A/N: This chapter basically wouldn't have happened without a huge amount of help from @Baughn.
Please enjoy.
It's been 8 days since I told Sono…
almost everything. I didn't bother telling her about Song Magic, since that takes way too long to explain and she won't understand any of it. She barely understood the most-basic explanation of Wave Theory I could possibly give. Maybe Oren would get it… He
does have a quantum physics degree.
Sono talked to Oren and I get the feeling she's been a bit miffed with him. Yeah she admits to being partly at-fault for how this happened, but it didn't stop her being slightly upset. She says she told him there's nothing wrong with me and I'm perfectly healthy, and that's all he needed to know for now. I feel kinda bad about that. He was just concerned about me, wasn't he? I don't want to be a jerk to him about it. I hope their relationship doesn't turn sour because of this.
I've been thinking about telling Cid, too. I kind of overreacted back when he told me he had people looking out for me. It wasn't anything like someone following me everywhere I went. He just knows lots of people and asked them to watch out for me around town and maybe help me if I got into trouble. He was just trying to help, just like Sono and Oren were just trying to help. Cid deserves to know, but I'm not sure how to approach telling him.
Things have changed a lot, but… sort of not. I mean, I'm still private with my true nature and still publicly human. I still have that part-time job at the Slapshot, but it's starting to get annoying when people constantly come in asking me for autographs. The fact that autographs are still a thing is weird to me. Nobody learns fancy handwriting anymore. I mean, I could write really fancy if I wanted to… Oh yeah, I'm famous. Well, locally famous, to people that like opera. I have some more widespread fame on the Omnet for my MediUs covers of popular songs. I have other MediUsers asking me if I would like them to compose music for me to sing to sometimes, and MediUs has offered me a monetization contract which I'm considering. So yeah, lots of people talk to me about my singing.
Other than that… Sono tried to convince me to quit my waitress job and move in with her. She says children shouldn't be working or living by themselves. I told her that's silly. Children my age get jobs and apprenticeships on Ar Ciel all the time. She looked at me like I'd grown a second head when I told her that. I was tempted to grow a second head just to make it funnier… but I'd probably give her a heart attack. Sono knows I can shapeshift but she's never seen me do it.
When Sono realized making me change my mind wasn't going to happen, she made a decision I didn't see coming at all.
"I'm moving in with you."
"W-what?"
"If you want to work, I can't stop you. Naryu knows you look old enough." She emphasises the
look, her eyes staring straight at mine.
"But that doesn't mean you should live on your own. Be honest with me, does living by yourself make you happy? Do you do anything at home but sleep and eat? Besides, it'll be fun. Just like having a sister." She smiles at me, and for a moment I'm gripped by an incredibly nostalgic feeling. "If you
really don't want to, I won't force you, but it's not going to change anything except that you don't have to be alone anymore. And it'll let me get away from Mom."
When Sono says that, I can't help but feel like this is really bad. She and her mother are both adults now. Can't they just… talk their differences out like adults are supposed to? I don't want to help Sono keep running from her family forever. But I don't know how to tell Sono that, and I don't want to be pushy about it.
I would be really upset if my relationship with Mir had been as bad as Sono's with her mother.
My breath catches, and I try to follow the thought. Isn't that odd? I don't know Mir at all, not really. But if I imagine being upset with her, or her with me, my stomach clenches and I feel like I'm about to cry.
"—Hana?" I refocus on the here and now, and see Sono looking at me with concern. "I said, we don't absolutely have to. If you really don't want to…"
I take a second to wipe away some tears. I wasn't crying. I got close, but I wasn't actually crying.
"No. I'm just…" Should I tell her?
I shake my head.
"It's nothing," I say. She looks skeptically at me, but moves on when I show no immediate signs of bursting into tears.
I think about it and decide… it's probably for the best. I don't really do anything by myself in my apartment. I play video games and record songs and browse the Omnet most of the day, but rarely go out on my own. Having Sono there will be good for me and—
"Sono, I was wondering. Why do you even go back to your house if you want to be away from your mom so much?"
