K'ailia's ears dropped. So this was final judgment. She stepped forward then and bowed her head.
"Though now I am an exile. I will always care for the tribe. Let me know when the tribe moves. I am now the leader of Ul'dah Garden. The day the tribe moves, I can organize my forces to keep the Amalj'aa at bay as the tribe passes through their lands. You only need but send a messenger." she said.
She then turned to K'yohko, "I know from what mother said, that upon leaving it is as if I have died to the tribe..." she pulled her bandana off and handed it to K'yohko, "Please... honor me as one that has died then."
With that, she turned back to the elders and gave one final bow, before stepping out of the tent and walking with her head held high out of the tribe camp. The elders had responded as she suspected they would. She was now dead to her tribe. But her new life awaited her.
The sun had long set. But she still knew the direction she must go. When she came to the cliff face leading up into the upper Sagolii, the sun was rising, and she slowed her pace, making sure to conserve energy. Luckily for her, the conjury she had learned allowed her to take what little moisture was in the air to make water for herself.
By the time she saw the outline of the U tribes territory, a day had come and gone. And she immediately stopped at the stream to quench her thirst before heading into the town itself, making sure to bow her head in respect to the sentinels outside the gate. But she would not be going through Amalj'aa territory. Her intent was to pass through the labyrinth to get back to Ul'dah. As she headed for the cave, a figure emerged and she paused.
The male Miqo'te standing before her, was massive in both height and musculature. Though he was much less so than she remembered.
"Hello K'ailia. The fact you are here, means you've left the tribe camp.", the male said.
K'ailia nodded, "Aye, the elder said if I left, then I can no longer be part of the tribe. I have responsibilities in the outsider world. My nature is to be free as a bird. Not caged and told to not trust anyone outside the cage. But... didn't you die?"
K'hai smiled softly, "No, I did not. I'm suffering from Aether Sickness though, but the tribe shamans should-"
K'ailia shook her head, "The tribe shamans cannot cure that. However.. I can... Would you like me to?"
K'hai held up a hand, "That can wait... come sit, I want to know why you would abandon family."
K'ailia nodded, taking a seat on a rock, as K'hai leaned against the cliff side, "You want the entire story?" she asked.
K'hai nodded, "Every detail if you would."
K'ailia nodded once more, "It all began when I failed my trial of adulthood. I was sent away from the tribe to Gridania to learn Conjury on behalf of the tribe. Mother accompanied me, so I wasn't lonely."
"And our trip back was... fun. But when I returned back to camp, I felt like an outcast. No one really seemed to care about me one way or another. And though I learned a lot of useful healing magic, Killing is what the final test was..." she trailed.
"But I could see clearly, for the first time. The tribe was suffering. The reason they had me kill, was to feed the tribe. Not mend the ones who were hurt. And I suggested to the elders that the tribe would be better off moving to a land more capable of sustaining us." she continued.
"But they rejected it. I met with the other younglings and we requested a tribe wide meeting. A request even the elders could not refuse. And... I had signed up with a school at the time called Ul'dah Garden. Telling the Headmaster of the tribes plight, he wanted to help us, and wrote a proposal on the scroll." she looked K'hai in the eyes.
"K'ile Tia though insulted me for even bringing the scroll to the tribe camp. It was one big fight. But then the elders told everyone that there would be a scouting party. And it was made up of me, K'ile, mother, and K'haali. But I still felt like an outsider, one that dared speak to other outsiders and go behind the elders." she said.
K'hai shook his head, he could not believe what he was hearing.
"So I tried telling mother my feelings that it would probably be better if I left the tribe. Instead... we had our first big fight and she struck me. K'ile later found me, and we talked, as friends for once. I even told him I have no desire to ever mate. And he got my mother and I to make up to each other. I thought everything was good, I even put out of my mind leaving the tribe." she said, looking down at the sand at her feet.
"So what changed your mind then?" asked K'hai.
"The events that happened in Eastern Thanalan..." she replied.
K'hai nodded, "Alright then skip to there."
"Alright... it started when we arrived. It was raining and we took shelter at an inn in the town. K'haali and I went out to get information from the townsfolk of the surrounding areas. When we got back, mother was racing out of the inn and disappeared. K'ile told us to go find her..." she said.
