2022-02-26: A Pearl Before Wolves

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================================<* Guadosalam *>================================

Guadosalam is an underground that sits on the path from the north bank of the Moonflow and the southern trail of the Thunder Plains. The city is found inside an underground cavern, where the walls and walkways are composed of the twisted roots of the trees of the Moonflow's north bank, giving the entire area the faint resemblance of an underground swamp.

Guadosalam is the ancient home of the Guado, a race of Beastman-appearing humans who, until recently, lived outside the grace of Yevon. This changed with the coming of Lord Jyscal Guado, who brought his people into Bevelle's fold; following Jyscal's death, his son Seymour - also a Maester of Yevon - now rules the Guado people both temporally and spiritually.

BGM: Final Fantasy X - Guadosalam

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Guadosalam had been selected as the place for the meeting. They had agreed that it would be the best 'neutral' ground possible, a place where the woman to whom they were speaking would not feel uncomfortable. Simply put, Pearl would likely feel uncomfortable if they were speaking to her in a place she was not familiar with (Filgaia, generally) or if they opted to speak to her within the bounds of the Althenian Church's reach (which would also be a poor decision for a number of other reasons).

    Instead, they're here outside the limits of Guadosalam proper, making use of what has been the Black Wolves' encampment while operating in this area. Which is to say: they're in a tent, positioned towards the outskirts of the other aid and relief camps that have similarly popped up around here. Far enough from the walls of Guadosalam and anyone there who might just still be favoring the Maester, but close enough that Pearl could, if she felt threatened, call for help and have it reasonably answered. Or even flee.

    It's a particular calculus that Citan had divulged to Lily and Leon ahead of the meeting, thinking it best they understood what he was thinking. Pearl seems skittish, a wild animal still learning trust, and it would behoove them to grant some slack in order to convince her to meet and speak with so many of them. The hardest part would be getting her to show up, he had thought.

    If this had been a meeting elsewhere, there might have been a table. Perhaps they could have gotten a table, if they had felt it necessary. Instead, the bulk of the accommodations at hand are some cushions for sitting on the ground and some Sphere-powered lamps. ...Please ignore the spare equipment, assorted baggage, folded futons and other campsite debris moved to the far side of the interior. Everyone did their best. 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Elly remarks, "It's a little funny how we keep coming back to Guadosalam, lately."

Elly is in a rather unremarkable outfit, peasant blouse and dungarees again. She has at least provided a small array of finger-foods on a tray as part of her ongoing campaign to cook literally every fish in the entire ocean. She picked up this addiction-- habit-- in Spira; and in Spira, it works the best.

In this case it takes the form of little flatbreads cooked less than thirty minutes ago, each opened up and filled with a mix of rice and a little cooked nuts, a thin sliver of pan-fried trout's filet, and a bit of something chopped up on top. 'Something' is either dried apricots or coarsely-grated radish. 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

If there was a chair, Emeralda would be on it. There is not, so she is currently sprawled out on the ground in a manner that has *got* to be less uncomfortable than it looks, because if it was as uncomfortable as it looks nobody would do it.

She is halfway to lying down except she has her upper back propped up against a bag that has a suspicious shape similarity to a gym bag; she uses it to keep her stuff in. She has her legs on cushions, but not the rest of her, so she's kind of folded in the middle with both her feet and head propped up higher than her stomach.

She's not likely to stay in this position long enough to make her back stiff, judging by the fact that she hasn't been able to sit still for more than, say, five minutes the whole time the Black Wolves were around.

Also it is taking all of her attention to eat one of the flatbreads while folded in the middle, so, there's that.

"It's not even that big a place!" Emeralda agrees, "but I guess it has a hole to ghosts, and they outnumber everyone else..." 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Given that she still hasn't even learned to say the word 'blackmail' in a non-awkward way, it's safe to say that Xantia doesn't fully understand what exactly the Wolves are trying to accomplish in regards to the Church of Althena. Still, she has an interest in dealing with them in some capacity, as well as learning more about the Shadow Dragon cult, so that was plenty of motivation for her to listen in on this meeting.

She's more dressed for a fight than for a meeting, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for her, she just always defaults to combat gear no matter the situation. It's rarely a problem, she doesn't presume it will be one now. The real problem was getting her to not eat more than a fair (by Xantia standards) share of the food, which she's already finished doing before the meeting even got started. Naturally.

Nonetheless, she's cheerful as ever, if also quite unable to sit still for any reasonably length of time. She's turned the wait into an exercise routine, currently performing leg lifts.

"'s long as we're out here, I don't mind it. Don't much care to visit the city, although I do miss the ceiling a little bit."

Emeralda knows what she means, maybe no one else does. Never stopped her from saying whatever comes to mind before. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily Keil happens to be among the Wolves today, not that that's particularly unusual. She has her suspicions about Pearl, which--well, in order to confirm them, they're talking! That's rather part of the point of the conversation. So she hasn't shared all of those suspicions yet. Instead, she has returned to Guadosalam for this, after all the business elsewhere, still recovering from some injuries--but largely healed by now.

