On what would otherwise be a very normal day in the scientific colony of Old Sharlayan, an abnormal visitor walks the streets. Having finally made it through customs, a behatted Duskwight girl cloaked in violet slumps herself into a nearby bench, exhausted. Pulling a somewhat stale loaf of knight's bread from her bag, she takes a moment to try to calm her nerves.
"Alright, that's the first part done. Now I just gotta wait for my appointed time. Then hopefully I can get some clear answers to things..." she thought. "I hope this ends up being worth the effort, I'd hate to come all the way out here for nothing."
Finishing her bread, she pulls out a pocket notebook and flips through the pages, landing on one that looked like a makeshift calendar. Scrawled into today's box was 'Totorana, P/A Exam, 14:00.' Checking her pocket chronometer, the Duskwight stands up and stretches a bit before heading off to her destination.
The cloud cover parts as she walks the streets of Sharlayan, allowing the midday sun to shine relentlessly off of the white marble construction. Squinting as her eyes dampen, she pulls the brim of her hat further down in front of her face, hoping to find the right building soon.
Finding her target, she opens the door in relief, only to find that the interior is the same sterile white as the outside. "Is everything white in this damn city!?" Making her way to a small desk near the front, an auri woman wearing a clean white shirt greets her.
"Good afternoon, miss. What brings you here?" she inquires.
"I should have an appointment with mister Totorana soon?" the elezen responds. "I hope?" she quietly adds.
the clerk looks down momentarily, eyes scanning across a schedule. "Miss Lundevidenoir, yes? He should be ready for you, third door on the left."
The Duskwight nods, heading off down the hall. Finding the door labelled 'Adarana Totorana.' Knocking on the door, an enthusiastic voice beckons her inside. Opening the door she is greeted by a lalafellin man wearing a white coat and glasses sitting at a cluttered desk.
"I take it you're miss Lundevidenoir? You're here to take a physical and aetherial examination, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's right. I was hoping that the exam could help me answer some lingering questions..."
"Is that so? Well, assuming the exam goes well I'd be more than happy to help with whatever your troubles may be!” He gestures to an empty chair with a number of strange devices attached. “Now, if you could take a seat I'll get us started with a few queries. Nothing too hard, just some simple ones for the record."
Lowering herself into the seat, the examiner begins his questioning.
"Full name, please?"
"Dianne Lundevidenoir."
"Gender?"
"Female."
"Age?"
"Twenty-four."
"Ethnicity?"
"Duskwight."
"Occupation?"
"Is this really necessary? Shouldn't you already have all this info from the form I filled out weeks ago?"
"Just part of the process, miss. Occupation?"
"Ugh, fine. Adventurer."
The lalafell scoffs at this answer, but continues. "And when was the last time you had a physical and aetherial examination?"
"Uh... Never? Is this something people do more than once?"
"Alright, that concludes the questions. Let's begin the examination." The lalafell hops out of his seat, and begins flipping switches and pressing buttons on the cluster of contraptions attached to the chair. "We'll start with your eyes. Remove your hat, please." he says as he lowers a light-emitting crystal into her view.
Dianne sighs. "Great, getting right to the hard part." Pulling off her hat, she tries to avert her eyes from the bright crystal.
Pulling out a magnifying tool, the lalafell inches closer to her face. "Look at the crystal and keep your eyes open, please."
Dianne tries. She honestly tries her best, but she can only manage half a second before closing her eyes and looking away on instinct. "S-sorry..." she mutters.
"Something the matter?"
"I just, I can't look at it, it's like my eyes are getting stabbed by tiny knives when the light hits them... It's always been like this..."
The doctor hums in consideration. "Alright, in that case, I suppose we can skip the close-up inspection and start the vision test." He motions to a large chart on the wall with several letters of various sizes, and instructs Dianne to close one eye before quizzing her on the letters shown. "Well, that wasn't bad, but it looks like you were squinting the entire time. Allow me to go off-script a bit and try something, if that's alright?"
"Sure." Dianne responds, as suddenly Totorana flips a switch, turning off the lanterns and leaving the room dim, lit only by light from the hallway spilling through the frosted window on the door.
"Let us go again," He says, motioning once again to the barely-visible chart of letters. Several questions later, an unexpected outcome appears. "A perfect score, nicely done miss Lundevidenoir! It looks like compared to the light, the dark doesn't impede your vision one bit!" The lalafell says as he stumbles to turn the lanterns back on. "Now then, let's get back on track with the physical part of the exam. Up next shall be..." He rummages around on his desk for a rubber mallet. "A test of your reflexes!"
"And that concludes the physical portion of the examination! Give me one moment to prepare and we will get right into the aetherial part. Don't worry, it shouldn't take quite as long!" Totorana exits the room, leaving Dianne a moment to herself. "Alright, this is the moment of truth. Hopefully he can figure out what it is that's giving me so much trouble with spells."
