Noctis woke when Gladiolus shook his shoulder. He groaned, blinking his eyes open. Lunafreya looked as though she had been fast asleep against him before. He started to stretch, and tried to give her a moment before he accidentally knocked her off his lap. His Shield made his rounds waking the others up and the stone walls echoed various yawns and groans. A round of the convenience store granola bars to fill their stomachs, some bottled water, and the descent through the tower continued.
The air grew more humid and cold the deeper they descended. The smell of wet stone started to mingle with something else, bitter and astringent. Noctis reached out a hand and idly brushed them against the stone wall and withdrew his hand with a hiss, looking at his fingertips to see tiny droplets of blood. Lunafreya looked at him and he held up his fingers to her, his brows crossed.
"How did you cut them?" She asked. Noctis looked at the wall, but wasn't able to see what had cut him. He shrugged, wiping his hand against the leg of his pants and kept moving. Their flashlights cast harsh shadows but there seemed to be some light deeper into the tower. The group halted when they noticed this, Crowe and Gladiolus taking point and trying to listen for any sign of the empire. But the tower remained mostly silent, save for the distant sound of running water. There were no voices, no footprints.
"Let's check it out." Noctis was barely able to hear Crowe's whispered suggestion to Gladiolus.
"I'm coming." Noctis tried to add, but both Shields immediately shook their heads.
"It's my job to keep your ass safe. If you hear gunshots I come save ours." Gladiolus replied. Noctis shifted but felt Lunafreya's hand on his shoulder and he frowned and nodded the pair on. They crept down the corner and Noctis had his fingers flexing and tingling as he stayed on the very edge of calling his Engine Blade. The others looked equally on edge, Prompto and Ignis already on their feet and Aranea coming up to stand near Lunafreya.
"Ready to kick some more ass?" She asked her. Lunafreya nodded, though she kept her attention down the slightly illuminated hall. They could hear conversation, but no yelling or sounds of battle. Lunafreya wondered if Caligo had wandered his way down here and was trying to monologue at the Shields.
"Should we go help them?" She asked.
"They said to stay here."
"Since when do you listen?" Lunafreya asked.
"He's quite bad at that." Ignis agreed. He was the first to move and violate the Shields' orders the rest of them moving as a group down the path. The strange odor grew stronger and despite the chill the air was so humid Noctis was reminded of a trip to Duscae as a child before the wall went up, and how cold it got at night even as the humidity hung in the air so thick you felt like you could swim through it.
"What the hell guys! We told you to stay back! What if there was trouble?" Gladiolus asked once they came within eyesight.
"We heard voices and grew concerned that perhaps you had run into a particularly talkative brand of trouble," Ignis replied.
"No, just this shit." He gestured back. Taking a few more steps into the chamber and the source of the lumination made itself known. The walls appeared coated in a glowing moss, in some spots deep purple spikes rose above the rest of the mass, pouring off more light than the moss-like substance.
"What… what is this?" Aranea asked, and reached out to touch it but Prompto grabbed her wrist and jerked her back.
"Don't touch it!" He shouted, and held up his hand. She winced and frowned, rubbing her hands on her pants to clean away imagined contamination.
"Don't think it's the blight though. Is this what's keeping it away? Something else got here first?" She suggested.
"After what we've seen I'm still convinced it wants to eat us." Prompto replied. Noctis glanced down at his fingertips, rubbing his thumb over them trying to feel if the moss was going to start making them glow. Lunafreya glanced at his hand, seeming to catch his concern. She grabbed his wrist so she could line her palm up with his and have her light reach out. He didn't argue as she expected him to, her light only finding another trace of blight she hadn't managed to completely eradicate. She frowned at this,
"I… I am unable to feel what this is. It is not blight, I can assure us of that." She provided.
"Keep going. We haven't found Noct's arm yet. We can get the damn weapon and run. One supernatural threat is enough for me." Gladiolus replied. A round of agreement went around, and the group began to follow Gladiolus deeper into Costlemark.
Lunafreya lagged behind the group, Noctis beside her, and Crowe deciding to take point behind her charge. The moss on the walls grew thicker and glowed brighter the deeper they went, casting a purple-blue glow on their skin. She reached up to hug her arms, the damp cold of the tower sending goosebumps down her arm and the urge to start shivering. She flinched when she felt a weight against her shoulders and realized Noctis had draped his jacket around her. She smiled at him, shifting a half-step closer to him and let him slip an arm around her shoulders. She was aware of Crowe behind them, but let herself enjoy this small contact.
