Work Text:
“You held the crystal up to your eye.
For some strange reason, just for a brief moment…
It looked like everyone else disappeared and…”
*PureCrystal was added to your ITEMS.
Now… I wonder what will happen between you two. Ha ha ha ha…
Seam's parting words still echo somewhere in the back of your mind. Every step through Castle Town only seems to make them louder. The town, once filled with Darkners, now lies eerily still, its silence pressing in from every direction.
The sound of your footsteps carries down the empty street, echoing against the walls of the shops before fading into the distance. There is no music coming from the square, no familiar voices. Even the shops you remember visiting stand unattended.
You find yourself listening for something. A door opening, a voice from one of the nearby buildings, the sound of someone walking along the street behind you. But each time you stop, the footsteps stop with you, and the silence returns.
You step back out into the square. Noelle is still waiting by the entrance, exactly where you left her. She stands with her back to you, looking out at the empty streets as though searching for something that isn't there.
The moment she notices you, her whole posture changes. She straightens almost immediately, her shoulders relaxing as she turns toward you.
"Kris!" she exclaims, hurrying over. "Did you get what you were looking for?"
Noelle steps beside you, her body moving closer until her shoulder brushes yours. "I waited right here. Exactly where you left me."
"I didn't look around much. Didn't really feel like there was a point." Her gaze remains fixated on you.
"Kris, you always know what we need next.”
"So where do we go now? What do we still need?"
She steps closer with her radiant smile. That smile that seems to only exist in your memory. You try to match the child in your mind with the girl standing before you, but you can't.
❤️ Unequip.
Noelle follows your gaze until it settles on the bloodied ring around her finger. Her smile lingers for a few moments before slowly fading. When she looks back at you, something flashes through her eyes, gone as soon as it appears. She smooths the moment with a quick laugh, burying it all beneath her smile.
"What, this?" She holds her hand up, wiggling her fingers. "Oh, come on, you're not gonna tell me you need my ring, that'd be insane.” She tucks her hand behind her back, still smiling. "I'm sure it's something else. There's gotta be other stuff around here that'd work. Besides, you gave me this ring. I don’t really want to give it up.”
❤️ Unequip.
You keep on looking at her—or, in this case, at the ThornRing hidden behind her.
“Kris,” she whispers. “Let’s go now.”
The words are a plea, but her voice is hollow. She's looking through your eyes, searching for the childhood friend she remembers. A suffocating urge begs you to stop, to turn around and forget any of this ever happened.
❤️ Unequip.
You begin to move towards her. You hold out your hand to try and grab her wrist, and—
She steps back, just enough to get out of your reach.
“Don’t.” Her voice cuts through the dead silence. “We don’t have to do this.”
Your hand remains extended.
“Y-You gave this to me, Kris. You wanted me to have it.”
“I know it hurt, but that was the point, wasn't it? You said I had to be stronger, and I am. I really am.”
“Why do you want it back?”
“I don't need you to tell me what to do anymore. I can do things myself now."
“Isn't this what you wanted?”
You take another step towards her.
“N-No. I didn't mean that. I still need you. I just—” Her voice falters.
“You don't get to take that back. You don't get to leave me with only the pain.”
“No, wait—”
She glances at your outstretched hand, then quickly back at your face.
“I didn't mean— I know you were trying to help me. You did help me. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you.”
Her grip on the ring tightens as another thin line of blood drips down.
“So please, just stop. Please don't make me do this. I don't want to fight you, Kris.”
“I'm not giving it up. Not to anyone. Not even you.”
❤️ Unequip.
Your hand reaches for the ThornRing again.
Your arm trembles…
But something forces it forward, reaching to pry the ThornRing from her finger.
* Noelle cast ICESHOCK!
The air between you turns violently brittle. A sudden, freezing moisture fills your throat as the surrounding warmth vanishes in an instant, cutting off your breath as a sheet of frost rushes to your palm. The cold surges up your wrist and forearm, leaving a dead, petrifying numbness in its wake. Your skin solidifies into a pale blue crystal, the muscle underneath locking into ice.
Your arm drops. It hits the stone floor, and shatters. Hundreds of small, glassy pieces skitter out across the ground.
You collapse in silence.
Noelle doesn’t move. Not for a while. With bated breath, she stares at you. You—armless and still.
“Kris-” You look up to find her staring with unblinking eyes, with a stillness that feels almost unnatural.
"I didn't— " Her voice is barely a whisper. She redirects her gaze toward her trembling hand…
And there it is: a thin layer of frost still clinging to her pale knuckles, delicate crystals spreading like veins before slowly retreating into the ring wrapped around her finger.
“I didn’t do that…” She mutters the words.
Your shattered arm lies scattered across the ground between the two of you, each shard reflecting the same impossible moment from a hundred different angles.
