Oh boy, a new chapter? Kekeniro gets some PoV time here, and was quite forthcoming about his backstory. Nice. He’ll probably have another go at PoV during T13. Took me a while to write T9, however, and I have not yet tried to attempt it synced. Maybe over holiday break. Except I’ve been grinding hunts and trying to finish my second Anima weapon. Also I have ended up with 5/6 ARR ponies, mostly by chance, but Ramuh won’t give me a thunder-pony and I’ve been punching him in the beard at least once a day for the last week.
EDIT: Nael always seemed strangely convoluted to me, and when my friend read out Nael’s entry in the lorebook, revealing that Nael was a woman all along, who took the place of her dead brother, I was terribly confused. Haillenarte on tumblr did a translation of the relevant bits and now that I’ve found them, they’ve helped a lot! So I’m kind of keeping that Nael was masquerading as her brother still, hence Alisaie saying ‘him’ in the first cutscene, but Nael no longer has a reason to pretend to be her brother, so after they find out Nael’s a woman, I switch the pronouns.
Chapter 9: Shinobi
“You’re late,” were Alphinaud’s first words to them, standing next to a small ship of foreign design in the Vesper Bay harbour. Achiyo peered at it, wondering why it should look familiar. “No matter, I know where our visitors are headed.”
“I’m more interested in hearing where they came from,” Tam interrupted.
Alphinaud looked askance at him. “I was getting to that. From what I have been able to gather, this vessel belongs to a band of Domans who seek an audience with the Sultana.” He looked at Achiyo. “I wonder if you know any of them… but Doma is a large country, is it not?”
“It is, and I did not know many people while I was there,” Achiyo said, moving around to see the ship better. There were still people on board, she could hear. Now that he had said it, she recognized the details clearly as Doman, but the flag at the masthead was strange to her.
“Given our visitors’ unannounced arrival, as well as the state of their ship, I suspect they did not leave their homeland under the best circumstances. Needless to say, I should be very interested to hear their tale and, more importantly, what they know of the current state of affairs in the Empire. Such information could prove most useful.”
He didn’t seem to notice how his words sank into the pit of her stomach. Had something happened in Doma? No, surely not. But why would a large group of Domans brave the month-long voyage halfway across the star?
Alphinaud was still talking. “Unless I am mistaken – and I am rarely mistaken – we will find the Domans bickering with a Sultansworn on the Royal Promenade.”
His words rubbed her the wrong way, but Chuchupa looked unimpressed. “So why do ye need us there? Princess might like to go, seeing as they’re from her land, but I got better things to do. Anything. Drinking. Ye know.”
“Insurance,” Alphinaud said, brattishly self-confident. “If our guests are not themselves Imperial agents, it seems fair to assume that they may be being pursued by some. And if not, who better than you four to have on hand in the event of an unforeseen diplomatic incident?”
“I’ll stay and guard the ship then,” Chuchupa grunted, plopping herself down on a step and folding her arms. “No Imperial’ll take a whiff o’ Vesper Bay.”
“But I do so enjoy your sparkling repartee,” Alphinaud said dryly. “Tam, Rinala, will you come or stay?”
“I’ll come,” Tam said, stretching casually.
Rinala thought carefully. “I’d like to stay. In case anyone needs a healer.”
“That is a good thought,” Achiyo said to her. “Thank you.”
“I’ll take care o’ her, go on,” Chuchupa said, waving them away. Achiyo bowed to them and followed Alphinaud.
“I’m going to murder that… demon,” Vivienne swore, cracking her knuckles before beginning to push her way through the crowd.
“No, don’t, he’s funny!” R’nyath begged her, rushing to block her, his tail twitching with alacrity as he tried to hold back snickers.
Vivienne’s eyes flashed, but he just grinned at her. He was starting to get a read of her, and she wasn’t as crusty and violent as she pretended to be. Bopping him in the head aside. “This is a farce!”
“Yup.” A glorious one. The most incredible thing that had ever happened to him. Was he going to have a story for Rinala now!
“I’m leaving!”
“That’s fine,” R’nyath sang cheerily. “Have a lovely day. I’ll babysit the baby.”
Ten feet away, Hildibrand Manderville struck another pose, apparently oblivious to… everything in his vicinity. The dress did really make him look rather fetching. He wondered where he’d found the wig.
Briardien sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose. “If you had done more… ‘babysitting’ perhaps we wouldn’t be trapped with this horrific vision. Pray do not leave yet, Lady Urselmert. Trouble has not yet passed.”
Vivienne glanced at Arabella, then at Aentfryn, then folded her arms and humphed. “This is going to get worse before it gets better.”
“I believe we are in complete agreement on that account,” Briardien said acidly.
“By the Twelve,” R’nyath cackled. “You mean this is only going to get better!”
Vivienne fists clenched. “I hate you.”
“Love oo. Oh gods, what’s happening now!?”
