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Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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In the end, Éliane had taken third watch to a thankfully very uneventful night. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t like eventful days. But there was a time and place for eventfulness, and bedtime was not one of those times. But there were no blightbeasts, bandits, or even nightmares, and the day broke soon enough. It seemed like some of her companions had enjoyed a better night’s rest than the others, as she glanced over towards Arton as everybody woke up to greet the morning at the end of her watch.

The rest of the journey to Midgar had been slightly inconvenient on account of the heavy industry they passed, but it was nothing Éliane wasn’t familiar with back home, only more concentrated. As they approached the city proper, she took in its sights, comparing them with what she knew in Solitude. It was a dirtier, grimier place than the Skaelan capital, and the more temperate climate didn’t help, allowing some of the smog from industry to linger more than its counterparts in her country did compared to its colder climes. Objectively, like Balmung, it was an inferior city to any in Skael, but it had some very obvious upsides that weren’t as common back home.

The abundance of coffee houses.

The quantity and variety of available coffee.

Éliane knew that they wouldn’t be spending too much time here, but before she left, she had to try at least a few coffee houses. She cursed the oncoming rain; if it weren’t for the weather, she would have been prepared to do a coffee shop crawl right then and there as she tied her chocobo to an available post along with the others. With the talk of inns and planning, she decided to join the conversation.

“Spending a few weeks here trying out the coffee shops sounds like a fun idea to me,” she bluntly replied, but she nodded at Galahad’s offer of lodging via his family. It sounded like it was out of the way, but free was a great equalizer. It was then that she caught Arton staring at her with a strange expression. Giving him a bit of side-eye at first, she tilted her head in mild confusion before frowning as he turned away. What was that about? She decided she would have to ask the fellow Skaelan about it later. If he had problems with her, then she didn’t want it becoming a greater issue in the future given their mission.

But for now… She fixed the dragoon with an intense stare of her own. “Galahad. Tell me more about the coffee shops. What are the best places to visit?”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina shrugged. “That’s understandable, given the divisive nature of your politics here, as I’ve come to experience. Things are far more pleasant in the north, I find.” Who said she couldn’t subtly but shamelessly brag about her princess as well?

She gave Cassandre a wry smile at her observations on the good lord. “Truth to be told, I think most of us are here for the snacks and other guests… and perhaps his business connections, rather than any real support for the lord Havershel. Us nobles have a bad habit of looking down on the newly made, although I can’t help but to see the validity of such views when it comes to the man in question.” Polina pronounced her judgment of the man freely. Aside from the ostentation that he presented in general, the subtext was obvious when both the Maison and the Church were here for his own missteps.

The Farisian maid in disguise paused as Lucrecia leaned in with some words. She gave a nod. “Speaking of snacks, I’m of the mind to sample some of the delicacies at the food table as well,” she responded, both to her fellow maid and to the priestess. “The two of you are certainly welcome to join us there as well if you’d like to continue our conversation,” she offered. Polina actually didn’t mind talking with the two churchwomen, despite her dislike of the church itself, but despite the offer, she doubted they would follow. They had been sequestered off in the corner after all, with the rest of the guests shunning them.

Giving another nod to Lucrecia, she made her way towards the food. “Try some of the food, too, Lulu. The other nobles might judge me for letting a ‘servant’ step out of line, but I’m not in a position to particularly care, hmm?” With that said, her eyes returned to the tasty Orosian snacks. She only paused in that endeavor when the Lord Havershel made his personage more widely known to the guests. Giving him a glance, she sized him up, but she returned her attention to the food as she made it her mission to sample each dish before the mission began in earnest.

Nonetheless, she could only dally with the food so long, so with a plate of food, she made her way towards the host, where Livia seemed to having a… discussion.

Oh dear. Polina hoped she would have enough time to enjoy the cooking before they had to throw hands.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

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Giselle gave her a glance at that and shrugged. “Well, Kordelia, if it keeps feeling wrong later on, talk to me and I’ll see if I can do something about it.” The Farisian princess allowed her fellow ‘princess’ a few minutes to collect herself and cover her body… although that wasn’t to say Giselle didn’t enjoy the show. In fact, if Kordelia kept being cluelessly unclothed, then Giselle wouldn’t have argued about her choice of clothing.

She raised her hand to forestall any unnecessary questions, as much as she wanted to comfy reminiscing with the fellow vampire lord. “Catching up… can wait for a little later. The long and short of it—civilization as we know it has collapsed. Before you came to your senses, you sent your cute beasties to destroy what may have been the realm’s last human settlements.” Giselle paused and looked her in the eye. “So the moment we find Aleksiya’s… arm, we’re making haste to the village. I hope you can still fight.”

