Chapter Text
The mood in Mor Dhona could only be described as bustling. With news spreading fast of the recovery of the Scions from their mysterious illness, the pall that had come over the settlement lifted and a renewed vigor filled the air. Adventurers had started flocking to the small town again, and there was an excitement in the air. The people gossiped in the streets in excited whispers about what had really happened while the Scions had been asleep. There was a tale that they had saved another world entirely and prevented a calamity in the process, that the Warrior of Light had killed not one Ascian but two in single combat. Denizens and travelers alike spoke in open wonder about what marvels the Scions, headed by the Warrior of Light, would accomplish next.
It set Mei's teeth on edge.
Being the Warrior of Light had always been a burden, and one she took on only begrudgingly. Fighting primals and imperial soldiers was one thing. She had always enjoyed a challenge, the knowledge that she was doing her part in a greater whole. She was happy to be an adventurer, even one of note, but felt more that her place was alongside a group of her peers, working towards a common goal than as a near-mythical hero, chosen by Hydaelyn herself to save entire worlds.
Yet she had undoubtedly passed beyond the skills of those around her. It wasn't ego, it was fact, and one that others were quick to take advantage of. The first time she truly felt singled out was in Ishgard. Though it was not in slaying dragons that she had felt she was different but in being pitted against other members of the Eorzean alliance in the grand melee. More than one person had made barbed jokes that day that having the fabled Warrior of Light on their side made the whole tournament moot, that her contribution to whatever cause she championed was so heavy that the others could simply sit back and watch while their victory was assured. That they were right made it all the worse.
The victory on the First that all others were so quick to celebrate left a bitter taste in her mouth. She looked to the Exarch with his obvious adoration that he was willing to sacrifice everything to save her, to Emet-Selch and his judgment on the entirety of mortal life riding on her shoulders, to even her fellow Scions who watched her very soul being ripped apart by that gods damned Light that even now she hadn't fully recovered from. They all were more than willing to let it happen all in the name of her being special beyond measure. She felt bile in the back of her throat whenever she looked at them now. They never saw her for what she was, only the symbol of a greater cause. A myth. A legend. She would never be an adventurer to them again. She often wondered if she was even a person anymore, or simply the idea of one.
So when the celebrations quieted and the Scions were brought to a meeting in Ala Mhigo with the rest of the Alliance leaders to discuss the state of the Garlean front, she was not at all surprised by the assumption that held in the air. The report brought back by Estinien and van Baelsar of Varis' murder by a newly returned to life Zenos and the subsequent civil war was shocking news, yet a cause of immediate relief to those weary of Garlean expansion. Many soldiers lives would be spared by no longer needing to be sent to a front line that was rapidly retreating of their own accord to defend their own lands.
Yet they all knew this was no true boon to the alliance. With Varis dead, there were none who could truly stand against Zenos on his march to take the throne, and an empire headed by the former crown prince would be unstable, unpredictable, and violent.
"He's dangerous, and the longer we wait, the more entrenched his position will become." Raubahn grumbled, doing his best to sound reasonable even as his voice strained.
"A Garlemald lead by Zenos is a danger to us all. Someone will need to do something." Came the measured voice of Aymeric, quiet and lyrical in its practicality.
"While I am loath to take offensive action, it is for the best that he is dealt with." The soft voice of Kan-E-Senna chimed in, ever the voice of peace even as she and all the rest wielded the mightiest sword in the world.
Mei sat quietly in her seat, eyes closed while they worked themselves in circles to justify what they all had come to this meeting already knowing to be true: Zenos needed to be killed, and only she could do it. She was to be their weapon once again, and as loath as she was to acquiesce to their demands without argument, waiting around to listen to them dance around the issue was intolerable.
"I will go find Zenos and I will kill him." She said simply, pushing back from the table. She looked at the others, daring them to look away. They should be grateful to her for cutting right to the point and preventing them from needing to ask. Not that she expected them to anyway, the way they had been going about things for far too long. It would be assumed once again to be her role, to be something she was eager to do, and she might as well play into it.
The Scions sputtered apologies and half-hearted protests, making foolish insinuations that she need not do this alone, that others could come with her, but these were all to settle their own consciences, and all in the room knew it. The truth that hung in the air is that they would only slow her down, only make it all the more likely that she would be caught. They spoke of a team, an army, but they wanted an assassin, and assassins work alone.
They tried to justify it to her that Zenos would likely come for her anyway, his single-minded obsession having apparently not dulled by his death at her hands, but this also was more to alleviate their own guilt than for her benefit. Easy to blame the villain, after all, than to admit they were willing to risk her once again.
