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11. Fires Burn Bright

"You know, I don't think I ever actually came in here before." Tifa looked up at the sprawling roots and branches that framed Healer House doorway. She tossed aside the branch she had easily snapped off when it barred their path. It was as long as she was tall. "Not even when I was a cadet."

"The tutors and Masters were always private." Aerith stepped along the cleared pathway. Their trip across the bailey had been uneventful but silent, culminating in this exchange of small talk. "To be honest, sometimes I thought they'd have been happier to be left alone to their research and resented having to teach students at all. There are room in here even I've never been into."

"Until today?" Tifa followed her.

"If it might help Yuffie, then yes."

Inside was dusty and dark. Aerith switched on the torch she had brought with her in preparation for the poor lighting this time. It pooled a yellow beam in front of them like a guide dog to follow.

"This way."

Tifa looked around with interest. "Wow. Cadet barracks were pretty grim compared with this place. You got carpets!"

Aerith could not help but smile. "Such extravagance."

"I think you're joking but I'm being honest. We were inside the castle but it wasn't exactly the lap of luxury. Is that a kitchen?"

"Yes. We lived here. It wasn't just sleeping quarters. We cooked and ate meals together." A sudden memory occurred and Aerith lifted the torch beam. Sure enough, a brittle bit of paper was still pinned to the wall: a chore rota. She searched for her own name and found it next to 'washing up duty'. Her throat clogged.

"Nice." Tifa ran her hand along the dusty worktop. "How come everything's made of wood?"

"The Masters said organic material was a healthier environment for keeping our energies balanced."

"Say what?"

"Too much metal interfered with the natural flow of magic in the place when it was full of healers. I didn't fully understand it, to be honest, but they were quite insistent. Maybe it was all just tradition." Aerith shrugged. "It's not like I can ask them now."

She saw Tifa wince. "Sorry."

"Don't be. We all have stories like that."

"Yeah but … I'm still sorry. We'll rebuild it all, you know. When this is over and Sora … we'll bring Radiant Garden back to what it should be."

"Yeah." But it would not bring the people back. Aerith heard the husk in her own voice. Some things could be fixed but some would remain broken forever and there was nothing any of them could do about it. She shook her head. She would not let Yuffie become one of those things. "Come on. The Scroll Room is just up this way."

Once inside the two women pored over books with varying degrees of interest. While Aerith crouched to pull out leather-bound tomes, Tifa slid sideways along the wall of bookshelves, staring up at the titles.

"What are Dermatological and Epithelial Enchantments?"

"Magic to do with healing skin and surface tissue. It's something I studied in my first year of training. The masters used to pair us up and have us cut out hands so our partners could heal the wounds."

Tifa boggled at her. "They made you cut your own hands?"

"Yeah but only when we were ready."

"At what point is a student ready for self-mutilation?"

"Probably the same point a cadet is ready to try hitting other cadets in the face with their fists."

Tifa's jaw clicked shut. "Touché. What sort of titles would you need for Yuffie?"

"Anything to do with comas, fugue states, that sort of thing. Check the indexes as well as the titles. Sometimes it's not obvious what range of magic a book covers."

Tifa stared around them. The Scroll Room was more of a long gallery lined up and down with books. High ceilings allowed for shelves far out of their reach even on tiptoe, necessitating a wooden stepladder to reach the topmost books. At the far end a small door led into an anteroom of glass cases where actual scrolls were kept safely locked away. These, Aerith knew, were the histories of Healer House and its denizens all the way back to when the first healers started building the place.

"We need to check … all these?" Tifa asked.

"Well, really I need to, not you," Aerith corrected without malice. "If you could help me get at the top shelves by holding the ladder, I'd be grateful."

They worked their way along one case, Tifa obediently fetching the ladder and holding it steady while Aerith climbed to peer at the uppermost books. Her grip was steady and Aerith felt curiously safe, even though the wood was old and rickety.

"You know, sometimes I feel downright dumb around you."

Tifa's sudden admission nearly knocked Aerith off her perch. "Wh-what?"

"Times like now, I remember that your healing isn't just a talent or something you lucked into. I mean, you do have talent too but you had to study in a way I never did. I mean, we had exams as cadets but … nothing like this. If things had turned out different … you'd be some sort of scholar or teacher or something by now, right?"

