Chapter Text
When the stars were still damp with morning dew, seven women lived who spun the world with their hands.
They were not queens, though their voices bent mountains.
They were not mothers, though rivers carried their names.
Each held a loom not made of wood, but of silence, and they wove the days of men upon it.
The Weavers worked in secret.
One stitched the breath of trees.
Another knot tied the courage of death.
Another traced the silver path of the moon so no traveller would be lost.
And so on, until all seven looms thrummed together, and the sky itself was their cloth.
But weaving is weary work.
The people say that the Weavers began to drift away one by one.
The first grew tired of knots and left her loom by the shore, where fishermen still claim to hear it hum in storms.
The second hid hers in a hollow tree, and sometimes a child who listens closely can hear the heart of the forest beat.
The third… well, no one speaks of the third, for she vanished without leaving a thread or a shadow.
What became of them?
Some say the Weavers live as wandering crones, carrying needles in their belts, whispering to those who dream of other skies.
Others say they sleep beneath the ground, their looms still moving, waiting for someone bold or foolish to call them back.
And darker tongues say they watch still, not with love, but with envy of the lives they once spun.
So if ever you hear a soft humming in the fields at night, like a string being drawn too tight
Do not follow it.
For it is said the cloth is fraying, and the Weavers do not like to be reminded of what they abandoned.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
Silence is what she has been going for two decades of her life.
It seems dead serves silence for her as well.
“-preliminary reports…the disaster was caused by a sudden…. and violent attack linked to a Wanderer incursion….” The sterile hums of the hospital room and the quick step filling her drum, slowly an unfamiliar rush of unfamiliar news dialogue seems to fill her head, “Authorities….have confirmed that hundreds of people have been pronounced dead, with the death toll-”
In her desperation to seek the unfamiliarity she been taken down to a deep sleep only a continuous beeping and smell of familiarity, the one that she thought to herself would never get after years stuck on the room that reeked with sterilizer and metal that it leave a bitter taste on her throat that her hands also leave chemicals smell on her skin even with an advanced equipment and rows of glass stand in front of her like a silent witness. It might be a place of discovery. But for Leia, who put seven years of her life into a degree where the outside expectation lay in her hands in a room of despair. It was a prison pretending to be a noble.
Death was supposed to be quiet, where memories start rushing back from the start of childhood to the last breath, and then the void of black will fill the sight to those who believe there is nothing after death. She wishes everything would happen except darkness. The gods will judge those who think there is a life after death at the next stage of their life. It seems nothing like how it sounds, where she heard about death her whole life and how she sees right now. Her eyes now saw an entire landscape of a sea of bright purple flowers. Every section she looked at was filled with gorgeous scenery, and a shining sun appeared, filling the sky with no clouds, watching her closely. Her feet dragged to see if she could cross any path; thus, the only area free from life was where she stood. It made her stop. Such a loving thing to be stomped by her could be a waste, wouldn't it?.
Nothing should intervene in her life anymore, not when she realised who performed the duties of her death would put such an effort into making her last moment so beautiful. For once in a long time, she sat down and reminisced about her life. Was it meaningful? Was all her hard work worth it?. Somehow, nothing frightens her more than having to remind herself of all the choices that she left behind to pursue expectations that she had set. Everything flashing back to where all her life began, not to be able to seek the love to create and express herself on stage, to the very moment of her last fight with her family.
These thoughts swallow her whole, and she has always striven to be satisfied with life. She tries to be seen as capable, though she cannot tolerate her heart inside.
The light of the sun’s rays turns to pitch dark, while bits of it leave, and the suction of a great void takes root away, and sky scared away by the inky coal black consume the skies. Then it is her speculation of death coming, worse than her nightmares, reuniting her with her worst fear.
Unknown Darkness.
It devours only those who have gone to self-destruction, as follows: a bare hand clenched her heart, squeezing them as one beating heart of hers flows a juice to their very wrist. The heavenly has answered, to crush her delicate heart to a taste of her fear, essence of delightment. A loud, piercing cry of pain unheard through the field of void. Indeed, a want of enlightenment of their famished state.
Now the empty vessel fell to the ground, yet today the embodiment of greed is unsatisfied with her souls. No, it's not the taste nor the undersaturation of her lack of retaliation about death.
The vessel’s soul wasn't whole in the first place.
“Truly fascinating thing,” The divine’s lengthy nail scratched over her neck, before it went further, a light beam from a celestial object pierced through their
The light beam of the star that protects her heart appears on her heart, ambushed in the garden of flowers, leaving it almost untouched.
