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The villagers call Keith a witch.
Keith thinks that’s ridiculous. If she were a witch, she wouldn’t have spent the last who-knows-how-long staring down the two flowers in front of her, trying to identify which one’s the glassblossom and which one’s just a weed.
Neither one of them looks like glass. Keith has a drawing of the flower from Allura, but they both kind of resemble the drawing and also don’t, so that isn’t really helpful either.
As she’s struggling to decide, a hint of light catches her eye, and she glances down at her dagger to see the hilt glowing a familiar purple.
Blighted.
“Ugh, screw it,” she mutters. She yanks out a handful of each type of flower and shoves them into her bag. She can figure it out later.
For now, she follows her dagger’s glow deeper into the forest. There aren’t nearly as many Blighted now as when she first arrived almost three seasons ago, but there’s still enough that she can’t seem to go a day without running into them.
She catches sight of the Blighted at the same time that she catches sight of the woman standing in front of it. She moves without thought, throwing herself in front of Shiro the same time she throws her dagger straight through the Blighted’s core, making it explode in a typical mess of dark sludge.
Keith hauls Shiro’s head down and whips her cloak up to shield them both from the splatter, wincing as a bit lands on her skin, causing it to tingle. The fabric sizzles lightly where it’s been hit by ichor, as does the grass around them.
“You okay?” Keith says, lifting her hand from the back of Shiro’s head.
Shiro blinks up at her, looking a bit disoriented, but her expression quickly smooths into a teasing smile. “My hero.”
Keith lowers her cloak and looks away with a light cough. Now that the danger’s over, being this close to Shiro is making her unnecessarily warm again.
“Hey,” Shiro says, stepping closer. She reaches out, swiping Keith’s cheekbone with her thumb. There’s a black smudge on it when she pulls away. “You got a bit there.”
Keith pulls up the corner of her shirt and rubs at her cheek. It also comes away smudged. She looks up at Shiro. “Did I get it?”
Shiro’s eyes snap up to her face. “Yes. Wait, sorry, what was the question?”
Keith bites down on the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling too widely. “Nothing.” She straightens her shirt and goes to fetch her dagger. “Why does it seem like I always end up finding you near the Blighted?”
That’s how they first met, actually—Keith stumbled across Shiro a season ago in the forest, surrounded by Blighted, and promptly proceeded to obliterate them. The smile Shiro gave her made her heart stop beating for at least five seconds.
It’s the same smile Shiro’s giving her right now, and Keith is no more immune.
“What can I say?” Shiro says. “I’m irresistible.”
“Uh-huh.” Keith bites her cheek harder, but she feels the smile creeping through anyway. “What are you doing out here? I don’t usually see you in the evening.”
“I usually see you in the morning,” Shiro says, and it’s not really an answer, but the way she says it, it is.
Keith’s fought a lot of Blighted. A few words from Shiro makes her heart beat faster than any of those encounters.
“You’re a bit far from home,” Shiro says as Keith steps close again.
“Was doing a thing,” Keith says. “Are we close to your home?”
Shiro looks at her with wide, innocent eyes. “Could be.”
Keith just shakes her head.
She knows everything she needs to about Shiro, but sometimes she feels as though she knows nothing at all.
Though Shiro could probably say the same about Keith. They don’t talk a lot about their personal histories, and Shiro hasn’t said anything about it, but Keith’s sure she’s heard the rumors about Keith, the maybe-witch, definitely-pitiable orphan child living in the forest.
It’s just as well. Keith has her own suspicions about Shiro—Shiro, who she’s never seen around the village, or even heard of until running into her one morning in the forest. Shiro, whose eyes don’t seem to reflect the light quite right, whose edges seem to blur and glow when Keith isn’t looking closely.
But Keith finds it hard to care when she can step that extra step into Shiro’s space, and Shiro reaches her arm around Keith, and Keith smiles and tilts her head up, kissing the edge of Shiro’s jaw. “Missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Shiro says, moving her hand to the back of Keith’s head and kissing her properly. She squeezes her briefly. “Are you still on your secret mission?”
“Not really a secret,” Keith says, stepping back. “But I am done now.”
Shiro lets her hand slip down Keith’s arm and intertwines their fingers. “Let me walk you home?”
Keith smiles. “If you want to.”
“Of course I want to!” Shiro sets them off in the direction of Keith’s little forest dwelling. “And you can tell me all about your not-secret mission on the way.”
“It’s not really that interesting,” Keith says. “I’m, uh. I’m making a flower crown. As an offering to the Keeper of the Forest.”
