The Little Jack had berthed on an inhabited island in Meridia beyond the traditional sky rifts that limited village to village travel. Stealing the regulator cap and purple moonstone coil from the Lynx was already paying dividends. Not only, according to Drachma, would it allow the ship to press through the dangerous South Ocean crosswinds but it had already allowed the Little Jack to bypass minor rifts and pass into small havens where islands untouched by humanity sat waiting in the center of swirling clouds largely impassable to most ships. Their current haunt was one such place and while perhaps the proper Valuan vessel might be able to burst through the clouds to find Vyse and the others, they would need to know where to look to begin with. Aika nervously insisted on this possibility but eventually had to relent that they were, to all intents and purposes, well and truly hidden for the evening.

This granted them the advantage of relatively calm and time to plan a route through what little of the South Ocean was charted. Which it was, to a point. Plenty of adventurers and would-be merchant lords had attempted to cross the South Ocean in search of fabled wonders on the other side. Few ever returned but a scant handful had mapped the initial passage. Vyse had looked at the wind charts and nearly keeled over in disbelief. Even with their fresh engine, the patterns would prove difficult. And those were the winds they knew about. There was no sense of how it might grow or progress the deeper into the passage they would go. Whatever lay ahead would be some of the most difficult sailing of his life or perhaps anyone's life. Preparation and proper rest would be critical. In this case it meant a solid meal.

Fina peered out from the Jack's bridge to watch as Drachma and Vyse sauntered off onto the island, hauling two of those strange Valuan rifles over their shoulders. The captain had grabbed a great many things from Belleza's ship, which the Silvite felt guilty about. Stealing was wrong but Fina managed to assuage her guilt by reminding herself that Belleza had, regardless of whatever intent, nearly unleashed an unstoppable god-monster on all of to Aika, that made things "equal."

Vyse and Drachma eventually returned with a rather large hawk, looking slightly more at ease with each other than when they left. Fina could see that the light which had frayed between them held a little more firm although it was still a tattered string when she observed Aika and the captain. It was hard to blame her friend. Fina was a kind woman but in that moment when Drachma left them, she'd felt her heart shift to believe all the terrible things her Elders said about land dwellers. Greedy, violent, untrustworthy. The Silvite dismissed those feelings the moment Drachma had returned but Aika clearly had not. Vyse? Well, the hunting had seemed more like a pretext to get the older man alone and say some choice words. Fina did not care to pry and so as Drachma retired to his quarters and her friends prepared their meal, she had quietly excused herself and made her way to the room she was sharing with Aika.

It wasn't much of a room. A musty mattress rested on boxes to keep it from the ground, large enough that she and Aika could share without a risk of too much intimacy. It wore a large green blanket that was sufficient to keep them warm at night as well. It made Fina's ever-present guilty sneak up again. She and Aika got to enjoy a bed while Vyse continued to sleep in a ratty hammock outside the engine room. The Silvite had suggested they rotate who got to rest in the best for the duration of their journey but Vyse merely rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and said that he didn't mind the hammock. As for the rest of the room? It was little more than a glorified closet. Stray chests of curios, a small writing table that someone seemed to have gotten use out of decades ago, and perhaps the most surprising prize: a standing mirror that had somehow not shattered over the course of so many battles. These relics bore an energy distinct from Drachma yet somehow close to him.

Of course, Fina had not returned to her room to rest or brush her hair or anything mundane. There was another thing here and it was among one of the most dangerous things in the world: the Red Moon Crystal. There was no more ignoring it. Fina had cast aside its odd whispers for at least two days now but it was clear that something within was still fighting to get out. So long as that was happening, her friends would be at risk. A devil slept among them and while she trusted in her friends, there was at least one person on board who might give into the temptation to use the crystal once more: Drachma. He was not a bad man, Fina believed, but she could see his pain in ways that neither Vyse nor Aika could. Anguish swirled around the captain like a dark cloud, seeking any means of abatement. Revenge had a color and it was darker than any storm. It was a red deep enough to be black, and revenge draped over Drachma's heart. If one of Recumen's stray whispers reached the old man's ears…

Fina would not risk it. She had trained all her life to handle the crystals and deal with the strange gods within. Now, she would put it all to the test that she might truly silence the Ardite's monstrosity. That done, their journey could proceed without risk. The Silvite made her way over to her bag, opening it up until a glow warm light flickered around her room. She reached in and retrieved the Red Moon Crystals. So full of power and warped by the swirling thoughts of a half-sleeping god. She took a breath and exhaled, silently praying that the Silver Moon grant her strength.