The door opens once more, as Totorana enters, carrying a small perfectly clear crystal. He places the crystal on one of the devices on the exam chair, and turns to his patient. "Are you ready? This is going to feel a bit strange, but it's necessary for the exam."
Dianne braces herself as he flips a few switches, and the crystal begins to levitate. Suddenly, Dianne feels her entire body become immensely heavy, while simultaneously experiencing what felt like all the blood in her body being pulled away. If she could open her eyes, she would see helical strands of multicoloured light pouring from her chest and into the crystal, filling it with bright violet.
As quickly as it started, the sensation stops, and the Duskwight is left raggedly catching her breath staring at the crystal, within which was a purple tempest shining with sparks of all colours. "Wh... what is… that?" She gets out between heavy breaths.
"That, my good woman, is you. In a sense, anyhow. What we've done is extracted a miniscule bit of your soul and placed it within this crystal." He motions towards the crystal in question. "And I must say, it's quite active! Always a good sign, although for this examination we need it to just calm down a bit." He flips another switch and the crystal reacts, the swirling spirit within slowing and settling into striations.
Looking almost like a bizarre mixed drink, the aether within the crystal forms thick layers of various colours. Red, blue, green, cyan, yellow, magenta, and at the bottom a layer almost twice the size of the others glowing a dark violet.
"Hm, I see..." Totorana muttered. "Well, miss Lundevidenoir, it looks to me that your capacity for darkness is far above the average person. What's more is that it looks like there's hardly any light within you." He points to a thin layer of white, almost indistinguishable within the crystal.
"Is that bad?"
"It is indeed, unbalanced aether can have terrible effects on the body and mind with prolonged exposure. In fact, I'm almost certain it's responsible for the severity of your eyesight issue."
The colour drains from Dianne's face as he continues, "It's imperative that we try to balance your reserves of light. We cannot reverse any ill effects that excessive darkness has wrought, but we can at least prevent it worsening."
"So... um, would that have any connection to me having trouble with fire spells and being tired all the time?" She asks awkwardly.
"Hm. Do you practice thaumaturgy?" Dianne nods, and the doctor's expression darkens. "Well, as I'm sure you're aware, thaumaturgy as an art sources it's aether from within oneself..." He points at the crystal once more. "While you have a healthy amount of fire-aspected aether, the flames used in thaumaturgy are astral fire, channelling light alongside. If you've been trying to practice calling on astral fire, you may be draining the small bits of light aether within your reserves, which would indeed leave you with lacking spells and a lasting exhaustion. For your health, I implore you to stop immediately, and channel only the umbral ice."
Dianne nods solemnly. "Y-yes, of course." "Oh gods, so that's it!? That's what the problem is!? All that fire practice I was doing, it was only making things worse!? Gods, I’m such a moron, I should’ve got this checked years ago! Is it too late!? Can I even fix this!?"
The stream of thoughts within her head is broken when the lalafell speaks up again. "Now, unless you have any further questions, I believe we are done for today." Totorana writes something on a small card, then unhooks the crystal and hands both items to Dianne. "Take that card to my assistant at the front desk, she'll get you sorted."
Dianne, head still reeling, takes her things and stumbles out the door and down the hall to the front desk, handing over the card.
The au ra at the desk looks it over. "I see. Give me just a moment, miss, and I'll bring this out for you!" She steps through a door behind her, shuffling through some drawers before returning with a bottle full of white tablets in one hand and a dense brown hunk of bread in the other.
"What are they?" Dianne asks.
"Supplements to help with your aether imbalance, take one twice daily at dawn and dusk, and when the bottle runs dry come by for a follow-up appointment."
"And that?" Dianne points at the bread.
"Oh, this is just some archon loaf! The extraction process takes a lot out of you, but this is packed with nutrients to get you back on your feet!" She hands over both items, and bids Dianne farewell.
Slipping the bottle into her bag, Dianne heads back out into the streets of Sharlayan, making her way back to the bench she posted up at earlier in the day. "Probably shouldn't try teleporting home until I feel a bit better. Apparently this bread is pretty rich, let's see how it is!" Eagerly taking a bite of the archon loaf, she looks out at the sea, only a few yalms away. As she continues to chew, her smile falters and a twitch makes its way to her eyebrow. "This is revolting!!" Before she's even realized it, Dianne is on her hands and knees at the edge of the water, coughing the horrible bread up into the salty sea.
"First time eating archon loaf?" Asks a voice from behind her. Dianne turns to see an elezen girl wearing a teal apron over a white suit. She offers a hand to Dianne. "Here, let's get you some real food. Honestly, I don't know why they insist on giving people that junk, I guess it's the only way they can get rid of it, haha!”
After a fulfilling meal from the Last Stand, Dianne is ready to head home to Eorzea. Although it's not so easily treated, at least now she knows that her issues can be traced back to her aether being strangely imbalanced. Now, only one question burned in her mind. "Why?"