1 February 2019: This went up on AO3 yesterday, and I just didn't have the energy to get it up over here last night. It was far too late. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Many thanks go to dragon of winter nights for her help smoothing the tone of some of these scenes.

Content Note: This chapter is the same as what is posted on AO3, no changes were made.

Content WARNING: As has been hinted before now, there is some crap going down in the Mages Guild. Long story short, an instructor was found to be taking advantage of his students. Nothing will happen "On Screen", but there will be mentions of this off and on throughout the rest of this fic. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on AO3, PM me here, or email me. (My email is in my profile.)

Chapter 20
In which Clef submits his resignation

"Fine! I quit!" Clef 's coronet skittered across the floor as he ripped open the clasps just under the front of his breastplate and dropped his mantle of office from his shoulders. A loud murmur ran through the Council hall as he stomped away from his usual seat with the heads of the other guilds, across the room, avoiding Presea's worried grab for his arm.

Verna took a very long deep breath before saying. "This Council cannot accept your resignation, Guru Clef. You are the Master Mage, voted in by the Guild of Mages; you must resign through your Guild."

"I'll write my resignation over here, then." Clef stalked over to the front bench of the warden seats, sat down in the empty space beside Ouran, and summoned a blank sheet of paper and a pen.

Miura stood, thumping her hand down to call the room's attention. "I say we put the repeal on the agenda, or we'll never get anywhere. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have other work I need to be doing today rather than listening to the whole lot of you bickering over antiquated laws that should have been repealed years ago."

There was a shuffle of papers beside Clef as Ouran got to his feet. "I agree with our Honourable Naru Miura. We should have had this repeal bill on the agenda for introduction at least two sessions ago. As we have a completed draft of it, I move that we should hear the bill and be done with the introduction this very day."

"If it means I don't have to listen to anything else about this for the next fortnight, I second Warden Ouran's proposal. Let's hear it today." Isetta, the Gerefa of Eleru, declared.

"We can't just hear a bill so the Guru will shut up about it for two weeks!" Gorham shouted.

"Well, it's not like it makes any difference to you!" Elgrand, Warden of Rolls, stood up with a flurry of bright robes to rival Ouran's and waved a hand. "I agree with Gerefa Isetta. I would much rather get the Introduction over and done with rather than listening to the arguing about it every session until we do. We all know these laws should not have endured the ending of the Pillar system-"

"We don't know that! We haven't heard anything to decide if that is true yet." Gorham snapped

Ouran raised his arm. "All the better we should hear the draft and argue with real meaning, then, is it not? If the rest of my esteemed colleagues are in agreement with you that we do not know enough at this moment to throw out the case?"

"That is not what I meant-"

The arguing continued over Clef's head while he tried to think of something more than 'I quit' to write until a gentle hand on his shoulder drew his attention away from the letter, and Ouran leaned in to ask for Clef's drafted bill. Handing it over, he watched silently as Ouran read it out for the Introduction. It was always strange to hear his words coming from someone else.

The bill was heard and then passed on to the Clerks, and the meeting got back onto a normal track. Clef spent the time writing his letter and ignoring the rest of them. The last bell rang as he pulled his seal from his ring to stamp it down on the paper.

He pushed through the doors before anyone could accost him and headed straight to the Mages Guildhall. Livina's office door was partially ajar, he walked in and slapped the envelope down on her desk. "My resignation."

He was barely halfway back through the door when she called out, "I cannot accept this."

Clef spun to face her. "You don't get to make that decision on your own."

"There's no point in my meeting with Talbot and Sandero-" Livina held up his letter and pointed to the bottom of it "-because you have not properly sealed it."

"My seal is right there," Clef declared, crossing the room to jab his finger at the mark over his signature.

"No, your personal seal. You've used the seal of the Guru. You may not resign from your position with the official seal of that office." She practically threw the letter back at him. "Is there any particular reason you're trying to resign now? Am I - and everyone else - supposed to ignore the fact that our Master Mage has chosen to resign while his guild is under investigation for misconduct and corruption?"

