Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the first few days following your triumph over Ifrit, you realize a number of things in quick succession. The first is that you are the only person anybody knows who is capable of facing a primal without dying or being tempered. The second, what tempering actually means and why Minfilia’s mission is what it is. The third, that Thancred misinterpreted your efforts to cheer him up by asking him out on a date as an invitation to pick up women whilst club-hopping together in Mist.

You are not good at picking up women. True, there will be the rare occasion when a Roegadyn or Viera lady who towers over you will pick you up during Mist’s nighttime festivities and scritch you behind the ears just right (it’d been going so well while you and Thancred were getting drunk together, but then he wandered a different way before you could clarify the misinterpretation) but for the most part, you prefer the attentions of other men. Perhaps Thancred. Perhaps next time, the mighty Niko Kivin, slayer of gods, will be able to face his crush.

In any case, once the partying is done, Thancred goes off tracking down whoever that black-robed villain Minfilia called an Ascian is, so you try to focus on using your Echo to help Minfilia and the Scions’ efforts. This apparently involves joining an army, and joining an army apparently involves listening to a lot of speeches.

The speeches by each of the city-state leaders are ostensibly part of a memorial service for the Calamity, but they all end up sounding like patriotic rallies in the end. The two Elezen teens you run into at Gridania’s Amphitheatre make it plain they agree with your assessment, not without some small measure of disdain, and once they introduce themselves, it is apparent why. Of course relatives of the great Louisoix Leveilleur would take offense at his name being used in such a manner. Having heard tales of Louisoix growing up (not to mention the five years of helping your mother rebuild your village in the Shroud board by board post-Calamity) all you wanted to do was become a great mage like him, with the power to save those that needed it. Given how Minfilia has explained your power, the Echo is something that should be in service to Eorzea as a whole, not just one part. To take the sacrifices at Carteneau and use them to drum up support for individual city-states may not be in the best taste.

The power you have is not what you expected it would be, and you don’t know how joining an army will help to save people, but you still must do what you can, so you have to make a choice in the end. The Adders are easy to cross off the list because if you had wanted to fight for Gridanian ideals, you would not have left the Shroud the moment you had enough gil and opportunity to do so (no matter the sourness of your mother’s expression). You consider the Flames and the Maelstrom, but not for very long; you get along well enough at Ul’dah’s Thaumaturges’ Guild, but there’s just something about Limsa and its promise of freedom that calls to you. It’s not quite the same pull under your skin that you get whenever you turn a corner in the road and watch the horizon open up, but it’s close enough to do the job over the other options and the Admiral seems a charismatic and capable commander who cuts a strong figure in her coat, so that's what you pick. That, and you can earn your very own chocobo if you turn in a portion of your numerous crafting projects to the requisitions officer.

Both Minfilia and the Maelstrom are satisfied with your decision, and the chocobo truly is useful. What you spend or hoard in crafting materials (your retainer has the patience of a saint, or at least enjoys the very steady pay), you more than make up for either exchanging for company seals or selling to other adventurers, which Tataru assures you will be both more practical and profitable in the long run. The self-sufficiency that got drilled into most Keeper children born into dirt-poor villages in the Shroud didn’t escape you, so even as you begin your mission to search for the Ascian Lahabrea in southern Thanalan (Thancred has been given a different area to search. You try to contain your pouts to only the times Minfilia isn’t looking), you spend many of your spare moments honing your artisanal skills such that you can make nearly everything you wear or own instead of having to cut tail holes into every damn robe you buy.

Martial skills are also honed, of course; while thaumaturgy and the endlessly-deep well of darkness inherent to black magic remains the burning heart of your power, you also pick up the lance and the cane. Nothing quite brings the joy and satisfaction of a particularly devastating and well-timed spell, but it’s difficult to avoid the fact that you are the only person you ever go into a dungeon with who is so reliant upon others for defense or succor from the monsters within. Sometimes a man is confident enough in his powers of destruction and trusting enough of the adventurers who answered his advertisement to investigate an abandoned mine or a mansion of voidsent to keep everyone in one piece, and sometimes a man wants to stab the ten-eyed chitinous monster of the woods of his youth with a lance not to preserve friendly beastmen relations but so he can see the blood, and sometimes a man gives in to pressure and learns how to heal his own damn self so he doesn’t end up like Avere and then finds out he can’t back out because the survival of the entire Twelveswood is now dependent upon his skill as a white mage.

Fresh from a taunting by Lahabrea and still picking stray bits of diremite gore off your clothes, a moogle delivers to you a letter. Your mother writes that A-Ruhn-Senna told her all about your accomplishments healing and making peace with the sylphs, and she’s so happy you’ve finally stopped with those violent, destructive powers and accepted conjury into your heart like she did. You do not, actually, stop learning about black magic, nor do you wring A-Ruhn’s smug little neck like you want to, but you do manage to help Meffrid get a healing remedy to his comrade Gallien (dear Gallien) despite what the Hearers say. You’re pretty sure the Twelveswood does not appreciate your efforts to keep those in it alive (as with the Ala Mhigans, Gridanian Hearers are not above using the elementals as a reason to avoid helping your people, and if your mother remembered that’s why she learned conjury herself, you’d write back more often), but you bite your tongue about it because Minfilia is also linkpearling you about how Lahabrea tricked the kobolds into summoning another primal in La Noscea. For some reason, defeating Titan involves collecting an important wheel of stinky cheese with a capable team of fellow adventurers and attuning to a kobold aetheryte under Y’shtola’s careful instruction, but you do it anyway.

(Sometimes a man experiences enough pressure and frustration and sorrow that he stops biting his tongue and picks up a claymore his own damn self, but that won’t be until later. Anyway, let’s go back to the time you ran an endless list of errands for the sake of a Costa del Sol party and your reward was having to kill another god all by yourself.)

You return to the Waking Sands after your victory over Titan to find almost everyone inside the building dead. Noraxia dies in your arms. Your Echo gives you a vision of the carnage and Minfilia’s capture, and once the vision is over you move the dozen or so corpses one by one into a chocobo-drawn cart so as to bring them to the church near Drybone and lay them to rest. Alphinaud Leveilleur finds both you and amnesiac master engineer Cid Garlond at the church, and thankfully brings both news and a plan. The news is bad, namely that the Ixal have summoned Garuda, but the plan to find Cid’s airship and defeat her is probably better than anything you can come up with. He’s a bit… comfortable ordering you and Cid around (bossy, he’s bossy), but you kind of need direction right now, so you don’t mind his attitude as much as you might otherwise. Alphinaud is also alarmingly unconcerned about the very real banemite threat on the road from Fallgourd to Coerthas, but keeping him out of harm’s way is a good way to keep yourself busy while you search for Cid’s airship.

Coerthas has a lot of unfriendly and stuck-up Ishgardians in it who are all extremely obsessed with who is a heretic and who isn’t, but it also has people like Haurchefant, Francel, Alberic, and Drillemont in it, so it can’t be all bad. Haurchefant especially is so friendly and welcoming, like he knows how his other countrymen have been treating you and is trying to make up for it. Whether it’s gratitude for saving Francel from a false accusation, admiration of your deeds in Eorzea, or simply because he wants to help, Haurchefant is quick to express his confidence in your skills and lift your mood with a flirtatious joke or mug of hot cocoa, and he doesn’t mind your largely quiet demeanor save the occasional insistent pressing for information about the qualities of a perfect gratin (the creaminess of the cheese is most important, but he’s always had it with extra paprika for spice because that’s his little brother’s favorite) so you can prepare it at the Bismarck for an important dinner. You’d truly like to linger at Dragonhead for longer, but Garuda won’t wait, so you set into the Stone Vigil in search of Cid’s airship.

