a/n: i'm so glad i have uploaded another chap! hope you guys like this one! :)
Disclaimer: i realized 'this' was the part i forgot to type in the previous chapter. so anyways, I. Don't. Own. FFVXIII. Got it?
"Oblivious Fate"
By: rorudesu-chan
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Chapter 19: A Father's Gift
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Noctis reached for the coffee mug that rested near the edge of the table. He sipped it eagerly, hoping that the caffeine-infused drink would keep him up throughout the night. He wasn't staying late for his studies though—he had already done and perfected his assignments hours before.
Scattered upon the Prince's desk were papers—tons of it, everything entirely related to his family's company. Noctis had to finish signing all fifty pages of meeting agreements, business proposals, new investment ideas and such. But before he could scribble his signature into the designated lines, he still had to read and understand thoroughly what they were all about.
He wasn't denying that his eyelids were only about two inches away from shutting close.
2:47 A.M.
Noctis had successfully finished signing half of the papers. He was determined to continue all of it. He already had three refills of coffee and the coffee maker inside his room could provide more. The playlist of his Ipod stuck onto a speaker, amplified good old RnB tracks within his working place.
Everything seemed to go well until the blue ink of his fountain pen went dry.
"Tch," he muttered.
Noctis was jotting his signature when he realized, despite the sleepiness in his eyes, that the pen was engraving without any color. He placed the writing instrument down and he slightly bent to his left and reached for the top drawer of his desk.
A green graphing notebook and two crumpled memos of previous air soft tournaments.
The Prince thrust the drawer back into place and he reached for the second lower one, pulling it open.
His sixth grade picture with Celer, Salsus and him, huddled in a neck lock by yours truly, Lacertus; pencils with dull tips and no erasers; Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" book.
Noctis shut it briskly, hoping that the next and last compartment would finally reveal a working fountain pen.
A smirk curled his lips. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of a pen's tip beside an object of what seemed to be a rock. Noctis pulled the drawer all the way to the limit of its hinge. He reached down with his arm, feeling the smooth exterior of the pen upon his fingers. But he felt a strike of reluctance.
He decided to retrieve an item, but it wasn't the fountain pen.
Noctis stared at the rock that he purposely chose to get from the drawer instead of that other much more important thing. It was in a cloudy white color with little glistening specks around its surface. The rock, which was a bit smaller than his fist, felt quite sharp and firm because of its protruding edges surrounding it.
A look of melancholy stroke the Prince's handsome face as his fingers toyed with it. He knew what it was. And it was not merely a rock that he would normally see scattered almost everywhere in the grounds of Regius or his palace.
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"How have you been, Miss Fleuret?" A kind voice asked, its tone bouncing off from the phone's speaker and into the quiet hallway.
"I'm fine, Somna." The caller's recipient replied.
"I'm not the only one here concerned, you know." The Tenebraean Ambassador went on. "Spargo is anxious about how things are going. You haven't come home for awhile, Miss Fleuret."
Stella leaned upon the wall, her back sensing its cold hardwood. "I've told you, haven't I?" A smug look wiped across her face. "I'm doing this whole silly dance activity with the Caelum Prince."
"Yes, you have mentioned that before. Are you enjoying it?"
"I'm pretending to."
"So how do you think of the mission now?"
"The mission looks like it will end earlier than I expected."
"And?"
"And," Stella added. "He really is finding this 'Stella' person to be quite the companion around. He has entrusted me with a secret or two about the Crystal."
"That's very good to hear. I'm pretty sure Spargo will be much delighted with this update."
The blonde Ambassador bit her lower lip.
"Now, how have you been lately?"
"I told you I'm fi—"she was cut off.
"What I mean is how are you doing Miss Fleuret? You're health? Is it well?"
Stella pondered upon Somna's question, not sure of what to answer her. The past two months in Regius have been going well enough that she might, if circumstances do permit, graduate there as a student with a possible honorable mention.
But some thingshad to come along and complicate the mission for her. Those were the peculiar visions which aches her head usually at the most untimely situations. And it all began that day when she found a fairy tale book hidden under the staircase of a mysterious room that barely anyone ever talked about in Tenebrae.
How would she explain all these to her fellow Ambassador?
"Miss Fleuret? Are you still on the other line?"
"Yes," she weakly responded.
"Well? Your health status, please. Who knows? I might be needed there for an assist—"
"Perfect," Stella said. "I'm in very good condition. You or the others don't have to worry too much, Somna. I'm more than alright."
"If you say so, Miss Fleuret."
Stella's nightly update calls with the other diplomat ended after a few minutes. She went back to her room and tossed her Sidekick onto the side table.
The Ambassador now wanted to sleep. It had been a tiring day for her considering the fact that she had to give it her all, not only in what she called, 'absurd' dance practice, but also in living 'Stella's' life. Yet as she was about to shut her eyes, she suddenly felt a throbbing pain in her head. It was mild at first. But it grew stronger later on.
Stella stood up. She held her forehead, brushing her layered bangs to one side.
Father.
Daughter.
Storybook.
Killer.
Death.
She staggered her way towards her desk. Right now, she was in desperate need for another tablet of pain killer.
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Noctis pressed his left palm onto the scanner. A red, horizontal beam slid beneath the glass and it examined the details of the Prince's handprint thrice. It was an identical match.
The huge titanium door glided open. The Caelum heir stepped inside and walked along the narrow hallway. The smooth-surfaced walls did not exhibit its hidden and deadly weapons for the computer knew that he was the only one who could enter and exit the premises. Those who were clever enough to get themselves in, never got the chance come out—alive.
It was a long walk. By the time Noctis stopped in his tracks, he finally arrived at his destination.
