Chapter Text
“Graves,” Marinette murmured, looking at the hundreds of stone pillars with forlorn reverence.
Félix hummed an affirmation, stopping in front of a familiar tombstone. It was around the middle of the front ‘row’ of pillars—though they could barely be called ‘rows’ with how nonuniform they were—the very pillar he was looking at in his first journey when it dawned on him what exactly these stone monuments were.
Laying a hand on top of the gravestone, he closed his eyes and took a moment to simply feel the physical reminder of a past traveler.
He may have gone through these graves three other times now, but past travelers deserved to be remembered.
“Where are their spirits?” Marinette’s voice cut through Félix’s thoughts.
“Resting, I hope.” He finished his remembrance and stepped away from the pillar to start his trek through the necropolis, heading for the dilapidated building at the very center of the crater.
“I know, but where can we find them?”
Félix glanced back at his companion for this journey.
She bound from pillar to pillar, bowing and waving to some of them. She wasn’t oblivious to these travelers’ fate, Félix could tell by the respect she showed these graves, even as she reached out to fiddle with the red fabrics tied to some of them.
This also wasn’t the first time she saw graves laid out like this, and the fact she expected their spirits to be somewhere to be found made Félix wonder about her homeland.
“We don’t,” he answered her question. “They left pieces of themselves as cloths and light fragments…” He turned his head to one of the broken towers buried in the sand, the glowing fragments of another traveler on top of it. “…but that’s about it.”
“Oh.” Marinette halted her hopping, shoulders slumping as she looked over the necropolis.
“Oh!” Félix perked up, hoping to get his feet out from under the sand as a thought came to him. “Except for one!”
He trotted over to Marinette, directing her curious gaze to the temple marking the necropolis exit—or entrance, he wasn’t sure—by pointing at it.
“They’re waiting there.”
“Wow.” Her eyes glinted like stars. “What are we waiting for, then?”
Before he could react, he was already soaring through the sky; his hand firmly secured in Marinette’s as she flapped her cape, the white statue already visible on the temple’s outer platform as they glided closer and closer to it.
It’d be the fastest he ever got through the necropolis. By the helping hand of a fallen star.
And then they began losing height. Marinette’s little ‘huh?’ Félix’s only indication that something wasn’t right as the stone platform, almost within reach, rose out of reach as they went barreling into the sand.
Félix pushed himself up, blinking and shaking the sand out of his hood and hair. Marinette sat up just ahead of him, sputtering out sand, pigtails whipping about as she shook her head.
“What the–” She jumped to her foot, holding up a piece of her cape. “How am I all out of light? Félix, come here!”
“What–”
Once again, Félix was being pulled up by the hands before he could react. By both hands, this time, and only to his foot, so he could still look at Marinette’s face as she stared intently at the hands gripped in hers.
He wasn’t sure what was happening, but was still struck at his chest when she looked up with a look of absolute dejection. “You’re not a being of light?”
Considering that wasn’t a term he had ever heard in his life– “Probably not?” he told her, somewhat apologetic.
“Oh no.” She let go of his hands, taking shaking steps back as they raised to grip her hair instead. “No no no no no…”
“Uhm.” Félix was really out of his depth here. “Are you–”
“I’m not OK, Félix!” she responded before he finished asking. “My lights ran out, and there’s no light source anywhere! And without a light source, I can’t recharge! And if I can’t recharge I can’t fly! And if I can’t fly, I can’t go back to the sky!”
Her words were worrying, and possibly a problem, if they couldn’t find some ‘light source’ that could recharge her wings. But the way her arms flailed, the squeaks and horns she’d let out in call bubble after call bubble, were so mesmerizing to watch, Félix was having trouble focusing on the crisis at hand.
“What am I gonna do?” Her movements were more contained now, hands pulling at her face and hair, and even the call bubbles were smaller. “I’m already all outta charge, and without anything to charge me up, what happens if–”
Marinette froze up, body straightening up like a rod as she let out a terrified squeal at whatever fate her brain cooked up. Then, without much more fanfare, she dropped back first onto the sand.
“Um.” Félix leaned over her unmoving body. “Marinette?”
“I’m dead, Félix.” She pounded her fists on the sand for emphasis. “Dead!”
“OK. Could you come back for a moment so that we can go to that light fragment?”
“Light fragment?” Like a switch was flipped, Marinette was standing once again, staring at him with eyes brightened with hope. “Do you think that could charge me up?”
“Not sure, but it’s what gives me my scarf, so–”
“It might give me one too, so then I can fly again!” she finished for him with a celebratory jump, and Félix could swear a horn went off somewhere. “Félix, you’re a genius! Come on!”
Marinette really liked holding hands, Félix was beginning to realize. Or maybe that was simply how people usually traveled where she came from. Either way, it wasn’t an unpleasant experience, her hand was as warm as the candle she gifted him—safely tucked inside his coat—and he didn’t mind following her lead.
They quickly reached the top of the dilapidated center building, where Félix directed Marinette’s gaze to the light fragment on a broken tower some feet away.
“Hmmm.” Marinette tapped at her chin, squinting at the bright spot on top of a ruined structure. “OK. You’re time to lead.”
Marinette promptly let go of his hand, taking a step back and regarding him with an awaiting gaze.
“Um.” Félix was very out of his depth.
She cocked her head, widening her eyes as she gestured out with her hand in a gesture that was both an instruction and an encouragement.
Félix took his hand out of his coat, glancing down at it, then, hesitantly, held it out for her.
She took it in a firm grasp, whole face shining like a star as she grinned at him.
‘Come on,’ she mouthed, gesturing to the light fragment with a bob of her head.
Félix didn’t hesitate this time, crouching to charge up a huge call. The cloth pieces scattered on top of the building brightened at his call, gathering around his foot and boosting him up into the air, Marinette being pulled with him.
A single charge of his scarf, and he could reach the broken tower’s top.
The fragment—glowing runes belonging, pieces left behind by others before him—reacted to his proximity and was promptly absorbed into his scarf, recharging it completely as well as increasing its size.
Félix glanced down at Marinette, eyes closed as she held a loose fist close to her chest.
Nothing seemed to change—no scarf flying out behind her, or a flash of light as her wing recharged. It didn’t work? Félix deflated, preparing an apology to Marinette–
“Félix, look!” she enthused before he could, turning in place to show him the back of her cape.
He blinked, unsure as to what he was looking at.
It was a very nice cape, each half a different shade of red, with spots that matched the other side’s color. In the top middle, there was a single glowing symbol, similar to the runes his people used to–
Wait.
“Your cape absorbed the fragment!” Félix perked up, glad and relieved it had worked.
“Yeah!” Marinette stepped away to give out a testing soar, skillfully gliding back to the tower when her energy ran out. “It also resetted my wing level,” she said with a pout, then shrugged, “but that’s better than never flying again.”
Félix nodded. “Good thing I know where all–” He paused, thinking for a moment. “–where most fragments are. We’ll get as many charges as we can before reaching the mountain.”
“It’s back to the grind then.” Marinette grinned, rubbing her hands together. Félix had no idea what to make of that expression. “To the mountain, then!”
She whirled on her feet and flew out of the tower.
Félix giggled, watching her make her way to the cloth pieces that had previously ignored her, now rushing to charge up her new cape.
“To the mountain,” he murmured, jumping off to follow her lead.