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Perfect grammar, capitalization, and punctuation
Like absolutely flawless English teacher-style writing with only a single exclamation mark, ever
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All Katia could taste was blood. The coppery taste coated her mouth and slipped down her throat. She coughed, and red splattered onto the ground, just centimeters from her face.
It was too heavy. Everything was too heavy, and hot, and suffocating. She was dying, trapped inside of a collapsed…something, the debris sticking into her body from every angle, even as a terrible weight pressed down upon her. Her screams for help, muffled by the debris she was encased in and the fact most of her voice was gone, went unheard. Or perhaps someone did hear, and just simply didn’t care, because what if the whole world had ended, and they had bigger problems to deal with than helping a girl who could not for the life of her remember who she was or why she was stuck pinned under this rubble in the first place?
So she stopped screaming. She was losing energy, energy that was better spent on trying to free herself.
Inch by agonizing inch, she pulled. She didn’t know if she was going the right way, but it was better than sitting and waiting and suffocating to death, or bleeding out or…or… no. She wouldn’t consider anything but escape. She would live. She had to, even if every second the heat became more and more unbearable, even if smoke and dust shoved its way into her lungs more and more and she involuntarily had to cough until her chest hurt–
~~~
Katia awoke, bolting upright in bed, her chest heaving as she tried to suck in air. Fresh, clean air, but she didn’t notice, not at first, not as her mind rushed to catch up with the reality around her. But, soon, she realized she wasn’t looking at the debris of a destroyed building that had once trapped her, oh so many years ago. She stared at darkened tent walls, and below her were not sharp objects and blood-stained dirt, but rather a soft bed.
With that knowledge, the weight on her chest eased, and her short, rapid, gasping breaths evened out, and soon her lungs filled with cool, night air with ease.
Safe. She was safe, alive, and she was safe.
Katia closed her deep gold eyes, feeling her ears press against her head as she drew a long breath through her nose, and out her mouth in a soft hiss, before she opened them and looked to her side.
Her Elezen husband, Claude, lay beside her, his back turned away from her as he pretended to sleep. Her sensitive ears, however, picked up uneven breathing.
He was awake, and, as usual, ignoring her as he did whenever she woke from a nightmare.
It was fine, she told herself, ignoring the pang in her chest. It wasn’t like he had to wake up every time she had a nightmare. He was an adventurer, too, and though he didn’t have the same busy schedule as she, his services were still in rather high demand. She wouldn’t want him to falter in battle with a monster because he’d been up soothing her. Not that he was particularly soothing–he was a warrior, through and through.
And tomorrow was a rather important day, after all. They were entering the Crystal Tower. She too should have been asleep.
Except other than the Crystal Tower situation and running a few errands for the Scions, she wasn’t as busy as she would have liked to be, allowing for her mind to stay into thoughts she’d rather stay buried.
Katia slowly lay back down, staring up at the tent ceiling, waiting for exhaustion to take hold of her again. It didn’t, not as restless thoughts and worries about what awaited her in the realm of sleep made her muscles tighten with energy.
It was an annoyed sigh from her husband that had her sitting back up, pulling a light robe over herself as she climbed out of the tent, trying (and failing) to make as little noise as possible.
She should have married someone with less sensitive hearing. In fact, maybe she shouldn’t have…
Katia shook her head. She wouldn’t finish that thought.
The soft glow of the Crystal Tower bathed Mor Dhona in such brilliant blue light, she might have thought it was day time, if it weren’t for the blanket of stars stretched out above her. She found a grassy hill and sat upon it, curling her bushy black tail around her as she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, watching the tower in contemplative silence. Around her, she could hear the distant cries of monsters mixed with the sound of night bugs singing their lullabies, and she closed her eyes, willing for her muscles to relax so she could hopefully feel the call of sleep again.
She was in the middle of failing at this when her ears flicked at the sound of soft footsteps in the grass headed her way.
“Katia,”
She turned her head to find G’raha Tia headed her way, a book under one arm, unsurprisingly.
“Good evening G’raha,” Katia said politely, watching him remove his bow so he could sit down next to her.
“I’m afraid it’s well past evening,” he said. He sat down close enough that she could feel his body heat. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“I could ask the same of you. We’re going into the tower tomorrow. We’ll need all the rest we can get.”