No one dies or gets permanently maimed, but the godsdamned paladin won’t slow down for anything despite you asking him multiple times, so you spend the entirety of your time in the Vigil sprinting and trying to heal him and trying not to cry and resolving to never ask anyone except your lancer friend back for future expeditions and to never heal in a foreign place again unless A-Ruhn gets on his knees and begs for you to do it. Once that’s over with and you’ve managed to rescue Biggs and Wedge as well, Y’shtola verbally boxes your ears until you admit that healing is still a useful skill to have when you need it, stupid paladins or no. In any case, after helping Cid gather a particularly annoying set of materials to repair his airship, you fly off with Alphinaud and Cid to Garuda’s lair while the others track down the kidnapped Scions.

You battle with Garuda until it becomes apparent that the prayers of her subjects have made her invincible. Gaius van Baelsar — the Black Wolf of the Garlean Empire — solves this problem by slaughtering all the Ixal present and using an ancient Allagan monstrosity called Ultima to consume Garuda whole. Garuda calls both Ifrit and Titan to her aid as she clashes with Ultima; you yank Alphinaud back onto the airship and shove him reflexively behind you when Ultima starts eating primals (Alphinaud yelps, but you’re shaking more than he is).

As Cid flies you back to Gridania, Alphinaud says that Ultima is a weapon van Baelsar will use to conquer Eorzea, and only the full revival of the Scions will inspire Eorzean leadership enough to make a plan to fight back. You accomplish this revival with use of possibly-aware magitek armor, clever disguises, and Alphinaud’s brilliant stratagems. You jump off a cliff into Cid’s airship and have to hold Minfilia back from falling off the ship when Lahabrea reveals he’s in league with van Baelsar and has taken control of Thancred’s body.

Because you have been smitten with Thancred since he defended you at the Sultantree, and because Minfilia has had a very bad day, you promise her that you will do everything you can to save him. By the time you reach Ul’dah’s chamber where Eorzea’s leaders debate, Minfilia is bolstered and Alphinaud has come up with another speech.

A grand plan to drive back the Empire and destroy the Ultima Weapon unfolds, with you at its center. You create the team that will be the spearhead of this operation, attacking such dangerous places as Cape Westwind, Castrum Meridianum, and of course the Praetorium itself. You remain a black mage, obviously (Kan-E-Senna thinks she’s being polite by calling you a thaumaturge or simply a mage, but we know it’s really so no one’s forced to arrest you for using “forbidden” magic); you also bring as your team the Roegadyn lancer you met while learning conjury who obliterated many a Longstop salamander while laughing her head off, the actually flawless Lalafellin warrior in pigtails whom you met in Toto-Rak, the Hyuran bard wearing exclusively pink, the Roegadyn conjurer who is also your fellow Maelstrom soldier (you actually met in Mist, but nobody has to know that except you and him), the scantily clad Miqo’te scholar who fears neither death nor Garleans nor her skirt on a windy day, the Auri paladin who is slightly insufferable but who was willing to come when no one else would answer your summons, and the Lalafellin monk who refuses to wear a real shirt because he says it distracts from his martial arts combinations.

The Westwind portion of the mission ends in a messy one-on-one duel; you don’t enjoy how things with Rhitatyn conclude, but he doesn’t give you much of a choice and you’ve got to keep advancing the plan. Cid helps your team in the Castrum as much as he’s able, though it ultimately falls to you to defeat Livia sas Junius yourself in order to gain access to the Praetorium. You know from your Echo vision that it was Livia who led the bloodbath at the Waking Sands, and though she takes offense at the mere idea of you challenging Gaius, she does not express a single hint of remorse for what she did. She is, like Rhitatyn at Westwind, ultimately no match for you, and so you lead your team on.

You fight Ultima’s engineer Nero, Eorzea’s would-be conqueror Gaius, and Ultima itself with Cid providing support over comms, but it’s Lahabrea from whom Hydaelyn must intervene to protect you. Your uncertain journey of collecting Crystals of Light from primals and communing with the star Herself in the heart of the aetherial sea reaches some sort of conclusion, and it is Hydaelyn who empowers you with the Blade of Light (it’s hard to tell if She’s referring to you or the Blade when She talks about Her Weapon) with which you banish Lahabrea from Thancred’s body. You cling to Thancred, unconscious in your lap, as you careen out of the Praetorium on Cid’s magitek armor before everything collapses around you completely. Your exertions demand convalescence or recovery for most involved, but Thancred is alive, Eorzea spared from the Garlean Empire, and the Seventh Astral Era declared begun.

People start calling you Warrior of Light.

You find you don’t enjoy celebrity and try to avoid recognition where possible. You’ll still help people as you’re able, though, whether it’s helping Alphinaud find a home for Doman refugees in Mor Dhona, thwarting Lolorito’s attempted sabotage of a dinner at the Bismarck between the Admiral and the Sultana, imploring both your alchemy teacher and Edda Blackbosom to stop raising the dead, fighting the realm’s other chosen dragoon until he comes to his senses (it won't be the last time), or tying two boats full of crystals to each other and defeating the giant sea serpent primal Leviathan. You even help Alphinaud and his sister Alisaie lay their grandfather (and your own childhood hero) to rest for good, though Urianger says it may be best if the truth of Bahamut and the Meracydians is kept to yourselves, for now.

In between missions of larger import, you meet back up with your childhood friend Nashu Mhakaracca to solve a mystery involving her missing boss Hildibrand, a pack of gentleman zombies, and a phantom thief. Hildibrand’s father Godbert turns out to be the mysterious master goldsmith you helped out at Bronze Lake while waiting for news of Titan, and you stand in awe as you watch him take out a basilisk with a hammer in nothing but his smallclothes and sunglasses. His mother is just as deadly with a frying pan as her husband is with his hammer, and Nashu, as you well recall, is never without her explosives and delights in their detonation via your fire spells. By the end of the adventure, the whole Manderville family joins in to save Ul’dah from a zombie plague; Nashu thanks you profusely (albeit briefly) before dashing off after Hildibrand as he sails through the air to lands unknown.

You also come to the conclusion that Thancred is never going to notice you. Y’shtola lends an understanding ear and reassures you that you will find someone else; Thancred unintentionally twists the knife by trying to be helpful and set you up with one of his ex-girlfriends, which is predictably awkward.

“Thancred. You inebriated idiot.” Y’shtola is not nearly as sloshed as you and Thancred are at this latest Scions party, but she’s not exactly sober, either. “Niko likes boys.”

“Huh,” Thancred says, blinking. “Really?”

You mumble somewhat glumly that you make exceptions if she’s tall, but yes.

“I had no idea,” Thancred says (obviously). “Well, I don’t have any ex-boyfriends to introduce you to… hmm. What about a lovely lady I know named Fhilwyda?” You agree because you really want this conversation to end as quickly as possible. The date isn’t anything world-shaking, but ultimately it won’t be difficult to recover from.

You continue to hope. Haurchefant is fun to tease, especially when you find out how many men it took to stop him from chasing after you when you used an experimental and therefore unstable aetheryte to fight Iceheart (Ysayle) who’d turned herself into Shiva, but you know it’s just friendly teasing in the end (it isn’t). The Temple Knight commander Aymeric is also breathtakingly handsome and already an avid follower of your exploits to boot, but his politics ultimately preclude any possible friendship (for now).

Actual romance catches you unawares, hidden from view until landing directly at your feet and demanding your full attention. Literally. He follows you unseen through the trees, challenges you to a contest he deliberately forfeits, and then jumps down from a ledge to land right in front of you.

“G’raha Tia, at your service,” he says with a grin. Rammbroes, Cid, Y’mhitra, and the others investigating everything Allagan are varying levels of amused or exasperated, but you can’t help but swoon just a little. Maybe a bit. Maybe a lot.

