Final Fantasy XIV: The Winter Calamity

Today was another very profitable day for the Quicksand. Momodi Modi, the secret ruler of Ul'dah and Scourge of the Void Century, quietly daydreamed while tallying earnings and double checking inventory. She sat happily within her favorite chair, swinging her legs.

'Need more Aldgoat Milk and Raptor Shanks...'

The reason for today's higher than average income was an idea put forward by her big little brother, Winter. The young man's mind was dense with brilliant ideas.

A Loyalty Streak.

It was a simple concept. Customers could earn special tokens that Winter made himself when they made a collective purchase of more than 5000 gil.

Small coins made of electrum were inlaid with liquidized rubber. Before the rubber cured, it's dusted with cinnabar. After it cures, Winter would coat it lightly with a hard wax and then "add an entry". 

'Wait, nay, that was last month.'

Momodi didn't understand quite what it meant, but Winter's coins could be verified to not be counterfeit using a scanner stone that he likewise created. 

'Somethin' somethin' Aetheric signature somethin' somethin'.'

It worked though! When a patron collected 7 coins, they could get a voucher for 25% off their next purchase. The Quicksand lost gil on these purchases however they made more than enough to recoup. As it turned out, even when they could get 25% off, patrons were not interested in buying expensive things.

Customers would flood in because their noses had sniffed out, what they thought was, a good deal. In truth, it was naught but an illusion. One cast by low numbers and tricky salesmanship.

There were a couple of occasions where rich patrons would spend on multiple people to hoard tokens, earn vouchers, and then try to sell them to a fool or two. 

None of that mattered to Momodi however. As kind as she tried to be, she was still an Ul'dahn girl in her heart. You can't help a sucker. To get tricked out of your gil in Ul'dah was just another warm morning. 

'More than last week too.'

She had spent countless nights thinking of what to spend her new riches on. Perhaps a chef for a new menu item? Or perhaps on getting her little brother a new task desk? His current one was quite dirty and covered in dried mineral stains from his Alchemy work.

She didn't truly have a reason to spend on herself. Not only was she not inclined to do so, but her big little brother tended to spoil her a bit too much.

'Momo-nee! I found this for you!'

'Momo-nee! I saw that one of the central tables was tilting. I fixed it up and polished it for you!'

'Momo-nee! Here! A new chair!'

Momodi felt warm and fuzzy at the thought of her little brother. He was just too cute. The chair was especially a good gift. She used it all the time.

"Miss Momodiiii~ My beloveeeeeed~"

Shite. Here he comes again. Momodi hopped off her unusually comfortable chair and strutted into the seating area with an attitude.

How many times did she have to tell him to bugger off? She tried being kind. But the idiot took it as encouragement. She tried being true and he still couldn't take a hint. Momodi was "fed up" as her brother would say.

An angered jump onto her step stool and a point of a finger later-

"Come back when Thanalan freezes over, Thomas whatever-your-name-is!"

"Miss Momodi! How could I ever leave when you haunt my thoughts! Your beautiful eyes make me yearn for breath! Your lips, succulent as a peach and twice as ripe! The colo-" 

Momodi wanted to kick this bastard out. But then she recalled Winter's words. His face would twist into a downright evil smirk that Momodi wished to learn one day.

'With this power I am about to bestow upon you, use it for righteous justice. But abuse its frightening power not. Lest the men of Ul'dah, all collapse into dust.'

Naturally she told all of her girlfriends as soon as she heard the saying. Sorry Winter, Ul'dah may fall apart ere lon'. It was just too funny.

"Enough! Listen 'ere Thomas! It's 7 figures, 7 fulms and 7 ilm! Ya can't compete! Now shove off!" 

At first, Thomas' face was blank, trying to understand Momodi's meaning, but then it went pale. His knees shook slightly with weakness. It looked like his soul was shattered. 

Good~

Momodi nodded her head and sauntered happily back into her office. She was no stranger to appeals for her hand, however she had a business to run and a guild to take care of. Strong excuses she used to justify her free-time not being eaten up by some sappy arsehole that only seeks to possess her.

She greatly enjoyed her job. Where else could she hear such vivid accounts of wives trashing their husbands? Salacious tales of those same husbands who had the gall to trade wives?! Where else could she spend everyday with her favorite pastime, gossip?! AH! It was too much! She loved it!

"Miss Momodi? Are you here?"

"In the back!"

Thancred had dropped by. She invited him in while continuing work on her inventory. For some reason, they had a larger than normal stock of Gelatin. No one wanted a tart outside of spring-time did they? How bizarre.

Thancred walked in with a step.

"What fate befell that one?"

"7 figures."

"shiver"

"Hehe."

She had no idea where her big little brother had learned it, but it came in handy.

