Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
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year 5, quarter 3
Welcome one and all to our beautiful new skin! This marks the visual era of Adventu 4.0, our 4th and by far best design we've had. 3.0 suited our needs for a very long time, but as things are evolving around the site (and all for the better thanks to all of you), it was time for a new, sleek change. The Resource Site celebrity Pharaoh Leep was the amazing mastermind behind this with minor collaborations from your resident moogle. It's one-of-a-kind and suited specifically for Adventu. Click the image for a super easy new skin guide for a visual tour!
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The history Books forgot about us And the bible didn't mention us, not even once
Provo proved to be a much different city than Sonora. Gone was the grimy neon-lit streets and cold, and instead it seemed grime from the toil of working hands here, and there was stifling sense of heat that clung to the air. As soon as it had become clear she wouldn't back down, the summoner Yuna had escorted Aera to Provo albeit protesting her intent. Although the concern seemed genuine enough, Aera had made it clear she would make her own opinions on the matter once arriving. When she did try to sleep, her dreams replayed the events of the throne room time and time again each time having her awake in cold sweat her scar burning as though the blow was fresh.
Even when they had found lodgings, Aera hadn't stayed long after another fail at sleeping. If the rumors that Ardyn ,hers or the monster, was here she could not waste time. A quick note to her benefactor as the woman slept, and Aera slipped out the room trying to stay as quiet as possible. Aera wiped at her brow as she slowly made her way through the packed streets of the marketplace, her cane helping to keep her body upright as it begged for rest and sleep. Still the smell of coffee had her stopping at stall and realizing she had no money to give, so left without the aid she so needed.
Aera asked strangers on the street the direction towards the hospitals. Most took one glance at her cane back to her before giving her directions, and a bit of warning. With the plague that consumed most of the ward, her injury was probably not on the top of the list to be looked at today. Aera thanked them anyway without divulging any unasked information. She needed to see for herself if this was indeed the Starscourge come to haunt her and and this world. Still, she pondered over the ordeal as the streets became less crowded and only the wounded, nurses, and doctors seemed to occupy the lonely roads. If it were truly the Starscourge, it seemed to have been here longer than she had been. But this clearly wasn't Eos if her encounter with Caius and then with the two Spiran summoners were anything to go by. She couldn't even hear the whispers of the gods' slumber here either. How had it gotten here?
The stench of rotted bloat and decaying flesh hit her as soon as she opened the door to the hospital. Aera pressed her free hand against her mouth to keep from vomiting, but she took a deep breath even as the smell made her recoil. Whatever it was, it was awful and deadly. It didn't seem as though there was any reception, so she passed by the desk and followed down the hall as howls and screams came from behind locked doors. Finally she found an unlocked door and walked in as she listened to the whimpering coming from within.
The room was in disarray. The bedside table had been flipped and broken glass littered where it fell. The smell of decay ran rampant in here as someone's death ratltle hissed from the bed. Fear held her at the door frame for but a moment before she took the steps towards the bed. Aera could feel the tears welling before she accepted exactly what she saw. The young boy indeed had the Starscourge. Was it not enough that one world had been plagued by this curse, but for it to have spread somehow. What sick joke of life was this? Still, as she stared down at the yellowed eyed, blackened vein boy, she wondered what she could do. How could she have forgotten the sadness she had seen on the one time she had snuck from Ardyn's side to see those he helped. The boy's eyes pleaded for release that she could not provide. Reaching down, she felt the rag still a bit damp and placed it on his fevered head as she knelt down.
Aera didn't know how long she had been in prayer, asleep, perhaps before someone was shouting at her. "No one's supposed to be in here!" Aera blinked up groggily and felt the boy's cold lifeless hand in her. "Who let you in? This is a highly contagious disease." She felt a hand at her shoulder that she batted away. "I know what this is, your warning is not needed. The boy is gone. Let me finish my prayer, and I will leave." She looked up at the nurse who could hardly be any older than the boy in the bed looking at her with anxiousness and fear. "I promise," she said trying to soften the harshness she had used. The young nurse looked around and nodded standing watch at the door looking up and down the corridor. Aera prayed to the Astrals and to whatever may be listening to help find the boy's spirit well.
After Aera allowed the girl to escort her out, she wondered where to go next. Should she confirm with Yuna that this indeed was the Starscourge or had Caius already done that? Her head swam with emotions. Why could she not do more for the damned. Ardyn would have known what to do. Her body ached and with every step her cane wobbled dangerously into letting her keel over. Ahead she saw a large fountain to sit by. Yes, she just needed to rest a little bit. A few others stood round throwing gil in as she sat. She rest her hands on her cane and her head on that. She didn't need long just a quick rest before her next search began. She had barely closed her eyes when sleep overtook her.