Y’shtola tells you nobody normal actually tries to reenact behavior found in cheesy Miqo’te romance novels, but you don’t even care. You could listen to G’raha talk about fucked up Allagan shit and the Students of Baldesion all day, and he is equally as eager to hear tales of your past adventures and your current investigation of the labyrinth surrounding the Crystal Tower. G’raha’s a bit put out that Rammbroes won’t let him help you map the labyrinth and neutralize its denizens, but it doesn’t stop the two of you talking late into the nights while watching the gloom over Mor Dhona shift purple and pink, and it doesn’t stop you from pulling G’raha into his own tent and getting to know each other in ways that don’t require as much verbal communication.

One night, G’raha asks you about the scar above and below your right eye. It shouldn’t be so easy to talk about, but you quietly explain about the time you were eleven and a diremite attacked you and your younger siblings (Twins. A girl and a boy. You tried crossing the river to get away, but they weren’t fast enough. It grabbed and ate them right in front of you. You had to return home with pieces and a slashed face, and it was on your watch, so as far as anyone else was concerned it was your fault), and he doesn’t call you a monster for it. That’s nice. You tell him you left home to become an adventurer so you’d have enough strength to keep people safe next time.

“I didn’t know it was something like that. I’m sorry for bringing up such a memory,” G’raha says gently. “But, if I can offer some consolation, I hear you sort of saved all of Eorzea.”

You tell him you mostly did what Alphinaud and Minfilia told you to do.

“I doubt those whose lives were saved care whose idea it was.” He nuzzles your cheek, and a bit of your tension disperses.

That doesn’t make the praise easy for you to handle, though, so you ask G’raha to tell you something about his childhood instead.

“About me?” G’raha asks. You voice an affirmative and begin unbraiding his hair for him, since you were both too preoccupied to do it earlier. “Well… I didn’t always live in Sharlayan. I was born in Corvos and sent away by my father when I was young, because of the Garleans.” You rub behind his ear and he sighs. “I was terribly bullied by the other children, you know, for my eye, but I still cried when I left.”

You ask him about his eye.

“My father had it, too,” G’raha says. “He said before I left that it was important, but…” he sighs again. “I am still searching to make sense of it, forgive me.” He gives you a similarly apologetic smile. “Mayhap when this business with the Crystal Tower is done, I’ll have the time to focus on other things like that.”

You tell G’raha that when the business with the Tower is done, he should go on an adventure with you.

“With you?”

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated if he doesn’t want it to be, you explain. Just a little adventure, just the two of you. You’ve gotten pretty good at healing too, so he’ll be perfectly safe, and all the Tower research and Scion business and everything else will still be there when you get back. And you could have another race, you tease, no forfeits this time.

“I…” G’raha returns your smile. “Yes, let’s have an adventure after this.” You nod. “We’ve just got to puzzle out how to get the Tower open first, and—“

You tell him you have faith he’ll figure it out, but that he should kiss you again first.

The doors to the Crystal Tower open with the arrival of Unei and Doga. You scale the Tower itself and defeat King Xande with a capable team of expert adventurers, but when the truth of the Allagan eye comes to light and Unei and Doga are captured within the void, it’s you, G’raha, Nero (of all people), and Y’mhitra who are the ones to venture into that dark world to rescue them and end the voidsent covenant threatening your realm. Unei and Doga sacrifice themselves to end the covenant and bestow the power to control the Tower upon G’raha, and your four-man-team barely escapes back to your world in one piece. Nero is somewhat worse for the wear, so Y’mhitra starts hauling him back to the camp for more intensive healing with Cid’s fretful assistance and Nero’s halfhearted protests. G’raha peels away from the group, staring out at the Crystal Tower. You follow him and ask him what he’s going to do about his eyes. G’raha tells you he’ll come up with a plan; you ask him what you can do to help, but he just kisses you once and then tells you to be patient and report to Rammbroes in the meantime. You’re a complete idiot and listen to him.

G’raha shuts himself within the Crystal Tower until such a time as technology has advanced enough that its power won’t be a danger to your world.

“The future is where my destiny awaits,” G’raha says.

You smile back and tell him you’ll wake him again soon because you know that’s what he wants you to say. He turns his head in profile and mouths something you can’t hear over his shoulder as he walks towards the throne where he will sleep, and you watch his receding back until the doors to the Tower shut between you.

You try and fail to find a moment alone at the Rising Stones.

“Niko?” Y’shtola is frowning at you, gaze sweeping over you critically. “Whatever is the matter? I thought you and Mhitra were still on the expedition. Have you hit a setback?” You awkwardly explain to her what happened at the Tower before it becomes too much and you run away to help her sister heal Nero the rest of the way because that at least is something that can be fixed. You let Alphinaud drag you into Eorzean and Coerthan missions about private armies and Garlean spies and dragon problems because all you’re expected to do there is be a Scion and kill monsters and make Alphinaud look more important. Midgardsormr cuts you off from Hydaelyn’s voice and you watch Moenbryda sacrifice herself so that you have enough aether to kill the Ascian Nabriales. Elidibus introduces himself as some sort of Ascian ambassador, apologizes for Nabriales, tries to kill you (anything but shocking at this point), insults Lahabrea, and then promptly leaves without a trace.

Ul’dah throws a party, and you watch the Sultana choke on her poisoned drink in front of your eyes, a witness in one moment and the only suspect in the next. Alphinaud’s army betrays him and locks up Raubahn, now sans one arm. Yda and Papalymo, Y’shtola and Thancred, and Minfilia stay behind in succession so that you can flee. You don’t know what Hydaelyn told Minfilia to make her stay because you can’t hear the Mothercrystal anymore. You run to Coerthas and Dragonhead with Alphinaud in tow and explain to Haurchefant in as coherent a babble as you can what happened.

You didn’t know where else to go, you tell Haurchefant. You watch Haurchefant’s eyes soften at the corners as you look up at him, and you let your hand linger when he gives you the hot cocoa. You watch Alphinaud have a minor mental breakdown hunched over in a chair and realize you don’t care what happens to Eorzea as long as you can keep him safe. Haurchefant jokes about the Falling Snows, but he also rouses Alphinaud from his morass with the words you can’t find yet and reunites you with Tataru and gets you in touch with Yugiri and the Domans. Haurchefant says he will find you asylum. You drink a lot of cocoa for at least a week straight and fuss over making Alphinaud a warmer coat. You borrow the Dragonhead kitchen and make a gratin while you wait for Haurchefant to come back from pleading your case to Count Fortemps.

Haurchefant says the gratin is delicious and that you, Alphinaud, and Tataru are to become wards of House Fortemps in Ishgard. You bundle up against the bitter cold, pass through the Gates of Judgement, and move from one part of your journey to the next.

Chapter Text

“My home is your home,” Count Edmont de Fortemps says when he explains how you’ll all be living in Ishgard with him and his sons Artoirel and Emmanellain. Alphinaud expresses thanks for both himself and you in his usual diplomatic fashion, and you swallow your nervousness to get out a brief but sincere thank-you of your own. Haurchefant is also fairly formal with the man whom he’d told you was his father, which you don’t understand at all.

Isn’t a father just a backup mother that’s a man? Why all the politeness? Haurchefant seems genuinely glad to introduce you to his family, effusive praise included, but he’s acting so different from his usual easy manner at Dragonhead that it keeps throwing you. Like most Keepers, you’ve never had a father yourself to compare (details of procreation aside, you don’t think your mother’s boyfriend counts, and anyway, he hasn’t made one of his random visits in… oh, around five years), so you resolve to ask Alphinaud about it later because everyone’s being too cordial for you to figure it out at present.

