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meracydia-miqo · 20 days

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FFXIVWrite 2024 - Day 5: Stamp

1.7k words; no spoilers except for the side quest “the past is a story we never tell”

———

“This letter is addressed to Mauh Lihzeh, kupo!”

Lihzeh.

For a brief moment, she felt like she could’ve been back home. A letter, stamped from the capital, or bearing no seal at all, sent by her brother, or an uncle, or simply another family near or far, of news of elsewhere. Where might hunting be best next season, what places to watch out for, what the dragons seemed to be up to.

But she was in Limsa Lominsa, and the dealings of the past had no matter to the task at hand. Mauh Lihzeh was a merchant in the Shroud, and Ahki was in Meracydia no longer.

It went without saying she’d deliver it. She’d been helping out the mail moogle here and there when time allowed, and accepted the letter without word, and left to be on her way.

Ahki recalled hearing the tales of her family’s origins, tracing back thousands of winters. Of a people split and divided, persecuted and enslaved. Rumours of people not unlike them, so far away across the oceans to the north, distant cousins they should never meet, for who knew what lay beyond their borders?

But Ahki did, now. A place where people live their lives so similar and yet so different from her own, with no knowledge of people in the lands to the south.

She was a contradiction, and so she would not speak of it.

It was late evening when Ahki made it to Sweetbloom Pier, and thanked the ferryman who’d been kind enough to give her a ride over from Gridania as she rose from the boat. A quick scan of her surroundings revealed a short miqo’te woman, long red hair reaching halfway down her back.

While it wasn’t unusual for her to end up involved in whatever affairs unfolded upon delivering letters, the hardest part of the job was the speaking. Usually, it wasn’t difficult. A simple ‘are you so-and-so?’ or ‘do you know where I might find this person?’ would do, and she needn’t say any more. But this time, the prospect of speaking to another so similar and yet so different from herself had her heart pounding at the anticipation.

She felt like she could’ve been looking at one of her sisters. Maybe one she hadn’t met many times, another born of the same father, or an older cousin who hunted far away, up in the highlands, perhaps, or deeper into the so-called cursed deserts where few would step foot. The sight of a terrible battle in the distant past, her mother told her once. Where so many lost their lives that the life was sucked out of the very land itself. A battle so hard fought that even the dragons to which they owed their lives struggled to fight back.

There was reason they avoided contact with outsiders, relying on loose letters and missives to communicate, and navigate the few yet-fertile areas that were left.

“Are you…Mauh Lihzeh?” Ahki asked quietly as she approached, and the too-similar looking woman looked at her in curiosity.

“That would be me,” Mauh nodded, and Ahki handed her the letter without a word.

Either distracted, or simply unaware, Mauh didn’t seem to recognise Ahki, and for that time was just a fellow Keeper of the Moon, a nameless adventurer. Mauh explained her own situation, and Ahki listened in silence.

She felt some connection to her, some drive to help when otherwise she perhaps may not have cared as much. Ahki had known of her name as being one that survived from long ago, but to meet another bearing it in a land so far removed from the one she’d grown up in, felt like finding a long-lost cousin. Mauh lost her mother, her only sister had left her, and Ahki couldn’t blame her for how much she wanted to speak to her again. I know exactly how you feel.

Mauh penned a letter in response to the one from her sister, and Ahki left to find Urha to deliver it to her. It was the least she could do.

———

Mauh was an emotional wreck when Urha left them, standing amongst the trees, and Ahki hardly knew what to say. It had been like being thrown directly into the exact life that so many Keepers in Eorzea must face, and suddenly she could understand the narrowed eyes and strange looks she’d got when she first came to Gridania. Nobody was like to trust a strange Keeper of the Moon adventurer, not when who knows how many had ties to the Coeurlclaws, had killed and pillaged and broken countless laws.

“You! You should understand, you’re a Keeper too, aren’t ya?”

“Keepers of the moon, eh? If it were up to me, I’d hang every one of you, let the Twelve sort out the ‘claws from the rest.”

The voices still rang clear in her head, and Ahki closed her eyes, willing them to go away. Maybe my family was right…fated to be oppressed no matter where we go. Why we had reason to stay away. She had wondered why so few Keepers seemed to live around the city-states, in favour of the less familiar Seekers of the Sun, and now she had her answer.

