Time passed and Cor was gone again, she didn't see him for years as the war with Niflheim was reaching a critical point and he had gone to the other continent to make sure they wouldn't be returning the Lucis anytime soon. She had turned to chase the Kingsglaives around and pestered Captain Drautos when she got the chance.

So the good captain got fed up with her and threw her at his unsuspecting subordinates, who had to accomplish the extravagant challenges she set with the help of little Noctis and some suggestions from her father from time to time. Some Glaives started to hate her appearance in the training grounds more than that of their Captain, because all her fun challenges got turned into the most gruesome exhausting training by Drautos. In one of those trips to the training grounds she found out she couldn't use magic.

Aelia was seated in a wall on the track field, her fourteenth birthday had just passed a couple of days ago and she was very happy. The candies Lord Amicitia had given her were so many she had brought the jar to share with the Glaives, who were running through the debris that worked as obstacles in the track. This time she had counted four Glaives who had fallen from the second story after making bad warping throws, Libertus included. This challenge wasn't so hard! They just had to make a blind throw to a random wall that she chose from time to time as they dodged projectiles from some Crownsguards.

Her eyes followed the leaping and warping figures of the soldiers who were not out in the battle front right now, luckily it was the turn of Nyx, Crow and Libertus to be here. They were the ones who indulged her the most, unlike Captain Drautos who since becoming Captain didn't entertain her as he did, when he used to be part of the Crownsguards. He was getting worse every day, this time he hadn't accepted any of the bright coloured candies, saying he didn't like sweets! Aelia scowled. Who didn't like sweets?

"If you keep your face like that for too long it will stick like that, you know." Nyx's voice made her turn her head, realizing that the drill was over now and all its participants could get a short rest before going to spar.

"That's not true." Aelia sniffed indignantly.

"Wanna bet princess?" He chuckled and sat beside her.

"If you keep being so annoying I won't give you any candy!"

"Did I hear candies?" Libertus asked, still a little breathless from the running and jumping.

"Here!" Aelia said happily and extended the jar to him.

"Oh! These are the good ones, from that store up in Terra Street." Libertus took a good handful of them and popped an orange one into his mouth.

"Hey! Give me some, you pig!" Crow elbowed him on the ribs and stole half of what was on his hand. Libertus only laughed and kept eating.

Nyx chuckled at his friends bickering and took a couple of the sweet threats for himself. "Selena would probably like some of these." He said pensively. "I better remember to take some back home."

"Everyone likes candies, except Captain Drautos!" Aelia commented, still indignant at the rejection of her candies.

"He doesn't like sweets." Nyx said laughing.

Aelia sniffed. "I don't get how you couldn't."

Nyx shrugged and one of his kukri reflected the midday light, it immediately caught her attention and the sudden desire to leap like the Glaives had been doing it a short moment ago filled her. It wasn't the first time the idea of trying to use magic had crossed her mind, but her father had told her it would be better to wait for her to be a little older. So far she had listened, but warping a little distance wouldn't be dangerous.

"Can I try to warp?" Aelia asked eagerly.

Nyx paused midway of throwing another candy into his mouth, then lowered his hand. "I don't know Princess, it can be pretty ugly the first time you do it."

"You mean getting sick like Libertus still does?" Aelia asked innocently.

Crow and Nyx laughed and Libertus complained about having motion sickness.

"Yeah, you will probably throw up and feel very dizzy." Nyx explained.

"But I'll do it some day anyways." Once Aelia put a notion in her head it was very difficult to pull her out of it and they knew it, and they could do it now where she could be supervised or she would do it later on her own and Astrals knew what could happen.

Nyx sighed. "Alright, but don't cry after you throw up all your insides."

"I won't! Promise!" She exclaimed happily.

