Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been the end of your journey when it happened, when you remembered it. You and your family had been back in Dormont, back where it all happened to send it all off. You’d personally requested this last stop as you wanted to face it one last time before finally bringing this journey to an end. You’d been so worried about everyone going their separate ways and struggling to keep in touch, but amazingly it seemed that everyone actually just wanted to find somewhere to live together, with the main priority being getting Bonnie into an actual school; and while Pétronille was basically an entire adult at this point, she had missed a decent chunk of education while caring for Bonnie, so it would be nice to give her the opportunity to study at a House or something. Honestly, you personally could have kept travelling, but there were other things that needed doing, lives to be lived and such. Who knows, maybe you’d find something really cool to do once you’d all settled down. Or maybe even travel alone a little bit, with a nice home to come back to. The memory though, had been triggered while talking to Euphrasie, Claude was there as well and you noticed they had matching earrings, bonding earrings, you realised after staring for a while.

Isa had touched on the topic of bonding earrings once before, but you’d reacted really badly. You brushed it off as just being really nervous and uncomfortable with getting your ears pierced and needing time to warm up to the idea (which was kind of true), but it was also because some deep part of your mind screamed at you that it was wrong, and not to do it. You were convinced this was something to do with your past, with your forgotten culture, but you couldn’t dig it up. Your first thought was that maybe The Universe was against piercings, but that seemed dumb. So maybe it was a more specific thing to how you were raised? But you were pretty certain that wasn’t the case, if piercings were bad you’d have surely been set off by how many people have them in Vaugarde.

You scoured every book in your language that you could find, you’d already asked your family to keep an eye out for them and so you could usually find one at every major stop (they really were just everywhere, shockingly common finds) and Houses of Change would often have a few in them, there was even the Gambling One in Taussat who had loads. But no luck, you never found anything on piercings, jewellery, or bonding. You did find something on mask repair practises which helped you remember how to make that one lacquer you used, so you have that written down somewhere now, which is nice, but not that helpful to the current problem.

Seeing Claude and Euphrasie though, and the split mask they each wear one half of, it reminded you of something. Bonding masks. Yes, that was it, bonding masks. That’s what’s been driving you mad for the better part of a year. It wasn’t that you were against earrings, you just wanted a mask as well. The others were mid-conversation (something about how cool Bonnie’s mask was) when you suddenly crouched on the floor, pulling out your little notepad and frantically scribbling everything you remembered before the fog snatched it away again. Your family was used to this, and explained your behaviour to Claude and Euphrasie while you wrote. They all patiently waited for you to finish before peering down at your chicken scratch writing. You sat back to nurse your new headache and handed the notebook up to Isa, who happened to be closest.

“Oh? What do we have this time?” he asked as he began reading it. “Oh—” he squeaked, his pitch shifting up several levels and a blush just peeking out from under his mask.

“Oh? Let me see it,” Odile said, taking it from him. “Oh, I see. Bonding masks.” She looked between you and Isa, and then between Claude and Euphrasie, evidently putting the pieces together very quickly. The book was passed around the group so everyone could read it, getting lots of understanding vocalisations from the adults, a single “gross” from Bonnie, and a fake gagging sound from Pétronille. It was only a rough idea for now, you’d have to read it over later and try and draw out more specifics, talking about it with your family might help, or trying to simulate doing it. For now at least, you had the concept.

The conversation wrapped up pretty quickly after that while your headache faded away. Isa was very obviously glancing at you the whole time, paying less attention to the others than you were. After goodbyes were exchanged you went straight back to the room the House of Change had provided, Isa following along at your heels like an eager dog. You failed to resist the urge to pat his head, delighting in his confused sputtering. Once you were actually in your room, with the door safely locked, you pulled your mask off and placed it next to the framed restoration of your other one, Isa’s joining them shortly after.

Something you’d learned about the forgotten information was that the act of reading it didn’t cause the headaches, it was the act of remembering. So it was perfectly safe to keep written reminders around, and anyone who didn’t actually previously know the information could read it largely unaffected since the strength of the headache was directly linked to how well you previously knew it. It’s why the name of the country and the image of its language could affect everyone instantly, because it was well known. With this in mind, you passed your note to Isa.

“Read this out?” you asked him. If he read it aloud it could help trigger relevant memories without splitting your head open as quickly, and he should be mostly fine reading it. You sat down on the bed, crossing your legs. Isa sat on the chair next to the rooms desk and grabbed a pen. It was a familiar routine, having someone read it back to try and knock anything else loose, you would say anything that came to mind without thinking about it, and they would write it down. And then the final product could be examined.

“Ready?” he asked. You nodded. “Bonding masks, breaking the masks of the ones bonding and fusing the pieces together.”

“Even pieces, one for each person,” you interrupted, quickly recalling more. “And you make new masks for it.” You hear him scribbling on paper before he continues.

“Masks don’t have to be the same shape or material—”

“Same shape makes it way easier though.”

“Other peoples marks are added after the new masks are fused.”

“The mask should also still be designed for the person making it, it’s not like bonding earrings where you design it exclusively with the other person in mind. You make a mask for yourself like usual, but keep the other person in mind as you do.”

“Anything else?”

You tried to force it, you shouldn’t, but you really wanted to be sure. “Ah,” you hissed as the headache kicked back in, “No, nothing.”

You sit there and rub at your temples, Isa leaves and comes back with some water and painkillers for you. He’s so nice like that. Once you’ve swallowed the pills, Isa speaks. “So, uh, anything you want to talk about? Regarding this?” Obviously there is. But… teasing him is fun.

