#also hey guess what synnove isn't the only one in the family with carteneau trauma! though she's the only one who can remember it! :D
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FFXIV Write Entry #24: Sovenance
Prompt: refraction (free write!) || Master Post || On AO3
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A wiggle here, a wiggle there, and pop!
Roksana tumbled to the ground with a whee! and Amandina followed a heartbeat later, landing lightly on her feet. Roksana got to her feet, giving herself a good shake, and the pair of carbunclets looked around.
…I think we took a wrong turn at the gemology lab, Amandina whispered, ears pinning back against her head.
Roksana cheeped agreement.
Above them, singing in chorus, were the enormous aether batteries that powered all the wards and protections in the Arcanists’ Guild. The laboratories, the libraries, the classrooms, even the special holding cells for dangerous cargo. Sunk into the last of the subbasements, deep beneath the floor of Galadion Bay, only seven people in the whole of the Guild had the access necessary to even reach this level.
Mommy was one of them, and she did not bring them or their siblings with her. Ever.
The twins pressed up against one another, staring with wide eyes. The aether here was thick and cloying, the giant clusters set into the batteries so potent that the wrong gesture could probably cause a spell to cast. Roksana’s nose twitched under the assault, and she sneezed.
Amandina headbutted her, and then slowly crawled forward on her belly, ears twitching and tails lashing. I dunno how to find our way out, she whispered. It’s hard to sense directions in here. My array feels…weird.
Itchy?
Yeah.
Me, too.
Roksana wriggled her way after her sister, craning her neck back to stare at the battery. The aethersong was loud, too, which was making it hard to think. She pawed at her ear, unsettled. The aethersong didn’t sound right, either.
I think one of the water crystals is broken, she chirped.
Amandina wrinkled her nose. Ew.
Yeah.
The two stared up at the battery together for a while longer, and then Amandina shuffled away to poke her nose into the far corners. Probably trying to find a spot where they could wiggle through the wards and into voidspace and back up to Mommy’s office, despite how sleepy and confused the aether was making them; Amandina was very good at finding spots like that. Too bad the spot they had come through was too high up on the wall, close to the ceiling, for them to reach.
Roksana’s attention, however, was still held by the aether battery. Maybe the water cluster wasn’t broken, but it wasn’t right, either. She sneezed again.
She ilmed a little closer, peering up at the battery. Maybe the cluster had a crack? Maybe it hadn’t been set properly?
She sat up on her hindlegs, nose twitching and ears flicking, and carefully reached up her paw. Maybe—
The pad of her paw brushed ever so gently against the metal of the battery casing.
[THE WATER IS POISON
THE WATER IS POISON AND THEY HAVE CHANGED
THE WATER IS POISON AND THEY HAVE CHANGED AND THEY WILL KEEP CHANGING EVER AND ON
THE WATER IS POISON AND THEY HAVE CHANGED AND THEY WILL KEEP CHANGING EVER AND ON AND—
THERE IS FIRE.
THE WATER IS POISON AND THE WATER IS GONE IT IS FLASH-BOILED IN AN INSTANT LEAVING THE BEDS BARED AND DEAD AND DYING AND THERE IS NO WHERE FOR THE RIVER TO GO BECAUSE THE RIVER IS GONE AND SO IS THE OCEAN
THEIR SIBLING IS NO LONGER WATER. THEIR SIBLING IS LEVIN.
THE WATER RETURNS AND IT ROARS FROM UPSTREAM AND FROM THE SEA AND IT RUSHES INTO THE EMPTY WITH RAGE AND GRIEF AND HORROR AND IT IS TOO LATE FOR EVERYTHING IS DEAD EXCEPT THEM
THE WATER IS POISON BUT IT IS A DIFFERENT POISON
THE WATER IS POISON BUT IT IS A DIFFERENT POISON AND THEY HAVE CHANGED
THE WATER IS POISON BUT IT IS A DIFFERENT POISON AND THEY HAVE CHANGED AND THEY WILL KEEP CHANGING EVER AND ON—]
Roksana was wrenched back into awareness, peeping at the top of her lungs and trying to curl into a ball to hide amongst her tails and cover her eyes with her paws, but she couldn’t, because she was currently dangling from Big Sister’s mouth as Big Sister leaped from the ground of the thirteenth basement and through the hole in the wards.
[Careless! Thoughtless! Always having to know even if it means trouble! This is why you are not supposed to wander!] Big Sister was furious, her harmonic no longer the familiar windchime but a howling gale, but for all her rage, she was the eye of the storm, cold and still and relentless.
