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buoyfriend · 2 years

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21 - Pass From Nature Into Eternity

Aymeric POV: "I could not watch her pass from nature into eternity. Not here, not now."

She was hanging onto her life with just a finger. I had seen death many times before, I had seen her on the opposite side of this exchange. I held her as Estinien apprised me of the situation, hardly absorbing the words. I could not watch her pass from nature into eternity. Not here, not now.

Tataru and Krile allowed me privacy in the Rising Stones, to lay eyes on her myself. I held her hand, warm and alive. I had spoken to her in Old Elezen before, she laughed and said she had heard the language somewhere before. Another link between us, I suppose. I whispered my deepest wish to her, hoping that she could hear me as she wandered in yet another new world.

"Vous êtes à la dérive dans la galaxie d'un étranger, mais vous nous retrouverez. Je le sais. Tu reviendras à la maison."

We blessed few, born from blood,

With tired hands do toil

Ala Mhigo assembled before us, soldiers and returned citizens. Full and low, their voices gathered in unison. I thought of the trepidation of my own people upon our liberation from the mistakes of our fathers, faltering voices questioning how we would move forward. Lua stood before me in our small crowd atop Ala Mhigo castle, her hand sliding past bodies to hold Lyse's and Raubahn's. Lyse's hand became red with the tight clutch they held for each other.

To shape this rugged land of ours

And build a home for all.

I had long marveled at the miracles The Warrior of Light showed me. She could easily arrive in a strange land and promise to move mountains, but she showed me with her own hands what could be done. For some small amount of time, I was jealous of other lands that would have her. I winced as she was spirited away to new places to perform her miracles for others.

To ye who help your brothers,

Shrink not from Rhalgr's flame,

But on that day, we were all Eorzeans. I reveled in the freedom of Ala Mhigans, as if mine own brothers were free.

But those who scorn their fellow man

Shall surely share his pain

"I wondered where you had disappeared to!" her light voice chimed behind me. Her hair stuck to the sides of her face with drying sweat.

"I wasn't much for dancing tonight." I said to her.

"Ah...exhausted from helping end a decades long military occupation?"

"Something of the sort" I laughed.

She sighed, resting beside me on the railing. She turned to the Lochs, closing her eyes as a wave of salty air hit her face. Slowly, she opened her eyes once more, cast straight ahead at the water.

"You called me your friend earlier, before the battle. I... I was glad to hear that."

"It's true, you are my friend and I was full glad to get the news from you. Even gladder to fight alongside you."

"I was doubtful for some time. After your letter, I- Oh, I thought you were being..."

"That I saw you as a conquest?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. That missive was horseshit. You woke up in my bed three days in a row and suddenly all you can see is 'friendship and nation building.'"

"But you know why that happened? I did not write that missive."

"I know. I heard, but you were so cold after the fact."

"I thought you to be angry with me, I tried to tell you what I could in the moment. Here in Ala Mhigo, I wasn't just quoting your book to be cruel to you. I had hoped you would understand my intentions."

"I understood, and I was hopeful. But you were cold after that. After the quote, after the truth came out. You never sought me out, we haven't had real time with each other. If you would have asked, I would have made the time."

Had I really been so cold? I felt at the time that I was in shock, shock that she could move on so quickly. Fear that perhaps I was the conquest and all I thought to be special about our time was now showered on Doma. My mind passed through each memory of her in that time as she reached out to hold my hand.

"I can forgive the deception, but why did you pull away? After all of this, I thought you would still be my friend."

"I-I'm so sorry, Lua."

"Please be honest with me."

A starry night slipped into the dawn without our notice. All secrets between us, laughed into the brightening sky. Her face reddened as I told her my fears, as she explained that she had tried to keep her relationship subtle. My own reddened as I explained how I realized what had blossomed between she and Hien, as I apologized for letting a petty jealousy keep our friendship broken.

