--DREAMS--

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Winter, 1141 (Leah, age 9)
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"Petra, Petra!  Lookit!"  A young Leah, her wavy red hair in pigtails, ran up to her harpy nannie.  "I found it!"

Petra paused from looking through a selection of children's picture books.  The family was at the Frenditz library for the day; Leah's younger brouther Laurie was sitting nearby, paging through his first picture book of the day.  "What did you find, Leah?" she asked, surprised at her charge's eagerness.

Leah held up a book titled "Tales of the Rim", with art of a large group of airships flying over the namesake islands on its cover.  "It's an adventure book!" she laughed, turning it back about to stare with wide eyes.  "Stories about heroes!"

A smile crossed Petra's face.  "You're a bit animated today," she remarked, reaching over to ruffle the young girl's hair.  "Is it really that exciting?"

"Yeah!"  Leah bounced, giggling as she ran over and sat down next to her brother, opening the book.  "Imma learn to be a hero.  Then Laurie and I can play Heroes!"

Petra froze, glancing over.  "That might not be the best idea, little one," she said carefully while pulling out another book to add to the pile.  "Sounds dangerous.  Is there anything else you'd like to be?"

Leah glanced up, and grinned.  "I wanna be like /you/, Petra.  Pretty feathers!"

"Like... me?"  Petra shook her head, then turned her attention nervously as a shadow fell over the two children.  Leah turned her eyes up, up, up as the visage of her mother peered down the library isle.  Amy Moretta scowled quietly as Laurie stood up and ran over to hug her leg, crying out "Mama!" over and over with giggles.

"I don't know /where/ she gets these ideas from, madame," Petra muttered, standing with a pile of books tucked within her wings.

Amy waved Petra off, excusing her while she spoke to her daughter.  "Fagellis protects us, Leah," she spoke after a few moments.  "In him, we are looked after; his blessings are far more reliable than mortal hands."

Leah frowned, looking down at her book.  She knew that arguing with her mother would get her nowhere; she'd given up trying.

"Give me that," Amy muttered, stepping over and taking the book from Leah's hands.  "Go find a different book.  Putting such crazy thoughts in your head..."

Leah squeezed her eyes shut, fighting off the beginning of tears.  Why?  Why couldn't she do anything she wanted to do?

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Spring, 1143 (Leah, age 11)
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"... are you sure about this?"

Leah opened her eyes, watching quietly in her seat as her wizardry tutor - she only knew him as Mr. Kal - spoke with her father.  Nicholas Moretta had arranged for her to get lessons in the basics of wizardry before her scheduled attendance at the Jeobardi School of Wizardry; she was supposed to have another year to go.

"Absolutely," Nicholas muttered, barely lifting his head from the paperwork upon his desk to acknowledge Leah or her tutor.  She was used to this - she rarely saw her father set aside time for anything but his work.  "If your assessment of her capabilities is correct, then she will go."

Leah looked down at her hands in her lap.  She held a small piece of metal in her hands, a ring of metal.  She'd awoken her first channeling ability a week before, and had been undergoing tests for the past two days.  Mr. Kal had told her that she was a metal channeler - with the ability to change the shape and form of the material  She'd been toying with the rod provided to her, experimenting with what she could turn it into.  This development had supposedly made her father happy... not that she could tell.

"I understand your eagerness," Mr. Kal spoke.  "She's been doing well with her wizardry studies, but non-traditional elemancy is-"

"She.  Will.  Go."  Nicholas sat aside a stack of papers and stared at Leah; she averted her eyes, looking to the floor.  "Leah will need the extra time to add her elemantic classes to her other studies."

"Her other... you'll have her go through the original curriculum, as well?"  Mr. Kal seemed wary to her; her nervousness increased.  "That's quite the workload, I'm not sure she's far enough ahead to-"

"She'll handle it."  Nicholas stood up from his desk, walking around it to come up to where Leah sat, reaching down and taking the circe rod in her hands.  With a motion, he dispelled the shaping, returning it to its original, straight form.  "Leah.  You will be going to your boarding school early to begin your elemantic training.  Do you understand what that means?"

"... yes, father," Leah muttered, hands clenched on her knees.  "I'm gonna be a golem."

"No, you're going to have a golem.  You must learn the difference," Nicholas said, turning and giving the metal rod to Kal.  "You'll be joining Lucas at Jeobardi; he'll be able to look after you."

Leah winced.  Lucas had always been rather cold to her, compared to John and Laurie; he was over six years older than her.  "Do... do I have to?"

