""Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?""
""Erma took the cookie from the cookie jar!""
"Who me?"
""Yes you!""
"Couldn't be!"
""Then who?...Lolo!""
I had already been in Falcon's Nest for a couple of days. I really only intended to pass through and be on my way, but these snot-nosed brats brought me low and forced my hand. This little hamlet was nestled, like many other small towns, in a clearing that was surrounded on all sides by tall mountains. When the Calamity came, this little gathering of peaceful scholars and agricultural types would be damned.
A massive icewall, that grew from the earth like the most cursed of trees, spanned the distance from Mor Dhona all the way to the top of the continent. Falcon's Nest was not spared this fate, and the ice wall coincidentally cut off their only path from their new frozen hell. The road to Ishgard would be lost, only to be opened up after everyone in Falcon's Nest met their end.
The mournful howls of their souls would ring in the ears of the knights who were too slow. The airship engineers that claimed it was always too dangerous to fly. The noble houses, that judged that more time needed to be spent fighting the Dragons rather than saving their people. The already cold people of Ishgard would become even colder. Their hearts would all turn into chunks of ice.
""Then who?...Winter!!""
""Winter took the cookie from the cookie jar!""
If I could save the world, prevent Dalamud from descending, prevent the Garlean invasion, prevent the wild and rampant loss of life, I wasn't sure if I would actually do it. That was the kind of mother fucker I had to be. The Ascians were playing a game that stretched from the beginning of time to its end. These Calamities were a result of their crooked designs. Blueprints given color with a push and a nod. There was nowhere one could hide and wait for it all to be over. The Ascians had to be stopped.
"W-W-Whooo meee??"
I knew that the 7th Calamity would not spell the end. In fact, only with the world being reborn, could it ever stand a chance against what was in store for us all. Only with the grace of Hydaelyn's chosen, could anyone hope to survive whatever crazy thing my friends were screaming and hooting about in Endwalker. I had to ensure that Eorzea was playing Spades with all Aces or at least as many as I could secure for our hand. And my ability to save Eorzean directly correlated with how much the narrative changed. Those who shouldn't be saved...I apologized in my heart. It wasn't directly my fault, but even inaction could carry guilt.
""Yes you!""
"...Damn!"
I bolted out of the room and into the grassy knolls of Falcon's Nest.
"...Ah! He's running!"
"Quick!"
"HEY! GET HIM!"
In truth, I was lying a bit. There was a more important reason that Falcon's Nest held my attention. I didn't know that I'd run into one of the more tragic characters of XIV in this place, but I did. Pretty much all of Heavensward was an exercise in misery porn. You lose so much so quickly that it's difficult to absorb it all.
I ran past her hiding spot, getting a glimpse of a beautiful Elezen woman with light freckles dotting her cheeks. Her hair was straight and hung down to her shoulders, matching the color of the snow that was still struggling to melt off the various hamlet rooftops. Her straight cut bangs almost hid eyes that shined with a hazy white-blue light, matching her hair and her porcelain-like skin. Her clothing was basic, put together just enough to finish her chores. Rustic colored linen and unsexy leather sandals.
That breath-taking woman was Ysayle Dangoulain. Lady Iceheart. Leader of the Dragon Heretics. The Shrine Maiden of Ice. The Oracle of Frost. Bearer of the Echo. Hydaelyn's Chosen. The Ice Primal, Shiva. And-
"Oh! Hi!"
Famously considered to be the most useless and unnecessary death in Final Fantasy XIV's entire story.
---
She didn't consider herself to be particularly pious, no matter how much her parents tried to drill holy doctrine into her head, it never seemed to stick. But today, Ysayle was once again on her knees, praying for grace.
"Halone...please..."
Halone, the Fury, was also titled the War God. If one was praying to her, it didn't seem logical to expect any type of kindness or sympathy. And yet, Ysayle had grown up knowing only this one of the Twelve. Without proper understanding of how the others preferred to be worshiped, Ysayle didn't dare to invoke their wrath. Halone was her only choice.
She had first seen him on what seemed to be his second day in Falcon's Nest. He was sat down in a circle with the children, allowing them to put various wildflowers into his hair and twisting some of his beautiful pink waves into braids. Ysayle had been digging fervently through her father's thesaurus, trying to comprehend which words fit him best. Divine? Regal? Wicked? Perhaps all three at the same time.
She felt like a total creep, staying in the shadows and watching him from afar, but she couldn't do much about that. Her knees grew weak just at the thought of talking to him. Her mouth grew dry whenever he glanced even remotely in her direction. He wasn't a resident of Ishgard, that was clear, otherwise there was no way he could be left alone. Ysayle was personally friends with a few women who she knew could put together a scheme so diabolical that even Halone would take pause.
