….
Lucy laid down in her bed.
In her bedroom.
With all her old belongings.
And, she was trying to recall exactly how this happened.
…I… really hadn't remembered him.
…
"Now, now, dear. It's all going to end up being better. This is all going to end, and you're going to come back safely. I… just need to send you away for a while."
A stone was placed into her hand then. Purple, more like a gemstone than an opaque stone.
"Follow what drives you ahead, L, and remember me, okay?"
He stood up, pulled back his greying hair, and smiled for a moment. Then, he turned away.
A bright flash of light stabbed into her as she tried to head after him, and she fell into the floor as it gaped open in a quickly turning red spiral of quivering ground.
She jolted up and took a look around, watching the various patterns on the floor a few centimetres away from her face.
Ta-… what's here?
Something sharp had ended up on the surface of her eye. It burned as it floated about her blurring vision, until Lucy gave up trying to blink it out. She instead chose to carefully lift it from her eye with a light touch-
…never mind… a painful touch.
Lucy looked dimly at the quivering shard on the tip of her finger, noticing the unusual shimmering. She flicked it away into a corner, and started to head out of the door before flinching as a hook tore into her back.
DODGE. DANGER. THREATS.
One:
Quick spin to check all degrees of possible paths.
Two:
Hand forwards and release your magic in a concentrated burst.
Three:
Arrest your backwards momentum with a full body air release, steadying with the legs and alternate arm.
Halfdeads?
None.
Possessed Creatures?
Nope.
Mechanical warriors?
Zero.
…
…
Lucy stood, blinking away tears and the maladjustment to the light, trying to figure out what went wrong.
There was no magical construct in the room, so it wasn't like she had unintentionally activated a spell to rip her back open.
… right?
Lucy slowly reached towards her back, brushing against a jittering parchment-like material. She took a step back in surprise, and gave out a wince at a pain in her foot.
Lucy quickly shook her foot, lifted it up, and removed the offending material.
She looked at a small fragment of shimmery gold.
Glancing down caused her eyes to see, scattered amongst the wooden floorboards and the little patterns, a starburst of bright gold expanding from where she had fallen in her sleep.
No.
No.
This did not happen.
"You little bastard." she hissed. "You survive taking a ring the size of my torso. You outlast a room burning to ashes. Cannonballs, Axes, lizards, spiders, Lightning that kills people, the fist of a god…"
"AND YOU BREAK NOW. You decide that now is the time to just… break. Break from my weak ass body landing on you?"
The square didn't respond. That was a foolish idea to suggest. After all, the square is lying on the floor in many annoyingly sharp and painful fragments that could never be repaired. It wouldn't talk back.
She looked around for a dress, blouse, top, anything. Her search led her through old books, papers, boxes, belongings, and eventually…
… finally.
Clothes. Old, obviously, and from the dust on the box, and the existence of it under a floorboard under an annoyingly duplicitous dresser (populated by a small number of handwritten notes on air currents, crystal shapes, and…
Oh. This'll be interesting read, for sure.
"Their kid was a staff designer? Interesting. Good sketches, too. I can read that later, though. Now for… this."
… Needs work, but it'll do.
She held up her new outfit modifier, rolled up the cream blouse by a few inches, and fell face first onto the bed. Her arms tightly pulled forwards into the mattress, bound the wings fluttering to her back, and then she buttoned up the top to be as taut as she could make it.
Now, with her chest all prepared for the day, Lucy put on an over shirt, a second "overshirt" to count her current over-shirt as the undershirt, and pulled up her shorts and leggings she had set aside the previous night.
…
…
…
As an extra safety precaution, she put on two more shirts to get past the fact that she currently only had one brassiere that fit her, and it was definitely not clean with all the things she had to go through before now.
…Yes, she had gotten it cleaned through normal means… but she still wanted to put it all through the good old magical hurricane that was her washing technique.
"Maybe I can borrow my staff if I just use it to wash my clothes." Lucille muttered. There was truly nothing like using her beloved mage staff to get things done right.
…
She winced a moment remembering the previous days.
Worth a try, isn't it?
..
….
Lucy went down the stairs, and tried to guess which door in the hallway led to which room that belonged to which person.
After all, if she could just… repatriate the staff without any issues? Nothing time wasting like talking?
