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The trip to Old Sharlayan was mostly silent. Jannie able to use aetheryte, had left them to travel on their own, the Elezen trusting Natsu to keep Fuyu'li under a watchful eye. This hadn't gone entirely without incident. They argued about Fuyu'li continuing to wear his Garlean garb until Natsu finally convinced him to at least store his coat. Otherwise, any attempt at conversation quickly was put to rest, Natsu still not ready to forgive her friend.
Docked in the harbor, the two exited the boat, Fuyu'li shivering as snow flurried about them. “I would very much liked to have had my coat for this weather,” he chattered before letting out a gasp as he looked up to the statue of Thaliak in awe.
“We will find you a coat. Miss Tataru has a boutique here,” Natsu said, looking around for Jannie as they moved onto the busy plaza.
Not having much luck finding Jannie, the two found themselves at the Last Stand, tiding themselves over with a much needed warm meal as they waited. As they ate, Fuyu'li raved over their Garlean cuisine, not seeming to notice Natsu was still uninterested in engaging with him, the girl picking at a mound of mashed popotos until decidedly interrupting him with her thoughts. “What did you mean I have no one precious to me?”
Fuyu'li blinked, setting down his fork as he tilted his head, “If you meant when we were having our disagreement I-”
“There was no disagreement. You were just wrong,” Natsu interrupted sharply.
“Right, ah…Well, I…mostly said it in the heat of the moment.”
“Well, it didn't come from nowhere,” Natsu sulked.
Fuyu’li hung his head. “Well, I mostly said it to hurt you. To make you stop trying to get in my way,” he admitted before shaking his head, “It is just that you said that you’ve got no one to miss you. Our journey here together was for you to find a connection to your past…I had the impression that I was your first and only friend.”
Natsu recoiled a little, not meeting Fuyu’li’s searching gaze. She shivered a little before looking out toward the sea, “I think, at the time, you were. Maybe still are. I’ve met so many nice people and yet I was so preoccupied with finding my brother I haven’t really made the time to connect. Especially after you just disappeared…”
“I shouldn’t have done that. I should have went to find you. If I hadn’t been fooled you wouldn’t have been left alone…”
“It worked out,” Natsu said before cutting into her potatoes with her knife and fork only to realize the fruitlessness of the action.
Fuyu’li snickered a bit, followed by Natsu joining in, starting to laugh. The jovial moment was brief, but seemed to lighten the tension enough for the latter to start opening up, telling her friend about finding a lead on her brother, and that lead bringing her to Gage Acquisitions. She told of him of Leonnioux’s kindness and what had sent her on the journey that brought them back together.
“The imposter…killed someone,” Fuyu’li asked in a small voice.
“Yes, they did,” Natsu answered.
“Oh Natsu. I’m so sorry. I didn’t…I’m such a fool,” he said in a near whisper.
“It’s not like you killed him,” Natsu said before, “Besides, now that we’re together I can make sure you stay out of trouble this time. After I find Violet and the others, we can go back to Thavnair and see your master and his sister.”
Fuyu’li brightened up, “Really!?”
“Yes, assuming at the end of this you don’t find yourself behind bars or worse.”
The Miqo’te gulped, then hung his head while Natsu straightened up and started to eat. As she started to eat properly, she caught the gaze of a man staring at her from afar, a tall Hyur with golden hair and fiery-orange eyes. Cautiously she returned to her meal, avoiding looking back toward him until Fuyu’li offered a “Hello” as the stranger arrived at the edge of their table.
“Hello,” the man said, looking down at them both, trying to catch the girl’s attention, “Are you Natsu Obinata by chance?”
Dropping her fork, Natsu looked up then wiped her mouth with a napkin politely. “I”m sorry, have we met,” she asked, weary of the stranger.
“We’ve shared correspondence. I’m Claudien, Y’zel’s partner…er, that sounds too formal, and I think lover might sound too sordid. Boyfriend though seems to not have the gravity of our situation though,” the man said, getting lost in his answer before shaking his head, “Sorry. That’s neither here nor there. I spotted you from afar and your friend here’s blue coloring in his ears and tail were as you’d described in your letters.”
“You wrote about me,” Fuyu’li asked.
“Yes, I briefly wrote about you worried you’d gotten yourself lost before I settled on being angry about being abandoned,” Natsu answered before looking at Claudien as he joined them at their table, “It’s good to find a friendly face here. We’ve been waiting on our friend, but she hasn’t come.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. If you need a place to stay I have an apartment you’re welcome to. Y’zel hasn’t come around lately though, if you’re hoping to run into him. I’ve left him notes on the matter but he hasn’t left me anything more than well wishes. To be honest, the only reason I know he’s been home are the little notes. I imagine his work has been keeping him busy and of course he has to check in on Leonnioux and then Ioh does his surprise outings,” Claudien mused before frowning as Natsu suddenly put her hand over her mouth and recoiled, “Did I say something wrong?”
