Fara and Vaan and Penelo had bonded quickly enough over the past few days. The trio was quite alike. All wanted adventure and all were young. But most importantly all three of them loved the freedom brought from travel. They shared many interesting and comedic stories of misadventure and hijinks. Fara felt more at ease with the pair than she had in a fair amount of time. Being in a single place had allowed her to relax a bit and let herself feel more in control than normal. Though of course, it was only a matter of time until she was whisked away into another adventure.

The three were walking through a crowd, fighting their way to the front in order to see the Queen's caravan returning. Vaan and Penelo had told Fara that they were friends with Ashe and that they would be visiting her later that night and that Fara was welcome to join. Fara was completely unconvinced. Sure, she had enjoyed their fairly exaggerated tales of adventure and mayhem but access to the palace and queen?

With Vaan at the front, Fara behind him and Penelo behind her it did not take them long to squirm their way to the front of the clump. When they got there they saw the beginning of the procession round the corner to the left.

The front was filled with probably about fifty soldiers walking stiffly in straight lines. Fara had never like seeing soldiers lined up like that, it always gave her a weird feeling in her stomach. She ignored that however and continued to look on. Behind the soldiers was an open carriage looking vehicle with a young woman sitting in the front. She was very pretty and Fara knew instantly that that was the queen. Some people just looked Regal. Fara looked as the procession passed, turned a corner and disappeared.

"Well that was fairly uneventful" Fara said as they started to walk back through the dispersing crowd to Migelo's shop. She was disappointed; with how many people had shown up in the city over the past few days and because their level of excitement had been so high, she had really expected quite a show. Vaan chuckled and said "The people of Dalmasca really love Ashe." It was as if he had read her mind.

"Right" replied Fara. It was hard for her to understand, she had always had a bit of an anti-establishment streak.

"We'll just get a quick bite to eat and then we can go up to the palace." Penelo said.

"Does Queen Ashe know that we're coming" Fara questioned. Penelo and Vaan exchanged a heavy look and Vaan said "Well not exactly." Fara stopped dead and raised a brow at them. "I thought you were friends with her!" she asked, half expecting for them to laugh and end the charade.

"We are" Penelo said earnestly "It's just hard to get a hold of her now that she's the Queen." A slightly sad look came over her face. "We knew her before she was, and now that she's a Queen we don't get to talk to her that often." Fara nodded slowly, beginning to question her doubt. "We understand though" Penelo added quickly, obviously not wanting Fara to think that they blamed Ashe for that her lack of communication. "We figured it was a good enough time to stop by and say hello" Vaan added.

"That makes sense… uh I guess" Fara said. She still did not understand how they knew the Queen, but knew better then to pry. Fara had the sudden feeling that maybe she was in over her head. She generally trusted those feelings (traveling for a lifetime will do that), but something made her want to stay and see what this strange pair was up to.

After the trio had gotten something to eat they immediately left again and walked towards the castle. Fara could tell that Vaan and Penelo were excited about seeing Ashe. And Vaan and Penelo took Fara's hesitance and disbelief as nerves. She was a queen after all ho wouldn't be nervous. Vaan placed his arm on Fara's shoulder and she jumped a little as she had been deep in thought and not paying attention. "Don't worry about Ashe" he said "She's only a little intimidating."

"Oh thanks" muttered Fara rolling her eyes and shaking Vaan's hand off of her shoulder. He smirked and the continued walking in silence. The silence was not broken until they reached the gate.

"I hope they let us in" Vaan said cheerily hooking his hands behind his head. The other two just rolled their eyes and continued on. The guard ahead said "What is your business at the Castle." He had a helmet over his head so his face was not seen and his voice was a little bit muffled. "We're here to see A..." But he cut off because Penelo had elbowed him in the ribs. She gave him a look and started talking in what she obviously hoped was aristocratic way "Our Uncle is in the Castle and we are here to see him." Fara and Vaan exchanged a look, but then nodded to confirm Penelo's story. The guard looked from one to other, his eyes lingering on Penelo for a tad too long. He smiled a wolfish grin, "Aye, I'll let you in lady, just be sure to come back and give me a proper thanks."

Fara quickly pushed past and towed a surprisingly clueless Penelo along.

As soon as they were out of earshot Vaan started to yell at Penelo. "What was that for!" he said angrily holding his side. Penelo gave him a stern look and said "People can't just go visit the Queen and we would never have been able to convince him that we knew her."

"You could have told us that earlier rather then just elbowing me" Vaan exclaimed.