He saw her in a dream. Not his dream, but a dream nonetheless. Aera. He knew those eyes at a glance -- that crown, those bangles, that golden hair. He saw it only for a moment in the last flickers of a dying mind, and yet there could be no mistake.
His victim had seen Aera -- or someone like her at least. Lunafreya perhaps? It had been nothing more than the twisting of his own imagination. His memories tinging those of another, and yet…
His palms clenched as his victim dispersed in a burst of black smoke. The thought had hammered itself into his mind with a cruel persistence. The man had passed her on the road from Provo. Perhaps he would pay the city a visit. He had little else to occupy his time.
And so he found himself strolling through the bustling marketplaces that he had yet to tinge with his own despair. The sun glared bright today. He felt its sting at the edge of his fingertips, and he longed for night, but that woman was unlikely to peruse these streets under the passive eye of the moon. Besides, these streets excited him in a way that their nocturnal counterparts simply couldn’t.
”Oh? And what is this?” Ardyn stopped at a market stall, head tilted as he leaned into examine the glinting set of jewels before him. They were strung together in flashing greens and golds. Their design was timeless (he should know) and drew his eye in a wave of nostalgia. Ardyn hadn’t been one for such gaudy trinkets at the time, and he doubted even the royal coffers could have acquired the thing without much grumbling and complaint. Yet two thousand years later and he found it displayed on a roadside stall.
”How fascinating.” Ardyn reached out to run a finger over its edge only for the merchant to swat his hand away, asking for the price. A mere three thousand gil. ”Oh my.” Ardyn glanced at the thing and imagined it around Aera’s neck. His fist clenched.
”Keep your trifles.”
Fear crossed the merchant’s eyes but Ardyn didn’t bother with him. He turned away and stalked down the streets of blazing sunlight. Aera. He couldn’t get her out of his head.
His mind had deceived him. Her image was nothing but a trick of his memory. Nothing but a…
He slowed to a stop. There, at the edge of his eye. White and gold. She was nothing more than a watchful presence -- a flicker that would fade. A cruel trick of the gods, and yet he felt that familiar darkness engulf him all the same.
”Aera.” His tongue lulled with every drop of the hatred he had known for nearly a century. If this was his punishment from the gods, he would relish every moment of it.
The history Books forgot about us And the bible didn't mention us, not even once
If only sleep could bring her rest. Memories of a different time filtered and collided in a kaleidoscope for vicious colors and harsh noise. Like looking into the Crystal, only shards of visions penetrated her conscious. The field of yellow flowers she loved so much. A waterfall in ruins that had not been seen by human eyes for millennia. A chance meeting between Oracle and possible King. Dinner with two brothers. The haggard masses of the sick. Infernos. Swords. Darkness. Everyone calling out to her in some way or another. "Aera," a concerned swordsman shaking his head as she unsuccessfully snuck back into the palace. "Aera," a man consistently asking a question she knew no answers to. "Aera," a soft sigh in a quiet moment.
"Aera,"
She awoke as she thought she heard her name being called. Her cane had slipped from her grasp at her sudden awakening, and left her lurched forward. She groaned as she leaned down to pick it up wiping the crust from her eyes. Perhaps she did need to have a good rest if she was falling asleep in the public square. A soft smile lit her face as she rolled her neck looking up into the crowd. It wasn't the worst place she had ever stopped for a rest, but it was a bit embarrassing with all the people around. She felt the blush grow at her cheek which only made the matter worse. Gathering herself she decided to move on for now with a grimace as she stretched her back hoping to get a kink out.
Where was there to go now? Aera pondered the thought as she looked around. It seemed more people had started to come round now that the day was in full swing. Her stomach rumbled, and she could smell the aroma of food from somewhere nearby. If only she had a little money on her. Asking Yuna for it seemed wrong as did asking from strangers. She would just ask around on the path back to the inn she was staying at and ask Yuna to buy some ingredients and Aera would make them lunch. She could start again on her search. She approached a few people, but there answers were vague, "This way and then that". "Oh just visiting family from Torensten, sorry mam." Or they just didn't answer when she tried to stop them.
Aera caught sight of someone she hadn't asked yet. A person wearing way too many layers for how hot the day was becoming, and a funny shaped hat. "Excuse me," she said placing her hand upon his wrist finishing her question before looking up at the man, "Please, could you point me back towards the Harvest Inn, sir?" Aera smiled softly as she looked up, but the smile faded slowly.
