Archive of Our Own ^beta

You got better. You got to leave the infirmary, though they still wanted you to stay in the House itself for a bit, just in case something happened, rather than being all the way out in the clocktower. You didn't mind, because you felt you needed to be here.

Sif wasn't getting better. They were still frozen on the highest floor of the House. You started helping M'dame with the research she was doing in the library, including the secret library after Euphrasie entrusted her with the knowledge. She raised an eyebrow when you started skimming through tomes and summarizing the chapters aloud to judge if you should give it a closer look, put it back on the shelf, or put it in the 'maybe' pile--only tangentially relevant to healing Craft or Time Craft, but sometimes writers do go on illuminating tangents. "I, uh, used to be a huge nerd," you muttered, because it didn't feel like the time to hide your smarts when Siffrin needed a cure.

Odile looked surprised for a few seconds. "Interesting. I'd wondered."

"You'd...wondered?"

"You're the only person I've ever heard sound smarter with three drinks in them. I'm curious, but it's fine if you don't want to talk about it. We've business right now, anyway."

You did indeed have business. Unfortunately, it was a bust; none of the books you found had an insight into healing a powerful Time Craft curse that M'dame or Mira hadn't already considered. Mira looked increasingly tired and miserable by the day, and at the end of the week Bonbon came in the House to visit Sif and came down yelling because someone had left flowers at his frozen form and that wasn't right, it wasn't right, because Frin was going to unfreeze and be greeted by dead flowers and that would suck, and if someone had left them flowers the way you would at a grave that was even worse because Frin wasn't dead. Bonbon was very clearly more worked up at the idea of Sif being considered 'dead' than Sif waking up to see dead flowers, but you promised them that yeah! You'd tell everyone to wait to give Sif flowers until they were able to appreciate them again. Because of course Sif was going to be able to appreciate flowers again.

You didn't want to think about the other possibility any more than Bonnie did.

The four of you were all stuck in a painful limbo. The Housemaidens and townspeople didn't seem to know if they should treat you as heroes to be celebrated or glass vases ready to shatter, and as much as you tried to smile you felt increasingly brittle. It was kind of a relief when a new issue popped up: there was a stranger at the Favor Tree.

So, strangers usually aren't a problem. Your whole group was strangers to each other once! Most strangers are nice! Accepting the change that strangers may bring is a key part of the Change faith!

...Most strangers, even if they had different ways of dress and custom, still looked...well. People weren't sure if the stranger was even human? According to the scattered descriptions, they had a human-shaped body, but the skin was like the night sky stuck over the House when it was frozen, and on top of the body was not a head, but a spiky orb radiating light. Some people were scared the stranger might not be a person at all, but some new kind of Sadness left over from Vaugarde's ordeal, or even the King's creation, since...well, yeah. He'd pinned the night sky over the House while he was controlling it. And he'd had stars on his armor. And the night-sky stranger was lurking at the tree, hiding, which unnerved people once they noticed the new and unusual presence. One of the kids had been bold enough to approach the tree on a dare, trying to call out the stranger to talk, only to be frightened by an inhuman voice snapping at him to go away. So. Even if this was a human stranger who'd done extreme Body Craft beyond what anyone in Dormont knew to be possible, they were a rude human stranger who'd decided to take over a town's Favor Tree.

...That was the best case scenario. At worst, they were something created by the King.

You decided that as an ex-Defender you were probably the most qualified to have a talk with the stranger and try to figure out who (or what) they were, why they'd taken over the Favor Tree, if there was an alternate arrangement you could work out... or to take them on if they proved hostile.

M'dame decided you were under no circumstances to do this alone, so she was accompanying you to the Tree. Which you had no complaints with! M'dame was good backup. You got to the base of the tree, standing under its crown. You didn't see anything yet, but the small handful of townspeople who'd seen the stranger had said they'd always ducked behind the tree or had already been hiding behind it, allowing only glimpses of them. They must have already hidden. "Hello, stranger?" you called. "I'm Isabeau, a Defender from Jouvente. Well...ex-Defender, but, um! My colleague and I would like to talk with you?"