"Misconduct I didn't see," Clef said, his voice shaking. "Which would make this a perfectly logical time to resign -"

"But that's not why you're doing it, and either way, I will not accept that notice."

Closing his hand so tightly about the letter it crumpled, he walked out of her office and into the main hall. With a twist of his hand, Clef ignited the paper, letting the ashes fall to the ground beneath his feet.

This mess was so complicated.

Clef left the Mages Guildhall and headed straight for the Clerks. It had been several centuries since he'd last seen his personal seal. He'd practically forgotten he had one. It was probably easier to register a replacement than to find the old one, given it had most likely vanished in Cephiro's crumbling, if it hadn't before.

When he approached the registration desk and asked the wide-eyed attendant how to go about registering a new seal, Avenir came stalking out of the door behind the desk and stepped up beside the young clerk.

"Have you reported your old one missing?"

"No," Clef said carefully.

"Well you need to file that first. Once it is on record, we can assist you with registering a new seal." The young clerk fetched the appropriate form and handed it to Avenir, who looked it over and then set it before Clef with a pen. "There is a logical order to things."

Uncapping the pen, Clef quickly filled in the form. It was mostly personal information like his name, birthdate, birthplace and so forth. A few of the sections were a bit more difficult. When had he last seen it? Three hundred years ago wasn't very specific, but it was the best guess he had. There couldn't have been anything he'd needed to sign since his investiture as Guru that he would have needed his personal seal for - it wasn't as though you could get two people using the Guru's seal at the same time.

He was struck by a new thought - what did that mean for his housing situation? The big house in Mazda was his, but all the documents would have been sealed by him - as Guru. If anything, Aveo and Getz would put up a fuss if anyone tried to remove him from it, and he couldn't imagine anyone overruling them. The townhouse belonged to whoever was Warden, but his Castle suite… Would that be counted as the apartments for the Master Mage, or were they his?

He couldn't recall having signed any sort of forms about his occupancy of them, even when he'd had them moved and expanded. He'd have to ask Caldina, since she worked in the Castle Housing office. If she was talking to him. If not, maybe Ascot would ask her for him...

Signing his name to the bottom of the form - and not sealing it - Clef passed it over to Avenir. "How long until I can register a new one?"

The Head Clerk looked over the form and picked up a different pen - a spelled one, Clef guessed by the shimmer of the ink - and wrote a number on the top corner before dropping it into a basket already overflowing with papers. "Checking that time period for misuse will take several weeks, if not months," Avenir said. "Perhaps you should have started the process sooner if you couldn't be patient."

"Will someone let me know when it's through?" Clef asked.

"You can check for yourself in a fortnight." Avenir gave him a slip of paper with the same number written on it. "It's not that far a walk."

Clef bit out "Thank you" and left.

.*.*.*.

After all the excitement with explanations and introductions and everything, life had settled back down to relatively normal at Umi's house. One of her parents was still home when she was, but with Mama busy with the newest project at Ryuuzaki Enterprises, it was Papa greeting her this week. He called out a cheerful "Welcome home" when Umi trudged through the front door Friday afternoon.

Umi dropped her bag on the floor as she flopped back onto the sofa. Papa appeared a moment later with tea and a small plate of crackers. He was wearing one of Mama's frilly aprons and carrying the tray like Mama always did when she was playing at being a happy housewife. If he was trying to get her to smile, it worked.

"How're you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine." Umi pulled a face. "I'm not dying or anything, you know."

"You're my only child. I'm allowed to worry." Papa sat down beside her. "That's something you'll understand soon enough."

Picking up her teacup, Umi stared down at it. Even though she was getting used to the idea, she still wasn't looking forward to it.

"Don't look so grim." Papa ruffled Umi's hair. "It'll be alright."

"How do you know?" she asked, plaintively.

"When have Mama or I ever let you down?"

