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(( rofl ))

Mortified, Konokku buried her face in her summoner's robes, clutching onto said robes with all her might. Oh, the shame of it all! Imagine what a sight they would be, coming to the temple this way! The summoner carrying his guardian.... At times like these, Konokku wished she was the summoner and Satoh was her guardian. At least then they would be fitting their roles better. A guardian was not supposed to be a short-legged woman, trailing after her summoner, who was easily twice as tall as she and three times as strong. Oh, the whole thing had gone wrong from the start! Why had Satoh ever asked her to be his guardian in the first place? Hadn't he realized what a useless guardian someone of her size would be to him? The guardian for him was someone like Sique's guardian: tall, broad-shouldered, muscular.
But what could she do? Konokku was just a short woman fresh out of training, and for whatever reason, Satoh had chosen her. She would just have to make the best of things.

"Yes, My Lord. I mean, Satoh," Konokku mumbled, hiding her face behind her thick curls. Her entire face was bright red, and the blush crept down the back of her neck as well. She couldn't remember a time when she had been more embarrassed. There weren't many people about, but a few priests sweeping the courtyard before the temple had seen them, and Konokku could just imagine what they were thinking of her now. Probably that I'm not fit to be a guardian, she decided glumly.
As they stood in the shadow of the temple, Caemi and Saemi rushed up to them, wearing identical grins. Konokku could tell they had seen the ever-so-graceful manner they had ascended the steps, but thankfully the twins didn't mention it. "Hey, guys!" Caemi called out cheerily, her dark glasses winking at them in the bright sunlight.
"Had a nice hike?" Saemi chuckled. "You guys were smarter than us, you know; we set off right after we landed yesterday, but we only made it halfway up the steps by nightfall."
"Had to spend the night on the stones," Caemi added. "We got here before anyone else, though. Just came out of the Chamber a bit ago."

"That, my friend, would be cheating," Caemi sniffed, waggling her finger piously.
"But if you take out the sphere in the wall of the second room, the fire goes away," Saemi hissed to Konokku, rather audibly so the others could hear as well.
"That Sique character's in the Chamber right now," Caemi continued as if her sister hadn't said anything. "Though how he got here before you guys is anybody's guess."
"Probably got up at the crack of dawn to get here early," Saemi said sagely. "Bet he thought he'd be the first one; he looked pretty surprised when he saw we were already here."
Konokku felt a slight apprehension to hear that Sique was there, but she told herself she was being foolish.

"Oh, we might stick around a bit," Caemi replied nonchalantly.
Saemi rolled her eyes. "Of course we're gonna wait around. Caemi was out cold for a full five minutes after she came out."
Caemi glared at her twin. "And you just had to tell them that?" A furious blush sprung onto her cheeks.
Saemi sniffed, stuck her nose into the air, and said, "See you around, guys." She stalked off, Caemi running after her furiously. They could hear the twins arguing halfway across the courtyard.
Konokku gulped nervously. If Lady Caemi had collapsed outside the Chamber of the Fayth....

It ocurred to Konokku that Caemi was definitely all right if she could argue so animatedly with her sister. Caemi was flapping her arms and jumping up and down on the spot, almost as if she was trying to sprout wings and fly. Konokku, however, turned to Satoh and asked tentatively, "Shall we enter the Cloister of Trials, My Lo...Satoh?"

"You will prevail," Konokku said softly, following her summoner up the stairs. This time, she let Satoh push open the heavy oaken doors, still feeling a little embarrassed about her oh-so-graceful ascent of the stairs to the temple.
In the first room of the Trials, there was nothing but a stone pedestal in the middle of the room, and a torch burning in a brazier on one wall. The flickering firelight cast eery shadows on the walls, and Konokku shivered. She looked up at Satoh expectantly, wondering what to make of this odd puzzle.

((When that happens, just make something up!))

Konokku sidled over to the brazier in the wall and suddenly realized that in the middle of the flames was one of those strange orbs found in all the Cloisters of Trials in Spira. She bit her lip and tentatively reached into the flames. She had expected the flames to lick up her arm and burn her as she had been burned that night in Besaid. Instead the fire only tickled her slightly as her fingers closed around the warm sphere in the center. When she pulled it out of the depression in the wall, the flames abruptly disappeared. The only thing lighting that small room was the faintly-glowing fiery orb she held in her hand.
Holding out her free hand to feel her way, she slowly and cautiously made her way back to the middle of the room, where the pedestal was. Her fingers met Satoh's arm, and she hastily backed away with a word of apology. Feeling over towards the left, she found the pedestal and fit the sphere into the recess. Flames burst up again around the sphere, lighting the room once again. Now what? Konokku wondered.

((you can say what happened too wink ))

Konokku leapt back with a sharp yelp, for a line of fire ran along the floor to a wooden door, which immediately burst into flames. The fire was so intense that Konokku could hardly breathe. Her only thought was that they were damaging the sacred chambers of the Cloister of Trials, and she fumbled at the fiery sphere atop the pedestal. As soon as she had pulled it out of its recess, all the fire disappeared. But Konokku could see through the doorway of the door they had just burnt to cinders that there was another room leading off this one.

((okay, are you gonna get your act together and be interesting again? You've been almost one-lining lately; what's up? The next room is that one where there's all that fire in a pit in the floor, remember it from the game? And remember that little hint Saemi gave them? Come on, write something better than you have been or I'll burning_eyes ))