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The sand was burning hot under her toes as she and Lulu sat together beneath the midday sun. Yuna watched little Vidina toddling along, smiling at his surprise whenever the edge of a wave would crawl its way up the beach to splash his feet.
Lulu sighed. "Wouldn't that send most children screaming?" she mused. The little boy seemed to relish the way his feet would sink into the dampened sand as he walked, bits of it washing away with the arrival of another wave.
Yuna shielded her eyes against the bright sunshine to see Wakka, Tidus and the rest of the Aurochs further down the beach. "I don't think any child of Wakka's could be scared of water."
"My prayers have gone unanswered," Lulu replied, making Yuna laugh.
It was tournament season again. Yuna was fairly convinced that tournament season lasted longer and longer with every passing year, but blitzball was more popular than ever. Nobody was really frightened of the water now. Keeping Spira safe was Yuna's legacy, and it seemed that the corresponding resurgence of blitz was her legacy as well. So there was really no room for her to complain.
The sound of seagulls and lapping waves gave way to the noisy whirr of engines. Vidina stumbled back in surprise, landing on his bottom as the Celsius came from the skies behind them to find a good place to anchor. Blitzball practice continued uninterrupted as Yuna got to her feet. Besaid had grown accustomed to the comings and goings of the shiny red airship.
"You can always tell her no!" Lulu called over the noise, going to retrieve her son as Yuna prepared to greet her guests. What was Rikku up to this time?
–
"It's not any fun if you don't come along, Yunie!" Rikku was protesting in between making silly faces at Vidina. "I swear, Paine and Gippal are going to kill each other or maybe I'll kill them first, but really, there will probably be death of some kind if you don't come. People tend to behave when you're around."
Yuna would definitely be the first person to disagree with such a statement. Some of Gippal's Machine Faction friends had been exploring around Lake Macalania and the edge of the forest. Every day, more of the forest died away, and Gippal had taken it upon himself to explore previously unreachable places. For the fun of discovery, sure, but the promise of treasure and long-hidden machina was probably the driving factor.
A few days prior, the Faction had stumbled upon the outskirts of what had probably been a town centuries earlier. The cold and the forest had kept it hidden all this time, and it was still nearly frozen solid. That hadn't been enough to stop Gippal. Already, he was en route with a team from Djose. They were transporting machina that would help them break through and get into town. Yuna didn't really like the idea of disturbing a place like that with machina, but the Al Bhed were tireless excavators.
"You just want me to come to play peacemaker?" Yuna asked, still not entirely sure why Rikku thought she'd want to come. She was happy in Besaid watching Vidina grow each day, cheering on Tidus and the Aurochs and teaching at the temple. Every treasure hunt was supposed to be her last.
"Gippal's just going on a hunt for shinies," Rikku explained, even though Yuna knew she was probably similarly motivated. "But think about it, Yunie. A whole town, frozen for who knows how long. What if there are fiends just hiding there, waiting to pop out and gobble him up?"
She chuckled. "And Paine's not enough of a bodyguard?"
"You know her. She'd watch them nibble on an arm or a leg before jumping in to help him."
Yuna doubted that Paine would be that heartless. And she had to admit that she was intrigued at the promise of an undisturbed town. How long had it been frozen like that? And what had happened? Sin was a pretty good guess, although there wouldn't be much left to dig through if Sin had been responsible for the destruction.
"Well, I'll go, Rikku!" Tidus offered before Wakka cuffed him on the side of the head.
"You aren't going nowhere near a place like that, not when I need you in the pool at Luca next week," Wakka chided him. "I don't think any of you should go. Place was probably buried for a reason, ya? There's ruins all over Spira. People getting a little too reliant on machina. I bet they buried themselves."
"Wakka, still? Still?" Rikku complained. "You are so hopeless!"
"Well," Yuna interrupted, choosing her words carefully. "If Gippal's going to be digging holes and looking for machina in something like a graveyard, it's not respectful to the residents. Well, the people who used to live there. I could..." Rikku's eyes were already sparkling with her victory. "I think a prayer, however small, for their forgiveness would bode well for his expedition."
"And it's just an excavation, isn't it?" Lulu added. "No theme parks planned?"
Rikku shook her head. "I'll take Gippal's other eye if he's got that idea, I promise. Think of the history that's left behind, all preserved!"
Macalania Forest was dying. Was it right to interfere? But this was a town, frozen in time. How many other places in Spira had disappeared with no one to tell their story? Everyone was looking at her expectantly. Did the sun rise and set with her decisions, even now? She was just Yuna, the same as she'd always been.
"If you think my being there will be helpful to Gippal, then I guess I'll come," she said quietly, "but I'm still not that good with a power shovel."
–
"I'm kind of glad Tidus isn't coming," Rikku was telling her as they stood together on the bridge of the Celsius. "It's much more fun keeping things girls only."
