2020-10-05: Palace Tour

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========================<* Bevelle - Temple District *>=========================

The center of Bevelle is the Temple of Yevon. This towering structure is at the heart of the city. The holiest place in all of Yevon, where its founder came to create the religion, is barred from entry to all but Summoners. Even here, the Fayth are the place of the Summoners alone.

However, there are numerous smaller lower case T temples here. Places of worship, to venerate Yevon and different religious figures in the Yevonite faith, are spread throughout this region. Additionally, Bevelle holds numerous offices, shops, and other administrative facilities that keep the dogmatic and bureaucratic engines of Yevon running.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBAcibfk-s&ab_channel=Ultimatefighter343
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> Silence

MOMENTS AGO

Yuna attracts the attention of the Yevon devout by throwing herself off the apex of the Ten Thousand Steps To Peace. A midair landing on Valefor does not attract LESS attention, since that's supposed to be impossible and all. Also, Rikku throws some Al Bhed flash grenades, and they work REAL good.

It is just possible to break through the distracted, blinded, chaotic -- stunned, whether by the miracle slash heresy they just witnessed, or the alchemy they were just subjected to -- ranks of Yevonites and Guado to vanish inside the Palace of St. Bevelle. There's a small entrance into the domed top of the Tower of Light, and, at least for the moment, a short lead.

"Where'd Yunie go?!" asked Rikku.

"Bevelle Palace is temple. Yuna goes to one place only," replied Kimahri.

"The Chamber of the Fayth!" concluded Tidus.

NOW

The wedding was held on the Palace roof, so it stands to reason that the first thing to be found inside ANY of the doors are stairs. But still, that assumption wasn't adequate preparation for this sight.

If you added up every staircase in Spira it might have fewer steps than this, and that INCLUDES the legendary ascent at Kilika Temple where Ohalland trained before giving up blitzball to pursue greater things. It is an immense spiral, with the occasional landing, and it descends out of sight -- far more deeply than even the great height of the Tower might account for.

Every surface is beautiful, in the Yevonite way. The colors are more muted than they might have been in Home, but Spira is Spira and there are many golds and lavenders and magentas. There are geometric patterns built into every available surface, and many actual runic mandalas as well. The floors and walls are ancient, ancient stone. It is entirely believable that this is a tower that has stood for over a thousand years; old things have a... softness to them, even the most well-cared for.

But there is another quality to the extraordinarily old that is familiar to Filgaians especially...

...sometimes, it kind of loops around, doesn't it? And you know that a place is truly old because it is too NEW. Because it utilizes technologies that have simply been lost to the present.

The waterfall that flows over the roof of the Tower of Light is pumped, it seems, from ancient channels that ring the interior every few floors. Their open surfaces glitter with steady motion; clockwise and counterclockwise channels are interspersed. Immense and gorgeously transparent tubes rise vertically at the eight points of the Yevonite mandala rose, distributing and collecting water from each of these ring-like rivers. Whatever motive force is powering all this is invisible... but clearly it's not, say, the chocomotion that moves the ferries across the Spiran sea.

There are also more waterfalls on the inside, shimmering sheets that cover runic stripes between each of the tubes. They fall, crawl, endlessly down the walls. There is no sound of splashing at the bottom.

More practically speaking, however, there is a touch-screen panel, all flashing buttons, sensors, and other high-tech details, attached to the top step by a metallic pole. It would not be out of place on the Fahrenheit -- or in the ruin of the ancient civilization of your choice.

The top few steps are, themselves, raised up a few inches above the next few thousand. They're hovering in perfect silence. Each step has an inverted U-shaped metal railing on either end. Obviously they're meant to be held on to, while moving at high speeds.

It transpires that there is ample time to inspect all this; there doesn't seem to be anyone following the group inside...

...why?

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Still sore and exhausted, Lulu nevertheless hurries along with the others towards the stairs. She has someone to meet, and people to keep up with, and that is what she is going to do.

Bevelle, of course, is beautiful. Lulu has been to Bevelle before. This is an anient tower indeed. But...

But there is something else here, too. Not the water; not the runes or mandalas. It is something... else...

Lulu frowns as she approaches the touch-screen panel, certainly not alone. "The heart of Yevon," Lulu says, not for the first time. But she sounds tired. Flashing buttons and, high-tech details... Some remind Lulu of things that she saw on Filgaia.

"...It's too quiet," she comments, looking around and moving towards the small platform. She can guess at its use. Lulu looks over her shoulder, to some of the others. "A trap?" she wonders thoughtfully. But no one seems to be here but them.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Tidus takes one look at the bajillion freaking stairs and says, "I'm not hiking that."
    
    He then looks over at the waterfalls, the stone, and the machina. The machina in particular gets his attention, because it's a way of getting deeper into the temple without having to hike a bajillion stairs. He's not *quite* familiar with the technology, but it's familiar enough that he can touch a few buttons and not get an error sound. The platform hovers before him and everyone else in patient silence; he steps on and jumps up and down. It holds.
    
    "Seems safe!" he announces to everyone else who'd followed in. "But there's not a ton of space so maybe we should do this a few at a time?"
    
    Or they could all crowd on at the same time, either or. Make sure to keep hold of the railing, folks.
    
    Lulu suggests it's too quiet, that it might be a trap. "How could it be a trap? They had no idea we were coming," Tidus points out. "Maybe they all just showed up for the wedding so there's no guards. Speaking of, we'd better hurry before those jerks catch up."

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Under any other circumstances Rikku would want to take the time to see the sights of a place she'd never seen before. No Al Bhed ship docks in Bevelle. No Al Bhed visits Bevelle unless it's done with extreme discretion. Right now though, she's running. The rendezvous point used to be the other end of the wedding, but the moment he says it's a temple... and Tidus calls it out, she knows that's true.
 
So mostly she's been running into the Tower of Light... and then panting to catch her breath. Standing on her tip toes she looks over the railing at the circle of bottomless stairs. Then around.
 
This is not how she imagined this place at all. Yet something stands out to her more than the rest.
 
"Huh?"
 
That's the moment her eyes fastened to the touch-screen panel. Immediately she walks up to it, and begins checking it. Even as Tidus beats her to it. And she nudges him to work on it herself. "Here. Let me see!"
 
Tapping her fingers across it as she tries to work out the controls.
 
Every touch causes a synthetic noise to sound out, as if simply alerting those around her to the fact something has been pressed.
 
"Hm - I concur!" Rikku looks to the top few steps with the railing that Tidus is definitely jumping on. Before responding to Lulu's idea of there being a trap waiting. "And if it's fast enough, there's no way they could get ahead of us right?"
 

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel is content to approach in bat form because she is tired and learning that the church is entirely run by uppity undead types just infuriates her, really bothers her deeply--because it gives all the other undead a bad name when an undead person is doing bad things. All the pundits start going on and on about how the undead are parasites and literal bloodsuckers and all that and, okay, fair on the bloodsucking part but she's a contributing member of society! She teaches children valuable life lessons! She's doing her best, dangit! This isn't helped further by Vasil deciding to go all genocidey himself for that matter! Crimson Nobles are supposed to beyond plebian undead behavior. Leave that for the zombies and angry ghosts! And speaking of angry ghosts, what about all the nice ghosts huh? You never hear about them! It's a conspiracy of people jealous they have to breathe in order to live, that's what it is.

And just because she has chosen to perch on Tidus's shoulder doesn't mean she's about to bite into his neck either. They're just friends! It wouldn't be appropriate...! Marivel thinks this is the second or third time Yuna has flirted with martyrdom and it's REAL ROUGH.

"Does anybody want to make any last minute purchases before we move on? Want any healing? Save your game? Haha, just kidding on that last one."

She can only get away with this while she's a cute bat.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"...Hey..."

Wakka approaches from behind, having slowed down as he started to see all of this. He looks around not in wonder, but in unease, his broad shoulders slouched in unhappiness. "Man, what's a machina doing in the temple...?"

Rikku chimes in, "I suppose it comes in handy," as she's up looking.

He stops, "That's not what I mean!" He protests quickly, looking around at those who might supply the answer defensively. "I mean, the teachings! What about the teachings?"

But he looks more to Lulu than to anyone else; how would most of the room even know? Lulu, though, just looks back at him and shakes her head. She doesn't have an answer, this time.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
VENETIA VUONG: WEDDING CRASHER OF THE VOID (forty-one)

has pinned up the sleeves and hem of her dress. Given that she has left three-quarters of the magic she personally knows in the dirt near Kattelox on another planet, she has opted to request some stuff from the Al Bhed to bolster her, which in this case meant 'shells for the gun she brought with her and a couple of sturdy hatchets'.

"This place," says Venetia as she catches up with the Guardians, "is - gorgeous - it's a shame about the ownership." There is more silence as she raises her gaze upwards, looking round. She walks onto the lift as she does this.

Venetia's gaze turns towards Wakka for a moment, but the tightening of her lips suggests an interior conflict, not without sympathy. Her attention then turns towards Tidus and his new miniature comrade. "Tidus," Venetia says to the blond man with a nod, before her attention focuses on Marivel.

"Yes, actually." She shifts to the side and brings out a couple of battered 120-gella notes from Meria Boule.

* Ammo replenished.

"Is this sort of place usually guarded heavily? They've been having a war here lately, haven't they? To say nothing of everyone higher up. Might just be a stroke of good luck, though," she leans over to knock on the railing, "we'd better not tempt things."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Now there are no footsteps thundering behind them, the wind magic at the heels of the escapees has faded; perhaps it's a reflection of the remaining power of the Seraph, Boudicca. Strength is not something measured in muscular power, for beings of spirit. Rather...

    She does not take the stairs. It is too much of a burden to lift her feet so many times; she shatters the illusion and floats down them, instead. It's only when those waterfalls really raise questions of their own that she consents to descend, greaves to ground, hurrying down the path inside.

    In terms of broadness - as well as willingness to follow Yuna's suggestions - Boudicca is kin to Kimahri; as they come to pause by the machina staircase it is evident she is tall and broad, clad in plate, though distinctly there are two horns on her helm.

    In essence: she's not exactly a space-saving Seraph.

    "If this be a trap, surely this city whole is its net," Boudicca suggests, to Lulu, a worn weariness to the words. "I suspect we will do no worse down there than up here."

    There is sympathy in her gaze as she looks to Wakka, but she shakes her head, and offers him no reply. She hears a mirror in his words, but she can no more tell him his Teachings are flawed than her fellow Seraphim could tell her the Goddess was not all she appeared.

    Sometimes it takes experience, a whole town burning.

    Boudicca wonders whether Leo still feels that way, and it is one more barbed memory to put aside.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

With the unconscious Cecilia clutched in his grasp, Azoth hurries along with the group tirelessly. Even in the face of so many stairs, he is dauntless. But acts that take more strength don't translate into fatigue quite the same way for Azoth as for some organics.

But he stops a moment, staring over the architecture with a flicker of his eyes. It reminds him of... something... something... maybe it was the ERROR dAtA nOt fOUnD

Ow.

Azoth turns his attention to the machina platform as some of the others jump onto it. The stability will become increasingly questionable with more passengers. But the same could be said of a continued escape on foot.

"Trap or not, the longer we stay in one place, the worse our odds, I think," he says. He glances around the group they still have with them and their various injuries. He looks especially to Ida with a frown, and the strange way she wears her scars. He'll have to ask later. When they're safe.

Azoth steps onto the lift and kneels down so one hand can grip onto the rail, but so Cecilia is still supported against him with the help of the ground. Rikku makes the machina beep, and it is a very compelling idea to beep back. But Wakka mentions something about teachings and machina and Azoth decides not to do that.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
"Hey don't look at me." Rikku says with a shrug at Wakka's question, and it's not her being flippant or smug. She genuinely doesn't know the answer. Certainly the Al Bhed knew that Yevon uses ARMs, but she didn't know their sacred places where full of Machina systems.
 
