2021-09-10: Equivalent Exchange
- Log: Equivalent Exchange
- Cast: Xantia, Citan Uzuki
- Where: Desert South of the Celesti Wastelands
- Date: September 10, 2021
- Summary: Citan wants to know about what Xantia has learned about herself. Xantia wants a sparring match with Citan where he doesn't hold back. The result is a compromise of a sort.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
The harsh sunlight reflects off the shoulderpads of Xantia's armored suit as the red-haired fist fighter engages in some quick warm-up streches. There's not much to protect one from the elements in the wide-open desert expanse that lies between Port Rosalia and the Celesti Wastelands proper. Nothing but sand and rocks as far as the eye can see, and not a soul in sight save for her and her opponent-to-be. Exactly how Xantia likes her fights. Needless to say, her smile at this moment is a match for the sun's brightness.
"Remember now! You promised to show me what you can really do, so don't hold back! I'm not going to!"
So she shouts to bridge the distance between her and sparring partner today... Doctor Citan Uzuki?? How did this happen?
EARLIER TODAY, IN SHEVAT
"...So, you wanna know, huh?"
Xantia's response to the request to speak of what she learned from Queen Zephyr had been a bit on the lukewarm side. Perhaps it had been a conscious effort on her part to keep silent, rather than her simply forgetting to share what she was told with everyone. Or perhaps it was simply a lead-in to a condition that came to mind as soon as Citan asked something of her. The gleeful grin certainly had a way of communicating 'I've been waiting for this'.
"How nice, that means we both want something from each other, so we can make an even trade. You remember your promise, right?"
That time at the library, when she made it clear that she knew Citan wasn't giving it his all in fights. She expressed her wish to fight him in earnest at that time. ...The promise was something she herself decided on, and wasn't objected to clearly enough to make her think she was wrong about it being one. That was months ago, but there's no way she'd forget about it. And now, she'd been offered the perfect chance.
"I don't really want to talk about it here, so we can talk about what she told me elsewhere... while we're fighting!"
NOW
If there were any attempts to get out of this, clearly they didn't work. Perhaps she'd sensed that there was a certain urgency on Citan's part, and making use of that, Xantia simply wouldn't agree to talk unless she got her way with this. Who knew that she was capable of blackmail?
But this is not the time to worry about such things, not when Xantia has prepared herself as much as she feels she needs to, and declares, "Ready or not, here I come!"
Her charge is fast, but straightforward. This may be a response test more than anything, to see how Citan handles a simple frontal assault. Simple, but as she said, she is not holding back - Xantia launches into a flurry of punches as soon as she manages to get close, backed by her significant physical strength. Regardless of the result, she doesn't press too far, hopping backwards, clearly expecting a similar response.
Grinning from ear to ear, she asks, "So, is there a reason why you're asking now? I promised to tell you so I will, but... just wondering if there was anything in particular you were curious about."
Yes, of course she intends to have this conversation while the fight is actually happening. Who would ever assume that anything Xantia says isn't to be taken literally?
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The sunlight is bright enough to cause Citan to squint and shade his eyes. It looks like it's to be a hot one, but on the other hand, they won't exactly be disturbed way out here. But this in itself is both boon and curse.
To think that it's happening here, of all places.
A wind picks up briefly, catching a few strands of the man's ponytail. Reaching up but a moment, he adjusts his spectacles before easing into a battle-ready stance.
"Well... I shall certainly do my best!" calls back the doctor, an expression on his face that may betray some degree of worry, there. "But... I must ask you for some restraint, Xantia. I do not wish to return to my daughter nursing a broken arm!" He breaks into a smile, as if to suggest that he's teasing her a touch. Still -- it suggests he may have a limit in mind somewhere, at least where lasting injuries are concerned.
Why is he even doing this here, without any oversight, though?
EARLIER, IN SHEVAT
"Yes, I do. If that is alright by you, Xantia," he'd said to her.
That grin had let him know what he was likely in for before she'd even said it, though. Xantia may be... direct in a way similar to Fei, but there's a saying said about martial arts: a master doesn't fear another master, they fear the novice. This is because a master knows what another master will attempt, but there's no telling what a novice might try.
The saying has not been wrong yet, in his experience.
It's hardly wrong now.
"...I do," he had admitted. "You wished to spar with me, is that right?"
There's no way he's going to be able to talk her out of this. And there's no way he's going to be able to get any answers out of her without doing what she wishes. Therefore...
"Very well. That is acceptable. This is not the best of places to fight properly, besides. What place do you have in mind?"
NOW
That place was here, in this same place where he had encountered an anomaly. Whether that had been some lasting effect on the land from the war or one of her tricks, though, he could not yet say.
"Ready or not... I suppose that I am ready enough! Very well, Xantia!"
He's ready for her when she comes. She can likely read it in his stance, and indeed, he makes no immediate obvious attempt to dodge or block whatever might be coming his way--
Not until she throws the first punch.
