#krae writes

another thing she never did, was tell anyone her favorite flower. she was grateful for whatever flower she received if they happened to return the favor, and claimed that they were all her favorite.

so during the fic, Thancred's POV, the last flowers she gifted Thancred have been long dead in their pot since he forgot to press them in time. its mostly diving into Thancred finally giving up on looking for her. giving up on waiting for her to come back. but it's also him finding a small botany journal tucked away in her desk. inside listing every person she ever learned the favorite flower of, where to find it, how to safely preserve it, what the flower symbolized or meant to her, and would sometimes have a pressed flower glued to the page or a drawing for reference.

i dont really plan on going into depth on everyone's favorite flower and her notes on them, cause at some point that would just become boring to read lol. but Thancred flips through the thing for the rest of the night, and at the very end it lists Sthallona's actual favorite flower: Triteleia (or Ithuriel's Spear). here's a picture!

It's a type of wildflower! and apart of the lily family i believe

they've got no special meaning, if any. just general "purity, happiness, etc" kinda stuff that a lotta flowers have. but it's her favorite.

the fic ends with Thancred going out and finding some to place on her makeshift gravestone on the shore of La Noscea. her name is on the list of the dead headstone on the outskirts of Carteneau, yes. but the scions personally went and made a little shrine/grave/whatever for her near the ocean she grew up near.

the way Shadowbringers works in damnedverse (the one that has 6 WoLs), is that the WoLs were not called all at once. they were all whisked away to the First in varying succession like a shitty gachapon what the Exarch kept losing, which also happened to get the Scions along the way. what nobody was expecting though, was for Sthallona to be called. because as far as the entire world knew save for Matoya, she was dead.

Alidae and Touya found Sthallona on their way to the Crystarium from Amh Araeng, and offered for her to tag along, NOT KNOWING WHO SHE FREAKING WAS!!!!! and it's not like she was going to tell them!!!! she didn't know what the fuck was going on!!!!!

and really, she should have known that by the time she got to the Crystarium, that shit would hit the fan. because Alidae had mentioned meeting up with the Scions. but i guess it didn't exactly click in her head just how bad it was going to go.

the moment the others lay eyes on her, they freeze. Urianger can't quite contain his excitement and pulls her into a hug immediately. just to make sure that she's real. Y'shtola is next. there's a small moment of levity where Y'shtola finally connects some dots. because she realized that the familiar aether signature she was picking up in Matoya's cave belonged to Sthallona. Sthallona teases her for using Master Matoya as an alias, because of course she does. they laugh.

Thancred has been silent this entire time.

because this has to be some kind of joke, right? the Twelve heard his pleas but decided to play the world's worst idea of a joke on him, right? surely that's easier to swallow than the idea of her being alive, right?

he has to pinch himself to make sure he's not dreaming. and also to make sure he doesn't faint. but he doesn't say that part out loud.

there's hugs. there's tears. mostly from Sthallona, but she can see the way they well up in his eyes. and there's explanations to be said.

there was no easy way to say "hey guys, surprise! i faked my death and hid from you all so i'd stop having to carry the weight of being the world's hero!!! oops!!!! but i guess i'm here now and speaking of where the fuck are we???"

Sthallona doesn't expect forgiveness. but Urianger's comes easy, because he has no room to speak on ploys requiring him to lie to his friends at this exact second. Y'shtola meets her with sympathy and forgiveness isn't long after, because she's more impressed that Sthallona managed it for nine long years.

(Alidae and Touya are standing next to each other wondering what the fuck they've just unleashed. because this went from being a happy reunion with their friends to wayyy too much emotion for them to handle)

Thancred doesn't forgive so easily. he understands why she did what she did, he does. but there is too much swimming in his thoughts and he hasn't had nearly enough sleep to parse all of it. so instead, he swallows it down, and tells Sthallona that they can talk about it later. they need to catch her up on everything she's missed, after all. and that's more important than what he thinks.

AND IF YOU THINK THAT'S THE WORST OF IT, IT REALLY ISN'T. BECAUSE STHALLONA HAS MISSED A LOT.

it's one sentence that breaks any semblance of composure and leads Alidae to just noping the fuck out and dragging Touya off to go debrief with the Exarch, which is what they were there to do in the first place.

"If you three were brought to the First, what of the others? Who else is here with you?"

.....

Sthallona doesn't know about Minfilia. Sthallona doesn't know about Papalymo, or Yda, or Moenbryda, or--

ahem. yeah. nobody ends up having a good time.

Sthallona spends a majority of her time on the First before lore actually starts kicking up, about a year and a half before the lore, to be exact. and so she ends up spending said time traveling alongside Thancred and Ryne (or, still Minfilia at this time). because really, where else would she go? so long as Thancred would have her, she would be there.

or well, that's how it started.

this fic goes into just how much Thancred has changed since she last saw him. Which has been, oh you know, nearly a decade.

it starts off nice and all, but really starts getting into how Minfilia's sacrifice and subsequent reincarnation is really fucking with Thancred's head. and Sthallona being a witness to how cold he is to this new Minfilia, who is only fifteen.

it's Sthallona calling Thancred out on it, telling him to knock it off and treat her like a living person rather than the ghost he likes to portray her as. it's Sthallona empathizing with him, too, because she does understand his apprehension is coming from. it's Sthallona taking Minfilia off on her own for a bit, to give both her and Thancred a breather from each other.

which, that last part will probably end up going into another work. because this one really is just supposed to highlight how angry Sthallona is at Thancred's behavior.