'Skuld and Brain try to convince their new companion that they can go home, really.'
I promise the fact that I keep updating on Saturday is accidental.
Chapter Four: Unwanted Company
"So they're not staying with us."
Skuld breathed out slowly, hands clenched into tight fists. "How are we supposed to get rid of them?" she asked, glancing towards the stranger. They were walking a short distance ahead of them, but they kept glancing back, and Skuld wondered how much they could hear.
"We could leave." Brain summoned his Keyblade and flicked it for emphasis.
The stranger turned to give them both a searching look.
"We're just talking," she said, voice lifted. To Brain she hissed, "We can't just leave them alone on a strange world."
"If Frigga sent them, then technically they should have enough training it won't matter much."
"Don't we still need to do stuff here?"
Brain hesitated. "Technically," he said, reluctant, "we should make sure the Heartless aren't too much of a problem. Don't want them potentially damaging the world's heart."
"So we can't just leave."
"You'd prefer to have someone looking over your shoulder the entire time?"
"No, but—"
The stranger cleared their throat.
Skuld jumped.
They'd stopped, turning to study the two of them. She couldn't read their expression very well, but their eyes only lingered on her for a moment before darting away, and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with that.
"Got something on your mind?" Brain asked, faux-casual.
They blinked, seeming to come back to themself, then turned and kept walking.
Skuld released a long, slow breath. "It's not their fault," she reminded Brain (herself). "Frigga sent them."
He sighed. "I'm aware. Doesn't mean they aren't going to report everything back to Frigga."
That was…true, probably, and something hot and angry filled Skuld's throat. "We'll just have to make sure they don't have anything to report."
Brain's eyebrows raised.
"I know, I know it's not—" Skuld ran her hands through her hair and made a frustrated noise. "I don't have any better ideas."
"Could just drive them crazy and hope they leave on their own." With a wave of his Keyblade, tiny motes of light popped into existence.
The stranger startled away, small sparks flickering around their fingertips.
"Brain, no." Skuld grabbed his Keyblade and shoved it down, then sent an apologetic look towards the stranger.
Brain gave her an exasperated look.
"We don't need to do it like that."
"But you're not opposed to the plan."
She bit her lip. She didn't really want to be mean to them, but she liked the idea of being spied on a lot less. "I'm in," she said with a sigh.
Brain gave her a sharp grin. "Don't worry. Not like we don't have experience with this sort of thing."
(She thought she could hear Lauriam's exasperated voice and Ephemer and Ven's laughter.)
"Yeah."
-"Hey."
The stranger startled, turning towards Brain.
He gave them a grin that wasn't quite friendly. "You're here to help, right?"
They studied him skeptically but nodded.
"How about you check out what's over the copse there?"
It was a painfully transparent attempt to get rid of them—but he was relying on his authority as a Union Leader to convince them to leave. They seemed aware of this, expression skeptical, but didn't argue, heading away.
Well. That should get rid of them for a little while, at least.
-Hardly two minutes later he and Skuld had to join them to fight off a group of Heartless. Of course.
-(Why does fighting with them seem familiar…?)
-Traipsing through thick woodland with swarms of biting insects wasn't quite what Skuld had wanted to do on this outing, but Brain had said they needed to check everything. And maybe…
The stranger had followed her at her request, but they were still alternating between staring at her like she was a puzzle and completely avoiding her eyes—though part of that, at least, seemed to be because they were swatting at bugs.
"You could always go back," she suggested hopefully. "We'd be fine here."
They gave her an exasperated look, then summoned their Keyblade and called up a fire spell.
Skuld yelped, flinching away from it. Still, it did its job; the bugs either burned or fled.
The stranger raised a challenging eyebrow.
Skuld sighed, shoulders sinking.
-"Keeping up?" Brain called dryly.
The stranger glared at him—which was honestly the most emotion he'd seen out of them so far. Huh. Maybe we're actually getting to them. They clung to the side of a cliff, slowly making their way after him.
He twirled his Keyblade, watching from the top of a rocky overhang. "You know," he said, "if you're struggling, you could always go back."
Their glare intensified, and they kicked off towards him.
The rock crumbled underneath them.
Brain nearly fell trying to cast a spell to catch them.
Skuld had him covered, apparently; her own Keyblade flashed into her hands, expression panicked as she whipped it towards them.
The stranger's Keyblade appeared just as quickly; he couldn't tell which of them cast the spell, but at least they didn't fall.
Brain's shoulders slumped with a relieved sigh. Right. No more potentially dangerous stunts, then.
-"We've been here before."
Skuld flashed an awkward smile at the statement. "Have we?"
Retreading ground was…maybe not the best idea, but she was rapidly running out of options.
The stranger gave her a pointed look.
"We…needed to get more information. On the plants."
Brain snorted.
She elbowed him lightly.
The stranger observed the interaction with a strange sort of expression. She half expected them to protest—to finally get frustrated enough to leave—but instead they just nodded, turning to study the plants.
Skuld bit back a frustrated sigh.
-Walking more slowly seemed like a good idea when Brain had suggested it—it didn't hurt anyone, and might drive their unwilling companion crazy enough to leave. Unfortunately, they didn't seem particularly bothered by the slow pace.
