It was almost late night, the sky was clear and the stars were showing up. Gladiolus and Noctis were building a bonnet fire while Ignis was preparing a quick dinner. The only one jerking around was Prompto, but fortunately he lifted up the mood that way. Walking up to Ignis, Lucida asked," Do you need any help?"
"You sure you wanna help him, Luce? You know, Iggy's pretty fussy when it comes to cooking meals", Prompto said smirking cheekily. Ignis just smiled. Maybe because Prompto was telling the truth.
"Is that so?", Lucida responded amusingly. "Well, that's nothing to me! Besides, what's with that nickname?" , she was narrowing her eyes looking kiddingly sulky at Prompto, but then smiled again.
"What? You don't like it? I think it's cute, but I think Lucy is even better, if you allow to call you by that nickname", he replied amusingly jumping away back to Gladiolus and Noctis, who were now sitting cozily at the fire.
"Please don't!" She murmured pleading, but with a slight smile. "It's no use. He will call you whatever he wants, I'm afraid", Ignis said kindly, "But that's how Prompto is."
Lucida chuckled, "Yeah, you are probably right."
"You can chunk the vegetables, if you would like to help " Ignis suggested in a friendly way. "I'd be glad to!", she responded. Even if it's only a little thing she could do, Lucida wanted to do everything to help, since she feels like she is burdening the boys with her presence.
Ignis handed Lucida a cutting board and a knife. She started cutting the vegetables, then after a few minutes accidentally cut her finger deeply. Wincing she hissed and instinctively sucked on the wound on her left forefinger. Ignis immediately turned around, grabbing her injured hand, "Don't!" He was looking at her intensively, then for some reason tried to hide his face, "I will go and get you a plaster. You wait here." "Uh.." She stuttered. "It's fine, Ignis. You really don't need to – ", but he already was heading for the first-aid-kit in the trunk of their car. Lucida sighed. Again she is a liability, although she wanted to help.
He came back and put on the plaster on her finger gently, which made her blush deeply. "That should fix it", he muttered with a deep voice. "Yeah, Thanks", she responded briefly without any eye contact, then turned around quickly and went on cutting the vegetables. The atmosphere was awkward – very awkward.
While Ignis and Lucida prepared supper, Gladiolus and Noctis had a profound conversation about his sister.
Gladiolus was coming closer to Noctis, to make sure none of the others could hear them, "Noct, I know you're not fully stupid. So what made you believe that little girl?"
Noctis turned his face to him, then looked back into the fire, "It's hard to explain." He winked, then after a brief pause, "I just felt it."
"You just felt it?", he repeated pejoratively. "Yeah, I felt kind of a connection between us", he said. "She is my sister. I know it." Gladiolus only shook his head. "I understand your doubts, Gladio... I don't expect you to trust her, but at least trust in me", Noctis said with a severe tone.
Gladiolus looked at his friend , then after a few seconds, "Yeah, you're right, Noct. I'm sorry." Noctis nodded amicably as a response.
Gladiolus and Noctis know each other for a long time now. They know one another since early childhood , so he is like a brother to him. Gladiolus acts as the shield of Noctis and his family, That's why he is this protective. If Lucida really is his sister, it will make her part of the royal family, thus it would be his duty to protect her as well. Now where Noctis is profoundly convinced, it's his job to take care of her. Not only his job, but also Ignis's and Prompto's job.
Dinner was ready, hence they all sat at the bonnet fire eating a spicy Behemoth-Steak with fresh salad. "Humph", Prompto made a noise with a full mouth, "That's pretty good! You've done well for a newbie, Lucy!", he said chewing the food. Lucida glowered at him. She still doesn't get to like that weird nickname Prompto gave her. Ignis let out a little smirk.
"Of course it's good, since I've contributed to cooking the meal" she said grinning slightly.
"Don't get too cocky, Luce" , Noctis added kiddingly.
"Wanna provoke the first sibling fight, huh?, Prompto glanced cheekily at him.
"What brothers say to tease their sisters has nothing to do with what they really think of them.", Gladiolus said wisely breaking the bright atmosphere with no intent. He sounded as if he knew what he was talking about.
"Thanks, Gladio", he replied, "I appreciate it."
"Not for nothing it is said, that Siblings that say they never fight are most definitely hiding something", Ignis added unexpectedly.
„This conversation ends up too deep for me, guys", Prompto said grinning with the intent to brighten the atmosphere again. "Too deep for you?", Gladiolus repeated smirking at Prompto. "Don't you mean too difficult to understand?", Ignis added with the aim to tease him a bit.
