As typical, they found little new information outside of what Leila told them before they moved to the village inn that Leila paid for. Firion was quick to retire to bed, likely for the same reason that Lightning struggled to move like she should. Eating made it surprisingly difficult to stand.
But at least they had something, now. Apparently, Leon liked to hang near Gatrea, and that was their best bet for a starting point.
Lightning sat with Jack in the dining hall, nursing her last mug of ale before she would also turn in. Jack sat opposite her, flicking crumbs about the table like marbles. He didn't eat much, which came as a surprise. How else did he get such a full-rounded face?
The moment she emptied her mug of mead, she hissed, "What are you?"
Jack paused in his fiddling and looked at her like he'd been caught smuggling knives from the barracks. "What?"
"You're not tailing us out of admiration." She gestured. "You've barely asked any questions, and you haven't been digging into the details of our quest. You're not a spy. What are you?"
Jack blinked. "A spy?"
"You'd make the worst kind." Lightning leaned back and eyed him up and down. He still showed youth in his hairless chin and naïve eyes, but he couldn't be younger than fifteen or sixteen. His clothes were strange – dirtied black and white, with a red scrap of cloth tied to his neck. "What, lost your home in what used to be Palamecia? Parents were rich one moment, dead the next?"
He swiped the remaining crumbs from the table before answering, "Not quite."
"Then what?"
"Never met my parents." His eyes took on a distant look and he leaned back against his chair. "Don't even know if they existed. Mother kind of… well, I don't think she picked up random orphans from the pen to make into her own."
Lightning smacked him upside the face and Jack yelped out in surprise.
"What's that for?" he sputtered. He didn't grip his cheek like she expected him to, and his skin didn't turn red from the impact.
"The nonsense." Lightning folded her arms. "Quit it."
"Ugh…." Jack grimaced. "This is gonna be harder than I thought. But I guess it wasn't much better for Eight…"
"For what?"
Jack looked at the ceiling and worked his mouth silently for a moment. "I'm an alien."
"From another land?"
"No, from space." He gestured above them. "Don't belong on your world at all, I'm afraid. Or even in your life. Kind of died a long time ago and all that and now I have to get you to come back with me, so you can join us."
The haze caused by all the ale made her sluggish in processing that. "Are you saying you want me dead?"
"What? No!" Jack threw his head back and groaned. "Oi, I just mean that we have this place where we gather now that we're immortal and I want you to check it out! Geez, why is this so hard?"
Lightning regarded him with a flat look when he finally glanced her way again. "That's bull."
Jack waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah."
"Just tell me what your goal is, here."
"I'm here to pick you up."
"Quit the jokes!" Lightning struck him again. He barely flinched. "I don't have time for any of that!"
He frowned in confusion.
"Just drop the façade!" Lightning threw herself back against her chair. "Or I'll make you regret it."
"It isn't a joke."
"Yeah, right."
"Please, come with me. There's something in this town that'll help you, a machine with such power that it'll change the fiber of your being into something more powerful than you can comprehend."
"Uh-huh."
"Well, I guess it won't technically change you, but it'll change… Nah. You get what I mean."
"I really don't."
Jack shifted and chewed on his lip. "That's not what you're supposed to respond with."
Lightning slammed the table with her fist. "Give me the truth, kid!"
"It is the truth."
Lightning groaned and leaned over the table for support. The exhaustion from the day threatened to topple her over. "Fine. Let's humor the thought for now that you genuinely want to take me somewhere for my own benefit, somehow. What would it involve?"
"Looking at an abandoned home in this very town." Jack gestured. "Really, if you asked a single person in this village, they'd tell you about the glowing artifact on the edge of civilization. Some might even refer to it as an object from another realm, others would argue it's just a curse leftover from Mateus' rule."
"You've had time to ask around?"
"Before you kidnapped me, yeah." Jack shrugged. "I like consider myself pretty efficient with my time."
"I'm not dropping everything to look for a hag's tale."
"It's not a – okay." Jack leaned back and gestured with his arms in a wide circle. "Pretend for a moment you could see this world as it is from outer space."
"Space."
"Yeah, the sky. Pretend you could look at the world like you were a bird and everything here was as small as insects."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Just imagine it. Form the thought in your mind. Make this world as small as possible, surround yourself in blackness and sparkling trails of light. And make those trails green."
