Work Text:
There was something different about G’raha Tia, a member of the Students of Baldesion. It wasn’t his unusually short stature, or his crimson red eyes (startlingly, frighteningly red, the kind of red that sent shivers down your spine). It wasn’t his eager charm and his earnest intelligence. It also wasn’t the impossibly-perfect recall that he’d somehow mastered—Cid was still in awe of G’raha’s outstanding feat of memorization to save the cure for tempering.
There was power in his very being. That was what set him apart. Something intangible, but something noticeable for the observant. His magic, his swordplay, even his stamina were all beyond the norm. In fact, if one saw him and his wife, the Warrior of Light, one would easily believe he was the same. She was much stronger, yes, but he wasn’t far behind, and they both outstripped their peers.
G’raha didn’t realize it at first. Before he sealed the Crystal Tower, he was just a simple bard who worked as a historian. Fighting alongside Moonflower in the World of Darkness told him just how far apart they were in terms of strength—it was practically a chasm. As the Crystal Exarch, hundreds of years later for him and only two years later for her, he was riddled with crystal in his body and could not expend much power in order to preserve his health. The chasm felt wider than ever, but at least he could try making bridges to close the gap. When he returned to the Source and his healthy body, he was too busy getting used to using it again to notice that anything was different.
Something was different though, and it befuddled him and the other Scions when they began to notice it too. His spells had more critical hits than they ought, his swords struck deeper blows, and he was reading faster than ever.
“I don’t know what it is, Alphinaud,” G’raha sighed one day, books scattered around him at a gazebo not far from the Noumenon. “I’ve read everything I could get my hands on about a person’s aether, and not one of them explains anything close to whatever is happening to me.”
Sunflower and Daffodil, his twin daughters, were happily playing with their dolls next to him, although it would only be too long before they decided they wanted to climb the gazebo—G’raha personally hoped that they wouldn’t try that today, although he admitted that it would give him a break from trying to find an explanation.
Alphinaud was his current research partner, and the young man was frowning in deep concentration. He absentmindedly hugged Daffodil when the girl hugged his side, and easily returned to his notes when she slid off the bench to keep playing with her sister. Eventually, he lowered his notes and looked up to G’raha. “It might not be aether that is the answer,” he said.
G’raha’s eyes widened and he straightened. “The soul. You think it’s the soul. The world shattered into fourteen pieces, and the original was reduced into mere fractions of every possible notion of a person. Appearance, strength, intelligence, creativity… Something that improved with each passing Calamity.”
Alphinaud nodded, knowing that G’raha would understand. “You are different, G’raha Tia.”
“Stop that, I told you to call me Raha. Your sister does it easily enough.”
His friend snorted. “I’m trying to be serious, Raha. Your full name gives it more weight.”
“Ever the dramatic one, you are.”
“Pot, meet kettle.”
G’raha smiled, but his smile dropped a moment later. “The result of my time traveling is that I experienced one more Calamity than all of you, leaving me with eight parts of my soul.”
Again, Alphinaud nodded, and after telling Sunflower that she had brushed her doll’s hair perfectly, focused again on G’raha. “And the reason you are able to keep up with Moonflower to any degree is because she also has eight parts of her soul, after Ardbert lended his strength to hers.”
They both closed their eyes and gave their silent respects to the fallen warrior. Moonflower was attached to him and for his sake and hers, they thanked him for everything he had done. Without his sacrifices, Moonflower would not have survived fighting Hades, and they all would have died alongside her.
“What does this mean for them?” G’raha wondered, looking at his daughters.
“I’m afraid that just because the two of you have eight parts doesn’t mean that your children will as well. Their souls came from the lifestream of this star, souls that did not experience another Calamity.” They would still be intelligent, powerful, creative, amazing people someday, but that would have to come through their own strength of will. G’raha already knew that, he just didn’t want to admit it.
“They already have so much to live up to.” A sad expression came to his eyes, and he slumped in his seat. “And now we know they have to live up to the impossible.”
