Maka jerked upright, breathing hard. Even as she blinked away the sleepy haze from her eyes, her dream slipped from her fingers and all she could remember aside from the pressing sense of urgency, was a voice whispering about time.

Soon though, even the voice slipped away, and she fell back onto her mat to catch her breath, but something dug into her back. Grunting, she arched her back to lift her torso off the mat beneath her and pushed her hand underneath her back to find what was bothering her.

Her hand clasped around something hard, circular and thick, and when she pulled it out from under herself, she was amazed.

It was shiny, made of metal, though dull in some patches. She traced the pattern on the front with the tips of her fingers, trying to think of where she had found it. Then she remembered, as the cobwebs of sleep finally cleared from her mind, that she had found it while digging with her family to sow new seeds for the new year. She had cleaned it and kept it safe, for while she shared everything else with her siblings, she just wanted this one thing for herself.

Her sister murmured beside her and Maka quickly tucked the pendant—for surely that was what it was, it even had a loop at the top for the string to go through—away in her skirts and pushed herself back upright.

"Time to wake up Tsugumi," she said softly, but cheerfully, dream all but forgotten. She shook her younger sister's shoulder. "Before Mama and Papa come and wake us." Tsugumi whined. "Or they'll be cruel and send Black*Star."

Tsugumi whined louder but pushed herself up, rubbing sleep from her eyes and yawning. "He's a jerk when he wakes me up. He jumps on me even when I tell him I'm getting up." She pouted. "He's so mean to me on purpose."

Maka smiled and patted her on the head. "But he wouldn't have to do that if you just got up when you were asked," she said sweetly.

Maka pushed herself up off the ground and brushed herself off before holding a hand out to help her sister up.

"Let's go eat," she said. "Before Mama lets the porridge go cold, or all to Black*Star."

Out in the fields with her family (Mama, Papa, two sisters and a brother), Maka felt the sun pound down on her. When she had been younger, working in her bent position had played hell with her back, but now that she was nearing adult hood (and marrying age as her mother never let her forget), she had learned to ignore and deal with it pretty well.

She remained focused on her task as the sun moved from the eastern horizon up to the middle of the sky, not looking up from her work until her youngest sister, Meme, called to her.

"Isn't that the Lord and his sons? I thought they both had white hair?"

Maka stretched upright and let her back crack satisfyingly. She looked in the direction Meme was pointing and sure enough there was the Lord Evans that owned their land (and technically their farm, their food and their lives) riding just on the other side of the low wall that marked their farm. His horse was a shining white, and he sat high and mighty in the saddle.

Behind him were two other men who were also on horse-back, his two sons as Meme had said. The eldest and the heir to the land rode directly behind his father, on a black stallion whose coat gleamed in the noon sun. He sat as tall as his father did, shoulders back and chin high.

And behind him came his younger brother—who in truth could be barely more than a boy—on a brown horse, cutting quite a different figure. The youngest son was slouched on his horse, almost drooping under the sun.

But the main difference between the three horsemen were their hair colours. While Lord Evans and his heir had fine dark hair, the younger son had pale blonde hair. In the bright sunlight, it looked as white as his father's horse.

"Don't stare so openly Meme," Maka hissed after a moment's glance at the nobles. "We'll get in trouble. And don't point!"

Meme grumbled and went back to work but Maka stayed upright a moment longer to stare at the younger son. She watched his father turn and back something at him, which made him sit upright and spur his horse to keep pace with his brother's. As she watched, she tucked her hand into one of her pockets to clutch at her metal pendant thing, and felt a small connection to him.

She might have even stared a little longer and dared her sister's whining at her hypocrisy, but the younger son turned his head in her direction suddenly and she bowed down to keep working, though not quite quickly enough to escape making eye contact.

Much later, in the evening, when she was tending to the plough horse, she thought about the younger son. It was impossible, but when their eyes had met, she had had the distinct feeling that she had looked into his eyes before. Even though that was closest she had ever been to him, and she could not have seen it from so far away, she knew his eyes were as red as fine wine, and even more intense.

Even as she thought about intense red eyes partially hidden under dishevelled pale hair, she felt a shiver travel down her spine.

Maybe there was a reason the Lord Evans kept his son mostly out of the eyes of the general population, aside from embarrassment and to avoid gossip.

She crossed herself and took a steadying breath. It did not help. Her feeling was far too human for the God above to help her.

