"Lady Lunafreya," came Ignis' soft but stern voice.
"It's alright, Ignis— please, believe in me. I can do this."
No one had any reason to believe otherwise until this evening, planted on this haven in the pitch black dark.
You see, Lady Lunafreya had been in communion with the Astrals. Every so often, when they decided they had some precious nugget of wisdom to grant her and their beloved champion, she had been there, standing at the edge of whatever haven they'd camped out at for the night, listening to what could only be described as a low, earthly rumble, whispering to her.
The boys would have liked to believe they were the kings of their own destiny, but each and every location they'd visited had been so deeply preordained that Luna didn't even need to tell them where to go. They simply went, as if the truth of the Astrals were imprinted in their veins, believing they had simply used their free will to decide.
Luna was above them, and she knew it. Only those stained by humanity and its mortal ways could believe in free will - but not her. She was granted sight where the others were left to blindly grope in the dark, and...
Well. She was special, or so she thought, until now, now that a lifetime of certainty was beginning to falter. The King of the Astrals was refusing her call, when he had never done this before.
"Uh, I believe in you and all," said Prompto, after this awkward silence in which all Luna did was think and pray, and all the boys did was watch her back, "I just... Dunno exactly what we should be expecting to happen."
"There is nothing for you to expect," said Luna, a strange cold brewing under the soft, yielding purr of her voice, "I will know when Bahamut has received my call, I must only wait."
"Luna, c'mon." Gladio was gruff and clumsy in ways he didn't realize, but he sounded gentler than usual. "Your food's getting cold, I think this can wait a minute."
"Yeah! I mean- there's no need to starve yourself," added Prompto, not hiding his anxiety very well under that cheerful tone.
Noct had been silent this whole time, trying to catch something in his wife's face as he - while he gave her space - stood by her side. Fear. Sadness. Anger. Something he could protect her from - and yet she gave him nothing but a cold, smiling front, just as she had always done. Just as her job had always been, to give him nothing real or human.
Because she wasn't human. She was an Oracle, and she was the one who had to protect him from the cold, hard world.
"... Luna?" Prompto tilted his head a little as the Lady didn't answer.
"Just— give her some space, alright?" Noct rubbed the back of his neck, deciding it was best to leave Luna alone for a while. He turned his back on her, because he knew she didn't like all these sets of eyes on her, and he walked over to the center of the haven where five plates of crab omelette on the foldable table were growing a bit lukewarm.
Within time, those five plates became a stack of four standing beside one very cold plate, because Lady Lunafreya hadn't moved from her spot.
Prompto and Gladio were doing their best to keep spirits high, halfway into some silly anecdote about Sania and frogs, and Ignis couldn't help but feel like they didn't appreciate the seriousness of the situation that was unfolding right behind them.
They did, of course. They were terrified. But they didn't see the point in moping about it, while Ignis and Noct were both pretty strong proponents of brooding while in a sour mood.
"Where have you gone?"
Noct's head snapped to attention, and the three boys followed suit, glancing over in the direction of that pitiful murmur.
"... Luna?" Noct called.
She didn't answer. She only gripped her trident to her chest with whitening fists.
... Left with nothing, the boys simply returned to their story. Their stupid, stupid story about nothing of real importance - Luna couldn't stand them right now. So caught up in their Eos-stained lives, so blissfully clueless, that she started to envy them. She had always envied humans, for their ability to fall apart at such small things as being touched by an insect, or hearing an unkind word, or not having enough money, and still be taken seriously. They were fragile, and she was so tired of being unbreakable, and — this was a test.
Bahamut was testing her. That was all. He was testing her resolve with his silence, she knew he would never abandon her after everything he had taught her. Not after he placed the world on her shoulders.
With that revelation, she stood up a bit straighter. Everything would be alright.
Gladio was snoring.
Sure, he was in the tent with the other boys, which stood at the other face of the haven, but that didn't mean Luna couldn't hear every little flick of mucus in that man's nose and throat.
It was like some great beast, growling somewhere far behind her, and she did not dare take her eyes off of the stars.
She was not afraid of catching the beast's attention. She was simply loath to acknowledge it as an equal presence. She was above it, and she would not let it forget that.
... Save of course that it was only her good friend, Gladiolus Amicitia, and he was only snoring. Luna might have been losing touch a little by this point, a few hours into standing and waiting for what could well be nothing.
What came to Luna's mind, somewhat out of the blue, was the time her Fisher King was attacked by the Marilith.
It was the first and only time she showed her true self to King Regis, because when he sat beside her, sobbing with fear and grief as Sylva worked away at his dying, unconscious boy, she did not understand why he wept.
She looked up at him, face as empty as it could be, because she felt no fear or grief. She felt nothing at all, because this, too, was preordained. The entire time her mother was healing the boy, the Astrals had been whispering in her ear, that the True King would rise shortly, and all would be well.
Luna supposed she was more callous at that time than she should have been. Now, she knows that Regis knew full well of Noctis' fate - he was simply sad that so much pain had befallen him, and he was afraid, mortal weakness controlling him above all, that perhaps Noct would just die and everything would mean nothing, and his precious little baby boy would be going away far too soon. Far before he was ready.
He was told his son would outlive him, as it always should be, and that was one of the things keeping him going. But young Luna didn't understand the pain that Eos-stained man felt, so she simply stared at him, and with tangible disgust in her voice, asked why he wept so.
The impact of her words was so strong that he fell silent immediately, stifling his cries and hiding his face as he sniffled in shame.
It was unreal. It was revolting, it was human, and Luna didn't understand it as a young girl.
It's a moment Lady Lunafreya still felt some degree of shame and guilt over. Regis long since forgave her, she knew he understood her odd affect to some extent. But at the end of the day, he was merely a human. And she was above him.
The wind rustled a few leaves on the dirty, mortal floor of this elevated haven. It was like a joke, really, like Bahamut was playing with a puppy and a laser pointer.
It would be a long night.
"I HAVE BEEN CONTAMINATED."
How the Draconian managed to boom so loudly, but whimper so softly right in her ear, was beyond Lady Lunafreya. Of course, no one in the tent heard a thing, despite the fact that she nearly fell on her ass with how badly he startled her.
"Bahamut— Exalted King," Luna stammered, getting on her knees in the dirt she had just condemned, her white pants already greying a bit at the knees. "I have waited through the night for you, what have you come to tell me?"
"I HAVE BEEN CHANGED."
... Luna didn't understand. She lifted her head to the stars, squinting slightly.
"IT IS INSIDE ME. LUNAFREYA. GET IT OUT."
Her eyes widened.
"... Almighty Draconian," she whispered, in respect for his shame. The fear she heard in his voice.
"THE ACCURSED. INSIDE ME. INSIDE ME INSIDE ME GET IT OUT."
"Bahamut— Yes, my King—" she got to her feet, wobbling slightly, "Where? Where are you?"
"DARK. DARKNESS. INSIDE."
"Darkness inside," she muttered, looking around the landscape in front of her. This was her duty, she would not wake those mortal boys for this task. "Darkness inside..."
Then, she spotted it. A spot of darkness off in the distance, against the mountain - a cave she did not recognize, in the wilderness of Eos.
"GET IT OUT. GET IT OUT."
Luna was breathless, as she took a few steps back. "Bahamut," she whispered, "Bahamut— I am coming for you!"
With a running start, she leapt off the face of the haven and began on her way to the cave.
Naturally, Noct and his little friends didn't even realize she had gone. Just the way it had always been.