Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sunlight.

A summer of darkness had made the whole concept of a giant burning ball of gas in the sky feel alien and mysterious, like it was something out of an old folk tale. Despite having enjoyed sunlight for the first seventeen years of her life, Fiya winced as the sunbeams shot through her bedroom window and onto her face. She let out a pained groan that sounded like an old bed being sat on as she shielded her eyes from the celestial glare, though no matter how hard she tried its radiant glow managed to pierce through the gaps in her fingers. It was a warm but irritating glow, the kind that made you wish for three more months of unending darkness.

Unable to bear it any longer, Fiya rolled over in her bed to face the rest of her less-than-tidy room. Her eyes glided across the dirty clothes, empty boxes, and loose change that littered her bedroom floor before landing on her alarm clock. She watched as the time flickered, as if it was trying to alert her of something. There was a long, silent three minutes where Fiya just laid in her bed and stared at the alarm clock, trying to piece together why it felt like it was trying to send her message. Then, after an embarrassing amount of time, it hit her:

It was the first day of her junior year.

The door to Fiya's bedroom was flung open by crackling blasts of wild magic as she stumbled out into the hallway, her backpack dangling from her shoulders. Now, usually putting on a pair of faded denim jeans while running down the stairs isn't a particularly wise idea, but by now Fiya had toppled down the steps of her family home so many times that she knew she could survive. She pulled her pants up all the way to the top of her waist before adjusting her dark, patterned sweater, trying not to step on her untied laces in the process.

“Breakfast is on the table, honey!” yelled her mother from the kitchen, trying her best to be heard over the incessant cries of a twelve-month-old baby. Fiya stumbled into the kitchen and made a beeline for the bowl of Chimera Crunch that was waiting for her on the kitchen table. She quickly scarfed down the corn-based heads of goats, lions, and dragons, unable to actually enjoy its texture and flavour. Milk and loose pieces of cereal spilled onto the already cluttered kitchen table, but Fiya was far too concerned with not being late for her first day to think about that.

“Mom! Shoelaces!” she whined, her mouth still full of cereal. Fiya's mother sighed, making her way over to her daughter with a tired look in her eyes. She handed Fiya her crying baby brother before bending down towards the floor. Fiya attempted to coddle the whining baby in her arms but ended up just holding him under his armpits and shaking him back and forth as she marveled at his humongous ears. Wood Elves were known to be born with their ears fully developed, so they're always born with ridiculously sized ears that they grow into as they age. That being said, Fiya's brother's ears were particularly big, something she'd be sure to make fun of once he was older.

“There we go,” said her mother before standing up and giving Fiya a quick kiss on the forehead. She rustled her daughter's mop of auburn hair before taking back that giant lump of goo that was her son. “Have a good first day, sweetie. And remember: if you're feeling upset or overwhelmed–”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, guidance counselor, I know, anyways gotta go, love you!” With that, Fiya charged out the door, milk still dripping from her lip. With no time to waste, she grabbed her bike from the side of their house and began to walk it towards the street. Sure, it wasn't the prettiest thing; it was so scratched-up that the mango-coloured paint was entirely missing in parts, the chain let out a weird screech whenever you pedaled for too long, and the seat was kind of wonky, but it did the job! Just as Fiya was about to hop on and make her way towards school, her crystal began to buzz from her front pocket.

“Please don't be school,” Fiya mumbled, waving her hand and casting a quick mage hand to hold the crystal for her. For some reason her mind immediately jumped to the idea that she was late for school and that this was someone calling her to tell her that not only was she expelled, but everyone was laughing about it. “Hello?”

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Fiya winced slightly, though she was pretty relieved to hear Polly's voice on the other end of the line. They had been Fiya's best friend since she transferred to Aguefort and had always taken a keen interest in her academic success, so it wasn't surprising that they were calling her to check up. “Where are you, Karnon? Thought we promised we were gonna start this new year off right. Y'know, new year, new us!”

“You said that, I didn't make any promises,” Fiya huffed as she pedaled down the streets of Ballaster on her way to Aguefort. It was hard keeping her focus on both the road and the phone call, but she was going to try regardless. “Is this a part of your whole 'reinvention' thing?”

“Of course, babe! I mean it's junior year, where's the fun in being the same person I was last year?” To be fair, Polly quite literally wasn't the same person they were last year. Previously a devout follower of Helio along with the rest of their idealistic human family, Polly's whole life had been flipped upside down after they had sprouted horns in the middle of the night. They had since been kicked out of their house and had started their whole mission of reinventing themselves from the ground up, from what god they worshiped to the name they went by. “C'mon, Karnon, aren't you just a little bored? Don't get me wrong, I love you with all my heart, but don't you think it'd be fun to branch out a little?”

“Uh, not really,” she replied, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice. While Fiya completely supported Polly's new lifestyle and wanted nothing more than for them to be happy, she was much more comfortable with everything else in her little world staying exactly how it was. Change always frightened her, more so than it did other people, and so she was determined to keep the next year as linear as possible. Fiya took a couple deep breaths as she let her bike glide through Clearbook, taking a moment to admire all of the fancy-looking houses as the sun's warmth washed over her. “I mean, life's pretty great right now, especially with the sun back, so I think I'm fine keeping things the way they are. I know everyone wants to, like, party and shit, but that's not really what I'm about, I don't think. I mean, I'd kind of prefer to just stick to what I know, y'know?”

