Chapter Text
This didn’t feel like a victory.
It should have in a way. Noctis was safe. Leviathan had given him her blessing. Ardyn was retreating, a pithy comment about being moved by such a grand display of devotion serving as the only explanation Ignis was ever going to get as to why considering the power of the Ring of the Lucii had already faded and the bloody chancellor was still standing. The same couldn’t be said of the MTs Ardyn brought with him. They decorated the Altar of the Tidemother in pieces, torn asunder by Ignis’s knives and rage and borrowed magic. The destruction was impressive, but as the Ring took its final dues and agony forced Ignis to the flat of his back on the ground, he realized it didn’t feel like a victory because in many other ways, it was not.
There was the aforementioned bloody chancellor and the still standing. Gone for now simply meant he’d be back later and the gods only knew what sort of affable cruelty he’d offer upon his return.
There had been the sight of Lady Lunafreya lying at the Altar’s end. She had died smiling, despite her injury, despite the chaos roiling all around. Ignis wondered if seeing Noctis alone had been enough to have given her the hope she had apparently left this world with. He wondered if, without an Oracle, the rest of the world would be able to share that same feeling.
There was Ravus, knocked back by...whatever the hell that magic was that Ardyn had used. Ignis had lost track of him during the fight with Ardyn and didn’t know whether the man was alive or dead. Given the grief he had felt upon finding his sister’s body, Ignis didn’t know which state Ravus would have prefered either.
There was the pain burning throughout him. He could feel the scars forming on his skin, the flesh seared away in rivulets . He had to force himself to breathe through clenched teeth, a task that grew more difficult as he realized the darkening of his vision wasn’t from wincing. His eyes were wide open yet the blue sky was falling into black as spots of orange flared and died before him.
And then there was the voice of a god echoing in his head, telling him all the victories they ever could win would lead to one and only one conclusion. Noctis would die.
Could fate really be this cruel? Noctis had already lost his father, his home, and his fiancee in such a short span of days. He’d endured the trials of the Astrals and proven himself worthy of their aid. Yet more must be sacrificed. He was worthy of nothing more than dying at the annointed hour for a duty thrust upon him to stop something started thousands of years before he was born.
Heavy footsteps sounded against the stone of the altar. It must have been Ravus, alive after all, coming towards him but even if Ignis could have turned his head, darkness would have been all he could see. Everything else had burned away.
He couldn’t panic. Not him, not now. Ignis focused on his breathing again, trying to keep it deep and steady. The fire that had roared through his body was subsiding. The Ring apparently was content with taking his vision over his life. A good bargain, a better one than most not of Lucian royal blood had ever gotten. He should have been grateful. He should have been relieved.
Ignis wanted to scream.
He listened instead to Ravus chastising him at first for his recklessness then complimenting him on his resilience. Both were actually high praise considering the source. Then Ignis felt a weight shift away from him, heard the rustle of Ravus’s heavy leather coat; Ravus was leaving. There wasn’t anything here for him anymore.
Gladio and Prompto should have arrived by now. They’d been a few streets away when Ignis had last spoken to them. But navigating Altissia had been tricky and time consuming when the city hadn’t been a ruin of water and wreckage. How long would it take for them to find him and Noctis when it was? As strong as was he trying to be, Ignis knew he couldn’t take waiting in this new darkness with Noctis unconscious and unprotected. He knew what would happen if someone other than help appeared.
“Wait.” It came out as a whimper. So be it. I’ll beg if I have to. “Stay. Please. My eyes...I can’t see...The Ring took my sight. Gladio, Prompto...they’re coming...but I can’t...I can’t…” I can’t do anything was what he should have said.
Ignis heard nothing but the waves and his own breathing. Then, finally, he felt leather brush against his hand and a presence settled over him. He looked over out of habit, expecting as he did it to see nothing in return, yet he swore he could make out a fall of white hair. He swore he could make out the faint colors of Ravus’s odd eyes. Then his vision reverted to blackness and he didn’t know if he conjured the image out of memory or if he really saw it.
