Chapter Twenty-Nine | By the Fire

"Brother? You're my-"

"I swear to god if you say aunt I'll punch you," she growled half-heartedly into his shoulder. "Right in the bollocks." A tearful laugh flew from her lips. "I'm too young to be an auntie. 'Specially when we're the same goddamn age."

"Still…"

"Oh, don't be a prick." Rolling her eyes, Quinn pulled away from Ace and squeezed his shoulder once for good measure. "Ruined the moment."

He smiled, though it was a confused one, as if he was still unsure about her reaction to his revelation. "You said his name was Sirius?"

That simple question drew a grin out of Quinn that she hadn't worn since Hagrid came stomping into that shack, barely a few scraps of wood flailing upon a spit of rock unworthy of being called an island.

"Sirius Black. He might have been the kindest, funniest person I've ever known."

"He was, was he?"

"My Godfather… he could be an idiot sometimes, but he was a good man who suffered far too much in his short life."

"Suffered?"

"He was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit." Quinn sighed, remembering clearly the Dementor's chill, a feeling that would stay with her the rest of her life, much like the unassailable torment of the Cruciatus Curse. "Britain, the country I come from, had been stuck in a civil war for… ten years at that point. A man named Tom Riddle led one faction, trying to return Britain to some idealized past. The path to which depended on genocide… it wasn't pretty," she added at his horrified look. "My parents, Sirius, and a few other friends opposed him, and towards the end of the war they were told about a prophecy. That their unborn child – me – alongside another, a friend of mine in fact… one of the two of us was fated to be Riddle's downfall."

"Prophecy? About kids that weren't even born yet?" Ace shook his head, clearly astonished. "I heard about a mermaid once that could predict the future. Can't imagine what that kind of thing would do to you."

"Every seer I ever met had a screw loose or was outright mad. Again, not pretty. But I'm getting off track. Sirius," she emphasized, memory flashing an acrid green, the screams of a mother she never knew silenced by the sudden crackle of death manifest. "Sirius was chosen to be the secret keeper of my parent's home. Incredible magic where you hide the very concept of a place inside the heart of someone you trust. They can't live there or else the magic will unravel, and they're the only person who can tell others about the home, otherwise it's impossible to find. But Sirius was my father's best friend, and he knew he'd be hunted, so he convinced them to choose a different keeper. Peter Pettigrew."

The name dripped from her mouth like venom, thick as sap and rich with hatred. "Pettigrew betrayed my family, betrayed everyone standing against everything wrong with our world. He sold us out, handed Riddle the secret, and on the first night of Samhain he came to our home and killed my parents, and then he tried to kill me." Brushing her fringe aside, Quinn placed a finger against the remnant of the scar that split her brow, lancing across her right eye in jagged branches, a fractal of lightning seared into her skin. "Sirius found me in my crib, my parents dead – his best friends – and he immediately left to kill Pettigrew after ensuring I was safe. He didn't succeed and the crime was pinned on him.

"He spent twelve years in prison, breaking out when he had evidence that Pettigrew hadn't left the country. Once we came face to face… never been so happy in my life to meet a convicted murderer."

"...Shit, he went through all that? You went through all that? What kind of life have you lived?"

"Like I told you, one I had to fight for. Glad I did though, otherwise I'd have never ended up here." She gestured at the desert around them, the beautiful solemnity of a silent night. "I'd have never met you. Luffy. My… new friends," she added, that word having tasted of poison since her and Hermione's row. "But you! You! Tell me about you!"

"Eh?" Flummoxed, Ace sputtered and waved his hands about. "Well, I dont- I'm me but I don't know if my life is all that interesting-"

"Really!? You're well traveled, for one," Quinn interrupted, ticking down a finger. "You're a part of Whitebeard's crew, and mind you I don't really know anything about the man because of, you know, everything – but that's gotta' be a hell of a thing, right? What else?"

"Seriously-"

"Don't like talking about yourself?"

Huffing lightly and then nodding, he glanced away. "Never been a big fan of it. No."

"Well, how about this?" Rooting around in her pocket, Quinn snatched the mirror she'd been working on and flipped it between her fingers like a playing card. She pushed her magic into it and thought of a word as she did, imprinting its new owner's name into the very core of the object. "I'll give you this mirror, and if you ever feel like telling me a story you can give me a shout."

