Ark...why do you look so shaken? I thought you were only daydreaming, but you look like you've seen a ghost.

Hey, Ark? I think happiness is just being able to loaf without stress. You always tease me about loving my work at the loom, and you try to make me smile.

You know something, Ark? You're the only one who treats me like an equal. To the little ones, I'm Aunty Elle, and to the adults I'm the quiet weaver's daughter. They still call my mother the village weaver, even though her hands are so stiff she can't work the loom anymore.

Click, click, click. A loom is really a wonderful thing, Ark. It keeps your hands busy, but your mind is free to think, and your heart is free to pray.

Ark, if I made you a cape, will you wear it? I know you never get cold... I just feel as if it's right that I make you a cape. But I want it to be special. Is that a bad thing, Ark? That I want what I weave for you to be a masterpiece beyond anything else I make?

Hmmm. Life is so pleasant, isn't it? But it isn't for everyone. One of the twins is having nightmares, although goodness knows which is which! But the child has been saying something strange. She says Ark will go far away... and that I will follow... but that the journeys will never take place because they already have. I don't know, I can't wrap my head around it. I don't want to leave the village, anyway. There's nothing out there, and I have everything I need right here.

Ark... I dream, sometimes. Lately, I feel... corrected, almost, as if I'd been living the wrong life. Imagine that! I wonder where I was in the other. I'm sure I was with you.

But the dreams...

I keep thinking, Ark, that I'm missing something. Something I can't quite put my finger on. All night, I see the same dreams; walking through a village exactly like Crysta. But the air, the very air is different. I look around, and the sights are so vivid they make Crysta's colours look pale and washed-out. As if they'd been used before. And no crystal blue floats in the air. Strange, but sometimes I feel as though our village is just the reflection of this other one, and the floating crystal blue, so beautiful, is nothing more than thread to weave into the tapestry of our lives.

Haha. Sorry, Ark. Sitting at a loom for hours gives me plenty of time to think, and I've become a bit melancholy. We must be real, otherwise I wouldn't be wondering, would I? Either way, I'm sure I'll be around long enough to figure it out.

...What's wrong, Ark? Your eyes suddenly filled with tears... there. Now you're all right again.

Ark, do you ever have those dreams? Dreams that... oh! I never noticed, Ark. There's crystal blue floating in your eyes. How pretty...

But, enough dallying. Ark, I am going to baby-sit the twins. I think you should go and get some sleep before night falls. You know you'll get into trouble if—

Ark, what's wrong? Why don't you want to leave? I'll see you again tomorrow. Of course I will, how could you say that! Ark, our bond is deeper than mere friendship. I believe we are bound by fate.

There. Now you're all right. Can you send in the twins on your way... come to think of it, how many times have I baby-sat for the twins? I've been doing it... for years... why haven't they gotten older? Ark, what is it about the village today? Time never seemed to matter, now everyone is rushing to complete their tasks. Did we just get so good at ignoring it that time didn't matter to us?

... I will think on this tonight. I am probably remembering wrongly, because of the dreams.

Oh, and Ark. I forgot to tell you. In these dreams, I once saw a boy who looked just like you... and he called me 'Princess.' Isn't it amazing what our minds come up with?

Now go. Sleep for both of us; I'll get no rest tonight with these two terrors.

…And, Ark?

…Sweet dreams, Ark.

Elle looked up from the loom as she heard the front door close. Her cheeks still blushing brightly, she thought distractedly; didn't Ark slam the doors? She was certain he did. But she knew, with equal certainty, that he had never slammed a door in his life.

Her mind was slipping, it seemed; she knew there was something she was about to remember. Elle gritted her teeth in frustration; memories she couldn't see, her thoughts kept sliding away.

Princess...

Your Highness...

Princess Elle...

Staring at nothing, her lips themselves shaped around a name. A name she had never heard, but that she knew intimately, like a trusted friend.

"Fy? Fydu... Fy-Fyda! FYDA!"

With a jolt, the memories returned with startling clarity. Elle, dazed, walked through the crowded streets of Liotto, the party town. She followed Ark's faint trail to Crysta— no, Storkholm, the village of her dreams.

And there she died.

A confused rush of memories blurred through her head, then snapped ultra-clear on one scene.

A scene she could never have witnessed. But she had, in a detached kind of way. She had no body, she was floating—she felt like cloudstuff, formless, ethereal and beautiful.

A soft but incredibly powerful voice that spoke to Ark.

"Ark... just for today, go and enjoy your last day in Crysta."

The perfect day...

The last day...

Elle broke out of her room and ran, sobbing, all the way to Ark's mansion. The orphans stared at her; they had never known Elle to be in such a rush! She nearly bowled over little Tomas, as she ran for Ark's bedroom.

Ark looked up at her obviously half-asleep. "What is it, Elle?"

She started to speak, to desperately say something—anything! She couldn't let her world just fade away!

But then she saw his eyes.

Glinting crystal blue danced there. Those eyes were hardened by the trials he had endured, from his emergence onto the brutal, desolate surface world to the prolonged exposure to the horrific Asmodeous virus in the sewers of Neotokio. The battle with Dark Gaia that had cost him so much... and would now steal away everything he had ever loved.

How could she deny those eyes the chance to finally rest?

She smiled and kissed his forehead. "Nothing, Ark. I just wanted to make sure you knew... I... I..." Her courage failed. "I... I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night, Elle."

"Goodnight, Ark."

Ark frowned and tossed again in his sleep. His dreams were troubled... hadn't Light Gaia told him this was finished? That his torment, his so-called destiny was finally at an end?

He calmed. Silence, and peace in his mind. In his dreams, Ark thought he saw Elle, standing as she always did, familiar and beautiful. As he watched, she turned her head to meet his gaze.

Elle was not smiling.

"Ark. Do you hear me? I have something important to say..."

All that is most beautiful in the world will always fade away. So it was with the flowing crystal blue... the bold warrior's courage... the pure maiden's dreams... the love that the two shared and the final, glorious victory... all retold in crystal dreams on the surface world, of a tiny village, far beneath the ground.

Dreams of seeing the world grown older.