After that Nyx had lended her his kukri which had the magic needed to make the connection for the warp and given her a small explanation of what to search for. She had understood it quickly and had eagerly made her first attempt, which failed miserably. But if Aelia had to admit to her flaw of mulishens that had plagued her since young, and had managed to do it at her fourth try. Just as Nyx had warned, she threw up and then fainted, which in itself wasn't surprising nor worrying, but the dead giveaway that something was wrong was the moment that she didn't wake up until two days later.

Aelia felt as if someone had put cotton in her mouth, her whole body ached and it was a struggle to make her eyelids open up and remain open. She tried to talk but just an unintelligible mumble came out of her lips.

"Princess! You're awake!" The familiar voice of her handmaid, Lysa, helped awake her a little more.

Aelia mumbled a yes, or she thought she did, but now she wanted some water, her throat felt so dry and so did her mouth. It was very good that Lysa had been attending to her since Aelia had memory because she had a sixth sense now to get what she needed before she asked.

"You want some water?" Lysa asked.

Aelia nodded and soon after she was being moved to a sitting position and a straw was touching her lips. She took a careful sip, then another and it seemed it was just what she needed to get finally fully awake.

After drinking the whole glass she looked around, she was in her room and the clock beside her pointed at midday. Aelia scratched the back of her head, she scrunched her nose at the soreness every movement brought, it was like when she had started training for her sword lessons, only now it was all over her body, not just her legs or arms and back. Aelia tried to recollect what had happened, but it was still kind of fuzzy.

"What happened?" She finally asked, while Lysa remained patiently waiting at her side for her to come about.

"You used too much magic and fainted." Lysa answered simply.

Aelia frowned, the memories of candies and throwing up coming back slowly.

"The King wished to speak to you once you woke up, I'll send for him." Lysa said walking to the door of her room.

"Am I in trouble?" Aelia asked worriedly.

Lysa smiled a little sadly. "No, you're not Princess."

Aelia sighed and slumped back, not really putting any mind to her maid's sad expression. After delivering the message to one of the guards outside her chamber's doors, Lysa returned and filled the waiting silence with her usual prattle, which Aelia was too tired to answer much to, but appreciated listening to her maid's usual nonsense. Until half an hour had passed and the telltale of opening doors and heavy footsteps announced her dad's arrival. Aelia was still apprehensive to a potential lecture of bothering the training Glaives, but steeled herself to accept it in good grace.

The door to her room opened and her dad's tired eyes met hers, a shy smile appeared in her face and some of the worry in the King's eyes went away. Lysa bowed to the King and made her way out of the room, closing the door behind her, leaving them alone.

Regis made his way slowly to her daughter's side and sat down beside her in the bed.

"How are you feeling?" Dad's voice was soft as he passed his hand through her hair.

Aelia was relieved that he wasn't mad, but felt guilty to add to his worries. "I'm fine-" Her dad's knowing look told her he knew she wasn't being honest, so she amended. "Just a little tired and sore."

"No nausea or headaches?" He asked for good measure.

Aelia shook her head energetically.

"That's good then." Regis said, relieved.

Aelia clenched her fingers on her mattress as her dad went into pensive silence while still caressing her head.

"Is something wrong?" Aelia asked meekly.

Regis blinked out of his reverie and looked down at her. "You were asleep for two days, Aelia."

Aelia frowned and remembered she had been down with the Glaives around the same time she had seen on the clock when she woke up. "Oh." Was the only thing that escaped her lips.

"That- that isn't normal, is it?" She asked, looking into her dad's eyes again. They were kind as always, but a little sad.

"No, it's not." He agreed. "In the records of our family, many who aren't chosen by the Crystal as the next king don't have access to the magic or, like in your case, are very weak at it."

"Oh."

