Path of a Summoner

An unusual commotion was heard throughout the cavernous halls that were Djose’s streets. 

By the sound of the excited chatter outside her door, it sounded like someone important had come to visit. People were starting to gather at the town’s entrance, and Tana found herself trudging along behind them. 

A safe distance from the temple, there was the outline of the sails of the Hyacinth.

Tana smiled warmly and began nudging her way through the crowd with a renewed eagerness replacing her passive curiosity. She had waited to see her friends long enough that she found her chest aching to see them.

The figures standing in the center of the small crowd, however, were not Twill or Chia, or even her brother. Twill was coming down the gangplank behind them. But who had the ship brought along with them?

“Lady Yuna!” cried out one of the women walking nearby, switching from a slow walk to a brisk jog.

Tana parted through the crowd and did indeed recognize Yuna, who was chattering awkwardly with the townspeople. Beside her was a young blonde man that Tana knew only through her brother’s interest in blitzball.

Yuna lifted her head when Tana approached. She then bowed her head deeply as a sign of respect and greeting. “Miss Tana!”

Tana tried not to avert her eyes despite how embarrassed at having the High Summoner, of all people, bow to her. And in front of so many obvious fans, no less. “Hey, just call me Tana. I promise, my title sounds more important than the job really is. What’s brought you to Djose?”

Yuna stood up again, gesturing to Tidus, who seemed distracted by the crowd. “This is Tidus, one of my beloved guardians, and my fiance. We came to talk about matters of great importance, but I thought it would be better if your whole group to hear what we have to say.”

Tana glanced around the group, then up at Twill, who waved back at her with a faint smile. She probably meant to discuss the Sin situation with them. Normally, since they had no luck convincing half of Spira that Sin could even exist, that would be a welcome thing, for the high summoner to admit there was a problem. But Tana knew things that should not have been heard by the public. Talking privately would be best.

“Yeah, we probably have a lot to talk about,” she murmured. “I can get you set up in our town’s hotel, and we can talk there, or you can rest for awhile first. It’s up to you.”

Chia, followed by Merris, descended from the ship, and Twill gestured to let them pass as they started to join the group standing in the small crowd’s center. Tana greeted Merris with a warm side hug.

Tidus nodded to Yuna. “It’s kinda short notice, but we should probably get right into it.”

The crowd thinned only a little as they walked, but had completely dispersed by the time she got to the building that formerly belonged to Mobius.

“The group here is a pretty religious bunch,” said Tana, somewhat apologetically, once the couple, and the crew from the ship were checked in. “They’re all really nice people, but they’re a little excitable.”

Yuna laughed, shaking her head. “It’s a little overwhelming, but this happens a lot in towns that have a temple, so I’m almost used to it by now. I still don’t really know what to say to them, though.”

The room they had settled in to talk was a common room that surrounded what had previously been used as guest bedrooms. There were two sofas, a table in the middle, and a fireplace, against the wall near the door.

A young woman from the lobby brought a tray of teas and hot water to them, and Tana accepted it at the door, then requested that they not be disturbed while the group talked things over.

“I should have come sooner,” said Yuna. “but for the last month and a half, we’ve been really busy in Besaid, planning for what we’ll do if Sin really does attack. The rainy season in the islands is nothing compared to the devastation that Kilika, and Besaid, many years earlier, had seen in more recent history.”

Tidus shook his head at her. “Besaid needed you. Besides, it’s my fault for not speaking up sooner. I just didn’t figure out how widespread these dreams were. I still dream about home all the time, so when they started getting a little weird, I still didn’t notice.”

Yuna hummed in anxious agreement, then looked to Tana. “You’ve probably already guessed, but we need to talk about what’s been going on with Sin, and these dreams.”

Tana placed the tray on the thin rectangular table, then started passing the warm drinks around. “From what I’ve heard, not many people started taking Sin seriously until the Ronso’s elder sent a message across Spira, even though Twill and Chia warned them right after everything went south. I’m just glad someone took our warnings seriously at all.”

“I told you on the ship, but Sin is much more docile than I thought,” said Twill. “There haven’t been any sightings we’ve been able to confirm, except the Ronso’s, who more or less said that it’s been floating in the sky aimlessly since it first appeared.”

“Kimahri has been a very good friend to me, since I was just a little girl. I would never take news like this lightly, but he told me as much himself. Hearing what’s been happening lately is strange… but no stranger than these dreams,” said Yuna, sighing.