"I can hear you," Buddy teased. "I'm right here!"
"Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to eavesdrop?" Rikku scolded.
Sometimes it felt like she'd never stopped adventuring with the Gullwings. Sphere hunting was still a profitable activity, but Yuna liked the quiet that came from days in Besaid. But a little trip couldn't hurt. She just hoped that they'd be able to arrive before Gippal's crew destroyed anything that might be worth saving, reminders of eras gone by.
"Is that a smile?" Rikku asked, elbowing her lightly in the ribs. "Just face it. You just don't like admitting how exciting it is to be back on board, ready to face anything."
She blushed. "It is fun, I suppose." The Celsius hummed under the metal flooring at her feet, pulsing with the same sort of excitement that kept Rikku from standing still. "Maybe they'll have some spheres. The forest preserved a lot of things."
"Not that Gippal really cares about that sort of thing," Rikku said. "He'll probably dig right past them looking for metal bits and pieces for whatever kind of machina blueprint's caught his attention now. I think he wanted to make some sort of thingie that will fire blitzballs to help the Psyches practice."
"That's team loyalty!" Buddy called.
"It sounds wonderful," Yuna replied agreeably. Better a machina to help with sports than a weapon. "At least Paine's with him. She'll make sure the Gullwings are spoken for."
Rikku snorted. "When she's not babysitting. The whole place is probably melting. Gippal's probably so excited he'll electrocute himself." The communications panel to their right started to blink and make noise. "Ah, that's probably Paine. I told her to call in as soon as they broke through."
They moved over, and Rikku sat down. Yuna watched over her shoulder as Rikku flipped a switch, turning on the view screen. They were greeted with a slightly blurry picture. CommSphere technology hadn't advanced too much yet, but Yuna was impressed that the signal was beaming all the way from the village to the Celsius.
She heard a familiar voice. "Rikku? Are you getting this?"
"Hey Paine!" Rikku said, waving to the screen. "How are things going?"
Paine didn't bother to show herself, instead positioning the sphere to record and transmit what she was seeing. Yuna could see a few Al Bhed workers with pick-axes breaking through a thick wall of ice. There were vines snaking through the ice almost like cracks. Gippal was visible, making a face at the sphere before joining the crew with a big swing of his own axe.
"Hey Rikku. You get her to come?"
Yuna smiled and waved. "I'm here. Hello!"
Paine sighed, stepping closer to show the workers. She spoke as the axes hit the ice, splintering and sending shards flying at the sphere that almost made Yuna jump back. "You didn't have to come, Yuna. If you were busy and Rikku forced you..."
Rikku shoved her whole face up to the monitor. "Hey! I didn't force anything!"
The sphere's picture changed as Paine turned to film the area surrounding. The blue tinted crystal of Macalania was even duller than the last time Yuna had been there. There was no mistaking it even with the quality of the picture. "Had to cut down a few trees to get all the equipment through here," Paine explained, filming a few empty carts that would haul out any big finds and another cart full of machina for digging.
"Any fiends?" Rikku asked.
There were some happy shouts as the Al Bhed broke through the wall of ice. Paine stepped forward, the picture wobbling a little as she walked over the ice. "Fiends? Nothing really. Seems like all the heavy branches and ice kept them away."
"Paine!" they heard Gippal's voice calling. "Hey Paine, come film this so they can see!"
"Duty calls," she told them.
Rikku was nearly bouncing in the seat in her excitement, and Yuna had to admit this was fun. They were the first people to get to see this village in centuries. She wished the Celsius could fly faster so they would get to see things in person. Yuna could only imagine how quiet and awe-inspiring the place was up close.
Paine's boots crunched on the ground as she stepped forward, and there was no mistaking her sharp intake of breath. It took a lot to get Paine to react in that way. It was almost as though Besaid had packed up and traveled north. Paine moved the sphere back and forth, showing a series of huts clustered around a central village square.
Gippal was standing in the square, looking around with a surprised expression. "No way. Don't know what kind of image quality you're getting up in the clouds, Yuna, but this place has not been touched. It may be overrun with icicles, but the thatched roofs are still in perfect shape. Paine, your left."
The image shifted to focus on one of the huts. There was residual ice covering everything, but it seemed as though the village had been untouched. As though the village had resided inside an empty sphere pool and only the edges had frozen solid.
"There's no way Sin could have been responsible," Paine was muttering to them. "Sin didn't leave buildings standing."
"That's true," Rikku said. Everything was too preserved, too perfect. Sin left nothing but death and destruction in its wake. What had happened to this place?
Gippal was already directing his workers as Paine continued to walk around and capture. Al Bhed were already chipping away at the door hinges to the huts to search for valuables. "We'll probably start here in the square," he called, "we'll save the temple for last. I'm sure there's some stuff Yuna will want to save."
