We are awoken far before dawn by a massive caravan of green Canii, dappled on occasion by other colors, filling the air with music and laughter. It's less than welcome this early, when my head is hazy and still recovering from my abrupt awakening, but Illuet is bobbing her head along as they turn the prophecy into a kind of song.

The living fall and rise the dead...

The smell of fresh herbs and spices sweep past us in a whirlwind, and when one Canis meets our eyes, I know this must be the Eudican procession. Altair raises his head and watches them, the train stretched out before and behind us close to the horizon. The Eudicans are limber, despite how heavy the housing and baggage they carry on their backs are, and when the younger ones shake themselves you can hear the clatter not of bones hitting each other but bells and trinkets. Their magic is so slight as to be a faint haze, near indistinguishable from the sun, and the magic that does curl about their bodies looks natural, just another part of their decor. Never mind that those feathers are growing out of the fur, or that that bark jutting from the leg is not costume.

We follow them into the city, quiet enough that we don't disturb them, but we get looks anyways. They are not the prying glares we've so often received from other cities, but rather kindred respect between wanderers. How long has it been since we met anyone outside of city or town allegiance who didn't want us dead?

Fur brushes me on either side, and our path narrows as the first buildings of the city welcome us in with their wooden arms. Never have I seen such a large congregation in a town so fundamentally unfit for it. If I listened carefully enough, I could hear the walls wail and sag with agony as Sentients press around them, standing atop roofs and holing themselves up on porches. Some Sentients are even perched atop each other, dragons holding smaller beasts between their horns, and the whole ensemble is restless. Hundreds of eyes fix a near empty stage, auras crackling dangerously (so many of them look like Vade and his gang or worse), and beneath the chaos of a mass in conversation I can hear the same words repeated again and again.

Prophecy lights up the audience like lightning. Penance, penance, penance, penance...

All snouts go skywards at once as a burning star crosses the sky, ash drifting down upon us. I feel nothing but there are audible sighs of relief from the audience as energy fades back into bodies, old wounds healing and the world made normal again. This is succeeded by a brilliant flash of light. Above us is a six-winged beast, her presence so large that the clouds and sun falter before her.

Suvi falls to the ground on four wings and every tapestry I have ever seen lights on fire in my mind's eye. The crowd roars as she stands atop the stage, then steps down to traverse the crowd. All of us stand back as two lines of silver flame split the audience, making her a pathway. Altair, and I, suspended almost over the inferno, are staring out as the crowd shifts and jostle around us. I just need to look at her. It is impossible not to look at her. Every facet of her image is already engraved forever in my mind. Descending from her horns and wrapping about her ears are two long, thin sticks, at the end of which burn two rivalling coals. The smoke from them makes the air around her waver, so that she is a mirage even up close. Her fur smells like incense and her pelt is adorned with cinder spots that move in frantic upwards patterns, like rising smoke. Her pelt is white with hints of ashen coloration, but this is tinted with reds and golds on her undercoat. Her eyes are bright enough to rival all of this--they are a piercing and brilliant gold, rimmed beneath with coal. She moves on land as she does in the air, her paws barely meeting the ground, and as her wings dissipate into sparks on the wind I realize that she is approaching us.

Dozens of Sentients follow her through the crowds from behind the flames, barking and begging and revelling in every taste of their light they can manage. Gold wings extend into being once more, the light coalescing into form, and with one sweep she has everyone down into a bow. I dip so low my entire jaw is touching the ground. Suvi's ember eyes stare back, alight, and the air is so still that it frightens me that I can breathe it in. The entire world, in fact, is no longer turning beneath my paws. Altair and I stand a little closer together, protecting each other's backs, but we don't know from what we are shielding each other. Illuet's flank leaves mine and she turns back into the crowd, straying from the flames, but we're packed so thick there's no way she'll make it out.

Wait.

I hear her breath in my ear, like the rasping from the inside of the seashell, loud as I'm hearing the Auspicia's voice in my mind.

I came for you. I've been hoping to see you again.