One piece has skidded close to her foot. Another lies farther away, catching the dim light along its fractured edge.
"Oh God." Her hand drifts to her mouth. The colour drains from her face. Her chest rises with one sharp breath before the next gets caught in her throat. Her gaze never leaves your shoulder. Every time it finds the jagged crystal littering the floor, it is drawn back to the empty space where your arm should have been.
She takes uncertain steps towards you, staggering until her legs give out, crumbling to the ground in front of you. She hovers over your ruined shoulder. "I did that... I did that to you... Kris, I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry—" Her breath comes out ragged, closer to a sob than anything verbal.
"You're gonna hate me now." Her voice shrinks around the words. "You're gonna leave me behind. Like I'm something that's no longer useful-" She chokes on the thought, gritting her teeth.
"Please don't hate me. Please. You're the only one that can give me this. I can't lose that. I can’t lose you."
“No- no.. I- I can fix this, Kris, I- I remember...” Her voice catches as she searches through scattered memories. “I had a healing spell. I know I did. I just... I just need to remember how it works.”
Her hands move closer, hovering over your missing shoulder as a faint glow begins to gather around her fingers. The warmth of her magic slowly spreads through the air as the light around her hands flickers unevenly. She struggles to hold it there, brows furrowing as if trying to remember something just out of reach.
* Noelle casts HEAL PRAYER!
… But, it failed.
Her eyes widen.
"No... no, that wasn't right."
The words tumble out in a rush as she shakes her head, already drawing her hands back before forcing them forward again, the glow around her fingers flaring brighter than before.
* Noelle casts HEAL PRAYER!
… But, it failed.
Her breathing becomes frantic, each spell cast faster than the last.
* Noelle casts HEAL PRAYER!
… But, it failed.
* Noelle casts HEAL PRAYER!
… But, it failed.
…
…
“Why isn't this working? Wh-Why?! It’s supposed to heal people!”
The glow sputters weakly around her fingertips before disappearing altogether, leaving only the sound of her uneven breathing.
"No, no, no... please..."
The glow has disappeared, but she keeps her hands raised. She tries again, then looks up at you, searching your face desperately for any sign that it has worked.
"No—no, please! Please, just—"
Her voice breaks. She stares at her hands, then at you, shaking her head as though refusing to accept what is in front of her.
"There has to be something. There has to be—"
"Please, Kris..."
Her breathing catches. She looks at you again, and the pleading in her voice slowly disappears.
"Okay."
Her expression goes blank, a freezing chill washing over her features that doesn't match the wet tracks on her cheeks.
She grabs her own arm, nails burying into her skin. "Take it. Take mine instead. Cut it off right now, I don't care. If it makes you feel better- just tell me it's okay. Tell me we're still together?" She stifles a sharp, breathless laugh that dies instantly. "I'll give you anything. Just don't look at me like that. Please don't look at me like that.”
Her gaze drops to the sword by your side.
She reaches for it before you can stop her, wrapping her hand around the hilt. She jerks the blade up, before pressing the cold steel against her shoulder. Her eyes lock back onto yours- wide, bloodshot, and devoid of anything but a desperate urge to comply. Ready to sever herself whenever you tell her to.
❤️Proce-
…
"Kris... Kris, stop. STOP!"
Noelle's voice tears through the silence as she rushes towards you, the sword falling to the ground as she grabs onto you, her hands trembling as she tries to pull your hand away from your throat.
"Why are you doing that?!" she cries, her voice shaking as she looks at you. "Why are you trying to hurt yourself?"
She doesn’t understand why you have been silent that whole time, just to suddenly choke yourself to death.
"Kris, please... stop."
Her voice trembles as she holds onto you, her eyes darting over your face before slowly widening.
"Kris... this is because of me, isn't it?"
“I thought I could just... I thought I could make it right. I thought if I gave you something back, if I made it even, then maybe-” The rest of the words die in her throat.
“You’d really rather die than-”
For a moment, she just stares at you. Her lips part, but nothing comes out this time. Her eyes never leave yours, lingering on every flicker of your expression as though afraid to miss whatever comes next.
You try to get up slowly, but you quickly lose your footing. Your knee scrapes against the ground before you manage to catch yourself halfway.
"Kris—"
Noelle reaches for you.
"No, wait, don't—"
She catches you before you can fall any further. She steadily pulls you upright with both hands before speaking again.
"I've got you. I've got you, okay? Just lean on me."
You get your feet under you. She doesn't let go until you do, and even then, her hands hover close, ready to catch you a second time if you need it.
You look at her.
❤️ Unequip.
And you just reach for her hand again.
She flinches at your movement, but she doesn’t move away this time. She just watches your hand hover closer and closer. Slowly, she turns her hand up and moves it towards yours, exposing the ThornRing resting against her finger. Her gaze lingers on the ring.