Lily doesn't need a chair. She can stand for the moment. "I like Guadosalam well enough," Lily says. "Now that they're not trying to kill us for getting close anymore." 

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Wild, is close. Wounded might be better. Slow to trust, and scared. She watched the camp from the high tree walls of Guadosalam for a while. Seeing who came at went. What the situation is. She considered running, but they would just follow her.

    Eventually, she walks toward the camp openly, watching every angle she can. Leo Jr, the little bulb creature, is by her side, there to be emotional support onion. She'll need him, frankly. She is dressed has she usually is, the yellow and green tunic, simple trousers, elaborate boots. The scars on her face and hands are visible, but not much else. When she walks into the tent, she scans it like she's scanning for threats. She'll recognise some of them. The redhaired woman from Taben's Peak, who later rescued her from Macalania, and tried to talk when Pearl was huddled, bleeding in the back of her cockpit. The doctor, and the mercenary with the dog. She'll recognize Fei, too, when she sees him. The man she fought in the sewers. The others, they're all of them new faces. That's... concerning. But they are almost all unknown quantities. Well then. She gives a small bow.

    "These are the people you wished me to speak to?" She asks Citan, before looking to the room. She can smell the fish. The flatbread. It seems nice, but she doesn't move toward it, despite- to Lily- clearly wanting to. To everyone else, she might as well be mae of stone, so few of her emotions show on her face. "My name is Pearl. You wished me to discuss the Shaodw Dragon Cult with you, correct?" She doesn't sit. She stands... not rigid, but certainly alert. Ready to move. Wary.

    But for Lily, that messy mix of emotions rises again in Pearl. This could be rough for someone. "Where do you wish me to begin?" 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I guess it makes sense, we were honestly pretty lucky we didn't have to fight this place until there was nothing left considering how loyal they are to their Meister. Or were?"

He's a little uncertain. Nevertheless, he brightens upon seeing Xantia and throws her a big wave and grin. SORRY IT'S STILL FEI. But knowing how Fei feels about children taken from their homes to be assassins, well, it's bound to be a stressful day for him. But SO FAR at least he's keeping an optimistic outlook.

"Hey Em," Fei nods to Emeralda. "You holding up good?" 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Tucking about two bites of her flatbread in her mouth and making her cheeks puff out, Emeralda gives Fei a wordless thumbs up before she actually manages to chew and swallow the last bite.

"It's a good ceiling! None of ours are as good," Emeralda agrees with Xantia. And she's in a position to tell, given she's looking up at...

Well, tents don't really have ceilings, but the top, anyway.

She does a sudden sit-up when Pearl arrives, looking at her and Leo Jr with interest. It's hard to tell which one she's more interested in, but she doesn't stand up, which probably goes at least a little way toward not making her look like a threat. If Pearl thought she was in the first place, anyway; she is, after all, just thirteen or fourteen, not full-grown, and Pearl presumably doesn't know what she can do.

"Is that an onion?" she asks, because Emeralda has never seen any other kind of bulb besides that and garlic. She doesn't press Pearl otherwise. Emeralda doesn't exactly know all the Shadow Dragon details (well, neither does anyone in the Black Wolves, that's why this meeting exists). 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Yes," Citan remarks at Lily's comment. "It has become more pleasant around here of late!" He himself is back rather recently from Shevat, having departed Spira shortly after the situation around Guadosalam appeared to be more or less in hand, leaving much of the organizing otherwise to the Black Wolves' leaders.

    He, too, is standing, glancing the once at the others gathered within the confines of the tent. They had set a time, and if his internal sense of it is correct, then it should be approaching.

    The tent flap rustles slightly.

    "Miss Pearl, you are right on time," he says, turning towards the entrance once she enters. She's not alone, either; it's that same strange onion-like moving plant he had seen during that encounter with Seymour. "Please, make yourself comfortable. Elly has been kind enough to prepare some food." He pauses a moment, readjusting his glasses. "...I had thought this might be more private than meeting within Guadosalam's walls," he explains. "It is a little more informal than I would have preferred, but I believe this should suffice."

    He pauses, after she speaks to the reason for her coming here.

    "Yes, that is correct. As we had said, we have an interest in tracing the movements of that cult, especially as it appears to relate to the Althenian Church."

    Where should she begin?

    "Perhaps at the beginning, if that suits you," Citan suggests, glancing Lily's way. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Never apologize for being Fei, is something Xantia might say. Naturally she returns that wave with gusto, as if this were a cheerfulness competition. She likely has some idea about Fei's state of mind, if nothing else because he kind of defaults to stressing out over things. So she'll just have to offset that with extra cheer, won't she?

When Pearl enters, Xantia abruptly aborts her exercises and nimbly leaps to her feet. Nothing flashy or abnormal about it from her perspective, but the way she does it is likely to immediately give away a martial arts background to the trained eye. At least her general demeanor following this is the opposite of threatening, giving a small wave with a bright smile.

"Hi, Pearl! I'm Xantia! Nice to meet you!" Always at a bit of a loss about what else she should say during a self-introduction, she looks to Fei and arrives at, "You know Fei? I'm his sister!" That'll only mean anything if their guest actually has met Fei before, but you grasp at the straws you've got. Especially when this is a nervous-looking guest, best to try and show there's nothing to be nervous about.

