Chapter Text
Yu Heywood was, at the moment, a tall Viera male with long, shiny white hair and cramping fingers. He stretched them out with a pained sigh, checking his latest work on the mannequin. Cloth of Happiness, for all it was a joy to look at, was a bitch to work with. Still, it looked like his commission was coming along just fine, delicate stitches still holding firm even through thick leather, the ribbing on the front of the shirt sitting naturally. All he had to do was package it up and hand it off to his client tomorrow, and he’d be a nice bit richer. Which meant that next time, he could just buy the damn cloth off the marketboards from some poor other sod rather than fighting his way through the Excitatron 6000 again in the hopes of Nymeia blessing him with some luck. He was sick of bunny-looking contraptions, by this point.
Speaking of…
He ran a hand over his long rabbit ears thoughtfully. He had been wanting a change recently, even if he didn’t really need to, and he was getting the sneaking suspicion that if he saw himself in the mirror in the morning he would start yelling incoherently about rabbits and ears and fucking carrots. The landlord had already (politely) told him that while they were always pleased to have him, Hero of the Realm and etc, there were many other renters in the apartment building and while the soundproofing was good, it wasn’t that good. (The landlord, seeing the slightly manic gleam in his eye at that pronouncement, had been quick to reassure him that no, they did not want any upgrades, and please do not tear out your floor or walls, you do have a renter’s agreement and any installation is sure to make more noise.) The small orchestrion sitting on the worktable before him continued blasting his music (at a disappointing half volume) as he thought it over before he finally shrugged.
Fantasia might be a touch expensive, but so was his mental health, so who cares!
He stood up with a groan, stretching out his back, arms raising up over his head with fingers interlaced and palms outwards. He brushed against the lower parts of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling and grimaced. Maybe something shorter would be good? He was getting annoyed with having to watch his head around low door frames, and viera ears did not take kindly to being squished down. He absent-mindedly turned the orchestrion off and started rummaging through his over-stuffed closet as he thought it over.
Going full lalafel seemed a bit overkill, and besides which, he was thinking he wanted to be more feminine, and he liked having a bit of a chest for that to really play with his glamours. Being girly again meant he could go au’ra and still be shorter, but… well, he was sort of missing his birth form, if he was being honest. He didn’t think he was a particularly spectacular looking miqo’te by any means, but it was also the form he had grown up in and therefore had a nice sense of nostalgia and comfort to it.
Finally finding the Fantasia bottle that had been stuffed inside a pair of boots inside his closet for reasons he didn’t remember, Yu nodded firmly to himself. He uncorked the bottle and downed it without hesitation, grimacing as he finished before pausing.
“Did they finally fix the recipie?” he asked himself, before dry retching horribly. “Oh, gods, no, there it is, aftertaste.” How anyone managed to make something that tasted worse than morbol breath smelled was a mystery to him. At least the taste faded quickly, especially after a quick drink of lemonade from the pitcher he kept made up in his room.
Following instructions long since memorized, he started pulling off all his clothes as he held his new/old form in his head. Fantasia potions were a marvel of alchemy, but they didn’t always like to play nicely with clothes, especially when it came to size and gender changes. Fortunately, his small clothes were made be highly adaptable, tough, magically resistant, and stylish in an incredibly beige-coloured way. The odds of someone bursting into his rooms in Ingleside were small, but never zero, and he had no intention of facing his usual level of insane Hero-of-Light happenstances without any clothing.
The last of his earrings clattered onto the plate on his bedside table, and he pulled the various clips and ornaments out of his hair before carefully brushing it out. As he brushed, he gently tugged at the various aetheric ties that bound his soulstones to him, diligently looking for unraveling aether or signs of tampering. Each whispered back softly, lessons hard won and techniques painstakingly mastered, histories stretching back beyond his imagination or only a scarce few years. He lingered on the last, the stone of Azem. It perhaps wasn’t a traditional soulstone, but it was even more precious to him.
It never whispered to him in the same way, but he could feel a faint glow, like sun on skin, every time he reached for it. And even more distantly, from deep within his soul, a hand reached back to clasp his in a familiar grip. His brush slowed in its even movements as he closed his eyes, gently mentally squeezing that hand. Satisfied with the state of his hair, he flopped onto his bed, still holding on to that hand in his heart. Fantasia always seemed to give him strange dreams, but his quiescent twinned soul seemed to hold back the worst of them.
