Ignis Scientia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chef_chocobro) wrote2022-06-07 05:17 am
chef_chocobro) wrote2022-06-07 05:17 am
Steyliff Grove; the Vesperpool; Cleigne, Eos. Tuesday [06/07 FT].
Even though the intel was good and it was pretty clear that the mithryl Cindy needed for the boat was located somewhere in the Vesperpool, there was that ever present and often increasingly worrisome detail of the Imperial presence in the area. Perhaps, though, it might have been for the best. With Gladio gone, they'd lost a very significant part of their fighting force. But in a few days time, the Hunters in the area reported a departure of the troops, and the trio found their opportunity to go and find what they were looking for, and they loaded into the Regalia to head out
"Sooo," Prompto couldn't help but wonder, although he was pretty sure he already knew the answer, "whatever happened to 'under Imperial lockdown'?"
"They all but turned the key, it seems," Ignis said, the frown on his face evident in his voice, "and left the gates open for us. Almost as if awaiting our arrival."
"And if there's anyone waiting for us," Prompto murmured, "I bet it's that guy."
"Chancellor Izunia," Ignis agreed, managing to infuse that name with as much disdain and dislike as one could.
"Can't complain," Noctis countered, almost with a shrug. "As long as he lets us in."
"But who's to say," Ignis countered, "that he'll let us out? Not to mention, we're a man down. Would that the Marshal were with us."
"Whatever happened to him, anyway?" Prompto asked.
"As I understand it," Ignis explained, "he's put his tomb raiding on hold to help the Hunters take care of some trouble with the beasts."
"No rest for the Immortal," said Noctis, and it was eerily smooth sailing until they turned the car down the bumpy, winding road into the marshes of the Vesterpool. It was hot and humid and sticky going as they trudged through the marshes toward Steytiff Grove and the ruins that stood there….
And the all too familiar figure that stood among them.
"Gentlemen," Ardyn's voice still carried that smooth, creeping smirk in it as they approached with caution, "what a pleasant surprise."
"Ugh," said Prompto, shaking his head, "told you he'd be waiting."
"With my Imperial friends, no less!" Ardyn cheerfully informed them. "But fear not. I'll put in a good word. Well Come along, then.
"Don't stray too far!" he sang out as they followed after him through the ruins. "Lest you get left behind. And surely you'd rather avoid unnecessary….scuffles, seeing as you're now a trio."
He grinned over at Noct. "Oh, dear," he mewled, as if he'd already seen the look on his face. "Touchy subject?"
"One we won't discuss with you," Ignis stated firmly.
"Then let's discuss why you're here," Ardyn suggested, tapping his chin as he walked. "Hmmm. I can't be archaeology….Mithyrl, then, perhaps?"
"This guy out here," Prompto grunted, "reading our thoughts!"
"Mithryl…" Ardyn's tone was wistful. "It's a precious resource, you see. We can't let just anyone get their hands on it."
"But you'll help us," Noctis drawled dryly, "get ours on it, right?"
Ardyn let out a sharp, dramatic gasp. "I never said that!"
"Of course you didn't," Prompto said, practically rolling his eyes out of his head.
"Where is the fun in that?" Ardyn's voice dropped into a deep purr. "I thought you'd rather dig it up yourselves."
Finally, they approached the ruins at Steyliff Grove, where three figures stood waiting in the gathering darkness. "Fear not," Ardyn informed them. "I'll be but a moment."
"A moment doing what?" murmured Prompto.
"Beats me," Noctis muttered back.
At least they didn't have to wait long before Ardyn's voice rang out to give them the all clear to go ahead.
"Alas," he added, "the ever persistent military. They'll not accept you to go forth unattended. I shall prevail upon you to accept an escort. I've seen to everything."
That was when one of the other figures stepped forward, a woman with hair so pale it looked ashen, an incredibly elaborate and showy set of armor matching the sharpness of her eyes. "So," she said, by way of greeting, "you're the 'new recruits'," with a particular emphasis on those words, "they sent over for 'special training'. Nice cover….runaway prince."
