The world seemed to settle, eerily quiet. All the great players of this drama, stretched out over two thousand years had assembled and now they waited on the very brink of combat, waiting to see who would move next. On one side: Bahamut, the Draconian, with the might of a thousand blades and the light of a thousand stars behind him. On the other: Regis, standing triumphant ahead of the other five Astrals.
But one space on the board was conspicuously empty. And it had been since the day Ifrit had been cured.
Ardyn Lucis Caelum, the point from which all conflict stemmed, the heart of the Starscourge, was nowhere to be found. Searching for him was no easy task. The man seemed unconstrained by the usual bonds of the physical world. After leaving the Disc, he could have gone anywhere on Eos. Or off.
Nevertheless, Regis did search. At the very least, he set all eyes and ears in Lucis, Tenebrae, Accordo, and Niflheim on alert for him. When that yielded no results, he sought Ardyn in the one place he had no operatives or allies: the In Between.
Here they had spoken before, time and time again. Indeed, there even seemed enough of a connection between them that Regis had been capable of summoning him—or at least ringing the bell and requesting his presence. This time, however, his call went unanswered. Whether Ardyn had heard and ignored or the call had simply never reached him, Regis could only surmise.
"You'll not find him." Somnus—not the Mystic nor the king, but the man—stepped out of the darkness and into being.
"I must," Regis said. "For I dare not take another step without knowing where he stands. It would be foolish to strike at Bahamut with no notion of who stands behind me… and which of them hold daggers. Surely you have some connection to him. Can you not guide me to your brother?"
Somnus shook his head. "I fear not. He has hidden himself away. If there is one direction he would guard himself from, it is me. He has blocked me out. Cut off all ties that once bound us."
For a flickering of time, Regis wondered what might become of them if the bonds were reforged. If the two polar ends of power were reconnected, the positive and negative allowed to flow once more both ways, would the short of magic cause a blast akin to connecting high voltage to ground? Perhaps. Or perhaps nothing, save deeper self-loathing than already existed.
He had more important matters to worry about.
"You would be better off seeking him out yourself, if you have any trail to follow," Somnus said.
"Hardly a scent," said Regis.
And he did follow, as best he could. For a moment it seemed he might even have succeeded, when a faint presence in the distance indicated that he was drawing nearer to Ardyn. But a faint presence was what he remained, never growing nearer, as if he stood at the end of an endless hallway.
And that, it seemed, was that. It was not that he could not be found, but that he did not wish to be found. Regis could call out into the void and hope his words found Ardyn's ears—and he did, in desperation, for he could think of nothing else to do—but it was impossible to say whether he was heard and ignored or not heard at all. He could sense Ardyn. Distantly. But that was the end of it.
"If I didn't know better, I would say he was sulking," Regis told Clarus one afternoon, after spilling out his frustrating attempts to reach Ardyn.
"He seems a petulant child," Clarus agreed. "Say we treat him like one. If Reina was sulking and refusing to see you, but you wished not to make her more irritated, what would you do?"
"Send Noctis after her," Regis said. "But that is of no use. I have already spoken with Somnus to no avail."
"Do we know of anyone else who speaks with him? Hamon?"
"To my knowledge they have only spoken once and only when arranged by me. No, the only other person in Lucis who had contact with him as anything besides the imperial chancellor is Reina."
"Why not send Reina after him?" Clarus asked.
The suggestion settled in. Slowly. Reina was far more capable of traversing the In Between than he was. Indeed, she seemed to shape the place as second nature. She also had the benefit of having Dreamed alongside him. Perhaps that had given her some insight which would be useful in finding him.
"I should tell you I will not because she is a child and Ardyn is a dangerous man," Regis said.
"But?" Clarus said.
"But recently she has proved herself to be more than a child. And she has been learning how to deal with people of his sort for months now."
"Then you will ask her?"
A year ago he would not have. Whether that was a change in himself or in her, he could not have said. Perhaps it was both.
"I will."
He sought her that evening, pulling her aside from a game she played with Noctis, Ignis, and Crowe. They sat in the private lounge off his room, where they could speak without being overhead by guards or servants. Or he sat, while she stood before him.
"I have an important task to ask of you, my dear."
Had he been asked to guess what effect those words would have on her, he would well have missed the mark: though her eyes widened in surprise, she stood up straighter and allowed herself a pleased smile. Some fire of determination was kindled in her eyes.
"I must speak with the Burgundy Man," Regis said, "And yet he will not allow me to find him, nor hear my words. Do you think you can seek him in the In Between and attempt to convince him, in some way, to meet with me?"
Neither the excitement nor the pride faltered. She gave a brief moment of thought, considering whether she could, in fact, perform the task asked of her, before nodding.
