#cotota

[rookiebe]

speaking of au ra lore I've been updating and refreshing my steppe card including adding some colorful portraits!! if you want to learn more about the azim steppe and some of the tribes as I see it check out this linky

[shadow-farm-dragon]

... - Day Five: Reunion

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

This work continues the Fluffuary 2026 challenge on Tumblr and Ao3. Today's work features the topic: Reunion.

The story is also below the cut if you don't feel like accessing Ao3.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Archive Warning(s): No Archive Warnings Apply

Category(ies): F/F

Fandom(s): Final Fantasy Series, Final Fantasy XIV

Relationship(s): Warrior of Light/Cotota

Character(s): Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Cotota (Final Fantasy XIV), Au Ra Characters (Final Fantasy XIV)

Additional Tag(s): Fluffuary, Fluffuary 2026, Fluff, NPC Romance

Language: English

Summary: Actions speak louder than words. This applies more than ever as the Warrior of Light tries to catch a certain Au Ra’s attention.

Start Author’s Note: Welcome to Day 5 of the Fluffuary 2026 Challenge (Ao3) and (Tumblr)! Today, the topic is Reunion.

This is another story set in the FFXIV universe. It’s been a while since I’ve played through Stormblood, but I did rewatch some playthroughs of the events that take place in this setting specifically, so I will hopefully get the details correct. Apologies if there are any inconsistences!

You should have at least completed the Stormblood expansion to avoid spoilers.

I wanted to take full advantage of the play on words of “Reunion”, which should become apparent once the story begins. This story features an NPC with a fairly small role in the overall FFXIV plot, so no worries if there’s not much interest in this story. It’s kinda fun to write about something different!

My standard disclaimer for any story with the Female WoL: For the purposes of appearance, I will go with the default WoL FFXIV uses in promotional material (with the name Meteor), just as a female version. So, that means she would appear as a female Midlander Hyur with black hair and blue eyes, and would be using the flagship weapon of the expansion. Of course, you can imagine her to look exactly like your WoL if you prefer (in fact, my own WoL is not Hyur herself), but I just use the default to make her more recognizable since everyone knows what the default WoL looks like.

Okay, enough author’s notes. I hope you enjoy!

… – Day Five: Reunion

-Meteor-

“They believe that all words are merely lies. The Qestiri way is to show your intentions through your actions. Nothing else shall suffice for them.”

The Qestir were true to this saying. For all the travels that Meteor had embarked on, she could honestly say this was the first time she had ever seen a group of people who literally never spoke.

It was a bit unnerving when she had first arrived at Reunion, the trading hub for the people of The Azim Steppe. Even though they never spoke, they were technically the tribe in charge of Reunion, and the other tribes seemed to respect this. It was mostly apparent in that no violence was permitted, and Meteor could say the closest she ever saw anyone come to blows was when two merchants had argued over some goods.

Being fairly quiet herself, it was a bit of a relief. Meteor was the Warrior of Light, and this title came with lots of attention, not all of it positive. While she was more than able to handle herself, it was sometimes tiring being involved in so many interactions. Most of the time, she remained silent and merely nodded her head in agreement.

While in the course of perusing Reunion’s various stalls, she had come upon another who was a visitor to the Azim Steppe. Their similarities ended there, however, as he was a merchant who was desperate to strike up a business relationship in the area.

He had tried convincing the Qestir of his idea, and they had merely been irritated by him and his incessant talking. Meteor intervened, and eventually, the merchant learned to respect the customs and culture of those who frequented Reunion, and was allowed clearance.

While that was fortunate, Meteor found that the real fortune was meeting the niece of the Qestir tribe’s ruler.

Cotota was the one in charge of the market, while her uncle Iturgen ruled over the tribe itself. She was quiet like the rest of her tribe, but something about her caught Meteor’s attention.

She was gentle and kind, something that the Warrior of Light appreciated with how much violence and chaos was in her life. When attempting numerous gestures to gain her trust to help out the frustrated merchant, Cotota had chuckled to herself with a glimmer in her eyes that Meteor found adorable.