"So now we're colleagues?" Odile murmured to you, smirking even as she scrutinized the tree ahead of you.

"Well!" You lowered your voice. "That's how I was used to approaching people on the job."

"I'm teasing, Isabeau."

You know, you know. It still flustered you.

...Although the lack of response was quickly growing more concerning. "Stranger?" you called. "Are you there? Can you talk?"

Still nothing, except for the faint sound of grass being stepped on, like someone was shifting their weight. Odile huffed. "You go right around the tree, I'll go left--"

"Go away!"

You jumped at the voice. The kid's description really hadn't done it justice, mostly because it was inhuman, crackling in a way you didn't think a human throat could produce. But after the brief shock, you moved to stop Odile from going around the tree. "M'dame, wait."

"What?"

"I think they're scared." The way the kid had described it, the voice had been threatening, but the kid had probably already been scared himself. Underneath the strange crackling, the intonation, the way the pitch had wavered... it sounded like the stranger was panicking. You didn't want to make that worse; you might force a confrontation where none was needed. "Listen," you said, raising your voice again. "You don't have to come out right now if you don't want to, but we still need to talk. Okay?"

"...Fine."

"First things first, are you all right?"

"That's your first concern?" The crackling voice was tight, almost sarcastic.

"Um, yeah?" It was now. "Look, people have been getting worried about you hiding out here, but... it's not like you've been trying to scare anyone, right? You've been keeping to yourself."

"I didn't mean to scare that kid. I haven't scared anyone else, unless people are scared of beautiful stars!"

So the stranger...considered themself a star?

"People are, in fact, wary of strange stars after the King," Odile pointed out, which! 100% true!! But not something to mention right now!

The stranger immediately got upset, the crackling in their voice sharpening. "So, what, the King has a monopoly on stars now? Isn't he dead? It's not like you beat him with the power of friendship. Oh, King, I'm sure there's a reason you're doing this! We don't have to fight!" The stranger scoffed. "I know that didn't happen."

"The King is dead," Odile confirmed. "You didn't know?"

"You think I can just walk into town and ask questions looking like this?"

You and Odile looked at each other. Some of the tightness left Odile's posture. "They're acting scared," she said, and you knew from that word choice she hadn't ruled out yet the possibility that it was only an act. But she was willing to give the benefit of the doubt for now. "Isabeau, you're better at this, you talk to them."

...Well. Hm. They didn't seem all right, but they also hadn't answered straight when you asked about that. Maybe they weren't ready to talk about themself yet. "If you've got any other questions, we can try answering?" you offered. "I'm Isabeau, he/him, and M'dame Odile uses she/her."

"...They/them for me."

Odile arched an eyebrow. "But no name?"

"No, my turn for questions!" the strange voice said, but then it fell silent for a moment. Were they still scared, or struggling to think of any? You folded your arms and waited, not wanting to rush them. "You're...two of the Saviors. Is, um, the Housemaiden--Housemaiden Mirabelle okay?"

The question made Odile frown. "Why do you ask?"

"It's a little strange that you came out here to talk to me without her, if you thought I might have anything to do with the King. Not that I do!" the voice said quickly. "Good riddance."

"Three-on-one would be pretty intimidating," you point out. That's exactly the reasoning you would have told Mira if she'd asked to come along, too... but the truth is, she didn't know you were out here. Even though her long quest was done, the stress hadn't disappeared, and Siffrin's condition wasn't helping anyone. You hadn't wanted to toss more on her plate. "We were hoping for a nice talk! Anyway, she's fine." Burnt out, but time would surely help.

Time, and Siffrin getting better.

"And the kid traveling with you? They're fine too?"

They knew about Bonnie? "They're fine too. We kept them away from the fighting."

"I know, but--" The voice stopped abruptly.