"Now? Why, I do not think there is anything," he says, moving as she strikes to first block with a forearm then sidestep in apparent anticipation of a followup, "untoward about 'now', do you? ...I must say, you do strike hard!" He winces faintly, but smiles in spite of the grimace. The doctor holds steady in the moment that follows, eyes on Xantia's movements as she hops back, away from him. "With the events in Spira I simply was unable to follow up sooner. But I recalled that you had hoped that Shevat might provide you with answers and so I was wondering if it had done so."
He follows with a surge of his own but she may find that the apparent open-handed strike it had seemed he was about to throw was a fake. Citan drops low, kicking out a leg in a sweep to try and knock her down, if not merely destabilize her.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia isn't at all disappointed about her strikes being intercepted. Quite the contrary, she would've been let down to score a hit so easily after all this buildup. She's never really thought about the differences between novices and masters, but it's certainly more exciting to fight somebody who knows what they're doing. That's the entire reason why this is happening, after all. She knows Citan can do more in a fight than she's gotten to see. And what better way to see than up close and personal?
"I can strike harder still, but you said you didn't want a broken arm," Xantia readily replies, never losing that smile. "I'm not doing anything I don't think you can handle."
The amount of strength she's putting behind her blows probably could break an arm, if not dodged or parried properly. This just proves that her estimation of Citan was correct. It would be pointless to continue this if he couldn't handle this much.
"And so calm," she observes, pleased with that outcome. "I can tell you've used to dealing with worse than this." She pauses briefly, before replying, "Now's fine to talk about things. I just thought there'd be a reason for the 'now'. Maybe that's just a 'you' thing, it doesn't feel like you ever just... do things, you know? Feels like there's always a reason, even if I don't always know what it is."
Citan chooses that moment to strike back. No stranger to them herself, she can recognize the movements that typically end in a palm strike, and knows well their potential danger can far exceed a flurry of closed fist strikes. She must be ready to avoid this one rather than try to block it.
She almost falls for the feint. Almost. At the last moment, her eyes move down just before Citan goes low, and she backflips to safety from the leg sweep. Upon landing, she stares in disbelief for a moment, before clarifying why.
"That's Fei's trick! Did he learn that from you?"
Long ago, Fei pulled that exact same maneuver on her during their first sparring session. She was taken by surprise that time, and may have been now if it hadn't been for seeing it before.
Afterwards, she shakes her head. "Well, sorry to disappoint, but there isn't a whole lot that Queen Zephyr could tell me about myself. Just that she doesn't think I'd ever been to Shevat before I went there with all of you."
Without warning, she flips back over to where she used to be standing with a quick somersault, one leg extended to bring down on Citan. Landing in a crouch, she follows that up with a powerful uppercut, after which she drops into a defensive stance.
"Who she could tell me about is someone who looked like me, called Xenia. ...not the one you know, this one had my hair and eye color. And died about 20 years ago." As she says this, she thinks of a question she never thought to ask before, but now feels like perhaps she should have, considering the Queen's appearance.
"...How old is Queen Zephyr, anyway?"
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
And here he had thought he was managing himself well. Of course, whether that speaks to his own sloppiness or Xantia's own skill is another question altogether.
"Of that, I am certain! Thank you for your consideration," he says, smiling politely in her direction. Without question, she could break someone's arm with a strike like that. But...
"Well, as you are aware, I had once worked for Solaris' government. That was before I left, of course," he tells her, shaking his head. "And before that, I attended Jugend as well. But until recent events, I must admit that I have been 'idle' in that capacity for some time."
But Xantia has a good question: why now? And what is his reason?
"We are working as one, I suppose you might say," he says, in those moments before he rushes her himself. "Fei is concerned about you, and I consider Fei my responsibility, as former Solarian. It is best that we 'remain on the same page'."
Against most the trickery might have worked. But Xantia's instincts are good, strong ones. And so--
He rises handly to his feet, stepping back the once and staying on the ready for the next blow that might come his way. But she doesn't immediately make a move for her. Instead, she has for him a question.
Did Fei learn that from him?
"No, I am afraid not. I have no students," he tells her. "Rather, I suspect that his teacher and my own themselves studied under the same master." He does not elaborate on this freely; some things one must first do a little work to get out of the country doctor.
"...Is that so? So she was unable to tell you anything at all?"
She comes in for him next, dropping down from above; his immediate response is to step back and to the left. He can feel the force of the impact on that blow as her leg falls just alongside him; it would have been dangerous even for him if it had struck him dead-on.
But she's not finished. She follows through on her crouch with a rising uppercut, one that requires him to twist his body to evade.
And again, she comes far too close in those moments, falling back away from him into a defensive stance after.
"You have good reflexes," he remarks. "An amateur would have remained close and attempted to strike me again. But, in that moment..."
He circles her, searching for an opening.
"...it would have been too late. Xenia?" He seems honestly astonished. "Would that have been... your mother? And she was a Shevite, herself?" He cannot think otherwise how the Queen would know her, but then again--
"The Queen? I believe she is about five hundred and twenty or so, though I may be off by a few years," he answers her. "She has been the queen since the just after the Day of Collapse," he adds, perhaps answering the next question she might have a little bit ahead of schedule.