"Have mercy on this poor soul..."
Yes, that's what she was praying for. She wanted to see that man again today. She knew he wouldn't stay. He was an adventurer of sorts, and he sought a Chocobo for rent. Wherever his destination was, it wasn't here, and that fact broke Ysayle's fragile heart into pieces. She wanted to speak with him, to get to know him, to hear his voice transmit directly into her ears.
Halone must've been blushing like mad, understanding Ysayle's thoughts and desires, but once again, she couldn't help it! Who could?! Even her own mother stared for an uncomfortably long time! Was it possible for a man like that to exist? And he was so good with the children. Wouldn't he be a fantastic father? Was he one already? Did he take multiple wives?! Surely she couldn't just sit around! But it was too scary! But she had to talk to him! But what if he hated her? What if he thought she was a freak? What if she couldn't hide her...gift...
She didn't know what it was, but it was a curse that she had been inflicted with since she was a child. She couldn't tell anyone, even her own parents for fear that she'd be taken away and inducted into the prisons of Ishgard. This gift had turned Ysayle into a social recluse. She still cared for people, but the fear of what her curse could mean, and the fear that it could spread, stopped her from developing the way that a normal child should. She had fostered a kind of hardness in willpower. Refusing to give into despair, but being helpless to change her circumstances.
"Let him be there..."
Last night, that very same curse showed her a dream of the man that had suddenly overtaken all of her thoughts. A dream of him walking in a deep and dense forest, with trees that were taller than Ishgard. He was joyfully giving a suave looking man, with white hair and a bemused expression, a tour of his favorite places in this place called, the Twelveswood.
"Ok ok, that one. Stare at it for a few seconds."
"Fine...ugh...What is it doing?"
"Juggling, I think. It's the only one in the forest that's been doing that, but the elements refuse to let Kan-E slay it."
"...I think I understand the problem."
"Right?"
Ysayle turned her eyes away from Winter and looked directly at the strange water orb that was "juggling" three other smaller water orbs in a triangular pattern. Was it a form of hypnosis? Whatever it was, made Ysayle feel slightly ill. She couldn't help but turn up her nose at the unsightly thing.
She turned back to Winter, gazing upon him boldly in her dream, unafraid of him noticing her eyes taking in every inch of his beautiful skin. He was dressed far differently, wearing a loose jacket that exposed his shoulders and delicious collarbone. If she could grab his tank-top and tear it off, she would've, but her hands went through Winter's body in an infuriating manner. She was afraid that she'd wake up if she moved too much, so instead Ysayle decided to be content with staring at him, begging for her dream to turn far more naughty than she could justify to Halone.
When she awoke, angry tears were in her eyes. Wherever this Twelveswood was, could she find it? This curse of hers seemed to show her the past, but she couldn't control it. She had rolled out of bed and scribbled notes into her dream journal. Maps were strictly controlled knowledge, so she couldn't easily find this location without the aid of the Atheneum Arcaneum. Only Astrologians would be willing to spare the time to answer her questions as long as she worded them correctly. Right after making her note, she got on her knees, to pray.
At this point, her knees were a bit raw. She was not used to kneeling, but if that pain was the cost of her love, then that was the price she'd pay! Upon getting up, putting on her least wrinkled clothing, she went outside to patrol the hamlet, hoping that Halone had answered her prayers again today.
"Oh! Hi!"
A bright and cheerful smile greeted her as she turned a bend. A white flower was tucked behind his right ear, and a long pink braid hung off the left side of his face. His enrapturing blue eyes were like a magical void, drawing her in and asking for her surrender. Halone be good, she wasn't ready for this!
---
"Oh! Hi!"
Just the woman I wanted to see. Ysayle was the only survivor of Falcon's Nest when the Calamity came for the lives of her people. The small group of survivors that made it out of Dalamud's first impact had tried to march into Ishgard through Central Coerthas, but they were caught in an avalanche. A vision of Hraesvelgr plagued her mind, and drew her into Dravania, where she then came face to face with the Holy See's most vicious enemy. It was in this moment, that she had made a terrible misunderstanding, or perhaps Hraesvelgr was just a lying piece of shit.
After learning that she wielded a power known as the Echo and became aware of how the Dragonsong War was actually a story of betrayal by mankind, Ysayle grew bold and sought to end the war on her own. She believed that if she simply exposed the truth, that the entire war was a lie and had to end, she could gain something within herself. She hadn't realized it, but the loss and shock associated had left the little girl within her cracked and broken. She sought connection wherever she could find it, but the truth that she brought to Ishgard did not set her free. In fact, it earned her the brand of heretic.
