I feel like it's feast or famine with my ability to write. I write nothing for what feels like way too long, then belt out a (short) chapter in a sitting. I hope you enjoy!

He wanted to wake up. Open his eyes back in Insomnia, in bed, unaware of destiny or this accursed crystal and the parasite that it has been chasing through time and space. To forget about Astrals and watching Lunafreya crumble beneath their weight. He heaved for breath, the air feeling thick and hot even as he shivered in the cold chamber. His breath curled in front of his face as he stared into the floor that reflected the eerie violet-blue of the crystal. Time passed. He looked up, waiting for it to speak again. To help things make more sense. He couldn't just be some pawn in an alien war.

He got up and looked around. The large chamber was symmetrical in design, though the growths spurting from the wall coated nearly everything they themselves were not forming any discernible pattern. He looked above him and warped up. Each hall leading out of the central one looked the same, like staring into some strange geode. Did he walk away from the hallway he came up from? Or did he come from that hallway straight ahead of him? His vision felt blurred at the edges as the pain that had been behind his eyes climbed across his scalp so it felt like some creature had crawled through his eyes and wanted to claw its way out the back of his head. He hissed a breath, pressing both hands over his head as he fell to his knees. His vision blurred out, the distant static in his ears grew to a hiss and then a roar. He groaned, pressing the heels of his hands harder against the sides of his head.

A voice could be made out through the now deafening roar that caused a vibration in his own chest and in his stomach, rendering him nauseous and panting for breath. The pain intensified as the voice crackled through the cacophony inside his head. What came could hardly be discerned as words, speaking in a tongue so foreign he couldn't even place it as a true language. He groaned again, falling onto his side, drawing his knees to his chest as his groans turned into a whimper.

The Astrals. It had to be the Astrals. Were they trying to talk to him? The Crystal? Luna? Thoughts began to dissolve away, replaced with the thunderous pain in his head. He panted for breath, knees flexing as he thought his skull would crush beneath his own hands. He started to plead for the pain to stop. For it to stop. But he could only pant and writhe. Through the haze he wondered if this was what it was like for Lunafreya when they spoke to her. When she woke them. One thought through the haze. Luna.

Lunafreya was on her knees, hands over her ears. She managed to keep her composure and open her eyes. Regaining control of her breath from ragged gasps and taking slow deep breaths until she felt half-normal again. The echo of her concerned friends around her was simply drowned out by the voices speaking to her.

Stand Oracle. The Chosen Prince has convened with the Crystal.

She stood, able to make out Titan's rumbling voice through the sound of grating stone and her own racing pulse throbbing in her ears. She spoke back, her words nothing but half-human gibberish to those around her. But she knew these words.

"Is he safe?" She asked. But instead of Titan responding, she grew suddenly cold. Harsh wind blew and those around her started to shout in surprise but their voices vanished. The walls glowed white and blue, the light of the crystal growths reflecting off the ice and snow that suddenly built upon the walls. She hugged her arms, the pain easing in her head. She saw a blue-tinted hand reach down to her, linked to a familiar face.

"Gentiana?"

"Young Oracle," Shiva smiled at her. Lunafreya got to her feet, folding her arms in front of her. She could see her old friend's familiar features beneath the frost that coated her skin, and the wind that billowed her hair.

"Noctis?"

"Is safe." Shiva replied. "He has met with the crystal. And through it, has learned of the meaning of your trials."

"It is for us to purge our Star of the Blight." Lunafreya recited. Shiva nodded at her. And then, revealed the same truth that had been given to Noctis. She shook her head, her brow knit tightly together.

"But the line of Oracle goes back to time immemorial." Lunafreya argued, shaking her head and wringing her hands.

"For that, your blood was chosen by the Crystal." Shiva explained. "It felt the power that lived within you, and within the Chosen Prince." Shiva replied. Lunafreya shook her head. It couldn't be true. Her Star, the world her blood was pledged to heal, invaded from afar and poisoned. Chased upon with a harbinger of destiny. Her home invaded by metal until the syllablossum fields were stained in blood and fire. External agencies seeking to tear the land beneath her asunder. And the weight of all cast upon her. She wanted naught but to hear his voice, to live out her days with him. To know the comfort of walls that were her own. To have the only thing asked of her be simple coffee and toast.

