Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ishgard striving for peace is filled with tentative (but not unwelcome) discovery. Aymeric has a new mage’s robe made for you and tells you it’s a gift from Ishgard. Until such a time as Estinien is (pried from the jaws of Nidhogg) returned to the city, you are the sole Azure Dragoon, so it’s only fitting that you be clad in that hue. The outfit itself is more suit than robe: a skintight top with a single sleeve, leggings, and heeled ankle boots, all in blue with swirls of silver. The pointed coattails on the top remind you of Shiva (Ysayle), but in a way that you find comforting rather than painful. Aymeric says Tataru helped his weavers with the measurements, and he’s glad it fits you so well. You watch the way Aymeric watches you in your new outfit and realize that this is not about Ishgard at all.

You also realize you don’t mind, and wonder when it was that you started to carry that feeling in your heart again (you’re hopeless in that way). You tell Aymeric that you like the new outfit very much and that when news arrives of Estinien, you’ll help in whatever way you can. Aymeric smiles, and despite your best efforts otherwise, you feel your tail wiggling whenever you look at him.

You meet up with Nashu and Hildibrand again and help the Manderville crew solve another mystery and find Gigi a home, whether it’s squatting in Edmont’s gazebo or taking over an abandoned building in Idyllshire. Gigi heroically saves you all from the machinations of aged former Heavens’ Ward members, and you promise a tearful Nashu that you will take the mammet with you on your adventures until his memory returns. Hildibrand ends up sailing through the heavens for parts unknown again, and your explosives-loving childhood friend chases after him with her usual determination.

You find yourself in demand in Idyllshire, as Cid’s managed to dig up another project for you, this time with the gobbie primal Alexander attached to it. You watch Alexander expert Mide touch the scar on her face every time she mentions the past, and you try to be kinder to her than you are to yourself. Cid makes a joke that he’s going to unlock the secrets to time travel one day, and you joke back that if anyone could, it’d be him. Wedge keeps the ex-Illuminati black kitten as a pet and Biggs says maybe it’ll get Wedge to stop trying to adopt rogue magitek armor or Allagan nodes as pets instead.

You work your fingers to the bone crafting to keep Zhloe Aliapoh’s orphanage afloat in between expeditions into Alexander, and though Zhloe tells you none of the food you bring her is as delicious as pineapple pudding, she thanks you for helping her keep the kids of Menphina’s Arms fed. You try not to resent whatever Sharlayan governmental decision thought it’d be alright to abandon Idyllshire and half your cluster of villages to things like three-week-old-pudding while they ran away across the ocean (even though you suspect it’s probably actually Gridania’s fault), and you mostly succeed. Zhloe and Khloe tell you to say hello to their cousin Leih the next time you’re in Gridania, and you dutifully pass on the message through your pink-clad bard friend.

You help Midnight Dew and her botanist friends clear out the Arboretum. You finish your twin music box commissions. You graciously allow A-Ruhn (okay, you’re a little smug, but you’re still not as smug as him) to apologize for making you trek all over Coerthas and Dravania again untangling the threads of tainted aether because he’s too scared to leave the forest. You solve a mystery at the behest of your alchemy teacher and learn about the color of your aura (whatever that means). You win the Dellemont D’Or (Emmanellain stays up with you while you make the marron glacé so he can “taste test”, but you both get a little teary when you explain how you learned the Fortemps Custom Gratin recipe to him) with a perfect ten out of ten score.

Tataru calls you on linkpearl to say she has news. Once you and Alphinaud have gathered, she says that one of the surviving Students of Baldesion is coming to Idyllshire to help find the rest of the missing Scions. Before she can give details, however, a messenger summons you and Alphinaud to meet with Aymeric. Aymeric asks you to escort Lucia for introductions and parley for peace talks with Vidofnir, since you and Alphinaud are the only two remaining in Ishgard who have met the dragon before.

After Alphinaud and Lucia leave the room, Aymeric asks you out for a drink. Your tail goes into overdrive.

“Once the peace conference is concluded,” Aymeric clarifies, though you can see his attention stray to your tail before he meets your gaze again. “To… celebrate our success.”

You wish he didn’t feel the need to have the conference as an excuse, but you still tell him that you’d like very much to have a drink or two with him. Aymeric smiles, and you leave his office still fighting to keep your tail under control.

Once you’ve introduced Lucia and Vidofnir, you continue on back to Idyllshire to meet up with Y’shtola and the Student. Krile is apparently an old friend of Minfilia’s, as well as someone who mentored Alphinaud during his student days in the Sharlayan motherland. She also has the Echo like you, and she plans to use her variation of the power to find Minfilia and the other missing Scions, with help from Matoya. Alphinaud becomes a bit flustered at Krile’s stories of his girl-chasing student days, but he seems happy enough to meet with his friend otherwise.

When you think of the Students of Baldesion, one name in particular springs to mind, but you’re not sure if telling Krile about his fate will comfort her because he survived or sadden her because he’s asleep in a tower and will probably remain so for the next foreseeable eternity. You put off telling her while she and Y’shtola bother Matoya again.

Krile doesn’t find Minfilia, but she does get a lead on Thancred, so you travel back into the Forelands to track him. You also get news of Ravana’s reappearance, which means you must drop everything and defeat the primal. You rush into his summoning chamber only to find him already defeated, a group led by a man with an axe calling himself Warrior of Darkness victorious over the god. Your Echo and his trigger perfectly in time with each other; you get a vision of him defeating an Ascian with a blade of light, and you can only assume he sees the moment you defeated Lahabrea in the same way.

(Like your star, you also reflect, and no one knows better about light and darkness than you and Ardbert.)

Thancred helps you fend off the Warriors of Darkness, and you escape back to Anyx Trine.

“How could anyone possibly confuse tales of Niko and Thancred with those of that man?” Y’shtola asks, crossing her arms and wrinkling her nose, once Thancred’s told her of his trials in Dravania since emerging from the aetherial sea. “He is surely a powerful warrior, to go about felling primals, but you would never walk around with a bloodied axe. It’s barbaric.”

(Well… you almost never walk around with your sword still bloody, these days. But she’s still being rude.)

You resist the urge to wrinkle your nose back and instead tell Y’shtola the important thing is to catch Thancred up on what’s happened since he went into the Lifestream. You can figure out what the Warriors of Darkness are up to after that.

On the way back, while Thancred is busy being caught up by Alphinaud and Y’shtola, you try to talk to Krile about the Students of Baldesion. Krile tells you that she already heard about the events at the Crystal Tower from Rammbroes. You try to apologize, and she doesn’t let you. Krile says you can yet save Minfilia together, so she wants to focus on that. You agree and continue on.

Vidofnir says she will accept Aymeric’s offer and travel to Ishgard for peace talks, and you return there to give him the good news. Upon arriving back in the city, however, you learn there’s been an assassination attempt on Aymeric. You immediately insist on seeing him, Alphinaud quickly chiming in his agreement, and Lucia tells you with a sigh that he’s in his office against his chirurgeon’s advice.

After confirming with your own two eyes that Aymeric is not in immediate danger (and learn from Aymeric that the the assailant was stopped in the act by Artoirel and Edmont and apprehended), you deliver Vidofnir’s reply and ask him what you can do to help.

Aymeric takes you up on your offer and tasks you with tracking down the culprits behind a rash of arsons, so you rope Alphinaud and Thancred in as well. Thancred promptly begins flirting with Hilda, but it doesn’t seem to be impeding the investigation in the Brume, so you leave them to it. You and Alphinaud investigate the upper part of the city, helping civilians displaced by the fires shelter in the Vault while tracking the culprits back to the Brume. Thancred finds the arsonist and tricks him into revealing his employers. You’re ready to celebrate until the employers turn out to be Vault priests railing against Aymeric’s reforms, and then suddenly all the civilians you helped are now hostages.

The priests demand Aymeric step down and renounce his claims about the Dragonsong War. Aymeric, still not recovered from the assassination attempt, asks you to help him save the hostages instead. You don’t want to go back into the Vault, but you want Aymeric to go back in there alone while injured even less, so you agree.

Artoirel offers to join you and Aymeric in rescuing the hostages; you shove down your gut reaction as fast as you can and hope no one notices. Aymeric tells Artoirel his help is accepted, though he only does so after a nod of permission from Edmont. The three of you who will be storming the Vault agree on a strategy, and you approach the doors once properly armed.

(You hesitate a moment before walking in, but Artoirel very kindly pretends not to notice it.)

While Aymeric chases after the ringleaders, you and Artoirel free the hostages and send them back out of the building. You vanquish the priests attacking Aymeric with a little more force than strictly necessary, but you manage to leave them alive for the Temple Knights to arrest.

Someone pulls your tail and you spin with an offended noise from your throat. One of the hostages is still here. He can’t be more than five or six.

“Maelie,” he tells you. “My sister, she’s still here!” You’ve already forgiven him for your tail. “They took her upstairs. Please help her!”

You tell the boy to go downstairs. You’ll get his sister back. Aymeric nods and starts towards the upper floors. Artoirel waits for you to deliver the boy to a Temple Knight, then runs up with you as well.

On one of the balconies, a priest holds the girl, Maelie, captive. He shouts all manner of derogatory invective at the three of you and orders Aymeric to step down and renounce his claims about the Dragonsong War. Aymeric refuses, of course, and demands the girl back. The priest steps towards the ledge.

