Fandom Final Fantasy: The Age of Ophiuchus [Closed]

[Lucyfer]

Cleon was evidently enamored with the view, as Reva hoped he was. It was a sobering view, paired with the thought that this was how most of the viera saw the world – but what a view it was! To imagine the world beyond, and never know it. Reva could have been condemned to that fate, and sometimes, she wondered if she would have stayed if Leviathan never came to her.

She hummed at Cleon’s whispered words, and smiled at his own recollection of a small world.

It had grown so much larger for him now, in such a short time. Not in the way she would have wanted it to grow for him, either. No clandestine visits, just…war. Hardly the best way to learn how inconsequential your own speck of life was.

“Many do not,” Reva said. “It is comfortable at home,” as it should be, “not everyone is drawn by the allure of travel,” did she pity them? Reva didn’t know. Was she jealous of them, to be so easily content? She was not sure of that, either.

But she would not change her choice to reclaim home.

She frowned at the thought of the Mist. “Not here,” meaning, of course, the forest, “but I believe it stretches further away than it used to. It is hard to tell with the snow and mountains,” and they would not venture that way. There was nothing to see that way, for them, unless some temple existed in the mountains.

She hoped not.

Dealing with mist was not fun at all.

“There are other views, to other sides. I could see the end of the forest that way,” she gestured behind them, “to the fields beyond. Not quite to any human cities,” they could never see that far. Humans knew better than to live so close. “I always liked to be up here,” to see. She truly had always been a dreamer.

It showed even then, at the memory of it all.

Of dreams she could not have again, for now, she had lived them – lived going beyond the borders, instead of just looking out. And the dream of staying? Impossible.

 

[Arcanist]

“I don’t remember being much interested in it myself. I think I contented myself with staying home.” The thought might have crossed his mind, when books were his looking glass into the rest of the world. But his nest in Ucantis became too comfortable to leave as he grew older, and so he never thought much of exploring the rest of the world, what with war happening outside his borders. It was easier to ignore it.

And even now, he still wanted to distance himself from it, despite his ever-growing role in it.

Cleon squinted his eyes slightly as if he would be able to pick it out against the blinding white ahead of them. At least it didn’t congregate in the forest, but he frowned at the idea of it stretching further.

At least it was not here nor near Reva. He did not want her to have to deal with it, given what he’d heard before.

He turned his gaze toward where Reva gestured, further afield, literally. It was strange to imagine Reva much younger, hiding high above her home, looking out and dreaming of what lay beyond. For someone who had lived, and outlived, generations of his own family, he could not see her as cloistered as the viera here were.

“I can see why you liked it here,” Cleon smiled, still looking at the beyond that Reva gestured to. “It was your window to what was out there. I’m jealous that you never had any buildings blocking your view of the world.” It truly was so separate from any other settlement. And yet, even then, Cleon felt that familiar pang in his chest, despite his so-called jealousy of a view without such blockades.

Though, it meant she had a clear view of the land ahead, the sky…

“Did you ever see the Twelve’s stars and constellations from here?” Another thing to be jealous of. He heard the chat of dimming stars and the disappearance of stars from scholars for years. Reva could have at least had the chance to see them, or at least, a sky full of bright little lights before they started disappearing.

 

[Lucyfer]

Reva certainly recalled Little Cleon, and though he had a wanderlust, it was not far. He had not wanted to go out beyond the walls of the castle much, though like any child, it stirred him. The garden was often enough excitement. She did chuckle at his jealousy over no buildings. There were trees she could complain about, after all, though she never thought to back then.

Now….

It was such a human thought to complain about them.

It saddened her, immediately, and effectively, as she spoke of the stars. “Yes,” she answered, “born marked, I would always look for it, and I could see it. It is still visible,” most of them were, “but I noticed it dimming. We were all aware of the stars dimming. I was told stories that they used to be brighter, before I was born.” The stars were not out yet, not even a twinkle on the horizon, “When I left, it was a reason. I asked Veda if She trembled when the stars fell. The fall happened before I was born, but I knew of it. We all knew of it.”

Sometimes, she had thought she was a bad omen for it.

“She trembled, but Veda said it was natural,” Reva could not help the scoff as she smiled at bravery she did not have, “Veda was comfortable with mortality. She is comfortable with mortality. Perhaps it is something the old find comfort in. Even Her,” she looked down upon the leaves, upon plants old and young, “perhaps it is something one must contemplate to find acceptance.”

She shook her head, “It is why they are not so worried about what we speak. Their lives are to Her, and if She should go, then it must be their time. A foolish thought,” or was hers foolish? Like her complaint of trees? “When She could be saved, but they would rather not intervene. They know not how to differentiate a natural death of Her from an unnatural.”

Did She even know? She did not speak to tell them.

 

[Arcanist]

Cleon couldn’t help but watch the sky as Reva spoke of how they dimmed, even though he knew it was too early to even find any of the stars. He was much like Reva had been, always searching for that one constellation, ‘his’ constellation, as it were. It seemed blasphemous to claim it as his, but there was a strange comfort in knowing that the stars were carved into his hand, even if not by choice.

