#kivera

Shuri was battling futilely within the recesses of her mind. Her strength will fade over time and Lilith will fully regain autonomy over herself and her shard. Day by day, the Xaela was becoming weaker. 

That is just how I want it to be. 

“Shuri?” That familiar voice, belonging to the shard of her beloved, called out the name of her own shard. That’s right; he didn’t know. He didn’t know that Lilith could erase the presence of the woman he loved.

Such heartbreak. It would tug at her heartstrings if she had any left.

Turning with the face he recognized, Lilith could see the shock in Estinien’s ice-blue eyes. “Your eyes...” he murmured. “They’re silver.”

“Yes. They are.” A smile curved Lilith’s lips, feeling the aether within her flowing. So this is what Amaurotines felt.   

“You’re not Shuri.” Estinien’s voice was biting, his eyes narrowing as he reached for his lance. “You’re her, aren’t you? The part of her she merged with?” 

“Very good, my dear.” Lilith turned fully, spreading her arms as though to encompass the world. Just like her predecessors, with the aether running through her veins, she was able to form a glyph over her face. Just like Lahabrea; just like Hades; just like...

Just like papa.

“I took back what is rightfully mine. This body is my shard. It did not belong to the woman you know as your wife, Estinien,” Lilith continued, beginning to walk toward him. “And I intend to tear everything at the seams. These worlds should not have existed, yet Hydaelyn’s power shattered the very fabric of reality. I was to be Her heart, however...something went terribly wrong. Or...horribly right.”

“You know she isn’t like that. You should allow her to be in control of her body,” Estinien retorted. 

“It’s not her body.”

Estinien recoiled as Lilith approached, using Shuri’s body, the mania in etched on his wife’s face disconcerting. It didn’t fit, it wasn’t Shuri; it was her former self, conveying the madness she’s had within her, the madness she relished in. 

It was swift, but he was able to perceive Kivera coming to his side, aiming her scythe toward Lilith, her eyes narrowed. Despite her stoicism, Estinien could perceive a tremor in her arm. Hesitation. 

It was clear she wanted to excise Lilith from Shuri’s body; however, that would involve hurting Shuri--the last thing the reaper wanted to do. 

There was sick amusement in those silver eyes, the mad grin stretching further. “Your hesitation is so sweet,” she mocked, pressing a hand to her chest. “You don’t want this little shard to die. You were there, Kivera, when Amaurot fell. You’ve seen my sundering. And yet here you are, so fond of this little shard when you should have just taken her soul away. She shouldn’t even exist, is that not what your creed follows?”

Kivera grit her teeth before feeling Estinien’s hand curl over her wrist. She could feel his own hand shaking with rage at witnessing this, at beholding a mad homunculus wearing Shuri’s body no differently than Elidibus used Ardbert’s body. 

And there was no doubt Shuri was screaming from within. 

Turning on her heel, Lilith walked away from the two. “I’ve become quite fond of you both. Estinien being the shard of my beloved...it’s as though I have Lucifer returned to me. I want to keep you hidden away while I destroy the fabric of these shards. And I will use this body to do it. Can you imagine the sheer look of betrayal on the Scions’ faces when they see their precious warrior of light stand as an enemy?”

Glancing back at them, Lilith’s eyes were swirling with her madness, her unyielding need to destroy. “It will be absolutely delightful. And I hope to see you both on the battlefield when the time comes!”

The pain within their hearts was to an overwhelming degree to watch Lilith walk away--to watch their beloved being used no differently than Ardbert’s body had been.

Soul magic. Kivera hates it, she remembers the feel of it from Vanth. She recalls every single person she had ever come across afflicted by it at least once, unending madness to their eyes. She keeps a close eye over the interactions regarding the tempered, and those with specific instructions from the healers. She overlooks the slight “raises” from the conjurers and white mages.

What she doesn’t let slip are the ones who are too far gone, and gives them a swift and painless end. It is tedious work when one is brought to her. She had given those around her firm warnings that necromancy is forbidden. 

Shuri and Estinien left her, they worry over her, the far off stare the reaper has. The same one she had when she attacked G’raha Tia for tampering in her realm. She has grown to accept him, a necessary person to instruct the new ones.

