Chapter Text
The newly awakened Herrscher of Flamescion flopped onto the bed of her private quarters after another peaceful day at Salt Lake Base. It had been a week since the Herrscher of Domination had been defeated, and things have calmed down significantly. Bronya and Fu Hua have recovered from their injuries, as well.
It felt like a weight had been lifted from Kiana’s shoulders, the constant looming danger of the Herrscher of the Void taking over was no more. She could rest easy now that her other half was gone, no longer tormenting her every waking moment. No longer did she have to wear AE’s wrist band, as there was no need to monitor her condition anymore.
Though Kiana occasionally still experienced flashes of Sirin’s memories... Well, she guessed they counted as her own memories too.
Kiana sat upright on her bed, memories of her final confrontation with the Herrscher of the Void still hanged in the back of her mind. There were things that she had left unsaid.
…Maybe things could’ve gone differently. If Kiana tried to reason with her, convince her to let go of the hatred the Herrscher had inherited from their shared origin.
Though in the end, this was just wishful thinking. She shouldn’t dwell on it.
With a click of her fingers, a spatial rift appeared beside her. Void space was handy for stashing away things for safekeeping.
Kiana rummaged through the rift as if it were an impossibly large bag, looking for her treasured bat. She felt the handle of an implement and pulled it out.
…
In her hand was a white and black pistol, Domain of the Void, or something like that. Clearly a weapon made from the Herrscher’s powers, but Kiana doesn’t recall the Herrscher ever picking up a gun.
As she throws the weapon back into Void space, Kiana’s eyes catch a blue sparkle as something small floats onto her lap.
An azure feather. It looked exactly like one of Fenghuang Down’s feathers... What was it doing in her personal pocket dimension?
Did the Herrscher of Sentience leave one on her?
No… the colour doesn’t seem right. Senti’s—
She felt like someone yelled in the distance.
Herrscher of Sentience’s— Kiana corrected herself –feathers were black and red.
Kiana held the feather in her hand. Maybe she should ask Fu Hua about it. Though… Kiana was a bit curious. The feather felt awfully familiar between her fingers, though she didn’t know why.
Suddenly, the feather began to glow brighter and brighter. Sweat dropped from her face as Kiana dropped the incandescent plume.
That was a mistake.
The next thing she knew, she fell. The ground literally shattered into glass fragments and Kiana plummeted into the abyss.
As she fell, Kiana saw a violet hue start to spread from the ends of her white hair.
F W O M P
Kiana landed on the cold stone floor. Ow.
She pushed herself up, dusting off her black school uniform and brushing the mess of purple hair hanging over her face. In front of her was an oddly familiar two-story suburban house, the windows lit in warm hues.
She really should’ve asked Fu Hua before she touched that feather. Kiana concluded that she’s probably experiencing whatever memories were contained in it. Now she had to let it play out and wait for it to end.
…
Only that she wasn’t going anywhere. Kiana frowned, tapping her foot. Back in Mount Taixuan, when Kiana and Bronya were reliving Fu Hua’s memories, they were basically watching everything through Fu Hua’s eyes.
Judging from the purple hair, this was someone else’s memories.
Wait, purple hair?
A sudden realisation hit her. The familiarity of her surroundings skyrocketed.
Kiana counted to 3, before rushing over to the window, getting a good look at her reflection. A startled Sirin stared back at her, mimicking her every move. Though her Herrscher eyes were different. They were still Sirin’s amber eyes, but the bright crosshairs were that of the Herrscher of Flamescion.
This was the dream world Sirin created during the Second Eruption! Kiana’s relived this memory many times before, why hadn’t she recognised it sooner?
She puts her dainty hands together and takes a deep drawn-out sigh. It felt strange to be in control of this body, previous dreams had her body move on autopilot.
Kiana recalled the events of this memory. Sirin trapped Cecilia and dad inside an illusion, accidentally fell into her own fabricated world and was treated as their daughter. It was a warm memory, though bittersweet.
…
Something about this time felt off. Siegfried should’ve opened the door the moment Sirin landed in front of the house. Did the feather break the memory sequence?
Was Kiana trapped here?
She thought back to the feather she found in Void space, a memory rising to the surface.
“This toy isn’t working at all! I wanted it to make a nightmarish world and make them suffer!” The Herrscher cried out in frustration as she laid on the ‘floor’, clutching an azure feather in her hand.
“The feather isn’t even listening to me! I can’t figure out how it works!”
Oh.
Oh no.
That feather was the exact same one that Sirin had. Her lack of knowledge on how to operate Fenghuang Down came back to bite Kiana.
She was stuck here.
Her real body was still back in her bedroom at Salt Lake Base. Fu Hua could probably break her out of here, but that wouldn’t be until the next day at minimum.
She paced around, Kiana would probably go insane if she just stayed still the whole time.
Kiana knocked on the front door.
…
She felt a bit disappointed when her father did not open the door, unlike how the memory usually played out. Kiana hasn’t seen him in years, and she thought she had a chance to at least talk to a memory of him… Even if she currently looked like a certain genocidal purple-haired teen.
Since knocking didn’t work, what if she tried using her Herrscher powers? She clicked her hands as a flame coalesced in her palm.
… On second thought, maybe Kiana shouldn’t try to burn down the door. She could still try the door handle.
Hmm. In the dreamworld, Sirin was Cecilia’s daughter.
Kiana reached down into her skirt pocket, searching for something.
