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]

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.

[warmgaze]

Of course. But you understand I shall have to disregard your advise as physician if you can't follow it yourself.

[burninglight]

What made you think I was planning anything of the sort? I haven't been home in a while, I'm hardly going to rush back out the door after barely a day.

[warmgaze]

Of course. Forgive me. I didn't mean to imply that you're the sort to make reckless decisions at the expense of your own well-being if you see another in need of aid.

[He says it smooth as silk... But from the way he's smiling, that's definitely teasing.]

[burninglight]

One need only ask my brother to hear at length about how 'reckless decisions' is my middle name.

[And that smile was unmistakably flirtatious.]

[warmgaze]

Started with running with scissors and worked your way up, then?

[THIS IS FINE, HE'S NOT DYING INSIDE AT ALL.]

Because I do think it fair to warn you that I am not quite as reckless as that smile of yours, restrictions on strenuous activity or no.

[burninglight]

Daggers, more likely.

[Shrug.]

But I've no idea what you might mean.

[warmgaze]

[...You know what? Okay. He grew up alongside a Lucis Caelum, he should have expected that.]

Just that I'm not prepared to step into the kind of recklessness Izunia was so helpfully implying last night, and I felt it better to get the matter out of the way now.

[Before anyone's feelings got hurt. Or before he made the single most regrettable decision of his life.

Because when Ardyn smiles, he looks all the more like Noctis. And it is perhaps a blessing for Ignis that his vision is so blurred right now, because he thinks that, if he could see it in perfect clarity, he might do anything for that smile, including forget whose face it's on.]

[burninglight]

[Ardyn raised his hands defensively, still smiling.]

As you wish. I'll not go so far as to expect anything.

[warmgaze]

I appreciate it. I don't mind a bit of verbal sparring, but I thought it for the best to make things clear from the beginning.

[burninglight]

Oh, no. The last thing I would wish is to make you uncomfortable here. Our home is yours, and you should be at ease in all respects.

[warmgaze]

You are too kind, truly.

[Also how many conversations like that are they going to have?]

...What is there for breakfast?

[burninglight]

I'm not sure, actually--Izunia does most of the cooking, he surely made something or other earlier.

[let's just. poke around the kitchen a lttile.]

[warmgaze]

[Well, if that's an invitation to be nosy, he'll definitely be -

Dear Astrals this entire shelf is full of various kinds of dried peppers in jars. Who the hell needs this many peppers. Izunia Lucis Caelum is an absurd human being.]

I'm a decent hand in the kitchen myself, under normal circumstances. If he hasn't left anything, I'm sure between the two of us, we can manage.