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avirael · 8 months ago

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FFxivWrite 2024

Day 04 - Reticent

Their trip to the Sea of Clouds could have been wonderful. If not for the company.

It all had started when Alphinaud offered help to Lord Fortemp with some tasks as a sort of payment for letting them stay. Rael had thought it a very good idea too. They never liked being indebted to someone and more importantly they hoped that a change of scenery and something useful to do would help A‘viloh‘s mood a little.

Admittedly the Miqo’te enjoyed their stay in Ishgard more than Rael had expected but after most of the sightseeing was done and with nothing meaningful to do he seems to be more and more bored and disheartened again. While Tataru spent her days talking to merchants and customers at the Forgotten Knight, and Alphinaud and Rael had decided to rummage through the libraries of House Fortemps or the Athenaeum Astrologicum, A‘viloh barely left the warm comfort of the manor and wandered the house with growing impatience. Of course Rael, and also Haurchefant, had tried to find something for A‘viloh to do but none of it had worked out so far.

So the idea of helping Lord Fortemps sons with some duties outside of Ishgard had sounded like a perfect opportunity to Rael. Only the fact that neither of said sons actually reacted in an adequate manner to this proposal was somewhat irritating.

While Artoirel had answered with arrogance and rejection, which visibly hadn’t helped making A’viloh’s insecurities better but still somehow worked out in the end, Emmanellain had simply seen this as his chance to pass his work on to someone else.

Rael hadn’t spoken much yet to the youngest son of Lord Fortemps but already couldn’t help but find him annoying. A‘viloh had taught them not to judge people by first impressions and so Rael had decided to remain as open-minded as possible. But the young Elezen and his rather unique temper really weren’t making it easy for Rael. To them he seemed self-centered, spoiled and lazy but with a habit of poorly hiding all of this behind a thick layer of jokes and false excitement.

“Let’s go, boys! To the airship landing!”, Emmanellain exclaimed and euphorically wrapped his arms around both A’viloh’s and Rael‘s shoulders, pulling them along. Due to the sad circumstance that the young Elezen seemed entirely oblivious to Rael‘s deadly glare, the viera had to restrain themself not to try and break their host’s arm.

The flight to Camp Cloudtop luckily didn’t take too long. It could have been quite an enjoyable journey, the weather was nice and the view beautiful. But of course Emmanellain Fortemps couldn’t keep his mouth shut for more than a minute at a time. He either was bragging about something or complaining about whatever just crossed his mind, preferably his workload or people neither of them had ever met before. Had the flight taken much longer than it did, Rael might have considered to throw him out of the airship and somehow make it look like an accident.

The Sea of Clouds itself was a breathtaking place. Of course Rael hadn’t been entirely wrong with their Nym-hypothesis but never would they have expected flying island of such scale as well as flora and fauna. Not only grew strange colorful flowers and plants everywhere but also some tall trees, strong enough to build treehouses between them. It was worlds away from the lushness and the villages of the Golmore Jungle but it was the first bit of vivid vegetation Rael saw in a while and somehow it still made them feel better. The fact that A‘viloh stared a the flying green islands floating between the clouds with eyes so shining as if he just witnessed a miracle was a welcome bonus for Rael.

So for a short moment the world had been okay.

Then Emmanellain Fortemps once again felt the need to share his opinion and make it everybody else’s problem.

“Awfully cold up here…”, he complained while shuddering in a very exaggerated way. “I mean, Coerthas may not be blessed with the warmest weather in the world, but compared to this, it seems positively balmy…”

Rael didn’t think it was that much colder than Falcon‘s Nest and they were sure A’viloh wouldn’t have noticed but now that it was pointed out…

“It‘s really quite cold. Pretty surprising with all these flowers around don’t you think?”, the Miqo’te agreed and adjusted the scarf around his neck. Rael decided just to shrug for the sake of everybody’s peace and quiet.

Well, quiet of course wasn’t the right word in Emmanellain‘s case.

“Brrr… I am freezing”, he whined. “But of course Rael here is wholly unperturbed. You don’t have to maintain that strong, silent persona all of the time, you know.”

But that’s exactly what Rael did. They stayed silent and hoped that sooner or later (preferably sooner) the scowl on their face would send the right signals to the Elezen. But if Emmanellain Fortemps felt so cold, maybe they should offer some help after all. With a Flare spell maybe… but before Rael could be tempted into action Emmanellain had run off, already changing the topic of his endless jabbering to a certain beautiful Lady, named Laniaitte, he wanted to find.

For pretty much all the time it took to walk to the Rosehouse, the headquarters House Haillenarte had established here, he didn’t stop loudly daydreaming about this woman. To be honest Rael was kind of curious to see the kind of person willingly tolerating Emmanellain for longer than strictly necessary but in the end it turned out that she actually didn’t either.

Laniaitte Haillenarte was Francel‘s sister and just as friendly. To finally be able to meet her brother’s saviors seemed to make her very happy and so she greeted A’viloh and Rael in a very polite and welcoming way.

