PART III: AFTER THE UNSEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 43: Sellas, Where the Stars Rest

(A/N: Following Reverse City and Yum Yum Island being added in the RISE update, Sellas was retroactively added to the Arcane River in the Awake update as level 240 content in order to bridge Esfera at level 235 and Moonbridge at level 245. While Sellas doesn’t seem to have any significant connection to the rest of the story at this time, I personally feel like it’s one of the best-written stories in the game.)

Some time after the fusion of the Black Moon and White Sun, Neinheart contacted the Adversary and told them that the Alliance was running an urgent, special operation before advancing on Tenebris. On the way to the base camp, they ran into Shubert, who seemed to be dropping something into the water.

(A/N: Shubert is dropping the dog tags of his fellow crewmates, who all perished long ago in a diving accident. The writers did an impeccable job with the details in this story, all of which add a lot more meaning to the story without saying a single word. You can hear three plops in the water, one for each dog tag.)

As Shubert murmured a solemn goodbye, the Adversary approached him and asked what he was doing. Shubert hesitantly told them that it was nothing before explaining that he was taking care of something before returning back to Edelstein, as the operation in Esfera was now over.

He then led them to the base camp, where Neinheart and Ollie told the Adversary that they were planning a recovery operation for a shiny, unknown object that Tana had dropped while Ollie had pulled her out of the Origin Sea. As it belonged to the Transcendent of Light, Neinheart believed that it had some significance, and so he wanted to recover it in case it would help them in the fight against the Black Mage.

Neinheart asked Shubert if he would reconsider helping them, but Shubert told them that he had experienced enough of the sea. However, he was unhappy to know that Ollie was joining the expedition, as she had barely recovered from Will’s attack. Neinheart then led them to the Jellyfish, a submarine that Shubert had once been stationed on, which had been recovered by the Resistance.

The Adversary was surprised that they needed a submarine, as they had been able to go on foot in the Morass at the bottom of the Arcane River. Neinheart explained that the environment in the Origin Sea was changing, which necessitated a submarine. Unexpectedly, Shubert agreed to pilot the Jellyfish. Neinheart was pleased by his change of heart and gave him command of the mission, as he was a veteran of Edelstein’s diving unit.

As they dove into the waters of Sellas, the team was surprised at how clean the waters were, unlike what Ollie had experienced while pulling up Tana. Over the comms, Neinheart explained that the sea had been murky because of Tana, and that the waters were now clear because she had been extracted some time ago. He then explained that they had installed a sonar system that was calibrated to search for high-energy points.

Upon checking the sonar system, they detected a high-energy point nearby and put on diving suits in order to search on foot. Shubert noted how the older models of diving suits were heavy and made his arms hurt while practicing hand signals. Ollie was interested in learning the hand signals, and so Shubert asked the Adversary to clear out the Veritate monsters while he taught her. (A/N: You can already tell that this entire storyline is just gonna be us third-wheeling Shubert and Ollie.)

After the Adversary returned, Shubert was still unable to pinpoint the signal. He suspected that the echolocation that the monsters used was interfering with their sonar, and so he asked the Adversary to take out more monsters while he taught Ollie signals with light. After the Adversary took care of the monsters, the signal cleared up, allowing them to head to the source, which they found to be a piece of debris that had come from a propeller broken off from an Alliance transport plane.

As Shubert looked at the sonar, several Volar monsters began grouping together. Shubert asked the Adversary to chase them off before the monsters began to attack. After clearing them out, the Adversary boarded the Jellyfish and Shubert prepared to return to the base camp, as the sonar was coming up empty.

Ollie then asked Shubert about how he had mentioned that he could boost the signal power. Shubert told her that he wasn’t willing to do so, as it would waste valuable oxygen and battery power while they were in uncharted territory. However, he conceded that Ollie had a point in that the object that Tana had dropped could be useful and agreed to search a bit longer. However, he gave them the caveat that if he boosted the sonar and still didn’t find anything, they would immediately return back to the base camp. 

He explained that in order to boost the signal, they needed to attach an antenna on the top of the Jellyfish, for which one person needed to boost the others up. Ollie found a cup full of sticks made for drawing lots, which Shubert uncomfortably recognized from his time on the Jellyfish. He hesitantly explained that they were made to decide who was stuck with cleaning duty, with the person who drew the red-marked stick being the one who lost. After drawing lots, Shubert was chosen as the one on the bottom, but as he was the only one who knew how to install it, the Adversary and Ollie both hoisted him up.