Yes, 'oh' was the only thing she had managed to say, her mind a crackling chaos as many of her expectations for her future involved the use of magic, and her father had known it. Young Aelia had wanted to become a warrior princess, fight against the Empire, be like The Rogue Queen and so on. Aelia smiled, those days had been nice, spending time with her dad and little adorable Noctis… Still, she hadn't taken it too well and really-, teenagers can be so dramatic! As if most didn't grow out of dreams and aspirations and turned to more realistic, centered ones. She laughed at her younger self, it was good to do so from time to time as it helped to reflect on her growth and changes. And then, as war with Niflheim started to be won and they started to retreat far overseas, the unexpected happened.

Horrible things often happen when you aren't expecting them at all. But perhaps as part of the Royal family of Lucis she should've known something like this would eventually happen. And maybe she wouldn't have minded as much, if it was just her, but Noctis had only been eighth.

Aelia and Noctis had accompanied the King to visit some of the towns that were being repopulated after it had been determined that it was safe enough as the Nifs had left this side of the sea completely. Some whispers of strange creatures stalking at night had been shared here and there, but as no hunter had seen any of these so far, it hadn't been paid too much mind to.

Aelia sighed at the passing night scenery, she looked down at her side when Noctis mumbled something in his sleep then snuggled closer to her side. She smiled and moved a bit to accommodate him better under her arm, Noctis was exhausted after a day of excitement after their father had taken him fishing for the first time. He had loved it, both Aelia and the King had been amused at his enthusiasm for it. They had contrived some free time in the last town they were visiting and the townspeople had recommended fishing in a pond that was nearby, so they had gone there. Aelia really hadn't participated in it, she had just walked around under the shade of the trees that surrounded the pond and taken in her laughing father and little brother, not really caring to get all wet and touch flapping fishes. Those moments were so rare… But everything good had to come to an end and their dad sent them ahead back to Insomnia as he finished some talks with the hunters of the area.

"Can we return to catch more fishes, Aelia?" Noctis asked sleepy as he snuggled close to her, getting ready to fall asleep for the rest of their way back.

"I don't know. I'll ask dad about it." She extended a blanket over his legs and caressed his hair. "But there are many other places where you can go fishing as well."

"Really? I want to go to all of them then…" He said and yawned, before long he was asleep.

She smiled and gazed at the passing scenery and the setting sun. They had been on the road for half an hour when Aelia's gaze sharpened when a sudden sense of foreboding assaulted her, the hairs on the back of her neck raised and she pulled Noctis closer as she opened her mouth to talk to the Crownsguard driving. Whatever she had planned to say was forgotten when the car of the royal escort in front of them vired and turned violently, crashing outside of the road. In that moment Aelia knew they were about to follow the same fate, so she pulled painfully at the little magic she had access to and created a barrier surrounding her and Noctis.

"Aelia? What-?" Noctis had come awake by the screeching noise of the other car, but couldn't finish his confused question as their world was lurched violently.

Aelia couldn't remember much of the crash, she had been completely focused on sustaining the shield around herself and Noctis. Then she had blacked out for the strong use of magic, she had never tried to maintain a shield of that size and as solid as it had been. When she came back to her senses she was dizzy as hell, there was chaos everywhere she looked and Noctis wasn't there. She felt like throwing up and her muscles felt like they were being pierced by needles, Aelia just wanted to curl up and wait for the pain to go away. But she remembered the almost crazy single-minded thought to find Noctis.

Later on she had found him, there was so much blood around him and he had been so pale she thought he was dead. And nearby Crownsguards were fighting an enormous snake-woman monster. Aelia just sat there staring blankly at her little brother, until a familiar shout and ozone smell made her snap her head up to watch her father unleashing all the power of the Armiger on the foul beast. It had snapped her up enough to crawl the rest of the way to Noctis and pour the healing potion she always carried around and luckily hadn't broken on the crash. He stirred and Aelia had never in her life felt more relieved and thankful to the Astrals.

Then she fainted again and woken up two days later to the news Noctis was alive but he was badly injured and he wasn't waking up.

