Will I find something in there to give me just what I need

[joinmyreunion]

There were advantages to having a reputation for being a brat.

For one thing, no one thought that Kadaj might be useful to whatever powerplaying machinations they had on the go. He wasn't important enough to be in anyone's way, and he wasn't significant enough to court. He was just there. Being a brat. He wasn't powerful enough for anyone to worry about him, or even give him much thought.

So when people approached Kadaj they were either really far up a particular infamous creek for allies, or they were just genuinely being nice. Or perhaps curious.

Kadaj wasn't one hundred percent on where the Lucians fell on that spectrum. The stuffy nerd had been working his ass off befriending everyone and anyone that crossed his path. He lived in the kitchen more than Nel, but unlike Nel, seemed to enjoy being there. The guy had missed his calling as a restaurant cook and somehow ended up being sent to make nice with the sort of dickheads Khamja attracted.

The big brawny one had concentrated on making an impression on the girls. Well, it was either effort or the fact he dressed like some lost leather daddy and constantly had his muscles out. He was affable once you got past the rough tough guy look, though. Kadaj kind of liked him.

He was still on the fence about the nerd.

So when Gladio had asked about seeing a summoning, Kadaj hadn't seen reason to refuse. Aeons weren't really a thing on Jylland. Tayuya had been pretty sure that there weren't any Fayths there, and without the War history it sort of figured.

It also gave Kadaj a bit of a chance to show off, and he wasn't about to turn that down.

The underground training facility was nicely deserted, and despite the sand the weather had been set to the 'probably the Calm Lands' setting, so the projected skies were clear, and the wind was low.

Tayuya twirled her flute between her fingers. They'd made sure to leave their audience far enough back that they wouldn't get covered in debris. "Ready?" he asked Tayuya, unsheathing Souba. Working with Even had improved his magical ability, and, not that he was ready to admit it, his tactical acumen, but you had to work with Aeons to improve your bond, just like you did a Zanpakuto.

Comments

[shieldoftheprince]

Ignis had done most of the donkey work when it came to forging alliances within the clan. He'd spoken to the important people, rubbed shoulders with the types of folk who terrified other members for whatever reason. He'd charmed and schmoozed and cooked and generally put every ounce of his training as Prince Noctis's future Hang to the test amongst some of the most deplorable people in Spira and it had worked, for the most part.

Gladio... had chatted to the girls, hung around being more idle about things. He'd not zeroed in on the powerful, nor had he sought out the influential. Instead, he'd kept his ear to the ground and mingled with the minions, a job more befitting his station as a bodyguard.

Kadaj was an odd case. He was a proper member of the Clan, but somebody who mingled more readily with the underlings of others. Gladio had discovered that he was only recently a full member, promoted from underling rather than coming in at that level to begin with. That had knocked value somewhat, but that hadn't stopped Gladio finding him interesting enough to chat to. The minions seemed to know more of what was going on within the Clan than the real members, anyway.

He'd also learned some personal details. One of them was that Kadaj was a Summoner. The class didn't exist on Jylland, entirely due to a lack of Fayths to commune with, rather than a lack of movement between the continents, as was the case with Alchemists.

It had sounded very interesting, so they'd chatted about it and before too long, had arranged to see him and one of the other Summoners train.

Of course, that had introduced them to the underground training facility, which was mindblowing, all things considered. Below ground, much like the Desert Palace itself, but lower, with its own fake sky and borrowed weather. It was incredible.

[thatsit]

To say Ignis was thunderstruck by the underground training facility was an understatement. He'd been aware that a training facility existed in the Palace's basement, but he'd expected it to be just that; a basement. Something with walls, and a ceiling, certainly.

He wondered at the magitek involved in its existence, and it had to be magitek somewhere along the line. It used the same borrowed weather as the gardens, complete with sky. He'd been willing to accept that the cavern roof in which the Palace sat might be a long way up, allowing the illusion of sky to be projected over it, and the weather to be implemented in some other manner, but the underground facility proved otherwise. They couldn't be more than twenty or thirty metres below the Palace, and yet overhead was blue skies with idly passing clouds.

Yet the long term residents seemed well accustomed to the space. Kadaj had led them down an otherwise innocuous door into open air without so much as a pause or a 'brace yourselves'.

The sand beneath their feet seemed real. Ignis threw decorum aside in order to stoop down and grab a handful. The fine grains slipped through his fingers, entirely real, the stream blowing sideways in the soft breeze.

"It looks like you could build a city in here," he murmured, looking off into the distant horizon which went so far beyond the known borders of the Palace that it seemed inconceivable that they were walled in.

Little wonder that they used it for Summoning practice. Ignis had done a little reading on the subject of Summoning, which seemed as intricate and esoteric in its ways as Alchemy. For someone to be a skilled Summoner they had to possess not just tactical acumen, but significant chakra reserves, and the ability to maintain one's composure under battle conditions.