“No, not really,” you say, a teasing lilt to your voice. “It would only cause more headaches after all.”

“So, there’s no particular reason that might have caused this specific memory?”

“Oh, you mean about that. Yeah, there was.” He lights up with so much joy you almost bail on the teasing. Almost. “Euphrasie, and Claude. They have those bonding earrings now, and with their shared mask I guess it was just close enough that it helped me remember. Isn’t it cool how they almost accidentally used the ritual of a forgotten culture? I’m happy they’re bonded now as well, the way everyone else talked about them it was a wonder it didn’t happen sooner.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m happy for them as well.” Okay, any more and it’ll just be mean.

“Isa,” you say with a soft lilt, dragging his name out. He looks up at you, doing his best impression of a kicked puppy. “Would you like to make bonding masks?”

“Yes!” he shouts ecstatically, leaping at you and wrapping you in a hug. “Yes, yes, of course I would.” You hug him back, resting your head on his chest.

“We can do bonding earrings as well.”

“Really?” he gasps, “But I thought you were nervous about piercing your ears?”

“Well, kinda. The main reason I was putting it off was because every time I thought about it, it felt like I was forgetting something really important. So I’ve been searching for anything about bonding rituals from back in that country. And seeing those two just triggered it at long last. I’ve actually wanted to do it since you asked, I just couldn’t shake the feeling I was missing something.”

“Oh Sif, I’m glad you were able to remember, this is going to be so fun. It’s been ages since I made this mask, it’ll be cool to make a new one. Oh, what should I make it out of? What should I put on it? What should—”

“Isa,” you interrupted, reaching up to cup his face, “perhaps we should consider the shape first.”

“Ah, yeah, I got a bit carried away there.”

“Dork.” You tugged him gently down towards you, noses brushing slightly as you kissed him. It was soft and quick, you weren’t really a fan of long kisses, and you smiled at him as you pulled apart. “Do we want to match the shape or do whatever we want?”

“I think it would be nice to match.”

“Matching it is then.”

You went over to the desk together, sitting and beginning to draw up different shapes for your masks. The shape you settled on was a full face “U” shape, slightly pointed at the chin. The top edge curving concavely with the two corners extending up and back like short horns, about a hands length, that would rise above your head slightly.

You did realise that since your heads were different sizes you would need to find someone who could use Craft to resize the shared halves. You expected this to be really hard since the only other place you’ve seen craft resizing things is in your cloak and old mask. And this one tailor on the other side of the country who specialised in it. You expected wrong, because apparently Claude knows how to do it. She learned when she made the split mask she shares with Euphrasie since it wouldn’t fit Euphrasie properly otherwise. She can only make small adjustments, nothing like sewing a cloak that grows with the wearer, but more than enough to alter two mask halves by a few centimetres.

And just like that, you had a plan: make your mask shells, split them down the middle, get Claude to resize them, fuse them, apply Crafts, apply marks. And then make bonding earrings at some point. What fun. You just had to decide on a material now. It was a good thing you were in Dormont, with your status as a saviour and access to the House of Change it would be pretty easy to get whatever you wanted, once you actually made a decision.

Perhaps bone, like your old mask? If you could find some large pieces of fox bone you could glue them together and then it would be like carrying forwards a part of both of your masks into a new one. Yeah, you liked that idea. Now you just had to go and be the weirdo asking around for fox bones to stick together. You hoped Isa was having an easier time procuring his materials.

~~o0o~~

Isa was not having an easier time procuring his materials. Isa was searching for marble, and not just any type of marble, one with very specific patterning. Isa loved marble, if he didn’t love designing and sewing clothes so much he’d probably sculpt marble. It was a beautiful form of rock with gorgeous natural patterning, and it was deceptively soft which also made it quite easy to work with, though easy to break and damage with minor mistakes. It required patience and skill to work with, but was so rewarding. He’d toyed with the idea of a marble mask once but had never been able to after he had broken the only piece he’d been able to get at the time.

But now he was much more skilled with his hands, and had the resources of Dormont’s House of Change at his disposal, so he was much more confident. The House did have a lot of marble chunks, but none quite had the patterning he was looking for. After spending close to half an hour looking through the surprisingly vast collection of marble available, checking and double checking every cut, he was just about ready to give up when he spotted something while rummaging through a box of off-cuts. A piece with just the patterning he was looking for. Darkless calcite marble with numerous lightless veins of various sizes branching across it. There was one problem: it was just barely bigger than his head, so he couldn’t make any mistakes when shaping it. No pressure.

~~o0o~~

It had been shockingly easy to find fox bones. One of the Housemaidens collected bones for art, and just had loads of spare bones lying around since people just kept giving him bones and dead animals they found. You located him easily by his mask: a full face mask in the shape of a deer skull that was actually made from loads of other animals bones that had been fused together through various techniques. He was more than willing to part with some, happy to have someone take them off his hands really, and so you left with an armful of expertly bleached fox bones, practically shining a pure darkless with nary a scratch on them. Now you were heading to Odile’s room, because she had the recipe for that starry lacquer you liked and you wanted to see if you could use it in some way to attach the bones together to get them into being one big piece you could whittle into shape.

“Siffrin, why do you have a pile of bones in your arms?” Odile asked after opening her door. You were actually quite thankful she was here because you had just realised you had no idea where you’d look if she hadn’t been.

“Bonding mask,” you said plainly.

“Right, the memory. Do you have the note for me?” Right yes, she made copies of everything you remembered or translated, so you were supposed to give her the note.

