#sarasvati parikh

[sea-and-storm]

FFXIV WRITE 2022 Prompt #3: Temper (Ghoa)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------TRIGGER WARNINGS: Captivity/confinement, addiction, grief, survivor's guilt, fear of death, and just.. a lot of Heavy Shit(tm). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The creaking of an unseen door and the sound of heavy, armored footfalls approaching roused Ghoa from her state of fitful half-sleep, pushing herself up from the makeshift cot upon which she had languished now for days.

As soon as looked in the direction of the footsteps' approach and her tired eyes once more landed upon the sturdy iron bars keeping her here, she felt her stomach churn with nausea all over again. After the series of events in the Steppe and those in Kugane that had brought her to Thavnair, the Mankhad still could not acclimate to her present state of captivity.. Even if it were wholly deserved and a dilemma entirely of her own making. 

It had been nearly a week ago by her figuring since she had been detained by the Radiant Host and brought to the gaol, though it had seemed an eternity longer in her mind. Locked away in a cell with nothing to occupy her except for the unrelenting anxiety in the back of her mind, time crawled by with excruciating languidity. Kept in solitude away from others, her only company was the immense guilt that hung over her like a headsman’s axe.

If she had known then what she knew now, Ghoa never would’ve taken the commission that had landed her in this precarious situation. Yet she had been blinded to the potential repercussions by the promise of substantial coin - fuel to further feed the vices that she had fallen into in order to escape the specter of past failings that had returned to haunt her. 

When the ghost of Ino had finally caught up with her in Radz-at-Han, she had first tried hard to fight against it. Yet she had found herself lacking the strength to withstand it whenever it came calling in her dreams, much less when its shadowy figure began to infiltrate even her waking moments. All she knew to do was that which she had done all her life:  run away. 

Leaving Radz-at-Han physically hadn’t been an option. The wages that Ghoa earned by her apprenticeship were enough only to eke out a modest living on top of the free lodgings and access to materials and tools it provided her. She hadn’t the same glut of coin at her disposal as she had when she had left Kugane, funded by Hisanobu’s guilt and affections. Besides, if this ghost had followed her here across the sea’s great expanse once already, it stood to reason that it would follow again no matter what distant shores she eventually found herself upon. 

Ghoa knew then she had to flee in other ways. Drink and drug to numb her body and soul to the pains of the past. Companionship to replace the cold, dead eyes staring back at her in her mind's eye with those yet filled with light and life. All things readily available in this city of hedonism and plenty, if only one had the coin to afford it. And on a student’s earnings, afford it she could not. 

After she had left Kugane, the young alchemist had told herself that she would no longer use the skills she had honed under Hisanobu’s tutelage. No more dealings within the seedy underbelly of a city that would eat her whole if only she gave it half a chance. No more succumbing to the siren’s call of the droves of coin to be had if only one were willing to set aside their moral compass. No more using her brilliance to do harm for profit when she was capable of doing so much good instead.

She had not only made that promise to herself, but to the very mentor that had taken her under their wing. But still, despite her intentions at the time, Ghoa had broken her word to them both.

As it turned out, illegal tinctures and tonics sold even better in the Near East than they had in Hingashi. The alchemical underground of Radz-at-Han was alive and well, buzzing with opportunity for coin. Even besides the locals, there was a constant supply of foreign traders looking to get their hands on such goods to smuggle back to their own buyers back home at an even heftier profit. An undoubtedly potent narcotic or poison crafted by the hands of a Hannish alchemist would sell for a small fortune in foreign black markets.

Though it had taken some time at first to break her way into this underground, break into it she had. She had had to keep her dealings discrete to the utmost degree, of course. Had her mentor learned of what she was doing, everything she had worked so hard for in Thavnair would be forfeit. Master Sarasvati would not suffer a pupil committing what she considered to be an alchemist’s blackest sin:  the harming of others for one’s own gain.

At first, it had went well. Using the skills that Hisanobu had taught her to maintain the utmost level of secrecy, Ghoa had been able to keep her dealings hidden from her teacher, her colleagues, and her friends. But naturally, the occasional bender or visit to the pillowhouses began to lose its efficacy. She needed more and more just to get through the day without the ghost returning to her. The more she needed, the more desperate she became. The more desperate she became, the more reckless she had gotten.

