4. For the Fallen (1/2)

"you have my thanks. and lady yuna's as well, you may be sure. may she guide our path and shield us from sin's fury. for now we sail...to kilika!" the maester raised his hands and drew them together in yevon's sign.

a tepid cheer rose from the sailors and monks gathered at the waterline. they scattered at once to make ready the rowboats, even before the torches had reverted from blue to orange. it was disrespectful to the dead, but isaaru did not begrudge their eagerness to quit this marred island paradise.

they had worked hard. the beach was swept clean, and they had even washed down trunks and leaves to remove clinging ash. prayer flags— many of them products of besaid's weavers— fluttered on poles thrust into the sand. the ocean sparkled under a noonday sun, masking the pyreflies drifting up from submerged coffins jostling on beds of coral. besaid's harbor had been too choked with flotsam to use for the sending, but they had ferried the dead around to a more sheltered cove.

"will somebody rebuild here, do you think?" pacce asked maroda as they headed for the boats.

"in the next calm, maybe," maroda said. "not before."

both looked to their

other. isaaru seemed oblivious to the exchange, although he walked between them. by silent accord they held a boat steady for him to board before dragging it down into the water where the stern floated free.

"hey," pacce said, tumbling into his seat, "where's sir auron?"

"for a guardian, he sure doesn't seem to guard much," maroda said.

isaaru smiled. auron was descending the short cliff at the back of the cove. he trudged out to them and stepped into the bow without

eaking stride.

"no sign of sin," he said. "we should have clear running tonight, although it may be another story in kilika."

captain kiyuri shot auron a jaundiced stare over the backs of the rowers that told what she thought of the legendary hero: landlubber.

it was a subdued company that ferried the maester and guardians back to the ship. isaaru had not spoken a word since his speech. he sat with chin lowered, gripping the sides and swaying jerkily as if struggling to match the rhythm of the swells. halfway across the open water, kiyuri ventured a soft, "are you all right, my lord?" barely audible above the chop of the oars.

"my heart is heavy, captain." he turned in his seat with a well-honed smile. "but i am also pleased. the dead of besaid can rest, and we have gathered much that should assist my pilgrimage. our trip was not in vain."

"we have?" maroda mouthed behind him.

"yeah, and we've got sir auron, now!" pacce said.

"yes, pacce." the maester studied at the man's

oad back and shoulders. "ah, that reminds me. captain, there's no need to hoist my sigil. in fact, if you can, fly no symbol of yevon at all."

"your grace?" kiyuri's voice rose in astonishment. "but it is an honor to convey the grand maester, and ill luck to sail without yevon's blessing!"

"yevon's blessing you will have, kiyuri, so far as it is in my power to grant it," isaaru said. "but your crew has faced perils and sorrows enough. if sin's wrath is truly roused against yevon, then i shall not needlessly endanger them. yevon will

ing sin to account, but that battle is for summoners and guardians, not sailors and soldiers."

there was a faint hmph from sir auron. maroda's somber nod conveyed more. thirteen years gone, the ghosts of operation mi'ihen still haunted all those who had witnessed that bloody debacle.

"aye, sir." kiyuri

aced her elbow against the tiller to give yevon's prayer. "and thank you."

back aboard the ss konna, isaaru remained on deck just long enough to make sure the sails had been changed to plain canvas. then, yielding to maroda's urging, he retired to his cabin.

"for i am weary," isaaru admitted. "five sendings in three days is a record i hope never to repeat."

freed from duties for a while, pacce joined sir auron on the observation deck. the older guardian acknowledged him with a nod. side by side, they watched besaid shrink and fade into the blue haze.

tongue-tied, it took pacce some time to muster the courage to speak. "sir auron? do you think sin is after isaaru?"

"not directly," auron said. "or not yet. but isaaru's guess is correct. sin is targeting yevon."

"wow," pacce said. "i didn't know it could think."

auron said nothing.

pacce folded his arms along the railing and rested his chin on them. "i don't get it. sin's the punishment for our sins, right? isaaru says that good deeds can balance lack of faith, so we shouldn't blame sin's return on the heathens. but why does sin leave the al bhed alone and attack us? shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"yevon directly opposes sin. the al bhed avoid it."

"huh." pacce ran a hand through his hair, leaving it flattened on one side and straight up on the other like a half-mowed field. wrestling with yevon's teachings and coming no closer to a solution, he changed tack. "so, um. what happened to lady yuna's other guardians, anyway? is sir tidus still alive?"

"no." his voice held a pained note of finality.

"aw, man." the boy drooped. "i liked him. he was cool."

auron added with more gentleness than was his habit, "he died protecting the summoner he loved."

"the final summoning, huh?"

"seymour."

"maester seymour? wasn't he...unsent?" pacce blanched at a memory. "you got rid of him, right? lady yuna sent him?"

"yes." so much could be packed into one

ittle word: a summoner's tears, the death of hope, a holy fury that had reduced auron's last bellowing charge against yunalesca to a mere squeak. lulu must have been proud of yuna, through the teeth of her own bitter rage. they had all come to love tidus, each in their own way.

"and the others?" pacce said. "the other guardians?"

auron grimaced. "i never found a trace."

"damn." he kicked at the deck. "i'm sorry."

auron roused himself, focusing on the youth beside him. "i didn't see them fall, pacce. yuna's last command was for us to stay back when she performed the final summoning. i didn't listen, and nearly paid the price. if they obeyed, there's a good chance they're still alive." there. a vital lesson. a lie of omission, too, since kimahri had refused to leave yuna's side and perished in the blast. but auron's task now was to prepare new guardians for another pilgrimage, not

ood over the last. there was one loose end, however, that auron could not leave unexamined.

"pacce," auron said. "what happened to mika?"

"oh!" his cheeks reddened. "grand maester mika? he, uh...didn't you hear the proclamations? maybe you were still coming back from lady yuna's pilgrimage. he got sick and died. isaaru said his heart gave out when he learned how seymour had murdered the ronso."

"ah." auron stroked his chin, eyes suddenly narrowing. "was that before or after your

other was appointed maester?"

"after...no, before, i think." pacce ducked his eyes. "i'm sorry, sir. i don't really understand everything that happened back then. i was just a kid. you should ask isaaru or maroda about it."

"very well."

fidgeting, pacce abandoned the railing and straightened in a self-conscious salute. "well. speaking of isaaru, i'd better go check on him. it was, uh, nice talking to you, sir auron!"