I AM SO SORRY I LOST TRACK OF TIME
The next chapter isn't finished yet, but I don't want to leave you guys with nothing, so I'm giving you this little summary of an AU of this fic that I've had in my brain for a while. As soon as the next chapter is published, I'll move this over by the event stories so it doesn't interrupt the flow of the story. Again, I'm really sorry about the delay, but I hope this is better than nothing.
Warning: This AU contains a whole lot of Angst! Please keep that in mind before you read.
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Marie:
- Specializes in light magic and animal linguistics
- Excels in most fields of magic
- Went to a prestigious all girls magic school for almost a year, was allowed special admission to Royal Sword Academy in order to be closer to her sister
- Signature Spell: Till the Clock Strikes Midnight
- When this spell is cast, whatever it is used on is preserved in time. It does not decay or rot, though it can grow. A silver clock ticks down, and once the hands reach midnight, the spell breaks. It takes a lot of mana, so this spell usually lasts for a maximum of an hour, and can only be used once a day.
Ellinor:
- specializes in ice magic and practical magic
- Average learning speed in most fields, but has an exceedingly large pool of mana
- Ran away from home and broke into Night Raven College, disguised as a male student. Attended for almost a full year. Still remains on campus.
- Signature Spell: Silly Symphony
- When this spell is cast, a radius around the user becomes magically charged to respond to song. The range of the radius depends on the amount of magic used. When in this field, song and dance exponentially boost the power of spells. Stronger emotional connection to songs give more power. This field can be taken advantage of by anyone within its radius, however only one song can be boosted at a time. Volume, emotion, number of singers, and desperation all factor in on priority.
Background
The Oswald family is a famous family of mages. Their daughter Marie is said to be one of the top prodigies of her generation. She has a twin sister with massive reserves of mana, but she isn't seen much.
Ellinor grew to hate how her sister easily surpassed her in every field, and despised how her parents never looked at her. Her one advantage was her mana reserves. It was the only thing she had more of. She clung to it like a lifeline. She holed herself away in her room, studying magic, and discovered her signature spell at an astounding age of thirteen. She practiced singing and magic, determined to be a better mage than her sister. She rarely saw her, much less spoke to her.
Then, her sister was accepted into the magic school Ellinor applied for. And she wasn't. She couldn't understand. She had no way of knowing her parents never sent her application. She was crushed. She was angry. So she started plotting. She needed to get into the best magic school there was, better than her sister's. There was only one possible option. Night Raven College. (She ignored Royal Sword. She would be the one to finally beat Royal Sword.)
Of course, the obvious issue there was that Night Raven was an all boys school, and she did not identify as a boy, last she checked. The other issue was that there was no application process. You simply had to hope a carriage would arrive for you one day. Screw that. She would make it work.
So, stealing whatever money she could find and packing a bag, she cut her hair short and left it on her bed as a message. Then, she ran off for sage island.
On the way, she used the money she had for a fake pair of glasses, a few loose fitting outfits, and a binder. She also got some basic school supplies.
Eventually, she made it to the island, snuck onto campus, and walked straight up to the headmage. She pleaded her case, demonstrated her abilities, and slapped a wad of cash on his desk for good measure. It was enough. She was allowed to attend, but only if she stayed in the top 10 of her class, kept her gender a secret, and was alright with not being sorted into a dorm. She agreed, and Oswald Cinders was enrolled in Night Raven College and placed in the Ramshackle Dorm.
Everything went pretty smoothly from there. She was finally being recognized as talented. She was being seen! Finally, she could do whatever she wanted without restraint. She even had a chance to make friends! She met a cool first year from Heartslabyul named Cater, who was her lab partner, and she had the chance to meet Malleus Draconia in the flesh...! He was wandering around her dorm and she nearly blasted a chunk of ice at his head. It was an odd first meeting, but he was surprisingly nice to talk to.
He would show up at odd hours of the night, asking questions. She would answer them, then ask a few of her own. He liked to talk about gargoyles.
There was also Trey, who Cater would occasionally drag along with them on shopping trips and such. He was quiet, but fairly nice, all things considered. Cater often joked that he had a talent for making friends with people wearing glasses.
Her grade was also unreasonably full of famous people. She thought meeting Malleus was unbelievable, but the first year class had no shortage of celebrities. She managed to catch a glance of Vil Schoenheit in the halls once. The most unexpected thing for her though, was that she ended up getting spelldrive lessons from Leona Kingscholar, of all people.
