RWBY: Forever Fall

Day One

Unlike my first time Planeswalking, I didn’t tumble into reality. My practice traveling to Slaughter Swamp had finally taught me to step out of nonexistence, not roll. It was a good thing too, because I was standing on cracked and weathered stone, not soft mud, and there was a half-collapsed column a few feet in front of me, not a comparably soft tree.

I was standing in the remains of what looked like a temple, or maybe a bank. Little remained of the building and what did was overgrown, the wilderness slowly reclaiming what had once belonged to it. There were broken and weatherbeaten columns extending from the ground, some covered almost completely in moss, roots, and vines, while others still extended from the earth like milky white spires.

The ground beneath me had once been a beautifully polished sheet of white stone, marble perhaps, and I could see the remains of what looked like geometric patterns or maybe even mosaics outlined with darker stone. Now, roots rose through the stone, leaving it cracked, buckled, and partially buried under the soil.

If this place had once had a roof, no trace of it remained. The sky was clear and bright, a tiny scattering of white clouds dotting the vast blue expanse. The building had been on a small hill, or perhaps this was an upper level and everything below it had been buried long ago by the encroaching forest, giving me a clear view in all directions.

Red-leafed trees extended out as far as the eye could see, eventually fading into a hazy red line that met the pale blue of the horizon. It was a breathtaking vista like nothing I’d ever seen before. In autumn, most trees back home in England turned orange, not this bright and vibrant red. It almost looked like a painting more than real life, the colors almost too vivid to be believable.

I took a deep breath and sighed softly in contentment. The air was cool and crisp, so much unlike the muggy summer of Gotham City. If nothing else, this was a much more pleasant place to Planeswalk than Slaughter Swamp had been. There were no swarms of insects, no smell of rot, no withered trees and slimy water.

Instead, the air was filled with the scent of plantlife and the perfume of nature. I could hear the distant calls of birds and the rustle of wind through the trees provided a peaceful backdrop. I was not much of a wilderness person by nature––I certainly hadn’t continued with Herbology after my OWLs, nor had I selected Care of Magical Creatures as one of my electives––but even I could appreciate the beauty and tranquility of nature from time to time. Particularly after spending my time in the depths of the ocean––a beautiful environment to be sure, but not one I was fully comfortable in––and in smelly, noisy, smokey muggle cities.

I let myself enjoy the view for several moments, then twirled my wand. A shield silently snapped into place around me, I disillusioned myself, and then cast a neat bit of Order stealth magic that blended my presence with the natural world. It wouldn’t hide me from someone who knew what they were looking for, but it would make me ‘fit in’ with the background, which combined beautifully with the disillusionment charm.

I would have preferred to already have all three spells cast before I planeswalked, but unfortunately I’d found that the place in between rapidly stripped away unanchored spells like those. Enchanted items were mostly fine––at least on the time scales that I could survive being exposed to the endless nothingness––but glamours, shields, and other charms vanished almost as soon as I entered.

With that taken care of, I rattled off a number of detection charms. My human revealing charm came back empty, magic-sight didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, and the only thing my Order magic detection spell highlighted was the remains of the building that I was standing on.

I relaxed slightly after that. I wasn’t necessarily safe, but I hadn’t found any nearby threats so it seemed as though I hadn’t Planeswalked into the middle of a battlefield or something. That had been one of Zatanna’s concerns, but at least for the time it seemed unfounded.

With nothing immediately pressuring me to move, I decided to look around a little. Slaughter Swamp had proven to be a rather interesting place, magically speaking, and it was entirely possible this place would prove just as rewarding. Maybe I’d find some sort of…red bowtruckle? It would be an interesting novelty if nothing else.

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First however, there was something very important I needed to do. For the first time ever, I drew on not one, not, two, but three motes of mana all at the same time. Despite the lands themselves being a literal world away, the mana came to me immediately. Black from Slaughter Swamp. Colorless from Shadowcrest, and White from the Tower of Fate. Instead of pushing the mana into my wand, I drew it through my Spark and then out into the world.

Zatanna stumbled as she appeared beside me, oddly dressed in the stage-magician outfit I’d only ever seen her wear a handful of times in the past. I caught her arm before she could fall and she steadied herself against my side, then slowly straightened and turned to face me.

Despite my spells, I knew that she could see me. She was…part of me, in a way that I couldn’t quite put into words. On a fundamental level she was an extension of myself that could only exist here for as long as I was around to maintain her presence. Even if I could not see her thoughts and she could not see mine, I knew where I was standing and so she did too.

“Hello, dear,” I greeted her softly. I knew it wasn’t really her. I could feel it in my soul. This was just a shell that looked and acted like my Zatanna, but that was it. She wasn’t really a person. She could gain new memories and see things she’d never seen before, but she wouldn’t change or grow. Her body and soul were both artificial constructs formed from some combination of magic, mana, and just a tiny wisp of aether to bind it all together.

Still, there was something comforting about having her by my side. She blinked rapidly, then smiled. “Hello Hydrys.” She looked around, peering curiously at the columns and the trees. “So this is it…a whole new world.”

“It sure is,” I confirmed.

Zatanna slowly turned a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees. “It's very…red. Is it fall? I don’t think trees are supposed to be that color.”

I shrugged. “No idea. I just got here myself.”

Zatanna tilted her head to the side. “And the very first thing you did is summon me?” She folded both of her hands over her heart. ”I’m touched.”

On impulse, I leaned down and captured Zatanna’s lips with mine. She eagerly reciprocated, her lips parting to allow my tongue access to her mouth and she stepped into me, pressing herself against my chest and wrapping her arms around me.

Physically, it felt much the same. There was the same heat, the same taste, and the same touch. Zatanna even responded like I would have expected, showing that same eagerness and hunger that I’d come to know and love over the past weeks.

However, in my heart and mind I knew this wasn’t Zatanna. I was kissing…a statue. A warm, thinking, feeling statue, but a statue nonetheless. I broke the kiss and stepped away, Zatanna letting me go without any struggle.

“Don’t worry, I understand,” she said softly.

I smiled tightly, but said nothing. She knew just as much as I did that she was not the real Zatanna. Even if someday I found a way to share her experience with the Zatanna waiting for me back in her own world, it wouldn’t be the same. I was pretty sure it was possible. I could feel the place in Zatanna’s blueprint where memories formed by the copy would go when I dispelled her and it felt inevitable that there was some magic that would move those memories out of the blueprint and into reality. But I neither knew how long it would take to find or develop such a spell, nor if I would want to use it when I did.

I sighed heavily and Zatanna gently set a hand on my arm. “It’s alright. I’ll be there when you go back. It's only going to be a week at most. But first, let’s make the most of that time here and now.”

She…it…she was right. I was sorely tempted to just leave now, but that would be a colossal waste. Who knew what sort of magic, secrets, or creatures I could find here? If I left now, there was little chance I’d ever find my way back. Not before I formed a connection with the land of this new Plane. Furthermore, my Spark felt strained and I wasn’t sure how safely I’d be able to make the return trip right now even if I wanted to. In a number of hours, perhaps a day, it would be back at full strength and I’d be able to easily leave, but for now I was… not stuck, but greatly motivated to stay.

“Yeah. Yeah. Let’s look around and see what we can find.” And anyway, Zatanna had her own things going on. I’d made this trip for a reason, not so I could spend it moping. How pathetic was I, considering turning around because I got a little bit lonely! I was Hydrys Sirius Black, an adult wizard, not some homesick firsty on my first night away from home.

I took a deep breath and looked around. What did I want to do first?