Note: This chapter is primarily dedicated to establishing lore for this fic series. If you have played both games and read "Burn These Feelings", a portion of this chapter might feel redundant to you, though you are still encouraged to read the part in question for clarity regarding certain lore bits concerning seraphim and malakhim. Also, if you have not read "Burn These Feelings", this chapter is essentially written with the intent of answering all the questions you definitely have by now, assuming you somehow got this far into this fic.


While Edna quickly explained the Shepherd's trials to Sadie, Eizen took a moment to stop by the store and buy some medicine, just in case they got injured during their quest. It's hard to think I'm going to use what my father taught me, he mused. That I'm actually going to fight for my life now, and not just once, but again and again and again, every day, against monsters who want to kill me. Though the idea was surreal, it wasn't daunting. Father taught me well, and I have Edna and Zaveid with me. Whatever comes, I can handle it. I must handle it.

As was the usual for Eizen's big sister, Edna's explanation of what they were doing was more than brief enough to be done by the time they reached the gates of Ladylake. Zaveid, who had been resting within Eizen during talk of the trials, emerged as they approached the contingent of knights who guarded the bridge, presumably to lend his support. Eizen didn't expect any trouble, so he was as alarmed as anyone when a shout rang out from among the armed warriors.

"Sadie! Where the devil do you think you're going?!"

Sadie's expression darkened briefly as a knight broke formation to stand imposingly before the Squire, and though the look passed quickly, Eizen didn't miss it.

"Father," she said evenly, "I am a Squire now; I wield the flames of purification on behalf of Lord Zaveid, and I am going to battle the Lord of Calamity."

The man lifted the mask of his helmet to reveal a beefy face with a thick blond mustache and piggish blue eyes. "Like hell you are," he growled. "You know Sir Leybon doesn't want you to go out and fight."

"I've been made a Squire," Sadie repeated.

"But you failed to draw the Sacred Blade!" barked her father. "All your training, and the seraphim deemed you unworthy! You have no right to be a Squire!"

"And the one who did draw the blade is any better?" Sadie challenged. "I'm not going to sit back and entrust the fate of the world to hellion-spawn like him!" She brandished a hand in Eizen's direction. "Are you?"

Sadie's father growled, casting hateful eyes on Eizen as he turned from his daughter to stand in front of the Shepherd and lean forward so his face was inches away. "I don't know what trickery you pulled to draw the Sacred Blade," the blond knight growled, engulfing Eizen's face with his sour breath, "but I'm not falling for it. If you thought us honest folk would just forget what kind of scum you are now that you have seraphim answering to you, think again!"

Disgust roiled around in Eizen's gut, and he let himself feel it for a brief moment before replying. "I don't care what you think of me, Mr. Halloway," he stated, proud of himself for keeping his tone as neutral as Edna always kept hers. "I am the Shepherd now, and I will defend you and everyone else in this world from malevolence whether you want me to or not; I'm not asking you to like or respect me, and I don't need you to to perform my duty. Sadie has generously volunteered to help me with that duty, and I'm grateful to her."

"Volunteered, eh?" the man grumbled, turning back to his daughter.

"Yes, father," Sadie said, her tone and expression unreadable even to Eizen. "The pact has been made."

"And what about your wedding?!" Mr. Halloway demanded, and Eizen was glad the man's back was turned so he wouldn't see him flinch in shock.

"As with everything else in this city, my wedding can wait until after the Lord of Calamity has been stopped," Sadie responded.

"Hmm…" The knight turned to the two seraphim who were standing by passively, waiting for the exchange between humans to be done. "You two," he barked. "You keep my daughter unharmed, you hear? Sir Leybon doesn't want a wife all covered in battle scars."

"You sure about that?" Zaveid asked, a dangerous undercurrent to his tone that Eizen had never heard there before. "I know I'd be honored to have a wife with battle scars."

"More importantly, who do you think you are to tell us what to do?" Edna added, her blue eyes glaring in full intimidation mode.

Mr. Halloway gave a slight bow. "Begging your pardon, Lord and Lady Seraph," he said. "But I figured, if you're willing to take orders from hellion-spawn, you'd be glad to be given a task by an honest, pure-hearted man."