Noctis lifted his chin, folding his arms defiantly, refusing to say a word to this accusation.
And the woman sighed. "At ease, 'recruits'," she rolled her eyes a little. "There's nothing in it for this ex-mercenary to turn you in this time."
That was when the recognized her, and that voice, especially as she fitted the fierce slatted helmet of a dragoon over her head. This was none other than the woman who had attacked them at Fort Vaullerey.
"Let's ge this show on the road," she said. "I'm being paid to escort you. Just watch yourselves in there."
"I trust you'll be civil," said Ardyn. "Commodore Aranea Highwind, I leave them to you."
HIghwind. Yes, there was the confirmation. Ignis drew a small, sharp breath, and could feel the recognition rippling through Noctis and Prompto as well. It would seem that it was not just themselves they'd have to watch out for in there, but this escort of theirs as well.
The entrance to the old and abandoned building--was this place once a palace? A temple? The answer to such questions had been long lost to history--were illuminated with an odd faint glowing, a glow that awaited them down deep after they descended an impressive amount of stairs. Down and down and then down some more, and Prompto couldn't help commenting on the endless nature of these stairs. "This place," he snorted, "would give even Fandom a run for its money."
The halls that awaited them were labyrinthian, twisting corridors that lead to empty rooms, and, occasionally, they found themselves barely missed by crumbling chunks of ceiling from overhead. Imps and other minor daemons lurked within the chambers as well, dismissed easily enough, especially with Aranea and her lance to their aid. It was hard for Ignis to not be impressed with her precision and prowess, especially as a fellow lancer himself. Perhaps, in any other circumstances, he might ask her for some pointers. Instead, he was mostly just glad that, this time, she was fighting with them and not against.
But then they opened the large door beyond the first set of chambers, with golden lines radiating across it it like the rays of a setting sun, and the most incredible sight awaited them beyond that door. Ignis couldn't help himself as he breathed out an awed, "Incredible…."
"It is pretty neat," Aranea agreed.
A blue glow danced over the stone walls, washing over them as they stepped forward into a sort balcony, overlooking a promenade far below,, but the real vision came from above. All that trembling, shifting light, blue and green and gold, seemed to filter through a shimmering surface overhead.
"Whoa," Aranea breathed out, as all their eyes turned toward ceiling, shimmered like a liquid surface. "Is that the top of the water?"
"Wait, what?" asked Prompto, but it was true, it looked like the calm surface of a reflecting pool, only…inexplicably above them. "Does that mean we're underwater?" He gasped as he saw shapes moving through it. "Whoa! There's even fish!"
Noctis let out an almost amused breath at that. "What is this place?" he asked, an rare note of wonder and awe in his voice. "It's like seeing a dream."
"Gladio is seriously missing out," Prompto noted, slipping his camera out of his pocket to sneak in a few extra shots.
"Probably not his thing, anyway," Noctis guessed.
"Now, now," Ignis chided gently, "one can never tell."
But it truly was gorgeous. Breathtaking. Almost impossible to take their eyes off of it, but they needed to keep pressing on, despite the absolute wonder of the place. As they moved deeper down toward the main promenade, each level of the place seemed to take on its own characteristic of the light filtering through the water, somehow even more beautiful the deeper they went, and Ignis was not only marveling but also…suddenly concerned.
"What is it," he ventured to ask, "that the Empire seeks here?"
"Specimens," Aranea said, her husky voice laced with disdain. "And we're left to harvest them."
As she spoke, Prompto suddenly pitched forward, as if tripping over his own feet Ignis, quick and ready beside him and quite certain he knew what had caused that stumble, reached out an arm to help him.
"Spec….specimens?" Prompto staggered out and, pushing himself back straight, sent a worried, distressed look toward Ignis.
"Daemons," Aranea supplied, helpfully, because how could she have possibly known that they knew precisely what she was talking about?