Then, she channeled her magicks into the device and found herself transported away from the waking world and into a realm of red dreams and lingering memories. Of a life that was and was not her own.

There was nothing but red haze and violent intent. Moderated somewhat by the fact that the presence inside the crystal had been put into a dulled state by Belleza's order to sleep. There was a problem with sleeping gods, however: they still dreamed. Recumen might not be awake and walking the sands right now but it was here. Or at least an echo of itself was here inside the control matrix that comprised the deepest part of the crystal. Not enough to snake deep connections from the crystal into her mind but enough that Fina could hear the whispers. She walked into the red until particle for particle it began to transform into the desert outside the Temple of Pyrynn. The last place Recumen remembered.

A voice spoke behind Fina, like an unwanted party guest leaning up from behind and whispering breathily against your neck. "Silvite,' Recumen said as it gained a sense of her magick imprint.

Fina turned around, heart having skipped a beat but nevertheless holding firm. This was what she had trained for more than anything else. Not flying ships or fighting soldiers. Her task as priestess was to confront history and have her own reckonings with the energies inside each crystal before taking them back to her people. As she finished spinning about, she came face to "face" with Recumen.

Whatever shape it had attempted to manifest in this inner world was a malformed thing. Recumen looked like a man made of fire but there was no heat or power behind the flames. They were muted and he stood dangerously before the Silvite priestess but simultaneously defanged. His face was a blank space save for the vaguest impressions of eyes similar to the vacant frontage of its many heads in the real world. Fina found herself unable to move for a moment as Recumen reached a hand out towards her neck as if it might grasp it tight. Yet as his flaming hand drew close an odd rippling of silver light shimmered from Fina's body and created a buffer between the two. Which only grew stronger as the young woman poured her focus into solidifying the barrier.

"Your words will not tempt me," Fina pre-warned with a powerful glare at the creature. "I am a student of Elder Celestria Halos, priestess of the Silver Moon, and one of the true custodians of Arcadia. I have one purpose here: ensuring that you remain trapped from the waking world forever."

Recumen's flanking body flickered in something resembling laughter. "You are as bold as ever, Silvite."

Fina tilted her head with some confusion. "As ever?" she asked. "You know my people?"

"I know you," Recumen replied, circling and bending around Fina like a burning cyclone. She could feel his eyes gazing beyond her flesh and towards something else. Something more fundamental to her being. The glance felt dirty and invasive; it saw something deep in the core of her soul.

"The diplomat," Recumen recognized with a curious humming that verged on anger. "If you had brought peace swiftly between peoples, if you had quelled the Fulmerian's wrath.. I would not have been needed."

"The ages have addled your mind," Fina replied with certainty. "You've confused me with another."

"Silvarn.."

Fina paused. Her eyes narrowed and she leaned closer to Recumen. The flames gave no heat but seemed to once again flicker with amusement. "How do you know the name of my house?"

Recumen was reading her mind, that much she could tell, but it had been like someone fumbling in the dark to grab on to a rock. This was far too specific and too intimate for even the Gigas' spirit to unearth so easily; the minds of Silvite priestesses were not open books after all. Which left implications that Fina could only begin to unravel. Perhaps she was being mistaken for an ancestor. Yes, that made sense. He was not recognizing her. There was no way that was possible. And yet..

"It is as I have said," Recumen boasted slyly. "I know you even if you do not know yourself. Tiny Silvite, broken Silvite. Silver shard-sliver stumbling on the star-way of our souls' salvation. You are not what you think, and less than you know."