“Yes, I know babe,” Polly chuckled, though Fiya couldn't really tell if it was a 'I love you the way you are' chuckle or a 'God, I'm stuck being friends with this loser' chuckle. Either way, it left her feeling unsettled and confused. She tried to shake the feeling as she crossed the bridge and neared Aguefort, doing her best to spot Polly on the quad. “Oh my god, Fiya, I forgot to tell you: you're not gonna believe who I saw at Thrallmart yesterday!”

“Please don't make me guess,” Fiya muttered, fully taking her eyes off of the road so that she could try and spot her friend. “You know I hate guessing.”

“Alright, alright. Anyways, it was, get this, Ruben Hopclap! Crazy, right?” Polly's infectious laugh reverberated through Fiya's speaker; it almost had an arcane quality to it, like it itself was some magical spell they were casting to try and brighten people's day. “I'm not into that emo stuff, but it was kind of, like, surreal, y'know? He was just standing there, looking at frozen burgers, which I'm not even going to try and dissect. But, like, he's way shorter in person. Like, I know he's a gnome and all, but he sings like someone who's at least five-six, y'know? I know I'm kind of rambling, but it just came to me a second ago and–”

Fiya had learned that there were very few things that could interrupt her best friend, try as they will, but it was in that moment that she learned about a new way of cutting Polly off: a car crash. It all happened in a flash: she was riding her bike, scanning the quad for any signs of her friend, when suddenly she felt her body lurch forward as a sense of weightlessness came upon her. There were a brief couple seconds where it felt like she was suspended in air until she felt the harsh crash of metal against her back before rolling onto the pavement. Every part of her body ached, especially her left arm, and for what felt like maybe a couple minutes, Fiya had no idea what was going on around her.

Now, while Fiya didn't quite know what it was like being dead, this felt pretty damn close. Pain coursed through her body as she lay on the hard concrete pavement, the noise of those around her drowned out by the deafening throbbing in her ears. She blinked a couple times, noticing that every time she did the world seemed to change colour a little. Was this another symptom of death? Was this how it was all supposed to go? To be quite honest, this wasn't how she'd imagined it: Fiya had pictured her death as being a lot less uncertain and chaotic, though it seemed that she attracted chaos like honey attracts wasps.

“Oh shit!” yelled a familiar voice, quickly putting an end to Fiya's assumption that she had passed on. Still somewhat delirious, she wasn't able to determine who was speaking until she felt the incredibly hairy arms of her guidance counselor scooping her up. Fiya squinted and saw Jawbone looking down at her with a panicked expression smeared across his canine face. It wasn't long before he was carrying her across the quad, muttering curses under his breath. “Alright kid, uh, let's get you to the nurse's office, because I don't think either of us want to be talking with insurance fellas right now.”

Fiya groaned, though while Jawbone assumed it was simply from the pain, it was in fact a much deeper feeling, one that pooled in her stomach and rose from her throat like pus from a wound. Fiya wasn't groaning because she was in pain, it was because they hadn't even reached first period and she was already making a scene.

“Wakey wakey, sleepyhead!”

Fiya blinked her eyes open and immediately shielded them from the harsh, clinical lighting of the nurse's office. The pain had seemingly left her body, but she felt unimaginably tired. She looked to her left to see none other than Polly, relaxing by the cot where she had been resting. While the two of them had hung out plenty of times over the summer, she was still taken aback by how much Polly had changed since sophomore year: their once brown hair had been replaced by a head of bouncy, indigo curls that wrapped around the bottom of their short, thick horns, and their pale skin had shifted to an enchanting shade of purple, complemented by little lilac freckles across the bridge of their nose. Throw in a septum piercing and a new preppy wardrobe that had been thrifted from various lost-and-founds and you were looking at what might as well have been an entirely new person.

“What happened to not doing anything exciting for the year?” But no, still the same old Polly. They helped Fiya sit up onto the edge of the cot, keeping a hold of her hand as she tried to regain her bearings. Polly began to scan their friend's body for any damage. “You look pretty okay for someone who just got hit by a car, though your sweater could do with a bit of a touch-up.”

“I got hit by a car?!”

“Well, I wouldn't say hit,” they mumbled, taking a hold of the divine talisman that hung around their neck and, after giving it a little rub, the tears and loose threads in Fiya's sweater magically disappeared. Fiya gave Polly a weak smile as a 'thank you'; had she cast the spell, it probably would have ended up with her sweater being turned into a ball of yarn. “I asked some people and they said that the car was fully parked and you just rode into it at full speed. And while that is quite embarrassing, it's probably the reason you're not, y'know... blech.”

Polly dropped their head to the side and stuck out their blue tongue, getting a small chuckle out of Fiya. She let out a sigh, grumbling nonsense under her breath as she collected herself. Fiya was able to spot her backpack next to the cot, and while at first she thought it had gotten all torn up during her crash, she quickly remembered that no, it had always looked like that. She ran her tongue across her braces in an effort to settle the feeling of dread that had been bubbling in her gut the moment she came to.