"Um, I'd maybe be a Master." Aerith ran her fingers reflexively across the book in her hands. "To be honest, I was never that enthralled with the idea of teaching. Research, though …" She gave a small, sad smile. "I did like that idea. I kind of wanted to specialise in herbology or botanical healing magic. I had ideas about pushing the boundaries of what flowers can be used for. Botany isn't exactly a well-respected branch of healing and I wanted to … maybe see if I could help change that."

"See?" Tifa said from below her. "You're smart, Aerith." She gave a snort. "smarter than me. I was just a girl who could hit really good."

"No!" Aerith half-turned. The ladder wobbled and she paused before continuing. "Don't say things like that, Tifa! Don't underestimate your own talents."

Tifa raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not. I'm being realistic. I'm pretty much a tank. In a fight I punch the bad guys until they fall down and then punch them some more so they don't get back up. My talents are effective but limited."

Aerith frowned. "I'm not smarter than you, Tifa."

"Yes you are." Tifa shrugged. "It doesn't bother me, Aerith." She said it lightly but Aerith noticed how her shoulders came to rest higher than before they had started the shrug.

"But it bothers me. I'm not smarter than you, Tifa. Who's to say that if things had been different, you wouldn't have qualified as a Guard and then … I don't know, written textbooks about martial arts or something? And anyway, if things had been different, we wouldn't have become friends, and that'd be awful."

Tifa went quiet. "We use that phrase a lot, don't we?" she said eventually. "'If things were different'. When do you think we'll stop comparing what is to what might have been?"

It was a question so profound that Aerith was not sure how to answer. "I don't know. When our lives start to feel normal again, I guess?"

"Have our lives ever been normal?"

"Once, they were." Aerith hugged the book to her chest. "And they will be again. A new normal. A better normal. One where we're all safe and together, and our home is rebuilt and happy.

"And the universe isn't full of scary things trying to kill us or steal our hearts," Tifa finished.

Aerith swallowed. "Yeah," she croaked. "That too." She started to turn to hand over the book so she could descend the ladder. Her boot caught in the hem of her dress and she stumbled, toppling forwards, arms windmilling. "Gah!"

"Whoa!"

Tifa flung herself underneath. Aerith fell on top of her, cushioned by the strong waiting arms. The book she had been carrying flung across the room, thudding against the floor and skidding towards the anteroom.

"Oof!"

"Sorry!" Aerith sprang back. "Did I hurt you?"

"Are you kidding? I have literally been hit in the face with a dragon before. You're not going to hurt me. Ae you okay?" Tifa asked, casting her over for injuries.

"I'm fine. A dragon?"

"Long story."

"And you said healer novices cutting our palms was bad."

"Well I am a grown-ass woman who decided to fight the dragon. You were made to hurt yourselves by the adults who were in charge of you." Tifa's brows pulled together. "Did we have any teachers who didn't suck back then?"

Aerith chose not to answer. Instead, she stepped across to pick up the book she had dropped. As she did so, however, her gaze snagged on another title on the opposite wall. It took a moment to work it out of its tight spot wedged between two books on reattaching severed limbs and asthma medicine. If there was a method to the Scroll Room's organisation, she could not fathom what it was.

"What's that?" Tifa came to peer over her shoulder. "Something to help Yuffie?"

"Maybe."

"Promina's Techniques of the Brain," Tifa read aloud. "Sounds, uh, promising?"

"Promina was a bit of a quack, according to my old teachers, but … any port in a storm." Aerith placed the book on the floor, out of kicking distance. "It's a start. Come on. Let's keep looking."

They searched for what felt like hours but might have been less than one. The dim lighting made timekeeping difficult and it was not until Aerith's torch guttered that they paused.

"The battery's dying." Tifa observed.

Aerith puffed hair from her eyes and surveyed the pile of books they had amassed. It reached above her knees. "We should get back anyway. I want to check on Yuffie and Leon."

"Leon?" Tifa echoed, though her tone suggested she knew why.

"He's going to make himself sick if he keeps blaming himself."

"Well hopefully some sleep has helped."

"You think he actually went to bed?"

"He did if he knows what's good for him." Tifa thumped a fist into her other palm. She smiled, though it was a thin veneer.

So was Aerith's. She carefully placed the pile of books into a box she had also thought to bring along this time and Tifa picked it up like it weighed nothing. They made their way back to the front hallway of Healer House.

Before they had gotten even halfway there, however, the torch flickered and died.

"Damn it," Aerith muttered, stopping in her tracks. "Wait a second. We have to let our eyes adjust to the light so we don't fall over anything as we walk."