"Eizen is a more honest and pure-hearted man than you will ever be," Edna stated. "I didn't see you trying to draw the Sacred Blade and save the world from malevolence. Besides, arranged marriages are outlawed in the Kingdom of Hyland; you'll be lucky if we don't report you."

Arranged marriage? Eizen thought, feeling slightly dazed, but Sadie's father blanched.

"Do you see her complaining?" he demanded of Edna. "My wife and I worked long and hard to secure such noble prospects for our daughter! She'd have to be a fool to turn down the chance to marry a nobleman such as Sir Leybon, and as long as she doesn't refuse, it's not illegal! You have nothing to report me for!"

"Whatever," Edna scoffed, turning her back. "We have better things to do than waste time on you. Let's go, everyone."

Zaveid aimed a surprisingly sharp glare at Sadie's father before walking after Edna, and Eizen followed them without thinking. After looking at her father for a long moment, Sadie joined them, and the four of them walked through the barrier and onto the shore of the lake together.

"Please don't report my father," Sadie said suddenly.

Eizen, Edna, and Zaveid turned on her; her face could have been chiseled from stone.

"I am entirely willing to marry Sir Leybon," she stated; "he is fiftieth in line for the throne, and the union will bring great honor to my family."

"Have you even met this guy?" Edna asked dully.

"Of course!" Sadie replied. "We have dined together five times."

"Yeah?" Zaveid asked. "And what's he like?"

"Sir Leybon is…a gentleman," Sadie replied hesitantly. "He is of royal blood. I am honored to be his betrothed."

An awkward silence fell over the group, but Eizen was glad for it; he still needed a few moments to process what had just happened. He had long known that Sadie would never care for him, but the fact that she was engaged to someone else still stung, a lot more than he had expected it might. "It's not important right now," he finally said after a long minute. "Right now, we have a duty to attend." He looked around, appraising the land, then added, "I planned for us to head straight to Marlind, but there's a lot of open territory to the north of here…I wonder if we should clear it out first, just in case my sister left any hellions wandering around?"

"She probably did," Edna said, "but it would be a waste of time. We need to take the trials and stop her as quickly as possible; she's much more aggressive than other Lords of Calamity have been. Even if we have to take detours, our time would be better spent heading for the unguarded settlements - they're in a lot more danger than anyone in Ladylake, thanks to the barrier."

"I don't know," Zaveid mused, "it would be good to get some practice in before charging into whatever disasters await us in the other settlements, especially with a new Squire - Niko probably hit those pretty hard. Hey," he turned to Sadie, "what do you think, Bimiuv Kau?"

"Well…" Sadie began slowly, almost hesitantly.

"It's incredibly disrespectful to lie to a seraph, you know," Edna inserted, and Sadie flinched.

Eizen blinked, his mind lagging, though he felt like he should have been able to put the pieces together - Edna wasn't someone who confused him very often, but he couldn't imagine what Sadie had been about to lie for. I need to focus, he told himself. Sadie's engaged to another man, and I need to get over it, it doesn't change anything. She wouldn't have me anyway…

"I…This may be improper of me," Sadie stammered after a moment, "but…" She put a hand to the hilt of her battleax, the pommel of which Eizen only just then noticed was the head of some sort of fanged animal. "I…I've never fought an opponent who wished me harm, and…well…I would like to," she blurted out at last, a spark lighting in her dark brown eyes.

"Nothing improper about that," Zaveid grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Where on earth would you get that idea?"

"Sir Leybon claims it is unseemly for a woman to engage in combat," Sadie replied in a small voice. "He would…rather I not. Says it's unladylike."

"Well, Sir Leybon is wrong," Zaveid told her; "there's nothing sexier than a woman in battle!"

Sadie blinked, and Eizen withheld a slight chuckle at the look on her face. "I…I beg your pardon, Lord Zaveid, I must have misheard you," she said. "I thought you just used the word 'sexy'. But surely, a divine seraph would have no need for such language?"

"Why would you assume something like that?" Edna asked before Zaveid could reply.

"Well, it's common knowledge that the holy seraphim do not breed," Sadie answered with a hint of nervous laughter. "You simply manifest, as perfect, pure beings of divine power, with no need for the trappings of the flesh."

"Are you-?"

