Aish*teru (I Love You) Chapter LXIII: RevelationsFollow

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have this and the following chapter written out.

THERE ARE SOME CoP AND RoZ SPOILERS IN THIS CHAPTER! They are moderate in spoiler-context, but I felt that I had to include them in order for this story to be understood.

Read and review, per usual.

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)

Part V- Secrets (Hiou)

Kasho VI- Hanarebanare (Apart)

Part VII- Longing (Akogare)

Kasho VIII- Takatobi (Escape)

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(Chapter LVII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35;mid=1158658394285452028;num=8;page=1

(Aki LVIII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1160487418129598544

(Chapter LIX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=116215072938586841#116232451255312339

(Aki LX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=11683340869501875

(Chapter LXI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1170686480312991438

(Aki LXII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1173454020128048747
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Bonus Story: Rainfall Memories

Bonus Story: Morning After

For Ali.

*****
Chapter LXIII: Revelations
*****

"And who are you?" I asked the mysterious blonde woman, who only seconds before had managed to make the most powerful man in the world leave the room. In return to my question, I only received a mysterious smile, her sky-blue eyes glittering with intrigue.

"My name is Moon’lite..." she said, the words spilling out of her in a rythmn much like poetry. "I am a Dawnmaiden to the Gods. I trust you know what that means?"

I only rolled my eyes. "Yeah right...the Goddess and her Dawnmaidens are just myths told by the Church in an attempt to give people false hope that there is an afterlife in Paradise worth trying for." I wrapped my fingers around the Pheonix picture and pulled it back to my side, nearly sliding it into my pocket but not quite.
"Now...who are you, really?"

The 'Dawnmaiden' only clicked her tongue once before replying.

"Come on Commander...do you really believe that? How do you think that those weapons got synthed while you were in Bastok, or how do you explain away the fact that you managed to win that bar fight in Mhuara? Doesn't the fact that you somehow managed to forget about something as important as the Code the whole time you were in the former Marquisate bother you...just a little?"

At this, the woman turned her back to me for but a moment, giving me a glimpse of her thigh as it shined through the side slit of the sheer red damascene cloth. The bare leg was tight and slender, and to my surprise it didn't belay any sort of the age that I had assumed her to have when I had passed her so many times at the Guidestone in Lower Jeuno.

How could she have known about any of that? It's impossible...

"Okay...supposing...you are...really who you say you are..." I said carefully, measuring out my words one at a time, "Then why do you want this Code? Surely the fact that this Code means the salvation of the 'Children of the Dawn' means that you'd want me to keep it and give it to the Archduke."

Moon’lite hung her head slightly and even from behind I could tell that she was somewhat desperate.\


"Commander...do you want to know the truth about the Eruntalon Code? Why it exists, and how it works? If you let me explain, perhaps you'll understand why I must have it back..."

I tapped my foot a couple of times, considering. I knew that the Archduke was probably listening in on this conversation somehow, since he tended to know about everything that happened in Vana'diel. Furthermore, this WAS his main office, and it would certainly not be out of place for him to have a linkpearl or two secured in his office for him to listen in on if he left a couple of people there. If I kept on conversing with her, it would only help to build the case that I was in fact working against the Grand Duchy and possibly open new allegations.

But...

Aw, what the hell.

"Go ahead, this might be worth a laugh or two." I said confidently, definately loud enough for the listening devices to hear clearly.

"Commander...the Code was created out of necessity by the Zilart. When they first harnessed the powers of the crystals and split them among elemental lines, there was also a magic seal created. The purpose of this seal was so that the Zilarts could place a cap upon these smaller elemental crystals, in an attempt to control the crystal’s powers and keep them from spiraling out of control. Do you remember when you were were employed by the Goldsmithing Guild in Bastok, and when you saw the Alchemy Guild in Tavnazia?"

I only nodded, my mind wondering what in the world a ‘Zilart’ was, or what crafting crystals had to do with anything.

Moon’lite merely continued, obviously somewhat unaware that I wasn’t understanding everything that was going on.

