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darkhymns-fic · 2 years

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Stardust Rain

Everybody had a bit of magic in them... but when she and Lloyd were together, they made stars.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel, Kratos Aurion, Genis Sage, Noishe Rating: G Word Count: 9329 Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: This is a secret santa fic for @youlighttheskyfanfiction where I attempt writing colloyd in a magical realism setting! This is inspired heavily from her art pieces for colloydweek which I adore. Thanks so much for being a part of this exchange!

In the small town of Iselia, the sky had suddenly started to pour, the clouds so thick that it blocked both the stars and the lone, white tower in the distance.

Colette had only been six when she and Lloyd had wandered out to the middle of town together, the raindrops so heavy that she could hear them plunk and shake the umbrellas they both carried in their hands. A sheet of rain blew against her face, pricking her cheeks, but making her laugh all the same. She wasn’t allowed outside during such weather, but seeing Lloyd standing underneath the sky with a smile, his frog-styled umbrella fashioned by his father in hand, made her rush to leave her porch and go, nearly forgetting to put on her rainboots.

She saw neighbors scurry to their homes, leaving behind precious items; a gardening spade upturned in the wet dirt, books half-open on benches, a misplaced sunhat on the ground. Quietly, almost shyly, all the left-behind items floated through the air, buffeted by the wind and rain. They followed along the owners who never turned their heads back but left their doors partly open for a damp hat to push against, or a book to softly flutter through. In Iselia, like in many places, it was rare for one to lose their belongings, at least for very long.

She was sure that, even if she had gone out to Lloyd in bare feet, her rainboots would have appeared by her side, politely asking her to keep warm and stay dry.

“Colette!” Lloyd called out to her. He was waving, his umbrella spraying stray water droplets all around like a fish moving upstream. He looked so excited, and she wondered if maybe he just really liked the rain…

She rushed and, of course, stumbled, her own umbrella slipping out of her fingers. The doggy-styled ears of her umbrella (also fashioned by Lloyd’s father as a gift to her) seemed to flap in a panic before it fell to the ground, cushioned by the wet mud and grass. It was one of her favorite things that she owned, and it always made sure to follow her around on such wet, cold days. But as she fell, it didn’t rush to her this time, instead remaining on its side, drenched in the rain.

She caught onto Lloyd’s hands, how they reached out to her. That was when she saw the stars.

“Whoa… I didn’t know you could do this yet!” Lloyd looked down at where their palms touched. It was as if they had gathered a string of brightly colored star lights in their hands, like the ones she would have in her room, but without the string to wind it all together. The shine cast a mixture of violet and pink, falling over their arms, coloring their cheeks still damp with rain.

Colette heard the rapid patter of raindrops against Lloyd’s umbrella, her eyes fixated on the stars coming to life from their fingers. “But… aren’t you doing this too?”

The boy paused, considered. “I am?” A star drifted from its pile, only to rise past their faces, to rise past the lampposts whose lights were quenched by the rain barreling down, and then further up into the sky. More stars followed, their shine so bright that it made imprints into the dark clouds above.

Colette let her fingers linger against Lloyd’s, long after the last star left them, to flicker and dazzle, to hover before it too rushed off to fly away high into the rainy skies. “There’s so many,” she whispered, so sad to see them go.

Lloyd watched them too, quiet for a moment before he looked back to her. A blink, and then he clumsily brought his umbrella to be over her head. The familiar plunk of the raindrops came back, echoing around her ears.

“Where’s your umbrella? You’re gonna get soaked!”

Oh. It had been so easy to forget, but the memory of those stars stayed with her. Her umbrella shifted on the ground, its doggy ears now stained with mud, but it saw no need to go to her when she was already being taken care of by another.

“Um, Lloyd,” she started to ask. She watched, fascinated as the front strands of his hair fell over his forehead, how his usual spikes pressed down against his ears. “Can I have your hand again?”

She just wanted to know something. And, going by his grin, maybe Lloyd did too.

“Okay,” he said, then gripped her hand in his own, palms still wet. But between their palms, the familiar violet-pink light glowed. The stars spilled out of their hands to float around their heads, to rush past the raindrops into the skies again. The feel of them tickled her, making her giggle.

It was like a rain of stardust. In its light, she saw how Lloyd’s eyes were just as bright. How in his gaze, she saw each star captured for a moment before drifting away. “I didn’t know magic could be all warm! Is it like this for you all the time?”

And Colette had to think about it then, keeping their hands clasped, but just releasing enough so that the stars continued to spill. Magic felt like many things, but how could she say that the feeling of these stars were like Lloyd waving to her in the rain?

In Sylvarant, having magic was natural, expected even. Yet Lloyd was one of the few that didn’t seem to have any magic at all.

And yet, with Colette, they had made stars together.

She had never felt magic stronger than that.

It was on a Wednesday afternoon when a giant glowing bird, trailing dust in its path, was spotted in the skies above Palmacosta.

Lloyd had been the one to see it first, rushing into the café with excitement. Colette was seated at one of the tables, where too many books were laid out in front of her like towers, or a castle wall that she was trapped behind.

“Hey, Colette! There’s this huge bird just out- Oh, are you busy?”

Colette peered over the books, trying to find him, but more stacked themselves, hiding her face away. “…Um, no. Just… need a little help?”