“That’s why I wanted to talk,” said Tidus. He took a sip of the tea, then set the cup back on the table politely. He leaned closer to the center of the group, as if afraid of being overheard. “We don’t have a whole lot of secrets from the rest of Spira anymore, since Bevelle volunteered a lot of secrets themselves once everyone in charge vanished. Not that it’s important, but not a lot of people know much about me besides my blitz statistics.”

At this, everyone but Yuna looked a little skeptical. What was he on about?

“I’m not originally from Spira,” he said, shrugging just a little. It was obvious he wasn’t used to telling the story. He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. “I know, that probably sounds crazy, but that’s part of why I never tell anyone.  These dreams that everyone’s been having - the city they all take place in is a version of Spira that hasn’t existed in over a thousand years. It’s Zanarkand, back when it was still alive - before it was destroyed by the war.”

“Back then, the summoners of old sacrificed their lives to preserve the memory of that glorious city,” said a new voice - one who hadn’t been invited, and nor had the door opened since it had been shut by Tana. “It lived on, in the form of a dream shared by all of those who became a part of the vast Fayth scar of Mt. Gagazet, until the time when the Fayth were finally allowed to rest. Until recently, that is.”

Everyone’s attention turned to the unlit fireplace, where a small green figure now stood. It didn’t quite click for Tana at first, as she studied the old man, but he did look familiar. 

“Maechen!” gasped Yuna, jumping to her feet.

Recognition filled the eyes of Tidus as well, but he remained seated. “You’ve got to get some new tricks, Gramps. You’re ruining my story!”

“The old man from the Thunderplains,” said Merris, nodding decisively.

Maechen chuckled pleasantly, both at Tidus’ joking accusation and the acknowledgement of Merris as Yuna took her seat again. “I could not help but interject. Apologies, but perhaps I can aid you with my own perspective. Please, continue.”

“My point is, I’m from a version of Zanarkand that doesn’t exist in this world anymore,” said Tidus. “The one I’m from was a dream too. I think this Zanarkand and my Zanarkand might be kind of the same thing.”

The room went silent. Tana offered a cup to Maechen as well, which he accepted with a grateful murmur.

Yuna nodded in confirmation. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen this Zanarkand with my own eyes, until these dreams started, but I believe every word wholeheartedly. I’ve seen enough to believe that it was real.”

Tana wanted to believe it too. It sounded like something Wren would love to hear about, if she were there. 

“I’ll bite,” she said after a moment. “I kinda figured the city might be Zanarkand, or what it used to be, anyway. That’s what Wren said she used to see in her dreams. But what does it mean, if these dreams are the same as… this other Zanarkand you came from?”

Tidus exhaled, puffing his cheeks out while he thought. “I don’t really know how to say this, but I think everything we see in the dreams is really happening… somewhere.”

This suggestion was even harder to swallow; somehow it was worse to confront the idea that Wren really was trapped there, wherever she was.

Yuna spoke again, a frown creasing her brows. “I recently saw something else, in my dream… I decided to try watching them. Wren is always asleep, but Mobius spends his time in the library. If I could touch anything in the dream, instead of passing through it, I would love to stay and study for a while myself, but…”

Tidus cleared his throat when Yuna trailed off. “Tell them what happened.”

She nodded. “Mobius actually spoke. I’ve never seen them together before, so there isn’t anyone to talk to, usually, and at first, I was afraid he was talking to me,” she said, giving a nervous laugh. “He said… ‘I can’t keep this up much longer. I need to talk to her.’”

“Keep what up?” huffed Chia, frowning as she thought about it.

“I have no idea,” admitted Yuna, a solemn expression. “He was trying to focus on whatever it was he was reading, and I tried to read over his shoulder, but he almost seemed to sense that I was there when I tried to touch one of the nearby books. To be honest, I felt a little rattled, but then he stood up and walked to the opposite end of the library, where Wren was sleeping. He then shook her until she started to stir, and after that, the dream faded away.”

“I’ve never seen Wren conscious during these dreams. It’s obvious that she’s just sleeping, though, because she moves around between dreams,” said Twill, reluctantly.

“Thinking about it with the idea that what we see is real, though…” said Tana.

“When, you know… My old man was Sin - we confronted the man himself from the inside,” said Tidus, swallowing. “Inside Sin, there was a city that looked a lot like Zanarkand, only it was destroyed, like the ground just opened up and swallowed half of it, and the other half of it was on fire.”

