When she woke up, she found herself curled up in the middle of a large room with an altar. She looked around, holding her head groggily. She thought, '...Isn't this...altar...from my...no...it can't be...can it?'
She got up on her feet... and then it dawned on her. "I can stand?!" Tears of joy streamed down her face. "I'm not sure if it's Yahweh, one of the Shinto gods, Buddha, or Tao I have to thank, but THANK GOD I CAN WALK!!!"
She vividly recalled the day a street race changed her life forever. An opponent collided with her now-ex-boyfriend's RX-7, causing it to flip several times, destroying the car, and a piece of shrapnel from the wreck injured her spinal cord. From that day forward, she spent the rest of her natural life confined to a wheelchair.
She exhaled and moved to look at her reflection in a bowl of water to see if she looked the same. She parted her lips to see that she had fair skin, fiery red hair and golden brown eyes.
She stared at her reflection, entranced, almost dumbfounded, oblivious to the man approaching from the stairs behind her. He drew his sword, took an offensive posture, as if preparing to attack, and demanded, "Who are you?! Why are you here?!"
She recoiled in fear, replying, "Fiona...Lyonhart!! I-I don't know why I'm here!! I-I just woke up here!!" She had turned towards him and noticed a familiar rapier, but out of her fear she fell backwards and landed harshly on her butt.
He glared at her, "I find you in my home...MY property and you don't know why you're here?! You even claim to be MY Goddess? Do I look like I was born yesterday?!" He stepped forward and pointed his sword at her.
She backed away, recoiling in fear, until she hit the wall, then covered her head, bracing for the worst. She stuttered, "I'm telling the truth - all I know is my name. I don't remember how I got here or know where I am!" Then she had a sudden epiphany. She looked up at her captor, and his appearance was familiar, almost as if it were something she had created herself. "You said I claimed to be a "Goddess", and all I did was tell you my name." She moved to get a better look at him and recognized the pendant he was wearing as something she'd recently bestowed on her characters in her video game. "If I tell you your name is Seph, and that I gave you that pendant you're wearing, would you believe me?"
Seph's eyes grew wide with disbelief that a total stranger knew this much about him off the cuff, but remained unconvinced. He thrust his rapier towards her, and as tears welled up in her eyes she said quickly, "Sylph, you have to believe me. I gave you that pendant and similar ones to Cole and the others. I watched as all of you swore an oath to me. Look, apparently in this place I don't have Goddess powers or whatever, but I have my life and all my limbs, and if that's all I get, that's good enough. All I ask is you let me keep that. You don't even need to keep your oath if you don't want to."
Seph froze. Only his goddess called him by that nickname and only she would know about the oath. She had her eyes on his rapier that was a few centimeters from her neck. He lowered his rapier and returned it to its scabbard. "Tell me, Goddess," he asked, "why do you call me that?"
She exhaled, "You were in a field of wildflowers trying to practice your element. I checked in on you, and you said you were getting frustrated because you couldn't control the wind with precision. I told you, 'the wind is free and playful, it can be weak breeze or become a hurricane; my little Sylph.' I gave you that nickname because I thought you looked like a wind nymph when I helped you make the flower petals dance in the wind."
He knelt down beside her and asked, "Why did you leave us? Why did you send us here alone for seven years?" This was a question all of them wanted to know.
She looked down and shook her head, "I only remember testing something that would allow me to come see you, to allow me to go on an actual adventure with you, rather than just me watching you guys grow up from my bed. Then being in a dark space for a while, before waking up here. Maybe there was an accident...I don't know."
Seph created a light zephyr and blew her hair out of her face, but sat in silence for a while. He had no idea that was how she felt - she had always catered to their needs and helped them through their journeys. It never occurred to him that "goddesses" have problems, too. He asked as he put his coat around her, "Do you remember our answer that day?"
Fiona looked up and replied, "That you would kneel and swear loyalty to me." She knew his answer but, added, "You don't have to do that..."
Seph knelt to her and said, "You taught all of us to try to be men of our word. You helped us throughout our journey and we owe you our lives. So, please accept my loyalty." He put his fist on his heart and bowed his head.
She was quiet for a bit, "Alright, I accept it, but you should know that I...I am just a normal person." She wasn't sure if she should tell him about what or who she really was. Luckily for her, Seph misunderstood her meaning.
He thought, 'She gave up her divinity to be with us? All the more reason for me to be loyal...I should send a message to the others about this.' He said, "It doesn't matter, I owe you my life and my loyalty is but a small price to pay."
He stood up and helped her up before noticing an old scar about four to five fingers above her hips. His eyes flashed coldly for a moment before they softened, "Allow me to take you to one of the bedrooms. You must be tired. I will get you some proper clothes to wear."
She looked at her clothes and blushed while tightening her grasp around the opening to his coat. When she looked back up, she saw that he had closed his eyes and had given her an astrocratic salute before he said, "If you deem it appropriate, please let me know what my penance will be for being disrespectful."
She said, "I don't blame you, anyone would act that way when someone...intrudes like I did." She was trying to find the right words to describe what happened. She was about to move to touch his cheek but, the door opened at the top of the stairs and a teenage gaurd came down which, caused her hand to freeze in midair.
The teenager said while blushing, "Sir Seph, Baron Nicholas is requesting your presence." He then almost froze as he saw them and said, "I will tell him to wait a few minutes." He then scuttled off elsewhere.
Seph exhaled, "I have to go to this meeting. I will send one of my men to take you to your room and watch over you until, I come back." He had a bit of an annoyed look on his face before he moved to kiss her hand before calling one of his trusted men over.
She took a breath to calm down a bit and followed after him. She moved to stay at Seph's side which, surprised the others as she didn't look like a high ranking warrior or behaved like an aristocrat. What surprised them more was that Seph allowed it and would sometimes glance at or slow down for her.
He stopped at a staircase and said, "Tristan, take her to one of the unused bedrooms across from my room. Have one of the maids get her some proper clothes...treat her as the same as me or my comrades."
She tried to listen to the other people's whispers and his conversation with Tristan but, could only understand Seph's part. Before Seph left she moved to tug on his sleeve showing a bit of an embarrassed smile and whispered into his ear, "Um, I don't know why but, I can't understand what Tristan and the others are saying."
Seph showed a bit of a surprise in his eyes and asked, "You can't understand them?"
She nodded, "I can understand what you're saying but, the others...it sounds like gibberish." She moved to give a I don't know movement that the others could understand.
Tristan asked, "Sir, what are you two saying and why can't I understand?"
Seph said towards Tristan, "She was asking me to teach her our language. I didn't know we had a language barrier." He then turned to Fiona and gently said, "We'll figure this out but, I have to go to meet a local Baron. Will you be okay with that?"
She nodded, "I can try using sign language to them until, we do. I can't speak as well then the other languages I know but, it should work."
She then moved to Tristan as Seph said, "until, she can learn Auran language or we learn hers, she'll be speaking in sign language."
When a nearby butler looked confused before she made her hand look like it was talking before she put her hands in front of her mouth like the speak no evil monkey. Seph looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she said, "It's the language deaf and mute people use back home...that guy seemed confused."
she glanced at the butler before she moved to hug Seph which surprised everyone else as they knew how indifferent he normally looked. She looked up at him as each of the guys were typically a good foot or two taller than her, "Excluding how we met, it's good to see you."
He seemed to stand straighter and gave a small smile before she let go to follow Tristan to her room. When she was out of site, he said, "What are you waiting for? go back to work."