Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1: RUN.
The church haunted Ravus. His feet had dragged him through the steady rainfall, back to the site where his sister and Prince Noctis were supposed to have been wed. Luna’s determined, sleepless eyes, her slight body slumped defeated in her chair, her hoarse voice begging him to deliver the Ring of the Lucii to Noctis in her stead… It was burned into his mind like a brand marking her death warrant. He had refused her plea, steeling himself instead to be a voice of encouragement. She was to fulfill her duty as Oracle and he would support her summoning of Leviathan for Noctis, despite the process sapping her life. Now he was having second thoughts. Ravus was about to climb the steps of the church and pray for guidance when the last voice he wanted to hear interrupted his thoughts.
“The wedding day arrives, but alas, without the bride…” Chancellor Ardyn Izunia purred from behind Ravus, childishly twirling his umbrella, “of course, we’ve come for the Hydraean, and you’ve gone to such lengths to prepare!”
He needed to get away from this guy.
“Merely my duty.” Ravus answered after swerving and pausing for a length. The Imperial Chancellor turned after him. Either he didn’t get the message or was blatantly ignoring him. It was probably the latter; Ardyn’s social skills were too polished. Pest.
“Ah, but for an outsider to lead the Imperial army must be a battle in and of itself.”
Ravus chose not to answer. Instead he continued to walk away. Still, more bait was thrown at him. It was a probing of allegiances wrapped in the guise of an innocent question.
“You’ve spoken to Lady Lunafreya?”
Ravus froze. He put on his best poker face, features etiolating as he turned to face the Chancellor and lie through his teeth.
“No.”
He never was the greatest liar. It showed.
“That obstinate secretary! Standing in the way while you rush off to slay the Hydraean for your poor sister’s sake.”
There was no need for Ravus to walk away anymore. Ardyn had said and heard all he needed to. He glided past the shaken young commander, smiling as if nothing had happened between them. As he shrunk in the distance, his layers of black coats and spinning umbrella made him resemble an evil Mary Poppins, ready to take to the skies in search of his next victim. Ravus shuddered.
Ardyn was on to him. There was no more hiding, no more playing double agent. His only option now was to run.
With hurried steps Ravus clambered to the church’s entrance and peaked through its doors. Its hallowed halls provided the perfect place to scheme; no service was taking place at the moment. He made sure he was completely alone before getting lost in his thoughts, checking every alcove on the off chance some poor soul was tucked away there, praying for mercy. The world was plagued by the Starscourge after all, and he could trust no one. Only when Ravus was certain he could let his guard down did he begin to pace up and down the aisle, thinking of ways to steal Luna away from Altissia’s First Secretary before the night was through.
He could always collect her burglar style, climb in through the window during the dead of night with a balaclava hiding his face, hiss Luna’s name from the window and…This was ridiculous. Surely she would be guarded by the Empire- Altissia agreed to keep her and hand her over after she had summoned and forged the covenant with Leviathan. And even if he had the authority to tell the guards to stand down, to lie about orders for Luna’s premature retrieval and break the agreement with Altissia, things always had a way of reaching the Ardyn’s ears.
Killing the guards and abandoning the Imperial Army immediately afterward was a thought... Swiftly he would slice the guards open with one fell swing of his sword, leaving no witnesses to his stealing away with Luna. Then the next shift of guards would come….and gawk confusedly at a pile of bodies. Word would get to Ardyn and he would connect the dots to Ravus’s disappearance. How foolish. That idea would only send a search party his way. Asking the Secretary would likely do the same; even if he could get her to trust him, he could see himself floundering for excuses, beads of sweat rolling down his neck as the Secretary refused to cast aside her suspicions and hand Luna over. Eventually he would be forced to reveal his true intentions. Ardyn would quickly learn about Luna’s vanishing when she doesn’t show up for tomorrow’s summoning. Logically, he would have a chat with the person who was keeping her last: the Secretary. She would be pressured by Ardyn’s charm into spilling the truth about Luna’s “kidnapping” and murdered on the spot. Hell, even if she managed to resist him she would probably be murdered anyway for failing to uphold her end of Nifelheim’s bargain. These were terrible ideas…it would be best if the Empire would think him and Luna dead, even if only for a moment. The longer he could keep them off his back the better.
