And there's so much at stake

[thatsit]

Ignis made his way to the room he and Gladio shared. Since the meeting some of the members of Khamja had dispersed, freeing up plush suites once more, but he and Gladio continued to share. They hadn't discussed it. They'd been given a room together at their own request, or at the very least at Gladio's insistence, and Khamja was no less filled with potential enemies now than it had been then. The only difference now was that they were able to identify at least some of the potential threats.

So regardless of what it did to the quality of their sleep, Ignis and Gladio continued to share. In truth, Ignis hadn't asked Gladio if he found it difficult to share the bed, just as he hadn't raised the issue of his own difficulty sleeping in a bed with Gladio. Gladio was just caring enough that he might offer to do something like sleep on the floor, and Ignis would have felt wretched if he put Gladio in a position where he thought he should offer to do that.

He also didn't want to have to explain to Gladio that sleeping on the floor would be unlikely to curb his snoring.

It wasn't the biggest hindrance to Ignis getting a quality night's rest, but it was undeniably a factor. And yet he'd slept reasonably well last night, so perhaps he was getting used to it? One did learn to tune out familiar noise over time. Or perhaps he'd simply finally gotten so exhausted that not even the rumbling thunder of Gladio's slackened vocal cords had disturbed him.

He walked into their shared room to find Gladio already present. "Apologies," he said, in their native Lucian Jyllandi. Their room was a place where their first language was the default; elsewhere, the language they spoke in varied depending upon the company, and the topic of conversation. "I thought you'd be in the library."

The room felt strongly of Gladio at all times, to Ignis. Smelled of him too, to be frank; Gladio's choices in soap and deodorant, as well as the pervasive scent that just him, breath, and skin, and body odours one had to get very intimate to recognise had mingled with the same of Ignis's own, scents he could no longer smell.

"Have you found anything?" he asked, removing his jacket and folding it over the back of a chair. Ignis's fact finding had been cautiously fruitful up to now, but so much depended upon how much time they could continue to claim from Insomnia before they were called back.

Comments

[thatsit]

Ignis took another sip of his coffee, taking his time over it. It would be preferred if they had a return date in mind before he was forced to open his last can, but right now the task of scoping out potential allies was lasting longer than his supply.

"Do you think?" he asked, with a hint of a smile.

That they were here to win friends and influence people wasn't a huge leap for anyone at this point; they'd lingered after the meeting and had no obvious immediate plans to return to Lucis. Even rudimentary research would reveal the precarious Lucian political position right now, but that was only half of the story. Or at least, Ignis intended that it would only be half of the story.

An alchemist, given the lack of education on the subject within Lucis, in contrast to Niflheim, was potentially very valuable to them. Perhaps the Arrancar escort wasn't such a bad thing either; it would certainly provide an opening.

[shieldoftheprince]

"Ohh, yeah. He's warning you about 'em," he said, a grin creeping onto his face. "He knows we ain't like the rest of 'em here, which means he probably ain't, either."

Or at least he wasn't looking at the world the same as the rest of the members. If the rest of them were snapping wolves, he was the cat on the hot tin roof. Still, snapping wolves didn't sound right to Gladio. He'd spoken to some of them, even if he hadn't been able to schmooze like Ignis, and they seemed ... normal, for the most part. Sure, some of them were arrogant and some of them were decidedly weird, but they weren't leaving fire where they walked or skewering babies for fun. They were just ... people. Powerful people, but people. It didn't stop either of them being wary, though. Apparently it wasn't enough to stop Ienzo feeling the need to warn Ignis about their situation, either.

Maybe they were all just different with the masks on.

"Hey wait, he gets an Arrancar escort?" Gladio asked, as if noticing that detail for the first time. "So Aizen's got something over him, then. Him in particular."

[thatsit]

"Not merely an Arrancar escort," Ignis replied, with a smile and a nod, "but one that has been relocated to Archades handling affairs since the good Captain's incarceration."

