Scenario:Jamil - Daybreak

Daybreak

While on a mission of goodwill accompanied by a heavily reduced guard, Orchis is ambushed by former members of the IIB. The crew, who are acting as the queen's convoy, thwart the attack, but they soon realize the assailants are no more than pawns, arousing Jamil's suspicions.

---

Even with the royal regime restored in Erste, islands once overrun by Freesia's forces continue to bear their fangs at Orchis.

In response, the queen takes to the skies, issuing formal apologies and seeking to make amends for the Empire's transgressions.

Vyrn: Not that I mind taking Orchis on this joyride across the skydom, but...

Vyrn: Kinda sucks for her, not being able to ride on one of her big fancy warships.

Jamil: Those vessels were used by the Empire in its military campaigns. However peaceful the queen's intentions, her arrival in the warship itself will be construed as an act of intimidation.

Vyrn: Yeah, and I bet giving those ships a complete makeover would cost oodles... It's a hard-knock life, ain't it?

The crew of the Grandcypher, which has been hired as Orchis's transport, sits around a large table at a local diner.

Less than an hour earlier, they dropped Orchis off at a conference hall and are now whiling away the time until her return.

Lyria: I bet Orchis is meeting with the king of the island right now. I hope he's not angry at her...

Lyria: I mean, he has the right to be angry. The imperial army did some terrible things, but...

Lyria: Orchis was also a victim. The Empire took her mom and her dad... And now she has to spend all this time apologizing for them.

Jamil: As proof of her goodwill, Queen Orchis has refused to commission her warships and reduced her personal guard to a bare minimum.

Jamil: I hear the local king is an able ruler and diplomat. These gestures will not be lost upon him.

Lyria: Yeah... Yeah, you're right. All this worry and doubt, it's not fair to the king.

(Captain) gives Lyria an encouraging smile and waves over a waiter. The crew place their orders.

Jamil: It's getting late... The queen should have returned by now.

Lyria: I'm worried. If something came up, Orchis would've sent a soldier to tell us, right?

Jamil: ...

Soldier: Queen Orchis! Quick, into the carriage!

Orchis: A-all right!

Soldier: Gr!

Atop a narrow, weathered path in a forest abutting the castle, Orchis's guards desperately defend the royal carriage from unknown assailants.

Soldier: Can't read their damn technique! It's taking everything just to ward off these blows!

Assailant: Hah!

Soldier: ...!

Jamil: Are you unhurt, Your Majesty?

Soldier: Aren't you...

Vyrn: Here to save the day? Yep! And just in the nick of time too!

The crew, which has tracked the wheel ruts left by the royal carriage, joins forces with Orchis's beleaguered guards.

Soldier: (Captain), be careful! Their technique—I've never seen anything like it.

Assailant: Eat this!

Jamil: I have. The Urzhuwan developed this art for assassinations. Though...

Assailant: Gah!

Jamil: At this level, you'd be lucky to kill a fly... Any last words?

Vyrn: Whoa, whoa! Jamil, heel! We still have to haul these bozos in for questioning!

Jamil: Ah, right! I forgot myself for only a moment... I'll keep them alive.

After a short struggle, Orchis's forces win out, and the bound assailants are brought back to the Grandcypher.

Orchis: (Captain), I can't thank you enough for coming to our aid.

Orchis: And, to my loyal guards, I'm sorry for the danger I put you in. It was reckless to reduce your numbers to so few.

Soldier: There's nothing to apologize for. I can't imagine the courage it must've taken to set yourself forth as bait.

Vyrn: You got guts of steel, Orchis. I can't believe you purposely left yourself soft-shelled and vulnerable, hoping those ex-IIB losers would see it as an opportunity.

Vyrn: You even gambled on us knowin' when to swoop in! You were playing a high-stakes game, lemme tell ya.

Orchis: Yes, and I feel guilty for risking so much... But it did pay off, didn't it? We were fortunately ambushed—as odd as that sounds—and the plan went off without a hitch.

Jamil: Then the assailants were former members of the IIB?

Soldier: Yes. Or at least, one of them was. It seems that the remnants of the Bureau have been bolstering their ranks with other malcontents.

Soldier: We're currently working to identify which of the assailants served the Empire before we start formal interrogations.

Jamil: I see...

Jamil: (Strange. The former IIB had a prime opportunity to harm the queen while the Grandcypher was her transport, thus souring relations between (Captain) and Erste.)

