[Dark FFnut]

((I'm not reading that wall of text.

Doth mine eyes deceive me? Draz is back? Well, since we're not on a shore I assume he doesn't mean us. Either way, I've been planning this one out for a while now.))

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Palis, The Year 0 Aikia, Dwarf Tunnels

No more reason to love.

The words hit Glenn like a cudgel.

No more reason to love.

Hadn't he felt this way before?

When Cyrus died...

When Magus died...

For once in his life, Glenn had no idea where his path was leading. His chivalrous, knightly path seemed to have collapsed beneath him, leading him into dark, subterranean tunnels of hatred and sorrow. And where could this path lead? Further into this despair?

Or a way out?

Still sobbing gently, Glenn reached out and took Titania's hand.

"Thou'rt right, Titania, about one thing anyway. Variel's the only one who truly understood what hath been happening in the first place. He was right to keep us for seven hundred years. But now..." Glenn shuddered. "When Noah... when Noah sent Llideah to meet Variel... what did he say?"

Titania flashed back to that moment on the airship. When Llideah and Variel, in Titania and Magus, spoke of what was happening.

"After our seven hundred year intermission, we'll act out this exquisite play once more..."

But this time the ending will change to the way it's meant to be.

Titania looked up, tears shining in her eyes. "But... that means... Malice... he never had a chance in the first place. He was going to die because that's the way Gadriel died. And I was going to feel this way because... Llideah felt this way..."

"Ever since we entered Palis..." whispered Glenn, "...our lives hath not been our own. They belonged solely to Noah, Llideah, and the others. We hath not controlled this chain of events. Variel did."

Titania began shouting in her rage. "So... Variel did this to me! It's unfair! Why would he make me feel this way twice? Why would he make all of us suffer these same damn things again?"

"How dost thou think Variel felt? He, too, probably felt horrific guilt. Imagine if thou knew that thy best friends would be condemned to relive the worst tortures they'd ever felt - if you had to relive those same tortures - only to save thy world? To keep all others happy... martyrs need to make great sacrifices."

"Nobody asked us to be martyrs!"

"I suspect nobody asked Nichi to die either. Thou weren't quie so enraged at his death, nor were you enraged and Magus's."

"But I didn't love them!"

Glenn's voiced dropped so low Titania had to strain to hear his words. "So... this rage is merely personal. Just like Llideah's. Perhaps this would have been our path anyway, Titania, whether or not Variel had cast that spell. Perhaps Kani would have still killed Malice, regardless of whether or not he was predestined to do so. And thou wouldst have remained with this same rage afterwards. But even so, what would have happened if the spell really did control this? You never would have met Malice. You'd never feel this rage."

His eyes pierced into her very soul.

"You'd never have felt such love."

And that last sentence led back to the very sorrowful ending of Titania's sentiment.

No more reason to love.

But without this, there would have been no reason to love in the first place.

Titania hung her head. "Let's... let's go. Even... even if all of this..."

Glenn finished for her. "Let's give Malice and Magus meaning to their lives and deaths. Even if this all is a part of some grand story... let us give it a proper ending."