Chapter Text
It was a cold morning. She was in her room, sitting on the bed with a cup of sweet flower tea. Birds chirping in the distance and her roommate was deep asleep. She turned her head to look through the window. The most famous winery of Tevyat was visible in the distance. She was lost in her thoughts with her tea in her hands, now cold.
With a deep breath, the last few years passed before her eyes. All those memories since their arrival to Tevyat. She looked at her roommate and sighed. Neither of them had any idea how things ended like that. It was going to be the 4th anniversary of their arrival tomorrow, and there was still no way back home. She was about to lose all the hope she had and needed more of.
**
She was staying with her roommate at her family house for a week. Life was all nice and peaceful. They were playing their favourite video game together just as they usually did. It was a late hour on the warm summer night. They had no clue that it would be the night that would change their life forever.
In a moment everything went dark, and their ears started ringing. For a while she couldn’t see or feel anything. Then suddenly the sheer cold hit them in a big wave. The small relief of being able to feel something disappeared soon enough and the panic set in as she realized she couldn’t move and her limbs started to go numb. She wanted to open her eyes but somehow, she had no energy to do that. She was trying to collect her thoughts, but it was too cold to even do that. She tried to listen to her roommate’s breathing. The ringing in her ears made it hard but she managed to do it.
She waited for a while and tried to regain her energy. She had no idea how long she was laying on the cold, wet surface and she didn’t still hear any noise from her roommate except her slow breathing. She was about to open her eyes when she heard someone’s yelling and footsteps. Someone was running. Someone was running to them. She felt nervous and didn’t make a move. She was not a good fighter already and with the current conditions, it was impossible to protect herself or her roommate.
Footsteps stopped beside her head. She was trembling because of the cold and fear. She heard a young male voice start to talk but she couldn’t understand what he said. With momentary courage, she opened her eyes to be met with a pair of blue eyes.
She couldn’t see the man’s face through the thick cloth covering his face. Only his eyes were visible. The man was still talking to her, but she couldn’t make anything out, like his voice was coming from deep within the ocean. She tried to talk to him, but it was too cold to do that. It’s so cold, she thought just before passing out again.
**
She snapped back to reality with her roommate’s movement. She stood up and left the room, heading to their little kitchen. She put her cup on the counter and started to prepare something to eat. Her roommate came in right when she finished setting the table.
“Mornin’”
“Mornin’. Did you sleep well?”
Her roommate hummed with a sleepy voice.
“Seems like you didn’t…”
Her roommate nodded and sat on the chair next to the window and leaned her head against her hand with her already closed eyes. She chuckled at the half asleep girl and sat beside her.
“Soo… Will you come with me to talk with Albedo?”
“Yeah, I will.” The roommate sighed and opened her eyes slowly.
“Why the hell is he always at that mountain? It’s so cold.”
“Can’t disagree with that.”
“Do you think he found a way back home? He was working on a new experiment if I’m correct.”
“Yeah… I hope he did…”
A deep silence fell in the room. It wasn’t a peaceful silence, but more of a nervous one. They ate their food in silence. Both their heads were full of thoughts about their past and future.
**
After about two hours, they finished hiking up at the lab, gasping for breath as the air froze inside their lungs. The cold of the mountain was the same as always. They arrived at the lab and walked inside with quick steps. The blonde alchemist was nowhere to be found in his lab, so they decided to wait for him. They sat beside the fireplace and look at the devices and weird-looking liquids. She turned her head to the fire and watched it. The warm feeling of it was too familiar to her that it was almost painful. Almost she said to herself.
**
She was sitting next to the fireplace and looking blankly at the fire, avoiding the curious stares she received from the children at the corner of the room. One of them, the youngest one she assumed, took a step hesitantly toward her. His orange hair was all wet and stuck on his forehead. With his small movement, she turned towards the boy and their eyes met. He froze for a moment before he saw the little smile on her lips. She moved aside to make some place for him so he could sit beside her to warm up. No one was talking. The other two children were still standing at the corner, observing her. The kid beside her opened his mouth to talk but closed it again without a word. She was watching him out of the corner of her eye. She smiled to herself. He was just like her little brother. She turned to him with a nervous smile on her face.
“Umm, do you know where my friend is? When I woke up, she was not here.”
“You don’t need to worry about her.” The other boy was the one who talked. “Our big brother took her to the doctor.”
She looked at the kid nervously but nodded anyway. She couldn’t do anything but wait.
“Is the doctor too far away from here?”
The girl answered with a casual voice. “No, it’s just near the entrance of the village and our village is not that big.” She smiled brightly, squinting her eyes. The boy’s blue eyes were now wide open, hearing her voice was a shock for him it seems. He closed his lips which were wide open from the shock just like his eyes. He bowed his head and didn’t say anything for a moment. While he was thinking about his questions, the other children came closer as well. Now all four of them were sitting side by side, getting warmed up by the fire.
“Umm, I guess we should know each other’s names first.” He hesitated for a second before continuing. “So, what is your name?”
“I’m Sophie, and my friend’s name is Selina. What about you guys’ names?”
“I’m Teucer and those are Tonia and Anthon.”
“It’s so nice to meet you guys. I wish our meeting was a bit more fortunate one.”
They all chuckled a bit at her words. She was trying to stay calm since she was with a bunch of kids, but she was feeling like she was at the edge of a cliff.
A silence fell in the room, only the crackling of burning wood could be heard. Anthon stood up and fix his clothes before going toward the front door. “I’m going fishing.” Teucer looked between his brother and the woman beside him. He then must have decided that she is well, so he ran to the front door to join his brother. Tonia giggled to her little brother’s excitement and stood up as well. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me for anything. You should rest.” She said before disappearing in the corridor.
Sophie nodded and turned to the fire again. If they don’t come in 2 hours I can go and search for them she thought, trying to distract herself from her anxious thoughts.
**
“Oh, welcome! I thought you would come later so I went to collect some ingredients for my paints.”
“Oh, it’s fine. We just wanted to come early so if your experiment didn’t work, we could discuss some other ways.” Selina said as she stood up. Albedo nodded knowingly to her before putting the stuff in his hands on the counter.
“Well then, I shall share the results with you, but I must say…” He looked at the girls now both standing in front of him. “…you shouldn’t get your hopes too high.”
They nodded and followed him to the front of the board. Suddenly they both looked even more tired and nervous than they did a moment ago.
Albedo looked at the reports in his hands and started to talk with a serious voice.
“According to your statements about your world and this world, I thought it could be a Leyline disorder, so I collected some samples to examine. It seems like I was right about that one…”
Sophie looked at the papers pinned on the board before turning to him. “But?”
Alchemist signed and looked at them. “But I don’t know what connected to the Leyline from your world, the Earth.” He looked at his reports once again before placing them on the chair behind him. “We need to find it and understand how and why they get connected. It will take time…”
“Too much time I assume?” Selina asked, even if they all knew the answer.
“It seems that way, unfortunately.” Two friends looked at each other with pure sadness in their eyes. They knew they both were thinking about the same thing but neither of them was brave enough to say it out loud.
We are stuck here, perhaps forever…