“That... ugh, this all sucks,” she grumbled, immediately flexing her fingers back and forth in an attempt to knead the frustration out of herself. She already knew there was going to be a conversation about this when she got home, not to mention she'd be hearing all about it from her classmates for the next week, maybe two. “Shit, what about my bike? Is it okay?”

“Oh yeah, forgot to mention that,” Polly sighed through clenched teeth, something that Fiya could most certainly discern meant 'you're fucked'. “It was basically bent in half, like I don't even know how you managed to do that, could have been a wild magic surge or something. I tried to cast mending on it but I could only touch up the scratched paint. Sorry.”

“It's fine,” Fiya mumbled, obviously upset. Seemed her only way to get home now was to walk the entire way back with a big hunk of dented steel in tow. Not to mention it would mean her whole schedule for the week was fucked. Fiya continued to knead the air with her hands, trying not to have a total meltdown at the prospect of her whole week being turned upside down. While it wasn't perfect, she managed to put on a half-decent facade for Polly; it made her look like someone who was pissed off they had just been hit by a car, rather than someone who was about to cry because she had just found out she was going to have to change her schedule a bit. “Is it, uh, still out there?”

“Hm? Oh no, that'd be insane,” Polly laughed, taking a hold of Fiya's restless hands and giving them both a little squeeze. They seemed to have some innate ability to tell when someone was uncomfortable, which Fiya appreciated because she was uncomfortable almost eighty-percent of the time. “I think I saw some girl use a mage hand to carry it off towards that bike shelter outside of the gym, so I'd say look there. I mean, I would have got it myself but, y'know, was too busy looking for you.”

“It's okay.” Despite how weary her tone was, Fiya did her best to let Polly know that she didn't blame them for not lugging her crumpled up bike into the nurse's office. As she stood onto her feet, almost tripping over herself in the process, the bell for first period rang, and soon a cacophony of chatter and footsteps erupted in the halls. With no time to waste feeling sorry for herself—even though that's what she spent most of her sorcerer classes doing—Fiya slung her backpack over her shoulder and followed Polly towards the door. “God, today is gonna be rough. It feels like my sweat glands are crying in pain.”

“Fiya, babe, I love you,” Polly chuckled, putting their arm around her shoulder as they walked through Aguefort's bustling corridors. “But you have got to stop giving me updates on how much you're sweating, it's really unnerving.”

While things had obviously gotten off to a frankly terrible start, Fiya managed to cruise through her first day of junior year relatively unscathed. She had a pretty okay conversation with Jace—or Interim Vice Principal Stardiamond, seeing as he had been temporarily promoted—during sorcerer class where he asked her about how she was handling her wild magic surges and recommended she take some extra classes that might help her build up her confidence. Afterwards, Jawbone found her in the cafeteria and apologised about the whole incident from that morning before indulging her in an anecdote involving an insurance fraud scheme he was a part of (Fiya wasn't sure if their student-teacher confidentiality went both ways, but she wasn't one to snitch). The rest of Fiya's day was spent awkwardly catching up with her party members and classmates, though as usual Polly handled most of the conversation for her.

When the school day finally came to an end, Fiya was practically dragging herself out of the school. She had forgotten how much school drained her; the bustling crowds, the constant drone of conversation, the glare of the lights, and the complete lack of anywhere to hide from it all. The aglets on her laces clicked and clacked as she slouched toward the bike shelter, desperate for this day to come to an end. All that was left was the herculean task of dragging that wretched hunk of metal all the way to her house. She'd usually just cast a mage hand or something, but her body was so worn out that any attempt at a spell would probably result in her throwing up.

But as Fiya finally reached the bike shelter, she was surprised to see that there was only one bike there. Propped against a railing, with a mango-coloured paint job, was a bicycle that was in, and this is no understatement, pristine condition. Its wheels were perfectly inflated, its silver chain glaring in the sunlight, and had it not been for a seat that was still slightly skewed, Fiya would have had no idea this was her bike. She placed her hands on its frame, a strange tingling sensation rushing to her fingertips as she dragged them across it. It didn't squeak when she moved it, nor whine when she turned it—it was the platonic ideal of a bicycle.

Maybe it was because she was so bewildered by the fact that her bike had suddenly taken on this glorious form, but there was a blue sticky note slapped on one of the handlebars, gently flapping in the afternoon breeze. Still rather confused, Fiya plucked the piece of paper from the bike and held it up to read it:

Sorry for hitting you with our car. I mean, the car was at a full stop, but I'm still really sorry. I fixed your bike for you, so hopefully that helps :)

- Adaine

Fiya wasn't sure which was more impressive: fixing up her piece of junk bike, or being able to write that much on what was a rather small sticky note. She held it in her hand for a moment, squinting at the small, cursive letters before carefully folding the note up and sliding it into her pocket. It wasn't immediately clear to her who this Adaine was, but the name sounded incredibly familiar to her, so no doubt she'd remember soon. Feeling a certain weight suddenly lift from her shoulder, Fiya tucked her loose shoelaces into her sneakers and mounted her bike.

