"Absurd," snorts Kan-E-Senna, very quietly.

"What? The sun would sooner fall from the sky! Unbind him, he'd die to defend her, how dare you!"

Aymeric takes a second to process all that is happening there, but once he does his hand is on the pommel of his sword—

    "Lord Commander!" calls the Ishgardian knight once more. "We must go!"

—he hesitates, looks between Otohiko and the lalafell and his men—

"Clumsy schemes aside," murmurs Kan-E-Senna to Aymeric, "he would not lie about an attack to Ishgard. Go. See to your people, and trust us to sort out this mayhem."

It is a bold ask from a mere theoretical ally, but it is probably the smart option. Especially with the political fallout of the Lord Commander drawing his sword at a party in foreign lands.

His hand squeezes the pommel of his sword for a second but then he releases it and says, "Come, Lucia." As he starts walking away he pauses to look the lalafell in the eye and say, "Our thanks for your hospitality. I hope to be able to repay it someday."

"I look forward to it, Lord Commander!"

They do not close the doors behind themselves as they leave.

He can hear the sounds of voices shouting at each other, echoing down the hallway.

But no one stops them from leaving.

Kan-E-Senna turns out to have been correct. However convenient the timing, Ishgard did fall under attack while its Lord Commander was away.

The fact that the attack was real makes this all rather more suspicious.

It is for situations like these that Aymeric saves his anima. It's all fine and dandy to go to Ul'dah by carriage on a leisurely couple of days' trip, but for an immediate attack what he does instead is teleport directly to Foundation to find...

...pandemonium. Somehow the Lady Iceheart managed to fully dispel the wards, if only for a moment (and thank the Fury this did not occur for the earlier, heavier assault), and a small host of wyverns are wreaking havoc in the city proper. The arrival of the Lord Commander does help lift people's spirits and give them a second wind, and he moves to action immediately.

"The Lady Iceheart" her ass, not that Jacqueline can actually say that aloud, or tell anyone about how she could possibly know that.

She has also worked out that this is hella suspicious, and it was in part the suspicion that something like this would happen that kept her from attending the banquet. So despite her newfound misgivings about killing dragons, she figures the kinds who invade Ishgard proper and commence attack are fair game, and slays them with prejudice.

The stately and refined upper (both literally and figuratively) echelon of Ishgard, where the nobles make their fine home, is shaken, but has its own defenses. Even off duty and caught off guard, it contains many of Ishgard's finest warriors. The streets are cleared of noncombatants in record time. They take shelter in the Saint Reymanaud Cathedral under the guard of the Holy See's Knights of the Inquisition, or take their chances sheltering in their own homes. Regardless of where they find shelter, they nonetheless get out of the way so that their warriors are free to slay the rampant dragons in the wide open spaces

Other districts do not fare so well. The common folk do not build their homes of sturdy stone like their 'betters.' They build in flammable and much more breakable wood, and closer together, in cramped alleyways that do not lend themselves well to containing dragons that breathe fire. Worse, the shelters for the noncombatants are few and far between, making the counteroffensive more difficult, and significantly more costly. The battle is a vicious and deadly game of cat and mouse through twisting, flammable alleyways, civilians caught in the crossfire. Their defenders are few and far between, because most of the trained and outfitted warriors are busy above.

Nonetheless, this is Ishgard, and if there's anything that can bring them all together, rich or poor, it is dragonslaying.

And Jacqueline is one thousand percent lending the poorer people her help. There's plenty of dragoons up there with the nobles, adding the Azure Dragoon to the mix would just be overkill.

The major local defense is a bit ramshackle, but Jacque will recognize at least one familiar face down here!

"Oh, look," says a nearby hyur woman fighting beside him, spotting Jacque. She has crimson red eyes, a half-breed's hint of an elezen ear, and a rather large gun. "We haven't been forgotten after all."

"Busy," grumbles Cynric, slicing at the dragon that is currently menacing them with a dagger. It's better to have actual reach when fighting dragons, but, well, it's kind of an emergency.

The dragon, predictably, breathes a gout of fire at them and then attempts a retreat down a nearby alleyway.

The dragon is promptly impaled. More than once, for good measure.

(It helps that most of the dragons that did manage to get in before the wards winked back into place are the smaller ones.)

She lifts her visor and offers Cynric a two-finger salute before lowering it again and hopping off into the distance to kill some more dragons.

"Damn Azure Dragoon cleaning up the Lord Commander's messes..." mutters the woman darkly.

"A 'thank you' is more polite, you know." Cynric will leave the dragonslaying to the professional, thanks, he's going to get to work putting fires out.

"... Yeah. 'preciated, blue jumpy one!"

The damage was... less than it could have been. The number of wyverns that managed to get in was reasonably small—they're airborne and had advance warning, but nevertheless they numbered few. Foundation was most affected, of course, but the Lord Commander issued a decree that Saint Reymanaud's Cathedral is to take any and all refugees from the destruction, yes even if they're dirty and hungry and poor, no he will not be hearing arguments about it, he does not literally say the Noble Houses can suck him if they have a problem with it but the message is clear anyway.

The Holy See itself has no problem with this. Helping the poor and downtrodden is part of what they do, and they stand with the Temple Knights in this, so all the Noble Houses can do is grumble and whine and let it happen.

(Not House Fortemps. They're cool and 100% back Lord Aymeric in this, for which he is grateful.)

It is through House Fortemps that he gets word of a set of refugees of a different sort. The missive begging for asylum for the Warrior of Light and his Scion compatriots from political fallout comes accompanied with a mysterious green envelope, addressed to the Lord Commander.

The political situation of Ul'dah is too complicated to put to parchment, but we're doing what we can. Pray forgive our Alliance's dreadful hospitality, rest assured that your parting promise has already been repaid for you. Neither half of the one responsible is like to do it again.

............

Aymeric likes her.

So this is how Yakata no Otohiko, the famed Warrior of Light and saviour of Eorzea, and Alphinaud Leveilleur, grandson of the great Archon Louisoix Leveilleur and erstwhile leader of the Crystal Braves, find themselves in Camp Dragonhead, bedraggled, mourning, and exhausted, looking for what few friends they still have left.