Paine approached the center where Gippal and their carts of supplies were waiting, and she did another panorama shot. "It's so quiet," she told him. There was a noise and the view shifted abruptly so Paine could record one of the Al Bhed emerging from a hut with an armload of-
"Machina weapons?" Paine asked.
"Drana yna tuwahc uv faybuhc eh drana!" the man said, depositing the guns in a heap.
"He said there's dozens of weapons in there," Rikku translated quickly, her fingers tightening around the armrests. "Yunie, why would a village have Al Bhed weapons?"
Paine was hurriedly following Gippal, sphere shaking. "The Al Bhed never came this far inland, did they?" Paine was asking.
Yuna was increasingly on edge with each eerie discovery. A town frozen and preserved. Untouched by Sin and with Al Bhed machina? "Never this far, not as far as I know. Not for permanent settlement," Gippal said, crouching down to examine one of the weapons. "The craftsmanship is amazing."
Paine moved the sphere to close in on the weapons. Yuna didn't know a lot about machina weaponry, but it looked in good shape. It was an incredible find for the Machine Faction, that was absolutely true. But what had happened here?
"Maybe they traded with the Al Bhed. Used the weapons to defend the village from fiends?" Gippal wondered, setting down the weapon and getting to his feet.
"Machina weapons? That would have been unthinkable a few years ago, let alone centuries," Yuna said. Of course, Yevon hadn't followed their own laws to the letter, had they?
Rikku was squinting at the monitor, leaning so far forward Yuna was nearly convinced her cousin had gone blind. "Hey Paine?" Rikku asked. "What's behind that hut?"
The sphere moved, jerking back and forth a bit as Paine looked around. "Behind which hut, Rikku? There's a dozen of them."
"Yunie, did you see...there!" Rikku pointed to the monitor, and Yuna didn't know what she'd missed. Rikku was blocking most of the panel, and she was smearing and fingerprinting up the monitor with her fingers in her haste. "Yunie, it was right there."
Paine's camera work was getting shakier as she walked around. The village was deadly silent. Almost too quiet. "Not funny, Rikku."
And that was when Yuna saw it. A shadow at the corner of Paine's current focus. Fiends? How had they approached so quietly?
"Paine," she said quickly, "Paine, to your right."
The sphere moved, and then Rikku's finger jabbed at the monitor, not like it could help Paine. "No, to your other right!"
Gippal stepped into view, looking around. "What are you seeing? Are you girls messing around up there?"
"No," Yuna said. "Something's there." Again, a flash just at the corner, just beyond one of the huts. "There! Right there!"
"How are you not seeing it?" Rikku complained.
"Gippal, take it," Paine said quickly, and the sphere jerked as Paine shoved it into Gippal's hands. Yuna heard Paine draw her sword, and now she stepped into the front. "Which right? I don't see anything."
A flash to the left.
No, wait, Yuna thought. There was another but on the right. "Paine, there have to be fiends there! We're seeing shadows. Right where you aren't looking, that's where they are!"
"Helpful," Paine grumbled, although she was out of the shot.
Gippal was even less helpful with the sphere, running around the square to try and capture what they were seeing. "Maybe...maybe we should have brought a bigger expedition team." He held the sphere up to the window of one of the huts, and the glass was crude and mostly frosted over. "I don't see anybody inside. Hello! Anybody home?"
"E cyf dras!" one of the Al Bhed shouted from behind the sphere's view.
"Saw them?" Gippal cried, whirling around, and Yuna watched the four scavengers hurrying away from the huts to stand together in the center of the village. "Saw who?"
And when he returned the sphere to the glass, Yuna cried out. All she saw was a face, a very human face, before the glass shattered and a hand came out to swat at Gippal.
"Whoa!"
The CommSphere fell, and all Yuna could see was a patch of ice. "Gippal!" Rikku screamed, still pounding on the monitor as if it could help. "Gippal, what do you see? Paine, are you there?"
They were completely helpless. She could hear a lot of shouting, far more shouting than the six people on the expedition would have been making. There was a trampling noise, as if the footsteps of several people were drawing near.
"Paine?" Yuna asked the monitor, wishing she could see what was going on. "Paine, what's happening?"
She and Rikku saw a quick flash, then another. People running past the sphere. There was the lightest sound, but a sound that Yuna knew as strongly as the sound of the waves hitting the Besaid shore.
"Pyreflies?" Rikku mumbled. Yes, it had to be pyreflies, nearly a swarm of them as more and more legs and feet passed by the sphere's lens. Yuna could already hear Paine's sword cleaving through something...or someone, Gippal's shouts, the clanging of shovels as the others attempted to defend themselves.
They weren't unthawed survivors or fiends, were they? There was only one reason that a swarm of pyreflies would be swirling around these people as they charged towards Paine and the center of the town.
"Unsent!" Yuna heard Paine screaming. "Yuna, they're all Unsent!"
"And they're not very happy!" Gippal cried.