A highly trusted Arrancar escort, in other words. Perhaps one that Captain Aizen trusted above all others, and yet one that could not play the role Neliel was currently playing for the media.

"Ienzo also bears a prosthetic arm created by Yylfordt and Szayel," he tried, and somewhat failed, to mask the distaste that came to him automatically with that second name, "so it would be fair to say that Captain Aizen has a somewhat permanent hold over him, if by roundabout means." It would be interesting to find out how the arm had been lost, but Ienzo had confessed to it being recent.

As recent as his membership of the clan, perhaps? Or was that coincidental?

"I'd surmise that Ienzo is an asset of significant value to him," he added. A man now in possession of a philosopher's stone keeping an alchemist firmly under his thumb was... a little concerning.

[shieldoftheprince]

"I'll say," Gladio snorted, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head.

Prosthetic arms weren't commonplace in Lucis. Lucis was pretty good technologically, all things considered. Sure, so they were a bit behind Niflheim and, he'd heard recently, Archades and Bancour, in terms of weaponry, and they lacked the over-land train routes of their neighbour and some of the lowerworld countries, but they were doing pretty well when it came to personalised travel and modern conveniences. They had the best city-wide power system of any country, short of Midgar who had been taken squarely out of the running. Prosthetics, though... not so much.

That was something that was usually outsourced to the lowerworld by the ridiculously wealthy, or just ... coped with by the less fortunate. He'd seen more than one Hunter missing a limb, more than one Glaive relegated to duties well away from the front line thanks to a life-changing injury. Nobody had ever considered finding or making replacements in those cases. It was just the way it was. Hazard of the job.

It wouldn't surprise Gladio to find that Ienzo's arm was a debt to Aizen that had to be repaid.

"The more I hear about Aizen, the less I like him," he said gruffly. "I looked over some newspaper articles from his capture and they describe him as being fatherly, benign... benevolent, a great protector of the Archadian nation with his Glaive squad guarding the good people from the daemon menace... but if he's got Ienzo over a barrel like that," he gave a slight raise of the shoulders and an inclination of he head that suggested he thought his mask in particular was well-worn.

[thatsit]

"Quite so," Ignis agreed.

And all that was before one began asking what someone in the Captain's position was doing in a clan such as Khamja, and mustering an army of daemonically 'infused' soldiers such as the Arrancar. The man was many order of magnitudes more dangerous than he was willing to appear, which only served to make him yet more dangerous still because Ignis doubted he was hiding his actions due to media-shyness.

"Fortunately, I'm not required to like someone to suck up to them." And it would be sucking up, a fact which made Ignis's skin pre-emptively crawl. "He'd be a powerful ally, distasteful as he may be, but I won't be able to get anything out of a man like that without giving something he considers to be of greater value in return."

He scowled, and took another sip of his Ebony. Captain Aizen was going to be a tough one, even if he wasn't going to appear it.

[shieldoftheprince]

"True enough," Gladio said, giving a snort. "If he ever gets out."

Everybody seemed pretty convinced that he would. Nobody had managed to find out exactly how he'd been captured, or why, but a bad tip-off from within the Clan seemed the most likely answer. The who was the real question. Nobody in Khamja could be trusted, but it looked like few of them knew about the Stone in the first place. Ienzo was unlikely, given that he was babysat by one of Aizen's own men if he wanted to go out, so... Gladio shook his head. Finding the twist in this mystery wasn't his job.

"So who else you lookin' at for an ally?" He asked.

[thatsit]

"I would appear to be making inroads with Lumi," Ignis answered, with a soft smile. He found he genuinely liked Lumi, which was a pleasant surprise in this clan. The man was refreshingly straightforward compared to the type Ignis had learned to manoeuvre around. Lumi's manner of thinking could only occur with someone who was very, very certain that they were the most dangerous person in any given room, and all the evidence with regards to Lumi suggested he was right to be so confident.