The next evening, instead of falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, Maka found herself unable to lie still. The thought of the younger son and the intense red gaze she was sure he had still rattled in her mind and was driving her crazy, and for the second night in a row.

She tried to lay on her side and focus on the sound of her sister's even breaths as she traced the pattern on the front of her metal pendant. Maka tried to get her breathing to match Tsugumi's but her heart would not be calm down and neither would her soul.

As time passed slowly, she felt herself become even tenser than she had started out. It was like she was waiting for something to happen, even if she did not know that what something was.

Eventually, she grew sick of just lying there, and slowly got to her feet so as not to disturb her sister, intending to take a quick walk to tire herself out. Tsugumi snuffled a little and she froze. However, her sister merely rolled over and curled up, continuing to breathe quietly. Maka let out a quiet sight of relief.

She grabbed her metal pendent and tucked it into her pocket safely, and made her way out of the room. Once she left the house silently, she put her hand into her pocket to clutch at her metal pendent. Even just holding it as she walked made her feel a little better, a little more at ease. Like it was a talisman to guard her against evil things.

She walked in the direction of the woods that bordered her family's farm and was often used by Lord Evans for his hunting parties. It was a fair distance from her family's home, so it would probably be enough to walk there and back, even if she did not enter it.

A brisk pace carried her to the wood's edge quickly enough, leaving her to stare into its darkness and wonder why her soul would not be still enough for her to rest. She looked over her shoulder, back towards her home and bit her lip.

She did not feel even the slightest bit tired, and did not want to go back yet. But that left actually going into the woods, and all sorts of dangers could be there.

Maka sucked in a deep breath at that thought and squared her shoulders, tilting her chin back and holding her head high. She was no coward, she had held her own against her older brother since they were children even though he had always been bigger than her, had fought off men who had tried to steal from her family and forced them to run off limping, had worked the land since she could walk. She was strong and she was capable. She could handle a little wood.

With that she marched through the trees, keeping her senses on high alert, hoping that focusing on keeping herself safe would both keep her mind off her unknown dread, and tire herself out so she could go home and sleep.

As she walked, she felt herself almost compelled to walk in a certain direction. In her pocket, her hand clenched tighter around her pendent to draw more courage from it.

As she walked, her heart beat increased, as did her anxiety.

A twig snapped behind her and she jumped wildly, whirling around and raising her fists in preparation for defending herself, just about biting back a scream and nearly flinging her pendent out of her pocket.

When she turned, she saw someone standing a little bit behind her, obscured in the darkness so she could only see their outline and a single defining feature standing out in the blackness.

White hair.

Oh God, it was the Lord's younger son. He could do anything to her and she could not fight back without putting her family's lives and livelihood in jeopardy. Her mouth dried as she desperately wished she had never come into the forest, that she had just stayed home and said her prayers again. She would fight for her life and her virtue if it came to it, and if it lead to her family being evicted then she would accept the consequences, but she did not want it to come to that.

However, the boy—who a little further up close did in fact look more like a man—looked just as alarmed as she felt, taking a single step back. Moonlight peeked through the leaves above them and reflected off his wide, red eyes.

"I, uh, I'm sorry!" he blurted. "I didn't mean to disturb you." He took another step back and his face became shadowed again. "Or frighten you," he added. "Sorry."

Maka was silent for a long moment, staring at him in shock. Stiffly she put her fists down, though she still kept her hands clenched tightly. "No need to apologise, my lord," she said. After a brief moment of thought, she curtsied too.

He made a strange strangled sound in his throat. "You-you don't have to call me that." He paused. "My name is Soul."

Her mouth flapped like a fish for a moment. "It would be wrong to call you—," she started, but was quickly interrupted.

"I don't care about the right and wrong of social etiquette to honest." He took what sounded like a shuddering breath and a step towards her so the moonlight hit his face again. She could see an uneasy frown twist his lips. "Nobody ever deigns to call me by my name anymore, so please, just Soul."

"Soul," she echoed, testing it. It felt…familiar and nice. After a beat of silence she said, "My name is Maka."

He blinked at her, then gaped a little before a small smile formed on his face. He repeated her name in the same way she had done for his. "It's nice to meet you."

A slightly incredulous smile tugged at her lips as she replied, "Same to you."

They fell into awkward silence, as Soul rubbed the back of his neck and Maka shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"Soooo," he said eventually. "What brings you to the woods at this time of night?"