…
She shrugged. Well, guess I'll be efficient.
In a quick gesticulation, she reached out to her staff, trying to feel for it, focusing her eyes for a light of blue, her magic, or purple, her stone reflecting anything.
Not too much. Just a little bit. Centimetre.
Millimetre.
… micrometer movement's a bit too small, isn't it?
Little glimmering whorls started to flow from her fingertips, and a quiet shuffle came from near the end of the hall.
Footsteps came and grew louder, then a door swung open.
"Hey, there, Lucille. What's wrong?"
…
Lucille shrugged, again, and gave a… an awkward mumble.
Why? It's going to be weird to talk to him about this.
"Nothing! I'm fi-"
Lucille choked and had to take a long breath.
"Good. I'm good. Only a minor issue that needs my staff."
Kuro watched her with a look that appeared anxious.
"How can I help? Lucille. What's wrong?"
She closed her eyes. Why is this so hard all of a sudden?
Lucille mumbled her words under her breath to just get them out before trying to come up with something to say. "It's a personal thing. You can't really help."
"Is it about your… device-thing?"
…
…
…
She quietly turned to stare.
"What?" Lucille looked up at him with flickering eyes.
"Is it about the one gold object you previously used? The one you… broke?"
She stared dead at him. H… how did you know that?
Did you read my thoughts?
Are you listening now?
How did you know?
How did you know?
How do you know?
How do you know! NOW. Tell me.
Tell me. How?
HOW?
HOW. Did. You. Kno-
"Lucille. There's gold sticking out of your feet, and blood on the floor. If you're injured, you can just… say so."
She stepped back.
"No. I'm not injured. I just need my staff to get some things cleaned."
Kuro went forwards in reply.
"Yes. Your feet, which are bleeding. Lucille. There's no need to go around trying to hide how you're doing behind our backs."
….
...
It hurt, if he was being honest.
He was being honest. This hurt him deeply.
"I know you don't remember me… but I'm here to help."
Kuro slowly inched forwards, like you would for a dog you weren't completely sure was sane or just heavily prone to biting.
"Now can we get you some bandages for this? I don't want you to faint to the floor anytime soon."
Lucille… didn't move. "I don't faint."
"Lucille. I am going to bring you into a room and get bandages for your feet."
…
…
"Lucille."
She gazed into nowhere as he stood in front of her.
Lucille. Please just respond. This is far more worrying than getting a foot cut.
Kuro started as her hand reached out. She slowly brushed her hand against his hair, and started mumbling.
…
"What… do you say when I tried to cast a spell and it… did something very very bad…"
…
…
I hadn't thought she would try to do anything without her staff. Did she try to use her abilities without it?
…
"Are you looking… for a specific answer?"
"Just say anything."
Lucille tilted herself backwards and clasps her hands behind her back.
Uh… What to say? ….
Kuro tried to think of something.
"Staff down, girl. Let's try that again."
Lucille glanced at him and rocked herself on the balls of her feet.
"Closer… what could I say to lead him subtly to something closer…"
Kuro groaned exaggeratedly. "Lucille. Give me something to work with. Stop just playing around."
She started twitching her hands behind herself. The anxiously waiting was becoming rather tiring to him.
"-details… I should have gotten details on his daughter. Lucy, you idiot you should have thought this through better. They don't know you so why would they remember things you did? Ice mages have done all sorts of things and you can't just luck out on the proper connection-"
Kuro quietly stood, and listened.
… Lucy.
He thought back to the contents of a letter, and… felt something. Hope? Not precisely….
…more a small degree of realization.
Ivaldi, you were… close.
"Lucille. What… was this bad thing you did?"
"I… just… froze some things."
…
…
Are we going to have to defrost her roo-
…
…
Wait. No.
Kuro scoffed, and stretched for a second, giving himself more time.
Some things? You just froze… some things? Lucille, you turned multiple things into encased shapes of ice.
Rivers, creatures, trees… they had lost count after a long while, but it wasn't a few.
Kuro had a long bout of silence. It sparked Lucille's muttering to begin after she saw nothing change in his face.
"…too little. She was just a petty mage when she was with them. This isn't father. No wide scale feats. They just seemed the same for a mo-"
No wide scale feats?
