In the time following the defeat of Grima and the return of peace to Ylisse, couples who'd gotten together during the war settled down and began new lives together. History would document the majority of these relationships—singing accolades of the accomplishments that the partnerships would go on to achieve together—but many relationships were swept under the rug, the books documenting their halves as living solo rather than in the other's loving arms and caring homes. Curiously, it only seemed to apply to those who found love in someone of their same gender, and as there were several partnerships of the sort among the Shepherds of the war, it almost seemed like a good number of them decided that war was enough camaraderie for them and that they didn't need romance.
History may have chosen to remember Miriel as a solo scientist who managed to change the world in her final written discovery, but those who knew her until the end knew that she'd never been at it alone. Of course, there was a lot of loaded language in that statement, but the sentiment rang true regardless.
Miriel pressed the palm of her hand against her eye, rubbing it as hard as she could to try and break her exhaustion for just a little longer. She was knee-deep in research, a library's worth of tomes and texts surrounding her in the little lab she'd created in her post-war home. Her whole body ached from how much she desperately needed to rest, if even for just a moment, but she knew that she was on the precipice of greatness and slumber would only prolong the wait before her grand discovery. When she dropped her hand back to the book she'd been leafing through, a loose strand of hair fell forward, showing more silvery than the deep red color she'd had when she was younger.
Judging by the lack of light coming in through the window, it was a cloudy evening, as the cycle of the moon and where it would be at any given time in the sky had been an early aspect of the research that Miriel had done. She'd figured, with little evidence to the contrary, that what she was attempting to create would only be successful on a half-moon night, when it was low on the horizon, and the full moon was beginning to wane as of the previous night, so she was limited on her nights before she'd have to wait for her next chance to find success. "This would be easier if there had been sufficient resources dedicated to the science of transportation," she grumbled, closing the book she'd been looking through and casting it aside, revealing another open tome underneath it. "All the studies in the world about flight, but none about—oh!"
Her exclamation came as she saw a flame appear out of the corner of her eye, a mechanism she'd crafted spontaneously finding a way to combust. Ignoring her newest book, she went over to investigate the fire, finding that it doused itself mere seconds after her arrival. The crestfallen expression upon her face let her feelings on the matter be on full display; without it sustaining itself long enough for her to study it, there was nothing that it provided her in terms of new information. The only thing the flame was good for was a notation in her research that she had been able to produce it.
"Still working, huh?" a voice asked her from the doorway of the lab, and Miriel croaked out a laugh that clearly had been unused for a long time, the familiar voice a pleasure to get to hear. "Cut your losses and call it a night, you're going to work 'til damn near sunrise at this rate, and for what?"
"For discovery."
Now it was the other person's chance to laugh, this one loud and yet comforting to Miriel's tired ears. "You say that every single time, and like hell you're going to discover anything while you're battling exhaustion. When's the last time you slept, Miriel? Be honest, I can't wait to hear it."
Blinking a few times as she wracked her brain for the answer, having to push past calculations and things inherently relevant to her research, Miriel ultimately ended up sighing in defeat. "Days ago, I fear. But research and discovery care nothing of a person's need for sleep, nor do they care about making one nocturnal as opposed to diurnal. I will not rest until I have solved this riddle."
"I can see the headlines now on the daily paper, 'renown scientist and former Shepherd dead of exhaustion', is that how you want to be remembered? After everything you've done for Ylisse? You want to be known for forgetting to sleep and dying for it?" The words were taking on a heated, almost pushy tone, and even though she knew it to be in her best interest to listen to their logic, Miriel wanted nothing to do with it.
In fact, she made that quite clear with how she responded, turning her back on her visitor and resuming her investigation of the spot the flame had formerly appeared. "My previous accomplishments have already gone under-represented, at least an early death would allow them to correct the mistakes they previously made with my life," she said, slowly as she brushed her fingers across where the flame had erupted and disappeared so quickly. "If nothing else, it would give them a reason to no longer ignore your presence in my life."
"Right, because you dying while searching for something that doesn't exist is going to—"
"Change their perspective on the lives of women who just happen to find an amorous connection with other women? Doubtful. Think of the bigger picture here for a moment, think of what my death in the pursuit of something that had directly saved the war efforts would do when they find me here because of you." Miriel, still with her finger on the spot the flame had appeared, turned around to look at the woman in the doorway, who didn't look a day older than she had when they'd defeated Grima in the first place. "Just…think of what power you could have in shaping the narrative created in my wake."