A Fortemps manservant shows you, Alphinaud, and Tataru around the grand and imposing city of Ishgard. Save a few individuals in the markets and the Forgotten Knight tavern, you and Tataru are the only people you’ve seen in the entire city who aren’t Elezen or Hyur. Tataru decides to linger in the tavern to catch up on word from Ul’dah, so you and Alphinaud follow the manservant back to the manor. Haurchefant has gone back to Dragonhead by that time, and Alphinaud volunteers the two of you to help House Fortemps in various missions in the following weeks. By the time you turn in for the evening, you obtain reassurances from Alphinaud that he is breakdown-free for the foreseeable future and a brief explanation of the concepts of “trueborn” and “illegitimate”. You still don’t get it, not really, but Count Edmont has been kind enough to take you in, so until Haurchefant expresses otherwise you decide to give his father the benefit of the doubt.

Your mission with Artoirel brings you back into contact with Iceheart (Ysayle). She confirms her earlier allusions to the source of her power aloud and shows you the Crystal of Light that Hydaelyn gave her, just like the one given to you. She tells you of an Echo vision she received from the great wyrm Hraesvelgr about the origins of Ishgard’s war with the dragons and you know deep in your bones that she’s telling the truth. You let her escape and lie to Artoirel about it; Artoirel doesn’t question your story and apologizes for sending you into danger without backup. 

Emmanellain, on the other hand, does not apologize for a single thing he does. Between yourself, Haurchefant, and the young Honoroit, you manage to rescue him from becoming a sacrifice to the Vanu’s whale-god Bismarck (like the restaurant, how weird), but Emmanellain is somewhat annoyingly unruffled. You’d prefer to continue your missions in the Sea of Clouds with Haurchefant instead of his brother, but as Bismarck’s behavior may be that of a primal, Haurchefant is required to leave and inform Aymeric of the night’s events. You take a calming breath, finish your report to House Haillenarte, and then escort Emmanellain back to Fortemps Manor yourself the next day.

You’ve barely a minute to hear Count Edmont thanking you for saving Emmanellain’s life when Haurchefant bursts into the manor to tell you Alphinaud and Tataru have been arrested on suspicion of heresy. You rush with Haurchefant to talk to Aymeric, who has a plan. The plan involves Alphinaud and yourself engaging the accusers in trial by combat the following day, and you accept without a second thought. You make your preparations in the morning (in armor you earned from Alberic because even if they don’t respect you, they might still respect that), practically inhaling your breakfast while Haurchefant gives you details on the accuser Ser Grinnaux and the trial process. Haurchefant tells you not to lose heart because he will be cheering you on from the gallery.

(A pit for trial by combat, complete with spectator gallery, is a completely normal thing for a legal system to have, and is always fair and never used for ulterior motives or completely fucking rigged oh wait it’s not. What the fuck, Ishgard. At least in Ul’dah, they admit the Bloodsands are ultimately for entertainment and let people place bets in the daylight and don’t dump the bodies of the losers of the rigged trials in the fucking Brume.)

You and Alphinaud prevail against the Heavens’ Ward members pitted against you, of course, you with your lance and Alphinaud with his Carbuncle (you try to talk to Alphinaud once the fight’s done, but he just smiles and hovers a quick healing spell over your arm before they lead him and Tataru away again, and it takes every onze of your self-control to not rip him from the tribunal’s hands). After the trial, Haurchefant tells you the outcome was never in doubt for him and he will soon talk to tribunal administration to get Alphinaud and Tataru released, but first, he has a gift for you.

“A black chocobo,” Haurchefant explains, “fully trained and ready to fly you wherever you desire.” The chocobo itself is gorgeous, its feathers black with yellow at the tips, its eyes dark and alert, a little hat with the Fortemps crest tied onto its head. You take the reins offered to you. “Magnificent, is she not?” You nod, giving the chocobo a pat and smiling at its answering warble. “Strong yet sleek, elegant yet eager! What say you, Niko?” You look back at Haurchefant; he’s stepped very close to you. “Will you take this noble steed for your own?” He places his hand over yours on the reins, unmistakably deliberate. The realization hits you with force, and you stare up at him, mouth open and chest suddenly pounding. “I’m quite serious, I assure you,” he says. He’s gazing down at you so softly.

You… you…

(You knew this.)

“Lord Haurchefant!” an official marches up to you, and you take a step back, startled. “You cannot bring a chocobo into the Supreme Sacred Tribunal of Halonic Inquisitory Doctrine! This is a court of holy law!” Haurchefant laughs and apologizes to the official, then says he must deal with the legal paperwork.

“But you’ll consider what I said, yes?” he asks. You nod, still reeling, and he beams. “Splendid!” Then he walks off, leaving you with an equally affectionate chocobo.

“Master Kivin, are you alright?” Oh gods, it’s the Count. You stammer out something about stabling the chocobo because you still haven’t recovered yet (but you knew, really, how could you not know?). Count Edmont sighs. “Must he always be so dramatic? I’ll see you at the manor, then.” You nod and watch him walk off. You take a deep breath.

Thoughts of Haurchefant fall from your mind and into the pit of your stomach when you exit the Tribunal and watch a group of Temple Knights carry out a corpse clad in blue and black.

“Time to take out the trash, now that all the shows are over for the day, yeah?” Another man is watching the knights as well, and you press him for details. “Not everyone accused of heresy gets the Warrior of Light on their side,” he says. “Especially not one of them—” his voice drops to a whisper, “—dark knights. Gonna dump him in the Brume before he starts to smell and let the rats pick him over.” You ask him what a dark knight is. “Keep your voice down, Ser Chocobo. He was a sight to behold with that big ol’ blade of his, though, coverin’ it in dark magic and swingin’ it like it was nothin’. Shame the fight was so fixed. Leaves a rotten taste in my mouth when I watch one of those, y’know?”

(That’s not fair, is it? It isn’t fair. There is something deeply wrong about it that eats at the burning core of you, and it cannot be ignored.)

You tell the man you have to go. You go. The last thing you need is to get you or anyone you know accused of heresy again; fights can be fixed, after all, and if they try to lock Alphinaud up again, you don’t know what you’ll do. You get all the way to the chocobo stables before your curiosity (is that what we’re calling it?) gets the better of you and you head down into the Brume, where you meet a corpse with a sword who calls himself Fray.

(You already know how I feel about the whole thing.)

After your… detour, you return to the manor for reassurances that Alphinaud and Tataru will be released from incarceration and are perfectly safe. Ishgard, as you are quickly learning, does not let you rest, and you instead are met with a summons from the archbishop for a meeting. You meet Aymeric at the entrance to the Vault so that he can introduce you to the archbishop, and you do not tell Aymeric which of his knights you killed earlier that day (they deserved it, and the bodies will be found soon anyway). The archbishop personally apologizes for Alphinaud and Tataru’s arrest in full view of Aymeric and several Heavens’ Ward knights, and then orders everyone else out of the room so he can tell you of his private meetings with Lahabrea. You finally, finally return to Fortemps Manor for good. Count Edmont encourages you to rest before resuming the duties you took on in the Sea of Clouds and the Western Highlands, and you attempt to follow his advice so that you can ostensibly begin adjusting to your new life in Ishgard.

You dive into the darkness in hopes that the abyss will give you the answer you are looking for, and though you barely know the question, you dive fast and you dive hard. You clear out a few Vigils again. You sneak over the border to the Shroud to help Dragonhead and Fallgourd coordinate Ixal extermination. You throw a tantrum at the Moraby Drydocks and blame it on Fray. You add Zhai’a to the list of Gridanian Hearers whose necks you have not yet wrung even though it’s really deserved, and congratulate yourself on your restraint. You try to help Alberic train Heustienne and she has zero self-preservation and it’s awful and you really need a break.

It’s Haurchefant who reminds you to come back up for air. He asks you to come to Dragonhead so you can show him the music box commission you’ve been working on and perhaps the tart recipe you mentioned last time as well. The rest of his family isn’t in the manor right now, so he stands closer than usual.

You have been training a lot lately, you agree.