"Huh?" Taking the mirror from her, Ace turned it over in his hand and spied the etchings across its matte back, a frown pulling at his brow. "It's a… mirror. Just a mirror? What's it supposed to do? What's the trick?"

"See this?" Quinn took a second finished mirror and waved it in front of him. "Say Neidr three times into your own mirror and watch what happens."

"Nath-err?"

"Should be close enough. Well? Give it a go."

Bleeding skepticism, Ace brought the mirror up to his face and did as he was told. His confusion turned to awe in an instant when he spied Quinn's reflection through the mirror instead of his own. Jawing at the air, he flipped it over and back again, looking between her and the mirror with ill disguised awe.

"It's a… it's like a transponder snail," he murmured, frowning at the doubling of his voice from the mirror Quinn held. "You made this?"

"Sure did."

Whistling, Ace tossed it up and down a few times before returning to studying the mirror, as if by sight alone he could reveal its secrets. "...What's Neidr mean?"

"Serpent."

"Odd choice. You don't strike me as snake-like, but what do I know?" His eyes suddenly lit up, and Ace grinned. "What's mine?"

"Coelcerth. It means bonfire, or pyre. Simple, but it was the first thing that came to mind."

"Bonfire, eh? I like it. What uh- what language is that? I've never heard it before."

"Welsh. It was the language my father spoke. I wanted to learn it because, well- I never knew the man. Thought it'd make me closer to him, somehow. Actually… I hadn't thought about it, but I wonder why everyone here speaks English. Or French? I've heard Sanji speaking French every so often."

"English? This is Edic. And what the hell is a French? Wait- I actually- how do we both speak the same language worlds apart? That doesn't make any sense."

"Parallel world, maybe? Honestly I couldn't tell you. I don't understand a lick about dimensional travel because for one, that kind of research will drive you mad. And two, most people experimenting with it end up dying in truly spectacular ways."

"I was already planning on not thinking about it, so…"

"Don't blame you. And Ace?"

"Yeah?"

"Even Luffy knows when to ask for help," she stated, giving him a stern yet no less concerned look. "So don't be a hero, yeah? There's no need to shoulder everything on your own. That can go from asking your crew for help, or giving us a ring." Quinn waved her mirror at him. "And before you argue, you wanna' know what Luffy said the night I joined the crew?"

Somewhat defeated, Ace nodded.

"He said 'I'm not good at everything. But I don't need to be good at everything, because I've got you guys.'"

"...That sounds like Luffy alright."

"Wise beyond his years, and yet he can't do simple maths." Shrugging, she cracked her back and jerked her head towards the sandswept town behind them. "Last thing I'll say is this. It doesn't make you weak to ask for help. It just means you know your limits. Now, you wanna' see what the rest of those idiots are up to or do you wanna' keep moping?"

"I am not moping."

"Brooding, then."

"Fuck you."

"Well, I'm going over there to make sure they haven't set the village on fire. Have fun glaring at the sand!" Dusting the sand off her knees and giving Ace a cherry wave, Quinn flexed her magic, trying as she did to listen more than look as she searched for the crew. Glimmering auras appeared at the edge of her conscience, but try as she might she couldn't detect the voice that Ace had described, that whisper of a person's very being tied to Observation.

Even though she knew it wasn't something she'd solve immediately, Quinn couldn't help a glimmer of annoyance from welling up inside her.

This isn't magic, not like you know it, she told herself, her frustration being quashed with every sand strewn step forward. You can't just wave a wand and ask for something to happen, casting a spell that has been studied and broken down over the course of a century.

With the way Ace had described it – and how he was currently trudging along in her wake with his hands in his pockets and a stubborn tilt to his jaw (that much she could see without looking) – it wasn't just will. At least, haki was predominantly, overwhelmingly willpower, but that felt like a vast oversimplification. Because there were many different kinds of willpower, and not all of them were so easily defined. One could say great will meant great restraint. Another could easily see it through the lens of perseverance. This world didn't feel like one where something so plain could be the deciding factor in a battle. When Quinn thought of willpower, she thought of figures like Dumbledore and Voldemort – titans of strength that imposed their will on the world itself. They did not ask of magic, they demanded of it, made clear with nary a word spoken that the spell about to leap from their wand would cast true and strong. Magic would not dare deny them any demand, not when they breathed and moulded it as easily as the winds did the air.