Jamil: (But instead of sending their core members to the ambush, they deployed pawns...)

Jamil: (It's as if they knew they were being baited... and chose to save their most valuable piece for another play...)

Jamil: ...

Daybreak: Scene 2

Jamil correctly surmises that the former IIB's true target is (Captain) and accosts the assassin, who steals onto the Grandcypher late at night. However, Jamil is soon overpowered by the hit man, who is none other than his uncle Faris, the turncoat who lay waste to the Urzhuwan Clan in an attempt to escape a lifetime of servitude.

---

???: ...

Jamil's Voice: Don't move.

???: ...!

Jamil: I thought you'd come. It's what I would've done as an assassin.

Jamil: The death of a queen isn't the only wedge you can drive between Erste and the Grandcypher.

Jamil: You could take the life of my master... or of Lyria.

???: If you've managed to see so clearly through our plan, why come here alone?

Jamil: That's a good question. Even I doubt my own judgment...

Jamil: After all, the former IIB must know the Grandcypher is full of seasoned fighters. That's why it allowed the capture of a few decoys—to lure us into a false sense of security.

Jamil: But that still wouldn't be enough. The Bureau would plan the assassination by night and send in its most elite. It might choose, for example...

Jamil: The man who slaughtered my clan.

???: Your face... You look so much like my older brother.

Faris: Well, Jamil? Haven't you a fond greeting for your uncle Faris? It's been too long—look at how much you've grown.

Jamil: You are no brother to Father!

Jamil: You will die here, as a traitor to both the throne of Erste and the Urzhuwan—and the enemy of my master!

Faris deflects Jamil's blow and smiles, his teeth gleaming cold beneath the moon.

Faris: Master, Master...

Faris: You sound like a token Urzhuwan. An empty vessel without a mind, filled with platitudes.

Faris: But that is where your resemblance to my brother ends. Your skill and knowledge, I'm afraid, leave much to be desired.

Jamil: ...!

Jamil: (I can't read his movements!)

Faris: All people have hearts, Jamil. Desires. We cannot be expected to live forever as shadows—ever following. Sooner or later, someone will break away and find their own path.

Faris: There is no honor in following. The chains of gratitude that bound us to the throne had long rusted, and it was only a matter of time before someone shattered them...

Faris: Before I chose a path beneath the sun!

Jamil: ...!

Faris: Come, come. You must understand what it is to desire something so badly, no cage can keep you contained... Vengeance, for example.

Jamil: Shut uuup!

With a howl of pain and anger, Jamil charges at Faris. But...

Faris: Pitiful.

Jamil: Gah...

Faris: I don't need your understanding or approval.

Jamil: (I... I failed.)

Jamil: (I failed to avenge my parents... and I failed to defend my master.)

Jamil: (My life amounted... to nothing...)

Faris: Jamil of the Urzhuwan. Here shall be where your life and your beautiful dream of loyalty... ends!

Daybreak: Scene 3

Before Faris can land the finishing blow, (Captain) rushes in front of Jamil and is stricken in his place. However, the captain still urges Jamil to go after Faris, which rekindles the trust between them and gives Jamil the strength to defeat his uncle—not for the sake of vengeance, but to protect the world from any of his future treachery.

---

Jamil: ...

Faris: ...!

Jamil: No!

The whites of Faris's eyes blaze as he stares down at the blade of his sword, embedded deep in (Captain)'s stomach.

Jamil: Master!

Faris: A master protect an attendant? Impossible...

Faris: ...

Jamil: ...!

Jamil: Master! Why? Why would you... For someone like me!

Jamil: I...

(Captain) watches with bleared eyes as Jamil wildly attempts to staunch the flow of blood, watering the wound with his sweat and tears.

Lyria's Voice: Jamil! (Captain)!

Vyrn: W-what's with all the blood? It can't all be (Captain)'s, can it?

Jamil: Lyria, Vyrn...

Jamil opens and closes his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to speak, unable to move, choked by remorse. But then he feels a calloused hand grasp his own.

Jamil: Master?

1. Don't let him escape.

Choose: Don't let him escape.

Jamil: ...!

Jamil: As you command.

Lyria: Jamil?

Jamil: I managed to stop the bleeding. Please, get a healer here as soon as possible.

Lyria: Okay! Right away!

Jamil: I leave my master in your hands.