“That’s why you must remember to take breaks,” Haurchefant says. “Surely you can put your weapons and your burdens down for one evening?” You lean in, looking up at him (he’s so tall), when he puts a hand on your arm.

You tell him with warmth blossoming on your cheeks that it sounds very nice. Haurchefant smiles. You lean in a little more.

You hear footsteps approaching and quickly move away.

You tell Haurchefant you’ll see him in Dragonhead later that evening, before Alphinaud walks in to say hello and asks how your missions for Artoirel and Emmanellain have been going. You reassure Alphinaud that your missions are progressing apace and ask him about his own tasks for Count Edmont. Alphinaud predictably embraces the opportunity to talk. You exchange a silent look with Haurchefant over Alphinaud’s head before he leaves for Dragonhead.

(Your neck is going to be so sore, tomorrow.)

You excuse yourself off dinner at the manor, ensure you’ve got the proper components for things such as music boxes and Sohm Al tarts in the saddlebag of your black chocobo, and ride briskly through the snow to Dragonhead. You greet Haurchefant, still a bit breathless from the cold, and it’s with tentative steps and fluttering pulse that you allow him to sweep you off your feet.

“I must say,” Haurchefant comments with a smile, petting at your hair, once it’s gotten very late and you’ve been thoroughly wooed, “I didn’t expect you to be so shy.”

You didn’t want to stop being friends, you reply quietly, your forehead resting on his chest. (All the Scions are still missing, you’ve got to keep yourself and Alphinaud alive, and you’ve been immersing yourself in forbidden black magic and dark arts to do it. You really need a friend right now.)

“Oh, Niko,” Haurchefant says, cradling your face with his hand, gaze soft. “No matter what happens, I will always be your friend.” He kisses you, soft and slow, and you believe him. “Ah, there’s that smile.” He kisses you again.

Your spirits suitably bolstered, you dive back into your training with renewed determination. You find an answer in Whitebrim (for now). Drillemont vows to keep your secret. You meet Sidurgu and Rielle.

(Please remember that I am a part of you that loves you.)

Tataru finally gets word from the Admiral about Raubahn’s impending execution. Yugiri helps you and Alphinaud extract the General from where he’s being held and get him to Urianger and Pipin. You learn the Sultana may be alive, albeit in a deep alchemical sleep. News of the banquet has been suppressed as well, and the Admiral and Seedseer have arranged things such that the common citizen does not suspect you of regicide and will not unless the Syndicate has hard evidence (which they will never get because you are, in fact, innocent). There’s not much you can do for Ul’dah but wait for Raubahn to recover, though, so you soon head back to Ishgard to continue your training while a cloud of dragons coalesces to the northwest.

The cloud suddenly grows without warning, and you’re forced to make a plan with Alphinaud and Estinien to buy Aymeric some time to prepare for the impending assault upon the city. You tell Aymeric it’s to move Nidhogg’s Eye and attention out of Ishgard, but in truth, you rendezvous with Iceheart (Ysayle) to parley with Hraesvelgr instead. Alphinaud, with grouchy instruction from Estinien to his face and private imploring of guard duty requested from Estinien to you, learns how to collect firewood. You kill another god on the way, and Ysayle is disappointed that she didn’t get to do it first. You also kill Nidhogg’s consort Tioman (to be fair, she started it), which causes most of the dragons headed towards Ishgard to fall back to the mountains. You conspire with Alphinaud multiple times to get Estinien and Ysayle to stop bickering. With Kan-E-Senna’s help, you meet the moogles in the sky who teach you how to call upon Hraesvelgr; the Seedseer cautions you against the emotions lurking under Estinien’s armor, and you do not believe her.

(Alberic told you Estinien’s story. You know he worries after Alphinaud for the same reasons you do. You can’t fault him for wanting revenge against Nidhogg, and you can’t help but be biased against Gridanian sentiments that would say otherwise. You’ll regret that particular reaction later, though.)

The night before you call upon Hraesvelgr, the four of you make camp. Ysayle cooks a simple but hearty stew from whatever creature Estinien managed to stab that looked edible and some foraged greens, and you preserve the animal’s hide for further use while you all talk about the things that have brought you here; your journeys from ignorance into truth. Once supper and discussion wind down, Ysayle and Estinien turn in for the night, but you’re too restless to sleep and continue your crafting project under the light of the moon and the campfire.

“What are you going to make?” Alphinaud asks you. You tell him you have an open armor commission for a knight, and Alphinaud nods.

(It’s a gift for Haurchefant, to replace a leather harness he commissioned from you back when you were still airship-hunting, but you’re not going to tell Alphinaud that because Haurchefant wore it for you last week in very private circumstances. You turned crimson upon finding your own maker’s stamp identifying it as an NK Original, but quickly decided to craft him a more expertly-made one more representative of your current skill level. Haurchefant laughed and said he thought you knew it was for him when you made it, but that he would happily accept a second one as a gift. Then he told you your talents would be better served in the moment with less criticism of your old stitchwork and more hands-on assessment of his current measurements, to which you eagerly agreed.)

“You’ve already sufficient armor for yourself, then, for when you use your sword?” You return your attention to the present. You should have known that’s what Alphinaud is truly asking after. He may have seen you use black magic many times before, but your ascent up Sohm Al was the first time he’s seen you relish in the dark arts up close and personal.

You tell Alphinaud that you’re still undergoing training with your sword but that you’re satisfied with your armor and intent on learning how to be a better defender when defense is needed (if embracing the darkness is necessary to protect what you need to protect, then that’s what you’re going to do, and you’re never going to apologize for that). You also tell him that you weren’t worried once during the ascent because he’s gotten better at healing as well as firewood-gathering.

“Yes, well, Ser Estinien and Lady Ysayle fought very fiercely during the climb, too,” Alphinaud demurs, but you can see his chest puff up a little. “And I already know I needn’t worry for my own safety if you’re there.” You nod and return his smile.

You pack up your project for Haurchefant and tell Alphinaud you should both get some rest but to not hesitate to wake you if there’s anything he needs.

“I will. Thank you, Niko.” You give his head a little pat, and then go into your tent to sleep.

The wind has changed by the next morning, so your group travels the rest of the way to Hraesvelgr’s palace and calls upon him with the moogles’ horn. The wyrm descends, and Ysayle pleads her case.

Hraesvelgr confirms that it was men who began the Dragonsong War, that the original King Thordan and his knights twelve murdered his sister Ratatoskr and ate her Eyes. He also denounces Ysayle’s summoning of his beloved Shiva as being a product of delusion rather than truth; that primals are reliant upon and created by the wishes of those that call them. Nidhogg will never stop punishing men with the war while he lives, and Hraesvelgr will not intervene in his brother’s quest for vengeance.

Ysayle remains in Hraesvelgr’s palace, still reeling from the revelation about Shiva, but Estinien is resolved to fight Nidhogg; he asks you, as the other Azure Dragoon, to aid him in slaying the wyrm and thereby saving the people of Ishgard from an intentionally endless war. You agree, and the two of you coordinate updating Aymeric back in Ishgard with everything you’ve learned of Nidhogg and talking both Aymeric and Alphinaud out of putting themselves in danger by trying to tag along. You determine that you will need assistance from Cid’s team to reach Nidhogg’s lair, and they’re only too happy to set to work on a transport solution. You send a courier with a note to Haurchefant apologizing in advance for not being able to speak with him until after Nidhogg is slain, to let him know he is still in your thoughts, and to ask him to support Alphinaud and Aymeric while you’re away.

While the Ironworks labors to build you and Estinien your transport, you and Alphinaud visit Urianger and Raubahn in Thanalan. You track down the trail of the sleeping draught given to Nanamo and find Lolorito at the center of the web of deception. Despite how you might wish otherwise, Lolorito walks away unscathed so that Raubahn can wake the Sultana and clear both his and the Scions’ names. The business with Lolorito leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but Alphinaud tells you he wants to officially disband the Crystal Braves for good, so you focus instead on supporting him as best you can.

