Life and the Elements.
The cliffside near Limsa was one of Yuti’s favorite spots in all of Eorzea. It was hard to explain why to most people beyond ‘the view was beautiful.’ It was not merely that it was a lovely location. it was that it was alive. It was a land rich in the elements of life. The unyielding stone meeting the churning sea. It reminded her of her favorite spot back home. Yet it was larger in every way. The sea rougher. The cliff taller. The view was not to a single lonely island in the distance but a city churning with life and hope and danger. This was truly her Eorzea. She sat cross-legged on the edge of the cliff. It was hard to believe this was the same place she’d first arrived in Eorzea so long ago and yet such a short time. She couldn’t believe what had happened in the time since then. The changes to the world. The changes to herself. She had met terrible and amazing people. Had gained friends and lost them. She had changed and yet not changed at all. The past year had been the longest and shortest of her life. Yuti closed her eyes and reached out. She felt the air around her. She drew her conjury and began to twist and turn it around her. A gentle swirling breeze that ruffled her hair. Faster and faster until it was like a tornado around her. It felt good. Light. She felt like she could lift herself off the ground and fly into the sky with just a little more effort.
Wind. It was life. It was everywhere. It explored. The wind could blow down the mightiest tree. Yet it also carried with it life. The comforting breeze on a warm day. The sheer sense of freedom. The wind could not be truly contained. It followed its path through the world and saw everything, and through it people went to new lands, met new people, and found new life.
She thought of Aasifa. The man for whom the wind was everything. Like it he was chance and whim. Going this way and that. Appearing in the most unlikely of places. As capricious as the breeze yet as strong as a tornado. Freedom given form. He could be a blade against his foes or a gentle touch to those in need. He was as the wind.
She extended a hand outwards and felt the familiar tingle of thaumaturgy. A necessary study for conjury, though in recent months the guild had taken to downplaying that to her understanding. It changed nothing for her. She felt the sparks on her fingertips. It was so easy to send them dancing off her fingers in a destructive burst. Yet she didn’t. She let the electricity gather in a dancing ball of light and potential. Seeing the branching sparks dancing off it, held in place only by her will. She watched it for a moment and then sent it up into the sky where it sparked and exploded with a sudden crack, like a firework.
Lightning. It was life. It was a crash of thunder. A sudden flash of light. it could destroy. A single brilliant moment of noise and power and the strongest wall could be broken. Yet that same destructive power was also a brilliant blinding radiance during the darkest of storms.
She thought of Lloire. He could be a dangerous man. Perhaps the most dangerous she ever met and that ways saying something. Yet that same raw destructive potential could also be a source of strength. When uncontrolled it was like a wildfire. When controlled it split through even the strongest obstacle and illuminated everything around it. Light in the darkness. Fire and hope. A bolt of lightning through a dark night. She pressed her hand to the cliffside beneath her and felt the earth. Felt it spread out beneath her further than her senses could reach. The mother planet itself. She felt the simple stone beneath her and reached out with her conjury again. Felt her aether spread through the simple rock and then she lifted it. Drawing up pebbles and small stones. She smiled to herself as she sent them whirling around her head. For the briefest of moments she had a tiara of eddying and twisting stone. An odd crown for a princess.
Earth. It was life. A living breathing entity of its very own. It grew and changed. It could crush and it could shield. The earth was unstoppable. It could be chipped and shattered but it would always remain. Uncompromising and undaunted.
She thought of Tyr. the woman she loved. She was perhaps one of the most normal people she knew and yet somehow that made her one of the most exceptional. She was solid and dependable and unyielding. A strength to lean again. A strength that would support the heaviest weights. She only had to think of the children who Tyr mentored. The sadness in her past and how she turned it into strength. She protected and sheltered and stood firm all at once. She was the earth itself. She took a deep breath and felt the warmth that was inside of her. The gentle heat of her aether. She raised her hands, cupping them lighting together, and drew forth flame. Not a raging wildfire and not a deadly explosive fireball. Just a simple little ball of warmth, hovering between her palms. A single spark that could become a campfire or a cooking flame as easily as a combat spell. It was pure potential. She let it hang there and simply enjoyed it was warmth.
