I Want Everyone To Know Who I Am

“I don’t think it’s particularly large? Average, I suppose.” Venat shrugged slightly, unsure why he seemed so surprised at such a fast travel time. “Two days isn’t much time at all; it’d take at least a week to reach Ul’dah depending on travel speed and whether we kept to the roads.”

Which she would do, if only because they were safer and she didn’t want to endanger the boy.

“Of course we’ll still need to book passage to Limsa which would likely take another day or two to arrange, and then about a week of sailing. Truthfully it may be quicker to resupply in Gridania then continue on to Ul’dah and book the ferry from Horizon. That’d put us in Limsa in maybe a day or so.”

Teleporting would be preferable, but he was likely unattuned and she wasn’t sure he had the aether for it.

“A week?!”

This world was big enough that a week was a possible amount of travel? Big enough that it had at least two weeks worth of travel to it to reach a possible destination. That was...

“...Most worlds only take about a day to cross. Or less.”

“A bag should suffice,” she agreed mildly. “With use of chocobos, we should be in New Gridania within two days.” Enough supplies to get him that far, then a proper kitting out if he chose to continue on with her. Even if he chose to stay and search for answers there, he’d need proper clothing and such she supposed.

Venat nodded to herself. “Alright. I’ll handle the gathering of our supplies for now.”

Chocobos. He was going to get to ride a chocobo. Regardless of whatever else was going on, that was amazi-

Wait.

“Two days?”

Space travel took days. Not world travel.

“Of course.” She patted his shoulder gently. “We’ll leave in the morning and make our way then. For now, let’s get you proper supplies for traveling.” And maybe she’d see about renting chocobos. It’d be much faster and probably easier on him.

Less time spent in the cold between here and Gridania. She’d use the time to help him think of names while they waited to get a book of names.

He manages to not flinch, this time, being better prepared for it. Supplies. Yeah. Better supplies than what the Real Thing had packed for the raft for sure. Jeeze.

Venat blinked. “Ah. Well, I am a former Azem. Helping people is just… what Azems do, I suppose.”  It’d been her duty for so long, to help steer the star and to help others that at this point it was simply what she did. She had too much love for the star to do otherwise.

“Though I will admit a bit of societal norm as well, I suppose. In the time I came from, helping each other was just what we did. War and all the difficulties of current societies just didn’t exist for us.” Be sides he was, all things considered, a child. She couldn’t in good conscience abandon him to his fate on an unfamiliar world.

“It costs me nothing to help, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”

He had no idea what an ‘Azem’ was, but he didn’t ask either.

He blinked blankly at her next statement, though. The Islands were peaceful, sure, but that was possible on smaller worlds. A world without any wars sounded nice after everything he’d been through. But then again, most worlds didn’t have things like that in his experience. Maybe it was more common on large worlds?

“...Thank you.”

She hummed. “Then perhaps we’ll detour to Kugane after Limsa.” There was a boat that went to Kugane if she recalled correctly; it wouldn’t be hard to book passage for the two of them. “Alright. That’s our plan, then.” Until then she’d just… call him Riku, she supposed.

“For now I suppose Riku will have to do. Now, I think the best thing to do would be to make our way to Limsa. We’ll go through Gridania, since it’s closer. They also have a market so we can get you proper supplies. Do you think you’ll be ready to leave in the morning?” She’d need the rest of the day to ensure she had adequate supplies; she’d only planned for herself and hadn’t packed more than that.

It’ll do. It wasn’t accurate, but it would have to do.

“I don’t exactly have anything to pack. I can leave... pretty much whenever.” He’d checked his pockets already. There were a few scattered cards from the castle, all inert and useless. The cord from the false lucky charm. He’d keep that, but the cards were worthless. Unless he could find a Moogle willing to take them, but he doubted any real Moogles would have a use for them.

“...Why are you helping me so much?”

“It’s much warmer in Limsa, and certainly so in Sharlayan. We can visit Corvos and Thavnair after, they’re tropical. Or at least close to it.” Perhaps she’d settle there herself. As for names… “We can pick up a book of names in the Limsa market for you to choose a name from. Or perhaps visit Kugane, their language seems to be rather similar in nature. Is there anything I could call you until then?”

Anything would do, so long as she had something to call him by.

Venat considered checking if she could find a book of names here, but given it was simply an outpost, she doubted there’d be anything remotely useful. Perhaps in Ishgard? But she doubted it. “I’m a bit new to this world myself,” she explained. “Or rather, this era of the world.”

Riku, though. Hmm. Perhaps… “{Riku}?” she murmured, slipping into the old, melodic language of the ancients. It didn’t really feel right though, not when applied to him. “No, that doesn’t fit.”

Tropical. Tropical would be nice. “Maybe later. I’ll take the book, though.”

It would be something. Options he could probably make a short list from. Kugane, though. That sounded like the Island’s language, or very close to it.

Era...? Oh, right. Time travel. He winced at the thought. That was a thing. At least she wasn’t attempting to take over the world with it. As far as he could tell, at least.

“Not... really. The only name I’ve ever had before is ‘Riku’ but I’m not him. It’s... complicated.” He was an imitation, a fake, but he was proudly fake. Wasn’t he? He could at least admit he wasn’t the original anymore. His past self would have balked at that.

“I’ve never heard of them.” They sounded a bit like Meteion, though. They might need to sit down and compare notes. At the very least, she’d need to teach him about this world. And she herself was still learning about the modern world.

