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xiakha · 17 days

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FFXIVWrite 2024 Prompt #3 - Tempest

Thunder rolled over the House of the Fierce.

Were she not shinobi, it would be unlikely Yugiri’s exit would have been as dramatic as it was. There was a moment of anguish, and she actually raised her voice to Gosetsu, and then nothing, not even an afterimage.

Were it not for her own shinobi training, Xiao would likely have missed the direction Yugiri vanished to, as Lyse and Alisaie did. She grit her teeth.

She turned back to Gosetsu, who purposefully looked away from where he figured Yugiri had slunk off too. His kindly smile was even more of a poor mask for pain than it usually was as his expression turned stony, “...It is for her to think on our master’s words and recognize the futility of her course. Or at least, those are my thoughts upon the matter.”

Gosetsu’s eyes flitted over to meet Xiao’s, her expression had hardened as well, but in a different way, for different reasons, “You may think differently. Should you be so determined to give chase, I will not bar your path.”

Xiao nodded and casually palmed the paired knives at her hips.

“Zenos will fall, but it will not be to a desperate knife in the dark. We will need proper planning and ample preparation. She has neither.”

Xiao also quietly made her leave as Lyse and Alisaie started shouting at anyone that would listen.

The rain started sporadically enough that they masked Xiao’s approach upon Yugiri’s position. If she was surprised that her fellow shinobi dropped down beside her, she did not show it.

“Did Gosetsu send you to stop me?”

“Would sendin’ me t’ stop ye actually stop ye?”

“I am not in the mood for riddles.”

“Wasn’t the plan, no.”

“...Then you came of your own free will?”

Yugiri sighed, “I should be surprised if you agreed with my chosen course, no one else did. But it’s not as fanciful as it seems.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially, “Scant moments ago, I received the crown prince’s itinerary from one of our spies in the castle. ‘Twould seem that Zenos has no desire to remain in Doma any longer than necessary. His impatience is to our advantage. He arrived at the castle without warning and announced that he wished to inspect the Moon Gates this very eve. The whole castle is in a state of upheaval, but even with Yotsuyu’s pleading, he will not be delayed. He declined a full escort, only traveling with a scant honor guard.”

The shinobi pulled at the front of Xiao’s shozoku, “The kami could not have blessed us with more auspicious circumstances. I will kill him, Xiao. I will.”

Xiao put a hand on Yugiri’s, her grip iron, “Rather not come t’ blows wit’ ye, but the first knife t’ Zenos’s throat’ll be mine.”

Yugiri’s eyes widened even as Xiao’s narrowed, “The first strike on Zenos proper is yours to take, but are you… are you sure?” She nearly faltered, perhaps seeing her own stubborn foolishness reflected in Xiao, but then shook her head and steeled her resolve, “Thank you. Thank you. I… I cannot well express what this means to me.” She released her grip on Xiao’s clothing and gestured, “We have much to discuss, but we can do so on the way. We shall intercept the party at Yuzuka Manor. Let us be off!”

If anyone saw two shadows flit away, surely it was simply a trick of the lightning.

Zenos was bored.

Oh so bored. He would have fallen asleep on his feet were he not trying to get all of this over with as quickly as possible. He could feel the ennui eating at his soul. It sat upon his chest, and perhaps, were it just a little bit more real, he would have simply stopped struggling against it so that it could force the breath from his body for good. Alas, he could not simply will himself to die of suffocation to end his suffering. He wondered if staring up into the storm would avail him, perhaps he could drown if he allowed enough rain to drip down his throat. Ah, were it not for his helmet.

The nervous imbecile leading the way was prattling on like he were some tour guide for some of the more slack-jawed Yaes or Wirs Galvus. His words had all the effect on Zenos that they would have on a particularly sharp and deadly blade. Instead, Zenos indulged in his internal monologue. The ruins around him were no more cleaned up now than they had been almost five years prior, when he had been tasked with putting down the insurrection. Less a province than a graveyard, the putrid husk of this broken nation was utterly devoid of proper sport.

He sighed out loud, much to the disconcertment of the Pilius Prior. Varis of course demanded that his son fulfill his duties as heir apparent to the Imperial Throne. So here Zenos was, in fallow fields that he had labored so long to sow seeds of hatred and fear. Where was the harvest? Where were the savage beasts baying for blood?

