23 August, 757:
And die they did.
They fell by the dozen. Men and women, children and babies. The daemons swept in, hundreds upon hundreds, and the Glaive, even with their numbers bolstered by Accordo's army, were too few to prevent the inevitable massacre.
Even having known that escape without casualty was impossible, Reina hated it. For every child that was torn, screaming, from the arms of his parents into the horde of daemons she cut down ten. Her eyes burned, but her cheeks remained dry.
The boats were down a three-story flight of stairs. Screams echoed off the walls of the stairwell. The stench of burning flesh—daemon and human alike—caught in Reina's mouth and nose, choking her. Every step they took was paid for with sweat and blood.
Ignis wavered as they fought. Neither of them spoke a word, but his hand shook when she grasped it. He wouldn't last if they didn't reach the boats; it was just a matter of which would kill him first—the daemons or the bloodloss .
She would not let him fall here. She had failed her father, already; she didn't intend to make the same mistake a second time.
The stairwell dumped them at the docks. At the other end, three massive ships waited; now they only had to cut through the open while the air overhead swarmed with imps and the causeway crawled with pale-skinned, almost-humanoid daemons. They might have managed at the cost of more lives but, for some reason, the daemons didn't attack. Their ranks split down the middle, allowing Lucians and Altissians to pass—wary and suspicious, but unharmed.
At the end of the dock, standing on the deck of the foremost ship, was the true danger.
"Well, well, well…" Ardyn put one foot on the prow, resting his arm across his knee. "I thought you might be drawn out by my little ploy, but I admit—a part of me had hoped you were more shrewd than that. Your father was a fool, as well. I expect he would have done much the same." Ardyn considered the nails on his hand.
Reina clenched her jaw in a snarl. She didn't realize how firmly she was holding Ignis' hand until he squeezed her fingers in return. His grip was weaker than it ought to have been.
"But that goes with the territory, I suppose," Ardyn said, "The high and mighty Caelums—too good—too true—to allow the innocent to suffer and die."
She didn't respond. Did he think telling her she still had a heart was an insult?
He only laughed in that self-satisfied way. It could have oiled an engine.
With a single step he vaulted over the prow and landed on the dock before her. To her left Gladio shifted his hold on his sword and stepped forward—Iris followed, a beat after—and on Ignis' right Prompto leveled his gun.
Ardyn appeared not to notice. He swept his hat off his head and performed an overly elaborate bow. "Her Royal Highness. The Dreamer. I thought there was something peculiar about you. Tell me, Your Highness—did you know we would meet here, today? Do you know what I'll do before I do it? What I say before I say it?"
Reina fought to keep her expression neutral. How could he possibly know about her Dreams? And what did he expect her to tell him? That she saw the future in unexpected bits and pieces, only when she was asleep and only when the Gods willed it? He called her 'the Dreamer,' like he knew more about her Dreams than she did. Maybe he did.
She decided not to answer at all; she wasn't going to play his games.
"What do you want with these people?" She asked.
"Those people?" He waved an unconcerned hand at the hundreds who crowded behind her, back-to-back and looking out. "Nothing at all. It's you I want, Your Highness. Doesn't that make you feel… important?"
"If it's me you want, then let them go," Reina said, "I'm right here."
"Ah, the princess in exchange for the common man." Ardyn replaced his hat on his head. "Granted! Send your sheep scampering on their way and face me: Caelum-a-Caelum."
Caelum to Caelum?
"Ah, but of course. I never properly introduced myself. Allow me, then, to do so." Ardyn stepped forward, spreading his hands; the clown was gone and for a moment only the snake remained. "I am Ardyn Lucis Caelum. Won't you give your dear uncle a hug? No? I'll tell you the story, some time. Oh—" He put on a look of mock disappointment "—I'm sorry to say you won't be around to hear it. This it a private affair—just me, myself, and your cold, dead body."
Reina wrung the hilt of her naginata, mind buzzing. Ardyn Lucis Caelum? No way that creep was related to them. It must have been just another lie. Except… he had used magic, in Zegnautus.
But she couldn't think about his name, now—if his price for their lives was hers, she would pay it.
She glanced over her shoulder; Accordo's commander was directly behind her and so—though she hadn't noticed until that moment—were the First Secretary and Weskham. Her eyes flicked between the three, settling on Weskham. He had been one of her father's best friends; if anyone, she trusted him.
"Get them aboard the boats and sail for Lucis. The Glaive will see you safely there." Or as safely as they could be seen.
Weskham hesitated. The First Secretary didn't. In a matter of seconds, her people were streaming onto the boats. Reina and Ardyn cut the flow down the middle, like rocks in a river.
"This is not a good idea," Gladio said.
He was going to like the next part even less. Past the Altissian boats, she could see Cid and the ferry from Galdin.
"Make sure Ignis gets back safe—see to his injuries." She fixed Gladio with an impassive gaze, daring him to argue with her. He struggled visibly against doing so.
