‘I am known now as Ixion, and I felt in you a power to defeat Sin, a power your mother had.’
The words still rang in Nica’s head as she left the bath that those of Djose had generously prepared for her, along with a few snacks to get her moving down the road and back to Luca. The trip along the Mi’ihen Highroad was not brief; leaving in the morning, they would still reach Luca by late afternoon or evening, depending on how well conditions remained, and how fiend-populated the road was.
Since the attack of Sin on Luca, the road had been unusually high in fiends. ‘Well, not so unusual.’ Plenty had died, and though there had been numerous sendings, Nica was beginning to understand that not only did all sendings not always work perfectly, it was hard to gather all the dead and send them. Plenty had escaped being sent, and few stopped to send the fiends who were defeated, to prevent them from coalescing into some new, angrier, fiend.
Summoners had a journey too long to pause after every battle to perform a sending. ‘More should be trained to do so – even if it is just that.’ It was not something Nica would be vocalizing as she dressed, taking on the color of the Luca Goers for old time’s sake in the sari she wrapped about herself, purple and yellow. Tinkling gold bells were wrapped around her ankles, which stirred Cassio to a sighing groan as she stepped out into the center of the temple.
“You’re going to attract all the fiends,” he grumbled as he rose to his feet. He’d been sitting before one of the statues, and only now moved, dressed as well as a Luca Goer – he hadn’t changed out of his uniform since he ran up here; they weren’t playing games, but he liked to show people the Goers were still going.
He’d be changing before they left – even if he was likely to pack it.
“I am not,” Nica said, “not all fiends are attracted to noise, otherwise Luca would be overrun.”
His green eyes held naught but doubt, but he wasn’t going to challenge it further. Cassio knew there was little point. She was on a death march as it was, if she wanted to go with bells on, she’d go with bells on. She’d made the journey to and from here enough times with them, he shouldn’t be overly concerned now.
Except, he was.
Death felt far more real now. It had after the incident with Sin, when they all realized they weren’t immune to its strikes, but especially now that they were both acknowledging it in a vastly different way. “Are you ready?”
Cassio scoffed, “More than you,” he said with a slight smirk touching his face, “I’m sure Luca’s ready,” he added, “no one doubts you,” and how could they? True, neither of them were descended from summoners, few were descended from summoners given the job, not even the famed Yunalesca was known to have progeny, but they knew Antares, and they knew Kari, two shining stars in different ways, and many owed their lives to Kari.
They’d soon all owe their lives to Nica.
Nica only inclined her head a bit, and he could see the doubt surface; it hadn’t been easy for her to acquire Ixion, and he wasn’t surprised. She’d rushed her own training. Many summoners took longer than this to get to their first aeon, because the bond was hard. He didn’t understand it, and had to accept the way Nica tried to explain it.
‘Like forcing oil and water to mix.’
A difficulty few could manage, apparently. Many summoners never left the room with a fayth, let alone all of them.
Yet, Nica said nothing, just lifted her head again with a smile, and walked on, “Then let’s not keep them waiting any longer.” And so, Cassio followed dutifully, and eventually took the lead.
He was a ranged fighter, but that didn’t prevent him from moving in the way of blows; he had far more defense and endurance than Nica, who could tire too easily from moving too much, and it was going to be a long walk, he felt it in his bones.
And it was.
The fiends seemed to want to give their greetings to the new summoner, and eagerly met them on the path. The siblings worked well together, Cassio consistently stealing the attention of the fiends to give an opening to Nica, it was still tiresome work, made only slightly easier by Nica’s newfound talents in healing.
It was a bit of a boost that closed wounds and soothed muscles.
Yet not once did Nica summon Ixion to deal with these fiends, wanting to save her energy for the summoning until Luca, so everyone would see and have no doubts. His voice was still there, at the back of her mind, occasionally telling her to move, or strike, his instincts honed from time as a fayth, and the life before this one, which she caught glimpses of when they melded, and would likely continue to see glimpses of.
