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Fandom Final Fantasy: The Age of Ophiuchus [Closed]

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No, Oma had never been outside. The answer was in the shake of her head, but also how she spoke of chasing humans away. She never followed them out. She never went to see their world. Curiosity, it seemed, had been kind to Oma in that it left her alone for so long. Reva could hear it, now.

That was one small, positive thing.

That, and Oma’s genuine concern for human safety. Although, both could lead her to trouble. Reva knew that too well. She wouldn’t be a guard if she didn’t have protective instincts herself, and sometimes she had to learn the hard way where she wasn’t wanted.

“It will be different. Humans are not so…organized as a society.” Fae and viera were small groups, and had central figures they could go to, humans did not. They had lawkeepers, lawgivers, but they were often far and distant. Humans didn’t care so much about breaking the laws they made; it wasn’t quite so personal. “Their relationships to their society are not as personal as ours. It makes them much different then we expect.”

Reva stopped at last, where her things were, with extras, gifts of the fae, that she began to stow away – not that much of it was out to begin with. “It will be good to observe what you can. You may ask me any questions you have. I have been among humans a long time now,” which only made her afraid of returning to what had once been her home, but she would not confess that.

She had to appear confident in that.

~***~

Hector knew the bag of worms he’d opened when he asked if there was anything he could do to help. He knew he’d be subjected to talk of Didymus. That didn’t make it easier for him to hear it, but he grit his teeth and listened as Kikiti admitted to not knowing what would help, and trying to paint Didymus as a villain.

Which, he was.

Would that really make it easier for her, though?

Hector also wasn’t sure if it was his place to agree. He’d agreed with people before when they were badmouthing others only to find out they didn’t actually think that way and he was wrong to agree, which was weird, but Hector was starting to understand that people just wanted to vent frustrations with meaningless words.

Weird, but whatever.

He was also jealous of Didymus. Jealous that Didymus had so much impact on everyone, but mostly, on Kikiti. “Well, at least you’ll get a reckoning with him eventually. You can knock the truth out of him the next time we see him – guilt free, since he’s with the Empire now!”

Was that the safe way to go about it? He wasn’t absolutely saying Didymus was bad there, although he definitely meant that Didymus was bad and deserving of being knocked around. “I…I obviously came into this late. I don’t know all he did, or how he tricked everyone, but you can’t…beat yourself up over it. People from Escander…they’re all terrible. You have to be terrible to survive. I was lucky to get out. So I’m sure Didymus was very good at…whatever he did to get you all to trust him.”
 
Different. The Fae always said that about humans. They said that about the outside world. How it was dangerous too. It was why Oma was kept behind their magic veil, only being allowed to teeter along the boundary of what she always knew as home. But she was content at that, even if the allure of humans and the outside whispered that temptation in her ear. The Fae were scared of humans despite their nature to mess with them. She felt a little differently, even if she was just a little scared of them as well.

Oma hummed and nodded. Not everything and everyone could be the same as what her world was. But she would not show that cautiousness, that fear of stepping out onto unknown ground. She didn't have a choice in leaving, but not everything wasn't entirely out of her control.

She stopped behind Reva as she gathered her things together. "Observe," she repeated after her. Watch them. "I watch. Always." She tried to understand the ones that passed through. Their words, their behaviours. "Will watch others too." Just like she did when they all stood and shouted at each other. She had yet to understand any of them.

But Reva understood a lot of things better than her, which helped. Oma had a lot of questions she asked that they couldn't fully answer.

Oma squatted beside her, hugging her knees. She thought for a moment before asking, "You…like outside?" All she knew about the outside was that humans lived in it. She didn't know anything about their societies, their cultures, where they lived and how they lived. For someone who ran and scuffled with beasts, something so big unnerved her. She wasn't sure she would like it. Reva must have found it scary, at least at first.

~***~

Hector was trying to help. She appreciated it, really, even if it was in the suggestion of giving Didymus a good thrashing. She forced a smile. She certainly felt like grabbing the crook of her staff and giving him a piece of her mind. To say she hates him. Kikiti tried to imagine the satisfaction in that, but she pouted. It didn't really help.

Hector must have noticed her pouting, for he tried to reassure her that perhaps it wasn't anyone's fault for trusting Didymus. Yet, it was easy for him to see through that deceit. But that, she was surprised to hear, was because he was from Escander himself. Kikiti softened a little. She hadn't expected that, though, that gave more credence to his words and who he would be if he didn't get out. That he'd be like Didymus. "Yeah. I guess he had a lot of practice," Kikiti shrugged, sheepish. She still felt foolish for it.

She looked back to Hextor. “Well. Maybe not everyone from Escander is terrible.” Didymus was not so terrible as she desperately tried to make him in her head. He did some nasty things, but could she really hate him for them? It was like what Hector said - maybe he did it to survive.

“I mean, if you’re from Escander like you said, you should be terrible too–but you’re not,” She added. “You’re very kind for a sky pirate. Not terrible at all." She felt a little flustered at that, and she laughed, pulling at a coil of her hair.

Of course he wasn't terrible. He said he got out of Escander, so he wouldn't be. But he was a sky pirate. How were sky pirates even this nice?

Maybe because Sesario was nice too.

Kikiti let her hair spring back as she let go. She sighed. "I guess you're right. He got us to trust him, and, well, he got us good. And it hurts a lot." There was no point in pretending it didn't. "But that's a lesson learned. I just have to get better at who I can trust." She smiled a little at Hector.
 
Reva gathered her items as Oma crouched down to inquire a bit more, although vaguely. It was not unexpected, but it was always hard to answer vague things like that. Or, perhaps it wasn’t really vague…it was a straightforward question, but there was so much to say to it. She liked the outside – but!

Always that lingering feeling that the outside could not fill. That missing, yet she would miss, if she ever went home, just for the outside instead. A person could not have it all, no matter how much Reva dreamt of such things. It simply was not possible.

“Yes, I like the outside enough to pick it over my longing for what I have left,” she phrased it carefully, to acknowledge her own losses – losses Oma would face, “I was able to pick. You will be able to pick to return, or to stay, once we have dealt with the problem at hand.” Reva did not know whether Oma would prefer to be among humanity, or whether she would go back.

Humans were strange that way.

Even a human raised amongst fae.

“I made my choice many decades ago,” Reva acknowledged, things gathered, so she shifted so she could be sitting, and face Oma, “I still miss my home at times. I will always miss it, but I would not unmake my decision. I would not go back to stay.”

~***~

Hector couldn’t help but scoff. He was from Escander, but, “I got out of there when I was young, so I wasn’t completely corrupted,” he said, dismissing his heritage that made it so easy to see through people and their bullshit. That made it so easy for him to see through Didymus, and dismiss him as anyone worthwhile. He, obviously, had been born and raised in Escander, and not as a slave.

Someone who had to do a lot of terrible shit, but not a slave.

Still, he smiled a bit warmly at her continued compliments to him being nice. ‘I can’t really claim Rozari, can I?’ He couldn’t really claim any place except the skies with how much he and Sesario moved around, but he supposed Rozari was the closest place he could claim. Sesario’s influence on him was still tinged by it, and they visited often enough.

Not as often as Sesario’s parents probably would have liked.

Or at least, his mom.

“It’s not bad to trust people. Really. Take it from someone who doesn’t trust easy,” he laughed it off a bit, “I’m always looking for a motive. It’s exhausting,” and there he was, oversharing. But she had been embarrassed, so that would…balance it? Why did he care about balancing? Well he knew why.

She was hurt.

She was pretty.

And he liked her. Quickly. Which was rare. “And the bitter pill of being able to tell people ‘I told you so’ isn’t worth it most of the time.” Sometimes. “Only when it’s Ses,” he added with a sly grin, “That can be fun.” And it happened. Frequently.

But not her.

Not really the others, either, and the smile lost its gleeful edge, softening. “Maybe someday you’ll get to tell me you were right about trusting someone.”
 
Oma listened, thoughtful as she tried to understand why Reva would choose the outside over her home. It was not something she could fully understand, not until she saw the outside. She liked it more, otherwise she would still be at home. But she didn't have a reference to compare both to.

"I come home." Oma affirmed, resolute and sure of herself in her decision, like she imagined Reva was even with her difficulties. Titania and the rest of the fae would be eager to have her home again after all of this. It was temporary, a brief excursion and she would be home again. She would bring home stories and all the things she learned for them to eat up.

It seemed only logical to her. There was no home outside. Home was here. She knew the Fae and Tatiana here, and it was safe.

Which made her wonder again as she tilted her head at Reva. Reva's home was once here, not outside. How did she make a home outside? Where exactly did she go, and what tree or shade did she choose to live under, and who was it she lived with again?

She sighed. Lots of questions, too many questions. All of them exhausted her.

Oma decided to go with another broad, vague question, another that couldn't always be answered. "Why? Why stay?"

Even if Oma had allegedly made her own decision to come back, she still wondered what made the outside so alluring.

~***~

Even if Hector got out early, Kikiti didn't agree that everyone who was still there wasn't entirely bad. People were not the places they came from. Or perhaps that was a naive thing for her to think, given everything that just happened with someone from Escander. Still, she wouldn't argue with Hector on that. It was a sore subject, and too much evidence that it did corrupt those who stayed long enough stared her in the face.

Any perceived sourness in Hector didn't last long. He smiled at her and he opened up a little more. Maybe he trusted her - at least a little more, but admittedly, that was enough to make her smile.

It didn't close over any wounds, but it helped towards making her feel better.

Kikiti giggled a little, just imagining the kind of scolding Sesario would get. "It sounds like you do it a lot with him." She thought for a moment. "I guess it's fun when you're telling someone you know, and it's over something obvious. Like, um, telling someone to watch where they're walking, otherwise they'll walk into something. And then when they do, you get to come out with 'I told you so!', or something like that." She shrugged. It was a little silly.

But it felt better than telling anyone here, 'I told you so.' Maybe. More of a, 'What did you think would happen?'

"Yeah," Kikiti nodded, looking back at Hector. "I hope so. But I mean, I'll not not trust anyone anymore. You have to have at least somebody to trust. Like you have Sesario to turn to."

There were others here she could trust and rely on. She just had to find another. Or maybe, she already did.
 
Oma seemed fairly certain about coming home, which Reva couldn’t really fault. She wasn’t leaving by choice, after all. She had to come along because of Fenrir. Even so, as Oma sighed, it was clear there was much she didn’t understand, and much she wanted to understand. The question she asked pointed to that uncertainty.

Why would anyone want to live outside?

“That is for you to determine, Oma,” Reva said, turning her red eyes up upon the woman. “Perhaps for you, it will not be difficult. Perhaps you can live in both worlds. I do not know how fae society works, but for me, it was one, or the other. To leave home, and never return,” although she was, “or to leave, and see what was in the rest of the world.”

She sighed, “I had been granted Leviathan. I knew there was a wider world out there. A world that would have answers to why I had Leviathan. Not only that, I was curious. When one is forbidden from doing something, it is sometimes more interesting for that.” That was true of the outside world. Many viera went through such a phase.

Few truly left.

“I would choose it again,” she said, “I have found friends. I have learned much I would not have learned otherwise. I have seen life in forms I could not have imagined, architecture that is not seen in my home, and magic we do not practice. It is the friends I have made that keeps me drawn to the outside, even though I do miss the sisters I had back home.” That was still a pain, one she knew she would forever endure for her choice.

“Perhaps you will not have to choose, if you find you like both worlds, though. They may let you go between both. Humans do not care,” Reva noted, “it is…freeing, in that way.”

~***~

“Heh…yeah, I’m actually pretty sure I’ve told Sesario that exact thing and watched him run right into a wall,” Hector shook his head at that, but he knew it was true. Sesario wasn’t always attentive to what was going on around him. Usually he was, after all, he was a perceptive man, but there were times he got too carried away and just didn’t realize there was a wall he was going to walk into.

Then it hit him.

Of course, it wasn’t always silly things. “Mostly, it’s about….” Hector sighed, “Valkyrie.” The ship that was gone. “Our ship,” the one they weren’t going to see again. Hector was still upset with Cleon over that. Not that any of them could have predicted what happened, but Cleon shouldn’t have broken the peace.

“And I wouldn’t want you to stop trusting people all together,” he’d suggested that already, of course. That it was exhausting not to trust. “It’s good to have someone. It’s just…hard. After trust has been broken enough times.” And it had been, for Hector. He would always find it hard to trust others.

Sesario was that rare exception, although it had still taken them time to fully get into the swing of their partnership. “I know an apology from me means nothing, but I am sorry about all that happened with Didymus. And I wish there was something I could do other than say, well, everyone who lived a long time in Escander sucks. Even if it’s true.”
 
A choice to live in both worlds. Oma tilted her head as she listened, considering the idea. She never considered it as an option. It wasn’t unreasonable to have both – at least for Oma. Reva didn’t get that choice. Perhaps she could make it work. She could ask Titania if she could return, and she already knew she would gladly accept her with open arms.
She had taken her in after all, cared for her, so why would she turn her back on her?

And Fenrir of Taurus. Even if the fae had told her of how he shifted continents and split the mountains, there were secrets even they did not have that she could find out. Maybe she could understand now why Reva left her home - because of Leviathan.

The attentive stare from Oma was undeniable, though, even as Reva told briefly of her experiences of outside. Her mouth lay open, but she did not interrupt her as she spoke of people and structures, friends and magic and things that she could not, would not find in her home. It only piqued her curiosity as much as it scared her.

