Chapter Text
Since the beginning, she’d always been an odd child. Ginger hair that covered most of her back was unkempt and left to be as wild as it wanted, her electric blue eyes always darting around each and every environment she was in to take it all in and assign to a slot in her memory. Faint, mocha freckles were dotted all over her - hands, face, legs..you name it, there were probably freckles there. Her small figure was admittedly an inconvenience, preventing her from doing many things, however it had the potential to be a useful asset too, the fact that she could move quicker than her taller peers was a feat she was rather proud of. She knew she wasn’t the conventionally attractive person too, with all these features combined with her manic personality, ever changing depending on the person and boom! You had a whole cocktail of weird in front of you when it came to Ulla.
No one ever hesitated to let her know that she was weird all throughout her childhood either. Being the socially inept girl she was, it only made it easier for the other kids to target her. Countless days had ended with her appearing home with new cuts and bruises, or water tipped over her by the other kids. It was relentless bullying, looking back on it. She never let it get to her though - she just did what she always did! She pretended it didn’t phase her whatsoever. Just kept moving forward and ignoring it. No matter how many times they’d try and hurt her, she’d just ignore them. They’d try to hurt her by calling her weird, but she knew she was weird - and she liked being weird. In her eyes, she wasn’t hurting anyone by being weird, so she’d keep going and doing her own thing.
Maybe that's why, at such a young age, she got into alchemy along with her twin brother, Ulf. She never had to worry about having free time to spend with friends, since she never had any, unlike her twin. That’s probably why she was better at the subject - Ulf was always so concerned with his social life, but not her. All she needed was her alchemy. It was the perfect outlet for her too - delicate processes requiring all the attention in the world, as one drop could throw off the course of the whole experiment. She excelled, surpassing her brother in the subject and going on to research it further in the future, with Demanitus as her main idol, taking inspiration from all his inventions.
As they grew older, Ulf drifted towards the engineering side of science like their mother did. Ulla, however, stayed on course and obsessed over alchemy. She finally felt as though she were contributing something to the world with her experiments - creating small helping hands around the house for various different problems. For example, she created something she liked to call ‘Shampoo’, this enriching the hair and providing it with necessary nutrients for growth rather than just water. And it worked! As a first individual project, she thought she’d done pretty well! That put her on the radar as a young teen, selling her creations to other people to assist them, and even commissioning for certain projects.
No one in their town really understood her love of the subject, but they understood how well it benefited them. Suddenly, they had access to smoother hair, cleaner clothes, pain relief...which meant Ulla profited greatly and used her funds to keep expanding her knowledge, purchasing book after book after book. It did feel awfully lonely though, only finding solace in books rather than humans. She used to beg and plead every night for someone, anyone, who knew and had the same passions as her would just spontaneously materialise in town for her to talk to. To her luck, as if her prayers had finally been answered, Donella had arrived in town,
She must’ve met Donella when they were simply teenagers - thirteen or fourteen, the grey haired girl well beyond her years in terms of maturity. She was strikingly pale, her grey hair making her look as though she were in her late thirties, though she was only a few months older than Ulla. Her green eyes were calculating, figuring out a person’s deepest insecurity as soon as they entered her line of sight. She was unbelievably tall and skinny too, having at least four inches over Ulla and her figure was extremely defined in the clothes she wore almost every day. They were polar opposites, but they made it work in their favour. They balanced each other out really, her eccentricity and over-energetic nature combined with Donella’s maturity and normality helped them tremendously throughout their time together and they soon became a force to be reckoned with. It was refreshing to find someone who was just like her - with the same passion towards alchemy and Demanitus’ inventions, and someone her age who understood her and didn’t ridicule her whatsoever. She never knew anyone like her - maybe that’s why they grew so acquainted with each other in only a few weeks.
She was bitter at first towards Ulla, constantly viewing her as inferior knowledge-wise and that she was “just like the other kids in town” which couldn’t have been further from the truth if she’d have just gotten to know Ulla in the first place, however when she one day found Ulla’s makeshift business in selling products she made through alchemical processes, she suddenly became very interested. She’d consistently ask what Ulla had used to make various different solutions, and in exchange, she’d trade some steps with her. It was like a partnership at first - mutually beneficial - until Ulla worked up the courage to ask Donella to hang out with her on weekends and after school to help her make some products, to which the other humbly accepted, and slowly but surely, a friendship was born between the two.