“It’s just that…have you not heard?” Natsu asked, “Leon he…he was murdered.”
Claudien froze, staring at Natsu before looking off into space. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I found the body.”
The man pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling a bit before shaking whatever he was feeling off. “Does Y’zel know? No, you would have said if you’d found him. I need to find him. Leon…he was a good friend and…this couldn’t come at a worse time…I need to find Y’zel. I have to be the one to tell him.”
Natsu frowned, watching the other’s eyes start to water a bit as he became rather distracted, looking around the Last Stand in a bit of a panic. Reaching out, she gently rubbed his forearm, “We have reason to believe he already knows. I have the Echo and saw Y’zel find his body.”
Claudien stiffened a bit, putting his hand over Natsu’s as he got control of his breathing, “How long ago was this?”
“Well, it was five days by boat to arrive, and before that two days before we departed, so I suppose just a week.”
“A week…that’s when…,” Claudien trailed before suddenly standing up, “You know my apartment number from our letters, correct? There is a hidden key on the doorframe. You and your friend are welcome there, and I will find you later.”
Natsu shook her head, “Wait. What is it? Can we help? Is it about my brother?”
“I’m not exactly at liberty to discuss it, but I’ll tell you more this evening if my inquiries do not forestall me.”
Natsu shook her head, pulling off her glove to grab the other’s hand. “I need to know about my brother,” she cried out before finding herself slipping into the Echo.
Her heart was racing. If it were not for the papers she’d yet to grade, she’d had long doused the candle for relief from the heat, sweating bare chested at her desk. Laid out on the bench beside her, her love laid wrapped up in her lab coat, the Miqo’te practically swimming in it as his breath labored. Her free hand stroked lightly up his pale thigh, occasionally stealing glances as he played with a strange dark stone, ignoring every attempt at conversation she’d started. Since he’d returned from helping pull his friend from the void, Y’zel had seemed to struggle to hear yet had not admitted to having any hearing loss. With all challenges, she felt she needed to test her hypothesis.
“Today I saw your cousin Y’shtola walking stark naked through the promenade by the Last Stand to serve Ser Vauban a single cup of tea,” she stated, ensuring she spoke plainly with her timbered voice, though did not look at him when she spoke.
Y’zel didn’t so much as flick an ear in acknowledgement. She turned to face him, letting her hand slide up to pat his stomach to get his attention.
“Mmm. Is something wrrrong,” Y’zel asked, tail flicking to curl around her wrist, flicking his ears in her direction.
“Clearly. Either I’ve put you in a state of absolute euphoria to the point of you losing your senses or you’re suffering acute hearing loss from your reckless aether bleeding and have been using your Echo to compensate for it,” she accused, having noted the other’s ears often flitted toward whoever was speaking to him as of late.
Y’zel looked away, ear folding to stay open toward her, “How did you know?”
“Little things. I have to get your attention by looking directly at you and you’ve been looking more at my lips lately than my eyes. The way your ears move and that when I was whispering into them earlier you didn’t respond beyond moans,” she sighed.
Y’zel pulled at the coat around him then sat up, setting the stone on the desk as he scoot forward, closing the distance between them, “Yes. It’s as you say. I projected my Echo and it seems it came with a price.”
“Zel,” she felt herself coo, rubbing her large hand over the other’s cheek.
“I’d ask that you not mention this to anyone else for now. I’m unsure if this is something I will have to learn to with. Things come in and out, though I’m unsure if it’s just reflexively relying on my power.”
“You need to see a chirurgeon.”
“No. I’m in enough trouble as it is of late. For now, let this stay between us,” Y’zel asked, lowering his ears at he let his blue eyes lift into her gaze.
She felt his lithe frame press against him, the other giving her a soft kiss. She knew all too well this was his way of getting his way, and she was helpless to resist, putting her arm around his waist to pull him against her strong body.
“If this persists I will make you get help. Perhaps from that Bishop fellow. He seems like the sort to make you think twice about risking your well being after a round with him,” she warned, letting the other leave him to wash up in his sink.
“Where are you off too,” she asked, sighing and getting up from her paperwork to follow the other, turning his chin to face him, “I asked where are you off to?”
“A scholar is inquiring about my work. She wanted me to meet her to discuss it.”
She frowned, watching the other dress as anxiety started to build up within her. She’d reviewed the small publication of his, and though the other had swayed her to believe that their souls were forever linked, he was unsure how well the greater scholarly public might take it. The notion of somehow being incomplete with the shards of their soul scattered amid other realms, it left her ill at ease. She’d never felt like something was missing. Her life was happy and full. “I wish you would have given your draft more time to sit.”