“Uh, it’s in one of my pockets, and my hands are full.” She stood aside so you could come in and put the bones down.

“How did you knock?” She asked as you fished the note out.

“I kicked the door, obviously.”

“Obviously.” She skimmed the note, quickly reading the bits you’d added. “I see, an interesting practise. So you’re here for?”

“The lacquer I like. I need to figure out how to modify it into a glue for the bones while keeping the effect. You can help me right?”

“Why do you just assume I know how to do things?”

“Because you’re smart obviously. Isa might know something like this as well but I want to keep it a surprise.”

Odile sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. You caught the way the corners of her mouth flickered upwards for all of a quarter of a second though. She wasn’t fooling you. “Let’s get to work then,” she said. Yay, teamwork time!

You separated out some of the bones that didn’t have good shapes to be sacrificed in your glue testing and got to work. Odile had stepped out for a moment to send a passing Housemaiden to go and fetch some additional ingredients for making the glues. The glue didn’t have to be perfect, you could always boost it with Craft, but a stronger base was always better. Odile looked at you sitting on the floor, sighed, and sat at the desk. Ha, sucks to be old. Wait, how old are you? Not relevant right now. You were a cool number of years old.

“Are you holding up okay?” Odile asked, after about an hour of failed attempts. You doubted she was referring to the current trials, but you saw an opportunity.

“I’m sticking with it,” you said, smirking at her even as the pieces of bone you held up failed to adhere yet again.

“Funny,” she said, in the flattest tone she could muster. “But you know I’m referring to being back in Dormont and the House, not the glue.”

“It’s… surprisingly fine, actually. It was bad at first for sure, you all saw that. But it’s just so different now that nothing really reminds of it, too much, anyway. Walking slowly and doing new things is really helpful as well, as is being in smaller groups most of the time.”

“Just remember to let us know if anything changes.” You nodded. “Oh, it looks like this one works.” She held up two pieces of bone, firmly stuck together with a nice starry shine in the join. Perfect. And with masterfully convenient timing, there was a knock at the door, followed by the sound of Bonnie’s voice telling you to come and get some food.

You stood up, stretching yourself out after spending probably a bit too long curled up on the floor. Oh stars, were you old? No, surely not, you could still do backflips. Yeah, you were young. Now then where was...

“On the bed Siffrin,” Odile said, seeing you looking around. And yes, your mask was on the bed, how wonderful. Food time.

~o0o~

After eating, you made a quick stop back at Odile’s room to wrap up your bones and mix a small pot of starry bone glue before heading back to your own room. You arrived at the same time as Isa, who had his own little bundle wrapped under one arm, and entered together, unmasking as you did.

“Did you manage to make a start?” you asked him.

“No,” he said, shaking his head, “I barely found enough material for it so I’m being very slow and careful. Only got the sketches ready. What about you?”

“I have the material but need to finish preparing it. I’m going to try and get it all done tomorrow so wake me up early.”

“Gasp,” he said dramatically, “Sif, actually asking to be woken up early? I don’t believe it.”

“It’s not that surprising. This just means that much to me. Between sleeping in and bonding with you, it’s an easy choice,” you said, smiling at him as he blushed. You ran through the schedule in your head: you were going to be in Dormont for a few more days before you would all briefly separate, which meant you had time to get the masks sorted and marked.

Once these few days were up Odile would be going back to Ka Bue for a bit to “get some affairs in order” and collect some belongings she still had there. That would take about two months she reckoned. Mira was going to travel a little bit more around Vaugarde because some Houses around the country had requested her aid in setting up general education courses as an alternative to the highly specialised courses they currently offered, and giving a few more presentations on reducing emphasis on needing to make big capital “C” Changes instead of smaller changes. Isa was going to move straight into the house you’d all bought with Bonnie and Nille. It was a nice place on the outskirts of a small city about a week’s journey from Dormont, it was big enough for all of you and they gave you a nice saviour discount on it. Mira was even able to get a position in the local House, they were going to hold a spot for her until she was done helping the other Houses.

You though, you still hadn’t decided what to do. Since you had no pressing obligations or desires, the others had all offered to let you accompany them. You’d been leaning towards going straight to your new home with Isa, since he would need help with Bonnie and Nille, and setting up his business. But he insisted he would be able to handle it and that you should do whatever seemed most fun. They all seemed fun though, it was just fun being with your family.

You turned your thoughts back to the present as you curled up in bed, wrapping yourself around Isa like the littlest big spoon you were. You wondered what it would be like to get your ears pierced after this, you’re pretty sure there’s a whole process and recovery thing you have to do as well which will delay getting the actual bonding earrings. You looked forward to it though.

~o0o~

Your morning had gone pleasantly, you’d woken up wrapped in Isa’s arms after he’d rolled over in his sleep as usual. Bonnie made an amazing breakfast using the plethora of ingredients the House had in stock. And you set off to start carving your mask shell. You were heading to the Favour Tree, you actually hadn’t been there since the loops ended and you saw Loop for the last time, but you felt like it was a good place to do this. You got lucky and saw a small family of foxes on your way there, the kits were so cute that it took a considerable amount of willpower to not follow them. You knew you’d just end up lost if you did.

Standing in front of the tree you took a few deep breaths, just to centre yourself. Once you were sure you were okay, you walked up to the base and sat where you always sat. It made you nervous to be in the same spot, but the other one was for Loop and they weren’t around to relinquish ownership.

You set out your tools around you and took stock. Pile of bones? Check. Pot of awesome glue? Check. Carving gear? Check. Sketch of the shape you and Isa decided on? Check. You had everything you needed. Now you just had to begin.

