Pardon my long abscene. My toddler is getting bigger and more adventurous and wants a lot more mama time so my free time is limited and like the crazy person I am I have been working a lot of extra hours at work.


Human. The daemon was somehow a human. Lunafreya had seen the blight at varying stages of infection. Had seen what it could do to a body. How a person would suffer. But she had never seen someone survive the infection long enough for such mutation to take place. She could recall swollen limbs, open sores, and necrotic extremities. The victims hardly looked human.

"Luna?" Noctis asked, causing her to flinch. She stood up and looked at him, feeling heat in her chest and she swallowed hard to keep the acid from rising up further in her throat.

"Does he have any ID?" Gladiolus interrupted.

"You think it has a wallet shoved up its ass from the last human it ate?" Crowe asked.

"Look at his damn boots! Those are standard-issue Insomnian soldier uniform boots!"Gladiolus barked, and jerked his hand down to point at his own feet.

"Insomnian soldiers are out here turning into daemons?" Crowe asked.

"You remember when the whole city turned into fire?" Gladiuolus asked her back. She pressed her lips together and stepped closer to him.

"He should have been in that fire helping the people!" She snapped back.

"Maybe that's how this unlucky bastard got infected! And what about you? Weren't you some magical prodigy? Why weren't you with our King?!"

"I was sent to warn his son the Prince if you recall!"

"Oh the damn cookie recipe?"

"You shut the fuck up!"

"Maybe he did get citizens out and got infected protecting them!"

"This far away from the city?! Be real. With that precious wall up around the city the soldiers didn't do a lick of work. The hardest part of being an Insomnian enlisted was boot camp! Of course he'd fuckin' run at the first sign of trouble!" Crowe shouted. Gladiolus reached out and grabbed her by the front of her shirt, knuckles flushed white.

"Do not talk about my fallen brothers like that." He said. He dropped the front of her shirt and let out a hard breath of air and pushed past her to kneel beside the daemon corpse. "Look for ID."

"Gladio?" Prompto asked.

"Look for ID!" He snapped. Gladiolus looked for dog-tags. Whether imbedded in flesh, tucked into a pocket, under a steaming limb.

"Here." Lunafreya whispered, cleared her throat and repeated herself, pointing to a rounded square of metal sticking out from below the collarbone. Gladiolus reached and tried to pinch the tag and tugged, but it stayed stuck. He flexed his fingers at his side debating his sword but managed to keep his thoughts straight.

"Ignis. Dagger." He jerked his arm out and flexed his fingers. Lunafreya leaned back, exchanging a quick glance with Ignis before he reached with his hand to pull his daggers out, flipping it in his hand to offer the hilt to Gladiolus. He turned quick and pushed the dagger into the thick flesh of the daemon's chest, curling his lip at the odor that caused Lunafreya to gag and back away, and made his own face curl. He wiggled the blade until he felt like he was under the tag, and worked at the flesh and the tag until he freed it in a spray of wet matter.

"Who is it?" Prompto asked, crossing his arms and tapping his palm against his arm.

"Tarda Cog."

"You know him?" Noctis asked after several seconds of silence. Gladiolus curled his fingers around the tag and shoved his hand deep into his pocket.

"Yeah." Gladiolus answered and held out Ignis's dagger. "She was a tough bastard. Managed to break one of my ribs once with a training sword. And could drink most recruits under the table. I figured she helped people get out of Insomnia... I'm getting a drink."

"Takka's been closed for hours." Prompto explained.

"I'm getting a drink." He repeated.

"Well shouldn't we bury her or something?" Crowe suggested.

"You got a spade big enough to bury a grand piano?" Gladiolus snapped.

"Fire?" Crowe suggested, spreading her arms. Gladiolus's gaze dropped away from her and towards the corpse on the ground. He nodded at her and looked at Noctis.

"Think you guys can muster enough?" He asked.

"Yeah." Noctis nodded. He grunted and got to his feet, holding out a hand to help Lunafreya stand as well.

"Don't we need wood for a pyre?" Prompto asked.

