The summer months were always a toss up in the snowier climates of Coerthas. One could come across more mild winters where it was clear skies and lots of snow crunching beneath their feet before being greeted by cool air that chilled cheeks and made the breath puff out like dragon smoke. Or it could be dark and dismal with thick flurries fluttering all about while the wind was strong enough to knock a Sea Wolf on their arse.
Being able to find a guide hadn't been an issue. There were plenty of locals who had acclimated to the post-Calamity change of weather that were in need of extra gil. It wasn't yet hunting season, wood was getting chopped, fish were repopulating in their mating seasons. The old elezen Lili hired was told to be a seasoned veteran of the frost in these parts. Rather then leave and come back like some locals did, he stayed put and relearned the area before the Houses even started gathering their wits about them. 'Gaston the Rugged' said some locals, but he simple preferred Gaston.
When told of what they were going for, he hadn't batted an eye. His nose wrinkled with some distaste at the arduous climb ahead as well as the strong possibility of not even finding what she was looking for. But the gil was more then generous, the cause noble, so he accepted in the end.
It took three suns of preparing that included packing, looking over maps, checking the constellations (Lili rolled her eyes at that one), then charting a route that would help them avoid what little wildlife was still thriving at those higher elevations.
The eve of the third night before it was time to go, Gaston asked Lili one more time if she was certain of making the trip. He was fine with refunding most of the gil save for the labor spent preparing if she wanted to back down before they left. Once they got up high enough it wouldn't be so easy to just turn around. But the damn hyur just gave him this little half smile and waved it off. Calling him 'dear' (which he wasn't sure he liked or not) while assuring she was ready and prepared for what was to come.
Why a widow with so many children would face such danger for the possibility of finding some weeds was beyond him. Though childless and having never married, there were some things you just didn't gamble with that even he knew about. But onward she promised it was fine and it was what she needed to do.
Why? Why was there a need?Â
It was on that third night that she told him.
"My daughter is very sick. She's been sick her entire life with a disease that was thrust upon her family without mercy, passed down from her father and to him from both of his parents. She had a twin who is no longer in this world with us, and I've been working their whole lives to try and help them. But there's been nothing. I've talked with doctors, specialists, conjurers, thaumaturges, even a supposed white mage and a moogle."
"They've all been dead ends. Yes, something might last for a little while, but then their body adapts. Grows resilient enough towards it that it would stop being beneficial. No better then a useless home remedy. At this point? She does what she can and uses wind shards and crystals to help her breathing. They don't really help, but it's better then nothing. The weed we're going after, boneweed, is a rarer strain of differing Ishgardian plants native to the higher elevations."
Lili sighed. "Of course, the Calamity destroyed much of the old plant and wildlife in areas that were flash frozen. Some have muscled through it but there's still so much that was decimated. There have been small mentions of boneweed in some old medical texts I found that say they were potent blood thinners. It is the only thing I have not tried." At this, Gaston sought to protest against that. There was no way she had done so much to come to this as her final hope but she was adamant. Even started listing off all of these other ways she worked with alchemy, herbs and aether that he didn't understand.
"So, in short..." The woman took a breath. "If this doesn't work, I'll have exhausted everything I could think of. My daughter has asked that I do not try any further after this and she will simply accept things as they come. I was..." Her fingers drifted through her hair, Gaston recognizing it as a way to distract herself. "I was against it, until she told me she was tired of fighting. Tired of what it was doing to her. The way she looked at me just-"
Lili's voice softened and died, verdant colored eyes unfocused as the memory washed over her like a solemn tide. As Gaston continued looking at her to see if she would continue, her head quickly shook.
It stopped there. The subject cut off and dropped and Gaston didn't try to broach it further.
It was going to be a long night.
