Xania/Stories
Quotes
Adventurer Story Episodes
What is My Life?
Euden: Why not? You've got to stop and smell the roses every now and... Hmm?
Euden: ...Ranzal, what's that woman doing?!
Xania: ......
Ranzal: Standin' at a cliff's edge... Distant gaze... I don't like where this is goin'.
Xania: What even is my life...?
Ranzal: Hear that?! Okay, I REALLY don't like where this is goin'!
Euden: Ranzal? Wait, what are you—
Ranzal: DON'T DO IT, LADY! THERE'S SO MUCH TO LIVE FOOOOOOOOOOOR!
Xania: Ohhh my! What a pretty butterfly!
Ranzal: Buh?
Ranzal: Oof, that's gonna sting... Ahem... Don't do anythin' rash, lady.
Xania: I beg your pardon? Rash? What do you mean?
Ranzal: What do I...? Uhh, I came running 'cause I thought ya were about to fling yerself over the edge here.
Xania: Oh, goodness. I'm sorry to have given you the wrong idea.
Ranzal: So you were just enjoyin' the view? Muttering in a darkly philosophical way? Sheesh, talk about misleadin'.
Xania: ......
Euden: Seems to me like you have something on your mind. We'd be happy to listen, if so.
Xania: V-very well. My name is Xania. I am a mage.
Xania: Until recently, I lived with my little brother on the family pumpkin farm. But when he married, I decided to strike out on my own.
Ranzal: Didn't get along with the wife?
Xania: Oh, no, she's lovely.
Xania: It's just that ever since our parents died, I'd been looking after him.
Xania: But now his wife... Well, she's amazing, frankly. She takes care of everything.
Euden: And you felt like you didn't have a role to play anymore?
Xania: ...Yes.
Xania: It's got me wondering what my life is even for.
Ranzal: Heh. It's easy to get lost sometimes. So now yer on a journey to find yerself again, yeah?
Xania: In so many words? Yes.
Xania: During my travels, I'm hoping to complete the book my father started writing.
Euden: Is that the one there? Better Living through Spellcraft?
Euden: Your father was a mage too, then?
Xania: That's right. He worked for the town hall, using magic to construct flood protection, treat illnesses, things of that nature.
Xania: He wanted to gather those spells into one tome so that others could make use of them...but passed shortly after he began.
Xania: I may be biased, but I believe the ideas for spells in his notes are quite unique. Sadly, the book is mostly incomplete.
Xania: So I took it upon myself to conduct my own experiments and record my results until his book is finished.
Ranzal: That's really somethin', you honorin' his memory like that.
Xania: Oh, it's nothing so noble.
Xania: The first line of his manuscript simply grabbed hold of me, and I knew I had to finish it.
Euden: ＂Life is the endless struggle for peace.＂ I see what you mean. That's lovely.
Xania: It's perplexing. He was just an ordinary local official. I'd never heard him speak of war or fighting once.
Ranzal: So the curiosity's eatin' at ya?
Xania: I can't help but feel as though I'll learn the reason if I can finish his manuscript.
Xania: And that maybe I'll find my own answer for what life is along the way.
Ranzal: Well, hey, havin' a goal's important.
Euden: Agreed. Fortune saw fit to cross our paths here. If there's any way I can help you, let me know.
Xania: In that case, I do have one question. I've heard of someone in these parts fighting for peace with body and soul.
Xania: I think if I'm ever going to understand what my father meant, it will be from observing someone like that.
Xania: Apparently their name is Euden, but no one seems to know where to find—
Ranzal: HAH! Bwaaa ha ha ha! Ya wanna talk about fortune? How crazy is that?!
Euden: Pretty crazy. Xania, welcome aboard!
Xania: Hm? I... What?
An Endless Struggle
Xania: ...There. That should be hot enough to disinfect the blade.
Cleo: I appreciate the help. There's been a spate of food poisoning going around, and I would like to spare everyone that fate.
Euden: Huh! I never would have thought to use fire magic for something like that.
Xania: It's one of my father's little tricks.
Xania: It's quite effective, once you learn to control it well enough not to burn your kitchen down.
Elisanne: Xania, could I borrow you a moment?
Elisanne: The tip of my lance is chipped, and I haven't the time to replace it just now.
Xania: In need of a quick repair? I believe I have just the thing.
Xania: I'll focus my magic into one fingertip, draw it lightly over the nick, aaand...there. Soldered smooth.
Elisanne: Ah, that's lovely! Thank you, dear.
Euden: Another of your father's tricks?
Euden: He had an interesting way of looking at problems. Very outside the box.
Xania: Ha! Yes, he really did. Thank you.
Xania: Though that makes me all the more curious as to why he would describe life as an ＂endless struggle for peace.＂
Xania: Since coming here, I've had the chance to put many of his ideas into action.
