Aire

Aire is a playable character in Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. She is the youngest of the two daughters of King Horne. On the day of Brandt's fourteenth birthday, Aire was kidnapped by the Witch of the North. In her animal form, she is a white cat.

Appearance and Personality
In her freelancer garb, Aire is dressed a short white dress with capped sleeves and a pink bodice. She also has a long-sleeved brown shirt underneath and long brown leggings with high white boots.

She has little knowledge of the outside world and acts as a source of cheerfulness to the group. Prior to the adventure, Aire was a spoiled girl who added more than a touch of superficiality to any situation she was in. She berates the other party members for not seeing to her needs and desires and has a particular love of treasure and beautiful things. Her selfishness and greed leads to disaster in Liberte, giving Aire a great deal of guilt. She becomes much more mature after that, although she still appreciates the finer things in life. Her good heart is much more on display after the events in Liberte and Arbor, and she becomes much more eager to help people and stand up for them.

Story
The day the game's story begins, Aire is kidnapped by Louhi due to a contract that was made between Louhi and King Horne. Brandt is ordered by the King to rescue her from the Witch's Mansion and teams up with Jusqua and Yunita on the way. Aire berates them for taking so long, in particular Yunita as she is a member of Aire's personal guard. Louhi arrives and fights the group, but they defeat her. When the fight is over, the Crystal appears to the four of them and tells them they are the Heroes of Light, granting them Crowns to fight the darkness that threatens the world.

When they return to Horne, the king is gone and all the inhabitants have been turned to stone. Investigators from Liberte have arrived to inspect the incident, and they offer shelter to the party until Horne has been returned to normal. Brandt and Yunita decide to look for a remedy themselves, but Yunita insists that Aire go to Liberte with Jusqua.

In Liberte, Aire and Jusqua are installed in a small residence. Aire finds it unsatisfactory compared to the castle and sets out to beautify it with treasure. In town, they meet a boy named Apollo, whose parents have been kidnapped, and Aire agrees to rescue them. She and Jusqua go to the Pirate Hideout, where they discover that the pirate leader, Captain Drake, is actually a Trollud in disguise. They defeat it and halt the reign of terror on the town. Aire also opens a vase, which releases a fairy named Lilibelle who decides to follow Aire in thanks. Since fairies only reveal themselves to their rescuers, Jusqua thinks Aire is talking to herself.

Back in town, Aire complains that she needs more treasure and Lilibelle informs her that the Whirlpool, which appears at night, is said to have some. Aire subsequently drags Jusqua there to plunder it. They defeat the monster guarding the final treasure chest, but at this point Jusqua is sick of being ordered about, tells her to get lost, and departs. Aire opens the chest by herself and is immediately cursed into becoming a cat. A geyser launches her and Lilibelle out. Aire quickly discovers that only Lilibelle can understand her and asks if there is a way to become human again. Lilibelle suggests they travel to her hometown of Arbor and they make for the desert of Guera through the Animal Burrow.

There, they are attacked by an Ogre Bear. Aire dies, but Lilibelle drives it away and sacrifices herself to revive her. She tells Aire that Arbor folk never forget a debt and gives Aire her wings so that she can continue on the Fairy Path to reach Arbor. Lilibelle's death horrifies Aire and she realizes how awful and selfish she was. Aire continues to Guera and teams up with Brandt, also on his way to Arbor, though he takes her for an ordinary cat.

As soon as they set foot in Arbor, Brandt is turned into a plant, and Aire must save him. She explores the Great Tree Roots and meets a mouse sage named Torte who agrees to help. They retrieve the Animal Staff from the tunnels and use it on Brandt, turning him into a dog. They meet with Queen Arbor and agree to calm Arboroc, Arbor's guardian, from a rampage. In exchange, the Queen will turn them back into humans.

Aire and the others make their way through the Great Tree and find that Arboroc is possessed. Although they try to reason with him, they have no choice but to fight and kill him before he causes further harm. Queen Arbor thanks them and turns the Animal Staff into the Transformation Staff. She tells Aire and Brandt to go to Spelvia, as the hero Rolan may be able to cure Horne.

In their animal forms, the pair goes to the summit of the tree and leap to the floating island. Aire lands safely, but Brandt falls. Aire enters the Spelvia Dungeons and is reunited with Yunita. Aire apologizes for her earlier behavior and says that she wants Yunita to be her friend rather than her knight, to which Yunita agrees. They find the city of Spelvia hostile; its golem caretakers attack humans on sight. When they meet Rolan, he refuses to help and says humans are all selfish. The Witch of the Sky tells them that they need to go into Rolan's Soul to return him to normal.

Aire and Yunita do so, teaming up with the last piece of Rolan's heart that is good. They defeat the monsters that possessed him, but this allows the darkness to overtake his soul entirely. Outside, they reunite with Brandt and Jusqua. The four of them fight Rolan again and defeat him, but this releases Chaos, causing darkness to spread throughout the world and forcing them to collect the legendary weapons of light so they can defeat him. However, the flood of darkness warps time, allowing the party to correct mistakes made in the past.

Aire and the others save the countries by preventing their leaders from being corrupted by Chaos' servants and obtain the legendary weapons. She is especially glad to save Lilibelle again. When they reach Horne's past, they learn that King Horne has actually been the demon Satan in disguise, with the real king transformed into a parrot. They defeat Satan and restore the King to normal, and a healed Rolan convinces Louhi to nullify the contract. Meanwhile, the Star Chamber opens and threatens to destroy the world with darkness.

Aire goes with the others into the Star Chamber and they manage to defeat Chaos. At the end of the game, Aire returns to Horne with the others and tells her father how brave she was during the adventure and that she wishes to continue on that path. At first King Horne is skeptical, but he understands that his daughter is now a hero and agrees to let her go. Aire and the others leave Horne Castle for a new adventure, knowing that they are Warriors of Light destined to help their world.

Stats
Aire has the highest Intellect growth and the lowest Strength and Hit Points of the group, making her most suited to be a mage. Her Spirit is also high, so she is proficient with all of the magic crowns. When in areas with magic-resistant enemies, Aire can use support crowns such as Elemenalist or Party Host. She is the worst choice for dealing damage with physical attacks, due to her low Strength. It is highly recommended that the player equip Aire with both White Magic and Black Magic.

Virtual World
Users in Square Enix Members Virtual World community can make their character appear as Aire. Aire's hair costs 100 crystals.

Etymology
Aire is Spanish for "air".