Mariel/Lore
Story[edit]
Quest 1: The Stray Cat's Family[edit]
"How strange, to put value on a life..."
While exploring the Karek Swampland with Aldo, Mariel is approached by a white cat. While playing with the feline, Mariel mentions how cats are not allowed in the temple. The white cat leaves right as a young girl arrives looking for a cat, and the two point the girl in the direction of the cat. Arriving in Unigan, it is revealed that the young girl lives with her father and stepmother: Milky, the white cat, is the girl's only connection to her deceased mother. While talking with the girl's father, Mariel's mother is briefly brought up, but Mariel tries to avoid the topic. After looking around Unigan, Aldo and Mariel return to the girl to get a more detailed description of the cat. The stepmother, learning of the cat's monetary value, quickly runs off to the Karek Swampland, and the two decide to follow her.
In the Karek Swampland, Aldo correctly guesses that the stepmother abandoned the cat in the swamp in order to get rid of it, and the stepmother demands that the cat be given to her. Aldo and Mariel hear a cat's cry and see Milky about to get attacked by a Lizzy. After defeating the monster, the girl's father arrives after hearing the commotion and asks for a divorce after learning of the stepmother's true intentions. After reuniting the cat with its family, Mariel is told that there is a letter waiting for her back in Unigan. Mariel finds that the letter is from her father, the deputy head priest, who wishes for her to continue travelling around the world.
Quest 2: The Reason Behind The Crying[edit]
"Ahem. Meow! E-erm... Woof! Woof! Awoooooo!"
In Baruoki, Aldo and Mariel learn about about an increase in thievery and kidnappings in the surrounding area, so they decide to ask nearby merchants. An elderly man reports being attacked by a monster, and Aldo and Mariel decide to investigate the Nuaru Uplands. At the Nuaru Uplands, the two discover that the "monster" is in fact a man using his voice to scare away merchants. The man claims that he is only a thief so he can rescue his son back from kidnappers; Mariel believes the man, but Aldo is skeptical. Helping the man out, Aldo does a convincing roar, but Mariel fails tremendously when trying to scare away two merchants. The merchants reveal their true identities as beasts who are behind the kidnappings. After defeating the beasts, Mariel offers the man a job at the temple, and the man thanks her for her kindness.
Quest 3: Pure Cradle[edit]
Aldo and Mariel are in Rinde when they come across the father from the first sidequest. The man tells Mariel that her mother (the head priest) has been attacked and is currently at the inn with a healer. The healer states that Mariel's mother has the "Twilight Sickness" and that ingredients for the medicine can be found in the Moonlight Forest. While gathering Moondrops, Mariel tells Aldo why she actually ran away from the temple: when she was young, Mariel was unable to heal a man's emotional wounds, and as a result, she believed that she had no business taking the trials. Back in Rinde, Mariel's mother is given the medicine, but her body rejects it. At that moment, the former thief from the second sidequest enters the inn and tells Mariel how she healed his heart after his wife died during childbirth, which motivates Mariel. The "Twilight Sickness" is revealed to be a monster that attaches itself to weakened hearts, and Aldo and Mariel engage it in combat.
After the monster is defeated, Mariel's mother wakes up, and Aldo and the healer leave the room. Mariel's mother tells Mariel that the emotionally wounded man who went to the temple a long time ago is the same person as the former thief. Mariel's mother then tells Mariel to use her "Pure Cradle" to help her friends on her journey, stating that the technique is incredibly difficult for even elders. After talking with her mother, Mariel goes back downstairs and tells Aldo that the head priestess is gone. Aldo is incredibly confused, and the healer labels him as dense.
AS Quest: The Blessing Sword and the Divine Wings
When staying at an Inn, Mariel recieves a letter summoning her to Rinde. The father from the Milky quest wants Mariel to preside over his wedding to a new wife, one who has won the approval of both his daughter and their cat. Mariel gladly accepts. During the conversation, Milky runs off. The girl and Mariel follow, expecting to see Milky cavortiimg with her paramour, Theo; however, they find a chimera that dropped Theo's bell as it chases Milky. The chimera is growly but not attacking, and Milky is, despite everything, trying to cuddle with it. A beast shows up to inspect his test subject, the chimera he turned Theo into, freely spilling how he intends to build an army using an experimental serum, and the concoction is not yet stable and can be reversed. Furious, Aldo and Mariel fight him.
After the beast is killed, Theo reverts to his original form, dying of damage from the serum. Mariel tries to heal him again and again, only managing to get him awake long enough to say goodbye to Milky. Refusing to accept this ending, Mariel manages to cast a supercharged healing spell; it is suffused with what appears to be feathers of light. Theo finally stands up, healed; a relieved Mariel collapses from exhuastion.
Later, Mariel tells Aldo that she saw Winged Beings when casting the last spell. The two are puzzled, but ultimately dismiss it from their minds as Mariel prepares for the wedding.
At the wedding, Mariel asks to new couple to make their vows to "the Sword of their Heart". For good measure, she marries the sudden and insistent guests, Milky and Theo, too. Afterwards, Aldo expresses curiousity about why Mariel invoked the sword on a wedding; Mariel confesses that the origin of this faith has been lost; yet people make their own meanings, and she has decided to see the sword as a symbol of hope in the face of despair. Though the mystery of the winged beings is unsolved, Mariel is content as she watches the couples celebrate their new beginning.