"Gotta love it," Prompto grunted. "The Empire and their…" Ignis felt him shudder from head to toe beside him, "daemons..."
"Turns out," Aranea offered, "the empire makes weapons out of them."
"You don't say," Prompto breathed out quietly.
"Yes," Ignis placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "So we've heard."
"I'm sure you've probably even seen a few of them by now," Aranea guessed.
Even in the dimness of the chambers, Prompto was pale, the colored marbling of the light filtered through the water dancing over his stricken face.
"Something like that," Ignis said quietly.
"There's something not quite right," she continued, "with the Empire lately."
"It's not just 'lately'," Noctis countered dryly.
"True," Aranea allowed, without hesitation. "Maybe it is time--"
But their chat was cut short, by a rumble around them as the gathering dark started to fill with the unmistakable dark glitter and glow of gathering energy, daemons pulling themselves out of the darkness, out of wherever they came from, to attack. It wasn't the first set of daemons they'd encountered down here, and it wouldn't be their last, and as they fought their way through these hordes of potential specimens, they were granted at least one more favor from the Fulgarian, the Storm gathering and lending another burst of power to Noctis to blast through their enemies.
And spark a little more life into the communicator, albeit still unbeknownst to them.
"So I guess the rumor are true," Aranea breathed out. "You guys can really pack a punch."
"The Fulgarian in particular," said Ignis, coolly, as if quite used to this sort of thing by now, summoning up a lightning god out of nowhere to strike the battlefield with furious energy, "has been exceptionally kind."
"Maybe I did pick the wrong side after all," she murmured, giving her lance a twirl before setting off again, down more steps, and off into the next twisting series of chambers and hallways.
Many, many more chambers and corridors and daemon hordes later, they made it down to the bottom of the promenade, a large and spacious area beneath the shimmering water's surface overhead, mighty roots grown up through the rock and tangling itself in all the pillars and porticos.
"There is sooooo going to be a big nasty in here," Prompto pointed out.
"The bigger they are," Aranea offered, "the harder they fall."
The monster that awaited them in this massive chamber was perhaps not quite as big as Prompto was expecting, but perched on one of the bridges that'd crossed earlier was none-the-less, a large and scaled thing, brilliant colors bright in the shifting light of the overhead pool.The dragon flapped its powerful wings, hovering above them for a moment before making its fierce dive for them.It landed with a crash and a crumble of the stonework around it, and it let out a fearsome roar…and attacked, with determination and earnest…and, apparently, a good deal of rage.
Its moves were quick and erratic, and it was difficult to strike it as it frequently pulled itself high in the air, even beyond Noctis' warping ability. But they fought hard, they fought clumsily, but they eventually they fought well enough to bring the monster down and, with it, obtained the mithryl ore they were looking for, tucked deep into the back of the chamber.
"That concludes our business here," Ignis declared, while carefully slipping into a pocket for safekeeping, and they turned to make their way back out toward the entrance of the temple fruits.
"Say, Commodore," said Prompto, the exhaustion from all their well-fought battles weighing them down through the tedium of returning, but he couldn't get some of their conversations earlier out of hi mind.
"Aranea," she corrected, almost immediately.
"Aranea," Prompto nodded. "Right. So…..about those…weapons…that the Empire uses daemons to make--
But she cut him off, a little roughly, a little as if, out of all the topics they could be broaching right now, that was the one she'd prefer to speak about the least, but she'd still obliged all the same.. "Listen," she said, "you've seen magitek troopers, right? They're born from daemons. In a lab."
"....born," Prompto swallowed hard, and felt Ignis moving closer to him, "from daemons?"
"Darkness is coming," Aranea said, the huskiness of her voice making it sound even more ominous, especially in these creepy corridors. "If I were you, I'd watch my princely ass. Uhhh…" She corrected herself with a bow of her head. "'Kingly' ass."
