Falling snow and crackling flames.
The two opposing forces of hot and cold created a soothing scene for Nia amidst the backdrop of dusk setting in upon the sky behind her unlike any she had enjoyed in quite some time. The Agnian monarch sat before the Ladras campfire prepared by her newest set of traveling companions. Noah and Mio practiced their flutes. Eunie and Lanz sat by the queen's side exchanging wisecracks. Riku and Manana had already fallen atop their sleeping bags. The area was draped with the aroma emanating from the tea servings being handed out by Taion, including the cup Nia was already holding in her hand.
"It's beautiful, isn't it, Your Majesty?"
Sena looked upon the glowing silhouette of the Cloudkeep peeking through the frost-covered haze in the distance where Ouroboros had set up camp with the Queen of Agnus. They had been traveling the world to learn more of its history in preparation for the final battle against Moebius which would be fast approaching once they had parted ways here. The sense of nostalgia this journey had brought about had been comforting for the Agnian leader but also somewhat melancholy as she thought back to all they had said and done together.
"I never really got to look at it from the outside, but you're right, it kind of is..." the queen took a sip from her drink.
Setting the cup back on the saucer she was holding, the queen looked over the group of six one last time, contemplating what she could still do for the resilient band of heroes who had come to this very place to awaken her from her thousand-year slumber not all that long ago. The things she still wanted to share with them scrambled around her mind and weighed on her heart. Despite how overwhelming it all felt in the moment, Nia resolved to simply start talking and let her feelings flow as they may, not too unlike what a certain salvager might have done in her position.
"Sena, Taion... Mio..." Nia paused to take a breath, "Can I say something to you three here before we move on? It's not urgent but... it's something I still feel I need to get off my chest."
"Of course, Nia," Mio remained as welcoming of the queen's presence as ever.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Just let me put this down," Taion set aside the pot of hot tea he had been holding.
Sena also seemed to be eying Nia more closely as Taion returned to his seat, reestablishing the circle they had all initially formed around the firewood. Thinking back, not even the eyes of the crowd that attended her coronation felt as heavy as the gazes of these six now focusing upon her. The monarch felt her heart beginning to race but also realized how even more important it was that she not lose her nerve at this juncture.
"Actually, this isn't just for you three. Noah, Eunie, Lanz, please hear me out on this too," she stiffened her posture.
"Yes, Your Majesty?" the Kevesi off-seer granted Nia his attention alongside her companions.
"Not just the Agnians, but the Kevesi too. Despite my best intentions, I can't deny that up until this point I failed all of you. In locking myself away, I had no choice but to watch that imposter use my name to lead you to war with one another for centuries. Those of you from Agnes did so because you believed in what you were told about me as your creator and you from Keves had to see so many of your friends killed in my name. For that, you have the deepest apology I can offer you. I'm truly sorry for letting you down until now."
"What? No!" Mio immediately objected, "You didn't do any of that. It was all Moebius. You were forced into hiding by them, and it's us that should have realized it and come to save you sooner. It's why you entrusted that key to M in the first place, right? You haven't done anything wrong."
"Oh, Mio, you never change do you..." Nia was as touched as ever by the girl's infectious but oh-so-familiar optimism.
"Huh? I guess not..." the off-seer was puzzled by the remark.
"Uh... never mind..." she steered off the subject, "Even if you don't want to hear me apologize for that, I still hope that I haven't disappointed you too much in our time together. After so long seeing how that fake me acted, I understand if you might be a little let down by the real thing."
"Why would we be?"
"Well, it's just... I've tried my best to live up to your expectations, but you can surely tell by now that I'm not the most... refined personality you'll find out there. I'm sure the Kevesi queen is probably more to your liking..."
"Well, I mean I definitely felt something nice when I saw how much Her Majesty and I looked alike..." Eunie interjected.
"Exactly so..."
"But..." the High Entia continued.
"But then I see you, swearing in battle and letting it all kinda hang out when we're traveling around, and I think to myself "Like wow, even a queen can feel like me sometimes" and that's pretty nice to think about too."