As the purple-hooded woman turned away from stone-faced Bartholomew, Achiyo almost gasped in surprise. That white tail… the shape of the hood, with space for horn-like ears within… The Doman was another Au Ra, there was no doubt.
As Alphinaud approached the woman and her attendants, Achiyo turned to Tam. “I intend to help her to the fullest extent of my ability.”
“Thought you might,” Tam said.
As they listened to Yugiri’s tale in the Quicksand, her feelings only became more resolved. And as Alphinaud left, she turned to the newcomer and spoke in Doman. “Forgive me, Yugiri-dono, but I can see plainly that you are another Raen.” She glanced at her white tail, which she had still not covered.
Yugiri’s mask regarded her. “I will admit it to you, Achiyo-dono; I am. And it is good to see another of my people here. In fact, I may recall you personally from Kaien-sama’s court, years ago, if only briefly.”
Achiyo stared at her in surprise. “I was really only there briefly. I’m amazed you recall me at all, for I do not recall you…”
“I did not often wish to be seen,” Yugiri said. “And perhaps now is one of those times… figuratively, at least. I am a newcomer here; the Eorzeans may have had some time to grow accustomed to your features, but I fear they may not accept me as they have you. I am unproven to them, though I am sincere. And the lives of many are riding upon how I present myself. So though they may know me to be Raen by my tail and the shape of my hood, and by association with you and your features, I will keep my face hidden, lest they still see me as more demon or dragon than mortal woman.”
“I understand,” Achiyo said. “I believe differently, but as you say, I have been here some moons.” Seven or eight, now that she came to think of it. So much had happened in such a short time… “And if you need someone to speak with, I am here.”
Yugiri bowed briefly. “I thank you, Achiyo-dono. I am grateful to find you here.”
Achiyo smiled at her and switched to the common tongue. “Now, is there anything I can do for you while Alphinaud is about bending ears?”
Yugiri hesitated, then nodded.
The carriages were almost made completely ready, but the Scions were still checking them over – with the weather turning poor further north as the year drew on, it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. There were several Doman children running about, too, their spirits greatly restored by returning to solid ground, it seemed. They weren’t quite underfoot, but they were very curious about everything, beginning with the chocobos.
“It’s just so… fluffy!” exclaimed the one named Koharu, and Achiyo laughed.
“I agree with Grandfather, they smell terrible,” said young Yozan. “Miss Achiyo, which do you think would win in a race? A horse or a horsebird?”
“Can they fly, with their little wings?” Rokka asked. “Could we fly if we rode one?”
“I’m not sure,” Achiyo said thoughtfully. “I have not ridden a horse in some time, but I do not think the horsebirds are any slower. And I have not seen them flying far… I’ve grown accustomed to the smell, with time.”
“I’m partial to horses and unicorns, although for non-magical heavy cavalry, nothing is stronger than a moose,” Tam put in over their shoulders.
The children stared at him. “What’s a ‘moose’?” “Is it a really big horsebird?” “Is it a really big mouse?”
Tam cackled in his deep voice. “Imagine a fat horse as tall as I am with a long ugly face and great tea-tray antlers.” He gestured with his hands. “Now imagine it running at you.” The children shrieked with excitement.
Rinala came back with another child in tow. “You’re a really good seeker, miss. I’m going to have to practice hide-and-seek more. The Garleans didn’t find me…”
Achiyo tried not to let the cold shiver running down her spine show, but when her eyes met Rinala’s, she saw the healer felt the same. Rinala covered it with a nervous giggle. “Well, I have to be very observant when I’m healing. Maybe that helped?”
“Really? Why’s that?” The children swarmed her.
“Um… I have to see if my friends are getting hurt, and if they are, then who’s getting hurt, so I know who to heal. And at the same time, I have to see what the enemy is doing, so I don’t get hurt too! It makes me wish I had eyes in the back of my head, you know?”
“It must be really hard!” said Shiun.
“It is sometimes!”
At length, everyone was loaded into a carriage. Achiyo and the other Scions went in the lead carriage with Yozan’s family and the other children, and were peppered with more questions. “We want to know why you became adventurers!”
“Mm, that’s easy,” Rinala said. “To help people, and get stronger!”
“Because I was bored,” Tam said. “I’d have climbed mountains whether or not people called me an ‘adventurer’, though.”
“Heh, same,” Chuchupa said. “Well, I was a pirate first, being an adventurer is just a socially acceptable way of doing the same thing, savvy?”
“What’s ‘savvy’?” asked Koharu.
“Ye get what I’m sayin’? That’s what it means.”
“It’s from an old Ishgardian word meaning ‘to understand’,” Tam said, and Achiyo stared at him. He’d been in this land no longer than she, and he was already learning old Ishgardian? And how it related to modern pirate slang? He must be spending more time with Haurchefant – or with learned pirates – than she had thought.
“Ohhh. What about you, Miss Achiyo? You haven’t answered yet.”
