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Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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With the help of the Kirins, and a visible Skaelan presence in the form of her livery and command, the fight against the blightbeasts was quickly turning back in their favor. Of course, that’s when things obviously went to all hell. She had been put off by the militia captain’s idle talk during the battle. The pistol and his gunfire had been a help… but Esben hadn’t been the only one to notice that it had started only just now, although it didn’t rouse her suspicion until it was far too late.

Just as she began to move to address his strange words, she was suddenly yanked by what she belatedly realized was Selene, but it was still too late. With a thud she gasped, spitting out blood as she felt a round hit her in the back. It felt like a static shock run through her body, lancing with pain, with all the strength immediately fleeing her body.

Not a good sign…

Already falling from her chocobo, she caught a fleeting glimpse of a retreating Loki, the injury grave enough that darkness was already slipping in from the edges of her vision. Éliane would have never expected the traitor to turn up here, of all places. “F-fuck, she got me…” the pink-haired officer sputtered out. In what felt like a flash, Esben was already at her side. “Just… a flesh wound,” she managed to say, flashing him a wry smile. “Keep in… the fight…!” she ordered with the last of her strength, before unconsciousness finally claimed her and she fell limp in his arms.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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The border crossing was smooth sailing, as expected, but what the group found in the next village over was something that Éliane hardly expected: blightbeats. With no military or constabulary in sight and only ragtag militia, she was starting to get a picture of her country that was very different than the way she left it only a few months ago.

There was better time to think about it later, though, and like a good Skaellan, she immediately swung into action to help her fellow countrymen. She drew her officer’s sword, holding it in the air as she remained mounted alongside Esben. Although he had beaten her in creating a rallying cry, the pink-haired Skaellan officer’s very obvious officer’s garb made for some well needed morale boost for the previously faltering militia. The presence of an actual guard commander was the sort of thing that could flip morale on its head.

“Reinforcements have arrived! Maintain your ranks!” She spoke in her command voice, projecting herself over the battlefield as she made herself as visible as possible.

She kept the blade raised up high to remain as a beacon for the villagers, even while she drew her other sword –her gunblade—and began to work some much needed gunfire into the rampaging blightbeasts. There were few times where villagers would see gunfire as a source of hope, but here was one of them.

That none of them had a gun was criminal by itself.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Given how abruptly and inconclusively the fight had ended, Éliane couldn’t help but to feel let down by the entire experience, especially with how little payoff there was for what she had expended. Those two flare rounds were really not cheap, and it was in the category of stuff that she usually reserved for emergencies. Nonetheless, her poor mood had faded by the time they made camp, content enough with a rich brew of coffee and some simple but quick flatbread that she had whipped up for everyone.

What followed was not the usual campfire banter and discussion.

Rudolf’s story had obviously been a tale of great personal import to him, and she could tell that just discussing this was a pain for him that cut to the bone. But for Éliane, Rudolf’s assessment of her had been completely right. While she never truly had the full picture, Éliane did have an inkling that there had been more to the man. However, from her perspective, given all his actions and his character, she still saw no more than the ally and important member of the party that he was—one that had saved her skin on more than one occasion—and not too long ago, either.

She found Galahad’s response resonating with hers, and she nodded, leaning forwards towards Rudolf from her sitting position by the fire. “Some of these details about the nature of your magic and your passenger still flies above my head, admittedly, but your… story hasn’t changed anything in my eyes. You are the man that I’ve known for this entire journey. You’ve saved me from likely death on more than one occasion. And in the end, you’re still working to the same goal as a valued member of this team as the rest of us.”

She didn’t comment on the general secrecy. As a Skaelan, she completely understood, even if it was never truly ideal. No doubt Esben, the proper SEED agent, had long completed the puzzle over this mystery in the secret of his own mind long before this, and given he had never acted, she felt assured by her own judgment.

Crossing her arms under her chest, she nodded once more. “Assuming your health is assured for the future, I see no real problem as things are.”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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This jester was kind of cramping Éliane’s style. It wasn’t funny like a jester should be, and more importantly, it had committed the cardinal sin of snuffing out one of her pyrotechnics—in this case, the flare that had been so beautifully floating down from the sky.
Well, it wasn’t like Éliane didn’t have an abundance of options of producing light, violently or otherwise. The pink-haired Skaelan nimbly crested over the waves the demon put out, reloading her gunblade in between attacks.