The little café was usually one of Colette’s favorite spots. But, she could tell how her family must have passed along the message to the books that lived in that same café. Those with dizzying titles of philosophy and theory, of conjuration, of pilgrimages and angelic legends that must surely be thousands of years old, all rushed up to her the moment she sat down, just for a small study session…

Lloyd rushed to tear down the walls of books, poking his face in-between. “You just gotta tell them no sometimes.” His smile was like a life raft in a sea of hardcover spines and pages. “Hurry, you’ll miss it!”

Sticking out her tongue in half-nervousness, she stood up. Already she could see the books flutter, one opening its pages, as if it could keep her here this way. “It’s hard to do that when they don’t really say anything back.”

“That should make it easier!” Lloyd pushed another floating book away, gesturing her to follow. The sunlight streamed through the window, gliding across his messy hair.

Lloyd had grown since that rainy day in Iselia. There were no more cute froggy umbrellas or red rainboots, but his red jacket let her see him from miles ahead, and his arms could lift her in the air whenever she asked. She had to move to Palmacosta once old enough, taking her classes at the university, reading through the scriptures, the language leaping out of the page to get her attention. One couldn’t forget about angels when storms of petals rushed across the seas, or when a second moon would sometimes appear in the sky, pulling even more at the tides.

Or when a shining bird would fly so high up, cutting through the clouds.

Lloyd and Colette rushed past the pier and its fruit market, past the stone bridge where lilies sprouted through the cracks, despite no fresh water nearby. He pointed excitedly up at the bird, its feathers burning like flame. From the sparkling dust, a rainbow was made. It hadn’t rained in Palmacosta for two weeks.

“See? Look how big it is!” Lloyd shaded his eyes with both hands, already losing the bird as it slipped into another cloud.

“Oh, you mean Aska?” Colette followed his gaze. The sea breeze brushed against her neck in whispers. “He flies over here sometimes.”

A startled look passed over Lloyd’s face. “You’ve seen it already?” He then scratched at his cheek, a nervous tic that she remembered noting when they had been in elementary together. “And here I thought I was showing you something new…”

People walked past them, some on their way to Mass, the church ringing its bells. None raised their heads to the glowing bird in the sky, or spared a look to the flowers growing in the stone. But when she was with Lloyd, Colette always felt something magical in just the way the waves would crash into the harbor in the distance.

“I like familiar things though.” Maybe she was being greedy, but she already reached out to grab his hands. The beat of the bird’s wings created the strong gust of wind that was slowly rolling over the town. It made the bell ring faster, made the people walk faster, pulled on by the repeating melody.

His hands tightened over hers, and she felt the tell-tale tingle across her skin. Like a soft breath in her ear, or the flickering of a candle. “You like these more?” he asked, but there was only happiness in his voice, unbridled and pure.

The stars spilled out between their fingers, like so much treasure. She grinned back. “Because I can only make them with you.”

The boy is no one special, Colette once heard the neighbors say, carried on by the breeze. Mundane child who gawked at every small thing that shone, who didn’t understand why the sky would open up so wide to reveal a shining tower. He chuckled at the feeling of the stars they shared, how some of them fell to the stone floor like clattering chimes.

A few heads turned their way – but only to their laughter, like children who found such fascinating patterns in the sandcastles they made.

“Let’s toss them up!” Lloyd shouted with glee. Already Colette felt the pull of it, his excitement making her heart leap and bounce against her chest. They raised their clasped hands, palms opening, face up. And the stars rushed out like a stream of lights, imprinting themselves into the skies, and shining on as if they had always been there.

“Maybe Aska will see these when he comes by again,” Colette said. Her and Lloyd craned their heads up, as they always did when they made their very own stars together.

“Oh, right…” The bells had finally stopped, and they were left alone on the stone streets. “Think he’ll know what constellations we made?”

“I hope so!” And she laughed, trying her best not to make an overflow of more.

It was just so addicting, this feeling.

The first time someone had found their stars had been on Colette’s front lawn. Phaidra had seen it one morning, how the bright color clashed with the vegetable garden her and Frank had been tending. She clucked her tongue, and gently reminded Colette to not make such a mess, for it was unbecoming.

So ever since then, they had made their stars in hidden places; underneath the school desks where they could reach out their hands to each other, hiding away the light with their legs, or just outside of the town’s gates, using Noishe’s great body to cover the shine and letting him take a lick at one star out of curiosity.

They left patterns of stars in the trees where Lloyd had once climbed up on a dare, and Colette dared herself to follow. They left constellations in the riverbed, watching them shift and move with the currents before dissolving into motes of light that the fish would try to eat.

And sometimes, they would let them float to the sky. But Colette would feel a sadness then, as she watched the stars drift away, so out of reach.

“They never come back when we let them fly,” she had once told Lloyd. She was twelve years old then, both seated by a small lake just past one of their favorite clearings. She watched as Lloyd whittled something with his hands, seeing how the shape changed with each gentle scrape of his knife.

“But we can still see them, at least.” He pointed up at the sky to show her, and indeed, there they were. Small pinpricks of violet and pink, different from the other stars. “Those are ours and no one else’s.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. Maybe she was just selfish. “And we can always make more.”

“Still though… it would be cool to go up there. Can we grow wings?” He asked that so sincerely, all as he continued to whittle at the small block of wood.

Colette didn’t know. For such things, one just couldn’t guess at. “I’d be happy if we could,” she told him.

