The waves of Shiva’s magic pulsing within her was making it difficult for Irene to sleep. Thankfully her restlessness wasn’t disturbing Seulgi a bit as the rancher softly snored beside her, hardly a care in the world. No, that wasn’t fair. Seulgi had been through so much already since leading them across the Veldt, but her conscience was clean, and her body her own. Those were the real differences between them, Irene thought. She pushed out of their bed carefully, and pulled Moonbyul’s coat around herself as she left their cabin, but almost as soon as the door clicked shut behind her, she felt another person bump into her.

“Oh-!”

“Whoops!” It was Wendy.

Irene paused there, waiting for the little witch’s features to resolve in the near perfect darkness of the hall before murmuring, “Can’t sleep?”

Wendy shook her head, her short hair swishing about. “I thought I’d take a walk,” she whispered back. “...What about you?”

Irene glanced up at the grey-black night sky peeking through the holes in the trapdoor that led up to the deck and turned to make her way to the stairs. “Me neither. Let’s walk, then.”

As the two girls alighted onto the deck, they realized how peaceful the night truly was out there on the isolated peninsula of Thamasa. The forest wasn’t teeming with nocturnal predators, the air wasn’t hush with the anxiety of an approaching encounter; it was quiet - tranquil almost - save for the roiling waves of power within them both.

The morning was still quite a ways off, but that hadn’t kept Sujeong from dozing off at the helm, wrapped in a thick coat as she curled up against the controls. It was odd that everything felt so safe this close to one of the most powerful sources of magic in the world. Their little walk took them to the ship’s railing, looking out over the dark sea of treetops, and it was there Irene realized she was alone with Wendy, for perhaps the first time since she had defected from the Imperial army.

“The pulsing,” Wendy began, her voice low so as not to wake the resting first mate.

“What do you think?” Irene asked, grateful she had spoken first.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Wendy shrug. “It feels like… something’s calling out. But I don’t know why, or how I should answer.”

Irene turned to her in wonder. That was exactly how it felt; it was a cry, a summons. “We should investigate tomorrow,” Irene said. “It’s obviously coming from this Gate the elders mentioned.”

Wendy looked at her worriedly, but nodded. “Do you think they’ll be… mad at us?”

“The elders?”

“The espers.”

Irene didn’t have the heart to answer truthfully. “How could they be? We did what we had to do to survive,” she said coldly. “We never wanted this…”

“We’re also victims,” Wendy quietly agreed, echoing a sentiment long established between the two. “We’ll go together,” she suddenly said, brightening up a bit. “It somehow feels like… old times.” 

Irene could feel Wendy’s hesitant gaze on her as she stared fixedly at the black treeline. There was a single curl of smoke illuminated by the moonlight, hinting at the village that had been hidden from the rest of the world for centuries.

“It couldn’t be further away from the ‘old times’,” Irene murmured, unsure of how much of those days Wendy truly remembered. “You know, until today I thought we were fighting the Empire… all I could think about- all I can still think about is stopping Leeteuk,” she paused, gripping the railing, “but after what the elders said it feels like we’re fighting…”

“...Ourselves?” Wendy ventured. “I thought a lot about what they said, about keeping their abilities hidden from others all this time. It reminded me of what the old Moogle chief said, how humans can’t be trusted.”

Irene was silent. Yeri’s outburst in front of the elders had echoed her own thoughts. If they had the power, they should use it to stop the Empire. To stop all of these atrocities being committed. But how could she say that in front of someone like Wendy? What would the difference be, using the descendents of the Magi against the Empire, pitting them against Magitek Armors? 

“Sorry, I don’t think talking it over’s going to help either of us get to sleep,” Wendy sighed with a faint smile. It was as if Wendy could feel the weight of Irene’s thoughts.

Irene smirked wryly. “I’ll sleep better when all of this is over.” And Wendy was wrong, hearing that she finally wasn’t alone in all of her worries was a little comforting, and helped her make an important decision. She turned away from the railing and began heading back to the trapdoor. “Thanks for the walk. Goodnight, Wendy.”