Achiyo had been content not to answer, and being called out, she withdrew a little. The true answer was… she’d had no choice. But that was a bit too serious for children who’d maybe escaped the fate of having no choice. She mustered up a smile for them and fell back on something Y’shtola had told her a long time ago. “To go whither the wild rose blooms.”
Yozan wrinkled his nose. “So… you like roses? I think I understand… I mean, they’re nice and everything… But don’t they grow in lots of places?”
“Oh, but that makes sense, then,” Rokka told him. “That means she can go everywhere, right? My turn for a question! What’s Revenant’s Toll like? Is it pretty?”
That, she could answer easily. “I’m not sure if it’s pretty, but it is a bustling outpost frequented by countless adventurers.”
“Heh, if you don’t mind being a stone’s throw from a former Imperial castrum,” Chuchupa put in. “Which we’re going to drive past in a couple days.”
“I don’t believe you!” Shiun exclaimed. “No one would ever live that close to a castrum. Liar, liar, breeches on fire!”
“I mean, you’re going to find out yourselves,” Tam drawled. “You can judge for yourselves if you can throw stones at it. Perfectly safe, probably, we kicked out the Imperials a few months ago.”
Wide eyes were his only answer. Hozan was looking a bit concerned…
“It’s all right,” Rinala said hastily. “The Scions also live there! That’s where our new headquarters is, in Revenant’s Toll. And there’s lots of pretty crystals in the land, even a big crystal tower on the horizon, and on certain days, the sky gets all pink and aetherial! I think you’ll like it.”
“Oooh, that sounds nice,” Rokka said.
“And there’s lots of people as strong as you?” Koharu asked. “I can’t wait to get there!”
“Hey, hey, when I’m older, I want to be strong like all of you. What do I have to do?” asked Yozan.
“You think you have what it takes?” Tam asked lazily.
“Yeah!”
“Well, you’ll only properly get strong if you figure it out for yourself.”
“Aww.”
“I can tell you something!” Rinala said. “Practice hard every day, even if it’s difficult – or even if it’s easy! Learning new skills is really helpful!”
Achiyo nodded. “I never really set out to become strong, you know. But if you always look towards new experiences… and have a teacher to push you to your limit… strength will come with time.”
“Good gear helps, too,” Chuchupa said. “Gear, tough opponents, and a heapin’ helpin’ o’ luck. That last part’s important, got it?”
“Um?” Shiun scratched his head. “How do we make sure we have luck?”
“Okay, so practicing, let’s start with that!” Koharu interrupted. “How do you do it? Don’t leave anything out!”
“Settle down, children,” Hozan said. “Don’t pester them so. Look, we’re almost to Ul’dah.”
“Then just one more question – please!” Yozan exclaimed. “Do you think I could be an adventurer like you someday?”
“I think you could,” Achiyo said. If that was what he wanted… She ought not to read too much into it, but perhaps it was his way of regaining a feeling of control over his life… exiled by an oppressive empire, brought to a strange land of strange people, powerless as a child to make most of his own decisions…
…Or perhaps he was, like many children, enchanted by the possibility of derring-do and heroism, and she was projecting her own feelings again.
“I’m going to be an adventurer too!” Koharu cried, echoed by Shiun and Rokka.
“When we get to Revenant’s Toll, let’s make an Adventurers’ Guild for Domans!” Yozan said. “We’ll protect our friends and punish the wicked – just like Achiyo and Tam and Chuchupa and Rinala and Lady Yugiri!”
“Yeah!”
Barely arriving in Revenant’s Toll, they received a summons from Alisaie Leveilleur to return to the Waking Sands whence they’d just been. The other four of the senior combat Scions, Vivienne, Aentfryn, R’nyath, and Kekeniro, had joined them in Mor Dhona, with a slightly frazzled look on everyone but R’nyath that left Achiyo wondering what they had been doing. They’d had a difficult fight simply reaching the Dalamud fragment on the eastern side of the Black Shroud, and Achiyo hoped they would not be overwhelmed once they entered. At least they had rested well in Fallgourd Float before venturing out.
They had barely stepped within the monolith, where Alisaie opened a narrow door for them – and gasped in alarm. “That armor – No, it couldn’t be!” She looked anxiously at the warriors around her; Achiyo had jumped forward to protect her against the silver-armoured figure before them. “Be on your guard! Though it defies all reason that he should live, I know of only one who wears such armor. He whom the Empire raised as high as the Black Wolf himself, the legatus of the VIIth Legion. I speak of the madman who brought the Meteor project to fruition… We face the White Raven, Nael van Darnus – harbinger of the Seventh Umbral Era!”
“That whoreson?” Aentfryn growled.
“He’s not dead!?” Chuchupa exclaimed at the same time. Then considered. “That armour does wonders for his hips, it does…”
The armoured figure’s head tilted in trance-like bemusement. “Nael… van… Darnus?” A long sigh hissed from the helmet. “Ah… That was the name of the fool who perished upon the eve of the promised age of glory. It should not be uttered within these hallowed halls. Out of love for His loyal servant, the one true deity named me Nael deus Darnus.” The figure bowed elegantly to them.