Y’zel scowled and brushed past him, “It’s well documented. You told me to go out and prove my theory and I did. How can you still doubt my findings when you lived the phenomenon itself? Does Erichtonious in you not yearn for the Praxithius in me?”
“Yes, I feel him within me; however, he is not me. I am me. And if we are so star crossed explain Leonnioux? Do you say you love me more because we are cosmically aligned,” she asked before covering her mouth.
Y’zel flicked his tail, eyes narrowing, “You are my primary.”
“But can you say you love me more than him?”
She watched as her lover folded her ears, holding himself for a moment. Her heart raced, an intrusive thought suddenly screaming for him to say yes; but she shook it off as always. Leonnioux was a friend after all and made Y’zel happy.
“Of course I can’t. I love you both…and you’re both…”
“Special in our own way? The gravitation and romance of being a fragment someone else within me who loved a fragment of someone else within you. Leonnioux’s and yours angsty childhood romance. You’ve got your playful rogue too.”
Y’zel remained quiet a moment, biting his lip, “And yet…at one time or another we have all appeared in proximity to one another. They might have not been pat lovers but appeared in other shards alongside me none-the less.”
“And that cannot be a beautiful coincidence? Maybe we are drawn to the people we’ve shared connections with in the past; however, it’s dangerous to call it destiny and imply our lives are incomplete without those missing pieces of a world long forgotten. Anyone that has clung to it has lost themselves and brought others down with them.”
“I’m not clinging to anything but you and my friends.”
She felt herself swallow, the other’s gaze intense. She knew he meant it. “And that scares me as much as it delights me,” she whispered, pulling the other’s wrist up to kiss it, “After Ser Vauban and myself had our respective incidents…I fear you’d set the world afrost should another loved one find themselves in peril. Look how far you went.”
With that, she rubbed Y’zel’s white aether bleached locks between his fingers as she made her point. The Miqo’te purred as she leaned down to kiss his neck. Her body started to heat up again, feeling the need to have him just one more time only to be left wanting as he squirmed free.
“I resent that everyone seems to think I’m on the brink of an apocalyptic meltdown. Speaking of which. I’m thinking you shouldn’t leave your fancy new paperweight out where idle hands can play with it,” Y’zel said, huffing and turning away from her to gather his things.
Sighing, she let him go and returned to the table to pick up the rock and return it to the cabinet he stored it in, setting it on a shelf marked “The Heart of Sabik. She shuddered a bit as she read the name, not wanting to think of what it had wrought him. Wanting to say goodbye, she turned then found Y’zel gone.
“Natsu!? Natsu!?”
She winced as her name was yelled out by Claudien and Fuyu’li. Opening her eyes, she found herself propped up against Claudien’s thigh, he hand squeezing his hand and on the ground. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to…find out more.”
“There would have been plenty of time for that later. You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Claudien breathed out.
Natsu moved, standing on her own before grabbing her glove and slipping it back on. She flushed, having intruded on such a tender moment between her brother and his partner. “I’ll be fine. I’m sorry to keep you. Go check on what you need to and we’ll meet you at your house later.”
Claudien gave a little nod, though seemed to hesitate before taking his leave. Fuyu’li frowned, putting his hand on Natsu’s shoulder, “Are you really okay?”
“I think so…Hey, Fuyu’li…those people you took. They had special gifts like me. Why didn’t you come after me,” she asked, sitting back down to take a rather large drink of water.
The Miqo’te thought for a moment, “I didn’t think to. I wasn’t sure what my master, rather the imposter, wished to do with them. It made sense though as we gathered them. Mikoto could see into the future to help find his sister and the other seemed to be able to open void gates. We’d determined that the dreams they manifested were less dreams and more dipping into places like the void and bringing about things that are connected to a person in some way. Violet then could commune with the dead..I guess I was doing a lot of mental legwork, I didn’t think being able to walk around in someone else’s skin would be pertinent.”
Natsu nodded, “And when studying those people…those with the Echo. Was everything they saw pertinent?”
Fuyu’li nodded, “Yes. It often provided them clarity or an answer. Sometimes people felt that it could misguide them about a situation, but everyone reported to feel that their visions had a purpose and meaning.”
“Then…what is the Heart of-”
“Fuyu’li,” a voice called out with a light Thavnarian accent.
Natsu and her friend’s attention turned toward the voice, finding Jannie wandering up with a tall Auri man in teal garb. She tilted her head, finding the man bearing a striking resemblance to Fuyu’li’s young master. The latter seemed to notice too, seeming to faint back into his chair from shock.
-Chapter 8 - At the Heart Of... -