"Walk on, wandering souls, for your respite we pray…"

Firion listened to Ace mutter a hymn like it could dismiss the long morning of cleaning and sorting rubble.

"Let our humble song clear your hearts of dismay. Rekindle the flame in your souls and set you free…."

Ace kept singing and Firion listened. The gray clouds covering the sky added to the pall over the ruined earth. It took him back what felt like a decade.

Ace stopped and rested against a tree, looking almost like a child. "I thought I could stop it. I thought I could stop him from repeating Orience."

"Your home?"

"It was stuck in a time loop, one meant to summon Bhunivelze. They enforced a repeating war we fought in. When Class Zero hit the field, the fight ended."

"You kept your home safe?"

Ace flinched, eyes flickering with color. "It didn't matter in the end. The Rursus came anyway. They didn't die and they killed everyone that crossed their paths."

"That didn't happen this time."

"Not yet."

The breeze grew cold and the clouds thickened with rain. Firion said, "We move on. For vengeance, if nothing else."

Ace agreed and they descended the hillside to return to the ruins of the Cottage. The blackened and torn practice yard still sprouted no plants. Hilda, Baralai, and the rest gathered near the ashes of the cottage, voices overlapping in argument.

"We can't take in any more of the corrupted."

"How else are we to recover them? You would have them waste away under His command?"

"Lenna and Shinra aren't doing well. Even if we take their shards, we might not keep them alive."

"We need to rebuild so we can bring Prompto back, and everyone else too!"

Refia cut in, "That's losing track of the original issue. We have to track that bastard down and stop this poison at the root."

"No matter the damage you might inflict?"

"Unless we stop the source, nothing's gonna get better."

"Who's watching Lenna and Shinra?" Firion asked.

"Cid is," Penelo said. "They've been drifting in and out of sleep."

"And they remain in the city?" Firion asked.

"Currently, we don't have any other options," Baralai said.

Leonora clenched her fists. "I have to find Palom. He's my teacher and I need him back."

Gladiolus rolled his eyes. "And that's the only reason."

Leonora reddened.

"Calm down, Gladdy," Iris said. "We'll need people finding the others."

Hilda clasped her hands behind her back. "Wasn't Palom one of the founding members of this guild? Without him here, I would think your responsibility to this place greater."

"Our place here is in turmoil." Baralai took a drink from his ale skin. "King Alus has allowed us to stay, but that may not last without his friend to smooth over the diplomacies."

"Hey, guys!" Firion turned to see Desch, Rydia, and Terra approaching them, along with—

His heart stopped.

"Maria," Hilda said.

Firion ran. When did she leave their world?

"Firion! Your Majesty!" Maria caught Firion in a hug. "You're alive!"

Hilda joined them. "You're well?"

Maria let go of Firion. Her foreign attire looked worse for the wear, muddied and stained with ripped sleeves. Dark smudges stained her cheeks and a network of scars crossed her face, but they looked aged.

"I am, my Queen." Maria bowed. "And I am thrilled to see you free as well. I'm sorry for our last meeting."

"It was no fault of yours."

"You were a vessel," Firion said. He felt the first touches of rain. "Why didn't you tell me, Hilda?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. Maria, what news have you?"

"Not much." Maria glanced to the cottage. "I would say we should discuss under a roof, but it looks like you have none."

"Not our fault!" Vaan shouted.

"What in Leviathan's Wake happened here?" Rydia asked. "Where's Palom and Porom?"

"Taken," Firion said.

"Arc?" Desch asked.

Rydia asked, "How do we get them back?"

"We will keep fighting as we are," Hilda said. "During such time, we will search for a better solution."

Rydia eyed the scorched ground and Hilda suggested they walk as they catch up.

Maria held Firion back. "This is the gathering set to fight Bhunivelze?"

"We'll do better next time," he said.

"So, you ran off to join yet another army."

"I left to find Hilda."

"And wreak havoc of your own? Roll some heads? You've never been one to let a grievance lie."

"If we kill Bhunivelze, he can't cause further damage back home."

Maria looked away. "How bad is it?"