How in the hell had Voldemort not turned her to ash? According to every rule of magic and strength alike, she should have died in that forest, that courtyard, and never awoken.

Haki felt, to her, like those great and terrible wizards she had fought against and beside. The ability to make the earth rumble not from power but presence alone, to hear the unspoken whispers on magic's breathless lips, to push not just that electric, implacable energy but a shattered fraction of something nearing divinity into a spell and fashion it into a bulwark, or something intended to bore through it.

It would take her time to attain even the most basic understanding of it. Or perhaps not, considering the other part of haki Ace had made mention of. That it bloomed in battle, and with Alubarna well ahead of them yet painfully close at the same time, they had many a battle in their future.

Round the corner she went, the ramshackle, sputtering train that was her thoughts screeching to a halt when the glow and smoke of a campfire came into view.

"Oi! Luffy! He didn't off me!" she shouted, strolling down the last of the sandy streets and eyeing the crew, most of them sat around a campfire. They waved to her, Sanji begrudgingly passing something over to Usopp as she grew closer before returning to the meat he was roasting, what was left of the great lizard they'd killed twirling on a spit. A little ways off, Luffy and Vivi stood with an old man swamped in layer after layer of ragged white cloth. The two looked up at the noise, Vivi waving at her and Luffy shooting Quinn a thumbs up.

Her gaze shifted, and to Quinn's surprise Nami was talking with Chopper and Marianne, the three of them looking over her climatact and chattering amongst themselves. Marianne's eyes lit up when Nami let bubbles fly from one end of the contraption and drift across the sands. It was a puzzle to them, one studiously ignored by Zoro who seemed to have… gotten into a staring contest with Matsuge, the two glaring at each other across the fire.

She paused to watch, Ace bumping into her and apologizing quietly, at which he was shushed.

"Did you just-?"

"Look."

He did, a small laugh rumbling in his chest when he followed Quinn's finger to its twin targets, Zoro and Matsuge ever so slightly leaned forward and squinting through the flames with a stubborn glint. Matsuge's bottom lip jutted out, nose wrinkling as he concentrated. On the other side, Zoro planted one of his swords in the sand, resting his chin on the pommel.

Suddenly, the meat on the spit made a sharp crack, fat burbling onto the flames below, and Matsuge winced, blinking sharply and turning to the noise. Zoro crowed a moment later and punched the air in triumph, catching Quinn's eye as his fist reached its apex, at which he immediately deflated. He tried to pass it off as a stretch, locking his elbow and brushing invisible dirt off his shoulder, a fierce blush flooding his cheeks and easily visible even in the flickering light of a campfire.

"This is how you guys act when first impressions wear off?"

"You haven't seen us drunk."

"Sounds just like the Moby Dick," Ace said wistfully.

"The Moby-? There's coincidences and there's coincidences."

"What? That the name of a famous pirate or something?"

"No, it's the name of a book – and a whale in the book. One of the most famous books of all time though."

"Well, our flagship is called the Moby Dick. And… it was made to look like a whale." Perplexed, Ace reseated his hat and hummed to himself. "Weird, that stuff like that keeps coming up. Do you think it means anything?"

Shrugging, Quinn felt as confused as he looked. "Haven't a clue. But it's not something for me to worry about right now. First, I need to talk with him," she groused playfully, pointing at Luffy. "And then I want to talk with Vivi. Get more information on Baroque Works so we know what to expect once we hit Alubarna."

Noticing her attention, Luffy grinned at Quinn and waved her over. "Hey! Come say hi to Vivi's old man friend!"

Quinn's heart swelled at his toothy smile, that same rush that had swept through her when Ace's words had clicked, returning with a vengeance. Family. Family. Found or not, to know that even the most tenuous of blood connections still remained filled Quinn with a heretofore unfamiliar sense of joy. She'd never put stock in that sort of thing. Reviled it, even, yet to her surprise and rank hypocrisy – the knowledge that the thread that tied her to her mother, to her father, and from there wound its way from her great aunt to the Black family, and finally to Sirius – remained unbroken? Damn it all, that barren thread with only a single string left un-frayed had never been so important to her until she realized it yet held strong.

