Minfauxlia, still reeling from the violence of the visions from beyond the veil of darkness, and confounded by the appearance of this masked knight, pleads again, "Who... are you?" The knight shrugs and dismisses the question. "Who I've been doesn't matter right now." With an encouraging pump of one fist, the knight counters, "But I intend to be your mentor!" Minfauxlia gasps, taking a half step away. "My what?"

The knight shrugs, hands held wide. "The way I hear it," the knight explains, "you've been having a rough time with the Scions. The rumors about two Minfilias put people on edge. The fear you. Distrust you." Minfauxlia recoils further as the knight leans in closely, confidentially, but raising a pointed finger of defiance at the sky. "The truth is, they're just scared of what they don't understand. And so are you. You don't understand it either. Why you're here. Why you're so much stronger. Why, sometimes, you feel, out at the corners of that shiny crystal light, there's also a shadow."

Minfauxlia's bewilderment is approaching a state of panic. "How do you—" she begins, but again, her confusion renders her unable to complete her question. Instead, she pleads again, "Who *are* you?" Before the knight can answer, an urgent cry rises from the alleyways of The Brume below, "Help, please! Someone! Anyone!" Minfauxlia turns reflexively to follow the sound, but the knight impedes her with a gesture. "Hold on, there, hero," the knight adminonishes her. "Who am I? I told you. I'm your mentor. I'm going to teach you what that shadow is. And how to use it."

From somewhere unseen, the knight somehow produces a steel claymore, and offers it to Minfauxlia. "And also, how to use this," the knight says expectantly. "Here, take it," the knight commands. "Head to the inn and suit up. I'll go find whatever little damsel has got her self in distress this time. You come follow me when you're ready." With that, the knight turns to descend into The Brume. "Don't keep me waiting longer, Minfauxlia," the knight commands, almost playfully. "Not after we've finally found each other."

Who is this confident knight, very much not dead, who seems to know more about #Minfauxlia than she knows about herself? Who is this desperate raven-haired soldier screaming into her mind from an infinite darkness? And why do they both feel so disturbingly familiar?
#FFXIV #WoLcomics #Heavensward

Minfauxlia recoils as the glowing black stone rises, unbidden, off the stone pavement of The Brume, seething with an energy that she cannot identify. Despite her self, she reaches out a hand to cradle the stone, and it floats ever so slowly toward her palm...

Her mind is once again assaulted by a vision of her other self screaming out of an infinite darkness. "YES!" the other person shouts in apparent satisfaction. "YES! HEAR MY VOICE!" she pleads. Gripping her head in both hands, she screams, "FEEL ME IN YOUR F███ING HEAD!" She reaches a gauntleted hand toward Minfauxlia with a final demand. "SURRENDER YOUR THOUGHTS!"

As suddenly as it struck her, Minfauxlia's vision ends. As she rises, however, she is no longer kneeling next to the deceased knight. The figure is standing next to her, stretching, as if awaking from a long nap. "Ahhh," the knight sighs contentedly. "Feel that brisk, fresh Ishgardian air!" The knight regards Minfauxlia. "You alright there? I've been waiting for you to come to your senses." Minfauxlia gives the knight a look like she is an aldgoat confronted with a calculus problem. "Were you not..." she stammers, but cannot finish the question. "I saw you..."

The knight interjects. "You seem confused. Don't worry. It'll pass." The knight's tone turns thoughtful. "You touched that crystal. You felt... something. It was painful, wasn't it? It's always painful." The knight points at Minfauxlia as if recognizing an old friend in a crowd. "You're that Scion, right? The one they called Minfauxlia, because they couldn't cope with the reality of who you really are."

A knight's corpse tossed in the street like yesterday's garbage? A mysterious crystal glowing with darkness? A voice, hers but not hers, screaming at her from the void? What unfathomable mystery has #Minfauxlia uncovered in the underbelly of #Ishgard?
#FFXIV #WoLcomics #Heavensward

[ Ishgard — Foundation ] Minfauxlia Warde, outfitted as a dragoon in service of House Fortemps and defense of the Holy See, wanders the edge of the aetheryte plaza, toward the stairs leading down into The Brume.

