Chapter Text
Travelling with Alan proved to be surprisingly easy.
Though he made polite conversation with Giorgio along the way, the musician was not overly forward in his demeanour, making no attempt to pry into Giorgio's affairs.
While the monsters they faced along the way were thankfully not that vicious, there was indeed a noticeable increase in their numbers compared to the fiends Giorgio had encountered while travelling through Greenhorne.
True to his word, while he was hardly an expert, Alan was competent enough to pull his weight in battle without needing Giorgio to constantly bail him out. Though he wouldn't say so out loud, Giorgio had to admit that he felt safer knowing someone else was watching his back.
All the same, Giorgio was reluctant to spend more time with Alan than necessary — not out of dislike for the man, but simply to keep him at arm's length. He couldn't risk letting himself open up to this stranger and be hurt again — not after the fate that his previous friends had suffered.
Better to not care at all than to care and be hurt, he thought to himself, ignoring the small voice at the back of his mind that reminded him he'd already been down this path once.
Instead of sharing a room when they stopped at inns for the night, Giorgio and Alan took separate rooms, meeting up again in the morning once they were ready to set out. Alan seemed to have no objections to this; at the very least, he never said anything about this arrangement.
Giorgio was simply relieved that Alan wouldn't be present to watch him fall apart at night. While he fortunately didn't have screaming nightmares like the one he'd experienced after his former party had been knocked out in battle, he slept fitfully every night, often coming awake shaking and gasping from half–remembered dreams.
He could never bring himself to go back to sleep afterwards and risk facing more terrors conjured up by his subconscious. Instead, he simply sat by the window, polishing Evan's old sword as he counted the hours till morning.
Five days after the disappearance of Giorgio's friends, a familiar face reappeared.
The day hadn't been going particularly well thus far. A week of suffering nightmares and sleep–deprivation had left their mark on Giorgio, slowly but surely eroding his already weakened fighting strength and reflexes. While Alan had mercifully refrained from commenting, Giorgio knew that the older man had noticed his pitiful physical state as well.
"Giorgio, is that you?"
Hearing a voice from somewhere nearby, Giorgio turned in surprise to see Ignis, who appeared to be studying him with concern.
"Friend of yours?" Alan asked, glancing at the sage as he approached them.
"Well… we've crossed paths before, so you could say that," Giorgio replied. "Ignis. What are you doing here?"
"I received an urgent request for assistance from the nearby town of Palamecia," Ignis explained, nodding at Alan by way of greeting. "I see you have a new travelling companion. My apologies for prying, but your other party members appear to be absent…"
From the corner of his eye, Giorgio saw Alan glance at him with a mixture of curiosity and concern.
The sage's well–meaning non–question sent a fresh jolt of pain through Giorgio's heart, re–opening wounds that had barely begun to close after the events of the past week. Pressing his lips together, he turned away, unable to bring himself to answer.
Fortunately, Ignis didn't press the issue further, evidently having deduced the truth from Giorgio's reluctance to answer.
"I see," he said softly, piercing gaze softening into a look of sympathy. "My sincerest condolences. But no matter how dire the situation may seem, you mustn't lose hope. As long as you keep pressing forward, you'll find them again."
Though Giorgio desperately wanted to believe Ignis' words, the despair that had been weighing on him thus far was not so easily dispelled. Nonetheless, he recognised that the sage was trying to encourage him and appreciated the effort.
All the same, this would probably be easier if I had more concrete directions…
It was then that he remembered the damaged charm in his possession.
"I… I was wondering…" He said hesitantly, removing the charm from his pouch and unwrapping it. "Would you happen to know how to fix this?"
Even if this doesn't work, it's not as though the charm's condition can get any worse, right?
Ignis carefully took the charm from Giorgio, gently turning it over in his steady hands and studying it.
"Interesting… This appears to be a divine artifact. It may seem fragile, but its nature makes it virtually indestructible; you could smash it with a huge rock and have the rock shatter into pieces instead. The only thing that could have damaged it is the corrupting force of dark magic. I assume it was broken in an encounter with Chaos?"
Giorgio nodded, peering at the charm anxiously. "Can you fix it?"
"Undoing the damage will be complicated, but I should be able to manage it," Ignis replied. "Give me a moment."