"I'm still the one who has to give birth."

"I understand that part's not pleasant," Papa said. "But you do get to meet a new and interesting person when it's all over."

"But you have to keep them alive, and not - I don't know - break them, or anything." Umi rubbed a hand over her face and took a deep breath, trying not to cry, her eyes burning. "Then they go and do exactly what you told them not to do and end up with a child of their own before they're even twenty. I'm sorry, Papa."

Papa put an arm around her shoulders. "It's not the worst thing you could have done. You haven't killed anyone or anything."

Umi couldn't help flinching at that, and Papa pulled back to look at her.

"Umi?"

She shook her head. "Let's not talk about that until after you've seen Cephiro."

That unsettled Papa enough he shook his head and forced a smile, getting up and saying he should start dinner. When he disappeared back into the kitchen, Umi curled tighter about her teacup. The last thing she wanted was to colour their view of the land she loved before they'd even seen it.

It was bound to come up eventually, and she didn't plan to keep what happened a secret forever. But if they knew first - before they'd seen Cephiro, and met her friends - would they accept her decision to raise her child in the world that had caused her so much pain and heartache?

.*.*.*.

Even Clef couldn't decide if he was making a point or just being childish when he returned to Mazda directly after leaving the Clerks offices.

He had meetings he was expected to be attending that afternoon, and there were more reports waiting for him in his castle office. But if they thought he shouldn't be Guru then, very well, he wouldn't be Guru. They could do without him, if they wanted to so badly.

The rest of the week, he would just be Warden Clef of Mazda, and take care of all the things he should be doing, rather than letting it all fall on Aveo's desk.

But returning to Mazda didn't keep correspondence from reaching him. The first few things he received were notes from Presea and Ferio and a few others asking if he was alright. He set them aside and went back to checking over the end of year reports for Mazda. By the end of the first day, he had a letter from Sandero saying that Umi might be ridiculously good in bed, but he wasn't going to let Clef resign for sex - at least not sex with someone else. It made Clef snort, as it was intended to, and he sent back a thoroughly impolite two-word response. That would be enough to get Sandero to keep the guild from chasing him down, at least.

Most of the other letters, Clef looked at just long enough to be sure they weren't urgent and dropped them into the basket on the corner of his desk. He could worry about them in the new year. Maybe he would have a new outlook by then, or at least a new plan.

Aveo and Getz gave him space. Whatever they'd heard just had them watching him warily and making sure he ate and drank enough.

But midweek, he received a message from Sandero he couldn't ignore. Yet another victim had come forward, and no amount of paperwork was going to take Clef's mind off that. At the same time, there was absolutely nothing he could do to fix things, or even to help, that hadn't already been started.

Grabbing his over-robe off the back of the chair, he left his office and went out for a walk, paying no mind to the dark clouds rolling in from the north.

Rain was beating down on Clef's back by the time he was halfway along the border where Honda joined Mazda. He trudged from one stone marker to the next, mud splattered up to his knees. Despite everything that had happened in the past few months, the border was stable It was miserable weather to be doing this in, but Clef just needed to be doing something - needed to keep himself busy, so he wasn't just thinking about everything he'd done wrong this year.

Clef was only a few paces from the next marker when a great shadow swooped overhead. One of Ascot's creature friends circled round for a place to land, and Clef's heart leapt into his throat. No one searched for him out here unless there were some great emergency. And the only thing he could think of was that something had happened to Umi.

Dropping his hold on the spell, he rushed down the side of the ridge to find Ferio - and not Ascot - had come to meet him, jumping down from the creature's back and patting it before it flew away again.

"What's happened?" Clef asked, stumbling to a halt. "Is Umi alright?"

Ferio stared at him. "Have you lost all sense of perspective?"

"Is she - what's happened, Ferio?"

"As far as I know, she's fine. Don't know why she wouldn't be. Whereas Council business this week..."