"If you think to shake me with those words," Fina started with a smirk. "Do better. You'll barter anything and everything so that I will awaken you again but it won't work. I have no such desires."

Recumen smirked in turn, although the being's face was simply more fire. "Truth," it said tantalizingly. "The secrets hidden by your Elders. Laid bare for your knowing."

"They would never lie to me," Fina replied faithfully. "There are no secrets between us."

"Love, then." Recumen's words hit like a cannonball. "Untangling the web of he and she and you until you could have either or both as you desire."

"Vyse and Aika are my friends," Fina said, her heart pounding. "You will not use them against me."

The flame figure reached out to trace magick fingers along Fina's forehead tattoo. "Mark of a priestess," he said knowingly. "Bearer of knowledge, witness to history. You will watch.."

The red around them began to shift into a silvery haze and a familiar smell flitted on the air; purified energies and the familiar ozone smell of burning Silvite shrine fires. Fina saw as the space around them slowly started to transform into the Great Silver Shrine, her home for seventeen years. She could hear the tell-tale trinkling of magi-plate floors and the humming of view-portals. Six figures began to rise from the argent smoke to stand around her. She looked at Recumen, whose red glow had grown deeper.

"What is all this?"

"Memories."

"Whose?"

"Your own, and yet not."

The world reformed until it was something more familiar than she'd seen in all her time on the surface. It was the heart chamber of the Great Silver Shrine, where the Elder's gathered and meditated on matters concerning the entire fate of the Silvite people. In her time, it was a very sacred place that Fina only entered when called upon. This version of the hall was familiar yet different. Its silver, circuit-etched walls were the same that she knew but they thrummed with greater energy, Multiple layers of observation were available, where silver-blonde men and women in ceremonial robes—priestesses and blademasters—gazed down below. It was more Silvites that Fina had ever seen before, a true symposium of discussion that ended when a stout man with a bald head raised a firm hand. Fina recognized him as Elder Prime, the chief leader among her people and yet she could tell that this version of him had not been marred by age and isolation. His face was both that of a commander and true spiritual expert; regardless of the "when" it was certain he'd earned his title of "prime." He was draped not only in the distinctive sheer-collared robe of an Elder but also wrapped in the metaphorical burdens of power and duty, life energies swirling around him like a supernova. His simple gesture silenced the entire room. All eyes fell on him, and then towards the woman before him. It was Fina. Except it wasn't.

"What false memory is this?" the young woman asked her tempter only for Recumen to shrug diffidently. "This is not my shrine or my Elder Prime."

"It is," Recumen said plainly. "This is no false memory; it is one etched on your very being. Underneath. In silver."

The pair looked at the scene. Before them Elder Prime gestured at the young priestess, at the woman bearing Fina's mirror appearance. Fair faced, wisdom mark on her forehead. Green eyes and a wistful if duty-proud smile. Fina reached out to stand beside this version of herself and it became impossible to distinguish who was who. At that moment, Fina felt like she'd reunited with a missing limb. This was her.

"Sister Silvarn," Elder Prime began. "The Ardites of Pyr Nasrim have called upon us for aid in a matter of dire importance. The dawning of the Crystal Age has brought prosperity but greed is a foe forever patient. Last moon, Qawiun Bayezit eloped with the Fulmerian Illustratum's chosen partner. We are told by our brothers under the Red Moon that there is talk of war. Because of this act of... love."

The Elder said the final words with some disdain. Love was a virtue which cut against duty. Elders and those sworn into service were denied the joys of romance and love so that they could better focus on their tasks. Evidently, the rest of the symposium felt a similar disapproval. The notion of war was absurd enough in such a plentiful time but for love? That was truly unwise. No one person was worth such a weighty cost; no bond could be so great as to justify a campaign of violence. It was childish at best, evil at worst. Before the Elder, Fina nodded.

"What does the Silver Moon ask of this shard?" she intoned and was shocked to find that both versions of herself had said it. The question asked by all priestesses and servants accepting a mission from the Elders. She felt the phrase escape her own mouth without thought.

