Chapter 28: The Thick of Things

It had started raining before they made it back to the hotel they had dropped Iris at, and with as late as it had become they were happy to find some rooms had been rented for them. Surprisingly though, Gladio volunteered to bunk with Iris for the night – though no one was about to question it – dumping Amara in the room with Ignis and her former schoolmates, both of who had decided to give her some devious grins.

She soon found herself glaring at the two younger men while Ignis showered, waiting anxiously for him to finish so she could have a temporary escape herself. However, once Prompto plopped down beside her on the little couch that had been haphazardly stuffed into the room and flung an arm over her shoulder, she knew she was screwed.

"So Ams," the blond smirked, looking at her from the corner of his eye as he pretended to give the round of King's Knight he was playing attention. "Are you and Ignis… Y'know."

"I don't and I don't think I want to," she grabbed his hand and twisted his arm up and off of her.

"Amara, are you hooking up with my advisor? Yes or no." Noctis crossed his arms, looking at her intensely. "Just be honest."

"What the actual hell has gotten into you two?"

"You two have spent every night together since we met up at Hammerhead, he's always the one you head for first, and vice versa for the most part - which is actually getting a little annoying – and I think you and I both know he's not the type to pay attention to random little things we mention in passing, but he remembers everything you even begin to mention." The king leaned over to stare the glaive in the eye as he poked the necklace she had yet to remove for bed. "So? Are you hooking up with Iggy or not?"

"What are we not allowed to be close to each other or something?" the redhead grimaced. "Guys, he's just worried because of how all this with the Arms is fucking with me."

"I don't think it's only the Arms that are fucking with you, Amara." Prompto whistled innocently when her glare turned on him. "Just saying. He was unusually worried about you during the whole kidnapped by the Empire incident. Yeah sure he wanted the Regalia back too, but he was ready to kill someone to get you back."

"Guys-"

"We're not going to say anything if you are, we just want to know 'cause ya'll keep looking at each other like you want to run off at any second."

"Oh, for the love of – I'm not dealing with this tonight. First, I have to fight that fucking Niff bitch, now I have to deal with this from my own friends?" Amara stood and stalked over to the bathroom door, banging on it until they heard something shift inside. "Ignis I'm being interrogated out here! Hurry up or else!"

They couldn't hear what he said back to her, but it made her glare at the door for a moment before she produced an odd little bag from her pocket. Pulling out a few little tools she surprised them by making quick work of the lock – soon pushing the door open.

"Get the fuck out, my turn."

"Tell that to the shampoo."

"I will drag you out if it means getting away from these idiots right now."

"You can try."

"Ignis Scientia don't challenge me."

"Wouldn't dream of it, pretty girl."

"Oh, you son of a-!" The guys watched her face start to burn before she could finish her sentence and couldn't hold back their laughter when she squeaked. Ignis soon stepped out of the bathroom, still dripping water that left trails on the fabric of his sleep pants and turned a sharp glare on the giggling boys.

"She does have a point you know. So, would you two mind not being pains for tonight? Perhaps you could even attempt to hold off until we reach the Cape?"

"No promises Specs."

She wasn't sure when she finally managed to fall asleep that night, but it wasn't long before now the now-familiar scent of sylleblossoms were flooding her senses. She found herself walking through a field of them, looking over their various colors as she tried to make sense of why she was there once again. Amara was almost happy to finally see someone else there and began to step carefully through the flowers, hem of her sage green dress held carefully above her knees, to make her way over. Somnus was the one she found waiting for her, and he held a hand out to her as she neared him.

"Amara has the pain of the plague returned any since my last visit?"

"No, it hasn't."

"As good as that is to hear, don't expect it to stay that way. The next arm may very well return the pain to you."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

The man gave her a gentle smile, holding her hand gently when she accepted the one he had offered and leading her through the field until a tall white tower appeared before them. Though he didn't take her near it, the sight of it alone was enough to make both a sense of familiarity and foreboding, wash over her.

"Amara, even though it may be asking the impossible, do you remember anything of the time you spent in our time? Before Ardyn and Aera cast you through it to where you landed."

"No, but things seem to be coming back a little bit each day. I don't know if I'll ever remember it properly, but then again…"

"As adjusted as you are to this time, it may be for the best." Somnus seemed to understand what she had wanted to say, but a knowing smile on his face made her suddenly remember her conversation with the man's grandson before she had gone to bed. "So, the King's advisor, huh? How do you think he'll take it when he finds out you're a Lucis Caelum yourself?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, don't you have some answers for me?"