When they emerged, it was raining, a warm sweltering rain from the heat of the swamp, and Aranea turned to face them. "Congrats," she offered. "That concludes you 'training.' You've still got a hard path ahead, but don't let anyone tell you how to walk it.".
"You may have been hired under false pretenses," said Ignis, with a respectful nod of his head, "but your assistance was invaluable all the same."
"Hmph." Aranea grinned through her helm. "Tell me something I don't know. You can spare the pleasantries."
Despite this, though, Ignis was entirely sincere in response. "Take care walking your path, Aranea.
"Oh." There was a pause, maybe an odd stagger to her voice, at that, a faint bit of awkwardness, the first sign she'd shown of anything such thing the entire time. "Thanks. I will. And I'll 'train' you some more if our paths cross again. Oh, and…before I forget…."
She turned and started walking away with these words, lifting a hand, but not to impart a wave of goodbye, but rather to beckon them to follow her., "His Excellency instructed me to give you boys a ride back. If you need a lift, feel free to hop on."
"Well," said Prompto, breathing out and shaking out his limbs as if trying to push off the heaviness of that place and the information Aranea had provided them with, "I'm glad that's over!"
Ignis felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and, for a brief, fleeting moment, felt a surge through him as powerful as one of Ramuh's lightning bolts, a shock of hope that perhaps it might be Summer, texting him some photograph of some absolute atrocity she'd concocted with jello….or even Shane…but when he pulled out the phone, it was certainly no one from Fandom at all. "Noct," he he announced, after reading the text and tucking his phone back into his pocket. "I've just received word form Cindy."
"And?"
"We're to return to Lestallum," he explained. "Her friend works as an engineer at the power plant. She'll take care of the mithryl.
"And that," Prompto grinned, "will take care of our boat problem!"
"Let's make sure," said Ignis, "we're rested and ready, and then we'll make haste. And as much as I don't exactly cherish the idea of another Imperial escort, we may do worse than to accept Aranea's offer for a lift."
[[ lifted, wrangled, and altered slightly from Final Fantasy XV Chapter 7 - Party of Three. NFB, NFI(-ish), so on and so forth. ALSO. give us Episode Aranea, Squenix, you COWARDS. ]]
"Sooo," Prompto couldn't help but wonder, although he was pretty sure he already knew the answer, "whatever happened to 'under Imperial lockdown'?"
"They all but turned the key, it seems," Ignis said, the frown on his face evident in his voice, "and left the gates open for us. Almost as if awaiting our arrival."
"And if there's anyone waiting for us," Prompto murmured, "I bet it's that guy."
"Chancellor Izunia," Ignis agreed, managing to infuse that name with as much disdain and dislike as one could.
"Can't complain," Noctis countered, almost with a shrug. "As long as he lets us in."
"But who's to say," Ignis countered, "that he'll let us out? Not to mention, we're a man down. Would that the Marshal were with us."
"Whatever happened to him, anyway?" Prompto asked.
"As I understand it," Ignis explained, "he's put his tomb raiding on hold to help the Hunters take care of some trouble with the beasts."
"No rest for the Immortal," said Noctis, and it was eerily smooth sailing until they turned the car down the bumpy, winding road into the marshes of the Vesterpool. It was hot and humid and sticky going as they trudged through the marshes toward Steytiff Grove and the ruins that stood there….
And the all too familiar figure that stood among them.
"Gentlemen," Ardyn's voice still carried that smooth, creeping smirk in it as they approached with caution, "what a pleasant surprise."
"Ugh," said Prompto, shaking his head, "told you he'd be waiting."
"With my Imperial friends, no less!" Ardyn cheerfully informed them. "But fear not. I'll put in a good word. Well Come along, then.
"Don't stray too far!" he sang out as they followed after him through the ruins. "Lest you get left behind. And surely you'd rather avoid unnecessary….scuffles, seeing as you're now a trio."
He grinned over at Noct. "Oh, dear," he mewled, as if he'd already seen the look on his face. "Touchy subject?"
"One we won't discuss with you," Ignis stated firmly.
