When Emilia started awake, she was expecting to, you know, actually be awake. To be honest, considering how often her dreams inside this world were of the waking sort, she really shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was to find herself on the beach. Specifically, it was a small beach in the Grey Sands that she’d visited nurous tis during her childhood, usually with just her father, occasionally with their whole family.
Once, Rafe and his brother’s had even co along. Malcolm had been just as slippery as she was, and vanished into town. They never found out what exactly he had gotten up to, but he’d returned with makeup covering a black eye—badly covering it. Laughing, she’d gone out to buy so better matches for his skin tone, and co back ard to teach him the art of covering up black eyes, a skill she’d seen him utilize nurous tis since.
Emilia scrunched her toes into the soft sand, warm water brushing over her feet in soft pink waves—a pink tide was coming. This had been the first place she’d seen a pink tide, the pseudo-Free Colony’s containnt system keeping the vapours from touching land even as the pink water lapped over its beaches and rocks.
It was beautiful, but Emilia couldn’t bring herself to look up—couldn’t bring herself to risk seeing The Strats of her mories, running through the gulf. They were still far off, but she knew if she dared look up, she’d catch their glimring mosaic in the distance. Even worse, to the west, she’d see Alliance Ridge.
What would one day beco Alliance Ridge? The destruction that now existed there?
Emilia didn’t know. She didn’t want to see the place it would, did, or had once existed.
“Emilia?”
Emilia twisted, eyes blowing wide as she was left facing her father, younger and taller than he’d been since she was a child. A quick glance down told her she was a child, so she supposed that tracked.
The man who had chosen her cocked his head, grey bangs brushing over his eyebrows. He looked relaxed in the way he never was on work trips, which ant this was a mory of one of those tis when they’d co simply to relax. Of course, the man loved his job, even if it was a nuisance that took him away from his family more often than he would have liked. Even now, he still hadn’t retired, despite being at the age when people did that.
Her father’s own bare feet scrunched in the sand, his boring beige pants rolled up so he could run in the waves with her if she asked. She would ask—she’d always asked, even when they were there for work, her father shucking his expensive coats and shoes and surging through the ocean with her, laughter following as they ran. To the residents of the town, unaware of who they were, they probably seed a normal family. A girl with an irregular deviation, playing the way such absent-minded children were known to do. An aging father—maybe even grandfather—lazily following her around, his posture a little too relaxed for their standards.
She’d always hated the way his job made him change himself for the places he went. His posture pulling sharper in the Grey Sands, his tone shifting into monotony as he conversed with this official or that, because in those Free Colonies, you kept emotion out of your politics.
“Daddy,” she called, lting inside when a smile settled across his face.
Her father had never been one for giant displays of happiness. His happiness had always been sothing softer. Small, closed lip smiles and tilting eyes. The shine of affection in his features and the tightening of love in his hugs. “What is it, my little starlight?”
Emilia fiddled. She looked away, her hands clasping in front of her because she couldn’t keep them still and needed to keep them still. Was it the result of her tiny, uncontrollable body? The mood of the ti she had found herself thrust into? She didn’t know, but she certainly felt like the child she was embodying at the mont—like a small human who had done wrong and needed to fess up.
Her eyes flicked back to her father, to his softly watching eyes. He wasn’t her mother. Where her mother had always seed to know when her children were up to no good, her father had always seed oblivious. Lies and secrets and wrongdoings seed to constantly surprise him, although as she grew older, Emilia had co to realize the man had been fucking with them.
The man always knew when sothing was up, probably even more so than his wife—it was basically his job to know when people were hiding things from him, after all! How stupid the little version of her had been, thinking she could get anything by him!
At least, that’s what she had thought: that her child self was stupid, for not realizing he knew. Now, she wasn’t so sure. The man before her smiled with easy acceptance and innocence. He still knew sothing was wrong—that much was clear from his silent patience—but it was so subtle that suddenly she couldn’t fault her tiny self for having missed it.
