Work Text:
Another sun was painting the sky in tired reds and oranges, ready to dim down and give way to the night. Chilly nights, especially outside the capital. Countless times Ardyn had cursed himself for not having learned how to make a fire. Well, there was nothing left but to cover himself in layers of clothing, only to shed them during day time. He had decided to call it “style”, just for a nicer ring to his absence of ignition skill.
Those nights on the road were particularly chilly, if not for the lack of fire then for the absence of company. Of course, Ardyn led a life of a traveler, ready to head wherever direction the darker power was pulling his strings in. It had been that way ever since he had first felt that mysterious tugging and learned the power he had. The power to alleviate the darkness. The power to heal people’s souls.
Ardyn, having led a life without a goal, no clear path to walk upon had been more than glad to have found his calling. He had loved being around people, the more when he was able to help them, humour them perhaps. His little brother had always told him that he had a peculiar sense of humour and he took his pride in it. That was why being in the next village, the next town was a true celebration, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger but always a delight.
Yet, those warm words and cheers made the intervals in between long and cold. One might have even said lonely, but Ardyn didn’t want to go as far. And they were a necessity, probably even amplifying the warm feeling he would get when entering the next town. Or so he tried to reason about it.
But he couldn’t deny that even the kindness he was met with had grown to carry a distant chill. The people were joyful, yes, they welcomed the Healer and his miracles. And they had come to worship him. Which was where the actual problem might have been. Ardyn had been put up on an imaginary throne, something divine to love but to love from afar. Maybe even something to fear.
“Oh my. I wonder what makes me ponder about such things lately. I shouldn’t, am I not right, my loveable plumed companion?”, the man cooed, scratching the soft spot under the beak of his Chocobo, receiving an affectionate “kweh” in return.
Ardyn would continue to do what felt right, even if it meant enduring the cold for a while.
The while was over with the next morning. Deserts heat up rather quickly but Ardyn had made the choice to wander the less accessed parts of the continent. There had to be people not knowing yet that they needed him and this couldn’t stay that way. Even if it meant to cross a desert.
“Well, what makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well”, Ardyn hummed, lifting up his spirits as usual while strapping some of his clothing layers onto his riding bird.
It was just when the sun was about to burn down too hot for Ardyn’s taste that he arrived in a village. Probably a big one for hot-desert-land standards, with cubic houses made from clay to preserve whatever chill the nights would leave behind for the day and store the heat of day to keep the nights warm.
“Charming little town”, Ardyn murmured to himself scanning over the scenery, content curving his lips. Apparently the word of the Healer had not spread that far. All he received was one or the other glance, curious ones, yes, but more indifferent than excited. An excellent place to work his magic and bring happiness, should he find someone in need.
But first: the well.
It was easily found, right up the main street and then turning right to reach the market place - a common place to have a well and a most fitting one as well (Ardyn held back his snort at that thought). He got into talking with one of the elderly women after asking for permission to take some water (manners had to be respected after all). No surprises as there seemed to be some victims to the plague in this town as well, one of them being her grandchild.
“Would you be so kind and let me see her?”, Ardyn smiled at the woman, who was staring back at him with wide eyes.
“But young man, I wouldn’t want you to fall victim to the sickness. A traveler like you should stay of good health.”
Ardyn placed a gentle hand on her shoulders.
“Do not fret, milady. The sickness is the reason for my travels.”
The woman’s wish to help her grandchild won over her incredulity and made her believe in Ardyn’s words. She guided him through town, making for her house.
It really was a charming village, a little too hot and dusty for Ardyn’s likings but the people seemed friendly.
A curious sight caught the Healer’s eye on the way. In the shadows of a small back alley, a tall and built figure was committed to something that looked like training. Ardyn could not see his face as he had turned his back on him, but he had long silver hair that swayed with every movement. And his attire appeared to be a little too warm for the surroundings. The metal and cloth basically covered everything of the man’s body.
Another voyager? Ardyn’s mind lingered a moment until the woman urged him to proceed.
The Scourge had hit the poor little child in a rather ugly way, dusting black blotches or dying skin over her face, a hint of tar glistening in the corner of her mouth.
“Hello there young girl”, Ardyn approached the girl, who shied away from him under the blanket. “Now, don’t hide from me, would you? I have come to see you.”