Admittedly, these were not traits he'd considered someone like Kadaj to possess. Nor Tayuya, if he was honest. He'd found her to be a forthright young woman prone to letting off steam in the form of curses. Ignis had thought he knew most of the Ivalician swear words, but it turned out he'd been mistaken.

Summons, he'd learned, could vary in size but trended to the large. The book he'd found had artistic depictions of a number of the Aeons known to exist. One of them had been Bahamut. The resemblance was uncanny, but then it would be if the term simply meant 'dragon' as it had in Lucis.

[soundfivebitch]

"Yeah, yeah," Tayuya answered Kadaj, bringing her flute to her lips and giving it a testing blow. The note rang clear through the air. "Cede before KO," she warned him. They weren't practicing to the death, just getting some work in. The audience was incidental. "I don't care if you want to show off to Muscles," she added, with a cocky grin.

Kadaj was, well, different these days, but he definitely had a soft spot for muscular guys that didn't like shirts, and he was still an idiot when he was trying to show off. He just wasn't an idiot all the time now. There was no point in pushing boundaries when the boundaries had mostly been laid down by someone he'd killed.

[joinmyreunion]

"I'm not showing off," Kadaj snapped back, although he managed to keep his voice only a little bit above speaking volume. "And I won't be the one ceding," he added.

He had more power than Tayuya, so he had more powerful Aeons than Tayuya, mostly, but she had the better relationships with hers because she'd always been more mindful of how hard she pushed them, and withdrawing them before they gave out.

Kadaj had learned, sure, but it still meant that even though some of his Aeons were above Tayuya's in the power tier, some of her Aeons could kick his ass. Ifrit might be a newbie friendly Aeon, but Tayuya could wreck people with him even if they brought something theoretically strong to the table.

Kadaj's two best Aeons were Bahamut and Anima, but they'd generally agreed that Anima was barred from practice sessions.

[shieldoftheprince]

"This should be pretty interesting," Gladio said to Ignis, keeping his voice low and quiet.

He wasn't entirely sure what to expect in terms of spectacle. Did they crawl from the ground upon summoning? Did they appear in a flash of light? It could be that the fabric of reality tore apart to allow them entry into the living world, as was the case with Daemons of any great power, but who could say before having witnessed it?

"Who do you think'll win?"

[thatsit]

Ignis looked at the two would-be combatants. "It's impossible to say," he admitted. "My understanding is that the physical and magical abilities of the individual have little influence on the strength of their Aeons."

There were other factors at play. Even the base strength of a particular Aeon wasn't a deciding factor if their Summoners played tactically with the magical nature of them. The whole concept was fascinating.

[soundfivebitch]

"That's what you think," Tayuya replied, needling Kadaj one last time before she moved backwards and cleared a space.

She blew a few clear notes on her flute that resolved into the hymn the fayth all sang, and then drew her flute from her mouth and painted a large circle in the air with it while the last note held. Fire gathered at the end of her flute and followed it as she moved, spiralling inwards until it gathered.

Tayuya directed it towards the floor where it spread out beneath her feet. The sands scorched and blackened. A glyph flashed and shone with Tayuya at its centre. Then the ground erupted upwards, rocks and flame wrapping around Ifrit at their centre and tossing Tayuya high into the air.

Ifrit threw his arms wide, dispelling the fire and earth that enclosed him and caught Tayuya as she fell, setting her on his shoulder.

Tayuya stroked her hand through the hair of Ifrit's mane as they landed. The Aeon wasn't very tall in his crouched position, but he was still obviously much bigger than any normal human, and broad to match. His horns spread like flames from around his face, his muzzle showing fanged teeth as his lips curled.

Despite his monstrous appearance he let Tayuya to the floor with great care.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj fixed Tayuya with a flat look. She'd given it the full summoning sequence, complete with all the bells and whistles even though they both knew she was well enough bonded with Ifrit to cut the display.

"Now who's showing off?" he retorted.

Despite the way Ifrit looked, he, like almost every Aeon, had this weird sense of peace to his power. Tayuya probably felt it even more than Kadaj did. Some of the Aeons were imposing, and impressive, but nearly all of them felt nice to be around. Their power was soothing. Unless you were on the wrong side of their Summoner, anyway, then they got scary.

He backed up further away from Tayuya and Ifrit and drew Souba.

[shieldoftheprince]

Gladio watched, rapt, as Tayuya summoned her Aeon.

It was flashier than he'd expected, more ... magical, somehow. He hadn't thought to see glyphs, that's for sure. Nor had he expected the creature that resulted from the Summoning to be so ... impressive. He'd expected an animal of some sort, but what had erupted from the ground was entirely different to anything he'd ever seen, either in books or in reality.

