Very gripping and well-written, bringing to life a time and characters we don't see very often.
One thing to ponder, although this is a finished piece: while Zanarkand was obviously highly-advanced, it probably didn't have quite the same technology we do. I'm guessing they may have used spheres for communication even back then, since a few were found from that long ago. I found the reference to "phone" and "car keys" a tiny bit jarring.
"I don’t need a thousand words. I only need three." -- really great exchange. :)
Author's response
I included some of the more "Earthly" technologies because I remembered seeing the roads in a ruined Zanarkand and I figured that it would make sense if cars were there. As for phones, heh, I forgot about the comm spheres. I thought those were more recent than Zanarkand and used as a replacement for phones. Thank you for your review! :D