Then again, the Queen has been around for a long time.
Finding what he thinks to be an opening, he strikes in for her with a knife-edge blow, all the better to take advantage of key trigger points on the body. That is, if she isn't minding her defenses.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Though Xantia's smile never wavers during this early stages of the fight, there is a moment when something changes in her eyes. A subtle, but noticeable frown when Citan reminds her of his Solarian roots. There is no mention of Solaris that doesn't seem to affect her at least a little. It wasn't always like that. One who has paid close attention can trace the moment when that changed back to the battle in Macalania Temple, when Krelian had made an appearance. At that time, memories of Solaris hit Xantia like a ton of bricks, and she's never been quite the same since. Most notably in regards to Solaris, naturally.
In this moment, it seems merely a small dark cloud, quickly passing without incident. Had she been fighting someone currently still affiliated with Solaris... well. Xantia has expressed before how she has difficulty keeping a hold on herself where it comes to them. It's been more or less evident in their every encounter since then.
Thankfully, as it is, her friendly demeanor doesn't change, nodding evenly to the explanation. This makes sense to her. She did talk to Fei about what she learned in Shevat, and asked him not to tell the others for now. "I didn't mean to worry him. But I guess nothing will stop him from doing that, huh?" Brothers, what can you do?
Taken by surprise by seeing Citan employ an extremely similar tactic as Fei, she can only reply with a simple 'huh', to the explanation given for this. Teachers that served under the same master, huh? "...I still have no idea where I learned to fight like this. It's a style from Shevat, but I've apparently never been there before, so... I guess that means it got spread around."
It's time to make another move. This is still a fight, after all, and Xantia takes those very seriously. Once again, Citan manages to stay one step ahead, avoiding both the initial strike and the follow-up. Judging this to be as much as she can get away with before a counterattack, and being praised for this judgment, Xantia's grin grows even wider than before, if that's even possible.
"I'm just doing what feels like the right move at the right time. Same as you, right? Though if you can move like that after having been 'idle' for a long time, I'd probably stand no chance if you were in top shape. Not right now, anyway. We'll have to do this again after you've gotten back into that shape, and I've gotten my memory back. I wonder how we'd match up then?"
The topic shifts then to the mysterious Xenia of the past. To the question that she'd wondered herself when she heard about it, she shakes her head. "Apparently not. Xenia never had children, or any family, as far as Shevat was able to find out. They found her living alone on the surface, suffering from an affliction caused by an abnormally high Ether affinity. 'A curse rather than a blessing', the queen called it. She was constantly drawing in energy and couldn't control it, putting an enormous strain on her body. They brought her to Shevat to hide her from Solaris, hoping that there was something they could do about her condition, but..."
Xantia grimaces as she thinks of the ending to the tale. Clearly that didn't pan out the way anyone had hoped for. Her question regarding the queen's age soon puts her into a more befuddled state of mind, however.
"Five hundred...!" She'd heard such high age numbers before, but it remains hard for her to even begin to paint a picture of. Those 20 years since Xenia's passing already feel like such a long time. Having only 5 years worth of memories herself, if that, and remembering everything that happened during that time... 4 times that much time is hard to fathom. Let alone over 100 times that much. It never fails to knock her for a loop if she thinks too hard about that.
Her guard is down. Citan picks the right time to take advantage of her muddled state. When his knife-edge strike comes, she still reacts instinctively and appropriately, twisting her body out of its path, but too late to avoid it entirely. It lands, but not cleanly, impacting against Xantia's upper arm. A seasoned martial artist knows that the greatest danger of knife-edge strikes is in the snapping wrist motion which causes the side of the palm to impact with great force. The way she responds proves that - conscious of it or not - she is aware of this, and sought to mitigate the damage by moving with the strike.
Though not coming out of it painlessly, she immediately follows up, continuing to twist her body so as to deliver an elbow strike to the back of the head. She doesn't seek to do more than that, stepping back and dropping back into a defensive stance right away. Her eyes briefly move to the red streak on her upper right arm, displaying where Citan hit the mark.
"...Nice. Right for an unarmored spot. That could've been the use of my arm gone. I see I can't afford to stop paying attention around you."
She looks pleased with how this is proceeding, all the same.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It hasn't escaped his notice. The precise timing of that change in her might be trickier for him to pinpoint, precisely, but even now when he speaks about his own past, he can see hints that her demeanor has shifted. Xenia, again, is not wrong to voice that warning. It lends more credence to what she said to him. But, he has much yet to discover.
Who is it that would consider Solaris among the enemies of the world?
"It is not impossible. If someone were to learn from a master in Shevat but then leave Shevat... though as I understand it, that is not known to happen. Most agents of Shevat stay loyal to them. And, I do not think they would instruct another out in the world lightly. ...Still, it is difficult to say," Citan allows, shaking his head.
"I wonder, as well," Citan muses and it would seem to almost any outside observer to be a simple remark.
But. He has long since foresworn half of the manner in which he used to fight. If he were forced to unseal those arts again...
For that matter, if even half of what Xenia had told him was true...