“Freeing.” She repeated, though, did not fully understand. She was free here. She could run with beasts and climb trees and wrestle the elements as she so pleased. To the boundaries set, of course.

Oma hummed, contemplating Reva’s words. She made it sound so straightforward, despite it being anything but. She nodded, “Ok. Oma understand.” She pushed herself off the ground. “I ask Titania if I come back. And we go. I see outside with you.” Even she tried to make it sound straightforward than it was.

~***~

Kikiti did giggle along, imagining Sesario doing just that. She only just met him, yet, somehow, with Hector painting the picture, it was easier to see him in that light. It did fade in with the mention of their airship, Valkyrie. “Yeah…” It was quite the vessel, even for the first one she had seen up close before. Even more of a tragedy that it was involved in all that horrible mess.

All that blood with Cleon standing over Zariel’s body. The bumps rose over Kikiti’s arms, and she rubbed them away.

She had trusted him too. To reassure her, even when he wasn’t so sure of how things were going to go either. She empathised with him, because what had happened to his home, their home, was beyond words. She saw the good in him, saw his side of things, as she tried to with everyone. But when she thought of what happened on the ship, even with how Didymus ran at an open opportunity, it was beginning to get harder to see things from all sides. That trust was fraying, if not already ripped at the seams.

She was naïve, she discovered, in thinking people looked at things the same way as she did.

“No, it’s fine,” Kikiti shook her head, trying to sound as reassuring as she could, as she always did. “You’re just trying to help. I appreciate it, really.” Though she didn’t feel miles better, she was touched enough to know Hector tried for her, even if he had his own thoughts on Didymus.

“We just have to keep going, don’t we?” Kikiti forced a smile. As hard as she smiled, she knew it wasn’t convincing enough. “Um, so, yeah. I guess I should let you gather all your things together. I should too. And speak to the fae, I suppose, for Oma…”

“Thank you, though, really, for listening. It’s not gone unnoticed.”
 
Reva was not entirely convinced that Oma understood what was going on, but she was aware of her attentive stare. She was aware of the way that Oma was trying to understand, and Reva would give her credit for that. Considering what she knew of Taurus, or Earth signs, in general – that was a positive step.

Hector did not seem so receptive to new things. He was quite stubborn.

Even so, Oma rose and claimed she would go speak with Titania about being allowed to come back. ‘Was that not said already?’ A flutter of panic rose in Reva’s chest at the thought that Oma could just be flatly told it wasn’t possible, when right now she hoped to return. When right now, she had no choice but to leave – that wouldn’t be fair at all to Oma.

Would the fae be like that?

‘Would the viera, if these people had wandered in and spoke of such a destiny…?’ Reva realized she did not know…but she had an idea that the viera would still not accept her back, even if she had to leave the save world. The viera were…strange, that way. “I can accompany you, if you would like,” Reva offered, “when you go speak with Titania. I have my things.”

She would not force it on Oma, of course. If she’d rather it be a private discussion, then Reva would simply rejoin the others.

~***~

Hector knew what he was doing, offering, wasn’t enough. However, he didn’t know how to fix this situation. He could fix machines, but fixing people, fixing situations? No, he wasn’t great at that, but he rarely felt a strong need to. Early, with Sesario, he’d felt it – and he still did around Sesario at times, but he’d also gotten comfortable with their dynamic.

Kikiti was new.

And so that anxiety of not doing enough ate at him even as she smiled and tried to be reassuring. Even as she suggested that his listening was enough, after suggesting they split to gather their things. Which was the proper course. “Yeah, you’re right.” But did she want him to go away because now he was causing harm?

Had he overstepped too many lines?

Had he said too many bad things?

Would she want him to listen ever again?

‘Stop it.’ Not that he could, so he swallowed the anxious thoughts down with a nod, “I’ll see you with the others,” he agreed instead, and would take his turn, with his anxious thoughts, to go get his things and suffer in the silence of his thoughts, and all the ways he definitely fucked up talking to her.
 
Oma expected to speak to Titania alone, though, Reva had offered to come with her. She did not mind her asking, though, she felt apprehension leap in her chest at the suggestion. She wasn’t so sure as to why. Reva was easy to be around. It wouldn't be a problem to have her there.

Still, Oma shook her head. "I go. I find you again." She tried her best to look confident, but she couldn't help the semblance of worry creeping in the back of her head. A possibility, perhaps, that things may not be so simple with Titania.

Oma parted ways with Reva, putting such a blasphemous thought out of her head. On her way to Titania, she peered past the high-rise trees and caught the earthy, floral scents of her home, and heard the familiar echoes of giggles around her. She was afraid she might forget it all when she left.

She passed some faeries, who stopped what they were doing simply to greet her in earnest. It was not uncommon for them to rain questions upon her and surround her, but all she was met with were questions of when she was going, where she was going, when she was coming back. She could not answer them all for them, but smiled and reassured them with, "Soon…outside…soon…"

Oma made her way to where she knew Titania would be - back where the rest of the strangers met her among blooming flowers and circling fungi. Some of the faeries were already attending to Titania, prepping her appearance to say farewell to the rare guests they received. She was speaking to a duo, so hushed Oma could not catch it from where she stood and observed.

Titania turned and smiled, almost expectant of her arrival. The others likewise turned with joyful calls, despite the looming fact their Oma was about to be taken from them.

"My darling Oma," she crooned, "I was hoping to see you before…"

The Fae queen did not finish, but Oma did not need her to. She nodded. "We talk?"

Titania smiled. She clapped her hands, and the Fae surrounding her needed no verbal instruction. Many passed the girl with, "Bye, Oma,", "Hi, Oma,", "See you soon, Oma," and this wasn't even the official goodbye. She approached Titania, who kept her smile for her. She thought about what Reva said, how human society worked differently and Oma could not easily access the highest power in charge.

"You are troubled."

The sourness on Oma must have given it away. But then she was naturally protesting. She would have never chosen to leave if she didn't have to. Though her interest was piqued, and Reva held her attention for long enough to convince her to step outside her home, she would always still feel a pull to home. "No," she lied. She wouldn't admit it. She hummed then. "Maybe."

Titania exuded a regal patience, sitting on a flower which bloomed open for her. "It will do you no good to keep your troubles all to yourself. Come, tell me." She gestured for Oma to approach, who sighed and pouted pattering to her side and dropping onto the ground, as if she did not come here to speak of such things. She waited for Oma to speak. Waiting for her to do so quite often was more of a stand-off, but both understood they did not have the luxury of stubbornness.

"When I go…outside," Oma started, keeping her gaze down, "I come back home. Right?"

A flash of surprise crossed Titania's expression, but soon turned to a knowing smile. She placed a small hand atop Oma's head. "You will always have a home here, Oma. We will always welcome you with open arms if you decide to return.”

Oma couldn't help but let relief pour out. Of course they would. Why would Oma have ever thought otherwise? But she didn't need to worry. As tempting as the outside was, she would come home to the fae where she belonged.

Titania smiled at Oma, though, it was more rueful now than before. "Perhaps I should have better prepared you for this time. For what Fenrir expects of you, of the strangers you will work with, and what you must do. That is a fault on my part, and I apologise for that, Oma."

It felt strange, Titania apologising to her. She wasn't sure she ever heard her apologising before. Oma shook her head. "Reva tell me lots, help me. Oma be okay." She reassured her. Titania didn't need that reassurance. Oma felt if she said it out loud, then it would make it true than it was right now. "But…"

"I know," Titania nodded. "You do not want to leave. I would be lying if I said I was happy you were leaving us. But we cannot keep ourselves chained to something forever, just as Fenrir must break his own chains and rouse.”

Oma scrunched up her nose, but nodded. She realised she would be the one to figure out how to break his chains this time, because he couldn't do it himself. Of course it wasn't so simple as handing him off to the others and staying here. Why couldn't it have been as easy as that?

Titania rose from the flower, placing her small hands on Oma's cheeks. "We will miss you, Oma. I will miss you most of all, but I promise, you will always be able to return here. And I promise, you will know what to do in time.”

“Why…in time?” Why not now? Oma’s frustration was plain. Titania knew all in her eyes, so why couldn’t she have just told her now what it was she was meant to do? What she was meant to know?

Though Titania smiled again, that same patience she always exuded, she did have a fraction of sympathy for the young woman. “I would tell you if I could. But it's something you must have patience for." She had to hold back a giggle at the pout Oma made. Titania moved away from Oma’s face. “Come now. We must not keep the others waiting, even though we may wish to.”

Oma stirred, then stood. She thought, maybe even hoped just a little, that if she stood there longer, Titania might change her mind. She might just let her stay, and make the others leave without her. Titania moved forward. It was wishful thinking on her part. Peeling her feet from the ground where she stood her ground, she forced herself to follow Titania. She was silent as she took in pieces of her home, as if afraid of forgetting it.

Afraid of being forgotten by her home.

~***~

Was it something she said? Everything she said? Kikiti couldn't help but wonder as Hector agreed and then left. She did stop him in his tracks and in his annoyance, where he was supposed to gather his things, to calm him just a little.

And to talk about Didymus. Which took up most of their conversation.

Kikiti rubbed her forehead and groaned. He had a hold on her when he was here, and even now that he wasn't, he still had a hold on her. It was stupid. She was stupid. He was stupid.

And she just spent all that time talking about him, while Hector was so patient and listened and tried to be helpful.

"Sorry," Kikiti muttered as she turned, not brave enough to admit it when Hector had been closer to her. No more talking about it. Him. Any of it. She wouldn't saddle anyone with her upsets and worries about him. Things changed and people changed, and she just had to keep going.

Kikiti walked on, searching for a faerie to speak to. She still had that anklet to sort out before they left, and the Fae were at least kind of enough to help her with it.

Commiserating wasn't going to help. She just needed to keep the peace, even as it crumbled around her.

~***~

Neither man broke the silence as they gathered their things. Cleon took stock of his largely empty knapsack. He glanced over his shoulder, watching Cid secure his swords by his waist. Cleon snapped his gaze away, rummaging through his belongings. Cleon could only rearrange clothing and shift rations around so many times. All he needed was his sword and he would be ready to leave. He continued kneeling on the ground, tightening and loosening the strings on the knapsack.

Cleon felt his eyes on his back. He was accustomed to being watched. The guards in his home indirectly watched him, their eyes only ever shifting enough to keep tabs on his position. Reva was watchful too, having to be so many paces behind him. He never felt his back to be a target to her gaze.

He felt Cid’s threaten to burn through his back. Cleon tied the strings in small, meticulous loops. Perhaps if he did not address it, Cid would remember himself. He undid the strings again. He let another few moments pass, clutching the strings. It did not cease. It only burned more, as powerful as the flames from Zariel did. The head of the knapsack grew taut as he pulled the strings. Cleon opened his mouth.

“The other night.”

The words were not his. He closed his mouth. He did not turn.

“I wish I could have told you more.”

“So do I,” Cleon thought the words in his head, but they escaped him before he could stop them. He cringed before he turned to Cid. He leaned against a tree, his expression still. “But…you still tried to tell us what you knew. I can’t expect you to know what she intended in mentioning you.”

“No,” Cid shook his head, “but it doesn’t stop us from trying to guess.”

“You’re right. I’ve been asking her for some time now. And then I resorted to guessing instead, whether she wanted to smuggle me off the continent, or have someone else in Rozari for me to trust.” The prospect of Cleon going to Rozari long before Ucantis’s fall seemed to make his mother uneasy. She sent his father off in her place to another nation for him to be failed by Prumoor’s authority. She wouldn’t risk it with Rozari, her only possible ally, and her only son. Did Cid’s name come out of this in some desperation that Rozari’s royalty wouldn’t protect him either?

Cid pushed himself away from the tree and approached. “I don’t forgive Rozari for opening their front doors for the Empire. But I’m not surprised they did, given they were the last ones standing on this continent. I’d say maybe she saw that coming when Ucantis fell. Maybe that’s where I came into the picture.” He looked pressed to continue. To ask the same question again; why? He had connections and routes, but was he expected to harbour a fugitive the rest of his retirement?

“I suppose,” Cleon shrugged. Again, it wasn’t as if they would pry that answer from her now, unless by some miracle. He decided on another question, another that floated in his mind. “How did you know him?”

Cid didn’t need to clarify who Cleon spoke of. He sighed, sitting down on the ground. “We travelled for awhile together. I thought he was just a traveller at first. He wanted to hitch a ride off me to Ibec and a few others in the crew I was working with. Told him our vessel at the time wasn’t going that way, but his gil was convincing. He helped with odd jobs when he was with us. He wasn’t bad company either. Well-spoken, quick, talked too much and was preoccupied all at the same time, but no stranger than the people I’ve met before. I knew he wasn’t just some traveller then, but I didn’t think much of it. Just expected him to be a passing face and that was that.”

“And it didn’t quite work out like that.”

“No. I met him half a dozen times across the continent. He travelled a lot. I don’t know how he found the time to when I think about it. He came from libraries having transcribed volumes of texts or he was in a tavern in some town after scaling a mountain. He never stayed in one place – always restless. At least until he got married, and I visited, or ended up in the same place he did.”

Cleon sat and listened, almost transfixed by the crumbs of his father that Cid had, and he didn’t. His mother told him he travelled before they married, that he was intelligent and quick, a skilled archer, that he was kind. Inara did not tell him how he knew Cid or beyond that they travelled together. She told Cleon what he asked, and then he stopped asking because as he grew, he couldn’t bear to see that the thought of her husband and his father still upset her. He settled with not knowing him, because he thought that didn’t matter if he wasn’t here. Now he was here, hanging onto Cid’s words about a man he wished to know, but never could.