(A/N: The sticks were also used when the Jellyfish was sinking during Shubert’s last mission, in which the crew drew lots to determine which of them would board the only escape pod. Obviously, we know that Shubert was the one who was chosen to live, while everyone else drowned, which gives a new meaning to what he says about the person who draws the red-marked stick losing.)

Shubert attached the antenna on top of the Jellyfish to boost the signal and immediately detected multiple contacts swarming around them. Suddenly, they were hit by an unknown object, causing the lights to flicker on and off, during which time, Shubert momentarily saw an unknown diver standing in the cockpit. Around him, he saw ship debris and began having a panic attack, unable to breathe.

(A/N: Panic attacks are in my top five of least favorite feelings ever. While this is all happening, we get a look into Shubert’s thoughts about his past. He recalls his three crewmates: a sailor who was an excellent cook, another who was an expert with harpoons, and one who had been looking forward to meeting his newborn triplets. He then wonders what their hopes and dreams meant to the monster which had consumed them. These three crewmates were the ones whose dog tags Shubert dropped into the sea at the beginning of the storyline.)

After he recovered, Ollie pointed out the sinking ships and proposed that they attempt a rescue. However, Shubert vetoed her idea and told her that aside from the fact that there were no other Alliance operations planned for that day, any airships falling from the sky wouldn’t sink so deep that fast. He conjectured that the sinking ships operated similar to how the Erdas manifested as illusions in the Morass, though Ollie pointed out that Tana’s influence had created the Morass, which made her wonder how the Alliance ships were being created.

Shubert decided to end the mission and return to the base camp, as the submersible was under enough stress already. Just then, the Jellyfish broke down and Ollie suggested salvaging parts from the debris.

(A/N: GMS added some extra dialogue that wasn’t part of KMS, which had the Adversary mention that the ships outside are just illusions, to which Shubert says that the ships in the debris field are, in a sense, more ‘real’ down in Sellas, which doesn’t really make any logical sense at all. As Ollie pointed out, Tana is the only person who’s ever influenced the Erdas on such an immense scale as creating an entire fleet of sinking ships. It’s possible that Tana’s relic, which the team was sent to find, was able to channel some of her powers of creation in order bring Shubert’s memories to life.)

While Ollie and the Adversary hunted down parts, Ollie told the Adversary that she was worried about Shubert and believed that he was hiding something. However, she decided against asking him, as she had faith that he would tell them if it was critical to the mission. The Adversary asked Ollie if Shubert had ever talked about his past in the diving unit.

Ollie told them that she hadn’t heard anything about his past before Neinheart had mentioned it, and that she found it disappointing that he had never shared things with her in the same way that she had with him, wondering if it was because he didn’t trust her. Recalling how Shubert had only volunteered to join the mission after learning that Ollie was part of it, as well as how he had taught only Ollie critical hand signals, the Adversary believed that Shubert wanted to keep her safe.

As the Adversary continued clearing monsters for Ollie to recover debris, Ollie told them that she had made up her mind, explaining how, after the Black Heaven incident, she had seen the Adversary standing next to the Empress, and how she had promised herself that she would fight by their side. Though people had laughed when she had told them about her dream, she had continued persevering until she had been specially picked for the advance party to the Arcane River, which was when people had started noticing her.

(A/N: Ollie is one of my favorite characters in the game specifically because she’s both remarkable and ordinary. Throughout this game, we’re so used to being powerful and being surrounded by powerful people that everyone else is just seen as a background extra. Ollie is a refreshing take on characters who aren’t inherently powerful but become important because of the sheer amount of dedication and hard work that they put into what they do.

At first glance, she isn’t someone that you’d expect to be significant because she doesn’t have the charisma or the abilities of the player, but after hearing about how she had a dream and realized it through her own hard work and effort, you can’t help but root for her as an underdog. As players, we can relate to her because most of us in real life are ordinary just like her, not prodigies like the Adversary. I’ve only known Ollie for one and a half storylines, but if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone in this world and then myself, which is why I fully support the Black Mage destroying the world in the timeline where Ollie died.)

Ollie believed that if she continued doing her best, Shubert may see her differently, just as the others had done, and that he might decide to share his thoughts and feelings with her. Back on the Jellyfish, Shubert had been overhearing everything that Ollie had been saying through the radio. He began wondering whether he had been too on edge during the trip and told himself that the past wouldn’t repeat itself again.

Meanwhile, Ollie and the Adversary returned with several parts, among which Shubert found an old battery that they could use for the submarine. He also told them that a stationary object had been sending steady pulses while they had been gone, and that he suspected that it was the object that Tana had dropped. He then approved one final expedition to find the object and asked Ollie to tether herself to the outside of the Jellyfish in order to scare off the monsters who could break their searchlight.