Xantia speaks at last of the Xenia of old. ...Now that is a curious thing.
"No family... I see. So she is unconnected to you, Xantia? Or...?"
An abnormally high Ether affinity. And, she had been like that living among the surfacedwellers? "Did the Queen say anything to you about where she had come from, or her past before she was taken into Shevat's care?"
Yui might know more about this. Perhaps he should take care in interrogating Xantia too much on this front.
She was brought to Shevat to hide her, but also in the hopes that there had been something they could but. But, it seems it was in vain. "Then, she...?" Citan hazards, as if unwilling to state what had become of the woman.
"Yes. As I understand it, the Queen and several others within Shevat had particular treatments conducted on them long ago. ...From the stories I have heard, it was meant to be a punishment," Citan says, shaking his head.
But in that moment, Xantia's guard is down. Citan is quick to take advantage of it, delivering a strike that, even when muted by her movement in that split-second moment, leaves a mark.
But she's just as quick to return the favor. Like this, there's little room to negotiate evasion; the best that he can do in the milliseconds that follow is to bring up his opposite arm alongside his head and twist to follow her body's movement... and meet the elbow when it comes with his arm.
There's significant force behind it -- there would be for anyone, but it's especially true coming from her. He staggers under the impact, snapping out a strike that seems to go a touch too wide to catch her as she ducks back.
Dropping back into a ready stance himself, the doctor rolls his shoulders as if to shake out whatever lingers from that impact.
"My... if I had not guessed properly, you might have done some damage there, Xantia!" He doesn't sound displeased per se -- more like it's an observation he's making based on his own experience. "It has been some time since I have faced down a fellow practitioner other than my own wife," he adds, shaking his head. "Well, then..."
He rushes for her. Perhaps she may be expecting another trick this time around. But that is itself the trick -- he is coming right for her in truth, his aim to deliver a flurry of blows. Is he trying to test her defenses or her reflexes this time? Or both?
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Originally, Fei and Xantia's similar fighting style formed a basis for a bond between the two, a connection felt all but certain. When the Shevat relation was discovered, it had been Fei's theory that the fighting style must have been passed down to people on the surface, and that's where they likely picked it up from. But now, it appears that Fei had a connection to Shevat all along, while Xantia...
"...I don't know what else would make sense," is the only conclusion she can reach. It's a matter of some distress, as are all of the many things that cause her uncertainty. And the only solution to that is clear. "We'll never know for sure unless I find out who my teacher was from somebody... or if I remember myself."
The sort of conclusion that she reaches constantly, a hope to hold onto lest she be forced to accept that she'll never have certainty. It would be quite the struggle indeed to convince her that this is not the right path... given that there seems to be no other. Xenia had certainly failed spectacularly in that regard. As for the other Xenia... Xantia can only chuckle, looking a bit incredulous at the question.
"I don't think anybody would believe that there was once somebody who looked exactly like them but it was just coincidence. I don't know what the connection is, but there must be something. ...Anyway, the Queen didn't tell me much about before she came to Shevat... but while she was there, she always seemed happy, positive and friendly towards everybody, even though she had to stay connected to a machine and couldn't leave the medical facility. She was... very strong, even if her body wasn't."
Someone who looked like Xantia, with a positive attitude no matter what, and possessing of a high level of Ether affinity... that's more than just one similarity. Except that Xantia doesn't seem to have a problem handling her Ether, while Xenia...
The Queen hadn't gone into too much detail to Xantia, but it could be discovered that Xenia was discovered in the slums of Nortune, gone unnoticed among the other less fortunate suffering from various illnesses. Knowing that if discovered by Solaris, someone like her would have likely been misused like some sort of human Ether battery, the decision was made to extract her. Her condition seemed natural, in the sense that it didn't appear to have been artificially induced. And in the end, it could not be artifically suppressed, not entirely. A research team worked tirelessly to find a way to do more than delay the inevitable, but... Xantia nods sadly to confirm what Citan doesn't speak aloud. "Her body just... reached its limits."
Given that story, it seems... a bit odd to hear about treatments that apparently resulted in a lifespan that long. Could that not have helped Xenia? Xantia's pensive frown may give away that she's thinking something among those lines.
The fight progresses at that time however, forcing her to react. She gives Citan a look that clearly shows her doubt. "Really... that was a guess? Felt like you knew what you were doing to me. Are you sure you're really that out of practice?" After a pause in which she considers her own situation, she posits, "Maybe this sort of thing always stays with you. Even if your mind forgets, your body doesn't."
She's careful not to drop her guard this time. She stands firm, ready to intercept Citan when he comes for her. Whether she's noticed this charge is for real or just assumed, she's treating it like the true frontal assault it is.
And she intercepts as appropriate. The movements of the pair would be difficult for a bystander to follow, but Citan has a clear view of Xantia's focused expression as she defects his strikes with perfect precision. If there'd still been any doubt, she knows this art, inside and out. Though this does leave them at a perfect stalement, Citan leaving no opening for her to strike back.