"Gordon should be managing with help from Leon."

"Leon? He's helping?"

"He is. But don't get your hopes up, he's still… volatile."

"I don't see Leon becoming involatile, but I'll hold out hope anyway. Shall we?"

Firion agreed and they joined everyone in the dry shelter of the basement, where Lenna and Shinra barely moved.

Everyone talked of rebuilding and strategizing. Terra and Desch planned to stay, but Hilda argued for them to keep up their work.

"On the other hand," Ace said, "if Bhunivelze took time to come here himself, we must be doing something right. This place is a stand against him, one that he's now shown himself to fear."

Baralai downed the rest of his ale skin. "I wouldn't say he fears us. More just… got irritated at us."

"He's a god paralyzed by paranoia," Ace said. "He fears death to the point that he murdered his mother."

"Really?" Penelo asked, wringing her hands. "He gets scared?"

"No," Baralai said.

Ace shot Baralai a disgruntled look. "In a sense, he does."

"In a sense, yes. But—"

"Let's not argue semantics," Hilda said. "No matter how Bhunivelze stumbles, we must work to rebuild while he does. And whether we've annoyed him, scared him, or amazed him, it's granted us a window and told us that we've done something different."

"The good lady's right," said Setzer. "If I understand things right, we'll need lumber and other building supplies, a coordinator with Alus' people, a food run, and a cleanup crew."

"We need to keep training," Firion said. "Any free time we have between those things we should use to measure our shortcomings from the battle and what we got right."

"Leonora and Refia," Hilda said. "You would serve as our best liaisons to Alus."

"Understood," Leonora said. "Rydia, could you come with us for a sec?"

The three of them left.

Hilda went on assigning the strongest to lumber collection and then the fastest to assembly. They talked about shifts in watching the possesses and Firion picked out times for practice.

Refia, Leonora, and Rydia were stopped by a messenger in Alus' colors and Firion wondered at the timing of it. The messenger handed Refia a letter and the three chatted amongst themselves until Refia opened the letter and went still.

She glanced to Firion and shook her head before leaving with the other two and the messenger.


Lenna faded in and out of consciousness. A deep bruising hurt her muscles and she couldn't pull herself together enough to face what awaited her. She was still in the cellar of the blasted guild's home and she wasn't alone. She couldn't believe they'd keep trying with her.

"You awake?" The voice cut through the haze and sleep slipped away to leave only grim reality.

Lenna opened her eyes to a dark room. The rain pounding the roof of their prison was her only reminder of the outside world. She turned away from those windows and sat up, though every muscle ached with the motion.

"Careful." Refia held out a hand to slow her down. Lenna shook her head and bit her lip against the dull throbbing it brought. Each pulse of pain brought an echo of laughter. It reminded her of the madman that took her.

Shinra sat up on a chair nearby while Faris stared off into the distance from her bed. The four of them were the only ones in the room.

"How are you feeling?" Refia asked.

Same as she did every other time Cid or someone else asked. Like she was lost to winds, abused by the storms, and finally left to drown in the sea. "I… will recover."

"That's good to hear." Refia didn't show her usual stamina. "It's progress, after all."

She remembered too long ago everything she forgot in her possession and it pressed on her mind more with time. How did Tycoon fare in her absence? Where were Bartz and Krile? Lenna directed her attention to Faris. "My sister won't talk to me. How is she?"

Refia grimaced. "… She'll recover."

"She doesn't act like herself. The violation of our minds has made us into something else, I fear."

"Only for a short while. Prompto recovered."

"Prompto left us."

"He was kidnapped."

"You don't know that."

"Lenna, can I ask you something?" Refia fiddled with her fingers, displaying her nervousness for all the world to see. But what would cause Refia to turn to a woman she barely knew?

Lenna felt the bite of empathy. "Of course."

"You're a queen, right?"

"I am. Or, such as I'm supposed to be. If I ever get back home."

Refia swallowed. "Are—are you married? Or, uh, maybe expected to get married?"

"Eventually. Though I haven't yet met anyone appropriate."

Refia nodded and bit her lip.