"I take it back. Organic pretty architecture has nothing on electric lights."

Aerith gave a small laugh. Then she paused. She sniffed. "Do you … smell something?"

Tifa inhaled. Aerith could not see her properly in the gloom but she heard the frown in her voice. "Smells like smoke."

Aerith blinked rapidly, willing her eyes to adjust faster. What she had thought were ghostly afterimages from the torch beam did not abate. In fact, they moved. Shimmered. Flickered at the end of the corridor.

"Oh no…"

Tifa swore. She ran forward, heedless of the dimness, and disappeared into the next corridor. Aerith followed but found herself shoved backwards.

"It's the door. It's totally ablaze." Tifa dropped the box of books, flipping open her communicator. "Cid! Cloud! Leon! Someone come in!"

Static crackled. "What's up?" Cid growled.

"Healer House is on fire and we're still in it!"

"Fuck!" A crashing noise signalled Cid was on the move. "On my way."

"So am I." Cloud's voice cut through the static. "Can you get out?"

"The main door and hallway is burning." Tifa looked up at Aerith. "Is there another way out?" Her eyes darted around and Aerith knew what she was thinking: all this dry wood and paper. They did not have long if the fire was big enough to consume the front doors already.

"Through the kitchen. It leads out to the gardens."

"We're heading to the kitchen to try to get into the gardens," Tifa barked, reaching out to take Aerith's hand and drag her along.

"No, Tifa, wait!" Aerith tugged her hand free. "The books. Yuffie –"

Tifa cursed again but shoved the communicator into her hands and went back for the box. She hefted it into one shoulder and they both ran.

They halted in the doorway. The kitchen burned. Aerith looked on in horror as the old oak table where she had once laughed and kneaded bread dough with other novices crackled and collapsed into nothing more than firewood. The gigantic iron cauldron clanged when the wooden struts holding it up snapped. Pieces of ceiling curled and fell into the flames.

"We can't get out that way!" Aerith said into the communicator.

"Find a window or something!" Cid snapped over the line.

The windows were all congested with branches or blocked by the overgrown trees outside. Aerith took several steps back, the heat of the kitchen fire making her sweat.

"There aren't any windows to get out of."

"Fuckity fuck fuck! Tifa!" Cid raised his voice. "Can you punch your way out of there?"

"Sure." Tifa shot Aerith an apologetic look. "But this place is made of old wood. If I punch down a wall the whole building might collapse."

Aerith's heart jumped. The blood in her veins crystallised into ice. She bunched her hands around the communicator. Shut her eyes. Felt the heat billowing out of the kitchen. Nodded.

"Do it."

The ceiling above them creaked. She looked up in time to see that the fire had worked its way out of the kitchen and claimed a hallway beam. It cracked and plummeted right at her.

"Aerith!" Tifa slammed into her and they both landed in a heap several feet away.

Aerith sat up. "The books!" Tifa had dropped them to make the save.

"Leave them." Tifa stood up and grabbed her hand.

"But Yuffie –"

"Will be way worse off if you burn instead of them." Tifa pulled her away from the burning box, half-crushed by the beam. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

Aerith stared hopelessly as the flames took hold and her plans to wake Yuffie burned with them. She bumped into Tifa as the other woman came to a sharp stop and peered over her shoulder at the unburnt wall in front of them.

"Give me room."

She took a few steps back. Tifa rolled her shoulders, drew back her arm and thrust a perfect fist at the wall. Her hand glowed faintly and the wooden panelling exploded outward in a rain of splinters. It was a restrained punch, leaving a sizeable hole but not enough to knock down the whole wall. Aerith had expected to see daylight beyond but the hole led into what seemed like an office or personal study. It was far darker in there and a smell of old mustiness wafted out at them. At the introduction of new air, the flames travelling down the hallway jumped forward.

A muscle in Tifa's jaw twitched. She grabbed Aerith's hand again. "C'mon. Step high so you don't cut your legs in that skirt."

Once inside, Tifa examined the furthest wall. It was a tiny space, windowless and as crammed with books as the Scroll Room. Aerith found herself looking around, trying to make out titles as Tifa pressed her palms against the blank parts of the panelling. She drew back her fist and punched out another hole, this time allowing fresh air and sunlight through. Aerith blinked, vision momentarily whited out.

Tifa raised an arm to shield her eyes. "Quick!" She grabbed blindly for Aerith with her other hand.

