Work Text:
Fordola woke when she felt eyes on her back. That in and of itself was not unusual for her—Banneaux often got up in the middle of the night, and if him crawling out of bed next to her didn’t wake her, his thoughts leaching into her normally dreamless sleep would.
This was different, though, the uncomfortable feeling of being watched overtaking her. Fordola rubbed the sleep from her eyes, rolling over to face the door. Zephirin had thrown an arm over her during the night, which was also somewhat unusual, Banneaux typically remaining pressed between them. As she gently untangled herself from his hold, Zephirin making a quiet noise at the lack of warmth once she was free but remaining asleep, she spied Banneaux sitting shirtless at the foot of their bed. Though most Garlean homes were well insulated and heated, that still wasn’t enough to keep the chill out by itself, yet he did not shiver or give any indication that the cold bothered him.
“Banneaux?” she murmured, voice groggy with sleep. “Is something the matter?”
Banneaux froze, before turning to face her, staring at her with an intensity that made her feel as though she’d been doused in ice. “Ah, so the girl awakens first.”
She knew immediately. This wasn’t Banneaux. He looked at her wrong, like Zenos had mere hours before when he was wearing Banneaux’s flesh, and she clutched at her choker, fearing for a second that Zenos had managed to commandeer Banneaux’s body again without her knowing and found his way into her bed. But this was different, somehow. Banneaux’s aether was still present within his body, instead of being sickeningly absent, suppressed by something else. Fordola wished that her sword was at her bedside so she had some manner of protection against this intruder, but she was not allowed to keep her weapons on her when off duty and had handed it over with her buckler to the Alliance quartermaster earlier, before sprinting to the apartment Banneaux had claimed as his own to see if he was alright.
As he grinned wide, teeth far longer and sharper than usual, though, it all clicked into place. She’d heard Banneaux talk about his bound voidsent many times before, and as he folded his hands in his lap her certainty grew that this was who was speaking to her. Halicarnassus, his “shadow,” that thing, the words he used to describe her depending on the mood he was in at the moment. They fed off of each other’s aether in battle until they were one and the same, and whenever her false Echo was acting up Fordola could sense her presence, circling behind Banneaux like a vulture through the rift that connected their world to the void.
Halicarnassus continued on, seemingly ignoring the turmoil running through Fordola’s head. “I was hoping for the boy, you see.” Her gaze fell to Zephirin, still asleep beside Fordola. “I’ve been wanting to meet with him for quite some time. My vessel may forgive, but I do not forget.”
Bile rose in Fordola’s throat at the implications of her words. “If you harm him—”
“Oh, nothing so drastic as you’re thinking, little girl. I wouldn’t touch a hair on his head, else I’d never hear the end of it. We would just have ourselves a little chat, like you and I are doing now.” Her lips curled into a cruel smile, so out of place on Banneaux’s normally kind face. “But, I suppose you will have to do. You do know who I am, yes?”
Fordola swallowed thickly, letting go of her choker. “Yes.”
“Good. Then I needn’t bother with introductions.” Halicarnassus crawled forward until she was fully sitting on the bed, bracketing Zephirin between them. “Regardless of what he may tell you, I do care about my vessel’s wellbeing, and the people he surrounds himself with. He can be a terrible judge of character sometimes, wouldn’t you agree?”
“In a sense,” Fordola replied warily. Even with her half awake mind, she knew that she should be cautious about cooperating with the voidsent, but she also knew that there were many who were none too thrilled when rumours of the Warrior of Light visiting the Butcher of Ala Mhigo nightly started circulating throughout Gyr Abania. She suspected that something similar must have happened in Ishgard when Banneaux let Zephirin swear himself to him, too.
“We have a pact, you see,” Halicarnassus continued, leaning over Zephirin to look Fordola in the eye, resting one hand on her thigh. “He and I are two sides of the same coin. His soul is identical to mine, and when I first saw him I offered him an accord. My scant aether, lent to him, in exchange for a life in service to me.” She smiled, cupping Fordola’s cheek with her other hand. “But you already knew of this, I’m sure.”
Images of a shadow crouched over a bassinet flashed in her mind. “Some of it, yes.”
“You know many things about him,” Halicarnassus purred. “Things he has never told anyone else. He must trust you dearly.”
“What is your aim here?” Fordola snarled instead of playing into her game, swatting the hand on her cheek away.
In an instant, the voidsent’s eyes turned steely. “Do you believe me to be untruthful?” She laughed in Fordola’s face, the hand on her thigh suddenly gripping her painfully tight. Fordola gasped, trying to twist out of her hold without disturbing Zephirin too much, still asleep between them, but Halicarnassus persisted, following her and pressing their foreheads together, hooking one finger underneath her choker and making her wince. “I take a great interest in my vessel’s life. What he does, those he considers enemies. Friends. It only makes sense that this would include the woman he loves.”
Fordola felt all the air leave her lungs in an instant. The woman he—
Her shock must have shown on her face, because Halicarnassus pulled back, eyes widening innocently. “Oh, you didn’t know?” Fordola shook her head minutely, still reeling as Halicarnassus continued. “It’s sickening at times, honestly.”
“I—” She tried not to sound like she had the wind knocked out of her. “H-how long?”
Halicarnassus waved her hand flippantly. “Oh, some time now. I don’t know how you’ve missed it, what with your condition, he’s not exactly subtle.”
Fordola leaned back against the headboard, stunned.
“I don’t—”
She wanted to finish her sentence. I don’t know how to feel. I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t know if I love him too. But the words wouldn’t come out, and when Halicarnassus realized, she laughed, the cackle harsh and foreign coming from Banneaux’s throat. She moved back to where she was sitting when Fordola woke, looking over her shoulder with deep amber eyes that usually blanketed Fordola with warmth but were now so, so cold.
“Then I would go back to sleep, little girl. He won’t remember a thing in the morning.”
Lucia told her that she was being relocated back to Ala Mhigo until further notice early the next day, before Banneaux had a chance to wake up. She met Zephirin’s eyes across the aetheryte plaza as she was escorted to an airship, and he nodded, understanding immediately what was happening and rushing to tell Banneaux.
The next time she saw Banneaux, he was lying in an infirmary bed in Old Sharlayan, torso heavily bandaged, and the vulture haunting him was gone. He confessed to her that he didn’t know how to feel without his persistent shadow, that he felt at the same time empty and so relieved he could cry.
He never mentioned that night.