Aha! She had keys! Hooray for intuitive thinking!
Kiana unlocked the door quietly, slipping inside the house. There is a moment of excitement as she hoped that Siegfried and Cecilia would be there to welcome her back.
…No one came to greet her.
Come to think of it, why would they be here? They weren’t fabrications like Theresa and Kiana’s namesake in the dream world.
She really shouldn’t be dwelling on this, focus on getting out of here. Kiana was tired, maybe she could head to her… Sirin’s bedroom. There was probably a dream-counterpart in Kiana’s room, so better not risk it.
As she recalled the layout of the family house, Kiana suddenly heard a weird noise coming from the living room.
She followed the sound to the living room, only to come face to face with… another Sirin?
The other Sirin did not notice her identical twin staring at her. Shoving a spoonful of ramen into her mouth. Cups of instant ramen were littered on the table around her.
Kiana stood there, dumbstruck. This was the last thing she expected. Was a shadow of the past her imprinted on the feather?!—
Kiana’s train of thought was soon interrupted by a gagging noise. The girl finally noticed her, almost choking on her food. Kiana stepped forward, only for the girl to put up her hand. She finally composed herself, gulping down the noodles she almost choked on, before facing Kiana.
There is an uncomfortable amount of silence as the girl’s golden eyes watched Kiana carefully, dark crosshairs in place of the other Sirin’s pupils. They suddenly widened, as if she figured something out.
“…”
“…”
“…What are you doing here, vessel?” The Herrscher of the Void demanded, before shoving another lot of noodles into her mouth.
Vessel?
Oh. That wasn’t the original Sirin in front of Kiana, but her other half, who’s supposed to be gone. Here she was, doing nothing but stuffing her face full of ramen like a normal person. The same other half that tormented Kiana her whole life, doing normal human things?
Was the Herrscher always this… weird?
“… I thought you disappeared?” Kiana asked carefully. It felt strange to hear Sirin’s voice come out of her mouth, but that was the least of her problems.
“Mhm… I certainly tried to. But no, I’m stuck as a sliver of consciousness in a Core that doesn’t listen to me anymore.” The Herrscher replied, pointing her chopsticks at her twin. “Answer the question.”
“I found a feather.”
“… Explain.”
“One of Fu Hua’s old feathers.”
“Who?” The purple-haired Herrscher gave Kiana a quizzical look. “Oh. Your other girlfriend.” Then the Herrscher of the Void’s eyes widened with realisation. “Wait. So, you’re the reason I woke up in this blasted house.” She snarled, though without the inhuman echo that usually accompanied her voice, the Herrscher sounded significantly less threatening.
It turns out that when Kiana touched the azure feather, it also pulled the slumbering former Herrscher into the dream world. Now the two of them were stuck here, in duplicate bodies of the original Herrscher.
This was giving Kiana a headache. She didn’t know how to leave this place, so the best she could do was head to bed. Kiana hoped that when she woke up, she would be back in reality. Though Kiana probably couldn’t count on that… She wasn’t sure if time flowed differently here. For all she knew, a day here could be a few hours in reality.
As Kiana left the Herrscher to her noodles, she noticed the girl shoot her a strange glance. The Herrscher of the Void clenched her jaw, swallowing whatever words she was going to say.
Kiana found herself staring blankly at the ceiling of the bedroom from under the sheets. Sleeping was a lot harder than she expected.
She shut her eyes and tried to wait it out.
…
A few minutes later, and Kiana was still restless. She grumbled in frustration, having no one to blame for her current predicament other than herself.
B A M
The bedroom door slammed open, prompting her to emerge from the bedsheets. She saw the Herrscher standing there.
“Don’t ask.”
Huh? Kiana’s amber eyes blinked. Before she could respond, the Herrscher limped over to the bed, crawling in beside her. The bed was a little small for the Sirin twins.
Ah… The Herrscher probably wasn’t used to having a body. Without her powers, she couldn’t float anymore, nor could she stave off human sensations like exhaustion. This realm was practically indistinguishable from reality, and that applied to physical senses.
Awkward silence dragged on for a bit. “Were you lonely?” Kiana finally spoke up.
“Shut up.” The Herrscher of the Void growled.
“That sounds like a yes.”
“Stop making this weird. I’m just cold.”
It was surreal to be talking so casually with the Herrscher, who currently looked more like an upset teenager. Her response caused a smirk to form on Kiana’s face.
“It’s not that weird. Pretty normal to share a bed.”
“Excuse me?”
“We’re two halves, right? That basically makes us twins.”
Anger crept across the Herrscher's face. “What is wrong with you?”
“A lot, actually.”
The Herrscher pouted, turning to face the other end of the bed. Though after a while, she trembled, begrudgingly huddling closer for warmth, eventually drifting off to sleep. In her powerless, defeated state, she seemed more like an ordinary girl.
A thought passed through Kiana’s head. She didn’t know how long the two of them were going to be trapped in the feather’s dream world, but it had inadvertently given her another opportunity.
Maybe… She could teach her other half what it was like to be human again, and she had a good idea where to start.
The next morning in the dream world.
“Unhand me, fiend!” The Herrscher of the Void cried, her fingers digging into the pavement as Kiana dragged her out the front door.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Sirin.” Kiana replied smugly, grinning evilly. Amused at how the tables had turned, the Herrscher of the Void completely at her mercy. “We’re just going to the mall.”