Shiro stops walking. Keith stops, too. “You’re what?” Shiro says.
“Making a flower crown?” Keith says, thrown off by Shiro’s reaction. This can’t be that weird, can it? “Allura—she told me the Keeper likes them?”
“Why are you giving offerings to the Keeper?” Shiro says, brows furrowed.
“Um,” Keith says.
It strikes her that while she’s sure there’s something otherworldly about Shiro, she’s really not sure at all what the nature of that something is. There’s a chance that she considers the Keeper of the Forest an enemy—that the only reason she’s here, in this forest, is because the Keeper is not.
Shiro’s still frowning at her. “I haven’t even heard of anyone making an offering in a long time.”
“I don’t know how long you’ve been here,” Keith says, “but when I first came, the water in the springs by the Keeper’s shrine was black. Not really the ideal environment for making offerings. It wasn’t until I started clearing out the Blighted that it started running clearer again, and Allura started feeling the Keeper’s power returning. She said it’s about the right time to try to ask for what I want.”
“Oh,” Shiro says, frown easing up a bit. She starts walking again, at a slower pace, and Keith follows her. “I didn’t know that was why…” Shiro trails off, studying Keith’s face again. “So what do you want? Their power?”
“I want to ask for a blessing,” Keith corrects.
“You came here and cleared out all the Blighted by yourself to ask for a blessing?” Shiro says, voice strange in a way Keith can’t really read. “Sounds like a lot of effort for something you could get somewhere else. Especially since the Keeper isn’t generally open to that kind of thing.”
Allura warned her, as well, before Keith started all this.
“The Keeper is at once benevolent god and fierce defender,” Allura said. “Historically, he’s appeared in the village as a kindly physician to heal the sick, but during times of war she takes up her blade to defend her lands. But when it comes to selfish requests… they aren’t known for their generosity.”
She might take up her blade again and banish you from all the realms is what Allura implied but didn’t say, and Keith acknowledges that risk, but also acknowledges she doesn’t have another option.
“What do you know about the Keeper?” Keith says.
Shiro shrugs. “Enough. Will you tell me what kind of blessing you’re after?”
Keith glances at her, and decides there isn’t any harm in it. “I’m guessing you know what quintessence is,” she says. All supernatural beings have it running through their essence, including, Keith assumes, Shiro.
Shiro hums in agreement.
“I need some.”
“You… need some?” Shiro says, frowning at her again. “What would you need that for?”
“I’ve been looking for my mom.” Keith pats her dagger against her hip with her free hand. “This was all she left me. I’ve been asking around for ages and someone finally recognized the symbol. They said it belongs to a clan of Galra living in the Otherworld.”
“I see,” Shiro says. “You need the quintessence to enter the Otherworld.”
Keith nods. Humans can’t even see the rifts to the Otherworld, much less cross through them. If she wants to find her mom, she needs to be imbued with the energy of the supernatural. “I know it’s supposed to be impossible,” she says. “That’s what everyone else has been telling me. That’s why I decided to come here.”
“You think the Keeper can do what no other god can?” Shiro says, voice strange. Her hand grips Keith’s tightly.
“There are legends,” Keith says slowly. “I’m sure you’ve heard of them. About a human lover he used to have, who he loved enough to want to give eternal life to.”
“Those are just legends,” Shiro says, “and his lover didn’t gain eternal life, in the end.”
“Well, lucky I’m not looking for eternal life, then,” Keith says lightly.
Shiro stops walking again. Her expression, when she looks at Keith, is full of disapproval. “The Otherworld isn’t meant for humans. Just being there will drain your life force.”
“I’m not planning on being there forever,” Keith says. “Just long enough to find my mom.”
“That could already be too long,” Shiro says. She gnaws at her lip. “Were you ever going to tell me about this?”
“I was!” Keith says, wrapping both her hands around Shiro’s. “I swear, Shiro, I was. But—after. I don’t even know if it’s going to work. I didn’t want to worry you over nothing.”
“I’m not worried,” Shiro says, completely unconvincingly, and starts marching off in the direction of Keith’s shack again.
Keith trails after her. She’s not sure what exactly put Shiro into this mood, or how to get her out of it. It seems like she doesn’t have a problem with the Keeper, not really—which probably means she isn’t some kind of soul-eating demon, which is good. Not that Keith suspected that in the first place. And also not that Keith wouldn’t let Shiro snack on her soul if she really needed it, and also depending on the method.