It's perhaps not SURPRISING to her, but she's not suddenly 'J'ACCUSE! Hypocrisy!' ... it rather speaks for itself, she has no need to comment on it otherwise, because the day has been hardest on the followers of Yevon most of all.
 
As Rikku steps on the platform, starts making some transactions with a bat. "Oh hey Marivel! Boy am I glad you're still with us - that's a big relief. Let's see... everything explosive you've got. And let's see... does ARMs' inventory have any Fire Gems and Dream Powder? Also a longshot but..."
 
She drops her voice, and hands over a bag of gil, "... any Candles of Life, Farplane Shadows, or Dark Matter in your special stash? I'm looking to uh..." Pause, "... broaden my horizons?"
 

GS: #1129 spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Rikku has attacked Marivel Armitage with Bribe!
GS: Rikku has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Rikku takes 30 damage from Poison!
GS: Quick expired!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    "I mean, not to defend the Church or anything, but is this really a *bad* machina?" Tidus points out to Wakka, stepping to one side so Rikku can get at the goods. "It's not a weapon. It's just a handy way of getting around." He pauses a beat. "The Church is still a bunch of high-and-mighty hypocrites, though." After all, they *were* using guns and flamethrowers out there. Those are *definitely* not the so-called 'good' kind of machina.
    
    He glances over at Maribat as she perches on his shoulder, then chuckles at her joke. "I bet a bunch of us could use some healing." He looks in concern over at Cecilia in particular. She's unconscious, and getting carried by someone he doesn't recognize... Claude's request returns to him, and brings with it some guilt. "Can you patch Cecilia up, get her back on her feet? Claude asked us guardians to watch out for her when he's not around--some job we did of that so far." But then, they *were* all there for Yuna first and foremost. It'll take some balancing going forward. For now, Tidus nods to Azoth. "Thanks for looking out for her, man. I owe you one."
    
    Venetia greets him. "Hey, Venetia," he says, waving at her briefly. "I guess it'd normally be guarded? It's the Temple--it's where the fayth is. Uh, that's the thing that lets the summoner summon the aeon? But it's also in here and the Guard is out there, so better to put the soldiers to *keep* them out there."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Where has Clarine been? That's a good question. As a Seraph of Light, she has ways of letting herself go unseen even here in Spira, the land of the resonant. Someone had to be ready in case things went awry.

And, Clarine was ready. Barriers are something she has been training herself in, and now, they seemed necessary. And so, she split off from the others for a short time, so that she could put some up. Barriers to buy them all some time, to force the pursuers to either choose a different route, or break them down.

...But, this is their homeland, and she was not exactly able to study a full map of the city. They know this place better than she does. Ultimately, it's a temporary measure.

And so it is that she arrives. For a moment, the voice seems to come from nowhere.

"...Do not be alarmed. It is I, Clarine, Seraph of Light and member of ARMS. I have returned..." Clarine announces herself. She appears, fully visible now, as she sheds a silver cloth, returning it to her sleeves. "I have done what I can to stall them... but, I fear it is entirely too little."

She studies everyone. Studies the current situation. Sees the contraption that is going to enforce quite a bit of closeness.

"Ah... One moment." Clarine says. ...After a short moment of concentration, Clarine's form begins to shine, and then condenses itself into a ball of light. If one looks closely, they can catch familiar features in the motes of light that shed off her form. "I believe this form will be more suitable for travel in our current situation..."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida stands at Cecilia's other side, supporting her and Azoth as best as she can. She does not look hale or whole, but she moves with a desperate energy all the same. Her skin is like a palimpsest of injury--first the old scars, then the newer injuries, highlighted with blue-silver lines. Then the newest ones, marked by fresh inhuman flesh, spread like silvery-red webbing across her shoulder, side, and limbs.

    Half the blood on her is crimson. The other half is quicksilver. Ida is desperately hoping that she won't cause Cecilia further distress just by bleeding the same color as the people that etched trauma into her memory.

    They get to the platform. Wakka asks what it's doing here, and Ida gives him a dry, calm look. "What else would it be doing here?" she says. "It's our way down."

    Ida kneels on the other side of Azoth, still supporting Cecilia. It's difficult to do that and hang on at the same time, but Ida manages it by literally locking her hand in place, extruding armor so it's encasing the rail.

    "You're going to be all right," she whispers. To who? To Cecilia, Azoth, or herself? Or maybe all of them?

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "Ah," Boudicca remarks, as Clarine becomes light. "A sensible measure, Clarine." She has a lot on her mind and forgot they could do that.

    A breeze blows, and Boudicca disappears in pale green light, leaving behind a long, long ribbon - carried on the breeze, it settles around Venetia's shoulders. "Please do not be alarmed," the ribbon says. "I am still quite present."

    She'd sit on Ida, but Ida is... quite damaged. Boudicca doesn't want to agitate any of those wounds. She might find the breeze soothing, in any case.

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Earlier, Cecilia was party to a practical demonstration in the processes of collision physics. Believe it or not, still not as bad as that time Berserk punched her so hard her whole skeleton broke! She's still out, however, slumped between Azoth and Ida. She groans, periodically, as some sliver of a sign of - if not consciousness, at least life.

She releases a quiet groan as her eyes blink open, bleerily taking in the scene. "Survived worse," she mutters lamely at Ida. "Those things were...."

...her attention slides gradually to the actual situation. She doesn't finish her previous thought. "Not...sounding like a victory party."

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> Ominous Silence

The stair-platform glides down and down and down and down the spiral...

...it's unsafe at any speed and its speed is enjoyably high...

...and it's VERY packed, with that big group...

...after a while it is possible not to feel chased at all anymore...

...there is not a soul in sight, within the Tower of Light.

At the very bottom of the spiral stairs, the bottom of the tubes are also. They flare out broadly, like beakers but also like something that's matching something else's width, something even further below. Each tube embraces the output of a surely mighty yet supremely silent engine, one which casts a brilliant blue up through the water, and bubbles, so many bubbles, with the churning of its strength.

To what purpose the water is moved, other than creating beauty for the Tower both inside and out, is an open question. Whether another purpose BESIDES beauty would be more or less offensive -- given the dogma of the religion whose grandest cathedral this building represents -- is open too, but more to personal opinion and philosophy than fact.

Let's remember for a moment, though, what most of the rest of Spira is like. In some cases, the extremely low-tech lifestyle of its populace is due to poverty, but for the most part this is not so. There are few people, and many resources; it is a fertile and gorgeous world, with its forests and jungles and plains, its lush rivers, its teeming seas. Much of that beauty, in fact, is unharnessed -- there are simply not that many workers available to mine every mountain or till every field. In that sense also, it is the opposite of Bevelle Temple's ancient and intricate grandeur.

But let's return to the most literal point: Spira's people, bar the Al Bhed, live in cheap, easily rebuildable housing -- unlike this place, which has been successfully defended from Sin for endless centuries. And they live with very, very few machina indeed. When there are stairs, they take the stairs, and if someone cannot, they are carried, or they cannot go at all. When they need water, they must draw it themselves; there are sewers and aquaducts but so, so little ELECTRICITY. Homes are lit by open flame, or the occasional phosphoroluminescent crystal... the other Temples are too, tended fervently by hard-working, patient priests and nuns and orphans who ensure that every surface, every statue, is immaculately maintained with nothing more than elbow grease.

They don't have to live this way.

They CHOOSE to live this way.

In accordance with the teachings of Yevon.

Teachings which tell them that to better one's life with machina for mere convenience is a luxury that weakens the spirit, a direct assault on one's morality. Teachings which tell them that to eschew machina is to repent, repent for the sins of a civilization that nearly destroyed the world WITH them. A civilization destroyed by Sin, instead. Sin, who destroys even the humblest villages of Spira to this day -- and will continue to do so, until Spira itself is without sin of any kind.

Their lives could be made so much easier, so easily.

But they reject this path. They make their thousand small sacrifices -- and accept a handful of larger ones...

...in order to do the right thing.

The people believe. Even most of their PRIESTS believe, surely.

How many people have ever even been allowed in here?

Perhaps that is why the Drifters were not pursued by the rank and file. Even now it is very quiet, but for the low hum of transcendently advanced technology.

The next door -- leading into the Cloister of Trials, based on the Yevonite runes that surround it -- is a shimmering force field, the likes of which have not been seen anywhere else on this continent in so many generations. There is another panel that can manipulate it, and perhaps other functions of the Temple besides.

"So this is Yevon's true face," remarks Auron, who sounds singularly unsurprised. His words are disgusted but his voice is steady, calm, a foundation in this place. His expression is disguised by his high collar and dark spectacles; the former a warrior-monk's stylings, the latter sunglasses from another place, another time. Not here or now, not even in Bevelle. "They betray their own teachings."

Wakka closes his eyes for a moment. He remembers the reception they received on the roof, at the wedding of their own summoner -- his own sister. He remembers the wonder he felt the first time he stepped into the blitzball stadium -- the gratitude for this miracle, this technology that would allow him to play a game. Gratitude for Yevon's teachings, that is, that in their wisdom they would allow him to use it.

"...they treated us like dirt." His voice is tight with unshed tears.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Clarine becomes a ball of light, and Lulu accepts this. "Then maybe that's it," she allows, since the others have had pretty good reasonings about why it's not a trap. "You know we have to focus on Yuna," Lulu says to Tidus of Cecilia. "...But it doesn't hurt anything to keep an eye on her for now." Lulu does look to her and to Ida, judging both of their condition for the moment, before she considers the lift again.

She doesn't explain the Fayth yet. Instead she shakes her head, and regards the Seraphim changing. ...That's all fine and normal.

The way down... is not. "...The heart of Yevon," Lulu says quietly, watching each engine go by as they travel down. Tidus had said something important. Machina they may use... She remembers that explanation.

"...The teachings," Lulu says, "Tell of an ancient war, fought with machina powerful enough to destroy Spira many times over."

She walks away from the platform, towards the next door, and continues to speak as she walks. She did not stop to buy something from Marivel; she does look at her, in particular for some reason, before she continues.

"That's when--tht's why--Sin came. They say..."

Lulu trails off, and shakes her head. "When man has power," she says instead, "He seeks to use it."

Her long skirt drags along the smooth floor. She turns to face the others, shoulders straight. "This is the Temple of St. Bevelle... the entrance to the Cloister of Trials. They are dangerous, and it's forbidden for anyone but Summoners and their Guardians to enter."

Lulu turns away, towards the field and its panel. "...Let's go."

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    "Well, yeah," Tidus says to Lulu. "That's why we ended up not having her back back on the stairs. But now that it's calmed down a little..." When Lulu concedes the point, he gives her a firm nod. "Yeah! That's what I'm saying. Claude helped protect Yuna, after all. It's only right we return the favor."
    
    The group sails down on a soundless platform. It's a little less crowded than it might be thanks to Clarine and Boudicca taking the form of light balls--Tidus gives them thumbs-up of gratitude--but honestly, there's *so* much technology here it starts to weird him out. It feels like it's not even Spira anymore, after a while. It's more like Zanarkand. Heck, even Zanarkand didn't have these fancy force field things--at least, not anywhere he'd ever been.
    
    He glances at Lulu as she exposits to the group at large. He's heard this before, but... somehow, it feels more meaningful now, after he's learned the truth. After he's seen what the so-called heart of Yevon is like. Auron says as much, too. Tidus's eyes thus soften with sympathy for Wakka. He grips his friend's shoulder and gives it, as best he can, a comforting squeeze. "...Come on. We've gotta go get Yuna."
    
