Chapter Text
It happened quicker than she could’ve ever imagined.
So abruptly.
Hell, she didn’t even have much time to process it all.
Misako could vaguely recall strange cracks in the sky, windows to realms that looked like painful gashes and wounds, flashes of blindingly bright purples and pinks that hurt to look directly at. From what she could remember, the sky itself almost sounded like it was screaming in anguish.
She remembered reaching out to someone, anyone, and almost grabbing onto her son, but missing.
Her dear son.
She then remembered the fall.
She could also kind of recall briefly waking up in some strange, almost dreamlike place. Was it a clearing? A forest? That she couldn’t remember no matter now hard she tried. The ground was a strangely soft landing. Too soft. She thought for a split second she saw the Monastery. But one thing she distinctively remembered was collapsing and passing out.
Aside from that, her memory was hazy at best.
However, she was focused on one thing right now.
…Where even was she?
Misako groggily opened her eyes and almost attempted to get up, but gave up and settled back down before she even tried. She was lying on a banged up but still relatively comfortable couch, one that was clearly being held together with pieces of vibrantly coloured scrap fabric. Wherever she was, she was clearly not alone.
That was even stranger.
There were people here? It was a wonder she was even surprised at this point, considering the things she had already caught glimpses of here and the… strange things she had witnessed in her career.
She took a look around the best she could with her head feeling like it was going to implode, and her lack of glasses. She could see the things that were closeby fairly well without them, but it was still frustrating. The first things she noticed, of course, were the books. She couldn’t make out the words on the spines since the bookshelves seemed a mile away, nor could her exhausted mind comprehend those strewn about on the floor, but, from their vague outlines, she could see that, just like the patches on the couch, they were oddly colourful. Misako was so used to studying books with covers of beige and sickly pale yellows for hours on end that it was almost jarring to see them, yet… oddly comforting. If whoever owned the place let her, she would certainly study them when she had finished adjusting to her new surroundings.
And then there was the smell. The air was tinged with a noticeable amount of dragon’s blood, but also a few other scents that she could not quite identify individually. Perhaps there was some lavender, or vanilla. She had no idea. However, the scent was pleasant. It wasn’t overwhelming in the slightest.
Interesting.
Her observation of the room, however, literally only lasted a few seconds. When she stirred, her attention was drawn to the other side of the room.
A peculiar woman sat on a chair opposite her, her hair, all clearly meticulously dyed to look like a rainbow, flimsily tucked under her tall, well-loved hat (with clothing to match) and… her face. It was uncanny, but in a strangely beautiful way. Her eyes were slightly hidden, yet complemented, by a pair of glasses tinted green. She had a mysterious presence that left more questions than answers in her fatigued mind. Yet, Misako couldn’t help but wonder…
What did this person want from her?
“Oh, my Sources-” the other exclaimed, and quickly knelt down on the floor next to the couch. Misako didn’t quite understand why. She was already close. But she didn’t pry. “You’re finally awake! I was almost starting to think that you weren’t gonna wake up.”
The sudden, quite loud burst of energy from her didn’t help the horrible headache Misako didn’t exactly notice she had until she sat up. She cradled her head in one hand, trying to not clutch her hair too tight, and let out a pained, tired groan.
“Where even-” Then she had a realisation. Her eyes widened, then narrowed. Oh no. It couldn’t be. It had happened so many times to her before, it was concerning that she would jump to this conclusion, but… “Is this a kidnapping?”
In Misako’s admittedly tired state, she could not quite get the question to sound as angry or demanding as she wanted. She sounded more annoyed. Or just plain apathetic. Since she had only just woken up, her speech was ever so slightly slurred, which didn’t help her case. She looked and sounded more like an angry cat than anything, at least to the woman opposite her.
Meanwhile, the other gasped, then quickly shook her head. “No! No, no, no, I would never! I just found you passed out outside around… Two hours ago? And I wanted to see if you were okay. You didn’t look too good, ‘kay?”
Misako blinked at her. At this point of her life, she was concerningly used to kidnappings, threats to her life and the like. “What even happened?”
The woman let out a sigh, and moved to sit crosslegged on the floor to make herself more comfortable, her face and tone growing more serious. “If only I knew. First minute, I’m working on a spell project, the next minute the sky’s cracking open like it’s the apocalypse or something- ”
“That’s exactly what I saw before I passed out!” Misako exclaimed. She had more energy now, though she still felt slightly uneasy. “…Where even am I? Which Realm?”
“Mysterium,” she answered. “You from Ninjago?”
“I am- Wait.”
Mysterium. That sounded extremely familiar.
