The Path to Sin (Ikken Isshu + Griselda Banks)

[Griselda Banks]

(( eek C-Cal is going to disappear?! Yikes! My, you have been busy! This is going to change a lot for our characters. Ultimately, it sounds like it'll be a lot of fun (plenty of opportunities for angst and confusion), though I've already begun to imagine Ed's reaction to this disappearance, and it ain't gonna be pretty sweatdrop Though come to think of it, the state of Ed's mind after Cal disappears might help this one thing that needs to happen in Djose make more sense. Cool.

Lessee. After Djose (which is going to take a while, probably, even after they get Ixion), there's the Moonflow, then Guadosalam, then the Thunder Plains and Macalania Woods. I would imagine that would be enough time (he'll be getting a crash course in his uber powers, though razz ). I mean, you'll probably be anxious to bring him back by the time we get there; just think how long it's taken us to get from Kilika to Djose!

Lol, vanishified. Heh. I doubt Jalisat could ever replace Calaman. Eddora would smack you for that XD))

Eddora wasn't very prepared when Aer's whirlwind hit her full in the face; when it finally died away, she sneezed explosively and said, "Thanks." She herself wasn't entirely sure whether she was being sarcastic or not.

"It's okay, Cal," she added, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm more than ready to tackle another aeon myself. I bet we probably got here long before anyone else, but I want to press on." Involuntarily, her eyes were drawn up the cliff face to the village. "I want to leave this place behind me," she murmured softly.

Ed tore her eyes away from her village to Jalisat, making his way towards them with an inordinate amount of splashing. She made a face. "I don't know. I say we try to dump him on Rogan when we leave here. That would solve a couple of problems at once."

She crossed her arms over her chest as Venez waded towards them with difficulty behind Jalisat. "Wait for me!" Venez called out, struggling in her waterlogged clothes. Rogan, on the deck of the ship, saluted casually and turned his little boat around again, setting off up the shore.  

[Ikken Isshu]

((Indeed, indeed. I've hinted at Calaman's inferiority complex, but some real neuroses are coming up. And the only real reason I want Jalisat along is because it's an easy way to make sure he gets to Guadosalam. razz Oo, and I just came up with a neat idea that will patch up a few holes in my plan. Don't mind me, just thinking while I'm typing. xd

Right, well, onward and upward! To the Cloister! You have to make that post, by the way, and have them enter.

Just so you don't get to wondering why I don't want to make the post going into the Cloister, it's because my first post after we enter the Cloister will actually begin some time after they go in, and then do a Tarantino-style flashback to when they entered the Cloister. So, it wouldn't quite work to post it until they have in fact gone in. Sort of. stare

tl;dr, I'm following you. :XP: ))

Calaman frowned. "If we get Rogan to agree to take him back to Kilika," he said, as if adding it onto her words. But he followed her anyway. Aer waited for Venez and Jalisat to come out of the water, whisked his whirlwind over them, and turned to follow Eddora.

~

Up at the Cloister, Oebr was very pleased with himself. His clash with Luseik after the disaster at Kilika was all but forgotten; here he was with a shiny - literally - new Aeon, and all it had cost him was a few gils' worth of Hi-Potions. He glanced over his shoulder at the twins as he prepared to summon Valefor.

"Is he all right to travel?" Oebr called.

"He will survive," Yachesa replied tonelessly. "The Potions have stopped the bleeding, but there is no way to replace the blood loss except to wait."

Oebr sighed. "On the ground?"

"Yes, unless you want to fly very low, and very slow," Yachesa retorted with unusual acidity. "If he goes too high, the thin air will suffocate him. He is already weak."

Oebr muttered a mild curse and released the flows of magic power that would connect him with the Aeon.

"Very well. We're ahead of the rabble, anyway. We can afford to wait a day or two..." He trailed off, staring down the path toward the ocean.

"No," he breathed. "No, you can't be serious. How in Spira did they manage to get here so quickly?" He stared for a moment longer, then turned.

"We leave tomorrow morning at first light," he said sharply, "whether or not he has recovered."

"He will not be fully recovered," Yachesa said promptly, "but he should be able to survive a flight by then."

"Good. Come - I wish to review my materials. I have obviously underestimated my competition."

 

[Griselda Banks]

((Okaaay.... *doesn't quite understand but is willing to play along* I guess we might as well cut to the chase, then.

But DUUUDE, you don't know how happy that last bit of your post with Oebr made me twisted I could just feel Eddora rising up inside my mind and cackling triumphantly. That's the first time she's actually come to life outside of her story, so that makes me very happy indeed XD

Okay, I have to ask: I've noticed you have "tl;dr" a lot in your OOCs. What does that mean?))

Eddora led the way up the beach, feeling as though she was marching to the executioner's block. The sand sucked at her sandals, echoing the voice inside her that screamed for her to just turn around, wave to get Rogan's attention, and sail away from this place. But she couldn't escape like that. She had nowhere to turn but the pilgrimage. It was her destiny.

Finally the little group reached the stony path winding up the cliffs to the village above. It was a steep climb, and Ed was glad for something to focus on other than her wildly churning stomach. All too soon, the path leveled out, leaving them out of breath at the edge of Djose Village. Ed paused for a moment or two to catch her breath, then squared her shoulders and followed the path with more confidence than she felt inside.

She felt as though every step made her shrink a little bit, till she was a girl of fourteen again. Everything was so familiar; even after Sin had turned the village into a pile of rubble, the survivors had rebuilt to make it exactly the way it had been before. How many generations of villagers had rebuilt this village, returning again and again to the homes where their ancestors had lived and died in Sin's wake?

