Chapter Text
She wakes up, she’s lying down, the sky hanging so high, and oh, so far from her, around the only thing to be heard are the waves crashing against the shore and the wind flying all around. Above thousands of stars decorated the night sky.
Under her, the sand is cold and uncomfortable, she sits up.
The waves come and go, come and go, an infinite dance that will never end. In silence she watches. Times goes on and she stays watching, she has nothing else to do after all.
Go back to sleep. The universe says.
It’s not your time yet. The world says.
Close your eyes and rest. The stars beg.
But she hears nothing of it.
Right now, the only thing for her is the dancing of the water and the coolness of the night breeze.
She watches and watches, and after hours the sun starts to peek through the horizon, the light slowly illuminating and reflecting over the ocean’s dark waters.
The stars go away, and she stands.
She turns her back to the ocean and starts walking to the forest in front of her.
She walks and walks, all while the only knowledge she possesses is the fact that her name is Lumine.
***
Well, to be more clear is not like that is all the knowledge she has, but it’s what she considers the most important piece of it. Because it’s the only thing that she remembers that it’s exclusively about her, about who she is.
Because she knows how to walk, how to jump, swim, run, and walking through the forest she finds a sword, and from then on she knows how to wield it, she knows how to fight.
She also knows about the world, she walks through the forest and recognizes plants and animals, she understands the natural cycles of day and night, understands the rain, the breeze. She knows about it all, she knows how to get rid of the hunger that will sometimes befall her, when tired she knows how to climb high trees or find a place to hide and rest.
She knows that this is not her world, remembers that this is not the first one she has visited, but aside from that she remembers nothing else, not the other worlds she has stepped into, nor how she arrived at this one, she also doesn’t remember that she wasn’t traveling alone.
She keeps walking, she jumps over creeks running through the forest, she walks under tall trees that block the sun above, she walks through valleys where the breeze flies freely.
She walks, and she hides.
Traveling merchants, patrolling soldiers, and people walking the same route, she hides from all and allows her presence to be seen by none one.
Why?
She doesn’t really know. She just tells herself that it is because she still doesn’t feel ready to meet someone else, and because the language they speak is one that is still unknown to her. At least from the little she has heard when she hides from groups, she has realized that it shares a lot of similarities with other languages that she actually knows, so once she decided to shove herself in society learning it shouldn’t be hard.
At least from her hiding and watching she gets to learn more about the world.
She keeps walking, leaving the forest behind, one day at the distance she sees a city, a high wall surrounding it, acting as protection, but she can still see some high buildings inside of it, a cathedral and several mills.
It looks like a lovely place.
She turns her eyes elsewhere and walks away from it.
Another forest, a small settlement, giant mountains full of frost and snow, all things she just sees from a distance as she keeps on walking.
Soon her surroundings change, giant mountains and rocky valleys, a giant marshal, and lakes and rivers running all over the place.
Once again, far away she sees another city, a harbor this time, with thousands living in there, ships coming and going all the time, she walks away. She leaves the roads and marked paths and instead walks through the wild and untamed zones.
She climbs mountains and walks on almost never-ending valleys, all of it in total solicitude, none one else ever crossing her path once she left the roads.
She walks and walks, sometimes she sees some creatures, monsters, she assumes, ones she does not have any kind of knowledge. Creatures exclusive to this world she knows. Sometimes, as she observes them, she itches for a fight, but she always walks away.
She keeps walking, and once again things change around her, she finds herself standing atop a high place, and when she looks behind she gets a glimpse of the mountains she had to climb, and below where she is standing a settlement of what she assumes are miners, and in front. Trees, a jungle as far as her eyes can see, a sea of greens, and far in the distance a giant tree that towers over it all. She can barely see it, but there’s the outline of some kind of building on it.
She steps forwards.
***
She thinks she could do without the humidity that permeates the whole place, but as she walks under trees that hide the sun almost completely and with nothing but the company of the sounds of the wild animals, she finds it pleasant.
But it all comes to an end when from somewhere close, screams of terror start.
A human, she realizes, but accompanying also some animalistic bellows, someone that has found themselves facing a beast from the forest, or maybe an encounter with some monsters.
She walks away, not her problem she tries to tell herself, but the screams don’t stop, and while half of what they are screaming is lost to her, what she can understand is the word help.
Before she even realizes she’s running through the jungle, expertly jumping over roots and other obstacles, the screams are louder and clearer, and after one last jump, she emerges from the dense part of the jungle and jumps right into the fight.
