World Tree MUSH

    Well, //that// was quite the night! Once the Machines were sent off into the sunset on their lovely cruise, the dust storm had inevitably struck the desert town. Of course, the denizens weren't born yesterday... people just knew what to do, out of habit. Measures were taken by the local Kaipo folk and visitors alike to get people, animals and buildings prepared. Then... the night began. It went as well (or it at least //went//) as one might expect, following such a fracas.

    Fast-forward through people showing themselves out into the streets that morning to survey the damage, and now we are into what passes as the late afternoon. People have worked diligently to shovel away drifts of sand; to replace and repair awnings of storefronts and the like; to bring carts and such back into the streets to get things back to normal. Even the chocobos needed coaxing!

    The sun is still high and hot and Nythius is amidst the small groups of people, having decided to remain and help out. She wears a cotton shift-style dress, bland but functional (in this heat) and easy to move around in, hair braided in a thick coil down her back. Wings attract the heat, but the thinner fabric of the dress helps her to cope. Nythius is helping a family to shovel sand out of the entryway of their tiny homestead... her color is high and flushed, but she works hard. She pauses in her efforts, looks skywards.

    Cleanup time! Honest work is strangely fulfilling, even when there's no forthcoming compensation. At least, none in the tangible sense. Terra has seen to chocobos, carted off sand by the bucketfull and in general worked not unlike a horse. People need help so it's nothing for her to just do whatever may need doing!

    Of course, even in the stifling desert heat she doesn't seem to be all that stressed. Hurray for an affinity for heat that lets her endure where many would succumb to overexposure! Add to that a life spent, at least until relatively recently, keeping a physique appropriate for a soldier and she's hanging with even the toughest of the laborers!

    Soon, though, the work is nearing a close for the evening. Her dress is typical, favoring reds and whites - though she's traded up for somewhat taller boots. She wouldn't be much good stopping every few minutes to dump out the sand! Anyway, she does find herself wandering closer and closer to the biggest concentration of people. There may be more to do! Or strange new people to stare at.

    By nature, Nythius is not one to favor heat. She can tolerate it, it will not //hurt// her persay... but her ability to cope longterm is not good. Part of that strange magical thrum in the very core of her, afterall, favors the cold! But indeed, she is used to toiling.... before 'Everything' one just HAD to toil and work hard to manage crops and the like. So what's one more swipe of a shovel or lifting of a basket? She's willowy but there's unexpected strength in those lean limbs.

    A little huff and right when she is adjusting the strap of the dress, she hears footsteps. The woman of the house, an earnest and harried-looking woman of the desert, offers the Esper a cup of water from one of the receptacles in the homestead, filled with oasis water. Nythius smiles her thanks and drinks gratefully, emptying the cup in a series of deep gulps. She's just about to wipe her chin when..... oh..

    That feeling again... the buzz in her mind, in a place that goes beyond conscious thought. Nythius feels the aspect of Terra that she, herself, hasn't much scope on. The dark-haired woman turns as if on cue, watching the green-haired girl navigating the crowd, coming closer. It's her, that sense is coming from her.

    Water may be one of the thoughts Terra is holding as well. The water supply does tend to attract crowds, afterall. Still, she's not assertive or in any particular hurry for her turn at the water. She can wait if it saves her from uncomfortable interaction! So she lags just a bit, hanging near the edge, letting people pass by in either direction while just trying not to be an obstruction.

    On the note of uncomfortable interactions, she does notice Nythius right away. She shares that feeling and, uncertain of the cause, she grows somewhat nervous. How should she react? Should she say something? What does she even say? Her expressions flitter and falter and she finally sneaks another look, only realizing that she has in fact been noticed. Oh.

    The crowd, of course, continues on and she's herded inevitably closer until she slips away from the press and right into conversational proximity. That's it. There's no escape. She has no excuse! Managing an expression of consternation rather than full on panic, she bobs her head just a bit. A greeting! "I'm sorry." Pause. No no no, not that again! "You seemed familiar but I can't remember." It takes an effort of will not to say sorry again.