You started by sifting through the bones to find the ones with the best shape and thickness, you had far more than you needed thanks to the Bone-Collecting One who’s name you definitely remembered to ask for, so you could afford to be picky in your choices. Within a few minutes you had a solid selection of bones roughly arranged in the shape you needed. It would make a solid base to whittle down into what you needed so you started gluing them together. You glued them in pairs, giving each pair time to set while you did the others and then repeating the process until they were all nicely attached. You really liked the way the starry effect peeked out from the joins as you turned it in your hands, even the parts where you had been a bit messy and it leaked out onto the mask just added character.

Now for carving. You would start by roughly taking off large shavings to work it into the correct shape, then you would slow down to smooth it out around the edges and adjust the thickness so it would sit nicer and not be overly heavy. You would make sure not to shape it too precisely to your face, since Isa would be wearing half of this mask it would need to accommodate him as well, or at least leave enough material to fine tune it for him later.

It was comforting, carving, just sitting down and slowing shaving slices of bone off, letting them fall around you. For this part at least you could let your mind wander a bit and think about other things, your family, Loop. You missed Loop, you hadn’t heard or seen anything of them since the breakout. You wondered if you would ever see them again.

You were just about to start on the precise shaping when the fluttering of wings caught your attention. A raven had landed on the root opposite you, where Loop would normally sit. Weird, you’ve never seen a raven in this area before.

“Hey buddy,” you said softly, so as to not startle it. “That seat is for someone else I’m afraid.”

The bird ignored you, making itself comfortable and beginning to preen itself.

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you if you get cursed or something though.”

You wondered if you had any snacks you could give it, feeding random animals was always fun, especially confident ones like this. You rooted around in your cloak until you found a bag of chopped fruits that Bonnie had given you earlier. There were some small berries in there that it might like. You tipped some into your hand and slowly held it out to the raven. It looked at you, unimpressed, and made no effort to move. You slowly slid closer until your hand was right in front of it, where it finally took a berry from you. You placed the rest next to it, it was a brave little thing, you’d give it that.

You took off your gloves and mask before moving onto the next stage of your work. You worked better on finer details without them on, and you weren’t too worried about anyone sneaking up on you here and catching a glimpse of your face.

You’d been working on the precise shaping for not even an hour when you heard a rustling behind you. You quickly grabbed your mask and put it back on before turning. You were pleasantly surprised when one of the foxes from earlier padded out of the bushes, it was an adult, and the kits were absent. Maybe it was taking a break from childcare, did foxes do that? You let out a breath and sat back down, removing your mask once more. You were about to return to your task when the fox hopped over the root and began curling up at your feet. The raven looked up from where it was sat, but otherwise didn’t seem to care about the new arrival. You guessed you were an animal whisperer now.

You’d never actually been this close to a fox before, despite basing your current mask on them. All the times you’d followed them you had barely managed to keep them in sight as they bounded through tangled undergrowth. Looking at this one you realised that your mask was ever so subtly inaccurate, not enough for anyone to notice (or at least no one had ever commented on it) but the tufts of fur around the ears were wrong, as was the size and shape. You’d modified the snout to be intentionally shorter for convenience but even the width seemed wrong compared to the real thing before you. It was odd though, something about the design just seemed right to you. You hadn’t even used a reference book when you carved it, just did what seemed correct. You wondered if you had seen a different species of fox somewhere before, before you lost your memories.

You scratched between its ears, offering it some of your fruits and berries as well which it lapped out of your hand, tickling you lightly as it did. You giggled to yourself before wiping your hand on your cloak and returning to your work. You should be done by dinner at this pace.

~o0o~

Stars you were stiff, you might have become a tad too focused on your work. You were done at least, and the sun was only just starting to set so you knew you weren’t going to be late for dinner. The raven and the fox were still here as well. Neither were sleeping, they’d just been watching you and each other the whole time. You stood and stretched, both animals stirring slightly to look up at you. You gathered your things, pulling your gloves and mask back on before beginning your walk back to the House. You stopped after a few steps, instinct guiding your actions as you turned back to the tree where your animal companions were still observing you silently. You felt that needed to show gratitude in some way, it was important. You faced them for a moment before miming tipping your hat to them and bowing slightly. They both nodded their heads once in imitation before settling back to their restful positions. You left them to each other’s company as you returned to the House, you couldn’t wait to show Isa your mask shell and see his.

Isa met you at the entrance, he’d also just finished his sculpting. What perfect timing you two had. “Isa!” you sang happily, rushing over to him.

“Sif!” he copied, opening his arms for a hug. “You all done?”

“Naturally. And what’s this?” You poked the wrapped bundle he held in one hand as you stepped back from the hug. “I could feel the shape against my back so I assume you’re done as well?”

“Yup. Bit nervous though. And hungry.”

“We can wait until we eat then. Split them with full bellies and then go find Claude.”

He smiled at you and nodded, tension visibly leaving his shoulders. Normally you were the nervous one in these situations, it felt weird to not be. You’d just have to fill in for Isa’s role and support him as best you could.

Dinner was delicious as always, Pétronille still managing to out eat everyone else combined, and there were many unsubtle glances sent towards the bundles you and Isa had placed to one side. Once the food was finished and you’d all cleaned up, the excitement could be contained no more, Bonnie was the first to boil over.

“So are those your new masks? Can we see them?” they asked rapidly.

“I thought you said it was gross? Are you sure you want to see them?” you teased.

