#endless oceans

“Isolation (produced by Joe Maas)” by Zander One    

The trip from Syfalia to Coerla took only seconds, and Hope Jaegar appeared on the docks at sunrise.  Her sudden presence was not unusual to the dock workers, who always kept her spot roped off and relatively clean.  It was easier for everyone to keep to a consistent pattern with her appearances and disappearances.

She got a few waves, with she responded to with a polite nod before jumping off into the water and swimming out into the open ocean.  She swam constantly for an hour or so, keeping a steady pace, before arriving at her destination.

The ruins of the Sephiroth slowly rose over the horizon, and Hope quickly ran up the side of the tower, arriving at the still flat top of it.  The other levels, devastated by the loss of magic that was holding them together, were nonexistent.  Only the roof and ground floor remained intact.

She slowed down, taking in a deep breath and looking over the place.  No one except her had been here since that day, it appeared.  She could still see the scars and pockmarks of battle - a heavy gash where Buren's axe had cleaved out a portion of the floor, long scratches from Euphie's starknives, some of Harken's broken arrow shafts, burn marks and chips out of the floor from Tesla's guns, and slashes and cuts in the walls from Aoife's swords strikes.

And, of course, the heavy impact points of her own fists and feet.

Where the kitsune had finally fallen, Hope had set out a small wooden box, magically protected from the elements.  Inside was a stack of paper, a small wooden plank for use as a writing surface, and pencils.  She walked over to the box and sat down next to it, admiring the rise of the sun.

Then, in her mind, she started from the beginning.

The day passed Hope by as she thought and remembered as much of her adventures with Aoife and the others as she could.  It was a long story, filled with all kinds of successes and triumphs and strange happenings, and it had already been told the world over.  The pieces had long been assembled and collected into books, and if there was one story that would never be forgotten by this world as long as it should exist, it was the story of Kynaltairnagoth and her faithful servants.

Well, her servants, and Hope Jaeger.

"You seem lost," said an almost saccarinely sweet voice beside her.  Hope didn't flinch, looking up at the stars that had started to show over an hour ago.

"I don't get lost," Hope replied as Kiyami settled down next to her.  The ghost of the kitsune was a regular occurrence on this most auspicious night.

"Then where are you going?" Kiyami asked, innocence tinging her words.

Hope scanned the sky, not bothering to count the infinite stars that lay above them.  "Wherever I want."

"Funny how that isn't always clear."

"It used to be so easy.  I had a purpose.  I had goals.  I had a commander.  Now, I choose what I do, for whatever reasons I want, for as long as I will live."  Hope knew that it sounded rehearsed, but she said it all the same.  The kitsune tilted her head, scooting ahead and turning to face Hope.

It was a face that Hope had once hated with all of her being, filled as it was with malicious laughter and self-centered glee.  Now, it was concerned, caring.  "Then why are you here?  The fight is over.  It was over years ago, yet you keep returning here, every day, for the entire day.  My story is over.  It's been told.  You helped with that," Kiyami said, patting the box that sat next to them.

"Because I don't have a home, Kiyami."  Hope drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them to pull them close.  Her armor had long since been removed in favor of street clothes, outfits that Euphie and Aoife had picked out for her.  "I don't belong anywhere.  I'm not like anyone else except one, and she's dead.  I was born and made in Coerla, but that is no more home for me than the Jade Empire is."

"Home is wherever you make it, Hope.  It isn't decided for you, except by you."

"I tried.  I did, becoming a diplomat of sorts, hopping between nations and islands and even transporting people and goods, but I can't take it anymore.  This will never be home for me.  Nowhere will ever be home for me."

Kiyami was silent, waiting for Hope to continue.  Finally, the girl did.  "Everyone else settled down.  They all have families and lives.  They all were able to go back to their homes, to their loved ones, to a life that they always wanted or had.  I can't do that, Kiyami."  With a sigh, Hope put her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes.  "There's no life for me to go back to.  I never wanted anything, and then suddenly I was given everything I never had or even knew that I wanted.  I can't just shift gears and be domestic."

"No one's asking you to," Kiyami said with a small smile.  "You choose your own path."

