Book Three: The Children of Fate

I - {EDITED}

The Citadel's halls and rooms were silent, the only sound was that of the footsteps belonging to a blond young man, in search of something. No, not something but rather someone; his girlfriend who appeared to have disappeared not long ago. Everyone in the palace hadn't seen the princess in hours, not knowing where she could have been, many suspecting that she had gone out into the city. It was like she had vanished, without a trace as to where she was headed. After what seemed like hours of searching for her, the young man chose to check the gardens for her, soon spotting her taking care of a large patch of blossoms, shades of pale blue stacked petals peeking out past long blades of grass. He smiled, admiring the sight of his beloved as she tended to the flowers of Tenebrae that managed to survive in Lucis.

"Hey Sera! Are you ready to head to Galdin?" Prompto asked, eager to head to the seaside outpost, causing the princess to jump, startling her by his sudden presence. Her reaction was so cute to him, causing her to chuckle a little.

"Not quite yet," Sera said once she was able to calm her nerves, returning her attention to the blossoms, her Tenebraean accent sounding heavenly to the cameraman. "In just a moment though. My duties have been keeping me from tending these precious little beauties. I fear that if I had stayed away any longer, they may have died. And unfortunately, I don't have replacement seeds to plant new ones."

"I am in no rush. I just wanted to remind you that we had that lunch with the guys today."

"Of course I remember. It's not everyday the four of us can disregard our formalities and our duties to enjoy some time out of Insomnia together as friends." Before long, she finished tending to the sylleblossoms and rose to her feet, dusting herself off with a smile. "And I warn you now, as I will when Gladio and Ignis join us in the courtyard, I will be the one driving this time." And with that, the two made their way to the courtyard, the keys to the new Regalia in Sera's hand as they waited patiently for Gladiolus and Ignis to join them before they made it to the rebuilt Regalia.

"We're fortunate for Cid and Cindy's area of expertise to have rebuilt His Majesty's original Regalia," Ignis said as he came up behind Prompto with Gladiolus at his side, his cane in his hand, using it to send audible clacks to his heightened hearing.

"With some extra modifications, of course," Gladiolus chipped in, crossing his arms as he looked at the couple. "Gotta hand it to them. Looks exactly like it did back then."

"Because that's how I requested it. It's the last thing Noctis and I had of my father," Sera said as she sat in the driver's seat, Ignis taking the seat behind the driver's seat where Noctis used to sit in their younger days, traveling the world, some purely out of diplomatic reasons, other times purely to see the world and get some money for the rest of their travels. Gladiolus took his usual place in the passenger side, in the back, and Prompto took the front passenger seat. Once everyone was settled in and buckled, Sera drove off to Galdin Quay, the seaside outpost. Upon arriving at Galdin Quay, Sera parked the car in the parking lot, and soon hopped out after turning off the engine. As they made their way to The Mother of Pearl, the young princess's necklace glowed, an image appearing before her that was only meant for her crystalline colored eyes to see.

*A young Oracle, clad in blue, appearing to be older than the current Oracle, was seen standing alongside the man of no consequences. To Sera, the young woman looked familiar, though she couldn't place why.

"What is your brilliant plan now, Ardyn?" the woman asked, looking at the Adagium as he placed his hat back on his head, making his way to the pier that led to the restaurant on the sea.

"My dearest Mel, why worry about something so trivial when we could simply relax while we're here?" Ardyn stated, outstretching his arms as if he was worshiping the nice weather. "We still have time before the government of Accordo plans to meet with our dear princess." Sera couldn't hear anything more, the two moving out of earshot.*