“I’m sorry…for dragging you into all this, Ahki,” Mauh said as they returned to the nearby settlement, and Ahki was quiet, trying to piece together her words. I’m used to it. I wanted to help. It…answered some of my questions. Nothing seemed to fit.

Ahki gave a sad smile in lieu of response, praying that it got it across. It does with the Scions, but they’d known her for longer. And Minfilia is always able to tell how I feel.

“You’re a Keeper too, no? I pray Menphina has been kinder to you,” Mauh continued, before her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed slightly. “Your family’s name, you never mentioned it. What is it? Surely, it must carry some of the same significance to you…”

Ahki looked away. It was true—she’d omitted it when first introducing herself, afraid and uncertain of what the questions that may follow would be. It hadn’t been important at the time, so focused they were on locating Urha and trying to convince her to leave the Coeurlclaws, fighting between a recusant people and those who saw no good in either of them. But after everything Mauh—they had been through, she deserved to know that much.

Better she say it than her name eventually reach her by some other means, with all that she seemed to get involved in with her Scion work.

“…Lihzeh. I’m…Ahki Lihzeh,” she whispered, not looking her way.

“You…you’re Lihzeh too?”

Ahki nodded, lips sealed shut.

“Where is your family from? I don’t recall many other Lihzeh, and I don’t believe I recognise you.”

Ahki hugged herself with her arms. There’s the question she was afraid of. The one that could only lead to bad things if it got out. More questions, or a curiosity she would be powerless to prevent. She didn’t want to…couldn’t reveal such a thing so readily. But she wanted to give some answer.

“They’re…far away. I don’t have any family around here,” she said. “I…don’t want people to know.”

“To protect them?”

Ahki nodded, but said no more.

“Menphina knows I understand that all too well. Urha too, I’m sure, and yet…” Mauh trailed off, shaking her head roughly, prompting Ahki to turn, looking back over at her. “Apologies, I need to focus on the future. What we can still do.”

The air between them went quiet, and Ahki flattened her ears. There was similarities, between them, in a way. Even so far apart, they both looked to the moon at night, lived with only close female relatives, warded off close contact with too many of the men, and…were by all means, alone in this world now. A family dead or scorned contact, and one simply too far away, unable to be reached, and, in the simplest manner, in hiding.

It was like finding a sister in a far away place. A distant cousin, to be sure, but that some blood may be shared between their veins even after so long with no contact. Similarities, that went beyond a coincidentally similar outward appearance.

Apparently, Mauh was thinking similarly, because her face soon lit up with realisation. “Even if we had nobody else, it’s nice to know we could still have each other. It’s…a relief to find another Lihzeh out there.”

Ahki nodded, humming in agreement. “…It is.”

Mauh suddenly spun around, stepping forward toward her, placing both hands on Ahki’s shoulders, smile bright on her face. “Sisters, then? Or cousins, whichever. I think we look similar enough to play the part.”

She was back home once again, her sisters around her, enthusiastically talking, comparing little things like hair colours and tail lengths, or who could climb highest or run fastest. They’d hold each other, help each other out, and at the end of the day, be there for each other, even when they were apart.

But even so far away from home, she could look at Mauh like she would a sister. Even if they’d never met each other before now, even if they weren’t closely related, it was carried in the heart, and in their shared name. So she looked at Mauh, and she smiled. “…Sisters.”

They stayed that way for a good few seconds, before Mauh lifted her hands and stepped back to give Ahki back her personal space, but she didn’t look away. “If you want or need a cover, wanting to protect your family, you can say you’re related to me. I don’t…have anybody else aside from Urha, now. And I can confirm any questions that arise.”

Ahki’s eyes widened. It was like for the first time, a safety blanket had been placed over her. The word, a promise, that she could keep her secrets, and nobody need know that she’s from elsewhere. If they asked, begged, wouldn’t let her go without giving an answer, she could simply answer the Twelveswood. A small, remote village, now long gone with Mauh being her only family left around.

Ahki blinked her eyes shut a second, before opening them again, looking up at Mauh’s blue ones.

“I…Thank you. Sister.”

#help this got long #if you see any weird wording or mistakes no you didn’t; im not properly editing this #I think about mauh and ahki a lot #ffxivwrite2024 #ffxivwrite #ahki #ffxiv

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