"We've good relations with those under the Yellow Moon," Elder Prime began. "You will go to Fulmaria to help mediate a settlement to this crisis before it grows into something truly regrettable. Mediate, moderate, guide. It is forever the task of the Silver Moon to balance the energies of the other five. You will bring both fire and lightning into alignment. Under no circumstances can war be allowed."

"May Zelos guide me," the mirror-image priestesses intoned. Fina was unsure if she was being made to act or recalling something she'd already done but in either case, she was the perfect match for her doppelgänger. "By His will and by the guidance of your teachings, I will fulfill this task."

A softer voice spoke up as a woman walked beside Elder Prime. Hair down the length of her back in a glorious braid and face radiant as the shining Silver Moon. Her forehead bore the unique markings of the prophet and seer: a rising line that cut to the right at its height, a small dot marking a center point around which a curved half circle rested. It was a mark beyond wisdom. It was the mark of understanding. Granted once every thousand of years to those who could truly untangle the weave of the magick world-web. Its bearer, Elder Halos, smiled at Fina. Again, the Elder was somehow younger. A version that Fina knew but also did not know. The Elder Halos she knew was beautiful but an almost cobbled together mage; body parts replaced with pure magick and protheses similar in material to Cupil or the other argenti. This version had no such modifications nor did she carry the odd sadness that clung to her teacher these days. This was a woman of vision, of confidence, and of remarkable power. A teacher smiling at her student through the ages.

"I have trained you to the best of my abilities, Sister Silvarn," Elder Halos said warmly before her face shifted. "But you must be warned: my visions have grown confusing. Golden dragons, men twisted into giants. Nature warping until there is naught left but a horrible flood of falling moonstones."

Elder Halos stepped forward and placed a hand on Fina's shoulder. Suddenly, there weren't two versions of her but simply two realities that layered over each other, each with Fina at their center. She felt Elder Halos' hand and looked up to see both of her faces. There was the face of the past brimming with prophecy and youth; there was the face of the future, sad and lined with silver scars.

"You are the fulcrum upon which all things stand," Elder Halos said quietly. "I wish it were not so. It is not fair that this mission falls to one so young but it is the will of Zelos. Hold firm to the teachings; you will succeed. I am sure of it."

Somehow, in her heart, Fina knew that Elder Halos was lying. If she did believe in her student, it was a stubborn belief held in spite of a growing dread. The room faded until there was nothing more than the red haze and Recumen's flickering presence. Fina gasped for air as if she'd been underwater for years.

Recumen chuckled, flickering and fluttering slightly. "You don't remember…"

"That was the past," Fina said with shock. "The deep past. The Old World. There is no way that I could.."

"There is," Recumen said. He stepped closer to Fina and gave off a friendly warmth that brought her back to her senses. "Because you were. Those moments, that mission.. heralded the Gigas War."

Fina narrowed her eyes. "The world ended because one of the Qawiun married a Fulmarian?"

"The world ended because a man slighted another man," Recumen corrected. "Whose heart then festered with hate at the idea so much that he created the first true god."

"The Gigas are not gods."

"We're not?" Recumen replied sharply. "Then why were we named after them? I am Recumen; red sun rising. I am the prime star that all Ardites prayed to. I am the grand sun that these "Nasreans" fear so much. My anger burned cities, my slumber births demons for even a dreaming god cannot help itself."

Fina stared at the spirit. "I know what you are," she said with deep knowledge. "It doesn't matter what you are called; before your creation you were a man and nothing more. A Gigas is a merger of a living soul and the Moon Crystal. The Safai took a bird from beneath the Blue Moon for their Gigas, the Ardites took…"

Recumen dimmed. "Me," it said with barely contained spite. "So loyal, so strong. Their favorite slave tossed into the pits of flesh and magick and crystal and fire until I became more than they could ever dream of. I became eternal. It was with my power that the Fulmerian beast was held at bay.'

"Yeligar," Fina intoned. Her mind began to flash with conversations she'd never had but certainly knew. "Illustratum Faris insisted they were creating it to protect their homeland. I told him that if the Qawiun ever found out, there'd be no avoiding a war.."

