Chapter Text
Prince Noctis, heir to the Kingdom of Lucis, disappeared into the raging ocean at the age of four.
The kingdom wept and held vigil at the water's side for seven days. Seven days of the salt of their tears joining the ocean, feet licked by sand and water. It was seven days of King Regis, still in mourning for his late wife and clothes as black as night, sitting at the point where sea foam met the line of rock and sand and shells. It was seven days of ships being sent out at dawn into the endless blue and returning late into the night.
Nothing.
Not even his jacket. A lock of hair. The pearl necklace his mother had clasped around his throat on her deathbed.
Only silence on calm seas.
Hope was near lost, but King Regis stayed near the water, begging it to return his boy—his only boy. The only thing left of his beautiful wife who had been taken by death too soon.
On the eighth day just as the sun began to set and the water glowed like fire, Noctis returned to land, his clothing gone but his smile bright. He was well-fed and rosy-cheeked, a necklace of bone and pearls and shells adorning his throat. His little body was covered in seaweed, tacky and thick, but nothing could cover up the mark on his back.
It looked like a scar, but Regis had seen something so similar before. Aulea had one on her own back, a criss-cross of diamonds across the expanse of her spine. When they were young and so very carefree, Regis would kiss it and hum against the soft skin, enjoying the way Aulea would shiver and then laugh.
Her laughter sounded like bells, just as Noctis's did at that moment, and it didn't matter what it was. All Regis wanted was to hold his son in his arms, to never let go.
"Papa, I wanna go! I wanna swim. Lemme swim with Iggy!"
"Iggy?" Regis didn't even dare to let go of Noctis, pulling him closer into his arms. He wished that his arms could swallow Noctis whole and protect him from anything. From everything. The thought of Noctis ever leaving him...
He couldn't do it.
"Iggy!"
"Who is Iggy?" Regis couldn't keep the fear from his voice, the panic. Whoever had taken Noctis... whatever had taken Noctis...
Noctis tried to wiggle out of Regis's hands, but the king held firm.
"Iggy! Iggy!" Noctis cried as he tried to escape. He was fighting for the water, trying to return to the inky black depths. "Iggy!"
His wails broke a part of Regis that had no name, but he did not let go. It was his duty to protect his soft, sweet summer child.
His voice carried over the seas, the water bubbling and the tide turning. The cacophony of sweet music glided across the water. Some of the men grabbed their heads, covering their ears, but Regis did not understand—not until he saw it. Not until he saw them.
The winds picked up, the swirling and raging sea opening and a thousand pairs of eyes stared back. Big bodies, larger than any man on land and yet near-skeletal in appearance, bobbed arm to arm in the water. Their mouths were open, though the sound that filled the air did not match the rows of razor-sharp teeth that glinted in the moonlight. Their ethereal beauty, from their pearly sheen of their skin to the rainbow of scales that adorned their high cheekbones like armor, only made the hairs on Regis's arms stand on end.
They did not move, only allowing their mouths to widen as the enticing song drifted across the ocean.
Regis's felt the touch of the song, the whisper to step forward into the water. He wanted to swim with Noctis...
It took half a dozen men trained upon the open sea to pull Regis and Noctis from the water. Regis could not remember why he had stepped into the ocean, but he knew that there was something about that song, that sweet song...
The water was dangerous.
It wanted their Prince, and the Kingdom of Lucis refused.
The next morning, at dawn they began to build the Wall.