Pain
|| FFXIV write - 2020
|| Prompt #15 - Ache
|| Post ShB - Some years later
|| Kirishimi lore !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eyriwolk and Lynawyb are Kiri’s adoptive parents who have been missing since the fall of Dalamud
|| Word Count: 2,154
|| In which the Stray becomes broken
>>> Warning!!!! This piece involves mention of slavery, torture, blood, bodily injury and death!!!!!!!!
Ache.
Many types of ache exist in the world.
From the physical ache of old injuries -
His hands, so gnarled and broken over the years, no longer able to thread the line of a fishing pole. Scar tissue marred his face and pulls at the corner of his lip; his back is more broken skin then muscle any more. The once welcomed breeze off the ocean now stings at his injuries and gives him reason to shiver that evening.
He was forced to his knees beneath the glow of a single lantern, a motion that had him murmuring with pain. The years had not been kind to the old captain, the scars that disfigured him could attest. But a hissed growl from the Roegadyn woman at his side had silenced him.
She had promised him freedom. Spoken of his hearts true desire, the only dreams he still clung to so hopelessly in the middle of the night when sleep was outside his grasp. She was not a kind woman, but what else did he have to lose? He was a broken, lonely man, patiently waiting for death to claim him. Oh the sweet embrace it would be; at least he would be reunited with those who had parted before him.
But this offer? This once in a lifetime chance? He saw no other option than to reach for it with both mangled hands. Just maybe it would be enough to breathe life into him once more; to rekindle a spark that had been snuffed out years ago. Time and time again the little flame in his thundering heart had left him. He has suffered so much loss.
“Twelve, please...” He whimpered brokenly to any deity that would hear him. “Give me this at least...”
Just as his captor rose to her feet, a massive ax clutched in her hands, footsteps echoed.
They were along the coastal region of La Noscea to be sure, some long abandoned port that was previously overrun with carnivorous beasts. What were once pristine white buildings were now dilapidated skeletons. The only light casting long shadows was the swaying lantern, rocking listlessly in the breeze. The ebb and flow of the tide beneath the dock seemed to fade with the approach of the stranger; everyone in his company, including himself, held their breath.
From the darkness she emerged, stepping cautiously into the pool of color and light. The dock creaked beneath her footfalls. And all at once, Eyriwolk choked on a strangled gasp.
Snowy white hair glittered beneath the faint lanterns glow; familiar mismatched eyes widening as she looked him over. He would know this girl from a crowd of thousands and it made his broken heart swim for the first time in many moons.
Caution was thrown to the wind as the ran the short distance between them, the jetty beneath them all swaying in the tide. Although shackled still as he was, he raised his bound arms to catch her as she hurled herself to her knees before him, her own arms immediately thrown around his neck.
Scars along the length of his neck and scattered across his now thin shoulders kept him from feeling the sting of tears falling, staining his already tattered and dingy shirt. But he felt her sobs in the way her shoulders hitched; he could hear it in her broken hiccuped voice. His own tears welled and crested over his swollen cheeks.
His daughter. His sweet, beloved daughter.
She had grown since the last he laid eyes on her. From a little pup with a permanent scowl, to a beautiful young woman. He had never known such pride until now.
The woman pulled herself from him, taking his too thin shoulders in her hands and looked him over with bleary eyes.
“Da’...” There was hurt in her voice as she took in what the years without her had done to him. Once a powerful Roegadyn himself, who could eat supper for two without batting an eye and sang sea shanties well into the night with his crew; now little more than skin, bone, and pain.
“She said I could see ya’ again, lass.” Eyri choked on his own voice, the smile on his lips hurting his cheeks. How long had it been since last he smiled?
With this, mismatched eyes lifted from his to stare up at the company he shared.
There had been three others in total. The ax wielding mountain of a woman, Eyri had to double take at the resemblance she shared with his own daughter. A hyuran woman, young and frail who hadn’t spoken a word since they had taken him from his handlers. The way her eyes seemed vacant had unnerved him dearly. And the third, a Garlean man. However, he was more machine and technology than man any longer. Magitek parts kept him together like some old broken toy, a patchwork of metal and weeping flesh.
The roe woman moved between them, her ax breaking their reunion.
Kiri reeled back on her heels, not quite knocked back but still unsettled. “Yer letter,” his daughter ground out as she rose to her feet. So tall she had become, no longer the little pup he had found stranded on some island out at sea. “Ya’ wanted ta’ bargain?”
Her eyes shift between the company. Eyri feels his stomach churn as the conversation begins to fill in the missing pieces he lacked. Why would anyone free a slave to reunite him with lost family? Kindness? Not in this cruel world.
But he had been desperate to see her. At least one last time.
It was the Garlean that advanced next, his movements mechanical and jittery. “My my! You’ve grown!” He announced with a voice filled to the brim with joy and happiness. Did he know Kirishimi? Had Eyri’s assumptions of her past been accurate all these years?
Was Kirishimi Garlean?
But Kiri crossed her arms, shifting her weight from one foot to the other impatiently. “Sorry, mate, but have we met?” Before she receives an answer, she moves on to her next question. “What do you want?”
“Ah, you waste no time I see. Fair enough.” The Garlean man reaches a hand for Eyriwolk’s head, patting ever so softly at his now silver touched hair. If he had been stronger, younger, Eyri would have taken that hand and cast the man into the ocean in one swift motion. Instead he deigned to grimace. “A trade, my dear Warrior of Light.”