"Man she'd laugh if she knew she'd get a viking funeral straight out of her favorite movie. She'd fucking love it. So we'll figure something out. Can't just leave her here." Gladiolus gestured down at the daemon. Neither Crowe nor Noctis dared voice their concern over the ability to burn the body to ash. The best they could manage was to grab lighter fluid from the small shop at the corner of the garage, and douse the body. They gathered around, the air pungent with the scent of butane.

"Should... we say some words?" Prompto asked. He looked first to Gladiolus, the only one who had known the human the misshapen mass once was, but the man was staring at the corpse, and then turned his attention to Lunafreya.

"I will speak." She nodded at him. Gladiolus refused to look at her, nor did he try to stop her. She had spoken over many fallen. Prayed over hospital beds, homes, and mass graves. She blinked away images of necrotic bodies and piles of corpses in a trench with no discernable features. She took a slow breath, letting it out in one long exhale. The familiar prayer was in her mind, but the words felt bitter and false. By the Six we are given life. And to the Six we give our lives. She forsook the prayer, wondering how she could owe anything to the sleeping divines.

"To Eos we return our sister. Whose body shall become one with the soil and bear further life to our Star." She started. The others bowed their heads to her prayer as she continued to recite. "Find rest now." She finished. The prayer felt short and inadequate. She searched her mind for something that she could add. But she did not want to pray to the Six to bear their soul to the next world. To the very spirits she was paying a blood toll to wake to get them to fight the very blight that took this fallen soldier's life. She felt a sudden chill, goosebumps rolling down her arms. SHe frowned for a moment She stepped back next to Noctis and looked up at him and nodded.

Noctis exchanged a look with Crowe and together they summoned their fire magic and ignited the body. The lighter fluid ignited immediately in a flash of heat so intense it forced everyone to step back away. Lunafreya rubbed uncomfortably at the contrast of the heat against her chilled limbs. The fluid burned with a distinct burnt-metal smell. The leather boot burned, and the foul smell of burning flesh quickly overpowered the chemical scent and they stepped back further.

Gladiolus was the only one who hadn't moved and Noctis walked over to him, reaching to place a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey man, you okay?"

"Yeah." He answered. Noctis dropped his arm and stared into the fire.

"How close were you?"

"Only met her a few times. Smart girl. Smarter fist." Gladiolus answered. Noctis nodded, trying to search his mind for how to comfort his friend. He tried to think if he had ever met a woman named Tarda but came up empty.

"Is this what happened to everyone in Insomnia." Gladiolus asked after several minutes of silence, save for the crackling and popping of burning fat.

"I don't think everyone." Noctis answered. "She probably got infected protecting citizens."

"Yeah. She wasn't the type to run from her duty. " Noctis nodded and crossed his arms to continue watching the fire beside his friend, wondering how many of the soldiers his Shield had once trained with or beside were now stumbling across this landscape. Are we killing our own people every time we've killed a daemon? He wondered. Guilt settled like a weight in his gut at all the times a bomb exploded and left bits of ash they let just settle on the road to be run over, or the remains of an iron giant sped away from as fast as possible.

"I'll stay." Gladiolus suggested after a half hour had passed and knew many more would require to finish burning out. He more boxes of lighter fluid to try and keep the fire going if it started to extinguish, but it showed no signs of slowing just yet.

"I'll keep you company man." Noctis offered. Gladiolus's lip flickered and he nodded. Noctis settled down on the ground to sit next to Gladiolus.

"Hey, take a walk?" Aranea approached Lunafreya who was still hovering within a few paces of Noctis and nudged her with her elbow. Lunafreya turned, gave her a humorless smile and nodded.

"I shall not be far." She said in parting to Noctis who could only manage to nod at her. Ignis and Prompto had followed Crowe, likely to find booze to at least temporarily numb the night's images from their brains so sleep would only be partially nightmare riddled.

"You gonna be seeing that on the back of your eyelids for the next month too?" Aranea asked her once they had walked far enough away as to be out of earshot.