She rested her head on my shoulder as she asked "So, after the dust has settled, what do you want? Not as a Loooord Commaaander or a Looooord Speeeeaaaker. What do you want for yourself?"

I gazed down at her, unable to meet her eyes. I traced the shape of her lips in my mind. "I-"

"Lua! Come help me carry the children!" Lyse bellowed from atop the stairs.

Lua laughed, "The children? Who?"

"Alphinaud and Alisae, they got into some mead and fell asleep."

"Who let them have mead? I told them they weren't allowed."

"Well, you weren't there!"

Away again, off to perform some miracle for our friends.

There is truly nothing like a fight of that magnitude. Old comrades and new, holding one single vision. I had put to bed any hesitation about Hien, he truly was - and is - a skilled swordsman. My trepidation about him faded as we became one with the rhythm of battle. I felt no awkwardness, no tension, with the both of them at my side. We were more than any pettiness, united as a single strength.

I had considered Valhourdin's last words to me before he and his comrades were delivered to the Vault's gaol. In our last battle at Ala Mhigo castle, she had not been tested as he warned. Perhaps his words were simply meant to dig his dagger into my side, empty and cruel.

I stayed alongside my allies as we pressed on, though some fell back to hold gained ground. Time slipped through my hands as if it were naught but water, I knew not how much had passed between Lua at my side and Estinien delivering her limp body to me. I had not seen her move on ahead, I searched for her until I was told that Lord Zenos had met her on the field.

He had wounded her greatly, preparing to deliver a fatal blow. I was not practiced in aether manipulation, but even I could see the gravity of her wounds. She was hanging onto her life with just a finger. I had seen death many times before, I had seen her on the opposite side of this exchange. I held her as Estinien apprised me of the situation, hardly absorbing the words. I could not watch her pass from nature into eternity. Not here, not now.

I held her to my chest, I ran as fast as I could. Her limbs were limp, her head knocked against my shoulder. I ran, ran, ran as long as I could. Voices attempted to reach me, I did not listen. The healers came to me, gently trying to pull her from me, settling for guiding us to their tent. I would not let go, I could not. They pleaded with me to let her lie on a cot, I gripped her cold hand as they attempted their ministrations.

"Let me take her home" I begged.

"She cannot be moved" they insisted.

She had left the forests of immediate danger and entered the next, deep sleep. I finally let go of her hand as the medics pulled me away from her, left to wait outside the tent as Lucia apprised me of the results of the campaign. Our allies assembled outside of the tent, each more grim than the last. I could not look at Hien. For all of my new good will, I could not look the man in the eye.

"Please, she must return to Ishgard." I recommended once again. I did not care what colors she had worn for another man, nor how he gazed at her as she performed her miracles. All that mattered was the promises I had made to her, to myself.

"She must rest."

"Please, let her wake up somewhere familiar. The Scions are gone, she would wake up alone here. She has family in Ishgard, please let them see her."

I would make the time. If she were to pass from her wounds or fall to whatever ailment had claimed the Scions, it would not be in a barren wasteland. It would not be surrounded by death and flames, I would make the time. I would not let her pass there.

She had slept soundly on the airship, hardly stirring when we hit turbulence. I held her hand once more, warming slightly. I ran with all haste when news was delivered that she had awakened. She would not make eye contact with me for some time. She asked where Alisae had gone, I promised her relative safety though I did not have the answers Lua sought.

If I could not be what I had been to her, I could be her friend. I begged that she rest. That no one, not even someone as strong as she, didn't need rest.

When I'd heard from the Eorzean Grand Company that she disappeared to a new world, that the Scions were once again fighting for the fate of the star in even stranger lands, I had none of the fears I'd held years past. I was a wiser and a better man than first we met. My faith no longer lived in the shadow of fear, it lived in the light of what she had shown me to be true about people, about what we were capable of together. My faith was born of what I had proven for myself.

"Vous êtes à la dérive dans la galaxie d'un étranger, mais vous nous retrouverez. Je le sais. Tu reviendras à la maison."

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