Chapter Text
Tabitha 1 - Chapter 1
The cold night air, still and sharp, was a blessing few knew how to appreciate, at least in Tabitha's view. Silence, real silence, was a comfort of its own, a rare indulgence in a world too loud. She appreciated Kirche, truly she did… but even that had its limits. Especially after the last few days. The silence of the forest and company of her familiar was sorely needed.
Three days ago, the second years were meant to perform their Springtime Summoning Ceremony, a tradition as old as the Academy's stones. Three days ago, she had summoned her beloved Sylphid. And three days ago, a certain daughter of a duchess had vanished.
That girl had always been on the edge of Tabitha's attention. They shared a similar academic rigor, one rather uncommon among their peers. Louise's tendency to cause magical catastrophes had initially piqued Tabitha's curiosity for that reason. It wasn't her knowledge that was lacking; her form, pronunciation, gestures, all of it was textbook-perfect. So why did her spells fail so violently?
Eventually, she had let the matter drop. There were other priorities. Yet she had been confident that Louise would succeed in the summoning. The idea that she could not was… an impossibility. And yet… she hadn't.
When the incantation was complete, it hadn't summoned a familiar. It had detonated.
The Willpower behind the spell had burst with the usual unnatural force, casting up a storm of dust. She could have sworn she had seen something glowing inside… and when the dust finally settled, there was no familiar. No girl. Just silence.
Since then, the Academy had been in a quiet state of panic. No one said it outright, but the possibility hung heavy in the halls. Louise might be dead. And no one, not even those who had mocked her, liked that idea.
Yes, she had been the butt of jokes, her failure a source of amusement to many, but none could that the pink girl was part of their ecosystem. Watching her struggle had been like watching a bird trapped inside a room, fluttering against invisible glass. It was easy to laugh due to the absurdity when it beat its wings. It was far harder to laugh when it broke its neck.
At least, that was her guess.
Tabitha had never been particularly close to any of their peers, Kirche being the sole exception. And even then, the red-headed Germanian... well, she tried to mask it, but Tabitha could see through her. Kirche had taken Louise's disappearance harder than most. She wouldn't admit it, of course, not even to her. Nobody wanted to right now. But Kirche had been a bit of a trendsetter with the bullying. That she had tried to encourage the other girl in her own way did not help the matter. It was only reasonable that she felt more strongly about that.
Tabitha sympathized. Truly, she did. But Kirche's way of coping, talking incessantly, keeping herself in motion, aggressively drowning out her own thoughts, was exhausting to witness. Even more exhausting to be involved in.
She was just about to give the cute dragon her last piece of meat when said dragon turned around with a snap, staring at something in the forest. Freezing for a second, Tabitha spotted a pink glint through the trees.
Standing up and moving slowly, she went to investigate. It was likely just someone wanting to experiment away from the public eye, but it was unusual enough to be worth checking out.
The brush was light beneath her boots, damp with spring dew, but she moved through it with practiced ease. Sylphid followed at a distance, wings tucked and low to the ground, her massive body somehow near-silent despite its size.
The glint came again. Brighter this time. More like a flash, really.
She crept forward, hand lightly readying her staff.
Through the trees, the clearing opened slowly. The air felt strange. Charged. Not unsimilar to how the air near massive windstone felt… but different. She could not put her finger on it. And then she saw her and did not even try any longer.
In the centre of the clearing, amidst the wild grass and depressed earth, stood a figure in familiar clothing. Slim, short, pink-haired. Clad in a cloak. Her back was turned, one arm pressed to her chest and slightly bent over, as if catching her breath.
Louise.
Something tickled Tabitha's mind. Louise, this Louise, was off. It was her, no question asked, but there were subtle differences. A centimetre or two in height, the hair was straighter than before, and now that her breath had settled, her posture was different. Louise was… not defeated, but exhausted, shoulders dropped when nobody was watching and only forced straight to project strength. This one?
The moment she moved, the term poise came to mind. Not swagger, like Guiche, or attention commanding confidence, like Kirche. It reminded her of how Kirche described Tabitha herself when she did not try to be unnoticeable. Certain but lax.
Tabitha hadn't announced herself, or made any sound, and while she knew she should… she didn't speak. Not yet. This was something new. And Tabitha, above all, was known to pay attention.
Having now fully recovered her breath, Louise held out her arm. Confusion grew within Tabitha, until a shadow jumped from a tree down onto it, revealing itself to be a feline of some kind. Definitely sneaky, but again there was someth…
… the arm had not moved. That would not be special had it been anyone but Louise. But Louise was charitably not someone who could be remotely called stocky. What-
"Go ahead. I will be with you in a moment." Louise's voice was no different from before, but the way she spoke was. Even when mocked, she usually spoke with a rather pleasant cadence, though sometimes undercut by embarrassment or anger when pushed too far. It was one of the qualities that Tabitha somewhat liked about her. This Louise had a stronger core to her voice, like someone who was used to having her voice heard, to the point it became a natural aspect of the voice.
With a meow that was rather cute, the cat departed into the forest and the pink-haired girl remained. Had that been her familiar? A cat seemed rather mundane for the weirdness that she was witnessing… but she was happy for the other girl, if that was the case. It did go off into the direction of the Academy.
Louise took a step backwards and began to stretch. It was a weirdly human motion, despite, of course, the fact that Louise was a human. It just broke the magic of the situation. Tabitha was just about to leave, deciding to let Louise finish whatever business she had, when the other girl took off in a sprint, directly towards a tree.
The pinkette didn't slow. She reached the base of the tree, an old, gnarled thing with broad lower branches, and without hesitation, leapt upward.
Tabitha could not help but keep staring.
