A Darkness in the Heart
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A Darkness in the Heart
- Quest giver
- Shale
- Location
- Earthen Sky Hideout (X:6.2, Y:5.9)
- Quest line
Post-Dawntrail Main Scenario Quests
┗ The New Dawn Quests- Level
- 100
- Experience
0- Gil
1,250- Previous quest
My Memories and Yours- Next quest
- Preservation Their Purpose
- Patch
- 7.3
- Links
- EDB GT TC
Main Scenario Progress: 972 / 992 (98%)
Dawntrail Progress: 119 / 139 (85.6%)
Shale steels her heart for the work ahead.
— In-game description
Related NPCs
Cutscene NPCs
Steps
- Speak with Sphene in the outskirts.
- Speak with outskirts inhabitants.
- Speak with Sphene.
- Speak with Sphene again.
Journal
- Shale steels her heart for the work ahead.
Dialogue
Accepting the quest
It's time I went back to locating Calyx's lair.
I have a new strategy in mind, but it remains to be seen if it will aid in narrowing down the possibilities.
I'll ask Krile for help. I want to reexamine the data, starting with that of her parents.
After all, they were the first to break away from Preservation and establish an organized resistance with Oblivion. There must be something in there that can point us in the right direction.
What are your plans, Forename?
Sphene contacts the player using their communicator.
Forename, is that you? Apologies for calling suddenly.
I've been making the rounds in the outskirts, and I cannot help but feel as though something is amiss.
Might I ask you to join me? Your perspective would be most appreciated. It can wait until you've finished attending to Shale, of course.
It seems your plans have been decided for you. Go on─I've others to speak with before I return to the Backroom.
Optional dialogue
As long as the memories remain, this wound in my heart will never fully heal. But it might be better that way.
To feel something─even pain─is to remember that they lived. And to know that I am still alive.
Speak with Sphene in the outskirts.
Optional dialogue
I'll be fine now, just fine...
I can't... I can't go on like this...
Wh-What do you want...? You can't have my regulator!
Forename, thank you for coming!
As I mentioned, I would benefit from your worldly experience.
Perhaps it is my imagination, but the townspeople appear to be acting oddly. That is, even considering the current state of affairs.
As I am yet unfamiliar with the outskirts, I thought you might be better equipped to judge if their behavior is unusual or not.
Would you speak with them and see what you think? Though I hope to be proven wrong, I fear something is not right here...
Speak with outskirts inhabitants.
Optional dialogue
It's nothing so obvious as loud wailing or acts of violence, but... Well, it would be best if you saw for yourself.
Neo Regulator-equipped Resident
You... You're not wearing a regulator!? Don't you know the end is coming!?
Well, it's your life to lose. Me? I got myself one of those neo regulators and registered a little while ago.
As soon as I did, a display appeared showing the number of registered users. Right now it's sitting at four thousand one hundred and sixty-eight.
The upper limit was five thousand, wasn't it? Seems the total shot up right after those machine malfunctions. It's only a matter of time before everyone's registered.
I pity those who weren't chosen, but I'm going to be an Endless. I'm going to evolve, and live happily ever after...
Optional dialogue
I hope you come to your senses and get your hands on a neo regulator, friend!
Trembling Resident
Oh, please tell me you brought more neo regulators! Officially, they've all been handed out already, but I've heard rumors there were a few left over...
Surely the government still has some? Or perhaps Queen Sphene!?
I may not look it, but I was a hunter once. Back then, I hardly gave death a second thought. But now that I know the truth, it's all I can think about!
There has to be a way to hold on. There has to...
Optional dialogue
I can't go on like this...
Pepoane
Greetings! I remember when you visited with Queen Sphene... Come to check on our well-being, have you?
Well, I can say that things are rather stressful out here as well.
Without knowing if or when our machinery might turn murderous, the specter of death is ever present. People are terrified, and the clamor for neo regulators has reached a fever pitch.
I, personally, was fortunate to have claimed a new device early on, and have long since completed the registration. Death has no hold over me now.
Now, I must begin my prayers. The darkness draws closer, grows deeper...and we must cast it out...