The strangest part was the unfamiliar faces peeking out of windows and doorways. People she had never seen before in her life looked out from the buildings she had grown up in. Where had all these people come from? It was as though they had sprung up from the rocks to inhabit the homes of those who had died in the attack fifteen years ago.

"Dora?"

She froze mid-step, her heart pounding against her ribcage. Slowly, she turned her head to the right and saw an old, withered man sitting outside his house. He levered himself onto his feet with the aid of a cane almost as gnarled as he was and hobbled painfully over to her.

When he came to a stop, Ed felt her breath leave her in a rush. "Uncle Kanno? Is that you?" He looked so much older than she remembered....

Kanno cracked a toothless smile. "I never thought I'd live to see the day you returned home, Dora."

Eddora pressed her lips together. "No one calls me that anymore, Uncle. It's Ed now."

Kanno reached out and took her hand in his own. She could feel that he was missing two fingers. "You will always be Dora to me. I can see the little girl still in your eyes.... But you have grown so!" he quickly added, his smile widening. "I see from your attire that you have achieved your goal at last."

Ed smiled a little. "Yeah," she said softly. "One of them."

Their eyes locked for a moment, then Kanno let go of her hand and turned to the others. "Ah, and these are your guardians?"

Ed nodded with a good-natured grimace. "I've picked up quite a rabble, haven't I? I would've been fine with one, but then everyone started tagging along!" She gave Aer and Calaman a brief grin, then quickly introduced everyone.

"Well," she finished briskly, "I'd love to stay and chat, but we really need to get on to the temple."

"Of course, of course," Kanno nodded. "Will you be visiting your family's graves?"

Ed froze in the act of turning away. "They're not still here, are they?" she asked, a cold feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.

"We've not had a summoner through for fifteen years, until today. And the summoner who came today went straight to the temple before we could ask him."

Eddora would have been more perturbed that someone had beat them to the temple, but she was preoccupied with the thought of the graveyard. "That's dangerous for the whole village!" she cried. "No one's Sent them?" She ran her hand through her hair. "Well, I'll see what I can do once we're through with the temple."

"Thank you, Milady Summoner," Kanno said with the hint of a jest in his voice.

Ed patted him on the shoulder and continued on to the temple. This wasn't so bad after all, she decided. It was kind of nice to be back home, actually. They reached the temple at last, and Eddora pushed open the heavy stone doors as she had done so many times in her childhood. The cool, dark interior lit with glittering balls of electricity warmed her heart. She had come here with her family to pray so many, many times....

"Ready, guys?" she asked over her shoulder, and pushed open the door to the Cloister of Trials.

((I left it intentionally ambiguous about Jalisat 'cause I didn't know if you wanted him to come into the Cloister or not.))  

[Ikken Isshu]

((Oh - sorry, that's just a habit I have. It's kind of a 4chan thing. It stands for 'too long; didn't read'. You generally post it after somebody else makes a ridiculously long post, to indicate that it was too long, so you just didn't read it.

The alternate usage is when you make a ridiculously long post, and you know people are going to just skip it, so at the end of it, you put the 'tl;dr' version. It's essentially a 4chan way of saying "In short, _________."

Not that I think you're going to skip something just because it's wordy. It's kind of a habit I got myself into, because I know I also have a habit of saying in a hundred words what I could say in fifteen. xd

ANYWAY, I hadn't planned to have Jalisat come along, so in the interests of laziness (not having to edit my pre-typed post), I think I'll leave him out. razz ))

As soon as Eddora corrected the old man as to what she was called now, Aer opened his mouth to speak, but Calaman elbowed him skillfully in the gut, and he doubled over silently. He was still gasping for a complete breath when Eddora introduced him to her uncle, but he managed a pinched smile.

When they moved on, Calaman was silent. Fifteen years? What happened fifteen years ago? Stupid - it must have been Sin, of course. But why hadn't... Well, the man had said that no Summoner had been this way until now.

Until the pilgrimage.

"Is that the only thing that brings summoners to places like this?" he asked under his breath, to no one in particular, his hand tightening around his sword hilt. "Fifteen years..." It wasn't his business. Sighing, he released his sword hilt and looked up at the imposing structure in front of him. Eddora headed in, and he started to follow, but stopped when he saw Jalisat edging his way toward the door with them.

"No," he said. "The Lady has already made her decision. You're going back to Kilika. Do you understand me?"

Scowling, Jalisat nodded sullenly.

"Good. Now, go and find Rogan's ship. He should still be getting it situated. If he won't take you back to Kilika, he can find you somebody who will. All right?"

Jalisat stalked off without a word, but Calaman didn't give it a second thought. Aer slapped him on the back.

"Come on," the mage said, walking ahead. "We've got work to do."

~

((Had to interrupt myself here, since this is the end of what I typed today and the beginning of pre-typed material. And you stopped at EXACTLY the right spot, so thank you. 8D Here we are, the first pre-typed post, complete with old OOC! xd ))

~

((Forgive me for this, but I have just marathon-watched the final three of four discs of "Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid", and inspiration hit me like a blast from the Lambda Driver (don't ask). Incidentally, if you haven't already, you absolutely must watch FMP and FMP: TSR. I loved the first series, but it's nothing compared to the second. The first series is pretty typical (but good) anime; drama and comedy and action and sci-fi all rolled up into one mildly epileptic, episodic, and yummy package. But the second season is not episodic at all, which is mainly the reason why I marathon-watched so much of it. Every episode leads right into the next, with no 'comic relief' or 'review' episodes to break the flow. And damn, what a flow. The series ending especially! At times, I was literally laughing for no other reason than how impressed I was. And I hope to Heaven there will be a third series, though with a series ending like that, I'm not holding my breath.

