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How? She let me. There’s not a whole lot more of a reason than that, although since that effectively answers nothing I’ll go into a bit more detail.

Since that ties into you question of ‘why’, though, I’ll answer that first. As is obvious, I write fiction novels for a living, but back then I hadn’t managed to sell anything. I wasn’t sure why, and nobody could give me an answer that I felt I could really improve upon. I don’t know why, exactly, but I got it in my head that I needed to get more perspective on pretty much everything, so I started interviewing everyone that I felt could help me. Military experts and officers, high-ranking Guild members, heroes from all over...I even tried to get an audience with the Queen, and she actually gave me time to do so. It was all incredible, hearing what they had to say, but at the end of it I still felt like I was missing something.

I doubt you were interested at the time, but this was still the aftermath of the War, and people were finding dislodged Artifacts left and right. Naturally, the Church was trying to clean this mess up, and during that time the Storm was really pissing them off. It was the first time I’d heard of her, but the complete and utter mysteriousness of someone who attacked elite squads of Verosian Clerics, took only specific Artifacts, and never killed anyone while keeping their identity unknown to anyone but themselves completely captured the storyteller in me. The Storm seemed to be a villain, certainly, but she was a villain that I would very much have liked to write into a story.

So, I did the only thing I could think of to do. Using the newspaper that I was working for at the time, I put out an ad. I said that I wanted to speak to the Storm, to record as much of their story as they were willing to share. I said that I would be happy to meet at a place of their choosing, which in hindsight was really, really stupid, but I needed the inspiration I was sure that she could give me. So, six days later, I got a knock on my door at about 2 in the morning. Considering the fact that I was mostly asleep, I’m shocked I managed to actually get there and open it, but when I did...well, she was standing there. In case you’re wondering how I knew it was her, she had an artifact that had been stolen a while before, and whose disappearance I had covered. I knew what it could do - everyone involved did, it wasn’t much of a secret - and when it did exactly that there wasn’t really much else I could think. She told me that this was the place, and the time, of her choosing, and that if I was willing to do an interview now she would accept it, but if I declined she would never have time again.

So that’s the how and why. She came in, we talked for a few hours, and she left. I’ve never seen her again. It’s a pity, too, since I missed so much I could ask due to what time it was. I got an audio recording set up, fortunately, but there wasn’t any time to try and get pictures.

Chloe, what kind of ship did you come in on?

Well,

Unless you’re flying a black military-class airship, there’s another visitor here.

Do you at least have a weapon?

Then here. I’m not going to risk my life for whatever is happening here, but if you don’t have any way of protecting either of you then I’ll let you borrow this.