“There must be some connection here, right?” asked Merris, frowning. 

“There may just be,” volunteered Maechen, setting his teacup back down on the table. “After all, in ages past, Sin was brought about to protect Zanarkand - your home, that is - by the most powerful of all summoners, Yu Yevon. Though this power should have dispersed and returned to the Farplane when Lady Yuna performed her grand sending over Bevelle, it seems to have found its way to Lord Mobius, and to our friend Wren, as well.”

“That’s because of the pyreflies, actually. Amalthea showed us her memories, and the exact moment a cluster from the sending split off and collided with him. He fell seriously ill at first, but that was just the beginning of it.”

“I suppose that if a part of Yu Yevon could remain in this world, the rest would want to reunite with the missing piece,” hummed the scholar. “But there’s no doubting that this power is what allowed these visions to begin, even if the dream is but a shadow of its former glory. I myself am not susceptible to these dreams, but the accounts I have heard are all the same: an empty city, a young girl, and an infamous face. It is a shame that they cannot witness Zanarkand at its brightest-- full of life, even in a dream.”

Yuna’s expression slowly fell as she listened to Maechen’s speech. “The pyreflies from the sending I performed at Sin’s defeat caused all of this? I should have been more careful. Even if Mobius hadn’t chosen this path, no one should have been harmed. And the Calm I brought… I guess it wasn’t eternal after all.”

“Not so, Lady Yuna! You broke Spira’s cycle, and the spiral of death truly did end with your pilgrimage,” said Maechen, a twinkle in his eye as he spoke. “The fact that the cycle can begin anew is not a shortcoming on your part.”

“If the pyreflies hadn’t found their way to just about the worst person possible, it really would have been an Eternal Calm,” said Tana, shaking her head. “Most people still won’t believe that Sin is really back, so I doubt anyone would ever say it was for nothing.”

“Still, even if it’s not my fault, I can’t just do nothing,” she said, still looking skeptical. “Even if Sin stays where it is and never bothers anyone again, that’s still two people who are suffering needlessly. I still feel responsible.”

Maechen seemed to consider something, stroking his beard while he thought. “This Mobius - the former leader of the Yevon splinter group, Respira - is undeniably the one who brought Sin back into the world, correct?”

“Yes… but based on what I saw in Zanarkand, we believe he used Wren’s Aeon to do it. Both Wren and Mobius have a strong enough bond with her to create something as deadly as Sin once was,” said Twill, a guilty expression crossing their eyes. They sighed. “I can’t say I saw what happened myself, since I was the one who allowed Mobius to pass, knowing I couldn’t defeat him alone, but… I personally believe Wren was tricked into somehow assisting him.”

“Then I do not need to tell you what you must already be piecing together,” said Maechen, solemnly. “This place, where our young summoners are imprisoned, is also inside Sin, where they’ll reside until they are freed.”

“‘Imprisoned,’ huh?” snorted Chia, putting her empty teacup down with an audible clack. “One of them got himself into this on purpose.”

The color drained from Yuna’s face, but neither she nor Tidus looked particularly surprised by this conclusion. “That might be true, but it’s no way to live. Inside Sin, after a thousand years of isolation, Yu Yevon had become little more than a husk, only capable of carrying out his will. I can’t let that kind of fate befall either of them. No one deserves to wither away alone like that.”

The possibility had never occurred to the four friends. Each of them wished equally to stop Wren’s suffering, and though they weren’t quite sold on Mobius, he couldn’t be allowed to continue his new cycle.

“We’ll take care of it,” said Tana. “If you want to help, I won’t stop you, but this is our mess to clean up, and Wren is our friend. We’ll get her back.”

Yuna sighed, obviously not satisfied to do nothing. “Please believe me when I say I trust all of you, but I feel too restless. I want to help.” 

“If you’re going to help them, I’m going too,” said Tidus. “The blitz season is just about to start, but I’d drop everything for this.”

“All of us are still making preparations before we can take Sin on, but I don’t think any of us will object to more hands,” said Twill.

Yuna gave a soft smile. 

“Like I said, any support is appreciated,” said Tana. “But I’ve got a lot of work to do in town. We’ll survive an attack, but I’ve got to make sure there’s someone here to take over without me. I’m thinking of leaving Eden in charge.”