ANYWAY. I kind of branched off there. The whole point of all that is that the AMAZING last few episodes of TSR pummelled my brain with so much inspiration that I couldn't not pre-type a big long post. (And before you think it, no, this isn't all just lifted straight from the show. However, if you watch/have watched TSR, you may see the connections.)

I had to look up a map of the Djose Temple and edit this post a LOT for content to make the layout of the temple make sense. But, on the bright side, I finally found what I've been dreaming of: A site that has not just descriptions, but maps of all the temples. xd So without further ado, yay plot twist!))

~

Calaman came to life with a long and loud intake of breath. He coughed violently for a few seconds, inhaled again. His eyes, bulging from their sockets, darted from side to side, uncomprehending. Bright lights drifted past his vision, obscuring his surroundings and disorienting him. He felt nothing below the neck. When he tried to sit up, nothing happened.

"Welcome back to the world, Calaman." His eyes widened further, but there was no one present.

"Who's there?" he tried to demand, but his mouth worked soundlessly. It seemed, however, that sound was unnecessary.

"No one. No one at all. Tell me, Calaman..." The room shifted downward; Calaman realized his head had been lifted. But he felt no hands on his face or in his hair, and he still saw nobody. "...Did you ever have any teachers other than Althemen?"

"What?" he tried to say. Again, he didn't make a sound.

"Other teachers. My master believes that it's foolish to entrust your life to the teachings of just one person. He believes you should learn from many people, and form your own style."

"No, I never had another... Who are you?" Calaman thought. He didn't bother trying to speak.

"I told you - I'm no one." His head came back down as if released. "You place an awful lot of stock in concrete knowledge, Calaman. Concrete knowledge is a dangerous addiction. You should learn to deal in abstracts, unknowns. Words and numbers can only get you so far."

"You talk of abandoning words, but you speak just as I do," Calaman shot back silently. "For that reason, I ask again: Who are you? Everything and everyone has a name. I am Calaman. My summoner is Eddora. My teacher was Althemen. Our God is Yevon. Who are you?"

"In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable," the voice said with the air of someone quoting. "This universe presents only changing relationships which are sometimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshly sensoria which we call self are ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleetingly aware of temporary conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary."

"Is that your name? Temporary?"

"It is as accurate as anything else."

"And your Master?"

"His name is not for you to know unless he chooses to tell you."

Calaman closed his eyes. "And why am I here? Where is Eddora?"

"Eddora is fine. I imagine she is probably worried about you, and reasonably so, after your disappearance. But we have not touched her, nor do we intend to. You are the one who interests us."

His eyes opened again. "Me?"

"You."

His eyes widened. I remember -

~

They entered the Cloister cautiously, with Calaman, at his own insistence, taking the point position. Aer looked strangely uncomfortable, and Calaman had a feeling that Aer's demeanor now had something to do with the previous Cloister. He didn't know what, though.

His hand was on his sword, but he didn't draw it yet. Part of him wondered why he bothered with the formality. By rights he shouldn't even need to think about drawing a sword inside the Cloister. Instead, he was having to remind himself not to.

He nearly leapt backward when a stone panel he was standing on began to rise up, but at the rate it was moving, he realized when it passed through a hole in the ceiling, he would probably have lost a limb. He cursed, knelt, and brought his fist down on the stone. Damn it! What kind of trap was this? Now he was trapped, alone in a room above his Summoner. At least she had Aer with her, but if the Aeon attacked them...

"No!" he shouted. Eddora was below! He heard Aer's voice, muffled but easily discernable curse words coming through the old stone. For the briefest of moments, he was furious. His other hand left his sword hilt and hit the floor beside the first. Then he brought his hands back to his sides and he rose and turned, examining the room he'd found himself in. It had a simple enough layout; it was roughly oblong, most of the construction being of the same old stone as the rest of the Cloister. Nothing of note caught his attention in this area, but to the north (at least, he thought it was north) was a semi-enclosed area lined by odd statues. He sank to the floor.

The shouting beneath him stopped. He didn't bother wondering what they were doing. It wasn't important.

Yes it was. It was very important. Calaman shook his head and pushed himself up onto his feet. He couldn't afford to sit here brooding while his summoner was wandering around inside a dangerous area with no one but Aer for protection. Well, he had to admit that Aer wasn't as pathetic as he would like to think the mage was, but still, a summoner and a mage... at the very least, they didn't seem like the best combination for a fighting party. He clasped one fist around his sword hilt and growled to himself. Stepping forward into the circle of statues, he gazed around. There had to be some trick to this. It couldn't merely be an inescapable room. Such a malicious trap in a Cloister made absolutely no sense. All he had to do was investigate the room as closely as he -

The air before him shimmered, and a figure appeared as if from nowhere - Teleportation? he thought, Impossible! - solidifying after a moment into the figure of a bird... A Simurgh? Behind it, the horselike form of Ixion erupted out of the stone as if it were water. It stared down at him as if unsurprised to see him; it didn't even glance at the Simurgh. Was Ixion in league with the fiend? Unthinkable! But it appeared more as if the Aeon didn't even see the Simurgh. Pawing the ground, it snorted at him and reared threateningly. The Simurgh merely gazed at Calaman with something uncannily like amusement. Then its beak opened...

"This was too easy. The Master will be pleased. You may sleep now, Calaman."