“It doesn’t mean much now,” Cid said, “and not that it ever did or will. But I’m sorry for what happened to him.” He was bitter even years on. Devastated now that he couldn’t even defend the man who considered him a friend. Who he considered a friend. And all he did was tell Inara that Cleon’s safety was of the utmost priority, because that was what her husband told him, and he left to chase a trail that was lost to the wind for years.

It stung Cleon, even days after he was told. He was there, and he couldn’t even save him. He knew his killer and he was never able to find them. He took a breath in, exhaled. Despite Cid’s inability to save him, Cid’s was not the hand that dealt the killing blow. “You said that it was a mercenary that killed my father. A sword for hire.”

Cid nodded, his mouth dry. “Yeah. Probably hired by Prumoor or the Empire. Extra hands to bloody for that coup.”

Cleon was silent. He clenched his fist, soil squished between his fingers. "I hope he's met his end and suffered for it," he whispered. It should have felt wrong to say that, and he should have been surprised by it, yet he wasn't. He sought something dark to hold onto. A vengeance for his father, his mother, his home.

This was what the Empire did. Tore families apart, ruined lives. He glanced over to the sword he left by one of the trees, remembering the darkness that coated it and how natural it suddenly felt to him. That desire was rooted from something dark and deep in him. It did not feel so scary to admit it anymore.

Cleon felt Cid's state on him again, and he did not justify his words. He rose to his feet and walked to secure his sword.

Cid rose too. “I’ll help you, Cleon,” the name still felt foreign on his tongue, as if he was trying to relearn it. “I don’t know how exactly, but I’ll help you.”

Cleon tightened the sword at his hip. “I suppose you don’t have much of a choice now, do you?”

Cid snorted. “It’s stay with you or get caught out on my own.” He was not sure which odds he preferred. But he could imagine how unhappy Cleon – the one he knew – would be. He would not let him live it down if he could speak to him. “At least you’re not a lone fugitive.”

“I’m not sure the others prefer my company in this band of fugitives,” Cleon shrugged.

“No, probably not.” Cid bluntly confirmed, though, added, “Not exactly a sunny situation we’re in, which doesn’t help.” They parted on heated words and disagreements. It was a forced comradery.

Scrap the comradery.

Just forced.

That would need to change.

“Reva’s home,” Cid started, eyeing him as Cleon straightened. “Are you sure…”

“I trust Reva,” Cleon answered, insisted, picking up his knapsack. He relied on her, and her judgement was sound. “The Viera will know something. They’ll be able to help us. They’ll…” He sighed. “Cid. The Empire isn’t an option.” They would never be an option.

Even Cid knew they couldn’t deal in that absolute, even if he loathed them. Cleon had to know that. He knew desperation when he heard it. “Cleon.”

“The others are waiting on us,” Cleon murmured, throwing his knapsack over his shoulder. He walked on, not giving Cid the satisfaction of answering him. He would go, with or without them. It didn’t matter when Reva would be behind him, beside him along the way. He pushed every doubt down, where they sat at the bottom of the pit with the rest of his feelings.

Cid watched him, jaw grinding, before he picked up his own belongings. Things were still raw, but he wished he would see sense and stop lying to himself. When would they reach the end of the line?

He soon followed.
 
Didymus had not taken enough poison to be suffering from it as Garuda carried him through the air. He was suffering from the chill of the air as it whipped by his face and stung his eyes. His watery, teary eyes, as he felt unable to truly grasp anything that was happening, only that he had made a decision.

He was leaving.

‘Kikiti….’ His hand pulled at the pink bracelet absently, twisting it around his wrist as he considered her. She wasn’t going to die there, was she? She could handle Cucu. All of them could. They didn’t need him. They had Reva and Leviathan.

He never stood a chance.

He was a fucking joke.

‘Zariel is going to kill me.’

He knew that wasn’t true.

The tears were still being whipped from his eye sockets. “Why?” his voice was gargled by sorrow, “Why?” He wasn’t even sure what he was trying to ask Garuda as she continued to fly, holding him as best she could with her two arms.

“Why, why~,” she repeated in a sing-song, like a tattle-wren. “I told you, I was waiting for you to decide. To really decide.”

“But is it right?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care.”

How flippant. Didymus scowled at that, “Do you even know where we’re going? Why we’re going?”

“No,” more flippancy. “But you want it, and I care about what you want.”

‘Why?’ Why was he chosen? Why did she care? Why was this decision more important than any other? “We’re going to see Empress Zariel. The one Phoenix chose.”

He heard Garuda blow a raspberry, “Uuuugh, does he have things for us to do?”

“He’s dead.”

He felt Garuda’s grip tighten on his shoulders, and under his arms. “How can – dead – we can’t see – he can’t die.”

“Yeah, well. He is. I saw his body. And then he resurrected Zariel from the dead. I don’t know what’s going on there, but…it’s not good.” He didn’t know the half of it, but he sensed it, knew it, intuitively, that something was very wrong with Their return. “Something called Ophiuchus killed him. And it’s coming to destroy the world. It’s why you’re here.”

She laughed, “No, no, I’m here because your sister asked me to be here, because she couldn’t be.”

Didymus’s hand stopped moving the bracelet. He felt the tears freeze. He understood why Garuda’s face looked familiar, then.

“What…what’s her name?”

It was the only question in the world that mattered, for the girl beloved and unnamed by his parents, unnamed by him. Just a sliver of pink around his wrist, for all of time.

Garuda pulled him up a bit so her lips could be at his ear, and whispered.

~***~

Didymus arrived at Ucantis and landed in front of the castle, to armed guards, and prepared spells. Garuda hissed behind him, clearly prepared to deal with the soldiers. They flinched, exchanged looks…and some answered their gazes from the rather human aspects of Garuda in embarrassment and poorly hidden lust.

Didymus held up a hand to Garuda. "It's okay. Zariel wants me." He wouldn't be killed, but he knew he wasn't safe. "I'll come peacefully." He was afraid, who wouldn't be in his position? But he'd made his decision. "I'll call you again soon, Garuda." Zariel would need to see her, but he wasn't going to allowed to waltz in with her.

No, this part involved handcuffs and a cell. And waiting.

Endless waiting.

He kind of hoped Jagger would be the first face he'd see, but it wasn't. It was another Amarum guard who took him from the cell, and curiously, undid his cuffs, "In there." He was directed to a closed door, and opening it revealed the former throne room of Ucantis. Gone was the symbolism of Ucantis, but it wasn't replaced by the fiery imagery of Amarum. It was replaced with hues of orange and white, with olive branches decorating the area.

Peace.

Zariel stood in the room. Wings bled from her back and pooled on the floor, as she stood with her back to him, head tilted up, looking at the stained glass above. He felt unnerved by those wings, not because they could burn him, but because they wavered and flickered dangerously, cracking with slight disturbances.

They weren't as controlled as expected from Zariel.

"Welcome back, Didymus McCallen." She turned from the window and took a few steps forward. "I understand Garuda has made her debut. Is that why you have come crawling back? Did she persuade you?”

"No, I made my decision to return before…look everything was a mess, no one expected what Cleon did, not even Sesario, and I got caught up in the fleeting when…." Her gaze forced him to trail off. Terror gnawed at him, as the words had threatened to spill from his lips.

'When you came back.'

Now, he had a new question.

'Did you come back?'

“What are you going to do to me?” He asked instead, figuring he might as well get to the worst of this. Certainly, her mind was made up, whether he was wasting away in a cell or given over to Lixue.

She raised her brows.

She cocked her head to the side, and then extended an arm out. The wings suddenly left her back as Phoenix parted from her, and went to perch on the back of the throne in the room. Didymus knew that wasn’t the full size of Phoenix, but the flaming figure was still intimidating even so small. It was all in those lifeless eyes.

“That remains to be seen,” Zariel answered, “Where is Prince Bandoethel going?”

Didymust bit the inside of his cheek. He knew he was going to have to tell her this. He was going to have to tell her a lot, but he hardly planned to give it up without being asked. ‘But you picked this. Shouldn’t you do what you can to support that, rather than sabotage it?’

He didn’t dwell. “He’s…he’s going to Reva’s home in Rozari. Some forest up north. I don’t know where it is, I didn’t make it that far before I parted ways with them. We got waylaid into a fairy village.”

Fuck he didn’t mean to say anything.

Zariel seemed to notice his flinch. “Tell me all of those with marks you have found, Didymus.”

“Cleon Bandoethel, Cancer. Reva, Pisces. Sesario Kavalieris, Sagittarius. Hector – fuck if I know his last name,” he didn’t like Hector, “he’s Sesario’s companion, he—”

“I know of him. Continue. There was a lalafell with you.”

“Yeah….” His heart sunk, “Kikiti Tochu. Libra. And then Oma…Taurus. At the…fairy place. She’s human, though.”

Zariel nodded. The names were useful.

“Bring forth Garuda.” Phoenix demanded from the back of the room – but Didymus looked to Zariel for approval.

Her subtle nod was enough, and he shut his eyes. He’d never done it before, but he had a feeling for it, as he touched the bracelet, and called forth the name never given, rather than Garuda, in his mind.

She manifested behind him, not touching the ground. She flew forward a few meters, before stopping, reeling back, confused. He felt that confusion as he opened his eyes, and saw her horror upon looking at Phoenix.

“Phee-Phee…you…don’t look good.”

“I am dead.” Phoenix stated. As if that were a normal thing for a corpse to say. As if he were talking about the dead weather. “You do not look yourself, either, Garuda.”

She hummed, but shrugged her shoulders, “I wouldn’t know,” she stated.

“Do you know where your temple is?” Zariel asked.

“No,” she shook her head.

“Do you know who you were before connecting with this mortal?” Phoenix asked.

“I know I am Garuda. I am the Wind, and I was asked to be here, but, I don’t really remember the Me who knows you aren’t right, Phee-Phee,” Garuda said, and she suddenly seemed so much like a lost child, rather than an all powerful goddess, one who controlled terrifying tempests, “I don’t remember much at all. I was cut off from my mirror self, so I borrowed one. We’re,” she gestured to Didymus, “sharing one.”

“Uh. Translation?” Didymus requested, although some of the wheels in his mind were turning. Garuda was the twin goddess, even if she didn’t have a twin. Some said it was because she was both the calm eye of the storm and the raging winds. Duality.

“Garuda has forgotten herself.” Phoenix’s anger was palpable. The temperature in the room was rising. “She has always existed in dualities, but she would come to Earth and mingle as a twin, as a mortal, now and then. It seems that is all that remains. Her life now, twin to you, but not a true twin.” Not as it would usually be.

Everyone was flawed.

“But…but what does that mean? How can I be split like that? You know, right? You always know,” she sounded panicky, and Didymus stepped forward to touch her feathered arm.

“We suspect it means your previous chosen were killed by one of the Cardinals.” Zariel explained, “The Cardinals are Ophiuchus’s hunters. Gilgamesh was one of them, but I eliminated him on the ship. It seems to have an impact on memories, how or why I cannot say. Shiva, too, suffers from memory loss,” but she did not have an entire half to lose. “I will make sure that we find your temple. Your other half may be there.”

Garuda leapt into the air, spun, cheered by the promise. “Thank you, thank you~.”

“As for your fate, Didymus,” Zariel continued, “you are welcomed back. The task I gave you was a difficult one. Your failure is not grounds for punishment. You’ve returned, and you will tell me everything about your traveling companions.”

‘Oh.’

He knew it was coming, but hoped somehow it would be delayed and forgotten about under everything else Zariel had to attend to.

“Let’s begin with the ones I know little about, Kikiti and Oma.”

Didymus lowered his gaze, and waved Garuda away as she went to go investigating the dead bird.

“All right.”

And he would tell her everything he knew. It wasn’t a lot about Oma, but Kikiti? He did his best to only get away with scraps, but Zariel was persistent, and the eyes of Phoenix bore into his soul. He said too much.

‘But this is what I chose, what I wanted, right?’

He went to sleep in the castle feeling terrible.

~***~

With the new information from Didymus, Zariel made sure to inform Lixue that they were only missing information on Capricorn. She updated the wanted information, increased bounties, and made sure Kikiti’s parents were found – and imprisoned. She intended them no harm, but wanted news of their imprisonment to reach Kikiti.

She was the only one that she could touch in such a way.

Cleon’s parents were dead, Reva was heading to her home (and so would Zariel’s forces), Sesario’s parents were good little governor’s, and Hector had apparently disowned his. Oma’s were among the fae so far as parents that mattered, and Zariel didn’t need to stir up that problematic area.

The fae had turned Oma over because she was marked.

If there was another marked among them, Didymus would have known.

She also had word sent to Rozari that they were indeed to give over any information they had on the viera’s locations. She’d start sending troops that way to find them soon enough, and put Oleander in charge of it.

She meant to wait for Oleander to return so she could explain things more to him, but with Didymus’s arrival, and her constantly waning energy, she decided Didymus and Lixue would be enough to travel to Phoenix’s temple. Three Zodiac should be enough.

Leander had none except Phoenix.

So she informed Lixue of the change, and made Didymus aware the night before. The ships were prepped, and by early morning’s light she was on her way to that ship when of course she would be intercepted by a goddamn red chocobo crossing her path.

She looked up to see Oleander sliding out of the saddle to join her on the ground, Lilia still staying in the saddle as Oleander immediately pulled her into an embrace. Zariel didn’t return it, and Oleander almost immediately regretted it.

“Ow, ouch, fuck, why did you burn me?” Oleander demanded, stepping back and glaring at her. A hug didn’t deserve to be burnt!

