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]

[Saying nothing more for the moment, Ignis rides up close to put a hand on Ardyn's.]

[burninglight]

I'm...sorry. I must have caused you and so many people untold amounts of pain.

[warmgaze]

That's why we're doing this. To try to change things and lessen the pain of the future for everyone.

[burninglight]

...I understand. You...do you really think there's a way out of this?

[warmgaze]

I think that I will never be satisfied if I don't bloody try. The worst that can happen is that we fail.

[burninglight]

I-...you would really be willing to do that? All that work I can't even begin to comprehend just for a conclusion that may already be decided?

That's...you shouldn't have to.

[warmgaze]

And you shouldn't have to bear the entire weight of the Scourge on your shoulders, and Noct shouldn't have had to watch his father shrivel under the drain if supporting the Wall, and Ravus shouldn't have to grieve his sister without even a body to bury, and if I can change even one of those things then this -

[He presses a hand into his blind eye, sliding it up under his glasses.]

All of this is the least of what I will give.

[burninglight]

[Ardyn squeezed Ignis' hand as reassuringly as he could, not looking directly at him.]

Anything I can do to help in that...all my power shall be yours to utilize.

[warmgaze]

The best thing you can do now is conquer your own fears. If we keep on the same road, nothing will change.

[He squeezes the hand back.]

Between the two of us, I'm sure we can accomplish something.

[burninglight]

I...I'll try. First let's worry about my brother and Gil, accomplishing the impossible can come afterwards.

[warmgaze]

Impossible things start small, after all.

[burninglight]

Ah, but that does remind me...

[He brought Ignis' hand to his mouth and pressed a gentle kiss to the back of it; a pulse of magic coursed through the adviser's body like the tingle of a weak electric current. because fuck if i know how the armiger works.]

[warmgaze]

[Fuck if I know my dude that works for me.]

Careful, don't pull me over.

[WE ARE STILL RIDING CHOCOBOS HERE.]

...That's a great deal less fanfare than I'm used to.

[No formal oaths or anything of the sort, the way the Lucis of the future does. Just a spark of power, and red settling in where blue once made its home in his bones.]

[burninglight]

Hush, you're fine. I'll catch you if you should fall.

[At least he was smiling now.]

It doesn't take much fanfare at all, really.

[warmgaze]

And likely fall with me.

[Not a wholly unacceptable outcome, but perhaps better thought of once they've settled at a haven for the night.]

I'll put things to the test once we stop for the evening. I doubt this boy would be particularly fond of me igniting spelldaggers while seated on his back.

[He gives the chocobo a gentle pat on the back. Good bird.]

[burninglight]

I look forward to seeing it.

[warmgaze]

Perhaps even a spar, if you're feeling up to it?

[burninglight]

Oh, more than that--I would dearly love to.

[warmgaze]

Let's make all haste to camp, then.

[And without the faintest indication of waiting up, he digs his heels into the bird and off he goes!]

[burninglight]

Hey-

[oh it's on now LET'S GO]

[warmgaze]

[Black chocobos probably have an unfair advantage over the common variety here but Ignis and his buddy give it their best!!! Until finally a haven is visible around a bend in the road.

He's laughing and near breathless, by that time.]

[burninglight]

[Ardyn was much the same by the time they reached their destination, hopping off his chocobo with a brilliant smile to rival the sunrise itself and a cheerful laugh without a trace of mockery or malice.]

[warmgaze]

[And Ignis, with the same sort of rush, jumps down and immediately swings an arm around Ardyn's waist, pulling him close.

It's not only lives he seeks to protect. It's the joy of the people he cares about.]

[burninglight]

[Which was all the encouragement that impulsive Ardyn, who operated on emotion well before logic, needed to throw his arms around Ignis' neck and pull him into a sudden kiss.]

[warmgaze]

[That is absolutely acceptable. Logic is in the Armiger and they'll unpack it later with the rest of camp.

For now, he kisses back.]