When Chrys and Cor rejoin them, both of them look a little bit shell shocked. Ignis is ready to ask what is wrong when Cor shoots him a look that silences the words in his throat. He will have to find the time to talk to either of them soon, but it is clear that whatever they said to each other needs to settle first.
Gladio takes the lead as they head back to the Regalia, the second tomb awaiting them in the distance. For all his brash machismo, Gladio does always seem to cue in when Chrys is retreating into her shell. He pulls her along with him, challenging her to race across the ground or ribbing into her to try and draw her sarcasm out. She's hesitant right now but Gladio's good-natured joking at least gets her to talk to him, only if monosyllabically. That's more than Ignis has been able to get out of her lately so he lets the two of them run ahead, blowing off Chrys's nervous energy with a footrace.
Cor hangs back to fall into step with Ignis. The advisor acknowledges the marshal with a bob of his head. "Thank you for your aid in finding the tombs," Ignis says. "It's been invaluable to have you at our side these last couple of days."
"The honor is all mine," Cor says. He glances at Ignis out of the corner of his eye. "You are quite the fine tactician Mr. Scientia," he says.
Ignis feels his neck flush at the praise from the marshal. Training in the Crownsguard, Cor always had a fearsome reputation, one all the other Crownsguard members, himself included, wanted to live up to. "Thank you, marshal," he says, his own disbelief clear in his voice.
Cor chuckles to himself. "Don't doubt it," he says in the gravelly way of his. "You'll serve the young king well." He stops Ignis by taking the younger man's forearm in hand, making him face him, brown eyes meeting green. "You see things the others don't," he says pointedly, flicking his chin towards one figure in particular who is keeping pace with Gladio.
Ignis lets out a breath a bit, haltingly, unsure what the marshal is implying. His gaze strays to Chrys, to her serious face, those biting sepia eyes flatter than they have been in a long while. Cor sees that Ignis understands his meaning and they stay where they are to have this private conversation, letting the guys and Chrys move on ahead.
"Do you know much about her past?" Cor asks Ignis, getting directly to the point.
"I will admit, not much," Ignis says. "The king never questioned her, I thought out of common respect for the fact that she lost much to make it to the Crown City. I know she is a refugee, from a small settlement in Galahd, that she lost her family and spent years in the wilds before joining the kingsglaive."
"Mmmm," Cor wordlessly acknowledges. "Yes, that is about what I know as well. You're not wrong that Regis allowed her to keep some of her secrets from the Crownsguard, and I would agree that it was out of respect for her, for how painful it would have been to have to relive her journey to Insomnia."
"But you think there is more to it," Ignis prods, eyes narrowing at the marshal.
Cor gives a faint chuckle. "I know there is more to it. Regis did keep me in his confidence after all." He looks at Chrys, whose eyes are on her king, ever watchful, even as she and Gladio run around. She's off to the side of him, keeping some distance between herself and the boys but not any less ready to defend Noctis because of it. "She has a very charged past," Cor says. "And a very heavy future."
"What do you mean by that?" Ignis asks, surprised at the depth of the defensiveness that creeps into his tone.
Cor sighs, scrubbing a hand over his rough beard. "She knows that I know more about her past than she wants me to."
"She seems to be wary of you in particular, marshal," Ignis fires back with a bit more forthrightness than he intended.
Cor grunts an affirmation. "Yes, but I suspect she is reticent about a lot of things with you if you think about it," he says pointedly. "Regis told me some of ... well he told me about her. She's careful with her truths and secrets, isn't she?" Cor asks him, not letting Ignis drop his gaze away. Ignis has to admit this is the truth. "I suspect she is afraid I know some of her secrets from Regis. If she's keeping them from you, there must be a good reason, but she is most likely watching me to make sure that I don't reveal anything she doesn't want revealed."
That is a truly unnerving prospect when Ignis thinks about it. "You think she is... a threat to His Highness?" He cannot seem to reconcile this fact with the mother bear he has seen Chrys become in defense of Noctis.