Lightheaded with relief, Clef headed back up the ridge to continue his task, ignoring Ferio spluttering to an indignant stop before following after him, slipping on a muddy patch and nearly toppling over.

"I don't know what you think this tantrum of yours is supposed to accomplish," Ferio complained. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"What does it look like? I'm checking my borders. Like I should do every month, and haven't managed to for half a year."

"You have earth mages in your Circle for that sort of work."

Clef shook his head. "That doesn't mean I shouldn't do my own checks. It's my fault if anything goes wrong."

"What Corvair did wasn't your fault," Ferio said, utterly blunt and striking hard.

Clef flinched. "But I should have stopped it. Prevented it! He's been doing this for years - decades - maybe even centuries, and I didn't see. I was so wrapped up in worrying about Emeraude… I should have been doing my own checks."

"Is that why you're out here ankle-deep in the mud? Guilt?" Ferio asked. "What good are you going to do anyone when you go down with a fever? You may be one of the most powerful mages in Cephiro, but even you aren't immune to catching something if you get yourself worn out and soaked through. Even if you need to check Mazda's borders, you don't need to do it in the worst weather we've had all year."

Clef hated to admit that Ferio was right, but he also couldn't afford to be ill when Umi's parents arrived in a few short days. He didn't argue when Ferio took hold of his arm and dragged him back down the ridge.

.*.*.*.

When Clef and Ferio made it back to the house, Aveo took one look at the two of them and sent them down to have a hot bath like they were naughty children.

"Did you forget you're on the Scheduling Committee?" Ferio asked, pulling his shirt off over his head.

"I quit, remember." Clef stepped out of his muddy trousers and dropped them in the wash basket.

"You're on the committee as Warden of Mazda, not Guru, so you should have been in the meeting even if your guild had accepted your resignation," Ferio argued. "Which they haven't. I checked."

"Did you really come all the way out here to tell me off for missing a meeting?" Clef grabbed a towel down off the shelf and opened the door to the bath. "It's not like you and Auris weren't perfectly capable of carrying on without me. It's just a bunch of grumpy people trying to get changes made that should have been done years ago."

"You mean people like you?" Ferio followed him through. "Or was that little performance of yours last week not about you wanting your way?"

Not responding, Clef yanked the shower controls to the highest heat setting and picked up a bottle of shampoo.

"What I don't understand, is why you're suddenly in such a hurry to get these repeals through," Ferio said, rinsing off his own hair and looking over at Clef. "You've been living with these laws longer than I've been alive, and-" he sighed "-Umi may be impatient, but she's not unreasonable. If you just talked to her, I'm sure she'd be willing to work something out."

"I know that." Clef shut off the water and walked over to the bath.

"It's not fair, and I'm sure it's frustrating, but it's only another year or two." Ferio followed him to the bath.

Clef sank down, leaning back into the corner. "I don't have that kind of time."

Ferio let out a soft laugh. "Don't play the 'I'm old' card on me. You may be older than almost everyone on the Council, but you're not exactly close to death." He stopped halfway into the water and stared at Clef. "Is Umi okay? I know she did a number on herself with the whole Honda thing, but you two would actually tell us if she were dying, right?"

"Umi's not dying," Clef said.

Ferio sat down, hissing slightly at the temperature of the water. "But something's going on. That's why you asked me about her, isn't it?"

"Do you know what happens when a mage uses that much power and wipes out their reservoirs?" Clef asked, and Ferio shook his head. "They disrupt any spell on them, including contraceptive spells."

Taking a deep breath, Ferio stared at him. "No. She's not-"

Clef sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Returning to Tokyo also breaks any set spells, apparently. It turns out it probably wouldn't have changed anything, the damage was already done. Though it took several months before she would go have it confirmed."

"Shit, you're serious." Ferio sat in stunned silence for a long moment. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm attempting to quit my job, for one, but that's not going so well."

"Shit," Ferio said again, and subsided into a quiet only broken by the soft rippling noise of the water flowing through the bath. Eventually, he reached out and patted Clef on the shoulder. "How's she doing?"