Donella, despite her youth, was a force to be reckoned with - her intimidating persona almost immediately warding off people, sometimes just one particularly aggressive glare from her striking, green eyes was enough to scare off people for good. Ulla knew the softer side of the teen though - one where she’d let her walls down for just a few moments and let herself live in the moment. Like the time where Ulla had fallen asleep at her desk, and Donella had carried her all the way up to her room and placed her in bed (even taking the time to tuck her in, despite knowing Ulla could and most definitely would kick the covers off her sleeping form during the night) or when she’d have a slight glimpse of a smile during Ulla’s infamous rants. Nonetheless, she only ever showed this side to Ulla, guarding it from everyone else, Ulla feeling honoured at that fact.
“Don’t touch that.” Donella’s voice carried a warning tone, Ulla’s hand immediately flinching back from touching a glass beaker, filled with a colour changing liquid. It wasn’t anything new to her, but they’d always fascinated her to no end. It was fascinating what alchemy and science could achieve sometimes, and seeing other people’s twists on things she already knew how to do was a way to be enlightened into the inner workings of someone else’s mind. However she was quickly torn away from that thought, the other teen standing behind her, taking her wrist and pulling her along down the cobbled road to bring her back on track. Right, of course. They were going to the library to read up on the Eternal Library, as Donella has persisted they do for many months, much to Ulla’s confusion.
She didn’t get her friend’s infatuation with the place - hell, for all they knew it really was a myth and they were just grasping at straws even trying to research it. It was out of character for Donella, really, to be searching for something they didn’t definitively know was real or not - she was very much the realist out of the two - which confused Ulla to no end. But that didn’t seem to bother Donella in the slightest as she practically dragged the ginger woman through the streets, her iron grip burning a deep crimson mark into her pale skin. She knew her friend didn’t mean to be overly harsh with her, it was just her acting on her frustrations and impatience, (which to her credit she hardly ever showed. Ulla couldn’t remember a time where Donella had yelled at her, even when they were teens, ever the patient person when it came to her) but she’d be lying if she said it didn’t sting and make tears well in her eyes. She was...freakishly strong and sometimes Ulla forgot that, but before long she was given a bitter reminder.
“Don, give it a break please, you’re burning my arm.” she pleaded, her hand immediately shooting closer to her chest as soon as her friend’s grip ceased and rubbing it as carefully she could to help with the fleeting pain she was feeling in her wrist. Donella let out a sigh of what felt like guilt, taking Ulla’s wrist in her hands as gently as she could before taking out a small tube of cream from her pocket and applying it generously to the wound, massaging it in gradually. The stings of pain were numbed over time, the burning sensation stopping altogether once Donella had finished. Must’ve been one of her new formulas, thought Ulla, as they continued down the streets of Ecrin, Donella slowing her pace in an act of mercy to Ulla and allowing her to look around at the stalls and shops in more detail and take it in. It was the little things Donella did that showed she cared about her friend, hoping the rare displays went unnoticed by her, but they never did and Ulla silently logged them in the back of her mind each and every time. It was those moments where she saw the true Donella behind the facade she put on daily...those were the moments she truly cherished.
One store in particular caught her eye, beakers and test tubes set out behind paned glass, unfortunately slightly cracked in the corners from the bad weather that frequently cursed the town. Thunderstorms frequented the town, ferocious winds cursing them with collateral damage almost every month. To Mother Nature’s credit, however, the town was blessed with thick, white blankets of snow every year around Christmas, so that was always a bonus. If Ulla ever had children, she hoped she’d be able to show them this town and the white Christmases that were always guaranteed each year, to allow them to experience a true snowball warzone and to make snowmen in the yard. However, with the way she was, she’d never even had a boyfriend before, scaring off almost every guy within three feet at any given time, so marriage and children was the last thing on her mind.
Her mind shot back to the store, it slowly fading from her view as they inched closer and closer towards the town’s library - the biggest one in the whole kingdom of Galcrest, otherwise dubbed as the ‘Earth Kingdom’. It was strange, really, how every kingdom had its own little nickname. She’d never paid it much thought before but it was obscure. She’d been born and bred here along with her brother, but had the sneaking suspicion Donella wasn’t, despite the teen’s insistence. She’d theorised she was born in Pittsford (or the Iron Kingdom, as many called it due to its reliance on the metal for...almost everything), which was spiked from the literal spikes and general dark, jagged aesthetic of her clothing, hell, even her features were jagged like the rest of that kingdom’s citizens, and that she’d travelled to Galcrest in order to escape the economic divide that plagued the kingdom. Ulla had never been able to gain any answers though, Donella kept her past under wraps from Ulla thought, never letting anything slip through the cracks. Ulla often found herself dreaming up scenarios to do with Donella’s past, her wild imagination coming up with absurd situations that, by the time she’d finished thinking them up, she’d realised just how absurd they were and gave up with trying to piece the other’s backstory together.
