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For a long time, there
was silence between them, and she fidgeted when the tension became
thick and heavy around her.
"This would be easier if we had a name for you," the black-haired
leader said, and Rydia regarded him for a long moment before
thrusting her hand out in front of her.
"I'm Rydia," she said, and they shook hands.
"Tseng," was his answer. "You are part of the King's council? Your
name is on everyone's mouths here."
"I'm a Mage Instructor," she clarified, and then, with a wave of her
hand, "and we are a bit famous, I suppose, after we saved the
world."
"Everyone's done that nowadays," the red-haired man said, on her
right, frowning a bit. "Saving the world ain't what it used to be."
Rydia turned to glare at him. In the glare of the early morning sun,
all three men's suits looked more blue than black, reminding her
strongly of the deep navy ceremonial robes worn during the knighting
rituals in Baron. The thought of comparing the strangers with
knights was an odd one, and yet didn't offend her as much as she
thought it would– they all, well, the dark-haired one and the bald
one, at least, carried themselves with straight shoulder lines and
stiff legs, as the knights themselves did, and their pleats were
crisp and starched.
"And you are?" she prompted, and the red-haired man did not stick
his hand out to shake. Instead he gave her a cheeky grin and threw
his mechanical weapon up onto his shoulder to rest.
"Reno," he introduced himself. She reached for his weapon, snagging
it neatly off of his shoulder, and ignored his surprised expression.
The weapon was metal, and was heavy in the palm of her hands, and
yet when she looked to find the operation of it, there appeared to
be none. She tapped it against her fingers, confused.
"What is the point to fighting with a rod when you can't channel
magic through it?" she asked.
"You hit people with it," Reno said, exasperated. Rydia turned to
him and thwapped him on the shoulder with it. It hit solidly, which
was more than she had expected from the weapon, and must have worked
because he yelped in pain and grabbed at the spot where she'd made
contact. She shrugged and handed it back to him.
"I suppose that works," she said. Without waiting for a response–
and without acknowledging the continued exclamations of pain– she
turned to the last stranger, the one with the dark glasses.
"Rude," he said, and he too did not hold his hand out to shake. She
accepted it with a half-smile, and then turned back to Tseng, who
had been looking over the wooden railing of the airship as the
engine took them higher into the sky. The breeze near the clouds was
much cooler than down on the land below, and she was glad that she
had worn her traveling tunic, which was made of smooth leather and
was far warmer than her normal teaching garb.
"What are you?" she asked, and even though the question came out
odd, he seemed to understand.
"We are Turks," he told her. His tone was curt and to the point, and
she quickly understood that their title was likely all she would be
given. It started to fall into place then– the suits, the weapons,
and the lack of information given about their presence on the whole.
They were clearly mercenaries of some kind, working for someone she
would never meet, and while their motives were unclear, they seemed
to trust her, and Cecil, enough to request their aid. She shifted,
deck boards squeaking slightly beneath her weight.
Seeing as how her current line of questioning was getting her no
further, as Tseng had already turned back to the railing again, she
changed tactics.
"This man we are going after," she began, moving to stand beside him
and drumming her fingers on the rail, "you said he was dangerous.
How dangerous?"
"There is no telling," he replied, and his answer, which she took at
face value as being truthful, made her blood run cold. She had
thought they'd seen the last of men wishing to harm the planet, and
ever since the moon had disappeared from its orbit around the night
sky, she'd felt safer. Knowing that there was a way for more to
bring ill to the world, and knowing that, in some way, it was the
fault of her old home that they were able to arrive in the first
place, was not calming her nerves any. She wrapped her arms around
her torso and chewed on her lower lip.
"You say you are a Mage?" Tseng asked, breaking her from her stupor.
"I understand that here, Mages have specialties."
"I'm a Summoner," Rydia corrected, though there would have been no
way for them to have known that. "My magic runs in junction with my
heritage. But yes, Mages have specialties."
"What's yours then?" Reno asked, and she almost smiled.
"You want another demonstration?" Without waiting for a response,
she flicked her fingers in his direction, and was pleased to find
that the Blizzard spell hit dead-on. Tseng looked pleased as well,
though Reno seemed a bit upset by the barrage of ice crystals that
were assaulting his nose.