But Cor is already shaking his head. "No I do not." He meets Ignis's eyes and the younger man wants to look away at the strength of emotion there. "I think she is a threat to herself more than anyone else. The demons that live in her head are not kind. And she has a hard road ahead of her, one she is not ready to share with you. It will make her shy from you more often than not. Be patient," the marshal counsels Ignis although Ignis is anything but patient right now. "She will find a way to tell you in time."
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The second tomb is located in Keycatritch Trench and the path is long. It's a walkable distance from the first tomb, not long enough that riding in Regalia is truly necessary, but just long enough that Prompto and Noctis will begin to complain about how sore their legs are tonight. Besides this, the six of them won't all fit in the Regalia, at least not comfortably and whoever gets the middle seat is always cranky that evening. They will take two days to get there, walking the first, tenting for the night to Noct's horror and Gladio's grin, and finish the journey tomorrow.
The first day passes quickly enough, Gladio and Chrys loping ahead, scouting and bouncing around each other. Prompto and Noct chat in the middle of the group, alternatively babbling about video games and complaining about the heat and dust. Cor and Ignis stay at the back, talking about the situation in the Crown City.
The evening is passed quietly, with Cor telling them about battles in his youth, the guys leaning in to listen deeply to the stories. Chrys is quiet when she tells Ignis she is going to go into the wilds to replenish arrows and he offers no protest, trying to give her space and time. She's gone late into the night which does make him nervous, but he quells the urge to follow her and goes to sleep, knowing she will return in the morning.
The next day, after the camp is packed and all six of them are ready to go, Noctis asks Cor, "So, once I have the power of kings, will I be able to reclaim the crystal?"
"I'm afraid it's not just the thirteen tombs, Highness," Cor says. "What do you know of the Conduit?"
"The Conduit?" Noct asks, clearly having no clue, looking to Ignis, who sighs.
"I'll admit...," Ignis says with ruefulness. "I don't actually know much about it."
"The king has to acquire the thirteen royal arms, but only with the Ring of the Lucii and the Conduit can he fully wield the power of Kings," Cor explains. "The Ring of the Lucii opens the pathway to commune with the kings of old, but the unfettered power of Kings... well, those deemed unworthy of the King's power,... they experience their wrath instead."
"That's what happened to the kingsglaive soldier who put on the ring of the Lucii then?" Prompto asks. Questioning eyes turn to him. "What?" he asks with a shrug. "It's been all over the gossip columns that one of the kingsglaive put on the Ring to save Luna and he... paid for it with his life."
"Is that true, marshal?" Gladio asks, something between awe and respect on his face.
Cor nods. "It is. Many tried to put the ring on that night and were consumed."
"Who was it?"
Cor turns to Chrys, surprised her voice is so small. She's been quiet all morning, having slunk back to camp in the early hours of the dawn. Her face is full of dread, a nameless kind of fear that Ignis has never seen on her face. There is expectation to it, like she can already guess the answer. He realizes with a jolt that whoever it was could have been one of her comrades, perhaps someone she was close to during the time she served in the kingsglaive.
"Do you really want to know?" Cor asks softly, compassion on his face. Clearly, he knows who it was and knows what the name will mean to Chrys.
She swallows and nods once, curtly, a violence of open fear on her face.
"Nyx Ulric," Cor says quietly and Chrys's whole body shudders, tries to slump against how rigid she is keeping her posture. She takes a wobbly, dry breath, those big dark eyes stoically dry although her whole outline is starting to look watery.
The name does not mean anything to Noctis and his retainers but it clearly means something to Chrys. She seems to be suspended, vibrating in place with the effort of not falling over or apart or something else equally un-Chrys-like.
"And he.. Saved Luna?" Noctis asks, his own dark eyes watching Cor's face, unable to look at the way sadness stalls in Chrys's body, like she cannot allow herself to process it.
"He did," the marshal confirms. "He bargained for the power of Kings for a night. He fought the Imperial fleet and his comrade spirited Luna to the bridge to leave Insomnia. When the night was over..."