~

"You're a fiend?" Calaman asked a moment after the memory had returned to him.

"In a way. But in another way, I'm nothing of the sort. Do you think a fiend would speak to you as I do now? Do you think a fiend would speak with you, even if it could? What I showed you of myself in the Cloister was really just a disguise, if you like. Or perhaps it would be better to say it was an... analogy."

"What does that mean?"

"Do you really need an answer to that question?"

That brought Calaman up short. He didn't know how to respond. The unseen speaker saved him the necessity.

"You were not brought here to discuss metaphysics or epistemology, Calaman."

"Where is 'here'?"

"A safe place."

~

He frowned up at Althemen. "New magicks?"

"Yes. It is not even technically magic, in the traditional sense, anyway. It is more a manipulation of the sciences with a few magical factors to help the process along."

"What process, Master?"

"The process that powers this trick." Althemen took the boy's hand and raised his other hand with two fingers extended toward the sky. The next instant, those two fingers tilted just slightly.

Every star in the sky became a blazing white bar of light racing toward the east. Everything else disappeared.

Althemen's fingers straightened, and the stars returned to normal. They stood surrounded by sand on all sides, as far as the eye could see, which, admittedly, was not far in this darkness. But it was clear, and the moon - more than ninety degrees away from where it had just been - shed light on nothing but sand and the two people in the middle of it all.

"Where are we, Master?" he breathed incredulously.

"The middle of the Bikanel Desert. But I don't want any lucky Al Bhed to stumble upon us, so hold tight to my hand." He didn't see Althemen's free hand this time, but the stars extended and retracted, and when he gathered his wits about him, they stood right where they'd started, in Althemen's courtyard.

"Master, how - ?"

"I'll teach you, but it will take a long time. I was a long time learning it, and my old master was a long time in creating it. And there are a lot of other tricks that use the same basic mechanism. I'll teach you all of them in time. But first, you must have this." Althemen knelt before the boy and held out a small stone, like a knuckle-sized diamond. It had eight sides, like two square pyramids joined together at their bases. The boy took it. "That's your Plan B with all of the techniques I'll teach you using this force I've discovered. Things can go wrong, and they have. I've barely escaped death or worse several times. That crystal is invaluable, if only as an escape plan. What I'm about to tell you is the most important thing you will ever learn about these powers: Smash it, and you will be transported away from danger, no matter what that danger is."

The boy stared down at the crystal in his hand. "Don't you need it?"

"I have several. They are not terribly difficult to make, but the components are rare and I am no longer able to go out and collect them. So be careful with it. If it is absolutely necessary, smash it against the ground or whatever hard surface is nearby. But only if it is absolutely necessary."

"If - " the boy gulped " - my life is in danger?"

"And not unless," Althemen confirmed.

"Master..."

"Yes?"

"If I do smash it, where will it take me?"

Althemen regarded him for a few seconds, and seemed to come to an internal decision. He frowned slightly.

"A safe place."

~

Calaman jolted, and felt his body shift involuntarily. Feeling seemed to be returning to his limbs and torso. He still couldn't move. "That wasn't my memory," he said, and noted that he still didn't make any noise.

"No. It wasn't." Temporary sounded irritated. "Measures will be taken to prevent that sort of thing from happening again."

There was silence for a few seconds. Calaman had a bizarre sense of someone nearby withdrawing.

"Wait!" he thought suddenly. "You never told me why I'm here."

Hesitation. Decision. He didn't know where the sense came from, but it seemed to be accurate. "I never told you because it's not my job to tell you. It's my job to watch you and ensure that you are both safe and restrained. Talking to you doesn't fall under my responsibilities, and on top of that, it seems to be jeopardizing your ignorance of the situation, which is currently very important to my Master. Thus, I bid you farewell for now, Calaman. We may meet again. More likely, you will simply meet my Master. He is looking forward to speaking with you face-to-face." Retreat - Absence. Thought he didn't understand the origin of the sense, there were certainly no more words coming from Temporary.

Something about those last words made Calaman stiffen, and his mind began to race. Face-to-face? Why the emphasis on that term? Was it someone who had already spoken to Calaman indir -

He inhaled sharply and bit back a curse.

He had been taken captive by the Witness.

~

Aer leapt forward as soon as he realized Calaman was rising from the ground, but the platform flashed out of the floor with a speed that was normally reserved for objects moving downward rather than upward. He collided sharply with the edge, got a grip on it, and cursed loudly when he saw the approaching ceiling. He released it before it could claim his fingers, and fell several feet to the floor. His fists pounded on the stone beneath him.

"Damn it!" he shouted. "These Cloisters - it's wrong! Damn the fayth! Why are they doing this?!" He hit the floor once more, and sighed. There had to be a way to get the platform to lower again. Or another way into the room above. No matter the fayths' intentions, they wouldn't put an impossible trap in the Cloister. It was unimaginable. All they had to do was find the key to lower the platform.

((Obviously, all those bits with Calaman take place some time after the Cloister incident. So we can pretty much do whatever we want with Eddora and Aer. And, of course, Jalisat and Rogan. It occurred to me after writing this post, as a perk, that this is a perfect excuse to get Jalisat into the party. With the main source of physical power out of commission, another brawn-over-brains guy is required, no? xd

It will be a little while before my next post with Calaman, but probably not long, depending on how long it takes for me to start itching to post the scene. When the time comes, though, we'll learn more about the Witness and his origins... and his intentions. (OMG!) Until then, Aer and Eddora can sweat over the mysterious loss of Calaman. biggrin ))

 

[Griselda Banks]

((Ah, okay. That's cool. It's very convenient for the reader that way - you get all the details first, then something to sum it up in case you don't understand what the person was trying to say. Thanks for explaining that!

