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
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Of the handful of larger towns and cities that Aera had visited so far, Provo was among her favorites. The people here were honest and hard-working. That wasn't to say she didn't care for nobles or royalty, but there was a down-to-earth quality with the many merchants and tradesmen she did business with. Their smiles were warm and their personalities bright. She'd been running more errands as of late--odd jobs, as it were. Some of them didn't always pay cash but instead provided her resources or intel for her journey.
Compared to Sonora, she breathed easier here. In fact, she'd made a few friendly acquaintances in the market--regular merchants who both traveled and set up shop here. And on this particular morning--a Saturday--she was gathering extra herbs for a meal she planned to make later. The recipe she'd gotten from a lovely botanist (also a resident of Provo) and the herb seller she was chatting with was now regaling her with the newest installment in what his granddaughter was up to on her latest trip. The way he spoke of her was so sincere and jovial--she almost felt like she knew the young woman, herself.
Garbed in her usual white fabrics and gold accessories, she was perhaps a bit fancier than most of those in the streets around her. And there were certainly plenty. The markets were overcrowded today and just buzzing with energy. Aera had long adjusted to it, nodding along to the old man's story as she adjusted the flower behind her right ear--it was an orange lily, a small gift from one of the fishermen's young daughters who'd said she reminded her of an angel. A roaring embellishment, she thought, but sweet nonetheless. It was only thanks to such genuine connections with the people here that she was starting to get more comfortable with the idea that this world might be her only one and Eos would forever be a memory.
The flowerseller’s life flashed before Ardyn’s eyes.
The dirt on her hands as she played in her mother’s garden. Her heart pounding as she darted like a mouse through the crowds of the marketplace. The thrill of her lips on another’s, cheeks hot with embarrassment. They passed him by in a slideshow of waning memory and then cut to black. What had once been a woman was banished to the shadows. She had taken her story with her.
Ardyn hummed, lowering his arm as he considered the sky. No sight of Somnus. Had he been mistaken in his direction? There was nothing more to do but continue his search.
The alleyway was narrow and smelled of dust. As much as Ardyn would have rather taken to the streets, he couldn’t very well assault someone in plain view. It would cause a panic. Unfortunately, that was not in his plans today.
”Another go then.” Perhaps Somnus had taken an unexpected direction. Towards the mountains, perhaps? Oh dear, it felt as though he might never find him now. Perhaps he should have followed from the shadows afterall.
By the time he found another, he was thoroughly disheartened. It was a reluctant effort to turn him without muse or passion. Once again, the flashes. No Somnus. No Somnus. No-
A woman in a white dress. Her hair was like corn silk. A golden circlet adorned her head. She browsed the market stalls with kind and curious eyes. The man looked away towards toys, knives, spices-
Ardyn gasped, releasing his grip. Aera. He could not be mistaken. Never. Never would he forget that face. The man slipped like smoke between his fingertips, thoroughly forgotten. Aera was here. Revived as Somnus had been. She was-
He hissed, glancing to the side. Aera had betrayed him. Yes, he knew that now. After he’d spent millennia haunted by her eyes, he knew. She had worked with Somnus. Or had she? Doubt twisted in his heart like the sharp edge of a trident. Aera, speaking with his voice. Aera, a weapon of the gods. Aera, her dress draped around her shoulders, her hand warm on his cheek.
’Even if others forget your name, I will always remember.’
His fist tightened. He would seek her out. He would judge her heart. And should she have turned against him, he would exact his revenge.
The unfortunate man had spotted her at the Riverside Marketplace across town. Ardyn slipped from rooftop to rooftop in unsuspecting shadow, untethered by the bonds of humanity. He made excellent time. The man had seen her only an hour before. She would be here. She had to be.
Ardyn rematerialized in a side street, brushing off his coat. Now how was he to do this? He looked to the bustling marketplace and paused. She wouldn’t accept him as he was, now would he? Even if she had been faithful to him (the thought squirmed within him), she would certainly spurn the monster he had become.
His yellow eyes were no longer that of the man she had once known.
Ardyn looked to a dusty window, frowning at the dull reflection he saw within. Short, wind-swept hair. Clothes layered in a mockery of the sun. Aera would know at an instant that he had changed. She would ask questions. Now he couldn’t have that…
In an instant, his reflection had changed. His face was the same -- immortal to time -- but his hair and clothes were of a different facade. There was his long hair tied in a messy ponytail. There were his old robes reminiscent of a lost age. As Ardyn gazed back at himself, he felt a tinge of disgust at his own appearance.
He wore the skin of a dead man.
But this was the skin she would know. The skin she would trust. Ardyn turned from it, scowling. There was only one thing left to do.