You watch him throw the girl off the edge of the balcony. You shove past him, trying to frantically calculate if you can survive the jump down and catch her before she hits the ground. Aymeric yanks you back and holds you fast. You forget to breathe.

From seemingly nowhere, a dragon swoops in and catches the girl. It’s Vidofnir.

“We should go downstairs,” Artoirel says. You look back at him; he’s captured the priest. You nod. Aymeric lets you go, and you all walk back down.

Vidofnir says she will accept Aymeric’s offer and attend a peace conference for man and dragon. The crowd gathered at the Vault’s entrance cheers. Aymeric says that all will be welcome at the event. Then Vidofnir flies off, and Aymeric and Lucia direct Temple Knights to take the conspirators into custody and disperse the crowd.

Lucia says she will do her best to get Aymeric to sit and rest, so you and Artoirel go back to Fortemps Manor to give Edmont the good news. The relief on Edmont’s face is palpable. In addition to congratulating you for safely saving the hostages, Edmont also tells you that he’s decided to retire and name Artoirel the new Count de Fortemps, explaining that it should reduce the suspicion on the house regarding Aymeric’s leadership of Ishgard and thereby lessen the chance of further accusations. After Edmont leaves the room, Artoirel confirms he’s aware of this plan, though he doesn’t sound entirely pleased about it.

“It is a role I always knew that I would one day assume,” Artoirel says, when you question him about it. “And yet I wonder… What sort of legacy am I taking up by accepting my father’s position, knowing the truth of its origins? Is this truly what is best for Ishgard?”

Mounted on the wall in the Manor is a shield with the Fortemps crest. If you closed your eyes, you know who you’d picture wearing it. But Artoirel is the one who needs encouragement in the present.

You tell Artoirel that he served Ishgard well today when he helped rescue the hostages, and that you know he’ll serve just as well as the next Count because someone who won’t turn from the truth is the kind of person Ishgard needs most right now. You know you’re not as good with words as Alphinaud, but you do your best to give him hope as someone once did for you.

“Aye, a knight lives to serve.” Artoirel knows exactly who you’re not mentioning by name. Your attempt at encouragement seems to have done its job, though. “It is an important reminder. I shall do my best.”

With events in Ishgard calmed for a time, you return to your mission of tracking down more missing Scions. Many have returned to the Rising Stones, including Minfilia’s mother F’lhaminn, but Minfilia herself is still nowhere to be found. Talking to F’lhaminn is… difficult (looking her in the eye even more so); you keep your time in Mor Dhona as brief as possible.

After aetheric investigation of Castrum Meridianum and the canals under Ul’dah, Krile and Thancred conclude that Minfilia, too, may have been caught in Y’shtola’s Flow spell, and that she may still be in the aetherial sea. Determining exactly why she might still be there, however, or how to get her out, requires counsel and tools from Matoya, so you all trek back to Dravania to review your findings.

Matoya tells you that you’re going to have to descend closer to the shore of the aetherial sea if you want to talk to Minfilia, using the path leading deep underground that was created by the Sharlayans during their time in Dravania. You descend. The Word of the Mother tells you that she can no longer be Minfilia; that you must prevent the Rejoining of the shattered star the Ascians so long for.

Thancred does not take it well. Alphinaud does not take it particularly well either, and Matoya telling him sacrifice is necessary just makes it worse. The three of you grudgingly go back to Ishgard, where you can possibly be of more use.

The preparation for a peace conference between Ishgard and the dragons in Falcon’s Nest is a disaster, courtesy of a young widow (Lowdy) disguised as a barmaid drugging your drink (how could you have known it would happen again, after Nanamo?) and inciting a protest and Emmanellain… being Emmanellain. Despite barely being able to reach high enough to hit his face, you’re angry enough to give it a try for ordering the woman shot, but Thancred beats you to it. Alphinaud is the only person with enough composure to do anything productive, so he gets an airship for you all to go back to Ishgard proper, with the subdued Emmanellain cradling the injured Honoroit in his arms, and you and Thancred trying to calm each others’ tempers.

You think back to your escape flight from Castrum Centri to Ul’dah, when it was Minfilia you were reassuring and Thancred you were trying to save. You tell Thancred you’ll do what Minfilia asked of you. You’ll stop the Rejoining.

“Don’t try to make me feel better about it when we both know you’ll stop it anyway, Minfilia or no,” Thancred says. You’re not sure what to say to that. “I meant what I said. You can do everything right and still fuck up and lose someone important to you.”

You’re aware of that fact.

(And there are those who love you anyway.)

“I just have to figure out how to help you stop it and hope we don’t lose anyone else along the way,” Thancred says. Then he attempts a sly grin, of the sort that used to make you swoon but is simply reassuring now. “So you’d best let me know when it’s time for that, yes?” You attempt a smile back and nod. Thancred seems satisfied with that, so you leave him be and keep Alphinaud company the rest of the flight over.

Honoroit is turned over to the chirurgeons, Emmanellain trailing behind, and you go with Alphinaud and Thancred to inform Aymeric of the developments. Aymeric has unfortunately already been informed, but at least lets you know that the woman who was shot will survive. He’s also working on boosting morale in the city and has thus sent missives to the Grand Companies of Eorzea to participate in joint training exercises as part of Ishgard’s new position in the Eorzean Alliance.

A few days later, you receive a message from Aymeric telling you the melee is on and that he wants to consult with you about some details. Before you leave Fortemps Manor, Emmanellain tells you he wants to speak to Aymeric as well and asks if he can tag along; you agree. When you get to the Congregation, Aymeric is discussing the melee participant list with Lucia, Thancred, and Hilda. Emmanellain (who has apparently had some inner deliberation since you last spoke) asks Aymeric to let him volunteer as a participant in the melee. Aymeric agrees, and then he turns to you.

“I know it may be asking much of you,” he says, “and I will not begrudge a denial if your allegiance to the Alliance takes precedence, but I wish to ask nonetheless. Will you fight for Ishgard in the melee?” He asks the question in the same tone as when he gave you your new mage’s outfit.

You say yes, of course. Aymeric practically beams, and you give up on getting your tail under control.

“Gods help me, I think it might be love,” Thancred jokes once you leave Aymeric’s office. You blush like someone’s stuck a fire crystal under your skin and start to stammer out something about Aymeric wanting Ishgard to win the melee for morale, but Thancred holds a hand up. “Don’t deny it, I saw the way his face lit up when you agreed. You could do worse than the leader of Ishgard.”

Your face is still hot, but you tell Thancred you agree that Aymeric is quite the gentleman (not that you’d mind if he was also a man of action, so to speak, rather than one adhering to Ishgard’s glacially slow dance of propriety). Then you tell Thancred to leave you be and go find more participants for the melee, like he said he would.

“Ah yes, I must work with Miss Hilda on her names,” Thancred says. “It shall be a trial, but I reckon I’m up to the challenge.”

You tell Thancred you’ll pray for his survival. Thancred grins and leaves you be. Then you go catch up with Emmanellain and head back to the Manor to tell everyone the news.

Another day or so later, Artoirel asks to speak with the two of you.

“Before you finalize your preparations for the melee,” Artoirel says, “I have something for you, Niko.” He motions to a manservant, who brings a package forward. It’s a suit of Fortemps chainmail. You look at it, then back up to Artoirel. “I wore this mail myself when I was younger, as did Emmanellain,” he continues, “and Haurchefant, though if some of Francel’s stories are to be believed, he had more non-ceremonial use for it than either of us did. I wish we had time to make you a new one, but… you’re part of this family now, too. I hope you will wear it at the melee.”

You thank Artoirel, a bit misty-eyed, and tell him you’ll be proud to wear it.

“Oh, I really hope it fits,” Emmanellain says. “Hold it up.” You oblige; it’s a little on the long side still, and you’ll probably have to remove a panel in the back to accommodate your tail, but it otherwise looks like it will fit. “I had a devil of a time trying to find where it got stored, but it looks like it’ll do the job. And you’re handy with tinkering and such, so we figured some minor adjustments wouldn’t be beyond your skill.”

You reassure Emmanellain that you can make the necessary adjustments, and then thank both him and Artoirel again. Then you set to your tinkering, balancing the tailoring required for non-encumbered movement with preserving as much of the original mail as possible, finishing with a nice polish all-around.

(Okay, just this once. You can be shiny. But don’t push it.)

The melee is wildly successful, and not even a wild cyclops attack can dampen the mood. Thancred volunteers himself to take care of the rampaging beast while the rest of you continue to fight, and fight you certainly do. Even Emmanellain helps. It only gets more exciting when Raubahn challenges you to a one-on-one contest, a circle of flames surrounding your clash. It feels like an age since you last fought without life-or-death stakes, and you throw yourself into it wholeheartedly, cheers from the crowd urging you on and Raubahn’s grin mirroring your own.

In the end you are victorious, and Ishgard wins the melee. Raubahn claps a hand on your shoulder once your bout is over and you reiterate that you had fun.

“Aye, well, I’d have preferred to win, but ‘twas a match I’d been looking forward to for some time,” Raubahn says, grinning again. “Well fought, lad.”

“Well fought indeed!” Aymeric echoes, walking up to you and Raubahn. “Niko, General, that was simply a joy to watch. I knew you would prevail.” He practically beams down at you, and you nod decisively in response. “There is much I would like to say in addition to that, but first I must speak with our guests.” Then he turns to Raubahn. “General, if I could trouble you to…?”