She was having a rough day, and ended up complaining about her sister in vague terms to him once, and since then, he'd given her tips and hung around her more often. She'd cook for him in return, and let him use her dorm to nap. It was nice.
If only it lasted.
Everything came crashing down on the day of the VDC.
She hadn't expected her to be there. She hadn't expected to be recognized. But there she was. She didn't understand why Marie was crying. She only felt horror as her name was called out. She felt numb shock as her sister embraced her. It only took one glance at Cater to know it was over. His look of betrayal cut deep into her heart.
She pushed her sister to the ground and ran off. She glanced over at Cater one more time. He looked away. Her heart shattered. It was over. It was only a matter of time before she lost everything.
Her sister followed her. She followed her all the way back to NRC. All the way back to her dorm. She told Ellinor how worried she was and asked her to come home. Ellinor didn't want to go home. This was her home. Now, she had no home. No home, no friends, all because of Marie. EVERYTHING was always because of Marie. She lost everything to Marie. Again. She lost AGAIN. Why couldn't she ever win?!
She didn't want to see her sister anymore. She didn't want her to exist anymore. Marie should just disappear. She should have never come.
She fought her. She activated Silly Symphony and spat venom. A crowd started to gather. Marie still wouldn't go down. She turned Ellinor's hatred into a duet, trying to reason with her. Ellinor didn't want to listen.
The final nail in the coffin was when the headmage showed up. He commanded her to stop, to retract her magic, and to leave the island peacefully. He lied to the crowd, claiming he had no idea she was truly Ellinor Oswald. He told them she would not be attending classes any longer.
She had nothing left to lose.
Nobody was on her side. Nobody wanted her. She would rather die than go back to that house. She would rather......
Well. You know what they say about a girl who has nothing to lose.
She expanded the range of Silly Symphony. As far as it would go, then even further. She sang of bloody revenge, sharpening her ice and launching them at her doppelgänger. Nothing could stop her. No one could stop her. Power and despair mixed into a horrible concoction of ink.
Crowley called for backup as soon as the overblot happened.
With dripping black rabbit ears upon her head, she hovered in the air, shards of ice and glass jutting out from the ground. She wore a tattered ball gown that seemed to be made from a shattered mirror. The shorter front revealed a pair of blue shorts which faded to black near the knees.
The ghosts fled the Ramshackle dorm as it was impaled with ice. The building was collapsing. The gathered crowd fled for fear of their lives. Marie was still trying to talk her sister down. The more she heard from her, the more she realized how foolish she had been. She never knew how much she was suffering. She never knew she was struggling so hard. She should have looked into why she suddenly disappeared instead of blindly believing her parents.
This.....was her fault. Her sister hated her. She didn't blame her. She had never been openly hated before, and it hurt. It hurt because she didn't feel like it was unfounded. But what could she have done differently? Should she have held back? Not accepted her enrollment? Should she have let Ellinor win? Maybe she should have talked to her more. That wasn't possible though, since her door was always locked, and she enchanted it to be soundproof.
Still, she should have noticed sooner. She should have done....something.
But it was too late now.
Backup arrived, including the staff and the housewardens. Leona felt his gut twist seeing his underclassman and the destroyed landscape. Of course he heard the shocking news. It was hard not to. Her gender wasn't really a surprise to him, but her name was, and it made pieces fall into place that formed an ugly image. How dare they do this to her. She used her cunning and strategic mind to overturn her lot in life. She was brave enough to throw away her status and jump into a den of wolves in order to change her fate.
He had admired her, and that admiration only strengthened once he heard her name. Ellinor Oswald. The shunned second daughter of the genius Oswald family. But....she tried her hardest, she bit and clawed and tore, and this was what it led to? She was expelled on the spot, and now.....
He couldn't help but feel a bit disheartened about his own situation.
The battle raged on for hours, the dorm reduced to rubble and its only living resident still wailing and bubbling with rage. The hulking creature behind her seemed to be getting bigger. Strangely enough, there was a small inky creature jumping about as well. It would trip people, throw debris at them, or toss blot in their eyes if they got too close. It was tiny, but it was powerful.
Things were looking grim. Even with the combined power of all seven housewardens plus Marie, they couldn't defeat her. Not while her signature spell was in effect. Eventually, they came to the decision that in order to minimize casualties, they would have to stall her out until she was...consumed. Marie didn't like this.