As she descends, she contemplates the words of the trembling Ishgardian nobleman that she met cowering outside the Tribunal. "'Twould truly beggar belief," she muses, "for the Temple Knights to discard the body of a dead man on the streets of—" She stops, stunned by what she sees before her. The corpse of a knight, dressed in fine armor of black, blue, and gold, has been carelessly thrown into a corner of The Brume's outer wall, crumpled like a broken marionette. On the stone pavement, next to the dead man's limp right hand, is a strange flake of dark-colored rock, or crystal, emblazoned with a red symbol. It appears, against Minfauxlia's better judgment, to be glowing black.

Tentatively, she kneels, and reaches out with one hand toward the stone. Suddenly, a vision erupts in her mind's eye. It is her, but not her — a woman with her face, Minfilia's face, but long black hair highlighted in an unnatural magenta. She is wearing a black vest and wickedly-clawed metal gauntlets painted in some sort of shiny purple lacquer. She gazes into Minfauxlia's very soul, screaming, "HEAR ME, DAMN YOU!"

Minfauxlia stops, transfixed, horrified, utterly at a loss as to what to do next.

Having barely escaped the "Bloody Banquet" with her life, bereft of help or home, #Minfauxlia wanders the streets of Ishgard, where she hears an unbelievable rumor, which she is compelled to investigate...
#FFXIV #WoLcomics #Heavensward

One of the many /gpose shots of Minfauxlia Warde's as-yet-not-canonically-named shard from the doomed Seventh Reflection, which my headcanon associates with Final Fantasy VII. Her face is the same as Minfauxlia's, but scarred, and she has black hair tipped with bright pink highlights, and she wears an eyepatch over her right eye, and, spoiler alert, yes, that's because she lost it in a fight. She wears wicked-looking black metal gauntlets, and the sleeveless black leather vest and enormous left pauldron emblematic of an elite member of SOLDIER. If the next expansion is on a Gaia-themed world with a bunch of FF7 tie-ins, my whole comic canon is going to take a serious beating.

I have narrowed down to two possible names for the doomed Seventh shard of #Minfauxlia, but they both start with the same letter, so I can't just make it first-last and call it a day.

A closeup of Minfauxlia Warde, showing off her new "miner's earring", a reward from the special event currently in progress.

The little girl who mined a cat's eye for her adoptive mother is now a grown woman who wears a miner's earring. #FFXIV #Minfauxlia

Minfauxlia Warde, in a sleeveless pink hoodie, pleated burgundy skirt, and dark red athletic shoes, sits on a bench in the Manderville Gold Saucer, looking at something in the distance behind the viewer.

Warrior of Light?
Mirror of the Antecedent?
No, thank you, not today.
#FFXIV #Minfauxlia

Minfauxlia Warde, Scion of the Seventh Dawn, shattered twin of the Antecedent, dressed in the garb of another world's soldiers, and wearing the Sable Death Mask signifying her as the champion of Eorzea's demihuman tribes. She stands in a dark cave lit only by glowing crystals and fire. The truth of her soul is finally emerging...

f u r i o u s
a s . a
b l a z e
#FFXIV #Minfauxlia #Heavensward

Do I have a shrine to a particular character?
Yeah, I guess you could say that.

🌐Chaos
🌍Ragnarok
⬛The Goblet
1️⃣Ward 1
5️⃣Plot 5, "Perfect Flow"
Room 11, "The Faking Sands"

#FFXIV #Minfauxlia

A record-setting run for Minfauxlia Warde in the Hatching Tide minigame, "Sprig Cleaning", scoring 14,135 points.

#Minfauxlia: "That's right. I, too, possess the Eggo."
#FFXIV #HatchingTide

The Adventurer Plate for a character named Y' Shtola-. This morning, T'sinako encountered her during a Levelling Roulette run, and this Y'Shtola's player is as dedicated to keeping up the character as I am with Minfauxlia. They definitely need to meet.

