#enea ithihoh

[sylvan-rain]

A commission for red-dlai of their character Enea Ithihoh! Nice and clean! This I really like doing ornate armor so the chest piece was really fun. Probably going to add a bit more to this just because. :D Thank you for commissioning me! I currently have three commission slots open! Let me art for youuuu.

[mist-of-fury]

Rydia Misuto struggles to her feet, almost drops her book and starts rapidly flipping through pages. 

Rydia Misuto: You’re here to take me back. I won’t let you. I won’t kill innocent people. I’m not a Garlean. Enea Ithihoh: Take you back where? 

Enea unbuckles her sword and throws it away from her reach.

Enea Ithihoh: I am not here to hurt you. Rydia Misuto: …What? This is a trick, isn’t it? Enea Ithihoh: You tell me. When was the last time you ate? Would you like some stew? Rydia Misuto: …Stew? Rydia’s stomach growls audibly. Enea Ithihoh smiles at Rydia Misuto. Enea Ithihoh: Let’s make a deal. Rydia Misuto: What sort of deal?

[mist-of-fury]

6: Outcast

I couldn’t kill her. I couldn’t kill her.

And I don’t know if I want to anymore.

You were there, Vindicta. You saw her. She rode one of those vile Garlean tanks. She was in heavy armor, like I’d assumed. Surely she’s still with Garlemald. Surely she still helps them.

That’s what I thought. Titan crushed her machine, almost crushed her. But when I wanted to stop to think, because...she wanted to die. She wanted to use me to kill herself. I tried to make Titan stop and He didn’t listen. Why didn’t He listen?

Am I not in control of Titan? I was told I wasn’t imprinted like the others because I was a good person. That’s what the kobolds said. Is there some other reason? Am I even the one in control?

I have to rely on His strength anyway. I don’t have any other choice. I’m too weak on my own. He’d never disobeyed before.

He must’ve known I still wanted vengeance, deep down. Even though I hesitated. He didn’t. I don’t know why I saved Cecilia. She had to have been saved. They told me she had survived.

What did I do to deserve this? Do I deserve this? To be exiled by my people?

I told that woman to go to the bottom of the Witch Drop, that a severely wounded woman needed her help. She was an Au Ra, I knew she wasn’t one of the Ishgardians, so I knew she was trustworthy. Wasn’t she? Did she tell everyone?

I returned to the home, through the blizzard, through the snow. I stayed with what I thought was my new family. I told them Cecilia had survived. That I had failed. That she’d fallen off the Witch Drop. I didn’t tell them I’d tried to save her. I didn’t tell them I’m not sure anymore that I want to kill her. I didn’t want them to think I’m weak. Maybe if I’d told them things would’ve gone differently.

I woke up the next night to find there were shinobi in my room. Staring at me.

One of them spoke. She had venom in her words. Hatred in her voice.

“Rydia,” she’d said. “You have brought a great dishonor upon yourself and upon all of us. You attempted to murder a great ally of ours.”

I felt rage swell up within me. I should have shown deference. I should have been respectful. I should have shown how twisted I felt. But I felt another spirit inside me: one indomitable. One that is me but is not me. Is it Titan? I knew they were here to attack me. I slept with my book. I was ready. I had learned how to cast with swiftness.

“She murdered my mother. I watched her.”

“Cecilia Harvey has saved dozens of our people. Cecilia Harvey is our ally. You betrayed her trust in us. You and Fusayori.”

My heart sank.

“Where is Fusayori?”

“She has been punished. Now it is your turn. Do not resist.”

I thought of how far I’d come.

I thought of the nights digging worms from soil, eating them because there was nothing else.

I thought of treating my wounds with stinging herbs.

I thought of stabbing the Garlean to death with a fork.

I thought of traveling across the sea.

I thought of confronting fishmen.

I thought of Scarlet.

I thought of the Kobolds.

I grabbed my tome. I clenched my teeth. Titan burst forth, stronger than He had ever been. Greater, larger. 

He shook the earth beneath me. He opened the ground, the walls splintered. The earth shattered. Crevices opened and swallowed the ones who were there to attack me. Titan expanded, taking mighty swings at them. They were fast. They struggled. Titan crushed them, their blades nothing to His might. 

I rose. Everyone else was gone. I beckoned to Titan. I found you, Vindicta, waiting for me outside. You’ve always been smart. You’ve always known. I wonder if you’re clever enough that you understand me?

We rode from that place. I wept tears for Fusayori. She deserved better. We ran away from Mor Dhona, leaving behind the only ones from Doma I still knew. I know I can never go back. I killed shinobi. I resisted their judgment.

I cannot be forgiven by them.

The forest knew. It knew I failed to get my vengeance. It knew I broke my oath. Perhaps it sensed it in my heart. It threw stinging insects at me. It threw wolves at us. It threw beast after beast at us, it threw horrible storms at us. I’ve been wounded. I feel it. My bones are broken. I have bled much. I am weak, weaker than I have been in a long time.

I can’t get vengeance.

I can’t get anything.

I can’t even go back to my only friends left. I can’t go back to the kobolds like this. I can’t tell them of my failure.

I am here in Thanalan, this hellish desert with horrible people. I hate them. I hate their money. I hate their attitude. I hate how they looked at me, like I was a burden. I sensed it in them. I do not understand their view and I hate them for it.

Eorzea has been nothing but a nightmare. Everything good has been taken from me. I don’t know I have the strength to make it back to O’Ghomoro. I know I cannot return to Othard. No ship will take me. No one will help me. I was lucky to get to Eorzea at all.

I curse the day my mother died. I curse the day I left the village. I could have stayed there. I could have lived with them. Perhaps in time I would have healed.

Someone’s coming. You hear them, too, don’t you? I see them. I see them across the bridge. I see their uniform. It’s the Maelstrom. 

They’ve come for me. They only sent one agent? A sword and shield? I won’t let them get me. I won’t let them take me.

I won’t join Scarlet yet. I have to keep going. If I let them kill me, I’m no better than Cecilia.

I have to be better than Cecilia.

Help me, Vindicta. Help me if they draw their weapon.