In Kaipo, she curls in the blankets, in the dark. She knows she should be sleeping – "We’re off tomorrow, try to keep up." – but she can’t sleep, so she pretends and thinks too much. But she can’t pretend, when Kain returns to the room, when she sees the candle he carries. She whimpers and shrinks from the light, and he snaps his head in her direction. It’s not him, he realizes, but the flame, and he almost understands.

"Not afraid of the dark?" he asks, taken aback. He is, but she’s more afraid of the candle, so out it goes.
 

And now she knew why he feared; as the man-monster crawled, as the malignancy consumed, she knew what it was to fear the dark. Edward screamed, and Yang, likewise collapsed without a sound. And Kain first, because he was always there between her and danger, and she remained untouched.

It was clouded in her mind, from when she was someone else and innocent, but this man stalked her memories and nightmares. He was the dark, and in her the hatred rose, bright light that burned and consumed. And she stood between them, the evil and her savior and she let the pyre burn.

The fire slowed him, stopped him, and she would have given it to him again if only Rosa hadn’t stepped between them.

She didn’t understand how the white mage could do that – court the darkness so readily – touch, caress, sooth. She asked him to stop, and he did... if only for a moment. He shoved past, somehow half himself and half a man more familiar, desperate for the crystal. Rydia didn't care about that anymore, if only he would leave Kain alone...

But as he stumbled past, Rosa called after him, "Cecil."

He turned back, and his eyes sorrowed.

"Come with me," he pleaded, and she did and Rydia could only gape as Rosa looked back, I’m sorry.

She tried to follow them, wanted to follow, Come back, please don’t leave us! She couldn't say a word, and Kain was going to be upset – "None of your business, fledgling." – again.

And they were dying all around her, and it was only the best she could do to summon up the last of her magic to bring them back.