Chapter 1: The Time of Parting is Now
Chapter Text
“Ha! The Zero summoned a commoner!” Laughter fills her ears, and she blinks to find herself surrounded by a slowly descending cloud of dust. All around her are vaguely familiar students. With them is a bald man. And just before her, sitting on his back, is a boy. He turns his eyes up to her, confused and wary, and her jaws fall.
Saito. Saito Hiraga. The boy-, the man that was once her familiar.
She looks around. Everything becomes more clear then. The students-, she recognizes those clothes. They are clothes given to Students of Tristain Academy. Her Academy. The bald man-, that was Professor Colbert. Agent Flame Snake.
But that should’ve been impossible. The late professor had died in the conflict with Albion, and Saito had perished to give them all precious time to finally defeat the Beast. Yet now they are both alive. And young .
An idea fills her then, and she feels the sting of cold realization fill her.
Time. She has gone back in time.
But how? Time has never been her domain. Nor were there any Void Mages capable of manipulating it to this incredible degree. How has she returned to this time? And why? For what reason? They’d won. She’d lived until her elderly days and peacefully passed away. For what reason had she returned?
Or is there no reason at all? Maybe the skies had looked upon what she’d done and given her this chance?
She doesn’t know. She isn’t sure she wants to know.
In the end, shall she make her way through this pilgrimage we know as Life.
Slowly, with a gentle smile she extends her hand to the wary boy. “Hello there.” She says. The boy only looks more confused, and she realizes he doesn’t yet understand this language they speak. She quickly casts upon him a translation spell, and she sees him wince slightly. Good. It seems her spells haven't reverted to becoming explosions. “Hello. Can you understand me now?”
“Uh-, yeah?”
“Apologies. I didn’t mean for our first meeting to be so…dusty.” She coughs into her fist. “Sorry-, my name is Louise de La Valliere. But do please call me Louise. What is your name?”
He blinks. “Um. Saito. Hiraga Saito.”
She nods. Nothing has changed it seems. She supposes that’s a good thing. She wouldn’t know what to do if she had somehow summoned someone different.
“Miss Valliere, please finish the ceremony.” She hears Colbert say. She barely manages to restrain a snappy retort and instead turns to him with a calm smile.
“I would rather not kiss a man on the lips in front of an audience, professor.” The field quiets down then, and Colbert looks particularly pale at her words. “I will bring this man to my room, and there I will decide whether to make him my familiar. This is my decision and mine alone .” Her smile widens. “Do you understand?”
“Y-Yes. Forgive me for my words, Miss Valliere.” He quickly readjusts his glasses. “The Summoning Ceremony has finished! Everyone is dismissed!”
And with the still stunned students as her audience, she helps Saito up and leads him along. His jaw drops as he finally sees the place he was brought to, and she smiles. “Welcome to Tristain Academy. A place for noble students to learn and train their skills for their future. I am a student.”
“Ooh…” Saito is clearly not listening, captivated by the whole place. She doesn’t bother making him listen.
They soon make it to her room. It is a strange feeling; to stand in front of the room she hadn’t seen in decades. With a small breath she pushes it open, and she is greeted with the ever familiar sight of her teenage room. A fairly barren place when compared to the rooms of other students. She can’t quite recall why it is so.
She leads him in. She sits down on the edge of her bed. He carefully sits on the chair just by her desk.
“If I may make a guess, would you be an otherworlder?”
“Whu…?”
She sighs. “Does your night only have one moon?”
He looks at her as if she is insane. “Uh, yeah?”
She smiles wanly. “Then yes, you are an otherworlder. Because the nights in this world are lit by two moons.”
Saito freezes then. The realization finally sinks in then, and she watches as his expression sinks. “I must apologize. I hadn’t intended to bring you away from where you came from.” She bows shallowly. An empty gesture. “Please forgive me.”
“Ah-, uh, please lift your head! Y-You hadn’t intended to do it!”
She smiles wryly. Had she? She can barely remember what she’d wished for all those decades before.
“And…so, you called me to be your…familiar?”
She nods. “Yes. A…partner.” She refrains from saying ‘servant’. Because that’s what it really is. The barbaric spell that is the Summoning Array is a barbaric and ultimately cruel thing. Ripping beings from the beyond, placing them into this world, and forcing upon them a False Motive to keep them subservient. It is no different to collaring a slave. “Someone I can fight and live with.”
Thankfully, she is a Void Mage. Refitting the Familiar Binding is no impossible thing.
“And you need to kiss me!?”
“No.” She deadpans. Why is that the thing he focuses on? “Or-, well, yes , but I don’t need to. That’s only done by the mages of old.” Which are the mages of today, but that is just semantics. “All we need to do is swear a vow, and I can weave a spell to bind us together.”
“Oh.” He sounds awfully disappointed about it, doesn’t he? “So-, uh, what’s the vow?”
She raises an eyebrow. “Are you just going to accept? Without asking for anything?”
“Uh-, well, you did summon me, so…”
She sighs. Oh dear lord. She's completely forgotten because of the Saito she knows, but by the stars, this Saito is just a teen. Things like duty and being careful just hasn’t entered his mind just yet. Something the young her had exploited.
She won’t do the same.
“Doing this will bind us for life.” She warns with a frown. “And don’t you want to return back to where you came from? Will your parents not miss you?”
He flinches, and immediately she knows something is wrong. “I…I think I’m going to be fine.” He tries to smile. It comes out more as a grimace than anything else. “So, yeah, sure. A life in a new world? Might as well take the chance.”
Something ugly settles in her gut then. She doesn’t know this. She never thought to ask. But why was Saito so willing to stay with her? He’d opted to remain even after she managed to reverse engineer the Summoning Spell and create the World Door. And now she knows. And she feels conflicted.
Because she feels guilty for bringing him into this world, but it’s now clear that his own world isn’t great either.
She takes a breath. “Very well.” She glances down at the wand strapped on her hip. She turns away. She doesn’t need her wand. Not anymore.
She gathers the willpower within her, and her fingers glow with the familiar white fluorescent glow of magic. She hears him gasp in shock, and she smiles as she begins drawing out an intricate array, weaving each line over another like a complex piece of clothing. Then, gathering it all together, she shrinks it between her palms and slams her hand shut.
And on the floor below lights a magic circle, slowly spinning beneath their feet. “So I decree this: For let our fate be intertwined as one. For let our souls ring as one. For let my life lay in your hands. For let your life lay in my hands. Shall we walk together upon this road destiny has laid.” She looks at him and smiles. “Do you accept these terms, Hiraga Saito?”
He snaps his jaw close, and slowly, he says, “I do.”
She closes her eyes. “Then let this contract be done.”
The magic circle beneath them fades, and for a moment nothing happens. Then she hears something sizzle, and Saito shouts as he holds his left hand tight. The runes are carving themselves on the back of his hand, one rune at a time, pulling from the dormant willpower beneath his chest.
Then she grimaces as pain burns through her left hand. She turns down to see runes slowly carving themselves on the back of her palm. One identical to the one Saito has. It feels as if someone lit a flame just over her hand, and she manages a pained sigh as the runes finally finish carving themselves.
There is no need to do this. To carve these runes onto herself. But she wants to. Needs to.
It’s more apt to say that the contract formed between them is a Mages’ Contract more than a Master-Familiar Bond. It is a sharing of power. From her he gains the strength of Gandalfr and the awakening of his latent willpower. From him she gains a protector and a student. A fair trade instead of a collaring. She much prefers this.
But it seems all the pain he experienced has drained what energy he has, and she lets loose a smile as she quickly catches him before he can fall from the chair. She’s forgotten that this happened the first time as well. With a small laugh she carries him and drops him onto her bed. Her young, dainty arms shouldn’t normally be able to carry someone his size so easily. But some coiling of willpower through her arm easily does the trick.
She groans. She’ll need to recover her strength. Her magic may have somewhat carried over, but most of her stronger spells will burn her from the inside if she doesn’t get stronger. A pity. Training has never been a thing she particularly enjoys.
But alas, heroes don’t get to choose what they can and can’t do. For now, the evils lie in wait, and this weak body of hers is too frail to last until the end of the battles.
She glances back at the sleeping boy.
…Well, first, she’ll need to grab a meal. She’s feeling rather peckish.
Teenagers are horrendous monsters, and she now has the displeasure of facing an entire academy filled with them.
Great.
Not all things are terrible though. She does have food. And she does have a field she can use. All in all, that’s enough. And if some upstart noble comes to mock her? She can always fill her arm with willpower and slam their faces into the earth. Not that she would. But she could. If she wants to.
There are classes for her to attend, that she should attend, but she doesn’t. Because there is no point for her to. This academy teaches how to use willpower to bend the elements to their will. But that’s not something she can do. She will never learn elemental magic. And she doesn’t have the desire to either.
Her Void Magic and what few Auxiliary Spells that exist are enough for her. One of her explosions can easily outperform some of the strongest spells a mage can cast. And she can do it with nothing but a flick of her fingers.
Not now, however. This body of hers won’t be able to handle such a tremendous surge of willpower. At most, the explosions she can cast would tear through a small house. Exploding entire mountain ranges will have to wait.
And so she trains. Slowly, she builds back the strength she lost. Builds back her body’s tolerance for willpower. It’s a slow, painful process. Of tearing her muscles and rebuilding them. Of pushing herself far past what should be safe and using her Void Magic to reconstruct her body. To break herself and remake herself better.
Some students will occasionally pass by the empty fields. They’ll stare. Some will laugh and mock. They all fall silent when she sets the air alight with tens of explosions. Colbert comes to her, asking why she isn’t in class. She’ll stare before asking what the point was. He says it is to learn. She says that she’s already learnt all she can. He leaves after that.
She trains. She trains even as the sun sets. She trains even as the moon rises. She trains and trains and trains. She goes back for a quick meal at midnight. And then she goes back to the fields and trains again.
She continues the day after, burning herself dry as she slowly reclaims what she lost. Saito awakens just an hour past noon, and she has a maid bring him a meal for him to enjoy. She remembers him being hungry after he first wakes, and she won’t let the boy starve himself like she did all those years before.
Eventually, she manages to cast a Silence spell over the little courtyard. Something that’ll silence all the noise she’ll soon make.
With no one but herself as her audience, she begins the spartan training she’d gone through in her younger years. One she will now do a decade before she first did it in her previous life.
The willpower inside her rages, the previous calm rivers growing into a furious river. She feels pain of until magnitude, and she sees lines of bright red begin to crawl all over her skin. They glow like veins, and under the sunlight they appear almost like cracks spreading all across her body.
She supposes that isn’t wrong.
This is something she learnt from the elves. A technique to push her body beyond its normal threshold. Of bringing her might beyond what is safe. But that strength comes at a cost. Far too much willpower is flooding her body, and it begins to break down, each part shattering as minute explosions.
That is why she waited until she could cast her Silence. All these explosions will no doubt attract some unwanted attention. Then, with her Void Magic, she reconstructs her own body, and everything turns to white noise as she doubles over in pain.
Void Magic is, truly, a misnomer. There is nothing about Void Magic that actually connects it to the Void. Instead, Void Magic was any magic not related to the elements. Magic outside the conventional standards. Each Void Mage has a different sort of magic they are partial to. Joseph of Galia’s is Speed. Tiffania’s is Memories.
Hers is Deconstruction, and later, Reconstruction. It’s why all her spells end in explosions. Because any element she attempts to bring out will immediately be broken down to their most basic form. And that form is Power.
So now there exists a balance inside her body. The breaking down from an overloading of willpower is offset by the reconstruction of her body via her Void Magic. A precarious balance, kept steady through an intense amount of pain. If she isn’t who she is, if she hasn’t endured being torn apart by the Void, then she would’ve fallen unconscious and died.
But she doesn’t. She bears it all with gritted teeth and a silent grimace. And finally, she begins her training anew.
She trains from noon to dusk, and soon night falls. The Silence spell breaks as she leaves the courtyard. She comes back to her room to find it empty. For a moment, she feels fear grip her. Saito is gone. She fears he’s left. That he’s a mirage. That everything is a dream. But then she sees the note he left, and she feels her fear drain away.
He’s out at the moment. Eating dinner with the maids. It’s fine. He’s alright. He’s simply hungry. He’s fine.
Her tension bleeds, and she drops onto her bed. Her eyes fall shut minutes later.
She wakes to find Saito sleeping beside her. She spends a few minutes staring, completely and utterly lost as to what to do. It has been decades since she last found herself in a situation like this, and it takes her a minute to remember that this life is a different one. Slowly, she removes herself from the bed, and grimaces. Everything hurts. It feels like her limbs are on the edge of falling off.
But she feels stronger. It is a painful thing to undergo, but doing so compresses what could’ve been months of repetitive training into a single day. And for that? Then this pain is a fair price to pay.
She glances at him. He’s soundly asleep, and he’s mumbling something with a smile on his lips. He looks peaceful, unbothered, young . He looks exactly like what a teenager should look.
A sad smile came onto her lips. The Saito she knew had lost that smile too early.
She’ll do her best to make him as comfortable as he can be.
She heads for the cafeteria, dearly hungry after missing out on both lunch and dinner. Hardly anyone is awake by this time, and she takes her blessing gratefully. The maids are surprised when she calmly asks for some food, and their surprise multiplies when she thanks them and carries the plates herself.
As she eats her meal, she thinks. Discrimination is clear here. The nobles easily subject the commoners to whatever whims they have. It’s a wound, with an infection that slowly rots as time goes by. And somehow this much is better than how it is outside. She sighs. There are nobles who live up their names, but many don’t. Too many.
She finishes her meal and returns to her room. She doesn’t train that day, as much as she wants to. She can weather the pain, but her body will crumble under all the stress. This day will be one of resting. Her training can return tomorrow.
Instead, she returns to her room. Saito is still sleeping then, and with a sly smile, she brings up her hand and snaps. A Silence spell is cast. No one will know what happens now.
Then, with willpower swirling in her palms, she claps. The following sound that comes out is a loud, horrid smack, and Saito quickly wakes up in alarm, eyes turning left and right before he finally sees her. His jaw falls for a moment, surprised, before his cheeks turn a bright red. “Um,” He begins, a weak smile forming. “Sorry?”
She frowns, confused at his apology, before she realizes he’s most likely speaking about how he slept on her bed. “For what?” She asks anyway. He looks down at the bed and points at it. She smiles. “There’s no need to apologize for that. As I mentioned, this room of mine is wholly unfit to house another person. Sharing a bed is fine.”
“But-, uh, isn’t is…weird?” He grimaces. “Like, you know, a boy and a girl sleeping together?”
She frowns. “It is weird if you make it.” She says. “I have no issues with sharing my bed. It is just a bed, after all.” And it is. She’s slept on surfaces far worse, slept in spaces far more cramped. Sharing this luxurious bed with a boy isn’t something new. “I’ll do my best to find another bed soon. Or maybe even give you a room of your own.”
“A-A room? For me?”
“Well, yes. All mages will receive a room in this academy.”
He blinks. “But, I’m-, not a mage?”
She grins. “Who says?” She throws her wand to him. He fumbles and it drops onto his lap. “Use that wand. Try to cast something.” He stares, and she blinks. Right. He’s new. He doesn’t even know how casting works. “Think of a weapon. Imagine firing it.”
“Uh-, okay?” He closes his eyes, eyebrows scrunching, and sees him mumbling something as he brings up the wand. Nothing happens for a few seconds, before, suddenly, light begins to gather at the tip. Slowly he opens his eyes. “Nothing happened-, woah!?” Then, like a bullet let loose from a rifle, the light shoots off with a thunderous clap, racing straight for her head.
She quickly floods her hand with willpower and smashes the orb of willpower apart. It shatters in a shower of white light.
“Well,” She begins. “I’d say something happened, didn’t it?” She smiles. “Congratulations. You are now a mage.”
“Uh-, sorry.”
She frowns. “Why?”
“Uh-, I shot you?”
She shrugs. “I’ve experienced worse.” The boy stares then, unsure of what to say, and she sighs. “No, truly. I have.” She doesn’t elaborate any further.
…
“Well, it’s nearly time for class.” She says with a small smile. “Get ready in a couple minutes. We’ll be heading for our first class.” Slowly, he nods. He tries to hand the wand back to her, but she simply pushes it back to him. “I don’t need it.” She says, and though reluctant, he takes the wand as his own.
And as he creates another orb of willpower with his wand, she turns away, lest he sees the broken smile on her lips.
The spark of excitement in his eyes. The clear smile he has on his cheeks. She remembers being like that once. Remembers learning magic for the sake of learning. But that her is gone. Torn and burnt away as Halkegenia descends into chaos.
She takes a breath. She doesn’t really know what will happen now. Saito has become a mage. A commoner has become a mage. If the world knows of this, chaos will ensue. And if the world knows that she is the one who caused it, then she can easily imagine what will follow.
She has no particular feeling about it. If enemies try to kill her for allowing a commoner to become a mage, then she eagerly waits. If the commoners come to her hoping to become a mage, then she will help them as best as she can.
Because, in the end, she has faced all of this. She has faced opposing nobles. She has faced armies of soldiers. She has faced beasts and monsters. She has fallen into the Void. She is the one to bring down the adversary of the Void. She has faced all that. And she has survived.
So come. She thinks; a declaration against the world. Lay your bodies before me. Spill your blood upon me. I have taken it all before. I will bear this burden again.
“Are you ready?” She asks Saito. He nods. She smiles. “Then let us leave.”
To say that everyone was surprised when Saito appeared was an understatement. And everything promptly exploded when he displayed that he was capable of transmuting stone into a pile of copper. “A commoner can cast magic!” They say, before it turns to, “The Zero has summoned a noble!” Because their common sense can’t accept that a commoner can even wield magic, and she lets their assumptions run wild as she calmly sits at the back of the theater.
She is quickly forgotten.
Or, at least, she assumes so, until Tabitha suddenly sits by her left. She turns to the quiet girl. Tabitha remains fixed on the book she’s been reading all throughout the lecture. She shrugs and returns to watching Saito attempt to waddle through the chaos he’d accidentally created.
…Now that she’s here, she remembers something. Charlotte. That is her real name. The princess of Galia, turned into an attack dog by the mad Joseph. Doing all she can to one day find a way to cure her maddened mother. A madness brought about by a poison her mother drank to save Tabitha from drinking it.
A poison made by elves.
For a moment she contemplates what to do about it. Given time, she can certainly heal Tabitha’s mother. She can eventually brew a potion to counteract the madness. Or even use her own Void Magic to deconstruct the artificial madness. But doing so will bring about consequences. Both choices.
Brewing an antidote will oust her. Many will come to ask where she learnt of that knowledge, and once they learn that the madness was brought about by an elven poison, she will be chained by suspicion.
Using her Void Magic will mean putting herself out as a Void Mage. She will gain protection from Tristain, and enmity from all other nations. They will come to try and take her, and as confident as she is in herself, she doesn’t know if Tristain can bear all the duress it’ll suffer if that scenario is to come.
In the end, she doesn’t decide anything. She leans back and simply waits as time goes by.
Saving Tabitha’s mother will have to wait.
…
By the end of the day, Saito is given a room of his own, and enlisted into the Academy as a mage. Saito is overjoyed. The commoners he interacted with are just as happy. The students are surprised. Only Tabitha is suspicious.
She doesn’t show it, of course. But Louise has known Tabitha long enough to see the slight crease on her lips. The way her eyes would inconspicuously turn to her when she thinks she isn’t looking. Louise doesn’t mind it. Her caution is natural. Because she is acting too calm for someone whose familiar can use magic while she herself can’t.
It doesn’t matter in the end. Saito is beginning to learn how to use magic, and she now has privacy. And it isn’t as if Tabitha will barge into her room to pull for answers. She’s too shy for that.
Midnight soon comes, and she takes another hour watching the stars glimmer before she sleeps.
She wakes early the next day. She goes down for breakfast. The maids are, again, surprised at her politeness, and she heads back to the courtyard. She casts a Silence spell over it, and with a breath her willpower rages. Cracks spread all across her skin, and pain fills her mind. Her body begins to break down, and her Void Magic works to reconstruct what has died.
And then her training begins anew.
A week later, she’s surprised to hear about how Count Mott stormed out of the Academy. She then learns that he came with the intention of ‘hiring’ Siesta. His request was then denied, because Siesta works for Saito, who now is officially a mage. Angered but unwilling to fight for it, he leaves.
She’s honestly forgotten that this happened. But she’s pleased with the outcome. Siesta doesn’t get taken. And Saito doesn’t need to injure himself trying to save her. Their peace is kept for a little longer.
Then another week goes by, and the Familiars Exhibition is a day’s away Henrietta will arrive at noon to watch the new familiars the student has brought. And as the exhibition ends, Foquet will arrive to steal the weapon Osmond has hidden inside the Academy’s Vault. It’ll lead to them chasing the thief, finding out that Longueville is Fouquet all along, and Saito using his runes to use the weapon and bring Fouquet down.
Or it doesn’t have to.
Because now she has a choice. Does she let the events play out as it did, or does she take on Fouquet. There is no telling what’ll happen to Saito if she lets him fight her. He doesn’t have Delflinger. He is an amateur mage instead.
But Louise? Fouquet is a Triangle Mage, but she is a thief. She is not a fighter. She can use her explosions to bring her down, and there will be little suspicion cast her way. After all, explosions are all Louise de La Valliere can do.
She spends her day training, and as night falls, she returns to her room and simply waits. If everything goes as it did, Henrietta will soon appear by her doorstep. And she does.
She opens the door, and there, standing in a dress Louise hasn’t seen in decades, with a face far too young to be the queen of Tristain, Henrietta smiles. “Good evening, Louise.”
And for a moment, she stays silent, overwhelmed by wonder over just how everything has returned. Of how everything looks as she remembers it through those rose-tinted eyes. “Good evening, princess.” She eventually replies. “Please, come in.”
Henrietta pouts. “Mou, call me Henrietta!”
She smiles. “Well, that wouldn’t be fitting for the princess, would it?”