It was still his, somehow.

“I can’t criticise them for the way they behave, not really. I stayed in my bubble for as long as I did, and I only had part of the truth myself. It’s easier to keep living and to think as you always have. To accept things for what they are.” He would have said he was not like the Viera, but did he not choose to ignore plenty, to put his life to something else entirely? The Empire landed on his doorstep when he had spent too long ignoring it all, and he paid dearly for it.

“And I suppose…it’s easier to see how different thoughts like that are here when you’re looking in on the outside. You have some insight into how everyone here thinks, and you have the benefit of exploring and knowing the world beyond to see past what’s put in front of you.” Cleon looked at her. “But you always knew it had to be something more, long before you ever left.”

He wondered how she remained here as long as she did.

“It doesn’t make these beliefs any less puzzling,” the man admitted, “though, as you said, there must be some comfort they place in Her, and that mortality strangely. There’s comfort in safety and what you know.” And they were in opposition to that. Their presence here, and the knowledge they brought, that was as much a threat to their solace as an army.

As much as he wished to stay and soak in the view, he had to peel himself away from it. “We should head back. Or at least, I should. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was slacking.” He joked, though, he meant it on going back alone. He didn’t want to drag Reva back if she wasn’t ready to leave.

 

[Lucyfer]

‘You can.’ Reva thought, but not with the sincerity of thinking Cleon could criticize the viera in a meaningful way. It would be more in the way of criticizing them, to understand himself, and his differences. How, even now, he grew, and he chose to venture.

Perhaps chose was not the word he would pick, but Reva knew.

At any point, Cleon could have lain down and chosen to be captured. Running was a choice. Staying, was a choice. Acceptance, and denial, both choices. The viera chose one, and Cleon, chose the other.

Reva was familiar with it, and even then, she chose to run. She chose denial. Was it the best way? Only time and reflection would tell, but it was her choice.

Reva chuckled with him and pushed away from her view, “I will return. I do not wish to be…slacking, either,” although the others would likely understand it from her, given all she had come back to, “I still know this place well enough to help navigate the library, and offer aid where I can.”

When the others slept, perhaps then she would roam in dreams of what had once been, and what could never be again, but it was nice to briefly share this with Cleon…what he would never have seen, under normal circumstances. “Besides, it would be needlessly cruel to leave you to face Hector alone.”

It was almost ironic how much a terror Hector was, occupying the role of one of the youngest among them, and yet being so…prickly. So insistent on his own rightness. It brought back that thought of what they were all seeking: the espers. ‘He will only find Alexander when he falls. He could spend years in Escander but if he never realized his wrong….’

Reva shook her head as she led the way back, “Cleon, when you find Asura, remember the state you find her in, is only one state. As she has three faces, you must remember you are not only the you who finds her,” Reva said, sounding significantly more somber, “I fear it is something others may forget.”

Perhaps that was more a concern for fixed signs Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius, and Taurus, yet it felt worth mentioning. “Your strength will not only be in that state.”

 

[Arcanist]

Reva supported in enough ways to show she certainly wasn’t slacking. Her aid, though, was as crucial and appreciated when faced with such painful memories here.

Cleon couldn’t help but snort at the comment and rolled his eyes knowingly. “Your sacrifice does not go unnoticed.” Hector was persistent, much more uptight than what his older counterpart, Sesario, should have been. It was a wonder how the two managed to stick one another, though, they must have at least liked a small part of each other’s company to travel together as they did.

Perhaps they were just useful to each other. Cleon couldn’t contemplate a relationship like that long term. It was entirely different between him and Reva, but not everyone could be like them both.

He tried to keep down a frown at Reva’s tone shifting as he walked alongside her. Her words bringing them back to what they were really here for, why they even ran in the first place. And as always, her words echoed a wisdom beyond him, something he couldn’t always so easily grasp. He remembered his frustration at proverbs she delivered him as a boy, only to have some understanding of it later.

“I wish whatever state of me that has to awaken her would just appear already. It might be easier if I just had her,” Cleon muttered, an impatience rising in him that he never felt in the time he knew he may have had a Zodiac. It was the whirlwind of all that happened, all still to happen.

Though, he missed the point of Reva’s words, he thought, after he revealed his impatience.

“I hadn’t…thought of it that way,” Cleon admitted with a sheepish shrug, “I’ve thought, for a long time, that I would just be the best version of me if…when Asura appears. Why else would a god, even if they had no choice, wait for you, unless it was for that? I never really thought of the…in-between, if that makes sense. Just the beginning of having her and the ending of having her.”

Cleon wondered then, in the eerie, idyllic silence of this forest, if he would even find her in his best ‘state’. It could be at his lowest moment, his most depraved. He wasn’t sure.

“One of the books I found spoke of trials with Asura,” Cleon wavered, troubled by the prospect, “or at least, maybe set by her.” He hoped for the latter.