********* (I love you): Aki IV Tsukihikali-A FFXI Love StoryFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is Aki VI of ************ (I love you)[/i], titled “Tsukihikali”.

(Chapter I)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=11148161352496864&num=0
(Aki II)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1115076868790365180&num=7
(Chapter III)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1115183358960358628
(Aki IV)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1115608634938805350
(Chapter V)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1115851026175436111

I don’t own anything FFXI related, so SE, don’t sue!

Please read and review! I am your humble writing servant, after all.

This chapter is dedicated to…Anita. You and I both find the solace and the peace that comes from the night, even when one is alone.
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Aki VI: Tsukihikali
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Nighttime strolls along the empty town streets, just barely above the ocean, can always relax one’s soul.

Even if one doesn’t realize he is tired and stressed.
***
It had been a long day…

Choosing soldiers.

Swearing chosen soldiers to secrecy.

Briefing chosen soldiers on secret mission.

Telling them that we leave in two days.

Filling out paperwork, insurance claims on these chosen soldier’s lives should they die, requisitioning gear to be used…

Damn that beauracy.

I stepped down from Ru’Lude Gardens, through the steps into and out of Upper Jeuno to where I finally entered Lower Jeuno.

So empty...

Those are the words that always pass through my mind when I work late. How the only people up at this time of night are either the streetwalkers, or the drunkards for whom the words “last call” mean nothing to at the Merry Minstrel.

My fingertips rounded the edge of the old guide stone as I passed by it and then turned right to travel down the main street. As always, I ignore the black-haired woman dressed in the Vermillion cloak sitting on the edge of the guide stone. In one of her hands she turned an hourglass over and over again, letting the sand always almost run out before she tipped it over again. She never seems to move from that spot, but instead, she only spends her days gazing outwards towards town and, as if she is waiting for someone to come take her away.

At least, that is what I want to think.

The cool nighttime air picked up a slight mist from the sea spray just off the town’s edge, rolling the Undertaker’s wind inland. I felt my brow start to become damp, and I tried to wipe it clean to no avail. Eventually, I just gave it up as I slowly descended the first step of stairs past the Auction House.

It was then that I saw the midget elvaan underneath frantically waving at me from the bottom of the stairs.

"Sir!," he said in a high pitched tone of voice. His shaggy white hair bobbled up and down as he then started to jump up and down, trying to get my attention.

I went down the rest of the stairs and stopped before him. I then looked down, and chuckled softly for a brief moment before replying.

"Yes, what is it Satmanda?"

He looked up at me with that quite-eager-to-please look on his face, as all personal home assistants are trained to do at wherever personal home assistants were trained at. I think I had heard once that they were trained in some small school off in Tsahya. Bleh, where it was that they trained mul…er…personal home assistants into some sort of decent shape of helping to cater to my personal needs, they did a DAMN fine job of it.

"Sir! I have polished your combat armor, and then sent it off to the military alchemy department. They called earlier, and said something about having a new product that they would like to try out some new product...Are you going on a new mission, sir?"

He rambled this entire speech out at me in one breath, for where it would normally take two or three for any normal person or elvaan.

I debated for a moment if I should tell him the truth about WHY the alchemy department wanted my armor and about my mission, but I decided against it. The fewer people that know about this, the better. It WAS something ordered by the leader of Jeuno himself after all.

"No, Satmanada...no new mission. Just those alchemy geeks wanting to test out a new play toy of theirs, I guess." I said in a convincing tone. Well, to me at least.

The elvaan paused for a moment placing a curled finger to his chin and nodded twice.

"Ah, I understand now. Do you have anything of yours on hand that I should take into safe keeping for you now?" He held out both of his tiny hands out in front of him, cupped together to catch whatever few trinkets that I might drop. I had had this assistant for many years, and I trusted him with my things implicitly, even to the point where I didn’t mind handing him items that were worth millions in gil.

I fumbled around in my pockets for a moment, and eventually I pulled out the half-eaten bag of dried Kazham pineapple slices that I had bought from the vending machine earlier. I had bought them with the intention of eating them on my way to the barracks where I had picked out the soldiers that I would be taking along with me to the Necropolis.

The light from the diamond-shaped light overhead caught the plastic bag as I turned it over to make sure it was closed tightly, and proceeded to shine back in a broken pattern of light into my eyes as I then carefully placed it into Satmanda’s hands. The elvaan looked at it briefly, and then hid it away in some pocket of his blue robes.

"Thank you sir. Is that all for tonight?" He asked of me.

Without saying anything, I nodded. He started to then walk off into the shadows before a question sprung into my mind from nowhere.

"Actually...Satmanda...walk with me for a bit…there is something I want to ask you." My voice lacked the authority and command that I used when I was talking to those in lower rank standing than me, but still carried the suggestion that it was not meant to be a request, and therefore should not be disobeyed.

Instantly he slunk back from the darkness and came to my side. He carried himself one-half step behind me on my left as I stepped off the open roadway, and into where the pedestrians normally are the only ones to walk. Eventually, we come to an overpass that covers a set of descending steps into yet another roadway of Lower Jeuno. No one had walked up there in ages, as was obvious from all the dirt and grime that had accumulated up there. Once both my assistant and I were up there, I turned around and stared out to sea, feeling the mist brush across my face.

Ten minutes passed before I started to speak.

"Satmanda...do you think that there is a war coming?"

I felt the surprise in how he reacted, even with me not turning around. I heard the shuffling of his feet as he took a couple steps backwards away from me.

"War sir?...That’s impossible...The world has been at peace for a while now. If you are worried about the beastmen, I am sure they are just stirring up a bit of trouble like they normally do every so often. They weren’t born from Her tears after all, so they like to remind us that they exist every so often."

He paused, then jumbled out to what seemed to be a half-apology for his words.

"Of course, if you know differently sir, than I am sure that my opinion is just that, an opinion, and thus not worth being taken seriously. Why do you ask sir, if you don’t mind me asking that of you?"

"No reason, just wondering, that’s all. A mere passing fancy, you might say." I felt reassured at Satmanda’s words. He did communicate directly with the various citizens of the other three kingdoms in a more direct way than I ever bothered to want to. And I knew that because of this, he would, of all the people in Jeuno, know for certain if war was in the air.

"Is that you wanted to ask me sir?" He asked of me in a very polite tone of voice.

Looking over my left shoulder at him, I nodded.

"Then may I have leave, sir?"

Once more, I nodded, my hair falling into my eyes.

He crossed his arms in front of him, closed his eyes, and then looked skyward. "Take me home" he then said in that pitch of voice that took a long time for me to get used to. As I watched, he then disappeared in a flash of blackness, leaving behind no trace save a few footprints.

I then stared back out at the sea, and at the moonlight that hung overhead, showing itself upon the waters.

-fin: Aki VI: Tsukihikali