Freeing Velvet
Mirror and Image
Thank you, Sorey. You have done more than any was expected to do, and you exceeded all expectations. I wonder, perhaps, with your accomplishments, you might have the skills to grant one selfish request: Sorey, it's past time Velvet was freed.
Cliffside. Endless blue of an ocean, colored almost black with a brilliant lightshow of color in the sky. He looked out over the vista, listening for the crashing of waves, watching the sun rise - set? - wondering how he got there. He turned slightly, shifting his focus past the ocean and to the cliffside. It was a massive sea of flowers, scent lost in the breeze. Color was as bright and vibrant as the sky behind him. At the edge of the flowers there was a stone archway, thin and delicate - and that struck him as odd. How was the keystone in place to hold the arch up if the voussoirs were so thin? The springing line was wider than traditional and the springers themselves were off-center to the imposts, where would the springpoint be then, mathematically? And there wasn't much sign of moss or overgrowth - didn't that mean this was a new structure? But the design was reminiscent of… reminiscent of…
He frowned. Something was there, in the back of his head, but he couldn't reach it.
He moved closer to the archway, wondering at the pull. The stonework wasn't gray or brown, it was some kind of speckled white stone he didn't immediately know - but he felt like he did. Bleached white, usually curved because of a constant wind, green grass, rich blue skies, a circular gate to the village held together by seraphic arts, ruins in the forr-
"Ruins!" he said, slapping a fist to his palm. "I'm supposed to explore the ruins!"
But.. with who, again? Blue, soft, partner, so many emotions…
He grabbed at his head, the spike of energy skittering through his brain like a bolt of lightning. Water, light, elements, skies and emotions, the great lion, swinging a sword, the power of names, responsibility - yes, he had a responsibility. He had to… he had…
Sorey, it's past time Velvet was freed.
The weight of the voice, so old but so familiar, crashed through his body. Sorey…? Who was… he was… what…?
His legs buckled under the weight, and a hand reached up to grab the whitestone archway. The sun was higher in the sky now, his ears were roaring, and there was cobblestone under the grass - so the arch was did have some age, but he had to be somewhere he had to do something he was supposed to explore ruins but he had to free Velvet but who was Velvet and where was Mik-
He woke up on the ground, the sun was halfway through its journey. His head was utterly splitting, but he had a name now. Well, he had several.
Sorey. That was him.
Velvet. He had to free her.
Mikleo. That name was a lot more nebulous but held a mountain of weight. And it wasn't even the right name…? The true name…?
But at least he had a goal. And… maybe someone to help him.
He stood and started walking before he paused, turning back to the archway, the field of flowers, the endless expanse of the ocean beyond. "... Thank you," he said. To whom, he didn't know.
No, Sorey. Thank you.
He bowed to the person who had been with him for so long, bowed to their time together. "I'll do my best," he said.
Learn yourself first, Sorey. The rest will come with time.
He, Sorey, took that to heart.
Learning was an adventure.
Sorey learned that really fast, and he learned that he loved learning as a result. He learned he liked the color blue, his eyes were green - he caught that in a spring as he was cleaning up and running water through the white tips of his hair. Sorey learned he didn't get tired - and he sensed that was new. He learned he didn't need to eat - that was new, too - but he enjoyed it. Roast prickleboar over a fire - he needed salt, and he marveled to remember the word and the small mountain of data about cooking that came from that realization - brought up sensations of laughing and merriment and the idea of being with others.
He learned water needed to be boiled first before drinking it, eugh, that adventure hadn't been fun. He learned digestion could be upset if he ate too much, he learned that traveling at night meant a lot of tripping in the dark.
On top of learning there was remembering.
