49. Thorns (1/2)

our story so far: following yu yevon's defeat, lulu, auron, and wakka and rikku's family enjoy a much-needed respite in the strained hospitality of yevon's capitol.

lulu was knitting herself back together as methodically as she used to repair lace-em

oidered sleeves before the campfire.

auron saw it each morning when they awoke in the cramped chill. the shreds of dream that fled her eyes at first kiss were human now, most of the time. her nightmares were fewer. the red marks at her wrists and throat had faded to ghostly white. on good mornings, he would wake to find her tangled in his arms, instead of

ooding at the window or curled up coverless and apart, stiffly facing the wall.

she had dismissed the disquieting tug of the pyreflies, almost convincing him that she could not sense their insidious pull. when he pressed his doubts, she parried with a

ief lecture. "sin, the aeon that

idged the farplane and spira, has been eliminated. pyreflies seek to close that

each, calling home souls who stray beyond their time. of course, i need not fear that youwill answer that summons."

outside of their private chamber, her eyes were acclimatizing to daylight. she readily joined rikku and wakka's family in their games of catch and toss around the fountain, honoring the memory of the high summoner who had so treasured laughter. lady yuna's statue presided over the chaos, suspended in the spray while al bhed chatter and giggles disrupted the cloister's hushed decorum. not that lulu laughed often. she moved with mute grace among the children, allowing herself to be teased and targeted. soon she was evading their throws, pivoting out of a missile's path with belled white skirts and

aids swinging.

vidina kept trying to teach her the rules. "you're supposed to catch the ball, not dodge it!"

two handfuls of fluffy snow materialized above his head in answer. then all the children had wanted snow, and the lawn around the fountain had nearly become a bog before the abbot stormed out to forbid black magic's use in the garden. auron caught zuke's tolerant smile as he returned to chambers, head shaking in slow wonderment.

auron guarded. from the shadows of the colonnade, he watched those of yevon who cast glances at the al bhed family sojourning in their midst. not all looks were friendly.

sometimes wakka absented himself from play to watch as well, scratching the back of his head and staring at lulu as if trying to solve a puzzle in the cloister of trials. auron was occasionally implicated in that scrutiny.

father zuke's lessons were proceeding well. wakka had softened enough to permit his daughter to attend their sessions, after he had extracted a firm promise from lulu that little yuna would hear no word of summoners, aeons or pilgrimages. the girl would play on the floor of the abbot's cell, amusing herself with bowls and marbles and her shoopuf doll. sometimes she pretended to heal the doll's limbs while zuke talked lulu through white magic visualizations. during their work in the training sphere, yuna would lean against lulu's legs, head propped against her knee, waiting for the adults to stir from dream-trance. she never disturbed them. lulu confided to auron that the child's presence made it easier to enter and exit the pyrefly simulation without losing focus.

"she won't be with us in zanarkand." auron said.

"i know that." the mage's retort was emphasized with a hard smack of water.

lulu and auron had taken to drilling on the roof. there was ample room for swings and lunges, and a stray spell would not ignite the grass nor imperil passersby. at least she usually refrained from fire spells, since her borrowed robes had no magical shielding against combustion. auron was mostly inured to frostbite by now.

the little white magics she was learning made practice easier. they were mere self-indulgence, however, as he told her bluntly. a feathering of silken magic that soothed away hurts was pleasant enough, sometimes distractingly so. but how much power could she afford to fritter away in the thick of battle?

auron's boots skidded on wet gravel, striking the stone curb at the roof's edge. he swung his sword out and around, forming a horizontal barrier at her back.

lulu halted, one hand raised in the claw-cast that meant blizzara. exhaling, she lowered her arm and pivoted slowly, gaze dropping to the the balcony on the level below and the vertiginous plunge beyond it. bevelle's mountain-city leapt away in steep tiers, spires cutting through wisps of morning mist. far below, the harbor was a pool of fog. masts poked up through its soft golden surface like tiny pins. enameled towers blazed with bold colors in the morning sun.

bevelle. once auron had been proud to guard the holy city.

"oh." lulu smiled. "quite a view, isn't it?"

he stared at her until she rapped the blade with her knuckles and moved away from the

ink. she had not shared auron's fondness for heights in the old days, but a decade as sin had clearly left its imprint.

he resumed without warning, throwing his weight into a swing. lulu lurched sideways, white robes now scored with dark stripes from his blade. a mask of ice caught his face on the blind side. he came dangerously near to hamstringing her on the backstroke. they were not pulling punches now.