"Marluxia to a lesser extent, but the two are a pair, so securing one secures both."

He smiled a little more widely and took another drink from his can of coffee. It was distressingly light now, and he took his time to enjoy each remaining mouthful. "Interestingly, they're not actually a pair in that way," he added, flashing Gladio a look of amusement.

He and Gladio had concluded that they were, of course, and Lumi hadn't seemed perturbed by the idea, but had been very definite that it was not the case.

[shieldoftheprince]

"Seriously?" He asked, the surprise evident on his face. "Didn't see that coming."

The two had seemed like part of a matched set. They spoke in low voices and seemed to communicate with little more than glances to the point where anyone watching them could wonder if they were telepathic. And that was ignoring the fact that Marluxia in a whirling burst of pink petals, had pulled a scythe from goodness knows where in defense of Lumi, in front of a roomful of people. Talk to the other members of the Clan, and their underlings, suggested that Lumi was the bodyguard, so the display had come as a bigger surprise to those who knew that little tidbit of information.

"So what's he like, then?" He asked, cocking his head to one side.

[thatsit]

Ignis shifted his weight, leaning more on one leg. "Interesting," he concluded. "Lumi, at least, seems to hail from a nomadic family. He's well traveled, but doesn't appear to have spent long enough in any one place to consider it home, or to have really absorbed the culture."

Lumi was a little strange that way, but it also made sense. He was passingly familiar with a lot, and intimately familiar with very little.

"He and Marluxia recently purchased a house in Rozarria, where Marluxia is a florist," he emphasised, not bothering to try and subdue the amused grin that came along with it. "But Lumi's pride and joy is his ship, and for that I don't blame him. It's Pulse made, and Jagd proof."

[shieldoftheprince]

Gladio raised his eyebrows and pulled down the corners of his mouth at hearing Lumi was nomadic. He wondered, vaguely, if that was part of his experience as a Selkie. They seemed normal enough, if a little more brightly coloured than folk he was used to, but he'd done enough reading to know that until very recently, they were excluded from polite company and still faced, in certain regions, prejudice on account of their mixed heritage. The Al Bhed, he'd heard, got much the same rap.

He was about to open his mouth to have a laugh at the florist part of Ignis's statement, especially where Marluxia's flashy Chakra was concerned, but pulled up short of that when he continued on about the ship.

"Wait... what? How?" He asked.

Pulse was lost, hundreds of years ago. The calamity that had, according to legend, lost their nation their ancestral home had rendered the entire continent inhospitable. The Jagd there was so volatile that visiting wasn't an option, not in a modern airship. Sure, so some people had the old-fashioned salvages, but they were all Ivalician in origin, usually dragged up from digs or sites of airshipwrecks towards the far-east, in regions every bit as dangerous as Pulse itself, if a little closer to home.

Pulse had been known for its airships, but not Jagd proof ones. They'd never come up in any history he'd ever read, factual or romanticised. They were a Lowerworld invention, the mechanism for preventing the Mist and Magicite-rich soil of Jagd regions unique to them and, alas, lost to time.

"Are you sure?"

[thatsit]

Ignis nodded, and drained the last of his coffee. "Quite sure," he said, finally. "There was a very brief window of trade between Ivalice and Gran Pulse prior to the calamity, at least according to some historical documents. The engine is certainly Ivalician, but the hull and technology therein," he continued, trailing off as he took a deep, considered breath, "is far beyond anything we have now."

He remembered the map. A little three dimensional holographic display that responded to touch as if it was a solid object. The rest of the controls and panels too were completely unlike anything Ignis had ever seen.

"Lumi is forced to retrofit parts to it. Not even parts from other Jagd-proof craft fit. And then there's the fact it was originally called Noctua," he added. "Though Lumi has renamed it the White Rose."

[shieldoftheprince]

'Noctua' was a patently Pulsian word.