Ghoa supposed she should have anticipated that eventually, it would take but a single misstep too far and her carefully crafted house of lies and sins would come crashing down around her. Yet even if she should have expected it, it did not stop the shock of just how violently and how swiftly her hidden life would implode in upon itself when finally it did.

The commission had seemed like countless others she had taken on, and by all rights it should have been. Whenever she was approached to concoct poisons for buyers, the Mankhad had made it a point not to ask too many questions. The less she knew about what a client planned to do with their purchase, the better. 

Of course, in the beginning, she had at least vetted those buyers extensively to make sure that they were going to be just as meticulously careful as she was herself. Gradually, however, her unyielding insistence on quality, trustworthy clientele eased just so long as they were willing to pay her price. 

This fellow in particular was willing to pay whatever she asked and then some. Ghoa didn’t even know his name, but the shine of his gil had been enough to convince her to agree to construct a toxin to his exactingly cruel specifications. And when she had finished, she had foolishly thought herself able to wash her hands of the unfamiliar man and his ill business.

That was, until a few suns later when the Radiant Host had dragged her from the lavish pillowhouse in which she had decided to celebrate a job well done and thrown her into this blighted cell. 

It was only during their interrogation that she had learned that her client had been a trader who had sought to exact vengeance upon a partner that had taken everything from him when their dealings turned south. It was with Ghoa’s toxin that he, in turn, had sought to take everything from his former partner in kind.. beginning with his family. Yet when his crime of passion had taken its own misstep and he found himself caught, her client had been all too quick to offer up the source of the horrific poison to lessen his own punishment.

Last she had heard from the Host, the former partner’s wife and child were still gravely ill. She had been offered leniency if only she would surrender to them the antidote to cure them of their grim affliction. If only she had thought to concoct one, Ghoa would’ve been glad to give it to them. But her clients never asked for antidotes, and she wasn’t wont to waste her own time and money on something for which they would not pay.

All that she had been able to offer to them was the poison’s formulation and the mechanisms by which it worked. That was the last conversation she had had with them, and by their silence whenever she asked after their condition whenever the guard stopped by to deliver her meals, she hadn’t high hopes that it had done aught to save them. 

By now, without a successful antidote, they assuredly would have succumbed to the poison’s effects. Given that the footsteps presently approaching her cell were coming between meal times, she assumed that it could only mean that someone was coming to inform her of this and to let her know her own punishment. 

Would she be locked in this cell for the rest of her days, she wondered grimly. Or would the Host not suffer a woman whose concoctions had so horrifically killed an innocent woman and child to live herself? A shudder went down her spine at the thought of execution. Though once upon a time she had welcomed death’s embrace rather than to be dragged back to be at Bayanbataar's mercy, the thought of leaving this world for the next now when her soul was so heavily blackened with her myriad sins filled her with a dreadful fright.

Finally, the footsteps drew close enough to draw her out of her racing thoughts with another, more unexpected realization. There was more than one set of steps present, but only one that seemed to be weighed down by the heavy armor the Host wore. Accompanying it, she could discern two more gaits:  one awkward and uneven, the other a short and furious staccato.

No, she thought as her blood went cold in her veins. Not them. Please, gods, not them..

But perhaps this was the worst punishment of all, and one the gods were intent to visit upon her.

Just as she had thought, the Radiant Host guard that rounded the corner to her cell was joined by two others. First was a stooped and hunched Raen man, his sallow face flushed with the obvious effort it had taken him to keep up with the others. In front of him was a figure far more frightening, though the older Hyuran woman was of far slighter stature than either of the men accompanying her.

Master Sarasvati Parikh was an alchemist without peer, possessing a professional reputation that was rivaled only by her notoriously foul, fiery temper. 

In her youth, she had been recruited into the High Crucible of Al-kimiya to serve Radz-at-Han with her impressive skill and knowledge of the aetherochemistry of the human body. Eventually, she had taken up the role of teaching and mentoring the next great generation of Hannish alchemists in her chosen field of study. That was, until she had been approached by a group of peers with an opportunity not only to expand upon their knowledge in the realm of alchemical warfare, but great profit besides. They had wanted to use her knowledge as the base upon which they built the alchemical weaponry their would-be client sought from them. 

She had not spared their feelings in expressing exactly how disgusted she was with each and every one of them for even considering it. Not only that, but Sarasvati had made it even clearer that any attempts to use her research in its pursuit would result in her withdrawing not only every single treatise and tome she had ever contributed to the Crucible’s archives, but also her considerable financial support. Though she dressed and lived in modest fashion, it was a well-known secret that she was a distant scion of the illustrious House Daemir and that most of both her earned and inherited fortunes she funneled right back into the Crucible her predecessors had founded.