There was unusual movement behind him, but he thought little of it, perhaps the fools behind him slipped up in the rain. Surely it were anything, it would be little more than hollow-eyed prey striking from the dark.

In one fluid motion he drew his blade and parried the shinobi’s attack, crossing blades just ilms away from his neck.

A flick of the wrist and the shinobi bounced back, another attack in his blindspot, perhaps the first was just a feint? Another would-be killing blow had it not been for Zenos’s prowess.

The soldiers behind him lay bleeding in the dirt, throats slit and silently eased onto the ground to gurgle to their deaths. The idiot leading the party started screaming, and Yotsuyu started shouting, possibly orders.

Truth be told, he was looking to provoke something by setting out as close to alone as he could. How how he desired to issue an official challenge, to give the Domans a week to plan and then reap the harvest, but that would never be allowed now that he was heir apparent. So this was as close as he could get to tilting his head to offer his neck, bait to see how desperate for his blood Doma was. All of this was just so he could feel something.

He felt nothing. An improvement over the hollowing ennui, but there was no joy in this hunt.

“How weak. Is this the sum of your hate?”

The second shinobi was unmasked, her eyes filled with fury, her teeth grit with determination, but it was far from the look of the beast that he desired to face.

“This is but the beginning! For Lord Kaien! For Doma!”

Kaien’s retainers? Really? And there were only two that let vengeance and rage fester for so long that they would strike at him? Zenos had tempered his expectations, but he was still disappointed by the showing. What did he have to do to get people that could properly hate him, to properly threaten him?

The first shinobi, a Miqo’te with an eyepatch, threw a projectile at Zenos, which he deflected without turning. A misdirection. The projectile exploded into smoke and brilliant light, surely blinding a lesser swordsman, if but for a moment. But Zenos was no lesser swordsman. The follow-up strike still came at him, a blow he let glance off his armor. This one gave him some pause at least, he was unaware there were Keepers of the Moon so far east, and that one would be trained in the arts of the shinobi at that.

There was something about her…

Ignoring his assailants, Zenos looked at Yotsuyu, doing her best to fuse her back to the Manor’s outer wall, her umbrella forgotten, her kimono soaked, “Mayhap I shall test this new blade of yours. Let us hope it is to my liking, lest your misfortunes compound.”

The two attacked again, the Au Ra leapt while the Miqo’te ducked, attempting to hit different gaps in his armor, attempting to divide his attention. If he had given either attack a bit more attention the other would be in his blindspot. Clever, very technical. But one was easily parried and the other effortlessly dodged.

He sheathed his kanata and stepped back to address both of his would-be foes, “Then again, I am loath to expend such effort on the unworthy. Come— earn the honor.”

The clash of steel on steel was nearly drowned out by the pummel of the rain and the howl of the wind.

Yotsuyu had long fallen silent in horror, she had no illusions about the quality of her guard, but that the two shinobi would drop them almost as an afterthought before refocusing their attentions on Zenos… Well it was more the reason to hide within the walls of the castle.

But Lord Zenos was hardly fazed, he simply strode through the flurry of expert bladework and ninjutsu, not to mention the driving rain and whipping winds, as if it were a well choreographed dance.

And perhaps in part it was. Though Yotsuyu was no warrior, she had been forced to learn how to dance, and she could at least parse some of the steps. The shinobi were at two disadvantages. First, Zenos’s size and reach far surpassed that of either relatively diminutive figure. Several of the techniques that they were able to use on the soldiers would find no purchase or were simply impossible on as tall and as armored a figure as the Garlean. Second, they had to coordinate to avoid hitting one another, the Au Ra more than the Miqo’te, and when one had an opportune angle on Zenos, often it meant that the other had to pull back. Were but one of the two disadvantages present, perhaps the crown prince would be lifeless on the ground, but both together was enough to consistently give him an edge over his opponents.

And then, when Zenos went on the offensive, the two broke off the engagement completely. Neither could withstand the brunt of Zenos’s attacks directly in their lightly armored states. If he were even a bit threatened, it was child’s play for Zenos to create the breathing room he needed and reset the fight. Yotsuyu wondered what his expression was under the grimace of his helmet. Was he entertained, or was this just busy work?