"Then let's discuss why you're here," Ardyn suggested, tapping his chin as he walked. "Hmmm. I can't be archaeology….Mithyrl, then, perhaps?"
"This guy out here," Prompto grunted, "reading our thoughts!"
"Mithryl…" Ardyn's tone was wistful. "It's a precious resource, you see. We can't let just anyone get their hands on it."
"But you'll help us," Noctis drawled dryly, "get ours on it, right?"
Ardyn let out a sharp, dramatic gasp. "I never said that!"
"Of course you didn't," Prompto said, practically rolling his eyes out of his head.
"Where is the fun in that?" Ardyn's voice dropped into a deep purr. "I thought you'd rather dig it up yourselves."
Finally, they approached the ruins at Steyliff Grove, where three figures stood waiting in the gathering darkness. "Fear not," Ardyn informed them. "I'll be but a moment."
"A moment doing what?" murmured Prompto.
"Beats me," Noctis muttered back.
At least they didn't have to wait long before Ardyn's voice rang out to give them the all clear to go ahead.
"Alas," he added, "the ever persistent military. They'll not accept you to go forth unattended. I shall prevail upon you to accept an escort. I've seen to everything."
That was when one of the other figures stepped forward, a woman with hair so pale it looked ashen, an incredibly elaborate and showy set of armor matching the sharpness of her eyes. "So," she said, by way of greeting, "you're the 'new recruits'," with a particular emphasis on those words, "they sent over for 'special training'. Nice cover….runaway prince."
Noctis lifted his chin, folding his arms defiantly, refusing to say a word to this accusation.
And the woman sighed. "At ease, 'recruits'," she rolled her eyes a little. "There's nothing in it for this ex-mercenary to turn you in this time."
That was when the recognized her, and that voice, especially as she fitted the fierce slatted helmet of a dragoon over her head. This was none other than the woman who had attacked them at Fort Vaullerey.
"Let's ge this show on the road," she said. "I'm being paid to escort you. Just watch yourselves in there."
"I trust you'll be civil," said Ardyn. "Commodore Aranea Highwind, I leave them to you."
HIghwind. Yes, there was the confirmation. Ignis drew a small, sharp breath, and could feel the recognition rippling through Noctis and Prompto as well. It would seem that it was not just themselves they'd have to watch out for in there, but this escort of theirs as well.
The entrance to the old and abandoned building--was this place once a palace? A temple? The answer to such questions had been long lost to history--were illuminated with an odd faint glowing, a glow that awaited them down deep after they descended an impressive amount of stairs. Down and down and then down some more, and Prompto couldn't help commenting on the endless nature of these stairs. "This place," he snorted, "would give even Fandom a run for its money."
The halls that awaited them were labyrinthian, twisting corridors that lead to empty rooms, and, occasionally, they found themselves barely missed by crumbling chunks of ceiling from overhead. Imps and other minor daemons lurked within the chambers as well, dismissed easily enough, especially with Aranea and her lance to their aid. It was hard for Ignis to not be impressed with her precision and prowess, especially as a fellow lancer himself. Perhaps, in any other circumstances, he might ask her for some pointers. Instead, he was mostly just glad that, this time, she was fighting with them and not against.
But then they opened the large door beyond the first set of chambers, with golden lines radiating across it it like the rays of a setting sun, and the most incredible sight awaited them beyond that door. Ignis couldn't help himself as he breathed out an awed, "Incredible…."
"It is pretty neat," Aranea agreed.
A blue glow danced over the stone walls, washing over them as they stepped forward into a sort balcony, overlooking a promenade far below,, but the real vision came from above. All that trembling, shifting light, blue and green and gold, seemed to filter through a shimmering surface overhead.
"Whoa," Aranea breathed out, as all their eyes turned toward ceiling, shimmered like a liquid surface. "Is that the top of the water?"
