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]

Thank you.

[Coffee. Coffee will get him functional again. By then, perhaps he'll have some actual coherent questions to ask, other than the ones that would immediately give him away as out-of-place.

You know, like "what's the date," "where am I," and "what turned you from this into something so bitter and dark?"]

[burninglight]

[Just a bit later, Ardyn set a cup of black coffee in front of Ignis and sat down with one of his own, which had far too much cream and sugar to be decently called coffee at all.]

...good morning.

[warmgaze]

[He just grunts and takes the cup. No talking until coffee is guzzled.

Not exactly Ebony, but not bad, either. When about half the cup is gone, he finally manages - ]

I think it's closer to afternoon.

[burninglight]

Probably.

[He stifled another yawn, setting down his own mostly-empty mug.]

Are you feeling well?

[warmgaze]

As well as can be expected.

[Not actively suffering, but the burns haven't entirely stopped aching, either.]

And you?

[burninglight]

Oh, I'm quite fine.

[you know, like a liar.]

[warmgaze]

I somehow doubt that.

[But, for having not yet had an entire cup of coffee, his expression passes for a smile.]

[burninglight]

[Ardyn laughed softly, the awkward smile on his face one that Ignis had no doubt seen a distant echo of on Noctis, an eternity in the future.]

I'll be alright. There's nothing you need to worry about.

[warmgaze]

There's not terribly much I can do save worry.

[He sets the cup down to press a hand to his bad eye, which still aches almost unabatedly.]

If you'd hoped to keep the nature of your power secret, you shouldn't have returned to me even this much vision.

[burninglight]

My secrecy is not worth anyone's sight.

[Ardyn glanced down to his coffee after saying that without an instant's hesitation, sounding as if it were just a simple objective truth.]

I'll manage, somehow.

[warmgaze]

I've no doubt. You seem the resourceful sort.

[Resourceful enough to someday manipulate an entire nation from the shadows.

He shouldn't forget what he's dealing with.]

[burninglight]

[Even if it was, perhaps, hard to reconcile the smirking monster with the young man sitting across the table and fidgeting with his hands as though he'd been openly admonished, eyes downcast.]

...I'm just glad I was able to help. Whatever it costs me doesn't mean anything next to that.

[warmgaze]

[Almost impossible, really. But then, ten years could change a lot in a person, nevermind two thousand.

And speaking of near-open admonishment - ]

Don't be foolish. It means something to me.

[burninglight]

Hm?

[He looked up, blinking hazel eyes at Ignis and trying to focus on him clearly.]

I don't...you aren't worried, are you? Truly, I'll be fine with a bit of time, Izunia just overreacts.

breaks out the bold text

[warmgaze]

... I know how bad my injuries were. I did not expect to ever see again.

[It was truth, even if he would have told the others otherwise, let them preserve some sense of hope. The price carried by his use of the Ring carried finality.

Until, beneath the hands of this Ardyn, it didn't.]

To restore even this small amount, you must have taken on some of the damage in your own vision, didn't you?

[burninglight]

[Ardyn's gaze lowered to the table again, a hand brought up to press gingerly against the damage to his eye and the skin around it.]

...This is nothing. I can see well enough to get by, and I trust Gilgamesh to cover for my failings should the need arise. You were hurt, and I could not simply allow it if the grace of the gods brought me to you by sheer chance. My secrecy, my vision--it all means nothing to me if it should be the price for one life spared suffering.

[warmgaze]

[Sheer chance, hardly. Ignis bites back that thought, bites back all his knowledge of the future...

...And finds that he wants to bean Ardyn in the head with something.]

I am not in any position to speak against sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. But do remember that if all lives have value, that includes yours.

[...The strangest thing is, the words don't even taste like a lie. They're less bitter even than the coffee.]

[burninglight]

Of course, I know that.

[He perked up with a small smile, cheerful for all the wrong reasons. Of course his life had value; he was their savior, after all. The only person alive that could actually heal the terrible ailment their world had contracted.]

[What was more valuable than that?]

[warmgaze]

An inherent value. The same as anyone else.

[Isn't it true that all the worst monsters were human once?]]

[burninglight]

... [The smile slipped a notch once Ignis called him out on what he hadn't even voiced, clearly caught off guard.]

[warmgaze]

[Even if Ignis can't see his face clearly, the lack of a verbal response speaks volumes. Ignis just smiles gently in his turn.

(He feels a bit of a hypocrite for saying it.)]

Perhaps the first stage of my repaying you can be sticking around to remind you of that.

[burninglight]

You...you don't have to do anything of the sort. You owe me nothing whatsoever.

[warmgaze]

Nonsense. Don't make me seek out the going rate for room and board, for if you continue to insist I certainly will.

[burninglight]

...

[Ardyn laughed awkwardly, back to fidgeting slightly with his hands. It was far too early in the morningfternoon for this.]

[warmgaze]

It is not weakness to accept the support of others when they freely offer it, you know.

[It feels so much like talking to Noctis, too. It's almost painful.]