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norhimorovine · 4 years

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And It All Comes Down

((I couldn’t wait for someone to send me the ask. So here’s an entry for the ‘Game Over’ meme. If someone sends the ask, I’ll write more. Warning: Lots of Death, mostly not graphic, but lots of it.))

Norhi was at her mother’s home when the linkpearl call came. She leaves the room with her hand pressed to her ear. “Nhie’a?”

“Nor--zzzkrt -- Norhi!?”

“Nhie’a? I’m here. You’re breaking up.”

“Norhi! Get to --zzrksht-- dders! Lims--gzzrhts-er attack!”

A sound of an explosion breaks through the linkpearl, before the line goes dead. Norhi taps the pearl, calling, “Nhie’a? Nhie’a!”

At this point, her father, P’rischy comes darting in the door with a pale expression. “Norhi! Limsa’s fallen! Get to the shop! Pack up! They’ve ordered the evacuation of the Twelveswood already!”

Norhi blinks and then pales. “Oh no... Nhie’a. Who’s attacking? Garlemald?”

P’rischy nods. “They’ve got a whole army of large warmachina. With... some sort of weapon that vaporizes its targets. The Adders are deputizing the Wailers. Let me get your mother going and I’ll follow you to the shop.”

Norhi nods and turns to go fetch Crystal. P’rischy meets her at the gate and they make the dash for the East Shroud. Some hours of panicked packing, they have the cart loaded and hitched to Crystal. They start down the road, to meet up with the rest of their family and the group heading for Ishgard.

But then a large machina drops out of the air, landing on the road. From it streams several Imperial Soldiers. P’rischy rears back on his own chocobo. He turns and looks at Zuki, who was on Crystal’s back. “Go for Ul’dah! Take an airship from there! Go!”

He then frowns sadly at Norhi. “Tell Yhuna and the twins I love them.”

Zuki was already turning Crystal and the cart, while Norhi clutched Vhene to her chest. “Dad! No!”

P’rischy dismounted and turned to face the soldiers, as Zuki started the cart at a run back down the road. They get almost to the Thanalan border, when an explosion rocks the road and sends the cart sprawling. Norhi wraps around Vhene as she flies out of it, landing on her side and back with a pained hiss.

She looks up to see Zuki cutting the straps that tethered Crystal to the cart, seeing the teal feathered draft bird leap to her feet and fluff herself out. And beyond that, she sees several Imperial Soldiers step out from the bushes.

Zuki looks at them and then looks at Norhi, his face set in grieved determination. “Norhi. Go. I love you.”

He then pulls out a pair of patas and charges the soldiers. Crystal follows, squawking a chocobo’s war cry. But Norhi snarls and pulls out her wand, hoisting Vhene to her safe hip. She starts throwing healing spells, trying to help her husband live. But then the machina arrives. A zip of something laser like, burns a line along the road. Part of Zuki just disappears with a poof of ash. He turns as he falls, eyes already blank.

Norhi screams in horror and watches as Crystal charges the machina. Norhi chokes back a sob and pulls her magic to her, teleporting herself and Vhene to Ul’dah.

She drops to her knees in the aetheryte plaza, already seeing it was full of terrified refugees from Limsa and Gridania alike. And that’s when she felt the snap, inside her mind. --My child. Live.--

Norhi sits back on her knees, eyes staring blankly in shock. “Sahlia... no.”

She feels a pair of gauntleted hands take her shoulders, a voice asking her questions. “Madam? Madam, hello?”

A conversation happens next to her. She can’t register what’s being said. Or who’s talking to her. She feels the hands pull her to her feet and direct her out of the plaza, to The Goblet. She starts to come to herself, when she realizes they’ve led her to the Bellworks. A Brass Blade is with her, and was talking to Brave Horizon. “She teleported in and instantly went into shock. I’m lucky I recognized her. There’s a lot of people streaming in.”

Brave nods with understanding severity. “Of course. Thank you for bringing her to us. We’ll take care of her.”

The Blade smiles grimly and then starts, turning and pressing a hand to his ear. He listens and answers with a soft affirmative. His lips are set in a frown when he turns back. “Gridania’s now gone too. Scouts have spotted the army moving for Thanalan. They’ve ordered Ul’dah’s evacuation. They’ve also requested that any companies able to fight please report to the front lines. I need to go.”

Brave sets her hands on Norhi’s shoulders. “We’ll have our combat capable there as soon as we can.”

The Blade salutes and then sets off at a run.

Norhi hugs Vhene and looks up at Brave. “Zuki’s gone,” she whispers, ears wilted and lips trembling as she starts to break down again.

She feels Brave hug her for a moment, before steering her inside. She’s handed off to someone. Elliot maybe?

By the time the sun was setting, one of their airships was making for Ishgard, with Norhi and half of the Bellworks people and materials on it. The rest were making their way to the front lines.

Lord Integris Shadowstar meets Norhi at the airship platform, offering what he can to the Bellworks, alongside House Dufresne. Norhi retreats to the house, where she cries on her grandmother. Mharithosa had gotten a linkpearl call from Yhuna. P’rischy and the kids hadn’t arrived. And then the call cut out. And they hadn’t been able to raise them back up on the line. And they hadn’t arrived in Ishgard.

By the time dawn comes, Norhi was both numb and raw. Her only family left was here in Ishgard. How many of the Bellworks had survived? What would she do without her tribal home?

But then Sirus came in, wearing his armor. “Ul’dah’s gone. They’ve got airships arriving with the remains of their military.”

Norhi takes up Vhene and runs for the airdocks, seeing a Bellworks ship docking. It was battered and barely remaining airborne. The number who disembark was barely a third of who’d gone to to fight. Brave was carefully carrying Arcian from the ship. Wyda and Vicky were both limping along, with a bandaged up Max behind them. Norhi looked around and spotted Kail’s ship waiting to dock as well. She then looks to her side, seeing Elliot and Nolanel step up next to her. Elliot frowns sadly. “They’re already coming for Ishgard.”

His mouth twists in displeasure as he then adds, “The... dragons... have answered our call for help. They’re going to join the Alliance for a last stand here.”

Norhi nods and turns to help the Bellworks get settled.

As the remains of the Alliance get set up, Norhi is sent back to the lines of the civilians. She stands up on the edges of The Pillars, with Vhene cradled to her shoulder. The war machina arrive at the same time as the dragons do. And the fighting breaks out.

Norhi watches in horror as several of the larger dragons are downed within the first bell of the fight. She could see flits of the Ul’dahn and Gridanian banners out there. She thought she spotted her friends. And then she hears it, the call for evacuation.

Norhi hugs her child and kisses the top of her head. “Vhene, my daughter, my darling. I’m sorry. I love you.”

She then passes the child to her grandmother. Mharithosa shakes her head, but doesn’t get a chance to object. Norhi just smiles sadly. “I have to. They need me. Keep her safe.”

She then summons the bit of adventurer magic, changing to her conjurer’s gear. She watches as Integris takes his wife by the shoulders, pulling her back. Norhi then turns and runs, looking back only once, before pressing her hand to the aetheryte shard.

When she arrives at the Steps of Faith, it was chaos. The line had already been broken. Norhi takes her wand and dives in, soon finding her company and friends. She makes her stand there. Until there was no more left.

#ffxiv #balmung #miqo'te #female miqo'te #meme answers

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