That being said, no, there isn't much I don't read simply because it's too long xd

I've been trying for ages to figure out how we're going to get Jalisat into the party permanently (or at least till Guadosalam). I haven't been able to think of much, but maybe something will work out.

I thought it might be fun to have a small simultaneous scene going on with Jalisat and Rogan, so that's where I'll start. Um, just for some clarification, though: Is Ixion still going to jump out at them, or was the thing with Calaman sort of the 'test'? Basically, is Ed actually going to be able to get to the Chamber of the Fayth this time or not?

Oh, also: Your post wins. Awesomely ^_^))

Rogan sung the Hymn of the Fayth under his breath as he furled the sails of his little ship. "I ye yu i..." He had found the village's little harbor where Eddora had directed him, tucked in between the cliffs of the shoreline. There were only small fishing boats, for the most part, and Rogan's ever-present grin widened with pride as he reflected on his own magnificent ship, with its beautiful figurehead and lovely sails.

"No bo me no..." Looking around himself, Rogan decided his work was done, and dusted off his hands. Now all that remained was to restock his provisions, maybe get a new fishing net (the one he had was in shocking disrepair)...and of course he had to speak with the Lady Eddora again.

"Re en mi- Well, what have we here?" Rogan recognized the boy slouching along the docks: Jalisat, the boy who was tagging along with the rest of the group. He didn't understand all the details, but he had noticed the way they treated him: As though he was a nuisance. Poor kid, he thought lightly.

((Lol, I love the Hymn of the Fayth, so I couldn't resist putting in some of the lines xd I've never watched Full Metal Panic, but since you recommend it, I might look into it. Out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite animes?))

~

((Minor use of Cal here, but I doubt it affects much.))

Eddora, who was right behind Calaman, jumped as though hit by a bolt of lightning when her guardian suddenly rose up into the ceiling - as if a divine hand had reached down and scooped him into the heavens. Calaman whirled around just in time for his eyes to meet Ed's in a look of utter consternation. Then, just as he disappeared through the ceiling, Ed found her voice again. "Calaman!" she screamed. But of course there was no answer. He was gone.

For a moment, cold terror raced through Ed's entire body. Again she saw Valefor silently emerging from behind a wall while her guardians looked the other way. She saw Aer crashing through a wall with Ifrit hot on his heels. And now, unbidden, she saw Calaman jerking around on the floor at the mercy of Ixion's lightning. "No, no, no!" she said, shaking her head vigorously and gripping her hair with both of her hands. "This can't be happening. Cal!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice grating against the inside of her throat. "Calaman Sireft! You come back here right this moment!"

"Wh-Where did he go?" Venez quavered uncertainly behind them, a little slower on the uptake than the others. "What's going on?"

Rather than take the time to explain about the aeons, Ed just swore loudly and launched herself at the nearest glowing sphere. Practically throwing it into the recess by the door, she hastened on through the new passageway it created. "We don't have time for this!" she yelled when she emerged in a round room with a pedestal in the middle. Calaman could even now be inches from death - at the hands of an aeon, of all things! - and she could do nothing but work out idle puzzles. Enraged at her own impotence, she started grabbing spheres and jamming them into different recesses, progressing through the puzzle as fast as she could. She hardly even registered the tingling in her hands from gripping the balls filled with electricity.

"I'm not going to lose you, Cal," she muttered as she worked. "Not you too!"

((Couldn't remember Calaman's last name... emo  

[Ikken Isshu]

((Sireft, I think. Yes, that was it. I believe it was posted on the page with all the profiles (which, now that I think of it, I ought to move up to my first post), but it's in the document on my computer which has all my character profiles.

Your minor use of Calaman is fine. razz Thanks for the warning, though.

And yush, Ixion will jump out at them as soon as they get up into that room. Unfortunately, I don't remember the puzzle, so good luck. rofl

My next Cal-post will come after several hours (Spira time, of course), which means I think I'll post it right at the beginning of the drama you have planned with Eddora in Djose. Sound peachy? biggrin ))

Jalisat had been watching Rogan's ship for some time, sulking along the docks to keep the captain in sight. Every time Rogan's head seemed to move in Jalisat's direction, the boy waved; finally, it seemed, the captain had actually noticed him. "Captain Rogan!" he cried, waving both arms. "Captain!"

~

Aer, unlike Eddora, was not particularly concerned for Calaman's welfare. It wasn't out of some vindictive sense of revenge, or any sadistic impulse; rather, he simply trusted in the battle-crazed boy's ability to defend himself. (Against non-humans, anyway.)

No, what really bothered Aer was the simple fact that it had happened at all. Not only were the Fayth testing the Summoners in a way they had never done before, but these particular tests didn't seem like anything the Fayth would have thought up, even if any test had been necessary. At the last Cloister, they had seduced him with an illusion of Eddora. Here, they had abducted Calaman, and Yevon only knew what they were doing to him. These did not seem like things the benevolent Fayth would do. Ever. Under any circumstances. But here they were, struggling through these tests without knowing why.

"What do you want from us?" he muttered, staring around.

Ed, despite her frenzied enthusiasm, was actually making rather good time putting the pieces of the traditional puzzle into place. Aer could see the thin, jagged tendrils of electricity snaking up the walls with every sphere she slammed into place. It was a good thing the spheres weren't made out of glass as they appeared to be, or else she might have broken several at this rate, and then they would really be screwed. But since she seemed to be doing fairly well, Aer instead began to mutter preparatory incantations and kept his head on a swivel, telling himself that he was ready for any wild Aeon that might inexplicably decide to attack.

