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Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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As it turned out, Éliane’s fears were unfounded. A short while later, she was greeting what felt like the first real friendlies in the country outside of personal relations to the Kirins. She returned a slightly sloppier salute, but one that still fell in the bounds of conduct becoming of a Skaelan officer. “With how bad things have been going, better late than never,” she sighed, words dry. “But we’ll gladly take that ride.”

There were a lot of things that needed rectifying now that so many holes had been exposed in her country’s defenses, but nothing that she or any of her superiors could act upon now, unfortunately.

“Now there’s a thought.” Éliane turned towards Galahad at his words, her hands already at her chin. “Let’s do it. I want one too. Think of all the weapons we could put on it, the technology that we could steal…” Wiping the dreamy look off her face, she inclined her head more seriously towards the dragoon. “With our mission, it’s possible. It might depend on how difficult the learning curve and manning requirements are compared to our own ships, though. The design principles are fairly different,” she gestured towards the craft they were boarding. As proud as she was of her own country’s technology and designs, Éliane had to admit they were behind the curve compared to Valheim in at least this aspect.

“When we get one, I’ll crew it with my own men if I have to. I’ll make it work.”

She soon settled into the flight to Falcon’s Nest. With the brief downtime, Éliane took the opportunity to search for the ship’s skipper; it was the first real chance to get a better picture now that there was someone more plugged in to talk to. “What’s the situation with High Command and the rest of the country right now? Solitude?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane’s reaction to seeing the Skaelan air forces finally respond was instant and loud. Pumping a fist, she yelled out at the specks in the sky as that fist became more like a girl shaking her fist at the sky. “About god damn time!”

The appearance of reinforcements had all but won the battle in the Kirins’ favor, if only barely. The Valheimians had been bullied off of their objectives, but only just barely and in the end at the expense of Garuda and some additional injuries to her team. Fighting back her desire to pursue the enemy ship in some way, she looked back over at Izayoi with some concern, but it seemed she would be fine quickly enough. Safe-ing and sheathing her weapons, the Skaelan officer let out a sigh as she ran her fingers through her pink hair.

Valheim’s continued and nearly unmolested abuse of her country made her feel impotent, even if she was already best placed to do something about it. Shoving the unwelcome thoughts rushing into her head now that the battle high was beginning to wear off, she glanced over at Esben as he pulled out Cid’s crystal.

“Esben…” she began, as she pulled out a domestic signaling flare that she had obtained with her resupply, “have you considered how that’s going to look when it overpowers the light that’s supposed to signal we’re friendlies?”

She was confident the air patrol would break off to intercept the escaping Valheimians, but there was still a chance a portion might make a flyover or an attack without the knowledge of what transpired on the ground. Then they would be subject to the tender mercies of air to ground friendly fire…

Opening some distance from Esben, she popped the flare and hoped for the best.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane grinned viciously as her trick found its mark, aided by Esben’s own shot. Of course, she had hardly expected it to end the battle in one single explosion, and it didn’t, but seeing the damage brought her a moment of satisfaction regardless as the rest of the Kirins followed in to dogpile the barbarian officer.

Unfortunately, they didn’t prove enough of a distraction for him not to notice Miina and Chisato trying to get past him. Time was ticking.
“My time to support!”

Reloading after she disengaged, the pink-haired Skaelan immediately moved back in to support Izayoi as she made to strike. Éliane didn’t have any lightning aspected attacks or materia, but she could certainly keep Garland occupied for the rest of them to complete the combo, so she simply unloaded right into him again, paced in a way that forced him to block her attacks again instead of advancing again. With retort after retort, each shot went off as she continued to move, zigzagging to avoid any potential spells if her timing was poor.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane didn’t like anything she saw at the summit, but there was little that she could immediately do about half of it. Especially when it was her country and countrymen these foreigners were messing with. What she could do something about was the barbarian scum that had so graciously offered himself as a target for the Kirins to vent their displeasure at. In such a position, there was little that she found intimidating about the man aside from other obstacle for her to deal with.