She is then distracted by Emeralda calling attention to Leo Jr, seeming puzzled by the little creature. Good thing it wasn't her who asked a question about its nature first, since you know her mind immediately goes to what will likely always be her first Twenty Questions query: 'is it food?' 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily can sense Pearl's emotional state at the moment. Dog may be able to as well, but you can never tell for sure with a dog. She leaves it to someone else to offer food, for the moment--though she files away. Of course she's hungry.

Citan suggests the beginning, and Lily glances back at him with a nod. "Yes, that sounds best."

As they speak, Dog stays at Lily's side. She sniffs towards the food, though, and Lily thinks better of, "...If you want to grab a snack first, that's fine."

Better to make her comfortable, right?

"...Her companion is a friend, not a food," she points out to Xantia helpfully. 

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Pearl doesn't even blink at Emeralda's question. "I do not know, to be honest. His name is Leo Jr, and he is a friend of mine, and my Guardian." Big G there. Given her looks, it's probably not hard to intimate that she's a summoner.

    She doesn't backstep as Xantia comes to her feet, but she does flinch. The sudden movement is alarming, but she also has to fight her instincts to drop into stance herself. She nods to Xantia. "...I see." She doesn't have any other comment there. But when she is offered food, she goes for it. It certainly smells delicious. She takes a bite, and blinks a few times, before nodding. "This is good. Thank you." The feeling Lily gets is... comfort. It's not just hunger, it's that food, different flavours and new things, feel safe in this context. Being able to branch out, without hurting for it."

    "Then my story will be able to confirm that for you." She steps back, to be able to see everyone. But still doesn't sit. Leo Jr, for his part, stays close to her. Normally he's happily bouncing about, meeting everyone new. But right now... He's sticking very close to Pearl, a little in front of her

    When she finishes the flatbread she readies herself. She's never told anyone... all of it. And now it's going to be these strangers. Hm.

    "...I do not know exactly when the beginning is. I have no memories before it. I was held under a man's arm, I was not very old. It was raining, and dark. There were two bodies in the mud, both face up. I can't remember their faces, just that they covered in blood. I remember myself screaming for them, so I assume they must have been my parents." There is emotion there, Lily can feel it, but it's warped and hard to understand. Pearl may not even understand it. But Pearl's face remains impassive and her voice calm. But the vividness of that emotion, the memory must be too.

    "Then I have my breath squeezed out of me and I pass out. I see the man in the mask laughing. The next thing I remember, J-" She stops herself. She doesn't want to say the name, to reveal her to those people. But someone she thinks of warmly, now. "I was forced into a gi, and thrown into training. The girl I fought on the first day caused me to black out in seconds. That was my first day as a member of the Shadow Dragon Cult." 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Emeralda has the numbers right, Elly thinks. There have been more people in the past than there are alive now.

Was that true, Elly thinks, when Emeralda was born?

But after this she attends to Pearl. Her lips thin for a moment at the mention of the Shadow Dragon Cult - it certainly isn't a very friendy name in and of itself - and she settles down, hands folding on one knee. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong smiels at Xantia, giving a small nod to Lily before focusing back to Pearl and listens carefully. Odds are Pearl doesn't really know HIM too well, but that's okay.

Pearl paints a horrid tale. He doesn't comment on it, not yet. But he does know whom Pearl is talking and is just going to go ahead and say it because he trusts everybody in this room except, well, maybe Pearl herself.

"Jean." He says but it doesn't seem to fill him with rage or anger, just an acknowledgement of a troublesome past.

But other than that--nothing. Not until Pearl says the words 'that was my first day as a member of the Shadow Dragon Cult'.

These words in of themselves are not particular to Fei but because he knows what they mean, what is behind them.

Something comes to him.

SHORTLY BEFORE HE ARRIVED IN LAHAN

Fei opens his eyes. He's in a stormy night. He looks at his own body, and it's him. Just him as an adult. He looks back up and forward across the strange plains. Elru? Closer by? It's raining, though, and he sees three figures.

One of them he just recognizes instantly: Grahf, The Seeker Of Power

Fei curls his fists as the red aura around the man intensifies and as if responding in kind, a second figure starts crackling with the same red aura. He seems mishapen and gaunt--

Fei has never seen Id in a mirror for obvious reasons. He sees pale skin, sloppy red hair, but he has never seen Id with red hair. It has always been in child form that he has seen the Demon of Elru. Just a kid. But this--this is how he looks like when he's controlling his body. And Fei has no idea just who, but he trembles at the sight of it.

"Let us join together." Grahf says, eyes glowing crimson.

The third figure. Fei recognizes an impressive mustache, something familiar about him-- A bandana around his forehead. He feels strangely familiar but he has never seen this man before in his life.

"I never thought we'd meet again like this. It must be fate." The man with the blue aura says with thinly veiled disdain. Determination. "How ironic... But..." He turns his head towards the red-haired man. "I'll never let you have him."

The red haired man smirks, a soft chuckle escaping his lips as if the blue aura'ed man just said something intensely amusing.