“Don’t be mean Sif,” Isa said, grabbing his bundle, “of course you can see them Bonbon.”

Boo, you wanted to tease them longer. Oh well. You grabbed your own bundle and moved to the table with Isa, your family gathering around. You unwrapped your mask shells at the same time to a chorus of appreciative gasps. Yours and Isa’s included. His mask was stunning, and apparently he approved of yours as well. And this was before any actual decorating had occurred, they were just plain shells.

Yours you already knew, bleached darkless bone segments glued together by a modified version of your star lacquer. Reflecting light to almost shine with how bright it was, offset by the glittering darkness contained within the join seams, lightless ichor flecked with stars spilling out in places. You hadn’t carved eye holes or other features, since you wanted to leave those as detailing choices.

Isa’s mask was, shockingly similar actually. It was some sort of smooth rock, marble you think. Calcite marble, he said when Pétronille asked. It was also darkless, though brighter than your bleached bone, almost seeming to shine on its own. And it was beautifully marked by sprawling lightless veins that flowed across it like rivers. It also lacked any defined features like your own did, great minds think alike it seems.

“I’ve actually always wanted to work with marble,” he said, “but it’s deceptively soft and really easy to break so I could never do it.”

“Well you’ve done a flawless job here. It looks amazing,” you said, lightly smacking his arm. You were glad he finally got to do it now, he looked so proud of it as well, and you were proud of him. Just looking at it you could tell it had taken a lot of work to get it into shape, you definitely didn’t have the skill set for it. Though he’d probably say the same about your mask.

“I love your mask as well Sif, I’d never have been able to carve this without breaking the pieces at the joins or something,” Isa said, like he was reading your mind. How dare he be so loving and supportive that you could perfectly predict his compliments instead of putting yourself down, who does he think he is? A great boyfriend or something? Well he is, and you love him. You kissed his cheek, that’ll show him.

“So how do we split them?” he asked, “You didn’t seem to recall anything specific about it earlier.”

“Well,” you began, stacking the masks on top of each other, “I don’t think there’s an official one way to do it. But I did have a fun idea.” You formed a scissors sign with your hand and held it above the masks. “Follow my lead?”

Isa caught your meaning quickly, and placed his hand on top of yours in a rock sign. You made a short and gentle vertical chopping motion, channelling and guiding an ever so small amount of Piercing Craft to intermingle with the Protecting Craft from Isa. An invisible blade split both masks perfectly down their centre line. You moved the halves to line them as as they would soon be fused. Now to find Claude.

Claude was found literally immediately, on account of the fact that Mira had sneakily sent word to her after you finished eating, resulting in her waiting outside the door when you opened it. She set up her tools with professional speed, gushing over your masks the whole time, both the new ones and the ones you were all currently wearing. Apparently she really liked studying other peoples masks and other cultures mask practices as a hobby, so she thought this whole ritual was really cool.

“Would you like me to fuse the halves as well while I’m here?” she asked as she examined them.

Isa looked at you and you nodded. “Sure,” he told her.

“Cool, put these on,” she said, handing you both some cloth masks, “I’ll need to get some measurements and your masks will be in the way.”

You both did as instructed, turning away to change. When you turned back, Claude went to Isa first, holding half of each mask in either hand. “Ready?” she asked him. He nodded. She held up the half of his mask first, presumably using it as a reference since it was already accurate to his size. Then she held your half next to it, humming to herself as she worked. She took the pieces back to her tools at the table and set about changing its size. You watched in awe as the bone slowly stretched and grew, leaving no visible indication of the process having happened, even the glue and joins and leaks changed perfectly. After a process that can’t have taken more than a few minutes, Claude had resized the mask half and fused it so perfectly with the other that the only way you could tell they were separate pieces was because there was a perfect vertical split where the mask changed to a completely different material.

She repeated the same process for you, shaping the marble to better slot around the contours of your face, and once again leaving no evidence of her work. Truly a masterclass in mask Crafting. And then she left. Just a quick “Alright, see ya.” and then she was gone, like she hadn’t just performed one of the most impressive things you’ve ever seen. That was cooler than the bomb she was making. Did she still have that? Should you tell someone? It’s probably fine.

Chapter Text

The next day you found yourself in a field with Isa, the field you would have gone stargazing in. It was a great spot, with the only downside being that you had to keep your masks on in case someone wandered by. You were here to begin the detailing work on your bonding masks together. Your left half was his marble, with your right being your bone, and vice versa for Isa naturally. The others were already planning their marks out, and Nille was especially excited since you decided she could mark these ones. You would have let her mark your fox one as well at this point but just forgot to bring it up. You had a sneaking suspicion she’d be asked to mark Mira and Odile’s masks sometime soon as well.

The two of you worked in comfortable silence, enjoying the sounds of your tools working away at your masks as you did the last of the basic detailing. You’d done your own masks on the half you made and then decided to swap and have each other copy the features over to the other side. Since you weren’t confident you could work with marble nor was Isa confident in working with bone. Isa had already finished his work on your mask since you’d asked him not to bother with an eye hole, since you couldn’t see out of that eye anyway, and you were going to put Odile’s gem over it. This meant that all he had to do for you was carve the other half of the sly little smile you wanted on it. You however, had to do not only half of the wide boisterous grin he wanted, but also the scrunched up laughing eye to match the one he’d already done.

You finished not long after he did though, you were very good at carving now even without Wish Craft after all, which you were quite proud of. You swapped masks back and you set about painting the glass for your eye. You’d carved a circular hole to insert some lightless glass into it, but first you were going to paint a darkless four-pointed star on it.