"Hey, she's not wrong," Zaveid cut Edna off before she could finish the inevitable question, 'Are you stupid?'. "The important thing here is that there's nothing 'unseemly' about a woman fighting…and that Sadie's going to have to do a lot of it, as a Squire. So, let's head north and get some practice in!"

"Alright," Eizen sighed, relieved that the focus had changed to something he was comfortable with; regardless of Sadie's personal life, he knew he could fight, and he turned north and started walking. "Let's take a look around."

Zaveid and Edna retreated within him, leaving him simultaneously alone and not alone with Sadie as they walked, both with hands on their weapons. Eizen wondered if she, like him, had been listening to all the reports of hellion attacks since Niko had killed Sorey, and was surprised that they hadn't been assaulted already.

Say something to her, Edna encouraged him from within, the words clearly shielded from the Squire who walked behind him. You might as well.

But… Eizen began in his mind, then shook his head. His eyes still on the lookout for hellions, he tossed over his shoulder, as casually as he could, "So, uh…where'd you learn to use that battleax?"

"That's none of your business, hellion-spawn!" Sadie spat.

Hey, don't be like that, Zaveid said in their heads. Come on, Sadie, we're all curious.

"I…I learned from my father," Sadie answered hesitantly.

The same father who didn't want you to fight? Edna asked dully, speaking for Eizen without asking.

"Please forgive him, he…he's very self-conscious about his mistake," Sadie responded.

Mistake? questioned Zaveid.

"He trained me hard growing up, in hopes I could be the next Shepherd, or at least be of some service to the protection of the people," Sadie explained. "Then, when he managed to arrange my union with Sir Leybon, Sir Leybon made it very clear that a lady shouldn't fight, that he didn't want a wife with callouses and battle scars. My father was humiliated for having raised me improperly, and he's been…touchy, ever since."

"Sadie," Eizen sighed, unable to let his seraphim hold the conversation for him any longer, "that's-"

A hissing sound cut him off, and he turned, one hand on his katana, to see a cluster of abnormally large serpents slithering towards him.

"Hellions!" he shouted as Zaveid and Edna emerged to join the fight, and the four darted forward to engage the beasts in battle.

The fight was nothing compared to trying to take down an entire army of rock golems; Eizen found that he barely even had to try. It was almost disappointing, how quick and underwhelming their victory was, and the purified snakes fled in fear.

"Hey, whoa, what do you think you're doing?!"

Eizen turned sharply to see Zaveid gripping Sadie's upraised arm, preventing her from swinging her weapon down on the now-helpless garden snake that was trying to escape.

"We can't just let it get away!" Sadie shouted, struggling against him.

"Sure we can!" Zaveid exclaimed. "It's purified now, it won't hurt anyone!"

When the tiny reptile was out of sight, Zaveid released Sadie, who turned on him, her dark brown eyes blazing with anger and confusion.

"That creature was a hellion!" she spat. "It can't be allowed to live!"

"Yeah," Edna remarked dully, walking over to join the confrontation, "it was a hellion. Now it's not. Can't you see that?"

"That's the power of purification," Zaveid said, clearly trying to diffuse the situation with his grin. "The little snake can slither on home now. No need for bloodshed."

"But…but…!" Sadie spluttered, her cheeks red. "But it won't stay that way! We have to kill it now, while it's been cleansed, or it'll just turn back before long!"

"Sure, it could turn back into a hellion," Edna shrugged. "It probably won't, though, unless Niko gets to it again; purification is usually permanent. Seriously, why did you think we were purifying hellions in the first place if you were just going to kill them?"

"W-Well, purification is used to absolve a hellion of its sins so it can die a pure death!" Sadie answered, a note of desperation in her voice.

"Wrong," Edna stated; "the power of purification is used to give hellions another chance at life. That's the whole point of having a Shepherd. If we were just going to kill them anyway, we wouldn't need to bother with Prime Lords or Maotelus."

"We won't be killing anything on this journey," Zaveid concurred, "not unless they refuse purification…plus Niko's dragons, but dragons can't be quelled. So long as we have a Shepherd, killing is a last resort, not a go-to." His frown deepened as he added, "Be grateful you live in a time when hellions can be purified. It wasn't always like this, you know."