"Even if it kills me!"

HERE

The vision fades. Fei keeps his eyes closed for the moment, not saying anything. Mulling on her words. 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Emeralda probably realizes what Xantia's question is and may even have preempted it on purpose. Sometimes she's faster on the social uptake than she gets credit for.

"I'm Emeralda," she says, brightly, since other people introduced themselves. She finally does stand up, only because she felt a little weird being halfway to lying down when everyone else was talking to the new arrival. She dusts her skirt off a bit even though it doesn't need it.

She falls quiet, for a bit, when Pearl continues. Her expression changes a few times - distress, anger. Emeralda is not good at, and indeed not trying to, keep her emotions off her face.

"That's horrible!" she exclaims afterwards. She may not see - remember - what Fei does. There's nothing in her background like that, which is all to the good, but that doesn't mean she's not sympathetic. Emeralda clenches her fists, not that there is anyone she wants to hit here; they relax a moment later. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia looks to Lily as if caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "I-I knew that!" Well, she strongly suspected, but as Lily is aware, part of her always goes there. It'll probably never entirely stop going there, but she won't actively try to act upon it at least. Leo Jr is perfectly safe.

She falls silent then, and lowers to her haunches, allowing Pearl to make herself as comfortable as she can - which food of course helps with more than anything, she totally gets that. Not that she actually expects an uncomfortable story. Not until the second sentence of it is spoken.

Xantia's attention is immediately assured by saying anything involving 'no memories'. Granted she can't tell if there's as much of an amnesia aspect involved here, but... she's certainly thought a lot about how much worse things could have been for her if the first experiences she could remember had been unpleasant ones. And these... certainly sound like the worst kind.

She, too, feels a vague sensation in the back of her mind. But nothing actually manages to surface. If there's anything to see, there's too much static to get a clear image. Instead...

Xantia's fist slams into the ground, definitively settling on anger as the proper emotion for the situation. "...So that's the sort of thing they do? That's disgusting! I wanted to beat them up already, but I really want to now."

She glances over to Fei. All he said was that name, 'Jean'. Which does explain a few things that seem obvious in hindsight, as far back as the Lacour tournament. But at the moment, she's mostly concerned by how that's all he said. She was expecting a similar outburst from him, but... he's so quiet. What could he be thinking about? 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    'From the beginning', he had said.

    Citan does not sit down with the others, instead simply moving to stand to one side, watching Pearl as she makes herself as comfortable as she can. Even taking the undertones of the situation aside -- no, it isn't everyday that one is asked for their testimony against an entire religion, as it happens -- he notes that it doesn't come easily to her. It is if she has scarce ever had a moment to herself. Even a warrior who was as accustomed to battle as breaking bread would -- should -- be able to hold themselves with more ease than this.

    She even flinches when Xantia rises to her feet.

    It still isn't proof, anymore than his thoughts on her scars had been proof. It's just another oddity that could be explained by his own hypothesis. But, ah, if he's wrong about what she had once been...

    He waits in silence. He only nods once, the movement slight, as if to encourage her to say whatever she is able.

    Pearl... begins to tell a story.

    So it was just as he'd thought, after all. He frowns, furrowing his brow. Folding his arms over his chest, Citan glances once up towards the tent ceiling before turning his attention back towards her.

    Or perhaps rather, soon after, towards Xantia as she expresses her outrage. If things had been as they had been, he might have discounted it. But instead he makes a quick study of her, then notices the way that she's glanced over at Fei.

    Fei, who is silent.
    His attention lingers on him for a long moment. "...Fei, are you alright?"

    He shakes his head. "...Forgive me, Miss Pearl," he says, gesturing towards her with his left hand. "It appears that you had quite a harrowing experience, one that I have unwittingly asked you to recount. But I must know... was this how it was with everyone within the Shadow Dragon Cult?" Had Blue Master Lunn forged his 'Shadow Dragons'... from abducted children? 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily smiles at Xantia's reaction. She does not smile much more than that for a while. She knew about Leo Jr., of course. She has guesses that his name has to do with a certain bigger Leo. ...She appreciates that the food seems to comfort her a little. Lily doesn't want Pearl to be too off-balance; she isn't here, regardlss of what certain of her instincts miht say, kto harm her.

Lily listens. That warped emotion she can't identify, she files away. The fact that Pearl is not so impassive as she looks--and that she manages to look this calm--is something she files away as well.

"...I agree," Lily says to Xantia first. But she remains distant at first, too. It makes her think--how differently could her upbringing have been? If The Colonel had chosen a different means of creating a weapon?

...What must Pearl have endured?

Lily too looks at Fei, but she keeps most of her attention on Pearl, instead.

"...I wonder the same," she admits. "It puts them in... a different light." 

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Fei knows her,of course he knows her. "...Yes. Jean. She was..." She pauses. "It will make sense, eventually." She doesn't push on Fei right now. She's recounting something hard, but vivid. "...It is. But after a while it had become so normal I could no longer see it." Leo Jr presses against Pearl's leg, and she leans down to ruffle his fonds before standing up again. It calms her a little, but not much. "It was... the reason for which they were formed. The cruelty was the point." Xantia's own outburst... she nods at.