"But-" Hope began, frustration creeping into her voice.  "I don't know what that is!  Everyone else knows!  They knew during the journey!  I don't...know anything.  I know who I am, I know what I can do, but-" She cut herself off, growling slightly in annoyance.  "Nothing feels right.  No one else understands.  They're all married or working or raising a tribe of outlanders.  I can't talk with them.  I don't get them.  I don't get," and she gestured with her hands, a wide sweeping motion.  "any of this."

"You can't run forever, Hope.  Eventually, you had to slow down and look around you for the first time since you started running."  She duplicated Hope's gesture.  "Welcome to the world."

Hope shook her head, looking away from the kitsune.  "I don't know what to do.  I don't feel right here."

"Then what's keeping you here?" The question made Hope raise her head, looking at Kiyami incredulously.  "What's stopping you from running off to a new plane, finding out how they work?  Why do you continue to stay in a world that has no place for you?"

"Because..." But Hope trailed off, thinking.  "Because it's the only world I've ever known, and they're the only people I've ever loved.  I can't just leave them."

"Are you happy?" Kiyami asked, the sudden shift throwing Hope off slightly.

"No," she replied after thinking about it.

"They will understand.  If they love you, they will understand."

"Where will I go?"

"I can't answer that, but I instead pose another question:  does it matter?"

"...I guess not."

With a soft smile, Kiyami looked back up at the stars.  "We must all tell our own stories, Christa Jaeger.  If you tell yours right, every being in existence will know of your name - if you want them to know, of course.  So write one that you like, because you only get one."

"And what if I don't know what to write?"

"Then your story will be one of a girl who wandered the sea of the universe for eternity, looking for a home she would never find."  Kiyami shrugged.  "It is not a bad story, though the ending could use some work."

With a small chuckle, Hope stood up.  "Okay.  I'll go tell them.  And then I'll leave."  Kiyami just smiled.  "Also, when are you going to tell me who you really are?  And why do you always take her form?"

"You might find out in your travels.  And because, if anyone else told you that you should keep running, would you believe they really meant it?"

"...Aoife, maybe.  I guess I should talk to her first."

No reply.

Turning around, Hope saw that Kiyami, or whoever was borrowing her appearance, was gone.

With a sigh, Hope stretched and took one last look at the night sky.  She would have to get used to a different one soon.

----

This story is not mine.

It is the story of the women who nearly destroyed our world in her efforts to get her name known forever.  It is a story of betrayal and destiny, of love and loss, of good and evil and law and chaos.  It was intensely personal and utterly distant, and it was started by the selfish whim of a woman who did not want her name to die with her.

Her words and actions are unpardonable.  This book is not meant to be a confession of her sins, nor is it an argument for her side of the story.  It is a presentation of her story, recorded for the ages.  So many of you reading this will know her name and know what she did, but few of you know why she did it.

This book aims to remedy that.

Many of you lost loved ones or friends to her assault on this plane.  Others lost their limbs, their sanity, or their futures.  The fate of all of us was inexorably changed by her reveal of the nature of this plane: that we were all mere pieces in a giant game played by the powers-that-be.  Our gods, our beliefs, all of them proved to be false.

Who I am is not important.  This is not my story.  This is hers, and she has told it to me as best as she could.  What I give you is her interpretation of the events.  I make no claims for their veracity, for Kiyami was a consummate trickster, and for her to tell the story with no embellishments would likely be impossible.

If you're looking for a statement of fact, or further symbolism or study, there is none.  I will answer no questions about this book, and I will make no comments within their pages except to provide additional context where I feel it is needed.

All she wanted was to be remembered as a master of her own destiny.  What you choose to do after reading this book is entirely up to you.

  “Anywhere?”

“As long as she’s been there, she can go back there.  If she’s met someone, she can find them.  If she’s seen it, she can locate it.”

“Anywhere in the world?”

“As long as they aren’t affected by a few spells designed to foil magical detection.  And even then, she has a chance.”

“What else can she do?”

“Throw punches with the force of a charging rhino, for one.  Give her attacks all sorts of properties.  Create mirror images.  Teleport, fly, defy gravity, run through planar barriers...”