“The ‘one true deity’?” Alisaie cried. “Bahamut! He speaks of Bahamut!”
“But Garleans are atheist…” Kekeniro said.
“Oh,” Tam said. “I think I see what’s going on here.”
Nael gestured grandly. “O Lord Bahamut! Thy name is as sweet water to parched lips! How my heart swells at Thy sacred touch! This blessed sanctum is the domain of my god and His beloved children. Seek to defile its glory, and you will answer to me.” Nael took a step backwards, and fell from the platform. Achiyo blinked in alarm – but why should she be alarmed for who was clearly her foe?
“How is this possible?” Alisaie asked. “From what I was told, Nael was slain on the eve of the Calamity.” She took a deep breath and turned to the others. “Whatever the truth of the matter, we must be on our guard – there can be no reasoning with the worshippers of a primal.”
“You got it,” R’nyath said. “Shoot everything that moves.”
“Not what she said,” Kekeniro chided, summoning Garuda-egi.
“We’re wasting time,” Vivienne said, striding forward, after Nael, leaping down to a platform below them.
“Last one to punch that bastard’s a purple adamantoise!” Chuchupa cried, following her. Tam laughed and sprang after.
“Guess I’m a purple adamantoise,” Rinala said cheerfully. Achiyo smiled at her and jumped after the others.
This fragment of Dalamud had passages that led up, which still did not reassure Kekeniro at all. Before, in La Noscea, there had been no telling how deep the caverns might run. But there was only so far up this fragment went into the sky… wasn’t there? However, here there was no hint at the outside world, sky or sun, within those cold metal halls, and all was dark save for the same blue lights as before. He found the more he thought about it, the less reassured he was. Especially since they were fighting new Allagan monsters that hadn’t been in the last place. It might have been his imagination, but they seemed even more deadly than before. It was only his ability to read the murky, shifting ambient aether that saved them on more than one occasion.
Reading the aether was a skill that came extraordinarily easily to him; he had an instinct for it, and how to react to it, and direct others to react to it, that had almost landed him in Serpent command colours if he hadn’t escaped to follow his true dreams to become a Summoner. If Lylydi hadn’t rescued him, a beautiful adventurer from Thanalan swooping into his life and carrying him off – as he’d always wished, really. How she’d ever fallen for him, he would never understand. But anyway, his skill gave him an almost preternatural sense of how a battle was going to go. All he needed to win were companions who trusted him, and this was the best group he’d ever worked with, and not just because R’nyath had chased him down to pull him into it. He’d needed something to do, after his teacher claimed there was nothing more she could do for him after only a year’s study and turned him loose.
At length they were transported out into what seemed to be the outdoors – but the sky they saw made no sense. Above them was dusky blue, glimmering with first stars, and he could see for miles unbroken cloud beneath them, as if they were on the very pinnacle of the fragment. The mossy stone beneath their feet was blue but inlaid with glowing blue patterns, and other stones floated in the air around the peak, glowing orange on their undersides. There was no wind; in fact, the air was as dead and still as it had been inside the corridors. But most alarming of all, there was a great scarlet sphere hanging in the air a long way away. Alisaie pointed at it with wide blue eyes. “That…that surely cannot be Dalamud!? How – Where are we!?”
“When are we?” muttered Chuchupa.
The armoured figure of Nael deus Darnus stepped forward, spreading arms wide. “This is the final resting place of Nael van Darnus. A grave for the undeserving. And for the crime of trespassing upon my god’s sanctuary, this place shall serve as your grave too!”
“No!” cried Alisaie, readying her grimoire and casting before the others could react.
Her spell only knocked the helmet from Nael’s head, revealing a woman’s young, smooth face and hair. The woman smiled, confident in her supernatural power. “In the hour of her failure, Nael van Darnus felt the currents of aether begin to bear away her essence.”
“Wait,” R’nyath said. “Her?”
“But before oblivion could claim the last of her, a divine will reached out…and I was born. Then did the words of my god resound in mine ears… ‘Bring unto mine enemies crushing defeat, that they might know despair without end! And claim thee thus the victory which thou wert once denied!’”
She flung her head back in weird ecstasy, strange designs glowing across her skin, crying out to the Red Moon above. The light spread and covered her, and when it faded, there rose a dragon-winged being with a long halberd, as tall as Garuda, floating in the air. It was still female, with white hair and glowing red eyes, armoured in gold, but it bore no resemblance to the Garlean form just discarded, and only partly due to the massive leathery wings and hefty tail. Kekeniro glared at it. Her malevolence was palpable, and he barely needed to sense the aether emanating from her to confirm it.