Then, through one of Zenos’s attacks, the Miqo’te landed a blow even as she leapt backwards. One of her knives snapped, its blade wedged into Zenos’s side. Whether it actually wounded the crown prince or just caught in his armor, it was difficult to tell, and certainly Zenos did not react as if he had been stabbed. Yotsuyu wasn’t sure if Zenos would react to being stabbed, let alone how.

“Well done, beast. You have earned the right to look upon Ame-no-Habakiri.”

Zenos drew the katana with a burst of crimson. The concussive force pushed back the elements, temporarily creating a sphere of violent calm around the Garlean with no rain, no wind, only death. It knocked both shinobi flying, and had Yotsuyu not braced herself against the wall, she too would have been bowled over, even at this distance.

Yotsuyu heard herself exclaim hoarsely in horror, “What… what is this…? Kami forfend…”

Both shinobi struggled to rise again, the Au Ra outright collapsing.

But the Miqo’te did something Yotsuyu had never seen before. Even as she struggled to stay standing, the violet Miqo’te roared bestially and tore off her armor. An axe manifested out of the aether itself into her outstretched hand, and her body was sheathed in an orange-red aura of deadly intent. For all the toying that Zenos had done, for all of the violence inflicted and near death exchanges, this was different. The Miqo’te’s eyes burned red, even the one underneath her eyepatch. This was unbridled rage, with nothing held back for self preservation.

Zenos landed a wicked blow squarely upon the Miqo’te, powerful enough to splinter one of the trees behind her. And yet she kept coming, landing solid hits on Zenos as well, forceful enough to push Zenos back, to lift him ilms off the ground as he parried.

But it was far from just animalistic desperation, Yotsuyu could see how the Miqo’te attempted to drive the snapped blade further into Zenos’s armor with her attacks. For the first time in the entire encounter, Zenos was actually on the backfoot. He leapt back, sheathed that dread blade once more, and flash-stepped forward for another blast of Concentrativity. The Miqo’te was once more knocked flying, but aetheric chains lashed her to Zenos. Even as she slammed into the ground, she remained standing. She pulled herself to Zenos with that chain, her back muscles heaving, and drove her axe into the gap between Zenos’s oversized pauldron and his helmet.

On anyone else, it would have easily been a killing blow. On anyone else, it might have outright beheaded, if not rent in two.

But it wasn’t anyone else. It was Zenos.

As the Miqo’te collapsed, Zenos chucked with recollection. “Ahhh… I remember you. Ala Mhigo. The champion of the savages. Did I strike down your lover, now that I recall?”

He casually removed the axe and rolled his neck as if he had merely developed a crick, “Oh… how right I was to spare your life. How delightfully bestial.”

He sheathed Ame-no-Habakiri and removed his helmet. Yotsuyu gasped quietly in horror as the crown prince contorted his lips into an expression she had never seen before on his face.

He smiled.

Zenos kneeled down and lifted the Miqo’te’s body by the nape, forcing her to meet eyes, “Hear me, hero. Endure. Survive. Live. For the rush of blood, for the time between the seconds— live. For the sole pleasure left to me in this empty, ephemeral world— I need you to live!”

He then set the Miqo’te back down into the mud.

Zenos looked up to the skies, the storm was passing. His heart, he could feel his heart pounding, his breathing actually struggled to keep up. What was this electricity that seemed to crackle through his veins? And his body, his body ached. He was battered, possibly bruised, possibly bleeding from his side. For a moment, for a fleeting, but very real moment, he thought the Miqo’te might kill him. So much he had read about fearing for one’s life, the brilliant sharpness in vision that set in when genuinely struggling against equals, when genuinely fighting to the death. Perhaps this was actually an opponent to overcome, to strive to defeat. He was giddy. He was swimming in emotions that he had hardly felt before. And this mere taste was just a sampling, a brew that had not finished refinement, more time would be necessary, more honing.

Oh how he longed for another taste! To drink from the lifeblood of his new, most delectable foe! But he had to wait. He had to deny himself until the right moment.