Her friend smiles then, and Louise pulls back the chair from her desk and sits on it. Henrietta sits on the edge of her bed instead, curiously glancing around at her room. “It feels…homely.” She says, and Louise barely manages to restrain a wry laugh.
“I believe you meant ‘bare’.”
Henrietta grimaces, having been called out. “That is far too blunt, I think. I would say ‘quaint’ would fit better.”
The talk moves on. Henrietta asks how her life in the Academy has been, and with what little she remembers about her younger days, she begins to speak. Most are probably not true, but they’re close enough. And she doesn’t bother hiding how her younger self had been bullied for being unable to cast anything but explosions.
Henrietta, bless her, is understandably appalled, and swears to talk with the headmaster about this. She quickly stops the princess from going on her crusade and explains that it doesn’t bother her. Henrietta reluctantly agrees.
They then talk about the upcoming Familiars Exhibition, and Louise bluntly states that she isn't joining. Henrietta blinked before she asked why. Louise shrugs. “My familiar is a mage. There is little to show about that.” And she wants to see when Fouquet will appear, but she doesn’t say that. The princess is, understandably, intrigued by it. She mentions Saito, and how he’s been enlisted as a student in the Academy.
Soon, Henrietta needs to leave, and they share one last hug before they part. Louise manages to hold herself long enough to cast a Silence spell before she drops onto her knees and screams. Because it’s finally sunk in. Because now she knows that she isn’t going to meet the people she’s come to know. Because she isn’t meeting her family again.
So she screams. She screams, but she doesn’t cry. She doesn’t grieve. She knows they’re still alive. Somewhere. Somewhen. They may be worlds apart now, but she knows they’re alive, that all the memories they share are true. And for the moment, that is enough.
She eventually picks herself up and drops onto the bed, thoroughly exhausted. She falls asleep in seconds.
Chapter 2: Point of Divergence
Notes:
See that?
*Points at canon*
*Throws it into the eclipse*
Say goodbye to it. Note the Alternate Universe tag. We're going off to the deep end now.
Chapter Text
The day of the Familiars Exhibition arrives, and this time, Louise sits together with the audience. Henrietta had attempted to sit beside her, but she’d swiftly put that idea down. Because letting the world know that the esteemed princess is somehow related just won’t end well. At least as things stand right now.
The exhibition goes on, and the crowd occasionally claps, but Louise keeps her eyes on Longueville. She sits beside Osmond, her smile placid as she occasionally claps. Then, she leans over and whispers something to the headmaster. He returns a nod, and the woman smiles as she stands and walks away.
Louise stands and walks away too.
Not to follow the woman. No. She walks over to the commoner’s armory just west of where the exhibition was being held. She casts a Silence spell over herself, sneaks into the barracks, and grabs a sword for herself. It takes a while to find a slender sword; most swords are bulky for some odd reason, but she finds one in the end.
At just the right time too. The ground trembles as she leaves the barracks, and she sees the towering earth golem slowly walking towards the main tower of the Academy. She hears people screaming. Some terrified. Some trying to gain command over the fleeing crowd.
Louise floods her legs with willpower and runs.
In seconds she makes it back to the exhibition, and she finds Agnes, leader of the Royal Musketeers, commanding her platoon to fight off the thief. She runs towards her, ignoring the surprise look she receives from everyone else. “Sir Agnes!” She calls out, and the woman turns to her, eyes widening in surprise. “Is everyone alright?”
“Yes. No one is injured.” She then frowns. “But what are you doing?”
“I was headed for a meal when I spotted Lady Longueville.” She begins, spinning a tale. “She was standing in a courtyard just west of here. I was curious and went to ask her what she was doing when suddenly,” She stops and makes an explosive gesture. “The earth trembles, and that giant golem appears!”
Agnes’ eyes narrow. “Are you saying Lady Longueville is Fouquet?”
She nods. “Yes. I bet my blood and life.”
Silence falls around them, and even the earthen golem stops in its movements, Fouquet’s surprise followed by her construct. Then the golem begins moving again, slamming its fists against the tower with renewed vigor, as if it knew that the cover its master had has been blown.
And everything spurs from then.
Agnes and her platoon begin trying to shoot down Fouquet. Henrietta casts spell after spell, sending torrents of water at the golem to slow it down. Osmond moves to calm the students, his face still pale from what he’s learnt. Everyone’s panic begins to die down, and Saito finally notices that Louise hasn’t joined him or the rest of the students.
She smiles at him and turns away.
She walks past Henrietta, who calls for her to return. She walks past Agnes, who snarls and asks what she’s doing. She doesn’t respond to either of them. Instead, she brings up the sword she’s picked up, aims its edge at the golem’s chest, and grins.
“Explosion!”
A moment passes, before the chest of the giant golem suddenly explodes. Dust violently blows out, and she watches as the towering golem crumbles apart. She watches as the willpower flowing through the dirt fades away, deconstructed by her Void Magic, and she hears Fouquet squawk as she begins to fall.
Louise tenses, and with willpower swirling in her legs, she leaps. She rushes past the falling debris, and she sees Fouquet’s eyes growing wide. She brings out her wand, and her willpower rushes out to the falling debris around her. But nothing happens. Her deconstruction is still in play, and fear finally dawns on the woman’s eyes. She gives the woman one last smile before she swings.
Her sword strikes true. A massive wound opens across the woman’s abdomen. She screams, before her voice is drowned out by the crashing rubble.
The world falls silent then, and as the dust settles, Louise sees Fouquet lying on the earth, blood leaking from her wound. Injured, but not dead.
Finally, she looks up to see all the surprised eyes she’s garnered. “Fouquet has been brought down.” She says to them. Her voice booms unconsciously, drawing from the many instances she’s spoken to armies of soldiers. The students straighten unconsciously. “If there are any injured, head to the infirmary. Those uninjured, go around and see if everything is as normal. There may be a chance that Fouquet came here with allies.” She barely manages to stop herself from saying ‘dismissed’ as she usually does in these situations.
The spell is broken, and everyone begins to move. Some immediately begin to move. Some turn to the headmaster. None are brave enough to ask how the ‘Zero’ managed to bring down the thief.
None but the princess.
“Louise,” She begins, cautious yet undaunted. “What-, what was that?”
“As a mage, I am a failure.” She simply begins. She sees the students flinch at that. “I can cast no elemental spells, and so I cannot even classify as a Dot. However,” She frowns slightly. “I am no mage, and I don’t need to. If explosions are all I can cast, then I shall be the best at it. If I can do nothing but a single trick, then I will sharpen that single trick until it can even bring down the skies.”
It is only the partial truth, of course. She is a Void Mage, and she does have a repertoire of spells she can cast. But Henrietta doesn’t need to know that just yet.
“...I see.” Henrietta says softly. She turns to Osmond, and the headmaster freezes for some reason. Louise doesn’t know why. The princess’ expression is hidden from her. “You have grown strong.”
Her eyes soften. “So have you.” And for a moment they stare at one another, the phantoms of two young childhood friends standing between them. They have changed. The girl Henrietta once was is no more. And the teenager Louise had been is no longer there. Henrietta is a princess. Louise is a warrior.
…
In the end, no one is hurt, and Fouquet has no allies. The injured thief is healed before she is taken captive by Agnes and her platoon. Her wand is stripped from her, and her standing in the Academy is taken away. Colbert is found unconscious in the library, having been knocked down by Fouquet just an hour earlier.
Louise stands beside the princess the entire while, their relationship now known. None of her classmates have any courage to ask anything. Tabitha stares at her, surprised yet not, before it changes to…understanding?
Ah. She must think she is Henrietta’s hidden weapon. Like how she is Joseph’s. She supposes Tabitha isn’t wrong.
She gives the girl a nod, and Tabitha nods back.
Only Saito is brave enough, and that’s mostly because he doesn’t know anything about this world. He asks her if she’s alright, and she lifts her arms to show her lack of injuries. She also introduces him to the princess, who immediately recognizes him as the boy she talked about the day prior. They begin to talk about his experience in the Academy.
Louise turns to the skies and sighs.
Things have changed. There are only a few eyes here, but word of what’d happened will no doubt spread out. There is little she can say about what will happen now. Will Wardes still come and attempt to wed her? Will Albion still try to invade? Will Albion invade earlier instead? Will Galia attempt anything? Will Romalia try to visit?
She doesn’t know. Nor does she care.
She has lived a life already. She has followed a path. And she will not tread it twice. She has seen the ending of that road. Mourned those that fell and seen what is to pass. She’s lived to the end. There is no need to follow that path anymore.
This is the point of divergence.
Wardes did not appear. Albion did not suddenly come to retrieve Fouquet. No.
It is her mother that appeared.
A week goes by in stilted silence. The panic from Fouquet’s sudden reveal has faded, replaced by tension. Because if Miss Longueville could be Fouquet, then who else could be hiding? The students did all they could to remain calm. The maids are becoming more distant. The only exception to that is Saito and Siesta, but that’s just because of who they are.
And in the middle of it all is Louise. The jeers she used to hear are now gone. No one dares to try and talk to her anymore. Not even Kirche.
Strangely, Tabitha begins appearing in the courtyard she uses to train, and they’ll just…talk. About mundane things. About books and food. About lessons and their days. Their talks are slow. Tabitha speaks with single words, and Louise is busy with her own training. But they talk, and before she realizes, Tabitha has become a friend.
A week passes without fanfare, and then suddenly her mother appears.
She doesn’t fear her. Not anymore. What indestructible image her mother once had in her mind is gone now. Shattered when she saw her broken and battered body amongst a dozen others, eyes wide with shock as blood drained from the many wounds littering her body. Her mother is human, in the end.
So when Colbert suddenly appears by her door, a worried smile on his lips as he explains that her mother is currently talking with the headmaster, she simply nods, grabs the sword she’s taken from the barracks, and heads for the headmaster’s room. She hears someone shouting as she approaches, and she lets out a small sigh as she enters.
And there is her mother, a scowl on her face as she shouts at the headmaster. Osmond is sitting there in silence, face shadowed as he bears all the insults her mother is shouting. His eyes turn up when he sees her entering, and a small smile comes to his lips. “Ah. Good morning, Louise. Did you rest well?”
Her mother turns to her, and then to the sword on her hip. “Loui-”
“I did, headmaster.” She says as she bows. “I apologize for what’s happened to Longuev-, Fouquet. Her betrayal is a blow to the Academy.”
Osmond laughs, tired yet amused. “Yes, I suppose I was distracted by…worldly things.” His smile turns more genuine then. “Thank you for saving us all.”
She nods, and finally turns to her mother. “Hello, mother.” Her voice is carefully even. She sees Osmond twitch. “For what reason have you come today?”
Her mother stares at her for a few seconds, before she scowls. “You are leaving this Academy.”
And to that Louise says,
“No.”
“You-”
“Does a normal person wish to willingly return to a prison they have left?” She says coldly. Her mother flinches back, and Louise takes a step forward. “This life I have here is not a pleasant one, but it is my life.”
“You…dare call our home a prison?”
“Is that not what it is?” She tilts her head. “If that is our home, then why have I not felt comfort in it? Why have I dreaded returning to it? Why, whenever I think of that house, I think of screaming and looks of disappointment?” She takes a step forward, and she decides to stop reigning the willpower inside her. It floods the room, and the bookshelves around them begin to tremble. “Why then, when I cried all those days before, did I never call out for your name?”
“Why then does my own magic call out for your blood?”
Her mother had nothing to say to that. Her eyes are wide, and the sheen of sweat is clear to see on her head. Louise glares, coldly, and she takes a breath as she reins in her willpower. The trembling stops. “I will not return, but you are free to explore this Academy as you desire.” She bows. “Good day, Mrs. Valliere.”
And saying that, she leaves, the door loudly banging as it closes behind her. She doesn’t bother staying to listen to what happens next. It doesn’t matter.
That woman is not her family. And she will never be.
She goes to the cafeteria for a meal. What chatter there is dies down when she enters. She asks for her meal, and the maids are more than happy to give her the most decadent meal they have. Another byproduct of her little heroic act. She eats, returns the empty plates, and heads out to the courtyard she’s now claimed as her own.
And there, sitting with Sylphid, her wind dragon, on her side is Tabitha. She looks up from her book when she approaches, and she gives her a little wave. Louise waves back.
She takes a breath. Her willpower rages through her body, and her Void Magic works to bring it back together. Tabitha doesn’t see this; the simple Illusion spell she casts over herself makes sure of that, and she brings forth her sword. Then, she begins to swing.
They begin to talk. Slowly. Softly. But they talk, and Louise happily lets time pass her by.
…
Then, as day turns to dusk, Tabitha finally asks, “Are you, alright?” Louise blinks at her, confused. “Your mother.” Tabitha elaborates. “She came.”
“Ah.” A grimace came onto her lips then. “I’m fine. She wants me to return home. I disagreed. We had a…falling out.” Or maybe they did. Honestly she isn’t sure. Maybe she’ll be outcast from the Vallieres. Maybe not. She doesn’t really know. Nor care. “That woman has never been my mother. I don’t care what she wants.”
Tabitha nods, satisfied, and turns back to her book. Louise turns away and begins to swing again, when she stops. Isn’t this the perfect chance? There are…many things that can go wrong here. Many, many things. If things go out of hand, if her actions are heard? Things will go out of control.
But for a friend?
She can do this.
“How about you?” She asks casually. “How’s your mother?” As she expected, Tabitha freezes at that. “Tabitha? Are you alright?”
“...yes.”
She frowns. “Is it…your mother?” Tabitha flinches, having been called out. Louise lets her frown deepen. “Is something wrong with her?” She patiently waits. Tabitha can simply ignore her question. She won’t be surprised. This is something she’s held close for a long time.
But to her surprise, Tabitha does speak.
“She’s…sick.”
“Sick?” Tabitha nods. “From an incurable disease of some kind?”
She shakes her head. “...poison.”
Her eyes go wide. She…actually mentions it. She mentions that her mother has been poisoned. Why? Why divulge something like that? Is it because she’s assuming she won’t find out that she’s the princess of Galia? Or, is it because she’s a…friend?
She has a feeling it’s the latter, and something warm settles in her chest.
“Do you want me to help?” She offers. Tabitha turns to her, mouth opening slightly, before she shuts it.
“How?”
She grins. “Watch this.” She swings her sword at the ground. It digs a small wound through the earth. She presses her palm down onto the dirt, and pulling at her willpower, she uses her Void Magic to reconstruct the earth. Then, like a wound healing, the earth molds back, and suddenly the hole she dug is no more.
Tabitha’s eyes are wide, but she still seems unconvinced. So she aims her sword at her arm, and Tabitha screams as she brings her sword down. Blood splashes onto the dirt, and her arm drops onto the earth. Tabitha shakes, eyes wide, but Louise simply smiles. She reaches down, presses her severed arm back onto her shoulder, and pulls at her willpower.
And Tabitha’s jaw fully drops as her flesh reknits, weaving around each other and coiling. Then, in just seconds, her arm is reattached, and she waves it around. “It’s my specialty.”
“W-What is…?”
“I didn’t know what to do when all my spells failed.” She begins spinning another tale. One both true and false. “But then I discovered this. I can…reconstruct things. It isn’t healing. I can bring things back to how they were before. It’s like…winding back time.” That’s completely false. Reconstruction isn’t rewinding time. She just pulls back the lingering essence of what it is before and forms it back using her willpower.
“I can also do this.” She holds out her sword. She floods it with her willpower, and with her Void Magic, the blade begins to fall apart. Shards of steel fall away like drops of rain, and soon a small pile of shredded steel lays beneath her. “I can also deconstruct things. Anything. Break them down to their most primary element.”
She kneels down and presses the empty hilt onto the pile. Then, impossibly, the steel follows the hilt up as she rises, and soon her steel sword is reformed.
“It’s why all my spells fail. I keep…breaking them down before they can be cast.” She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter in the end.”
“Can-” Tabitha whispers. Her eyes are wide, and her skin is pale. “Can you…heal minds?”
She closes her eyes. “I can.” She says. She forces down the memories of Tiffania. Of the days they spent bonding over the intricacies of their Void Magic. Of days in the forest, looking over the orphans she’d taken under her. Of sleeping together when the nights got too cold. Of seeing her smile as a wall of flames engulfed her whole.
“Did it to an elderly man I met months before. His age had broken his mind down, and I managed to bring it whole using my magic.” Once again, both true and false. She did heal an elderly man’s mind. Just not in this life.
Suddenly, Tabitha is before her, her smaller hands clasped around hers, and her eyes are alight with hopeful desperation. “P-Please! Save, m-mother!” She begs with tears in her eyes. “Do, anything! P-Please, save!”
For a moment, Louise lets her eyes close. She thinks of Tabitha, of Charlotte, of the princess of Galia, and later, the queen. She thinks of days huddled in bunkers, of days hovering over maps illuminated by nothing but a fading torchlight. She thinks of saving the world, and of that small smile she had when they celebrated the lives that had passed.
She opens her eyes and smiles. “For a friend? I’ll do as much as I can.”
…
And so, under the cover of night, she and Tabitha fly atop Sylphid, heading towards Tabitha’s home. They’ll arrive by morning.
Tabitha sits in front of her, her hands clenched tight over her chest. Tabitha shivers slightly. Louise doesn’t know if it’s from the fear or the cold. Whatever it is, she unclasps the cloak she is wearing and wraps it around Tabitha instead. The girl turns to her, confused, and she smiles. “It’s cold. You wear it.”
“You?”
Her smile turns a little sad. “I’m used to the cold.” She doesn’t elaborate. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask further. She softly thanks her, and soon silence falls between them once more.
…
They arrive at dawn. The rising sun illuminates the forests as they land, and Tabitha softly tells Sylphid to guard the house as they enter. Her sole butler greets her as they come in, and Louise lets her mind wander as she glances around. For a house being kept by a single man, it’s incredibly clean. A far-off space befitting a princess-in-hiding.
Soon though, fate comes calling, and the butler’s eyes go wide when she tells him that she wants to meet her mother. He tells her that she’s sleeping at the moment, but Tabitha insists. He then asks what Louise is here for, and Tabitha says that she’s going to see her mother as well. The butler blinks at that, before he simply leads them over to a room at the far right of the house.
They enter, and there, resting on the bed is a woman. A sickly woman, with pale skin and shrunken cheeks. With pale light blue hair that almost looks white. She’s thin, dangerously so.
She sighs. “Her mind has been terribly broken.” She begins as she cautiously approaches the bedside. The sickly woman looks even smaller then. “The poison has broken her. It-, even if you were to bring the best healers there are, it won’t work.” She narrows her eyes. “Because, by now, there is nothing to heal. Her body has adapted to the insanity.”
Tabitha’s eyes fall, and she grits her teeth. “I-Impossible…?”
“For normal mages, yes.” She puts her palm on the woman’s forehead. She takes a breath, and calls upon her willpower. “But I’ve done this before. And I can do it again.”
Her willpower rises with anticipation, and her Void Magic activates.
Her magic reaches deep into her. It reaches into the woman’s organs, her brain. Her willpower floods every and all part of the sickly woman. Then, Louise feels the flame of power rise beneath her chest, and she grits her teeth as her magic begins tearing apart everything this woman once was.
Purple cracks begin appearing all across the woman’s body, and she hears Tabitha gasp in surprise. “Don’t be afraid.” She says, her breaths warm. “She’ll be fine.”
Then, she pulls it all around, and her magic begins pulling back what it’s broken apart. It pulls upon the history of who this woman once was, of how her body used to be, of how she used to be before she ingested that poison. It reaches deep into the archives of history, and it finds the woman once known as Elise Helene d’Orleans.
It soon finds it, and at her beckoning, her Void Magic begins to construct .
Like pieces to a puzzle, the broken pieces begin fitting back into the image her Void Magic has reached for. Organs are rebuilt, reverted to the state they once had been. Her body begins to fill out. Her gaunt cheeks become smoother. Her skin deepens. Her hair regains its color. And her brain is rebuilt, free from the damage the insanity had wrought.
The cracks recede as Louise pulls her hand away, and she finally lets her knees buckle. Tabitha quickly reaches over and catches her before she can fall, and she gives the quiet girl a slow smile as she sighs.
She’s done it, but she’s exerted herself far more than she expected. She supposes she shouldn’t have been surprised. This body of hers, as much as it's grown, is still young. She still needs to regain her strength if she is to perform something like that without completely running herself dry.
Then, she hears Tabitha choke, and she looks up to see her crying. She frowns for a moment, and then turns to see that the woman has awoken, and her eyes are wide as she sees Tabitha. “Charlotte…?”
“M-Mama!” Tabitha finally cries, and Louise lets out one final breath as she lets her consciousness slip away.
Chapter 3: Bring to Light What was Lost
Chapter Text
When she wakes, the skies outside have turned dark again. She rises from her bed with a small groan, and it doesn’t take long to realize she isn’t sleeping over her bed. She glances around at the room. It’s a barren room, with nothing but a single bed and a small desk by the side. It’s a familiar room. It’s a room identical to the one Tabitha’s mother was sleeping in.
She leaves, and she winces as light assaults her eyes. Her body is still aching from the stress she put herself in. Everything feels a little too raw. Too bright. But she’s dealt with far worse, and so she continues on.
She eventually hears someone speaking in the distance. She quickly identifies it as Tabitha and her mother. She begins walking towards them. She soon makes her way to the living room she passed by when she was heading for Tabitha’s mother’s room, and there she sees them at the dining table, sitting by one another as they talk. Tabitha is sharing her stories, talking with more animation than Louise has ever seen, and her mother listens to it all with fondness and a desperate sort of hunger.
The two have missed each other deeply, it seems.
Smiling, she turns and leaves. Or at least she tries to. Because Tabitha quickly notices her and calls out to her. Which pulls the mother’s attention as well. And soon Louise finds herself unable to turn away.
“Louise!” Tabitha calls out, smiling as she races towards her. Louise smiles back, and then nearly gapes as Tabitha flings herself onto her and hugs her. “Thank you! Thank you…!”
