Chapter Text
Parsemontret, the head of Gridania’s markets, didn’t have any aethersand. Considering how much Rammbroes had to hound the Goldsmith Guild for it, something told me I shouldn’t be surprised.
“I could tell you where one might mine the ore from which the water-aspected variety of the abrasive is derived, but only a desperate fool would willingly set foot in the place.” The elezen frowned at us like that was going to be enough.
I raised an eyebrow. “You do know who you’re talking to, right?”
Parsemontret gave me a flat look. Then he sighed heavily. “Very well. Are you familiar with Urth’s Gift?”
Something stung in my right arm. I ignored it. “Yeah. Beat Odin to a pulp near there.”
Parsemontret blinked rapidly. “You —” He cleared his throat. “Well…I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” He shook his head. “The ore required is located in that area — specifically, a part of Urth’s Gift that is said to be inhabited by a particularly pernicious hog. Should you encounter the betusked nightmare, know that you are in the right place, albeit at the wrong time.”
A hog, huh? Not the first time I’d fought an enemy like that.
“Thanks for the warning, but I think we’ve got it handled,” I said. “Let’s go find that ore.”
We grabbed Comet from the stables and teleported out to Quarrymill. I gave the local Padjal a nod as we moved out.
“So, Odin once wandered these woods?” Sarah looked at me curiously.
“Not for long, but yeah. We’re going to where he was sealed.” I felt my arm sting again and ignored it. If the sword wanted to cause me problems it was going to have to try harder than that.
“I see.” Sarah tilted her head. “I wonder what sort of person it was who sealed the primal, rather than kill him.”
“O-App — the Padjal back there — said it was some Allagan hero. Dunno if he knows anything else about it.”
“Interesting. Perhaps I will ask him before we return.”
I ended up leading the way through the cave and out into the bug and boar-infested part of the woods. Comet had no problems moving ahead to scare off the local animals with a few threats, and Sarah almost followed in my footsteps as I climbed up the waterfalls towards the source at the top.
And on one of the soggy bits of land in the spring was a giant, scarred, dead boar.
“Kweh?” Comet swiveled his head between me and the corpse.
“Do you think that’s the boar we were warned about?” Sarah moved through the water towards the boar. “It looks larger than the others we passed on the way here.”
It did. If this one was alive it probably could’ve taken one of my legs off and swallowed it whole.
I followed after her as Sarah knelt down to inspect the corpse. “Careful. Whatever killed it might still be nearby. Wouldn’t want to get ambushed by whatever took this out.”
“Or whoever.” Sarah pulled something out of the boar’s neck and held it up to me.
An arrow, and it didn’t look like it was made in the Gridanian style.
“It seems we have a skilled archer in these woods, and they killed this boar recently.” Sarah rose to her feet and started looking around. Comet did the same.
“Quite sharp of you!”
I turned my head sharply at the voice. Young, male — and nowhere in my line of vision.
“I’m afraid the two of you are too late — and not only for the entertainment. You will find no trace of the ore which but recently lay here. Nay, not so much as a speck.”
“How’d you know that’s what we were here for?” I called up. Whoever this was, he was somewhere above us in the trees. He mentioned entertainment…did that mean the chance for us to fight the boar, or for us to watch him fight it?
“That’s for me to know, my good man! And you will never spy me from there. For the time being at least, you will have to trust the evidence of your ears. Now stop squinting at the foliage and listen.”
Like that was going to make me stop.
“As I told you, the water-blessed mineral you hoped to find is gone — taken by me. Victory has made me magnanimous, however. Accordingly, I have decided to share the location of an alternative source of aethersand with you — the wind-touched variety, to be specific. I trust I have your attention?”
“Why tell us?”
“Because I mean for this to be a race.” It sounded like the speaker was grinning. “A band of Ixal in the North Shroud keeps a quantity of the abrasive for the purpose of removing impurities from lesser crystals. I suggest you make haste, adventurers, before I snatch another prize from under your nose!”
This guy was starting to turn into a headache.
“Fallgourd Float,” Sarah muttered. “Allow me.”
“Thanks,” I muttered back. “We’ll have to move fast.”
Sarah nodded, then cast the spell quickly.
I let myself and Comet get pulled along for the ride, and we appeared in the middle of the last town between the Shroud and Coerthas.
I started moving into the woods as soon as my vision was stable.
Sarah quickly fell in step with me, Comet right behind her. “Do you think he was talking about the group that Sophie’s been helping?”
“I don’t think so.” I glanced up at the sky. Still bright, but the sun was getting closer to the horizon. We’d really spent all day hunting down keys to the tower’s defenses. “Think Sophie said there was an enthralled camp nearby that was causing her group trouble — let’s raid them first.”
“Very well.”
We moved quickly past a watch tower and up into carved-out caves and ruins crawling with hulking suits of armor that sounded hollow when they tried to come at us.
The Ixal camp on the other side was next to a river. Looked like they were in the middle of clogging it with logs, or trying to.