"I'd rather not think about that," Sully declared sharply, averting her eyes as she made it clear that was not something she wanted to devote energy to. "Just go to bed before I force you there my damn self, got it?"
Miriel didn't reply, knowing that she wasn't going to heed that warning and would be wrestled into bed eventually, but her attention was quickly diverted back to her work station when she felt her hand warming up, and she whipped her head around to see the flame had reignited. It wasn't true fire, never had been intended to be, but the fact that it was burning once more while she was touching it caught her completely by surprise. She pulled her hand back and scrambled to reach for a sealed envelope next to her, throwing it into the flame and watching as it disintegrated—not into ashes, but into nothing at all.
"It disappeared?" she asked, her jaw hanging a little as she rolled her tongue around her mouth, looking for further words to say. For someone who always had a comment to make about what was going on, the fact that Miriel was stunned speechless by what she had just witnessed was a sight to behold. Of course, the envelope disappearing had been her hopeful plan for what would happen with it, but she hadn't expected it to be so sudden.
There were many takeaways from what had just happened, but she knew that if she spent too much time recounting them in her documentation, she would only earn further ire from Sully because she wasn't following her to bed. But forgetting to mark down even the slightest of details could prove detrimental to the finishing of the research, so Miriel knew she had to proceed with the greatest of caution. What she ended up writing down were broad strokes of what had happened, the flame and the envelope, how it disintegrated the paper but not her hand, how it appeared and disappeared at random, and she left the rest to be filled in after a good night's rest.
Miriel fell asleep in the strong arms of the woman she so dearly loved, thinking of how the greatness of scientific achievement was right around the corner for her and how all she needed to do was wake up and proceed with her research. She slept for much, much longer than usual, her exhausted body not letting her leave the bed until it felt sufficiently rested, and even though she was raring to get back into her lab, the person who cared more for her than she did herself made sure that she was properly taken care of before she dared step back into her work. That meant bathing and eating and focusing her mind on something that wasn't science for just a moment, things that Miriel reviled and revolted against but that Sully insisted she do, just for her.
By the time Miriel was able to get back into her lab, it was already nightfall and the thrill of the overnight discovery had began to wane as she'd forgotten some of the aspects of it that had made it so important. Her notes jogged her memory, if only slightly, but as long as that flame wasn't burning it didn't seem like there was much that could be done regarding it. The whereabouts of the letter in the world were unknown; that was the key piece of the puzzle that Miriel needed to locate before she could make any determinations on if her project was working or not.
"You mean you sent a letter out into the world without any idea of where it might end up?" Sully asked her the next time she came into the lab to check on Miriel, leaning against the doorframe as it was the only safe place for her to loiter. "Seems like something only an idiot would do, but I'm sure you've got your brilliant reason for it."
"I cannot say it was sent anywhere in our world, to be exact." Miriel's reply came with her reading something from a scribbled-on paper, the penmanship not matching her own. "If I have achieved the travel I am searching for, it could have found its destination anywhere throughout existence. Perhaps someone in a different universe woke up to my musings and greetings resting on their bedside table. Or maybe the fighters of the future, before they ascended upon our world, received it as a bit of guidance. After all, who am I to them but a name in history for being a failed scientist?"
Nodding slowly, as she was trying to make sense of what she was being told, Sully admitted defeat as she replied, "Yeah, don't really get what the hell the point of all this is. Why are you so focused on trying to send letters across time and space or whatever it is you're talking about? Doesn't seem like a good use of those brains of yours."
"Ah, because I want it to be known that science can achieve the same type of time travel-related teleportation that divine intervention can create." Everyone knew that the war against the Fell Dragon, Grima had been won solely because of fighters from the future coming to the past to help the efforts. That was front and center in the retellings and notations of the event, highlighting how things wouldn't have been possible without the "army that fell from the sky" assisting the Shepherds and their allies. "Imagine being known for creating the process to travel in time as one pleases, in addition to being a notable part of the war efforts. The glory and notability will let my name live on after I have passed, and if all goes according to my plans, it will let your name live as well."
"My name?" Sully repeated, pointing to herself, before letting out a laugh. "You must be in need of some sleep again. I've done nothing to help you with any of this, I'm not going to be remembered for a damn thing beyond what I did in the war."
Miriel's eyes shined with energy for a moment, before her attention to the conversation was drawn away by the eruption of a much larger flame in her lab, no longer confined to its small device from before. The new flame burned in different colors, shimmering and sparking as it lapped the edges of the metal encasing it had grown in; by no means was this anything close to an ordinary fire, and it was the unique characteristics to it that were so enthralling to its creator. "No, you find yourself quite mistaken, whether you realize it or not," Miriel chided, bustling over to the flame's enclosure and pulling away its case, leaving it open to the air in the room. "This fire…once I harness its full power, then whatever comes of it will be directly tied to me, and by extension, you."