Lloyd grinned, and just then she saw what he had been making. It was a small star, a bit uneven in its points, and the middle carved to resemble a jewel embedded within it. He blew on it to dust away the last remaining wood shavings, and they fluttered to the lake as placid and normal as they could be. He must have learned it from his dad, the man who could make his figures dance and his jewelry fly through the air, shining through the dusk.

“Here,” he said as he gave the star to her. “Maybe this one won’t fly away, so you can keep it with you.”

Lloyd’s creations were different. They didn’t move or glow, but she was drawn to them so much more.

From then on, she kept that star in the pocket of her dress, a small chain affixed to it. If it ever fell, she knew she would lose it forever, so she held it close always.

The tower that had appeared out of nothing, out of wisps of clouds and dregs of sunlight, did so every hundred years, or so it was said. Such legends were stated in the scriptures, even when such scriptures were contradictory, speaking about angels that sent crystals hurtling towards the earth whenever they desired, or when angels held one’s soul, giving it meaning.

It was expected of Colette to go to the tower one day, as many of her family members had done. The last had been her great aunt, never to come back. It was simply tradition.

Only Lloyd questioned that tradition.

“Won’t you miss home?” he asked her. He visited her lodgings she had at the church, ducking his head under a low doorframe, her room just barely enough to fit her dresser, her bed, and herself, with a small wall sconce on the left to give light. Lloyd tried his best to not take up too much space, but could only do so much, and simply sat on the floor with legs crossed. She knew she should have at least gotten a chair…

“Yeah, of course I will,” she admitted. It felt strange to admit it so plainly, but only Lloyd was able to pull such a thing from her, and in the gentlest of questions he had ever asked. She sat on the bed, fiddling with her sleeves. From her angle above, Lloyd almost looked small as he raised his head to her. “But it’s why I’ve been studying so much.”

“Sounds like they’re just studying you,” Lloyd said with a grumble, then clarified. “The books, I mean! They never let up. Also, sometimes they hurt because they’re so heavy.”

She remembered how one book knocked itself against Lloyd’s head as they passed by that café again, a massive textbook, its pages underlined with a sharp pen. She had to shoo the book away, but felt content to rub a hand through Lloyd’s hair to soothe the hurt.

“Mm, it’s okay,” she told him. “It’s just what I have to do.”

The window in her room was small, barely large enough for one’s head to poke through. But it unlatched, pushed open by the wind, showcasing the white tower more clearly than through the warped glass.

She ignored it as best as she could, instead looking back to Lloyd where everything seemed brighter. “I’m happy you came all this way out to visit! It must have been a long trip. Did you see Genis yet? Oh, and, sorry my room isn’t much though…”

“I told you I would!” he said with a grin. “I saw Genis yesterday, but I think likes talking to books more than me.” Lloyd huddled his knees close to his chin, still trying to fit in her room. “And I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”

There were inns at Palmacosta, but when Lloyd had appeared one night, she couldn’t deny him staying. She had tried fixing up the floors with spare carpets and blankets, like when they would build small forts out on the grass, made of couch cushions and bedsheets, asking such items to stay still. She hadn’t thought of such a memory until she had seen his face again, all grown.

“Also…” Lloyd went on, his voice a little quieter. “It’s just, you know, it hasn’t been the same without you, so why wouldn’t I visit?”

There was a magic in his smile that she couldn’t let go of. Even as the window latch kept squeaking from the wind, and how tempted she was to just shut it away – then Lloyd straightened his back so suddenly.

“Wait! I’ve been wanting to show you what I made, I completely forgot.” He reached into his jacket as he spoke. “I’ve started working with metal so I got you a-” he stopped, then searched again. His gaze shifted to look at the dresser, then underneath the bed, then out that small window that wouldn’t stop squeaking and showing them the tower, so far off yet so near.

“Lloyd?” she questioned. “If you’re looking for something, I can help.” With that, she reached for the dresser with one arm, lifting it easily just at shoulder-height. A few dust bunnies rolled away when she took away the shadows.

He started with wide eyes, a flush on his cheeks. “W-whoa, you still can…I mean, that’s okay! It’s not here anyway…” He sighed. “I messed up.”

“Oh?” Colette quickly dropped the dresser to the floor, a miracle it stayed intact. But the ability to carry heavy things always came and went, usually when she didn’t think about it.

“Argh, I just… I must have dropped it on the way…” He hung his head. “I made this necklace after a long time of dad teaching me. And I wanted to show you! But I know it’s not coming back to me anytime soon.”

The magic did not call to him. The precious items, the treasures he made, did not attach themselves to his being, pulled along by invisible strings.

Colette thought back to that first gift of his, remembering the wooden star that she now kept in a drawer in her old bedroom, worried of the same thing.

“We could always find it together,” she said. Words left her without intention, but her mouth moved as if she was in a dream.

“Huh? You want to?”

“Well… I need to go on a pilgrimage soon anyway. But we can retrace your steps along the way?” Eager, she shuffled from the bed to sit on the floor with Lloyd. The hardwood floors creaked, and she could only wonder how Lloyd had been okay staying down here, with the dust bunnies that liked to roam. “Like when we went to find your shoe when you lost it at the river.”

“But that was way different!” Lloyd huddled closer, and maybe it was the excuse of the dresser at his back, or the narrow walls, but she liked being able to see the sunlight’s reflection off his eyes when she was this near. “It’ll take us forever.”

“Then we can take forever.” She reached for his hand again, so much bigger now against her own. She could slip her hand in his, slip herself within, and just disappear. “It doesn’t matter when I go to the tower. Only that I do.”