"You know?" That...was kind of odd, especially with how quickly they'd shut up, like they hadn't meant to let it slip. You'd reassured more than a couple people that Bonnie didn't actually fight with you, was only tagging along with your group because even if they weren't old enough to fight they were old enough to decide where they wanted to be and had made it very clear they'd chase after the group if they were left behind. So the star could have learned that secondhand, but that seemed unlikely if they were afraid to approach people with their appearance. Along with the slip, it made you wonder... "Did you, um. Did we meet you before the Body Craft? ...Is that Body Craft?" You cringed a little. "Sorry, that's rude!"

"It's okay. I, uh, I've been told how I look right now."

You immediately felt a pit open up in your stomach. They hadn't seen for themself how they looked? There was no way this could be Body Craft, then, at least not the way you knew it. No one in their right mind would Body Craft themselves without being able to track the process. But 'right now' implied there had been a Change. Odile had caught that too, her expression torn between wariness and alarm.

"I... don't think this is Body Craft?" the stranger continued, their voice pitching upward with uncertainty. "I didn't Craft myself. Can Body Craft... fix..." They trailed off for a few seconds, only finishing their question with a single word pitched so high it sounded like they'd had to squeeze it out: "me?"

Oh crab, oh crab oh crab oh crab. 'Person who'd had extreme Body Craft used on them without their consent' was way outside the possibilities you'd considered for the stranger. Just the idea of it was terrifying. Who would do that? Who could do something like that?

...The King? Had the King done it, made them look like the stars he loved? But why? No, more importantly, you could believe the King might have been able to do such extreme Body Craft--his own body had been an example of it, and he could use Time Craft when that should have been impossible--but how did you help this person now?

"Neither of us are experts in Body Craft," Odile said, stepping in when you struggled for words. "Someone at the House might be able to help you better."

...Right. Right, Odile had the right idea. You had to keep calm if you were going to help this person. You didn't have to have all the answers right away. It was just. All the lectures and readings you'd had to do about the potential complications of Body Craft (safe as long as you were being careful! and if you weren't, Change) before being allowed to start even the smallest of changes made you feel nauseous at the idea of such a drastic transformation being forced on anyone. You took a breath and squared your shoulders, forcing a reassuring smile on your face. You had no idea when the stranger might decide to face you, after all. "We could take you to the House, if you want?" Hopefully there was something that could be done with Body Craft, and even not, surely the House could help with their situation somehow. "If you're worried about villagers bothering you--"

"Forget it," the stranger said. "I can't go back to that blinding House."

...What? Underneath the crackling, their voice--

M'dame rarely touched anyone, but now she put a hand on your shoulder. Without thinking, you'd started moving to circle the tree yourself. "Isabeau," she said quietly. "You heard that too, didn't you? 'Blinding?'" Her eyes were trying to bore through the tree trunk. She raised her voice to talk to the stranger again.

"Why can't you return to the House? Did someone there hurt you?" M'dame's voice stayed level for the most part. You doubted the stranger could tell how upset she was, unable to see the tightness in her face. "If it was the King, I'll make any oath you want to assure you he's dead. If it was someone else..."

It had to be the King, though. No way a Housemaiden could do this--but you caught your shock and held it back. You didn't even know the House of Dormont that well, only Mirabelle. And while you were lucky to be a Defender of Vaugarde in relatively peaceful times, aspiring monarch aside, your training had covered cases where Sadnesses were caused by twisted family ties or authorities abusing the trust placed in them. The idea was upsetting, but you couldn't rule it out until you heard more.

Though you were confused about one thing. No one in Dormont or the House had reported a missing person. Even if there'd been abuse being covered up, why hadn't this person's absence been noticed?

"No, I believe you, Odile," the stranger said. "And I wasn't hurt by a Housemaiden, if that's what you're thinking. It's just...I can't explain. It's too hard to explain." Their voice suddenly picked up with energy. "Teehee, it's such a tall tale it scrapes the sky! You'd wonder why you bothered listening to a silly star to begin with! Besides, all you need me to do is leave so people can have their Favor Tree again, right? Fine by me! I've been meaning to leave this dinky town for what seems forever! Check back tomorrow and all you'll see is my meteor trail!"

Odile spoke bluntly over the giggling: "You've been here for days. Either you don't want to leave, or you're finding that difficult as well."