+++

The idyllic morning felt like a mockery to Yeri. She felt nothing as the crisp blue skies allowed the distant warmth of the sun to kiss her hair and shoulders as she made her way down the quiet paths of Thamasa. She slowed as she approached the apothecary’s shop front, familiar, though her heart pounded with anxiety as stepped inside, a tiny bell tinkling to announce her entrance.

It was several moments before Sunmi emerged from the back room where she had nursed Yeri back to health after the incident with the fire, and she paused in surprise as she saw the girl standing there alone near the door.

“Can I… help you with something?” Sunmi asked. The tone in her voice told Yeri she already knew what she was here for, but this was a first time for Sunmi.

And oddly, Yeri couldn’t meet her gaze for a long moment. She wandered over to the glass apparatuses that lined one of the many shelves. “What did he tell you? The old man.”

Sunmi thought for a moment, carefully gathering her words. “Enough. Enough to take over where he was going to leave off. He gave me all the recipes for her droughts - I practiced with him before he…”

“I want… to see her,” Yeri said heavily, as if each word were dredged up from some depth within .   

The stairs down to the apothecary’s basement ended too quickly, and Sunmi paused at the door, slipping a key in the lock. It was warm down here, far warmer than the cool fall morning outside. Whether that was by Sunmi’s magics or the way this cellar had been built, Yeri wasn’t certain, but the air in the room felt thick and oppressive to her.

Her eyes immediately went to the bed set up in the middle of the room, and its catatonic occupant. Sunmi entered first and made way, silently busing herself in a corner leaving Yeri to her thoughts. Yeri slowly followed, each step like she was walking in a dream, languid and weightless.

Everything about Saeron was exactly the same; the years hadn’t touched her. She lay there under the blankets for all the world like she was asleep, but Yeri knew if she reached for her hand, it would be cold as a corpse. Because that’s what she was. She was gone. Yeri had been trying to tell herself she’d been gone all this time.

Sunmi wondered if she should leave, return to her tasks upstairs, but Yeri’s cracked voice reached her through the opaque silence.

“What would happen if… if we stopped?”

Sunmi glanced over at her briefly, but looked away again just as quickly, clutching an old tome to her chest. “Well,” she began softly. “Everything would resume… the normal processes of… erm, passing.”

“She could finally rest.”

Sunmi nodded. “Yeah, she could.”

“Do you know why I asked the old man to do it? To keep her like this?” Yeri asked dully, her watery gaze fixed on Saeron’s face. She pulled the Phoenix magicite out of her pocket, rubbing its glassy surface with her thumb. A faint, golden glow emanated from its center, the essence of life, of rebirth.

Sunmi stared in shock, immediately sensing the profundity of the object. “What’s that?”

“What I’ve been searching for all this time. I traveled the world for this. I searched high and low for any sign of Phoenix in our world, and I finally found him,” she explained, hefting the stone. “But now… after everything… seeing her again…” With every phrase Yeri’s voice began to crumble, and Sunmi bowed her head, smelling the dusty pages of the book she held. 

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Yeri finally whispered as held the large shard of magicite up to her face, pressing it to her forehead as she hid her tears. “What will bringing her back do? What will it do?” What was the value of one life in this war between men and gods? “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

After a long moment, Yeri closed her eyes and returned the magicite to her pocket. “The next payment will be the last,” she said hoarsely, her voice emotionless as she turned back towards the door. “I’ll make arrangements to bring her back to her father. It’s only fair he should get to say his goodbyes, too.”

+++

Seulgi, Wendy, and Moonbyul had convinced the village’s wary blacksmith to let them peruse his wares, and together they wandered around his open workshop examining this and that piece of his craftsmanship. Unfortunately, there weren’t any weapons to speak of, but Moonbyul gave the other two girls descriptions of parts she was looking for to make repairs to her ship from the battle at Vector. 

“I suppose I could just have him make some custom pieces if you don’t see anything, but it’d be quicker if we can just find it here…”

“It’s mostly nails and…” Wendy paused, unsure.

“I think those are hoops for wagon wheels,” Seulgi chimed in, her rural upbringing showing.