"Oh! You do remember some of this!" Recumen said with barely contained glee. Somehow, Fina could tell the creature was smiling. "But if that wasn't you, how do you recall your meeting with the Fulmarian leader, Sister Silvarn?"

Shock blasted through Fina's heart as an existential panic unlike anything she could comprehend slammed into her being. Her head crackled with pain and she felt Recumen worm his tendrils inwards through the white hot confusion. She steeled her mind again but found herself disassociating from the space around her. It was like she was watching herself from a distance. A small little thing caught in a spider's web. How did she know? The Fulmerians were long dead.

She could see it before her eyes. Yeligar. Shining gold armor slowly forming upon a spindly-legged draconic beast. Its raw energy left the hair on her arms standing tall as, with a simple command from the Illustratum, the most nascent of its breaths leveled a mountain range. At that moment, she knew she had already failed. The moment a weapon like that was even conceived, the moment it was tested and the raw power placed on display for the Fulmerians to see, there was no way that Faris would avoid using it. No matter what pleas she made or assurances she gave, the Illustratum's heart could not be swayed.

So the war had come. Fleeing to Pyr Nasrim to give warning only led to more disaster; the birth of their own Gigas. Fina had only meant to help the Ardites prepare. She counseled surrender or even simply turning over Qawiun Bayezit's wife back to the man she was originally promised to. Instead, the Qawiun listened to tales of Yeligar and concluded that they, too, needed a weapon of equal power.

"That's right," Recumen taunted. "Well-meaning Sister Silvarn and her mercy missions! How she hoped to save lives but all she did was inspire the god-kings to birth their glorious weapon!"

"That wasn't me," Fina gasped in pain. "Stop twisting what happened! I am myself ! I am… I am…'

"Just ask," Recumen whispered in her ears. "I could offer you the wisdom you desire. The truth and knowledge that would make a clear image of this haze. Clarity, power. So that you can stop these broken and worthless 'Valuans' and prevent any harm befalling the world."

Fina clawed at her head. "Stop this," she said as the haze around them began to shift into fresh images of violence. "I won't be.. confused for another. The Old World's sins are not mine to bear and.. I won't… I.."

"Look!" Recumen cried out as the world around them erupted into terror. "This was the wisdom of the Old World. This was the wisdom of your Elders. This was you and your failure!"

She could see it. Two fleets of gleaming ships faced off against each other only a handful of miles away from Pyr Nasrim. The grandstanding of two old nations until a roar broke through the skies and Yeligar, crackling with magick light and shining skin, parted through the Fulmerian fleet and unleashed a massive blast upon the Ardites. Ships weren't merely destroyed; they were vaporized. Where once there were men and metal was nothing but atoms. The Ardites fired into the Gigas to no avail and it was only after that first failed volley that the skies began to glow red. Iron stars burst into life and began to glow as something erupted from the fertile ground below. Recumen, a lattice network of weaponry at the ready.

The Gigas fired, beams of flame lancing across the sky and cutting Fulmerian ships apart. What Yeligar took, Recumen repaid in equal measure. In little more than five seconds, two grand fleets that had been the gathered might of nations had been burned into tattered dregs as the Gigas' began to battle. Yeligar swooped down low, bringing dark clouds into the sky and a conflagration of lighting that began to swirl towards Recumen. The multi-headed demon held firm and fired energy from all its faces. The energies clashed until they mixed into an orange conglomeration of magicks that began to grow white hot and then, without the slightest warning, it exploded. The fundamental building blocks of life split and a boom resounded around the world; when the dust cleared, Arcadia had its first desert. Miles of sand and glass. But the Gigas remained, and they continued to fight.

"What is that, if not divine?" Recumen asked. "Power unfiltered and unceasing. That is what is in your hands now. Give the command and I will move stars to burn your enemies."

Fina was crying. She didn't know when she'd started but between the splinter in her mind and the pain in her heart, tears had started to fall. She shook her head. "Never," she declared. "I am a Silvite, and we would never resort to that kind of violence."