Brain, on the other hand, was starting to feel like his skin was crawling. Well, he thought, this isn't going to work.
-Going faster didn't seem to deter them, either. Damn it.
-"Please can you go back?" Skuld tried finally. "I know that Frigga asked you to stay, but—"
"I'm still supposed to help with the mission."
Their voice came out quiet, and Skuld tried hard not to scream. "We'll be fine," she said. "Two people's more than enough."
Their eyebrows furrowed. "Usually there's more."
She might've been touched if she wasn't so frustrated.
-"So."
"So."
Skuld sighed. "We're stuck with them."
"I got that much, yeah."
-Their group had settled into silence, Skuld trailing along and trying very, very hard not to think about the way the tension seemed to coil around her chest. First the fight with the Heartless, now this. She stared daggers into the stranger's back. Why'd you have to come after us?
That's not fair, she reminded herself, sucking in a breath and trying to tamp down on her frustration. It's not their fault.
…I don't even know their name.
Guilt pricked at the back of her chest, and she cast a look towards Brain, who'd taken the lead and was, pointedly, ignoring the stranger. They stared after him like they were trying to figure out what he was doing, and the vaguely lost expression reminded her a little of herself, back before she'd met Ephemer. We haven't tried talking to them. We've kind of just…tried to get rid of them. Maybe it'd be better if we—tried to work together. A little. So she steeled herself and sped up to keep pace with them. "Hey," she said. "How are you?"
Brain paused to give her a curious look.
She shrugged and offered him a tiny smile.
He sighed but went back to his work.
When she turned back to the stranger, she realized they were staring at her with wide eyes, lips pressed flat. They looked almost scared, eyes darting away quickly when she looked back at them.
Skuld tried not to frown. They probably just…didn't expect either of us to try and talk to them. I wouldn't, either, in their position. "What's your name?" she tried instead.
They didn't answer for several long, long moments—so long, in fact, that Skuld thought maybe this was a lost cause, after all. When they did speak, it was quiet, and not at all what she expected: "What's yours?"
"Frigga didn't tell you?" And neither of us offered. They'd both just…assumed. Maybe we shouldn't have.
The stranger half-turned their head towards her, giving her a shadowed look she couldn't decipher. "She said to help Master Brain and his friend." And then they turned away, exhaling slowly, eyes closing tightly. "You're Skuld," the whispered, and it sounded strangely resigned.
Skuld, for her part, was a little surprised, considering no one had apparently told them about her. "I am," she said, because she didn't want to lie, "but if you didn't know before, how did you…?"
They shrugged, then sped up, leaving her behind.
Her eyebrows furrowed. She tried to catch up with them again, but they kept a couple paces ahead, ignoring her stubbornly.
"Well," Brain commented near her ear, making her jump, "they're not a very good spy."
"Don't scare me like that!"
"Didn't summon your Keyblade. Think I'm safe." But there was something apologetic in his expression.
Skuld sighed, then glanced after the stranger. "Maybe you should talk to them."
"Me?"
"We could learn a lot from them too," she pointed out.
Brain squinted at her.
"…And it'd make things less awkward."
Brain still didn't look entirely sold on the idea, but when he glanced towards the stranger, something thoughtful was in his expression. "I'll give it a shot," he said, "but no promises."
Skuld gave him a weak smile. "I know."
-Brain would like to say he was approaching the stranger for entirely altruistic reasons—to make his friend feel better, to maybe make the stranger a little more comfortable, to help the mission go better—but he wasn't really. Skuld had made a good point about them being able to get information from them—and maybe he could take control of the sort of information they took back to Frigga, too. If they're going to be here, might as well try to make something of it.
That didn't mean he actually knew how to approach them. He'd made most of his friends by being shoved into situations where they'd had no choice but to figure out how to get along; he wasn't always great at friendly conversations with strangers, even if most of that was unintentional on his part. Well, he thought, suppose this isn't that much different than some of the other situations I've been in. Just have to treat it like that.
"Hey," he called, and when the stranger didn't respond, tried again: "Hey."
They turned towards him finally, eyebrows furrowed.
"Got any observations?" He lifted his notebook. "If you're here, might as well help."
He thought he could hear Skuld sigh, and showed enough restraint not to throw his pen at her.
They blinked slowly, almost cat-like, then glanced at the world around them. "It's small."
"Right. Figured that." Granted, it was still forming, but the layout seemed to imply it was going to stay that way.
The stranger sent him a vaguely-annoyed glance, then jabbed a finger at what looked like a run-down hut.
"What, you were talking about the house?"
Skuld's head shot up, and she made a noise of surprise. "Oh! I know this world."
"It's from the stories," the stranger murmured.
Brain tried very, very hard not to make a face at that. "Book of Prophecies. Yeah."
Skuld had shot past them, leaping over the broken down bits of the house.
"Suppose we should follow her."
The stranger had a strangely conflicted expression on their face, but they didn't protest when Brain started towards the house.
The house…wasn't much of a house yet. The front door and parts of the outer wall and roof had reconstructed themselves, but much of the interior was still broken and empty. There was a missing section in the side that let them enter and exit without too much difficulty. Skuld trailed her hands along the walls with something akin to nostalgia. "The world rebuilds places like this, too?"
"Seems like it."