“You’re making her up like she’s this wonder girl.”

“Think about it, Hartman.  The potentials.  She could locate anyone in the world for us.  She could travel to other planes, explore, come back alive.  She can go from one side of this world to the other in the blink of an eye.”

“I am thinking, Felix, and I gotta say, I’m a little worried. You do realize the hell of a time we’d have trying to get her back, right?  What if she gets loose?”

“That’s the best part, Hartman.  She won’t want to.”

----

“I hope there’s a good reason you dragged me down here, Conners.”

Exemplar Mage Hartman was usually a disgruntled man, and his brusquely-said greeting to the project leader was indicative of the fact that today was no exception - but today would be a momentous day.  Though Hartman didn’t know it yet, today was Hope’s field test for the project supervisors, the ones who had given the gold to Conners and the others to craft for them the freerunner.

“You know I wouldn’t unless it was, sir.  We wanted to invite you to the first field test for Project Freerunner.”  The two were walking down a hallway in the lab, their destination being a small field inside of the facility.  The demiplane there was more than useful for what the lab boys needed.  Conners removed a small folder from under his arm, handing it to Hartman as they walked.

“That’s today?” Hartman asked, his eyebrows raised.  At the last project update he’d gotten from Felix, he was told that the courier’s first real field test wasn’t for another two weeks at best.  He took the folder from the project lead, flipping it open and scanning the information inside.  A short briefing was better than none.

“It is.  We managed to solve the location issue faster than usual, and I can assure you, the man in charge of doing so was amply praised.  Please, follow me.”  Conners stopped at a door on the wall and opened it with a key.  Inside was what appeared to be a forest clearing, with trees on all sides of a roughly 60 foot square area.  A river ran right through the middle of the clearing, steming from an elevated area directly ahead of the two men that lead off into the trees.

Standing inside were a few arcanists and what appeared to be a 20 year old girl, with jet black hair, black armor that seemed to make up her body rather than cover it, and bright red eyes.  She turned to the newcomers, then bowed her head and put a closed fist in front of her eyes, lowering it as well - the traditional Co’erlan salute.

Hartman nodded his approval.  She’d started off well, at least.  “All right, Conners, it’s your show from now on.  Let’s see what she can do.”  He stood up straight and folded his arms, keeping his eyes locked on the only girl in the demiplane.

“First up, movement.  Hope, circle the area, using all available movement modes and speeds,” Connors ordered.

“Affirmative,” Hope replied passively.  She immediately began to run around the forest clearing, starting at a speed faster than any normal human and quickly getting more.  After about 10 seconds she was running approximately twice as fast as a human could, and it was then that she began to show off her prowess.

Thick bushes or jagged rocks didn’t seem to slow her down at all.  She ran along the water for a few seconds, her feet clearly contacting the surface but never sinking below it.  After a bit, she took to the air, jumping high - but it wasn’t jumping.  She merely used empty air as another ground, as if the floor continued at an angle into the sky.  Hartman could tell there was nothing tangible or physical to support her doing so - she merely did it herself.

He turned to Conners, eyebrows raised and mouth slightly open.  Conners just smiled and directed him to look back at Hope.  “Hope, attack the target dummy with full force.”

Immediately, Hope redirected her momentum, springing off of a tree and turning back towards some of the assembled arcanists, one of whom had set up a training dummy.  She streaked towards the target, a fist reared back in position to strike.  When she did eventually strike it, she did so with far more force than Hartman had expected, and the dummy now had a large chunk of it missing.  It was also on fire, Hope’s strike having caused an effect much like that of a match striking and igniting.

She immediately rounded on the dummy and began a series of attacks on it - four of them, Hartman counted - each of them hitting harder than the previous.  When she was done, the target dummy was practically little more than a stick with some material left of it from where the target dummy was.

Hope stood straight up and looked at Conners, awaiting further orders.  Conners glanced over at Hartman, grinning.  Hartman shrugged slightly.  “We have mages that can do better.  I won’t deny, though, that it is an impressive feat without magic.  Could be useful in an anti-magic field.”

“She’s not done yet.”  Conners flipped a page.  “Courier, leave the room, and close your eyes.  Stay there and await further instructions.”