Though these peers balked in the face of her threats and the deal had never come to fruition, her disgust that they had even considered it had been so great that she had never been able to put it aside. Her respect for those colleagues never returned, and it blackened the light in which she viewed at the rest of her peers as well. And so, Sarasvati had withdrawn not only from her role at the Crucible, but from the public eye near entirely to pursue her own good works in peace and privacy.

Any words that Ghoa might have summoned left her the moment her eyes met the withering, furious look cast down at her in her mentor’s own severe brown gaze. She tried to find something to say, some explanation or apology or..

“Leave us,” the elderly hyur snapped at the guard without ever breaking her glare. Though the man paused with hesitation, casting an unsure glance back at the equally uncomfortable Naseem behind her, he eventually offered a silent nod and stepped away to give them privacy.

Once he had made it out of earshot, the Mankhad scrambled to preempt whatever words were about to come.

“Master Sarasvati, I am–”

“You will not speak to me,” she interrupted in a hissing whisper that blazed with cold, bare fury. “You have squandered the right to address me ever again.” 

Ghoa instantly wilted under the rebuke’s sting. She dared not utter another word, managing only a weak nod as she dropped her gaze in shame. Yet even looking away did nothing to soothe the burn of the incensed glare that she still keenly felt fixed upon her.

“It is only by the Manusya’s divine wisdom and grace that I was able to save that poor family from succumbing to your black-hearted works. Though still they will be suffering and struggling to recover for weeks, if not moons to come because of your selfishness..”

The breath she had been holding released in a shuddering gasp of relief at the news that the mother and child yet lived. But even this reaction seemed only to infuriate her master further, apparently under the assumption that it was her own wellbeing for which Ghoa had been concerned.

“Do not allow yourself to believe for even a single moment that I did it for the sake of your life or your freedom,” Sarasvati snapped. “I did it because I was the one who took responsibility for you, educated you, and gave you the tools that you used to harm them. I might as well have been the one to pour that poison down their gullets myself.”

“N-no,” Ghoa suddenly gasped despite herself, gaze snapping back up in wide-eyed horror at the woman. “It wasn’t your–”

“I said SILENCE!” she all but roared with such ferocity that even the Host down the corridor perked up with concern, but hesitated to approach and turn that ire towards himself. 

“I labored without sleep for days because my conscience would not allow me to do otherwise. I was the one who created the monster that was nearly their undoing, and it was my moral obligation to save their lives!” She seethed openly, her dark cheeks red with anger, her hands shaking with barely contained rage. “If it were up to me, you would rot in here for the rest of your miserable days. Against my recommendation, however--” she spat the words out like they were the very same poison she had battled against, “--the Radiant Host has decided to release you back into my care.”

Ghoa foundered at that unexpected turn, uncertain what to say or how to feel. Truthfully, she didn’t know what hurt or terrified her more – the knowledge that her mentor had advocated for her continued imprisonment, or the idea of returning to her home with her. As if reading her very mind, Sarasvati’s gaze narrowed.

“You will never step foot inside my home again,” she snapped. “I’ve taken the liberty of having your belongings packed and set upon a ship bound for Eorzea that leaves at tomorrow’s first light.. Would that I could find somewhere even further across the world to fling you at such short notice.. I might rest easier with even more malms between us than that.”

Her stomach sank like a stone, and Ghoa reflexively found herself looking instead from her mentor to Naseem behind her as often it did when their mentor was in one of her rages. 

While Sarasvati’s gaze held nothing short of hateful contempt for her, her friend and fellow apprentice’s bore only resignation and heartbreak. He knew of the ghost that haunted her and though he knew not exactly what ill dealings she had gotten herself into because of it, he had tried his hardest to pull her back from the specter's grasp. He had never harbored even an onze of anger or disappointment towards her for her weakness, but only the desire to help his dear friend. Yet for all his good intentions and efforts, Ghoa had disappointed him in the end, too.

“I understand,” she whispered as she slumped back onto the cot, head hung in defeat and tears beginning to well behind her eyes. For a mercy, at least, they refused to fall in their presence.