"Of course," Nicholas answered.  "I've sent off to make the arrangements.  You'll be starting next month."

"But..." Leah began to protest.  "I don't want to leave ma-" before cutting herself off as she saw her father's hand go to his belt buckle, immediately regretting her moment of outburst.  She'd spoken out of line - she'd only done so a few times before, and each time was the same.  Saying anything more would only make it worse, she thought while retreating into her seat.  "... yes, father."

Nicholas looked to Mr. Kal, and motioned towards the door.  "Prepare her last set of lessons before she departs."

"Y-yes, sir," Mr. Kal bowed his head and quickly stepped back from the room.  Leah could only think that he knew his place pretty well around her father; maybe that's why he'd been brought back to tutor her after helping Lucas years before.

Leah closed her eyes as the door shut as her father spoke.  "I expect better of you," he began as she counted her breaths, trying to shut out the sound of the belt snapping-

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Autumn, 1143 (Leah, age 12)
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The sound of a pointer cracked against the teacher's podium, snapping Leah out of her daze.  She hadn't been sleeping well - getting used to the tiny animancy golem she'd been given had taken a toll on her.  "Young lady," her teacher called out.  "Is my instruction boring you?"

"N-no, Mrs Haffle," Leah muttered, blinking rapidly.  Her golem, a mess of cogs and wheels, sat next to her on her chair.  She hadn't identified with it at first due to its inhuman nature, and it had taken a month longer than her schedule had allowed for her synch properly.

Her father hadn't taken that news well.

"You know the rules, Moretta," Mrs Haffle sighed, turning to the writing board.  All around Leah, her classmates snickered.  She hadn't made any friends since arriving - how could she?  Half her classes were filled with animancer and biomancers, all of whom had identified her as weird.  Who makes an entirely metal golem, anyway?  Too restrictive.  The other half of her classes were with non-elemantic students, and they thought she was weird, too.

Maybe she was, and that hurt.  Mama always wanted her to be normal, after all.

She stared ahead as her teacher restarted her lecture, trying to concentrate as she felt something brushing the back of her head.  She raised her hand up - and her golem did the same, causing a loud grinding noise to echo through the room.

"Miss Moretta!" Mrs Haffle turned her head back, glowering.  "Second demerit."

Leah winced.  Lucas would hear about that one.  She turned her head slowly once Mrs. Haffle wasn't paying attention, looking back at the student behind her with a glare.

Arianna had the same ever-present smirk on her face as she always did.  She slipped a small wand away into a pocket in her own golem, a beginner's flitterwheel.  Leah never understood what Arianna had against her, but she'd seemingly gotten all of her friends to agree on one thing.

Leah wasn't one of them.  That meant she was less than them.

Turning her head back to the lesson, Leah started taking notes.  The words seemed to blur together, nothing making sense in the moment.  Frustrated, she hung her head, closing her eyes...

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Midsummer, 1146 (Leah, near age 14)
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The sound of Leah's luggage striking the floor brought her back to her senses.  She opened her eyes, looking upon her old room - back home for her Midsummer break.

The metallic luggage case unfolded as her golem, Tal, regained its normal form.  Her parents had arranged for her to get an upgraded golem that spring - a new design, one that took advantage of her improving skills in shaping.  It looked like a miniature version of herself, not some semi-human mash-up of gears.  Her carefully packed things settled to the floor in a pile as Leah turned back and noticed her mother in the doorway.

"Welcome home," Amy said, a warm smile on her face.  "Fagellis has blessed us with your return."

With a squeal of happiness, Leah ran forward to embrace her mother with a tight hug.  "I missed you, mama," she muttered - as she ran forward with Tal as well, clinging to her mother's leg.

Amy Moretta looked down, reaching to pick up Tal... and grunted at the effort, considering the weight of the golem.  She looked over the smaller version of her daughter... then turned her head, curious.  "It... doesn't look like a golem."

"That's because it's me, mama," Tal said.  "If I'm going to be me, I have to look like me."

With a patient smile, Amy set the golem down.  "It's still just a golem, Leah," she reminded Leah.  "You need to remember that."

Leah frowned, but went quiet.  How could her mother know what it was like?  Being in two places at once, at all times?  Thinking of the little body as a smaller version of herself is how she stayed sane.

Amy stepped into the room, turning about to at her daughter again.  "And you've been keeping up your attendance at the church?"

Leah winced, and immediately regretted it.  "No, mama.  I need more time for my studies-"

Her mother's silent glare cut her off.  The uncomfortable pause hung in the air.  "You will make time for both," she scolded matter-of-factly before looking down at Leah's luggage.