Kivera still hates the set up, yet she understands them wanting to save so many from enthrallment. Green eyes flit to orange as she takes another life. A simple touch of her hand to theirs and they are gone, then carried off to their tribe or to be sent to their appropriate places to be handled. 

When did she become so docile, she lets heat run through her fingers letting the surge leech the life of the next ones. When another is set in front of her, she almost instinctively touches them, but something about them feels off. She hovers her hand, waiting for her to come to her own senses. She recognizes this feeling and scent.

“What did this one do before they were tempered...” She recognizes the appearance as a former Gridanian, but they were off to her.

“That one was brought back after they were found outside Tam-Tara. They have been wandering for a while. It’s a surprise they lasted this long. No one is sure what they did before they were tempered.” One of the Twin Adder’s answers her. 

Kivera observes the person. Orange eyes giving to red when she looks into their past. The scent of undead heavy on them, and the vacant expression like they had lost their world.

“Tam-Tara? Didn’t Shuri have to deal with someone trying to raise their loved one through necromancy there?” Kivera glances towards Thancred for an answer, he shrinks back seeing her eyes red.

“It was sealed off from that incident.” Alphinaud explains, as he looks up. A little unnerved by the demeanor change, Kivera keeps her hand off the soul in front of her.

“What of the books that were left behind, notes, the scryed and things left over from the psicodemon and Dantalion?” Her questions specific, she knows better than the rest does. That this person before her tampered with it. 

“We left it all buried in the chamber when we sealed it? Why are you asking so many questions about it, aren’t you just going to take their life?” Thancred questions her about why she is so interested.

“One more question, how long was this person missing before they were found.” The timeline, she needed it before she can determine the soul in front of her.

“About... three months ago? We were busy with Sharalayan and Thavnair around that time, so any minimal quests were done by freelance adventurers. What’s wrong? From what was gathered, they got tempered by something inside there. They’re too far gone to save.”  Kivera lowers her eyes to the clasped hands of the former conjurer. 

“Something is wrong. They’re not tempered. They performed soul and blood magic.” Kivera eases off her death touch, to tug apart the hands, seeing carvings of runes into the palms. Her own eyes hold sadness to them while blazed with red irises. 

Alphinaud catches on first and shrinks down from her stare when it lands on him. Kivera continues to search the person over, she finds a journal, when she touches it, the person seems to snap out of their vacant stare. They reach for it, and Kivera swats their hand off it.

“What’s in it?” Thancred approaches the reaper, her eyes glance over to him.

Kivera had wandered Tam-Tara following after a group of adventurers. It was there she first encountered Shuri, Kivera had watched her grieve for a former acquaintance driven to madness by the thought of going without their loved one. What she never expected was Shuri to change her views and become someone she changed fate for, breaking taboos and extending a world’s lifespan.

“Notes... laments... they went in there because of the rumors from Edda practicing a “miracle” there. They lost someone during the raid there, and instead of going through grief, they thought to use the books there to fix the problem.” Kivera flips through the translation book before she sets it in her lap catching it on fire in her hands.

The person before her tries to pry her hands off it, to keep the book from burning to ashes. While she watches the person touch the ends of the book and feel it slip away as ashes. 

“Aren’t they in pain?” Thancred rushes to the side now to pull them away from Kivera’s flames, when he touches their hands, he is surprised to not feel heat or see his own hands on fire the flames dance on his hands as a warning. He stares at Kivera who matches his stare with a solemn stare.

“Remember I am a master of my elements. I won’t harm anything I don’t intend to hurt.” Ruby eyes dim down to amber, yet one side of her sclera tints black in warning to Thancred for doing that.

“They still have a chance of reasoning.” 

“No, they don’t. Their mind is too far gone to madness. I just want you all to see this. A price and reason why I am against this kind of magic. While you all play hero and use similar magicks for curing tempered souls. There is one other side that is still unforgiveable. It marks them, it makes them unable to accept even their own deaths. They become parasites in the spirit realm. You’ve yet to see the horrors I see as normal.” Kivera would have dispersed their soul without hesitation, yet right here she wants everyone in her vicinity to witness the aftermath of it.

“So you’re prolonging their end for a point?” Thancred sees a flash of red again. 

