Summary: Alisaie and Rhea, and later joined by Alphinaud, raced to disable the coils that continue to regenerate the elder primal, Bahamut. They were, by a mercy, successful, yet, much was learned and time would be needed to process it all for all of them.
As Tchu flew through the air from Gridania towards Fallgourd Float, Rhea took a moment to process all Alisaie and Urianger had informed her of. Unlike they had previously thought, thanks to help from Rammbroes, they learned that Dalamud was originally the conduit that the Crystal Tower used to draw and store limitless energy from the sun.
And the primal they saw in stasis - the elder eikon Bahamut - was trapped in a state of being sustained by the Allagan technology. To end him, the other coils that bound him needed to be set as inert as the one Alisaie and Rhea had already put to rest.
Thankfully, Alisaie had found one and that was the direction Rhea made way for. There was a chance, a hope, to keep Bahamut from reawakening. Time may not be on their side, but together the elezen would unearth the truths about what happened on Carteneau and would save the realm from the destruction of Bahamut.
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Days bled together the longer Alisaie and Rhea hunted for the coils that regenerated Bahamut but in the end, they emerged victorious. Standing in Thanalan, looking upon one of the shards of Dalamud, Rhea could not help but smile as Alisaie made her departure. Alphinaud was off speaking with the leaders of the Alliance to ensure the shards remained sealed and the day was a bright and beautiful one.
Though she would take the secrets of Bahamut and the Phoenix to her grave, standing there with the wind blowing in her face, she could feel the land beneath her beginning to heal, as it should have long ago. Louisoix was gone but with his passing, he left a gift Rhea would not squander.
Her time below had changed her, perhaps more profoundly than even her trials that came before. Most certainly her views on the dragons had changed. She had become enlightened to some of the plight of their history, a history born long before the war with her people had begun. Had they always known suffering? Is that why they turned such a hateful eye to those they had shared a border with?
While the millennia of sins could not be washed away from the damage the dragons had wrought upon her homeland, something Louisoix said could not be shaken from her thoughts.
"Whether it be for man or for dragonkind, the question of justice is irrelevant."
It mattered not to Rhea what began that fateful war all those centuries prior, though she knew the story well. The fact she could not reconcile: who had the right of 'justice' when a thousand years of atrocity on both sides tormented the other? Looking down, Rhea knew these thoughts she bore in her mind were beyond heretical, and should they ever come to light she would surely be put to death by her people, or forever exiled to never return. Yet something stirred within her breast, a faith in the rebirth of the land beneath her and changing winds yet to come.
She was the Warrior of Light, a proud Ishgardian and a devoted daughter to the Fury. Perhaps, when all was said and done, and Eorzea no longer needed her, she would return home and find a way to bring an end to the war.
Rhea smirked, shaking her head at the fleeting hope. Such thoughts were a fool's dream. One woman, even her, could not hope to sway the minds and hearts of men and dragons who had been born and bred for the sole purpose of the other's destruction. Perhaps the hope of returning home was futile, for how could she return to her people knowing all she knew now, feeling all she now felt? No, she was far from the same woman she was when she left her homeland.
Yet, deep within her breast beat her heart filled with Light and as it pulsed, she knew that the changes brought about in her were good ones. She was stronger, smarter, more compassionate and far more understanding than she'd been before. Though she might not be a person who could find a home in Ishgard any longer, Rhea was a better woman for all she had seen and done.
Turning from the shard of Dalamud, she breathed in deep the scent of the desert and the rushing waters around her echoing upon the crystals. Today was the true dawning of a new era - an era of healing as aether long siphoned returned to the land. Making her way back towards town, Rhea was resolved that she would be there for the people and the land as long as she could, doing everything in her power to help with that healing.
Come what may, the Light would usher in the new dawn for Eorzea.