The path narrowed, forcing them to start to walk single-file. Gladiolus still led their small pack, Crowe pulling up behind just short of the royals. Several meters later Lunafreya stopped, her hands slamming to her head as a voice thundered between her ears. The language of the astrals rumbled through her and she groaned, falling to her knees.
Come. Child.
She gasped for air, the words hitting her far harder than ever before. She felt a cold hand on her shoulder and looked up, finding an old familiar face smiling down at her. She wanted to smile back, but the pain knit lines over her expression and she gasped again in pain.
You fragile mortals.
This was not the voice that belonged to Gentiana, to Shiva. She drew her arms closer around herself as the chill penetrated deeper into her limbs and felt as if ice was forming on her very bones.
Lunafreya. My love calls to thee. Seek him upon the great mountain of fire. I will quell his impatience as he calls to thee, but be swift my child. Gentiana said to her as her dark features melted away to reveal the ice maiden beneath. She cupped Lunafreya's cheeks and whispered hardly loud enough for her to hear, the words felt more than heard. I shall ever keep watch over thee.
The icy world around her faded and she was back inside of Costlemark, Noctis and Crowe on either side of her both speaking too loud and fast for her mind to catch up to them, her skin burning and crawling as it tried to figure out which world it was in.
"I am well, I assure you." She told them, heat in her cheeks as she saw everyone was watching over the commotion. "Gentiana spoke to me." She told them what she saw and heard, and Gladiolus grumbled to urge them onward and heed the words of the ice goddess.
"Why don't you and Crowe stay here?" Noctis suggested.
"I am well." Lunafreya insisted. Noctis nodded, holding out his hand and helped her stand. She looked around to re-orient herself, frowning at how far the growths from the walls reached to the center of the hallway. She wished Gentiana, or Shiva, had stayed long enough for her to ask her what was going on. Mayhaps these growths that chase away the blight frighten the Astrals.
She set the thoughts aside, and mulled over her impending covenant with Ifrit. The astral had slid her mind though their journey. She had awoken Ramuh, Titan, Shiva had been joined with her since the loss of her mother. But it was Ifrit, Leviathan, and Bahamut that caused her fear. And to know that Ifrit was already awake caused concern. She wondered what Ifrit wanted with Ravatogh, and tried to make a mental note to ask Ignis about it later.
The group was eventually forced to stop, the growths too thick for them to pass. Noctis forced his way to the head of the group, Lunafreya would have followed save for Crowe's grip on her shoulder urging her to stay behind. She bit her lip, but knew there was little she could do.
Noctis tapped one of the growths with a finger as if he expected it to retract. Instead, he withdrew his own hand quickly, stuffing his finger into his mouth and sucking on the blood welling from the new prick the crystal growths caused. A deep headache had been growing the deeper they walked into the tower, and he simply blamed it in the increasing cold and humidity of the tower. He frowned, wondering how Lunafreya was feeling. He tried to focus on the task at hand. The sooner he got his arm, the sooner they could get out of this claustrophobic geologist's dream. He phased past the crystals, needing to maintain his magic to prevent himself from merging into the formations themselves. The narrow hall suddenly opened into an antechamber, and he was able to drop his magic.
Falling to his knees he tried to catch his breath. His chest was tight and heavy, eyes blurring with tears that he had to blink away. He held out a hand, a drink flashing inside of it. A moment later it was an ether and drained. He let out a loud belch from the carbonation and blinked the empty can can back into his pocket. He cursed, and felt better for it, before getting to his feet. He was in a large circular chamber whose path rimmed a deep opening. Looking down he could just make out another circular path rimming the chamber below him. He threw a fireball and saw that it ran even deeper. The entire room glowed in the faint light of the crystalline structures and he wished his friends had been able to follow him. The room sounded as though it was humming, and a pressure in his chest made him want to get to the lower level of the chamber. As if getting down there would relieve this pressure.
Lunafreya's words fought with the rest of this mental checklist. He knew the legends of Ifrit's temper. And he vaguely remembered Ignis trying to teach him mythology of Ifrit and Shiva. The two sides of a coin. He winced, realizing he retained little of those lessons. He remembered the trails of Ramuh and Titan. Of what they did to Lunafreya. Of how she still felt these days. Weeks? Later. They needed rest. Proper rest. But if Shiva had appeared to Lunafreya to urge them onward, to Ravatogh they would travel.
