Ray [Key of Stars]

I think I mentioned before that the fic had spiraled in many directions and I ended up writing more characters than I enticipated... and while it was very fun, my original outline just kept getting pushed back (;＞_＜;)

Said original outline is, to put it simply, slow burn grishaklein moments leading to feelings realization ✨️ But somehow i forgot that and wrote Amon’s journey to gain humanity? And even then I forgot to include some moments because I'm an idiot *face palms* (ー_ー;)

Ah anyways, I can confidently say that I put everything out of the way (after 70k words wtf) and I can focuse entirely on grishaklein in the next arc! Should be about 10 chapters. I think it's safe to share some snippets of their enteractions from my outline since I doubt anyone will be reading this hehehehehehe

A scene where the "family" holds a picnic in the secret garden, Adam and Amon are playing in the feild of flowers, and Grisha puts a flower crown on Mingrui’s head (Inspired by frieren) + the symbolic flower between grisha and klein will be white lilies, which was mentioned on occasion before and will be emphasised in the future

There will be a lot of similar scenes between them, quiet intimacy, more than friends less than lovers, always dancing around each other, only expressed in not very subtle language of love (quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, physical touch and gifts) leading eventually to feelings realization between the two

Grisha and klein inner monologues that were hinted in previous chapters and I'll be addressing in the future:

The Fool's Notes were for Grisha alone, who had nothing to read at the end of the world.

This part will go in detail about how Grisha sees the fool's notes as an anchor to his humanity during second epoch which lead to his obsession to find and revive the owner

And in return...

The reason Mingrui enjoyed staying with Grisha is because he always gave him new memories. He covers them with new future to fill the blank spaces of his mind, enough so there are no place for bad memories.

A thousand years alone had dragged like eternity, yet the thousand he spent with Grisha slipped past like a dream — too fleeting to catch, too kind to be true. Like one of those half lucid visions that vanish the second you stir, leaving only the ghost of warmth behind.

Zhou Mingrui wants to keep dreaming, maybe, with his eyes wide open.

First of all, Klein, as the Lord of Mysteries is also the Dominator of the Spirit World, which is one of the symbolism of this pillar. So it would not only be very fitting that he builds his own capital in it, but because it has a lot of benefits!

Imagine it like one of those fantasy settings where humans (beyonders) would travel to the spirit world in search of knowledge and power... and it just so happened that they heard rumours about Utopia, the City of Miracles, where you can obtain anything for the right price!

What can beyonders get from Utopia?

Trade for potions, ingredients and even beyonder characteristics and artifacts! It's a large scale beyonder market. The safest and most trustworthy! If you can't find it there, then you won't find it anywhere else!

For trade, beyonders are advised to use gold or something of equal value

In Utopia, the Lord of Mysteries acts as a witness for trade. Any violation of contracts or scam are heavily punished

Violence is prohibited in Utopia

Those who break the rules are turned into marionettes or beyonder characteristics themselves *mwahahahaha*

Contracts with kind and helpful spirits are very much possible! For example, the sleepless pathway has a sequence that requires them to contract spirits. So by visiting Utopia or even reciting the name of The Fool and making your contract under the witness of Utopia, your chances of getting a friendly and powerful spirit increase dramatically! Maybe klein is running a hiring association for spirits XD (In canon, klein made the contract with his messanger under the witness of the underworld. Which is a part of the Spirit world. But in this au, Utopia is the safest better option)

The Seven Lights are said to be found in Utopia and to be more responsive to prayers of those who recite the fool/lom (mystery pryer pathway take full advantage of this)

In a religious context

Utopia can be seen for believers as heaven, where their souls depart in the after life. It can bring comfort in a way, like how in the Evernight church people get to see the spirits of their passed loved ones... so for the believers of the fool, who rules the spirit world, they know they will meet the spirits of their loved ones in Utopia

Okay so I read lotm in 2023 and I pretty much went through all the ao3 fics from back then (which were not a lot and half of them were in chinese and looked scary even with mtl...) my first ever ship was actually amon/klein! But I soon grow out of it because all the fics were so... toxic? (I did enjoy leonklein too especially with great fics like fake angel and if i can do it all over again)

And then the donghua came out summer 2025!!! Which revived me right out of the grave

So of course I went back to ao3 to go over the fics I missed + updates and I discovered a lot of amazing new fics like my dearest death and phone fic which was the first fic that opened my eyes to Grisha ASG as a real interactive character

But what really did it for me was when I actually wanted to read klein in second or third epoch (it's a huge hyperfixation of mine I really enjoy them a lot especiallyafter reading Bed Time Story by Trevor) and while looking I found this

【LoTM】Fooling Time

It's a time travel fic klein ends up in second epoch and becomes allies with asg (with feelings!) I loved it so much and it opened my eyes to the potential! Like what if all the transmigrators were allies? I started thinking of how well matched LoM and GA are together it was so good (like shipping the two most powerful characters together)

I've also made a post of five reasons why I ship Grishaklein if you need more yapping

Anyways, this is when I started actively searching for grishaklein fics (around August/septembre 2025)

The second fic that made me fall in love with the ship is Playing House by infinitlyzero. I'm sure most grishaklein readers know it. It's a time travel fic where klein ends up in third epoch and marries asg and has amon and adam as their children WHICH IS AMAZING LIKE WDYM THIS CRACK SHIP ACTUALLY COMES WITH CANON LOVE CHILDREN????

It was so perfect. Because wow. It fits so good. Adam is like the older son who inherited his dad's looks and pathway, and amon is already from the error pathway which is under lotm klein. He also had black hair and some fics even described him as mixed race? It made me daydream about grishaklein family a lot...

It was all I needed to go through every fic under the tag. Which were mostly chinese lmao. Most of them were by a writer named Margaret (chinese) they had so many interesting prospectives on the ship especially in third epoch with klein as the divin wife (some stuff went over my head because of the bad mtl)

(Later on i joined the fanfic server, and i went over so many lofter fics they are so good then I went around asking for a fic rec where klein has a good relationship with amon... like kinda family kinda stuff even if he's the uncle and that's how zero recommended her own fic PLAYING HOUSE to me and I panicked over meeting one of my favourite writers XD good old times)

Me and zero would talk about grishaklein for unhealthy amount of hours...

Then. The great shift happened. The fic that swept the fandom like a tidal wave was published. Aka: The Name Carved in Time

It was like witnessing history in the making.

That fic was so good I reread the first chapter so many times (it had 4 pages of comments.) And everyone loved it. It was all i could think about! So many fics started publishing agter that. And it was the final push for me to actually write my own fic: Fool's Notes

The funny thing about fool's notes plot is that half of it was taken from another draft that I hadn't actually written yet. Originally, my first lotm fic was supposed to be a "What if klein woke up in first epoch and became the lord of mysteries and helped the transmigrators" as in he plays the role of the old wise one. But the plot was too complicated and had too many holes so I gave up on it and took some snippets and used them in fool's notes instead...

I will write that first epoch au some time in the future, trust me. (Maybe when second season comes out and only if I finished one of my fics)

Anyways, I had a period of inspiration back then, most of the fics I published now (the soulmate and dream au) were planned back then in fall 2025 but i never had the chance to write them till later on. Almost a year later i can confidently say this ship still lives strong in my heart and I hope to finish all the fics I am writing now (so I can write some other aus i have talked about lmao)

Finally, I'll be honest and confess that fool's notes despite being my most popular fic is so self indulgent that I lost the plot multiple times while writing it... I made so many mistakes and diverged from the original plan and main ship too many times... I am trying to fix it now and I hope readers will still enjoy it (is it too late to develope the romance now? I hope not)