    It's time to *solve a puzzle*.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel replaces Venetia's ammo. Somehow she does this in bat form. Maybe it materializes in a puff of smoke. It's a somehow equitable exchange. Venetia will find the ammo works just fine. This is the true power of Marivel Armitage. Granted maybe she shouldn't be charging--no! Don't worry about that too much. She shows her sympathy to Wakka by remaining silent. If she tried to speak to him, there is no way she wouldn't be able to avoid some sarcasm in her tone and sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to shut the hell up.

Not that she'll ever shut up for Venetia...! She enjoys her reactionos too much. She does, however, look RIGHT at Azoth for a long moment. He might get the idea that she sees at least on some level what he is.

"Well alright, Rikku. Happy to help...!" A crate of grenades poofs into existence before Rikku, also in a cloud of smoke.

"Oh good they all have their pins attached this time." Marivel saays in relief. "I don't know what fire gems or dream powder are though."

She shrugs both arms and says, "Is there really a 'bad machina'? The ones that are people are just people, and can you blame a gun for killing someone when it didn't ask to be made? Bad people make bad machina."

She looks over to Cecilia who seems to be having a rough time of it.

She summons a bag of HERB near Ida. It kind of plops onto the ground unnhelpfully.

She looks to Auron for a moment and adds, "Finding out for the first time?" She says it almost as if she's teasing gently, not out of malice but out of genuine friendship.

She then looks to Wakka for a long moment once more before admitting to Lulu's words. "Tale as old as time, my friend. Older than Filgaia or Lunar, I suspect."

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Venetia attends to Tidus's quick summary of what's going on. She nods along. Then she cocks her head back. "Let them come. I'm a war girl now, I guess; I'll drop them down a hole for peace."

She doesn't say it very loudly, probably because of the aforementioned temptation of fate. She sucks on her teeth at the sight of Cecilia, and then states - perhaps for the benefit of Wakka in particular - "Sorry about that. It's been a week."

Then the journey begins.

It becomes clear within about half a minute that they are not about to be assailed by reaverbots or something, and so Venetia relaxes. She puts the hatchet back into a loop on a belt at her waist and looks round. "... Is this... processing, creating the water? This land of yours is astoundingly rich, it's like the Dazel forest or something but across every piece of land we flew over. Is it maintaining that richness, perhaps?"

Venetia sounds uncertain. Speculation is mingling with wonder. The problem is outside her context, but she is a scholar, and so there is the attempt to alter that context to encompass it. "If we had something like this in Guild Galad we'd just have to put some clean soil and we could farm the barrens round the topside. You could stop the desert in Aveh."

"... this isn't how it ought to be," Venetia then says, answering Marivel. The thought does not progress further.

"... This is where they keep the, what did they call it, the fayth for the final aeon from that sphere film?" Venetia does ask, about the temple.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Also, Cecilia totally woke up over there!! Tidus looks her way when she stirs awake. "Oh hey!! How're you feeling?" Ida and Azoth seem to have her covered for now at least, especially with that... herb...?? ...that Marivel conjured for her. Tidus gives Ida a nod and wave of greeting. They don't seem to meet under the best of circumstances, huh. "Yeah, we, uh, kind of had to make a break for it," he adds when Cecilia observes they are totally not celebrating. "But Yuna's in here somewhere, and once we find her, we're *out* of here."

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Quicksilver blood. Strange. None of Azoth's data stirs at the sight of it. He doesn't yet know he was already asleep and buried during the earliest time one could learn of such things. That there is blood at all is what worries him, regardless of its color.

Azoth gives Tidus a faint smile. "There is nothing owed," he replies. For a number of reasons. "I will keep watch of her." For Lulu's benefit, too. Everyone has their own objectives. In this case, that means many objectives can be covered at once. Hopefully.

He looks to the little bat whose voice he has on record from a couple of encounters now, but does not yet have a name for the face. As she stares into him, Azoth looks back, his face frozen with an awkward smile until her attention turns away from him. At least they have an herb for Cecilia now.

Can you blame a gun for killing someone when it didn't ask to be made?

You might, if the gun walked and talked and everything. But this isn't a conversation he determines himself comfortable joining, especially not after Lulu explains the long, intense history. It is one thing to know it. It is another to see how these natives of Spira carry themselves because of it. It is as if their emotions radiate through them in the grim silence. It's a heaviness someone who might be labeled 'machina' himself couldn't easily lift.

Instead, he looks back to Cecilia. "It... did not go as planned," he admits. "As he says, we can still regroup."

And the moon ghosts have become elemental spheres fluttering about now? The little zeroes and ones that make up Azoth's mind spell out something you could appropriately call envy.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"Perhaps so," Lulu acknowledges of Marivel, and the age of the tale. "There are many things in this world I do not know. Yevon would say that the presence of that gun itself tempts mankind to use it. And maybe that is true."

Venetia sounds uncertain, but she has the hallmarks of knowledge in her voice. "I don't know what the machina here do," Lulu admits. "I wasn't aware that they were here." But, she asked a specific question, and so--

"This is where they keep a Fayth," Lulu answers Venetia, "The Fayth of the Bevelle Temple." Appropriately enough. "The Final Aeon's Fayth is far to the north, in Zanarkand. Only after a journey to each temple in Spira does a Summoner have the qualifications to journey to Zanarkand, and there receive the Final Aeon."

"...The Final Aeon, for those unfamiliar, is how Sin is defeated."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Cecilia shows signs of life. Ida turns to her as best as she can, managing a weary smile. "...not of this world," she says, finishing Cecilia's sentence. "Not wholly. And I haven't the slightest clue where they got their materials." Well, that's a lie. Ida's reasonably sure there are avenues, and one of them is so horrific she doesn't want to think about it right now.

    Ida barely knows Wakka. She knows he's one of Yuna's Guardians, and that he's a vocal Yevonite and the captain of the Aurochs. That's it. Nevertheless, she can't help but feel a stab of empathic pain as the man processes what he's seeing. He is witnessing the true face of Yevon's leadership. Ida knows better than to assume her own crisis of faith is complete.

    "I'm sorry," Ida says, to Wakka. "You deserved better."

    Marivel produces an herb. Ida is injured, but the first thing she does is lift it to Cecilia's lips. "Eat this," she instructs. She manages a lame smile at Tidus. "...We'll find her."

    Ida's hand reaches across Cecilia's shoulders, and pats Azoth's arm. She gives him her best, most comforting smile.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku lets Tidus say his peace on it - because she's too busy suddenly gleefully emptying the crate of grenades, "Thanks! I don't know how you do it - but it's really handy. And - ah well! I'll show you sometime. You might get a kick out of what you can do with them." Before she then states to Wakka, "What Ida said. No matter how we look at it, it's our way down to Yunie."
 
Rikku willingly starts to hand out some Al Bhed potions that she has. They're handy concoctions which seem to act as both Curative and Restorative. She hands over a trio to Lulu silently. She's not saying it, because she feels it would embarrass Lulu, but Lulu had a particularly difficult time running the gauntlet of Yevonites.
 
"Not yet at least, but just you wait! We'll be snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, shortly." Rikku chirps at the recovering Cecilia... and as Azoth notes that, she replies, "Oh - maybe I should have warned all of you. My Dad's plans are... kinda... infamous for their... outcomes? Calling them fiascos is usually an understatement..."
 
... right before the platform glides down and down and in the lurch she's forced to brace her stance and try to keep a hand on the railing.
 
And once they reach the bottom, Rikku's eyes scan the tubes. The immensity of these revelations are not lost to her. That such a place exists in the center of Bevelle. That such Machina exists - in use.
 
Her people were not condemned to death because they use similar Machina, but not many Spirans will mourn them because they do. Most will say it is simply justice.
 
After everything above though, Rikku does not feel vengeful about it, like she's still coming down from her anger. She feels... tired, looking at this place. Tired of the way things are. Tired of how her people and their way of life are dismissed as vermin. Her mind feels like it's echoing Venetia's thought.
 
It shouldn't be this way.
 
Stepping up to the touchpad by the forcefield, she does the same thing to the touchpad, not even commenting when Auron mentions it's Yevon's true face. As Wakka says that though, her motions upon the touchpad pause briefly.
 
"Yeah." She says, in a moment of empathy perhaps with him. She's used to being treated like dirt, but she feels for him in this moment. And so rather than continuing at the forcefield, she steps up to him, and puts a hug around him from the side. When her world was crashing down around her, he was one of the first to comfort her, "... anyone tries to get under your skin and makes you feel that way? We know that's not true." She tries her best to smile at him, "I know it."
 
Rikku only returns to the panel when Lulu says 'Let's go.' To continue working on dropping the field.
 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Clarine doesn't blame Boudicca for forgetting. This particular form - reducing herself to a sphere of light... She doesn't take it often. It's convenient... but, it is vulnerable, at the same time. She knows that all too well. But that she takes it now, in the current company, is a sign of deep trust.

And so, they descend. Down, down, down, into the depths of Bevelle... to a place with the unmistable charged air of Machina. Machina that was forbidden. Clarine observes and listens quietly, as those present come to terms with that they're seeing.

Her gaze lingers on Wakka, for a bit. She doesn't know the man very well, but she can understand, a bit, some of what he must be going through.

She remembers how she felt when she heard of the war Althena declared upon an innocent people. How it felt like a wound deeper than any she had experienced before. She can sympathise.

"...I am sorry..." Clarine murmurs. She floats after the others quietly. It's all a lot to take in. For now, she can only watch over them. She's uncertain she can do much more than that - she is already quite exhausted.

But then, they all are.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "I am... sorry, for what has occured," the ribbon says to Rikku, when she talks about her father's plans, and it's not the first time she's said that to an Al Bhed, but maybe this time it will cross the language barrier. "Ahjaenodrehk cilgec." ... she tried.

    The ribbon rides down with Venetia...! And slips off of her shoulders when they come to the bottom. Boudicca reforms from the breeze, that ribbon slipping through braids, silk flaring out. She looks a little less beaten-up now she's refreshed her browser.

    The sorrow in her eyes hasn't shifted, though. And the support in her breeze is so feeble; she does not issue her Seraphic healing to Cecilia, nor even to Ida.

    It is not because she wishes them to suffer.

    She listens to Lulu. Once she is done, Boudicca murmurs, softly: "You shall not imbibe intoxicants, nor raise your voice in song... nor shall you dance." Looking to that woman in black, she explains: "The edicts of our mother. The Goddess, Althena."

    They move towards the Fayth, as the Guardians explain, and Boudicca listens. "And that is where Yuna must pray... I see." She does not think to blame the Fayth of Bevelle for the city's crimes; spirits are so often unattuned to the world around them, after all.

    And the people...

    She still does not address Wakka so directly. She cannot.

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Auron endures Marivel's teasing with a stoic silence which neither confirms nor denies, which is his preferred mode (just ask Tidus). Wakka bows his head at the compassion he receives from some of the Otherworlders, in silent gratitude. He too says nothing more, but less because he's being a mysterious legendary Guardian and more because he doesn't trust his voice not to shake.

But he doesn't frown when Rikku tinkers with the force field, as he did even at the top of the spiral staircase. He rests a broad, callused palm on her shoulder encouragingly, instead.

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> Cloister of Trials - Final Fantasy X OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOi4F_L1LYg

Rikku brings down the force field with her mad hax0r skillz, there's a quick jaunt down a hallway and another flight of stairs, and then...

...Guardians don't have to explain to the rest of the group that Cloisters of Trials, the summoner-party-only section of each Temple which leads to the aforementioned 'Chamber of the Fayth', are normally NOTHING like what lies ahead. Whatever a summoner's party is normally judged by, whatever baptisms of fire they were forged in as Guardians, in Besaid and Kilika and Djose and Macalania, they aren't, well... this.

