Path of a Summoner

She was in Zanarkand again, lying on the ground looking up at the sky, as if an unseen force tossed her there, leaving her to collect herself. She declined this invitation, staring up at the clouds instead. She heard the sound of the ocean from all around her.

“What now?” she mumbled, shaking her head. “What am I doing here?”

“You passed out,” said Amalthea. “You don’t think you have some sort of condition, do you?”

“If I do, I’d appreciate if the construct living in my head wasn’t the one to make fun of me for it,” she said, huffing.

“That’s quite rude. I’m not a construct. I was a living person, once.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened for you to end up like this, but I don’t understand how I got tangled up in this, either,” said Wren.

“Better you did than no one,” said Amalthea. “If you hadn’t come across Mobius’ mess, there’s a good chance no one else would be able to stop him either.”

Wren sat up finally, muttering in agreement. She seemed to be near the docks where she had first started, this time. There were few people walking to and fro in small groups, but it was relatively unpopulated compared to the bulk of the city.

“Do you know about what’s going on outside?” asked Wren.

“Not… really,” she answered. “I don’t really see anything, I’m mostly reliant on your judgement. I only really know what happens with you, and even then, only the internal aspect. I don’t know why you were caused to collapse, for instance. Just that your body is exhausted. But that’s easy to put together.”

Wren hummed softly, shrugging. “So you don’t know that I saw Mobius.”

“No, that I did feel,” she said, her voice turning cold again. “And I know you panicked and did nothing.”

Wren laughed in disbelief. “What? Did you want me to fight him? Don’t act like I wouldn’t love to, if I wasn’t on a tiny boat in the middle of a frozen lake and he wasn’t standing on the water’s surface like it was solid ground.”

“Do you mean that you can’t do that?” asked Amalthea, sounding surprised.

She had to pause a moment to think about that. What did Amalthea think she was? Their perceptions of each other seemed to both be way off base.

“Did you think I knew how to walk on water?” she asked, squinting her eyes.

“I thought… Well, I suppose it probably isn’t as easy as some might make it look, it took Mobius some time to learn it. It’s not even a necessary skill for summoners,” said Amalthea, embarrassed. “It’s just that his training was particularly rigorous, so I guess I shouldn’t have expected anyone else to have had to learn it.”

Answers to a completely different set of questions, that had not been asked or even occurred to Wren came forth. She had to stop Amalthea there, before she lost her own train of thought.

“Slow down,” she said, frowning. “Do you… know Mobius?”

Amalthea seemed to realize she’d said more than she really meant to. Wren felt something that seemed almost like the spirit was sighing. “Intimately.”

That left her with no clues as to why she was being so secretive. Which was annoying, at the very least.

Wren blinked, reacting the only way she knew how, at the moment. “Why is he like this?”

“I don’t think there’s anyone living or dead who knows the answer to that,” she admitted. “By the time I realized what was going on in his head, it was far too late.”

There were a couple of ways to interpret that, but before Wren had a chance to ask anymore questions, she could feel something touching her, gripping her arms. It felt like someone was gripping her body in the real world, but when she looked down at herself, there was obviously nothing there.

“Someone is trying to wake you up,” said Amalthea, not bothering to hide the disappointment in her voice. “Actually… I have much more to tell you, if there was time. When you get a chance, please come back to Djose. If you can find me there, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

Wren tried to open her mouth to question her, but was unable to speak. Everything dissolved around her, and she felt like she was falling.

Merris was leaning over her closely, shaking her arms.

She did not recognize her surroundings. It looked like some kind of storeroom? The ceiling was awfully high, but there was nothing in the room with them but an open crate, and some broken pottery. The room had no door either, and led directly to outside. If it was a storeroom, it didn’t seem to be in use anymore.

“Merris? Where are we?” she asked, nudging his grip on her away. “Where’s everyone else?”

Merris’ eyes glanced to the side and he sucked in air sharply through his teeth. “Okay, so you’ve been unconscious for a little while now. A few hours. Twill said you didn’t seem badly injured after you fell on the way here, but your ankle might feel a little weird, so we let you sleep. In the meantime, we started working on our strategy. We thought you’d wake up by now, but…”

“What’s going on?” she asked, squinting. It was dark outside, she realized. The light was coming from somewhere in the streets outside the storeroom.