Right there before him with all its colossal gloriousness, was the Crystal. Beautiful, majestic and weak. Its luminosity was slowly fading right before the eyes of its protector.
Noctis looked upon the image of the company's pride behind the railings. It hung from the ceiling, supported by four massive poles, two were attached from the top and the other two was buried underground. The Crystal rose up to about twenty feet in length and its shape was like that of a diamond, except it had parts wherein some of its fragments protruded into spikes.
Noctis darted his eyes away. He started walking towards a narrow bridge which led into a cracked portion of the Crystal—small enough to for one only person to enter at a time. As the Prince got closer, he saw a white robed figure before him, his back facing the sovereign.
"How is the Crystal?" The Prince asked, halting a foot away.
"The Crystal," began the man in a hoarse voice. "Is dying, Prince Noctis."
The Caelum son nodded halfway with a grimaced look.
"What has brought Prince Noctis to this place?" the robed man asked. "His Majesty wishes to visit the Crystal, perhaps?"
"No." Noctis replied, digging a hand into the right pocket of his black, leather trench coat. "I'm here to return something."
The Prince unearthed the thing that he found in his drawer earlier. He gripped it tightly.
The man turned around. His face was partially hidden under the hood of his robe. His slender nose and thin, dry lips showed while his eyes were also covered under his pale blonde bangs.
"Prince Noctis desires to return the Crystallite?"
The young monarch's eyebrows drooped. His indigo eyes locked upon the 'mystical' rock which he held.
"Yeah," he answered. "It never had any use to me except as a sole remembrance I have of my dead father."
"If it is so, then why wish to return it? Does the Prince not want to have a memoir of the deceased King?"
"I already have memoirs of him. Plenty of them. I even have a huge portrait of him in my bedroom. Isn't that remembrance enough?"
The robed man remained still.
"He was a foolish man." Noctis went on. "He has given me something without telling me what it's for. So now I can't even use it to save the Crystal."
"Is Prince Noctis certain that it could not be used to save the Crystal from its 'death'?"
"Yes. I've gotten this far to deceiving a particular daughter of Tenebrae into thinking that I am a 'friend' or something close to it. And I'm completely sure that I can trick her into bringing me within the boundaries of her kingdom without the use of this thing that my Father has given me."
"Does the Prince recall when the King has given it?"
It was strange, all of a sudden. Noctis could've sworn he noticed the Crystallite glow beneath his palm.
"Before Father and Mother left for that conference which destroyed their lives, he gave it to me. He said 'it' was the reason why he hadn't been with his family for quite some time. He told me that he was too busy figuring a 'solution'."
The man continued to listen attentively.
"Father said he was guilty for what he did." Noctis scoffed. "I hope he realized that back then, I only cared about the things I was about to do since I was the one next in line for the throne. That was what he always wanted me to think anyways."
The Prince bent down on one knee. He gently placed it down and took one last look at it.
The Crystallite was given by King Neleus to his only son, Prince Noctis. The latter always thought it was a farewell gift to him right after the tragic accident. He had speculated when he was younger that the King most probably knew that he was about to pass on to the next world that's why he gave him a parting gift.
But gifts were supposed to used or at least visibly displayed in one corner of the room so as to portray its importance. However, this wasn't the case for Noctis. The Crystallite had no use since in the first place Neleus never told him anything else about where it could be used either for the company or the Crystal itself.
It was something meant only for the Prince. That was what the King whispered to his son before giving him a royal knuckle sandwich on his dark charcoal mane.
And so, Noctis had left the Crystallite inside the bottom drawer of his desk. It was either that or paperweight purposes. After all, he had tons of papers that needed some kind of sorting, and there were times when he wouldn't get anywhere with the sheets flying around because of the air conditioning system that was seldom switched on to 'high'.
Noctis pressed a hand in one lap and he pushed himself up until he could stand on his feet.
"Aeonis," he said. "Do take care of the King's gift for me. I probably won't take it back anymore so I'd like you to return it inside the Crystal. It belongs there and it always will."
Noctis faced his back towards the quiet Aeonis. He was about to retrieve and obey the monarch's words but the Prince added something more.
"It's rather ridiculous." He smirked. "I've always thought that I've forgotten when my Father gave me the Crystallite. Ever since he and my Mother died, I've buried that particular memory, along with the others, to the depths that I don't recall much of it. But here I am," Noctis said, "retelling when it happened, with concrete details. It must be this mood I'm in, don't you think so too, Aenois?"
The Prince smiled darkly and left the robed man with that rhetorical question. Aenois approached the Crystallite after seeing the sovereign walk out into the hallway. He pulled the right sleeve of his robe and his exposed hand retrieved what Noctis purposely left behind.
Aeonis stared at it and murmured under his breath, "The reminiscence has nothing to do with the mood, Prince Noctis. It is the Crystal's doing, and it's, alone. What one has forgotten, the Crystallite has power to bring back memories to its rightful place."
He approached the huge, faltering rock. Cautiously, he entered into the small, crooked gap which served as the opening to the interior of the Crystal. With its hollow space inside, it was like that of a cave. Except, instead of stalagmites and stalactites composed of earthly materials, its composition was pure crystal—hard, glassy and pointed.
Aenois searched for a spot inside. He walked towards it after finding the rightful place for the Caelum son's Crystallite. A crystal stalagmite which shot from the bottom had a nearly flat surface. Aeonis placed down the rock and there, at the centermost part of the Crystal's interior, rested a lone Crystallite.
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a/n: thanks for the awesome reviews of the previous chapter! so now, tell me what you think of this one! please Review, Comment, Criticize! Doomo Arigatou~! :D