It was the only thing that that felt heavy on her tongue, that weighed her down like she was adrift at sea. Lloyd’s pause told her that he knew it too, but when he smiled again, gripping her hand back, she could focus on something better. “Yeah. We can travel the world together!”

The stars burst to life between their hands, more precious than gold coins or jewels. And as they sat closer, the stars floated from their palms, though they bumped against the walls or stuck themselves into the ceilings. Colette watched one try to leave through the window, hitting the glass in confusion instead.

Lloyd flinched as a star landed on his head with a small clink. “Uh…I guess we shouldn’t do this inside. Oops.”

But in the glow of their stars, she couldn’t think of anything better.

When she still lived in Iselia, Lloyd would sometimes gather what stars they had made into little jars. They were like fireflies, softly glowing up a room, while deepening the shadows. “But we can keep these as long as we want,” he explained, unlike the fireflies that must eventually be set free to fly again.

She had wanted to keep their jars of stars forever, to hold it close in bed, to remember the feel of Lloyd’s hands against hers. But sometimes the stars would get so dim, barely lighting up her room at all.

She had to let the stars float away too, unscrewing the lid and watch them vanish into the sky. Once, she thought she saw in the distance more stars rise into the air, leaving the earth to join in with hers.

It was only natural to want to fly.

There was magic in the way Lloyd created things.

Ever since they were children, he’d draw on a piece of paper with faded crayons and paint, or he’d carve a shape into a small block of wood, trying so carefully not to cut his fingers. The drawings wouldn’t shine when he was done with them, and the figures he carved wouldn’t move, but they had been made by him, and for Colette that was more than enough.

She caught a peek at one of his drawings, a corner of it peeking out from his satchel before he moved it, enclosing it in a small sketchbook she remembered he’d carry around. Many, many times had he dropped the sketchbook into a puddle, or left it at school. Lloyd always had to retrieve it himself, but luckily, the pages inside were always clean and undamaged.

“Did you draw anything new?” she asked him, just as they left Palmacosta, making Lloyd jump. She couldn't help but giggle from his cute display of embarrassment.

“Er, nothing much. I was trying to draw Noishe from memory… but I made him look more like a horse.” The wind blew, pulling at his hair, like hands running through it. They pulled at the white ribbons from his collar, their ends reaching out to tickle at her cheek. “I can make it better later.”

She wanted to tell him how she hadn't seen a drawing of his in such a long time, but the breeze kept pushing them along, so she followed Lloyd out onto the roads, marking the detours from her pilgrimage. She had promised Lloyd that they would find what he made, even if it took years, even if it took until their bodies creaked with old age.

"It's really okay that we can just travel wherever?" he asked her, but only one last time. Like when they were children, she kept up her pace with his steps, knowing that if a sudden dip in the grass appeared, that he would catch her as easily as a downed bird.

"It's okay," she said, and finalized her answer by clasping his hand.

Merchants traveling to Palmacosta, as well as those who passed by on their own pilgrimage, would soon find the imprints of different stars up in the sky, their light in such stark contrast to the moon.

Colette remembered seeing Aska once, just a few days after she and Lloyd first made stars together. She had sat up in bed, watching him fly through the air, cutting through the stream of their own stardust. He headed for a tower in the distance, but not the tower that was white and never-ending, which stretched out into the heavens. Even one with wings hadn't wanted to go to such a place.

She didn't want to go either. But one day, she would have to.

There were days, as they made stops at small villages in the hills, or hiked up a mountain top, that Noishe would appear, straight out of a bush as if he had always been there.

"Why don't you just stay?!" Lloyd had complained. "You're such a weird dog." But the giant green animal, with ears that could have flapped like wings if he tried, only whined, sniffing around for any spare treats Lloyd had in his pocket. Of which there was always at least one or two.

Colette had always loved the dog, of which magic thrived and hummed underneath his fur. It was no surprise that he could just appear at their side, even when Lloyd always wondered why.

"It's why his fur is green," she told him later as they both rode Noishe down a slope. There was a city far to the north called Meltokio, and while Lloyd hadn't gone to it, he admitted he passed by it on his way to visit Colette. "He travels through the grass and leaves. He must feel really safe to be in them!"

"But I haven't seen him do that!" Lloyd pouted. Already she could tell that he wanted Noishe to do what she claimed. How much faster they would get to places! How much faster he could have gotten to see Colette if Noishe had did that for him!

"Hehe. He's probably shy." She patted Noishe's fur in comfort, hearing him whine as an answer. "Maybe he did it for you when you were little."

"I think I'd remember that...or...did he?" Lloyd eyed Noishe, gripping his fur like the heft of a saddle. "Is that how I sometimes got to school so fast?"

Not a whine this time, but a bark as Noishe loped across the fields, his paw pads crunching the grass beneath.

He would most likely leave the next day, scared by the crackling of a campfire or a distant wolf's howl. And then, out of the glade, he would show up again, tongue lolling from his mouth, whining for pets.

The only time she could remember where Noishe wasn't frightened by something new was in the stars her and Lloyd made. He'd lick a star, or sniff it, and even let Colette sprinkle a few in his fur when she was young. Did his magic find a connection with their own?

Later, they visited a small fishing port called Izoold, where the washtubs swayed in the waters, inviting Lloyd and Colette to jump in. A particular hard splash of the sea against the boardwalk made Noishe yelp - and then he dove into some rosebushes, only to vanish once again.