Her head lolled back, tears burning her eyes as they froze to her eyelashes. She squinted to control the burn, pinched her lips together to contain the tightness in her throat. The wind began to die down and she flinched, shaking her head.

"No, wait." She croaked. "Please." She pleaded at the air. But the cold vanished, leaving her standing in the damp hall. A hand clamped her shoulder and she screamed, jolting back and then forward again when the sharp crystals reaching from the walls scratched her back. She wished Noctis were here to shatter them with his magic. For Crowe to burn them away. Or to call upon Gladiolus to swing his sword.

"Hey… Sparkles." Crowe said, with a tone that implied she had been trying to speak to her for some time. With a flush of shame, Lunafreya felt her breath hiccup as she tried to stop herself from crying. She sniffled, pressing the back of a hand under her nose and squinted once more. Her skin prickled the way it did when she was a kid when she would rush outside into the snow without her proper winter clothing, just to be chided by her mother when she complained about her hands and feet upon returning to the house .

"I'm well." She responded.

"You sure as shit aren't." Crowe barked back immediately.

"Gonna agree with her there." Aranea added. Lunafreya nodded at them, and saw no benefit in being cryptic. She told them of what Shiva had told her. Of what Noctis had been told by the Crystal. They all reacted as she expected them too. Countless curses, some dropping to the floor to sit and shake their heads. Gladiolus tried to punch the wall, but realized how stupid an idea this was a moment after he lacerated his hand open on the glass-thin edges of the crystal growths. Lunafreya was able to heal it easily enough, but the entire ordeal had left her feeling dizzy. They had no way of continuing through the hall. They had retreated back from where Noctis had begun to phase in order to have more breathing room, and fewer accidental cuts from the crystals.

"We have to go get him." Gladiolus broke the silence. "We can cut our way through the crystals. Or you can blow em up. Or Prompto can shoot them. Who gives a shit. We go get Noctis." No one argued or agreed with him, though they all moved back when he brought his greatsword to bear. He screamed, bringing it down hard. The collision with the crystalline material had everyone clap their hands over their ears. The sword slid off the crystal with a spray of sparks, leaving the glowing blue unscathed. He cursed again, lifted his sword, and tried again. And again. And again. He cursed with each blow, hammering the indestructible material until Ignis got to his feet and pulled on his shoulder.

"No!" Gladiolus argued, shaking his head.

"All you are going to accomplish is killing yourself!" Ignis shouted.

"So we just need to sit here?" He snapped back.

"Yes." Ignis said. Aranea, having watched the argument, came up and pressed a hand tightly against Ignis's shoulder, hoping to keep one of the two men level-headed. Gladiolus was a lost cause.

"Fuck." Gladiolus said eventually, his sword vanishing. He dropped himself where he was, more fidgety than Prompto was. Ignis sighed, shaking his head as he looked down the obscured hall wondering where Noctis was. Aranea gave another tug, and he let himself be enveloped in her arms where he could hide his worries.

Noctis warped back the way he came. The first hallway he had chosen was clearly not the same one he had come from. But with the continual phasing and warping to keep himself from becoming one with the walls his headache returned with a vengeance. He had drank another Ether, bemoaning how rare these were going to become and making a mental note to stop at the next gas station to spend what was left of their cash on more energy drinks. He felt slightly better with the curative coursing through his veins already. The logic of how something still sitting in his stomach could actually accomplish anything seemed broken. But he filed it away as a question to ask Ignis later, even though he was fairly certain he would forget.

He walked to the rail and looked down hoping to gain his bearings but failed. And when he turned around again, he almost felt dizzy as, for a moment, he forgot which hall he had just explored. He decided it was the one directly across from him, and wanted to find a way to mark it. He checked his pockets but found nothing of use. His stash of magic had been depleted, he had yet to visit any elemental rocks. He looked for loose rocks, anything, that he could use to scratch markings into the floor, without wandering too far from the hallway he decided was wrong door number one.

