to rejoin my people in the west.'

'I am sure that we can accommodate you, Rhodry,' the Elder said kindly. 'We will provide shelter for any SeeD of Squall. Will you take the time to view our humble settlement while we prepare for your departure?'

'I will be delighted to, Elder,' Rhodry said happily. 'The tranquil will be most welcome after the events of the preceding days.'

When the elevator finished its long descent, Rhodry stepped into what could have been the most beautiful forest and river settlement he had ever seen. Above him was the illusion of a clear blue sky, and to the left, a clear river. A variety of magnificent fish could be seen as the water meandered through the series of round houses which seemed to be constructed with no real plan.

Rhodry had once been here on an educational trip with Anwen and the rest of the junior classmembers, organised by Selphie after the Second Sorceress War. The Shumi Elder had told the story of his people. They claimed to be an advanced alien race, having fled their home world before the death of its star. Even with their impressive space technology, this world had been the only hospitable planet their ancestors could reach. It's climate was harmful to them, and it lacked the resources for another journey.

Thus, the early shumi were forced into caverns from which they tunneled further underground. This was at the time of the human paleolithic era, and Winter Island had not known been known as such then. The shumi were long lived, and had kept checks on the rise of the Tools of Hyne as their own underground settlement thrived. They played no part in Hyne's Fall nor did they offer help or counsel during His Second Coming.

Tentatively, the shumi established relations with humans as their civilisations advanced, such as the indigenous Balambi and Trabians, and the emergent western kingdoms of Sarona and Figaro. They even traded with the Grandidi tribes, who lived almost as remotely as they did. The last ice age saved them from Centran imperial expansion and marauding Trabian highlanders, and they had largely shunned the warmongering human race of recent millennia. Sadly, with three global conflicts taking place within living memory, most of the shumi's human contact was now with SeeD, Galbadians employing their moombas, and the trading post Rhodry had just left.

Rhodry knew that Sorceress Reina wanted the shumi's technology and the abundance of ore and minerals that lay beneath the surface of this harsh land. Thalassa had said Reina planned to blockade the shumi until Galbadia fell. The Shumi Elder would never permit the enemy Sorceress entry, but once these pacifistic artisans stood as the last unconquered people, Reina would just use her powers to force entry. The shumi would not stand a chance.

As he slowly followed the river, Rhodry briefly watched each of the dainty, jade-robed artisans that he passed. They practiced the crafts that they had devoted themselves to, paying him only the smallest of mind.

A group of moombas ran at Rhodry with a flash of their fiery fur and manes, making him stop. They planted themselves on their oversized claws, making squeaky sounds as long red tongues protruded from their mouths. Rhodry was learned in their culture, knowing that moombas were once shumi before their 'evolution', and some of them had found employ at Balamb and Trabia Gardens before their destruction. He acted as though he was meeting unfamiliar dogs for the first time, unsure of their friendliness as he avoided excess eye contact and looked to the nearby houses.

The nearest moomba moved catlike to stop just before him, the nostrils of its feline-like nose flaring. Rhodry slowly extended his palm out, and the curious moomba ran its coarse tongue along it. The tongue felt like a narrow sheet of sand paper. Mostly likely tasting the essence of Shiva, the moomba recoiled with a shuddering squeak, and the whole pack ran from him.

The Trabian continued, sighting a couple of statues that had his curiosity. He remembered the first of them on his last visit. It was of Esthar's exiled President and Squall's father, Laguna Loire. The image was in one of Laguna's signature poses, with his chest proudly out and hands on his hips, the wind in his flowing hair. It had taken the shumi nearly twenty years to complete the statue, and it would have likely remained unfinished had the Children of Fate not visited the shumi during the last war.

Rhodry was unfamiliar with the larger statue, standing several yards ahead of the other one on the riverside. He walked around it and was in awe when he realised what it was. It was in the image of Squall and Rinoa, a loving embrace of Sorceress and Knight. Squall had his Lionheart in his right hand, gently holding Rinoa with his left. The Sorceress with both of her arms wrapped tightly around her lover, her head on his shoulder.