The stranger's laughter died out as quickly as a smothered fire. Odile glanced at you with barely restrained frustration before she tried again.

"Try us. Tell us what happened to you. Time Craft was supposed to be impossible and yet we've all seen proof of it, so we'll keep an open mind."

"Please?" you asked, when the silence on the other side of the Tree continued. "We'd really like to help, if we can."

"Even though I'm a strange star?"

"You're a person as well, aren't you?" Odile asked.

There was uneasy breathing on the other side of the Tree. "...I wonder." There was silence, and then a soft crackle, as if they were clearing their throat... or maybe swallowing their nerves? "Would you believe the King's Curse wasn't the only instance of Time Craft in Dormont?"

"Someone else was using Time Craft?" you ask. Odile's book had drifted from being held high near her chest, ready to be used for combat, to being held comfortably low by her waist in polite neutrality. Now it flipped open to a section you knew just from where it lay in the book: the observations and theories she'd made about the King's Curse and Time Craft as you traveled.

"So...to you, I've only been at this Tree a few days, right? Well, I've been here for months. And I've been in Dormont for...years? It's... it's been. So long."

They drifted into silence. You both waited to give them a moment, but finally Odile broke the quiet with a prompt: "You've been here at the Favor Tree for months? Continuously?"

"Oh, yes! Don't need to fill or empty yourself when you're a star. So I stayed right here."

"But no one saw you until the last week," you said slowly, thinking. "Because of the Time Craft?"

"Mhm! Because what was months for me was just a little over a day for nearly everyone else. Bravo, Isa--ah!"

They cut off with a gasp. "You okay?" you ask.

"Yes. ...Yes."

There was something very odd about their demeanor. They seemed genuinely scared, but they kept switching to casual, flippant even, and you knew part of that had to be a front to downplay their fear, but...

They were quick to use both your name and Odile's. They knew about Bonnie, they cared about Bonnie and Mira.

'Blinding.' The accent that was just barely audible under the crackling.

But Sif--

But Time Craft? But, impossible things had been happening in Vaugarde for months?

No, no. You didn't want to muddy this with your mixed-up feelings. "How does your Time Craft work?"

That set the stranger off into another round of giggling. "If it was my Time Craft I would've ended it all a lot sooner!"

They kept giggling. You were getting the strong impression that it was not good when they giggled; it made you think of an overheating teapot. "S, sorry? Was it the King's, then?"

"Ha! Ha ha! No, I don't think so," the stranger said in between giggles. "You see, how it worked was, the Saviors made their way through the House. They reached the King." The giggling was done. "Well, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes they died to Sadnesses, or an idiot got crushed by a rock or used a crest in the wrong place and trapped them in the House. But sometimes they did make it to the King, and the King slew them all. Then the Saviors made their way through the House again."

There was a pause as the stranger let their words sink in. Distantly, you registered that they were calling at least one of you an idiot, which wasn't very nice, but you were a little too preoccupied with the more horrific implications of what they were saying. A time loop where everyone kept dying?

...Sif--

Sif had been saying that he kept failing. Had been saying he let Bonbon get hurt. Unkind things that didn't make sense to say, unless, maybe--

the way they'd been so strong that day, how they'd found keys and known where to go next when even Mira was hesitating--

if Sif had been looping in time, how did this person fit in? Except, maybe, please--

"So if it was the King, he was a blinding idiot to keep looping back when he'd already won," the maybe-not-stranger said at last. "...Finally. Eventually. He lost once. But--"

You couldn't contain that wild hope anymore. "Sif?"

They stopped speaking immediately. They didn't say anything.

Your heart felt like it was cracking all over again, and your voice wasn't doing much better when you tried to explain yourself. "S-sorry. I just--you sound like them. Stupid of me." They didn't even sound that much alike. You knew where Sif was: at the highest floor of the House, frozen.

On the other side of the tree, you heard static crackling in regular intervals. The same rhythm as a slow breath. Your heart hurt all over again.

And then, a small, scared whisper: "Isa--"