"Why did she run? Or did she tell you?" asked K'hai.
"K'ailia shook her head, "She never said why. But I found her looking at a gravestone. We headed back but first headed to a spot a barkeep told me about. It looked perfect for the tribe. We headed back, got K'ile and K'haali, and when we returned, it was as if Azeyma herself was blessing the land, for the rain stopped and the sun shone on the entire area."
K'hai smiled, "Azeyma must of blessed the place."
K'ailia nodded, "K'ile and mother wanted to scout out an Amalj'aa base nearby, so I was to go with K'haali on her surveying. But she ended up leaving without me, and K'ile and mother disappeared for a time as well."
K'hai frowned, "So you were left alone?"
K'ailia nodded once more, "I ended up on a visit to the town, getting a letter about a girl in an orphanage belonging to our tribe. So I took it back to camp, only to find all three had returned, but K'ile and mother were hurt, and neither wanted me to heal them, but wanted me to heal the other first. So... I used an area spell to mend both at once."
"Stuborn fools..." K'hai said.
"I then showed them the letter and K'ile was opposed. Said they couldn't even mold me into a proper tribemat. I then made the offer to give myself over to learn directly from him. He responded by telling me to think twice, that he'd force me to mate." she said, her tail starting to fuzz with renewed anger.
K'hai's ears dropped back with a deep frown.
"I of course withdrew the offer, mother and K'haali did nothing to address that. And I began spending more and more time away from camp. One day though on a visit to the camp, K'haali was there, and a stranger sowed up to pick herbs. I guess that was the day I realized, I don't think like the tribe." she continued.
K'hai looked at K'ailia, "How so?"
K'hai looked up at him, "I welcomed the stranger, and offered him some food I bought with gil I earned from Garden. K'haali though protested and even hit me in the head once for being friendly to an outsider. She don't know though when we sat down to eat, I recognized his smell kinda. He smelled a lot like K'raqi Nuhn."
K'hai smiled, "Let me guess..."
K'ailia nodded, "K'haz Tia. He confirmed that in private when he was getting ready to leave."
K'hai nodded, "Alright continue."
K'ailia took a deep breath, "Mother wanted to meet the Headmaster of Ul'dah Garden, so we took a trip back to the city and she spoke privately with him. And things seemed to go fine. I also was made chief medical officer for Garden."
K'hai smiled, "So you became their shaman?"
K'ailia nodded, "Aye. But then... one day I got called in, mother was hurt bad. I had to use magic to heal her, but even then it would of took time to fully heal. But she got up and ran away by teleportation. I was mad, so mad in fact I asked a man to come with me and gave him special darts I made. Not for mother, but for me, in case I lost control of myself."
K'hai nodded, "Sounds reasonable... did you find her?"
K'ailia nodded, "Aye... And K'ile pointed his spear at my head telling me I was not welcomed and should leave... me, her daughter, a fellow tribemate... So in anger, I sent a stone spell for his male parts and mother for some reason, jumped in the path of the stone. I learned later it had broken her hip..."
K'hai frowned at that. What was his sister thinking? The tia pointed a weapon at her daughter, and she would defend him?
"I then out of anger, said I was no longer part of the tribe. I did not know the significance of that decision... but father a couple days ago, told me." she continued.
"Indeed, it is a decision that cannot be taken lightly..." K'hai responded.
"K'ile found me a few days ago, asked me to return with him to the tribe camp as an outsider. He also apologized for his words, and aiming a weapon at me. He also told me about mothers hip." she said, "Mother was in the city visiting me at the time, and knowing I had accidentally injured her, went to tell her the news."
K'hai nodded, "A sensible action. You sought to repair the damage you inflicted on a family member..."
K'ailia nodded, "Instead, the moment I mentioned K'ile seeing me and inviting me to the tribe camp, she started throwing things at the door. I even offered to heal her hip, and she continued throw stuff... I lost my temper again and broke the door down and confronted her... told her she was behaving like a child..."
K'hai held up a hand, "You've been through a lot... And sister's behavior is quite odd." he lowered his hand, "So then, you left for the tribe camp?"
K'ailia shook her head, "Mother ran away again, and a couple days later, the Headmaster ended up in a coma... he was the one that had injured her it turned out. So... I am now the Headmaster... And since mother, nor K'ile bothered to come find me, I assumed they had left without me for the tribe camp. I thought about the other exiles, and did not just want to run away. I wanted to explain myself, and to face the consequences of my actions."