Alisaie’s mouth hung open only for a brief moment. “…’Twould seem that little remained of Nael’s essence when Bahamut plucked him… rather, her from the brink of oblivion. And the result was this strange…simulacrum. Nevertheless, her aura bespeaks great power. She channels the rage of the elder primal himself…”
The hands and feet were the most disturbing, he decided; the wrists were too long, the fingers as bestial claws, and the feet ended in cloven-hooved toes.
“That’s a fine hourglass shape,” R’nyath mumbled to himself, reminding Kekeniro that not everyone observed the same things. “Hip to waist ratio looks like 2:1…”
“Focus!” Kekeniro said, slapping his friend in the thigh, the most convenient part he could reach.
“Lord Bahamut!” cried the being, with a multi-toned demonic voice. “Thy wish is my command! None shall ‘scape Thine unquenchable fury! Come, ye dull, unthinking beasts…bare your teeth! They will avail you naught in the calamity to come!” She brandished her halberd and dove at them.
“All right! Stay steady!” Kekeniro called out. “Vivienne, take point! Alisaie, stay back, stay with Aentfryn! Everyone else, spread out and keep your eyes on her as you attack!”
The first part of the fight was usually the calmest, when most of his focus was taken up in observing where an enemy’s weak spots might be, what the best method and angle of attack might be. His analyses had served him well as a Gridanian Lalafell, where oversized carnivores lurked behind every tree. And even so, if it hadn’t been for a Miqo’te archer playing truant…
Vivienne ducked and slashed, barely recovering her greatsword to block Nael’s next blow. She didn’t look as calm as Kekeniro would have liked, and the weight of the strikes landing on her looked incredibly intense. He had to trust that she would be able to bear it and he wouldn’t have to swap Achiyo in too soon. Of all the defensive fighters in their group, not one was really stronger than another, by his estimation, but he had his reasons for putting Vivienne on the front this time. Nael did not flinch or react in any way to any of their attacks, not the physical ones nor the magical ones. She seemed to absorb them, and though he sensed her aether impacting, she didn’t seem to be losing it at any great rate. He counseled himself to patience, settling in to his rotation of spells even as he watched for new attacks-
Nael retreated to the sky, sheathed in a bubble of energy, preparing to cast something. He looked about, feeling the aether surge about him, focusing around… the boulders floating around the platform.
“Scatter! Scatter! Scatter!” he yelled, urgent and shrill, willing the others to be able to see what he’d seen, and find places away from each other. Rinala screamed as she ran from one side of the ring to the other for no apparent reason, almost getting hit by one of the meteors. Great boulders slammed into the ground around them, nearly shaking him from her feet, and unfolded into golems that hulked menacingly towards them. “Divide and conquer!” Kekeniro shouted. “Just like the medusa’s minions!”
“I don’t wanna think about the medusa’s minions e’er again,” Chuchupa growled.
“Achiyo! Head north-east! Vivienne, take that one south! Chuchupa, go north-west!”
He turned with R’nyath to focus on the nearest target, the one Vivienne was facing. Its stone fists swung with mighty swooshes through the air, and Kekeniro was grateful that it was most definitely not looking at him or Garuda-egi. He kept one eye on the shadow floating high above them even as R’nyath knocked the golem’s arms and legs off and Kekeniro melted what was left of it, and all of them turned to assist Chuchupa, Achiyo’s golem looking quite well done as well.
The aether swelled alarmingly as the last golem crumbled into dust. “Sacred Soil!” Kekeniro called. “Medica 2! Succor! Brace yourselves!” There wasn’t much he personally could do to prepare, only to trust in Aentfryn and Rinala. And, instinctively, to get behind someone bigger. Which was easy, he was the shortest in the group, including Chuchupa.
The spell burst over them, lights crashing to earth and exploding, and he recognized it as it did – Megaflare, an incredibly powerful spell that only Bahamut was said to use. If there was any doubt that Nael was Bahamut’s disciple… not that he’d had any, the aetheric signature was too clear. From the look he glimpsed of Alisaie and Aentfryn’s faces in all the bright lights and shaking, they noticed it too.
The faint blue glow of Sacred Soil held back some of its fury, Rinala casting Cure 3 to sustain them through the rest, probably screaming in terror as she did so – he saw her mouth open, but couldn’t hear over the roar of the explosions. The sky darkened to black, the ground was scorched about them – more than that, he didn’t notice, he was preoccupied with not dying to whatever Nael hit them with after she realized that Megaflare hadn’t destroyed them all. He looked up, trying to track her, and his eyes widened. “Back up exactly three steps and brace again! Surecast if you can!”
Surecast did nothing for him as a massive pillar dropped from the sky, ripping him from his aetherial grounding and knocking him head over heels backwards as it slammed into the ground. The aether warped and twisted around him as he scrambled up, and if he read it right…
Reading it right was the least of his problems. “Dragons!” called Chuchupa. “Look lively!”
Dragons!? Oh gods, where were they, how were they going to attack!? Nael by herself was more than enough to pummel them. A dragon swung low over their heads, breathing fire and trailing wind; another one hovered outside the ring they fought within and spat icy aether at them. Everyone was running, trying to find a place to fight from that wasn’t about to be either an inferno or a freezer. Rinala was screaming again. “I don’t know what’s going on I don’t know what’s going onnnn!”