    The dark-haired woman tilts her head in a rather canid way, large blue eyes studying the nervous girl as she draws closer. The call of water is a strong one and Nythius steps aside but not away.... the woman who gave her water, initially, has enlisted others in her family to begin handing out cups. Nythius accepts another cup but it is not for herself.. she spares Terra the need to be assertive... fates know she's dealing with other things right now! Nythius, herself, is no busybody; she is not one to approach others with the express need to socialize. Nythius takes a few steps forth, holding the unused cup full of water in front of herself, eyes trained upon the extremely nervous girl. All-the-while that buzzing grows... it's so familiar. Nythius hadn't expected to //sense// that again.. but calm, calm now.

    The Esper is good at holding in her own unease.

    "You needn't apologize." Nythius says, her voice pleasant and fluting. "I wondered if I had done something to affront you, but I ... is everything alright?" Easy does it. She holds the cup of water out to Terra, even smiles a bit.

Terra does pretty well for herself! At least she hasn't leapt clear from her boots and scurried off to hide though the thought has crossed her mind. Water does help her decide to stay put, though and when she reaches for the offered up her nerves to loosen up. Just a touch. That is, despite the sensation in the part of herself she doesn't even know she has.

    Is it weird to feel nostalgic for something totally unfamiliar? Maybe that's what she's feeling. "No, you were very helpful." Both with this labor intensive mess in the aftermath of the storm and with the birds. Being kind to animals is always a big mark in someone's favor, far as she's concerned anyway. "It just feels strange. Sorry, I'm not even sure what I mean." Well, bottoms up! In light of her awkwardness, the least uncomfortable thing she can think of right this second? Down a glass of water.

    "You feel like magic." Nythius says gently, her voice lower and meant for the pair of them. She gets right to the crux of it, without really being too blatant. "You sense it too, yes? F-forgive me for making you uncomfortable, if I were a cause. But there is something..." Okay, no use going right into the meat of the matter... not in a street, mere hours after first sighting Terra. Blue eyes swiftly take Terra into account again, top to bottom.. mere seconds. That lovely haircolor, the... just //something//.

    Nythius is silent, allowing Terra the peace to drink her fill. A big, black wing twitches involuntarily as a patch of sunlight beams down into the feathers. "Quell your apologies, calm yourself.. I mean you no harm. But I am curious... for you see, where I come from... that which I sense from you is familiar. This is not a bad thing.. but it puzzles me."

    A beat, she smoothes her skirts... "What of the child you were with yesterday? Are you kin? She has that lovely haircolor, such as yours." Oh Rydia.

    Oh. So that's it. Terra looks down, suddenly a bit more somber than nervous. "I- Yes. No, it's fine. I just... I have magic but I don't know why. My memory..." She lifts a hand as if to wave that fact away. She's not certain she should pour it all out and trouble a relative stranger, if only because she doesn't want to be a bother!

    She tips her head a little, "So- Right, mmm." It is hard to not beg forgiveness for her strange behaviour sometimes! The topic she's more familiar with, Rydia, helps calm her a little! "Rydia is a friend but we're not... I just don't want her to be alone." Rydia's too much of a mini fireball to ever be alone but she's speaking for her own benefit too. A hand raises to her own hair, tugging a few strands as she considers. "If you'd rather, we can find someplace in the shade." Someplace quieter, especially.

    The winged one's eyes soften, the very moment Terra speaks of //having// the gift but... not knowing why? Her lips twitch, wanting to ask onwards... but again: here is not ideal. What Nythius is rapidly surmising is this: this girl has the gift, it feels the very same as what Nythius herself was born with. But there is a.. something added. However in this moment when Terra admits to having magic but not knowing //why//... Nythius feels a jab of sadness. This girl feels like kin, but to not know what she wields...?

    Curious, //curious//. Nythius feels a ripple in her memories, her breath hitching briefly... everything before the Magitek Factory is murky, Nythius went through a hard time. Something feels highly important though and the Esper feels that it is imperative that she win the half-Esper's favor.