Until Xantia's eyes suddenly widen, and she thrusts her palm forward, into the path of Citan's hand. The sensation of the impact with Xantia's hand is... strange, to put it mildly. It's like striking rubber, more pliable than it should feel... and causing much more of a rebound. There was definitely Ether involved somehow, but there are no obvious outward signs of what exactly she just did. Xantia wastes no time in following up, hoping to use the element of surprise to turn the tables, employing a leg sweep of her own.
She stands still after that, remaining in combat stance, but more interested in following up verbally. "...How is it a punishment, to extend someone's life? If you have that power, shouldn't you use it to help everyone you can? All the people who are suffering, whose lives would be cut short through no fault of their own?"
One person they have been discussing in particular...?
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Neither do I. The fact that no one in Shevat now appears to know you... alongside the fact that you know a form of martial arts that are learned by a select few... It would suggest your hypothesis, but I do not know who such a person could be."
Perhaps he shouldn't just ask his wife. Perhaps he should talk to the Queen as well. It would be the best place to ask after any other wayward agents. He'll have to consider this carefully. Even if his reputation in Shevat is 'improved', it doesn't mean that he's necessarily trusted by all. Some are bound to have grudges even if they won't say as much to his face, and what's more, the council of elders...
If he's pensive for a moment, it soon passes.
"I see... so they had to go that far to treat her effectively," he says, when the conversation shifts towards the former Xenia. "I agree. She seems as if she must have been an impressive person. It would not have been strange if she had been upset or depressed about her condition, and yet she appears to have coped well with her situation..."
He is silent for a moment more.
"I recall you mentioning something about the ring Xenia possessed. Is there a connection, perhaps? Maybe your father..."
He needs to know more about the 'other Xenia'. That much is absolutely certain. But asking too many questions of Xantia on this topic may be dangerous.
"...I see. I am sorry to hear that."
There is a limit to how much a body can handle.
He knows how it must have sounded to her, and perhaps that's why he answers her question easily enough: "Speaking of the Queen... As I have been given to understand things, the treatments were conducted a long time ago... and the person with that knowledge has since vanished from Shevat. Without question it would not have been possible for Shevat have used such things to save Xenia."
He has a good idea of where they are now.
"Am I?" he asks, with an easy enough smile. "Perhaps you flatter me. Or, perhaps you are right. Once something is learned well enough, the body learns it. I may be rusty, but with enough proper treatment, the rust will come right off," he quips, watching her carefully... before he makes his charge.
Whoever taught her was a master.
Xantia herself might be a master at this point. She matches his strikes blow for blow: he's unable to land a single hit when advancing in this capacity. ...She must realize it, too: they're evenly matched.
Which means, if Xenia's predictions come to pass and they cannot stop the inevitable, he may be at a disadvantage. He might know this form as well as she, but she'll be anticipating any tricks she sees him deploy today--
Until his hand strikes her own palm, his blow rebounding for an instant off of what feels like rubber rather than flesh and what he knows immediately to be Ether. There are those in Shevat who can use Ether, but the ability isn't any more present in them than it is among landdwellers, and so the interweaving of Ether into this form is not common. But she does it flawlessly.
And catches him up in the next moment with a sweep of her leg.
He doesn't fall to the floor of their 'arena', instead reorienting himself in mid-air to twist back and direct the movement of his lost balance in to something more purposefuly. He flips backwards, landing first on palms then catapulting himself upright to land on his feet.
"...Goodness, I have not had to move like that in some time. Whoever did teach you did it well," he remarks, falling into a ready-defensive stance. But Xantia has a question.
"...That is something you may need to ask the Queen. No doubt, she knows. But... from my perspective, I would not wish to live forever, Xantia. There is nothing quite as terrible as continuing on as the ones you care about perish."
Even he's not so good an actor as to remain perfectly poker-faced while making such a remark. It may be in a different context than immortality, but...
He doesn't make a move towards Xantia in the meantime, instead seemingly holding his ground and loosening his stance, as if to 'invite' her to attack him. But, that has to be a trick, right?
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia is always interested in checking her hypotheses with Citan, as well as hearing his own, even if she doesn't always understand those. While she has her moments of insightfulness, she realizes that her level of booksmarts is lacking, and her common sense can be... different. If what she says doesn't make Citan look at her funny, she can be pretty sure there was a good point in there somewhere. Unfortunately it doesn't lead to any immediate answers in this case, but it's not like she was expecting that much anyway.
Soon, the topic returns to Xenia, and Xantia falls silent at Citan's appraisal of that situation. Wearing her heart on her sleeve as she does, it's easy to tell how sad she feels about what happened. She doesn't need to have known a person to feel that way... and it's not as if she can feel as if it has nothing to do with her, regardless. If someone knew there had once been a treatment but now it could no longer be used... that would have only added to the tragedy of it all.
This changes on a dime when Citan speaks of Xenia, as soon as Xantia realizes that this time it's about the present Xenia. Anger flares up almost immediately. "That ring does not belong to her. I know what I saw, Father was wearing it at some point, so if she has it now that can only mean..."