“Then why are we awake?” He grinned.
She couldn’t help but return his grin. What was it about G’raha that made her feel so at ease? “Well, you’re awake because you’ve got your nose in a book, and I’m awake because…I, uh, couldn’t sleep.”
Even as comfortable as G’raha made her feel, she didn’t want to bring up her nightmare. She doubted he would pry, but she didn’t want to feel like she had to explain.
“And Claude didn’t have any trouble sleeping?” G’raha glanced over his shoulder towards their tent. No doubt he could also hear Claude’s soft snores now that she was gone.
She did her best to ignore the pang of loneliness at the mention of her husband. “No troubles, it would seem.” And there was nothing wrong with that…nothing.
Despite her best effort, G’raha picked up on her mood, and he frowned slightly. “Are you alright Katia?”
“Never better,” she said, and she forced a bright smile, but from the deepening frown on G’raha’s face, she could tell he didn’t believe her and she dropped it. “I’m just. Tired, is all.”
“I see,” G’raha looked away towards the tower. “If I may, how did you and Claude meet?”
“We were in the Adventurer’s Guild together. We’d fought in a few dungeons and we worked well together.”
“That makes sense,” G’raha said, “and again, I apologize if this is personal, but when did you start dating?”
At first she bristled, her ears flattening against her head…but her shoulders quickly slumped in defeat. G’raha wasn’t the only one who clearly wanted to ask. She and Claude were almost nothing alike in every way that mattered. G’raha was just the only one brave enough to ask her, apparently.
“We didn’t really date. Claude is handsome, and we work well together in battle. Then there’s some of the benefits of marriage, so we kind of skipped the dating phase and went straight into marriage.”
It sounded silly when she said it out loud, but the whole thing had made sense when Claude had proposed the idea to her. Not a proposal, not in the way that she sometimes saw happen with other more traditional couples in the City States. There hadn’t been getting on one knee, no flowers, no declarations of love. Just, Claude looking at her after a particularly grueling dungeon and outlining how the union would benefit them. That’s how he always was–logical. She appreciated that about him, or she had when they weren’t legally bound to each other.
“There are certainly…advantages to such a union,” G’raha said carefully. His ears and tail twitched with nervousness. “You just seem like different people, is all, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re happy.”
He paused, looking back at her with those blue and red eyes of his. “Are you? Happy, I mean.”
She willed herself to look away, to smile and say, “of course.” That’s what she always said. But looking into his eyes, she couldn’t help but feel her defenses start to crumble.
“We work well together,” she said, and she felt as though the smoke was back in her lungs, making it difficult to speak.
“You keep saying that, but that doesn’t mean you’re happy.”
She bit her trembling lip.
“The sex is good,” or it was, before he’d found out the real reason behind the scars that marred many places on her body. At least, that’s when he stopped responding to her advances with excuses of being ‘too tired.’ But perhaps she was reading too much into it. Maybe he really was tired.
G’raha blushed, but he laughed a bit as well. “Well, that’s good, but traditionally Keeper’s of the Moon don’t marry to have sexual relationships…in fact, they don’t really marry at all.”
Katia tried not to wince. She hadn’t known that at all…actually, she didn’t know hardly anything about Keepers of the Moon or Seekers of the Sun other than the fact they existed, and she only knew they existed because Y’shtola told her about them when she commented that her name was unusual.
Because it probably wasn’t her given name. Anything that had happened to her before the calamity was a blur, including her name. She’d chosen Katia Mariana for herself after flipping through a baby name book she’d been given by a kind but overworked healer in Ul’Dah.
But no one but her and Claude knew that. So, all she said was, “I’m not really one to follow tradition, I suppose.”
“Fair enough. But I think it’s also fair to say that there’s probably more to a healthy marriage than good sex. Or so I’m told, having never been married myself.”
“No, you’re right,” as much as she hated to admit it. She sighed and ran her fingers through her short black and purple highlighted hair. “If I’m honest, I thought marriage would be different. Not necessarily lovey dovey all the time, I don’t think my expectations were unrealistic…but maybe Claude had different expectations and we just didn’t communicate those very well.”
“Maybe you could still talk about those?”
“I’ve tried,” she said before she could stop herself, and she winced. “I’m really sorry. I know I’m supposed to be the Warrior of Light and everyone has this idealized image of what that should be, but I still feel very…me.”