"Exhausted, but okay, apparently." Clef took a breath, fighting to keep it steady, and closed his eyes as he took another. "The transportation spell takes a lot out of her. I've met her parents. They're coming to Festival. And I have six months to fix two laws before I break the last one by acknowledging my child."

"If she had it in Tokyo, maybe," Ferio said, with the air of someone thinking aloud. Clef cut him off by shaking his head hard enough his whole body shuddered and sent a wave through the bath.

"Infants can't safely transport, and she's been planning to attend the Academy next term. I won't let this mistake stop her. I won't-"

"Of course you won't, but there is a difference between stopping her and just - waiting a little longer," Ferio told him, firmly, before subsiding back against the edge of the bath again. "But I guess it's up to Umi, and she's not…"

"Patient?" Clef suggested, wryly. "I noticed. Two days more and I'd have been covered, and this could never have happened in the first place - I should have started taking it earlier, I know, I should have realised she was going to-"

"Please spare me the details of how she seduced you," Ferio announced. "I don't need them, I saw the two of you at Ouran's."

Clef pressed one wet hand to his face, trying to bite down on an entirely inappropriate laugh. "I suppose you did."

"Well." Ferio eyed him across the bath. "...I don't suppose you'll start paying attention to me telling you to be less obvious about things? Now more than ever? You need these laws to go through, and if you're spending all your time pissing Goram off it's going to get harder and harder and- I mean, six months is- you might be able to push them through in that time. Or at least get the second to the point of formal debate, I doubt anyone will start hauling you up before the Judges for breaking a law we're in the middle of dismantling."

"We're in the middle of dismantling it now!" Clef objected.

"No, you're in the middle of dismantling it. Until it's formally in front of the Council, they don't have to claim any involvement at all."

"Or I just quit, and then I'm breaking no laws at all. Livina, Talbot, and Sandero can keep the Guild going until they find a replacement. They're more than competent, if it's going to take a month or two before anyone lets me register a seal to quit with, then they should have got through most of the investigation and disciplinary hearings. Probably."

"And you'd be happy losing your job because you've leapt before you're pushed?" Ferio asked, eyeing him steadily. "You wouldn't be upset at dropping your job on three people you know are already juggling too many things, with this investigation, and need all the help you can give them?"

Clef shuddered, and closed his eyes. "I hate it when people talk in the bath," he said, wearily.

Ferio didn't push any further then, or once they were dressed and Aveo made them both sit down to a dinner of innocuous conversation about Aygo's latest homework. In fact, he didn't say anything more until he was stood at the door to leave - borrowing Fyula for the journey home - and then it was only "Think it through."

.*.*.*.

Umi had expected to miss a little school time to attend her second doctor's appointment, but by the time she left the clinic, she was rushing to make it to school before lunch was finished. She bolted from the nearest station and staggered to a stop just inside the gate. The school grounds swayed around her as she struggled to catch her breath, and she leaned heavily against one of the trees as her vision blurred.

She barely registered someone saying her name before Ms. Endou, her homeroom teacher, was at her side, guiding her into the building and into the clutches of the school nurse, Ms. Yamashita.

A few minutes later, Umi sat on the end of a bed in the school infirmary with a half-empty glass of water in her hands while she tried to convince them not to contact her parents.

"I'm fine," she argued. "I literally just came from the clinic. I was just running too fast and got tired."

"I think it's best if you went home for the rest of the day," Ms. Yamashita said, after taking Umi's pulse.

"But I only just got here!"

"Well, you can stay in here if you want, but I am not letting you back to class."

"What if I eat and feel better afterwards?" Umi bargained, and was met with a steady look.

"We'll see," Ms. Yamashita said.

In the end, after Umi had finished her lunch, she shut her eyes for only a moment while waiting for Ms. Yamashita to come back from tending to someone's grazed knee, and she was woken up as the last bells of the day rang out.