She catches herself, and recomposes quickly. "...Sorry. I really can't know for sure. Only she does. I need to get her to tell me where she got it. ...What she did to get it."
Soon, the fight resumes. Citan proposes her praise might be flattery, which prompts a grin. "Really, you think so? I have no idea how to do flattery. Did I do that by accident?" And then she immediately gets confused. "Wait, you don't have any mechanical parts, do you?"
Because he said he needed treatment for rust, see. Xantia manages to get figurative speech more often these days, but it's never a guarantee that she won't misunderstand a quip like that.
Xantia, of course, isn't thinking of possibly needing to fight Citan for keeps in the future at all. At the moment, she isn't thinking much at all, just reacting. The only very obvious difference is that she stopped showing overt signs of enjoyment and took this attack with all due seriousness that a proper response to it required.
This ends the moment she receives another compliment. Just like that it's right back to the normal, cheery Xantia. "You really think so? Thanks! I'm just happy you're taking this seriously, so of course I'm going to take it just as seriously!"
It doesn't last long. Not only are her following questions of a far more serious matter, Citan's response prompts her to continue on that line of thinking.
"What if the ones you care about are the ones who are perishing? What if you feel that your life has no meaning if you can't save that one person who means everything to you? If it was the only way to save them, would you not pursue any option, even that one?"
That may have felt rather specific. And indeed, Xantia was thinking of someone of particular. She looks uncertain for a moment, debating with herself whether to continue. She can't help but feel a certain sense of danger in letting others in all she knows, as it feels like something that was actively attempted to keep from her. But... this is Citan. She can trust Citan, can't she? She nods to herself, coming to a decision.
"...One of the members of the research team that tried to help Xenia was a man called Herod. They'd fallen in love with each other, even made a promise to marry. ...The treatment you mentioned. It involved nanomachines, didn't it? Herod knew of a treatment involving nanomachines. He wanted access to classified information, thinking they were keeping the one way Xenia could be saved from him. He was warned to stop pursuing it. But he kept trying to plead his case... right up until the end. When Xenia died, he became bitter and angry, blaming Queen Zephyr for everything."
She pauses, letting that notable information hang there for a moment, before clarifying, "Queen Zephyr never told me any of that. She didn't even tell me Herod's name. I had to learn that from someone who once helped to take care of Xenia. And then I... remembered the rest. I know that doesn't make any sense, I couldn't have been there. But... I still have these memories."
Xantia grips her forehead with one hand. She's become too mentally distracted to engage with the fight anymore. Instead, she confirms what Citan may already have begun to suspect. "I think that... 'Herod' is probably 'Father'."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"My apologies," he answers quickly enough. "I did not mean to imply that it belonged to her, merely that it was in her possession. So you think that she...?"
He doesn't finish the question, letting her connect the dots on her own.
"It is alright. Perhaps she stole it from him," he says, when she catches herself and returns more towards her norm. "It does not mean that anything untoward necessarily befell your father," he suggests, gesturing out towards her with his left hand.
"Oh? Have you never 'buttered someone up' before, as they say? I would think you would not be half bad at it! Now--" Xantia instead asks him if he has any metal parts and it's Citan's turn to look a little flustered. "Er... no, I do not," he tells her, shaking his head. Though there are certainly those in Solaris who do.
She had changed again just then. ...He does not need the confirmation, technically speaking, but it might serve him well to speak to Lily about the Photosphere.
Or to Leon, for that matter.
He smiles when Xantia thanks him. "Is that so? In that case, I am happy to oblige you in turn. It will do me well to spar with other students rather than just my own teacher," he explains.
But the conversation quickly takes a far more serious turn.
"If the ones that I care about are the ones who are perishing... that is a rather different situation," he says, bowing his head for just the moment. If it were Yui, or, god forbid, his daughter...
But it's a very specific sort of scenario.
Xantia tells him about Herod.
Even the Queen didn't tell her about Herod.
And in that moment, Citan Uzuki realizes he thinks he has a fairly good idea about what is going on here. He might not need to speak to the Queen or even Yui after all of this for more than confirmation -- the puzzle of Xantia might just be nearly complete. But that means...
"Yes. The treatment that the Queen received likely involved nanomachines, though I admit I do not know for certain." He knows enough to guess it -- any medical treatment of that sort, particular in context with another treatment of which he is far more familiar -- would have to use nanomachines. Even the removal of Limiters uses them in some capacity, though Shevat's are not as refined as Solaris' currently are. "And so he was denied access to Shevat's secrets. ...Tell me, do you know whether he still lives in Shevat?"
He already knows that Herod can't be living in Shevat.
He no longer holds a fighting stance himself. Indeed, the battle has moved to a different ground altogether, and one that requires a far more deft touch than before. "Your father... then another was your mother?"
Citan doesn't really think that this is the case. Twenty years... that would have been long enough.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Predictably, Xantia's response to whether she's ever buttered someone up is just a confused "Butter...?" She didn't get that one either. She may have no use for the knowledge, she sees no reason not be sincere about how she feels all the time.
