Don't Even Go There

“I trust your recent expedition went well?” Mojo asked Elleanna as she entered his office. It was a formality; the band of retainers that she led had always met with success in their ventures, due in no small part to the old Au Ra’s training and investment in the highest quality gear.

“Aye! The choicest logs, stones and fish from our travels have been stored away. Dravania has been stripped bare. Next time you should come with us!”

Mojo gestured at the trophies that adorned the walls.

“There isn’t an enemy I haven’t defeated, a sight I haven’t seen, a square foot of Eorzea that hasn’t felt my boot.”

Mojo led Elleanna out of the office, across the landing. Here, the benches of every crafting discipline lay, gathering dust.

“There isn’t a rock I’ve left unturned, a tree I haven’t struck, a seed I haven’t grown, nor an item in the imagination of all Eorzeans I haven’t crafted.”

Continuing down the stairs into the Great Hall, Mojo sighed and looked wistful.

“And this hall, once alive with my own comrades, showing off their armour, displaying the new skills they’d learned. All now gone; dead, retired, or moved on to places far away. Tell me, what does Eorzea have left for me?”

Elleanna saw her chance. “There are fresh new challenges out there! The Triple Triad Tournaments…”

“Corrupt!”

“The Chocobo Races?”

“Foolishness!”

“Seal Rock?”

“Speak not the name of that place, young Elvaan! The Grand Companies send fools to meddle in things they do not understand.”

Elleanna fell silent. At that moment, Mojo was again the severe Au Ra that had ordered her out on endless repeated missions to obtain worthless items. It was only much later she had realised that he’d been training her.

“I’m sorry,” continued Mojo earnestly. “Before the Calamity, The Echo worked a little differently. Seal Rock was… it was The Key… it started all of this. They should not have gone back! Let us speak no more of it.”

The pair stepped outside into the Thanalan sunset. Mojo regarded the streets of empty buildings.

“Once, this was a place of many faces. Free Companies marshalled forces in their hundreds to challenge the mightiest of Primals. Now, I am the last. The Syndicate hope to soon tear down these buildings and re-sell the land.”

“Then why not bring your Company back? Recruit new blood?” Elleanna implored.

“My dear, when I’m not signing shipping orders, organising stock and collecting fees from my merchants, I’m sleeping at my cointable! The administration and associated drama from a hundred fresh bodies is simply too much to bear. Nay, let them make their own mistakes.”

Elleanna watched him walk back into the mansion. She just knew this was not the life Mojo had envisaged when he first picked up his axe.

Her melancholy dissipated abruptly; she resolved to prove that there was still plenty more to Eorzea. She marched back inside, ready to instruct her companions to set sail for Seal Rock.

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Character Name: Fiery Mojo
World Name: Gilgamesh
Prize: Bluebird Earring