Under My Umbrella
They spent the next week working on logistics. While Aranea and her crew expertly prepared for the trip, Ardyn gave Lunafreya a crash course on spear combat. He used his own version of the Trident of the Oracle to demonstrate, while she copied his movements with the real thing.
After one of these sessions, Lunafreya plunked down at the kitchen table. As usual, Biggs was in the kitchen, whistling and cooking breakfast. Aranea was drinking coffee and making up a checklist.
"You look great," said Aranea lightly. "Not at all like you want to die."
Lunafreya groaned into the table, where her face was pressed. "I have never been so exhausted. I didn't know a person could be this tired."
Aranea poured Luna a cup of coffee and waved it under her nose. "You don't need to push yourself so hard. All you really need is some minimal competency with the trident so you don't get skewered immediately."
"Minimal competency?" Lunafreya repeated scornfully.
"Well, what do you expect? It takes time to get good with a weapon, especially if you've never picked one up in your life."
"I was kind of hoping I'd turn out to be...special," said Lunafreya, eyeing the coffee but not moving her arms to pick it up.
"Oh, I see," Aranea laughed. "Must be hard to be so blessed in some areas and not others."
"Perhaps my expectations are a bit unreasonable." Lunafreya bent over to slurp some coffee out of the mug without having to lift it.
Aranea covered her mouth to stifle another laugh.
"Oi, ma'am," Biggs called from the kitchen. He turned up the radio so they could all hear it.
On the radio, a reporter was announcing that some kind of skirmish was occurring at a train depot, a large station east of Gralea that served thousands of passengers every day.
"Could it be Noctis?" asked Aranea.
"Surely not," said Lunafreya. "He wouldn't attack civilians."
Aranea considered. "Yeah, not just for the hell of it...but he might if that train station were also used for transporting military resources."
As they listened, they were joined by Biggs, Wedge, Ardyn, and Ravus. The reporter had found an eyewitness, who said the attackers were monsters - huge, powerful fiends. People were fleeing as fast as they could, but some were still trapped inside.
"What should we do?" said Lunafreya, stricken.
"Let the soldiers take care of it," Ravus advised. "It isn't our problem."
"Concur," said Ardyn. "That's what soldiers are for."
"They aren't equipped to fight daemons, though," said Lunafreya hesitantly. "Shouldn't we at least see what we can do to help?"
"Hell yes we should," said Aranea, rolling her eyes at Ravus and Ardyn.
They all piled into Aranea's aircraft and headed towards the train depot. As they approached the large brick building, they could see signs of the chaos inside: people fleeing in every direction, smoke pouring out of broken windows, ominous thumping and crashing sounds.
Biggs landed the aircraft and Aranea, Ravus, Lunafreya, and Ardyn hopped out, making their way through the stream of people running away. Inside, in an enormous atrium, one large daemon stood in the middle, observing the chaos with apparent pleasure. To one side, a group of children were cowering behind an overturned food cart. Elsewhere, an old woman stayed by the side of an injured old man. Everywhere, things were damaged, destroyed, or on fire.
"You keep the little ones off my back. The big one's mine," said Aranea to Ravus. She took off without waiting for a response.
"There's still a chain of command, you know!" he shouted after her, but followed anyway.
Ardyn watched them go, taking in the scene with no sense of urgency.
"Aren't you going in there?" Lunafreya asked him.
"Not just yet," he said. "They don't need help."
"The people need help," said Lunafreya pointedly.
Ardyn opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Lunafreya was already running to the aid of the elderly couple. With a snort, he followed after her.
The atrium was relatively contained, and Ravus easily held his own against the smaller daemons. The harder part was keeping an eye on the full battlefield so he could properly cover Aranea.
Aranea was fighting like a daemon herself, launching herself into the air with abandon and crashing down on top of the enormous leader without much thought to where she was landing. Good thing her head is so hard, Ravus thought. He glanced over the large daemon, looking for a weak spot.
"Commodore!" Ravus shouted to be heard above the din. "Over here!"
