[Ardyn didn't answer right away, but the stricken and pained look he met Noctis with spoke two thousand years' worth of volumes.]
[He tried desperately to come up with a response--tried to articulate how little he trusted the word of the gods now, knowing what they allowed done to him. For deciding the future should be built on a river of Lucian blood, demanding the life of a child be the last given to save the world. He tried to put into words what once would have been called heresy; that the gods were wrong to ask this of any of them. That there had to be something else, anything else to solve this problem. Ardyn would have turned around that instant and offered his head to the damn Draconian if it would just end this.]
['Once we do this, the world's supposed to be free and safe.']
[I just have to last a little longer, he'd thought, two thousand years ago. Once I do what has been asked of me, then the world and her people will be safe. And how did that turn out?]
[For just a fleeting second, looking at Noctis whose face reflected Somnus' so well and yet so differently in pain and desperation, he understood a fraction of Ardyn Izunia's rage and hatred. How dare he, how dare any of the Astrals take Ardyn's only brother and replace him with a stranger wrought of cold tempered steel. How dare they ask so much and give nothing in return. How dare they torture his family just to make sure they got their desired end result. No gods so unfeeling and indifferent to their followers deserved the piety in the first place.]
[Would a star under that kind of guardianship ever truly be safe?]
[Ardyn couldn't answer any of that; not Noctis' questions, and even less so his own. They both knew as much, surely. All he could do was put his arms around his shoulders (high and cautious as always, mindful of the old injury) and pull him into a gentle hug.]
no subject
[He tried desperately to come up with a response--tried to articulate how little he trusted the word of the gods now, knowing what they allowed done to him. For deciding the future should be built on a river of Lucian blood, demanding the life of a child be the last given to save the world. He tried to put into words what once would have been called heresy; that the gods were wrong to ask this of any of them. That there had to be something else, anything else to solve this problem. Ardyn would have turned around that instant and offered his head to the damn Draconian if it would just end this.]
['Once we do this, the world's supposed to be free and safe.']
[I just have to last a little longer, he'd thought, two thousand years ago. Once I do what has been asked of me, then the world and her people will be safe. And how did that turn out?]
[For just a fleeting second, looking at Noctis whose face reflected Somnus' so well and yet so differently in pain and desperation, he understood a fraction of Ardyn Izunia's rage and hatred. How dare he, how dare any of the Astrals take Ardyn's only brother and replace him with a stranger wrought of cold tempered steel. How dare they ask so much and give nothing in return. How dare they torture his family just to make sure they got their desired end result. No gods so unfeeling and indifferent to their followers deserved the piety in the first place.]
[Would a star under that kind of guardianship ever truly be safe?]
[Ardyn couldn't answer any of that; not Noctis' questions, and even less so his own. They both knew as much, surely. All he could do was put his arms around his shoulders (high and cautious as always, mindful of the old injury) and pull him into a gentle hug.]
...I don't know.