He remembered moss grew on the north side of trees to help him keep direction - even if he had no idea where he was going - he remembered preclassical architecture and bells ringing in a massive belltower, he remembered seraphim could be classified by the tips of their hair - and he looked at his white tips and wondered if that meant he was a seraph. He remembered walking, a lot of walking, and the weight of vambraces and the sensation of feathers tickling his ears. Sorey kept reaching up to play with something that wasn't there. He was tempted to take the feather on his glove and reattach it, but the glove had weight the same way the name Mikleo had weight, and he wasn't… quite… there yet. He focused on remembering other things: there were differences between seraphic, hidden, and mystic artes - whatever any of those were, and he remembered that seraph could instill domains, and Gramps…
Gramps…
Elysia…
Mikleo…
Those memories tended to come in cascades, thunderclapping through his head and leaving him prone one the ground with the worst headaches, a jumble of images and feelings too thick and complicated to detangle. But as the pain subsided he could remember more pieces: running through ruins in a forest and playing at finding treasure - stern talks about venturing too far, ice cream with reading.
Oh! He loved ice cream! Vanilla ice cream. Mikleo made it when he lost track of time…
He smiled at the thought, happy with the new discovery point in his memory.
Mikleo frowned, clapping the dirt off of his gloves as he finally observed the entrance he had unearthed. Overgrowth had hidden it very, very well. Only a wind seraph could have sensed the air currents suggesting there was something beneath the vines and roots. Mikleo, as a water seraph, had been forced to follow the currents of an underground river, far, far below his feet and just at the edge of his perception. The texts had said that the shrine was built on an underground river, and even thousands of years later the natural geology of the area prevented that from changing that much.
He had been tempted to move the overbrush with his seraphic arts, but had decided against it. Sometimes the pull of his muscles and the strain of his back made him feel closer to Sorey, and he knew exactly what would be said if he had done any different.
The greenery removed, he could see the old, compromised entrance to the shrine. Post classical - meaning it was older than originally thought, and he spent some time sketching the entrance and taking an etching of some kind of relief, half destroyed in the keystone. The descending staircase was barely that, dirt, pebbles, and old carrion bones making descent difficult until he was finally too deep for even animals to want to live. Mikleo kept an ear out for bats, smiling softly as he remembered one of Rose's memorable reactions to them.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he found pinpricks of light from above - old skylights, probably half covered - common not in post classical but pre calamity. Interesting. He noted it quickly before moving on. Research had said this shrine had been active to the old gods for centuries, right up until the rise of the First Shepherd, and he wondered if such a figure had stepped through these halls as he did. The First Shepherd had brought the gift of armatization, and Mikleo wanted to learn more, but many records were lost.
The halls were narrow and decayed, Mikleo felt several loose stones, and he could sense that there were lower levels - if the floor collapsed it could be dangerous, and he stepped softly as he could. He saw old lines and divots for traps, and he cast some small magic to see if the triggers were still active - but nature had encroached on this shrine, and eaten many of the dangers. Time was the last concern, and how little strength the shrine had left.
He found no grand caverns, no amphitheaters or colosseums, not even a treasure room. Every space was empty, picked clean apparently, from looters or explorers of bygone eras.
"I wonder if that means this place is another dud," he murmured, disappointed but still excited to be in a space of history.
Then all at once it opened up to a grand, circular expanse, blue light from a skylight casting the reflections on luminous crystals and the wide, circular pool that the underground river exited to. He could feel an unearthly weight of magic, and it resonated across his senses, making his nose tickle and his hair stand on end. Water artes, a lot of them. More than even at the trials he and Sorey and the others had taken for the Shepherd. At the center was some kind of altar, again PreCalamity. A blue gemstone, one Mikleo couldn't immediately identify, was locked in the relief, and he moved towards it, feet echoing off of the chamber.
Oh, how he wished Sorey was here. All of his ideas, his attention to detail, the enthusiasm - they would enter into a recursive feedback loop of theories and discoveries and oh, it was such a good feeling when the two of them were on a roll. They could talk for hours sharing ideas and learning through discovery and laughing at how crazy their tangents could get. He missed the warmth, the soft feeling of total understanding and comfort. As close as the others were it wasn't the same - Lailah was nurturing and understanding, but always serene to the point of polite distance. Zaveid had enthusiasm for days, but nowhere near the intelligence to keep up. Edna in some respects was the total opposite of Sorey, dour and flat and much too concerned with hiding her feelings behind her umbrella. Sorey was the only one who got him, who was so in sync they could get lost in each other for hours, until his human body threatened to give out and Mikleo had to pull back, make sure he was fed and going to sleep.