"Oh, c'mon, guys. Don't be like that!", Prompto whined. Compared to the others he has a different social status, since he is not part of the royal circle. No wonder Prompto feels inferior. But still he tries his best to be useful and is ambitious to help his friends in need.
"Take it easy, Prompto", noctis said to back him.
It was put about that Prompto was a bad influence to noctis since his early school days. He is a wanted felon, a fugitive, but his heart is kind and affectionate. Prompto truly is a helpful and loyal person. That much is clear.
While eating, they all had a pleasant chat among each other. Lucida wouldn't have thought in the slightest, that things would turn out like this. The fact that the boys incorporated her, makes her deeply grateful. She really does appreciate it.
All five ate up and went into the tent, only Lucida, being the last one outside, sitting in the grass, her arms wrapped around her legs and looking far into the distant clear light. The shining moon was rising and the stars were sparkling bright.
Then the tall grass was rustling. Lucida being too deep into thoughts didn't notice Noctis, who was standing behind her, "Enjoying the night sky?" She winced, almost jumping up because of the little shock. While the others were in the tent, Noctis sat next to her, leaning his elbows on his knees. Both of them were enjoying the silence for a while, since it was quite a stressful day for everyone, especially for Noctis.
You could only hear the wind gliding trough the grasses and the trees nearby, until Lucida breaked the silence. "Say", she started asking, "Why do you believe me?", then pausing for a moment. "I mean, actually you have no apparent reason to trust me."
Gazing at her he smiled slightly, "Can't you guess?" Then after a brief pause, "You are the daughter of Regis Lucis Caelum – my father. We have the same royal blood running through our veins, the same royal bloodline. You inherited the same powers through his blood as I have."
Lucidas eyes opened wide. "I inherited these powers from him?", she said in surprise, "And you have it, too?"
"Your eyes revealed it", he responded. "When I saw your crimson eyes I knew it has to be true. Only the royal circle possesses these special powers"
She sighed wearily, then she said, "I always thought something was wrong with me. My mother never wanted to talk about it, when I asked her what it was. I knew she was hiding something."
They remained silent for a while. Noctis looked at her ,"Tell me about you and my father."
Lucida breathed out heavily, then gazed at him, "I never talked to anyone about that, but I guess I owe you an explanation." She new it was only a matter of time until she has to confess everything. She took a deep breath to prepare for what she has to tell him, knowing that she will be close to tears.
"Well...", she started saying. "I'm not absolutely sure, I admit, since my mother refuses to talk about it, but I know that my mother travelled to Lucis because of work-related affairs. It was about 18 years ago, when Niflheim still owned one of the last crystals."
The Empire of Niflheim lost his crystal after years, thus they became the enemy nation of Lucis and caused a great dispute over the last crystal, that the Kingdom of Lucis possessed.
"So you are from Niflheim?", Noctis interrupted.
"Yes", she said, then continued, "And my mother met King Regis in Lucis, and fell in love with him. She got pregnant and wanted to stay in Lucis, but Regis decided to abandon her. He chose to stay with you. So she went back home again to Niflheim after some time, where I was born. She barely spoke about him all along, but she once told me about you, when I was younger."
"What did she tell you about me?", he asked curiously.
"Well,... as you may have noticed I have the surname from King Regis and not from my mother. She never told me about him and didn't even know about my father for a long time, so I wondered where that name came from. She told me that there's a prince, my brother, named Noctis Lucis Caelum somewhere out there. And she said that we got seperated or anything like that. It was like a fairy tale she told me, just to quieten me down." Lucida sighed then said, "I guess in the end she couldn't let go, so she replaced him by naming me after him. "
She looked far into the distance, avoiding eye contact. "She had several new boyfriends after all that and always acted like she was a good mother. Now she is engaged to total douchebag, who uses her. He's pretty manipulative... I think he's hiding something. When I wanted to tell her, we ended up fighting." Then Lucida said with a shaky voice,"She said she wished I was never born."
Lucida dragged her legs close to her body, wrapping her arms tighter around them. You could see that she was feeling unwanted and worthless. She leant her head on her knees, then felt Noctis patting his sister on the back, trying to show sympathy. She raised her head again.
"My mother always says that she deserves some happiness, too. ", she said dolefully. "Of course she does. Everyone deserves Happiness and that includes me as well. But in the end, she always forgets about me. And that's why I left home." Determined she glanced at Noctis, " I want to find out who I am and what made me to what I am today!"