The language had long been abandoned, but certain words and vocabulary lingered in the collective memory of those descended from the people who used it. Gladio knew the language was pretty much a different dialect of what the Ivalicians called 'Ancient' and words from that were used in the 'proper' names of animals and plants, among other things. In Lucis, they were used for positions of office, most things related to magic and, notably, names. Both Ignis and Gladio himself had first and forenames rooted in Pulsian.

He wondered if Lumi did, too, come to think of it. He remembered some hero in a story he'd once read called Lumen.

But that aside, it failed to explain one thing.

"How does he know what it was originally called?" He asked.

Even if it was written on the side of the ship, it wouldn't be in a script used in the modern age and certainly not one seen with any frequency in Ivalice.

[thatsit]

"You should see him navigate the ship's controls; you'd almost think he was fluent," Ignis answered, with a hint of a smirk.

The notion was, of course, ridiculous. Pulsian was a long dead language even in Lucis, but its echoes remained, and its impression upon the modern Lucian dialect lingered still.

"He's clearly spent a long time learning to navigate menus in the script, and since some of the language persists in certain circles, it wouldn't surprise me if he can read more than a handful of words by now."

There was no other possible explanation, and it was certainly an impressive feat. The fact that the ships controls could function as a basis for re-translating the language hadn't escaped Ignis. If one could work out, as Lumi had done, what functions each control served, it was a difficult but plausible step from there to translate what each of the words were, and from there again to spot patterns in other parts of the text.

[shieldoftheprince]

"I bet some of our historians would give an arm to get ahold of that thing," he said, grinning. "And hey, they'd have a shot of getting a new one to replace it down here."

He shook his head, thinking about it. A Pulsian ship, of all things. If he turned around and sold that, he'd be able to retire a rich man at what... thirty? He couldn't be much older than that. There'd be competitors from all sides, the Al Bhed, the non-Al Bhed mechanics, Lucians, governments... he clearly did treasure it.

"What do you think of down here, then?" He asked after a moment's comfortable pause. "Compared to home."

[thatsit]

Ignis looked down at his empty can. "The coffee leaves something to be desired," he declared, holding it up in demonstration, along with a wry smile. "As does the technology, but," he tilted his head in consideration and sighed, "in other areas Ivalice is refreshingly forward thinking."

He gave a small shrug, and moved to deposit his can in the bin. If the truth were to be told, Ignis thought he could be quite comfortable down here. He certainly wasn't suffering homesickness, as such, rather he was keenly feeling the absence of certain creature comforts, and individuals.

Although he wasn't missing cleaning up after said individuals, and dreaded what he might return to.

[shieldoftheprince]

"Maybe this is what proper coffee's like," Gladio said, shaking his head.

Ignis was ridiculous about his coffee, Gladio thought. Coffee all tasted the same to him, bitter and improved only with half a tonne of milk or cream and sugar. Drinking it like Ignis did, he'd rather have chocobo piss. It'd be more palatable.

"I mean, where in Lucis do they even grow coffee? We ain't exactly known for our vast coffee ... fields," he said, finishing lamely. He wasn't entirely sure how coffee grew. They could be coffee orchards for all he knew, but he was still pretty sure Lucis didn't have any. Some of the farmland in Duscae was possible, but he had a feeling they mostly grew root vegetables.

[thatsit]

Ignis narrowed an eye at Gladio. He was used to being needled about his caffeine habit, and his brand loyalty when it came to his caffeine habit. It had, in the past, been compared to a smoker's loyalty to their preferred brand, except coffee didn't have deleterious effects on one's physical performance, as Ignis had been quick to point out.

"The coffee beans are imported," he replied. "And before you start on my appreciation for a good cup of Ebony, I have two words for you: Cup Noodles."

[shieldoftheprince]

"Ain't nothin' wrong with cup noodles," he said airily. "They're good convenience food."