“Everyone else is in place and we have to get moving to make sure our plan works,” said Merris, standing up.

“Wh… wait, right now?” She blinked, then started to get to her feet as well. “Did you carry me all over town like that?”

He shrugged a little in a sort of “what else was I supposed to do?” gesture.

“So what are we doing?” she asked, tilting her head harder than before.

“Well, that’s the thing, the plan is pretty straightforward. Twill and my sister are checking out the hangar where Mobius’ ship is being held. Then we’re all going to board the ship, find the engine room and dismantle and destroy as much of it as we can before anyone shows up to stop us,” he said. “So it isn’t complicated, but we can’t leave you here while we work.”

Something clicked in Wren’s head.

“Wait, we can use the airship,” she said, shaking her head. “I, uh… I need to go back to Djose. The spirit told me to come back to Djose to find her. If we go back on foot we’ll just waste time.”

Merris stared at her blankly. “Hey. You mean you want to go back to Mobius’ base of operations because a ghost told you to?”

Wren tested her ankle for a moment, frowning. “Anything sounds bad if you say it like that. The spirit said she knew Mobius while she was alive, and that she’d finally tell me everything. We know Mobius isn’t in Djose. As far as we can tell, he’s acting alone. So if going there and back without him ever noticing means getting some answers, I think I have to go.”

“But the only way we can do it like that is by taking the ship instead of grounding it,” he mumbled, thinking. “I don’t know, it sounds dangerous. Who’s going to fly it?”

“I don’t know, I only just found out about all this--I hadn’t really thought it out,” said Wren.

“I guess we’ll have to figure that one out when we come to it,” said Merris, inching towards the doorway. “We’ve got to make sure the other two know what’s going on before we do anything we’ll regret.”

Merris took off in a sprint before Wren knew how to respond, leaving her to try to keep up with him. It seemed unwise to exert herself, as that seemed to be the apparent cause of her collapse, but the situation required urgency. She chased him a short distance through the streets of Bevelle.

They looked out of place, the few bystanders lingering at night dressed in generous robes that draped their figures to their feet. Their footsteps, however, echoed through the passageways between buildings, like a quadrupedal thunder. Though Bevelle was a city, at night it seemed as silent as a grave. People would certainly be looking out their windows to see the noise.

Suddenly, Merris came to a stop, stumbling his feet to halt himself, and Wren had already slowed down some time ago. Her pace couldn’t compete with his.

She looked up at the building they stood next to. It was huge, and certainly new. And uncharacteristically square for a building in the old city…

It definitely looked like it could house a ship.

Merris, shuffled up to the side of the building. He peered around the corner into its alleyway, then wandered in.

“We’re pretty near where New Yevon kept their machines,” he warned. “Tana said there would be security, somewhere. A machine like this needs a lot of people to keep it running properly, especially if its owner uses it so rarely.”

Wren nodded, following behind him quietly as she could. Her breathing was still dry and somewhat painful, and her ankle was a bit sore, as promised. She would be fine in just a few moments, but she was worried about how quietly she could move like that.

They came to an entrance, finally, and slipped inside. Indeed, the building consisted of a single room that looked exactly as large as it appeared from the outside. More impressive was the ship, however.

It was large, and somewhat clunky looking. Wren had seen the airship that had circled Spira since a little after Sin was defeated, and its design was far sleeker. By no means was this one rickety, but rather than being mostly made of harsh metal, the construction was similar to a ship one would see on the ocean. It even had bulbous parts that appeared rather like the sails of a seaworthy vessel. The side of the ship bore its name: Hyacinth. It definitely looked like something someone with too much money to blow would own.

Oddly, though, the hangar was unoccupied. Merris mentioned security, but the stone floors and walls echoed every breath they took, with its emptiness. There was a soft shuffling sound coming from the direction of the ship.

Wren was too busy staring at the ship to speak, at first, before Merris nudged her.

“It sounds like they’re inside,” he whispered, a tone of urgency slipping into his voice. “I think the entrance is lowered on the other side.”

There was a gurgling noise that sounded like it came from deep within someone’s chest, and Wren jumped in surprise. A series of inoffensive snores followed shortly.

“Is… someone asleep?” she asked.

Merris sidled against the ship, then turned his head around the corner to see. He crossed in front of it, then looked. Wren could only follow.