Before she pedaled away, the young sorcerer took a moment to bask in the afternoon sun. Its rays broke through the leaves overhead, leaving a warm, pleasant feeling on the surface of her skin. It had been three months since she'd gotten to embrace the daylight like this, and while she hadn't appreciated it that morning, Fiya certainly found herself enjoying it now. And as she wrapped her hands around the bike's handlebars, the folded note sticking out from her pocket as she admired her new ride, Fiya noticed a strange feeling in her chest. It lacked the terror of her usual gut instincts, as well as the unbridled temperament of her wild magic. This feeling was quiet and reserved, resting in her lungs before rising up with each breath. It was rejuvenating, yet totally unfamiliar.

Fiya didn't dwell on it for too long, and instead began to cycle home while the sun was still above the horizon. She wasn't exactly sure why, but some part of her believed that despite everything, it was going to be a good year.

Fiya Karnon
Sophomore Year
(Commissioned from spacedlexi)

Chapter Text

It was Wednesday night, and since it had been such a hectic week—Fiya's first week of junior year, her sister enrolling in Aguefort as a freshman, her baby brother being a total nuisance—Fiya's parents had made the executive decision to relax and order some takeout. The family of five were sitting around the kitchen table, silently feasting on the two twelve-inch pizzas (one plain cheese, one with the works) as they enjoyed the relief that came with making it halfway through a busy week.

Though Fiya was far from relieved. Quite the opposite, in fact, as there was something she needed to ask her parents, but just couldn't seem to word properly. Her eyes darted between her father, a tall, similarly scrawny Half-Elf with a forest of auburn hair covering pretty much every part of his body, and her mother, a Wood Elf with round, tired eyes and a gentle smile permanently fixed to her face, no matter the circumstances. Fiya watched as they ate and quietly chatted about the usual affairs—bills, work, when her mom was thinking of going back to work—all whilst airplaning mushed up bananas into her baby brother's mouth. Fiya reeled in disgust as the vaguely-humanoid blob chewed on the honeyed slop, seemingly oblivious to how disgusting he was being.

As she tried to put the sentences together in her head, Fiya glanced over at her younger sister, Kayla, who was eating her pizza with a disinterested look on her face. Despite being two years her junior, Kayla had always been the independent child, though it was certainly something that was thrust upon her on account of their parents dedicating so much time to Fiya. She glared at Fiya from across the table, her shadowy eyes narrowing as she attempted to decipher her older sister's expression. Kayla's brown bangs waved in front of her face, giving her gaze an almost hypnotic effect that Fiya was forced to avert her eyes from, choosing instead to look at the empty chair that occupied its usual spot at the head of the table.

Alright, it was now or never. Soon enough her parents would be heading to bed, and she couldn't exactly ask them tomorrow because that would be too short notice. Ugh, but what was she supposed to say? This would seem totally out of the blue coming from her, so maybe she could try and phrase it in a way that–

“Fiya wants to go to a party.” Everyone's head turned to look at Kayla, her voice dry and matter-of-fact as she continued to glare at her big sister. “That's why she hasn't spoken since we sat down.”

“Kayla!” Fiya hissed, giving her little sister a swift kick, resulting in a quick under-the-table battle as they flailed their legs back and forth. The glasses and plates rattled as they kicked and shimmied, until eventually they both got tired and slouched back in their chairs. Fiya wasn't sure why her sister had brought it upon herself to ask her question for her, but it definitely hadn't put this thing off to a great start.

“A party?” her dad replied, his mouth half-full as he waved a slice of pizza back and forth with a puzzled look on his face. “You never want to go to parties. Hell, you used to get upset if we even mentioned having people over. What's with the sudden change of heart?”

“Fionn, c'mon,” said Fiya's mom, quickly turning to her eldest daughter with a slightly confused yet supportive look on her face. “Fiya's always growing and changing, just like the rest of us, so maybe she wants to try something new! Trying new stuff is normal around this age, y'know?”

“You've got me there.” Her father let out a chuckle before finishing off the slice in his hand and putting his full attention on the conversation at hand. “Alright then, what're the details? When, where, who, all of that stuff.”

“Uh, well it's this Friday,” Fiya mumbled, kind of shocked that she had made it this far. She was half-expecting a flat 'no', but it seemed her parents were just desperate to get her out of her room. Well, her mom at least. “I'm gonna go with Polly, and it's not too far from her, just near downtown–”

“It's at Seacaster Manor,” Kayla interjected, shooting Fiya a devious look before turning back to face their parents. “Everyone keeps talking about how it's going to be super wild and there's gonna be alcohol and fighting and a shrimp jump–”

“Shut up!” Fiya yelled, causing wild magic to surge across her body in the form of crackling, static electricity. As her words hit Kayla, she watched as her little sister began to levitate before being shot up towards the ceiling, like a helium balloon that someone had let go of. Their baby brother immediately began to laugh, causing him to spit his mushed up banana everywhere. Gross.