“I owe you this much,” Ravus said. “Even if our endeavors did not-”
There was no need to voice their failure in saving Lady Lunafreya. Ignis felt it too. He wouldn’t do Ravus the insult of claiming he felt it nearly as keenly yet Ignis had set out to save her and Noctis both. True, it had been for Noct’s sake mostly and secondly, because she’d been the Oracle and Eos needed her healer. Ignis didn’t know much of her beyond the little he’d teased out of Noctis regarding their written exchanges and what he’d gleaned from television and radio broadcasts. She’d always come across as a compassionate, dutiful woman.
And this is where it led her, Ignis thought. He didn’t want to think of where duty was leading Noctis. Leaving this altar alive was a step towards his death. Success would yield the ultimate loss and Ignis’s own duty was to ensure that Noctis reached that end however he could.
“It isn’t fair,” Ignis said. He didn’t mean to usurp Ravus’s grief for his sister for grief of his own for a friend that still lived. ‘It isn’t fair’ though, covered so many things.
“The gods only ask of us what they know we are capable of giving.” It was an old saying, meant to uplift those in suffering. Ravus delivered it with a sneer and Ignis found he couldn’t argue with the cynical take.
“The gods really are assholes, aren’t they?”
That earned a half laugh from Ravus, but he quickly went morose again. After a heavy silence, he began to tell Ignis something that caused the blinded man to both despair and hope. “I expected this outcome, perhaps not in the way it came to be, but I feared Lunafreya would never leave Altissia.”
“The covenants were killing her,” he continued. “The price of healing is the health of the healer. To speak to the gods extracts an even heavier toll. She was willing to pay it, no matter how much I begged her to reconsider.”
Ignis remembered the confrontation back at the Imperial base and how furious Ravus had been at Noctis, screaming at him for not understanding the cost of Ramuh’s blessing. Now Ignis thought he understood. “Your anger at Noctis...it wasn’t really about Regis but Lady Lunafreya?”
“A charitable interpretation. But no, I didn’t think Noctis worthy, certainly not of my sister’s life. But she believed. The King of Light. King of Kings. This feckless boy, this son of man who demanded aid but offered none of his own, would somehow ascend and save us all from the darkness.”
A coldness took hold of Ignis. The things Ravus was saying - they were not so unlike the words of the god in the vision Pryna gave him. Of course, she was the Oracle’s messenger. The Oracle herself would have known. It raised the question of how much the Oracle’s brother knew as well.
“King of Kings,” Ignis repeated softly. “She was following the prophecy, wasn’t she?”
“You know of it?” Ravus sounded surprised. “She spoke of his destiny often enough when Noctis was at the manor, but he never showed any greater understanding of what she was saying. For him, it was a fairytale. I wondered if he even remembered it to share it.”
A fairytale. Noct essentially killing himself to save the world was a nightmare, not a bedtime story. But Lady Lunafreya and Noctis had been children back then. She wouldn’t have told him of his death. She might have been too young herself to have known.
“What was she told?” Ignis demanded. “What was she to do? What was Noctis to do?”
Ravus sounded irritated by the interrogation but he explained what he could. “She was told she was to be the Oracle to guide the True King on his path as set out by the gods themselves. She was to commune with those self-same gods and convince them to lend their strength to the king. She accepted her role without complaint, without question. Why would she not? A glorious destiny indeed, if you omit her fate when her duty was done. She claimed it as her choice, even as the consequences became clear, but how can one who owes her power to the gods defy their commands? How can anyone make a true choice with two thousand years of duty in their blood?”
Ignis knew that Ravus’s bitterness was earned just as he knew he’d be asking all the same questions about Noctis in the days that were to come and likely with equal acrimony. There was one thing in particular that he needed to know now though. His voice shook with fear in hearing an answer that would only confirm what he had heard. “And where does the path of the True King end?”
“Ridding our star of its scourge. Restoring the light. As to how, I cannot say. I only know the Ring and the Crystal have their part.”