Kimahri's expression says it all, without saying a single word. Have you ever seen a shocked cat? Yeah. It's like that. His eyes are perfectly round and overfull with the oncoming headlights of a car.

Except it isn't an automobile per se. No, the secret high technology at the heart of Bevelle has entered a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. Electricity and pumping generated by mysterious, hidden engines, that's one thing.

SOLID LIGHT, he was even less prepared for. It makes even the force field look like a candle. It is a maze -- a labyrinth -- of at least three floors, floors that hang impossibly in another massive open space which, to be honest, makes even less architectural sense than the tower itself; either it's underground or it isn't fully obeying three-dimensional law, because there was no hint of it on the way down.

The walls are light. The floor is light... and only some of it is solid. The path forward is defined by a sort of holographic hovercraft, which flowers into being when an ornate pedastal, topped by a sparkling blue, shimmering sphere, is pushed to the end of the last solid platform at the beginning of the maze. The pedastal sinks into that platform; the hovercraft appears; there are a couple seconds to get on; then off it goes. Down it goes, actually. Straight through the floor. Everyone is rendered momentarily incorporeal for the feat.

Navigating the maze requires the use of the blue spheres, Bevelle Spheres, which power and depower various paths; also greenish Glyph Spheres, which remove barriers; also a single violet Destruction Sphere familiar to anyone who's traversed a ruin in Yuna's company, as she kept it after Macalania. These spheres must be retrieved from their emplacements (which are, yes, in walls of solid light), carried by hand or slotted into the hovercraft-pedastal for safekeeping, and ensconced in appropriate holes in other walls in order to create the path through the maze. The magic they generate often connects two parts of the maze like a wire. It's rather like solving a three-dimensional circuit from the inside.

That part isn't TERRIBLE. But the hovercraft itself is deeply fickle. Sometimes it is fast and sometimes it is slow. It can only turn at specific intersections, and then, only by specific arrows pressed by outstretched hands upon the glyph it's hovering above, which flash in some combination of the four cardinal directions at excessively rapid rates.

One wrong turn and the whole hovercraft may well GO OFF THE EDGE. First it drops into the void long enough to nicely create that 'oh god we're all gonna die' experience, then it teleports everyone back up to the beginning of the maze.

Yes.

This place is THE WORST.

_____________________________| QUICK TIME EVENT!!!|_____________________________
_                          Bevelle Cloister of Trials                          _
_                                                                              _
_                                                                              _
_  Marivel Armitage, Tidus, Lulu, Seraph Boudicca, Venetia Vuong, Rikku,       _
_  Ida Everstead-Rey, Azoth, Cecilia Adlehyde, and Seraph Clarine:             _
_  +qte/react <Throw your controller through the screen. The only winning      _
_  move is not to play.>                                                       _
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Tidus nods to Azoth when he says nothing is owed, that he'll keep an eye on Cecilia going forward. Ida's fussing over her too, making sure she gets good and healed, so--it does look like Cecilia will be okay. "All right. Thanks," he tells them both. "My name's Tidus, by the way," he adds for Azoth's benefit. "This is Lulu, Rikku, Wakka--" He introduces the rest of the guardians in quick order. "I really appreciate you helping us out back there. For Cecilia *and* Yuna's sakes."
    
    Lulu gives more exposition. Tidus smiles back at Ida, awkward though it may be. He looks back at Rikku when she offers to show him sometime. "Sure! Zanar--uhh, my hometown's full of tech, but I've never been a techy kinda guy, y'know? I only just caught on to what was common knowledge, back there." It's probably fine if he names Zanarkand with this crowd, but... given what Lulu just said about the Final Aeon, it'd probably just confuse people.
    
    Rikku speaks of her dad's plans infamy. "...wait. Infamous how?" Tidus asks, *way* too late.
    
    He sobers a little at Boudicca when she talks about the edicts of Althena, her mother. Right... She and Clarine are both Seraphim, right? He doesn't know a *lot* about them, but they're some kind of faithful to Althena, he gathers. "It must be tough on you, seeing what your goddess is doing to Spira right now," he says in sympathy.
    
    Rikku solves the force field. The team moves onwards. This is not a good description of what 'moving onwards' entails. Tidus manages not to flail at the speed, but it is a solid Yikes all the same. He just said that he's only familiar with tech insofar as it was an ambient part of his experience in his hometown; some of that tech did indeed involve walls and floors of solid light. But that didn't mean it was COMMON, and it sure as hell didn't involve a fickle sometimes-fast sometimes-slow platform, and it SURE AS HELL didn't involve drops into the void. There is a certain airsickness that one gets when one looks down at one's feet and sees only the deep, impenetrable darkness of a long, long, long, long, long, LONG fall. No sir, he doesn't like it.
    
    The group gets through approximately five minutes of attempting to navigate this area before Tidus finally yells, "RIKKU! STOP THIS CRAZY THING!!"

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Lulu accepts sympathy and other words in silence, simply nodding once to the others as a whole rather than individually acknowledging everyone. Her demeanor being as stoic as it is, it's hard to tell how much impact any of this is having on her... save for a rigidity to her spine that suggests she's pushing herself, and a quality in her eyes that's a little dimmer than her usual fire... or perhaps more distant than her usual ice.

Lulu takes the potions from Rikku, though, and downs them as the barrier is handled. She looks in better health, at least, when the group continues.

But she does acknowledge Boudicca. "The Goddess Althena," she says thoughtfully, but that is all for now.

She at least trusts her voice. Lulu, for her part, handles the challenge ahead with an icy stoicism. It does not bring much life to her, though--her enthusiasm for the interesting challenge wars with her fatigue, with the knowledge that this is here in the heart of Yevon, and with the overall danger. Lulu will keep track of the spheres.

If her lips twitch now and then in irritation, well. It happens.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"Why don't they go to the Calm Lands directly? These aeons are powerful, but... hmh," Venetia answers Lulu, lapsing into thought as she looks round again. Rikku is handling the energy field, and then:

Any introspection on this part is briefly channeled into the passing round of introductions.

SOON:

"By the wealth of the abyss, did Yuna get past all of this **** on her own? I thought that a dig site with no damned doors would be a relief and I see that fate itself is keeping track of every WORD I say - pass me that sphere - to MOCK me."

Venetia is able to handle the lurching of the platform fairly well, but most of how she does this is by sinking into a deep squat and putting a hand on the surface of it, which seems to irritate her further, not least because it means she gets a great view of everyone's knees.

"I want to shoot this place with my gun. Jimmy's gun. Is this what having an ARM does to your mind?"

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Infamous in that she considers a million different scenarios in which 'blowing up the airship' could become a spontaneous part of her father's plan.
 
Rikku doesn't need to look to know whose hand it is. And then, the field powers down. And as Rikku runs in, now she seems shocked by it. "Talk about flagrant!" She blurts out this time, before she considers holding it in. Like, before she felt there was plausible deniability in the Cloisters. Even the Djose one was just really high tech electricity magic, even if it functioned on similar principles of technology.
 
Here though?
 
She can't imagine what kind of Summoners go through this Cloister without coming out at least a little disillusioned about Yevon.
 
Yet as she steps onto the platform, and it lurches to life. She finds she's having some REAL TROUBLE understanding the principles of the technology running this place.
 
"I CAN'T! I DON'T GET WHY THIS THING ISN'T TURNING!"
 
Rikku says as she rapidly taps her foot to try and prevent another drive by BOOST past an intersection where they don't turn.
 
"How does any Summoner come out of this without losing faith in humanity!?" Rikku whines, after their sixth trip into the VOID, and reappearing back at the start.
 
Rikku doesn't say it aloud, even as a joke. But some part of her idly wonders if Seymour became Seymour because he tried to make it through the Bevelle Cloister of Trials.
 

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

"Azoth," he says in response to Tidus' own introductions. "It is good to meet you all -- off of the battlefield."

Azoth gives Ida a convincingly hopeful smile. He has observed enough of human expression to pull it off well. He knows the right angles to turn his lips and how to scrunch the skin around his eyes so it reads as honest. May it be enough to ease her worries about him so she can focus on her own.

Not that any smile -- or anything at all -- could have softened the blow of the trial laid before them. Light and spheres and mazes build their horrible, exhausting labyrinth. Plummeting into the void. Teleportation -- right back to start. Ah! So that is the consequence of failure!

There is, at first, hesitation. Others take the lead. Would he be, perhaps, robbing them of the beautiful satisfaction of exploring such a puzzle? He is nearly a stranger still. Does he have the right to indulge in the positive feedback of successfully navigating trial and error in their place? He is trying to support and monitor Cecilia's condition besides, although she is no longer in any critical state.

But it becomes clear that there is a point where no positive feedback is possible: instead of joy, there can only be relief.

Azoth speaks up, removing his hand briefly from the rail to raise his hand like a school child. "I think I remember the way, if you would like me to try?" he asks, once they teleport back to the start again after one of their visits to the void.

He doesn't 'think he remembers' -- he knows his recorded memory is accurate. But even if he felt comfortable explaining that, maybe he shouldn't now that the heat of their emotions is rising like this...

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Ida wisely says 'not of this world' to stop Cecilia from saying the word on her lips. She grunts and doesn't protest, nodding grimly.

Cecilia chews HERB gratefully, until after a few moments she's able to shift her weight a little more back toward Ida, letting her reclaim her own feet. Though, she's still leaning on Azoth a fair bit. "Thank you," she says, low. "Ah, my name is Cecilia Adlehyde. I owe you that at least, for helping me."

This would be a more dramatic revelation in other times, perhaps. She looks to Yuna's Guardians. "It sounds like Claude gave you a hand. Well, you have my thanks, too. It seems you both have summoners who like to cause problems on your hands." She chuckles, though she cuts herself off with a wince shortly thereafter. "This whole escapade is starting to feel like some of the things we got up to during the Statue hunt..."

You know, like the time she handed herself over to a despot, or the time she got fake-married. ...Yuna seems to have thought both of those through more than Cecilia did. She's not in good enough shape to feel competitive about that.

Regardless, by the time they get to the Cloister itself, Cecilia is able to stand on her own.

VERY SOON:

Cecilia is slumped against Ida with the expression of a person who would like to go back to the part where she was dying please. "There's not even any bats! How am I supposed to solve problems when I can't make the animals tell me the mysteries of the ancients!"

... "And I can't set light on fire!" she whines, several seconds later, regardless of anyone else's input.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "I am the Seraph, Boudicca," Boudicca offers, as Tidus rounds introductions, because she knows many of the Guardians at arms-length. It's hard to have a conversation with someone in the middle of a pitched battle. It might also be handy to Azoth! Who Boudicca at least introduces in her mind with esteem, because he's helping protect Cecilia, there.

    She does not suspect the secret beeps. She does not have the piercing intuition of Marivel.

    And as they come to teachings and edicts, she says, to Tidus: "'Twas an... illuminating revelation." There's a little hesitation, there, which might echo familiar to Wakka; certainly she glances to him. So, too, does she nod to Lulu, as she offers recognition.

    It is a small mercy that the revelation of how MUCH lies at the heart of Yevon is the illumination of far-off lands. It does not hit Boudicca as personally, the sprawling maze of technology, light made manifest. (A glance to Clarine, here, with sympathy.) The two of them are probably more familiar with becoming incorporeal - but that doesn't make it any more disconcerting to happen to her, rather than by her.

    She at least goes through the trial of placing balls into depressions without complaint. She also has no idea what she is doing. And when they drop STRAIGHT DOWN --

    "Gah! Thy reprobaten miseri! Thine confounden route! FOR WHAT PURPOSE?!" Well, that's... that's probably just an old-fashioned way to express her frustration.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

And so they arrive, at a labyrinth made of light. You would think Clarine would be perfectly in her element here. She, herself is made of light, after all, and she has been known to create solid light. And she is also very good at navigation - she always seems to know where she is and which direction is what, and the layout of places she's been.