K'hai frowned, "So that is why you left on that flying monstrosity..."
"Aye... when I arrived at the camp, the huntresses all were ready to kill me. But K'nahli asked why I came back. I told her and she took me to the elders tent. However that got her in trouble, and I was shoved to the ground by K'takka" she said.
"K'hai nodded, "A response I would expect..."
"K'deiki asked what sort of heart would abandon family. I spoke, and K'takka put a fetish in front of me, then poured this drake gland powder on it and shoved my head down into it, and put a bowl over my head. No elder told me what they wanted or expected of me..." K'ailia said.
K'hai's tail wagged angrily at that bit.
"And father came, and both he and K'takka forced the powder into my nose and lungs. Until finally I got the hint they wanted me to say nothing, but to stay in one spot and be obedient..." K'ailia's own tail was wagging now, remembering the treatment she faced.
"Father then took me outside and I told him what I told you. He realized I had left the tribe out of ignorance. He proposed that I give up my status as an adult, stay with the tribe till they moved, and once settled, take visits to the city.", her tail calmed now.
K'hai's tail though did not, "And did you accept that proposal?"
K'ailia nodded, "I did, and even offered to turn myself over to him to learn personally from him. He said he could not teach me. When we returned to the elders tent, he changed the proposal."
K'hai's tail stopped, "In what way?"
K'ailia smiled, "He proposed letting me stay in the city, and be the connection between outsiders and the tribe. To be the one to trade on behalf of the tribe and ship resources the tribe needs to the tribe. All while still being a member of the tribe."
K'hai smiled, "That sounds like a beneficial proposal for you and the tribe."
K'ailia nodded, "Aye, I would of loved to of had that proposal be reality. But K'deiki rejected it. So I offered my aid to the tribe when they needed it, and then... gave father my bandana, to honor me one last time as a dead member of the tribe... then left for the last time..."
K'hai had heard enough. The family he once knew, was no more. His sister is infatuated with a tia that has both threatened and been abusive to her own daughter. And the tribe treated her as an outsider, and even the elders insulted her. He would fair no better. But what is worse, his sister struck her daughter, in much the same way he himself struck his sister. And he was forced to apologize, but he doubted his sister told the elders that bit of information.
His visit home, would no longer come. As far as the tribe was concerned, he was dead. Has been dead for five years.
"You are not going to the outsider world alone K'ailia. I will be returning with you." he proclaimed, "Now... you said you can cure me of this sickness?"
K'ailia looked up at K'hai and smiled, "Aye..." she stood and walked up to him, "Just hold still, and know, I wont hurt you."
Her hands lit up in white magic, as her aether reached into K'hai and gathered the Aether flooding his body, and began pulling it out. The aether though was foul, not like any K'ailia had seen or felt before. And it coalesced into a ball of energy. Quickly she flooded it with a white magic assault spell, destroying the foul entity.
K'hai smiled, feeling for the first time, actual relief. He placed a hand on K'ailia's head, "Thank you niece. You head on back. I am going to train out here a while. I must get my strength back, if I am to be of use to you."
K'ailia smiled and nodded, "Alright uncle. I will see you back in Ul'dah then."
With that, the two parted ways. K'ailia went back home, to Ul'dah City, to Garden. And K'hai remained in upper Sagolii, fighting sun drakes and sandworms. The tribe was no longer their home. Both were dead. The true visit home... would be in the outsider world. Both would strive to make their new homes better for themselves, and the family they leave behind.
For home, was not a person, nor a thing. Home is a place where one returns, is welcomed with open arms. A place that will never turn you away, nor treat you as a stranger. And though K'ailia visited the tribe camp, it was not home. She was not welcomed there. But, in Garden, she has a home. She has new family that welcomes her every day. She was a wild child, given responsibilities others would faulter and give up on. But through her new home, she would look upon the world with open eyes. Her views match not her former tribe, but views that were her own. And through Ul'dah Garden, she hopes to help others see, that home is not a small place. Eorzea was her home, and she would help ensure it, and all its people, even her former tribe, lived as comfortably as possible, without fear of the Garleans, or the primals, or any other threat that would do it harm.
