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[ Her smile fades somewhat, turning rueful. Rem leans again the back of her chair. ]

…Guess you figured it out.

[ She needs a moment. She’s just trying to be strong. ]

[There's a softer look.]

Unfortunately. But take your time.

[Because he's going to light up a cigar since he really needs one after all that.]

Need some water or anything?

Oh, um, sure. [ Rem nods her head to the offer. She'll be needing it, with all the talking she's doing. At least it doesn't feel as if she's being grilled by a commander.

Still, this particular topic is not one she's exactly ready for. But if she can force herself through this... ]

You should know it wasn't the first time. When I say Class Zero was privileged among the soldiers, they truly were. When any of our Class fell, we had to carry their bodies back to a town. The first time it happened, I didn't understand why. I could hardly believe it, but the Archsorceress brought them back to life. It was a feat reserved only for Class Zero. She did this for all of us... until one day, she stopped.

[ And the timing couldn't have been more horrific. It happened as Tempus Finis commenced-- the end of the world.

She draws in a breath. No one knew it would happen. No one. Prophecy, her foot. "When nine and nine meet nine--" No. The year 999 was over a century a away! Why did the skies and seas turn red? Why did it hail meteors? Why were so many slaughtered by the Reavers? She didn't, and still doesn't understand... And she supposes she never will, now that she's here.

Her eyes shut tightly. ]

I was already dying anyway, though.... and then when I left to fight one last time, I was killed. And that-- that was it.

[He'll get up to grab the pitcher of water nearby along with two glasses to fill one for himself, and he'll quietly serve the water as she speaks, sliding it over to her side.

But one he sits back, there's just a high rise of his brows at that. They were...being brought back to life? A theory forms in his mind, but first...]

What were you dying from?

[ When he asks his question, she opens her eyes, woken from her thoughts. Rem considers how to answer as she continues to look at the hands in her lap. Her nerves have quieted, but in its place is defeat. ]

Some sort of… cough and weakness.

No one knows what it really is, but I had it since young. A mutant malboro made by the enemy Empire attacked the village, back then. It might have been that… [ There’s some doubt in her voice, though. Even if a wretched monster spewing disease and poison is the best theory, it doesn’t explain how she didn’t exhibit the same symptoms as the other infected townsfolk at the time. Or that Machina, who survived the attack with her, was unaffected.

The origins don’t matter to her so much as that it affects her, and this all reminds her, in part, why she wants to make something that can function as the Altocrystarium.

Slowly, she raises her gaze. She doesn’t mean to be helpless. She refuses to be idle so long as her body works. It is why she’s been trying all this time to become stronger, to gather phantoma, and to find something she could use instead of the Altocrystarium. ]

Even the Archsorceress couldn’t figure it out.

[ ~~because she was one who cursed her~~ ]

[There's a small stretch of silence as he bring his cigar to his lips, the smoke rolling slowly around his mouth before he slowly exhales.]

And you're the only one who had this? No one else?

I am. [ She’s the “only one” of Class Zero for other things, too. Only one to be able to siphon the soul from a living being, not just the dead. Only one to— ]

You look like you’re trying to puzzle something together.

A bad habit of mine.

[A wry grin, but he's still contemplative.]

It could be nothing. However you have your own doubts to the cause, so it could be something else. Then again, I have no knowledge so I couldn't even begin to speculate.

My bigger question is—are you certain you are still afflicted by it?

I'm pretty certain. [ Now that she thinks about it, it does seem less severe than it had been in her world. Although, she's not sure if it's because she's in this world, or that her illness has been reset to an earlier time before her death.

Her hand rises to touch her chest just above her heart. ] I've already had a flare once.

[...Damn. He was hoping it would be like himself where the curse is either gone or completely reset, he's not yet sure.]

What are the symptoms?

Progressive weakness, malaise, and a cough, often bloody. Before my last mission, it got to the point I was chair-ridden.

[ Needless to say, telling him this to garner sympathy. She's trying to avoid being useless! And also not die again. ]

...You remember what it's like to die, don't you?

[His expression hardens.]

Aye. Especially when those symptoms are quite similar to our own curse and what I was going through. Just without the turning to stone for you, even being bound to a chair is not so different for those who are advanced into it.

[He also knows what she's trying to do, but he'll wait and let it play out.]

I can't remain idle. I have to help myself.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

[He taps the end of his cigar into the ash tray.]

I, too, am looking for a way to at least stop the curse from progressing, if not rid of it completely. But here's my question to you.

[He looks at her straight in the eye.]

Will what you're making be able to do the same?