A pair of anxious eyes reappeared from behind the blanket.
“But mommy says I cannot see anyone.”
“Well, in that case, how about you close your eyes? You wouldn’t have to see me then, would you?”, Ardyn returned with a wink.
The little girl actually chuckled, much to her grandmother’s surprise. And she really closed her eyes, Gods this was endearing.
“You’re a good girl”, Ardyn murmured, approaching the girl. “Let me offer you something, a present if you will.”
And then he let his magic work. Magic or whatever kind of power it was. He liked to think of it as magic. Anything else might be scary. His hands traced along the face of the child, chasing the pulsating energy that was pulsing through her body. Gladly enough Ardyn could make out the source and started pulling on its imaginary string, the same way it seemed to pull on him.
It was a straining procedure and Ardyn had the impression that its toll grew heavier on him every time. But then again maybe this was just due to him traveling so much. When he started healing in the capital it hadn’t been so bad after all. But who was he to complain about a task being exhausting. He created miracles after all.
The good news spread throughout the village like wildfire. That a healer had come to take away their burdens. The poor child’s house shouldn’t be the last Ardyn visited that day. People gathered around him, waited in front of a victim’s house, peeking through doors and windows to see it happen. It was the well known ruckus and Ardyn enjoyed seeing all those faces lighting up, their burdens lifted.
“You!!!”
Ardyn started as a man yelled outside.
“What are you doing here! You are not wanted here, filthy son of a street rat!”
Confused and curious what was going on, he asked the man in front of him for patience as he turned to look out of the window.
A group of people had formed some kind of wall, seemingly in defense of the house. Behind this wall there was that same stranger again, the tall one with the pretty hair. Much to Ardyn’s surprise he was wearing an iron mask.
Despite being more than well built and appearing to be a strong warrior of some kind, he ducked his head as the villagers were starting to throw pebbles and stones and made a quick retreat, disappearing into one of the smaller streets.
“Please, do not pay him any attention”, a woman near to him apologised. “We try to keep him from your sight, so please do not fear for your safety.”
Ardyn didn’t quite understand what was going on but he was more than interested in finding out. Later. When he was alone again.
Which was the case at sundown, after he had been offered a place to stay the night. On his way to look after his Chocobo (poor thing had to wait for him near the well all day) he spotted him.
“Ah, the masked man dressed in a patchwork rug - a stylish one as I might add”, Ardyn greeted the stranger who was sitting on the remains of a wall, all by himself.
The man jerked his head around, visibly caught off guard despite lacking facial features.
“Are you sure you’re in the place of mocking me? I suggest you have a look in the mirror”, he returned with a deeper voice and more salt than Ardyn had imagined.
Ardyn twisted his upper body and took one (more or less) gracious turn so the layers he had added to his coat would swing with the movement.
“It surely gets cold at night and we don’t want to fall ill, do we? Let us say we fancy the same style”, he returned with an inviting gesture of his hand.
“And whom do I have the pleasure of being talking to, if I may ask?”
“Oh great, a prater”, he murmured, his sigh audible against the metal.
“It’s not a pleasure, I can assure.”
“Then it is not. But that still doesn’t provide me with a name.”
Ardyn was sure the man in front of him was rolling his eyes. He couldn’t see him, but he could imagine it pretty vividly.
“I don’t owe you anything”, the tall man rumbled back, turning his face away again.
“Ah-ah, not now, you don’t but maybe you will”, Ardyn shot back with a wry smirk, hopping onto the stones next to the stranger who immediately moved away a few inches.
“I saw you today, back there at that house and I wondered what brought you here. The name is Ardyn, by the way.”
“That is none of your concern”, the tall man snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Oh, I’m sure it is”, Ardyn nodded. “Or are you trying to tell me it is not when you could just have walked away instead of hearing me out?”
He was met with silence but the stranger didn’t leave.
“I do take this as a yes?”
Ardyn hopped off the little wall again and rounded it in order to have a closer look at the man’s face. Mask.
“Well, if you’re not willing to talk, could you maybe reveal your face? To ‘face me’, if you will?”
If fingerguns had been a thing for Ardyn, this would have been the perfect moment but he was not very fond of them. A tad too ridiculous. But he had to crack open this fellow, or else he would not be able to help with whatever was plaguing him. And he was a particularly hard one. The girl earlier had been easier to please.