“Well! I suppose that we’ll both be learning quite a bit in the future. Have you chosen a name yet?” Venat reached absently to smooth his hair into place so it looked a little less messy, humming. “I’ll be moving on shortly, if you’d like to come with me. I’m headed to a place called Sharlayan to borrow their great library.”

Good. That was good. No Heartless meant that he might not need to worry about fighting anything. Not immediately, at least. Just because he technically had a Keyblade (a broken one, at that) didn’t mean he knew how to use it.

“...No.” He hadn’t put much thought into it. He was a copy, a fake, an imitation of a real person. And that was fine, right? The world didn’t need two Rikus was the problem. It had only ever needed one.

“...If there’s less snow there, I’ll go with you. I’m... not really built for the cold.”

He was cloned from a tropical islander. He was not built for freezing temperatures.

And since it did look like he wasn’t just going to drop dead again at any second, he’d... need a name. He wasn’t sure where to start, though.

“Truly? How odd. Color has no bearing on their abilities here, to my knowledge. In fact, they tend to change color depending entirely on what they’re fed in some cases.” Though, the fact that the concept had managed to spread to other stars despite being developed here–unless they’ve managed to form naturally on other stars? That would explain the discrepancy in their ability by color…

A thought for another day.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of… heartless, you say? Unless you mean voidsent.”

Really? Weird chocobos, then.

His shoulders slump in relief. No Heartless. Good.

“Definitely Heartless. They’re made out of the darkness in people’s hearts. They’ve destroyed... probably hundreds of worlds. Maybe more.”

And with no threat to the worlds anymore that could use the Heartless (there was no way Sora and the other hadn’t succeeded), that meant the worlds were safe again.

“It’s a good thing, if they’re not here. Sorry, there’s just... there’s a lot going on.”

“Do the chocobo colors matter?” An interesting little detail to have noted, something as trivial as chocobo colors. Waving her own question away, Venat folded her hands together as she tried to picture the place. “It does sound quite nice. And the other place you mentioned?”

She’d have to see if she could find a way to find these Destiny Islands, to see if anyone there could help him. But if she couldn’t, then Venat supposed she’d just take him with her as she traveled. At least until he found a place he liked and settled there. Thavnair, perhaps? It was tropical. Or maybe Corvos.

Lumianne was from Corvos, perhaps she’d be able to recommend something.

A blink. Did they not have chocobos in other colors here? Venat clearly knew what a chocobo was since she didn’t ask what they were.

“Yeah. Blue are river chocobos and green are mountain chocobos. Blues don’t loose footing in water and greens can climb mountains.” The Real Thing’s brief chocobo fixation in the third grade left him with a wealth of generally useless information. Chocobos were cool, the original was dumb.

“Radiant Garden’s... It was destroyed, at one point. The residents have been trying to rebuild it. There’s not much there other than the town and the castle.” And the Heartless. Wait. “Did the Heartless reach this world? They’re monsters made out of darkness with yellow eyes.”

“This star is called Etheirys, though I believe the people of this time now call it Hydaelyn.” She couldn’t tell him how he’d gotten there, unfortunately. “Perhaps you found your way to the aetherial sea before being brought back?” she wondered. Venat couldn’t think of why someone from another star would end up in the aetherial sea here, but perhaps it wasn’t restricted to their star?

But then, she didn’t think anyone from other stars had ever found their way to the aetherial sea before, and surely it’d have had to happen more than once if a singular sea were the case. No, something else may have brought him here. Perhaps…

“I have theories, but without more information I couldn’t say. We’ll have to look into it. These Destiny Islands, could you tell me more?”

Etheirys. Hydaelyn. He hadn’t heard of either. He didn’t know what the ‘aetherial sea’ was either, but if it was something that hearts or souls or something wound up in, it was possible. He’d gotten lucky (absurdly lucky, he’d say, all things considered) to wind up finding someone who seemed... competent? Maybe? He couldn’t think of a word that fit quite right beyond ‘Sora-esque.’ Clearly willing to help without understanding who someone even really was.

Venat was remarkably easy to talk to, all things considered.

“Sure. It’s... a small world. Nothing really happens there. It’s quiet. Tropical. Most of the islands are too small for anyone to live on, and the mainland’s far enough away that nobody really goes there. The main island’s just... normal. Houses, school, the market. There’s a lot of fishing. There’s chocobos, mostly blue and green ones. It’s peaceful.” And the Real Thing was an idiot for wanting to leave all of that behind for some vague notion of adventure and a duty he’d understood nothing about.

“I’ve... never actually been there. But it’s nice.”

“Yes, I’m aware of other stars.” Not just the other shards, but their own stars out there beyond. Even more than Meteion and her sisters had found, she was certain. “I’ve never visited them, but I do know of them.”

But the implication that he was from one was quite interesting.

“Would you tell me about it?”

Oh thank gods. That made things a lot easier.

“...Sure.” He wasn’t a Keyblade Wielder. Not a real one, at least. He didn’t need to care about the world order.

“There’s... a lot of worlds out there. There’s... not much to say about the one I’m from.”

He doesn’t want to talk about it. Not at all. There’s a lot of bad memories there. He shuffles back to his assigned bed and sits down on it. He’s still a bit drained.

“I don’t really have family either.” He runs a hand along the back of his head, thinking. Those things on the sides of his head feel so weird. “It’s... hard to explain. But there’s two worlds where someone knows me. The Destiny Islands and Holl- ...Radiant Garden.” Right, it had changed names, at some point.