But there's something about this place. Maybe it's all messing with her senses. Maybe she's just exhausted after a very long day. Or maybe it's just that Yevonite technology is Weird and outside of her comfort zone. Whatever the case, she doesn't seem in much of a mood to help right now. She shares Boudicca's glance of sympathy.

Tidus does say, however, something important.

"...Yes..." Clarine admits. It was certainly tough. As Boudicca says, the Goddess was essentially their mother. And to see the actions, the pain and suffering she has caused. "I... so desperately wish it were possible to speak with her. To try and convince her to put a stop to all of these horrible things done in her name..."

She goes quiet then, only speaking when Cecilia says she can't set light on fire.

"P-please do not." Clarine agrees.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Ida Everstead-Rey," says the heiress, when Tidus introduces himself. "Call me Ida." And honestly, the introduction is welcome--she doesn't really know Yuna's Guardians as well as she knows Yuna. Boudicca speaks up, and gets as gentle a smile as Ida can manage--it's terribly sad, but given the way the Seraph speaks of her creator, one could hardly blame her.

    "...It does, doesn't it?" Ida says, when Cecilia speaks of the Statues. That was hardly a good time for her, but she still remembers the trials they had to pass. She remains there for the Shaman to rest upon, should the need arise.

    And then--

    "Granas' eyes," Ida breathes, as she looks out at the great holographic expanse. "Not--not even Almaryyt had this kind of--" On any other occasion she'd want to study it, but now, it is an obstacle. Ida takes a breath, seats herself on the hovercraft, and...

    NOT TOO LONG AFTER:

    "What do bats have to do with anyth--left, left!" The hovercraft does not go left. Instead, it lurches to a stop, as if it's hit an invisible barrier, and plummets into the void.

    Ida's breathing is noticeably heavier when they reappear. "You as well?" she says, to Venetia. Azoth speaks up.

    Ida looks at him as though he's the answer to all her prayers. "Did you--did you figure it out?" Please tell her you figured it out.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel frankly doesn't have enough inventory (conveniently) to heal up the whole party but she can help. Did Wakka deserve better? Marivel finds herself nodding in agreement.

She grimaces at the revelation of SOLID LIGHT and ELECTRICITY. That could be unpleasant even for Bat-Mari. She continues to be lazy. The best thing about BAT FORM is that she can just sort of make Tidus do all the work. So long as, well, he doesn't run straight first into solid light or electricity BUT WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT. Electricity is bad for humans too!

"Yes." She says as she hangs out on Tidus's shoulder. "Stop this crazy thing."

She yawns sleepily, having already moved into BAT NAP posturing on Tidus's shoulder. "Wake me up when we're somewhere less ridiculous."

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> Hymn of the Fayth ~ Bahamut - Final Fantasy X OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3SiuFL7JWU

Eventually -- FINALLY -- mostly thanks to Azoth, let's be honest -- the Cloister of Trials ends on more normal, solid ground. Well... ground-ish, since the last pathway, while it may be made of rune-engraved stone, is also hanging in space without any sign of any supports. It is, nevertheless, a huge relative improvement over MOBILE SOLID LIGHT.

But passing through the archway at its end is like waking up from a long dream (or nightmare). Everyone emerges into an ordinary room -- well, not ORDINARY, but one that ISN'T at all hard to imagine at the heart of every Temple in Spira. It is perfectly circular, and lit brightly not by technology but by immense crystals... and by light pouring in from outside, through numerous port-holes and filtered blue by depth; wherever this is, it's underwater. There are runes everywhere possible; on the crimson-gold pillars that support the roof especially. One more massive, intricate Yevonite mandala -- with numerous outer runes surrounding a single, huge interior one -- is engraved in the floor. The circle it inscribes feels like a huge area rug, though it is inlaid in metals and stones. It's almost cozy in here.

But it isn't cozy. It's something else. Something that stirs nape-of-the-neck-hairs even before the singing penetrates everyone's awareness. It does not, cannot 'start' per se. Because it never ends.

                                 "Ieyui..."

The Hymn of the Fayth is treasured by all of Spira's people. It transcends both race and religion as surely as this chamber transcends the hypocrisy that surrounds it.

                               "...Nobomeno."

There is no visible singer; there are no speakers. But the voice is intimately close.

                                "Renmiri..."

After Macalania Temple exploded, all were able to hear the Hymn as sung by its glacial Fayth -- an adult woman's gorgeous soprano, ringing true within the frozen lake beneath. But this rendition, while also a soprano, could not be more different otherwise.

                                "Yojuyogo."

It possesses a golden quality that can only be explained by childhood. The sort of pure and perfect young boy's voice that an unsavory opera master might recommend castration in order to preserve from the ravages of hormones, of growth, of time.

                              "Hasatekanae..."

It is -- he is -- beautiful.

Innocent.

And this place -- his place -- is sacred.

Holy.

                               "...Kutamae."

It is a profound experience simply to enter here, in a way that few places are or can be.

There is another door opposite the entry, a door that a final carpet -- blue, not red -- leads up to, for the last few feet before it -- and it is very much shut. It is massive stone, practically a pillar itself, and as intricately carved. It obviously slid down from a slot within the threshhold -- for the old stone walls are very thick -- to seal the path forward. The doorframe drips with ornamentation. Tassels. Bells. Great, carved embellishments. None of these succeed at disguising its age. It makes even the technology of the route feel young.

Even having come this far is unimaginable taboo; the only non-Guardian ever to do so was a towhead Otherworlder who didn't know any better.

For in reality, this marvelous room is just the ANTEchamber of the Fayth.

Only Yuna, and the summoners who came before her, have ever seen what lies beyond, at the true heart of the Temple -- the true heart of Spira.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"A reasonable question to an outsider," Lulu answers Venetia. "But, the journey prepares the Summoner's body and mind to perform the Final Summoning. At each of the Temples, the Summoner prays for a way to defeat Sin; this prayer is... involved, and can be taxing on both body and mind, to explain it in more understandable terms. Without this preparation--practice, to a point, qualification--the Summoner will not be worthy to receive the Final Aeon, and will not be able to face Sin."

"...In addition, the journey across Mt. Gagazet towards the holy city Zanarkand is very dangerous. Many Summoners and Guardians have fallen even trying to reach Zanarkand." For some reason her mouth tightens when she says this. ...Some reason. She doesn't explain that further.

Lulu continues to explain, however, once they are on their way, and past the worst of the Trials. She says much before they enter the room, cautioning those present... And then they enter the next chamber.

"The Hymn of the Fayth," Lulu explains. "...the Fayth's voice. We are now deep within the Temple; beyond is the Chamber of the Fayth, where only Summoners go. Yuna is probably in there now."

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
"Marivel!" Rikku complains, as if she was going to implore her to help between Boudicca's chanting in some olde dialect, Cecilia threatening to set the mechanical lights on fire(And possibly Clarine), and Venetia threatens to shoot it. But then Azoth offers. "Oh thank you thank you thank you! Go for it!"
 
And then he does. And Rikku cheers, as she pats him on the back, "You really did it! Thanks - you're a lifesaver! Azoth right? Nice to meet you!" Sure Tidus introduced them before but she was too wrapped up in moving forward to get into the idea of introductions. Now though, he facilitated their forward movement, so she feels obligated!
 
As a result she misses completely anything peculiar about his movements.
 
Passing through the archway though, she cranes her neck as if listening to something in the distance. And... "Oh."
 
This isn't Rikku's first time coming so far in a Temple. Or even her second. It is her third. An experience that perhaps few - or no Al Bhed have managed. Maybe she's the first as Yuna's Guardian. The fact is though, that as much as her people may have tensions with Yevon...
 
... they respect the Fayth...
 
...they respect the Summoner...
 
Hearing this song is spiritual for her in ways that most things often aren't.
 
For the first time hearing it, she has to hold back tears and try her hardest not to sniffle. Because the last time she heard it, it was being sung on the bridge of an airship...
 
... as her Home was destroyed.
 
And so as Lulu explains... she is... distant... It occurs to her that Yuna is there, but even she isn't thinking of actually going any further than this. This is as far as she is to go as a Guardian.
 

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Despite the extremely trying nature of this... well, trial, Ida is paying attention to Lulu and Venetia's discussion. "I see," she says. "A strengthening of spirit, then. I'm familiar with the concept. In fact..." The heiress' attention is fixed on Lulu, now. "Do you remember the structure beneath Macalania? Not the Yevonite temple, the one beneath the lake itself. It's one of at least four, though I admit I was not expecting to find it in Spira, of all places. I had a map."

    Those temples were designed centuries ago to test the Shepherd... a title honored elsewhere on this world, as 'Summoner' is honored here."

    Azoth carries. Azoth carries hard, and Ida is grateful for it. She's still recovering from many things.

    "You did well," she says, giving the young man a pat on the back. And then, they're through.

    Ida and organized religion are not on speaking terms anymore. But what lies beyond that door feels like it should be here, to her; she recognizes the words of the Hymn from scenes of great loss, and falls silent. She inclines her head in respect.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Introductions are had! It's good to have introductions. It's weird to think that, for many of those present, Yuna is more or less their sole tie. Still, any friend of Yuna's is a good person in Tidus's book. He gives all the new and semi-new people warm smiles. "Great to have you guys along!"
    
    Ridiculous dungeon things happen. "YOU COULD HELP, YOU KNOW!" he yelps at Marivel. Marivel presumably continues to nap on his shoulder.
    
    Fortunately, thanks to Azoth in large part, they get through to solid ground. Tidus leans over, hands on his knees. This might make Marivel's perch a little tenuous, but he stands up straight soon enough. "Okay. I'm okay. I'm *okay*," he says blearily. Then he focuses on the way forward. "Let's go."
    
    Before long, they're in a chamber that is, based on the windows to the outside, underwater. That's a far cry better than hovering in the void as far as Tidus is concerned; he can hold his breath so long it's like he never needs to come up for air, so underwater places feel good to him.
    
    There's another thing here that bolsters his spirits: the Hymn of the Fayth. The vocals are a little different at every temple, though he doesn't quite understand why. This time around... it's weird. But it feels like the vocalist is... familiar. He slows his pace to take the sights and the sounds in better, looking up in wonder all over again. *This* is more like the Spira he's come to know.
    
    Lulu once again explains. Rikku hangs back; so do the other guardians, all of them natives of Spira. Tidus, though, hesitates only long enough to gaze up at the door to the Chamber of the Fayth.
    
    It felt like it'd been ages since I first charged into the Cloister of the Fayth, saying, 'But what if the Summoner dies?' and 'Like I care!' to anyone who tried to stop me. Back then, I didn't know anything. This time, now that I knew everything... it felt like it was only natural that I ended up making the same choice.
    
    Then he pushes into the Chamber, into the place beyond where Yuna prays to the fayth. If anyone wants to follow him in, well, he sure isn't stopping them.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca smiles in turn to Ida, but it's a small thing, fragile and bird-boned.

    Maybe that explains why she is SO UPSET at this trial. And so --

    "You have saved us all," Boudicca sighs in abject relief, as Azoth leads them to safety. There's real, raw frustration behind that succour, and that makes her all the more grateful for its ending.

    Althena's edicts banned music; but music is the bone of Spira, right down the spine of its flesh. Here again Boudicca hears the Hymn of the Fayth, and quiets to hear it. But, this voice...

    "... a child," Boudicca murmurs, quietly.

