I felt my body materialize back into the world as I completed the teleportation process through the aetheryte.

The familiar scene of the rocky, desert base within a small valley containing a large statue confirmed that I made it to the Resistance's base of Rhalgr's Reach. A smile crawled onto my face as I quickly took a deep breath to let in the scene.

Rhalgr's Reach had become one of the locations that I felt most comfortable visiting. I've actually spent a good portion of time in this place. Whether it was to come here to prepare against Omega's plans, to come and exchange the tomestones I've gathered, to exchange other knick-knacks I've found on my adventures, or to simply come relax.

Today I had wanted to check up on how things were faring over here. Given that the liberation of Ala Mhigo had been successful and we've thwarted the Garleans back, I expected that things were doing just fine in this corner of the world. To support that, I was receiving warm looks and smiles from the members of the Resistance as they noticed me when I walked and passed by. The tale of the Warrior of Light slaying Zenos to ensure the liberation of Ala Mhigo had been spread quite throughout the Resistance and I've received my fair share of praise and gratefulness ever since.

But if I wanted to be honest with myself, I was here for something else other than checking on the Resistance. Particularly, there was one exact person that I had wanted to see as I had been making my way over to the command table on the other side of the valley. The main reason I was here was because I felt like seeing Lyse.

What with Lyse being made leader of the Resistance and her having to go to all of those meetings on deciding Ala Mhigo's future, I've felt that she's certainly had a lot on her plate to do. I wanted to make sure and ask her herself to see if she was doing alright. As her close friend, it only felt right to check up on how she was doing.

But as I began coming closer over to the command table, I noticed something a little off. I turned my head left and right to look around and see if my eyes missed anything. After looking around, I confirmed the distinct lack of Lyse's presence in the area. Weird, she was usually here.

But I did spot a familiar Miqo'te.

"Hello M'naago." I said as I waved my hand and walked up to the table.

Her ears perked up to the sound of my voice and she turned her head towards me from looking at some papers on the table.

"Ah, hello." She greeted back with a smile and also waved her hand at me. "Fancy seeing you. What brings you here?"

"Well, I just wanted to check up on how things were going around here with the Resistance."

M'naago rolled her eyes and I thought I saw an expression that looked like she didn't believe me.

"What?" I questioned.

"That's not what you're really here for are you?"

"What do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes again but this time she had a smug look on her face. "You're just here to see Lyse aren't you?"

"Where did you get that idea from?"

"I doubt the sole reason you're here is to just check up on the status of the Resistance." M'naago said. "Don't think I didn't notice your scanning expression when you came up here. You were precisely looking for Lyse and were surprised at her absence."

Well, M'naago certainly wasn't wrong. I certainly wasn't trying to be discrete and hide my intentions, but I'm still surprised that M'naago figured that out.

"Come on, I know you 2 are close friends, what other reason would you have to come here?"

"Say that theoretically I was here for Lyse," I began. M'naago raised an eyebrow. "Would you be able to point out the direction where she is?"

An amused expression came onto her face. "I wish I could tell you, I really do." M'naago started. "But after our last round of meetings, Lyse said she needed a break and walked off somewhere."

"She didn't tell you where she was going?"

M'naago shook her head.

"Hmm, well thanks anyway." I said. "I guess I'll go and try to find her myself then."

"Good luck." M'naago bid me fare thee well as I waved goodbye as well and turned around and walked off.

I had a slight suspicion where Lyse would be at.

As expected, I had found Lyse right on top of the palm of Rhalgr's statue as I climbed up there.

She was sitting on top of one of the fingers in a little meditative position with her legs crossed, her hands on her knees, and her eyes closed.

I walked up right behind her. I had no doubt that she definitely heard me come up all the way here. I was curious on whether she came here for privacy but it didn't look like she minded my presence. In fact, it felt like she had a welcoming aura as I came closer.

I climbed up to a finger to the left right next to her and sat down as well. I didn't meditate like Lyse did and I instead turned my head and focused my gaze on her.

