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nightcoeurl"They're sending us to the front lines."
When those words were spoken to his sister and her friend, Nyx Ulric thought deep down that it would be some of the last he would ever say to them. Not that he was going to die in that exact moment directly after speaking them, but that he would certain perish out there with the rest of his adopted family that were also going to be among those being sent.
To go out in battle would be the preferred method for most their age constantly fighting that unyeling fight against Garlemald but Nyx had reservations about that.
Namely the bright green eyes staring back at him with barely veiled ache at the news and the thin lips that formed a soft 'oh' of pained understanding. Lips he wanted so badly to kiss until she was breathless in his arms but wouldn't. Give him a thousand Imperial soldiers to tear through and his courage was boundless, but tell him to speak his true feelings to one Rox Pickheart, the most beautiful woman this side of Bozja in his mind, and he might as well be a shy babe hiding behind his mother's skirts.
Not that he or many people these days even had mothers anymore.
He could have said something.
He should have said something.
Even his sister was looking at him like he'd lost his damn mind, not only agreeing to go but keeping his true feelings for the Hrothgar under emotional lock and key.
It didn't matter though because he was a dead Au Ra walking anyway.
And he very nearly was.
The battles were brutal. Many fell right next to him, mixing blood of resistance fighter and Imperial. They had terrible machines that would tear though numbers like wheat being threshed in the autumn sun and more than once something exploded entirely too close, leaving his sensitive horns ringing.
It was when they brought out something absolutely monstrous, though, that Nyx thought he saw the end of his days in full view. Some sort of terrible amalgamation of a bastardized Gridianian elemental and machine spitting aether-charged lightning everywhere, threatening to arc to places where even innocents on both sides were hiding from the raging carnage. Clearly whoever cooked up the horrendous beast didn't do much testing on it because the Imperial soldiers quickly lost control of it and abandoned their creation to rampage without prejudice. It was quickly building up an excess of aether that lashed out in all directions, killing any who were still too close to it.
The second to last thing Nyx remembered was Libertus, his dear Roegadyn best friend, screaming that it was going to explode and take everyone within twenty ilms out.
The last thing he remembered was charging at the connection between creature and machine, screaming as the might of a storm to rival Ramuh tore through his body when he stabbed his twin blades through it and severed the connection. The smell of burning and atmosphere choked him before he collapsed into a heap.
When he woke he was, ironically, in a clinic in Gridania being cared for by kind conjurers and white mages who looked shocked when he opened his eyes, and he was even visted by the Padjal leader of the Conjurer's Guild who spoke highly of his apparent "extenely powerful and natural affinity" for elemental magics that he didn't know he had. Said affinity had been what saved him, and when Lib and their other adopted family member Crowe realized he was still breathing he had been rushed back to Eorzea for treatment.
Treatment they hadn't even been sure would work.
But it did, and the dead Au Ra walking was given a second life by an ability he didn't even know he had.
Unfortunately recovery wasn't as miraculous and it took months just to be able to walk again. Crowe and Lib stayed by his side through it all, and as the last remnants of their once large adopted family they mourned the loss of so many, including his sister who did sadly succumb to another attack on their refugee settlement as well as the apparent disappearance of Rox.
That had been years ago. The world had come through the other side of an entire Umbral Calamity, Garlemald was still being Garlemald, and Nyx had started an entirely new life far away from the war torn regions of his past, always looking towards the future but with a quiet ache for the things he'd missed out on, the people he'd lost.
The ones he'd been unable to save.
But becoming a small tavern owner in a quiet corner of Gridania as well as a fellow instructor at the Guild that had saved his life kept him busy, and most days his thoughts didn't drift to the fang-filled smile.of the woman he could have had. A woman that for all itents and purposes... no longer existed.
When those words were spoken to his sister and her friend, Nyx Ulric thought deep down that it would be some of the last he would ever say to them. Not that he was going to die in that exact moment directly after speaking them, but that he would certain perish out there with the rest of his adopted family that were also going to be among those being sent.
To go out in battle would be the preferred method for most their age constantly fighting that unyeling fight against Garlemald but Nyx had reservations about that.
Namely the bright green eyes staring back at him with barely veiled ache at the news and the thin lips that formed a soft 'oh' of pained understanding. Lips he wanted so badly to kiss until she was breathless in his arms but wouldn't. Give him a thousand Imperial soldiers to tear through and his courage was boundless, but tell him to speak his true feelings to one Rox Pickheart, the most beautiful woman this side of Bozja in his mind, and he might as well be a shy babe hiding behind his mother's skirts.
Not that he or many people these days even had mothers anymore.
He could have said something.
He should have said something.
Even his sister was looking at him like he'd lost his damn mind, not only agreeing to go but keeping his true feelings for the Hrothgar under emotional lock and key.
It didn't matter though because he was a dead Au Ra walking anyway.
And he very nearly was.
The battles were brutal. Many fell right next to him, mixing blood of resistance fighter and Imperial. They had terrible machines that would tear though numbers like wheat being threshed in the autumn sun and more than once something exploded entirely too close, leaving his sensitive horns ringing.
It was when they brought out something absolutely monstrous, though, that Nyx thought he saw the end of his days in full view. Some sort of terrible amalgamation of a bastardized Gridianian elemental and machine spitting aether-charged lightning everywhere, threatening to arc to places where even innocents on both sides were hiding from the raging carnage. Clearly whoever cooked up the horrendous beast didn't do much testing on it because the Imperial soldiers quickly lost control of it and abandoned their creation to rampage without prejudice. It was quickly building up an excess of aether that lashed out in all directions, killing any who were still too close to it.
The second to last thing Nyx remembered was Libertus, his dear Roegadyn best friend, screaming that it was going to explode and take everyone within twenty ilms out.
The last thing he remembered was charging at the connection between creature and machine, screaming as the might of a storm to rival Ramuh tore through his body when he stabbed his twin blades through it and severed the connection. The smell of burning and atmosphere choked him before he collapsed into a heap.
When he woke he was, ironically, in a clinic in Gridania being cared for by kind conjurers and white mages who looked shocked when he opened his eyes, and he was even visted by the Padjal leader of the Conjurer's Guild who spoke highly of his apparent "extenely powerful and natural affinity" for elemental magics that he didn't know he had. Said affinity had been what saved him, and when Lib and their other adopted family member Crowe realized he was still breathing he had been rushed back to Eorzea for treatment.
Treatment they hadn't even been sure would work.
But it did, and the dead Au Ra walking was given a second life by an ability he didn't even know he had.
Unfortunately recovery wasn't as miraculous and it took months just to be able to walk again. Crowe and Lib stayed by his side through it all, and as the last remnants of their once large adopted family they mourned the loss of so many, including his sister who did sadly succumb to another attack on their refugee settlement as well as the apparent disappearance of Rox.
That had been years ago. The world had come through the other side of an entire Umbral Calamity, Garlemald was still being Garlemald, and Nyx had started an entirely new life far away from the war torn regions of his past, always looking towards the future but with a quiet ache for the things he'd missed out on, the people he'd lost.
The ones he'd been unable to save.
But becoming a small tavern owner in a quiet corner of Gridania as well as a fellow instructor at the Guild that had saved his life kept him busy, and most days his thoughts didn't drift to the fang-filled smile.of the woman he could have had. A woman that for all itents and purposes... no longer existed.