"Though now I am an exile. I will always care for the tribe. Let me know when the tribe moves. I am now the leader of Ul'dah Garden. The day the tribe moves, I can organize my forces to keep the Amalj'aa at bay as the tribe passes through their lands. You only need but send a messenger." she said.
She then turned to K'yohko, "I know from what mother said, that upon leaving it is as if I have died to the tribe..." she pulled her bandana off and handed it to K'yohko, "Please... honor me as one that has died then."
With that, she turned back to the elders and gave one final bow, before stepping out of the tent and walking with her head held high out of the tribe camp. The elders had responded as she suspected they would. She was now dead to her tribe. But her new life awaited her.
The sun had long set. But she still knew the direction she must go. When she came to the cliff face leading up into the upper Sagolii, the sun was rising, and she slowed her pace, making sure to conserve energy. Luckily for her, the conjury she had learned allowed her to take what little moisture was in the air to make water for herself.
By the time she saw the outline of the U tribes territory, a day had come and gone. And she immediately stopped at the stream to quench her thirst before heading into the town itself, making sure to bow her head in respect to the sentinels outside the gate. But she would not be going through Amalj'aa territory. Her intent was to pass through the labyrinth to get back to Ul'dah. As she headed for the cave, a figure emerged and she paused.
The male Miqo'te standing before her, was massive in both height and musculature. Though he was much less so than she remembered.
"Hello K'ailia. The fact you are here, means you've left the tribe camp.", the male said.
K'ailia nodded, "Aye, the elder said if I left, then I can no longer be part of the tribe. I have responsibilities in the outsider world. My nature is to be free as a bird. Not caged and told to not trust anyone outside the cage. But... didn't you die?"
K'hai smiled softly, "No, I did not. I'm suffering from Aether Sickness though, but the tribe shamans should-"
K'ailia shook her head, "The tribe shamans cannot cure that. However.. I can... Would you like me to?"
K'hai held up a hand, "That can wait... come sit, I want to know why you would abandon family."
K'ailia nodded, taking a seat on a rock, as K'hai leaned against the cliff side, "You want the entire story?" she asked.
K'hai nodded, "Every detail if you would."
K'ailia nodded once more, "It all began when I failed my trial of adulthood. I was sent away from the tribe to Gridania to learn Conjury on behalf of the tribe. Mother accompanied me, so I wasn't lonely."
"And our trip back was... fun. But when I returned back to camp, I felt like an outcast. No one really seemed to care about me one way or another. And though I learned a lot of useful healing magic, Killing is what the final test was..." she trailed.
"But I could see clearly, for the first time. The tribe was suffering. The reason they had me kill, was to feed the tribe. Not mend the ones who were hurt. And I suggested to the elders that the tribe would be better off moving to a land more capable of sustaining us." she continued.
"But they rejected it. I met with the other younglings and we requested a tribe wide meeting. A request even the elders could not refuse. And... I had signed up with a school at the time called Ul'dah Garden. Telling the Headmaster of the tribes plight, he wanted to help us, and wrote a proposal on the scroll." she looked K'hai in the eyes.
"K'ile Tia though insulted me for even bringing the scroll to the tribe camp. It was one big fight. But then the elders told everyone that there would be a scouting party. And it was made up of me, K'ile, mother, and K'haali. But I still felt like an outsider, one that dared speak to other outsiders and go behind the elders." she said.
K'hai shook his head, he could not believe what he was hearing.
"So I tried telling mother my feelings that it would probably be better if I left the tribe. Instead... we had our first big fight and she struck me. K'ile later found me, and we talked, as friends for once. I even told him I have no desire to ever mate. And he got my mother and I to make up to each other. I thought everything was good, I even put out of my mind leaving the tribe." she said, looking down at the sand at her feet.
"So what changed your mind then?" asked K'hai.
"The events that happened in Eastern Thanalan..." she replied.
K'hai nodded, "Alright then skip to there."
"Alright... it started when we arrived. It was raining and we took shelter at an inn in the town. K'haali and I went out to get information from the townsfolk of the surrounding areas. When we got back, mother was racing out of the inn and disappeared. K'ile told us to go find her..." she said.
"Why did she run? Or did she tell you?" asked K'hai.