-
Hear. Feel. Think.
Yu floated through the gentle emptiness, familiar words ringing out around her as a distant part of her was vaguely aware of changes in the waking world. The words echoed through her and through the one that still held her hand. These words were the ones that had called the both of them, in different times, different places.
She called out for Hydaelyn, hoping for an answer, some distant part of her knowing she would have none, and there in dreams that was enough to blur her eyes with something close to tears. Sounds rushed past her, fragments of memories, of nonsense, of wishes left unsaid, an unending susurrant chorus.
Please-
Beloved-
Just one more-
Look after them-
Creeping shade and silhouette-
Beautiful flower of evil-
In darkness blooms-
The rains have ceased-
Fire that can burn-
Scatter them like dust-
If you could take one more step-
Do not let go of that hand.
“Never,” Yu whispered, tears running down her cheeks. “I won’t, I won’t, we do this. One step at a time.” And she smiled, as befits a hero, fingers tangling into her short, darkening hair as she dreamed of a hand in hers and the sound of horses trotting by.
-
She awoke slowly and groggily. Fantasia took quite a lot out of a person, and even expecting it, she never quite got used to the feeling. It seemed as though someone was knocking at her door, although the sound was all wrong somehow. They were muttering to themselves as well, something about time, a deadline? Probably her cue to get up and deal with some fresh new nonsense. Now where was her light?
“Mya-ha!”
Ah, there we go.
Rubbing her eyes, Yu stepped forward into what was most certainly not her room in Ingleside. It was far bigger, for one, and dimly lit in an eerie green. Coffins floated in the air, dark and imposing.
“You ain’t supposed to be awake yet!”
Yu yawned as she examined in the creature staring at her in disbelief, taking in the forked tail, the flaming ears, the ragged ribbon around it’s neck.
“What sort of Void-ridden M’hachi bullshit am I in now?” she asked, stretching lazily. “And you, you related to Caith Sidhe or something?”
The creature still appeared to be in shock, although that quickly seemed to be wearing off. “M’ha…? Arrgh, no, I don’t have time for this! Gimme your uniform!”
Yu blinked slowly. “Hunh. First time I’ve been on this end of that request.”
“Hand ‘em over, human!” the creature insisted.
“Hell’s a human?” Yu grumbled, ears flicking in irritation. “Like a hume? I’m a mistel, in that case. Mistelan?” She looked over the clothes she was now wearing with an expert eye. High quality materials, tight stitching, ornate patterns, heavy on the layers but neither stuffy nor hard to move in. Expensive shit, not something you’d waste on a prisoner or sacrifice, even accounting for M’hachi dramatics. So. What’s this uniform for?
“Just shut up and give your stuff to the Great Grim!” the now-named Grim demanded, blue fire gathering at the edges of his mouth.
“I’m not looking for a fight,” she said carefully, holding her hands up. She could still feel all of her soulstone ties, but the armor and weapons linked to them seemed to be missing or blocked. While she could theoretically fight bare-handed, it was far from her favorite method, most especially against something that could breath fire. Better to try diplomacy first. “But these are my only clothes, and I’d rather not be naked. I’m not as fortunate as you, to have such lovely fur, oh… Great… Grim.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Grim snapped.
“People get upset with other people when they’re naked,” Yu explained slowly. “And also, without fur or fire like you, we get cold very quickly. It’s very sad.”
“This is why monsters are superior,” Grim said smugly. “But nobody wants to recognize my superiority, so I still need a uniform, so I can show ‘em all!”
“Completely understandable,” Yu said, scratching her ear with two fingers. “Maybe I can give you this outer… coat? Cloak? It will still be too big for you, though, and that might cause problems.”
“Problems?” Grim repeated.
“Yeah,” Yu said, nodding. “People will ask questions if it’s obvious your uniform is way too big for you, not to mention long hems will trip you, especially if you aren’t used to… clothes. If I had a needle and thread, or even some pins, I could do a few quick alterations to help with that.”
“Needle, needle…” Grim said, brow furrowed.
“A small piece of metal or bone-”
“I know what a needle is, hu- mistel!”
