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Natsu crossed her arms as she leaned against the stairway wall with Jannie. Once Fuyu’li was on his feet, Jannie had suggested that they find somewhere more private for them to have their moment. Claudien’s apartment building seemed to be the easiest solution given that none of them were locals. Natsu wished they’d strayed farther, feeling as if she was intruding.
“I apologize. This is a lot to take in,” Fuyu’li breathed out from around the corner, head lowered as his master stood in front of him.
“It is I who should apologize. I have only recently opened up about the true nature of my being,” Varshan said before shaking his head, “Please, raise your head. I wish to thank you properly.”
Fuyu’li did as he was told, meeting his master’s soft gaze. His face flushed, still not used to the sight of the statuesque man in front of him. Varshan smiled down at him as he placed his hand on his shoulder.
“While I hear you’ve caused trouble, you did so on my behalf to unite me and my sister. I have known very few people who have taken my burdens upon themselves. That might very well have been due to my reluctance to trust others; however, I found myself trusting you with my dream and you sought out to make it a reality. Though my new companions were ultimately the ones to reunite me and Azdaja, I cannot help but feel gratitude toward you for your efforts,” Varshan said, eyes locked with Fuyu’li’s.
“You saved my life. I wanted to make it up to you anyway I could. With your sister back, I can return and continue working on whatever you design to put me on…though, I am in a bit of trouble here. I need to face the consequences of my actions, as well as see my friend’s endeavor through. If she had not stopped me…I’m afraid I could have been led down another dark path,” Fuyu’li responded, folding his ears in shame.
“Miss Eyradoux explained as much to me. After you’ve finished helping your friend, we’ve made arrangements for you to return to my custody where I will keep a watchful eye,” Varshahn said before leaning down, placing a kiss between the other’s ears.
Fuyu’li’s face erupted into a shade of red as Varshan pulled away. He was left speechless as the other straightened up and briefly touched his lips, as if unsure what possessed him to do so himself. “I will make haste then in finding Natsu’s brother,” he declared, fist pounding his chest proudly.
“And I shall look forward to hearing about it. For now, I must return home,” Varshan said before gesturing to a large colorful bag, “I have left a few changes of clothes for you as it was suggested your Garlean garb might attract you some unwanted attention. Please be safe.”
With that, he channeled aether about him and was gone with a blip, leaving Fuyu’li to stagger then clutch at his chest. The scene over, Jannie pushed off the wall and slung the bag over her shoulder while Natsu peered around the corner. “Don’t tell me you’re in love now. You have to have a higher standard than exceeding 6 fulms tall,” she said, attempting to tease him.
Fuyu’li shook his head, face crimson, “Nonsense! My love is purely admiration that has only been furthered by his stature- I mean status! To think, my young master is that man…and that man is a dragon just shy of the age of our star. I am honored that he sees me worthy enough to continue to stand by his side.”
Jannie and Natsu both rolled their eyes before the latter turned to make her way up the stairs. Natsu recalled the address she’d sent letters to, and after a little wandering found Claudien’s door, letting Jannie reach up for the key. Once inside, Jannie handed over the bag of clothes to Fuyu’li and let him find a room to change in while Natsu wandered around.
Natsu had thought it might be the room she’d had her vision in, but the place was far to clean. It was small, and while organized, had a layer of dust that made it rather unlived in. She imagined he only came there to sleep and took meals elsewhere or made use of aetheryte to go be with Y’zel at his cabin when he was there. Wandering, she busied herself with looking at things hanging on the wall, awards, photos of him younger and those with students. She paused as she found one of him as a boy standing next to a stern looking Miqo’te with sharp eyes.
“Did he say when he’d be back?” Jannie asked, having already busied herself with taming some of the dust on Claudien’s sofa.
“Later this evening. He seemed to have an epiphany about something and hurried off before giving us more information,” she answered, turning to find Fuyu’li returning, wearing what appeared to be a winter poncho and matching garb under it.
“Right before you accosted him,” Fuyu’li added, “Speaking of which. You mentioned something about the importance of your Echo?”
Natsu nodded. “Yes. Though I cannot remember what it was I was fixated on. A heart of some sort,” she said, trying to remember what she’d read on the shelf.
