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"Oh, this is really getting out of hand. Should we teleport away?"
"Yeah, totally.... um, did anyone bring any money to this thing?"
*lots of shuffling and staring at the floor*
"Should we run for it? I think we should run..."
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I think teleport being quick is player convenience, in the lore I always assumed it required prep time dependent on how far away from the nearest Aetheryte you were. As far Y'sh teleporting, I (again) assumed she knew where she was going so pre-prepped the return spell.
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It occurs to me as I go back through the story, that there's a very simple reason we all seem to have overlooked. It's nigh-impossible to teleport to an unattuned aetheryte, and there's no guarantee that the player has attuned to any aetheryte at all. Well, iirc the game has you attune to the one in your starting city as part of the level 1 quest, but beyond that, you can go through the game without ever attuning to another. And for about 1/3 of the player base, that would be Ul'dah, anyway. In making a scene that's supposed to work for all players, having them teleport somewhere they aren't attuned wouldn't work.
Edit: Then I read the second post and see this brought up as a possible reason. Yay reading! >_>