Yu held up her hands, holding back a laugh. “Sorry, oh Great Grim. I find one shouldn’t assume. Hm, maybe… do you know where an armory would be? They typically have items for equipment repairs.”
“Why would a school have an armory?” Grim said quizzically.
Yu’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “A… school. Right. Well, what about a, um, an infirmary? They usually have needle and thread for sutures.”
“There’s definitely one of those around,” Grim said with total confidence. “I betcha I can get you to one!”
“Magnificent,” Yu said with a smile. “If you would lead the way?”
As Grim marched proudly in front of her, Yu looked around with a frown, trying to take in all the details. Cut stone, large glass windows, floating lights that looked like lamps and candles but had no smoke, scent, or visible power. A number of smaller rooms, closed off by solid wooden doors, probably oak, brass handles with distinct patina but otherwise in excellent shape. A few open rooms showed lecture halls, familiar to her from the Studium. The corridor suddenly became open air with the appearance of broad arches and fences to her left, showing that they were two, maybe three stories up, and that the building they were in was certainly large enough to count as a castle.
How in the seven hells was this a school?! Even the Studium wasn’t anywhere near as large!
While her crafter’s mind was whirling away about logistics and pricing, her tactical mind was trying to piece together the route they were taking and identify landmarks outside before the hallway closed back up. She tried her linkpearl once again, not bothering to hide it as she did before, but it was the same response- nothing. Not even the distant tone that would indicate a block or other interference, but dead silence, as if this were a fresh linkpearl that hadn’t been connected to any others.
… hadn’t that happened in Norvrandt? Was this another reflection-? But how- no, why, no who-?
“Behold, the infirmary!” Grim announced grandly, gesturing to the double doors in front of them.
“Well done,” Yu said, although a part of her was skeptical. Double doors with decorative carvings? Unusual design choice for somewhere that had high likelihood of doors being flung about, but maybe-
“Aaaand-!” Grim said, jumping up enough to grab one of the door handles and push it down, then floating mid-air to shove the door inward. She peered around the door with Grim, taking in the room.
Floating books, rows of bookshelves, reading tables…
“Interesting infirmary,” she said mildly.
“Wha- they must have… must have moved it!” Grim exclaimed. “The Great Grim didn’t make a mistake, definitely not!”
“Absolutely,” she said, moving into the room proper. “Do you think they have a map in here?”
“Why d’ya need a map?” Grim asked, floating after her.
Yu hesitated, a tiny stutter step. “Oh, a map of the… school, of course. To find the infirmary.”
“Iunno,” Grim said, his leg coming up to scratch at his ear. “Maybe?”
Yu squinted at the labeling on the bookshelves. She really should have expected the non-Eorzean letters. These almost seemed readable, although highly distorted. It was almost amusingly like trying to read Khloe’s Wonderous Tails requests, when she first started and her penmanship was as uncertain as her spelling.
She reached for a book at random, hoping to find labeled illustrations to confirm her guesses.
“History of the Seven probably ain’t gonna hep us, minion,” Grim said, plopping down on her shoulder.
Yu paused to glance at him in surprise, then looked back the the book. She squinted again, trying to parse the letters. So. Just like Norvrandt, different letters to a similar language system, although here the similarities between the two were more pronounced.
(It was very amusing to think that Emet-Selch had gotten sick of learning new writing systems every century or so, and had just done his best to standardize the damn things across the reflections. It seemed like something he would do.)
“Whatsamatter? Lose your glasses?” Grim asked, pawing at the wrinkle between her eyes.
“Pretty much,” she said with a sigh only slightly tinged with melancholy. “Hard to read without them.”
“The Great Grim can find something!” he proclaimed, bouncing off her shoulders to look. “Just you wait, minion!”
“Truly a king among cats,” Yu said, edging back towards the doors. If he was distracted, she could slip away for more recon on her own.
“I ain’t a cat!” Grim snapped indignantly, whirling to face her. “Nyah? Where you goin’ minion?”
Yu was saved from coming up with a plausible lie by some shouting and a whip(?) flying by her face to bind Grim and covering his mouth.
“Ah, I’ve found you at last. Splendid,” a man said, sweeping up to her. “I trust you’re one of this year’s new students?”