"What?" Illuet turns. The other Sentients are still bowing, and as the air stills around us, I'm certain we've all been trapped in the Auspicia's psychic grasp. Suvi flashes her a sad smile.

You are the light.

"You... know me." Illuet mutters, her aura flaring about her. "I knew it!"

I miss you.

"Me?"

Lotus. Not as greatly as your sister misses you.

Suvi prods our minds, or at least, she tries to prod Illuet's mind (and we pick up on it) with dozens of images at once, visions like the tapestries in Cinnabar's house ensuing in such incredible frequency that it makes my head spin. We all know enough about Lotus, lightbringer, hope of Omnia. What we don't know, what has been lost to time, seems obvious now-- it's all Illuet. It's always been her.

"N-na-naaa--" the words die on Illuet's mouth. Two budding wings of light emerge from her back, her own aura responding to the accusation, but she shakes them off as if casting water from her pelt. "No. Not her. I couldn't be."

Suvi does not grace this with a response. The motions of her wings grow heavier and more strained, as if she is beating them through water instead of air, and visual concern flashes across her face.

"Do I... am I supposed to fix anything?" she asks. "Maybe I-I'm supposed to see the light in everyone, or help bring it out, or if I just believe hard enough, throw all my energy behind it--"

Are you certain that will help? Suvi says.

"What else am I supposed to do with that information?"

Whatever you want to do with it. I wouldn't have given this world a choice if it meant they wouldn't make bad decisions.

"That's not an answer any leader would give," Illuet protests. "You should be telling us that we should believe in the good in others no matter what. You should- you should say that others deserve our best effort. Tell me I've been doing a bad job. I know what I did, and that I shouldn't have--" she looks from side to side, the same frantic panic crossing her face that Altair and I have become so accustomed to in our own expressions, "Tell me I can change."

Is that what I should say, or is it what you want me to say?

"I'm sorry." Illuet whispers.

"Forget sorry. Is it just going to be like this forever?" I ask.

Suvi tilts her head. Oh, so you are awake. I apologize that you had to see that. If you really must know, things come around, and I will bring things around. What will be will someday be, and what already is will someday be gone. Some things are infinite, others are ephemeral, and we, by the conscious act of living, occasionally get the chance to shape which is which. I have spoken to you because none of you are looking for an ephemeral way to be saved. Find eternal justification. Shape what you will, choose what you will, and decide who you want to be. Her wings lazily stir the fabric of time again, passing by us, and the noise sets in again, rowdy calls and desperate cries for help turning the air.

We stand still as Suvi strides the crowd, eventually returning to the front, and we watch as the magic of the crowd blares into dangerous, spiked fractal shapes for moments before settling into a calm nothingness with the lull of the Auspicia's voice. Penance, penance, penance... She is fire and lightning, perhaps light most of all, and her wordless melody, customary of ancient tradition, sings to the very spirit of the world. Just and sinful, Each word is overwhelming in such a way that it seems to leave you empty when she settles, but Altair has long since been drained of magic and I never had it. There is nothing for the music to sway. Despite the pounding sound, Illuet still shivers with light, her slightest of actions matched by the afterimage behind her. There are still white buds on her shoulders and her eyes are heavy with water. Burn out the light and end the hart.

I've heard Lotus and Natrina's story many times over, as simple as their quest was, as mythical, but seeing it in her eyes makes it close. I run through tragedies in my head alongside her, the words falling like rain, and Altair stands above us, so close that our heartbeats are in time. We make new stories there, under the oppressive, endless noise of her past and our prophesied future.

When it ends and Suvi goes skywards, we have changed in a way so subtle that it almost shocks me when I move forwards and my legs feel different beneath me. Oath binds us through the dissipating crowds, through the rising and setting of the sun where Sentients continue to leave slowly.

