We don't have to dance

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

Time was a curious thing. It moved fast and slow, with stately precision or the chaotic tumble of scattering Hels under the giggling onslaught of a child. The sun rose and fell, stars spinning in and out of view, and it was all somehow unpredictable, to someone who has yet to understand the patterns of it all.

Seren accepted the changes around her with supreme grace. From Mother's absence, to Father's presence, the coming and going from one place to another, changing sleeping place from a boxing ring to house to someplace else. It was all new and intriguing, quite overwhelming and she was busy trying to make sense of it all.

Having strayed from Ronin's side while he was busy doing something very important and immensely boring, Seren occupied herself with the birds that flocked on the cliffs around the lighthouse. Her love of high places drew her out onto the rocky ledges overlooking the sea, and with winds whipping her raven locks about, she climbed about. Looking for abandoned birds nests, forgotten eggs, or any other treasure the cracks and crevices might contain.

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

Remi was not Seren's parent. He wasn't even parent-adjacent, or at least he wouldn't be, if he could help it. Still, it was in his best interest to keep an eye on the girl if and when he could. If harm came to her he was sure that Safrin's wrath would spill over to Ronin and then to him as well. Such was the tangled web the goddess had woven around them.

"Do you heal quickly?" The alchemist called from his place higher up on the rocky hill, where he was tending to Aoife's gravemarker. Well-calloused hands made easy work of cleaning up the area—removing errant stones and other weeds growing precariously through the rocks. He made flowers bloom around the marker with ease, heavy-hearted though he was to be doing it in the first place.

---

**Set before the KQ obviously

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

The question made Seren look up, then down at her hands. Small and round and soft, it had not taken long before the impossible cleanliness of them had vanished, in favor of sand, dirt and dust. A few scrapes from particularly sharp rocks had opened a few cuts on her fingers, and likewise on the bare feet.

They weren't deep, and only stung... but showed no signs of closing up anytime soon.

"No," she replied, in her simple, straightforward way. Balancing on one rock, she leaped onto a better one a little further away.

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"Then I'd be careful being so high up, especially on the rocks. You never know when they might give way." To emphasize this point, the alchemist reached out with his magic, making the boulder Seren had just been standing on rumble and shift, threatening to fall down the slow-cliff face.

"I'm not sure what it was like being...up there, but down here, you're still growing." Remi couldn't help the constant comparisons in his mind, between Seren and Aoife. Thinking that by the time his daughter had reached this age, she'd have been like a billy-goat on the rocks, well aware of the dangers. It wasn't fair to overlay the image of one star-child against the other, but it was impossible not to.

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

The rock shifted and shook behind her, sending a cascade of rubble and debris skidding into the frothy ocean waves below. Seren turned back sharply and stared at it, knowing it had been sturdy enough to hold her a moment ago.

"You did that!" she said, and scrambled down from the rocks, her feet impossibly light and lofty as she bounced from stone to stone, until she stood on level ground again. The floaty pulse trick had quickly become her favorite thing, even though it tired her out quickly.

Skipping over - obeying the normal laws of gravity this time - she came to stand next to Remi, hands on her back as she watched him work. "I mostly slept when I was with Mother," she told him. "Sometimes she told me things, and sometimes she showed me pictures in the starlight river. I watched the stars being born too. What are you doing?"

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"Indeed I did, that hardly matters though. Anyone could come along and shove the rocks out from under you. Torchline is not a kind place." There was little sugar in the alchemist's voice as he regarded the girl, with a stern expression and raised brow.

Listening as Seren explained in a few words what her life had been like, the alchemist could only nod in an obvious lack of understanding. Starlight rivers? Stars being born? All was above him (literally and figuratively).

"Cleaning Aoife's grave." He said, his voice a bit of a mumble. Glancing up at the blue eyed girl, Remi narrowed his gaze slightly. "Do you know who Aoife is? Your half-sister?"

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

Dark hair spilled in tangled curls around her shoulders as Seren considered this. No one had given her reason to be sad or cautious so far, and the warning didn't really mean much.

"Are you not nice?" she asked, curious. It seemed the logical conclusion of what he'd said, but it didn't really fit with how Seren saw him.

Her bright expression fell into a very serious look when Remi explained. She hunched down beside him and nodded somberly. "Yes. Mama told me. Aoife was my big sister, but she died so I can not meet her." The girl sighed, a sound of genuine regret.

