Refia steeled before entering the sun-stained and foot-worn battlefield. Firion waited for her, wooden sword out and posture loose. He watched her approach with hard eyes.

"You're not quite so scary anymore," Refia said, hiding her disappointment. Her own sword felt heavy in her hands. "What's happened?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe you wouldn't." Refia fell into stance, guided by the wind. "Show me anyway?"

"Focus, Refia. Don't let the enemy distract you."

They squared off and Refia resisted the urge to change to Fighter. She preferred to learn this stuff so she could at least talk like someone who knew the weapons she made. Takka was only so specialized because of his age-old expertise and she wanted to learn the same.

Or so she told herself as Firion adjusted his position and showed intensity through the strain of his neck—

Refia focused. Sword ready, she steadied herself. It was just like sparring with Luneth, only less grating on her nerves. This guy didn't revel in beating his opponents but in the rush of battle itself.

Firion leaped at her and Refia moved out of the way. She brought up to defend. Firion knocked her sword aside and Refia dropped it. Firion betrayed his surprise and Refia twisted behind to get her arms around his throat. He smelled of sun and humidity.

Moment of silence before Firion registered what happened and Refia pulled away. She said, "You projected yourself."

"Good job." Firion gestured. "Pick it up and try again."

He showed so much more brutality with the others. Refia huffed and grabbed her sword. Shook herself loose and readied. "You better not be taking it easy."

"Believe me, I'm not."

Refia went in before he gave the signal. She made for the heart.

Firion rebuffed her, but Refia kept on the offense. Slammed her sword against his again and again before ducking and striking at the legs.

Firion kicked the sword back and struck his tip against her neck.

Refia stumbled back. "Cheater."

"Only do as you expect to receive." Firion picked up her sword and handed it back. "You're right not to expect fairness."

"You've eased up. What gives?"

"I've found the others weary of intensity."

"I'm not. Weary of it, I mean"

"What are you saying?"

"Give it your all." Refia readied herself. "I want to beat you back."

Firion regarded her with a confused look before that confusion melted to acceptance. He picked up a second sword. "Very well. I'll push myself."

Refia flipped the blade about in her hands and remembered Takka's old lessons to her as a child. The ones that set her apart from the rest of the village and labeled her as an odd girl. She trained with weapons when the Crystals taught peace and tolerance above all.

Firion threw his sword and Refia knocked it out of the way. He used the opening to get too close.

Refia slammed him in the stomach and rolled. Firion kicked at a leg and Refia grabbed his foot.

He yanked out of her grip and stumbled back. Refia took the chance to throw herself at him with sword readied.

Firion fought her back, but Refia didn't give him a chance to recover. They locked blades and Refia hooked his ankle with her own before yanking and sending him crashing to the ground.

Refia pointed her blade, but Firion kicked her in the stomach.

Refia hit the ground and lost her breath. She choked against the sickly sensation in her gut.

Firion scrambled on top of her and pinned her down before stabbing his blade into the ground by her head.

He stared at her for the longest time, eyes glinting with the rush of battle and mouth parted for the heavy breaths he drew. Skin sheened with sweat and mussed hair fell out of his clothed head. He still smelled of sun and humidity, only now she caught a hint of wildflowers.

Then he rose and offered his hand. "Why don't you practice with us more often?"

"Melee isn't my strong point." Refia accepted and let him pull her to her feet. She held on until he pulled away. "Vaan would make me look bad."

"But not me?"

"Vaan shows off more."

"Ah." Firion smiled and wiped at his forehead. "He does do that."

"Firion." Baralai approached them. "Do you have a moment?"

Firion nodded and swallowed a breath. "Yes, sir."

Refia watched them go and Ingus found her.

"You look upset," he said.

"… Do I?"

"Yes."

She fought to think of something. "Well… Baralai's grown more distant since Vaan and Penelo left. And he won't stop drinking."

"I believe he was already distancing himself before that."

"You weren't here before that. How would you know?"

"Word spreads."

"It must go far for you to get that all the way in Sasune."

"Crystals," he reminded her. "Is this about Baralai or Firion?"

Refia bit her lip. "Try both. How did you and Sara meet?"

"She visited my troop as a young girl."

"That's it?"

"I don't see how this is relevant."

Refia brushed dirt and grass from her dress. "I guess it isn't."

"Were you not related to the genie, Ruby?"

"Now I'm confused."

"There's something changed about you. It reminds me of our encounter in Queens."