The man really was too good an actor.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, eyes slipping away from him once more.
“Did you do sothing wrong?”
Emilia nodded, shrugged. “Kinda. Not really. It wasn’t wrong, but... inconsiderate.”
“Now that’s a big word for your little mouth.”
“It’s not,” Emilia bit back, a childish whine singing through her voice as she returned her gaze to him just so she could glower up at him.
He smiled innocently down at her, as though he weren’t teasing her like he always had. Sotis, he had poked fun at her knowing things that were obviously too advanced for her, but more often, he teased about nonsense. Inconsiderate was not too big a word for her—Emilia glanced down at herself again, assessing how old she probably was—ten-year-old self.
“Oh!” the man had the audacity to gasp, his eyes flying wide. “Is it not? Well, when I was a wee thing, it certainly was! Why, I couldn’t have even imagined using such sophisticated vocabulary when I was your age.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Emilia sneered, falling into the familiar pattern of bickering with her father. “When you were a kid, you probably only knew, what? A dozen words?”
“Oh, less than that, I assure you!”
Emilia blinked up at the man, at his softly amused smile. “You know, it’s possible I have daddy issues.”
To her great amusent, the man did seem genuinely shocked by her statent. Quickly, that shock fell away into a flat, unimpressed expression. “Emilia, who did you hear sothing like that from?”
Her mouth opened, the intended response of truth, “I’m not from this ti,” lost when suddenly a hand smacked into her face and—
✮ ✮ ✮
“Ouch!” Emilia gasped, blinking rapidly into the actually waking world.
Astra was sitting up on her lap, one hand raised above her head like she was preparing to hit her again! How rude!
Emilia caught the hand before it could co back down, holding the hand hostage as she snuck the other to the girl’s waist. Astra squird, pulling on Emilia’s hands for several long seconds before Emilia let her run off—although Astra’s version of running off only involved moving out of reach. A smile tugged at the girl’s lips, although she seed to be trying to look put out by the tickles.
“Any particular reason you hit ?” she signed at the girl.
Astra made the sign for “bathroom,” and yeah, sure, that was a pretty good reason for waking her up. The child rarely went anywhere without her, bathroom included. Plus, if she’d woken and found Astra missing, she probably would have panicked. Considering Caro and Gale were still sleeping soundly next to them, that wouldn’t have been great.
“Alright, let’s go find a place,” she signed, groaning as she pushed herself up. Her back definitely wasn’t made for sleeping on the ground—sleeping sitting up on the ground, no less.
Whether from her terrible bed or the challenges of the day before—realistically, a bit of both—her entire body ached. The one good thing about staying with the Risen Guard had been their beds, even if those beds had co with chains.
Astra swung their hands as they walked, looking for an appropriate place to go. Stupidly, the labyrinth had no bathrooms, and dealing with bathrooming within them was a challenge all on its own. They always managed, and thankfully, the stress and lack of food and water had so far ant only a few of the younger children had ever needed to poo. That had been unpleasant, and most of the missing kid's clothing had needed to be ripped up to deal with that.
Thankfully, Astra had no such needs, and one quick squat later, they were on their way back to the others. They were almost there, hands once again swinging, when a panicked, ⸂Emilia!? Astra!⸃ split through the air. A mont later, Caro was skidding into view, and in the distance, Gale was cursing about inappropriate ways to wake people up.
⸂Emilia! Astra!⸃ Caro sighed, their entire being sagging in relief. ⸂There you are! Gale~ I found them!⸃
Gale, who was never happy after waking up, yelled back that she hadn’t realized they were missing.
Grasping Emilia’s other hand and swinging it with so much enthusiasm that Emilia was briefly worried the child would hurt her, Caro began to yell back at Gale that they had been missing, but now they were found.
⸂Did you even look for them before you woke up with your screaming?⸃ Gale grumbled as the three of them sat back down next to her.