“Certainly,” Raubahn replies, and the two of them start walking towards the other Alliance leaders.

You leave them to politics and attempt to chat with the other soldiers, but most of them end up congratulating you instead. Emmanellain says that if you’re feeling shy, he will return the favor and graciously accept any congratulations you may offer him. You manage to keep a straight face and agree that he did well. Emmanellain, who doesn’t look as if he was actually expecting praise for his battle prowess, flushes and admits that he feels ready to collapse but that it was worth it.

You leave Emmanellain to his revelations and take a few minutes to yourself. You watch Merlwyb getsure to you as she speaks to Aymeric and remember briefly that you are still officially a Maelstrom lieutenant on paper, but she doesn’t seem put out about it. All of Eorzea’s leaders seem to be in high spirits, in fact, and you allow yourself a moment of satisfaction as well.

“You helped with that, you know,” Thancred says from over your shoulder. You turn to look at him; he looks a little worse for the wear, but is still standing.

You offer to help with his wounds.

“Ah, I’m fine,” Thancred waves you off. “Beast was ornery, that’s all. I’ll ask Alphinaud to help with the twinge later. I’m sure you’d prefer to spend your time celebrating with Ser Aymeric.”

You blush again but tell him that you’re looking forward to the conference being a success.

“How magnanimous of you. I’ll start praying for Ishgard instead of just you, then.” He winces again, then turns toward the city gate and wanders back towards Ishgard.

You end up rendezvousing with Aymeric in the city, though Alphinaud and the Fortemps are not far behind. You manage to keep from blushing when he thanks you for carrying the day again, and you try not to think afterwards about how your tail is a filthy snitch.

Aymeric attempts the peace conference again. You’re given a spot of visibility on the speakers’ platform at Falcon’s Nest, though Aymeric reassures you that you won’t have to speak to the public. You stand in your silver-blue mage’s suit next to Lucia as Aymeric and Vidofnir speak and try not to fidget too obviously.

Aymeric reveals Ishgard’s gift to the dragons: a giant mural of Hraesvelgr and Shiva, carved into the wall of Falcon’s Nest. The crowd oohs and ahhs.

Then (of course) everything goes wrong again.

Nidhogg descends, screaming rancor out of Estinien’s mouth. You watch him use Estinien to attack Vidofnir: his red Eyes fused to Estinien’s body and rolling madly, Estinien’s lance piercing through Vidofnir’s back, spraying the dragon’s blood on the newly-completed mural. Nidhogg once again declares war on Ishgard, and Aymeric does not hesitate in loosing several arrows at him in response. Nidhogg shifts back into his draconic form and shrugs the arrows off, roaring and taking to the sky as the crowd below chants for his demise.

“Death to Nidhogg! Death to Nidhogg!” The growing mob shouts. You scan the crowd, looking for the Scions, but can’t find them through the chaos. You turn to Aymeric to ask him what he wants you to do, then halt.

Beside you, just barely audible over the shouts of the mob, Aymeric closes his eyes, resigned, and says the same thing.

You risk a hand to Aymeric’s arm. He looks down at you, strained.

“We will talk later,” he says. “Get your friends to safety.” You nod. Aymeric starts directing his knights to control the crowd, and you dive into the mass of people to look for Alphinaud and the rest.

You don’t have much difficulty parting the crowd (whatever the look on your face is, the civilians are quick to move aside). You find Y’shtola and Krile first, and Krile gives you a nod to tell you they’re fine. The ladies are already moving themselves to the edge of the crowd, so you continue to wade. Your perseverance is rewarded with a glimpse of Alphinaud’s head; another few yalms and you’ve caught up with him.

“Niko!” He lets you pull him out of the crowd. You check him over quickly, and he thankfully seems to be in one piece, at least physically. His lingering unhappiness is another story, and while understandable, is not something you’re equipped to solve while the crowd is still here.

You tell him he needs to go back to Ishgard.

“There is something I would like to talk to you about first,” Alphinaud says, “Not here, though.” He hesitates a moment. “Dragonhead, perhaps. And… not as the Warrior of Light. As Niko.”

As if you could ever say no to Alphinaud when he asks you like that.

You get him a chocobo porter and fly to Dragonhead. You enter the place you don’t call the Falling Snows out loud and heat up some cocoa on the stove while Alphinaud collects his thoughts.

“Thank you,” he says, taking a mug of cocoa. You’ve made it a little too sweet even for your tastes, but you nod and sit down beside him anyway. “It wasn’t all that long ago that we sat here with Lord Haurchefant, was it?” You hold your hands to your mug until they start to burn. “I still struggle to believe he is gone. Ysayle, too.”

You don’t know what to say. The burn in your fingertips feels preferable to the alternative, which is nothing at all.

“I was thinking about what Matoya said,” Alphinaud continues. “About necessary sacrifices. And about Estinien.” 

You put your cocoa down. 

“I know Ser Aymeric and his knights will do what they think is right for Ishgard. But I want to save him.” You remember making camp in the Churning Mists, Ysayle and Estinien talking with you and Alphinaud around the fire. “I don’t want to believe that sacrifice is the only way. That’s not the kind of person I want to be.” You remember the night of the banquet, so long ago now, when Alphinaud was crumpled in a chair in this room, and how very different he is now. “We may fail, but… I still want to try. Please, tell me you will help me save him.” He looks like he’s not sure if you’re going to say yes.

You hold Alphinaud by the shoulders and tell him that he is right to want to try. No matter what anyone else says, he is right . You promise him that you will save Estinien.

“Thank you.” The look on his face makes it worth it.

You finish your cocoa, and then you go back to Ishgard. Aymeric has ordered the city’s defenses increased, though he admits they will be useless against Nidhogg.

You offer to go back to the Aery and try to get the Eyes from Nidhogg again.

“No,” Aymeric says. “Even with only one Eye, it still required both you and Estinien working in tandem to defeat him. I’ll not allow you to risk facing him alone.” You can’t think of a good argument against that, unfortunately, though you fidget your annoyance about it. “No, what we must do is appeal to the aid of a being of equal strength to Nidhogg.”

“You don’t mean Hraesvelgr,” Alphinaud says, not without trepidation.

“It is the only option that allows us the hope of Ishgard still standing,” Aymeric confirms.

Is he really going to fight his own brother, though?

“I do not expect it will be easy to convince him,” Aymeric says, “but whatever price the wyrm asks, I am willing to pay it to ensure the safety of my people.”

You’re not sure this will work, but it’s not like you have a better idea yet. You agree to introduce Aymeric to Hraesvelgr. Alphinaud insists on coming along as well to facilitate the parley.

“We set out in the morning, then,” Aymeric says. “I trust you know the way?” His eyes are focused on you.

You do.

“Then I shall finish my business here today so I can devote my full attention to our task tomorrow,” Aymeric says.

(For a moment, you let yourself imagine what it would be like, away from Ishgard’s interruptions, just the two of you. You know you’re traveling for an important reason, but there are several things to which you can imagine Aymeric devoting his full attention and all are best experienced without interruption, no matter how brief the reprieve.)

“Let us go back to Fortemps Manor and prepare as well,” Alphinaud says.

(Right. Just the two of you. And Alphinaud.)

You bid Aymeric farewell and follow Alphinaud back to the Manor. You dither about with crafting until Edmont wisely tells you to go to bed so you’re well-rested for the journey in the morning. You leave the next morning as early as Alphinaud will allow.

You make your way to Anyx Trine first, to check in on Vidofnir. Satisfied with the reassurance that the dragon will survive her injury, the three of you continue up the mountain. The ascent up the mountain is much less eventful than your previous trip, thankfully, but the real treat is calling Aymeric to the edge of the peak to take in the view.

“Is this really…?” he asks, awestruck. “And you see places like this every day.”

You step closer to Aymeric and tell him that you really like how peaceful the Churning Mists are but the best part about places like this is being able to share them with someone else. He looks back at you.

“Then I count myself lucky for the opportunity,” he says.

You reach for his hand and tell him you’re glad he—

“Yes, the Churning Mists truly are breathtaking, aren’t they?” Alphinaud says from around the corner. You retract your hand and try not to look too annoyed. “I for one am glad the trip up the mountain was less eventful this time.” Aymeric gives you an apologetic smile and retreats to a polite distance.

You retrieve the horn to summon Hraesvelgr from the moogles and keep walking until you reach a familiar clearing. Alphinaud gets the firewood. You make supper; Alphinaud starts frowning when Aymeric suggests stew, so you roast some q’abobs over the fire instead and serve them with a cobbled-together salad (making a meal you could put together in your sleep affords you more attention for other things, like sitting as close to Aymeric as you can get away with while you teach him how to eat them, and talking until Alphinaud picks up the momentum of the conversation).

Dinner winds down. You tell Alphinaud that you’ll clean up from supper so he can turn in for the night and get some sleep.

“Are you sure?” Alphinaud asks. “I can help, if you want—”

You tell him you have things well in hand, and that tomorrow will likely be a long day.

“If you insist,” he says. “Goodnight, Niko. Goodnight, Ser Aymeric.” You bid him goodnight. Then Alphinaud goes into his tent to sleep.

You begin cleaning up. Aymeric rises to join you.

“Unless you intend to exhort the benefits of a good night’s sleep to me as well,” he says, smiling.

(Oh, you wouldn't dream of it.)

You allow Aymeric to help you, tidying shoulder to shoulder, and the time passes mostly in silence. He stays when you finish, looking at you from the corner of his eye.