“You were there at its beginning,” Alphinaud says. “It would mean a lot if you were there at the end. And… I would appreciate the support.” You wouldn’t even dream of saying no to that.

The remaining Crystal Braves at the Rising Stones insist on sticking around, fancy Grand Company or no. They’re Scions in all but name at this point, anyway, so why not choose to live up to it? You tell a misty-eyed Alphinaud that it’s time to head back to Ishgard, and he agrees. You give him a little pat on the head, then return back to the city.

When you return to Ishgard, two Ironworks manacutters are standing by to carry you and Estinien to Nidhogg’s lair. You armor yourself as befits a dragoon, give Alphinaud another pat on the head, and tell him you and Estinien will return anon with good news. Alphinaud holds it together superbly while you and Estinien fly off.

Nidhogg rages, but Estinien rages more. Estinien’s control over the Eye gives you a critical advantage against the wyrm and his brood, and though Nidhogg thrashes in the air, Estinien leaps onto his head and stabs his remaining Eye out with his lance in a spray of blood. When he lands, he’s drenched his armor crimson from helm to toe.

The second Eye is a different color from the first.

“I know,” Estinien says, handing it to you. “We’d best ask Hraesvelgr for an explanation when we return it to him.”

Your Echo gives you a vision of the founding of the four high houses of Ishgard, of the dragon blood that flows within every Ishgardian, of the missing Eye still held by Thordan’s knights somewhere.

Hraesvelgr confirms your vision as truth. Ysayle, who is still at the palace, asks you to take her back to Ishgard with you so that she can call upon the heretics to retreat. Estinien is still covered in Nidhogg’s blood, so you take her back on your manacutter instead.

With Ysayle’s help placating the heretics, you and Estinien tell Ishgard that Nidhogg is dead. Everyone celebrates it as a major victory in the war except Aymeric, because you and Estinien told Aymeric and the Fortemps household the truth of Ishgard’s bloody history and the church’s efforts to keep that truth a secret. You watch Count Edmont and Estinien caution Aymeric to think things through before he makes any moves against the archbishop, and you watch Aymeric bite down with a set in his jaw that you know in your bones will not last the week. Lucia, standing loyally at Aymeric’s right hand as always, meets your gaze and you understand that she’s noticed as well. Aymeric leaves Fortemps Manor with the excuse that he must ensure Ysayle has led the heretics away from the city. You implore Lucia, as she slips out the door behind Aymeric, to send for you the moment it looks like Aymeric might need your help. Lucia agrees, and then she’s gone as well.

With trepidation, Count Edmont joins the other high houses in planning a celebration. Dinners are arranged, piano recitals are scheduled, and portraits are commissioned. The Count arranges for two portraits: one of himself, Artoirel, and Emmanellain, and the other of Haurchefant, yourself, Alphinaud, and Tataru. Tataru sets to making herself an Ishgardian-style gown and smart hat in her signature shades of pink and red, and Alphinaud is content with the blue suit Tataru made for him some months ago. Haurchefant wears his usual knight’s uniform, his blade at his side and his shield with the Fortemps crest upon his back. Which just leaves you to decide what to wear.

You first appear before the artist in your usual favorite mage’s robe, the one in purple and black layers with silver embroidery and the fur collar that you found on your Crystal Tower expedition, and Haurchefant expresses his sentiment that you look striking as always. The artist, however, keeps complaining that your hair is in your face and urges you to find a hat similar to Tataru’s so that your exotic cultural facial markings and dashing battle scar are clearly visible for the portrait. You insist that you prefer your hair the way it is, but the artist cites her expertise in composition and portraiture and will not budge. Alphinaud says he doesn’t know about exotic but you really needn’t be embarrassed about the scar and you turn your face away from him and you can’t talk about it in front of Alphinaud and this is suddenly too much and you look to Haurchefant, silently pleading for help. Haurchefant is gallant as ever and ushers you away to your bedroom in the manor under the guise of helping you pick out the proper headwear.

You give a muffled little scream into Haurchefant’s chest while he holds you, and you explain to him how much you hate attention drawn to your scar, how you got it, and why it is therefore nothing you can ever be proud of. You ask him to promise not to tell anybody and you don’t mention Alphinaud by name, but Haurchefant has two brothers. He knows. You wait for him to lose his faith in you, but he doesn’t. Haurchefant promises, and then he holds you a little bit longer until you’ve calmed down. Then he goes through your extensive wardrobe with you until you’ve put some semblance of an Ishgardian-approved outfit together.

You compromise with a hairpin instead of a hat. The artist still complains that she only managed to really get Haurchefant and Tataru in enough detail to finish the rest on her own, so she’s got to come back again in a few days for you and Alphinaud. Alphinaud does some polite apologizing for himself and you, and you go back to Dragonhead with Haurchefant for the evening because talking to Alphinaud is still difficult for the rest of that day.

Aymeric’s patience does not last the week, and he ends up storming off to confront the archbishop without much of a plan at all. He is subsequently (predictably) arrested, and Lucia races to the manor to ask you to help her rescue him. You agree, of course, and Alphinaud and Haurchefant swiftly join in. Count Edmont initially objects to Haurchefant’s participation, but Haurchefant insists and will not be swayed.

Lucia’s explanation of Aymeric’s relation to the archbishop, combined with the stomach-turning things you learn about Ishgardian society during your search for Hilda, just makes you angrier when Charibert starts flinging insults at Haurchefant and Hilda outside the Forgotten Knight. You still don’t understand the Ishgardian obsession with lineage, and you won’t hesitate to fling fireballs right back at anybody who’d look down on others because of it. Charibert gets away, but Haurchefant is not discouraged, and soon your rescue team is ready to pull Aymeric from the clutches of the Heavens’ Ward.

Lucia has a plan: Hilda’s and Ysayle’s groups will provide distraction to pull most guards outside the city, Lucia, Estinien, and some few loyal knights will sneak into the jail to spring Aymeric out, and you, Haurchefant, and Alphinaud need only focus on cutting a dramatic path through the Vault so the remaining guards will flock to you. Haurchefant gives you a grin and asks you if you’re ready to go, and you

No

No no no no

(Please remember that I love you.)

Haurchefant

(Please remember.)

Haurchefant is

(Please.)

Haurchefant is asking you to smile. Haurchefant is cradled half in Aymeric’s lap and half in yours, his hand in your hands, a giant unfixable hole right through the middle of him that he got from shielding you, and he is asking you to smile for him, so what can you do but smile?

You think it’s Estinien that helps you up, after, while Lucia hauls the injured Aymeric away; who wipes a bit of blood off your face with the back of his already-crimson gauntlet. Estinien tells you to go back to Fortemps Manor, that Alphinaud’s already gone on ahead. It’s hard to remember how you get back down from the roof of the Vault. The manor gatekeep goes pale when you ask him to let you in, probably because the blood got all over your robes, too. You don’t want to go inside, but you do it anyway.

Alphinaud is already there, and he’s not talking. Tataru is crying. Count Edmont, Artoirel, and Emmanellain all stare at you when you walk in, and in the few moments before Edmont turns away, you see the same look in his eyes as the one your mother wore all those years ago. You think you finally understand what a father is and wish you didn’t. Edmont tries to talk about a knight’s purpose until emotion overcomes him and he crumbles to the floor, asking to be left alone.

You take Alphinaud and Tataru back to the Forgotten Knight. You rent three rooms for an indefinite number of days. You can’t bring yourself to look at Sid and Rielle, though you feel them staring as you guide Alphinaud by the shoulder to his room. You run a cold bath, strip, and try to get the blood out of your robe; you can’t get the embroidery clean and throw the wet robe on the floor. You wash the rest of the blood off your person. You collapse into bed and cry yourself to sleep.