Comet fluffed his feathers and raised his head. “Kweeeeeh.”
I didn’t need Echo to translate that. I settled into Dragoon and grabbed my lance off my back. “Let’s turn this place upside-down.”
“Agreed.” Sarah drew her bow.
I Jumped before Sarah could fire her first arrow, and slammed down into the nearest Ixal lance-first. The dying squawk as I pierced through the head into the neck was the only alarm the Ixal had.
Sarah’s rain of arrows definitely caught the rest of the ones in range, and if that didn’t finish them off, Comet’s Meteor did.
Within minutes, we were working our way through the camp’s remains, sniping the wolves the Ixal kept around if they came close enough to try anything.
“Wol, I believe this is it!”
I looked up from an overturned crate next to one of the Ixal’s blimps. Sarah was looking in what looked like a wooden pot. “Yeah?”
I walked over as Sarah pulled out a sack and opened it. Bright green sand almost glowed back at us, thrumming with wind.
“It seems we beat our mysterious competitor to our prize.” Sarah closed the sack up again and hid it in her bag. “Do you think we will catch—”
“Bravo! That was quite a show, adventurers! Why, the spectacle proved so enthralling that all thoughts of aethersand slipped my mind.”
Oh, good, the headache was back.
I immediately started scanning the treeline.
Sarah sighed, annoyed. “Nevermind.”
“I appear to have forfeited our little race! Congratulations — the wind-touched abrasive is yours.”
There was that word again — race. Clearly, whoever this other person was, they were only in it for the entertainment.
I scanned the treeline again, looking for whoever was talking. The trees were more red than green, but I wasn’t having an easier or harder time finding the speaker.
“And yet, having been treated to such a memorable performance—”
That’s it. “Enough!”
The clearing fell silent.
“We’re not players on a stage you can watch whenever you want,” I spat. Now I knew why I was getting a headache — this guy’s talk of entertainment, and now a performance, was reminding me of things I didn’t want to think about. “If you’re going to treat us like that, then get down here and say it to my face.”
Sarah sucked in a breath next to me. I’m not surprised — she was probably coming to the same conclusion I had.
A disembodied voice, setting up scenarios where we had to fight for what we wanted? Enjoying watching the battles we fought?
I could almost see that glowing ball of light hanging above my head, taunting me with his voice while not having a body for me to hit.
If we had another Vox on our hands, I was going to take care of this now. Before he could make things worse.
Something moved in the trees.
I caught sight of a pair of legs resting on a tree branch before the figure launched himself out of the foliage and landed in front of us in a crouch.
Red hair, ears, tail. Red, black, and white clothes that looked padded enough to pass for armor. A bow on his back.
And an Archon tattoo on his neck.
“My apologies.” The miqo’te man straightened himself up with a grimace. “It was not my intent to make light of the situation in that particular manner.” He looked at Sarah and me with mismatching eyes — one blue, one red.
The headache spiked. I gritted my teeth and ignored it.
“What was your intent, then?” Sarah asked. It sounded more like a princess’ demand. Cold, distant.
The miqo’te’s tail twitched. He couldn’t hold Sarah’s gaze and he tried to meet mine. “It is my vocation to record history as it is made by mortal men. And I much prefer to chronicle the accomplishments of the bold and the mighty.”
Chronicle? That felt like he wanted to write down stories.
Definitely getting more Vox-like by the second. The headache wasn’t getting any better, either.
“When I discovered the two of you following in my footsteps for the same goal, I suspected as to your identity, but I wanted to be certain that the two of you were a part of the free company that felled the Ultima Weapon,” the miqo’te added. “And I wanted to see you in action for myself.”
“You could’ve just asked. We’re not actors on a stage.” I felt like I was actively fighting the headache now. This wasn’t good.
We hadn’t even gotten a name out of this guy; why was he setting this off?
The miqo’te flinched. “Yes, I can see that now. My apologies — I wasn’t aware you weren’t fond of such things.”
“Just don’t look at me like I’m at the whims of some story again.” Another spike of a headache. Wasn’t able to hide the wince this time.
“Wol?” Sarah sounded nervous. “Are you—”
“Yeah. Been holding it off for a bit.”
“Holding what off?” The miqo’te frowned, confused. His eyes widened a second later. “Are you about to have an Echo vision?”
“No.” I couldn’t hold back a Resonance when it came in.
An Ixal shrieked somewhere. Sounded like a few of them were coming back to base.
My vision was starting to black out. Not good.
Someone grabbed my arm. “We need to move — quickly!”
“R-right! There’s a good spot not far from here.”
The static was quickly covering my vision. My legs wouldn’t cooperate.
“Sorry,” I managed to Sarah.
I was gone before I could hear her answer.
- - - - -
“I propose we have a race!”
Asher looked up from the sword he’d been sharpening and raised an eyebrow at the speaker. They were almost surrounded by a group of their fellow Students. Clearly, something was going on.
“I cannot be the only one who tries to achieve an Archon mark,” the red-haired miqo’te said. “I don’t see why more of us can’t make the attempt.”
