Fandom Final Fantasy: The Age of Ophiuchus [Closed]

[Arcanist]

That bombshell had to drop sooner or later. Sesario wasn’t sure why it had to be now, but the temporary peace felt like the only time he could do it, when they weren’t running, when he was trying to find out those exact things in dusty books hidden away in the forest. He expected the surprise of it, given some of the intense stares he received from Cleon and Reva, though he noted a worry in Hector that he learned to spot.

It was hard to know what it was about though.

Sesario sighed, “I didn’t do anything. At least, I don’t think I did. My grandfather died, the Empire was trying to pick up steam in conquering the continent again, and I just felt trapped. And then I woke up one day and it was just there, and it’s been there ever since I was fourteen.” Twenty-three years, as long as a marriage. Was divorce still an option? Did any of Bahamut’s past heroes feel the same, if they too were subjected to his vague messages?

“Maybe he thought it was urgent,” Kikiti suggested then, her finger pushing into a page on Phoenix before the interruption, “Bahamut is a bit of a rulebreaker. At least, all the stories I know depict him with values of freedom. Maybe what was happening at the time, how you felt, sparked something for him to find you.”

“Maybe I should ask him that,” Sesario chuckled, his tone obviously bitter, “and see if he answers me with something useful this time.”

Silence settled, and for much longer than Sesario would have liked. He remembered then, he never mentioned anything like that. He never even told Hector about that. Sesario could never risk him thinking he was travelling with a man who was insane enough to hear a voice in his head.

Cid leaned forward, more inquisitive but just as aghast as what the others around them looked. His tone was just incredulous enough, but more confused. “He speaks to you?”

It felt like the short conversation he had with his father, thinking that voice was grief. Any talk on risked seeming sane. “Yeah,” Sesario was forced to admit.

Cleon blinked, jaw hanging open as he shifted to the edge of his seat. He was much like Hector, more interested in the how. Sesario noted that hint of jealousy in his tone, and he almost laughed at how naïve he was, that they all were, to his situation. “How is that possible if you haven’t awoken him yet? Unless you have awoken him?

“I would have brought him out to solve a lot of our problems if I had,” Sesario pointed out, his frustration seeping through his words. He added, “It’s complicated. He speaks to me, and I hear him, but it’s infrequent. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to get his words to me even when I can’t hear him. And then whatever words he does get through to me are vague or just…” Useless. Something that could have been helpful. He wondered if he listened hard enough to his words over the years, that he said something in a throwaway comment that might have been useful.

“So,” Cleon was dejected, mainly on Sesario’s part, but very much collectively for the rest of them, “he hasn’t told you anything that would help? There’s bound to have been something he could have said to you all this time.”

“Maybe, but more in a roundabout way,” Sesario leaned back. He didn’t want to dash that hope so soon, “he’s directed me to places before. He might have directed me to Hector without me realising, and Hector has a mark. Makes sense if we’re all being pulled together in strange ways.” It had to count for something surely. Meeting Hector was never just by chance, he believed that now.

“I’d believe it,” Kikiti affirmed with a small smile. She met the rest of them through strange circumstances. Hector less so, but she was no less thankful for it. Though, Kikiti would have to give that credit to Yarrow more than the Zodiac for that ‘chance’ meeting.

“We’ll keep looking. That’s all that's at least in our control right now,” Cleon said. There was bound to be something in these endless scrolls and books that they could pull out. The sooner, the better.

 

[Lucyfer]

Bahamut spoke to Sesario. Reva lifted her brows at this, as surprised as the others. Leviathan did not speak to her before he arrived into her life. She did not think any of the other eleven spoke to their hosts prior to it. Zariel certainly had not given such an indication, and seemed quite unaware Phoenix was dead when that much was pointed out. Indeed, Didymus certainly hadn’t mentioned any voices before the arrival of Garuda.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have, anyways.

Reva hummed in thought. “Perhaps it would be best to share what Bahamut speaks of from now on,” Reva advised, “it may make no sense to you, but there are others now with you who believe what you say.” Or perhaps that would only silence Bahamut.

“Can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Hector sounded bitter. Hard to fault him, though, considering how long the secret was kept. “Can’t believe how useless Bahamut is,” though, actually, he could. Bahamut valued freedom, but he was also ambitious. Two warring components, that never led Bahamut to achieving the role of King of the Zodiac.

That remained Phoenix.

For how long seemed debatable, now.

“I bet he manifests for no reason. No way we’re going to figure him out,” Hector just wanted to show irreverence to Bahamut, mostly. Spite. “But I…think I know where Alexander’s temple is,” he sighed.

Reva’s attention fell to Hector.

“Escander. I don’t know where, but. There’s nothing else about him. Every story, every hero, everything about Alexander, is tied to Escander. I don’t think he’s clever enough to hide his temple anywhere else,” and at that, Hector buried his face in his hands, “and summoning him is going to require returning to Escander.”

A place he didn’t want to go, but also, a very public place.

A very public place in the heart of the Empire.