"Why does it matter?" Shinra asked. The boy's constant listening wore on her patience.

Refia looked away. "I just… I'm engaged."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Not… to me."

"Aren't you not a Warrior of Light? Did you not have a say in the situation?"

"I mean, they've mentioned the possibility, but I didn't think they were serious. My father agreed yesterday."

"If you do not want this, then you should speak with the King. If the status of the Warriors of Light here is like what it is at home, then they should have no choice but to respect your opinion. An opinion I've learned you're not reluctant to share. What's changed that? Who is your fiancé?"

"… King Alus."

"Saronia wants to consolidate power, then."

"But he's so young."

"How young?"

"Four years my junior."

"And you?"

"Fifteen."

"Then four years will mean little when the time comes. Unless you marry young on your world?"

"He'll come of age at seventeen."

"Four years is a lot of time," Shinra said.

Lenna leveled her gaze his way. He was small, likely comparable to King Alus. "If you believe that, then you should recognize that your elders would understand the subject better."

"Being elder doesn't make you smarter, given you exist."

"Perhaps not, but it certainly makes you wiser as evidenced by yourself."

"Hey!"

"It's a fifth of your lifetime," Faris said. Lenna turned to her sister. Faris met her eye, defiant. "None of us should pretend to know any better than what we see."

Refia looked between them, clearly lost.

"What we see is unreliable," Lenna said. "What we must rely on is what we knew before all this happened."

Faris scoffed. "You mean to say we can trust our memories more than our eyes?"

"We must."

Faris threw her hands up and stormed out the door.

Lenna turned to Refia. "I would like to formally request my own room in which to recover. I think it will be more beneficial. Or perhaps I can share with Leonora—she seems wise enough."

"Leonora's not here."

"Oh? Where did she go?"

"Away. I helped her leave to find Palom."

"Very well." Lenna forced herself to stand despite the ache in her bones. "Then I'll share with you and you can tell me all about this Alus of yours."

"We also have no rooms left. Even when we did, all the women slept in one room and the men in another. It would be even more crowded than—"

"Then let's just find somewhere secluded and dry and talk there."

"… Yes, ma'am."


Faris couldn't say it rained, but the water had wasted no time gathering and pooling in all the little crevices of stone and rock. Depressions in the ground formed tiny streams.

She remembered an early day on the ship, not long after she was found. A day on the sea, not close enough to the next harbor when the rains came. Wind roared, thunder rumbled, lightning crashed, and the waves grew monstrous. She was so scared then, even knowing that Syldra would save her if it came to it.

Not all the pirates were comfortable with the sea dragon's presence. Some suggested harpooning her when they thought Faris wasn't in earshot. But then they grew to appreciate her when crewmen fell overboard.

"Faris, yes?"

And now she drowned. Lost to the waves again. Couldn't find help, couldn't—

A hand on her shoulder. They talked of leaving her. They talked of selling her. But they decided against it. They showed her how to run a boat, how to sail, and how to swim.

They got angry when the little girl who couldn't pronounce her own name got underfoot. But they cared for her and eventually the sea swallowed their tensions.

"You look unwell. Come with me."

Rain on her face. Saronia. She wasn't on the sea.

"Hm?" Setzer asked.

"They didn't want me." The words slipped out.

"Incredible. I think only fools would discard your presence."

"It wasn't their fault. The life of a pirate is a tumultuous one in the best of times. It was difficult to survive on a day-to-day basis. Needy children only made it harder."

"Tell me more."

"I was separated from my family as a wee one and taken in by pirates," she said. "They hated the arrangement."

"Yet surely, my lady, they changed their minds?"

"My name is Faris, not 'my lady.'"

"As you wish. How about we find some shelter, Faris?"

"I am not going back to that prison."

"Then how about the two of us take a walk?" Setzer held out an arm. "We're in Saronia, anyway, so I imagine a warm inn will be quicker to reach, anyway."

"I'm getting clean air, not looking for someone to make me giggle and swoon."

"That is unfortunate. Then how about we take a stroll as friends?"

"… Aye, let's do that."