Book Three: The Children of Fate

XIII - {EDITED}

While at the Tomb of the Chosen, Sera found it hard to focus on what would be the task at hand. She had been dressed in the same attire she found to be fit for Noctis's funeral when they finally had one take place. Her now snowy locks pinned back to keep them from falling in front of her crimson colored eyes.

Her delicate hand ran along the granite that made up the sarcophagus inside the tomb. As if being summoned, Noctis stood deeper within the tomb, awaiting the moment his sister would speak up.

"Are you okay?" Noctis asked, looking at the sarcophagus that his spirit had been resting in for years.

"I seek guidance, brother," Sera said as she looked over at her brother's spirit. "I don't know what to do."

"What's wrong?" As he spoke, Noctis watched as the queen's fingertips gently grazed the granite, noticing an aura around her.

"I'm conflicted, Noctis. If someone you loved had a deadly disease plaguing them and only them, would you risk going away for however long the Gods needed you to, or would you stay and risk them getting worse and dying?"

"I would take the risk of leaving. Prompto will understand that you're doing this to save him." As he spoke, moving to hug Sera, his specter became real only to comfort the white-haired queen. "You said it yourself, your duty as queen is to protect everyone she rules over, even if it means losing your life as a price to pay."

"You're right... If I'm going to save him, I have to do it," she said, pulling away from his loving embrace to look at him. She wiped away the few stray tears that managed to roll down her rosy cheeks. "I suppose there's no turning back now that I've come this far." Before long, Noctis vanished again and Sera left the Tomb to return home.

Once home, she made her way to the throne room, soon halted by Shiva in the grand entrance hall. Sera stood in shock for a moment, before wiping tears away rather quickly.

"Why has the Oracle of Night decided to hide her tears from the world?" Gentiana asked as she shifted back into her High Messenger from.

"Because I see no need to reveal my emotions to those who have not been deemed worthy. for they will use it to take advantage of my pain," Sera said, finding that her tears wouldn't cease before she wipes more and more tears away.

"What for does she weep?"

"From an early age, I knew the King of Kings was to give his life to save the masses, I had often wished it wasn't so. The prophecy took everything but my friends away from me."

"Fear not, Chosen Oracle. You have not lost everything, the prince of Tenebrae seeks your awakening. Once awakened, seek him out in the fields of sylleblossoms. Go forth, go hence in the Rogue Princess's name."

"Before you go, Gentiana. I ask that you put my beloved in a cryogenic state, while I am away. If I am not to age, then so is he." And with that, Sera made her way to the chamber where the crystal once was, her hand on the crystal shard necklace that was left for her from her father. As she took the necklace off, Sera caught a glimpse of the silver bracelet that had the Tidesmother wrapping around the Trident of the Oracle around her wrist. If the crystal shard was to break, this bracelet would be the last thing her father left her.

Although the Crystal had been destroyed, along with the Ring of the Lucii, the crystal shard that hung from Sera's neck was still intact. She gently placed the shard that emitted great amounts of mana before taking a deep breath in to calm her nerves.

"Gods of the Star, I beg of you. Allow me passage into the Crystal so that I may be able to save my beloved from the darkness that ceases to kill him." And with that, Sera was absorbed into the small crystalline chamber that once hung around her neck.

*Falling. I feel like I'm falling into an endless abyss. I'm afraid to open my eyes, a bright light already urging them to open. I made it into the world of Bahamut, the God of the Crystal. This is it. Time to open your eyes, Sera. Time to see the Draconian with the very hopes that he saves your beloved.*

At the Citadel, Prompto was taken to infirmary where the Glacian had put him into a cryogenic slumber, where he would be purified for the coming years. Ignis and Gladiolus had placed guards at the doors, in case he awakened one day. While Sera was in the Crystal, three years had passed in Lucis. In the Crystal, it was only three minutes.