Jannie sat down on the wiped down couch, crossing her leg, one over the other. “Well, if we’ll be waiting with an indeterminate period of time ahead of us, perhaps we should find the office of Patient Heaven and see if we can figure out her place in all of this.”
Fuyu'li flicked his tail as he put his finger on his chin, drifting off a moment while Natsu nodded and went to a small writing desk to leave a note for Claudien. “Do we know where that is?”
“Yes. In Noumenon,” Jannie answered, “An authority on locomotion. Her and her late husband were said to have worked with Garleans prior to the calamity in hopes of creating a unifying railway through Eorzea. A case of ambition superseding moral quandaries. They lived in Carteneu, but after The Fall though she returned here.”
Natsu looked back to Jannie then held herself as she took a moment to reflect. “Her husband was lost in the Calamity then? Like my father?”
“I believe so.”
Fuyu'li perked up, moving forward to look between them before focusing in on Jannie. “You're well informed. Did you come to know this by your Echo?”
“No. I was able to come ahead to make inquiries and submit a petition to get access to her private office before confirming your story and relaying your situation to your dear Satrap.”
Fuyu'li jumped, taken aback by the phrasing. Natsu touched her fingers to her temple, sensing her friend was about to become even more obnoxious about his master. “Anyroad. There's no sense of waiting around if we have a lead. Take us there.”
Jannie stood, brushing off her dress in case some dust lingered before heading out with Natsu and Fuyu'li in tow. The Au Ra hung back as they started their trek through the snow dusted paths, her previous Echo gnawing at the back of her mind. She could see the stone clearly in her head but the name continued to elude her. Entering Noumenon, she looked up, attention on Jannie as the Elezen knelt down low to converse with a small mammet.
“Heaven, Patient. Bzzt. Room 95, Level 2. Status: Open,” the mammet chirped.
“Open? Has the professor returned?” Jannie asked.
“No. Access Request from: Archon Waters, Archon Augurelt, and Warrior of Light Eyradoux approved. Bzzt. Archons Waters and Augurelt are presently engaged in Room 95, Level 2.”
“Interesting,” Jannie hummed before standing up.
“Are they important?” Natsu asked.
“You are familiar with Archon Y'shtola, yes? They are close friends and colleagues. That they are here too…perhaps this situation is bigger than I feared,” Jannie said, attention trailing off to follow their mammet guide.
“To think. The Scions of the Seventh Dawn are involved…I have gotten myself into trouble once again,” Fuyu'li breathed out, keeping pace with Jannie's long strides.
“Again? You've never not been in trouble,” Natsu responded dryly as they started down a staircase.
“You disparage me. I do hope you won't embarrass me in front of the Archons,” her friend pleaded, his ears folding back.
“You wouldn't need help from me,” Natsu hummed.
“Is yond Violet and U’rahn I hear, Jannie?” a cool voice sounded from ahead.
“It does sound like them, doesn’t it, Urianger? No. This is Miss Natsu Obinata and her friend, Fuyu’li,” Jannie introduced.
“Fuyu’li cen-, OOF!” the Garlean started before being elbowed by Natsu, “I…Fuyu’li is fine.”
The Miqo’te’s ears drooped a little as Natsu stepped forward, giving a slight bow to Urianger before straightening up. “We’re actually here because of Miss Violet! She’s been kidnapped along with a few others.”
“U’rahn has also been a victim of the assailant. They actually managed to incapacitate him,” Jannie added, looking past Urianger and into the room behind him as the sounds of papers being shuffled echoed out.
“I see. And that hath brought thee here, as it hath Thancred and myself. Twas his quest to find Y’zel Tia, thus hath led us here as well,” Urianger mused.
“You're searching for my brother too? Was he taken by the imposter?” Natsu asked, looking up to Urianger, eyes wide with worry.
“Taken, no. Inspired, yes,” an annoyed voice sounded from within the office, “And increasingly looking like he is collaborating with him.”
Natsu turned as a foreboding silver haired man stepped out and looked down at her. “Do you know where that coeurl is,” he growled, making her take a step back.
“Thancred. Calm yourself,” Jannie breathed out.