Different but so similar. Aera searched Ardyn's face her hands shaking. It looked so much like him, but he seemed so haggard and his hair was short. Could it be though? "Ardyn?" she questioned her breath catching as her mind spun. There was only way to know for sure. She looked to his eyes, and saw her reflection in the cold brown there. It had to be. Blessed be the gods for this. "Oh Ardyn is it truly you?" Her smiled returned as tears brimmed fell over. Without thinking she let go of her cane to lean in and embrace the man as she lay her head on his chest. "I pray this is not yet another dream I'm too soon pulled from," she fretted as she squeezed at his wrist. She didn't know if she could bear it if she suddenly awoke again back at the fountain this just being her subconscious desire at work. She fell silent holding onto the moment in case it slipped away like sand in the breeze.
Her voice was as he remembered -- like every time he remembered. Time after time, he’d heard it from the dark. Time after time, he’d heard her call through the depths of his shattered mind. Time after time after time after-
”Ardyn?”
She faced him. There were her eyes -- striking and blue and wavering in relief. There were her pleas and her smile and the tears streaming down her cheeks. She pulled him into an embrace that he did not return. Her warmth, her touch, her smell so like wildflowers -- lies, all of it. Just another trick of the Bladekeeper. Just another torment to top the scales.
"I pray this is not yet another dream I'm too soon pulled from.”
His jaw set. Truly the Draconian knew no mercy.
”My, what a gift of the gods.” His fingers found her neck and tightened. Darkness gathered there in tendrils of violet-blue. ”But I’m afraid it’s one I shant return.” He thrust her away, holding her aloft with one hand as she gasped against him. A petty show. Did they think he would flinch should she die again by his hand?
There were shouts. Curses. Crowds scattering as a man charged him from behind and Ardyn shot a wave of pure corruption through his chest. Ardyn paid the screams little mind. Instead, he turned on his heel, looking up towards the sky with a glaring interest.
”That trick again? And here I thought you’d keep me guessing!” Ardyn tossed the vision of Aera aside like an unwanted toy. He heard her crash against the stone, rolling to a stop at the base of the fountain. ”And now am I to plunge a dagger through her heart? Or perhaps she shall rise to become my tormentor!”
He laughed as he staggered forward, eyes dark and glowering towards the sun. It burned him. It burned him like it always did, but he refused to look away. If this was their challenge then he would take it.
”What other prophecies would you have me bear? Have I not done my part?” Silence met him. Ardyn’s jaw clenched. ”Shall I kill another king then? Or perhaps I’ll turn this whole world to ash!” Nothing. No messengers, no divine voices, no pull from the other side. Nothing but the wind and the glaring sun. "Well? Have you nothing to say!"
The history Books forgot about us And the bible didn't mention us, not even once
Aera wasn't upset that he wasn't hugging her back. He never had been one for such open and public displays of affection after all. She didn't mind. This felt right. It was the first thing she had felt at peace with since she had woken up on that mountain. Like broken glass somehow mended. Aera felt him move his hand toward her neck and waited for him to push her hair back as he talked of this miracle of finding one another as a gift from the gods. Aera couldn't agree more and she began to look up a smile creeping onto her tear stained face, but her breath caught as instead of grazing her cheek with his fingers, she felt him tighten his grip around her throat and lift her away from him.
Aera's eyes widen as she couldn't breath and she pawed at his hand. Her feet twisted and tried to touch the ground but his grip was absolute. What was happening? She tried to get any air in her lungs, but it was a hopeless battle as she stared wide eyed into his eyes. Aera couldn't even scream or yelp as the plague danced around Ardyn's death hold on her or when he forced it into a man coming to her rescue. She felt herself getting lax and weak and his words didn't make any sense. The others had been right, but something deep within stirred. This was Ardyn. Her Ardyn.
Aera didn't know which she felt first: the air rushing back into her lungs and the excruciating pain as he smacked hard into the ground her head slammed into the stone fountain. Aera lay for a moment the world around her spinning in doubles. It spun as he thoughts rumbled around shaken lose by the sudden throw. It took a few seconds for her to regain some sort of consciousness as a woman knelt down beside her. "Come we've got to run."
"No." Aera coughed her breath misted with drops of blood. "You have to that monster is going to kill you if he sees you're still alive." Again Aera shook her head as she took the woman's hand to sit up feeling the trickle of blood from a nice cut on her forehead. "No, I shan't run. Please go. If this is the god's punishment, I shall face it come what may." Aera said each word harder to get out than one before it. The woman tried to argue again, but a man came along and scooped her up explaining they had no time to complain with a crazed woman and whisked her away as she looked over her shoulder.