Emilia reached for her bag, pulling out the food that she had stored there. So were leftovers from the food the labyrinth had given them as a reward for their aweso puppet show, but most had been swiped from her room in the Risen Guard compound. As they ate the snacks, Emilia was incredibly grateful to her past self, who had insisted that Astra and the naless boy needed snacks in their room.
“Everyone’s sleep is ssed up,” she had explained to Lanaira, as she argued that the kids needed food accessible at all tis. “If you don’t want wandering the halls with two starving children in the middle of the night, I suggest you leave us so snacks.”
Lanaira had relented, and they now had snacks enough to last the four of them a few small als. The food wouldn’t last them long—Lanaira hadn’t given her that much—but it certainly helped, and by the ti their designated food was eaten, they all felt more energized. Not completely energized—they’d need full als and beds for that—but good enough to get moving.
⸂So… how do we get out there?⸃ Caro asked, squeaking when Emilia pulled them away from the edge of the lake that surrounded the heartcore. They had been bouncing about and making her nervous.
Emilia had just been wondering the sa thing, her eyes analyzing the strange, shimring liquid. Technically, they didn’t need to get out, and even if it seed a sha for her to not touch the thing after coming this far, none of the kids needed to get that close.
⸂That’s true,⸃ Gale said after Emilia pointed this out, sounding very much like a teenager who was tired of the adults in her life, ⸂but then you’ll pass out and roll into⸃—she waved over the liquid—⸂whatever that is.⸃
⸂You did roll quite a ways when you touched the last one~⸃ Caro teased as they tried to break free from Emilia’s grasp.
She wasn’t stupid enough to let them go, having now witnessed the mayhem of their first waking hours several tis now. The child was a nace at the best of tis, and even traumatized, they had run through the Risen Guard compound’s halls with the energy of a rocket. They would not be contained, even under threat of being assigned a permanent Risen Guard to mind them.
Actually, now that she thought about it, she thought they had been assigned soone.
⸂Oh yeah, that lady,⸃ Caro grumbled after Gale had translated Emilia’s scribbled question about the missing babysitter. ⸂They were a jerk, so I ditched them. Then I ran into you guys. Seed like a good ti to just take off! See the world!⸃
As far as Emilia knew, Caro’s parents had been found alive. They were helping the residents of Livery organize, so had requested the Risen Guard care for their child a little longer. Given the Risen Guard were already managing a gaggle of children, and were struggling to handle the situation in Livery, it hadn’t surprised Emilia when they’d accepted, although she was pretty sure they regretted it when they realized how much work Caro was.
Vaguely, she wondered how much of a fuss Caro’s parents would be making when they found out their child had run off. Given the child’s reputation for running around Livery and getting into things they shouldn’t be, they probably wouldn’t be too surprised. Still, if they were good parents—and all the stories Caro had told her implied they were good, if also too lackadaisical—they wouldn’t be happy that the Risen Guard couldn’t even manage to keep their child contained for a few days.
“I used to ditch my babysitters, too,” Emilia wrote out, laughing when Gale gave her a look that seed equal parts horrified and unsurprised that she’d been like Caro. “I was a troublemaker, still am. Recently, I almost gotta eaten by a monster in my world after I broke into a building, trying to catch a criminal. Had to call in backup.”
Caro bounced in her grip as Gale translated, questions bubbling out of them so fast Emilia barely heard them and had no reasonable way to answer them all.
Emilia looked out across the liquid to the heartcore as Gale began reprimanding Caro for asking so may questions. She would not be translating all of Emilia’s answers, apparently. Caro was not happy with that answer, and promised to redouble their efforts to learn to read. How they were going to do that, they didn’t know, but they would!
Beside her, Astra poked idly at the hard packed ground. Rocks of all sizes were pressed into the reddish dirt. A rock where Astra had been digging popped out and rolled down the slope to the liquid, imdiately bursting into flas as it collided with it.
Everyone stared at the liquid in shock, Caro finally ceasing their bouncing and tucking themself safely behind Emilia.
⸂Well, I don’t think we’ll be swimming across,⸃ Gale snorted.
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