Refia took a long sip from her waterskin and relished its cooling effect. "What about it?"

"Never mind. … I found Luneth."

"Where?!"

"Near Ur. There's a horde of monsters that burst from a gate near there and he dispatched them."

"How did you find him?"

"He briefly connected with the Wind Crystal before disappearing again. It seems he's running about our world in a fevered state like he could find Arc if he searched hard enough. He's… not doing well. It might be time that we move on."

It is.

Refia lost her balance as the Crystals rang back into clarity. "What do you mean?"

In the absence of a Warrior of Light, we must bring forth a replacement. In place of Arc, we'll call upon the powers shored within us to provide force in the face of this hostility.

Ingus closed his eyes. "Is it permanent?"

Not if Arc can return. But this will take place in his absence. We call forth a knight to assist you and protect this world. Gather with Luneth in the Maze of the Ancients and we will grant you a companion for help and protection.

"Because I'm not tired enough already," Refia said. "But I suppose it'll give me an excuse to find fresh air."

"I shouldn't complain," Ingus said. "It's not often that we visit such a powerful realm. Let's take care to appreciate the power dormant there and take strength from its longstanding history."

"Sure. We can do that, too."

King Alus of Saronia has also departed to join you in—

"Right now." Refia took Ingus and dragged him until he walked. "We gotta go fast, come on."

"If you didn't hide from your problems—"

"Didn't you hear the Crystals? We have work to do. Stop dragging your feet! Let's go, let's go!"

Ingus gave up reasoning with her and Refia found other topics to distract herself from the impending doom.


Setzer moved his card to the right of the boulder. Faris watched the motion with intent eyes, her quick thinking making obvious her need to keep up. He'd teach her to mask herself later. "Follow the Reaper," he said.

She didn't respond because Faris didn't waste time with filler words. Setzer flipped the card over and placed two more, faces down. He shifted them around before shuffling faster until Faris' eyes zipped about fast enough to make him dizzy. When he stopped, Faris put a hand on his and moved it away.

"Keep focus," Setzer said. "Don't let the cards confuse you."

Faris hovered a hand over the center card. Then reached for the left and flipped it over to show the Reaper. The card's gloss flashed in the afternoon sun.

"Very good." Setzer took it and shuffled it back into his deck. "You hold fate and luck in your hands better than you carry your sword."

"Sword's still better."

"But honing your wit will carry over into your sword-wielding prowess. You'll trick your enemies and that counts for something, my dear."

Faris sent him a narrow look before Terra entered and interrupted with a, "Hello."

"Terra," Setzer said. "You're back again. And looking well despite your travels."

She offered an odd smile. "Changing planets doesn't hurt me like other people. I thought it about time we return to Ruin. Will you come with me?"

"If you consider your journey fulfilled."

"Wait," Faris said. "You're leaving?"

Setzer looked between her and Terra. "I cannot forever leave my home world."

"That's it? You're just gonna walk away like that? I overestimated your manners, wandering knight."

"I cannot be forever with you, lost pirate."

"Because of your old lover?"

"Because I have duties elsewhere."

"Then I'll come with you. I'll stay close enough to force you to make a decision."

Terra shifted, obviously uncomfortable, and Setzer wished she didn't have to witness this dispute. "You should come with us," Terra said. "If you like seeing other worlds. Ours is messy and not much to look at, but our people are good."

Faris shot Setzer a hard look. "I don't care about people. I care about doing what I want."

Setzer played with the cards in his hands and thought how best to respond. "Don't we all?"

"We do," Terra said.

"Even Terra admits it," Setzer said.

Terra said, "And I mean it. I've been so caught up in what I should do that I lost track of what I want to do. And that's why we should return to Ruin."

Setzer remembered how Darill encouraged him to do just that. Remembered her echoing laugh when they danced under the stars and ran from enraged law keepers. But she was gone and Faris wasn't. "Will you come with me, pirate?"

That earned a rough smile from Faris and she crossed the distance to stand beside him. Setzer warmed at her proximity.

"But what about Rydia?" he asked. "I thought you two were inseparable."

Terra shook her head. "We couldn't travel together forever. It's time we went our separate ways and did the work set for each of us. It's more efficient this way."

"How will we leave?" Faris asked.

"I have powers," Terra said. "By connecting to the summoning powers on each planet, I've formed a sort of network with which I can get between points. It will be harder for you two following after me, but Desch says it's quite safe."