Well, they were. Hot water and a main event of your choice, Cup Noodles were an easy-made tasty meal in a pot. Ignis's coffee, however...

"I'm sure any coffee could taste as bitter and depressing as Ebony if you tried," he said, trying to keep his expression looking like he was making a fair statement. "What's so special about Ebony anyway? Surely the beans are used in other brands. What do Ebony do, read the poetry of edgy fifteen year old girls to them? Expose them to the gin-fueled rants of forty nine year old divorced women..? Is the secret ingredient crushed spiders?" He failed, with the last one, to keep the grin from his face.

[thatsit]

Ignis folded his arms and fixed Gladio with a cool look that took some effort to muster. The grin didn't help. Gladio was teasing, and his grin was infectious, but Ignis had many years of practice at playing the straight man.

"I'm already aware your palate's broken, you don't need to prove it," he retorted. "You're as bad as Noct. If it doesn't technically count as dessert you won't drink it. I happen to prefer my coffee to taste like coffee," he pointed out, and flashed Gladio a slight smirk as he concluded, "and strong enough to knock out a herd of garula."

[shieldoftheprince]

"You mean keep 'em awake for about eight years," he corrected.

[thatsit]

Ignis breathed in slowly, keeping his eyes on Gladio.

"Or that," he conceded.

He had to purse his lips to keep from smiling too much.

"What about you?" he asked, changing the subject back to the original one, and away from unscheduled Pick On Iggy time. "Are you eager to return?"

[shieldoftheprince]

"Eventually," he said, after a moment's thought. "But there's still a lot down here I'd like to see."

It was different to Lucis, though so was Niflheim, and the rest of Eos, strange as Lucis was. Ivalice, the vast collection of lowerworld countries united under one name, was even more so. The landmasses were stranger, the food, the culture and even the Classes. He'd discovered this talking to a couple of the residents.

"I've been talking to some of the Clan," he told him, shrugging his shoulders as if it was less important than the useful connections that Ignis himself had been forging between him and the assortment of weird and scary people who called the palace home, however often. "Seems there's still a lot of stuff down here to do before we go back, even if it makes us tourists."

[thatsit]

Ignis felt a weight lift from his chest. He'd worried, in a way, that Gladio would be itching to get back to Insomnia and his family sooner rather than later. As much as Ignis wished to see more of Ivalice, and experience more of its culture, he also didn't want to drag Gladio around like a reluctant dog after himself.

"Personally, I have no objection to being a tourist," he replied, flashing Gladio a bright smile. He'd made his own little list of places to visit, that featured Alexandria at the top, along with Bhujerba, and Archades. If he didn't get to visit them all, well, he could always try and use his position as advisor to excuse going sightseeing, but it would be nice to see at least a couple of new places before they left.

"Where did you have in mind?"

[shieldoftheprince]

"Some of the historical sites, maybe," he said, thinking about it. "There are some old capital cities, so I'd like to see some of those. Some of 'em have buildings older than Lucis, I've heard."

He just liked history. People could be forgiven for mistaking him for the sort of holiday maker who would like an expensive hotel, with a swimming pool and sun lounger, that happened to be within easy reach of a beach to lie on all day. In reality, he was way more interested in exploring the various types of wilderness, sleeping under the stars, eating whatever he could catch and, when he had to venture into civilisation, looking at the old architecture. It was way more interesting than basking.

"And one of the guys I've been talking to here is a Summoner," he said, hesitating slightly as if it was a weird thing to say. "He said some of the ... summon things are in old Temples. Wouldn't mind seein' some of them."

Summoner just wasn't a class anywhere on Eos. They lacked the history tied into the War of the Magi, and the Fayth associated with them. Generally speaking, Ivalice and Eos had much the same Classes, but they did differ in some ways. Ivalice had Alchemists and Summoners, Eos had Quaternians and Raptors, two classes limited almost entirely to specific species, or individuals who happened to have the same physical requirements as those species, four arms or wings respectively.

