Forever Fall

Raftina rolled over, not entirely certain what time it was until she saw the clock bleeding eleven against the darkness of the room. It wasdarkin the room. Black-out curtains had come alongway since they had been initially invented. Still… Eleven in the morning. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept in so much. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, stretching a bit. She let her wings reappear and stretched them as well She flapped a few times, just letting them be used before letting them settle back. Geden probably would’ve had her head had she not turned up until nearly lunch time. She supposed she’d be having brunch instead of either breakfast or lunch. She really couldn’t remember the last time she’d had brunch… Possibly with Elaeah on a lazy day after Elaeah had forced her to take a day off… But maybe there had been a time after. She couldn’t remember. Time just ceased to have all meaning after several millennia. So much blended together at this point that she didn’t want to bother trying to figure out the last time she’d had brunch. She showered and dressed, then headed down to the kitchens again. The cooks gave her a hearty meal which she appreciated. It…was nice to be able to feel full again after a century-long conflict where she’d never had enough to eat and then the current state of Filgaia. She wasn’t vegetarian byanymeans, but Elw definitely knew how to make the best of plant-based meals. Though the loaf of warm bread with fresh butterdefinitelyalso helped. She was glad that the Elw still did butter and eggs… She would goinsaneif she couldn’t eat warm, buttered bread for…who knew how long. She ate, almost wanting to go back to sleep after she finished. Calorie overload was definitely a thing… She was so used to eating maybe a thousand or so calories back on Filgaia. That was total, per day. Now she was getting severalthousandper meal. She hadn’t felt this way in the heavens because there were spells to keep Guardians at their peak and not slow them down. But now that she wasn’t there… Yeah, she could definitely feel the calorie overload. It was weird to feel so tired when she’d just woken up, and she’d slept really well due to all of her medications. The lack of nightmares…definitely helped a lot. But she knew she needed to do…something today. Just sitting around wasn’t something she was used to doing. But that was what would happen for the next couple of decades. She just…wouldn’t reallydoanything. Honestly, she kind of wanted to go shopping to see about getting some new wardrobe options. She brought some clothes with her, certainly, but she only brought about a week and a half’s worth of outfits. Those would get worn out in due time and she’d need to replace them. A lot of her old clothes from the heavens were still in pristine condition, but the make and quality of the clothes she had gotten on current-day Filgaia were lacking in her opinion. She was used to machine-made clothes, but she only bought the best of the best since her budget could afford it. She frowned. Howwouldshe afford clothing at the quality she wanted? Ugh, so many details to figure out. She had all the time in the world, but she wanted to get it all donenow. She went outside and focused her ears, managing to pinpoint where Elaeah was relatively quickly. She went to where the young Elw was. She sat out near the lake, watching as other Elw participated in recreational activities in boats. It almost shocked Raftina to see motorised boats after having dealt with sailing ships since she’d woken up again. Elaeah looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Lady Raftina. Is there something I can help you with?” “Actually, there is… I’m going to need more clothes and I tend to only get extremely high-quality stuff. Not necessarilydesigner,but stuff that’s small-batch made and then tailored. That’s…really expensive and I don’t have any money here.” Admitting she didn’t have something feltreallybad. She was so used to doing everything on her own and having everything available to her. Being in a place where she didn’t haveanythingbut the clothes on her back… It really felt nasty to her. She hated it, but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it. Elaeah blinked. “Oh, right… Actually, I talked to some people this morning, and it sounds like therewasan account put away for you just in case you ever came here for whatever reason. They said you were here one time before, but it was to get a young Homunculus fixed? Or something along those lines.” Raftina nodded. “Apparently there was a program where people took the same living metal that made the Metal Demons’ bodies and tried to make humans that looked and acted like humans. But they were generally