Afternoon. Two friends, interested in a formal greeting. A house in the outskirts between a large city and a small town.One, a mage that bears forbidden magic, not by his own choice. The other, saved from the destruction of her world, now given shelter.
[R]: "So, what did you say your name was again?" [A]: "Audrey Ronan. You?" [R]: "Rikh Kaitun, though the spelling trips people up sometimes." [A]: "I'm the same, some people mistakenly say Au-BREY instead of Au-DREY, haha." [R]: "What was your home life like? You said something about not having a place to be...?" [A]: "Yeah, it's... a long story. I think the best I can say is it's more... 'modern' than this world? It's hard to describe without mentioning things that aren't, well... invented yet, I guess??" [R]: "Hm... I guess that makes sense. Otherworld travel isn't THAT far off of a theory, especially with what some citizens mentioned about..." [A]: "What do you mean by that?" [R]: "Well... an odd rumor's been around for a couple years about the land 'existing before itself'; mentions of 'an Aethera before Aethera'." [A]: "Before-- huh?"
A mystery, now in the open, prime for questioning.
[R]: "One of the Deities, Phantasy, reportedly had something to do with it after a group of heroes went to her domain. Viscious spawn of nightmare energy were terrorizing the land thanks to Phantasy herself HAVING a nightmare, her being the Deity of sleep and dreams." [A]: "Fascinating... n-not the terror part though, aheheh..." [R]: "Hahah, yeah... I wish I could've seen it myself. People made the guess that defeating her nightmare caused that huge burst of magic to spread across the land, as they remember a huge light enveloping all of Aethera." [R]: "Some people panicked, some didn't notice until they got hit, and a majority got all of their memories wiped... but whatever selection process was used made some folks retain memories of their past lives." [A]: "That's incredible..! Who were the heroes that went to help her? Did anyone else return in this 'newer' Aethera?" [R]: "I asked as many people as I could, but not a lot could give me names. They think some current heroes like Leon and Luna were in this 'pre-Aethera', but I got a lot of 'I can't remember his or her name' and 'I'm struggling to remember what they looked like'." [R]: "One person made mention of some... weird green guy? Said his face was white and he was some Beastkin of draconic descent."
Suddenly, it sounds familiar.
[A]: "Wait, K-... No, wait..." "[R]: Do you... know who that is?"
She trips verbally and traps herself, forced to answer.
[A]: "Y-Yeah, uh... The group that helped me here knows who he is and told me about him. Has anyone here seen him around now?" [R]: "I don't think so, no. There's Isaac, there's Alna, there's a slew of other faces people have recognized as 'Aethera's heroes', but no green-wearing Beastkin anywhere." [A]: "(...that might explain his absence, then. Maybe I-)" [R]: "His absence..?" [A]: "S-Sorry! Did I say that out loud...?" [R]: "It's fine, Audrey, it's okay; you don't have to explain if it's private." [A]: "Alright, I apologize... Again it's just-- difficult, I guess, given how different our times are; it'd be really hard to explain how important Kade is to someone living centuries behind... n-no offense, Rikh." [R]: "None taken, I promise. Maybe it's more of this otherworldly complicated stuff, but even that's enough of an explanation for me to understand."
A moment of comfort, and relief. The girl is glad to know her troubles are sympathized with.
[A]: "Thank you... I appreciate that." [A]: "I guess I could try breaking it down if we have the time." [R]: "I'd say we do, yeah; I gotta meet up with friends in a couple hours, so we can talk here until then." [A]: "Alrighty, I'll try my best."