He sank into blissful oblivion. And for a time he knew nothing.

When he woke, it was to a room lit only by sporadic lightning. If ever the rain stopped, the silence would have been unnerving. There must have been a time when the sheets of rain slamming against Citadel glass was not a ubiquitous sound in his home. But he could not now remember it.

It took a moment for his brain to collect itself and recall the reason for the soft, fluttering feeling in his stomach. When he did, he smiled stupidly at the ceiling and permitted himself a few more slothful moments of recollection. But only a few. Work awaited and, judging by the clock, he had already wasted much time sleeping.

He climbed out of bed and pulled on his suit and shoes, his cape and pauldron. Crea wouldn't have called them wasted hours. Then again, Crea did not have a nation in emergency waiting on her for five dozen decisions. What would she have done, put in his place?

He had said he would never ask her to rule the kingdom, but could he truly stand by that? While he had no imminent plans to end his life, he did walk a dangerous line with the Astrals. In the eventuality that his life ended, he had heirs, but as of yet they were much too young. And the one he had slated for the throne had no interest in rule, while the other had a great deal of interest and not enough sense to temper it. The Queen-consort was not regent by law, in the event of heirs too young to rule, but she was by default. When that default included a court born and bred woman who had all but been trained for the position. Not unlike Ignis.

So who would rule in Noctis' place until he came of age, in the event of Regis' death? Clarus, presumably, save that Clarus was his Shield as well as his Hand, and therefore unlikely to survive him. One more reason to have a separate Shield and Hand. Weskham, then.

Although… if the prophecy was subverted, Noctis had no reason to remain crown prince. The possibility of changing heirs sprouted a whole new mess of issues. Especially given that Reina was slated to be engaged to a young man who was old enough to rule a kingdom.

Never mind that now. New options with Crea, which he had never before thought possible, had his mind wandering. He needed to focus.

He left the confines of his quarters and returned downstairs to his study, where a host of matters were begging for his attention. He lost himself to them for the next several hours until Avunculus reminded him it was time for dinner. Once it would have been a summons he ignored. Now it was a time he had carved for himself away from the kingdom, and a time for him to be a father. Lucis would still stand when he returned. If not, then working through dinner would not change matters.

Crea avoided his gaze during dinner. It troubled him at first, until he finally caught her eye and a bashful smile blossomed across her face. She hid it hastily behind her glass of water and averted her gaze. After that, he did not try so hard to catch her eye. Better not to be smiling stupidly across the dining table at each other.

Ravus was more at ease in his mother's absence. He spoke quietly with Reina and exchanged easy words with Noctis. A part of the family already.

Following dinner, Regis transferred his work upstairs and scrounged what time he could before Reina and Noctis' bedtime. Just as he was preparing to set aside his work, the elevator chimed and an attendant announced, "Master Clarus Amicitia, Your Majesty."

Regis set his pages aside, folded his hands in his lap, and looked up as Clarus stepped out of the elevator.

"I thought I should be here," he said. "In case someone needs to wake you."

Crea paused halfway to the stairs. "Is that actually a risk?"

"Hardly," Regis said.

"He doesn't know," said Clarus.

Crea glanced over her shoulder at Regis. He could only shake his head and do his best to convey, via exasperated expressions, that Clarus was in a poor mood after their argument that morning. Whether she gleaned anything from the look he gave her, she did turn away.

"I'll fetch Reina and Noctis." And resumed her walk downstairs.

In a few moments they were joined by the twins and in a few more after that Regis was entrenched in the full bedtime routine while Clarus and Crea sat quietly in the lounge, talking. Each time he caught sight of them through the open bedroom doors while he paced about urging Noctis into his pajamas and Reina to brush properly, it was to see them with heads together and grave expressions on their faces. Much as he wished to put an end to whatever worries Clarus was filling her mind with, he refused to let anything steal his attention away from his children.

Their bedtime routine was the same as ever: a time for the three of them to be simply together as a family, which he would never allow another to take his place in. For those brief minutes before bed, at least, he could be a true father to them, as if they were not Caelums locked away in a tower, awaiting their destinies.

