Each shadow they passed—even the commonplace ones—seemed to reach out for them. The trek to the king's chamber was too long. No light showed beneath His Majesty's door; when Noctis pounded, no response came. Not even the sound of motion.
"Dad? Rei?!" Noct pushed the door open.
Gladio grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backward, shooting him a warning look. "Don't go charging in first."
Before Noctis could object, Gladio pushed through the door and into the king's rooms. The rest of them followed after.
The wall opposite the entrance—all glass with floor-to-ceiling windows—let in enough city light to see by. Inside the heavy double doors was His Majesty's private lounge; a pair of wingback leather armchairs flanked a coffee table in front of a large stone fireplace. To the right, the wall was covered by bookshelves neatly filled with tomes, framed pictures, and trinkets: a clay plaque with two tiny hand prints on either side of one large one; a photograph of the royal family standing in front of the Citadel, framed in silver; a timeworn needlepoint of a black cat and a basket of flowers.
Gladio looked back at Noctis. The sitting room had two doors leading out—aside from the one to the hall—one on either side. Noctis jerked his head toward the right door. Gladio lead, followed by Ignis, then Noct and Lunafreya, with Prompto bringing up the rear.
They crept through the door to the right and found themselves in His Majesty's bedchamber. Again, the outside wall was made entirely of glass, giving a breath-taking view of the city outside and casting the room in the glow of city lights. This room was smaller than the lounge—half the size and containing a grandfather clock, an armoire, and two end tables on either side of a bed—slept in, but very much empty.
Again, Gladio looked to Noct. Noctis shook his head.
"Dad?!" He called. "Rei!?"
Only his echo responded.
"Noct." Ignis stepped forward. "It may be necessary to get out of Insomnia. If the imperials—"
"No way," Noctis said. "I'm not just leaving them. We can still help."
Ignis pursed his lips. They had no way of knowing where His Majesty and Reina were—nor in what state they would find them, even if they could.
"Don't be an idiot," Gladio said. "Look, I don't want to be the first one to say it, but we're all thinking it—"
"Don't," said Noct.
Gladio ignored him. "His Majesty is probably dead."
"Don't fucking say that!"
"The Wall is gone, Noct." Gladio gestured to the window. "He wouldn't just drop it."
"He might if he had to!" Noct was nearly ten inches shorter than Gladio, but he drew as close to face-to-face as he could.
"Oh yeah? Like for what?"
"I don't know! But I'm going to find out and you can come or not!"
"Noctis…" Luna didn't need to raise her voice to be heard; she spoke and they listened. "Your sister is absent, as well."
"Nuh uh. No way. No fucking way she did this," Noct said.
"I only mention the possibility. I know that she is your sister, but her loyalties do not lie with us," Lunafreya said.
"Preposterous," Ignis said, before he could stop himself. "Where else would they lie?"
Reina? Reina, pull down the Wall and set daemons loose on Insomnia? Absurd. She was here to save the city, not destroy it. What on Eos was Luna thinking? What possessed her to make such an insinuation?
Lunafreya met his accusatory gaze levelly. "With the man whom she danced with tonight. With a man so twisted by hate that he has become the embodiment of all that is wrong in our world. Ardyn Izunia."
This was making less sense by the second. He couldn't even begin to process half of what she said—the embodiment of all that was wrong in the world?—but he knew Reina would never throw her lot in with an imperial.
Noct grabbed his arm before Ignis could mount an argument.
"Look, I know you're trying to help, but there's no way I can believe what you're saying," Noct said to Luna. "Definitely not without talking to Rei. So we're going to find her."
"Noct—Iggy—look!" Prompto pointed to the window.
Outside, they could see the other towers of the Citadel and the eerily dark center, where the Wall usually stemmed from. Except it wasn't dark anymore.
Light burst from the heart of the Citadel. Before their eyes, a violet beam shot toward the sky and split in a million directions. Ignis pushed forward toward the window. Overhead, light stretched and expanded, growing into interconnecting disks of magic, which formed the beginnings of a new barrier. A new Wall.
It wasn't something he had ever expected to witness. Indeed, it wasn't something he had ever wanted to witness, but now that they were here, it was breathtaking. The magic of the Wall shimmered like light diffracting through crystal. As he watched, it took over the entire sky and reached toward the edges of the city, covering up the too-dark night beneath a dome of magnificent color.
"See?! I told you; he's alive!" Noctis said. "Now let's go."
"King Regis would need to be near to the crystal to call such magic," Lunafreya said. "We should make our way there."
This time when Noctis led the way, no one objected.