Love Her and Despair Remaster [46]

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 46: "The Houses of Healing"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Zuke, Rikku/Wakka
Rating: G
Word Count: 3200
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The Story So Far: Sin is defeated, its occupant freed, but being Sin for thirteen years is not something one can throw off in a day.

A day in St. Bevelle began with the ringing of many bells— yet too few, with gaps of silence where the Tower of Light should have boomed forth. A chilly sea-fog seeped between panes and under doors. Auron and Lulu rose and dressed in silence, exchanging ironic glances as the mage bundled into the shapeless gown of a novice nun. As the last peals died away, they slipped out, threading corridors where tardy acolytes scampered towards chapel. Those few who made eye contact were too tongue-tied to offer more than a reverent bow. None noticed that Yevon's prayer was not returned.

The cloister garden was cold, foggy and uninviting. A glimmer to the east showed where the sun would burn through. Dew lay heavy on leaf and stone. Above, invisible gulls wheeled and keened. Lulu halted at the edge of the grass and breathed in. Earth, flowers, herbs, and the homely scents of cooking from the refectory blended with the smell of the sea. Abruptly she kicked off her slippers, pressing her toes into wet earth. Loose hair flying behind her, she strode out onto the close-cropped lawn, wetting the hem of her gown. Concentric pathways between flowerbeds and rows of vegetables drew her on, taking her on a meandering tour of the garden. She stroked leaves and stems as she passed.

Auron took the straight path to the fountain and waited. A mental image came to him: Lulu in her dream-bower, an infinite cage, more verdant yet utterly barren for all its fruits and flowers, a cloister of trials for a failed guardian to pace for years without end.

At last she reached him, turning away from the fountain and gazing back at their footprints marching in parallel across the dew-silvered grass.

"Well, that hasn't changed, at least," Lulu said.

"No." He was watching her feet, not the ground. She had stumbled twice during her explorations. Unimportant, perhaps, but she had always been so sure-footed on their travels, inexplicably elsewhere whenever a foe's claw, fist or wing-tip swept towards her.

"What?" she said.( Read more... )