You wake the next morning feeling exactly as you expected to feel (like shite). Your mage’s robe is ruined, so you’ll just have to wear your dark knight’s armor. You tell Alphinaud at breakfast that you’re going to train until Aymeric is well enough to meet; Alphinaud frowns, but nods.

(You make an honest attempt to run yourself into the godsdamned ground, and with every meal you take in the tavern, you see Alphinaud and Rielle share a silent look that speaks volumes.)

Sid asks you about moogles, and you oblige. Rielle loses her patience with Sid. Sid loses his patience with the moogles. The moogles don’t apologize, but Sid does, after a fashion.

(The moogles don’t tell you anything you don’t already know in your heart to be true.)

You return from your training in the Churning Mists and apologize to Alphinaud. Alphinaud smiles and says he has no idea what you’re apologizing about, but the politeness is comforting. You tell Alphinaud you’re ready to check in on Aymeric again.

You confirm that Aymeric is healing from the injuries he sustained while imprisoned. Aymeric asks you to kill his father for him because the archbishop has used Nidhogg’s other Eye to become a primal. You agree, and because you’ve learned nothing from Estinien and Nidhogg, you go into a little too much detail in front of Alphinaud of what you plan to do to the Heavens’ Ward as well (you’re going to rip Zephirin’s heart from his chest because it’s only fair to do to him what he did to you). Alphinaud frowns, but Aymeric, who has been friends with Estinien for a decade, simply acknowledges the statement and does not retract his request.

You leave Aymeric’s office to make plans to chase after the archbishop. Alphinaud suggests you visit Fortemps Manor before setting off with Cid on an airship. You agree, and once at the manor, you tell Edmont of your plans. Edmont apologizes for his earlier outburst and asks you both to return home safely. He gives you the broken shield; you clutch it tightly against you with both arms and nod, unable to speak. You let Alphinaud lead you to the airship.

Cid takes you back to the Sea of Clouds where you race the archbishop to find the key to Azys Lla. Emperor Varis, of all people, joins the hunt as well (you’ll regret that choice of phrase later), on an airship of truly massive proportions. Lucia defends you and Cid from a contingent of soldiers with magitek she has from her days as a Garlean spy, and you’re very glad she doesn’t ask you to apologize for killing her sister Livia at the Castrum (you would not have apologized). Bismarck eats the key, so you go skyfishing with Cid to kill it, harpooning it with House Haillenarte’s famous dragonkiller chains and finishing off the job with the lance you crafted out of the sea-serpent scale you got from your other primal fishing trip.

For a single, perfect moment, you are weightless in the air in your battle to the death, your grief left far below. And then you land, and the archbishop and his Ascian accomplices (Lahabrea again, and his consort Igeyohrm) steal the key right from your hands. You’re forced to return to Ishgard to figure out another way of breaking through the barrier surrounding Azys Lla and reaching the floating Allagan island.

While Cid brainstorms a way to upgrade his airship without dragging a mountain of crystals to power it, Tataru gets news from Urianger to you and Alphinaud of Y’shtola’s possible whereabouts. The whereabouts happen to be within the aetherial sea itself, but with help from Y’mhitra and Kan-E-Senna, the elementals deliver your friend back to you. Y’shtola emerges from the aetherial sea naked as the day she was born, but with a new outfit courtesy of Tataru and a quick ushering of a too-curious Alphinaud out of the room by you, she’s soon ready to get back in the action.

Y’shtola doesn’t know how to fix Cid’s airship ram problem, but she says she knows someone who does, so you travel with her and Alphinaud to the Dravanian hinterlands where her former master resides. You fill her in on what’s happened since her departure in Ul’dah, and Alphinaud picks up the story when it becomes difficult for you to keep talking. Y’shtola says she is sorry for your loss, and you’re glad she looks like she understands how you feel without you having to say it out loud in front of Alphinaud.

The hinterlands contain an abandoned city. Y’shtola says it was once the colony of Sharlayan, before its populace fled in an exodus fifteen years prior to escape the steady march of the Garlean Empire. Only her master stayed behind, in a small cave on the far side of the Thaliak River. Alphinaud says he and his sister were actually born here rather than the Sharlayan motherland, though they were of course too young to remember.

There’s a tower in the distance where the bridge over the river should be, and as you walk closer, day turns to dusk and phosphorescent stone on the tower glows green in the shape of a spiral shell. You stop walking to dig in your bag; the shell on the tower is the same color as the stone of the religious charm that’s been with you since you were very small.

“Niko, what is it?” You look at the charm, then to the tower, then back to the charm, your brow furrowing. You remember that time in the aetherial sea has altered Y’shtola’s vision and tell her about the tower. “Yes, that’s the symbol of Sharlayan. Why do you have something like that?” You don’t tell her about the man who gave it to you, since he could never be Edmont, but you do tell her that your Thaliak charm was given to you as a gift when you were young.

“The stone is exactly the same material,” Alphinaud says. “It can’t be a coincidence.”

You try to think about how stones and stories of Thaliak and Alphinaud’s grandfather came to a random few poor villages in the Shroud and ask Y’shtola if she thought maybe Matoya wasn’t the only one who stayed behind or parted from the colony over the years.

“I suppose,” Y’shtola says, “if they were guests or exchange students rather than Sharlayan citizens, or if they left in an earlier wave when Ala Mhigo fell instead of with the exodus. But to travel from Dravania to the Shroud is not an easy journey, and finding a place within it to thrive no less taxing… Though if Ishgard was closed to outsiders, they may have had no other choice.” You’re not sure how you feel about that (it’s not great). ”I didn’t know you had that, though, Niko.” Now, her voice is teasing. “What other secrets have you been hiding from me? You must tell all while we walk.” She hooks an arm around yours and starts marching you forward again.

You’re glad for the escape she’s given you, so you spin for her one of the excessively exaggerated stories of the great Louisoix Leveilleur that you heard growing up. Alphinaud keeps piping up to correct the many, many falsehoods. You add to the story an anecdote of the time you and Nashu tried to recreate one of Louisoix’s embellished exploits with amateur explosives, since neither of you knew how to use spells yet, and then you got grounded for a week, but it was completely worth it. By the time you find a place to cross the river, the weight has lifted off your chest enough for you to put the past where it belongs again.

Y’shtola is laughing until the sound of chattering and clanking and real gobbiebooms reaches both your ears. It takes another few moments for Alphinaud to notice as well, but you pass through the arch at the bottom of the tower to find a town that is very much not abandoned. Y’shtola lets go of your arm and enters into a slightly heated conversation with a small contingent of gobbies set on turning you out for being Illuminati spies. After a few brief chores and a reunion with the incomparable Brayflox (the things she does for cheese ), you prove your worth to the gobbies and are welcomed into Idyllshire. Y’shtola seems undecided in her opinion of the town’s gobbie-and-treasure-hunter population, so you tentatively ask her if it isn’t better that these people are building a home instead of leaving the land to its ruin. Y’shtola sighs but says she agrees and that she is glad they are growing and thriving.

“It would not be my place to stop them from learning all they can from this place,” Y’shtola says. “Come, let us make camp for the night. We will walk the rest of the way to Master Matoya in the morning, and I am eager for Alphinaud to demonstrate his newly-acquired firewood skills.” Alphinaud proudly obliges.

Master Matoya is even more grumpy than Y’shtola described her to be, but Y’shtola doesn’t seem bothered by it at all; the two women easily trade barbs between them as you all explain your aetheric ram problem. Alphinaud is less at ease, objecting to being compared to his sister in any sort of way, physically or otherwise, and though you try to bolster his confidence as best you can, Matoya quickly shoos you out to retrieve her tome on aetheric research from the Gubal Library while she puts Y’shtola and Alphinaud to work.