“Right, right, more light, can’t argue with that. ‘Direct’ fire it is,” she agreed with Esben, slotting in another red shell into weapon before she clicked it back into a ready position—and a moment later, the retort of her gun slammed a brilliant glow right into the jester’s chest. Unlike one of her more volatile explosives, if it stuck, it continued to glow like an artificial sun, even if it wasn’t floating in the sky like its previous fellow.

Having closed the distance between herself and her enemy with each jump, the Skaelan finally slashed out, her blade joining with her fellow Kirins as she attacked the unfunny demon before firing point blank.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane’s concern over the events in Skael had been obvious long after leaving the hospitality of the Demets. The revelation from Kayliss that at least the previous Overseer –and her patron—Lord Silvain was the reassurance that she was able to latch on to. Although there were others in the Seven that hadn’t been in the capital, Silvain was an experienced political leader who could provide continuity of government should the worst have happened.

But in these ruins of Lunaris, even those thoughts weren’t so important anymore. In fact, the shadows, whispers, and the rather more obvious evil demonic jester manifesting right in front of Éliane was a far more tangible threat.

Just like Esben, it was one that she far more welcomed. Glad for the distraction, she immediately focused on the creature. “Explosives? I’ll do you one up!” Glancing at Galahad with a grin, she produced a uniquely red colored shell from her pouches and fed it into her gunblade, replacing a regular bullet. Raising the blade towards the heavens, she fired the bullet into the air. Unlike a regular bullet, it was slow, arcing into the sky before exploding into a brilliant flash. The flare remained in the air, slowly drifting downwards as it kept the entire battlefield illuminated to drown out the shadows in light. Together with Chisato’s own explosives, the field was thoroughly lit and would be for the next several minutes.

Bringing her gunblade back down to level, Éliane then took the opportunity to actually attack as her weapon barked out its remaining five normal rounds.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane had been excited to hear Wulfric expose Rudolf’s dirty laundry, but before he could barely start, things immediately changed.
The appearance of Kayliss at the Demets’ banquet had been unexpected, but it was the words that came from her mouth that sent a shock through Éliane’s system. The Skaelan officer had been aware of some degree of lockdown over the past two months. It had been concerning, and particularly annoying because it had meant that she had been cut off from communicating with her family as well as her allies and friends in the Household Guards, but such things weren’t atypical for Skael. In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Solitude had been placed on lockdown as well while the rest of the traitors were found and rounded up.

The fact that the city had become an intelligence void if what Kayliss was saying was correct… It sent chills down Éliane’s spine. She immediately thought of her parents at the bakery, and Therese. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so hungry anymore.

Her eyes flicked towards Esben for his reaction, setting down her fork with barely constrained tension as she listened to his words. She realized he was right; after the attack on Brightlam, given the distance involved, that gave that traitor of a woman enough time to make a beeline towards the capital. Whatever she had done didn’t bode well for Solitude or Overseer Baramoux. Being part of the elite force directly under him, and one that also acted as his protector, her team in the Household Guards was directly in the firing line of whatever attack had happened. With some luck, her family was fine—being a mundane bakery—and her father had been a trained city guard captain; he would know what to do to protect her mother and sister.

Her immediate urge was to fly to the capital, dammit, but she recognized that they needed to properly plan instead of attack guns blazing. But she was very tempted. Biting her tongue, she held back an outburst to demand to immediately leave for Solitude; no doubt that was the plan anyway.

Instead, her thoughts immediately turned to who they could trust or coordinate with, among the Seven or otherwise. “Lord Silvain,” Éliane finally said, breaking her silence –though no doubt the entire range of her facial expressions worn openly on her face the past few minutes entirely betrayed what she had been thinking of this mess. She of course was referring to the previous Overseer and one of the Seven, Silvester Silvain and the man that she had been in service under and her patron throughout these years. “Was he in the capital? We must coordinate.”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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This was now the third time Éliane had been invited to a grand Edrenian banquet. She had to admit that she was slightly apprehensive about it; her track record for attending such meals hadn’t been that great. The first time had been assaulted by a Valheimian crack force and diplomatic team had nearly died to a man for it; the second time had resulted in a very awkward family reunion that very nearly had food thrown across the table. Admittedly, Éliane had done little to help the situation, as annoyed with Galahad’s dad she was at the time…
Éliane was pretty sure the silverware that she had walked out with was still in Goug’s wagon somewhere.