Rather than listen to their prattle any longer, Mei gave a pointed look around the table, and walked out the door, ignoring the words of protest that followed in her wake.
She was back in the Rising Stones before the others could gather their thoughts enough to follow her, drifting around her room to pack up the small rucksack she would need for the journey. She was unsure how long she would need to survive on rations, whether she would need to sleep under the stars, but a lifetime of travel told her that while the journey would be hard, she needed to pack only what was necessary. Weight was her enemy as much as hunger or weather.
She flinched slightly as she reached up too quickly, still not entirely used to the aftereffects of the Light poisoning. Ever since the First her body had felt unnaturally stiff, as if the stagnation of all that aether had slipped into her muscles and joints and caused them to protest at being forced to move.
She rolled her shoulders to relieve the pain, and grumbled quietly to herself as the twinge subsided. Mei reached again, her hands slipping this time on the smooth handle of one of her daggers. They were simple things, not at all the ostentatious weapons that other adventurers seemed so fond of wearing as a symbol of status. But they were sharp and well balanced, and she took care of them better than all of her other possessions, including her own body. She stored the daggers at her hip, thinking darkly that given the nature of her mission, they were the only truly necessary item she needed to pack, a metaphor for her own situation if she ever saw one.
Still, the bitter colds of Garlemald would not care about her self-pity nor any symbolic meaning behind her choice of belongings, and so she resumed her packing with a renewed search for her warmest coat. She’d pulled it out of an old truck, dusting it off a few times before pausing in her tracks. She felt, rather than heard, the rustling coming from the door and spun on her heels, daggers raised high as she dropped into a defensive crouch to face the intruder.
"You're getting sloppy if I can sneak up on you." The Elezen standing in the doorway was calm, carrying an ease about him as he leaned against the frame. When not dressed head to toe in metal armor, Estinien was quite stealthy. Perhaps a lifetime of hopping around on rooftops was to blame. It had certainly given her light feet.
"Maybe I knew you were there all along and was just waiting to see if you'd actually say anything." She lied, even as she returned her daggers to their sheathes, her surprise obvious in her attack posture. Estinien just scoffed but continued to watch her from the doorway with a smirk. She couldn’t help but smile back. She never could help it with him.
"Why are you back here alone, anyway? Shouldn't you still be at the Alliance meeting?" His voice was warm, genuine with curiosity and with none of the expectation that she’d come to know from the others, but still internally she flinched. This line of questioning was exactly why she had planned to gather her belongings and sneak away before the others could find and interrogate her. And though Estinien would perhaps be the only one who could understand her frustration, he himself being the living weapon of a nation the majority of his life, she still had no real interest in explaining herself or her annoyance to anyone.
"I couldn't help but notice you were also suspiciously absent. Shouldn't you have gone?" It was a cheap diversion, but Estinien was always easily baited when it came to politics and his involvement therein. When she heard his exasperated sigh, she let out a small laugh under her breath. As he finally pushed himself away from the doorway and sat on the bed amongst her belongings, she knew she had him thoroughly distracted.
"Fury no, I'd rather go back to fighting the dragon horde than attend another of those meetings. Gaius stayed behind to answer any questions of our time in Garlemald, so I saw no reason to stay and give a report. Besides...I would prefer not to listen to Aymeric's mothering about my lack of return to Ishgard." Mei laughed gently, quietly noting his referral of the Black Wolf by his first name only, though saying nothing. Sating her curiosity on that front would make it too likely that she would be trapped here by her own doing, and she knew she was rapidly running out of time before the others returned.
It was a reality she was not keen to return to, preferring to stay and commiserate with Estinien, perhaps even get properly drunk with him and see if they couldn’t both find a way to forget all the rest of this nonsense, but she knew that would only create more problems than it solved. As they lapsed into silence, she let her smile fall. Instead she went to work finishing packing her bag and slung it over her shoulder.
"Well..." she said dumbly, indicating that it was time to go and feebly hoping he wouldn't make a fuss about it.
"Well," he repeated back, "I suppose if you were going to tell me where you were going you would have already done so. I'd tell you to be careful, though that's never been your style." She was filled with relief that he made no move to stop her, instead only pulling her into a quick hug before taking a step back, making his intentions clear that he was letting her go. Mei put on a grin that didn't quite reach her eyes as she said a simple goodbye and began to channel her magic. It was only as she teleported away did she see the worry in Estinien's eyes, even if he chose not to voice it.
Of all of them, she was going to miss him the most.