Everything which happened to Kit these days was weird.
She had not expected life outside of Golmore to be anything she was used to—that had been much of the point of leaving—but she had not expected it to pitch her into one bizarre and inexplicable situation after another. She'd craved to see the world, to put her axe to use for those who might need it, and carve out who she wanted to be free from the confines of expectations place upon her by others.
Now she stood in a room made of spun webs dripping with slime, her axe in hand, a power she did not understand often incapacitating her, and a mysterious man in black robes who knew more about it than she did introducing himself. Many things about her seemed to surprise him as much as he puzzled her. That she understood his words, that she had withstood the touch of Ifrit enough that she had felled him, and an odd amount about for whom she now worked. On top of that, in the space between smug words and cryptic tauntings he tilted his head. Not being able to see his eyes made it difficult to tell what look he turned upon her, but she had the distinct feeling she was being studied.
"A purple-haired Viera." Lahabrea of the Ascians sighed, the sound falling somewhere between weary and amused. "Well, Bringer of Light," he said, "there may be a role for you yet."
She tightened her choke up the haft of her weapon. "It might be putting an axe through you if you do not start answering questions."
"You could try, but I promise you the result would be a disappointment." The eerie glow of the chamber where they stood cast harsh highlights against the reliefs of his mask, giving the effect that he was sneering. "If it is answers you seek, allow me first to pose this: while the Scions have you running from battle to battle have you thought to ask yourself to what end?"
"To stop the primal threat." He did not need to know she had many questions to which she was promised answers and had yet to receive any. "To find a way to save the tempered."
He puffed a breath through his concealed nose. "Indeed?" A low chuckle slightly shook his shoulders, the spiked pauldrons catching the sickening green light. "So focused you are on the sylphs, on Gridania. Have you thought to wonder what we Ascians might be doing elsewhere?"
She frowned, her stance tensing. "No." So far she had managed to keep her focus trained before her, on the next immediate step to helping the next person. Those she could save when she had been helpless save so many others so far.
"I thought not." He considered her, seeming to decide something. "Three days hence at dusk come to the Bramble Patch. Alone."
She was young, not stupid. "That sounds like a trap."
"Yes. I imagine it does to one such as you." His mouth drew in a smirk. "But a curiosity such as yours will only be sated by seeing for yourself." He lifted a hand, a swirl of deep purple magic casting the chamber into darkness as a portal opened behind him. "Or do not. Keep your mistrust a close companion and accept what you have been told. The choice is yours." He waved a hand above them into the webbing which criss-crossed the chamber ceiling, knocking loose one of the giant cave mites, kicking and squealing as it transformed into a massive, many-eyed creature. "Take your time deciding."
Then he was gone.
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