For Forever

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Quest XI!

Notes: Honestly, I don't remember how a conversation in this part was supposed to go, so I'm kinda winging it? There's nowhere I can go online to get the script yet, so... now the Seer has... more of a sense of humor. Laughing at my inability to remember word for word how it went.

Warnings: I can't think of anything to add.

Massive Story Spoilers. You have been warned.

FIC START!

-Part Three-

As the group headed towards the narrow passage leading out to the field where the Door to Departure stood, Lucien turned to the sea one last time. Each of his party members looked at him with concern or comfort, but they didn't say anything to him. His eyes, though they reflected sorrow he refused to speak of, were fixated out on the shifting water. It was the journey of the Luminary, after all. They weren't supposed to question the man, only support him as he made his decisions for the betterment of the world.

Eventually, Rab broke the silence. "What is it, laddie? Do you see something?"

Lucien stepped away from his grandfather, heading back towards the shore. The monsters that frolicked in the waving blades of grass along the coast avoided him entirely. He walked on alone until he was standing on the soft sand. All the spirits that he'd been seeing his entire life, exponentially more often after leaving the village of Cobblestone for the first time, were gathering around the dock. He heard the echoes of the Time Keeper in the Land of Lost time in his mind as he watched them all gather about.

"Lucien, what's wrong?" Jade called after him. "Aren't we going to Gallopolis?"

He stared at the building on the dock and the fisherman that had saved him after he had spent time as a fish, but he didn't know if the fisherman remembered him or not. Lucien sighed, apologizing to his party for worrying them.

"You've been weird for a while," Erik said. "When are you going to tell us what's wrong?"

"Maybe when you tell us what's wrong with you," Serena nudged him.

"Hey, n-nothing's wrong with me!" Erik quickly stepped away from her.

"Oh, sweetie," Sylvando said, coming around to use his hand and bring Lucien's chin up. "I know you bear the weight of the world on your precious little shoulders, but it's never seemed to drag you down this much. Come now, tell Sylv all about your heartache, and I'll make it all better."

Lucien shook his head, taking a step back away from Sylvando. He reassured everyone that he was fine.

Hendrik wondered what would have drawn the Luminary to the dock. There was no boat here. They decided to head to the Door of Departure. This seemed like a dead end. Was the young man scared of something? Clearly, something bothered him, but Hendrik couldn't exactly ascertain what it was. "Pardon me," he said. "If I may ask, Luminary, what are we doing here?"

"Don't be such a drab," Sylvando said, glaring at Hendrik. "He needs time to think before we set off. Isn't that right, darling?"

The knight could have given that minstrel a face full of gauntlet, but decided to keep his composure. The world was in danger! There was much more to do if they were to set the world right. What could have Lucien so distracted? "I only ask because I was under the impression that we had decided upon our next destination all ready."

"We'll get there when we get there," Rab said, trying to soothe his grandson. "If the Luminary's heart and mind aren't in it, then we can't exactly force it to be. Y'got to understand, Hendrik, that he hasn't had the emotional training you have." He looked up at Lucien, noticing his eyes on the sea. "I know, laddie, you'd have liked to take the ship, but we don't have one available right now. Even if Sylvando sent a letter to his ship-steerin' frien', it wouldn't be here for a while. Let's do what we can, yeah?"

As Lucien turned away from the dock, he saw someone else not in the party standing there. "You are looking for a ship, but I believe you can do one better."

The entire group turned around to see Mordegon standing there. Everyone reached for their weaponry immediately.

"Care to explain why I always take on the worst form the first time I come to someone?" he asked, chuckling at his innate bad luck as he used magic that Hendrik recognized from the Seer. Mordegon's form faded away to reveal the same fortune teller he saw before. "I can't have all of you on edge like that..."

Lucien's face contorted into one of absolute confusion for a moment, but eventually he accepted what was before him. This world was full of such mystery that he couldn't expect to understand everything that he would see over the course of his journey.

"Luminary," the Seer said, taking his hand. "Your predecessor had a way to fly, which I believe is what you need right now."

That made Lucien think about it for a moment. He had ridden on the great sky whale Cetacea before he had crossed into this timeline. That was how he got to the Land of Lost Time in the first place.

"I knew I'd read legends about a flying contraption used by Erdwin," Rab said confidently.

"Contraption?" the seer mused. "What a choice of words. I daresay She'd not like that title."

"She?" Veronica demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"You will see," the seer answered, reaching her hands out to the hero. "You might need this." Her left hand landed on his forehead and visions of all the places he'd been on through the course of his adventure since he set out from Cobblestone came to his memory. Each place was vivid as if he was standing there. "Do you feel it?"

Lucien felt something below his feet. He'd known this power before. The winds themselves could carry him across the world in an instant. He nodded.

"Use this to go to the landing. You remember it now, Luminary?" the seer said. "And from there, you should meet with the Watchers. If anyone knows how to crack Erdwin's star open, they'd be the one to lead you to it."

"Who are the Watchers?" Serena asked curiously.

"They watch things, obviously," Erik muttered.

"Ever the aides to Yggdrasil," the seer replied. "Go on, then."

Lucien imagined the place he wanted to go in his mind. The Luminary's Landing. It stood high up, at the highest point of a mountain. He could see the stone plate on the ground with the Luminary's brand, and the pillars that surrounded it. And when he made his decision to go there, his body was lifted off the ground for a few seconds before becoming swept up in a whirlwind of magic.