Of course, it did take a little bit to find Aleksiya’s arm, so Giselle decided to fill her in on some more details as well. “Well, the paladins won, for all the good it did them. Their world collapsed, as did ours. The last I remembered before awakening to a dead realm was my last stand at the mountain palace,” she reminisced. “That must have been quite a while after you died. I made them bleed for every inch they took of my land. We blew the bridges, collapsed the mountain passes. Hundreds of miles of trenches, pre-sighted artillery… humans alongside us fighting for their livelihood. A beautiful, touching moment of the cooperation that I’d always looked to build, if it only wasn’t so futile in the end,” she sighed. “In the end I brought the entire palace down on top. I’m not sure if I killed any of them doing it.”

Giselle shrugged. “Then I found myself in this mess of a world together with some of the other Lords. Ichor bids us to find the rest and bring back the Queen. Maybe then there will be some hope for this dead world.”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

The Farisian noblemaid gave Cassandre a nod, listening politely as the clergywoman briefly engaged with her fellow maid. Of course, the church being the church, they couldn’t spend more than a few seconds exchanging pleasantries before social etiquette was ruined yet again by the woman’s attack dog. Polina couldn’t help but to stare at the knight apparently named Madeline with an unladylike manner for a brief moment. Hunting down demons or not, was this really the best they could spare for someone they knew would be interacting with nobles? Important ones, at that?

Good thing Polina wasn’t involved in Oros politics anymore.

Deciding not to add a running commentary of her own at the byplay between her mistress and the two church women, she formed a blank, polite face as a mask. A mask that quickly failed, because she was pretty sure there was an entertained smile on it.

“Well, what a shame,” she finally said, giving Livia a nod as she went for the food tables. “I’ll join you later with some drinks then.” Polina decided to throw in a wink for good measure, before she turned back to the two clergywomen, intending on bidding them adieu as well.

“Ah? Well, I suppose it’s not every day that I the chance to speak with members of the church in such an illustrious setting,” she nodded. She quickly regretted indulging them at their sudden question.

“That is a bold question indeed, miss Marcien,” she replied, a somewhat amused tone in her voice. “If you weren’t from the church, I might have taken it as an attempt to be dragged into petty Orosian politics from a fellow noblewoman.” Polina gave her a polite smile. “But to answer your question, I admire Lady Fiore’s work as a force for good. I find her cause to be a very respectable one.”

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Perhaps Giselle had overdone it slightly. After getting beaten up by Paladins and then waking up in a degenerate post-apocalyptic world, she had an itch for doing something suitably grand, like shoving the whole bloody heart into Kordelia. Even if her only witness to the act had been just Aleksiya.

Besides, she was getting tired of carrying around a large serpent heart all the time.

She watched silently as the beast princess’s twisted body began seizing on the ground, before her finally began to shed her beastly form to reveal the more familiar form of the small ‘princess.’ Naked, of course. The white-haired princess raised an eyebrow as she ran her eyes across her form, but waited patiently for the vampire lord to stop her pained noises before saying anything.
“Well well, you’re finally back to your senses, Kordelia. Much has changed since your fall,” she greeted, deciding not to needle her as much as Aleksiya. Though, she did so a little bit anyway.

“The heart of a certain serpent,” she answered. “Perhaps it wasn’t completely necessarily, but I was still doing you a favor, and I didn’t feel like carrying it for much longer. If you don’t like it I can take most of it out again later. It should be fine. Probably.”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

“With greetings as warm as these, it’s a mystery why the church is no longer held in a higher esteem,” Polina dryly observed as they approached, pitching her voice high enough to just be heard by her intended audience. Really, for all of the distaste she had for the church, didn’t they train their paladins to be more than just attack dogs?

For all the casualness she showed now, she wasn’t going to vocalize that particular thought.

She stood silently along with Lucrecia as Livia engaged the two churchwomen, although she took the liberty of looking engaged as etiquette entailed. She too took a drink with a nod and a thank you, taking a sip of the offered wine as the clergywoman spoke.

“I can always respect a man’s decision to build a private museum,” she voiced. “The style he enthuses… let’s just say it is rather unorthodox, but I cannot fault the man for a love of history. But, ah—where are my manners?”

Etiquette here presupposed that Livia was to be the one to introduce her, but Polina decided to go ahead nonetheless. “Paulina Lafayette. A pleasure,” she greeted, giving a customary curtsy as she tugged at the hems of her dress. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

As far as names went when you were going undercover disguised as a noble, hers was airtight. Being actual fallen nobility helped; having one of your two bosses being the actual monarch of a country vouching for you also helped quite a bit when said princess could wave her hand and declare such things so. If anybody bothered to investigate, there was indeed a Farisian lady from the small noble house of Lafayette. Polina hadn’t originally intended to invoke the alias while working under the Maison, but it made sense.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane had been surprised to see that their itinerant moogle had made it out physically unscathed despite the violent melee, although she doubted the same was for his fur and mental state. Well, she was sure the little man would be fine after a few days, a brush, and some drink, no biggie. More importantly, she and Galahad had been able to recover the chocobos—by some miracle, they too had been unharmed, and hadn’t been scattered to the point of loss.