Sono pouts at me, apparently not happy that I asked this question. What?! It's an honest question! I know she can stay on the station for free with her employee pass, but only on work nights. Other than that I don't know why she hasn't already moved out.
"Mother doesn't let me use her money to support my living away from home. Unlike the girl who I've learned never needs to eat or drink or pay for heating and cooling, and doesn't go to school, I can't afford my own place."
That makes me feel a little bad. Sono would probably be able to afford an apartment if she didn't also go to university. Food and electricity aren't expensive here, but housing and advanced education is. It's weird how an economy that's partly post-scarcity works that way, but when basic needs of living are nearly free then what exactly is supposed to still cost money?
There's not really any reason not to let her. I'm not replacing anyone, and… I like Sono. The thought of not waking up alone… makes me feel safer. I nod to myself, and to Sono. Safety. Is that what that feeling is?
"Okay."
"You'll do it?"
"Yeah." I smile. "It would be nice… to not live alone."
Within the day, Sono arrives back at my apartment with all of her things— clothes, devices like her computer and smartwatch, a spare mattress and bedsheets. She looks a bit… angry? She's being really tight-lipped about why she looks so pissed off as she's getting her stuff in, and I'm afraid to ask her. I'm pretty sure it involves an argument with her mom, though.
This is so stupid. They can see how bad this is for them, can't they? Maybe they do, and that's the problem. I resolve to do something about it. I'm not sure how, but… well, something. Maybe I should talk to Lyro, and get her side of the story? I don't want Sono to know about this until after I've done it, so I'll look for time to visit her while Sono's at school.
The rest of the week goes by rather normally, but having Sono living with me makes it more fun. I tell her more about what I know of Ar Ciel's history, and she starts typing everything down. She says the cultures are fascinating, especially the contrast between nations from Sol Cluster and Sol Ciel. In Sol Ciel, stories about love being the ultimate power are common, while in Sol Cluster the theme is about duty to family, your nation and the gods. I get the feeling she wants to write a book. It would be cool if she could publish it… but we have to prove that Ar Ciel exists, otherwise her book will just be a great work of fiction.
At the restaurant, she seems to be trying to take more work off my hands. She's still acting like having a job at my age isn't a good thing. Is me being in the opera somehow different from being a waitress? Sure it's a lot less stressful and takes less effort for me than being a waitress, but that's because I'm a Reyvateil. If I were a normal person it would be the other way around. This is really starting to frustrate me, and Cid is starting to get annoyed by her behavior too. She can't explain why she's acting this way without telling him my secret, which just makes it worse.
Very soon, I'm not able to explain Ar Ciel's history without telling her about Song Magic. Specifically, I have to explain some of the oldest stories involving how Sound Science developed, and that means the Moon Chanters.
"I'm sorry... magic?" She says incredulously.
"That's the correct word, isn't it? I've been trying to program this pendant to understand Shell and that was the closest equivalent I could find."
"I think it may have translated incorrectly. 'Magic' doesn't exist."
It depends on what your definition of "magic" is, Sono.
"
Here, it doesn't. Remember when I said my universe has different physics, and that everything is made of waves?" Sono nodded. "Sound is also made of waves. Sound also contains energy. By singing properly and with enough power, it's possible to make matter and energy take form from thin air."
Suddenly, Sono's eyes go wide and she looks up slightly in that way she does when she's thinking about something.
"So… your talent for singing?"
"Intentionally designed into me. Reyvateils were created specifically to produce a new generation of people who could use better, stronger and more complex Song Magic than anyone before. I can perform Magics that would have needed hundreds of Moon Chanters singing together at once, almost without trying."
Sono looks very skeptical. I mean, I don't think she's ever really believed me about being from another universe. I get that. It's really hard to believe. She at least accepts that I come from a planet that hasn't been contacted by galactic society, but getting her to understand that there is no way I am native to this reality will still require me to demonstrate in a way she can't deny. Even then, if she really wants to she can still claim it could be something else which she doesn't understand.
"So... can you show me?"