"Of course it has!" Sadie exclaimed. "The Great Lord Maotelus has always granted the flames of purification to the land, watching over us and-"

"Wrong again," Edna cut her off. "Maotelus has only led the Great Lords for a little over fifteen hundred years."

"But that's preposterous!" Sadie protested, and Eizen was starting to regret letting her come along. "The Great Lord Maotelus is eternal!"

"Maybe he is now, but before he existed, the Five Lords were led by a seraph called Innominat," Edna told her. "Though really, Innominat was more of a monster than a Lord; the world's a lot better off since Maotelus rose to power. Zaveid and I can both attest to this; we were centuries old when he came to be."

"How…how is that possible…?" Sadie breathed, looking as though she might faint.

"Tell you what," Edna said, "each time you quell a batch of hellions without killing any of them, I'll tell you a little bit of the story. How does that sound?"

As Eizen thanked each of the Five Lords for Edna's ingenuity, Sadie nodded. "As you say, Lady Edna," she agreed.

Thank you, Eizen told Edna as she and Zaveid returned to rest within him.

Don't mention it, Edna replied, toneless even in his head. Humans are naturally curious; taking advantage of this rarely fails.

The further away from Ladylake they got, the more hellions they found - birds and wolves and more snakes, all sorts of wildlife corrupted by Niko's twisted agenda. As promised, for each cluster they cleared and Sadie withheld the final blow, Edna told her a little bit of the tale of Maotelus's rise to power, briefly and concisely, without embellishment. Sadie was apparently committed to hearing the story, because she didn't spill an innocent creature's blood even once as they made their way through Lakehaven Heights.

"Originally, there was no way to combat malevolence," Edna began with their next bloodless victory. "Anything that was corrupted would be corrupted until it died. The leader of the Great Lords was a being known as Innominat, the Nameless One; not sure why he was nameless, since the other Great Lords have names, but whatever. His power was Suppression.

"As mankind would grow and spread, malevolence would become more and more plentiful in the world; Innominat devoured this malevolence, and when there was enough to feed his endless hunger, as well as two pure souls with high resonance sacrificed to him for whatever reason, he would awaken. With his awakening would come seven hellions designed to be his mouths: the therions, who would consume malevolence and feed him with what he needed to complete his purpose.

"This purpose was to suppress all human emotion, preventing further malevolence from generating, and leaving mankind as puppets capable only of the purest logic and reason. Inevitably, humans would quickly determine that their will to live was against reason, and destroy themselves.

"Innominat's Suppression would decimate the human population, but it could only be sustained so long as there was malevolence for Innominat to consume. Eventually, there would be too few humans left alive to produce enough malevolence to fuel him, and he would fall dormant again, leaving behind a handful of survivors to rebuild.

"This was the cycle that ruled the land for tens of thousands of years, until a little over fifteen hundred years ago, when a man named Artorius Collbrande somehow got it in his head that he could find a way to control Innominat and use the Great Lord's power to save the world without destroying it. His unborn son was an accidental sacrifice, but he willingly took the life of his brother-in-law as well.

"Artorius's sister-in-law witnessed the act, however, and swore vengeance. Ironically, this made her perfectly receptive to the form of malevolence known as hatred, and she became a therion, one of the Seven Mouths of Innominat, with the power to consume malevolence and whatever else she wished.

"Artorius was crowned as the world's first Shepherd; meanwhile, the last therion of hatred broke free from imprisonment and began her quest for revenge. Amassing a group of humans, other hellions, and even some malakhim, she ravaged the land, quickly claiming the mantle of Lord of Calamity."

"What are malakhim?" Sadie asked abruptly.

"Quell some more hellions without killing them and I'll tell you," Edna replied.

"As you wish, Lady Edna."

With their next victory, they were now turning southwards again, having cleared out a significant number of monsters from Lakehaven Heights, as Edna answered, "Malakhim were seraphim who served the Five Lords, those who descended from the Heavenly Realm to attempt peaceful coexistence with mankind, as opposed to the seraphim who remained in the Heavenly Realm and wanted to wipe out all life on earth. The meaning was forgotten in the tens of thousands of years after the Heavenly Gate closed, and was applied to all of us, including those who came into being after the split…even those of us who despised humans and wanted nothing to do with them. The reason we don't go by the name anymore is that, when Maotelus rose as the new leader of the Great Lords, something changed about us - before that, we couldn't produce any malevolence no matter how impure of heart we were, but after he came to power, we gained the ability to produce malevolence of our own. Now that we aren't guaranteed to be completely pure anymore, we can't serve the Great Lords like we used to, so we started being referred to as simply 'seraphim'."