Natsu looked between them, Jannie seeming surprised by the other's incensed mood. Fuyu'li beside her had folded his ears back and started to thrash his tail. Taking a pause, Natsu stepped forward, hands on her hips. “I'm sorry but he's not a coeurl, he's a Miqo'te . And I do not care what the circumstances are, you shouldn't be so rude,” she huffed before poking a finger into his chest, “Furthermore, you don't know what you're talking about at all. He's not working with the imposter, or my friend here would have seen him!”
Thancred blinked while Urianger coughed to stifle his laughter. His scowl lightened, almost to a grin but did not quite approach it. “Very well. Let's exchange intel then,” he offered.
Satisfied, Natsu began explaining how they'd come to arrive at the office, leaving Fuyu'li to jump in with a few details of his time with the imposter as well. Ursinger listened attentively while Thancred leaned in the doorway, arms crossed. “Alright. Is that everything?” the rogue asked before lifting himself from his perch to move back inside, “Let me show you just what your brother has wrought.”
Natsu followed, Fuyu'li and Jannie following in from behind. She gasped as she found the office’s walls cluttered with papers pinned or stapled to the walls. Words had been written over them with little regard for the paint underneath, many having arrows stringing to one another. She recognized etchings of the Warriors of Light as well as various members of Gage Acquisitions, most crossed out. “Ser Vauban…,” she said softly, touching Zoissette’s etching, finding it surrounded by question marks.
Fuyu'li let out a squeak behind her as she let go of the paper, “Great Solus’s Ghost! Aulus mal Asina’s manuscripts. I'd have thought these purged!”
“The Forum doth not make a habit of destroying knowledge, rather, they seek to preserve it,” Urianger explained, placing a hand on Fuyu’li's shoulder, resulting in the Garlean’s cheeks burning.
“Under lock and key,” Thancred added wryly before waving Natsu over to Patient’s desk to an open book with notes sticking out. “Where this tripe should have stayed.”
Natsu picked up the book, leafing back to the title, reading it aloud, “The Destination of Our Fate: Our Souls, the Lifestream, and Our Reflections, by Y'zel Tia. His book? I was told he had retrieved all the copies shortly after publication.”
“Shortly after the abductions,” Thancred corrected, taking the book before quoting from it, “ ‘One must ask: Those of us who have a hole in their hearts. Those of us who walk around feeling that they are broken. Is that because we are? Would Rejoining help make us a little more complete?’. Unadulterated Ascian bull-shite.”
Natsu shook her head, “I don't understand. What's a rejoining?”
“A calamity caused by Ancients in an attempt to make their world whole again. It would take some time to explain it in full… Essentially what Y'zel is asking is: because the world was at one point splintered and with that our souls and life stream, are we a lesser version of ourselves or what we could be,” Jannie explained, cheek to her finger as she thought, “An irresponsible thought that could be used to excuse personal accountability and rather defeatist.”
“If someone buys into this and has the resources, the damage they could do is insurmountable. This was irresponsible to publicize,” Thancred said, finger pounding into the pages of the book.
Natsu hung her head a bit. She didn't quite understand, but she didn't think her big brother would advocate for a calamity, or at least so she wanted to believe. “I think, I can see why if something like that got taken to heart, it might make someone chase an answer…”
“Someone already has,” Thancred said, arms broadly gesturing about him.
Natsu looked around, then to the desk with the book, hand brushing around papers before looking at an etching. Her eyes widened as she picked it up. They were the two boys she'd seen in her Echo bumping into the stranger in The Forgotten Springs. “She was in The Forgotten Springs! When Violet was taken. I bumped into someone and when we touched I saw these boys!”
“Art thou certain,” Urianger asked, stepping forward to take the picture. “They are her sons: Drowning Thunder and Bounding Otter. They passed on to the lifestream with their father during The Fall.”
“Yes, I'm certain. She must have been there too when Fuyu'li came. A tall Roegadyn woman with long brown hair,” she described, searching her mind to try and picture the woman amidst the chaos of the day.
“Sounds close enough,” Thancred mumbled.
“Have you met her? Perhaps my Echo will allow me to see her through you,” Natsu suggested, removing a glove before holding out her hand.
Thancred briefly looked at Urianger, hesitating before reaching out to take her hand on his, letting her fall into a trance.
She was reclining, boots up on a table in the annex as she idly turned a silver bangle around in her palm. Her heart a-flutter looking at it, Thavnairian in design, a special gift for someone special, and yet she did not want to think of her at the moment less it all become too real.