"Not here. The neighbors don't mind me practicing normal singing here, but Song Magic is… too obvious. The energy released would probably be felt by the entire block." I scuff the carpet with my foot. "That, and I'd probably set off every radiation detector for kilometers around. Even if nobody would be hurt, I don't want to scare everyone."
She stares into the air for a few seconds.
"...That explains why you love Jovian music so much."
"It's nice." I smile shyly for a second. "I'm not sure I can describe it, without resorting to math. I know you've never heard anything quite like it. Sometimes there are three or even four songs going on at once, each at different pitch, but then when you least expect it they cross over and mix with each other, and you realise they were all the same story all along. The Jovians know how to tell a story—every storyline at once. Sometimes, I think it's almost like hearing Hymmnos, but I… don't think I really know what it's like to
hear that, and not sing it…"
"Hana?"
I blink. I got distracted again. Something about what I just said… no, never mind. I
know I haven't heard Hymmnos before, except maybe before I was born; I woke up for the first time in this universe, after all.
Does that mean that Mir sang to me while I was sleeping? I smile at the thought. It's a guess, but it feels right; it's something she would do.
Sono smiles back, and I realise I was once again distracted.
"So, if not here… you haven't ever had a vacation, have you?"
Sono decides to take me hiking. I like the idea of going out to see nature. I haven't been outside of the cities of Alteron III much at all the last 6 months, so it should be a great change of pace.
Except for one thing. I've insisted we take Oren. It doesn't make sense to me to keep him in the dark just because Sono got mad at him. I know it's natural for people to want to shove at least some blame on others for things they do, but this is just silly. And it's terrible for their relationship. I don't want to be the reason they break up! Sono agrees, to my surprise. She says she was going to tell him after letting him stew for a bit and she was actually planning to invite him over to talk about it before the vacation idea happened.
I've realised I overreact about this stuff a lot, but I don't want to hurt anyone. Maybe I should just be more trusting of adults to figure out their own relationship problems?
Oren seems to be a bit overzealous with getting prepared. He's bringing a first-aid kit, an emergency transponder, extra food, water, enough clothes for the middle of winter, several different firestarter kits and lighters, water purifier, knives, sewing kit, fishing kit, snow shoes, cleats, and even some rope. There's going to be snow, but I don't think we'll be be crossing any glaciers. Seriously, it's just one weekend and I'm going to be there in case something… oh yeah, he doesn't know that yet.
When the day finally comes, I'm so excited I can barely sit still. I think it might annoy Sono if I start literally bouncing off the walls, so I try to hold it in a little, but there's no hiding the extra spring in my step and perpetual grin. Sono, too, seems to be enjoying herself—at least I see her smiling every time she looks in my direction.
I can't help it. I like Oren, and I'm finally going to show them what I can do. I've been going over some programs, thinking about what would be fun to show off now that I know a little better how to build hymns, and—oops! Sono's calling, I think it's time to go.
The speed of intercontinental shuttles really is awesome. It makes it simple to commute to and from anywhere on the planet, so you can live almost anywhere you want and work wherever you can get a job. It also makes vacation travel really easy. Sono, Oren and I arrive at a small…
relatively small, town in a valley near the base of a mountain range in the northern continent of Shandar. After several checks of all our gear and supplies, we set out early in the morning. We want to make good time before a squall is expected to roll in during the evening.
The first couple of kilometres are skirting around the edge of a lake, where we see a lot of people standing around fishing. It seems that we're not the only ones taking the opportunity to go outside today, and there's even a fair number of people hiking, the same way we are.
Sono had thought this might happen, so once we get into the mountains we'll be going off-trail and making for a relatively little trafficked area of the mountain chain. It'll be harder to get there, but Sono is surprisingly good at this. "It's far from the first time," she said—unlike Oren, I think!
Sono and Oren are treating the hike so far mostly as a chance to talk—about themselves, not about me. That's good, so I make sure to keep out of the way, by running around looking at all the bushes and all the small secluded spots I can find next to the path rather than on it—but even though I'm probably covering twice the ground they are, it still feels like they're moving slowly.