Not the point.
The point is, Shiro seems a lot more concerned about Keith, which is… fair. According to the legend, the Keeper’s lover was, in the end, still human, which meant he couldn’t handle the energy of the supernatural realm. The Keeper returned him to the mortal world, but by that point, it was already too late. The quintessence that built up in his body consumed him, and he faded into nothing.
Keith’s not trying to disappear, but she accepted the risks so long ago at this point that she kind of just stopped thinking about them.
But… that was all before she met Shiro.
The air is still quiet and uncomfortably tense when they get back to Keith’s shack.
Keith goes to make Shiro’s favorite tea—summerberries and mint—and Shiro hovers wordlessly before going to sit down on the settee. She accepts the cup of tea Keith hands her and watches moodily as Keith sits on the floor in front of her and dumps her afternoon’s efforts of flowers from her bag, just for something to do.
The problem with the glassblossom was unfortunately not the first, and she guesses she really only needs about half the flowers currently strewn across the wooden planks. Maybe a third.
Keith gets out the stack of drawings and flower crown instructions from Allura to check.
After weaving an initial ring of questionably-correct flowers under Shiro’s heavy gaze, Keith gives up. She sets the ring down on her lap. “I can find another way.”
Shiro’s slow to focus on her. “What?”
“I don’t have to do this,” she says, gesturing to the flowers. “It was the easiest option I saw, but it wasn’t like I looked very hard after I heard about it. And now I have you, so… I don’t have to do this. I’m sure there are other ways I could try.”
“It does sound like the easiest,” Shiro says, tone still flat. “As long as the Keeper agrees, of course. But you saved her, so of course she would.”
Keith toys with the flower ring. “I just stabbed a few Blighted. I don’t think that’s worth any favors on its own.”
“Keith, you literally brought her back to life.” Shiro sounds more like herself again. She sets her tea aside to grasp Keith’s shoulder. “Give yourself a bit more credit.”
Keith leans into the touch and tilts her head back to look up at Shiro. “I’ll try. You still don’t want me to go, though.”
“No.” Shiro takes a breath. “Why does it have to be you?”
“To go into the Otherworld?”
Shiro nods.
Keith smiles wryly. She’d thought about it, but, “It’s my mom, Shiro. Who else could it be?”
“Do you really think finding your mom is worth giving up everything else for?”
“I mean, when I came up with this, there wasn’t really much to give up here,” Keith says, looking around at the bare shelves and empty tables. Her gaze stops on Shiro. The newest addition, but by far the most treasured. “But now I have you. And I’m sorry I just—I didn’t think about it.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to stay for me,” Shiro says softly. “But I’m not going to be happy watching you go, either.”
“I’d come back, if I went,” Keith says.
Shiro smiles, but it’s weak and disbelieving.
“Shiro.” Keith half-turns and puts a hand over her knee. “I’d come back. I’d do everything I could to come back.”
“I know you would,” Shiro says, pressing her hand over Keith’s. “And I really want to believe things would work out, but…”
“But why can’t you?”
“Because I already know that’s not how it works,” she says. “Are you sure it can’t be someone else?”
“There isn’t anyone else, Shiro,” Keith says gently.
“What if I could find you someone?” Shiro says. “Someone you trusted? Someone who already has quintessence?”
“Like you?”
Shiro looks caught out, and Keith laughs and squeezes her knee. “C’mon, Shiro, you literally glow.”
“I do not!” Shiro says, but she looks down at her arm like she needs to confirm it.
Keith snorts. “It’s fine, Shiro. It’s a nice glow.”
“I’m not supposed to glow,” Shiro says, now squinting down at her skin like it’s betrayed her.
“It’s not all the time or anything,” Keith says. “It’s just sometimes I’m not paying attention, and then you’re glowing.”
Shiro’s squinting at Keith now. “Huh.”
The look on Shiro’s face is deeply scrutinizing, and Keith feels her skin quiver under the gaze. “Huh what?”
“Can I see your dagger?” Shiro says.
“You’ve seen it before,” Keith says, but she picks it up and hands it over.
Shiro unwraps it carefully on her lap, and turns it this way and that to inspect it. She spends extra time on the symbol. It glows faintly when she runs her thumb over it.
“I’ve seen it glow near the Blighted,” Shiro says. “I always wondered how it did that. Now I think it’s you.”
“What’s me?”
“I think you’re naturally sensitive to quintessence,” Shiro says, wrapping the blade back up. “And I think you might have some, too, and you’ve been passively powering this dagger with it.”