Louise actually gapes this time, her image of Tabitha and the queen she will be warring in the confines of her mind. She turns a desperate gaze to her mother, and the woman simply giggles as she smiles. “I have heard of you, Louise de La Valliere.” She bows, and Louise doesn’t miss the tears in her eyes. “Thank you. Thank you for bringing me back to my daughter.”
She composes herself then. Because this is the technically current queen of Galia talking to her, and she will not make a fool of herself. Or at least more than she already has. “It is no easy feat. But for a friend?” She glances down at the tearful girl hugging her, and she smiles fondly. “For a friend? I’ll do everything I can.”
Tentatively, she wraps her arms around the crying girl. She isn’t really sure why. But the girl is warm. She feels nice.
Tabitha’s mother gains a strange glint in her eyes then. And something inside her shivers in terror.
They have dinner after that, despite how late it is. The mother and daughter have missed their dinner because of their reunion it seems, and Louise has missed all her meals. And so the butler returns, pushing a cart filled with food fit for an entire family. Which is fitting, she supposes.
They eat slowly, their time interspersed with conversations. They’ll talk about their time in the Academy and outside. Of their lives and of their wiles. Of their hopes and of what they want. Louise doesn’t bother sugarcoating anything. She doesn’t want to.
There is anger when Elise hears of the mistreatment she suffers because of her inabilities. There is sadness when she hears of her argument with her own mother. Elise asks why she trains herself so harshly, and she says that it is to prepare for when this fragile peace across Halkegenia is broken. Tabitha flinches then, far too familiar with it due to her own position, and Elise easily notices it. She reaches over and hugs them both, and Louise shamefully allows herself to sink into the warmth she provides.
She wonders then. If her mother had been more like Elise, even just by a little, would her fate have been different? Would she still have turned to be who she is now? She doesn’t know. Nor does she really want to.
Those memories turned her into who she is today, and she will never be ashamed of who she is.
The night goes on, and they talk even through midnight. There is much the woman has missed out on, and Tabitha is more than happy to provide it. Louise chimes in once in a while, using what little she can remember to paint a picture of the current Halkegenia.
The woman’s eyes harden when she hears that Joseph is the current king of Galia, and the living room trembles with willpower when Tabitha finally musters the courage to speak of what Joseph has done to her. Louise is surprised that Tabitha has spoken of it that early, and that she says it with Louise present. She’s even more surprised to feel the wave of willpower the woman releases.
She is the queen, she supposes.
Then Elise turns to her, burning ferocity in her eyes, and for a moment Louise loses herself in memories. Remembering Tabitha’s-, nay, Queen Charlotte’s eyes as they speak of what had been lost.
“Have they done the same to you?” Elise asks. Louise blinks, unsure what the woman means, and she elaborates, “Has Tristain done what Joseph has done to my daughter?”
And then Louise understands. Tabitha has most likely spoken about her assumptions of her. Of how she thinks she’s a weapon Tristain has cultivated in secret. She opens her mouth to reject the notion, and then stops.
Because…that is true, in a sense. In her previous life, when Tristain learns of her standing as a Void Mage, it doesn’t take long for people to turn to her. To look upon her as the savior. What scorn there once was turned into desperate pleading. No one turned to her when she first lost Saito. No one gave her a shred of an apology when Romalia let her be captured by Joseph.
No one.
So her mouth slowly closes. Elise’s eyes narrow. “So it’s true.” She says chillingly, and Louise lowers her eyes in shame. It’s both true and not. It hasn’t happened but it will. And something inside her hurts.
She doesn’t know when Tabitha hugged her. She doesn’t know when Elise has reached over with a napkin in hand. She doesn’t know why they’re doing what they are. The woman sees her confusion, and she smiles sadly. “You are crying, dear.” Louise blinks. She reaches up to her cheeks, and she feels moisture. She realizes that, yes, she is crying. More shame curls inside her, and she shuts her eyes.
“Don’t.” Elise suddenly says, and Louise opens her eyes to see her glaring. Louise nearly flinches back. “Don’t be ashamed. For tears are not a sign of weakness. For letting loose is not failure.” Elise hugs her close then. “I know not of what you have endured. I know not for how long. But it has gone long enough.” Elise smiles. “It is alright. You have done well.”
You’ve done well.
Elise feels warm. Tabitha feels warm. It’s a warmth she desperately misses. It’s a warmth she once felt when she slept next to Saito. It’s a warmth she felt when Tiffania comforted her during her moments of stress. It’s the warmth she felt when Charlotte cried into her shoulders as the adversary of the void was felled.
It’s a familiar warmth.
And whether it is her young body or her old soul or both in tandem, Louise clutches onto the woman like a child and cries. She cries and sobs, for both what she has felt and what she will never again see. For the people she once knew and the people she will never again see. For what has gone by and what never again will.
She cries and cries. And before she knows it, she’s tucked under a blanket, sleeping together with Elise and Tabitha. She blushes then, but Elise simply smiles and shushes her. It’s a familiar gesture, and she manages a small smile as she lets her eyes close.
Tabitha is still hugging her then, and she falls asleep in comforting warmth.
Sadly, she and Tabitha need to return the next day. They have been gone for long enough. Thankfully, summer vacation is soon to come, and they promise to come. Tabitha shares a hug with her mother before they leave, and she is surprised Elise sneaks up and hugs her as well. She accepts it with a small, embarrassed smile.
They rise atop Sylphid and leave for the Academy. They’ll arrive back by night then, but it is fine. It isn’t as if Louise actually needs any of the Academy’s lessons, and nor does Tabitha. Louise can’t actually use anything they provide, and Tabitha has learnt everything she needs.
She isn’t actually sure how strong Tabitha is now. There is a limiter on her willpower, one she willingly placed on herself. If she lets herself loose, how strong will she be? Triangle-Class? Square-Class? Maybe even Pentagon? Tabitha being a Pentagon Mage this early is rather unlikely, but anything can happen.
Their flight back to the Academy is silent, but it is warm. Tabitha leans against her as she reads her book, and Louise greedily takes the warmth. She isn’t sure when the girl has gotten so close, nor why Louise has become so needy for it, but none of them mind. The night is warm as they fly.
…
The next day arrives. Louise eats her breakfast, thanks the staff, and returns to the courtyard. Except Tabitha is already there, dressed in loose slacks and a shirt, her large wooden staff leaning against her as she sat against Sylphid. The girl perks up when she approaches, and when Louise asks what she’s doing, she simply says, “Train, together.”
The warmth she felt yesterday surges back, and she nods before she can do anything else.
A Silence is cast over the courtyard, and they train. She creates that careful balance between destruction and reconstruction in her body and trains. She swings her sword and creates explosion after explosion. The air around her twists as she floods it with willpower, and the earth she tears up is wound back to the ground by her Void Magic.
Tabitha slings spell after spell. Water rushes all across the field. Winds sweep through the skies. They merge as one, and bergs of ice rise like blooming flowers. Frost creeps all across the grass, expanding like a growing parasite, and only stopped by the destruction Louise’s own explosions are causing.
Her assumptions are proven right. The limiter on Tabitha’s willpower is gone, and there is no doubt she is a Square Mage. Those icebergs of hers are created from two stacks of water and wind magic each. There is, of course, still the chance that Tabitha can go even further and breach into Pentagon-Class, but Tabitha hasn’t shown anything.
They leave for lunch when noon arrives. The cafeteria falls silent when she goes in, and then whispers come when Tabitha follows behind her. They grab their meals, she thanks the staff, and they eat as a slow conversation comes between them. They return their empty plates, head back to the courtyard, and begin their training anew.
She’s rather surprised Tabitha still has enough energy to continue, and then dashes that notion. Of course she has the stamina. The untold number of missions Joseph has most likely forced on the young girl has made her stronger. Fighting for hours on end is probably nothing new for her.
She’s somewhat surprised when Tabitha hasn’t gone to Kirche yet. The girl only shrugs and says that she is busy trying to romance her familiar.
Louise blinks then, and remembers that, yes, Kirche does end up trying to woo Saito into her bed. He didn’t fall for it the last time, and he hasn’t fallen for it this time either. It seems he and Siesta are developing something. Which is good. The two fit rather well with one another, she’ll say.
When night falls, they bid each other farewell and Louise returns to the dorms. She does take a quick visit to Saito’s room. He doesn’t open the door, and, curiously, it is unlocked. For a moment suspicion rises in her, followed by fear, before she shakes her head and pushes it open.
Only to find him pushing Siesta down on his bed.
They blink at her, and she stares for a few seconds before she bids them goodnight and attempts to leave. She doesn’t get to. Saito quickly rushes and pulls the door open, and Siesta apologizes over and over for her misconduct. Louise blinks at it all before she shakes her head and says that she’s fine with it.
“If your heart's in it, then you can do whatever you want, Saito.”
“And I keep saying, that’s not-!”
Louise carefully ignores the rest.
She asks how Saito has been doing in his classes, and she’s surprised when he mentions that he’s a Line Mage now. A Line Mage with an affinity for Fire and Wind. Wind is most likely taken from her relation as a Valliere. His affinity with Fire however,
She suppresses a flinch. She doesn’t know if it’s coincidence or a cruel joke, but the two deaths Saito went through are due to flames. He’d been struck down by flaming arrows in his last stand against Albion, and he was burnt away by the adversary’s flames as he fought to save Tristain.
Nonetheless, Wind and Fire are two complementary affinities. He would do well.
She bids the two goodnight, though not before giving them a cheeky smile and telling them not to go too far just yet. She closes the door just as she sees the two blush, and she lets free the laugh she’s been holding as she enters her own room. Those two are truly adorable. Maybe she’ll give Saito a ring to propose to the maid on his birthday.
She leans her sword against her desk and drops onto her bed. She turns and tumbles for a moment, uncomfortable with the lack of warmth, before she finally manages to sleep.
She dreams of deaths and flames. The night is an uncomfortable one.
…
It takes her a week to realize something ironic.
She is the master. Saito is the familiar. In the past, that is how their roles had been. She fought behind him, and he sped to the frontlines. She fought with her spells, and he fought with Derflinger. She created spells and he cut them apart.
Except now it has reversed, hasn’t it? She is the one fighting directly. He is the one learning to be a mage.
It’s an irony deep enough to make her laugh. Tabitha glances at her, confused, and she just shrugs and says, “I just thought of a joke.”
Tabitha blinks before she returns to bombarding the courtyard with bergs of ice.
In a sense, Louise should’ve expected this. Maybe she’s gotten her expectations off. Maybe her timing was off, but she really, really should’ve expected this.
Saito is, and always will be, a kind boy. A boy with his heart on his sleeve. A heart that bleeds for all injustice and cruelty. Even years later, though his flames had been reduced to embers, that same kindness remained, and it was that same kindness that became the hope that spurred their charge towards victory.
And Siesta is a gentle soul, but hiding behind that gentle facade is a lion, a beast kept in chains by nothing else but her own kind nature. Soft flesh hiding a heart of edged steel. She doesn’t trust easily. She doesn’t love easily. But when she does, she loves with all her heart, and like a dragon hiding their hoard, her wings will span over those that have been hurt.
So when Saito finally got fed up with people mistreating Siesta, and when Siesta finally makes a stand against the students, Louise decides enough is enough and finally steps in.
Unsurprisingly, it is Guiche who caused all this. He’d been walking when a maid bumped into him. He began berating her, threatening her, and Saito stepped in to help her. Guiche, seeing this, called him a fake, and Siesta, fed up with all the tension surrounding the Academy, blew up and called him out on his two-timing act. The girl he was with, Katie, asked if it was true, Montmorency was coincidentally present in the cafeteria, and everything spiraled from there.
She first opts to watch them. To see how Saito would handle it. And he did it admirably. He did all he could to protect him. But he wasn’t a noble just yet, and so when Guiche promised to buy Siesta’s contract off, there was little he could do.
And for a moment, a different memory comes to mind. A memory of the man Guiche would become. A fierce warrior. A great knight. He would fight with all his might. His valkyries would blanket the skies, and they would rain the battlefields with spears and arrows. A one-man army. The great general of the West.
Louise finds herself walking towards them. Her willpower floods the cafeteria. The floor begins to shake, and some chairs snap under the weight. Everyone turns to her then, and whatever noise there was falls away. Guiche turns to her, and the snarl he had slips off, replaced by a fearful tremble.
“Guiche de Gramont, I ask you this,” She says, and her voice is cold. “You are a Gramont, are you not?”
“Y-Yes?”
She snaps her fingers. The bottle of perfume in his hand shatters and disappears. All the students back away, and she hears someone begin to cry. She doesn’t pay any attention to them. She keeps her eyes on the boy. On the trembling, fearful boy. She glares, the memory of who this boy would become warring with this infantile child.
“Then where is he?”
He blinks, confused. “W-What?”
“Where is the Gramont you speak of?” She tilts her head. “General Gramont is an honorable man. A powerful man. He is a knight of great valor. He has served Tristain for years.” Her eyes narrow. “You claim to be his son. You claim to bear that same honor and valor. So where is it?”
A chair in the distant snaps.
“You claim to hold his power. Where is it?”
Something metallic in the distance shrieked.
“You claim to hold his respect. Where is it?”
An entire table explodes.
“You claim to be a man of your word. To be a knight who protects.” She takes a step towards him. “So where is it ?”
Then, to her horror, Guiche drops to the floor and begins crying. No, not crying. Outright sobbing. She stares for a moment, completely thrown, before a harrowing sort of disgust rises beneath her chest. This boy-, how dare he? How dare he? How dare he sully her memory of that valiant man? How dare he taint it!?
The weight in the air triples, and she barely manages to restrain herself from exploding this entire cafeteria into the earth. She doesn’t do that. Instead, she takes a breath, then two, and with what restraint she has she says, “You are but a petty boy. A mere skirt chaser. You do not deserve your name.”
She turns to Saito, Siesta, and the maid he saved. They were staring at her with both fear and awe. She sighs. “Come. Follow me to my room. Let us talk there.” And she doesn’t wait for a reply. She grabs the handle to the door and purposely flings it open. It smashes against the wall with a loud bang. Everyone flinches.
She walks, and she hears footsteps following behind her. She doesn’t need to turn to see that they’ve followed her. They don’t say anything, and nor does she.
They soon make it to her room, and the door shuts behind them with harrowing finality. Or, at least that’s what she assumes. Because the maid Saito saves finally turns to her and begins apologizing profusely, and she can only stand there for a full minute as she waits it out. The girl eventually tires though, and she finally gets a chance to speak.
“I’m not going to bite.” She says first. They all pale, and she realizes that’s probably not something she should say to a frightened crowd. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re fine .” She says instead. Thankfully, the tension begins to bleed away. “None of you were wrong. It is Guiche that has done a misdeed to you all.”
“And don’t worry about the other nobles. Any that attempts will be… handled .” She says carefully. Because saying that she’ll ‘put the fear of death in their life’ isn’t really appropriate. Nor is saying ‘remind them that she is childhood friends with the princess and can get their heads chopped off with a word’.
So she gently places a hand on the maid’s head and smiles. “You have done nothing wrong. Remember that. Just be careful next time.”
The maid cries again, and when she reaches over for a hug, Louise indulges her. She’s saved countless people, had many grasp onto her and cried as if she was the only thread keeping them alive. This is not so different. The girl apologizes once more for her act, she pushes it off with a shrug, and the maid soon leaves with a bright smile.
And with that gone, she finally turns to the pair. Sometime during it, Siesta has stepped between her and Saito, like a lioness protecting her herd. It’s both familiar and endearing, and she fails to stop a smile from coming onto her lips. “I will repeat my words. Neither of you did anything wrong.”
Their tension finally falls, and Saito actually droops. “Oh, I thought I was going to die .” Siesta catches him before he can drop onto the floor. “Sorry, I just-, fuck, that was terrifying.”
“What confidence you have to say that in my face.”
He grins. “Well, you aren’t going to kill me, right?”
She barked out a laugh. Oh, she’s forgotten this. This sass. One that always follows any stressful situations he’d find himself in. How truly familiar. “True, true.” She says, before she turns to Siesta. Her smile turns softer then. “And thank you for protecting him, Siesta of Tarbes. It is not something anyone can do.”
“O-Oh, um, it’s fine, Lady Valliere.”
She grimaces. “Louise is fine.” She doesn’t like being associated with her…family. But she doesn’t say that. Because she needs to at least pretend that she doesn’t want to explode her mother’s face into the dust.
She looks at them then. At how close they are standing to one another. At how Siesta still stands between them. Of how the fire she remembers Siesta having in the future is just as bright now.
She makes a decision then.
“Siesta of Tarbes, do you want to become a mage?”
“...whu?”
She grins. “Do you want to become a mage?” She asks again, and she watches in amusement as the maid’s cheeks begin to burn red. Saito’s jaws have fallen open, completely surprised at her offer, and she smirks. “Nobles were given their titles due to their acts, not because of their blood. For what reason should magic be limited to only commoners?”
“Of course, if you do become one, you need to keep it away from the nobles. You’ll have to learn on your own. Maybe borrow the books Saito has received from the Academy. Maybe borrow some yourself. But it is your choice.” She narrows her eyes. “You wish to protect him. Are you ready to bear this burden?”
And just like that, the steel in her eyes becomes clear to see. “I am.”
She smiles, and a Silence is cast.
She performs the same spell as she did on the first day of her return. A magic circle lights under their feet, and wind sweeps throughout the room as she begins to speak. “So I decree this: For let our fate be intertwined as one. For let our souls ring as one.” She takes a breath. “For let your life lay in Hiraga Saito’s hand. For let his life lay in yours. For shall you walk together upon this path destiny has once laid.” She looks at her and smiles. “Do you accept these terms, Siesta of Tarbes?”
And with no hesitation, Siesta says, “I do.”
She closes her eyes. “Then let this contract be done.”
And then Siesta screams as Runes begin to burn on the back of her right hand, her recently awakened willpower carving them one rune at a time. Saito is there to catch her as she writhes, her teeth harshly grit as she bears the pain with commendable tenacity.
Louise twitches as runes form on the back of her right hand, runes glowing as they form one line at a time.
Soon, the lights fade, and the new runes lose their light. She quickly places an Illusion spell over her right hand. It’d be rather strange for someone to have two sets of runes on them. “I’d suggest wearing gloves to hide your runes.” She says. “Saito can freely show his because he’s my familiar, but you are not.”
“That…I will do, mistress.”
She frowns. “...there is no need to call me that. Saito is your master. You are his maid. I am just an…observer.” She hides a grimace at her own word, despite how true it is.
Siesta looks affronted at that, and she shakes her head. “Nay, you are my mistress, just as Saito is my master.” She looks up to her, with that unbending determination. “You have given me the greatest gift I have ever received. I will come to your aid anytime you need it, mistress.”
She sighs. “Very well.”
She soon leaves the two to their own devices. Saito can easily teach Siesta how to bring out Siesta’s willpower. And she knows Siesta will be able to.
Because she knows who that girl is. She knows who she is. She knows just how far she can reach. She knows how strong the steel inside her is.
So she leaves for the courtyard, and as always, Tabitha is there to meet her. “Need, help?” Tabitha asks, no doubt having heard of what happened. She shakes her head and simply smiles, and Tabitha nods. The girl knows just how much pull she has, and even if someone tries something, they’ll sooner find their heads blown up before anything else.
So a Silence spell is cast over the courtyard, and they begin their training for the day, preparing for the day when everything falls apart, interspersed with slow chatter over mundane matters.
They train deep into the night, and they share a hug before they part. Some part of her still feels embarrassed about it, about how affectionate Tabitha has become and about how needy she has become for her warmth, but she enjoys it nonetheless. They separate with smiles and a promise to meet again tomorrow.
She returns to her room. She stays up for another hour, watching the night sky, seeing the stars glimmer back from high above. She sleeps after.
Her sleep is pleasant then, filled with food and fond memories.
Chapter 4: Summer Winds
Notes:
Takes some stuff from the LN, and some stuff are headcanon. Just remember that the source material technically isn't finished, so...yeah.
Also, a quick mention:
CW: Mind Control
Chapter Text
Weeks pass by, and soon summer arrives. The Academy empties out. Siesta brings Saito to her hometown. And she and Tabitha have returned to Tabitha’s house as promised. Elise is there to greet them with a hug, and their days pass on in pleasant halcyon.
They don’t stop training. There is a field not too far afield from where the house is, and they claim it as their own. They don’t train all the day however, mostly because when they tried Elise dragged them by the ear. The woman had also tried to stop the painful balance Louise places on herself during her training, but she knows her body best. She tells Elise that she’s fine, and Tabitha helpfully pipes up and mentions how she hasn’t blown herself to smithereens.
Elise eventually lets the matter drop, though not without suffocating her in a painfully comfortable hug for a few minutes. Tabitha joins it after a few seconds.
Their mornings are spent training, and then the rest of the day is enjoyed. “This is summer break, you do realize.” Elise says once, and there is little Louise and Tabitha can say to that. Still, it means more time to spend just…living, she supposes. Enjoying her time. It’s something she sorely misses.
But then, some way through their vacation, an emissary from Galia appears. Louise manages to see him still an hour away, and in a panic, she rushes over and wakes Elise and Tabitha up. Their faces darken when she tells them of what she’s seen, and Elise outright snarls. “That useless, spineless bastard .”
“I’ll…meet him.” Tabitha says slowly. Reluctantly.
Louise shakes her head and places a hand on her shoulder. “We will. Together.” She then turns and gives an apologetic smile at Elise. “I’m sorry, but do you mind hiding in this room for the next hour? I’ll place a Silence and Illusion to hide you away.” The woman doesn’t look particularly pleased, but she nods.
A Silence and Illusion is cast over the room, and with a promise to stay safe, they leave and head for the living room. They sit on the couches in stilted silence, and she occasionally turns to the windows to see where the man was. The bell then rings, and Louise just manages to stop herself from exploding the door and instead gently taps Tabitha’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Tabitha nods, and together they pull the door open. “Tabitha, a mission has come from our King.” He says through his helm, before turning to her. “And who’s this?”
“Friend.” Tabitha whispers, and Louise can feel the slow rise of her willpower. “What, mission?”
