Get in time traveller

[warmgaze]

[Altissia. The ring, burning into his finger, burning into his skull, and he knows the price without asking, knows before it's paid. The thing you value most, isn't that always how this works in fairytales?

Ravus. Noctis. Ardyn, and that little revelation barely enters his mind at the time, the familiar glowing signature of a warp in an unfamiliar color. The prophecy, the visions that hang in his mind, a last wish from a woman who spent her life to ensure it, Lunafreya's final message to ensure that Noctis would survive.

The last clear words he can remember clearly, You've a calling to fulfill, and then Prompto and Gladio's voices, concerned, in a blur...

And then nothing. Just the feeling of a ring's power, setting him alight from fingertips to crown -

It's still in him, that power. The ring of the Lucii binds to its wearers for life, knotting strands of light into their souls, be they kings or anyone else.

(He had expected to die. Living is harder.)

And in the depths of his unconsciousness, in the place where he knows the things that he hasn't had time to consider, Noctis and Ardyn and prophecy and all of that terrible weight -

From there, from the connection of the fire in his soul that will never go out, that can only be smothered and locked away in the dark, a voice says, what would you give to change fate?

And, of course, he answers, Anything.

----

In another world, Ignis Scientia wakes in Altissia, his face scarred, his vision burned away, and continues on.

In this one, Prompto Argentum enters the room just in time to see a flare of purple flame lick along his friend's body and leave nothing behind, not even a char mark on the wrinkled sheets.

And Ignis?

Ignis wakes, with a groan and a hand pressed to his face, in the back of a cart that trundles to a stop to pick up another passenger, a young healer with cheeks not yet sunken by pain and eyes not yet yellowed by plague. He wakes bereft, on some fundamental level, of the touch of magic that bound him to Noctis, the hum of energy that bound retainer to prince...

He wakes with the imprint of a ring on his finger, the memory of agreeing, and not the damnedest idea where he is.]

Comments

[warmgaze]

Long enough that it seems natural.

[A brief smirk.]

Since I was fifteen, thereabouts, so... around seven years now. Perhaps a bit longer, but no one would let me handle live steel before then.

[burninglight]

[Ardyn turned his head enough to look to Ignis with a smile, laughing softly.]

Well, consider me thoroughly impressed.

[warmgaze]

I did start the gymnastics some years before that, at least so it isn't as though I was entirely inexperienced with my own body.

[burninglight]

[It seemed for a moment Ardyn was very tempted to say something about Ignis' body, but thought better of it.]

I'm glad to know I'm in such capable hands.

[warmgaze]

[He is seeing that look and deftly choosing to ignore it entirely.]

If they weren't capable, I'm sure neither Gilgamesh nor Izunia would have left you in them.

[burninglight]

No, of course not. Astrals forbid the world's savior be without a suitable guard, right?

[warmgaze]

I think it has far less to do with you being any kind of saviour and more to do with you being their best friend and brother, respectively.

[burninglight]

Well...yes, I just-

[Ardyn faltered, looking back to the sky.]

N-never mind.

[warmgaze]

[A small smile. Not the smirk of earlier, not teasing, but something a little softer and warmer.]

You cannot be the saviour to everyone, Ardyn. It's important to have at least a few people around you who see you without the weight of that burden - in total clarity, so to say.

[burninglight]

...It's hard to remember that, sometimes.

[He turned over onto his side, head propped up on one arm.]

I suppose I spend so much time one way that I forget how to be anything else.

[warmgaze]

Taking a break or two from time to time is as important to your health as a good diet and getting enough sleep.

[Which was why he hadn't pushed, when Noctis wanted to go race chocobos with Prompto or agreed to pose for silly photos or...

Honestly, Prompto Argentum was something like the human incarnation of taking a break.]

Even if it's only at camp surrounded by a few friends, you can let the mantle of ealer fall from your shoulders from time to time.

[burninglight]

I...perhaps so, yes. It's worth trying to remember, at least.

[warmgaze]

I'll be sure to remind you, if you forget.

[burninglight]

You shouldn't have to go to the trouble on my account.

[warmgaze]

Don't be concerned. It's no trouble at all.

[He leans forward to pull the meat from the fire. There's just enough of a cooked skin on it to keep the juices inside.]

Or, rather - there is no shame in allowing people to trouble themselves for you, when you're carrying such a burden. It is something we want to do.

[burninglight]

Still, I...can't help feeling things like that should be my responsibility. I do all of this and travel so much so that others should feel safer and worry less.

[warmgaze]

You are not a machine, Ardyn, nor a god. Whatever magic is contained in your body, you are still as human as the rest of us at the end of the day.

[burninglight]

...

[Ardyn at least managed to look successfully reprimanded, hazel eyes glancing off to the side rather than look at Ignis directly.]

[warmgaze]

[...After a moment, Ignis sets the hot meat on the camp platter and brings the entire assembly over, so that he can sit close enough to Ardyn to reach.]

Better to be reminded by your friends of that, than by your own body giving out on you. It may well be your task to heal the world, but it is ours to make sure you don't keel over halfway through.

[burninglight]

I'm not going to give out.

[Ardyn pushed himself to a sitting position, shaking his head.]

You can at least have just a little faith in me, you know.

[warmgaze]

I have plenty of faith. But I also know you already to be the sort to push without any regard to your own health if there is someone else in need. That is how we met, after all.

[At least, in this time period.]

[burninglight]

And yet here I am, perfectly alive and reasonably functional.

[warmgaze]

And yet here you are -

[On some harebrained impulse, he reaches out, gloved fingertips resting on Ardyn's cheek.]

- bearing my scars. I shan't be forgetting that.

[burninglight]

...It's not so terrible a burden.

[A slow and gentle smile spread across Ardyn's face, head tilted just slightly into the touch.]

I'm only grateful I was able to help at all.

[warmgaze]

[And thus is how Ignis winds up cupping his cheek with one hand, terribly foolish action that it is.]

It is not a meaningless one, either.