Oh, how he missed him. His warm smiles and bright enthusiasm, his gentle tone and quiet strength. He missed the sparring, the training, the stolen adventures growing up; he missed the competition and the fights and the childish secrets. He missed the adventure, the ruins they explored together, the feeling of armatization, when they were so close as to be one. He missed the warm hand on his shoulder, the concerned looks, the cherished moments when he could pull Sorey out from under his weight of responsibility.
Hm.
If he was getting melancholic it was time to pay Sorey a visit, recharge his hope for the Great Shepherd who ended the Age of Chaos to awaken.
Okay, Mikleo promised himself, after this ruin he'd organize his notes and go back to the cliffside, share his discoveries with the waves and hope they'd be sent to Sorey. It would take a year or two to go over everything in appropriate detail, but he had the time.
He reached out and touched the gemstone in the middle of the altar, casting his seraphic senses out, tuning in with all the water artes. The weight was there again, older than so many things, deep asleep and wishing not to be disturbed.
Then the floor beneath him cracked, the ancient decay of the space finally manifesting or maybe it was a trap but oh how long was the dro-
He was grabbed.
The sensation of falling was over before the feeling truly registered, surprise barely having time to bloom on his face before there was an iron grip on his wrist and the jolting motion of stopping, his feet sweeping out over empty space. Heart skipping, he took a second to process the falling-not-falling before looking up, confused. The skylight cast a silhouette above him, but the hand gripping him had a feathered glove what.
He knew that glove, those beaded feathers, and his heart thrilled, a flood of sacred things opening up in his heart. All he could really do was smile.
Because of course.
Of course Sorey would find him falling to his doom in a ruin.
He reached up and clasped that hand, a hundred emotions bursting from his chest.
Sorey…!
As the weeks passed and he learned more and more about himself, Sorey realized there was a piece of him that was… trailing off. He didn't quite understand it at first, except that maybe he used to have more than just the one…? If felt strongest in the rain, or when he was crossing a river or being ferried across this one beautiful lake that was supposed to have a lady in it. He didn't see any lady, but the city by the lake was amazing, people were everywhere and there were so many humans and seraphim. Well, there were so many humans and seraphim, and Sorey wasn't quite ready to have that many people around him. Phi had said to learn himself first, and he was content to follow that trail and discover what it said about him. Instead he listened to the sounds of the city from afar, sitting on a bridge that had meaning from… something… and feeling so much magic around him. The humans moved across the bridge with their drive for economic gains, the serpahs crossed on whatever business drew them. One or two caught his eye and waved, and he waved back, but shook his head at conversation, happy for now to just people-watch.
This city with a lady in a lake - Ladylake - that spiked another headache, but the headaches brought memories, and if he maaaaaaaaybe fell off the bridge as he lost his balance, well, water would never be a source of fear for him, and he crested the surface of the water after his splash with a great laugh at his own clumsiness. Ladylake! His journey had taken him here first! He'd been so sensitive to the malevolence, he was worried about Mikleo's sensitivity and if he would get sick. There had been a ceremony… right? And a fire…? And a fight - he remembered that, and Lailah had been really sensitive…
Lailah…?
The second headache brought more memories for him to sort through: fire, warmth, care, terrible puns, fortunes, and a heavy weight that he had had to figure out for himself. "I hope you're happy now," he said, shaking the last bits of moisture from his white tipped hair. She had been a seraph, part of his journey - he'd have to look her up after he found Mikleo. Well, after tracing this pull from himself, then found Mikleo, then he would find Lailah and see if she was okay. There were other names he had remembered by this point: Rose, Dezel. Edna. Zaveid. They all had so many emotions attached to them, and there were so many jumbled memories.
