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[kittycaterer]

Noctis Caelum

"You got Noctis. Do the thing."

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[daemonized]

You know I possess a healing power.

[Ardyn shifted again in his seat, getting comfortable to explain all of this. He wished the tension in his back would uncoil and dissipate, but to no avail.]

That much was shared with that other me, long ago. Some of what I can only assume are his earliest memories, he... I travelled the world, healing those that were afflicted. It was something dark, something painful. Eventually, it turned people in daemons.

[Strange, then, how the daemonification process was used to create MTs then, isn't it?]

[kittycaterer]

[ Noctis listens intently, expression falling into something of focus and intrigue. But there’s a seriousness here that he doesn’t usually display. If anything, it keeps him from getting too uncomfortable, because he truthfully dislikes talking about this to an extent. He’s realizing that he doesn’t have much of a choice these days.

He recalls Ardyn’s healing ability, mostly because it didn’t work on him. And he has to wonder if it somehow made it worse, because Noctis lost consciousness shortly after...

But that doesn’t make sense. Why would it? If it’s worked on others?

He’s not able to linger on that thought for long. The last part of his explanation has Noctis sitting upright rather fast. ]

It what?

[ Noctis actually has no idea that MTs are tied in to all that. He’s aware there’s a connection, but only because he’s aware of Prompto’s identity. ]

[daemonized]

Exactly what I said.

[He sighed, letting breath out through his teeth.]

It would cause pain, sickness... but how it truly manifested was how it changed people into daemons. I remember some of them, even.

[They were the first of his memories, ironically enough.]

[kittycaterer]

[ It honestly worries him. Noctis feels his gut coil because he knows fully what Prompto is. Does that mean he’s ill? Would this hurt him? The idea of Prompto turning into some daemon horrifies him and hurts him beyond belief. ]

Does it happen quickly? There’s a way to avoid this, right?

[ Because what if Retrospec decided to bring this forward... ]

[daemonized]

I don't know. I...

[He pauses, hesitant.]

I don't know if it's the same process across the board. I do remember that when I healed others, the transformation they underwent was slow. There was a window for them to be saved with my magic.

[kittycaterer]

[ A sickness... A threat of darkness. Are they somehow connected? Noctis sits up as Ardyn continues. ]

Did you end up in Insomnia? Like living there.

If we're related, that means we're both royalty. Do you remember being in the Citadel before war broke out?

[daemonized]

[His brow furrows, peeling back through his memories as if he hadn't done so a thousand times before. As if something might spark, as they are often wont to do.

Nothing rears its head, not just yet.]

I don't think so. But... that doesn't mean that I hadn't been. There are still great gaps in my memory.

[He pauses again, as if standing on the precipice of a conversation he's not quite sure he wants to entertain. But Ardyn makes the choice to do so anyway.]

Beyond the one memory that you're aware of. The throne room, couched in darkness.

[kittycaterer]

[ Not a whole lot of memories from this past are whimsical by any means. Some are more upbeat than others, but most involve these strange feelings of dread and fear. Noct’s posture starts to slack a little, when the throne is brought up again. Noctis recalls the image of rubble and darkness that spilled from broken windows. A large throne seated atop an eternity of stairs.

Noctis narrows his gaze. His stomach sinks when he adds: ]

The Crystal was there.

[ Not in the strange keep he’d originally remembered it in. ]

What’s that thing’s purpose anyway? It comes up constantly, it was obviously a large part of the war.

[daemonized]

I don't know. It was powerful, I think -- there was magic radiating from it, in that strange vision of mine. And it was seated above the throne itself. A symbol of power, if not more than that.

[He knits his brow together, just thinking on it. Noctis saw it himself, he didn't need to explain it again.]

To say that it was important, I think, is not a wrong assessment.