"Not too long ago, Little Winter called from Gridania."

A smile naturally grew onto Momodi's face. She was glad to hear her little brother had arrived well. Though he should have contacted her... Ah! That's it! She could buy Winter a linkshell! Hmhm! Smart Momo! 

"He also invited me to dress as a priest with him and assault the citizenry of Limsa Lominsa."

"Do ya' plan to go?"

"..."

"What?"

Thancred had a dark face at the moment. Was he feeling sick?

"Ah! Ya' mustneeds the costume."

Momodi opened her drawer, it had the contact cards for most businesses within Ul'dah... Found it!

"Here, take this to Rose an' tell him I sent ya'. It might take a couple of weeks for priest robes, be forewarned. Tis not somethin' I believe he keeps in-shop."

Momodi put Rose's business address in the bard's hands and left him to his own devices.

Linkshells came in different sizes. She determined that her big little brother may require a larger Linkshell than normal. If her instincts were correct, and they usually were, the Modi family was about to multiply in size many times over. Everyone would want their own pearl.

Minfilia especially would want her own pearl. The girl was smitten. The carriage of love had hit her with the speeds of an arrow. On this trip to Gridania, Momodi expected her to make the next step on her own. Her big little brother would obviously be receptive. After all, he was weak to that type of woman. Momodi would know, she had to beat them off of her little brother with a stick.

sigh

Momodi opened her contact drawer again. The job of a big sister was never done.

---

"We'll start over. Every assumption will be re-examined."

The ancient beast known as E-Sumi-Yan circled me like a predator. One wrong move, and I'd provoke its savage attack.

I was placed into a type of half-trance. It's designed to help my faith clear my mental barriers. I was still thinking, but not doubting as easily. In this way, my heart would become my power. It'd speak my thoughts into the world. A state to achieve a kind of Gnosis.

"What is it that you "feel"?"

"Aether."

"Aether? What's Aether?"

"Aether is the essence of all things. A force as primal as time and space. Matter and immaterial."

"...Good."

E-Sumi-Yan turned and started circling me in a counterclockwise direction. 

"Aether is categorized into elements. Those elements are..."

"Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, Lightning."

"Did you leave anything out?"

"Balanced Aether is Unaspected. Aether can also be manipulated by the polarities of Astral and Umbral."

"Good. Now explain how each element is impacted by both polarities."

'Damn, this guy is serious about teaching.'

E-Sumi-Yan played no games when he said he would offer aid. He sought to build the framework for the Rune Knight from scratch in just today. A crazy tactic.

"Umbral Fire is far more fierce. Harder to control. It's prone to explode when exposed to the air. Astral Fire is unseen. It cooks things from the inside and radiates them outwards."

E-Sumi-Yan made me promise to answer honest and fully. Concepts that I never heard or thought about, all had to be created from scratch. It wasn't a question of belief. It was a question of what made sense. To my mind at the time, everything I babbled out was perfectly consistent.

"Umbral Water is a torrent of high pressure. The longer it's cast, the stronger it becomes. Astral Water is still. A pocket of water that entraps and binds those sucked into it. They are doomed to drown."

My talk with Sir Telent was influential. This world's history was split into times of gold and prosperity, the Astral Eras then times of turmoil and chaos, the Umbral Eras. In most cases, the Umbral Eras are the result of a rot that permeated society. They were man-made. These times of Calamities and Utopias leaked into my impressions of Astral and Umbral.

"Umbral Earth is chaotic. It takes myriad forms and is anything but predictable. Astral Earth is heavy, an invisible weight that pulls you down and always down."

Astral Eras would be so successful in combating the external threats, that they would purity spiral. Attacking their own, unable to move forward. They decayed and rot. Ambition turned sour. Even efforts to solve this decay of ambition ended up creating an Astral Calamity of suffering. That was the story of the Allagan Empire.

"Umbral Wind tears things apart. It cuts, it slashes, it amputates with an obtuse sharpness. Astral Wind erases and erodes. It erases effects. It erodes steel and turns it to rust."

I clearly remembered my first 3 months in this world. The way I bullshitted into becoming a mage. That was my power. If it made sense and I truly believed it, then it must be so. Why could I cast Blizzard? Because I believed I could. I could use the snowblower with less effort. Why not Blizzard? The shittiest spell?

"Umbral Ice grows. It infects and spreads. It consumes in a fit of Aetherial greed. Astral Ice stops. As if frozen in time. Within its influence, things come to a complete and definite halt."

Why did I faint? Because I thought that I shouldn't have been able to cast Blizzard that many times. I cast it out of desperation. I felt its cold. I witnessed its surprising power. It chilled my fingers. I knew there was an invisible cost I was paying for my miracle. Even if it was just the shittiest spell.