Aerith stumbled towards her, knocking into the table in the centre of the room. "Ow!" The table screeched sideways a few inches and something heavy thumped to the floor, sending up a cloud of dust. Aerith blinked at it: an enormous book, filled with what appeared to be handwritten notes rather than printed text. Her returning vision caught a single name that made her breath catch: Master Allbright.

Master Allbright had been Head Healer before Radiant Garden fell. He had conducted her own initiation ceremony and run Healer House like an elderly grandfather filled with wisdom from a long life of learning. He was quite possibly the most talented healer Radiant Garden had even known.

"Aerith! We need to go!" Tifa shouted.

On instinct, Aerith snatched up the book and held it to her chest moments before Tifa forewent further requests, picked her up and carried her through the self-made exit. Crackling flames heralded their exit to the outside world.

Tifa ran, carrying Aerith and her papery prize like she was made of feathers. When she had decided they were a safe enough distance, she turned and set Aerith's feet on the cobblestones. Together, they watched as flames licked up through timeworn holes in Healer House's roof and greedily consumed the thatch.

Something dripped onto Aerith's hands, still wrapped tightly around the book at her chest. She looked down, the motion causing more moisture to drip off her chin. She was crying. She had not even realised.

Something dark rocketed out of the sky and landed in front of them. Cloud stood up, hurrying towards them. His face was a mask of … was that concern? Aerith stared. Her mind seemed strangely fragmented, the pieces not wanting to line up and make sense.

Healer House was burning.

Her history was burning.

Yuffie was …

"Are you all right?"

She heard Cloud's voice from far away. She wasn't sure if he was asking her or Tifa or both of them. She opened her mouth to reply but no sound would come out. Dimly, she was aware of Tifa's sooty face, her own centre of balance shifting, pain in her knees, someone saying her name and then …

Nothing.

Cloud caught Aerith when she keeled over. Tifa was fast but he was faster.

"Is she hurt?" He did not look up at Tifa but she knew the question was directed at her.

"I … I didn't think so. I think she just fainted."

Cloud laid a palm on Aerith's forehead, his movements quick and capable. When he slid the hand away, however, Tifa did not miss how it lingered a little too long on Aerith's cheek before lifting her up into his arms. The corner of the book she clutched bumped into his chest and he paused to shift it aside.

"Here." Tifa tried to take it but even though she was unconscious, Aerith's grip was like iron. "I don't even know where she got this." Tifa scrubbed at her stinging eyes as she squinted at the cover. It was decorated in curlicue script across leather so worn it had split at the edges. "Mastery Almanac?"

A loud cracking noise drew their attention. Part of Healer House roof had collapsed inward. Tifa raised a hand to her mouth. The tree above the structure was beginning to catch light. If it went up, the entire overgrown courtyard could be next.

"We need to do something!"

Cool breeze washed over them from behind. Tifa turned to see a swirl of purple magic spiralling up from the floor in increasingly fast circles. It stretched upwards, detonating like a skein of unrolled fabric into a familiar robed figure.

"Well then, if something needs to be done, it's a good thing I got here in time to do it."

"Merlin!" Tifa could not keep the relief from her voice.

"Pleasantries later, dear girl. Excuse me."

He hobbled past, shrewdly eyeing the rising smoke. Coughing briefly into one fist, he made a complicated gesture in the air and pushed his palms towards Healer House as if guiding an awkward cat to walk before him. He repeated this several times, each gesture greeted by a small spangle of magic eddying up into the sky. Clouds gathered and darkened, rumbling ominously.

"That should do it." Merlin pushed his glasses up his nose and narrowed his eyes at the blaze. "Right … about … there."

A thunderclap crashed overhead. Rain whooshed down in great sweeping waves. Merlin waved his hands as if conducting an orchestra and huge amounts of it funnelled together, diving through the holes in the roof like the tentacles of a gigantic helpful octopus. Water splashed out through the woodwork and gaps in the overrun windows. Loud hissing signalled the dousing of many internal fires.

Merlin's hat fell into his eyes. He pushed it up, readjusting his glasses again like some doddery old pensioner rather than the powerful wizard he was. Tifa watched in awe as he manipulated the weather itself to put out the fire.

"There we are." Merlin clicked his fingers and the rain eased and stopped. "I'm afraid the place is rather washed out but, ah, rather washed out and standing than dry and burning, don't you think?" He turned to face Cloud, Tifa and Aerith, blowing strands of white moustache from his mouth. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on his brow. "Now I don't know about you, but I could definitely use a nice cup of tea right about now."