"Do you remember the first rule of synthing? That nothing is ever lost in the process? And do you remember how you had to manipulate the crystal's energy in order to make the melding of materials work perfectly? Well, when you make a normal item...it burns out all the energy in a crystal. The Crystal itself is used up entirely, and it becomes worthless. However...each of those synthesis is imperfect, reflecting the limitiations of a single crystal. Yet when you preform a perfect synthesis, it requires more energy than what the crystal has. In order to complete the synthesis and the demands that is placed upon the crystal, it therefore has to draw it's energy from one of it’s creator, one of it's source...the original five shattered parts of the Mothercrystal. Before the Meltdown, these crystals would draw the energy equally from all five, keeping their energy levels relatively the same and therefore helping to make sure that Vana'diel still existed in balance. The energy in turn would be replenished automatically by every broken synthesis that occurred, for the energy that was supposedly lost would return back to the crystal shards."

At this, Moon’lite turned back around and looked at me, her clear eyes suddenly turning stern. I felt a little bit intimidated, but I faced her down with the same look reflected upon my face.

"However since the Meltdown, there were only four Mothercrystal shards in this demension for a synthesis crystal to draw upon. The five crystals must remain stable in order to keep Vana’diel in balance...and anything that could possibly upset that delicate alignment with just one of the Mothercrystal shards can bring about the Apocolypse, twenty years before it was fortold to occur by the Guardian of the Moon.”

She paused to take a breath for a moment and licked her lips with a pale sliver of her tongue before speaking again.

"Unfortunately for them, when the Meltdown occurred and the crystals exploded, the Code became lost to the Zilart. It was rediscovered a few centuries later by an adventurer named Eruntalon...and although he didn't understand what was written upon the seal, he discovered that he was able to synthesize material objects perfectly while he has the seal upon his person. He decided to keep the Code a secret, ultimately only giving it to his child upon his death, who would then pass it down in the family to his child, and to his child, and so on and so forth. Eventually, there was a fear by one of the members in the family who bore the seal that the Code would destroyed or stolen, so that particular bearer had it tattooed into his skin, and started the new tradition of the image being tattooed into each successor’s body, where it wouldn’t be easily seen. The latest person to bear the mark of the seal was a woman by the name of Elayne.”

The harp-shaped clock gave it’s distinctive chimes to signal the change of the hour, but Moon’lite continued on unabated, her pace picking up speed within her voice.

“And to answer your unanswered question...yes, it was Elayne who did those synthesises for you back in Bastok, the ones that were so far above your level that you couldn't possibly do it. She was able to do it because she had the seal of the Zilart upon her flesh. And Isacio, back in Mhuara? He knew about the Code, because he is part of Elayne's family and therefore knew about the tattoo...even if he couldn’t tell you everything about it. This Code and it’s history is why Elayne turned her devotion to the Goddess, for she wanted to understand how the seal worked to it’s fullest and she felt that she could find this answer within the books of the Church."

Elayne...is a descendant of Eruntalon?...

"You, Commander, have the last surviving copy of the Code in your hand, for Elayne died before she could have children and pass it on. As I am a Dawmaiden, I cannot force people to do anything that they don't want to do, and the descendants of Eruntalon have all refused to turn the Code over to me and to my predecessors. When I saw that the Code wasn’t destroyed when Elayne’s body was turned into ash as I had hoped, and that you had managed to procure a copy of it, I was mortified. I suppressed your memory of the Code almost immediately afterwards, hoping that this war would end soon and that you wouldn’t have a reason to turn the Code over to the Archduke as I knew you were wanting to do. Unfortunately, Tavnazia fell and the Code flickered back into your mind, breaking the spell I had placed upon it. I am sorry to have done that to you, but I felt as if I had no choice. I couldn’t afford to let the Archduke get ahold of the Code...for if he does, he will use it to ultimately bring around the Apocolypse and will thereby destroy Vana’diel and return everything to the state of Paradise."

I shook my head at all of this, ignoring Moon’lite’s apology.

"You're lying...this all sounds too fantastic to be true.” I mumbled out to her, my mind swirling with confused thoughts. “An Apocolypse? Zilart? Paradise? Sounds too damn fanticifal to be true. And there is no way that the Archduke would EVER try to destroy Jeuno anyways, let alone the whole of Vana'diel."

The Dawnmaiden only leaned in towards me slightly and I reflexively stood up out of my chair in response, my hand going for the hilt of my sword where I then began to draw it out of it's scabbard.

