Summary: Rhea dives into her work to avoid thinking about her broken heart and the silver-haired knight in Ishgard. Helpless to aid more than she already had with the Crystal Braves and the Blade of Light trying to be fashioned by Moenbryda and the Scions, Rhea investigates instead ill tidings from Ishgard of the Keeper of the Lake and the Agrius. Her investigation brings her face to face with a dreaded enemy and Rhea loses something incredibly important.
Rhea threw herself into her work as much as could, trying her best to not think of the silver-haired knight sitting at Camp Dragonhead. She couldn't. She needed to put him as far in the past as she could and she prayed it would be some time yet until she had to see him again. She needed time and space to mend and steel her heart.
Unfortunately, her prayers were more than amply answered but not in the way she would have liked.
The traitor Roaille had escaped, prompting her to be called upon to track the other Ishgardian elezen down. Working closely with Ilberd once more, they succeeded in capturing her just outside Castrum Meridianum. By the time they returned, Minfilia and Moenbryda had news to share. The white auracite was ready but without an aetheric blade - or a Blade of Light, as Hydaelyn had called it - it was practically useless. It could only contain the massy soul of an Ascian for so long before it was released once more.
Alas, there was little she could do to help in the endeavor except recount her experiences with the first Blade of Light. Once done, she was once more relegated to drifting aimlessly about the Rising Stones, desperate for something to do. For a mercy, the Crystal Braves had just a task she could help with - tracking down a missing shipment of weapons from a suspicious merchant.
When she returned from the mission, though she shared some of Riol's suspicions, she was distracted from pondering it too closely by news from Ishgard and Lucia, Ser Aymeric's second-in-command. The dragonstar burned brighter than it had in fifteen years and even to Rhea, that betokened ill winds. Turning her eye to the Silvertear Lake and the Keeper who remained wound around the Agrius, Rhea knew she had to see for herself if the great wyrm had returned.
Taking a boat to the great ship, she disembarked and began her trek to the top. Garleans, desperate for supplies, along with a few wildlife and some weak dragons were all that barred her way and for the Warrior of Light, she made quick work of them.
Sure enough, at the very top, the omens of the dragonstar proved true - in a sense. Midgardsormr had returned, aetherically, but did not, as yet, have a corporeal body to possess. After a fierce battle, a parley for a rest was brokered between them.
"By Her gifts hast thou earned a moment's reprieve," the great wyrm spoke unto her. "Speak, mortal, and I shall listen."
"The dragonstar burns bright in the night sky and betokens a roar that will bring the Dravanian hordes. Was it you who called out or do you intend to?" she asked him.
"Guided by a star...?" Midgardsormr chuckled, "My people have heard the song. Ishgard shall burn." A cold chill ran down Rhea's spine at his words, a desperate worry for her people flaring within her breast. Warrior of Light or no, she was still an Ishgardian and the dragons threatened everything there she held dear.
"Sons must answer for their fathers' misdeeds. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Seven children did I sire. One now singeth of retribution. I rise to join in the chorus. Thou art powerless to silence us, mortal. Yet thou shalt not live to labor in vain. Thy reprieve is at an end," the great wyrm warned.
Anger flared within her, a millennia of war having imprinted on her a great disdain for the dragonkind. Taking a step forward, she called upon the Light within her and flared it to him in response. She wanted him to see that she would not bow down, and that to answer the call, he would need to go through her.
"Hmph. Trickery is thy shield. This frail, ignoble creature is not gifted, but chosen..." Midgardsormr said with derision then turned his head to the heavens, "Hearken to me, Hydaelyn! I remember...and I consent." His glowing red gaze turned once more to Rhea, "Fear not, mortal...I shall not harm thee..."
Suddenly, a great ball of energy formed before his head and before Rhea could react, a beam of light shot from it and pierced through her chest. Though there was no wound, Rhea found she couldn't breathe and as the beam faded, she stood up and tried to catch her breath. Suddenly, a great headache stuck her as her Echo awakened and into the abyss of it she was pulled.
There, in the space where she had been brought many a time, she observed as the crystals of light she bore being stripped one by one of their essence. As the last one fell, the swell of Light within her felt like it was being ripped from her.
When her eyes opened, she tried to stabilize herself from the dizziness she was feeling. Something was wrong, very wrong. She felt...less. She felt empty. That warmth within her, that power which drove her above and beyond, was gone. Horror registered on her face as she realized what he had done. Looking up to him, she frowned as he chuckled.