Eyri’s stomach falls. His blood runs cold as ice. His round eyes stare blankly up at his daughter, her stony features and furrowed brow only causing his heart to thunder like drums in his ears. “No-”
“You, for your fathers freedom.”
“No!” Eyri finds his voice at last and calls out with a boom that shakes his core and echoes along the forgotten stonework of the ruined port. His eyes search hers although she does not remove her fixated stare from the Garlean before her. “Kirishimi, you bull headed- Don’t’cha DARE think-”
It is the sound of metal grinding metal that stops him cold. The blade of an ax drags across his shackles, just shy of taking fingers. A practiced swing or a lucky miss; no matter which, the action had startled both he and Kirishimi.
There’s a feral look to her mismatched eyes as she glares and snarls at the roe woman. “Bitch-”
“Not my name,” The woman sighs casually and hefts the ax over her shoulder. “But nice guess.”
“Ladies! Please!” The mechanical man steps to the other side of them. “Lani, take a seat and cool off for a moment, hm?”
There’s a groan of protest, but the woman abides and marches out of Eyri’s sight, no doubt alongside the other girl lurking in the shadows at the edge of the dock.
“Look at your father, dear. The man who raised you. Took you in and cared for you.” The man kneels beside Eyri now, grabbing him forcefully by the chin and tilting his head back. He squints against the light of the lantern but sees the concern glittering in Kiri’s eyes. The tears beginning to shimmer beneath her thick lashes. “He hasn’t much life left to him. Refuse and he will be returned at once to the slaver that neglects him.”
Eyri tries to plead with Kirishimi but his voice is lost to the Garlean man.
“Where’s Lynawyb?” She asks at last, tearing herself to look away from him. “The letter said-”
“Ah. There was a... lack of communication, to put it simply. At the time the missive had been sent, we had the full intention to return both your parents to you.” He says this sorrowfully, as if truly apologizing for the misunderstanding.
Eyri’s heart echoes with a hollow thump in his chest. His wife... His wife...
Kiri lurches forward and grabs the collar of the mans shirt, dragging him to his feet despite the weight of his metal parts. Her lips curl back as a snarl fills the night air. “Where is she?!”
But the man is once more unaffected and merely chuckles. “...Why not ask your father? Eyriwolk, be a sport and tell her?”
Her grip loosens and the man slips away as her eyes slide back down to Eyriwolk. Her lips tremble even as her jaw slackens. “...What?”
“Gods, please!” Eyri fights through a sob that makes his throat hoarse. He casts his eyes away, shaking, his whole body shaking. “She shouldn’t have’ta hear it.” The memory will always be fresh in his mind. From the scent of ash and smoke, to the wails and cries echoed on the wind.
But without telling her, Eyriwolk has already shown her.
Kiri crouches suddenly with a hand to her temple.
Lynawyb, his beloved wife... The woman she called mother...
Eyriwolk’s last memory of her is of a frail woman cradled in his arms. Crimson blossoms across her apron. Blood splutters in her mouth and spills over her lip as she stares up at her husband with hopeful, broken eyes. She had been cut down in an attempt to free themselves, and others, from their hell. Countless others lay motionless around them while the house of their captor burned.
“Don’t’cha cry....” Lyna had whispered. “I’ll go see... Fraethota first... I’m sure she’s waitin’...” Trembling as she was, the dying woman clutches her husbands hand. “...A-And if you see her.... Tell our little pup.... Her ma’ loves her....”
To the ache of the heart-
Hours had come and gone. She tried to drown out the pain as her lip was split from a punch; desperate to busy her mind with thoughts of Hien and the others as she heard her arm snap and Lani curse her to the Hells and back.
Hien...
His coronation was only days away. He had been a child at a carnival with excitement for it as he and his company delighted in the details of the festivities they would have. He would be King or Emperor or something along those lines, Kiri couldn’t focus long enough to remember which it was... But she knew he would be perfect for the job. He would do his father and mother proud while ruling Doma. But... he would have to do it alone.
Eyriwolk...
Kiri tried to forget the events that transpired only hours ago before she had been thrown like cargo onto an airship. The trade agreement had been complete, she should have been elated. Her father was a free man once more. It would be a shell of a life, broken as he was... But what better gift was there than freedom?
The chains at her wrist rattle and slither across the floorboards as she lays herself down. Lani had exhausted herself for the evening, talk of resuming her punishment in the morning was the last Kiri had heard before she slammed the door to her cell and locked it.
Lynawyb...
A sob, painful as it was to even breathe, ripped through Kiri as she lay curled in on herself, knees to her stomach and shackled hands buried against her drumming heart. The echo had granted her one last chance to see Lynawyb alive. All she had ever wanted for all these lonesome years was to know her family was still breathing and living... but what sort of life had that been? How long had Lynawyb been waiting for rescue? How many nights had she stared up helplessly at an expanse of star dusted sky and wished on every falling star for her freedom? Just how many nights... did Lynawyb dream of the day the Warrior of Light... her own daughter... save her from her misery?
Coward...
She had been a coward for not searching for them all these years. Fear of what she might find had kept her from investing herself to the task... And now?
She paid the price...