She had gained a gathering of followers that were likewise branded as heretics for telling the truth, and soon after grew to think of herself as the incarnation of Saint Shiva, the wife of Hraesvelgr that he ate whole once upon a time. It was a spiral of crazed ramblings and forced encounters with her body taking on the full force of embodying a Primal, and then getting whooped by the Warrior of Light.
It took half of Heavensward to convince her that she was wrong and that she alone could not stop the Dragonsong War, but instead of taking the loss on the chin, her mental state spiraled. Her time as a heretic had ruined many lives and taken even more than that, all for the sake of righting the wrongs done by the Holy See. The guilt ate her up, and she swung from one extreme to another. All the while, that cold and empty little girl inside of her remained alone and broken, shunned by her people and surrounded by sycophants that revered her as a goddess.
In a final act of martyrdom, Ysayle sacrificed herself to divert a hail of bullets from a Garlean warship that was firing upon the Warrior of Light's party. It was worth noting that at the time, she was riding Hraesvelgr's back, a Dragon that could easily take those bullets and then heal his injuries later. Her entire story wasn't just useless and frustrating, but it was dangerous. Her false righteousness ruined many lives, and made the slaying of Nidhogg far more difficult.
I wasn't leaving Falcon's Nest, until I had defused the ticking time-bomb that sat within this girl's heart. She was too headstrong to convince with just words, she would always be determined to expose the truth, even at great cost to herself. So instead of that, I had to pull her away. The best way to avoid her turn into crazy town was to make sure Hraesvelgr never met her. He'd forever stay as one of many Echo visions.
'But how do I pull her away?'
The only solution I had at the time was to recruit her into the Daemon Company until my Minfilia formed the Path of the Twelve, then she could make bonds and share stories with other wielders of the Echo. Though it was all easier said than done, not only did I not have a good incentive to draw her into my organization, Ysayle had been seemingly avoiding me ever since I came to Falcon's Nest, despite obviously following and looking from afar.
Was she curious? Did she think the game of life and death I played with these brats was fun? I couldn't tell, as her face wasn't exactly an open book. She wasn't like my Y'shtola. Ysayle was wearing a mask of sorts, I could feel it. I didn't know what she hid behind it, but I was going to figure it out, come hell or high water!
"How are you miss...Ysayle...was it?"
"..."
"Miss Ysayle?"
"Oh..."
Ysayle tilted over suddenly and I caught her before she could fall. It looked like she was unconscious. I wasn't too experienced with what to do at times like this, so I simply picked her up and looked for a quiet spot to watch over her until she woke up. In the meantime, I'd have to consider what I could use to draw her into my sphere.
Perhaps iron supplements?
It was only upon picking her up that I felt her soft and well curved body. I tried my best to keep my focus on my objective instead of her thick thighs, womanly hips and sizable bust that seemed to press into my chest with a strong pressure as I carried her.
---
She had only fainted for but a moment, but within the next, she found herself held in a princess carry by the man of her literal dreams. Ysayle refused to open her eyes and speak up. Why in Halone's name would she do that? Was this not a most favorable outcome? If she could scream, she would, but she dare not.
Doing her best to contain her cheers and screams of joy, Ysayle let the man that she didn't know, carry her around wherever he desired. He could carry her for as long as he pleased! Strap her to his back and carry her out of Falcon's Nest, never to return! Sorry mother! Father, I'll return one day with news!
They had finally come to a stop, she didn't feel the sun shining on her face, so this place could only be under a tree or shallow cliff face. Ysayle felt Winter attempting to put her down, and she instantly refused to let things end already. With a sudden jolt, Ysayle acted like her body moved and grabbed tightly onto Winter's thick coat, pulling its soft fur into her grasp.
"Ah...uhm..."
Winter sounded nervous, but Ysayle didn't care! What would he do? Ask her to wake up?! With a troubled sigh, Winter brought her closer into his manly and enchanting embrace then seemingly sat down somewhere, with her still in his lap. Ysayle felt like she was on high. The Twelve had waved their hands and given her a blessing in exchange for her prayers.
'I swear to you Halone, I shall pray every day from now on! I shant be lead astray! I shall be your faithful forever more!!!'
---
Who was she trying to fool? I was staring at the fake-unconscious woman known as Ysayle as she tried her damnedest to hide her smile. I couldn't put her down as she refused to let go of my coat.
It felt like I was dealing with my Minfilia, though she was less bold, Ysayle was obviously trying to get one over on me. Rebellious and somewhat cunning, that was part of her charm I supposed.