[ ... ]

It won't. [ She answers, reluctantly, but keeps her gaze level with his. ]

But it has something else I can potentially use. Something that can give me more time.

[A small sigh.]

I understand where you're coming from, but I still can't agree. You don't sacrifice however many souls, potentially thousands judging from what I hear you had to do in your own world, for what is basically a stop gap and even worse, a what if.

What if what you create doesn't work? What if other people learn of what you are doing? Sure, they may sympathize, but sympathy alone won't be enough for them to accept it.

[ She'd remained quiet on the Altocrytsarium for a few reasons. First, that the place was both sacred and a sole privilege of Class Zero's. Second, that it had to do with a duty to harvest phantoma after a battle. Other people learning what she and her class do would not go over well with many, for the reasons he outlines.

It's strange to think that something she's done so frequently could be horrifying to others. Stranger, still, to think that it never occurred to her or any of the Class how the very same act they were committing with souls would be terrible. By the time souls were in their hands, they forget. Logically, she knew it was a soul, knew it was once a person, but there was still that block... or fog... or whatever it had been, over her mind.

(Why did they gather souls, anyway? What did the Archsorcerress need them for, if not to help them grow stronger?)

She doesn't want to be horrifying. Those souls could be any number of good people, people that she probably knew at some point. ]

I don't need to use human souls.

I'm hoping you don't need to use any. Even the animals and creatures here seem to have more intelligence than at least my own world, and I don't mean just the ones who walk around and talk like people.

[He then rubs his brows.]

But I will concede that if it had to be done, that's at least the better alternative.

What else can I do? Wait and wither? [ Frustration tinges her voice, knowing full well that it makes her sound childish. She's allowed to, she thinks, before she gives up.

Waiting is only going to make her weaker. What else is she supposed to do in this world? She'll be as helpless as the day the Empire burned her hometown-- and given the amount of fantastical, unbelievably powerful creatures here, she'll be as helpless as the fist time she came face-to-face with a l'cie. ]

Is that what you did?

[Just a slight shake of his head, ignoring her question about him for now to focus more on her.]

Now I didn't say you had to do nothing.

[Yes, he can very well see her age in this, nor can he blame her.]

First thing I would suggest is see if someone can't figure out what you have, be it an illness or a curse. Not to mention it could be behaving differently in this world, just like how my curse is different here. Even between the rest of the group it's not quite acting the same.

If not someone from this world, perhaps someone from another who has different or stronger abilities to determine what you have. Hell, perhaps even the leviathan if that were possible.

[ Asking for help would mean she’d need to tell others that she’s dying, though, which she is very reluctant to do, and she looks away uncertainly. She doesn’t need to be viewed as either weaker or more mortal than before.

Giant living floating island it is. ]

What would the leviathan be able to do?

[A small shrug.]

Who knows. Could give you answers, could give you nothing. Is it any different than trying to remake a tool that consumes crystals for who knows what purpose?

[ She has her doubts. If the Archsorceress couldn’t find a cure or what was wrong with her, then who else can? Which is a thought borne, of course, from an unquestioning devotion to her, something she has not shaken yet.

But it’s worth a shot, at least. ] I’ll have to try.

[ That doesn’t solve the problem of how weak she is compared to others, and how she can barely keep up in battle. And if she won’t use souls, she can’t summon, she can’t do many other things, and she’ll be even more handicapped. And then… and then— if it doesn’t work anyway—

But maybe it will. Who knows, as he’s said. ]

[He doesn't know all her thoughts, and he can tell she's not convinced. But she is at least listening and willing to try, and that already is a mission in itself. So his expression softens.]

As I said, I am already looking into dealing with our own little curse. Perhaps there will be some intersect or something I come across you can use.

But I am willing to help you, Rem. And I will also keep an eye out for that relic. While I hope there is a better alternative, if the only thing that can save your life is making something similar to that Altocrystarium, so long as you don't have to use the souls of people, then so be it. I just wish it be a last resort—not the only one.

[ She only needs it for a few spells to buy her time and to compensate for the lack of power. One spell to bring back the dead. Another spell to instant kill. Two things that can help preserve her fate, or at least buy her more time, and perhaps that of others who are afflicted by similar curses. Rem is unsure how a leviathan would help with that, but the alternative is that she can... try to learn them on her own?

Everything else-- such as the feeling of being weak, of needing to be stronger-- they're her internal problems. ]

I can express how much I'm grateful to you... And, I'm going to do my best, I am. [ She can be careful. No fighting dangerous bounties, then. ]

So... how long do you have left? You mentioned your curse was acting differently.

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*souls, not crystals wow

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