27 ◦ [VIDEO - TEXT]

[akingmuststand]

[The screen is dark for a moment, before the shroud - a hand - moves, flops aside. A white-clad shoulder shifts, a soft, sleepy mutter barely audible over the feed. The view is one from inside a croft, the sleeper just visible at the edge of the camera. He rolls onto his back, showing a mop of pale blond hair, but the angle is too awkward to see

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[ audio ]

[hereticsight]

Oh dear, I did not expect this today.

[ The voice on the line, for the record, is mature and sounds alarmingly reminiscent of Marianne. While gentle, she isn't asking when she says: ] Schneizel, I want you to describe your surroundings to me. I will come find you.

[ audio ]

[inbrilliancy]

As it happens, you're not the only one.

[His voice is dry, but doesn't quite manage amusement. This voice does put him in mind of Lady Marianne, but - it's not her, Schneizel is sure of it.]

I'm afraid you'll have to tell me who I'm speaking to before I would consider giving such.

[ audio -> video ]

[hereticsight]

Please, don't be alarmed. [ She knew she sounded similar to her mother, and she'd hoped it'd get him to answer so she could explain in person.

Whelp.

When she flicks on the camera, you'll be treated to Nunnally at age twenty-nine or so. She's dressed quite regally, befitting her station, though her hair is rather messily thrown into a braid that clearly wove around her rowan crown. Her eyes are serious, but there's a kind curve to her lips. ]

I am Princess Nunnally vi Britannia, Foreign Secretary of the Britannian Empire. Ask me what you need to verify it if you must, but please don't take too long.

[ video ]

[inbrilliancy]

[He knows her, when he sees her. He recognizes her face, her eyes - but he can't tell where, he can't place how he knows her. It isn't until she introduces herself that it makes sense - that he's looking at his sister.

But how can that be? This woman looks almost thirty, and Nunnally isn't even ten yet. Not to mention, this woman is calm and composed - not the little hellian his youngest sister tends to be.

But even as he discounts her words in his head, he can't shift the feeling that this is Nunnally.

His voice turns flat as a tile, his expression ever so carefully blank.]

What is this?

[ video ]

[hereticsight]

A blessing and a curse, you're in a different world than the one you knew. Though you're brilliant, far more so than I, you're not prepared for this yet.

I love you too much to waste time, so please let me make sure you're safe.

[ video ]

[inbrilliancy]

[She speaks with the familiarity - and strange distance - that a sister would. She has her eyes. She seems almost like Marianne - but not so frivolous in nature. But still he cannot shift the suspicion. Not when she should be a child.]

Safe enough. [He says it with an almost cavalier toss of his hair, serious though his tone is. The smirk just curving his mouth is largely humourless.]

In fact, it seems I'm totally unharmed.

[ video ] mind if she finds him via his line of the future?

[hereticsight]

[ Oh god Schneizel, you're smarter than this! Are you from a world without witches?! She puffs up a little and makes a snap decision. ]

Listen to me already! If I were Cornelia or Euphie, you would, no matter how old they were!

[ video ] go ahead! 8) he's still chilling in his croft...

[inbrilliancy]

[At that, the expression slips. He looks at her with visible surprise, before calming again.]

You speak as though I value one of my sisters above another. [Well, he may be closest to Cornelia than another, but still -]

Forgive my observation, but you are a grown woman. Nunnally vi Britannia is a girl of four.

[ action ]

[hereticsight]

[ She hadn't been able to peg his age exactly just by looking at him, but now she gets it and doesn't even bother answering. He probably had no idea of witches just yet. But that was helpful in a way if he wouldn't go along with what she asked. Few knew what Geass could do, and none in his timeline had any understanding of the White Witch of Britannia

[ action ]

[inbrilliancy]

[He's not wholly surprised by a sound outside the door. Having looked outside, seen the surroundings, he's still there - still waiting. But he is surprised when he sees who comes inside, rising immediately to his feet with an audible, openly shocked gasp. Stilling before her, he looks at her, from the tattered hem of her skirt to her long hair. And her eyes - even face to face, especially face to face, he recognizes those eyes, though time and age have changed them.

There's no doubt in his heart that this is his sister, though his logical mind still tries to ignore that, to deny it outright. A man in his forties? Matters outside his experience? That snags his attention if only because, as a prince, a prince showing far more potential than his older brother, he's being schooled in everthing that could possibly be pertinent -

Curious, but he's not going to ask. Instead, torn between moving closer and backing off, he meets her eyes levelly - still towering over her, even now.]

How did you find me here - sister?

[ action ]

[hereticsight]

[ He's so young. So young and unprepared, no matter how talented he is. But once he knew the truth of matters and saw what he thought could not exist, he would be fine. ]

It might be because I'm a witch. [ She smiles fondly, eyes softening as she cants her head slightly to the side. Oh goodness, she's turning into her mother, even if her statement is true. ]

But more importantly, though I know it might be hard to understand, I'm not the only one with the ability to do unusual things.

[She steps forward, reaching out a hand to take one of his were he to let her. When she's returned to her home reality, she would going to have to tell him all about this. ]

[ action ]

[inbrilliancy]

[A witch. He's perfectly used to his little siblings playing games, of course, and dragging him into them when they can - but this is rather different from that, because his littlest sister is now a grown woman and therefore, this is not a game.

Which unsettles him, because in that moment she looked so very much like her mother (a woman who, though he respects her, Schneizel is not particularly fond of as so many are) and she's claiming to be a witch and this is all completely and utterly wrong even though he can't explain how. Loathing that feeling of being kept in the dark, he looks at her now suspiciously, and though he takes her hand when offered, he maintains the distance between them.]

'Unusual things', [he says, a mite warily.] Tell me, was crypticism something you gained with age?