Trapped, Part 3 - Final
It feels like weeks have passed, but I cannot be sure.
He’s spent my last few days tormenting me. Ridiculing me. My mind has never felt so broken. I’ve never felt so lost. I wish I could see someone, anyone else.
I’d nodded off in a room with my linkpearls laid before me. Hoping to hear from someone. From anyone. Instead they all played the same, crackling static. And any time he came near, the white noise got louder. His whispers seemed to have entered my head, and they simply kept repeating themselves. I resigned myself to this fate. To listening to his ridicule in this lonely version of Ishgard.
Any bit of hope, at this point, would be a mercy.
And so, a mercy did appear.
Across one of the pearls came a soft singing voice. It was pretty, but I could hardly bring my near lifeless body to appreciate such beauty.
Yet, it did stir something within me. As I reached over to the pearl to take a closer listen. I felt frail. Even picking up the pearl seemed to drain my energy. But listening to the beautiful voice over the static seemed to restore some of my hope. Somehow.
For a moment, a glimpse of my friends entered my head. My company. The people fighting against the Faceless that I had come across.
“They’re alive,” I whispered weakly. “They’re alive.”
I packed up my pearls into my bag and began to make way for the door, and eventually the edge of the fake-Ishgardian landscape that I had been trapped in for the passed-Halone-knows-how-long.
Looking down at the ravine. Even though this wasn’t Ishgard proper, it still seemed so bottomless. He stared for a long time before I began to take a step forward. He must have known my intentions, because he finally appeared behind me.
“What are you doing, Kami’ya?” My child-self asked me.
“I’m going to jump,” I addressed him without turning around.
“Ha!” He scoffed. “You’ll die if you jump. No one can survive the turbulence of wind and water aether! You really are a fool, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am a fool,” I replied, this time I turned to face him. “I am a fool to think that you weren’t anything more than one of Their pawns here to lead me astray.”
I shrug. “Or worse, I suppose, yes?”
The childish me clenched his teeth then scoffed.
“So, you will risk killing yourself? What will you gain?”
“Well, I think I’ve figured out what has happened to me, yes? Allow me to explain. Whatever you have done to me you had to do to the pilot of the airship as well. Which would explain why he somehow disappeared as I was transported to this strange version of Ishgard,”
I saw his eyes widen. I was on to something.
“So, I surmise that you put us under some kind of spell or curse. And I am either dead already. Or simply unconscious somewhere. If the latter is true, then the shock from falling into the ravine should be enough to wake me.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” He snarled at me. “You cannot hope to save your world.”
“Hope, my little self, is all I have left.”
With that, I sought to take a step back into the ravine. However, before I could fall, something caught me. Something long and snake-like. It gripped me by my ankle before another appeared to snatch at my wrist.
A look over at my smaller self revealed him to be the culprit. From his back, long, thick tendrils violently lashed out. They kept me from falling over.
“You will not leave this place!” His voice had become a distorted mess. Much different than the admittedly cute tone from before.
Still, I chuckled and felt his grip on my arm and legs weaken for a moment. I was winning.
“What’s wrong, Jace?” I noticed that my child self had been using my Keeper name for some reason. Likely to keep me from thinking about my foster parents and, therefore, hopeful.
“Have I thrown a wrench in your plans?” I asked, mockingly.
I felt the tendrils tense up and begin to pull me in slowly.
“Allow me to tell you something, whomever you are. There is a phrase in Eorzea used to describe people who are egotistical and stubborn. The kind of person who fights back not with his fists, but with his willingness to go against the wishes of others. The kind of person who, despite being told time and time again not to do something, does it anyways.”
As he drew me in close, I quickly crouched down to his level and met his eyes. In an instant, I threw my head forward and bashed it against his. He fell over easily.
“Hard-headed.” I said.
I slung his body over my shoulder and walked back over to the ravine.
“It’s time to end this very long dream.”
And with that, along with my childish doppelganger, I took the plunge. As I fell, I could hear voices. Chitterings and chatterings.
“His fever is reduced!” Someone said. “Quickly, towels, towels!”
And as if it never happened, I opened my eyes. I was in a bed, surrounded by Ishgardian nurses. They stepped back, shocked when I opened my eyes.
“Ser!” They called out to me.
I held a hand up quickly and reached for my back. A slimy mass met my touch. A quickly grabbed whatever it was and yanked it from my skin.
A strange creature, with small tendrils and sharp teeth squirmed in my hand. I threw it to the ground and squashed it beneath my foot.
“I knew I felt an itch.”
Nearby was the pilot of the airship. His eyes still closed, looking feverish.
“Check his neck,” I said as I began getting dressed.
“Ser, you should rest, you have not fully recovered.”
I shook my head.
“I need only but a trip to your libraries and then to quit this place and I should be fine.”
The nurse frowned, but allowed me my wish as I exited the infirmary. I made way quickly for the library once more. That feeling of being watched washed over me again, but I knew for certain this time that it were the record keepers and students and librarians. Not a shadow of my former self.
As I made way to the gates to finally exit via the Steps of Faith, I felt myself pause and look around. Ishgard was bustling. Adventurers, the poor, the rich. They were all here and alive.
Which means we still have a chance.
( @the-faceless-ffxiv )
