Yes, I live, and have survived Geek Squad! And I'm not thinking about how long it's been since I last updated. O.o Ahem – anyway, yeeah...moving onward, now that I have free time and Featherboy is sitting still again.

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These latter days – they bear eternal winter's coming frost

And the death of innocence

In this dying age, we wander lost

Deny the hand of man – Hand of Man, Faith and the Muse

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Cassandra crossed the docks to a ship being loaded with supplies and cargo, Grimmaud following behind; the Devil's Luck was a lighter caravel that usually only did trade-runs on "off months" when there wasn't "more interesting things" to be off chasing. She calmly waited by the gangplank for some of the sailors to notice her and start hollering for the First Mate.

This accomplished a dark-haired head turning to note that yes, she was on the dock, and then dashing below decks. Grimmaud found a convenient barrel to keep between himself and what was coming.

"TREVOR NICODEMUS CAROL GET BACK OUT HERE!!"

One of the other sailors knelt by the door to below decks, then yelled back, "He says he's not here!"

She stalked up the gangplank muttering under her breath. "Lousy hare-brained boy...not sure I want to know what he THINKS I'm here for this time..." She stood just behind the other sailor, glowering at the door. The sailor nodded to her, then cracked the door just enough to whisper, "It's safe...she's gone now."

The door swung open, and Trevor got all of three feet before he spotted Cassandra. "Eep! Mom! I can explain everything really-"

"Cut yer blathering, I'm on an errand from the Sisters – I need to get to Esto Gaza to speak to the Bishop, and mayhaps see if I can get a ship from there to the south."

He trailed off, blue eyes blinking. "You mean you didn't hear about-" He broke into a blatantly faked grin, trying to recover dignity. "Well, then, I hear Ganja's headed out that way in a month, I'm sure you've got a lot to sort out before you go..."

Cass arched one eyebrow. "Already sent a moogle ahead to speak to your captain when I heard you were leavin' for that direction today. Yer father's going to be takin' care of the grove while I'm away."

"...eeeheh welcome aboard?"

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The city seemed to be even more of a whirl of color and voices after leaving the muffled quiet of the tailor's shop; according to Solais's commentary, there was also a market in that area that'd been gathering accounting for the extra bustle. As he adjusted to the noise, he started noticing some details – it wasn't just the summoner tribe at the market, although they were certainly a large part of it. There were more of the short green folk, introduced to him as dwarves; other people like the summoners but without horns, of varying dress styles and a list of origin-names; moogles coming and going every which way; a few tall, slender lizardlike people that Solais explained as "Vices" and seemed to edge away from distastefully. He still caught glances his direction and quizzical looks, but there didn't seem to be as many. The wares themselves were almost an overload, and the only thing he could find in the archives of what he'd read he could fall back on were old litanies of treasure-troves. That ran thin as he started finding things that weren't old treasures but weren't things there'd ever been a "need" for in Bran Bal – household dishes and wares of different colors and kinds, furniture, and animals alongside silks, jewels, and treasures. Several times Solais had to tug on his sleeve to prevent him getting lost in the crowd.

Somewhere in between being distracted by a booth of gems and jewelry and another of caged birds, lizards, and small pets, it registered that Solais wasn't close by anymore. The sheer number of -people- and auras threatened to overload when he tried to get his bearings – if he moved on, he'd only end up even more lost. If he waited, either Solais would come back looking for him, or eventually the crowd would thin and he'd have an easier time finding his own way; he took a couple deep breaths until he could feel the nervous tic in his tail and crest-feathers die down, and then started taking another look around the stalls in that corner of the market.

He'd knelt down by a booth of toys of different kinds – painted wood, some clockwork trinkets, and stuffed-plush fabric animals, when Solais found him. He didn't even notice the summoner at first, he'd gotten so intent on some of the stuffed toys, picking up and looking them over.

"Don't tell me you've never seen a stuffed animal before."

Kuja twitch-jumped, tensing, and then forced himself to relax. He hadn't, outside of dim reference in some old records. Several possible responses flickered through his head to play it off, but he opted for half-honesty. "There isn't much out there."

Solais chuckled quietly and shook his head. "You've been turning that one over for five, six minutes now."

His crest-feathers dipped slightly. It wasn't exactly the most elaborate one there – a pink "rabbit" with ears different lengh, thread-sewn black eyes that mismatched in size, a squarish head with no mouth but two buck-teeth, stubby limbs, and a poof of fake fur for a tail; it'd only stuck out because it was that haphazard looking, although the stitching seemed solid. "...Ah...yes...it...stuck out." He glanced down at it briefly and then realized there were a few people including the merchant watching him.

