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After several months in the academy, Drift should know better than to risk carrying a bucket of water throughout the halls and expect nothing bad to happen. But with Scott’s dorm locked, she really has no choice. Her eyes stay fixated on the liquid sloshing against the rim of the bucket, keeping it inside by sheer force of will. This rapid magic experience better be worth it.
Her snail’s trek across the main hall is interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Hey Open Book. What’cha doing?” Drift jumps, eyes darting around the hall. Globs of water soak into her shirt, though her initial annoyance at this is banished by confusion. She’s nowhere to be seen, in human form or otherwise.
“AJ?” The mage doesn’t show herself. “Where are you?” A high-pitched giggle, pure and airy and genuine in a way that makes Drift’s stomach do summersalts, rings out from… above.
AJ is perched on an iron chain, running from one side of the hall’s second level to the other. The dim candlelight traces her silhouette, showing her head cocked to the side in a way uncannily similar to her familiar. Her voice comes down colored with amusement. “You’ve got to be more aware of your surroundings, Drift.”
“Well why on earth are you just sitting up there? Are you just obsessed with watching me?” Realizing very quickly that AJ’s answer to that question would just be a ‘yes’ that will set her ears ablaze, Drift continues. “You gotta get down, those chains sway all the time. You could fall!”
“If you say so,” AJ says with another laugh before, with all of no hesitation, jumping off the chain to the ground below.
Drift isn’t sure if she screams, the only thing her brain can process is AJ falling as if she’s in slow motion. That and the feeling of her heart freezing mid-beat. The mage lands and lets the momentum carry her into a roll.
The loud thump is quickly followed by the rattling of her bucket clattering to the ground, sending water seeping into the wooden floor. It pools around Drift’s boots as she watches AJ, every fraction of a second that she doesn’t move feeling like an eternity. All Drift can do is blink, her mouth slightly open. Her heart returns to function, racing to make up for its pause.
AJ stands with a playful smirk, rolling out the shoulder that made impact slowly. “Don’t look so shocked, Drift, I’m just following orders.”
Her words start a fire under Drift, the blaze chasing away her terror. “What is wrong with you? Why would you do that?” Drift measures the distance between the chain and the floor in her mind, reeling. “Did that not- are you okay?”
“C’mon Open Book, of course I’m okay,” AJ’s grin doesn’t drop. “You just gotta know how to fall correctly. It’s the first thing I taught myself about parkour. Not that it did me that much good with the Cold one, butttt…” She trails off with more laughter, her eyes glittering. It makes Drift’s hair stand on end.
“There’s no way that didn’t hurt, AJ, no matter how you fell.” AJ’s smile falls into seriousness, finally. “You can’t just do stuff like that, it scared me. I mean, obviously it did.” Drift gestures to the puddle around both of their feet.
“I’m dealing with worse, I’m tough. I’m sorry for worrying you, but it’s alright.” Her reassurance is familiar, which just makes it ring hollow in Drift’s ears.
“I know, you keep saying you’ve dealt with worse, and I know you’re tough, but that doesn’t mean-” AJ’s words actually click in Drift’s head. “Dealing?” AJ’s eyes flicker in surprise that mirrors Drift’s own, but it’s gone in an instant.
“I mean, the emotional sort of worse,” AJ says with a shrug, turning briefly to examine the nearest bookshelf. “I actually made a bit of progress on my village today, Osteon practically forced me. Horrible, I know. What was all this water about anyways?” She stops looking at Drift again, wrinkling her nose at the puddle.
Drift has to swallow past a lump in her throat to speak. “I’m trying to do that ritual, I have the lapis and saplings on me too, but-”
“Ohh, alright!” AJ’s tilted grin returns. “We can replace your water from the resource world portal in Lupi’s dorm, it’s closer. Less time for you to spill and mold the rest of the floors.” She snags the bucket off the ground and starts walking, leaving Drift standing with her brow furrowed.