He pushed through the sea of faces in a narrow labyrinth of stalls. He glanced to each, one by one. Not her. He searched for white, for gold, for the kind look of her eyes. Aera, my love. Won’t you come to me?
And then he saw her.
He froze. She was everything he had imagined -- everything he had dreamed of for ages past. In that moment, time seemed to slow. The bustling crowds lost their focus. She spoke with a seller of herbs, exchanging pleasant words that faded into the surrounding chatter. He stared at her, awe-struck.
”Aera.” His shock was not faked. There was no need to pretend. His breath had caught, and there was only her.
He waited for their eyes to meet. He could not bring himself to reach for her hand.
The old man's story wove on and on--sometimes detouring into other things, but with details aplenty as she'd come to expect from him. She was in no real hurry with her shopping, though, nodding here and there and commenting on some of the more colorful embellishments of his story.
But a feeling began to loom over her--a gut feeling that she was being watched. She broke her gaze from the merchant and turned left. Sky blue eyes met beautiful amber.
The world stopped.
"Ardyn," she breathed, disbelieving. She drifted away from the old man's tale with a half-hearted wave of apology, dropping the herbs as hurried steps brought her the short distance to where her beloved stood.
Tears filled her eyes. She appraised him--he looked exactly as she remembered--and would seek to rest her hands against his chest. "Is it really you?" she asked softly, voice threaded with hope and joy. "I've been looking everywhere..."
She could hardly believe it. After so much time spent traveling, wandering, searching, he was just...here. Just like that. Appearing before her as in a dream. Was she dreaming? No, this had to be real. It had to be him. The thought crossed her mind that perhaps it was some ill-conceived trick. But her heart, oh, it was racing like it never had.
There were questions in the back of her mind--questions born from the conversations she'd had with others of this world. But the questions would wait. For now, she had nothing but pure elation in finally seeing him again. The din of the market was lost to her. Her eyes saw only him. Her ears heard only his voice.
Aera paused and then, as though sensing something, turned to him. Her eyes -- those pale blue eyes like the clearest of skies -- met his. He was lost in them. Aera. The name echoed like a dream. Aera. Aera. Aera.
”Ardyn.” It was hardly more than a whisper -- a lover’s fancy. She drifted towards him as though on the wind. Her herbs fell forgotten from her hands. There was a burning link between them. Nothing else mattered.
Tears brimmed her eyes. ”Is it really you?” She was close now, so close that he could smell the vague scent of flowers from her hair. She touched his chest. Solid. Like no apparition before her. It was her, truly her. His mind muddied, his vengeance forgotten.
”I’ve been looking everywhere…”
How long had it been for her? Days? Weeks? For him, an eternity, and yet he had never forgotten her face. Not once in all the millennia of his cursed life. Still, his visions had lost the shine of her lips, the gentle slope of her brow, the gentle grace of her eyes. What did she see of him now? Nothing but a vision of ages past. He was no longer the man he once had been -- he was no longer a man at all. And yet…
And yet the warmth of her touch...the reflection of his old facade…
It seemed in that moment that she had never left his arms at all.
”Aera.” He felt the pain in his voice. Curse it. This was unbefitting of a monster, and yet he felt the stirring of his heart. He pressed her closer, not thinking but feeling as he grasped her tightly.
Her name spoken from his lips was a heartfelt but somber dirge--she could hear it there, in his voice. Hurt. Longing. Fate had seen them ripped apart but here they stood after so long. While it'd been a mere number of weeks for Aera, walking this new world, she'd learned of the passage of time after her death. Yet Ardyn looked no different, as if time had not so much as grazed the youthful spark in his eyes nor fitted his body with age. He stood a perfect mirror to her memory.
The Oracle brought her arms up to hold him, her body instantly welcoming the long-awaited comfort of his embrace. For a moment, the world was only the two of them. It was so sweetly familiar--his scent, his warmth, his touch... Her heart soared at his words: How I've missed you.
"The gods have blessed us this day," she praised, holding him that much tighter. She didn't want to let go. "I prayed every night for your safe return to my side." Tears still stung at her eyes. This was really it. She had finally found him. He was safe. And he'd remembered her. He'd missed her. Her heart had never felt so flooded with joy and relief.
Yet they couldn't dally at the center of the market forever. There were better, more opportune corners of the city to speak in private. Aera stepped back, hands resting gently against him. "Might we stray from the crowds?" It went without saying that they had much to speak on--a lifetime's worth.
"The gods have blessed us this day." Aera tightened her grip. ”I prayed every night for your safe return to my side.”
And that was the end of it.
Ardyn felt his old sympathies fade away. Aera was a reflection of the days of old -- of light and hope and trust in the divinity of the gods. There was once a time when Ardyn would have echoed the refrain.