weapons of mass destruction that were incredibly bloodthirsty. The one exception was Rudy… He was averysweet young man.” There was more to the story than that, of course, but she didn’t think Elaeah needed a full run-down of that entire situation. Apparently the rumors had flown for some years now… “But still… They put an account away for me?” That was surprising… Elaeah nodded and stood up. “I think the person I talked to knew you or at least had been born pre-Demon War in the time where you were alive. They wouldn’t give me details, but they let it slip. I have their number if you want it.” “That…would probably be good. I have no money and I’d rather not leech off your family.” Elaeah shrugged. “It’s not like we’re hurting for money. Even gettingreallygood outfits that are tailored wouldn’t wipe out our accounts. But yeah, here’s my phone and you can call this number.” She pulled out a phone and tapped the number in, but didn’t dial. She handed it to Raftina who nodded. “Thank you. I think I’ll take the call inside.” “All right then. Talk to you later.” With that done, Raftina went back up to her room and dialed the number. The next several hours were yetanotherheadache to prove who she was to get access to the account. The person had definitely been raised in the pre-War era from how she talked. She was clearly tired of all of this bureaucratic bullshit as well, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She was obviously just a cog in the machine and trying her best to get access to the account. Thankfully, they got it all sorted out and she was able to get access to the account. She just had to go to a local bank to pick up the card. She tracked Elaeah down again and gave her the phone back. “Do you know where the closest bank is? It’s Azure Financial Credit Union.” Elaeah nodded. “There’s one in the nearest town. We can go pick up your card. Oh, right, will you need anything else?” “A computer will probably be good. Or at least a phone so I can keep track of my financials and all of that.” Of course everything was done through apps and web pages. She wasn’t sure which would be better…but, from the sound of it, there weremillionsput away into the account due to accumulated interest over the course of a millennium or so. As far as she could tell, none of the other Guardians had accounts put away like she did. But she was special to the Elw, so it only made sense they would do this for her… She hadreallyhelped bridge the gap between all three races after she’d gotten involved with politics. There had never been an official stance of segregation on Filgaia, but the three races were generally pretty separated until she came on the scene… “We can probably get both then… Small screens arereallyannoying to deal with for financials.” Elaeah stood up and brushed her clothes off. “Let’s head to the teleporter pad and then we can get your card and everything.” She smiled and led the way into the house. Raftina couldhearMoonspark pawing at the stall door, obviously wanting out, but she was busy andhadbeen busy all day… She would let the unruly pegasus out once she returned. They got on the teleporter pad and appeared in another building in less than a heartbeat. They walked out and into a town with bustling Elw. By old Filgaia standards, it was definitely a small town, maybe ten thousand or so people from the amount of noise being made. It made Raftina’s ears hurt a bit since it’d been a fair while since she’d last been in a city larger than Adlehyde which was really only around five to seven thousand people. Three thousand may not have seemed like a lot more people, but for her Fast Draw senses, it was amassiveamount more. She wouldn’t be able to handle being here for massive amounts of time most likely. Guh. She would definitely have a headache afterward. She followed Elaeah to a building where they had to go through more headaches but she eventually got the card which lifted a weight off her shoulders. She now had financial freedom which…was beyond relief. She had financial freedom on Filgaia due to being part of the Adlehyde royal family, but she wassoworried that she would have to rely on Elaeah here. But now that she had her own card, she could get whatever she needed to. She couldn’t believe how tense she’d been at the thought of having to fully rely on another person for financial needs… “So where do you want to go first?” Elaeah asked when they exited ACFU. “Clothes. I normally don’t mind sticking out like a sore thumb but…people are staring.” “Well… The only non-Elw that have been here have been Odoryuk who was trapped in the forest then the Heralds who weren’t here for very long. A lot of Elw at this point haven’t seen a non-Elw.” Raftina sighed. “I suppose that is true…” That