Recumen darkened. "You are a silly little thing," it said. "Tangled by faith and lies and delusions, truths buried and memories lost. You people made an art of violence in those days."

The scene changed again. She was in a city this time; cold and icy. A world upside-down and built inverse, brimming with wonderful illusions and delightful snowfall. She somehow knew this was Glacia, the capital under the Purple Moon. For a time, the scene was as wonderful as any she had known. A woman with off-blue hair was guiding her through the streets where children played and mages used their skills to craft wonderful new beings shaped purely out of their imaginations. It was paradise, and yet through the snowfall and mist, she saw a horrid corruption begin to seep into the city. A vapor that could only be seen by those that could perceive the magickal weave of things. The child didn't notice; the adults did but it was too late. The vapor, now as present in the city as the snowfall, was doom incarnate.

Someone was screaming. It was the worst thing that Fina had ever heard in her life. A shriek of pain and betrayal so deep that it seemed to shatter the core of all things. She turned and watched as a child no older than Marco seemed to calcify before his mother, body turning rigid as the magick that held his being together began to turn poisonous and rotten. The mother reached out but froze in place as the corruption spread to her as well. Eye full to burst, veins spiked with foul energies. They reached toward each other but began to turn, statue-like, into frozen corpses. Flakes of energy and skin began to burn off until their bodies grew pale and pale, as if they were shifting into pillars of salt or soap. They broke and crumbled into pieces, bodily remains little more than ash that mixed into the snow upon the wind. You could not tell what was natural and what was perverse. Life and nature, death and sin, mixed into a white squall.

It wasn't just them. All around her, the people of Glacia were calcifying and burning from within as the gas rewrote the laws of their existence and denied their very right to live, unwriting their molecular composition until they grew white and collapsed into ashy nothingness. Fina's guide turned to look at her with a gaze of shock and accusation. You did this, her eyes seemed to say but if there were words none could be heard over the sounds of an entire nation being unmade. With a desperate call of power, Fina pulled inwards and cast a protective barrier around herself, beckoning for whoever could to enter its safety. Many did, encouraged by the blue-haired woman, but some did not seem to trust the Silvite. Their hesitation meant death, as the gas seeped into their bodies and broke them down speck for speck.

Through the chaos of crumbling men and women and children, the remaining Glacians clambered into odd chambers. Icy coffins that sealed around them and flashed with a purple light, locking them in time. Eventually, Fina was alone. Stray screams and moans rang out for a time until there was nothing left. Nothing but those slumbering in self-made coffins and those who had been turned into dust that had long since mingled with the snowy air. Where once there was a civilization under the Purple Moon, there was nothing. So she sat down and wept, perhaps for days, knowing that they had been the perpetrators of this crime.

"What's wrong?" a voice called at her side. It sounded just like Rami, light and curious but touched with a hint of something darker. Like smoked honey.

"I thought we were better than this," Fina replied, in a voice that was and was not her own. "I've tried so hard to find the peaceful path and every time I have failed."

"It's war, Fi," the voice replied. She felt a warm arm around her shoulder. "It's not your fault."

"Did you know? About this plan?"

"I did," Rami admitted. No, it wasn't him. He had a different name. "But we sent you in the hope that something else could be done."

"They were listening to me! I was so close!"

"While they listened to you, the Gigas raged in the skies," Rami explained darkly. "The Safai couldn't stop it and the chill was drawing closer to our lands. To Soltis.."

"They didn't mean it," Fina tried to explain. "Their neural lattice technology was flawed; no one could connect to the Gigas. Elacia swore by it, as did her father..'

"Now it's fled," Rami said. "Whatever unconscious guidance it drew from its creators ended. When the plague swept through the city, Plergoth panicked and fled into the Deep Sky. The threat is gone."

Fina looked at the dead city around her and shook her head. "No," she insisted. "We're not."

Rami chuckled and chuckled until the hand he'd placed around Fina's shoulder grew hot. She stood up and stumbled away, turning to find Recumen at her side. His fire danced with delight.