"Oh, I... appreciate the compliment," Nia contemplated the remarks, "But I really should defer to those of Agnus here. After all, you're the ones who will be stuck with me when we all return to our worlds."
"I wouldn't say stuck," Sena shook her head, "It hurt when I found out the queen I had been following was a fake, but you're much kinder than her, always taking time to tend to my injuries no matter how small. Isn't that the only thing that should matter?"
"Yes I suppose it should," the queen relaxed somewhat, "How about you Taion?"
"Me?" the tactician looked up as Eunie's elbow jabbed into his side, "Well, your methods are certainly unorthodox, but based on the results I've seen, I can't begin to assume that you weren't made queen for good reason."
"A good reason..." Nia gazed off to the side as Taion ate a glare from Eunie.
"How does one become queen anyway?" Lanz spoke up, "I mean we were always told you gave us all life, but if that isn't true, then what is it? Does that mean you weren't always a queen?"
"Yes, I think I would like to know too," Taion seconded.
"Hold on, doesn't that seem too personal?" Mio interjected, "Nia, you don't have to say anything about..."
The off-seer from Agnus was taken aback by how her queen had developed a chuckle that even those without her sensitive ears could pick up on as she gazed toward the heavens. What she noticed that the others did miss was a tone tear falling down the monarch's quivering expression.
"Nia..."
"Yes, I'm sorry, but it's just... quite the story to recall..." she brushed away the moisture from her eyes, "Honestly it's impossible to believe the things I had been called around the time I was your age. A daughter, a cannibal, a criminal, a friend, a wife, even a..."
"Your Majesty, what's a cannibal?" Sena absent-mindedly cut off the list.
"Hm? Well, it's a lot to explain, and honestly not that important right now. My point is I actually spent some time in very dark and lonely places. The thought of my being queen would have been absurd at the time but the land of my birth had fallen into a crisis of missing leadership. I never would have considered stepping up for the job, but a certain someone told me that what's most important at the top is to never forget what it's like at the bottom. Those treasured friends lifted me to where I am now and no matter how many centuries have passed, I've only thought of how I can reward and return their trust."
"I'm sure you have, Nia." Mio clasped her hands in response.
"I'm not the only one, but, looking at you all now, I truly am thankful to be your queen and friend," Nia smiled gratefully at the group
"Same here, Your Majesty," the fiery Sena beamed with her companions nodding around her.
"Hold on there, love, because now I've got something to say," Eunie leaned in towards the monarch.
"Yes, Eunie?"
"You said you used to be a wife, right?"
"Uh huh..." an ominous feeling swept over the queen.
"A wife, as in that marriage thing they told us about in the City?" the medic's interest intensified
"Yes..."
"So you had a husband too?"
"I did, along with a few wives. Love took many different shapes in the time before Moebius," Nia felt the color flushing over her face, "No offense to you all, but my husband was unlike any man I'd ever met, and I doubt I ever will again. My wives too. All truly, truly one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable people to me."
"Ooh, how exciting. What about babies then? Did you guys have any babies?" the High Entia's eagerness reached its peak.
"Eunie, will you stop asking people that?!" Mio loudly scolded the Kevesi.
"What? It's a harmless question but babies are so fascinating to me. What's wrong with wanting to know?" the girl shrugged
"Trust me, that stuff is highly personal!" the off-seer stood her ground, "Nia, you don't have to answer that!"
Mio quickly found that her plea had gone unheard. As she had been preoccupied with lecturing Eunie, Nia's seat had apparently been hastily vacated with the queen having hurried off to stand next to the nearest tree to them. It stood beside the nearby ledge that overlooked the colonies where this entire adventure had started for them. Their monarch seemed to be gazing upon the distant settlements below.
"Aw, now look at what you did!" the Agnian rushed over to console her leader with her friend in black following close behind.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Eunie apologized as she jogged over to the queen now looking off into the distant horizon. She appeared to again wipe something away from her face as she spotted their shared approach.
"Nia?" Mio looked upon her with growing concern.
"What? I'm fine!" Nia failed to hide her swelling unease with the situation, "...Guess I'm not very convincing, huh?"
