Lyn gazed out from the building's rooftop patio. It was midnight, but quieter.
Had Alfaic been here, there might have been some uplift, some cheer or radiance that could guide her to the second Lord. There was a chance, a slim chance, that her blade was missing there, and the clue to his rescue was farther than ever.
Rebellious to the cause, Lyn's attention caught itself to the children below, watched like monsters from the hooded guards. The children spent their days and nights playing together with what little time they had before the guards would surface and ruin the innocence with their esteemed power. The last time Lyn saw children was the massacre at Cethe's village, and nothing could ever forget her from watching her first few comrades desecrated at the hands of the rotten.
She looked away, but no... it was the only thing that she could find a bit of solace in without Alfaic.
"Finally, some alone time. We haven't properly acquainted," Dorothy's soft yet ardent voice called behind Lyn, approaching the rooftop patio. "After all you've explained, I know you've been through much. But I think it's time we really try to understand who you are and where you're from."
Lyn looked at Dorothy, phased by the unusual personality change. Something was different about her. Something was much colder than normal.
"Your fighting style and prowess. The way you move, talk, act... it's all so interesting. I have to know... where did you come from? And where did you get that tattoo on your arm?"
Lyn did not speak. She watched as Dorothy walked around her, checking her body and facial features that piqued her interest.
"Sorry. I'm prying too much into it." Dorothy said, denying her own words. She moved toward the edge of the patio, watching children hide from the guards seeking to capture those who frolic in the night. "Do you see those children down there?"
Lyn watched as the kids hid underneath a blanket of tarp as the guards passed by them. "Yes, I do." She said.
"In a human's life, we experience everything. Life, death... honor, betrayal... but some more than others. I wonder... if life is all about survival and nothing more, then is that life not worth living? These children struggle to survive, too. Their innocent minds are all oblivious to the cause of it all. They have no means to object against death. And they will never learn what it means, because at this rate, they'll never grow."
"They will learn," Lyn mentioned. "The ones from Stravia did as they passed on."
"Cethe was it? So, you do agree that death is the escape of their tragedy," Dorothy continued. "Typical."
"Why do you speak like this?" Lyn asked.
"It's... nothing," Dorothy finished. "Sorry, I've been feeling quite gloomy recently. Something's been on my mind. I may be with Ardine, but the truth is, I've been searching for someone for a very long time."
"Who?"
"Weird, isn't it? The truth is, I've never met the person before."
"How do you know who they are if you have not met them?" Lyn asked.
"It's complicated," Dorothy initiated, approaching Lyn. "I'm only basing it off of pure conjecture. I was told this person was supposed to mean the world to me... although I'm struggling to see exactly what that means. Trapped in the middle of this desert isn't helping my case, and neither is even thinking about them."
Lyn clutched her chest, searching for something to say. "I hope you find them."
"Strange..." Dorothy said, examining Lyn's face again after she responded accordingly to her story. She leaned closer to her with her lips parted open slightly. "You remind me exactly of her; even though I've never seen the one I've been searching, I can't help but shake the feeling... that it's supposed to be you."
"Is it?" Lyn asked.
Dorothy gave a light smile. But something stopped their conversation midway.
A rumbling snare ruptured through the outer walls of Gietha, shaking the very foundation of where they stood. Lyn and Dorothy toppled to the ground and hung their hands on the edge of the patio as Ardine and Scabs bolted through, balancing themselves on the side of the wall. Lyn grabbed Dorothy and pulled her up, reuniting with the group.
"He's sinking a city!" Scabs cried.
"Damn it," Ardine bitterly spat, rocking back and forth. "Hold onto something tight! This isn't the end of it!"
The four clung onto the same wall as Ardine did, watching as the sands in the night violently shake as if an apocalyptic natural disaster began to end the world. The outer sands gathered toward the same direction pointing north, leveling downward as the sinking city began to perish. Gietha began to angle itself, warping as sandy hills formed below. Not even holding on could last any longer.
"H-help!" Scabs released his grip on the wall, yet Lyn was able to catch him. Ardine held Dorothy's hand as the entire building toppled sideways, with them hanging on the edge.
Lyn caught wind of the device used to sink one of the cities; a massive whirling drill powered by intense gathered wind, propelling below the underground built on a system of plates used to hold all of the cities up. Carefully watching, she noticed an abundance of rotten making a home for itself near the base of the drill from faraway. Buildings and monuments filled with hundreds and thousands innocent lives toppled below from the force of the drill, drowned by the sands encapsulating their homes.
Dorothy closed her eyes in shame as Lyn and Ardine watched from faraway with a fervent stare. The sinking ended seconds later, leaving Gietha as one of the other cities to have been torn apart from the destruction of another.
"Kaiden's gone too far," Scabs said. "I can't believe it. He hasn't sunk a city for years. What changed?"
Lyn's eyes crossed beyond the path to aggression. "Krin..."
"Maybe," Ardine mentioned. "That fool would do anything for power at this point. His quaint ways are long over."
"I want to go," Lyn stated, dropping on the edge of the patio. She watched as Gietha's civilians began to bundle together, asking and confirming each other's safety. "I won't let the same thing happen again."