The stranger stepped past him, and Brain startled out of the way. They didn't seem to notice, turning with a vaguely awed expression.
"This is your first time off-world, isn't it?"
The stranger snapped towards him. He thought they might not answer at first, but then they shook their head.
"First time seeing a world form, though."
They hesitated, then nodded, turning back to the house with curious eyes.
"It's nice," Skuld murmured, "to see the worlds we knew forming."
Something unexpectedly warm filled Brain's chest, his throat tightening just a little. It'd been something hard to think about when he'd first gotten here, too busy trying to outrun his grief and the echoes of the world he left behind, but…the worlds were healing. Slowly, maybe, but they were coming back. Like Scala, he thought, and the warmth turned to something a little colder and hollower.
Skuld hesitated, and he wondered if she'd come to a similar thought, but she looked at the stranger with a sheepish sort of expression, and Brain remembered, Right. The only non-Dandelion here.
The stranger's expression, when Brain actually looked, was unreadable. Closed. They dipped their head, then stepped out of the house.
Brain pursed his lips. Well. Suppose that's one way to get rid of them. But it's…strange.
Skuld caught his eye, and there was a similarly-confused expression on her face. "I don't understand," she whispered, coming closer. "If they're here to keep track of us—"
"Then why not actually stick close? Yeah, I know."
"Do you think Frigga didn't tell them?"
"…Suppose there's one way to find out." He stepped across the threshold, ignoring Skuld's noise of protest. "Hey—"
Shadows shifted near his arm. He whipped towards them, Starlight snapping into his hand.
Skuld reacted before he could; fire flashed, and the Heartless screeched, but dissipated, leaving trails of dark smoke.
The stranger had whipped towards him, too, Keyblade summoned and half-lifted. Their eyes swept the area, shoulders tensed.
When nothing else appeared Brain lowered his Keyblade. "We'll have to keep an eye out for them."
"Yeah," Skuld agreed, voice taut. "How do we—if there's a Heartless problem, then—"
"We clean up what we can and let the council know." It was tedious work, sometimes, trying to take care of a still-forming world. Stressful, too, since failure meant the world would die. With this one, though… "Dwarf Woodlands was in the Book of Prophecies. At least if there is a problem, we know we'll be able to take care of it successfully."
He wasn't entirely sure he'd convinced himself—wasn't sure he convinced Skuld, either, by the expression on her face. Still, it was at least something to cling to.
"Still got some stuff to finish, right?" He gestured with his Keyblade. "You lead."
Skuld gave him an suspicious look, but listened.
The stranger started trailing after her, silent as a ghost.
"Hey," Brain said, tapping them on the shoulder.
They paused, giving him a searching look.
"Frigga sent you, right? Don't suppose she said why?"
"To help you," the stranger said, eyebrows furrowed.
"Mm-hm. Got that part. But if she mentioned you'd be working with at least one Union Leader, that had to seem a little strange, didn't it?"
The stranger faltered just a little; it steeled a little later, but it was enough for Brain.
"Didn't know you were a spy, did you?"
"I came for my own reasons," they said, and their eyes flicked to Skuld and away. Interesting. "Master Frigga—"
"Wanted to know what kind of ideas we were getting into our heads."
"—was worried about how you were handling things. She said your loss meant you weren't thinking straight." They met his eyes with a challenge in theirs.
He could feel his smile sharpening. "It'd be easier to think straight if I didn't have someone looking over my shoulder the whole time."
The stranger had the decency to look sheepish.
Brain waved them off. "If you want to report something to Frigga, you can tell her that next time she's worried, she can check on things herself." He headed after Skuld, leaving the stranger to stew in their thoughts. Well. So much for being friendly, I suppose.
-Exploring the world was starting to feel more exhausting than exciting. Skuld's legs felt like lead and something weighed heavy in her chest. The idea of exploring had been almost exciting, when Brain had first mentioned that Keyblade wielders had made it off-world, but with her conversation with Frigga, the first sight of the world reminding her of (the wastelands) things she'd rather forget, the weird uncertainty around Brain, the Heartless, the stranger—
She just wanted to go back and rest.
I wish Ephemer was here, she thought. I wish they were both here.
She immediately felt guilty for it. Brain was still her friend, and the stranger was—well, it wasn't their fault that they were shoved into this strange sort of situation. But it'd always been so much fun going on missions with her friends before; Ephemer would undoubtedly go off exploring, finding some weird hideaway or creature that she and their friend would have to drag him away from, or they'd get into a sort of competition trying to fight Heartless, or—
It was fun. That was all.
A shadow moved beside her, and Skuld tried not to groan.
"On it." Brain swept his Keyblade through the Heartless—a small Shadow, from the looks of it. He made a contemplative noise and jotted something down in his notebook.
Skuld stared at Starlight, held almost awkwardly in his hands, and felt that heavy thing in her chest sink lower. She tore her gaze away after a moment.
She found the stranger watching them. Her skin prickled, and she straightened almost unconsciously.
The stranger's eyes flicked to her, expression pensive, and then they turned away.
"There can't be that much left to explore," Brain said. "We really could leave them."
Skuld's breath hissed out between her teeth, and she stamped down on the sudden surge of annoyance. "No, Brain."