’How gracious of them in their mercy to have crossed our paths once again.’
That time had long passed -- struck down by Somnus’ greed. Ardyn had been so young then, so naive. Yet here was Aera, unchanged and unwavering since the day of her death. She was a memory. A vision. An irrelevant relic of his time beneath the sun’s fire.
His eyes darkened over her shoulder. He had not forgotten his purpose. He would string her along only until he had his answers. After that, who knew?
Perhaps he would banish her once more to the crystal’s light.
The marketplace returned in stark focus. There were the bustling crowds, chittering on about their mortal lives. There were the carts, lumbering upon uneven ground. There were the eyes of the people, watching the two of them with both adoration and caution alike. His proper mind had returned to him. He would not have it clouded again.
Aera stepped back, eyes bright with joy and relief. ”Might we stray from the crowds?”
Ardyn banished the darkness from his expression. He had never been the best of actors, but that had never stopped him from trying. ”Of course,” he said. ”I’d like nothing more than to catch up.”
Oh dear. Was that too thick? He supposed it hardly mattered. She would follow him wherever his path might lead.
Ardyn smiled and steered them through the crowds. He no longer wished to look upon her face. He no longer wished to feel that surge of his long-corrupted heart. This face was nothing more than a vision -- a guise as facetious as all the rest. She had cursed him to this darkness. She and Somnus together.
He brought them to a garden thick with violets and marigolds. He strolled along that sweet smelling path, considering the flowers with a thoughtful eye. Other couples wandered these paths, but they paid the two of them no mind. Ardyn did the same.
”I thought you lost to me,” Ardyn said and then slowed to a stop. He’d known her lost. He had held her as the blood drained and her body cooled. ”On that terrible day…”
Her request for privacy was granted. Aera looked to him and saw a flicker of...something. She took it for stress. Their circumstances were overwhelming, and being together once more after everything would have befallen any heart like a vise. Her own was still racing. She was so happy. So relieved. But thoughts were rushing in: questions.
He would confirm he wished to catch up, though the tone was...odd. Aera dismissed it, though, giving a small nod and following as they moved through the streets. Away from the marketplace. Away from the common folk. A place of quiet--a large public garden with carefully kept paths and dutifully tended flowerbeds.
In the moment, though, these things mattered very little to her, and their beauty was nothing more than ambient color and vague shape--everything dulled by the brilliance of the man who outshined everything else.
Her love.
Their walk would come to a pause as Ardyn began where they'd both ended--until now. The day of her death (it was still strange to think back on) by Somnus's hand was but a distant sliver in her memory, already half buried among memories of her new waking life in this world. But she remembered every detail. She remembered the pain, and she remembered the way her heart had felt as it'd shattered before the light of the ether.
Aera reached over to gently glide her fingertips across his palm, holding his hand with a soft touch, and giving him a sad smile. "I did too. What Somnus did was unforgivable. I could pardon a blade raised to me, but for him to strike you out of spite and denial..." She shook her head gently. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop it. Any of it. Or him."
Sky blues remained fixed to his, clear and firm with the small movements of a woman recalling dozens of details from memory as she spoke. "When I died, I drifted only briefly and suddenly awoke in this world. I've prayed for answers but have received none. Yet we both stand here like many others, gifted another life. Or perhaps cursed..." She hadn't forgotten the more unfortunate circumstances of other travelers she'd met. She hadn't forgotten the stories she'd heard. Not everyone was so lucky as to have been ripped away from death itself. Some people had been living happier lives in their respective worlds, content and successful and safe...only to end up here.
If Aera had noticed his shift in tone, she did not indicate it. Instead, she stayed by his side, drifting and lost to her own passions. Her eyes held nothing but love. He hated it.
Her hand slid to his. Their fingers intertwined. She felt her soft touch and the grip that seemed it would never release him again. ”What Somnus did was unforgivable.”
Bile rose to Ardyn’s throat in equal parts hatred and unease. He wanted to scowl. He wanted to mar his false face with his own twisted corruption. She could pardon the bite of his blade upon her back. But she could not stand for that same dagger struck in his.
”You had no part in it,” he said. His old anger burned through. How long had it been since he had allowed his mind to fix upon the arc of that blade, striking as though time itself had stopped. How long had it been since he had heard her cry of pain, seen her fall before him as he stood frozen in shock. How long had it been since he had felt her weight in his arms, her blood coating his hands hot and thick.
The brother he had trusted. The brother lost to him. The brother who had taken everything.
She watched him. Her eyes never wavered. ”When I died, I drifted only briefly and suddenly awoke in this new world.”
When she died. She remembered then. She knew that endless void as well as he did -- or better as it happened. She had been granted passage to the beyond. He had been forever denied it.
Cursed. His fist tightened. He could stand this charade no longer.