"Nope, not really," the Kevesi girl laughed before calming herself with her Agnian companion still giving her dirty looks, "But I apologize if that question upset you. It's not my place to probe into that stuff."
"Perhaps not, but as a queen, I shouldn't be hiding anything from you either yet here I am."
"Nia, what are you saying?" the silver-haired girl held both hands up to her chest.
"I thought I was finally going to blurt it out back there, but every time I reach for the words, my very heart freezes colder than the snow-covered fields upon which we stand now."
"You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to, love," Eunie consoled her, "All of us have our secrets. Just because you're a queen doesn't entitle us to know everything little sparkin' thing about you."
"But that's just it. There is someone who deserves to know, but... I'm scared. More scared of any Moebius than I've ever seen," Nia's fist clenched with frustration."
"Who deserves to know what? I'm trying but can't understand any of this," the Agnian only became more distressed.
"Mio!" Nia calmed her down with a stern call of her name, "You heard it from M, didn't you? That she and N had a son together."
"Yes."
"How did she feel leaving him behind in this cruel world alone? How did you feel when you saw it all in her mind?"
"Me? Well, I know she's my other self, but it's all still new and a little confusing to me."
"What would you have done if you were in her position as you are now? What would you say to your son if he was still around to ask why you had left him?"
"Oh..." Mio paused at a momentary loss for words, "I know I should have an answer but I don't. I've seen how senseless and cruel the cycle created for this world but Z can be. I know it isn't any of our faults, but don't know what I would say to him myself, no."
"Don't beat yourself up, Mio," I've been seeking that answer for over a thousand years myself, and, even with all the information of this world at my disposal, I still don't have either."
"You did have a baby, didn't you, Your Majesty?" Eunie firmly read the situation.
"I did." the queen wiped away another tear, "The sweetest, most thoughtful, caring little girl I or any of you have ever known. Her father was proud of her beyond words in our brief time together as the happiest little family in either world."
"...What happened to her?" the medic cautiously pressed further.
"Gone from me all too early. Swept away by Moebius to live and die again and again at the whim of the Flame Clocks. In all my time at the Cloudkeep, I never stopped keeping up on how she was doing with each cycle that passed for her, but could only curse myself more for not being there to protect her. Not even that... I would have done anything just to be able to see her, to hold her in my arms, to let her know that I still loved her with all my soul, even as I was all but forgotten to her! She deserves at least that much, even now! Yet here I am, free to do it all, at long last, and I just..."
"Nia, it's okay!" Mio spoke loudly in reprisal, "The most important thing I've learned from you is that even you queens are just people like us, trying to make the best of the world we share. You make mistakes, you feel pain. Living as long as you have compared to us only makes it more true. Even if we did meet your daughter out there one day, and she didn't feel ready to accept you back into her heart, I'd plead with her on my very life to give your love a second chance. How can any of us face the future if we let our past mistakes control it? I don't want to live with more regrets, and you shouldn't have to either Nia!"
"Oh, Mio..." Nia stood trembling at the girl's declaration.
"Go to her, Nia! Tell her all that you've said to me just now. Let her know a mother's love. I've learned more than enough about how special such a thing can be."
With lips quivering and eyes welling, the off-seer found herself almost bowled over by a sudden, swift, tackle of a hug being applied to her by her queen. Nia's restrained sobs erupted into full-blown bawling as Mio felt her gloved hand gently stroking her hair while she was now weeping over her shoulder.
"Mio, Mio! My precious baby girl! You haven't changed a bit! I'm sorry I haven't been around for you! My dear sweet little Mio! Please forgive me! I'm sorry!"
"Nia... you can't be..." Mio stood in shock and awe as the crying queen nuzzled against her neck, seemingly intoxicated by the mere feel of her skin
Even the foul-mouthed Eunie was left as speechless as the tender Mio as the monarch they had so adored lost virtually all composure before their eyes, continuing to cry out apologies and loving descriptors for her fellow Agnian. They looked back nervously, praying their fellow Ouroboros weren't coming to make it even more of a spectacle, but thankfully they still seemed preoccupied at camp. Their glances turned towards each other as they permitted Nia all the time she needed to stop her frenzied rambling.