"Could send them off somewhere else—"
"On a world that's filled with Heartless, when it's our responsibility to—" No it's not. Not anymore. You're Union Leaders, but that doesn't mean the same thing it used it.
"…You alright?"
Skuld sucked in a breath and rocked on her feet, unsteady. "We can't leave them."
She could feel Brain studying her. "Alright," he said finally; there was a question there that she didn't know how to answer, and so she didn't, moving on ahead and trying to ignore the way the stranger kept glancing at them.
"You know," Brain said dryly, and it took her a moment to realize he was talking to the stranger, not her, "if you want to say something, you can just say it. Better than nothing, right?" He smiled, but it didn't look friendly.
The stranger narrowed their eyes.
Skuld tried not to groan.
She didn't really expect the stranger to say anything, so she was surprised when they asked, careful, "Why are you out here?"
"To explore." Brain's eyebrows raised; he sounded just as surprised as Skuld felt. "Figure out what this world's like. Map it out. What wielders are supposed to do, generally speaking."
"You're a Union Leader," they said, and Skuld heard the unspoken words: You're important.
"And?"
The stranger made a noise of frustration, lifting their hands in what might've been a brief gesture of frustration, then sweeping them aside and shaking their head. It was a motion that ticked at something familiar, but they'd turned and headed off before Skuld could place why.
(They hadn't looked at Skuld at all.)
"Huh." Brain had a thoughtful expression on his face, eyes shadowed.
Skuld let out a long, slow breath. "Let's just…finish and go."
"…Yeah."
Skuld tried very, very hard to focus on the positives—on the fact that the worlds were reforming, that she was on one, that there was so much to explore. But it didn't feel quite as fun as it had when she and Brain had first stepped onto the world, everything quiet and tense, Skuld only occasionally calling warnings about Heartless or shouting about something she'd found, Brain shouting a confirmation that he'd heard her, and the stranger—
Wait—where are they?
She caught sight of them, tucked behind a mound of dirt and the gnarled, raised roots of a tree. They had their eyes half closed, one hand pressed against the ground, a soft smile on their face. Something glowed faintly beneath their palm, pale blue and pulsing like a heartbeat.
What are they doing?
She must've said that out loud, because the stranger startled, turning towards her with wide eyes.
She lifted her hands. "I really didn't mean anything."
They gave her a skeptical look that said what their voice didn't, and she winced at the accusation.
"You're spying on us," she pointed out, voice tight.
They looked away sharply, almost guilty.
Something guilty curled in Skuld's chest, and she settled down near them—not quite close enough to touch, but enough so that they were on the same level.
She caught them looking at her out of the corner of their eye.
Now that she was here, she wasn't really sure what to say. She fumbled a bit, fidgeting with her skirt. "I'm—" She broke off, looking at them, then sighed, shoulders sinking. "Do you need help with anything over here?"
They glanced at her, eyes widening in surprise.
She gave half a smile, and tried to ignore how forced it felt.
The stranger started to smile back, but they hesitated, eyes snapping around and slowly going wide. Skuld started, at first assuming that the stranger pushing her away meant they didn't want help.
It happened so quickly Skuld barely had time to react—the ground rumbled, the tree roots moved, something bright yellow glowed in the darkness, and then—
The stranger was gone.
Skuld blinked. And blinked again. She thought, for half a moment, taken by some strange spell. But then the tree roots moved, curling in on themselves, and it dawned on her slowly that, They're underneath those. They're trapped.
It took until the roots started squeezing for her to shake out of her stupor, body moving on autopilot as her mind tried to catch up. It wasn't the first time she'd seen death—she'd seen it on missions, during the Keyblade War, and—
(Light flashed. The life boat chamber was only visible in hazy splotches, but she thought she might've seen their friend—Darkness, Darkness—speared on a spell.)
Starlight burned. She didn't remember summoning it, but it didn't matter; the weapon cut cleanly through the roots, and the Heartless screeched, long and loud and painful. A part of her numbly noted the size—medium, the biggest part its tangling roots, yellow eyes shifting behind the cracks in the bark. Her blade swept again, swinging around to dig into the edge, and a sick, familiar feeling started to settle into her bones.
(you failed you failed you couldn't protect them like you failed the Dandelions)
(This is what it means to be a Keyblade wielder.)
Skuld had not had training—not any more than any other Keyblade wielder in Daybreak Town. Like most wielders she knew, she'd learned everything through trial and error, experience hard-won. She dodged the Heartless's attempted strike because the first time she hadn't she'd broken her arm, and while a spell had healed it, she'd trained to avoid ending up in the same situation. She blocked another because she'd spent countless hours fighting small, scrambling Heartless, and you got good at blocking or you got overwhelmed.
She kept cutting at the roots because that's what you did. You fought the Heartless, and you hopped that whoever was trapped wasn't dead, and if they were you had to move on.
(they were supposed to have training this was supposed to be better)
Chains snapped around the Heartless. Skuld didn't stop, whipping her Keyblade around to shoot a Firaga spell at its face. The fire exploded, and the Heartless screeched, loud enough to make her ears hurt.
The chains tightened. The Heartless creaked underneath them.
A flash and a swipe of her blade. Starlight plunged into the bark. The Heartless twitched, then stilled, dark smoke exploding around her and trailing against her skin.