“That little devil,” she heard Y'shtola breathe out.
“Alphinaud or U'rahn,” she asked, pocketing the bangle.
“Y'zel. He released a publication and had it reproduced in plain ink. I cannot make out a singular letter. Is he that afraid of my scrutiny?” Y'shtola said in a huff.
She laughed then reached over for the book, glossing over the title before cracking it open. “I'll read it to you then.”
“No. Don't bother. He clearly doesn't want my input,” Y'shtola responded as she rose to take her leave.
Another laugh escaped her before she turned her attention back to the title and began to read through the first page, having little else to do. Before he got in too deep a blond Miqo'te with a sketchbook under his arm wandered into the Annex.
“Um…Archon Waters. Is it true you heard from Ko-”
The world faded and she found herself pushing through a crowd, frantic and out of breath. It was impossible. Improbable. But weirder things had happened.
“RYNE! RYNE,” she yelled out, husky voice raw from yelling.
She didn't turn, simply walking on holding that damnable book by Y'zel. As she rounded the corner, she lost sight of her and by the time she had caught up she was gone. Out of breath she leaned on a wall then slammed her fist into the white marble. “Damn!”
“I told him something like this from the beginning and now it is too late. People keep vanishing and reappearing, three are officially missing. I keep hunting him down and yet he narrowly eludes me every time. Where is he hiding!?” she felt herself say, trying hard to quell the rage in her heart.
Claudien looked up, seeming cross from her interrogation. “I'm not his keeper. Y'zel comes and goes as he sees fit. As for your missing people, what makes you think he has anything to do with it? All you have is coincidences.”
“He has already admitted to such by reclaiming his publications. Thou art wilfully blind to the situation at hand,” Urianger added.
She huffed, glancing over to Claudien’s cabinet, squinting at The Heart of Sabik before whipping her head back toward the professor. “It’s as Urianger says. Y’zel knows he’s responsible for this situation, and I’m inclined to believe fully responsible for the kidnappings or otherwise involved the way he’s been fleeing from capture.”
Claudien stared off for a moment, closing his eyes as he seemed to get lost in thought. Her patience was waning, anger only pacified by Urianger looming about him. Claudien soon shook his head and let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. I truly do not know where he has gone nor can think of anywhere you haven’t already looked. His sister has been in correspondence with me as well and seeks him out too. I’m inclined to believe you’ve checked his cabin in Coerthas in your search as well as among his family. I’m sorry your search has led you here; however, as stated, I am not his keeper. As much as I’d like to have him by my side, there are times when he pursues his own endeavors and as I understand it, neither of you are ones to divulge your plans to those closest to yourselves either. Now, if you’ll excuse me, a colleague has an appointment and I’ve kept her waiting long enough.”
She winced, Claudien hitting a particular nerve. Frustrated, she turned and made her leave with Urainger, near flinging open the professor’s door. Outside, a Roegadyn woman sat idly reading, not bothering to look up as they passed. Behind them, she heard Claudien say, “I’m sorry for your wait Patient. You had something you wished to discuss?”
Natsu took in a breath as she came to, finding herself with her head against Thancred’s chest as he held her upright. “It’s her. She was the one I saw in the village…and I saw that stone again…”
“Stone? What stone,” Thancred asked, letting go of Natsu.
“The Heart of Sabik. I think it could be important. When I had touched Claudien, I’d seen it then too,” she said, watching as everyone’s face turned pale, “Did I say something wrong?”
The room stayed quiet for a moment, everyone staring before Fuyu’li shook his head, “Are you certain? Natsu, that is a very dangerous piece of auracite. It is the very same stone that had leveled a good part of Eorzea and has been responsible for many catastrophes throughout the history of the world.”
“It feeds off ambition…if Patient Heaven has it and is using it for her own ends then we’re facing an imminent disaster,” Thancred breathed out.
“It was left with Claudien recently. I’m sure he has put it somewhere safe,” Jannie assured Thancred.
“Um,” Natsu said, interjecting, “Well, it was in his office. Y’zel was playing with it at one point. It was in a cabinet and still there when you had visited. Maybe-”
“It’s gone,” Claudien’s voice called out from the doorway, the man out of breath, “I went to check on it, and it was removed from my cabinet!”
-Chapter 9 - Misplaced -