As though he were a tourist, Rhodry collected himself enough to draw out his sat phone and turn it back on. He snapped numerous high-resolution pictures of the amazing statue. Pocketing the phone, he turned and approached the nearest shumi, who was intently striking a hammer to metal on an anvil.

'Sorry to disturb you, blacksmith. I was just curious as to when was your newest statue was assembled?'

The shumi bore into Rhodry with those black pools of eyes, his face resembling that of a fish up close, his skin a pallid yellow.

'It would be nigh on twenty years now, SeeD of Squall. An Esthari soldier named Cyan retired here before Master Laguna's usurpation. In the twilight year of his military service, he headed the force that apprehended Sorceress Rinoa from the Ragnarok, witnessing the embrace between the Sorceress and Knight after Master Squall freed her from the Memorial. Cyan departed his ravaged homeland. As an amateur artist, he was naturally drawn to our home on his travels, and decided to remain with us. He drew an oil painting of the embrace that had always remained firm in his mind, from which we were inspired to build our second statue.'

'I see,' Rhodry replied. 'Does Cyan still reside here?'

The shumi shook his head once. 'Regrettably, he fell victim to cancer several years before. Even with our advanced therapies, he only had a small chance of survival. He accepted his fate and journeyed to your Netherworld in peace.'

'That saddens my heart,' Rhodry said. 'Might you point me in the direction of your Elder's residence?'

'It is the large house behind me, SeeD of Squall.'

The two-storied round house was dwarfed only by an inn that he had passed near the elevator. The automatic door opened from the middle as Rhodry walked over the round stepping stones to the entrance. Sighting the Elder sitting in an elegant armchair near some specimen fish tanks, Rhodry stepped inside. The oil painting the blacksmith had referred to was on the wall behind him.

'I see that you have been admiring our statues, Rhodry.'

Rhodry smiled. 'Certainly, Elder. Your settlement has not lost an ounce of beauty. If only the whole world could be this tranquil.'

'We can only hope that it will be, one day. But I fear that it will not be in even my lifetime,' the Elder said sadly.

'I would love to remain here for longer, Elder,' Rhodry said earnestly, 'but I must return to my people. The alliance against Sorceress Reina needs my newfound power, and the west does not have much time.'

'One of our submarines is almost ready to depart,' the Elder informed him.

'Reina plans to blockade your settlement once she conquers Trabia, Elder,' Rhodry warned. 'If Galbadia falls, she will surely force her way in here in due course. Her true goal for your race is extinction.'

'This I am aware of, for Master Squall contacted me himself. The shumi may be aliens, but this planet has been our home since your race were humble hunter gatherers. This city is our home, and we will not abandon it. The fate of the Planet rests on the coming battles. If your allied force prevails, then the shumi have a future. If your forces are marshalled enough to march on Esthar afterward, then we can lend you our moombas when the time comes, of which we have many. They are brave and powerful when rallied for a common cause, and will be honoured to charge with your vanguard in the name of Master Squall!' The Elder paused. 'If you triumph, then we can loan Master Squall the hard currency to restore the two fallen Gardens. All we ask in return is that you offer my people a glimmer of hope, by beating Sorceress Reina back.'

Rhodry replied, 'Elder, I can assure you that we will endeavour every fibre of our beings to do as much. For the fate of every single one of us will be determined by the coming battle.'

Raijin was reeling in what he hoped was a large salmon. It had been a slow morning otherwise, having caught and released just a couple of tiddlers. The big boy was tiring, as Raijin allowed it to take some line of his bait runner and snapped on the switch. He would bring it home now.

'Get the net ready, honey,' the big man said to his light-skinned daughter, Edea, his voice gentle for a man of his girth.

Edea was big for a ten-year-old. She was as pretty as her mother, as well as her namesake. Her curly black hair was adorned with the flowery headdress that she had learned to make for herself, and she was wearing some baggy waterproof clothing that had once belonged to her elder sister, Raine. Edea confidently stepped to the riverbank with the large net in hand, as it was not her first time. Raijin pulled on the rod, his big arms tensing with the effort. The salmon broke the surface.