[thatsit]

It was no surprise to Ignis that Gladio might have an interest in the historical sites. He knew Gladio well enough to know he was more than the musclehead he appeared. At least it probably wouldn't require much persuasion to convince Gladio to visit Alexandria. The city was meant to be home to an all female guard that were renowned for their prowess, and the castle was a beautiful example of Rozarrian architecture. Such things were likely right up Gladio's alley.

Ignis's ears pricked at the mention of Summoners. It wasn't something he was familiar with, although a brief rundown of things to be found on Ivalice had paid lip service to the class. It had sounded, from what Ignis had read, somewhat like beastmastery, although with specific creatures to be called upon. There were still pacts to be made, and trials to be endured.

"Yes," he agreed, "that would be worth a visit." He smiled, faintly. "The temples in particular, some of them are said to be rather grand. Who is it you've been speaking to?" he asked. "Perhaps they can make some suggestions."

[shieldoftheprince]

"Kadaj," Gladio said. "That skinny silver-haired prettyboy."

It was the only way to describe him, really. Without using the word 'leather catsuit', at least, and Gladio was pretty sure he never wanted those particular words to pass his lips, just in case Ignis took it upon himself to get himself one in purple coeurl print.

He wouldn't put it past him.

"He's been a Summoner for years, apparently. Says it ain't easy, but one of his ... creatures, is a dragon called Bahamut," he grinned.

'Bahamut' was an ancient Pulsian word, long out of use even before the Exodus as a catch-all term. Originally, it was understood to mean 'dragon' and, as such, it seemed to Gladio that the word had been taken and applied to various individuals over time, all draconic in nature or appearance. The version in use in Lucis was the name of the dragon-based emblem on the Kingsglaive uniforms. He was their sigil, their mascot, and his wings were made from swords. Even the Scout emblem was a pair of blade-based wings, even if the rest of the dragon wasn't present.

It had surprised Gladio to find the word in use on the Lowerworld, but there had been trade and travel between certain continents and Pulse so he supposed it made sense.

[thatsit]

Ignis remembered Kadaj. They'd met prior to the meeting where Ignis's estimation of him had been that he was a member, but not a very influential one, and likely one that had been a subordinate. He'd shown a solid grasp of the delicacy of his and Gladio's situation, but had been a bit of a brat about it.

Some of the things he'd said in the meeting, however, suggested that Kadaj was rather aware of the implications of events, suggesting he was more intelligent than he seemed. He also clearly didn't like one of the scientists, for whatever reason.

Ignis tilted his head as he looked at Gladio. He hadn't anticipated Kadaj being that interesting an individual, but his creature's name and form was certainly intriguing. "Really?" he asked. "Well well."

Bahamut was the sigil of the Kingsglaive. Little wonder that Gladio had thought that tidbit of information fascinating enough to mention it. The world had traveled, clearly, but finding it down here wasn't unlike finding reference to Etro's Gate in alchemy.

"Have you seen it?" he asked.

[shieldoftheprince]

"Not yet," he said, disappointment evident on his face.

Summoning didn't sound like his kind of Class, but it sounded fascinating regardless. It was one of those pseudo-Mage Classes and Gladio's specialities tended against the careful control of Chakra and conversion into magic and more towards hitting things with large weapons until they stopped moving.

"He did say he was gonna do some training, though. Maybe we could ask him if we're good to ... y'know, observe?" He suggested.

[thatsit]

Ignis frowned at first. The fact Gladio hadn't witnessed a Summoner in action as yet was rather a pity. Ignis knew so little about the class, and there weren't many things that Ignis didn't know about, so it was immediately fascinating. Summoning, and Alchemy were two things Ivalice had to offer that made Ignis feel thoroughly at sea.

And both sounded fascinating.

He brightened up considerably when Gladio mentioned the possibility of watching Kadaj train. "That," he said, "sounds like a capital idea."