“C’mon Open Book, and you can tell me what you need to do this ritual for while we walk!”
~*^*~
“It tends to… worsen, with time.” Drift presses up against the wall as Osteon’s voice floats up the stairway she’d been about to enter. Maybe it should be concerning that her first instinct is to eavesdrop. “I trust you aren’t handling it well?”
“Oh I’m handling it great, Duskie! The worse the better right?” Drift belatedly attempts to cover her sharp inhale with a hand over her mouth. Luckily AJ keeps talking, drowning it out. “But, y’know, by great I mean-“
“Do you still remember where the lavender fields are?” Osteon interrupting anyone seems crazy, though she sounds as even keeled as ever. Drift slowly lowers her hands from her mouth, and scoots closer to the stairs to be able to discern his softer voice.
“You have so little faith in my sense of direction? I’m wounded, Duskie, really.” AJ’s giggles trail off as she gives her nothing but silence. “Of course I do, I went the other day. It still helps, so, thanks.”
Thanks? What are they talking about?
“What about yourself, huh?” AJ’s tone is so familiar it hurts. Her own discomfort turned into sharp prongs to stab at anyone else in the vicinity. “Dealing with the-“
“No, I’m not.” They pause, as if contemplating something. “I know you’re listening, Drift.” Shit.
“Heyy, guys.” Drift rounds the corner of the stairway, fidgeting with a lock of hair. AJ gapes at her, in sharp contrast to Osteon’s unimpressed stare. She jogs down the steps, aiming to shoot past them. “I don’t mean to interrupt, sorry, I just gotta get through here to see Megii. She needs me in her dorm so…”
“Hold on,” AJ grabs Drift’s wrist as she passes. The electricity of the touch stops Drift more than her words. “How long were you listening in, Open Book?”
“Not- not long,” Drift reassures. Still, she can’t quite tamper her curiosity. “What were you guys talking about?”
“Um-”
“We were just discussing AJ’s failings at caring for her dragon.” Osteon interjects, and AJ and Drift both turn to her in unison. “A neglected bond worsens the longer it festers, and I was hoping regular use of lavender could start to help their relationship.” They look AJ up and down.
“Of course, there wouldn’t be much use if basic needs such as sunlight are still being neglected.” AJ still seems off guard, her expression slack. Before she smirks once again, releasing Drift’s arm.
“You still underestimate me Duskie.” AJ speaks before Drift can question the explanation. She stalks closer to him, stopping short of actually touching. “I didn’t just go to get Nico the flowers and not bring him along. The dragon has been outside or whatever, he’s alive and well.” AJ holds a long look with Osteon, with a message on both of their faces indecipherable to Drift.
“That’s reassuring to hear.” They say dryly, turning back to her forge. “I hope both of you continue to care for you dragons and your villages. You know where to find me should you need assistance.” Before Drift can even scoff at the dig at her, he’s gone, leaving her alone with AJ.
“Well that was a joy as always.” AJ turns back to Drift and rolls her eyes. Her fingers intertwine with Drift’s own as her smile turns playful. “Now, are you actually trying to see the Smart one, or was that just a bad excuse?”
“I was, actually, do you think I only ever come to this dorm to see you?” The challenge comes naturally to Drift’s lips, she almost hates how automatic it is to slip back into banter. Like none of their distance or AJ’s strange behavior of the last week matter, even as it still weighs heavy in her mind. More importantly, she should ask whether Osteon just lied to her face or not. That talk being about your dragon doesn’t match what I heard when I first came into earshot. As if AJ could predict the words about to leave Drift’s mouth, she retorts quickly.
“I wouldn’t mind if that was the case,” AJ chirps. “I’ll walk you over, we don’t want to keep her waiting.” Then AJ leads, and Drift follows. Even though they don’t bring up the conversation again, she can’t banish a sense of unease, nor the thought of lavender, from her mind.
