Chapter Text
The moment her feet touched the ground, Gaia was standing back where she was before. She was in the Grove of Epiphany, right before the Luminary Throne. Looking around, she didn’t see anyone at first. The tables from the banquet were gone, and there was no sign of anyone from Okhema. She didn’t know how much time had passed. Until she heard footsteps coming up from behind her, followed by a voice.
A voice she had hoped for so long that she would hear again.
“Unless you have a good reason to be here, I recommend you return to your-”
The footsteps stopped and the voice trailed off. Gaia immediately turned around to see her Papa standing there, staring at her. For a few very long seconds, the two stood in silence, staring at each other, neither one of them willing to make the first move. For just a moment, Gaia wasn’t sure if her Papa knew who she was. After all her Dad didn’t exist in this cycle. Which meant that she was never created.
But he took a step forward. Followed by several more steps. Until he practically ran towards her. He then pulled her into a tight embrace, tears now falling.
“Gaia…” he whispered.
“I finally made it back to you…”
She broke out into a smile, her own tears beginning to run down her cheeks as she hugged him back.
“Papa…” she whispered in return.
The two stood, holding onto each other tightly, as if either one of them would vanish if they let go.
Gaia didn’t want to question how her Papa remembered her. It didn’t matter. She finally had him back. He finally kept his promise.
And yet, Gaia couldn’t help but begin to cry harder into him, her tears of joy soon becoming bitter. They still weren’t a whole family, even after all this time. Her Dad was still gone, swallowed by the world. Her Papa simply held her, letting her sob into him.
“It shouldn’t be like this…” she said through her sobs.
“We were supposed to be all together again. But Dad is gone…and he can’t come back to us…”
“Not yet,” her Papa answered.
“But he’ll return. We’ll make sure of it. I’ll make sure of it.”
He finally released her from his embrace, his hands on her shoulders.
“Now,” he said.
“Much has happened since you were gone. So I’ll need to catch you up on everything. And we have quite a lot to do.”
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The information Gaia was given was hard for her to wrap her head around. And even harder for her to accept.
Cerydra…Aglaea…Castorice…Mydei…Tribbie, Trinnon, and Trianne. All of them were gone once again. Okhema still stood, but in ruins. It was slowly being rebuilt but so many parts of it were still missing. From what Gaia was told, Lygus had been utterly relentless in his search for the Worldbearing Coreflame. He was determined to complete his Era Nova. And he still hadn’t stopped yet. Despite the peace that had been allowed by Mydei’s sacrifice, preparations still had to be made for Lygus’s eventual return.
Which is why Gaia had to finally be trained in both alchemy and swordplay.
Admittedly, it felt a bit weird that her Papa would be teaching her both. For one thing, she didn’t expect him to know how to use a sword, since she had only ever seen him use his gun. But surprisingly, at least to her, he was a great teacher in that regard. And for another thing, she hoped that when she learned how to use a sword, it would be her Dad teaching her.
But that wasn’t going to happen now.
Learning swordplay was easy enough, at least to her. Although that was purely because she remembered all the times she watched her Dad use his sword. So what she did was imitate what he used to do. Something about watching her imitate her Dad seemed to bring both pride and longing into her Papa.
She knew he missed him too. But if he believed he would come back, Gaia had to trust in that.
Then of course there was learning alchemy, which was an entirely different thing. It was complicated, confusing, and very much something she wasn’t used to. But her Papa was a good teacher either way. He walked her through every step of the processes she learned.
She knew he was a great teacher, but being on the receiving end of it really put things into perspective of just how good he was. Her Papa always encouraged her to try new things, to push herself to her limits. Every question she had, he was willing to answer. And while she wasn’t as much of an expert as him, she was gaining a lot of knowledge.
She would be ready for when Stelle came back.
Whenever that would be.