Optional dialogue
I must pray...
Speak with Sphene.
So, what do you think? Was I right to worry?
What will you say?
Tensions are running high.
Their fear is palpable.
Yes, that is exactly it...
The people are overwhelmed by uncertainty and fear. And with each new registration, that fear inside them grows more insistent...
How long until it drives them into full-blown panic?
The player receives a linkpearl call from Alisaie.
Forename! Can you come to Resolution?
We have a problem... I'm already here with Lamaty'i and Alphinaud.
It sounds like she wants us there in a hurry. We should go!
Start of voiced cutscene.At Resolution, a small crowd gathers before a monitor showing Living Memory before it was shut down.
What's happened?
Sorry to drag you out here, but I thought it best you see for yourself...
Public Announcement
Death is your constant companion.
Though you toil with diligence, death may come ere your reward is bestowed. Though your grand works be poised for completion, death may come ere you wake the following morn.
Though you enjoy a life of peace and good fortune, death needs but one instant to claim you.
Your bodies are weak. Your heart, your brain, every fragile organ rolls the dice from moment to moment, sheer chance deciding if they function or fail.
Be you stoic or generous or righteous, no virtues tip the scales in that fatal reckoning.
The choice is made without reason. The end is cloaked in terror. That is what it means to die.
The announcement began after we finished our meeting with Gossan. As for its source, well...
Calyx...
Public Announcement
There is no shame in being afraid. It is that very fear which will drive you to conquer death.
Let us set a new course for mankind. Let us preserve our existence unto perpetuity.
Hope for it. Wish for it. Pray for it. We will become Endless.
With evolution's brilliance will we banish the ever-present darkness of mortality...
Change isn't easy. No one ever wants to take the first step.
But this...this is the right path for us. What other way could there be? I'm gonna do it─I'm going to register!
Vow Wuk Lamat!
You couldn't have come at a better time. Please, you have to let us move to Tuliyollal!
It's too dangerous to stay here. And who knows when the next sentry will turn on us...
Even if we wanted to become Endless, there are no more neo regulators to be had... Fleeing is our only option.
If the solution was as simple as leaving, then we'd all have left already. Did you not hear the announcement? For the living, death is a foregone conclusion.
No matter where we go, or who we shelter with, we won't get another chance like this to overcome our fate.
Easy for you to say when you have that regulator!
The Landsguard are on their way as we speak, and arrangements have been made to see that you all will be safely evacuated.
Tuliyollal will aid you in whatever way we can...
So please, remain calm.
I want to help Alexandria. I want to save its people...
But what can I do?
I am not their queen...
End of cutscene.
Speak with Sphene again.
Optional dialogue
First those deadly malfunctions, and now a city-wide announcement. He has spent considerable effort recruiting his five thousand Endless. Perhaps more than necessary, even...
We had the hopefuls who descended on Lamaty'i disperse for now. We could see tempers in the crowd were starting to fray...
This latest wave of attacks may not have been as widespread, but people are reaching their breaking point. We have to stop Calyx, and soon.
I'm sorry I couldn't be there in time. Krile told me everything that happened while we were away...
My apologies. The sign is not responding to any of our attempts to change the display or switch it off...
Calyx has access to the core system... Which means that if he chose to do so, he could deploy the soldiers beyond the barrier.
Even if our people learn to live with death and decide to leave the dome behind, they will not be beyond his reach.
Yet if it serves to allay their fears even a little, I beg you, Wuk Lamat: please let them shelter in Tuliyollal.
We will welcome any and all who want to come. We've already begun evacuations, and we'll be able to pick up the pace once the Landsguard arrives.
In which case, we had best spread out and keep an eye on the crowds. The mood is tense, and we must prepare for possible violence.
If you happen to determine where Calyx is hiding, though, we'll be ready to move at a moment's notice.
Surely we'll find a clue of some kind soon. He can't elude us forever.
Violence and fear... This is not the future she envisioned for her nation.
Optional dialogue
You give so much of yourselves to aid those in need. I must endeavor to find my own small way to help...