~*^*~
“I like the new look.” Drift comments, trying to make it sound offhanded.
“Hm?” AJ looks up at her from her spot on Drift’s floor, legs sprawled out behind her and held up only by her elbows. Her hands still fiddle with a contraption for ‘monitoring her void chest’ that she’d been working on, even as she turns her attention to Drift. “What new look?”
“The flowers in your hair. I think they look nice.” Drift sets the book she’d been reading on her lap, and sits straighter against the pillows propping her up on her bed. “What’s with the change?”
AJ also shifts to sit, crossing her legs and leaning back on her hands. She touches the purple flowers delicately, in a way that seems subconscious. The sprigs of lavender are partially woven into the goggles that AJ always wears, the stems wrapping around the strap before they disappear behind her ear. The petals are bright against the black of her messy hair in a way that, while beautiful, is distinctly not very… AJ.
The small smile on her face morphs into a frown, and Drift almost regrets asking. But… ‘Do you still remember where the lavender fields are?’ Drift isn’t an idiot.
“The Bright one found me in the lavender fields the other day,” AJ shrugs. “She seemed pretty excited when she thought I liked the flowers so I let her make me a version of one of those crowns she always gives out. They’ll probably wilt in a few days.”
“You should replace them when they do, you really do look good.” AJ smiles at that. It’s soft and adoring in a way that was once rare for her. Two months ago Drift would’ve thought any expression except a mocking smirk on AJ’s face meant a doppleganger. Now, she looks at Drift with eyes of honey, wistful and full of fondness. She turns away, staring up at her dorm’s second level. It’s a poor substitute for her normal small lap to cool her face down. “So does that mean you really are taking care of Nico now?”
When Drift chances a look back down AJ is still staring at her, head tilted and warmth lingering in her eyes. “Yeahh I am. They’re calling me the best dragon babysitter in the academy now. They should give me a trophy. No. Scratch that, some gems.”
“I think I’ve only heard of them giving awards for woodcutting, sorry.” Drift snorts, remembering the pride on Pyro’s face as he boasted all three of his trophies. Her voice is purposefully innocent as she asks: “Could I come with you the next time you go? I’ve run out of my stock for Fern recently.”
AJ doesn’t respond for a long moment, during which Drift has to fight not to squirm. “I’ve been keeping some on me, here.”
She pulls some of the magical flowers out of her bag, then, frowning at the size of the pile, plucks the sprigs out of her hair. The stems are left behind, their green color seeming to fade by the second as they shrivel. Must mean the magic is held in the buds. AJ raises herself to her knees to offer Drift the hurriedly assembled bouquet. “No need to drag yourself all the way out there.”
“You don’t have to give me all of it, and I just said it looks nice on you.” Drift says confusedly, even as she takes the lavender from AJ’s hands.
“I don’t need it.” AJ falls back to the floor, grabbing her tinkering project again. She blinks after a moment, looking back up. “Nico doesn’t, I mean. It’s only supposed to be in small doses anyways. I’ll get more tomorrow.”
“I’ll come with you then, I can’t just steal these.”
“I’m not allowed to give my girlfriend flowers then?” AJ throws her head back with a laugh as Drift’s brain blanks on a retort. Though her shoulders are noticeably tense, drawing up towards her ears. “Just because you’re greedy with giving out wither roses doesn’t mean I have to be the same way, Open Book.”
“Whatever,” Drift mumbles, giving up. If AJ is this adamant on going to the fields alone, then Drift will leave her be to do whatever it is she’s hiding.
Hours later when AJ leaves her machine is left unfinished. Her hands had started shaking too much to wire the finer details.
~*^*~
Drift enters the Lupi dorm with three withered roses and a mission. AJ is hiding something, maybe several things, and she isn’t leaving without the truth. The halls are mostly empty by this point in the evening, making her walk over very uneventful. She just has to hope AJ hasn’t joined the rest of Lupi at the pub.
