Izunia settles back into his chair and visibly tries to relax. It won't be very long at all before Talcott sees him pull something else from the Armiger - a small velvet sack that contains a bracelet he slips on and a number of colorful, faceted crystals. They glitter in the dim light, and after a moment, start to hover by the means of some unknown magic.
"The circumstances of our birth are... Well, fairly obvious if you look at us. Ardyn is the elder, by some handful of minutes, but I tended to be the responsible one. He was playful, and took the lead on almost everything, while I smoothed out any ruffled feathers and kept him from doing anything too risky." His voice is warm and fond, but with a touch of grief. "Normal enough, even for children growing up at the end of the Astral War, when the Scourge and daemons lurked in all corners much as it does in your time. We were twenty or so when Ardyn was... Chosen."
And here the purpose of the little crystals becomes clear - even if Izunia can't see them, himself, the way he twitches his fingers to send them floating into a spinning circle is clearly a routine sort of fidget. "Led by a vision, he went off in search of the slumbering gods, and returned with four things - the Crystal, the Ring of the Lucii, the prophecy of the Chosen King, and a blessing - the power to heal the Scourge from the afflicted. The Armiger was already ours, a last kiss from the magical power thrown about by the Astral War, or so we thought - I think there were some other handful of children with such powers born in that era, though I can no longer recall any such details.
"And so for fifteen years he wandered the earth, healing all he came across, with Gilgamesh at his side - I went with them on occasion, but for the most part I was occupied in what would eventually become Insomnia, leading the repair of infrastructure and research into what the Scourge actually was. Even if we could not cure it, we could find out how it spread, slow the infection - the only help to my brother's mission I could truly give.
"I don't remember how exactly I became exposed, but I know that it must have been in the process of that work, because we lost many other researchers to the same. Ardyn heard, and of course rushed home for my sake, and even then he was only barely in time; I was already at the point of hallucinations and fever. By that time, I had the feeling there was something wrong, for Ardyn had already begun dressing in many layers and keeping his face shaded in a healer's hood."
The circle of bobbing crystals tightens in a snap. "But nothing could have prepared me for what I woke up to see - my brother's face the grey of a corpse, the Scourge leaking from his eyes. I thought it another fever nightmare and I - " A hitch. " - I struck with one of the blades I kept always in my Armiger. And I knew the wound to be mortal even before he hit the ground, but that impact never came. He dissolved instead, like a daemon, leaving nothing behind."
no subject
Izunia settles back into his chair and visibly tries to relax. It won't be very long at all before Talcott sees him pull something else from the Armiger - a small velvet sack that contains a bracelet he slips on and a number of colorful, faceted crystals. They glitter in the dim light, and after a moment, start to hover by the means of some unknown magic.
"The circumstances of our birth are... Well, fairly obvious if you look at us. Ardyn is the elder, by some handful of minutes, but I tended to be the responsible one. He was playful, and took the lead on almost everything, while I smoothed out any ruffled feathers and kept him from doing anything too risky." His voice is warm and fond, but with a touch of grief. "Normal enough, even for children growing up at the end of the Astral War, when the Scourge and daemons lurked in all corners much as it does in your time. We were twenty or so when Ardyn was... Chosen."
And here the purpose of the little crystals becomes clear - even if Izunia can't see them, himself, the way he twitches his fingers to send them floating into a spinning circle is clearly a routine sort of fidget. "Led by a vision, he went off in search of the slumbering gods, and returned with four things - the Crystal, the Ring of the Lucii, the prophecy of the Chosen King, and a blessing - the power to heal the Scourge from the afflicted. The Armiger was already ours, a last kiss from the magical power thrown about by the Astral War, or so we thought - I think there were some other handful of children with such powers born in that era, though I can no longer recall any such details.
"And so for fifteen years he wandered the earth, healing all he came across, with Gilgamesh at his side - I went with them on occasion, but for the most part I was occupied in what would eventually become Insomnia, leading the repair of infrastructure and research into what the Scourge actually was. Even if we could not cure it, we could find out how it spread, slow the infection - the only help to my brother's mission I could truly give.
"I don't remember how exactly I became exposed, but I know that it must have been in the process of that work, because we lost many other researchers to the same. Ardyn heard, and of course rushed home for my sake, and even then he was only barely in time; I was already at the point of hallucinations and fever. By that time, I had the feeling there was something wrong, for Ardyn had already begun dressing in many layers and keeping his face shaded in a healer's hood."
The circle of bobbing crystals tightens in a snap. "But nothing could have prepared me for what I woke up to see - my brother's face the grey of a corpse, the Scourge leaking from his eyes. I thought it another fever nightmare and I - " A hitch. " - I struck with one of the blades I kept always in my Armiger. And I knew the wound to be mortal even before he hit the ground, but that impact never came. He dissolved instead, like a daemon, leaving nothing behind."