Chapter 42: Hello, World
And find Sir they did.
When G'raha gasped, Echo'a knew what was coming next.
"I believe I know how to overcome this despair." Echo'a set his jaw and gave G'raha his attention. It was…challenging to see not G'raha but the Exarch as those words left his lips. "The words are ready in my mind, but ere I speak them…" Those ruby eyes met his, holding fast his gaze as G'raha turned to him. "I want you to make me a promise." His ears sank for the second it took for him to shove some facade of stability into place. "Be it across time or space, our promises have always connected us. And so I ask that you indulge me once more, that this won't be the end."
The memories of the First smacked him in the face, vivid images of a body mostly changed into crystal being the most prominent. They shattered his resolve before he could even brace against it and the pressure against his chest truly was panic. At least, in part. Panic and grief and fear and who knew what other emotions all caught together in a toxic blend that threatened to break his ribs. He was certain the only reason he wasn't suddenly changed by dynamis was because no matter how much those last memories of the Exarch hurt, they were always accompanied by every other precious moment spent with the man, both on the First and on the Source, forever a tangled mess of the good and the bad. "I can't," he choked out, unable to keep the words to himself. They would forgive him for the moment of weakness, surely, because even as he righted himself mentally - knew that this had to happen whether they wanted it to or not - those last moments with the Exarch made it hard to remember which was the reality and which was the memory. "Not again."
G'raha's hand was warm on his cheek, a haven in the storm churning through his mind as the other gently coaxed him to meet those ruby eyes again. G'raha's smile was soft, apologetic, but Echo'a could see the resolve in his expression that would forever remind him of the Exarch. Echo'a knew he couldn't stop G'raha even if he tried. "Forcing you through this again is the last thing I want, and I'm sorry." He turned his face slightly into G'raha's palm, not yet ready to relinquish the other's gaze but still not happy with reality, grateful as he was that he was finally returning to it, slowly but surely. "But we've never broken a promise to each other. So I ask that you have faith in us, and hear my request."
"Of course," he said, his voice hoarse and the words slipping out far too fast.
G'raha's hand slipped free of his face as the other put space back between them, that smile growing. "First, I want to visit Ishgard with you. Properly." Echo'a's gaze flickered over to the twins at the reminder; his heart clenched when he saw Alphinaud's morose expression. "We scarcely had time to look around last time. I should like it very much if you could show me the sights. Next, you must regale me with your greatest adventures. In the places where you lived them, if possible." Echo'a huffed a weak laugh at that and G'raha was quick to justify, "I may have read about all your deeds, but there is no substitute for a firsthand account." He couldn't deny that. Joyous enthusiasm rushed into G'raha's voice, bolstering it and sweeping Echo'a along for the ride as G'raha finished with, "And last but not least, a new adventure together. Unlike any we've experienced before. We'll travel the lands, cross the seas, and take to the skies upon the eternal wind; and it will be marvelous!" Spur of the moment or a deliberate action, G'raha held out his fist. Amusement curled through Echo'a. "It will," G'raha repeated, certain.
Echo'a did his best to reflect G'raha's smile as he bumped his fist against G'raha's. It lacked G'raha's exuberance.
When G'raha was whisked away, so too were Echo'a's emotions. A thick numbness settled in their place, a solid weight that made every breath seem unusually heavy. At least now he knew what the pressure against his chest was. It made it easier to wrap an arm around Alisaie's shoulders as she burned through the anger that did well to hide the sadness of G'raha's departure. She stayed there for a lot of the walk up those crystals.
Idly, he was unsurprised that G'raha's path was made of an all too familiar crystal.