#in which Besithia finds only an empty cave and broken chains

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Final Fantasy Friday

(Some backstory for last week's snippet, and how Ardyn escaped Angelgard)

Spoilers for XIII 2 and Lightning Returns, so be forewarned

It was always silent in the chamber. In what was meant to be his tomb. The only sound was the soft rattle of the chains on those rare occasions when he tried to move. Even his screams had lost their strength over time. What use was there in screams, in pleading or tears, when there was no one to hear?

In this Astrals-forsaken place, there was not even a glimmer of light. Nothing but the darkness and the silence in any direction -- not that he bothered trying to look around after the first ten years. That was more agony than it was worth.

Memories of sunlight, and wind on his face, and the feeling of grass under his feet, were all so far away they seemed like fantasies. Had that life been a dream? No, he could never have dreamed up anything so wonderful as trees and water, and Aera.

Aera.

He'd no more tears to cry, but his eyes burned all the same.

That world outside- it was still there, somewhere. Everything he remembered was real -- it had to be, or he wouldn't be chained here, would he? Because he was the Adagium now.

No. No, that was not his name. That would never be his name.

He was-

Was-

"Ardyn."

The name crawled out of his lips and slipped away into nothingness.

He tried to raise his head, to ease the pain in his back, his arms- it didn't help, it never did. Pain was his constant companion. His only companion.

"Ardyn."

His own name, parroted back. But this time, in the voice of a young girl.

Slowly, painfully, Ardyn forced his eyes open. He knew what he would see: nothing. Nobody knew where he was, maybe nobody even knew who he was.

Do I even know that anymore?

Through dry, watery eyes, he almost thought he saw a shape. He dismissed it as a creation of his loneliness and blinked to be rid of it.

But the figure remained.

Floating before his face was a child -- certainly no older than thirteen or fourteen -- with silver blue hair cut short and a ceremonial veil covering her mouth. The child's eyes were haunted in a way that Ardyn recognized.

He blinked again, and yet she remained. The girl held out her hand to the side and another girl, identical save for the length of her hair, floated into Ardyn's field of vision to clasp the first girl's hand. Twins?

At the corners of his eyes, Ardyn thought he saw many more of the girls with the same face. Ah, so they were illusions after all.

"We are not creations of your mind, Ardyn Lucis Caelum."

The girls spoke in unison.

"We are Paddra Nsu Yeul: avatar of Etro."

Etro?!

The Stygian? The lost goddess of death? The original patron of the House of Caelum before Bahamut chose a king? Ardyn had never heard of any myths mentioning avatars. The Messengers, when they had spoken of her, described her as living crystal, sleeping in the very heart of The Crystal itself.

"H-ow?" Ardyn croaked. He had not the strength to say more.

"Do not be afraid, lost king. We have come to aid you." the girls said in their soft, whispery voices.

Help him?

The Adagium? Help? Now I know they are not real.

Ardyn closed his eyes again.

"Do not doubt Etro," a stern voice interrupted his thoughts.

Ardyn felt a hand touch his face and opened his eyes.

He stared into the fiery eyes of a man of indeterminate age with a hard face.

Who was this? Who would touch him?

Was this real?

"Is this the one you spoke of, sister?"

"Yes, Caius. Save this one and bring him to our Etro self in Valhalla. To leave him would open the timeline to fractures again."

Caius nodded sharply and looked up at Ardyn.

"You balance on a wire," the man said, "the precipice between life and death. You have taken on the Scourge for others, and so they do not call you living. But you have been prevented from dying by the Mother Crystal."

As if Ardyn wasn't keenly aware of that.

The identical girls rose up to surround the long-haired man and Ardyn, each placing cool hands on his burning skin.

"Poor Lucis Caelum. Bahamut is thoughtless and cold, playing all sides against each other. To create more illness in order to cure it? No. He does not wish to heal. But you are not forgotten by the Astrals."

Not forgotten? Ardyn tried to ask the strangers how they had learned of him. What the Stygian wanted with the man rejected by the Crystal. Why they had called him king when the throne sat only his brother.

Nevertheless, they seemed to know what he meant to say.

"We are the children of Etro," the man declared. "Each Yeul has succeeded her, and jointly perform her duties to the dead. I stand as her High Messenger."

"You have always had Etro's favor, Prince," one of the Yeuls remarked. "Because you have known our brother's pain, as we have known the pain of Aera."

"Aera?" Ardyn gasped weakly.

"She speaks of you often," the short-haired Yeul remarked with a sad smile. "She will be happy, I think, to see you again."

The man -- the Messenger? -- drew an elaborate blade and slashed through each of the chains. With a ragged cry, Ardyn dropped. The arms of the children caught him long before he'd reached the floor.

"Bahamut forgets himself," Caius Ballad announced. "He has lost touch with both humanity and reality, creating tragedies to battle monsters he made himself. And humanity needs a champion while the Chosen King remains unborn. Will you accept?"

Ardyn knew the answer before he even understood the question.

#fic prompts #writing prompts #final fantasy friday #final fantasy xv #ffxv au #ffxv #ff xiii #caius ballad #paddra nsu yeul #paddra ballad caius #ardyn izunia #ardyn lucis caelum #knight of etro au #knight of etro #in which Besithia finds only an empty cave and broken chains #and Ardyn is able to recover physically and psychologically in Valhalla before heading out with Odin