#slyva

hello ape nation. slides this under your door. you’re welcome.

I have a headcanon about Aulea. 

Imagine that when Noctis was born, Bahamut first revealed the prophecy to Aulea, because the love of a mother rivals the power of the gods on even the worst days. And I imagine that this is especially true with Aulea, mother of the king of light. And when she refuses, he takes his chance and steals the life out of her while she sleeps. 

Now imagine an AU where this didn’t work. Aulea survives the god’s attempts to kill her by sheer chance, and begins planning. She just needs at least one god on her side. Just one. One god to stand against Bahamut with her and save her child. And when she finishes planning, she leaves Insomnia in the dead of night with Noctis. 

With the help of some old friends, she covers her tracks so the king wouldn’t be able to find her until her mission was done. And though the kingdom flies into a panic at the missing queen and prince, she is very good at what she does. She’s cunning and a mother backed into a corner. She won’t rest or make a mistake until her son’s future is safe.

Now imagine that the Oracle, Sylva, is sent a dream from the messengers, who sees their chance to change what has been foretold. She dreams of another queen, one who’s will would defy the gods. And she knows her own daughter’s fate. She’s an oracle in full, and has seen so far ahead because she’s supposed to guide the future into the path she has seen. But seeing a fellow queen risk everything for her child, she breaks tradition. She sends out her messenger companions, to whisper in the ears of sleeping gods, to let them know of her own break with the prophecy. 

Then, like the other, she sets out, but leaves her children behind. The prophecy protects them even while she tries to break it. Bahamut would be unwilling to risk the fate of the destined last oracle, even if the four-year-old girl had yet to receive her calling. And she seeks those sleeping, even that Infernian, who reveals to her the tragedy that befell the first healer of Eos. And Sylva felts her heart turn to steel, as she promises to heal the fallen one. 

Her own country falls into panic as their queen also vanishes, months after the Insomnian queen.

One by one, she wakes the gods for the other queen, and leaves behind a trail for her to follow, guiding the queen down this new, unknown path. And Aulea doesn’t disappoint. She stands with her child at her back, and faces down the gods, one at a time. And each time, they pledge to undo the mistake they made when they had been young gods. It’s only when Sylva is outside the city of Insomnia the two finally meet face to face, and gather each other in a hug that is both crushing and healing. Noctis is now one, and bears the marks of the gods on his soul, to protect his life. If Bahamut dares to try and harm him he’ll be facing the unbridled power of his fellow gods. 

They return to the city, and they fall into an uproar at seeing the oracle, unharmed and alive. Found after being missing. Though she is livid, and demands to speak with the crystal. Behind her stands a hooded stranger with a bundle in their arms, and when she removes her hood, the king rushes over to her, angry and relieved at seeing his wife and child unharmed. But she tells him that she has one more task to complete before she can explain. She goes with the oracle and together they face Bahamut. 

He is enraged, and tried to strike them down upon pulling them into his realm. But he’s then confronted with the others. And they know a way to strip the scourge from the original king. To end the eternal war between man and demon, and it’s that they give up their vigil as gods. And they enact their will, even if Bahamut is unwilling. 

They step down, and become mortal, though with some traces of their powers, like that of the Lucis Caelums and Fleurets. They shatter the crystal, and the light resulting from the break covers the world, and sinks into it’s very core.  Ardyn is cured, and returned to the healer he once was before the scourge corrupted his mind. The magitek stop before they’re really started, and the ones who’re still children have what darkness in them ripped out. Most pass away because of this. Some survive. And one has light sink down into his very soul, and becomes capable of healing like another once was. 

Sylva Cranberry & Harris Octoraro