"Likely." Lunafreya answered. She thought about Verstael's notebooks. Of the living-rotting bodies of blight victims in his experimental camp and felt a surge of angry guilt that she had never thought of pilfering more of his research.

"The empire makes us see lots of shit, huh?" Lunafreya nodded her agreement. "Well those two are being decent humans making sure the funeral is seen through, the others I think are going to wake Takka up so they can get drunk, guess that leaves it up to us to make sure everyone else is okay. We can take our walk after. Come on." She tilted her head towards the garage and Lunafreya nodded her agreement.

They crossed the parking lot and stopped at the garage door but the door opened before Aranea could knock. On the other side Regis greeted them and the pair of women took a moment to react. Their regal King was standing before them with hair kinked by bed-head and an uncombed beard that was cow-licked near the corner of his jaw. And in his exhausted dark-rimmed eyes Lunafreya could see where her scruffy prince got his features from.

"Are you all all right?" He asked in a gravely tone, his brow lifted as he looked over their shoulders.

"Quite." Lunafreya answered.

"Where is Noctis?" He asked. Lunafreya turned and pointed.

"Thought it fitting to burn the body." She provided in explanation, but only got a look of confusion back. "That daemon… was once human."

"Impossible." He answered and glanced over his shoulder into the room and stepped outside to close the door behind him. The half-broken lawn chair was only a few paces from the door and he dropped himself into it, shaking his head.

"After we felled it and the body failed to vanish we saw that it wore a boot. And Gladiolus found dog-tags. She was a woman named Tarda."

"And whilst you fought I was once again the cripple-King hiding behind a wall." Regis let out a long sigh, staring down at his hands. One hand balled into a fist, the other only partially closed, thick scar tissue limiting his motion.

"As I was naught but a pretty face to broadcast across the nation whilst the world started to crumble. Yet here I am now." Lunafreya replied. She caught the side-eye she got from Aranea as the woman failed to keep an impassive expression

"You have always been strong" Regis chuckled lightly, a sad smile on his face as he sat straight in the chair again. "I heard a rumor that you chose to sky-dive sans parachute just to prove that point."

"A touch foolish." She shrugged and gestured to her arm.

"The tolls we pay. How are you my dear?" He asked, and gestured to the chair next to him.

"Recovering. As yourself?" She sat down in the chair and looked back up to Aranea.

"I'll check the perimeter and meet you back here." She offered. Lunafreya nodded and she gave a stiff bow to Regis and started to walk away. Regis shifted in the chair with some metallic squeaking, sighing as he stretched out his bad leg, rubbing his knee. Lunafreya's fingers glowed and she reached out to place her palm against his knee. Light poured from her fingertips into his leg, easing the deep ache and the burning that ran down the length of the limb and bringing sensation back to his toes.

"Thank you." He sat back and tried to look up at the sky, but the clouds obscured the stars. "So. What does this mean if that daemon was once a human." Regis stated.

"The Blight is far worse than any of us ever thought. And I fear now that the Empire knows far more about it than we." They would spirit me from town to town, hospital to hospital, desperately healing the people. Were they merely trying to prevent further daemon swarms? Images of the burned village threatened to swarm her mind once more. She saw images in the bonfire. Familiarity in the scent of burning flesh. She took a long breath and let it out slowly to try and find her center.

"How is Noctis? He… is not always honest about himself with me." Regis asked. Infected. Lunfreya worried, thinking of the black and blue sparks of his armiger.

"Fighting hard."

"I wish this had not been bestowed upon you." Regis replied.

"How is Hammerhead? Cid and Cindy?" Lunafreya asked.

"Cid is grouchy as ever. Cindy is always tinkering and fixing things. Threw a wrench at some kid who whistled at her when she was fixing his car." Regis said. Lunafreya laughed at the mental image, folding her arms in her lap. She wondered if, had she the time to stay, she and Cindy would become friends. You have friends. The thought was still foreign.

"As for Pryna?"

"Happy little dog. Spends a lot of time at Takka's begging for scraps. But the last few days she's been limping around and sleeping. Might have sprained something running around so we've kept her mostly inside until she feels better. Cid gets her a burger from Takka's every day.

