Inside Francesca's home, the light of the lantern is brilliantly shining as Ren opens the lantern. Francesca's parents watch as their daughter hesitantly puts her hand in the opening. The light dims from the lantern as the energy of the blessing washes up Francesca's arm and spreads throughout her body.

"Are you okay, dear?" Her mother, Linda, asks with concern. It looks like she is catching on fire, but she is somehow managing to stay stoic.

With the light of the lantern completely gone, Francesca takes a deep breath as the power of the blessing takes her. "I feel..." she cliches her fist, "a bit stronger." The natural light magic in her pulses with a subtle intensity, the light of the blessing blanketing over her as it blinks in tandem dimmer and dimmer.

"It protects you a bit from status effects, too," Ren relays what Jikan told him. "And if you get powerful enough to yield some divine energy, you can lend it to someone else for a while. After all, it is yours as Lumina's vessel."

"Ren," Francesca's father, Morris, utters as he sits across from Ren. He has the scowl of a unconvinced, overprotective father pointed directly at Ren. "I guess I can not argue with the Goddess of Time's decision to have you be Francesca's protector." His eyes narrow at the unimpressive look of the 'hero'. "But you are reckless if you think I am going to be okay with you taking my daughter on an adventure. You do not know the first thing about our world."

"Morris!" Linda shouts at her husband for his behavior.

Morris shrugs as he turns to Linda. "I'm just saying! He needs to protect her, not take her to who knows where and get her into trouble. He can just keep her in Lycore. Problem solved!"

"It's not that simple," Ren tries to explain while not being confrontational. "There are a few ways for Lumina to ascend again, and traveling is the only way to be able to achieve any of them."

"What?" Morris snorts, "You think that you are just going to find godhood in the wild?"

Ren remembers the divine light energy that can potentially exists anywhere in the world. "Well, actually."

"Daddy!" Francesca shouts to her father. She looks directly into his eyes and takes a short breath. "Do you have any idea of what I am going through? I am being thrown into a game of the gods' making. I had no time to prepare. I was never given the choice!" Francesca puts a hand to her chest and she raises to a stand. "I am not sure how I even feel about this, but I know one thing. I do not like being told what to do!"

A soft moan escapes Linda's lips, "Fran..."

However, Morris does not back down. "Young lady, I am your father! You better watch your tone with me!"

Francesca leans forward as her voice gets louder, "Or what? You'll ground me?! Just because I wouldn't do what you say?!"

"I would fight the gods themselves if they tell me that you are going on a stupid quest!" Morris responds. "You don't even want to go! That boy is trying to string you along a suicide mission!"

Ren flinches as Morris points the blame in his direction. While he is a little excited about this fantasy world, he legitimately thinks that restoring Lumina is the right course of action. He had expected some drama, but he did not think it would come right out of the gate.

"Ren is as lost in this as I am! But at least he has a say in this! He is trying to make me feel better about all of this!" She points at her finger at her father as tears swell in her eyes. "But you think that you have more of a say in this than ME?!"

Morris growls, "I am trying to save you from a fool's errand!—"

Everything stops. A drop of spit flies out of Morris's mouth, Francesca's arm brushes against the lantern and it is tipping over, Linda is wearing an expression not too happy with either her husband or daughter. The family drama is at a standstill, the image frozen in front of him and the last cacophony of sounds ringing in his head as a sustained and drawn out racket.

*-Time to Think-*

["This sucks! How do I deal with this?! I'm pretty sure that Mr. DeFont would not listen to a word I say! But if I do nothing, their relationship would get worse! I need to get him to shut up for a bit, but I can't even do that! If I try, he might take a swing at me! Think! What do I got? I have Sleep Mist, but that might make things worse in the long run. Forceful Push? I would just be dealing the first blow. Damn it! Can I try to talk Francesca into... Nope, 'cause then I would be telling her what to do too! What else? Wait... Francesca's mom! If their relationship is like I think it is, maybe he would listen to her. Or maybe, she would make him listen to her. But do I just ask for her help? A huge part of this is that he does not trust me, so I can't just sick his wife on him. I need to prove myself to him. Then we can convince him that we need to go on the quest. But what would make him listen...?"]

Time resumes as Morris continues his sentence, "I am not going to have you—" The sound of the lantern dropping onto the ground rings through the air for a second.

Seeing in the still image that was going to happen, Ren takes advantage of the opportunity, "Mrs. DeFont, I have an idea. Can you get your husband to listen?"

"Ren!" Francesca looks at Ren with concern. She does not know where his confidence came from, but he was adding fuel to the fire.

"What are you on about?!" Morris turns to Ren with fury in his eyes.

Linda just crosses her arms and snorts. "Why don't you just tell me?" Her voice was flat, her eyes looking directly at Ren. She does not see either Morris nor Francesca, nor did she intend to.

