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Being chucked through space and time hurt like a bitch. And also made you very dizzy. I was sputtering and doubled over when I came to, my head pounding something fierce. And after I finally came to my senses, I had one tiny problem: When was I?
Wist has been messing around with time magic since our little ‘vacation’ a couple months back, just stupid things like freezing a wasp or pushing me a second or two back, but then…well, some big burst of magic blinded my magic perception and the next thing I know the multiverse is flying past me. Crazy, right?
What’s even crazier is the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m back at school. Good old Guralta, to be specific. And, if my uniform was anything to go by, my first year. So, I was trapped in 13 year old me’s body when I was even more annoying (believe it or not), suspicious of literally anything with magic, and in denial about Wist—oh. Baby Wisteria. Well, this just got a lot more interesting.
Looking around, I notice my extra uniforms stuffed into pillow cushions and the lack of a roommate, which meant I was in Hunting Season. Yippie.
The day really did matter here…oh, that bucket. The one I used for the hermit crabs. If it’s here, then that means—yup, yellow bucket. Must be on one of the final days then.
I walked around the room, looking for bugs or poop or whatever, but found nothing. Guess past me already cleaned it up. Now, here’s the important question, should I go find Wist and blow her mind or not mess up the space time continuum? (The answer was always the former, as Wist could fix this in 30 seconds, but also because surprising Wist always gave me an insane amount of joy)
So that’s how I found myself scaling down the side of the dormitory without a trace of fear.
Okay, there was fear, but if I thought I was unathletic at 13, I didn't know how bad it’d get at 36, because now seems like a breeze, let me tell you.
I passed all the jasmine flowers, with their bright pink and white coloring, and landed in an ungraceful heap on the grass. That was fine, my knees were like steel at this age.
I didn’t exactly know where Wist was, but I could guess, and also follow her magic. I’ve always had a crazy amount of magic perception and even if I’m much better at healing now then I was, my seeing was never worse, at least in terms of magic strands. My actual seeing is kinda turning to shit, what with a missing eye and everything. Oh, that was another thing I took for granted, 2 eyes. Crazy how life works, huh?
I followed the big bundle of magic a little ways away, inside the mage side of the school but barely.
Wist was always a beacon, what with having at least 800 strands of magic flying from her core at every second, and she hated it. I knew this, she knew I knew this, but it was incredibly useful inside that huge tower of hers so I never tried to block it out. (I don’t think I could, truthfully)
Her magic took me to an unused path riddled with flowers and grass a couple inches too high. It wasn’t where I would expect Wist to be exactly, with her hating bugs, but it also made sense. Wist was an introvert through and through.
“Wist? Can you come out already, walking through this sucks.”
I stopped and waited, knowing she’d come. She always comes for me.
I didn’t wait long, soon enough there was a 13 year old Wisteria Shien in front of me, looking completely unfazed to the average joe, but I had over 20 years to learn her facial ticks and she was shocked. Sweet.
“Hey Wist. How come you’re out here in this thicket of foliage when you hate bugs?”
Wist did not answer for a beat too long and I grinned. I really had shocked her.
“It’s quiet.” Again, no emotion, but her left eyebrow pinched the slightest amount and I knew that meant fear. Oh how I loved this.
“Is an S-class mage really afraid of a little old healer?” I teased, pitching my voice high and sweet.
Wist blinked, once, twice—more times than I’d seen almost—and right before I got worried she sputtered (not really, but a girl can imagine), “Clem?”
I tapped her nose and winked. “At your service.”
Wist’s braid flicked hard against the ground, rounding up dirt into a pile until she would squash it down. It was faintly amusing.
“Why are you here?” It didn’t sound like a question, but I heard the little lilt nobody else did. That always did make me feel special, being able to read her.
“You tell me, Wist.” I was curious to see if she could guess my origins or if I would have to tell her.
Wist’s magic branches reached for me—which is insanely strange—before jerking back.
“You’re not my Clematis.”
I chuckled, rocking on my feet. “Bingo!”
I did not give her any more information and rejoiced in her struggling.
“How?” I couldn’t read her that time. I don’t think she felt anything when she said that. Strange.
“My Wist.”
“Oh.” And just like that she had emotions again. It was relief, if you were wondering.