That seemed to be a rather strange way to explain what his daughter had done… did before. Rather… insulting, honestly.
…She must have been trying to get information from him… to remember.
"Lucille. What… do you think you did?"
….
Lucy froze.
Everything.
It was a horrible memory, especially the feelings.
I killed… everything.
I… just… reached out and I killed.
If it had a life, I ended it. It was simple, really.
… why… was it so simple?
…
No. Don't cry now. I didn't cry...
"Lucille. How about you just give me a suggestion of what you're looking for?"
…
…
Fields of white grew out, mottled with dusted red and black in an expansive circle as far as the eye could see.
"I… caused a significant amount of damage.."
…
Everything slowed, froze and died.
A petty mage couldn't do that.
You needed power for such a deed. Only those who were strong could.
Such… a stupid, ignorant, foolhardy-
…
...
He released a sharp exhale. Kuro walked up to her, and squatted down to stand on her level.
…
…
Why do you look guilty? It's happening all over again.
…
"You didn't mean to do it that w-,"
…
…
… Ah. He had forgotten. She had.
He sighed, and thought back on how he talked to her before.
"Lucille. Everyone feels what you're feeling at least once. This is fear of isolation."
"You're not a monster. You're not a freak. And… most importantly… you're not alone."
….
Lucille… snapped. She looked up, gaped for a second, and cried out at him with everything she had left.
Why are you telling me that?
"What… is WRONG with you?! You… don't know me!"
I know you. Where do I know you?
"I just walked into your life, caused you problems, and… y…you don't even know what I've done! What I did. What I'm capable of doing." she shouted.
Why are you frowning?
"Are all adults just.. so all accepting of people these days? I am a freak!"
"You.. are my dau-"
Her eyes bulged slightly while she moaned at his slow response.
.
..
...
"GOD. You're honestly trying to dupe yourself? You can't even just tell me to shove off? You know I'm not her!"
"That…"
No. That's… wrong. …It feels wrong. But... I saw the look he gave.
She froze, and tried to formulate what was so…. Disturbing about this all.
"It's just a coincidence! That's it! It's all a great big series of events that's just likely enough to trick me into trying to take it seriously!"
…
She stared at him. "Coincidence."
Kuro frowned. "Lucille. You need to get calmer. You are becoming hyperactive."
"Noooo. That is it. You're trying to trick me."
She waved a finger and grinned. "Your story is weak!
…is it though?
"You can't even give me anything that actually supports your ludic-"
Kuro took a breath and closed his eyes. He was not going to let her manic behaviour get him confused.
"LUCILLE."
She stopped and waved her arms in a gesture, seceding the conversation to him. "Come on and speak. It won't do anything to change how I now know ex-actly what you're trying to do!"
Lucille smiled in a smug way.
He knew that smugness like the back of his hand.
Kuro stared at her for a moment, then, held his face in his hands to support himself before looked up and watched her.
She looked right back at him.
I'm a freak. I…everything. It's gone. It's all gone and it's all too cold.
Kuro took a quiet breath.
You… out of everything important you could have remembered… why did you choose that? There were far happier memories you must have made.
…
…
…
"Hah. You have nothing! Nothing to pro-"
"Frost. The frost is everywhere." he whispered.
She choked and wheezed out like he had slammed his foot into her chest.
"Wh-"
"Ahem…."
Lucille watched as Kuro cleared his throat.
"I never did ask you before you left… What was there to gain from any of that? It was probably fun for you, yes, but you went too far."
…
"-no. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't want to do it at all. I… had to."
She was talking under her breath, once again under the assumption that he couldn't hear her.
…
Lucille glared vehemently. "You just made a lucky guess. That's just what you did."
Her legs were shaking as she pointed at him. It…
It was sad, really. How much she hadn't changed.
"Here you are, saying you don't lose control." he chuckled.
"I don't. This girl is the one that can't control what she can do!"
"All right, then. You had control over your powers."
"Yes. I do." She replied.
"Which means you wanted to reach out and kill everything that moved."
Her eyes widened.
"You wanted to let it all freeze and shatter and break-"
"How?"
…
She took three steps back.
Ah. This was a good time to stop. He talked for too long.
"I'm sorry. Are you feeling less manic now, Lucille?"
…
"How do you know that all?"
…
"Because I was there," he explained.