Ren shoots a quick glance at Morris before talking as if he is not there. "Mrs. DeFont. To restore Lumina, we need to go on a quest."

"Over my dead body—"

Ren does not skip a beat and continues as if nothing was said. "It would be dangerous, but it is also dangerous in Lycore. Just earlier, I had to step in to save Francesca from three men."

Surprised, Linda rises and slams her hands on the table. "Someone attacked my baby?!" She screams as she looks to Francesca for confirmation. Francesca is too stunned to verbally answer her mother, only nodding in fear. Not just from the memory, but of her mother seething rage.

"I saved her though!" Ren is quick to jump in. "And that is kind of my point. We can't avoid danger forever, and it can get worse if people find out she is Lumina."

Ren's words fall into the background as Linda goes to Francesca and cups her face. "What did they do?! What did they want?! Did you run away and call for help like I told you to?!"

With a nod and a wipe of her knuckles to her face, Francesca says with a whimper, "I did. But no one helped except for Ren. They all saw me, but nobody came."

This was not exactly how he expected the scene to turn out, but Morris was not saying anything anymore. "Mr. DeFont," Ren leans into his advantage, "you want to keep Francesca safe in Lycore. But you know that Lycore is not safe either."

Morris finds it hard to refuse Francesca's savior, "Don't... think this changes anything..."

"It doesn't?" Ren asks. "If you are worried about Francesca's safety, then staying in Lycore is not a good solution either."

Morris can not look Ren in the eyes. "Maybe not," he hisses, "but it sure beats going on a journey. The city is not safe, but it is safer than everything outside."

Ren shrugs. He could try to say something else in order to convince Morris. However, he looks at Francesca from the corner of his eye. His focus was on getting Morris to calm down and and have him listen, but Ren unintentionally put Francesca on the sideline. She has her own problems that she has to deal with, and Ren was carrying the conversation in its own direction. He did not factor that into his calculation.

Losing his momentum, Ren takes a step back as he looks at Francesca. "Um... Anything that you want to say?"

Taking a moment to brush her mother's hands aside, Francesca breathes in through her nose. "I-I just..." she pauses as she pieces what she wants to say together. "I know what I am expected to do, but it feels like I have to be someone else. I can not just refuse to do this." Her hands ball into fists and her face points down. "How can I let myself stop Lumina from rising again? The world needs her, but they don't need me..." She wipes her face again. "I feel so powerless. Like... who I was supposed to be was just an afterthought..."

Everyone listens quietly, watching as Francesca is suffering from an identity crisis.

"And I thought," she continues, "that if I just focus on being 'Francesca', then that would make it more bearable. But even being who I am is just as suffocating. I just made you mad and..."

Morris rubs his arm humbly, "Sweetie, I'm sorry. I just want to make sure—"

"Hush!" Linda shushed her husband as she rubs her daughter's back. "Fran... Sometimes, life would not let you be you. You think that I wanted to get married at a young age? Of course I didn't. But I was a magicless city girl that never stepped out of the walls. I used to have your father come with me wherever I had to go exactly for the reason you faced today. To mostly everyone, I was just 'some girl'. That is who I was to them." She pulls Francesca in closer and into her shoulder. "And 'some girl' is an identity in itself. They thought I was easy, weak. Oh, you should have seen your father's face when I tore Mrs. Neloom to shreds when she suggested that I was not doing enough by only having you."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"There... were other witnesses too," Morris says uneasily, "but we were all too scared..."

"Because 'some girl' should not have been able to do that. But I know who I am. Your father knows who I am. You know." With gentle nudge, Linda rocks Francesca in her arms. "That is all I could want. If I can have you two, my entire world, know who I am, then I know that I am somebody."

"R-Right..." Ren tries to dip his toe into the touching conversation. "And you have me, Francesca... I mean... not because of the hero thing, but..." Ren was not sure how to follow it up.

Francesca asks from her mother's shoulder, "Ren, you are my hero. How does that make you feel?" She is tied to him by a fate neither of them wanted. She hopes that he can sympathize with her.

Taking a moment to think about it, Ren says, "I can't say I was expecting it. In fact, I was a little happy when I first found out. It was actually I thought about a couple of times." He rubs the back of his head. "But now that I am taking this in, I get how serious this all is. But..." he thinks about what it truly entails to be a hero. Protecting Francesca in a fantasy world where threats can be more real than family drama. "In a way, I don't hate it. In fact, it is pretty reassuring. I have you, and I also have the support of the Goddess of Time." He pulls out the timepiece holding the power of Time to Think. "Its a burden, but it is sort of a gift too. But... I know I am very privileged."

Linda pushes Francesca back a little bit. "I think that you are gifted too, Fran. You are not just some girl. You are the vessel for Lumina. That comes with its own challenges, but great hardships come with rewards to balance it out." Linda looks at Ren. "You have sworn partner to protect you, who is willing to listen to you. It might feel like the world is not giving you have a say in the matter, but you are being heard."