“Do not return to Radz-at-Han,” Sarasvati finally ended her tirade, her words no longer alight with fire but back to their beginning cold, smoldering intensity. “She will be far better without you darkening her doorstep again.”

Ghoa nodded weakly in resigned silence. Though she dare not speak the words aloud to the mentor she had held in such high esteem for the past five years, the one who had taken a chance on her when none others would even give her the time of day.. 

She promised then that she would not return to Thavnair, just as she was bade. And she would not break a promise she had made to Sarasvati for a second time. 

[sea-and-storm]

FFXIV Write 2022 Prompt #13: Confluence

“Master Parikh!” Ghoa called out into the street as she hurried from Dinesh’s shop, hoping to catch the older woman before she disappeared into the throngs of people in the busy Hannish street. “Just a moment, if you would!”

The woman she had her sights set upon came to a standstill, a look of curiosity inlaid with vague annoyance upon her countenance as she looked back to Ghoa. Recognizing her from moments before at the apothecary, her pale green eyes narrowed and she began to turn back to resume her trek.

“Your employer has taken enough of my money already, girl,” she called back to her. “If he’s sent you to pry more from my purse, then it is but a wasted effort. I’ve a ferry to catch and no time to waste on sales pitches.”

“N-no, it’s not–” Ghoa huffed as she struggled through crowd that Sarasvati had already started to weave through, muttering soft apologies to the individuals she bumped into and off of in her hurry. “I’ve got the herb that you wanted!”

For a moment, it seemed like the woman might just keep on walking as if she hadn’t heard her. But seconds later, with the tell-tale rise and lowering of her shoulders in a sigh, she drifted off towards the street’s periphery and motioned the Xaela to approach.

“I thought you were out of stock?” Her tone was unimpressed, suspicious as Ghoa finally cleared the crowd to join her. “That was the whole reason I had to buy an inferior reagent, was it not?”

“We weren’t out of stock. Not by far,” the Mankhad huffed in answer as she caught her breath. “Dinesh insisted that I try to convince you otherwise and sell you that which you purchased. When I protested it, he took the sale upon himself.”

If she had been expecting Sarasvati to look shocked at the revelation, then the cool look of suspicion that followed in its stead would’ve been but a sore disappointment. Her arms crossed over her chest and her chin tilted upwards in defiance.

“And so now you’ve chased me down and delayed my departure for what..? To buy from you those herbs I was just told were not available because you've come offering them so benevolently?” Her eyes narrowed further still, her gaze as sharp and uncomfortable as a well-honed dagger held to the throat. “How do I know that this, too, isn’t one of your unscrupulous employer’s schemes?”

“Because I don’t ask for coin,” Ghoa answered as she began to root around for the reagents in the pocket she had stuffed them within. “Rest assured, once Dinesh sees that they are missing from the shelves, he’ll take the cost from my wages. Not that I expect to see the first coin owed to me after I walked out in.. such an unbecoming fashion.”

“Unbecoming…?” the hyur repeated, curiosity piqued.

“I, ah.. told him that I quit,” she started awkwardly as she finally tugged free the two bottles of herbs and held them out to her, and continued in a quieter voice. “And that he could sweep his own floors. But perhaps it was uttered.. a touch more colorfully.”

Sarasvati studied her for a long moment at the answer and, ever so slowly and so subtly, the corner of her mouth began to pull at the edge into the faintest hint of amusement. She held her hand out in expectant silence then, awaiting the bottles which Ghoa gladly set in her palm.

“Ah, but there is another thing that I thought to grab from the shelves for you, though you did not ask for it. I hope you don’t see it as an overstep, but.. Given that you said you were headed to a remote island village, I thought that it might be pertinent to have more options readily at your disposal.” She plucked out the vial of powder next and placed it, too, in the Hannish woman’s palm. “It seems that this herb is not often used in Hannish practice from what I have seen and read, but it’s used quite commonly in the Far East in tinctures meant to increase the flow of aether.”

The calm, cool mask that Sarasvati seemed to have firmly in place seemed to shift just then, moving from its seemingly default state of mild annoyance and impatience to intrigue. After pocketing the two bottles of the plant she had originally sought, she lifted up the vial the Au Ra had offered to study it closely. But when she spoke, her next questions were not aimed at understanding the contents, but the Xaela herself.

“How did you know what it was that I was treating?” she asked, but this time, there was no suspicion in her voice. “I do not recall telling you, but simply shoving a list into your hands.”