Her eyes ran over the food in front of her. It was the Edrenian fare that she had come to expect when hosted by nobles, with delicious roasts, rich wine sauces, and hearty sides. Best of all, of course, was the coffee, and she made sure to consume a lot of the delicious, divine liquid. The pink-haired Skaelan was content to simply eat, drink, and half-listen to the conversations between the Demets and the rest of the Kirins –or at least some of them, given how quiet the Ospreyan members of the party seemed to be at these Edrenian events. She added her own comments here and there, but Éliane wasn’t truly a committed conversationalist here.

That said, seeing Rudolf’s change in behavior since returning here gave Éliane a funny idea in her head that eventually made her lean towards the man that she had been bumming stories off of since coming here, a grin on her face.

“So… Given you’ve known Rudolf quite well over the years, you must have some fantastic stories about him, Lord Wulfric…”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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No matter how much Esben had advocated caution, Éliane had been looking forward to some sort of fight or brawl and she was somewhat disappointed that she didn’t get to witness one. Intellectually, she knew it was for the best, but she couldn’t help it with her nature. Oh well, there was always next time.

While her own manners had suffered in the course of their journey, she still made a formal introduction befitting her as a representative of Skael as she did with certain… previous Edrenian nobles, although this time things went far better.

Most of the byplay between Rudolf and Wulfric as well as the household staff was lost on Éliane, given Edrenian noble politics was very much not her expertise, but she could at least get the gist without directly asking Rudolf about the strange treatment from the household servants.

Frankly, if she was served whiskey instead of apple juice she would be rather happy, even if she still preferred a certain caffeinated beverage over all else. Unlike Galahad, embellished or not, Éliane ate up Wulfric’s stories. While she didn’t quite hang on to every word, the pink-haired officer had always been fond of these sorts of tavern tales and she had to admit seeing the way Galahad and Rudolf look a bit put out was also amusing to her, especially after she urged the young nobleman to continue his stories.

Before long, she was chiming with stories of her own misadventures.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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The Skaelan man before her was one that she had not expected to see again, at least not outside of Skael itself. Given her last encounter with him so long ago, the memory of Cherle d’Artoe was still strong—especially the visage of the man’s bloodied face, caved in by fist. She couldn’t help but snicker at the crooked appearance of his nose. She had actually followed through in sending the letter to snitch on him to his father. The man was an embarrassment and had reflected very poorly on Skael. Oddly enough she never received a reply. Typical.

She was also familiar with the other party in this encounter, although only in passing. She knew the Demet name as a matter of course being on the periphery of noble politics, but it was the sort of foreign policy thing that she didn’t care for or deal with much. It was already evident that the appropriate members of the team knew Wulfric and apparently how to deal with him, although Éliane found herself narrowing her eyes at Esben.

“I resent that implication, Esben,” she replied, throwing up her hands in a shrug. Nonetheless, her voice was pitched just enough for others to hear, although not enough to address without making a fool of themselves—“In fact I was going to do absolutely nothing, because it would have been absolutely entertaining to see him regret start up a border conflict with the Edrenians…”

She recalled what she had thought when she had first encounter them. She stood by her assessment at the time. “Your estimation of his personal influence is overinflated, anyway. Nobody likes that family. I really don’t mind burning a few favors to have a second shot at his nose…”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane thought that the Warrior of Light moniker was a silly and stupid one, but unlike the others in her team, she decided to keep her mouth shut about it. It really was the sort of name that she felt that people who actually knew how to fight would laugh at. No doubt her own colleagues and former subordinates back in Solitude would have a riot when the name filtered through to them, but it wasn’t something that she could really stop, either.

She just shrugged and shook her head.

When Neve made her announcement, she had more to grouse about, though. “I’ve been betrayed… Neve has become an awful Dranan bureaucrat…” The healer had been, after all, been one of the few remaining members of the group from the beginning. Still… “At least the leadership of this country will improve dramatically,” the pink-haired woman concluded, speaking freely at Zacharias’s expense without him present.
…No, she would have had the same words to say even with the man present, as helpful as he had been in the end.

Nonetheless, she nodded at Neve, and then Eve, in turn, the latter more solemnly, wishing her luck on her breakthrough.

Éliane, of course, did not need to be persuaded to return home, with the comments she had made throughout their travels comparing each locale to her home country and city. Each further day here in this particular country was tantamount to her suffering from withdrawals. When eyes fell on her, she looked back at them with a deadpan face. “Do I need to be asked?”