featherfoot | PSL - Felih and Rihnn go to the First...

PSL - Felih and Rihnn go to the First...

And it's not right.

P'rihnn is honestly not sure what happened. One moment he had been fighting Zenos - or rather, Elidibus in Zenos' skin - and the next he was here. He vaguely remembers being hit by a powerful headache and seeing Elidibus approach him as if for a decisive blow, but the voice that had called him didn't seem quite the same as before. Was this how it had been for the others? For the Scions? Did his body lie on the ground in the Ghimlyt Dark, soul torn away? And for this?

He looks around his surroundings, frown growing deeper and deeper as he realises he hasn't the slightest clue where he is. There is no place he knows with such dense, purple foliage... and the light shining down on him is strangely oppressive, though he can't say why.

Fortunately he can see a nearby structure, and what looks like it might be a path. He can vaguely make out something beyond the trees, too, so... that way, then. After checking to make sure he still has his chakrams, just in case, P'rihnn makes his way to the wooden structure, looking around him to see if he can spy someone he can question.

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The man sounds like an automaton.

"You don't seem particularly pleased either way," Felih murmurs, still quite upset about the distance the man is insistent on keeping between them. "We learned what we could from the people here. Coupled with what you told us, we decided to go after the creatures' pack leaders. We hadn't expected that killing them would also return night... a happy accident, I suppose."

"Did you summon me here for empty thanks and some ushering off to the next beast to be killed?" Felih asks quietly. "I'm quite used to being pointed at threats, so just out with it, if that's the case."

“...no, I... wanted to see you.”

Wait, what is he saying? The Exarch shakes his head, and decides to simply discuss the matter at hand. He cannot be showing any kind of sentiment at this juncture - or at all.

“And my thanks are far from empty... your actions may have saved more lives than you realise. With Sin Eaters gathering in such numbers, it was all but certain they were about to fall upon a settlement in Lakeland, beyond my protection.” It seems that this time, Holminster Switch is not a concern.

"You- you did?" Felih murmurs, ears perking up curiously. He listens, tilting his head, and he hums.

"You just... seem quite tired, Exarch," he eventually decides to say. "I have to ask. Why me? Of all folk... There have been other Warriors of Light. Any of them would do, wouldn't they?"

The Exarch is quiet for a very long moment, debating whether to brush the question off or give a half-honest answer. “When it comes to achieving the seemingly impossible, I know of none more accomplished,” he eventually says. “Simply having the Blessing of Light will not be enough to see this work done.”

He gives a strained smile as Felih shows him some concern, but shakes his head to dismiss it.

That makes Felih's cheeks go dark for a moment. "...you- you think so? Truly? How did you even come to know of me? If even Raha has been forgotten..." The memory of which makes Felih falter once more, and Felih shifts and holds himself as he tries to rein in the emotion.

"I do not think I've done anything more noteworthy than other Warriors..."

Of course he’d been forgotten. He was just a nobody scholar who got tied to the tower by virtue of his bloodline, with no significant accomplishments or achievements to his name. Perhaps he would be remembered by the people of the Crystarium, but only as the nameless and faceless and questionably human founder of the city. The man in the tower.

“There are... things I have found within the tower,” he says, cautiously, considering his words. Perhaps he can make up a little for hurting Felih before? “From the Source. Records... memoirs... many of which focused on you, as though someone quite specifically collected them. There were other materials, of course, but those were most prominent.”

Felih listens, puts the pieces together, and despite himself, he feels the tears welling up in his eyes.

"He... Raha... he might have..." he murmurs quietly, heart aching and cheeks burning as he remembers the words G'raha imparted to him before sealing himself away.

The star by which I chart my course.

"Are you- to control this tower, you must... have Allagan blood," Felih murmurs quietly. "Could you- could you perhaps be his descendant...? Or- ah..." There's so much to wonder.

“I am most assuredly not a descendent of his,” the Exarch says, trying to ignore the dull ache in his chest. “Though perhaps those records were indeed left by him. I cannot say.”

A pause, and he tilts his head, giving another weak smile.

“...among the records I found were those of your passing.”

"But then- how is it that you control the tower...?" Felih asked, baffled, confused. The townsfolk said that the Tower appeared decades ago, and the Exarch with it- and the Tower must have come from the Source... but how far into the future? Was there any of the Allagan bloodline even left, with it thinning out with every generation?

But the last bit throws him off-guard, stunning him into freezing for a moment, before he sighs.

"Ah... so who killed me?" Felih asks quietly, faintly. He'd accepted long ago that he would not live long- it was only a matter of time, for adventurers like him.

“Not so much ‘who’ as ‘what’. The coming Calamity. The very Calamity I seek to prevent.” His smile is gone, and his grip tightens upon his staff. “You asked why you... it is not only because of your accomplishments. It seems somehow ‘right’ that the Calamity be undone by one of the many, many lives claimed. And...”