Another moment of silence passed as Ardyn was watching the man, defiant eyes searching for their counterparts behind the dark slits.
“The village will not like it.”
Ardyn shrugged.
”Very considerate, thank you. But I am a traveler. A rather impatient one and I will not dwell in this place for much longer than this night.”
Another metallic sigh.
“Now, come on. No need for restraint?”
The man let his hands drop into his lap. Armoured hands, as Ardyn noticed, probably clad in the same metal that was also hiding his face.
“I don’t understand you”, the masked man shook his head.
“Oh, did I not make myself clear enough? Very well then.”
Ardyn opened his arms in invitation.
“Ask away.”
“The people told you to stay away from me. Why are you helping me?”
Ardyn tilted his head.
“Because helping people is my calling. And I daresay I’m pretty good at it. If you let me, that is.”
Silence again.
Just as Ardyn was about to say something, anything really to get their awkward conversation somewhere, the masked man spoke up again. This time, his tone was softer, stripped from hostility.
“The villagers were talking about you. They told you could heal.”
“The plague, you mean?”
The white haired man nodded.
Ardyn frowned.
“But, do you need that sort of healing? You certainly look far livelier than any of the victims I ever treated. And I don’t sense it in you.”
“Sense it?”
“Oh yes. I can sense where the sickness lies”, Ardyn explained. “It’s like a constant force, pulling me into the direction I have to go. A call, if you like. But I don’t sense this pull from you.”
“Oh...”
The tall man lowered his head.
“So maybe they have been right then. Maybe it’s not the sickness and I am just a cursed being after all.”
“Cursed?”
Now that was something new. Ardyn had never talked to a cursed person before. How could he help this miserable fellow?
“You’re leaving tomorrow you say, so I can as well show you. It makes no difference.”
To Ardyn’s surprise, the man brought up his hand to his face and (he couldn’t believe it) lifted his iron face guard. The moment the mask came down, Ardyn felt a pull so strong that it almost swept him off his feet. He crouched for a moment, trying to regain his balance but the pull was steady and grew stronger by minute.
“Hey, are you alright?”
Ardyn looked up into a piercing pair of pale eyes in the purplish colour of evening clouds, framed by worried brows. It would have been a beautiful sight, if not for the black, thick liquid that was taking up half of the eye’s white and wallowing down his tanned cheeks, mixing with whatever it was that oozed out of the corner of his mouth. And that aching pull that felt like it could tear his whole body apart.
“I wronged you, my friend”, Ardyn barely breathed, eyes opened wide in shock. He had never seen a case that bad. “How are you still able to stand?”
The man helped him up, supporting him with one arm.
“The training helps. At least I am not as weak as some of the villagers are. Or have been, I should say now. Although sometimes I feel like I’m not myself. Like I’m losing my mind.”
He ran one hand over the mask.
“I barely remember those moments though. I only notice when I wake up, when I come back. The villagers fear me. I tried to protect them from the me I do not know by wearing an armour and covering my skin, sealing away what might be dangerous to them. But nothing would ever be the same again. I’m an outcast and this is my curse.”
Ardyn’s hands were shaking as he brought them up to cup the face of the stranger, still trying to keep the pulling sensation in check.
“You have no idea”, he whispered aghast.
“Stay away, you will corrupt!”, the unmasked panicked as he realized that the black vile substance was staining Ardyn’s hands.
But no human strength could have won against the power of the Healer’s connection to the Scourge. The man managed to force down Ardyn’s hands from his face but in the next moment the Healer gave in to the crushing gravity of the calling.
Ardyn leaped for the stranger’s body, wrapping both of his arms around him and pressing his forehead against his shoulders. He could feel the plague burning through the other’s veins.
“Poor soul”, Ardyn whispered, overwhelmed and with tears in his eyes.
“You shall know relief.”
Ardyn drew a shaky breath, focused on the imaginary strings (there were just so many of them) and started pulling.
When the first rays of sunlight crept up from behind the dunes Ardyn woke. His whole body felt sore and he could have slept for a whole century if it wasn’t for the heat. Why was he lying in bed fully clad anyways? No. First of all, how did he get here?
The Healer sat up, every muscle screaming in protest and scanned the room. It was the place he had been offered to stay at, so this at least was right. Ardyn absently ran a lazy hand through his purplish-red locks.