"You alright?" Brain shouted.
(you failed you failed you failed)
(something's glowing)
Amidst the shadows was a flicker of pale blue—a barrier, hastily erected. The ground beneath it was cracked, but through the mist Skuld thought she caught the hazy image of a person.
She stared at them and didn't know what she was supposed to feel.
Brain skidded to a halt, something relieved in his expression. "Quick thinking," he admitted. "Guess we should be a little bit more careful if Heartless like that are around."
The stranger dismissed their barrier. They winced a little, looking sheepish but unharmed.
The adrenaline and numbness leaked from her bones, replaced by a slow-creeping fear that hadn't been there before. It sent a tingling jolt of energy down her hands and made them shake.
(They weren't hurt. But they could've been. They could've died, like the Dandelions, like the others—)
"You shouldn't have come."
The words came out numb, but there was a slow-growing, panicky sort of anger bubbling behind them, sprouting from the exhaustion and tension and—everything.
The stranger looked at her, eyebrows furrowed, and the fact that this was what got them to look at her like she was a person and not a puzzle stoked the fire in her chest.
"You shouldn't have come," she repeated, a little louder, and took a shaking step towards them. "It's dangerous."
Their expression morphed into a frown. "Master Frigga—"
"I don't care what Frigga said. She's wrong."
"Skuld—" Brain started, but she hardly heard him over the roaring in her ears.
"She said you just got here," the stranger continued, but they were starting to look a little uncertain. "She just wanted to help."
"You didn't help." She jabbed her finger towards where the Heartless had been. "We did that. You almost—"
"Skuld," Brain repeated, a little sharper.
"You keep pushing me away." Their voice grew a little angrier, shoulders lifting near their ears. "You won't let me do anything."
The truth stung, but— "We would've been fine."
"You weren't before."
She could see the regret on their face instantly, but it hardly registered over the way the words made her blood boil.
(you failed you failedyoufailedyoufailed)
"We're Union Leaders!" she shouted, voice raw. "We were appointed for a reason. And maybe we couldn't save the world, but I'd like to see anyone else do better."
It felt like something was sinking into her bones, exhausted and grieved, and her legs shook badly enough that she didn't think they'd hold her up for much longer, and that just made her angrier. No. No, you need to keep going. You need to not think about—
(About Lauriam, checking in on them. About Ven, excited and bright and not always as confident in himself as he should be. About Ephemer, a mischievous glint in his eye as he talked to her about some rumor or project. About—
About the end, Lauriam roaring in unfamiliar anger, Ven the unwilling villain and more willing sacrifice, Ephemer trying so hard to keep it together but being forced to—)
"You don't know us," she said, a sick feeling curdling in the pit of her stomach. "None of you do."
She couldn't be here. Starlight itched in her hands, and everything felt weighty and uncomfortable, legs almost leaden. She moved anyways, pushing past the stranger, heading off through the dust.
She thought she could hear Brain shouting after her. She didn't care. She just needed to—to not think for a while.
"Come on," she hissed, eyes scanning the shadows. Starlight cut an arc through the air. "Come on. You kept popping up before. Where are you now?"
The shadows moved. Starlight moved with them, cutting through the Heartless before they'd even fully had time to form. "Come on!" Skuld shouted, Starlight bleeding black.
Yellow eyes flickered from crevices, crawling from under roots and behind bushes, and Skuld kicked into motion. Fighting had a familiar rhythm to it—something she could sink into without thinking, so long as no one else was with her. Slash, spin, parry—she moved in a blur, everything an endless see of shadows and brief bursts of magic that made her chest burn.
Clang! Starlight crashed against something metal, and she disengaged, ready to pursue—
That's a Keyblade.
It took her a moment to recognize Brain—he'd stepped out of range, dismissing his Keyblade and lifting his hands in a placating motion. "Hey."
"Hey," Skuld repeated, breathing heavily.
Brain studied her a moment, then settled on a piece of debris with a slow exhale.
Skuld couldn't relax enough to sit by him, but she lowered her Keyblade.
Neither of them said anything for several long, long moments. "You ready to head back?" Brain asked finally.
I want to go home, some part of her whispered, and it hollowed out something inside her. "I thought we had to finish checking for Heartless."
"World's probably fine, from the look of things. Think you took care of the last of the Heartless problem."
She thought it was probably supposed to be a joke, but it ticked at that angry thing in her chest, fingers gripping her Keyblade so tightly her knuckles turned white. "We're Keyblade wielders. That's what we do, right? Protect worlds?"
Brain's breath hissed between his teeth. "Skuld—"
"I'm just doing my job."
Brain studied her, leaning forward with his hands resting on his knees.
"…Where's—the other wielder?"
"Left them back there." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Figured it might be better." And then: "You going to tell me what happened back there?"
"Nothing. A Heartless almost killed someone and we destroyed it. It's just like it was back in Daybreak Town."
Brain raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the clearing. "Looks like you're handling it well."
"Like you're handling it?" she snapped, and then deflated when his expression shuttered. She…didn't really want to fight with her friend, for however frustrated she was. "Maybe we should go back," she agreed hollowly.
Brain pursed his lips; he didn't look entirely happy with the response, but he didn't say anything else.
