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

[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.]

[burninglight]

This is mine to carry...all of it. I'll not trouble my brother or Gilgamesh with it, and certainly not someone I just met. I'd not wish to burden anyone, or have them fear me at some risk of collapsing. This world and its people have enough to worry about.

[warmgaze]

I can't speak to a man I've never met, but I daresay your brother is already carrying it, whether you wish him to or not. It cannot be easy for him to see you come home in such a state without knowing why.

[burninglight]

...

[There was that admonished look again, Ardyn folding his arms and retreating within himself in a way the CHancellor never dared with all his grand, open gestures.]

I don't know what else to do.

[warmgaze]

...Someone I respected very much once said, trust them, because they are your brothers.

Rather in less of a literal sense than this case, but the sentiment is, I imagine, the same.

[burninglight]

I-I...

[Ardyn swallowed hard, clearly struggling to come up with a response.]

...I don't want him to know. The truth would do naught but hurt him more, and I could never allow that.

[warmgaze]

At this point, he may well have a good guess of it. And I think he would prefer to hear the truth than to be made to guess.

[Ugh, okay, this is too heavy for a half-a-cup discussion. Time to drain the rest of his coffee.]

[burninglight]

[No answer came in response to that, Ardyn slowly looking to the table again.]

[warmgaze]

[Ignis just quietly finishes his cup. Sometimes the best decision is to let them stew. Noctis usually came around when he cooled down a bit, at least.

When he's done, he reaches for Ardyn's empty cup as well.]

Show me where to put these?

[burninglight]

Wh--oh, let me. You're our guest, after all. [Ardyn stood up, hand closing around the empty air a couple of inches away from his own coffee mug before he got a hold of it.]

[warmgaze]

And I'd hate to be helpless in your kitchen, since it appears I'll likely be staying for some time.

[burninglight]

I certainly never said you couldn't watch.

[With a laugh that was perhaps just a little more flirtatious than it needed to be, Ardyn calmly picked up both coffee cups and walked to the kitchen to wash them out.]

[warmgaze]

[...Did he just -

Even knowing that this is apparently a thing this incarnation of Ardyn does - Six bless Izunia for backhandedly warning him - Ignis is still left speechless for a moment before concluding, surely not, and dismissing the idea. It's no different than joking with Prompto about sharing a nice room at Galdin Quay or any of the other vaguely-flirtatious things they had done on the road.

Pretending for all the world that there hadn't been a momentarily dumbfounded look on his face, Ignis follows Ardyn silently to the kitchen.]

[burninglight]

[He did, however briefly, seem to have lost the forlorn look in favor of a small smile as he worked, calmly washing and drying the cups and putting them away in a nearby cabinet.]

There. Now, as both your host and technically your physician, I must insist you rest and refrain from doing anything too strenuous until further notice.