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“Hello? Earth to Alphinaud!” Alisaie’s fingers snapped. “Earth to Brother Dearest!”
Alphinaud blinked and then pushed his sister’s hand out of his face. “What is it?” he asked, annoyed and embarrassed.
He shouldn’t have been staring, but he could’ve sworn he saw…
Anyway.
“I’m asking you what you want to say about our detour on the First.” Her pen tapped against the paper she was using.
They were seated at a table in the Rising Stones a good week after their return to Eorzea. G’raha Tia was settled and had agreed to join the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, the Crystal Tower was properly sealed, and they even had a jaunt helping the Sons of Saint Coinach a day ago. Everything was just as it should be.
The problem was going to be explaining to their parents—or rather, their mother, since the two had long understood their father was never going to so much as read their letters home—what they had experienced. Should they even say anything at all? They came to the conclusion that they had to explain something, for they had not sent letters in who knew how long, and it would most certainly alarm their mother.
The Crystal Exarch had warned about telling others of the existence of other shards while they were on the First, and they saw no reason not to adhere to that warning at home. The general public were not their parents, however, and after further debate, they decided to write that down in their letter home that would have to be sent express.
“Mother will know if we try hiding how much danger our souls were in,” Alphinaud sighed, staring down at his stationery. “We went silent for a long time, and Krile sent status reports.”
They both cringed; as much as it was necessary to inform their parents, they hated the idea that their mother knew.
“If Mother flies into a fury, I’m siccing her on G’raha,” Alisaie muttered under her breath, adding another line.
“Now, now,” he protested with a laugh, “we need him hale and hearty.”
“It’s only another excuse for Moonflower to take care of him,” she said innocently. “And it’s his fault.”
Alphinaud raised an eyebrow. “How much longer are you going to hold that against him?”
“For as long as I can milk it, so not that much longer.”
Well, hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Their mother was only angry once in a blue moon, and never furious enough to unleash wrath upon anyone. Yet, if there were ever a first time for it, it would be learning that her children’s souls had been separated from their bodies and they had spent more than a year stuck in limbo, unable to return, to the point that the connection between body and soul had deteriorated.
“It is up to you to decide, but I will be trying to soften the blow of this information and stress that it didn’t actually hurt.” He’d never even noticed that his body wasn’t real, and that he was simply strong-willed enough to maintain his form while on the First. He wouldn’t have known he was out of his body if the Exarch hadn’t told him. “And if you mention anything about why we had to hurry home, try to point out that Krile and Master Matoya were looking after us the entire time. Hopefully, that will keep Mother from arriving on our doorstep and demanding to see G’raha Tia.”
Alisaie tried to hide a smirk. “It would be very funny to watch, but yes, you’re right. I don’t want Mother to worry unduly. We’re fine now, not a hair out of place.”
“I’m sure she will be on the edge of her seat, reading through your work as a bodyguard,” he commented, jotting down how he came to Kholusia and began working on a way inside the city of Eulmore.
It was hard work, not only for the labor, he wrote, but also the emotional strain of watching people give up their homes and their lives to retreat to Eulmore and its Gatetown. I can only pray that now, with no more Lightwardens and overwhelming Light, it will be safe to return to the fields and farms of Kholusia. Sin eaters may be a lingering problem for many more years, but I fully believe that those in Norvrandt will eliminate them. They are not like voidsent in that they come from another dimension; they are made from the same dimension as those living on the First.
Ryne, who was known as Minfilia, has begun work in the Empty, the vast land corrupted by Light that makes up nine-tenths of the star Norvrandt occupies. With her restoration of the Empty—bringing water and soil, cleansing it of Light, and other aetheric balance controls—it is possible that the eradication of sin eaters will come sooner than one might have hoped.
But he was getting ahead of himself. Alphinaud began to explain more (and he realized that he would not be sending a letter home but a novel) and he could hear Alisaie’s pen on her stationery. He tapped the end of his pen to his lips, thinking, and then he saw it.
His pen fell out of his hands and he stood up abruptly. I wasn’t imagining things!
“Alphinaud?!”
“Quick, look over there!” He pointed, still unable to believe his eyes.
“What are you talking about—” Alisaie jumped to her feet, her chair falling over.
