Lying in a warm bed Melanie tried her best not to let her worries deprive her of much needed sleep. She had gotten lucky, a young miqo'te girl she once helped out in the game was playing near the plaza just happened to live in one of the ground levels of Revenant's Toll and after hearing she was looking for a place to stay begged her mother to let Melanie stay the night. Despite the room being dark and the walls made purely from dark grey stone it was still warm thanks to a large stone fireplace. There was little in terms of decoration save a couple of banners on the wall, a large rug, and a small number of wooden side tables with bronze candles. It was unlike anywhere she'd ever stayed in before but she was thankful enough that she even had somewhere to stay the night.
As her eyes began to weigh heavy she was sure she heard a familiar voice speaking out to her. "Well, aren't you full of surprises."
"Ardbert?" she quizzed in her mind.
"Not only are you from another world but from another universe entirely." The room began to lighten as the glowing image of Ardbert appeared in front of her smiling a little. "I know what you're thinking, that you're not strong enough to become the Warrior of Light. And as long as you keep on thinking that you never will be."
"Then tell me what am I supposed to do?" Melanie exclaimed, barely noticing that she was no longer in her room but in a bright white space.
"Believe in yourself, believe in what you're capable of doing. You are more stronger than you realise. You have a gift very few others have been granted and carry within you a powerful ally that will help you along in your journey to becoming a warrior and a hero."
"That may be true, but what about everything else? I'm scared of heights, I'm scared of anything I'm not familiar with, I'm scared of bugs that are way smaller than the ones in Eorzea so how am I supposed to confront one that towers over me?" Melanie cried out with a desperate look in her face.
"All things will change over time. I had a friend who was not unlike you once, but it didn't take him long to overcome his fears and he became a different man afterwards. What you lack in now you will find over time and in others. What you need to do is believe as others have believed in you, and don't feel too afraid to ask them for help."
"If only it were that easy" Melanie sighed. "I've never been one to ask for help and mostly relied on myself to get things done, and look at where it got me. I've always walked the hard road by myself and I'm no more better for it. People ask me for advice and I've no idea how best to answer them because of my lack in social experience. The Warrior of Light is often looked upon for answers to riddles and tough choices, things I could never do by myself. The only choices I had were those prewritten for me and it was my judgment to choose which one to answer by and not always was it the best decision." Melanie hung her head low feeling hopeless. Ardbert closed his eyes and turned his head slightly.
"I didn't always make the right choices myself you know" he said as he opened his eyes again. "When we chose to side with Elidibus it was I who made that decision for us all, and we both know how that played out. Nobody expects you to know all the answers and to always choose the right one, and nobody expects you to do everything by yourself. Even if you were to try to walk the path alone you won't get very far. Remember what happened to Renda-Rae when she confronted Balam-Quitz by herself? Had we not followed her and helped her she would never have survived. If you really want to become a hero you'll first need to learn to change the way you think and be more confident, put aside your stubbornness, your insecurities and lack of trust and patience and stop looking at everything else to pin blame on and trying to do everything by yourself."
Melanie clenched her fists tightly, her face taut with anguish. "I know what you're telling me Ardbert and what you say won't be easy for me to change. Fourty years of doing things the way I've always known won't change overnight." She then looked up at him with determination in her eyes. "But I'll try my hardest because I know if I don't I'll never succeed, and time is too short for me to spend lollygagging. My friends are trapped on the First and I'll do whatever it takes to see them home, and whatever reason it was that I was summoned here to do I will see it through."
Ardbert looked back up at her with a smile. "I no doubts have faith you'll succeed, and if you ever find yourself in a situation where you doubt yourself just remember this conversation we had right here at this moment."
Melanie smiled back as Ardbert's figure slowly began to fade away and the room began to darken as if her eyes were closing once again. She then felt the bed underneath her as she opened her eyes and pushed herself up on the bed. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she looked around. Ardbert was no longer there and the room was the same as it was before. "A dream?" she muttered to herself. "No, that was no ordinary dream. More like an intervention" she thought. "Thank you, Ardbert" she said quietly, hoping that he'd be able to hear her.
Melanie heard a chiming noise coming from her ear. She raised her hand feeling around for where the noise was coming from and pulled away a small pearl encased in a golden setting that had been nestling within the folds of her ear. The pearl was emitting a gentle pulsating light with the chimes. Melanie sat up straight as she gazed at the pearl not knowing what to do as nobody told her how to use it. The chiming stopped and a voice started emitting from the pearl. Melanie quickly raised the pearl to her ear to listen in.
