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“Hmmm…”
“You seem… different. I feel a strong sense of… er, duty in your eyes. Even if they are behind sunglasses. Let me… there we go. Yes… Those eyes. Eyes that denote a sense of… companionship. You’ll see through it that the bonds you create will last a long time…”
“Not what I was honestly looking for initially, but beggars can’t be choosers. I’d very much like to show you something, but I need you to do something for me first…”
“Stay. Stay until the very end. I want to hear it from you.”
…
“There we go! Let’s get on our way, shall we?”
There’s a woman, pale skin and white dress contrasting against the dark void.
“Can you hear my prayers?”
“Wherever you are…”
“Whoever you are…”
A rumbling of earth and heavens, as chaotic light beams across the once calm void.
The woman is more urgent now.
“I’ve no one to turn to now but you! The walls of the world are falling down around us!”
Images flash. A blonde girl, a sword through her abdomen as she lay in a pool of blood. A blonde man, drowned in the seedy bathroom of an inn. A young boy, falling into the depths of an abyss. As quickly as they appear they fade, then reappear, each frame showing progression of these people you don’t know as they spiral towards demise. The woman’s voice pierces through and you snap back.
“We were all fools… Such a base and hateful snare… Yet none of us saw it!”
A roar that could rip apart time resounds across the void.
“But now… I cannot abandon my injured friends to death.”
She turns to you.
“You! You who hear my prayer, You who I’ve yet to meet… If there is still time, save them! My friends, this world!”
As the void crumbles and the woman barely avoids falling into a crevasse, you stand motionless, unable to do naught but look around. As the woman loses her grip, she is able to say one last thing…
“I beg of you! Become my Warrior of Light!”
And she’s gone.
News travels fast in Ancheim. But even then, people are quick to question it. Especially the latest news.
The Wind Vestal? Gone without even a single trace? The King is quick to say that she left because of shame, shame in her failure to provide for the city of Ancheim the winds it needs to survive, shame for her failure in protecting the Wind Crystal.
But the Sisters cannot even explain why Agnes simply just disappeared when the darkness surrounded the Crystal, when the human shield of Sisters dissipated the Vestal had up and vanished. Nobody would believe them anyways.
Nobody really knew who the blonde pompadour guy was, or why he was found drowned in the bathroom of an inn, but the guards at least knew he was popular with the ladies.
Strangely, although most accounts noted he had a signature book with him, said book was nowhere to be found.
Eternia would not know of Edea Lee’s death for months to come. Nobody had the heart to tell the Templar.
Obviously it couldn’t have been a suicide, but whoever did it made damn well sure that it looked like one, the Ise-No-Kami piercing through her abdomen in an apparent
seppukku
.
The last survivor of Norende would not be Tiz Arrior. Tiz would be pushed into the Norende Rift, without flair or ceremony. Nobody was there to mourn the lad anyways.
As the last child of Norende was dashed upon the rubble at the bottom of the Rift, it would seem as if hope for the world was lost…
But where one story ends, another begins to replace it.
This is the story of the new Warriors of Light. Sometimes, greatness must be thrust upon a new squad of heroes, whether they like it or not.
This is the story of a bounty hunter, a man whose mind is oftentimes detached from reality but at his core has his friends at heart, and truly wants the best for the world.
This is the story of a merchant from beyond the stars, who has destiny thrust upon him. While a merchant can be shady, it is his honesty that prevails for the new unwitting Vestal.
This is the story of a culinary mother, a woman who despite all the mistakes her children make she is always willing to volunteer to fix. Her heart like a hearth, nurturing but dangerous at its core.
This is the story of a disgraced rodent cop, who fell from glory due to actions beyond his control, but given a new lease on life thanks to P’s Journal.
This is the story… of the Al Team.