She licked her lips and thought about lying. "I couldn't sleep," she said truthfully in the end. "I thought a walk would help."

He hummed and nodded and rocked on the balls of his feet. "Same here. The house can be…confining."

She hummed in return though she could not say she understood the feeling. His family home was so much larger than hers, and she had never thought of her own family home as 'confining'.

After some more silence, Soul said, "Would you mind if I walked with you for a little? I'll keep my distance, I just—I'd like the company, I guess."

Maka's hands had begun to relax but they clenched up again at his request. He did not seem very threatening, and he had not tried anything so far, so she supposed he could be trusted, at least a little. And though he did not seem to want to acknowledge it, he was still one of Lord Evans' sons. It would be best to do as he asked.

"If you wish," she replied coolly. She turned on her heel slowly and began to walk, pace slow enough for him to follow.

He caught up to her and kept in stride with her, though he did keep his word and stayed a little distance away from her. They walked in silence for a while and as they did, Maka tried to rack her mind for an excuse to leave without being rude or putting herself at risk; or at least something to say to break the empty silence.

She stuffed one hand back into her pocket to grab her metal pendent. Feeling it in her hand brought back the strange sense of comfort, but also a homesickness she could not understand. For a brief moment she thought about showing it to Soul, but dismissed it as stupid. It would probably be met with confusion and scorn.

But even as she tried to purge the thought from her head, it grew. The compulsion to show him her object grew, to see if he knew what it was with his learning, to see if he would accept it where her brother had laughed at her.

Just as she opened her mouth and began to pull her hand out of her pocket, holding her pendent, someone yelled out not too far away from them.

"SOUL! Soul, where are you!?"

The two of then froze and looked each other, panic written on both of their faces.

The voice called out again, this time joined by more, echoing, still calling out to find the wayward son of the Lord manor.

Maka stayed looking at Soul for one more moment, swayed by the almost devastated look in his eyes. He did not want her to go, did not want to be alone, she could see it. But the sound of men shouting coming closer made a shameful fear spread down her spine, and she bolted, running away from Soul and those who were looking for him, towards home and safety.

A feeling she could only describe as regret settled into her stomach as she ran, growing stronger as she put more distance between herself and the poor, lost soul of Lord Evans' youngest son.

She ran faster once she left the woods, having no desire to be caught out in the open. She made it home though, fortunately, without any mishap, and shut the door quietly behind her. She took a moment to stand in the main room and catch her breath, willing her mind to stop racing and her heart to stop galloping loudly.

She felt flushed and sweaty, and her hands started shaking slightly from the aftermath of her flight. She closed her eyes and forced herself to take long deep breaths, slowly but surely feeling her body relax.

Silently she crept back into her room and lay down on the mat next to her sister. Exhaustion weighed her eyes and down and she tried her best to sleep, but her mind would not let her.

She curled up, cradling the pendent in her hands carefully. Finally, she became so exhausted that she slipped into an uneasy sleep.

Maka opened her eyes and she was in a large empty room with a man who did not seem to have a face.

For a moment she was deathly afraid that she had died and this was hell, but when the man without a face spoke her name, her memories returned and her frustration built.

"I was so close!" she yelled. "I nearly—! Ugh!"

The faceless suit man watched on silently as she tugged at her hair and screeched through clenched teeth. She stomped her foot in fury and desperately wanted to hit something. She just wanted this whole thing to be over, she didn't want a soulmate, had never wanted a soulmate, love like that could never exist!

Maka scrunched her eyes closed and tangled her fingers in her hair close to her scalp, trying to ground herself and focus on something else than her fury. Losing her temper would not do much, would not change her situation. It would only waste time.

Forcing herself to take several deep breaths, she forced her anger back down, or at least tried to.

When she felt at least a little calmer, she straightened her back and pulled her hands from her hair. She strode towards the faceless man and the mannequins beside him.

The clothes on the mannequin looked fairly modern, but still different from the clothes she was used to from her own time.

She turned to the faceless man with a raised brow, curiosity bubbling in her stomach despite her still simmering anger. "Where-when am I going next?"

He smiled a little, or at least she thought he did, it was hard to tell when she could not look at his face for too long. "Somewhere different. A little closer to home."

She scowled and moved the room divider to block him and to allow herself to change. She had was in no mood for any humour the faceless man was developing.

She stopped though when he continued, "The future. Specifically, the twenty-second century in Australia."

She blinked and a little smile curled at her lips. "Huh," she said. "Cool."