“How do you think we perceive you?” G’raha frowned.
“I think everyone meets me and expects me to be like…well, like Claude. Stoic and strong and never showing any weakness.” She could feel her face heating up as she admitted it aloud. “Claude would have made a better Warrior of Light, I think.”
“I don’t think so,” G’raha said thoughtfully. “Showing emotion doesn’t make you weak. Actually, I kind of think you’re more like what I pictured you to be when I heard about you.”
Katia blinked in surprise. No one had ever told her that before. “Really?”
G’raha shrugged. “Yeah. People like Claude are more like heroes you read in a really old fairytale. The story might be interesting, but it can be hard to connect to because the hero is never portrayed with any sort of relatable emotion, and you have to wonder if their motives are genuine or if they’re in it for the glory.” His head tilted as he observed her, and she tried not to blush harder under his gaze. “But you…you’re the hero for a modern era. You aren’t afraid to show how you feel about something, and that makes people feel more comfortable around you because they realize you’re not that different from them, which doesn’t just make you more relatable, but it makes people think that maybe they too can be a hero in their own communities. I think that’s inspiring.”
Katia stared at him. She’d never heard it put that way before. Given Claude’s reactions every time he deemed her behavior too emotional, she’d thought she was an embarrassment, not only to her title, but to the very Scions themselves. But maybe this was exactly what Eorzea needed? Maybe she was good enough as she was, scars and broken memories included, and that was a thought that made her feel strangely warm, as though someone had wrapped a blanket around her.
“Has anyone told you that you’re rather wise, G’raha?” Katia asked, and she smiled as he immediately flushed bright red, his ears flattening in embarrassment.
“No, I was just…I was just making observations, is all, probably where I shouldn’t have–”
She held up a hand to stop him. In the night, her dark gray skin almost blended in like a shadow. “It was enlightening, and I needed it. So, thank you for making the observation.”
G’raha’s shoulders eased, and he smiled. “I’m glad to be of assistance, Warrior of Light.”
Something about the way he said her title made her chest warm, and she quickly stood, stretching. “Well! We have a busy day tomorrow, so we should get in bed.”
“You’re probably right,” G’raha laughed, picking up his book and bow and standing. He stood about her height, which was saying something, since she was often the shortest one in the room. He gave a slight bow that she wasn’t sure was teasing or not. “Good night, Katia.”
Katia smiled back. “Good night, G’raha,”
When she climbed back into her tent, listening to Claude’s snores as exhaustion finally over took her, she glanced over at his backside.
Why am I married to you?
It was a question that continued to plague her, over and over again, in the days and weeks that followed, as they delved into the secrets of the Crystal Tower together. With every disapproving look, with every ignored need or desire, she wondered, why am I married to you?
It wasn’t until she watched G’raha walk into the Crystal Tower for the last time, watched as he glanced back at her over his shoulder and smile, did she answer her question.
I am the Warrior of Light, and I don’t deserve to feel this lonely.
The divorce was amicable, and with no children or shared property between them, it was finalized quickly. It was as she walked out of Gridania having just signed the divorce papers that she stopped and looked up to the sky, sucking in a deep, filling breath into her lungs, a weight removed from her shoulders.
If only you were still here to thank, G’raha, she thought, a small smile playing on her lips. The only answer was the wind brushing through the trees. One day you’ll wake up and hear of my stories and you’ll know I was happy.
She would make sure of that.
Author note: Claude is not a representation of any actual character or person I know irl or in game
Summer is almost over so here's a little something to celebrate the end of the many unbearably hot days, where any fingermove was too much. Luccia was also quite "surprised" when Raha wanted to keep her company at the summer event while wearing the latest glam, albeit only bottom part.
Unfortunately, the sunscreen did not survive.
If it were up to me, she would hug him right after he says 'tis good to be awake, but I can't gpose in the sunny version of the Dying Gasp arena so this is my compromise.
I am getting near the end of Shadowbringers and I just did the fight with Vauthry and I just keep thinking about how when you first get to the Crystarium you can ask the Crystal Exarch about G'raha and the Exarch is just like "Who?" :) But you know that boy was over come with the joy that he was remembered by the one he holds so dear and worked so hard for for so long. Shits got me 🥲
areudirty
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