 

[Arcanist]

Cid hummed in agreement with Reva on the point he should be more forward in sharing Bahamut’s words. “And anything you remember him mentioning before that you think would be useful to know too,” he suggested, though, anyone, not just Sesario, would have forgotten what they believed to be meaningless drivel. No less from a voice they didn’t trust.

Something in all that dialogue had to be meaningful.

Bahamut reared his head in a time of change and what Cid could only assume was a time of grief for Sesario. Cid remembered a man at the end of his tether. Compelled by grief to surround himself with books and scrolls and mutter to himself than to face the potential loss of his son.

Was it all just grief?

After a beat of Cid’s long stare on him, Sesario felt inclined to agree with him. “Sure. I can’t promise anything, but if he reminds me of anything useful, or if I remember anything, I’ll let you all know.” That was a chance for the Dragon to come forward and redeem himself from this point forward.

Hector didn’t take well to the news, obviously. Regardless of how often Hector seemed to put up with him, he put his trust in Sesario, as did the man with him. Sesario keeping secrets breached that, and he would admit, he felt and even looked a little ashamed of it. Shame was not something Sesario wore often. “Maybe I should have told you earlier, when I had more of an idea of what that voice was.” His roundabout way of apologising, without having to say, ‘I’m sorry’. Apologies weren’t his thing either.

Was Bahamut really going to take that shit from Hector? Not that he could do anything about it, but what if he was really willing to prove him wrong?!

If Bahamut was going to say anything, attention turned to the potential of Alexander’s temple being in Escander.

Cleon held back a sigh. Everything was in Empire territory.

Kikiti tried to think of something that would be at least a little helpful. She sighed. “Escander’s so big and crowded. Someone would have picked up on there being a temple there.”

“Definitely no temples there,” Sesario weighed in.

“But maybe it’s not a temple in the traditional sense that we’re all thinking of,” Cleon suggested. “I’m not exactly an expert on Escander,” he sheepishly admitted that bar having the knowledge he heard or read of Escander, “but maybe it’s built into the architecture somewhere or hidden underneath the city.”

“It would have to be practical though, wherever his temple is,” Kikiti said, gathering her thoughts of what she knew of Alexander, “not unless Escander has morphed it into something else without knowing.” It would be a shame if they unknowingly did so. Alexander always seemed so selfless when it came to Escander.

“Regardless, getting there, never mind getting in, isn’t an option for us right now.” Cid murmured. They’d be scooped up by Imperials on foot before they even got there and each of them knew it.

“For now, at least,” Cleon murmured. If they could ever get in.

Yarrow had made his way back onto the table, away from the rough play Oma tried to engage him in. The sight of her moving towards the table was enough to shoo him to the other side before he stepped on any of the scripture.

“Was there anything else we found?” Cleon asked.

Kikiti considered the page she held open, but reconsidered Phoenix for another god instead.

“There was some stuff I found about Kirin,” Kikiti spoke up, though, judging by her slight shrug, she didn’t look entirely confident if it was helpful or not. “Accounts by nomads fleeing from persecutors through a valley. They claimed a tempest blocked those pursuing them from reaching them, and when the group tried to locate them, it was like they just vanished in the wind. A lot of them seemed to believe it was Kirin watching over them.”

“There’s a lot of stories about Kirin stepping in for others when they’re in danger. Sometimes always standing up to people too,” Kikiti mused, but then pouted. “But it doesn’t exactly pinpoint where Kirin’s temple would be. All I can think of is that valley, or somewhere extra windy…”

 

[Lucyfer]

‘The Temple has definitely changed shape.’ Hector understood that if it was there in Escander, everyone would know. Unless it was hidden in plain sight as something else. A tourist shop that sold Alexander figures? No, likely just a bar that had no idea of its purpose, history removed under layers of paint and wallpapers.

Nothing was sacred in Escander.

“There aren’t really any places we can get to right now,” Hector pointed out, “just wilderness, and even then we’re just hoping the Empire isn’t out that way. Apparently, they’re searching for these, too, and they’ve found some of them.” Anissa had provided plenty of information relating to that.

“Not that I’m saying we go to Escander now, but we’re going to need to come up with plans to get into Imperial cities in the very near future, because everywhere is Imperial territory now.” They couldn’t avoid it. The entire continent belonged to Amarum.

To Zariel, and Phoenix.

But Kikiti had one that might be more or less in the wilds. A valley, and a windy valley at that. ‘Sounds like Gemini.’ If only because of the way Garuda appeared, and left. Sudden, twisting winds.

But Gemini didn’t really intervene that way.

Gemini left destruction behind.

Reva hummed, but shook her head, “I know not of a valley such as you have mentioned. My journeys may not have taken me near it.”

Hector was about to say the same, but paused, and a quizzical look crossed his face before he looked towards Sesario, “Hey…isn’t there that mountainous region you prefer to fly around near Ibec, because the wind currents are always tricky?” Ibec was another area deep in Imperial territory, and now deeply controlled by it, if Zariel had claimed the life of Phoenix’s cleric.

Even so, this might be wilderness. Hector didn’t know if there was a civilization in this valley that the Empire would have any reason to station people in.