((EDIT: Ahh, and anime. 8D Brace for ranting. Actually, I'll PM you to avoid using too much space here in the thread. xd ))

 

[Griselda Banks]

((Oh, thanks. I've edited my previous post to make Ed sound more like an angry mother xd "You're in big trouble, young man! You need a time out!"

Blah, I'll just breeze through the puzzle somehow. I'm lazy -_-

Okay, sounds good. The drama with Eddora starts when they go to the graveyard, just so you'll be prepared.))

Rogan waved back, then swung himself easily over the side of the ship and dropped onto the planks of the dock. He approached the boy with an easy smile. "Hey there, kid. Jalisat, right?" He knew perfectly well that was the boy's name, so he continued without waiting for a reply. "You want some grub? I've had a hankering for something other than fish and stale crackers, myself."

~

Adrenaline coursed through Eddora's veins, speeding up her reflexes till she could almost feel the puzzle, moving the balls of electricity around the room until all the glyphs carved into the floor glowed with a white-blue light. One of the walls scraped open, and Ed was through it as soon as the crack was wide enough for her to squeeze through. She rushed forward - only to find herself teetering on the edge of a deep, dark chasm bridged only by skittering threads of high-voltage electricity. Ed's arms windmilled in her attempt to regain her balance, and for a terror-filled moment she thought she would pitch over the side and be done for.

But she staggered backwards, and leaned against a wall to calm her racing heart. You can't help Spira from the Farplane, she reminded herself. Or Calaman, either. She closed her eyes for a moment. Yevon, help me now.

Ed opened her eyes, and found herself looking back into the previous room, at the pedestal in the middle of the room. There were grooves in the floor, running from the pedestal through to the room with the chasm. A crazy idea began to form in her mind, but she acted on it instantly. There was no time to waste on worrying over whether something would work or not. She tried not to wonder how Calaman was faring against Ixion.

As soon as she began to push the pedestal along the grooves in the floor, she realized that it was made of very heavy stone indeed. It inched along much too slowly for her liking, even when she threw all her weight behind it. "C'mon, help me!" she called to her guardians. Together, they pushed the pedestal into the next room and off the edge into the chasm.

Ed wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but the electricity running across the chasm surged through the sphere on top of the pedestal, running through tiny grooves and lighting up the entire hunk of stone. Somehow, the electricity running through it kept it upright, floating in midair.

There was nothing for it. Ed took a running jump, landed with one foot on the pedestal, and pushed off with all her strength. She landed safely on the other side, at the foot of a curving flight of stairs. Turning around, she saw to her amazement that the pedestal still floated in the air. "Come on!" she called to her guardians. Then she turned and took the stairs two at a time.

((Wow, it's amazing how this is all coming back. I've played FFX twice, and I guess that's enough to get the Cloister of Trials engraved on my mind. But they get successively fuzzier as they go along; I know the Besaid Temple by heart, but Bevelle is a blank.))  

[Ikken Isshu]

((You lost me at the 'curving flight of stairs', and I'm using a map. x.x I'll just follow you, though I don't have much to say, since even with a map I don't know where the deuce we are. emo These stairs you're talking about don't lead up into the room Calaman went to, do they? I thought I remembered that the elevator-thing was the only way up into that room...?))

Aer followed Ed with a rapidly sinking heart. Whereas every moment that passed seemed to increase Ed's frenzied desperation, it was the opposite for Aer: Every second he counted, every step he took, made him more and more certain that, whatever 'test' the Fayth had given Calaman, he had failed - and died. The thought made him feel sicker than he had expected, and though he managed to keep up with Ed, he couldn't make any of the puzzles appear to make sense in his mind. He was forced to let Ed do them on her own; he probably wouldn't have been much help anyway, as fast as she was going, but as he was now, he probably couldn't have done them at all, let alone at that speed.

"What if this is the way it's meant to be?" he murmured, too quiet to hear except in the stone passageways of the Cloister, which echoed his words to a sinister, ambient whisper. He shut his mouth quickly, but his thoughts wouldn't be silenced so easily: What if there are to be no more Calms?

What if Sin is all that is left to the world?

 

[Griselda Banks]

((Hmm. I seem to be a little mistaken about the puzzle, looking at a walkthrough. I doubt it makes much difference to the story, though. For simplicity's sake, and so I don't have to go and rewrite that whole post, let's say the stairs lead up to the room right before the inner Chamber of the Fayth. I wasn't sure whether Ixion should be waiting for them, or whether he'd jump out, so I went this way.))

"Calaman!" Eddora cried again as she came to a breathless halt in the room at the top of the stairs. The room was very obviously empty, but she quickly swiveled around all the same, searching for nonexistent nooks where he might be hiding.

Suddenly she heard a sound behind her, and whirled around to find Ixion towering above her. She wasn't sure if the aeon had been there all along or not, but there was little time to contemplate this. Ixion swiped at her, and Ed hastily leapt back out of the way. But the sight of the unicorn aeon made her grit her teeth in fury. "Where is he?" she shouted. "Where is my guardian?! What have you done to him, you b******?"

She lunged at Ixion, but the aeon was prepared for her. As soon as her knuckles touched its horn, a blast of high-voltage electricity rushed up her arm. She seemed to hang suspended in the air for several moments, her muscles rigid, a blood-curdling scream ripping out of her lungs. Then she fell over backwards onto the floor, her limbs twitching from the intensity of the attack.

