The next morning, the streets of Gridania are being set up with a variety of decorations. String lights decorate the trees and snowflakes with ice-sparkles are hung all around the city as its people get ready for the upcoming Starlight Celebration. The event has completely caught you off guard this year, as you’ve hardly had any time to focus on anything besides your studies.

Eager to distract everyone from the events of the previous day, you coax the others into spending the morning perusing the vendors and decorum. You spend an hour or so browsing what's on sale, and briefly consider buying a ‘Sweet Dream’ cap, an iconic starlight look, but end up admitting you ought to save up for a new grimoire instead. You turn to the others and ask what they wanted for the upcoming celebration, and you get nothing more than a few ‘hmms’ and ‘umms.’

Erden seems a bit more distant than usual, and eventually insists that he needs to ‘return to the farm and check in on his parents,’ as well as reassure them that he has been healed and can return to work. You ask if he’s sure that he doesn’t want to spend a little while longer browsing what Gridania has to offer, but he remains undeterred.

There is something longing and stressed in his eyes, but you let him go all the same. After a brief channel into Gridania’s main aetheryte, he vanishes. K’yoko lets out a sigh of relief after he’s gone, which doesn’t go unnoticed by you. You comment that if she’s so glad to see him leave, that she shouldn’t have bothered to thank him for saving her life. Before she can properly formulate a response, you teleport away too.

K’yoko is stunned, and desperately tries to work the aetheryte to follow after you. Before she can do so, S’olahr grabs her wrist and says that it would probably be best to give you time to cool off-- not to mention, none of us ever took the time to return to the conjurer’s guild to see if they had more information on healing magic.

She pauses and eventually agrees that waiting would be best, and that bringing back a new spell for you would probably be a good ‘apology’ gift for her less-than-ideal reaction. In her defense, one can’t exactly blame her for feeling uneasy around people who regularly kill, regardless of their motives.

At the guild, the guildmaster explains that he is sorry that these geometric patterns keep coming through in small waves-- the guild does not have a good method of sorting its papers, and most of what they have on record is from ‘wandering conjurers’ bringing back random pieces of information they find while traveling the world.

He presents to K’yoko the geometric pattern for Cura, a more advanced version of the typical healing spell employed by conjurers. Were she you, she would note its many similarities to Fluid Aura’s-- it contains four circles connected by a spiral pattern, inscribed within a star. He explains that there is a bit more to its use than is standard, specifically that using it through a grimoire will require the use of some kind of gem focus. While conjurers are able to circumvent this by attuning to the elements, an arcanist such as herself will be out of luck.

K’yoko contemplates these instructions for a moment before calling Sapphy to her side and presenting him to the guildmaster, asking if he supposes that a carbuncle would be able to use the spell if it were etched into his gem. He informs her that a sapphire gem would be perfect for its use, but admits to not knowing enough about carbuncles to say with any certainty.

S’olahr is awarded an honor within the guild for vanquishing the cultists of Dalamud once and for all, and is given official permission to travel the world as a wandering conjurer if he so desires. He explains that while he will be happy to travel where he is needed, he would ultimately prefer to stay here and continue to learn more.

K’yoko spends the time meticulously copying down her own version of Cura before the two of them thank the guildmaster and leave. S’olahr offers to buy K’yoko a new cloak in exchange for the one that was bloodied. She seems excited for the idea and makes her way towards the markets to see if anything exciting catches her eye.

The two sift through a wide variety of imported clothes from across Eorzea and beyond, but try to keep things on the cheaper end out of sympathy for S’olahr’s wallet. K’yoko ends up picking out a thick, cotton outfit in preparation for the winter days to come. The arcanist’s guild doesn’t have the best insulation, so it can get rather chilly at night. When she tries it on, it fits like a glove, and she nearly jumps with joy.

She enjoys her new cloth for its practicality, something she emphasizes as important due to her close work with carbuncles. After S’olahr generously pays the bill, the two mosey their way back towards the main plaza.

“Arrest them!!” A loud and clear shout burst into the air, echoing through the marketplace from behind the pair. K’yoko turned around and was pushed out of the way by a tall mass of shadows. Immediately in tow was a small squadron of wood wailers, desperately running after their swift target.

“Was that…?” S’olahr squinted, trying to get a better look at who just ran past them. K’yoko, meanwhile, mostly is just trying to keep up with the rapid developments around them.

“Murderer!” A man cried out from the stalls, clutching the dead body of a Louix Maifine, inheritor of Idelle Maifine’s estate. The man in question was Apont Drehont, Louix’s uncle who looked after him ever since his mother was killed by Halone’s Champion. Looking closer, K’yoko realized that his throat had been slit, and reflexively covered her own. “I’m so sorry, Nephew-- we never should have stayed here!”

“But...but I thought…!” K’yoko struggled to get her words out, looking towards the group that ran past them.

The man weeped, bringing his kin closer to his chest and hugging him tightly. S’olahr rushed over to try and heal the man’s wound, but it was no good-- potent void magic was employed to force the wounds to be unable to heal. K’yoko began to panic, unsure what to do.

“Come on!” S’olahr urged, grabbing K’yoko by her arm and running with her towards the Aetheryte. The streets were thick with unaware shoppers and people rushing back to the relative safety of their own homes. Adventurers came crawling out of the wood works to look for this wanted killer-- a target who would surely earn them a fair sum of gil from the Twin Adders.

The wood wailers who were guarding it lowered their spears to permit the two to pass before returning to high alert. “Go to S’anah’to!” he instructed, raising his own arm up and beginning a channel. “Tell him exactly what happened here. I’m gonna get Phekda-- she’ll know what to do!”

In an instant, S’olahr vanishes, while K’yoko tries to maintain enough focus to figure out where Limsa is. Her mental search is frantic, unfocused, and frightened, but eventually she manages to find an aetheryte that she recognizes as home, and is promptly sucked into the aetheric flow to deliver her to the lower decks.

Upon arrival, she sprints down Hawker’s Alley, desperately trying to push her way through the crowd to make it to the arcanist’s guild. When she reaches its door, she stumbles through it, completely out of breath. In front of her are you and Thubyrgeim, whilst you are in the middle of giving her a report regarding your findings in Gridania.

She whisks you away to your private chambers and describes what she saw. You take a moment and pause solemnly. You explain that despite teleporting right after Erden, you didn’t find him anywhere in Limsa. You assumed he had gone directly back to Wineport, but you hadn’t gone to check. You can’t help but wonder what kind of situation he’s gotten into.

You insist K’yoko remains here with the guild while you go off to investigate his whereabouts. Most importantly, you stress that she should not tell anyone else about what she has seen. You are confident there is a rational explanation for this, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that you want there to be an explanation for this. Some kind of excuse, some kind of ‘get-out-of-jail’ card. More than anything, you just hope Erden hasn’t gone and gotten himself in trouble again. ‘If only the answers were simple,’ you think to yourself, as you pack your essentials and head back down to the heart of Limsa.