Zariel was fairly impassive as she said, “You shouldn’t touch me without warning right now.”

“Are you kidding? I just got news that you were almost killed in Rozari, that you have Phoenix – and none of that came from you? I’m worried. And where are you going now? Not back to Rozari?”

“No,” she said, “you did not get my letter?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Is that information true?”

“Yes,” Zariel wouldn’t tell him she had actually died. “I can explain on the airship, although Lilia should not come,” she looked up at her, “it will be dangerous. Lady Virys can look after you.”

“Okay,” Lilia sounded a bit put-out as she dismounted, “But I wanna see Phoenix!”



Didymus, who was near enough to the scene of Oleander’s arrival, caught sight of Jagger – and immediately sprinted over to use her as cover from Oleander. He’d use Lixue, but, well, Lixue wasn’t good cover.

That, and he’d missed Jagger. “What are you doing back?” he hissed in a whisper, barely noticing the woman who had hung back with her as the siblings reunited.
 
Zariel informed Lixue of Didymus’s return, and the subsequent developments leading to that return, late the night previous. Despite his eagerness to see Garuda, Shiva’s eagerness too, it was far past a sociable hour to do so.

It was not unusual for Zariel to seek him so late. Lixue often toiled on with research to unsociable hours should he have an interesting lead. He toiled more given Zariel’s new…state. He believed he thrived on the unknown, but now he was troubled by Zariel’s circumstances. Troubled by Phoenix.

It was worse, because Lixue could not discuss it. Only Zariel was privy to his secrets and musings. It felt–no, it was treasonous to keep his thoughts locked away from her. It was the basis of everything between them. But loyalty came in different forms. His time spent dwelling on Phoenix and her condition and just what would solve it was his loyalty to her. And she could not know it.

For the rest of the night, before he managed to find sleep, Lixue mused on the rest of the Zodiac and their chosen, and their missing link, Capricorn. Lost for years, all now springing up in the least likely suspects. Lalafells, kings, orphans, women raised by fae. The gods worked in strange ways and made seemingly stranger decisions to find their way to each other. Lixue’s patience did not wane with the gods, however, but with those housing them that kept insisting on running.

He didn’t need to imagine Zariel’s fury, but she used that to place more pressure on those still missing. The pressure she applied would eventually be too much. All twelve would be forced to come together. Dragged together, if necessary.

Lixue rose this morning as Zariel instructed, attempting to clear his head. He needed the space and a strong focus for what they would discover there. Enough of what Didymus said correlated with information they had - what was left was to join the pieces together, gather more for other temples or clues to the Zodiac.

A flash of red feathers brought him back to the space his body was in, and his eyes grew more alert at the sight of Oleander landing off the ground. Lixue moved to caution him, and stopped at Oleander’s yelping. Ah. He wouldn’t have been able to stop him anyway, warning or not. At least Lilia hadn’t scrambled out of the saddle to Zariel. What were a few burns to her father when he had been through much worse? He tried to let his shoulders loosen.

Lixue forced them down further at hearing the words that were fed to those across the continent. Almost killed in Rozari. Even Oleander could not be trusted with that information. His fury would be far worse than high tides. While he would have been entertained by Oleander's methods of revenge against the prince, he, like the others, were to remain alive and intact.

As was Zariel. She needed all the mana she could muster for Phoenix.

So, he would overstep at Lilia's request. “Soon,” Lixue stepped forward to reassure the girl. “There is much for us to attend to this morning, and I imagine Lady Virys will be eager to hear of your time in Escander.”

His mother would tolerate her tales of Escander at best, but that was not the worst of things she had tolerated before. They were lucky she did not mind Lilia, given few, never mind children, made an impression on her.



A dark cloud hung over Jagger. They put beasts sicker than her out of their misery and they got it miles better than her today. She was forced to drag herself along to Ucantis hanging out of her skull, because of the news about Zariel, Capricorn, those ugly-ass bug ladies; none of that could wait.
Jagger knew she shouldn’t have grabbed an extra nightcap. Not that she slept well anymore, never mind after what had happened.

It wasn’t the first time Jagger suffered from self-inflicted inebriation nor would it be the last, so she pulled enough of herself together to travel by chocobo. She was still getting paid for this. Might as well keep showing up if it meant she got to pocket her pay.

Jagger thought about Diddy and where he was. She wondered if the Empire had caught up to them yet and if he was okay, but they would have heard if any of them leashed by now. Part of her wanted it to be that way, if it meant Diddy was in one piece and one spot and safe.

Juno would have wanted that too.

She grimaced. She didn’t need Juno banging on the walls of her head too.

Oleander sped on ahead with Lilia at the sight of an airship, manned and surrounded by soldiers. That was enough to tell her that Zariel was getting on it. Where the hell was she going so soon after an assassination attempt? It wouldn’t be long before they found out.

Instead, Jagger stretched a little from her chocobo to get a closer look at those with her. She spotted Lixue lurking as he always did, and to her surprise, felt relief release from her at the sight of him. Still alive and breathing unlike what the tall bug lady claimed to have done to Aqaurius. A bluff, and yet, she was sure it was genuine with how proud she was in claiming it.

Jagger dismounted among the yelps of a burnt Oleander. She would have found it funny any other time, but she had sense not to point out his idiocy, even if she didn’t understand the action and Zariel’s words. She gave the impression of a person who didn’t want to be touched, not unless she demanded it.

She didn’t think about it. Not when she watched Diddy barrelling toward her.

Diddy?!

Surprise registered in her eyes. Why was he here? No, she was glad to see him, relieved. But what the hell had happened after she sent that letter? And the others? Did he even get the letter? Did he finally see sense and drag them here?

She wasn’t any clearer on those fronts with Zariel’s vagueness playing as background noise.

Diddy got his question in first before she managed to even greet him. Straight to the point as always.

"Good to see you too, Diddy. Feeling rough this morning, thanks for asking," Jagger fired back sarcasm, despite her relief to see him. She would have done the same in his position. Though the plan was to let Oleander break the news - not previously discussed with Oleander, but fuck, did anyone wanted to hear the shitshow from her? - she had no choice with Didymus. Again, it couldn’t wait.

“We heard about Zariel nearly getting murdered,” Jagger explained, voice low. “Oleander insisted we get back here as soon as we could. What the fuck happened out there, Diddy? Who came up with the fucking grand idea?” Not Didymus, anyway. He just had a habit of being unlucky when it came to crime.

Murder now too.

“Didn’t you get my…” Jagger paused, remembered.

Oh, fuck. Yeah. Anissa.

Jagger turned and cleared her throat as she looked back to the extra guest. “Sorry. Anissa, Didymus. Diddy, Anissa. He’s Gemini.” He looked at Didymus again. “We picked Anissa up in Escander - fuck, there’s a story.”
 
Lilia frowned up at Lixue’s denial of Phoenix, and trying to suggest Lady Virys would like her stories of Escander. “No, she won’t.” Lilia stated flatly. She knew Lady Virys listened. And she’d ask questions, even – but she also knew Lady Virys didn’t like much about Escander. She’d heard as much. So why would she like stories about Escander? “Nothing really happened, anyways,” she was now pouting, because she had to be separated from her dad again so soon, and she didn’t get to see the pretty bird she was promised.

Zariel understood why Lixue stepped in.

How could she not?

But strength was important. Showing strength, as much as having strength. Oftentimes, showing it, provided strength that lacked. The illusion of strength, was strength. ‘I can find time to take an ether.’

“There’s time enough,” Zariel said, not for Lilia’s sake. She had also noticed the other woman that Oleander had not yet introduced, and she could see Jagger introducing her to Didymus with importance. She didn’t quite hear, but she understood. Felt, really.

Or perhaps it was better said, Phoenix felt it.

Strength was important to bind the ones here to her. “Besides, I imagine you would also like to see Garuda?”

“Garu—” Oleander’s eyes moved to Didymus, actually seeing him, “are you fuc—dging kidding me, that thief?” his nose wrinkled as he laid eyes on Didymus, who was too distracted by Anissa to recognize the dirty look he was being given.

Only then did Oleander feel the heat intensify, and his gaze returned to Zariel as he instinctively moved in front of Lilia. His chocobo backed up several paces. It didn’t run – no, no, his chocobo was better than that – but it knew to be ready. He saw the wings appear at Zariel’s back, before Phoenix seemed to peel itself out of her.

It registered as nothing strange, even if he never saw Shiva appear that way. He was too startled by the sheer size of Phoenix, anyways. It towered behind Zariel, a gorgeous bird of red and gold that lowered its head to her shoulder to peer down at Lilia, who peered up at Phoenix from behind his leg.

He felt her grip tighten on his leg, as if afraid.

“Lilia,” he laughed as he felt that and knelt down to pick her up, “It’s just Phoenix.”

Just Phoenix.

As if a God could be ‘just Phoenix’.

But then again, he was brought up with Phoenix being a given to appear. Brought up knowing it would happen because it had to happen. Because Zariel was chosen.

“Mmmm….” Lilia just leaned closer against his chest, no longer as enthused. “He’s so hot.”

Oleander snorted, taking another meaning. Even if the literal was true.

“I am Fire.” Phoenix stated. “I cannot be otherwise.”

“It’s uncomfortable. I’m sorry, Lilia,” Zariel offered, and glanced over to Didymus, “Didymus,” she snapped. “Garuda.”

Phoenix’s unblinking, dead eyes, fell upon the thief, too. Piercing. Judging. Even as Oleander asked, “How did it happen? What finally triggered it?”

And Zariel answered, as Garuda began to appear, “Rozari’s fall. Conquest was the last piece.” Another pleasant lie.



Didymus could only muster a ‘tch’ at Jagger’s first comments. Of course, he was worried about her, but he was practically dancing on tiptoes for information, and to say what he felt needed to be said, what was impossible to say. Zariel may not have threatened directly but…he knew. He knew what could not be said as he heard what she told Oleander in the background, as Jagger was telling him much the same.

They heard what happened, and rushed to see.

He groaned at the question of plans, because it very much wasn’t his plan. ‘She died, Jagger, she died, can’t you tell? Can’t anyone fucking tell?’ No, no one could tell, because no one knew what that meant, what that was like, but everything screamed at Didymus of that truth now. It was so fucking obvious.

Zariel hadn’t come back.

Not…fully.

“Yeah, I got it,” he was able to say about the letter, before there were…introductions. Anissa. Who now knew he was Gemini. Which meant…

“Hi,” Anissa spoke a bit awkwardly, clearly not sure how these dynamics worked, “I’m Capricorn.”

‘Sucks for you.’

He didn’t say that, although by his expression, one could tell he wasn’t thinking anything positive. “Is something wrong with that?”

“Yeah—no, no, uh. I’m not in a position to judge,” he said, “well, Jagger. We know all Twelve now,” he couldn’t help the bitter sounding laugh, which just caused more confusion to cross the darker woman’s face. “Prince Sesario was Sagittarius, and that’s a fucking story, too. It was all his genius idea that led to the, uh…the assassination,” he didn’t say attempt, begging her to notice and realizing she might be too hung over to notice. And Anissa didn’t know him, and who the fuck was going to immediately think he consciously left out a word other than non-hung over Jagger? “It was a mess, and I….”

Ah. There was Phoenix.

Giant Phoenix. Didymus was already intimidated by shoulder-size Phoenix, but he hadn’t seen Giant Phoenix. And Zariel was looking at him. His mind rewound the background noise. “Oh. Right. Um. Yeah. Part of that story.”

He moved his hand with the bracelet out, the wind suddenly gusting around him, twirling up in a brief whirlwind that wrapped around his body, before Garuda appeared, doing a handstand on his shoulders. “Meet Garuda.”

“Hiiiiii~,” Garuda grinned with devilish fangs at Jagger and Anissa, before pushing off of Didymus’s shoulders to go swirl around Oleander, “Hiiiii~,” similarly sing-song, though not really to him as she reached for Lilia’s face, and pulled her hair up with hands and wind, “So cuuuute~, Lee-lee~. No wonder you’re part of Phee-Phee’s family!”

Lilia giggled, far more impressed with Garuda, even if she shook her head in denial at that, “No, I’m not! I don’t know a Phee-Phee!”



Anissa, for her part, was taken immediately by surprise to see Phoenix manifest, and then Garuda. ‘By the Twelve….’ She was seeing two of them. Two, literal, gods. Her eyes were wide as they went to Jagger. Sure, she heard, but it was something else to see, and her eyes went back to Zariel, the Empress.

So…it was all true.

Hesitantly, she stepped forward, now off of her chocobo, as Oleander’s child giggled, “Your…Your Radiance?” she questioned herself with that, but Zariel turned, “Forgive my lack of introduction. I am Anissa Cherith, Priestess and…Heir of Capricorn, if that is the correct terminology.”
 
Diddy had a look on his face that did not scream enthusiasm. None of them asked to be paired up with one of the Twelve, but he could have looked more pleased to meet another one stuck in the same position. Then again, she was more pleased by the remuneration of gil for her services to the Empire, and wider extension, the world.

She shared the same confused look as Anissa regarding the Twelve. She counted the ones she knew for definite in her head, and took note the name of one of the newest ones, Prince Sesario, Sagittarius—

“Ugh, another noble,” she mumbled, scrunching her nose. Almost half of the Twelve were nobles! And the only one who had an inkling of what was going on was the conqueror, Zariel. And they even tried to kill the only one who had any sort of plan in place. If it was such a mess as Diddy said, how did she manage to weasel her way out of an assassination?

