The eastern court was renowned for its beauty. Glowing white-and-yellow butterflies hovered in the air, somehow staying in one place despite flapping their wings with strained effort. Ochaco squinted and saw the luminescence reflecting on a spiderweb's threads.
"Take it all in," Nejire ordered. Though this was only a memory, her voice was no less vivid. She inhaled deeply, her voice like chimes while a water fountain provided a soothing accompaniment nearby. Then she exhaled with a sigh.
Ochaco tried to take a deep breath, too, but ended up hiccuping. Somewhere nearby, a swallow mimicked her hiccups. She wished she still had her stick, and wondered if it would be socially appropriate to procure one from this court to knock some silence into that tittering songbird.
Nejire smiled at Ochaco; when she smiled, dimples graced her cheeks, and her eyes lit up. Ochaco had put on a shawl, but Nejire seemed unperturbed by the slight chill, even in a sleeveless gossamer gown. "This is Nature at Her finest."
Ochaco walked over to the fountain and dipped her fingers in the water, which was kept tepid. "She's beautiful."
"She is! Tell me, Uravity, what else do you picture when you think of Mother Nature?"
"It's nowhere near as pretty as this." Ochaco could feel heat rising to her cheeks, but in the dark, it was often hard to tell when someone was blushing. "See, I come from the boroughs. Houses are packed with mud to stay insulated in the cold. Wood is being burned constantly. Vents puff out the smoke but keep the heat in. Otherwise, it would be intolerably cold. Even then, Yuuei is rather chilly for us in our cotton shoes and not enough spare cloth for more layers than what we wear to sleep. But that bit of chill is necessary..." She shouldn't have said that last part. Now Nejire expected an explanation, and Ochaco didn't want to give something uglier than what she'd already said to Her Grace.
Nejire filled it in for her. "Because otherwise, the place would stink like hell."
Ochaco looked at her, shocked.
The smile never left Nejire's voice. "Rotten eggs and meat crawling with maggots, stale ale and moldy bread, fruit long gone bad but that will still sell because people need to eat." She took in Ochaco's expression. "Didn't you learn about Court politics? If you want to go into science, knowing a bit of the way the social world works is just as important as understanding the natural world. See, I also came from the boroughs—but at a time before the sun disappeared."
"The sun didn't disappear. The Cardinals stole it." Ochaco knew she was crossing a boundary, but she pressed on. "Can't you track them down, Your Grace?"
"I can," Nejire acknowledged, "but that's an awful accusation. It's like the way you describe Our Mother. I know there's the bad stuff, but at Her core, She is beautiful in everything She touches. And as sorceresses, we have to see the goodness, or we'd be villains; after all, magic is about changing Nature's properties." To demonstrate, she dipped her fingers in the water, just like Ochaco had. But at Nejire's touch, the water turned into diamonds.
Diamonds hung from shiny string like spiderweb threads in the fortress, the past seeping into the present. Ochaco had gotten separated from her friends. Once, she'd cherished spending time alone with the Sage. But now, with Nejire sitting on a spotted cushion, her silver gown spilling at her high-heeled sandals like an overturned stomach, Ochaco felt sick.
Nejire blinked up at her. Sparkles drifted from her lashes. "Hello, Uravity. We're friends, aren't we?"
Ochaco swallowed. "I want us to be friends; I really hope we are. But friends don't lie to each other."
"I don't have to lie to you. I can show you the present, too."
Diamonds became ivory. Ochaco stifled a scream when she realized these were bones—actual, human bones. And Bakugo was lying on the floor next to an animal corpse frozen in a state of horror, its toothless mouth gaping open.
Kirishima sat next to Bakugo without looking at him. His tiger-print scarf was refashioned into a splint for the unconscious boy. Ochaco walked over to them, though they couldn't see her.
Tsu's voice, collected and practical, caught her attention. "He's unconscious but not badly injured, Eri."
Ochaco noticed another boy on the floor, his back facing everyone else. Asui had tied up his wrists with entrails from the skinned animal. Ochaco all but threw up.
Tsu continued, "We'll figure out how to get the sun out of Amajiki's body and back in the sky."
"You can't," said a timid, childlike voice. The speaker was a tiny girl with silver hair almost as long as Nejire's and Tsu's, though the latter tied hers up in loops. "You'll kill him."
"Alternatively," Ida proposed, "we could wait for your horn to grow back and then rewind him to a state before he ate the sun."
"I refuse." Eri looked up at him. "You don't know how cruel the sun is. Even your parents may have forgotten. But Tamaki, Nejire, and Mirio still remember why we can't have the old sun back; we need a kinder, gentler source of heat and light."
Tokoyami paced the room and paused close to Kirishima. His mask seemed less a mask now. "It seems there is an abyss of cold and dark that has grown between us, yawned itself into existence—"
"Just shut up, man."
"I am highly offended."
"Wait." Kirishima stood up and examined Tokoyami's head, which caused the dark-clad boy to squawk indignantly. "He turned you into a freak!"
"I am even more offended."
Shoto took charge in a calm, reassuring tone. "Calm down. We'll figure this out."
The vision ended. Frustration built up in Ochaco at not being with them, not being able to help them. She turned her fear on Nejire. "Who are you really, Nejire Hado?"
Nejire twirled a thick strand of hair around her finger. "You know who I am."
Ochaco remembered Deku's deduction. She hadn't wanted to believe it, but the truth was undeniable. "You're a Cardinal."
"Not just any. I am the Cardinal of Pestilence, bringer of disease. I studied under one of the most renowned doctors of my time—Kai Chisaki. He sent me to the mountains to expand on my knowledge by learning from a dragon—which I would ultimately conquer."
"Did you think the sun was something to be conquered, too?"
"In a way." Nejire removed her headdress. She seemed so much younger; Ochaco knew the Cardinal before her was a wizened woman in the body of an 18-year-old, but all of a sudden, she seemed even younger than that. "But my friends had the best of intentions." Her eyes were pools of silver. "Convince the prince to spare them, Ochaco Uraraka, and I will accept whatever punishment he sees fit."