She vaguely remembered doing research on it years ago. She didn’t remember too much from it, aside from the Wizards and magic and…
Her.
This person especially rung a bell to Misako.
One detail she had always had buried in her mind, ever since reading about Mysterium, when she was just starting out in her career, was her.
The High Sorceress.
She had that face, so wise, charming and mysterious at the same time. She captivated her in a way not many others managed to achieve. She had a vague idea as to why, but wasn’t ready to admit it. Not yet. Ever since she worked on the research project, the portrait of the High Sorceress refused to leave her mind. The portrait itself was clearly a sketch, yet it was rushed in such a charming way…
Meanwhile, the Sorceress stared at her for a few seconds, then cleared her throat. “Are you okay?”
Misako’s eyes widened in embarrassment. She quickly nodded and fully pulled herself up into a moderately comfortable sitting position on the couch. “I’m fine, I promise, just… I’ve heard of this place before. I’m an archaeologist, and-” she rambled, before being interrupted.
“Oh- How rude of me! I completely forgot to introduce myself. I’m Gandalaria. The High Sorceress.” Gandalaria. This was confirmation that this was the person she was thinking of. Misako’s mind was so focused on everything going on that she hadn’t noticed how… soothing and warm Gandalaria’s voice was, as well as her presence in general. Her clear eccentricity was refreshing and admittedly kind of adorable. She was certainly a very interesting person. Maybe she could be trusted after all.
“Misako.” she responded.
“That’s a nice name.” Gandalaria commented. There was a warm feeling in her heart when Gandalaria complimented her. The same feeling she had when she first saw her portrait.
“Thanks. I like yours, too,” Misako replied. Then she realised something else regarding this situation. “If you found me outside, completely unconscious, why didn’t you just take me to a doctor?”
Gandalaria stifled a laugh. If she hadn’t known she wasn’t from Mysterium by now, this would’ve been a tell-tale sign. “Yeah, well… My magic allows for healing, so in most situations like this, a doctor isn’t really needed, and we’re kinda in the middle of nowhere? If you need any help, you can just go to me. Unless you need surgery. That’s something magic can’t fix, y’know?”
“Right. That’s fair.” she said, laughing slightly at the last part.
Gandalaria looked up at her from the floor, fidgeting with her hands slightly. “You still look pretty tired. Are you aching anywhere?”
“I have a pretty bad headache.” Misako responded. She was still holding her head in one of her hands.
“I see… Want a drink? Or do you just wanna rest? Anything’s fine by me. I can go set up a spare room for you if you wanna stay here for a while?” Gandalaria suggested. She was being way too kind to her. “Oh!- But first…”
Gandalaria said that before Misako could even respond. She reached into her pocket and held out a pair of glasses for her. They were hers, and were in better condition than before she ended up here. “I found these near you, and I figured they were yours, so I fixed them.” she explained.
She was stunned. She gently took the glasses from her and put them on. “Thanks.” Somehow, Gandalaria looked even more ethereal with them on. She had such an otherworldly presence, like a goddess, like she shouldn’t be here. Her eyes, despite being not too clear to see due to her rather endearingly unconventional glasses, seemed to have so much genuine warmth and wisdom in them. She could get lost in them for hours and never be bored.
She quickly buried those thoughts again.
Misako took a small glance behind the sorceress to distract herself from her feelings. Some of the books were next to what appeared to be mushrooms and odd-looking plants that cast a soft, light blue glow against their backdrops. That added even more similarity to what she assumed was outside here. She made a mental note to explore and document the area in the future. She figured nobody else from Ninjago had, at least not extensively. Perhaps she could get her coworkers to take her seriously through this. She doubted that.
Then, she turned her attention back to Gandalaria. She recalled her previous question, and hesitantly nodded. “That’s fine. I don’t… know my way back home, anyway.”
Gandalaria let out a soft sigh. “Listen. We can try and figure out what happened, okay? And… In the meantime, maybe we could get to know each other? If you want to, you don’t have to-”
“No, no, I’d love to!” Misako quickly reassured her. She had more energy now. “You seem like a lovely person.” she added. She was not helping her case.
She tried to hide the sense of longing in her words. She tried to ignore it herself.
But why was it so damn hard around her?
”You want some rest?” Gandalaria asked her again.
”I think I do.” Misako responsed.
Gandalaria nodded, then left with a friendly wave of her hand to prepare a room for her. The smooth yet energetic way she spoke, the way she was so kind with every word that came out of her mouth, the way she was so patient and gentle with her even in their short conversation lingered in her mind like that drawing of her she saw all those years ago.
She laid back down, closed her eyes and tried to get some rest.