Roses surrounded her, cutting off any escape routes. Any debris flung their way was turned to sand. Coral formed a loose cage around her, separating her from the two monsters assisting her. The debris swirling around was condensed, packed around the coral cage. A layer of crystal held it together. Anything that shattered in her attempts to escape was reformed, shimmering gold holding the cracks together. And finally, a tangle of thorns burst from the ground, circling both the monsters and the cage. Marie didn't like this.
She couldn't just let her die. She couldn't lose her sister like this. But she also couldn't let her hurt anyone, or worse... If only they had more time. More power. More.....
Marie knew what to do.
She ran off to find the strongest mage she knew, Malleus Draconia. It was a long shot, and he might not even listen, but she was desperate. If she combined his power with her signature spell using the boosting ability of Silly Symphony, her sister could live.
So she searched. And searched. Time was running out. She found him wandering the woods. She explained the situation and pleaded for his help. To her surprise, he quickly agreed. Apparently, he wasn't aware of an overblot taking place at all. Nobody had told him.
Nobody had told him anything.
Desperation, despair, and rage bubbled underneath his subdued exterior. Thunder struck. They were going to leave the child of man he had grown so attached to to die? He, or rather she, as he had just learned, had only existed a mere sixteen years! He couldn't lose her. Absolutely not.
It was almost midnight when they returned. The struggling had become weaker, but she was still singing. Marie activated her signature spell, and together with Malleus, activated Till the Clock Strikes Midnight.
She pushed the clock as far back as it would go. It gave her 24 hours. It was enough.
Interim:
Marie would visit every day to restore the magic keeping her sister alive. Perhaps it would be more merciful to let her die instead of stay in limbo, suffering in a swirling purgatory of rubble. She couldn't bring herself to care, though. She would keep her sister alive.
Soon after the incident, a strange group of people clad in armor showed up and quarantined the area with a technomantic force field. They were trying to take her sister away. Marie wouldn't let that happen. The field wasn't too hard for her to break through. She snuck in every night to restore her spell. As long as it was in effect, they couldn't take her.
Eventually, she got caught. She wouldn't back down though. She yelled at them, daring any one of them to try taking her younger sister away. She couldn't lose her.
She probably would have, were it not for one Idia Shroud. He apparently had some sort of authority over them. He commanded that they simply observe the incident from here, and only capture the phantom if the host dies. It was a special case, so it warranted investigation.
Marie was given access to the Ramshackle Ruins after that. She continued to visit every day. All other aspects of her life suffered from it. She wasn't going to class. Her school was too far away. She didn't participate in anything that required her to be away from Night Raven for more than a day. Night Raven was understandably reluctant to allow another Oswald twin to enroll, so Royal Sword swooped in and offered her special admission.
She accepted, on the condition that she would be allowed to visit Ellinor every day. Night Raven accepted the terms, so she attended Royal Sword Academy for the next two years.
As for Ellinor, she spent the next two years mournfully singing, never letting up on the onslaught of attacks in an attempt to break free.
She cried for days, begging for Malleus to free her. For Leona to save her. For anyone to let her out. She sang of the sting of betrayal. Of how her sister had taken everything from her. Of how she was doomed to waste away in the prison they had put her in. Her songs rang across the campus until Styx put the barrier in place.
Cater never forgave himself. He was shocked at the reveal for sure, and was dealing with a few revelations that made him feel more than a little embarrassed to look her in the eye. He shouldn't have avoided her. Maybe if he hadn't instinctively pushed her away, she wouldn't be stuck like...that. He leaned even further into the persona he'd crafted for himself. He never wanted to get close enough to anyone for it to hurt like that again.
Trey was busy keeping Cater afloat. He wasn't nearly as close to Oswald as he was, and Cater was taking it particularly hard. The housewarden was also having trouble dealing with the guilt, considering he helped imprison her, and had originally planned to leave her to die. Sure, Trey felt bad for her, but more importantly he needed to help the dorm get back to normal ASAP.
Leona...felt hopeless. He pitied her, and he pitied himself. It was the end of the road for both of them. He seriously couldn't win at anything, could he? So what was the point in trying. Occasionally, he would visit the Ramshackle Ruins, just to hear her voice. He wouldn't let himself forget that she was suffering. No, that would be too easy. He did notice that despite the lack of progress, she never once stopped trying to escape. It was pointless. ...at least she was better than him, though.
