Chapter Text
Prologue: An Earnest Wish
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It all began, as many things do, with an earnest wish and a stray thought. Neither of these things are dangerous in and of themselves, but combined they can be the start of all sorts of troubles, adventures, tales, or even disasters. Which of those this particular combination was likely to produce remained to be seen.
After the end of the world, a woman and a girl walked together along a cobbled street in the broken city of Lumière. The woman's bare feet made scarcely a sound, but the girl's boots were loud enough for both of them. The sun was sinking; the Eiffel bent behind them; jagged stone islands and chunks of buildings floated silent in the sky; the street was quiet but for the sound of their conversation and the breeze that stirred the leaves on the trees; the neighborhoods where people yet lived were blocks away.
"There's another world out there," the woman said, and there was a pensive note in her voice. She was tall, she bore arcane tattoos upon her skin, and no frost touched the darkness of her hair. "A world we'll never get to see. And other canvases. How many worlds has your Painters Council made, Maelle?"
Maelle shook her head. "I don't know. Hundreds? Thousands? Canvases beyond counting."
"It must be incredible to move from canvas to canvas like a Paintress," the woman said. "There must be so much more to learn! I wish I could see those worlds."
Maelle smiled, memories of learning to paint rising up in her thoughts. Her mother's hand guiding her brushstrokes at first, the buzzing rumble of her father's voice in air afterward as he cautioned her of the limits of painting and of how to be within a canvas safely. And then a thought occurred, the sort of thought that lingers and grows stronger with time, and which if left unspoken can only ever lead to years of wishing otherwise but which, once spoken can never be taken back. "... maybe you can."
An earnest wish. A stray thought. So begins our story.