literature

A Single Candle

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Literature Text

It was raining in Gongaga when Aerith decided to leave.

She sat in the front room, listening to the gentle hiss on the rooftop and the quiet voice in the next room. Though Tifa had long since smoothed a cool potion over Aerith's cheek, she could still feel the swelling just below her eye and the hot blood on her lip. The younger woman had held her hand and reassured her. 'He didn't mean it,' she'd said. 'Cloud has some problems but he never meant to hurt you.' Aerith only listened with half an ear. Those dark eyes were haunted. Tifa didn't believe those reassurances herself.

But that had been hours ago, before the rain had begun its hypnotic thrum against the roof. Of all the nearby cities, Aerith had insisted on Gongaga. Somehow knowing that it was Zack's hometown made her feel safe. If she closed her eyes and listened to the rain, she was back in his apartment. She could smell him - smell Gongaga - beneath all the cologne and sword oil. She opened her eyes, yet the illusion remained. All around, she could feel him.

And she could feel her should-be-swollen cheek. Aerith finally steeled her courage and entered the inner bedroom. Her soft boots made little noise in the room, and that was masked by the steady downfall outside. Tifa had crumpled over and fallen asleep in the chair. Aerith noted with a pang that her fingers were entwined with Cloud's. She flinched inwardly when she looked at his sleeping face haunted by troubled dreams. She stood there for a moment, watching them sleep. With a sigh, she removed her materia-encrusted bangle and set it on the nightstand next to those familiar reinforced gloves.

A wave of nostalgia broke over her when she picked up the tattered glove. She remembered sitting cross-legged on the bed in the guest room, her needle swishing in and out through the worn fingertips. Zack rested his head against the bed and her knee. How Cloud had found them and the rest of Zack's uniform - she knew every tear - she couldn't figure out, especially since Cloud claimed to have never met him.

She couldn't stay for much longer than that. A quick check of her wallet - 200 gil - wouldn't take her the whole way. To where, though? Sephiroth had the Black Materia. Cloud had.... She shied away from the memory. No, she knew exactly where she had to go - and what awaited her there.

Without a word of farewell, Aerith stole away into the dark rainy midnight, silently convincing herself that she was going to stop Sephiroth, not running from the man with the troubled dreams.
This was supposed to be just a sample application for Final Fantasy Infinity, but here it is. The prompt was rain, but I imagine the small hut is being lit by a single flame in the inner bedroom with Aerith sitting out in the front room. This is immediately after the Temple of the Ancients, after Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia, then starts beating the shit out of Aerith.

Wait... do you people remember that part?

I think it's by far the most impressive parts in the whole story, greater than even Aerith's death. As you can tell by this fic, I feel that it's the reason she went to face Sephiroth alone rather than have everyone escort her... which would've saved her life, I'm sure.

Preview image coming soon (maybe).
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elazuls-core's avatar
That kinda puts the scene at the temple of the Ancients, and the events immediately after it, into perspective, now.
It does make sense that your writing would probably be a good possible explanation as to why Aerith might've done what she did when making her decision to go out all on her own, yah? I kind afelt sorry for her there.

Something I thought that was also kinda sad in the story was that Cloud and the party had gotten to go to Aerith's real birth town, but only after Aerith had already passed away, so she never got to see where she had came from.