Lyse let out an exhale. Moments later, she slowly opened her eyes. She turned her head to the left and I was greeted by a warm and radiant smile. It looked like she was happy to see me.

I returned her smile with my own.

"What a surprise seeing you here." Lyse said as the first one to speak between us.

"I should be the one saying that."

"But I was already here. Which means that you appearing here is much more of a surprise."

I rolled my eyes and Lyse let out a giggle.

"You know what I mean." I said back at her but she still had a smile on her face.

"And you know I'm just messing with you."

That I did. But it didn't hurt to clarify.

"M'naago told me you walked off after finishing one of your meetings." I said.

"Yeah." Lyse said sheepishly. "I just needed some time alone to catch my thoughts after everything."

"Ah, so I intruded upon you then. Should I leave you alone?"

"Oh, no, no, no." Lyse waved her hands. "It's quite alright. I don't mind you being here. But I am surprised at how quick you found me."

"This was the very first place I checked." I said.

Lyse pouted in a cute little manner in response. Apparently she didn't think she would be found so quickly let alone on the very first try.

"To be fair, if it was anybody else but me, maybe they would have taken a little while. But you did share this spot me with me." I said trying to reassure her.

Lyse let out a sigh as she relented and accepted my reasoning. I could only laugh a little.

Some moments of silence passed after that.

"I'm here to listen if you want to say what's on your mind."

"Thanks" she smiled. "It's just...I needed a little break after everything that's been going on."

"Is it about the rebuilding of Ala Mhigo?"

Lyse nodded.

"There has been a lot to do trying to rebuild Ala Mhigo. Rebuilding a whole nation isn't exactly easy. It's not something that can be done overnight and is going to be something that will take a while."

That we all knew very well. I too had been helping out with the rebuilding efforts in our escapades with finding the King's gold and making a deal with Ul'dah to support Ala Mhigo.

"I've found that it's mostly dealing with people that is the hard part. Talking to the representatives from around Gyr Abania and asking for their opinions on how the nation should be structured. Trying to quell any riots going on in the city what with the still poor conditions after the overthrow of Garlean control. Trying to stop people from going bloodthirsty for vengeance and wanting everybody that even as much collaborated with the Garleans to be executed."

"Sounds like a lot to handle."

Lyse sighed. "It is. It's been tough dealing with all of it and it just keeps reminding me that maybe I'm just not cut out for dealing with something like this." She said with a little tone of self-deprecation. This wasn't the first time she had voiced those thoughts to me. But now it looks like all of the recent events have caused it to resurface again.

"I thought things were going pretty well recently."

"Only because there were people like you and Raubahn to help out. When it's just me, it's kind of been a little tough." Lyse said. "Maybe that's why it's a good idea that I should be handing the reins over to Raubahn soon. He'd be better at this than me."

"Hey, don't go beating yourself about this." I spoke up.

"But you know it's true."

"Look, it's true that Raubahn would be a good leader." I said. Lyse's expression started to drop. "But," I emphasized.

"Raubahn's a good leader because he has experience. He knows how to appeal to people with his time in the Arena. He knows how to lead because he's been the General for the Immortal Flames for long time. He has had to deal with the greedy and cutthroat politics in Ul'dah." I explained. "You've only just gotten your position as being the leader for the Resistance. You still haven't learned everything that you need for your position. So you shouldn't beat yourself up too badly by comparing yourself to Raubahn."

Lyse had started to look better and slightly relieved when I gave her those reassuring words. She looked like she could accept the reasoning I gave to her.

"Given a little bit more time, you can be just as good a leader as Raubahn. There's a reason Conrad chose you to be leader." I stated. "And I believe in you as well."

After that statement, a smile started to make its way on Lyse's face. And it looked like she was blushing a little from the praises I gave her.

"Thanks." She said. "Hearing that from you...your vote of confidence in me makes me really happy."

I nodded in affirmation.

"I guess that just means I have to keep trying my best." Lyse said. "If people like you believe in me, then I can't let them down and I'll have to become a good leader."

"You're doing good so far." I said. "Just keep doing what you're doing."

"Right." Lyse nodded.

