Reflections of Vanya Elentari
I stayed in Ul’dah longer than I should have, trying to bury Thancred’s words under sweat and steel. But the visions didn’t stop. Dreams of fire and ruin, glimpses of strangers’ pasts that left me breathless and shaking. And always the feeling that I was standing on the edge of something vast, already halfway over before I realized there was a drop.
So today I finally gave in. Took the road west to Vesper Bay to find these Scions of the Seventh Dawn Thancred spoke of. A grand name for a handful of watchers in a sun-bleached outpost overlooking the restless sea.
Minfilia greeted me as though she’d been waiting — warm smile, bright eyes that looked right through me. She called what I have the Echo. Said she bore it too, that it lets us see into hearts, into memories that don’t belong to us. That’s why I’d seen that merchant’s deceit laid bare. Why I’d heard voices on the wind that no one else seemed to catch.
She spoke of it like a gift. But a gift comes with ribbons and choice. This feels more like a mark burned into my skin, a promise I never agreed to. Still… for the first time, there’s a name for what’s happening to me. I’m not alone in it. That’s worth something, even if I don’t know what yet.
So here I stand, on the threshold of something larger than anything I’ve faced. Whether it’s fate or folly, at least now I know what to call the shadow dogging my steps. The Echo. And I suspect it won’t let me turn away, even if I tried.
