“I was there just before I came to Berodyl and got trapped here,” Phyrn relayed solemnly. “I went to see if the path I’d cut for you was still there… but it wasn’t. That path was all that remained of the world when I helped you escape— when I lead you to Veridis. It was gone, though. I’m sorry Livia, but… Aubade is gone.”

Livia had no words.

“First Sirventes… then Minnesang… then Tenso… and now Aubade. All four of the worlds under my care… gone.” Phyrn sighed. “I’m a failure… possibly the worst seneschal ever…”

Livia just continued staring out across the nameless wilderness that rolled on before her. She was sure it had a name, but she didn’t know it. She knew so painfully little about Berodyl… but it was, whether she liked it or not, her home now. Aubade is gone… Aubade is gone… the words echoed in Livia’s mind like a drumbeat that grew into beats of pain— a headache forming. She began to cry.

“Hey…” Pippy’s greeting elicited no response; Livia was totally despondent. When she noticed Phyrn, she curtsied, and Phyrn nodded with a forced smile to acknowledge her. “Livia… come on. Talk to me. We aubadeans have to stick together, right?”

Livia coughed some kind of semblance of sick, twisted laughter. “I guess… especially since we’re the only ones left.” The last aubadeans… the thought was almost unbearable. “Tell me, Pippy… did you do anything?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Did you contribute anything to trying to stop the Ennui from spreading? Did you do anything - anything at all - before running away?”

“Well, yes, I did, actually.”

“Good… that’s good. You know what I did?”

Pippy didn’t ask; she knew Livia was about to tell her anyway.

“I fought.” Livia’s voice was regaining clarity, and was laced with a new coldness. “Phyrn guided my footsteps through the wilds of Rictora, to the peak of Tyger Mountain, to where she had forged me this.” She drew Veridis and held it in one hand, pointing it at Pippy as her breathing started to become deeper and erratic. Beads of sweat now glistened on her face. “I pulled it from the earth like a sapling - one final sprout of hope - and held it aloft as I gazed out into the horizon— into the red waters of the Krat, red like wine, red like blood… and I just started swinging. I swatted at the inky black muck that was pooling at my feet, that had followed me up the mountain, that parted not even for the power of a goddess like Phyrn. With every ounce of my being, I cut away at the Ennui, I swung until I could swing no more!” her words tumbled out of her mouth amid spit and sobs, more of a scream than coherent speech. “IT’S ALL GONE! EVERYTHING IS GONE!” she fell to her knees. “I remember standing on the peak of that mountain when I was a little girl… I remember looking down into the valley and seeing my hometown, seeing the colourful roof tiles in the distance and the roads leading in and out like silver snakes in the reddery. You know what I saw when I looked down into that valley as the Ennui threatened to consume me?”

This time, Pippy did speak. “What did you see, Livia?”

“Nothing. I saw absolutely nothing. Just… dark. Perfect stillness, total emptiness… utterly nothing. Ennui.”

Pippy sat beside her now, waiting a moment before speaking again. “My first memories are of Aubade… but my family isn’t originally from there. We were originally from Sirventes. That’s why I don’t have those lovely black streaks that you have on your face. I had a twin sister, and some of my fondest memories are of her. I remember… and this is gonna sound all narcissistic now, but… I remember she admired me so much… that when we were twelve, she got perfect replicas of my clothing made… which I’m wearing now.” She motioned to herself. She was wearing a cornflower blue pencil dress with brown shoulders, detached bright white sleeves with frills on both ends, knee-high gold metal boots, and light pink ribbons keeping her short, angled pigtails tied. Some of her hair still framed her face freely— two long side bangs, one on either side of her head.

“I was so touched that I decided to give her the originals - which she got very excited about - and I took the replicas. I’ve obviously had to enlarge them with magic once or twice, but they’re still the same ol’ clothes.

“She even got replicas of my paired one-handed mace and custom buckler. That’s these.” She raised them up, the paired arms she had called Doom (in her left hand) and Gloom (on her right forearm). Doom - the mace - had a crimson handle with a gold head, shaped similarly to a street lamp head, squarish with a narrower bottom, and with a shallow pyramid crowning that broader top. Gloom - the buckler - was circular with a shallow, crescent-like cutout on a segment of the edge, so that it didn’t restrict the articulate movements of her wrist and hand. It had a gilded rim, and a gold swirl emblem in the centre on a field of crimson. “I gave her the originals of those, too. For some reason, I… I felt like she was better suited to carry them than I was— like she’d take them farther than me. Besides, both sets were identical, and I knew she’d appreciate the originals more just because of… sentimentality. I didn’t really care, but it made her happy, so…

“Then she started following my footsteps down the path of red magic. It was… difficult watching her… ‘cause she wasn’t always up to it. I encouraged her to press on. When we were fifteen, I began studying the Ennui, and I realised something; Ennui is an unaspected arcane attribute… such attributes all falling within the purview of red magic.

With that in mind, I threw myself at the problem alongside other red mages— including my sister… though she left Aubade much earlier than I did, making for some distant world she never told me the name of. We were Aubade’s chief hope… but nobody in Aubade - not even Sage Cid the Red himself - had a good enough understanding of red magic to take control of the Ennui that had appeared in our world.

So… we each set out to different worlds to learn more about the arcane aspects— to master red magic via experience. My sister realised it sooner than the rest of us, I guess; she turned out to be better than most of us. I wanted so badly to become the master of red magic, to destroy the Ennui and catch back up to my sister… but… I was too slow. Too little too late.”

Pippy sighed. “Now I’ll never see her again - wherever she is - and I’ll never be able to apply my new theories on the Ennui.” For a moment, she pondered in silence, and then added one last whimsical thought: “I wonder if my sister still has my original clothes and gear. She’d have had to enlarge the clothes by now, but she could do it easily; if I can do it, she can do it.”

Livia shuddered. “How old are you again, Pippy?”

“Nineteen now— as of last week, actually. Uh… I think so, at least.”

So young, Livia thought. Too young. Considering her own youth - only twenty six years old - it made everything hurt that much worse. Pippy knelt beside her, opened her arms, and Livia resigned to her embrace.