TIL I need to take #Minfauxlia on a scouting mission to Chaos/Louisoix... #FFXIV

It's a first #LittleLadiesDay for #Minfauxlia!
#FFXIV #gpose #hyur

Minfauxlia Warde, as a monk standing in Rhalgr's Reach during Stormblood. She is wielding Makai fists, and is wearing an open white shirt and red plated greaves, similar to the outfit worn by Yda Hext — or, at least, the person everyone thought was Yda Hext. But hey, more on that when we get to Stormblood, right?

Minfauxlia Warde, as a gunbreaker, standing in the aetheryte plaza in Eulmore. She is outfitted almost identically to Thancred's gear for the same class, except that her leg armor is slightly red, her gauntlets are slightly purple, and her gunblade isn't quite as cool. Thancred seemed to make it work, so why can't she?

Minfauxlia Warde, as a paladin, standing on the moon, with Hydal— err, I mean, Etheirys in the sky behind her. She is wearing a neo-Ishgardian armored gown, a deep red skirt, and shiny red greaves. Her weapons of choice are the Sword and Shield of the Round, sparkling with holy light.

Minfauxlia Warde kicking back in Tuliyollal. She is carrying a cartoonishly-large paintbrush, and is dressed in casual attire dyed in her canonical color scheme of whites, pinks, and reds.

#Febhyurary2026 22 — Future

#Minfauxlia hasn't yet completed the story of #Heavensward, but through the magic of "crimes", we can imagine how she will appear on her canonical-job trip through #Stormblood (MNK), #Shadowbringers (GNB), #Endwalker (PLD), and #Dawntrail (PCT).

#FFXIV #Febhyurary #hyur

#Minfauxlia meets Warrior-of Light! 🤣
#FFXIV #gpose #Febhyurary2026 #Febhyurary

#Minfauxlia brought the sun with her and miraculously the rain has cleared again.
#FFXIV #gpose #Febhyurary2026 #Febhyurary

Did you know that @eliara-wol.bsky.social 's #Febhyurary2026 hangout is officially endorsed by the Scions of the Seventh Dawn?
#FFXIV #gpose #Febhyurary #Minfauxlia

A concept of Minfilia Warde's shard in the doomed Seventh reflection. Her hair is black highlighted in bright pink. She wears a black eyepatch over her right eye and has a scar across the bridge of her nose, indicating a grave injury indeed. She is wearing the sleeveless shirt, left-biased longcoat, and left steel pauldron that are hallmarks of a member of SOLDIER, but she is also wearing a pair of armored gauntlets that are painted or lacquered in a metallic purple hue. She is holding a glowing stone which is, at least according to the comics storyline, a broken chunk of white auracite which she intends to use as a vessel to protect her soul from the Rejoining. In the background, lightning flashes across a sky consumed with Darkness. The Lifestream of Gaia glows a bright but unhealthy green somewhere in the distance to the left, casting an ill glow across one side of not-Minfilia's face.

Let's all just enjoy an alternate full-screen shot of angry scene-girl SOLDIER #Minfauxlia, shall we? #FFXIV #hyur

On the left: Minfilia Warde, during the Seventh Umbral Calamity, kneels before the Mark of Althyk in the Black Shroud. She prays fervently, "Althyk, father of time, protect your precious, foolish children from the coming disaster that we have wrought—" On the right: On a harsh, blackened landscape, the ruins of civilization smoking and burning all around, a lone woman is running for her life, dressed in a long coat, shoulderless tunic, and lightly armored with one pauldron, gauntlets, and greaves. Some very bright light source, out of view to the left, casts a sickly green pall over the broken road that the girl is following. All around, lightning flashes, revealing a sky swirling with Darkness.