Of course, she missed Didymus’s intention, and had some idea of Zariel’s escape from death when Phoenix appeared in a red and gold, a symbol of deep flame. “Oh, fuck,” fell from Jagger’s lips before she could catch it. She did it. She summoned Phoenix. Not that it was in doubt, but to see how tall he stood with Zariel rather than just being an emblem, a concept…

She flexed her gloved fingers, suddenly more aware of her hands. She didn’t want to imagine fire under Phoenix, and yet, old scars ignited across her skin. There was a reason Nalia was forced to its knees, because it knew better than to burn. She forced her tremoring hands behind her, only catching up with Diddy’s words as Garuda bore her fangs in greeting at her. Jagger’s jaw dropped, rendered speechless, especially more-so when her eyes wandered as she swirled off.

“Shut up, you too?!” Jagger scoffed after the introductions. She Anissa’s similarly awed look at her. Oh, yeah. Her first time. And she got to see two of them at once. Even still, Jagger was impressed by another appearance, but only because it was Diddy. How the hell did he do it? How long ago? But the most important unfiltered question came out before all else. “Why the hell do you and Lixue get the hot ones?”



Lilia was smarter than most gave her credit for, Lixue included apparently. She would not be won over with promises of attention so easily. Not that it mattered, for Zariel showed Phoenix, the bird separating from her like wax ran from a candle’s flame. He knew she did not do it for Lilia, but for control, however illusionary it may have been.

And it was working with the stares and the hubbub it caused.

Lixue knew the heat and instinctively stepped back, before he had to see Phoenix not as a lowly perching bird, but the true beacon of red and gold Amarum declared him as. Even the full size of Phoenix was enough to amaze him, despite knowing it already. That pride and glory in how tall he stood against Zariel was what made him Leo, leader of the Zodiac. If only they knew it was not so simple, not as it seemed.

Garuda provided a worthy introduction. All feathers and flurry, he watched as she moved from person to person and to Lilia finally. Erratic. Curious. Lively. The Zodiac were never entirely what they seemed, but he would be a fool to trust any book or scripture. There were always surprises, some pleasant. She seemed to share enough in common with Shiva.

He listened to her remark on Lilia, mentioning something of a Phee-Phee.

Phee-Phee. Phoenix.

He did not know if the chill smattered across his back was Shiva’s impatience or his cold dread. He knew it was both but focused on the latter. He bit the inside of his cheek, so desperate to correct Garuda. Arkidos. Get it right. Phoenix has been dead and how does the dead breathe and breed life? But it was not the time, not the place. Unity, strength, control. Illusion.

An address to Zariel came from another, a woman he did not pay much initial attention to in the activity happening in front of him. “Priestess and Heir of Capricorn,” he repeated. The clergy was a group that rendered themselves untouchable by the Empire, a group Lixue would have insisted combing. Well, she was here now, by whatever means they plucked her out of.

What mattered was that they knew all Twelve. The final piece.

“Yeah. That’s what she said.”

Lixue sighed, pushing his glasses up. He did not miss Jagger’s abrasive manner, her incessant need to butt in with her opinion at any opportunity she saw fit. “I wasn’t finished.”

“I don’t know,” Jagger tutted, “you paused. Kinda looked like you were finished.”

“Marked is what we use more commonly,” Lixue explained, opting not to play into Jagger’s hands, not that she seemed any less displeased. “But your terminology works just as well. My apologies, my name is Lixue. I hold Shiva of Aquarius.” He was never so good with first impressions, but he stopped caring about them long ago. He looked between the two. “Dare I ask, was all so quiet in Escander?”

Escander never was, but he felt compelled to ask anyway. Drunken antics, perhaps, given Jagger’s green complexion. He just assumed Anissa had been found through the standard ID checks in the city, but held it as one possible theory for now.

“It’s Escander. It never is,” Jagger stated, folding her arms. “Some stuff went down regarding the fake IDs roaming around, which is how Anissa ran into us. Funny story. Not really. One for the ship.”

There were parts that Jagger remembered so vividly, that she wasn't sure were even real, given how drunk they were. Anissa was there, and sober, so at least she could vouch for whatever they told them. If it was true, but it was too bizarre and crazy not to be.
 
Anger coursed through Zariel as Anissa introduced herself, because the clergy had withheld this from her. She felt it from Phoenix, just as sincerely as her own, impossible to tell one from the other, although it reached the eyes of neither, as Lixue interjected the common terminology among them, and asked after Escander.

‘The High Priestess of Phoenix will die.’ That much would occur, soon. She could hold the dual position. Who would argue it? Not a damn soul. Not when Phoenix willed it. Ibec had to pay in some form, and while touching the clergy of the other Twelve was not…quite right, she could destroy Phoenix’s clergy without an issue.

Phoenix dictated who led.

But Escander had Ship-Interesting events, which Oleander seemed to agree with as he let out a sigh, “Yeaaaah, that’s definitely not…uh, best out here. I got some questions about it, too,” he said, “So, uh, I guess…to the ship?”

“Already?” Lilia had apparently still wanted to try and drag this out longer.

“Yup,” Oleander set her down, as Zariel lifted a hand and waved for Phoenix to go. Thankfully, he went without a fuss; he understood the same balancing act of control, and Zariel’s weakened state. Given what was ahead, he didn’t push his luck with defiance.

‘Soon.’ Zariel knew that was true for both of them. The crown would change much.

“Go with Anna, go bother Lady Virys, even if she doesn’t want it. For me, okay?”

Lilia giggled, but nodded, and took the reins of the red chocobo to take him to the stable with Anna.

Zariel let her gaze follow the girl for just a moment, before brushing over Anissa, “My apologies to you, priestess, but I must ask you to accompany us as well. There is much I need to catch you up on, and much I need to learn from you.”

“I understand,” Anissa had regained some of her poise, Zariel noted, as Garuda flew back to where Didymus was. She ignored that. “I think this will be a long session of questions and answers on both sides, and I have been led to understand there is a bit of necessary secrecy.”

“Mmm,” Zariel agreed, “I’m glad you understand,” she would understand more, soon. “Follow me, then. The ride should be smooth.”

“Are we going back to Amarum?” Oleander asked, moving to walk alongside Zariel as she turned to the ship, “I mean, with Phoenix and all, we need to show our people, right?”

“After one stop,” she agreed, “after all, I do need to show the people why we were so eager for Phoenix’s return.” She wanted to be sly. She wanted to smirk. The energy wasn’t there, just the practical thoughts in place of what would usually be a playful challenge. She could see the confusion on Oleander’s face, lacking those usual context clues, he didn’t know what she was implying, “Last time I faced you in a spar, you bested me. It’s time to show them Lixue’s experimentations is still nothing compared to the Twelve.”

“Oh, you are so fucking on!” Oleander laughed, “I will still kick your ass to Rozari and back, Phoenix or not! I’ll kick Phoenix’s ass!” he cast a grin back at Lixue, “I mean, what good are these experiments if I can’t take on gods, right?” Sure, Leviathan had kicked his ass, but he’d been surprised!

Next time, he would yeet Leviathan into a mountain! It was just a big snake. Like Ophiuchus. Just big snakes….

There was only a faint smile on Zariel’s lips as she stepped off the ramp and into the ship, turning right to lead them towards one of the ship lounges, but not a word.

Oleander couldn’t place it, but it was…wrong. Zariel wasn’t this quiet. She liked hearing her own voice.



Didymus could only groan at Jagger’s singular question about the hot ones, between him and Lixue. ‘Maybe because we don’t care?’ He wondered if that was part of the reasoning, although he doubted it with Garuda. Shiva, who knew? Though, Didymus figured the Twelve didn’t need to be distracting their Chosen, so it seemed like good logic to pick those who wouldn’t be, well, distracted.

It seemed something big went down in Escander, too. No surprise to Didymus. Somehow, it picked up the Priestess, and he did glance at Jagger for more, but she was busy annoying Lixue. He wanted to sigh.

He held back on that, as Zariel invited them all onto the ship.

‘Smoking out Phoenix’s temple should be a piece of cake now. Just throw Oleander and Jagger in the front.’ He did not say that aloud. He wouldn’t really want to throw Jagger in the front, anyways. Just Oleander. He’d worry too much about Jagger.

She could take the back?

Well, they’d figure it out.

He was relieved when Phoenix left, and Garuda came flying back to him, “I don’t think it’d be good for you to hang around,” he murmured.

She shook her head, “No, no, it’s a struggle.” She said, and Didymus felt a bit of a pang for that. “I’ll go back, call me if you need me, Diddy-do~.” Didymus did sigh at that, and hoped no one heard the newest nickname.

She was an…odd one.

Was it her personality?

Or was it the sister he would have had?

He followed the others as they started to walk into the ship, to where Zariel led them, a nice lounge – well of course it was, this was her flagship. Oleander went straight for the liquor, only to pause.

“Uh, should I be drinking?”

Didymus hit his own forehead and had to speak, “No, you shouldn’t ever be drinking.”

“Not asking you, sneak thief,” Oleander said, “Zari?”

“You can drink a little, Oleander,” she relented, “but we are on business.” It was enough for him to start pouring liquor, and Didymus rolled his eyes at the alcoholic – and gave Jagger a look to try and warn her off of it. He wasn’t kidding!

“What business, anyways? Or, wait—yeah, you first.” Oleander said, waving it off. She’d always go first anyways, whether with questions, or explanations.

“I might need a drink myself,” it was a chuckle, but the look to Lixue suggested exactly what she meant. She still had to hide quite a bit from them. Lixue could easily make a drink with an ether or an elixir and hide it. “But before I explain, I want to know what happened in Escander that led to this fortuitous meeting,” Zariel gestured to Anissa.

“Cardinals.” Oleander stated flatly, before taking a long drink from cup he’d poured himself.

"Oh, great, more of those," Didymus grumbled, "How many are there?"
 
No one else needed beckoned onto the ship and followed without hesitation while Lilia was ushered on. Once again, Lixue pondered on how ironically gods chose their marked. To think, a priestess marked and under the Empire’s noses the entire time. He did not need to imagine Zariel’s opinion on it.

Zariel expressed the need to show why Phoenix was all-mighty, all-powerful to those in their Empire. Oleander, in that naïve grin of his, bless him, was more than eager to take her on.

‘If only you knew.’ Lixue pitied him.

“You better not disappoint me, Oleander,” he played along for lack of Zariel’s confidence, patting his shoulder as he passed him and into the ship. “All my hard work would be for nothing.” Oleander would be awfully upset if Lixue burst that bubble of his. At least let him dwell in it before Zariel did it herself. Either way, it would not be such a pretty sight to see Oleander losing.

At least not to others. He took a certain guilty pleasure in seeing Oleander being a sore loser, and better yet, Zariel besting him, even if he knew why she would. One had to find some enjoyment in these things.



Even as Didymus dismissed Garuda and they followed suit onto the ship, she couldn’t help but smirk a little bit and whisper to herself, “Diddy-do.” She was really warming to Garuda. At least she couldn’t be the one to tease him all the time. Not that she would want to. She did care about him. Which made her wonder how he was doing, considering…well, that girl he was so protective of.

She’d catch up with him later.

For now, Jagger was a dutiful employee and entered the ship’s lounge. She still couldn’t get quite used to the opulence around her, so she was always caught off-guard like a child in a big, shiny new city. She didn’t complain, since it was one of the perks of the job. It was nice to look at.

Though, she did miss travelling on foot a little. Or more so, the travelling with a band of people and not having to bide her time waiting to arrive somewhere else.

Oleander made for great company though, and that was enough. She watched him grab some liquor, and heard Zariel give her permission for him to keep drinking, and she ran her tongue over her lips. They said a good cure for a hangover was to keep drinking, right? As shitty as she felt and the thought of liquor staying down was too much, if Oleander was drinking, that meant she could take something. Hair of the dog. She’d be right as rain in no time, even with that dull headache and the sluggishness and the everything else wrong in her body.

Jagger was going to grab some, though, caught the stare Didymus gave her. The kind that said don't. Maybe not. Not when Didymus was watching. Only when he wasn’t. So, she swallowed back that desire, maybe that weird burning in her throat too, and ventured over to one of the sofas and threw herself down on it.

She could have groaned at Zariel getting Lixue to make her up some sort of fancy drink, which of course, he nodded and sloped off to do so. Jagger give Didymus and gestured in a way that demanded why Zariel got to have a drink.

Maybe because she nearly died?

Jagger almost died.

She lounged back on the sofa instead, listening briefly to talk of Escander and Cardinals. She insisted to herself she wasn’t going to do it, she wasn’t going to be the one to explain it all, until she couldn’t help explaining it herself.

“Well, we had three of them,” Jagger explained, holding three fingers up, and almost exasperated at the idea that there were more of them from what Didymus insinuated. They had enough trouble with the ones they just met. “Like I said, providing those fake IDs to whoever wanted ‘em. Me and Oleander found all the printing stuff they used in the back of a crappy souvenir place we got a lead on.”

Lixue listened to Jagger’s rambling as he procured what he needed for Zariel’s drink. It helped that people were distracted by the tales of Escander. Hardly anyone would pay attention to him as he got what he needed mixed together.

"You know, they looked normal too at first," Jagger frowned, folding her arms over her chest. "They'd have anyone fooled."

'That’s the whole point,’ Lixue wanted to criticise, but he poured instead. Cardinals weren't meant to stand out in a crowd. That was how Ophiuchus’s agents eluded them for so long. Who knew how many there were, how they stayed a step ahead. How many were unlucky to fall into their trap?

"They said they were sisters too. Way to keep it in the family."