Prompto moves towards Chrys like he wants to put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. He aborts the gesture when Chrys shakes herself and swallows, her dark eyes painfully dull. "Always the hero...," she murmurs to herself. Then she looks up at Cor. "If the king is the rightful heir to the power of Kings, what does he need the Conduit for?" There is a strange kind of petulance to her tone that Iggy cannot quite place.
"You are allowed to admit he was a dear friend," Cor tells her instead. Chrys looks like he's slapped her, but she refuses to let it hurt her behind her barriers. When her lips close in a thin line, Cor sighs and continues.
"The Conduit was created by Crepera Lucis Caelum, or so the stories go," Cor resumes. "The Rogue Queen worried the power of the Kings would be uncontrollable, raw energy of the cosmos surging through the human shell. So she created the Conduit, an object that can mitigate and control the flow of energy to the Chosen King. It enables him to more easily use the power of Kings."
"So if I put on the ring without the Conduit...?" Noctis asks.
"Thinking of taking shortcuts?" Cor admonishes with a chuckle. "My understanding is that the power of kings would be attainable but uncontrollable. It would be like handing you weapons you cannot use. The Conduit is a necessary component of your steps forward if you wish to reclaim Insomnia."
"And where is this Conduit located?" Gladio asks.
"It was last thought to be in the Crown City," Cor admits with a defeated air to his tone. "However, all our reports indicate that the Imperials have yet to locate it, suggesting perhaps it is elsewhere. For certain, Ravus does not yet have it."
"Ravus?" Ignis says with a deeper note creeping into his voice at Chrys's stony frigidity. "As in Lady Lunafreya's brother?"
Cor nods grimly. "He's part of the Imperial army now. And from what we've uncovered, he's obsessed with the Conduit. Wants it found, wants it destroyed."
"Why?" Chrys asks, surprising them by rejoining the conversation. She still looks paler than normal but there is a hot spark growing somewhere in the depths of her eyes that Ignis hasn't seen before.
"Why the Conduit?" Cor asks with a shrug. "Search me. But his obsession with it surprises me. It makes me think it is far more important than we originally believed. The king always stressed the importance of the ring and Lunafreya is protecting it with her life. But he barely ever talked of the Conduit."
It is brief, so brief that Ignis thinks he might be mistaken, but Chrys gives a shuddery jerk. Then it fades from his memory as Cor says. "It matters not. Our intelligence suggests that the Conduit is out in the world, hidden somewhere. I don't think it was ever in the Crown City myself. I think Crepera hid it somewhere that the King could find it once he claimed the thirteen royal arms and the Ring of the Lucii. Crepera wasn't called the Rogue Queen for nothing; she was the wiley sort and I would wager money that she found a secret location, likely an ironic one at that."
"Ironic," Chrys says with a faint hint of something unnameable.
"So thirteen arms, a ring and whatever this Conduit is," Prompto nutshells. "Any clues as to what this Conduit is? Is it like a device or necklace or something?"
"Or something," Cor agrees with a sideways grin. "Records are never conclusive about it, but the best we were ever able to figure was that it was a sort of component that energy could be focused through. I'm afraid, other than that, we do not know much about it."
"Just great," Noctis drawls with his arms folded. "Another task to complete with barely any guidance. Thanks, Dad."
Gladio and Chrys both shoot him cutting looks that he either doesn't see or ignores. Gladio doesn't like Noct's attitude, has never liked his disrespect for his father. Chrys always shoots him those looks when she's mad that he's being ungrateful. Noct still hasn't seemed to figure out that each time he rags on his father, it makes Chrys prickly, her own family long gone, his dismissal unconscionably privileged and fatuous.
But by this point they are nearing the entrance to the Keycatrich Trench which houses the Axe of the Conqueror and it is light enough that beasties are crawling around the plains. Even worse are the squads of Imperial soldiers.
"Itching to get started?" Cor asks Chrys, whose weapon is held tightly in bloodless knuckles.