“No, I mean, what happens to the True King once he’s succeeded?” It came out as nearly a growl. Ravus had to know more about the prophecy. There had to be something that could done about it. There had to be some detail Ignis could find and use to thwart it.
His anger was noted. “What is it that you wish me to say?” Ravus asked, not unkindly. “I know only what Lunafreya shared with me but you speak as if you know something more. Something you do not wish to know.”
Ignis didn’t want to say it aloud. It was childish. He knew ancient, powerful beings had already decreed what was to pass millenia ago. Him repeating it wasn’t going to give it power any more than keeping silent would make it go away. Logically, he knew this. But even Ignis was not motivated solely by logic. He could have ended this conversation and waited silently for Gladio and Prompto and never have spoken a word of the prophecy again because who was he to challenge the gods? Who was he to darken however many days Noctis had left with the knowledge of his own doom?
Who was he? Noct’s friend and advisor, sworn to protect and guide him. And he was here with the one man on Eos who may have best understood the despair inherent in a bleak future that’s determined to come and who had literally fought the gods to stop it.
“Pryna...as she faded away…” The absurdity of ‘the dog gave me a vision’ almost made Ignis laugh despite the horror. He went on, stumbling through a recounting of the vision and he was reduced to stammering when he came to the sacrifice required of the True King.
“I think,” Ravus said after a long pause, “that you were far too kind to the gods with your earlier insult.”
Ignis did laugh at that. It was angry and hollow but better than crying. “You didn’t know? Lady Lunafreya didn’t know?”
“She never said, but I can’t imagine. She did not fear her own death, but I believe Noctis’s would have given her pause. She struggled as she did out of love and faith for him. For her quest to end as you claim, I cannot imagine her knowingly leading Noctis to the slaughter. Not without warning him. It was not within her to be so cruel.”
“Is it cruel to keep it from him?” Ignis asked. “Or crueler to tell him so he has to live knowing of the knife fate has put at his throat?” Ignis couldn’t say for himself if he would have wanted to have that knowledge. Knowing about Noctis was awful enough. No, he thought, it’s worse.
Ravus though had no doubts. “I would wish to know. Whether it be so I can prepare myself to accept it or to prepare myself to fight it.”
It was an answer Ignis could respect. He was still unsure, at least with the part on telling Noctis. The part about preparing to fight against it, he wanted to believe in with the whole of his heart.
“Do you think it’s even possible to fight?”
“I did not hunt the gods for sport, Scientia. Without an Astral, there would be no covenant to forge and no sacrifice for my sister to make. A simplistic notion, and a failure in the end, but the desperate will cling to whatever purchase they may find.”
“I understand,” Ignis said and this time, he did, completely. If he was anything, it was desperate. He had no delusions of fighting the Astrals. As Ravus said, it had become a moot point anyway. Three covenants made, Shiva and Ifrit gone from this world, and Bahamut within the very crystal they sought to reclaim from Niflheim - there was no one to fight. In his current state, the most he could have hoped for was to amuse them with his blind flailings until they took pity. Maybe that was all he needed to hope for. A prophecy was a decree from the gods. Could a prophecy be broken merely by getting those gods to change their minds?
That was an even simpler notion than trying to kill them. But it was the only notion he had. In time, he might have come up with more. He just needed to learn more about the Astrals and about the prophecy. For two thousand years, the greatest source of knowledge of the Astrals had been the Oracle line. Granted their power by Bahamut, they’d been keepers of the faith and lore ever since. Countless pilgrims had flocked to Tenebrae to study in the library in Fenestala Manor or to seek audience with the Oracle and glean knowledge from her.
And currently, the last of that line was kneeling beside Ignis, amenable to questioning so far, very likely in need of a new job, and very much predisposed to defying the Astrals in any way he could. Ignis had made good use of this chance to get some information; he needed now to make sure he’d have more chances in the future.
“You were raised in the faith?” Ignis asked.
“And given ample reason to abandon it.”