Yu’s eyebrows raised as her mind raced, trying to piece together what in the seven hells was happening. The man’s ostentatious get-up definitely kept to the M’hach theming, but the mask was making her a little twitchy. It was entirely the wrong style to be of the Ancients, of course, but something about this man-
“And bringing a poorly trained familiar with you,” the man tutted, drawing the bound Grim closer.
“He’s not mine?” Yu said as Grim attempted to yell. “I mean, is he even a familiar-”
“Of all the student’s I’ve dealt with, the man barreled on, “you’re the first with temerity enough to open their own gate and step out of it. Does the very notion of patience elude you? No matter. Your orientation has already begun. Let us return to the mirror chamber.”
“Gate?” Yu muttered to herself.
(Throw wide the gate!)
“You awakened in a room full of gates, did you not?” the man said, his hearing apparently much improved when not dealing with contradictions to his own point of view. “All of the students here at the campus arrived by passing through such gates. Although typically the students have enough restraint to wait until I open them before waking up.”
“What if they have claustrophobia?” Yu asked idly, instead of anything else on her mind.
Gateway coffins, just like being back on the Void Ark. Except this time she’s the one getting summoned, instead of voidsent. Maybe the Ascians pushed a culture here into following the affectations of M’hach, but with less black magic? But why though? Or was it coincidence? Coincidences made her twitchy.
“Now is not the time for such prattle!” the man exclaimed. “You’ve a student orientation to attend! Go on now. Make haste.”
Yu stared at him blankly. “I have no idea where I am, or why I should listen to you.” If this really was a school, there were much lower odds of someone trying to kill her for incorrect answers. Probably. The way Alphinaud and Alisaie spoke, one would think the Studium instructors were homicidal maniacs at times.
The man clicked his tongue. “The timespace teleportation must have addled your memories… Well, these things happen, I suppose,” he said, completely unaware of Yu rapidly going through several stages of horror and confusion. “I shall explain it to you while we walk. Truly, my magnanimity is boundless!”
Headmage Dire Crowley, as Yu found, could adequately explain the very basics without diverting onto tangents, aside from ones on his own magnanimity. This was unfortunate, because she would have loved someone like G’raha Tia, who could be persuaded into rambling about semi-related topics for hours if given the right prompting. Crowley was actually fairly concise and to the point. He also had unfairly long legs, so that by the time he had explained and she had managed to interject a few largely innocuous questions that didn’t actually get her any more information on this world at large, they had reached their destination.
Yu felt her ears prick forward at the low rumble of many voices, a few standing out here and there as they called above the din. A few hundred, most sounding like young adults. All male. Her tail swished. Hm. Crowley said the carriage chooses, and she had gone to sleep a man, so maybe-
She was interrupted by Crowley tapping her shoulder. “You are the only one who has yet to be assigned a dorm. Step up to the Dark Mirror, and be quick about it. I’ll watch your weasel.”
Yu looked over the room- oh. Same floating coffin room, now with less coffins and more people. A mirror was floating over a pool of water, presumably the Dark Mirror. The way people had cleared a path to it seemed to confirm the guess.
She stepped up to the edge of the water, ignoring the whispers around her and looked into the mirror, then fought not to recoil. A simple face mask, but intricately decorated? Oh, if this was some Ascian nonsense-
“State your name,” the Dark Mirror intoned.
“Yu Heywood,” she said. No point in lying- this was quickly becoming too elaborate to be some trap just for her, and if the mirror did know her name it would actually be better for confirming her guesses than anything else so far.
“Yu Heywood,” the Dark Mirror repeated, but without any familiarity. (Then again, if the Ascians assigned to this shard weren’t keeping up with current-ish events-) “The nature of your soul is…” a very long and dramatic pause, “unclear to me.”
“What did you just say?” Crowley said, coat swirling dramatically as he stalked forward.
“I can sense nothing from this soul. As if it were soundless, colorless, shapeless. Utterly vacant.”
(Yu put another tick mark in the ‘Ascian nonsense’ column as everyone started talking at once. Asshole Ascians, wicked white. Seems like this one had worse soul sight than Emet-Selch, not that that was surprising. She was going to need some white auracite, and then she was going to be very dramatic herself and break this stupid mirror.)