"Mio, I'm sorry... Mio," Nia quieted down bit by bit.
"It's okay, Nia, it's okay..." Mio had by then returned the hug and was now carefully running her arms along the elder Agnian's back.
After a few minutes, Nia finally was ready to release her daughter from her tight grasp. Once they were apart, the queen remained focused with her gaze meeting her child's, still unsure of how to proceed from what she had just done. This was all uncharted territory for the off-seer as well but luckily she had a friend on hand to help her along.
"Ya know, I guess I did always kinda notice how alike you too looked," Eunie did her very best to break the frigid ice that had come over the trio.
"You think so?" Mio looked back at her, "I mean it's true that I've never seen another Agnian with a red and blue crystal like mine, but I never thought much harder about it."
"The hair and ears too, girl," the Kevesi continued, "Monica did mention to me that family members usually look like each other, but I honestly never would have imagined..."
"Yeah, me neither..."
Mio promptly stopped talking, focusing all of her attention on Nia, ready to hang on to every word she may utter from here on out. She knew very little about what it was like to be a mother, and absolutely nothing about what it was like having one, but the long-buried anguish in Nia's cries was not lost on her delicate ears. As promised, she stood firmly prepared to face whatever may lie ahead from her newly revealed mom.
"Okay..." Nia finished wiping off her face with a sigh, "This time I really am sorry that you had to see that. You didn't deserve me blindsiding you with this."
"Now, hold on," Mio shushed her with a finger, "If we're going to continue on in this way, you absolutely must stop apologizing all the time. You haven't done anything but your very best for me. It really hurts me to see you like that... Mother? Should I call you Mother?"
"No, no, that's not necessary," the Agnian queen waved off the gesture, "It's not right for me to start playing parent with you when your memories of me are all gone. Call me whatever you feel comfortable with, okay?"
"Sure thing, Your Majesty!" the girl perked back up.
"...On second thought, that feels even weirder to hear from you than before. How about sticking with Nia?"
"Whatever you want, Mother... er, Nia..."
At this, Nia's back arched back to brace her for the uproarious laughter now bellowing out of here. It was the sort of heartfelt belly laugh that she hadn't experienced in centuries, specifically not since speaking to a certain boy at the bottom of a certain cave all those years ago. Though not as strongly, her howls were too irresistible for the Agnian and Kevesi girls to not join right in with her until she settled back down.
"Okay, I won't apologize anymore, Mio but I must confess that, even as a queen, I'm truly awful in the heat of the moment with stuff like this. Would you believe I first told my husband... or rather, your father, I mean... that I loved him while fighting for our lives against a horde of ghostly warriors?"
"That sounds like the sort of thing I'd be down to try," Eunie chimed in.
"Seriously though, you have someone you love too. Don't you, Mio?" Nia looked squarely at her daughter.
"Yes, I think so..." Mio looked back towards Noah still playing the white flute she had given him by the fire, "Though it doesn't seem I'll have much time left to enjoy it..."
"Even so, be sure to let him know how you feel before it's all said and done. Even the splitting of our separate worlds won't be enough to sever the bonds we now all share. You're the one who told me that, right?"
"Yes, I did, Nia..." she nodded respectfully with Eunie joining in approvingly.
After a few more minutes to take in the atmosphere before the setting sun hitting their eyes acted as a metaphorical reminder of where they now all stood on this arduous journey they had shared. With every meeting, a parting must follow, but unlike before, Nia would be sure to handle this one correctly.
"I think it's time for me to go now," the Monarch announced, "I must return to the CloudKeep to prepare for our collective strike on Origin."
"Yeah, we'll be sure to win," Eunie held up a fist.
"It may seem like nothing in the grand scheme of our time together in this world, and I don't fully know how to feel about all that you've told me, but I'm certain that I'm nothing but grateful that you did, Nia. Thank you for never forgetting about me."