For the rude interruption of Emmanellain‘s attempts to flirt with her, she didn’t have no patience whatsoever though.

Politely but firmly she rejected him, in a way that even managed to make the young Elezen shut up for a moment. Immediately Rael liked her.

She kindly explained to them the role this outpost had for Ishgard as well as the currently situation, especially regarding an apparently hostile beast tribe of birdlike creatures. Every other remark by Lord Fortemps youngest son was simply ignored. She seemed to have some experience already in dealing with him and Rael admired her for her calmness and patience. Meanwhile the viera just thought the more nonsense the Elezen talked the more punchable his face looked.

Rael remained silent and left most of the talking to A‘vi until at some point Emmanellain spoke to the viera directly.

“Why so reticent, Rael? My dear half-brother often praised you for being so clever. Don’t you have any hypothesis on why the beast man suddenly attacked our people? I am a little disappointed that you don’t live up to Haurchefant’s description.”

Obliviously he grinned while A‘viloh and even Laniaitte seemed highly alarmed by the deadly stare Rael gave him.

“I‘m sorry.”, Rael said way too sweetly. “Please don’t mistake my silence for something it is not. I simply prefer not to talk to —”

Nervously A‘viloh laughed, as if someone just said something horribly funny.

“Sorry! What Rael was trying to say is that it would be unwise to jump to conclusions! It could all just have been a horribly misunderstanding, you know?”

Rael just kept staring viciously and bit their tongue, while even Laniaitte nodded along appeasingly and changed the subject. Instead of more attention Emannellain was given the most simple tasks possible, if only to keep him busy and out of trouble. She managed to make it sound very important though, so he would be motivated enough not to pass all of it on to his poor servant Honoroit.

Fortunately that meant A‘viloh and Rael had some time to explore the area without having to babysit Lord Fortemps son. For a while they just walked wherever it seemed interesting, stopping here and there to look at some especially weird plants, a beautiful view or an unusual creature. Rael made a mental note for themself to later ask Lady Laniaitte about whether or not some of the alchemist had already tested the plants here on their medical abilities, while A‘viloh spotted a strange flying cat and decided to chase it to get a better look at it.

“A‘vi!”, Rael yelled as the Miqo’te got dangerously close to a cliff for their taste. Just that it wasn’t only a slope or ravine beneath them but the endless blue sky and far far below, barely visible through the clouds, the solid ground of Dravania. In Emmanellain‘s case they wouldn’t have minded and probably blamed his own stupidity if an accident occurred but in A‘vi‘s case… “Please don’t step so close to the edge. Believe me or not but that would be a fall you would not survive even with my aid and I doubt Lord Haurchefant will come swooping down from the sky on a flying chocobo to save you this time!”

“Haha, very funny!”, A‘viloh yelled back but decided it was safer to listen to the viera and give up the chase. Instead he came jogging back to Rael, who had sat down to sketch some of the plants into their grimoire. For a second he observed Rael’s work and then lay down in the grass next to them with a deep sigh. „Isn‘t it wonderful here? I told you we‘d have a vacation!“

“Mm-hm…”, Rael only answered, looking up from their sketch to watch A‘viloh staring into the blue sky. He tilted his head towards them and asked, “Don’t you like it here or is it just Emmanellain?”

The viera rolled their eyes and lay down in the grass too in a gesture of exhaustion. “No it’s very nice here. It’s just Emmanellain… He is horrible!”

A’viloh shrugged and chuckled. But before he could dare to say anything in Emmanellain‘s defense a shrill scream appeared. Alarmed they both sat up again and watched Honoroit hurry towards them. Rael realised the poor boy wasn’t to be envied, after all he had to deal with Emmanellain’s nonsense all day, every day of the year. No one could blame him if he finally lost his mind.

“Help!”, he screamed and when he stopped in front of them to catch his breath he looked quite worried. “Master A‘viloh! Master Rael! You need to help me! Lord Emmanellain! He has been taken by the Vanu! They had my lord surrounded - a whole gang of them! Please, you must come quickly!”

“Where?”, Rael simply asked instead of wasting more time with explanations. For all the moments they had imagined to get rid of the annoying young Elezen, they knew better than to have their host‘s son killed on their watch.

Honoroit pointed into the direction he had come from and ran off again.

“So much for our vacation.”, A‘viloh sighed. “Let’s take a look at these birds. I still hope they are just friendly cute creatures, but who knows. Maybe they aren’t and you can take some of that annoyance out on them instead of poor Lord Emmanellain.”

Rael shook their head but smirked.

“I can’t promise he won’t get a little singed in the crossfire…”

#FFxivWrite #FFxivWrite2024 #ffxiv writing #ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #Aviloh Tia #Rael Hyskaris #This once again got longer than expected...#But hey finally some MSQ progess! Yay I did it!#The other idea would have been a lot shorter (or maybe not)#but thats a story for another time...#I swear I have no grudge against Emmanellain but I am sure Rael would hate him so much!#But probably dont dare to misbehave toward the family thats been so generous to them...#have a lazy screenshot of Rael looking more done with everything than actually angry…

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