    "The original masters, I believe they followed the Master from wherever he came. They were all adults. But the cultists... every one of them was a child, taken from somewhere. The street, an orphanage, a home. Always young, always violently. That was always clear. The injuries were always visible when they were brought in, before his white mages threw them into a fight." She takes another breathe. The knot of emotions untangles a bit. Despair, exhaustion, pain, anger.

    "...You should not be that easy on us, Miss Keil. We still did what we did. And do." She pauses, and continues. "Over the next decade, every day we would be woken up, train, fight, eat, train, and then fight until only one was standing, and the best of us would eat and then healed before we were all sent on the floor. The worst of us were denied food and healing until the next day. The teachers told us that the pain was a lesson. Many of us died, but there were always more. After a year, most stopped acknowledging the new faces until the proved themselves."

    She pauses. "And then, the Master would call four of us for a test. The survivor was made a full member of the cult, having killed three trained warriors with your bare hands." As she speaks, the emotions remain vivid. Every impact, every wound, every scar, both for her and others. The deaths of the three she fought was etched in her memory as a victory, but now it feels cruel and wrong. But at the time it meant that she had survived. She had outlived the pain. She was no longer a victim, she had told herself. She was the weapon now. She no longer had to endure it, now she could inflict it.

    The feelings are messy, but not unreadable. It was the closest thing to freedom she had ever had. 

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Elly didn't speak up - the doctor had already indirectly introduced her. When emeralda speaks up, Elly makes a sound of agreement, but her eyes turn to the side. She is, naturally, sitting fairly near to Fei.

She glances to him.

Her hand reaches over to take one of his. She does not ask a question to go with it. She may think that she does not need to. The rest of Pearl's story makes Elly curl her fingers round Fei's hand a bit more firmly, but it is to Pearl that she speaks.

"That's horrible," Elly says to her. "... I'm sorry." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei's hand is taken. There is a strange smile from the man, but it's brief. He gives ELly's hand a small squeeze all the same.

Citan asks if he's alright, but he doesn't answer immediately, he seems to be thinking intently about something.

But eventually he does open his eyes.

"To think..." Fei says. "That I'd find someone else with whom I could recognize myself in. Could recognize me."

He turns his head towards Citan and shakes his head at him. "Do not worry, Doc. The one you call Fei is resting. I'm showing him a nice little dream. A little story that our friend Pearl here reminded me of."

"Thank you for that." Fei(?) dips his head to Pearl. "But don't mind me."

He gives Elly's hand another squeeze, a bit more tightly this time. Not to the point of pain, but the kind of grip you might use if you're worried someone might slip away if someone were to bump into you, or something like that.

"I want to hear how your story ends." Fei(?) says. "I feel how your battles have honed you, so you don't have to explain yourself--nor do you have to be harsh. Everyone here has been put in difficult situations and so they are akin to understand the depths of your darkness and empathize all the same."

Indeed, Pearl can likely feel it within Fei if she focuses on it, that Dark Chi she had been taught to wield. It's within him too.

Stronger than whatever other elements he may wield. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

It's difficult for Xantia to fully fathom the aspect of 'being a child', and properly contextualize how that alters the whole thing. Though she's mad enough as it stands. Anger which is rapidly traveling up the ladder. She can't help but think... you'd have to be pure evil to let something like that go on. The Church must have known, quite likely since the beginning, and they did nothing.

The more she hears of the details, the worse it gets. Denying basic requirements to live, making them kill one another... what kind of monstrous organization is this? If only there was somewhere for all that anger to go.

"This is... this is just..." She can't even manage to put it into words. She looks to Fei again for his reaction, perhaps hoping that he can fill in the blanks. But something else happens instead. Something nobody could have predicted.

The effect this has on Xantia is... profoundly positive. She only needs very few words before she appears to understand what's going on, and contrary to the reaction that probably makes the most sense to people, she actually smiles, and becomes calm, as if finding comfort in this. Whatever further outbursts may have been on her mind are effectively suppressed for the moment, and she fully defers to Fei, such as he is. She only nods to Pearl in encouragement, adding nothing in the way of words. 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    They should not be that easy on them, Pearl says -- it may be to Lily, but it is effectively expressed to all of them.

    "...I see. That was the 'system' into which you had been thrown. To fail to comply was to accept your own annihilation. If you did not desire to live strongly enough, another surely would, even if it meant taking another life. It was a 'system' which forced all of you to do what was necessary to survive. Is that right?" He gazes right at her, as if he could somehow peer past the self she presents to the world and read the truth written on the walls within.

    But alas, all that is within a person's 'self' is veiled in darkness. All he can do is to infer. And to infer, at times he has to start with the one mind he knows best of all.

    "And so you rose above." Briefly, he closes his eyes. "But what of the Master? What was his intention with his 'Shadow Dragons?"

    This is when Fei speaks up.

    Citan does not respond immediately -- not with words. For someone as chatty as he, he instead slowly turns his attention towards Fei and gazes at him. He doesn't otherwise move, yet gives the impression that he is just on the edge of doing just that, that he could jump into action at any moment.

