Final Fantasy XIV

Summary

The Warrior of Light has an impossible choice to make. SPOILERS for Patch 7.55 MSQ.

Sometimes, the Warrior of Light thought, I get tired of it all.

She felt a pang of guilt. There she was, lying on her back outside her bungalow on her private island—the one oh-so-generously given to her, and the one she had escaped to after her latest visit to the Thirteenth and the moon. She felt the cool earth beneath her back and gazed at the stars overhead. Yes, she had many blessings in her life, and she should be grateful for that.

But you also have many burdens, the small voice in her head said. She turned her head then to look at one of those burdens. Its glow pulsed gently as it hovered ilms above the grass. It was a tiny thing, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. She turned on her side towards it, and, reaching out, closed her hand around it.

For such a tiny thing, it sure weighed a lot. Sometimes she questioned her reality regarding it. Perhaps the key didn’t actually weigh all that much—perhaps it was the weight of its burden in her mind that weighted so heavily.

She let go of it, and it resumed gently bobbing in the air in front of her.

She sat up then, pulling her legs to her chest and resting her chin on her crossed arms. Why did the key open for her? And why couldn’t Zero see the brightly illuminated path it had made? She waited a moment, expecting to hear one of the Scions—Y’shtola or G’raha, perhaps—explain it all, but then remembered where she was. Alone, on her private island, where there were no answers, just the soft clink of mammets working in the distance.

She flopped to her back again with a sigh, and studied the stars slowly spiraling overhead. Somewhere out there was the Fourth, to which she’d be going. Curiosity made her wonder what it was like; exhaustion dreaded finding out.

Sometimes I wish I hadn’t come back.

She refused to feel a pang of guilt over THIS thought, as frequent as it had been since that day she had once more awoken back then on the Ragnarok. She hadn’t once told anyone about this feeling. How could she? They all relied on her too much. She got it—she was special! Hydaelyn’s chosen! It was her destiny, her duty to make this choice haunting her… but she often wished it on someone else.

She turned her head once more to look at the key. How could such a weighty thing float? But it did, still, pulsing with that yellow glow.

Her hands balled into fists. How dare the universe ask her to make such a choice? If she allowed the Winterers to usher in their rejoining, thousands would perish for the sake of a few. But if she did nothing, the Solstice would destroy all. She did not want to make this choice, could not make it—and yet, the key had chosen HER. As everything chose her.

It wasn’t fair.

The old story of a hero came to mind then. As a child, she had loved it, not knowing what her own path had in store for her….

The tactician said to the knight, “Faced with a choice between saving one life or a hundred lives… you must choose the hundred. That is the creed of the tactician.”

“That’s ridiculous!” The knight said in reply. “If the choice is to save one person or a hundred people… then save both! That is the creed of a Grandshelt knight!”

According to the stories, the knight had succeeded in saving both the one and the hundred. Could she do it? Forget making the terrible decision, and save everyone? Not only the Source, but all the reflections?

If only it were possible.

A tear slipped down her cheek then, and she sat there alone on her island, thinking thoughts she dare not share, and feeling emotions she could not show.

Notes

Written for the FFXIV Write 2026 Day 1 prompt: KEY. The 'one life or a hundred?' story is a reference to Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Season 1, Chapter III - The Olderion Federation.