"Heresy!" it teased with delight. "From a true custodian of Arcadia! I wonder: do you still have that part or did they snip it out of you, my little mudling?"

"Shut up!" Fina cried. Her hand was held firm before her, silver magicks glistening in her palm. With a single blow, she could smite the creature. Or at least try. "You don't know me! Whatever all this is, it cannot be true! The Glacians were destroyed by their own Gigas. I've read the history!"

Recumen shifted and took a step closer to Fina. "History is written by the survivors," he said darkly. "Where are the others, I wonder? Why is it only the Silvites that remain?"

"The Rains came and we had fled far above," Fina said devoutly. "The Silver Moon warned us."

"How very lucky for the Silvites," Recumen said grimly. Each syllable was a deliberate dagger's stab. "That they happened to be blessed with such knowledge.."

"What are you implying, beast?"

Recumen rippled. "I imply nothing," it said. "I know everything. I saw everything. Even your Gigas.."

"We didn't have a Gigas," Fina insisted fervently. "We never gave into that temptation."

"Zelos…'

"Wasn't a Gigas," Fina said, stepping towards the fire-imp. "That's our name for the Silver Moon's spirit, its will as interpreted through study and consultations with the Elders. Zelos is a force of will that touches each and every Silvite, guiding them and granting them strength."

"The Gigas are not gods…' Recumen started. Teasing, leading Fina to the conclusion like a rat into a cage.

"But are named after them," Fina finished with some horror.

"Its power was beyond all of us," Recumen said grimly. "Such purity, such might. A weapon unlike any other. I will show you the Silver God's birth…"

A pressure built in Fina's chest unlike anything she'd ever known as the world grew almost pitch black around her. It was as if there was a pearl within the center of her being and it was being squeezed particle for particle into dust. She wanted to vomit and could hardly stand, doubling over in pain as the world began to grow dim. Moons, the pain was unlike anything she knew was possible. And in her desperation to look around for any sign of a path through the torment her eyes gazed up. She gasped.

A deep black moon hovered above the skies larger than anything she'd ever seen and with each passing moment, she could feel it shift closer and the pearl cluster of pain in her chest warp and bend horribly. A mighty and powerful Black Moon of void and gravity and unceasing judgement. Hanging above and ready to crash downwards to engulf the world in biting black flame and crushing pressure. She could just barely hear Recumen in her ears, whispering like a snake.

"The Seventh lay deep beneath us all, resting impossibly on the surface of the world," it told her viciously, poison in each note. "They said "the overdwellers will kill us all" and set about their own course: the Death of All Things. For the Seventh believed in nothing but chaos and the void after."

"I can't breathe…" Fina begged, clawing at her throat. "I don't.."

"Never knew the Silvites had a natural predator, did you?" Recumen hissed. "Lurking below, pulling down upon their moon. The waves bending at your silver-shard center and smiting you with sickness. Umbral beings as real as whispered songs as deadlier than six hundred poisons. The Black Moon coming, calling, clamoring for Silvite blood. A crash and then silence. Unless…"

"It's going to be okay," Rami's voice spoke softly into her ear. "I can stop it."

"No," Fina wept as if a part of herself was being torn loose. "I can't do this without you. It's too big! I need you! Don't leave!"

"I won't be gone forever," Rami said. No, what was his name? His true name? Fina could not recall nor would the knowledge ease her suffering. The silver haired man walked ahead of her on empty skies.

"I'm simply walking far away.."

"Rami…."

"Be strong, Fi," the man said warmly. "And do not blame yourself. This is my choice."

The distance grew as the man walked through the darkness towards a nexus of silver light. Fina reached out, eyes burning hot with tears. "Brother!"

The skies filled with brightness until, it seemed, a small moon had risen to match the descending Black Moon. It was an etched orb-like sphere pulsing with all the colors of magicks, each arching bit of circuitry combining to form a rainbow's worth of power. A light of hope and wisdom and a people's hope incarnate. This was Zelos, the Silver Gigas. Unbending, unafraid, and unaffected by the dire pressure of the opposing orb in the sky. Fina could feel the entirety of the Silvite peoples' dreams embodied within the Gigas, their prayers in the face of incoming annihilation imbuing Zelos with even further power.