"Why?" Sadie asked. "Why did you change?"

"Dunno," Edna shrugged; "I don't think anyone knows why it happened."

They fought another battle, and then Edna continued her story.

"Anyway, where was I…? Oh yeah. Over the course of her quest, the Lord of Calamity learned the truth about what Shepherd Artorius was trying to do, and extended her vow of revenge to Innominat as well. After fighting the forces of the Abbey - the origins of the church you know today - she managed to push the world back from the brink of Suppression by awakening the other Great Lords.

"Finally, she and her allies confronted Shepherd Artorius and Innominat, and she killed the Shepherd who had betrayed her. However, knowing that, as part of Innominat, she and the other therions, as well as a young malak who had joined her - the reincarnation of the unborn child first sacrificed to Innominat - would die if Innominat was destroyed, she instead used her power as a therion to trap Innominat in an eternal loop of eating and being eaten, consuming his life force and converting it into malevolence as he devoured the malevolence in her.

"With the fifth Great Lord sealed away, the remaining Great Lords, having been awakened earlier, called for a new one, as one was needed to keep them in balance. The young malak who had been part of Innominat stepped forward and volunteered, bearing the original Silver Flame, some weird remnant of Innominat's ability to consume malevolence that manifested as an ability to burn it away.

"The young malak wanted to be able to give the world the power of the Silver Flame, so that anyone who fell to malevolence could be given a second chance at life if they were willing. The Great Lords accepted his request, and granted him his power and title as new leader of the Five Lords. Thus, Maotelus and the power of purification came to be."

They were just passing the path to Aroundight Forest as Edna finished her tale. By now, Sadie wasn't even struggling to stop herself from killing newly-quelled hellions anymore, and Eizen was confident in both his combat and armatizing abilities against creatures of all sizes.

"I see," Sadie nodded. Then she smiled at Edna and added, "You had me going for a little while there, Lady Edna; I thought you were going to say that the Lord of Calamity you were describing was his mother." She waved a hand at Eizen dismissively.

"She is," Edna informed her: "Velvet Crowe was the Lord of Calamity who stood against Shepherd Artorius and Innominat."

"Oh?!" Sadie gasped. "But…but how can that be…?"

"Quell some more hellions without killing them and I'll tell you that story too," Edna stated.

Eizen thought this might be a bit much, but Sadie nodded eagerly, dashing away without waiting for her companions in search of more hellions to quell. It was odd, Eizen thought as he followed her; she seemed more invested in this than she had been in the origins of the power of purification. What's going on with her?

"Like I said," Edna continued after the next fight, "Velvet, the last therion of hatred, didn't complete her quest alone - there were humans, malakhim, and other hellions allied with her. One of the hellions of her group was a swordsman named Rokurou Rangetsu."

"His father?"

"Yes."

Another fight, and Edna went on, "Rokurou's dream was to be the strongest swordsman in the world, but he spent centuries training and was never satisfied. Somewhere along the way, he became obsessed with the idea of breaking Velvet free from the seal that trapped Innominat with her.

"Zaveid was an old acquaintance of Velvet and her allies, and when he ran into Rokurou a thousand years later, he cast an illusory arte of another old companion, a malak they had both been close to, who mentioned offhandedly that he knew someone who might be able to help Rokurou with his obsession. Rokurou started asking around, and eventually he ran into the Squires Rose and Alisha, who were among the first to join the worldwide quest to heal the land so that Sorey's great work could be completed. You know about Sorey's great work, right?" Edna added sharply.

"Yes," Sadie replied, "the effort to save the Great Lord Maotelus from the brink of malevolence and return him to his position as leader of the Five Lords. It took five hundred years of hard work before Shepherd Sorey and the Great Lord Maotelus were able to return to the world."

