@gunbrker asked: ❛ I believe that everything happened, exactly the way it had to… ❜
It’s late, late enough that even the crowd of the tavern is beginning to thin, leaving they two and one other man the sole patrons of the establishment. The pair sit tucked in a far corner, speaking in low tones over pints of ale. It’s easy conversation, it always is; talking to him has always been oddly easy, regardless of how at odds they had been once before. A hundred years before, in Ardbert’s case.
Alcohol loosens the tongue, it does, but he thinks Thancred would be more than willing to talk about this even without a drop in his system. People always said Ardbert was easy to open up to, he was just that kind of man: kind, loving, so eager to help and comfort if he could. Everyone struggled in some way, who was he to judge them for it? And sometimes, all someone needed was a shoulder to lean on. Someone to guide their steps for a little bit.
He was willing to be that pillar, if someone needed it.
Thancred speaks and Ardbert listens, the pad of his thumb running over the edge of his pint. It makes him think—about the present, about the past, and come whatever may in the future. Everything happened exactly the way it had to. That’s simply how fate works. Minfilia became the Oracle, leaving her companions behind, leaving Thancred behind for a reason. She spared Ardbert for a reason. He was a shade for a hundred years for a reason, and then...
Well... if it weren’t for all of this, things wouldn’t be as they are now. Neither of them would be sitting here, listening to the nighttime hum of the tavern and the city around it. They wouldn’t be talking. And whatever was growing between them would have never even had the chance to bud and bloom. It worked out in the end, despite the losses. The great many losses. The pain, the tragedy—it all had to happen, whether they liked it or not.
But at least this way so much more tragedy was prevented...
People die all the time, that’s the unfortunate truth. You can’t stop that, but you can at least keep them from dying too early. Let them live their lives to the fullest. Let them be happy.
So many people of Norvrandt lived without seeing the night sky, but many survived long enough to see the stars twinkle above once more.
“Aye, you may be right,” he replies with a hum and a chuckle. He meets Thancred’s eyes and he wonders, just for a moment, if the warmth that rushes through him in that moment is the alcohol or something else. Ardbert breathes in, closes his eyes, thinks for a few beats before he says, “They’d all be happy.”
Minfilia. Lamitt. Renda-Rae. Nyelbert. Branden. And the many, many souls lost before they could see this day. They’d all be happy.
“Took a long time to get here, didn’t it? But...” He drags his teeth over his bottom lip. “We just keep pushing forward, no matter what’s thrown at us.”
Ardbert dares to slide his hand over the surface of the table; there is a ghost of a touch over Thancred’s knuckles.
“Let’s make them proud.”
