Day 42

The door to his study flew open without so much as a warning knock.

Clarus strode in, looking properly harried. "Regis. My daughter is missing."

"Missing?" Regis rose.

"I saw her yesterday morning when I left, but have just received word that she is not at home and her bed has not been slept in. Gladiolus is as much at a loss as I am."

He stared at Regis and Regis at him: a father whose daughter was gone without a trace. It was an altogether too-familiar feeling. At least Regis' had left a note. Those two events, however, were unlikely to be independent from each other.

"If she disappeared yesterday then I suspect she has gone after Reina," Regis said.

"How? She has no notion of where Princess Reina went and no way to reach her even if she did."

"That I do not have an answer for," Regis said. "Though we do not know for certain that she has no information on Reina's whereabouts."

More concerning was the fact that, when Regis had spoken to Reina the night before, she had mentioned being accompanied by Ardyn and Cor but no one else. Was it possible that Iris had gone after them but not found them?

"Her phone?" Regis asked.

"Dead," Clarus said. "Or else without reception. Any call goes directly to voicemail."

Unsurprising, if she was outside the Crown City. Companies had been largely isolated from the Outlands by the Wall and the closed gates. When none of their customers ever left Insomnia, cellular companies had no reason to erect towers outside Cavaugh. Reina's phone was the exception, not the rule. There was but one company that covered both the Crown City and the Outlands, which provided the Kingsglaive with clear communications when they left the Crown City. Before their departure, Noctis and Reina had both received phones on that network for much the same reason.

Regis slipped his phone from his pocket and tapped Reina's number. She had been atop the Rock of Ravatogh last night. He had no guarantee her phone would still hold a charge.

It rang. Reina answered after the second.

"Father. Is everything alright?"

"Perhaps. Do you know the whereabouts of Iris?"

"She's sitting right next to me."

Regis gave Clarus a curt nod. He exhaled, seeming to deflate in his relief.

"Will you pass her the phone, my dear? I believe Clarus would like a word." Regis offered his to Clarus.

He listened to one side of a worried conversation. The conclusion, he gathered from Clarus' words and the look on his face, was that Iris had no intention of returning to Insomnia until Reina did so.

Clarus hung up the phone and slammed it on Regis' desk.

"Like father, like daughter," Regis said.

"Don't you dare start with me."

Only decades of diplomatic experience kept Regis' face straight. He met Clarus' gaze levelly.

"I should send Gladiolus after her. Or follow after myself," Clarus said.

"Did she give any indication of where they were going?"

Clarus looked sharply at him, then turned away. "No."

"Ah."

"Oh, shut up. You don't have to be so smug about it," Clarus said.

"I have said very nearly nothing at all."

"No, but you're thinking it loudly."