Leah watched with growing dread as Amy leaned down, picking up a pendant from the pile.  "What's... this?  Standing up, she turned to Leah, holding the small pendant by its chain - a symbol of Nea.  "You don't make time for Fagellis, but you're carrying something from her again?!"

"It's my choice," Leah insisted, Tal pouting.  "You can't-"

"Sweet Fagellis, Leah!  This house is protected by /his/ will."  Amy shook the pendant angrily at her daughter.  "I will not have another so-called god brought here, and I will /not/ have you corrupt your brothers with such blasphemy!"

Leah winced, stepping backwards into the doorway.  "I just want to help people, mama, like any hero-"

The next thing Leah knew, she was lifting herself up to her arms and knees, her head throbbing in pain.  Through Tal, she saw her father towering above her in the doorway, his open hand still lifted before him.

Her senses seemed to distort; her father's shadow lengthened over both of Leah's forms.  Her mother stepped around her as she turned around, sitting on the floor, staring up at both of them as they felt unnaturally tall above her.

"No child of mine would turn their back on this family," Nicholas declared.  "Your duties are first, and foremost, to this family.  To your studies, to your work."

"I know, but-"

Leah's mother spoke next, her voice soft.  "I wish you'd just find a fine boy to bring home for once, Leah."

"But I don't like-"

Both figures glared at her, and she shrank back into the floor.  Her father spoke.  "You don't have time for your delusions of heroism," she stated.  "Nea isn't going to help you."

"She will though!  I-"

"Then what is that?" her mother asked, pointing at Leah's chest.  She looked down - her holy symbol of Attana.  Wait, that wasn't right- but her mother continued.  "You don't even believe in her anymore.  You're following a dead goddess."

"Attana's not dead!" Leah cried out.  "I promised I'd-"

"You?  You can't even fulfill your studies properly," her father scowled.  "How could you do something so grand as promise something to a god?"

"But... but I wanted to-"

"It doesn't /matter/ what you /want/, child," her father scolded.

"I'm not a CHILD anymore!"  Leah stepped forward with her metallic body from the side, standing protectively over herself.  "See?!"

Her father waved a hand in the air, and a wave of magic washed over her.  An anti-channeling dispel.  Her golem lost its features, slumping to the ground in a mostly featureless puddle.

"No... no no no..."

Silently, her father's hand raised in the air above her as Leah closed her eyes-

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Current Day - early Midsummer 1148
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She awoke in a jolt; she wasn't being struck, she told herself.  One of her bodies was weighed down by an arm, the other alone its bed.  "Another nightmare," Leah muttered, a hand going to her temple.

"...wha?" a quiet voice muttered behind her flesh-body's head.

With a sigh, Leah pressed back against her girlfriend's body within the bed.  "It's... nothing," she muttered.  "Just a bad dream."

"Again?"  Ada's arm wrapped around Leah's curled form in a hug.  "That's the fourth one since the Basin."

"Mmm."  Leah hid her head under her blanket.  In her own room, her metallic body sat up from her own bed, grabbing the dull commstone sitting on her nightstand.  Several moments passed before she placed it down again, staring quietly; no response, yet again.

Ada gently squeezed, closing her eyes and setting her head back on her pillow.  "If this keeps happening, I'm going to insist you tell me what they're about."

"I'll... be okay," Leah muttered.  She really /didn't/ want to talk about her dreams, as much as she didn't want to face her parents again - not with how she'd left without a word.  They /surely/ must have recieved her last letter by now.  Shouldn't they?

{Anyone still awake, I need your help up front.}  It was Seiun, using the dungeon team's comms.  What time /was/ it?

A glance to the side with with her golem showed her clock - after one in the morning.  Leah groaned, holding her head.  {Mmm... alright, alright...}

Ada began to stir, sitting in her bed.  "... stuck?" she muttered, speaking mostly through her own elemantic construct for the moment.  "Be out in a minute..."

"Hmph."  Leah rolled over, staring at Ada in the dimness of the room.  "I'll send Tal out."

Ada muttered quietly, looking about the room.  {Where did she toss my-} she began muttering before realizing her own comm earring was on.  (Oh shi--}

Leah reached out, wrapping her arms around the Orchaeyaen girl's waist, keeping her in the bed.  "Mmf.  Uh-uh."

Ada glanced at Leah for a moment, reaching up to take her comm earring off to set aside.  "... alright," she said, ruffling Leah's hair.  "We can stay."