“Girls! Calm down!” Their mom quickly hopped to her feet and began to try and pull Kayla down from the roof, but to no avail. “Fiya, honey, you have to be more careful! You can't lose your temper like that!”

“I'm sorry!” she lied. It was rare for her wild magic to produce anything of actual benefit, but dealing with her brat of a sister wasn't something she was gonna complain about. “She was trying to make me mad, it's not my fault!”

“What's a shrimp jump?” muttered her dad as he picked the peppers off of another pizza slice. “Is that some new trend that kids are doing? Is it a dance?”

“It's...” Kayla mumbled, flapping her arms as she tried to fall back down towards the ground. “Okay, I don't know what it is, but everyone keeps talking about it like it's a big thing. ”

“Uh huh,” replied her dad, scratching his beard as he leaned back into his chair with a befuddled look on his face. “Seacaster... Seacaster... oh, them! Yeah, they're nice folk. They order a lot of stuff from the brewery, I'll tell you that. I'd say I'm down there once a week doing deliveries. Which reminds me: is your vice principal dating Hallariel Seacaster? I mean nothing against the guy, but I wouldn't have expected him to land her, especially with how he was at those parent-teacher conferences. I mean he's nice, I'm just saying that the guy doesn't exactly exude confid–”

“Sweetie, let's stay focused,” Fiya's mom interjected, forcing her dad to shut up and get back to eating his pizza. She turned to look at Fiya, giving up on trying to get her other daughter down from the ceiling. “You said Polly's going?”

Fiya nodded, causing both her parents to look at each other and engage in one of their silent conversations. They began to shift their eyebrows, scrunch their faces, grit their teeth, and all other sorts of gestures, the meanings of which lay outside of Fiya's field of expertise. Ever since she was a kid, this was how they had had conversations in front of her; they knew she couldn't understand, so it allowed them to speak about her in plain sight without worrying about her getting offended. That didn't stop her from feeling somewhat alienated though, and she couldn't help but feel a little stupid whenever they did it.

“Alright,” sighed her mother, a tired but genuine smile on her face. “We expect you'll be responsible and won't get yourself in trouble. You can drink beer and wine, but no spirits! And don't fool yourself into thinking you can trick us, we know our stuff.”

“Sure thing!” Fiya beamed, flapping her hands back and forth with excitement, causing harmless little sparks to shoot from her fingertips. She had never been to a party before, not that she had ever had any interest in going, but Polly had managed to convince her that this was one that she simply couldn't miss out on. The Bad Kids were considered to be living legends by almost everyone at Aguefort, so Fiya struggled to imagine what their parties might entail. Not to mention she was curious to find out what the hell a shrimp jump even was.

“What?! She throws me up onto the roof and you still let her go? That is so unfa–” Kayla was cut off by the sound of her own body slamming face-first onto the floor of their kitchen. She laid there, completely still, probably out of pure frustration. Not wanting to be around when she got up and was ready to dish out her revenge, Fiya gave her parents a smile and hopped over her sister, darting up the stairs towards her room so that she could plan for whatever the hell this party was going to be.

While it had once sailed the ocean blue in search of riches to plunder and monsters to slay, the Hangman was now beached—or more accurately towned—by the River Marigold, converted into a ludicrously decadent manor by its former captain, Bill Seacaster. Though, like many of its kind, the ship longed for the waves once more and by some miracle its wish had been granted. Only this time it was in a different kind of sea, with a different kind of captain.

“Maximum Legend!” roared the party's host, Fabian Armais Seacaster. The waves of drunk teenagers cheered as he twirled his Elven sheet atop the Hangman's deck before diving into the pool of burning tartar sauce. Fiya stood at a distance, resting against one of the garden's elegantly trimmed shrubs as she watched Fabian emerge from the pool, the scent of burning butter and tarragon wafting its way over to her. What a guy.

The party had been hectic right from the get-go, with everyone crowding the backyard to watch the newest candidate for student body president, Kristen Applebees, perform a shrimp jump into the aforementioned flaming pool of tartar sauce. While no one had known what a shrimp jump was prior to it being performed, it seemed that everyone had ultimately agreed that it was one of the coolest things someone could open a party with. Things raged on from there: music blasted, people danced, and alcohol spilled from red solo cups. Fiya had spent the first twenty minutes drinking some berry ciders with Polly, but after they disappeared she decided that drinking alone probably wasn't the best idea, opting instead to have some of the milk she had found in the kitchen. It tasted a little funny, but she assumed that all rich people food tasted weird to her unrefined palette.

Maybe it was because of the intoxicating atmosphere of the party, or perhaps all of the fancy dairy wasn't sitting right in her stomach, but Fiya couldn't help but feel slightly dazed as she rested among the leaves of the dragon turtle-shaped shrub. Her eyes scanned the crowd of students in search of Polly, but it felt like her brain was a couple seconds behind, with everything melding into one disorientating display of pulsing, multi-coloured lights.

Huh, weird.