"Commander...do you remember that attack upon you in the Necropolis? I was the one who allowed that monster to escape into where he did...I had to do that because the beastmen were so close to perfectly re-creating the Code...that they had to die. I am not allowed to interefere directly with the will of even beastmen, but I can modify certain circumstances of how things are in the world. I knew that if I opened the gate that allowed the Shadows to get into the area where the beastmen were, they would slaughter them. I also knew that if I placed a limiting magic upon the bar where you met Isacio to cap your strength as well as your opponents, you would have a chance of surviving that fight. Thus, I did what I had to do."

It was at this that I let the sword go, it sliding back into the scabbard with a slight scraping sound. I then glanced over towards the door, expecting the Archduke to come back in at any second to arrest this woman.

"Nice story, but no thanks. I will ensure that Jeuno will survive, and I am not about to hand over her salvation to a woman that claims to be a Dawnmaiden. Too much simply depends upon the ability of the Grand Duchy being able to produce enough weapons and supplies to win this war. Now if you would please leave..." I said, my voice cool and confident.

Moon’lite only held her ground and instead leaned in close to me, her now-blonde hair falling away from her face and resting against my koenig armor as she then whispered into my ear.

"Then...what if...I told you that I could...give you what you desire most in the world?"

My breath froze in my lungs, as every fiber of my composure threatened to break down into nothingness.

"You're..lying..." I said as I struggled to keep control of my emotions, not wanting to, REFUSING TO, believe what she was saying.

"Commander...she's alive, you know. She's alive, waiting for you to come save her from her execution." The Dawnmaiden cooed those words into my ear, her warm breath rolling down the insider of my ear only to slip upon my neck.

"You are lying...I know you are...I held her mana drained corpse in my arms and couldn't feel any life within her. There's no way that she..."

My voice was beginning to crack, but Moon’lite continued to whisper in my ear.

"...Do you know where she is from originally, why she has that mark of the beastman upon her body? She came here originally to prevent this war from ever starting...she is from another world called Dynamis, another realm where the rage of the beastmen thrive, and where time exists in a wholely seperate stream than ours. She was sent to our world by the Guardian of Dreams as a result of his dreamworld being disturbed by the nightmares of a woman, who would come to seize control of splinters of Diabolos own form for her own control. Diabolos knew that if he could prevent the rebirth of Tu’lia, than his dreamrealm would go back to how it once was. So, when your beloved mage’s body died as a result of the battle within Tavnazia, her spirit didn't go back, COULDN'T GO BACK, to the Morthercrystal shards as most souls tend to do, because her life had never existed within the crystal’s grasp to begin with. Instead, her soul was returned..."

My mouth went dry as my heart stopped. I found that I was clinging to every word that this mysterious woman who was telling the most fantastic of stories, the strangest of tales, in an attempt to make me give up the Code to her.

"...To Dynamis. It is because she is from Dynamis that she has the mark of the beastmen upon her. It is because she is from Dynamis that the Guardian of the Moon was able to recognize her as for what she really was. It is because she is from Dynamis that her soul is intact, and she is still alive with all her memories intact. It is because of the fact that she failed in killing the Archduke that...she is about to be killed herself in the snow desert of Xarcabard under orders of a perversed form of Diabolos.."

Moon’lite paused, in order to let this all sink in.

"The question now is...I can send you to her...and you can save her...if you are willing to give me the Code. I cannot promise you that if you give me the Code, that Jeuno will survive the war or that the beastmen won't ultimately conquer everything. Indeed even now, the future is in motion and things are changing constantly. So what will you do? Which will you pick..."

I finished her sentence for her, my voice rasping out as I realized that the fortune teller's prophency back in Selbina had finally come true.

"Her...or Jeuno?..."

I closed my eyes.

Once upon a time, a life time ago, I was faced with this exact same decision...

My hand opened slightly, and the Code fell naturally betwen my middle and index fingers.

Where I had to pick, do I save this mysterious girl or do I obey my obligation to protect the land I love and all the lives that exist within it, within Vana’diel, instead?

For me, the choice was obvious.

-fin Chapter LXIII: Revelations

Edited, Apr 20th 2007 1:30pm by Nightsintdreams