[Closed to Gabranth]

[blessedsaint]

Characters: Gabranth, Ultima/Ajora
Where: Light of Kiltias temple, Mt. Bur-Omisace
When: Just before break of dawn, 15 Plumfrost*, 710 Old Valendian
What: Gabranth is returned to Ivalice
Warnings: Ajora is really all the warning one needs, yes?
*Plumfrost = January


All is at rest at the summit of sacred Mt. Bur-Omisace. Even the clerics who inhabit the temple are still abed. They will rise shortly for lauds and to greet the rising sun, whose illumination represents the light of Faram. But now is the evening on the cusp of a new dawn.

Deep within the temple, a room there is shrouded in darkness. It is one set aside for the preparation for burial of the dead. Also a place of deep mystery as one is meant to contemplate their own life's deeds in the face of transitioning from life into death. Seldom used it is, yet today it stands as the ideal location for what must needs happen. For hidden in the shadow is one who is a living vessel for one greater than himself.

Light erupts in the room as the High Seraph appears. Her brilliance casts a shadow so deep that her host cannot be seen, though none are present to stand witness, yet. Indeed, he is gone, having submitted his physical form that Ultima might manifest. The holy scion reaches into the nether, to call forth a spirit long since returned to the Mother of All. That she is stealing away one claimed for death by the gods pleases her immensely.

As the sun outside slowly begins to claw its way up to the horizon, the bier within gains a miraculous inhabitant. First the spirit hovers over the resting place. Then the flesh begins to knit itself into physical shape. No longer will Gabranth remain dead to Ivalice, nor shall he bear any wounds, save those he inflicts upon himself, or carries from his life before. Releasing a burst of holy power, she integrates the spirit with the body, waiting for his first breath.

"This is your redemption."

Comments

[strayspride]

He doesn't fully recognise what is happening at first, thinking it some new trick of the Nightmare Realm as it slowly begins to crumble around him. His ears buzz with a white noise, like the hum of nethicite before it blows, It isn't until he breathes in, and the air has changed that Gabranth can recognise the difference. Instead of hot air, filled with ash and soot and the ever-present burn of non-mortal flames it is cool and damp, loamy and dead. Like a crypt or a grave.

Words filter in slowly with the recognition, as he starts to blink his eyes awake and try to take in his surroundings. This is your redemption. Trite, foolish words for a man such as him. A pointless goal, and one he would not have undertaken even were it possible.

"I would rather return to my hell, if you can manage it."

Sitting up is a struggle, hating the feeling of his crushed and shattered ribs re-knit, but injuries have not stopped him before, and they will not, now. The voice seems somewhat familiar, though, but unpleasant. Almost like Venat, with Vayne.

When Gabranth—when Noah, finally manages full consciousness, he rather wishes that he did not. He has not seen this one before, not that he can recall, but he knows the look of an Esper. And one like this? Can only mean he has been brought back to the one place he would much rather never return to.

Hell is preferable to Ivalice.

"And what use would you have for a dog, Esper, that you could not leave him to his own peace?"

[blessedsaint]

By all rights, Ultima could strike him down for his ingratitude, his impudence, his audacity to speak so to her. However, Gabranth has not been restored to life for the High Seraph to destroy him for these reasons. No, he is of far greater use alive and walking amongst the living. That he recognizes he is being used matters little. Whether he wills it or no, his life will exact precisely what she wishes to accomplish, just by his drawing breath.

"Just live, mortal."

He may seek the path of the cruel betrayer of his brother once more, he may choose to cut down the last remaining blood of the man who once held his leash. Whatever he chooses, it will be satisfactory. There will be chaos, there will be great bloodshed in the name of peace, and then the chains of the gods shall no longer bind them.

Her task completed, Ultima vanishes, taking the light with her and plunging the room into darkness. All is silence and stillness, and not even breathing betrays the presence of the living host for the scion. The shadows mask him well, and thus he exits unseen, leaving Gabranth to live again.

[strayspride]

That isn't exactly a command that makes Noah particularly less inclined to try to return to the realm rom which he came, but there is no guarantee that the High Seraph would not simply revive him again. And again, and again. On until it is either grossly public or grossly painful,

Sometimes, one simply has to cut their losses.

Ultima vanishes before he has the chance to thank her with a slug to the jaw, which is a greater pity. Someone must be in the room with him, he is sure. Espers are tricky things, but she seemed far more in control of herself to have been simply awakened. And Gabranth would wager he knows this place, or at least something of it, and if there were Espers hidden in temple crypts, he would have likely learned of it before now, under the suspicion that it guarded some sort of nethicite bounty.

However, he cannot find trace of a summoner, and for the moment, the identity of such a figure is the least of his concerns. He stays around, letting his eyes adjust to the near-absence of light. (He has survived and lived in darker, worse, places). There are some robes, unused that he can scavenge, to the nakedness he has now. His swords, at least, seem to have been returned to him, and he supposes he is grateful for that small kindness.

The only thing left is a grimoire, innocently still where it had been beside his form. In it are only the words "And upon this day Judge Magister Gabranth was restored by the High Seraph fully to life". He snorts, but takes it anyways. If it needs disposing of, he can attempt so, later, but for the moment, he cannot risk leaving it here. He binds up the swords and his face in some spare rags, shrugs on the robes before stumbling out towards the light.