So who was good at causing chaos and killing people? Criminals. He could enlist criminals to create a diversion and pay them with the means to do so. Being the Imperial Commander meant he had some very powerful magitek weaponry at his disposal. He could frame it as theft, then send troops in to “reclaim Imperial property and quell the threat” and use that cover to steal Luna and run. He would be declared MIA, get the Empire off his back for a while…And that entire premise would look sloppy on his part. He wasn’t made Imperial Commander for incompetency. Ravus Nox Fleuret, the man efficient and intimidating as a titanium wall, famed for his superhuman strength, would not fall to a group of petty criminals. Ardyn wouldn’t buy it for a second.
There was also the option of enlisting Prince Noctis’s aid. He had to be somewhere in the city as he was scheduled to receive the Leviathan’s blessing tomorrow. But as far as Noctis was concerned, Ravus was with the enemy. Gaining that boy’s trust would take too long. Besides, try as he may to believe in the young Prince of Lucius, Ravus would sooner choke on his pride than ask Noctis for help.
It was futile. He was quickly running out of ideas and the few he had all ended unfavorably. Ravus found himself kneeling before the altar, studying the dappled light shed on the stone floor by the stained glass windows. As he stared, his mind began to slip away, back to the past, back to when he had felt the same suffocating hand of despair crushing him as he watched his mother die and his country go up in flames. King Regis had been leading his sister by the hand, abandoning him to Nifelheim’s iron grip. But when Luna had looked over her shoulder and saw her brother crying out, alone, she slid her hand from Regis’s. She had chosen to forgo her own freedom…all because she knew Ravus needed her. And now it was she who needed him more than ever. He couldn’t let her down.
Ravus tore his eyes from the floor and rose to his feet. A distraction was what he needed for his plan to work. Something massive enough to keep even Ardyn occupied. Something Ravus would struggle to stay alive against, even with the help of an army. Something catastrophic, completely out of his control, so chaotic that no one would dare look for him and Luna until they were far away from Altissia’s mild shores. A distraction as big as…
His gaze landed on the window above the altar. It was of a serpentine beast bursting skyward from seas of colored glass; a vector to the heavens.
“Leviathan.” He breathed.
And he had his solution. Tonight he would try to summon the sea goddess himself. It was a shot in the dark, but if it meant saving Luna, it was the best chance he had.
Dusk had blackened the sky by the time Ravus decided to make his move. He had been watching the guards at the First Secretary’s manor gate when a group of individuals approached them, requesting an audience with her. It was the Prince and his gaggle of muppets. From the little Ravus overheard, it sounded like their meeting would be a long one. Something about political negotiations. That should keep the Secretary busy for a while.
While the guards were occupied with their guests, Ravus crept with laterigrade along the cobbled stone streets, stopping in the safety of a stone archway. He looked upwards, surveying the location. There were small numbers of people about, the dregs of parties honoring the speech Luna was to give tomorrow afternoon. People were always too eager to celebrate these days. Ravus wrinkled his nose at the cluster of merriment closest to him. They were laughing way too loud, lighting sparklers and popping firecrackers. Was that even legal here? He wondered if they were intoxicated with the way their silhouettes swayed. The shine of bottles in their hands confirmed his suspicions. They would make the perfect scapegoats.
He positioned himself in front of the gondola waterway directly below the rowdy group. From his coat pocket he pulled his trump card. It was a glass bottle containing a crowning achievement of Imperial technology- Aeterna Flame. As a boy, Ravus had read books about its use as a weapon in naval combat, although they all claimed the recipe was lost thousands of years ago along with the Solheim Empire. Then, like Prometheus, Ardyn shared his knowledge with Nifelheim, allowing them to produce an uncanny replica of the forgotten art.
Ravus snuck a quick glance back at the manor. Only one guard remained and he was in the midst of locking the wrought iron barricade. The other had probably gone on to escort Noctis and his companions inside. Ravus wasn’t about to let them lock him out. He took a few steps back, threw the glass bottle, and watched the waterway glow with the very same flames that consumed Tenebrae twelve years ago.