“You didn’t, no,” Ghoa confirmed awkwardly. “But.. I’ve been studying and reading when I haven’t been made to tend the shop, and I recognized the common thread between the list of reagents that you requested. All pointed towards bolstering the flow of a person’s aether. And given that you said you were to see a patient, I made the assumption that the individual you sought to treat was suffering from some sort of aetheric.. blockage or impedance.” She paused, then quickly added. “Of course, it was.. just a hunch. I hope I was not too far off the mark?”

“You were not far from the mark at all, but right atop it,” Sarasvati lowered the vial then, pocketing it, and gave the girl an approving nod. “My patient is a former Radiant Host who was injured in the course of his duty. The beast that took him from battle inflicted a grievous wound upon him that struggles to mend properly even to this day. My diagnosis was that the creature managed to do irreparable harm to one of the body’s central confluences of aether, and so I have been treating him for some time now with potions meant to ease its passage throughout his body for a time.”

Ghoa’s face lit up, both in the surprise that she was so accurate in her guess but also the master alchemist’s words themselves. Given that her brand of potion and poison-making were largely based upon more natural, herbalistic teachings, Thavnairian aetherochemistry was a fascinating new art. To say that she itched to learn all its secrets would be an understatement. She had so many questions, brimming on the tip of her tongue, before she seemed to catch herself. Surely, this thorny-tongued, recluse of a woman would not be keen on answering them.

“...Well! Full glad I am then that the ingredient I provided might bring your patient some relief. But I will not keep you any longer. I know I’ve already delayed your departure long enough,” Ghoa offered a respectful bow. “Besides, I.. suppose I ought start searching for a new means of employment.” She straightened then with a smile that did not quite rise to her eyes, before half-turning back towards the street to exit. “Safe travels, Master Parikh.”

Ghoa had scarcely made it three steps back into the crowd before she heard the voice arise over the din from behind her.

“Join me for my visit,” Sarasvati called to her. “You can tell me more of the properties of this herb you have given me on the ferry ride over, and should I find your assistance suitable in my patient’s treatment, we can discuss terms of an apprenticeship.. if such a thing would interest you.”

Finally things in Thavnair were truly beginning to look up for her.

[sea-and-storm]

FFXIV Write 2022 Prompt #12: Miss the Boat

“Have you any clue who it is that stands at my counter?”

Her employer’s voice was a low, annoyed hiss when he took Ghoa by the arm as she perused the rack of herbs and ingredients. Even though he wasn’t a particularly strong man, more rotund than rugged, it did not take an Arkasodara to cause the petite Xaela to fumble out of place;  moreso whenever she had been caught so off-guard as such, nearly causing her to drop the small sheet of parchment she held within her hands.

Careful to remain subtle enough not to pull the older woman’s attention their way, Dinesh all but dragged his apprentice out of both line of sight and earshot of the customer she had been dutifully waiting upon.

How should I know? I’ve been here less than a full moon, she wanted to spit right back at the man, having to restrain both her tongue and the hateful narrowing of her eyes. And you certainly haven’t taught me anything about this city. You’ve barely even taught me anything of alchemy.

Whenever Ghoa had set her sights upon Thavnair as her next destination, it had been with the determination to find a mentor under which she could expand upon her existing knowledge of herbalism and poison-making. Yet she had misjudged just how difficult of a task that would end up being for one such as herself.

The Crucible would not take in just any stranger off the street, especially not a foreigner only newly arrived. No matter, she had thought. There were plenty alchemists yet in Radz-at-Han and surely she could find at least one in need of an apprentice. Yet while that much was certainly true, she had failed to remember that this was a trader’s town above all else. Of the few masters of the craft that had even deigned to meet with her, all had demanded not insignificant sums in payment made up front towards lessons. Coin that Ghoa did not have, by far.

Out of desperation, the Mankhad had come here to Dinesh’s old, hole-in-the-wall apothecary after one such master alchemist had suggested she seek him out. He was in need of an apprentice, he had told her, and he would certainly be glad for any help that he could get. 

Thinking back on it now, that bastard must have had a good laugh at her expense once word made it back to him that she had took his 'advice' at face value.

Indeed, it hadn’t been difficult at all to get the portly hyur to agree to take her on as a pupil, and at first it had seemed like just the turn of luck for which she had been searching. Dinesh had agreed to teach her in exchange for her assistance in running the apothecary. He’d pay her a wage for it, he assured her, and from that he would subtract the cost of his tutelage.  A fair deal, she had thought then, only to look back on it now with no shortage of bitterness. 