“Mind that tongue of yours, you are still in the presence of an underworld being. I am bound to my role, and what I can and cannot touch. This soul has tampered in necromancy. You know. The most forbidden magic. The magic I myself have been exposed to and used on. The very magic that gave birth to that lich I speak of. The laws of the Underworld are specific when regarding a soul who held these rituals, judging by their reaction... they were unsuccessful to the date when they were found. Chances are, they would have kept going.” Kivera picks up the bags that were found with the person and dumps the contents out at her feet.

More scrolls and tomes spill out, her eyes regard it with a sigh. 

“What do you intend to do then?” Thancred has heard half of her story loose from Shuri and Estinien. Both said the same thing. That Kivera will tell them herself if she thinks it is important enough. Divinity gave them a stern warning that the reaper does things with reasons behind them. She wanted to teach them a lesson.

“Their existence will be extinguished. They will not return to the ether, nothing of them will remain. It is the fate of all those who use this magic. The taboo they performed is a grave offense to the underworld, and as a result. We do not accept these souls. Hades himself and Thanatos are certain of this law. No good comes of trying to bring back what is dead.” Kivera feels eyes on her from the person, the gravity sinking in of what she said.

“I can’t be with the ones I lost?” Kivera’s attention is drawn to them.

“No. There are reasons the magic has severe ramifications. If you had stopped at one, it could have been forgiven.” The reaper recalls what was written in the notes of their failures exceeding thirty others. 

“But you sacrificed so many for your own selfish reasons, you trapped those souls into unwilling bodies.” Kivera snares their hand now, once reality settled in and she saw them moving to get away from her.

“I won’t perform the magic anymore.” Kivera’s eyes look over to Alphinaud and Thancred.

“Silence.” She snaps at both before they can reason with her. Thancred wanted to speak but finds his tongue dry and Alphinaud doesn’t attempt it. Her spell.

“You won’t perform the magic again. Indeed. I’m sorry.” She says last as she digs her nails into their hand using her touch to end their life, along with burning them to ashes. She does make it painless, the soul had suffered enough in their own head. The moment her hand had touched theirs they were gone.

Kivera looks at the soul in her hands now, she regards how it appears dark before she disperses it in her hands leaving nothing of it behind. The books, tomes and scrolls at her feet, she sets those on fire the same way minding not to scorch the wood beneath them.

“I’m done here for now. Go about your saving them. Remember my warnings, if you encounter another necromancer summon me.” Kivera says as she stands up letting the ashes dissipate under her feet.  She ensures nothing remained cleaning off and preventing the remains from floating around. She gathers them to spread them at Tam-Tara. 

Thancred feels the spell lift and chases after her. Kivera shakes her head hearing him follow her. In his chase of her, he doesn’t see or feel a vine snare his ankle tripping him. 

“What in the?” Thancred goes to untangle his foot giving her the opportunity to leave him. Kivera stretches her wings when she is outside but waits for one more minute letting them breathe. Thancred catches up to her.

“Kivera, you know you can trust us. We won’t make that mistake.” She looks at him.

“I know you won’t make that mistake, you already endured the magic from that blasted miqo’te with the First. Quagmire.” She folds her arms to regard him walking closer. She sinks a foot into the earth itself to cause a small ripple under his feet making him sink to his knees changing it.

“Why then do you shy away from us? You talk more to Alphinaud and Y’shtola than the rest of us. Urianger gets a few sentences out of you too.” Thancred begins to pull himself out of the ground while she hovers over it.

“It’s because they don’t question my motives and understand what I am and why I do things. If you beseech me for my role, expect my role to be carried out. If you question my motives every single time I’m around and don’t trust me, why would I extend trust where I have not earned it. I clearly do not have yours yet, since you keep interfering with what is my assigned role itself as my title as death. I did not have a choice when it was given to me. I merely carry it out. Alphinaud and his sister, Y’shtola, Urianger, and G’raha Tia have seen my memories. You haven’t. There is a reason for it. You do not accept my being. Until you do, you will be kept in the dark about what and why I am this way regarding soul magic.” Kivera begins to ascend higher, her eyes on him, to ensure he doesn’t follow her she snares him with vines again at his feet and hands to hold him in place.

“Let her go.” G’raha Tia waves Kivera off, letting her go carry out her mission for disposing of the ashes back in Tam-Tara. G’raha breathes a sigh of relief once she takes off and helps Thancred up.

