Chapter 1: To Save Her Love

I watched the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. She looked so small and fragile as they strapped wires to her.

"Are you sure about this?" Shale asked as she fiddled with some strange device.

"Yes. If there's a chance, I have to take it. I have to save her." My beautiful girlfriend, Aegis Moonfallen, was trapped in a coma. It hurt to see her like this. She is the strongest woman I have ever known. Faced down impossible odds. Defeated countless foes. They called her the Warrior of Light. I had never known love like I had experienced with her. And now she was out of my reach.

"Listen... if you go under you're going to be experiencing her memories. Are you sure you're up to that, Sphene?" asked Shale, turning to look at me.

I nodded. "She fought through my own memories before with the Endless Sphene. It's only right that I'd do the same for her."

"Yes, but this won't be like that."

"What do you mean?" "When you do this you won't simply be an observer. It'll be like you are actually there, doing what she did. Feeling everything she felt. In a sense, you will BE her."

"I see..." I looked back at Aegis. I noted the strange extra horns protruding from her head. Her kind, the Xaela as they are called, typically have horns. But she had additional ones that glowed a faint blue at the base. According to her, she had made a pact with a voidsent and allowed it to take over her body on frequent occasions. She would sometimes go days without being in control as a coping method for her depression. This prolonged connection had physically altered her. I suspected her current condition was also a result of this bond. Perhaps by entering her mind I could free her from her torment.

I turned towards Shale, now more determined than ever. "That's fine. I will gladly share her pain."

Shale gave a wry smile. "Somehow I knew you'd say something like that."

"Mama Sphene? Are you going to save Mama Aegis?"

I turned to see two little miqo'te girls. Our adopted daughters, R'tcha in her blue hoodie and Malaya in her matching pink one. Aegis had adopted R'tcha before I ever met her. We found Malaya all alone out near the Nameslates, a small forgotten graveyard outside of the Everkeep. No one knows where she came from. She doesn't even remember her real name. R'tcha convinced us that we should adopt her as well. I swear she dotes on her sister more than we do. Regardless, it has been an interesting time juggling being a mother and a girlfriend, as well as a queen. But I wouldn't change it for the world.

"Yes, sweetie." I knelt down to their level and placed my hands on their shoulders. "I'm going to bring her back to us."

"Promise?" Malaya asked, her eyes full of tears.

"I promise." I said with as much confidence as I could muster.

"We're counting on you." R'tcha said with a smile. She gave me a thumbs up and then hugged her sister. "Come on, Mally. Why are you crying?"

"I dunno. What if it doesn't work?" she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"It'll work! You'll see."

I nodded and stood up. "Take care of your sister, alright?"

"Of course! You just wait, mom. Soon I'll be as strong as Aegis and I'll protect all three of you!"

I chuckled and ruffled her hair which caused her to swat at me. Ow, that actually kinda hurt. I supposed that training with Gulool Ja was paying off.

"You ready, Sphene?" asked Shale, gesturing to the bed next to the one Aegis was in. I nodded and laid down in it. She began connecting some wires and strapping me in just like Aegis. I winced a little as they pinched at my skin. Finally she placed a weird helmet on both of our heads.

"Well... I guess here goes... hope you don't mind me dropping in, Aegis."

"Alright. I should warn you, the initial dive is going to be extremely overwhelming. You're going to get a flood of information as you settle into her memories." Shale said calmly as she typed on a keyboard. "I'll do my best to try and lessen the blow, but it's still going to be a lot no matter what I do. I'm going to start you off with something a little familiar. Ready?"

I took a deep breath. "Ready."

I don't think I could ever be ready for what happened next. It was a sensation like falling from a great height. The entire world seemed to drop out from beneath me as I felt myself pulled downwards. I think I must've let out a startled yell, but I couldn't hear it. My senses all seemed to vanish in that moment and everything turned blinding white.

Then came a torrent of information all at once. The sudden rush of it all was an indescribable pain. It felt as if my skull might burst. I saw everything through her eyes. I saw little Aegis, or Cota as she was called back then. But I didn't just see her, I was her. I suddenly knew how she felt growing up in that little tribe in the Azim Steppe. How she found solace in books. How she couldn't even lift an axe and was ridiculed by the other children. How her father died. How her mother was banished because of it. How she was raised by her grandmother. How she one day decided to set out for Eorzea, taking on the name Aegis. How she arrived in Limsa Lominsa.

As suddenly as it all started, it then stopped. I opened my eyes slowly to find myself standing in the Arcanist Guild in Limsa. The book in my hand was both familiar and new. It wasn't the tome I used as Sphene. It was Aegis' battered old tome she had meticulously studied in the Steppe. No, it was the tome I had studied. Because I was now her.