About half way up the stairs, Drift stops. Soft murmurs, full of care, whisper from the offshoot hallway. She slowly peeks around the corner. AJ sits on the floor, leaning against the wall right next to the stairs leading to her door. She’s curled around Flick, the corvid barely visible through her arms. They both look small, bathed in shadow and alone.
“It’s alright, it’s okay. I know it hurts. Do you want some of this?” AJ plucks a few buds of lavender from the sprigs in her hair, and Flick takes them gingerly in her beak to swallow. AJ chuckles softly at her twitters. “Good job, Flick. We’ll be alright, just like always. I promise.”
Drift hovers indecisively. This moment feels fragile, like she should leave them alone, but she also can’t walk away and pretend she never saw it. “AJ?”
The reaction is immediate. AJ bolts up straight, causing Flick to squawk from her lap. Her eyes are sharp and wild as her head whips towards Drift. The alarm and defensiveness mostly slip from her face as she recognizes her, replaced by a small grimace.
“Hey Open Book.” Drift waits for an elaboration, but AJ merely watches her from the floor, fingers stroking Flick’s ruffled feathers. Drift walks over tentatively, sitting beside AJ when she doesn’t protest. Their shoulders touch, which only makes AJ stiffen up further, like a wild animal ready to flee. She feels cold, the same temperature as the walls or floorboards. Drift notes that she now smells like lavender in equal parts to alcohol, something she did not think was even possible. She fiddles with the stems of her wither roses, carefully avoiding the thorns.
“What happened to Flick?” Drift half turns towards her, taking in the grim look on her face. “Sausage didn’t do anything again did he?” News of his murder would’ve surely spread to her by now if he had, right?
“I- She…” AJ looks back down at her familiar with a scowl. She doesn’t speak for long enough that Drift almost fills the silence. She doesn’t look up, her eyes fixated on her hands as they straighten twisted feathers. “It’s my fault.”
“What? What do you mean ‘your fault?’”
“I was flying as Flick, and I think something about the magic made the pain not register for her until I turned back.” The words come like each is being dragged out of AJ, one by one. “When we got back to the academy she couldn’t even fly.”
“Oh.” In actuality, that was very little information about how AJ had gotten injured as Flick in the first place. If she pressed AJ would probably tell her a little more. Drift can’t quite find it in herself to care though. “Does she need anything?”
AJ looks up at Drift for a moment, surprised. She turns her attention back to Flick, asking the corvid through whatever mental link they share. They chirp, something that makes AJ smile in a way Drift can’t read.
“She appreciates it, Drift. Maybe just, next time you have a spare bottle or something, bring it for them?” She scoffs bitterly. “Not much you can do aside from that.”
“What about you? I mean, I remember you saying you feel some of Flick’s pain when she dies.” AJ stares at her as if she has two heads. Before breaking into a fit of laughter. It’s sharp and cold. The comment seems to banish the slump of her shoulders, though that doesn’t make Drift feel any better.
“Don’t worry about it, Open Book.” AJ, with all the care in the world, places Flick on her shoulder. She stands, then turns to offer a hand to Drift. Her fingers quiver. “Are those roses for me, or did you just come over to flaunt them in my face?”
Drift takes AJ’s hand. It takes the mage a second of struggle to pull Drift up, which she almost wants to tease her for, if only to feel some sort of normalcy. Resentment surges inside her, as nonsensical as it is. She can’t bring herself to question AJ, not like this.“They’re for you, do you want to get Flick inside your room?”
~*^*~
AJ slashes at a mite, cursing as her dagger only finds moss. She draws back the blade to stab again, only to be bludgeoned from behind. The golem sends her flying into a wall, her face slamming into stone and filling her mouth with the taste of blood.