A town full of Unsent? They'd perished somehow, and they were full of anger. Enough anger to maintain form and not simply devolve into fiends. What had happened here? They were the walking dead, and they were attacking her friends. Maester Seymour had remained in Spira, full of rage and impossible strength. Now there was a village full of Unsent. An entire village that had died an unclean death.
"We have to stop them!" Yuna cried, shaking Rikku's shoulder. "Rikku, we have to get down there!"
"We won't be there for another hour!" Buddy called from the front.
"Yuna!" Paine shouted. "Yuna, we're going to need a Summoner here, big time! Yuna!"
"We're coming!" she shouted helplessly, unable to see anything on the monitor but the patch of ice and an increasing number of footsteps. How many people? She had never sent so many, never so many that were still up and walking, full of a rage Yuna couldn't understand.
She heard one last cry of "Yuna!" before a foot, nearly engulfed in glowing pyreflies stepped on the CommSphere, and the Celsius' monitor went completely black.
Rikku started pressing buttons, hand slamming down on the console futilely. "Come back!" she cried. "Paine! Paine, can you hear us?"
She hurried over to Brother, her hand shaking violently as she gripped his seat. "Can we go faster?"
"I would like to, Yuna. We will overheat the engine, and then..."
"Overheat it then, stupid!" Rikku complained, appearing at her brother's other side. She was already trying to fiddle with things, and Brother was trying to smack her hand away. "Our friends need our help!"
Brother and Buddy exchanged a look before Brother sighed and shoved the acceleration lever as far forward as it could go.
–
It was incredibly difficult to find a place to anchor. They'd had to go hurrying through the woods, clambering over decaying roots and tree limbs, trying to follow the path. Yuna hadn't exactly packed for battle. Rikku was leading the way, scrambling through the deteriorating forest with a speed that Yuna could only wish to possess. There had been a spare rod on board the Celsius so she could send as many poor souls as possible, but with so many, she'd have to attack and incapacitate them first.
Twin pistols rested at her hips as she hurried to keep pace with her cousin. Though they weren't as battle experienced, Brother and Buddy followed behind. They'd need every person they could get to help Paine and the others.
"Rikku, wait!" she called, only catching glimpses of her cousin's pigtails and flashes of her colorful clothes as she weaved through the trees. "I can't lose you!"
It was growing colder and colder as they traveled closer to the vicinity of the lake. Even with the temple decaying, it was still bitterly cold and treacherous. Harsh winds whipped through the trees, and it was as though this part of the forest hadn't yet started to melt and vanish away.
"It's supposed to be here!" Rikku was complaining as Yuna caught up. Their path was completely blocked with a solid wall of ice.
But that was impossible, wasn't it? They'd cleared the path through with their equipment. It was cold, but surely not cold enough to have refrozen entirely in a matter of hours.
Buddy waved them off. "Stand back, I'll try and break it," he said, aiming his sidearm at the ice. Yuna stood to the side, knowing that each second they lingered was another second that Paine was fighting without their help. Was it only that morning that Yuna had sat on the beach under the sun, worrying only about Vidina straying too close to the water?
Buddy and Brother together fired several shots at the ice, trying to form circles in order to weaken the ice. It was hopeless. "We need much stronger equipment," Brother said. "Or maybe enough Fire spells to burn down half of Bevelle." He thumped the ice with the butt of his gun. "This is solid."
"We don't have stronger equipment," Rikku said, trembling the same as Yuna was under the onslaught of cold and the knowledge that Paine and the others were in grave danger. "And we don't have time!"
Yuna stepped forward, pressing her hand to the ice. It was sturdy, entirely solid. She said a prayer for Paine and Gippal and the others. "We don't have a choice," she said quietly. "We'll have to get more help."
"Help?" Rikku cried, kicking at the ice with her shoe and only managing to chip off pebble-sized bits of ice. "Help from where?"
"The closest is..."
"Bevelle," Buddy chimed in. "You're going to need some serious firepower to get through this, and you know Bevelle's got plenty of that."
It was a long way. It would take hours to get there and back, provided that Bevelle would even offer assistance in a Machine Faction matter. But Baralai would surely help them, wouldn't he?
Rikku sunk to her knees, punching at the ice. Yuna bowed her head. "Paine," she whispered under her breath. "Please hold them off until we can help."
–
Getting an audience with the praetor of New Yevon was always easier with Yuna's credentials. If she hadn't come along, if Rikku hadn't convinced her to join in the expedition, then what would have happened? Then again, Yuna couldn't relax, not yet.
The temple guards ushered her and Rikku in quickly. Brother and Buddy stayed behind to try chipping away at the ice, and Yuna hoped they wouldn't go rushing in before they returned. It wouldn't help Paine or Gippal if they all got sealed up once more.
Baralai emerged from one of the chambers, worry written across his features. "High Summoner..."
"Look, Baralai, we don't have time for titles and names," Rikku interrupted, linking her arm through the surprised praetor's and tugging him along. "Paine and Gippal need our help."