She also found her acceptance of the merchant admirable, as he had been a bit annoying at first, but she had ultimately recognized his newfound determination to adhere to Reunion’s customs as he did business here.

Meteor found herself wanting to keep Cotota’s gaze on her. But what to do? She obviously couldn’t engage in small talk. Actions spoke louder than words, and that was especially true in this instance. What would attract the other woman’s attention? What would have those eyes linger on her?

The first step in any investigation was reconnaissance. Meteor figured she should at least interact with the Cotota to see if she could glean any clues from her behavior.

Entering the hut, Meteor bowed slightly at its occupants. Khan Iturgen’s eyes sparkled in recognition, while his bodyguard regarded her warily with a curt nod.

Looking to the left, Meteor spied the person she was searching for.

Cotota’s expression warmed as their gazes connected. Meteor made her way over, attempting to exude her usual quiet confidence. People were attracted to confidence, right?

Meteor lifted a hand in greeting once she made it over to Cotota, and her gaze seemed to brighten, indicating a fond greeting from her.

Now this was the difficult part. Meteor knew Cotota essentially ran the market at Reunion, so she would probably appreciate help with that. However, though Meteor had gained the trust of the Qestir, she was still an outsider, so her help might not be welcome. The only way to know for sure was to ask, in the Qestiri fashion of course.

Meteor tilted her head questioningly, gestured towards the market area, then pointed to herself, hoping the offer of help was clear.

Thankfully, Cotota seemed to both understand and be accepting of the help being offered. She moved towards the exit, gesturing that the Warrior of Light should walk with her. Meteor eagerly followed.

Cotota approached one of the merchants, who seemed to be bothered by something. In fact, he didn’t even notice their approach. He was muttering to himself, looking between a sheaf of business papers and his supplies.

After a few moments, Cotota tapped the man’s shoulder gently, causing him to jump in surprise.

“Oh! My apologies! I was lost in thought for a moment.” Looking up, he saw whom he was speaking to and immediately went silent. He scratched the back of his head, clearly questioning what Cotota was doing here.

Cotota gestured towards Meteor, who waved in greeting. The merchant nodded waving back. She stepped forward and pointed to what he was holding.

The merchant’s eyes lit up in understanding, and he handed Meteor the papers. Looking through them, she saw that there was a delay in shipment for some of his supplies, and that the cause was a disruption on the trade route. The disruption itself was unclear, but was reported to most likely be an attack from the nearby monsters.

Aha. Monster-slaying and recovering lost goods. That was definitely something Meteor could handle.

She handed the papers back and nodded, placing a hand over her heart. She then jerked her head to indicate her sword that was sheathed at her hip, telling him how she planned to deal with this.

The merchant smiled, then looked in the direction of where the disruption was occurring. It seemed to be north of Reunion. Meteor knew there were some dangerous creatures along that particular route.

Meteor turned to Cotota and nodded, pointing towards the path. She nodded as well.

The Warrior of Light made her way to the gate, slowly unsheathing her samurai blade as soon as she stood outside Reunion’s borders. While Reunion itself forbid violence, outside its walls was a completely different story, and Meteor had to be ready for anything.

Before making the long trek, she turned one last time towards the market, and saw that Cotota was watching her. Noticing the warrior’s attention, the woman’s eyes widened as she turned away shyly, quickly making her way back into her hut.

Meteor smiled to herself.

What a cute reaction.

-A While Later After Some Canon-Typical Violence-

Meteor returned an hour later, carrying what felt like dozens of bags filled with bricks. Her clothes had some blood caked onto them, but other than looking a bit gross, she was none the worse for wear.

Evidently, the rest of the merchants had heard about her task, and she was greeted warmly at Reunion’s gates. There were cheers, and some even clapped her on the back, causing her to stumble a bit due to the weight of what she was carrying.

“Thank you so much, brave warrior!” The man from earlier came running up, immediately relieving the warrior of her burden. “You’ve quite literally saved my business. How can I repay you?”