"I'd love to see her."

"Surprised you didn't hear her barking. Once the daemon showed up she started growling and barking at the window until Cindy hid the basement with Cid. Once we told them everything was okay Cid, bless his soul, cursed his brains out at me for wasting a perfectly good night's sleep and I think he's in the garage right now. Cindy went back to bed tailed by Pryna."

"Sleep sounds lovely about now." Lunafreya admitted, looking at the trailer. "Any sign of Umbra? I… I haven't seen him since we came to Lucis."

"Alas no. I have seen Pryna bark at seemingly nothing. Odd for the usually quiet dog. Even barking at the daemon was off. Woke Cindy with such a start she nearly kicked the poor thing off the bed in her startle." He looked past her shoulder and his brow came together slightly, the corners of his lips tilted down for a moment. "I… should join my son. Rejoin your friend, Luna." He dropped a heavy arm onto her shoulder and gave her nod, walking over to where the fire still burned.

Lunafreya watched him for a few moments before she tried to look around for where Aranea wandered off to. One of the lights on the corner of the garage was flickering, emitting a buzz that made her feel a headache start to build behind her eye, the swelling reduced just enough to make out the flickering. She frowned at the light wondering for a moment how long that bulb, and the others in hammerhead, would last.

"Luna!" Aranea's voice carried over the empty parking lot from behind her. She turned and could see her walking towards her and gave a short wave. She walked to help close the distance. "Hey all done talking on high come to hang with us peasants?"

"Likely he would rather play poker with the boys." Lunafreya replied with a smile and a shrug.

"Ah. Makes sense. Did he bring the whiskey and cigars?" Aranea asked. Lunafreya shrugged and forced a humorless chuckle. Aranea's smile dropped as well and she sighed heavily, looking at the fire. "How screwed are we? I should ask for a raise."

"This is why are waking the Astrals." Lunafreya answered simply. Aranea huffed and shoved on Lunafreya's good shoulder.

"I gotta teach you what a rhetorical question is. I know we're fucked. We're Astral alarm clocks and Niflheim's Most Wanted. Pretty sure it doesn't get more screwed than that." she started walking and Lunafreya followed. "At least I get a front row ticket."

"Though, I surmise, should we pull a miracle… as Crowe would say, from our asses, Eos owes us quite the debt." Lunafreya answered.

"Us? Girl, Eos owes me a lot of money but she owes you a hell of a lot more. Gift you with the power to heal anyone but yourself? That's some Djinn level irony." Aranea huffed. "How are you healing? Pretty sure I could punch you in the face and you would just shrug it off. You're impossible to read."

"I… I cannot claim to feel well. But I must admit… even these injuries are little price to pay for my freedom. Though I fear Verstael will not suffer my escape in silence."

"He doesn't like things not going his way." Aranea shrugged. Lunafreya nodded and a thought itched at the back of her mind. She reached up and scratched the back of her neck, feeling tension in her brow and nose. He's not Caligo. He did not want to parade me about.

"Did… did you know, about daemons being blighted humans?" Lunafreya asked. She thought about all the people she healed over the years. And the daemon's she fought since fleeing Altissia.

"No." Aranea answered. Lunafreya nodded and shifted her gaze at the ground.

"Did the Niflheimers know?"

"Verstael is creepy enough to keep that kinda info in his head. But unless he could confirm it he wouldn't tell the up n' ups." Aranea shrugged.

"You think it possible that Sudr Village was not attacked by bombs?" She asked, turning and looking at Aranea. She watched the woman flinch, gaze kept steadfast ahead.

"I heard about it. Never saw it."

"I was escorted there to heal the village of the blight and when we arrived it was… gone." She blinked rapidly and tried to shift her memories away. "We thought it had been destroyed by bombs. An entire swarm of daemons. What if they… what if the bombs were once the people?"

"A whole village?!" Aranea asked.