really did suck. She was used to people staring to a degree, but it never felt good. She had grown hardened to it before the First Demon War, but now… She just… She had lost that thick skin. It was hard to be stared at. She had mostly stayed holed up in Adlehyde castle to avoid stares. The castle staff had gotten used to her presence over the past couple of years, but going down to the town… Uncomfortable. She just… She hated the stares now. “Let’s go.” Elaeah held out her hand and Raftina gave a wry smile before taking it. She hadn’t held anybody’s hand in so long. For her, it was a bridge of trust to allow someone to take her hand, considering how much she used and depended on them. Someone could easily cause her damage if they hurt her hands. She was a healer, but healing magic wasmuchless effective on oneself than others. She probably didn’treallyneed to worry about anybody hurting her hands but still… The defensiveness roused within her regardless. Elaeah led her to a clothing store. “Have fun. I’ll wait here.” She let go of Raftina’s hand, the Guardian’s heart dropping a bit. Damn it… She was too wrapped up in her still lingering love for Elaeah. But they had agreed to give it a chance… Guh, it was so hard to not treat Elaeah like she had when she’d still been alive. She hated this. She hated all of it. She should have just listened to herself and refused, but no, pretty mucheveryonehad bullied her into accepting the chance. Ugh, why did love have to be so absolutely complicated? She spent a few hours shopping, finding the wardrobe that truly fit her. It was a mix of business casual and pure business. It was semi-reminiscent of pre-War fashion, but it had obviously evolved. Regardless, she liked to look clean and professional even when she wasn’t on duty. Plus, there was no telling if anyonewouldneed her advice at any point. Her wings would mark her as who she was. “Computer next then?” Elaeah asked and Raftina nodded. “All right then.” Elaeah smiled and Raftina followed them to a computer store. Oh boy, she would haveno ideahow computer specs had evolved over the millennium that had elapsed since the outset of the First Demon War… She spentseveralhours questioning the various employees at the computer store until she settled on something that was on the higher end of things. She…just didn’t know what she would need. She wouldn’t be spending all day on it, but by the same token, just in case shedidneed to run something that required more juice, it was better to go a little overboard than be underpowered. Once they were all done with their trip, they headed back to the house. When they returned, Raftina could hearbangingfrom the stables and uncertain shifting from people. “What should we do? Everyone knows Lady Raftina’s mountshould notbe touched…” she heard one say. “She’s been getting more and more unruly all day…” another said. Raftina sighed. “I’ll be back in a bit. I’ll meet up with you in the kitchens.” It was getting later in the day, so dinner was already approaching. Days slipped by so fast sometimes. At this point, a day felt like a few seconds to her half the time. Once one had been through over five thousand years, days lost all meaning. A decade wasn’t even that long to her though she knew it was a massive amount of time to mortal races like humans. She flew over to the barn and looked at Moonspark, arms folded. “All right, stop with the ruckus. You don’t need to do that.” She unlocked the lock and opened the stall door. The palomino pegasus gave her adirtylook and tossed her head and mane before walking out to the pasture. Raftina turned to face the barn staff. “You’re right that nobody but me should touch herbutif you just open the stall door, there’s no issue. Keep in mind she’s smart enough to speak and understand multiple languages. You don’t need my permission to open or close the stall door. She’ll probably stay out into the night.” She paused. “Did anybody give her grain or hay?” They shook their heads. “We know who you are and the stories around Moonspark as well as how testy she is. We didn’t want to risk getting bitten.” Raftina sighed. “Yeah, that’s… That’s entirely fair. I’ll tell her to allow you to at least feed her, but I’ll tell her tomorrow. Let her just stay on grass tonight. We can get her grain and hay in the morning.” This area felt more tropical than temperate, so it would probably be warm all year round which meant grass all year round. She didn’t need to worry too much on that front but even still… Moonspark was going to be desperate to eat. “All right, Lady Raftina. Have a good night.” They bowed to her and she dipped her head, returning the kitchens which were filled with fragrant spices in the air. Her mouth watered at the idea of eating well-seasoned