The inn faded, and Lightning saw the vast emptiness of the Cosmo-
She shook her head and snapped herself out of the vision. "You're messing with my head."
"Not quite." Jack leaned forward and plastered a grin on his face. "I'm triggering memories you've refused to recollect. Come on, Light. Don't you remember your pals? Snow? Hope? Fang?"
Those words… they sounded familiar. "No one's called me that before."
"What, 'Light?' That's weird – I could have sworn-"
She broke away from the inn again with the memory of a white-haired child calling after her in the dark and blue atmosphere of broken peaks. "Light! Light, wait up!"
"I can't run off." Lightning rubbed at her temples. "You still need to help us find Leon."
"Leo-" Jack perked up. "You think I know where he is?"
"I think you can find out." Lightning looked up at him with heavy eyelids. "You followed us, and you knew about the attacks in Salamand. That's more than most of my fellow soldiers can pull off, at least."
"What kind of an army is that, then?"
"One decimated by war and starvation." Lightning shook her head. "You'll find out how to track down Leon and I'll consider not having you thrown in the dungeons the moment we get back to Altair."
Jack gave a satisfied nod. "The storm, she calms."
"Oi. I'll take back my word if you try any more witticisms."
"… Yes, ma'am."
"And don't call me ma'am."
"Yes, Light."
"And don't call me – actually, I'll allow that one."
But she'd never tell him it was because it sounded… warm.
Just like she never told Firion.
The building burned.
Firion gagged on smoke and dropped to a crawl. The door was just a couple of feet away, but his legs and arms moved sluggishly below him. His body didn't react to the demand to go faster.
Burning flesh pervaded his nose and the wood splintered at his touch. Beams crashed to the ground about him and sparks stung his skin.
He crawled forward despite the heaviness in his limbs and managed to reach the door.
Heart pounding, he leapt to his feet and wrenched at the door. It didn't move.
He threw himself against it and the wood shattered. He walked out into the open air.
And met with the purple-tinged figure of a man with long hair, fitted armor, and a spear in his right hand.
Firion's skin crawled at the sight. The man didn't move for a whole moment and Firion's first instinct was to run. His feet didn't move to the command.
The mannequin spoke without moving its mouth. A distorted groan rippled through the air and Firion felt for his weapons.
And found nothing.
The mannequin charged.
And the scenery changed.
It only took a moment for him to recall the name of the white-robed girl that materialized along with the pristine temple and faint chorus of heavenly voices.
It took another moment for him to realize he just left another night. He wrestled his breathing back under control and asked, "Why can I hear that?" He gestured about them and straightened.
Aria smiled at his words, a radiant image. He fought to stay cautious – she only ever confused and used him, it seemed, despite her childlike appearance and soft features. "It's the song of praise for Mwynn's name. Our order is celebrating her presence while it lasts."
"While it lasts," Firion repeated. "This is temporary? This order?"
Aria shook her head and came to stand near him. A warmth emitted from her person, like a stone heated by the noonday sun. "Soon, our goddess will be gone from us and replaced with another. We mourn Her departure, and we celebrate the time She spent with us."
"I see."
"Come." Aria guided him through a new depiction of his hometown of Fynn as it appeared when they arrived. "See how the world heals?"
Firion watched children play around a small, stone structure once used as a statue's stand. "Yes."
Aria showed him a monument built in the center of town, dedicated to the old inhabitants. "The ruler here isn't as bad as some of those you've seen in the past. You dream of freedom, and here it is."
Firion smiled, recognizing some of the older faces that moved about them. "Then… I accomplished my goal after all."
"Yes." Aria took a seat on a bench in the town square, and the people moved about her as if she didn't exist. The perfectness of her dress, its white and smooth texture stood out against the worn and dirtied cobble. "You can rest, Liegeman. You don't have to push everyone to join you immediately."
Firion blinked, feeling like he'd broken out of a spell. "You see us as power-hungry tyrants."
"No. We see you and all those on your world as you are. Your monarchy isn't in the wrong, Firion, and I'm not here to stop you."
"You're here to fix me."
"To fix your body." Aria held out pleading hands. "The mind and the heart are strongly linked, and your heart is so sick that it's hurting your mind."