Lloyd groaned. "I wanted him to ride the tub with us!"

Colette couldn't help but think, Maybe we should have shown him our stars as a treat.

That was something she could think of for next time.

It was the priests that had told her, once the tower appeared in the sky, that she would need to go there. And that she would never come back.

Those of her bloodline had gone to the tower, because it was expected. Her ancestor whose statue was placed in her church, her great aunt that her grandmother would sometimes talk about, her gaze drawn to the window; these are who she needed to follow.

The stars she and Lloyd made decorated the skies, in the space away from the tower. And always, she would try to look there instead. And always, she would ask Lloyd to make some more with her.

Or were the stars too much? Were they only a useless thing for them to play with? It was a question that haunted her as the years passed, and the details of that tower became more clear.

Was there any meaning in these stars?

One day on their journey, Colette had suddenly lost her voice.

It had happened in an evening, after they had shared food with a traveling caravan with family in tow. She remembered seeing the shape of the tower in the smoke of their campfire, as the taste of sweet potatoes, cooked until their insides steamed, burst in her mouth. Lloyd had eaten twice his usual share, and Colette had slept for a full night afterwards. She had been happy, but still that tower loomed in the distance.

She noticed she lost her voice when she couldn’t say goodbye to the caravan as she waved to them. Lloyd had looked to her, and she had turned away. The taste of the food from yesterday faded away, and she could hear the sounds of the ocean despite them being so far inland.

“Colette?” Lloyd called to her, reaching out a hand. She hesitated, but grasped it, hoping that something familiar would happen.

She couldn’t feel the warmth, and no stars came to life between their hands.

Lloyd’s confusion was so apparent, and she hated the pain she caused. So she took his hand in both of her own, and traced letters over his palms. Letters that stayed invisible, that wouldn’t come to life. They would have to be read on Lloyd’s own.

“I’m…sorry?” Lloyd said out loud, eyebrows furrowed as he gazed downward. “But, I don’t understand.”

Colette felt her chest constrict. Maybe they had made too many stars, or had looked away from the tower too often and this was her punishment. Or I put off the pilgrimage for too long. How could she explain it to Lloyd?

“…It’s… probably temporary,” Lloyd filled in the silence, gripping her hand back, even when nothing would appear. “Yeah, like when you can lift heavy stuff! It’ll come and go, I bet.” His optimism was shining, even if at the edge, there was a shadow. “But in the meantime, just write to me and I’ll read what you have to say.”

She wanted to believe what she said, so she nodded, then took his hand again. We still need to find what you lost, she wrote.

Still, she wouldn’t look at the tower.

Genis had been a little jealous of Lloyd and Colette’s stars.

“I’m the one that studies magic more than you two,” he had grumbled, just a year or so before he would move to Palmacosta to continue studying, and then Colette not long behind. “I especially study more than Lloyd!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lloyd had countered back, and as if to show off, he took Colette’s hand, showing it palm up to the bed of stars that appeared. “Me and Colette just make a good team!”

It had been sunset then, and Colette remembered the white of Genis’ hair shining. She didn’t question that he really could make stars, probably brighter and bigger than what she could. But with Lloyd, it had just felt special.

“We can always give you some of ours,” she said, taking one star and handing it to Genis.

The boy raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t say I wanted them! I’m just wondering how you guys even make them.”

That was a good question. Colette tilted her head in thought. “Well, I like to think about puppies when we make the stars. Usually about petting them!”

“Really?” Lloyd asked. “I just think about food! Well…mostly.” But he didn’t expand on that, clearing his throat a bit. “Genis, just start thinking about food and you’ll make a bunch!”

“Huh? I’m not hungry all the time like you!” Genis grumbled, then said. “I mean, at least thinking of dogs make more sense.”

Still, Colette could tell Genis wasn’t really that annoyed, because he also couldn’t help but follow the stars to the sky, and smile when he did so.

He was just happy for them, wasn’t he?

Despite everything, they continued their journey. Colette had made a promise and she wanted to keep it. Even if her voice was gone, even if food never made it past her lips, and her eyes never shut for long when all she wanted to do was sleep.

They no longer made stars, but sometimes, feathers would fall at her feet as she walked. They’d drift from her back, and then burst into motes of light once they touched the ground. She didn’t know what it meant, if magic had left her or taken on something else entirely. But the feathers didn’t give her the same joy or warmth as those stars.

They had passed by Meltokio when they crossed the border into Tethe’alla, even going through its high city gates to examine the stalls, the stores, and the castle up high that would shimmer in the heat. They couldn’t afford a room at the inn, so they made camp again in the meadows at the foot of a mountain, half-expecting Noishe to return his weeks and weeks of absence. They had walked carefully down the roads, but they couldn’t find Lloyd’s creation, even as they upturned rocks and looked into every tree’s burrow.

“Hey, Colette…” Lloyd asked her as he stoked the fire, all while Colette cut up potatoes for their stew. Although, she couldn’t eat such things anymore, even as Lloyd tried to feed her, even as he tried to find the fruits she used to like at a nearby market. But the taste of everything was gone. “Did your belongings sometimes… run away from you?”

She raised her head at the concept. She had never thought of something like that before. But Lloyd had always been different. She could only give what she knew, and so shook her head gently.

Lloyd sighed. He propped his cheek against his hand, watching the flames flick and dance with the stick he used. “I bet it jumped right out of my pocket, and I was too dumb to notice.”

