/you're still the oxygen i breathe/ i see your face when i close my eyes/ it's torturous/ tonight is gonna be the loneliest/
-the loneliest, måneskin
Six months.
Y/n had been on her own for six months.
And she was... not doing well.
She had been roaming the wilderness, stopping briefly in towns, but never staying in one place for more than a few days, and always staying close to the Corona walls.
Food was easy to find. Y/n remembered her botany lessons, and she knew which plants were and were not safe to eat.
She stole where she could, too. Nothing too bad- she was still trying to stay hidden, after all- but if a couple caravans woke up missing their bread, it certainly wasn't Y/n's problem.
And she'd gained... a bit of a reputation.
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About a month into hiding, there had been an accident. A horse and carriage had come speeding down the road, and unfortunately, the line of black rocks was far too close for comfort.
One thing led to another. Y/n tried to dodge out of the way of the carriage, and one of the amber compounds in her coat had come dislodged.
The sphere had fallen to the ground as Y/n rolled out of the way. The second it hit the black rocks, it burst upwards in a terrible spire of translucent rage.
The carriage was fine. None of the people inside were harmed. The horse, however...
Well. At least it wasn't as bad as Quirin. A person encased in (f/c) amber on the side of the road probably wouldn't have gone over well.
Still, rumors had spread. Suddenly, it wasn't a horse, but it was a team of horses. No, said some, it was an entire carriage. Of course not, argued others, it was a person. The rumors grew and grew, until suddenly everyone knew about the girl in the black coat, the one with a golden streak in her hair who could encase armies of people in amber with a snap of her fingers.
Obviously, none of these were true. But it made getting around unnoticed... just a tad bit harder.
And, of course she still had no idea how she was going to get Varian out. Or get her throne back, for that matter.
She was starting to lose hope.
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Now, Y/n strolled along the path of black rocks that led past Corona's borders, traveling in the opposite direction that the rocks seemed to have pointed Rapunzel, hair streak glowing in the bright sunlight.
She would head back to where Corona's wall had fallen, maybe stop at a town along the way for some extra supplies.
The months spent on her own had made Y/n more prepared, and more resourceful. After the incident with the amber, she had managed to acquire a full tool belt, where she stored her remaining spheres, along with a few other useful tools. Y/n had picked up some general compounds wherever she could, and the multicolored vials were neatly tucked into the belt's pockets, ready to be pulled out whenever it was necessary.
Her boots clicked along the obsidian rocks as she continued walking. Y/n's wardrobe hadn't changed since she had fled- although she obviously washed it as often as she could. She might be on the run, but she wasn't an animal.
She still had the (Y/n)rium necklace, too. It was the only thing that kept her going some days.
In the distance, Y/n saw the shape of a town begin to appear on the horizon. She had been here before, although she didn't remember its name. It did, however, have an apothecary. Perhaps she could acquire some new chemicals while she was here.
As she walked, Y/n's thoughts returned- as they often did- to Varian.
Specifically, the kiss.
Don't forget me, he had whispered. Y/n could still remember the smell of smoke, the way they had clung desperately to each other, the taste that lingered like a ghost on her lips whenever she thought too hard about him.
She missed him. Desperately.
He probably hated her now. After all, he was rotting in prison, suffering through who-knows-what while Y/n walked in circles in the woods with absolutely no plan for a prison break.
It was her fault that he was gone. She knew it. Maybe she should have stopped him- no, she should have tried harder, should have worked harder to help him. Even if they had still failed, she should have gone with him, should have stayed by his side.
She was so cowardly. How could she leave him?
Y/n took the (Y/n)rium necklace in her hand and ran her gloved fingers over its violet gemstone, wishing for all the world that Varian was here, and not the things he left behind.
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The apothecary shop was a small, brick building, with stained glass windows and a deep green door. Y/n inhaled the smell as she put her hand on the doorknob- herbs, chemicals, and just a hint of smoke.
She pushed the door open, and a small bell above the doorframe rang, announcing her presence.
The shop was made up of one large room, covered floor to ceiling in bookshelves. One window shone down on the space, illuminating shelves overflowing with books, vials, ingredients, quills and ink.
Very few people were waiting inside. A man stood by a bookshelf, examining a vial of golden liquid. On the other side of the room, a very short woman with two lavender braids wearing a thick blue beanie and a bulky man with a thick red beard were speaking with a tall brunette who appeared to be the store clerk.
Y/n walked over to one of the overflowing shelves of faintly glowing vials, neatly labeled in a flowing cursive script.
She was looking for the materials to recreate her amber compound. She had a dozen spheres, originally- she had used four in the battle, and lost another two in the incident with the horse. That left her with six- not nearly enough for comfort.
Currently, she was looking for Obsidian Oak Sap. After the incident on the road, she was looking for a more temporary solution- something that could wear off after a few days. The Obsidian Oak used its sap as an adaptation to trap insects to its surface, and Y/n figured that it could wear off, unlike the chemicals she had previously used.
Unfortunately, the resource was quite rare, and she was having a hard time finding it on the shelf.
"Can I help you?"