    Lulu said the prayer is taxing - she can see the door sealed. There is a prickling spiritual sensation to this place, and Boudicca, a spirit, can tell when she is intruding. She glances to Marivel. Perhaps she understands the art of trespass, too, even if their geneses are so different. To cross this threshold...

    "I do not feel we have been invited," remarks Boudicca, with a vague air of discomfort. "Is this..."

    Tidus forces his way through. "-- ah!" Boudicca gasps, as she watches him go, and she at least hesitates for a moment to follow.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

They arrive to a certain chamber. There's something magical about it - both in the figurative and the literal sense. This is a holy place. She can feel it through her very being. She finds herself subconsciously drawn out of her light ball form and back to her usual self, observing everything in awe.

Clarine says nothing. What is there to say? This place feels ancient. Is it older than even she is? If Yuna was within, should they wait for her out here...?

In the end, Tidus is the one to make the choice. He moves to enter the chamber, and Boudicca follows... and so, Clarine moves to follow as well.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Each introduction is taken in and remembered, including Boudicca and her curious frame. But Azoth looks abruptly to Cecilia. "You can speak to bats?! And they know secrets of the ancients?" He pauses, looks to Marivel, and then back to Cecilia.

...

He assumes she means different bats.

But he returns his focus to the matter at hand: a nightmare labyrinth made of light that only a super computer in the shape of a person could possibly find any sense in. Again, Azoth decides not to sing the beeps of joy that go with his task.

Instead, he does a little tappy dance once they step off the platform and thrusts a hand in the air. "Ba da da buuu~m." It is not a true beep of his metaphorical mechanical heart, but it will have to do. Azoth looks back at Rikku and the others with a bright smile spread across his face, eyes glimmering with joy.

As always, Azoth's expressions are quick and easy to shift. There's still exhaustion. Frustration. And the ever-present gloom of hypocrisy and betrayal from a way of life you gave yourself to. He goes somber as he continues to help Cecilia -- and Ida -- in whatever support she needs to carry on if the herb wasn't enough (or if the trial as too much). But his gaze wanders over the wonders of their new chamber, and he silently mouths the words he thinks he hears from the song with a tilt of his head.

Azoth has little concept of the weight blasphemy carries. He isn't sure he knows what it means to have faith. Maybe that's for the best. It may be blasphemous for someone like him to be standing here at all.

Tidus moves forward, and Azoth looks expectantly to Lulu.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"Well," Venetia answers Cecilia about the bats, "we do have one."

MARIVEL. (She nods once at Azoth.)

She nods at Lulu, too, and reaches up to slightly adjust the ribbon tie on her mask during the period of transport. She gives Azoth a second, lingering glance as he displays a level of competence and memorization that Venetia (silently) is not sure she could match on her best, non-war-song days.

The song puts her back up, just a little. Something about it. There is the presence of mystery here. Part of Venetia wants to peel it back.

But that is not why she is here. Now is it?

"Once she's finished, we'll just have to find our way back out of here, eh? We must be rather deep, but there's probably an... air vent or something, if it comes to that."

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"It seems that people, Otherworld or not, remain people wherever you are." This is her answer to Ida; in othr circumstances she might appreciate the lore more, might be curious about it, and perhaps later her curiousity will wax. ...For the moment she is... tense. Not in the mood to ask followup questions.

Tidus, naturally, pushes on forward. Lulu watches him go, and while it is utter taboo for him to do it... It somehow doesn't surprise her, that he does. Others start going forward; Azoth looks to her. Lulu... sighs, after a moment.

"Just don't touch anything," she cautions the group, as she looks at the other Guardians and steps forward, towards the Chamber after Tidus.

One more transgression...

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel already knows what the heart of Spira is. She's known it since Lulu shared the simple truth of what a 'fayth' was. Necromancy. Death. The smell of it is so thick on Spira, that Marivel frequently feels like she's at home.

'YOU COULD HELP YOU KNOW!'

That startles Marivel, who is used to nobody actually ever calling her out on her laziness when it came to extrenuous busy work and she ends up tumbling off of Tidus's back and tumbling ALMOST to the floor before she rapidly flaps up h er wings and f loats back over to Tidus. "Wagghh I'm tired though...!"

she pauses though to add, "But to be honest, you're the first person who ever complained..."

She preens a wing. "I'm actually pretty impressed."

This will be the first time (as far as anyone knows) that Marivel actually found herself in a fayth's chamber.

"I hope the fayth doesn't eat me." She says idly to Tidus.

She looks to Rikku who ALSO called her out. "Wow..." She says. "...These Guardians...are incredible."

She uh, still isn't going to help with a ll that nonsense though. Plus it's too late! It's next scene r ound. Timee to go into t he Chamber. Yeah!

"I'm a Crimson Noble not a bat." she says. "But I guess I am pretty bat like."%r
She looks to Lulu. "You know you say 'don't touch' but what if I have a spiritual experience...?"

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Cecilia manages to stop herself from being too dramatic once Azoth saves the day. She likes this guy. He reminds her of someone. ...where did Rudy get off to...

"Oh. I have a magic wand that talks to animals," she explains to Azoth, finally, producing the little star-tipped staff and whisking it about. "They have to know how to get around, right? Pretty useful. When they're here!" she shouts back at the Hell Labyrinth.

And then: The Cloister. Does Cecilia feel it deeper than the others, with her open, permanent channel to the Guardians? Or perhaps it's simply the fact that deep down she is a person of faith that has her brought to a standstill by the waves of that hymn washing over her. She shuts her eyes and breathes, deeply. She shivers, faintly, chills racing across her skin.

"It's near," she guesses, and is soon confirmed. This isn't one of her own holy places, but the atmosphere...yes, she can feel that much.

She looks like she's about to just sit down and wait, maybe heal herself more, when Tidus just marches in. She blinks. She looks to Ida, then Venetia, then Azoth, then Lulu gives them a sort of de facto permission, and she shrugs, accepting the turn and following. Perhaps this place will help the Guardians reach her. The connection hasn't been quite the same ever since Mother broke free.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca remains deeply unnerved by just being here, but - Lulu instructs them only not to touch anything, and Clarine moves in after Tidus...

    There's a sick little feeling somewhere in her mana resevoir as she thinks of the last time she went along with something because other Seraphim did, but then she thinks of Yuna, and her concern overrides her grief.

    In she goes. ... she floats, a few inches over the ground, so she truly isn't touching anything.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Azoth's joy earns a weary but sincere smile from Ida. She's recovered enough to stand on her own, and so has Cecilia, apparently.

    Tidus rushes in. Ida's eyes widen, and she, too, glances back at Lulu, wordlessly asking permission.

    Yuna's in there, and God, Ida wants to see her again, if only to know she's alive and fighting. She motions for Azoth to follow as she steps through the door.

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> Hymn of the Fayth ~ Bahamut (con't) - Final Fantasy X OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3SiuFL7JWU

The door is HEAVY, but Tidus' efforts to defy Yevon and enter are supported by a maybe-surprising, maybe-not ally: Kimahri, whose biceps bulge as he deadlifts the door, then keeps it open for everyone who wants to follow. It is a silent blessing to all involved, but a blessing all the same.

There is one final barrier beyond the door: an inexplicable pair of ferns, growing impossibly out of the gray stone walls of a short hallway only barely wider than the threshhold itself. This is only the latest of many impossible things but it is a particularly precious one; the way they fan delicately into the path from either side, their petal-like leaves translucent and so, so tender with the softness possessed only by living things... a worthwhile miracle.

They are as pink as a perfect sunrise.

They part as easily as curtains to admit visitors.

There is not much space to spread out beyond, not least because the vast majority of the floor is occupied save for a ring around the edge (more on that in a minute), but there's a little bit more breathing room than the hallway. It is round again, but this time, not just as seen from above. The walls themselves, which rise into a dome. It is somewhat like being inside the top half of an egg. There are no sharp edges here, only the continuity of curves.

The walls are the same plain, simple gray stone as the antechamber, and striped vertically with ever more runic Yevonite geometries. But nobody here will be interested in any of that.

That's because the eye is drawn rather more forcefully to three other things:

First -- the floor. It has the same mandala as the room outside, but the huge central rune-circle has been replaced with, capped by, a shallow dome of glass -- glass that is lit from beneath by a vivid golden glow. It is not like sunlight. It is not like anything of this world, or any other world where living beings walk beneath the sun. It is from... somewhere else.

From beyond.

Its intensity pulses occasionally, brightening and dimming, very much not like a heartbeat.

The radiance is emanating from a statue contained beneath the glass. The statue is horizontal, not carved INTO a stone tablet but the other way around; it rises out of it. It is difficult to make out the finer details BECAUSE of all that light, but here are a few:

* One massive steel dragonwing, with intricate, complex layers of featherlike blades, ending in a claw at the top of its crescent.

* Sculpted flesh; a very human back, big, strong, heavily muscled. Dwarfed by the wing which emerges from him. And by the tail at the base of his spine. And by the claws that sprout from his single visible hand. The back of his head is not flesh at all, but bluesteel scaled.

* A golden gear centered around him, as evocative of the sun with its curling spokes as the light itself is not.

Note also that the floor is, yet again, not the ground; it does not quite reach the walls, which means it is a platform of some kind. The gap is not wide enough to see clearly through relative to the floor's thickness, and there is little risk of falling in. Whatever lies beneath the platform is also glowing, but a cool silver instead of the statue's warm gold.

These are the ONLY light sources in here, there are no torches or crystals, let alone bulbs, which gives everything an extra-spooky feel.

This is both appropriate, and not a coincidence.

Because second is -- the ghost.

There is a translucent little boy hovering over the glowing golden glass. If it wasn't for the glow, he might be entirely invisible in his very near-transparency, but it helps set him off against the gloom of the walls around him. He has dark skin, and his face is shrouded in the shadow created by his violet cowl. He's a skinny slip of a shade, with pants raggedly cut off below the knee, almost as many belts as Lulu (but crimson, indigo, and gold, instead of black, black, and black), and the purple vest, worn open, which the hood comes out from.

His lips aren't moving, but it does not take a super-genius to imagine that he is the source of the Hymn, which continues, unabated in its purity. And his eyes aren't visible at all, but it is extremely clear that, whatever he is really, all of his being is intently concentrating upon all of her, and vice versa.

Third is Yuna herself -- she is here, as her Guardians predicted.

The wedding dress didn't suit her before, but it does now; after her journey, its feathers are honor, not insult. The broad white train that's spread out behind her is like a shimmering lake that she rises out of, as she is prostrated upon her bare knees, before the glass, below the ghost.

Her back is to the door, naturally. The bouquet at the base of her spine -- a precious thing, as it hid her rod during the wedding -- seems to have survived the trip intact, which speaks well as to her own wholeness, as it is surely more fragile than she.

She is praying. With her elbows out to either side of her, one imagines that she is shaping the invisible blitzball -- uh, sphere -- of the Yevonite religion, or, if you prefer to generalize, of the summoner's tradition, in front of her chest. But noticing her arms, and her occasional, silent bowing at the waist, or even Lulu's earlier explanation of what summoners do in here, isn't at all necessary to understand that she is praying.

It's in the very air, which trembles with... 'power' is inadequate, inaccurate, facile, though there is a truly vast latency in abeyance, all around, everywhere, so the word is not IRRELEVANT. 'Intensity', 'Attunement', these are both much closer. 'Vulnerability' closer still. Yuna is certainly terribly vulnerable, in this moment -- she has opened herself, mind, body and spirit, in a way that obviously requires a certain peculiar kind of courage, a singular selflessness, a willingness to be hurt, and the trust that she won't be. No one gave her away at the wedding, but she's giving herself away now. All of herself. To Spira in general... and to this ghost in particular.