He knew enough by now, though. Sort of. Maybe. His name was Sorey, he grew up with Mikleo in Elysia - still no idea if they were friends or brothers or something else, yet, but the memories were warm and full and good. He went to Ladylake, apparently - he wanted to return something…ish? He met Lailah there, and they all traveled together, and he had this white cloak to denote his position as… there was a lot of responsibility and he had to make his decisions carefully because people… there was a battle. He remembered that - all his friends helped him pull someone out of a fight, and there was a lot of fear and malevolence, and then… a domain… Heldaff…
Those memories weren't good. They left him in tears when he first discovered them, and he had the disjointed image of a sword pushing into a lion's chest, understanding that the only way to end the pain was to stop the unstoppable. Phi touched him, in that moment, told him to wait before unpacking that. Learn yourself, Sorey, he said. You have been asleep a while, and a while it will take to shake the sleep off. That was when he noticed the open part of himself that drifted somewhere. That was when he decided to follow it.
He had almost missed the entrance to the ruin, but he had followed it, feeling not just his open pull but a whole weight of magic down below. The design of the space was Pre Calamity, the symmetry screamed it, and there were etchings not of Phi but of the old gods, and that made Sorey excited. What would he learn here? What was even down here that was calling him? He moved deeper into the shrine, finding crystal formations seeming to burst out of the structure. Hm, that implied that there was a lot of water here, and the crystals were absorbing the mineral deposits of the shrine itself. Were they old enough to imply a loss of structural integrity? Sorey tried to dig through his ever increasing memory base but he couldn't find an answer to a question that specific. He frowned, stepping more gingerly now.
He saw the wide expanse that was obviously the central point of worship in the shrine. Light poured down from above and at the center, at the altar, was someone with pale hair for miles, blue tips - a water seraph? In a water shrine? Oooooh, could he be a fellow ruin geek, or maybe the person of worship for this shrine?
Then the floor gave out, the part of him that drifted off jolted, and he moved. Mikleo!
He caught a hand in the nick of time, chest crashing into the weak edges of the hole, and all he could do was smile at his small success.
Purple, nearly violet eyes lifted up to meet him and oh, so many things started to thunder through his body, and all at once he knew what to say.
"Now who fell for the trap?" he asked as Mikleo reached up to grab his hand.
"It wasn't a trap!" Mikeo said. "The underground river has been eating away at this space for at least two thousand years - it's a miracle it didn't collapse sooner."
"Okay, okay," Sorey said with a smile. "Let's get you up-"
And then the floor supporting him collapsed.
"Aaaaaahh!"
Of course the ruin would collapse under them both. Mikleo didn't bother wasting energy to be surprised, instead angling his fall to get a better grip on Sorey and reaching for his seraphic arts. The water and ancient magic in the shrine responded with vigor, and the underground river seeped from wherever it was and he could grab enough water to envelope them in a bubble. It popped upon impact, but it absorbed over half the energy of the fall, making the pair tumble into a pile of limbs.
"Ow," Sorey said. "I forgot falling hurts sometimes." He laughed after that. "Another thing I learned," he muttered, finally managing to detangle himself and sit up.
Mikleo followed soon after, pushing his bangs out of his face. He could see Sorey better now - green eyes, earthy brown hair - white tips.
"Oh," Mikleo said. "You're a seraph now. You ascended - just like me!"
"I did?" Sorey asked, reaching up and scratching at his head. "Wait - that means I was human before, right? Can humans ascend to seraph? No, wait, I do know that… don't I?"
Mikleo watched as the hand scratching his head moved to hold his temple, a grimace crossing his features. Mikleo immediately pulled up his artes, casting healing energy, but Sorey didn't seem affected by it. It was several minutes before his oldest friend straightened, inhaling deeply through his nose. "Sorry!" he said brightly. "Morning headache."
"... morning headache?" Mikleo asked, skeptical.
"Yeah, that's what Phi says. He said I was asleep for a really long time, and that waking up would take a while. It's been fun though, I've learned a lot about myself in the last… last… okay, how long have I been awake? The days and nights kind of blur together. I know I used to be super good at tracking time but now it's like days go by and I don't even notice. Why is that?"
Phi? Who was Phi? Mikleo put the question aside, curiosity burning in him as much as it seemed to be hovering around Sorey.
