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“Here we are. As we agreed.”
Marielle, or as she was known those twenty summers past, Anastasie, watched as her Father passed a rather fat sack of coin into the hands of the Inquisitor. The tension in the air was thick, the harsh winter winds of Coerthas whipping her long dark hair in her face, each gust seemingly threatening to send the young girl, her mother and her brother tumbling over the edge and into the chasm below.
But what agreement did they make? Anastasie knew nothing of what was going on, only that her manservant had hastily ushered her out of bed before dawn, the family marched through the Gates of Judgement and to Witchdrop outside Camp Dragonhead. She was cold, anxious, clinging to her Mother’s arm.
“It will be okay,” Her mother’s soothing, warm voice was the only thing that kept her from shaking too badly, her gentle hand patting her head keeping her grounded, “Your Father assured me all will be well. Just trust him, Ana.”
The cries one of her brothers made when he plummeted into the depths of Witchdrop would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life; the look of shock and betrayal on his face when one of the Knights put a hand on his chest and shoved him over the edge into Witchdrop. The sickening crack of what she assumed to be his bones shattering upon impact followed by deafening silence.
“ILBONT!”
Her remaining brother was swifter than their mother, grabbing the girls arm to prevent her from being thrown over herself.
“Did you really think we would allow Heretics to escape? Fury have mercy on your souls.”
Around them, Ana saw Knight drawing swords, readying bows,
“Kill them.”
The world spun for a moment before Anastasie found herself in her Mother’s arms as the remaining members of her family fled.
But why? Didn’t her Father make a deal? Why did they kill Ilbont? They did nothing wrong! She did nothing wrong!
But they would get away! Peeking over her mothers shoulder, she could see the men getting smaller and smaller as they put more distance between them, so-
With a sickening, wet thud, Ana was sent tumbling through the snow before quickly getting to her feet and rushing to her mother’s side. She probably tripped, carrying her, so she had to help her, and-
“M...Mother?”
Her body was frozen in place, eyes wide as her mind raced a malm a minute at the sight before her; smears of crimson soaking into snow, her mother sprawled on the ground, her lifeless gaze fixed on her daughter.
And the arrow lodged in the base of her skull.
The next thing she knew, her body slammed into the ground, a sharp pain in her left shoulder snapping her back to reality; the arrow had missed her heart, now rendering her left arm useless.
A sudden haze of ice and snow obscured her vision, and she was carried off by who she would find out later to be her brother. It would seem that her father’s connections provided them prime means to escape into Gridania.
----
“So this is the woman who is to bear me a son?”
The way this man looked at her filled the young Marielle with disgust. Even at sixteen summers, she knew what walking filth looked like, and this man was nothing less than a festering pile of Gobbue shite. The remaining members of her family had taken up residence in the Central Shroud, masquerading as a nomadic family looking to settle for a little while. When they arrived in Fallgourd Float, they had lied and said the arrow lodged in Ana’s shoulder was from a robbery attempt by the Redbelly poachers. Another lie.
Slowly, Ana began to put it together over the past few moons spent living this false life, and learning what a fraud her father truly was.
“Oh yes, fear not, Milord. Women in my family are known to always birth sons first. Your soon to be son will be nothing less than extraordinary!”
The way he looked at her was nothing less than how a farmer looked over livestock. Livestock to be used and cast aside. Perhaps even livestock meant for slaughter got a better chance at life than she did at this moment.
---
The way the blood ran down his chest, how with each passing second she watched the life drain from his eyes, the grip on her robe loosening before falling to the ground to spend the last seconds of life in a pool of his own blood. Knife clattering to the floor, followed by rapid footsteps exiting the room, Ana fled.
Whatever fate awaited her in the forest was better than whatever awaited her when her father and whomever he was trying to cozy up to found the corpse of her would be husband.
Lungs burning, limbs aching, Ana didn’t know how long she had been running. Minutes? Hours? She didn’t know. She just picked a direction and kept going as far as she could, away from that shack.
Chest heaving, body aching, she slumped against a large tree, sweat dripping off her forehead. A moment's rest, surely she had run far enough that no one was tracking her at this point.
“You sure can run. I wouldn’t know, though, kupo.”
A sudden voice startled her, and she whirled around expecting to see a pursuer with a blade to be thrust into her gut, only to leave her corpse for the animals, and yet….
What was this fluffy thing?
“.....W-What?”
“I said that I was watching you run for the last few minutes, kupo,” this fluffy creature explained, effortlessly moving through the air as it seemed to be looking the girl over, the red pom on its head moving back and forth, “Whatever it was you were running from, you lost it.”
“....O-Oh….um. What are you?” Ana asked, now that her heart rate has calmed down.
“Are you serious, kupo? I’m a Moogle. My name is Mogret. What is your name, it’s rude to ask things like that without giving your name first, you know.”
Her name….
“M….Marielle. Marielle Padilloux. Um, I was running from some boars that attacked my brother, father and I….they told me to run.”
What’s another lie, after all…..
Wincing, Minfilia shook her head as the Echo faded, looking over at the other woman leaning on the wall.
“It’s kind of odd when you’re on the other end of one of those visions.” She said, fingers idly running through her two toned hair, “I take it you know now that a lot of my life has been a lie, huh?”
“Your father, he-”
“Crossed the Holy See by selling arms to them as well as the Heretics. He and my brother Jirroux both. Daft bastards didn’t think to cover their arses, and one night while drinking Jirroux confessed to everything, and the Inquisition decided to hold our entire family responsible. Me and my brother Ilbont included.”
“Ibont, he-”
“Had nothing to do with it in the slightest,” Marielle continued, “He had no idea what was going on, and my father sold him out for a sack of gil. I doubt he shed a tear watching one of his sons plummet to the ground, or watching his wife die because of his own greed. I don’t know what happened to him after I fled and changed my name, and frankly I don’t care. The both of them can rot for all I care.”
Minfilia said nothing to that. After what she saw, how could she remotely blame Marielle for her actions?
“One last thing.”
“Yes?” Minfilia replied,
“This is our secret. As far as anyone knows, Anastasie is dead.”
“Our secret.”