The more stores they passed, the more distracted Ulla seemed to get, her focus constantly shifting from one thing to another and then to another. She couldn’t help that she loved taking in everything around her - examining the surroundings and letting herself adjust to them slowly. And in her defence, it was a mad town to be in with stalls and stores blending in with each other in a way that just naturally flowed. Lanterns stood tall in the streets, standing at ten foot at most ready to be lit when the darkness finally came, placed inconveniently in the middle of the sidewalk. It wasn’t as if anyone really used the sidewalk ,the city had a sufficient lack of carriages so people were free to just walk wherever they wanted through the streets. Ulla liked it that way, though. She had a tendency to wander freely sometimes, so just knowing that there weren’t any restrictions pleased her to no end.
“We’re here.” Donella called bluntly, glancing at Ulla with her cold, green eyes feeling like they were staring right into her soul. “Come on, we don’t have all day.” Honestly, the building looked threatening, countless floors inside concealed by a towering structure outside decorated with marble steps and pillars leading up to some tall, dark oak doors. It was in the centre of town, but the amount of space it took up was both shocking and impressive, considering the amount of knowledge this place held. Unphased by the daunting building, the silver woman led the way into the library, with Ulla following gingerly behind her, slightly embarrassed at being caught off guard. She’d always prided herself on being attentive, if a little imaginative, so to have the slender woman catch her out like that was...embarrassing to say the least. Still, she trailed along after her, Donella seemingly knowing where to go as they navigated through the mass of volumes.
Shelves upon shelves upon shelves were surrounding them, their glazed, dark oak sides reaching taller than Ulla could even see and loomed down on them. There must’ve been thousands- no, millions of books in this place, hence it being one of the biggest libraries in existence - well, apart from the mysterious ‘Eternal Library’, but that was potentially just a legend, regardless of how much Donella had insisted it wasn’t, so Ulla kept it away from that category. Their boots made soft clicks on the library floor as they walked across it, the tiles so reflective that she could see her own face in it, with the occasional dirt smudge in the corner of a particular tile here and there. In the centre was a circle, the centre of it marked by a large globe, and, at forty-five degree intervals, there was a staircase leading up to various parts of the library. Donella headed up the third of these staircases, it being marked with a teal band on the banisters, and Ulla followed suit, their footsteps muffled by the matching teal carpet that covered every inch of every step.
The upstairs was also covered in a mass of bookcases, Donella expertly maneuvering between the shelves with Ulla struggling to keep up with her pace, but desperately not wanting to get lost in this labyrinth of a library. It had happened to her once before - her attentiveness and general disregard for what was happening around her causing her to bound ahead to the fantasy section of the library without her parents coming with her. You could imagine her shock when she turned to find them missing, bursting out into immediate tears and sitting on the floor until her father scooped her into his arms and pressed many comforting kisses to her forehead as they’d left. From then on, she’d never come to the library alone as she knew she’d just get lost somewhere and have to be rescued by Donella begrudgingly.
Donella’s movements halted, Ulla walking into her and causing the other teen to be sent stumbling forward. A glare met her almost immediately after Donella had regained her balance, softening into a sympathetic frown as Ulla frantically apologised to her, being met with grey hair after Donella directed her attention to the shelves. She skimmed them, pulling over a ladder and ascending it. “You check the bottom, I check the top. We meet in the middle.” Donella declared, reaching into the shelf and taking out a crimson, hardback book before skimming the pages in silence. Ulla obliged, picking up a leather-bound book and carefully opening it. “Not very talkative today then, are we Don?” Ulla joked and, upon seeing no amusement on her companion’s face, she quickly turned her attention back to her book and got to work.
They’d been doing this for weeks - aimlessly searching through books about alchemy and Demanitus to find at least one indicator that the library existed, however their attempts proved fruitless with a sufficient lack of results. It was exhausting work to look through books all day to find information on something they weren’t sure even existed. In Ulla’s eyes, it was pointless in every single way, their time would’ve been better spent performing alchemical processes and improving their knowledge in that! Nonetheless, her tired eyes kept searching through the book, placing the first one back and picking up an emerald, hardback one entitled ‘The Many Inventions Of Demanitus’. That sounded promising, she thought as she began to read, the parchment pages showing signs of wearing from use over the years.
