Day 4:

It was uncommon enough for Ignis to have visitors to his rooms, let alone so late in the evening. This was, however, an uncommon night to begin with.

"Noctis." Ignis stepped aside and waved him in. "You look as if you could use a drink. I regret I have none to offer."

"Telling me you don't need one?"

"I'm certain I did not say that."

Noctis dropped into the one chair in the room, so Ignis perched on the edge of his bed, arms crossed over his chest.

"What the hell happened to her, Specs?"

"I wish I had an answer." It felt as if he should have. She had obviously experienced a future that included him. Somehow that knowledge made it feel as if he should have memories of those same ten years. Blessings be that he did not have any such recollections. Whatever had happened within her Dream had not been pleasant.

"I thought it was bad when she said she'd seen Dad die… and Luna and Ravus… and that whole thing with you and the Ring of the Lucii. But she just glossed over all that like it was nothing. Whatever made her crack was so bad it was worse than Dad dying."

"Or less familiar," Ignis said. "She had ten years to come to terms with those events. Whatever happened after must have been more fresh in her memory."

Noct shook his head. "No way she ever accepted Dad's death."

"This is all mere conjecture, in any case." Ignis sighed and shook his head.

"And what about you?"

Ignis looked up. "What about me?"

"She said she loved you, right?"

"She did suggest, on the way back to Insomnia, that there had once been something between us." As if he hadn't spent all the time since thinking about it. As if he didn't play those words through his head every waking minute. "Details are scarce, however, and we are missing a part of this story. Whatever happened after caused her to look at me as if I had personally removed her heart."

"Yeah, well…" Noct ran his fingers through his hair, picked up a paper off Ignis' desk, glanced it over, and dropped it again. "You still like her?"

Ignis cleared his throat, averted his gaze. He had been rather transparent in the events following Reina's Dream, hadn't he? Not that they had truly discussed matters before now.

"I do," he said.

"For how long?"

Ignis glanced at him, then away. "Long enough."

"Not really an answer, but okay." Noctis stretched out in the chair, tilted his head back, and stared up at the ceiling. "What do you think about what Luna and Dad said?"

"About Adagium? I have encountered such tales in my studies, but was given no reason to believe them anything more than that. Adagium seems to have been a sort of royal family Bogeyman: the threat one feeds to princes and princesses when they will not behave."

"Yeah. Well. Thanks for not trying that one on us."

"Quite," Ignis said. "I saw no need for such things. In any case, this man who calls himself Ardyn has not denied any of Lunafreya's accusations. At least not in any direct fashion. He implied there were lies woven with the truth, but was not surprised to be called Adagium, nor to be branded as the soul of the Starscourge."

"Do you think… it sounds crazy, but do you think there's any way Luna could be right? That he could have corrupted Reina or something?"

"I have no notion what that would even entail," Ignis said. "I suspect the answer is hidden away in the story she cannot bring herself to tell. Yet I cannot believe she would ever turn her back on the people she loves. Indeed, we have already seen evidence of that. Whatever else she has become, she is still on our side. Whatever side that may be."

"What do you mean?"

"Light and darkness has been blurred in her. I believe that everything she does will be in the best interests of you and the king. But I also believe her understanding of best interests could well be different than Lunafreya's understanding of best interests."

"Right…" Noctis wiggled his foot, tapping it against the side of Ignis' desk. "Well I trust Rei over Luna."

"As do I."

"But I'd rather she didn't spend any more time with that creep," Noctis said.

"Indeed. While Ardyn's true nature remains unknown to us, it is difficult to paint him as anything other than antagonistic."

"So we'll keep him the hell away from her. Maybe kick him out of Lucis. Niflheim can have him."

"I quite agree."

"But what do we do for her?"

"Beyond keeping this man from her, I suspect there is very little we can do." Ignis paused and for a time they both stared at their own feet. A thought snaked into Ignis' mind. "Why did Her Highness stop playing the violin?"

"What? Cause of Dad," Noct said.

"I'm afraid I don't follow."

"Well she stopped doing those recitals way back because Dad never came. She kept playing, though. I guess she stopped for good after that whole thing with the MT in Dad's room because she stopped pretty much everything that wasn't related to taking care of him after that."

"I see," Ignis said. "She still has the violin, doubtless."

"Yeah, somewhere I guess. In the room she never sleeps in. Why are we talking about Rei's violin?"

"I wonder if she could not be persuaded to pick it up again. I suspect it may help."

"Okay, but she's gonna need more than a violin, right? No way you didn't see that."

"I would concur. However, she has only just awoken from what was apparently a highly traumatic experience."

"She woke up like a week ago and didn't have any of these problems."

"Yes…" Ignis braced his hands on his bed behind him. "It was as if she did not allow herself to truly think about what had happened until Insomnia was safe. This is mere conjecture, but I suspect she was driven on by something not unlike a fight-or-flight response and simple adrenaline. That she has progressed beyond that is, whatever else it may appear, a positive sign."

"Right." Noct sounded unconvinced. And with good reason. It was difficult to witness what had happened upstairs tonight and believe that was progress. "Gotta get worse before you get better, huh?"

"Something to that effect," Ignis said. "She has begun to feel the shock and face the trauma of all that occurred. All we can do is stand by and support her however we are able."

The rest went unsaid: that no matter how often they were present, no matter how heartily they supported her, she would never be the same young woman she had once been. Much as Noctis had never again been the same boy he was before the marilith attacked.