"You have got to be kidding me."

I sighed. "I know right? Sometimes I still wonder why Amaterasu chose us." We had just arrived at the marina, looking for our boat. For Freya's sake, why is it every time we have to do something important, it has to be done in the middle of the night? We've only been here for like, two, three days? I haven't slept much since we got here, and this only makes it even worse…"And where's our damn boat?" There were at least a couple hundred boats in this marina, and there was probably even more. Sailboats, yachts, dinghies, fishing boats, both commercial and private, and speedboats were scattered all over the place. "Any of these could be ours…"

"You sure are patient," Terra rolled her eyes, "It's the one over there." She pointed to her left at a huge, silver yacht that had the words SILVER KNIGHT painted on its side in black, big, block letters.

My jaw dropped. "That's…" I couldn't find my voice. You had to give some credit to the Lockmoon family for being one of the richest families in the entire U.S., but this was just insane.

"Yep, it's mine," Terra said casually. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the keys, and dangled them in front of me. "It's ours for tonight. Usually, we have a couple of people to drive it for us, but not today. C'mon." She started walking off toward it.

"D-Do your parents know about us using it today?" I asked her quickly, as I followed her to her yacht.

"They will," she replied without looking at me, "There's a ship's log, so we have to sign in or something like that. Anyway, it's not like we're doing something illegal. We're just going out to explore an island."

Yeah, but still…. The full moon's out, which means visibility is great, but it also amplifies magic… So whatever the source is, it might be even more dangerous than it usually is. I had way too many experiences with uncontrollable magic back at Astralis Caelum…

"Hey, Tifa!" I hear Renée call my name from the grounds below the battlements of the massive white, stone walls surrounding the city of Valkyrie. She looked extremely excited about something even though her usually neat hair looked like a bird's nest, tangled and even damaged near the ends, which was totally unlike herself. Her face was completely covered in dirt, but the way she was smiling, you wouldn't have noticed.

"Hm?" I looked down about 100 feet at her. From here, a normal human would only a small speck, but due to me being a Guardian, I could see almost every single detail just the same as if she was right next to me. "What's up? What happened-"

"I learned a new spell!" she yelled up to me excitedly, "Watch this!" A fiery red magic circle appeared behind her, faintly at first, but then blazed into life in a few

seconds.

A Ferena spell? Oh crap! "Renée!" I screamed, "Don't do-" I dropped down to the cold, hard, stone floor of the battlements, expecting some sort of raging storm of fire or something like that.

"ABRACADABRA!"

Nothing happened. "Renée…" I growled as I slowly stood back up, "I'm-"

"Wait!" she screamed at me, her face suddenly twisting into a mask of fear "Get back d-"

KA-BOOM!

"Tifa!"

I jerked out of my reverie. "W-What?" I suddenly realized I was still on the dock while Terra was already on her yacht.

She sighed impatiently as she walked over to the yacht's railing. "Are you waiting for Brynhildr to drop down from the sky or what? Get on!" She walked off, probably going to start the boat. "Slide the platform in once you get on!"

"Sorry about that…" I called after her as I ran up the dock and onto the yacht, doing what Terra told me to do. This is her boat after all… Which makes her Captain, I guess. The boat abruptly started with a low rumble and I heard a somewhat loud clanking sounds coming from the left side of the yacht. The anchor? "Are we leaving?" I called over to the doorway where Terra had disappeared.

"What do you think?" Her reply sounded muffled.

I chuckled softly. You've changed so much since we became Guardians… You used to be so emotionless, but now you're more like Bella. I smiled at the thought of the feisty, smooth-talking Guardian of Stars. I wonder how she and the others are doing on their mission? I walked around Terra's yacht for a few minutes. I haven't been on a boat like this before… In fact, the last time I was even on a boat was like what? A year ago? I walked over to the edge of the yacht and leaned over on the railing, staring at the black seawater gently hit the side of the Silver Knight.

"Ok!" I hear Terra's muffled voice call from somewhere inside the yacht. "I think I've got this under control…"

You think? I feel the Silver Knight rumble a little louder as it slowly moved away from the dock. I put my head on the railing and glanced up at the sky: the full moon glowed brightly in the clear skies above. This better lead to something…

"Hey, you want to come and see what's inside?" Terra called out to me. "It's pretty nice in here…"

"In a bit," I replied as I lifted my head, "I just wanna be out here for a few more minutes." I put my head back down and closed my eyes. I have a feeling this is going to be a long night…

The whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion: the entire world became a massive, fiery explosion as red, blue, and orange beams of energy and light shot out from the rune behind Renée and disappeared into the ground a few meters from the city gates and exploded all within the space of a second. The explosion was small at first, but then suddenly expanded outward until I saw it coming right at my face. Oh sh- I threw up my arms in a useless defense and looked away, expecting the explosion to consume me, but… I didn't feel a thing. I slowly lowered my arms and looked back. What the-?

The explosion hung a few inches from my face, its extreme heat making me sweat, but it just- just stayed there, floating there like a fiery cloud. I could see blue streaks of energy swirling around it, but it could go no further.

"Please," I whipped around and saw the Goddess Freya walk calmly toward me, "If you are going to experiment with your magic, do not do it in front of the walls of this city."

"Freya? Y-You did this?" I motioned to the semi-frozen explosion behind me.

"Yes."

"H-How?" I was awed beyond belief.

"Such is the power of an Entity," she replied softly, "Come, I will show you more." She raised her right hand, starting with an open hand and then slowly clenching it into a fist. "There is always danger lurking around, even within my beloved city," she murmured as her blue-green eyes were fixed on the fiery, magical explosion, "Whenever some menace befalls you, it may seem to be akin to a Crisis, but if you have command of the flow of magic…" She motioned for me to turn around and look. I quickly obeyed and stared at the massive sphere of energy. "You can transform it into something of little consequence," she finished, still concentrated on the task at hand, "Observe."

Slowly but surely, the explosion started to shrink. The blue streaks vanished as the sphere grew smaller and smaller until it couldn't be seen from the battlements, so I leaned back over the stone railing, watching it grow even smaller, until it disappeared into the ground from where it came. The only thing left was the ginormous hole in the ground that it made. The air still smelled of smoke and magic, however. On the other hand, I was glad to see Renée completely unhurt by the spell, besides her hair looking even more frazzled and her face even dirtier than it was mere minutes ago. Her face showed a mix of sheepishness and shock as she looked up at Freya and me.

"Sorry!" she called, sounding quite abashed.

At that moment, I didn't know what to do or what to say. All I could do was laugh. It started off as a chuckle, but soon became a song of mirth. I almost completely forgot I was in the presence of an Entity. I was trying to calm down before I embarrassed myself, but to my surprise, Freya started to laugh.