"Safe," Faris said. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Setzer put a hand on her shoulder. "She means to assure that you won't die. I promise the trip will still be rough."

"Good."

Terra visibly swallowed and forced her typical smile. "Well, it'll certainly still be frightening at the least."


Rikku dragged Shinra into the new Cabin despite his groanings about not wanting to deal with coordination. It didn't apply to him, he said. He didn't want to, he said. They could do it without him, he said. But Rikku knew that he knew that every word of that was a lie.

"On the bright said," Rikku said before taking a seat on the floor, "Maria just got back. On the downside, we just lost Terra, Setzer, and Faris."

"And Refia?" Baralai asked.

"Oh, she's gone."

Firion leaned against their one desk. "So that makes us six, plus Lenna, Gladio, and Iris."

"Wow," Shinra said. "That's a lot. It's so many. We're set to beat Bhunivelze and send him packing."

"Enough with the sarcasm," Rikku said.

Maria rested on one of the beds and leaned over clasped hands. "We should bring those three in and re-evaluate. With so few left to us, we'll want to redefine our goals and methods with everyone's buy-in."

Firion took the cue to leave and find them. Rikku said, "Now I think Refia was gonna come back with help, but I don't know how."

"Doubt it'll be worth much," Shinra said.

Rikku shoved at him. "None of that, you hear me? We're approaching this with an optimistic attitude!"

"Speak for yourself!"

Firion returned with the Amicitias and Lenna, who all squeezed into the space with some awkward maneuvering. Gladio hung near the entrance and Maria scootched to get closer to Iris than him.

"We have no portal-makers," Lenna said. "We've lost our last magic specialist besides myself, and I'm weak without access to my crystals. Balthier and Fran show some expertise with the ship but have proven elusive to hold onto. Shinra and Rikku are best for the Lunar Whale, but it's not meant to be piloted by so few. Luca makes an effort but she's not by herself a crew."

Firion said, "Soldiers include myself, Maria, Iris, and Gladio."

Gladio grunted, "That's most of what we need."

"What do you suggest?" Firion asked Baralai. "We don't have a lot of options, it seems."

Baralai took a long time to respond and Rikku found herself unsteadied by the silence. It used to be so noisy here that it was hard to find any peace or quiet. And now they barely kept a conversation going. "Nothing changes," he said.

Silence. Rikku didn't know how to respond to that.

Lenna was the first to speak. "We've turned to nothing but a ragtag crew of wearied travelers with no goal to aim toward and you want to keep on as we've done?"

"We don't follow the same methods," Firion said. "But our aim remains steady. We never stood much chance—"

"I'm going to bed." Baralai exited and left the rest of them staring.

Firion took a deep breath, then continued. "As I was saying, while our circumstances have changed, we never looked to kill Bhunivelze, did we? Our goal was to provide a place for travelers to meet and train. Our purpose isn't to raise an army of swords and spears, but of world-travelers and security."

"What's that gonna do against the big guy?" Rikku asked.

"Everything. Haven't we established that weak and burdened minds make for easy vessels? Our goal is to prevent Bhunivelze's influence from spreading and that's what we've been doing and that is what we'll continue to do."

Lenna hummed in approval. "A safe haven. But when Bhunivelze did attack, you saw how little that did against him."

"He targeted you because we were a threat," Shinra said. "Not out of a sense of fun or anything."

"He doesn't like happy people," Gladio said.

Iris snapped a finger. "Prompto left because he wasn't healing!"

Lenna nodded. "And Bhunivelze knew to take as many as he could. Former possessees are weak and he'll target them as easy recruits into his own force."

"What are you saying?" Shinra asked.

"That we've lost as many as we have for a reason. We focused on saving pieces that could never be saved and we paid the price. But if we could perfect our recovery of them, then we could hit a large part of Bhunivelze's army."

"An army that grows and slims," Firion said. "It's not a steady force of his and we can work with that. He only seems to hold onto so many at a time from what we've heard. We'll keep harboring travelers and we'll keep saving possessees through connection and purpose. We'll train, heal, and house until we've got every world traveler in this galaxy seeking refuge and our numbers grow beyond what this twisted god can imagine."

"Brave words," Gladio said. "But we're still less than ten in number."

Maria stood, though her fatigue showed in the unsteady sway of her feet. "We don't need more than what we have. We've been reduced to the most committed, after all. Unless any of you prefer to leave now?"