“I don’t see anything,” he said, gesturing to her to look as well.

Wren felt that something was slightly off. There was no security? Wasn’t Mobius extremely wealthy? The surrounding industrial area probably served as enough protection already, but there was not even a single guard that they had found.

She was forced to shrug it off, then took off her sandals to avoid any extra noise in spite of her findings. She boarded the gangplank that extended to the floor from the side of the ship, entering cautiously with Merris following behind.

The other two had left a rather obvious trail of open doors. The interior of the ship was surprisingly roomy, the open door apparently leading to some kind of storage space. Despite the fact that it had likely been built for joyriding, it had a reasonably sized cargo hold. Wren didn’t have time to think of that, however. Finding Tana and Twill was more important. She followed their breadcrumb trail to the engine room.

The engine room was a series of boilers and other many-chambered, scary looking machines. Tana was poised next to one of them with a wrench that she appeared to have lifted from the man outside, ready to turn the valve.

“Stop!” she shouted hoarsely, trying to muffle herself. She hadn’t meant to yell, but there was no time to react otherwise.

Tana barely heard her in time, and the wrench slipped from her fingers, rattling to the floor very audibly.

“Shhh!” she hissed, mostly at herself as she jumped out of the way to avoid hitting her toes.

“You’re awak,!” hummed Twill quietly, nodding at Wren.

Wren nodded back, but held her hands nervously as she approached Tana. “We can’t destroy the ship. We need it. If we take it, at least we know it’s out of Mobius’ hands.”

Tana shook her head. “Slow down for a second. What for? We don’t even know where we’re going next.”

Wren started to try to explain herself, but the mechanical hum of the lift startled the four of them. It was moving back up, and the time ticking away before it stopped moving indicated it had been moving towards the deck and bridge area.

When it came back down, there was a girl leaning somewhat sleepily against the doorway of the lift.

She rubbed at her eyes, her somewhat muscled shoulders heaving as her eyes settled on them.

“What are you doing on my ship?” she barked at them.

She was short, but lanky, with noticeably muscular upper arms. Freckles were smattered across her olive tan skin from working in the sun, and she wore a bandana tied behind her ears, covering most of her short, somewhat stringy hair.

“Well?” she prompted, leaning against the doorway, revealing a crossbow on her hip Wren hadn’t noticed before in the wake of her surprise.

“Doesn’t… this ship belong to Mobius?” offered Wren, before she could really stop herself.

The girl snorted, shifting her weight back onto her feet to take a couple steps off of the lift to stand before them.

“I built the Hyacinth myself. Even if all Mobius did was name it, it might as well be mine, since he’s never here,” she said. “I fell asleep in the cockpit, but I’m not letting you lay a hand on this ship. Give me the wrench.”

She made no move to reach for her weapon, instead reaching her hand out to Tana, who was the closest to it.

Tana seemed to be considering her options, her shoulders tensed, but after a moment she leaned down to reach for the wrench, passing it to the girl, who then tucked it into the belt around her waist.

“Wait, are you a pilot?” asked Merris.

“Not officially,” said the girl, shaking her head. “But if someone didn’t take this thing for a spin every now and then, it’d fall apart in no time. And since I’m the only one in charge of taking care of it, that means I’m the only one who ever flies it too.”

She paused, then made a gesture drawing a line from the group to the lift. “Forget that. Get out of here. This place is off limits.”

None of them moved.

She reached for her crossbow this time, cradling it in her arms as she kept it pointed at their feet. “Did you hear me? Get. Off. My. Ship.”

“Sorry, how much did you say Mobius pays you for all that work?” asked Tana, rubbing at her neck. “Taking care of a ship like this can’t be a job for one person, right? Between any repairs, and keeping it running, and leaving you here to take care of it overnight…”

The girl squeezed her eyes shut, relaxing her stance as she contemplated.

“Well, I’m not really supposed to be guarding it or anything, I just… fell asleep in the cockpit,” she admitted. “There usually aren’t many guards, but I’m always here during the day.”

“Sure, but all the work you’re doing during the day, by yourself, you must be making a fortune, right?” Tana asked, opening her palm towards her. “How old are you, anyway, kid? Where’d he pick you up?”