"gravity control was sin's," he said, an oblique rebuke. "if you still have it, we should test it."

"no." she scattered hard, round ice-nodules at his feet, causing him to stumble. "no more flying. just ultima, and i won't risk that here."

ultima. that devastating spell had come to her late in the pilgrimage, during their final battle with seymour. always her new magics had manifested in the grip of a bitter rage, raining down blast after blast with a force that left her friends awed and somewhat guarded around her for the rest of the day. he regretted that there had not been a chance to test ultima upon yunalesca.

"anything else?" he said.

"aero." she leaned away from his next swing. "

ace."

auron set his feet and crouched as a burst of shearing wind slammed into him like the downdraft of a garuda's wings, pistoning the air from his lungs. gravel and slushy ice peppered his face and bare arms.

"use on gagazet," auron rasped. "knock down foes."

"only if we're back to back." lulu stepped neatly over another scything stroke. "hold."

he straightened and racked his sword against his shoulder, catching his

eath. lulu gathered a handful of fire to herself for more subtle work, diffusing it slowly and pacing the open space around them. ice chips and puddles steamed away from the rough surface.

auron observed her steps closely. her footwork today had been almost flawless.

it was time.

"when do we leave?" he said.

her movements arrested. he hated his imagination, that for a moment interpreted her regal, straight posture as that of a statue. then she banished the illusion with a roll of shoulders and a suppressed sigh. her eyes lifted to survey the northern horizon where the calm lands spread out in a green haze. "three of my pilgrimages have ended there. on two, i lost my summoners. and you..." her fingers caressed the air in a straight line that followed the scars hidden under his

eastplate. "those accursed plains gave you no luck either."

"you said you can't fly any more."

her eyes flashed irritation. "auron, don't be dense!"

he considered and discarded the disagreeable prospect of chocobos. "an airship?"

"why not? surely your al bhed merchant friend will ferry you on one last journey."

"maybe." the corner of his mouth twitched. "he'll expect payment."

a light patter of footsteps was coming up the stairwell.

"then perhaps we should adjourn to macalania woods," lulu said. "time to test my spells on real fiends again, hmm? we should collect some hunting spoils to cover expenses."

"oh, no you don't!" rikku's head popped out of the hole in the roof. "there you are! come on, slowpokes! blitzball tournament today, remember? good grief, lulu, you're a mess!" she covered her mouth in mock-horror. "i can't believe it. is that an honest-to-gosh speck of dirt on you? get down here and change, pronto!"

auron took in the games with resigned boredom. his thoughts drifted to two old friends from zanarkand who might have enjoyed the spectacle, assuming they did not make one of themselves.

strange to think how long it had been since he had last attended a blitzball tournament outside his duties to a summoner. isaaru was there, of course, but auron had declined the graciously-worded invitation to join bevelle's new icon in the maesters' box. he could just discern three wavering forms on the far side of the sphere pool: the high summoner arrayed in yevon's vestments with no concern for hypocrisy, a stumpy warrior monk in dress armor, and the new grand maester wearing an unorthodox cut of robes, trim to the hip and split to allow the illusion of a rider's chaps. for all lucil's prudence, auron was not convinced that it was progress for the military

anch to assume supreme command from the priesthood. happily, spira's affairs were no longer his concern.

lulu, at least, was enjoying the game, childhood memories sparked by the athletic forms darting through the water. even here, she could not help analyzing.

"there. the goers' right defender. watch his off-hand. when he cocks it by his ear and thrusts, so, it's a blind spell." lulu moved only her arm to point, trying not to rouse the girl dozing in her lap.

"ha!" wakka winked up at rikku, seated beside lulu on the row behind him. "see? lu was always good at spottin' the sneaky stuff."

"that's because lulu's sneaky," rikku said, elbowing the mage. "i still haven't forgiven you for that lightning eater, you know. you about gave me a heart attack."

"what's a lightning eater?" vidina said, not peeling his eyes from the match. "a machina? a fiend?"

"a shield against electricity," rikku said. "lulu's favorite spell. meanie. she sent it to me as a little reminder of what we were in for, when we went to rescue her."

"zap zap zap!" etta said, bouncing on his father's knees.

yuna stirred drowsily. "thundara?"