By the time she left, Umi had entirely forgotten she'd promised to meet Mako after school until Mako grabbed her on the way out. "Pictures. Show them," Mako demanded. "I want to see."

Umi shuffled through her bag and pulled out the pouch she was keeping her maternity notebook in. "They don't look that different from the ones in our health book," she said, handing the sonogram image over.

"Maybe not, but it's kind of cool, you know." Mako said, studying the pictures. "You read about it in class, but this makes it all so much more real."

"Because it is real." Umi elbowed her friend in the side.

"But the whole pregnancy thing seems so long and strange and - hey, you can see fingers in this one, can't you?" Mako said, holding it up. "That's so cool!"

"Don't wave it about!" Umi snapped, and Mako handed it back to her. She tucked it back into the pouch, not a moment too soon.

"Hey, Umi, why weren't you in class?" Satomi asked, appearing in their corner a moment later.

"I got dizzy and the nurse made me stay in the infirmary since I wouldn't go home."

"I totally would have gone home," Mako said. "You feeling better now?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Umi sighed. "I'm just glad they didn't actually call my parents. The last thing I need right now is them worrying over me more than they already are."

Satomi stared at her. "Why are they worried about you?"

"Because of the baby," Mako said cheerfully.

The look of absolute disgust on Satomi's face made both Umi and Mako burst out into giggles. Umi knew she should feel guilty for letting Satomi think they were making fun of her, but she was just so amused by the idea of how annoyed Satomi was going to be when she realised Umi'd been telling the truth the entire time.

When Satomi turned on her heel and stomped away, Mako turned to Umi. "Does anyone know it's true?"

"No one in my class does. At least not for real." Umi shrugged. "They all still think it's a terrible joke."

"Are you going to tell her?"

"Not right now."

"She's going to notice when your belly gets big." Mako snickered when Umi grimaced. "I'm meeting Huki at the games centre, if you want to come."

Umi shook her head. "I need to get home or Papa really will worry. Maybe we could make a plan next week, or something."

"Sure."

.*.*.*.

Ferio's visit had merely confirmed what Clef already knew: his priorities had shifted. Cephiro herself was no longer the most important thing in his life, and if that meant he was no longer qualified to be Guru, so be it. He could still submit his resignation once he'd registered a new seal.

But while the time away had strengthened his resolve to keep his promises to Umi and their maybe-child, it had also given him a chance to step back, take a breath, and remember why he didn't want to resign in haste. Not just the reasons Ferio had hit him with.

After everything that had happened in the past five years, he wanted to keep building a better and brighter Cephiro. That meant correcting the mistakes of the past and moving forward. Not only was he working on changing the laws which might keep the best candidate from the position of Guru, but he was also working with his administrators to develop a system by which the oversight that had allowed Corvair to do what he had would be prevented from happening again.

Multiple talks with Aveo after that one with Ferio led Clef to the decision to stay Guru for as long as he was able. If he lasted until the next repeal was through, it would open up the field for a few more candidates to come forward.

There were only so many strong magic users left after Emeraude's fall, and most of those actually qualified to take up the post were now integral parts of ward circles. Not one of them was foolish enough to try taking on the task of being head of the entire guild while also doing their duties to their ward, and most of the Wardens had become very fond of their land. Too fond to give them up for a terrible promotion.

It was going to be a difficult search to replace him.

(He was quite glad it wouldn't be his job. Wardens weren't part of central Guild administration; all he would have to do would be take part in the eventual full-guild vote. Assuming he managed to maintain his post as Warden and as a Guild member. If not, well, he wouldn't have to do anything at all.)

But staying put would be for nothing if Cephiro decided he'd betrayed her with his promise to Umi - which would only be made more substantial by signing whatever these marriage papers consisted of. And Cephiro was capable of cutting him off just as quickly as she had once accepted him into his role. If he was going to bind himself to Umi, he wanted Cephiro's blessing first.