On the left: A sudden burst of energy explodes from the Mark, throwing Minfilia backward. On the right: We get a closer look at the girl's face, and she is hauntingly similar to Minfilia, but with black hair highlighted in bright pink, and an eyepatch covering her right eye, perhaps indicating the severity of the injury that has also left a scar across the bridge of her nose. She kneels, exhausted, and holds up a glowing white stone in her right fist. "F███ this Darkness!" she shouts in rage at no one in particular, for no one else is within sight. "F███ the corrupted megacorps! F███ the black-robes and their promises! F███ this corrupted Lifestream! This s███hole of a world may be lost, but I'll be damned if I allow myself to be lost with it!" She clutches the stone close to her as the Darkness closes in around her.

On the left: Minfilia is hurled into the Aethereal Sea, where unknown energies swirl all around. On the right: The similar figure is hurled into a Lifestream consumed by Darkness, her soul shielded — perhaps painfully — by an aura of burning Light.

Five years have passed. On the left: Minfilia Warde, now Antecedent of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, stands in the solar of the Waking Sands, conferring with Urianger. "One point that still disturbs me regarding the Calamity..." she confides to him. "That strange pulse of energy that struck me while I was at the Mark of Althyk, when I felt as if my very soul were being assaulted... Something changed, within me, that day, that I cannot rightly explain..." On the right: A girl nearly identical to Minfilia, save that she is wearing the outfit and hairstyle favored by Minfilia before the Calamity, awakes on a tattered rug somewhere in Little Ala Mhigo. Slowly, uncomfortably, she raises her head and opens her eyes. "What...?" she whispers blearily. "How did I get here from the Black Shroud? Perhaps someone carried me here...?" Attempting to move, she is wracked with pain. "Ugh... What a strange malaise. I feel as if my very soul has been scrambled."

#Febhyurary2026 11 - Shard

During the Seventh Umbral Calamity, two souls, linked across time and dimensions, both dense with the blessings of Hydaleyn, collided, swirled, and flew apart. Whence did they come? And what will they do now?

#FFXIV #WoLcomics #hyur #Febhyurary #Minfauxlia

Minfauxlia Warde, in the present day, collapses to her knees and sobs bitterly, remembering Thancred's sweet gesture, even as she must grapple with the uncertainty of whether he survived the events following the Bloody Banquet.

I bet you thought they'd all be about Margot this month, didn't you! Ha!

And before your spirit is too far uplifted, here's a shot capturing the instant that #Minfauxlia remembered this moment of her past, while walking down the same street after the Bloody Banquet but before the Patch 2.1 story.

The mysterious knight called "Fray" blocks Minfauxlia Warde from descending into the Brume, holding a greatsword menacingly in her path. The knight says, "There's a darkness within us all — nothing dangerous, mind. In fact, it's quite healthy. But the crystal changes you — gives you the power to channel it."

I am so excited to do the comic series for #Minfauxlia 's Dark Knight arc...
#FFXIV #Heavensward

Minfauxlia Warde went to Ishgard. While walking around the city, she heard tell of a knight who had been executed unjustly. She followed the Temple Knights, and found where they'd dumped the man's corpse. And suddenly... It wasn't a man at all, but a woman, in dark armor, wearing a mask, so that only her eyes were visible. In a familiar voice that she just couldn't place, the knight simply asked, "Can you hear it?" Now here stands Minfauxlia, wearing a chainmail shirt made from darksteel rings and hemmed with red and gold. Her armored leggings are lacquered the color of blood. Upon her face, she wears the Sable Death Mask symbolizing her as the hero who united the "beast tribes". In her hands she holds a curved greatsword, its entire length awash with glowing dark aether. The Warrior of Light has become one with her dark side...

d i d
y o u
h e a r
t h e
v o i c e
t o o
?
#FFXIV #Heavensward #Minfauxlia

Minfauxlia Warde, dressed in a heavy fur-lined coat and white hooded cap, crosses the Steps of Faith during a blinding blizzard.

Minfauxlia Warde, Alphinaud Leveilleur, and Tataru Taru, their winter clothes insufficient in the gale of Ishgard's perpetual winter, stand outside the gates of the great capital city.