"I worked with them, as the Sub Lord of earth," Edna explained after the next fight, "and it just so happened that the malak Rokurou had been friends with…was my brother. So of course, when he ended up asking us if we knew the malak, I had to answer yes."

"I didn't know seraphim had family," Sadie remarked.

It was Zaveid who spoke up, explaining even as they quelled more hellions, "We don't have blood family, since we aren't born like creatures of flesh, but some of us come into being with an inexplicable bond with each other. You could say that for us, family is more about the bonds we feel with others, not what we look like or who our parents were. Y'know, since we don't have any."

"The trouble was, Sorey's work had just begun when Rokurou asked for our help, and he needed Maotelus to get to where Velvet and Innominat were sealed away," Edna continued, ignoring this tangent. "He pestered me and Lailah for five hundred years while we waited for Sorey to return, and when Sorey finally came back, Rokurou was there and waiting.

"Sorey, being the softhearted idiot he is…was, agreed to help Rokurou rescue Velvet, without asking a single question about who she was or why Rokurou cared. When we encountered Maotelus, he recognized Rokurou and agreed to help, and we all went deep into the earthpulse to find the seal.

"When we got there, Rokurou used his swords to break the seal apart…somehow. We still don't know how that's possible when Maotelus himself couldn't put a dent in it, but that's what happened. Unfortunately, this happened to come with the added effect of releasing Innominat as well.

"Luckily, Innominat no longer had the power of a Great Lord, while Maotelus did; where once Innominat had tried to consume the seraph that was part of him, now that seraph could only consume him instead. Innominat didn't resist, and willingly gave himself to Maotelus, granting Maotelus the strength he had taken into the seal with him.

"Velvet and Rokurou went off together, Sorey having made Rokurou promise to keep an eye on Velvet and make sure neither of them caused any trouble in return for helping rescue her, and Maotelus took some time to adjust to the new strength he had gained from eating Innominat. When he had adjusted, unfortunately, he couldn't prevent the spread of resonance across the world, causing all hellions and seraphim to be visible to all humans."

Sadie's swings of her battleax seemed rushed as they passed Ladylake and reached the Falkewin Hillside, though she still avoided killing anything.

"This happened because the mark of Innominat's impending Suppression was that hellions, and then malakhim, would become visible to all as he gained strength; spreading resonance across the land was what Innomiant did whenever he arose," Edna continued as they fought the handful of hellions they found here. "Meanwhile, Velvet and Rokurou, being stuck together without any goal, realized that they were broken and miserable as hellions, and ultimately allowed themselves to be purified.

"Maotelus used the remains of the power from the seal that had contained Innominat to make Velvet and Rokurou human, so they could live their lives instead of crumbling to dust like they should have after being kept in the world for so long. Eizen was born about a year later." Edna shrugged. "And that's all there is to it."

"So…" Sadie cut off as a cluster of bird hellions swooped at the adventurers, but when they were purified and flying away, Sadie turned on Edna with something like anger. "So…the recent calamity was an accident?!" she exclaimed.

"That's right," Zaveid replied for Edna. "Completely unintended. All because a man couldn't stop thinking about a woman. Pretty romantic, what Rokurou did and caused just to live a quiet, peaceful life with a family, ain't it?"

"Romantic is the last word I would use," Sadie grumbled, but she didn't offer further explanation.

A few more hellions met them on their way to the river between Ladylake and Marlind, but Sadie had apparently already gained the habit of not killing her enemies. That was genius, Eizen told Edna when she at last came to rest within him. I can't believe it worked.

Humans are also creatures of habit, Edna responded; once they get used to something, they never get un-used to it.

Still…

I hope the bridge isn't out, Edna remarked, this apparently audible to Sadie now as well.

"Why would it be out, Lady Edna?" Sadie asked.

It was during Sorey's quest, she answered.

No problem, Zaveid spoke up. If it is, you two can just use Silver Wind to cross the gap!

Wind Rush, you mean? Edna asked.

Nope, Zaveid replied. I'm the Prime Lord, so the power I grant Shepherds is the one that carries the power of purification with it.

"The power you grant…?" Sadie questioned.