"So that's the reason you are here. " Confused he asked, "Say, how did you find me?"
"Noctis, do I need to remind you, that you can come to know almost anything, if you pay enough money?", she said playfully, "People are venal. That's how I could track you down."
He smirked, "Hope you're not bankrupt now, sis."
"Don't worry", she responded with a grin on her face, "I saved enough cash to chase down thousands of brothers." Both of them were sitting afield, laughing together for the first time. They enjoyed the harmonic atmosphere, only seeing the bright moon in the distant night sky, until Noctis got up, heading to the tent.
"Noctis.", she said with the aim to stop him. He turned around. "I'm sorry I'm putting you through all this", she said, still looking at the glowing moon.
"No, it's okay", he responded. "Denying the truth doesn't change the facts.", he said to make her feel better and went in the tent joining the others.
"Yo, Noct! Where have you been?", Prompto said lying on the matress, putting his hands behind his head.
"Had a nice chat with her?" Gladiolus asked amusingly.
"Yeah, we talked", Noctis responded. "And I've got some bad news."
Prompto sat up, "Oh no, That sounds bad – really bad"
"What's the matter?", Gladiolus asked.
Noctis sighed, then said, "She's from Niflheim."
Prompto jumped up, "She's what? From Niflheim?"
"We need to talk to her. Now.", Gladiolus advised. Then Ignis asked, "Where is she now?" Noctis said, "She's outside."
"You left her alone? She may leave us, your highness. You know that." Ignis said, giving him a warning.
"What? She's gonna leave?" Prompto jumped up again, this time with the intent to look for her. "She's not gonna leave.", but Prompto ignored Noctis's words. "Luce, are you there?", he called. As he wanted to go out of the tent he was confronted by the most innocent Eyes he has ever seen. Lucida stood right in front of Prompto, not knowing what was going on. He Was staring at her for seconds. "Uh", she was confused. "What's up?", she asked. "Oh, Nothing" , he grinned and dragged her into the tent.
"We should make plans for tomorrow", Gladiolus said. "Indeed", Ignis responded.
"We proceed as we did before. We'll go on travelling to Niflheim", Noctis said looking at his younger sister, wondering how she is going to react to it.
Lucidas mouth fell open, "What? Niflheim?" She shook her head frantically, "But why?" Now where she finally built up hope, she was afraid they'd bring her back home again and leave her with her self-centred mother and her devious future-stepfather.
"Our Father's there, abducted by the forces of Niflheim. They try to extort the last crystal of Lucis from him."
Lucida breathed out heavily, "I knew Niflheim wanted to possess the last crystal, but I never knew that they were going this far." She was stunned.
"I can imagine, you don't want to go back into your home country, since you ran away from it, but..."
Prompto and Gladiolus gazed confused at each other.
"But you have to decide. Will you accompany us to rescue King Regis and protect the crystal of Lucis, or will you side with the Empire of Niflheim struggling greedily for the last crystal?
To Lucida that decision was not about the crystal at all. It was more about who she wants to spend the rest of her life with. If she joins Noctis and the others, she'll never dare to go back home, since she'd be betraying her homeland, but if she sides with Niflheim, Noctis will be her enemy. She'll never be able to meet her father and she'll never be able to know who she really is. She didn't want that.
Lucida took a deep breath. "I'm on your side", she said looking determined at Noctis and Ignis. "I'll do my best to help you rescue my father and to protect the crystal!"
Noctis exhaled, making eye contact with Ignis. They nodded to each other.
Then Noctis smiled at his sister with relief, putting his hand on her shoulder. She gave him a nod and smiled back.
"Good choice, Luce. You successfully avoided the first sibling fight" , Prompto said with a huge grin on his face.
She punched his arm slightly. "You treading on thin ice, Prompto. You want me to change my mind?" she said kiddingly.
Then Gladiolus said with a smirk, "You better behave yourself. From now on we'll be spending a lot of time with her"
"Or she'll better become accustomed to us", Prompto smiled. "To you, I'll never become accustomed", she added teasing him. "You sure 'bout that?", he asked.
"Lucida", Ignis interrupted. "Can you fight?"
"Ugh", she stuttered. "Well, I know the basics", she said facing him.
"Good. That will be enough for now. We will teach you more about warrior skills soon", Ignis said. "But for now I would say it's time to sleep."
Noctis muttered, "Yeah, It's Bedtime."
"We'll get up at six" Ignis announced, then set the alarm on the smartphone.
They switched off the lamp and got to bed.