To even call him a ‘teacher’ would’ve been several magnitudes a stretch. Dinesh was a businessman, first and foremost.. And truthfully, Ghoa wasn’t even certain that he was any more alchemically skilled than she was herself. She’d never so much as seen him touch an alembic and all the books in his collection from which he assigned readings were covered in layers of dust thick enough to make a person burst into sneezes at merely the sight of them. Not to mention that most of the more advanced potions and tinctures they sold she knew for a fact were produced by other alchemists that he had bought at a discount for resale.

It had become readily apparent in short order that Ghoa’s employment here would get her nowhere, much less to the heights to which she aspired. But what else was she to do, given that it seemed she had already turned over every rock and leaf out there already?

And so the Xaela had resigned herself to the long hours spent tending shop, filling customers’ orders and selling potions of questionable quality all for a pittance of a wage. All she could hope to do was to save of her earnings what she could and perhaps one day in the distant future she would be able to afford the tutelage of an actual Hannish alchemist. Until then, studying the dusty old tomes in Dinesh’s paltry library would just have to do.

“I do not,” Ghoa replied coolly and evenly, though perhaps the rough manner in which she jerked her arm out of his grasp belied her roiling temper. “She only said that she had need of certain herbs before she departed by ferry to tend to a patient of hers and minced no words in bidding me to hurry, so if you’ll excuse me..”

She turned to start away and once more, the ring-covered hand shot out to yank her back. It took everything Ghoa had within her not to wheel around on him like a coeurl snagged by the tail, all claws and fury. But this time, she didn’t bother to hide the glare that narrowed her silver eyes.. For all the good it did, for he neither seemed to notice nor care.

“Give me that list,” Dinesh growled as he plucked the parchment the customer had given her from Ghoa’s hands. As he pulled down his spectacles over his nose to begin reading, his voice continued in an impatient huff. 

“I suppose you’re to be forgiven for your ignorance.. It is not often that the Crucible’s black karakul herself descends from her estate, after all.” His brows furrowed as his eyes scanned further and further down the list. “We’ve the honor of Sarasvati Parikh’s custom. It’s a rare occurrence, that. Usually it’s that hunched apprentice of hers that runs her errands, the poor fellow.”

Finally, the man seemed to find what it was he was looking for and shoved the list back into Ghoa’s hands. A meaty finger reached over, jabbing at one of the items on Sarasvati’s list.

“This,” he began as he tapped the paper she held and the Xaela struggled not to push his hand out of the way so she could actually read what he was pointing towards. For a mercy, his hand fell away but a second later as he turned back to the shelves, hunting for something. “Tell Master Parikh that we are sold out of that reagent and offer her–” He paused as he plucked a sachet free and returned his gaze to his apprentice. “–this instead.”

“I thought we still had plenty..?” Ghoa questioned hesitantly, looking back towards the shelves she had been pulled from just a moment prior. “I bought more of it myself in the markets only the other day. Has there been a large sale of which I was not made aware, or..?”

A long, low groan of impatience left Dinesh, a hand rising to wipe over his face in exasperation.

“We do have plenty, you fool. There has been no large purchase,” he ground out between his teeth, tone heavy with condescension. “But Master Parikh must be in dire straits if she has come now to do her own shopping. It isn’t often that we’ve patrons whose pockets run so deep – so dig into them.” He roughly shoved the sachet into her hands. “Convince her to buy this instead. If she is truly in such a hurry then she will not have the time to waste bartering, much less going to seek it at another shop.”

Of course it did not surprise her that Dinesh was shoving his unscrupulous business practices upon her. It was far from the first time he had enlisted her aid in ripping off the more affluent of his customers. It reminded her far too much of Kugane to be comfortable but, once again, she had little choice but to go along in her present circumstances.

She at least needed to see what it was that she was supposed to be offering as alternative if she wanted to have half a hope of selling it to the prickly alchemist. Ghoa tugged open the sachet to see what was inside, but upon realizing just what it was, her protesting look turned back up towards the man.