“FIRE!” A shrill voice slurred, “FIRE IN THE WATER!” The drunken men didn’t even notice Ravus as they fell over each other, scrambling to escape the rising flames. It didn’t take long for the guard to notice the commotion. The orange tongues were moving fast, dancing along the water, pouring onto the streets and bursting every firecracker and champagne bottle they came across. When the guard left his post to try and quell the chaos, Ravus slunk back to the manor, pushed open the gates and slipped inside. He made a point to close the gates behind him; he had to find some way to uphold his integrity whilst being the Empire’s lapdog.
He had barely set foot in the manor before the same guard who ran off to play hero came racing through the double doors.
“We need backup,” the guard cried, “Water isn’t working! I don’t know what to do!”
In a haze of panic, Ravus dove for the nearest hiding place he could find. It happened to be a supply closet, where conveniently draped amongst tool cluttered shelves were a couple of spare guard uniforms. For once in his life it seemed he had lucked out. He waited until the sound of footsteps left the room before he proceeded to stuff himself into the nearest spare uniform. It was a little tight across the shoulders but that was hardly a problem. The real issue was fitting the glove over his false hand, and he cringed when the claw-like fingertips tore through. Sighing, he tied his hair back with a rubber band from the shelf and, in case anyone decided to peek into the closet, placed a bucket over his own hastily folded clothes. When he left his hiding place, he was met by the chatter of voices from upstairs.
“Just leave the fire to us! Don’t wanna disturb history in the making!”
That chirpy tenor had to belong to the blonde peasant boy.
“Indeed. And about that fire…It sounds like the work of Imperial technology to me.”
Someone with an accent like Ravus’s own said- must be the bespectacled one.
“The city’s probably crawling with ‘em since Luna’s here,”
The gruff reply undoubtedly came from that shirtless excuse for a ‘king’s shield.’ Ravus’s assertion was proven correct when he saw the trio heading down the stairs. The panicked guard was leading them while a handful of guards brought up the rear. He stepped aside to let them pass, but tensed momentarily when his eyes locked with Noctis’s entourage. Quickly he cast his gaze downward. As the band of men moved towards the doors, Ravus couldn’t help but curse under his breath; the fragments of conversation he could hear had him wondering if his cover was blown.
“Hey, is it just me or did that guard look a lot like Ravus?”
“He’s got the angry look down.”
He didn’t wait to learn what they concluded. Instead he bolted up the stairwell, grateful that the guard’s clomping boots masked his own. He had to move quickly. The trident was guarded by the Secretary for safekeeping, as the Empire couldn’t trust Luna with it given her stubborn autonomy. Since the Secretary distrusted the Empire, she would probably keep the weapon close to her and where people would be unlikely to look…A safe would be too obvious a container and cumbersome if the trident was needed in a hurry. Still, he was unsure where to look; he didn’t have time to make mistakes. He tried a different approach.
What were Luna’s most valued possessions? Where were they kept? There was that journal she kept in her bedroom, the one she and Noctis used all these years to pass clandestine notes like naughty schoolchildren. It was hidden within her nightstand in the second drawer from the top. He knew only because he flipped through it, back before trusting Noctis was even a consideration. It was wrong of him, he knew now, and he should’ve respected Luna’s privacy more. But the relief he felt upon learning they weren’t planning to pull a Romeo and Juliet almost made the snooping worth it.
Ravus continued down the main hallway, on the lookout for the Secretary’s room. Eventually he stumbled across what was presumably the servant’s quarters. He followed the long rows of sparsely furnished bedrooms to the end of the corridor. There he was met by a lonely offshoot, a right turn into a bare hallway save for a pair of important looking double doors at the end.
Cautiously he turned the doorknob, flinching slightly at the sound of old oak creaking open. Oak…he had read about it in a book on woodworking. Oak was some of the sturdiest wood- a perfect barricade for hiding something precious. And what lay behind these staunch doors was none other than the Secretary’s bedroom. The trident had to be hidden here! He first checked around bed: behind the headboard, underneath the mattress and underneath the bed itself, searching the metal grating in case the weapon was lodged there and feeling the floorboards below for traces of a trapdoor. His efforts turned up nothing but he persisted nonetheless. Slowly he expanded his search to encompass the entire room, methodically sweeping the area from corner to corner. He threw open the closet, flinging aside all the clothes that might be concealing the polearm. Still, no trident was to be found. Exasperated, he whirled around…right smack into a coat tree. He stumbled backwards, letting out a low growl as the pole clattered to the ground. He didn’t have time for this! In his haste, he grabbed the fallen pole with his prosthetic hand. Curiously enough, he noticed his claws didn’t mark up the silvery metal. Ordinary silver was way too soft for that, Ravus thought as he furrowed his brows. As he made to upright the coat tree, one of the garments fell, revealing it had been resting on a curved appendage reminiscent of the ones that protruded below the fork of Luna’s trident.
