Running away is easy when you have prepared for this day for the last two years, I muse as I’m walking the bridge of the ship.
Easy when you have money in place, a forger to craft you new documents under a new name, and a sympathetic – and regularly bribed – ship captain that will help smuggle out prospective conscripts… and me, when the time is right.
The bulk of the money came from selling my house in Garlemald and, since the day I let the rebel go, two years before, the bank had orders to convert that money into coins I could use in Eorzea. I always knew I’d have to escape sooner or later… and always knew my destination too: not dusty Ul’dah or sunny Limsa Lominsa… but green Gridania. It’s too close to Ala Mhigo for real comfort, but I can’t force myself to go anywhere else. I need to feel nature around me, not walls and cities. I need to feel the star breathe and feel the freedom to breathe with her. And Gridania is full of places to hide and they are ever on alert against the enemy.
I almost didn’t make it, I acknowledge with a sigh. I was lucky to overhear that conversation about me, and lucky to escape before anybody even knew I had. And far-sighted too, as I’d stashed clothes, supplies and money in a hidden cave where I’d retrieved them that same day.
Now, on the ship to Eorzea, I look at the sea and think that this is a one time journey and I’ll never see my home again. Never see the snow filled park, the cars, never hear the chorus of Garlean children singing and playing. I’ll never see Seppia in her wedding dress. I’ll never cheer for her with Lavenia, I’ll never be a doting aunt for their children.
Now I’m not only exiled, I’m a defector. A viator. I’ll have to run and hide and hope they’ll forget about me soon enough. Hope he will forget too, when he won’t find me anymore, whenever he’s free again. I’m under no illusion that Marcus will stay locked up for more than the couple of years my exile lasted: with his connection, with the corruption of the system, they won’t manage to make an example out of him. And then he’ll come looking for me, I know he will. But he won’t find me. I left no trail to follow. Not even my name. Now I answer to my grandmother’s name, the sweet mother of my father that always cuddled me as a little child. And my mother’s maiden name, I’ve made my own. I’m not Keitha dus Mason anymore, and I’m certainly not Keitha oen Mason, but I want to take a piece of my family everywhere I go.
That night, in my cabin, I cut my hair, just above the shoulders. I’m a new person now.
***
Gridania is devastated.
I look around me in shock, taking in burnt down homes, injured people, cries of despair. Something terrible happened here. I can smell the fire, the smoke, the terror of the people. There’s no place for me to go, so I set out in the woods and that’s when I hear someone crying. Not my business, I tell myself. I just arrived here. Not my business.
Two minutes later I sigh, shake my head at my own idiocy and stand up from the tree I was leaning on, to check what’s happening.
It’s a young miqo’te, I notice, a girl that can’t be more than fifteen years old. She’s down on the ground and curled up around a small white form, her black hair covering it like a waterfall of darkness.
I cautiously take a step toward her and call out. “Are you ok?”
What a stupid question: would she be there in the woods crying, if she was ok?
The girl barely looks at me, tightens her arms around that white form and keeps crying.
I exhale and kneel down by her side, trying to get a better look. The girl is hugging an… animal? It looks like a ferret.
“What’s going on? Are you hurt? Or is your pet?” I keep my voice as gentle as possible, trying to soothe the desperation I can hear in her sobs.
“I d-don’t know! It doesn’t move!” she sobs harder, raising huge green eyes at me. “I just…” she hiccups a sob. “I just found it! Look, it doesn’t move!”
I sigh and lean down, to take a better look at what it’s very likely a dead animal. It’s a pup, that’s for sure, it’s too small to be an adult. It’s not moving, but it’s still warm at the touch. I slowly pass my hand over its fur and just when I’m almost certain it’s gone, I feel it: a small, weak breathing motion.
“It’s hurt, but it’s alive,” I tell the girl. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should just leave it be, since the animal is about to die anyway… but I can’t lie to her.
“Alive? It’s alive?” The miqo’te raises her voice and I wince at her hopeful note.
“Yes, well…” I stop talking as the girl jumps up, as if by a bee sting. She dries up her tears and points imperiously to the little ferret. “I lost my dad in the Calamity, my mom is injured, I’m not going to lose you as well!”
Then she runs away while I look at her with incredulity. The what? She stops after just a few steps, turning to me. “Well? Are you coming or not? Bring the ferret, I need to warn the infirmary! Come, fast, come on!”
She runs away again and this time she doesn’t stop.
I try to call for her, but either she doesn’t listen or she doesn’t care… and I’m left with a wounded pup on the ground and a girl that will have her heart broken if it doesn’t survive.
“Well,” I sigh, shaking my head. “It looks like it’s you and me, little guy.”
I carefully lift the pup in my arms and walk back to the town.
***
The infirmary is so full of people that you can barely walk in it. Bedrolls after bedrolls are on the ground, injured people moan and cry. I smell blood and burnt flesh everywhere. It’s almost enough to make me gag but I force myself to advance anyway, until I see the girl talking animatedly with what looks like a… child? No, not a child. I mean, he looks like a child, but he’s clearly… not. He has an aura around him that speaks of experience, authority. And two… are those horns? on his head.
The girl turns around and sees me. She smiles anxiously and waves me over, so I carefully cross the sea of bedrolls and reach her.
“Brother Sumi-Yan agreed to help!” She announces proudly but the… horned boy… stops her.
“I said I’d look, Lynette. Don’t get your hopes up.” His voice is not that of a child either and when he looks down at the animal in my arm, he furrows his brows slightly. Then he leans a hand on the soft fur and I open my eyes wide. It’s like… I feel energy flowing into him from all around, from the trees, the grass, the air itself. It all concentrates in his hand and from there, it flows into the little pup, like a warm blanket, a soft embrace. I hiss in surprise and instinctively tighten my grip on the ferret.
“You felt that… some of the healing magic must have transferred to you,” the boy muses, looking at me, while still pouring that warm energy into the animal. “But I never saw you here. Are you a practitioner or some kind?”
I know what he’s talking about. I know about aether. But Garleans can’t channel it, and this is the first time I’ve seen it done. It’s beautiful. It’s like a mother’s loving arms around you, and feeling it almost brings tears to my eyes.
I shake my head but I’m hungry to know more now. To feel more of that. “I’m not. But the feeling is so… calm and peaceful. You’re healing the pup, right?”
“I am,” he nods. “And you could too, with the proper training.”
My eyes open wide and I open my mouth to say something, anything. But all it comes out is a soft, hopeful, “Could I?”
To heal instead of hurt? To give life instead of taking it? To soothe instead of lash? My heart, my soul, stretch longingly toward this impossible, incredible gift. To be able to bring comfort, care, help?
My eyes must reflect my yearning because Brother Sumi-Yan smiles. “What’s your name girl?”
“Eluned,” I reply instantly, feeling the little pup stir in my arms. I lower my eyes for a second and my gaze is met by its confused dark one. I smile then, stupidly happy that the little guy will be alright. It’s warm, and soft, and he’s slowly rolling on itself in my arms, to get comfortable and sleep. “My name is Eluned Greaves.”
“Well, welcome to Gridania, Eluned Greaves. If you’re willing to learn, we’re willing to teach. Even one extra pair of hands here, now, can make the difference.”
And I know what the next years of my life will be.
Misty 