Venez, who had just reached the top of the stairs clutching a stitch in her side, gasped and rushed across the room, preparing a white magic spell as she went.

Ixion reared up on its hind legs, whinnying in triumph, boxing its front hooves in the air as he prepared to let them come crashing down on the supine summoner.

((You know, the scene between Jalisat and Rogan is kind of crucial to Jalisat joining the party... stare ))  

[Ikken Isshu]

((A-whoops. Forgot about Jalisat. ninja B******* xd Sorry, but that made me chuckle.))

Aer, coming up the stairs on Venez's heels, cursed under his breath in defiance of years of noble and polite upbringing. Flinging himself across the room, the black mage did the first thing that came to mind; a third-level Aeroga spell channeled with enough force to almost match an Aeroja spell, blanketed over both Ed and Venez while the white mage worked her healing magic. When Ixion's hooves came down onto the spell, a burst of tornado-strength wind violently shoved it backwards several feet, but it came down smoothly. Its angry eyes now turned on Aer.

Almost panicked, Aer realized he couldn't move himself out of the way fast enough - not with his muscles, at least. But a quick burst of wind out of nowhere was enough to hurl himself out of the way of the furious Aeon.

Sooner or later, Aer thought, it will use its electricity for more than just a defense.

"Venez!" he called. "Use Shell, or that thing will fry us all!"

~

Jalisat shrugged, strangely (for a boy his age) nonplussed by the offer of food. "Are you going to make me go back to Kilika afterward? I want to go to Guadosalam... Maybe somewhere else after that. I want to travel. But first, I want to go to Guadosalam."  

[Griselda Banks]

(( ninja *doesn't like actually spelling out swear words* ninja

I don't remember an Aeroga spell. Must be from a different game...?))

Venez had barely released the Revive spell she had been preparing when she heard Aer's cry. Some white mages would take a few minutes to call up a second spell right on the heels of the first, but Shells were Venez's specialty. Whirling a hand through the air, she spoke the word of power that caused the three of them to glow momentarily, then return to normal.

Ixion was already charging up, electricity skittering down its horn. It released a blast of lightning magic at Aer, but a pearly shield appeared before him right before it hit, absorbing the magic and then turning transparent again.

Eddora sat up, blinking furiously to get her bearings again. After a few moments, she began to summon, not even bothering to stand up. With a deafening roar, Ifrit emerged from thin air. The room was a little crowded now, but the odds were on their side.

~

Rogan chuckled, taking the boy by the shoulder and steering him towards the tavern he had spotted on his way in. "You really don't want to go back home, eh? Want to see the world a bit? Or is there some other reason you're so dead-set on Guadosalam?"  

[Ikken Isshu]

((I just thought of an awful, but awesome, way to have Jalisat respond to that. Forgive me if it's offensive, but it occurred to me and I laughed out loud, so I had to use it.

I think Aeroga first showed up in Kingdom Hearts, and I'm fairly certain that Aeroja didn't show up until FFXII, though I haven't played it. Anyway, they're third- and fourth-level versions of Aero, the protective air-element spell. In Kingdom Hearts, I believe it reduces physical damage. I don't know if it's a protective spell in every FF game. But, to go back to your question, as far as I know, you're right, there wasn't even an Aero spell in FFX or FFX-2 at all. I'm borrowing spells from the rest of Final Fantasy. xd ))

Jalisat opened his mouth, paused for a split-second, and said, "I just don't want to go home." With barely any inflection except perhaps a slight lilt at the end, as if he was discussing his favorite color, he added, "My father hits me. I'd rather go somewhere else. Guadosalam sounds... neat."

~

Aer dove out of the way of the fiery tongues sprouting from Ifrit's body; he wasn't sure if it was wise to summon the massive beast in such cramped quarters, but he was content to let Ifrit maul that deuced horse to the Farplane and back.

For now, he satisfied himself throwing blasts of air at Ixion from different angles, to throw it off balance every time Ifrit struck.

 

[Griselda Banks]

(( eek Ikken...I really, really don't know what to say...wow, gotta translate my speechlessness over to Rogan now....))

Rogan's ever-present grin instantly vanished, but Jalisat wasn't looking at him, so the only change the boy would have noticed was that the sailor's hand tightened around his shoulder a little. Rogan was quiet for a moment or two, then he said in as normal of a tone as he could manage, "Well, I've been to Guadosalam once or twice. I could show you the sights when we get there."

He pushed open the door to the tavern, which was filled with men taking a break from their fishing. Patting Jalisat on the shoulder, Rogan said, "Find us a table, there's a lad. I'll get us some grub." He made for the counter, his heart heavy. Poor kid. I think I'm gonna keep an eye on this one. For now.

~

((And technically, Ifrit and Ixion are male, but....))

Eddora, wrapped up in Ifrit's warm body, swiped at Ixion with her enormous claws. Ixion dodged out of the way, but then a blast of wind that Aer had conjured up pushed it back, and Ifrit pounced. Ixion let out a shrill neigh, and Ifrit pulled her claws back just in time. The electricity fizzled out inches away from her face, but before Ixion could press the attack, Ifrit summoned up the blazing inferno within her, creating a ball of fire in her gaping jaws.

When the heat was nearly unbearable, even for a fire aeon, she let it loose. The flames burned away the skin on Ixion's body, and the aeon let out a whinny that sounded almost like a human scream. Ixion fell onto the floor, twitching in pain. Ifrit loomed over her enemy, preparing to deliver the killing blow. But just as her foot came down on Ixion's neck, the horn exploded in a blast of lightning that consumed Ifrit's body.

