Title: Ever flowing
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 800ish words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Presea & Clef, post-canon. (Title is entirely because I still get the 'water is ever flowing' line from the dub of the CCS first movie stuck randomly in my head on a regular basis, for no reason. XD)
Summary: “…Where is it all coming from?” Presea muttered, staring up at the water spilling from the crystalline mass that held the castle.


oOo

The revitalisation of Cephiro had been a rush, and a joy, and Presea had let the happiness wash through her and lift her heart with the sudden hope that maybe – maybe it would be alright. Maybe Cephiro could survive this.

She didn’t look too closely at any of the details of the new land in those first few days. There was a lot of structural work to do, ensuring that the returning land and structures were sound – not that there were too many structures. The tug of Cephiro’s growth sat at the back of her mind, a new warm pressure. Not overwhelming: not when split among so many people, but attuned to her power as she was, it was definitely something she was aware of. Like the tug of the castle.

But though her power was partially bound into the castle, she had left Clef in charge of the actual flow of spellwork that held the place together. So it wasn’t until she was first walking in the verdant gardens that had sprung up around this central hub to Cephiro, that she really looked at it again, and stopped still, frowning.

Clef was walking with her, a couple of paces ahead – they were looking for somewhere to build a landing site so that they could get visitors to and from the NSX more easily. It took him several paces to realise she’d stopped, then he turned to look at her. “Presea? Is something wrong?”

“…Where is it all coming from?” Presea muttered, staring up at the water spilling from the crystalline mass that held the castle.

She’d known it was floating – it made getting in and out a little more interesting, but she hadn’t thought about it more than that. Zagato had stolen the entire castle and taken it soaring off into the sky; it staying about three hundred metres above the gardens hadn’t been that odd. But the waterfalls pouring out from it-

“What?” Clef’s face was concerned now, and he’d come back towards her. “Presea?”

“The water – Clef, where is all that water coming from?” She gestured, and he turned to stare with her back at the castle, and the multiple bright waterfalls casting rainbows all around it.

“Oh. I… don’t know?” He tilted his head, watching the flow. “…Most of the floating islands have some kind of waterfall. It’s perfectly normal, isn’t it?”

Presea blinked at him, but then fond as she was of the Guru, he apparently thought that pillars didn’t need to touch the ground to be of use, and that the optimal shape for a building was a set of massive towers whose internal dimensions never quite seemed to match the outsides.

“Most floating islands are a lot higher,” she said, pointing out one of them visible off towards the northern horizon. “They float through the clouds and the upper atmosphere, and moisture gathers on them, and eventually forms a small waterfall or two when enough gathers that it flows over the edge of the island.”

“…Oh.” Clef stared over at the distant island, then at the one before them, which was ringed with enough water that the cheerful rush of it formed a constant noise out here in the gardens, and kept the air damp. “Well.” Then he looked up at her, and grinned suddenly. “I have absolutely no idea,” he said, sounding exceedingly cheerful about it. “I suppose I’ll have to find out somehow.”

“You’re not worried about it?”

Clef shrugged, still smiling. “It’s caused no problems as yet. We have time now, to fix everything that we flung together – and yes, I know there are a dozen of things wrong about the castle itself. But it kept people safe, and we have time.”

Time, it was clear, he’d not expected them to have, for all he’d never seemed to give up hope.

Presea looked up at the castle in all its inexplicable, gleaming reality, and had to smile back at him. They had time – and they were going to work on getting things right, with this new chance Hikaru had given them – all three girls had given them.

A moment later, Clef turned back to the waterfalls, looking intrigued. “In fact, never mind where the water is coming from – do you know where it’s going?”

“No,” Presea told him, and she hadn’t even considered that yet. There was enough water rolling off the island it should be generating at least one mid-sized river, but there wasn’t even a stream flowing through the gardens. “I guess we’ll find that out, too.” She took a deep breath of the clean air, and smiled again. “I think I’m looking forward to it.”