This made the divine scoff; every last trial she created should end with the laying hold of one soul. As of yet, the concept of one to hold her soul seems eager not to want to let it go. The unknown divine formerly contravened her own rule, allowing the small size of orbs back into the mortal body once more.
Brushing her nail to perishable being's forehead, “Universe I bestowed upon you, delicacy of earth-born being may it do its purpose-”
“As it continues to live to pay for her sins and suffer”
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
The body that she inherited was a stranger's body. Except that the similarities between their facial and body features are beyond uncomfortable. Her previous scar from falling off a bicycle while practising at seven, and her dimples from her mother. It truly baffled her; of course, she could applaud the protagonists who immediately fit into the new world forced upon them and excelled in it. For Leia, it is already her instinct to immediately get used to her new surroundings without any struggles due to the jobs and gender roles of women of hell that she has been through. To be exact, how things were supposed to go was never on her mind. After all, accepting is what women can always do to help pitiful men elevate their ego. She chose to rather die than let a creature put her in her place behind.
Working herself to death would be ironic to say, as her father would always warn her that it could happen regardless of whether she eats on time and spends her money on games that bring comfort to her. Death is inevitable; that truly, one day, without having a chance to say goodbye to her loved one, she just gone, it haunted her. Repeating over the last day before her life and questioning the truth of her death led her to lie on the hospital bed longer than the doctor prescribed.
Through her observation, the owner of this body had the same desperation to live as much as Leia. One visible thing is pain in both her wrists —a familiar cramp after putting their time and sanity into simple notes for instruments. Memories of the previous owner only have small fragments right now, even though she couldn't grasp the big picture of why this could have happened. In which, also, who has the power to put her soul into the world's body from the games she manifested wanting to live into.
The concept of reincarnation might sound like a mere fictional word to some, but Leia feels the same. It was one of the puzzling mysteries that a story might develop. It was sensible to be awakened as another human or creature from a world she knows, which is enough for her to understand its concept, as the sole purpose of reincarnation.
was spiritual growth and soul development. Acknowledge it was enough for Leia; within her heart, it doesn't exist —or wasn't supposed to. There is no evidence, no experiment, nothing.
Until now, her existence is the sole answer to rebirth, and that very reason is enough to have a heavy burden for her.
“Miss Enora, your father would like a word with you.”
Right, she needs to act as Aeris Enora. A young, prestigious pianist widely recognised on her platform for being the game's character. Aeris approached life with a positive outlook, while Leia always had a mission to accomplish. The pianist performs a tune for her people to listen to, pouring her emotions into a masterpiece that becomes part of the composer's legacy; meanwhile, the so-called researcher herself slowly becomes the company's lab rats on her own, even though she realises it.
After long research of Aeris over how she acts in each performance, talks in interviews, and every video she could find of Enora, the famous young pianist from an unknown family, who had never been seen in the media,
Sure, she could play that part. Perform is all we do as humans after all.
She turned her heels around in the room where a piece of life came to life: Aeris’s piano room. Observing the room would tell a lot about her character. However, it was pretty different from what she expected. Not a single decoration was placed in the room, which was plain white and seemed like a white torture room to the outsider.
But who is Leia to judge the vessels that still, and perhaps forever, remain unknown to her?.
She gazes at the frowning older man who maintains this large house daily. “Right, please do lead the way”
The clicking noise of the door, the butler led his way to Aeris’s father; she could only identify that the head of the house was busy; no one mentioned he couldn't be least expected in the hospital. She thought Aeris was an orphan; their parents were never truly available in this universe and her previous one.
“Is there anything on your mind, miss?” The low, polite voice, casting some doubt, makes her wonder whether Aeris has truly been taking care of her here.
She hummed, "It’s because I didn’t get to thank you and others who visited me." Her answer lingered, and Oliver’s gesture seemed slightly different.
“No need to thank us, Miss Enora. We are more than happy to accompany you. ” She couldn't help but let out a simple smile; a little interaction like this made her burden unfelt for a moment.
Both of their heels stopped at the two wooden doors, and her hands were about to touch the handles when Oliver’s hand pulled down the handle first. She always forgets that he always opens the door for her; she can't get used to it. Nonetheless, she thanked him for the delightful small talk.
Taking a big breath before entering the room, for once, she was more nervous than meeting Oliver. Aeris’s parents were never truly present all one month of her recovery, just small notes of ‘Get well soon’, a couple of roses every week that would rot on the corner of her hospital bed, those lonely rooms that were only filled with the sound of her heart monitor.