“How could this have happened?” Crowley demanded as Yu’s thoughts traveled along homicidal property destruction.
As Crowley was distracted, Grim wiggled free, yelling, “Me! Let ME have this kid’s seat! Unlike that hum- mistel, I can actually use magic!”
“I can use magic though?” Yu said in confusion as Crowley attempted to wrangled the angry cat monster. She didn’t have a good object to focus her mana through right now, but she could surely do a simple spell-
“Everyone get down!” someone yelled, and Yu, battlefield trained, wasted no time in diving away the danger zone, tackling a student she noted as standing too close.
“Woah!” the student under her exclaimed. “That was scary!”
“It’s just a fireball,” Yu noted, sitting up. “Big and flashy, but basic thaumaturgy. Not enough behind it to be more than a beginner’s Fire II, at most. You weren’t singed anywhere, right?”
The white haired boy beamed up at her. “Nope, you saved me!”
“Glad to hear it,” Yu said, aware that other people were glaring daggers into her back. That headscarf was similar to Ul’dahn fashion, and like the rest of the uniform, luxurious and pricey. Pattern’s different, so likely not part of the uniform itself. Hm. Seems she tackled someone important. Oops.
“I’m sorry for tackling you like that,” she said, backing up some more. “It was the fastest way to get you out of danger.”
He laughed. “It’s alright! I know how it is.”
Ok, kid was used to being guarded and dragged out of danger in not necessarily nice ways. Definitely someone important. So where was his guard this time? Was the school supposed to be safe? Did he slip away?
These questions were obviously more important than the fireballs and madcap chase going on in the background, because those had nothing to do with her. Obviously. The two chasing Grim were doing quite well anyways, dodging his fireballs or deflecting them, although she noted a lack of strategy in actually catching him. And all the other students being fairly useless. Academics were academics, she supposed, no matter the universe, carefully not noticing the boy she had saved trying to catch her attention before being dragged away and scolded by a friend.
“Off with your head!” the redhead chasing Grim finally screamed, and a collar clanked around Grim’s neck. Magical silencer, she noted, as Grim tried and failed to shoot more fire. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing she could esuna away, too physically present for that. How hard would it be to break? Actually, what was it made of? It was fairly ornate for something made in a split second by magic, but if this was creation magic she knew all they would need was a schema to make anything no matter the complexity, and if it was summoning the collar could already be pre-made. Were the materials magically inhibitive? That would mean physical force would be necessary to break them, which would be tricky since it seemed to fit snugly to the neck. There was an obvious keyhole though; purely decorative, or useful? Would a matching key be somewhere, pre-made or generated with the collar?
She continued to ponder this as the other students filed out of the hall, ignoring any sideways glances or conversations. It seemed like Crowley was getting ready to sort her out, and she would much rather go back to sleep in her own gods damned bed than attempt to figure out her entire situation based off scraps like the worlds most frustrating jigsaw puzzle. She felt a little bad ignoring Grim being dragged off as well, but she had no idea if his professed desire to go to school was as innocent as it seemed, since he was willing to torch random people. None of this was her problem (yet, a traitorous part of her mind whispered, and she promptly squashed it).
“Right,” he said once they were the only two left. “I am so terribly sorry about all of this, I haven’t the fainest idea of how it could have happened! Please, simply come stand in front of the Dark Mirror again, and tell it where your home is.”
Yu looked distrustfully at the mirror, but did as he asked. “Ingleside. Uh, in Foundation, capital of Ishgard, of the Coerthan continent, Eitherys. The Source.”
The mirror did nothing.
“Oh Dark Mirror-” Crowley began.
“That place does not exist,” the mirror said, and Yu fought off the urge to flip off the inanimate object.
“Right,” she said with a sigh as Crowley babbled to himself. “Probably a different shard then. Then can you get me to the Last Stand Cafe? I can make my way back from there.”
“There is no such place in this world,” the mirror intoned.
“It’s not on this world,” Yu said tiredly. “It’s at the edges of space. Y’know, sorrow’s nest, where the dreams of the dead go to rest?”
“There is no such place.”