"K'ailia shook her head, "She never said why. But I found her looking at a gravestone. We headed back but first headed to a spot a barkeep told me about. It looked perfect for the tribe. We headed back, got K'ile and K'haali, and when we returned, it was as if Azeyma herself was blessing the land, for the rain stopped and the sun shone on the entire area."
K'hai smiled, "Azeyma must of blessed the place."
K'ailia nodded, "K'ile and mother wanted to scout out an Amalj'aa base nearby, so I was to go with K'haali on her surveying. But she ended up leaving without me, and K'ile and mother disappeared for a time as well."
K'hai frowned, "So you were left alone?"
K'ailia nodded once more, "I ended up on a visit to the town, getting a letter about a girl in an orphanage belonging to our tribe. So I took it back to camp, only to find all three had returned, but K'ile and mother were hurt, and neither wanted me to heal them, but wanted me to heal the other first. So... I used an area spell to mend both at once."
"Stuborn fools..." K'hai said.
"I then showed them the letter and K'ile was opposed. Said they couldn't even mold me into a proper tribemat. I then made the offer to give myself over to learn directly from him. He responded by telling me to think twice, that he'd force me to mate." she said, her tail starting to fuzz with renewed anger.
K'hai's ears dropped back with a deep frown.
"I of course withdrew the offer, mother and K'haali did nothing to address that. And I began spending more and more time away from camp. One day though on a visit to the camp, K'haali was there, and a stranger sowed up to pick herbs. I guess that was the day I realized, I don't think like the tribe." she continued.
K'hai looked at K'ailia, "How so?"
K'hai looked up at him, "I welcomed the stranger, and offered him some food I bought with gil I earned from Garden. K'haali though protested and even hit me in the head once for being friendly to an outsider. She don't know though when we sat down to eat, I recognized his smell kinda. He smelled a lot like K'raqi Nuhn."
K'hai smiled, "Let me guess..."
K'ailia nodded, "K'haz Tia. He confirmed that in private when he was getting ready to leave."
K'hai nodded, "Alright continue."
K'ailia took a deep breath, "Mother wanted to meet the Headmaster of Ul'dah Garden, so we took a trip back to the city and she spoke privately with him. And things seemed to go fine. I also was made chief medical officer for Garden."
K'hai smiled, "So you became their shaman?"
K'ailia nodded, "Aye. But then... one day I got called in, mother was hurt bad. I had to use magic to heal her, but even then it would of took time to fully heal. But she got up and ran away by teleportation. I was mad, so mad in fact I asked a man to come with me and gave him special darts I made. Not for mother, but for me, in case I lost control of myself."
K'hai nodded, "Sounds reasonable... did you find her?"
K'ailia nodded, "Aye... And K'ile pointed his spear at my head telling me I was not welcomed and should leave... me, her daughter, a fellow tribemate... So in anger, I sent a stone spell for his male parts and mother for some reason, jumped in the path of the stone. I learned later it had broken her hip..."
K'hai frowned at that. What was his sister thinking? The tia pointed a weapon at her daughter, and she would defend him?
"I then out of anger, said I was no longer part of the tribe. I did not know the significance of that decision... but father a couple days ago, told me." she continued.
"Indeed, it is a decision that cannot be taken lightly..." K'hai responded.
"K'ile found me a few days ago, asked me to return with him to the tribe camp as an outsider. He also apologized for his words, and aiming a weapon at me. He also told me about mothers hip." she said, "Mother was in the city visiting me at the time, and knowing I had accidentally injured her, went to tell her the news."
K'hai nodded, "A sensible action. You sought to repair the damage you inflicted on a family member..."
K'ailia nodded, "Instead, the moment I mentioned K'ile seeing me and inviting me to the tribe camp, she started throwing things at the door. I even offered to heal her hip, and she continued throw stuff... I lost my temper again and broke the door down and confronted her... told her she was behaving like a child..."
K'hai held up a hand, "You've been through a lot... And sister's behavior is quite odd." he lowered his hand, "So then, you left for the tribe camp?"
K'ailia shook her head, "Mother ran away again, and a couple days later, the Headmaster ended up in a coma... he was the one that had injured her it turned out. So... I am now the Headmaster... And since mother, nor K'ile bothered to come find me, I assumed they had left without me for the tribe camp. I thought about the other exiles, and did not just want to run away. I wanted to explain myself, and to face the consequences of my actions."