She barely thinks about it, her sword already cutting through the flesh of the monsters, the ones with the clubs and the masks, she throws a quick glance behind her where she sees that the man that was screaming is all right and she turns her attention to the fight once again.
There were a little over a dozen but in seconds she has gotten rid of all of them. Still, even after all of their bodies have disintegrated she remains with her guard high and her sword at the ready, behind her she hears the man moving and speaking in a calm tone to the beast that was alongside him.
While he does that, she takes some seconds to observe them. The animal, she has seen some like that living on the outskirts of the forest, and while they are big and strong unless attached they are pacific, but considering that this one is clearly domesticated the few fight instincts that they have may as well be non-existent.
The second thing she takes note of is the amount of bags, crates, and boxes that the creature is carrying. A merchant she thinks. Would make sense with all of the things she sees the beast hauling.
And third, the man is completely fine, with no injuries to be found, and when she arrived even the closest of the monsters still wasn’t near enough to cause him harm, not wounded just spooked.
And with that, she turns, intent on leaving and continuing her solitary never-ending journey.
But once again a scream changes her plans, the man is now running towards her, once again half of his words escape her but what she does get are the millions of ‘thanks’ and ‘saving my life’ that he utters to her. She should leave. She sees no point in staying.
And yet she remains.
She manages to get the frantic man to calm down with just gestures with her hands, and once he does, the gratitude is still there but at least he’s no longer screaming.
He’s still talking, slower and in a lower tone, and while many would find it annoying, right now for Lumine it is a blessing. Her grasp on this word’s language is still weak and she doesn’t trust herself to talk the little she knows.
Leaving it’s still an option, easily she could create a diversion and disappear in a matter of seconds from his presence. She doesn’t.
With her lack of voice, things are going to be hard, still, she doesn’t leave.
Her lack of answer finally dawns upon him, and he stops talking. With all of his attention on her, she just points with her head towards where the path is, she assumes that the monsters chased him out of the open and inside a more dense part. More than happy over getting outside the dangerous place he goes back for the beast and starts to guide it towards the road.
She follows behind.
Once on the road, fewer trees block the view and once again she sees that gigantic tree in the distance, considering the road only takes forward to it she assumes that’s where the man is going. She walks to his side and points towards it.
Luckily, while clearly off-put by her silence, he seems to understand what she’s trying to convey, he nods, then she points to herself, then to her sword, the place where the fight took place, she points to him, and finally to the giant tree.
He gets the message, his enthusiasm returns, and with that, his never-ending talking, he mentions mora, which she understands, is the only currency to be found in this world, then what she knows are numbers but they are higher than any quantity she has ever heard before, still, she ends up nodding to one of them and their deal is closed. And after that they get on moving.
As they make the journey he talks enough for the both of them, and when she manages to understand what he’s saying she moves her head accordingly or does some kind of gesture, while never mentioning something about her muteness, (or at least she believes so), but by the way he constantly throws questioning and curious glances towards her it’s clear that is something that he thinks about. But luckily it seems that his conclusion is that she’s simply mute, and not realizing that the truth is that she’s an outsider to this world and doesn’t understand his language.
They do encounter some more monsters on their way, but she gets rid of all of them quickly. Every time he’s as grateful as the first time. The day goes away and the night is well advanced when they finally reach their destination.
As she expected a city greets them and as they get closer her eyes take in everything they can, the night is advanced, and yet the streets are still full.
They are near the gates when she notices that every person inside ports a green hologram-like earring-looking thing over one ear. When they pass the gate it appears over her merchant companion. It’s a curious thing, but not something she has to concern herself over. After all, whatever it is, it appears to only exist once inside the city, and after this, she will leave.
Finally on his destination, her companion once again thanks her, and with a final farewell and a pouch of mora in her hand, he walks through the crowd and disappears.
Soon, she does the same. But instead of leaving the city as she had originally planned, she instead remains in it. Walking silent and unseen through the shadows, observing and hearing all that she can.
It’s been months since she awoke alone and with no memory in that beach, months of walking and walking with no planned route and no end to her mindless journey. She could keep on walking, all of this day could be nothing more than an exception to her self-imposed exile from civilization, she could return to the lonely path that she has been walking all this time.
She walks through the city, she doesn’t leave.
***
The never-ending chatter of the people, the shouts of vendors, the announcement of a new ship leaving or arriving and the ensuing ruckus that it caused, the thousands of persons all gathered and walking all over the little space that there was, the screams coming out of the taverns, all of the smells and noises.
This and more motives were the reason as to why Zandik hated to put even just one foot inside Port Ormos, no matter how short or important his stay was, he was to abhor every single second he stayed, and every interaction he had, no matter how vital it was for his research.