I make allowances, of course. I don't get tired, whereas they do. For me, climbing on top of a scarp just to get a better view is something I can do on a whim, without needing to pace myself. For Oren, well…
I snicker, seeing him struggle with a particularly harsh ascent. He looks so oddly upset at needing Sono to help, and that's while I'm sitting on the (low!) cliff above him with my feet dangling over the edge.
This is a nice place, and I'm glad that Sono brought me here. Despite the town we started at being halfway up the mountain, it's still lush and full of life. There are lots of trees, and every so often we get a
direct view of the lake, from above, and snow-covered mountains in the distance. In one sense, this is similar to when I was flying around feeling lonely on that alien planet. In another, I think as I fall in behind Sono and enjoy walking next to her, it's fantastically different.
"We're here!"
We're in a small, highland valley, with a stream running through it that expands into a few minor lakes. Puddles, really. Not much vegetation, except around the lakes, and what vegetation there is is mostly lichen and moss.
Sono strikes a triumphant pose, then wilts a little and sits down on a handy seat-shaped rock. Oren's flat on his back and wasn't even looking, the poor guy.
"Here." She pokes him with a bottle of water. When he doesn't react, she upends it and splashes some in his face. That wakes him up.
Five minutes later and we're halfway through a late lunch. Sono and Oren are, that is. I've begged off, on the basis that I'm not hungry—which is true, I'm
never hungry—but Oren is looking worriedly at me as a result.
"So—" Sono throws me a glance. I smile and nod, taking a moment to confirm that there's no-one else nearby.
"There are a few things I wanted to explain," I say. For emphasis, while he's looking at me, I draw my legs up underneath me and sit cross-legged in mid-air. Oren's eyes nearly bug out, and I grin at his reaction. That's never going to get old.
"But… magic, really?"
"Really." Grinning at Oren's befuddled expression, I step down from my mid-air perch. "It's not a mistranslation, or a misunderstanding. I've heard of Clarke's law, but I'm pretty sure what we've got on Ar Ciel is sufficiently advanced magic."
"That's what she calls it." Sono looks far more equanimous, but her eyes are glittering. "I'm still not quite convinced, but… well, that's why we're here. Hana wanted to show off."
"I'm still trying to accept that she's
eleven—"
"And a half!"
"Yeah, right. Sorry. How's that even… Wait. Sono, is this why you suddenly got so protective of her?"
"She's like the little sister I never had," Sono says, and I feel a burst of warmth at the thought. A sister? I like that idea—and just like that something clicks, and for a moment I imagine her with different clothes, and far longer, purple-ish dark hair. The caring look on her face is the same. It's painful, almost, how much I love her in that moment. I want to show her what I can do.
But that's not Sono, it's gotta be one of my implanted memories. I've never known anyone like… that…
It hurts.
I force the thought aside, blinking until I can recognise Sono for herself again.
Oh well. At least, while I'm feeling like this, I should have no trouble at all with the hymn I thought up. Their conversation ends as I speak a pulse of infrasound, just to confirm that no-one else is nearby—Oopsie, they couldn't hear it, but I guess they could feel it—and the small valley seems to grow quiet around me. The rustling of leaves doesn't change, but what little birdsong there was ceases.
"A little barren, isn't it?" I look around at the landscape. Rocks, rocks, some more rocks—ooh, I think that one might have iron in it—but except for a small grove around the lake, there isn't much but lichen to look at.
Oren nods hesitantly, as I'm watching to see his reactions. I try to hold back a smile. Not even Sono will see this one coming. Well… she wants magic? She'll have magic!
"
Was yea ra chs hymmnos mea."
It's different this time. I'm proud of the song, but it's far and away the most complicated hymn I have ever made, and so part of it is an initializer that forces me to focus on nothing but the song itself. It'd be a fatal mistake to make in combat; it's a wonderful feeling here and now. I feel bubbly, like I'm about to take flight.
"
Qui ciel, reen mea?"
Oh silent world, can you hear me?
"
Rrha ki ra houd dor, en sol, en ciel."
With absolute focus I embrace the land, I embrace the light, and I embrace the world. Listen, and be more than you were.