Climbing wasn't unheard of, especially for scouts or delinquents. She herself was not a bad climber. But this was Louise. Louise, while certainly not the least athletically inclined of their peers, had not expressed any inclination towards it either. And the Snowstorm could tell there was no magic at play here.
Louise's hands caught the lowest branch with practiced ease. No fumbling, no awkward scramble. She pulled herself up in one fluid swing, knees tucking neatly against the bark before she pushed higher.
She moved with the kind of precision one only gained through repetition. Each movement was deliberate, never wasted. Her boots pressed against the crook of the next limb, and she used the momentum to swing herself up again.
One branch. Then another.
By the time she reached the mid-point of the canopy, she crouched low, perfectly still, perfectly balanced, like a bird of prey on a perch.
Tabitha narrowed her eyes. Things were not adding up. This was not a girl who had spent three days missing. This was someone who had trained…
The final stretch was the thinnest. Most climbers would have paused there, uncertain, gauging the risk. Louise didn't. She ascended with purpose, her movements tighter now, more cautious but no less confident.
Her boots found purchase against the crook between limb and bark, and then…
She reached the top, settling herself on the thickest branch. It had taken her at most ten seconds. And now, she simply sat there, framed by the moonlight. Then she leaned back her head and Tabitha could for the first time see the features of her peer, thanks to the light. Eyes closed, she had her chin raised, as if she leaned into the wind, and the wind caressed her back.
Suddenly, it felt like Tabitha was intruding on something private. The other girl simply sat there, letting the breeze thread through her hair, but there was a vulnerability to it that made it intimate, so completely absorbed was Louise in enjoying the wind.
"I am home."
Absorbed in her observation of Louise, the quiet, almost whine-like exclamation laden with so much happiness pushed the Gallian over the edge, and she took a step back… directly on a particularly, annoyingly crunchy leaf. The sound was loud in her ears, so utterly loud, but she froze nonetheless, her eyes wandering up to see if-
Pink eyes met her. She had expected either of two things. A steely domineering gaze, predatory and powerful, or the familiar gaze of defiance. Neither was the case. The pink eyes, calm, were filled with… fondness.
For a moment, nothing happened.
The silence that followed was not awkward exactly, more awkwardly bemused. Louise tilted her head slightly. Tabitha remained frozen where she stood. Neither said anything.
Tabitha opened her mouth. Closed it.
Louise raised an eyebrow.
"..."
"..."
A beat passed.
Then, as if prompted by some shared understanding of the absurdity, Louise gave a soft, breathy chuckle. "You always did prefer to watch before speaking."
Tabitha blinked once. That was… fair.
Louise shifted slightly, scooting aside on the moonlit branch. "Do you want to join me?"
Another beat. Then Tabitha raised her hand, snapping two fingers.
The rustle of wings followed almost instantly. With the grace of something far too large to move so gently, Sylphid emerged from behind her Master. Her serpentine neck craned upward.
Tabitha mounted smoothly and, without a word, Sylphid took to the air, drifting upward in a wide arc before settling beside the branch Louise occupied. The dragon adjusted herself slightly so Tabitha could step down easily, boots finding purchase just beside her pink-haired peer. Thank the Founder that Sylphid could adjust her weight.
They sat side by side, moonlight washing over them.
Louise didn't speak at first. She simply reached into a small pouch at her belt, retrieved a sliver of dried meat, and offered it out on her open palm toward Sylphid.
The dragon blinked. Then her long tongue schnapped out and the treat vanished. A happy gurring sound followed.
"...She likes you," Tabitha said finally. The lizard was easy to bribe.
"I like her too," Louise replied with a small, pleased smile. "Good company. Better than Zerbst by far. Quiet."
That earned the faintest twitch at the corner of Tabitha's mouth. That was the Louise she knew.
The silence stretched again, but this time, it was comfortable.
The two girls sat with the wind threading through their hair and the soft rustle of leaves around them. Somewhere in the distance, an owl gave a hoot. Tabitha let her gaze wander.
She wasn't someone prone to fidgeting, but she observed. And now that she was up close, the little differences began to compound. Not just posture or presence. Little things. Details. She wanted to just ask, but it felt wrong to do so now.
Her eyes caught on something new.
Around Louise's neck sat a choker. Simple in construction, no lace, no noble embellishments. Just a thin, matte-black band resting snug against her skin, almost like it was ink. Centred at the throat was a small, pink-hued stone, pale and soft in tone. It gleamed in the moonlight. Had that been what had glinted before?
Louise had never worn jewellery before. She had always seemed vaguely allergic to ornamentation, though of course, Tabitha never had asked her, and had never bothered much to pay attention to such things as what noble wore what to which party.
"That is a pretty necklace." Tabitha was used to playing up the awkwardness somewhat, but not right now. There was something about that piece of jewellery…
Louise's hand went up briefly, brushing the band at her throat with absent fingers. "Ah…"
Her fingers lingered a moment longer than necessary, and her voice, when it came, was casual but soft in a way that felt oddly deliberate. "We can talk about it tomorrow. If you want."
Tabitha gave a fractional nod, waiting.
"I just…" Louise exhaled, tilting her head back to let the breeze play over her face again. "I'd rather enjoy the air for now. It's been too long since I could feel it like this. Too long since I felt here." Her eyes closed, and she seemed almost to fall asleep. "And the company's… nice."
There was something about that sentence that sent a shiver down Tabitha's spine. A pleasant one. It had been spoken with such … raw sincerity, that it was hard not to appreciate. For a moment, her instincts wanted to keep exploring this mystery of too long , but her own exhaustion caught up. Cuddling up against her dragon, she figured she may as well join Louise in closing her eyes and enjoying the air for a moment. Just a moment.
She was woken up by an angry cat-howl and the glint of the dawning sun.