"Seraph have a different sense of time," he said by way of explanation. "We don't need to eat and sleep, so the passing of time isn't as essential to us."
"Oh, that makes sense," Sorey said, rubbing his chin. "I love eating, but it doesn't feel as important now as before. That's because I'm a seraph, now, right?"
"Yes."
"And you're a seraph."
"... yes," Mikleo said, confused.
"But I was human when we first knew each other?"
"Yes."
"Huh," Sorey said, crossing his arms, thoughtful expression on his features as if both of them weren't at the bottom of some cavern under a Pre Calamity shrine to an old god. The echo of childhood brought a warm smile to Mikleo's face as he watched Sorey work through something.
"Idiot," he said, shaking his head.
"Huh? No, I'm not an idiot," Sorey said, indignant. "Who fell through the floor again?"
"Oh, no - you are not pinning that one on me. The age of this shrine takes us back to-"
"Pre Calamity, I already knew that but how does a water seraph not notice the crystallization of-"
"What crystallization, huh? I only found them in the main shrine and all that water magic was holding it in place! How was I supposed to know-"
"You're a water seraph!"
"That doesn't make me a monolith!"
"You thought it did when we were kids!"
"No I didn't!"
And Sorey burst out laughing, a great healthy series of guffaws and tipped him so far back and nearly fell over, and his positivity burned through Mikleo's surly argument and soon he was laughing too. Some things never change! Oh, it felt so good to have Sorey back, and as the laughter subsided he found he had to wipe a tear from his eye. He hid it away, for now, sensitive to Sorey's… he put his head in his hand, bracing the elbow on his knee. "How much do you remember?" he asked, whimsical but careful, too.
Sorey sensed the sensitivity, but he leaned back and smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know how to answer that," he said. "I guess… I mean I know more now than when I first woke up. And it's all… there… still? Like there's stuff that I know I know and stuff I figure out that I know and then there's stuff that kind of just crashes through me and gives me a morning headache. I'm Sorey, I grew up with you, we went to Ladylake to start an adventure, there was a Lailah - we need to see if she's okay, if she feels less…" His eyes drifted off, a frown on his features before he shook it off. "And there's a Rose and a Dezel and an Edna and a Zaveid. There was someone else, too… we met at Ladylake along with Lailah… No, we met her at the ruins… Alisha…?"
Sorey sucked in a breath, both hands grabbing at his temples and Mikleo instinctively moved forward, shifting on his knees to put his hands on Sorey's shoulders. The entire body was tense, muscles taught to the point of shaking as Mikleo surmised a new wave of memories rolled through Sorey. He expected a grunt, maybe, or a noise of pain, but Sorey, like always, kept his pain to himself, making no noise and frustrating Mikleo to no end.
Eventually there was a deep exhale, and Sorey straightened again. "I liked that," he said, weak smile on his pained features. "Not the morning headache," he added quickly, waving a hand. "But those were good memories, I think, and I meant I liked having someone with me during the headache. You made it better. You always make it better. So, thanks."
Heat rose up in Mikleo's cheeks even after all these centuries and he huffed, pulling back and crossing his arms. "A-anyone would do that," he said quickly.
"I mean, I guess, but anyone wouldn't be you."
The honest sentiment warmed Mikleo all the way through, and he couldn't hold his indignation, exhaling a chuckle and shaking his head. "Come on," he said, standing. "Let's get out of here." He offered his hand.
Sorey smiled. And he took it.
There was nothing but conversation leading out of the ruins: etchings, column design, debate over floor plan layout since they had taken two different routes to arrive at the central shrine - the intention of the altar, all the artes that Sorey could feel but Mikleo could identify. By the time they had made it out they had both (Mikleo mostly, his brain was fully intact) concluded that this was dedicated to one of the original gods before Maotelus' ascension.
"And who's Maotelus?" Sorey asked as they moved to the entrance. It was bright outside by comparison, but the sun was actually almost at its evening height.
Mikleo tripped stepping out of the shrine, arms cartwheeling. "Who's…?" he demanded, turning around, but understanding dawned on his face, followed by something much sadder, and Sorey felt compelled to apologize.
