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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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.

P'rihnn was never one to linger when shopping, and once he'd decided on what to make he'd headed back to the Tower to await Felih. The Exarch doesn't seem like one who will talk for long, after all. When he spies Felih exit the tower, he waves, and turns to head back to their apartment, expecting Felih to catch up. He can ask him what happened along the way.

Felih is still somber by the time he leaves the Tower, and P'rihnn is a small solace. At least there's one friendly face he can count on. (And some cynical part of him notes, even P'rihnn is simply another version of himself.)

He returns to the other Warrior's side, and gives a faint shrug. "I tried. He wouldn't tell me anything at all. He truly refuses to let himself be involved... he says that he doesn't matter. That only his goal does."

"Ah, but apparently we ought to be wary of Eulmore," he tacks on as an afterthought.

“That’s it?” P’rihnn asks, ears flicking back as he still walks a few steps ahead. “Really? ...and I thought you were the charmer... I hoped at the very least, you’d get a clearer idea who we’re dealing with, or why he was so keen on having you do the work.” If either of them had the ability to get any answers out of the Exarch, it would surely be Felih.

He slows down a little, trying to remember if anyone had mentioned ‘Eulmore’ to him. “I think I heard of Eulmore though... and not positively, either. Something about ‘those Eulmoran layabouts’.”

Felih's ears flick further back.

"...I tried," he murmurs. "He truly refuses to let anyone close- physically and figuratively. All I know is that he intends to prevent the Eighth Umbral Calamity no matter what- and that we, as the Warrior of Light, would have been one of the millions killed by it should it go forward."

"Supposedly we are the best suited to prevent this Calamity," he murmurs.

“I’m starting to think people just assume I’m the best choice for anything,” P’rihnn grouses, even though he’s never been one to turn down people in need. “Surprised he didn’t ask you to go fetch him some sandwiches or something. Did you get any other impression off him?”

He has a feeling he would have been too angry to really think much about what the Exarch had to say, and reading between the lines was never a strong point of his.

“The only reason we have to help him is because, I suppose, we’re not meant to be helping him.”

"I understand the feeling," Felih murmurs in response, with a sigh. "It's also because I've no idea what else to do, here. The Light and Sin Eaters are obviously a problem- and we know as much from Ardbert and his friends, too, so that in itself can't be a lie... but it would help if we could find more information. It's why I keep wondering if we should go find Minfilia... do you think she remembers us?"

His tail flicks from side to side, anxiously. "Supposedly she is reborn again and again, but... is she the same woman we knew?"

"The Exarch doesn't seem like he'll be forthcoming about anything."

“No shit. He’s like an automaton... maybe he is an automaton. The Tower is Allagan, after all, and sometimes I think the Allagans just pulled miracle technology out of their backsides.” His tail twitches as they finally approach the Pendants, and he sighs. “Did he even show any kind of emotion? After we brought night back to Lakeland?”

As for Minfillia... he doesn’t know what to do about that information. “Ah, that’s another thing I heard of Eulmore... that they have custody of the current Minfillia and won’t release her.”

"Perhaps... any time I tried to find out more about his origins and past, he would ignore or dodge it. Still, it makes me wonder why an automaton would care about such things..." Felih muses, before glancing back at the tower before he steps into the Pendants.

"He said he was grateful for our initiative in taking down the first Warden, but... the only hint of emotion I truly gleaned from him was regarding the records and stories he found of the Warrior of Light. That they gave him hope."

He does bristle when the conversation comes back to Minfilia, however. "That makes it sound like she's being held prisoner. I don't like the sound of that."

“From stories?” P’rihnn asks, ears lowering a little. Stories inflate or expand upon things, and do not really reflect the reality. “Sounds like something anyone could say. You sure he wasn’t just saying it for the sake of saying it?”

Not far to their apartment now, at least. Then he can start making them some food for the road, wherever it is they’re heading, and take some stress out on a fish.

“Starting to sound like we’re heading for Eulmore next.”

"I... don't think so. It seemed to be the only thing he was genuine about. His voice trembled... there was emotion he was trying to stifle," Felih mmurmurs quietly, tail curling around his own leg for comfort as he finishes the walk to their apartment.

"I'd like to go to Eulmore. I've heard it's by the sea, and from what I hear of it, it's... strange. Decadent, where folk somehow live in harmony with Sin Eaters. It sounds far too suspicious if it's true."

Huh. So there is something genuine about the Exarch after all? “Ah, so maybe he’s not an automaton,” he says. “So, Eulmore’s going to be our next stop?”

It sounds like a plan to him! Because if they are holding a child who fights Sin Eaters prisoner, and now apparently live together in harmony with them, it warrants investigation. “I would like to see how they tame those things we fought yesterday. I’ve known bugs with more brains.”

"I agree. I want to see how it is they've managed to keep those things from slaughtering the masses," Felih murmurs, before sinking into a chaise the moment he's back in their apartment. "We should prepare for it. I've heard there's a ship that can take us to the Kholusian coast, and from there it's just a matter of walking towards the giant city."

"But if we're going to get Minfilia, we're going to need to be quiet and calm, and sneak in without attracting any attention," Felih says. "It's still a bustling, populated city, and who knows how many guards or Eaters might be about?"

P’rihnn, however, immediately goes to wash his hands and start preparing food. There is something satisfying about taking a whole fish and attacking it with a knife to make something delicious.

“Are you suggesting I can’t be quiet and calm?” he asks, putting a completely unnecessary amount of force in chopping the fish’s head off.

"Darling, what did the fish do to deserve such brutal treatment?" Felih chides idly as he leans over the arm of the chaise, tail twitching lazily from side to side as he lies there and watches P'rihnn cook. He's much more elegant about fileting and butchering fish and meats, so the force P'rihnn uses is startling.

"And no offense, dear, but you've shown that you're prone to temper and getting loud."

“I’m stressed out. This is how I deal with it.”

He’s not elegant, but it doesn’t make him any less of a good cook, and he starts to hum as he gets into the flow of it. However, at the accusation of having a temper and being loud, he picks up the fish head with the knife tip and flings it in Felih’s general direction. He doesn’t intend it to actually land on Felih, but if it does he’s not bothered.

“...if Eulmore lives together with Sin Eaters, I wonder what they’re going to make of us slaying a Lightwarden? Think they’d care?”

Felih yowls as a fish gets flung right at him, instinctively swatting it out of the air and onto the floor with an angry lash of his tail.

"You are just proving my point! Ugh- what if that had landed on my clothing? I'd smell like fish!" he whines and pouts, tail thumping on the chaise, before he uses a bit of magic to reluctantly lift the fish head and toss it into one of the planters by the window. He can bury it properly later- at least it'll be good fertilizer for the plants.

"...you know, I'd rather not tell them that until we know what it's like," Felih murmurs. "If those folk are truly allied with the Eaters somehow, I'd rather not make enemies of a whole city at once."

“You don’t think they’ll wonder where the night came from?” P’rihnn asks, looking far too pleased with himself for making Felih yowl like that. “They must have people watching things in Lakeland. Eulmore and the Crystarium seem to be the two main powers.”

He returns his attention to the food, humming again for a moment while he works.

“Wonder what their leader’s like? Just as soulless as the Exarch, you think?”

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