“You aren’t hiding the stars any more?” Isa asked, looking over at you.

“Just one shouldn’t cause any problems, most people will just think it’s a fun shape. I think.”

“Hmm, you’re probably right. Why the eye though?”

“I actually remembered a saying last night. I wrote it down, don’t worry. It’s about having stars in your eyes when you’re excited and stuff. It was said that even people with really emotionless masks could get excited enough that it would spill out like starlight, and that you could almost see their actual expression through the eyes. And it reminds me of Loop.”

“Oh yeah, Loop, they had that star on their chest didn’t they? Shame we haven’t seen them around. Hang on, that saying, what if someone didn’t have eye holes on their mask? Both of your old masks used Craft to see straight through the material so that might have been common over there.”

“It’s an idiom Isa, they aren’t always perfectly accurate. There are plenty of weird Vaugardian ones that come to mind.”

“Okay yeah, fair enough. That’s cool though ‘stars in your eyes’, it sounds so pretty. And it’s so positive. I like it.”

You smiled at him, then remembered he couldn’t see it so you bumped your head into his shoulder instead, prompting a fit of giggles from him. You turned back to your mask, once you had this glass done you could place the Crafts you wanted on the mask, attach Odile’s gem, do your own marks, and then go find the rest of your family. You were going to start with Odile, while Isa was finishing with Odile. You were going to go to everyone in turn and then meet back up at the end of the day to see how each others masks turned out. You could make a few broad guesses as to what their marks would end up being, likely external attachments given your difficult materials, but nothing specific. Except for Odile, you were very confident you were getting a new rendition of that painted lattice pattern she did. Which you were very much looking forward to.

You got the glass set and began on working the Crafts in. Aside from the binding you were also planning on having: a small amount of temperature modulation, just to keep the heat across the two different materials even so it wouldn’t feel weird; weight modulation, again because the two different materials meant each side had a different weight; and a basic catch all comfort Craft. Nothing too fancy or difficult. You also planned to ask Mira if she could try animating the star to twinkle a bit, but that could wait. Isa was doing much the same with his Crafts, and you could hear him humming away as he worked next to you, it was relaxing.

The Crafts took almost two hours to get set up, and once you were done you took a break to eat some snacks that Bonnie had given you both. You had: biscuits, berries, brownies, and seven sandwiches. Where was Isa hiding seven whole sandwiches? You never even saw Bonnie give them to him. You were supposed to be the pockets guy. How did he do that?

“Impressed?” he asked.

“Very, and confused.”

“And you’ll stay that way.”

“Isa?” you gasped. Betrayal, how could he?

“I learned from the best.”

Well he had you there. You opened and closed your mouth a few times, trying to come up with something to say until Isa flicked your mask up and shoved a biscuit in your mouth, expertly distracting you. It was delicious, the best kind of distraction.

“What was Loop like? You don’t really talk about them,” Isa said, while you did violent and horrible things to your fourth sandwich, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But they seemed nice.”

“Oh they weren’t,” you said, causing Isa to choke on a brownie, “Love ‘em though. They were great.”

“I… see? I’m a bit confused.”

“And you’ll stay that way,” you teased, sticking out your tongue and grabbing the last three brownies at once while he was distracted.

“Never mind, I get it now. They’re just like you.” Oh he had no idea how accurate that was. You finished your ravenous crusade against the surviving snacks and turned your attention to your paints, not to eat them of course, you weren’t that hungry. You weren’t sure how well this would turn out, but you had practised painting in general to see if it was any fun and gotten decently acceptable at it, so it shouldn’t be terrible.

You were painting a border around your mask, it was a bit weird painting across two different materials but you were managing. The border you were going for was one depicting a receding fog. You don’t think others will really be able to visually tell it apart from an encroaching fog, but you knew it was going away and that’s what mattered. You also traced around the gem eye, creating a sharp eyeliner effect in a dark shade, it almost looked like you were winking now. You spent most of the next hour or so trying to get the depth and texture of the fog just right, eventually getting it to a point you were happy with. You stretched and looked over at Isa to see what he’d done.

Isa had embroidered his mask. Because of course he could do that. What couldn’t this marvel of a man do? He’d used a Craft reinforced needle to pierce the marble and bone without cracking either material, and used a dark thread to stitch in a variety of designs around the mask. Six small love hearts surrounding the right eye, falling leaves starting about halfway up the horns and stopping on the forehead, and copies of his own bushy eyebrows. He had also attached his gem onto the forehead, right on the centre line like how your one had been on the fox mask.

You swapped masks without a word, to mark each others masks before anyone else did. You ran your fingers over the thread appreciatively, he’d have to weatherproof this later but you were sure he’d be able to do it. Technically, the half of the mask that you made would count as your mark, but you wanted to do something else as well. You were going to give him fish. You spent a significant amount of time studying fish after Bonnie had asked what your old mask was made from and you’d only recalled it was the bones of some sort of sea creature. Odile had taken to helping you study a wide variety of aquatic life to see if anything ever jogged a memory. It didn’t work, but you did learn a lot about cool fish. There are many wonders in marine biology.

You decided to place them on the bone side, since that way you could carve them in and use paint to highlight specific lines like you did for the foxes on his other mask. You began by sketching them on in pencil, using the reference image you’d snagged from the library on the way here. Two koi fish, circling the left eye of his mask. And while you whittled away at that, Isa worked on your mask.