But Port Ormos was where those that possessed the knowledge that the Akademiya wanted gone, went to hide and make deals. And so, once again he finds himself in this wretched place when he could be sitting comfortably inside his room back at his apartment, or the Akademiya’s library going over his research, or even doing some of his class-required work.
But this is an opportunity that he cannot allow to slip his grasp, his need for material for his research has once again forced his hand. While he knows that he could find some of the things that he desires right in Sumeru city he just wouldn’t risk it. If even the smaller of whispers of what he was doing got out, then he would be undoubtedly expelled. And searching for what he wanted right under the Akademiya meant only more risk for him.
So now he finds himself here, all because he was desperate, but not enough as to go and search for what he wanted all alone, he was a researcher, a scholar, not a warrior, and stepping } inside the deepest part of the forest would mean sure death. And the less he thought about how he would fare in the desert the better.
So he walks, desperate, his patience running thin, and at this point his sanity hanging on a rather delicate thread. All the while he looks for someone that is a little bit more than just a rumor going around the students at the Akademiya.
But he knows that it’s real, or at least she is, thanks to the information he gathered around, he knows that on more than one occasion she has helped to escort merchants through the forests and even sometimes to the desert.
But what is dubious is the rumor passed amongst the students, about how she is willing to go against the rules of the Akademiya and help students when it comes to research that which is prohibited. Still, this is truly his last option before he reaches the end of the barrel, so even if it’s nothing more than a rumor that was created from the delusions of others like him he has to give it a shot.
He walks all the while he tries to not give up on his growing annoyance, but the world seems determined to test him as two kids bump rather hard into him. One of them even falls to the floor but immediately the little pest gets up and runs away with his companion and he quickly loses them inside the crowd.
He almost yells at them, and he knows that if the kid hadn’t gotten up he would have had a hard time containing his rage, luckily they get away and he’s left with no more option than to keep on walking if he doesn’t want the crowd to drag him.
Hands closed in fists shaking in barely contained rage, he forces himself to think of the fact that he needs to keep a low profile, and while he looks the part of it, he’s not wearing his uniform, and instead opted for some common clothes and a hood covering his head, someone screaming and getting into an altercation with some kids will bring attention. And not of the kind he wants right now.
He kept walking, forcing himself to forget about those kids and focusing once again on his goal, his eyes immediately go to scan the almost infinite crowd around him. Before all of this, he liked to consider himself an observant person, many of his experiments requiring it, but as he finds nothing he comes to the infuriating realization that his previous experience will not be of help right now.
After all, there is a big difference between looking at some small part of some mechanism, or the detail in some ruins, to searching for someone parading as an ordinary person, the former at least something that stayed in just one place, something he had all the time he wanted to look at, while the latter was someone trying to stay hidden.
And the fact that the only physical description that he could find of her was the color of her eyes, a gold-amber tone found nowhere else, her hair, a blond that would shine like the stars under the sunlight, and that she wore a white dress of a fashion unlike anything else to be found in any of the nations. Wasn’t really a lot of help.
A really lackluster description to which half of it sounded more like something that one would find in myths about the description of a goddess, of course, there was also the fact that she was apparently mute.
To his increasing frustration not a lot to go with.
Hours and hours pass and his patience almost disappears with all of the wasted time, his legs burn and shake with exhaustion after walking for literally a whole day. The sun will soon disappear and with the rise of the moon, he knows his chances will be even less.
Walking over to a secluded and luckily empty corner he sits over some boxes uncaring of their contents or if he’s even allowed to sit over them. Even on his rest his eyes never stop going over the crowd and while he does that, he also thinks again over every single detail and piece of information that he got about her.
All of it in the hope that maybe before he overlooked a vital piece of information that may be of utility.
His eyes scan the crowd and his mind repeats every single thing told to him about her, in the end, the only thing he hadn’t taken into consideration is the useless phrase that one of the merchants had told him, ‘She finds you before you find her.’
He closes his eyes for some minutes, allowing himself some rest, and deems this day as a total failure, but he knew that this outcome was the most probable one, depending on rumors is never a good thing.
He gets up. The sun will soon go away in if he starts the walk back to Sumeru he will reach it before the next morning.
As he walks back his mind already forgets all about the rumors and soon starts planning how he will devolve from here, it is clear now that his only opinion is to embark himself across the forest and jungles to reach his objective, but that is something easier said than done.
Lost inside his mind and no longer having discarded the task of being aware of his surrounding he doesn’t see her until it’s too late.