The man stares at her for a few more seconds before he turns back to Tabitha. “Lagdorian Lake has begun rising. Head there and defeat the Water Spirit, lest she eventually drowns the world.” He then adds, “Do not fail.” Tabitha stills before she manages to nod. The man huffs before he turns away. “I will take my-”
“Oh no you don’t .”
Before the man can do anything, Louise reaches over and grasps the back of his helmet. She lets loose the willpower she’s been keeping at bay for the past few seconds, and he screams before he slams into the dirt. Her Void Magic activates, and the thick steel helm he wears begins to tear itself into thin shreds of steel. It reveals a pair of fearful eyes, and she smiles with teeth. “You’re not leaving so quickly.”
Then her Void Magic rises again, and the man screams as she begins tearing his own memories to shreds. She reaches forth, grabs them, and like paper she tears them apart. Then she reforms them, gluing it all back together, but with one addition of her own.
She lifts her hand from his head, and he blinks. Then, he suddenly drops onto his knees and shouts, “Forgive me for my misconduct, mistress!”
Tabitha’s eyes are wide. “...how?”
Louise smiles weakly. “It’s…” She tries to say before turning away. Because what can she say? That she learnt it after Tiffania was so cruelly murdered? That she learnt it because the Void so easily breaks the mind of the common man? That she learnt it so that she could snap her own crumbling mind back together?
She doesn’t end up saying anything in the end, and Tabitha takes it as the worst scenario. She reaches over and hugs her. “I’m sorry.” She whispers, as if she was guilty for not being there. Louise stays there for a full minute, uncaring that the man was watching them. They then separate, but Tabitha stands closer.
“Why does Joseph care about Lagdorian Lake?” She asks the man.
“He desires the Ring of Andavari.”
Louise silently curses. Of course the mad king wants the artifact that can manipulate minds and the dead. Of course he wants that. She sighs. “Taking the Water Spirit down is not something anyone can do. Why does Joseph have so much faith in Tabitha?”
“He doesn’t.” The man says simply, as if those words aren’t wrong.
And something inside her just snaps .
With a snarl she raises her hand, and the skies above are alight with several dozen explosions, each large enough to destroy entire districts of buildings. The rage finally leaves her then, and she turns down to see the man shaking in fear. “Is that so?” She asks slowly, uncaring for the mist escaping from her lips. “So he expects her to die?”
“Y-Yes, mistr-” She punches him before he can finish. He drops onto the earth, unconscious.
She steadies her breathing and slowly turns to Tabitha. She…doesn’t look as shaken as she expects her to. Tabitha looks more awed with the massive explosions she caused. “Amazing.” She hears Tabitha whisper, and she can’t help but shyly laugh at the compliment.
With that done, she presses her palm into the pile of shredded steel, and from it reforms the helm. She slams it back onto the man, and with some quick Void Magic, she reforms his memories and removes her little addition. He wakes up, confused, and she simply says. “You tripped and hit your head on a rock. Are you alright, good sir?”
“Y-Yes I am.” He quickly stands and bows. “Thank you for your aid. I bid thee farewell.” And saying that he turns and quickly leaves. Louise shares a quick wry smile with Tabitha before they head back into Elise’s room. The spells she cast falls then, and Elise quickly heads to them and asks what happened.
Louise tells her, and Elise sighs. “Of course. That man stops at nothing in his bid for power.” She closes her eyes. “I don’t want you to head there. Either of you.” She shakes her head with a rueful smile. “But I can’t stop you, can I?”
Louise grimaces. “I…I’m afraid so. We must at least stop the Water Spirit from drowning the world first.” She explains, and Tabitha nods by her side.
Elise stares at them, before she lets free a small smile. “Then go with my blessings.”
So they did.
They garb themselves with what essentials they might need. A cloak in case of rain. Several daggers hidden under. A sword for Louise. Gloves for Tabitha. Elise smiles at them then, and she gives them a tight hug before they fly away atop Sylphid. The house quickly goes out of view, and they soar just below the clouds.
It’ll take them hours to reach the lake. It’ll most likely be dusk by the time they arrive. There is a…low chance the Water Spirit will actually attack them, but a small chance is still a chance. And fighting in the dark is hardly advantageous.
So they fly, and soon the lake comes into view. The man is right. The lake has grown far larger, and the village that was once there is gone, swallowed by the rising tides. They descend, and Sylphid gently hums as Tabitha tells her to stay safe. The wind dragon flies away, and together they head for the lake.
They stop just by the lake’s edge, and Louise takes a breath as she dips a finger into the water. She licks her lips, and her willpower rises as she begins to speak. “Oh great spirit of water, heed my call!”
A glow pulses out from her finger, and before them the water begins to rise, molding together into something vaguely human. The being grows in size, and before long the Water Spirit forms, its height taller than even the trees around them. “For what reason have you called upon me, oh Savior?”
Louise blinks at the title, before she shakes her head. It isn’t strange for Spirits to know of the future. The Water Spirit most likely knows of her little trip back to the past. “We have heard of the Ring of Andavari, and how it has been wrongfully stolen from you.” She takes a breath. “If we return it to you, will you cease this rise and return these waters to where they belong?”
The Water Spirit remains silent for a few moment, and she feels her willpower rise in anticipation. Thankfully, the spirit eventually nods. “I have seen your heart. Of what you can and shall do. Retrieve my ring, and these waters shall descend.” And with that, the spirit’s body breaks and the water splashes back into the lake.
“Savior?” Tabitha asks, and Louise manages to steady her shoulders as she shrugs.
“Something about what I’ve gone through, probably.” She says casually, not quite thinking. She only realizes something is wrong when Tabitha doesn’t respond. She quickly turns to see that Tabitha is staring at her, anger and sadness swirling in those bright blue eyes of hers. “What’s wrong?” She asks.
Tabitha’s lips go thin, and she shakes her head before engulfing her in a tight hug. Louise, still confused over what happened, takes the hug in silence.
Sylphid soon comes upon them. They ride up onto her back, and with a mighty flap they ascend into the skies. Their return trip is silent. Tabitha is heavily leaning into her, still visibly angered by something, and Louise can only wonder what she’s said wrong.
And if she wraps her arms around the girl in a desperate bid for warmth, Tabitha doesn’t say anything.
…
Elise is there to greet her when they return. Louise greets her back, but then Tabitha suddenly rushes over and whispers something into Elise’s ears. What warmth there was falls away, and suddenly the woman’s eyes are very cold indeed. Louise stills, confused, and her confusion only grows when Elise reaches over and holds her in a tight hug.
That confusion continues to grow as she drags her to bed. It grows as Elise and Tabitha refuse to leave her. She then realizes that they want to sleep together, and her confusion continues to spiral.
In the end, she falls asleep. Her dreams are nothing particularly interesting that night.
Tabitha asks her to show the strongest explosion she can pull off. Louise, naturally, declines and explains that she doesn’t want to blow the forests around the house to ashes. But then Tabitha pulls her onto Sylphid, flies over to an empty field some distance away from the house, and creates a giant field of icebergs the size of a town “Explode.” She says simply, as if she didn’t just pull off an insane feat of her own.
Louise eventually sighs and accepts. Still atop Sylphid, she closes her eyes and begins flooding the world with her willpower. It rushes down onto the ground, coalescing into a singular core at the center of the massive field of ice. She gathers them, condenses them further, and with a small breath she whispers, “Explosion.”
And the world is filled with light as the ice explodes. One moment the icebergs are there, and the next they are not. She slowly lowers her hand, and she turns to see Tabitha staring at her with barely concealed awe. She smiles lightly. “There.” She says, and then yelps as Tabitha leaps and pulls her into a hug.
They end up falling off, and Sylphid cries out as she desperately attempts to grab them. She succeeds, and Louise finds herself cradled in Sylphid’s claws, with Tabitha snuggling into her side.
Well, there are worse things that can happen, she supposes.
Fate is an interesting thing, she thinks.
It’s a week before their summer vacation ends. It’s the afternoon then, and she is alone in the living room as she enjoys a warm cup of tea. Tabitha and Elise are away at the moment, having gone to a nearby town, mostly because Elise has finally had enough of being cooped in this house. She stays, both because there needs to be someone to protect the house and because it’s a moment for the mother and daughter to bond. Tabitha is saddened by it, but Elise whispers something to her, and her sadness is swiftly swept away by embarrassment.
Louise isn’t sure what Elise said to Tabitha, and she has a feeling she doesn’t want to know. That odd glint was in her eyes, the one that made her spine shiver in terror.
So she’s enjoying a cup of tea when she feels someone approaching. Someone inhuman. She calls for the butler and immediately instructs him to hide. That someone potentially dangerous is coming. He nods, having seen her strength, and she carefully keeps her willpower steady as the presence approaches.
Then, the bell rings, and Louise takes a breath before she pulls the door open. And a man greets her. With long blonde hair and pale blue eyes. He looks beautiful, unnaturally so, and though hidden by his hair, she can see his sharp ears.
An elf. And a familiar one.
“Greetings.” He says. “Might I know where Tabitha is?”
She supposes she should be cordial. That she should treat this elf carefully and not let him gain any suspicion. But,
He will become an ally, but at the moment this elf is an enemy. One that created the poison Elise drank. One that will create the Firestones Joseph will use to destroy Romalia. The one that will kidnap Saito and Tiffania.
So,
“No, you cannot.” She says, her smile cold and her voice even. The elf freezes, and his eyes narrow. His mouth opens to speak, but she glares back. “I know you. I know what you have done.” The air trembles as her willpower leaks. A weight settles in the air, and she sees his eyes widening in surprise. She smiles. It isn’t a pleasant smile.
“I know you, elf .”
“You-!”
But before he can do anything, she’s flooded her legs with willpower, and she slams her elbow into his abdomen. He screams in pain and she leaps, sending him crashing a full yard away from the house. He coughs, surprised, and he snarls as he presses his palms into the earth. She feels the ground tremble then, and she watches as hundreds of vines race out from the ground around him.
She snaps her fingers, and a bright explosion rips through all the vines. They are shredded in an instant, and she grins as fear settles in his eyes.
“A-A demon…?”
“I prefer ‘Void Mage’, but to each their own.”
“How…!? You’re casting without a wand! And that technique-!”
“It’s like an elf’s?” She asks in return. “Truly, I don’t have any misgivings about your lot. You’re as human as everyone else. There is nothing strange about you. But,” She narrows her eyes, and she raises her hand towards the sky. “You poisoned Elise. You tried to kill Tabitha.” And softly she whispers. “You almost killed Saito.”
And over her palm forms an orb of light. It quickly begins to grow. Soon it’s the size of a house. Then it’s the size of a tavern. And soon it’s the size of a small fortress. “I won’t kill you.” She assures. But the smile she has is cold. “But it’s going to hurt .”
He calls forth another wave of vines, and he brings up a shield of willpower. But it does little in the end. The orb collapses into itself, and then everything goes white as an explosion rips through the world. Seen from a distance, it would have almost been as if a second sun had suddenly appeared.
Then, it fades. The dust settles, and Louise stands there unaffected. The elf is not so lucky. He is heavily burnt, and dying. But he is alive, and so she reaches over and begins reconstructing what she damaged. She steps back, and the man rises back up with a gasp. His eyes snap to her, before horror dawns on him as he looks around.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” She says casually. The man stills, and she lets her smile grow. “That’s nothing compared to what Elise felt. Nothing compared to what Tabitha was forced to feel.” She leans towards him, and her smile sharpens. “You’re lucky you are not an enemy. I would’ve broken your body apart.”
The man is frozen. And Louise gives him a playful twirl as she bows. “My name is Louise de La Valliere.” She smiles. “Would you mind telling me why an upstanding elf such as you partnered with a devil like Joseph?”
He swallows and grits his teeth. He knows he can’t do anything, and she shamefully feels a dark sense of pleasure at it. “I-, came here to research humans.” He says. It’s the exact same words he’d said when Saito defeated him in her previous life.
She nods. “And?”
He scoffs, fear overwritten by disgust for the moment. “You are pathetic. And demons like you are as I remember-.”
“Ah, ah, ah.” She lets loose a small burst of willpower. The ground beneath her cracks. “Demon this, demons that. I understand if you were talking about Brimir.” Her face falls for a moment. She remembers first learning of the injustice Brimir did to the elves. It isn’t a pleasant memory. “That man has caused your kind great harm, and I can understand your hatred.”
“So why-”
“But for a race as long lived as you are, you are truly lacking insight.”
She breathes. “Tell me, what is Void Magic?” The elf opens his mouth, and then closes it. She smiles wanly. “Exactly. No one knows what Void Magic actually is. All we know is that any magic not based on the elements must be Void Magic. But, if I’m a Void Mage, then why can’t I wield the forces of the Void itself?”
She grimaces. She knows the Void. Has felt it burrow into her mind. Even given the choice, she will never willingly wield the Void as her own.
“It’s like calling anything sharp a sword. Or saying Wind and Lightning are the same because they are based on the same element. It’s an oversimplification. Because you know?” She smiles emptily. “The true Void is much, much more terrifying.”
“Hate Brimir. Despise him. I don’t care. Hate Joseph as well. But spare those that do not deserve it. Bring your hatred upon those that truly deserve it.” The elf doesn’t say anything to that. He can’t. So she eventually sighs and asks, “Why don’t we head back for some tea? Some refreshments would be nice.”
The elf stares, confused at the sudden request, before he eventually follows her. They walk back in stilted silence, the elf still wary of her prowess. She doesn’t do anything to answer nor relieve his tension.
They do end up having tea. The butler’s eyes go wide open when he sees the elf enter, but Louise swiftly asks him to bring about a cup of tea. The tea is brought out in record time.
And then, they sit. For minutes they sit in silence. The elf observes her, wary but curious, and she lets herself enjoy the cup of tea she didn’t quite finish. But then he begins to ask. He asks what she means by the true Void. He asks how he knows about what Brimir did. He asks how she has learnt techniques only the elves know.
She answers some and doesn’t answer others. She doesn’t explain what the Void actually is. She can, but she’d rather not talk about something no normal mortal should ever know of. She explains that she learnt of Brimir’s doing from the spirits. Which is both true and false. She did learn it from the spirits. Just not in this life.
She takes a moment to decide whether to explain how she learnt her elven techniques. There’s…nothing wrong with telling him. And it’ll probably garner more favorability from the wary elf. But doing so will no doubt put the elves’ attention on her. She isn’t sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.
She eventually decides to explain it anyway. She tells him of how, during a moment of grief, she meets with the departed soul of the elf known as Sasha, the first Gandalfr. She taught her what she now knows. She was the one who first taught her how to swing a blade. She was the one who led her to the spirits to find out what Brimir had done.
It isn’t completely true. She doesn’t explain how she met Sasha, because explaining that she met the deceased elf when she was swallowed by the Void isn’t something she can easily explain. Nor how it was less teaching her and more painfully shoving knowledge into her brain.
The elf is completely floored.
When his questions end, she tells him to leave Galia. To return to his community. “Joseph will soon fall, and Tabitha-, nay, Charlotte will take his place.” She says simply. “And soon, the curtain of the skies will be torn open, and the Void will begin its descent.”
The elf straightens. “What might you mean?”
She grimaces. “Despite what I had said, Brimir did actually wield the Void. It is why the name has stuck for so long.” She sighs. “But dealing with the Void is not something a mortal should ever do, and its consequences are not light. That man has taken from the Void, and it will reach into Halkegenia and take back what he has given to the world.”
It doesn’t take long for the elf to realize what she means. “You mean-”
She nods. “Yes.” She narrows her eyes. “The magic Brimir has granted to humanity.”
…
In the end, the elf—Bidashal, she later learns, promises to cut away all ties he has with Joseph and return to his community. And Louise knows he means it. For elves may hide and misdirect, but they do not lie. Strangely, as she watches him turn, she calls out to him. He turns back to her, confused, and a strange feeling wells up inside her chest.
She begins to speak before she knows anything else.
“You have done many wrongs, Bidashal of Varai. But I know you. I know what good you can do. Think as you return. Remember why you began on this journey. And when you return, tell your kind everything. Every injustice you felt, but also every happiness you saw. Every shred of despair and every light of hope. Speak of them. Tell them. Let your tales be one of caution, and one of hope. Bring the light of knowledge, and flourish.”
Bidashal stares, his jaw loose, before he takes a breath and nods. “I shall take your words into my heart, priestess.”
…what?
But before she can ask what he means, his form fades into the wind, and she’s left standing out there like a fool as she ponders over the last few seconds. Just what was that feeling? Just why did she say all that? Why did he call her priestess?
She frowns as she glances at the sky.
And why do those words sound so familiar?
She doesn’t know.
She sighs. It’s worrying, to find out that there are still unknowns even after everything she’s gone through. But, at the same time, she feels…excited, in a way. Because this is new . There are still things she doesn't know. There are still things to learn of. There are still things to find.
She supposes it’s the student inside her. The small part of her that had kept her alive all throughout her time in the Academy. A part she thought she had grown out of.
She smiles wryly, and closes the door behind her. Because she hasn’t finished her tea, and by god, she will finish her damn tea.
Chapter 5: Wayward Princess, Crumbling Stone
Chapter Text
Summer ends, and they inevitably return to the Academy. She shares one last feast with Elise before they are to leave. They’ll head out at night, late enough that it’ll be day when they arrive. And when that time comes, Elise is there to share one last hug with them before they take off into the skies.
And already, Louise feels herself aching, desperately craving the warmth that woman has. She shivers slightly, and her coldness is immediately comforted when Tabitha leans back onto her.
They fly in silence, and she can’t help but smile as the Academy comes into view, illuminated by the slowly rising sun. With the sun behind it, glowing just behind the towers, the Academy looks beautiful, almost divine. Like something built in a fading dream. Beautiful but ethereal.
They land. They part for a short moment. Louise returns to her room and places all the things she brought back. She then heads to the cafeteria for a meal. It is startling early then, and only the staff are awake. They happily greet her when she comes, and she smiles and thanks them as she sits down and eats.
Privately, she wonders why the staff are suddenly so happy to see her. She supposes saving that maid from Guiche has done wonders for her image in the commoners’ eyes, but it can’t have that big of an effect, could it?
She later learns that, yes, it does have a big effect. Because she truly is the first to act like she does, and something inside her burns at it.
She doesn’t know that yet, and so she returns her empty plate and heads for the courtyard. Tabitha is there to meet her as always. They’ll normally be training by now, but they don’t do that. Instead, Louise casts a Silence and Illusion over the courtyard. She then sits down, her back against the resting Sylphid, and Tabitha drops her head onto Louise’s shoulder. Her eyes then turn to the book Tabitha is holding, and together they begin to read.
It’s something fairly recent. She didn’t hide the fact that Bidashal had taken a visit. Nor did she hide how she stomped him. Tabitha is grateful. And that should’ve been it. But then Elise whispers something to her daughter, and Tabitha flushes before cold determination settles in her eyes. Louise shivers then, worried, but nothing happens for the rest of the day.
And then when the next day comes, Tabitha suddenly says that she wants to spend an hour everyday reading with her. Louise is…confused, but she accepts it, especially since Tabitha is so very warm in the mornings.
They soon make it through a chapter, and Tabitha closes the book. They rise from the earth, and Louise gives her arms a stretch. She glances to her right to see that Tabitha has already begun her training, and icebergs are formed all throughout the courtyard with frightening speed.
Bidashal’s arrival heralds the incoming dangers, and Tabitha takes to her training with increased vigor. Naturally, the girl immediately asks how Louise managed to bypass his defenses. After all, he can put up a shield that can block any elemental attacks. Louise stared then, confused why she thought that, before she realized that, of course, no one actually knew how Elven Shields work.
So she teaches her. She creates the very same elven shield Tabitha is so afraid of. The girl’s eyes had gone wide when she first did it, before it sharpens when she begins explaining.
Elven Shields are…nothing extraordinary, really. But they are genius in their design. It isn’t necessarily true to call them a shield. They’re more ‘disruption fields’ than shields. They work by disrupting the structure of any spell they come across, which then causes the spell to unravel and release the willpower fueling it.
The thing is, these ‘disruption fields’ are, themselves, spells. Spells created using a different system entirely, but spells nonetheless. The reason why Louise so easily bypasses them is because most of her own Explosions are deconstruction of worldly matter, and so the Elven Shields are similarly broken down the moment they come in contact.
Of course, Tabitha easily notices her wording and realizes that all she needs to do is learn how to unravel the shield’s structure. To break through its mechanism with willpower and willpower alone. It isn't as easy as it sounds, of course. It meant learning an entirely different system of magic, and deepening one’s fine control over pure willpower.
But Tabitha is no simple student, and she becomes the queen of Galia for a reason. She takes to the task with admirable energy, and promptly figures out a method of breaking past the shield in just three days. Three days . It is, perhaps, one of the most incredible feats she’s ever held witness to.
A feat that apparently was only possible because Tabitha forsook her sleep for the entirety of the three days. So she isn’t surprised when Tabitha crashes into unconsciousness the moment she tells the girl to sleep. Which is all good and done. What she doesn’t expect is for the girl to cling to her like a pillow, and Louise couldn’t find the strength to push the girl away.
So they spent hours sleeping outside only to wake up on a bed. Tabitha was still sleeping beside her then, and it took a second to realize that Elise had most likely found them and brought them in. Her cheeks had gone warm at the realization.
So they now train. Bergs of ice forms, and her explosions will sweep them away. Elven Shields are formed, and they are then torn down. An arm is raised, and the skies are alight with explosions. A staff meets the ground, and the earth turns white with frost and snow.
Thankfully, no one shows up at the courtyard, having known that Louise has all but claimed it as her own. No one gets caught in the mayhem they unleash.
Time passes. Days roll by in gentle idleness. Their days are spent training, reading, and flying atop Sylphid’s back. Occasionally she’ll meet up with Saito and Siesta to see how they’ve progressed, and she finds herself impressed every time. Occasionally Tabitha will go to see Kirche, and she always returns with a slight pout on her lips, whispering about how the other girl keeps teasing her about something.
…
And then the news of Prince Wales’ death finally reaches the Academy. Of his illicit relations with Princess Henrietta. Disraight, her marriage is canceled, and like the vultures they are, Albion makes use of this excuse to wage war against Tristain.