food. She still wasn’t quite over having to get used to Filgaia just not having a lot of spices available. She wasn’t a fan of heat for heat’s sake, but spices like turmeric, garam masala, and others had become staples by time the First Demon War had rolled around. She was really just glad that they hadn’t lost all of the spices here in the Elw dimension… They’d probably need to take plants to reintroduce them to Filgaia. Elaeah smiled and waved at her from a small table. “Over here, Lady Raftina!” Raftina nodded and sat down. “Goddess, it’s good to smell spices again.” Elaeah blinked. “What does that mean?” Raftina sighed. “Not a lot of spices on Filgaia due to all of the desertification. Even royalty has to pay through the nose in order to get them. They’re generally reserved for big events, not everyday cooking. As far as spiced food goes, it’s not an everyday occurrence for me anymore. It’s really frustrating. Ilovespiced food. It reminds me way too much of my childhood…” Yeah, this Filgaia reminded her far,fartoo much of her childhood, but not in good ways. Her childhood had been relatively fine. She hadn’t known the difference between spiced and unspiced food. But once spices had started to become dirt cheap… Yeah. She hadneverwanted to go back to unspiced food. But Filgaia no longer had access to what had once been staples and it drove her insane. It was like eating army rationsevery dayin her mind. Elaeah winced, her ears going down. “Ouch, that soundsrough…I had a day or so of that while I was down there, so it wasn’t a big deal, but thinking that I’d have to deal with that long term if we had stayed there… It would’ve driven menuts.” Raftina nodded. “Yeah. And that’s not to mention thealienspices we lost before the First Demon War…” She tapped her chin. “Do you guys still have access to some of those?” Elaeah shrugged. “I wouldn’t know—you’d have to ask the cooks. Or look through our spice cabinet. I’m sure they’d letyouof all people peruse the spice cabinet. EvenI’veheard of how much you loved your food.” Raftina felt her cheeks heat up a little bit. The Elw apparently still talked about her a lot despite it having been over a millennium… That… She wasn’t sure what to make of it. The stablehands had been around before the First Demon War, so it made sense they’d know about Moonspark, but for even young Elw to know about her foodie tendencies? She wasn’t sure if she should be embarrassed orwhat. “I’ll see about asking them after dinner,” she said. It was about then that the food was brought over to them, her plate about four times as large as Elaeah’s. It smelled absolutely heavenly. She swallowed the excess water in her mouth and started to eat, though she kept her manners prim and proper. She was a guest here and she wasn’t about to have people look at her like she was some sort of boorish monster. She did eat quickly, but she kept it well mannered and mindful. She heard Elaeah chuckle a bit. “You don’t have to be so reserved when it comes to eating, Lady Raftina. It’sjustus here.” Raftina sighed. “Unfortunately, ingrained habit of severalthousandyears. Ihadto reflect on Filgaia well when I went to other planets, or at least look good in front of Filgaian dignitaries when I was dealing with Filgaian politics. Trying to get me to not be mannered is like getting a fish to not swim.” She shook her head. Yeah, manners were just too ingrained into her. Her mother hadn’t pounded politeness into her head or anything like that, but once she’d gotten into politics, that had changed pretty radically. Shehadto be on her best behavior and mannered atalltimes. Elaeah frowned. “You’re a guest here. You’re not going to be dealing with politics when eating alone with me.” She shook her head. “It’s best I just keep it up… When I get back to Filgaia, I’m going to be going back into politics. It might be a couple decades, but even so… It’s best to not fall out of the habit.” She couldn’t imagine what would happen if she didn’t havesomesort of manners. She’d felt belief in her start to return a little bit with how involved she’d been with Adlehyde’s politics. She was involvedheavilyin keeping Cecilia safe from the advisors. Nasty things, advisors. She hoped that they’d be making the shiftawayfrom monarchy by time she returned, but if there was one thing humans were known for, it was their tenacity. They were stubborn and set in their ways to the point they often didn’t want change even if theythoughtthey did. To her, it was nasty business. It was a dangerous precedent which was one reason why she was so involved… She could often be the one that convinced themtochange… Elaeah frowned. “You won’t be able to give up politics, will you?” She sighed. Raftina shook her head. “Well… What would you think