Bodies clashing against each other, he doesn’t even have time to react before he’s already on the floor, immediately a helping hand is already in front of him, but as he goes to slap it away and a myriad of insults are about to burst he looks up to see the one that made him fall.
And he sees with nothing but gold.
Golden eyes, and golden hair, hidden under a hood but not obscured.
He takes the hand and is immediately lifted to his feet once again. “Sorry.” The words he says honestly surprise him, but right now, he’s more shocked at the fact that she lifted him with no visible effort. He towers over her and from what he sees of her, there’s almost no visible muscle on her body. “Wasn’t looking where I was going.” There’s also the fact that being rude to the only person able and willing to maybe help him will not do him any favors.
She says nothing, and maybe the thing about her being mute isn’t a lie, she lets go of his hand and turns, signaling with her head to follow her. They walk through the crowd in silence and never talking, she walks with grace among everyone and never bumps into anyone else while he can barely get a step without almost clashing against someone.
While they walk, he focuses all of his attention on her, she walks fast and with a direction in mind, he knows that she could disappear in seconds, and finding her again would be a difficult if not impossible thing. So, as they move his eyes never part from her back, her figure a constant in front of him. And as he does that, he can’t help but notice her clothes, the famed white dress is not the thing she’s wearing and instead she dresses in typical clothes of Sumeru. The only exception is the hood covering her head.
But it makes sense, the rumors about her are getting bigger and louder and the possibility of the Matra already being aware of her is high.
They keep walking and soon they leave the port behind, every step taking them deeper into the forest. Once out in the wild, the difference between them is easy to see, even when she walks over leaves and sticks her steps are always silent, with no sound to be heard from her, not her breathing nor the sound of the rustling of her clothes, a total contrary to him, somehow managing to always step over some dry leave or twig and the thing always breaking and crunching under his feet.
Above them, the stars have taken their position alongside the moon, but the leaves of the trees hide them almost completely.
The deeper they get into the forest the harder it becomes for him to follow behind, the road and clean paths having been long ago left behind, and with every step, it becomes clear that he’s getting deeper and deeper inside the territory of monsters and wild beasts.
But even with all of the growls, bellows, and other vocalizations of the monsters and creatures of the forest, his guide remains calm and never bothered by it, and even though on more than one occasion the sounds seem to come right beside them their journey is never interrupted.
Finally, she comes to a stop. They stand at the foot of a mountain, and for some seconds he laments the ensuing climb that is to follow but instead of that she moves aside a bunch of undergrowth to reveal a cave that goes down the mountain.
The tunnel inside of him is dark and the only light illuminating is the little that enters through the entrance she just revealed.
Once again, with just a movement of her head, she signals him to enter, and he does.
With cautious steps, he descends and behind him she enters, the entrance is once again hidden and the light disappears, still, he doesn’t falter, he’s getting closer and closer to accomplishing his goal, and neither his exhaustion, doubts nor a dark tunnel will prevent him from reaching his goal.
At some point she overtakes him, but he doesn’t realize it until in front of him a mechanism is activated, and he hears the shift of gears in front a door opens, light comes from the other side of it and the tunnel lights up. Waiting for him at the newly opened door she simply watches him go down.
Once again at her side, they enter the room, it’s big and well-illuminated, and when he looks at one of the walls the symbol of the treasure hoarders stands, but it’s clear that the base has long been abandoned by its creators, either they left or she got rid of them.
She guides him towards one of the many platforms constructed all over the place, on it there’s a table, and over it several detailed maps of all of Sumeru.
She turns to look at him, waiting and expectant.
This is it, he knows. His truly last good chance.
***
The lack of words on her part makes it hard, but he still manages, in the end, after hours of negotiation everything has been settled, prices, the place where he wants her to take him, what her role will be, the duration of the expedition, and when and where they will meet for it to begin.
When it has all been discussed she guides him from the forest to the outskirts of Port Ormos and in the blink of an eye she disappears.
He’s exhausted and the sun will make its reappearance in a few hours, but right now the fact that he was able to achieve his goal keeps him going.
After all, if he wants everything to go smoothly he needs a good excuse for his upcoming expedition, and while his real goal is a cave filled with functional Ruin Guards that is found in the middle of Mawtiyima forest, the place has a lot of material to use as the base of the theme of research that will serve as a cover for his true intentions.
As far as his teachers and peers will be aware is that he left on an expedition in search of material for an essay that has already been approved and one which he has been working on for a while.
The only thing that is left is to request the time that he will need for the expedition.