Rikku didn't miss that look Lenna shot Shinra. That look of hesitation, mistrust, or whatever it was that she held against former possessees. Rikku shifted closer to Shinra and took him in a half-hug. He protested, but she didn't let him go.

"We can do this," Firion said. "Everyone with me?"

Rikku agreed first and the rest followed.

A man suited in fancy armor knocked on the open door and said, "Our king would like a word with you all."

Firion put himself toward the front and sputtered out, "Which king?"

"King Alus." A kid with olive skin and fair hair stepped forward. He looked a lot like a smaller Firion, actually, or like Vaan's baby brother. "It's about time I stopped neglecting you all. But it seems I've missed something for the scorched ground and sullen voices."

"No one's been talking to him?" Shinra asked.

Rikku slapped a hand on his mouth. "Shush. We walked back into the dark ages."

"We should have—"

"I said shush!"

"Arc kept in contact," Alus said. "On many matters. But then he went silent and I worried that my lack of attention might have caused you to think I deemed this matter below me. Perhaps I can clarify our standing?"

Baralai returned, breathless. "What is this?"

"A simple inquisition," Alus said. "Though I understand why you wouldn't expect it."

"Not everyone has to stay for this." Baralai gestured and sent everyone away, including Rikku and Shinra.

Shinra muttered about being dismissed, but Rikku distracted him with a communication project for Saronia. She only hoped Alus didn't disown them for losing his… friend? Resource? She didn't know what their relationship was like. But they knew each other. And Alus was a king. And that meant he had a lot of power to abuse if he got cranky over losing something.

But it was fine. Because she was gonna make something with Shinra to speed up communication and prevent problems like this in the future.


Baralai paced about the emptied room. It was just him, Firion, and Alus now, with Alus sitting and the two of them standing.

"What do numbers mean here?" Firion asked. "Speaking realistically, of course."

Baralai shook his head. "They would make the difference against a tangible force, but this doesn't work like that."

"Then what can I offer?" Alus asked, voice strained. He took the news of Arc's disappearance well, but he betrayed himself through the tension in his words and body.

The door burst open and Ace joined them. "What'd I miss? Gladio was saying that—"

"You know Ace," Baralai said. "At least."

"I've seen him before."

Ace calmed. "Oh. I forgot… I saw the guards outside and thought… never mind. Alus, what are you doing here?"

"I came to check in on my friend only to find him missing. Along with every other mage I entrusted to this camp."

Ace swallowed hard and closed the door behind him. "Yes, about that…"

"I heard what happened."

"Then you'll remember what we talked about when we first established the guild?"

"… I never thought it'd come to this."

"I hoped it wouldn't."

Alus clenched his hands together. "What about Refia? You said she wasn't taken, so where's she gone?"

"Crystal business," Firion said. "She and Ingus left earlier today."

Alus' control as a king cracked again and he deflated. "We can't lose them. I'll give you my army, my ships, my scholars, just—"

"We'll handle it, Majesty." Firion stepped in and gave Baralai a warning look. "There's no need for panic yet."

"I'm not panicking. Yet."

"If I may," Ace said, "Queen caught their signal on Gaia VII. I'm about to go there and see who I can bring back. Refia and Ingus will be back in a few days and I doubt it'll take much longer than that for me to return with Arc."

Alus took a deep breath and reestablished his stony expression. Baralai wondered how much longer this child would survive the courts.

"Then in the meantime, I'll stay with your party. I'll not leave until my friends are returned to me, understand?"

"I don't think that's wise," Baralai said.

"If you're worried about my safety, I'm around my best guardians. And then there's the two I brought from the castle."

"Can't say no to that," Firion said. "Ace, you'd better make your work quick. And I should update the others."

Baralai let them go before he faced Alus and said, "You should be more careful with your life, Majesty. We're not your trusted allies."

"But we'll become such, won't we?"

"… We might."

"Remind me how many you lost?"

"Close to a dozen."

"A majority given the size of your troupe."

"You can say that."

"And yet you fight on." Alus looked Baralai dead-on like he had a threat to make. "You keep pushing despite everything that's gotten in the way and I'm glad to have put my trust in such a sturdy group. Perhaps you'll do me the honor of allowing me room amongst you until Ace brings my friend back?"

"For now. But you shouldn't throw yourself into unwieldy circumstances like this."

"I'll take it under advisement."

They addressed small things after that until Baralai eventually let Alus go. But even after the door closed, he couldn't shake himself of the determination in those bright eyes.