The day returns to something resembling normalcy. Illuet, Altair, and I walk past the stage, looking up at the image of Lotus clustered amongst all the other figures of myth. I step up while they walk on, casting glances back at me. "What? I'll be there in a second." I say. There are at least a dozen characters besides the Auspicia, and some of the most recent ones (older viviantes and other Defenders... nothing truly miraculous, let me assure you), but the most striking ones are still the first heroes Omnia ever knew: Lotus, Natrina, and Vivian, the three of them positioned on their individual tapestries so they are looking up at the first Auspicia, Aislyn. The latter is so radiant that she pulls away from them, soaring into the thrall of the second Auspicia's wings. Bitterness fills me like ocean water entering a small vessel. I never had a chance. Slowly a Canira walks by, muttering over the words of the performance as if it'll give him any kind of relief. His eyes narrow when he sees me on the podium, unbidden. "I need this," I tell him, gesturing to Lotus, who smiles at me with her wide, carefree brown eyes.

"Town heirlooms. Not happening." the Canira says, briskly.

"Really? We could pass it under the table, if you'd like..." I slide my pack off and bring out white flowers, fresh from their position next to their more addictive, magic-reducing cousins, who've long since been... retired. I had hoped not to use these, for the sake of not being run out of town, but I push it forwards anyways. "Guaranteed to bring you bliss."

The Canira looks up. Desperation sparkles in his eyes so brightly that I can't help but twitch my mouth up out of old, sad con habit. He draws the flowers towards himself and looks around the stage. "Er, well... I suppose, but I'd need to get the tapestry down--"

"No need," I respond in two voices, levitating it down. Though he has no mouth of his own, I can sense Cassiver grinning. With the same brisk assuredness, I roll up the tapestry and manage to squeeze it into my bag. The Canira's mouth hangs agape, and he begins to step back towards the edge of the stairs. Once he's gone, I take a few dozen flowers from around the base of the tapestry, laid there as tribute, and kick them into the bag. Frankly, I'm surprised no one has taken these, nearly as surprised as I am that their similarity to what I just gave that Canira didn't tip him off, but I'm usually surprised by how ignorant others are. Something about desperation has to do it to them.

I leap down and continue back towards my groupmates. It's been too long. The wordplay is shaky, but it was classic. It's a shame cons don't have the kick they used to. "Well?" I ask my companions, bag bursting with unsecured white flowers. "We should get out of here."

"What were you doing?" Illuet asks.

"I was getting directions." I say, ignoring how the pack bulges.
Altair shares a look with her. While Illuet is merely confused, Altair is shooting me the most hostile glare he can muster. Rule twenty-four: if the map doesn't have directions, and you don't have directions, there are no directions. (One of the more stubborn, obstinate relics of our shared youth.)

"So?" Illuet asks. "We continue south, then?"

"For as long as you insist on getting us killed," Cass responds.

Illuet looks taken aback. I see her through someone else's eyes, and I want to feel guilt, but Cas can't do that, either. "Seriously, Hawk?"

"It was a joke," I clarify, stumbling back into myself. "Look. We learned a lot today about you... you know I'm terrible with humor. It was a bad idea. I'm excited about the walk. Really. Walking is one of my three favorite activities--"

"You can stop," Illuet says. "It's okay. We know you're not funny."
I give her an uneasy grin. "Maybe we stop here for tonight? If Her Royal Luminescence agrees?"

Illuet knocks me in the snout with her paw. "Seriously, cut it out!" I can't tell if she's teasing or not. She really can't fight paw-to-paw, so that could have been a joke feint or her best attempt at a punch.

"That's fair," Altair nods, although he's still watching me for the telltale signs of fatigue, and he's found them. "But we're not going to talk about this?"

"What do you want to know?" Illuet asks.

Altair opens his mouth to speak but remains silent. He shakes his head delicately. "Well, I guess we should have realized."

"I think we knew," I say.

Illuet nods. "Thanks for sticking by me."

"Let's not have history repeat itself, huh?" I ask her, flicking my tail against her hide in playful retaliation. "We'll be here. Past Vivian's leap through time, past the Auspicia taking the crown and spirit of Verhamera, past it all, we'll be right here for you. Okay?"

"Okay," Illuet's voice chokes.

The tapestry rustles in my bag like a rodent. It doesn't matter what I do now, though, unfortunately, to some extent, even what I say. The Auspicia herself can't stop us, and I

have no doubt in my mind that no one can.