Francesca slows her breathing as she is taking in what her mother is saying. At the very least, she wanted answers. Something that can give her a little closure. She wanted everything to just fix itself. But from where she is at that moment, all her small little world can do is tell her that it is not so bad. There is some comfort in her mother's words, but it changes nothing.

Morris sighs as he thinks that he better say something. "Sweetie, since you studied in church, you were always taught about light magic and all of that. You were pretty damn proud when you knocked out Word of Mending." He sighs, "But... if you have trouble with being the Goddess of Light, or however that turns out, do you think the old Lumina would act like this? I'm pretty sure that she would be confident. So um..." after a slight pause, Morris continues, "What you are feeling... must be your own thoughts."

Ren tilts his head as he thinks about Lumina. Francesca should not have Lumina's memories, so nobody can really tell what she was like. "Francesca, let me ask you this. The Goddess of Time." He then brings up the image of Jikan in his mind. "What do you think she is like?"

It is an odd question, but Francesca thinks about it for a second. "Well... She's the Goddess of Time... So, she must be old, right? Elderly?"

A small smile grows on Ren's face, "She actually looks a lot younger than you would think." He vividly remembers the goddess he was talking to. "She has the appearance of someone a little older than you, but younger than your parents."

Linda looks at Ren with skepticism. "But she at least has to be wise, right?"

Ren shrugs, "I'd say she is. How would you picture it?"

"I..." Linda tries to picture the deity the governs all of time. "She has to be high up there in age. Maybe have a lot of books, wear reading glasses, and is incredibly neat and proper."

"Ha...!" Ren scoffs as he shakes his head. "Sure, she has glasses, but they seem to be regular, everyday glasses. Now, you are right about the books, but definitely not on neatness. Her entire place is messy with papers and books all over the place. And furniture, I think?" Unbeknownst to Ren, Jikan's study was in that state due to the process of summoning him. However, the misunderstanding spreads.

Morris puts his hand to his chin and looks off to the side as he wrestle with the image. "So what? You think she would really care how sloppy she is as long as she gets you to do what she wants?"

"That's not the point." Ren dismisses the idea. "The point is that she is not who you expected, is she?"

"Maybe not," Morris concedes. Never did he think that he was going to hear a first hand account about the Goddess of Time's appearance. Then again, he never would have guessed that his daughter would be the vessel for Lumina.

Ren turns face Linda. "Do you feel less secure in Jikan offering Francesca her help?"

"Well..." Linda says with uncertainty. "I guess not. I am much more worried about her actions rather than her... lifestyle."

"Exactly!" Ren says a little too loudly. "Jikan is powerful, but she has her flaws too. And I think that is okay." He places a hand on Francesca's shoulder. "You can be yourself, Francesca, and be the Goddess of Light. All that Jikan asks is that we succeed." He thinks about Jikan's safety net and the two main ways they can increase Francesca's power. "You're not on puppet strings. You have options that you can make for yourself."

For a while, no words leave Francesca's mouth. She looks between everyone. Ren is looking at her with a look of a contagious hope. Her father is staring off in agitation but very reluctant acceptance. Her mother gives he a compassionate look of sympathy. Seconds tick by, and Francesca says nothing.

"Still..." Morris starts as he looks at Ren, "No adventuring."

"Don't start this again, Morris!" Linda snaps at her husband.

"The boy has a point, but so do I," Morris stands firm. "Lycore might not be all sunshine and rainbows, but it is the only place little Fran has."

Ren raises his hands, careful not to trigger Morris again. "If I may, I know quite a bit about have this world would operate. More than just helping the Goddess of Light ascend, the journey can make our bases stronger too." He gestures with his hands to punctuate the different bullet points that he can expect from the fantasy nature of the world. "The more we travel, the more we grow. And the more favor we get, the better opportunities we get too. Wrap that up in good gear and some more teammates..."

"So you're committed towards writing an epic," Morris grumbles. It is a path to self improvement, albeit a reckless and dangerous one. "How about this? Give it another year. She can learn more at the church and you can learn more spells. How's that sound?"

Ren is a little shocked to see Morris flipping on the topic. While he is thankful for the opportunity, Ren is hesitant. "Well... If we let the church know that Francesca is Lumina, then that would mean that we are putting her more at risk." He looks at her as she is still silent. "I don't think it would be a good idea to put her in a place that has nothing but expectations for her. Believe me, I know what you are saying makes sense. But going on an adventure also keeps her on the move and laying low."

"There is a certain freedom when it comes to adventuring," Linda offers her two cents.

"All the more reason that you should stay in Lycore before heading out." Morris answers with finality. "Nowhere else is going to have as much support for you than Lycore. Its about making the safest and smartest choice."