“It would be wise of you to not challenge her every single time about morals. It took us ages to get her to warm up to us enough to fight along side our cause. I think we have asked enough of her. Lest you earn that scythe pointed at you for a change. I still recall the day she nearly took my head off. She reacts out of a place of pain from this subject.”  G’raha explains a little to it. 

“She knows I’m not a stranger, not with risking everything.” Thancred folds his arms trying to piece together more. He knows of her past and mentioning of a creature that used soul magic. But not the extent that everyone else has seen.

“You don’t trust her though. If you do trust her, you wouldn’t question her so much. That’s part of her very being. We asked her help to give rest to the ones that couldn’t be saved. We didn’t know that one practiced that magic. Otherwise we would have given them to someone else. She knows the intentions of spirits better than any of us. If that one would continue the practice, they would have caused more damage and be marked for death later.” G’raha tries his best to defend Kivera’s hand in her choices.

“It’s hard to trust someone who takes life so easily. Without it impacting her on the outside.” G’raha Tia looks up at the sound of other feet joining them. Kivera had brought Divinity with her, and heard some of the commotion. 

“It does impact her. More than she lets on. She knows every single name that is on her never-ending scroll, their faces, the way they died, she doesn’t forget them, the wealthy ones, the poverish, the deceitful, the blessed and kind-hearted ones. The old and young.” The spirit’s vision returns as she reduces her healing abilities, not needed for now, to replenish her mana and go home for the day.

“She’s hard on you because you remind her of one of ours. Aiden. He always challenged her methods and morals the same way. You two would even be friends with how you both rush into things. Kivera trusts you more than you know. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have lingered longer.” G’raha watches the Libra spirit as she fixes her clothes, they wouldn’t have gotten through half the healing without her.

“You should chance on her one of these days in Ishgard, in the Brume. See what she does there. It might change your opinions on her. From the cold-hearted reaper you often see. Just don’t tell her I said anything. Small secret? She visits the Brume every evening while waiting for Shuri and Estinien. If you want to catch a side of her you don’t normally see.” 

Divinity is joined by Y’shtola and Krile for getting something together.

Thancred and G’raha are joined by Alphinaud after hearing the suggestion. They head towards Ishgard under the hint. When they catch up to the reaper, they observe her with a flute. 

Kivera plays a quiet melody on it, that brings children out in droves. As if they had been waiting on this all day. One of the few times they see her keep her wings out, and let them be touched. Kivera doesn’t mind their curious hands on the black and white feathers, even letting a few of them keep a feather to marvel at the serrated edges, her explaining how owls have the same kinds enables them to move so quiet. Even demonstrating with how quiet she is when she flaps them.

“Quite a sight isn’t it?” Thancred looks up to see Aymeric. 

“She does this every day for them. She lets them hang off her and fly around a few times, she plays songs, sings even.” Aymeric watches Kivera as she warms the young ones up for the evening, allowing them to cling to her for warmth.

“She does this every day?” Aymeric nods to their question. 

“Every day. Except when she was traveling with you. They understood why too.” Thancred sees Kiya in tow behind with Alyse barely walking with her. It is rare to see her now, with how she has stepped down from adventuring and world saving for the sake of the small family. He finally connects the reasons Kivera does things, is so others don’t have to suffer worse. The potential of death was too great for Kiya. Not for areas they needed Kivera’s hands. The reaper was right, the events in Sharlaya needed her more than Kiya. What with the atrocities of those driven to despair. Thancred realizes just how much Kivera’s expertise in the field was a godsend. She spared Kiya the horrors of seeing people eaten alive as they changed to monsters. 

“I owe her an apology. Can’t believe how selfless she really is.” 

“You’re only now realizing that?” Another voice behind them in Estinien, it was the time frame that they collect the reaper from indulging the young of Ishgard. 

“Shuri wouldn’t have loved her so much if she was selfish.” The auri under his arm leans in closer before going to meet Kivera and help soothe the lingering auri children with a familiar face to their own.  Kivera greets Shuri with a nuzzle to her horns. It is then she realized their is an audience this time. Three she huffs a little for.

“Forgive them.” Shuri draws her attention out to dance with her for the children. The group joins Kivera and Shuri, with the guys having small strength matches or racing around till they were tired out and called to their homes. Kivera leaves fire barrels lit with her magic to keep them burning longer.

