16Episode Nyx
If you had told Nyx he would be dying because of some sort of ancient bull shit that apparently haunted the Lucian royal bloodline, he would've told you to get your head checked. Woe is him because apparently, he was going to die because of some ancient ancestral bull shit for the sake of safeguarding the future his princess wanted to protect and see through.
He could feel his life draining away by the second as the sun inched its way up into the sky, lighting the horizon with a beautiful haze of purple, blue and orange. Unsurprisingly, he compared the scenery to Stella.
Stella.
Nyx smiled softly into the rising sun, even as the skin of his arm broke away from being burned and was carried away by the wind. He had wanted to survive tonight, if only to fulfil that date. To see the new year's fireworks with Crowe, Libertus and Stella again. He mused on his thoughts. As a refugee kid coming from a war torn Galahd, he had never thought he would end up like this.
When he joined the Kingsglaive as a teen wanting nothing more than to reclaim his throne and to help the King that had saved him, he didn't really think he was the best of them all. But he liked to think he was better than most. He was the one that adapted the quickest to the new power that flowed through his veins, granted by King Regis of Lucis. He was the one that went out of his way to train and get stronger and faster. He was the one who wouldn't leave his comrades behind.
The so called 'Hero'.
It wasn't like he had set out to be a 'Hero', he just had a sense of justice that nagged at him a lot. He couldn't help himself from helping others when he was able to do it. Something that he could not have done for his mother and sister. Nyx had joined the Kingsglaive to be useful and to reclaim his home… But he found another home somewhere along the way.
Libertus had followed him into the Kingsglaive. A friend from Galahd that he knew since he was in diapers. Somewhere down the road, he had become more of a brother than a friend. He was a little too quick to anger and judgmental to a fault, but he had a good heart. Nyx was grateful to have a loyal friend in Libertus and he proved that in gold when he ran a car into his former mentor.
Crowe Altius had been a surprise. Slight little thing with a talent for the King's magic, she rose through the ashes of a newbie and became the best at wielding magic in less than eight months. She had control only seen in the Royal Family and she knew it. She was nothing like his own late sister, but she had become one nonetheless. Crowe was a proud little thing, but had a certain softness for the only female friend she had.
Which brought him to his 'home'.
Stella Lucis Caelum, Princess to the Lucian throne and one of his closest friends. A brilliant Light in the dreary city of Insomnia. At first glance, she was nothing more than a pretty princess. All smiles and regal kindness. But she was different from the other royalty. She had no problem being seen with 'commoners' and 'outsiders'. At one point it even looked like she preferred hanging out with the Glaives instead of people of similar station as her. The things she got up to for them… From ensuring the people left in their former homes were taken care of, to making the effort to make the Glaives feel like they had a home in Insomnia. She was beautiful, both inside and out.
And Nyx was in love with her.
It was a gradual thing, really. At first, he saw her as nothing more than a princess. The daughter of the King he was thankful to for saving him. Then, she started training with them and talking with them and she became a friend. Her obvious preference for his company, as well as Crowe and Libertus's made Nyx see her as a close friend. He never thought of her in a way that went beyond close friendship.
Until that night, a few years ago when he had come home from a skirmish, heavily wounded but alive. He had found her sitting on the chair next to his hospital bed, shoulders slumped, hair a right mess and bags under her eyes. When he had woken up, she had given him the most breathtaking relieved smile and embraced him, giving thanks to the gods for his survival. He could feel her tears drop on to his neck, the trembling of her shoulders as she tried to hold herself together.
He hadn't known he had become someone important enough in her heart to warrant such worry and attention. But he had and Nyx didn't know it back then, but it was at that point that his heart had decided to start falling. He could do nothing else in the face of such kindness and care and love that she had shown to him. He knew she didn't love him the way he was falling for her. But he fell anyway.
Stella had a big heart, but she loved a few. Her closest family and friends were the only ones that people could safely say she truly 'loved'. And even then he knew nothing would come out of him falling for the princess. He was one of the few whom Stella had told about Ravus Nox Fleuret. A blind man could see how deeply in love with the former Tenebraean prince Stella was. It was the sort of love he knew he could never really compete with. So even as he fell in love deeper and deeper with her by the day, he stayed silent.
Instead, he swore his fealty to her. Swearing to himself that he would love and protect her to the best of his abilities. She was his princess, the woman he loved and swore loyalty to. There was never any question about it. When the past kings of Lucis questioned his motivations for putting on the ring, he had already known his answer. A future that he could never have imagined but one that Stella had always wanted. For her, for her future, for her dreams, he would gladly give his life.
His heart started slowing and he took in the sight of the sun rising in the horizon one last time.
"Not a bad way to go at all."