Lira sat up with a quick movement, tufts of grass blowing up and drifting gently down around her, a few strands sticking to her radiant hair. She sat cross legged with her posture a little forward, her hands on her ankles in a rather child like sitting posture that reminded Li of Tia.

She tilted her head this, then that way, her lips thinned as her brows knitted together in concentration. While she thought, Mason, seeing that the conversation had moved on, stood up, excusing himself to be by himself. Mercer perked up and left with his brother, no doubt to comfort him.

Lira gave the two brothers a lingering gaze as they disappeared off from the edge of the firelight, their backs growing darker as they went into the night. "I cannot deny that in the many years I have been away that change has not been wholly kind to this world. If it is even such that you-,"

She nodded to Asala. "A sand scholar strictly devoted to neutrality, sways from your oath even this little bit to beseech me for aid."

"Aye, tis so." Asala's gleaming yellow eyes flitted down for a second in a ponderance of shame at having the terms of her oath reminded to her. "But I ask such of thee now for mine sisters uphold their oath knowing not the nature of this world, how it has changed in the near cycle that they hath long decided to enclose themselves within the Sandriver.

The winds of change hath passed by the oath, and now more than ever, change doth gather, and not kindly, I should say, but in a storm that I fear shall lay waste to all, and what use art our tablets and stele shouldst there be but the ashes left by war?"

Sheela took to Asala's side. "You are strong. Very strong. Fight with us. Save lives."

Vilga looked on the conversation with noted interest but did not try to engage, her arms crossed as she simply listened, contemplating. Old Thane, however, did not hesitate to chime in.

"Lassies, give the seeker space to grant us her answer," said Old Thane. "It is her choice whether she decides to raise her spear for us or not."

"Her choice?" Sheela's voice deepened. "Or responsibility? Many can die or many can live No choice. Only the fight."

"Aye, I understand," said Old Thane. "There are lives at stake. Many, many lives. Innocent lives among them, to be sure. But choice is sacred. You may judge the seeker for her choices, but she has the right to make them herself."

"Come now," said Lira. "My true form has not even descended upon this world yet."

"When it does?" said Sheela.

"I will fight," said Lira. "But perhaps not in the way you wish me to. My eyes can sense that there is a fire burning within you. Against demons." Lira shrugged. "I do not slay demons."

"But you are demon slayer," said Sheela.

"And slayer of elementals and dragons and even gods, they say," said Lira. "Does not mean I go out of my way to kill all of them.

No, I am to fight against the true Darkness that your Seer himself stands against. If, of course, by the time I get here, I am even needed. Your Seer seems more than capable enough."

"Speaking of," said Li. "When will you get here?"

"I do not know. My memories split off from my true self shortly fifty years ago. said Lira. "My true self is alive, I can sense it, and I have sent a calling for my self to return, but where she is, what she is doing, I do not know. It may be the very morrow that she returns. It may be the following year."

"Then I'll take that as an answer not to rely on you," said Li.

"Even better." Lira smiled. "Less work for me. More time for me to make sure other worlds are protected. Which brings me to this point." She looked around to the rest of the party. "I am not staying upon this world. If I return and the Darkness is dealt with, I cannot be bound here. There are other worlds and lives I must fight for."

"Why?" said Sheela. "You born here. Live here. This is your world. Why go to others? Why not fight for this one?"

"Oh, believe me, if this world were reeling from chaos and in shambles, then I would stay to aid it," said Lira. She took up the Prometheas lying on the grass and whirled its bladed side to point at Li. "But I sense that it already has more than worthy enough a protector and guardian, do you not all agree?"

Lira jammed the Prometheas into the earth and snapped a finger, causing a fire to light the torch side. As the light illuminated her, it became increasingly evident that she was becoming more and more transparent, her construct form fading.

"Now then," she said. "I am quite disheartened to hear only what has went wrong in this world. Surely, there is some good? The old human has said that Riviera's lakeside breezes are still gentle, no doubt inspiring of warmth and love.

Tell me, all of you, before my form fades away, what else remains good? Consider it a message, a gift to my true self when she returns to the home she left so very long ago."

===

"You really should get back to the camp," said Mercer. He had been following behind Mason for a few minutes now, watching as his older brother kept walking and walking in this vast wasteland of cracked earth, though now there were a few patches of green sprouting up between the breaks.

"We are missing out on so much. They are cooking food by now, I am sure, maybe passing around some ale, not to mention the lovely, I mean, Lira. We'll not get a chance to see someone like her, I am sure," continued Mercer.

Mason stopped, and for a second, their silhouettes lined up through the moonlit dark. Mason was a taller, stiffer shadow, standing almost a head higher than his brother with a straight posture that might have gotten the common man to mistake him as a soldier.

Mercer's head tilted up and he slinked back a little, his shoulders low, casual, his whole body loose, more at home leaning on something than standing straight.

Blue eyes met blue eyes. One pair was half closed in a smile, the other wide with sternness.

"Is that all you think about, brother?" said Mason. "Food, drink, and women?"

"Gods," said Mercer. "I was only trying to get you back to camp."

Mason sighed. "Yes, you are right. Apologies, brother. I just…I just cannot fathom how you can stand here with nary a single worry.

You've heard them back at camp, at how everything we have heard in our lives has been one massive lie. How even the noble cause our father died for was nothing but a sham."

"Noble?" Mercer's usual smile faded, a flicker of something darker twitching at his eyes. "Look, I know you have always wanted to follow into father's footsteps, but isn't it about time we forged a path for ourselves? Without the rules of ages old faiths and crummy militaries to weigh us down."

Mason shook his head. "Mercer, maybe you are still a little too young to understand, but we need to fight for something larger than ourselves.

You saw it firsthand on the streets we raised ourselves on. So many people fighting for today, for the now and what can help themselves and only themselves at the moment. You saw how much greed and misery and pain there were.

And you saw how with the duchess and the Light, people started to fight for more than stealing bread so that they could stave off starving for another day. I know it is tempting to follow your base desires, but we must think beyond ourselves."