If Luffy was Ace's family, and Ace was hers, the logic (to Quinn) was clear.

"Get over here you secret spilling bastard!"

"What?"

With a pop she appeared next to Luffy, lightly scraping her knuckles across the top of his head as her other arm got his neck in a lock, dragging him to the sand with her as she fell onto her side. "Hey! Hey!"

"Thought you were so clever, huh?" She grinned, ruffling his hair as he squirmed in her grip. He was strong enough to break out at any second but Luffy seemed to welcome the casual affection, the pout on his face coming across as more of a playful scowl. "Go talk to Ace! You're good at talking! You knew he was-"

Quinn cut herself off. It wasn't her secret to tell.

"Tricky, aren't you? Thought you'd treat your sister that way, did ya? Most pirate-ish thing you've done since I got here."

"Sis-? Oh!" His face lit up, cheeks stretched with unbridled joy. "He told you?"

"Sure did." In a lower voice, she hissed, "Bastard tried to call me his aunt when we're the same damn age."

"I told him that! See, Ace!? Aunt doesn't make any sense!"

"Yeah, yeah, you're right this one time," Ace grumbled half-heartedly, a nervous glance cast Vivi's way as he stirred up sand with the tip of his boot. "Better remember it Luffy, 'cuz it won't happen again."

Ever the paragon of maturity, Luffy stuck out his tongue.

"And who's this, Vivi?" Quinn asked.

"A friend," Vivi said, smiling at the man. "It really is good to see you, Toto."

"Ah, she does know my first name! Princess indeed!" The now dubbed Toto grinned down at Quinn and Luffy, the two of them still sprawled across the sand, before his gaze flicked away from them over to Ace, who nodded at the man in greeting. "I'm guessing these are the last of your friends?"

"They are. Although… Quinn, did you say-?"

"Later," she interrupted.

Making a show of locking her lips and tossing the key away, Vivi took Toto by the hand and gestured with her chin towards a distant hole in the sand Quinn had somehow not noticed. It was more of a shallow pit, really, a shovel propped up on its outskirts and an unstable heap piled together beside it. "Like I said earlier, we can restore the oasis for you."

"Hm? Oh yeah! Quinn, can you do some magic at the hole there? The water thing." Luffy wiggled his fingers in the general direction of the shallow, sandy pit. "The old man's been digging all day because of the storm."

"Magic? Your highness-"

"Vivi-"

"-you don't need to go to such lengths to help a stubborn old man like myself. I'm afraid work like this will take some good old fashioned elbow grease and not… something more fanciful."

Sounds like doubt to me, Quinn thought, untangling herself from Luffy and climbing to her feet. "I've got it."

"I don't-"

"Toto. Please, just watch."

Cracking her knuckles, Quinn slid down the side of the pit and planted her feet at the bottom, kneeling so that she could dig her fingers into the sand and pulse her magic into the earth. Well before they'd reached Yuba, even been given its name, Vivi said it was a famed oasis – the road between all roads of Alabasta, and where any traveler making their way across the harsh desert must stop to resupply. The waste that surrounded her must seem a mockery of the real thing.

A dozen feet below her she could sense water, the faint bubble and churn of it snaking through the sand in an effort to find air. The water wanted to rise, wanted to flow. Nature demanded it yet the oasis had been suffocated by Crocodile's incessant, petty attacks. Pushing her magic into the sand, Quinn began to carve at it with wide strokes, sweeping what looked like tides of dull gold aside and freezing it in place before suffusing it with heat. Ignoring the shocked gasp from Toto behind her, she focused that magic, that heat, with the intent of fusing it together. The oasis needed to be protected, self sustaining, shielded from future attacks in a way that could last. Her transfiguration wasn't up to snuff yet, not without a wand, so that meant she needed to improvise.

Which was why as the sand began to heat up, glowing red from within, Quinn worked her magic into it and encouraged it to shift, to change. She wanted it to take those next steps she had set it on of its own accord, magic advancing the pressure and heat that only an incredible catastrophe or time could provide. Sand was crystal, sand was quartz, and it could be made whole again.