You grab a few enterprising treasure-hunters from Idyllshire and go to the library, which has of course become infested with monsters in the fifteen years since the Sharlayan exodus. Some of the books shoot lasers at you, which is awful in every conceivable way. Despite the strident opposition to learning, however, you do manage to find Matoya’s research tome, as well as a book on arcane geometry theory for Alphinaud and a copy of The Boy and the Dragon Gay (a classic!) for Sidurgu. You’re not sure if Y’shtola’s new vision actually lets her read normally, but you manage to snag another book on aetherytes for her with the intention of gifting it once you find out for sure.

“You sure took your time, didn’t you?” Matoya says, once you return. “I’m not getting any younger, you know.” Y’shtola smirks and agrees, which sets off another round of cheerful insults as they decipher Matoya’s research tome. You watch Alphinaud’s eyes light up at the geometry book, and he thanks you excitedly. You also quietly tell Alphinaud that you still have an unused potion that you got from your alchemy teacher after you finished your apprenticeship, if he’d prefer being mistaken for his sister less; Alphinaud thanks you again, carefully, and says just as quietly that he already did that once before he and Alisaie left home for Eorzea and is content with the results because if he didn’t look like her at all, it would make both of them unhappy. You nod and then ask if he still likes the book. Alphinaud smiles and says he can’t wait to crack into it.

Matoya kicks you out of her cave as soon as the tome is deciphered. Y’shtola lingers, probably to give a more earnest goodbye in private, but she soon joins you and Alphinaud in the hinterlands and the three of you return to Ishgard. Cid looks as happy to see Matoya’s deciphered tome as Alphinaud did the geometry. You ask Aymeric and Estinien for permission to use the Eye to power the aetheric ram, and Estinien agrees, upon the condition that he uses it himself and travels with you to Azys Lla. You and Alphinaud happily accept his help.

You finish everything you need to finish in Coerthas and Eorzea while you wait for Cid to outfit the airship with the aetheric ram. You help Sidurgu kill Rielle’s mother (Rielle, who is a better person than you, offers the last rites for the woman attempting to murder her own daughter). You cannot bring yourself to lie to Heustienne’s father because you simply cannot be the bearer of that particular news anymore, but manage to help Heustienne escape Ishgard instead, which is even better. You get Zhai’a off your and Lalai’s godsdamned case. You spend every minute not training honing your crafting skills to keep up with Tataru. Alphinaud tells you to remember to rest and you really, really try.

You embark upon the airship, blade on your back. Tataru, Aymeric, Edmont, Lucia, Artoirel, and Emmanellain see you off. Urianger arrives at the last minute to give you a crystal of white auracite, in the likely case Lahabrea is still hanging around Thordan. Y’shtola and Estinien enter into a debate regarding Estinien’s use of the Eye, but it is quickly forgotten by the ram’s success and more significantly by the Garlean Empire’s giant airship following you through the hole in the barrier. Cid does his best to outmaneuver the massive dreadnaught bearing down on you and opening fire, but even he can’t seem to shake them.

(Please remember.)

Ysayle arrives on Hraesvelgr’s back. You watch from the airship as she leaps into the air, clutching her Crystal of Light to her chest. She consumes it and becomes Shiva for the last time.

She brings the airship crashing down onto the floating island, and then she shatters and is gone.

(The Crystal of Light was hers to do with as she chose. She didn’t sin with it more than anyone else with that kind of crystal. Let alone six. But she wouldn’t have come here if you hadn’t asked for the Eye to open the way. And if her dream hadn’t shone so brightly, perhaps you wouldn’t be wanting to dive after her.)

Once you land, Y’shtola says you still must find the archbishop, and despite how you feel (like shite) you set out with the others. Biggs and Wedge help Cid poke at the ancient Allagan technology, and Estinien keeps everything mechanical at a healthy distance. You write down notes about all the strange Allagan things you find to distract yourself while Cid gets the necessary tech up and running. Alphinaud asks you if you’ve found anything mentioning the Meracydians, and you show him your notes; Alphinaud starts reading about what the Allagans were doing in Meracydia and quickly stops asking.

“Rather barbaric for an advanced civilization,” Y’shtola says, reading over your shoulder. You’re happy for her that her altered vision hasn’t kept reading at bay, even if it is about the Allagans. You agree with her that it’s barbaric (every single thing you learn about the Allagans is always worse than the last thing you’ve just learned), but that G’raha will want to know such things when he wakes up, so you’re taking notes for his sake. “Niko, you don’t have to…” You turn away. She sighs. “I am sorry about Ysayle. Do you wish to talk about it?”

You don’t. Thank you.

“Then let us press on,” Y‘shtola says. You agree.

You travel from quadrant to quadrant with Y’shtola, Alphinaud, and Estinien. You learn more fucked-up Allagan trivia bits. You run into survivors from the Empire’s airship. Estinien urges you to leave him and the others behind to fight a contingent of soldiers off while you continue to chase the archbishop, and to borrow the Eye to ensure you have the power necessary; you do as Estinien asks. You meet Tiamat and finally regain the connection to Hydaelyn that Midgardsormr has kept from you. The dragon-father laments his daughter’s choice to remain in captivity, but says he will carry you on his back to defeat Thordan and take back Nidhogg's other Eye.

You breach the Allagan research facility located on the central island, following Thordan and his knights’ trail deep into the heart of the complex. It’s not Thordan that you meet within, though, but Lahabrea and Igeyohrm. You watch the two Ascians reform themselves into one transformed being, their Ardor a Calamity in miniature. You’ve come too far to lose to Lahabrea, however, so you do what you do best and defeat them. Like Tioman and Nidhogg before them, you vanquish Igeyorhm first, trapping her within Urianger’s auracite and shattering it with the Eye Estinien lent you.

It’s Thordan himself who finally kills Lahabrea now that he is no longer of use to the archbishop, the other Eye ripped from the corpse of an ancient dragoon and turned upon the Ascian to absorb him completely. Then, Thordan takes the Eye into his sword and fully becomes a primal, the twisted echo of an ancient king. His Heavens’ Ward, likewise mockeries of bygone knights, surround him, all of them towering and glowing with the holy light of a faith built upon a thousand years of lies.

Thordan asks you if you take issue with his godhood; you’re too angry to speak, so you simply draw your blade. Two by two the knights set upon you like so many deadly marionettes, and two by two you cut them down. You look into Zephirin’s eyes as you plunge your blade into his chest and see only Thordan reflected back. There’s no satisfaction in putting a thrall out of its misery; it only makes you angrier. Only Thordan himself, furious after his knights have failed, can quell the tide of rage and grief still inside of you. Godhood has given him strength and ferocity, but this is something you know how to face. You drink deep from the well of darkness inside of you and pass through rage into certainty. You defeat your foe. Thordan dies afraid of you. You watch him and his knights dissipate into aether until nothing remains but Thordan’s sword, the second Eye still glowing in its hilt.

Estinien finds you. You return to him the Eye you borrowed (a mistake). Estinien plucks the second Eye from the sword (a second mistake). Nidhogg awakens from within Estinien, contorting his form, the shape of the man swallowed by the shape of the dragon, looking at you with hatred in both his eyes before flying away.

You don’t know what you’re going to tell Alphinaud.

Midgardsormr reappears and urges you onto his back again before you return to the airship. The two of you fly alongside it back to Ishgard. Aymeric and the others meet you at the airship landing, and Midgardsormr tells Aymeric what happened to Thordan, and to Estinien and Nidhogg. Midgardsormr asks Aymeric if Ishgard still wants peace. Aymeric vows to strive for peace, no matter the cost.

Ishgard joins the Eorzean alliance. You reunite a shield with its owner. You agree to help Alphinaud and Tataru rebuild the Scions again. You rest, if just for a moment, in the temporary calm.

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.