They explained as quickly as they could, Baralai's worry growing with each detail. "An entire town? And it wasn't destroyed by Sin?" he asked, scratching his chin.
"Would you know anything about it?" Yuna asked him. "Please, we need to get back in, but there is no way that the entrance refroze or resealed itself. If I had to venture a guess, I would imagine some strong magic at work." She recalled how much strength Seymour had possessed. What could an entire town's worth of angry Unsent souls be capable of?
Rikku kept pulling Baralai along. "Going in guns blazing isn't going to save Paine. We need to know what we're dealing with here."
"I...I will do my best to help..."
"Your best isn't good enough, mister," Rikku complained. "Don't you temple types have records of this sort of thing? A town vanishing off the map centuries ago but not destroyed by Sin? One of your priest guys had to have written that down when he wasn't praying or whatever you do."
"Rikku," Yuna warned her, knowing that her cousin's opinions could easily turn favor against them.
"There may be mention of it in the archives. I understand you are pressed for time," Baralai said, giving Rikku a stern look as he wrenched his arm away from her grip. "But it may help you deal with the Unsent if there is word of what happened to them."
There'd be no reasoning with them, Yuna knew. Unsent like Maester Mika had been able to retain their minds, but from the sound of what was happening, the Unsent had been frozen the same time as the town. They'd awoken with the anger and rage they'd been feeling at the exact moment of the initial attack. But what had the village done? They weren't fiends. They were still people, frozen at their most frightened and confused. It was far easier to kill fiends. Far easier.
Baralai led them to a dusty chamber. "Most of what you'd need would have been in Macalania Temple. Although in his infinite psychotic wisdom, I am sure Maester Seymour would have destroyed them. We won't have population figures, donations..."
Rikku started hauling large books off of the shelves. "I don't care who gave their gil and served Yevon like faithful little puppies. These people are really mad, okay? I want to know what they did to get themselves frozen in a big block of ice."
Baralai pulled a ledger down. "And you don't know how old the village is? Any year to start with?"
"We didn't know it was even there until a few days ago!" Rikku said, going through brittle pages without much concern for their condition. "A village gets frozen, somebody had to write it down."
"Rikku, that volume is over two hundred years old," Baralai complained before setting another book down in front of Yuna. "Here, three hundred years ago. I'll take four hundred."
Yuna didn't much like flipping through pages of information without a clear idea. Paine was strong, one of the strongest people she'd ever met, but how long could she and her sword last against a town full of menacing Unsent? Would the archives even have helpful information? Would it be better to return with a crew of warrior monks now and just strike down anything in their way?
"Lord Ohalland this," Rikku mumbled. "Lord Ohalland that. Oh look, this one's talking about the Al Bhed like they're a bunch of criminals. Why am I not surprised?"
"I can't change the past," Baralai said. They read in silence for a few minutes longer before the praetor spoke again. "Here's something."
The two of them gathered around. The script was very old, and the ink was fading. Even with all her years of studying the summoner's path, the older texts and scrolls had been hard to decipher. "Village of Raimi? To the southeast of Lake Macalania?" she asked. It was the right area geographically, although there'd been no signposts indicating the town's name.
Baralai nodded, fingers ghosting over the centuries-old ink. "This...you said there was machina in the town? In the huts?"
"A whole bunch of them," Rikku said. "They were in one of the huts, but we couldn't see any of the others. Weapons. Did the village trade with the Al Bhed?"
He kept reading, Yuna trying to squint at the words and read over his shoulder. "Well, according to this report, and this person was personal scribe to Maester..." He looked up and saw Rikku's anxious face. "Anyhow, it says that the village of Raimi was condemned by all of Yevon for consorting and trading with the Al Bhed. The entire village was excommunicated."
"The whole village?" Yuna gasped. Being suddenly excommunicated would have been a shock, especially in the old days in between times of Calm. "So close to the temple, and they could never go inside again!"
Baralai's eyes narrowed. "This...this cannot be true."
"What?" Rikku asked, trying to elbow him out of the way. "What does it say, come on?"
Yuna read the words, and her blood ran cold. "High Summoner Gandof? He was involved in this?"
"He wasn't High Summoner yet, not on this date. Well, since he was still alive," Baralai said nervously, scanning the page. "But it says that the Summoner Gandof was ordered by the Grand Maester to deal with seditious traitors in Raimi. He was ordered to...to kill the villagers. All of them."
"A summoner would never harm someone, faithful Yevonite or not. I cannot believe that High Summoner Gandof would have killed anyone. He sacrificed himself for all of Spira by fighting Sin," Yuna protested. Even if Yevon had been corrupt from day one, the summoner's path was an altruistic one. A path to save souls, not destroy them. Unless Gandof had gone on pilgrimage to atone for something unforgivable. "What does it say?"