"I'm ready..." Francesca says while she stands up, face pointed down. "I'm ready to go..."

"Francesca?" Ren utters quietly.

Morris goes to plant his hand on her shoulder, "Sweetie, understand that—"

Francesca pushes his hand out of the way. "I'll prove it to you."

Morris pulls his hand back and raises his brow. "Prove it how?"

Raising her face to look at her father, Francesca mutters strength to stare down her father with conviction. "The full moon is in three days. I will cleanse the cemetery."

Linda gasps sharply, "Fran!"

Morris takes a step back, unsettled by the proclamation. "You can't!"

Ren sees the fear in the parents' eyes and turns to Francesca. "A little help in explaining here?"

Francesca turns to Ren with a dispassionate expression. "Two full moons ago, ghosts from the graveyard began to rise and invaded the city. Everyone was unprepared. Many people ended up getting possessed. The ghost indulged in their desires as they controlled living people. Some murdered, some went back to their families while stealing another person's life, some committed crimes just because they would not have to pay the consequences. It was utter mayhem." She grasps her sleeve tensely, "Morning broke and the ghosts disappeared back into the cemetery. But there were some that managed to stay inside of their hosts. The sun does nothing to them when they have a body."

Ren considers the story for a moment, "And you think it would happen again?"

"It did last month," Morris confirms. "It was not a one time thing."

"The church was under-prepared the first time around," Linda explains, visibly shaken. "They made protective wards and the such in case something like it happened again. They did not know it would happen again so soon."

"But they still had a fighting change, right?" Ren asks with concern.

"They did..." Francesca says with much hesitation. "But then the ghosts started to target the church. Once they saw that the church was trying to take them out, they possessed people at random to destroy the countermeasures."

"Didn't the church have something to stop possessed people, though? There should be no reason that they wouldn't." Ren tries to reason.

"Dealing with a ghost outside of a body is easier, if you have the magic or tools," Francesca shrugs. "But when they are in a body, it gets tricky. You would want to keep the victim safe. So, exorcisms require undivided attention to drive the spirit out while not harming the victim's soul. That is just not something we can do during an horde invasion."

Ren pieces it all together. Ghosts and the light of the church. Classic match-up, but the side with the supposed advantage is failing. "A boss fight...?" Ren muses to himself.

Linda speaks up, "But you said that Morning Sun Church is running low on the reagents! You can't take on the ghosts without protection!"

Ren crosses his arms. With Sleep Mist and Forceful Push, he is not going to be of much help either. He glances at Time to Think, its sands still flowing in reverse. He weighs whether or not now is a good time to test to see if he can use it again.

"I know of a way," Francesca says. "Father Yu has a Scroll of Exorcism in Morning Sun Church. If I can get it..." She looks down at her hand as the blessing of light pulses for a split second. "I can do it."

Ren looks away for the timepiece, "What makes the Scroll of Exorcism so special?"

Francesca raising a finger as she takes on a teaching tone. "Scrolls are like one size fits all conduits for spells. You don't even need to have magic or know the spell in order to use it. But they do have a limited number of uses, unless you use your own magic as its resource. Also, the incantation must by read aloud for every use."

"I won't allow it!" Morris finally puts his foot down. "It is far too dangerous! If you do that, you would be the one that is targeted!"

"I know," Francesca says as she looks at him. "I need to prove to you that I can handle it."

Morris erupts, "Let Father Yu handle it! Don't put yourself in danger like that!"

"Fran, what if you get possessed?" Linda asks in fear.

She looks at Ren. "With the blessing, my power increases and I gain resistances, right?"

Mulling it over, Ren nods. "That's right."

"Then I can do it," Francesca tries to sound certain, but it is barely supported by mere hope.

"Wait," Ren realizes something. "Scrolls can work if you use your magic to fuel the spell?" With a slight chuckle, Ren is glad that he chose to be a mage. "Then I can use it too, right?"

Francesca looks at Ren's staff by the front door. "Y-Yes...!" She cracks a small smile. "Its power won't be depleted if you use it, Ren." She stands tall as she looks to her parents. "We have a plan. We can take the Scroll of Exorcism and clear the ghosts on the night of the full moon. I have the blessing of light and my hero with me."

Linda takes a step towards her daughter, "Fran, you don't have to do this."

"I know..." she acknowledges. "But that is why I choose to do it." With the revelation of Lumina's presence in her, Francesca felt out of control in her own life. The expectations that were soon to bury her did not even need to surface before she was crushed. The world might be out to get her soon, and she knows that her parents mean well. The hard truth of the matter, though, is that she needs to show initiative now before everyone starts making more choices for her. Almost getting kidnapped by three men left a mark on Francesca. She did not want to be that defenseless again, and she could make sure that never happens again.