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]

Ah-...right, I'm sorry.

[Reluctantly, Ardyn pulled back as if he'd only just realized how close they had gotten.]

[warmgaze]

Don't - you don't need to go.

[He just needs to get the both of you fed before he falls asleep.

Luckily, sandwiches aren't too hard to manage.]

[burninglight]

...okay.

[He settled back against Ignis' shoulder, a small smile gradually coming across his face.]

[warmgaze]

[Much better. He's comfortable with this. It's nothing truly that new, even if it's just the two of them instead of four.

And here's sandwiches.]

Best get some sort of meal into us before we sleep, after all.

[burninglight]

Right--of course.

[At least this time he had the decency not to inhale the sandwich.]

[warmgaze]

[He inhaled it in his heart and they both know it.]

Much better.

[burninglight]

It was spectacular. Your skills are truly a marvel.

[warmgaze]

Now you're just flattering.

[Said all while settling himself up against Ardyn to sleep, fighting off yawns.]

[burninglight]

...Only a little. I do want to commend your ability.

[Ardyn put his arms right back around Ignis' shoulders, settling in comfortably.]

[warmgaze]

Mmm, well, let it never be said that I don't accept a bit of flattering here and there.

[Sleeping now, yes? Now sounds like a good time for sleeping.]

[burninglight]

[ah yes sleep. one of ardyn's favorite things.]

[spoilers, cuddling is also way up there on the list. which is probably going to be very evident to ignis when he wakes up in the morning.]

[warmgaze]

[Just another in the long series of similarities between Lucis Caelum, honestly. Waking up with a barnacle human on his chest is more strange for only having one of them, instead of being first or second in the pile to rise.

This time, he doesn't have any desire to remove himself. Instead, Ignis finds himself playing with a strand of wavy red hair and thinking about how much softer clothes in Solheim are than his usual shirts.]

[burninglight]

[Ardyn looked almost surreal for how tranquil he was; without lines of deep exhaustion and endless ages worn beneath his eyes, missing the mocking smirk or vicious snarl. He just seemed...normal. Like any other twentysomething kid, with only the barest idea of the fate he had and no clue of what he might become.]

[And he was clinging to Ignis as if he were a particularly comfortable pillow.

[warmgaze]

[Well, he is a very receptive one, snuggled down in a pile of Ardyn and chocobos. It's an incredibly safe feeling completely unrelated to the haven.

His voice is what as he runs a hand over the scars again. Scars the Ardyn in his time for not have.]

What happened to you...?

[burninglight]

[Though it was and would ever be legendarily difficult to wake the line of Lucis in the mornings, Ardyn stirred slightly under the touch with a wordless murmur.]

Mmmn...morning already?

[warmgaze]

I'm afraid so.

[He doesn't make any effort to extract himself though.]

[burninglight]

[Ardyn sighed, rubbing at his good eye and reluctantly untangling himself from the cuddlepile in a very un-Noctis decision. Much as he'd have loved to stay a bit longer...well, there was work to do.]

Mm- [He stretched and stifled a yawn with one hand.] -we should get moving as soon as we can.

[warmgaze]

Get me some coffee and I'll be good to saddle up.

[Just, you know. coffee.]

[burninglight]

Of course--however could I forget?

[Thank goodness for the Armiger, the ultimate coffee machine.]

[warmgaze]

[It's still not ebony, but he's gotten used to it. Good morning, coffee.]

Mmm. You're a miracle worker, healing aside.

[burninglight]

[Laughing, Ardyn swept into an exaggerated bow with only some of the dramatics he'd have two thousand years to learn.]

I am ever at your most humble service.

[warmgaze]

Of course. Nothing more than an impatient traveller, after all.

[In two thousand years you will understand that joke.]

[burninglight]

Perhaps just a little. I only wish not to waste time, that's all.

[warmgaze]

I'll be along shortly, never fear.

[Handwaves them aggressively into the road.]

[burninglight]

[awaaaaay]

[Ardyn did seem in a bit of a hurry to reach their destination; though he stopped short of outright rushing Ignis or his own chocobo, the faint signs of agitation were clear in just about everything he did.]

...It shouldn't be too much longer.