Day 45

The warm silence that followed was broken by the crackle of a Crownsguard radio.

Lady Lunafreya is requesting an audience with King Regis and Prince Noctis. It was Gladiolus' voice.

Noctis straightened immediately. Regis released him, though he dragged his hand down Noctis' arm and squeezed before letting him go. Reina remained where she was. With his other arm relinquished, Regis was free to hold her with both.

"Send her up, I guess," Noctis shrugged.

His order was relayed. Reina's retinue shifted, exchanging looks.

"You may remain," Regis said. He dropped his gaze to Reina, who leaned still against his chest. "Come my dear, let us be seated."

Once everyone was settled, it took some few minutes for Lunafreya to arrive with her escort—Gladiolus and Prompto. She stepped from the elevator, a phone clutched in her hand, and her eyes swept the assembled company. They lingered a moment longer on Reina. Nevertheless, she bowed and approached, despite the uncertainty in her step.

"Your Majesty. Your Highnesses. My brother has requested to speak with you." She held her phone out.

Regis motioned that she set the phone down; she tapped the screen twice and laid it face-up on the coffee table.

"Ravus?" She said. "Can you hear me?"

"Quite clearly." Ravus' voice took on a tinny quality. Nevertheless, that perpetual note of disdain was still evident.

"You are before the royal family," she said.

"And retinues," Noctis added.

Regis sat forward in his seat to speak at the phone. "What have you found out?"

"I have news regarding the chancellor. The man who calls himself Ardyn Izunia."

At his words, all eyes moved toward Ardyn, who lounged sideways across an armchair. He smiled. "Who, little old me? Shame on you, Flower. If you had wanted my life's story, I would have been pleased to give it to you."

"So. You are present as well. No matter. You may find it difficult to slither out of the net Niflheim has woven."

"Oh, by all means, weave away, Flower."

An audible sigh issued from the phone. It took a moment for Ravus to push aside his displeasure and continue with the debriefing.

"The files were not so readily available as I had hoped, thus my delayed report. Having seen the contents, I have no doubts as to why they were kept quietly locked away. It would appear that some of my sister's words, at least, ring true. In 721, while Niflheim was plundering Lucian royal tombs, a book was unearthed, which told tale of Adagium. Though I doubt that name was used, it spoke of a creature of utter darkness interred on Angelgard, and a duty of the line of Lucis to guard that prison. I gather this duty has not passed down to the modern generation."

"Not as such," Regis said. "If ever there was a creature imprisoned on Angelgard, that knowledge was never passed to me."

"Perhaps due to this: Not long after recovering this tome, Verstael sent men to plunder Angelgard. There they discovered a prison, sealed in darkness, and within it a daemon with the body of a man, long since driven mad by solitude and Starscrouge.

"They recovered this daemon for Niflheim. At the height of Verstael's curiosity into the daemonic, it was an opportunity he could not resist. In the months that followed, tests and experiments were performed. The peculiar nature of this daemon's power is documented in some capacity, though Verstael admits he doubted the research was comprehensive.

"Eventually his notes become less clinical and he comes to regard the daemon as less an experiment and more a person. Having known Besithia myself, I doubt this was due to any misplaced sense of empathy. Rather, I suspect that the daemon was possessed of masterful powers of manipulation. So much so, that he eventually talked his way out of a lab and into Emperor Aldercapt's inner court.

"The remainder of this story, I suspect, you can guess."

Noctis looked up at Regis, horrified, dumbfounded. Regis' face must have looked similar. Impossible. Utterly impossible. This had happened all during his father's reign, but Regis had been old enough that he would have recognized discord in his father's court. Yet nothing came to mind during the years Ravus had mentioned.

"Wait. Let me get this straight. The daemon they pulled out of Angelgard was Ardyn?" Noctis asked.

"That is the name he gave himself. Where it comes from, I have no notion. Nor is there any record on it. Perhaps he has an answer, himself."

Ardyn's smile had not wavered. "Why, it is my name, of course. Even daemons have mothers."

His lack of objection to Ravus' tale was disturbing, but no more than the look of quiet acceptance on Reina's face. None of this was new to her.

"As I have said," Lunafreya said, after an extended silence, "Adagium is real."

"So the documents seem to imply."

"What is Adagium?" Noctis asked.

"Darkness," Regis said. "Legend tells of the Founder King—Somnus Lucis Caelum, often called The Mystic—summoning an arsenal of spectral glaives and pushing back the darkness. As a reward, the Astrals granted him the crystal. In this tale, it was his battle with Adagium, a great and powerful daemon, that won him this reward. Adagium was locked away, though some stories claim his influence stretched beyond his prison and could be felt in the Starscourge still running rampant in our lands."

Ardyn sat up, putting his feet on the ground and leaning forward to level a ceaseless gaze at Regis. "That is a lie. Though I should expect no better from the Caelums."

Regis met his gaze, though the hairs on the back of his neck and down his spine stood on end. "Perhaps you would care to set the story straight."

Ardyn sat back in his chair, folding his hands. "Whyever would you believe me? I am, after all, Adagium."

"So you admit the truth of these reports," Ravus said.

"Verstael was meticulous. His written word is as accurate as can be expected from a madman," Ardyn said.

"That's rich, coming from you," Noctis said.

Ardyn spread his hands. "As they say: it takes one to know one."

Silence fell. Lunafreya was still standing across the coffee table, arms crossed and studying Noctis. Prompto and Gladiolus stared at Ardyn with distrust. Cor stared at his hands. Iris watched Ardyn, but it was curiosity on her face rather than dislike. Ignis looked at Reina, but Reina looked at no one.

She was the only one among them likely to put these matters straight.

"Reina, my dear." Regis called her attention gently. A second passed before she looked up. "Loath as I am to ask you to recount any of your Dream, I fear we must have these matters laid clearly before us. Will you not tell us what you know of this man?"

Reina looked from him to Ardyn, who held her gaze.

"Everything," she said. "I know everything of him."

She finally broke her eyes from his and looked to Regis. "Very well," she said with effort, "I will tell the story, as well as I am able."