The foundation of the vast well she was constructing began to take form, sheer white climbing upward, downward, laced through with billowing clouds of deep gray and purple. With every second that went by sand crept of its own accord towards the growing walls, bolstering it. It shifted beneath her feet, unsteady as each grain picked up pace, practically leaping into their new homes. All the while heat ebbed from the crystalline dam, her brow drowning in sweat that she blinked away, focused on the task at hand. Inch by inch, grain by grain, the sand was turned into a mighty wall that reached down to the bedrock, half-moons carved into its base to let the water flow freely, the blessed cool of it rippling round her ankles. Forcing rungs into the side of the still pliable well, Quinn began to climb, turning her magic now to the task of cooling it down. Condensation formed rapidly along the walls, and with a haggard breath, she heaved herself over the edge and onto the sand, listening as the water began to rush forward, eagerly filling the well.

With a final, almost lazy wave, a ring of bars formed around the outside, sturdy enough to latch a lid to, with a shallow ditch cast around the entire ring to keep it airtight in the case of a sandstorm.

Chest rising and falling, Quinn grinned up at the awed expression on Toto's face, tears pricking at his eyes and his jaw hanging wide. "Don't need to push yourself," she gasped, Luffy reaching out to her with his own matching smile. She took his arm and nodded in thanks as he yanked her to her feet. "It looks like you've already suffered enough as it is."

"I- I don't- how…?" Stammering, he stared uselessly at the well and the steadily growing reservoir within. Instead of speaking, he stumbled over to the edge and reached down, running his fingers through the water and laughing aloud, before bringing a cupped hand to his lips and drinking deep. On he drank, mustache dripping and more giggles spilling from his lips. "Thank you!" Toto suddenly sang, leaping to his feet and rushing Quinn, yanking her into a breathless embrace. "Thank you! Oh, thank you!"

He let go of Quinn just as quickly as he'd grabbed her, raising a fist and shaking it at the sky. "You see that!? Yuba will never die!"

As Toto taunted whatever gods he worshiped, Vivi slammed into Quinn's side, a thousand thanks pouring out of her. She patted her on the back half with amusement, half with exhaustion. Quinn had done too much today, socially and magically, and she was more than eager to have a bite, a drink, and a good night's sleep.

"Thank you so much. Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to Toto, to me," she said quietly, before grinning and taking Quinn's hand, leading her to the fire. "We have to celebrate! Zoro!"

"Yeah?"

"Sake time!"

Swept up in the sudden whirlwind, Quinn sat down next to Vivi at the fire and watched as Zoro produced a jug of sake from seemingly nowhere, raising it above his head before taking a deep swig. "Been waiting to bust this out!"

"Where the hell have you been hiding that?"

"Huh?" He shrugged at Quinn as he handed her the jug, an old fashioned thing with a length of rope wrapped around the middle of it. "Can't have my secrets?"

She glared at him, having a drink of her own, before passing it over to Vivi. A second later Luffy sprinted over, kicking up sand as he skidded to a halt, his arm stretched out behind him and Ace struggling in his grasp. Just as Luffy sat down, Ace tripped face first into his back, flattening his brother and himself, cursing the whole while. "You couldn't have let me just walk?"

Unbothered, Luffy helped him back up and smiled, his other arm snaking around to peel a chunk of roast meat off the spit and stuff it in his mouth. "We gotta' party!"

"Why?"

"Because I said so! And Vivi said so too!" he added, pointing at her.

Nami snickered, drinking greedily from the jug that had now made its way into her lap. "Captain's orders, I'm afraid."

"He's my brother, not my Captain."

"So?"

"Is it later, now?" Vivi whispered, leaning over to catch Quinn's ear.

"It's been ten minutes. Besides-" She glanced over at Ace, who caught her eye. "-It's not up to me."

Frowning at her, Ace's eyes went unfocused for a moment before he shook his head, and she jerked her chin in reply. Their silent conversation went unnoticed by Vivi, who shrugged. "If it's not yours to tell, it's not yours to tell."

"Cheers."

"Anyways, Toto! Come eat with us!" She raised a hand and waved the man over, who was still standing beside the newly crafted well and admiring it in solemn solitude. "You don't have to break your back digging up the oasis anymore!"

Her words shook him from his thoughts and he looked up, slightly dazed, his moustache twitching as his lips worked into a thin smile. "I fear I'll have to deny your offer, Princess. Looking at this well… I feel like I can relax for the first time since these troubles began."