“This piece of shit…! Cover me!”

With a roar of anger, she leapt at the man, boosting herself with her materia to accelerate her drive and launch her in the air simultaneously. Serendipitously, it allowed her to avoid the quake spell in its entirety as she imitated a dragoon’s dive at a far shallower angle. Éliane wasted no time in firing at him from above with her gunblade before landing right atop him with her weapon, striking out with a rapid stab first at his hand still on the ground, and then at the perceived weaknesses in his armor.

It was an obvious blitz attempt, and with her lack of substantial armor, she immediately broke contact after that, leaping backwards but not before leaving him a parting gift as she wedged a grenade between the gaps in the metal plates.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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The uncontested presence of Valheimian regulars –and especially an airship—felt more like a blow to Éliane than actually getting hit. Intellectually, she knew that the radio silence from Solitude, combined with the betrayal from Loki meant that the command, control, communications and intelligence of her country was deep compromised. Seeing it in the form of her enemies conducting operations like this was nearly too much, especially knowing what they were likely trying to do.

She had her gunblade out within moments, a first shot already cracking out moments after leaving its sheathe to fell an offending Valheimian soldier. Around her, the Kirins were already springing into action. For a frustrating moment, Esben flanked hard around the action by himself, but she quickly understood what he was trying to do.

“I’m following you in!” she announced, firing off another shot before she took an accelerated, bounding leap, courtesy of her replacement wind materia. The pink-haired Skaelan slashed out and kicked aside a man that had put himself between her and her path, blood spraying as her blade found its mark. Another bullet found its way into the back of a soldier that had turned and aimed at her fellow countryman. For good measure, she stabbed that soldier in the back too.

Indeed, it didn’t take long for Éliane to catch up to Esben. As he fired at whatever officer was atop the hill, she immediately scanned the vicinity, clearing out an remaining soldiers in the area with cracks from her gunblade. There weren’t any words needed; as if by sleight of hand, a hand grenade appeared in her free hand even as she joined Esben in firing at the offending foreigner. Without ceremony, she lobbed it at the airship, aiming for maximum disruption. Hopefully it was all enough.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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At that, Éliane gave her a mischievous grin and a thumbs-up. "You won't have to worry about that either! You should see how exasperated he gets over some of the things I do!" Mutual understanding quickly established, with another smile and a wave, she returned towards Esben and the rest of the group after that, a perfectly innocent expression on her face just for Esben.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Unlike the other dinners at noble houses, Éliane ended up not running her mouth as much here, both in respect to Esben and his family and mostly because this was the first time she’d had a proper Skaelan feast since setting out on her journey. After speaking her bit, she’d made her interest in the food bare as she heaped copious servings of poultry, beef, and especially gravy onto her plate, enough to make a girl fat if she wasn’t as active as the pink-haired officer.

She still told a few stories, and was polite enough to not be chewing through her food while telling them. She was raised properly, after all. They did come mildly at the expense of Rudolf and Esben, though, including the time that Rudolf acted as a cushion for her in combat… and a half-finished, obviously made up story about Esben while schooling that ended up being interrupted by the timely arrival of desserts, pastries, and most importantly, the after-meal coffee.

Even in a Skaelan noble house, the dessert would never be up to her own standards, although Éliane was perfectly content with her caffeinated beverages.

The rest of the evening and night proceeded uneventfully, and the morning afterwards, she found herself in the courtyard together with the rest of the party after saying her own farewells to their host and Esben’s family. With the extra downtime, she’d found some time to clean up her uniform properly, and together with her refinished equipment, Éliane looked nearly fit for parade, with everything working properly for the first time in months.