"It's not just me though," Mio's mother began to dig around in her pockets, pulling out an envelope and handing it to her daughter, "For the last thousand years this has never left my side. In fact, I'd dare say it's the thing most vital to how I've managed to hold out this long against Z, but now, even for what little time we have remaining in this world, I want you to have it. Maybe it can do just a little for you of what it did for me."
Opening the seal, Mio found four different photographs featuring what certainly looked like her in a younger state. Her hair cascaded down her back just like M's and she wore cute, frilly dresses while receiving shoulder rides from a well-built, brown-haired man with golden eyes just like hers. Others had her receiving hugs and playing games with two women, one with a crimson bob cut and the second with flowing, blonde locks. She didn't recognize either in the slightest but could tell from the smiles and laughter they were sharing that they once meant the world to each other nonetheless. Last but far from least was her with what greatly appeared to be the queen herself, dressed down to a casual yellow dress and brown boots with hair even longer than hers, nuzzling cheek-to-cheek with just about the widest grins she had ever seen anywhere. This time, it was her turn to wipe away a tear as she replaced the contents of the envelope as respectfully as possible before carefully placing it in her own coat pocket.
"Rex, Pyra, and Mythra," Nia listed the legendary names, "My friends, my family, my saviors. Each of them loved you every bit as much as I did. Even if you may never remember it while we remain here, I wish that even an ounce of the love they still have for you can help carry you through the rest of this fight."
"I'll never let it go," the off-seer vowed, "Honoring the memory of the departed is my duty now as much as it's ever been."
"And with that I'll take my leave, wishing you the best of luck in your continued travels." Nia nodded and turned away.
Before she could take more than a few steps, Nia found her progress halted by her daughter's arms catching her from behind. Though the hug was far shorter than the last one, the queen still relished having her little girl's hand brush against her face ever so briefly.
"...I love you, Mom," Mio spoke after an awkward pause, glad Nia couldn't see how uncertain she remained about interacting with a parent instead of a queen.
"I love you too, Mio..."
Nia departed her child with these five final resolute words before leaving her for real. Actually feeling even more pressure now serving as a parent, she tried making her stroll as dignified as she could muster before dashing off back to the keep as the cold broke down her last defenses.
"BLOODY HELL! I HATE THE DAMN COLD HERE!" she cursed, leaving Mio and Eunie to have one last laugh at her expense before she ran out of sight as they headed back to their own camp as well. She couldn't be certain but the Kevesi could swear her Agnian friend was holding herself up just a bit higher than before.
"You know, love..." Eunie shared one more thought with Mio as they walked along, "For years, we believed the queen gave us all life. Then most of us found out that was all a lie. However, doesn't this mean it really was true, at least for you all along?"
"Mmhmm, and maybe for the first time I can truly say that I'm glad she did..." the Agnian smiled.
"I'm happy to hear it. I hope my own life back home is just as interesting."
"I'm sure it will be, Eunie."
Back at the Ladras Camp, their friends patiently but enthusiastically greeted them back from their temporary departure. Taion had prepared fresh teacups to hand to Mio and Eunie when they returned to their seats which they graciously accepted.
"I hope everything went alright," the Agnian tactician remarked, "We could hear some stuff but not everything, but we didn't want to interrupt. I see Her Majesty has already left though."
"It's all as fine as the Queen's Feathers," his partner retorted, "Don't worry about us."
"But there was all sorts of crying and laughing!" Sena was much blunter than her comrade, "What was that? I hope we didn't say anything hurtful to make her leave."
"No, no," Mio warmly relieved her worries, "We were just... sharing our unique family stories."
The bubbly Agnian seemed quite satisfied with the answer as she moved over to be right next to her best friend. Mio momentarily considered pulling out the envelope again but declined the opportunity as she looked again towards her own Ouroboros partner still looking on quietly.
"Noah!"
"Yes?"
"When we get back to our worlds, we're still going to find a way to meet again, right?"
"Of course. Why do you ask?"
Mio stopped to contemplate her answer with a light smirk.
"Because I now know some people that I absolutely hope you will get to meet with me one day."
"Sure thing. I'll look forward to it."
"Me too, Noah, me too..."
-End-