Alicia smiled wistfully at the question. She didn’t mind answering, it just brought along memories and emotions that she had long ago learned how to handle without letting the drag her down. “There was a war,” she started, “well, the actual war only lasted barely a year I guess, but it’d been brewing for years before that, so we all knew it was coming. We were barely adults, but we knew the danger we were living in, which I suppose was why I got married as young as I did.” She paused for a moment, her smile turning fond as Daniel appeared to her mind’s eyes. “Daniel was… he was my brother’s best friend and his family… They actually had the resources to support us joining the resistance and the right social status to not be suspected of doing so. We’d barely been married five months when he and my brother were killed. Not even in a battle. A skirmish, really. I don’t remember the time passing, but I do know that it was not even a week later, that we were all summoned to our old school in preparation for what we all hoped would be the final battle. And it was horrible. So much death and destruction. We lost so many, couldn’t save them all. A lot were only children who had snuck back into the school to fight. And then, with the swing of an ancient sword it was all just… over. Years of living in fear, years of hiding your parentage, years of-of rallying behind people you knew were telling the truth, even when society kept trying to cover up the evil that was brewing. It was all, supposedly, just gone now. Over and done with. And even if we were still treating the wounded, we were brought… breakfast. And I think that’s what really made me see that I had no idea where I was or what to do, other than just… keep on doing what I could. And once all the wounded were either dead or stabilized I just… got lost.”
For a long moment, she was quiet, then she chuckled apologetically and brushed a tear from her cheek. “That turned out to be a lot longer answer than I’d expected,” she told Rey. “But considering that quite a few people here come from the same place and world that I do, I think you’ll find that we all have similar stories. From both sides of that war, even. For some it was only a few months ago. For me it was 11 years ago. I’ve learned to live with my scars and I’m not scared to talk about.” Again, she paused, before she continued. “What made you lost, Rey? And if you’re not ready to share, then we’ll just sit here and watch the sea.”