Colette shuffled near him, dumping the cut potatoes into the metal pot over the fire. After wiping her hands on a washcloth, she took his own, writing out, It’s probably just clumsy like me.

Lloyd blinked, then a small laugh left his throat, a sound that she could tell was enough to brush away the melancholy thoughts he would have had, or at least most of them. “I guess I did make it for you.”

The fire crackled, and the stew inside the pot bubbled. She could hear the growling in Lloyd’s stomach, making him flinch. “Agh, I should eat. Do you wanna try a bite? I think if you just eat something…”

Colette looked down, watching the firelight dance over their palms, but that was all. Maybe next time I’ll feel hungry.

The feathers drifted down her back, making a bed of themselves around her knees before vanishing. The feeling they left behind was hollow, fleeting. Lloyd held her hand so tight.

“You don’t have to lie to me, you know,” he told her, his voice a bit pained.

She could only smile, even if it was sad. She wanted to tell him more, but her fingers felt too stiff.

When she left Iselia, missing Lloyd terribly, and slept in Palmacosta for the first time, she dreamt about drowning at sea.

That when she spoke, no words left her.

That when she reached out her hands, she couldn’t find the surface.

When she woke up, she shivered, tears rolling down her cheeks. She looked up, and saw the trail of stardust in the distance, in Iselia’s direction.

And it comforted her.

After their search through Tethe’alla proved fruitless, they headed further back into Sylvaranti lands, in places where the trees grew much taller, as big as Meltokio’s stone structures. Sometimes a path took them to another village not shown on any maps, or a strange island off in the distance that would soon vanish once they turned their heads away for a moment. In the world, everything could shift and change in a moment, except for the white tower, still rising high, refusing to be forgotten.

Even as Colette’s voice stayed muted for months, and she began to forget the taste of oranges freshly peeled, they continued their wanderings. They had gone off the pilgrimage route long ago, skipping past the Asgard Ruins when it was too dark, and the Tower of Mana where it was said the books inside were so numerous. Such places were steps in a pilgrimage, and if she didn’t complete such steps yet, then she and Lloyd could travel longer, could keep wandering for as long as they liked.

Even if such wanderings punished her, even if it took away their stars.

Past mountains that vanished in the dusk and streams that would sing, they found Luin, the city built over a lake, where wooden bridges connected the houses to one another.

“I definitely didn’t drop it here,” Lloyd told her, but not as a protest. It was too fun to visit new places, and the dogs that lived in town huddled around Colette with excited yips, already making the trip worthwhile as she tried to pet each other and think up a name for each one of them in her heart.

The town had a great fountain in the middle, and once Lloyd could recover Colette from the waves of doggies, they walked across the wooden boards. I heard the statues at the fountain sometimes come to life in here, Colette wrote in his palm, learning now to do it faster, more efficiently, even as they walked together. It’s supposed to bring good luck if we see them.

Lloyd’s face brightened at the fact, and then followed with, “What if we put our stars in the fountain?” He could barely keep still. “Like, we can make a wish with them! It’ll probably come true if we use those instead of coins! We can use it to get your voice back, and your hunger and-”

His excitement was infectious, brightening Colette’s world. Until she remembered. Until he remembered too, making him stop in mid-sentence.

“Oh…I guess we can’t right now,” Lloyd said softly. “But, I still have some gald on me. We can still use those! I bet they’ll work the same.” Like sunshine after the rain, he smiled, taking her hand. If she had her voice, she would giggle at the idea, but she could still run with him, their boots making the bridges creak.

Once at the fountain, there were no moving statues dancing in the rushing water – but a man was there. Wrapped in a dark cloak, he was seated at a wooden bench right in front of the structure, polishing his sword, head bowed.

At the sight of him, she could feel Lloyd’s excitement deflate like a balloon. “That guy is totally blocking the way…”

It wasn’t like they couldn’t see the fountain at all, with its polished marble, and its fashioned dolphins spouting water towards the middle. She wrote in his hand, We can still make our wish, still uplifted at the idea. The coins may not dance in the water like their stars, nor would it glow, but the meaning of doing so would still be the same.

“…I guess so,” Lloyd mumbled. “But it feels awkward with just one guy here.”

She wrote once more, Maybe he just hasn’t noticed us?

Yet as they got closer, the man raised his eyes, halted the motion of his hand. The whetstone stayed pressed against his blade.

“You’re looking for something?”

Ah, perhaps now it was truly awkward.

Lloyd raised an eyebrow, and she wondered if maybe he knew this man from somewhere. But it seemed that Lloyd himself was trying to figure that out as well. “Uh, we just wanted to see the fountain…”

“Your name,” the man then stated. Not a question, yet not quite a command.

The words threw Lloyd off, so much that he couldn’t respond in time. “Huh? Who are you to just ask for that?”

“My apologies. Perhaps you are the wrong person to ask.” And so the man turned to Colette instead, his gaze steady, but not unkind. She stared at him, watching how the sun colored his hair in shades that she found so familiar. “May I ask for yours?”

Colette would have squeaked if she had her voice, but instead she blinked, pointing at herself. Me? Lloyd reached for her hand in warning, already feeling him tense. But there was something she felt from this stranger, of a magic that she sometimes got from Noishe. And from…

“Is it Colette?”

Another blink, followed by a nod. The rushing of the fountain water echoed around her.

