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.
"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 break it down 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.
"I'm only interested because you've got such a unique appearance and personality that rivals everything else I've seen so far," 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. They run on scraps and dirt, oblivious to the cause of it all. They have no means to object against death. They know nothing of it. Those poor innocent fools."
"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. "Humanity must support one another. That is what I learned."
"It's... nothing," Dorothy finished. "I've been feeling quite gloomy recently. I come from a faraway place. Viatal. The home that no one has ever seen before. Maybe one day, I can take you there. You'd be the first, after all."
"Ardine?"
"He isn't from where I am. By some miracle, we met each other here in Gietha, and we share the same intriguing goal; to reclaim freedom in our homes. But my main goal is to return home to Viatal. My true home. The one I can call my abode."
"What is it like?" Lyn asked. "Your home."
"I won't say," Dorothy teased, approaching Lyn. "You'll have to find out yourself. But one day, maybe you can call it your own as well. A daughter of us. My-"
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. "Lordran..."
"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."