"Well I thought it would have been obvious" Penelo stated, rolling her eyes "But I guess not." Fara held her tongue on what maybe should have been obvious; but honestly they were just like an old married couple. She said as much and both looked at her very indignantly, but said nothing in their defense. Fara followed them still chuckling around the palace, as they seemed to know where they were going. Eventually they stopped in front of a pair of large ornate doors. "This is the throne room" Penelo whispered to Fara. She nodded to indicate she understood and stood waiting for them to open the door, but they did not move. "Um are we going to go in?" Fara questioned the other two.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Vaan said "I mean she's a Queen, what if the guards just shoot us before she can stop them."

Fara shot him a glare "And you are just thinking about this now!" she said. It had just been mere minutes ago when she assumed they were telling tall tales, and yet now here she was probably just feet from royalty. Though she had been raised in an aristocratic house, the road had beaten that out of her and she felt mildly sick about this now. Honestly what had she gotten herself into, she tended far too often to see how far she could push situations and deal with the consequences later. It was bound to catch up to her sooner rather than later.

"Oh we'll be fine" replied Penelo, though she looked more then a little worried. "Right" she muttered and pushed open the doors.

They were surprised to see that the room almost empty, no guards at all. It was a very large room with tall white columns that went down either side. The floor was tiled and had very ornate and colorful designs on it. The ceiling was the most breathtaking though as on it was a beautiful painting of what Fara thought was probably the Espers.

On the far side of the room were three people surrounding a table. The people looked up at the sound of the door opening. Then one of them, a girl who Fara recognized as Queen Ashe, began walking towards the door. "I thought I made it clear that no one was to disturb" Ashe began but stopped abruptly when she recognized Vaan and Penelo. "Vaan? Penelo?" one of the figures questioned at the table. He had an accent that Fara recognized to be Archadian. Her face paled when she realized it was Lord Larsa. The Lord Larsa, Emperor of Archadia. "Holy shit" she muttered under breath. "Larsa!" exclaimed Penelo and she ran over to him and gave him a big hug.

Fara wondered how Vaan and Penelo knew so many important people. Giving both of them an incredulous look as Vaan walked over and shook Larsa's hand. "It's good to see you again" Vaan said. Truly the fates had a strange sense of humor, these sky pirates were close with multiple world leaders? She had been so certain they were exaggerating or trying to take her for a ride. Why had she come with them? Stupid. Now Fara was clearly in way over her head.

"And you friend" Larsa replied. Ashe greeted them as well. Fara felt like a statue as she just stood by the door gaping at them. There were two world leaders in there after all. Her attention shifted to the other figure. He looked like a Judge, and she immediately stiffened, she did not like judges, old habits die hard. The man removed his helmet revealing dirty blonde hair and a bit of scruff. He also had scar that went over his left eye. "Basch it's good to see you" said Vaan and he shook his hand as well.

Fara still just stood at the door awkwardly. Perhaps she could still make an exit. Slip out of the city and count this all as some weird fever dream. Had she eaten something strange on the road? Hmm maybe this was all a hallucination she tried to convince herself. She'd gotten herself into some strange situations, but never something so clearly dangerous as hanging around royalty. Even rulers who she considered "good" she couldn't trust. How could you rule a whole nation or empire and still understand and value the average citizen? Maybe she was a pessimist, but that streak had kept her alive so far. She had begun to take a step in that direction when Vaan glanced at Fara and said "Oh, I'm so sorry. This is Fara Ceire." Fara froze

"Any friend of Vaan and Penelo is a friend of ours" said Larsa kindly. "Are you a sky pirate too?" he asked. Fara shot another incredulous look at Vaan and Penelo. Emperors and Queens knew that they were sky pirates? What an odd group. Fara thought. Before she could answer Penelo replied "Oh, no. We just met a few days ago." Larsa smiled warmly. Ashe looked curious and Basch looked weary. "Hail and well met?" Fara answered feebly. Immediately cursing at herself for sounding quite so confused. Then again, she was incredibly out of place. She cleared her throat and tried again. "It's a pleasure" She continued with more confidence, her archadian upbringing coming through at the right moment "Forgive me I'm a bit surprised to have ended up here, but I count myself lucky to be in such company. I look forward to someday hearing the story of how such a, shall we say diverse group, ended up so close." She gave her most dazzling smile, though who knew how that came across. At least it was enough to get the scrutiny off her.

"What are you doing here?" asked Penelo looking at Larsa and Basch. Larsa's face seemed to fall and suddenly he looked so much older. "We have much to discuss" he said sadly.

