Author's Note:

Just as a quick reminder -

Victor is most likely insane. He says on countless occasions that he will keep Victoria alive, no matter how much it hurts her or how she suffers. He has an obsession with keeping people alive.

Also, it is noted in the information about him in-game that he is fond of tea, so I assume that making him some will calm him down.


There had been a time, long ago, when Victor had had eyes only for her. She'd been interested in medicine, and with his help had quickly risen to great standing in the medical field. She had never been sickly, nor frail, but Victor would often treat her as such. She'd only gotten upset over it once – he'd looked at her with a crazed look, and spoke in a heartbroken voice - 'you do not need me?' – and she'd made him tea and made sure to be extra docile and shy around him for the rest of the day. It seemed to work.

Corruption was running rampant, though, and soon she could no longer shield her eyes to the things the Grand Marshal was doing. He was taking innocent lives, and her inner doctor screamed in pain for all those who were suffering. But Victor seemed unconcerned – he only cared for his country's people. And she thought she could live with that, so long as he was with her.

But then Victoria came into the picture.

The Arcanist was everything she was not. Small, cute, fierce, and more importantly – she required Victor to live. Victor fell in love immediately – though whether it was with Victoria or with the thought of Victoria, she couldn't tell. She knew she could work no longer for a Lord she did not follow, and with a man who did not love her.

Victor was not a stupid man, by any means. He noticed his former partner's distance, noticed how she was slowly becoming more brazen. Almost like Victoria. But she was not Victoria, and so he did not care. He did not care when she stopped showing up to work, when Alternis Dim was dispatched to try and find her. He claimed he didn't care when he found out she had fled with Edea and turned traitor.

He didn't see her for many months after that – but he did hear of her. She had been doing great things with her life – she would bring back to health any of the victims that the Grand Marshal sent his underlings after. She trailed behind the Wind Vestal's party, healing the civilians and tending to the children in their wake. They seemed not to mind either – there had been recent news that she had begun traveling directly with them, helping them in their efforts to awaken the crystals.

He did see her in passing in Florem, and it made him stop in his tracks. She wasn't dressed in her normal Spiritmaster garb – she donned the white and red clothes of a White Mage, though she had kept the symbol Spiritmaster glasses. A dual job, then, he thought. One focused solely on healing. Her face was no longer soft and kind – it was fierce and unforgiving, but people seemed to flock to her.

The sight made him want to retch.

They came into contact quite a few more times, but never a word was said to one another. Victoria spat insults her way, but they were small and insignificant. The small, black haired girl seemed to realize there was something bigger than what she could see going on.

The change came quite a long time afterwards.

She had begun to cough up blood, and her own powers were rendered useless as she could not heal her sickness. Edea and Agnes had sat by her bedside for many a night before she told them to press on, for they had to or they would never get anywhere. Tiz gave her a teary goodbye, thanking her for all the times she had healed residents of Norende as they were trying to rebuild. Ringabel's goodbye had been awkward, his usual finesse seemingly abandoning him in his time of need.

Her days were numbered, and she knew she had one more thing to do before dying. She crawled across the earth to find the man who's screams echoed in her head – "Victoria..? VICTORIA!" – and finally found him where she thought she would. He had isolated himself in a town where people were dying, a town marked for extinction. When he saw her, pale and flushed, blood glistening on her lips, he raced to her and enveloped her in his arms, sweeping her towards a chair and immediately beginning some sort of treatment. Sick people had always been his weakness.

"You did need me. How foolish of you – how foolish of me."

His words echoed hollowly in her head, and she gazed up at him unseeing. Her vision was starting to leave her now.

"I do not need you. I needed the sight of you – I am surprised you have not gone crazy. Victoria is dead. Decimated. Torn asunder and left to decompose in the ground."

The flicker in his eyes couldn't be imagined. His hands were shaking, she realized, his hair hanging lankly around him as if he did not have the effort to put it into a ponytail.

"I needed you once. I needed you and you were too foolish to realize – you turned towards Victoria instead. And for what?"

"For what indeed. She is no longer with me, and you – you are not in good health. Do not worry though, I will save you. You will be healthy as long as you stay with me."

A soft sigh, a laugh, left her lips and she pushed his hands away, ignoring his gasp and choked plea to stop. Her dying was hurting him more, she realized.

"I do not want to be saved, nor do I want to live with you. I have no feelings for you any longer. I have healed all the people I can in my life – but I could not reach you. Your mind was too sick for me to save. I apologize."