"Sorry, you're going to have to dumb that down for me because I don't really see how I'm going to be getting credit for your creation." As Sully stood there watching, Miriel set the case aside and grabbed a closed envelope, much like the one she'd used in the first flame, and tossed it right into the glistening fire. It seemed to disappear at once, the fire changing to a deep blue color for a moment before regaining its multicolored appearance, only to fade away moments later.
"Why, who will be the one to share my creation to the world in my stead? You, of course." Facing her mortality—or, more specifically, the very real possibility that she would be whisked away into times unknown by her own invention—had become commonplace for Miriel as she had gotten deeper into the research of time travel. But when she looked at her other half, expecting to see equal acceptance, she found a sour expression instead.
"I don't know why you think I'll be sitting here telling people what you'd done, but if you fall into your portal fire, I'm jumping in after you. Whether it kills us immediately or we end up proving your point, I don't care, but the point is…I'm going with you." Coming down into the lab itself, rather than hanging in the doorway, Sully walked over to the silent pedestal the fire once burned on. "At this point, losing you'd be too much of a death blow to me, I can't let myself experience that sort of thing."
Looking at Sully with admiration in her eyes, knowing that admitting to such weakness was a point of contention that they'd both have fought against in past years, Miriel's thin lips formed a small smile. "I greatly appreciate you wanting to achieve greatness and honor with me, but without you here to document my successes, there will be no documentation at all, and this research will be for naught."
"Damn the research, then! I'm not letting you jump into some unknown without me right there with you, and that's final!"
"There is still a long way before we will cross that bridge, so…" Trailing off as she saw the determination in Sully's face, knowing that she meant business and she wasn't going to take anything but agreement as an answer, Miriel weighed all of her options before saying, "I suppose that when the time comes, I will do the documentation before entering the flame. That way, if we never return to this very point in time, our friends, allies, and former companions will all know what I had created before I left."
Even with the weight of the reality hanging in the air between them, it didn't seem to deter Sully from remaining steadfast in following Miriel wherever she went in her research, and even as the studying and discovery continued, nothing was going to change her mind on the matter. After years of working on the temporal flame, turning time travel into something an average person could accomplish without divine intervention, the moment of truth was upon them and even when staring down the flame that would change their lives, Sully reasserted her stance on going in right with Miriel, going so far as to grab her hand and hold it tightly in her own.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be than with you," she reminded Miriel, them both standing a couple steps back from the burning flame, the fire higher and larger than it had ever been before. "I thought I'd made that clear on the battlefield and in all these years spent with you, but now's a good time to make it even clearer."
"If this succeeds and we manage to successfully cross time, our names will go down in multiple histories, but if it fails we will only be remembered in our current time." Miriel was stating a fact, her one last attempt to shake Sully off of her determined stance on the matter. "I, a known enjoyer of hiding my emotions, would be distraught to find that you did not gain the glory you deserved because of following me."
"Glory schmory, I'd rather spend eternity protecting you than being some name in a history book no one's ever going to read." Squeezing Miriel's hand tightly, Sully motioned toward the flame with her head. "Go, I'll follow."
Taking in a breath as she mentally went over the whole process, the enveloping in the flame and the idea of being ripped apart as they crossed time, Miriel stepped forward, one pace closer to the flame itself. One pace closer to everlasting glory for being the first person to travel through time on her own merits. One pace closer to the history books remembering her for something greater than being in a war.
The only thing stopping her was her hand being held, a variable in the whole situation she hadn't prepared for ahead of time. She had no idea what was going to happen if they both entered together, and for someone who had usually calculated every possibility beforehand it was terrifying to not know something. That was why, when she went forward into the flame, she made it a point to yank her hand out of Sully's grasp, not out of a desire to get away from her but rather one to keep them both having the greatest chance of survival on the other side of the flame.
History may have chosen to remember Miriel as a solo scientist who managed to change the world in her final written discovery, but those who knew her until the end knew that she'd never been at it alone. She'd had a strong woman who was devastated to watch her disappear into nothingness when she'd fallen into the flame, who jumped right in after her to chase her down to the end of existence if needed.
And when they tumbled out into a future world that looked unlike the Ylisse they'd known and loved, but felt so oddly like home, they knew that together, they could forge a new history there, this time rightfully labeled as together.
A/N: written for the fateswakening secret santa on twitter!