Cor had come back after he heard of the incident, Aelia hadn't seen him for the first two weeks or so he had been back. She honestly hadn't really cared about it, too anxious and angry about Noctis still not waking up after the attack; she divided her time into being by his bedside and the training grounds not wanting to worsen her dad's worries by acting abnormal. Nothing good had come out of that. Weskham, who had been the one taking care of her training instead of Cor even if he had been the one to promise it, was in Altissia at the moment so the Crownsguards had gone to him instead. They were worried she might get hurt and she heeded none of their warnings.

Cor used this time to test her and see what style she had developed and how she could become better. Aelia remembered hating those days, he had driven her to her bare bones without mercy. In retrospect, she could see now he had done so deliberately to help unwind her frustration at her helplessness while keeping an eye on her.

That's when she started to admire him a lot,-well, a lot more - almost borderline in worship after one time of watching him spar against the Kingsglaives. As odd as it seemed, she suspected that that had been the start of her heart telling her it would not look at any other man on the planet…

"When you hold your guard like that, it's easy for your opponent to disarm you." Cor said, taping the point of her saber to the side.

Aelia had been stubborn since young, so she wasn't ready to give up so easily the form she had found rather comfortable. "I'm telling you it isn't so bad." She said and twirled the sword in her hand.

He arched his eyebrow. "Alright, then show me." He said simply, unsheathing his katana.

She gaped, after all, she had never actually gone against him, thus far he had only corrected her movements and showcased others for her to learn. "Well- that's… you mean right now?"

A small smile crossed his face and it was the first time she had seen him smile. "Yes. Unless you're not sure…"

He was mocking her!

"Fine then!" She had said petulantly and stood ready to start, holding her guard as he had told her not to do.

To be honest, back then she had been really stupid, and it had come as a surprise to no one when her sword was sent flying away in less than a second. But still she had been too stubborn to admit being in the wrong so easily. After all, she felt the need to prove that she wasn't weak, that if Noctis was in danger again in front of her, she would be ready to protect him, magic or no magic. Even if her father had told her it wasn't something to feel bad about she had still felt like a failure, it had stung.

She was rubbing her wrist, it ached by the force her sword had been ripped away from her.

"That's not fair, you're way stronger and faster than me!"

He threw her a smug look. "I didn't use even half of my force and was rather slow, if you had a proper guard you could have stopped it." He said sheathing his sword.

She gritted her teeth. "One more time then!" She ran to where her sword had flung and picked it quickly.

Cor didn't seem impressed, but knew the only way to get through that thick skull was to show her several times that she was, indeed, in the wrong. Around the fifth time she asked to try again, Cor finally lost his patience, he took her by the shoulders and stilled her.

"Enough. It doesn't work." He said severely.

Aelia wanted to argue, to say it would if she worked more on it, but her words died in her throat against the cold gaze of the Marshal. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and her eyes dropped down to watch the floor. She heard Cor sigh, he removed one hand from her shoulder, the other one stayed a comforting weight.

"You don't have anything to prove. Even if you cannot use magic, that doesn't mean you are useless or weak. What happened to Noctis isn't your fault. Remember there are other forms of strength besides the sword and magic." His voice wasn't gentle, but it didn't have its usual cold or contemptuous edge either.

Aelia had chewed her lip, an anxious habit she had developed when she felt the urge to cry. "But what if-" She stopped and swallowed the urge to sob. "-what if it happens again, and I-"

"It won't happen again." Cor said so surely that Aelia couldn't help but be certain of its truesness. "Now that we know there's someone after Noctis, we won't let our guard down. It shouldn't have happened to begin with, but we grew complacent after making the Empire retreat so much."

After that, she stopped training so much with swords as Weskham wasn't coming back for the time being, so she had to go instead for the standard Crownsguard training with guns. You didn't need to be stronger or bigger to win with those, just aim and shoot. And thus, days passed and as weeks went by and Noctis didn't progress in his healing, so her father decided to take him to Tenebrae to seek healing from the Oracle.

