To Gyr Abania (1/8)
((I’ve not really had much opportunity to play or even write Felix lately, I’ve kinda been in a rut for him in recent months, but with certain events ICly and OOCly and working out where he now stands with certain characters I know what to do with him again, and just copping out writing or alluding to where he has been the last few months, and more importantly what he has been up to in 4.0))
“Are you certain, Inquisitor? You’ve only recently returned from a lengthy pilgrimage” the man said, pale eyes behind glasses staring at Felixient, almost…analysing him.
“I am certain, sir” Felixient replied, staring back at the other man. “We both know with the Dragonsong War ended, and we no longer being enemies with the Dravanians, there is little work for the Inquisition. Not to forget that on top of that things are…difficult for us at the moment.”
“And you leaving would make things easier?” the other man asked.
“Same as when I was on pilgrimage, it will be an…extended leave of absence, or even a secondment to the Temple Knights if you so wish. Either way you need not pay a salary for me” Felixient explained.
The other man shifted, and leaned forward, those eyes boring into Felixient. “Did your pilgrimage not give you any answers, or answers to the questions you sought?” He asked, seemingly changing the question. Felixient looked away pain and guilt briefly etched onto his face, both replaced by anger before his expression settled on a blank expression.
“I found answers” he slowly replied “Not the ones I left to seek, but ones answering a question I’ve long asked for months…”
“But the answer held little comfort to you?” the man asked.
“Well let’s just say I wish that this particular answer had died” he replied bitterly.
“And so you wish to just flee from this answer? From this uncomfortable truth that has you rattled so?”
Felix clenched his fists, teeth grinding together. “I wish to do something” he said, struggling to keep his voice level. “I could just sit listless in Ishgard, with next to no cases to work on, feeling sorry for myself, or I could go out in Gyr Abania and help. I have skills that would be of assistance out there, I am good at the healing arts, and it will be inevitable that there will be enemies that need to be questioned and interrogated. My entire career has been about getting answers from our enemies and if I can use those abilities to assist our allies, then I wish to do so”
The other man sat back, a small smile gracing his features, seemingly satisfied with Felixient’s answer. “Very well Inquisitor, you seem to have your mind set and you are the type of person who would go anyway, even without my permission. I’ll speak with the Temple Knights later today and see if I can get you attached to one of their squads, though you may wish to start packing now, the next group headed to Castrum Oriens will be leaving within the next couple of days”
“You have my thanks” Felixient replied, breathing a sigh of relief, and not wanting to admit that his superior was correct, in a way. He was using Gyr Abania to run away.
“How long do you reckon you’ll be gone?” the young elezen asked, as he fetched a bundle of clothes from Felixient’s wardrobe.
“It’s difficult to say” Felixient replied “So far the Garleans have not made an attempt to reclaim Baelsar’s Wall and Castrum Oriens, though the whole clusterfuck that was the Griffin’s attack on the wall along with the primal and that Allagan abomination was rather recent, they’ve probably not had the time to assemble forces to retake it, most likely having lost most of their forces in the area”
“So you don’t know?” the young elezen asked.
“I’m afraid not Ivaurault” Felixient said, shaking his head and taking the clothes from him and packed them into his bag. “Could be sennights, could be moons. Years even”
“Well if that’s the case, then I’m surprised you’re lettin’ me stay here, with no supervision” Ivaurualt said, looking up at his elder brother.
“You’re not, I’ve booked you passage on an airship to Limsa Lominsa, it leaves a couple of bells before I do” Felixient said, looking up at Ivaurault “That way I will be certain that you will be well on your way to there. Quentenain will be looking out for you and Butternut while I’m away”
“Why not Ursa? She normally looks after me when you’ve gotta be away for ages”
“Her squad has been assigned to fight in Gyr Abania” Felixient explained.
“Oh”
His bag packed, Felixient dropped it onto the floor and looked over to the box on his desk, Butternut, his pumpkin mandragora standing next to it. A flurry of emotions swirled through him as he looked at the box.
“Still want me to deliver it?” Ivaurault asked, when he saw his brother look over at the box.
“Just shove it onto a delivery moogle, they’ll get it to him…it…sooner or later” Felixient said, his voice hardening.
“Got everything in it?” Ivaurualt asked.
“No” Felixient said, his voice hard and cold as he handed over a small coin purse to his brother. “I’ll need a knife, nothing fancy, nothing expensive, just a knife”
“You reckon he’ll understand the meaning behind it?”
“Probably not, and it’s not like I really care either, it’s important to me, and that’s all I care about”
“Brrr, cold. I like it” Ivaurault said, beckoning to Butternut to follow him and dashed off to the markets, the pumpkin mandragora in tow.
As his brother left, Felixient looked into the box one more time, to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, he’d rather not have to send another package to Kugane. He just wanted all loose ends gathered up and severed.