Vivi blinked and then nodded. "Get some rest. We'll see you before we head off in the morning."

"Make sure to knock some sense into my son's head when you see him!"

"His son?" Quinn asked, watching Toto wander off towards his home.

"Oh, yeah, you weren't here for that… I don't- I can hardly picture it, but Koza – Toto's son, my friend – he's the leader of the rebels." Lacing her fingers together, Vivi's knee drummed up and down, her gaze cast to the dirt. "Tomorrow… we're changing course to Katorea so I can explain all of this- this mess-" she gestured at the sandswept town around them "-and get him to stand down."

"...Stand down? Vivi, I don't think telling him about Crocodile will stop this war in its tracks. How many people are ready to fight on both sides? Hundreds of thousands? We already traveled all the way here to talk to him and, seeing as the rebels aren't here, that idea's a wash." Running her fingers through her hair, Quinn sighed. "I'm sorry, but I think we need to take the fight straight to Crocodile."

"Same here."

"Jesus Christ, Luffy." Heart thundering in her chest, Quinn pressed a hand over it as if to slow its sudden gallop. "How the hell did you even sneak up on us like that?"

He squatted behind the two of them, gnawing the last bits of meat off a bone. "I can be quiet. Duh. Anyways, I think Quinn's right. We should kick Crocodile's ass."

"If I can talk to Koza I can stop the rebels-"

"Will that stop Croc?" Luffy interrupted, flinging the now cleaned bone over his shoulder. "You saw the ships, there's tons of those Barkworks guys all over the place, and they're gonna' start a fight even if you talk to your friend."

"And where are they anyways?"

"Near Nanohana."

Another sigh broke through Quinn's lips, and she pinched her brow, an ache swelling just below it. "Three days by foot and another few hours by ship, wasted…"

"It won't be wasted if I can just talk to Koza!"

At Vivi's shout a hush fell over the crew, their conversations dwindling to an abrupt halt and their attention directed towards the three of them.

"We're not going back all that way! And if you wanna' do that, I'm staying here!" Luffy buried both feet in the ground for good measure, rooting himself to the spot and then pointing down at it with a huff. "Right here!"

Before Vivi could retort, Quinn put a hand on both of their shoulders, her features locked into a stern glare. "Enough. Vivi, do you remember what I told you when I was sick?"

A fire in her eyes, Vivi nodded in reply, quite literally biting her lip so that she didn't say more.

"Good. Now… I know war, and you know that better than anyone else here. I'm going to say this as kindly as I can… and unfortunately, war is the opposite of kind." She paused, collecting her thoughts. There really was no proper way to frame what she was about to say, but she tried as best she could nonetheless. "Wars aren't won with words. At least, not words alone. This has been building for years, and you – the daughter of the King, the man the rebels see as the source of all their problems – your words won't hold any sway for any of them except for your friend and the most unwilling fighters. Crocodile has thousands of soldiers under his command, on both sides of the fight. Even if we talk to Koza, he'll make damn sure that blood is spilled, I can guarantee it."

Jabbing a finger into her palm, Quinn then pointed in the general direction of Alabasta. "You want to stop this war? You want to make sure that we save as many lives as we can? We kick down Crocodile's door and put the fear of god into every damned Baroque Works agent in this country. Cut the head off the snake, and the body dies with it. Once that's done, then you can talk. Then you can make your plea, explain to everyone who would listen what's actually happened. It will be messy, it will be bloody, but this is our best option."

Tears in her eyes, Vivi swallowed her anger and looked away, lip jutting out with stubborn fury. "...You're sure?"

"Completely."

Swallowing again, her knuckles dug into the meat of her thigh, fists trembling. Her jaw worked its way back and forth, and Vivi screwed her eyes shut, nodding a moment later. "Alright," she breathed, wiping away a few errant tears. "Okay. Luffy?"

"Yeah."

"We're going to kick Crocodile's ass."

Cracking his knuckles, his entire demeanor shifted, the fire that had been swelling within him now roaring as it was allowed to grow. "Good." Luffy stood, yanking his legs out of the sand and pausing, poking Quinn in the shoulder. "Told you so."

"Told me what?"

"You're good at talking."