Day 4:

Ravus paced.

The rooms that he had been given as part of the diplomatic attache were still his, though the guest wing of the Citadel now contained only himself, Lunafreya, and the chancellor. As High Commander, he had been afforded enough space and luxury to be comfortable. Enough room to pace. Would they have given him the same now?

"You must see the sense in what I say." Lunafreya was sitting on the chaise lounge by the balcony doors. She sat stock-straight with her hands in her lap. A few strands of her hair had come loose and hung unkempt around her face. A tiny indication of the distress she felt.

"Lucis—all of Eos—is in danger by this man. If nothing is done, darkness will fall and we will not be able to hold it back," she said.

He swept past her, reached the far wall, spun on his heel, and walked rapidly back in the opposite direction. What he needed to do was ensure her safety. Two weeks ago he had held one of the highest positions in Niflheim's military. Now the emperor and the general were dead, and Ravus had personally destroyed half their Magitek army and the entire invading force.

It had seemed the best way to keep Lunafreya safe. Reina had Dreamed that if he remained with the empire, only catastrophe would ensue. But what happened now that Lucis held all the power?

"Ravus, please, listen to me."

"No. You listen to me, dear sister." He stopped abruptly mid step and turned to face her. "That this man calling himself Ardyn Izunia is evil and should be destroyed goes without saying. But you have not grasped the situation. The power dynamic of Eos had shifted. Whereas one week ago you were a princess slated for a political marriage and protected by my status, we are now one step above prisoners of war. The empire has fallen, or so nearly that it makes no difference. Those who held dubious allegiances in the first place have already fled. It is only a matter of time before we are forced to choose a new side or be branded as the enemy."

"Noctis would not allow that to happen," she said.

"Don't be asinine. Your fairytale prince has turned his back on you. You have defamed his sister and that he will not stand for."

"He's conflicted, but he will make the right choice, in the end."

Ravus clenched his jaw until his whole head ached. He opened and closed his fists, fighting the urge to shake some sense into her.

"The Astrals no longer rule Lucis. The King of Light does not rule Lucis. Not even that—" He hesitated. During Daemonfire Night—as the locals had named it—King Regis had shown himself to be slightly less useless than Ravus had always believed. He amended his word choice. "Not even King Regis rules Lucis. It does not matter who sits the throne or wears the crown. It does not matter what the Gods have decreed. Reina holds the power. Everyone else has been reduced to a figurehead: a puppet whose strings she pulls. And you will never change her mind."

It was a sort of poetic justice. The little girl who had gone ignored in Tenebrae now pulled strings in a web that stretched across all of Eos.

"She is hardly capable of ruling herself," Lunafreya said. "Whatever nightmares plagued her sleep before this occurred, they have left her a broken woman. You saw the same as I upstairs."

Here she had a point. It was difficult to reconcile the woman he had danced with five nights ago with the one they had left upstairs, incapable of telling a story for the pain it caused her.

But was he so different? It was simpler to hide away beneath a hardened exterior when no one spoke of the past.

"Unsettled memories does not imply incompetence. She has all but single-handedly destroyed Niflheim. She holds the power of foresight. If you make an enemy of her, nowhere on Eos will be safe for you. Whatever fool notions you have, abandon them now. Mark my words, dear sister. Reina's wishes will become law."

"But I can change Noctis' mind," Luna said. "And together we could stand against his sister."

"Do these words cross your mind at all before they exit your mouth? You have as much chance of convincing Noctis to kill Reina as Reina has of convincing me to kill you."

"But you would stand against me, if you thought it was for my own good."

Ravus' fists tightened at his sides. "I will do whatever it takes to protect you."

"Why is it so unreasonable that Noctis would do the same?"

"Because your salvation spells her death."

And neither Noctis nor Ravus would ever let that come to pass.

Lunafreya fell silent.

"Or is there some plan you have concocted where she survives?" He pressed.

"No." Lunafreya said quietly.

"No," Ravus agreed. "Precisely how do you imagine this happens, dear sister? You join with the Astrals, smite the unholy, and—after you have destroyed his twin utterly—Noctis comes running to your arms?"

She dropped her gaze. It was unlike her to not think ahead. Perhaps all her foresight had been little more than the parroting of the Astrals' whims. Now that the Caelums had taken a sharp left off the highway, she had no more road to follow. No notion of what to do.

"For once in your life, you shall have to choose," Ravus said. "Who will you stand with? The Chosen King? The boy you've been pining after for twelve long years? Or the Astrals, as Mother taught you?"

Whatever it was that lurked behind Reina's haunted eyes, it was not in harmony with the Astrals. If Lunafreya's words were to be believed, Reina had admitted herself that she wished them all dead. And Ravus had heard her accusation along with everyone else upstairs. If the Astrals had truly created the Starscourge plague, could he blame her for that wish?

"That choice is impossible…" Luna's voice quivered. With a start he realized she was crying.

Ravus sighed, dropping to his knees in front of her and taking her hands. "It is time you learned that not every choice is straightforward and simple. Everything you hold sacred, everything you believe in, can be ripped from your hands before your very eyes. Make the impossible choice: your duty to your king, or your duty to the Gods."

"And if I should choose to stand against Reina?" She asked.

Ravus fixed her with a blank stare.

"The looks you cast her have not gone unnoticed by me," Luna said. "Nor, I think, by many others."

"That is none of your business." He jerked away from her, rising to his feet and moving toward the door.

"It is if you choose to stand against me!" Her perfect princess' composure slipped and fell.

He jerked the door open and stormed out before any more of his own control abandoned him.