A reluctance to disturb the two of them would have nothing to do with cultural taboo. Yuna and the ghost... are deeply entranced by, with, one another. With every passing second, the sense of whatever passes between them weighs ever more heavily upon the air.

Right now she is as much a part of this place as the statue, as the light.

And together, they are the source of the feeling of something sacred, something beautiful, something terrible, something profound. The something that could be felt even on the other side of the door. The something that permeates every stone of this place.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"I think you are a spiritual experience," Lulu counters Marivel before she steps inside, nodding to Kimahri.

Lulu was never meant to see what was in this chamber. She had peace with that, before. She knows that she lacks the aptitude to be a Summoner herself, could never stand in Yuna's place on this journey or any other. ...Would she have the strength, even if she did? Lulu suspects she knows the answer.

Lulu steps in and she is silent, reverent still despite all the betrayals of the last while. This is before she sees more than stone, before she sees the glow... or sees the boy, there.

Lulu knows, in an instant, that which she sees. Who she sees. She does not turn away from this knowledge now, or show shock; she simply watches, and wonders.

This boy, the Fayth... It could mean many things.

Lulu for one is silent, shakes her head when anyone looks to her for an unspoken permission to speak at least, though not all will wait for it. She would not interrupt Yuna, in this place.

But Lulu's heart aches at what she senses.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    "The first person EVER?" Tidus utters, boggling at Marivel. "How is that even possible??" After all, Rikku's immediately backing him up here! ...But then, Tidus and Rikku have a lot in common in a lot of ways. It's no wonder they're best friends. "Pretty sure the fayth don't eat people," Tidus says--then pauses and adds, "But I could be wrong."
    
    Inside he enters, with the help of Kimahri. Tidus gives him a nod of gratitude. Auron and Wakka meanwhile stay outside--one to keep guard just in case, the other (presumably) due to the last lingering effects of 'BUT THE TEACHINGS!!'. It's not a far way in. He passes the pink ferns, looking at them momentarily, then stops a short but respectful distance away from Yuna. There's plenty to take in--the light, the floor-that's-not-ground, the carvings, the fayth... and--
    
    "You!" he utters, blinking, startled, at the ghost of the young boy in a purple hoodie. "What're *you* doing here?"
    
    Given context, though, it doesn't take him long to realize just what the strange child who's haunted his dreams and waking life alike is. The question, then, becomes: "Why?"
    
    He doesn't focus on him long, though. Not when it's clear the ghost isn't going to actually give him an answer; not when Yuna is there before the ghost, kneeling in prayer. While Tidus might have been perfectly willing to barge into the Chamber, now that he's actually here, he hesitates to actually bother Yuna. It would be like butting into someone's private conversation. It just feels... wrong.
    
    He's not about to leave, though. Tidus simply falls silent and watches the woman he loves.


<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Not long before the antechamber, "Huh?" Rikku blinks her eyes at Marivel in disbelief, "ARMS really just lets you laze about whenever you want?" And she shares a look with Tidus in that disbelief at the comment of Fayth not eating people. "I wouldn't think?" She may be looking at Wakka and Lulu to confirm though because even though she at least knows Yevon's teachings, perhaps they know of the punishment for breaking the taboo.
 
Right now though... Tidus pushing forward only causes her eyes to go wide. "H-Hey wait up!" Despite the fact that she wouldn't normally think to push forward... she's be the last person to be stopped by taboo. Especially with Yuna inside.
 
Despite Rikku following behind, she doesn't help lift the door. She knows her strengths - and actual heavy lifting isn't it in this crowd. So instead she nervously bounces on her feet behind them.
 
And when the stone door stays in place, she follows them in past the parting pink ferns.
 
And then the sight of the chamber stops her, because she's fairly certain she's seeing something she is seeing something that only Summoners ever have.
 
From the statue of the Fayth... to the Fayth himself. The boy himself is singing, and he's not singing. A paradox that makes perfect sense to Rikku. She doesn't have to be scientific minded about a soul in a statue. It's magic. And it's magic that has given Spira the means to find a reprieve, time and time again through sacrifice.
 
"Yuna..." Rikku whispers, awed. Her nickname feeling inadequate for Yuna in this moment, in the midst of that prayer.
 
And she feels just such relief seeing her here, rather than in so many other states that she could imagine her to be in.
 
But also pride.
 
She's so proud of Yuna. She's proud to be her Cousin. No matter how much she desires her not to finish her pilgrimage... that fact will never not be true.
 
And then her expression gets taken aback by Tidus' comment. And instead just looks at him with a sense of mild confusion.
 


<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca exchanges a grateful look to Kimahri as he assists with the lifting, though she does not speak to him as she passes the threshold. It is not so much that he has removed the physical obstacle; her gratitude, in particular, must have a different root.

    Kimahri is Spiran, after all.

    She intrudes and still does not speak, as she finds herself in a place of perfect contemplation of rounded edges. Ephremal floats the boy - the singer - and she does wonder, for a moment. What she wonders is illustrated only by the questioning glance she shoots to her elder Seraph; there is so much of their people she does not know.

    But these are questions she does not air to the world.

    She does not wish to interrupt Yuna, who prays so adroitly, with such total focus. She cannot stop Yuna from her own path of salvation, even if it is so bitterly unfair. To hold that salvation cradled in her hands, no matter the cost it extracts...

    It takes strong arms to hold that weight up, Boudicca thinks, just as it takes strong arms to lift stone.

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
The ferns catch Venetia's attention for an enchanting moment. What comes past that is more portentious. The entire place has the ambience of a temple or some sort of holy grotto: her voice comes out in a hush as she answers Marivel softly, "Even so," but there is not space to snap over much.

"Complaints can be a curse... but sometimes they're the first step on..."

Venetia trails off as Tidus addresses the cryptic, spiritual figure before them.

Venetia's eyes cut towards the Spirans with a clear expression on her face to the effect of 'is he supposed to do that?'

She lingers back, then, a few steps. She turns, watching what happens in this cloistered space, but periodically glancing the other way.

This is a terminus. An axis, perhaps, or a point closest to -- something. That means: If they DO have someone coming...

Maybe I'm just displacing anxiety, Venetia thinks.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

As Clarine moves toward the door, she overhears something.

"...Ah, well..." Clarine stammers. ...It's true, Clarine often does. At least for her, Rikku is right on the money.

Tidus and Kimahri push open the door, then. ...Clarine would volunteer to help, but her arms are tiny and unfit for that kind of activity. But the two of them are enough, and so the group enters. The room beyond is impressive indeed - and so is Yuna herself, as she prays.

Clarine watches quietly. There is a lot going on here. But she says nothing, not wishing to interrupt or interfere in what's going on here.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

As Clarine moves toward the door, she overhears something.

"...Ah, well..." Clarine stammers. ...It's true, Clarine often does let Marivel laze about. At least for her, Rikku is right on the money.

Tidus and Kimahri push open the door, then. ...Clarine would volunteer to help, but her arms are tiny and unfit for that kind of activity. But the two of them are enough, and so the group enters. The room beyond is impressive indeed - and so is Yuna herself, as she prays.

Clarine watches quietly. There is a lot going on here. But she says nothing, not wishing to interrupt or interfere in what's going on here.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Though she entered this place to see Yuna, that reverence remains in Ida's body language as she slips past Kimahri. She keeps her head bowed, and moves slowly, deliberately, despite her healing wounds. Her mouth opens slightly as the ferns part to allow them entrance. Her sandaled feet pad across the floor. She stops within the chamber proper, and stares.

    Yuna catches her eye immediately. She is whole and safe and doing what she was trained to do--and there's no mistaking te fact that she is as an open book. The next thing to catch Ida's eye is the spirit, and her heart aches at the sight of him. Just a boy, and here he is, having bound himself to this place in the hopes that Spira might one day be free. Tidus says he knows him, and Ida glances back and forth between the two--before she realizes she should display reverence, too.

    It would feel dishonest to shape the wheel of Yevon. Instead, Ida clasps her hands, and bows deeply at the waist.

    In bowing, Ida gets a look at what's hidden beneath that great, glowing dome. It reminds her of home.

    Guild Galad was built on the bones of Dragons, and while they may serve as the raw material for industry, the relationship isn't one of total irreverence. Dragons are symbols of power, ancient authority, and great wealth--the style is different, but the subject matter would be right at home in Ida's home.

    Wonder and awe and reverence and homesickness war in Ida's heart, even as someone else stirs in the back of her mind, looking on in confusion at the sight before him.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Azoth follows the others into the chamber with a salute to Kimahri. The instructions were not to touch anything, and he does not even recalibrate his sensors for the ghost and strangeness before him, because what if that touches and disturbs the energy and atmosphere?

Prayer is still foreign to Azoth. If it had been explained to him beforehand, he would not have been able to grasp its purpose, especially paired with a church such as this one. But seeing Yuna sparks the beginning of understanding -- and part of that is understanding he will never truly understand the depth of it.

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Cecilia steps herself off to the side, taking in the tableau. Yes. Yes, this feels familiar, in its way. She didn't get to beg the powers of the Guardians at many statues - so many of them were under assault at the time. But the few times she did, she felt something similar to what she feels here. Connection, pure and bright.

She quietly fidgets through her Crest case when she's picked her spot, fishing out the first of her Mediums. Not her dearest, perhaps, but the Aqua Wisp is special in its own way.

She clutches it close to her heart for a long few moments, attuning her heart. Then she looks up because Tidus is yelling at a ghost and that actually still manages to register as weird today.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Eheheh, well, I won't protest that...!" Marivel q uips back to Lulu.

"Oh everybody lets me laze around. Except Venetia and you guys, I think." Marivel says. "I mean I'm old you know. Not a spring chicken like Auron or Boudicca."

She does, however, at this point POUF back into her Crimson Noble form. She does have rings aroundn her eyes all told, more visible in her humanoid form. She looks to Venettia as she says something uncharacteristically 'soft'. She smiles at her but tries to hide it. She's a sweetheart. She isn't going to say that too loudly.

For once, Marivel doesn't rush out to talk to Yuna or comfort Yuna or harass Yuna. Instead, she first looks to the little boy.

"...lulu," She says. "You said the fayth were willing sacrifices... But he looks like a child. Were the sacrifices so young as this, or is this simply the form they choose to carry?"

She approachees, not touching a nything, but she focuses on the ghost.

"...I knew it was necromancy--"

She raises a hand to the ghost--it's necromancy, so lordd knows what kind of dangerous thing someone li ke Marivel couldd do here.

But she stops herself, looking to Lulu, then back to the boy.

"Something feels...familiar."

She quirks her head. "This isn't right."

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Kimahri patiently holds the door for all who wish to go through; then with a slightly relieved flick of his tail, he lets it slide shut behind them. It makes the same low grinding sound that it did on the way up, stone on stone.

Auron has entered last, behind the rest. Instead of going all the way inside, he leans up against the wall of the hallway with one shoulder, awfully casual for a guy who's never been in a place like this before because it was forbidden.

"A fayth," he informs the group, simply but not shortly. Even he, for all his cynicism, speaks softly, even gently, respectful of the hush in the Chamber and breaking it only with care. "They join with the summoner, and together receive the aeon," he elaborates.

Lowering his gaze, he looks past everyone, even the ghost, at the floor-set statue itself. Tidus asks 'why', and Auron interprets this as 'why is it like this'.

"They are human souls, imprisoned in stone by ancient Yevon rites." This is said matter-of-factly; he is neither angry nor judgemental about the existence of the fayth, nor their use. But he does sound tired, which is rare for him, and perhaps the tiniest bit sad, which is even more unusual. "The dead... should be allowed to rest."

'The dead' ignores Tidus, and so does the living. There's no indication at all that either fayth or summoner is aware of the intrusion. They're both much too deeply in trance for that.