    Mention of Rydia does as Nythius hoped, and her worried expression eases once more into a gentle smile. "It is kind of you to help her. I heard her in the fray yesterday... I've not heard a child speak with such force before. But..." She rubs the back of her hot neck, "I would appreciate a moment in the shade. I am minding the sun, now.... but what is your name? I am called Nythius." A peculiar name, but pretty vanilla in the grand scheme of things!

    The look she gets for airing even part of what troubles her drags forth a feeling of shame from the half-esper. Still, it's clear the other woman is uncomfortable with lingering under the sun. Letting the conversation continue, she only turns half-away to begin picking her way toward the inn. "She helps me just as much, I think. She's one of the first people I met. Here."

    The shade offered by the inn is a relief from the direct sun even if the air is still stuffy! There are places to sit in relative peace now that everything's been cleaned and placed back in order. Picking a seat, she eases down, hands on her knees while she contemplates the floor. "Terra Branford. I don't remember much else. Things she does remember, however, are rather unpleasant and difficult to articulate. Certainly nothing she'd say where Rydia may overhear. What is it with evil empires and fire, anyway?!

    It seems poor Terra may not be the only one with a hindered memory. Mind you, Nythius is only missing a certain 'block' of memories.... that's entirely due to being brought to the brink of her life ending, only to be saved. Pure shock. Meanwhile this nervous girl, unbeknownst to Nythius, had that ghastly crown on her head. No wonder her memories, her very sense of self, are lacking! But surely... //surely// Nythius had lived when a Human and an Esper birthed a baby girl....

    As noted: Nythius has her own memories to rebuild, but at least she knows what she is!

    "Hold fast to that tie... I suspect you both work well together." Nythius offers, as if her advice is even needed. To look at the winged one is to see a young lady who is perhaps not //too// much older than Terra.. but the eyes, they're wise.

    As they chat, the pair of them navigate the busy townsfolk and indeed upon entering the inn, Nythius //sighs// with relief. Even her wings lower and in the motion of their weight, a waft of heat escapes from the feathers. She seats herself opposite the half-Esper. "Terra," Nythius repeats... considers. Nothing is coming to her, not yet. "Do you remember where you hail from, before coming here? Are you a wanderer, like myself?" Nythius asks in her gentle way.. she sounds like a woman who is not given to raising her voice often. That accent in her words.. again, hard to place. There's a clipping to some syllables and //some// of her words are given thought, as if she is seeking the right translation.

    Terra spends some time silent, allowing Nythius all the space she might need for words of her own. She shifts, dipping her head to acknowledge the advice offered. "I'll do my best." Rydia is more than a handfull and one of the best trouble magnets she can imagine! Still, she does manage a little bit of a fond smile. As to the esper's qualifications on offering advice, Terra's no judge.

    "I'm not sure. The earliest thing I can remember, I was a soldier." Likely because of her magic, though she doesn't offer that outright. "We went to a town far to the north because..." Her head shakes and her shoulders slump. Other than her deeply troubling dreams, that's all she has to offer, though it feels like there's something else there. Something on the tip of her tongue that she just can't decipher from the jumbled fragments of her memory.

    Preternaturally blue eyes soften as she listens to that which Terra //can// recall. Nythius is able to just sit so.... //still//... unmoving... as she observes. This can be unnerving, until one sees her expression. As Terra goes on, rehashing the very few details that her adled mind can grasp, Nythius looks down into her lap. "You.. a soldier. I felt the nature of your magic yesterday... you were trying to heal, not hurt. Your behavior.. your humility, kindness and hesitance... a soldier, yes?" She looks up again, wings twitching behind her body. She looks to be delving deep into her mind..

    "I remember soldiers, in my life prior... but.. they were not kind." Barely a whisper as Nythius glances sideward, desert sun casting itself in stark rays across the floor of the inn, through a window. "Outside of my original home and the... //terrible// place in which I was in carcerated... I remember little. But the thing is, Miss Terra... your aura, your ability to use magic... you feel much akin to any one member of my people. We hail from the same world, we must." This could mean anything, of course; any town or nation in the world from which they have fled.