The crash to the ground is no better, making her bones rattle. For a moment she fears she can’t get up. That the cartilage connecting her bones had atrophied to the point that all she could do is lay uselessly. She’s stunned for long enough that a mite begins to crawl on her leg, its tiny, yet razor-sharp, fangs biting through her pants.
Shakily picking herself up off the ground, AJ cuts her loses and runs. Leaving the area with the spawners, she finds herself alone in the Human Crypt.
She cautiously sheathes her daggers when no footsteps from monsters trailing after her sound out. As she walks, searching for the exit, she throws open every chest she finds. She pockets gems, armor trims, and breezerods while leaving the rest of the junk. The halls twist and turn in ways she can’t even begin to make sense of, until she doesn’t even know where she began. It’s still eerily silent.
More monsters finally make an appearance as she reaches the bottom of a stairwell. Three ghouls apparate from thin air, ready to hurl flames. AJ ducks under a fireball, and sends out her magic to the nearest one, tendrils of decay ready to bury it alive.
The darkness surges forward, far more than AJ intended or even than what she thought she could summon. It circles all three ghouls, dragging them under the earth.
Immediately AJ knows this was a mistake. The magic flows through her, rampant and unforgiving. She staggers, struggling to stay upright as the pain redoubles. The stale air of the crypt seeps into her skin, settling underneath and making her want to peel it off. Her hand finds a wall where she hunches over. Just for a second, she just needs to catch her breath.
The sounds of footsteps pressing down the pale moss don’t reach AJ for far too long. When they do register her head snaps up, as she tries (and mostly fails) to straighten up.
“Drift?” The earth mage doesn’t respond, she just walks forward in silence. Stopping only half a foot away, AJ can see the malice glittering in her eyes.
“Megii told me.” AJ can’t stifle a sharp inhale, nor the fit of coughing that follows as her lungs protest. Drift keeps talking over her struggling anyways. “What was your plan, huh? Were you just going to lie for the rest of our lives?”
“Drift, I didn’t mean-”
“Didn’t mean to bury me alive? Are you seriously going to say that to me?” A second fit of coughing starts up, heaving from AJ’s chest involuntarily. It just makes Drift scoff, looking down on her like the scum of the earth. Which she is.
“Is this why?” As soon as she’s able, AJ looks up, perplexed. Drift’s expression gives nothing away.
“Why what?” She dares to ask, voice hoarse and dry. The ache in her legs begins to worsen. Pulses of fire pound against her bones, straining to escape her body.
“You’ve been making me worry this whole time?” The disdain on Drift’s face shifts, betrayal and hurt coloring her features. AJ thinks she prefers the hatred. “I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with you, and it drove me crazy. But this whole time you were upset when I was the one shoved underground?”
“I’m sorry.” AJ hangs her head, ignoring how Drift’s snort hits like an actual stab wound. Her legs give out without further warning, sending her sliding down against the crypt wall. “I am so sorry, Drift. Whatever I can-” Drift disappears. Her boots vanish in front of AJ’s eyes, like she had never been there in the first place.
“Drift? Drift!” AJ is completely alone. She tries to recall, consequences of leaving mid-dungeon be damned, but her mana doesn’t respond.
“You won’t escape twice.”
The voice fills AJ’s skull, knocking all thoughts from her brain as the moss begins to sag beneath her weight. The seams of the ground tear open, sending her plunging through. She opens her mouth to scream, but it fills with soil before she can get out a word. Millions of whispers break out, loud and desperate and accusatory, until blackness brings a blanket over her, making everything else fade away.
AJ wakes up falling. The barstool she had apparently fallen asleep on topples over from her sudden jolting upright. The sensation of her stomach leaving her body is over quickly as she crashes onto her dormitory floor. Coughs seize her body, her lungs struggling and body heaving to dislodge dirt that isn’t even there. Her heart pounds hard in her chest, the sound filling her ears as she squeezes her eyes shut.