With the charm resting on the palm of his right hand, Ignis closed his eyes in concentration, muttering a long, complicated string of words.
A warm orange glow enveloped the charm, pulsating brighter and brighter until it seemed as though Ignis was holding an orb of light. With a sudden flash, the light vanished, leaving behind a flawless charm.
"Here you go." With a soft smile, Ignis handed the charm back to Giorgio.
As he accepted the charm, Giorgio examined it carefully. To his surprise, he couldn't see even the slightest crack where the damage had once been.
"This is…" Giorgio stared at the charm, momentarily speechless. "Thank you so much. You don't know what this means to me; I don't know how I can repay you for this."
"No thanks are necessary. I'm happy to help," Ignis assured him. "That said, since you're in the area right now, I'd like to ask a small favour of both of you."
"I don't mind. Alan?" Giorgio looked at his travelling companion.
"Sure, why not?" Alan responded with a smile and a nod. "What do you need help with, Ignis?"
"A dangerous artifact has gone missing from Palamecia," Ignis explained, looking grave. "It was in the possession of an antique collector who was unaware of its true purpose, and I fear it may cause great harm if not recovered soon."
"The artifact in question is a brass lamp from the ancient Neksdor empire that existed thousands of years ago. The kingdom of Neksdor is much larger than that of Greenhorne, but it is nonetheless greatly diminished in the present day compared to its glory days."
"Back then, the capital of the empire was in the same location where Palamecia now stands. As such, the town is a haven for archaeologists looking to excavate artifacts from the empire's golden days. But this artifact is no mere buried treasure: The lamp is the prison of a very dangerous djinn, or genie as they're now called."
"A genie? Aren't those supposed to be good luck?" Alan interjected.
"Sadly, that's a mere myth, and an oversimplification of the truth," Ignis replied. "Genies are powerful magical creatures, but they are also capricious beings that are capable of terrible mischief."
"Bonded with a master whom it trusts, a genie will be intensely loyal and perform great feats of magic. Tales of these fantastical feats have been recorded and passed down through the years, and such stories are the origin of common folklore about genies granting wishes."
"But a genie who has lost its master is nothing more than a spirit of chaos. And I do mean actual chaos, not the Dark Lord Chaos. It lives for nothing more than to cause destruction and wreak havoc, and it will do so until it finds a new master to serve, or until it is sealed away."
"So, if someone finds the lamp and decides to rub it, thinking they'll get free wishes…" Giorgio said, realising what Ignis was trying to say.
Ignis nodded. "They'll unleash the genie, and all hell will break loose."
"The lamp I'm looking for was misplaced during an unexpected sandstorm that suddenly swept through the area a few days ago; I suspect the sandstorm might have been caused by Chaos to cover his tracks while he was fleeing eastward."
"I'm trying to find it, but I could use a few extra pairs of eyes. Would you keep a lookout for it while you're travelling?"
"Definitely," Alan replied. "If it's as dangerous as you say, we have to find it before someone gets hurt."
"What does this lamp look like?" Giorgio asked.
"It's a tarnished brass lamp engraved with the symbol of an eye on its side," Ignis said. "If you find it, bring it to me at once, or send word via the townspeople. I'll be in Palamecia for the next few days."
"Farewell for now, my friends." With that, he turned and left.
"He's a pretty cool guy," Alan commented, looking impressed. "How'd you meet him, anyway?"
"Well…" Giorgio hesitated. He didn't exactly want to get into the story of his previous party members and their abduction, but he couldn't think of a way to explain his first meeting with Ignis without bringing up his friends.
"Long story, I'm guessing? Sorry, I shouldn't have pushed," Alan apologised. "It's just, I couldn't help noticing Ignis mentioned you had previous travelling companions before me… But if you don't want to talk about them, that's fine. I won't pry, I promise."
Giorgio swallowed and gave Alan a short nod, grateful for the older man's discretion. Kind as Alan was, he was still a near–stranger at this point, and Giorgio found himself torn between wanting to unburden himself, and not wanting to relive the painful memories of his recent loss and risk breaking down again.
Thinking about the events of the previous week, anger began to boil within Giorgio's heart.
His parents were supposed to be serving as guardian spirits to him and his party members, and yet they'd simply watched as Giorgio's friends were captured instead of intervening and saving them.
