Final Fantasy - The Rhodium Maiden Chronicles 006: I Can Hear Your Heart

Khuzhe

Ah, so little to do and so much time. This have to be what people call "the good life". Then again, is very likely many would strongly disagree with me considering the kind of place Roh'Tul is but, personally, I don't care. A good job, good payment, and loads of free time: Isn't what most people want?

Curiously enough, the right answer to that question is "no". "Why?", you may ask. Well, it's simple, actually: most people wish for very different and unique things tied to their different and unique life stories. To put it simply, you can say that "everybody wants for something, but that something is not the same for everybody". This little single fact makes, to a degree, everybody the same as, at the core, it makes everybody to be in the same lane. Everybody is trying very hard to get that "important something" that eludes them and, sometimes, even without knowing what that "something" actually is. In fact, the latter is far more common that you would guess. Regardless if they do know or don't, people will give all they can and all they have to achieve that "important something" that becomes the "theme" of their lives (or to recover it, in some cases). However, almost always, people do not know HOW to get that "important something" or simply lacks the means to get that "important something", what makes their lives miserable at best. After all, can you say you are truely living when you spend more than half the time thinking in how good would it be to be at another place, at another time, or even be someone else? That's where I enter.

You see, like everybody, I want all sort of things. However, while most people think only in what they can see, touch, smell, or taste, I happen to have a liking for such things which nature makes them harder to obtain. Think on it for a moment. You want money, food, health, pleasure, power? One way or the other, all of such can be obtained with the right coin or the right deal, and you know it. Now, I ask you, where can a person buy realization, enlightening, love, or even perhaps true happyness? *Hahaha* You guessed it right: there is no way to buy such, for not even the most powerfull wizards, on their inconmensurable arkane talent, can create an actual potion of any of the stuff I mentioned. In fact, even the so-called "love potions" are nothing but ruses to cloud the mind of the victim into experimenting, temporarily, the sensation of infatuation, but I assume you will agree with me that such is the most distant far-cry of what love truely is. No alchemist, so far, has been able to synthetize the "taste" of a virtuous saint's life, or the exotic reverie of a talented artist when inspiration hits him, or the unmarred and pristine fervour a loving child experiments upon kissing her mother and father. Can you image the taste of such an exquisite wine if moments could be caught on time and disstilled? That's the sort of things I long to collect and, thus, the sort of things I deal in.

I'm no wizard so stoping time is pretty much out of my grasp, even when I do dabble a little bit on the arkane. However, my job is to find out what people truely want and then not just grant it to them, but grant it to them in the right manner, in the right moment, and in the right measure to make it "a moment in the time of your life worth of being remembered for a lifetime". Yes! I'm an artist: the world is my canvas and the people my brushes for painting moments in time, living masterworks that only happen once, yet linger for all eternity! Now, of course, as much as I love my art, is only fair for me to ask something in return, right? After all, making everything happen just as you want it to happen is, sometimes, far more expensive than what you might imagine. Now, I ask you: how much would you be willing to pay to have your most cherished desire fullfilled just as you ever dreamt it, even if just for a little moment? How much would you be willing to give to say that last goodbye, to change that wrong decision, to relive that moment one last time, etc, etc, etc?

Like I said, I am no wizard, so my own powers are limited, but I do happen to know many. In fact, I do happen to know loads of people because, you see, in this job, the first thing you learn to do is to listen to the heart of people. How? *Hahaha* Sorry, but that's one of the secrets of the job, but I will give you a tip, just to show you how much I like you. You see, the heart of people is always talking to the world, is just people, way too focused on the power of words (and, trust me, words DO have far more power than what people can imagine, even the most average and overused word) loose sight of "the words inside the words". Take by example that fine maiden we all have met at least once. She radiates beauty like the sun, and is always gracefull and kind to everybody. Married to a wealthy man and surrounded in luxury, how can she be unhappy, right? But look at her a bit further: have you noticed she never looks at you right in the eyes, as if she was afraid of you to "find out" something? Have you noticed the particular way in which she moves her right arm when she lifts her basket, as if strenght failed her for a brief moment, just like when an arm is sore or wounded?  Have you ever wondered why does she seem to have such a passion when she talks about the free birds in the wild? Yes, my friend: the heart of people is always speaking through words that cannot be heard by untrained ears, and I happen to have such ears. So, I listen carefully and find out what is the desire in the hearts of people and, then, grant them the chance to meet other people who can make their desires possible and, so, a perfect moment in time comes to be. All I ask in return is a little something, a triffle in exchange for an everlasting memory, as I am, as well, trying to make my existance a collection of everlasting moments as much as I can. Sometimes it can be money, other times it can be food, sometimes even pleasure or far more exotic favors. Sometimes, my employer has nothing of interest to me in that moment, so I remind him or her that, one day, I'm gonna come back for my payment, once I decide the fee. After all, why charge for something you do not wish to have in that very moment?

So, since people knows I can get what they want, they have started to call me when two persons can't get what they want from each other. This is far more of challenge than what I mentioned, but is possible. Like I said, in the end, all persons in this world, no matter how rich, poor, big, small, fat, thin, talented, average, or where do they belong, are driven by that little unifying point that makes them all the same: they are all looking for something important and, as long as you know what that something is, is just a matter of creativity. Take, for example, our brand new major. She was looking for a means to get a ready supply of jorium and the lich king's curiosity desires the secrets below the white blankets. Who, do you think, suggested the former major to take a long undefined holiday with his family while auctioning the property rights of Roh'Tul to the wealthy investors of Dressthen? *Hahahaha* You guessed it right. Because of being able to "connect" people in order to make everybody happy or, at least, satified, people have entitled me as a "negotiator", despite the fact I do not negotiate per sé: I simply understand people and, thus, sell connections and solutions.

However, there is one client to who I cannot sell anything anymore. I like to see her as "a masterpiece who abandoned artist and canvas to be free on it's own", which makes me love her and hate her at the same time, because I adore her, but I cannot make her mine like I could do with anybody else. If you ever come to Roth'Tul, you will meet her for sure, and you will understand what I mean, for I helped her achieve that "important something". The difference with the rest, however, lies in the fact that she has made it eternal somehow. A moment frozen in time while still in motion with time: a perpetual state of bliss. I love it because is the epitome of the kind of masterpiece I seek. Yet, I hate it, because I wasn't the one to make it. You could say that "she has beated me to the 1st place cup". Ah, universe is such an irony: to think she had, possibly, the cruelest of all fates among the people that dwells in this forsaken region of the world and, yet, she is the happiest being to dwell in this world and time... *hahaha*

But, enough of me. Let's talk about you. Let me hear what you think and feel. Perhaps... there is something I can do for you. No? *Hahaha* There's no need to be shy. Besides, your heart begs to differ with your words, did you know?

- Khuzhe Trotuar, Turmagan Negotiator.