"I can do that, Father. Though the results of no negotiation are certain, we can be confident of the strength of our offer and skill," she said, as if quoting.
"Master Hamon told you that?"
She nodded again.
He could have chosen a worse instructor for them, it seemed. But now it was time to put all to the test.
"Tonight," Regis said. "I will wait for you as I do when you Dream."
And so, that evening, after bidding goodnight to Noctis he pulled up a chair and sat down beside Reina's bed, just as he might for any lesson in Dreaming.
"Are you certain you are comfortable with this, my dear?" Though it had been he who had asked in the first place, he could not help but wonder if some desire to please him might apply enough pressure to overcome any misgivings she had.
"Quite certain, Father." Reina wriggled about to find the most comfortable place in her pillows and offered up a small smile. "Don't worry, Father. I can do this."
Then again, he had forgotten that Reina was nearly as likely to do something she knew would provoke him as would please him. To think that but a few years ago she had been a shy and reclusive girl, hardly willing to speak with anyone save Regis and Noctis. She had come a long way. And she could, without a doubt, do as she said.
Regis smiled and smoothed her hair back. "I know you can."
He kissed her forehead and settled in his chair to watch over her. It was more a formality than anything else; though it had not been spoken between them, both knew his lack of magic had severed both his connection to her and his ability to draw her out of the In Between. If she became lost, he had no notion of what he could do.
But she would not become lost.
In the first place, she was not even attempting to see the future or dive into the Black River. In the second, she had grown—not just in confidence, but in capability—and he believed that would be sufficient to guide her through this. He needed to believe.
He forced himself to wait patiently, though having no notion of where Reina was or what was occurring outside the physical realm made it a difficult task. He kept one eye on the clock to ground himself. Apprehension was a terrible thing; it could twist one's perception of time beyond all recognition. He refused to allow himself to consider what would occur if she spent longer than was safe in the In Between.
The minutes inched by. Some ten after she had fallen asleep, her bedroom door cracked open, allowing a stream of light to fall across her bed, illuminating Reina's peacefully sleeping form, as Crea slipped in. She laid her hand on his shoulder, though there was a nervous tremble in her arm as he covered her fingers with his.
He took her wrist and drew her into his chair, wrapping his arms around her. It would be a long wait, regardless of the time.
"She will be fine," Regis said aloud, half for his own benefit and half for Crea's. "She is growing into a capable young lady."
He dared not allow himself to dwell on precisely how young she was. What-ifs and second-thoughts would get them nowhere. He trusted her. If he had not, he would never have asked this of her in the first place. She would do as she had said she would.
Crea's only response was to wrap her arms around his neck and lay her head on his shoulder. They waited that way for another twenty minutes, hardly moving.
Some time between the thirty minute and three-quarter hour mark, Reina stirred.
Crea sat upright and froze like a startled rabbit. Regis took a breath and held it. Motion was not always an indication of wakefulness, when Reina was in the throes of a Dream. Then again, she had not been Dreaming. Not truly.
Reina tensed, then stretched, and her eyes opened—slowly, as if she woke from a true sleep. Her eyes flicked toward him and she gave a smile, propping herself up on her elbows.
"He'll speak with you, Father," she said. "I can take you to him now, if you like."
"In the In Between?" Regis asked.
"Mhm. He's in an odd mood. Distraught, I would say. Or sulking."
The thought of Ardyn sulking was simultaneously alarming and amusing. What, precisely, did the soul of the Starscourge do when he was sulking? This, perhaps. Hide away in the dark realm between physical existence and death, and refuse to speak even to the allies he had forged to complete his ultimate goal.
"Then I suppose we must speak with him sooner, rather than later," Regis said. "As you were the one who arranged this talk, my dear, it is only fitting that you remain present for the negotiations that follow."
Reina brightened at this announcement, sitting up fully and beaming at him.
"Before we do so, there are some things you ought to know."
As briefly as he could, he relayed to her all the relevant information on the topic of his questionable alliance with Ardyn. Some of the information did not surprise her, and he suspected she had either Dreamed of it or learned of it directly from Ardyn. That Ardyn was in fact their 2000 year removed ancestor, that he had been betrayed by his own brother, and that the Starscourge—of which he had become a manifestation—stemmed first from the Astrals was all information she seemed not only comfortable, but entirely familiar with.
"Our goal, then, is to convince him to uphold his end of our bargain and stand against the Draconian so that everything we have fought for thus far can at last come to a close," Regis said.
Noctis would be free from his fate, Lucis would be saved from the Starscourge, and all of Eos would be spared from global extermination by a mad god. If they could stand to Bahamut.
Reina nodded once, staunch determination written across her face.
"Then let us begin," Regis said.