Eddora was vaguely aware of flying backwards, hitting the wall with an enormous shudder, as both Ifrit and Ixion dissolved into pyreflies. The pyreflies soared towards the summoner, still slumped against the wall, and entered her chest. For a moment, Ed was equal parts Ifrit, Ixion, and herself, but Ixion's presence quickly took over everything else.

She was Ixion. She galloped across the cliffs, shaking her mane and neighing to the sky. The rain fell, the thunder rumbled, and she boxed the air with her hooves in joy. She could feel the currents of electricity running through every nerve in her body, sparking off into the air. Then the currents shifted towards the shore, to a place out in the ocean where the storm converged on a single, massive form: Sin. Neighing with rage, Ixion tore down the cliffs, leaping down them like a giant's staircase. She thudded onto the sand, smashed her hooves onto the sea, and bellowed her rage to Sin. You killed them! she screamed without words. You killed my family! You killed my friends! You killed everyone...and now I will kill you. She lifted her voice in an almighty neigh, daring Sin to come and face her. She was Ixion.

When Ed came to herself again, she found herself lying flat on the floor, screaming her lungs out. As soon as she realized this, she let the scream die away and sat up, looking around herself in surprise. Venez knelt by her side, looking at her with intense concern. "Are...Are you all right?" she asked tentatively.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ed snapped, discovering that her throat was raw from all the screaming.

"You...You were just lying there, screaming and twitching...like you were having a fit or something."

Ed rose to her feet, feeling as refreshed as though she had just taken a long nap, other than her sore throat. "Ixion," she murmured thoughtfully, touching her chest. She could feel Ixion's violent presence within her, dormant for now but ready to rise up again at a moment's notice. There was something different about this aeon, she felt. She felt more attuned to Ixion than any of the others. There was an understanding between them that her other aeons lacked.

Ed suddenly realized that Venez still had that concerned look on her face. "I'm fine, really," she said, though the effect was somewhat broken when she broke into a painful cough. "Ixion just got a little carried away, that's all. But come on," she added, turning to find where Aer was. "We have to get going. Cal's not here. It wasn't Ixion who took him." She hadn't known that a moment ago, but as soon as the words left her lips, she knew they were true.  

[Ikken Isshu]

((Er, don't take that the wrong way. Jalisat was never abused. He's just lying to avoid discussing the real reason he wants to go to Guadosalam. I don't care if Rogan caught the lie, but I just want to make sure you know it's not true. sweatdrop ))

When they entered the tavern and Rogan told him to find a table, Jalisat nodded, peered into the tavern, and headed off promptly to an empty table by the left wall. He sat down and kept an eye on Rogan, ready to wave as soon as Rogan started looking for him.

~

((As for Ed and Ixion, oooh. Is this connected to the soon-to-come drama? You've piqued my interest. biggrin ))

Aer started to protest, but the look in Ed's eyes silenced him before he'd made a sound. For a moment he felt like a wronged child.

"That's it?" he asked, almost in a daze. "'Cal's not here'? Ed, your Guardian just disappeared inside what should be one of the safest places in Spira, and we're just going to leave now that you've acquired Ixion?"

He didn't know what made him speak that way; he still wanted to woo Ed, and confronting her like this was probably not the best way to go about that. But maybe the understanding he'd reached with Calaman had been deeper than he'd thought. For a long time, he'd disliked the boy-wonder, but now he couldn't imagine just abandoning Calaman.

 

[Griselda Banks]

((It was just a lie? *slightly disappointed* Well, it helped that I didn't know that at first, I think, because then I could translate my feelings over to Rogan. Um...I dunno about you, but I'm kind of running out of things to say/do in this scene with Rogan and Jalisat. Ironically, your little revelation/lie sped up the process quite a bit, so I think we won't have a problem with getting Jalisat into the party now. Wanna wrap this scene up?))

Rogan turned back to the room, holding two large plates piled high with food. It had been a while since he'd eaten real food; he was looking forward to tasting crab meat again. Casting his eyes across the busy room, he found the boy sitting at a small round table and crossed the room quickly.

"Dig in!" he said with an almost childish grin, and began eating with gusto as soon as he sat down.

~

((Maybe.... Fufufu ninja *tries to act mysterious* *fails* No, actually it's not -_- It's just something on the side. Not sure if it'll ever amount to much, but I thought it'd be cool to make her more attuned to Ixion, since she's from Djose and all.))

Eddora's hands slowly closed around folds of her robes, clenching into tight fists as several emotions warred inside her. The terror wasn't gone; it had been brushed to the side for a few minutes during the battle, but now that things were calm again it returned to her full-force. And she suddenly hated herself for forgetting about Calaman, even if just for a few minutes. But what could be done?

"What do you want me to do, Aer?" Ed asked in a low voice, anger and desperation pressing against the edge of her voice. "Tear down every stone of this temple looking for Cal? Because I would, you know, if I thought it would help. But he's not here. Don't you understand? I don't know where he is!" Her voice steadily rose as she went along. "He might be dead for all we know! If we scoured all of Spira, we might find him. Is that what you want to do? And what would we say once we did find him? 'We let hundreds more people die in our delay, to save you'?! We can't stop, don't you see? We started on this journey, and we have to see it through to the end. We're trapped in our destinies; we can't just shuck them off to veer off to the side! Summoners are supposed to be really powerful and everything, but in the end I can't save a boy who never should have had to become a guardian in the first place! There's nothing I can do about it, and it's killing me! Don't you dare say that I don't care about what happened to Cal, Aer d'Mors!"