The Adversary told Shubert that they felt like they should be the one doing Ollie’s job, but Shubert told them to save their strength for later. Though monsters weren’t a threat to the Adversary, Shubert explained that the sea was a threat to them all. He added that he was also teaching Ollie an important lesson, as one only understood their true size when facing something huge.

He then told the others that their backup plan was to transfer the backup battery’s power to the escape pods in case of an emergency. Just then, a distorted distress signal reached the Jellyfish’s comms, claiming that they were the Jellyfish, and that their unit had been wiped out. Outside, Ollie told them that she could see the target, and that she was heading towards it, despite Shubert’s protests.

Just then, a massive quake damaged the ship, and when they looked outside, they found that Ollie’s line had been cut. Shubert was furious that the past was repeating itself, believing that the same creature which had destroyed his diving unit had gotten Ollie and turned her into a star. When the Adversary asked what he meant, Shubert explained that when divers didn’t return, they were called ‘stars’, though Shubert had never known the reason behind the name until he had seen the lights from the apparatus of all his friends sinking into the abyss.

He believed that unlike himself and the other divers who all faded like the plentiful, common stars, the Adversary was special and had the power to save Ollie. The Adversary put on diving gear and headed into the abyss, where they were swallowed by an enormous glowing whale, which they believed to be the personification of the sea itself. Inside the whale, they encountered a figure in a diving suit and decided to follow them.

As they fought through the monsters nearby, they picked up several dog tags scattered across the ground and felt the memories of the Edelstein diving unit. They were able to witness how the team had drawn sticks to determine who would be the sole survivor, with Shubert being sent to safety in the only escape pod. (A/N: We pick up exactly three dog tags, which are the same ones that Shubert dropped at the beginning of the story. During the flashbacks, we also see Shubert holding four dog tags: three of his crewmates’ and one of his own.)

The Adversary eventually reached Ollie and the two found the mysterious diver. From the diver’s hand signals, Ollie was able to determine that they were asking the pair to come closer, where they found a copy of the Jellyfish created from Shubert’s memories. Using its communication channels, they were able to contact Shubert aboard the real Jellyfish and asked for help, explaining that the monster which had swallowed them was a whale, not the sea itself as he had believed.

Shubert then unleashed a powerful attack with his Arm Cannon to destroy the whale, revealing that it had merely been thousands of jellyfish that had come together to form a whale as a defensive tactic. As they rose to the surface by riding the jellyfish, the Adversary found a glowing red necklace that had belonged to Tana and took it back to the base camp.

(A/N: Going by Shubert’s explanation about stars, stars are basically just the souls of those who got consumed by the sea. As the whale is meant to be a manifestation of the sea, the glowing whale that we encounter in Sellas is symbolically countless small souls that became part of the sea by forming the whale, including the souls of Shubert’s crew, whose echoes help us survive.

What’s even cooler is that the glowing stars are actually just tiny jellyfish, which help us escape the sea. In a sense, it’s like the souls of Shubert’s crew are helping us rise up to the surface in order to save us from dying like they did. While this is all happening, the comm system activates, replaying the last message that the crew had sent about sending its best and brightest to the surface before asking for him to be taken good care of, just as we reach the surface as well. I really love how this storyline respectfully handled Shubert’s PTSD and how it reframed the whale from being the manifestation of Shubert’s trauma into it being a happier memory of his crewmates breaking the cycle of history from repeating itself inside his head.)

Back at the surface, Neinheart determined that the jewel on the necklace had been broken from a larger piece. He realized that Tana had cherished it so preciously that she had taken it with her, even as she had wandered without her memory. Based on that alone, he believed that it had significance enough that the Alliance would continue to investigate it. He noted that the necklace was glowing brightly and speculated that if it was emitting light in response to its owner, then there was hope that they would one day be able to reach her.

(A/N: The necklace is almost certainly the same one with the anti-magic stone that Jean gave to her in Trueffet, which Tana broke in order to disrupt the Ascendency ritual. I mentioned this earlier, but it’s possible that it’s been imbued with the power of creation, similar to how the Genesis Weapon has been imbued with a small portion of the Black Mage’s powers of creation and destruction. It’s likely that it’ll come back into play with Darmoor ordering Melange to find Tana and the Genesis Crux at the end of Limina.

Neinheart’s line about how they might be able to reach Tana if the light of her necklace is in response to its owner might be a reference to something that Eskalade tells Angelic Buster in her class storyline, which is that the only thing known about Aeona is that she lives in the Sanctum of Light, which is a place where only light can reach.)