Her own smile was wan and distracted, as Xikkuyo nodded her agreement and fell back into place at Axel's side. She kept an eye out for the Shadows as she followed him, but her mind was wandering regardless, circling back to the Inn she had mentioned--back to her family, her friends, their workers, the people who she had known and loved and lived with and worked alongside her entire life.

Were they okay? Was everyone alive? Was the Inn still standing? Had anyone else been..... changed, the way the five of them had been? She had always wanted to throw away that certain and suffocating destiny, to be saved and taken far away, to a place where she could make her own choices and live her own life however she pleased, to a place where nobody knew her name.....

It seemed her wish had been granted.

So why couldn't she be happy?