So far it didn't seem like the Princess was very busy, so the likelihood of meeting her was very low. Cor thought that not looking at her would make it easier to not think about what happened the night before, but to his annoyance it was the contrary, as some worry started to grow in him. And so when he had become distracted and of course Clarus had noticed as he passed him some paperwork that needed his inspection and approval.

"You seem distracted today." Clarus mentioned.

"I didn't sleep well, that's all."

"Injuries bothering you?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Then, perhaps… is something else bothering you?"

Now Cor glared at his meddling friend.

"No."

Clarus raised his eyebrows slightly, then smiled and changed the topic.

"Gladio has been eager to train with you again now that you're out of the sickbed."

Cor relaxed, it was easy to talk about the young Shield's training. "I'll amuse him one of these days then."

Clarus nodded, then they continued to talk about the new changes in security and new protocols for some time and just as they were about to end their conversation when the door burst open and a small running eleven old Iris ran to her father. Gladio came in just after, he probably had been chasing her to stop her from doing exactly that.

"Papa!" Iris happily jumped up and down, a small kitty in her arms. "Can I keep this kitty?"

Small children always amused Cor as long as their attention wasn't directed at him, even if he had a clear image of the young future Shield and of Noctis and his advisor, he hardly could remember Aelia as a young child. He was sure he had just seen her younger than her late teenage years just a couple of times, he wondered what kind of child she had been. The inefficiency of Gladio to calm down his little sister and take her away from their father in his working hours, reminded him of the Princess around children, mainly caused by the stark contrast Gladio's inefficiency was presenting right now.

The teenage Princess nearly crashed into him while turning a corner.

"Sorry!" She said and was about to get past him, but he grabbed her arm.

"What is it, Princess?" If something was wrong, he'd rather know it now. "Is something wrong with Noctis?"

The worry and fear reflected there told him it was.

"No… Yes." She looked a little harassed. "I don't know. He has been awake for almost a week already… But he can't walk, Cor." The Princess was trying hard to not cry.

Cor almost sighed, he had already heard this from Regis, it wasn't easy for the King and the Princess knew it, so she avoided her father when distressed. And again as some weeks before when the Crownsguards had told him she was obsessively in the training grounds doing stupid shit, he knew she didn't have anyone to go to express her worries or who to console her. Aulea was gone and Cor knew she had taken upon herself the role of a mother-like figure for Noctis so she had to be strong and lighthearted when around him, especially now that he was sick. But she was only seventeen.

And honestly Cor wasn't good in this kind of situation with too much emotion, any other of his friends would be better at this. So he put his hand on her head and said whatever came to mind.

"It could be worse." Cor almost winced, that wasn't very helpful.

Aelia looked at him quizzically behind watery eyes and sniffled, then passed one finger under her nose. "Is that the best you can think to say?"

"I've never been good at this kind of thing." Cor said, taking away his hand from her head now that he had successfully avoided dealing with a crying girl.

The Princess smiled gently and even laughed a little. "No. But I think it's fine. Sometimes it's better this way."

Cor raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Is it?"

"Mhm." She nodded, then added in a soft voice. "It helps avoid too serious moments. There's been enough of those lately, right?"

"Some." Cor said and smiled. And for some reason she stared at him with a strange glint in her eye. But it was broken by the quiet steps of a child. It was Ignis, who was obviously in search of the Princess.

"Princess." He said very formally for a nine year old.

"Ignis? Something's the matter?" Aelia asked, hiding her anxiety very well from her voice if not in her eyes.

"Noctis doesn't want to eat his lunch." Ignis said solemnly.

"Ah." The Princess relaxed her shoulders. "I see. I'll go to see him now. Have you eaten yet?"

Ignis shook his head. "Not yet, I wanted to make sure Noctis ate first."

Aelia smiled fondly and bent down a little. "If you do that then you'll starve yourself more often than not! What would you like to eat?"