Who was she kidding, they could spend years searching this library and not find anything at all. It had already been weeks, and Donella knew the true extent of this library. However, the idea of the Eternal Library sounded very attractive indeed if it was a real thing. A place with infinite knowledge, books on any topic imaginable littering the walls...it sounded like a grand place, though seemingly impossible. For all they knew, magic didn’t exist, the only hints of it being the sundrop’s flower and moondrop’s moonstone, which were only legends and no one was even sure they existed, much like the Eternal Library created by Demanitus. Besides, how would you even get to a place like that? If it were as simple as just a simple door, it would’ve already been discovered. How was it even made? If it had infinite knowledge, did it constantly update with a volume of every single book in existence? The thought made her head hurt, so she stopped thinking about it and persisted with her reading.
It had long since gone dark outside when the librarian called for everyone to leave, Ulla and Donella having cleared out two whole shelves in their search (an impressive feat, considering the shelves in question were probably over fifteen foot in height and ten foot in width and they were only two people). Donella descended from the ladder, shaking her head in dismay as Ulla opened her mouth to ask the same question she always asked. The disappointment was evident in the other teen’s face as they started to make their way through the maze of a library, descending down the stairs and Ulla letting Donella take the lead in guiding them out of the mass of shelves and towards the seven foot tall, dark oak double doors that would take them back out into the streets of Ecrin. “There’s always next time, Don. Don’t feel disheartened!” Ulla declared with a smile, her hand resting comfortingly on her friend’s shoulder, though the was cautious to spread her fingers so they fit in between the spikes.
Donella let out what Ulla could only assume was a grunt of agreement, pushing open the doors in front of them and letting the cool, fresh air of the town hit them both in the face without a care in the world. It took Ulla aback for a second, the sudden chill travelling right down her spine and causing little goosebumps to form over her skin. She hadn’t realised how stuffy the library was if you’d been in there for so long. Still, she stepped outside beside Donella and began to head home. Evidently, it had been raining, reflective puddles formed in potholes in the empty streets that the inner child in Ulla had to suppress the urge to jump into, no matter how tempting it was to act like she was still a carefree child for just a moment.
She’d always loved the city at night, especially on a clear night today where the stars could be seen gleaming in the sky as clear as day. Her mother used to tell her all about them - telling her about all the various constellations that were scattered in the sky (her favourite was Leo, seeing as that was her’s and Ulf’s zodiac signs according to her father), and how they were always constant. Her mother even showed her how to chart stars - an interesting lesson given her easily distracted nature, but she tried and in the end, she did it!
Donella abruptly moved in front of Ulla, taking her hands gently with a troubled frown on her face. “I got you something.” she muttered, reaching into the leather satchel at her hip that Ulla strangely hadn’t noticed she was carrying. It suddenly clicked - it was the one Ulla had made her once, she could tell from the randomly placed, chestnut patch of fabric that sat in the middle. She’d resorted to that after running out of leather, hoping Donella wouldn’t have noticed (she did, almost immediately). Donella thrust something into her chest, the action causing Ulla to stumble back but Donella’s hand snaked onto her waist to catch and steady her. She pulled her hand away as quickly as she’d put it there, and Ulla could swear she could see a light blush dusting on her research partner’s cheeks. “Okay bye.” Donella responded quickly, speeding in the opposite direction to Ulla before turning a corner and disappearing completely from Ulla’s sight.
Ulla raised an eyebrow, a confused smile on her face. Donella getting someone a gift AND getting embarrassed? Well, that was new..she thought before checking the item against her chest. A small gasp left her mouth as she realised what it was. It was a first edition copy of ‘Advanced Alchemy’, the one thing she’d been begging for for months, but could never find along with a teal notebook, marked with the words ‘Ulla’s Research Journal’. It was the best gift anyone could have given her, a smile gracing her features as she did a little dance in the street, unashamed of her excitement and happiness. She just HAD to tell her mom! She immediately started running home, giggling and laughing as she did.
“Mom! Mom!” she yelled as soon as she threw open the door. “Mom, look what Donella got me!” she thrust the book into her mother’s face, giving her no time to read it before pulling it away and raising the notebook. “And my very own study journal! Isn’t that cool, mom?”
“Yes, very cool, Ulla. Now young lady, care to explain to me why you promised you’d be back before sundown, and it's been sundown for countless hours now?” Her mother’s hands moved and rested on her hips. She’d...completely forgotten about her promise to her mother, it slipping from her mind after the first hour or two of research. She winced back, preparing her apology before being scooped into the air and spun around.