Y/n turned to see the store clerk, a tall brunette woman in a dark green apron and hair pulled into a wildly messy bun. The woman with the purple hair and the bulky man seemed to have found what they needed, and were picking items from the shelves on the other side of the room where the clerk had left them.
"Yes, actually..." Y/n responded, glancing at the shelf. "Do you have any extract from an Obsidian Oak?"
The clerk let out a hmm sound. "Possibly... I'd need to check in the back. You wouldn't happen to have the compounds you'll be mixing it with, would you?"
She nodded. "Yeah, they're right here-"
The clerk gasped softly. Y/n was confused for a moment, until she looked down and realized why.
Her coat had moved as she reached down to check her belt, and her remaining six spheres, strapped to her torso and glowing a bright (f/c), were now fully visible.
Y/n quickly pulled her coat back to where it was, but the damage had been done.
"You're that amber girl, aren't you?" the clerk asked fearfully.
This was not going well. "No, no, I-"
"Oh my goodness, the hair! How did I not see it?" The clerk took a nervous step back. "Were you trying to get me to help you do that to people?"
Y/n put her hands up in front of her defensively. "No, I'm trying to improve the compound! I-"
"You want to make it worse?!" The clerk shrieked shrilly.
Y/n glanced at the exit. She could make it if she ran.
"Look, I don't want any trouble." she warned, taking a few slow steps backwards to the exit. "I don't want anyone here to get hurt."
"Guards!" cried the clerk. "Guards!"
Oh, son of a...
Y/n ran for it.
She darted for the door, and, noticing an alleyway on the other side of the street, lunged into the shadows.
She watched from behind a tower of boxes as the town's guard force came thundering down the street. The store clerk was still screaming, and a guard went inside to calm her down, the woman's panic decreasing a few minutes later.
The guards scanned the street for several minutes, but Y/n remained hidden, and eventually they drifted off.
Just as Y/n was about to emerge from the alley, the apothecary door swung open, and she ducked back behind the boxes.
"Do you even know how to use any of this stuff?" an accented voice was asking, and Y/n peeked over the tower of crates.
It was the burly man with the beard and the short woman from before. The man was looking down at the woman, who was tucking some herbs into her satchel.
"Of course I do!" the woman retorted in a raspy voice. "Now come on! That girl gave us a diversion to take this stuff, but I don't want that idiotic clerk to see us leave with it!"
"What was the deal with her, anyway?" asked the man curiously. "She some kinda criminal or somethin'?"
"How should I know?" the short woman shouted. "Come on, Andrew wanted us to get into the palace two weeks ago! We don't have time for this!"
The palace?
Corona was the only kingdom nearby that actually had a palace. Sure, others had fortresses and castles and strongholds, but Corona was... unique.
So they're willing to steal, and they want to get into the palace?
Maybe they're worth following.
"Let's go!" shouted the woman. She seemed to do that quite often. "Maisie and Juniper are waiting."
The pair's voices faded out as they continued to walk away, and Y/n crept out from behind the stack of boxes, pulling her coat tightly around her as she began to follow the two, her boots silent on the stone street as she followed them who-knows-where.
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Y/n had been trailing the duo for a few hours now. They had left the town, and had been walking off the road and into the woods beyond, the sun setting ahead of them.
She wasn't doubting her decision. She had been unsure at first, but once she began listening to their conversation, she was sure that this was the right play.
They were definitely talking about Corona. From what Y/n had gathered, someone named Andrew was waiting at the palace for them, and they needed to start some kind of "plan"- although the pair hadn't specified what exactly they were planning to do.
She had caught small snippets of their conversation from where she was following- something about a wand, a fight, and Saporia. Y/n recalled the Kingdom of Saporia from her tutors- a sappy story about how their kingdoms were "united by love", or something like that. However, for the life of her, she could not figure out how it related to the two in front of her.
Y/n brushed leaves and branches out of her way as her boots fell silently on the forest floor. They had entered the woods about an hour ago, and she had expected the pair ahead of her to have exited by now.
"Shouldn't we be there by now?" she heard from the trees before her, the short woman's raspy voice echoing through the woods.
"Well, I don't know!" the man with the accent exclaimed. "Maisie said she could patch up the tears and be ready to go when we got back! I don't think she moved!"
She couldn't see the woman, but it would not have surprised Y/n even the smallest bit if she was rolling her eyes tremendously.
It was curious, though. Tears? What mode of travel, other than a sailboat, would be able to be torn and prevented from traveling?
"Finally!" the woman's raspy voice cried. "Oi! Maisie! Juniper! We're ba~ack!"
The trees began to thin before Y/n, and she brushed the final leaves from her way to see a clearing ahead, the two she had been following walking downwards towards...
A boat?
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whoooo's hyped for Part Two? we know we are ;]
it's been a while, but we're glad to be back! can't wait to show you all where we pulled those trailer lines from.
thanks for reading!
-leviathan and yuki
[hey guys! it's leviathan again with a quick announcement- i've begun a oneshot book over on my account! as a slowburn author, the transition's been a little difficult, but i think it's coming along nicely. i'm taking requests, so you can check it out if you're interested. thanks again!]