Zenos rose and turned to leave. He did still have a Moon Gate or two to inspect. He ignored the arrow that landed at his feet, and the shouting of someone or other behind him. He heard Yotsuyu coughing and shouting somewhere in the distance but running after him.

None of it mattered. He finally had something to look forward to.

Back at Namai, Yugiri and Xiao were carefully cleaned and stitched up before being unceremoniously but gently dumped into the baths. Each was still alive and nursing no permanent injuries because the other was there, but neither would have stayed so long in the fight were it not for the other.

In brighter news, their recklessness had rallied the people of Namai, and though they did not so much charge into the storm as warily approach it, they covered the retreat as Imperial reinforcements came sniffing around as the moon broke through the departing clouds.

Most importantly, it was proof indeed that Zenos was no invincible, indomitable foe. His armor was not impregnable. His offense was not insurmountable. No matter how slim, the Domans had a chance. None perhaps had the same ferocity that Xiao unleashed, but if they all shared a little of that ferocity, that beast within, perhaps Doman liberation was possible.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2024 #ffxiv #wordvomit #story #xiao longbao #yugiri mistwalker #zenos yae galvus #the time between the seconds

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xiakha · 7 days

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FFXIVWrite 2024 Prompt #13 - Butte

The bridge to Xak Tural seemed to stretch on ever into the horizon from the other side of the Skygate, with the roar of the falls crashing to their left and an even more endless expanse of ocean to their right, the atmosphere was perfect for newfound adventure. Despite the fact that none of this was new to him, Erenville still got into the swing of things, possibly because of his traveling companion. How many could say that they were the sole guide to the Warrior of Light?

Well, after the whole thing with the Aetherial Sea, the teeny tiny toy boat, and then the very literal edge of the universe, she insisted that she was no longer the Warrior of Light, since that Light had passed on, and therefore was just an adventurer. To Erenville, whatever the case, it was a strange feeling indeed to know that the person who fought (not alone, mind, but still) off the Ultimate Despair at the End of All Things (or at least that’s how the classified Sharlayan reports described it) was still able to get giddy about seeing new things on the star. Moreover, would be giddy to see his hometown, which he thought was very much a humble affair. Perhaps it was humble because he was used to it.

Unfortunately for him, he could never tell when Xiao was joking. “So have you heard anything of Shaaloani? Are you looking forward to seeing anything?” He was a bit hesitant to make conversation, not knowing what to talk about, but it would be better than walking in silence. To be fair, it had been a comfortable, thoughtful silence, but he was just beset with nervous energy for some reason. Xiao tilted her head slightly in thought, “Heard there were buttes.” “...Pardon?” “Beautiful buttes, great buttes.” Erenville squinted at Xiao. So often did it feel like to him that Xiao had an unreadable poker face. Not that she didn’t show emotion, genuine emotion at that, just that she was able to say things so out of pocket without even a hint in her expression that she was aware of it. She could say something that ridiculous with her old wry smile, the same one that she used to say nice things to Wuk Lamat. And, as far as he could tell, Xiao never used sarcasm while saying superficially nice things to Wuk Lamat, which he couldn’t say for himself. “...Forgive me, I’m not familiar with the term.” “Butte? ‘Tis a land formation.” She gestured with her hands in a suggestive manner, “Flat on top, vertical slopes, but taller than wide.”

Were it Wuk Lamat or even Koana, he would expect a certain glint in the eye and a change in expression that made it clear that they were making a joke. Xiao was definitely smiling more now than before the whole End of All Things and What Have You, but he still couldn’t tell. “...I think I know what you’re talking about, but the term?” “Learned it in Gyr Albania. Got pretty buttes out there, most are pretty scraggly though.” “Do they now?” “Nyunkrepf’s Hope’s on one.” Erenville had seen Nyunkrepf’s Hope. It certainly rested on a flat topped hill with very steep slopes. He couldn’t recall if it was taller than it was wide. “...What if it’s wider than it is tall?” “Think it’s called a mesa.” Mesa was a term that didn’t feel right or wrong, and thus didn’t shed any light on the other term. And he still couldn’t make heads or tails of Xiao’s look of positive determination facing north. “You’re not pulling my ears, are you?” Xiao tilted her head like she didn’t understand completely, “One of the merchants mentioned ‘em in passing, so I hope they’re grand.” “The… buttes?” “Aye.”