Once the bedtime story was through he tucked them in tightly, kissed their heads, and withdrew to find Clarus and Crea waiting for him.

"Did you tell them what you meant to do?" Crea asked.

"No," Regis said. "I saw no reason to."

"If there is no risk, why not tell them?" Clarus asked.

So this was the game they played. Regis regarded them both stonily.

"I have never claimed there was no risk associated with what I plan to do. I have merely claimed it is a necessary risk." He fixed his eyes on Crea. "If you wish me to ever sleep through a night again, I must face the threat that haunts my daughter. I have not told them because there is no need. If I meet with success, they will learn of that tomorrow. If not, there is no reason to burden them with my failures."

"And I am saying it is an unnecessary risk," Clarus said. "You have hardly even considered any alternatives and you have no notion of what awaits you in the In Between."

"Have you an alternative for me to consider?"

Clarus was silent.

"I see," Regis said. "Until you do, I shall pursue the only solution available to me. Goodnight."

He turned on his heel and left them both standing in the lounge. To reach the In Between, he would need to sleep—or at least very nearly so. The state was more akin to meditation than anything else. But it would be easier to reach that state if he focused on sleep.

He withdrew to his rooms and went about his own nightly routine. For all that he had no notion what to expect when he sought The Burgundy Man, he was more concerned that an overzealous Clarus would break down his bedroom door and drag him from the In Between before he had time to make any headway. He could have asked the Crownsguards outside to bar Clarus' entry, but it would have been difficult to convey to them that he could enter in the case of an emergency, and if he did so then it would open the door—so to speak—for Clarus to convince them anything was an emergency. Who were they to argue with the Commander, after all?

No, he would simply have to hope that Clarus' good sense won out over irrational fears, and that luck was on his side. After all, Regis would have no way of conveying if or when he was truly in danger to Clarus, and Clarus had no way to sense it on his own.

It was dangerous. But for Reina's sake, he had to try.

He laid down to sleep, but instead shut his eyes and settled his consciousness into the semi-aware state that permitted him to drift into the In Between. It was from here that he could commune with the Lucii, if he so desired. The last few times he had beseeched their aid, they had done little for him. It was not the kings of eld he sought tonight.

The In Between was not so much a place, in his mind, as it was a state of being. But Reina spoke of it as a true location. The place people went when they dreamed. The place she went to find the Black River. The place where The Burgundy Man met her.

How, then, did he search for a person inside a state of being?

Call it a place, then. And let it be physical.

No sooner had he thought as much than he found himself very much in the In Between. A featureless, limitless, black locale where he drifted, a formless consciousness. Reina had said she had met The Burgundy Man beside the Black River, but everything was black. How was he to find a river in a featureless world?

Once more his thoughts seemed to shape the unspace. As if his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he could suddenly see depth and distance. A smooth black floor beneath a seamless black sky. For his eyes to adjust meant he had eyes. He willed himself to take a step and found he had feet. He ran his hands down an incorporeal body; he was precisely the same, down to the last thread in his suit, as he was in the physical world.

A dream world indeed. A world in which thoughts shaped everything.

And yet, how was he to find The Burgundy Man in this endless blackness? Nothing in any direction seemed to indicate where he should go. He tried to focus his mind on Ardyn Izunia and all that he knew of the man, but to no avail. It was no use. Whether because shaping this world only worked insofar as it pertained to things that did not truly exist, or because Regis understood so little about the man his daughter called The Burgundy Man that he could not begin to summon him into being, he had no notion.

A new approach, then. Ardyn was, so far as Regis understood, interested in Reina. So perhaps he would haunt the outside of Reina's mind, just beyond the walls Regis had built for her. If he found Reina, he might find some pointer to the Burgundy Man.