“You cannot be serious,” she began in an imploring whisper. “For her needs, this would be thrice the cost for half the potency.. If not less, after just how long it’s sat here on the shelves. If she’s going to be traveling out to an island where supplies are scarce, then–”

“Mrga take you, woman!” Dinesh snapped, almost too loud in his frustration, as he snatched the pouch again. He continued in a quiet seethe, jabbing a finger in Ghoa’s face.  “I’ll do it my bloody self! I won’t miss the boat on a windfall like this because of your bleating.” That hand in her face now waved her off impatiently as he made for the storefront. “Now, go! Sweep the floors since that’s all you’re bloody good for around here.”

For a long moment, Ghoa stood in simmering silence in the man’s wake. Her hands clenched into fists at her side as she watched him turn on his charming salesman act upon the decidedly unimpressed Sarasvati. But true enough, just as Dinesh had predicted, the woman only offered up her complaints alongside a healthy pouch of coin.

And that made Ghoa’s temper flare even hotter.

As Sarasvati made to depart, the Mankhad wheeled around back to the shelves with a renewed fervor. With Dinesh thoroughly distracted counting out his beloved coins, Ghoa grabbed a bottle of the reagent that Sarasvati had asked for – no, two. After a moment of thought, she plucked another vial of ground herb from another spot as well. The master alchemist hadn’t requested this one, but Ghoa suspected it might be of use to her. And after the small fortune she just paid to Dinesh, she certainly deserved a little extra showing of customer appreciation.

Stuffing the reagents into her pocket, Ghoa made for the door with nary a look towards her supposed teacher. She had almost slipped out entirely before he seemed to notice her leaving, a squawk of dismay rising from him just as she reached the door.

“And where do you think you’re going?” he snapped. “Did I not just tell you the floors need sweeping?”

“Sweep your own gods-be-damned floors, Dinesh!” Ghoa finally snarled back, the words like the strike of a coiled serpent for their venom. And gods, were they satisfying. “I quit!”

[sea-and-storm]

FFXIV Write 2022 Prompt #10: Channel

[TW] Just a smidge of non-descriptive body horror, but nothing too wild!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was well after midnight when Ghoa finally finished with her fervent scribbling of calculations, slumping back in her chair as a great, long yawn overtook her. Though her mind continued to race with ‘What if?’s, the stresses of the day and the uncertainty of the unknowns of those yet to come had begun to weigh heavy upon her now drooping shoulders and eyelids both.

Her half-lidded eyes came to rest upon the scribbled list in front of her for one final appraisal. None of the reagents listed upon it should’ve been especially burdensome for Luri to obtain, especially not in a place so rich with trade as La Noscea. Most of that which she had requested were but basic alchemical materials meant to form a sufficiently aetherically conductive suspension within which the concoction’s main ingredient could flow unimpeded. But the final ingredient upon the list, though it would likely be even easier than the rest for the handmaiden to find and acquire for her, gave the alchemist pause regardless:  a single lightning crystal shard.

It brought Ghoa’s mind back to distant memories, of late nights much like this one spent holed up in the grand personal library of the Parikh estate. Given that her Hannish mentor’s life work had dealt with the human aetherochemical condition, it was little wonder that the lion’s share of tomes and papers within those shelves dealt with such subject matter.

For one such lesson in the basics of aetherology early on in her tutelage, Sarasvati had assigned to her a number of those works for her to study and report back upon. It was to one of those papers that her mind wandered to now, a sort of academic warning tale of the fragility of a person’s aetheric state. The notes of an alchemist who had been tasked with the treatment of a fool who thought by consuming the shards of a fire crystal, they would thereby be able to summon and channel powerful fire magicks.

Naturally, it hadn’t worked out well for the individual, no matter how hard the alchemist treating their self-inflicted condition had worked to reverse the effects. Such a sudden and stark destabilization of their aetheric balance had caused irreversible damage as their very being had rapidly unwound like a loose spool of thread. Not only had it manifested in horrific external mutations in the subject, but the autopsy performed after had revealed that even their internal organs had turned black as ash, as if burned by raging fire. A miserable and painful end it must have been, to be consumed so violently from the inside out. 

It was hardly a reassuring thought to allow to bounce around in her mind given that this was – albeit to a lesser and hopefully far more controlled degree – exactly what her potion made of ground lightning crystal sought to achieve. Thus was why she had to be so very sure of her calculations and her formulation. Every variable and value had to be exactingly accurate. Just a hair too much crystal in the mix and it stood to reason that she could very well end up as the subject of her own ill-fated academic paper meant to warn people away from exactly what it was that she was doing now.