"It's vague," Baralai noted. "It only says that the Summoner Gandof returned with assurances that Raimi's mages and Al Bhed sympathizers had been silenced."
"The village was untouched," Yuna said. "All the homes were perfectly preserved. The people were Unsent, not fiends on account of it being..."
She looked up and met Baralai's eyes. "...frozen," they said in unison.
"What?" Rikku asked, pulling the book closer to her to read it. "What are you talking about? It's a sad story, sure, but what does this have to do with us defeating them? Hello? So they were a bunch of mages that got in with the wrong crowd. Wrong crowd being my people, I guess. So they're mad now, and they've still got enough mage-y goodness in them to freeze us out and keep us from helping Paine."
"Rikku, Summoner Gandof didn't kill them. Well, he probably didn't want to. They're Unsent so they did die..." Yuna didn't like the knowledge that she had gained from these writings. Perhaps Raimi's sad end should have remained hidden in the archives, information unsought. "He was a summoner after all. You saw how the village was frozen. He must have called upon Shiva."
Baralai nodded. "He was no butcher so he froze them. But he still followed his orders. Just more...humanely."
Rikku was still unimpressed. "And those Unsent people running around attacking Paine and Gippal right now? How humane must it have been to freeze to death and be unable to really die? Or become fiends?"
Their souls...why hadn't Gandof sent them to the Farplane? Surely he would have known that freezing everyone was effectively killing them. Was it the cruel result of their excommunication? Not even being allowed to have their souls rest? It was no wonder they had all gone mad and become vicious Unsent. It would be merciful to send them to the Farplane, Yuna decided, even centuries past their deaths. But they were angry and violent. Simply performing the Sending would be difficult. They'd have to all be struck down and subdued in order for her to concentrate. Men, women...children.
"Whatever help you need, New Yevon will give you." Baralai looked around the archives, at the shelves overflowing with books and ledgers. How much cruelty had been perpetrated in Yevon's name that they would never know about?
She nodded. "We must put an end to this." Before they became fiends. Before they killed her friends.
Rikku clamped a hand down on Baralai's shoulder. "Right, since it's indirectly your fault after all."
Baralai frowned. "Let us worry about blame another time."
–
New Yevon's help had been promised, and Baralai had certainly delivered. She and Rikku hurried back through the forest with fifty warrior monks and a handful of summoners to assist with the Sending. "If there was ever a time for a black mage dressphere," Rikku was complaining, hands tight around the machina flame gun she was "borrowing" for the rescue effort. Yuna knew her cousin well. It would probably be "misplaced" and remain in Rikku's care until she'd modified it to her satisfaction.
"We'll make do," Yuna said, climbing over a fallen tree.
"Don't suppose there's a quick version of the Sending, huh?" Rikku asked, calling back over her shoulder. "Can't just snap your fingers and send them on their merry way?"
She shook her head. "I'm afraid not."
"Well," her cousin said. "We'll do our best to buy you all the time you need, Yunie."
Their advantage was that the Unsent were most likely unused to holding their form. They were ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. They had probably lacked the initial malice that had kept Seymour on Spira, the sheer force of will that Sir Auron had possessed. But a village of mages was not worth underestimating.
They met the wall of ice again, and Rikku gave her a shove towards Buddy and Brother while she and a strong battle formation of monks readied their flame guns. The chill in the air was replaced with a strong burst of heat as the guns let loose a torrent of fire, and Yuna was almost blown back as the ice started to rapidly melt.
"Could use one of those," Buddy commented.
Yuna only nodded. She wasn't much in the mood for levity, not with the task ahead. She could only hope that they could subdue the Unsent quickly and painlessly. Another line of monks stepped forward after the first few bursts of flame, chipping away with pickaxes that were clearly of Al Bhed origin.
The ice cracked and fell in large chunks, and the monks charged forward with a loud cry. Rikku came back and pulled her by the hand. "I'm not leaving you, no way," Rikku told her. "Stay close, and we'll find Paine."
The untouched, undisturbed village Yuna had seen on the CommSphere was just as hauntingly gorgeous, save for the trail of bodies now littering the ground. Glimmering pyreflies were swirling around so thickly it was like standing at the banks of the Moonflow. There were screams and howls, and the charge began. Paine and Gippal had fought off many, but Yuna could already sense magic in the air. The strongest mages remained.
Rikku hurried forward while Buddy and Brother stood behind her. A rain of spells came down on them, and the few monk mages serving to heal them were desperately attempting to stem the tide by casting Shell on as many of their forces as possible. A nasty crackle of Thundara sizzled and popped against Yuna's skin as Rikku cleared her a path for her dance.
There was so much shouting, so many cries of an anger Yuna would never be able to understand. They came in swarms, pyreflies swirling and glowing brightly in contrast with their shadowy forms. These were people no longer. Their eyes were empty as they surged towards them. She had never seen such emptiness. A woman raised her hands as if to curse the heavens, bringing her arms down to claw at Rikku.
