Dawn Is Just A Heartbeat Away (Hope Is Just A Sunrise Away) is a Final Fantasy XIV fanfiction by HistoricalHijinks.
Official Summary:
Hades, Last and Final Emet-Selch, Guardian of the Aetherial Sea, Unsundered Paragon of Long-Lost Amaurot, has long since given up on Hope, sustaining himself entirely off of Duty, the burning desire and unshakeable determination to return his world and his people to their rightful place. The Sun had long since set, never to rise again until the Star is reforged, leaving him wandering in an endless night. Then, like the glimmer of a candle, a light appeared on the horizon.
Aeliana rem Quirinius just wants to serve her country as a Reaper of the XIVth Legion, to protect her people and ensure that the primal threat is eradicated before the whole of the world in consumed by their insatiable hunger for aether. If that means helping run interference for her Legate during a fancy ball hosted by the Emperor, well, needs must. What she never would have imagined for an instant was that the Emperor would take notice of, and an interest in, her.
This work contains examples of:
- The Ace: While not yet to the degree that she will be as a fully-developed Warrior of Light, Aeliana is already a step above most thanks to being the reincarnation of Azem. Several characters note her unusually magnetic popularity with men and women alike, even those who should be her enemies, her unusual control over her Voidsent partner, and her ability to solve mysteries on seemingly non-existent evidence. Of course, much of this is due to the power of The Echo.
- Action Girl: Above and beyond being the future Warrior of Light, Aeliana rem Quirinius is an elite Garlean Reaper, powerful scythe-wielding, demon-bound warriors, and is sufficiently skilled enough to have reached a upper-middle rank in her legion by the age of twenty-one.
- Adaptation Species Change: Perhaps not a species change so much as a race change, but Aeliana, the Warrior of Light, is a Garlean Pureblood in this story, a race that cannot be played without cosmetic mods in FFXIV proper.
- Ancient Conspiracy: Much as with canon, the Ascians have been, and are continuing to, manipulate events in order to bring about the Rejoinings to restore Zodiark and Eitherys to their proper, whole forms.
- Berserk Button: Abuse an innocent, especially someone you are ostensibly meant to protect and care for, in front of her and expect things to get unpleasant. Marius wir Augustus was only publicly humiliated. A woman in Ala Mhigo who beat her children nearly to death (likely blinding one of them permanently) was dragged before her entire town, had her crimes revealed, and was then left to her neighbors for their own justice.
- Came Back Wrong: Solus'/Hades' opinion of any reborn Ancients of Amaurot, thanks to their nature as Sundered Souls.
- Description Cut: The first chapter has a moment where the nobles of Garlemald are mentally praising their Emperor, wondering what great wisdoms and profound thoughts he is having as he sits on his throne during a ball he is hosting. The perspective promptly moves to the aforementioned Emperor, Hades/Emet-Selch, whose thoughts are entirely about how bored he is, how much he despises the 'fractured shadows' around him, and how much he wishes that they would all just go away.
- Disappeared Dad: There is not mention at all of Aeliana's father, even in passing, only her mother.
- Ethical Slut: Aeliana, according to Gaius van Baelsar. She has a staunch moral code, such as helping hunt down and deal with would-be rapists and publicly shaming a parent for abusing their children before leaving her to her (likely unpleasant, and confirmed fatal) fate. This despite the fact that both the rapist's intended victims and the children in question were 'savages', Ala Mhigans whose home she was busy occupying by force. That being said, she evidently has few qualms about flirting with anyone that catches her fancy, and seduced her way into the bed of the Soranus twins within a few hours of meeting them...at a party in the Imperial Palace.
- Even the Girls Want Her:
- Aeliana is exceptionally popular with not just the young noblemen of Garlemald, but the young noblewomen as well. At the end of the second chapter, she ends up returning to her quarters with both of Varis' left and right hands, the twin Soranus sisters.
- Hades/Emet-Selch reminisces to himself that 'she' was also very popular with those who met her, men and women both.
- Happily Married: Though it is only briefly mentioned in Chapter Two, Hades muses about how much he misses Honoria, his/Solus' wife. Despite not being able to love her 'whole heartedly' due to her nature as a being born of the broken world, he cared fore and trusted her enough that he would have told her his true nature if not for her untimely death.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- Solus'/Hades' Garlean wife was named Honoria
- Solus'/Hades' Garlean son was named Julius
- Azem/Aeliana's original name, back in Amaurot, is revealed to be Eos, after the ancient greek Goddess of the Dawn.
- Oh, Crap!: Aeliana briefly experiences this in Chapter Two, when she realizes that she has pushed the womanizing (distant) cousin of the Emperor himself into challenging her to a duel for his honor. Fortunately for both of them, Varis intervenes to put a stop to things.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Aeliana gives a caustic but fairly courteous (in that she speaks eloquently and without much in the way of swearing) one to Marius wir Augustus, a distant cousin of the Emperor's, when he picks a fight with her for keeping his fiancé entertained while he tried to seduce other guests at the ball.
- The Tease: Aeliana is a shameless and unapologetic flirt. Within moments of being introduced to the twin (female) Soranus sisters, she was flattering and flirting with them, despite the fact that they were assigned as guards to keep her out of trouble.