"Sorry," he said, looking down. "Is that something I should know?"
"No… it's fine… Just…" Mikleo covered his mouth with a hand, looking to the side as he made a decision. "Maotelus… we… you… Uh, I'm not sure if saying something would hurt you. But… he was the reason you were gone for so long."
Sorey frowned, piecing what he could remember together.
He's talking about me.
"Oh. Oh!" he said, straightening. "Are you talking about Phi?"
Mikleo blinked, violet eyes wide. "... who?"
"Phi!" Sorey said, nodding his head. "We were sleeping together, for a long time. He told me a lot of stories, and I think I told him a lot of stories, too."
The look on Mikleo's face was amazing, pretty in a way that Sorey appreciated, even as it slowly morphed from confusion to slow dawning realization and then utter indignation.
"Wait. Wait," he said, holding up a gloved hand. "Does Maotelus have a secondary name? That no one knows about?"
Sorey shrugged his shoulders. "Maotelus is his true name, but he always liked Phi better, because that was the name Velvet gave him. When I woke up he asked me if I could free Velvet, but he told me to get to know myself first, because I was so groggy."
The noise Mikleo made was slightly strangled, and he was starting to shake a little before he took a deep, heavy breath through his nose. "Only you, Sorey," he said, shaking his head. "Only you."
"Only me what?"
"Only you could drive me this crazy. Come on, I have a camp not far from here, then you're going to tell me everything."
Traveling by himself, there was no food with him, but with Sorey as a seraph there was no real need for food. Mikleo started a fire regardless, the trees darkening the setting sun prematurely, and he wanted to absorb everything Sorey had to tell him; because Sorey was back, and he wasn't going to miss a single beat of it.
"I'm… I'm not sure how much there is to tell," Sorey said once they were settled. "Not in the 'I want to hide it all' kind of way, but in the 'I don't know which part is important' kind of way."
"Start at the beginning," Mikleo said gently. "You implied that you remembered being asleep. What do you remember?"
"Uh," Sorey said, focus blurring as he frowned. "It was… it was really dark at first. I remember that. But over time it got… lighter? Is that the right word? I knew someone was with me, but I didn't really understand it was Phi at first. He had a lot of gratitude, and I didn't understand that, either. I did something; like, I know I did something and it was really big but… but…"
"Don't push it," Mikleo said. "What did Mao-what did Phi say?"
"That he was sorry, first," Sorey answered. "That the more he remembered the more he realized he hurt a lot of people when he was corrupted. He told me that he had never wanted that, and he wondered if that was how Velvet felt. I don't know… it's just as blurry as before I went to sleep. But… Phi had a whole life before he became Maotelus. He had a whole group of friends - some of them were malakhim and some of them were daemons and some of them were humans and-"
"Wait," Mikleo said, straightening. "Malakhim? daemons? Does he mean seraph and hellions?"
Sorey frowned for a long moment, running a finger along the edge of his chin. "... He never said, but… Yeah. I think so. The way he talked about Rokurou and Eizen…"
"Eizen?"
"... Yes?"
So many questions… so many questions… Mikleo held his head. "I'll ask later. Keep going."
"... Okay…" Sorey drew out. "They were all traveling together - they were all messes, Phi said, they all had their own goals and there was no reason any of them should have been able to get along but they did. Velvet wasn't quite the leader but she had the biggest goal - to defeat Shepherd Artorius-" First Shepherd Artorius? "-after everything he did to her. And they wanted to stop him, too, as they realized what he wanted to do to the world. Artorius wanted to summon Innominat-" What? "-and cast a domain over the entire world and… something… it hurt, I remember he said that. Velvet… she sacrificed herself to be with her brother, well, to be with Innominat who was inside her brother… kind of…? They called her the Lord of Calamity-" Holy Empyreans what did he just say?! "-because of everything she did, but it was because of her that the Malakhim went back to being invisible - and therefore free - of the church.
"I talked about our adventures, too. I could still remember them, then. We'd both been through a lot, and we helped each other while we were sleeping - I think that's part of the reason the space got lighter. There were other voices too, sometimes. I could hear people trying to talk to me, and both of us could hear the prayers to Phi, but only he could understand them. He told me how much better they were, compared to before.