She gives him a quirked eyebrow, then her eyes turn to the Magitek soldiers.
"Dangerous?" Noctis asks Iggy, who is at his side with his daggers drawn.
"This particular model poses a mild threat-," Iggy starts.
"The short version," Noctis interrupted and Ignis can't quite stop his heavy sigh from slipping out.
"Somewhat dangerous," Ignis says through clenched teeth.
"You'd have to be pretty badass to take that out, wouldn't you Marshall?" Noctis asks Cor.
Cor's eyes are on Chrys but he looks at Noctis with a returned challenge. "Think you're up to it?" He looks at the five of them. "Let's see what you can do."
In the battle, Ignis watches Chrys with new eyes the Marshall has opened. "Nice one, Prompto!" Cor says when Prompto's shot takes down a soldier from range. "Eyes up, Noct!" Gladio yells. The banter flows back and forth across the battlefield between the boys but Ignis notes that Chrys is silent, her focus absolute.
It reminds him of the one time that he does remember her being completely dangerous, Cor's words dredging up a memory.
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The memory is clear, his guilt still there.
"You want me to...?" Chrys seems utterly shocked, those dark eyes so so wide. "You can't seriously want me to...,"
Ignis sighs, rubbing a hand over his hair. "You don't ever let go in front of us," he says to her. "You hide your abilities. That is utterly useless to me."
Chrys flinches at his words. She chews her bottom lip, a gesture wholly at odds with her tough girl persona, belying just how uncomfortable she still is with him, with Noctis and his retainers in general. Her eyes go down in that subservient way Ignis has not yet been able to break her of.
"You sure about this?" Gladio asks out of the side of his mouth. The other kingsguard member knows why Ignis is putting Chrys through the ringer like this, but even this trial is not one that he would do lightly.
Ignis nods even though he does still carry some unease about this specific trial. He hasn't been able to get Chrys to really show them the full extent of her abilities and this test is meant to truly push kingsguard members to their limit. Even when she sparred with Gladio and showed them that there is a feral side to her, somehow Ignis knows that they have not yet seen the full extent of her skills. He needs to know; having those skills at his disposal in a battle could be invaluable and he doesn't like unknowns.
The test ahead is a trial of endurance and fortitude, specifically designed to strip a kingsguard member down to their basics and set them against an impossible simulation. The virtual program puts their king in grave danger, imposing a time limit before the king is killed by his captors. Ignis has run it once, as has Gladio and it's not an experience he wants to repeat. They each went in with no weapons, just training pants and tank top, barefoot with no tools at their disposal. Both of them failed to reach their king, learning the limits of what they would and wouldn't do, as is the purpose of the simulation. The simulation is rarely used, normally only by the members of the kingsguard or glaive that are preparing for deadly missions far afield from Insomnia. Needless to say it isn't used often and isn't popular.
He does have some trepidation about exposing Chrys to this at such an early stage in their relationship, even if they have been together for months now. She's slowly opening up to them, that rare humor becoming less and less rare, but she still keeps her secrets close. The other thing she still keeps close is her fighting abilities. She has been willing to show some of her more eccentric street fighting moves when they spar, but Ignis knows that one day they may need to know what her limit is. He wants to know it now instead of later.
"Are you ready?" Ignis asks her. Chrys doesn't meet his eyes but she nods after a moment. She looks so small, standing there in just her light training pants and long-sleeved form fitting shirt. She rolls out her neck and wrists, planting her callused feet firmly on the smooth floor.
Ignis starts the simulation, he and Gladio watching from behind the control booth as the scenario comes to life. He remembers this part of the simulation, the way it starts with vicious promptness, attackers coming at the combatant from all angles. This was the part that shocked him, left him off-kilter, made him stumble out of the gate. He remembers Gladio doing a better job of dealing with the attack, but both of them talked later about how insane the simulation was, starting immediately, flat-footing what they thought was their stellar reaction time.
Chrys reacts completely differently.
