Chapter Text
Papillion watched as the villagers shook themselves from their fugue and returned to their tasks. Then, with a nod, she sent Kosuke off to assist with construction, his expertise with golems endowing him with a great deal of experience setting up and breaking down camps. Glass and mud constructs were already welling up around him as he walked away, and the Oracle did not need her abilities to envision the surprised townsfolk standing aside in awe as he got to work.
Already, a plan for the forthcoming weeks was unrolling in her mind. Not just a ramshackle camp, but a military base, filled with healers and priests, hard at work on both the castle and returning soldiers. Daily expeditions, each one further into the castle, as hardened soldiers and fresh adventurers acquainted - or reacquainted - themselves with a world filled with shades of gray and creatures in need of kindness rather than a swift execution.
An easy solution, with one glaring obstacle.
Papillion turned and found the one soul that stood out from the twisted miasma of the Castle.
Had her Visions not spoken of what happened here, she might have been surprised at the heart-breaking familiarity of the bright-burning flame before her.
Instead, she let herself kneel and become engulfed in warm fur, and felt a piece of her world settle again.
“Oracle?”
The Soldato was concerned, and that wouldn’t do, so she extricated herself from the comfortable rumble of the Sphinx and turned to him.
“Soldato. I understand that this is the Protector of those trapped here?”
His soul flickered, and she guessed that he nodded, before remembering her blindness and saying aloud “Yes. The Sphinx is - was - the guardian of the Castle.”
She nodded in the direction of his soul, so bright that she would have had to dampen her Sight had she not been trained around the purest of heroes.
Not that the warm weight of her new friend was any dimmer. The Sphinx rolled against the seer, wings flaring as if begging for a back scratch, which Papillion happily provided.
“Did you know her Soul still appears human?”
“No.” There was surprise in the Soldato’s voice, but also relief. “Does that mean - “
“The curse has not been altered, even by the magic detonation that realigned your form. Beneath it, she remains the same.”
She waited a moment for him to digest this, before she added, “As it is, the curse is unbreakable. But it is within my power to alter its conditions, and perhaps turn it from a curse to a blessing.”
“That is powerful magic.” Papillion shrugged, waiting for the obvious question. “You would do that for her?”
She buried her fingers in the fluffy wings pressed against her.
“...I shared a room with the girl you were sent here for, before she went to B’Net. We were friends. And I was the one who reminded Liger of her when shipments from B’Net stopped. It seems fair to remember her in this way.”
“...hmm.”
She smiled, a little sadly. “I forgot her for nine years, and assumed everything was well when I heard nothing. Perhaps, had I turned my Sight to her, none of this would have happened.”
She paused, then shook herself from brooding. “Either way, I will need her consent for the spell.”
“...ah. But she has yet to speak since breaking the array.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Excuse me?”
Papillion bit back a snort and instead pressed her head against that of the Sphinx, asking her question without words and receiving a flood of images in return. The Sphinx easily confirmed what she had guessed, and she spoke again.
“No thinking creature exists without a Name. But hers was taken, and none given in its place. So she forged her own identity in the space left behind.
“That was enough for her role in the castle. But when you were ‘healed’ by the spell backlash, it tore that control from her. If she is to return to sentience, she needs a new name that reflects her reality.”
She stared at where the Soldato stood, trying to make him understand the gravity of her words.
“She has chosen you to give her that name. Else she will be granted freedom from mind and memory, and turn into a monster in truth.”
J audibly swallowed, then said, “...of course. I would be…I would be honored.”
The Sphinx purred her response, then stood to pad over to the Soldato. Silhouetted by the cruelty of the castle, his soul reached to hers, and was shot through with sorrow when the creature did not speak.
He turned to Papillion.
“Would you give us a moment?”
She smiled and nodded, and went to converse with the griffin and his naiad friend while the Soldato and the Sphinx walked further into the shadow of the castle.
—---
“Sphinx?”
