Time rewound a little.
On the outskirts of Saint Clair stood an unremarkable mound.
This was the ruin that had remained sealed all this time. Back then, Vanessa, Dorothea, and the others had searched repeatedly, yet could never find the entrance.
Today was no different. There were signs of digging in several places nearby, but beneath them lay only soil.
This time, however, the visitor was a tall young woman.
She had fiery red eyes, and her long hair of the same color fell in slight curls over her shoulders.
"That Sidney actually sent me to help guard the Hearthfire District. What does he take me for? His bodyguard?"
Lillian folded her arms in displeasure as she walked around the mound.
She seemed to be wandering at random, but if the routes she took were connected, they would vaguely form patterns.
Her movements were unpredictable, her figure appearing and disappearing. Even the footprints she left in the soil were scattered in all directions, forming no trail.
She seemed to be walking beneath the mound, only to stand atop it in contemplation a moment later. If one paid her no attention, she always seemed to be nearby; if one stared at her, her figure was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, her footsteps stopped.
"Found you, Phoenix."
The corners of Lillian's lips curled upward. She changed direction and actually walked straight down.
Below her was soil. She should have been stuck at ground level.
Yet the mound seemed to become an illusion. She had just been walking on it, but now she fell straight through.
Beneath the mound lay the ruin.
She should have entered through its main entrance, just as Vanessa and the others had during their exploration that day.
But Lillian seemed to skip the intervening steps, stepping straight into