“I believe we already knew that when they were born, seeing how celebrated your wife is.”
“That’s me!” a new voice interrupted, and G’raha felt the loving arms of his wife slide around his shoulders and her lips kiss his cheek. “I’m G’raha Tia’s wife.”
“Mommy!” the girls greeted excitedly, and ran to climb her legs and up her back.
“Hello my beautiful blossoms. Are you being good for Daddy and Uncle Alphinaud?”
“Yes!”
“They have been, Princess,” G’raha said, tilting his head to look up at her. “Alphinaud and I have come to some conclusions as well.”
Moonflower stood up, took the twins off her back and into her arms, and easily jumped over the gazebo’s bench so that she could sit next to him. “What have you found?” she asked, their daughters settled for the moment on her lap.
“The reason why Raha here stands out so much is because he has eight parts of his soul.”
She cocked her head in confusion. “But I have eight parts of my soul too, and no one’s said anything about me being different.”
“That’s because you’ve always been leagues ahead of us,” G’raha explained. “It’s not hard to believe that you would continue to grow stronger.”
“Clearly not as well as you,” she countered. “You’re much smarter than I am!”
“No, do not start that,” he said flatly. “We agreed that we wouldn’t do that.”
Husband and wife stared at each other in a battle of wills, and then Moonflower set her twins down on the ground to put them out of the line of fire. “Admitting the truth doesn’t mean I put myself down.”
Alphinaud, for his part, had a feeling that this was a regular argument between them, especially when G’raha riposted with, “Whenever I say that I am not as strong as you are, you always remind me that isn’t true.”
“Because it’s not! You have always been my equal! And with the theory we have, it proves my point! You are as strong as I am, meaning that you are a worthy hero!”
G’raha laughed a little in disbelief. “And yet that same theory proves me right, in that your level of intelligence should be the same as mine!”
“If I may,” Alphinaud interrupted, not wanting this argument to escalate, for several reasons, but one being because they were trying to tell the other that there was no need for insecurities. The two stopped looking at each other intensely and swiveled their focus on him, and for a moment, Alphinaud was overwhelmed by the pair. Green, green eyes full of a deep, world-ending power, combined with bright red eyes that spoke of blood and ancient conquest. But he was their friend, so he was not afraid of them. “While you can work out the vulnerabilities of your marriage later, and reassure one another that you love each other exactly as you are, please keep in mind that just like the rest of us, your souls do not guarantee that you are going to be perfect at everything. You have the potential but you also have limits.”
The reminder made the tension disappear as husband and wife relaxed. Right. There was a point to this conversation. “So what makes us both stand out could be the soul?”
“Yes,” Alphinaud and G’raha answered. “In fact, it’s the most likely answer,” G’raha added.
Moonflower bit down on the questions it spawned. What happened to G’raha’s soul piece on the First when he traveled back in time with his eight-part soul? Did it disappear? And if the First ever did have a Calamity (one not engineered by the unsundered) and was absorbed by the Source, what would happen then? She could only assume that a person couldn’t have fifteen out of fourteen parts to his soul, so something had happened to make right of the piece on the First.
“Well, I suppose we’d better tell the others your findings, so we can all stop wondering what is happening.”
“I can do that,” Alphinaud said, and quickly got to his feet. He took hold of the twins’ hands and left G’raha and Moonflower alone.
Husband and wife looked at each other nervously, and then Moonflower couldn’t help but ask to break the growing awkwardness, “Is this the part where we kiss and make up?”
He tried to hold back a guffaw, but failed. Coughing, he said, “Yes, I believe it is.”
She entwined their fingers together. “I’m sorry. We both have a ways to go, don’t we?”
“We do… but you know I love you, don’t you? I do not need you to be an academic to respect and adore you.”
“And I do not need you to be anything more than you are, as you are my hero. You’ve saved me in so many ways that I can’t count them. I love you. I choose you.”
As they were talking, their faces came closer to one another, and their voices grew softer. Just before he kissed her, he whispered, “I choose you, every day.”
Their lips met and the argument was forgotten.