2023-04-22: The Last Not of Yevon
- Cutscene: The Last Not of Yevon
- Cast:Pearl
- Where: Bikanel Island
- Date: April 22, 2023
- Summary: Pearl returns to the Shrine on Bikanel to say her farewells.
There had been less than twenty four hours since Sin had been defeated, and Pearl was already up. Sore, tired and mostly bandaged, she had left the Fahrenheit saying she had something to do, Leo Jr in tow.
She stopped briefly in Luca, before requesting passage to Bikanel and back by boat. She spent the entire journey on the deck, watching the sea and the horizon. At ease. No fiends attacked the boat this day.
She made her way on foot to where the Shrine of Bikanel's Fayth stood empty. There was no sign of the one who maintained them- just a lifeless stone.
They had achieved what they fought for, and while it was bittersweet to see the shrine empty it was also a sign that they had one. The dead could finally have their rest.
"Pukyu?" An inquisitive voice came from near her knee.
"It seems... I have just missed them." Pearl says, quietly. "It is for the best. We have little time to do the deed before we must return to the boat."
She pulled out a shovel... and began to dig.
After two hours, the hole was finally deep enough. She was tired, but the deed was not done yet.
She took the staff she carried as Ena- and drove it into the pit so that only the head of the staff stood above it. Next, she dropped the gloves she carried as the only human amongst wolves- and a wolf amongst the guard.
Then... a medallion. It wasn't hers- hers had been left in a burnt house on Filgaia. But she had one she had taken from someone else. It was a symbol in this moment, a symbol she dropped in as well.
Finally, she pulls out a sphere, and holds it above the pit. It's a new one, bought from Luca for this voyage.
"It seems... I am sentimental after all." She says, to the empty desert sky. "But I felt I should leave something. Something that I could show you, to show you our victory."
She drops it with care, so that it lands unbroken- and then the work of filling in the hole begins.
The sun is starting to set by the time she is done. But done it is. In front of the former Fayth stands the head of a summoner's staff.
A memorial.
A grave.
A promise fulfilled.
"My duty as a summoner- as the First and Last not of Yevon- is fulfilled. My life is truly my own, for the first time. Thank you, for having faith and trust in me. I will value what you have given me always." Her tears flow again but briefly, but they roll down her cheeks and onto the sand. She gives herself a minute of silence.
"Goodbye, Belize. May your rest be peaceful and eternal." She pauses one more moment, then speaks again. One selfish request of the dead. "Please look after the eager novice I leave with you."
She walks over to the shade, where Leo Jr snoozes, and kneels down to the little creature. "Wake up, my friend. It is time to start our journey to home."
And under the blooming starlight, Pearl starts back toward the boat- as a woman free, with her life ahead of her.
The shrine will one day be lost to the sands. The little grave to former lives will be buried, and the marker will break.
But somewhere beneath the desert sands, the sounds of a busy vessel sailing the calm seas will play forever more.