Yuna felt her stomach lurch as she watched Dagger drop off the ledge; but a moment later, the feeling faded. They could trust the aeons. Placing faith in them and in Dagger’s faith, she stepped off after her, and discovered what she had discovered: that there was, indeed, support of some sort beneath their feet, though it seemed to be made of nothing material.
Carefully, she followed in Dagger’s footsteps, until inexplicably, she stepped forward into the space that had held Dagger up a moment before, and felt herself teetering on the edge of thin air. She almost fell, and righted herself quickly, her heart pounding.
Why had the platform been there for Dagger, when it hadn’t been there for her?
And then it came to her: faith. She was relying on Dagger to help her find the path, but she didn’t have faith in her own ability to do the same.
She closed her eyes, calmed her heart, and imagined lines of energy spreading out from beneath her feet. Carefully, she traced the path that they marked out for her, and soon she found herself at the other side, beside Dagger, though via a different route.
She smiled back, admiring the humming lines of energy that had spread out across the room.
"Shall we go?" she asked.
The two of them made their way from platform to platform, walking across the glowing lines. It felt very strange, like walking on the ground and at the same time walking on nothing - as if they were being held up not by any substance, but by someone’s will. Once, when Yuna allowed herself to become distracted, she felt the energy field wobble and falter beneath her, and she quickly pulled herself back on track: a not-so-subtle reminder from Lord Bahamut, she thought, to be ever vigilant.
They soon found the other recesses where they were meant to place spheres, and with a combination of prayer and trust, the room was soon filled with crisscrossing lines of light. Now they could see, thanks to the lights illuminating it, that the largest of these glowing highways led to a door: a black door, like the black platforms, with channels carved into it that light flowed around and through, making it look like a ghostly iron gate. They stepped towards the door, and opened it simultaneously.
Yuna squinted as they found the next room lit up, though still rather dimly. It was a small chamber, circular in design, its walls draped with deep purple curtains and shot through with pulsing lines of purple light. In the centre were two raised platforms, almost like weighing scales, upon each of which was carved something in the holy script.
As Yuna went near to examine them, however, a small bird flew overhead, alighted on the left-hand platform— and was instantly charred by a gout of white-hot flame. As she stared on in horror at the bird’s demise, a second bird flew in, landing on the right-hand platform. Yuna cried out in warning, but the second bird was completely unharmed; and after a moment, both the bird and the bones vanished into thin air, as if they had never been there at all.
Shaken still, Yuna crept as close to the platforms as she dared, until she could read the script clearly. She turned to Dagger, reading out the words that, she now felt, were somewhat unnecessary.
"The left one says, The one who is to sacrifice. And the right one says, The one who is to be spared.”
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