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There is no wind in the space between worlds, no reference point by which you might gauge your movement. The only sense that you are moving at all comes from around you, where you can hear the steady beat of giant wings, guiding you towards your uncertain destination. You sit within the small room that the two of you built nestled within the great eagle’s feathers, attempting to distract yourself by sketching out some basic plans for your next base. Your sister sits beside you, staring out into the seemingly endless dark.
“Do you think everyone else made it out okay?” she asks.
You frown. “You’re thinking about it again?”
She shrinks in on herself. “I know, I know, there’s no point dwelling, I just— you know. I can’t help it.”
It’s not the first time she’s wondered this same question aloud; you doubt it will be the last during this journey either. You still don’t know how best to comfort her, seeing as you share her misgivings. The two of you share everything, after all. Even worries. Even guilt.
“They must have,” you say once again, just as you have said before. “You remember the rest of them all off making escape plans. And, I mean, even if she— if anyone stayed. I’m sure they’ll have found some way to keep safe. Right?”
You see your sister prepare to speak, and you cut her off. “And I know what you’re going to say. If there was a way to keep safe, then why did we leave, right?”
She closes her mouth. She looks miserable. You know you must look the same.
“If something happened to her,” she says eventually, “and we left her behind after promising we’d stay. I don’t know what we’ll do.”
You press wordlessly into your sister’s side, and she leans into you as well. Neither of you have an answer.
“Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.”
You smile in reply at the Princess of Dawn and hope you don’t look as nervous as you feel. You’re finding it difficult to not be aware of the sword she keeps at her hip and the rumors you’ve heard of her skill with the blade. It’s a simple trade deal, you tell yourself. Iron for beeswax. Plus, if it’s successful enough, you could form a proper new alliance, which would grant you some powerful protection. At the very least, it would definitely reduce the risk of her turning her sword on you.
(You shove down the part of you that wants to dare her to try.)
“Princess, er— Gem, was it?” you ask.
She blinks. “Right,” she says with a slow nod. “Yeah, this is our first official time meeting, I guess. You're False of Cogsmeade, right?”
“That’s right.” You shift anxiously. You don’t like the face she’s making at you; like she knows something you don’t, or is in on some big joke that you’ve been left out of. It makes your head hurt. Your fingers twitch for a weapon. You reach for the shulker in your inventory instead. “I, uh, heard you wanted some iron?” You place down the box with your wares.
The princess peeks into the box eagerly and lets out a small noise of delight. “Oh, this’ll be perfect! Thank you so much!” She sets down her own shulker. “And I believe this was what you needed?”
You open her shulker, and your eyes widen when you find it stacked to the brim with honeycomb, far more than your scant few stacks of blocks could possibly equal. “Oh, wow,” you say, “that is a lot more than I thought— Um, did you want me to get some more iron, actually?”
“No, no, it’s fine!” Gem says. “It’s, uh, you know.” She shakes her head and clears her throat. “I figured you could really use it! Since you’re building so much with copper, right?”
You can’t exactly refute that. “Well, thank you,” you say, cautious. “This’ll be really helpful, yeah.”
Her answering smile looks relieved, which only makes your head hurt even more. “That’s great!” she says. “So, does this mean we can be friends? Allies? If anything ever happens— You ever need anything, you can come to me!”
Gem extends an eager hand. You don’t quite know how to parse the hopeful look in her eyes. You can tell she’s searching for something; no one offers up such an unbalanced deal without conditions. And yet, she’s requesting nothing more than simple friendship. Whatever else it is she’s looking for, you cannot begin to parse it.
If nothing else, you think, you could use a friend.
“Sure, why not.” You take her hand and shake it, and then— There’s that look of relief on her face again. You don’t know what it means.
“Thank you so much!” Gem says, beaming. “I look forward to working with you!”
And then, something happens: Gem’s shoulders drop, and she takes a moment to furtively glance at your surroundings before she steps closer, and— nothing about her has changed, exactly. But somehow, she feels entirely different.
Her voice is quieter when she next speaks. “Out of character for a second,” she says. “Genuinely, thanks for agreeing to meet up. We haven’t really gotten a chance to talk since the season started, huh?”
You blink, confused. Gem is still holding onto your hand and is staring into your eyes with an urgency you can’t understand.
Your head really, really hurts.
“Um. I guess not,” you murmur. You want to leave now, if only to get out of this confusing conversation, but you can’t make yourself pull away.
“But we’re okay, right? After, you know. Everything?”
She looks up at you, eyes full of intent and hope and longing and all sorts of other things that for some reason, despite your confusion, you wish you could answer.
It terrifies you.
“Sorry,” you say, tugging your hand from her grasp. “What are you talking about?”
Gem’s face freezes. Slowly, silently, she lets her hand drop.
Eventually, she laughs. It’s the least happy you’ve ever seen her. “Right, yeah,” she says. “We don’t know each other here. Is that it?” You’ve never heard anyone make a straightforward fact sound so bitter. “So we just push it away and forget about it, huh.”
Something has gone terribly wrong, and you don’t even know what it is. “Forget about what?”
“It’s fine, I get it.” Gem pulls back her shoulders and stows away your shulker of iron, spreading her wings with a calm, regal smile. “Thanks for the iron!” she says, as sunny and cheerful as you’ve ever heard.
She flies away. You don’t know why it makes your heart ache.