"Then I was on a cliffside," Sorey said, leaning back and looking up through the trees to the stars. "The sun was rising, and there were flowers everywhere, and there was this weird archway with these ultra-thin voussoirs and cobblestones. My head was at its most fuzzy then, but Phi told me - after I'd woken up a little bit - he asked if I could look into freeing Velvet."
His green eyes finally flicked to Mikleo, bright in the firelight and earnest as they ever were. "I get the impression that this is a big ask. Do you think maybe you could help me?"
"Sorey…" Mikleo said, mind struggling to keep up with all the information, struggling to realize how real this all was, struggling to know how much Sorey had missed. Emotion was bubbling up, but that simple, honest request - without expectation, without manipulation - it dug deep into Mikleo and soothed his heart. "You never change, Sorey," he said, reaching over and putting a hand on his friend's knee. "Of course I'll help you."
"Heh, good. I was a little worried you wouldn't. You looked like you were going to throw up a little bit."
"Sorey… you've just casually rewritten a few thousand years of ecclesiastical texts while talking to a god. It's kind of a lot to take in." The emotion bubbled up again, heating his face and filling his eyes. "It's a lot to take…"
"Mikleo?" Sorey asked, leaning forward to put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Idiot!" Mikleo managed to say, two hot tears sliding down his face. "You stupid…" Impulse took over, and he threw his arms around Sorey, burying his head into the crook of the neck, shaking as one emotion after the next crashed over him like a tsunami. "You were gone so long…!"
"Oh! Did I worry you? I'm really sorry…"
Mikleo shook his head, but he couldn't figure out words anymore, and he just cried.
Sorey… he started to cry, too. His head was hurting, but not the spike of a thunderstorm of memories, rather several of his memories coalescing to a feeling. Watching Mikleo cry, watching Mikleo cry for him, it burned through his head and then it pulled at his heart. He couldn't explain it, couldn't name it, but he had to cry, too. He was sharing in Mikleo's emotion, and when he realized that he'd missed Mikleo, too. Just as much. That made it all real, just like it had become real for Mikleo - they were together again. After who knew how long apart… they were together again, and it felt so, so, so good.
They slid together like they had never separated: quips, debates over architecture and anthropological origin, action and reaction, harmony that had never meant to be played separately. Sorey remembered the feeling he had when he first remembered the name Mikleo, and that feeling paled in comparison to how he felt now, the water seraph breaking apart in his arms, and visa versa. They were always meant to be together, Mikleo fit in a way no one else did, and it was such a relief to be in each other's arms again. Sorey swayed back and forth, running a hand through all the soft hair, pressing his face into it as Mikleo buried his own face into Sorey's shoulder. They rode out the storm, lightning and rain flooding out of their hearts, beating at the shores of their souls.
Sorey's next clear memory was sunrise.
They were pressed together, still holding each other, but the emotion had exhausted them both and they had fallen asleep. Mikleo was warm to the touch, one arm squished between their chests and the other loosely draped over a hip. Sorey wondered at the intimacy - he felt so relaxed to be like this, but in the back of his mind he wondered if this was a position that was supposed to lead to something else. Those memories weren't anywhere in his head, however, only the intensely powerful emotion he felt: friendship yes, but closer than friendship. He loved Mikleo, more than he loved Lailah or Rose or any of the others, but he understood that love was supposed to come with certain… physical rituals. Those feelings, they were absent, but the intimacy with which they held each other… well, he was confused.
But still, he didn't want to leave the embrace.
Mikleo stirred, later, curling even closer before stretching and opening his eyes. Surprise colored his gaze, remembering it all over again, and he smiled. It was a soft, beautiful thing, as handsome as any other feature on his face, and Sorey was pleased deep in his heart that such a smile had been made for him. Were they supposed to kiss right now? He didn't really feel the urge, but he loved Mikleo so much, he wasn't sure what to do.
Mikleo sighed, head tilting slightly. "We should probably get up," he said softly.