That was why Clef returned to the castle early on the morning of the day Umi and her parents were due to arrive.

Dressed in nothing but his simplest clothing and shoes, Clef made his way down to some of the lowest levels of the castle, to an unmarked door of plain wood, pitted with age but still sturdy, opening onto a corridor which sloped down further still. The chambers beyond that threshold were said to be from the very beginnings of Cephiro, and they had been carved out of a solid, pale and blue-tinted stone with glittering flecks that picked up the soft light from wide-spaced glowstones. The stone floor of the corridors was worn with a smoothly polished curve from the hundreds of thousands of feet that had walked here before him. The air was still, with a deep hush, too far below ground for any of the noise of the castle to reach it.

At the end of the first corridor was a small waiting area. Clef took a smooth crystal from the bowl by the door and then sat down on one of the stone benches. Two apprentice priests were sitting there already, against the opposite wall, and they glanced at him several times before looking at the floor, or the walls, or anywhere else.

Leaning his head back against the wall, he closed his eyes and breathed slowly until the stone in his hand began to vibrate, signalling his turn to follow the attendant to a small private bathroom, where he was left alone without a word to break the silence.

Clef set the crystal into the waiting dish then undressed and placed his clothing into the little basket beside it. He washed himself from head to toe, before climbing into the small steaming tub to soak for a short time.

Afterward, he scrubbed himself all over again, making sure to remove even the tiniest spots of ink from his hands and forearms - there was somewhat less than the usual this week, which helped.

Once he'd cleaned himself a third and final time, Clef donned the plain white robe on the back of the door and picked up the stone from its bowl before taking a seat on the bench beside the door to wait again.

The attendant returned to lead him lower still, to an ancient door, older still than the one by the threshold, once-clear carvings on its surface worn to the faintest relief by millennia of use. "Do you require a witness?" was the only question asked. Clef shook his head, and the attendant bowed.

When Clef stepped forward into the next room, the air was heavy and warm, gentle on his skin, wrapping around him as the door closed and he was left alone. There was a small shelf for the robe, and a groove worn into the rock for the crystal.

At the centre of the room, sunken into the floor, was a pool filled with the warm water that came from the heart of Cephiro, welling up through the bedrock; on the far side there was a channel which brought fresh rainwater in from outside to mingle with the other water until the heart-water and the rain embodied all the living waters of Cephiro, and more practically bring it down to a temperature which was welcoming instead of punishing. Clef walked down the steps until the water reached his shoulders. Closing his eyes, he murmured a quiet prayer to Cephiro and knelt down, letting the water rush over his head, and engulf him entirely.

After a moment he resurfaced and looked around the room as he took a moment to catch his breath. All around the walls were engraved the most ancient prayers of Cephiro, the ones once thought to be the very breath of life itself.

When he knelt beneath the surface again, Clef reached into himself and found the warm well of magic in his chest and felt the pulse of it through his body. He felt for his land, his connection as a mage of Cephiro. Cephiro was there, through him and around him, warm and welcoming as ever. She'd been the only constant in his life since he'd come into his magic. Despite this, despite everything, she was still there when he called. She was still waiting - still trusting him - when he wasn't sure he trusted himself.

He held onto that spark, bright and hopeful as he came up and took a deep breath before submerging himself a third time.

There was nothing for those few short moments but himself and Cephiro. No sound but the beating of his heart and the crackle of his magic - and his one prayer. May Cephiro give him the strength to weather the storm ahead.

It was as if a heavy weight ran from his shoulders with the water as he climbed out. Even more lifted as he dried his skin. When the time came to follow the attendant out of the room and into a small dressing room, he felt properly settled into his skin for the first time in weeks, and the feeling stayed with him as he ascended back to the castle above.

.*.*.*.

Umi was a bundle of nerves most of the last few days of the week leading up to bringing her parents to Cephiro. It wasn't like she didn't know that things could make the trip this way, and that it should hopefully be easier to take her parents to and from Cephiro than it been had to bring Clef from Cephiro and back - they weren't as tied up with their land as he was - but that didn't mean she could stop worrying about it.

