23. Soul
It was rough to the touch.
You’d think it wouldn’t be, given how it looked. The shine. The slight translucence and the sleek curve and wave to the edges.
It was a simple green gem. That’s all.
But that roughened surface carried upon it the myriad deeds of bards before. Those specialized techniques. The things that every good bard should know.
She could still remember the day she received it. It was her 16th nameday and the whole unit was in attendance, in a simple little ceremony with her father in his ostentatious Commander’s uniform, and her in her simple canary yellows. As the paperwork was read aloud, her eyes went to a familiar face in the crowd. Short, lightly pointed ears. A bright, proud smile and a thumbs up, those blue eyes twinkling. He’d later tell her after the ceremony how proud he was to finally have a bard for a partner. “I wouldn’t want to fight alongside anyone else,” he said, and she remembered how red her face got at that.
But her father cleared his throat. Brought her attention back stealthily.
“Take off your gloves,” her father said, gently, “Don’t worry. I know it will take to you.”
When he placed it in her bare palm, he told her exactly what to do to commune with it. And it was as if something unlocked in her that had lain dormant all her life, that pure potential of power.
She felt her spirit mingle with those within the crystal. Felt that roughened surface add a new name to the list of its many bearers.
It accepted her.
It felt like home.
It almost felt like a mother’s embrace upon her soul.
This was exactly right. It was meant to be. It seemed as though she was destined to carry this gem.
And carry it she has, right above her heart. Out of sight.
It wasn’t anything she advertised. She was happy to let most people think what they would of her - that she was just some songstress with no true power. A fangless jester. A singing, dancing fool.
Only those that needed to know knew.
Part of the gem resonated heavily against her soul, in a similar frequency. She had no idea that could even happen until the informant told her another gem had been found that had it too.
The night after she and Xiaohu met with him, she tried communing with her gem. To tease out exactly what he meant. To reach out only to that part that reached for her too.
She could hear a voice calling to her, all chopped and static-laden.
She’d heard that broken voice before, but never realized that that one was the one she wished she would have listened to. All along, it had been other souls of the gem helping her along. Not the broken, fractured one, despite how hard she felt it reach for her.
---
The red gem sat on her dresser in her room.
The bard could only stare at it as she sat on the edge of their bed, still reeling and dizzy from being out of her head for so long. Focusing on breathing slowly. Trying not to irritate the oozing, healing skin razed by hellfire.
She could hear it call to her.
Ayla.
Ayla.
Ayla here.
Here. Here.
The longer she stared at it, the longer her mind drifted to conversations she’d had with two of her closest friends shortly before the latest mission against the Garlean menace, the words ringing out in that second language.
“Why not keep it?”
“I can see why someone would keep it. It is a tool and it is good to prepare for the worst, or where other talents cannot keep up.”
“Me? I don’t know how to use magic like that.”
“You could learn!”
That last voice echoed a bit in her mind. What if she did? What would happen? Did she even want to? But she shook her head, too mentally drained by pain and out of body sensations to give it further thought.
“Maybe he’ll just want to bury it. It was part of her, it should go with her.”
But something twinged in her soul. Something about that didn’t sit right with her, for some reason.
Either way, it wasn’t her decision to make.
With a sigh, she slowly rose from the bed and tried to go about her day, wincingly slow-going as she babied her injuries.
(small cameos by @astrolevitation and @thanidiel!)