in dancing, your staff spins, spelling ever-tightening spirals
whose gravity tugs my sight, my belly, and my blood.
this tidal swing, in spite of all, remains unchanged;
your smile still sings sunshine against my skin,
buoying me up and up-- almost ready to break the surface,
bursting bright beneath the sky. the strength of your faith

is what carries me home; i have never been a man of faith,
except in the reach of my own arm, or the heat at the heart of the spiral.
i swore never to touch. your magic reached me like a drop of ink on the surface
of a puddle, crimson red and spreading like unfolding wings, or heartsblood
seeping from a mortal wound. in a moment, i will shed my skin
and i will fly unfettered, with my body strange, sea-changed.

i don't regret my choice. who would not wish for such a change?
imagine me underwater, hands everywhere, enough to make a blitzer change his faith.
i am more than i ever thought to be, living for this instant here within your skin.
never thought to get so close. i feel your breathing, escaping air spiralling
around your upturned face. i hear the surging energy in your blood,
the hope and fear. soon you will speak my name, to call me to the surface:

the Final Summoning. always guessed it would be something we would face
together. but here we are, and maybe we're the same and all the world is changing.
don't hesitate, my friend. that clamorous noise you hear is simply my blood
ringing in your ears, like the welcome roaring of the crowd. our faith
in you may be your only audience, but all this land is caught in this spiral,
this instant, the same fluid force compelling the heart that beats beneath your skin.

call my name, and my soul will spill from the corners of your skin,
and like a breaching whale i'll break the surface:
the promise of your pilgrimage-- to dance within this neverending spiral,
find the heart of the spinning, unmake a thousand years of pain-- to change
our hope from hopelessness. a rising tide begins inside, a swell of faith,
and i find that i don't care what happens to me. spill my blood,

stained with sweat and tasting of tears, and dammit maybe after all this time my blood
might be worth something. leave my son something more than this pattern on my skin,
leave your daughter something more than just your faith.
in a fragile instant i will hover, my wings reflecting ripples on the surface,
and there on the plains you will dance, and no one who watches will be left unchanged.
you can redefine the world, with us, lose yourself and fall into the spiral--

this final time, i cannot catch you. our blood mingles below the water's surface,
something huge moving beyond my skin. may you rest, my friends, unchanged--
unlike my heart. i am your fayth, braska, nothing left to summon. save spira.