Day 45:
For the first time since waking—indeed, in longer still than that—Reina fell asleep in her own bed. She withdrew, first alone, but shortly after her retinue followed to keep her company. While Regis missed her presence in his rooms, he was more pleased to see her with friends. And he had other business to attend to, which did not include attending his daughter.
On closing himself in his rooms, he passed by the welcoming fire in his hearth and sought a book tucked away on the bottom shelf of his bookcase. The gold-leafed art on the cover was faded and peeling, but the lettering across the spine was still readable. Only just.
He flipped it open, skimming through familiar passages to find one he knew by heart without reading. A part of him was hoping it said something different from what he remembered. Perhaps it was he who had misled himself. It would have been easier to believe than the proposition that his entire life was founded on a lie.
He found the page.
O'er rotted Soil, under blighted sky,
A dread Plague the Wicked hath wrought.
In the Light of the Gods, Sword-Sworn at his Side
'Gainst the Dark the King's Battle is fought.
From the Heavens high, to the Blessed below,
Shines the Beam of a Peace long besought.
"Long live thy Line, and this Stone divine,
For the Night when All comes to Naught."
Long live thy Line
Long live thy Line.
They ought to have written: 'perpetuate thy bloodline so that the blood we spill is pure and unpolluted.' Unpolluted by people like Ardyn Lucis Caelum. The man who should have been king.
Regis' hands clenched on the book. How many other lies were hidden in the history of Lucis? The history of Eos? If the Cosmogony was a dictation of the Astrals, then not a word of it could be trusted.
He stared blindly at the words for several minutes. The Lucis Caelums served the Astrals. They protected the crystal and thereby protected Eos. For the good of all mankind. Without the gift of the Astrals, the Caelums would be nothing more than kings, and without their magic, the Starscourge would spread rampant, destroying all life on Eos.
Lies.
All of it, lies.
Every last word, every last vow, every last strand of hope he had ever clung to.
The Caelums served the Astrals…
No longer.
On his way out of the room, Regis dumped the Cosmogony into the fireplace.
Cor was in the hall outside Reina's rooms, standing guard. Regis gave him no more than a nod, and even that was strained. He swept past servants and Crownsguards alike, leaving the royal levels and making for the heart of the Citadel, where the crystal slept.
"Bahamut!" Regis threw both hands out and the prism of mirrors opened before him, revealing the light of the crystal.
He stood, blinking in the light and fighting a growing rage in his chest. Once the echoes from his own shout had faded away, the silence stretched long enough that he began to doubt the Draconian would even respond. Did it matter if he did? Bahamut heard only what he wished. Either he believed the lies he had fed the Caelums for two thousand years or else he had no remorse.
"Draconian!" Regis tried again, this time reaching out for the bond of magic and pulling. "You would control mankind? You would have the royal family in the palm of your hand, blinded and brainwashed?"
The light within the crystal flared. Regis weathered it, refusing to flinch away, though the glow grew so bright that Regis could see it through closed lids.
:Mankind matters not.: Bahamut's voice boomed in his ears. :The Caelums mean naught.:
"Two thousand years we have served you flawlessly, and this is what you have to say to me? If lives mean nothing to you, what have ours been sacrificed for?"
:Light. The Starscourge must be destroyed.:
"You created the scourge! Why would you destroy it with our lives, rather than spending your own light?"
:Thou knowest not what thou asks, but the point is moot. If thou shalt not cooperate, thou shalt be destroyed.:
"I think not."
For a hundred years, Lucis had cowered beneath Niflheim's heel, dreading the inevitable end, but a month ago Reina had delivered them from that. For two thousand years, the Caelums had quivered in the face of the almighty Astrals, but tonight Reina laid bare all their flaws.
"It is you who shall be destroyed, Draconian," Regis said. "For too long you have overlooked and underestimated us. This ends tonight. The Caelums no longer serve the Astrals."
He severed the leash that he had used to draw Bahamut in with and waved the mirrors shut once more. The light faded behind him as he turned on his heel. A lifetime he had served them in error. His children's lives had been ruined by his own subservience. And for what?
Nothing.
He was in such a hurry to leave the crystal chamber behind that he nearly ran headfirst into a Crownsguard standing directly outside.
"Your Majesty! Apologies!"
Regis stepped back, retaining his balance.
"Lady Lunafreya has requested an audience with you," said the Crownsguard.
Had she indeed? After all she had said upstairs, she wished to take more of his time tonight?
"Then she will wait until morning." Regis motioned and the Crownsguard stepped aside automatically, allowing him to pass by.
"She says she knows how to stop the Starscourge, Your Majesty!"