A handful of dried, dead Dravanian wildflowers were scattered in there, ones that he had found over the months following his ex-lover’s disappearance, or at least ones he had found prior to today. Any others he’d find would be tossed into the fire. A pair of machalite earrings were also in there, he had worn them near constantly when he wasn’t working since he had first received them, from a Starlight celebration that now felt like a lifetime ago. He had no use for them now. A small box bearing the mark of an Ul’dahn goldsmith. He didn’t open it, already knowing what was in it, he had spent a long time looking and agonising over the rings there, haggling the shopkeep for a better price. Lastly there was one of his spare glass eyes, the red iris just staring blankly out at him. He knew (or thought he knew) his ex-lover well, his glass eyes always terrified him, it, and he recalled the many times he had used that to his advantage, to tease and play. This time there was no teasing or playful intentions, he had it in there purely out of malice.
Satisfied that he had not forgotten anything, barring the knife that should surely be heading his way by now, he pondered about writing a letter or a note, starting several but finishing none, bar one.
“Sorry it took me so long, needed t’make a detour” Ivaurualt announced as he burst into the room, voice muffled by whatever foodstuff the young elezen had skived from the kitchens and shoved into his mouth, the familiar pitter patter of Butternut’s footsteps following close behind.
“Bring it here Ivaurualt” Felixient requested, as he folded the paper his note was on in half and dropped it into the box, a gil coin following it.
Ivaurault wordlessly handed the knife over to his brother, who quickly examined it. Plain, nothing out of the ordinary, a few nicks on the handle and sheath, and as he unsheathed the blade, noted a few scratches on it as well. “Second-hand?” he asked raising an eyebrow.
Ivaurault shrugged “Was cheaper, Fury the guy practically gave it to me for free when I told him what it was bein’ used for” he said as he snooped through the discarded letters and notes. “Wow, some of these are brutal”
“You told people?” Felixient asked, voice laced with irritation.
“Not the whole story, just said you needed t’tell someone that you wanted t’cut ties with ‘em and that was that. Why? You not gonna tell people what happened? What will you tell them, I mean people are still askin’ if you’ve found him”
“I’ll tell them it’s dead” Felixient bluntly replied. “Easier to explain that way.”
“And easier for you to handle” Ivaurault mumbled.
“Yes” Felixient said, not even bothering to hide or lie about his intentions.
“We all cope in our own ways” Ivaurault said, shrugging. “Even if it ain’t the most healthy way of doing so”
“Indeed we do” Felixient replied, as he dropped the knife into the box, then sealed it up. “Indeed we do”
“You runnin’ away from somethin’ Inquisitor?” one of the knights, a hyuran woman, asked.
“What makes you think that?” Felixient asked, looking over at her.
“You volunteered to come here, you weren’t one of the squads or units assigned here, you asked to be here, in this Fury-forsaken hellshole”
“I’m running away from irrelevance and pending redundancy” Felixient lied.
“Well with the war ‘gainst the Dravanians over, a lotta people are questionin’ if we even need an Inquisition these days” the knight mused.
“And I aim to prove that we’re still useful, otherwise the streets would be littered with people whose only job skills contain torturing” Felixient said, a hint of humour in his voice.
The knight simply shook her head at the humour and looked over at the landscape, the forest giving out to a rocky, desert landscape so strange and alien to the Ishgardians. “I kinda hope someone managed t’smuggle ice crystals here, otherwise I’m gonna be roastin’ in me armour”
Felixient chuckled “That would be a disaster, having all the Ishgardian support roast ere we see any real fighting.”
“Aye, that it would be”
“Is that all, kupo?” the mail moogle of Limsa Lominsa asked, looking over the package Ivaurualt carried.
“Aye, that’s it, just the one, but you gotta be careful, we don’t want anythin’ broke on the way, it’s all gotta make it to Ul’dah intact!” the young elezen insisted.
“Understood, kupo! We shall treat it with the utmost care!”
“Good, ‘cause yeah would be a disaster of some of the contents broke on the way” Ivaurault said “Oh shite, hang on a moment, lemme just quickly check somethin’ in there” he cursed, opening up the package and rummaging through it for the note. He unfolded it, a smirk gracing his face as he read. “Not so brutal as the others, but anyone who gets the gift will get the note. Brother, you magnificent bastard”
The young elezen hastily shoved the letter back into the package, sealing it back up and handing it over to the moogle, practically skipping along the streets of Limsa Lominsa, Butternut closely pattering behind him.
Don’t pay me back.
((In regards to the knife Felix gives, there’s a superstition where it’s bad luck to give someone a knife, as it signifies the cutting of bonds between the giver and the giftee. Some believe that if you do give a knife as a gift, then you give it with a coin, which the giftee then gives to you “paying” for the knife. Felix sent his-ex-lover a knife with a coin, telling him to not pay him back, effectively saying that all bonds between them are severed. A “never speak to me or my brother again” sort of deal))