Merris narrowed his eyes, his jaw set. “The Respira guy?”

“I’ve checked in with my mother,” said Twill, rolling their eyes. “The worst of Guadosalam’s troubles would be a flood, if Sin attacked. It doesn’t rain often, since it’s next to the Thunder Plains, but the root systems of the trees there are massive and surrounded by water, so flooding does happen from time to time. That much, they should be able to handle.”

“As long as Sin stays away from any towns, we can wait, but we aren’t the ones who are trapped up there,” said Tidus. “I’m down to spar with any of you, if you need extra practice.”

“We’ll probably take you up on that,” said Tana. “For now, just enjoy your stay, and… I guess we’ll just have to keep doing what we were doing before."

---

The Hyacinth’s crew declined Tana’s offer to take lodging in the hotel for their stay, but Merris accepted when invited to stay in her home instead.

“You’re really sure you don’t want a room in the hotel?” asked Tana. “You know as well as I do that it can get cramped at my place.”

“I’m tired of sleeping on the ship, as nice as the beds are, but anywhere is better than Mobius’ old place,” said Merris, shrugging as they approached her home.

“Yeah, I can’t say I blame you for that,” she said, letting him inside and gesturing for him to make himself at home. “Help yourself to anything here, then. Your old room is basically the same as when you left it, so… you’re welcome to it.”

Merris nodded and set his things by the table, before reclining in the cozy chair by the fireplace.

“So what’s going on in the sky lately? It’s been a few months since I’ve seen you in person,” said Tana, tidying up the room as she talked. 

“Not much more than I’ve already told you over the air,” he said, watching her. “Sounds like you’ve been a lot busier than I have.”

He watched as she cleaned off the table, then adjusted the placement of a simple image sphere. Its crystal surface was dusty, so she swiped a thumb across it as she pulled her hand away. Merris snorted. She was good at organizing people , but her home wasn’t any less cluttered than when they’d lived in Djose together only a couple of years ago.

“Yeah, you could say that. Respira has gotten off my back ever since I let them go ahead with their shipments, but there’s still a lot going on in town,” she said, finally sitting down once she’d cleared off the seat at the low glass table. “Have you talked to Mom and Dad lately?”

Merris wrinkled his nose a little. “I’ve written them a couple of times, but I haven’t said anything about what’s going on. What about you?”

“I don’t know what to say to them… It’s kinda like I’m scared to say anything at all,” she said, scratching the back of her head with a frown.

“Yeah… You know them, they’ll probably freak out if we told them anything about Sin,” he said. 

She drummed her nails on the table. “They’d call it suicide.”

Merris made a grim expression, folding his hands. “It might as well be, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on something this important.”

“I don’t think we can give up,” she said. “Even if we let this reach the rest of Spira, we’ve got to do what we can for Wren. I don’t know how yet, but I think we’ll figure something out.”

He lifted his head to look at her. In normal times, he considered himself to be a pretty upbeat person, but right now he was feeling anything but. “Is that how you really feel?”

Tana’s eyebrows went up as she looked back at him. “Sure, I mean… we don’t have any other choice. Either we save the day, or… That’s it, you know?”

His expression didn’t brighten any more as she finished speaking. “I want to think we can make it too. I mean, that’s what I’m training for - to make sure the next time we fight, it’s not as pathetic as when we tried to take on Mobius. No offense, it’s just… that was a mess.”

“No one would blame you, if you wanted to back out,” said Tana, pensively pursing her lips together. “I think Yuna might even feel better if you did.”

“I’m not too scared to fight; I told you I’m not backing out,” he mumbled, lowering his head again. “I just don’t like seeing you like this.”

“Like what?”

“You’re acting all confident, but you’ve got all these backup plans, ‘just in case.’”

She sat up a little straighter. “Why shouldn’t I have a plan? If things did go wrong, what would happen if I just took off? It would be irresponsible, at best.”

“So that’s why you’re stepping down?” asked Merris, tilting his head.

Tana waved her hand for him to lean a little closer. “Hey, can I tell you a secret? I’ve been doing this for a couple of years - running a town alone sucks. When I come back, I want to go back to making and selling my own jewelry. I’m no good at magic, but enchanting is barely magic, and everyone needs something enchanted once in a while. There’s good money in it.”