Louise immediately begins preparing for a trip to the royal castle. Tabitha instead offers to fly her over on Sylphid’s back. She agrees, and together they fly across the skies. They reach the castle in a couple hours, and ordering Sylphid to hand around the skies, she and Tabitha make their way through the streets.
They attempt to enter the castle, and are immediately barred from entry. Louise feels her thin patience thinning even further, and with a smile that is hardly comforting, she tells them that she is Louise de La Valliere, that she knows Agnes, and that she will carve a path of blood through them if they dare attempt to stop her from consoling her friend. The guards pale then, their hands reaching for their weapons in fear.
Thankfully, one of the musketeers she met during Fouquet’s appearance is there, and she easily tells them that her words are true. Now truly frightened, the knights step away, and the musketeer makes a plea for her to aid the princess. She nods, and with Tabitha behind her she makes her way towards the throne room.
As they approach, she begins to hear shouts. Angry shouts. Some simply angry. Some also mocking. Her patience thins even further.
They then reach the doors to the throne room, and the shouts are ever clearer then. They are mocking the princess. Mocking Henrietta. Mocking her friend .
The doors open, and she sees Henrietta sitting on the throne, tears in her eyes as she smiles in shame.
And.
She.
Burns .
Her patience finally snaps, and her willpower rushes through the room. The windows shatter. The ceiling cracks. And all the shouts go silent as she steps into the room. Some nobles attempt to run, but Tabitha’s faster. She slams her staff into the floor, and frost spreads through the room in an instant. All the nobles are frozen stiff.
She glances around, taking a mental note of the nobles that dared mock her friend. As she expects, most are either traitors or nobles so far up their arses that they believe themselves greater than the princess herself. She takes particular pleasure at seeing Wardes, his body frozen solid. His eyes go wide when her eyes turn to her, and she lets a cold smile come onto her lips.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” She begins, her voice loud and clear, bellied with the experience of hundreds of battles. “Miscreants, all of you. You pin your blame on the princess. On the one who has done all she can to support this damned nation. And this is how you repay her.” She scoffs. “Nobles. Truly a stain on this continent.”
“You-!”
“Silence.” She snaps. She turns to the noble who dared speak, and she lets her smile widen. “Ah, I recognize you.” She tilts her head. “Don’t you run an underground slave ring west from here? I hear you plan on expanding your business with the upcoming war.” The man’s eyes go comically wide then, and she smiles with teeth. “Don’t worry. Your business will be thoroughly handled .”
She hears someone else whisper, and she turns to see a woman. Her eyes flinch away, and Louise grins. “And you? My, are you not the one who told Albion of the Ring of Andavari?” The woman is crying now. Louise doesn’t stop. “Mm. I hear it has the power to take control of minds. Do you not understand what dangerous thing you’ve given to our enemies?”
“I-I-I’m sorry…!”
Louise ignores her. Finally, she turns to Wardes. She barely manages to push down her snarl, and smiles not-so-pleasantly instead. “And you.” She takes a step towards him, and more of her willpower seeps into the air. “ You. You absolute waste of space. To think Henrietta has to share her space with the killer of her love.” His eyes are shaking and wide. She gently cups his cheek. “Then again, I suppose I must commend you on your daring attitude. I suppose that is why Lady Valliere so easily sold me off to become your bride.”
She takes notice of how he begins to scream the moment she says so, and she turns down to see that the frost keeping him in place suddenly turned sharp. They’re stabbing into him now, and there is no doubt the man is suffering. She gives a grateful nod at Tabitha, and the girl nods back.
The doors suddenly open then, and Agnes comes in to see what they’ve done. Her eyes are wide, but she relaxes when she sees that Henrietta is unharmed. “Sir Agnes.” Louise calls out, and she tries to soften her smile. It doesn’t work. “What is the greatest punishment a noble can receive?”
Understanding comes into the woman’s eyes, and she smiles darkly. “Public execution.”
Someone begins to cry. The room, already cold, impossibly turns colder.
Louise takes a breath. “Then every noble here is slated to be executed. Both for slandering our princess, and for the many, many illicit things they have done.” She stops then before she says, “Ah, but do leave Wardes to be the last. The killer of Prince Wales of Albion shall be the last to have his head cut off.”
Agnes salutes. “We shall prepare everything.”
And so the execution is slated to happen in a couple hours. All the nobles are detained, all still partially frozen and shaking with fear. The moment they all leave, she rushes to Henrietta, and she grimaces. She doesn’t look well. She looks pale, she is shivering, and she has no doubt slept too little.
“...why?” The princess eventually manages. “Why must this all happen to me?”
“Because nobles are pieces of-” She coughs. “Because nobles are a waste of space.”
Henrietta glances at her and Tabitha, and she shuts her eyes. “Does that mean you are too?”
Her grins sharpens then. “Well, I don’t think I’m a noble by this point, but,” She shrugs. “Who’s keeping count, eh? And it’s not like being a noble will stop them from having their heads cut off.”
Tabitha nods. “Nobles, still human.” She tilts her head. “Freeze, the same.”
Henrietta laughs then. It’s a soft thing, and it sounds more like a sob than anything, but it is a laugh, and she considers it a victory on her front. The hours slowly pass then, with her trying all she can to gently lift the princess’ spirits back up.
“You don’t need to appear.” She says. “Your people will understand.”
“I will.” Henrietta says, and she frowns in determination. “Because they will understand.”
Then, like a chime of death, the doors open. Agnes steps through and informs them that the public execution has been prepared. Henrietta nods then, and with carefully kept grace she rises from her throne and follows the woman out. Louise glances at Tabitha then, and her lips thin out. “You can stay here if you want.”
Tabitha shakes her head. “You go, I go.” She gently holds her hands in hers, and Louise feels that gentle warmth coil beneath her as Tabitha says, “We go, together.”
So they do.
…
The streets are packed that day, and there is no small amount of horror lingering in the air as they see the state their princess is in. Their horror grows when Louise lists out each and every crime the offending nobles have done. Slave rings. Treachery. Kidnappings. Exploitation. Outright assassinations.
When the first noble is beheaded, the crowd cheers. The cheer grows with every head fallen, and then everything goes silent when they finally each Wardes. No one knows of him. Louise hasn’t said anything about him. But her silence has only made the air colder. They know that his crime is the largest, so large that she leaves him as the last.
“Once, there was a great man.” She begins softly, as if reciting a tale from long ago. “Under the light of the twin moons, he met a girl. And under the blessings of the spirits he promises to unite with her, and with that, unite the two disparaging nations. To bring them together and stand stronger than ever.”
She harshly grips onto Wardes’ hair, and she pulls him up. “But this world is cruel. That story is pure. It is kind. A tale of hope. And it has been dashed.” With a single hand she lifts Wardes into the air. “So look upon him. Upon the one who has slain the love our princess has kept so dear to her soul. Look upon him. Look.”
The people stare, and the rage in their eyes is clear. She feels Wardes shake. She doesn’t know if it's indignation or fear or rage. Maybe all of them. Maybe none. She doesn’t care. She slams the man down, and Agnes brings him over to the guillotine. Agnes glares at the man, before she finally slams the lever down.
The guillotine falls. Wardes’ head falls onto the wooden platform. The people cheer.
“Albion has declared war on us.” She says amongst the cheers. “Albion has dared to make a move against Tristain. Against our princess.” She takes a breath. “They dare! They dare point their blades upon us! They dare proclaim themselves conquerors!”
The crowd roars. She briefly notes the surprised look she receives from both Henrietta and Agnes. Surprise at how experienced she is at all this.
“So let them come.” She says, and the crowd goes silent as her willpower floods the air. “Let them come. Let them see what we can do.” She notes the awe in their eyes, at the way the world itself seems to twist around her. “They have angered Tristain. They have angered our nation.”
“So I proclaim: My name is Louise de-,” She stops herself. “My name is Louise. I have known Henrietta for most of my life. I remember our first meeting, of that day upon that lake. I remember our days spent gathering flowers, talking, and living. I remember it all.” She closes her eyes, in respect. “She is my friend.”
“I don’t do many things.” She admits, and silently winces at how ironic that sounds. “But for a friend? For someone I have known for all my life?” She lets her lips curve to a feral smile. “For a friend? I will do anything .”
And the crowd explodes with cheer.
…
When night comes, after hours upon hours of talking with Agnes and going over plans on what to do in the case of an invasion from Albion, Louise finally manages to slink away. She stumbles into the room she and Tabitha have been provided, and the moment the door closes behind her, she practically falls.
Tabitha is there to catch her, and she has no shame in leaning into the girl. “It’s, okay.” Tabitha softly whispers. “I’m here. You, can rest.”
And then, after everything, after all the stress and passion and hatred and love and excitement, Louise feels something inside her break. She manages a breath, then another, and then everything else falls apart and she begins to cry. Tabitha is there to hold her for the rest of the night, and Louise hangs onto the girl and sobs out any and everything. She screams out her terrors and fears and exhaustion. Everything. She screams and sobs into the night, and Tabitha is there to hold her as the stars glimmer beyond the skies.
And when all is over, when Louise finally spends all her emotions, she does little to stop Tabitha from tucking her into the bed. And she snuggles into the girl as her eyes close.
Her dreams are silent that night.
Louise doesn’t realize it then, but her actions sparked something she never would have imagined.
Her little slip wasn’t as hidden as she expected it to be. The crowd had heard it, and immediately questions were raised. She is clearly a noble, and yet she introduces herself not as one. It didn’t take long for someone to find out her full name. That she is Louise de La Valliere. She is a student of Tristain Academy.
A small group of commoners take a visit there, and it’s there that they found out just what Louise had done for the staff. “She is the best noble I’ve ever met.” A maid said with undisguised respect and awe. “She saved one of us when a noble tried to hurt us. And now no one dares to raise an arm against us.”
They then also learnt of when Karin de La Valliere visited the Academy. A maid who’d heard the entire exchange then appeared and told them of what she heard. “Louise has been neglected by her.” The maid began sadly. “And-, it’s just too sad! I heard her denounce her own name, and denounce her mother.” She shook her head. “How terribly must she have suffered?”
Then the people remembered the amazing sight they bore witness to. Of seeing the world itself twist and bend before her. As if reality itself was bowing to her. Some people, those that had some passing knowledge of magic, noted that it's a phenomena caused when a particularly large amount of willpower fills the air. This did little to quell their enchantment. If anything, people began to realize that she holds even more strength behind her.
There was fear when Albion proclaimed that they would soon invade Tristain, but it was soon swept away as knights began patrolling Tristain in doves. They carry with them tales of Louise, of how she spent nights after nights working to create plan after plan. Of how she focused on keeping the people safe instead of focusing on the nobles.
“The nobles can defend themselves once they pull their wands out their arse.” A knight had paraphrased when he was asked about it in a tavern. The crowd laughed then, but then the knight turned somber. “It really is a blessing to meet her. She is kind in ways I never thought possible. Inspiring in ways I never thought I would ever see.” He took a breath. “It’s as if I have witnessed the rise of another legend.”
He placed his mug of ale down, and he turned to the silent crowd. “Fight. Fight not because you want to, but because you need to. Fight for your family. For your friends. For your love. Fight so that our nation still stands, so that we still have a future to look forward to.” He said softly. “That’s what she told us.”
“Fight not with honor, but with hope. Not with pride, but with the desperation to see another day.” He grinned. “And what else can I do but fight?’
Then, just a week after Louise came, a fleet of ships came. A scouting party from Albion, and that small force alone was larger than some of their armies. The people trembled with fear, but they were ready to fight.
Except they didn’t need to. Like a knight from old, Louise took to the skies atop an elegant blue dragon. She flew towards the approaching fleet, just her alone, and the people feared that she planned to sacrifice herself. But when some knights expressed their concern to Musketeer Captain Agnes, she had apparently laughed loud enough to be heard through the entire castle.
“That girl-, she’s special.” Agnes shook her head. “I’m no hopeful. I’ve lost too much for it. But with her at the helm? With her commanding us?” She smirked. “I pity Albion. That girl is special. She has brought so much good in so little time. Our army grows in hundreds every day, and it continues to speed up. Our supplies are more plentiful than ever. Our distribution is more efficient than I’ve ever seen.”
Agnes stared at the knight, and for the first time in his life, he saw the normally cold captain gently smile. “With that girl at the helm? I feel hope.”
What remaining fear there was disappeared when they witnessed a miracle. The fleet of ships, daunting in their size and stature, disappeared in a flash. An explosion ripped through them all in an instant, and for a moment it was as if a second sun had risen upon the skies. The world went silent then, and then cheers exploded across Tristain when they witnessed Louise flying back, victorious and completely unharmed.
It didn’t take long for the people to create titles for the girl. She Who Protects. Tristain’s Blade. The Great Commander. The Savior of Tristain. Great Archmage. Title after title were created. Each both more true and more outlandish than the last.
Then another army from Albion came. This one magnitudes larger. This one filled with more than a dozen flying ships and thousands of infantry. Tristain wasn’t ready for that just yet. It’d take some time until they’d be ready. Once more, fear propagated throughout Tristain. Once more the future was in peril.
And once more Louise stepped up. Together with a powerful mage and her friend, Tabitha, she flew upon that regal blue dragon. The people lied in wait, hoping for their return, hoping for victory.
But there was a brave boy who chased after them. He was a young knight, recently joined due to the tales of hope he’d heard of The Savior. So when he saw Louise leave, he ran to his horse and chased after them to see just what would happen.
A day after their leave, the two mages returned. Their clothes were ruffled and torn in some places, but they were unharmed, and victorious. Once again, Tristain cheered.
Later on, the boy would regale his tale to the knights, who then spread the tale he’d witnessed to the people, and the tale swiftly spread all across Tristain. For it was a tale of hope. Of battles and victory. Of the unleashing of two powers so great it tore the world in half.
“They were incredible!” The boy shouted. “Lady Tabitha carries with her the great cold. Any and all who dared approach her would be frozen.” He took a breath, drank the rest of his ale, and grinned. “My heart stopped beating when I saw Lady Tabitha leap off her regal dragon. I thought she had finally lost it.” He laughed. “Hah! I should’ve thought better!”
“She survived a fall like that?” A knight in return, eyes wide.
“Yes!” The boy’s smile was particularly bright. “Great winds slowed her fall! It was-, it was like something out of a fairy tale! She was so graceful, and her every move was gentle.”
His smile turned sharp. “Lady Tabitha offered them peace. She offered them life. She told them to turn back and leave the army. To return to the people they care for.” He leaned forward. “And they laughed. They laughed at her. As if their lives didn’t matter. As if the peace she offered meant nothing.”
The crowd was silent, waiting, eager, and the boy let the silence stretch for a few more seconds before he grinned. “The battlefield froze. It was a massive wave. Frost spread all across the fields in minutes, and the green grass turned white with ice and snow. Many died from it. And those that didn’t were frozen solid.”
“You mean…the entire army was frozen, with a single spell?” A knight asked. The boy nodded, and the knight’s jaw fell. “That-, I remember Lady Louise mentioning that there were some 6000 soldiers! All of them were frozen!?”
It was utter insanity, but then they realized that Lady Tabitha was a friend of The Savior, and the one she would turn to if she needed something. Is it so strange then that Lady Tabitha was just as amazing?
“But what about Lady Louise? What did she do?”
The boy blinked, before his grin turned outright feral. “It wasn’t even close. The moment she saw the fields freeze, she…raised her hand, I think?” He shook his head. “She raised her hand, and over her formed a second sun.”
“Wait, like, an actual sun?”
“Yes! It was amazing! It was a ball of pure, burning white, so bright I had to shield my eyes! She tossed the sun at the fleet, and they lasted not even a second before they were burnt away!” He shakily took a breath. “When I first saw her explode that small fleet of ships, I was awed. But when I saw her wield the sun itself? I nearly fell to my knees in prayer. It was-” He laughed. “It was like I had somehow bore my eyes upon the work of God.”
And there it was. The Work of God. Not of Brimir. Not of the ancient archmage. Nay. Of the God the people still believed. Of the God whose name was long gone. Of the God they still worshiped, who they still prayed to in times of peril. It didn’t take long for some people to believe that she was sent by God themself.
Surprisingly, Musketeer Captain Agnes had been one of the staunchest believers in it.
“No, you don’t understand.” The woman said to one of her musketeers. “You say that as simple praise. But her? Louise?” She closed her eyes and took a breath. “I admit that I thought at first that she was just a powerful mage. A close friend of Henrietta who now fights for Tristain. Our Savior.”
“But I saw it.”
“It?”
Agnes looked truly shaken. “I-, It was meant to be a normal skirmish. A small army of Albionese had appeared by the West. The platoon of knights were winning when they unleashed…something.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t sure what it was, but something dark rose from the Albionese we slayed. And suddenly, those we put down were rising once more, their eyes burning red and their strength greater than humanly possible.”
“Y-You mean…?”
She grimly nodded. “Albion has gone too far. Not only have they dared claim this was our princess’ fault, but they dare to tamper with the forces of death itself.”
The musketeer snarled. “Those barbarians.”
“Ay. It was a dark time.” She took another shaky breath. “But more strangely, they didn’t kill us. They injured us and knocked us out.” She shut her eyes. “I had been the last one to remain standing. And they had to sever my legs until I finally lost my strength.”
The musketeer gasped when she heard that. “But-, your leg is fine?”
“Yes, it is.” Her voice was revenant then. “Suddenly, Lady Louise appears. She lays her eyes upon me, and I see rage in her eyes. She turns to the reanimated corpses, and with a snap of her fingers my eyes are filled with explosions.” She laughed lightly. “In a single snap, each and every Albionese had been blown to shreds.”
“But then, she stopped before me, and she apologized.” She grit her teeth. “She apologized for being too late. For letting me get injured. Just who does that?”
The musketeer smiled sadly. “Someone kind.”
Agnes sighed. “Ay. She really is kind. But then,” She presses a finger onto a thigh, tracing the line her leg had been severed at. “She brought upon a miracle. She pressed my severed legs back onto me, and I could only gasp as she attached them back.” The musketeer gasped in shock. Agnes smiles. “Before I knew it, I could stand once more. As if my legs hadn’t just been cut off. It was-”
“A miracle.”
“Ay.” Agnes gently cupped her hands in prayer. “A true miracle.”
So Louise’s name continued to spread. Her fame continued to rise. Her tales regaled more and more. She became a symbol of strength. Of hope. Of the chance to reach the future. She became the banner Tristain fought under.
So The Savior rose upon Halkegenia once more.
It’s been three months since she executed Wardes. She hasn’t returned to the Academy. Nor has Tabitha. They’ve stayed to fight. And fight they did.
But she’s only human. And so is Tabitha. So every night they’ll stumble together onto their beds, tired from their training and all the work they now had to do. They’ll tuck themselves under a blanket, and with the gentle lighting of a fading candlelight, they would read stories after stories, resting under the blinking stars above.
And if Tabitha sometimes holds her too tightly, if she sometimes shakes and trembles over how familiar this all was, Louise doesn’t say anything. She just holds the girl in comfort and whispers gentle nothings into her ear.
And if Louise cries on some nights, her emotions finally breaking past her facade, if she despairs over the reports on deaths of the knights she leads, Tabitha doesn’t say anything. She just holds her as Louise cries.
And maybe it isn’t right for them to act like this. They’re warriors now. Generals upon a battlefield. But in that room they were alone. In that room their facades fall. In that room they are just Louise and Tabitha, girls far too young thrusted into a war. And there they can be themselves.
Chapter 6: She Who Bears The Sun
Chapter Text
Six months have gone by since the war began, and Louise finally feels confident enough to create another pivot in history.
She…isn’t blind to the rumors surrounding her, as much as she wishes she is. She knows she is revered by Tristain, looked upon like a hero. There’s an…odd amount of sympathy as well, one that wasn’t present in her previous life. She doesn’t know why, but it makes all their expectations feel a little more bearable.
But it’s been two months. Her validity isn’t in question. The people trust her. Henrietta trusts her. Agnes trusts her as well.
She can do this.
She first tells Tabitha of what she can do, of her ability to awaken the willpower of those normally incapable of it. The girl stares for a few seconds before asking if it’s an ability related to her Void Magic. Which is correct. Tabitha nods, goes silent for a few more seconds, and then shrugs and goes along with it.
Louise is understandably surprised, but Tabitha just smiles. “Trust you. We, together.”
She isn’t ashamed to say she nearly collapsed from happiness.
So on an unassuming morning, after she finishes detailing the plan the knights are to follow for the day, she calls Agnes and her musketeers to the throne room. Agnes is curious, but nods and follows. They soon make it to the throne room, and Henrietta is there, talking over a number of supplies Tristain might need with a man. They wait until the man finishes, and he gives her a salute as he passes her by. She then asks Henrietta if there is anything she needs to do for the next hour. She shakes her head, and so she casts a Silence over the entire room and sighs.
“There is no easy way to say this.” She begins and turns to the musketeers. “Do you want to become mages?”
Everyone, bar Tabitha, is shocked to silence. “Becoming a mage means more than having magic. It means getting stronger, more resilient, and with the techniques I’ll teach you, you can become much, much more.” She glances out the window. Out to the nation she has been fighting for. “But are you willing to bear this burden? The people will ask how you become mages, and though I don’t mind you being truthful, I’d rather not let it spread.”
“And more than that, I need you to be better .” She frowns. “You have seen what atrocities the nobles have committed just because they can wield their willpower. I don’t want you to act like them. I don’t want you to grow prideful.” She closes her eyes. “Overconfidence is a slow, and insidious, killer. We all know that.”
So she looks upon the musketeers, upon the group of women Henrietta herself has picked. She looks upon them, and she lets herself remember a scene not so different to this one. She remembers that moment on that night, asking the musketeers to bear a burden far greater. To willingly rush to their own deaths if it meant even a chance of bringing victory.
And,
“You have granted us victory, Lady Louise.” Agnes says, and the smile she has is gentle. “If you decree this gift to us, then we shall handle it with utmost care. We shall follow your every word.” She kneels. “If you believe this unworthy knight is deserving of such a momentous burden, then I shall bear it with dignity.”