'Looks like we'll be having some of this guy grilled for the next couple days!' he said jovially.

Nearly at the river's edge, he left the salmon to swim in the line of the net. Edea scooped it on the second try and attempted to lift it out. Knowing that she would struggle, Raijin dropped large rod and gripped the net's handle. When the salmon was thrashing in the net on the river side, Edea said, 'Is that the biggest you've ever caught, dad?'

'Not by a long shot!' he replied. 'But I reckon it's over ten pounds, ya know! Better than anything I thought that I was getting today!'

After wrapping it in the net, Raijin told Edea to walk away while he put the straining big boy to sleep. Edea wanted to follow in her sibling's footsteps and train to become SeeDs, something Raijin himself had never achieved. But she was a gentle soul and Raijin did not want her witnessing any sort of death at such a young age.

Twenty minutes later, they had packed up their gear and were making their way back up the natural path to the bluffs of Winhill, Raijin carrying most of it. Well over six feet tall, Raijin's mahogany brown skin but straight hair indicated Grandidi ancestry. But having once lived in the same orphanage as his wife, he had never known his parents, nor even what had happened to them. His receding hair was close cropped and faded at the temple. Raijin possessed perhaps one of the best examples of a mesomorph physique, with a broad chest fronting massive laterals, boulder shoulders and upper arms bigger than most men's quadriceps. Raijin's own legs were doing most of the work in carrying the fishing gear, the delayed aches following the pounding he had given them in his outdoor gym yesterday morning. His brutish strength meant he rarely had to call on his GF, Quetzalcoatl.

Their log cabin was in between two of the substantial flower fields a few miles from Winhill. It was spacious and had served its purpose for nearly twenty years. Ellone had desired the isolation, but it was still near enough to her hometown to fulfil her childhood ambition of returning after spending most of her life in hiding. They passed the tombstone of Raine Loire at the end of a field of lilies, where a fresh wreath had been recently set. As Edea ran into the cabin, Raijin placed his catch in a sheltered cool box next to his outdoor grill. Ellone had learned long ago not to let him cook fish in the house.

When he entered, his outdoor boots off, Ellone was standing by a whistle kettle in the large farmhouse kitchen. Despite her 'Connect' ability that had made her a target during the previous two world wars, Ellone was not a Sorceress. She had declined the opportunity to become one when Rinoa's power had been divided. Like her Matron, she had wished to live the rest of her life in peace, without fear of persecution. Raijin was a few years younger than her. They had known each other for a long time, having been childhood friends in Edea's House. Now in her early forties, Ellone was showing signs of middle age, with lines on her face and grey visible at the roots of her hair. Yet she was no less beautiful than she had been on the eve of their wedding.

Having never returned to Balamb Garden, Raijin had courted Ellone after settling in Winhill. Ellone had understood that he and Fujin had only been following a manipulated Seifer during the last war. The important thing was that they had turned on him in the end. Ellone was too gentle to hold a grudge against any of them after Ultimecia's defeat, and had assured Raijin that his profuse apologies were unnecessary. Being honest with himself, Ellone had known that Raijin was not the sharpest blade in the armoury. However, Raijin had never forgiven himself for his part in her abduction, even if others had.

They had married about a year later, and now had three children. Raine, at eighteen, was the eldest. His son Raiden was two years younger and undergoing intensive training with White SeeD. Edea had liked the look of the White SeeD Ship when it had docked at Winhill and wanted to join her brother at the end of the summer.

After nearly two decades, Raijin was far from tired of life out in the bluffs. He worked full-time at Winhill's only gym and was employed as a bouncer at the largest tavern on the north side of the town, which would be forever known as Raine's Pub. Ellone had no issue with her husband occasionally sailing west to participate in fishing matches, or to northern Galbadia to take part in bodybuilding competitions. The townspeople were not as distrusting of outsiders as they had once been. Mayor Jacques Reno was a former SeeD who had originally been hired as a town watchman. Winhill had expanded over the past two decades so that the two 'halves' of the town were now built up in between. Though it was still relatively peaceful, with not much happening.

