| Iroha: Lady Lion! Lion: Player Name! And who is this? So you're the one who's joined us from the future. I'm not one to put stock in fairy tales, yet here we are in this alternate dimension...so I'm willing to believe your tale. I suppose there are worse outcomes when being sucked up by a vortex. And look who saved me. Zeid: Don't let your guard down for a second. This may look like the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, but it is not the one we know. Iroha: Are you the one known as Zeid? Zeid: That is right. And you must be Iroha--Aldo has told me much about you. I knew I had to investigate as soon as I heard something was amiss. The only color here is the color of death. Iroha: This empty husk is void of anything that we could call nature. Zeid: The first thing I noticed about this place is its striking resemblance to the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, located in northeastern Mindartia. Iroha: Zi'Tah...yes, I have run across that name several times before. Yes, it was when the master first visited Reisenjima. He/She said there was a sanctuary there, much like one in my homeland. I had envisioned it to be more bursting with splendor... Zeid: Its layout and features resemble Zi'Tah, of that there can be no doubt. Yet the magic and warmth are gone, like we are in a different world entirely. ...Or is this the future? Iroha: I do not believe so. If the coming Emptiness is to swallow the world, then I would be more inclined to believe that we are catching a glimpse of what that swallowed world would be like. Zeid: Did you hear that? Iroha: A...bell? But where...? Lion: Urk... Zeid: Who goes there? Irohan: Zeid, Lion! Please, stay with us! Something foul is afoot.Zeid: The world blurred and I took leave of myself. Iroha: You were under its thrall. Lion: It gives me chills just thinking about it. Iroha: If the clamoring has ceased, then we may yet find respite. Master, this may be the world we refer to as "Escha." I still have much to learn, but your words that day will always stay with me: "When the darkness first came, the Middle Lands were the first to be assaulted. Swaths of land were consumed, leaving a colorless landscape where life once thrived." "It marked the beginning of the end." Iroha: And that world, you said, was known as Escha. Yet the annals say that the Emptiness first started to appear many years hence. So why now? Why here? Zeid: What if...history were being rewritten? Iroha: It could be that my returning to your time has placed a stick in the wheel of fate. Has the darkness come with me? Though this may sound counterintuitive, I fear we must change the future if we are to save the past. Zeid: You are right. That is rather difficult to wrap my head around. Iroha, is there no way to purge this "Escha" from our land? Iroha: Would that I had the answers you seek. Zeid: Then only one path lies open to us: figure out what we can for ourselves. As if this land were not dangerous enough, now we have that unholy bell to contend with. Iroha: A perilous reality at best. Lion: Maybe we should return to the mothercrystal first. Iroha: Have you any insight, Lion? Lion: Nothing but my gut. I can feel her...calling out to me. Zeid: Lion? Wait! Iroha: I know not what role she has to play, but her intimate bond with the future is beyond denial. Master, perhaps it would be best if we follow her. | |