A Secret Society

It was during one of my return visits to Ul’Dah that Momodi told me that someone had been in the Quicksand looking for me; it appeared that a Midlander Hyur called Minfilia had asked for me by name.  Since I had never met such a person I found it strange and decided to find out what that person wanted with me. Momodi told me I could find the Hyur in the Waking Sands, a building in the Merchant Wards of Ul’Dah.

When I presented myself to the Lalafell at the door I was advised that Minfilia was their organization’s leader and that her office was located at the end of the main corridor and I should go ahead and meet her there. When I finally met Minfilia she explained all she knew about the Echo, to had walked the continent looking for information and having someone so close to my own house being the one to offer it seemed another intervention of the Twelve, maybe Nald'thal had led me to my desired destination.

Minfilia explained to me that I wasn’t the only one, others had come to them through the times with the same gift but that lately the numbers of people like me had been increasing drastically for some reason. Some of them, like me, reported seeing a meteor shower in the skies but a small few had never seen an event like that, some were “awakened” at a young age, others at a much later stage in life; it all sounded so random.

Minfilia also mentioned that she believed that this Echo of ours was a gift from the Twelve, a way that through which they helped their followers to live through some hard times in their lives. Because of the mystic connotations and little understanding of the Echo powers, the population at large was fearful of whom she called the Walkers of the Path, and sometimes the people in general would become angry and aggressive for fear of the unknown. I could now understand why so very few people in my travels had talked to me about the Echo, were they fearful for themselves of maybe for what I might be?

The main reason why people not with the gift appeared to fear the Walkers was because the Echo doesn’t just allow for us to see what a person has seen in the past but also to be a presence in their minds, we can understand their most personal inner thoughts and sometimes even influence their own actions through decisions of our own. Another interesting effect of the Echo is that whenever we experience someone’s past we are able to understand any language in use, whether we ourselves have learnt it or not. This too might give us an insight to knowledge that would otherwise be secret.

Eventually Minfilia asked me if I wished to join the Path of the Twelve, to become a Walker and travel the world in search of insights into the Echo and using it to help others, be them Walkers or not. With curiosity of my own situation I decided to do so and was asked to talk to Lady Tataru at the entrance of the building and have my name written in the Path register and become a member of the Path of the Twelve.

Tataru explained that because of the hardships one must face upon our journeys walkers usually travel in pairs, supporting each other and finding safety in their number. I was introduced to various other Walkers that happened to be in the building at the time and asked to choose someone that I could feel comfortable with while on my travels. I eventually decided upon Nells, a Midlander Hyur and practitioner of the Conjurer arts. I was then given a Path of the Twelve Linkpearl and told that I should present myself to Minfilia and request her acceptance of our grouping.

Minfilia was quick to give her blessing to my request to be grouped with Nells and told me that my companion was waiting for me with Tataru at the building’s exit and that I should go to them and we would be introduced to each other. When I arrived at the door Tataru made the introductions and Nells requested a meeting between ourselves in the Quicksand so we could discuss our future endeavour.

Our first meeting wasn’t quite what I expected, although I had been told that Nells was an experienced Walker and that she had gone through some hardships as life changing as mine her demeanour was one of someone without a worry in the world, where I was sometimes solemn and introspect, she appeared to be lively and jolly. We might not be of a same mind but maybe our differences would be useful in the future, maybe we would complement each other and for that be greater than the sum of just the two of us.