Big Sister crawled through the spaces of reality, growling low in her throat and slapping aside wards with a paw or smacking away a clinging bit of magic with her tails, forcibly shortening the path between A and B in ways that made spoken gibber uselessly. They crawled for a heartbeat. They crawled for a myriad.
Then Big Sister was stepping into realspace, into Mommy’s office, hopping down from empty air with a commanding warble. Big Brother jerked awake, rolling off the couch, and scrambled over to join them at Roksana and Amandina’s basket.
What happened? he said.
Stupid baby sisters went wandering and touched things they shouldn’t, Big Sister grumbled, her harmonic back to normal. She dropped Roksana next to Big Brother, then turned and hunkered down, wind aether gathering along her haunches. Keep an eye on her, I need to get Amandina.
She leaped, and vanished back into the space between.
Fire and water normally didn’t mix well, but Big Brother had always tolerated her squishing into him because he was warm and it felt gooood, even if grumbled. He didn’t grumble today, though, as Big Brother loafed immediately in her basket and Roksana pressed her face into his side, peeping pathetically and shaking all over. Big Brother wasn’t good at comforting, not like Biggest Brother was, but he started purring immediately.
Roksana couldn’t remember why she was so scared, but she was, and Big Brother was helping, and that was what was most important.
Big Sister re-appeared in a flash of displaced aether, Mommy’s wards rippling, with Amandina hanging docile and contrite by her scruff from Big Sister’s mouth. Big Sister stalked over, deposited Amandina next to Roksana (Amandina immediately cuddled up to her, purring her tiny, squeaky purr), and then promptly loafed on top of them both, starting up a ferocious purr like storm shutters rattling in the wind.
Roksana was starting to feel much better. Big Sister and Big Brother would always keep her safe, and their aether was almost as comforting as Mommy’s or Papa’s.
Mama is going to be upset, Big Sister said primly.
Roksana felt bad again. Please don’t tell! I’m sorry!
Baby sister, if you don’t think Mama isn’t running full speed up the tower right now, you are sorely mistaken, Big Brother drawled.
The aetheric resonance was so strong we felt it through our foci, Big Sister said. Mama wears all our foci on her wrist, she knows something happened to you, and you [will not lie, am I understood?]
Roksana whined wordlessly, but slumped beneath her siblings. Okay… Thank you for saving me, Big Sister.
No thanks necessary, you little troublemaker. Big Sister’s harmonic was at least affectionate beneath the annoyance.
…How did you find us? Amandina chittered.
I followed my nose.
That made sense. Big Sister had the bestest nose in the whole of Mealvaan’s Gate. She could sniff out anything, anywhere.
How did you voidwalk?
I’m Eldest, Big Sister said, as if that explained everything. Which it did.
That was when Mommy burst into the office, chest heaving and breath a wheeze as she stumbled over, Bigger Brother right at her heels. “What happened?” she croaked, gently pushing Big Sister aside to scoop up Roksana and Amandina.
Mommy was scared, which meant she was mad, but even when mad, Mommy cuddles were the best. Roksana promptly burrowed into Mommy’s neck to hide as Amandina crawled up to perch on the opposite shoulder.
We went wandering, Amandina said quietly. And we took a wrong turn, and we ended up in the aether battery room.
I touched it, Roksana admitted. There’s a bad water crystal in it.
“Just touching something with a crystal component out of alignment shouldn’t have caused a reaction like that, my dears,” Mommy said, gently stroking her back and tails. “Can you remember what happened?”
No. I think it was scary, though. Still kinda scared.
Aetheric resonance, Big Sister said, harmonic grim. I think one of the clusters is from the Yafaemi Estuary.
Roksana didn’t know what that meant, but Mommy did, because she said a bad word in Abanian. She didn’t feel like asking what aetheric resonance was right now. Maybe later.
Mommy was upset, and she and Amandina were definitely grounded, but Roksana was warm, and safe, and home, snuggled up with her Mommy and the comforting sound and smell of her aether. Everything would be okay, even if it meant no cake for a sennight.
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#ffxivwrite2023#final fantasy xiv#ffxiv#synnove's carbuncles#oc: synnove greywolfe#dt's writing#*puts on helmet*#*crawls into a bunker*#i know how people feel about the baby 'buncles and i am preparing for a storm#THEY'RE FINE OKAY THEY JUST DID A DUMB TODDLER THING#also hey guess what synnove isn't the only one in the family with carteneau trauma! though she's the only one who can remember it! :D#*ducks back into bunker*
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