"Word spread of a sudden and severe outbreak of the Blight." Lunafreya spoke in a low tone, wrapping her good arm around the injured one to hug it close to her. Her fingers curled around the fabric of her shirt. "The village was destroyed... burned. There were still some bombs lingering." Aranea stopped walking and turned.

"We saw a lot of shit in Niflheim huh? All the more reason we need to kick their asses." Aranea tried to smile and placed a careful hand on Lunafeya's shoulder. She thought about the base they raided and how quickly it was retaken. Will I be retaken?

"So quick to turn on a former employer?" Lunafreya asked.

"Bad bosses. Benefits sucked. Hours were long."

"We have a coffee machine for the break room."

"Yeah see? You know what it takes to keep a loyal employee. Now if only the Nifs offered routine brain bleach for what they make us see." Lunafreya caught the way Aranea's gaze went distant and her whole body appeared heavier for a bare moment before she forced a humorless smile and looked back up to make eye contact with her. "We'll pay 'em back."

"I do feel too that perhaps at our journey's end, the Astrals shall owe me at the least a single day's rest."

"Hey, even Niflheim labor laws give you a guaranteed two-week vacation a year. Don't lowball yourself so bad." Aranea replied. Lunafreyea laughed and nodded.

"I suppose. Alas, tomorrow is not one of these fourteen days. I best get some rest." Aranea nodded and forced a yawn.

"Yeah. Good idea. Sleep well and rest up."

"You as well." Lunafreya replied with a nod. Aranea walked in one direction, Lunafreya approaching the till burning fire. it was likely it would burn for hours to come and still be smoldering come morning. The mere idea of of spending the night awake made her headache throb worse, but it was more appealing than the thought of lying in a bed or sleeping bag alone with only her thoughts and memories to lull her to sleep. At the fire Noctis was still sitting beside Gladiolus, Regis on his other side. Lunafreya sat in the dust on Regis's other side, greeted by the trio with nods or waves.

Noctis and Regis were exchanging a quiet conversation that was difficulty to hear over the flames. The fire still smelled foul and sent thick black smoke coiling upward. It was difficult to find a comfortable way to sit, eventually crossing her legs and end simply enduring a degree of discomfort. A lifetime of dresses made the position feel revealing and sat with her knees bent despite the increased pain in her ribs. But as time grew so did the headache and the weight in her eyelids. She lowered herself onto her back, wincing a the fresh pain in her ribs, and a deep ache in all her limb. She slipped into a fragile sleep broken by a loud pop of the fire, or sudden increase in the conversation volume. But she always drifted back before she could muster the will to sit back up.

"Luna." She opened her eyes and groaned, the ache increased into a throbbing pain. She hissed a breath through her teeth as she attempted to sit up. She felt an arm snake around her back and help her sit up and she tried to blink away the sleep from her eyes. "Hey… you looked pretty asleep there but I assume a bed is more comfortable." Noctis said.

"I feel as though I jumped out of another airship." She replied, hugging her arm close to her. Trying to squint to see around her pulled at the swollen tissue around her eye and her headache reminded her that it was still there.

"Let's get you in the trailer then." He helped her stand and gave her the moment she needed to keep her balance. The funeral pyre seemed fully extinguished, the ground crackling as the thin layer of ice Noctis used to ensure it couldn't cause them further trouble in the night. She grimaced, hoping the lack of light that the fire had provided wouldn't cause more daemons to trouble them in the night.

Inside the trailer Prompto was already passed out on the couch, and Lunafreya was grateful that he had left the bed available for herself and Noctis, unsure she could find a comfortable way to lie on the cramped couch. Noctis helped Lunafreya up onto the bed and climbed up. She crawled over to the pillow and dropped herself onto it, fatigue overwhelming her and she didn't even notice when Nocits pulled the blanket from the foot of the bed over her shoulders.

"Goodnight Luna…" Noctis whispered and bent over to press a kiss against her temple. He got himself under the blanket from himself, lying on his side and feeling immense guilt he couldn't remember which of his family's glaives Tarda was.


I hope you enjoyed this reveal of the truth behind that Bomb-daemon-attacked village I've referenced at a few times throughout the story.