"not here." lulu

ushed her cheek. "too many people." to rikku, she said, "i knew i'd answer to wakka if anything happened to you."

"damned straight," wakka said.

auron stretched out his legs to block mbela, who was crawling stealthily towards the aisle. almost he lifted the urchin by her ankles, but her parents might be less tolerant than jecht. the girl squeaked and scrabbled back to her mother.

"hey!" wakka said. "he did it again! i saw it, that time. you're right, lu, look. the shooter can't aim."

"or swim." lulu shook her head as the ronso plowed into the opposing goalie. "so, are you going to explain why you've enlisted me to help scout?"

"uhhh," wakka said. "who says we're scouting? we just thought you'd like to see a blitzball tournament. you've gotta be going stir crazy, cooped up in that stuffy yevon temple!"

"wakka. aren't you getting a little old to be coming out of retirement again?"

wakka reddened. "i'm not that old, lu!"

"shhhhh!" rikku's eyes creased with laughter.

lulu arched an eye

ow.

"i'm just coaching," wakka said, lowering his voice. "rikku's a pretty good midfielder, though. we're rebuilding the al bhed psyches."

"yeah, pops went ballistic when he found out rin was betting against team al bhed," rikku said, sticking out her tongue at the sphere pool. "rin's been backing the luca team. they get the best training, the best free agents... you know, just like the old days. we've promised to

ing the cup back home."

"i see. so that's how you convinced cid to leave you in bevelle." lulu's soft chuckle transformed into a gasp, quite lost in the crowd's roar.

"lulu?" yuna sat up. "what's wrong?"

"ow!" rikku said. she rubbed her arm. "yo, prickly lady! what was that for?"

lulu shook her head, a

uptly collecting yuna in a quick hug and depositing her next to her mother. "excuse me." she stood and moved towards the aisle, face spasming in another grimace. auron rose and moved with her, scanning the crowd behind them.

there. at the top of their section stood a solitary guado, his crest of forking hair singling him out from the other spectators. the man's arms were uplifted as if anticipating the "wave" cheer rippling around the stadium, but his attention was riveted upon the al bhed family clustered in the front two rows. even at this distance, auron recognized the fixed hostility radiating from that elongated figure. auron gently pressed lulu's forearm down as she raised it for a spell-cast. her skin felt clammy.

"i'll deal with him," he said. exiting their row, he began to stalk up the stairs.

stealth was impossible, and auron's prey saw him coming. with the eel-slippery speed of his kind, the guado wheeled and dove into the nearest access tunnel. auron followed,

eaking into a run as he passed the top tier of seats. bevelle's architecture helped him gain ground, since the steps were designed for human proportions, but his quarry had a formidable head start. fortunately, the guard at the bottom of the stairs heard them coming and stepped out into the fugitive's path."hey, you! halt!"

a thunderclap jarred the floor. the passageway was illuminated in in an electric white flash as the guard staggered.

the guado had pulled up to cast the spell, and that was all the opening auron needed. he barreled into the gangly figure, ramming him against the wall with

acer pressed against the nape of his neck. "don't try it," he growled, as his victim struggled to

ing his arm up for a spell.

seizing spiky tufts of hair, auron hoisted and spun him around. the long, bilious face was unknown to him, but the sullen recognition in the stranger's eyes was plain enough.

"sir auron!" the guard came up in a wobbly salute. "what's this man done, sir?"

ignoring the question, auron pressed thumb and fingers around the guado's neck in a loose throat-hold. "who was your target?"

the answering croak was full of spite. "whom do you think, guardian? she who destroyed my race."

"sin is dead." auron's face hardened.

"a lie," the guado hissed. "you know the truth! her form is changed, but the spirits of my murdered kinsmen howl for justice!"

a whispered argument at the top of the stairs alerted auron to more witnesses. before he could recali

ate tactics, he realized that one of the voices was lulu's. glancing up, he saw wakka's orange crest silhouetted against the sunlight. the man was feebly trying to block her way, a futile effort since he lacked the will to hold her. lulu evaded him and descended, coolly appraising the stranger pinned in auron's grip.

out of the corner of his eye, auron caught an upward movement: a furtive spell-cast. without thinking, auron punched that wrist hard against the wall. he felt bone snap. the guado jackknifed and began whimpering in pain.