How long has Yuna been here praying, before the others arrived -- a few minutes, at most? It's easy to imagine it having been hours. Even days. It WAS over a day the first time, at Besaid Temple. The villagers talked about it for a long time afterwards. That was unusually long, and they were worried about her. It's understandable now, though.

Time has no particular meaning to what's taking place in the Chamber of the Fayth.

Which makes what abruptly happens all the more sudden:

The fayth reorients, from hovering upright to floating horizontally, with the aerial ease of a long-hauler at this life -- unlife. He makes a boyish gesture with one hand, a sort of salute, then thrusts both arms in front of him like Superman and soars straight into Yuna. A puff of little ghost-sparkles, the same violet as his signature vest-hoodie, are created on contact.

She obviously experiences this physically, as well as on whatever other mental, emotional or spiritual planes are involved, because her whole body seizes, her back arching, her head thrown back, her eyes open but sightless. It is violent and alarming to witness; one can only imagine what it's like to experience.

The fayth does not emerge out the other side, nor is his figure seen superimposed over hers; he simply vanishes INTO her. And he does not reappear.

'They join with the summoner' indeed; the two souls have entirely become one. The rising pressure in the room abates all at once, like a rubber band snapping back, or perhaps more accurately two dischordant frequencies coming perfectly into tune with each other.

The Hymn never stops.

And Yuna never recovers; after a couple of agonizing seconds, the enormous tension wracking her body is cut like a string, and she topples forward and onto her side, unconscious. Good thing she was already kneeling; it's a short drop, and her head lands on the glass dome with no more than a soft 'thump.'

How much time has she spent like that, alone, in previous Chambers of the Fayth, until she recovered enough to emerge?

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Since Rikku does not in fact ask Tidus where he knows that ghost boy from, and no one else actually directly addresses Tidus on his strange familiarity with the fayth, Tidus keeps on watching Yuna pray to it--to him. He wouldn't really have a good answer, anyway. It's just as well.
    
    He does give Marivel a glance when she hops off his shoulder and poofs into her humanoid form. She asks about the sacrifice of the fayth and how they were supposedly willing, but then why is this one so young? And that's a good question that Tidus also doesn't know the answer to. He looks back slowly, wondering again the question: 'Why?'
    
    It's Auron who answers, though it's not the 'why' Tidus meant. He looks over at the Legendary Guardian, blinking twice to see and hear him--*different* from usual. Tired. Sad. Like an old man. Tidus has always seen Auron as an old man, but now he actually really feels *old*.
    
    He wonders how Auron felt when he stood back and watched Yuna's father--watched Braska--die. He decides that's a question better left for another, more private time.
    
    Tidus looks back in time to see the boy-fayth zoom into Yuna in a cloud of purple sparklies. It's kind of funny, except then Yuna collapses. "Yuna!!" Tidus calls sharply, already in motion. It's not in time to keep her from hitting the ground entirely, but he does kneel down to pick her up with gentle care. For a moment, he simply gazes at the young woman in his arms. Then he focuses and looks around at the others. "Yuna's finished what she came here for. Let's get her out of here!"

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"I don't know," Lulu admits to Marivel. "The personal details of the Fayth are a mystery. Only the Summoners see them. I would be purely guessing with any answer... and to do so here would feel disrespectful, at best." Pause. "To the Fayth."

She can understand the concern there that Marivel displays, but she is glad that the Crimson Noble chooses as she seems to.

Lulu is proud, too, and wonders--was it like this every time? The first time took so long. It comes to her like it was yesterday... But it wasn't yesterday. It was so very, very, very long ago now, longer than the time it took.

Auron's explanation is not materially different from her own, but the emphases are different. ...It's blunter, for one.

But she finds herself looking at Auron as he speaks of the dead, and perhaps she thinks of someone else.

"Ah..."

Yuna has fallen. Lulu looks to her--but before she can say or do much of anything, Tidus is there. ...He does what, admittedly, she wanted to do, and Lulu calls it good despite the taboo. "Yes. Let's get going."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The Fayth's body language changes. For a moment, Ida remembers Asura, and how he grew lucid enough to freely accept her Purification in his final moments. She remembers how much it took out of her. What's going to happen now--

    Ida takes a half-step towards Yuna as she straight-up collapses, but Tidus already has her covered. "Agreed," she says, as she turns to leave.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Auron's explanation is something she already knew about the Fayth. Though she finds herself looking at him with a sense of peculiarity. Because...
 
... she could would have sworn that the Legendary Guardian sounded so very sad in that moment.
 
Her eyes trail back to Marivel. And Rikku may be mouthing 'what?' as if perhaps wondering if Marivel had figured something out. Something about the connection between Spira and Gaia...
 
... but the moment Lulu says it would feel disrespectful, she doesn't ask that either.
 
Yet she doesn't actually ask that aloud in this moment because in that moment the flicker of movement shows her the violet sparkling essence flies into Yuna...
 
... and Yuna collapses...
 
"-Yunie!" The nickname returning in her distress, as she moves forward...
 
... but only so far. Tidus has her. And Rikku knows at least by now as a Guardian that this ritual takes a lot out of Yuna. So while it's been a hard day, it's not something that alarms her too much when she stops reacting and starts actually thinking it through.
 
"Alright." And as she's heading through the door, past the threshold where it would no longer feel disrespectful to her at least, she says quickly, "Time to skip town!"
 
They've come so far so she has a VERY good feeling about what happens next.
 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Marivel points out something Clarine hadn't noticed. The ghost, or rather, the fayth - he looks young. A slight, uncertain frown crosses over Clarine's face. She is not entirely certain she know what to make of this.

But then, as she's trying to get her thoughts together, something alarming happens. The fayth joins with Yuna and she collapses. Clarine gasps, but thankfully, someone is already there to catch her. Clarine breathes a sigh of relief - a practiced gesture, more than out of any need to actually breathe.

"Yes... let us leave this place while we still can..." She agrees with a nod.

<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Explanations and reactions from those around him rapidly stitch together data Azoth's gathered since coming to Spira. It clicks hauntingly into place: Yevon and its teachings, hymns and fayth, souls and imprisonment, summoners and sacrifices. So many sacrifices, all to battle a Sin for a temporary peace.

"We cannot free them?" Azoth asks, with a sort of sincerity that comes with naivity. But it's a moot question -- the hooded ghost boy flies into Yuna and is gone.

Yuna falls. Azoth flinches, but Tidus is there for her. Their objective is that much closer to completion now. He had concluded its failure prematurely before. An error -- one he'll remember for future calculations.

"I know the way back through the maze," he says. "It should go faster this time."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Willing sacrifices, trapped in stone.

    "They take what is gifted to mortality alone." Boudicca's words are quiet; there is something stony about them, too. "They give their ending."

    She closes her eyes. The sharp-eyed amongst them might notice that her chest has not risen and fallen since they entered here; certainly it is difficult to see her breathing, beneath her breastplate, but there are always little signs. The rise and fall of the shoulders, the little shifting of weight... there's nothing there.

    Not until the Fayth accepts Yuna - crashes into her.

    Around her it is as if she steals the air into herself for a moment as she gasps, sharply; of course she releases it, because they need that air. "Yuna!" She speaks, now, sharply and with a shade and shard of pain, in that instinctual moment before she processes the difference.

    Her lips thin, as she looks aside. When she looks back, Yuna is still fallen. How long does she lie there? Boudicca wonders. Who is there to carry her?

    ... well, she has her Guardians.

    "Let us go," she agrees, and Tidus may find at his heels a weak sort of pep, a little breeze to help him move swiftly despite the precious weight he carries.

    It is one of life's little tragedies that he cannot know her well enough to recognise how feeble the magic is.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

It was harder to resist than Marivel will ever let anyone know. She doesn't know what she could do with those souls. Maybe everything. Maybe nothing. Maybe Lulu calling her a spiritual experience stopped her from doing something she'd regret. Maybe it was Yuna's presence.Maybe that's what Marivel would allow people to think.

But what actually stopped h er was this.

AURON: The dead... should be allowed to rest.

Marivel doesn't say anything to Auron. His secrets aren't hers to share. None of these people have secrets that are hers to share. Not even Tidus's. Her lips remain firmly shut.

To Marivel's eyes, Yuna has consumed the souls. No, borrowed them. Not unlike a Skill Drain, really, but greater in the potency that she generally dares to draw into herself.

More like the Hound of Hell dwelling within her.

"At duty's end," Marivel tells Jack. And maybe Auron, though she's not looking at him. "You will be able to rest."

She nods once to Tidus. "Took the words out of my mouth. Though I don't suspect they'll make it as 'easy' as it was to get here. Teleport Magic isn't working in here. Probably due to all the necromantic energy."

She turns to leave.

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Cecilia actually thinks to look, now. Her connection to the Guardians has been more sacred than many, perhaps; she didn't even think to assemble the pieces.

Sacrifices, encased forever... Her eyes tip down, fingers curling around the Medium. If the Guardians asked it of her....would she.....

Yuna seizing at the moment of union looks altogether more painful than anything she's gone through, though, and it makes her teeth grind. It's been a fundamental thing in her experiences of Spira; beauty and ugliness intertwined so deeply that she has trouble, sometimes, being sure what is and isn't to be decried. Tidus handles rushing to Yuna.

Several others murmur with horror at all this, but she finds herself quietly tucking Aqua Wisp away. "As Tidus says," she affirms. "We should get moving."

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Fun fact: the summoner doesn't have to be conscious, when approaching the door to the Chamber of the Fayth, for it to automatically open to allow her to emerge. (Even if she were conscious, its opening makes sense in retrospect. It's not like Yuna's buff like Kimahri. How else could she possibly get out?)

"No!" cries Kimahri through some kind of muffling, but it's too late, he can't stop it. He can't stop it because he isn't in front of the door anymore. He's got at least six warrior-monks holding him flat against the ground, gun barrels thrust into like, all his chakras.

What happens next is thoroughly unfair.

There are more gun barrels thrust into everyone's faces, a firing squad's worth and then some. It happens FAST, it helps that it was a surprise, it helps that everyone just lost another fight and is only a little revived from it, it helps that it was very gloomy in the Chamber of the Fayth and is very bright out there, it helps that there's only one exit and it's packed with the opposition, and also courtesy of the Guado they could have some nice strong sleeping darts and peg as many Drifters as they can AS THEY COME OUT... it's all very well planned, very smooth, very effective. They have other, stranger, worse tools at their disposal, as well. Plus, not only do they have numbers on their side but also NAMED CHARACTERS OF THEIR OWN.

Like that jerk Maester Kinoc. You know, the guy who basically set up the Crusaders, Althena's Guard, and everyone else to fail and die at Mi'ihen, and get the survivors excommunicated. The guy who wielded some Hydean-related abomination during the fight on the roof a few minutes ago. The guy who, presumably, filed the paperwork to allow this small army of warrior-monks to barge this far into sacred ground. Not to mention himself. HE isn't a summoner.

"There's the last of them," he says with grim satisfaction. "You are all to stand trial."

Auron chuckles dryly, though it's more of a cough, as various poisons flow through his system. "I expect it will be a fair trial."

Kinoc sneers. "Of course it will."

---

It transpires that 'prison' is giant birdcage cells, dangling over unfriendly-looking water, which house two or three people apiece but are close enough to see and speak with other cages. Despite the simplicity of this design, they are HIGHLY MAGICAL giant birdcage cells, and not nearly as easy to escape as they ought to be.

Most of them have graffiti scratched onto the floor by previous prisoners.

ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE
REPENT
YEVON CILGC

Yuna, who was confiscated from Tidus' inventory while still unconscious, is not seen again. Wherever she's being held before the trial, it isn't here.