Erenville couldn’t. This was beyond his paygrade. He wasn’t even being paid for this, technically, he was taking a sabbatical from gleaner work with the explicit agreement that he would be given full compensation for his expenses for this trip via the Tuliyollal treasury, as long as he kept his expenses itemized. He didn’t know how to itemize the half anxiety attack he had going on with overthinking this conversation. He didn’t know Xiao too well, despite the almost year since they first became acquaintances. Xiao’s line of work was always so much more violently demanding than even the most dicey situations that Erenville would ever find himself in, and he had patience and endurance that Xiao likely could never train up. So it wasn’t really that they had too much in common or much to talk about. (In their one conversation about fishing, Erenville quickly learned that Xiao had no concept of fishing beyond fishing for sustenance and occasionally for a formal bounty. She had no desire to catch a rare fish simply for the joy of fishing or compilation.) Knowing that she was likely headed to Xak Tural, he only considered the incredible amount of food that she ate, her ability to unleash incredible violence within a moment’s notice, her ability to understand every language, and her lack of several social stigmas and taboos. Assets and things that weren’t necessarily deal breakers throughout their travels in Tural so far. So he had offered to travel with the adventurer formerly known as the Warrior of Light simply out of convenience. He was prepared for seeing a little bit too much of Xiao while roughing it. He was prepared for Xiao to immediately leap into action if there was any funny business in Shaaloani (and, knowing Xiao, not so much their luck, it was inevitable). He was prepared to watch Xiao eat the larders empty and perhaps drink the resident alcoholic under the table. But he wasn’t prepared to speak with Xiao as the only conversational partner. Even when he discussed fishing, it was in a conversation that Wuk Lamat and Alphinaud were both also in, the conversation had simply meandered to the topic. In truth, he expected her to have conversation with someone else the entire time: Alphinaud to be scandalized and berate Xiao over emerging from her tent in only her smalls, Krile to lead an examination of qualia and the Echo and how she and Xiao experienced things similarly yet so differently, Alisaie to spar with and participate in chatter about lethal force, and Wuk Lamat for conversation on anything else but especially the topic of large quantities of food. He would chime in once in a while, but not serve as the only conversational partner. He did not consider what leaving behind all other companions on this trip would entail.

All of this was to say: How was he supposed to ask the Warrior of Light, the adventurer formerly known as the Warrior of Light, if she was making a highly immature joke? Did she actually know enough geography to know these names of land formations that Erenville had never heard of or considered? Would she really be there to sightsee for the landscape’s features and vistas? Or was this some sort of social warfare? Was she testing his mettle? Was this some sort of prank, like the rumors that the richest man in Ul’dah went incognito to get unsuspecting passers-by to oil him down? Or like stories of how Kan-E-Senna apparently went around the Twelvewoods tripping up adventurers with her staff and then leaning over their prone forms to tell them that “No one would ever believe you?” Without anyone else to look at for direction or answers save Xiao herself, Erenville was at a mental checkmate, and he didn’t know what game he was playing. There was an incredibly high chance that his opponent wasn’t even trying to play games with him, and that made all of this even worse.

“Erenville, are you quite all right?” Xiao’s question snapped him back into the present; he had at some point stopped walking, and Xiao was now a good distance ahead and had turned back. “Oh? Sorry, I was just… lost in my thoughts. I was unaware you were interested in… such landscape features.” He double timed it to catch up. “Only when they’re pretty. The lads who taught me about them, they were really into them, y’know?” “...I bet they were.” “Yeah, so after they died in the Garlean attack on Rhalgr's Reach, I started paying a bit more attention, in their memory.” Erenville sighed, a little louder than he expected to. So Xiao wasn’t actually trying to throw him for a loop. There was good reason for her interest in buttes. Xiao leaned in, as if confiding a secret, “...Does it sound like the term for someone’s rear end to you too?” The sound that emitted from Erenville’s mouth, and perhaps soul, was inhuman.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2024 #ffxiv #word vomit #a short scene #xiao longbao #erenville

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