Meteor grinned at him. “No repayment necessary, friend. I’m just happy to help.” She looked around, wondering if Cotota was there as well.

Only when the crowd dispersed did she see the woman, standing there looking at her with warm eyes.

Trying not to seem too eager, Meteor rushed over to her. Placing her hand over her heart, she bowed to Cotota, wanting to show her a chivalrous side.

What she wasn’t expecting when she straightened up was for Cotota to wrap her arms around her in a surprisingly enthusiastic hug. Though she was startled, Meteor remembered to return the embrace, reveling in her warmth.

After a moment that ended much too soon, Cotota let go of Meteor, a blush evident on her face. The Warrior of Light smiled.

Cotota looked around. Confused, so did Meteor, when the other woman surprised her yet again.

A soft hand was placed delicately on her face, causing Meteor to look back at Cotota. The Au Ra woman’s eyes seemed to soften as her blush deepened. Meteor could feel her face burning in a similar fashion.

It seemed that she had captured the attention she so craved.

Cotota slowly removed her hand and turned away, making her way back into her hut. Before she went inside, she looked back at Meteor, who was suddenly overcome with the amount of attention she was receiving from her. She looked away, scratching the back of her head.

But when she returned her gaze, she saw Cotota laughing to herself before slipping back inside the hut.

End Author’s Note: Fun Fact: I was looking through the Eorzea Encyclopedia to see if there was any information on Cotota and the Qestir, and I literally opened the book to the exact page I needed. I was cackling for a good five minutes over that fortune!

The game itself seems to insinuate that the WoL can figure out a lot of what is being “said”, even if the communication is somewhat vague, so that’s how I wrote this story. Of course, gestures can be seen in multiple ways, but I wrote this story with the assumption that both the WoL and the Qestir can communicate well despite this. Hope you enjoyed! See you tomorrow!

[zuzunzo]

[abyssal-drain]

20

What the fuck, Ringo.

He could say the same to me, and I won't deny that, but still ... hopefully it doesn't bite him too hard in the ass, given he's got a family, and all.

So, the Pearl is growing, I guess, which means they need more space to put everybody in, which means they had to relocate to a larger building, which means a great big shuffle to get everything moved to a bigger building. You never realize how heavy a couple tonzes of dirt actually is until you watch people try to move planter boxes about.

Coincidentally, I managed to scrape together enough gil from odd jobs and such to move my stuff into an apartment right near the stables Baby's staying at. I still made a point of scooping up one of the company rooms in the new place, but it's on the small side, more of an office you could maybe live out of rather than a proper apartment. Given the dimensions I think it was meant to be a broom closet, to be honest, but it's mine and I've never needed a lot of space.

Baby's doing better, by the by. I've not been writing, with everything going on, but yeah. He got over the bird sniffles without incident, and now he's actually big enough to train for riding, even flying. Right now he can only carry lalafell about, but a year or so and he'll be full-grown. That's not a lot of time to learn everything he ought, and being that I'm not an expert, I'll leave it to the experts.

My cycle came and went, with bad decisions as usual. Probably should just play like I'm deathly ill, bar myself in my room until it passes, but that never seems like a good idea in the moment.

Did you know, there's a word for the kind of magic we do? "Hemomancy," magic relating to the blood. One of the more common uses is to just do what we do, burn it to refill a dwindling wellspring of aether. From what I've heard, it's really common among blackbloods, too - being a dark knight is more about will and martial might than a mastery of magic. It's not impossible for an archmage to don full plate - it's just not terribly likely.

I lured out my stalker, finally. Quiet little thing, for a mandragora - it pretty much takes the fear of death to elicit a cry from it. I think of it as a 'him,' but I doubt seedkin think of gender the same way we do. They've got a language, all squeaks and gestures, nothing I could begin to emulate, but if I listen, I can understand.

Which is disorienting as fuck, when the person I'm talking with isn't even talking.