Moonbyul sighed and rubbed her chin. “I suppose I could use those instead. They can be bent to fit, but really it’d be better if-”

The blacksmith gripped his hammer, wringing the shaft with both hands as he began to seethe. He was just about to make a comment that one looks with their eyes, not with their hands and to stop touching all his wares when Sunmi poked her head into the workshop.

“Oh good, you’re alone,” Sunmi commented with relief as Seulgi and Moonbyul pointed at themselves incredulously. “Wendy, was it? The elders would like to speak with you.” She beckoned at Wendy, and the little witch glanced at her friends.

“All three of us?” Wendy asked, finally gesturing at the others.

Sunmi shook her head, “Just you. Come,” she repeated, continuing to beckon.

Wendy shrugged her shoulders at Seulgi and Moonbyul and followed after the apothecary, disappearing back down the sunlit path that would take them into the heart of the village.

“What was that about?”

“... Do you think Irene’ll wanna know?”

Moonbyul and Seulgi took one look at each other before they bolted in the opposite direction, back towards the airship.

The Blackjack was visible even from this distance as Moonbyul and Seulgi sprinted from the village back towards their comrades, but as they ran a sound overtook the scraping of their footfalls against the dirt road.

The rhythmic fluttering of a Sky Armor’s propellers.

Seulgi put on an extra burst of speed and drew her longsword as she saw the small ‘copter heading straight for the Blackjack. How could the Empire have found them all the way out here?

The pair could see figures running back and forth around the deck of the airship but as the Sky Armor made a landing right beside the Blackjack, they began descending the ladder. A standoff was beginning as Seulgi and Moonbyul finally reached the scene, with most of the crew positioned behind Irene, who had her sabre drawn, and from the Sky Armor alighted General Jung Eunji.

“Eunji,” Irene greeted, a calm belying her fencer’s poise.

“Irene,” Eunji returned with a wane smile. The weariness in her gaze and voice seemed to hold the whole of the years of their service together. Of course she’d find Irene here, now, at the edge of the known world, at the doorstep of the Gate to the Esper World. She made no move to unholster her pistols.

Another figure hopped out of the ‘copter, but instead of standing beside the new Imperial General, she doffed her uniform cap and made a beeline for the crew of the Blackjack.

The whole group shifted in surprise until a voice suddenly cried out, “... Somi?!”

Somi stopped short, nodding tearfully as she smiled at them all, but it wasn’t long before Sohee, Yooa and the other members of the crew scrambled forward to pull her into a hug.

“How-?”

“Where have you been?!”

“What’s with the uniform?”

“Yeah,” Moonbyul asked over the commotion as she stepped forward, still in shock. “How? I… I watched you fall…”

Somi didn’t know where to start. The attack on Vector, the dog fight with the Sky Armors, being knocked over the railing, fighting for her life as the ‘copter whirled round and round, even just recalling the series of events made her dizzy.

Moonbyul seemed to feel the same and closed her gaping mouth. “Take her below. Let her get some rest,” she ordered with a solemn nod. Her heart was still too heavy from that day for joy. She was simply relieved her crew was whole again.

But that still left Eunji.

“Did you bring her back to us?” Moonbyul asked. “How did you know we were here?” 

Eunji shook her head, in as much surprise as everyone else. “I didn’t know she was yours - she flew with me from Vector… And I didn’t know you were here.” Her gaze shifted back to Irene, and she opened once before hesitating, and then after a moment finally asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue since she had laid eyes on the ex-general. “Where’s Wendy?”

Irene’s eyes narrowed, but after a moment, she glanced between Moonbyul and Seulgi.

Seulgi snapped out of it and stepped closer. “That’s what we came back to tell you… the elders took her.”

+++

Wendy felt a little overwhelmed to be the only one of the Returners facing the entire council of elders, especially after the way the conversation had left off the night before, but she found comfort in Sunmi’s kind face as she began.

“We’ve decided to let you see the Gate,” the apothecary stated.

“See it?!” Wendy asked in shock. “The Gate to the Esper World?”

The less grumpy elder from before spoke up. “Out of all of your companions, especially those bearing the essence of magic, we thought you might be the one most suited for the journey given their… erm, temperaments.”

She couldn’t deny that, but the realization that she would be going alone made her concerned. “I wish you would reconsider. They’ve all been resisting the Empire longer than I have, and Irene, she knows more about Magitek and the Chief Engineer’s experiments than anyone!”

