#despxt

The new world was a puzzling land of contrasts in a dull, hazy sky, and war torn, tattered landscapes. When she arrived, it was just outside of the destroyed remains of a castle overlooking a sand bar and beach, with a tall pillar of light off in the distance.

Something was calling her towards it.

And so she had set out on her journey across the barren landscape, following the roads where they lead, and avoiding the strange gates where she could. On her journeys, she had seen crystalline beings that resembled humans, but rarely interacted with them, if at all. She had been forced to use her magic, but blowing through those strange beings had been an easy task. They were barely enough to work up a sweat, although she could see them being troublesome in numbers.

Her road came to an end when her only forward path was through one of the foreboding gates that dotted the landscape. Some were active. Some were not. This one glowed with an ominous red seal, and she gently reached out to touch it.

The gateway lead to a winding path, with many of those crystalline beings, and she systematically destroyed each and every one, pausing for a break only briefly to kick open a chest and find a potion.

When she reached the end of the gateway, by touching a sigil of some sort, she was teleported into a large hall with winding blue tile and purple accents. She scouted for the exit, humming softly to herself all the while. Potion in hand, she sat down against one of the pillars and turned the bottle over in her palm, inspecting the contents.

It took a lot of courage to do this. It was definitely stupid of her. But grief could be blinding and she supposed that's what was going on. The whipping wind around her dried whatever tears she'd shed on the flight, the pain of loss still fresh in her system, even if it had been only five months since the attack on Deist.

Rumors spread like wildfire only a week or so previously that the Emperor of Palamecia had returned. 

That was impossible. Absolutely impossible. Firion and his friends had destroyed him. Right?

Maybe it was just her grief addled mind trying to convince her of this but she was sure that it was true. Who would think or want to spread rumors like that?

And thusly she found herself settling before the gates of the Imperial Palace, jumping off her wyvern before she'd even completely landed, though it was only a few feet.

"I am here to see the Emperor." She spoke, adjusting the armored half-gauntlets she wore and looking the guard in the eyes, attempting to keep her cool and her heart rate down.

Surrendering her weapon, a Holy Lance over to another guard, she patted her wyvern's snout before following four guards in through the gates. Thankful that it took at least thirty to forty seconds to arrive at the throne room, she managed to stop shaking, closing her eyes for a moment to steady herself before the guard in front of her pushed opened the doors and announced the arrival of an unknown visitor to the Emperor and Dowager Queen.

"Oh dear… is something the matter?"