pulseof_life | Oerba, Gran Pulse, Wednesday

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Oerba, Gran Pulse, Wednesday

Rather than remain in New Bodhum for the day, though they would return there for the night, Caius teleported them all to the ruins of a village. The buildings were made of metal (heavily rusted) and wood, which had held up surprisingly well under the ravages of time. Inside the buildings, personal things could be found: combs left on dressers, a few ancient photographs, and neatly folded blankets forgotten on the ends of beds.

A wide road cut through the village and a broad staircase led down to a murky beach. On top of one of the buildings, an overgrown fountain and the remnants of a garden could be found.

Powered crystal, which looked like snow from far away, and like sand close up, choked the side streets and surrounded the village.

"Welcome," Yeul said softly, "to Oerba."

[NFB and for them that have been invited. The theme songs for Oerba are: Dust to Dust and Ruined Hometown.]

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Sholeh was biting her lip as she looked around. She was reminding herself that this was crystal, not sand, but what her eyes were seeing were different than what her mind knew to be true.

*We should write our mothers sometime soon,* Zhahar said solemnly. *To let them know we love and miss them.*

=Whatever.= Zeela's voice was gruff. =Our village is never gonna look like this, okay? We're gonna anchor somewhere before that happens. You'll see. Morrigen will never let this happen. Hell, that's why we're here, right? At school? To anchor Tryadnea as best we can. We're not about to be beaten by dirt.=

Caius was not a particularly kind man.

But he was inclined to treat Yeul's friends well and went Sholeh, the youngest of the sisters, looked discomfited and Yeul was not around, he fell into step beside her.

"No people passed here," he offered quietly.

"Where did they go?" Sholeh asked. "They must have left in a hurry."

She knelt down and picked up a handful of the crystal sand. "Did this arrive and choke them out?"

"They left to other villages, or to roam as nomads," he replied, his gaze steady on the top of Sholeh's head. "The crystal sand arrived due to a war they fought with their enemies. The environment did not like being toyed with."

Sholeh nodded. That sounded far too much like Tryadnea for her liking. "Did the nomads ever find a place to settle down again?"

She needed to know. For, err, reasons.

"What did they do to make the crystal sand come?" Was it perhaps something the Tryadneans had done in their own past? Was it something fixable?

...Judging by the village, Sholeh was going to go with "no."

"Yes," he said, nodding his head. "Their settlement is much simpler than this was but they are happy. We're going there tomorrow."

Wind tugged at his hair and the feathers he wore in it equally. "To cause this, they called down their Eidolons," he replied. Then, because he doubted she knew what those were, Caius elaborated, "Eidolons are powerful beings that sometimes choose to ally with humans who have the will power to intrigue them."

"That's good," Sholeh said, with unfeigned relief in her voice. "I'm glad they found a place where they could live. No one wants to wander forever." Realizing how rude that sounded--especially to Yeul and Caius, who, to the best of her knowledge, did exactly that--quickly added, "I mean, unless they want to. Which is okay."

Mmm, shoe leather. It's delicious!

"And the Eidolons did all this?" she asked, trying to guide the conversation back to where she wasn't accidentally insulting their hosts.

"It is the difference between an exile and choosing a nomadic life," he agreed a touch dryly. "When we go, remember, none of them have ever been here. This happened centuries ago. It's a story to them, not their life now."

It was strange to have to explain these things after just knowing them for so long.

"Humans did all this," he corrected quietly. "The Eidolons clashed because humans wanted it, some to protect, others to fight, both sides had their points. But too much power and you wind up with a landscape like this."

"This is what's happening to our home," Sholeh admitted quietly, turning back to stare at the village again. "Not the crystal. Just sand. Great parts of our homeland are turning to desert and no one knows why. Plants are dying, waterways are drying up, our cities are abandoned and unreachable now. Except we don't know why."

Caius was quiet for a moment. Another person might over their condolences, but not him.

"Is it the whole world?" he asked, finally. "Or just your area? Do you know that much of the situation?"

"Umm, more our area, but that's where it gets complicated," Sholeh said. "A really long time ago, our world was shattered, so now there are a bunch of parts that are broken off and stuff. Tryadnea was one of those, but it's not just adrift the way the rest of them are. It's--I can't really explain it well. It's like, if everywhere else drifted on one plane, like scattering across a piece of paper, ours drifted that way and down. So it's not on the same plane anymore, though we can still reach it, if we try. So it might be happening in other places, but we don't know."

Caius frowned slightly, trying to imagine such a world.

"And your gods? Do you have them?"

Blaming gods was not something other people might jump to but it was an easy conclusion on Gran Pulse.

"The Mother," Sholeh said, a slight smile crossing her face. "She has three faces, as we do. One for wisdom, one for compassion, and one for protection."

Blaming the goddess for what was happening to Tryadnea was so far removed from Sholeh's mind, she wasn't even sure what he was getting at.

"I see."

There went that line of thought.

"Have you asked her for help?"

Sholeh nodded. "And we get the same answer every time. "Both the beginning and the end are within ourselves.'" She made a face. "I appreciate that we're not going to be treated like children, but a clue would be nice."

Gods could be spectacularly unhelpful sometimes.

"You have a clue," he said, a vague hint of amusement in his voice. "Gods rarely spell things out. How long has the Mother been saying this?"

"Not a good one, though." Sholeh shrugged. "Probably for about as long as we've been asking her for help with it."

It had been happening for many generations, far longer than the a Zhahar Tryad had been alive.

"We've pretty much stopped asking her at this point. Not many people can speak to her now anyways, and what's the point of asking if you already know the answer."

"Maybe that's what she wants," he murmured. "For you to stop asking and find your own answers. If they are a part of you already, you must already know and just don't realize it."

"We're trying," Sholeh admitted. "That's why we're here. Err, in Fandom, not here, in Oerba."

Whiiiich he'd probably figured out by himself now, right.

"Tryadneans can act as anchors in the world. If they go to another landscape and live there, they can try to hold Tryadnea to the rest of the world. That doesn't help with the spreading sands, but it allows us an ingress to the world at large where we can buy supplies and trade if we want. The only problem is, the anchors only last so long before we have to go back to Tryadnea."

She looked out over the ruins of the town. "Most people consider us monsters, you see."

"And when they find out, your people must return to their home or face the consequences?" Caius asked lowly.

Sholeh just nodded. She was pretty sure he could figure out what the consequences were by himself.

"Even the ones that don't get physically caught usually return...damaged, in ways."

"From being away?" he asked softly. "Or from the experience of being caught out?"

"Both, I think," Sholeh said. "It's hard to say. No one really talks about those kinds of things. Especially not to kids."

Not even kids who were going out to be anchors on their own, an unheard of practice amongst the Tryad.

Caius was quiet for a long moment, thinking.

"Are you concerned about your sisters and yourself?"

"Wouldn't you be?"

Oerba, Gran Pulse, Wednesday

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