When you all return to The Waking Sands, Phekda is fully engaged in a dialogue with someone you’ve seen on occasion, but never directly spoken to-- a pale Hyur woman with two large blades on her hips and garb that you believe to be of far eastern origin, though your knowledge on their culture rapidly dwindles beyond that.

“Ah! Great timing.” Phekda approaches the three of you. “I’d like you to meet Hana, she’ll be accompanying us today.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all!” She says, brushing her shoulder-length hair out of

her face as she begins to tie it back. “Ready to slay some primals?”

“While we don’t believe a summoning has yet occurred,” Phekda says matter-of-factly, “The simple truth is that we need to be prepared for one. In the event we happen upon Ifrit, S’anah’to won’t be able to engage with him directly.”

“Guess I’ll be something of dead weight in that case.” You nervously chuckle.

“Hm? No, far from it.” Phekda turns to you directly. “You will be responsible for stopping any tempered reinforcements from arriving. Slaying a primal isn’t light business, we can’t afford any unexpected surprises.” She turns back to Hana. “Hana here possesses The Echo herself, so she’ll be able to fight on the front line in S’anah’to’s place.”

“Anything about your fighting style we should know about?” Erden asked.

“I replenish my aether by striking with my blades.” She pulled out one of her long daggers to present it. “Every once in a while, I’ll unleash a strong attack from behind, and when I do that’s your signal to go all in on the target while it’s weakened!”

“Sounds good to me.” Erden walked past her and back into The Waking Sands. “Just gotta grab my equipment, I won’t be too long.”

“Right. We should do the same.” Olahr led the way down the stairs and you split off in the living quarters. You swap into your significantly more magical clothes (Even if such formal attire does look a little silly on the battlefield, the impact it has on your overall power is significant.) You also skim over your grimoire to make sure everything is in working order, and it is-- just the way you left it, with countless pages still unfilled in your stagnancy. You grab Brick and notice Erden grabbing Mortar as well.

“Ah, you might want to be careful about bringing her along.” You point to the gem on her forehead. “Carbuncles are susceptible to tempering too, and even if your aether can’t be corrupted, the gemstone still can be.”

“...But shouldn’t my aether be flowing through the gemstone? I thought that would keep her safe.” He looks at her nervously.

“Uh…well…I guess I don’t actually know for certain.” A sigh escapes your lips. “Maybe we could ask K’yoko? I feel like it’s a better safe than sorry kind of thing.”

“I agree.” He hands the gemstone over to you. “Do you think you could look after her for me? She packs a big punch, so I’m sure she’d be helpful for you if things go south.”

“Hah, yes I suppose so.” You take it from him. “If I remember correctly, K’yoko was having a lot of trouble with this one. Did you get her to behave?”

“Hm?” Erden tilts his head. “I’ve never had any issues with her whatsoever-- but maybe K’yoko was just feeding her the wrong food. She loves fish!”

“...F…” You look at the gemstone and back at Erden. “Feeding?”

“Well, duh! Animal’s gotta eat.”

“Carbuncles aren’t…they don’t need food, they sustain themselves off of your aether, the very same aether that they are composed of.” You look back at the crystal. “Furthermore, they don’t have…digestive systems! How could a carbuncle possibly…?” You look at Erden who seems just as confused as you are. You push up your glasses and recompose yourself. “Perhaps a demonstration is in order?”

You travel to the kitchen and Erden takes out a salted haddock before gently slicing a thin layer off the top. He takes a moment to remove the scales and plops it into a little food bowl on the ground before. You summon Mortar forth and she immediately turns and starts gobbling the food presented to her. After a few bites, she pulls away and stops chewing for a little bit once her cheeks are absolutely stuffed, and ultimately spits it back out onto the ground, leaving a small pile of…sad, gray goop.

You silently stare at it for a while before eyeing Erden. He doesn’t seem to have anything of note to say.

You introduce Brick to a fish, and he sniffs it, before looking blanky back at you. ‘Don’t worry Anah’to, it’s safe,’ you think he would say, if he could speak.

“Well. That’s weird.” You say finally, before returning Mortar to her gemstone form. “I guess you can let K’yoko know whenever we next see her?”

“Hey!” Phekda angrily glared around the corner. “Enough dilly-dallying! I swear, if we are just moments late to stop a primal summoning because of all this chit chat, you will never hear the end of it.” Olahr catches up too, dressed in his standard adventuring attire, and you shove Mortar’s gem into your pocket.

“Sorry!” Erden says back quickly, capping his outfit by putting on a large and intimidating helmet. It’s an iconic look for him, and you think it looks nice!

“...You’re going to march straight through Ul’dah territory, shoulder-to-shoulder with Immortal Flames troops.” Phekda furls her brow. “Dressed like that?”

“What’s wrong with this? It’s battle-practical!” Erden looked down at himself. He was covered head-to-toe with dark steel plating and thick black fabrics which exuded a menacing aura.

“You look like a dark knight-- and there you go with those ridiculous helmets again too.” Olahr let out a heavy sigh. “It’d be one thing if it was just us scions, but you do need to be concerned about your public image.”

“There’s no way I’m wearing anything less when I’m frontlining against a bloody primal.” Erden said defensively. “Can’t I just tell them it’s traditional Xaela armor? That wouldn’t even technically be a lie.”