Things are changing very quickly now. There's no helping it this time; the song takes far too much power to hold back, and bursts of light play over my skin before solidifying into the usual Fog tattoos. Inside, with the tiny part of my attention not occupied keeping everything just right, I note that I'll run out of power and collapse in under three minutes. Outside…
A shockwave of distorted air ripples past the two of them. I see Sono jump, and hope I didn't scare her.
"—Holy
crap!"
Sono looked around with wide eyes, lacking even the fortitude to scold Oren. The shockwave had been one thing, and only knowing that
this was Hana's doing had stopped her diving for cover, but this?
"This is impossible," she whispered.
Geometric figures, intermingled with strange writing, danced through the air. A dozen bands of light had exploded out of Hana's body, forming a dome that covered half the valley. The air around them was shimmering, and the valley—
"
Was yea ra waath tali, sos fwal faura."
One second, it was the same almost-barren landscape that Hana had only just complained about. The next, a circle of grass sprang up around them, rippling outwards until the entire valley had been transformed. Trees shot up from the ground, enormous trees that she had never seen before, and all of a sudden she was standing in the shade.
Birdsong filled the air.
She looked around, mouth agape. Was this even the same place as a minute ago?
A trembling hand on the bark confirmed that, whatever else, the trees were real. And at the center of it all Hana kept singing, an expression of intense concentration on her face.
A red-colored bird flew in front of her face, hovering in place for a second before landing on a nearby branch and tittering at her.
"Crap on a stick," Oren managed. She reached out and grabbed his arm.
Through it all, the plants kept growing until she felt like she was standing in a jungle. Except for a small, conspicuously clear spot immediately around them, the vegetation had grown dense enough that she could barely even see the sky. Flowers sprang up, and the smallest birds sat down to drink.
"I give." Oren's eyes were wide, his face full of wonder. "This isn't even
slightly possible. The conservation laws have got to be crying."
She didn't know how long she stood watching the miracle in action. Forever, and not long enough, but eventually Hana's voice started faltering. The birds fell silent, and the plants grew backwards. disintegrating into flecks of light before disappearing entirely.
She felt as if she'd watched a beautiful dream.
Thump.
"Hana?" Alarmed, Sono turned to check on her.
"Looks like I overdid it a little, heh heh…" Hana laughed weakly. She'd collapsed to the ground and was struggling into a sitting position. Sono could see faint wisps of smoke curling up from her clothing. She reached out to help her, then hissed and drew back; Hana was boiling hot, hot enough to burn when touched.
She was smiling, though, if tiredly.
"I did it." She closed her eyes, then opened them again, pouting. "Ugh, this sucks. Broken capacitors, ruined emitters, at least one of my generators needs a complete rebuild. It'll take an hour to put everything back together."
Sono kneeled in front of her, reaching out like she was trying to make sure that Hana was still there, her hands hovering as the (alien?
Really alien?) girl slowly cooled down.
"I guess you could still blame all this on technology too complex for you to understand…" Hana said, looking off to the side. "Which is not completely false. But it was… nice to show all of that to you."
"That's not what I'm thinking about at all. Hana…" The girl seemed lethargic. What was that she'd been talking about? "Are you okay?"
"Oh, I'll be fine," Hana said, waving off the concern and smiling under droopy eyes. "Just give me an hour and I'll have all the fried bits and pieces put back together."
Fried? She
fried her insides?!
"Hana, why would you use something like that to… to show off?!"
"It's not painful, and it isn't permanent. But that was a very big song. I have
much stronger internal generators than other Reyvateils, but I could never successfully sing something like that without support from a way bigger reactor. I only wanted to sustain it long enough to get my feelings across."
Sono remained extremely unconvinced. For her part Hana finally looked a little ashamed. It took the rest of the hour and Hana's complete recovery for Sono to finally relax.
The weekend passed by, and they eventually forgot all about it.
A long time ago Maoh and Rhaplanca created the great tree, Implanta. The rains fell, and the desert grew verdant with life, but the people did not forget Implanta, nor that its fruits had fed them when they were close to death, and the feelings of the people kept nourishing the great tree.