“Just say you can’t reach that far,” she told it sternly. She supposed that had been a long shot; getting there the first time had taken more aether than she had ever seen in her admittedly ludicrous adventures, and any later trips took advantage of a ‘quantum tunnel’ as the Sharlayan researchers called it.
She turned to look at Crowley, who was looking rather poleaxed by this point. “I’m afraid I needs must ask for your aid,” she said as politely as she could manage.
Crowley had first swept her back to the library, to confirm the mutual lack of recognition in the landmasses that either of them could name. (She had hesitated over finding the Isle of Sages to be, well, an island, but it hadn’t matched any Sharlayan geography. Another coincidence, apparently, and she felt her tail puffing.) Then he asked if she had any form of identification (or a phone, whatever that was).
“Maybe this would suffice,” Yu finally said reluctantly after a long and expectant pause, holding out the stone of Azem. She refused to let go of the stone, even if she knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. The stone was possibly the most precious gift she has even been given, coming from the shade of a long-past not-yet friend and made by a beloved enemy as what was once her only connection to a world that was. The summoning spell interlaced with the stone was priceless, yes, but the stone itself meant more than she could have ever spoken to. The stone was her-yet-not, and held the title of soulstone more clearly than any other that had ever been made.
“A rock isn’t really proper identification,” Crowley said delicately. “Although it is very pretty.”
“And yet a shoe is,” Yu hissed under her breath, immediately shoving the stone back into it’s protected aetherial pocket.”Fine. No, I have no identification that you could recognize,” she said irritably. “Unless you can recognize a title like the Azure Dragoon, somehow.”
“Not in the slightest,” Crowley said, shaking his head. “Dear oh deary me, what are we to do with you?”
“If you can put me up for the night, I can make my own way in the morning,” Yu said. Making a name for herself as an adventurer or craftsman again would be irritating, but-
“Heavens, no, I can’t send a penniless, magicless teenager out onto the streets!” Crowley exclaimed.
A what.
Yu felt all her thoughts come screeching to a halt, fail to stop in time, and fall all over each other into a tangled pile. Sure, maybe she didn’t know her exact age, and yes, miqo’te tended to look young until they abruptly hit old age. But. A teenager? No one had called her such a thing since she had earned her title as “the Warrior of Light”, and that had to have been five years ago at least!
“I’m not a child!” she blurted, realizing as she said it how childlike that sentence was. Crowley merely cocked his head at her.
“Oh, my apologies. Since the Dark Mirror sensed no magic from you, I assumed you couldn’t be fae. Are you perhaps like Van Rogue, centuries old despite looking so young?”
“No, I’m. Twenty two. Ish?” Yu said awkwardly. “I- don’t actually know. No one in the refugee camp- never mind. But I am an adult, I am used to being treated as such, and also.” She snapped her fingers, calling just enough aether forward to have them visibly glow. “Magical.”
Well, that’s what she tried to do. As soon as her hand reached chest level, Crowley reached out and grabbed it in both of his, and her aether fizzled out at her break in concentration.
“My dear child,” he cried, apparently being overwhelmed by emotion, “Are you telling me you are an orphan? That there is no one left to look after you? Oh, now we most certainly cannot let you go off by yourself in a strange new world! The dangers, the troubles, why, I shudder to think of them! No, no, you are the responsibility of Night Raven College now, and I shall ensure you have accommodations until we can find a way to return you to your home.”
Yu, valiantly resisting the urge to kick him, tried arguing. “No, really, that’s not necessary sir, and I do have people-”
“I suppose we can put you in the old dormitory,” Crowley said, steamrolling over her words. “It is a little run down, but with some love and care you could certainly fix it up into something marvelous!”
Yu opened her mouth. Closed it. Finally wrenched her hand free.
“A full dormitory. Just for me. That I can renovate?”
“Certainly,” Crowley said graciously and completely clueless to the growing sparkles in her eye and manic grin. “We might even have supplies to help-”
“The whole building?” she interrupted him. “Really?”
“Er, yes?”
“Even the walls and floors?!”
“The, er, foundations should be quite sturdy, but you will perhaps need to repair some holes-”
>Yu could feel her aether crackling around her, practically burning in excitement. She really hoped her eyes weren’t glowing red, that tended to scare people. But wicked white! If she didn’t run into any more problems, this was practically a vacation made just for her!