A mysterious girl, a magical gem, a fall into a bed of flowers in a broken down church... quite a romantic life your past self had, if I say so myself. Like something out of a story. Unfortunate about the fight immediately after, don't get me wrong, but you can't say that doesn't make for a striking image.

[ He's not being facetious. It does sound like something out of a storybook, and one thing that binds his past self to his current self is the fact that he loves stories. Always has, always will. And Cloud is as close as he's gotten to someone with an actual story to tell; as peaceful as his life in Aldrip may be, Cloud is one of the few who gets to leave.

Gets to? He means wants to. Anyone can leave if they want to, of course. ]

Anyway, you're right on the money. I saw this thing in the marketplace. It was a war banner, I think. I don't even know why I picked it up -- I'm not actually all that interested in useless bits of fabric. But once I touched it, it was like I was somewhere else.

[ He smiles wryly at Cloud. ]

No pretty girls or mysterious gems in mine, though. Just what seemed like a battle, with endless amounts of soldiers, and little ol' me with a sword... [ Killing them. That's what he remembers. The feeling of his sword meeting someone's neck and them falling to the ground, lifeless. He doesn't dare voice it. ]

Pretty freaky stuff.