It looked like a creature suited to digging, with those shovel-like paws and immense claws, but everything else about it screamed fire. He could feel heat coming from it, for a start.

He looked at Ignis with a grin on his face, looking every bit the kid seeing a fireworks display for the first time.

[thatsit]

Ignis felt the breath leave his lungs at the sight of the Aeon. It was magnificent. The sense of its power flooded the area, and it was immense and yet unthreatening. The routine of its summoning was so dramatically ritualistic that it was impossible not to view the creature with awe.

Ignis also didn't miss the gentle way the Aeon handled Tayuya. There was a lot of affection between them. If Ignis was to hazard a guess he'd say that this Aeon was probably one of the closest bonds Tayuya had.

He caught the look on Gladio's face. Gladio's enthusiasm showed more obviously on his face than on Ignis's own but Ignis couldn't resist returning that smile.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj eyed Tayuya, and their audience, one last time before he breathed and gathered his chakra. He spread his arms with Souba held pointing upwards in his left hand, and then began to spin the sword through a series of flashy looking twirls before pointing her up to the sky.

A black speck rose in the far off distance until it was haloed in the sun. Then it barelled towards them, streaks of water vapour forming contrails from the tips of its wings. A glyph appeared high in the air, and Bahamut flew through the centre as smaller glyphs appeared in front so that the whole design became more complicated.

The huge dragon flew directly for Kadaj, its speed increasing until it suddenly pulled itself short, rising up to angle itself for landing. It dropped to the floor with enough force to send sand flying out all around it, and for a moment the space around Kadaj became outlined as the Aeon's protection shielded him from the sandstorm.

Bahamut roared, standing at his full height with his wings spread and arms folded. He looked haughty and regal, and much bigger than Ifrit.

[soundfivebitch]

Tayuya kept her eyes trained on Kadaj. She'd given the Lucians the full experience. If they were seeing a summoning for the first time it might as well be a good one, right?

"Still you," she replied to Kadaj.

At least this was a practice session so he hadn't called the eldritch horror from the bowls of the earth that was Anima with her full routine, but Bahamut was still pretty up there in terms of flashy bastards.

She brushed some errant fucking sand off her shirt.

[shieldoftheprince]

Ifrit was awesome to behold, but Bahamut... Bahamut held a special splace in Gladio's heart.

He'd seen many depictions of a creature called by that name, sleek black dragons on four legs with reptilian muzzles and claws like scythes and wings like a bat's, metallic silver wyrms with mirror scales, deep purple and red creatures with more spiked protrusions than you could shake a stick at .... it was a side-effect of the name, the word, 'Bahamut' being used as general word to describe a dragon as well as as a proper noun.

Bahamut was the name of the dragon that adorned the armour and standard of the Kingsglaive. It was always wrought in silver, so its colours were never really fully realised in use, but books that depicted the figure's full design didn't spare the brighter hues that adorned the wings, always shown as a stylised fan of blades, or stick to the monotones of dragons seen in nature.

This... was far closer to the Bahamut he knew than he had ever expected of a Lowerworld Aeon.

His mouth hung open as he looked it over, taking in every detail as though if he looked away, it might disappear back into the pages of a fanciful reference book.

[thatsit]

Ignis breathed in slowly through his nose. Bahamut's power was palpable, and the majesty of his entrance was breathtaking.

Bahamut meant dragon, and dragons came in many shapes, but this was the closest to the Bahamut of Lucian iconography that Ignis had ever seen. It was like seeing mythology with one's own eyes. From the style of the wings, reminiscent of blades, and the way it held them, to the haughty confidence in its stance, Ignis had seen this Bahamut a hundred thousand times on the sigils and crests of the Glaive uniform.

"My word," he said, and pushed his glasses up with one finger.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj sheathed Souba and threw Tayuya a sour look. She'd started it. She'd been the one to go the whole hog and show off what Summoning could look like to the Lucians first.

"We stop when they tire," he reaffirmed, ignoring her comments. Aeons were sturdy, and might be made of reishi, but they reacted to getting tired and weak just like people did. You could see when someone else's Aeon was flagging, when they'd been pushed, and were still being pushed. He'd seen Bahamut drop his cocky dick stance, and Ifrit was no different. That was the time that you needed to call them back. Even if you were new and didn't have a grasp yet on what their power felt like, and should feel like, and how it would change over the course of a battle, you could see them getting weary.

You only pushed them further if your life depended on it, or if you were an idiot that didn't care about your bond with them.

Like Kadaj used to be.

[soundfivebitch]

"Don't need to tell me twice," Tayuya replied. "Go," she commanded, throwing her arm out towards Bahamut.

Ifrit didn't hesitate. The second the word was spoke he leapt forward, swinging a huge clawed paw at Bahamut. Both of these Aeons were strong in the physical category. Ifrit had an affinity for fire, which also meant an unfortunate weakness for water and ice. Kadaj, however, had never bothered much about his Aeons' magical abilities before, which had always hobbled their performance.