“I get it. You thought you had messed up this new time line when you were just getting me back, huh?”
Wist’s eyes visibly widened and giggled. Oh, a wonderful day indeed.
“My Wist told me. Honestly? Makes a lot of sense.”
Wist took a step back. Out of fear, shock, something else I wasn’t sure.
“Why did I mess with time again? I know the consequences.” She sounded angry and scared and I kinda felt bad. She was still the love of my life, even as a kid.
“Hey, Wist, everything’s fine. We had to mess with time to save the world a little ways back and nothing happened, so we’re just fucking with time magic until the consequence finally hits us. Which could be at any moment, cause, you know, time doesn’t have any meaning.”
Wist’s braid wrapped around her throat like a noose. It made me think of her childhood and I cringed.
“When are you from?”
“Er—about 20 years in the future. I’m 36.”
Her face brightened, not obviously, but enough that I smiled tentatively with her.
“So I did it. You lived past 27.”
I grinned and tugged on her uniform. “I did, though you did put me in jail for treason. Not very fond of you for that.”
Wist blinked and I cackled.
“Doesn’t matter, I got out anyway. So, my Wist will be here to get me soon so any questions you want answered? Wist will clean up so don’t gotta worry about killing your Clem or anything.”
Wist pondered, her braid tapping an offbeat rhythm into her shoulder.
“Are we happy?”
I smiled genuinely and cupped her hand. “We are. Takes a shit ton of years and a lot of pain, but we get there in the end.”
Wist nods, thinking. “Did we get bonded this time?”
I grimace, thinking back to why we got bonded. “Yes, about 3 years ago. You, um, went berserk so I kinda had to.”
“I’m sorry.” Wist built those walls so high again and I hated myself a little for hurting her.
“It’s alright, I would have eventually.” I pause, staring at her intensely. “You did say something to me while berserked that you avoid whenever I ask.”
I waited for a reply but all Wist did was breathe.
“Is it true that you love my butt?”
Wist opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again, like a floundering fish. Guess I wasn’t getting an answer out of this Wist either. They’re both so prudish. (That’s a lie, actually, my Wist can be…explicit when she wants to be)
“Fine, whatever, not like I actually wanted to know or anything.”
Wist just stared at me so I took pity and changed the topic. “Tell past me to appreciate her eyes. Especially her right one.”
Wist stared even more somehow. “Nope, won’t say anything else to that one.”
She almost pouted, but refrained, her head tilting towards some noise I couldn’t hear. “You need to go. When will your Wist get here?”
I looked through the thick flowers and cringed at the sight of an angry Tempest. “Did you know he becomes like an investigator? Never would have thought.”
Wist didn’t react and I grinned. “Well, nice talking to you baby Wist, but I think you’re about to pull me back.”
After a second—barely a moment—I reached out fast and grabbed her wrist, tight. “Wist, everything gets worse. So much fucking worse and I’m sorry. I’m horribly sorry because some of it is my fault, but I promise it gets better. I promise it’s worth it. Please don’t give up, please don’t stop trying and fighting. You’re such a fighter, Wist, remember that.”
Wist doesn’t show any outward signs she heard me, but I know she did. She always listens to me.
“Goodbye Wist.” And just like that my soul was sucked back through time and space, my being flexing and twisting until it spat me back in my time.
And if I tackled Wist into a hug immediately, and if I cried a little, then that’s no one’s business but mine and Wist’s, thank you.
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The next time Wisteria Shien saw Asa Clematis she stared hard at her right eye and muttered, “Don’t take your eyes for granted.”
And Asa Clematis laughed and laughed, calling her weird and crazy and strange, but Wisteria Shien didn’t feel like any of those. She felt stable for the first time in 13 years, three words repeating on cycle through her head in a voice so close to Asa Clematis, but just off, just too confident and low to be her; You’re a fighter.
So Wisteria Shien did not feel weird or strange or crazy for repeating the words of that girl because she was stable and confident and happy so Wisteria Shien knew she should trust everything she said.
The next day she did not remember why she felt so calm the day before, what had caused it, but that little rock of stability didn’t go away. It in fact grew and grew all those years until she hit 36 and realized just where it came from when Asa Clematis came falling into her arms crying and sobbing about it, about how she called Wisteria Shien a fighter.