"Wait, what?" asked Prompto, but it was true, it looked like the calm surface of a reflecting pool, only…inexplicably above them. "Does that mean we're underwater?" He gasped as he saw shapes moving through it. "Whoa! There's even fish!"
Noctis let out an almost amused breath at that. "What is this place?" he asked, an rare note of wonder and awe in his voice. "It's like seeing a dream."
"Gladio is seriously missing out," Prompto noted, slipping his camera out of his pocket to sneak in a few extra shots.
"Probably not his thing, anyway," Noctis guessed.
"Now, now," Ignis chided gently, "one can never tell."
But it truly was gorgeous. Breathtaking. Almost impossible to take their eyes off of it, but they needed to keep pressing on, despite the absolute wonder of the place. As they moved deeper down toward the main promenade, each level of the place seemed to take on its own characteristic of the light filtering through the water, somehow even more beautiful the deeper they went, and Ignis was not only marveling but also…suddenly concerned.
"What is it," he ventured to ask, "that the Empire seeks here?"
"Specimens," Aranea said, her husky voice laced with disdain. "And we're left to harvest them."
As she spoke, Prompto suddenly pitched forward, as if tripping over his own feet Ignis, quick and ready beside him and quite certain he knew what had caused that stumble, reached out an arm to help him.
"Spec….specimens?" Prompto staggered out and, pushing himself back straight, sent a worried, distressed look toward Ignis.
"Daemons," Aranea supplied, helpfully, because how could she have possibly known that they knew precisely what she was talking about?
"Gotta love it," Prompto grunted. "The Empire and their…" Ignis felt him shudder from head to toe beside him, "daemons..."
"Turns out," Aranea offered, "the empire makes weapons out of them."
"You don't say," Prompto breathed out quietly.
"Yes," Ignis placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "So we've heard."
"I'm sure you've probably even seen a few of them by now," Aranea guessed.
Even in the dimness of the chambers, Prompto was pale, the colored marbling of the light filtered through the water dancing over his stricken face.
"Something like that," Ignis said quietly.
"There's something not quite right," she continued, "with the Empire lately."
"It's not just 'lately'," Noctis countered dryly.
"True," Aranea allowed, without hesitation. "Maybe it is time--"
But their chat was cut short, by a rumble around them as the gathering dark started to fill with the unmistakable dark glitter and glow of gathering energy, daemons pulling themselves out of the darkness, out of wherever they came from, to attack. It wasn't the first set of daemons they'd encountered down here, and it wouldn't be their last, and as they fought their way through these hordes of potential specimens, they were granted at least one more favor from the Fulgarian, the Storm gathering and lending another burst of power to Noctis to blast through their enemies.
And spark a little more life into the communicator, albeit still unbeknownst to them.
"So I guess the rumor are true," Aranea breathed out. "You guys can really pack a punch."
"The Fulgarian in particular," said Ignis, coolly, as if quite used to this sort of thing by now, summoning up a lightning god out of nowhere to strike the battlefield with furious energy, "has been exceptionally kind."
"Maybe I did pick the wrong side after all," she murmured, giving her lance a twirl before setting off again, down more steps, and off into the next twisting series of chambers and hallways.
Many, many more chambers and corridors and daemon hordes later, they made it down to the bottom of the promenade, a large and spacious area beneath the shimmering water's surface overhead, mighty roots grown up through the rock and tangling itself in all the pillars and porticos.
"There is sooooo going to be a big nasty in here," Prompto pointed out.
"The bigger they are," Aranea offered, "the harder they fall."
The monster that awaited them in this massive chamber was perhaps not quite as big as Prompto was expecting, but perched on one of the bridges that'd crossed earlier was none-the-less, a large and scaled thing, brilliant colors bright in the shifting light of the overhead pool.The dragon flapped its powerful wings, hovering above them for a moment before making its fierce dive for them.It landed with a crash and a crumble of the stonework around it, and it let out a fearsome roar…and attacked, with determination and earnest…and, apparently, a good deal of rage.