    Reliving some of those fragmented memories is difficult. Never a pleasant spread of thoughts, yet they're hers. "The town I had attacked. They called me a witch," she offers, thinking that perhaps that may be more correct considering. Which may be interesting, though it's hard to say whether the troops guarding that place would speak freely of the witch who incinerated several dozen mechanized troops. Though really, they can't be the same person! Right?

    Going on about her magic almost seems to make her wilt ever so slightly. Like she's ashamed somewhat, though she's certainly improved over her original state. "I don't know, I haven't been... I feel drawn back but I haven't had the courage to see. To go back, I mean." She pauses a few moments, thinking, eyes flicking back and forth as if scouring the tabletop for some hint or some thing to grasp at. "Have you always been able to? To use magic?"

    The intuitive, winged being sees the former soldier wilting, at the tangent of conversation. "Oh... do not--" She eases forth, keeping her gaze pinned to Terra even as the other girl does not meet her eye. "Do not think ill of yourself. If you were a soldier, and you yet sit here with memories that do not come easily.... it's not your fault." Nythius blinks, eases back some. Here, in shelter, the permeating sunlight feels kind of nice now. "I do not know what happened to you.. I was a prisoner in a place filled with soldiers. I knew only moments when I was awake, and asleep... nothing in between. I do believe we come from a place that eats memories." Nythius cannot know what slave crowns meant. All she does know is that this mild, highly anxious girl has been harmed greatly.

    Her nostrils flare delicately, ".. witch! You are no witch." Nythius declares.. what is a 'witch' in her culture? Maybe there is no such thing but the word sounds nasty. Terra then goes to voice the very words that have become Nythius' reality. "I need to go back, someday... there is someone whom I seek but I am... I am too afraid." This may be speaking Terra's language. She considers the question, answers easily: "Yes... it has been as easy as drawing breath, as far back as I can remember. My people have always been able to tap into the winds of magic... for we were Eidolons. That is but one name that we've been called... in this Common language that I have learned."

    While Terra does rationally understand that much of what she remembers isn't directly her doing it's still hard to push all that aside! Rather than retread some of that, she tilts her head and listens. She was kept well away from much of the innermost workings of that facility. She only needed to know where to arm up and prepare for the mayhem she mercifully doesn't recall. "Eats memories..." Well, there's that thing that man used on her. She remembers those frantic, terminal moments and she hugs herself through a slight shiver in spite of the warm, dry air.

    As to whether she deserves to be labeled a witch or not she doesn't feel any particular right to deny it! Still, she's interested. "Someone? I only remember a creature. It was frozen but I think it tried to speak to me. I keep having dreams..." But in her damaged state she can't be sure she's not just fixated on the fleeting moments of awareness leading up to her equipment exploding. "Eidolons." Rydia instantly comes to mind but that gift has caused trouble enough for the young girl. Best she simply nod, looking interested but uncertain what specifically to ask.

    Little do both of them know, Nythius //has// that ability... the 'language' that Valigarmanda (Tritoch) had spoken to Terra, at //that// moment? She knows it, right in the marrow of her being... she could say those 'words' that ended up being a dealbreaker in that icy realm. But no... Nythius is still too unsure -- too 'murky', herself -- and Terra is too.. well, she has enough to deal with. All Nythius knows is that this girl is //important//. She feels like kith but.... //but//. Nythius has the sense to not progress too much further.. there's such a thing as understanding, //slowly//.

    "Eidolons." Nythius echoes, "That is what I am. I remember my power being an important thing to those who contained me." Said softly and simply, but she shakes her head again. Long, inky-black waves of hair quiver in front of her shoulders. "Come what may, Terra, I think it's.. important.. that I know of you. You fit in somewhere... but it's not something to take on all at once. The grand scheme of things is that we're here.... so tell me.." She looks around the sunny room, back to the half-Esper, "What other worlds have you seen? Have you travelled much?"