“Yes sir,” the girl said as she moved past Conners and Hartman, exiting the demiplane.  Hartman turned to Conners.

“What’s the point of this?” He asked, folding his arms and standing up straighter.

“Hide somewhere.  Anywhere in this room.  She will find you.”  Conners grinned, seeming very self-impressed.  Admittedly, he was, and had reason to be.  This was likely something that would be most useful to the kingdom and intelligence members of Co’erla.

Hartman shrugged, but dutifully began to visually inspect the area, searching for a good hiding place.  Stealth wasn’t really his forte, though.  As he did so, Conners nodded to three other arcanists, all of whom ran off in whatever directions they preferred.  Hartman glanced back at Conners.  “What measures can I take to foil my detection?”

Conners shrugged, scribbling some notes on a clipboard.  “Whatever you like.  Just don’t leave this demiplane.”  He started moving towards the entranceway.  The challenge had been made.

Turning back towards the forest, Hartman pondered for a moment before reaching into a pouch at his side and removing an eyelash encased in gum arabic.  Muttering some words and performing some hand motions, the eyelash fizzled inside the gum, eventually burning away.  As it did, so did Hartman’s image, vanishing from sight

If she couldn’t see him, how could she find him, he mused.  He decided to go ahead and ante it up by moving into the fores, where he scampered up into a tree, about 30 feet off the ground.  Invisible and high up, he figured, would be enough to fool her.  This was a decently large demiplane, after all, and she hadn’t even properly met him.  Whatever she was going to do, it couldn’t be good enough to find him here.

It was about 20 seconds later that he heard a “You can come down now, Hartman!” from below.  Surprised, the man glanced below the branch he was sitting on to find Conners grinning up at him.  Hope was next to the project lead, pointing right at Hartman, who was a considerable distance up in the air.

Grumbling, Hartman dispelled the invisibility and slowly climbed down the tree.  “How did she find me?  Studied air currents, or some related insanity?”

Shaking his head, Conners made a note on his papers and then looked next to him, at Hope.  “Go find Stoya, Albrecht, and Markus.  As fast as you can, in whatever order is most efficient.”  Hope only gave a short nod before dashing off into the forest.

Hartman brushed some leaves a bark from his robes, straightening them.  “So really, how did she find me?”

“She just knows,” replied Conners mysteriously.  “It’s a sort-of modified version of your standard location spell, but we made it inherent to her very being.  Nondetection effects also don’t have a 100% chance of fooling it, and she knows if you’re using one.  The only thing that would perfectly fool it is if you somehow switched bodies, or died and were reincarnated.”

“Even if she’s never met me before?” Hartman asked.

“No, she needs to have personally seen you.  Locations can be described in detail, and she can find it even if she’s never been.  Objects and people require her to have seen the quarry in person before she can find it - a safeguard to prevent false positives.”  Conners grinned as he and Hartman walked back to the demiplane’s clearing.  Two of the scientists Hope had been sent to find were already there, and Conners saw Hope moving swiftly through the jungle.

Hartman just shook his head.  “You know what you’ve created, right?”

Conners nodded.  “I’m well aware of what myself and my team have created.  I just hope that you and yours don’t waste her.”  He fixed Hartman with a slight glare as he put the clipboard under his arm.

Hartman gave Conners a mean look before turning and walking towards the demiplane entrance.  “That’s not your concern, Conners.  You do your job, and I’ll do mine.”

No reply came from the team leader, who merely observed Hope bringing in the last arcanist.  He gave her a nod of approval, then told her to relax and that they were done for the day.  She nodded her understanding, then moved over the the river and sat down by where it came off the cliff, at the foot of the small waterfall.  He’d asked her about it before.  She’d merely replied that she found the place familiar and comfortable.

His own daughter would’ve been about nine right now.  Was it really that long since she’d died?  Four years?  He’d just been named project director then, barely two months after he and Astrid had lost her to a sickness.

This girl wasn’t his daughter, and he knew that.  He told himself that often enough.  But looking at her, her soft features, her jet-black hair that admittedly was much like his own, her watchful eyes darting about the place, he found it hard to make the distinction.