“That’s not the compliment you think it is,” an elder grumbled.

Another elder held up a wizened hand, all knuckles and bone. “Enough. Some of us didn’t think it appropriate to let any of you near it, but here we are, so do you want to see it or not?”

Wendy nodded mutely, afraid to protest anymore lest they change their minds.

The journey to the gate was far longer than Wendy had expected. The isolated peninsula of Thamasa was hemmed in by craggy, impassable mountains, making any overland journey outside the confines of the village arduous, especially for a collection of octogenarians. It was half a day through the forest to the base of those cliffs, and then into a narrow pass where only a few of them could walk abreast at a time.

Wendy and Sunmi did their best helping the elders along, taking frequent breaks that slowed them down considerably. With every step they took, Wendy could feel the power within her threaten to come to the surface. There was something slumbering within her that felt like it was being awakened. The tingle in her fingertips, the tightness of her scalp, the prick of pointed teeth against her lip, it was all there at the edge of her consciousness, and it was only her subconscious denial that held it all at bay.

They gate was just as the elders had described - it looked more like a landslide than anything built by the Goddesses to bridge the gap between the World of Balance and the World of Espers. Even so, Wendy stumbled as they came around that final bend in the pass and saw the large mass of boulders before them. Sunmi held her up by an arm, watching her with concern.

“You feel it, eh?” one of the wizened elders rasped. 

“Who’re you kidding? It’s doing that to all of us,” another elder scoffed through grit teeth.

“Not the same,” the kinder elder protested, also eyeing Wendy. “There’s… something different about her. I think this is really taking a toll on her.”

“Well, what are we waiting for, then? Should we remove this rubble to get a better look at things?”

“Are you out of your mind?” an elder squawked. “If we remove all that rock, what’s left to protect the gate?”

“Then why in Seraph’s name did we climb all the way up here? Do we want to solve this or not?”

A silence fell between the bickering elders, punctuated only by the gasping breaths of Wendy as she tried to steady herself.

She was hot. Oh, it was almost unbearable, and even Sunmi had to release her after a time. It burned, like Wendy’s flesh might peel away to reveal something new underneath, or perhaps something old. An old truth that she wasn’t sure she was ready to face.

The elders began the momentous task of using their magic to remove the rubble and expose the Gate to the Esper World.

+++

The mayor of Thamasa groaned seeing Irene, Seulgi, Joy, Yeri and a newcomer on his doorstep, but he psyched himself up to do his elected duty and opened the door with an air of professionalism. “And what can I help you ladies with today?”

“Where’s Sunmi?” Joy asked bluntly. “She took Wendy to see the elders but they’re nowhere to be found.”

“They’re not in the village,” Irene added tersely, though in their hunt they had managed to find Yeri, wandering listlessly near the site of the manor fire.

The tall, wiry mayor frowned in thought. He had his suspicions, but if he was right… “They might’ve gone to the Gate.”

The newcomer, Eunji, looked up at him sharply. “The Gate? Why would they bring her there?” she asked in a rush, her voice full of alarm.

Irene glanced at her in no small amount of surprise. “How do you know about the Gate?” 

Eunji was surprised at her surprise. “They didn’t… tell you? It’s where the espers are.”

“Some of the espers,” the mayor couldn’t help correcting, though everyone ignored him.

It wasn’t Eunji’s fault, of course, but Irene couldn’t help glaring at her. “I never knew anything about it. All I was told…” well, it wasn’t important now. What was important was finding out why they took Wendy there, alone.

“We have to go after them,” Eunji urged. “If the espers see Wendy-” but Irene had her by the collar suddenly, pulling her down to her height.

“Irene,” Joy began, but Irene cut her off.

“Tell us what you know. Everything. Now.”

The explanation began disjointedly, Eunji unsure of where the beginning was, but the background matched what the Returners already knew: the Empire was using espers to power their Magitek devices, giving them unmatched power on the battlefield.

“So what does that have to do with Wendy?” Joy asked as Irene crossed her arms impatiently.

Eunji looked at them both in turn. “They aren’t just using the espers found in this world. There was a time when the Empire invaded the Esper World, too.”