"Leineya?" Krile's voice spoke through the pearl. "I'm hoping you can hear me. I need you to meet at the lake south of Revenant's Toll in an hour. We'll talk more on your arrival." Krile's voice then ended. Melanie took another look at the pearl recognising it as a linkpearl. How she hadn't noticed it in her ear until now was a mystery. She decided for the best to put it back in her ear, if she were to put it in something like a pocket or a purse she could easily lose it or damage it. She felt around for the folds in her ear where the linkpearl was originally nestled and placed the pearl back inside.
Pushing herself off the bed she looked over at the clothes she had been wearing that were in a neat pile on top of one of the cartoniers. She had gone against the idea of sleeping in her clothes like last time and instead had donned a long night gown she found in her backpack. She figured the whole thing of sleeping in daily clothes was a limitation in the game engine and that the people of this world certainly did not sleep in them, and as for the bed sheets it made no sense to sleep on top of them either. There was no change of underwear in her backpack either so before she turned in for bed she had washed her underwear in a sink and hung them on the back of a chair near the fireplace where they dried out overnight. Surprisingly there were toilets too which she was thankful of as she had been bursting for the toilet all day and was wondering if she would need to sneak outside to use a bush. Again these were something not accounted for in the game but in this world they existed and she really didn't want to think too hard about how they worked here.
Melanie started to dress in her red mage garments and folded away her night gown and placed it into her backpack. Whilst in the game backpacks weren't visible they were still very small considering the amount of stuff they could carry. She already had a go at pulling out various things before going to sleep and tried her hardest to stiffle her laughter as items several times larger and heavier were just pouring out around her. She could only guess that there was some sort of aetheric manipulation involved and that the backpack was like a small wormhole where upon going near it items would shrink in size and lose their weight so that the backpack didn't get heavier else she would never be able to lift it from the ground. Despite this there was still some kind of limitation where the backpack would stop accepting items after a while so it wasn't an infinite storage space. She imagined what this kind of technology would've been like back on her own world. No more back injuries for carrying heavy bags around, no need for numerous and expensive storage units to store everything in. Even food stayed in stasis whilst inside the backpack so it didn't rot, melt or lose any heat. She could easily pull out a plate of baked fish cooked months ago and it would still be hot and fresh.
Checking to make sure she didn't leave anything behind Melanie picked up her backpack and exited the room. As she closed the door behind her the owner of the house she was staying at was passing her by. "Ah Miss Leoh!" she said upon seeing her. "I trust you slept well?"
"Yes, thank you so much for allowing me to stay the night. I'm ever in your debt" Melanie responded.
"Oh it's no trouble at all. It's rare that we have guests considering the number of people who pass by, but you are such a great influence to everyone that it would be ill of me not to offer you a bed. After all you helped my daughter so it's only fit I pay you back in a similar manner."
Melanie nodded greatfully. She couldn't remember what it was she did to help her daughter but clearly this lady didn't forget.
"Wouldn't you stay with us for breakfast?" the lady asked noticing that Melanie was ready to leave.
"Ah I would but I have an urgent matter to tend to" Melanie replied.
"I see" the lady said trying not to sound disappointed. "I'll let my daughter know you had to leave early. Stay safe out there and may the Gods watch over you."
Melanie bowed graciously and then turned around towards the front door. As she opened it she was met with the same thick pink fog she saw the night before only it was more denser this time. The area she was heading to wasn't that far away even on foot and wouldn't take much more than 15 to 20 minutes to walk there, although she wasn't exactly sure where she was supposed to meet. She poised a guess that she was to head to the nearest point where she could reach the lake shore which was a short ways from the rocky trail.
Battling through the dense gloomy fog Melanie could hear the slithering of giant cobras and the sounds of water gently brushing against rocks. The cobras hadn't seen her yet, but she also couldn't see them either which made her feel nervous. As she strained to look around she heard a loud explosion and the loud hiss of a cobra followed by a thud. Several hissing noises echo'd around her as the remaining cobras quickly slithered away. Melanie spun around rapidly trying to see where they were going and what caused the explosion.
"There, that'll take care of the rest of them" Melanie heard a woman's voice nearby. Melanie strained hard to see who the voice belonged to. The patterns swirling in the fog made it difficult to make out anything tangible until suddenly an elezen woman's form stepped through the fog followed by Krile and Tataru.
"Ah there you are Leineya" Krile said with a cheerful smile on her face. "I trust you remember Ephemie? She'll be accompanying us to Ala Mhigo to relay whatever developments are result of the meeting there to some of our most trusted allies."