of the elders giving up their positions as people of influence and power?” Elaeah frowned at that. “I guess that makes sense… Elders, once allowed in, generally don’t give up their positions… So you’re an elder on Filgaia then?” “More or less. I mean it’s more complicated than that because monarchy is more complicated, let alone something like democracy. But to keep it simple, yes, I’m basically an elder on Filgaia. I don’t give up political power very easily. I’ve been ingrained into politics for over fivethousandyears. What do you expect?” She kept her tone neutral, just pointing out the reality to Elaeah. She really couldn’t give up things easily. She doubted the Elw elders would let her have a place in the politics here, simply because they’d figured out a system that worked. But once she gotbackto Filgaia, she’d be jumpingstraightback into the politics. There was no way around it. It was her lifeblood. Giving up something she was so accustomed to was impossible… The next few decades would be hard since she wouldn’t be involved with politics. Elaeah sighed. “You really do seem to overwork yourself…” Raftina shrugged. “It’s just how I am.” Changing the overwork was something nobody could change. Not even Elaeah had been able to fully pull her back. Once the interplanetary nonsense had started, then she’d become evenmoreingrained into the political system. She was an interplanetary delegate. She was culturally competent and linguistically competent in manymultitudesof languages and cultures. Other species and races had beensoimpressed when she’d quickly and concisely adapted to their cultures and languages despite not having been really exposed to them before… It was just what she did. She was amasterof observation and could pretty quickly and effectively understand rough basics as well as start to get down to the nitty gritty with plenty of study. “You seem incredibly frustrating to deal with.” “That I am.” That was just the bare truth of the matter. The only reason she was here was because the other Guardians had essentially bullied her into taking a break. Normally, a few decades would pass quickly for her, but being shunted to rest would make it feel likeforever.She was used to resting for maybe a week or two and then getting back to things. But for afull decade or morewould be difficult for her. She already felt like she was going mad. She knew she was difficult to deal with at the best of times, but this would make her go absolutelyinsaneby time the other Guardians thought she’d be allowed back. Guh. Annoying, the lot of them. “Anyway, do you want help looking for Tenno wing oil?” Raftina blinked a bit at the topic change, but then nodded. “I’m not really sure where or how I’d search… I’ll probably figure things out with enough poking around, but you’re probablymuchmore used to the new GUIs than I’ll be.” Yeah, twelve hundred years was averylong time to evolve technology. It seemed like a lot was at some pre-War levels and the Elw hadn’t really bothered to evolve all that much despite the long time that had passed. Even for Raftina, twelve hundred years was alongtime. A century did start feeling long. A millennium wasexceptionallylong for her. She couldn’t imagine how the Elw elders felt at this point. “Let me put it in then…” She pulled out a phone and started tapping on it. Raftina couldn’t see the screen despite it being hard light. Apparently, that was one thing they’d remedied in the time between then and now. Hard light was tricky to work with at the best of times, so figuring out how to block the back from outside view? That would’ve takenquitesome time to do. Even the best minds pre-War hadn’t been able to figure it out. She would definitely be glad for that… Nobody would be able to see what she was doing from a distance. A few minutes passed and Elaeah smiled. “Ah, here we go. There’s a site that advertises he knows how to make it. We’ll have to contact him probably tomorrow.” She passed the phone over to Raftina and she looked over the listing. Nothing was really listed; he just said he had the ability to make it. That…didn’t instill her with confidence if she were honest. Tenno wing oil was ahighlyspecialised ability and product. She didn’t think he wouldlieabout it because, well, why would somebodyopenlyadvertise something that hadn’t been needed for over a millennium? It looked like he just listed all of his potential skills that could be commissioned. But without an ingredients list or anything like that… Her confidence wasn’t high. “I’ll definitely have averylong conversation with him.” She handed the phone back to Elaeah. She knew how to make her own wing oil, but it wasreallyobnoxious to make from scratch. She had more than enough to last her for a while, but she would prefer to have a steady supply here rather than having to run back and forth between here and Filgaia to get more. Her current stock would probably last a good year or more, but still… She’d run outeventually. Elaeah nodded. “Yeah, you definitely will have to. I don’t know the first thing about Tenno feathers or what they require. There might be some other artisans that have the ability to make it, but this is literally the only result that pops up in any search engine for ‘Tenno wing oil.’ If there’s any discussion of it, it’s scholastic and not in the general search engine and hid behind a paywall.” Raftina frowned at that. So scholarship had gone back to paywalls huh? Not something she was too pleased about. By the time the First War had happened, scholarship was open for everyone to read…though not everyone wasableto handle reading scientific papers. “I have to wonder why he’s advertising it in the first place, but I won’tcomplainif he knows what he’s doing anyway.” She needed to be able to take care of her wings and she’d rather not have to run back and forth between Filgaia and the Elw dimension. The prospect just absolutely drove hernuts.For her, a few years was really nothing. Once she’d reached about a thousand, years started feeling very,veryshort. And at this point, over 5500 years into her life…yeah, a couple of years really felt likenothing.She’d rather just have a supplier here if at all possible. But she did only have a limited amount of wing oil, truth be told… It would never go bad and other Guardians could make it, but it’d take time and a lot of them would be busy now that Filgaia was being revived. Goddess, they would besobusy and she didn’t want to bother them. Elaeah nodded. “We’ll have to call him tomorrow then. Your wings do look nice.” Raftina shook her head. “My feathers are innastycondition compared to what I looked like at my prime.” Sometimes she couldn’t apply oil to them fordaysbecause of how busy she’d been. The past couple days had been busy and she hadn’t been able to do it. She needed to keep up the waterproofing properties, but it was difficult with such a whirlwind that the past few days had been. After they finished eating, she’d go upstairs and take care of them. It was justso hardto take care of herself sometimes. Busy, busy, busy… That was all she was. Busy all the time…but it was how she preferred it. She didn’t want to sit around, twiddling her thumbs and shoving them up her ass. But that was what sheneededright now. She needed a break and needed to allow herself to recover mentally, physically, and emotionally from the two Wars. “Oh, okay.” Elaeah rubbed the back of her neck. “If you ever need help with them, if you teach me, I could help you with them…” Raftina’s throat stuck at the unexpected offer. For a Tenno, someone else helping them with their wings was anincrediblyintimate thing. The wings were sensitive especially during the molt when blood feathers were coming in. They were pokey and itchy andincrediblyuncomfortable. She thankfully wasn’t in the middle of a molt right now, but yeah, the wings were still sensitive. They were easy to break as well. Too much pressure and a feather could snap, resulting in being grounded for a while during the time a new feather grew in. She just… She didn’t trust anybody else to touch her feathers and wings right now other than herself. “I’ll…keep it in mind.” She hadn’t had anybody else help with her wings in averylong time. Elaeah smiled, obviously not quite picking up on Raftina’s trepidation. “All right then.” They fell silent and finished up eating. The staff took care of the dishes and Raftina went up to her room. She changed over to some pajamas and opened her cake of oil then started applying it to her wings. They practically drank up the oil after having essentially been starved of it for several days. She was supposed to apply the oil every morning and night, but she was lucky if she could apply it once a day with how busy she got. Her feathers were incredibly brittle and dry without the oil and definitely didn’t have the proper waterproofing properties. She wasn’t flying at all right now, so it was closer to fine than it should have been. Though she was getting a bit stir crazy from not having flown in so long and having only used Moonspark… It took a good couple of hours to apply to it what she considered satisfactory. She knew they needed alotmore work, but for now, it’d have to do. It was getting late in the day and she was getting tired. The sun had already set and she knew she needed to go to bed. She hid her wings and took her meds, then curled up in the bed. It didn’t take long for sleep to wash over her and take her away into the land of dreamless sleep, wingbeats echoing in her mind.