Chapter Text
Mythra had sort of hoped that her family would be better prepared for this eventuality. The titan they lived on was small, slow, and they knew it was coming towards the end of being an inhabitable landmass. As titans went, it was a good one to live on, and their small village had always been fairly affluent. Yet, when the time came for moving on, they couldn’t get refuge anywhere.
She and Pyra were twelve years old when their father told them that he was sending them to a boarding school in Indol. Neither of them wanted to go. They didn't want to leave the titan when the future of everyone else on it was also uncertain. But they didn't exactly get a choice in the matter.
Indol was vastly different to their original home. It was huge, and a little scary, really. The boarding school they were sent to was deeply religious, and neither of them took well to that sort of environment. Living there was miserable, and boring, and just about every other negative adjective in existence.
Mythra in particular loathed it. There hadn’t been many people living on her titan that were her age, but when she moved to Indol it became particularly noticeable to her that she...didn't like men. Which meant her soulmate was almost definitely a woman. Which was very scary in Indol. So, she avoided talking to pretty much everyone except Pyra, earning herself a reputation as cold and aloof that certainly worked in keeping any potential soulmates away from her.
By the time she reached sixteen, she was more than ready to get out of this school. Some part of her assumed, foolishly, that their parents would come to get them, but she knew that the real likely option was that they would simply be kicked out and left to find their own ways in the world. Indol was nice like that.
But then...something else happened. The titan went under. Her family, and everyone else on the titan because none of them had managed to get off, were declared as missing. Money stopped coming to the school, which left the school in an awkward position. They now had two students who couldn’t pay, at no fault of their own. For about a month, Mythra was stuck in her room, alone, with no one but Pyra for company. Apparently, it wasn’t fair to let them keep attending classes whilst they weren’t paying. Mythra was just glad for the time to grieve.
And then came what she’d been expecting. They were told, in no uncertain terms, to pack their bags and leave. Pyra had asked where they were supposed to go, and the woman they’d spoken to had simply shrugged coldly, as if stranded teenagers were something she saw every day. In Indol, they probably were.
So that’s how they ended up. Stranded teenagers in Indol who had nowhere to go. Mythra felt like she should be happy she’d managed to escape the fall of the titan, and honestly their father had probably intended for that exactly to be the result of sending them to the school, but...it was a hollow victory. Everyone she loved apart from Pyra was gone, and she and Pyra might well be gone soon too if they didn't find a way off this titan. They were basically the same as all the refugees that Indol took in every day; just two more people with no place to call their home, and not even a single coin to their names.
They ended up living amongst the other refugees in tents, surviving off what little food Indol gave out as charity. Somehow, Mythra always felt like they didn't quite deserve it, even though their situation was just as hopeless as that of everyone else here. Until recently, they’d had exactly the privileges that all the other refugees wished for every day, and they’d hated it when they had it. They’d had everything and now they had nothing, but Mythra still didn't miss it.
It was an awful situation to be in. She didn't know what to do with herself. She had interests, and ambitions, and she couldn’t pursue any of it anymore. She couldn’t do anything other than sit around and hope that maybe there was a country who would take them in.
Pretty much the only thing of interest in the refugee camp was a cat that belonged to...someone. It did the rounds every morning, collecting scraps of food from anyone who would feed it and then vanishing off back into an alleyway. It was a very handsome cat, with white fur and a regal sort of demeanour. Mythra didn't think it was a stray, either- that white fur was always so well-brushed.
One day, though, someone had decided they’d had enough. A very large man who was very intimidating decided to shout at the cat, and then kick it, and while Mythra was horrified, she wasn’t about to risk her own safety to go and save it. Her sister, however, was apparently not that smart.
“Why would you do that?” She shouted, running over to where the cat was lying on the ground. “He’s not doing any harm. You could have just shooed him away. Poor thing…”
“Pyra!” Mythra followed her, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her away. The man scowled at them both, then spat on the ground and stalked off, still grumbling under his breath. “Pyra, you’re an idiot,” she said, more out of loving concern than actual anger.
“I just wanted to help…” She was kneeling by the cat now, stroking its soft fur. “He’ll be okay, I think he’s just stunned. We should try and find his owner…”
Something strange pulled in Mythra’s stomach then. “No. I’ll try and find his owner. You go and find the Indoline police and report that man for hurting the cat.” She wasn’t sure why, but she had suddenly been overcome with the feeling that she should be the one to sort this out. Like it was fate, almost.