As their gazes fell upon the mayor, he looked away guiltily. “We… we couldn’t reveal ourselves. We had to pretend… that we didn’t know anything, and act powerless. It was a long time ago - when they left, that’s when we decided to bury the Gate.”

Yeri was surprisingly calm in the face of his cowardice and after a moment, Eunji picked up where she had left off.

“They kidnapped the weaker espers they found there. The Emperor’s getting desperate,” she went on, watching Irene with a knowing look. “He sent me here to find a way to gain more power for the empire.”

“By kidnapping more of them?” Yeri interjected scathingly.

Eunji frowned. She couldn’t deny what the ultimate objective was. “He asked me to negotiate, but he said not to tell them about Wendy. She’s connected to them somehow, more than you,” she said with a nod to Irene, “and more than Leeteuk.”

Irene thought back to the dossier, the one with the name ‘Seungwan’ scrawled on it in fading pencil.

“Will they attack her?” Seulgi asked.

“I don’t know,” Eunji admitted. “I don’t know what any of it means. I’m not…” I’m not like them, Eunji thought. Wendy, Irene, Leeteuk, the four of them practically grew up together in Vector, but those three were always treated more like weapons than soldiers. Eunji could never know what it had really been like for them.

“So we should go after her,” Seulgi prompted, looking around at the others. Why did they all seem deep in thought? What was there to ponder? Wendy could be in danger - shouldn’t they do something? She looked up at the mayor. “Take us to the Gate!”

He looked over at her in surprise. “The Gate? That’s quite far away… what, right now?”

“Unless you’d rather stay here and hide,” Yeri spat.

The mayor looked like he’d prefer to do just that. His eyes drifted about his simple front room, a home that clearly lacked a woman’s touch. He had no family, no children. The magic that roiled in his blood would not be passed down to another. His line would not continue. As the town aged, and fewer and fewer children were born, the descendants of the Magi were facing a stark reality. They were dying out. In another generation or two, perhaps there would be no humans born who were naturally capable of magic. And when they were gone, what would their legacy be?

He straightened his patchwork vest. “Alright, but even if we leave now, we may not arrive until close to nightfall.”

+++

It wasn’t a gate so much as a portal. As the last of the boulders were removed by the powers of the sweating, grunting descendents of the Magi, Wendy could see it had been damaged in the rockslide. It was an arch, a circular opening ringed by stones etched with ancient runes. Wendy was sure they meant something to the elders, but she didn’t recognize them. She had other concerns, like their cracked surfaces, fissures that spider webbed throughout the structure, as if a stiff breeze might bring the whole thing crumbling down.

Sunmi stepped forward in awe, having never seen it before in its uncovered glory. “Built by the Goddesses themselves,” she whispered, reaching up to trace one of the runes with her finger.

“Before they closed themselves off from the world,” an exhausted elder wheezed.

A hush fell over the group after that as a low hum began to emanate from the arch. Wendy hugged herself as the roiling of her magic crescendoed, like her blood was boiling in her veins. It was too much - she felt as if she might be sick and wanted nothing than to move away from it, but something kept her rooted in place. Curiosity? No, something more base, something deeper within her, an urge, a yearning. Something was making her move closer, until she was standing right before the Gate.

She felt like her hair was standing on end as the air around them began to crackle and whip around them in a bluster of wind. The elders cried out as the runes in the stones of the portal began to glow with an ethereal light.

“What’s happening?”

“It’s… opening?”

“All on its own?!”

There was a moment where Sunmi thought she might pull Wendy back from the Gate, but despite the alarm from the elders, it seemed this was what they should have expected all along by bringing the Witch of the Empire here.

And she couldn’t deny a certain morbid curiosity to see what lay beyond…

With a wave of magical energy, the council of elders was swept off their feet, falling haphazardly against the boulders they had labored so long to remove.

A brilliant light shone from the portal, and Sunmi had to shield her eyes with her hand to catch the sight of Wendy stepping forward and disappearing within.

“She’s done it! She’s done it…!” one of the elders screeched from his prone position.

“She’s gone…” another gasped.

“She’s entered the Esper World!”