"Wha—leave you here with this creep?" Prompto still had his gun aimed at Ardyn's face. "No way!"
"You will go because I say you will." She turned her eyes on Prompto. "I need someone I can trust to get Ignis out."
Prompto dropped his gaze and took a halting step back from Ardyn.
"I will not leave you, Your Highness." Ignis had his head downturned; his voice was tight with pain. "My place is at your side."
"Your place is at Noctis' side," she said. "Now go! I'll follow after." Somehow.
She stepped back, releasing Ignis' hand, though he tried to hold on. "Take him, Gladiolus."
Gladio moved forward, his steps halting and forced, but he put his hand on Ignis' back and ushered him toward the edge of the dock, where Cid and the ferry waited.
"Reina—" Iris looked down at her with overbright eyes.
"You go, too, Iris."
"But—"
"Go." She met Iris' gaze, interrupting with no space for further objections.
Iris turned away by parts, her body turning before her head until she finally tore her eyes away and followed after her brother. Gladio and Prompto both looked back at Reina as they boarded the ferry. In the moment of lapse, when Gladio's hand slipped from Ignis' back, Ignis turned back.
"Your Highness—do not do this!"
Gladio caught his arm and held him back before he could step off the boat again.
"Take him, Gladio!" Reina shouted. "Cid—go!"
"Don't do this alone, Reina!" Ignis pulled against Gladio until Prompto grabbed his other arm. "Please!"
Her eyes burned. Her nose stung. She turned so that she could only see the ferry pull away from the corner of her eye.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Was this what Father had felt, when he pushed her away at the end?
She shut her aching eyes.
Are you with me, Father?
He didn't respond. No matter how she willed it, no matter how hard she wished to hear that whisper at her ear one more time, it didn't come. Perhaps she had never heard it in the first place. Perhaps she was going mad.
"How touching." Ardyn made a show of dabbing his eyes on his sleeve. He straightened and the look of mocking sorrow vanished from his features, showing the dark emptiness underneath. "Now then. Where were we? Ah, yes. Me, killing you. I recall, now."
He lunged forward and a blade materialized in his hand. Just as it had in Gralea, his sword glowed briefly with a red fire—it was the same as her magic, as Noct's magic, and Father's magic. If she needed proof that his words were true, here it was. He was a Caelum. Somehow.
Months of training with Cor kicked in. Reina threw her naginata up and his sword struck the staff. He squared his feet and pushed against her, shoving her back, and forcing her to take several steps closer to the daemons that crowded the dock. They jeered as she approached—breaking the unnatural silence.
She just needed to buy some time...
After that it wouldn't matter. She could give him what he wanted; it was, after all, the same thing she wanted.
He struck again. This time he didn't push against her staff—he struck and turned and struck, giving her hardly enough time to move her naginata inbetween.
The best defense is a good offense. Put your back into it! Cor's voice seemed to shout at her.
Reina clenched her teeth and parried his blows, searching for an opening. She retreated another step, trying to give herself enough space to maneuver. No sooner had she moved than claws swiped at the backs of her legs, forcing her closer to Ardyn again. It was all she could to do keep her weapon between her and him. No amount of Cor yelling at her could remedy the fact that she needed space to use a naginata effectively and none of her training included a veritable army of daemons at the perimeter.
It also hadn't included an opponent who actually wanted her dead. However much he tried, Cor couldn't emulate that.
Ardyn laughed as she adjust her grip on her naginata, holding farther down the staff and keeping the blade toward him. He swept his sword across and under, catching the edge of her blade with his and pulling. She let go. Her naginata flew free, soaring in an arc over the heads of a hundred daemons and landing with a splash in the ocean. Then it vanished in a blue flash, back into un-being.
"Come, now, Princess. I didn't wait all this time just to experience your sub-par weapons training. You wear the ring. I want to see your power."
She glanced at her hand. So that was it. He had let her go last time because he thought she would be more fun to kill once she was accustomed to the ring. Did he think she controlled all the strength of the Lucii?
Ardyn swung his sword overhead. She threw out her hand, pulling a barrier from her father's magic. The force of his blow reverberated through it—through her—but she held on. She held out her free hand and summoned her naginata back.
"Show me the power of the one-hundredth generation—show me the power held in store for the True King." He pushed against her shield and Reina struggled to keep it in place. His eyes glowed with a red light—whatever it was that had happened to him, it hadn't severed his connection to the crystal. He had all of his magic and she had a few sparks of elemancy, borrowed from her father.
Her shield shattered. Reina stumbled, throwing up her naginata just in time to halt his blade from coming down on her collarbone.
"I don't have that power." Reina forced the words out around her protesting muscles and heaving lungs. If he knew she had nothing he would stop playing with her. It would all be over.