He pointed to a spot on the daemon right around where a kidney would be in a human. It was red and looked infected, but strangely, it was also glowing. He moved around to the front of the beast, whistling to distract it.
Aranea landed lightly behind the creature, which was fully focused on Ravus now. She turned her back on it and scanned her surroundings. There was a nice clear patch of brick wall: perfect. She ran at it full-pelt, then leaped at it with a horizontal flying kick. Kicking off the wall and firing the rockets in her armor, she flew straight at the thing, spear pointed at the red target.
From the front of the creature, Ravus saw the tip of her spear exit the thing's body, such was the force of the blow.
"Bullseye!" she shouted triumphantly.
Howling, the creature exploded into a black miasma that dissipated slowly, filling the room with something like wet smog. With nothing left to hold it up, Aranea's spear clattered to the ground.
Ardyn walked over to it and pulled a barrel-shaped object off the shaft, tossing the spear back to Aranea off-handedly.
"A magitek core inside a daemon. Wheels within wheels. What are you up to, Besithia?" he murmured to himself.
"Aranea! I'm so glad you're here!" came a voice.
"Cato? What are you doing here?" she said blankly.
"Who is this?" asked Lunafreya.
"This is my sister's boyfriend," said Aranea. "Um, weird coincidence."
"It's no coincidence," said Cato. "Come with me. Fulginia is in trouble. You won't believe it. Edea is -" he cut off, gulping.
"What about her? Is she safe?"
"I sure hope so. I had to leave, get help. The daemons, they're everywhere. Come with me. You won't believe it."
"Show me," said Aranea with determination.
"Ah, just one moment," said Ardyn, lightly but firmly grasping Cato's hand. "Lady Lunafreya, if you please."
Lunafreya moved toward Cato. He backed away, but Ardyn held tight. Lunafreya gently brushed his hair back and touched his temple, allowing her healing gift to flow into her fingers. He flinched away as if her touch burned him.
Suddenly, Cato's eyes rolled back in his head. Sensing she was losing him, Lunafreya closed her eyes, concentrating. The golden glow of her magic took on an insistent brightness.
Lunafreya's senses dulled. She saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing. Then, she heard the boy's voice: "Please, you can't - they promised - they said they'd let me go if I helped them."
"We can help you -" Lunafreya began, but she was too late. The boy's panic had reached a tipping point. His human flesh fell away as if it were molting and a daemon emerged.
"Tsk," said Ardyn. In one smooth movement, he raised his free hand, conjured a blade into it, and ran the creature through. It evaporated into black miasma that hung in the air. Ardyn wiped his hand on his jacket.
Lunafreya backed away in horror and Ravus put an arm around her.
"I knew him," said Aranea numbly. "My sister's boyfriend. Good guy. What happened?"
"He made a deal with them," said Lunafreya. "To save his life."
"Idiot," said Aranea bitterly. "Like they were gonna let him get away clean."
"They sent him to dangle in front of us...like a worm on a hook," said Ravus.
"Very tempting," said Ardyn thoughtfully.
Aranea yelled at top volume, "Fulginia is my hometown, you a-holes! My whole family lives there! I don't care if it's a trap, I'm going to help them!"
"I didn't say we shouldn't go," said Ardyn calmly, "Merely that the decision should be well considered. Even if we don't all die, this is a distraction from our larger target."
"Izunia's right," said Ravus. "If we take our eye from the target, the daemons will have time to join forces and perhaps even harden Zegnautus Keep. We should go to Gralea as planned."
Aranea turned to Lunafreya. "Please! I know it's the end of the world versus one little town, but I can't let them down."
Lunafreya nodded firmly. "We stay together. We'll go to Fulginia and do whatever we can for the people there."
"Thank you!" said Aranea, throwing dirty looks at both men, and ran off toward her ship.
Ardyn made to follow her. Ravus tapped him on the arm.
"Are you really satisfied with this decision?" he asked under his breath.
"Tactically this is clearly unsound, and yet…we're off the map, Lord Ravus. I am satisfied to follow Lady Lunafreya's intuition for the nonce. She is certain we should go, so we shall."
