awashlogs | June Catch All

It's always been the King's duty to control the Wall. He's the only one who could.

[Nyx had just barely touched it, himself. The power of Kings is coursing through his blood even now. Why he hasn't died yet, when he was told that would be his price, is beyond him. Maybe something to do with no longer being home, or maybe something about Noctis. He doesn't know, and he hasn't told anyone that part either.]

I'm guessing the king's the only one who knows how the whole thing works, too. [He'd assume as much, if it's something necessary to the city's protection.

Then, Izuku glances down at the picture of Selena questioningly. While Izuku personally doesn't mind hearing about Nyx's world, he does wonder how Selena ties into all of this.]

There were always legends; bedtime stories told to the lot of us when we were little. About an old magic that'll defend the people of Lucis if the King calls on it. [Something he'd thought was just a myth, but apparently not. He never got the chance to test the theory.

Nyx spends a few minutes just breathing as deeply as he can. Now that he's started there's just so much pressing against the back of his tongue that he almost doesn't know what to even say.]

The removal of the Wall left the territories vulnerable. This empire, Niflheim [There's a touch of venom in the word.], wanted Insomnia's magic, I guess. They wanted something. Bad enough to go to war for it. And the territories suffered.

For a long time Galahd was far enough out of the way we just thought that it'd never touch our islands.

[A long pause.]

We were wrong.

[He thinks he can see where this is going, and it's a heartbreaking ending. Though Izuku has never seen war like what Nyx is describing, he can imagine the kind of damage that it could wreak upon the vulnerable territories.]

I'm sorry, Ulric-san. [He says it quietly.] You and the people in Insomnia shouldn't have had to suffer because of someone's greed.

[Nyx could take the out that is, perhaps unintentionally, offered. He could slide right past the worst of the memory and move on to other topics. On most days he most likely would.

But now that he's gotten this far the words won't stop. His reawakened guilt chokes him until the only solution is to keep sharing it with someone else. His knuckles are white as he clutches his pants to keep his hand from trembling, but the one holding their light has nothing else to cling to. The fire flickers with his movements.]

The people of Insomnia have known peace for a hundred years, safe behind their wall. [A fact some of them liked to throw in his face.] They weren't there to see the ships cross the sea and release a thousand metal men with guns and flamethrowers. They hit my village at mid-day, when everyone was out running errands or playing. I was twenty. Young, stupid, and all I could do was save whatever I could touch.

[It's silent, his voice already tight with anger and bitterness at retelling, but Nyx starts crying. He can still see it; the memory of fire and destruction and the blank faces of the magitek soldiers that he later learned how to dismantle with a knife.]

Selena... [He turns away, almost unable to continue.]

Our mother was struggling. She was trapped behind the debris of our house. Selena told me to help her and I thought she was right behind me.

[Izuku has to close his eyes for a moment, nauseated by what he's hearing. There are casualties in a war, he knows that, but this sounds more like a massacre than anything. All those villagers unaware of the danger, attacked without a chance to really defend themselves.]

That's horrible. [It comes out as a whisper, the emotion in Nyx's voice already making tears spring to Izuku's eyes. He can't help but cry along with Nyx and let him finish the story that he seems to need to get off his chest.]

[It's something Nyx wouldn't wish on anyone, and later on he's definitely going to regret this. Izuku's bright and imaginative enough that he wouldn't be surprised if the kid could picture what happened. No one deserved that.

There's a muscle twitching in Nyx's cheek as for a moment he can only force harsh breaths through his nose. He's not quite all there anymore, lost in remembering what happened. He can still hear her voice, screaming his name; can still feel her body grow limp and empty in his arms as he watched the light leave her eyes.]

I tried to go back for her. She needed me and I couldn't save her. I'd left her behind and she died.

[Even if Nyx regrets it, Izuku definitely doesn't. He'd rather have the image stick with him--unhappy as it might be--than let Nyx have to suffer and carry all of this on his own.

Izuku can't stop himself any longer. He'd held back at first, not knowing if any gesture like this would be appreciated from someone older and much more experienced than he is in well, life in general. But it feels wrong to sit here and do nothing when reliving these memories is causing him so much pain.

So Izuku gets onto his feet, takes a step or two closer to Nyx, and then leans down to wrap his arms around him in a hug. His own tears spill over as he grieves alongside Nyx, for the girl who had smiled so happily in that photo.]

I'm so sorry.

[Nyx stiffens in shock, unused to being hugged and his spell releases, pitching them back into darkness. After a moment of hesitation, he throws dignity to the wind and accepts the comfort. Inhaling sharply, he hugs back, resting his forehead on Izuku's shoulder, and lets go; his shoulders shake as twelve years of grief is reopened in full.

His crying is still silent, too accustomed to holding back to do more than let his tears fall, but something loosens that he never realized was caught tight in his heart. He hadn't had time to open up fully to Lunafreya back home, never told her what happened way back when. Now that he's told someone it's like a circuit is completed. The words Luna told him that last day and being accepted here despite his failures...

He doesn't have the words to express how he feels. He knows Libertus never judged him, had tried his best in his own way to help, but Libs had his own nightmares and grief to deal with. It's different with people who've only met him as he is now.]

June Catch All

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