The rest of the musketeers follow, making their own vows in their own words, but each echoing the same feeling. Echoing that same determination she saw in her previous life. And something inside her grows warm.
Louise glances back at the princess, and Henrietta only smiles warmly, as if saying that she’ll be there no matter what she does.
So a magic circle lights beneath them, and the musketeers gasp. Louise doesn’t say anything this time. Because this isn’t a contract. She isn’t binding them to her like she did to Saito and Siesta. This is simply opening up a lock that was locked. Of forcing open channels that were too clogged up to function.
Then, the musketeers begin to scream. Even Agnes does, though she can see her doing all she can to stay quiet. Louise begins to feel pain as well, a sort of backlash. But she’s felt worse. Endured far worse. So she takes the pain with nothing but a small grimace. Then, the magic circle fades, and the musketeers finally sigh as the pain disappears.
Louise looks upon them, and she is satisfied. She can feel their willpower now. It’s a small thing, more like seeds than the small pond most mages will have. But it is there, and they’ll develop.
She glances at the musketeers and frowns slightly. Most of them are still paralyzed by the pain. Only Agnes is able to move. So Louise goes and kneels down before her, cradling the woman’s hand in hers. “It has been done.” She begins, and Agnes slowly nods. “Now, you must call upon it.”
“How?”
She smiles. “Think of power. Any power. Any form of strength you can think of. A strength so great and awe inspiring that it has stuck with you. A miracle. Anything you hold close to your heart.” Her smile softens. “Think of what you fight for. What you love. Think of them getting hurt, and feel anger. Think of your emotions, and dream for strength. Dream for power.”
Agnes closes her eyes then, and Louise waits as she observes the willpower inside her begin to move. It’s slow, like rusted gears that are moving for time in decades, but it’s moving. But then, suddenly, as if shattering past a barrier, the willpower speeds to her hand faster than she’s ever seen from an amateur mage, and she looks down to see Agnes’ fingers glowing with light.
She grins. She supposes she should’ve expected this. There is a reason why Henrietta picked Agnes as her personal guard, after all.
“Open your eyes, Agnes Chevalier de Milan. Open your eyes, and feast upon them the beginnings of a new age.”
She does, and her eyes go wide at the distinct glow her fingers have taken. Louise pulls her hand away, and she watches as Agnes slowly lifts her fingers, completely mystified. The rest of the musketeers watch in awe, before they too close their eyes. She feels their willpower begin to move as well, before suddenly rushing out as light glowing from their fingertips. They are also similarly awed by it.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel…strong.” Agnes breathes out. “So incredibly strong. Like I can take down an entire building with just my hands.”
She grimaces. “You probably can.” She says. Agnes blinks at her, and she smiles wryly. “Willpower, at its essence, is power. You have attained great physical strength. And as small your well of willpower is at the moment, it is enough to turn your physical abilities into something told in legends.” She shrugs. “That is why mages can so easily become knights as well, for their constitution allows them to.”
“But why are most nobles so…squishy?” One of the musketeers asks.
Louise scoffs then. “That’s because they have their wands up their arses and can’t bother to ‘dirty themselves with training’ or whatever drivel I last heard. If they do bother training themselves, then they could. It’s just none of them bother to.” She sighs. “Again, more of the nobles’ complacency.”
“Figures.” Agnes bites out, and she can’t help but laugh slightly.
“With this, there is a change in plan. Every day, at 0400 hours, you are to wake and come find me at the training yards. We are to train your willpower for 3 hours, and I will be there to make sure you don’t accidentally kill yourself.” She says blandly. “Until I say otherwise, do not attempt to further expand your pool of willpower.”
The musketeers nod then. “Today will be the only exception. Find me at 1500 hours. We’ll go over the basics then.” She smiles. “Then rest. We shall meet later.”
So the musketeers leave, and their excited chatter slowly diminishes as they leave. Soon, the room is left in silence, and she sighs as she turns to Henrietta. “I’m…sorry for the insanity you have observed.” She says simply. “But I thought it is finally time for me to share this with others. I hope you don’t mind.”
Henrietta giggles. “No, no! If anything, I’m so glad you’ve become so confident in Agnes and her musketeers!” She then hums. “But still, what was that?”
“Do you want a short or long explanation?”
Henrietta opens her mouth, closes them, and then shyly says. “The long explanation…?”
She smiles wanly. “Do you wish to sit there for a couple hours?”
She pales. “N-No?”
“Short explanation it is.” She takes a breath. “I am, for as much of a misnomer it is, a Void Mage. No, I do not wield the forces of the Void, and I never will. A Void Mage is simply a mage that focuses on magic not correlated with the elements. Mine, in this case, is ‘Deconstruction’ and ‘Reconstruction’.”
“Ah, so you…broke open their willpower?” Louise nods. Henrietta hums. “Does that mean all commoners are able to wield magic if…?”
“Well, how did you think the nobles first became able to use magic?”
“Ah…” Henrietta leans back then, her eyes wide, as if she’s finally seeing the obvious secret that’s been hiding in plain sight. It’s the exact same way Henrietta reacted when she first explained it in her previous life, and she can’t help but smile slightly at the familiarity of it all.
Later on in the afternoon, the musketeers finally arrive. Louise is already there, and Tabitha sits by the wall, focused on her book and nothing else. They are nervous, and even the normally infallible Agnes looks somewhat afraid of what is to come.
“There is a reason why we call it willpower.” She begins, unconsciously keeping her voice level and clear, as if she was lecturing a hall of students and not a group of knights. “It is, in a sense, tied to the human spirit. As long as we remain willful, for as long we do not lose hope, then our soul will continue to generate willpower.” She turns to them. “If so, then why is it important for you to train to wield willpower? Why do we train if we have an infinite source?”
They all think for a moment, before one of the musketeers speaks up. “Um, is it because our bodies aren’t able to?”
She smiles. “Exactly. The soul, given the chance, is infinite, but the body is not. This flesh of ours is weak, and if we are to let our soul push out as much willpower as it can, then we will die in an instant.”
“That is what I am to teach. We are to have your bodies adapt to your willpower. To build and reinforce the channels that already exist inside your bodies.” She grins. “It will not be so different from your usual regime. You will train your body. You will train with your swords and rifles. But,” She lets some of her willpower flood the air. “It will be painful . I will push your body as hard as it can, and when you stand at the edge of breaking apart, I will pull you back together.”
They all look terrified, but none leave. And Louise smiles. “Then let us begin.”
…
Louise isn’t lying.
She pushes them to the brink of death every time. She has them train and train and train until their body gives out, and when their body begins flooding with too much willpower, she uses her Void Magic to build them back together. It’s painful. It’s downright spartan. But they don’t have the time.
She tried asking if Agnes and her musketeers are fine with it, but they quickly assure her that, yes, this is fine. That they have delved into this hell on their own volition, and as much as they may hate her during their training, their respect for what she’s done will always remain.
And they begin to change.
The seed of willpower grows into a small barrel, and then into a pond. The light inside them grows brighter and brighter, and they are able to pull out more and more willpower with each passing day.
They can’t perform magic yet; they just don’t have the time. Instead, she teaches them how to flood their limbs with willpower, to temporarily grant them a massive spike in strength. She teaches them how to swirl their willpower all throughout their bodies, to make them sturdier than even steel. She teaches them how to push their willpower into their weapons, to make their swords sharper and to turn their bullets into miniature explosions.
She ponders over whether she should teach them the empowerment she often uses in her training, and quickly decides not to. She has confidence in them, but she isn’t confident enough to teach them a technique that means suicide for anyone else but her. That, and the elves will have their interests piqued, and she’s done enough of that already.
And the results quickly show. Because suddenly Agnes and her musketeers begin to sweep through the armies of Albionese soldiers. Once, just two months after they awakened their willpower, Albion invades from the north. They arrive upon the shores, and from their ships come an army 4000 men strong.
But then another fleet of ships come from the west, a fleet of ships carrying dangerous weapons. She is split on what to do when Agnes comes to her and tells her that she and her platoon will deal with the soldiers. She is quick to object, to at least have Tabitha join them, but Agnes denies it. “Lady Tabitha is busy aiding another battle. I dare not call her back and let those brave men face death.”
So she agrees in the end, and she flies atop Sylphid and takes the fleet of ships out in a massive cascade of explosions. She begins flying to where Agnes is, but even then it’ll take her a couple days to reach the shores. She takes a quick detour back to the castle, to replenish the supplies she needs for another trip, when a knight comes to her and informs that Agnes and her platoon have achieved victory.
“They-, it was incredible, Lady Louise! They were like knights of legends. I saw Lady Agnes and her Musketeers battle for hours on end. They didn’t stop even as the sun set, even after they had forsaken sleep!”
And she later learns that, yes, Agnes and her musketeers did fight the army on their own. The musketeers would fire bullet after bullet, raining down explosions upon the army. Then, with Agnes at the helm, they would charge with their swords in hand. An hour would stretch to two. Two to four. Four to Eight. Eight to an entire day.
The initial confidence the Albionese had faded when Agnes and her platoon continued to fight, and soon the fields would be littered with corpses. It is said that Agnes was the one who’d fought the longest, and she’d returned completely soaked in blood, with the decapitated head of an Albionese general held in her hand.
And it’s then she remembers. That this is Agnes. That is the knight that has fought even against the Void and come out alive. That this is the woman she calls her sister. She holds in her a strength greater than even some lords. A strength now empowered by the strength of her own soul.
She remembers to have faith.
Little did she know, but her decision to grant Agnes and the musketeers willpower had made her even more feared by Albion.
It was impossible for them not to hear of The Savior of Tristain. Of the girl who had beat them back over and over. The girl who could explode entire fleets of ships with but a single flick of her finger. She was a figure of terror, and it didn’t take long for the emperor to issue a flee-on-sight order the moment they come across her.
But her companions were just as feared.
Tabitha was the queen of frost. A mage with ice so powerful and chilling that entire armies had been frozen by her magic in seconds. Mist would swirl around her as she moved, like phantom snakes protecting their master, and any soldiers brave enough to try and attack her would despair as their swords froze and crumbled like weathered stone.
And now there was Agnes. The captain of the Musketeers. They once thought of her as a simple knight. A powerful knight, but only a knight. But then she faced a legion of soldiers on her own. It was said that her rifle would tear the earth with explosions. It was said her sword would cut through steel like they were paper. It was said that a soldier had tried to slice her neck, only to watch in horror as his sword shattered, as if he struck impenetrable rock and not flesh.
Out of that great defeat, only a single knight survived. He was a cowardly knight, one that pretended to be dead when his allies fell. And so he returned to Albion, hysteric and carrying with him a tale of despair.
“I-I saw it.” The knight began softly, speaking before the emperor. “She-, that thing was no human. Nay, it was a demon in human flesh! I saw it. I saw it . I saw those bluish veins on her skin, of the way they glowed an eerie purple beneath the light of the setting sun. And those eyes-! Those bleeding, red eyes -!”
“You cannot be serious.” The emperor had growled, but the knight had only laughed.
“You don’t understand! That-, thing . It cannot be human. We tried stabbing it. Our swords shattered. Arrows rained upon it. They fell to the wayside, as if bumping to a shield. And when her armor finally fell, when we thought we had some hope, her body would shine with that blue light, and she moved with speeds I cannot see!”
The knight was taken away after that, when he began chanting curses at the emperor for angering the nation of God. But the damage had been done. The nobles heard of the terrifying figures Tristain had, and fear quickly spread. The emperor swiftly adjourned the meeting and forced the nobles to silence, lest they had their heads cut off.
But privately, in the silent compound, with no one but his most trusted knight, he asked, “Have I made a mistake?” He took a shaky breath. “Was that man right? Have I truly angered the nation of God?”
The knight said nothing then. For there was nothing to say. What confidence he had was shredded from losses after losses. So all he could do was silently stand by his lord’s side. The emperor took his silence as agreement, and he grabbed himself the strongest wine he had and drank it all in a single night.
It didn’t matter that he had the Ring of Andavari. It didn’t matter that he could control minds and bring back the dead. It didn’t matter. Those soldiers he sent out. Those men that fought for his nation. They were gone. Even if they were to bring back the corpses of his men, his ring wouldn’t do anything.
The Ring of Andavari needed a whole corpse. A body that was, at least, somewhat intact. But those explosions Louise created left not a speck behind. The soldiers Tabitha froze were shattered into fragments of ice. The blood Agnes left behind came from the mutilated corpses of his knights.
It was as if they knew. It was as if they knew that his ring wouldn’t work. Somehow, somehow , he knew that they knew.
A day later, after foregoing his sleep in his despair, he finally realized why. The Ring of Andavari belonged to the Water Spirit. A spirit of Tristain. Why wouldn’t they know? This damned ring was theirs in the first place. They knew how the thing worked!
He cursed and cursed and cursed, and then he went silent. Because he could believe it now. He had truly angered the nation of God. And in the confines of his own room, the emperor laughed. A laugh of hilarity and despair, of a realization born too late.
Another four months go by. By then, Tristain had been embroiled in war for nearly a year. The people cheer. Morale is soaring. Tristain piles victory after victory over Albion. The foreign army is fought back again and again and again.
But privately, alone with Tabitha, illuminated by nothing but a single candlelight, she shares her worries. That this is not a war they can win. At this point, it is a war of attrition. Of seeing just how much they can fight and who’ll tire first. And despite the many victories they’ve attained, Louise knows it isn’t meant to last.
Because Tristain, in the end, is not a country of war. It doesn’t have ships and weaponry like Albion. It doesn’t have the pope and his clergy like Romalia. It doesn’t have Joseph and his ambitions like Galia. It doesn’t have an incredible line of mages like Germania. No. Tristain’s strength has always been in its land. In its resources. And decades of complacency has not provided the necessary tools for Tristain to make use of the abundant resources they have.
They need to do something. Something drastic.
So, together with Tabitha, she talks. She talks over what they can do. Of what lynchpin they can propose that will finally end this conflict before Tristain begins to suffer. They trade idea after idea. Some are bold. Some are strange. Some are both.
In the end, an idea springs to mind when she walks by a group of chatting knights. They’re talking about a recent spy they captured, of the strange device he was carrying with him. Intrigued, she walks up to the knights and asks what device they speak of. They are more than happy to bring it to her, and Louise’s eyes go wide.
A crystal of pure willpower. Rare, and extremely expensive. Usually used in the creation of magical staves. Or, if you are a madman like Joseph, then you’d used that magical catalyst as a bomb.
The idea forms in an instant, and she thanks the knights as she leaves.
When night comes, she talks about her plan with Tabitha. She doesn’t know why the Albionese spy was carrying that crystal, but it’s certainly nothing good. She proposes they do something similar, except the bomb will be her Explosion, and it’ll be an explosion so big it’ll scare Albion from ever leaving their island. Tabitha immediately tells her that she’s also going, that she’ll be there with her even if she doesn’t need to.
“Because, together.” Tabitha whispers, her hold on Louise tight. “You go, I go. Our promise.”
They then propose the plan to Henrietta. The princess is, understandably, very concerned about sending two of Tristain’s greatest mages into the enemy lines, but Louise bluntly tells her that they’ll eventually lose if they don’t do anything. That they’ll eventually be overrun if they don’t do anything drastic. And against the threat of her nation’s slow decay and Louise’s own stubbornness, Henrietta can do nothing but accept.
So, riding atop Sylphid and under the cover of darkness, they take off. It’ll take a couple days for them to make it to Albion, and another day to make it to the capital. She initially worries that doing so will push Sylphid too far, but Tabitha assures that Sylphid is more than ready for a voyage such as this.
They fly, and they spend the time reading through a backlog of novels they haven’t been able to read. Maybe it isn’t all that appropriate to so casually read novels in the middle of a war. Especially in an operation as important as this one. But it isn’t as if anyone can see them. At that moment, there is only Louise, Tabitha, Sylphid, the sky, and the sea. No one more. No one less. Just them in this isolated world filled with white and blue.
Soon, the floating island of Albion comes into view. And for a moment, Louise takes a moment to marvel at it. To see just how beautiful this floating island is. How much of a miracle it is. Because if the windstones under it weren't there, then it would’ve fallen. Because if the people hadn’t learnt how to prolong the life of those normally fragile crystals, then Albion would’ve fallen. An island of chance.
A Silence and Illusion is cast over them, and they fly into Albion’s air. They soar over mountains, through clouds thin and thick, and past patrolling flying ships. They soon make it to the capital, and there she sees the emperor’s castle. They fly past it.
They aren’t here to destroy the nation. Nay. She isn’t depraved enough to end the lives of innocents so cruelly. Instead, they head to somewhere that the military needs. A location that allows their ships to fly in the first place.
They make it to the largest windstone mine just north of Albion’s capital. The one large enough that it has supported Albion’s flying ships for decades. Louise lets her Illusion and Silence fall, and carefully, she stands up. She takes a breath, then two, and with the burning willpower in her veins, she raises her hand to the sky.
And above her palm forms an orb of light. A sphere of pure willpower. She feeds it with more willpower. It grows. A marble turns into a ball. More willpower leaves her. The ball turns to the size of a cottage. She lets loose more willpower. It turns from a cottage to a tavern. More willpower is spent. A tavern to a district. More willpower. A district turns into an entire castle.
The Albions have no doubt seen it now, seen the sphere she holds over her palm like a second sun. She sees how some ships have turned to her, heading towards her.
It’s futile in the end.
Her hand falls, and the star falls. It spins as it descends, growing smaller, condensing, collapsing onto itself. It slams right onto the entrance of the mine, right onto the pathway dug into the mountain.
And then the world explodes in light. The equipment left on the surface is destroyed. The windstones in the caves are destroyed. The ships bunkered nearby are destroyed. The mechanical weapons are destroyed. The mountain’s face is destroyed.
In the end, when the light finally fades, the facility built around the mines is gone, and the face of the mountain facing the explosion has been destroyed. Nothing is left. Nothing but a small hole heading into a now destroyed mine.
“Tabitha. Create the biggest iceberg you can. Cover the hole.” She says. Tabitha nods, and with her hands on her staff she closes her eyes. Her cloak begins to flap as her willpower surges around her. But then Louise reaches forward and also grasps the staff, feeding it with her own willpower. Tabitha blinks and turns to her, and Louise smiles. “Just something special.”
Tabitha’s spell soon reaches a singularity, and a massive mountain of ice covers up the area where the facility once was. There are yards of ice covering the hole, and the entire iceberg glimmers under the sunlight.
But it is no normal ice. No. Instead of the usual white, it glows a bright purple, and strange pink lines run across it like vessels in a human body. Tabitha turns to her, curious, and Louise feels her smile grow. “Despite what I’ve said, it isn’t impossible for Void Magic to mix with elemental magic. I’ve just added a little feature to your ice. One that allows it to use the willpower in the end to regenerate if it’s damaged in any way.”
The girl’s eyes go wide. “Your ‘Reconstruction’...!”
Louise grins. “Exactly.”
By now, the ships are minutes away from them, and Louise quickly turns to Tabitha. “Can you use your wind to spread my voice across Albion?” Tabitha nods, and she makes a small dip with her staff. She feels Tabitha’s willpower spread all around them, and Louise takes a swift breath as she turns to the approaching ships.
“Your mine is gone.” She says, and her voice echoes all across the floating island. “Your precious windstones—the lifeblood of your army, it is gone now.” She narrows her eyes. “You have seen what I’ve done. You have seen what I can do. And I can do it again.”
She lets her own willpower flood the air, directs them at the approaching ship, and she lets a grin slip onto her face as she sees them stop. “I wanted to destroy your capital. To burn away every and all part of who you are.” She doesn’t, of course. She isn’t that barbaric. “But the princess denied my request. She asked to spare you all. For she knows that there exists light in even the most rotten places.” Now that was true. Henrietta had specifically asked her to let genocide be the last choice, and Louise wholeheartedly agrees.
“So this I decree,” She blinks when the skies begin to darken, and she turns to see Tabitha standing with her, her staff pointed at the sky. She barely manages to restrain a laugh. “Order every and all army you have stationed on Tristain’s land to retreat. Bring back all your men.” Her voice drops into a growl. “And if even a single Albionese remains on our land by the next week, then I will return, and I will destroy the windstones keeping this island afloat.”
And so, with her words said, she casts Silence and Illusion over them, Tabitha’s spell falls, and she finally lets free the laugh she’s been holding back for the past minute. Tabitha laughs softly as well, and they hug one another as Sylphid begins flying back. They laugh and laugh as they soar past frozen ships and terrified soldiers.
Then, as they finally leave Albion, as the floating island slowly shrinks as their distance grows, Louise finally feels the ice in her shatter, and she holds onto Tabitha and cries. Tabitha is there to hold her, and she too cries as tearful laughter leaves their lips.
Because-, because it was over . Ten months. Just ten months . That was how long their war had lasted this time. And-, and the number of casualties is magnitudes smaller compared to what it could’ve been. Tristain has survived-, nay, thrived .
Saito doesn’t meet his first death. Henrietta doesn’t get kidnapped. Professor Colbert doesn’t die. None of the students in the Academy had been forced to fight.
A war that once lasted years shrunk to just ten months.
And amidst all the pride and excitement and fatigue and relief and hope and sadness and grief, there is hope. That things can change. That those that had died can live. That those that were cruelly taken away could still see another day. That all the suffering she’s gone through in her past life actually means something.
So she cries, and Tabitha cries along with her. And maybe it’s a shameful thing to do. And maybe they shouldn’t be hugging so tightly. And maybe they shouldn’t be so close to one another like this. And maybe there are still shadows that lurk just beyond the horizon. But amidst the sky and sea, surrounded by clouds and with the stars glimmering high above, nothing else matters but this moment alone.
There is no one there to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do.
The nights they spend across the seas are very warm.
A week went by. All traces of Albion soldiers had disappeared from the continent. Henrietta finally stepped out to the people, and she told them of what’d happened, of the two brave souls that braved the skies and seas to enter Albion, to bring upon them an ultimatum, to finally put an end to the conflict that would take so much more if they let it continue.