Basically, seraphim of each element can grant humans a special power by becoming their Prime Lord or Sub Lord, Zaveid explained: Flame Burst for fire, Spectral Cloak for water, Giant's Strength for earth, and Wind Rush for wind. But being the Prime Lord adds the flames of purification to whichever power he or she brings to the table; traditionally, a Shepherd would use Silver Flame instead of Flame Burst, which can cleanse concentrations of malevolence that don't manifest as hellions as well as light fires. Since your Prime Lord is a wind seraph, Wind Rush becomes Silver Wind, with the same added bonus that Silver Flame normally has.

"And the others would be…Silver Cloak and Silver Strength?" Eizen asked as they rounded a corner.

That's right!

What an utterly useless bit of trivia, Edna remarked.

"I don't think it's useless," Eizen said. "But, it looks like we won't need it; the bridge is fine."

So it is. Edna emerged from within Eizen as they approached the riverside, as did Zaveid; Eizen didn't miss the sad look in her eyes as she glanced to their right. Following her gaze, he saw a spire of rock piercing the heavens in the distance.

"Is that…Rayfalke Spiritcrest?" Eizen asked her. "Where you and your brother used to live?"

"Yes," she replied tonelessly.

"Do you…maybe want to stop by there?" Eizen asked her. "Make sure no hellions are…you know…around?"

"No," she replied, though he knew she had heard his unspoken meaning…perhaps because she had heard it. "We've wasted enough time already; we need to get to Marlind."

As Sadie crossed the bridge, followed by Zaveid and Edna, Eizen hesitated. I'm really doing this, he thought, eyeing where the dirt gave way to carved stone. I'm really traveling across the world…

"Eizen, are you coming?" Edna asked, turning back to him.

"Yeah, I'm coming," Eizen replied, though he stayed rooted to the spot. "It's just…I've never been this far south before, and I never thought I would be. Give me a minute."

"It's the same dirt on the other side of the river, you know," Edna pointed out.

"I know," he said, but he still hesitated. More than quelling hellions, or drawing the Sacred Blade, or curing the Twelve Year Sickness, or seeing his own sister riding and controlling a dragon, leaving behind the land he'd always known and venturing out into unknown territory felt surreal. It made everything feel more true, more…irreversible. Gripped by a sensation of dread he couldn't understand, Eizen struggled to lift a boot.

"We don't have all day," Edna told him, prodding him with her umbrella and jolting him from his trance.

He laughed, pushing the weapon aside. "Take it easy, big sis, I'm coming."

The affectionate nickname rolled off his tongue without him even realizing it, nor did he realize he'd slipped up even after an enraged shout drew his attention:

"How dare you?!"

Eizen looked up in surprise, only for Sadie's one gloved fist to sock him in the eye with surprising force, knocking him to the ground.

"The nerve!" Sadie shouted, drawing her battleax and holding it over Eizen's chest threateningly. "Hellion-spawn like you, talking so casually to a holy seraph, referring to her as family! Apologize to Lady Edna this instant!"

"Uh…" Eizen blinked, unsure how to respond.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Edna roll her eyes. "I'll handle this, baby brother," she told him, emphasizing the nickname.

"Huh?" Now it was Sadie who turned around in surprise only to be met with a sharp blow, this one from Edna's umbrella spearing neatly between two plates of her light leather armor, hard enough to send her doubling over.

"Let me make something very clear to you," Edna told Sadie coldly as Zaveid wordlessly crossed back to the north side of the bridge and helped Eizen to his feet: "If you ever hit Eizen again, Squire or no, I will kill you."

"But I…I don't understand," Sadie gasped, one hand over the spot where Edna had stabbed her. "Lady Edna, I was only trying to defend your honor from this hellion-spawn. Surely a divine seraph such as yourself wouldn't stoop so low as to consort with-?"

"Were you listening to even a single word I said the entire afternoon we were quelling hellions?" Edna asked coldly. "Eizen's parents aren't hellions, and haven't been since about a year before he was even born. I know, because I've been living with them for nearly as long."

"Living with them?!" Sadie squeaked. "Lady Edna, what could possibly drive you to live with-?"

"They were friends of my brother, and they're good people," Edna stated, and Eizen marveled at how Sadie wasn't withering under her glare. "They're my family now, and Eizen is my baby brother. If you don't like it, you can go back to Ladylake and your arranged marriage and resume a life of bigotry."