    "...So, you are here," he tells 'Fei'. "...Very well." He still has not moved.

    He glances in Pearl's direction, if only briefly. "Miss Pearl, if you would continue?"

    As if everything is fine here.

    As if nothing at all is wrong. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"...Don't mistake me," Lily answers Pearl. "I've killed people that I liked very much. I won't hesitate, if it's me or your brothers and sisters, or my allies and the same. ...But it tells me that we can at last offer something better, and maybe some will take it. And for my friends," she looks to Fei and Elly for a moment, and back to Pearl, "I'm trying to be the sort of person who makes that effort."

But Fei... Fei's reaction. She lifts an eyebrow. "You..."

She looks to Citan. Citan, who does not move. ...Who seems about to move.

Lily looks to Xantia, who seems calmer, finding comfort. She looks around to everyone for a moment, and then... back to Pearl.

"..." She feels that emotion strongly--that memory, the cruelty, and the mix of emotion...

She meets Pearl's eyes, and does not shy away from doing so. But there is no accusation in her own. 

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    "There is no need for you to apologize. You are not responsbile." There's no malice, or sarcasm there. Some confusion, though. Fei however... the change in Fei disturbs her. She's suddenly on alert. Her eyes dart around but the others are acting as if everything is fine. She is asked to continue. Xantia's smile... that doesn't help either.

    Lily can tell right away. Pearl is detecting threat, but she doesn't want to turn her back and run. The shift backwards in her stance is miniscule, but to Xantia, Citan and Fei, easily noticeable. Perhaps this is why she never sat. The doctor asks her to continue. That might be the easiest way to make a clean escape.

    "...We were never told, at the time. And we weren't allowed to question. The same day I was made an assassin, I was sent to study a second style. Something to disguise myself, as an infiltrator. I spent two years with a werewolf pack near Horam, learning a style I was ill suited to. And then I killed them all on my Master's order. And then I was sent to infiltrate Althena's Guard. I assumed to keep the cult ahead of them. At the time, I no longer cared. The only hope I had left had died." Oh boy is that a MESS of emotions, new and old. There's so much there, so much knotted.

    "...Jean had attempted to run. We were told she had been killed. She was the only one who could have been strong enough to kill him, that's what we thought. And so there was no purpose in fighting it. I simply followed his orders. Until I found out that Jean was alive, and all my rage was directed at her. But it gave me a cause to keep going. To keep getting stronger. So I could kill her, and when I killed her I could kill him." Even knottier, even more complex. Her failure was good, and yet.

    "The war with Yevon. I infiltrated Yevon as well, to kill Seymour Guado. I don't know why. I had changed since then. Maybe I hoped again. I was an apprentice summoner, named Ena. And I was allowed to pray to the Fayth of Leviathan and I... connected. It was terrifying." And it was. The first fear in her life that cut past her fear of the Master. "...And then I opened the Gates of Bevelle to the Guard. The war ended shortly after, and I... sought out the Fayth and it's Summoner. I was allowed to commune again, and Leviathan accepted." There's a roar in her soul, that may be... Fucking weird to Lily. Or nothing at all. "And so I sought out my Master, who was in Kilika. It was suspicious already, but I didn't think. And that night, I killed him. That was the night I killed Blue Master Lunn." She reaches into a puch and pulls out a broken and cracked wooden mask. "This is the mask of the Shadow Dragon Master that I tore from his face."

    She pauses, taking a deep breath. "And the reason I brought from his lips, Doctor Uzuki... This is what he told me." The words are etched in her memory. The dying words of a hated enemy.

    "Because violence and pain is the point," she recites, as Lunn did. "Because suffering is something. This world is empty -- meaningless. Pain, suffering, and strength... that gives it meaning. I gave your lives meaning. And if you died..." The joy and disgust of him spitting blood, the blood she mead him bleed. "...nothing was lost. It wasn't about the power. Pain is strength." The memory of watching the life start to leave his eyes. "And strength is all there is."

    And, for Lily, the vivid satisfaction of driving a knife through his heart and denying him the death he so clearly sought, making her the next monster. "That's not where my story ends," She looks to 'Fei'. "But it is where his does, and where his power over me does." 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia seemed perfectly content to let this play out in whatever way 'Fei' wanted, and remain silent otherwise. That is, until Pearl reaches the final part of the story. This prompts an overly astonished Xantia to leap to her feet.

"Wait... that was you? You killed him?"

There's all of one second to wonder whether saying that was a mistake, before Xantia's demeanor abruptly brightens. "That's great, I was wondering who it was that managed to do that!" There's not even a single second to start feeling relieved before she follows that up with even more cheer in concluding, "In that case, you and me have to fight!" A beat. "I mean, not right now, obviously. But sometime. It'll be fun!"

This isn't any sort of threat at all, this is all just fine and normal Xantia Logic at work. If by now the proper emotion to feel isn't clear at all anymore... well, it's normal to need some mental retuning to get on Xantia's wavelength. Don't worry about it. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

The Dark within 'Fei' is deep. Until just a moment ago, it wasn't even really there--outside as darkness might exist within anyone. But the Dark within Id is deep and fathomless, perhaps the sort of Dark that Lunn was seeking. Someone whom Pearl--or Jean--could have become.

