Chapter Text
She awoke to nothing.
Her first glance at this world was not of this place at all, instead it was at the inky dark of her own wings.
As her senses returned to her, she sat up, stretching open her arms and bird like feature to glare directly into the sun - the scorching not affecting her eyesight in the slightest.
The harpy stood up slowly, her knees trembling slightly as she gains her footing in this unfamiliar landscape, brushing the white, dusty sand off her clean clothes, using her clawed hands to brush the baggy cream-coloured pants that cuffed just under her knees.
The ruins of a long forgotten structure - perhaps one that never wholly existed, surround her. The comfort that Arcaea had given her to aid her awakening. A comfort she’d never realise was this worlds doing. She sets her talons in front of her, one after the other as they familiarise themselves to walk the sand beneath her.
She lightly tugged at the turtleneck of her slick black tank top as she stumbled around, sights set on the ruins encasing her in the basin of sand she awoke in. She leans her hand on one of mossy pillars of ruin.
She shifted her weight and helped herself further out of the divot - shifting the weight of the pillar with her, causing it to topple over slowly, tilting inwards into the basin and out of the sand it sat in.
The slow descent snaps into a fast will of gravity, as the pillar fully exits the sand and lets the earths atmosphere pull it down. And in this same instant - the top becomes the bottom as it hits the floor of the sand once more, sending a tempest of wind in all directions, catching the drift of the harpy’s wings and lifting her upwards violently.
She flies upwards in the midst of Arcaea itself.
Glass glides around her - all in unison, as if she is the only irregular aspect of this moment.
She spins - a dreidel in midair, the wind continuing to jolt her body further into the clear blue sky before eventually she’s pushed so far it can’t reach her.
She keeps her arms stretched wide, letting the remnants of air keep her afloat as she slowly watches the glass in the distance start to thrust back downwards. The shockwave slowly closes in, more and more Arcaea being pulled back to the endless shore.
The blast catches up to her, and her arms are yanked downwards, her steady motion collapsing with a shudder as she falls alongside hordes of glass.
It is here she sees what Arcaea truly is. She falls and glances into worlds through and beyond the veil of time and space - observing true transience in the process.
She sees a glimpse of three people, a human, a witch, and an Angel, all with backpacks peering over the edge of a vibrant wormhole.
She sees a glimpse of two senior year students, peering into an endless puddle of blood staining clear winter snow, as if something is on the other side.
She sees a glimpse of a young girl, no older than 10 years of age, reaching her virgin hand out to a vicious wolf - behemoth in size compared to her.
Then it happens —
The radiance of the sun refracts off a fourth piece of Arcaea, shining in a way for it to allow her to see her own reflection, peering into her own bright yellow eyes and black slit pupils, and it is here —
It is here she finds her name.