Come on, come on, think, focus! He forced himself to still his shaking hands and cast Miasma on the fire dragon. “Achiyo! Take the fire dragon’s attention! We’ll kill it first! Vivienne, keep Nael occupied!”
“Oh certainly,” Vivienne grunted sarcastically, teeth gritted as she blocked another ferocious strike. “Take your time.”
“Want a lift?” Tam said to Chuchupa, and Kekeniro noticed he was grinning. So was Chuchupa. Kekeniro shivered and considered it was a very good thing these lunatics were his allies. The Elezen spun in a tight circle using his lance as a pivot and flung the Lalafell one-handed towards the dragon, before leaping high into the air and falling hard onto its back himself. The dragon howled and thrashed, and Achiyo was knocked backwards and trampled. Rinala hopped forwards with a yelp, ice popping behind her tail, and the dragon’s tail whipped around and sent her flying. She slammed into the ground and wasn’t moving.
“Rinala!” R’nyath shouted.
“I have her,” Kekeniro called. “Aentfryn, keep healing.” He could have used a Rescue spell about now, but it wasn’t something Summoners typically learned. He didn’t have time to wonder why that was so, only to restore her consciousness and draw on Aetherflow yet again.
“Hurry it up with the killing,” Aentfryn growled, casting as quick as he could.
“I’d love to, but the damn thing keeps moving its head!” Chuchupa answered, drawing the fire dragon’s attention away from Achiyo’s prone form with a flying kick. The dragon bucked as Tam stabbed again, sending him tumbling across the scorched ground. But he landed on his feet Miqo’te-like and charged again, laughing recklessly as he slammed his spear into the dragon’s throat.
Rinala was up, shaking like a leaf, casting Medica 2 and Medica and Regen every which way. “Breathe!” Kekeniro told her. He ought to take his own advice, he was scared stiff and he hadn’t even been hit yet.
“Behind you, Kekeniro!” Vivienne cried, and before she’d said half his name he was sprinting as fast as he could in Chuchupa’s direction. He was a squishy caster, she was a much more brawny melee fighter, it made sense. Achiyo, on her feet, staggered in front of them both, blood pouring from her shoulder where the dragon’s talon had pierced her armour. Rinala was staunching it as quickly as she could, but the paladin was still pale and her forehead covered in a sheen of sweat that was not entirely due to exertion.
The ice dragon landed before her, roaring defiance. And there was a puddle of frost where he’d been standing a moment ago.
“Let’s get rid of this one quickly!” Kekeniro gasped out. There wasn’t a need to dodge until the aether told him to…
“Are you almost… nngh! – done over there!?” Vivienne shouted. “I can’t hold her much longer!”
Even as she spoke, Nael feinted high and drove her halberd under the greatsword, drawing a spray of blood from her ribs. Vivienne made a choking cry, a purple glow surrounding her briefly, but though she fell to one knee, she was still more active than Kekeniro would have expected.
“Urselmert!” Aentfryn cried, casting a Lustrate on her. “Rinala, Benediction, now!”
“Y-yes!” Rinala squeaked.
Nael turned away from Vivienne’s half-defeated form, diving on Achiyo with a maniacal laugh. She wouldn’t be able to handle the ice dragon and Nael! Think, Kekeniro, think! “Achiyo, give Chuchupa the dragon and take Nael! Aentfryn, Adloquium on Achiyo, now!”
He barely had time to get the words out, his fighters barely had time to react accordingly, before Nael slammed into Achiyo’s shield like the proverbial hammer to the anvil. Somehow, Achiyo kept her footing, panting and glaring at their foe over the top of her shield.
The rest of them were perhaps not so lucky, knocked back from the force of the blast. Kekeniro briefly noted the ice dragon was down as he scrambled back up, but none of them were in position to help Achiyo properly, except…
Alisaie, half-forgotten by him, lifted her grimoire high and cast Miasmas and Bios on the soaring figure, Festering them immediately. The determined look on her face told him she was giving it her all, just as much as the rest of them.
“That’s it!” Kekeniro cried. “With Alisaie!”
Nael finally began to stagger, under assault from every side and with dwindling aether to shield from them. But Achiyo was also staggering, stumbling backwards against the continued onslaught, only remaining on her feet through sheer willpower.
“Finish ‘er!” yelled Chuchupa, bounding up – using Kekeniro, R’nyath, and Tam as stepping stones, knocking the Lalafell flat yet again – and leaping through the air, a huge mass of aetheric energy held in her fist. The mighty blow connected to Nael’s back, and exploded in a wave of energy.
“That did it!” Kekeniro cried, lifting his head. “Hold and be wary!”