”On that day...” He turned from her. Before him were roses, dahlia, hydrangea. They rustled their beauty. ”When you were graced with word from on high. Did you speak truth?” He felt the words drip with his hatred. His anger.
Ardyn's assurance that she'd "had no part" in what had happened did not ease the blonde's heart. She did have a part in that fateful day--an undeniably significant one--and Somnus's hand upon that blade hadn't once deterred her from feeling as though she'd contributed. If only she hadn't spoken those words. If only she hadn't been honest with him. Maybe she could've prevented his green eyes and the blood he'd spilled.
But it was too far in the past for maybes. Heavy though her heart still was about how things had transpired, she'd always been nothing short of honest--then, and now. Yet her fiance turned from her when she regaled him the details. Aera let his hand slide away from hers, gripping gently now at the front of her dress, watching him.
He was angry. She could hear it in every word. And he...doubted her? Is that what this was? He didn't believe she'd told the truth that day? He didn't believe she'd spoken the will of the great Divines in earnest?
Aera took her position with the utmost seriousness and devotion. To muddy the words from the lips of the gods would be blasphemous! She'd never mar their intent. Not deliberately. But she knew she'd heard correctly. She'd been obedient. She'd listened. And she'd spoken the truth--every word.
She just hadn't expected Somnus to deny that truth so severely...
"Did the gods truly speak my name?" Ardyn asked--as if it needed asking. Aera furrowed her brow, wanting to reach out to him, but refraining. Her heart hurt to hear him speak this way. Did it still torment him after all this time? And how had things fared afterward? She had heard stories, but... One thing at a time.
"Of course," she assured. "You were their chosen. Somnus was the first to know. I shouldn't have told him. But I did--I thought he'd be supportive--and he rejected it. I had no inkling of his true intent, and when he attacked you upon your summons, I felt my heart shatter. I prayed for the gods to intervene, but..." She shook her head, lowering her gaze to the flowerbed beyond his feet.
"What...," she began softly, hesitant to even finish the thought. But she had no need to fear the answer, right? They could share anything and everything with each other. "What happened after I died?" Aera wouldn't phrase it in the way of asking what "he" had done, because as much as she wanted to ask that specifically, most of her confusion laid in the state of the world beyond that fated day: Not just what Ardyn and Somnus had done, but how time had elapsed and the world shaped in kind.
Aera’s eyes lit in surprise. Surprise and then hurt. A long-dead part of Ardyn turned at her pain, but it was a part that Ardyn ignored on instinct. His humanity. He had lost it long ago.
”Of course. You were chosen. Somnus was the first to know.” Her brow furrowed. Her hand clutched at her heart. ”I shouldn’t have told him. But I did -- I thought he’d be supportive -- and he rejected it.”
Ardyn felt his blood grow cold. She had abandoned her duty and the sacred law of the gods. She had spoken to Somnus first -- Somnus, his brother. His rival. The man who had sent Ardyn into exile just as fervently as Ardyn had fled to it himself. Aera had never abandoned her post to join him, but for her to trust him so well…
But she had not betrayed him. Of that she insisted. She had not played part in luring him from hiding to his intended demise. After all of that time, she too had been nothing more than a plaything of the gods.
Ardyn laughed. What had become of them, truly? What tragic fate had been set for them at birth?
”The gods would not intervene.” The word soured with two thousand years of hatred. ”Was it not the gods’ plan? Somnus chosen for the throne, and I…” His lips turned in a smirk. ”Ah, but I mustn’t get ahead of myself.”
Ardyn paced past her, choosing to look now to the sky and the burning sun. Oh, how it scorned him! He felt its sting like holy fire and yet he did not look away. He only shielded himself with a hand. ’What happened after she died?’ Oh nothing much in particular.
”I became their accursed,” Ardyn said. There was no use in pretending any longer. ”Immortal. Scorned by death and life alike. And oh how Somnus tried to tip the scales!” He lowered his hand, chuckling to himself. How many blades had he suffered? How many deaths leading only to that damnable limbo at the crystal’s edge? No, no. He couldn’t be allowed the mercy of death. Not then and not for two thousand years beyond.
And after that, a world and time unknown. Oh how the fates were cruel…
”He ordered I be condemned to darkness like the fiends he so reviled. A timeless age passed, and once I became witness to the light again…” Ardyn held his hand before him, opening and closing it as though testing his strength. How weak he had been. How helpless, strung by the sharpest of blades which dulled within him. The pain too had dulled in time, leaving only hunger and madness.
And there in the darkness had been her face, her touch. Visions, nothing more. He had grown to despise them. Was it no different now that she had manifested in flesh?
His lips curled. ”I was exactly the monster they had predestined I become.”
