['The Starscourge is a disease. With the proper treatment, anyone can be spared. We must not condemn our fellow man and exile them as though they were monsters.']
[The voice was Ardyn's, but the memory not yet fully formed or distinct; fading in and out like a radio not quite correctly tuned. It was blurry at first before settling upon a darkened room; inside was a woman, writhing and struggling against the bonds holding her down. Patches of her skin were blackened, spreading visibly through corrupted veins along arms, neck, and face--her eyes had turned black, a feral snarling building in her throat as she thrashed furiously. Outside, the fervent and near-hysterical plea was one he'd heard countless times. 'Lord Ardyn, please, you must save my daughter!']
['Of course,' he answered, and the man in white stepped inside as calm as anything. A hood was pulled back from his face; though recognizably Ardyn he bore darker and shorter hair along with steel blue eyes. As the woman snarled and snapped at him like a feral creature, he calmly sat down beside her and extended a hand...the darkness lifted from her skin and eyes, vanishing into a dissolving black miasma. Once it had drained from her skin and eyes, the afflicted woman merely sank down and fell asleep, exhausted.]
[The smallest of smiles broke through his stoic expression, relief for one more person saved--and then like a knife the pain lanced through his arm, a burning sensation like acid beneath his very skin. The same dark corruption ran along his arm to his wrist, staining his skin and turning his own eyes the same black and gold--]
['My lord Ardyn-?']
[-and in an instant, he pulled the hood back into place and willed it out of sight, repressed it as hard as he could to lay dormant and quiet that he could give the girl's family some reassurance as they gave him their tearful gratitude...just as countless others already had.]
[The metaphorical needle skipped on the record, and when it resettled the dark room was replaced by a forest; the distant shouts of palace guards looking for someone, and the sage in white less than elegantly tripping and falling down a cliff. Fortunate enough to be out of sight--his whole body ached terribly, and he knew damn well he couldn't run any further. His brother's guards were relentless when they caught word or sight of him, and if they caught him...well, no doubt in his mind that Somnus would see him executed on the spot.]
[Why? Why was this happening? Why couldn't his own brother understand there was no other way? Purging the ailment through fire, worsening the fear of the people--had his own little brother become so coldhearted? The more Ardyn thought about it, the more he knew those soldiers would kill him if he were found...the more something built up within him, an agonizing corrosion in his very blood. Turning his skin black, overflowing as clouds of dark miasma around him, the blinding pain so much that all he could do was writhe in pain and struggle not to make a sound lest he be caught. Both hands pressed to his face--was it even the face of a human anymore, passed the idle thought through his head. His breath was ragged in his throat, and for an instant he thought it better he turned here and disappeared without a trace then let the world know that he'd failed. Better that than let Aera know he failed.]
['Even if others forget your name...I will always remember.']
[Thunder struck overhead, a torrent of rain fell with it, and everything went abruptly dark.]
no subject
[The voice was Ardyn's, but the memory not yet fully formed or distinct; fading in and out like a radio not quite correctly tuned. It was blurry at first before settling upon a darkened room; inside was a woman, writhing and struggling against the bonds holding her down. Patches of her skin were blackened, spreading visibly through corrupted veins along arms, neck, and face--her eyes had turned black, a feral snarling building in her throat as she thrashed furiously. Outside, the fervent and near-hysterical plea was one he'd heard countless times. 'Lord Ardyn, please, you must save my daughter!']
['Of course,' he answered, and the man in white stepped inside as calm as anything. A hood was pulled back from his face; though recognizably Ardyn he bore darker and shorter hair along with steel blue eyes. As the woman snarled and snapped at him like a feral creature, he calmly sat down beside her and extended a hand...the darkness lifted from her skin and eyes, vanishing into a dissolving black miasma. Once it had drained from her skin and eyes, the afflicted woman merely sank down and fell asleep, exhausted.]
[The smallest of smiles broke through his stoic expression, relief for one more person saved--and then like a knife the pain lanced through his arm, a burning sensation like acid beneath his very skin. The same dark corruption ran along his arm to his wrist, staining his skin and turning his own eyes the same black and gold--]
['My lord Ardyn-?']
[-and in an instant, he pulled the hood back into place and willed it out of sight, repressed it as hard as he could to lay dormant and quiet that he could give the girl's family some reassurance as they gave him their tearful gratitude...just as countless others already had.]
[The metaphorical needle skipped on the record, and when it resettled the dark room was replaced by a forest; the distant shouts of palace guards looking for someone, and the sage in white less than elegantly tripping and falling down a cliff. Fortunate enough to be out of sight--his whole body ached terribly, and he knew damn well he couldn't run any further. His brother's guards were relentless when they caught word or sight of him, and if they caught him...well, no doubt in his mind that Somnus would see him executed on the spot.]
[Why? Why was this happening? Why couldn't his own brother understand there was no other way? Purging the ailment through fire, worsening the fear of the people--had his own little brother become so coldhearted? The more Ardyn thought about it, the more he knew those soldiers would kill him if he were found...the more something built up within him, an agonizing corrosion in his very blood. Turning his skin black, overflowing as clouds of dark miasma around him, the blinding pain so much that all he could do was writhe in pain and struggle not to make a sound lest he be caught. Both hands pressed to his face--was it even the face of a human anymore, passed the idle thought through his head. His breath was ragged in his throat, and for an instant he thought it better he turned here and disappeared without a trace then let the world know that he'd failed. Better that than let Aera know he failed.]
['Even if others forget your name...I will always remember.']
[Thunder struck overhead, a torrent of rain fell with it, and everything went abruptly dark.]