"Me?" Ignis now became a little awkward. "Anything is fine."

"Anything?" A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes, then she turned to Cor. "What do you say, Marshal? What's the worst you have eaten?" And Ignis stiffened.

"Something cooked by your father most likely." Cor had eaten many awful things in his lifetime, but Regis cooking was something else.

"That's not an option I'm afraid." She said, tapping her chin. Then ruffled Ignis's hair and laughed at his scared look. "So how about we go to the kitchen and you help me pick several things and see if Noctis will eat some of it?"

Ignis nodded and smiled a little shyly but relieved realizing the Princess had been teasing him.

Gladio finally got fed up with his sister and just picked her up, putting her under her arm ignoring her kicking and screaming. Clarus meanwhile just had a pained expression in his face, but said nothing to stop his eldest.

"How about a spar later, Marshal?" Gladio said, stopping midway out, as if he didn't have a bellowing child under his arm.

"Not today, I'm busy. Maybe in a couple of days." Cor wasn't really that busy, but he wasn't in the mood to play either. And hurting Clarus' son because he was annoyed wasn't his idea of fun.

Gladio nodded understandingly and waved. The door closed and Cor excused himself as well from Clarus's office to return to his own with all the new paperwork. As he walked down the corridor and watched a little ahead to Gladio now trying to coax Iris out of crying, Cor smiled and shook his head. Was it so hard to be an older sibling? He didn't know, after all he had always been the little brother of his friends and maybe he could see now he had been a pain in the ass sometimes. Time passed so fast, in the blink of an eye his friends had already had children, -Cid even had a grown granddaughter- when for Cor it seemed so close when the five of them traveled and fought together.

Cor looked into the mirror briefly to see the young Prince snuggled close to his siste,r soundly asleep in the right side of the car, while the King was reading some documents on the left side and not paying attention to the passing scenery.

"How can you read while the car's moving? I get sick just thinking about it." The Princess said after a while.

Regis chuckled. "It's an ability that comes with being the King."

"I'm sure it has nothing to do with being King. You're just weird." She muttered the last part but everyone in the car still could hear it. Cor couldn't help but smile, teenagers sure learned fast to not respect their elders.

Regis smiled again, but chose not to answer and keep doing exactly what bothered his daughter so much. Yes, Cor could remember Regis being very good at irking people when he wanted to, and it seemed his children were not exempted from this treatment. After some time Aelia joined her brother into the dreaming realm, as their trip to the harbor was several hours long and she could only pester her father for so long until she got bored. Now that both his children were asleep Regis finally talked about their next move against Niflheim.

"From the last report, our troops and those of Tenebrae had located the remaining encampments near Hambra."

"Yes, I'll be leaving as soon as you are in Fenestala." Cor already knew of this, but they hadn't had the chance to talk it out until now.

"I'll send Captain Drautos with you this time. And two units of the Glaives."

Cor tapped a little impatiently on the steering wheel, after all there were only three units of Glaives and one had remained back in the Crown City. "And who will guard you?"

"The Crownsguard." Regis answered patiently, knowing Cor wasn't happy about it.

"Just like they did Noctis a month ago?" Cor bite out, he wasn't happy about the attack that almost took the Crown Prince's life. Even if there was nothing he could have done as he had been at Tenebrae's border fighting the Empire, it still felt as if he had failed somehow.

Regis sighed. "They buyed enough time, so I arrived in time. They did their job."

"But it wasn't enough. He almost died."

Regis went quiet and Cor knew he was looking at his children.

"Yes. But how many more children will die if we slow our advance? We can't live in fear, and as strong as we are for now, we can't win this war if we step down." Regis said with melancholy lacing every word.

Cor breathed out. "No, nor I'm suggesting we do. But I would be more at ease if you kept at least Drautos with you."

"I'm not that old yet, whatever Drautos could do is but a sliver of what I can do to anyone who tries to hurt my children again." The calm way that Regis said it was by far more alarming than if he had said it with a passion.