I cut down to the heart of the matter in no time at all, making a sudden and wild guess that the me from years ago would've balked at.
'Does she...like me?'
Even after all this time, I still couldn't exactly figure out what about my pale and pink appearance drew eyes, but I wasn't going to dig in and question it either. This wasn't what I had in mind, but I had come to the conclusion that I had found yet another wife out here in the middle of Ishgard's territory. A cute wife in exchange for stopping a useless series of deaths and sacrifices? Where was I losing? 7? I could handle 7! No problem!
---
Ysayle felt a warm and soft head brush the bangs on her forehead and send her mind reeling. What was he doing?! Was he brushing her head?! Why?! What was going on?!
"So beautiful..."
'...'
'Halone? Are you listening? How much do I owe you?'
kiss
A warm and soft sensation met her forehead and-
click
'Oh! I really did faint that time!'
It was like the lights had gone out suddenly. Her consciousness had dimmed to the point of nothing in order to protect her state of mind. How long was she out for?
kiss
click
'Mercy! I'll die!!!'
She had been dragged to the hells without warning. A simple kiss on her forehead and she was out of the fight. Ysayle had no clue that such a dangerous technique could be used to render one helpless! Her father kissed her forehead aplenty, but he never had the same magic as-
kiss
click
'Twelve above, just what is this heat I feel in my heart?!'
This was dangerous was it not?! She couldn't open her eyes, or she would never receive another kiss again in her life! But she also didn't know how much time was passing in-between her episodes! The anxiety was killing her! What should she do?!
kiss
click
---
I continued to rain small kisses onto the same spot on Ysayle's forehead. Tactical and well-paced attacks that made her body jolt and twitch cutely in my arms. I could feel her body heat increase in tandem with the blush on her face that started to spread throughout her body.
Those of lesser experience may have thought that foreplay was simply fingering your partner and calling it a day, but women considered the events that led up to the bedroom to be a part of foreplay. The flirting, the chatting, the subtle way that glances exchanged and tension built. Their mental and emotional state mattered just as much as their physical readiness.
There were many words, terms, and phrases that women used completely differently than men, foreplay was just one of many. They caused an insane amount of confusion, and I wasn't immune to this fact either. I had made many dumb mistakes when sexually communicating on Earth. To be quite frank, women should've all come with a dictionary alongside. I wouldn't have had to learn those lessons the hard way if they did. Men were from Mars. Women were from Venus.
"kiss You're awake, aren't you?"
I could feel Ysayle's body seize up and since I had stopped kissing her, those mirthful silver eyes finally cracked open, locking with mine and not turning away. One needed a certain strength in character to do the incredible things that Ysayle managed to do. Her boldness echoed Minfilia in many ways, but she wasn't as forthcoming or expressive. I wanted to crack that mask that she his behind more.
"...s-since how-when did you know?"
I didn't answer right away, and simply traced my fingers along her plump and soft lips. She hadn't begun to wear her special style of ice-blue lipstick yet.
"Always..."
I carefully watched her face and spoke from my heart freely.
"Ever since first spotting you, I had wanted to speak with you. I wanted to court you slowly and express my desire for you over time. I even put off my mission for this."
All of this was true. I wanted to court her into my organization and show her a sense of belonging that would hopefully prevent her insane spiral into terrorism. Luckily for me, it didn't appear that I had a need for that tactic any longer.
Ysayle's eyes shook vividly as I spoke. With bold women, you had to hold the offensive, else they'd take you however they liked. Minfilia had taught me many lessons about that subject. Love moved fast and hard, play the long game too much and you'll get toyed with until you are turned into a wet and sticky mess.
Eorzean women did not fuck around.
"I have yet to even introduce myself, and yet we have ended up near the end of my plans already."
"That's okay! I-er... you're Winter. Aren't you?"
I smiled at her bashful expression.
"...Only near the end...?"
"That's right."
"Then, what comes after?"
"Making you my woman."
"...!!!"
If expressions could speak, I could have written a book with what Ysayle had to say. I was glad my hunch paid off. It would have been very embarrassing to hear "Wow, you're quite full of yourself."
A familiar tingling tugged lightly at my senses, warning me that the docile woman in my arms had flicked a terrible and dangerous switch. My instinctual reaction was to let go and run away, but I reined it in. I couldn't set a bad precedent. She was already too close to Minfilia in nature. If I enabled her, she might grow bold enough to drag me out of my work anytime she wanted to! A behavior that my darling Minfilia had already favored doing often.
"Remember your man's name, Ysayle. Never forget who it was that cruelly stole you away."
Without another word, I took her sweet lips, staining yet another poor woman with my color. If I kept this up, I'd be as bad as Thancred!