    It all makes a weird kind of sense, though the thought of not quite being human does twist the knob of her anxiety just a bit. It's supported by hints of another friend's patron goddess and other events that have unfolded in her time since leaving her native world. She'd never thought to tie that weird resonance with the beautiful but seemingly dangerous creature in ice to her condition. Her brow knits ever so slightly but she offers nothing more to indicate the progress the gears turning in her head are making.

    Her eyes lift up to finally look upon Nythius again. "The Empire? That was it. I was a soldier for the empire and... And we were attempting to seize the creature from that town. I've seen just a few. A world we called home for some time, atop a cold mountain fortress. Some are nice, some are... different." Sometimes scary, sometimes happy. Sometimes dark or sunny. Cold, hot. Her shoulders come up in a small shrug. "Mostly, I've accompanied friends." It might be apparent that her drive to strike out on her own is rather limited.

    The Esper is ever so patient; not fidgetting, not giving anxious looks or trying to fill silences with words. As the gears click and turn in Terra's mind, Nythius holds the peaceful space in which this process may occur. Blue eyes slide over to observe the green-haired girl's face as she contemplates, brow furrowed. Nythius waits, does not push. Already she is looking, and feeling, a lot better now that she has found reprieve from the heat.

    Finally Terra speaks and Nythius listens, tilting her head gently. "The Empire...? That was what it was called?" The winged one's brows furrow, but she listens on. Sadly, the Empire's campaign to secure the frozen Esper in Narshe is an unknown to Nythius. At that point, she was wasting away in a tube, her life energies being siphoned. Instinct would be to see this girl as an //enemy//: one of THEM. A soldier, right? Raiding a Northern town? Trying to contain a frozen Esper?

    But then.. Terra is just so... uncertain. Anxious.... Nythius just //cannot// see this girl as an enemy. As someone who willingly went along... not when something in her feels like home.

    "I... this is the only world that I have known beyond that which I fled. It feels right, for now... I do not feel compelled to journey far. Not yet. Will you and your friends remain here? Or move on?"

    Terra shakes her head, "I'm sorry, it's all very..." She's leaving out some details, though that may or may not be obvious. "I think so, yes." A very unhelpful, not terribly specific name but it feels correct, even if it's just yet another disjointed memory fragment. One of many that would support any case for declaring her an enemy of some sort.

    "This world does... " She can't disagree that it feels comfortable! In it's own way. Though, in truth, she's mostly just here for one reason. "I'm not certain. We've remained here for some time." Mostly because this is relatively peaceful! Sandstorms and robot stampedes aside.

    "If you decide to go back maybe I could be a little help but..." Her eyes swing askance, checking about quickly. "I don't want to leave Rydia alone."

    Knowing of Terra for not even 24 hours, Nythius does not feel it to be her right to dig at her, ask too many questions. She may have her own problems, but she is not so wrapped up in them as to not understand tact. Nythius eases back a bit, actually enjoying the sunlight upon her wings as opposed to having it bite into her entire body, out in the streets. She watches Terra for a few heartbeats, and seems to decide something.

    "I will not be seeking to return anytime soon... I am not ready. I would never ask another to join me... not at this point. Your place is with young Rydia... not I, a near stranger." Nythius admits in her fluting, accented way. She has too much thinking to do; her own memories to dredge up. Whatever Terra is.. it //must// fit in there, indirectly. There is something, an inkling... but it's out of Nythius' grasp for now. She has damage to navigate before she can hope to voice these thoughts. Perhaps she saw the questioning in Terra's face, too, but the girl was just too unsure to voice it.

    It's not the right time.

    "I will remain in this world, though not in this town... once I see things set right, I will be returning to.... there was this place, a forest. A vast, beautiful forest.. close to a kindgom. A knight whom I met in the woods had told me of it's name... Troia." Nythius tilts her head gently, "I would not ask you to return to that frightful world, Terra.. not at this time. But perhaps someday it will give us both answers. For now, that forest that I speak of.. that is what I will call home."