He looks to the side, not sure if he wants to see Felih’s face as he continues, thinking of his conversation with his Ascian prisoner the day before. He needs to give Felih some reason to trust him... something personal, and human, as he has avoided these past few cycles.

“Though I realise the stories and the person are not entirely the same, still I would like you to live... those stories were one of the few things to give me hope.”

Though his voice still sounds tired and flat, there is still a slight ripple of emotion in it that he has never quite been able to hold back. Gods... no matter how tired he is, and no matter how he tries to squash the emotion down, he still so dearly loves Felih.

Edited 2020-11-06 08:20 (UTC)

"Oh," is Felih's soft, stunned answer. The first real hint of emotion he's heard from the Exarch, and it's about him? That he was a source of hope? His ears briefly tuck back against his hair, before he finds his voice again.

"So I am to undo the Calamity that, in another time, killed me," he murmurs, trying to come to terms with such a strange idea. "You traveled through time. An astonishing feat..."

A beat, and then Felih tries pressing at the barrier again. "Would you let me touch you? Not in any inappropriate way, of course, just- being closer lets me see just how fluid the crystal of your body is, and I've never seen such a marvel..."

“The Tower travelled through time,” the Exarch clarifies, not quite willing to reveal that he had done so personally. At the suggestion of Felih touching him, however, he takes a half-step back and shakes his head.

“...that, I must refuse. There is no healing this, and so it would only serve to sate your curiosity.”

Felih looks at the Exarch dubiously. There's just so much that doesn't make sense. The Exarch must have Allagan blood- and someone had to send this tower across time and space to reach where it currently is. If it isn't the Exarch, then he doesn't know who else could be! Besides, most of the Exarch's mysterious behavior leads him to doubt much of what he says.

"...I see," he murmurs, disappointed, before asking, "Why the barrier? Do you distrust me so?"

"...I do not like to even be seen, these days..." the Exarch admits. "No matter who it might be. I can only lower the barrier with a guarantee you will keep your distance."

He knows that he can not be recognised by voice or even by scent now, but physically closer carries the risk of emotionally closer, especially with someone as physical as Felih. He dares not risk it.

"But... why?" Felih asks softly. "Are you not lonely...? There's an entire city who could adore you, if you would only reach out to them. And I am curious to know you, if you and I are to be working together going forward."

Lonely... the Exarch is not sure if there is quite enough humanity left in him for 'lonely' to have any meaning.

He sighs, then taps his staff on the floor, remaining otherwise silent. He will not answer the question - he has already revealed too much of himself today.

The silence makes Felih's tail flick irritably, and he lets out a deep sigh.

"You've given us no reason to trust you," he murmurs. "Do you expect that such silence and distance will earn our cooperation?"

It truly does ache, to have Felih look on him this way. To think on how much worse it might be if he learned the truth...

"You ask personal questions of me," he says, and again thinks back on his conversation with Emet-Selch. Honest and human... but he is scarcely human anymore. "All that matters is what I must do. To focus on my self will accomplish nothing to that end... I have not been who I was for many years. It is too much to ask of me now."

Felih's ears fall lower, and his heart sinks.

"That's cruel," he murmurs softly. "You're so cruel to yourself. Why would you throw away your own being? Who you are? Can you not seek your goals and remain true to yourself at once?"

"No."

Only one word, but one firm enough that he hopes the 'I tried' comes across.

"...if you will not speak of yourself... is there anything that remains of the one before? Of G'raha Tia? Of his life?" Felih murmurs quietly.

"Did he- did he find happiness? Did he- did he get to see the world he'd been looking for? Maybe- maybe find a mate, and enjoy peace..." His voice is wavering as he goes on, and he swallows hard.

"...there was so much I never got to tell him."

"If all I have read is his," the Exarch says, slowly, and carefully, "then..."

He drops his head, his free hand curling into a tight fist without realising it. "I'm sorry.... the world he saw was a world of ruin, long after the Calamity. I cannot imagine it was what anyone would hope for."

"O-Oh," Felih murmurs, voice breaking, tail tucking between his legs. "I... well. If there's nothing else, I- I should take my leave."

He can't take this anymore. This tower, this place, reminding him of his first love and his own cowardice, the chance to stop him, say something, anything-

And he didn't.

And Raha had woken up alone in a world of ruin...

The Exarch nods, but then raises a hand as if to stop him.

"Ah. I should first make you aware that your actions will no doubt attract the interest of others, who will wish to stop you. Ascians, perhaps... and those of Eulmore. Please... take care."

"...Eulmore, huh. I suppose we ought to go poke around," Felih says quietly, before he leaves- or flees, more like it, still overwhelmed. The path down the tower is long and he has to take a moment to stop and collect himself, furiously wiping away at his tears and trying to quell the ever-growing heartbreak.

He'd never wanted that fate for G'raha. He'd never wanted him to suffer such a horrid awakening, a hopeless future of ruin... All he could do now is try his best to avert this Calamity, and give him something good to wake up to instead.

"For Raha," he murmurs quietly to himself, taking a deep breath, and continuing down the steps.

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