"You are her daddy?" She looked at Remi, the blue of her eyes as deep as the ocean or the sky.

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"Not always, no." Remi replied without hesitation. It was the truth, and just because Seren was a child didn't mean she wasn't entitled to hearing it. Other parents might disagree, but Remi hardly cared. He wasn't a parent anymore, it didn't matter.

'Well, when you die I suppose you will. Assuming that you will..die one day?" Remi had no idea how demigods or demichildren worked. Would it surprise him if Safrin kept this child alive forever? Of course not.

"Yes." Remi found he was rather touched that Seren used the present-tense. It had never occurred to him before to think of himself as still being Aoife's father, but he supposed he was. That role would never go away, even though she had.

With a wave of his hand white blossoms began to spring up beneath the dense blanket of blue flowers, like stars in the sky.

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

"Oh. Okay." She accepted his words without question, not arguing. Probably there was more to him than she knew yet; the world was very big after all and Seren was very small. And young. And quite aware of both these facts.

"Everything dies," she replied, in a matter of fact way that was very strange, coming from the lips of what looked like a five year old child. "Suns and stars and whole worlds. Nothing lasts forever and that is why life is precious. Mama told me so." Of couse, Seren didn't quite understand it yet, but the lesson was there, ingrained in her bones. It comforted her to think that her sister was waiting for her, somewhere else. It made the starchild feel less lonesome for her.  

"Ooh, those are very pretty! Will I make flowers too, when I grow up?" She reached out to pet the blossoms like they were a breathing thing, her small grubby hands incredibly gentle.

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"The gods don't. Rocks don't." Remi pointed out with an unhelpful shrug. 'Lasting forever and dying aren't the same." He added to her pseudo-philosophical view of objects persisting through time. Then again the alchemist was not very philosophically-minded, so the aptness of all of this was rather lost on him.

One of the blossoms seemed to grow hands and a face. It reached out, grabbing at her fingers as she softly stroked the petals. "Maybe. I've no idea at all the sorts of ways demigods go about attaining their abilities." Indeed, Ronin had now taken the lead when it came to new powers between the two of them.

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

Seren tilted her head in an exaggerated look of thoughtfulness, fidgeting with the hem of her simple dress. "What is the difference?" she asked, not quite following.

She giggled in delight when the flower held on to her finger, and poked it gently, as if to tickle it. "What does demi mean?" God wasn't hard, it was like mama, but it seemed there was a difference. Seren really hoped she would be able to grow flowers like this. It seemed like a very fun thing to do.

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

'Well, not everything that lasts forever is alive." Remi pointed to one of the rocks upon which they sat. "Like this. Or the lighthouse your mother's shrine is in." He shrugged, not liking how pedantic he was suddenly sounding. "Point is, not everything dies. "

The bloom plucked itself, pulling up on Seren's finger as if it were climbing a rope in gym class. "Someone else could probably give you a better definition, but in this case, it sort of means...half. Or partly. You aren't a full god. You're a demigod. I'm a hybrid, but I suppose you could just as easily call be a demi-attuned and demi-abandoned, though that's a mouthful."

Seren

I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment
Destined to seek, destined to know

"Oh." It was quickly becoming one of her most used expressions. Seren looked down at her hands again, to the cuts and scrapes where blood had pooled and dried, already making scabs. "I bleed. Does that mean I am alive? Then I probably will die one day." And probably it wasn't quite as simple as that either, but she was willing to accept pretty much anything at this point.

Smiling down at the flower as it climbed onto her hand, Seren cupped her fingers around it, curiously watching to see where it might go next.

"Part-god, part-mortal," she mused. These were big concepts, but not impossible to grasp. "Was Aofie a hybrid too, like you?" She looked up, eager to hear more about her sister.

I am a princess on the way to my throne
Destined to reign, destined to roam

walked out this morning and i wrote down this song.
i just can't remember who to send it to

"You know very well you're alive." The alchemist said dryly, nodding. "And you'll die sooner rather than later if you keep running about on the rocks as if danger doesn't apply to you."

The flower would dance about in her palm, swaying to unheard music with its petals and leaves flapping merrily.

"She might have been." Remi replied, his voice suddenly soft. "She was just over a year old when she died. We were always much more interested in painting and going on adventures, than figuring out what abilities she may or may not have had."