But despite it all, Id likes people like the Shadow Dragon Master as much as Pearl does. He doesn't aggress.

He can feel Xantia's smile. He can already imagine her being pleased as punch and all smug about today. Best to just let it sit, he thinks, or she might think this is more than it is (and maybe it is! but Id isn't going to admit to that).

So, you are here. Very well.

Id looks towards Citan and says, "I like you, Doc, so don't worry. I'm just here to ask questions today."

He seems strangely invested in this assassin's story. From what he said, he has some sense of...connection to it, even if in practice they haven't met today and their masters are rather different people with different aims.

He lets go of Elly's hand, strangely gentle as he places his hand on her arm, briefly.

There's no reaction from the story about how she learned from werewolves and then killed them. Maybe Id just thinks that's an obvious ending to that particular story segment.

Pearl speaks of Jean being their only hope. A small smile flickers upon Fei's lips. A missing hope, a hope that wasn't there. Yes, yes...

Even Id has people he has struggled to defeat. But he doesn't comment on that. Telling people who he had struggled against is just going to encourage them to seek the man out.

"You connected to a higher power..." Id murmurs. "And it gave you a path to freedom from a man who would make you into another version of himself... Yes, I see you Pearl. It did not matter if you killed him or not, it was all about what he could make of you. His passion."

He is nearly within range to touch Pearl, but there is still no aggression from the Demon of Elru, his position is as relaxed in front of a mighty assassin who slew her own mentor as only a Master can be.

He raises his hand--

"Yes, the man needed to validate his own broken way of seeing the world. Worth to him more than existence, more to him than power..."

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swqaAoPSq4

Id places his hand on Pearl's shoulder, gentle but firm.

"But you killed him. And you did not become him. You killed him, and you remained yourself. No--" He shakes his head. "You became something more. You ascended."

"I had been lost," Id admits. "My enemy is so vast beyond the reach of my fists. So mighty and beyond the reach of strength...."

"Or ... so I thought. Yes, I see myself in you Pearl. You thought your foe was unbeatable, but you found something. Something that he did not have, and you grew beyond his reach. And then... you took your revenge. You found he was not so unbeatable after all..."

Id laughs. It sounds so much like Fei's, though without that little awkward hesitation, that little bit of nervous tension.

"I could kill you, Pearl." Id admits. "But it would be foolish of me. You were able to do something that I could not. You proved something I thought was impossible. I thought destroying this world was the only choice I had, because to do anything less was simply to leave the people of this land to the same pain given unto me. I thought none could ever recognize me. But you can recognize me, can't you? So could others. Yes, there are many people like Lunn out there."

"No, rather than kill you. I should learn from you. Perhaps the man I had thought invincible is not so invincible. Maybe I can crush him with my own hands. Maybe the society that birthed someone like me is not inviolable. Perhaps it can be destroyed."

"And then..." Id says softly. "Will I be as free as you? It is worth a shot." He smiles. "So thank you, Pearl. Thank you... For showing me what to do."

And with that the presence fades, Fei stumbles back into a crouch, breathing heavily. 

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    He has not yet had the chance to speak to Fei's 'other self'. Not in so relatively small a setting, that is. But there is little that can be said to Id here, and much that could be lost.

    He gazes at 'Fei' stonily a moment more, then grants him a nearly imperceptible nod. "...I see," he says, and that is all.

    Id is here to ask questions... because Fei cannot?

    He will need to think on this later.

    He finally turns his head away from 'Fei', if without losing that sense that he is ready to act at a moment's notice should it become necessary. He's in time to notice that change in Pearl, as subtle and shallow a current as it might be.

    She's on edge -- this was exactly what he was hoping to avoid. ...But if she runs, he will not give chase, and he'll dissuade the others from doing likewise. It might be their last hope, for he believes he now has good enough insight into what may still remain hidden in the recesses of Pearl's psyche.

    He turns his head slightly keeping 'Fei', advancing now, in his field of view. He doesn't move or try to block him from his advance towards Pearl, though -- he simply watches.

    "And you had... infiltrated the Guard? Were they not an arm of the very church to which Master Lunn had been in service? What had his intentions been?" The last is rhetorical -- most likely, the truth of those intentions had died with Lunn. But did anyone else know of what he had at his disposal, and if so, did he take actions on the church's behalf with the Shadow Dragon Cult?

    So at Lunn's behest, that hadn't been the end of her 'infiltration'. From one group, to another. "That was his attempt to end the war in the church's favor," he says. "Was that of his own initiative, or had he been asked?" It would show poorly enough on the church's hierarchy should one of their great heroes be shown to have been trafficking in abduction, death, and murder. It would damn them all if it had been known. But...

    She'd killed him. This catches him off-guard. He actually widens his eyes. "Then..."

    Yet, it makes sense. How he had died, far afield, caught in the end by a weapon he himself had honed.