“Give the kid a break, Arlayna. She was just researching is all!” her father declared proudly as he hugged his daughter close to his chest before setting her down on the floor. She was a splitting image of him, albeit with a more feminine hairstyle and figure, inheriting her electric blue peripherals, ginger locks, mass of freckles and jawline from the man. Her mother, on the other hand, looked like Ulf who was sat at the table with one of his friends, talking about something or the other. Ulla didn’t pay attention though, she was too busy bragging to her dad about her new prized belongings. “That’s lovely sweetheart, I bet you can’t wait to get started!”
A loud gasp left her mouth. “I need to get started!” she exclaimed excitedly, placing a kiss to both her parent’s cheeks before sprinting up the rickety stairs, down the hall to her room. She virtually threw open the door, striding through and jumping onto her bed which moaned in protest at the sudden weight influx. She paid it no mind though, she was far too excited to get started with her new book. She lay back, her head against the pillows before opening the book in excitement. She couldn’t believe she actually had it in her hands! It was a dream come true in her eyes, joy and exhilaration building in her stomach as she lit a candle beside her bed and began to read, angling herself so the page was illuminated by the soft glow of the candle’s flame.
Her room was pretty bare compared to her other sibling’s room - containing a bed, a desk and a chair, a guitar and a bedside table all made from wood and created by her father. Her real highlight, though, was the shelf of books containing information on all things alchemy. Over the years, she’d steadily built up her collection of books on the subject, Donella also providing her with some on the rare occasion that the other teen was feeling generous. Her common excuse was that they were ‘hand-me-downs’, but Ulla could tell from the immaculate quality that they were always new. The subject fascinated her and truly was her passion, her pride and her joy, all of her previous work being noted down on pieces of parchment in a box beside her desk. Now, however, she had her own research journal! She couldn’t be more ecstatic! She’d have to thank Donella later, she thought, before starting to read again.
Elias opened the door to his daughter’s room ready to say goodnight to find her asleep, the book she’d been so excited to start covering her face as she slept, oblivious to its awkward placement, the candle beside her bed long since burnt out. A chuckle left his throat as he moved through the small room, watching out for all the creaks, before gently setting the book aside (being sure to mark the pace, because what was he? An animal?) and pulling the covers over his daughter. He placed a kiss to her forehead, heading to leave before something stopped him. He glanced back at his daughter’s sleeping form with a slight frown tracing his features.
“She’s a strong girl, Elias.” Arlayna whispered softly from behind her husband, setting her candle on top of a table in the hallway. It illuminated her face perfectly, the glint of her golden eyes showing fully and her black hair finally loose of its usual bun - she truly did look like an angel in her husband’s eyes as he wrapped his arms around her waist and swayed with her in his arms. He placed gentle kisses onto her forehead as she continued to speak. “She’s never let the school kid’s taunts bother her before, and Donella doesn’t seem like the kind of girl to hurt her like they do. She’ll be fine.” she reassured him, wrapping her arms around his neck to return the embrace.
“I know she can handle herself, but she’s still my little girl and I’m never not gonna worry about her, love. The kids mean the world to me and to see them ignoring the things that are hurting them...it just makes me feel like she doesn’t trust us enough to talk to us, or that I’m a bad dad for not pursuing the topic with her.” he let out a sigh and pressed his forehead against his wife’s, letting his eyes shut and take in her warmth, conflicting against how naturally cold he always was.
“She’ll come to you if she needs help, and you aren’t a bad dad. You introduced her to one of her biggest passions in life, alchemy. You gave her an outlet for her skills and I think she’s very grateful for that, she just forgets to tell you that sometimes. Now come on, sweetheart. It’s about time we got some sleep, yeah?” Arlayna moved out of the embrace and held out one of her dainty hands to pick up the candle she’d previously left discarded. A reassuring smile was illuminated by the soft candlelight and Elias felt himself fall deeper and deeper in love, as she let the angelic woman in front of him lead her down the hall and towards their bedroom.
With a sigh, he looked back down the hall to his daughter’s room, unable to shake the uneasy feeling that steadily bubbled in his stomach at the thought of her. That was soon interrupted by his wife’s arms wrapping around his waist from behind him, her chest pressed against his back and forehead against his nape. “Elias please, it’s cold and I want to go to sleep with my loving husband holding me in his arms to protect me from the freezing cold outside.” she groaned and he finally relented, closing the door to their room. However, as he lay awake with his wife’s head on his chest, absentmindedly playing with her hair, he couldn’t help the thought of his daughter filling his head. He bit his lip.
She was destined for great things. He wasn’t sure when, but he just knew she was.