Skuld dismissed Starlight. She wanted to apologize; she wanted to run and hide; she wanted to rest. In the end she just trailed behind him, suddenly spent.
She could feel the stranger staring at her when they got back. She didn't look back at them—not as Brain opened the portal, not as they stepped through, not as they left, heading back through streets that felt too familiar to be foreign.
(Skuld thought she should've felt guilty. Mostly she just felt tired.)
-The Book of Prophecies might've been a useful tool if it wasn't so damn vague. Not for the first time, Frigga found herself cursing her ancestors for not leaving behind something more useful. Still, for all the half-backed prophecies and riddles, she could tell one thing: the other missing Union Leaders weren't supposed to appear until much later.
Ventus was the second, after Brain. She traced the text of the Book, checking it against her notes. Lauriam the third. Skuld should have been the last. She leaned back in her chair and exhaled a long, slow breath. What changed? Has it changed before? She laughed, quiet and dry. How useful is a Book that doesn't have the future quite right?
Someone knocked.
She took a breath and straightened, carefully closing the Book and sliding it out of sight. "Come in."
The door creaked quietly, and a familiar figure stepped into the room. Ah. Her 'spy,' then. She hadn't gotten their name, but their teacher had said they were making incredible progress. "A prodigy. If I didn't know better, I would've said they'd done this before." They should've been able to keep up with the Union Leaders, hopefully.
They looked pensive, head lowered, seemingly lost in their own thoughts.
Frigga cleared her throat.
They started.
"I believe you have something to report?"
Their expression steeled into something a little defiant. It was funny, almost. "The world had Heartless. The Union Leaders fought them." And then, "Why didn't you tell me they were both Union Leaders?"
They'd told them, then. That was surprising, given Brain's paranoia—then again, maybe Skuld had convinced him it was better not to keep it a secret. That could be useful. "I needed an honest assessment of her abilities—not something clouded by your perception of her story."
They frowned. "She seemed…capable. They both did."
It felt like there was something they weren't telling her. That was alright, though; she could guess. "Did anything unusual happen?"
"I wouldn't know," they said, voice quiet and careful. "It's my first time seeing a world form."
You're an interesting one, aren't you? "Very well," she said. "I'd still like you to fill out a written report—particularly about the Heartless. Thank you for telling me in person."
The wielder dipped their head. They left her office, footsteps measured.
Frigga let herself relax after they'd disappeared. "Well," she murmured, "your scars have certainly affected you, haven't they, Master Skuld?"
-"Skuld."
"Nope."
"Come on."
"No, it was yours first."
"You need to sleep somewhere—"
"There's a couch."
Brain ran a hand over his face; she could just catch his expression between his fingers, tired and frustrated. Really, Skuld wasn't feeling much different at the moment, and she planted her feet stubbornly.
"It's not like I use it that much," Brain grumbled, sending half a glare towards the subject of their argument: the bed.
"Now you'll have to."
"You're not going to guilt me into—" He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is stupid."
"It is. Take the bed."
Brain glared at her.
She sat on the couch pointedly.
A pillow hit the back of her head.
"Hey!"
Brain leaned over the back of the couch to give her an exasperated look. "You can't just—hey!"
Skuld almost smiled as she pulled him over the back—and then had to fumble to keep him from falling on the floor, Brain scrambling to try and keep himself on the couch. It ended with both of them hitting the floor, Skuld groaning as her shoulder smacked painfully with the ground. She sighed, sprawling on the ground. "I'll just…stay here."
Brain huffed a quiet laugh. "Guess that's one way to solve the issue."
Skuld rolled onto her back, arms splayed across the floor. Fabric rustled as Brain stood, footsteps loud in the quiet apartment.
"Hey, Brain?"
"Hmm?"
"I—nothing." She let out a slow breath, unspoken words escaping with it.
A blanket fell across her face.
She jolted upward, fumbling in surprise.
Brain sat beside her. He raised an eyebrow and passed her a pillow.
She accepted it with a tired smile, then hit it lightly against his head.
He snorted and hit her back.
She fell back against the floor, too tired to really pursue the pillow fight. Her heart thumped quietly; her bones ached, eyes heavy, something weighty on her chest.
"Things will look better in the morning," Brain promised, but he didn't sound entirely like he believed it.
Skuld stared at the ceiling. "Yeah," she said, half-hearted. "They will."
-"Up early, huh?"
Daybreak Town was still dark; under most circumstances, Skuld might've expected the Foretellers' Chambers to be empty. Still, she wasn't as surprised as she would've liked to be to see Brain sitting at his desk already. "So are you," she said, giving him an accusing look.
"Well, had some stuff to get done."
"…Were you here all night?"
Brain glanced aside, expression shadowed by his hat.
"Lauriam's going to kill you when he finds out."
"Lauriam doesn't have to know. Unless you also want to explain why you're up so early." He raised an eyebrow.
Skuld winced. "We won't tell him." She pulled out a chair and settled where she could get a better look at what Brain was working on.
He caught her, apparently, because he lifted a vial and shook it a little bit. "Spirit adjustments."
"Again?"
"They could use some improvements."
Skuld rolled her eyes, but she could feel a smile tugging at her lips. "Sure."
