#cetea

Osric let them guide him to one of the CETEA’s quiet nooks, away from the traffic and the noise of the ship’s maintenance, far from the comings and goings of the Unsung.

“I’m going back to Eorzea.”

“What, like—we’re headin’ back?”

“-No,” they clarified hesitantly. “Just me.”

“…how? You’re- catchin’ another ship?”

“I’ll use the aetheryte in Kugane to take me back to one in the Shroud.”

“Awright. So, er, is this part o’ th’ mission?”

“I’m not going to be taking any further part in the mission.” Cillenne’s eyes fled his.

“Wh.” Osric let a nervous laugh bubble up and out of him, scratching his cheek. “Why’s that? No one knows this shite better’n you.” His eyes narrowed. “They not lettin’ you? ‘Cause if—”

They raised their hands when he bristled.

“No, Os. It was my decision.”

“Huh. Well… Why? What ‘bout Charlette. Y’can’t leave her t’ do this on her own, right?”

“She’s not on her own, Osric. She has all of the Castaways, all of the Unsung behind her.”

Frustration and bewilderment warred in his creased features as he visibly struggled to decide where to start.

“She’d want you with her. Wouldn’t she?”

“…she does. But I can’t be.”

“Why?” he demanded, volume rising.

“I’m only putting her in danger if I stay here. You’ll all be in danger.”

“So? I dun get it. This whole business is nothin’ but danger. We can’t jus’ give up an’ head home ‘cause someone might get hurt. Folk will get hurt. We could lose someone. Less chance o’ that if we got an illusionist on our side, right?”

“Osric… You don’t- mh. I’m sorry. I’m not doing a good job of explaining what I mean.”

“No, yer fucken not.”

“I’ve been assessing the CETEA’s arrivals to ensure that our thief doesn’t make it aboard again. But who’s going to be able to tell if I leave the ship and come back?”

“I… Charlette, I guess? Aren’t you helpin’ her an’ Adra with that gadget what’s s’posed t’ be able t’ tell?”

“I am, but we don’t know what our adversary is capable of. If they’re able to steal the very essence of who we are, it might not work. And if it fails, how would you know I’m me? Would you be able to tell?”

Osric’s face soured.

“I’ve told you my secrets. I’ve heard yers. If it came to it, I’d know, Lenne.”

“Can you afford to doubt yourself, even for a moment? If I’m not there, and you see a vision of me, you’ll know it can’t be me, and you’ll know what to do when that time comes.”

“Wh- this is… Lenne, hells! Any one o’ us could have their face stolen. I’d never know if Imogen, or Red, Celica, or th’ rest got replaced. How’s it different fer you? If anythin’, yer th’ only one I could tell. Are you sayin’ I don’t know you?”

“No. No, it isn’t that I’m doubting you. I’m saying that even a moment’s hesitation could cost us everything. And it isn’t only that. While the CETEA was en route, we found a trap left by our adversary.”

Osric rubbed his eyes. “Whaddya mean, a trap? Are y’okay? Was anyone hurt?”

“Cain was caught up in the aetheric detonation. He doesn’t seem to have suffered any lasting effects. Charlette was with him,” they told him, prompting a nod of relief.

“I was able to repel the direct effects. But the trap was for me, Osric. We think they set it to prevent me from helping you stop them if I’d gotten free. It responded to my magic. No one else could have set it off. Now they have the tome in their possession, who’s to say what they could do? They could set an even worse trap, and I—”

“Stop. Stop. I get what this is,” Osric scoffed. “Y’jus’ don’t want t’ bear th’ weight on yer shoulders o’ someone gettin’ hurt, right? But it’s on all our shoulders, if we stick together. No one blames you fer what happened. No one’ll blame you if this don’t end well. We’re in this together, like before.”

“They do blame me, some of them. And I can’t fault them for it. I can see it in their eyes, Osric. It’s better for everyone—”

“It’s not better fer ME!” Osric snapped, so loud he almost startled himself. He stood there trembling, both of them too stunned to speak for a beat.

“I need you. You said you’d stay.” He heard his own voice crack. “This, all o’ this, it’s ‘bo shite an’ you know it! Not knowin’ who you are, traps… all a load o’ shite. All ‘cause yer afraid. Yer a fucken coward.”

Above her, a valve blew its gauge. There was a metallic pling as a bolt shot across the room. Steam started to hiss, misting the air with oppressive, humid heat that made every breath feel like a gulp of warm water.

A saboteur had infiltrated the ship and meddled with its mechanisms. She surmised that much when she realised she was locked out of her failsafes. She was going to die, but that was fine. They didn’t all have to. Sven wouldn’t. Not if she had anything to say about it.

Arterial pipes ran throughout the ship. First, she had to close them. That would localise the damage to the room she was in—its insulated belly, the beating heart of the vessel, currently in the throes of cardiac arrest. The ship had more hope of staying in one piece if she could. It would still go down, and every system aboard would lose power, but they could control the descent.

As she set to work, readings poured in and streamed down a flickering console to her left, distorted by visual noise and the crack across the screen.

AUXILIARY TEMPERATURES ABOVE SAFE THRESHOLDS

You don’t say. Drenched in sweat, she could feel the very walls around her radiating heat. Each time she touched the console had to be brief or her fingertips would blister.

SAFEGUARD PROGRAMME ‘DELTA’ : FAILURE TO DEPLOY

We’ve exhausted plan B, then. Not that she’d held out much hope that any of her contingencies would save them at this juncture.

CORE PRESSURE LEVELS: CRITICAL

I know it hurts, old girl. Hold on just a little more, for me. All she needed was a few more precious moments. Adra knew she didn’t have them.

AETHERIC MODULATORS NOT DETECTED

That was the one that troubled her the most, because it suggested they’d been fried. But where was all that aether coming from?

A massive concentration of condensed, aspected aether would cause an explosion. It was going to happen. All she could do was decide where, and when. She’d have to manually direct the channels utilising analogue controls and trigger the detonation, because if this had to happen, it was happening by her own hand.

She’d been in two minds about installing aether-based technologies. It wasn’t easy finding engineers with the requisite expertise, and she didn’t like dealing with aether. Its raw form wouldn’t heed her, nor could she operate the technology required to direct it. She couldn’t abide the idea of entrusting that much power over her own vessel to someone else.

But the potential had been too alluring to deny. They’d tried to adapt a teleporter relying on the same principles utilised by aetherytes. In theory, it could warp the entire vessel and all its crew to another location instantaneously. In theory, because she’d never gotten it working. And now that useless chunk of crystal was going to destroy everything she’d achieved, everything she loved.

But not everyone.

Pipes burst around her. Searing hot ceruleum streamed down the walls, melting the metal in its path. A small explosion rocked the ship, and Adra was forced to hang onto a burning hot valve to avoid being tossed to the ground. It was now, or, well, now.

Grasping the lever with both hands, she pulled back. Every measure in place to prevent catastrophic failure was simultaneously deactivated. The result was instant. She didn’t have time to scream, feel pain, or regret the fleeting fragility of life. A soundless white flash engulfed her.

And then she woke, soaked in sweat, in her cot in the engine room. Its rhythmic purring assured her all was well. This was the CETEA, and she was en route to Kugane.

This dream, again.

When she’d heard what had happened to an unlucky number of the Unsung and one member of the crew, she’d been reminded of what had happened all those years ago. The similarities were plain. She’d even found herself flinching when she felt the explosion in the hangar as it shuddered through the ship.

An infiltrator. An aetheryte. A sudden displacement… even the destination was—not the same, but near enough to Doma. The only difference was that it hadn’t been her, this time.

She was still here.