"Mayhap thou thinkest me an oathbreaker? Thou art mistaken. If thou comest to harm, it shall be by another's hand, not mine," he informed her, though she had a feeling it was little more than a technicality. He might not have harmed her, but he made it so others could more easily do so. Sure enough, her fears were soon confirmed, "I did but strip thee of thy mistress's feeble blessing. Thou didst profit much by Her grace, but no more."
Hydaelyn had already been woefully silent since the Praetorium, something which had caused Rhea to worry, but that She did not respond to what Midgardsormr had done compounded that fear tenfold. Where was She? Why was She not responding to this? Was the Emissary right and She was too weak?
"The covenant binds me to thee. I shall watch...listen...and wait. Fight and struggle, if it be thy will. Man hath ever coveted that which lieth beyond his grasp," he continued to speak. Before him, a small dragon formed from aether, flying down to her. It was from it that he continued to speak, "I drink of Her body, and thence doth mine own find new life. When it hath grown whole, the loyal and penitent shall rejoice. The Dragonsong heraldeth a beginning...and an end."
Then, the small dragon disappeared and, with him, Midgardsormr's body grew quiet. Rhea lingered for a few moments more before slowly making her way back to the boat. She felt a fatigue she had never felt before and found the void left within her breast severely disquieting. As swiftly as she could, she returned to the Rising Stones to report to Minfilia and Alphinaud.
Upon doing so, Alphinaud looked at her with surprise, "You...conversed with Midgardsormr? I swear, were anyone else to make such a claim, I would regard it with considerable skepticism." Alphinaud sighed while Minfilia and Urianger spoke of the dragon. Finally, the young elezen spoke up once more, "Though his words were ambiguous at times, one statement left little room for interpretation: 'My people have heard the song. Ishgard shall burn.' Clearly, an attack is imminent. We must share this information with Ser Aymeric immediately. However, we dare not divulge your conversation with Midgardsormr in its entirety. To even acknowledge that you heard the voice of a Dravanian is a grave but necessary risk. Lest we forget, men have been executed as heretics for declaring as much."
Alphinaud was right. None could know that she had spoken with the dragon, for she would be branded a heretic and made an enemy of Ishgard. Her life would be forfeit within the Coerthan boundaries, her family destroyed by association...and all the hard work they'd done there as the Scions would be for naught. "For your own protection, and for the sake of our tenuous relations with Ishgard, the truth cannot leave this room. As for how we shall present our revelation to Ser Aymeric's emissary, you may leave that to me. Pray remain here for now."
With that, Urianger and Alphinaud departed to speak with Lucia. "Is there something you are not telling us, Rhea? You seem...different, somehow. 'Tis almost as if you are missing something...something important."
Rhea looked down and sighed then turned to Minfilia. She proceeded to tell her what had happened with Midgardsormr involving her Blessing. "Twelve forfend! Midgardsormr stripped you of the blessing of Light!? Are you alright? How do you feel!?"
"Empty. Weak. Lesser. Like a part of me is, as you say, missing...I did not realize how profound the feeling of Her blessing inside me was," Rhea admitted, "otherwise though, I am unharmed. Shaken but that is it."
"I see...it is a relief to hear that you are otherwise unharmed. It beggars belief that any being could possess the power to deprive you of Her blessing. Midgardsormr made mention of a covenant, did he not? One of the ancient myths regarding Silvertear Falls states that when the waters came into existence, so too did the great wyrm. Althyk and Nymeia, Brother Time and Sister Fate, decreed that Midgardsormr ever watch over the source, from which all water - and magic - was said to flow. I wonder...what if this was the covenant of which he spoke, and 'twas not the gods with whom he treated, but Hydaelyn Herself?"
Rhea shrugged, having no words in which to respond to her. She had as good a guess as any Rhea had formulated. With nothing more to say, Minfilia departed to join Alphinaud. Just as Rhea was about to go as well, the small dragon of Midgardsormr reappeared once more. "Art thou a pawn, or master of thy fate? What hast thou wrought by thine own hands, mortal?"
Anger flared within her but the dragon, once more, disappeared. Balling her fists, she took a deep breath then departed the Solar.
Little did she know, it was only the beginning of ill luck for them all...