Fire. It was life. It could burn and rage and destroy. It could also warm and comfort and create Fire was the rawness of creation. It was the essence of the world. Through fire life changed. Through fire life was tempered and grew stronger. Through fire life was protected and preserved. .
She thought of Nate. Of course he was fire. The flame incarnate. Capricious and wild. Yet also warm and inviting. The same flame that could scorch the land of enemies could also provide comfort to those in need. She thought of the students he was teaching. Of the Order members who’d found comfort in their times of need. Of the implacable foes who learned to fear his scorching might. Nate was fire.
Yuti reached her hand out again and sought the familiar sensation of the water. She drew it up in a glittering globe, a swirling twisting mass of seawater. She couldn’t help but giggle slightly as she saw, within it, a single lazy fish who seemed to not even noticed his home had suddenly lifted yalms into the air. She watched it for a long moment before she gently lowered it back to the sea, returning the creature to his home.
Water. It was life. Water was smooth and flowing. A ceaseless unyielding source of life. It permeated the world. With enough time water could wear away the toughest of stone and drown the strongest of men. Yet without it life would not grow and flourish. She thought of Leera. He was a dangerous man. Perhaps the most dangerous she knew. He wielded the element of life like a club at times. Could destroy and drown and ravage. Yet there was a kindness to him that could not be denied. That same force of will could be a comforting hand. A form of creation. A protective barrier again danger. He was the ocean. His depths contained dangers but also wonders. Leera was a swirling mass of so many things both good and bad. Truly he was water
She hesitated for a moment at the last. She extended her hand lightly. The hesitation lasted longer and longer. The moments passed by as she fought inside her own mind. There was only one element left to complete her little ritual. Ice. Ice was... What was ice? It was cold and chill and the absence of life. It could, perhaps, take some of the edge from a warm day... but so could water and wind. It could shelter and protect but so could earth. It could be a distant beauty but so could lightning. Ice was cold and distant. It was the element of Halone and of Menphina. It was the fury and it was love.
Ice was life. For it could do all those things. It could destroy and shelter. It could comfort and inspire. It could be a jagged glacier or a simple cheerful snowman. It could do all those things. For the cold is a part of life too. What defines life is how one chooses to face that cold and what they make of it.
She thought of it. Thought of Aasifa and Lloire and Nate and Leera. She thought of the simple joy of Oni and Aimee. Of the constant struggles of Anata and Soren. Of the innocent strength of L’ania and Elli. Of the steel-hard resolve and yet powerful kindness of Hana and Frost. Of the fragile strength of C’lest and Kona. She thought of the comforting harshness of Durga’s lessons. She thought of a chance conversation with a samurai named Kaz and a cheerful fashionable girl named K’risa. Of Miette clad in dark armor and of a fragile Miqo’e named Mae. Of Destiney trapped in a mansion and of Helene in the depths of a castrum. Of a painful visit to a cruel man called Father and a viscous wolf named Aiden. She thought of Ikara and of Kin and of Rhisi and of Dusk facing unknown dangers. She thought most of all of Tyr. Her smile that seemed to illuminate the world and the strength hidden behind it. She reached and felt for the water again. This time though she drew it from the air itself. She felt the familiar tingle. This was the easiest for her. So effortless she barely had to think on it. The water gathered and chilled and within moments there was a small snowfall, fluttering down upon her head. Even in the Starlight chill it didn’t last long out here, melting almost as soon as it touched the ground. Yet it was a comforting little pile of fluff for the moment it lasted. Ice was what you made of it. It could be a glacier or a sculpture. It could break a fever or freeze a country. It could be carved or it could melt. It just depended on who shaped it. She had been shaped by so many and would be shaped by more. Yet that was life. For life was wind and water. It was lightning and earth. It was fire and ice. It was all of these things and more.
She stood up and brushed herself off, taking one more look out at her new favorite view. She had things to do. That was life after all.