"You really trust her that much?" said Ravus incredulously.
"Don't you?" Ardyn asked, heading for the ship.
Outside, the sun was high in the sky. Lunafreya felt instantly better in the sunlight. Although she hadn't noticed when she was inside the train station, it had become dark and oppressive inside. Even destroyed, daemons molded the environment to suit themselves. She shivered, imagining such a pall covering the whole world.
As soon as they were all back in Aranea's ship and heading towards their destination, Ardyn turned to Lunafreya.
"I have a request. A little test of your abilities," he said. "You're familiar with the ability of the King of Lucis to extend his crystal-given gifts to others?"
"The Kingsglaive," she said, nodding.
"Indeed. I wonder if you could do the same with your healing."
"Oracles have never been able to do that," she protested, although as soon as the words left her mouth she realized how thin the objection was. She had already done all sorts of things Oracles never did. Ardyn smiled at her wryly.
"Aranea, would you come over here for a moment?" Ardyn asked.
Aranea was chewing on her nails and staring out the window of the ship. She came over, but her mind was clearly elsewhere. Ardyn picked up her hands and put them in Lunafreya's.
"Both of you close your eyes, if you would," he said, his voice growing low and smooth. "Relax. Aranea, I want you to imagine you're holding your sister's hands. You've saved her. She's safe and sound. Lunafreya, I want you to imagine you're holding a ball of golden light. It's warm and bright - not too bright - comfortable. Very good."
As Ardyn droned on in this vein, Lunafreya felt her consciousness fall away. She drifted, but unlike in the dark crystal, she found herself in a featureless white room. Aranea was standing opposite her, eyes closed, still as a statue. Lunafreya made a cupping figure with her arms, and a golden ball of light appeared between them. She walked over to Aranea and held out the orb.
Aranea's face crumpled into fear momentarily. Then she took three deep breaths and her face cleared. She held out her arms. The orb was somehow absorbed into her body, filling her with holy light. She gasped and opened her eyes.
"Feel any different?" Ardyn was asking her.
"Maybe," she said cagily, but she did feel different. A sense of calm had infused her. She felt as though whatever happened in Fulginia, she would be able to handle it. The fear that had been gnawing at her was replaced with resolve. "Yes," she amended.
"Good. We shall see where this leads us." He stood up and walked over the window. They were getting close.
Outside, something like a giant black hole was coming into view in the distance. Biggs looked down at his console, then said, "Uh...Lady A? Want to take a butcher's out there and tell me what you see?"
Aranea took a look out the window at the huge black dome that was now looming. She looked down at the console. "Coordinates are right. We should be seeing Fulginia. What the eff-balls is that thing?"
Ardyn crossed his arms. "If I'm not mistaken, it's a wall. Not unlike the one that recently covered Insomnia, except theirs did not absorb sunlight."
"They used the power of the dark crystal, presumably," said Ravus. "Hmph. Very clever."
"Clever, indeed," said Ardyn. "The sitting king is the only one who can tap that particular power. Does this mean the daemons have a king? Or is there another way...?"
"Who cares?" snapped Aranea. "We're going in there and kicking pointy butts until that giant pimple is gone. End of story."
"Not quite. It will be dark under there and the daemons will be at their strongest," said Ardyn. He clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Let's take a short moment to review our understanding of Demonology and Diabolatry. There will be a test. If you fail your soul is forfeit, so I suggest you pay attention."
He explained to them that there were three distinct stages of daemon infestation: The first, malady, was a plasmodium infection in which the parasite drained the energy of its host and caused sundry other physical symptoms, with characteristic bruise-like black areas on the skin.
"These are the people you've been healing, Lady Lunafreya. And now you can do the same, Aranea."
Aranea wiggled her fingers at him. "Cool, but I like killing daemons. What's the percentage in glowy-handing them?"
"The percentage comes in stage two, metastasis. This is the stage Ravus is currently in, that I was in for many years, and perhaps now your sister as well."