Xania: But I feel like I'm no closer to finding the answers I seek.
Xania: What did peace mean to him? How did he view his life?
Xania: How do I view my own?
Euden: Well, there's no rush. Take your time to really think it over.
Ranzal: Yeah, what he said.
Ranzal: Whenever I try to think too hard, I just give myself a headache. Times like that, the best medicine's havin' a little fun!
Xania: I don't really think—
Ranzal: Great! It's settled. Next question.
Ranzal: Yer old man have any ideas for a crowd-pleaser?
Xania: I'm sorry? If you mean something like a party trick, I'm afraid he didn't.
Ranzal: C'mon, there's gotta be somethin'.
Ranzal: Don't leave me hangin'! I promised the townsfolk I'd show 'em somethin' they ain't never seen before! ...Please?
Euden: Ranzal, you can't go around making wild promises like that.
Ranzal: How is that a wild promise?
Ranzal: Look, I just need one little trick that gets me a standin' ovation and the crowd's adulation. No big!
Xania: Well, I could cast an enchantment that gives you an uncannily good animal impression? How's that sound?
Xania: Say no more, you silly man. Speak like an amphibian!
Ranzal: Animal impressions are the lowest form of performance art. Haven't ya got anything a little more...riiibbit?
Ranzal: Riiib-ribbit? Rib-riiib-ribbit?
Euden: Ha ha ha! That frog impression IS good! I wouldn't know you from the real thing!
Ranzal: Rib-rib-rib-RIBBIT! Ribbit CROAAAK!
Xania: Originally, it was a spell to help blend in with your surroundings to elude monsters, but Father never quite perfected it...
Ranzal: Rib-ribbit... *hop* *hop* *hop*
Euden: Ranzal?! Wh-where are you going?
Xania: Cleo put me up to this, by the way.
Xania: She said his boasts were getting out of hand and he needed a bit of tough love to set him straight.
Cleo: Then she watched the entire thing go down. ...She loved it, by the way.
Cleo: Thank you, Xania. Now we'll finally have a little peace around here.
Xania: Ha ha! Do you suppose this is what the ＂struggle for peace＂ looks like?
Euden: I'm going to guess that's a no.
A Letter from Her Brother
Euden: Xania, back me up!
Xania: Right! Blazing ivy far afield, gather now to be his shield!
Euden: Hraaaah!
Euden: That's the last of the stolen parcels.
Euden: Hm? There's an envelope addressed to the castle. The sender's name is—
Xania: Ahhh! That letter!
Euden: Xania? What are you doing here?
Xania: Oh, hello. I was just reading this letter.
Euden: From your brother back home?
Xania: Yes. He says this year is looking like a bumper pumpkin crop.
Xania: Then he goes on to brag about his amazing wife for six more pages. Heh.
Euden: You seem happy.
Xania: I am, though it stings a little, too.
Xania: I'd always thought of him as something of a lovable mess that I'd always have to watch out for.
Xania: Then he goes and finds an amazing woman to marry him.
Xania: Talk about a surprise.
Xania: But that's when it hit me. He'd grown up into a capable man.
Xania: I was proud, of course, but...it also meant that he would be fine without me.
Xania: Add to that all the amazing support she gives him, and I really began to feel like a third wheel.
Xania: Though she's far too caring for me to ever be resentful. ...Heh. It's almost infuriating.
Xania: So there I was, left with nowhere to pour my energy.
Euden: A fire mage, all burnt out.
Xania: Ironic, no? For a while, I tried to focus on the vegetable garden I'd kept since I was a girl. I liked it...but found myself distracted.
Xania: I was in the shed one day sorting through my tools when I found Father's book entirely by accident.
Xania: I have no idea why a memento of him would have gone forgotten in a shed for so long.
Xania: But I'd certainly still be prodding at cabbages in that garden had I not discovered it.
Euden: What was your father like?
Xania: A town official like you'd find anywhere.
Xania: Kind and generous, possibly to a fault. He was always taking on new projects and responsibilities.
Xania: On his days off, he always made time to teach me magic.
Xania: I certainly wouldn't be a mage today if not for him.
Euden: Do you suppose he might have left the book unfinished intentionally?
Xania: ...I'm sorry?
Euden: He spent his life helping others, right? Maybe he knew you'd need a little push when your brother married.
Xania: I doubt that. I never could have imagined where I am now, so surely HE couldn't have predicted it.
Euden: I'm not so sure. It doesn't take a wizard to see you're a responsible, caring person.
Euden: Maybe he left behind something for you to pour yourself into besides your brother.
Xania: An unfinished manuscript?
Xania: You really think he might have left it as kindling to relight the fire that guttered out in me?