She wasn’t the only one with new or refurbished kit, but Éliane had to raise her eyebrows when she noticed Lene with a new sword, and a familiar one at that. She chuckled in a good-natured manner. “Ooh, very romantic. Very Rudolf.” Pausing, she nodded at herself and then Lene, before continuing. “It’s a shame we weren’t able to speak much last night… the food was very good. I’m sure you’ll be worried about Esben and Rudolf both, now, but on my honor as dame commander, I intend to keep them both hale and whole if I have anything to say about it.”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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As much was Esben was cross about spending extra time here, Éliane was glad for the pit stop, if only just barely. Like everyone else, she was quite motivated to get to bottom of whatever was happening in Solitude—the stakes she had in it did not need to be said more. On the other hand, being able to work with the smith had given her a rare opportunity to get some real repairs and upgrades done under a real Skaelan professional’s eye.

Her gunblade received a much-needed look over, and more importantly, she was able to get the mini gun repaired. It had been a rushed job, but the man was able to actually machine new parts in time to be fitted for the pieces that had been too mangled in the drop for any field repairs. She even was able to swap her wind and fire materia for new ones—between her overuse of it and whatever Esben had done with them while she was unconscious or recovering, they sorely needed replacement for something that wasn’t so worn out.

She’d picked up a new one, too, although how she’d use it in the future was yet to be seen.

Her regular sword and rifle had seen less overall wear, and she didn’t bother to ask for those to be looked over. She was perfectly capable of looking over those herself, and between her small arsenal and the rest of the Kirins, the smith looked about ready to keel over by the end.

Thankfully, Éliane slept quite well. It was a shame there wasn’t good caffeine at this estate.

The rest of the next day passed mostly uneventfully for Éliane. Surprisingly, she did come across an acquaintance—Anders, an instructor that she knew in passing at the garden. Éliane was able to have a small chat with him, but as the night drew closer, she had to admit, even she was slightly apprehensive now about dinner at a lord’s mansion. For some strange, cursed reason, nonsense always seemed to happen in those cases! Never mind that Éliane tended to have a hand in making some of those incidents worse, she still knew something was going to happen.

And now, sitting unusually far away from Esben at the dinner table, she was witness to yet another… incident. Éliane’s head became a swivel as she looked back and forth between Rudolf, the newly introduced Lene, and then Esben, a vacant, confused look on her face.

In the end, she decided to roll with it that usual way that made it difficult to tell if she was being incredibly earnest or at Rudolf’s expense. She began clapping excitedly, ignoring the slight twinge that remained in her back as she smiled. “Wow! Congratulations, Rudi!”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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“Could be better,” Éliane admitted, which more or less summed up her feelings on things since her brush with death at the village. Rudolf’s observations had been spot on; the pink-haired woman had been uncharacteristically subdued since she’d woken up. It was understandable, really; between nearly dying and getting caught so off-guard at the appearance of Loki in the form of a random village leader, and most heavily the continued lack of information from Solitude combined with the lack of energy from her continued recovery… it was clear the Solitude native was clearly down.

She sat across from Rudolf, back once more in her signature officer’s uniform, although clearly in a posture that indicated that the woman was still on the mend. The healing, both magical and mundane had been successful, and she was well enough to fight again, but the sort of kinks from such a major injury would likely linger for some weeks yet, especially if the Kirins’ usual pace of combat continued.
Nonetheless, she still took a moment to briefly frown at the tea –not coffee nor caffeinated—placed in front of her, but she accepted the beverage nonetheless by accompanying it with a chocolate croissant from the table. Éliane hummed after biting in, a slight nod of approval. The food, at least, was familiar and comforting, although she would have words with whoever had selected the beverage.

“Could be better with actual caffeine,” she decided to append.

She sat up straighter, giving Rudolf a look as she caught the cushion thrown her way as it became obvious they were about to have a guest. Éliane didn’t bother to affect any different disposition, simply sipping her unwanted tea next to Esben. Not immediately introducing herself, she shot Rudolf another look when he began praising the tea in front of the man.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Elly was, in fact, still not awake, although she was now less in coma rather than just sound asleep in recovery. The knock on the door and the question went unanswered.

That said, the pink-haired Skaelan was clearly the type that wouldn't take offense at being stared at, as long as Miina didn't pull a Shinji.