Keith stares at the dagger, then back up at Shiro’s contemplative face. “But I’m human.”
“You’re planning on looking for your mom in the Otherworld,” Shiro says. “Have you considered that she might not be?”
“I don’t have any supernatural abilities or anything.”
Shiro holds up the dagger.
Keith snatches it back. “Magic dagger. Doesn’t count.”
“That’s not how magic works,” Shiro says, but her mind is clearly somewhere else as she says it. “This does change some things, though. Maybe the Otherworld wouldn’t affect you as much like this. So maybe I could take you, after all.”
Keith squints at her. “How would you take me?”
Shiro looks surprised for a second, then she smiles. “The same way I took my other lover, of course.”
Keith stares blankly for a beat, before understanding dawns. “You’re saying you’re the Keeper. You?”
“Is that… an insult?” Shiro says, sounding amused. “I can’t tell.”
“It’s just that you’re so—so—” Keith gestures at Shiro’s general Shiro-ness—the curve of her smile, her simple tunic and leggings, the way she brushes the tuft of her hair back with her fingers and then looks mildly irritated when it flops right back down.
“So much more attractive than the rumors claimed?” Shiro suggests.
Keith deflates. “The rumors were very flattering.”
“So… so much less attractive than the rumors claimed?”
“I didn’t say that,” Keith says quickly.
“I know, I know, sorry,” Shiro says with a lopsided smile. “I’ve been asleep for decades, I have to have my fun where I can. I wasn’t kidding when I said you gave me life again.”
“So when I met you the first time…”
“I’d just woken up,” Shiro confirms. “No idea what was going on, except that the place seemed to be overrun by monsters. And also that there was a really cute badass squatting in my forest who I wanted to get to know better. That’s you, by the way.”
“Excuse me?” Keith says. “Squatting?”
“It’s common courtesy to pay offerings to your local Keeper for living on our lands,” Shiro says, poking Keith’s cheek. “The forest doesn’t make itself thrive, you know.”
Keith snorts. “Well, sorry for thinking you were still asleep. But hey.” She grabs the flower ring and holds it up for Shiro. “See? This is coming in handy after all.”
“Don’t hold that for too long,” Shiro says. “That plant will irritate your skin after a while.”
Keith tosses it across the room. “Guessing that was not a fairyblossom, then.”
“Firethistle,” Shiro says, barely smothering a laugh. “I want to say it’s an easy mistake to make, but it’s really not.”
“Ugh.” Keith glares at the abandoned ring. “Well, I’ll figure it out. And I’ll make you more flower rings than you can handle. And I’ll tell the rest of the village, too.”
“Well, before you do that,” Shiro says, “let’s figure out how to get you into the Otherworld first. Because I’m not letting you go alone, and if the village finds out I’m back, I’m probably going to be kept busy for a while.”
“You’ll really help me?” Keith says.
“I told you I would,” Shiro says, squeezing her shoulder again. “But we have to be careful, and try a little bit at a time. And you have to listen to me, and you have to tell me exactly what you’re feeling, and you can’t hide anything from me. I don’t… I don’t want what happened to him to happen to you.”
“Of course,” Keith says in a rush. “Yes. I don’t want that either. I want to stay with you.”
Shiro smiles sadly. “He did, too.” Then her expression clears again and she says, “Okay, so. Small steps. Just in and out to start, then longer periods, to see how you’re adjusting. I’ll need a lot of energy to do all of this, so I hope you’re ready to provide. Last time I did this, I was near the peak of my power.”
Keith looks at the mess of flowers laying in front of her and tries to estimate how many flower crowns is equivalent to peak-of-power-a-century-ago. “So maybe… five hundred flower crowns?”
Shiro laughs. “I’m going to run out of places to put them.”
“That’s assuming you’d want to put them anywhere in the first place,” Keith says, giving the firethistle ring a glare. “Any chance you could just tell me what your favorite flowers are?”
“Leave the flowers,” Shiro says, grabbing Keith by the arm and drawing her up to the settee and closer, closer, until Keith has to hold onto her shoulders for balance. “I can think of a few better offerings from you.”
Shiro kisses her softly, and Keith thinks ah.
The oldest form of offering in the books, and one that she’s all too willing to give.
Shiro’s broad hand strokes down Keith’s side, to the curve of her breast, her waist, her hip. She pulls Keith’s hips closer, meaningfully. “So how many of these are you willing to give me?”
Keith bites her lip. “Let’s find out how much you’re willing to take.”