Uncapping a glass jar, Ignis gently plucked the petals from a red flower and dropped them in, filling the jar to the brim before recapping it and affixing it to his belt.

“It’s quiet in the Outer Frontier,” Ginger murmured as they kept walking. “I usually hear stories about shadowy figures in your peripheral, or monsters like mimics and miasmoths and marasites popping out and attacking you.”

“Don’t jinx us just yet.” Ignis hummed, detourying off the path to pluck some pine needles from a tree. Ginger and Kintsugi followed him, dutifully standing watch as his bodyguards. “The miasma lurks everwhere… and it’ll figure out your greatest fear and use it against you. Perhaps this peaceful feeling is a work of the miasma, too.”

Ginger suddenly felt uneasy as Ignis picked his way through the brush, back to the path. He shook the jar of pine needles, displaying them to Giner and Kintsugi.

“Look, we could make pine soda when we get back,” Ignis said cheerfully, before moving down the path again. Kintsugi and Ginger trailed him, keeping a watchful eye on the easily distracted magister.

While they were walking, Kintsugi leaned towards Ginger, keeping his voice low. “Is the magister normally this… uh…”

“Distracted? Impulsive? Unable to focus and stick to one thing?”

“That’s one way to put it.”

Ginger sighed. “Unfortunately, yes. He tends to get distracted by cool things, and although he jumps from one thing to another, at least he’s… never lost focus when it comes to researching a cure for curses. He’s very passionate about it, after all. Urgh… but he’s terrible at motivating himself to do things he doesn’t want to.”

“Oh?” Kintsugi looked back towards Ignis, who had suddenly veered off the path to study a cluster of berries. “Like what?”

Ginger scrunched up her face, huffing, “Like eating, sleeping, sitting down, getting up, reading, cleaning-”

“I think I get the idea.” Kintsugi cut her off before she kept rattling on and tanked her magister’s reputation even further. “I suppose he’s just… not what I was expecting from a so-called “master magician”.”

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very talented sorcerer. He’s very powerful and strong, he’s just…” Ginger grimaced as Ignis, climbing back onto the path, tripped over his long cape. He huffed and stopped to readjust all of his clothes. “...he’s just a bit peculiar is all.”

“I see…” Kintsugi relegated himself to look after Ignis, keeping his eyes forward instead of on Ginger. “So… if Ignis is so powerful, why did he need a bodyguard?"

Ginger pressed her lips into a thin line before answering quietly, “Because he’s lonely. Also he’d keep getting distracted and wouldn’t get anything done!”

Kintsugi didn’t respond. He merely studied Ignis and the way he kept looking back to make sure they were still following him. The way he’d exclaim in excitement when he found a plant not native to the Inner Frontier. The way he kept making sure his cap was straightened on his head and his gloves were unbunched around his fingers and wrist, and constantly readjusting his cape so it wasn’t leaning too much to one side.

He thought back to before they set off, when Ignis insisted on taking pictures of the stove to make sure it was turned off, his candles to make sure they were all blown out, and the various entrances to make sure they were all locked and secure before they set off. Kintsugi had spotted Ignis pulling out his phone several times as they walked down the street, swiping through his photos to reassure himself.

“Perhaps he’s just-” Kintsugi began, but was cut off by Ignis.

“Everyone!” Ignis had stopped, looking up at the dark, looming castle that had slowly gotten bigger and bigger as they approached. “Look, that castle is the Stars Kingdom. I heard that the former king kept an archive of preserved seeds, including a plant that no longer exists but can cure anything. But it’s supposedly heavily guarded, no one’s dared to even look for it. So…”

“You want to go to the dark and ominous castle, don’t you?” Ginger muttered rhetorically.

“I want to go to the dark and ominous castle!” Ignis echoed excitedly. He adjusted his cap and gloves. “Don’t worry, it should be safe.”

Ignis spoke as though it would ease Ginger’s worries. Unfortunately, it did not.

Of course, Ignis pressed forth anyways, and Ginger and Kintsugi could only follow.

“You know…” Kintsugi murmured, running a finger along the golden scar that ran across the bottom of his pecs. “I think I might understand Ignis… if only a little.”

“Oh?”

Kintsugi nodded. “Not exactly the same, but… I spent so long trying to craft myself the perfect body. One that distanced myself from my past as much as possible. I think I adjusted and fussed over so many minor details that… well… no one would notice. But I still did it. I worried and fretted over parts of my body that I thought about all the time that no one else would think about even once. It left me with this face that I’m not quite happy with, but if I pushed any further, I’d probably end up breaking myself entirely.”