Like any sensible party, they made camp some ways away from the fight. To her annoyance, a campfire was not an option; there would be no easy hot brews of coffee for her, a fact made all the worse since she expected to take watch for the night. Where was that black mage that could easily solve that issue for her? In fact… where had he been during the entire battle?

Nonetheless, the respite was welcome. A good meal after going hunting was made all the better by the way Lord Leonhardt had their provisioning arranged, and the food that was available in the wagon was nearly fit for a lesser feast, even if Éliane still found the quality of the bread wanting.

Even if there were only so many ways to bake hard tack.

After tearing into the food, she had to stare longingly at the coffee beans she had in her pouch, before deciding to just pop some in her mouth.

“Watches? It’s all the same to me,” she shrugged. “I’ll take whatever.”

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

And just like that, it was done. Between Akyasha and Giselle, they had finally severed the red threads of fate, releasing Kordelia from her puppeteer. The white-haired vampire would have thought there would have been a little bit more pomp and circumstance to the end of such an intense fight and such a momentous resolution, such as a heroic reunion, but… no. The beast princess’s transformed figure promptly and unceremoniously faceplanted into the ground, the hands disappeared, and all that reigned was silence.

The Farisian princess shared a look with her smaller counterpart before carefully approaching their erstwhile foe’s prone form. There was a worry in her mind that their fight had done more damage than she’d wanted, or Ichor forbid, whatever that possessed her had done more than simply snatch her body.

That was, until she heard the beating of the heart that she still possessed from the cathedral, and the warmth of the dagger that she had strapped to her thigh.

The voice that entered her mind told her what she needed to do.

With an almost wry smile on her face, dismissing her ribbon, she approached the fallen vampire, producing the beating heart in one hand, and the sacred dagger in the other as she knelt in front of her. She raised the dagger.

“Pardon me,” she murmured, before plunging the dagger into the chest of the transformed vampire. With another motion, she shoved the heart into Kordelia, before slowly stepping back.

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

“In the Principality, we throw out unexpected guests and politely yet firmly tell them to leave and never come back,” Polina quipped, yet half-heartedly grousing. She was all for interesting experiences, but that ended when it was directed at her and more inconvenient than it was worth. The meddling of the Church was one, for example.

With a nod of acknowledgement to Lucrecia in her role as their guard, she accepted Livia’s hand, schooling her face into a noble bearing with a light smile of her own—that wasn’t too hard, considering her tendency to plaster a poker face even as a maid. Really, there weren’t too many differences in etiquette in carrying yourself as a noble lady versus falling into the role of a high-class maid.

Maids for high-ranking nobles or royalty tended to be nobles themselves, after all. Polina had just gone about the recruitment for her positions in a slightly more unorthodox way.

As they entered, she glanced about, allowing herself to take in the sights somewhat less subtly than she would as a maid on a combat mission. As a noble’s abode went, it wasn’t particularly exceptional, although Polina thought the man that owned it had overused the amount of gold leaf a little bit. It was on character if anything, though.

It didn’t take too long for Polina to catch the two members of the church among the crowd of nobles and other distinguished guests. Apart from their unique garb that stood out in the sea of noble splendor, they were being ostracized by the other guests. Understandably so.

“They seem rather lonely tonight, so it would be the only polite thing to do,” Polina replied, agreeing with Livia’s suggestion –obviously an order—despite her own distaste of the clergywomen.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Giselle was pleased by the success of their change in strategy, but it still wasn’t good enough. Fully aware that the vast majority of the beasts had been sent towards the village, she had her doubts on whether or not the rest of the vampire lords could pull off a successful defense. From what little she had seen of the small town, it was not well equipped for a basic siege, let alone a massed assault of creatures twisted by dark magic.

Yet even with attrition now in favor of herself and Aleksiya, they still had her match in Kordelia. The stronger vampire beating down on her sword made her wince in pain at each blow, even as she continued to cut her strings with her ribbon whip. Even as their puppeted opponent seemed to have exhausted her tricks to expend, she was caught off-guard by what little she seemed to have left.

Wincing at the deafening roar, she opted to mutually extend the distance between them even as she fanned out her ribbon whip just in time for the fragments of blood to shoot out at herself and Aleksiya. Her new weapon was immediately torn apart, but did the trick in mostly protecting her. Clicking her tongue in mild annoyance, she briefly checked over herself before carefully reforming the weapon, taking advantage of Kordelia’s seemingly fleeting attention before she began to work at the hand and its strings once more. Still resolved that removing its influence would be the best option, Giselle was determined to cut down the rest as she moved to slash out at the hand with the three remaining strings before going for the rest.