A questioning smile slowly grows over Aeryna's face. Her eyes dart across yours, looking for a sign, a tell, some showing of a joke from you that will never come.

"No?", she asks, her smile faltering. "What do you mean, no?" Her face subtly cranes and darts on her neck, looking for any sense of comic relief.

Terri slowly walks to Aeryna, putting her arm on her shoulder. "Come on now, let's move."

She ignores him and asks again, firmer, "What do you mean, no?"

You begin to move toward your horse.

Her watering eyes break. "What do you mean, no?" She whispers for the final time.

*      *      *

Upon nightfall, the forest is silent, still, and dark around your cabin except for a single candle by the window. A delicious dinner of cured fish, rich mushroom stew, and warm, fluffy, walnut bread is spread on the table before you, and yet you cannot find your appetite. You take another long, deep breath, look out the window, and catch yourself in the reflection of the candlelight. Hard shadows cross your copper scaled face. You think of her face. Her stare of disbelief. Her eyes of fading hope. In the reflection, your eyes are pools of shadow, empty and without detail.

"I had every right to say no", you remind yourself, hoping to dissolve the tension in your stomach.

A brilliant white light suddenly replaces your reflection from beyond the window. You cautiously stand up and move to investigate the scene and see a large column of intensely bright light pulsing seemingly infinitely into the night sky over the distant forest. You also notice it's in the same direction as Coldwin Castle.

You think to yourself if any of this has to do with your friends. You wonder if they're okay. Your mind races with questions about whether this is connected to what you saw this morning, or perhaps to the Autumn Edict, but all you can think of is Aeryna's face. Her shock at your response. Her whisper of betrayal.

The candle on the windowsill begins to rattle in its holder as the whole cabin shakes more and more. You catch it just as it falls off the edge. Behind you, dinner plates and cutlery clink on the table and your ceremonial plate armor clangs on its stand in the corner of the room. 

The night sky returns as the pillar of light in the distance vanishes and the rumbling fades to a stop. Looking out of the window with candle in hand, you see nothing else.

This day has been far too long. You draw the curtain and walk past the table toward your feathered bed. As you change into your bedclothes, you think. From the situation at Mars homestead this morning to the distant, unnatural pillar of light, to whether Aeryna and Terri are okay right now, one more thought joins the rest: "It’s not like I could have done something." You climb upon the bed, blow out your candle, and pull the thick wool blanket tightly over yourself. "No, of course not".

In the darkness, you see her face, Aeryna's eyes burned into your mind. "What do you mean, no?"

“What did she expect?” you think to yourself. “Espionage? Sabotage? Combat? You haven't been a soldier in years and even then, what if something went wrong? What if you got in the way? Or made a mistake? Or made it worse?!” At your best, you were a soldier. Even if you were in your prime, you’d be unfit for the task. Conspiracy unraveling now is truly something beyond you.

The image of the Nullpriest reporting aloud that Mars was alive in Ophanheim Central hospital flashes in your mind's eye. You roll over. "No", you think, "I didn't save him, the Nullpriest did". You think about Terri riding into town on Aeryna's behest. "If anyone saved him, Aeryna did". You think about her struggling to pick up the writhing body, about the explosion in the alchemy lab shortly after where he was found. Neither Terri, nor the Nullpriest, nor anyone else was there to help her. You were.

You roll over.

"What do you mean, no?" echoes in your mind. You toss and turn in your bed, searching for any semblance of comfort. While the food nearby is set to eat, you find you’re only hungry for yourself. “Mars is alive thanks to you. Aeryna is alive thanks to you. Why wasn’t that enough? Who else could you have saved? Shouldn’t someone have been there to save them?” You think for a moment. “Shouldn’t someone else have been there to save them?”

In the midst of so many other mysteries, one stands out above the rest: "Could I really have done something?” Alone in the darkness with the question of your own worth, you realize your answer is not that you’re worthy, nor that you’re unworthy, but that you’ll never truly know because you chose not to find out.

*      *      *