2018-09-02: Persepolis Rising
- Cutscene: Persepolis Rising
- Cast: Ghaleon, Althena, and everyone on Meribus and Glenwood
- Where: Across Glenwood
- Date: September 2, 2018
- Summary: After Sin destroys Azado and the Drifters flee, the Goddess Althena appears in a vision to the people of Lunar.
The warship appeared with a lurch in the ocean. It had to drop down about two feet, slamming into the seawater. Ghaleon heard the shouts and cries of the sailors on board. They desperately grabbed at rigging, while the captain cried out the orders to stabilize the ship. Even after so long a life, Ghaleon knew nothing about the nautical terms cried out as if they were sacred gospel. He had no mind to try to learn now.
His eyes fell, instead, upon the sight of Sin. He had no idea what the creature was, and that concerned him deeply. His fingers tightened about the railing at his side. He could guess, from the movement of the Blue Star in the sky, that hours had passed. That was when he saw the titanic beam of light shoot into the night sky -- and a ring of the same shoot over the broken remains of Azado.
He understood, then, and remembered: "Then... they're all returning to the Blue Star..."
Those Drifters had, once again, clutched disaster and dragged it back from the brink. They hadn't only saved themselves; they saved the people of Azado that yet survived, but would not have for long. A rare smile crossed his lips. "...Good."
The word had just been spoken when the titanic, raven-haired form of the Goddess appeared over the shattered husk of Azado. Ghaleon took a step backward. She towered over the monster, even; she reached to the heavens itself. Sin dislodged itself, hesitant, and floated backward in the face of such a thing. Ghaleon could see the gravitation distortions strike that titanic colossus and pass through. An illusion, he realized.
Which was when Althena spoke: "My people. Witness the very disaster that has been visited upon the shores of my sacred land."
"This is..."
"Has a title of nobility for Lady Kaguya been arranged?" Chancellor Bartlow asked, as he strode into the chambers of the Council Room in Ladylake's castle. Several of his attendants looked up from their desks and nodded. The large, portly man frowned. The war would be a problem; the removal of Runette Forton made it harder to prosecute. But with the Oasis Free Company, they had a chance.
"We've found a suitable title, which is still vacant, Chancellor," one of the young men with him said. "But--"
The windows of the room burst open -- as the windows of every room, across all of Glenwood and Meribus, did. Bartlow turned, eyes wide, as a vision played itself out in the sky over Ladylake. Sin was there, titanic and grey, and dwarfed the sight of the shattered ruins of Azado. But, towering over both was the image of the Goddess, stately in violet robes and her black hair. Althena held a hand up, and Bartlow fell silent.
"This beast prayed upon us in an hour of darkness... and excess," Althena spoke. "On Glenwood, foolish rulers thought to wage war -- while blind to the darkness within their own ranks. A false Cardinal of my church permitted a witch from the Blue Star to come. On Meribus, our own kindness blinded us to the travels of the Lord of Calamity."
Bartlow's hand shook. The pocket watch in it fell, dangling down from his coat pocket by a chain.
"It opened way to this new calamity."
The image of Sin retreated before the eyes of Blue Master Lunn. The old, wizened master watched with a frown -- seeing the creature flying away from Azado. The Goddess, he thought, could paint this how she wanted. They could claim that it was Her will that inspired the creature to leave. Lunn, however, knew of strength and weakness. He saw not a beast that was quelled, but a raging tyrant that had grown tired of its slaughter.
His disciples -- his false disciples, who only followed the Blue Dragon Fist -- gasped and murmured softly about them. They had yet to understand. They had yet to be initiated in the ways of the Shadow Dragon.
"This beast is known as Sin. Only a few of the highest disciples and most learned scholars of my Church knew even rumor of this creature," the Goddess continued, as her visage did to every habitation larger than a dozen people across two continents. "It is the sin of the people of Spira -- of those who chose to live beyond my Boundary. Of those who rejected my Seraphim, and sought solace in darker arts. It is not the punishment that I devised for them, for I have been a merciful goddess. This mercilessness... is their own doing."
The illusion flashes. The Goddess remains, and yet now images are shown of a city shattered; of bodies crushed; of a curiously empty landscape, empty of all but corpses. A city that, to the eyes of those still upon Lunar, looks to have seen a complete loss of life.
"And they have visited it upon us."
Lunn understood, then: when this was through, many of these disciples would learn the true way.
It had been a very, very long week for Lord Commander Sergey Strelka, the new regent of Rolance. He stood by the throne of Rolance, next to the child emperor, and stared out the open doors and windows of the castle. They had all been cast open, to reveal the sight of the Goddess. She towered over them, now; over a room filled with row after row of Imperial Knights, who had all come to attention, saluting a Goddess that could not see them.
Strelka, too, stood at attention.
"We shall not suffer this lightly," Althena says. "I have not made a mistake. A Goddess does not make mistakes. But I see, now, that the kindness of letting these creatures exist apart from my righteousness... was not, in truth, grace. The people of Spira have issued a dire affront to all of us. They have reminded us that we may not be divided."
Sergey looked up. His eyes widened, slowly. What, he wondered, had Garan gotten him into? It wasn't the first time he had that uncharitable thought.
"I, thus, call upon all loyal worshippers! I call upon every sword and spear sworn to your kings and cities... and remind you that they are sworn, first, to your Goddess!" Althena cried. "I call upon you to travel to Spira... to slay this monstrosity, and bring the light of your Goddess to their shores! You shall march there as one, behind my Dragonmaster and Four Heroes, and bring them the justice, the mercy, and the fire of my Crusade!"
The image of the goddess vanished. The knights all stood, stunned, and stared at where she was. Sergey looked up, but it was another voice from the crowd that called out first: "Althena wills it!"
More voices cried out, in unison, at a fever pitch: "ALTHENA WILLS IT!"
"ALTHENA WILLS IT!"