Minfauxlia, Alphinaud, and Tataru step through the gates into Ishgard. Count Edmont de Fortemps's narration appears as a subtitle: "Through gates long closed, the Warrior of Light and her companions passed, entering at last a city whose history was written in blood."

Over a panorama of the pillars of Ishgard, the title "HEAVENSWARD" appears.

Tonight, #Minfauxlia boldly goes where no Minfilia has gone before...
#FFXIV #Heavensward

A patrol of Crystal Braves and Brass Blades runs across the bridge over Soot Creek in Central Thanalan. the patrol leader shouts to his men, "Check the river valley! We can't let any of them escape to Black Brush!"

Further up the hill, beyond the range of pursuers on foot, Bremondt's chocobo carriage speeds northward.

Bremondt leaps into the passenger berth of the carriage as it speeds away.

With the flames of the torches borne by several search parties bobbing in the distance behind them, Alphinaud sits dejectedly on one end of the bench inside the carriage, and Minfauxlia sits at the other, beaming a withering glare in his direction that seems so intense that she might be trying to set him on fire.

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(10/10) Traitors and their unwitting pawns still in hot pursuit behind them, Minfauxlia and Alphinaud are borne away, now fugitives without a home...

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia #WoLcomics

[ Central Thanalan ] Minfauxlia Warde emerges from the ancient aqueduct of Sil'dih and into the valley of Soot Creek, in central Thanalan. Without looking back, she traverses the valley floor and runs up the winding dirt path toward the main thoroughfare that runs through this region — a road called the Royal Allagan Starway.

At the crest of the hill, she stops and looks around, only to see a familiar form running toward her — Alphinaud Leveilleur, erstwhile commander of the Crystal Braves. He is fleeing from Ul'dah with the hood of his Sharlayan scholar's robes pulled up and over his head, the better to conceal his identity — insofar as any elezen teen dressed as a Sharlayan scholar could conceal his identity in Ul'dah. He is accompanied by a lalafell in the elite marshal's uniform of the Immortal Flames. The two halt their flight some steps away from Minfauxlia, and Alphinaud hunches over, gasping for breath. "Damn that man!" Alphinaud fumes, to anyone who would listen. "Teledji played me for a fool! I thought the Crystal Braves mine till the very moment I felt the blade at my back..."

As if only just noticing that he is in the company of another person, he pulls himself together and says, "But enough of that. There will be ample time for soul-searching later." Looking up toward that additional person, he smiles and says, "It is good to see you safe, Minfilia!" Visibly stung, Minfauxlia scowls and turns away, suppressing the pain of the wound inflicted by the mistaken identity. This reveals, even more plainly than before, the shock of pink hair and prominent Ala Mhigan earrings that have served to distinguish her from the Antecedent of the Scions. Alphinaud, even with his face still concealed beneath his hood and goggles, is visibly ashamed. "Oh..." he stammers uncomfortably, "ah... oh dear. I'm... sorry, I just... Oh."

Well-timed to rescue Alphinaud from himself, a chocobo carriage roars up the road and stops mere yalms away from them. A familiar figure leans out from the passenger berth. "Well, would you look who it is!" Bremondt muses. "My old friend from the road from Little Ala Mhigo! Need a ride? I doubt it'll be half as excitin' as the last trip we took─not if I have anythin' to say about it, anyway! Let's not dawdle, eh? All aboard!"

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(9/10) Minfauxlia can physically escape the confines of the Sil'dihn ruins, but cannot escape the occasionally bitter circumstances of her existence...

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

[ Sil'dih — Subterranean Aqueduct ] Minfilia Warde turns to face the passage from which she and Minfauxlia have just fled. "It is the only way," she sighs, steeling her resolve to obey the word of the Mother.

Minfilia runs back the way they have come, leaving Minfauxlia to continue forward alone. The latter reaches out a desperate hand, and calls out, "Minfilia! Wait! This can't have been the will of—"

Minfilia's splashing footsteps fade into the distance as Minfauxlia finishes her sentence without anyone to hear: "...the Mother." Furious at the cruel twist of fate that has led her to this moment, Minfauxlia stands transfixed, glaring into the darkness of the tunnel, frozen in frustrated hesitation.