“Yes, but you were taught all about the Astrals. You knew some of the prophecy. You might know something, anything that could subvert it. I know you’re no stranger to trying.”
“For Noctis’s sake?”
“For Lady Lunafreya’s sake. You know she would have wanted Noct to live.” Of course, not fifteen minutes earlier, Ravus had threatened to kill Noctis and had only been stayed by one of the hardest fights Ignis had ever fought. By the end, he, like Ignis, had been reduced to feeble shoving, a far cry from a man who had leapt across the battlefield to bring down a mech with a single stab from his sword.
His pride might not have liked it, but Ignis took a guess that there was a reason for that beyond his formidable fighting skills. “I saw you throw Gladio into the Regalia like he was a ragdoll, but I was able to parry your sword with a dagger? You could have thrown me clear off this altar instead of to the ground if you truly cared to. But you didn’t. In all your pain and anger, you held back. You held back because you knew what your sister wanted. You know how much she believed in him and how much she loved him.”
“You strike low, Scientia.”
“I strike strategically. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Ravus didn’t grant him the favor of admitting it. He once again went silent and Ignis was forced to listen to whatever subtle cues he could detect to determine how much further he could push him. It was maddening not being able to see the other man’s expression. So much could be found out in the downturn of the lips or the quirking of a brow to one who knew what to look for. And Ignis knew. He’d studied. He’d read everything he could find, then had moved onto reading every person he came across for practice. Gladio wouldn’t even play poker with him anymore, at least not for money. Ignis hadn’t actually needed the glasses. He’d gotten by well enough without them. But he’d wanted the extra bit of detail perfect vision gave him.
That was all gone now. He wanted to hope that the Ring’s theft of his sight might be temporary but he was too practical to really believe. Ignis had been so focused on the prophecy, it was only now dawning on him how deeply this was going to change things. He’d be a mess in combat, more likely to hinder Noctis than help him. Forget combat, he was going to have to relearn how to walk around without tripping or running into things. He would learn, as quickly as he could, because he had no other choice, but until he did, he discovered he had a use for Ravus beyond the prophecy. Two birds, one stone - Ignis did like being efficient.
Back to begging it was. “I need your help. Not just with knowledge of the Astrals to save Noctis but until I get myself sorted with this blindness, to keep him alive to be able fulfill the non-dying part of the bloody prophecy in the first place.”
“What are you proposing?” For that, Ignis didn’t need to see. Ravus was definitely scowling.
“Travel with us. Let me pick your brain about the Astrals. Let yourself honor your sister’s wishes.”
“I think the Ring took your sanity as well as your sight.”
“Where else are you going to go? Do you think the empire is keen on taking you back? You killed Ulldor. You destroyed countless MTs and mech to get here and threw a knife at Ardyn’s head to save Noct. I believe that’s called treason. I don’t believe Aldercapt will take kindly to it.”
“I care not for what that man thinks.”
“I’m sure that will make him extra pleased when he orders your capture. Or maybe he’ll skip straight to execution. Do you have any plans for what you’re going to do next? Go into hiding? Let yourself be caught?”
Ignis expected further angry dismissals. Ravus surprised him with a quiet confession. “Do you think I had any plans at all for a life beyond Lunafreya’s death?”
In an instant, Ignis thought of multiple retorts he could give to persuade Ravus to join them. He was clever like that. He was also too compassionate for it. Ignis let all the calculated responses die on the tip of his tongue because the truth was, if the circumstances were different, if it was a sleeping Lady Lunafreya and a dead Noctis they’d found upon arrival at the altar, he would be the one at a complete loss on how to go on. “I’m sorry,” he said instead. “I am striking too low. You lost your sister and I’m trying to use that to get you to do what I want. You don’t deserve that. She doesn’t deserve that. I’m just...the thought of losing Noct...”
Again, Ravus defied Ignis’s expectations. A rebuke would have been earned but all he got was Ravus offering that he too understood.
