—

There was entirely too much going on today for his mind to process it all, Ravus thought as Sikozu shooed him back inside the bar.

What the devil was going on now? First he'd been on a date, then Lunafreya has been dropped into the city with a former Imperial that brought word of a whole other city, and now Sikozu was… what? Was freaking out the right term? No, she wasn't. She wasn't panicked, just insistent. Very insistent.

This was all becoming quite asinine.

"Sikozu, what are you doing?" He demanded, scowling as she locked the door behind them. The Loqi incident a few minutes ago had been one thing – that he now understood – but why the sudden and drastic reaction to a photograph. She'd asked who Scientia was, he'd told her he was a Crownsguard who had passed, and now he was being locked inside her bar.

Sikozu dragged a chair away from a table with her foot and then moved around and sat in the one opposite to it. "Just… sit down, please. There's something I really need to discuss with you."

…He had so much work to do.

Begrudgingly, he took the seat, trying to be patient. "Very well. What is this about?"

She took a breath, clasping her hands together in front of her on the table. "I need what I'm about to tell you to stay between us. No exceptions."

"…As you wish." Again, he wasn't exactly getting much of a choice.

She took another breath. "You recall that I was with someone in those ruins before Ardyn… deposited me here?"

"Yes…"

"Well, he was going by a different name that I knew wasn't his real one, and he was absolutely the man in that picture."

...What?

…That couldn't be. She had to be mistaken. "That's impossible."

"You know a lot of people with facial scars and daemon eyes exactly like that?"

"Scientia has been dead for–" He stopped mid-sentence.

"…What? What is it?"

"…We never were able to find the body." They'd only found a dagger. And he'd been killed by what was by all accounts a mistake he shouldn't have made.

Could she be right…?

No… No, Scientia wouldn't have stayed away from the city had he been alive. He would have come back.

"He was extremely guarded about his identity."

Ravus shook his head. "So, he was part of your group prior to then?"

She nodded. "For a short while. He was keen to move on, that was for certain."

"Move on to what?" Was Ravus really ready to actually start considering this as a possibility?

"The Royal Tombs," she answered instantly. "He was next to obsessed with them. Had a million notes and rubbings from inside them that he couldn't even translate."

That sounded exactly like something Scientia would do.

Ravus moved his real hand up to press into his tear ducts. "This… cannot actually be."

He needed more information. Forget his other tasks. They could wait.

"What else can you tell me?" he asked.

Loqi was quite used to being flagged down and pointed out during his walks through Crestholm, so it was odd to be waking through a city where no one was giving him even the slightest bit of attention. Odd, but very welcome at the moment. He didn't need people bothering him currently. He'd be likely to hit them in the face. Hell, he was ready to punch a damned wall and break down crying as things were.

Kyle…

Oh, Six…

Loqi had honestly already thought he was dead long ago. Those little hopes and dreams of him being out in the world and putting the skills they'd learned together to use were fantasies he'd let himself dream up to soften the blow of never knowing for certain.

But now he had it – the confirmation.

He couldn't believe that Kyle been alive that long. To learn that his death was so recent… Somehow, that just hurt more than if he'd already been dead for a couple years.

He… he was going to have to get some details from that woman later. Just not now. Now he needed…

Well, he didn't want to break down, so shooting something sounded like a good idea.

Luckily for him, the first person he managed to drag out the will to speak to pointed him right towards what was apparently the lesser used training room.

Lesser used. Was it that clear he didn't wish to be around anyone at the moment? Probably.

Loqi shoved open the door he assumed was the right one.

Oh. There were people here. Terrific. Perhaps he'd just hop over the wall here and shoot some actual daemons instead.

The sparring session in front of him stopped.

"Oh, hello," the female of the two greeted.

The boy gave a small wave.

Loqi had to do a double take. How had Argentum managed to grow a beard the short time since Loqi had seen him in the meeting room?

Wait… He also looked younger–

For Six's sake, was the universe trying to rub the whole matter in, presenting him with a boy that was clearly the other Argentum's younger brother?

They looked oddly alike, though, even for brothers.

"…Hello," he finally returned, attempting to be civil.

"Did you want to use the training room?" the girl asked, slightly out of breath from her fight. "We've been here a while, and we use it pretty much every day, so we won't mind leaving for now."

Loqi thought about it. He really, really wanted to shoot something.

"What is that?" the younger Argentum asked, gesturing.

Loqi frowned. "What is what?"

"That… string stick."

String stick…? His bow? Loqi raised an eyebrow, pulling his bow over his head and holding it instead of letting it rest over his shoulder.

The girl laughed. "Oh, that's a bow. It's a weapon. I guess you haven't seen one before since no one around here really uses them."

"Oh!" Argentum's eyes lit up. "I've read about those!"

…What was this boy, dense?

"May I see you shoot it?" the boy asked, positively radiating with hope.

…Six if that didn't remind him of Kyle when he'd first brought one home for him. Could more salt possibly be rubbed in this open wound?

Or perhaps… Perhaps he was just seeing things that way given the timing and what he'd learned.

"…If you wish."

The world could always use another archer, if the boy was that interested after a display.

Loqi spotted a target on the far end of the room. There were a few bullet holes in it, but he doubted it had been used in a while. Or here. Likely one dumped here when the city ran out of bullets to spare for practice.

Loqi moved so he was standing in line with the target as he drew an arrow from this quiver with practiced familiarity, notching it at a slightly slower pace than normal so Argentum could observe. He took a brief moment to aim before releasing the shot.

What a satisfying thunk.

He shot another one for the hell of it at his normal pace, and it landed right next to the first one at the center of the target.

"Oh, nice!" the girl cheered.

The boy was beaming with clear fascination.

Loqi sighed. He might regret this, but… So long as he was watching closely…

"Would you like to try firing one?" Loqi asked. "With assistance, of course."

The younger Argentum… clearly wasn't the brightest, but he had an attentive look in his eyes.

The boy somehow brightened even further. "Yes, please!" He scampered over to Loqi.

Six, these reminders were just getting worse. The enthusiasm.

"You'll want to hold here, Kyle. Make certain your grip firm but relaxed."

Loqi handed his bow over. "Hold here. Firm but relaxed grip." The boy complied quickly. "Good." Loqi drew an arrow from his quiver, offering it. "Now don't worry about speed. Draw slowly and get the feel of it before you try to fire–"

The arrow was drawn back and fired as quickly as Loqi might have done it himself… and the shot landed right next to his own.

Loqi cocked his jaw to one side. Well. He'd been had. He gave the boy a look. "You've used a bow before."

Argentum shook his head repeatedly.

The girl cleared her throat. "Evan is, um, gifted when it comes to learning combat."

Evan? This was his bathtub dwelling roommate? And what had the Hester boy said about him? He'd been raised in an Imperial lab? That might explain something, but Loqi wasn't aware of the Empire had raised any children in labs. He wouldn't have put it past a lunatic like Besithia – experimenting on humans sounded right up his alley. Except they had the MTs. Setting ethics aside, why would the Empire having green-lighted any human experiments with how successful the MTs had been?

If his upbringing had been in a lab, though, that would explain his oddness…

The bathtub child sheepishly returned Loqi's bow. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome."

Curious. Very curious. Loqi was going to have to learn more about this boy.

Well, that shouldn't be too difficult given that they were to be roommates.

But first… chocobos.

No, actually, first appeared to be turning in to rest since the rest of the city was asleep.

That was fine. He could learn more in the morning. Perhaps from the Immortal himself.

The next few days were going to prove interesting, that was for certain.

—