A deep magickal light burned at Zelos' center and grew brighter and brighter until it fired upwards into the sky. There was silence as the energy shot forward leagues per second and passed upwards beyond the world itself and into the strange vacuum space between Arcadia and the Black Moon before slamming into the falling satellite and bursting it into millions of black shards. They began to fall down upon the planet like raindrops, while a large shell-like cracked piece of black rock the size of a continent fell deep into the sky, cutting the air and leaving an immediate gash upon the world as a violent and horrifying black rift of repulsive air sliced through a portion of the world, severing the lands of the Blue Moon from the rest.

Fina felt the pressure in her chest disappear even if her tears continued to fall. She stared awestruck at the sky, where the black shards fell downwards. Many of them burned as they did, as any falling moonstone might, and she could not help but realize how much it looked like rain.

"The world was saved," Recumen whispered horribly. "But a more terrible threat was born, with the power to end all.."

"Enough," Fina said. Her voice held such power that the illusion before her faded and there was nothing left but herself and Recumen. She glared at the spirit. "I know what you are doing, and it changes nothing. No matter what, I cannot allow you to whisper into the world beyond here."

Recumen flickered nervously. "Your people were not saints," it said. "We all feared your power."

"As I fear yours," Fina rebutted. "And that of any Gigas. Your power alone would give the Valuans untold sway over history. Whatever the truths you wish to share, whatever happened in those old days, and whoever you've mistaken me for are matters that must wait."

"You understand so little…"

"I understand enough," Fina said sharply. "My name is Fina Silvarn and my mission here upon this world is to gather the Moon Crystals. So that the violence you have shown me will not happen again. Do not mistake me for another; I am myself. No knowledge you offer or power you could grant will sway me from my course. So, can we seriously just stop?"

Recumen shimmered some and gave an approving hum. "You have grown strong," it said with an odd familiarity. "Whatever you are, whoever you are. Incarnate or inheritor, I submit. My battle is lost."

Fina smiled softly. "There was no chance of winning," she said calmly.

"Perhaps so," Recumen conceded with another ripple in his fiery form. "But it is in my nature to fight and tempt and trick. I crave use like a good sword craves a firm hand or needle desires fine thread. But you? You are different, and perhaps because of that… this time history will be different as well."

The Silvite looked at the spirit curiously. "The Silvite you knew," she started. "The one that you thought I was, or think I may be: were you and she friends?"

Recumen's fire grew soft. "We weren't enemies."

"Then neither will we be enemies," Fina said. She extended a hand. "Rest, old warrior. Let me guard you from now on."

The flame spirit reached out and took her hand. The flames were cool and comforting. "I would like that," he said. "Now, go. Your friends are waiting.."

The red haze grew lighter and lighter until the Little Jack started to come into view once more and Fina returned to the real world. It took only a few moments before Fina found herself sitting on the musty mattress once more, looking at the Red Moon Crystal as it glowed softly before her. What had felt like years had taken no more than a few minutes at most; she took a breath and shifted on the bed, which creaked slightly as the Silvite moved to deposit the crystal in her bag. As she placed the Red Moon Crystal back into her bag, she smiled for a moment. Whatever pains it caused were in the past; now that they had it, Recumen might finally rest for good. One down, four to go.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Quick wrapping at the door caused Fina to turn her head towards the source. A slight creek snaked through the room as Aika peeked in and looked at her friend cautiously. "Am I interrupting anything?"

"No," Fina said softly. "I was simply checking on some supplies. I am guessing that dinner is ready?"

"What gave it away?" Aika asked playfully. "The smell or the fact that you can read minds?"

"Aika, I wasn't.."

The redhead bounded into the room and flicked Fina playfully on the nose. "I'm kidding," she said before extending a hand to help her friend up from the bed. "Now, come on. Vyse is waiting for us."

Fina took the hand and stood up, smiling wide. "I know," she said happily. "I know."