"How do you know?"
"Lucille. Please calm down. You asked for proof. I gave it to you. I know what you did."
"No. How do you know?"
…
"How do you know?"
"I helped you rest after it happened."
"You did not. You're not him. You look different. You... sound different. You act different."
"People get older."
That… is all there was to it.
..
..
He smiled faintly and bit his lip. It was an old habit he hadn't…
"Stop that! Stop it! How do you KNOW."
Kuro turned to directly watch her shouting face.
...
Her lips are torn.
"Lucille."
"That's NOT my name."
He continued, like a quiet conversation was happening between friends.
"It isn't? It's quite a good name. I think I heard of it once before…"
… "Shut up."
"So… your family gave you a nickname. That's sweet. Where have I heard that name before…"
She glared at him. "You didn't. It's unique. Blatant lie."
"Your father had a good naming sense."
"Shut UP. Don't give that old man any kind of respect! The bastard abandoned me… and your plot's really badly flawed. It was nice to meet you and stay here for a few weeks.. but I'm going. Today."
Lucille furiously started trying to get past him, but he blocked the hallway and stared at her for a second.
"Let me through."
"No." he replied.
Kuro watched her. "How can I prove it?"
"You can't. There's nothing that you can do to prove you-"
…
…
"One chance." Kuro said.
Lucille furrowed her eyes at him.
"Vow that you will keep it."
Kuro nodded. "I can do that. I will keep my promise. If I fail; you can go without me trying to stop you."
...
...
...
She grinned at him.
"What is my name."
Kuro thought for a moment.
Or… he pretended to think.
"You don't know it. You can't know it."
… "How can I not know your name? Is it some impossible trick question?"
"I kept it a secret. Everyone just calls me Enchantress. You know, name yourself what your job is?
It only exists in one location, and that location is lost and buried by now."
…
"… please don't say I'm dead. This is all confusing, I can admit that. I'm sorry if that hurt you."
… she looked down momentarily.
"I do not know what you're suggesting." She said, clipped and quiet.
…
"My daughter wrote me a letter." Kuro said.
"I wrote it in a letter. I'll consider believing you if you can tell me everything about this letter. That's t-"
…
"She wrote it very neatly, and added little stars above the I and e letters."
Lucille stilled.
"It was almost like she had written it beforehand, since her handwriting was so well planned for having two minutes to write it or so as she was going away. I'm suspecting she overheard us talking about the fallout beforehand. She had asked me eight days before how to spell enraged because she had so much trouble with it crossed out three times."
"…"
"The man who had delivered it, did, in fact, throw it at me. It didn't hit my head; though, even though she had written that … ahem… 'I will have it thrown so hard at your head that it's never going to heal.' "
Lucille started tearing up, stuck in place like she was being pressed to the floor.
… "-there was something in it about names. I had given her a gift, so she said that, despite us being very unkind and hurtful parents, she cared. A bit.
…
-and we will after a long and hard period of regretting our actions, she hopes…
…Uh…
… Oh, yes. I think I remember it now."
Lucille just… stared at him.
"She hoped we would be willing to wait for the future arrival of one Miss Lucy Mantle, a… what was it… talented and capable young woman with incredibly good control over her magical powers."
…
…
…
Kuro blinked once and gave a loud gasp of surprise.
"Ah! That was it! I made a mistake in recognising you. I'm sorry, Miss."
He put on a professional face and nodded once before talking to Lucille in a serious and crisp manner.
"Hello, Miss. My name is Kuro."
Kuro's smile came out as soon as that line was over.
He extended his hand and shook her stunned hand once.
…
"Dad?"
He ignored the whispering by habit.
…
"This is, to make sure, the talented and capable Lucy Mantle, the young woman my daughter told me about?"
"Y….yes…that's me…"
…
"Yes? No? I'm assuming yes."
…
"T… this isn't…"
Kuro grinned in delight. "It's not a trick, or a trap, or a plot. I can let you personally throw the letter at my head, if you wanted to."
"…"
Her head twitched about nervously.
"This… isn't a trick."
"It's not."
"You… gave me a purple stone.."
"Welcome home, Lucy."
…
…
…
…
…
She paled like a bleached sheet. She then embraced herself into a little ball and screamed into her legs.
...