Finally, she turns and continues her long run out of the Sil'dihn ruins, leaving the last and closest of her friends behind.

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(8/10) Even to her most devoted children, the will of the Mother can be mysterious and cruel.

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

[ Sil'dih — Subterranean Aqueduct ] Minfauxlia and Minfilia sprint through the ancient waterway beneath the ruined city of Sil'dih.

Suddenly, Minfilia stops and turns around, as if to hear something. Her double slows to a trot, then stops. "Wait," Minfilia says, "Did you hear a voice just—"

She is interrupted by a sound only she can hear. For the benefit of her companion, she says, "Hydaleyn! She speaks to me!" She listens intently to the unheard Mother, then answers, "What? No, he would never..." Neither the person to whom she refers, nor what that person would never do, is revealed; instead, Minfilia closes her eyes and contemplates, for a long, silent moment, what she has been told by her goddess. Then, focusing at last on the aetheric twin, perhaps the only person who can know her completely, the Antecedent says, "I am so... sorry, Minfauxlia. I must remain behind... but you cannot stay with me."

Minfauxlia looks aghast. "What?" she sputters. "No, I will not accept that!" Minfilia points insistently down the tunnel. "Please," she begs, choking back her emotions, "you must go on! We are so alike, you and I, but one fact is inescapable — only you are the Warrior of Light! You are hope ─ for the Scions, and for all the realm! As long as your flame continues to burn, the light of the dawn may ever be relit! You must escape, and save Eorzea from those who would plunge it into darkness!"

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(7/10) Before the Calamity, there was but one Minfilia Warde, hearer of the Echo. Afterward, there were two, yet neither quite felt like the same person. Now, on the brink of another disaster, only one is called...

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

Y'shtola turns back to the Antecedent and her twin. "You two go on ahead," she suggests. "Thancred and I will deal with this." Minfilia instinctively rejects this plan. "What do you mean to do!?" she cries.

Y'shtola smiles. "Only that which is required to ensure that the dawn's light survive to brighten the morrow," she answers with a hint of resignation, but no regret. Thancred flashes another charming smile as he offers the lantern to Minfilia. "Fear not, Antecedent," he reassures her, the lantern bathing his face in warm light. "You haven't seen the last of these fair features."

"My friends..." Minfilia begins in protest, but Y'shtola interrupts her, shouting, "Leave us!" It is clear from her tone that she will suffer no further objection.

Minfauxlia looks on bravely, knowing what must be done, desperately trying to bury the grief already welling up within her. Minfilia takes the lantern from Thancred, looking from one to the other of her friends, searching for any room for an alternative. Finding none, the two Wardes — one the Antecedent of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, one the Warrior of Light — take flight down the passageway, leaving Y'shtola and Thancred to hold off the coming threat.

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(6/10) All of the Scions have pledged themselves to a common cause. All are prepared to lay down their lives to see it achieved.

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

[ Sil'dih — Subterranean Aqueduct ] Y'shtola, Minfauxlia, Minfilia, and Thancred stand ankle-deep in water flowing across the floor of an ancient tunnel. Only the lantern in Thancred's left hand casts any light on their surroundings.

Minfilia examines the passage. "I never knew such a watercourse existed beneath Ul'dah," she says, curiously. "The architecture is of the Sil'dihn style, if I am not mistaken," Y'shtola explains. "The ancients plainly foresaw the need for a ready means of escape." Just then, the miqo'te's ears twitch, detecting an indication that they are not alone.

She turns to look back the way they have come. Minfauxlia turns with her, her own senses tingling. "You heard it as well?" she asks. Around the corner, a patrol of Crystal Braves and Brass Blades sprints through the passage, in hot pursuit of the "fugitives".