Isa took his needle yet again, choosing a thread the same shade as the sea before setting upon the mask. He worked along the bottom of the mask, stitching in the appearance of waves, gentle and calming in the middle but crashing up against the sides and rolling onto the cheeks. Sif had shown natural aptitude and calm when sailing in their travels, and many snippets of memory seemed to feature the ocean as being about as significant to their past as The Universe was. So it made sense to match the fog with a sea.

You finished at about the same time, and took your masks back from each other. Now you just had to split up to go see your family and the masks would be finished by tonight, maybe even by dinner depending on what the others did and how much they could do in advance. Before you left though you bonked your mask lightly into his, you wanted to kiss him but not actually kiss, so this was a fun alternative for such internal conflicts.

~o0o~

Odile was waiting for you when you arrived, her brush and five familiar paint shades set out on her desk. And a sixth you saw on second glance. Had she? Oh stars she had, there was a new line in the pattern of her mask, Pétronille had marked her mask while you were out. That was so cool.

“It’s looking very nice already,” she said as she placed your mask down, “This stitching is Isabeau’s work then. He’s just full of surprises isn’t he?” You nodded enthusiastically, he really was. There was an extra chair next to the desk that wasn’t there yesterday, because Odile was awesome like that, and you sat in it to eagerly await her work, tucking your mask into your cloak as you did.

You rocked back and worth, but otherwise kept silent to allow Odile to work. She began at the tip of the bone horn with your shade, painting a long and meandering path down it, moving smoothly in one direction before changing seemingly randomly in short curves until she reached the face. Once at the top of the face she grabbed some extra brushes and made marks with Mira’s, Isa’s, and her shade. She then continued your paint trail across the mask, sharper now with more precise turns, sticking to the bone side and stopping briefly to add a dot of Bonnie’s shade. Then the mark finally moved to the marble side, where it became meandering again. But the path here took wider curves, a less stuttering path that was more sure of itself. You sucked in a breath as you realised what she was doing. Though it was snaking back and forth as it went, but you were sure that would become clear soon. She paused to add a dot of the new shade, Pétronille, before continuing. She brought the paints journey up to the base of the marble horn before letting it fade out. Then she went back and added the other shades one at a time, following the journey and weaving together in her signature lattice. The reason for the snaking did become clear, as Isa’s shade crossed to the marble size it began mirroring the snaked path, wrapping around your shade like a pair of dancers in a double helix. At the base of the marble horn all six shades tapered off into a single line with an unclear, but connected, destination.

Once again you found yourself in awe of how impactful simple lines of paint could be. “Odile, I… Thank you.”

“Any time, Siffrin. Now go find the others and send Isabeau over,” she said with that calm, caring smile that always made you feel warm.

You nodded, sliding your fox mask back on, grabbing your bonding mask, and scuttling from the room. You were practically giddy with excitement, “stars in your eyes” indeed. You couldn’t wait to see what the others had, and to see Isa’s finished mask once Odile was through with it.

You knocked on a few rooms with no one in them, and so, determining they must all be in Mira’s room, headed there. “Knock knock,” you said, as you knocked on the door. Mira called out for you to enter and you slipped inside, making sure to keep your bonding mask under your cloak. Isa was sat with the other three, hiding his own bonding mask behind his back with one hand while his other pulled his mask down, preparing to leave. He got up and walked past you, carefully making sure you couldn’t see behind him at the marks from Mira, Bonnie, and Nille. You were similarly careful in keeping your mask hidden, staring each other down like duellists as you circled around each other in silence. You almost ruined it by laughing, but kept your cool.

“So,” you said once he left, “who wants to go first? Bonbon?”

“Crab yeah,” they said, shooting off of the floor. And you thought you were excited. “Wait, no, Nille has to go before me. Mine goes on top of hers.” Oh, okay then. You turned to face Pétronille expectantly.

She produced two small metal mesh horns. Oh, they were overlays for the ones on your mask. That’s clever.

“I made it so you can attach things to ‘em easily. They’re also magnetic, Isa has the ones they attract to.” Oh? That was adorable actually. You loved that. “But yeah, that’s why I had to go first.”

Never much one for lots of speaking, she sat back on the floor next to Bonnie, who bounced up to replace her. “Okay okay, now it’s my turn,” they said, rummaging in their hat. They pulled something out and held it in front of you, it made a fun dinging sound as it dangled between their fingers. It appeared to be some sort of wire net with… constellations in it?

“You can hang it between your horns, and then it’s like the night sky is above you all the time. With all the star shapes you sometimes remember. And it’ll make fun sounds.”

Oh come on, you couldn’t cry again, you cried for the last mask, you can’t do it twice. Deep breath, only a small amount of tears got out, they noticed, but no one is saying anything and we’ll pretend your dignity is intact. You took the mask and net to one side so you could attach it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get him.” You heard Mira whisper behind you. Oh stars, what had she done? You turned back to face her, mentally preparing yourself for some emotional hugs in a minute, and saw she also had a mesh net in her hands. This one was made of rope though, and had beads of various materials strung all over it, forming some sort of pattern.

You took it from her, examining it closely. You saw that many of the beads contained references to your old mask and fox mask. There were small fish, swirling patterns, foxes, cats, stars, and you were not going to cry. It wasn’t even about the emotions, it was about winning, you weren’t sure what, but you knew that they won if you cried. Deep breath. Some of the beads had holes in them and you poked at them with your finger.

“They’ll catch the wind and make music,” Mira informed you. You weren’t crying, not a drop. Wasn’t happening. “The melody will harmonise with the beads I gave Isabeau.” You were crying, you were pulling Mira into a hug, Bonnie was joining in, Pétronille was joining in a little. They win, you love them.