'I netted a huge salmon!' Edea was saying at her mother's side. She was almost as tall as Ellone now.

'That's great, sweetie!' Ellone replied, ruffling her hair.

Ellone poured them both tea as Edea was told to change out of her dirty waterproofs and get herself cleaned up. Raijin cautiously sipped at the steaming drink as Ellone mopped up her daughter's muddy footprints, his own caked shoes automatically left on the doorstep. He took out his sat phone for the first time in a few hours and saw he had messages from Seifer and Jacques. Raijin opened the text from Seifer, first. Hey bud! Esthar have crossed the border! Get Elle and Edea to Wilburn asap! Reno's text was similar.

'Elle!' Raijin blurted 'It's happening, ya know! Esthar are over the border!'

Her eyes went wide. 'How long do we have?'

Raijin shrugged. 'I dunno! There was no sign of them on my way back!'

They had long planned for such an event. They permanently had three sets of travel bags ready, and Raijin's fishing boat was nearby, not far from where he and Edea had been earlier. Ellone had been coveted for her unique power for much of her youth, and Sorceress Reina – who had been Ellone's only friend while held captive in Esthar as a child – was well aware of it. Even though Laguna had ordered the Junction Machine Ellone destroyed after the Second Sorceress War, there was a chance that Reina was invading southern Galbadia first to seize Ellone as an added bonus.

The journey was something they had tried to prepare her for but hoped would never happen. Their longstanding plan was to sail west and dock near the old missile base. Then they would trek about twenty miles north into the old canyon citadel of Wilburn, which was Galbadia's second city, originally founded by the Holy Dollet Empire.

President Caraway's doctrine in the event of invasion had always been for all smaller settlements to be evacuated, including the entire rural south of the republic. Anyone who could not take up arms was to seek refuge at Wilburn; all reservists, ex-military personnel and as many able-bodied citizens who were willing to fight were to mass on the great plains surrounding Galbadia City.

The D-District Prison would also be mostly emptied, even though its population had been drastically reduced since the Deling regime. After filling the gulf of power following the last war, and seeking to gain more favour, Caraway had released all the political dissidents imprisoned by Vinzer Deling. However, as a tested deterrent, the eye-for-an-eye policy had endured. Murderers were still put to death, as were deserters from the military; rapists and paedophiles were medically castrated; and thieves were robbed of their dominant hand and ineligible to claim welfare. Although anyone imprisoned for lesser crimes would be offered a pardon, or a reduced sentence, in exchange for military service.

Within half an hour Raijin, Ellone and Edea were on the boat. Other vessels were already heading west. Raijin did not want to leave Winhill behind, knowing that Jacques would not be abandoning the town, as there were too many infirm and elderly who could not travel easily. No doubt the Mayor would want to use Raijin's GF to halt the Esthari advance. But Jacques knew that would only delay the inevitable, and Raijin's family had to come first.

'Are we really going to Wilburn?' Edea asked as he set sail.

'I'm afraid so, honey,' Ellone replied. 'Sorceress Reina is coming.'

'But didn't you two used to be friends?' Edea questioned. 'She wouldn't kill her old friend, would she?'

'I don't know, Edea,' Ellone answered honestly. 'I really don't. Reina isn't my friend anymore, not after the things she's done. She's just as evil as Sorceress Adel was. Ultimecia, too.'

'Will you be going to fight her, dad?' Edea asked her father desperately. He just nodded. 'With Raine? With Uncle Seif and Aunt Fujin?' He nodded again. 'With Uncle Squall and Aunt Rinoa?'

'Yeah. I gotta, ya know,' he replied. Edea began to cry, and Raijin had to make the effort not to do the same. 'I'm sorry, Edea. SeeD needs Quetzal's power to help stop Reina.'