"I don't feel sick." Firion looked about them, at the murmuring crowd that moved about like they had nowhere to be and no concerns to resolve. He wondered where such carefreeness could come from.
Aria kept quiet for a long moment. "This isn't that kind of sickness."
She reluctantly dropped the illusion of Fynn and returned them to the shock-white halls of the temple. "When you wake up this time, talk to Lightning and see what her plan is for contacting Leon. I worry for her as well, and the scars left by her own battles."
"Wait. How much of my actions do you influence? Am I myself at all out there?"
Aria hesitated on that before she said slowly, "I don't do it directly." She brought down the silhouette of a man, outlined in blue light and supported by a thick darkness for contrast. She lit a glow around his mind, shaping smaller images of flags and demons near the head. "You see, you have your body and your mind and your own decisions. You were brought up in the ways of the world according to your childhood home, and you had those ideals and beliefs challenged by the very world you thought you knew."
She combined the image of the demon with an angel, and together they made an average-looking woman. The flag was combined with a heart, creating a small infant. "Opinions are very fragile things, and the people you knew as a child will appear very different to you as an adult because you've both changed from what you've seen. I'm merely planting seeds in your mind to guide you in the right direction. In the end, your current morality will overpower whatever I've inspired if you determine it to be wrong."
Firion furrowed his brow. "I'm confused."
Aria sighed, dismissing the image. "It'll make sense in time. For now, suffice to say that I'm only adding ideas to your mind that you might not think of otherwise, and I'm nudging you toward certain options, but I'm not forcing you into it. That's actually impossible if you're not a Creator."
"You're not?"
"Gracious, no. I'm just a humble priestess."
"A spirit one."
"Tell me about your world." Aria clasped her hands in her lap. "I'm honestly curious."
Firion sighed and found a seat on a polished marble ledge. "You know of Mateus?"
"Yes."
Firion blinked back memories of suffocating smoke and burning skin. "He got close to destroying our world. Really close."
"Not just yours, either."
"You know about that?"
Aria nodded. "The places you refer to as 'heaven' and 'hell' aren't much far from this very temple, to put it in a more human perspective. It caused quite the uproar, and even we of Mwynn's alignment experienced the effects of it."
"Are you a dead spirit, then?"
Aria shifted. "Tell me more of your world, first."
"It…" Firion tried to recall. "Even after the demon raids, Mateus summoned a cyclone to further quell the resistance. It destroyed what remained of our stability, throwing Altair, Paloom… everywhere I've been into anarchy and ruin."
"And how did that affect Fynn?"
Fynn. "We used it to get inside the vortex."
Aria didn't look satisfied at that, her mouth tightening into a fine line and concentration showing through her furrowed brow.
"No!" Firion shot to his feet. "Stop doing that!"
"Doing what?"
"Prodding!" Firion stepped away and gripped at his temples as a pounding headache formed. "You're manipulating me!"
"I'm not-"
"Stop lying!" He conjured his buckler and threw it her way. Aria startled but didn't move out of the way before it caught her in the neck.
She touched it and the buckler dispersed into glittering light without leaving a trace of blood. "I'm not lying."
"Aren't you?" Firion waved a hand about them. "What else is this? This – this shining perfection, this spotless white! How are you supposed to fool anyone?"
"It's my reality." Aria clasped her fingers over her knee. "Not yours."
"How?" Firion looked up. The white was blinding. "How?"
"You wouldn't understand."
Firion growled. "Try me! Quit dancing around the answer and speak honestly!"
Aria closed her eyes and took a breath. "I can't convince you of the truth, no matter how I present it." She opened her eyes again. "Do you know how many times we've met?"
"I would if I could remember!"
"But I'm not the one causing you to forget."
"Aren't you?"
"No." Aria stood and came close again. She barely reached his chest, and she looked up at him with the palest eyes. "But I've tried at least a dozen times now. Honestly, if I can't help you, it would be best for me to give up and try to help someone else."
Firion narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps that would be best."
"I won't come again unless you call me." Aria pursed her lips and emotion tinged the edges of her eyes red. "I'll give you until the end of the week."
She vanished with the temple and Firion felt the folds of sleep overtake him again.