Thancred leaves with G’raha and Alphinaud leaving the fallen angel to be with her loved ones. Estinien can feel something off with Kivera with her staring at the backs of them hard. A judging stare on their souls.

“What did you encounter?” Estinien asks once Aymeric with Kiya and Alyse leaves too.

“A necromancer. Like Edda. Someone mistook them for being tempered, and brought them to me since they were so unresponsive. Thought a death would be better.. they didn’t know.” Shuri’s expression dims at hearing Edda, remembering also the place where she first encountered Kivera. She had been glared at fiercely the same way she stared at the guys. As if warning not to go down the same path.

“That explains your lack of enthusiasm with the guys. They pestered you too?” Kivera nods, and he shakes his head.

“You should show Thancred soon then. He’s the only one you haven’t.” The reaper is lifted under one of his arms to prevent her from flying off. Shuri walks along side the side Kivera is on to take a hand.

“I am perfectly capable of walking. He doesn’t trust me yet. It goes both ways, it’s not that I don’t trust him, it’s he doesn’t accept me, and I can’t show clouded minds and expect them to understand what I show them.” Kivera folds her arms but lets Shuri take one hand.

“You are also capable of flying away when questioned like this. It’s been a while since we’ve been here, and rather you not avoid us at least.” Shuri notes, tugging some of Kivera’s hair to weave a braid into her bangs.

“I won’t fly off. You two make it tolerable. But I can’t promise to be kind on the next necromancer I come across. It’s bad enough to deal with certain ascians and those in Mor Dhona curing the tempered. Give me at least that.” Kivera folds her wings away, and marvels at how contrasted her dark skin is to both Shuri and Estinien’s are. Her tail behind her whips the back of Estinien’s thigh to let her down.

“You’ll be set down soon enough. It’s sunset here, indulge us.” They climb the stairs to Last Vigil. It is on the platform that she is finally set down, then guided to sit with both of them. Kivera allows herself to be pulled into Estinien’s lap, then Shuri follows being the smallest of them.

The sight over the abyss below was washed in gold and pink hues. Kivera likens the sight to one she remembers from Caelum, when she first took flight and soared high above the cloud space. How free she feels and is.

“It’s your turn for a reminder in how you don’t always have to act the way you do. Trust them a little more, even if they’re insufferable sometimes. We wouldn’t be here without them. Thancred isn’t terrible as he seems, just like you have had moments that shaped you, he has had them.” Kivera notes Shuri being colder than she should be and starts warming her up.

“He reminds me a little of someone. Stubborn, set in her ways, argumentive, and maybe a little pig-headed when it comes to reasoning, but underneath it knows when and where to drop it and accept others.” Estinien gets a jab in his side from Kivera.

“Call me pig-headed again... I promise you, I’ll make you suffer Urianger’s lectures. I’ll gladly tell him you want to have a long chat about Eorzea and Sharlayan history. I can tell him right now you can’t wait to talk tomorrow!” Kivera’s ears stick straight up, and she sees fear behind those blue eyes. Shuri laughs at both of them.

“You wouldn’t dare... subject me to that.” The gold in Kivera’s eyes hold her jest, and they settle to watch the horizon.

“Only if you call me pig-headed again. You know me to keep my promises. Or I can make you suffer in... another way.” Their banter enough to make Shuri roll to the side in her laughter.

“Like what?”

“Ameliance~ Even Shuri loves her. We could all sit together and chat.” That was all Estinien needed to tug Kivera back and pin her down.

“You do that to me, and I’ll ensure you unable to walk for three weeks.” Kivera reaches over to Shuri who slips in next to her.

“Sounds like fun to me. Shall we get started then?” Playful gold eyes accepts his undertones, and scoots closer to Shuri to be gathered up by their dragoon.

“You two are in for a tireless night then.” He collects them both to head to their home they acquired there in Ishgard.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Shuri, he sounds so scary, you’ll help me take him on right?” Kivera exchanges looks with her, and sees the equally amused look.

“Of course I’ll help you.” Kivera leans in to give her a quick kiss, letting the day melt off to her now with her loved ones.

Kivera accepts them both easily, and is grateful Divinity chose this world to allow her to see again. She wouldn’t have met the ones who healed her a bit more.