Instead of the shock and disorientation of any other kingsguard that has run this simulation, Chrys in comparison is dead calm. It's like watching all the ripples and waves instantaneously clear from the surface of a lake, the water going smooth and deep navy with stillness. Every other member has panicked or moved instinctively or fallen within minutes in the simulation.
But Chrys's instincts are not the instincts of a city-bred kingsguard.
The suddenness of the start seems to jolt her out of whatever persona she has been holding on to in front of them. Instead of horror, there is invigoration. Her eyes dilate, her muscles tighten and everything about her gets so sharp her edges look crystalline.
He sees the snap, sees when Chrys has reached the limit of what she can do by playing nice. What he witnesses next is nothing short of a primal, martial savagery with the power to level civilizations.
Feral is a weak word for what lights up inside Chrys's body.
The reality of what Chrys would do for her king is indescribably terrifying, chilling, and powerful.
The lack of weapons is not a deterrent to her success in the least. If he ever doubted someone's body itself could be a weapon, Ignis does not doubt it anymore. Perhaps because she has no sharp blades or metal bullets, it is even more spine-crawling that she damages the attackers in the simulation so badly. Gladio and Ignis know how to grapple, how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, but Chrys knows how to use her hands to kill.
Without her brakes, or her stops or her barriers, she is utterly feral. And within moments she has disabled all the attackers, and is standing in front of her king. Because it is a simulation, the blood that covers her isn't real, just pixels and code, but that is no less unnerving.
Then as the simulation stops, as it fades back into binary numbers, she seems to come out of the berserker fever she had been in, the simulated blood, bodies and injuries fading. Chrys turns to look at them and there is something ugly in her eyes that Ignis has never seen.
She moves to leave, dripping with sweat, her breaths moving hot and heavy in her chest. "Chrys-," Ignis starts, regret in his voice.
Chys rounds on Ignis and the unholy anger in her gaze makes his stomach drop straight out from underneath him.
"Chrys–," he starts, but she cuts off his apology savagely.
"Don't," she snarls. "Don't apologize." She may be a couple of inches shorter than him but she dominates the space. "You wanted to see what she looked like. You wanted to see how feral she can be." She is toe to toe with Ignis, sepia eyes freezing him to the spot.
"Now that you've seen her," Chrys snarls. "Are you satisfied? Because you can never unsee that part of me now."
Then she stalks off, head held high like a queen.
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The Imperial soldiers are down, Prompto is celebrating being praised by Cor and Noctis is hiding his embarrassment at having to have been rescued by Chrys by ribbing her goodnaturedly. They are at the entrance to the tomb, still high on adrenaline from the battle.
"Let's head in!" Noctis says, already halfway to the cave before Gladio grabs him by the scruff of his neck like an errant puppy.
"We should be cautious heading in," Ignis says. "We have no idea what monsters may lurk in the caves."
"Oh come on, there'll be no trouble," Prompto jokes, bouncing up to Noct's side. "And even if there are, it'll be no trouble for us."
"Haste is the enemy of strategy," Cor says sagely.
"Do you get these from a desk calendar or what?" Chrys asks him.
Cor's laugh is involuntary but genuine. "So there's the sass that Ignis warned me about."
She gives him a smile that is both wan and a shadow of her normal smirk. Then she looks away, the brief flash of humor gone again, her mind far afield.
"Torches out," Ignis says, pinning his to the edge of his jacket. He notices Cor isn't doing the same. "Are you joining us, Marshall?" he asks.
Cor shakes his head. "I'll keep an eye on the Niffs out here while you explore. Meet me back here when you're done. Focus on your task," he says, the last line addressed specifically to Noctis.
"I will," Noctis says. "Stay safe."
Cor gives a little grunt of a laugh. "You worry about yourselves down there in the dark."
"Man, I feel like you're jinxing us," Gladio grumbles under his breath. "We'll be battling creepy crawlies in the dark after that prophetic announcement,"
Cor's eyes meet Chrys's very briefly. "Even if you do have to battle some ghouls, I have a feeling you'll be just fine."