"I see you'll be useful on this mission," Tseng said.
"What exactly are we looking for?" she asked. He opened his mouth as
if to answer, and then there was a cry of alarm from one of the
mechanics on deck.
"Monsters!" came the warning, and Rydia whirled, pack slipping off
her shoulder as she threw it to the boards, immediately falling into
a fighting stance. She should have known they would encounter
something up in the clouds, if only because of the mission they were
on. If the man was dangerous, and he could use the portals of magic
streaming beneath the planet's crust, then he would be good at
manipulating the monsters that fed on such energy. There was a
shadow above the planks, and then they were surrounded by floating
one-eyed creatures, hissing and flapping against the wind.
Rydia immediately sent a Thunder spell into the nearest one, and was
pleased to see that the men– the Turks, she should say– were already
grappling with the others. They moved quickly, almost fluidly, with
a grace she'd seen on no one save for Edge. They were clearly
well-versed in battle tactics, for without even signaling to one
another, they knew when to move and duck and switch between
themselves. She turned, because the creature she'd shocked had not
fallen from the voltage, and tried again, increasing the potency of
the spell. Her fingers tingled with magic use, and the monster gave
off a sputtering wail before falling motionless to the deck.
She turned and readied a fire spell, focusing the energy between her
cups hands, and was lucky enough to glance to her right in time to
see Rude taking out one of the creatures while another one was
diving towards his back.
"Rude!" she cried out. "Duck!"
He did as he was told, spinning a leg out in the process to tumble
the monster in front of him, and Rydia aimed her Fira spell at the
float eye behind him, which let out a shrill shriek of pain as the
flames consumed its form. There was a flash of red to her right, and
she was knocked to the ground as one of the monsters swooped low
with claws outstretched, narrowly missing her left arm. She could
feel the rush of air as it soared across her, and Reno was
scrambling off of her, and his hand was hot on her arm.
"Hit it!" he yelled, and she complied, having already started the
Thundara chant. There was a violent shake to the airship, and Rydia,
having begun to climb back to her feet, fell backwards again,
fingers scrambling to take a hold of anything that was nearby. She
looked around wildly, but there were more float eyes, almost as if
they hadn't taken any out at all, and she kicked hard at one that
was moving near her legs, knocking it over.
There was another one to her left, and she could see Tseng shooting
with remarkable aim at two he had cornered near the back of the
deck. She sent a wildly charged Bio spell at the monster she had her
eye on, and was pleased to hear the rattling cry it gave off as the
magic wrought spasms in its body. The airship rocked again, to the
left, jerking her across the planks again.
"Reno!" Tseng cried out. "The airship!"
Rydia spun on her knees and turned, shooting another Fira spell over
a monster that had swooped low over the railing and raked its claws
at one of the ship's mechanics. She was shocked to see that the man
she'd just saved was the only mechanic left on deck– where the
others had gone, she didn't know, but it wasn't good. She felt a
sharp trill of pain in her chest for the fallen, and then realized
that the airship was tumbling wildly because there was no longer a
figure manning the controls. She screeched when the vessel began to
fall, turning its nose down towards the ground below.
Reno had gotten himself behind the control panel, and was pushing
buttons madly.
"What are you doing?" Rydia cried out, somehow managing to get on
her feet again. Her heels had nothing to dig into in order to lock
her upright, and she skidded across the boards towards the controls.
"Saving all our asses!" came the response, and he grabbed the wheel,
pulling back sharply. The airship complied quickly, knocking Rydia
against the railing as it righted itself from its nosedive towards
the trees, and she swore under her breath.
"You're going to kill us!" she snapped. "You don't even know how to
fly this thing!"
"I know enough!" he replied, and then the airship turned again,
making a left. A float eye appeared out of nowhere to Rydia's left,
and she threw a Blizzard spell at it, but she could feel her energy
depleting rapidly from the constant drain, and her muscles felt as
if they were on fire. The spell didn't kill the creature off
completely, and it writhed on the boards as if trying to take flight
again, so she stepped down hard on its pupil, her heel going cleanly
through. She would have to wipe the entrails off later– there was
another one to her right already.
