Mission: On Thin Ice (Wings of the Goddess)
-I head back to San d’Oria with Cait Sith Naoi to see Sir Ragelise. He’s distraught to hear of Portia’s and Lilisette’s capture.
-He wants to save them himself but his wound/curse keeps acting up. The samurai woman tending to him in Portia’s stead, Noillurie, tries to get him to go back to bed. He doesn’t know her well.
-Out of nowhere, she proclaims her love for Ragelise! Wants to go to Beaucedine in his stead.
She’s super dramatic. “Say no more! For bereft of love and honor, a woman’s life holds no meaning. Rest easy, Sir Ragelise, for distance is no obstacle for two who are bound by destiny!” As she speaks, she flails her arms and twirls dramatically.
-SHE EVEN FUCKING PROPOSES MARRIAGE TO POOR RAGELISE WHEN SHE RETURNS. Two seconds ago, he didn’t even know you were interested in him. You move fast, lady.
-We ask Noillurie to join her expedition so we can help find Portia and Lilisette. I must first prove myself by collecting 20+ signatures of soldiers attesting to my skill.
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Mission: Proof of Valor (Wings of the Goddess)
-Some of the guards around town sign my petition easily. Others quiz me, while others give me quests before signing.
-I ignore the quest ones (stuff like “Get me a gnole claw!” “Get me crossbow bolts!”) and quickly get the sigs I need.
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Mission: A Sanguinary Prelude (Wings of the Goddess)
-We march out to Beaucedine Glacier. The enemy approaches and we pincer attack them.
-Cait Sith Naoi uses magic to search for Lilisette and Portia.
She sees Cait Sith Ceithir (the traitor) and Captain Lurzos (the Galka Spitewarden) marching the two dancers into a cave.
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Mission: Dungeons and Dancers (Wings of the Goddess)
-The cave is sealed. (God, just writing that gives me nightmarish FFIV flashbacks.) We use some of Cait Sith Naoi’s bomb charges to blast our way in.
-This dungeon is a labyrinth. Not a lot of enemies, but a lot of hidden walls I have to blow up with a limited number of charges.
-DAMMIT FUCK – I’ve just about finished exploring when the 30 minute timer runs out. I can’t think of a single time in this series when timers enhanced my enjoyment of any part of any game.
-Another full run through this place later and I find Lilisette and Portia.
-It’s a trap! Cait Sith Ceithir pops out, and Cait Sith Naoi attacks. A LITERAL CATFIGHT.
-The other Cait Siths appear and surround Ceithir. “[Cait Siths] Dha, Ochd, and Sia – their blood is on your paws.”
CAIT SITH CEITHIR: “Nyahahaha! They have only themselves to blame for being slow and clumsy!” You’re the WORST of the cats.
-Lilisette demands that Ceithir take us to Lilith.
PORTIAL “I… wish to see her again also.” Shit shit shit. Portia’s DEFINITELY going to join Team Lilith.
-Ceithir asks us: who chooses the future? Lilisette says the typical “we decide our own fates” answer, but Ceithir says no.
“Atomos. Atomos is what will choose the future. Decide our fates. Which future will be judged dispensable and be swallowed up and erased from existence? Wiped off the map of time? Let us go straight to the source!
“O Fearsome Distorter of Time! Devourer of Memories, and Decider of Fates! Heed my call!”
-A giant purple/black circle forms beneath Cait Sith Ceithir, and out from it comes a Cavernous Maw. Atomos itself.
-It starts sucking. Portia flies in.
-The caits fight Atomos’ pull by singing the words of Altana.
“When the Harbinger cometh, the Champions of the Dawn shall descend. With wings divine, in radiance blessed, the eternal night is end.”
-The evil Cait Sith Ceithir laughs at this as foolish and useless prayer. “Were you expecting divine intervention? A miracle?”
YES!!!!!!!!!
Literal wings materialize on Lilisette and me.
The wings of the Goddess. Champions of the Dawn confirmed.
CAIT SITH NAOI: “Wielding the light, they will win back the future… the future that Altana has willed for Vana’diel!”
-The caits start running into Atomos. They officially pass the torch to us to carry on their legacy. DO NOT DIE KITTIES
Cait Sith Naoi is one of the last to resist Atomos’s pull. “This, too, is the will of the Goddess. Altana’s will be done.”
-Something about all these caits diving in causes Atomos to cough, sputter…
AND A GIANT CAIT SITH EMERGES FROM ATOMOS’S MAW, FORCING ATOMOS TO DISAPPEAR HAHAHA
-After emerging, the giant Cait Sith shrinks down to regular cat size. It’s not called Cait Sith Naoi or Cait Sith Coig or any of the individual pieces. Just: Cait Sith.
-lololol Lilisette was so excited to see giant Cait Sith and her face fell when she shrunk.
LILISETTE: “I was hoping you’d wallop the enemy in your grotesquely enlarged state!”
CAIT SITH: “You’re obviously not paying attention to the finer details. See how my whiskers have grown both in strength and luster! See how my tail has been extended a whole paw’s breadth! Longer and more regal!”
-It’s time to deal with a traitorous cat.