“I see. So then this would belong to you.” He let go of his whetstone, reaching into his cloak to pull out something that glowed. The reflection of the sun when its light shone against a jewel, bound by red threads, held in place by gold that curved inward, like a heart.

Lloyd immediately yelled at the sight of it. “What the?! That’s mine!”

The man turned to Lloyd with the same gaze. “Your name is also Colette?”

“What, no! It’s Lloyd! And that’s not important!” He pointed at the necklace the man continued to hold between his fingers. “I made that for Colette! How’d you even get your hands on it?”

The man shut his eyes. “I found it. Or, perhaps it found me. It looked like it was searching for something.” He held the necklace further out to Colette. “And then it told me your name.”

It…it did? Her hand was out without her intention, allowing the man to deposit the necklace in her palm.

“It was searching for the one it was made for, I assume.” The eyes flickered back to Lloyd. “You should be more careful to not lose something so precious.”

Lloyd’s face was red; in anger or embarrassment, it was hard to tell which. He crossed his arms, pointedly turning his head away. “That’s why I was looking for it. Jerk.”

Colette cradled the necklace in her palms, fascinated at the make of it, at the jewel inlaid in gold, at the red threads that crossed around it. It feels like the stars.

Then she realized. She could feel the warmth from this necklace. She could feel.

The man stood up from his bench, sheathing his sword. “If you’d like, the local inn can accommodate you. I know the owners, so it would be no trouble.”

Lloyd narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “What the… Who are you? Why would you even do that for us?”

A pause, as if the man waited for something. Colette could not stop noting his hair, the shade now very familiar. “My name is Kratos.”

“I didn’t ask-”

“And I was sympathetic for the owner of this necklace. I felt they would one day come here, so I waited.”

Lloyd, from his expression, didn’t understand. But Colette was beginning to. Thank you, Mr. Kratos, she thought, wishing she could say it. But the man nodded as if he could hear her…

Kratos finally walked away, making her hope she would one day see him again. In contrast, Lloyd’s eyes followed him, but with cheeks slightly puffed out in aggravation. “What is this guy up to?"

Colette wanted to tell Lloyd that she thought Kratos was just being kind, but she was too distracted by the necklace she still held. She could feel the softness of the red threading, the texture of the metal used to give its unique shape. She held it up to Lloyd, asking in her heart, This was for me?

Suddenly, Lloyd’s anger washed away, replaced with flushed cheeks, with a shameful grin. “Um, yeah! I was gonna surprise you. It’s nothing special, I know, but I worked really hard on it and…”

She reached for his hands, as she often did, but with the necklace in tow. His palm brushed against the metal, the red threads falling over his thumb.

Faint, but she could feel something…or was it the necklace still? She didn’t understand, but something hopeful danced in her chest then.

“Ah… Did you want me to help you put it on?” Lloyd asked, his voice so shy. “Sorry, I know you didn’t ask, just…”

She nodded so fast, standing on her tiptoes, grinning wide.

Lloyd had gotten so good at reading her.

“I think someone used to take me to see the stars outside.”

Lloyd had told her this when they were in third grade, when they had started putting stars in their jars before they saw how dim their lights would be. Outside of the schoolhouse, she had been watching him loop the stars around with string, trying to tie it around the ends of their points. It had been difficult work, and sometimes the knot wouldn’t be tight enough so that a star would instead slip out and float around their heads playfully.

At these moments, Lloyd would sigh, but Colette would smile, reaching out to the stars to cup in her palms before sending it off again. “Who did?” she asked him.

“I don’t know.” Another attempt with the string, but the stars left again. “I think…it was when I was really little. They’d carry me up on their shoulders and show me the stars. But that’s all I can remember.”

A bright star landed on her nose like a butterfly, making her giggle. It also shot off into the air, to follow the rest. “So maybe that’s why these are here.”

“Hm?” Lloyd had now just tangled the strings around his hands, effectively tying himself up. “Uh, little help…?”

Colette smiled, reaching out to unwind the strings, fingers brushing against Lloyd’s. “That’s why you can make stars now. Because of that memory.”

“Well…it’s not just me though.” Hands finally free, he clasped her hands tight, until another bright glow appeared between their palms. “Then what about you? Did you like stars before too?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she told him, even though she felt guilty for half-lying.

Because when I looked at the sky, I wanted to be up there. Maybe stars don’t have to go where people want them to.

The Luin inn was simple, but bigger than the lodgings Colette had at Palmacosta. More than one bed to sleep in, and a large window that they could both look through. The necklace had been carefully tied around her neck, and the warmth she felt from the stars was now at her chest, a constant thing that she didn’t want to let go of.

The tower was still there in the distance. Lloyd noticed it as well.

“I guess since we finally found this… That means we should be going back on your journey, right?” His voice was quiet, a hand moving to rub the back of his neck. “We could start tomorrow if you…”

Another pause, tense and full. When he spoke again, she felt he was spilling over emotions that he had kept locked in for months.

“But, I don’t think you should,” he said, looking away. “Whatever’s happening to you, it’s because of that, isn’t it?” He gritted his teeth, looking to the side, to the wooden walls that had a bent nail or two. “I don’t really get it, but you never talked about it much before. And…it’s because you didn’t like it. You shouldn’t have to go to some tower, because people tell you too.”