It lunged, and then she heard the crack of the shot, and when it
fell, it left a gory trail of red on the planks below it. Tseng was
behind her with his gun outstretched. The airship shuddered once,
and then there was a violent explosion from somewhere below, and she
could feel gravity starting to claim them as the vessel shifted
lower. The motion made her stomach heave.
"Reno!" Tseng cried out, firing at more the creatures, which had not
stopped bombarding them yet.
"I can't hold it!" Reno replied, and his knuckles were white around
the wheel.
"We lost an engine!" Rude cried, and Rydia had not even seen him
make his way to the controls with the rest of them. The airship
jerked again, and she nearly lost her hold on the rail, feet
slipping against the boards.
Then there was a split-second of calm, when she couldn't hear the
roar of the wind against the sides or the sputtering of the engine,
and then, just as abruptly as it came, it dissipated. The airship
fell, and her heart was in her stomach, and she had to close her
eyes because the force of the wind was too much against her face.
She held onto the rail for dear life, thinking, very clearly, that
they were all going to die without having even made it to Mt.
Ordeals.
There was a crash, and she felt a pop and crunch in her knee, and
the last thing she knew before the darkness took her was that
someone had grabbed her hand.
--------
It was the pain that woke her, the throbbing in her knee, and it was
so intense that when she opened her eyes, the corners stung with
unshed tears. It was light, but she could tell that the day was
already waning into night by the streaks of purples that littered
the sky. She was lying on her back, and she could feel rocks digging
into her skin through the leather of her tunic, and when she pushed
herself upright, she felt queasy.
Her hair was wet, and the sensation was startling, and she ran a
hand through the strands to fix the clumps that had formed.
"Good," someone said, and then Tseng was kneeling next to her.
"You're awake."
She mumbled something incoherent in reply and squinted up at the
sun, which was rapidly disappearing below the horizon.
"I'm hoping that you know where we are," he continued. She turned
slowly, taking in the scenery around them. It was mostly trees,
clumped closely together, and they were not the evergreens outside
of Troia. Over the line of green they formed there was a mountain
shrouded in fog, its peak obscured by the mist, and she pointed to
it, feeling better than she had when she awoke, even though there
was a lingering guilt manifesting in her chest for those lost during
the airship battle. She pushed the thoughts of the float eyes and
the ship from her mind, for there was little use they would have
now.
"That's Mt. Ordeals," she said, sighing in relief. "Thank the moons
we landed near it."
"We landed in the water," Rude said, to her left. It explained her
wet hair. She didn't ask what had become of the airship– she knew
enough to realize that a water landing would have split it apart,
and the only things remaining were at the bottom of the sea.
"You pulled me from the water?" she asked, and the bald man shook
his head, earrings shimmering briefly in the dwindling sunlight.
"Reno did." Rude stood and walked off, and Rydia mimicked him,
brushing leaves and grass from her tunic. She was without her pack,
for it had been on the ship, and as much as it saddened her she was
far more glad to have escaped with her life. Her boots were still
soggy, as was the back of her clothing, but it was a small price to
pay for having been spared drowning in the sea. The Turks looked
rumpled and bruised, but no more worse for the wear. She turned to
Tseng and shrugged.
"We are closer to the mountain than we are to Mysidia, the nearest
town," she explained. "We don't have rations anymore, but the
mountain is full of wild herbs and fruit. We would save time by
going straight there if no one is in need of medical attention."
"It would be best," he said, nodding. "We don't have time to waste
while he is on the loose."
Rydia refrained from asking more about the man they were following,
and contented herself with following the men, who had already begun
moving towards the mist-shrouded peak. Her knee ached something
fierce, the pain shooting up and down into her calf and thigh, but
she'd been through worse scrapes before, and it wasn't preventing
her from walking. She caught up to Reno, who looked even more
rumpled than usual, falling into step beside him.
"Thanks," she said awkwardly, "for getting me on land."
"I'm a good swimmer," he replied, smirking somewhat. His suit was
clearly still damp, and his hair looked crimson when wet, and she
gestured with one hand towards his crumpled clothing.
"You know, I could dry you off with a Fire spell if–"
"No," he cut in, rolling his eyes. "Hell no, not that again."
She fought back a laugh, and he smirked, and she felt better about
the situation as they walked resolutely towards Mt. Ordeals.
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