Other than that little moment, however, there is precious little levity remaining. Xantia's short moment of distress regarding the ring was one thing. That's easily enough dispelled by Citan, Xantia readily accepting any offer of hope, nodding at his suggestion that her father could be just fine. ...which still makes Xenia a thief in her mind, but it's probably better for everyone involved if that's what she thinks instead of branding her self-proclaimed sister a murderer.
The other, later serious topic, however... that seems to have affected her a lot more profoundly. A deluge of emotions that she has no idea what to do with, given how it involves so much that doesn't many any sense to her. Despite the fact that it feels that... this brings her close, very close, to what she needs to know in order to finally recall everything. If only she could get the answers out of Xenia...
Citan asks if Herod still lives in Shevat. Xantia very resolutely shakes her head to that one. Granted, no one directly told her this. But it's exceptionally easy for her to infer. "Queen Zephyr did mention a group that fled Shevat, after having stolen medical data, including Xenia's medical history. She told me this after hearing about the other Xenia, saying it could be extremely dangerous for me to pursue her. To myself, and to others."
She doesn't get into how much she's understood from this. What she does confirm is, "But that won't stop me. How could it? The other Xenia was the only one I could think of who has any answers at this point. ...Until I learned about Herod. From someone other than the Queen. So... that makes two options now. Either I make Xenia talk... or I find Herod."
Citan's question regarding her mother seems to rattle Xantia for a moment, but then she shakes her head. "Since the time I first heard the name, I've always felt that... 'Xenia' is 'Mother'. I don't know. Maybe Shevat didn't know about me. Or it's another thing they didn't tell me. If they kept silent about one important thing, who knows what else they kept from me?"
With that, her gaze sharpens, urging Citan, "...Queen Zephyr can't know that I know. So I'm going to ask you to promise not to mention Herod to anyone else. If it gets back to her..." She looks uncomfortable for a moment. "...I still remember that feeling, that at some point in the past, I was running from Shevat. I may not know what that means, but... I feel as if there's something they don't want me to remember."
For some reason, just thinking about that makes her involuntarily shudder.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It's not precisely a wince or precisely a smile. Citan remarks instead, "...Do not worry about it, Xantia. It is only a turn of phrase."
Fei, at least, had the advantage of a supportive community for so long. Xantia had apparently been found in the desert on her own.
But such lighter things don't last for very long. The most Citan has to offer her is the suggestion that her father may still live, unharmed by her sister.
"They... left Shevat? I had not heard of such a thing... but then, I am no native of Shevat. To think that there are those willing to defect from Shevat... and stealing data like that..." Citan muses, with no mild amount of shock.
So it had not just been Herod. There had been others.
Citan's expression doesn't so much as twitch. It's all information to file away for later, for questions he will have to phrase carefully to other people still. If he's to untangle this situation...
But one thing has become crystal clear, as it were-- he cannot permit Xantia to meet with Herod, or, indeed, any of Herod's compatriots. What Xenia had said echoes back to him now. It had been unprecedented. Meaning, it couldn't be repeated twice. And they were still seeking control over her once more.
Zephyr, without question, knows more about this. But he'll have to approach this with caution if he seeks information from her, too, if he doesn't want to risk destabilizing the situation further. She might be prompted to act, which would give the whole situation away, which would...
He's getting ahead of himself. First things first: he needs to talk to his wife.
...Carefully. Yui, like he, has her own binding loyalties.
And it looks like he is going to have to make another binding promise that will complicate the situation further.
"Your mother... but that would mean that you are older than you seem," he says, the remark itself a misdirection away from what he believes to be the truth now.
Citan doesn't answer Xantia right away.
"...I see," the doctor says at last. "If you feel it will lead to more harm than good, then I promise I will not speak to anyone else of Herod, Xantia," he says, placing a hand over his chest as if to seal that statement. ...There are other ways to get the sort of information he needs, but it means it will become that much more difficult.
He pauses here, toying a moment with his spectacles. "But... there is something I have wondered, Xantia... forgive me, but I have observed among some others with which we have crossed paths the situation where the truth does more harm than good. Is it... at all possible that the same may be true in your case?" he asks her, approaching the subject with apparent trepidation.
"It is useful," he adds quietly, "to sometimes consider the potential of a poor outcome. I myself have done so when considering the best treatment for a patient..."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Given Xantia's propensity towards honesty to the point that attempts to hide something tend to be extremely obvious, it seems like a safe conclusion that Xantia doesn't suspect that Citan may have thoughts that go beyond what she's being told. And his reactions seem natural enough, giving her no real cause to question them.
She can only give a sheepish shrug to the question of age. She's given up on trying to figure hers out. After all, "I could name a bunch of people who look younger than they really are." She would not be shocked in the slightest if it were the case for her. At this point, it feels like it would be less normal if she actually were the age she appears to be to others.
Ultimately the most important thing is the promise. She trusts Citan, so telling him was not a risk in itself. At least, not in a desolate place like this... and if he agrees not to repeat it where other may hear. She knows about Shevat agents now. They could be anybody. And anything they hear will get back to the Queen. She looks visibly relieved when Citan agrees to that much.