"If I don't like it?!" Sadie exclaimed, straightening. "But what about you? A holy seraph deserves much better than to have hellion-spawn for family! This wretch is beneath you!"

"You can think that if you want," Edna shrugged, twirling her umbrella over her shoulder, "but keep it to yourself unless you want me to seal you in stone for as long as it takes for us to reach the Rolance Empire. It's not like you're going to change my mind."

"Sadie," Eizen told his Squire gently, stepping forward to try to calm the situation, "I grew up with Edna, and Zaveid too." Zaveid nodded, lending his support. "I'm going to call Edna 'big sis' sometimes," Eizen went on, "and I'm going to call Zaveid 'uncle'. You don't have to like it, but you need to accept it if you're going to travel with us."

"Why should I accept it?" Sadie demanded. "Why should they accept it?!"

"Because we want to," Zaveid told her. "We're all family here, have been for years. Like I said, for us, family is about the bonds we feel with other people. Usually other seraphim, but now that all humans can see us, we can form those bonds with humans, too."

"For example," Edna picked up, "while Eizen is my baby brother, his sisters refer to me as 'auntie Edna', even though all three of them have the same parents. I'm not quite as close with them, so our familial bond isn't as strong. Even then, though, they are family."

"But…but…" Sadie shook her head. "But they're hellion-spawn!" she insisted. "Their parents are ancient monsters! Why would you stoop so low as to live with that family?"

"You really are stupid," Edna grumbled. "I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall."

"Listen, Sadie," Zaveid sighed, "we seraphim are people too. We love, we have friends, we form families. Just because we aren't made of flesh doesn't mean we don't have feelings."

"Indeed," Edna concurred, "And while we're on the subject, please stop calling us 'holy seraphim'. There is nothing I despise more than when a human acts like I'm going to grant their wishes just because they got on their knees and groveled to me, as though I have nothing better to do with my time than solve their problems. We all have problems, and we all have to deal with them on our own. And right now, my biggest problem is a narrow-minded, obnoxious human who bullied her way into becoming my baby brother's Squire and now won't let him talk to his family like family because of her own moronic ideas."

Sadie was apparently too stunned to respond, manically shaking her head, her brown eyes wide. Eizen actually felt sorry for her. It's not her fault she was raised to believe certain things, and she's not going to just forget everything she's been taught in a few hours, he thought. He opened his mouth to suggest that they just move on, but Edna interrupted him before he could speak, apparently not done.

"You know my seraph brother, the one I mentioned was friends with Eizen's family?" she asked. "Before he turned into a dragon, he was a pirate who served as first mate to the pirate king Aifread, terrorizing the seas. Even as malakhim, we weren't all good and pure and perfect. I'm about as close to perfect as a seraph can get, but…well, I'll admit that I have a temper." This last was begrudging, something Edna would never have admitted unless she was actively trying to make herself sound flawed.

"While we're talking about our vices, Sadie-" Zaveid began with a nasty smirk.

Edna jabbed him in the arm with her umbrella. "Whatever you're about to say, we're all happier not hearing it," she told him.

"But how else is she supposed to understand that we're not really that different from humans, if she doesn't know-?"

"Shut up," Edna growled, lightly stabbing Zaveid in the gut this time. "Seriously. We don't want to hear whatever gross information you're thinking of telling us."

Smiling at the sheer normalcy of the banter between his seraphim family, Eizen stepped forward at last, not even noticing as his boots landed on the stone of the bridge. "Let's just get to Marlind," he told his companions. "We've talked a lot today, but we have a job to do, a duty to attend. Sadie…" He faltered. "No one here is going to tell you what you should believe, but…well, we're not going to lie to you either, or pretend to be something we're not. And what we are is a family. If you're going to fight alongside us, you need to keep your biases to yourself. It's not productive for us to fight amongst ourselves when we have dragons and a Lord of Calamity to worry about."

"Well said!" Zaveid praised. "Besides, it'll be sunset soon. Let's get going!"

After a long moment of Sadie not protesting, Edna and Zaveid retreated to rest within Eizen, and he walked past his Squire to cross the bridge that led beyond any place he had ever known before.