Embers of New Order

Aulus’ escape vehicle finally reached its destination. He was fortunate that there were plenty of magitek crafts fully suited for travel with ceruleum and other supplies. After using some forklifts and so on, he moved from the escape train to the airship with all his equipment. The ship had all the coordinates for the Garlean territories saved in it. As far as Aulus was concerned, he was considered to be Killed in Action during the siege of Ala Mhigo. He then programmed the navigation to take him to Werlyt. Gaius van Balsear used to rule that land for quite a while, the new overlord… was not someone Aulus would risk to work with, too unstable, just like Zenos, and likely just like the emperor. It was clear that Garlemald was not in a good place, the empire was due for a change but Aulus would not instigate this change, he wanted to come out on top and not to draw attention. The best course of action would be to stay out of the way of the events but get into some good graces with the opponents of the empire, to “convince” some people in Eorzea to grant him a peaceful life.

Aulus found the abandoned facility at the edge of Werlyt, where he landed with his airship and began to unpack. Working alone with just a few mechanical drones to help him was hard work, he could use some help but that would mean that people would know about him hiding out there, unless… He could make the basic setup for the soul machine to lure in some unexpecting people to turn them into his willing helpers, he should try to think about it. It's not that he can get the machine set and working soon, it will take at least a week to be able to repeat the same procedure as he did in Ala’Mhigo

Meanwhile in Eorzea

Eka Lizeh, a Miqo’te with short brown hair and dark purple eyes, stomped through mordona, frustrated quite a bit. She should be happy, the scions succeeded but Kerry, the Warrior of Light didnt come back from Ala Mhigo the same, even that brat Lyse seemed to be different, actually not causing trouble for once but it seems like that one may be chalked up to her finally growing as a person.

But what bothered Eka was Kerry, there seemed to be something just off, she couldn’t really consult anyone, she asked the twins but they just shrugged her off as paranoid, she couldn’t bother lady Y’Shtola who was still recovering from her near mortal wound that she suffered. With Y’shtola’s help Eka would probably crack the case really quickly, but now she was stumped, she couldn’t piece together or find a clue. One thing was for sure, SOMETHING happened during the siege of Ala Mhigo.

Eka decided to take a different approach. She hunkered down in Rhalgr’s Reach and dove into reports from the time and following the siege of Ala Mhigo, trying to find something amiss. Sure, there were suspicious reports that implied some looting and or theft, she passed those towards the relevant authorities.

What piqued Eka’s attention was the excavation reports on collapsed tunnels under Ala Mhigo, the reports assumed the tunnels collapsed naturally during the attack from all the rumbling as their supports were flimsy at best. On top of that, the room that was at the start of the tunnel was filled with corpses, which were reported by the party of the Warrior of Light no less, probably casualties of the battle. There was just something wrong. Eka decided to investigate where the tunnel led to. She found it ended many malms away at an empty lot, nothing left in there, no airships, the ceruleum tanks were empty. Either someone had scavenged the place weeks ago… or someone used it to escape.

If the latter was true she could find some clue, Eka investigated the locals. Her hunch was true, the locals spotted a flying object in the evening, the object headed towards Garlemald, after further inquiries Eka managed to narrow down the trajectory to be leading towards Werlyt…

It was clear to Eka she was on her own with this one. Few reasons compounded on her decision, first its Garlean territory, the bigger the group the harder would be to go unspotted, next if Warrior of Light was compromised in some way, that meant that Eka would be in trouble if Kerry caught on her snooping, besides Y’shtola, the only one she trusted was still not fully recovered.

So, Eka decided to leave the scions a message that she has a lead on something to follow and she would let them know if it's something bad when she finds out. She then packed her bags and headed for Werlyt.

Meanwhile in an unspecified part of Werlyt

Aloof Herring wiped her brow as the sun shone down on her small workshop, the Roegadyn woman wiped her brow. Her tanned body shone with a bit of sweat as she yet again moved her dark hair with blonde highlights.

Aloof worked on a magitek farming machine that broke down for some local farmers. Werlyt was a beautiful province and Aloof liked it here, her life was surely more difficult ever since she left the VII legion after the whole Nael debacle. She became jaded with the Empire, even if the legion picked her as an orphan and gave her a purpose. But now, after she got to see how corrupt the structures of the Empire are and that what was meant to be the path of betterment for everyone, often left the ones needing it behind, stomped over them even.

Nowadays Aloof travelled the provinces and just worked for the people, to hopefully improve the lives of the less fortunate directly through her work. During her time in VII legion, Aloof learned a lot about the machines to work with them as well as to fix them.

Lately there was a talk of a Garlean man coming into the village bartering for supplies, maybe she would get a new client for her works? Pure Garleans down on their luck tended to pay nicely. Time will only tell…