Among the people were two who had always believed, and had spoken for Maoh and Rhaplanca when they grew the great tree. They were happy to see what had become of Implanta, but there was a scar on their happiness, for the pair of them were barren.
The woman, believing herself unworthy of joy, refused all offers of help. Instead they poured their love into another, a girl whom her husband had found in the desert, and who had brought the rain that nourished the barren land. The woman thought this as justice, for she had asked much of this girl. The world wasn't one that could give her everything, and she dared not ask for more.
Then one day, as she was tending to the great tree, she heard the cry of a newborn child. She sprang towards the sounds, and found a girl, six years of age, nestled on a flower of the great tree. A girl that looked just like her. Knowing this to be the will of the tree she bowed deeply, and gave thanks once again—for though the tree was no longer vital for living, yet it was the shade under which they had all made their lives.
And the girl grew, and her mother taught her all these things, and her sister taught her to be strong. It seemed like happiness might continue forever.
Then, one day, the girl found herself lost in the desert. Though the desert should no longer exist, yet she could not find an end to it. Nor was this an ordinary dessert, for the sands had clumped together and were blocking her vision. Yes, no matter where she looked, she could not spot an oasis. There was no color; there was scarcely any light.
The girl, who had grown under the branches of the great tree, thought she might go mad. Though she would not easily succumb, still she stumbled as she walked, hoping beyond hope for someone to take her hand and lead her out. In the end, the sands scoured even her memories, and she might have forgot that there had ever been such a thing as the great tree.
But before this could happen she heard a voice, and she felt someone reach out. Though she had been blinded and could not see, though the world she was in was all black and grey, though she was hurt and could no longer trust, still she could tell that this person meant well.
She took the hand, and for a time she was a little less alone.
One week later. I'm reading messages from my fans on MediUs, in hopes that maybe some of them will be interesting. There's a lot of empty 'likes'. A lot of fan mail, too, and I can tell that many of the writers really poured their hearts into their writing. Which doesn't make it less squicky, given the contents of some of those hearts. If I showed some of this to Sono she'd probably want to screen all my messages for me, and… okay, no, I'm not that easy to bother, so I'd really rather not.
This one, though… I've called her over.
"So what's the big deal? You get messages every day."
I do. Yes. But—
It's extremely heavily encrypted, and I think about that while my computer is fighting to unlock it. Encryption is unusual in itself, most people don't bother to use any. Most of my fans also don't have my personal email address, but send theirs through MediUs' comment interface.
From: kasha@de-x467-0.[[316958221:812221893:664627722]].fold
To: Hana Vanis Bartel <hanateiwaz_167@medius.cache.hyrule.fold>
"Bartel?" Sono purses her lips. "Are you they didn't mean to mail someone else? The address is odd, it's not on a named planet."
A shock goes through me as I hear Sono say that name, and then I'm not listening anymore.
I recognise it, and as I stare at the screen waiting for the messsage to open, I feel an intense sense of nostalgia and longing well up in my chest, enough that I feel like I'm about to burst. I've forgotten—I don't remember what I've forgotten, but I've forgotten something very important.
Someone very important. It's not even the first time I feel this, but this time I'm not distracted.
Click.
Status report, mission day 1,304.
Hana, if it really is you, this is Kasha. I've survived, by an immense stroke of luck—or perhaps not entirely luck, given how I have been told these inter-universal transitions may work.
Until now I've had no means of confirming your status. I feared you'd been sent into empty space. I don't blame you if you presumed the same about myself. The chance that I ended up here of all places was vanishingly small, even if the interaction between EXA_PICO and this universe caused my exit point to naturally be pulled towards a place with our own physical laws. I don't know if it worked the same for you.
I've been unable to regain contact with the Code, but I expected as much. I need your help for that. It was clever of you to become an idol, I couldn't have found you otherwise.
You will find me at the following coordinates, utilizing this "Galactic Federation's" system. I look forward to joining back up. I, that is, to say…
Get me out of here! I've been stuck here for so long! This planet is boring! There isn't an ocean, I can't leave, and there isn't even anything to shoot! Heeeelp!
Song in the Fog, Arc 2
End.
