#Lately I realised that A'vi looks pretty similar to her in appearance almost like they could be siblings

[avirael]

FFxivWrite 2023

Day 26 - Last

Rael and A'viloh had just returned to the Waking Sands from their first shared mission for the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and left the Solar after speaking to Minfilia, when they had an unexpected encounter.

Rael wanted to stock up on a few things and A'viloh decided to accompany them down to the common room when suddenly a voice called out for him from the other side of the room.

"A'viloh?", a Miqo'te stepped towards him and eyed A'vi incredulously. "I can’t believe it’s you! I heard the Scions talk about a recruit with your name but couldn’t imagine it would really be you!"

The man caught A'viloh off guard. He looked a good bit older than A'vi, had dark hair and wore an eyepatch over his left eye. A'viloh was sure that he had never seen him before in his whole life, so the fact that the man seemed to know him was pretty confusing.

"I’m sorry.", he said shyly. "Do we know each other?"

The man laughed at A'viloh’s reaction. "No, I am sorry! Of course you don’t remember me. When we left for Gridania you were only a few months old…"

A'viloh‘s thoughts were racing but he still hadn’t managed to connect the dots, so he just stared at him quizzically.

"Sorry, sorry…", the man laughed. "Let me explain. My name is A'aba. I‘m from the Antelope-Tribe from the South Shroud. You know you were born there, don’t you?"

A'viloh nodded slowly. "I know but I can’t remember anything of the place... Wait, this means you knew my parents?"

"Knew your parents?", he repeated with a chuckle. "Your father, A'vanoh, he's my uncle."

"Your uncle?… then you are my cousin??", A'vi asked in surprise.

"Yes! I recognised you immediately. You look exactly like your mother! Just like Temi!"

This confused A'viloh. He certainly did remember that his mother had long red hair and green eyes just like him but her name hadn’t been Temi. "My mother’s name was A‘tahja.", he retorted with furrowed brows

"Yes.“" A'aba nodded not seeing the contradiction.

"But then who‘s Temi?", A'vi asked.

Now it was A'aba‘s turn to look surprised. "You don’t know about her? I can’t believe your parents never mentioned her."

A'viloh shook his head.

"My father was an adventurer and worked in Gridania a lot. He took her and me to the city for training when we were thirteen years old, shortly after you were born, so it makes sense that you can’t remember A'temi.", A'aba explained. "But I thought your parents would have told you that you have an older sister."

A'viloh gasped. "A sister??" He felt like a chocobo had kicked him in the guts. "A living older sister?"

He needed to sit down. He remembered that he had an older brother and a younger sister but both of them had died the day their parents and the others had been murdered.

"I can’t promise she‘s still alive but the last time I saw her she was fine. After Carteneau we went separate ways, I decided to join the Scions but she wanted to see the world. So she took a ship to Old Sharlayan instead."

"Old Sharlayan…", A'viloh repeated absentmindedly, still processing the information that he may still have a sister.

"But how did you end up here, A'viloh. When we heard that the tribe had split up and left the Shroud we went looking for your parents but you were long gone. We found a small group of remnants from our tribe in La Noscea but they told us that your parents had left the Shroud towards the South, towards Thanalan. However we couldn’t find any trace of them there…"

A'viloh nodded. "I think we lived in Wellwick Wood for a while but then moved further to the South."

"To Southern Thanalan? We never expected you would have traveled so far! Why would you? There’s nothing out there but sand. Maybe we gave up too soon…", A'aba explained.

A'viloh shook his head. "I don’t know for sure what father hoped to find there. Maybe he had tried to reach the sea or go to Ul'dah and got lost on the way. We should probably have stayed at Wellwick Wood."

"Maybe we would have found you then but on the other hand the Calamity would probably have killed you there…", A'aba pondered.

A'viloh sighed deeply and looked to the ground. "They didn’t live to see the Calamity. We were attacked by Amalj'aa in Southern Thanalan. I’m the only one who survived…"

"Oh!", A'aba exclaimed but then nodded slowly. "I‘m sorry to hear that… but, to be honest, we already feared something like this might have happened. Otherwise we would never have stopped looking for you..."

"I don’t think that would have made a difference.", A'viloh offered to comfort him. "You probably wouldn’t have found us in time. I was only five years old then."

The other Miqo'te looked more shocked than comforted at that. "So young? What happened to you then? How come you're here now? Please, tell me everything."

They sat down and A'viloh started to explain, from the first things he could remember as a child until how he grew up at the Forgotten Springs. He left out Laqa and their unfortunate watery detour though, and skipped right to going to Ul'dah. Alone the thought of all of that still was very unpleasant to him, much less talking about it…

"I‘m so glad that you're alive and that I found you. It's good to finally know what happened after we left. A'temi would be so happy, if she could see you now!"

"A'temi…", A'viloh said silently, testing how her name sounded in his voice and how it made him feel. Tears started to prick at the corners of his eyes and he wished he could meet his sister right now. "I always thought I was the only one who survived, the last one of my family. I can’t believe I have an older sister… and of course a cousin!", he added quickly and looked up to A'aba.

His cousin just grinned at him and ruffled his hair. "Welcome back to the family, Viloh!"