Sure, it helps her recover fully from the shock of being relieved that she could weep off her previous sorrowful life and not bother someone walking in on her. But the taste of sorrow for the soul of her current body is that no one came to see her, not even her parents. It’s horrid that she started to despise them a bit.
To say the least, Aeris's father was an example of a hardworking man. Upon entering his room, the atmosphere made her heartbeat increase, and her throat held her off from speaking any words, afraid of coming out of character, as her cracking voice came off while talking to her so-called current father.
A minute or two seems to have passed, not by glancing over the old lock on the side of the room, but by how long she counted on Aeris's father not glancing up at her, not noticing, and not even caring about her presence. How cruel of a man, even a father, not sensing any of her. Is this why Aeris never mentioned him?
Not wanting to crack the quietness of the world, Leia cleared her throat, trying to make at least the man with his tired eyes glued to the paper. By how she was treated, she could conclude Aeris’s father was the kind of man who spent most of her lifetime in the office, not caring about how his daughter had grown. For a second, she could choose to despise him, but knowing Aeris grew up without mentioning her parents at all and became something more than they did. She decided to brush off the strong disdain for the man.
By then, the older man had only glanced at her before sending her to a different city. Hinting at almost disappointment or resentment in his voice when he speaks, she should know better than to expect a father-daughter encounter after spending her unexpected reincarnation in this life, not having anyone to talk to, or even someone who could comfort her.
Perhaps Aeris’s retirement decision to become more influential in her field, which is his decision to grow more than a seed of himself, belittles her.
Whatever that means, sending her away from this house truly brought relief for her, putting all her fear behind the closed door and that man behind her. The unknown of what this world decides to show her is for her to judge, and all she needs to do now is find the answer to whether she can do justice to the soul that is long gone and give this very body the ability to offer a taste of freedom.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
After a long wait on the train, Leia arriving is greeted by new fresh of air of the unfamiliar cityscape, outstretched her palm to came that warm glow of urban symphony of birdsong and the scent of sweet of floral of the relax out city pace let Leia paused every second of her steps to look over small flower that able to growth in creak of asphalt. It never occurred to her that autumn swarmed the street with dead leaves, that cold season came like a soft kiss that gave a chill to her cheek and could be vibrating a sombre comfort to her heart.
The shop vendors, placed neatly across the side of the street, cascade early in the daylight and are completed by the little shout of the shop owner. They talk a little about what they sell and the excitement in their voices when Leia glances at them. With each passing block, the smell of earthy, nutty pastries can now be smelled across the city's centre. The new scenery was captivating, with people hanging their lanterns with hand-drawn moons and a rabbit finishing it up with calligraphy to bring prosperity and good luck —truly something that was missing to see in her previous lifetime.
With every step she took, the unfamiliarity in her heart was slowly replaced with comfort. Weirdly enough, she never truly celebrated it with her family before due to her stubbornness to stay inside her room and watch the fireworks at her window, continuing to study, given that exam week is being held off in this time of the month, seeing the tiny laughter of children with a piece of sliced pomelo in their hands, noticing that a lot of adolescent also with their friends and parents around her. She feels lost in the middle of a lively environment like this.
She felt unreal for the rest of the walk and dragged her feet to the unknown back lane that wasn't wide enough for a car to fit. The dimly lit path with a soft echo of the noisy street let her mind return a sense of flight in fight mode.
‘Shit’
Instinctively, her feet went backwards, glancing to the back, now that she realised how far she had gone from the main street, it only made her feel unsettled that she had never in this world just arrived in an unknown city, with zero sense of direction and her heart rate pumping on a degree that she could only hear inside all her body. It occurs to her a pair of heavy footsteps that are slowly coming toward her,
Without a delay, she chose to open the creaky, splintered wooden door beside her and was immediately greeted by an essence of pungent oak with a hint of bitter cherry and the sound of crackling wood in the corner of the room. From the outside, it seems uninhabited, but the inside is a chaotic place filled with knick-knacks, and each side of the room is lined with racks of bottles and floating orbs, differentiated by colour.
The room that magically lit the entire room filled her heart with ease, before her knees gave up supporting her body due to stress. She slumped to the door behind her for support, then closed her eyes to minimise the strange room she was in, because nothing screams this place is oddly misplaced, that it should not exist in the first place, that a gut-level instinct screams at her to flee.
A threatening rumble beyond the barrier of this door left a sense of dread. As for now, she has chosen to stay for at least a moment until the owner of this place comes back. Questioning any further about the encounter each day on how things are misplaced and do not belong here would bring her to brain damage, and she knew better not to seek anything in this world. Because ultimately, she was an alien presence.