Hadn't that been her thought since she had awoken on that mountain? This was an exile, a punishment from the gods for betraying their trust. The thought didn't make sense though. Hadn't that been proven by Yuna and Kana-Ei and the differing Shiva? It did no use to dwell and think now though. Using the base of the fountain as support, she willed herself to stand on shaking legs. She would find out. If the daemon took her life than it would. Aera wiped the blood that was falling into her eye from the cut, but it was just a temporary relief as she held her sleeve to her face trying to stem the flow.
"Ardyn," she yelled even as her throat begged her to rest feeling as though his hand was still locking it down. She took lumbering haggard steps through the daemonification that littered the ground. The black and blue contrasting against her white dress. Her staff lay still near to his feet and she fought towards it. "Please stop this madness." She stopped a few feet behind him hunched over trying to keep the pain at bay as her scar seemed to threaten to rip open as much as her heart did. "I don't understand. How? Why?" Aera tilted her head up as tried to stand straight as the tears welled up again. It hurt to talk to think even. She couldn't get the words right now as she shook with each breath from the pain and guilt.
The vision hadn’t dissipated. Had he truly expected otherwise? The gods had never once heeded his call. Never once explained his torment or suffered his curses. No, they only ever spoke at the edge of atrocity and only the ones they hadn’t condoned. ’You shant be a kingslayer this day.’ Not that day, only the next like a trained dog on command. And once more, they had chosen Aera as their messenger.
’Stop this madness?’ My, how rich from the keeper of blades.
”You think me a monster? Is that the message you bring?” From her horror, it could be nothing else. He was to gaze into the mirror of her eyes and find the reflection of the daemon he'd become. Or perhaps he was to flinch before her love? It was nothing but a lure for a knife through his back. ”A cruel trick, but I’m afraid you’ve played your hand. Her visage means nothing to me.”
Nothing but a hand against his cheek. Nothing but a siren song back into darkness. Nothing but the prongs of a trident twisting through his heart.
He raised a hand towards her. It surged with corruption. ”That day,” he said. ”The day you stole what was rightfully mine.You condemned me to darkness and now you would have me falter before her gaze?” His lips drew into something between a smirk and a scowl. Power shrouded his fist in a dark miasma.
”You have robbed me of the death divinely promised. If you’re to speak through her lips then I suggest you do so quickly.”
The history Books forgot about us And the bible didn't mention us, not even once
Aera kept on marching towards Ardyn as he continued his tormented speech. Each step a labor of pain and sweat as she forced her body to continue forward. "No," she said her lip trembling as she combated the idea. "I dismissed the words of those who had warned me against finding you and spurned their worry." she tried to explain as she though of Caius and Yuna. This was the only Ardyn they had ever met; they knew not who he truly was. "Why or how the darkness has taken hold, I know not, but I know that this isn't you, Ardyn."
"Who are you speaking to? It is I, Aera." she asked her voice still hoarse from the throat hold as Ardyn talked as though she wasn't there or as if he was seeing someone else in her stead. She faltered for a moment. Hearing that she meant nothing to him hurt more the and of the physical wounds he could inflict to her. Her tears welled up again, but it fortified her resolve. She would help him, cure him someway somehow. The light he had given others she would find a way to deliver to him. She held her chin up and took another step.
She finally reached her cane, and struggled as she picked it up putting her balance on it. Although her flight response was begging, screaming, at her to run as she saw the darkness swirl about his wrist, Aera stood her ground as she looked not at her impending death but instead at Ardyn's face. She bit her lip as instead of the beautiful amber golden eye she knew so well were gone and black husks stared at her. She wanted to start again, but stopped as he continued his tirade. "I?" Aera stopped her breath catching in her breath. This happened because of her? Even though Ardyn continued on as if it wasn't her her mind reeled. Her blasphemy had caused this to happen to Ardyn?
"You were punished for my transgression?" she asked her breath shallow as he shoulders shook as the sobbing came back full force. Aera trembled so hard her cane could not hold her as her knees buckled and fell forward into the street. She looked up to him on her knees. She wanted to know; she had to know. Her words trembled as she asked. "I knew not Somnus' true intentions. How though, could he blight you? After he struck me down, what did he do to you?"
He finally finished as he aimed his fist in her direction. "What can I do? How do I help you? Stop this?" It was all she could ask. If he were to strike here down now, she deserved it. Still, there must be a way to save him. "Please, Ardyn. I wish to help you, always." Her eyes pleaded as she got up to one knee holding out her hand to him.
Ardyn thought it a strange thing. He had never known an Aera with such limitations. He had never seen such a woman in his dreams. Why then would Bahamut torment him with her image? Something uneasy swelled within him as he watched her torturous approach. He gathered his power stronger.