Lixue paused. Sisters. He couldn’t place where the familiarity stemmed from. Not at first, not until he recognised that sharp chill creep along the base of his spine. His hand moved to his back until he forced himself back to focus. He took the drink, mixed and inconspicuous, and walked back to Zariel, offering it to her.

“It’s kinda blurry in the middle,” Jagger admitted, unabashed and rubbing her head, “a lot of shit got broken, and then next thing I remember, I’m out the front with Sandy, who’s just this tall bug lady sitting on top of me, wanting to slice me open!”

All it took was a name, the name Sandy to bring such sudden clarity to Shiva and Lixue both. Of course he could feel such a visceral remembrance with his connection to her, a severed string tied with another together once, twice, thrice. What was once a sharp chill, an inkling of recognition, now felt like he had been caught out in a full-blown blizzard. He felt his very flesh run freezing in remembering. “The Magus Sisters.” Lixue did not ask, but stated.

Jagger’s mouth hung open. “Uh. Yeah. But I didn’t mention…” For once, Jagger struggled to find the words to string some sort of sentence together, though, still managed something regardless. “She mentioned you–eh–hunting Aquarius. I thought she was just bluffing, trying to get some sort of rise or something out of me.”

“No bluff,” Lixue explained, even managing a chuckle. Dare he say it, he was almost proud. “Shiva remembers her hunters and not fondly.”
 
Didymus’s question wasn’t forgotten by Zariel as Jagger explained her side of the story. Three, but that was enough for Zariel to know who it was even before Jagger gave the name, for a similar reason to Lixue. Not that Phoenix had died to them – no, he’d slain them. He’d slain them all, time and again, because the Cardinals were akin to the Twelve in that fashion. They could be slain on Ivocia, and recover in the aether.

And return.

Again, and again.

‘Do they lose their memory?’ Zariel took the drink from Lixue and sipped at it as understanding dawned on him, and he recalled who had slain Shiva’s previous inheritor. Lixue explained, a little. Not enough.

The chill coming off of Lixue was rather pleasant, though, even if the reason for it was not the best. It wasn’t a good memory he had.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Oleander asked.

“I’ve told you,” Zariel was ever-patient, though she felt it fraying, “that the Cardinals hunt those with one of the Twelve, which is why we can’t go around spouting about what we’re doing,” she glanced to the new one with that, “they’ve killed the previous Aquarius, and I suspect the previous Gemini. Both Garuda and Shiva are without memories.”

“But not Phoenix, huh?”

Zariel shook her head. ‘There are too many memories.’ She wouldn’t add that. “There are four Cardinals, but some work in groups. The Magus Sisters are a group of three. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Sleipnir and Odin, and then Yojimbo. With two dead—”

“Not quite,” Anissa interrupted, “One of the three escaped us, your eminence.”

Oleander snorted at the ‘your eminence’. Hadn’t he told her to be casual?

Zariel frowned, not at the title, but the news. “Well, weakened nonetheless. And you can call me Zariel, Anissa,” she said, “I don’t have the time for the frivolities of titles and airs among the marked,” she waved her empty hand dismissively in the air before taking another sip of her drink.

“So what are they, anyways?” Didymus decided to ask, “And how do we actually kill them?” That was the important thing.

“We can’t kill them in a way that matters right now,” Zariel said, “Once the tower is complete, that won’t be a problem. To kill a Cardinal, it has to be in its realm. The same of Ophiuchus.”

“Tower?” Anissa asked, “Sorry, I haven’t heard of this.”

“It’s being built in Amarum,” Zariel said, “It’s a tower in design only. It’s more….” Lixue had better words for it, “mmm, I suppose a tunnel into the aether is a way to think of it. It’ll take us to Ophiuchus on our terms once it’s complete.” If they could complete it before Ophiuchus arrived. It would allow the Twelve to fight on equal terms, as well. That was dangerous, but necessary.

Though, Zariel wondered what that meant for her.

For Phoenix.

“So do you think that’s why Ixion hasn’t shown up?” Oleander asked, “This forgetting thing?”

Zariel shook her head, but answered, “I don’t think so. Phoenix couldn’t manifest until the conquest was finished. There’s something triggering them, we just…don’t know what it is for each one.”

“What triggered you, Diddy?” Oleander asked.

Didymus knew he should give a real answer. Jagger needed it, but it wasn’t like a real answer would be what was necessary for either of them. Still, he bit the inside of his cheek against sarcasm, and forced out, “Deciding to return to Zariel. Making a firm, important decision, I guess. I don’t know.”

“Lame.”

“At least it hasn’t taken me 29 years,” Didymus spat at Oleander, though the side-eye from Zariel was almost enough to wilt him.

“He has a point. We don’t get to decide what it is.”

“Well, Gemini is famously indecisive,” Anissa noted aloud, “I would assume it all has something to do with the nature of the Twelve. Leo is…well…famously in the spotlight. I suppose conquest makes sense for such a thing.”

‘If only you knew.’ Didymus didn’t say it.

“So did you help Zariel against the assassination?” Oleander changed the subject, “I still don’t get why you’re here and the princeling isn’t. Unless he is?”

“He’s not,” Zariel sounded more than a little annoyed. “Didymus brought no one, but you were right to assume he was present at the assassination attempt. He fled,” she took a longer draught of the elixir as Oleander shot Didymus a dirty look.

Didymus scowled, wanting to shout what happened from the top of his lungs and ask what anyone else would do in his shoes, but he wasn’t left to rot under the carriage long. Just long enough for Oleander to start on saying, “What the fuck, Didymus? Why didn’t you—”

“His help wasn’t needed. He would have honestly been in the way,” Zariel said.

“What did happen in Rozari?”

Zariel shook her head, “I met Prince Sesario. Prince Sesario arranged a parley with Cleon Bandoethel,” there was malice in speaking the name, a bitterness she could not shake. The next time…oh, if he wasn’t marked!

‘Prince Sesario…oh no, oh please tell me that’s not who I met….’ Somehow, Anissa knew the world wasn’t big enough for that to be a coincidence. They’d been investigating ruins of the Twelve. It was all tied together.

“The parley ended up being a ruse for an assassination attempt,” Zariel chuckled, “nothing a fireball to a flammable ship didn’t resolve, but they fled. Still, Didymus’s return with information has given us the names and identities, now, of all Twelve marked.”

Oleander’s brows lifted. “Oh yeah? So the rest are with Cleon?”

“Mmm.”

“Are we going to where they’re going?” Oleander did look so excited with the thought of enacting violence upon them. No surprise. Even if he wouldn’t be allowed to kill them, he would be allowed to harm the ones who tried to kill his sister. With brutal force.

“No,” Zariel shook her head, “We’re going to Phoenix’s temple. You will, however, leave with the party going after Cleon’s group later. We know where they’re going.”

“Phoenix’s temple? That sounds boring.”

“It’s full of undead,” Didymus couldn’t keep that to himself, and he gave another glance to Jagger. ‘See, that’s why I don’t want you drinking.’ He wanted to say it. He didn’t say it.

“Undead…?” Anissa sounded nothing short of horrified, and confused. That didn’t make any sense with Phoenix! Phoenix was holy! Life! The undead were anathema to all the Twelve, but none more than Phoenix!
 
Four Cardinals. Or well, four groups. Jagger counted them on her hand. Eight, now six, against their Twelve, and right now, they stood with four of those Twelve, though Leviathan was with the Viera. Fuck it, the Cardinals could take on one, but they couldn't take on three.

If they weren't altogether.

She knew better than to run in on blind optimism. The woman wouldn't admit it, but they really needed that tower for the equal playing field, like Zariel said.

And she was glad the whole explanation for the tower was left at that. Lixue seemed content with what Zariel said, but even if he did hold back, she could tell he was itching to add on that mountain's worth of detail about it. He had so much passion for those little pet projects. All the little details, all the big plans!

Jagger concluded he needed more hobbies at the end of her first few conversations with him.

The talk of Cardinals and manifesting led onto what Jagger was wondering – how Didymus even got Garuda to show up. Jagger made a face when she heard. It sounded[/ii] lame, in principle, but she guessed it wasn’t exactly easy, like picking what you going to wear the next day or what you were munching on for breakfast. And considering how hesitant he was to leave them all in the first place, to leave that girl too…

Huh. She guessed it made sense.

She laughed though at Diddy’s comeback, true as it was. “Bet you a thousand gil I’ll get mine before Oleander!” She teased. She shouldn’t have been so confident, or particularly excited about it for that matter. She didn’t know where she would start with Aries. Did he have anyone before her? Did he lose his memories or some other part of himself too? It was said Ifrit had an explosive temper, and she'd admit she was hotheaded, but still, there was no Ifrit after she lost her head.

She wasn't so pressed about it, not like the others were. She’d figured it would just work itself out, regardless of whether she willed it or not.

Or the priestess would figure it out for her. That seemed to be the better alternative, given what she could spout about the Twelve.

It was a shame, really, when it came to that assassination. Lixue believed they were saving the continent from itself at this stage, given the so-called leaders of those nations they were forced to chase. They couldn't even speak to one another on neutral ground without murdering the other. He would have pitied Prince Sesario, but he was rather lax in both royal duties and in Zodiac ones. A Sagittarius did not commit.

And they wondered why they conquered, why an Empire and unity and discretion was needed.

Oh, if only Oleander knew all. There was a reason he was not kept in the loop, lied to. He did love his sister, as much as their parents tried to pry them apart. He already knew how eager he was to torture the ones - which should have been Cancer's marked, really, if he knew all - who nearly killed his sister. If Oleander knew more, he'd tear the prince apart, and leave nothing left of him. Though he wondered if that was what was needed. For Oleander.

No, there was an anger he shared with Oleander and Zariel, but the prince was marked. They still needed him. Most of him. And that was the most infuriating part.

As infuriating as Didymus. Even if he could not stop the inevitable, which he could not blame on him, for it brought Phoenix forward, he could not carry out a simple task. Even with Jagger vouching for him.

And worse still, he could not keep his mouth shut. He shouldn't have expected less from a fellow air sign. Lixue felt his expression almost twist at the intentional slip from the thief. The gall of that man. He knew far too much for his own good. He was how foundations started to crack, where things fell apart. He would not let the cracks run further.

“Hyune has been without the Twelve’s direct influence for more than a century,” Lixue countered, “it’s not so strange to think that the laws of nature would turn in on themselves in their absence, especially with the high volume of Mist we have been tracing across the continent.”

Jagger caught Diddy’s stare. She knew that look. He used to give her it all the time. He had something to spill, and yet she couldn’t piece what. “So,” Jagger’s gaze moved to Lixue, befuddled as ever, “what, now Mist is making bloated corpses rise up?”

“Mist is an unpredictable substance, one of the greatest anomalies I have studied,” Lixue had repeated that numerous times in the past, and he was not surprised to have to repeat it again. “I’ve witnessed the mutations and abnormalities it causes when it collides with objects and lifeforms. It’s no surprise that the undead is part of the long list of things that comes from Mist’s corruption.”

“Hence, it’s one of the reasons we must go to Phoenix’s temple.” Lixue glanced at Didymus with a rather unfond look. “To contain it, before it spills over the rest of the continent and causes widespread damage. What point is there in saving a world if the damage – avoidable damage – is irreversible?” It was not lying, not entirely. Mist, something that was so indescribable and forever encapsulating to Lixue, caused all manner of decay and rot.

“Rrrrright,” Jagger sat up. “But still, inside Phoenix’s temple? Thought those were sacred and sealed. Isn’t that why we can’t find ‘em so easily, because they’re hidden, and well, inaccessible?” Something with her didn't click, didn't exactly make sense in all of this.

“And that’s what we must assess,” Lixue brushed her off, “we are picking at scraps of information that we are not freely given.” It was not Shiva’s fault, or Garuda’s, that their memories were lost on the wind. But it made the process so terribly frustrating.

Jagger grumbled, sitting back again. "Do we even know any other temples? Apart from Phoenix's? And apart from some vague, "It's probably in the tundras or a desert or something!"?"
 
Diddy gave Oleander a glance, then shot a thumbs up to Jagger as she offered her bet, “Deal.”

“I am getting Ixion next,” Oleander declared, even if he had no idea how. What was Scorpio known for? ‘Being a traitor. Being poisonous.’ Things that he didn’t want to be. Things he strove not to be. He wasn’t going to betray Zariel, even though everyone in his youth thought he would. Even though his mother had wanted him to usurp Zariel, and his father wanted him to be nothing but a warmongering pawn in Zariel’s game.

But the talk of undead stilled even his tongue.

And Lixue’s explanation was bullshit. Maybe a priestess who tended to holy duties wouldn’t recognize that, but Oleander knew Zariel. Zariel wasn’t doing this because some stupid bird said his temple needed to be cleaned up. So he scoffed aloud at it, “Come on, Licksoo,” occasionally, very occasionally, he used Lilia’s name for him to annoy him And snap him out of being so damn professional, when he could. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right and all the temples have gone to hell, but Zariel wouldn’t risk our lives on a little clean-up duty. It’s also not why we’ve been finding the others – oh and outside of Phoenix it’s, what, three?”

Zariel nodded.

“Three, I think, uh – fuck, which ones?”

Zariel sighed, but answered, “Libra, Capricorn,” a glance at Anissa, “We will visit it soon,” would she be able to open it without Capricorn manifested? Hard to say, but they had to find out, “and Cancer.”

Fucking Cancer.

Anissa hesitated, but added, “I also know where Taurus’s temple is.” If they knew where Capricorn was, and were going to show her already, she thought she should freely offer the information. Well, after her temple. “After we visit Capricorn, I can show you the way."