You know this trip is important for many reasons, but… you’re glad you were able to take it together, you tell him quietly. You wanted him to understand what it’s like, traveling.

(What your life is like.)

“I have always admired the freedom of the way you live.” His voice has gone just as quiet, but he’s turned towards you, now. You step closer, tilting your neck further up to keep eye contact. “I…” you watch the way his lips part, just slightly, at the proximity, “I hope your time in the city has not been unwelcome by comparison. I fear stifling you every time I ask for your help.”

You’ll never tire of traveling, you tell him, but one of the things you’ve learned from your time in the north is that it’s important to have a place to return home to, with people you want to see.

You pull him down for a kiss, and he returns it, holding you flush against him.

“I confess, I was intending to court you properly,” Aymeric says, once you break apart, though he makes no effort to move away: his face still close to yours, his hand still between your shoulder blades.

You know. And that he would is endearing. But you didn’t want to wait any longer, not when... Nothing is promised, not even tomorrow. Least of all for those like you and him. You don’t want to wake up one day and have it be too late. If he feels the same, he should say so.

“Niko, I…” You really, really hope he understands. “I cannot pretend I know what is in store for either of us tomorrow, or the next day,” your finger traces one of the curls on the side of his face (he shivers, just a little), “but please do not mistake composure for ambivalence.” You kiss again, and you keep kissing until most of his composure is gone.

You pull Aymeric towards your tent and ask him if, just to make sure you understand, he wants to show you how he feels. He does.

You pack up as much of the camp in the morning as possible before you wake Alphinaud, and then you climb the rest of the way to Zenith to call on Hraesvelgr. It takes not only Aymeric and Alphinaud but Midgardsormr himself confronting Hraesvelgr to get him to listen to the truth: that Nidhogg is but a shade of malice. You watch Hraesvelgr try not to listen, and then he turns to you.

“And thou? What reason wouldst thou give, champion, for why I should fight?”

You want to save Estinien, you tell Hraesvelgr. You can hear Aymeric turn to look at you, but you keep your gaze locked with the dragon. Estinien is alive, and you can save him, but you need his help to do it.

“Even the dragoon?” Hraesvelgr is staring at you. “I begin to see why Ysayle placed her trust in thee.” Hraesvelgr closes his eyes for a long moment, in contemplation. Then he speaks again. “I will put thy conviction to the proof, then,” he says. “This trial will determine whether my hope in mankind’s strength will be rekindled or forever extinguished.”

You agree to his terms. A dragon takes you, Alphinaud, and Aymeric to your trial at Ratatoskr’s ancient palace, battling not only dragons and beasts but Hraesvelgr himself.

(You even get to beat up some moogles again, so you’ll have to tell Sid all about it once Ishgard isn’t on the brink of destruction.)

No sooner does Hraesvelgr commend you for passing his trial, however, than you hear Nidhogg roar a call to war from his Aery, and the answering roars from his brood as they take to the sky.

“It has begun,” Hraesvelgr says to you. “As promised, we shall cast down this shade together. Let us make for the city.” He consents for you to ride upon his back to Ishgard, Alphinaud and Aymeric following close behind on Vidofnir and Vedrfolnir, respectively. “My brood-brother’s form I will cast to the ground. It is thy charge to save the man within.”

You understand.

Many dragons are already attacking the Steps of Faith by the time you arrive. Aymeric goes to his troops the moment he touches down.

“You are late!” Artoirel tells you and Alphinaud.

You tell Alphinaud to help Artoirel; you must stay with Hraesvelgr.

“But Estinien…”

You haven’t changed your mind. You just need to get him to the ground first.

“Very well,” Alphinaud says, running to support Artoirel.

“A duel is no place for children,” Hraesvelgr says.

You won’t deny wanting to keep Alphinaud out of harm’s way, but he isn’t a child, and he’s smarter than you are, so if anyone can figure out how to save Estinien, it’s him.

“Hmph.” Hraesvelgr looks to the sky, and the descending shadow. “He comes.”

Nidhogg lands, and Hraesvelgr steps forward. The dragons trade words, then they launch themselves aloft to trade blows. You watch the duel from the bridge, dodging the rubble piling around you but waiting for the right moment to act.

With a rip and a growl, Nidhogg tears one of Hraesvelgr’s wings from its socket. He lands back on the bridge, roaring. Hraesvelgr collapses beside you. And then you understand what he’s doing. You agree.

“Thinkest thou that thou couldst ever have defeated me?” Nidhogg crows. “I have spent the past thousand years exacting my revenge.”

“Revel not in thy victory, shade,” Hraesvelgr says. You walk towards his Eye and take hold of it.

“Thou wouldst entrust thy power to a mortal?” Nihogg’s shade says. He looks at you. “Yes, I know thee. Thou mayest have bested half of me before, but now I am in command of my full power, and naught in creation shall deny me my vengeance!”

You take Hraesvelgr’s Eye into yourself and draw your staff. You battle the dragon.

“Look upon the face of the fool who dared steal my power!” Nidhogg crows, his form shifting again to Estinien, though the onyx wings and whiplike tail still protrude from his back and the blood-red Eyes still cling to his arm and shoulder. “Art thou so eager to turn on thy brother now? Thinkest thou that slaying him will stop me?” That line didn’t work on you when Lahabrea told you defeating him would kill Thancred, and it’s not going to work on you now that it’s Nidhogg.

You lob another ball of flame at him to drive him back down to the ground, and you call upon Hraesvelgr’s Eye to power your shield of dark magic as he immediately leaps back up and stabs at you from above. He keeps stabbing and you widen your stance, willing your knees not to buckle and your shield to hold. You’re close enough to see the crimson veins crawling up Estinien’s neck and face.

“I will never cease,” Nidhogg says, attacking again and again and again. “Thou wilt suffer in agony until the last man is dead.” High above, storm clouds swirl and echo with thunder. You calculate.

Just before your shield shatters, you call a spear of ice down onto Nidhogg’s back, right at the joint of his wings, and you immediately follow it up with a bolt of levin. Nidhogg screams, the wings snapping off of Estinien’s back, and he falls like a doll with cut strings. You freeze his legs for good measure to keep him grounded.

“Is this to be mine end?” Nidhogg says. “Brother, thou hast doomed me.” Hatred coalesces around his frozen form so thick you can see the flickering veins. “But I will not suffer to die alone. I will build us both a pyre.” He strikes out at you with the blood-red smoke, burning away your ice bit by bit. You dodge the snapping of his conjured jaws and then try to build the ice back up.

“Estinien!” Alphinaud, who has finally clambered over the rubble cutting the bridge off from the rest of the fighting, starts running toward you. Your spell drops in the distraction, and you hastily restart it, shoring up the walls of the frozen prison even as Nidhogg bites away at it in great gulps of steam.

“I am death!” Nidhogg yells back. Your ice slowly creeps up from his thighs to his abdomen, his waist. “I am vengeance! I am the voice of a thousand years of pain!” The veins on Estinien’s face bulge, and he burns a chunk of restraints away, twisting his waist free again.

“Estinien!” Alphinaud calls again.

“I am Nidhogg! Thou shalt die by my hand!” A moment too late, you see him pull an arm back to throw his spear. You won’t be able to get your shield back up in time. Neither is there time to stop him with anything less than a fatal strike.

Alphinaud is still running full-tilt, and if nobody does anything, he’s going to die, and you—

Nidhogg seizes. His whole body shakes. The blood-red aura flashes and goes out like a candle. The spear falls from twitching fingers and clatters to the ground.

“This…” Through the rasp of a raw throat, you finally hear Estinien. “This is not your hand, wyrm!” His hand goes for that throat, squeezing until he spits blood and slumps within the casing of ice. “Finish me, while I have the beast subdued…”

“No, you can’t die like this! I won’t let you!” If Alphinaud noticed how close he came to danger, you can’t tell. He clutches at Estinien, gripping his fingers around the Eye embedded in his shoulder. He turns to look at you, eyes pleading. “Niko, help me!”

(You have to save Estinien.)

You drop your staff and reach for the other Eye. Estinien shudders in place, and the Eyes spark crimson and obsidian where you touch them. The steam rising from his body bites at every ilm of exposed skin. You grit your teeth and dig your fingers in.

They’re not budging.

“Please,” Alphinaud’s head is down, his gloves smoking and charring. “Please, just this once…” The Eyes are rolling and bulging, screaming furious verses into your head. “Estinien…” Your hands are blistering.

(You need Alphinaud to know he was right.)

In the haze of steam, you almost see a hand. It rests gently on yours, the touch unmistakably deliberate. His armor is bright, and whole, and the corners of his eyes are soft as he smiles down at you. You hear Alphinaud gasp. At his side, another figure aids him, cool and gentle and unshakable in her determination. You meet Alphinaud’s gaze. He nods. You pull.

The Eyes come free. The steam dissipates, revealing Estinien lying prone in a pool of melted ice. It’s just you three again.

“The Eyes!” You turn at the new voice. Aymeric has finally caught up with you on the bridge. “Cast them into the abyss!” You and Alphinaud look at each other again, and then you run towards the edge of the bridge and launch Nidhogg’s Eyes into the bottomless chasm below. Then you both run back to Aymeric, who is looking over Estinien. “He… he still lives?”