He described the way certain strains of plasmodium grew into creatures with some free will and intelligence. These could live side-by-side with a human host for a number of years. The wild strains encountered by common folk generally did not grow into this form, but the ones developed by the Niflheim military always did. They needed a degree of intelligence to control the magitek infantry troops.
"The daemons exhibit a degree of control over the human host, although it is subtle. At this point the host may still be separated from the parasite, as Lady Lunafreya proved. However, left to their own devices, they eventually devour their hosts in a process we call metamorphosis."
The word "we" dinged in Aranea's brain, but Ravus had a more pressing question.
"Is the metamorphosis predictable?" he asked. "Can you tell when it's about to happen?"
"I'm glad you asked, Lord Ravus, as it's terribly important to our mission here. Also to you personally, I'd imagine. The daemons bide their time and wait for a moment of weakness when the host's conscious mind is unable to defend itself. That could be a moment of extreme emotion, as we saw back at the train station. It could be a complete loss of bodily autonomy - death, in other words. Sometimes merely falling asleep is enough."
"Then if we are to help these people, we will need to be gentle," said Lunafreya.
"Alas, not the greatest virtue of any of your companions," said Ravus ruefully.
"Quite so," Ardyn nodded. "Aranea - if we do find your sister and she is infected, you should be the one to heal her."
Aranea blinked. "Me? Why?"
"Because you know her best, and I believe that will make the difference."
Aranea looked disconcerted. "OK, well...let's get the hell outta here."
Ardyn hung behind while the others hopped out of the airship. He spoke with both Biggs and Wedge briefly and then went to join the others. Biggs piloted the airship away.
Striding purposefully over to the wall, Aranea pulled out her spear and jabbed at it. The spear deflected harmlessly. She spat on the ground in disgust, and noticed a signpost stuck in the ground a few feet away.
Aranea leaned over and peered at the sign. It read: Welcome to Hell! Yes, it's a trap!
"I'm gonna kill each and every last one of them," she muttered. "I'm gonna kill them so dead their ancestors will feel it."
Ravus looked up at the sky; it was clear and blue. He looked at the umbrella Ardyn was leaning on like a cane. Ardyn noticed him watching and grinned. "Use your words," he said teasingly.
"Why do you have an umbrella?" asked Ravus, against his better judgement.
"Because I don't like getting wet. It's a bit of an eccentricity in Niflheim, admittedly, but I've found it's not really worth standing around in the rain to get that brooding anti-hero look. Your mileage may vary," he added, eyes twinkling with amusement.
As irritating as Izunia could be, Ravus found his interest piqued by the umbrella. It was a fine piece of work, with a delicate floral pattern matching Izunia's jacket. It was also somewhat longer than a normal umbrella - it had to have been, for him to lean on it as he was - about the length of a sword.
Izunia slung the umbrella over a shoulder, twirling it jauntily. "If you're wondering whether it was custom-made, the answer is yes. I'll give you the name of my craftsman later."
Meanwhile, Lunafreya walked over to the dome and placed her hands on it, feeling its energy. By concentrating her will, she was able to "heal" the wall in the same way she was able to heal people. Where her fingers touched it, pieces of the wall turned to ash and floated away. After a few minutes, she was able to put a hand through it.
She was vaguely aware of voices around her, then she felt Ravus's hands pulling her away.
"What?" she asked, dazed.
"That's enough. We can get through," he said. He caught up a few strands of her hair and pulled them in front of her face. They had turned gray - not the same golden blonde it had always been, nor even Ravus's silver, but the lifeless gray of hardened cement. Apparently, making a hole in the wall had taken a lot out of her. She felt slightly faint.
"I'm all right," she said preemptively, although he hadn't asked. She followed Aranea through the wall, which closed up behind her as if it had never been open. It was as dark as the inside of the crystal and eerily quiet - if her feet hadn't been touching the ground, she would have felt like she was floating in space.
"Ravus?" she said, quietly at first, then loudly. "Aranea? Ardyn?"
No one answered. She was alone.