He eventually found a small rock that had been chipped away from the main wall, and a quick test showed that it would crumble a bit, but make a mark if scratched hard enough against the stone floor. He went up to the wrong hallway and scratched a line hard into the floor. Tucking the rock into his pocket he got up, and chose the hallway to the left of the first one.

He phased, warped, and in some places managed to walk a little with only a few scratches. But it didn't take long to figure out this hallway was a bust as well. He phased out, and scratched a two that more closely resembled a letter Z, and chose the hallway to the right of the first. It was wrong too, and marked with a three. He sat on the floor staring at the first hallway. There was nothing to easily discern each path from one another. And there were four more halls to try. But his magic was waning, and he needed a rest to recover without having to waste another ether. It made little sense to him. He hadn't wandered far after phasing down the hall of those sharp bastard fancy glass growths before he just dropped through the floor. He should have ended up right where he began when he came back up. Had he gotten himself turned around? In his haze did he move around the crystal as he swung at it? He cursed himself, dropping back against the ground. It was horribly uncomfortable, sporting the same frost-like growth of hardened crystal as further up the halls. He was sure his back would look like it had been scratched with a cheese grater if he so much as moved. But he was exhausted to his core. His mission, his friends, even Lunafreya, felt like a distant voice calling to him through the thick fog of exhaustion.

He managed to convince himself to sit up, scratched his irritated back, and got to his feet. He looked at halls one, two, and three. He could have sworn hall two was to the right of hall one. Or maybe it was on the left. He stopped trying to challenge his own memory and chose the second hall to the left to try. And return even more tired, scratching a four into the ground.

"I'm an idiot." He said to himself, and started to shout up the next empty hallway. Then up the other two. Silence answered him. He leaned against the wall and immediately withdrew. His hand began to bloom little beads of blood and he curled his fist, hugging the injured hand to himself. Beneath the pain he could feel… cold. His brow came together and carefully poked the wall with a free finger. This wall was significantly colder than the others. He tried to puzzle this out, if this was a clue that this was the right hallway. It didn't feel like Lunafreya's light. And Crowe liked to set things on fire not cool them off. He himself didn't have any blizzard vials that he could have dropped.

"Shiva?" He asked.

As though he invoked the voice of the wind itself the air felt almost as if it had lifted up underneath him as any warmth rushed away. His ears burned, and his limbs began to shiver. He curled in on himself as best he could without falling to the floor. The cold eased, and before him stood a thin woman with dark hair. Her age was hard to place, but it was a face he knew.

"Gentiana." He said, his breath fogging in front of his face. "Help." He croaked.

"For the heart of the Oracle I shall ease your burden." She replied. She approached him and his first instinct was to pull away. He could hear the booming voices in the ancient tongue echo in his memory, flinching away from her voice as though it would carry the same weight. But it didn't hurt to listen to. Her hand came down on his shoulder and he expected it to be cold. But instead, he felt some of the ache in his body ease and some of the fatigue lift. It wasn't the same warmth that would fill his every nerve like Lunafreya's light. This was more akin to applying a cold pack to an injury.

"Which hallway is right." He asked. His teeth had stopped chattering as the temperature came closer to normal. Gentiana smiled and pointed behind her. He tried to contain his relieved laugh and nodded at her. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to behave. He had covenants with Astrals, but Gentiana's smile left him feeling naked.

"It is time I join you." She said. He was confused, his brow together. A covenant?

"But Luna?"

"It is time now I forge my covenant with the Chosen." He had expected a test. Some battle. To have to fight her in some blizzard while Crowe kept his blood from turning to ice by setting him on fire. Or to involve more flowery speeches from Lunafreya.

"I..." He started, then stopped, unable to think what the hell he wanted to say. She reached out and pressed a hand to his cheek.

"I understand." She said. And was gone. He looked down at the marking on the floor but couldn't see it through the layer of frost. He reached out with his foot to rub it away, but decided against it. He moved to phase through the crystal growths and screamed, jolting back, when they began to retract into the wall. He stared, waving a hand in empty space expecting to be lanced again. He sucked in a breath, checking on his injured hand before curling it back up again. He took a deep breath, stepped forward, and the sense of wrong followed him until he caught up to the rest of his friends.