Brain worked in silence for a little bit, and Skuld sat and watched, arms folded on top of the table, head pillowed there as she tried not to fall asleep.
"…You going to tell me why you're up?"
Skuld started.
Brain studied her, then gave a pointed glance at the empty space in front of her arms.
"Just…couldn't sleep."
"So you came here."
"I figured there was at least someone here to bother." In truth, she'd mostly just wanted somewhere else to be. Her room had felt too dark and lonely, so she'd left, and wandering the halls of the Clock Tower could only keep her going for so long.
"…You had nightmares, too?"
That wasn't Brain; the voice came from the door, and Skuld winced, then pushed herself up and looked towards Ephemer. "You…?"
"Not me," he said with a sheepish, tired smile, and stepped out of the way.
Ven fidgeted in the doorway, looking embarrassed. Lauriam had bent over, talking to him quietly, but now he straightened and gave Skuld and Brain both unamused looks.
Skuld smiled sheepishly and waved.
Brain sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Well. Guess I'm not getting any more work done tonight."
"You should be resting," Skuld and Lauriam chorused, then glanced at each other.
"So should you," Lauriam pointed out, but there was an understanding look in his eyes.
"I tried," she offered with a weak smile.
Ephemer took the seat next to her; she hadn't even noticed he'd been carrying a pillow until he smacked her lightly with it, and she laughed and shoved it aside.
"Ephemer said we could have a sleepover," Ven whispered; he looked tired, too, heavy bags underneath his eyes.
Something in Skuld's chest twisted, and she stood, coming closer and wrapping an arm around Ven's shoulders. "That sounds like a good idea."
"Please actually sleep," Lauriam said, and it took her a moment to realize that he was looking at Brain, not any of them.
Brain smirked. "I'll be fine; can always use coffee to get me through the day, right?"
Lauriam made a noise that sounded somewhere between distressed and frustrated.
Skuld narrowed her eyes, then stepped closer and dragged him out of his chair.
"Wait—hang on—Skuld."
"Nope. You're joining us."
Ephemer grinned and lobbed his pillow at him. It smacked Brain in the side of the face; he fumbled to catch it, then flashed his friend a mutinous look.
Skuld let go of him finally, smiling as Ephemer flashed her a thumb's up.
Brain sighed, but settled on the floor, anyways, making only a mild noise of protest when Lauriam dropped a blanket over him.
Ven had already settled near the table, hugging a pillow to his chest. He looked distant, weighed with something Skuld didn't entirely understand, and she settled beside him and knocked her knee gently against his. "Do you want to hear a story?"
Ven's eyes brightened, just a little. "Really?"
"Yeah. It might help all of us fall asleep."
"Do you have something in mind?" Ephemer asked, leaning halfway over the table to try and get a better look at them.
"Do you?"
"I heard some interesting rumors—"
"No," Lauriam interjected.
"But—"
"No."
Skuld laughed; Ven tried to cover his up, but he still quivered with amusement beside her. "I can think of something," she promised.
Ephemer joined them finally, sitting on Skuld's other side. Lauriam lay down close to Ven, looking like he was already halfway back asleep. Brain pulled his hat down and propped himself up—still against his chair, she noticed, but she had a feeling he'd be paying attention, anyways. Ven looked at her, eyes bright and curious, and Skuld smiled and launched into a story—something pulled from childhood memories, filled with magic and heroes of old. Ephemer chimed in every now and again, and Ven reacted with excited exclamations and enthusiastic questions.
It didn't really help any of them get to sleep, but it chased the nightmares away, and maybe that was enough.
-The space beside Skuld felt empty. It took a moment for her to remember where she was; she'd expected to see the Foretellers' Chambers, dappled light spilling in through stained glass windows, her friends pressed warmly around her, and instead found herself in a quiet apartment, only one person within touching distance.
Skuld untangled herself from the blankets, careful not to disturb Brain. If she closed her eyes, it almost felt like they were back in the Clock Tower—their Clock Tower, not Scala's, and she breathed in slowly and held it, trying to ignore the way her eyes burned and her chest ached. If she tried really hard, she thought she could hear the others—Ven sleepily asking for a story or Ephemer chattering long after he was supposed to be asleep or Lauriam desperately, desperately trying to get the rest of them to be quiet.
When she opened her eyes, everything seemed achingly empty, the apartment dark and unfamiliar, stripped almost bare, all cold, sterile walls and floors as opposed to warm stained glass and comforting voices. Only one of her friends was here, but it almost made the missing pieces more apparent.
Skuld's skin felt like it was crawling. She rubbed her arms and exhaled a long, shaky breath. Something in her said to move, move, move, and it didn't take much to listen, hesitating only a moment to glance back at Brain. I won't be gone long, she thought. And besides, it's not like we haven't gone off on our own before.
Scala ad Caelum looked different at night. It wasn't completely silent—she could still hear people chattering, somewhere in the distance—but quieter than it was during the day, with its bustling streets and performers. The shadows settled over it a little like a shroud, fog rolling from the ocean in a way it hadn't with Daybreak Town. The city contrasted with her home in all the wrong ways, and yet somehow the strangest was that this felt more alive; she could pick out pieces of people's lives, forgotten toys and fliers pinned around the streets and the occasional animal scurrying through the shadows. Daybreak Town had felt more like a ghost town after the Keyblade War, colorful houses empty, sound muted because there simply weren't enough of them to fill the space anymore.
