Proud Ala Mhigo, squirming under the Empire's heel. Castrum Oriens, poised atop its western border with Gridania...

Concealed as he was by the shroud of the rift, the slight upturn of Lahabrea's lips could hardly be thought indecorous.

He waited as the black-plated figure traversed the castrum in the moonless black. Gaius van Baelsar, legatus of the XIVth Legion, was far from his comfortable chambers now. No guards watched as he took up an unassuming position in the corner of a lonely storage sector.

It was conduct far beneath a legatus's station─veritable cloak-and-daggery─but then, what choice did he have? Poor fellow. Lahabrea's smile widened quite against his volition. He feared he might laugh at any moment.

"This will do. Show yourself," Gaius ordered into the night.

The legatus had been hand-selected for the task ahead. It would not do to keep him waiting. Lahabrea called upon a trifling bit of magic to reposition himself behind the man.

"How kind of you to arrange for this reunion. I presume my gift was to your liking?"

Their first conversation had taken place only a few days prior.

Doubtless planning decisive action to turn the unfolding turmoil to his advantage, Gaius had taken to solitary rumination upon his return from Carteneau. He was not the sort of fool to take his safety inside the walls of the castrum for granted, however. Even deep in thought, he was quick to notice the uninvited presence at his back, and as swift to draw steel. A mortal intruder would have been dead in an instant.

Lahabrea, on the other hand, had merely drifted like a shadow from the blade's path, unperturbed.

"Black Wolf," he acknowledged. "I am Lahabrea of the Ascians. I come to offer you the power to conquer eikons."

That power had lain dormant beneath Gyr Abania for five millennia, lost to history with its Allagan makers. He who unearthed it, the Ascian whispered, would no longer need to cower behind steel walls...

Gaius had given no indication that he believed the shadowy figure's tale. Yet neither did he interrupt its telling. If nothing else, the intruder's presence confirmed to him that the Frumentarium's reports of the "Paragons" were accurate. And thus did he see fit to dispatch his most trusted tribunus to excavate the site and ascertain the truth.

All had unfolded as promised. The legatus had acquired his proof, and now he found himself inclined to hear more.

"You will soon order a new conquest of Eorzea. For one such as you, there can be no finer prize than the Ultima Weapon... Or am I mistaken?"

"You are well-informed as to the inner workings of the Empire." The deepening crease in Gaius's brow was evident despite the concealment of his helmet. "But what of those of your so-called weapon? It will not serve."

"...Oh?"

"It was where you said it would be. A machina of immense proportions. Yet it is little more than a fossilized relic."

Though Lahabrea had left closer inspection of the Weapon to his inferiors, he was well aware it was inert. There was no need to divulge this just yet, however.

Amongst the countless mortal lifetimes the Ascian had witnessed, Gaius van Baelsar's was exceptional. This was a man that had subjugated five city-states and still hungered for more. Who executed orders without compromise, never hesitating to strike his enemy at the first opportunity. Such a pragmatist would not have slunk his way into this shadowy corner merely to express his displeasure. He wanted something.

Lahabrea waited.

"Given its age, its condition was not unexpected. Nor is it a problem in itself."

The Black Wolf hid his consternation admirably. His words were carefully chosen.

"The Empire has some experience with Allagan technology. Analysis of comparable relics should yield a means to restore the Weapon," he went on, his tone almost conversational. And then he stopped. "Yet it would all be for naught without its core."

Lahabrea smiled. He had been correct to judge this matter worthy of his personal attention.

"I see you grasp the predicament." Spreading his arms for dramatic effect, he continued, "The slaying of gods requires energy beyond measure. Thus were the vaunted technologists of Allag compelled to employ a source of power even they did not fully understand..."

"Spare me the theatrics," Gaius interjected. "That you thought to tempt me with the Weapon is proof enough of your knowledge. The nature and whereabouts of the core are no mystery to you."