So Cor knew the matter was settled and the King had imparted his orders. Quiet reigned over the car again, only broken by the ruffling of papers in Regis' hands, then he chuckled softly and said,

"You know, some years ago, you'd agree with me in the blink of an eye."

"I've matured a little since. Twenty years will do that." Cor answered dryly, not thinking too highly of his overly impulsive past-self.

Now more than twenty five years since he met Regis, but it still felt like yesterday. And it had started to unnerve him how time moved and he hadn't noticed, he hadn't noticed how the daughter of Regis had seemed to appear out of nowhere. So sudden that when he thought or saw the Princess he didn't make the association of who's daughter she was, she was just Aelia. And she had done a damn good job at making it that way, hadn't she?

The rest of the way had gone peacefully. The Glaives following them were happy to be able to pass through Galahad, as many were from there. They could spend some hours with their families and friends before going to end the war for good, some of them might not return.

They had spent the night in Gaeris and boarded to Tenebrae from the newly reconstructed port on Borsegn the next morning. Regis had wanted to take his children to watch the fireflies in a pond on the outskirts of Gaeris in hopes Noctis would regain some spirits, since he had been depressed since he had woken up. And of course Cor tagged along to make sure a coeurl wouldn't jump out from a bush.

Truthfully it was kind of a magic in itself the picture nature presented in such a simple way. Regis was carrying Noctis and the young Prince's eyes sparkled and a ghost of a smile came into his face. As the King and his youngest walked along the pond where the water reflected the stars and the glimmering fireflies, the Princess remained a little behind watching them from afar. He walked to her and saw her smile when Noctis reached for one of the flying luminous bugs.

"Bored already?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Aelia moved her eyes to him briefly then back to her family. "No. I always like to watch them in moments like this. Dad has very little time to spend with us most days… and children grow so fast, before we know it Noctis will be all grown up. And we'll both be able to carry him around anymore."

Cor looked down to the Princess, as if she wasn't much more of a child herself, he thought in some amusement. But he conceded that she wasn't anymore of an age to be carried and coddled about. He wondered how many of those moments had Regis missed with his daughter.

"Are you talking of your own experience?"

She laughed. "I had mom around to coddle me enough to not miss dad that much. But Noctis wasn't as lucky."

"He has a big sister." Cor pointed out.

She smiled a little, but didn't answer. Then she went into a pensive silence, until she finally asked. "Is there a chance for the Empire to make a comeback?"

"It seems unlikely." Cor answered noncommittally.

"Unlikely." She breathed out. "But we're going to chase them back until they can't."

An assertion. Cor started to suspect she had actually been listening in on the talk he had with the King while they had been making their way here.

"Yes. We must draw them back as much as we can."

"And our biggest asset are the Kingsglaives."

"Yes."

"Without them we'd be in trouble. And the sure way to get rid of them is killing the King." The Princess said restrainedly.

"If they could have done that, they would've already done it."

"Yes…" She looked up into the night sky. "I just wish there was more I could do to help. As I am- " And she stopped.

"The best you can do now is to help your brother heal and be there for your father as well. Even if he's the King of Lucis, he still needs the strength and support of those close to him in more ways than just drawing a sword and charging into battle. That will keep the Kingdom uphold." It was obvious and simple, but sometimes it's exactly what you need to remember. Not grandiose acts of courage or the perfect discourse, sometimes the best one can do is being there.

"But is that enough?" She whispered.

He had said nothing beyond that, knowing well that he could say no more to help her. He knew the feeling of helplessness that ate at her; knowing she was part of the lineage blessed by the Crystal and yet unable to use its blessings to keep her brother safe, relieve some burdens from her father and help her kingdom.

It was when he started to see her as more than just the daughter of his friend; she was a princess of Lucis and she would do what she must to help protect those who needed it.