Ah. Right. The masked one.
The hand slid down and over his face, grazing the faint stubble that had appeared on his chin over night.
He must have collapsed from exhaustion, there was no other explanation. Well, at least he hadn’t been murdered on the street. That would have been a lamentable end.
Ardyn recalled the man’s face, strained and tormented by the Scourge but still... Those eyes, bright and ready to fight, ready to live. He was a good man, Ardyn was sure of it. And impressed, not to say the least. He couldn’t remember if he had been able to cure him, but he hoped so. Not knowing somehow filled him with melancholy.
That feeling of melancholy was immediately forgotten as Ardyn saw the familiar patchwork rug ensemble feeding his Chocobo.
“Oh good morning to you”, Ardyn approached him. He was still unmasked as he noticed, exhaustion visible on his face but the aftermath of what had been cursing through his body erased.
“Maybe it is the morning light, but you do have a quite healthy complexion today”, he continued as he petted the head of his feathered companion.
“You seem fine”, the man stated.
Ardyn had a look at himself.
“Yes. Yes, you could say that.”
The aching parts covering basically his whole body aside, he really was.
“Good.”
There it was again, the delightful awkward silence. The other probably wasn’t the talking kind of person.
“Say, Ardyn, was it?”
The smaller one turned his head towards the unmasked. His face was indeed a pretty fair one. The dusk hadn’t betrayed his eyes. Nor had the Scourge.
“Hm?”
“Is that... healing practise of yours a... common one? Not that I would question your methods, but...”
If Ardyn didn’t know it better, he would have thought that the other man was being flustered. Which couldn’t possibly be the case. Such as he himself wasn’t when he thought back about what might have been called either daring or labeled as sexual harrassment. If it hadn’t been for the greater good that was. Which it had been.
Ardyn could have blamed it on the sickness. It wouldn’t even have been a lie. But for some reason he didn’t feel like it.
“Oh, you see, special cases deserve special treatment”, Ardyn returned instead, a genuine smile on his face.
“And you reminded me of myself, in a way. Less exceptional, of course”, he added quickly. Who was he to pour out his lonely heart to a complete stranger?
“Well then, I must bid you farewell now”, Ardyn swept into a deep bow. “It turned out to be a pleasure to have met you.”
“Gilgamesh.”
“Beg you pardon?”
“You asked for my name.”
Ardyn found himself baffled.
“Now this is quite a lovely name”, he stated as nonchalant as his surprise let him.
“A little long for me to remember though, I fear. Would you mind shortening it down to... Gil? Gil does sound like somebody that could be friend of mine?”
“Gilgamesh”, the white haired man grumbled and shoved something onto Ardyn’s face that made his vision go black.
When Ardyn pulled it down again he saw what it was. A hat in classic black and a rather fancy cut which was casting a nice shadow onto his face.
“It gets hot in the desert”, Gilgamesh stated. “ The sun is strong. You should be careful of heat strokes.”
“Aah, now that is something I was still missing. Thank you kindly, Gil. Greeting will be much easier from now on too.”
Ardyn hadn’t expected Gilgamesh to be that thoughtful.
“Well then, it is time for to leave this village behind.”
“Where are we going?”
“We?”
Ardyn stopped mounting his Chocobo half-way. It was only then when he noticed the knee high bag at Gilgamesh’s feet, poorly strapped together with all kinds of ropes and belts.
“Why are we suddenly traveling together?”
Gilgamesh heaved his bag over his shoulder, his expression as rigid as the mask he had been wearing.
“You saved my life, so I happen to owe you something after all. If I am of use.”
Ardyn pondered for a moment until his eyes finally lit up.
“Gil, can you start fires?”
Gilgamesh frowned.
“I hope you asking that question does not mean what I think it means.”
“But can you?”
“Yes?”
Gilgamesh’s eyeroll was as perfect as Ardyn had imagined it.
The Healer flung his leg over the Chocobo and gave him a nudge to start trotting.
“I congratulate you for choosing the best company there is on all Eos”, he fluted, accompanied by a generous gesture.
“We will be heading south from now on. I hope you don’t mind walking, there is only one Chocobo after all.”
Ardyn could hear Gilgamesh muttering incomprehensible complains while he was trying to catch up behind him.
A content smile adorned his face. The nights would be warm from now on.