Looking towards Ignis, Kintsugi breathed out a sigh.

“I think… Ignis is the type of person who worries about things that most people wouldn’t concern themselves too much with,” Kintsugi continued. “But I don’t really know him as well as you do.”

Ginger simply nodded. “I think you’re right, I just… wish he’d talk to me about the thoughts that trouble him. But he still treats me like a child!”

”How old are you?”

”…Fourteen.”

”I don’t blame Ignis,” Kintsugi said plainly. “You’re much too young to talk casually with. I’m sure he doesn’t want to weigh you down with all the gory details of his plight.”

Ginger looked at the ground, nodding. “I… understand. But I can handle it. Really, I can! I… know the struggle of having no one to turn to when thoughts are plaguing my mind…”

Kintsugi tilted his head but didn’t probe. As they reached the towering gates of the Stars Kingdom, he realized Ignis had grown eerily silent during their trek. He picked up his pace until he reached Ignis’ side, tilting his head to look down at the wizard who seemed lost in thought. Ignis’ eyes stared off into the distance as he mumbled to himself, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Kintsugi wondered if he should snap him out of it, or let him keep babbling on like a madman.

Eventually, he chose the former. 

“Hey, Ignis.”

Ignis’ eyes widened as he jumped at Kintsugi’s sudden voice. He cleared his throat. “Ah… what is it?”

”Why’re you trying to learn how to break curses?”

Ignis looked away, his eyes glazing over. “I want to break my master’s curse.”

”Oh. I see.”

The magister simply nodded, averting his gaze and pressing forth into the cavernous halls of the Stars Kingdom.

─── ♡ ♢ ☀︎ ✩ ☽ ♧ ♤ ───

”We’re here, Gordon. Do you know what this place is?” Cras unraveled itself from around Gordon’s head, motioning towards the decrepit foyer that lay before them. Gordon looked up and around, shrugging.

”The Stars Kingdom, I think. I’ve heard some of the stories, but I was born in the desert. We didn’t really care much about the Frontier’s lore.” Gordon continued walking, a tightening in his chest a telltale symptom of the corrupted magic that lurked nearby. A sinister pull on his heart, one he’d follow without a second thought had the Serpens vitae not wrapped around his body and took partial control of his limbs. “I can feel what you guys have been feeling. There’s… a stabbing in my chest and gut, but I can’t help but want to keep walking.”

Hodie nodded. “That’s the miasma for you: it slowly draws you in with promises of fulfilled wishes and desires, then preys on your biggest fear or trauma. Be careful proceeding forward, Gordon. We’ve got your back, but it doesn’t hurt to exercise caution…”

Gordon’s steps echoed through the desolate halls of the dimly lit castle. Forgotten sconces and furniture was covered in thick layers of dust and cobwebs. Anything valuable had already been stolen—evident by the fallen chandelier that was missing most of its decorative crystals—and carted away.

The darkness began to thicken, Gordon’s chest tightening even more in response. Is this because the miasma is even thicker here…?

”It looks like the miasma is starting to take over the castle,” Hesterno commented. “This growing darkness is a sign of that. We must hurry: even if our vision is lost, we can still find our way through by feeling.”

Gordon braced himself before taking a step into the darkness, a thick weight pressing against his lungs and shorting his breath. Not even a moment had passed after the pitch black engulfed him when Cras suddenly cried out, “Gordon! Look out!”

Whipping around but seeing nothing, Gordon could only feel a piercing, burning sensation shoot up his arm. He quickly stumbled back out into the light, dragging whatever had latched onto his arm with him.

A strange lanky creature with thick, dark tendrils of miasma dripping from it had its fangs sunk deeply into Gordon’s forearm, piercing through Hodie who had wrapped itself around Gordon’s torso and arms. Hodie let out a hiss, writhing and struggling until the beast removed its grip on them both.

All of the snakes unraveled, lashing out at the beast and swarming it in a flurry of fangs and scales, biting and constricting with as much force as they could muster. The miasma beast let out a pitiful whine until its entire body had become wrapped by the serpents, struggling weakly until it took its final breath.

Gordon looked down at his arm, the wound already closed up. The snakes retired to their snug perches on Gordon’s body, with Hodie pushing gently against his legs.

”I’ve got you, Gordon. Let us press forward now.”

Nodding, Gordon silently vowed to never get on their bad side. He shuddered to himself, stepping around the beast’s motionless body, and taking a deep, hearty breath before heading back into the darkness that seemed to have crept ever closer. 

Gordon resigned to leave the beast laying there, confident that it was dead. The very beast that Gordon, had he indeed looked back, would have noticed was gone.