Feverously he ripped the remaining clothes from the coat tree, excitement bubbling in his chest as the familiar forked head appeared. He had found it! He actually found it! Now the challenge was ensuring he kept it. Ravus crept as quietly as he could down the corridors and out into the main hall. He could still hear the faint buzz of voices leaking from the Secretary’s office. Negotiations must not be finalized yet. Ravus had time, even if it was only minutes. He craned his neck over the stairwell, checking if the coast was clear for him to descend. He didn’t spot anyone. Things were going smoothly- almost too smoothly for someone like him, but Ravus wasn’t about to complain. He firmly clutched the polearm as he made a swift descent and locked himself back in the sanctuary of the supply closet, breathing a sigh of relief. The respite was only momentary; the voice within him nagged that he mustn’t dilly dally.
He gathered his clothes from beneath the bucket and was about to put them on…when he had a better idea. He grabbed one of the mops leaning in the corner and, with one fluid movement, tore the head from it. Then he forced the mop head onto the trident, using the tendrils of coarse yarn to hide the weapon’s sharp prongs. If this thing could be a coat tree then it could damn well be a mop. He scooped up his clothes, throwing them back into the bucket and placed a rag overtop them. Now he was all set to be a janitor. However, his blood ran cold when he stepped out of the supply closet. When he turned to close the closet door, he heard the sound of another door opening behind him. The firemen were back.
As the men entered the house, talking noisily amongst themselves, Ravus bent his head down and tried to keep his face devoid of emotion. If he had a talent for anything it was wearing a mask. He tried to hurry past Noctis’s nannies and the returning guards but heard their chatter die down when he neared them. They were clearly waiting for an explanation.
“I was told to clean up whatever mess you left when you put out the fire.” He blurted and made a feeble attempt to drop his accent.
The facade seemed satisfactory enough for the group to let him pass without question, but their gazes continued to bore into his back as he approached the door. As he feared, he still wasn’t home safe yet. A voice stopped him from stepping out the door.
“Hey, wait!”
It took everything Ravus had to keep himself from bolting like a scared rabbit. He didn’t turn around when he heard the patter of footsteps approach him.
“You’re new here, aren’t you? I noticed you don’t have any keys on your belt.”
Ravus was silent.
“Here, take mine. Don’t be embarrassed. I forgot my keys my first day on the job and ended up locking myself out of the manor. I know how it feels.”
The guard laughed and unhooked his keys from his belt, offering them to Ravus.
“Just try not to lose them, alright?”
Ravus gave only a polite nod as he took the keys, showing no hesitancy in travelling the rest of the way out the door and never looking back. That was too close a call. If it were one of Noctis’s muppets who had called him out he would’ve surely been finished. Grateful as Ravus was, how someone so naïve ever came to hold the position of guard was beyond him.
There was only one guard stationed at the gate this time.
“You here to join me? ‘S been a long night, I’ll say.”
Ravus shook his head and held up the bucket in response.
“Hah! Good luck with that- you have a whole street to tidy up for tomorrow.”
“I’ll work my way down from there.” Ravus jerked his chin towards the end of the street.
The guard shrugged. “Whatever works.”
Ravus was relieved no questions were asked. He tried to keep an even pace as he walked down the street but he was eager to escape the scrutiny of others. When he got far enough that he was obscured in shadow, he shed his uniform, swapping it back for the white robes of the Empire. The status should keep any late night wanderers from pestering him.
These guards were too kind, he thought as the gleam of the gate keys disappeared beneath the mop head plucked from Luna’s trident. It was a shame he couldn’t return the sentiment. Maybe now that naïve guard will learn that you can’t always be kind to strangers.
And with that thought, Ravus ran to the marina.