"Uh, yeah."
"I'm too comfortable."
Sorey smiled. "Me, too."
Mikleo nodded, pressing in closer. "I really missed you."
"I know. You said that a lot. And… I missed you, too."
Mikleo's smile spread. "I visited you, you know," he said. "I would go to that cliffside and tell you about the ruins I found. The others visited, too, they said. Lailah said she made a point of taking every Shepherd there. Zaveid said he's stopped by a few times, and Edna… she's never said anything but I know she did because she made the first arch. It was terrible - no understanding whatsoever, and I had to hunt her down and tell her you would hate it."
"Hate it?" Sorey asked. "I'm sure it was lovely…"
"It wasn't, Sorey. Trust me on this. I was the one who suggested the thin voussoirs and using stones from home, I knew it would grab your eye and it gave Edna a challenge. I knew you wouldn't want anything ostentatious, but we all wanted to leave a mark that you…"
His eyes watered, and Sorey leaned in, pressing his chin to the top of Mikleo's head. "It's okay," he whispered. "I'm here now."
"... I know."
"Can… can I ask a question?"
"Yes."
Sorey frowned, stray hand rubbing Mikleo's back. "I'm worried it will be weird."
There was a chuckle against his chest. "Sorey, we are the definition of weird."
A natural pause drew out, nervous energy filling Sorey, making him feel jittery. He finally sat up, crossing his legs and looking down at his hands, the feathered glove - still didn't know the weight of it yet. No, don't be distracted. He twiddled his thumbs, circling them over each other, as he took a deep breath. And another. And another.
"What… can I ask what we are to each other?" he asked, resolutely keeping his eyes down on his hands. Silence was his answer, the nerves made him plow forward, words tumbling out in a rush. "Are we friends, brothers, or something else? I know we grew up together, and if I was a human and you were a seraph then I know we weren't related, but I love you deeply. Well, I don't know if love is the right word though, because it's in my head that love comes with these… these things that we're supposed to do. I'm pretty sure I never did those things before I went to sleep, and even after how much I remember and how much I love you I don't feel those things. But we fell asleep together and that felt really nice, and I just…"
Mikleo's hand - no gloves, they had been taken off - reached his field of vision and thin, delicate fingers closed around his twirling thumbs, making them stop. Sorey looked up to those warm eyes - the smile was back, just as soft, with a hint of something Sorey couldn't immediately name.
"We're partners," Mikleo said. "The others didn't always get it, either, but that's what we are. We're partners - together in all things. The kind of love you're thinking about - the romantic kind - that's not the kind of love that's in you. Your love is deeper, stronger, unshakeable - and it goes to a lot of people and manifests in a lot of ways."
There was a rightness to those words, Sorey knew he loved a lot of people, and he did a lot of things in the name of that love. But there was a wrongness, too - was that the correct word? His love for the others, that was strong and deep inside him, yes, but his love for Mikleo was different - similar, but different. More. "That sounds… but I love you."
"And I love you, Sorey. We've loved each other for a long time. We didn't bother with the physical rituals because neither of us are interested in it - it drove Zaveid absolutely nuts to know that. He kept wanting to put a label on it, to name it, to describe it, but we are what we've always been: partners, in all things."
That, that sounded right, and it settled a nerve in Sorey's brain, and he leaned forward to hug Mikleo. His partner.
Author's Notes: Soooooooo... yeah. We're waaaaaaaay late t the game but the two of us just played our first Tales games: Berseria and Zesteria, back to back. And for the summer we thought we'd write a short, relaxing fic about Sorey after his return and with a simple mission of finding and freeing Velvet. Don't want to put much effort into it, just something light to help the summer burnout teachers have to recover from.
Two hundred and six pages later...
And now that it's done we get to post it in what is probably a dead fandom. Go us!
Anyway, enjoy a lot of QPR SorMik, a few trauma therapy sessions, a lot of waff, and the occasional fight with a hellion. It'll take a while for the living Berseria cast to show up, so set expectations accordingly. If you're new to our work, the fic is done and written and will update every Saturday. ENjoy the ride!