"Umbral Lightning crashes in on itself. A maddening tangle of shocks and powered tendrils that weave into a messy tapestry. Astral Lightning repels. It refuses. It reverses force and power."

"Very well done. Now, what of Unaspected?"

I-I don't know...

"You know Unaspected spells. Don't you?"

Unaspected...

"Unaspected Umbral is Darkness. Unaspected Astral is the Light."

"Good indeed. Now, what is Cold Snap?"

"Umbral Ice. Spears grow from the Aether at an incredible speed and converge on one point. The inverse of a tree."

"Blizzard?"

"Ice. Not all elements are pulled into the polarities."

"Fire? Thunder?"

"Fire and Lightning Aether."

"Master Mumuepo taught you Manaward. It is said you also attempted to learn Transpose. Why can't you use them?"

"Because I thought, incorrectly, that they dealt only with traditional methods of Aether Manipulation."

"Are you Traditional?"

"No sir."

"Cast Manaward."

I grabbed a sheet of Aether and folded it in half. Then in half again.

[Manaward]

Buuu - vwoom - sheeeeeeeennnnn

A bubble of shining diamond-shaped glass panes surrounded me on all sides and rotated slowly.

"Good...Very good."

E-Sumi-Yan stopped and looked at me with a straight face, that then grew into a smile.

"You've done fantastic. Now there's only 3 more things to handle. Explain to me what you've been doing to recreate spells that you cannot possibly cast."

"I draw upon my experience, knowing how they should work and what they can do."

I didn't explain how I knew.

"What do you use to cast?"

"Large rivers of Aether. Each river attributed to an element. I draw from these rivers. They do not shrink. They do not shrivel. They are as eternal as the star."

"Even the Unaspected?"

It didn't exist. No, it had to, obviously. Else I could never cast Holy... Then it must be everything in-

"Between. Unaspected is the space between the rivers."

"Lastly, how do you see the rivers. How do you touch them?"

Easy. I looked at them.

I blinked, all the rivers, save for fire, that bastard, appeared in front of me. What was more surprising was-

"WHAT?!"

He could see them too.

---

E-Sumi-Yan was over 200 summers at least. He stopped counting after 100. He had seen and heard the most bizarre things. But he had never imagined that he would experience this. The elements were buzzing in his ears constantly. Asking questions, swimming in the streams, looking for kin and finding none. 

"This is...astounding..."

It was breathtakingly beautiful. The rivers of aspected Aether swam through the sky and earth alike, colored like a rainbow after a heavy bout of rainfall. They leisurely pierced and waved through the trees of the Shroud and hung about E-Sumi-Yan like spirits given form.

But-

"Where's Fire?"

"Haha... I don't know either. I don't know if he's in the Twelveswood."

E-Sumi-Yan heard the Fire Elemental in his head expressing some bout of distress. It seemed strange, but it was the concept that Winter had built. For some reason, he didn't believe that fire was a part of the forest's Aether. 

E-Sumi-Yan continued to gaze at Winter's world. Water and Earth were the biggest rivers. It seemed that his understanding of the elements was child-like. In truth, everything was balanced. All things should be. If the world truly looked like this representation, Calamities would be continuous. But he would not correct the young man. His inaccuracies were apart of his power.

E-Sumi-Yan had already done enough in the department of education. Now he had to use the power that Winter had built, and fit it into the frame of a Rune Knight.

A type of Knight that very well might not have existed.

---

"Pray tell me what you know of Rune Knights."

We had arrived back at the Conjurers' guild. We sat within a office space that was seemingly carved into a tree. I could see the age rings of the wood in the floor. A large circular glass window framed one side of the room.

"Truthfully, not much."

"Forgive me, pray tell what you assume about Rune Knights."

Ah, I see.

"Well, they probably manipulated magic through the use of Runes. It was most likely carved into their armor, providing differing effects similarly to Astral and Umbral. These Runes worked as methods to instruct Aether as how to flow."

"I believe that with these runes carved into their armor, their flesh and perhaps even their bones, the knights could move faster than shadows, display physical might on par with Primals and conduct Aether to amplify their spells."

I got the flesh carving part from reading too many web novels. The gist was that the closer the inscriptions were to your heart, the stronger they'd be.

"Amplify?"

"Yes. Overcharge is another word you could use. Their Runes likely already had to hold and ambiently absorb Aether to function and instruct. I assume that they could breathe more Aether in that was necessary and move it to increase the effect of their spells."

"I see."

To say my entire perspective had changed would be an understatement. I was making everything up as I went along and that severely limited my power. But with this framework, I could fucking do it.

I think therefore I am. 

I calmly held the gun in my hand, drawing my thumb over it's grip and adjusting it's weight with my wrist.