Now all four of the Scions have stopped and turned around to assess the situation. "Well, that didn't take long," Thancred sighs, his casual tone belying the gravity of their predicament. "It seems these tunnels were not as secret as I had hoped. Might any of you fine ladies have an even finer plan?"

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(5/10) Four of the Scions escape the palace and make for the ancient aqueducts beneath the ruins of Sil'dih.

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

[ Ul'dah — The Fragrant Chamber ] Minfauxlia Warde sits on the floor, her hands bound behind her back. Raubahn Aldynn recovers from an attack from Ilberd, his former friend and comrade from the Ala Mhigan revolution, just long enough to sever her bonds.

Minfauxlia looks shocked, but quickly takes the opportunity to stand. Guarding her, Raubahn growls, "I never doubted you. Not for a moment. But there is more to this than I yet understand."

He looks toward the rest of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. "Flee this place," he urges them, "Clear your names. All of you, but above all, the Warrior of Light. Find out who is behind this plot! It is the only way!" Desperately, he spurs them away, "Now GO!"

Minfilia and Minfauxlia exchange a grave look across the room, nod, and lead the Scions away, fleeing the scene of the battle that is about to resume between the two Ala Mhigan gladiators.

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(4/10) Later, in the midst of what would come to be known as "The Bloody Banquet", Raubahn trades his own freedom for that of the Scions, in a desperate hope that they can solve the plight of his adoptive nation...

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

Minfauxlia is startled by the noise of the chamber doors bursting open. Teledji Adeledji, surrounded by soldiers of the Brass Blades, enters the room, and looks in horror upon the scene. "Your Grace?" he calls out to the figure lying inert on the floor. Then his query turns to an exclamation: "Oh! Her Grace! The Sultana is... dead!"

Teledji looks toward the chalice on the floor. "Poison," he speculates aloud, "in her wine?" Immediately he turns toward Minfauxlia and points accusingly. "You! You did this!" he shouts. "Spare us your denials! I see no other suspects, and the room has but the one entrance!"

Teledji continues making his case to all present, already a sympathetic audience. "You," still shouting at Minfauxlia, "the impostor who so easily infiltrated the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, have finally revealed your true, sinister intent!" Standing once more, Teledji announces, "Minfauxlia Warde, I hereby accuse you of regicide! Men ─ arrest this viper!"

Minfauxlia looks from one to the other, wondering whether she would recognize some of the faces beneath their masks as friends from her childhood. "Surely you do not believe that I could do such a thing!" she pleads with them. "I grew up here in Ul'dah! This is my home! I—" Unmoved by her words, the soldiers continue to advance.

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(3/10) Teledji Adeledji bursts into the Sultana's chamber, flanked by armed guards from the Brass Blades. He finds the scene of a murder most shocking... to everyone, perhaps, except himself...

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia

Minfauxlia bows her head humbly. "Of course, your grace," she agrees. "I regret the confusion that my appearance has caused everyone. Even with the guidance of the Mother, I labor at times to understand it myself. But I will be what this nation, and all of Eorzea, needs me to be." Nanamo allows herself a smile, though whether sincere, or merely diplomatic, Minfauxlia cannot tell. "I suppose I must needs be content with this answer, and will do my best to cast my doubts aside. May we toast to our shared success."

Nanamo raises a golden chalice to her lips, and takes a sip... but something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Minfauxlia leaps up from her chair to come to the Sultana's aid. She calls out, "Your Grace? What—" Nanamo clutches at her throat, gasping for air. She stares in disbelief and confusion, pointing a trembling finger at Minfauxlia. She croaks hoarsely, "What have you—?"

Sultana Nanamo Ul Namo collapses to the floor, her chalice of tainted wine already staining the carpet, her crown tumbled across the floor.

[ CW: The biggest #2.5spoilers you can imagine ]

🧵(2/10) Minfauxlia's struggle to gain the trust of those around her continues. But Ul'dah is her home, and she would gladly obey the Sultana's command to defend it...

#FFXIV #ARealmReborn #Minfauxlia