Reina was easy to find. He was bound up so tightly with her, between the sharing of his magic, the ties that kept her from leaving her own center, and the walls he had built around her, he simply had to follow the road laid out before him. And the road was as short as he willed it to be: no sooner had he summoned Reina to mind and focused on the bonds between them than he could see her, a shimmering form in the distance. She lay in bed, precisely as he had left her, curled up with Chika the Chocobo under one arm. A light seemed to shine upon her, as if a hole had been punched in the black sky and moonlight cascaded down only in her vicinity. Around her was a prismatic barrier. His barrier, shimmering with familiar magic.

He turned his feet in her direction and walked. And walked. And walked.

For every step he took, she grew not an inch closer. He broke into a run and found the results the same. He focused his mind on hers and willed her to draw nearer, but to no avail.

"You can't reach her from here. Or have you forgotten already what you have done?"

Regis spun to face the source of the airy voice. Out of the darkness, as if stepping from thick black fog, emerged Ardyn Izunia. He swept off his hat and bowed.

"What do you mean, 'what I have done'?" Regis asked.

"Prevented her from reaching the In Between. And prevented the In Between from reaching her. Wasn't that the point?" Ardyn straightened and replaced his hat on his head.

But of course. He had bound her up to her core so tightly that she would not slip into the In Between while she slept. Somehow that had not occurred to him when he had gone searching for her.

"To keep me away from your precious princess?" Ardyn asked. "Don't make me laugh, King Regis. If I had wanted her, she would have been mine before you had any notion that we were even acquainted. Did it never occur to you that what I was truly after was you?"

A chill ran in Regis' blood. If Ardyn Izunia was an eerie man in the flesh, it was nothing compared to his state in the In Between.

"It took nearly snaring your daughter and several very obvious hints before you even noticed me. Tsk. That such a leader of men could be so dense. Even after my hints lay bare before you, it still took days for you to come. Did you truly mean to just stop sleeping and hope that would protect your precious little girl? I suppose eventually I would have had to do something drastic, but thankfully I am a very patient man."

Regis circled around him, one step at a time, placing himself between Ardyn and Reina. The barrier around her shimmered and brightened, casting pale light on Ardyn's dark features.

Ardyn laughed. "Oh, dear Daddy, so protective of his little girl! A threat to him means nothing, no. So long as I make no move against the princess."

"I doubt any claims you make," Regis said. "Foremost among them, I doubt the claim that you are a man."

""Oh, but I was, once."

And his words all but confirmed that he was not anymore. A daemon, born of a man, just as they had suspected.

"Now I am the nightmare that haunts Caelum children, awaiting the Last Caelum, so that I can consume him."

"The Last Caelum?"

"Have you guessed what I am yet?"

The nightmare that haunts Caelum children. Awaiting the Last Caelum.

"You do know." Ardyn circled closer. "Say it. Put words to your foolish thoughts."

"Adagium." The word was drawn from him, as if against his will. Once it had been, Regis had no recollection of having meant to say it.

Ardyn smiled. Not the smug smirk that most often found a place on his features, but an unsettling grin. The hairs on the back of Regis' neck stood up.

"Adagium," Ardyn repeated.

"If that is true, then you should have only interest in my children," Regis said.

Ardyn flapped a dismissive hand. The grin faded and impatience took its place. "You give too much credit to scary stories told in the dark. I do eat souls and perhaps I will kill your son, but for now I only wish to talk."

"Regarding?"

"Fate."

Regis waited. Whatever this creature had to say to him, he would hear. He could do nothing without some understanding of what it wanted. And he had, after all, come here tonight with a goal. Protect Reina.

"You are already well on your path to tearing down every last one of the Draconian's plans. Why not take it one step further?" Ardyn asked. "Kill the Draconian."

Regis prided himself in his ability to maintain his outward composure, despite the situation. But this was something else altogether. He wanted Regis to kill a god?

"It's the only way to achieve your goals," Ardyn said. "While he yet lives, the prophecy will press on. He will see to that. Dear Noctis will die to buy dawn with his blood. And poor little Reina will be all alone without a friend in the world."

"That isn't true, damn it." Regis took a step forward, but stopped himself before he reached Ardyn. Behind him, Reina slept on—blissfully unaware of all that went on around her.