They hadn't even bothered to warn Giorgio or keep his charm safe; if it hadn't been for Ignis, he would never have been able to speak to them again.
Not that it matters if I can speak to you, is it? You don't even care about me or my friends. What use are you anyway? Are you just sitting back and laughing at me now?! He screamed inside his head.
If his parents were truly watching and listening, they would be able to hear the accusatory vitriol directed at them, wouldn't they? He wouldn't stoop to the level of embarrassing himself in front of Alan by shouting insults at the sky.
I bet you're not even watching me, are you? You can't even be bothered to help—
A bright light bloomed across the desert sands, engulfing him.
"That's enough, Giorgio."
As his mother's stern voice echoed through the technicolour landscape of the divine realm, Giorgio flinched reflexively.
It didn't matter that he was a grown adult, or that it had been years since he'd had her scolding him. Somewhere in his memories, his body and mind recognised that tone as a warning sign that he was about to get into a lot of trouble.
A moment later, the feeling passed, replaced by anger once more.
"Why should I listen to you?! You claim to be guardian spirits, yet you don't even bother lifting a finger to help when my friends are in trouble." He shouted, rage spilling forth with every word.
"Aren't you supposed to be all–powerful beings? You can dress me in a chef's outfit and tell people to come find me, but you can't take two seconds to warn us that Chaos was going to attack, or to stop my friends from being abducted, or…"
Or to wake me while he was attacking, he wanted to say. The words died in his throat.
That was the crux of the issue, after all. As furious as he was with his parents for not intervening, Giorgio knew that he himself had done nothing to help his friends while they were being stolen away by Chaos. If anything, he'd managed to fall asleep so deeply that he'd slept through the entire attack, waking far too late to save his friends.
Giorgio was furious with his parents, but he hated himself even more.
"My son… Stop." His father's soft voice interrupted the stream of thoughts flooding Giorgio's mind, full of self–loathing as they were.
"Don't blame yourself for what happened. It wasn't your fault."
"How is it not my fault?! I could have helped them!" Giorgio cried out, frustration mingling with guilt in his voice. "I let my guard down, and they were kidnapped while I slept! Evan was literally captured from the same room as me, and I still didn't wake up!"
"It wasn't you, Giorgio. You were under a spell of dark magic at the time, which kept you in an unnatural state of slumber and unable to awaken."
Giorgio stopped short, thrown for a loop.
"…What?"
"Before Chaos attacked, he used a bit of his power to ensure that you stayed asleep and wouldn't wake up. It only wore off after he was far away enough, since he wouldn't have been able to maintain the spell once he was out of range," his mother explained.
"A spell like that could not have been broken by you or any of your friends. Even if you'd somehow realised what was happening, you wouldn't have been able to force yourself awake by yourself while you were ensnared by it."
Giorgio was silent, but his thoughts were racing.
He remembered now… That strange nightmare he'd been having before he woke to find himself in a living nightmare. Given what had happened since then, it had slipped his mind until now, but he remembered…
He had seen Chaos in his dream. At the time, he'd thought it to be merely a nightmare, but…
What if that really was Chaos, speaking to me inside my mind while I was under his spell?
If that were the case, then…
So… It really wasn't my fault after all. There was nothing I could have done to prevent it…
Even as the realisation eased some of the guilt that had been twisting his guts ever since that night, the flames of his anger towards his parents grew stronger.
"Then why didn't you free me? If there was truly nothing I could have done, then why didn't YOU do something?" He spat. "Or are you going to tell me you couldn't do that either?"
"…Believe it or not, we couldn't." His father's words were calm but serious.
"Guardian spirits are not the infallible beings you seem to think we are. We cannot see the future, and we cannot intervene directly in events occurring in the… real world, for lack of a better term. Our powers allow us to inspire people and empower them, but not through huge, flashy displays."
"A nudge to someone who's faltering in their path… A whisper on the wind… This is what we are allowed to do: To encourage people to believe in themselves and fight with their own power, and occasionally to give them that slight boost to help them out in their journey. Like the way we equipped you to fight at the start of your quest."
"Should we attempt to intervene in a more direct manner, or on a grander scale, two things will happen. Firstly, we will be unable to affect anything at all, even in a small way. Secondly, we end up severely weakened for a time, barely able to even watch events occurring in your world."