“Erden, I can’t emphasize enough how much you going around in dark knight-esque armor will make people want to accuse you of being Halone’s Champion.” Olahr put his hands on his hips. “Just…use a glamour prism! It’s not that hard.”

“...Oh yeah, I’ve heard of those before!” Erden rubbed his chin. “I think my dad used them for putting finishing touches on furniture.”

“Wait, run that by me again?” Phekda tilted her head. “You aren’t…intimately acquainted with glamour prisms? Weren’t you disguising yourself when you were Halone’s Champion?”

“Hm? Well, I wore full body armor, so no.” Erden admitted.

“I…I just…” Phekda rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You could’ve disguised yourself as a different race? Made yourself invisible, even?”

“Well, I guess so, but I just cloaked myself in the shadows when I needed to be sneaky.” Erden explained. “Plus, if I disguise myself as a different race, then innocent people might be accused if they looked similar-- I don’t want that!”

“But now, Male Xaela, an already very select population in Eorzea, are under extreme scrutiny!”Olahr said angrily. “I think I’m starting to realize that the scariest thing about you is how stupid you are!”

“Erden is smart when it matters!” You retort.

“No, it’s okay S’anah’to.” Erden shrugs. “I only really have a mind for fighting, cooking, woodwork, and some magic.” He rubs your head, causing your ears to flick. “I appreciate you trying to stand up for me, though.”

“...Right.” Phekda pulls out a pyramid-shaped prism. “This should be quick-- we can just make it look like you’re wearing your normal adventuring gear instead of your dark knight equipment.”

Phekda presents the prism in front of Erden’s normal chest piece until a gentle stream of aether flows between them, establishing a connection. Then, she turns and presses it against the armor he’s wearing, and in a brilliant shine of light it transforms to copy the exact appearance of his regular gear.

“There, that’s the simplest application of them.” Phekda repeated the process for the rest of his equipment. “You can speed up this process if you use a glamour dresser, too, but those are super expensive.” She spent a moment to give him a full look-over. “All set.”

“Guess it’s time to make a move on then.” You say, pulling Brick onto your shoulder. “Thank you for the glamour lesson, Phekda.”

“Wait, did you not know either?” Phekda stood agape. “But you’re a fancy pants scholarly type! What are they teaching in school these days?”

“Before I was an arcanist, I was a gladiator, not a ‘fancy pants scholarly type’ with the education you’re imagining.” You correct her. “And I knew of glamour prisms, mostly because I was being recommended to use them to fix my eyesight over glasses, but I was told it might negatively impact my ability to develop good aether sight as a Paladin.” You cross your arms in frustration. “Lot of good that did me.”

“That’s hard to believe, you dress like a pure socialite.” Phekda says.

“I Agree! I think you’re selling yourself short there, Anah’to. You were always a book-loving nerd!” Olahr laughed as he rounded the corner.

“Why I oughta!” You chase after him, but nearly slam directly into Hana in doing so. “Ah! Apologies.”

“Oh my goodness! What an adorable little creature!” She says as she reaches an open palm out to Brick. He sniffs it cautiously before staring blankly at her, and she gives him a thorough chin scratch until he’s happy enough to be picked up. “Is this little one a pet of the scions?”

“Actually, he’s something of a battle companion.” You smile. “He’s a lot tougher than he looks!”

“Oh, truly?” She turned him around and looked into his eyes. “That’s amazing! I’d love to learn more about them.”

“When this mission is over, there’s someone I’ve GOT to introduce you to then.”

“It’s a plan!”

“Alright! Last one to the chocobo carriage is a rotten egg!” Phekda sprints ahead. With a flick of the wrist over your grimoire, a set of water chains bind her feet to the ground, nearly causing her to trip. “W-huh!?”

“Olahr! I can’t believe you would cast Fluid Aura on Phekda!” You shout accusingly as you run ahead-- the perfect crime. “Truly, for shame!”

“WHAT!? That wasn’t--!” He yells back. He turns to Phekda to apologize, but she has already flawlessly broken out of the chains by performing a backflip leap. “Ack!” He scurries forward in an effort to catch up, before all three of you are chained in place by shadowy bindings.

“Well, as long as using spells is fine!” Erden says smugly as he takes the lead. “See you all at the cart!”

“ERDEN!” Olahr yells angrily as he attempts to savagely break the chains with sharp rocks he conjures.

“Why do so many of us know binding spells!?” Phekda says exasperatedly as she draws her blade to slice the chains away. A strong light spell from your grimoire is enough to wash the chains away from your feet immediately, and the two of you awkwardly bump into each other trying to beat him there. Erden charges out the front door and stands in awe as Hana has already taken her seat on the carriage.

“Huh? B-but!” He turned around. “I could’ve sworn…there’s no other exit, right?”

“Hehe! Sorry, but you’ll need to be a lot faster than that if you want to beat a Shinobi in a race!”

You and Phekda catch up to the cart and wait a full six seconds before Olahr finally makes his way out. For some reason that you can’t possibly place, there seems to be some hostility between him and Erden, but you must just be imagining it. The shite eating grin on Erden’s face is absolutely priceless though.

“Sorry, Olahr!” Phekda says sadly with a reassuring shoulder pat. “You're an egg boy this time.”

“Next time I’m blocking the exit with a big boulder, and THEN we’ll see who makes it out first.” Olahr grumbled as he got on the cart. His sour mood subsided quickly once everyone was on the cart and Phekda began to talk strategy for the possible fights to come.