“Well well!” Oleander clapped his hands together. “You are useful!” Anissa scowled a bit at his tone, but didn’t argue. Of course she was useful! And even she wasn’t buying this was just a clean-up job for Phoenix.

“So what’s the real reason we’re going to the temple, Zari?” Oleander asked, and Zariel tried not to be frustrated with him.

No, this was…fair. Lixue had no need to hide the crown, or that they would want to go into the other temples to find the artifacts of the other Twelve. Oleander already knew they were seeking the relics of the Twelve, and had hoped to find them in the temples already found. So he should be able to just state it…unless he was already a bit muddled.

“Phoenix’s corona is within the temple,” Zariel said, and touched her sword, “This is Phoenix’s blade, but the crown remains.”

“Wait, wait, wait – is that the fancy crown Leander was always wearing in his portraits?”

Zariel was cursing internally, but she nodded.

“How’d it end up back in the temple?”

“He didn’t want Lavi to have it,” simple. Never mind that it was considered missing. Never mind that he took it there while on the verge of becoming a zombie. Never mind that Zariel was hoping whatever animating force kept him alive had finally passed.

“Do we know what the crown does?” Anissa dared to ask, hesitant though she was. “I’ve heard stories of Phoenix’s corona, but….”

“It’s something of a power source,” Zariel said, “for Phoenix, it does far more than it does for us,” for her, because of the connection, it would do more, “but it adds to our ability to reach into the powers of the aether and continues to restore it.”

“Aah,” Anissa nodded. “It’s…a shame what the Mist has done.”

“Yes,” Zariel agreed, knowing that wasn’t the full story…but it was some of it. Quite a bit of it. Phoenix’s temple had been overrun where he fell, teeming with Ophiuchus’s deathblow and spreading it into his holy grounds. It wasn’t intended, but it occurred. Those within the Temple had died, and it slowly began to wake up others who had passed on his grounds, and corrupted them.

“So, you know we’re not exactly equipped to deal with undead, right?” Oleander asked.

“Didymus has been entrusted with healing mist bombs to help clear a path,” Zariel gestured, “where that fails,” she unstrapped the sword from her side, and tossed it to Oleander, who barely caught it while still holding his glass, “you have a holy sword that will slay them, and I have holy magic. I’ve brought along an assortment of potions to use against them, as well, but hacking off limbs and burning them will provide short term benefits until we can deal with them for good.”

Oleander was a bit surprised to be entrusted with the blade. Enough to sit his glass down and decide not to drink anymore, as he adjusted himself so the blade actually had a place at his side. “You’re sure you don’t need it?”

Zariel shook her head.

“I can help on the magical front and keeping them at bay,” Anissa agreed, “I’ll see what I can do about getting any potions used.” She wasn’t exactly used to combative potions, but the logic was sound. The undead could no longer tolerate such things as that.
 
Lixue’s mouth firmly shut at Oleander’s address of him, and he saw Jagger smirk to herself, so much so that he felt his ears burn. Every time. It was an unfortunate nickname from Lilia, given she could not pronounce his name correctly. Oleander believed he wielded the same privilege as her in pronouncing it as such. Lixue huffed. Was it much to ask to be taken seriously? Though, he took himself seriously all the time.

Apart from when he indulged far too much in alcohol, no thanks to the Arkidos siblings. There were stories he did not like to think on sober.

And he supposed it was foolish to keep their intentions of visiting temples locked away. They knew why they searched for them in the first instance anyway, but there was much that could slip out so easily, much that was so sensitive. Perhaps it was better to say little than too much.

“Of all the temples we know, and one of them actually belongs to someone here,” Jagger grumbled, sprawling her arms across the back of the sofa. And of course, it was Anissa’s! And for Zodiacs who weren’t even here with them! “Listen, if you get Ixion first,” she pointed to Oleander, “then we go to Ifrit’s temple, yeah?” They’d find it by the time that happened, which would be yonks anyway. It was no fun waiting around for hers – or, well, Ifrit’s – to pop up for them. And she’d be damned if they had to go to fucking Ixion’s temple before Ifrit’s.

Especially if there were cool things waiting in there for her to use. Zariel said she got a fancy crown that did something cool and had a sword to swing around too. “Weird Phoenix let the sword stay though.” She mumbled, rubbing her head. Strange indeed, but she didn’t want to think about it too much. It made her head hurt more. How was she supposed to know what Phoenix was thinking in leaving it behind?

She didn’t know what any of the fucking gods were thinking.

“Phoenix is a symbol,” Lixue reminded her. “And it’s only apt that a symbol of conquest, the sword, remained for Zariel to eventually inherit.” And it was, given it was left behind in the ashes of Leander. No explanation as to why the corona would not be more appropriate to inherit, given its symbol, but the sword held as much power that Lavi would not benefit from anyway. Not like Leander and Zariel could.

Jagger wasn’t convinced, but shrugged, “A crown would have been way cooler.” Although maybe she’d prefer being gifted the sword over a crown. Much more practical.

And speaking of which, “I’m good at hacking off limbs and crushing some bones,” Jagger pointed out, despite not needing to clarify that. Everyone knew that, but still. “Makes up for the lack of being able to burn stuff, I guess.” She didn’t know a lick of magic, for she didn’t have the patience to learn it. Plus, all those tomes and scrolls were just wordy. She was lucky to be able to read everything else, and she wouldn’t be so cruel as to put herself through those.

“And that’s what Anissa and I make up for in what you lack,” Lixue stated, not as an insult, but a matter of fact, “since I’m also well-versed in magic.”

“And humble.”

Lixue raised his eyebrows. “Speak for yourself.”

“Well,” Jagger went to argue, though, she relented, “yeah, fair point.”

“I would ask that my defence be prioritised where it can,” Lixue requested, feeling it only fair to speak of his weakness – literally. “I’m not quite so…sturdy as the rest of you. I’m useful at a distance, and my magic will only be so useful if I’m conscious.” Jagger, and he hated to agree, said Lilia could throw a better punch than he could. He never was a fighter, even before that unfortunate ailment came upon him with his experiments. He was much more content to watch the siblings brawl while he poured over incantations and magical theory.

“Sure,” Jagger agreed with a smirk. “We’ll make sure no scary undead try to eat you. And as for potions and stuff, it can’t be that hard to fight with them. Just chuck ‘em at whatever comes our way. Like how people throw their bottles of booze at people.” Potions weren’t so different from booze. It delivered a different kind of healing. Maybe a more appropriate kind of healing.

Lixue’s expression did not seem surprised. “And you know from experience.” A statement, not a question.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Jagger nodded, unashamed. Though, she backtracked. “Not all the time. Self-defence.” Yeah. You could never be too sure.

Jagger looked at Zariel then. “So, where is Phoenix’s temple anyway? I don’t remember you mentioning it.” The longer it took to get there, the better. She didn’t feel so fighting fit.
 
Zariel didn’t disagree with many of Jagger’s points, implicit and stated. A crown would have been cooler. And it would have been better. Which, of course, was the very reason it wasn’t there for her to inherit. It was also irksome that of all the temples they knew, only one belonged to someone who stood in her ranks, and that was the newest, least trustworthy one.

If the Gods were still above, she’d assume they were toying with her. As it was, she knew the Gods were doing fuck-all.

“If I get Ixion first, we’re going to my temple first,” Oleander playfully argued, “rules are rules.”

“It may be,” Zariel actually quite suspected it, “that we cannot enter the temples without the Zodiac themselves being awoken. We will know for certain when we visit Capricorn’s temple.” Given that Anissa obviously had not awakened Diablos. “Whatever the case, we’ll go to whatever temples we find, when we can.”

“Fiiiine,” Oleander consented, and fell silent again, listening as Lixue and Jagger bickered. And Lixue reminded everyone he was weak. Not that anyone except Anissa needed to know. Well, and maybe Diddy, “Yeah. A child could beat Lixue up. It’s not even funny,” it was actually hilarious to Oleander. “We’ll keep you in the center of the formation, Lixue. I’m guessing I’m at the front?”

“Back,” Zariel said, noting the look Anissa was giving to Jagger for her commentary on self-defense tactics. It was a highly judgmental look, “with the sword you can hack down anything in the way. I’ll take point.”

Oleander frowned, “You need defending, too.”

“I’m not nearly as fragile as Lixue, and Jagger can stay near the front,” problem solved. Theoretically, “Didymus will be as well, to keep the path as clear as he can with the healing mist.” That would be quite the boon. They should have enough to make it a good way through. “That puts Anissa and Lixue in the center, and you at the back, Oleander.”

Oleander sighed, not thrilled, but he didn’t argue the point further. It wouldn’t do him any good.

“As for the location, we’re actually not far. It’s off the east coast of Ucantis, a bit north. Almost in Rozari’s territory.” True, going that far north was still a bit of a journey, but nothing the airship wouldn’t make short work of.

She took a longer drink from the mana-beverage had whipped up. She would have preferred it be closer. “I would like to speak to Anissa for a bit in the interim. I’m sure you all have something to be doing to prepare,” probably not, but she knew one thing needed to be done, “Lixue, I believe you need to show Didymus how to use those healing bombs.”

“I know how to use them. They’re like all the others, right?”

“A good question, that Lixue can answer.”

Didymus groaned. He wanted to talk to Jagger, damnit!

“I’ll stay,” Oleander stated. “Just in case.”

Of course he’d be hard to get rid of. Zariel sighed. She wanted to protest that she was fine and didn’t need him hovering, but it was a useless argument. “It’s going to be boring.”

“Eh,” he shrugged, “I’m used to it.”

“Very well. Everyone else is dismissed.”

Didymus stalked towards the door to exit. He didn’t need to go tag along with Lixue. He’d just get the bombs, get a quick explanation, and get out so he could talk to Jagger about what the hell was really going on.
 
Lixue, of course, fired a withering look at Oleander. Perhaps a child could land a punch and bruise him rather easily - children did not know their own strength - but he had an arsenal of magic that could do much worse. He could only hold immense talent in a few places. He had to if he was to make up for his constitution.

Regardless, he nodded at taking centre, as everyone else was given their positions. Oleander was less than pleased, but they both knew it was better than to argue let alone on tactics.

It did not mean they never tried though.

“Front and centre, just how I like it,” Jagger nodded too, accepting that role. The hell was a couple of corpses going to be to her, to the rest of them? Especially if Diddy was up front with those potions to clear the way. Jagger caught Anissa’s look, and she normally would have called it out, but she didn’t fancy the lecture.

And they didn’t have the time with Zariel explaining their destination. Jagger needed every minute.

Lixue acknowledged Zariel’s suggestion of speaking to Didymus about the…bombs.He wielded so many. He looked to Didymus, “You could at least pretend not to act so inconvenienced. I’ll keep it simple for you,” he sneered. He was right - it was not so different from other bombs, minor differences at best.

But this conversation was about an entirely different bomb.

“Are we done?” Jagger mumbled, impatient to get away as she rose. The hot flash that she was so acquainted with came down quickly over her head. She didn’t take in most of the other words Zariel said other than ‘dismissed’, and was just as quick to the door as Diddy was.

“Catch up later,” Jagger insisted to him on their way out, though, it was all she managed to say before she was already rushing up to the deck. No quip, no good luck for dealing with Lixue. She was growing greener every second she held back spewing last night’s alcohol.

Lixue lurked not far behind as he was used to doing. Content that Jagger was out of the way to regret last night’s choices, he motioned for Didymus to follow him and led him to where they were keeping the healing bombs. He hadn’t felt the need to make small talk with him. He didn’t understand why such silence made people feel uneasy, but he liked to employ it, and especially here.

“It’s like every other smoke or mist-type bomb, only this is a healing mist,” Lixue explained, opening the box filled with enough potions for Didymus to make use of during the excursion. He grabbed one, turning it around in my hands. “There were a few different methods used before one was settled on by infusing the extract that’s placed inside the bomb.” But he didn’t bring Didymus here to listen to him harp on about its creation, the hypothesis, the trial and error.

“You were right about it being like other bombs. You have a lick of common sense, and dare I say, intelligence about you,” he placed the bomb back in its box and approached Didymus. “Yet, you are so insistent on running your mouth and sowing discord among us. No less given the mercy that Zariel has shown you several times.” His release from prison, his failure to bring the prince and the viera, and then that lalafell, to them, hiding his mark...

About the only thing he did right was awakening Garuda. But even that wasn’t enough to warden a pardon.

“You’re lucky to even be involved, to be here on this airship,” Lixue scowled, “and not back in the same cell we put you in.”
 
Didymus was afraid of Lixue, but in the way one was afraid of a dragon in a cave. So long as you never went into a cave, you would be alright. So long as Zariel never loosed the chains that bound Lixue, he, too, would be alright. It was enough for him not to flinch away when the box was opened, enough for him to hold a steady gaze on the bombs, and then Lixue, even he spoke of the real reason for this conversation.

Didymus knew it couldn't just be the bombs.

"I'm not trying to sow discord, I'm trying to get you idiots to acknowledge what really happened. Zariel's dead. This isn't some fancy, magical, return to life perfectly scenario. She's dead, and Phoenix is dead, and this mission is fucking doomed because you're afraid of people knowing this, which I get with the general public." He actually agreed there, if civilians knew a God was dead, it'd be anarchy.

Two dead didn't make a living creature, though. Zariel was something terribly in-between.

"But everyone else? It's gonna become obvious. Do potions even heal her anymore, or is it going to hurt her?"

How much had Lixue experimented?