Solais stepped around him and had an exchange with the merchant that got lost in the noise and in trying to think of a way to get people's attention elsewhere, or at least to try and seem more "normal". He almost forgot he was still holding the stuffed rabbit until Solais patted him on the shoulder with a clear nudge toward leaving.

"Let's move on then." Kuja took a step forward and then looked back down at the plushie. "Don't worry about it; it's yours."

He looked down at the rabbit, then back at Solais who'd started into the crowd and then halted, waiting. "Come again?"

"Think of it as a gift."

Another glance at the uneven rabbit and he bit back a sarcastic "Thank you, my life wasn't complete without a misshapen rabbit-thing". He was here on their courtesy and this gesture was part of it, after all. "...ahm...thank you."

The small tour stopped to catch rolls for lunch, then wound past the docks and back through a quieter area of houses on the way back to the main temple complex. He'd trailed off paying much attention; it was a large, prosperous city in an area that seemed peaceful – that alone made it a target.

Then he was distracted by a pair of much louder energy-shapes ahead down the road.

It was a building under construction; a stone arch was being raised, the two sides of it being supported not by scaffolds, but by a blue-furred minotaur, calmly using each huge hand as a support for the two halves while a slightly smaller one was helping the builders move the keystone into place. The aura-patterns were definitely not the same as any of the other people about, and they were producing energy at a rate such that it was leaking out into the entire area; he doubted they were even so much solid creatures as manifestations of earth and stone, massive presences beyond their physical stature. The one acting as a support nodded patiently to Solais as they passed. Kuja wasn't so much struck by the scene as by the potential; an earthquake spell from one of those, with the power they were producing, would level an entire section of the city.

"Those are the Brothers; their Summoner works as an architect primarily, and they've helped with some large-scale projects that would've taken years to finish without them – this city lives because of our bonds with the Eidolons."

The summoners, and this city, were definitely the source of the energy-spike that had registered to Pandemonium; not only as a potential threat, but seeing the effect the Eidolons had on the energy system around them...it had likely been slowing the systems for a very long time now.

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He'd been given a seat at a long table for dinner, with many of the higher-ranking summoners and their families; it was lively, and there was enough energy in the room to make his head buzz as he tried to track the conversation and get an idea what was normal. Now that he was getting used to reading the patterns of an Eidolon next to the patterns of a normal soul, every one of the Summoners had at least some structure where they carried part of the Eidolon's power and spirit with them, an anchor for the Eidolon and a symbiotic link; the younger ones it seemed to flux between different Eidolons, while just about all of the older ones it seemed to stabilize around one or two strong bonds. The scale of what Garland was asking of him sunk in; he was going to have to destroy this place, and he doubted any of the Summoners would go down without a fight, not when they were bonded to the gods themselves.

He'd gone back to being lost in thought on his way back to his room, when he was startled out of it by someone calling his name – Solais; who had apparently followed him from the dining hall.

"Is something bothering you? You've been preoccupied half the day."

"It's nothing; this is just far more people than I'm used to."

Solais tilted his head to one side, studying him. "Are you sure about that?"

Kuja's feathers ticked; he wasn't sure what he'd walked into. "Yes...I'm sure."

"If there is anything wrong...I can't help you if you don't let me know you need it." Worry – he was being studied with concern. Something turned over uncomfortably in his throat at the offer; it was the first time he'd been offered kindness, and from someone he was there to kill – the sudden placement of a name, a face, and a soul to the idea of being the "Angel of Death". Would Solais have made the offer if he knew why Kuja was there, that he'd come because Madain Sari had registered as a threat to -

A threat to Garland.

There was enough power in the room he'd just left to easily overpower Pandemonium if it came down to a direct confrontation; he knew Garland planned to kill him eventually, so he had no reason to hold to his mission out of loyalty – he could tell them everything, the Iifa tree, Oilvert and the mirror-castle, the Shrines, the entirety of the system that was warping Gaea and draining the life out of it to feed the mostly-dead remains of Terra; they would be capable of doing something about it, and had already offered treating him like a living, thinking being -

but all it would take would be Garland thinking two words to the main computers of Pandemonium at the first hint that Kuja had turned on him, which would be obvious if the Summoners suddenly started taking apart the Terran machinery. As long as the killswitch and other control mechanisms existed, betraying Terra would be a hollow act of defiance; he needed some way to interrupt that control and a plan.

"Thank you for your concern...I'll be fine."