“He needs a chirurgeon badly,” Alphinaud says. “We must take him back into the city.” Aymeric picks Estinien up and begins carrying him back along the bridge to where medics are waiting to receive him. “As do you,” Alphinaud turns to you.

There’s one more thing you have to do first. You call out to Hraesvelgr.

Hraesvelgr lands back upon the bridge. You return his Eye to him for the second time.

“The Horde has sensed their master’s defeat and scattered to the winds,” Hraesvelgr says. “It was thy strength, mortal, that made this possible, not mine Eye. My beloved Shiva’s dream of peace… Only now can I truly see it as a possibility.” He sings, in the dragon-tongue, of the first delicate blossom breaking through the snow to reach towards the sun. Then he flies away.

Alphinaud starts pulling you towards the city again.

“Estinien is in the hands of the chirurgeons and the gods, now,” he says. “Let us go back to Fortemps Manor, and I’ll see to your wounds.”

Going home sounds nice.

“For a moment,” Alphinaud says, quietly, “I thought I saw…”

Yeah. You too. You wrap an arm around him, squeezing tight, and he’s very considerate about letting you finish dropping tears into his hair before bringing you into the Manor.

After an amount of healing magic and general fussing, you thank Alphinaud, tell him you need some non-magical recuperation, and that he should go see Estinien so you can take a bath. Alphinaud seems much relieved at that, and you wave him off with a smile. Edmont tells you to rest, and Emmanellain tells you he’s asked the cook to add a gratin to tonight’s dinner plans. You fall asleep for several hours, though thankfully not while still in the bath. Alphinaud returns in time for dinner at the behest of the chirurgeons not to get underfoot of their work and is very brave about Emmanellain scooping gratin onto his plate, even though he says it’s spicier than usual.

After several days, Aymeric calls on you at the Manor and tells you that Estinien is awake enough to speak to visitors. You and Aymeric walk in on a sobbing Alphinaud and wonder if things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse, but Estinien is, in fact, well on the road to recovery and gently (for him) chiding Alphinaud for his tears. The chirurgeon tells you there’s no lasting damage from your fight on the bridge, which takes a weight off your shoulders you hadn’t realized you were carrying.

While physically mending, however, Estinien says that he has concluded his career as Azure Dragoon. The new era of peace has need of a new kind of Azure Dragoon.

“I am… done with revenge, and anger,” Estinien says. “I am tired of it, and in want of a new purpose.” He gives you a little smirk. “Mayhap I shall go adventuring until I find it.”

“And when you’ve found it… will you come back?” Alphinaud asks.

“If I didn’t, I expect you’d come chasing after me, wouldn’t you?” You watch the smile break across Alphinaud’s face like the sun over the horizon. “I’d never hear the end of it. Now go blow your nose and stop dripping snot all over me.”

Alphinaud apologizes with another teary laugh. The chirurgeon politely but firmly tells you to leave Estinien’s room so he can rest.

While Alphinaud is still distracted saying his last well-wishes to Estinien, you step outside the room and ask Aymeric if he’s made plans for a new peace conference.

“Vidofnir will be visiting Ishgard next week, and invitations will be delivered to Fortemps Manor forthwith,” Aymeric says.

And the drink?

It’s bold of him to do with such a chance of getting caught, but Aymeric touches a hand to your cheek. You lean into it.

“Yes, that too.” You pull him close and kiss him until you hear footsteps. “Soon,” he whispers. You nod. Then he pulls back, proper once more. “Expect the invitation soon.”

Somewhere in between your visit to the hospital and the conclusion of the peace conference, Estinien disappears. Alphinaud frets out of habit, but you remind him that Estinien is a capable fighter who can fend for himself on the road.

(He won’t run out of firewood.)

Finally, finally , the conference is a success. The thousand-year Dragonsong War is declared ended, and Ishgard moves forward with a slightly more equitable form of government, though Aymeric is still elected as its head. Edmont says he’s glad to be retired; Artoirel can represent House Fortemps in the House of Lords, and Edmont will finish writing his memoir.

It’s difficult to contain the extent of your excitement when the written invitation for dinner at the Borel estate arrives, but you do your best. You thank the messenger with as much politeness as you can muster and tell him to pass on to Aymeric both your acceptance of his invitation and an affirmation that you’re looking forward to the offered escort to the estate and dinner the following night.

“When one is being courted in this manner,” Edmont says, “it is customary to send back a written response to the gentleman’s written invitation.”

(Busted. You were so distracted, you didn’t even hear him come into the room.)

Well, you’ve got some paper in your pockets somewhere. You start rifling through said pockets, partially to avoid any glares of accusation or betrayal Edmont may send your way. Ishgard may be at peace, and Artoirel may have shoved Emmanellain into Dragonhead with a very nice oil painting, but while you can’t deny you’re being courted properly now, you’re also not about to pretend that the hole in your heart can be patched over so easily.

“I have stationery in my office,” Edmont says. You stop rifling and follow him into his office while the Borel manservant waits patiently. You wait for him to start accusing you of disrespect towards the departed, now that you’re out of earshot of anyone else. “Here, use this.” The stationery has Fortemps on it. “Niko. It is alright.” He’s smiling so kindly.

(You never even got the chance to tell him. The full painting was never finished.)

You get your face back under control and thank him before taking the stationery to write your response.

“Go on,” Edmont says. You place your response in the hand of the Borel manservant, who bows and exits.

You have a date tomorrow night.

(A real date, huh. How about that.)

You spend the next twenty-four hours in a fugue of crafting and anticipation. Your lack of explanation has maybe left Alphinaud a bit perplexed, but Tataru winks at you like she was in the room with you and Edmont when she sees the finished pair of earrings you’ve made specifically for your new formal outfit. You run into Rielle in the Forgotten Knight while waiting for your retainer to come back with more cocoons so you can finish the new pair of silk slippers you’ve decided to dye especially for the occasion, and she tells you that your follow-through is inspiring. Sid catches up with you while you’re showing Rielle your design sketches, and then says your outfit doesn’t look very practical; Rielle huffs and says maybe he’d understand why you’re so excited if he weren’t so dense. You collect the materials from your retainer, leave Sid and Rielle to their debate, and head back to Fortemps Manor to finish your shoes.

You complete everything in time for your escort to arrive, and it’s a brief stroll through the streets of Ishgard to Borel Manor. Aymeric, dressed in finery fit for a lord of his own Manor, greets you and compliments you on your outfit with a smile that sends your tail into its usual misbehavior. He holds out his arm for you to take (another delightful novelty) and leads you into the dining room.

The two of you sit and talk through several courses of dinner, mostly about Ishgard’s changes but also about the other thousand things you’ve been up to since you first arrived in the city. You carefully watch the manservant pour the wine (you know Aymeric trusts him, but if you didn’t have that habit before Falcon’s Nest you certainly do now), but you freely join Aymeric in his toast to the future.

You ask him to come with you on your next trip.

(It’s not that you expect him to say yes. The point is that you’re asking.)

“I admit when I recall the Churning Mists, I… There’s not a day that goes by where that trip has been far from my thoughts,” Aymeric says. He smiles a bit sadly. “Unfortunately my many responsibilities in the House of Lords and as Lord Commander will demand my presence here in the city for some time.”

(Does he know why you’re asking?)

“When things are more settled in Ishgard, perhaps,” he adds. “A trip that affords time to simply enjoy it rather than worrying about the fate of a nation sounds quite captivating. I daresay I’d enjoy visiting whichever location you prefer.”

You smile back at him to let him know you understand; this will have to be enough for now.

“If I may ask a question of a more… personal nature, though,” Aymeric’s tone is as cordial as ever, but his eyes are steady on you in a way that makes you want to skip the rest of dinner entirely and get right to dessert, “what is it that you want to do next? Not any of your grand adventures as the Warrior of Light, but simply as Niko?”

What you want is—

A Fortemps servant bursts into the room, calling desperately for you. You freeze. Thancred has brought a wounded maiden to Fortemps Manor, the servant says. She may not last the night. Alphinaud is beside himself, and asked for you specifically. The maiden, she looks just like Alphinaud.

Alisaie.

You’re already on your feet. You look at Aymeric. He has to understand.

“Let me help,” Aymeric says. You nod. The two of you run across the city to Fortemps Manor in your formal attire. When you arrive, Alisaie is laid out on the couch in front of the fireplace, barely conscious, Alphinaud standing in front of her with the slightly strained look of someone who’s just expended a lot of healing magic.

You can’t let them stay like this. You go up to them. Alphinaud leans into you ever so slightly. The wound on Alisaie’s shoulder isn’t large, but it’s an unnatural color.

Thancred, who is also there with Edmont, explains that like him, she was tailing the Warriors of Darkness near Xelphatol, that he tried to help her escape when she was spotted but that she took a poisoned arrow to the shoulder in their flight.

“Alisaie and I came to Eorzea together, to help fight for the land our grandfather had died to save,” Alphinaud says. “But she became disillusioned with what she viewed as Eorzea’s petty squabbles, and parted ways from me so that she could find her own path, her own reason to fight. I wanted to see what answer she had found.” He looks up at you. “But more than that, she is my sister. To finally be reunited with her, only to…. to even say the words, I…”

(There’s only one thing to do when he looks at you like that.)

You ask Alphinaud what he needs.

Alisaie foremost needs a remedy for the poison, which Aymeric assures will be provided by Ishgard’s best chirurgeons. Thancred agrees to accompany Alisaie to the chirurgeons so as to give them more details about her injury.