They all drew back, panting, as the winged figure collapsed, the remaining aether pouring from it as it reverted back to that of a Hyuran woman. Kekeniro found his hands shaking still, from adrenaline and weariness as well as fear now; his lungs burned from running and shouting, his shoulders ached. He hoped there would be no more fighting yet today. The arena itself transformed, fading from a scorched night to yet another Allagan chamber. Why the projection? he wondered. Did it provide Nael with morale or some other advantage?
Their defeated opponent stumbled forward, clutching her side and wheezing. Alisaie stepped toward her, remarkably collected after what he’d just seen of her, or at least presenting the appearance of it. The young woman sighed and shook her head. “Poor creature. Would that you had never been born. You had surrendered your physical form, and collapsed into aether… But Bahamut denied you death, and imprisoned what little was left of you in an aetherial shell. But that shell is now broken. And your primal deity seems disinclined to sustain your existence.”
Nael sneered at her. “My ‘primal deity’? I kneel to no eikon! What need have I to beg the favour of such filth!? I am Nael van Darnus! Legatus of the VIIth Legion…” Nael stopped, looking down at her hands. “No… I see. I was enraptured by Dalamud’s prisoner ere I conceived otherwise.” Her lip curled. “…That will not happen again.”
Now it was Alisaie’s turn yet again to flinch in astonishment. “You speak as if Bahamut no longer controlled you!”
“I thought that was impossible!” Kekeniro said, resisting the urge to consult his book when he knew it back to front. He’d written half of it, after all. “From all my studies, once a primal ensnares a mind, it cannot be freed…”
“Unless…” Aentfryn frowned. “Unless Bahamut simply relinquished his claim.” The Lalafell and the Roegadyn shared a thoughtful look. It would be the first such case he’d ever heard of. And an implication that Bahamut, even in his dreaming state, monitored his servants closely.
“It could be so… What need has he of a broken spirit bound for the aetherial realm?” said Alisaie, crossing her arms and studying Nael’s shifting expressions, not without pity.
Nael shook his head violently. “Ohhh…that I should fall prey to the very influence I sought to purge from the land. The irony is galling. But do not assume that all of my actions were chosen for me. It was my will that the Meteor project be resurrected – mine and none other. Yet it seems that my grand designs were destined to fail. Even the ungentle release of death was denied me…”
Alisaie took another step forward, hand stretched out beseechingly. “Nael, please. You must tell us more of the Calamity. I must know the truth of what has befallen the world…and what has become of my grandfather, Archon Louisoix.”
Nael laughed bitterly. “You are Louisoix’s grandchild? Ah, the fates are generous with their cruelty. Continue on, if you would have your answers – they await you at the terminus of your path. But know that this path leads only to despair. The light of truth was ever harsh and unforgiving…”
“Why do you say this?” Alisaie cried. “Grandfather will be freed once we put a stop to Bahamut’s restoration, will he not? What are you not telling us!?”
“Steel yourself, child,” said Nael to her. “Only unbending resolve and merciless strength can conquer what lies ahead. The weak can do naught but weep under the pall of their own misery. Like the frail little girl I once was…”
For an instant, her expression was unguarded, vulnerable, lost in distant regret…
Shoom! A bolt of light lanced down from the roof of the room somewhere, transfixing Nael through the chest like a fly on a pin. A deep voice echoed through the room, yet though Kekeniro’s gaze snapped away from the dying Garlean, he could see no speaker. “Silence, chattering raven. Your wretched wings are broken, and you shall soar no more.”
Nael reeled her head back again, lost to reality. “My crimson moon… Your brilliance sears mine eyes…” She made a long moan, and at the end of it, her body burst into a cloud of aether.
For a moment they all were still, staring. Alisaie was the first to move, turning to them with a look of shock. “I recognize that voice. But never would he say such words…” She shook herself, rousing herself and them. “Come, let us finish what we came to do. All will be put aright when the final hulk lies dormant. Grandfather will be himself again…I’m sure of it.”
They traveled down again, and they had not gone far when they found another control panel like to the one they had discovered after fighting the dragon in the previous fragment of Dalamud. As before, Alisaie manipulated it, and they stared in concern at the sight presented to them.
“Bahamut regenerates more swiftly than I had anticipated,” Alisaie said, striding to the coil controls. “Let us hope that disabling this coil will serve to slow the process. The display seems… different, but the controls appear to mimic the mechanism we found in the La Noscean hulk. It shouldn’t pose a problem.”
“If you need anything,” Kekeniro offered, but she shook her head. It was just as well. There probably had not been a lot of Allagan Lalafells. He’d have had to ask R’nyath to hold him up to see. Instead, he gazed at the distant dragon head and torso in fascination, watching how the remaining machines channelled aether with laser-beam precision around the edges of the primal’s body. Why did it need such a set-up? None of the other primals he knew of were reconstructed like a house of bricks. This couldn’t have been haphazard debris cast out of Dalamud when it burst open. Somehow the Allagans had arranged for this millenia ago, should their artificial moon ever be destroyed.
