For a long time after that, the overall mood in Oerba was tense and uncertain. I visited my friend and almost-sister once; wandered about the cool corridors until I found them. It was like nothing I'd even experienced before - I'd seen people turned to crystal before, but it had never been anyone very close to me. I pressed my hands against the frozen ones of Vanille, and wished she would wake up.
Not long after that, we awoke to find the vestige gone, and our resident Fal'Cie with it. More than anything, I remember a tall, dark-skinned woman screaming and having to be held back by several others, angry tears streaming down her face. This was Fang's mother, who was a good cook and a friendly woman who wasn't afraid of clouting an overly inquisitive child; she had been close with her daughter, and the idea that she would never see the crystalline form again was crushing for her. Someone found her body swinging from a rope only a week after they were moved, and we never spoke of the incident again.
I'm not sure why those artifacts were moved, much less where to. In some ways it was a blessing - with no Fal'Cie living on our doorstep, we were less likely to be turned into l'Cie ourselves, and there was a noticeable change in the way Oerba's populace behaved. However, we knew it would only be a matter of time until the land became impossible to cultivate - Anima made our lands more fertile, and without it we'd have to move to another village. A change might have been good. Seeing Cocoon looming over us every morning with one chunk missing was a painful thing to wake up to.