Alisaie reaches out for you before you can coordinate her transport.

“…Niko?” Her teeth are gritted in pain. “I need to… tell you something.” You crouch down. “The Warriors of Darkness, they… they’re in league with the Ascians. They’re helping the Ixal summon Garuda, and then they’re going to kill her. You have to stop them. You have to.”

You tell her you’ll stop them. She sighs and drifts back out of consciousness. Thancred and Aymeric prepare to move her. Edmont says he’ll get you and Alphinaud a path into Xelphatol from Dragonhead, so you ask Alphinaud to give you a few minutes to change into something you can fight in.

(You decide in advance to refuse to admit to Sid that he was right about practicality. It’s for Rielle’s sake. Probably.)

“Of course,” Alphinaud says. He looks like he wants to speak further, but doesn’t immediately; you decide to let him figure it out while you change. You go to your room, quickly don your armor, and attach your sword to your back. “I knew you were going out, but…I did not realize what for,” he says, when you emerge.

You tell him not to worry about it, but he doesn’t stop frowning. You elaborate that Aymeric of all people will understand when you need to prioritize and that he’s perfectly capable of asking you out on another date once you’ve prevented the summoning. And if Aymeric wants you to accept another date, he should also understand that you will always help Alphinaud when he asks. Always. That at least gets Alphinaud to smile, and the two of you make your way to Xelphatol as a united front.

The Ixal in Xelphatol are, of course, no match for you and Alphinaud. All five Warriors of Darkness and another strange, veiled mage, however, are a different story.

The man with the axe (Ardbert) tells you of his world, of how victory over the Ascians and the Darkness caused the Light to begin destroying everything. To set right his world, he plans to cause another Calamity on yours. He tells you that you’ll meet again.

He takes his companions and leaves you and Alphinaud in the cold, with an increasingly bitter feeling in the pit of your stomach. You go back to Ishgard.

(At least Alisaie’s not dying anymore.)

You catch everyone in Ishgard up on what’s happened. Alisaie suggests asking Urianger for advice on preventing future primal summonings, but treats him like a stranger when you actually go to talk to him. You don’t know what to make of that yet, so you take Urianger’s advice and check in on the kobolds in case the Warriors of Darkness have plans for Titan as they did for Garuda.

The twins insist on coming with you to La Noscea, and as it’s been a while since the three of you adventured together, you’re happy to take them. The mood quickly dampens, however, when you realize you were right to check on the kobolds. It’s… (not something you wanted anyone besides you to ever see again) unpleasant. The kobold patriarch has been sacrificing his people to prepare for summoning Titan. You can’t stop Ga Bu from seeing the bodies of his parents.

“Mother… Father… please wake up.”

The crystal crates around Ga Bu start glowing.

“Wake up, wake up.”

That’s not good.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!”

(That’s really fucking bad.)

Titan’s amber heart begins to form, the earth and rocks around you drawn to its gravity and building up his body. One leg forms, then another. The Patriarch is boasting about the imminent demise of everyone aboveground. Arms appear. Ga Bu is still crying.

Titan forms. He swings. The Patriarch goes flying. Ga Bu huddles between the bodies of his parents and the empty crystal-crates and won’t come out. You can’t tell if it’s the primal or the kobold who’s yelling. Titan stomps like a tantrum, an explosion of anguish, a violent rage without direction or intent.

You shove yourself between the primal and the twins and tell them to get out and let you deal with Titan.

(You won’t allow it.)

“But—”

You tell them to get out . They leave.

You kill Titan again. You watch him crumble and dissipate until not even a pebble remains. You walk over to Ga Bu, still between the corpses and crates; he’s silent. You pick him up and go back to the surface. You confirm that the twins escaped safely. You put Ga Bu down next to them and report to the ranking Maelstrom officer at Camp Overlook.

(You watch Alisaie insist to the Maelstrom that Ga Bu has not been tempered and try not to curse yourself for letting her get into that position in the first place.)

You stay at the camp for the night, but you can’t sleep. You wander and find Alisaie sitting on the hill with Ga Bu, looking out at the stars above Iron Lake. You sit next to her and listen to her tell you of her journeying since you parted ways last, of her struggle to understand her grandfather’s decisions, her search to find a reason to stay in Eorzea and fight. Speaking of fallen comrades is still too difficult for you, so you tell her about fighting alongside Aymeric in the Churning Mists instead. She seems happy to hear the story regardless, and the silence afterwards doesn’t bother you as long as you keep your eyes on her or the stars instead of the kobold.

Ga Bu manages to speak before you leave La Noscea the next day, and for both his and Alisaie’s sake, you’re glad the Maelstrom is simply taking him into custody rather than executing him. 

You consult Urianger again. Aisaie’s attitude towards Urianger goes from arid distance to active prickliness. Urianger doesn’t say a word in protest, though, only directs you towards Little Ala Mhigo and its rumors of a secret new power for the Resistance.

You try to ask Alisaie what’s gone wrong between her and Urianger, but all she tells you is that she’s prepared to do what must be done. The set of her frown doesn’t invite further discussion, so you don’t press her and instead let her lead you around the settlement asking questions about the Ala Mhigan Resistance. Gundobald catches wind of you quickly enough and, after remarking that he’s glad of how well you look compared to the time you last spoke (which causes Alphinaud to peer at you a little too closely while you try to school your face into that of a man who didn’t deliberately seek out the most ferocious and deadly monsters he could find for the sake of greatsword training), points you towards a masked Resistance leader called the Griffin, who’s due to make a speech at Qarn soon.

The speech is pure rabble-rousing, but of all people to see there, you finally find Yda and Papalymo. Alphinaud quickly goes up to them, and you leave the rally to learn what’s happened with them since the Banquet.

According to Yda, the Resistance helped them flee Ul’dah, and their time in Little Ala Mhigo since then has been spent laying low and repaying that kindness. Papalymo also says there’s a rumor the Griffin has some kind of power that sounds suspiciously like a cache of summoning crystals, which matches Thancred’s suspicions; he arranges for Alphinaud and yourself to meet the Griffin under the guise of joining the Resistance so you can confront him with the truth.

Alphinaud doesn’t waste much time before accusing the Griffin of using crystals to summon a primal. Yda also accuses the Griffin of being a double of the real man. The false Griffin tells Yda he speaks on behalf of the real one and corrects Alphinaud to say that they gave the crystals to the Amalj'aa instead for their help in liberating Ala Mhigo.

(That’s still going to result in a primal, though.)

Yda argues with the false Griffin some more about his methods. You turn to Alphinaud and tell him you’re going to update Alisaie on the situation.

“Wait.” The false Griffin is staring right at you. “You. Are you the Warrior of Light?” You don’t deny it. “You’ve been a friend to Ala Mhigo more than once. There are many in the Resistance who owe you their lives, who’ve found the inspiration to fight from your deeds. I don’t suppose you’d remember, seeing as it was so long ago, but you saved my life, too. Helped me get some medicine I needed. Scions aside, you’d be welcome in the Resistance, should you wish to join us in earnest.”

(Meffrid. And Gallien.)

Quarrymill. Of course you remember. But you can’t join him.

“Ah, best leave the past in the past, then. You should be on your way.”

“A fine suggestion,” Papalymo says. “Yda, we should go.” Yda looks back at the Griffin one more time, but acquiesces. You all go back into Little Ala Mhigo to plan your next move.

“Quarrymill?” Alphinaud asks you. He hasn’t spent enough time in the Shroud for you to know how to explain how angry Gridania makes you, sometimes.

Sometimes the Hearers are wrong, is all you tell him. Yda (who has spent time in the Shroud) pulls a face, then tries to cover her mouth with her hand. Papalymo glances at Yda and gives you a long stare, but apparently decides to keep his silence about that as well.

(You’re not sorry. You’d do it again.)

“We should focus on the matter at hand,” Papalymo says instead. “If there is a cache of crystals still here, Yda and I will find it.”

Since you don’t actually have time to discuss Gridanian politics (or how growing up in the arse-end of the woods makes you feel about Hearers in general, even when they aren’t lying), you volunteer yourself and Alphinaud to check the Bowl of Embers and get the crystals back from the Amalj’aa; Alphinaud is already talking to Alisaie and linkpearling Thancred about it. You part ways with Yda and Papalymo for now.

The Warriors of Darkness are waiting for you there. Their leader (Ardbert) points his axe at you and tells you he’s going to cause the next Rejoining by killing you.

“One life for one world,” he says. “A fair exchange, wouldn’t you agree? ” He’s glaring at you so fiercely he’s shaking.

But you’re not going to just give up without a fight.

“None of us will,” Alisaie says. Blade meets axe and your clash begins. While Thancred battles with the knight and Alphinaud blocks more arrows from the ranger, the magus slingshots an explosive spell at Alisaie, knocking her off her feet. You turn to help her, but the Warrior of Darkness (Ardbert) blocks your way. Alphinaud similarly tries to aid her, but she shrugs him off. Instead, you watch Alisaie pick herself up, wipe the blood from her mouth with her hand, draw a blade of aether from her grimoire, and join the battle proper. “As Eorzea’s Blade of Light once stood by my side, I will stand at his!”

(You’re so proud of her for finding her own way. But would she still call you that if she knew what it meant?)