The beast nodded her wide head, and settled down at J’s feet, back stiff and attentive, tail lashing, eyes locked on his face with expectation.
He took a breath, and spoke, explaining just as much to the spell as the Sphinx herself.
“There…there is a name my people learned from the elves of the north, who live in forests so tall that even griffins struggle to fly to their heights. The gods there walk beneath different names, and show aspects that few in the southlands would recognize. The one you know as Sarenrae is among their most honored, for her aspects of redemption and rebirth.”
He stood straighter, feeling gold eyes burning into his.
“In their language, the word for rebirth is renaissance."
“I can think of no better name for you than that. Renais.”
A stillness overcame the beast, all motion frozen from the tip of her mane to the tuft of her tail, and suddenly J worried that he had chosen wrong. A silence descended, and all sound in the castle stilled, as if every soul listened to the fate of its protector, and for the first time in years he felt true fear. Perhaps his understanding was not enough, and his words had played them right back into her devil’s hands. All her struggles for naught, her soul sacrificed and her mind gone…
But then the tension shattered, and the Sphinx crumpled before him, shaking.
He was moving before his mind caught up, hand going to her shoulder, before he heard the low, rumbling sound.
The beast was laughing.
She’d covered her head with her paws, and was trying not to roll with amusement, even as her tail lashed in glee and her inhuman voice did what no real lion could, and she laughed.
“You silly, silly man.” She said, into his mind. “You wonderful, foolish man.”
He slumped into her side, and she shoved playfully against him, still shaking with mirth.
“It only seemed right.” He returned, too relieved to be petulant.
“Did Tomoro put you up to it? Or was this all your idea?”
He buried his face in her ruff, hiding his smile. “Tomoro simply suggested I’d already decided upon a name. He said it was the key to the castle. The answer to your riddle.”
She laughed further, and purred against him.
“Every Sphinx has a riddle.” He added, “Even, apparently, if they don’t know it themselves.”
“Very well, you silly, brilliant man. You’ve solved my riddle, and saved my castle. Do you wish a boon in return?”
He pulled away, and met her eyes.
“Let me stay. There is still much work to do here. Tomoro has always yearned for a home roost. And caravans who wish to travel here could use a protector…”
She smiled, nodded, and added, “There are still remnants of B’Nets evil throughout the country needing to be routed out. I know a little of their operation, and the others we rescue may know more. I might even join you, out there.”
He drew back, surprised. “You would leave the Castle?”
She harrumphed. “Not now. But I trust Papillion, and she can do more than I ever could…”
“You know that isn’t true, Guardian.” Papillon approached, Tomoro dancing in excitement behind, Rahnia kept safe beneath the shade of his wings. “The people here owe you a great debt. But it is one, I think, that might be best paid with your freedom from this place.”
“How so?” He asked.
Papillon looked past them to the looming bulk of the Castle.
“While the array and repression-spell may have been broken, the evils of this place have sunk their hooks deep to you. To be fully free of it, you may need to leave its shadow.”
“Hmm.” The Sphinx rumbled.
“Never mind that! You have a name!” Tomoro crowed. “What is it? What is it?”
He buffeted her with his wings, ruffling her mane with his excitement.
J was about to call him back, but the Sphinx pressed a huge paw against his beak, pushing him back enough to answer, grinning broadly.
“Renais. My name is Renais.”
“Oh!” Papillon clapped her hands, and her eyes sparkled. “Oh, of course. The Soldato never knew the girl with that name…you’ve stolen it back!”
The Sphinx nodded, then settled down on her paws, her griffin friend still prancing around her and a Soldato at her side.
“And if the devils come looking for it?” Rahnia asked, hands twisting but hope in her eyes.
“Hah. They can try.” J said, hand falling to the sword at his hip.
“Mm. See if he can take it a second time.” The Sphinx - Renais - said. “I look forward to the attempt.”
And she smiled, a human motion on an inhuman face, and stretched out in the sun of her castle, as around them the work of healing began.