Euden: Maybe he left it in that garden shed because he knew that way you'd be the one to find it.
Euden: ...Just a theory.
Xania: No, but...given the man he was, I can almost believe it. Heh...
Applied Knowledge
Euden: You don't sound very happy.
Xania: It ended before I found my answer.
Xania: I still have no clue what he meant when he wrote that ＂life is the endless struggle for peace.＂
Xania: And I'm even further from knowing what my own life means to me...
Xania: What do I do now that the manuscript is done? Where do I go?
Xania: *sigh*
Euden: Uh-oh. I can see the fire in you flickering out again.
Cleo: Euden, come quickly! Elisanne is hurt!
Ranzal: One of the villagers asked her to take care of some fiends in the woods.
Ranzal: She got 'em, but...
Elisanne: One of them had a venomous sting.
Elisanne: I was clumsy enough to let it get me, and... *COUGH* Hrngh...
Ranzal: I told her not to go alone, but she said it wasn't worth botherin' ya over.
Cleo: The stinger is still deep inside the wound.
Cleo: My healing magic can't help her unless we can extract it.
Euden: ...Cutting her open is the only option?
Cleo: And it has to be now. We don't have time to wait for a proper surgeon.
Ranzal: We got anybody here what can manage somethin' like that?
Ranzal: One slip of the wrist, and she'll have a lot more'n a nasty scar to worry about.
Cleo: Even if extraction is possible, if there was some way to just destroy the barb...
Xania: Wait... Wait! I think there might be!
Xania: It was in my father's book! A way to control the intensity of a fire spell and concentrate it at a single point!
Xania: Applied properly, that might be able to burn away the stinger without requiring surgery!
Cleo: An extremely small-scale burst of fire applied via the wound's opening... That might actually work!
Xania: I think so!
Euden: You're the only one among us capable of something like that, Xania. Will you give it a try?
Xania: Of course!
Cleo: ...Elisanne is sleeping soundly.
Cleo: She should wake up feeling good as new in the morning.
Euden: Thank you, Xania. You saved her.
Xania: Oh, I think that's an exaggeration. And I wouldn't have thought of it if not for Father's book, anyway.
Euden: Theory isn't what saved her life.
Euden: You applied his knowledge. Invented a new use for it.
Xania: You...really think so?
Cleo: Depending on the application, the other magic in his book could hold limitless possibilities.
Euden: The book may be done, but it sounds like your work is anything but.
Xania: ...You're right. I can't rest just yet.
This Is My Life!
Euden: Cleo was right. This place IS a natural pharmacy.
Xania: We'll be able to keep the castle stocked with medicinal herbs for a long while.
Grandmother: Hmm? Xania, dear, is that you?
Xania: ...Granny Rose? From down the road when I was a girl!
Xania: It's been ages! How are you?
Grandmother: A picture of health, thanks to these herbs.
Grandmother: Your father is a great man for having protected this place.
Xania: Protected it how?
Grandmother: What, you don't know?
Grandmother: We near lost this place to floods. Every time it rained, the river up and spilled its banks.
Grandmother: Your father came up with a way to hold the water back with that magic of his.
Grandmother: He kept these herbs alive, and they've returned the favor to us.
Grandmother: It wasn't easy, though, the work he did.
Grandmother: It was one try after the next, experiment after experiment.
Xania: I never knew. He didn't speak of his work.
Grandmother: Not long past, the fever used to take one in four children, but these herbs stopped it in its tracks.
Grandmother: And that's not even the whole of it.
Grandmother: With the floods stopped, the village downstream didn't have to worry about their crops getting ruined anymore.
Euden: Sounds like he made quite an impact.
Grandmother: Your father's the reason we can live here safe and sound, child.
Grandmother: The peace we enjoy now was built atop his hard work.
Xania: What did you just...?
Euden: Seems your father was a determined man.
Euden: His battles may not have been the sort won with the sword.
Euden: Ingenuity, perseverance, and care were the weapons he used to protect the peace.
Euden: That was his life—and it explains the opening line of his book as well.
Xania: ＂Life is the endless struggle for peace.＂
Xania: ...And after a life of struggle to make life easier for everyone, he still found time to leave behind a bit of salvation for me.
Euden: He sounds like quite the father.
Xania: ...I've made up my mind, Euden.
Xania: I'll study magic.
Xania: And not just thinking up new twists on Father's ideas. I want to invent my own spells like he did.
Xania: I'll add them to his book and pass the torch along to the next generation.
Xania: The manuscript won't be truly done until then.
Euden: That sounds like an excellent life, Xania.
Xania: It'll be a long, hard fight to pave the way for new peace.
Xania: The perfect life for the proud daughter of a kind, generous, creative mage!