Together, you fight. You hold your own until the Warrior chains you in place, pinning your arms to your sides and squeezing the magical bindings tight around your ribcage. On either side of you, Thancred and the twins are similarly bound. You struggle to free yourself, but the air is only squeezed from your chest faster. Your adversary grins and—

The mage from Xelphatol returns, shattering the chains. He is not wearing his veil. 

It’s Urianger. Now that he’s right in front of you, it’s so obvious you don’t know how you didn’t realize it before.

“You sweet fool,” Alisaie laughs, though you’re not sure she’s amused. “I almost believed you’d betrayed us. May I trust you’re turned your coat for the last time?”

“Thou mayest, my lady,” Urianger says. He nods at you and Alphinaud, too. You think that means you’re still friends.

With your numbers thus evened, you fight again. You defend Alisaie from the Warrior while she begins charging an intricate spell through her blade; you try to strike him down, but he just doesn’t seem to stay there. On the far side of the Bowl, Thancred and Urianger are clashing  with the knight and the ranger in an attempt to shut down the magus’s counter-incantation. On Alisaie’s other side, Alphinaud sends his carbuncle to stop the devout from repeatedly healing the Warrior, but it only seems to incense him more, and now you’re dashing in front of Alphinaud to push back the axe with your blade.

“Alphinaud, I need more aether!” Alisaie calls. You hear Alphinaud run to her side. “Urianger!” You get ready to dig your heels in between them and the world for however long it takes the spell to finish. But, because Thancred can’t use aether anymore, “Niko!”

You can’t be in two places at once. You look to Thancred, and he very helpfully pushes his own blade between yours and the axe, shoving you in the direction of Alisaie and her spell. You let your momentum carry you the rest of the way, put your hand on Alisaie’s shoulder, and look to her for confirmation you’re keeping some semblance of balance in the polarity of aether you’re giving her.

“Yes, just like that,” Alisaie says, and the abyss flows forth but so too does the flame, “keep going…” you keep pouring aether in, “a little more…” and pouring, pressing your forehead into the top of her ponytail when your knees start screaming at you, “…there!” You collapse at her feet.

Alisaie points her blade towards the sky, and in a crimson starburst flash, the spell explodes, blasting all other spells out of the air and sending the Warriors of Darkness sprawling.

“It’s done,” Alisaie says, breathing hard, a triumphant smile on her face.

You pull yourself back up with your sword and tell her that you knew she—

Then, with Crystals of Light in hand, they all stand back up again.

(It’s never that easy, is it?)

“We are far from finished,” the Warrior says. “Like the Ascians and their Crystals of Darkness,” you ignore your drained aether, return to your battle stance, and get ready to plant yourself in front of the twins again, “we too are eternal, and you will—”

“Wait,” Alphinaud interrupts, frowning. You lower your sword. “The Ascian method of travel requires abandonment of the body. You would have had to—” he can’t finish the sentence, but he doesn’t need to.

(A person cannot make the trip across worlds unless they abandon their body. You know why Ardbert’s axe is stained. You know he would not have allowed anyone else to bear that burden.)

“Now you get it,” the Warrior says. “We were just adventurers. We never wanted to be Warriors of Light. But word of our deeds spread, and people started calling us heroes, and so we fought and we fought and we fought and we won...”

(You know this story.)

“And now our world is going to be destroyed.” He looks down at his Crystal of Light as if he could crack it with his gaze alone. “We did everything right! Everything that was asked of us! And still… still, it came to this! You of all people should understand.”

(In Ardbert’s anguish, his grief, his love for his friends and his world, is reflected everyone you’ve ever loved, everyone you’ve ever lost. You understand. You understand.)

“That is why we cannot falter.” He and his companions hold their Crystals above their heads, gathering power for another fight. But you and your team just poured all your aether into Alisaie’s spell. You don’t know if you’re capable of doing anything in between the frailest of shields and throwing yourself on the pyre of your own power.

“Now, Niko!” Urianger says swiftly. “Raise thy Crystal of Light aloft!” You don’t know why he’s asking, but you’re still friends, so you do it and hope it’s enough. “Mother Hydaelyn! With this offering, we beg an audience with the Word of the Mother — your chosen, Minfilia,” he calls out.

The crystals harmonize, and with a flash, you’re all transported to the shore of the aetherial sea. Minfilia is there.

“Though many are lost, there are those we can yet save,” she says. She says she will travel through the aetherial sea to the First and stop the Flood of Light. She thanks you all, Thancred especially, like she does not expect to be back. She gives you the broken head of Louisoix’s Tupsimati, with just enough power in it for one last use. She smiles at you and the Warrior (Ardbert) like Hydaelyn’s told her a secret she isn’t allowed to share yet.

“Take us with you,” he says, before she leaves. “We want to go home.” Minfilia nods. He looks at you, one last time. “I think you might already know this, but… as one fool to another, it doesn’t matter whether your path is light or dark as much as why you choose to walk it. You saw what happened because of our choices. Make yourself a better future.”

(Your Crystal pulses, and you know it’s in time with his.)

Then they’re all gone.

Alphinaud and Alisaie start talking with Urianger. Thancred wants to be left alone. You tell Alphinaud you’ll update Yda and Papalymo on what happened. You go back to Little Ala Mhigo, and then you, Yda, and Papalymo go back to the Rising Stones together.

You let them know what happened. Yda is silent for a minute, then rushes off to who knows where.

(To buy flowers from Rowena like after Moenbryda, maybe.)

You entrust Tupsimati to Papalymo at his request (more than mere adventure stories told to you and Nashu and her sister until it got light out and your mother called you in for dinner, he was a real apprentice, taught by Louisoix himself how to properly wield artifacts like that). He tucks the head of the staff in his breast pocket and gives you another long look.

You tell Papalymo that if there’s anything he wants to say to you about Minfilia, or about Quarrymill for that matter, he should say it. He regards you for another moment before replying.

“I can only trust that Minfilia did what she thought was right,” Papalymo says. “I will miss her, and I will honor her by doing my utmost to make sure her dreams for the future are fulfilled. As for Quarrymill… I won’t fault you for saving a man’s life, and I trust your skill at white magic means you know what you’re doing when you break certain rules in the forest.” He frowns. “But now, more than ever, we must be cautious. The Griffin, he encourages… recklessness, and an eagerness for retribution in a way that puts me off my ease. Yda doesn’t need encouragement to be reckless. From him or you.”

It’s a measured scolding, but you understand his meaning, and you tell him as much. Everything you’ve done, you take responsibility for.

“From you, I’d believe that,” he says. Then the conversation is over.

A few days later, and in the spirit of transparency (… apparently), Urianger tells you that Elidibus wants to speak with you in the Solar of the Rising Stones. You stare up at him for several seconds, then follow him in. To Urianger’s credit, the Ascian does not attempt to kill you, for once; he merely introduces a second, smaller robed figure with him as Unukalhai. Unukalhai informs you of three additional Meracydian primals in Azys Lla that are in danger of breaking free of the Allagan restraints.

You tell Elidibus (and not very politely) that if Allagan restraints in Azys Lla are only just now failing, it’s Lahabrea’s fault for letting the Archbishop and the Empire in there in the first place.

“What most interests me is balance,” Elidibus says, ignoring your annoyance. “Three primals of that strength running rampant in the same area is counter to that balance, and as you have gotten my Warriors of Darkness sent back to the First, you are the one I must ask to maintain it. Lahabrea and Igeyohrm acted impulsively and without approval in Azys Lla, I assure you. Any further questions may be directed towards Unukalhai. I take my leave of you.” Then he disappears into a portal to the void.

You spend another few seconds glaring at the space where Elidibus used to be, and then you ask Unukalhai for more information on the Warring Triad because it’s still your job to kill primals. Unukalhai is slow to trust you with the truth, but the more you learn, the more you see yourself in him. When he finally talks about the Thirteenth, his grief and regret, all you can think about is a boy fleeing for his life from monsters he had no chance of victory against.

You ask Urianger, once the Warring Triad business is done, if he thinks Elidibus was trying to help in his own strange manner, sending the Warriors of Darkness and Unukalhai your way.

“‘Twould be less than prudent to take a Paragon’s word at face value,” Urianger says. “Especially one who laboreth for a Rejoining we must oppose. That thou harborest sympathy even for thy foe speaketh to thy kindness, but thou canst not allow it to stay thy hand.”

(He’s right, of course. The next time Elidibus shows up, he’s going to try to kill you again.)

You know that. But...

(It’s hard to find the words for Elidibus holding Ardbert up to you like a mirror when he’s the one who dressed Unukalhai in a mask and white robe. Even if for a Rejoining, you wonder about them.)

You tell Urianger you’re glad to be friends with Unukalhai now. You just wonder if he thinks you and the Warrior of Darkness could have been friends under other circumstances, too.

“Aye,” Urianger says. When you dare to look up at him, he’s smiling. “I believe so.”

You look away again and tell him the whole thing has given you much to think about. You’d like to take some time on your own, to reflect.

“I shall do my utmost to keep Alphinaud from fretting overmuch in thy absence,” Urianger says. You let a little laugh escape (because he’s still right), and then you leave Mor Dhona for a while.

While you’re not paying attention, your feet bring you to Fortemps Manor. You wonder if maybe you shouldn’t have called ahead when the head servant tells you everyone else is out on business at this hour, but speaking with him inspires you to turn your wandering into a proper journey of remembrance of your time in the North. You still don’t think you could put into words how it all makes you feel, but walking your steps again, talking with people, feels like the right decision.

