ARROW
Despite it all - despite everything they had done, all the work they had put in, all the desperate prayers and efforts of thousands of souls across Eorzea, Garlemald has still come. Still conquered. Still destroyed everything that those of Limsa Lominsa, of Gridania, of Ul’dah, cared for. It was enough to break anyone’s heart... or their will.
The Circle of Knowing - those people educated in or hailing from Sharlayan, dedicated to preserving Eorzea - were some of the Empire’s top prizes when the day came. Louisoix would weep, could he but see what had become of his pupils now.
Thancred didn’t know where the others were, or what had happened to them. He wasn’t allowed to know, because if he did, he could make plans. He assumed the same applied for the others of the Circle. But even separates and alone, the Garleans knew the Archons were dangerous. Had he been in charge of Garlemald, he would have simply executed them, and saved his empire the trouble. But that.... that was not what Garlemald decided.
No, they would neutralize the threat in another way, while keeping the key members of the Circle alive, aware their keen minds were as much asset as danger. Thancred knew not what had been done to the others, but to him? He had been blinded with ruthless efficiency, and would never see aught again.
And now?
Now, the newly-renamed Thancred aan Waters, the title of a non-citizen (a slave, his mind happily supplied), slapped between his proper name like a drunkard’s tattoo, was being presented to the daughter of Legatus van Hydrus, a girl apparently just a bit too young to have a title of her own - Yolanda Hydrus. What for, he did not know, but the hands on his shoulders shoved him into a kneeling position and his blinded eyes roved aimlessly around the room, seeking something they would not find - the face of his new captor, forever lost amid the shadows.