Too, the dragon itself was fascinating, apart from its prison. Every Summoner knew of Bahamut, but none would ever dream of taming him into an Egi. Even if they did not care about unleashing fiery calamitous destruction upon Eorzea, said fiery calamitous destruction would almost certainly wipe out any Summoner foolish enough to try. Even if he brought friends. Even if he had the Echo.
But imagine what he could do with the power of Akh Morn at his fingertips… On second thought, best not to, really. He was a modest man. The three Egi he already commanded were enough for him, and he’d grown to love them a lot – though Garuda-egi would ever be a sassy little rebel when he actually needed her to do something. And though he wished for the power to keep the Empire out of Alliance Territory – he’d spent a lot of time as a teenager staring anxiously at Baelsar’s Wall in the Eastern Shroud – someone wielding Bahamut-egi would be more of a temptation than a deterrent to them, he would guess. And on his own part, the power would be heady… and dangerous for everyone involved, especially his friends. And Lylydi would probably not approve.
The dragon was still cool. He could admit that freely.
Alisaie shook her head again, now with regret. “…Everyone, forgive me. The moment I beheld Nael’s transformation, hope wilted in my heart. I did not believe you could stand against the manifestation of Bahamut’s power. For all your fabled strength and skill, I felt certain then that I was going to lose you all – just as I lost my grandfather. Even he, a man for whom naught seemed impossible, was humbled before Bahamut’s might.”
“I mean, that was an intense fight,” R’nyath said. “’Twas only thanks to Kekeniro we didn’t all die.”
“Shush!” Kekeniro said, blushing. Gods, he didn’t like people noticing his contributions.
“We came closer than I’d like,” Aentfryn said. That was true, too.
Alisaie glanced at them with something akin to hope in her eyes. “And yet, look how far we have come. ‘Tis incredible the feats of which we are capable – our boundless potential. ‘Twas this capacity for greatness, I believe, that Grandfather so dearly wished to protect. With all that has occurred, I have come to understand that much at least.”
“You do realize everyone here is an exceptional oddity,” Tam said.
“Greatness can lie in anyone!” Rinala retorted. Then a confused look crossed her face. “Even me, I guess.”
“You have one of the most difficult tasks of all of us, ” Achiyo told her.
Kekeniro agreed, panicked screaming aside, which was something that would go away with time and experience – probably. “I know how you feel. I don’t feel great or special, I just feel ordinary. But together, we accomplished something great. Does that help?”
Rinala nodded. “I think so. Thanks.”
Alisaie finished her ministrations to the console, and another beam ended its transfer of aether to Bahamut’s body. “’Tis done. Shall we make our way back to the surface and gather our thoughts? We have seen much that will benefit from Urianger’s learned perspective.”
She turned, and froze. Kekeniro looked, and heard Aentfryn’s sharp intake of breath as he did. “Grandfather!?” exclaimed Alisaie. “It is you! Then…why?”
An old brown-skinned Elezen stood behind them, a stern look on his bearded face. “Abandon this quest, Alisaie. I will not countenance further sabotage of the coils.”
Alisaie’s eyes were very wide and troubled. “’Sabotage’? But…but we must disable the coils if we are to prevent Bahamut’s revival!”
Louisoix scowled darker, if it were possible. “Your defiance seals your fate.”
Alisaie shook her head, clenching her fists. Her pain was writ across her face, and yet she stubbornly held it back, unwilling to allow her pride to crumble. “No… No, you are not who I thought you were… My grandfather would never…”
The Elezen snorted. “Foolish girl. How could the White Raven allow herself to be bested by such sniveling opponents?”
“Maybe we’re not the miracle workers people think we are, but we’re not sniveling,” Tam grumbled under his breath.
Louisoix cut him off with an impatient wave of his hand. “Listen well. We all exist at the pleasure of one divine will. And the word of Lord Bahamut is absolute!” He made a dismissive gesture. “Scurry back into your holes, vermin. You have been granted this one reprieve. But should you be so foolish as to crawl into my lord’s domain again, I will crush the life from you myself.” With that chilling threat, he teleported into the aether.
Kekeniro stared at the place where he had been, wondering at the distorted aetheric signature. He’d admired Louisoix since he had chosen the path of a Summoner, had studied his writings both before and after his death. The words in this man’s mouth were like claiming Coerthas was a burning desert, and Thanalan a freezing ocean. It was impossible for him to have actually been Louisoix – at least, not in his right mind.
Alisaie had come to the same conclusion. “That light in Grandfather’s eyes… He has suffered the same fate as Nael. My grandsire is no more. That was naught but a phantom that profanes his noble memory…” She whirled on the Warriors of Light, her eyes blazing with fury. “This mockery must be expunged! I will not rest until I free Grandfather’s soul from Bahamut’s tyranny.” She turned to shout directly at the distant, motionless primal. “Do you hear me, Bahamut? Your time is at an end! Eorzea – and my family – will be avenged!”