“Yeah,” she murmurs, her voice hollow. “Of course.”
Her fingers twitch beneath yours, but she doesn't pull away. She forces them to relax, leaving her hand completely still.
"Take it," she whispers. "You should."
Your hand hesitates. It almost reaches for the ring again.
Then, slowly...
Your fingers close around hers instead.
She waits for the familiar sting of the ThornRing as you pull it free. But the pain never comes; the ring doesn't move. Your hand simply remains where it is, gently wrapped around hers.
Confusion spreads across her face. She looks from your hand to your eyes.
"...Kris?"
Unequip ❤️ ...
❤️ Unequip …
Your hand begins to shake violently.
Unequip ❤️ ...
Unequip ❤️ …
You tell her that it is okay. You tell her that you won’t leave her.
…
Then she moves. She throws her arms around you before you can react, burying her face against your shoulder and holding on as though she wants to bind herself to you.
“Thank you.” Her voice comes out muffled and broken. “Thank you, thank you, thank you—” She echoes the words again and again as they slowly lose their shape. Until they’re barely words at all, but just breaths punched out of her.
You feel her fingers claw into your back.
...
Slowly, her breathing begins to steady. The tears still cling to her lashes as her frantic sobbing gradually wanes, until all that remains is the quiet rhythm of her breathing.
"You're..."
Her voice catches, and she looks down at your hands again.
"You're really not going to leave."
…
"Kris."
"I still remember when we were little… I thought we'd always be together."
"Then one day, you stopped coming around. You stopped talking to me. I replayed every moment, searching for the reason you left, but I never found one."
"When you came back… I didn't know what to do. It felt like I had been given another chance with someone I thought I'd lost, but you weren't quite the same anymore."
…
"You comforted me and told me it was all just a dream."
"That was until you came back the next day. With that horrifying voice. Forcing the thorn deeper into my finger."
"It hurt."
"I should have hated you."
"But you expected me to be capable. You expected me to do impossible things."
"Every step terrified me, but every step proved that I could."
"I thought I could do anything if you told me to."
"That's why I tried crossing the lake with you yesterday."
"But I don’t understand…"
"You were supposed to say proceed. You were supposed to say it over and over again, like all the other times. Why did you stop?"
"Did I go too far? Was I too much?"
"No. That's not—"
"I-I can be how I was before, if that's what you want. I just need you to keep saying the words."
…
"I'm sorry for what I did to you."
...
"But- Kris… You stayed?"
"It doesn't make sense. I'm hurting you more than I'm helping you now. Shouldn't you be angry with me?"
"Shouldn't you have left?"
…
"Part of you still cares, doesn't it, Kris?"
"You still remember us. You still remember everything we meant to each other…"
"Maybe you saw someone capable long before I ever did. Someone worth believing in."
"Maybe you thought I could become that person, even if it meant I'd hate you for a while."
"I don't know..."
…
"Thank you, Kris."
"Thank you for believing in me."
"I want us to stay together."
"We'll figure everything out together, won't we?"
"Just like we promised when we were little..."
...
Her fingers tighten around your hand.
"So..." A soft laugh escapes her. "We really are together again."
She glances down at your joined hands, smiling to herself before looking back up.
"I knew it." Her voice is barely above a whisper. "I knew there had to be a part of you that remembered."
But then her gaze drifts downward, and the warmth in her expression falters as she catches a fragment of your arm on the ground. Her fingers tighten around yours, not wanting to let go.
"I'm sorry," she whispers.
Her eyes remain on your hand for a moment longer before she looks back at you. A small, trembling smile returns.
"But I'll make sure you don't have to miss it."
"I'll always stay with you, Kris."
"And..."
"You'll always stay with me."
"Come on."
She laces her fingers through yours and gives your hand the smallest tug forward.
"We've spent enough time apart."
***
Through familiar streets and unfamiliar paths. Through places bathed in light and places hidden away in darkness. Through places you hadn't seen in years, and places that neither of you had been to.
Everywhere you went, there were traces of the two of you left behind. Some paths held the imprint of your footsteps. Others were marked by frozen figures that would never move again.
Eventually, you find yourselves somewhere quiet.
A field filled with flowers stretching beneath the sky.
***
Noelle walks ahead, humming softly as she searches through them. Carefully choosing each one, holding different flowers against her chest before deciding which ones feel right.
Eventually, she finds hers.
The ones she loves most.
Then she searches for yours.
The ones she thinks you would like.
When she finally has both, she turns back toward you.
Sunlight catches in her hair, flowers gathered carefully in her arms. The world around her feels impossibly quiet.
…you saw Noelle smiling at you, with arms full of flowers.