"Of course, but I think someone else would like to speak to you first." Her uncle motioned ahead of them, where she was surprised to see another person coming to join them.

"Amara."

"Mom?"

"Yes, darling," the woman smiled gently, sending a pang of recognition through her. It had been Aera she had received visions of after all! "Oh, how you've grown. You look so much like your father."

"Are you sure that's a good thing?" Somnus was teasing, and gently ruffled his niece's hair, but Aera shook her head with a frown.

"Our time with her is limited Somnus, let us not squander it all."

"Of course."

Amara awoke with heavy eyes to the sound of her friends chatting away near her, Ignis's hand resting on her arm as he sat beside her on the bed, sipping his coffee. Shifting her arm slightly to let him know she was awake, she waited until he stood before she sat up, running her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair as she glared half-heartedly at the guys.

"Morning Ams!"

"You look like hell."

"I made coffee."

"Morning guys…" she rubbed her face as she stifled a yawn. Ignis was quick to pass her a cup of coffee after she threw her legs over the side of the bed, earning a quick mutter of thanks before she all but chugged the drink. But when she finally sat the cup down, she was surprised to see her usually sleeping king staring her down like she had grown a second head. "What?"

He shook his head but glanced quickly behind her, making her attention turn that way. It was hard to be sure, but for a split second, she swore she saw her mother standing there, looking like a ghost. It only lasted a moment though, and when Amara looked back to the raven-haired man, he only gave her a nod.

"Uh, about that."

"I don't think I want to know."

"What's going on?" Prompto and Ignis were looking as confused as ever, glancing between their friends while they tried to figure out what happened. "What? What?"

The Glaive shook her head, standing to walk over to the coffee pot. "Just a ghost, nothing to worry about."

"A ghost?!"

"Someone we know?"

"Someone she knows."

"Yeah, yeah, I seem to attract ghosts since way back when, but don't you do the same highness?"

"I don't think messengers count as ghosts."

"I'm talking about the fox."

"Pip's not a ghost, she's a messenger. Just not the same way as the others."

"What are you guys talking about?" Prompto whined, rubbing his neck as he tried to keep up.

"I daresay it's best we don't know." Ignis brought the redhead her cup to refill. "Gladio and Iris went for a quick run. We're going to head out once they return."

"Alright."

"Oh, and Iris wants you to give her your Glaive uniform for her to stitch up. I'd suggest you allow it since she had the better threads to take care of it."

"Yeah, and you don't want to wear such a messy uniform once we hit Altissia, do you?"

"Not going to worry about that for long!" the Amicitia siblings gave the group a pair of smiles as they walked into the room. Gladiolus was quick to look to Amara though and nodded to her. "Monica gave me a call. She's got a Crownsguard uniform and fatigues for you, Sergeant."

"Lovely," the redhead muttered, dumping an absurd amount of sugar and creamer into the remaining coffee of the coffee pot, mixing it up and drinking it from the pot, earning a scoff from the Advisor who was still trying to give her back her cup. "Hey Iggy, can you go ahead and get my uniform for Iris so I don't forget?"

"Of course." He almost sounded defeated but left her to chug the remainder of the coffee so he could retrieve the Kingsglaive's uniform. The Glaive joined him to retrieve some clothes for the day as soon as she finished her stolen drink, disappearing into the bathroom to change as the others began discussing what the plan would be. As it turned out, their random little runs through Lucis had left them missing quite a few out of the way royal tombs, which would need to be visited before they took off for Altissia. When Amara rejoined them, she found the guys looking over the map of the tombs, trying to figure out some sort of circuit for them to run once they had dropped off Iris.

"Sorry sis, as much fun as it is to have you around-"

"You guys need to worry about this more than me, I got it." Iris smiled brightly, not at all offended. "Besides, I've got a uniform to patch, I'll be plenty busy."

The redhead couldn't miss the look of relief on the Shield's face if she wanted to, so she cleared her throat to try and get some of the tension out of the air. "Have we marked off the ones we already have?"

"Well there's only four of the ten marked on this map, so yes."

"Alright, ready when ya'll are."

And just like that, they were loading up and setting off. With their little caravan driving over the bridge to pass the fort they had knocked out of commission only the night before, it wasn't long before the concrete ramparts halted to let them slip into more open terrain. Passing by the drop-off that signaled the river was nearby, it was only a few more moments before the vehicles turned off the paved road and started down a tree-lined old one, and Ignis was left to hold onto Amara a bit more tightly as she weaved speedily down the winding trail – Noctis not even trying to keep up anymore, only to pull over at an old parking spot with some lumber piled up off to its side. Letting the advisor hop off as she cut the engine, the redhead quickly had her bike parked off to the side and straightened up her clothes as the Regalia pulled in to join them.