He would not let the gods stagger him so. He would not let…
She fell.
He reached towards her on instinct as her body crumpled and her knees cracked on the stone. This was not a noble lament of sorrow and blame. This was not her perfect form gleaming beauty that shrouded her in a perfect light. No, this Aera was flawed and human and pained. This was not the vision that had haunted his dreams.
She knew not how. She knew not why. She knew not of Somnus’ intentions, and she vilified him as such. ’What did he do to you?’ Did she truly know nothing of his corruption? Nothing of his true form? A thought echoed weakly in the back of his mind. Aera -- his Aera -- would not have lived to see what had become of him. She would not have witnessed his daemonic blood.
”What can I do? How can I help you? Stop this?”
His eyes flickered. ’Help him?’ Their help had always been framed the same. Death. Isolation. Imprisonment. ’Please brother, return to the darkness whence you came.’ Yet there was something different here. A question. How did he envision her help? No god nor spirit nor king had ever asked as much.
She struggled to one knee, seeking his eyes, seeking his warmth. ”Please, Ardyn. I wish to help you. Always.” Her voice. Her face, reddened and wettened and pained. Ardyn felt himself falter. Bahamut would not conceive of such a vision. He would never comprehend something so human.
She extended a hand. An offering. Darkness still gathered at his hand -- a weapon meant for her. And yet, it weakened before her gaze. For so long, he had hated her visage. He had seen only Somnus in her eyes -- only a tool of the gods. But now as she knelt before him…
Ardyn paused, eyed her, and then reached for her hand.
The history Books forgot about us And the bible didn't mention us, not even once
Aera waited. All she could do for now was wait and hope. The darkness swirled around Ardyn's hand, and yet she would not look away from him. Every second stretched on and on as she waited for his judgment. The fatal blow never came. Instead the plague vanished as he finally reached out a hand to her and she took it without thinking twice. She leaned her weight onto him as she balanced and stood. The dark abyss was gone when she looked back to his face, and the warm eyes of her love was finally looking back at her. She knew then she would do whatever it would take to heal the darkness that infested him so she would never need see that darkness again.
For a moment she was speechless as she smiled at Ardyn. She knew they had been wrong. He wasn't a monster; he was a victim of a fate she did not know yet. He could have killed her, but instead they were holding hands. So many questions to ask. So much she needed to know. Her words and thoughts were all jumbled and all she could get out was, "You've cut your hair." She took her hand off his and ran it through his hair as she gave a soft laugh. Her smile faded fast though as she placed her hand back on his. "What has happened, my love?" She had heard the stories from Caius and Yuna and Kana, but it didn't matter. Aera would let Ardyn tell her his tale if he would, and she'd put her trust in those words.
Somewhere in that hole, he’d forgotten. There had been no sunlight. He had heard nothing but the occasional scurrying of rats or the buzz of some hovering insect. Every now and then there were voices dulled by hard stone, and once every generation or so, a light would flicker as the new guards stared at him in horror and disgust. He was a monster. The darkness had claimed him long ago.
Yet these memories, they flickered in the face of those from an age passed. Her face. Her grasp. It felt irrelevant and faded, and yet for that moment, he was powerless against it.
”You’ve cut your hair.” Her old teasing. Was that how she’d been? It felt like a dream. It likely was.
She ran a hand through his hair -- her fingers twisting around its disheveled layers. He had cut it the moment he’d lost the last shreds of his humanity. Ifrit had shown him just how much he hated. Eos, Somnus, Aera. All of them, condemned. He would bring them all the darkness he had known for centuries.
And yet.
”What has happened, my love?”
His fingers tightened on hers like talons. Was this some kind of test? Some torment as twisted as his own revenge? ’What has happened?’ He laughed again, hard and rough and twinged with hysterics. ”Oh, I’d dare say you knew.” He shoved her away. Hard. His fingers twitched to once again seize her neck.
”How long has it been? One century? Two? My how two thousand years fly!” He turned from her and strolled away with casual disregard. ”Luring me from hiding with false claims? Or perhaps the gods commanded you from on high!” Ardyn stopped. His fist curled hard into his palm.
”Did you know?” It was the same question he had asked the Draconian. He wished to hear it from her lips. ”Of my fate? For what I was chosen?”
Two thousand years to break him. Two thousand years to bring a darkness they could have inflicted by their own hands. Two thousand years to die.
”I was to be their sacrifice.” He spat the words like bitter poison. ”Two thousand years raised like a lamb for slaughter. My, what honor from on high!”