~o0o~

You were back in your room, draping the bead net over the face of your mask, hooking it on Nille’s horn covers while you waited for Isa to return from Odile. A knock at the door, and here he was. You held your fox mask to your face just in case it was someone else as you opened the door. It was a lone Isa though, so you let him right in. He saw your mask on the desk and placed his next to it.

“They’re beautiful,” he breathed. They really were. You took a new look at his with all the marks, they were similar, but different. Clearly your family had schemed to make you match as much as possible. He had the same accessories from Nille, though they were a different shade and you could see the magnetism at work as the masks slowly slid towards each other across the few centimetres they were apart. On the horns as well were a variety of adorable tiny metal cats in fun poses, that would be Bonnie. He had a bead net from Mira as well, with references to his old mask on the beads. And finally, the journey paint from Odile. His started in his shade, at the tip of the marble horn, travelling down to the top of the head where Mira’s shade joined, then later Odile, then you, then Bonnie. The same helix pattern with your shade occurred when it travelled to the bone side, Nille’s shade appeared, and they all joined and faded out at the base of the bone horn.

You lifted his mask in your hands, almost reverently. You turned to him and gestured up at him with it. “May I?” He got the hint and lowered his head. You began to reach up when he jerked back.

“Wait. We should do it at the same time,” he said. Stars above, you panicked for a moment there.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” you said, willing your heart to calm down.

He picked up your mask with the same level of reverence you had, before lowering himself to your height again. You slid each others masks on, slowly, tenderly, lovingly. You couldn’t help yourself, just before sliding his mask all the way down you leant forwards and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. Sliding his mask into place and tipping your head back to align your own before he reacted, and stepping back to see how good he looked.

“Sif,” he laughed, dragging your name out as he straightened up. Stars he was gorgeous. You grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the rooms wardrobe, there was a mirror inside the door and you had to see this. You tugged it open and pulled him to your side.

“Oh wow,” he whispered. Oh wow indeed. Looking at yourselves standing side by side in these masks, it took your breath away. You could feel your face heating up under the mask, Isa could probably feel the heat without needing to see your blush. You squeezed his hand tightly in your own. He squeezed back, before sliding free to put his arm around your shoulder.

“I love you,” you said, barely audible.

“I love you too,” he said back, just as quietly, a fond smile audible in his words.

“Earrings next,” you said, raising one hand to your ear, already imagining it. He pulled you in tighter, not needing to say anything.

You aren’t sure how long you stay there, but eventually a knock at the door draws you from your daze. It’s Mira, she’s been sent to fetch you for dinner but the words die behind her mask when she sees the two of you.

“Holy, oh change, you two look so good,” she says once she decides she can talk properly. Wow, it’s been a long while since you heard her use “change” as an exclamation, you were starting to think it was heresy or something. She had already seen both of your masks with all their marks (barring Odile’s on Isa’s) but you’d had a similarly strong reaction seeing them worn together, so you couldn’t blame her. You were expecting similar reactions from the others now, and you were not disappointed upon arriving.

“Holy crab, you two look so cool,” Bonnie immediately shouted, almost dropping the food they were carrying but catching it expertly. Pétronille followed this with a long appreciative whistle, before going back to eating the food she was already starting on despite Bonnie throwing cutlery at her to try and make her wait.

“Your homeland may have been onto something here, Siffrin,” Odile said, speaking evenly but with admiration clear on her face, “The two of you cut quite a striking image now.”

“Yeah,” you said, doing the thing, the pun thing that everyone instantly picked up on. “We’re quite the catch,” you quipped, holding Mira’s bead net up with your hand.

“Yeah!” Isa shouted, bursting into laughter.

“No!” Mira shouted, visibly falling into despair. “That was such a stretch as well. Just so you could turn my own mark against me? I put all of my love into that and you use it in a pun?”

“I put all of my love into the pun,” you shrugged. The usual reactions from the others played out at the table. Nille simply waved their hand in a so-so gesture. She never reacted to your puns, just rated them as the worlds harshest critic, so that was actually a pretty positive response. You asked Mira if she would do the animation Craft for your eye at some point as you sat down, and she said she’d do it tomorrow.

The meal passed as it usually would, full of love and idle chatter. Bad puns, good puns, stories you’d never heard before, and stories you’d hear a thousand more. You lived for moments like this, they gave you life, seeing them all like this and getting to be here with them. Terrible things had happened to you, you’d lost so much. But if undoing that meant losing this, you’d never do it, this was where you were meant to be.

~o0o~

That night, you were lying in bed with Isa, and you had a wonderful, terrible idea.

“Hey… hey Isa,” you whispered, pulling back from cuddling against him so he could turn to face you. “I have to tell you something. It’s about what I plan to do once we leave Dormont, I made a decision.” He nods at you, indicating he’s listening. “And my decision… is… to tell you tomorrow. Bleh.” You stuck your tongue out at him as his face went through the seven stages of grief in as many seconds.

“Huh?” he said, scrambling to work out what this was about. “Is… is this because of the clock—”
“This is because of the clock tower yes,” you interrupted. This was amazingly cathartic.

“But—” he begins to whine.

“It happened to me, and now it’s happened to you. Suffer.” You stuck your tongue out again, watching him pout, before leaning over to kiss the tip of his nose. You quickly roll over and pretend to be asleep. He doesn’t move for a second, before his arms wrap around you with comforting tightness. He pulls you in and kisses the top of your head.

“Night, Sif.”

“Night, Isa.”