"If house Solidor should crumble, the Empire would fail and Civil War would take us all… Lord Larsa is our only hope."
"How right you were, Noah. How right…" Basch whispered remembering his fallen brother's last words.
"Take care of him. I would entrust to any else's care."
"Yes, I shall"
"Your… your words put me at ease brother."
Those words were now echoes in Basch's memory. Twenty years had gone by since that hour, in the Strahl. But they connotation were no less lost. Now they existed only as punishment of his failure.
"I failed Landis, Dalmasca… the Empire. All I touch is reduced to dust." He concluded looking to the faint horizon, burning with a red but no less dead glow. The Sun had already left those accursed lands, formerly known as Archades; capital of the most powerful empire in Ivalice.
Twenty years had taken its toll in Bach. His hair is no longer golden but brown with increasingly grey stripes; his beard has overgrown beyond any expectation and now reached his very chest. Even his rank was stripped from him; his armor, once a glorified version of Ministry of Law's ideals was now shadows reflected in bass and cracked armor. Their emblems, ever present at his helmet were shattered. Shattered as the Empire was now, devastated as House Solidor that he vowed to protect. And again he failed, now with no one to protect, with no purpose in life. As so, he becomes known as «The Lost Judge», a madman who endlessly would travel through the waste land Archadia. Indeed he had become this, ever talking and accusing himself of treason, judgment upon judgment; a sad end to the once proud warrior who defended bravely Dalmasca and later the Empire.
But, nevertheless, that was no excuse. Bravery apart, he still failed. He still didn't managed to stop the flying dagger that would reap his new Lord's life, 17 years ago. Civil War would follow, and Archadia would fall. Like Nabradia, the Empire fell in disgrace and chaos after his young Emperor was assassinated. Those moments remained with Basch…
It was supposed to be joyous day. At last, Larsa would meet the one who would become his wife in due time; a Rozarrian princess. Their union showed promise in sealing at last the rift that separated the two great rivals and to bring a true age of prosperity to Ivalice. But as soon Basch would find out, the Fates flowed in other directions.
Against his own will and advice, Larsa had rebuilt the Senate, taking its members from the city dungeons and re-organizing the Empire, politically and economically. His intentions were good indeed, but they weren't shared with most of the political cream of society; including most of the Senators. In fact, they were from day one his greatest enemy, decided to put another House at the throne of the Empire; one they could manipulate. Basch tried to make Larsa see the hidden truth about the dark doings that were occurring behind the political sets of Archades.
"Basch, it may not be beneficial to be and my freedoms as Autocrat, but is beneficial to the people of the Empire and Ivalice. If I have to sacrifice my personal commodity to do what is right, then so be it."
"I know m' Lord. I just don't think that you outta sacrifice your own life to it."
"Sometimes heavy prices must be paid to achieve greater goods… but I don't believe that is going to happen. I have you, Gabranth, to keep me safe. I know that you shall be watchful."
Three years keeping the promise he had made to Noah. Always vigilant, always determined to fulfill his oath taken so long ago, yet respected so little.
"I shall maintain my duty. Neither sword neither arrow will take his life while I'm at his side." He used to say before dressing his armor. With the decrease and eventual cease of Ashe's letters, he found himself more and more evolved in his personification of Noah to the point he sometimes thought he was Noah, and likewise, his true purpose become to protect, at any cost, even his own life, Larsa. "All for the good of Ivalice", words of a man who spent his entire life in war and running from his past; just to be imprisoned by him and freed again. A life time of one who gave his youth and later years to a cause and the ideals of knighthood.
But wouldn't be a blade or an arrow that would stop him from fulfilling his duty. It was the memory of the former one. For one moment, one accursed moment he stops looking to Larsa to watch one last time Ashe. She had changed. Her hair had grown and she was wiser indeed, her clothes were now devoid of any joviality, and although "She never had much anyway" he missed the old girl who just wanted him to perform the old plays written by his own father many years earlier.
Unlike his father, Basch was no actor neither writer, and so his amateur performance in best made her laugh. Those times had gone by and much a like a father in his old age, he realized how short those moments were. From an innocent smile to a determined look, filled with the weight of duty. "She's barely old enough to hold the crown in her hand, how much wear it as queen." He used to mutter to himself after the death of Lord Rasler, in that moment when tears rained down her pink cheek. A great change indeed.
She noticed his reminiscence and briefly smiles to him once again. He nodded solemnly and memories satisfied, he looked back to Larsa. But it was too late.
"Lord Larsa!" He screamed while unsheathing his blades and running to the killer with the dagger. Larsa looked, just in time to see the killer's face and feel with agonizing pain his wretched blade be carved deep into his flesh.
"For Archadia, I fight!" He yelled to the horrified crowed before being stricken down by Basch's blades.
"Lord…Larsa…" He whispered while holding the lifeless body of his master, around whom a sea of blood was already extending through the great hall. For the first time in many years, Basch cried and a tear felled down in Larsa's inexpressive face, gazing the endless infinity of the sky.
"Don't leave, m' Lord!"
"A heavy price indeed…one I gladly pay…but Basch… why didn't you…"
"Larsa! Larsa, no!" He shouted at last to his fallen master's body. With him only remained a question that would haunt him for the rest of his days, which would be spent in war.
After his death, Basch turned into a shadow. A broken-hearted man convinced of as truth that he didn't want to accept. Indeed, the words of rage that Noah had spoken to him in Pharos were more truthful than he could imagine. "I, the one whose oaths poison those that would protect…" He said many times in the silence of his despair. Ashe tried to convince him to return to Dalmasca, and to his duty as her body-guard. And, although he wanted to do so, he refused time and time again. His service as Judge was not to be light headed and now was Archadia who needed the most his strong arm. But his idealisms vanished with time, seeing House after House doing worse than the previous and a Senate that manipulated back and front of a system that nobody could tolerate anymore.
It came with no surprise that in that night of winter, a rebellion rise within Archades and storm the senate. The time of chaos that would reclaim the next 17 years…
And so, with a soul soaked in blood and gore, Basch remained. The Empire would soon fall and its colonies soon disband. Archades would be left to decay and the once endless glory that shrouded in pride, power and knowledge the city was scattered. Only a ruined scarp that still standed tall, even while it's once beautiful alleys were now destroyed. Now, this is Basch's home, one and true. Places were he died a very long time ago, not in body but in soul. A man who putted everything to his effort and ended broken in his own mind.
"So you'll leave me live in shame?"
"If that is your duty, yes."
These words had lost every meaning that they once had. He his no longer judge neither knight. He is nothing more than a shadow of a memory. A ghost of a former great warrior, who never had given up his duty. But even great warriors disappear, leaving only echoes in eternity.