Regaining her composure, she put her palm as a support on the wooden, damp floor to straighten her posture before her eyes opened to be greeted by the golden hue of orbs staring deep into her with a facial expression of intrigue that raised her eyebrows, and her lips parted. Seemingly as if she were seeing something impossible.
Once more, her heartbeat jolted at the sudden appearance of a strange individual who left her pursed lips, not knowing what to utter to the owner of this place. Her outerwear said it all: she owned the place, floor-length, which seemed sewn from natural fibres of hemp, distinguished by its violet colour, with the complexion of her flowing hair that touches Leia’s ankle.
This lady brought a sense of uncertainty to Leia. Not like other Linkon citizens, she seemed out of place, and there was no hint of familiarity with the people she had met thus far.
“Thy mind doth chatter like a restless sparrow in a storm” Her voice is flat, though her language was beyond the expectations of the graceful lady in front of her.
Long, worthy of geeking out on the English playwright at an early age, the acknowledgement of the unknown lady's words immediately sunk her in. “By what means doth my mind chatter so?” With ease, she was confused yet confident in her tone.
Leia swore for a minute that she could see the lady let out a small smile before lifting herself and laughing with a hint of scorn that furrowed her eyebrows. It was not a laugh of humiliation or amusement; she seemed content with the stranger’s reply. That let her watch her hair flow within the movement of her laughing for a few seconds before looking at her more interested.
Her attentive eyes are enough to make one uneasy.
Before Leia could stand, the voice held her down, “Strange creatures, humans are—forever thinking of every possibility, not hiding from their doom even when it draws near.”
“ As if we humans have any choice,”.
The instantity of her reply cringed her; thus, it was not her fault that the unusual figure in front of her could talk so highly like an entity. She grew tired of the abnormal situation she kept getting herself into, and she decided to have enough of it, whatever the universe pulled her into.
The lady hummed as Leia finally pulled herself together and finally faced each other, “Rightly so, mortals couldn’t grasp what their future would look like, by happiness or sorrow, by fortune or sorrow and by life or death-”
Leia cut her off, “Immortality sounds more dreadful for me.”
“Is it?”
‘Yeah, I’m getting the fuck out of here.’
Leia faced toward the door when a pair of hands stopped her shoulder and unexpectedly squeezed it. A yelp of shock sent through her body. Before she could brush her hands off, she had already pulled her hands up and folded her arms, a smug expression on her face.
“Till the veil brushed away to your feet, may you have an enjoyment of the festival, dear” With that, a wind gushed over her face letting her eyelids close, steadily the crowded chatter of festivity once came back again that her eyes snapped open, scenery of the city glowed with mix off of the leaves string light and under the lantern’s flame. She walked past the crowd to the metal barrier rail, into the shadowy depths of the seascape, now illuminated by the incandescent dragon mascot.
The fireworks embark into the sky, painting them for a millisecond with sparkling stars and stepping back from the crowd that started to sweep her away from the clear view of the fireworks. For once, she decided that she wouldn’t be in the middle of this joyous atmosphere.
Now she could smell that nostalgic powder of smoky sulfur outside, the childlike soul of her wrapped her in a warm hug, and in the time when everybody was with their loved ones. She still watches the strangers’ eyes glow one by one as their hearts spark together, creating memories they can't forget in these very moments.
Her lips spread into a little smile of vicarious joy with a tint of envy. Her eyes fell on the overly familiar figure — his deep-set chestnut eyes dancing with a galaxy of sparks and his curly brown hair. Beside her was the character —an imaginary, pixelated person she recognised only by the story and the voices from a game.
After comprehending her arrival in this universe, she knew it was inevitable, bound to happen, even by a billion coincidences or fate. She met the game's characters, and perhaps she longs to meet them.
One step back, the reality that it's not her own world starts to flow inside her, and once again, she feels in doom.
Two steps back, her eyes gaze away, trying to calm herself down from the buzzing noise that starts to form in her brain.
Within the third step, her back starts to bump someone, and her mind starts to recollect to calm herself down for a second before she turns her head to apologise. There, her heart begins to spark following the sprinkle of the last fireworks, and the thought floating in her mind fades away from the things that she told herself once, that truly she was a doomed woman being bewitched by those pairs of captivating eyes.
Those sapphire eyes that reminded her of a slow choir song from the church she passed by, and captivated the stained glass that the sunlight shone on the room, where she could focus on one particular frost-etched colour that complemented the other colour.
It was Xavier, the star on which she spent her time wishing for a nonexistent god to accompany her in her dream.
When others look, the sparkler bursts into the sky, the full moon and the star that painted the sky.
Despite that, the star that stood before her is the most radiant.