Day 48:

:Two millennia of cultivation. Here it began. Here it shall end. Reina Lucis Caelum. Thou hast become the bane of thy bloodline. Thou hast brought about the end of all that thou held dear. A choice was laid before thee; thou hast chosen to break the covenant thy ancestors have held to for one hundred thirteen generations. Thou hast risked everything on this venture. And thou hast failed.:

"You have beaten Ardyn's pet. Nothing more." Reina drew herself up, for all the good it did. Ardyn dwarfed her and Bahamut towered dozens of feet over both of them. "You have not won yet."

Once before she had laid down her life for Lucis so that all those left in the world that she loved could live freely. She would do it again, if it came to that.

:The final score hast not yet been tallied, but thou cannot defeat me. At this very moment, my brethren stand against thine. Believest thou that thine might emerge triumphant? The Chosen King, a mere child yet. The Father, a man well past his prime, all effort thou made for him notwithstanding. The brother of the Oracle, possessed of the Oracle's blood but with no power of his own. Truly, thou believest they shall defeat my kin?:

Reina's hands twisted on the staff of her naginata. Images flashed before her eyes. Father, lifeless on the tile floor beneath the Citadel with Drautos standing over him, laughing. Noctis, pinned to the throne with Father's sword and crimson stains still wet on his shirt. Ravus, consumed by corruption and begging freedom of them.

That hadn't happened. None of that had ever happened.

"They are not alone," Reina said.

:Mortals. Thou hast left mere men to protect what thou holdest dear. One a child, younger even than thy brother. One an aging man too foolish to admit his peak is past. One a man more suited to the life of a servant than a soldier with little true combat experience. Thou art confident that these mortals, which thou lovest so dearly, shall match the might of ancients who have seen the rise and fall of mankind?:

Iris. Cor. Ignis. Had she left them all to die? Fighting imperials and Messengers was one thing, but standing against the Astrals was another altogether. They had no magic. They had so little experience in this lifetime—all save Cor. And perhaps Bahamut was right. By the end of the ten year night, his hair and beard had paled with grey. Even now he was declining. Noctis and the others had fought and defeated Astrals in her Dream, but that had been after they had all spent months trudging through mud and beasts, fighting daemons in the darkness. But this was 756. Their amassed combat experience could be boiled down to wooden swords and whatever action they had seen on Daemonfire Night.

:Thou art the only one that might have saved them. Yet here thou standest. Thou hast turned thy back on thy kin. Thou hast doomed them, just as thou hast doomed this world by breaking the covenant.:

She shouldn't have let them split off to different corners of Eos to go to their death. She could have kept them together and brought them all here—to hell with the rest of Eos and what damage Titan, Ramuh, and Leviathan would inflict—so that she would know they were safe. Or else she should have stayed behind. If death was all the future held, at least she would be with them until the end.

Ardyn stepped in front of her.

"Little Dreamer, you disappoint me." He leaned forward with a theatrical pout on his face so that they were nose to nose. "Did all those years alone with me teach you nothing about manipulation?"

She blinked, tearing her eyes from Bahamut and her mind from darker things altogether. She focused on Ardyn.

Manipulation?

For years he had toyed with her. At first it had been just a game but, somewhere along, the idea had occurred to him to steer her instead. Though she had prided herself in recognizing his suggestions for what they were—games of the mind meant to twist her and turn her to his perspective—she had still followed along. Six years she had spent with no one but Ardyn and her father's spirit for company. She had thought she had woken knowing everything there was to know of mind games. She could twist Ardyn as well as he could twist her—and she had.

But when she heard Bahamut's whispers in her mind, when he haunted her Dreamless Dreams, it had never occurred to her that he was doing precisely the same thing.

She was weak; she was incompetent; she was fearful. She was a fallen hero, meant to be dead but awoken as a haunted child instead. She couldn't see what was in front of her for the memories of times never past that dogged her. She would fall. Just as she had fallen in her Dream. They would leave her. They would fear her. And in the end she would be left as a shadow in a well-lit world.

All those things she had taken as simple truths. For all that she despised him, Bahamut's sight penetrated everything on Eos. Why would he fabricate stories when he could simply reveal the terrible truth?

Because the truth was not terrible. Because even after all those weeks of wondering why they still stood by her, why they didn't run, why they didn't fear her, none of Bahamut's fear mongering had come to pass. They chased after her. They faced every danger she tried to protect them from and still they emerged victorious. They were stronger than she gave them credit for. And they were stronger when they stood together. When they stood with her.

Even apart as they were, she was not isolated from them. Here were the strands of magic that tied them together: the bonds through which she shared magic with Noctis and Father. The line that bound her to Iris as she shared borrowed magic with her. And here were the secondary tributaries, where Cor borrowed from Father and Ignis from Noctis. They were all here. They were all alive. They were all fighting to preserve what they loved. And they were all counting on her to stand without looking back or everything they fought for would be wasted.

Reina looked up and past Ardyn's face. Behind him, Bahamut stood statue-still, waiting for his words to disarm her so he would not have to face the one person on Eos who still posed a threat to him.

"My friends will do what they must," she said. "And so will I."

Ardyn flashed a smile she might once have called haunting. He straightened and stood beside her rather than before her.

:Then thou wilt die for it. As will they.:

She felt the slice of his blade, though his corporeal body never moved. His sharpened power cut through her magic instead. Just as he had severed her natural bonds to Caelum magic when she was still but a child, so did he do again—this time he cut those borrowed bonds she had forged herself. Her connection to Noctis faded away. She could no longer feel Father. What magic she had loaned to Iris snapped and vanished. Without those lines, she could no longer feel Cor and Ignis. Without those lines she had no notion if they lived still.

:Thy knowledge is severed. Thy kin shall fall, and thou shalt know nothing of it.:

All she had was her faith. In Cor's skill, in Father's power, in Iris' energy, in Ignis' loyalty, in Noctis' persistence. They stood for her. So she would stand for them.

"You can't frighten me away," Reina said. "Not this time."

She reached out and pulled the Armiger from the In Between. Those were hers. Those he could not cut away. Ten spectral glaives lit in violet leapt into existence around her. The power of the kings of Lucis surged through her, lifting her up until her feet left the ground.

"You have stolen from me only my security. Not my power." He couldn't take the Armiger. He couldn't take the ring or the magic the Lucii had granted her through it. "For weeks you have haunted me, turning my fears and insecurities against me and still you fear me. I have only one more thing to say to you before I cut your eyes out." She rose up, weightless and held aloft by the power of the Lucii until she was on a level with Bahamut. "You haven't even begun to fear me enough."