There, walking out of the Rising Stones and back into Seventh Heaven, was a girl that the two of them had seen in Sharlayan. She was blonde and dressed in plain clothes, and it seemed as though she had appeared out of thin air.
“But how?” Alisaie asked in disbelief. “How did she get here?”
“Quickly, give chase!” Alphinaud sprang into action, running away from the table to the door. Alisaie kept his stride and they burst through the door at the same time.
“Have you seen a young blonde girl here?” Alisaie asked the bartender as her brother’s head swiveled as fast as a toy, searching.
“I saw a young woman leave not a moment ago,” the man replied, baffled by the sudden noise. “Is something the matter?”
“We think we know her, but—” There was no time to explain, as Alphinaud had dashed out the door again.
Where could she have gone? If it was only a moment ago that she had left, then she ought to still be in sight. The only blonde he could see was Arya, and he knew that he wasn’t looking for the red mage. Alphinaud searched, trying to decide which direction the girl had gone, but it was looking hopeless.
Alisaie came to a stop at his side, the two of them panting, and looked around. “Do you see her?”
“No. How—how did she come here?”
“Magic?”
He would have scoffed if he didn’t know she was right. “I’ll go toward the Crystal Tower. It’s big and pretty, surely that would draw her attention.”
“I’ll go to the mark of Thaliak, then. It might be a pain to get past the morbols, but the sprites are nice and maybe she wanted to go pray.”
Nodding, the pair separated and ran in their respective directions. It didn’t take long, however, to find that both places were empty of a blonde wearing a white coat, and in fact, G’raha Tia was extremely unamused that Alphinaud had approached the Crystal Tower’s doors.
The twins reunited at the entrance to Seventh Heaven, with G’raha Tia standing behind Alphinaud with his arms crossed. Alisaie winced and avoided the older man’s gaze. “Normally, I would be the one to encourage you to explore to your hearts’ content, but coming near the Crystal Tower was dangerous and could have killed you. I set up protections and spells to keep people out for a reason. So kindly explain what you two are up to, before I have to tell Moonflower and your parents that Alphinaud nearly got caught in a trap meant for grave robbers.”
“I told you when you found me, I was looking for someone.”
It was very strange to Alisaie that her brother was in trouble like this, but then, he had recklessly gone chasing after a phantom. “She wasn’t at the mark of the Scholar,” she said, shaking her head.
“Why would this ‘she’ have been near the Tower?” G’raha’s voice was sounding less stern and more sympathetic now.
“She’s… she’s very mysterious, so it wouldn’t have surprised me if she thought to enter the Crystal Tower on a whim.” Alphinaud stared at the ground. “We wanted to talk to her, but… we couldn’t find her. We’ve met her before, in Sharlayan—we were shocked she was here, inside the Rising Stones.”
“It’s like she’s a ghost, sometimes, but we know she’s real,” Alisaie explained. “We’ve seen her interact with the physical world, like touching things and eating things. She doesn’t just phase through walls like a ghost does.”
G’raha dropped his arms. “Well, that does explain why you would even think of coming to the tower.” He thought for a moment, and shook his head. “Next time, however, please do not go farther than the Eight Sentinels—or what’s left of them—and trust me to inform you if someone has made it inside the tower.”
Alisaie looked at him in confusion. “I thought you weren’t connected to the tower anymore; how will you know if she’s in there?”
G’raha pushed the door open and ushered them inside Seventh Heaven and then the Rising Stones. “I may not be physically bound to the Crystal Tower anymore, but the connection is branded on my soul. More than that, however, I cast spells that would alert me.”
That made sense. Sighing dejectedly, Alphinaud dropped into his chair and stared at his letter. The ink from his pen had made a mark on the table, and there were stray lines on the paper too. He would have to explain to his mother that he had gotten up suddenly, and to explain that it was because of a girl…
Maybe he could leave that part out.
“Thank you, G’raha,” Alisaie said quietly, righting her fallen chair and sitting down. “It shouldn’t happen again, so you don’t have to tell anyone about our little misadventure.”
He nodded and took his leave, and the twins had the table to themselves again.
“I’m not telling Mother about that,” Alphinaud said after a moment.
“No, nor I.”
They returned to their letters in uneasy silence, wondering why their friend had appeared and disappeared so quickly, and when they would see her again.