Vyrn: Huh? Wait! Jamil!

Faris: ...

Faris: Have you yet another person to avenge?

Jamil: No.

Faris: I see... How unfortunate. Do you know how much time and brainpower it will take to come up with a new scheme?

Jamil: I'll save you the trouble by taking you down right here, right now.

Faris: You can't honestly think you have a chance. You aren't even a full-fledged Urzhuwan. You're a shadow of a shadow.

Jamil: You and I both.

Jamil: We are more similar that I'd care to admit... And therein lies the key to my victory.

Jamil: I'm not here to avenge the past. I'm here to defend my master and secure the future!

Faris: Hah. If my defeat means so much to you, why didn't you blindside me?

Jamil: ...

Faris: (He's feinting with his right hand... How utterly unoriginal. And his movements are already lagging behind mine.)

Faris: Your technique seems as underdeveloped as your mind.

Jamil: Are you sure about that?

Jamil: I know that your treacherous ways have turned against you. You mean to take the lives of Queen Orchis and my master in a desperate bid to save your own.

Jamil: Betray one person and lose the trust of the world. Tell me, do you still have the confidence of the former IIB?

Jamil: Well?

Faris: What of it?

Faris: Such is the life of an assassin. Loved by none, but feared by all.

Jamil: You turned your back on our clan because you wanted to escape that life. But look at you now...

Jamil: You killed in the name of your own freedom. And as much as you try to convince yourself it's for a just cause, you can't run from your own conscience...

Faris: You're all words!

Jamil: ...!

Faris: It's over!

Jamil leaps, and the wind rushes as the wild attack misses him by a hair. Then he twists and, with a thrust of his blade, cuts through Faris's sleeve.

Jamil: ...

Faris: ...?

Faris attempts to bound back, but his legs will not move. He teeters and falls, his wide eyes peering frantically through the darkness.

Jamil: The skies are filled with strange and miraculous things. I never thought I'd find poison that works on an Urzhuwan.

Faris: ...!

Jamil: All it'll do is make you go numb for a few minutes. But I would venture that, with our respective skill levels, that one handicap will be enough to turn the tide.

Faris: Finish it.

Jamil: ...

Jamil: No.

Jamil: I will bring you to Queen Orchis as a prisoner of state.

Jamil: Don't worry. You'll be given a fair trial. Let us see how warm the sun feels in a land where you have no allies.

Faris: ...!

Daybreak: Scene 4

Jamil delivers Faris alive to the Erste Kingdom, where the turncoat is to be tried for his crimes. Back aboard the Grandcypher, Jamil tends to (Captain)—finally free of his past and able to look toward a future alongside the one person he wants to protect most in the skies.

---

Jamil stays true to his word and delivers Faris, bound and alive, to Orchis and her soldiers.

When he receives word that his once-uncle is leaving the island in a convoy headed by the queen, he asks Lyria to see them off in his place. Because Jamil has someone more important to tend to.

Jamil: Are you thirsty, Master? I got something soothing from the kitchen.

Jamil lifts a cup filled with clear liquid to (Captain)'s lips.

Jamil: Please, partake... Would you like some more?

Jamil tips the cup back and forth, allowing (Captain) to take small sips. When the captain raises a hand, Jamil produces a handkerchief and dabs at his master's lips.

Jamil: Thank the skies for your quick recovery... My only regret is that I was not by your side when you awoke.

With a shake of the head, (Captain) lets Jamil know that he did the right thing in capturing Faris.

Jamil: You are too kind.

Jamil: I never would have found the strength to do what I did without you.

Jamil: When you took my hand, I realized something.

Jamil: My purpose in life—the reason I learned to fight—is to protect those dear to me.

Jamil: And the person I want to protect most in the world is you, Master.

Jamil slips his hand between (Captain)'s and the sheets, lacing their fingers together.

Jamil: After I'd found out my heart's deepest desire, I broke free of my strings. I stopped being a puppet to vengeance.

Jamil: I think my father, mother, and all the Urzhuwan would be proud of the person I've become.

Jamil: Master... I'm truly grateful we crossed paths.

Jamil: And... I am prepared to follow you to whatever end.

(Captain) smiles, happy that Jamil has finally found peace. Happy that they can now look to the future together.

Jamil's fingers tighten. After so long alone in the dark, the smile of someone he's devoted to seems to shine more brilliantly than a thousand suns.