#
Alarmed, Lunafreya reached out into the darkness, but she couldn't feel anything either. Then she remembered that Aranea had attached a little flashlight to her jacket before they left, and she tapped it with relief.
It was so dark the tiny light barely illuminated Lunafreya herself, but it was enough to calm her down. Walking slowly, she could see that she was standing on a normal paved road with a sidewalk leading past brick buildings.
A hand closed around her upper arm. She jumped and shrieked a little.
"Whoa, hey, sorry!" said a voice. It sounded young, male, friendly. "I didn't mean to scare you. My name's Gallio. I'm looking for anyone who didn't get the evacuation order, and you look pretty human."
Lunafreya turned her small lamp on him. He had long black hair, dark brown eyes, and a slender build.
"Then the people are safe - thank the Gods," said Lunafreya.
"Yeah, we're all holed up in the school gym and a couple other places. Come on, I'll show you the way." He held out an arm to her.
"Thank you, Gallio," she said, taking his arm and letting him lead her along the road.
"No problem. Um...I'm gonna say something a little weird. It's just...you look so much like Lady Lunafreya, the Oracle."
She laughed nervously. "I get that a lot. My name is...Regina." She had hesitated too long. The lie was obvious.
Gallio just grinned and placed a finger alongside his nose. "Got it, Regina. What brings you to this little corner of the empire?"
"A friend lives here. Aranea Highwind."
"The Dragoon? Wow." Gallio whistled in the darkness. "She must be special to you, if you came here today of all days."
Lunafreya did not answer. They continued in silence for a while. The town was eerily quiet. There were no other footsteps, no traffic, no animal or insect sounds. Not even a breeze to stir the stagnant air.
"It's just as well. If you were the Oracle, I'd wonder why you aren't with the prince," said Gallio, laughing awkwardly. "It's just...isn't the Oracle supposed to help him? Stay by his side and place him above all else?"
Lunafreya said, "The Oracle has duties, of course. She also has free will and judgement to exercise."
"Ha, must be nice. The rest of us don't get a lot of choices. We pretty much take whatever comes raining down from our betters. Just have to hope they have our best interests at heart." His tone remained light, but his words stung Lunafreya. It didn't help that in the dim light, this boy very much resembled Noctis.
Lunafreya felt a bit dizzy. Perhaps it was the lingering effect of the energy she had expended getting through the wall.
"It is my calling. I am thankful to have a purpose and talents to put towards it," she said, although between her headache and her secret doubts, it came out a bit mechanical.
"Oh, of course. Some people might not get it, though. They might see you getting your fairy-tale wedding while the world burns outside and resent it."
Lunafreya abruptly stopped walking. Is this how people would see her actions? Squandering all her gifts and leaving the common folk in desolation?
"Having second thoughts?" said Gallio, his voice a bit too smooth. "I can take you back out. You can see Noctis again. Make the covenants. Pass on to the Astral Plane knowing you did the right thing. You don't want to die in an alleyway as a heretic, do you?"
She was torn by a sudden longing to leave this terrible place. She desperately wanted to leave, see the sun, leap into Noctis's arms and let him do the world-saving. It was so much easier to follow than to lead.
She held her hands out to Gallio.
In the dim light, she could see a cruel smile appear on his lips as he raised his hands to hers.
"Forgive me," she said quietly. She laced her fingers between his and a golden light flowed through them.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he protested, but he did not pull away.
Lunafreya could sense that she would have better luck with this boy than the last one. He wasn't so terrified that she couldn't get through to him. She couldn't quite enter his consciousness, so she would have to connect on a purely emotional level - feel her way through.
After a few moments, something happened. Gallio opened his mouth wide and a large rat-shaped daemon crawled its way out. Lunafreya belatedly realized she should probably have been prepared for this, as the daemon would have to come out one way or the other. It saw her and screeched.
"Some things never change," said a chillingly familiar voice. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."
She couldn't see him, but there was no mistaking the voice. Lunafreya knew it well.
"You," she hissed.
There was a flash of silver and Lunafreya lost consciousness.