By the time he arrives at the gates of the city morning has already been present for some hours, he sees no point in going to the class that he should be attending right now and instead goes to his apartment, changes into his uniform, and tries to make himself look presentable and decent after hours of walking with no rest.
Once he’s done he leaves for the Akademiya, he arrives and walks to the office where the official that grants permission is, luckily there is none else and he sees to him immediately. He is clear and direct with his intention, he presents his current investigation and the approval granted by his teacher.
The official goes over the permission for a while but in the end, the permission is granted, Zandik is well aware that his reputation as an exemplar student and his past works and publications are what helped in getting the permission in an immediate way.
He leaves, and for some seconds he thinks about going to the next class he has but he sees no reason for him to do so. He already possesses an advanced understanding of the current theme they are being taught about.
In the end, he walks back to his apartment, and while his intentions are to go over some material he was investigating, the moment he arrives he goes to his room and allows himself to collapse over the bed.
He sleeps.
He’s several steps closer to his goal.
***
While always a little bit annoying the ruckus and noise of Sumeru always become easier to deal with after every visit she makes. Nevertheless, she still prefers to walk unseen through shadowed alleyways and keep herself away from the most concurred zones.
Sadly, today is not a day in which she can allow herself to do that, standing at the side of one of the ramps that take one to the upper level of the city she waits.
To be honest, she’s not really sure about the reason as to why she accepted this work, in the past few weeks unless it was a situation like in the time she got involved with that merchant she hadn’t been showing herself in front of others, she had thought that once again, she would abandon civilization and return to her endless walk.
But there had been something about him, something that made her show herself and then accept his offer.
Maybe it was something that she was about to discover as she traveled alongside him, or maybe it was just the fact that he was clearly investigating something prohibited by the Akademiya, the institution, while standing for something good was clearly rotten on the inside, and some of the things that they seek to forbid were things she thought would be better being public knowledge.
So maybe that was the reason, she just wanted to fuck with rules she thought were stupid.
She is brought out of her musings when a familiar figure appears amongst the masses of people.
Once again he’s not wearing his uniform, and while it’s clear that he has never received any kind of training he actually manages to blend well with the crowd and attract no attention to himself.
As he gets closer he finally spots her and is quick to get to her. Once he reaches her side she wastes no time and turns, already walking towards her objective, he’s quick on his feet and follows at her side.
Good, it’s clear that he has no experience when it comes to combat and thanks to their past encounter she noticed that his physical abilities and conditions are on the average, but at least he knows how to think fast and not to question her when it comes to things he doesn’t know about.
They walk through the busy streets and while she hates it, she knows it it’s necessary, while alone, traveling to Mawtiyima forest wouldn’t take her that long, but the before-mentioned abilities of her companion will make the travel even slower. That means more days out on the roads, and then his eventual investigation once they reach their destiny, more traveling days translate as needing more resources than what she would usually need, and so here she is traversing through the market and buying all that they will need.
At least as part of their deal, he agreed to pay a good amount of the cost of the resources they will need.
It’s easier than usual, having someone who can actually communicate with the vendors and that knows the things that they will need makes the process a thousand times easier. And in the few occasions in which he’s unsure of what is what she wants a simple gesture or sign is immediate to bring clarity to the situation.
She’s really thankful that not only he possesses intelligence but also common sense, usually the biggest problem with her clients is the lack of communication but it’s clear that that won’t happen with him.
They make a fast work, and soon they have acquired all of the food, and basic things that she wants and the only thing left are some extra supplies
One thing she notices is that even when he’s interacting with the vendor, in no moment his attention leaves her. As they walk, she feels his eyes over her and even sometimes while they are buying something.
He’s analyzing her, watching and learning, she’s curious about his conclusions about her. Maybe others would feel unsettled, angry and annoyed at the fact they were being taken apart piece by piece inside the mind of another, but as an outsider that’s something she’s used to, the curiosity, apprehension, doubt, fear, sometimes even hate.
But it’s expected, especially right now, she’s once again wearing her usual clothes, and she knows that for the last past months ever since her first appearance, there have been several rumors about the mysterious warrior that wears white clothes of a style unlike nothing known.
But aside from her clothes, the sole fact that she’s willing to help him is a thing demanding of curiosity and questioning glances, the Akdemiya is a powerful institution after all, and while not completely n knows of all of its rules she knows that if they were discovered bad things would befall upon them.
That alone was the primary reason why she stopped helping students with their forbidden research some weeks ago, and has stuck with only helping merchants in need.
But all of that is not of importance, after all, she is here now, preparing to guide someone to someplace where the forbidden knowledge can be studied, and with all of their necessities finally acquired they start their journey.