K'hai frowned, "So that is why you left on that flying monstrosity..."
"Aye... when I arrived at the camp, the huntresses all were ready to kill me. But K'nahli asked why I came back. I told her and she took me to the elders tent. However that got her in trouble, and I was shoved to the ground by K'takka" she said.
"K'hai nodded, "A response I would expect..."
"K'deiki asked what sort of heart would abandon family. I spoke, and K'takka put a fetish in front of me, then poured this drake gland powder on it and shoved my head down into it, and put a bowl over my head. No elder told me what they wanted or expected of me..." K'ailia said.
K'hai's tail wagged angrily at that bit.
"And father came, and both he and K'takka forced the powder into my nose and lungs. Until finally I got the hint they wanted me to say nothing, but to stay in one spot and be obedient..." K'ailia's own tail was wagging now, remembering the treatment she faced.
"Father then took me outside and I told him what I told you. He realized I had left the tribe out of ignorance. He proposed that I give up my status as an adult, stay with the tribe till they moved, and once settled, take visits to the city.", her tail calmed now.
K'hai's tail though did not, "And did you accept that proposal?"
K'ailia nodded, "I did, and even offered to turn myself over to him to learn personally from him. He said he could not teach me. When we returned to the elders tent, he changed the proposal."
K'hai's tail stopped, "In what way?"
K'ailia smiled, "He proposed letting me stay in the city, and be the connection between outsiders and the tribe. To be the one to trade on behalf of the tribe and ship resources the tribe needs to the tribe. All while still being a member of the tribe."
K'hai smiled, "That sounds like a beneficial proposal for you and the tribe."
K'ailia nodded, "Aye, I would of loved to of had that proposal be reality. But K'deiki rejected it. So I offered my aid to the tribe when they needed it, and then... gave father my bandana, to honor me one last time as a dead member of the tribe... then left for the last time..."
K'hai had heard enough. The family he once knew, was no more. His sister is infatuated with a tia that has both threatened and been abusive to her own daughter. And the tribe treated her as an outsider, and even the elders insulted her. He would fair no better. But what is worse, his sister struck her daughter, in much the same way he himself struck his sister. And he was forced to apologize, but he doubted his sister told the elders that bit of information.
His visit home, would no longer come. As far as the tribe was concerned, he was dead. Has been dead for five years.
"You are not going to the outsider world alone K'ailia. I will be returning with you." he proclaimed, "Now... you said you can cure me of this sickness?"
K'ailia looked up at K'hai and smiled, "Aye..." she stood and walked up to him, "Just hold still, and know, I wont hurt you."
Her hands lit up in white magic, as her aether reached into K'hai and gathered the Aether flooding his body, and began pulling it out. The aether though was foul, not like any K'ailia had seen or felt before. And it coalesced into a ball of energy. Quickly she flooded it with a white magic assault spell, destroying the foul entity.
K'hai smiled, feeling for the first time, actual relief. He placed a hand on K'ailia's head, "Thank you niece. You head on back. I am going to train out here a while. I must get my strength back, if I am to be of use to you."
K'ailia smiled and nodded, "Alright uncle. I will see you back in Ul'dah then."
With that, the two parted ways. K'ailia went back home, to Ul'dah City, to Garden. And K'hai remained in upper Sagolii, fighting sun drakes and sandworms. The tribe was no longer their home. Both were dead. The true visit home... would be in the outsider world. Both would strive to make their new homes better for themselves, and the family they leave behind.
For home, was not a person, nor a thing. Home is a place where one returns, is welcomed with open arms. A place that will never turn you away, nor treat you as a stranger. And though K'ailia visited the tribe camp, it was not home. She was not welcomed there. But, in Garden, she has a home. She has new family that welcomes her every day. She was a wild child, given responsibilities others would faulter and give up on. But through her new home, she would look upon the world with open eyes. Her views match not her former tribe, but views that were her own. And through Ul'dah Garden, she hopes to help others see, that home is not a small place. Eorzea was her home, and she would help ensure it, and all its people, even her former tribe, lived as comfortably as possible, without fear of the Garleans, or the primals, or any other threat that would do it harm.