"Pleased to make your acquaintence once more" the young elezen woman said bowing slightly to Melanie. As Melanie nodded back in response the dense fog began to clear and Melanie was able to get a better look at her company. The elezen woman had long mousey brown hair that was braided and pinned up at the back of her head with a couple of braided bangs hanging down either side of her face with silver metal clips holding the braids in place. Bronze clasps held onto the bottom of her large and wide pointed ears. Her grey eyes hid behind a thick line of black eyeliner and brown eyeshadow and a single beauty mark adorned her pale face below her red glazed lips. She wore a stylish red and brown leather bliaud and tall black leather boots that reached up to her thighs, and a large cloth choker was clipped around her neckline making her neck look even taller.
Krile took a few steps towards the lake looking outwards. "Ah, there's our ride at long last." she said. Melanie turned around to see a large airship behind her gently touching down onto the water as it made its way towards them. Melanie began to panic worriedly at the whole idea of flying.
Tataru gazed at the incoming airship with great anticipation. "I give you the Bonanza, the Scions' very own airship!" she said excitedly. "She's not completely finished yet and we were in the process of outfitting her with some newly designed manacutters for quick travel in future excursions. I was going to save the surprise for when our friends returned from the First, but present circumstances call for more immediate action."
"Um, maybe you don't know this but I have a severe fear of heights" Melanie said as her eyes remained fixated on the airship that just kept on getting bigger and bigger as it moved towards them.
"I'm fully aware. There's a fully sealed area below the deck you can sit in so you don't have to worry about looking outside or fear being blown off the ship" Tataru replied reassuringly. Melanie still felt nervous looking at the airship. Eventually the airship came to a halt just short of hitting the shore and a large roegadyn man dragged out a wide plank leading up to the airship. Melanie began to tremble as her companions moved forwards towards the plank. "All aboard!" Tataru chimed, then she turned around and saw Melanie hesitating and shaking. "Come along, it's all perfectly safe!" said with a cheerful smile. Melanie felt like she wanted to crumple on the spot and cry.
Krile and Ephemie stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Melanie. Ephemie walked back towards Melanie. "Here, look up to me and keep your eyes on mine" she said as she reached a hand out to Melanie. Melanie took hold of her hand and slowly Ephemie started to back towards the airship with Melanie following her and Krile close behind. "Don't look anywhere else, just keep looking at me" Ephemie continued with a smile. Melanie felt her feet hit the plank and started to climb upwards towards the airship. Her body began to shake even more and she began hyperventilating, her heart beat fast and hard in her chest. "That's it, keep looking at me, nothing else" Ephemie continued. Melanie started to hold on more tightly to Ephemie's hand and bit her lip to not scream as they scaled the plank and finally boarded the airship. Tataru waved at them from the shore once they were all on board and the roegadyn pulled the plank back into the airship.
Ephemie guided Melanie into the lower part of the airship where it was completely sealed with not even a window to look outside from. It seemed this part of the ship was designed to be used for holding very large cargo since it was sparce of any kind of furnishing. Ephemie sat down on the floor with her back against the wall and Melanie sat down next to her whilst Krile made her way back up to the upper deck via a nearby set of wooden stairs. As Melanie started to make herself comfy she felt the airship move foward and then jolt as it lifted off into the air. Melanie panicked a little looking for something to hold onto to brace herself but there was nothing. Instead all she could do was sit and try her best not to have a panic attack. Her ears started to pop with the change in air pressure. Ephemie on the other hand didn't seem bothered at the fact they were now airborne. Instead she just looked at Melanie with a reassuring look on her face. "I'm guessing this is the first time you've ridden an airship?" Ephemie asked. Melanie nodded and then suddenly looked at Ephemie with surprise. "Wait, do you know about me?" she asked.
Ephemie nodded.
"Krile told me a few things but not in whole detail. She said you're from another universe and that this is your first time in Eorzea. She needed to let me know considering I'll be the one who'll be letting the rest of our allies know what the conclusion to this meeting will be."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense" Melanie responded. "So, what do you think about me being from another world?"
Ephemie looked at Melanie a little amused. "To be honest I'm not sure. You do seem different from the Leineya I remember, a lot more anxious and uncertain. But you made it this far and that shows you have determination, something the Leineya I remember having plenty of, so I have high hopes that you'll overcome these issues and rise up just as strong" she said with a smile.
"We should probably take this time to get a little rest, this journey will take a while" Ephemie continued as she tried to make herself more comfortable. Melanie had to admit she was still a little tired from having waking up so early, not to mention not having eaten any breakfast yet meant she was low in energy, but her fears made food the last thing on her mind right now. Confident that the airship wasn't going to suddenly drop out of the sky or that she was going to fall through the wooden hull Melanie made herself as comfortable as she could and shut her eyes.