Ghoa breathed out a shaking sigh as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Truthfully, there was no small part of her that wanted to just discard the idea entirely. It was too risky. It was too reckless. The margin of error was so punishingly small. 

But.. that had always been when she had done her finest work, no? From the time so many years ago when she had fled the Kharlu, to far more recently when she had stood with the others against the embodiment of suffering itself deep underground.. Nothing had ever caused Ghoa to rise higher to the occasion than having her back against the wall, forcing her to have the confidence in herself and in those around her to see her through those trials.

The corner of her lip twitched upwards into a soft, tired smirk. Mayhap she was mad for it, but Ghoa would not back down from her wild plan now. She was confident in herself, in her ability and her alchemical knowledge. She was confident in Nabi’s peculiar restorative abilities being able to pull her back from the knife’s edge if necessary. 

Perhaps most importantly, she had faith that if all were to go awry regardless, Shael and Anchor were still out there somewhere. That even if her own efforts did fail them, that pair – just as reckless as she at times – would have no qualms about cutting and shooting their way to their rescue if need be.

[sea-and-storm]

BACKSTORY, AU, ETC. DRABBLE MASTERPOST -- - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BACKSTORY DRABBLES -- -

BOND - Ibakha's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Arukh Mankhad, Unegen Mankhad.

NOT A WEAPON - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Arukh Mankhad, Unegen Mankhad.

ATTRITION (TW) - Arukh's Perspective (The Steppe)MENTIONS: Arukh Mankhad

CLOSE - Unegen's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Unegen Mankhad, Baidu Mankhad, Bayanbataar Kharlu, Ghoa Mankhad.

CHOOSING, PT 1 - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad.

CHOOSING, PT 2 - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Unegen Mankhad.

RUNAWAY (TW) - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Yisu Kharlu, Togene Kharlu, Bayanbataar Kharlu, Tugan Kharlu, Sechen Kharlu.

HEARTBREAK (TW) - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Togene Kharlu, Bayanbataar Kharlu, Tugan Kharlu.

PRAYERS - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Cota Kharlu, Togene Kharlu, Yisu Kharlu, Bayanbataar Kharlu.

OFFERING (TW) - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Bayanbataar Kharlu.

ARUKH - Arukh's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Arukh Mankhad, Ghoa Mankhad, Bayanbataar Kharlu.

SURVIVAL - Ghoa's Perspective (The Steppe) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Saran Kahkol, Muunokhoi Kahkol.

THE CRATE (TW) - Ghoa's Perspective (Kugane) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Saya Mifune.

UNNOTICED (TW) - Ino's Perspective (Kugane) MENTIONS: Ino Ghostwalker, Ghoa Mankhad, Hisanobu Mifune, Saya Mifune.

MISS THE BOAT - Ghoa's Perspective (Thavnair)MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Dinesh Sutar, Sarasvati Parikh.

CONFLUENCE - Ghoa's Perspective (Thavnair)MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Sarasvati Parikh, Dinesh Sutar.

TEMPER (TW) - Ghoa's Perspective (Thavnair) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Ino Ghostwalker, Sarasvati Parikh, Naseem Malakar.

CUTTING CORNERS (TW) - Ghoa's Perspective (Thavnair / Eorzea) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Sarasvati Parikh, Unegen Mankhad, Bayanbataar Kharlu, Hisanobu Mifune, Ino Ghostwalker.

ONEROUS - Arukh's Perspective (The Steppe, Post-Flower Arc) MENTIONS: Arukh Mankhad, Ghoa Mankhad, Baidu Mankhad, Unegen Mankhad, Bayanbataar Kharlu.

TEPID - Arukh's Perspective (The Steppe, Post-Flower Arc) MENTIONS: Arukh Mankhad, Unegen Mankhad, Baidu Mankhad, Yesui Mankhad, Ghoa Mankhad.

HISTORY - Unegen's (?) Perspective (The Steppe, Post-Flower Arc.. sort of) MENTIONS: Khenbish of the Final Tempest, Sorocan the Stormkeeper.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AU & MISC. DRABBLES -- -

ECHO - WOL!Ghoa's Perspective MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Unegen Mankhad.

FLING - Ghoa's Perspective MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Lehko'a Nhali

ROW - Ghoa's Perspective (Pre-Corruption Arc) MENTIONS: Ghoa Mankhad, Shael Stormchild, Anchor Saltborn, Nabi Kharlu.