“I’m not a kid, my name is Chia and I’m seventeen. I’ve been doing this kind of work for a while, fixing up machina, so I think someone referred him to me when he wanted a ship built,” she said, thinking. “But now that you mention it… this sort of work is normally done by a lot of people. The last time I had any help working on it was… when it was being constructed…”

She frowned deeply. “I’ve only met Mobius a couple of times, when he still lived in Bevelle, and since then I’ve been dealing with couriers, mostly… What is it you want, again?”

Wren blinked at Tana in surprise as it unfolded. She didn’t really feel comfortable with manipulating her, but if she felt she was being mistreated then maybe it wasn’t complete garbage anyway.

“We need a ship,” said Wren, nodding her head, before Tana could say anything else. “Mobius is… doing something really dangerous, that will probably get a lot of people killed. We need to be able to travel faster than Mobius can, so we can cut him off before he gets a chance to try anything.”

Chia fiddled with the edge of her bandana, scratching her head briefly while she thought. “I mean… that sounds bad? But you’re not giving me a lot of information. How do I know I can trust you either?”

Wren frowned, looking down at her feet. “Um…”

“We’ll pay you off,” said Merris, pointing.

Tana looked to Merris, this time.

“After we beat Mobius?” he offered, shrugging. “He’s got a ton of money, right?”

Tana nodded her head. “Right, right. We’ll sort it all out then. The most important thing is that we get where we need to go.”

Chia thought about this for a few moments. “Well… All I’m really supposed to do is keep this ship running. If I’m taking it for a test flight, I’m the only one who can be the judge of that… So as long as I’m flying the ship, then it’s never left my watch, has it?”

Wren’s eyes lit up. “So you’ll help us?”

Chia placed her crossbow back at her hip, shaking her head. “I don’t know what kind of mess you guys are caught up in, but if I can get even with him, that suits me just fine. Like I said, this ship is practically mine, anyway.”

Tana looked relieved, relaxing her shoulders at last. She nodded her head to Chia, who sort of grinned awkwardly in response. “So… where are we headed, anyway? I’m ready to take off whenever, but I can’t take you anywhere unless you tell me more.”

“Djose,” said Wren, quickly. “I’ve heard the reason Mobius keeps his ship here is because it’s too rocky to land anywhere near the town, but… If you can take us as close as you can, it’ll help.”

Chia rubbed the back of her neck, frowning. “I’ll take you as close to the temple as I can, but you’ll have to walk wherever you need to go in town. Got to be careful of the electricity running through the temple too. Sound good?”

Twill broke off of the group to find the cabins, while the others went with Chia up to the deck. As the ship started to take off, the ceiling of the hangar opened, and the ship began to rise into the dimming sky. It was nearly nighttime, but that wasn’t stopping them.

The view was dizzying, and she was grateful the railing on the ship was so high as the ground started to grow smaller and smaller below them. She sank down to the floor of the deck, the air chilling her skin as they cut through the clouds. Maybe she would join Twill after all. Besides, she was feeling unrest after spending a couple of hours unconscious. Her body still felt stiff and strange, and she could still feel her ankle pulsing.

When Tana helped her get down to the cabin area, she finally explained herself. What was happening, and why they were going backwards, back to Djose, when Mobius would find out any time now that they had taken his ship.

The cabin area wasn’t very large, it had a small living area with comfortable seating inside, meant for a handful of people, but the number of beds made it clear that the number of people it was meant for was probably lower than were currently aboard. The two beds were on the large side, however, so Wren anticipated sharing, once again. That still left one person out of the equation, but it seemed Chia was more than content in the cockpit of the ship.

The three of them had arranged themselves on the beds, so they were almost sitting in a sloppily-made circle, if they could be any closer together.

“Why does the spirit need you to go to Djose? There are easier ways to access the Farplane, if she wishes to communicate with you,” said Twill, frowning.

“Yeah, I… didn’t get a chance to ask, because everyone was already set up to destroy the ship,” said Wren. “But… I just realized something.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, um… I told you about what I found before, in Djose? There is technically one place where the living can commune with the dead, without going to the Farplane,” said Wren, rubbing her arm with her other hand.

“The Hall of the Hymn,” mumbled Tana, nodding.

“Yeah,” she said. She didn’t realize how tired she felt until she stretched out across the bed. “I think Amalthea is probably a Fayth.”