Ignis had no trouble believing . Ravus’s own desperation had taken him to Niflheim and into whatever dark places he could find even the tiniest bit of hope. It had left him with nothing in the end, just as the prophecy threatened to leave Ignis with. Ignis could already imagine the depths he would sink to in the name of desperation if it meant he had a chance to save Noct. Using the Ring had been just a start. And, if he had to, manipulating Ravis, was the next step.
He didn’t have to. There was no fight left in Ravus for anything. “You weren’t wrong about Lunafreya’s wishes. She was afraid she’d grown too weak to both make the covenant and deliver the Ring to Noctis. She asked me to deliver the Ring in her stead.”
“You refused?”
“It was her duty, her right, as the Oracle. I knew she would find the strength and she did. Yet if I had not believed in her, I might have been here at her side to protect her. I should have been regardless. I was so certain I could sway her from her path or clear it of dangers on her behalf. Yet all along I should have been walking it with her.”
“You’ll walk it now? You’ll pick up where she was forced to stop?” Ignis asked, sensing he was giving the answers already.
Minutes passed, but finally, Ravus gave his assent. “I must be as mad as you.”
“A little madness helps with our group, I’ve found.”
“Are you sure it won’t be simply anger? I’ve given the others no reason to trust me.”
“They trust me,” Ignis said, “and I think you know how convincing I can be.” He was sure of both, but some asks were bigger than others. And this ask was going to be huge, especially since he wasn’t ready to share the true reason why he was asking. He’d be lying to his friends, mostly by omission, but lying nonetheless. Lying, though, was sometimes kinder than the truth. In this case, definitely less painful.
Telling Prompto would be akin to kicking a puppy. He was the most sensitive of the four, even if he did his best to hide it. He was also the only one with them purely out of friendship, with no oaths or familial roles passed down for centuries to bind him, just devotion. Talk of fated death in the name of duty was easier to take for someone raised to believe in those roles. For someone who didn’t care about any of that…
Not that Gladio would be much better, maybe like kicking a baby behemoth. Gladio’s feelings ran deep, both out of duty and affection. Telling him, the King’s Shield and brother that he was destined to fail no matter how hard he tried? There was no question that was cruel. Impractical too, because Ignis could already hear Gladio angrily calling the prophecy the bullshit that it was in a volume that would carry all the way back to Lucis. Or at least to Noctis’s ears.
Ravus had a point about wishing to know for himself, but the more Ignis thought of it, the more he was convinced to keep it just between himself and Ravus for now. If they could find a way to subvert the prophecy, then he’d be subjecting his friends to this strife for nothing. More wishful thinking perhaps, but Ignis would rather wish than give up.
There was no time to debate with himself any further. He heard his name and Noct’s being shouted across the canals, Prompto’s voice being nearly as loud as Gladio’s in their zeal to find their friends Ignis almost wanted to chide them for making so much noise. If there were any MTs left in the city, they’d be swarming. But there weren’t and Ignis could be relieved instead, despite the nervousness rising in his throat from what laid ahead.
“Let me do the talking,” he instructed Ravus. “And ix-nay on the ophecy-pray.”
“Are you trying to make me reconsider?”
I’m trying to keep myself calm. It wasn’t working. There was a lot of horrible ground to cover - Lady Lunafreya’s gone, I used the Ring of the Lucii and I’m pretty sure it permanently blinded me, Ardyn is substantially more disturbing than we thought, and oh, yes, Noct’s going to die - and the one bright spot - I’m going to conspire with Ravus to come up with a solution to that last part but I’ll be keeping that from you - wasn’t going to be any easier.
Difficulty never stopped him before and it wouldn’t stop him now. The pain had subsided. He reached out a hand to Ravus to help him pull him up. It was best to be upright for this part. Explanations needed to be made; he was good at those. A good bit of diplomacy was going to be needed to integrate Ravus into the group; Ignis had trained most of his life in that. A prophecy needed to be told exactly where it could shove itself; that was new but he’d get that sorted - in any way he had to.