“Tana…” 

“Eden is a bit older than me, and I think his brother would be about our age now. He’s kind of a hothead, but he’s not like the rest of Respira,” she said, turning to rummage through her bag sitting in the chair next to her for something. “He’s only interested in helping his little brother, and now that he’s done all that was asked of him, he’s apparently not very busy these days.”

“I’d never trust him with this place,” said Merris, shaking his head. “Not just because of Respira - it’s because Mobius left him in charge. If Mobius trusted him, should we?”

“Mobius doesn’t trust anyone,” she said, rolling her eyes. “All of us are proof of that. Getting all of you involved in this might have been an accident, but he tried to rub me out just because he thought he couldn’t trust me. Eden being in position to take over doesn’t tell us anything about his worth to Mobius.”

Merris motioned his hand that she was on the right track, that he was following her line of thinking exactly. “As much as I can’t stand all this, I know you wouldn’t have chosen someone for the job without putting serious thought into it. So I know it’s not a rash decision.”

Tana watched him for a few moments. He was frustrated, and probably more scared than he would admit. She still couldn’t take off early, but she wished she could do more to help him. She didn’t want anyone to feel like they were stuck in a hopeless situation because of Sin, but least of all him.

“I’m just being careful,” she said, pulling her chair closer to him. “I really do want a break, and I plan on making it through this to get one.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I know, I’m just worried about you.”

“I worry about you too. But both of us are stuck with this problem, all we can do is look out for each other.” She felt like she had more to say, but she was doubtful that words would help him. The only thing that would calm his nerves would be if Sin was already taken care of - if this new Sin never existed.

“I’m worried that if we tell them too far in advance, they’ll try to stop us,” said Merris. “Mom and Dad, I mean.”

Tana rubbed her neck tiredly. “Yeah… I don’t think they’ll do anything too drastic, but I don’t want to worry then more than I have to. It will be a lot easier not to tell them at all.”

“Twill is lucky to have a mother they can actually tell about this stuff,” sighed Merris. They would have to tell them someday, before they left.

“Yeah, but Fennel still has a lot of work ahead of her to try and rebuild their relationship. And maybe she could be a bit more worried about her kid running off to pick a fight with an ancient terror,” said Tana. “What about Chia?”

“As far as I can tell, she’s an orphan,” he said, shrugging. “She’s too young to get caught up in all of this, but realistically, no one should have to do this.”

Tana murmured in agreement, a soft noise from the back of her throat while she thought. “Mobius seems to attract a lot of people in similar situations. I wonder if he did that on purpose.”

“You think he feels sorry for them?” asked Merris.

“Mm, I don’t know,” she said, exhaling and resting her cheek against her hand. “Maybe he just relates to other people who’ve lost their parents. I sort of doubt he knew Wren was on her own when they first met. Unless she introduced herself to him with that as her opening line.”

“She probably didn’t,” he said, snorting.

“Probably not.”

Jokes aside, the conversation was difficult. They had a lot on their plates, and Tana felt worn out by how badly they’d been beaten already. Talking made her feel better, but no less daunted by the task ahead of them. She stared into the smoldering hearth in the middle of the room.

The well lit little cavern was homey, cluttered, and decorated to Tana’s tastes, but the air felt unusually chilly as silence settled over them.

“Well… I can’t leave town yet, but I want you to talk to me when you’ve got something on your mind. Or at least talk to the others,” she said, sitting up again. “There’s a reason none of us are doing this alone.”

Merris nodded. “Trust me, I will. If I talked about everything on my mind, I’d never stop talking. It’s nice to know someone will listen, though.”

Tana smiled and stood up from her seat, pushing it back up to the table. She picked up something off the table, holding her hand out to him.

He eyed the small objects in her hand, before registering what they were. Small braided bands, woven out of rose-tinted grass. “What’s this for?”

“I made them while I was stuck in the Farplane, just so I had something to focus on,” she said, nodding a little. “I’ve got way more of them, so you can take a few. You can adjust the size of them with the little loop, too, so offer them to Chia and Twill if you don’t want one.”

He took the bands from her with a small laugh. “No, I’ll take one. We can all match.”

Tana laughed as he slipped one over his hand, tightening the loop until it fit him right. 

“I’ll give the other two theirs later,” he said.

“How about you invite them over here for dinner? I don’t have enough beds for everyone, but we can at least eat together,” she said, softly. “I’ll go ahead and clear off the table, and you go get them. How does that sound?”

Finally, they could have their first normal night since Wren disappeared.