Usually one to second, triple, and quadruple guess everything around her, Fiya's usual compulsions slipped from her mind as she was overcome with a sudden wanderlust. Stumbling to her feet, Fiya slowly made her way towards the manor, being careful not to knock into anyone as she swayed to and fro. She took another sip of her milk as the music boomed from inside the house, almost as if it was calling for her to come and join. While Fiya had made a habit of avoiding loud, suffocating environments, her usual instincts had seemed to have gotten lost in whatever the hell was swirling around her stomach.

One foot after the other, with each step requiring an unusual amount of care, Fiya wandered the dark and decadent halls of Seacaster Manor in search of, well, anything; her best friend, a quiet closet to sleep in, some cereal to snack on, really anything would do. But as she roamed, Fiya began to feel more and more separated from herself. Her vision was clear, yet indistinct, everything sounded as if it was far away or right against her ear, and her body felt clumsier than usual, but in a way that was far more fluid than her usual maladroit manner. It was like she was puppeteering herself, but really poorly.

By some miracle of fate, Fiya had managed to wind up under the warm glow of the kitchen lights; the room was vast and far more elaborate than the one at her house, but that's what she expected from such an unapologetically extravagant house. Bottles of beer, wine, and liquor littered the kitchen's island—which had been built to look like an actual desert island—including a giant bowl of milk, the same bowl from which Fiya had filled about three cups. She liked milk a lot, okay?

Eager to find something to satiate her sudden bout of hunger, Fiya scanned the kitchen in search of some sort of pantry to raid. While she struggled to find anything of the sort, something, or more accurately someone, caught her eye: draped over the counter, hurling into the kitchen sink, was a girl with wavy blonde hair and large, pointed ears, like that of a High Elf. Maybe it was her denim jacket with its patches and pins, or perhaps the enchanting sword resting on her hip, but something about this girl struck Fiya as familiar, incredibly so.

Now, Fiya was never one to approach a stranger, but her mind wasn't exactly the right way around. So, defying her usual inhibitions, she manoeuvered past the partygoers as they filtered in and out of the kitchen and made her way towards the girl. As she stumbled across the hardwood floors, Fiya wondered whether or not it was normal for High Elves to puke. Obviously they did, they were humanoids after all, but then again she'd never seen a High Elf puke, so perhaps this was some rare circumstance that she was ill-equipped to handle. 

Maybe it was because she was so caught up in the logistics of High Elves spewing their guts out, but Fiya hadn't really been paying attention to her feet, which was especially bad seeing as her motor functions weren't exactly up to scratch. As she neared the girl at the sink, she stomped on her own shoelace and tumbled towards the ground, and rather comically at that. There was a brief moment where Fiya's world began to spin, and she started to wonder if she'd be in this free fall for the rest of time, but those fears were swiftly put to rest by the feeling of her body collapsing against the floor. Great.

“Oh fuck, are you okay?” While her body seemed pretty content with laying on the ground for the rest of eternity as spilled milk soaked into her green cargo jacket, Fiya felt someone take a hold of her sleeve and attempt to pull her up. She awkwardly scrambled to her feet, grimacing at the massive soaked patch on her chest before looking at who'd helped her out. Based on the pointy ears and the blonde hair it was the girl who had just been puking into the sink, but upon standing face to face with her it became clear to Fiya why she seemed so familiar: with her wide, blue eyes and an expression that only suited the most daring of heroes, it was the Elven Oracle herself, Adaine Abernant. “You seem... fine, though you should really tie your shoelaces, that's, like, really dangerous.”

“Oh, I... can't.” The two stared at each other in silence as Fiya's inner thoughts berated her for openly admitting that she didn't know how to tie her own shoelaces at the ripe old age of seventeen. As the music boomed in the background, Fiya attempted to discern what kind of a look Adaine was giving her; it seemed friendly, albeit a tad groggy. Seeing as she was just throwing up into a sink, it was safe to assume she was at least a little drunk. Upon realising that she hadn't spoken for a solid twenty seconds, Fiya's mouth decided to spit some words out for her. “Cool, uh, party, don't you think? I love... everything about this, y'know?”

“Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I've never been this drunk, like, ever! It's great!” Adaine laughed, ignoring some of the vomit that was still left in the sink. She narrowed her eyes for a moment, looking Fiya up and down before a sudden glint of recognition appeared in her bright, blue eyes. “Oh my god, you're the girl Jawbone hit with his car on Monday! Well, I mean, you kind of just cycled into it, but that doesn't really matter.”

Fiya was used to being the kind of person who existed outside of the eyes of her peers, so being recognised by one of the most renowned students in the history of their school was already bad enough, but the fact that it was for something so utterly embarrassing was almost enough for her to go and drown herself in the flaming pool of tartar sauce outside. Fiya winced as sweat began to coat her palms, accompanied by a burning sensation at the end of her pointed ears. She wasn't sure if it was the fancy milk or her wild magic, but a violent swirling feeling was beginning to manifest deep within her gut. The only way to quell it was to just be cool and normal and pretend she wasn't about to scream.

