Noct awoke to the scent of moss and cold stone.
His head throbbed—dull and pulsing. Breathing felt like dragging air through cracked lungs. For a few seconds, he didn't move. The world was blurred, soundless.
Then a voice—gentle, curious.
"Hey… he's waking up."
Another followed, softer and colder. "About time. I was starting to think he was dead."
His eyes fluttered open.
The ceiling above him wasn't sky, but darkness signifying how far he fell with faint, glowing lines. Aether paths. The walls pulsed faintly with energy. The air was damp, alive.
Two girls were crouched nearby, watching him.
Both were his age—maybe a little older. One had grayish white hair pulled into a ponytail, her eyes gleaming with faint green light. The other had raven-black hair, her gaze cool and unreadable.
"You okay?" the whitehaired girl asked. "You've been out for, what… six hours now?"
Noct sat up too quickly—pain exploded behind his eyes.
"Six hours…?"
He tried to remember. There was a monster. Screaming. The bridge. A hand—
A face.
Blonde hair. Cold eyes. A boot.
Noct's expression twisted. He pressed a hand to his head.
"I—my name's Noct. Where am I?"
The raven-haired girl tilted her head slightly. "Somewhere you shouldn't be."
The whitehaired girl rolled her eyes. "Don't be cryptic. We're still in the labyrinth. Lower floor. You fell."
"I need to get out," Noct muttered, dragging himself to his feet. "I need to find my class… my mother… Eira—"
The name caught in his throat. It tasted different now.
He didn't know why.
Above, hours earlier
Eira stepped out of the labyrinth, dirt smudged across her armor, blood staining her hands—not hers.
The class followed behind her, some limping, others pale with terror. The sun had never felt so cruel.
Instructor Vern stood at the edge of the clearing, arms crossed, brow furrowed. His sharp eyes scanned them, counting.
Only once.
"Where's Noct?"
Eira's face shifted. Her eyes widened just slightly. Her voice cracked in all the right ways.
"There… there was a mistake. A white fiend—it wasn't supposed to be there. It was too strong for it to be a low-rank dungeon. Noct… he tried to hold it off while we escaped. But he fell. Off the bridge. We—we couldn't reach him."
A pause. Heavy. Cold.
Vern said nothing for a moment. His gaze lingered on her, then swept across the others. He nodded slowly.
"Get to the transport. I'll handle this."
As the class walked back, a group of boys lingered behind Eira.
"That was… stone cold," one whispered. "Didn't even flinch."
Another chuckled. "You really didn't hesitate, huh? Was kinda brutal."
Eira smiled faintly. "We had to lose some dead weight. Noct wouldn't have lasted long anyway."
They laughed.
And she walked on without looking back.
That evening
The knock on the door came at dusk.
Noct's mother opened it, surprised to see Instructor Vern standing outside. His face was grim.
When he spoke, his words shattered her.
"Your son was lost in a labyrinth. I'm… sorry."
She collapsed. Her sobs echoed through the narrow home, filling it with the sound of a heart breaking.
Vern stood there, unmoving.
There were no words strong enough to fix what had been taken.
Back below
Noct didn't know why he was still alive.
He didn't know who the girls were, or how they found him. He didn't know what waited above.
But he knew one thing:
He wasn't going to die here.
Not yet.