#also stupid yellow line from gpose...

[murokhan]

Seeker of the Sun

(as seen on @digitalpenstroke) Have you ever looked at the clear blue sky just after Twelve bells, when you should be picking apart your lunch?  Have you ever seen such a gorgeous colour of blue before, a colour that rivals the pigment of Shiva's skin?  Have you had the chance to look at the sun in passing, seeing that burning ball of fire so yellow in the same sky?

Well, that's great for you!  And I only say this, because I never used to.

For as long as I remember I could not see in brightly lit places; or as a smart Elezen said, I had an illumination intolerance. A brightly lit room was too much for me. It always seemed like a great irony, that a Seeker of the Sun couldn't even look at it.  It would just be too painful, enough to burn my eyes enough that I needed some sort of protection for it, either using eye bandages or using tinted glasses.  

It cost me a lot of things when I was younger:  My home, my family, the one cute kitten in the tribe.  Of course, if had I stuck to simply playing my role in the tribe I would have been fine.  Except I was young, I felt strong, and I felt I could take on the Nuhn despite my debilitation.  It was a stupid move, and even if I felt I could have won, there was no way I could have landed any blows against him.  I experienced immediate regret, but that didn't stop him from beating me mercilessly, using me as an example to other Tias who thought could stand a chance against him. My M Tribe was nomadic, so they moved on through the Thanalan Desert, leaving me to either fend for myself or find the nearest town for sanctuary.  I chose the latter and began my new life.

As the years went by, I honed my strengths and training, became an enthusiast for technology, and eventually found a woman I could fall in love with.  It wasn't until recently that I felt like I needed to find some way to correct my eyes.  It had been well over twenty-five years since I was born with my problem, but I could never find a person with the knowledge to correct my vision, only suggest using the tinted glasses to block out the light.

It took some time, but I was able to meet with one person who would change all that.  She was a Miqo'te herself, a Keeper of the Moon, happened to be married to an old acquaintance of mine, admittedly very cute.  By trade, she was an Alchemist, a very proficient one from what I understood.  I had heard rumours of her previous experiments from different sources, some things better left unsaid, but if those stories were true, then she could definitely create medicines just as proficiently as she could poisons.

One drop a day until you have finished the bottle.

They were easy directions to follow.  During the first week, the elixir was painful, like my eyes were set aflame for a couple of minutes as the mixture did its job on the surface.  As I took it, I didn't dare to try my luck with the light just yet.  As I deduced, it was better to work in the medication first before I tried its effects, who knows what would have happened if I chanced it sooner.

As the final drop was placed onto my eyes, I felt it was time to experiment.  My apartment had been dark for too long, and poor Adalina had to move about the apartment with sub par lighting.  It was time to fix that. That morning, while she slept on my bed, I moved to the door where my light adjusting knob was and very slowly turned the brightness up. Not once were my eyes hurting as I kept increasing the brightness.  A big smile was slowly coming onto my lips, I just couldn't believe it.  There weren't any headaches, my eyes weren't burning, and I could see everything that much more detailed in the light than I could ever in the dark.  It was such a great feeling.  I had been missing so much of this in my life, I could only imagine what the outside world would look like.  And then an idea hit me.

As luck had it, the Moogle Skyways were finishing up a job at Kugane.  Some trade negotiations for Gil and some stuff, nothing too fascinating or exciting.  Everyone was tired, wanting to go back to the headquarters to get some sleep.  Some elected to do that, others wanted to head to the hot springs.  I was going to hit the town.  Now, call me crazy, but I always thought the view got better the higher up you were.  So with that logic in mind, I climbed to the very top of the tower in the centre of Kugane, and I waited.

And waited.

And waited... but the wait was so very worth it.  In the horizon, I saw the sun begin to paint the sky with its colours.  A light orange line streaming across, which only got brighter as the sun rose.  With the orange came subtle hints of dark purples, reds, violets, all the shades of red came out to play in one small area of the early morning sky.  By the Twelve, it was so beautiful, and I really should have seen this with Adalina...  but I couldn't wait any longer than I had already. Twenty-five years and in just shy of six weeks with some eye drops, the Seeker finally saw the Sun for the first time.