Naturally, the universe had other plans for the new summoner.
Luca was in sight, the music in the air, wafts of delicious food tainting the evening breeze, hope lifted high – but there was still a fiend intent to crush that hope, for even as Nica was lifting her hand, bracelet jangling like her anklet, she started to recognize the shadow that fell over the path, and had time enough to jump back before it landed.
Cassio stayed ahead, and felt himself go white as he recognized that this was no ordinary fiend, but a Sin spawn, by the strange glistening scaled wings the creature had. Its wings gave it more the image of a manta ray rather than a bird, though its legs were all taloned. It had a tail akin to a ray, barbed with more of those flickering scales, and it wasn’t afraid to use it, leaning forward and aiming a strike right at him.
He jumped back and hurled his chakram at the tail end to severe it, but it swiftly moved it out of the way. “Tch.”
The guards at the gate didn’t hold their courage – they rushed back into Luca to find others. Thankfully, the fiend seemed to have no interest in turning on them, and snatched the blue disc out of the air on its way back, only to toss it aside and out of reach.
Apparently, it was intelligent.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” that’s what Cassio took those snorting sounds for as he pulled a knife, and threw it at what he assumed was the head, although given the pattern on its abdomen he wasn’t entirely sure. At least that struck, and the creature did seem to reel back, giving more credence to the thought it was its head. “Any bit of help, Nee—”
The ‘bit of help’ was answered in a crackling of lightning and the manifestation of a startling unicorn with braided white hair. The summoning dropped Nica to her knees, but Ixion was willing to stand in front while she recovered, a bolt of lightning charging on its horn that he threw in a disk at the fiend, snapping off a bit of one wing, before Nica was able to put a hand up on Ixion’s side, and draw up, and then draw herself up onto the aeon, polearm at the ready, like some warrior of old.
“Now that’s more like it,” Cassio smirked – and then made a dash to get his chakram.
Fucking Sin spawn.
The words still rang in Nica’s head as she left the bath that those of Djose had generously prepared for her, along with a few snacks to get her moving down the road and back to Luca. The trip along the Mi’ihen Highroad was not brief; leaving in the morning, they would still reach Luca by late afternoon or evening, depending on how well conditions remained, and how fiend-populated the road was.
Since the attack of Sin on Luca, the road had been unusually high in fiends. ‘Well, not so unusual.’ Plenty had died, and though there had been numerous sendings, Nica was beginning to understand that not only did all sendings not always work perfectly, it was hard to gather all the dead and send them. Plenty had escaped being sent, and few stopped to send the fiends who were defeated, to prevent them from coalescing into some new, angrier, fiend.
Summoners had a journey too long to pause after every battle to perform a sending. ‘More should be trained to do so – even if it is just that.’ It was not something Nica would be vocalizing as she dressed, taking on the color of the Luca Goers for old time’s sake in the sari she wrapped about herself, purple and yellow. Tinkling gold bells were wrapped around her ankles, which stirred Cassio to a sighing groan as she stepped out into the center of the temple.
“You’re going to attract all the fiends,” he grumbled as he rose to his feet. He’d been sitting before one of the statues, and only now moved, dressed as well as a Luca Goer – he hadn’t changed out of his uniform since he ran up here; they weren’t playing games, but he liked to show people the Goers were still going.
He’d be changing before they left – even if he was likely to pack it.
“I am not,” Nica said, “not all fiends are attracted to noise, otherwise Luca would be overrun.”
His green eyes held naught but doubt, but he wasn’t going to challenge it further. Cassio knew there was little point. She was on a death march as it was, if she wanted to go with bells on, she’d go with bells on. She’d made the journey to and from here enough times with them, he shouldn’t be overly concerned now.
Except, he was.
Death felt far more real now. It had after the incident with Sin, when they all realized they weren’t immune to its strikes, but especially now that they were both acknowledging it in a vastly different way. “Are you ready?”