She pushed Saturday's breakfast around her plate, her stomach too knotted up with worry to eat.

"You need to have something," Papa pleaded. "A slice of bread at least."

Umi just shook her head and pushed away from the table. "Later," she muttered and went to pick up her school bag.

She spent most of school tapping her pencil on her notebook and staring up at the clock. Rather than being told off for not paying attention, Mr. Nishimura, her mathematics teacher, asked, "Are you unwell? Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

Face flushing hot, Umi shook her head. She forced herself to keep on task until school finished, so none of her other teachers would worry over her.

When she got home, her mother was waiting for her, steered her straight into the dining room, and sat her down in front of a nice hot lunch. "Papa says you hardly ate anything this morning," she said, pouring Umi a cup of tea.

"I wasn't hungry," Umi complained. She still wasn't feeling like eating.

"If I must become a grandmother when I'm thirty-five, I want my grandchild to be healthy."

"If I eat, I'll be sick."

"You'll feel even worse if you don't eat anything."

"There will be so much food tonight, it won't matter." Umi slumped back in her seat. "I just want to make the jump, and get it over with."

"Clef made it here without any trouble," Mama said, reaching out to touch Umi's shoulder.

Umi crossed her arms and bit her lip to keep from mentioning Clef's chest pain. If her parents did make it across, they wouldn't have to deal with the magic connection messing things up, at least.

"Eat your lunch," Mama insisted. "The last thing we need to have you fainting in the middle of Tokyo Tower because you were too stubborn to listen to sense."

She got a few bites down - enough that Mama let her go upstairs to change, at least.

Sitting on the end of her mother's bed, watching Ando help Mama with her obi, Umi could almost pretend she was seven-years-old again, and the event her parents were going to was some embassy gala. Not a festival ball where they'd be vetting her fiancé a second time.

If only she could stay home with a nanny while they went out.

"We still have time if you want to change into something else," Mama said, looking Umi over in the mirror as she double checked her hair and make up - both flawless, as usual.

"Caldina wants us to wear the dresses she picked." The simple blouse and skirt Umi had flung on felt incredibly plain compared to the kimono that her mother was wearing, but she only had to get them to Cephiro, then she would be in something almost as fancy, if a very different style.

The trip to the Tower took hardly any time at all. Umi had done her best to explain to her parents what they were going to do, but she didn't stop Hikaru telling them again as they stood and took each other's hands. Clef had known what they were doing, because it was a variation on a spell he used himself, but Umi's parents had never experienced magic before. This wasn't going to be the most reassuring thing to start them with.

Mama squeezed Umi's hand at the flash of light that accompanied the spell, and let out a sharp gasp at the yanking pull of magic, but she didn't let go. Umi hoped Papa - who was between Hikaru and Fuu - was holding on just as tightly, but there was no way to know, not with the spell dragging at them and stealing the breath from her lungs.

When the blazing light faded away, Mama was still right there beside Umi, ready to catch her when the receiving hall tilted and Umi's vision fizzled into sharp static.

.*.*.*.

To be continued...

Note: For those just finding this story, I post a lot more fic on Archive of Our Own. Most of it is UmixClef fic, some will be other pairings.

If you have any specific questions or concerns about future chapters of this fic (or even if you just want to chat), you are welcome to contact me. My email and various chat usernames are listed in my profile. Just let me know where you found me. (I'm always looking for more people to talk to about this story, so I'm not always annoying my poor spouse about it while I'm working through the plot tangles. And I'm more than willing to divulge spoilers if you ask.)

Replies:

Ceres Ryu - There will be more interaction between Umi and Clef in the next chapter. I promise. Even more in the one after that. I'm glad you like it! Thank you!

James Birdsong - Thank you!

Claudia - I've sent you a PM, since you now have an account.