Cotota was really excited that I could understand what she wrote and what she meant, when she talked all in gestures. It feels shallow, somehow - I still don't know what the gestures actually mean, and I couldn't replicate them if I tried, but when she 'speaks,' if I listen, I can understand. It apparently extends to text, she wrote something in a Xaela script, and while she was writing it, I heard the words as though she were speaking them. She wasn't, though, is the thing - Cotota was Qestir, and they don't talk.

I guess they've got this idea that words are lies, which is only half-right, in my opinion. You can pick out the truth of a person by listening to how they say things as much as what they're saying. Only a fool listens only with their ears - there's more truth in how words are spoken than in what's really said.

Looking back, I remember that Au Ra fellow I met at the Bountiful Chest. He was so angry - he felt the Echo was a really invasive gift, the sort of thing that should be exterminated. He's not wholly wrong, is the thing - without the degree of control I've had to develop ... it's indisputable fact that the Echo does simply erase many of the barriers folk put up between one another. The thing is - those barriers exist for a reason. Many reasons.

No one should know how it feels to die until they've done it - and I do.

Thanks, Hydaelyn. I appreciate your "gift."

Mentioned: @gigantpole ‘s apartment, @blue-berry-lizard and @themidnightpearl

[skostoflight]

I think these two would be very good (girl)friends :)

[amememightywarrior]

he noticed

pt. 6 (technically 7 or maybe 8 but you know what who cares)

[abyssal-drain]

22

"Use an axe," with an unaspected crystal. The meaning's obvious, and in testing, I can move aether back and forth. It takes all my focus to sense it, at least, in the amounts that I actually feel safe moving about in my weakened state, but I wonder if that is something I actually can work on.

Barring a blessing from the gods themselves, there's no real way to expand upon how much aether my body's capable of containing at once, but even the Padjal use tools in their work. Foci make it easier - and therefore more efficient - to work magic. To a limited extent, every calculation inked in conductive metal is a focus. Likewise, the blade is an extension of the body, for the purposes of the Arts.

It's not like I don't already 'cheat' the cost of some of my abilities, storing up the aether used beforehand. That's how summoning my weapon works - the entire cost is in shaping it to my will, the aether is tied up in complex magic to my soul crystal, so I need never go unarmed.

Likewise, when I was first reading up on carbuncles, the cost seemed prohibitive, but I found that scratching a few extra lines into the calculation would let me store the aether in the gemstone used as a focus, bringing the price down to what I could manage in a single bloodletting. As an added benefit, I could pretty much endlessly reuse the same aether, provided the construct didn't take too much damage. My assessor called the solution 'creative,' though I'm beginning to realize that, in matters aetheric at least, 'creative' isn't always a positive trait.

I started being able to sense the power in the world around me when I finally learned to hear my dark side more clearly. Maybe the skills are related - and if so, it seems entirely likely that I can train a greater sensitivity to magic, just as I learned to perceive the darkness in my own soul.

I read that previous entry again, with a clearer head. A part of me is afraid that it's true - but the thing about being a jack of all trades is that you have a variety of talents available to use. At any given moment, there's something worthwhile that I can put my talents toward. No, I'll probably never be the best archer to have ever shot a bow, but I'm decent. No, I'll never become a Dragoon - I don't want to be, not anymore - but the traits I developed to become a lancer did carry over into becoming a blackblood.

A protector needs strength, endurance, and no small amount of courage, after all. I also have faster reflexes than most who'd put themselves between a blow and an ally - for what it's worth. The point is, every little trick I've picked up along the way, it's all useful, because - if for no other reason - the best fighter, the best caster, the best fucking cook in the world - none of them can be everywhere at once.

The trick is in knowing what is needed in the moment, and using whatever tricks will be useful in a given situation.

I only fear that, all too soon, everyone will need more of everything than actually exists.

[abyssal-drain]

A Note

Tucked into the journal, folded in half, and written in Cotota’s handwriting:

How do you chop down a tree?

You use an axe.

P.S. Thank you.