So he was someone Asher had known before Carteneau. Why am I not surprised.
A Student of Baldesion, though…wasn’t expecting that.
“I will not,” someone said immediately. “An Archon’s mark is notoriously difficult to achieve. As Students, we have more than enough resources as we are now to study our chosen subjects.”
Asher tilted his head and considered. That was true….
“But think of the challenge!” the miqo’te pressed. “We already know how to research, and we have our own preferred foci of study. I do not see why we cannot put it to good use.”
“You were already dared to do it; why drag someone else into it?” another Student asked. “That just seems like you’re making it less of a dare and more of a competition, G’raha.”
And now I’ve got a name.
“Consider it a dare of mine,” G’raha suggested. “After all, I am certain that, even with our reach, we are not always able to receive the information we are looking for.”
“I’ll do it.”
G’raha and the other Students around him turned and looked in Asher’s direction.
“You know how hard it is to get your hands on ancient weapons for research?” Asher set his sword aside. “Even as a Student, I’ve had multiple requests rejected for materials and worn-down weapons from other regions.”
G’raha’s eyes lit up while the other Students stared at Asher with incredulous expressions.
“You’re really going to make the attempt,” one of them said.
“If G’raha can do it, so can I.”
G’raha frowned, eyes narrowing. Then he grinned. “Very well, then! May the best thesis win!”
- - - - -
I woke up slumped against a tree. I could feel the bark digging into the back of my head. Not the most comfortable, but at least it wasn’t a rock.
“—haven’t noticed us as of yet, but we should move soon, ere our campfire be seen in the night.”
And there he was.
I opened my eyes and gave them a moment to adjust. G’raha and Sarah had lit a small fire at some point while waiting for me to get out of the flashback and were sitting across from each other.
“I’m not about to—” Sarah looked in my direction and relaxed. “You’re awake! How are you feeling?”
“Fine.” I pushed myself away from the tree. “Had some gaps fill in with that one.”
“Gaps?” G’raha tilted his head. He was sitting in a crouch, like he was ready to leap up at any second. “What do you….” He trailed off and looked at Sarah. She looked back at him like she knew something he didn’t.
“How much did Sarah tell you?” I rose to my feet and looked around. Comet was at the edge of the clearing, eyeing something beyond the trees.
“Not much,” G’raha said. “Merely that you occasionally suffer from attacks when you remember something from your forgotten past. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting you to mutter my name.”
And since he wasn’t looking at me like he knew me, that confirmed he was in the same boat as Amelia, that conjurer at Camp Dragonhead.
G’raha didn’t know who I was.
Except, while Amelia was willing to forget about it and look at me like a new person, I was less sure about how he would react.
“Your tattoo.” I tapped my neck, about where G’raha’s Archon mark was. “You got it because you were dared.”
G’raha clapped his hand over the Archon mark in surprise.
Sarah tilted her head. “Did you—”
“No.” I shook my head. “He decided to turn it into a race. Asher decided to try his luck. Didn’t get it.”
“Asher?” G’raha blinked rapidly. He frowned. “Hm. I do have gaps in my memory where a person used to be, but….” He frowned deeper. “Are you…implying that you are the person who Krile was distressed over?”
“Little more than implying.”
“Krile?” Sarah frowned. “Who’s Krile?”
“The granddaughter of my organization’s founder,” G’raha said. He blinked. “Ah, right! I should introduce myself properly.” He shot up to his feet and made sure to face the both of us. “My name is G’raha Tia, and I am a member of the Students of Baldesion, a Sharlayan organization. I was sent here to assist the Sons of Saint Coinach with their expedition into the Crystal Tower, as Allagan history is my specialty.”
The scattered memories I’d gotten back said he’d gotten his Archon mark using that.
“And playing games with our time is a part of that?” Sarah asked. She sounded innocent, but I saw the steel in her eyes and knew to keep my mouth shut.
G’raha’s mouth thinned, and he sighed and slumped forward. “I deserve that. I apologize — again — for my prior actions.”
Sarah inclined her head in my direction. So she’d gotten him to say it for me.
“Just don’t pull it again,” I said. “You didn’t know, so we’ll let it slide the once.”
“O-of course!” G’raha nodded quickly. “In that case — shall we break camp and return to Mor Dhona? I took the liberty of turning the ore into water-aspected aethersand while you were…ah, busy.”
“Meia called not long ago and said they’d returned with both earth and fire aethersand,” Sarah added. “So it seems our search for the required elements is complete.” She rose to her feet, then tugged on the ambient earth to cover the campfire.
G’raha made a noise that sounded like very restrained curiosity. Considering he’s Sharlayan, I’m not surprised.
“Let’s go,” I agreed. “Comet!”
“Kweh!” The chocobo quickly came over to join our group.
“I have many questions,” G’raha said. I could barely make out his wide eyes in the dark.
“Let us return to Revenant’s Toll before you ask them,” Sarah replied.