Chapter Text
Elpis is utterly beautiful.
Almost unsettlingly so.
Suina doesn't know what she actually expected the ancient world to have looked like. All she had to go on until now had been the recreation of a long-dead city in the depths of an ocean, after all. A city filled with shades of the dead.
Elpis is completely different. Everything here is alive, blooming, brimming with energy wherever she looks. People going about their business much like everyone else she had ever known, and around them, animals and flowers as far as the eye could reach. This place is wholly unfamiliar, of course, but at its core, it is not so different from the world she's from. Unlike Amaurot, this place feels alive, and the knowledge of what is one day going to happen here feels like a devastating burden.
She is here as an observer only, trying to find some answers, but the more she sees, the heavier her purpose weighs on her. Suina came here to find an answer, a solution to save her world from the Final Days, fully knowing that she won't be able to save this world from the same fate.
Meeting a very familiar face has not made any of this easier. Her feelings for Emet-Selch have always been complicated. The desire to save the world in deep conflict with the sympathy she felt for his loss. Sympathy she feels even more keenly now. Their circumstances are entirely different, of course, but Suina understands the pressing need to save one's world and the people in it at any cost. It's the reason she is here now, after all. A while ago, she would have said that the most significant difference between them was that he had done terrible things to reach his goal while she had usually tried to walk a less destructive path. But after seeing the pure fear the eyes of the people of Garlemald had held for the dreaded Warrior of Light, she can't help but wonder just how many things depend on perspective alone.
Of course, the Emet-Selch she has met here in Elpis isn't the same one she knew before. Not yet. He won't be for a long time. In many aspects, they are not so different, but this version of him seems a lot less inclined to obfuscate, to play games. He is far more direct, especially in his mistrust and his dislike for her. It's strange and perhaps a little bit ironic to think that the Ascian she knows seemed at moments almost strangely fond of her. His past self, in comparison, doesn't seem to like her all that much, and he makes no secret of it either.
Suina lets out a deep sigh. It shouldn't matter to her. She will not stay here for very long. And then, hopefully, return with something helpful to a time where whatever Emet-Selch may think of her is of no consequence. Weary from the long and intense day, she pulls off the robes gifted to her, folding them neatly over the back of a chair before she starts to take off the clothes she wore underneath, the ones she had arrived here in. It wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in so many layers. There is a small bath that seems to belong to her guestroom alone, and after everything, a bath sounds just like the right thing to get herself to relax. Having both hot water and soaps at her disposal makes her look at her own clothes. She has no idea how long she will stay here, and she can't very well wear the same thing for days on end. Not without washing it in between. She fills the basin with hot water and gives everything but the robes she got today a good scrub before hanging them to dry at the windows.
Not much later, she sinks into the hot water with a deep sigh. Somehow it's hard to fathom that this morning she had gotten up in Thavnair under a blood-red sky, still weary from days of fighting blasphemies and other terrible creatures. Over the course of one day, she had gone from the Thavnarian heat to another world on the First. Compared to Thavnair, it had been almost a little bit too cold in the Crystarium, but it's not like Suina had a lot of time to ponder the circumstances or even get herself a different set of clothes, everything had been far too urgent for that. And now she is here, in Elpis, far, far in the past. In all her years of traveling around as an adventurer, she had never experienced a day quite like this. In one single day, she has crossed greater distances than in all her life before together she fathoms. Perhaps it's only appropriate to feel a sense of unease, but under the warm steam in the air and the hot water slowly relaxing her muscles, it becomes a little bit easier to let go of her tension.
Suina isn't sure just how long she has been soaking in the tub, her tail draped over the side and swinging back and forth, when she hears a knock on her door. Her ears stand up, and she frowns. She doesn't really know anyone here in Elpis except for the less than a handful of people she has spent the afternoon with, and she can't really see a reason for either one of them seeking her out now, but whoever it might be, they knock again. Insistingly.
"One moment," she shouts, getting up as quickly as she can. Suina grabs a towel and dries herself off. She can't very well dress in her still soaking-wet clothes, but she hurries into the main room and throws on the robe, her hair still damp and dripping into the fabric.
When she opens the door, she is slightly out of breath, and Suina has no chance to hide the sharp gasp of surprise she takes when she realizes who is standing in front of it.
Emet-Selch doesn't look particularly friendly with the way he frowns as he looks down at her and takes in her disheveled appearance, but then again, she can't remember ever having seen him look at her kindly and with a smile. Except once, perhaps, but she doesn't want to remember that particular moment right now.
She doesn't know what to say, confusion as to why he would seek her out running through her. Emet-Selch had made it clear several times during the day that her mere presence bothered him, after all.
"Uhm," Suina starts, searching for words, but Emet-Selch seems disinclined to give her the time to compose herself.
"Good, you are still up," he states with a stern look before he simply pushes the door open, brushing past her and entering her room. "That saves me the trouble of waking you, at least."
For a second, she doesn't know what to do, simply blinking and staring at where he just stood with her heart strangely racing when his voice comes again.
"Don't just stand there. Close the door already, I have some questions for you, and not all of Elpis needs to hear the answers."