Ah, the tragedy of the Ramshackle papillon. Rook had noticed the enigmatic student occasionally join savanaclaw for spelldrive training. He'd been intrigued, and began investigating their new visitor, but something about him seemed...off. Eventually, he discovered her secret, via methods he would prefer not to admit, and he was touched by her plight. He wasn't aware of her true name, but the way she blossomed and grew in this school, it was as if she had been starved for years, and suddenly was given a grand feast. Surely she had her reasons for being here, he had thought. So he kept her secret, even from her. The reveal was heartbreaking, the overblot even more so. Still, it was tragically beautiful, in its own way. The shards of ice and glass that scattered the ruins were elegant, yet painful. It was poetic, and her voice was enchanting. Would that he could save her from her eternal chrysalis...
Vil didn't know her personally. He just heard that there was a student that turned out to be a female that overblotted and was being preserved by her sister. It was shocking to find out that said sister was Marie Oswald. He'd worked with her before. She and Neige were said to be the top power couple in the industry, were they to ever get together. The public was convinced they were soulmates. It was only after he discovered this that he learned of Ellinor Oswald, or Oswald Cinders, as she apparently went by. There was surprisingly little media coverage of her, despite her family's fame. She would only be mentioned in passing as a "reclusive daughter who never left her room". Though, apparently Oswald Cinders was rather social, constantly traveling between different dorms, and part of the pop music club. It would make sense if she were problematic or below average, but from what he'd learned, Cinders was consistently in the top five across the board until her expulsion. Perfect attendance, a perfect academic record, it made no sense. She had a wonderful voice as well. Nothing added up. There wasn't anything to be done about it now, though.
Idia wanted Ellinor Oswald to live. He wanted her to survive more than anything else. At some point, she and his brother had overlapped in his mind, and now he felt that saving her would be some form of redemption for his failures in the past. Marie wouldn't lose her younger sister to the same demons that had taken his little brother. Absolutely not. He would save her. It was practically his only driving force, other than Ortho.
Malleus was so glad she was alive. She wasn't the same, though. He couldn't talk to her about his latest discoveries or interests. He couldn't ask her questions that she would answer with a smile and an excited gleam in her eyes. She wouldn't beam at him in the way that made his heart flutter. He couldn't see her anymore. It saddened him greatly. Until they defeated the small ink creature, the large one would not go down. However, it was discovered the small one had intertwined itself with Ellinor's soul, meaning that defeating it would kill her. He despised the feeling of helplessness that grew when she sang for him. He didn't regret the cendrillion, not in the slightest. He only wished for her to be alive...
Oh dear. It seemed some kind of trickster spirit that was sealed away latched onto the poor girl as she overblotted. It made for a tricky situation; the spirit powered the mage, which in turn powered the phantom. Lilia wasn't exactly experienced in the ways that overblot worked, so he couldn't do much but try to reassure Malleus that the host was still alive, and as long as her sister kept renewing her magic, and as long as she kept singing, she would remain so. Still, he turned the thought of removing the spirit from her over in his mind...it had to be possible somehow...
A few months into the next school year, a first year fled Scarabia. He needed somewhere to scream. Somewhere to be alone. Somewhere He couldn't follow. Kalim was a rule follower most of the time, so he probably wouldn't follow him to a forbidden area. He ran past the botanical gardens, straight for the Ramshackle Ruins, as he'd heard them called. Nobody was allowed near there, though they didn't say why at orientation. The rumors were all wildly different, from the area being a demon's hunting ground, to a Princess being sealed away, to a haunted building where restless souls lured unsuspecting students to their death. He didn't care what was there at this point.
As he approached, he noticed two things: one, that there was a large blue dome with armored guards around it, and two, that there was a voice. A light voice, and it was singing. It sounded sad. No, more than sad, it sounded like concentrated despair. Tears unconsciously ran down his cheeks.
He met her that day. He had no clue who she was, or why she was there, but her songs resonated with him. He wasn't sure what prompted it, but he began to talk to her at some point. About his life, about school, about Kalim. She would sing in response, though they were fairly cryptic replies. Jamil wanted to find a way to free her. She didn't deserve to be locked up in there. She was suffering.
He had no idea he had become the one light she clung to. He was her friend. He understood. Jamil knew how unfairly she was treated. Jamil would help her. Jamil would save her. Jamil liked her. Jamil was her friend.
Jamil was her friend.
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It isn't fully complete, but it's something. If it's something you'd be interested in, I made a playlist for this AU on YouTube. It's just called Ink Stained Eclipse AU. That one actually has the songs put in order.
Once again, I apologize for the lack of chapter this week. I'll try my best to get on it and be able to get the next one up week after next.
Have a great week (:
~Astroleap