“Oh yeah, that was... that was me,” she replied, forcing a shaky laugh. Fiya buried her sweaty hands into the pockets of her jeans, hoping that Adaine didn't notice that she was on the verge of a mental break. Though, to her own surprise, she found something that had been left inside: a folded up sticky note that had previously been posted on the handlebars of her bike. And just like that, something clicked into place. “Hey... did you fix my bike?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, that was me. I'm so used to fixing my scooter that it only took a couple minutes, it was no problem.” The way Adaine spoke of magic was so casual and confident that it made Fiya wonder just how different the two of them were. To her, magic had always been something brash and chaotic; it had to be wrangled properly if you wanted to do anything with it. But the way Adaine spoke made it seem as if she was the one in control, that the spells bent to her will and not the other way around. It was impressive, to say the least. “I hope I didn't mess anything up. I mean, it was in pretty bad shape when I found it.”

“No! What? No! It's great! I mean, it's better!” Fiya stammered and stumbled through her words, trying her very best to not come off as ungrateful. “My bike was, like, a piece of junk before you came along, so, like, uh, thanks! You're the best"”

Was she overselling it? Maybe it was about time she tone things down a bit. Ugh, what was going on? Why had she suddenly lost control of the ability to keep her mouth shut?

“Oh, well, no problem, I guess!” Adaine smiled, leading Fiya to believe that she was actually doing a good job, for once. She could feel the tempest in her gut calming down when Adaine looked at her, but for whatever reason it only made her face burn hotter. “If you ever need help, don't be afraid to ask. I just lost my job, so I kind of have an opening in my schedule.”

“Oh that... sucks, I think? Unless it was a bad job, then that's okay, maybe?” Adaine laughed at Fiya's joke, only it wasn't a joke and just her being genuine. Even then, her laugh left Fiya feeling a lightness in her chest, like there was a helium balloon in her rib cage. It was a strange, yet pleasant feeling. She glanced around the kitchen for a moment, narrowing her eyes before bringing her focus back to Adaine. “This might be dumb, but, uh, think you can divine where some cereal is? It's just I'm really hungry and, um, you probably know this place better than me.”

“Hm, let me try.” Adaine unsheathed her magical sword from its scabbard, stumbling slightly as she held into the air. Suddenly, her eyes began to glow as a faint magical energy radiated from the blade, like ripples on the surface of a lake. Her eyes returned to normal, a little smirk on her face as she held her sword by her side. “In the next room there'll be a door on the right and inside you'll find a few pantries. You want to go to the second one on the left, there's a couple of boxes in there. Come to think of it, I should probably tell Fabian that...”

“Wow. You're, like... so cool,” Fiya whispered rather absentmindedly. It was only once she had noticed Adaine had heard her that she realised what she had said, and soon her face was burning like a stove as she attempted to backtrack. “I mean, uh, your spells are super cool when you cast them! Shit, well, obviously you're, like, cool, but you know that! I just... I just think it's cool when you do the things you do, y'know?”

The loud music and party ambience was drowned out as Fiya stared at Adaine, desperate to get a read on her. And while she usually lacked insight into the feelings of others, there was something about the smirk on Adaine's face, or perhaps the way her wide blue eyes seemed to lift as she spoke, that suggested that despite all of her nervous backtracking and awkward mumbling, Fiya was able to convey some sort of appreciation to this girl.

“Adaine!” Both girls spun their heads around towards the door to see Fig Faeth poking her head inside, waving her arm frantically at Adaine. “Secret meeting up in Fabian's room! Like, right now!”

“It's not a secret meeting if you loudly decl– ugh, never mind.” Adaine shook her and was about to go and reconvene with the rest of her party, but looked down at Fiya's untied shoelaces, which were currently soaking up some of the spilled milk. In one swift movement, she waved her sword causing Fiya's laces to tie into neat little bunny ears before sheathing her sword. Adaine gave a thumbs up as she headed to the door, a noticeable drunken sway in her step. “See you another time, uh...”

“Fiya! And bye, I guess.” Once Adaine had left, Fiya looked down at her freshly tied laces; even a simple act such as this was enough to make her impressed. The raging feeling her gut had now quietened down, and Fiya was left feeling rather content as she stood in the kitchen, glancing over at the door through which Adaine had left. That was until her stomach began to rumble, meaning it was probably about time that she searched for that pantry.

The night had only continued to grow wilder, with the partygoers converging to spectate an extreme game of Twister that was being emceed by Fig. Fiya had always sucked at Twister (and any other game that involved basic motor functions) and the crowd was a bit too rowdy for her liking, so she went off to go and look for Polly, who had been missing the whole night. As luck would have it, Fiya found them: with their tail wrapped around the waist of Max Durden, the two were engaging in a rather competitive game of tonsil tennis in the middle of the hallway. Now, you might think that a hallway doesn't provide the necessary privacy for such activities, but Seacaster Manor was so vast that even its residents found themselves getting lost in its halls, so prying eyes weren't usually an issue.

Not wanting to interrupt, Fiya had stood a few feet away, eating a bowl of Arcane Charms as she waited for Polly and Max to wrap things up. The sounds of kissing, giggling, and cereal crunching echoed through the empty hallway. It had been about fifteen minutes since Fiya had arrived and the two hadn't seemed to notice her, so she wasn't really sure whether or not it would be considered rude to butt in. Eventually, Polly caught a glimpse of Fiya from the corner of their eye, resulting in them pushing Max away from their face and holding him at arm's length, their tail still coiled through the belt loops of his jeans.

