Chapter Text
I think albinism would be pretty rare on the Continent, maybe people only heard about it from stories and stuff. So when Violet is born and she's white as snow with red eyes I'm sure her parents nearly had a heart attack, but quickly adapted.
Fast forward a few years and the Sorrengail siblings are hearing their first stories about dark wielders from Papa Sorrengail and at one point they would just ask "is Vi a venin?" to which Lilith would ban the fables in the house for a few months.
Everything else would go about as normal with Brennan faking his death and Violet getting forced into the riders' quadrant, except Violet gets a patch from Lilith before even crossing the parapet which indicates to leadership that no, she's not a venin, leave her be.(Violet doesn't actually know what it means and it confuses her greatly). She also gets to keep the Fables of the Barrens for plot convenience.
I imagine the marked ones would all be collectively losing their shit once she gets in the quadrant, but they would keep their distance once they saw that leadership didn't seem concerned, silently seething at the thought that Navarre would let the very thing that got their parents killed freely walk among them.
Xaden is overall just creeped out by Violet's appearance, but quickly figures out she's just challenged in the pigment department and not a venin. Once he catches her at the marked ones' meeting, things would go pretty much the same as in canon with Xaden adding some pointed jabs at her appearance. "What you lack in physical color you make up with your colorful vocabulary" or something along those lines probably, he still calls her a "violent little thing" though.
Sometime after this incident Violet starts noticing some of the older cadets locking eyes with her and bowing their head. She assumes most of them are either really tired or really high if the red rims around their eyes are anything to go by... until a hyperventilating first year with vivid red eyes corners her asking how to manage pulling from the earth.
Violet is obviously distraught at this but realizes pretty quick that if the both of them start spiraling shit's gonna get ugly real quick so she tries to keep a cool head and figure out what the cadet has done. (For my sanity and plot cohesion let's name this cadet Kate)
Violet: What do you mean you pulled from the earth?
Kate, panicking: Well it was really an accident. Some douchbag tried to jump me and it was self defense really. I don't even know how I did it. The othes said to come to you, since surely you know how to handle this, considering...*gestures at the whole of Violet*
Violet: I... I'm not a venin, I have never pulled from the earth? I don't know how I could possibly help. And who are these others? There's more of you maniacs?
Kate: But your eyes-... Uh, yeah there's more of us and they kinda assume you're a Sage, but I'm starting to realize just how wrong they were and just how screwed I am. *Slides down the wall*
Violet, considering her options, but tucking the Sage comment for later: Does the red fade?
Kate: From what they told me yea...but after one point it's permanent.
Violet: *sighs* I might have something that would probably give us at least some answers if not a cure.
Violet than proceeds to have a whole metal breakdown about the existence of venin and how royally screwed everything is. Over the course of the next few days the same cadets that seemed to show an ounce of respect before, are glaring daggers at her and throwing suspicious glances her way. She also started looking through the fables for some way to help Kate since she was clearly not like the evil monsters depicted in the stories, but rather a sacred and confused 20 year old with no clue about what she's done.
Violet came to the conclusion that if the power from the earth is bad then the one from the sky is good so what's the harm in suggesting switching power sources if possible. One night Kate agrees to meet with her near the river bank where the marked ones gathered at the beginning of the year. Kate was accompanied by two others but they looked just as nervous as her so Violet assumed they were both venin as well and looking for a solution, just like their friend.
After sharing her theory about the sky and earth they spent the next few hours trying to pull magic from the air around them. They were not successful, but at the very least all three cadets were able to sense the power coming from the sky and decided to try some more the following nights. For maybe a week they all kept trying, some other cadets, even from upper years, but all of them venin, joining them sometimes. They were all able to feel the magic but it was slipping their grasp like water.
At one point Kate kinda gave up for the night and decided to just try and feel the magic around them, to study it in a sense. After a little while she felt a slight trickle of power cooling her skin. She quickly got up thinking she accidentally pulled from the earth again, but quickly realized that the earth's power was warm, not cold, and there was no patch of desiccated land either. She looked around and everyone seemed to be staring at her.
Kate: What just happened?
Other cadet: Dude, I think you just pulled from the sky if your eyes are anything to go by.
Kate, irritated: Ugh, great! Even the sky gets our eyes red! Awesome!
Violet: They're not red! Take a look at your reflection, they're silver!
Overall excitement spreads through the venin that are part of this little group and they figure out that they've got to let the magic come to them instead of taking it themselves.
Everyone fully stops channeling from the earth and their eyes no longer have any red hues. Instead they have a constant supply of power that feels borderline sentient with how it seems to watch their backs and make them aware of any possible threats. Their eyes also become iridescent and they all figure out they can change their eye color at will (Wink, wink! Nudge, nudge!). They're a bit weirded out by everything, but pretty happy they no longer have to deal with the effects of channeling from the earth.
Violet’s little gathering has been trying to convince her to channel from the sky as well since it would keep her safer in the quadrant, but she tells them that she only figured out channeling from the sky as an answer to their problem and it didn't feel fair to do it when she didn't have a serious reason to.
In the meantime she starts recording all her new findings and bonding with her squad, but not really telling them about what she's been doing, while in the background all the usual things happen, like challenges and the Gauntlet, except this time Violet has a bit of extra training from the nights spent past curfew, so she does a bit better. During the Gauntlet the dagger trick still happens because I love when people win on a technicality. Everyone gets lined up for Presentation and they start marching forward. Quite a few dragons have been lowering their heads and sniffing some cadets, particularly the first years Violet's been helping and she hopes that none of them get torched today. A few dragons have been sniffing at her as well but she just thought it was because of the dragon scale corset or her peculiar appearance. Once they reached the end of the line of dragons Violet saw the golden dragon everyone seemed to be muttering about. It was pacing excitedly on the spot and raising itself onto its back paws as if to see the line better. The brown next to it looked so done with the golden one and once Violet locked eyes with the smaller dragon, the brown immediately put a foot on the golden one's tail to keep it from bolting into the line of cadets. Violet was a bit concerned about the whole ordeal but she would not question the ways of dragons.
Threshing goes about as well as in canon except when Violet finds Andarna, she's immediately accosted by a wiggling mess that's sniffing and circling her like she's some old friend.
Once Jack Fucking Barlow and his entourage show up the fight to protect the dragon ensues and Xaden still comes to watch the shitfest, but this time Andarna actually barrels into one of Violet's opponents (just because I would've like it to happen in canon) and Sgaeyl is reasonably concerned because Andarna was way more chill about all of this before Presentation. What the fuck happened with being calm and collected, Golden One?
Tairn shows up, scares the shit out of JFB, torches the guy that wasn't already passed out because of Andarna and stops to sniff Violet as well before commanding she gets on his back. Violet starts wondering why every dragon has an obsession with sniffing her, but gets sidetracked by Tairn's aerobatics.
When they finally land Violet notices there are a bunch of larger, battle-scared dragons, nearly on par with Tairn, in the clearing that weren't at Presentation, every single one of them had one of her sky wielders between their front legs and she felt a sense of pride at the sight despite the shock of getting two dragons herself.
Andarna continues to be hyperactive, nudging Violet this way and that, but Tairn didn't look too concerned so she took it as a good sign.
Violet: I don't mean to offend you, but are you excited that you bonded or is there another reason you are this happy?
Andarna: Oh, I'm happy I bonded, alright, but there are other reasons too. Those can wait a bit though, so don't worry! .
Violet: Ok, I'll trust your judgement...
Tairn: Wise decision.
