Within her shrine, back at the village of Nia Khera, Milla Maxwell sits down by
the only piece of furniture in the entire half-dome of a shrine, an altar. She
closes her eyes and breathes; the Four Great Spirits, Sylph, Gnome, Efreet and
Undine, materialize around her, half ethereal, half corporeal. She is about to
speak, when Ivar bursts into the room, looking mighty upset.
"Lady Milla! Don't tell me you were with those clowns again?!"
"Hello Ivar. Yes, they helped me destroy another one of those facilities."
"But...! You should be asking ME to go with you instead!"
"Not now, Ivar. Have you seen one of these before?"
Milla hands Ivar the device recovered at the facility, a black and gold casing
of some kind with a bright blue gemstone instead, the size of a hand. He turns
it around every angle, and then shakes his head.
"No, this is the first time I see one of these. What is it?"
"We don't know," Efreet rumbles.
"But it allowed a man to call forth Aska. Or... his ghost, perhaps. It was hard
to tell, but that was definitely him." Undine adds.
"Who's Aska?"
Sylph shrugs. "He was one of the three entities that made up the Great Spirit
of Light... oh, about two thousand years ago. Before Rieze Maxia."
"And yet... I cannot remember that."
"Oh, well, that's okay. Maybe it's just your human brain causing you memory
lapses. There's no way all of Lord Maxwell's knowledge would fit in there,"
Gnome lazily offers, slumped atop his globe of earth even indoors.
"Perhaps," Milla sighs. "It seems that a lot of my older memories are hazy,
though. I hadn't noticed this until lately. I cannot remember the time before
Rieze Maxia. I cannot even remember Kresnik's face. If he were still alive, he
would surely lecture me."
"Erm, well... maybe you just need some rest? You've been going out a lot. It's
true you don't sleep but that has to be exhausting!" Ivar insists.
"No. I am perfectly fine. Don't worry Ivar."
"I'm sure the memory lapses will recede over time," Efreet says.
"Even if they don't, who cares about forever ago, right?"
"It's true there are more pressing matters right now."
"Yeah, think about all those apocalypses! We gotta be there for them too."
"Of course. Thank you."
"Hold on a minute! You can't keep going out without me. I insist, the next time
you go out you can leave the fighting to me, Lady Milla!"
"I... suppose that's fine."
Rather than argue with Ivar, Milla simply gives in just this once.
The memory concerns are more important than telling Ivar no, right now.
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