"What the hell Amara? What happened to traveling together?" Noctis was trying to fuss at her, but he almost sounded like he was pouting.

"You're here aren't you? Ergo, together. Let's go."

"Do you even know where we're going?" Gladiolus didn't sound pleased as he walked over, leaving her to produce the map of tombs and unfold it.

"Right now, we're going to head south a little way to get to the entrance to the thicket, which should be around here. Then, we just cut through it, try not to die, and get to the tomb that should be at its deepest point."

"Alright, lead the way Captain! Uh, Sergeant!" Prompto grinned awkwardly, but Amara dismissed him with a shrug before she began to walk down the ill-kept road to where the path to the thicket should start. It was only a few minutes past the parking area, and with the guys chatting away about Caem and His Majesty's ship, it wasn't too long before the older woman was leading them down an old gravel path to a large metal bridge.

"Looks like there's gonna be a fight on the other side." She broke into their conversation, pointing out the less than friendly looking creatures that they were undoubtedly going to have to take care off. "Seadevils."

On edge once more, the others followed her across the bridge, not at all surprised when the creatures began to act hostile as they neared the other end. Pulling Prompto up to her side before they stepped off, she pointed out a spot on the creature's skulls. "Seadevils are capable of shooting high-pressure blasts of water, and we're just out of their range. Can you make the shot?"

"Well, there's only two of them."

"If you miss-"

"I never miss!" True to his word, as soon as he was sure of what he was aiming at, the monsters were dispatched, and the group was left to clamor down the rocks to start up the uphill path into the thicket. It was a steeper slope than they had expected, so it wasn't long before Ignis and Gladio were falling back to stay with Noctis, who every so often found himself stumbling on the gravel – and reminding Amara about his bad leg. Hadn't it been an injury when he was a kid or something? She couldn't remember how or when, not that she would have been told anyway.

Turning her focus to keeping an eye out for whatever creatures she could hear crying out in the woods, she was actually kind of relieved when Iris and Prompto came to join her in the lead. Despite their teasing, she knew Prompto was one hell of a marksman, and Iris was the daughter of the Crownsguard Captain/King's Shield, so also a good fighter in her own right, at least from what she had seen of the girl during training sessions.

As they approached a curve towards the top of the slope, Amara realized she'd have to hope training would be enough. A small group of Spiracorn were staring at them, digging their hooves into the dirt and shaking their heads. They weren't going to let the group pass quietly.

"Keep Noct back!" Amara shouted before losing a kukri, warping into the monsters before allowing herself to summon a sword from the armiger – Noct's old sword Masamune, she realized when it was a bit heavier than she had expected. The massive katana made quick work of a few of the closer Spiracorn, but also left the redhead with a new issue that left her returning it quickly to the armiger and warping the hell out of the brush she had found herself in.

"Killer bees!" she warned, though Prompto's squeal of alarm when one of the massive insects decided to charge them was a bit more effective in getting everyone's attention. Summoning now one of his spare pistols, she jumped in front of Iris and began firing shots off at the nuisances, not wanting to get stung or worse – hit with their venom, which was known to cause confusion on top of poisoning you. Leaving Prompto to take care of the other Spiracorn while she (and moments later, Ignis) got rid of the bugs, their path was soon clear once again for them to continue.

"That must've been why they were already so riled up," Amara muttered to herself, kicking one of the insects' bodies out of their way with her disgust clear. Allowing herself a shudder before she continued, she decided to keep a kukri in hand for the moment, happy to find the slope they were now climbing was much gentler – and hopefully less of a pain to get up. From a break in the trees, she could see the sun was already high in the sky – it was around noon now, she guessed, and her stomach agreed.

However, she didn't have time to worry about hunger, she could hear the sounds of another group of Spiracorn nearby as they neared the next curve in the path. Motioning for the others to follow, she climbed over the old wooden rail and began to cut through the brush, being careful to look out for any more bees as the guys followed her – hopefully around another fight. It ended up being a bit father to get around than expected though, as yet another group was spotted not far away when she had led them back onto the path.

Finally though, after another climb up the steepening path, they found themselves walking onto a stone-lined path, covered in moss with trees and shrubbery climbing the rocks that now shielded them from the woods.

"Welcome to the thicket guys."