Word came from Lief: multiple laws now existed at once, the gods lived in harmony, and the Lands Between had stepped into a brand-new era-the Age of Comprehensive Law.
After a night of revelry, many people lay sprawled across the square.
Melina sat at the table, touching her sealed eye.
Her eyelid loosened and opened, slowly and gently.
She could see through it, revealing a gloam-colored eye.
Gloam, when dusk was nearly over and night was approaching, was a color of "ending."
Why?
Melina walked alone toward the cocoon on the Erdtree's trunk. She hoped that once Marika emerged, she could answer her questions.
Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?
These three questions were very simple, yet especially important.
They concerned a person's foundations, sense of self, and what they were to do.
Clearheaded people had clear answers to all three questions.
Those with muddled minds lived in a haze.
Changing the Lands Between, for instance, could be done in two ways: from the heart or at someone else's urging.
Zhao Si belonged to the former.
Step by step, she approached the small circular plaza before the Erdtree, the spot closest to Marika's cocoon.
Maliketh was sitting ahead of her.
Human and beast met.
Maliketh's pupils contracted, and he spoke first. "You..."
"You know me?" Melina stopped, covering her eye somewhat awkwardly.
"I recognize your eye," Maliketh said. "I thought I would never see eyes that color again."
"Then do you know why it's like this?" Melina lowered her hand and looked up at Maliketh.
Both her eyes were intact, but they were different colors.
"I think I know a little." Maliketh nodded.
"I wanted to know who I am, so I came to ask the queen. But I haven't had the chance,"