Neither of us said anything more after that and a warm silence soon washed over us as we sat there. Lyse looked a little bit more reinvigorated and a lot more happier now. I too was happy that I was able to reassure my friend. I guess I was right in my assumption to check up on Lyse today.

"So, are you going to head back now?" I brought up.

"Nah."

"No?"

"Nah, I kind of want to stay up here." Lyse said. "I finished all of the duties that I needed to do for now until something else comes up." Lyse explained.

"I see, alright then."

"I really do need a break. Dealing with politics is stuffy. I'm beginning to miss the times where all I needed to do before was punch through things."

"If that's the case, I have an idea of what you can do for your break."

I leapt down from the finger back onto the palm of the statue. Lyse looked back at me.

I positioned myself on the far side of the palm. I got into a fighting stance as I held my right hand out towards her.

"You want to go at it again?" As I beckoned my fingers at her.

Lyse had a look of surprise on her face at my offer of sparring. But it then began to involve into a smirk "Oh, you're on." She said as she stood up and leapt down onto the palm.

Lyse readied herself with her stance. I myself mirrored her and did the same.

She narrowed her eyes at me and I too narrowed mine as I stared back at her.

Silence permeated the air.

And in sync with each other, we twisted our ankles and kicked off and launched ourselves at each other. Both of us with our right fists readied.

Lyse fell backwards onto her back on top of the palm of the statue, heavily breathing and trying to catch her breath.

I myself wasn't too far behind as I fell backwards as well right next to her out of exhaustion.

"Nice...job..." Lyse said in between pants.

"You...too..." I said, panting myself. "You really gave me a run for my money."

Lyse rolled her eyes. "The vaunted Warrior of Light, the so called God Slayer, was surely being pushed to his limit by someone like me."

"I was."

"Uh huh. I totally believe that."

"Maybe you're just that good at fighting."

"Huh, maybe it's my turn to save the world several times over then if I'm stronger than the Warrior of Light."

We both laughed.

The sparring really seemed to have been a good outlet for her though. Just like the time we did this right before the battle for Ala Mhigo, we were able to loosen ourselves up and really get into it. I could feel it in her fists this time as she let her frustrations out.

I think we got a little bit into it though. Judging by the night sky right above our heads, it seemed that we lost ourselves and went at it for a couple of hours. Kind of like before, where we had sparred throughout the night.

Still though, there was something nice about all of this. The cool night air combined with the sweat and exhaustion from fighting made for a relieving feeling right now as we laid there to rest. Lyse and I just continued to stare right at the stars above us as well.

This sort of situation felt very familiar as well. In all of our travels across Gyr Abania, Doma, and the Azim Steppes, it was a common scene for me and Lyse to be together and gazing up at the night sky while right by each other. The night sky had continued to be beautiful no matter where you were in Hydaelyn.

"You'll be alright Lyse." I said as we continued lying there.

Lyse turned her head towards me. I turned my head towards hers as well. "Thanks." The smile on her face told me that she'll definitely be alright.

AN: And there we go, first chapter of the series. For this story, the Warrior of Light is just going to remain nameless since he doesn't have a canon name and he'll be the Midlander Hyur you see in the cinematics. I'm going to try to keep the class for him as vague as possible if I ever have to use combat in this story but I'll either default it to Monk like in the Stormblood cinematic.

"Is that Commander Hext and the Warrior of Light?" A Resistance solder on guard pointed out to his companion right next to him who was also on guard duty.

The person being addressed narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, eyeing a pair of people walking around in the Reach. "I do believe so."

Their commander in her familiar red attire and the Warrior of Light in his equipment confirmed that it was them.

"Commander M'naago had been looking for them. Said they've been gone for a while."

"Huh. I wonder what they've been up to then."

He took another closer look at them.

"They both kind of seem like they're tired or something. They're also red in the face and it looks like they're a little bit sweaty."

"Wait..."

"What?"

"Just a little bit ago, didn't you hear all of that grunting, groaning, and slamming going on from the top of Rhalgr's statue?"

The two of them blinked and stared.

"You don't think...?"

"Uhh."