“Fiya! Where have you been, babe?” They let out a long laugh, giving Max one last kiss before slapping him on the ass and shooing him away. As Polly approached her, Fiya noticed a very distinct smell; it was sour and slightly bitter, if a smell could even be such things, and the kind where when you smell it you get the feeling that something is up. She spooned some more cereal into her mouth, crunching on the colourful marshmallows as Polly continued to laugh. “It's been... such a wild night, ugh, I was looking all over for you! You disappeared like... an hour ago? What time is it? I mean, I took a little break from searching 'cause Max wouldn't stop flirting with me when we were in the basement. That reminds me, I'm starving, can I have some of that?”

Fiya nodded, handing Polly the bowl as she tried to discern why her friend was acting so... odd. She watched as Polly scarfed down the little pieces of cereal and marshmallow, one spoonful at a time, before their expression suddenly curdled and they began to investigate the bowl.

“Fiya, this tastes awful,” they said, sniffing the bowl before reeling in disgust. It was then that Polly noticed the milk stain on their best friend's jacket. “Babe, what the hell did you put in this?”

“Hm?” Fiya hadn't actually been paying attention. She had found that after finishing one bowl of cereal she was feeling a lot more loose, causing her mind to wander. She had just been admiring a massive oil portrait of Bill Seacaster that hung on the wall next to them before Polly caught her attention again. “Oh yeah, it's probably the, uh... the milk. The milk is fucking weird or something, must be from, like, a magic goat. Or cats, maybe? Cats have milk, right?”

“Oh my god, Fiya, please tell me you haven't been drinking from the massive pot of milk all night.” Confused as to why they were so up-in-arms about drinking milk, Fiya responded with a slow nod. Polly's pale white eyes widened as a sense of panic filled the air, causing them to start whisper-screaming as they clutched the bowl in their hands. “Fiya, this is milk and vodka, Fabian was ladling it into everyone's cups earlier! Have you been drinking this all night? How much?”

“Like...” It took an embarrassingly long amount of time for Fiya to recount how much she had actually had to drink throughout the night, something that was making it blatantly obvious that she wasn't sober. “Three cups and... two bowls.”

“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.” The panic in Polly's voice began to rise as they handed the bowl back to Fiya. They stood in place, rocking back and forth slightly as a look of terror was painted across their purple face. “Fiya, we're so fucked.”

“What? No, no, it's... just explain to my parents it was an accident! They trust you!”

“Fiya!” Polly shouted under their breath, their eyes wide like orbs as they clutched her shoulders. “I'm fucking high!”

“What?!” It was like Polly was transferring their panic to Fiya as her shoulders suddenly became very tense and sweat began to seep from her palms. “Is that why you smell so bad? Were you smoking something?”

“Well, Max asked if I wanted to smoke gorgenfern with everyone in the basement and... He's cute, alright?” Polly let out a desperate cry as they pulled Fiya in for a hug, causing her to spill cereal and milk all over their comfy fisherman sweater. They held her tight, looking around every few seconds to make sure there wasn't anyone around before letting out a deep sigh. “Fiya... I'm sorry. Like, actually sorry.”

“Oh, it's... it's cool. Tonight was still pretty good, I... I think,” she mumbled, ignoring the feeling of milk soaking into her t-shirt. Fiya thought back on the night as a soft smile crept onto her face. “I had a nice conversation with Adaine Abernant. I don't know if it's because I'm drunk, but... she's really cool... and, like... really, really pretty...”

Polly pulled away from Fiya, looking at her with a look of shock, surprise, and utter glee. It was as if the fear and paranoia had suddenly slipped from Polly's mind as they took a hold of Fiya's hands and began to dance around the hallway.

“You have a crush on the Elven Oracle!” They laughed, swinging Fiya around as the two of them stumbled down the corridor. “My best friend has a crush on the Elven Oracle! Oh, ask her to, like, see if you two have a wedding in the future!”

“I do not! I just... she's just really cool!” Fiya protested, but little could be done to quell her best friend's excitement. Eventually the dancing became too much for Fiya's intoxicated body to handle, and it wasn't long before she tripped over her own legs and collapsed on the ground. The two of them snickered and giggled until eventually their murmurs were drowned out by the roars from the game of Twister down the hall. Fiya glanced down at her shoelaces, smiling at how neat and prim they looked before looking up at Polly. “I think... I think I'm about to throw up.”

And that she did, though thankfully Polly was able to drag her to a bathroom on time. As Fiya's head hung in a toilet bowl, her body purging every last drop of that god awful milk-vodka mixture, her mind remained on her shoelaces. Usually in times like this she would think about how much trouble she was going to be in, or what her peers would think about her spewing her guts out at her first real party, but funnily enough those didn't come to mind. All Fiya could bring herself to think about in the brief moments of clarity between throwing up was her conversation with Adaine and how, despite the circumstances, it had felt like the first normal conversation she had had in years.