"...Good. I just don't know, right now, but I really don't want to risk it. Me getting in trouble is one thing, but, you know... we do need to work with Shevat." If she were to end up the catalyst to the entire alliance falling apart, she'd never forgive herself.
This is where Citan points out that the truth may do more harm than good, and Xantia just... sighs. It's a 'here we go again' sort of sigh. She'd been expecting a remark like that for a while now. "Well, yeah, of course it's possible. Fei keeps telling me that more than anyone, you know how he always worries about that sort of thing."
She changes her posture a little, as well as her voice, as she starts speaking in what almost has to be a direct Fei impression. "The truth is rarely satisfying. Usually it's kind of depressing actually. But the truth doesn't go away if you don't look for it, Xantia. That's the nice and terrible thing about it. Answers do not vanish easily. They may hide themselves better with time, but they don't stop existing. And if you don't find the answers, the answers will often come find you. I can't tell you whether it'll be worth it, or if it'll get you happiness - it probably won't - but it is at least the truth."
She drops out of the Fei Pose with a tired sigh, and a vague gesture. "Like that. I know all that. But it doesn't change anything. I still want to know. I need to. I'll never be able to be sure of anything until I do."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Yes... this is true," Citan allows, on the subject of age. "Still, if Xenia is your mother, then that may mean that you could be in your early to mid-twenties. I suppose that would make Fei your 'young brother'..."
But that only applies if he's wrong about what he thinks may actually be going on. If his suspicions are correct, Xantia could be...
"Indeed... that is a distinct possibility," he says, speaking to and agreeing with her fears. Not only could Zephyr make bolder moves than he would like, but they already have Fei among them. Yui had spoken to him of conversations that had taken place behind closed doors. It could prompt a cascade, particularly where the council is concerned -- they have no plans to act at this time, it seems, but...
The Wolves will need to take more care than they may realize.
It's hardly the reaction he would have liked to have seen from her. So others have talked to her about the possibility--
Unfortunately, he is in agreement with Fei on this, if from a slightly different angle from the young man. Even if they manage to dissuade her, there's still the matter of the one (or ones?) who are behind all of this. As long as they persist, the risk will remain.
It's tempting, again, to write off Xenia's warning to some degree. But everything he's observed during this session points to her accuracy on the matter.
He shakes his head ultimately and sighs. "Well, that certainly sounds like our Fei... Then I see you have made up your mind, Xantia."
In a way, it's worse that he's had that meeting with Xenia. If he presses her too much on her reasons for wanting to know the truth, there's the everpresent chance that he -- even he -- might make a fatal error. The more lies one has to tell, after all, the harder it becomes to keep them all in order. He'll have to use other means.
Ultimately, either he is going to have to find something that will convince Xantia to give it up, or find the ones behind this.
Or more likely than that, both.
"...So, has this all been to your satisfaction?" Citan says, referring back to their sparring. He gestures about himself and in the 'arena' they have been using. "I am still able to go a little longer, I should think... but I am content to end things here. What say you, Xantia?"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia stifles a laugh in response to the words 'young brother'. "Well don't tell him that then, that doesn't sound right at all. Not now, at least. I can't exactly feel however old I might be if I can remember so little of my life."
She seems to be considering something after saying that, but she doesn't voice it aloud. She's already discussed that other possibility she's considered with Lily. The possibility that their circumstances may be more similar still. She doesn't see much added value in bringing that up with Citan. He couldn't understand what that feels like.
But he can very much understand the potential danger in Shevat's Queen learning that she knows things she was apparently not to be made aware of. As long as they're on the same page about that, Xantia won't feel like this will get herself and others in big trouble, as she was cautioned. And with Citan not pressing further on her wish to stay the course in regards to her memory... well, she sees no reason not to smile after all this, if a bit sheepishly.
"Ah... yes, sorry about just sorta interrupting everything like that. I guess I felt like talking about this was the more important thing, after all. But thanks for fighting me for a bit, it was fun!"
As most everything she says, that was perfectly genuine: this really was fun for her, and fun was her main motivation for the suggestion. Though it's certainly also true that it's given Xantia a better idea of what Citan is capable of. Whether that may end up another problem on the pile that Citan already has to worry about... time will tell.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He needs more information. He has a clearer view of what he strongly suspects to be the situation with Xantia and her sister... but it doesn't mean he is able to act on it. He needs confirmation, and more than that, he needs to understand Xantia better. Asking her directly will only make her suspicious.
And, on top of that, he needs to fully analyze the problem's scale. It sounds as if it might be catastrophic should he not interfere, but he needs to be sure about this, too, before he acts.
Any action could additionally throw his own goals into jeopardy.
"That is quite all right. It seems that these matters have been weighing on your mind, Xantia. They say that sharing a burden makes it lighter... I hope that you feel more at ease now. Still... I am glad that you enjoyed yourself. It has been some time for me, as well! What do you say, shall we return to Shevat? Perhaps you might visit for dinner? As you know, Yui is a wonderful cook," Citan says to her, smiling goodnaturedly, as if everything were normal and nothing at all were amiss.