The quickest way to the bottom of the large chamber was to simply phase through the floor. His knees and ankles were going to hate him, but it was faster than trying to figure out these labyrinthian hallways coated in those glowing masses. Once below, there was no need for additional light. The humming was louder. The desire to move closer was stronger. Like a swimmer seeking the surface of water. In the center of the room was more of those crystal growths, and he couldn't resist the urge to reach out. And touch it.
Fragile mortal. Fool of this plane. Woe beith mine spirit that mine choice of ally is so. That the beings of this plane are as ever fragile as the other stars. Doomed. As shall be thine star. It shall be doomed shall it continue. Mine light fades. This tower. My bastion. My tale older than the memory of thine kind. Thou tredeth in presence of old.
Noctis wanted to ask it so many questions. Why was it here. Why was the blight here? Why this star? Why them? His breaths started to come faster. Why them? Why couldn't he have a normal life? Live out his days with Lunafreya. Sit on a couch watching a movie while she did something as domestic as sewing. Getting to take her out for dinner without fearing about their ranks or about the illness only they could remove. Instead he had to watch her suffer and sacrifice herself for the sake of others every single day. Was that really the fate the gods had designed for him? For Luna?
"Why this star!" He shouted at the glowing mass.
Thine rage shineth within thine heart. Mortal of this Star. Listen whilst I tell thee a tale I hath spoken before. What you calleth the blight is a parasite of old. From mine own star we watched as the light of the sky doth vanished. We vowed to stop it. To end the scourge upon the sky and star.
It doth fallen upon mine star and it, we did fight. But it doth darken our star. Across the sky we doth chase, sworn revenge, that no further star shall fade beneath its darkness.
"How many stars?" Noctis asked.
Endless. Hundreds. Thousands. Thine sky doth grow dark yet thine mortal minds notice not. Such simple creatures of fleeting life.
Silence fell as the room rumbled, Noctis covering his head as though he expected all of Costlemark to fall. Neither he nor the growth spoke for several seconds more.
"If we're such stupid animals, why us?" Noctis asked.
Within this star doth lieth beings not mortal. Speak to me not, but to thine kind they did. So doth I speak to thine mortal kind.
"Care to speak a little plainer?" Noctis asked.
To thine non-mortals only mortals of thine star mayeth speak. To mine voice thy non-mortals shant listen. To thine blood, I hath chosen. Theblood of the Oracle I hath chosen. With thee, I shall speak to thine non-mortals. Who wake from eternal slumber. To fight this parasite of the sky.
"So to make sure I have this. Since the astrals won't listen to you, you cursed a few of us stupid mortals to beg them to fight this blight for you?" Noctis asked. His face flushed with heat that burned across his cheeks and his ears. His nails dug into his palms and he could feel hair lifting on his arms and neck. He wanted to call his Engine Blade and hack this crystal to pieces. He wanted to call these astrals he had covenants with to destroy this growth.
Not growth. The Crystal. The same crystal that chose him. The one his father protected. The one the empire coveted. Every day of suffering inflicted upon this star was nothing more than the side-effect of this sky-stretching blight landing on his damn star chased by a vengeful hunk of sentient rock. His fate. Luna's. His father's injuries. All this death, war, fighting, strife. Everything. He screamed. He screamed until his throat hurt. Until his eyes shut tight with the burn of tears. Slamming his fists into the ground beneath him as it shook once more. The war that cursed Lucis was nothing more than fighting over a piece of this alien chasing a different alien from star to star. Petty squabbles over the equivalent of fingernails. This tower. Was it erected around this Crystal? What knowledge from the ancient Lucians was lost? How much of this war came from their own ignorance of their reality.
Lunafreya's mother murdered, her entire life of servitude. Her brother's enlistment. Every strife. Every fight. Nothing more than an idiot's squabble over the scraps of an ancient war beyond his own comprehension. He felt the voice of the Crystal. Not as sound. But reaching within his own mind. Trying to explain. Make him understand. He screamed again.
Engine Blade appeared in his hand. He hacked. He swung, phased, and hacked until his muscles ached and he fell to the ground once more. Blinded with tears. Muted by the pain in his throat. He wept until he felt that there was nothing left of him. Everything. Every sacrifice. Every fight. Every attempt to protect Lucis, his father, Luna. All of it. Nothing but ants running around a battlefield, ignorant of the war above their heads.
Stand up mortal. Thine fight continues. My chosen. Rejoin mine Oracle. Convene with thine non-mortals. And together, we shall purge all stars of this curse that I have chased since thine own star was but dust.