Another pause, followed by a groan. “But now it sounds like I’m telling you to do something, and I don’t mean it that way! I just don’t know what’s going to happen if we go to that tower. If you go, and, just…”

She couldn’t let him keep doing this, so she faced him then, against the backdrop of the sky, where once the sun had vanished to be replaced with a world like their own. It had happened in her grandmother’s time, another sign of the angels, even if the meaning was lost. But there were still stars there, and she hoped they would never disappear. “Lloyd, I don’t want to go.”

She hadn’t even realized what she just did, not until Lloyd widened his eyes.

“C-Colette! You spoke! Does this mean-?”

But she couldn’t lose this. She stepped forward, moving through the cobwebs that had built in her throat, through the doubt and fear.

“I don’t want to go to a strange tower,” she said. “I want to stay with you!”

Lloyd could say nothing, as if now his voice had been stolen away. And what if that had happened, if whatever curse on her had shifted to him? But she would talk for both of them if she needed to, and feel for him, and taste for him, like he had for the months they had traveled with feathers falling to her feet.

“I know we’ve already been traveling together, but, I want to keep doing that. For a long time!” She started to reach out to him, seeking again. “If that’s-”

But his hands found hers first, holding tight, and the warmth was there, like what she felt against her chest.

The warmth was there.

“Do you really want that?” he asked her, and she had never heard him sound so hopeful before.

She nodded, then stepped closer to him, fingers entwined with his. She knew her grip was desperate, and she worried the stars would shatter from the strength of it, that they would fall to the ground in broken pieces, cutting up their hands until they were covered in red. But he hadn’t lessened his grip, and instead held back just as tightly.

And now she realized how she thought of those stars, as if they had never left them at all.

“I love you, Lloyd,” she told him, knowing that he knew. Each star they had ever made had been exactly that, holding her over and over again like a well-worn coat. “Let’s travel the world together.”

She didn’t see the stars yet because Lloyd had leaned down to kiss her, and it was a kiss that she’d always known. Every star created was a kiss on her lips, over her forehead, against her cheek. Each star was a tight embrace of his arms, or a soft breath at her ear. They had made thousands, millions of stars already, and she felt she had already loved him in every way possible.

“Yes,” he said to her, and she heard it in every voice of his. From when he was small, his hair soaked from the rain. When he was in school with her, holding her hand underneath a desk. From across the campfire, as they laughed and told stories on their journey together. From before? Or was that in the future where she got to stay with him always. “I want you too, Colette. I love you.”

Those in Luin said that the sky was filled with stardust that night, a flurry of stars encompassing the entire sky. There were new constellations, new patterns for those to follow on their own journeys. The stars were so numerous that one could barely see the tower anymore, drowned out by a different light.

They had only wanted to show the world something beautiful they made together.

When they were both little, Lloyd had dared himself to eat one of their stars. “We already make so many! It’s fine!” And with precision, he had taken a bright star and popped it into his mouth like it was a piece of candy. Maybe he had thought it would taste like one, like bubblegum or one of the gummy gels they sold at the local shop near the school.

Colette had gasped, worried for the star. Then Lloyd blinked, opening his mouth. The star was no longer there to light up his tongue.

“You really did eat it!” she said.

“I didn’t!” Lloyd patted his hands against his lips, and then his cheeks. “I didn’t even swallow it yet.”

“Oh.” Colette tilted her head, trying to think up an answer that any six-year old would try to do when faced with such a mystery. “Maybe it just went back.”

“Back to where?”

As an answer, Colette reached to grab Lloyd’s hand, pressing it against hers. A soft, familiar glow, with a single star appearing at the center of it all.

“See? It’s back!”

Lloyd brought both of their hands up to his face, so he could examine the star better. “But…how can you even tell it’s the same one?”

“Hm…” Colette winked at him. “I just do. Don’t you feel the same?”

Lloyd’s smile as a radiant as the star. “Yeah… I guess this is what magic feels like.”

Their hands stayed clasped, even as the star flew away, narrowly escaping being a child’s dessert. But it was so Lloyd-like for him to think of that, Colette thought. He was just so happy to be making stars, to be creating something so beautiful for the world to see.

The white ribbons that trailed from Lloyd’s collar always caught her eyes, made her follow their motion at every soft breeze or turn of his head. She always felt that, at any moment, they might transform into wings.

So, one night, still on their new journey, she asked him, “Do you ever want to fly?”

Sometimes strange magic just happened, taken for granted like the air that they breathed, or the crashing of the ocean waves. Sometimes it hurt, like when her voice had been snuffed out, and she missed the feeling of hunger. But sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes it did something wonderful.

Out in the plains, holding onto her hand, Lloyd wondered.

“Can we do that?”

Colette only felt excitement, giggling as she rubbed a thumb against his wrist. “I think so… Why else can the stars fly too?”

Things really were as simple as that. Her feet felt light, and the ribbons of Lloyd’s jacket unfurled in the air, and kept doing so until it shimmered into something blue and grand.

She always knew Lloyd had magic in him.

“Your wings are…” he started to say, but she felt them too, floating towards the stardust that was still above them. She wouldn’t mind if they disappeared into the sky together, because the stars would at least keep them company. Maybe even Aska if they found him on the way.

They laughed together, moving their wings in a flurry of color, following the stars. On that night, anyone who looked to the skies thought they were shooting stars, and that if they made a wish for them, the strength of such a wish would be twice as powerful.

Or so the saying goes.

#tales of symphonia #colloyd #colette brunel #lloyd irving #kratos aurion #genis sage #fanfiction #one shot

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