Penelo, Vaan, and Fara waited, watching Larsa, who seemed to be deciding the best way to proceed. He glanced at Fara and then at Penelo and Vaan. Penelo, always intuitive took the hint. "Fara can be trusted" She said glancing Fara's way, "Though we haven't known her for long, she trusted us enough to bring her here and believed us when we discussed our friendship with you, though many would have assumed us daft" Fara inwardly marveled at the fact that Penelo hadn't picked up on the fact that she 100% had not believed them, but tried to keep her face blank. Vaan chimed in, "Yeah, I trust Fara and everyone knows I'm a good judge of character." Fara thought she saw a twinge of anxiety on Basch's face, but tried very hard to portray trustworthiness and loyalty outward. Inwardly however she thought, gods I am in some trouble now.

Miraculously, Larsa seemed convinced. He began, "I am sure that all of you know about espers. However, in order to portray my story most effectively I am going to start at the beginning." Larsa started looking at the three, as it seemed that Ashe and Basch had already heard this story. "Eons ago the occuria created the scions. It is said that there were twenty four in all. These twenty four were separated into the scions of light, and the scions of darkness. They were also separated into the elements, one light and one dark for each element. Not a soul, apart from the Occuria, knows the reason for the scions creation. After much time had passed Ultima, the high seraph, decided to rebel against the occuria and called together the other scions of darkness. They were not as strong as their creators however, and were cast down. The occuria bound their very existence to glyphs and cast them to the darkest reaches of Ivalice to be controlled by man as espers." At this point Larsa paused and looked at his audience. "Does all of this make sense?" he questioned.

"Yes of course" answered Vaan "But what does this have to do with you?"

"I will get there in due time" Larsa responded.

He then continued with his story "The question that you should be asking right now is what happened to the scions of light after all of this time. That of course I can not answer, but I believe it is an important one none the less. There have been strange happenings in Ivalice of late, assassinations, thefts, and other things of the like. I had not been paying much attention, as the pattern seemed random, until it clicked. All of these crimes have been connected to the Espers. I do not know if you know this, but recently both Ashe's and my own Espers were taken, the espers that your group had given us after the fall of my brother. Also, Dr. Gijs, the man who had taken over at Draklor Laboratories after the death of Cid. At the time of his death he was researching the scions and the occuria. And perhaps most important, an esper was recently seen that no one has seen before." Once again Larsa stopped talking, though this time it seemed as if he was done. "Do you think that the esper was one of the Scions of Light?" asked Penelo.

"It seems as though that would make the most sense, but we do not know for certain" Larsa answered. "I may be overreacting, but it is still of the utmost importance that we discover what all of these signs mean. This is why I returned with Ashe, in order to learn more about this threat and its implications."

"I was needed in Dalmasca, as I had been gone for too long, and Lord Larsa and I needed to continue our research into the subject" Ashe interjected.

"Right before you three came, we had decided that we were to send Captain Basch back to Archades to search Draklor Laboratories for any pertinent information. It seems as if fate is on our side today, as he could use all of the help he can get to search, and in walk you three. There are few we could trust with such a task" Larsa said.

"We would not ask it of you if we did not believe it was of the utmost importance" Ashe continued, "Would you be willing to help Ivalice again?"

However, before any of them could answer Basch spoke, "Perhaps now that these three are going to search I could stay with you Lord Larsa and continue doing my duty."

"No Basch, you are needed elsewhere and I am sure that I will be fine for the short time that you will be gone" Larsa answered quickly. Basch nodded stiffly, but Fara could tell he did not like leaving the young emperor or the queen on there own. Fara could tell that he was a very loyal man, probably to a fault. How exhausting. It was Vaan who spoke next "Ya, of course me and Penelo will." Penelo nodded animatedly next to Vaan. It was obvious that they were excited for a new adventure.

Fara was taken off guard when everyone looked at her next, as she had not expected to be included in this mission. She just stood there with her mouth open trying to remember how to speak. How quickly her life had changed, one minute a bum wandering the corners of Ivalice, the next on a mission from both the Queen of Dalmasca and the Emperor of Archadia. "Well?" came the voice of an impatient Ashe.

"O..of course" said Fara, she sounded much more unsure then she meant. She wanted to help. She remembered why she left her home all those years ago, to unravel a mystery and that part of her had never faltered. Perhaps she would never find out what happened to her parents, but here a probably even larger puzzle sat before her. At the very least she thought, this will be one hell of a story. "Fara," said Penelo's kind voice, "If you don't want to come with us that's fine. We understand that you don't really have an allegiance to any of us."

"I want to come" said Fara, much more firmly this time. She smirked and continued "Like I would miss out on this kind of fun."