(You buy two flowers. You make a fire in the clearing near Zenith and stare at it long into the night. You place one blossom at the airship landing in Azys Lla, next to a bouquet of azure blooms, and the other at the memorial just past Menphina’s mark that overlooks Ishgard. You think about warmth until you can almost feel it, and you manage to get a smile on your face by the time Francel finds you at Providence Point.)

You run into Aymeric entirely by coincidence on your way back to Fortemps Manor; he’s looking out past the Last Vigil at the mountains in the distance. You call out to him and walk up.

“How wonderful to see you again,” Aymeric says, his face lighting up when he catches sight of you. “I’d heard you were in town a few days ago and feared I had missed you.” You don’t go into detail (nor do you mention Ardbert), but you explain your impromptu journey of remembrance after the conclusion of the conflict with the Warring Triad. “If that journey has brought you peace of mind, then I am glad for it.” It’s been a good day, so you don’t disagree. He hesitates a moment. “I hope you will forgive me for not producing an invitation in advance this time, but I should like to hear more of your Azys Lla adventures. Perhaps over dinner? And a drink, if you are amenable?”

(See, he did ask you again.)

You tell Aymeric there’s nothing you’d like more.

Some weeks later, a woman comes stumbling into the Rising Stones, bloody and calling for Yda. She’s clearly some sort of soldier, bow on her back, though you don’t recognize the uniform. You help her into a chair and try to heal some of her wounds while Tataru runs off to get Yda. Once Yda is fetched (along with several other Scions) and the soldier’s ears are a little less flattened against her head in pain, she says her name is M’naago and that there’s been an attack on Baelsar’s Wall separating Gyr Abania and the Shroud.

Yda says that it means the Griffin is finally making his move and using the Wall as a means to drag the Alliance into the fight against the Empire in Gyr Abania.

You join your fellow Scions in gathering the Alliance leaders so they can formulate a responding strategy. Aymeric greets you with a smile when you first walk into his office in Ishgard, but quickly turns serious when you let him know what’s happened. You ride the airship to the conference in Gridania with him and try to think positively about merely sitting a little too closely next to him on the airship seat while Lucia pretends not to notice and turns away to look at the scenery.

The Alliance decides their best defense against being overrun by the Empire is to secure the Wall, and the Scions agree to help. You scale it, searching for the Griffin while fighting off Garlean machina and Garlean soldiers and Ala Mhigans in stolen Alliance outfits.

(Flinging spells from afar and having a brim on your hat might keep you from seeing individual faces, but you can still hear them just fine. There are a lot of voices to hear.)

When you finally find him, the real Griffin, he’s standing on a high part of the Wall, looking down at the chaos below. He turns, slow, to face you.

“It was sloppy of you to take this long, Scion,” he says, taking his mask off. “I expected you hours ago. You can’t stop what I’ve put in motion.”

It’s Ilberd.

Alphinaud is half a step behind you, quickly followed by Yda and Papalymo, and they dance through the same argument Yda had with the false Griffin (dying below, in the heart of the carnage, if not already dead) in Little Ala Mhigo.

And then Ilberd takes out Nidhogg’s Eyes (wrenched from the chasm below Ishgard, burning with hatred through the ice encasing them), and leaps from the wall into the mountain of bodies below, a mass sacrifice to summon forth a god of vengeance on par with the Calamity.

A massive coalescence of energy throbs in the sky, beating like a heart, dragon-blood veins spreading through its pale mass, drawing in aether from the bodies below and growing with every pulse of energy. It’s not even awakened as a primal yet, and it’s already twice the height of the Wall.

You don’t know how to stop it.

“We cannot defeat this primal here,” Papalymo says, “but perhaps if I do as Master Louisoix did, we can bind it for a time.” He pulls Tupsimati out of his pocket, walks toward the edge of the Wall, and points the broken staff head at the primal. Everyone knows how that binding spell works.

Thancred, Yugiri, and Hilda swoop down on an airship, ready to bear you back to Gridania. Yda tries to stay, so Papalymo tells you and Thancred to take her anyway.

You take a breath, but you listen. You help Thancred haul a loudly protesting Yda onto the airship (she elbows you once before you wrestle her on and it hurts ). You make sure Alphinaud is safely aboard. Hilda starts flying you all away. You watch Papalymo cast the spell. You know he’s smiling the same way Moenbryda smiled.

Yda stops kicking Thancred and goes quiet when the magical cage appears. Alphinaud leans into you a little, staring at the cage with a hand on his grimoire, and you pet at his hair until the airship gets far away enough that it’s out of sight.

Yda doesn’t want to go to Gridania, so Thancred stays with her at the Wood Wailer spire overlooking the Wall from the Shroud side. Hilda drops them off and then pilots the rest of you back into Gridania proper. You drag yourself and Alphinaud to the Lotus Stand and tell a somber-faced Kan-E-Senna what happened.

“I have only seen that spell once before,” she says, “but I recognized it at once from your description.” Alphinaud remains silent at your side. “We must not waste the time Papalymo has given us. I will reconvene the Alliance council to meet on the morrow.”

You tell her you’ll be there the next day to brief the Alliance council on what happened at the Wall (so Alphinaud doesn’t have to talk about the binding spell and so Aymeric doesn’t have to hear about the Eyes from anyone else but you).

“Please rest, both of you.” You nod and leave the Lotus Stand.

You take yourself and Alphinaud back to Yugiri and Hilda, and you tell them the plan for the following day. While Yugiri linkpearls Thancred, you get everyone some inn rooms and some eel pies. You stare at the ceiling for a very long time before you manage to fall asleep.

The next morning is bad, but you get up anyway, get everyone breakfast (Alphinaud is talking like he has plans again, thankfully, but your own plan hasn’t changed), and go back to the Lotus Stand. You tell the Alliance leaders what happened at the Wall.

Nero (of all people) decides to crash the meeting and offers up an Allagan weapon called Omega to fight the primal. After an amount of bickering between him and Cid (the normal amount, for them), you agree to keep an eye on Nero for the Alliance. Going to Carteneau is a strange experience, but you do exactly as you said you would and defend the engineers from a group of Imperial soldiers so Omega can launch.

Omega… does not look Allagan. But Nero lets you cause some chaos in magitek armor and send the annoyingly loud imperial officer and his lackeys running, so you’re not going to worry about it right now.

(And if the engineers' gambit works, then maybe what Papalymo did won’t have been in vain.)

The monstrosity activates, its single eye glowing first crimson then golden, but unlike the Ultima Weapon, it’s at least a monstrosity that’s on your side (for now). Nero transmits to it the coordinates for the Wall.

You tell Cid you’re going to go back to Gridania. You… you want to see Omega defeat it with your own two eyes.

(Ilberd said he was trying to recreate the Calamity. You remember being sixteen, watching Dalamud grow closer, redder, day by day, joining the regular useless midnight prayer for it go back to normal. Your mother was all fire and fury at those in your village reckless enough to remember Louisoix from what they still called the New City, following him to Gridania and onward to Carteneau. You spent a lot of time in Fallgourd watching the descent from its relatively open skies, and then the moon broke apart and the sky was aflame and Hydaelyn spoke to you and you couldn’t see anything but crystal for you don’t know how long, and when you came back to, there was a gigantic metal shard impaled in the earth and everything was on fire and someone was shaking you by the shoulders, and you ran back to the village to help your mother get people out of their collapsed homes, and most of them made it, but you never saw anyone who left for Carteneau ever again. If the destruction of another Calamity is inside Papalymo’s magic cage, you need to see that something can triumph over it.)

“I want to see it too,” Alphinaud says. Cid nods at you both, and you leave for the spire closest to the Wall.

You barely get there in time. At the base of the spire, Y’shtola and Krile have taken over watch from Yugiri and Thancred. On the top platform, Yda is staring at the primal cage, her hands gripping the railing so tightly you don’t know how she keeps from splintering it.

Together, you watch the dragon crack the shell of magic binding it and emerge, wings first, into the sky. Even at a distance, the wooden spire shakes. From the direction of Carteneau, Omega comes screaming through the air at the wyrm, lasers almost bright enough to blind, rockets firing and exploding against scales of gold and silver, and the dragon clashes with it in the air before they both shoot further into Gyr Abania.

“It’s finally happened,” she says. She’s touching a hand to her neck. “The last of his magic is gone from this world.” The Archon mark has vanished. “And with it my last excuse.”

Lyse takes her mask off. She explains.

“That was why you took up your sister’s name and mask,” Y’shtola says. Everyone besides you and the twins has known all along, apparently.

“I was silly to think that I could fool you all,” Lyse says. “But I… I sort of… decided not to know.” (That, you understand a little too well.) She’s reluctant to meet your gaze, but the thought of being upset at her barely occurred to you.

No matter what her name is, she’s still your friend, you tell her.

Lyse doesn’t want to leave things as they are, so you won’t either. Ala Mhigo deserves to be free. If she’s going to fight for Ala Mhigo’s freedom, then you’ll help.

Back at the Lotus Stand, the Alliance agrees to fight for Ala Mhigo, too, if the Resistance will have them, and they ask the Scions to deliver that message of intent for them. Cid tells you he’s ordered Omega into dormancy, or at least until he can find where it crash-landed in Gyr Abania. At the Rising Stones, the other Scions agree to help as well.

The Wall beckons, and like the long bridge to Ishgard, you’re not quite sure what you’ll find on the other side, but where you’re going, you won’t go alone.