    Pearl has more to say. She speaks of the reason that Lunn had given her as he had breathed his last.

    Citan closes his eyes. "So the world is 'meaningless', therefore it becomes necessary to create meaning. The meaning that he chose was strength at all costs, survival above all else. Then he went forth to impart this meaning upon as many as he could." He exhales a long breath, then shakes his head. "Now I understand the sort of man he had been. Even to the end--"

    He cuts himself off as 'Fei' -- Id -- reaches out to place a hand on Pearl's shoulder. To the outside world, the only sign that he is not a statue is the fact that even now, he still blinks.

    He is silent to the end of it, through the rest that Id has to say to Pearl -- what he might do (which provokes a slight forward shift from his otherwise stock-still posture) and what he hopes to do alike.
    The man that Id had thought invincible...?

    There are people like Lunn everywhere.

    He only moves when Fei stumbles backwards, moving to steady him the moment his 'other self' is sunk back beneath the surface. "...Are you alright, Fei?"

    It's the same question he had asked before.

    He has but one question remaining once he has seen to Fei.

    "...Thank you, Miss Pearl. We are grateful to hear your tale. Of the former Master Lunn, however... could it be that the church knew, or made use of his 'Shadow Dragons'? I find it hard to believe otherwise, and so that is what we are attempting to discover. Our aim is to apply as much pressure to them as we are able." 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Frankly, Lily doesn't blame Pearl for being disturbed. Lily is kind of disturbed. This doesn't 'feel' the way she'd expect it to. ...And frankly, it is threat. It's a threat to anyone.

Hope dead... and it lived again. It lived in something strange at first. But Lily keeps listening, her attention completely on Pearl again as she feels those emotions more strongly. Lily feels them, too. She feels hope, and more. She feels a strange roar, but the Fayth do not speak to her, and so it is only a momentary thing, an echo of an echo.

Because...

There it is.

There it is, and there's Xantia's reaction, which prompts a wry smile, and then his, which is... different.

"...Well, I suppose you'd have met him sooner or later, being around us," Lily admits, shaking her head. "I can explain that. ...But I'd like to focus on your story, first."

"I 'feel' what you feel when you relate it. I feel your fear, and your pain... and your hope. I feel what he couldn't have had, the way you describe his philosophy. ...I understand it, to a point. 'Strength'..."

She shakes her head. "...I wasn't forged the way you were, but I'm a weapon myself."

"...But your story didn't end there. And what Citan says is true. We're looking to find the truth of that relationship--the truth of the Church behind it."

"...I admit," she says. "I'd like to talk with you more. But that's your decision. Just know that we'll be pursuing this lead." 

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Pearl looks at Xantia. "Why? There is no reason to do so." She'd walked away from that sort of life. "We are not at odds." Leviathan roars again. "And you would be fighting myself and Leviathan." That won't dissuade her, Pearl.

    And then the darkness within the Demon of Elru, and Pearl knows, as she did with Knight Blazer, she is looking at someone that can and will kill her. But either is choosing not to, or lulling her into a false sense of security. Even as the man called Fei walks toward her. The situation has changed again, and Citan asks a question. "We never knew who was under the mask. I only found out that night. I did not learn of Althena until I was nearly an adult." She lets Citan theorycraft, though. There is something more relevant. Id walked toward her, and she looks directly at him. This is not the man she fought in the sewers... And yet.

    She listens as she speaks. She's not... She's a little afraid. But more the uneasy afraid than terror. That changes the second Id puts his hand on her shoulder. Her face doesn't show it more than just her eyes going wide, but her hands do. She's suppressing the shaking, but it's there.

    But her feelings are shrieking. It's maybe not that she doesn't show her emotions... maybe it's that she can't. How can she respond to something like this... person wanting to learn from her. She has nothing to teach. Her eyes dart to Lily. She too is a weapon.

    And then Fei lets her go and Pearl recoils backward, half darting half tripping, less like a martial artist and more like a scared child. There is a burst of relief when Fei isn't touching her. She lands awkwardly, catching herself from falling completely onto her back. Leo Jr puts himself between Pearl and Fei with an angry 'Fu!'. It takes her a few moments to catch herself, listening to the others talk. Leverage against the church?

    "...There is perhaps one good man in the Church of Althena who has any power. And he is already trying to find the source of the rot. I do not know if I am the leverage you need, or if having that leverage will give you what you want..." She pauses. "But... pressing carelessly could put someone I care about in danger. So I will aid you, if you wish it. Just know that there are people chasing what remains of the Cult, now they have gone to ground." She's trying to put up a strong front but frankly... She knows what she can do. What Leviathan can do. And right here, right now, she would be pushing it to face them all, and it would certainly cost her her life. And until Sin is defeated, that's not hers to trade. Hopefully... they are better than her enemies. Hopefully they won't strike out at the few who have dared to care about her. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I'm..." Fei says softly to Citan. "I think I saw my father. Id and Grahf were there..."

HE is struggling to recall the fine details of what Zephyr told him but it seems elusive right now in the moment.

He gives Pearl a sympathetic look but goes quiet with that, taking a moment to sit himself back down and get himself nice and collected.

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