The breaths of the people were taken away, and Henrietta had smiled upon the podium she stood. “Tristain has won.” She said, and with that she left. A moment passed, then two. And then someone screamed, and cheers exploded all across the capital. They cheered over their victory, and they cheered for the two girls that had saved their nation.
News spread. And soon the entirety of Tristain came to know of the end of their war. Celebrations were done. Prayers were sent.
But most of all, the people heard of the feat Louise performed, of how she created the sun itself and burnt away an entire mountain. Of how she’d performed an act reserved by the gods.
And so a new title was made.
She Who Bears The Sun. For that who she is. For that is the greatness she has brought. For she is the one that has brought light to Tristain. For she is the one that belied the hope of the people even through the darkest of days.
For she is the one Who Bears The Sun.
Chapter 7: Secrets of the Ancients
Chapter Text
Before she knows it, a full year has gone by since the war. It’s a jarring realization.
After the war ended, Louise and Tabitha stayed to help with what damages Tristain suffered in the short war they had. There wasn’t much, at least compared to the devastation wrought in her previous life, and seeing Tristain be so full of life never failed to bring a smile to her lips.
Then, after a month of aiding those in need, the war council was finally disbanded, and Louise was finally able to return to the Academy.
But she didn’t. And nor did Tabitha. Because there was little to nothing they needed there. Not anymore. She’d take the occasional trip to see how Saito and Siesta were doing, but nothing else. And Tabitha was far safer as a royal guest at the castle then as a student of the Academy.
It certainly helped that Elise had also moved in some time after the war ended. Tabitha had apparently gone to Henrietta and asked if she could shelter her mother, and after a quick explanation of why, the princess swiftly agreed. So Elise arrived, and she immediately pulled her and Tabitha into a hug. In the middle of the cafeteria. With hundreds of knights as their audience. To say she was embarrassed would be an understatement.
Then, two months go by, and she reaches the anniversary of the war. She doesn’t do anything to celebrate—why would she? But she does make a quick trip back to the Academy to give Saito a small present. She, of course, gifts the pair of rings she’s been keeping in her drawer for the past few months. The boy is understandably flustered, but Louise only laughs and bids him good luck on proposing.
And so life moves on. She spends her days training with Tabitha, enjoying snacks and tea with Henrietta, and training Agnes and her platoon. Because, though the war is over, the battles never are. That, and she can easily see the musketeers growing antsy without anything to do, and so she offers them a reprieve and helps them train. Not as harshly as she did during the war, of course, but still enough to have them aching by the end of the day.
But with the war against Albion over, Louise turns her attention to the nation south of hers.
In truth, she isn’t quite sure what to do about Galia. Bidashal has left Joseph, and so the creation of that massive golem of his should have been halted. Albion’s tremendous defeat also means that Halkegenia’s source of windstones has been temporarily cut off, stopping Joseph from making use of the few flying ships he has.
There is always the option of just putting Joseph down, but that means pushing his duties off to Elise or Tabitha. Elise is still recovering from her coma, and is still learning of just how much Halkegenia has changed in her absence. Tabitha, for how talented she is, is just a soldier. She isn’t quite ready to lead a nation. No one really is.
…
If there was one thing they still needed to do, it was to find the Ring of Andavari. Because when Henrietta asked for the emperor to return it, to return Tristain’s rightful artifact, the man admitted that one of his subordinates had taken the ring and fled.
Louise, of course, knows that this unknown man is mostly Oliver Cromwell, the madman who’d created Reconquista in her previous life. A man connected to Joseph. It won’t be a stretch to say that the ring most likely now belongs to Joseph.
It’s why she so adamantly asks Henrietta to prepare, to strengthen Tristain’s hold so that it can defend itself in the scenario where Joseph decides to invade Tristain. Because, unlike the emperor, Joseph has Sheffield as his familiar, and as the ‘Mind of God’, she can make full use of the ring’s ability.
In that event, then they’ll be facing an army of brainwashed soldiers. And if Sheffield makes it to Henrietta, then there’s a high chance she’ll be brought under, and Tristain would fall to Galia’s hand. Because as much as she trusts and respects Henrietta, she knows that the princess is not a fighter. She doesn’t have enough strength and willpower to resist.
At this point, the only people she believes would be able to stand up against the ring’s boosted capabilities are Tabitha and Agnes.
She doesn’t explain her worries to the princess. Henrietta has enough of her own already. Adding that would be cruel. But she explains it to Tabitha, and though highly disturbed, Tabitha promises to train even harder than she already is to bolster her mind. Louise attempts to explain that she doesn’t need to, but it’s already too late.
In retrospect, perhaps telling the girl that her tormentor can potentially gain control over the entire continent was not the smartest idea. But she’d been stressed then, and aching after her training. She hadn’t been thinking clearly, and now she faces the consequences.
It at least means that Tabitha tires out more, which leads to more cuddling. So that’s nice.
…
But now, as temporary as it is, there is peace. For the first time in months she has time. For the first time she feels confident that Tristain won’t suddenly explode if she takes some days off.
Now, a year or so since she returned, she finally feels…stable, like she won’t suddenly wake up one day and find out that everything was a lie. She can finally feel like the sword in her hands is real, that the warmth she feels as she and Tabitha snuggle under a blanket isn’t imagined.
And she can finally ponder. She can finally begin to think over just what has brought her back into the past. Because Time isn’t her domain. Nor was it anyone’s. She doesn’t remember anything else past her passing. She remembers closing her eyes, remembers slowly feeling the comforting thunder of her willpower fade, and then she’s suddenly back in the Academy. No magic. No incantations. No words. Nothing. One moment is silent, and then an explosion.
So what was it?
She ponders over it for a good week, running through each answer her mind can come up with, each scenario more ludicrous from the last. In the end, she’s left with nothing but more confusion.
So she decides to take a small vacation to Lagdorian Lake. Henrietta happily agrees. Elise does as well. Tabitha offers to join her, but for the first time, she declines. Because this is something she needs to find herself. She won’t burden Tabitha with this knowledge. She doesn’t need this. Not right now.
She’ll eventually tell her. Eventually. But not today.
So, atop the finest horse Henrietta can provide, she rides to Lagdorian Lake. It’s a novel experience, and she faintly realizes that she hasn’t ridden a horse since she returned. She’s always either walked or ridden atop Sylphid. It feels a tad odd, really.
It takes her a day to make the journey, and it’s…nice. It’s nice to just ride across fields and not have to worry about anything. It’s nice to feel the breeze and not have to remember that she’s in the middle of the war. It’s nice to finally head out from the capital for her own wants and not anyone else’s.
She ties her horse’s lead to a nearby post, and she soon makes her way to the lake. It looks just as she remembers it. She dips her finger into the waters, and she sends out a pulse of her willpower. The surface glows, and the water rises and morphs into something vaguely humanoid. Then it solidifies, and the Water Spirit’s eyes are on her.
“Why have you returned, Savior?”
“Why am I back in time?” She asks bluntly. There’s no point in beating around here. “And how? There’s-, a spell of this magnitude is nearly impossible.”
The Water Spirit goes quiet then. As if it’s contemplating its answer. Unease coils in her stomach. “What did you first see when you returned?” It asks instead. Louise blinks, confused, before she frowns. The first thing she saw? That’d be-
“Tristain Academy?” The Water Spirit shakes her head. “Professor Colbert?” Again, the Water Spirit shakes her head. She narrows her eyes. “What then? Kirche?”
“Who was the closest to you?”
“...Saito?”
The Water Spirit nods. “It is he that has brought you back.”
“But-, that’s impossible! Saito-, he-” She grits her teeth. “He died . There was no way he could’ve-”
“He wagered with the Spirits a gamble.”
She stills. “...what?”
“He made a wager against fate. On his lonesome he called upon me, and he spoke upon me his vow: ‘For we shall attain victory. For we shall avert this disastrous destiny the stars have laid for us.’ And for that, the Spirits promised to fulfill his one demand if he succeeds.”
“And…that is?”
“If he was to succeed, if Halkegenia is to survive, then shall his master, Louise, eventually find a chance at happiness.”
She furrows her brow. “But-, that doesn’t have to do anything with going back in time. We’d won . We survived. I lived a good life, and I-”
“But were you happy?”
Louise is stuck silent.
Is-, was she really not? S-She was satisfied. She’d become a hero. She’d saved Halkegenia . There was-, it couldn’t-
And she remembers living in that mansion. She remembers spending days alone. She remembers spending night after night on her balcony, staring at the skies, waiting for something, or someone, to come. She remembers looking at the shards of her old sword, and she remembers the agony she felt.
…Ah. So that’s it. Satisfaction doesn’t mean happiness, does it?
“No.” The Water Spirit says, and it takes her a moment to realize she’d said that out loud.
She takes a breath. “And what was the price?” She asks. No wager comes freely. He must’ve given up something. He must’ve done something in return to have a chance at doing something as drastic as this.
“He promised that he would never return to the world he’d come from. That, if he, in any way, tried to do so, that his heart would stop beating.”
She feels…she doesn’t know what to feel, really. That is a big price. A massive price. Or it would’ve been.
“I…I think I’m going to be fine. A life in a new world? Might as well take the chance.”
She remembers his reluctance when she first bound them together. She remembers the grimace on his lips when she mentioned his parents, and how he tried to play it off.
She sighs. She doesn’t know why Saito did that. She doesn’t know why the Spirits actually agreed. She doesn’t know how Saito was so confident in their victory. She doesn’t know much. She doesn’t know if she wants to know.
…
She takes a breath. Right. She has more questions.
“Why did I meet Sasha in the Void?”
The Water Spirit goes silent. Its form wobbles for a moment. The air grows heavy. It looks almost…sad. “She has been waiting.” The Water Spirit says, softer than she’s ever heard it speak. “For someone to finally come to her. For someone who can accept her for who she is.”
Louise stays silent. There is an odd feeling in her chest. Both light and heavy. She doesn’t like it.
“When Sasha slayed Brimir for his sins, he cursed her to join him in death. The Void takes back what it lends, and so when Brimir was pulled into the Void, Sasha was as well.”
Her eyes go wide. “But…that was thousands of years ago. You mean-, she waited in the Void for that long? On her own?”
The Water Spirit nods. “Though Brimir has bound her, her spirit remains. With her own willpower she fought back against the Void. She clawed her way through the smog unending, waiting for a Savior to finally come upon her.”
She blinks. “She was…waiting for me?”
“Yes. A Void Mage with the heart of a Gandalfr. A noble willing to fight for the people. A failure who became the hero. A girl who broke past the path destiny had laid.” The Water Spirit’s voice sounds almost reverent then. Louise can’t help but feel somewhat embarrassed at it all. “She was waiting for someone who could push back against the Destinies. Someone just like her.”
“So-, it’s just because we’re-, I don’t know, compatible ?”
“In the loosest sense, yes.”
“...huh.”
For a moment she feels…it isn’t quite sorrow. Melancholy? Something along those lines.
It’s-, knowing that Sasha had waited in the Void, for doing nothing else but stopping Brimir from killing her kind-, it’s cruel. It’s terribly cruel. Because she didn’t want any of it. Her binding with Brimir hadn’t even been willing. And in the end, when she saved the elves, her kind was branded as monsters.
It’s cruel. And the weight in her chest feels almost unbearable.
She doesn’t despair. Because she knows Sasha is gone now. Her soul has finally departed. Her spirit shattered the moment she imparted her knowledge to her. Consumed by the Void the moment she felt that she’d given Louise all she could.
But she remembers the short time she spent with that woman, of the care she showed, of the life and hopes and dreams and love she’d seen and felt through Sasha’s memories, and some part of her falls in grief at the loss.
So she looks up towards the Water Spirit and smiles. “She’s in a better place now, right?”
“She is.” And somehow, Louise knows the Water Spirit is smiling as she says so.
She spends another day at Lagdorian Lake. She spends it mostly wandering the forests, her mind still occupied over what she’s learnt. She eventually makes it back to her horse, and after a quick pat to soothe its annoyance, she begins her journey back.
A week later, in the midst of her afternoon tea, Louise finally notices that something about her has…changed.
It’s bright that day, and for once, she opts to have her tea at the gardens she and Henrietta used to play in when they were children. There’s a maid with her then, and she was thanking her when she heard a whisper. She discreetly asked her if she’d heard anything, but the maid had shaken her head and said no.
Later that night, she’d return, and again she’d hear whispers. It isn’t anything understandable. More like the hums of a young child. She explored the gardens, and she’d find that the whispers would grow louder around the flowers. Intrigued, she decided to retire to her room. All the whispers disappeared.
She understood.
Somehow, she can… listen to the voices of the plants. Something no human should be capable of.
She suspects the Water Spirit has done something. Or maybe it hasn’t. Maybe it’s something that has laid dormant inside her, awoken when Sasha’s knowledge merged into her mind. Maybe it’s something she recently gained—a seed that bloomed after facing the revelation of her past.
Whatever the case, she now can hear the plants. It doesn’t really do much else in the end.
Tabitha asks if the plants’ singing is melodic. Louise stares at the girl for a few seconds before she admits that, yes, their humming is rather pleasant. Tabitha then wonders if she can learn how to do what she can. Louise can only shrug.
A couple months later, in the midst of her lunch, a musketeer comes up to her carrying a strange, black box. “It’s a present for the princess.” She says, and the doubt in her eyes is clear to see. “You said to bring all suspicious items to you first, and here it is.” Louise nods and takes the box. She then bids the musketeer farewell, and she gives Louise a salute before she goes away.
She looks down to the box in her hands, and she immediately knows what it is.
She knows that feeling. She knows the magic inside it. She’s felt it countless times. She’s felt it trying to worm into her mind several times.
She heads into her and Tabitha’s shared room. It’s empty. Tabitha is busy in the library at this time. She casts Silence and Illusion over the room, and places the box on the one desk they have. She sits on the wooden chair behind it. She takes a breath, and she reaches for the slight indent on its back.
And then she feels willpower flood the room. It's a dark, malevolent thing, wriggling like parasites. She feels it trying to reach around her head, coiling around her, strangling her. She feels it trying to reach inside her, prodding at her forehead and her ears. It doesn’t succeed. It tries again and again, but it fails. She lets it free for a few more minutes before she lets loose her own willpower. The malevolent magic is crushed under hers in seconds.
She sighs. She’d assumed correctly. A magical tool built using the magic of the Ring of Andavari, meant to put Henrietta under Joseph’s control. A nasty piece of magistry. A powerful curse, and had it not been her who’d opened the box, the tool would have succeeded.
It’s rather daring for Joseph to so callously send this. She can guess why.
…If she lets Henrietta know just what Joseph tried, it would tear down what relations Galia has and could have with Tristain. She can’t have that. Galia is Tabitha’s kingdom, and the Void would overwhelm them all lest all nations fight as one.
So she keeps the box to herself. She returns to find the musketeer that had given her the box, and she tells her that it contains vulgar letters to the princess. She explains that she will burn it all, and the musketeer is mollified. She then returns to her room, and she begins tearing it apart. She opens it whole and learns just what it is that created such a convincing replica of the ring’s curse.
And as much as she hates Sheffield and all she will do, she can appreciate the genius of it. The thing is complex, a winding coil of magics and curses bound together by crystals. It boggles her for the first few hours, and she dearly wishes she could come up to its creator and ask.
Alas, that woman is better dead than anything else.
She learns the inner workings of the tool eventually, and again she is floored by the ingenuity behind it all. The feeling doesn’t last long. She commits each and every array to memory. She would never use them. She doesn’t need to. She can perform something similar.
No. This is something for Tiffania. Louise knows the gentle elf would find some use for it.
Before she knows it, it is night, and she’s missed dinner. She doesn’t mind it all that much. She doesn’t feel hungry—she’s gone weeks without a shred of food. But just as she stands up, the door opens, and Tabitha enters. She’s carrying a small plate of snacks with her, and she extends it to her. Louise smiles and feasts.
Tabitha turns to the box on the desk. “What’s that?”
“An accursed tool to ensnare minds. Joseph tried using it to control Henrietta.” Louise shrugs. “Honestly, I’m more impressed with how the entire thing works.”
Tabitha peers over at the scribbles she’s written on a paper just to the box’s left, and she nods. “Complicated.”
She smiles wryly. “That’s putting it lightly. I don’t think I can ever come up with something that complicated.” She shakes her head. “Honestly, if Sheffield isn’t as much of a threat, I would’ve loved to invite her for some tea. I’m curious what goes on in that head of hers.”
Tabitha nods. “She's insane.”
“True.”
They lapse into silence for a moment, filled with nothing but the occasional crunch of snacks. Louise turns to the one window this room has, out towards the slowly rising pair of moons. It’s a peaceful night.
She sighs. There’s been something niggling at the back of her mind.
“What’s wrong?” Tabitha asks.
Louise stares at the girl for a moment, before she looks down at herself and frowns. “I…Did I get fatter?” She grimaces. It isn’t something she usually considers, but this new weight she feels is…disorientating. “I feel like I’m…heavier?”
Tabitha’s eyes go blank then. Before Louise can ask what’s wrong, Tabitha suddenly dives forward and slams her face into her chest. She squeaks. “Tabitha-?”
“Soft.”
Her brain stops. “Uh-, what?”
“Chest, soft.” Tabitha turns up to her. “Your chest, growing.”
She blinks, and looks down. And as Tabitha says, there’s a noticeable… curve to her chest now. It isn’t anything massive, but it’s there. She stares as her thought derails and falls out the proverbial window of her mind.
Tabitha sighs. “You, healthy. Growing.”
“...ah.”
Was that it? She doesn’t remember growing this drastically. Had something changed? Had her return somehow made her…healthier? It sounds ludicrous, but that’s the only thing she can think of.
She can’t help but laugh slightly. Tabitha stares, confused, and Louise doesn’t bother stopping the wry smile from coming.
“I’ve…always worried that I will never grow, because, uh-” Her cheeks turn faintly pink then. “My family has, um,”
“Big tits.” Tabitha says simply. Louise gapes. Tabitha grins. “Kirche.”
Louise groans. “Of course.”
Soon, the plate of snacks is emptied, and they find themselves in bed, tucked under a blanket and a book in hand. Louise reads it word by word, and Tabitha’s by her side, listening. There’s a small smile on Tabitha’s lips, and Louise can’t help but smile as well.
And if they read more than they should that night, if the sun has risen by the time they stop, then it’s fine. It isn’t as if anyone is there to scold them.
Chapter 8: A Strange Request
Notes:
Ghosts linger at the fars of her sight.
She wonders how the future (past?) is doing, at times.
Chapter Text
“...I’m sorry, what ?”
Professor Colbert laughs. “I admit it’s a rather strange request, but I couldn’t help but think of you, Miss Valli-” She glares and he quickly coughs. “Ah, apologies. Miss Louise. Sorry.”
She sighs. “It’s fine.” Louise takes a glance at the skies above. It’d take half a day or so on horseback to return to the Academy. She hums. “So, Headmaster Osmond wants me to…overlook the Summoning Ceremony?” The man nods, and she again sighs. “Can I ask why? What am I to do?”
At that, the man almost seems to shrink. “Ah, yes, you’d normally be right. Normally.” He frowns. “But-, someone has…asked for your presence.”
“And that is?”
“Princess Beatrice de Guldenhorf.”
She takes a moment to think, and she remembers blonde hair and circling winds. Yet that’s all she can remember. Barely past a blank slate. She feels her throat turn dry. “...and why?” She manages to ask.
Professor Colbert sighs. “I’m afraid I can’t say. Perhaps she simply wants to meet you. Perhaps she has something to ask. I do not know in the end.”
She raises an eyebrow. “A princess she may be, but she’s only a student in the Academy. How does she have enough pull to make Headmaster Osmond agree to it?”
And with the straightest voice she’d ever heard, Professor Colbert says, “She offered a lot of gold.”
“Ah.” Her thoughts drift for a moment. She supposes that the old man still can’t resist the allure of wealth even now. “Yes, I suppose that’ll do.” She gives the request some more thought before she eventually nods. “Very well. I will go, but I have a couple questions.”
“Please, do ask away!”
“When are we leaving?”
Professor Colbert turns to the skies. “Hmm, it’d be best if we leave some time soon. I know not how long Miss Guldenhorf’s patience will remain.”
Louise smiles wryly. “We can never know where time takes us.” She says. The words taste ironic on her tongue. She shakes her head. “But I'll do my utmost best to arrive as soon as I could."
Professor Colbert nods softly. “Ah, and what is your second question?”
She jabs her thumb at the door of her office. “Can Tabitha come as well?”
Professor Colbert blinks. “Well, yes, but isn’t she busy?”
She smiles. “She’s been eavesdropping on us for the past few minutes. And I think she needs a vacation as well.” The door creaks open then, and as if she hasn’t been pressing her ears against the door, Tabitha gracefully steps in and bows. Professor Colbert yelps then, surprised, and Louise can’t quite help but laugh. “You do know you could’ve just knocked and gone in, right?” She says to the girl.
Tabitha nods. “I know. But funnier.” Louise rolls her eyes. Tabitha smiles back before she bows. “Hello professor.”
“Ah-, yes, good morning to you as well, Miss Tabitha.”
They hash out the rest of the details by noon. They won’t be going that day; they still needed to inform Henrietta about their leave. They’ll be heading out tomorrow instead. Thankfully, Sylphid is there, and so it’ll only take them a couple hours or so to make the entire distance. She’ll also have Henrietta draft up a formal letter to Osmond. Just as a precaution for the man to remember that she isn’t a student anymore and that she actually has a job.
Professor Colbert leaves after a quick lunch. Tabitha goes off to prepare, and Louise heads to the throne room to speak with Henrietta. Her request for a leave is quickly granted, and the princess shares the same slight annoyance over the entire thing and writes the letter in just under an hour. She then goes to find Agnes and tells her of her temporary leave, and for her and her musketeers to continue their training in her absence.