It didn't really surprise her when she ended up back at the fountain; she might've only been here once, but she'd kept track of the path, a part of her ever-conscious of where it was. She stared up at the stony memorial to her friend and clenched her fists so hard her hands shook.
"Oh."
She started, whipping around and nearly summoning Starlight.
A familiar face stared back at her—the stranger, still looking at her in muted shock.
Skuld released a slow breath, relaxing out of her fighting stance, though not enough to get the tension out of her shoulders. "Still spying on us?" She blinked furiously and looked away. "I just wanted to see my friend. You can tell Frigga that, if you want."
The stranger didn't say anything; Skuld wished they would just leave, but to her dismay they came closer, footsteps quiet and controlled. Skuld ground her teeth and almost considered leaving herself, but she'd come out here for a reason, and she wasn't going to be chased away because of some Keyblade-wielder-in-training.
Something hit the water with a quiet splash. It jolted Skuld out of her thoughts enough to give it a curious look: a coin, gradually sinking towards the bottom. There were a lot of them, now that she was looking, little flickers of metal glinting dully under the surface.
"For good luck," the stranger whispered when she cast them a curious glance.
"Luck," Skuld repeated. She didn't know if she wanted to pursue that or not.
The stranger hummed a quiet acknowledgement. "And wishes."
"Because he was the founder."
The stranger nodded.
Skuld stared at the coins and wondered why that made her feel strangely bitter. "Maybe I should've brought something with me," she said, and no matter how hard she tried some of that bitterness still leaked into her voice.
A hand nudged hers; she jerked away, ready to snap at them, but the stranger was extending a coin towards her. She stared at it, then at the stranger.
The stranger's expression was…more open than it was before. It was soft. Sad. Understanding in a way that made her want to hide. It turned slightly exasperated after a moment, and they pushed the coin a little closer to her.
"I don't have anything to wish for," she said, but she was startled enough the animosity disappeared.
The stranger looked pointedly at the statue.
"Wishing for him to come back wouldn't matter. He's…gone."
The stranger gave her a long, searching look, then turned back to the coin in their hand. After a beat they flipped it into the fountain. "For the others."
Some strange mix of gratitude and grief and frustration twisted in her chest, and she found herself asking, "Why? You don't know me."
"You—" They broke off, expression twisting in mild frustration. They lifted their hands instead, starting to sign, "You are—" And then. Paused.
It took her a moment to realize why. "I understand. Sign, I mean." An entirely different kind of grief twisted in her chest. "We—I had a friend who used it. Sometimes." She glanced back at Ephemer's statue. "Not often, though. They were…expressive. They used a lot of body language to get their meaning across. But no one really remembers that." She sucked in a breath and tried to ignore the way it rattled. "But Ephemer and I learned, anyways. To make things easier."
The stranger looked a little lost at that, something almost grieved in their expression. It was gone after a moment, and Skuld didn't have much time to wonder at it before they started signing, "You're lonely. You're missing people that were important to you. I understand that."
It was a connection she wasn't sure she wanted—not from someone who'd essentially been assigned to spy on them. I shouldn't talk to them. Not when they're probably just looking to get more information for the council.
She could turn away if she wanted; she didn't have to pay attention to them. But she didn't, and because of that she saw their face go soft and distant as they continued, "I have memories of people who I know were important to me, once. I don't know where they went, or why. I just know that I miss them." They gave Skuld a sheepish look. "You remind me of one of them."
It made Skuld tense. "Frigga tried that, too, you know."
They looked lost for a moment, and Skuld wondered whether they were actually confused or if they were just a really good actor. The confusion transformed to realization, then resignation. "I'm really not here for you," they signed. They glanced at Ephemer's statue, something sad and wistful in their expression. "I'm here because when I see this statue, I think of them. And because I hope that maybe if I keep wishing, one day they'll come back."
Skuld's throat tightened. "I guess that's something we have in common, then," she said. Quieter, she whispered, "I hope you find them."
The two of them stayed there in silence—not quite awkward, not quite companionable. She couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking—if they really meant what they said or if this was just a trick. Brain's rubbing off on me, she thought almost wryly. I want to believe them.
After what felt like an eternity the stranger whispered, "I'm sorry. About before."
She swallowed. "So am I."
The stranger dipped their head and slowly turned to leave.
Skuld took a breath, summoned her courage, and said, "You never told me your name, you know."
They hesitated. Looked back at her with a curious expression. And then smiled, small but genuine. "Mimir."
I think I've seen the Player using sign language a few different places, but the main ones I remember are from thetwilightroadtonightfall's fics and some of psianabel's fics both on Ao3 and on Tumblr. (And if you like UX stuff you should check out both authors!) It felt appropriate if I wanted them to have actual, like…extended conversations, haha.
And I finally caved and gave the Player a name, haha. They're going to be an important enough character in this fic that I don't think I can dodge around it this time. 'Mimir' is a Norse god that, as far as I can find, is at the very least associated with memory, so it felt fitting for the character. (Though I was very tempted to just name them Xehanort, haha, with the idea that they named the future kid after themself for…reasons that might make sense later.)