But if she died today, Ignis would be crushed. They would all blame themselves for leaving her behind when they could have stayed. And Noctis… she had promised she would be waiting for him when he returned. Then there was her father; he had trusted her to safeguard the kingdom in his place. In Noct's place.
She steeled herself and pushed up against Ardyn's sword. What little space that bought her she took advantage of, rolling away and putting a few feet between them. Ardyn followed. He wanted her magic? He could taste as much of it as she had.
She gathered a handful of lightning and threw it at him, deaf to the crack that split the air. But it didn't hit.
Ardyn lifted his hand to meet it, almost lazily; his magic formed a sphere of darkness—not a shield, but a hole that swallowed her magic.
"Is that what they've given you? Parlor tricks and elemancy? Two thousand years of distilled power and this is what it amounts to?" Ardyn tsked. He closed his hand and the dark sphere disappeared. "Where is your arcana?"
"I told you," Reina said, taking advantage of the pause to catch her breath, "I don't have it. I never have—it was always borrowed and wearing the ring doesn't change that."
For a moment, his eyes narrowed and a crease formed between his brows. "Do you mean to tell me... that they left you here, all alone, with me, and refuse even to grant you a sliver of the power contained in that ring?"
Something about the way he said it sent a chill down her spine. All the smiles and good humor were gone—even the disappointment from believing she was holding back had disappeared. In its place was something else… something she couldn't place—something quiet and utterly terrifying.
Behind him, Altissia was dark and silent; the lights from the boats had disappeared. If she could just get away…
Reina lunged. She kept her feet balanced and her naginata extended to keep him at bay, just like in training with Cor. But where her blow should have struck, it found nothing but air and an outline of Ardyn in red fire. He stood a foot to the left and adjusted his hat.
He could phase, as well.
She had no way out.
As if to prove her right, Ardyn pressed in. He moved faster than any human had any right to, faster than Cor, faster than Noctis. His skin glowed red with magic as he swept his sword up. Reina thrust her naginata in the path, sparing her skin but locking her weapon with his once more. He bore down on her, forcing her back toward the line of daemons and—when she refused to take another step back—to her knees.
Never let a battle turn to a contest of strength, Cor seemed to growl in her ear. You will always lose.
But it was much too late.
"You never had a chance…" He said it as if the words were for him, rather than her. He didn't sneer. He didn't taunt. He just forced her to the ground and crouched over her, pushing the staff of her own naginata against her throat.
"Two thousand years I have walked this earth, Princess—even before, I was older than you. More experienced than you. If you had met me two thousand years ago, you still would have had no chance and yet they send you against me without a modicum of help." His voice grew quieter as he drew closer.
The wood of her staff pressed against her windpipe, causing her breath to stick. A little more force and he would crush it. She couldn't consider what he was saying—two thousand years?—while her mind was screaming for air.
"The only power you are left with are your Dreams—and you don't even know how to use them, do you? Your Gods are cruel masters. See how quickly they turn on their own? Two thousand years your family has served them faithfully and it all comes down to this. They won't even intervene. They won't save your life."
He stopped pressing and just held her there as he looked up at the sky. "I could crush out your life and they wouldn't do a thing."
Reina struggled against him, trying to turn her head, trying to find enough space to breathe, but he didn't give her even that. Her staff pressed right against the underside of her jaw, leaving her with nowhere to move. She could breathe—just barely—but it was a struggle. The world wavered around the edges.
And then it didn't.
Ardyn stood, releasing the pressure. Reina thrust her weapon away and turned, to cough burning air through a constricted pipe. Her hands went to her throat: sore, bruised—certainly—but nothing broken. Nothing permanent. She sat up, choking on too-sharp air and trying to get her feet underneath her and her staff between her and Ardyn.
But he didn't move for her again.
He stood a few feet away, looking out across the darkened city.
"Tell me, Princess…" he said, "In all those years… did you never try to Dream on purpose?"
What the hell was he talking about?
"I can't do it on purpose. It comes on its own, and only when I'm asleep." Her voice came out hoarse and burned in her throat.
"Well of course it comes when you're asleep. That's why they call it Dreaming. But don't make the mistake of believing it's out of your control."
"What do you know of my Dreams?" She asked.
He only smiled.
She climbed to her feet, keeping her hands on her naginata and her eyes on Ardyn. He was just toying with her. He was a snake and to trust anything he said was to gamble blind against a master of bluffing. But if he knew answers to her myriad of questions…
Ardyn turned to look at her for the first time since stepping away. "Now run along, little Dreamer. And do learn how to Dream, won't you? These years will be ever so dull without you."
Reina stared at him. Around them, the daemons began to stir again.
"Oh—but did you think it would be easy?" He spread his hands as the dark mob closed in, wings twitching, claws clicking, teeth gnashing. Ardyn smiled unpleasantly and purple-black shadows showed around his eyes and mouth. "Have fun, little Dreamer. I will."
He dissolved, leaving her wondering if he hadn't been standing in front of her at all, before.