“I don’t think they’ll do anything, but-”
“It’s fine,” Mythra said. “I’ll find the cat’s owner. This thing looks like it might be the property of an actual citizen. They’ll pay attention to that any day.”
Pyra glanced at the cat, at Mythra, and then sighed. “Fine,” she said. “If you’re sure that you want to go out on your own and all. I know it’s not all that dangerous around here usually, but-”
“But I’m all you have left and you want to make sure I’m safe,” Mythra said with a smile. “I know, Pyra. I’ll be careful. Just...you try to be careful sometimes too, okay? That includes not challenging huge men on their treatment of animals.”
“Alright, alright.” Pyra reached out to squeeze her hand, then ran off back into the camp. Mythra bent down, scooping up the injured cat.
“Okay, mister, where do you live…?” She looked around, spotting the alleyway that she always saw the cat slinking away down. Perhaps it led to a row of houses further down.
Cautiously, she started down the alleyway. It was dark, but the light wasn’t completely gone. The bright marble of the normal city disappeared almost instantly once you stepped off the main streets, leaving a grey stone that looked dingy in comparison. The cat’s ears pricked up, telling Mythra that they were probably going in the right direction.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Mythra froze, and not just because the voice had surprised her. Those were some words she was extremely familiar with. They were written on the inside of her palm in a handwriting so scrawled it was hard to read.
“What- where are you? Who are you?” She looked around wildly, only to hear a Gormotti accent mutter ‘oh, fuck’ and then to see a short, angry-looking Gormotti girl drop down from a ledge a little way in front of her. She had her hand raised, and Mythra thought for a moment that she was going to be slapped- but then she looked closer, and saw her own words written across the girl’s palm in her own handwriting. “...Oh.”
“Oh indeed,” the girl said, a very strange look on her face. “This is not what I expected.” Mythra was honestly slightly stunned. She’d never expected...she’d always theorised that she’d meet her soulmate after beating up a man. It sounded cool. Pyra, the only person she’d ever shared the mark with, had agreed.
“Me neither.” Mythra suddenly remembered why she was here, and she extended her arms, offering the cat to the girl. He suddenly sprung back to alertness, twisting out of her grip and landing elegantly on the floor to curl himself around the girl’s feet. “He got kicked by some asshole in the refugee camp I’m staying in. He seems okay, though… Oh- my name’s Mythra.”
“Nia,” the girl said in return. “And this is Dromarch. Thank you for rescuing him, I suppose.”
“I’m- not sure where we go from here,” Mythra said. She couldn’t help but stare a little at the girl. Nia. She had short hair and she was just...genuinely really cute. She knew that Nia was meant to be her soulmate and all, but architect she was adorable. “I don’t have access to power so I can’t even give you my number.”
“I, uh, don’t really have a home to invite you back to,” Nia said. “But I guess I could come to your camp. I’ve kind of been avoiding it. The Indoline government doesn’t like me much because I keep stealing from their markets.” She grinned. “Dromarch distracts people, then I take their food. The stallholders are all stupid rich anyway, they don’t need it.”
“Classy,” Mythra said, returning the smile. She didn't exactly approve of stealing, but she understood why Nia would do it. The authorities didn't provide for animals, so without stealing, Nia would be forced to split her own rations with her cat. “If they recognise you, why don’t they just stop you?”
“That’s far easier said than done,” she said with another grin. “The Indoline police are pretty useless. They’re only good for beating up us gays, let’s be real. They don’t have any resources to deal with actual crime, or if they do they just don’t use them.”
“I suppose…” Mythra glanced back towards the refugee camp. “My sister is back there trying to report the man who kicked your cat, I should go check on her. Are you coming?”
“Yeah. Just one thing…” Nia stood up on tiptoes, and pulled Mythra into a kiss. Mythra must have looked shocked when she pulled away, because Nia laughed at her. “Sorry. Had to make sure my soulmate is a good kisser. You’re not bad…” She winked. “Anyway, let’s go.”
“No way,” Mythra said, leaning in again and taking the initiative with this kiss. She hadn’t wanted to push for these things too quickly, but she wasn’t about to back down from a challenge like that. “You can’t judge me based on a surprise kiss.”
“Okay, that one was better.” Nia grinned. “Wanna just hang out in this alleyway for a bit, or do we still have to go find your sister?”
“Yes, we have to go find my sister.” Mythra laughed, beckoning for Nia to follow her. Oh, she couldn’t wait to tell Pyra about this. Finally, something good to make a difference to their currently shitty lives.