"No? You think the paltry preparations you've made will hold through Bahamut's wrath? You can't live forever, you know. The Wall will drain you dry. And once you are gone, who will be left to stand between the Draconian and your children? Who will stop him from exacting revenge on the children of the man who defied him?"

A thought he had given embarrassingly little consideration to. If he failed—even if he succeeded—what happened after?

"If we succeed and end this plague without sacrificing Noctis' life, Bahamut will be satisfied. The covenant will be satisfied," Regis said.

"Aw. How sweet. You think the Draconian is rational," Ardyn said. "Tell me, King Regis. What has he ever done that might suggest that?"

Against his will, Regis found himself considering. Bahamut threatened retribution if Regis failed to walk the path. Not if he failed to defeat the darkness. If he failed to walk the path. Why should his black and white notion extend only to the result of this excursion? He was angry now because Regis had dared disobey him. Why should that end if the darkness was destroyed?

"Hm. What was that? Nothing? Nothing whatsoever?" Ardyn asked. "That's what I thought."

Regis gathered up all thoughts of how and why and what happened after, and set them aside. This was not the time to question his beliefs. Not while he stood in the In Between had bargained with the darkness at the heart of all daemonkind.

"So. You wish me to kill a god. No easy feat. And what do you offer in return for this?" Regis asked.

"I offer you my aid, of course." Ardyn's smile twisted wider. "If you're going to stem the flow of light, you'll want darkness on your side. Don't forget that his death benefits you on its own. With him gone, you will have freedom."

"I shall also have one less ally in my battle against darkness."

"If you consider Bahamut an ally, you must be blind indeed."

And yet, he was still here and still talking. They walked a delicate line and Regis hadn't broken it yet.

"Leave my daughter alone," Regis said.

"Is that all you want?"

"I am not bargaining for the Draconian's life," Regis said. "Leave my daughter alone and I will consider all you have said."

"Such a simple wish!" Ardyn laughed. He turned a circle, arms thrown wide, head back, and laughed in a way that made Regis wonder if making even this bargain with him was too much. "Granted! Go back to your warm little bed and set the princess free of her glass prison. You know where to find me when you're ready to talk."

He locked his eyes on Regis' and stepped back once, twice, into the darkness until it wrapped around him like hundreds of grasping hands. He was gone. Not just in sight, but all sense of his presence was gone from the In Between. Regis spun at once to face Reina.

She remained as she had been all along: curled in her bed an unreachable distance away and sealed behind a prismatic shield. He took several steps toward her before remembering he would never be able to reach her from this direction.

He gathered up the strands that led back to his own body and followed them. The return was not so meandering as the journey there had been. Indeed, no sooner had he resolved to return to his body than he was laying in his bed, blinking up at the ceiling. He ran his hands over his chest. How strange to have a true body again, to be in this world of physical people and objects, rather than one that shaped around him according to his will. It was a small wonder Reina struggled through disorientation each time he woke her.

Reina.

He lurched to his feet and stumbled out of his bedroom to the hall door. He shouldered it open, earning exclamations from beyond, and passed by Crownsguard, Clarus, and Crea on his way to Reina and Noctis' room. By the time he reached their door he had recovered enough of his senses to slow down and approach more quietly. He slipped into their room, finding all as it had been however long ago he had last been inside. Minutes? Hours? He knew not.

Reina slept with Chika the Chocobo tucked under her arm. Precisely as she had lain in the In Between. Regis lowered onto the edge of her bed, smoothing her hair back and pulling her blankets up to beneath her chin. Now that he could touch her, the irrationality of his actions caught up with him.

He had no reason to believe she would be in any state other than sleeping peacefully. He knew full well that his walls held, as he had seen then from the other side. It was difficult to appreciate the effectiveness of his wards, however, when they were keeping him away from what he so desperately sought to protect. He kissed her forehead and glanced toward the door, where Clarus and Crea both peered in.

He held a finger to his lips and pulled himself away from Reina's bedside. They would wish to know everything. His body cried out for sleep, but his mind worked so rapidly he knew it would never come. He might as well tell them what had passed.