Saber, First Person
Since Serena turned 18, I never thought I would be a babysitter again.
Living in Rigel wasn't easy, and that was all because of the Duma Faithful. Hopping from one village to another with my little sister to loot unsuspecting victims—usually the rich—and being unable to rest in an alley because we'd be afraid of being caught… Not by our victims—we were way too sneaky for the rich to notice that we sold a few silver pieces from them—but by the Duma Faithful. Their influence spread at such an alarming pace… Unfortunately, we were never able to fully escape them. Seeing Terrors pop up from out of nowhere definitely scared us into learning how to fight better.
After a few years, we started using our survival skills in "more honorable" ways of getting coin and became mercenaries, accepting jobs to take out tyrannical border guards and terrors alike.
But… I remember it like it happened yesterday… It still haunts me today…
Serena and I were hired to get rid of a few terrors in a nearby graveyard. We thought it'd be no big deal; we'd fought bigger battles.
Maybe it was the reward that blinded us. Two thousand silver marks? How could anyone pass that up? In any case, we set out for the graveyard.
But this was no ordinary graveyard. All around us was… this ghastly mire…
The terrors showed up, but they were things like we've never seen before… Bigger. Stronger. Scarier. Deadlier.
What made it worse was the fact that they were being summoned by four cantors blocking our escape paths.
All I remember is swinging my blessed sword in a frenzy and hearing my sister eviscerate these terrors with her wind magic. I remember a great terror taking its club and swinging it at me.
Next thing I knew, I was chained to a table, torches lit around me. One cantor approached me with a twisted grin on his face. While he was chanting, he referred to me as a sacrifice to "Lord Duma."
He drew a knife and held it above me.
I was powerless. I could only yell as I witnessed the cantor gouge my eye out.
I remember hearing my sister scream my name in horror. Instantly, the torches' fires intensified and became beams aimed towards the cantor. As he incinerated, I must've passed out again because the next thing I knew, I was in an inn.
Serena came by and hugged me. She came by with the 2000 silver marks, but I couldn't accept it. She insisted that I take half while she went out to get some proper medicine and a better patch because I was "in no shape to go out yet." I spent my short amount of time alone thinking about what my future would be like. Would people still hire me if I had a scar that obvious?
Serena came back with what I needed and patched me up. Honestly, I thought I looked more threatening, but it still hurt like hell.
Serena went on solo missions to pay for our food, the inn, and the medicine. Each time I asserted that I wanted to go and make sure she was okay, she insisted that it was her turn to protect me. She would never say "I love you" to my face, but her doing this for me was the greatest expression of love I could ever hope for.
But she didn't come back one day…
I was optimistic, so I asked around for her. Her last employer told me she wouldn't come back for a while. Apparently, her job took her to Zofia, which meant she had to cross the border. So I went after her.
The border guards told me different things—"Yeah, she crossed the border about a month ago." But she couldn't've crossed a month ago; she took the job just last week. "No, I haven't seen her." Understandable—she might not have crossed the border yet.
I figured she had a higher chance of having crossed the border, so I went back to the village to tell the innkeeper give a note to Serena. Instead, he had a note for me from the employer saying that she was captured by Zofian soldiers for sneaking past the border patrol.
I tried to track her down, but the leads I had just left me going in circles in Zofia. I hate to admit it, but I found myself stuck all the way down at the Zofian harbor.
So I've been staying there, taking missions and making somewhat of a name for myself, whatwith getting rid of seadogs and the like. I've been drinking down the possibility that I've lost her for more than a decade… Yet I know she's still out there and still alive.
But here I am now, babysitting. I'm not so afraid of the mission as I am of losing even one of these kids or watching them get hurt. By the looks of it, the latter seems to be inevitable. I need to protect them at all costs.
Somehow, Celica reminds me of Serena. Definitely the way she looks, but there's also a certain air she has to her. In all honesty, although she hired me to protect her and her crew, I find myself almost waving off the money I might get at the end.
If she wants to live, that Genny needs to start getting comfortable around me. She doesn't talk at all, that little lass, but she's certainly sheepish. If I'm going to protect her, she needs to have a sense of security around me.
And Mae and Boey? They need to shape up, or else I'm leaving them at Novis.