How much did Zariel hide even from Lixue?

"Not to mention, it's Leander in this temple, isn't it?" A guess. A very good guess. "He'd have to bring the crown. If he took it off he'd die and it'd never get there, right? That's why Zariel needs it so desperately or she'll perish under the demands of Phoenix."

He didn't know any of this for sure, but he could guess, a lot, and very well. "The others need to know. To help. Otherwise when they find out, it's going to make everything worse," he gestured out with one hand, "Oleander might explode like Cleon did, and kill Cleon. Then what will you do? She listens to you. You could convince her."
 
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"You don't have to tell me they're both dead and how utterly cursed it is," Lixue hissed, “I understand this blight all too well in trying to manage her condition. It should have never been like this, never, and it threatens everything.” All their plans, the Empire. Didymus knew just as well how easily things could crumble apart.

Of course, of course he would guess correctly about Leander. Things lined up when you sat down and thought about it.

Not all of them would be ones to idle the thoughts away. That would have been too easy.

“Yes,” Lixue confirmed, because the truth was so blatantly there, and what point was there in hiding it from the thief? “There’s a high chance Leander will be there. Whatever he’s become when we find him there will remain to be seen. And you’re right. That crown is vital for Zariel to regenerate the mana that she’s sustaining Phoenix with.” Like she had a choice in that. “The potions, they’re troublesome, but I’m finding alternatives.” Among other things. And not fast enough. He had to rely on cauterisation to heal - fix - open wounds. But that did not solve this problem.

If he couldn’t help her…

“How would the others help, Didymus?” Lixue asked him, frustration teeming. “I struggle in finding something that helps her, that even sustains her form – what the hell would the rest of you suggest?” He could not undo it, by the Twelve, he would undo it for her, but there was no cure for death.

“Which is especially why Oleander can’t be told of any of this,” Lixue warned him, “because that will break him if he cannot help her. It does not matter how he is told – he’d kill Cleon no matter what way that information is fed to him. We cannot risk him spilling his blood – or any of their blood for that matter.”

"And if you haven't forgotten, it isn’t just Zariel that I would have to convince,” Lixue reminded him, “we have Phoenix to consider in all of this. Even if I were to convince her, there stands Phoenix vying for control. It cannot always be what she wants. He is not a god you risk standing against." Resentment was a fire that thawed Lixue’s cold heart. He hated Phoenix, even if his death was not his fault, even when none of this had been intended.
 
Lixue didn’t bother to lie, hide, or gaslight Didymus. He was straightforward, and Didymus would at least give him credit for that, even if it ignored the ever-living fuck out of him that Lixue was going to gaslight, gatekeep, and manipulate everyone else into not knowing what was going on. No doubt, the pair had a plan to explain Leander.

Why would anyone assume that Leander and Zariel were the same?

‘It’s killing you.’

What Didymus didn’t expect to see, however, was that Lixue was not a cold, heartless bastard. He knew Zariel had him wrapped in tight chains, but he assumed it was just that. He hadn’t expected Lixue to care as much as he did, as evidenced by the pain in his own tone, and the evident frustration of experiments gone awry.

Zariel was going to be hurt by the mist.

Zariel knew this, Lixue knew this, but they intended to continue anyways, because what choice did they have?

Didymus understood the ‘no choice’ too well, but he still saw several.

“Okay, yeah, I admit – Oleander’s a pain,” Didymus crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t want Cleon being cut in two. Not just for Zodiac reasons, but because…well, as annoying as Cleon was, as much as he messed everything, Didymus…didn’t hate him. Guilt for his own betrayal still gnawed at him. “And I don’t think anyone can actually…do anything.”

Jagger wasn’t a genius.

Oleander definitely wasn’t.

He didn’t know enough about Anissa.

“So far as…fixing it. Reversing it. Whatever. And I know Zariel and you are used to carrying around huge, galaxy shattering lies,” obviously, “but you’re trying to get the marked to trust you, and you’re doing a piss poor job at it. This secret might not come out now, even though I think it’s obvious, I know people are fucking stupid.”

So did Lixue.

“But it’s going to come out, and how do you think Jagger and Anissa are going to feel about it? Because eventually, this all leads to uniting with Cleon and everyone I left behind, and they all know that Zariel died. You want Zariel to keep her power, I want this god-killing snake dead. I may not like you and Zariel, but you guys at least have a plan and know what’s going on.”

Which was far more than he could say for Cleon and the others.

“So I’m trying to suggest you maintain the trust of everyone, and convince Phoenix of that. Or go behind Phoenix’s back – what the fuck is he going to do, throw a temper tantrum? He’s not going to kill other marked. He needs us. He can’t.”

Although now having it confirmed that Phoenix actively took control of Zariel…that worried him. He’d been suspicious of a few moments she didn’t seem to…act right. But he wasn’t certain of what that was about. She had just come back from death, after all. That changed a person.
 
Lixue could not dismiss Didymus’s points, because they made sense. They could only hide something so monumental for so long, he knew that. Zariel and Phoenix must have known the same, and yet, they would continue to carry on this lie. Yes, in an ideal world, explaining it would have its benefits, and people could come to their own understanding of this less-than-ideal situation.

They tried explaining once. It was why Zariel was in the state she was in.

Anissa was horrified by the idea of Phoenix’s temple teeming with undead, the antithesis of all that was pure and holy.

Oleander would refuse to believe it. Else, take that anger out on someone, everyone, else.

And Lixue did not trust Jagger to not run her mouth, even if she did not intend to let secrets slip.

He did not trust them.

“Phoenix will do more than throw a temper tantrum, I assure you,” Lixue warned. “He may need all of the marked alive, and he’ll need the help, but I don’t advise drawing Phoenix’s ire. He will push boundaries far enough if he wishes. He leads the Twelve, and a dead god will give others no such hope.”

A chill in him asked whether he really was not so willing to try and test the waters as he had done before. Had he not blasphemed privately, let thoughts border along the lines of treason and rebellion?

It was different when it was Lavi. It was different with his previous superiors in the lab.

No, Zariel was different.

“Zariel has the continent. Regardless of what trust people lack, regardless of how they feel about anything, secrets, or otherwise, all will be brought together and kept together by the Empire, by her. Some of them will never trust us, but it won’t matter. What state of living anyone is in will be the least of our concerns when they see the reality that is fast coming for us.”

Then everyone would be dead. Gone, swallowed whole, and they need not have worried in the first place.

Like Didymus said, Zariel’s was not something that could be mended, not that half of the marked could fix anything such as that. They only succeeded in pulling things apart. It was why leashes were needed in the first place.

“I am not the one bound to Phoenix, nor am I the one who is dead. She has discussed it and made it final that her state is not to be disclosed. And if she ever decides otherwise, it will be at her discretion.” Because it could not be anyone else, Lixue made that vehemence clear. They would not be hounded when it was them at the helm.

“You would do well to keep your mouth shut, Didymus. Because if it is not Phoenix or Zariel who will exact judgement, it will be me.” He assured the thief with no hesitation. “You were lucky that Jagger vouched for you. Things could have been very different if you ended up in my hands. But never forget,” he...smiled, but in the sinister way that dragons in caves should not, “things can still change.”
 
Didymus was aware, too, that Lixue did not challenge what he said from a logical stance. Perhaps on one, and that was in how they did not know how Phoenix would respond. That was a difficult situation, in and of itself, and Didymus would admit that while Phoenix might not kill the Marked…he didn’t quite know what Phoenix would do.

He did not know what Garuda would do, either. She felt far more loyal to him, but would that remain true when she was made whole?

And should she, if he made a poor choice, when the whole world was at stake?

Lixue didn’t care about trust. He didn’t care about morality. He cared about Zariel’s decision to keep the secret, and that was it. It was an irrational, stupid care – but it was an honest one, perhaps the most honest he’d ever seen the scientist. Not that he’d seen much of him, but those times he did, always felt strangely insincere. Strangely unattached.

Well, he knew a weak spot now.

He also knew what pushing that weak spot was going to risk, in that terrible smile.

There were probably things Lixue had done for Zariel, that Zariel had no idea of. Things that she might have even disapproved of, if she knew before they were done. And wasn’t that the key word? Before.

He could feel the chill as if Shiva had touched his spine herself.

“I hope you don’t forget when the Empire shatters at her feet, that I warned you it would happen,” Didymus stated bluntly. He was cowed – he’d admit it – but he was still certain he was right, too. They’d recognize it when everything came crashing down around them. “That I wasn’t trying to be your enemy in this,” fuck his threat, fuck him trying to make Didymus afraid.

Fuck it working.

“I was trying to save all of this, like the rest of you. I live on this world, too.” And he didn’t want to die. He didn’t want Ophiuchus to be the end of everything, and he’d do everything in his power to stop that – but perhaps, not stand in Lixue’s way.

Zariel’s way.

Not when they could concoct something worse than death, and retain his only use to them: Garuda.

He stepped forward to take his bombs, the necessary weapons, and imagined the ways Zariel might reveal everything just from them. Imagined the way she’d ruin it all in less than an hour herself.

He hoped, he really hoped, she would.

Then this nonsense could stop.

“I’ll see you in the Temple.” He figured there was no reason to linger once he had the bombs.

~***~

The Empress of all Hyune knew plenty.

Oleander and Jagger had told Anissa bits and pieces, but as she stood in the presence of Zariel, Anissa often found herself wondering if she was hearing Zariel, or hearing Phoenix. Obviously, it was Zariel’s voice, but Phoenix had clearly told her a substantial amount, and she was able to explain much of it.

“I just have one question,” Anissa said, “all of Hyune has known you would acquire Phoenix one day, and all of Hyune has known your brother was marked by Ixion. They also know of Lixue. You speak of the Cardinals as hunting marked. Did they ever come for you in your youth?”

“If they did, I was unaware of it,” Zariel admitted, “I was well-protected, and I remain well-protected. It’s the others…,” she sighed, “it is why I couldn’t announce it. I would put their lives at risk by announcing what I knew.”

“I don’t follow.” Anissa said, “It seems like it would have been good for me to know what was going on.”

“It is good for you to know,” Zariel agreed, “it is not good for the Cardinals to know how…aware their enemy is. I do not need them looking into my plans. They need only know that I am marked, and naught else.” Of course, they knew she knew more, even if they didn’t know what. She wondered if they, also, forgot a little bit with each death they faced. It was something she would have to check, one of these days.

She might have to go Cardinal hunting to buy them all more time. Not to mention, to simply get a grasp of her powers, against a foe that could keep up with her.

She wasn’t going to find a human that could withstand her any longer.

“Their hunting would become more intense. It seems it has been a bit…lax. I would rather it remain that way,” she said, “although I suspect with the recent deaths of Gilgamesh and two of the Magus Sisters, it is soon to intensify. I will likely have to make myself a target to draw them out.”

Anissa allowed her brows to raise at that. She was curious about the seemingly selflessness of it. There was no way it was selfless, of course. Not entirely, even if the motives might be good – to buy them all more time.

“Do you know how quickly they return to Hyune?"

“I do not,” Zariel shook her head. “I am sorry. I wish I had that information to provide.”

“No, it’s all right.” Anissa wasn’t upset by this. “It’s just…you seem to know so much, about how to kill them, their motives, their names…and you’ve kept it all.”

“A necessary evil. Much of this I did not know until Phoenix revealed it to me,” she said, and that wasn’t a lie. “Some of it was passed down by my father.”

Oleander made a noise. Zariel ignored him. “Phoenix was not killed in his previous life. Leander died, but not at the hand of Cardinals, so he retained all that he learned when he was with Leander, and Leander learned much with Phoenix.”

“I see,” Anissa didn’t sense any deception to this, it all made sense. “This is a lot of new information to take in. And there’s…still a lot to do, it seems.”

“Mm,” Zariel hummed agreement. “I will be available to you as more questions arise, or concerns, but I assure you I am working on finding the answer to many things, and I hope your joining us will provide more, given your insight into the Twelve.”

Anissa chuckled, “My insight may be less than yours. I don’t have a literal god to talk to. Not yet, anyways.”

Zariel smiled, but Anissa was fairly sure it didn’t touch her eyes. She wasn’t even convinced it touched her lips. “If it’s all right, I need to prepare myself for the spell work up ahead. I wasn’t thinking I’d be thrown into something like this so soon.”

“I understand, just ask one of the guards outside to take you to a guest lounge.”

Anissa left, and Zariel visibly slumped and heaved a sigh. Oleander observed a few seconds in silence, before he interjected, “You really couldn’t send me a moogle telling me about this?” Zariel groaned and palmed her face.

“I had a lot to do, Oleander. Rozari’s subjugation came on rather quicker than expected, and messier. I had to clean that up, I didn’t concern myself with spreading word that I’d almost been killed.” She lowered her palm and looked up at him, annoyed.

He’d stepped too close again. “You are seriously burning. Is it going to be like this for me with Ixion? Just…sparking electricity?”

‘No.’ Zariel wanted to say. ‘No Ixion is alive. Shiva is alive.’

“I don’t know, Oleander. This should mitigate once I get the crown.”

“Phoenix that strong?” Oleander then put on a teasing grin, “Or are you that weak?”

She straightened up and shoved him as she walked off from the desk, “Hey, that’s not an answer!” her middle finger was also not an answer, but that was all she left him with – before he came running after her to continue talking strategy, even if no strategy needed to be discussed.

It was a way to pass the time, until the island came into sight.

Until the bones of Phoenix came into sight. ‘How am I supposed to explain this?’

“You don’t.”

Phoenix was a terrible diplomat.
 
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