My first memory was being told by Mother of my world that I had to save it from the Darkness. The Crystal Bearer, She called me...

[ She sips at her drink. ]

Adventurer. Hero. Warrior of Light. Warrior of Darkness. Azem, the Traveler. Shepherd to the stars lost in the dark.

I am all of these things. I will always be these things. I am a concept; a legend; an ideal. I have always been what I must be, and that has never been a person.

[ It's something she struggles with even now, after more than a year of effort. Something inside of her rebels at the thought of truly seeing herself as more than a weapon, because it's so much easier that way. Weapons cannot feel. Cannot hurt. Cannot falter.

People are so fragile, and she can't dare risk being truly broken. ]

Here though... I must be a friend, a sister, a daughter, a wife. I have to be a woman I've never really known, and still don't really know.

I don't know how to be a weapon and a person at the same time, but... The people I love are helping me, so it isn't as frightening as it could be.

[ She frowns down at her drink, brows creased in a way that shifts the patch of scales on her nose upward. ]

You are a Shield, Gladio. You'll always be a Shield, and that doesn't make you any less of a friend. It just means you are better equipped to keep your loved ones safe.

If you ever make it back to Eos, remember that peace. Fight for it. Bring it back to your world.