She later returns to her office and begins burning through all the work she has left. It’s quite a lot, and the pile of paperwork never fails to look daunting under the peering sunlight. But she makes due. The afternoon turns to dark as she works, the silence filled with nothing but the scratching of a pen and the occasional yawn as she stretches.
It’s midnight when she finishes everything. She stumbles into her room to find Tabitha waiting for her. She feels her weight disappear, and she makes a small hum as she lets Tabitha’s wind carry her onto the bed. She gently lands, and Tabitha is there to tuck her under the blanket. “Finished?” She asks, and Louise manages a small nod between her yawns. “Sleep?”
Louise slowly blinks. “Don’t…you want to read first?”
Tabitha smiles. “You’re tired. It’s okay.” She runs a hand through her hair, and Louise hums. “We wake early.”
Louise quickly falls asleep after that.
They wake a couple hours before sunrise, and they’re off into the air atop Sylphid’s back. They spend most of their flight reading. The air is cold, but it’s nothing either of them mind. They’ve dealt with colder.
They make it back to the Academy right at about sunrise. It rises from just behind the central tower, and it illuminates the entire academy in a soft, gentle orange glow. Louise takes a few moments to admire it, and she feels fond nostalgia flooding in. It hasn’t changed much.
She supposes that’s expected; only a year has gone by after all, but some part of her is grateful that it’s still standing. That the ruins she remembers from her memories hasn’t yet occurred. And hopefully never will.
They land. Tabitha gives Sylphid one last pat before the wind dragon flies off. Louise blinks for a moment, wondering where the dragon is going, and Tabitha gives her an empty look. “Find mate.”
It takes a moment to sink in, and when it does, Louise can’t help but turn away. “I see.” She says, hoping the quiver in her voice isn’t so obvious. That hope is dashed when Tabitha smiles. Because-, it’s…she knows Sylphid. Knows that, some time in the future, she’ll gain a humanoid form, and a new name. She knows, and so she can’t help but feel somewhat awkward about it all.
They walk up to the Headmaster’s office, and they find Osmond inside, buried in a rather daunting pile of books. His eyes snap up to them when they enter, and he smiles as he invites them in. She pulls out Henrietta’s letter without hesitation. The Headmaster receives it, and he laughs weakly as he reads it. “Yes, yes, I will make sure to remember that.” He says. He doesn’t sound sorry at all. “But it was quite a large sum of gold. It wasn’t something I could ignore.”
Louise sighs. She then asks just what it is she’ll be doing, and the answer she receives is…rather unexpected.
Yes, she will be overlooking the Summoning Ritual later that day, but she’ll be here to oversee the knights-in-training. Louise blinks, and it’s then she remembers that, yes, something like this did happen. Except that platoon of students were training to become knights because of the war with Albion. For what reason does it still exist now?
“A precaution.” Osmond says darkly. “The late war-, it has shown we are not ready for conflict.” He shuts his eyes. “If it hadn’t been for you and Tabitha, then there will be no doubt Tristain would still stand as she is today. Mages we may have, but what does that mean against a relentless army of hundreds of thousands?” He opens his eyes then, and he smiles at them. “I must thank you both. Truly.”
Louise smiles. “This nation is mine as well. Tristain’s enemies are mine as well.”
Tabitha nods. “Tristain falls, bad.” The girl hums. “Books gone.”
Louise rolls her eyes. “Of course.”
The Headmaster laughs. They talk for a few more minutes after that before they leave.
Drawn by memories of simpler days, they head down to the cafeteria. It’s still empty then, and they head to grab themselves a meal. The maids are happy to see she’s returned. Too happy. They lay upon her praise after praise, and some even fall to their knees in prayer. She turns to Tabitha for help. Tabitha, helpful as always, simply smiles and turns to the book in her hands.
They get their meal, and she thanks the maids before they sit down. It’s the exact same nutritious combination she remembers getting, and it tastes just as wonderful. There are no insults to the royal chefs; they are masters of their crafts just like others, but nothing can replace the fondness she has for this breakfast.
They return their plates soon after, and then they stop. They’re in the middle of some hallway then. Louise turns to Tabitha, and Tabitha turns to her. They’re both just as confused.
Because…what do they do now? They don’t have classes, the Summoning Ritual happens just before lunch, and the training happens after all classes are over. They have nothing to do. They can just train, but that feels a bit wasteful. And she can fully imagine Elise running all the way here and scolding them for training when they should’ve been using this trip to rest.
They decide to split up. Tabitha is off to find Kirche, and she’s heading straight for Saito’s room. She hasn’t seen him since she gave that pair of rings to him, and she’s somewhat curious whether the boy managed to work up some courage to finally propose. Because those two are clearly good for each other, and if she needs to beat it into their heads for them to finally make a move, then so be it.
It doesn’t take long to make it to Saito’s room, and she gives his door a good couple knocks. No sounds come in return. She knocks again. Silence is her answer. She frowns slightly. She can feel two individuals inside-, most likely Saito and Siesta. She can feel their willpower through the door. Are they just asleep?
For a moment, she contemplates placing a Silence and Illusion over herself and sneaking in. She disregards the idea soon after. Because if they aren’t sleeping, well…she doesn’t want to know.
Another part of her sighs at the familiarity. This was how her life was, once. Sleeping and sleeping until Siesta inevitably wakes her from her unwaking. Laying to the right of a Saito who was too young and too kind.
She turns and walks away. She can wait a little.
She takes a visit to Kirche’s room instead, and immediately stops. Because she sees Tabitha being smothered by Kirche as she hugs the life out of the smaller girl. Tabitha notices her, and she can almost hear the pleading cry. Louise just smiles. “I think you’re going to knock her unconscious.” She says idly, and Kirche finally notices that she’s even there.
“Oh! Even little Louise is back!” She lets Tabitha free, and then grins as she looks down. “Well, I can’t call you little anymore, huh? You’re starting to pack some heat!”
Louise blinks, confused, and then her words settle in. Her cheeks turn a slight red as she sighs. “Why is that the first thing-, can’t you just say hello?” Kirche, of course, only laughs. She groans. “I suppose I should’ve expected that.” She shakes her head, and a smile comes onto her lips. “It’s good to see you again, Kirche.”
“Ha! Shouldn’t it be my honor that The Savior herself has come before me?”
Louise shivers. “Do not call me that.”
Kirche smirks, teasing, before it softens to a small smile. “It’s good to see you again.” She says, and Louise doesn’t move as the girl reaches forward and pulls her into a hug. “I-, when I heard what you and Tabby were doing out there, I was…” Louise feels Kirche shake, and she gently wraps her arm around her. “Dear Brimir, I just didn’t know what to do.”
“Mm.” Louise leans in further. Kirche feels warm, gentle in a way that reminds her of Elise. “Good to see you.” She says, not quite able to stop herself from nuzzling into the girl’s hug.
“Oh dear, Tabitha’s infected you as well…!”
“Hmph.” She doesn’t quite manage to stifle a smile.
There is perhaps an hour before Kirche’s first class begins, and so they talk. Kirche tells them of what’s happened in the past year, spilling each and every event with sharp detail. There’s an odd sense of embarrassment that crops up when Kirche tells her of how revered her and Tabitha’s name have become. ‘The Jewels of the Academy’ they are. All the rumors and tales spread around by the maids certainly aren’t helping.
It isn’t as if she can do anything about it. Considering most of them are true.
In return, Louise tells her of all the things they’ve done after the war ended. Of all the work they now have. Kirche is particularly interested to hear that Louise is the one training Agnes and her musketeers. She has to physically hold the girl back as she explains that, yes, Agnes can use magic, and no, the woman is not involved in an illicit relationship with Henrietta. She attempts to ask why Kirche even asked that. The girl turns away and whistles.
Tabitha spends the hour asleep, her head resting on her shoulder. She has to endure the coos Kirche makes every time Tabitha snuggles closer.
Before they know it, the hour is up, and Kirche’s first class is to be held in minutes. They share a quick hug before Kirche leaves the room. Louise glances at the still half-asleep Tabitha then, wondering what to do. The girl continues to lay on Kirche’s bed, and her hand is still intertwined with Louise’s. Tabitha stares at her for a good second before she gives the bed a gentle pat. Louise sighs and joins her under the blanket.
Hours later, she wakes up to find Kirche hovering over her. The girl’s expression is awfully smug then, and Louise feels a retort building in the back of her throat as she pulls herself up.
Whatever she was about to say falls away when she realizes she isn’t as alone as she thought. Saito and Siesta are just behind Kirche, eyes turning from her to the still sleeping Tabitha and back to her. And, even more horrifically, Colbert stands just by the door, a small smile on his lips as he patiently waits. Louise remains frozen for a good few seconds before she places a Silence and Illusion over herself and screams into oblivion.
A good minute later, she lets her spells fall and shakes Tabitha awake. The girl mewls as her eyes open, and she blinks as she notices the small audience they have. Tabitha gives them all a small wave, and Kirche laughs softly.
“I’m afraid the Summoning Ceremony is nearly here, Miss Louise.” Colbert says. He smiles. “But I doubt the students will mind if you arrive slightly late. You are quite the important figure, after all.” And saying that, the man bowed and left the room. Louise stares at the now closed door and sighs.
“Well, well! Getting quite comfy over there, aren’t you?” Kirche happily says.
Tabitha nods, and Louise feels her cheeks go warm as a pair of arms snake around her waist. “Louise, warm.” Kirche grins at that, and Louise can see Siesta’s eyes gleaming in the distance.
Ah. She wants to go and leap off a tower.
“Mm. That’s enough sleeping for you.” She says to the sleepy girl. Tabitha makes a small whine as she lifts her off the bed, but the girl then uses the opportunity to sling her arms around her neck. Louise blushes slightly, but she can’t help but smile. “You’re really clingy today. What’s the occasion?”
Tabitha says nothing, but she hears Kirche giggle. Louise suspects, but doesn't act on it. She sighs instead. “Come on. We have a ceremony to look over.” Finally, Tabitha lets go. The sudden lack of warmth feels disconcerting then. She turns to Kirche. “How about you? Are you going to watch over the Summoning Ceremony as well?”
Kirche shrugs. “You’re going, so I might as well. It isn’t as if I have anything else to do.” The girl turns to Saito and asks, “How about you, lover boy? Busy with your maid over there?”
Saito and Siesta go spectacularly red then, and Louise blinks. So they did seal the deal. Good for them. “We’ll go.” He eventually says, and he smiles at Louise. “And my summoner’s going there. Gotta go, you know?”
“You’re more of a mage than I’ll ever be.” Louise grins. “After all-, Triangle Class already? I can’t imagine how many nobles are frothing as they watch you grow.”
Saito laughs wryly.
Louise discreetly glances at Siesta. The maid proudly traces a triangle on her dress. Her grin grows.
She is beyond proud of the two. Their growth is incredible. She isn’t quite sure why, but she can make several guesses. Something to do with the fact that they’re not nobles—an absence of the laziness so many nobles have experienced. She would know. She’s seen Guiche grow like a weed the moment he stopped being a skirt-chaser.
So, they’re now joined by Kirche, Saito, and Siesta as they head for the courtyard on the Western corner. The…Vestri Court, if her memory serves her right.
She smiles lightly. Her teenage years are faint now, but she can distinctly remember the first time she bore witness to what being a Gandalfr means. The duel between Saito and Guiche. When she first saw a commoner plow through Guiche’s valkyries, when she first saw a clueless boy move with the grace of a master swordsman,
Well-, perhaps not a master. Far from it. Though Saito certainly looked like one all those years ago.
They were so young back then. It’s a precious memory.
It doesn’t take them long to reach the court, and she has to hide a slight grimace as the students cheer upon her appearance. She sees Colbert smile apologetically, and she offers a small shrug in return.
She and Tabitha stand just to the side of the professor, watching as the students begin summoning their familiars. Kirche, Saito, and Siesta are just behind them.
She grimaces slightly at every familiar bound. There’s…nothing inherently wrong with applying a False Motive on a familiar. But familiars are diverse. The ethics of it all becomes significantly murky the moment the familiar holds even a semblance of consciousness. She remembers the horror she felt when she first learnt that.
Tabitha is quick to notice and asks what’s wrong. She shakes her head.
It doesn’t take long to find the girl who’d brought her here in the first place. Beatrice de Guldenhorf. The princess of the Grand Duchy of Guldenhorf. She doesn’t remember much of what happened to the girl in the future. Perhaps she’d stayed and lived a luxurious life in her castle. Perhaps she didn’t. Perhaps she perished in battle. Perhaps not.
The princess is surrounded by a gaggle of other noble girls, and they’re all giggling as they talk amongst themselves. She remembers Tiffania being among them.
She takes a slow breath.
She wonders what she should do. Tiffania is her sister in all but blood. Someone she would trust with her life. A gentle girl. She remembers the nights they spent together, huddled around a flickering fire as the threat of monsters hung around the dark. The days spent in the woods, caring for children whose lives were unfairly soured. That wall of flames, and of the smile Tiffania had before she was burnt away.
The smell of burnt flesh clung to her for days.
She wants her sister back. She wants to reach for that orphanage and find comfort in the arms that had gently comforted her so many times. To take the gentle elf in her hold and never let go. But she also knows doing so would mean drafting Tiffania into the world's conflict. It would mean bringing up her lineage. It would mean bearing upon her the burdens of an entire kingdom.
She doesn’t know what to do.
Her mind isn’t quite there as the ceremony goes on. She gives the occasional word of advice whenever a new familiar is brought onto the mortal plane. She smiles and nods whenever she needs to. But she isn’t… there , in a sense. There’s a growing emptiness in her chest, as if she’s both breathing too much and too little.
Beatrice soon summons hers, a beautiful wolf cloaked in raging winds. It’s a powerful summon, a perfect compliment to the girl’s powerful winds.
And if Louise takes a moment to stare, if Louise then smiles brighter than she has in the past hour, if she reaches over and playfully pats the girl’s head, if the girl steps back with mystified eyes,
No one in history will ever know.
The ceremony goes on. The harrowing feeling grows. She feels…wrong. An intruder in a place that is no longer hers. Facing a portrait that’s subtly wrong.
She feels slightly sick.
The ceremony ends. Colbert dismisses the students, and they all cheer as they head off for lunch. Beatrice skips over and grins, and Louise returns a small smile. The girl heads off with her friends then. The courtyard falls quiet. Siesta congratulates the professor for another class well done.
Louise looks to the sky and breathes.
“Louise?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you, okay?”
Louise falls silent. She stares at the girl by her side. At the one who has been with her ever since her return. At the one who has burrowed into her heart. “I don’t know.” She eventually says back. Tabitha nods, understanding. She intertwines her hand with Louise’s. “I don’t really know what I’m feeling right now.”
Tabitha’s grip turns tight. Understanding. “That’s fine.” She says.
Louise tries her best to believe.
“You’ve gotten better.” She says as she slams Guiche into the dirt. The crowd around them gasps at her quick victory. Saito happily cheers from the side. Kirche is outright laughing.
Guiche laughs shyly. “Really? I don’t think I’ve gotten all that better, I’m afraid. Why, I still lost to you, didn’t I?”
“You hit me.” She made sure to pull on her shirt’s rim. There’s a slight cut there, made from a desperate charge Guiche performed after a shrewd feint. “That is not something many can claim. Not even some of the older knights of the imperial castle can claim to have done so.” She extends a hand at the downed boy. “You have done so with only a year to improve. You have outdone yourself.”
“Thank you for your kind words.” He clasps his hand in hers, and she pulls him up. He makes a quick bow, and she returns a short nod. “Still, your prowess is truly amazing!”
She shrugs. “That is why I train.” She takes a glance around then. Students are still crowding the fields, excitedly chattering over the short spar she just had. “Where’s Montmorency?” She asks. “I would’ve thought she would be here.”
“Ah…” His expression changes then, his easy smile replaced by an odd grimace. Something between proud yet ashamed. “She has…returned to her house.” She blinks then, and he laughs at her surprise. “Much of what I had done has pushed her beyond the edge, I believe, and she finally found it in herself to break away.”
He takes a breath. “You were right.” He says softly. “I had not acted like a Gramont. I bore upon myself no honor. I was no better than a school bully garbed in fine cloths.” He laughs. “I am but a boy. And one horribly unready for something as complex as love.” He looks at her and smiles. “I must thank you for your harsh words.”
She stares. Montmorency has left the Academy? That is…surprising. Although she can see why the girl has done so. Montmorency is, at the end, an alchemist. There is nothing the academy can teach her on that front. Returning to her house and learning from the roots is certainly better than ambling through the academy’s library on her lonesome.
History changes again.
The harrowing feeling grows.
“I doubt many would say the same.” She says slyly, pushing past the slight ringing in her ears. He laughs then, and then coughs when Kirche gives him a not-so-gentle pat on the back. Siesta and Saito are close behind, and Saito cheerfully proclaims that he will one day defeat him. Guiche laughs and returns the taunt. Siesta hides a giggle behind her palm.
Tabitha comes close and places a gentle hand on Louise’s shoulder. She turns to her, and the quiet girl smiles. Louise tries to smile back.
For the rest of the afternoon she spearheads the training of the knights-to-be. She grinds them against the dirt, shows them the harsh training she makes the musketeer goes through every morning. Many groan and quiver in pain, but none complain. Perhaps it’s the recency of the war. Perhaps it’s the reverent awe they have for her. It doesn’t matter in the end.
She trains them all afternoon, and when dusk finally comes, she and Tabitha go to join the rest of the student body in the cafeteria. Or they would’ve. Because Kirche, the sly girl, requested if her and Tabitha’s arrival could be celebrated by a ball. Osmond agrees, and so she and Tabitha find themselves swarmed by an army of maids. She and Tabitha turn to each other for a moment, before they sigh in tandem and accept their fate.
They’re lovingly dressed in some of the finest dresses Louise has ever bore her eyes on, and they’re greeted with cheers as they enter. Louise sees Kirche at the corner, smiling smugly. She has to resist the urge to cast an Illusion over herself to slink away.
But she does her best to enjoy the impromptu party she’s been thrust into.
She does her best. She tries her best.
But she’s surrounded by shadows. She turns one way, and she remembers the dance she had with Saito, when they were both young and naive and unknowing and uncaring of the world. She turns another, and she remembers that chaotic ball she had, when everyone was dressed as everyone else.
She hears someone cheer, and she thinks of the day when the years-spanning war with Albion finally ends, of the somber but hopeful celebration that took place in this very place. She thinks of how that peace is quickly dashed, torn and burnt asunder as Joseph began his conquest.
She takes a sip of wine, and she remembers that last party before their assault against the Adversary. Of partying and partying at the eve of what could’ve been the world’s end, of talking and cheering and reminiscing over a world they might not return to.
She breathes, and all she can think of is the ashes of this school she once called home.
That familiar wrongness rings in her chest. Her ears ring, and she has to force down her nausea as she quickly applies an Illusion over herself and staggers out onto the balcony.
She tries her best to remind herself that her friends are still alive. That they’re all here, enjoying and feasting and loving.
But they're not, are they?
They're dead. And now she stands in the presence of ghosts.
She feels like she’s drowning.
“Louise?”
She turns, and she sees Tabitha there. Her expression is as empty as always, but there’s worry clear in her eyes. “Tabitha.” She whispers, and she tries her best to smile. “Weren’t you talking with Kirche earlier?”
She nods. “Was.” The girl walks closer, and Louise slowly breathes as she stands right next to her. “Felt you leave. Worried.” Tabitha looks at her. “Louise, okay?”
“I just…” She takes a moment, trying to think of the words to say. “I feel wrong being here.” She eventually admits. Tabitha gently squeezes her hand. “They’re all so young.” She laughs tiredly. “I was like that once, I think.”
“Mm. Me too.” Tabitha whispers.
And there’s something sad about that, she thinks. Both of their childhoods had been stolen, and now they stand here, reminiscing yet incapable of joining. She looks at Saito, and how he easily laughs and grins with Guiche and Kirche, and Louise feels a part of her grieve. She would’ve stood there with him once.
“Louise,” Tabitha holds her hand tighter. “Lonely?”
Yes. No. Always.
She hums. “A little.” Is what she ends up saying.
And she then blinks as Tabitha suddenly tackles her into a hug. “Louise, idiot.” Tabitha whispers, and Louise can only stare as Tabitha looks up and meets her eyes with a glare. “We here. I am here.” She gently bangs a fist onto her chest. “You go, I go.” Tabitha smiles. “Together.”
She stares, and she breathes, and slowly she smiles. “Together.”
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FergardStratoavis on Chapter 1 Thu 24 Nov 2022 10:38AM UTC
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FergardStratoavis on Chapter 1 Thu 24 Nov 2022 10:45PM UTC
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FimbuIvetr on Chapter 1 Wed 18 Oct 2023 07:27AM UTC
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Hue (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 13 Jan 2024 05:52AM UTC
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undrath on Chapter 1 Sat 24 Aug 2024 06:44PM UTC
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ThruTheStargate on Chapter 2 Fri 02 Dec 2022 07:37AM UTC
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Ken_Law on Chapter 2 Sat 03 Dec 2022 03:50AM UTC
Last Edited Sat 03 Dec 2022 03:52AM UTC
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FimbuIvetr on Chapter 2 Wed 18 Oct 2023 07:38AM UTC
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Yukiterulight on Chapter 2 Tue 05 Aug 2025 05:49AM UTC
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FimbuIvetr on Chapter 3 Thu 17 Aug 2023 10:54AM UTC
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ThruTheStargate on Chapter 4 Sat 10 Dec 2022 04:08AM UTC
Last Edited Sun 11 Dec 2022 05:56AM UTC
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ThruTheStargate on Chapter 4 Tue 14 Feb 2023 09:42AM UTC
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FimbuIvetr on Chapter 4 Thu 17 Aug 2023 11:07AM UTC
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Soyvolon on Chapter 5 Tue 20 Dec 2022 03:07AM UTC
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ThruTheStargate on Chapter 5 Wed 28 Dec 2022 08:55AM UTC
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Dr_Duwang on Chapter 5 Mon 16 Jan 2023 06:56AM UTC
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Yagzeira on Chapter 5 Sat 28 Jan 2023 10:06PM UTC
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