"Get back!" her cousin screamed, sending off a deadly blast of fire. Yuna would never forget the woman's howl or the cries of the others falling at the feet of the other monks.
Concentrating on a Sending had never been so challenging as her friends encircled her, firing weapons to stagger their foes and buy her as much time as possible. The steps were familiar as she brought her rod around, shutting her eyes and shutting out the sight of Raimi's enraged citizens. She was desperate to keep from focusing on the Unsent children that were racing forward with sticks, with anything they could find.
They were Unsent souls, nearly fiends, she told herself. They were no longer human. This was merciful and just. But it was cruelty still to force them to die a second time. Another spell staggered her, and she could feel a tingling numbness shooting down her arm as she held her rod aloft. But she could not, would not stop her dance. With each footstep she was granting eternal rest for those who had been gravely wronged.
She could hear the whistling cry of pyreflies departing and opened her eyes to see that the square was empty of all save their own forces. The pyreflies floated off alone, dissipating innocently. The warmth of a Cura spell soothed her aching limbs as she leaned against Rikku for support. There must have been dozens Sent all at once from her efforts as well as the other summoners.
"Paine," she muttered as the other forces gathered around them in the center of town. "We have to find Paine."
"Where is she?" Brother asked. "We do not see her here."
The ground shuddered then, nearly dropping them all to their knees. "There!" Rikku shouted, pointing just beyond the clustered huts. A path that hadn't been visible on the CommSphere continued on. A larger building loomed in the distance. It had probably served as a central town meeting place. It was now the village's last stand.
They hurried along, seeing the entire building coated in the same thick layer of ice as the town. It was a powerful mage, still holding on. "I'm guessing Mayor Crazy Mage isn't shuffling off," Buddy grumbled as the warrior monks readied their guns for another strong blast of fire.
The entire building rocked with the force of it, but the mage within responded quicker than Yuna had anticipated. Her entire body seemed to be chilling from the inside out, and they all fell back as a primal scream emerged from inside.
"Yunie," Rikku cried, and she turned to see her cousin's legs were rooted to the ground, entirely encased in ice. "Yunie, it's cold."
All of the monks were crying out, frozen solid from the knees down. Had only Yuna managed to avoid the onslaught?
"Yuna, you have to send whatever's in there. Send it now!" Buddy cried, trying to chip away at the ice surrounding him.
But she could not send what she could not see. "Yunie, go!" Rikku shouted. "Go!"
She could barely feel her toes or fingers as she struggled forward, tromping through the fresh layer of snow the powerful spell had blanketed all around the meeting hall. Yuna felt as though her hand was frozen completely to her rod as she scrambled up the steps.
The corridor within was almost a solid sheet of ice, and she jabbed her rod into it again and again, using it to steady her slipping footsteps. "Forgive me," she whispered. "I don't want to hurt you. Please, forgive me."
Yuna heard a familiar voice at the end of the hall. Paine. Paine was still alive! She found her friend, bloodied and bruised swinging her sword through block after block of ice. A woman, no larger than Yuna herself was casting spell after spell, blocking Paine's advances with a shield of ice. With each one that Paine broke, another took its place. Yuna could see Gippal in the corner, encased in ice the same as her companions' legs outside. Hopefully he was still alive, but there was no sign of the Al Bhed workers. This woman was indeed powerful.
"This is our town, Gandof!" the mage was screaming hysterically, raining icicles down on Paine who was desperately trying to deflect them. The woman only knew the rage she'd felt at the time of her death. "There are children here!"
"Just give up, would you?" Paine was shouting back, punctuating each word with a violent swing of her sword. Her lips were chapped, and her limbs were shivering with cold. There was ice nearly coating her entire form, but Paine would not give in.
The floor was as slick as the hall, and she needed time to send this woman, but there was no way she would go quietly. Yuna could feel the cold as soon as she stepped in. She had to start the Sending, and she had to start it now. Her feet slid as she started to move, limbs aching with cold. The rod shot from her hand, and Yuna fell to the ground with a cry, ice spell still splintering against the rapidly diminishing Shell protecting her.
"Yuna!" Paine shouted as soon as the mage's attention had left her. Yuna scrambled along the floor, sliding as she desperately reached her fingers out, stretching to retrieve her rod. "Yuna, I'll hold her off!"
"Yevon will not take our home from us!"
She could feel ice climbing slowly up her leg, the crystals forming and hardening as she tried to crawl. The effect was slowed when Paine struck a decisive blow, and the woman screamed, a cloud of pyreflies encircling her injured arm. Almost, Yuna was pushing herself, fingers outstretched. Almost!
It was so cold. Each movement forward was another footfall up Mount Gagazet, and she was slowing.
"Yuna, you have to send her!" Paine cried.