"Indeed." Lahabrea paused before resuming his tale, "Though they knew little beyond the fact that it worked, what the Allagans employed as a source of energy was itself a storied relic." Lahabrea flicked the fingers of one outstretched hand to reveal a stygian crystal: the very power that the legatus desired.

"I entrust it to you, and no other. That this star might know the peace it once enjoyed..."

"Your hopes for the star do not concern me, Ascian. If this stone can grant me the power to end the succession of feeble rulers and false gods─to free this land and its people from their enervating influence─then that is the use to which it shall be put."

"Of course. Wield it as your own hopes decree, or in the name of those you would protect. I shall not obstruct you."

Gaius made no move to accept the crystal. Perhaps he yet harbored reservations about aligning himself with one whose true nature was beyond his comprehension.

But not for long. To a man who dreamed of bringing the world to heel─in the name of His Radiance─the call of power would be irresistible.

"'Go forth. Conquer. Rule.' Those were the words of your emperor, were they not?"

The legatus's silence remained pleasingly steeped in suspicion.

"Yet you alone see the greater cause. You alone see how unconquered lands cry out for a strong hand..."

It had taken some time to find a suitable candidate for this endeavor. Naturally, Lahabrea's agents had furnished him with considerable background information in the course of their search.

That Gaius was a formidable martialist and an ironfisted ruler weighed in his favor, but it was his fair-mindedness that had been the most compelling factor. He welcomed talented recruits of any origin, and was so diligent in his care for freezing orphans that, had he belonged to a more religious nation, he would surely have been destined for sainthood. Such virtuous zeal made it a near inevitability that he would seek to make use of the Ultima Weapon's power, never believing it could beget the chaos that Darkness demanded.

"You may have been watching me, Ascian, but do not presume to know my mind." Though his words were defiant, they rang faintly of defeat.

Gaius stepped forward, his hand outstretched to take the proffered stone, but he paused at the last.

"Tell me: how did you come to possess the core?"

As he searched for an appropriate response, an image drifted up from the recesses of his mind, and he glimpsed faces of which he had no memory. Why should they appear to him now? Lahabrea forced back the unease before it could overtake him, though the resulting pause did not escape his interrogator's attention.

"...We retrieved it, lest it be discovered by the ignorant. Not a soul alive understands the crystal's true power─nor have any ever..."

The unease resurfaced, given new life by the thought of a distant past. When did he himself learn of the Heart of Sabik?

And from whom?

It was of no moment. Naught mattered beyond the Rejoining, which would return the star to its rightful state. He had labored to that noble end for over twelve thousand years without rest, abandoning countless bodies as they became too frail to sow the seeds of chaos. Even as the years whittled, and the centuries gouged, and the millennia ground his once-bright passion to grey and lifeless dust.

Even as time scoured his heart of the faces of those he had once loved.

He could no longer recall his family, nor even the face that had first been his own. Yet his purpose remained, along with Zodiark and those who would see Him restored. That was sufficient. There was no cause for this...discomfit.

"Nor have any ever...?" Gaius prompted.

Lahabrea assumed an impassive expression. He had said all he intended to say. He only needed to place the crystal in the Garlean's open palm.

Why won't those damnable faces disappear?

A smiling woman with a spark of curiosity in her eyes. A man with flaming red hair and a determined brow.

Who were they?

No. Victory was close at hand. Gaius would use the Ultima Weapon to sow Darkness in Eorzea, and even should servants of Light attempt to thwart the Rejoining, the auracite's magick would lay them low. If only he could surrender the accursed thing...

Why do they stay my hand?

They should have been a long-forgotten memory. Cast aside in pursuit of his duty like countless others.

Why do they remain to plague me, when so much else was lost?

Vexed, he thrust the Heart of Sabik into Gaius's hand, and the faces were gone.

He would not explain himself to the legatus. Set once more upon his long-decided course, he turned away from the crystal.

Away from the voices that called to his heart still.