Its moves were quick and erratic, and it was difficult to strike it as it frequently pulled itself high in the air, even beyond Noctis' warping ability. But they fought hard, they fought clumsily, but they eventually they fought well enough to bring the monster down and, with it, obtained the mithryl ore they were looking for, tucked deep into the back of the chamber.
"That concludes our business here," Ignis declared, while carefully slipping into a pocket for safekeeping, and they turned to make their way back out toward the entrance of the temple fruits.
"Say, Commodore," said Prompto, the exhaustion from all their well-fought battles weighing them down through the tedium of returning, but he couldn't get some of their conversations earlier out of hi mind.
"Aranea," she corrected, almost immediately.
"Aranea," Prompto nodded. "Right. So…..about those…weapons…that the Empire uses daemons to make--
But she cut him off, a little roughly, a little as if, out of all the topics they could be broaching right now, that was the one she'd prefer to speak about the least, but she'd still obliged all the same.. "Listen," she said, "you've seen magitek troopers, right? They're born from daemons. In a lab."
"....born," Prompto swallowed hard, and felt Ignis moving closer to him, "from daemons?"
"Darkness is coming," Aranea said, the huskiness of her voice making it sound even more ominous, especially in these creepy corridors. "If I were you, I'd watch my princely ass. Uhhh…" She corrected herself with a bow of her head. "'Kingly' ass."
When they emerged, it was raining, a warm sweltering rain from the heat of the swamp, and Aranea turned to face them. "Congrats," she offered. "That concludes you 'training.' You've still got a hard path ahead, but don't let anyone tell you how to walk it.".
"You may have been hired under false pretenses," said Ignis, with a respectful nod of his head, "but your assistance was invaluable all the same."
"Hmph." Aranea grinned through her helm. "Tell me something I don't know. You can spare the pleasantries."
Despite this, though, Ignis was entirely sincere in response. "Take care walking your path, Aranea.
"Oh." There was a pause, maybe an odd stagger to her voice, at that, a faint bit of awkwardness, the first sign she'd shown of anything such thing the entire time. "Thanks. I will. And I'll 'train' you some more if our paths cross again. Oh, and…before I forget…."
She turned and started walking away with these words, lifting a hand, but not to impart a wave of goodbye, but rather to beckon them to follow her., "His Excellency instructed me to give you boys a ride back. If you need a lift, feel free to hop on."
"Well," said Prompto, breathing out and shaking out his limbs as if trying to push off the heaviness of that place and the information Aranea had provided them with, "I'm glad that's over!"
Ignis felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and, for a brief, fleeting moment, felt a surge through him as powerful as one of Ramuh's lightning bolts, a shock of hope that perhaps it might be Summer, texting him some photograph of some absolute atrocity she'd concocted with jello….or even Shane…but when he pulled out the phone, it was certainly no one from Fandom at all. "Noct," he he announced, after reading the text and tucking his phone back into his pocket. "I've just received word form Cindy."
"And?"
"We're to return to Lestallum," he explained. "Her friend works as an engineer at the power plant. She'll take care of the mithryl.
"And that," Prompto grinned, "will take care of our boat problem!"
"Let's make sure," said Ignis, "we're rested and ready, and then we'll make haste. And as much as I don't exactly cherish the idea of another Imperial escort, we may do worse than to accept Aranea's offer for a lift."
[[ lifted, wrangled, and altered slightly from Final Fantasy XV Chapter 7 - Party of Three. NFB, NFI(-ish), so on and so forth. ALSO. give us Episode Aranea, Squenix, you COWARDS. ]]
no subject
At first nothing seemed to be happening but just as he was about to stop working on it for a bit, he heard the familiar feedback and then he heard Ignis' voice come through. This time he didn't recognise the woman who was with them, talking about being on sides and he tried once more to get through.
"Ignis?" he said, "Ignis, it's Shane can you hear me?"
Still nothing.
He knew there most likely wouldn't be a response but he just wished he could figure out why these blips were happening.