"Your mother and I learned that the hard way while watching our past selves and you in the early days of your childhood."
"What?! You mean…" Giorgio was floored by this revelation.
"Of course we tried to reach out to you and help you. Did you think we wouldn't?" His mother chided gently.
"We first tried to find a way to change the past and prevent the incident from happening. Then, when that proved impossible, we tried over and over to talk to you, so that you knew we were still around in some form and watching over you."
"Our attempts ended up draining our power repeatedly, until one of the older spirits explained to us the rules of our existence. After that, all we could do was to watch you, and occasionally send a touch of comfort to you while you slept, to ease your pain for a while."
"Who on earth came up with these stupid restrictions in the first place?" Giorgio asked, bewildered. "What's the point of letting you ascend and wield divine power if you're not allowed to use it?"
"We're bound by the rules of the Old Magic that created this realm and guardian spirits in the first place," his father explained.
"A lot of the history is unknown even to us, but the divine realm was a part of the Old World, from back when magic flowed abundantly through every aspect of life. Back then, eldritch creatures such as the Fae and other beings that no longer exist lived alongside humans."
"As science began to advance and the presence of magic began to wane, many of these beings vanished from the world. However, they didn't cease to exist. Instead, they ascended, and became the first guardian spirits. The power they held in life became what we know as divine power, which also allows them to grant ascension to those who are deemed worthy to be fellow protectors."
"While Old Magic no longer exists in most parts of your world, there are a few spots that still hold lingering traces of eldritch magic — ancient places that have existed for far longer than any historical records. This realm, in particular, is a part of the Old World that was overflowing with Old Magic."
"So much, in fact, that it was an abundant wellspring; too powerful to fade away, but also too dangerous to leave as a part of the human world. As such, the guardian spirits caused it to split away from your world and become a separate, parallel world of its own."
"These ancient beings aren't malicious, but they came from a world that was very different from ours. They lived by a completely alien set of rules and operated on a different scale of logic and morality that we can't understand or relate to. It's these very rules that govern our existence and the limits of our powers."
Giorgio mulled over his father's words, absorbing the impromptu history lesson.
"Is that why you were unable to wake me then?" He asked. "Surely, if you were allowed to gift me a chef's outfit to fight in, breaking a sleeping spell shouldn't have been too much of a stretch."
"No, that has to do with the nature of divine power and dark magic instead," his mother replied. "I'll spare you the metaphysical lecture, but basically, divine power and dark magic are equally powerful and diametrically opposed. Trying to use divine power to cancel out dark magic or vice versa would have no effect whatsoever."
"Of course, there are loopholes to this. In this case, the charm you carry. While it's a divine artifact, the charm is ultimately a mere conduit for us to channel our power and connect with you and your party members."
"Theoretically, if the charm had not broken, we could have used it to reach out to you while you were under Chaos' spell. We wouldn't have been able to break the spell directly, but we might have been able to speak to you within the spell and imbue you with a bit of lucidity to help you gain an edge, fight back and force yourself awake."
"Unfortunately, the reverse is true. While Chaos cannot counter divine power directly, he was able to use dark magic to corrupt the charm and damage it, breaking our connection to you."
"It's this stalemate that ultimately prevents us from fighting Chaos directly. Just as Chaos creates monsters through dark magic to serve his cause, we choose our own champions and empower you with divine power to fight against his forces."
Giorgio understood now, ashamed of his earlier rage.
It wasn't apathy that stopped his parents from acting. Deep down, he had already known that wasn't the case, but his need to find someone to blame had blinded him to that truth.
Knowing that they were bound by restrictions to their powers rankled, but they were doing the best that they could.
And in a way, their empowering of champions was about that too, wasn't it?
Like his father had said, they were encouraging people to find the strength within themselves to fight. They'd chosen him and his friends, given him back his heart and his hope…
He'd blamed himself for so long, souring the strength within him. He bore guilt for his parents' disappearance, and then for the capture of his party members.
"When you learn to accept your strength, you'll be able to tap into this power sleeping within you."
Ignis had told him that, all the way back during their first meeting. He hadn't truly understood it at the time, but now he did.
It was time to stop blaming himself and embrace his inner strength. It was time to fight back.