Cassio scoffed, “More than you,” he said with a slight smirk touching his face, “I’m sure Luca’s ready,” he added, “no one doubts you,” and how could they? True, neither of them were descended from summoners, few were descended from summoners given the job, not even the famed Yunalesca was known to have progeny, but they knew Antares, and they knew Kari, two shining stars in different ways, and many owed their lives to Kari.
They’d soon all owe their lives to Nica.
Nica only inclined her head a bit, and he could see the doubt surface; it hadn’t been easy for her to acquire Ixion, and he wasn’t surprised. She’d rushed her own training. Many summoners took longer than this to get to their first aeon, because the bond was hard. He didn’t understand it, and had to accept the way Nica tried to explain it.
‘Like forcing oil and water to mix.’
A difficulty few could manage, apparently. Many summoners never left the room with a fayth, let alone all of them.
Yet, Nica said nothing, just lifted her head again with a smile, and walked on, “Then let’s not keep them waiting any longer.” And so, Cassio followed dutifully, and eventually took the lead.
He was a ranged fighter, but that didn’t prevent him from moving in the way of blows; he had far more defense and endurance than Nica, who could tire too easily from moving too much, and it was going to be a long walk, he felt it in his bones.
And it was.
The fiends seemed to want to give their greetings to the new summoner, and eagerly met them on the path. The siblings worked well together, Cassio consistently stealing the attention of the fiends to give an opening to Nica, it was still tiresome work, made only slightly easier by Nica’s newfound talents in healing.
It was a bit of a boost that closed wounds and soothed muscles.
Yet not once did Nica summon Ixion to deal with these fiends, wanting to save her energy for the summoning until Luca, so everyone would see and have no doubts. His voice was still there, at the back of her mind, occasionally telling her to move, or strike, his instincts honed from time as a fayth, and the life before this one, which she caught glimpses of when they melded, and would likely continue to see glimpses of.
Naturally, the universe had other plans for the new summoner.
Luca was in sight, the music in the air, wafts of delicious food tainting the evening breeze, hope lifted high – but there was still a fiend intent to crush that hope, for even as Nica was lifting her hand, bracelet jangling like her anklet, she started to recognize the shadow that fell over the path, and had time enough to jump back before it landed.
Cassio stayed ahead, and felt himself go white as he recognized that this was no ordinary fiend, but a Sin spawn, by the strange glistening scaled wings the creature had. Its wings gave it more the image of a manta ray rather than a bird, though its legs were all taloned. It had a tail akin to a ray, barbed with more of those flickering scales, and it wasn’t afraid to use it, leaning forward and aiming a strike right at him.
He jumped back and hurled his chakram at the tail end to severe it, but it swiftly moved it out of the way. “Tch.”
The guards at the gate didn’t hold their courage – they rushed back into Luca to find others. Thankfully, the fiend seemed to have no interest in turning on them, and snatched the blue disc out of the air on its way back, only to toss it aside and out of reach.
Apparently, it was intelligent.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” that’s what Cassio took those snorting sounds for as he pulled a knife, and threw it at what he assumed was the head, although given the pattern on its abdomen he wasn’t entirely sure. At least that struck, and the creature did seem to reel back, giving more credence to the thought it was its head. “Any bit of help, Nee—”
The ‘bit of help’ was answered in a crackling of lightning and the manifestation of a startling unicorn with braided white hair. The summoning dropped Nica to her knees, but Ixion was willing to stand in front while she recovered, a bolt of lightning charging on its horn that he threw in a disk at the fiend, snapping off a bit of one wing, before Nica was able to put a hand up on Ixion’s side, and draw up, and then draw herself up onto the aeon, polearm at the ready, like some warrior of old.
“Now that’s more like it,” Cassio smirked – and then made a dash to get his chakram.
Fucking Sin spawn.