Cordia (Final Fantasy XV fanfiction)

Chapter X

How could everything had gone so wrong?

Cordia turned in her place, taking her gaze off the window as the prince stirred from his slumber once more. Rushing to his side, she pressed her hands against his shoulders and eased him back against the pillows.

"You need your rest, your highness," she reminded, laying her hand flat against his forehead. Ever since he had broken free of his comatose state a few days ago, the young price had been caught in a terrible fever, wracked with illness. He was as stubborn as ever, though, and no matter how much she told him, he refused to sit still.

"I don't want to rest," Noctis muttered, blowing a huff of air from his mouth in an attempt to blow back his hair. She reached out for him and brushed back the low fringe from his eyes.

"Well it's not up to you," again, she pressed his shoulders back as he tried to sit up. "Your father has given Tullia complete authority over you while you're unwell, and since Tullia's not here, that falls to me."

He huffed. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Oh, yes I can," she argued, "Now lie down and rest."

He wiggled his shoulders out of her grasp and turned over onto his side. Tucking the blanket over him, she returned to what she had been previously doing, and took a seat in the chair beside his bed and picked her book up once more.

"What are you reading?" he asked quietly, and she looked up to him swiftly.

"Uhm, it's just a book," she muttered, tucking it flat into her lap and playing with the pages, "Nothing special, really,"

Noctis' brow quirked against the pillow. "Why won't you tell me?"

"It's supposed to be a surprise for you," she admitted softly. She lifted the book to show him, "I was going to read this to you but I wanted to read it first to check you'd like it, of course."

"What's it about?" he sat up a little on the bed, but her glare was enough to keep him leaned only on his elbow.

"A young prince, like you,"

"And what does he do?"

"Before he becomes King, he decides he wants to go exploring. He wants to travel the world with his friends and see everything he can, eat everything he can, meet everyone he can. That's as far as I've gotten."

"I'd like you to read it to me," he said, looking up at her, "From the beginning. We can finish it together."

"As you wish, your highness," folding the corner of the page over she had been previously on, she flipped the book back to the very beginning. The soft rustling of the weathered pages was always a relaxing sound, and the prince settled back down in his bed as she began to read.

He was recovering, slowly. The loss of his mother had impacted him severely, as it had the entire Kingdom. With the Queen dead, the entirety of Lucis had gone into mourning, and very few people had seen the King since her passing. He never left his chambers, and Cordia had only seen him twice, maybe, to visit his son in the past week. Whilst he drowned out his sorrow with his alcohol, he allowed his royal duties to fall to the council for now, and had entrusted his son's care to herself and Tullia. Everyone had been understanding, to her knowledge, and she completely understood why he was behaving like this.

Still, it gave him no excuse to ignore Noctis. The prince was devastated at the news, and had spent a lot of the past week crying. Tullia had done most of the reassuring, since Cordia had never been good at it, but she offered the only thing she could - hugs - which seemed to help. This was the first time he had woke up without crying; perhaps his nightmares were beginning to lessen.