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Mission: Distorter of Time (Wings of the Goddess)
-Cait Sith Ceithir summons Atomos to massively debuff my party, but we persist and wipe out that cat.
-Atomos is still inhaling, but fading. Cait Sith asks us to follow her in. We go. Propelled by the wings of the goddess, we dive into Atomos.
-Scene change, inside Atomos. Lilith is here with Haudrale, Aquila, and Sir Lurzos. Lurzos is holding Portia.
-The wounded Cait Sith Ceithir stumbles towards Lilith, begging her for help.
-Lilith kneels before Cait Sith Ceithir. “Awww, my sweet, pitiful kitten. Look what’s happened to you.”
-Cait Sith Ceithir snuggles up to Lilith, hopping into her arms.
“My heart aches to imagine all you’ve suffered. Come. Come and be comforted and freed from your pain.”
Lilith wraps her bat wings around Ceithir, a leathery hug. Ceithir’s eyes close in feline bliss.
“Now tell me, if you will. How was it that you allowed Atomos to swallow her up? You ought to count your lucky stars she wasn’t digested. I cannot overlook such a gross act of negligence, nor allow it to go unpunished.”
-Lilith squeezes with her wings, and… RIP Ceithir.
LILITH: “Hmph. Pathetic. Such an end is fitting for a creature of the Goddess.” Worst cat mom EVER.
-Haudrale introduces Lilith to us as “Vana’diel’s great leader and custodian! The Vana’diel over which Lady Lilith presides, however, is not the decadent, stagnating realm whence you came, but a future where men and women of incomparable valor and courage take to battle still.”
Aha! She wants a world of constant conflict and combat. Perhaps sees war as a purifying thing.
-Lilisette couldn’t care less for “the war-starved.” She just wants everyone’s memories of her back.
-Lilith brandishes the memories in orb form…
…and sends them crashing into a nearby pillar.
VFDJKLSFHDJKLSFHDS
“Sealed within were their memories of you. Each orb was a seed that might have sprouted and bloomed into myriad futures. Alas, they were judged by Atomos to be dispensable, and thus, were devoured.”
-Atomos is not just a time portal. It devours time. This place is the Walk of Echoes, a wasteland of memories and time.
LILITH: “No God or Goddess holds authority over the realm of mortals! It is people, not some absent deity, who determine the fate of the world. It is I who shall lead the people of Vana’diel to their rightful future.”
-Team Lilith prepares to leave.
Lilith offers Portia the chance to leave and return home. Portia starts slowly walking towards us.
LILITH: “Of course, I needn’t remind you what awaits you there.”
Portia stops.
“Will you live and grow old with Sir Ragelise? Or grieve his untimely demise for as long as you shall live?”
A long, long beat.
PORTIA: “…Please forgive me, Lilisette.” She runs to Team Lilith.
LILITH: “You have chosen wisely. Come, then. Let us walk hand in hand… mother.”
HFDJKSFHDJKLSFHDLS KLhDSFJKLDHSFJKLDHS
LILITH: “Detolilla… if you should ever have a change of heart, I will be waiting. Know though that time is a precious commodity. I must have your answer before the comet kisses the horizon.”
-Lilisette leaps for the floating disc that holds Team Lilith, hanging on.
LILITH: “Remember this. The future will choose me. I look forward when next we meet.” She kicks Lilisette off the platform.
Team Lilith teleports away. We fall out of Atomos.
-Scene change, back to the Glacier. The soldiers have been fighting off hordes of Beastmen to buy us time. Now we have to retreat to San d’Oria.
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Mission: The Will of the World (Wings of the Goddess)
-Back to San d’Oria. Lilisette hesitantly approaches Sir Ragelise, her father. Starts to tell her about Portia.
SIR RAGELISE: “Pardon me, but have we met?”
FUCKING LILITH GRRRR – Lilisette flees in agony at this.
LILISETTE: “What can we do? I’ve tried so hard, yet nothing seems to change. Is it because I’m… too weak? Would we stand a chance of winning… if I were stronger and more grown-up… like that Lady Lilith?”
I am almost certain now that because of some timey-wimey shit going down, Lilisette IS Lilith. The version of Lilisette from that alternate future.
-Scene change to a San d’Orian knight with Ragelise. The knight urges Ragelise to not just forget Portia for the sake of duty to his kingdom. If Ragelise defeats the Beastmen, would life without Portia still hold meaning?
-This mystery knight offers a suggestion, but we fade out before hearing it.
-Scene change back to Detolilla, Cait Sith, and Lilisette. I assure her that I won’t leave her alone.
-Strategy time. Lilith comes from a future where the Crystal War never ended, with unending strife. We have to find the fork in time, where she’ll try to turn the Crystal War against the allied forces to force this stalemate.
CAIT SITH: “It is a game of chess, wherein two sides struggle for dominion with a limited number of pieces at their disposal.”
Portia is one of Lilith’s chess pieces. They intend to execute their next move at the Battle of Xarcabard, and we have to be there to counter it.
-Scene change. Team Lilith arrives in Xarcabard, at Castle Zvahl (where the Shadowlord lives).
“The hour of reckoning is nigh. Spitewardens. Make ready for war.”
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Next time: Interlude in Bastok.