One thing Bahamut was good at though was evasion. He was a fucker for it, especially when you didn't want him to be, and the cocky shit sidestepped out of the way of Ifrit's claws as if it was no big deal.

"I fucking hate when he does that," she hissed.

[shieldoftheprince]

Gladio watched, barely keeping the joy from his face. He felt like a kid watching his first chocobo race or, lately, Blitzball match. He hadn't been sure what to expect, and there wasn't the infectious enthusiasm and anticipation of a packed stadium, but he was nonetheless excited to see how this match would play out.

It was strange to see those two Aeons paired up for a battle. Ifrit looked every bit a wild beast, all claws and horns and fur and mane while the lines of Bahamut's form looked curiously inorganic, almost robotic. The overly smooth, nearly unnatural move it made to avoid Ifrit's swing just hit that home.

[thatsit]

Ignis contained his joy at the spectacle better than Gladio did, but his mind raced as he watched. These Aeons held a power on par with some of the fiercest daemons, and were an unknown weapon on Jylland. Something like this could, potentially, help Lucis defend itself.

They were fascinating, powerful, and rather quite beautiful in their otherworldly grace. It almost felt like a privilege to see two Aeons standing before him, exchanging blows for his edification.

"Perhaps I'm biased," he said softly, "but I find myself rooting for Kadaj."

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj grinned at Tayuya's complaint. "I don't," he replied. "Retaliate," he instructed Bahamut. He wanted to build up his Overdrive a little, although he'd never use it on one of Tayuay's Aeons because he'd never, ever stop bouncing. He'd just have to wait for Tayuya to have Ifrit bust out some magical attacks.

In the meantime, well, showing the Lucians just how hard a dragon could smack something seemed only fair.

[soundfivebitch]

Bahamut lifted from the ground and glided over to Ifrit. Ifrit braced himself, knowing what was coming, but Tayuya still felt the blow when it landed. The ground seemed to reverberate with it.

Ifrit shook his head, shaking the force of it off as Bahamut came to rest by Kadaj's side once more.

"Firaga," she responded, calmly. Bahamut could more than weather that sort of spell, but it would still hit him pretty hard.

Ifrit spread his arms, gathering the magic, and then let it loose. Bahamut became engulfed in roaring flames, and reeled.

[shieldoftheprince]

"They're both pretty cool," he said, fairly. "But... yeah."

He wondered if just anybody could get an Aeon. He had never been good at magic, or the more esoteric arts in general and his fighting style tended towards the 'hit it until it stops moving' so he didn't know if he'd be any good with an Aeon, if it was even possible for him to get one, but the idea of it appealed to him like the new fad toy advert appealed to kids before Hogswatch.

Pitting Aeon against Aeon was like a crazy, large-scale dogfight, but he expected they were less showy and more visceral in an actual battle against actual risks. More visceral and more awesome, in the correct sense of the word.

[thatsit]

Ignis couldn't help but smile. It was a difficult bias to resist; faced with a proud, almost mechanical looking Bahamut, and a smaller, more animalistic horned beast, Ignis was inclined towards the dragon.

Even if his elemental affinity called him to Ifrit. The Aeon felt like fire personified, and as it cast a spell under Tayuya's command Ignis could feel the power of it building before Ifrit let it go.

"They're breathtaking," he said, softly, adding his own words to Gladio's summation of them as 'pretty cool'.

[joinmyreunion]

Bahamut reeled from the magical attack, drawing back as if it would help him evade the spell. It didn't. Kadaj grit his teeth. Ifrit's fire was pretty powerful, and Tayuya was using every ounce of her elemental affinity with him.

It hurt. Bahamut was pretty strong, but it still hurt.

"Attack," he answered, keeping his eyes trained on Tayuya.

Bahamut reared forward, still smoking in places, and gave Ifrit a smack that echoed.

[soundfivebitch]

"Boost," Tayuya hissed, seeing the incoming attack. Ifrit had hit Bahamut pretty hard, but Bahamut could smack just as hard if it came to it. She wasn't about to use Ifrit's Overdrive in a sparring match, but it would be handy to help build his reserves up again if she needed to summon him out in the wild.

She swore she could feel the thump run through the floor. Ifrit didn't try to dodge, taking the damage like a champ. He probably wouldn't weather too many more blows, though. "Hang in there," she told him, moving closer.

[shieldoftheprince]

"Any idea what happens when one of them's beaten?" He asked.

Ignis, of course, had little idea about Aeons. They weren't his forte, even if information on them was available in Lucis, or even on Eos in general. Did they disappear, heading back through magical arrays like they had been summoned through, or did they simply fade to steam like Daemons did? He supposed they'd get to find out.