She presses her nails into her palms, relieved at the sting. The pain in her dreams is real, no doubt, but reality has a different quality she can’t quite explain. Breathing is like forcing herself to inhale while knowing she’s underwater, it takes effort not to begin wheezing again.
It’s only after she can breathe that the voice registers in her brain. “AJ? AJ?” There’s a hand slipping into hers, cutting off the pressing of her nails. It’s warm. When she squeezes, it squeezes back.
After what may be hours, or merely thirty seconds, AJ peels her eyes open. Drift is kneeling over her, but her brain refuses to latch on to her face. The light from the fireplace forcefully draws her eyes. It physically hurts to look at, her eyes and brain both aching from the brightness. She shuts them again with a groan.
“Are you… Are you okay?” Drift’s voice, intentionally soft, grinds against AJ’s skull. The question lets her thoughts begin to trickle through again. Lets her remember she needs to get it together, quickly. When forces her eyes to open again, it’s easier. Drift had shifted to block the fireplace from view.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” Her voice is so scratchy it makes her wince. She almost asks Drift why she’s here, until that too filters through her brain. AJ must’ve fallen asleep after bringing Flick inside. And Drift stayed.
All at once AJ sits up. The motion makes her sway, her head filling with fuzz and static as her vision becomes tinted black. She doesn’t want to know if she would’ve fallen, if not for Drift’s hand shooting out to steady her.
“Are you sure?” Drift looks at her, eyes so full of compassion it makes AJ’s stomach crawl. If AJ just says ‘yes,’ she’ll let it go. Continue to worry over her in silence, whilst being completely oblivious. Worse than ever before, her body hurts. Bones, skin, mind, all blending together into a haze.
“I- I have to tell you something.” AJ scoots away with shaky limbs. If possible, Drift’s brows furrow further. She doesn’t say anything, just watches. “I’m the reason you got buried alive.” Drift opens her mouth, but AJ cuts her off preemptively.
“With the bandit. I swear I didn’t mean it. I just tried to cast the spell but then you moved forward and then you were being put underground and I couldn’t stop it so I just- I panicked and I’m sorry. I hurt you.” AJ moves further, not finding room to breathe as the sentences stutter out of her. “My magic, it’s decay, death, whatever name you want to use. It destroys… everything and I know I should have told you but-”
Drift’s eyes are full of horror, her lips parted. AJ hangs her head, even as the motion takes her back to the nightmare she’d just escaped. “So you can leave, now. I get it. I’m sorry Drift.”
The room is dead silent. It’s all AJ can do to examine the dark floorboards while her heart pounds and her body trembles against her will.
“I hate that you lied,” AJ cringes, still staring at the floor. Another long pause follows, and when Drift does speak it’s hesitant. “But I was telling the truth when I said I could never hate you. I’ve been really worried, y’know.”
“You shouldn’t be.” And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Or maybe the issue is the way a blossom of hope still manages to form in her chest at Drift’s words. “I lied about the book too. The one from Penrose? It’s about the Tree, yeah, but me too. All of this is just magic.”
At that Drift laughs, startling AJ so much she jumps. “Well I’d figured that out, it was kinda obvious. I still mean what I said earlier, that this isn’t magic forcing me to care against my will. And I do still care. How about we talk about all of this in the morning?”
Drift is clearly angry. AJ can tell by the shadows in her eyes and the draw of her shoulders. By the way she tugs on a curl of hair, rather than just fiddling with it. So AJ decides to let herself have this. One night before she’s left alone again. “Okay.”
When AJ stands, her bones crack in a protest only audible to her. She turns to the ladder leading up to her bed, and hears Drift standing behind her. “I really am sorry.”
“Save it.” And then AJ is being hugged from behind. Arms wrap around her tightly, in a way that should ache but doesn’t. AJ can’t tell if it’s her own shaking, or if Drift is trembling too as she buries her face in AJ’s hair. So she leans her head back onto Drift’s shoulder, relaxing and closing her eyes. One more night.