Her fingers grasped at the edge of the rod as the mage approached, raising her good arm to send another spell her way. Paine dashed walls of ice apart, hurrying to delay the woman's movement as Yuna scrambled to her feet, exhaling heavily and seeing her breath nearly crystallizing before her.
"You would kill us all, Gandof!" the mage screamed, trying to dodge Paine's swift attacks.
Her steps were heavier as she shivered, letting her body's memory take the place of her mind's. The cold was shutting her down, exhausting her. She focused every part of herself on the Sending, knowing that getting this soul to the Farplane was the most important thing she had to do. If the mage went unchecked, she would go to Bevelle, all over Spira to exact her vengeance against Yevon.
She nearly screamed in pain as she lifted her rod, limbs feeling like they would crack the same as the ice. She had to send her.
"Yuna!" Paine was crying. "Yuna, hurry!"
Yuna could hear the pyreflies start to hum, whispering their sad melody as the mage struggled to cling to the material world. "Please," she muttered, swinging the rod around, forming an arc. "I am sorry. You must depart."
One last ice spell crashed against her as she prayed with all of her might, drawing every last bit of strength she possessed.
"Yevon, hear us!" the mage cried out, almost far away to Yuna's ears. It was the last thing Yuna heard as the rod slipped from her fingers, and everything went black.
–
"Cold!"
Yuna stirred, blinking slowly. Something was heavy, a pressure bearing down on her chest.
"It's damn cold!" Gippal was complaining.
"Just be happy to be breathing," Yuna heard Paine say as she opened her eyes. The village and the ice were gone, and she recognized the inner chambers of the Palace of St. Bevelle.
"Breathing? I thought that crazy mage was going to eat my brain!"
"And what a futile effort that would have been," Paine teased.
"Hey, Yunie! Yunie, you're awake?" Rikku cried, and suddenly, the bed she was on creaked with the added weight as her cousin threw her arms around her.
"I am," she said, realizing that the weight atop her was blankets. So many blankets. Rikku helped her to sit up. Gippal was nearly cocooned in blankets beside her, and Paine was laughing at him. "Did we...did I send her?"
"You did," Rikku said. "And not a second too soon! Do you know how embarrassing it is to shoot a machina flame gun at your own feet?"
They were safe. Another harrowing adventure complete. Yuna hoped it would be her last, at least for a very long time. The entire town of Raimi, an entire town of furious Unsent, had gone to their final rest on the Farplane. She and her friends had once again saved the world, although Yuna was hoping that someone else would step in for a change. She shivered, and Rikku rubbed her back and smiled.
"I bet the beach in Besaid sounds pretty good right now, huh?"
Yuna smiled, feeling her anxiety and tension lift. The people were at rest and her friends had lived to see another day. "The beach sounds wonderful."
"What, you're not going to stay and excavate?" Gippal complained.
"You're still going to dig there? Do you have a deathwish or something?" Rikku asked.
Gippal would always be Gippal, Yuna reasoned. And now his expedition would be far easier without the Unsent running around. Baralai entered moments later.
"I was hoping I could speak with the High Summoner?"
"You can just use her name," Paine chided him, yanking Rikku by the arm. "Come on, let's go grab all the valuable stuff while Gippal's stuck in bed."
"Hey!" Gippal shouted as the other two girls departed. "Hey, come back! That's not fair! I'm a freaking icicle in recovery! You can't do that!"
"Buh bye!" Rikku said, blowing Gippal a kiss before shutting the door behind her.
Baralai pulled a chair up to Yuna's bedside. "Thank you. Thank you for all that you did."
"All that she did?" Gippal protested. "We held that crazy lady off for a long time before you sent in the flamethrowers!"
"And you could have asked permission before excavating there with such a small team," Baralai said, not even looking behind him.
"Hey, I don't need your permission to dig a hole, Mr. Praetor. I can dig as many holes as I want!"
"Can I speak with Yuna please?"
Yuna smiled, glad for the lightness and the humor. It had been a very trying day. Baralai clasped her hand. "We won't forget what you did today. And we don't want it to happen again. I have a proposition for you, if you'll hear it?"
What in Spira could it be?
"I've heard from Paine that it's blitzball season again," Baralai said. "If you weren't too busy cheering for the Aurochs, would you like to work in the archives? New Yevon needs to be more transparent, and I think going through the old records will prevent another event like Raimi. Will you help?"
"Don't let him rope you in without paying!" Gippal called, and Baralai rolled his eyes.
Who knew how many other towns had been lost? She could tell their stories, make sure they weren't forgotten in dusty, deteriorating pages. Children like Vidina could grow up in a world that cherished its history and remembered the mistakes of the past. It was a different kind of adventuring, and it probably suited her better. She grinned and shook Baralai's hand.
"You have a deal."
Besides, an archive was safer than a town full of Unsent and quieter than a stadium full of blitzball fanatics. Surely Tidus wouldn't be too mad if she missed a match or two.