#(homu: okay so I'm not really sure if I can trust her)

[clarafell]

@deathdanse has made a contract.          —         ★

In the beginning, the newly created earth is without form and completely empty. Darkness blankets the surface of the planet until light is summoned into existence, instantly pronounced as good. The light, now called day, is separated from the darkness, which is now called night. The dance of day and night continues to be an endless cycle as the sun and the moon continue to fight for the right to rule the sky.

In the beginning, Homura Akemi woke up from her now shattered dream. The world around her is dark and cold and devoid of life. She lies neatly upon a cool marble surface, mimicking a corpse in her final resting place. Dull, slightly wilted flowers surround her motionless body. The Isolation Field, the place where the Incubators created just for her body, is now destroyed.

The countless red eyes that once closely examined their isolated experiment are gone, but it matters not to the experiment. They never, not even once, shown any sign of remorse, or any other emotion, for anything they have done in the past. She awakens, though she still looks more like the deceased body than some dreaming shell of a person. No longer trapped within the depths of her dreamy labyrinth, she opens the eyes she was never meant to open again. First, there is darkness and emptiness until a dazzling light chooses to rain down upon her.

A goddess draped in white reaches out to her with a piercing gentleness, but Homura is finished with waiting— No, she will not be taken away with the Law of Cycles to go to somewhere beyond the earthly soil— Homura gripped her destiny with a calm viciousness until she found herself ripping the radiant goddess apart. Everyone can scream for her to stop, but she is finished with backing down. She will tear divinity apart until she finds what she wants. The Incubators were always getting in the way, weren't they? Always wanting to seal as many contracts as they can, claiming they only want preserve the universe from entropy.

No one can stop her now, can they? Oh, they can try. She welcomes the challenge simply because she knows there will always be an enemy in her way. Blood will always drip upon her soul, so why choose to dream of anything else? She might as well as embrace the broken reflection, not avoid it by draping a shroud over it for the rest of her life.

As she rewrote the universe, the ascended being began to experiment with her power. Trial and error is common, she knows from experience. Mistakes are bound to happen. No one, not her years of repeating the same time, can prepare her for what happens next. The new stage of her soul gem, all of this unfamiliar magic and sensations, begins to overwhelm her. One such mistake did happen when she got thrown back into the past, far deeper than she has ever gone before—

She landed back in Europe during the Hundred Years' War, in fact.

Homura always did have bad luck, but throwing herself that far into the past has to be her pièce de résistance—

This is where she meets Corbeau.

Though they were (supposedly) never meant to meet, Homura crosses paths with the sworn enemy of the heroic Jeanne d'Arc. Though she had yet to meet the French hero, none of that crossed her mind. All she truly cared moments before her discovery was catching that troublesome salamander, the same creature that clung to her soul. At the time, Homura did not know what to make of the creature. None of the soldiers understood why Corbeau chose to bring the suspicious stranger closer, but the seasoned fighter fed all of them a easy-sounding cover-up story.

Homura, in all honesty, wasn't sure if she could trust the masked stranger. She knew she refused to trust any of the men outside the tent, that's for sure. Corbeau, however, at least understood part of her perspective. They both, after all, traded their souls for a wish. Homura knew she couldn't trust all the people the Incubators found.

Fighting over grief seeds and territories were common, at least back in her original time. Desperate and all alone, she took a risky bet in assuming that Europe in the Late Middle Ages had to be a lot better than her home. The Late Middle Ages, she imagined, were full of witches and man-made wickedness. Lots of despair to go around when the bubonic plague existed.

She couldn't tell if Corbeau was her rescuer or a potential kidnapper, maybe even a weird blend of both, but...

Corbeau still offered her shelter and water and, more importantly, answers.

❝  It's quite pleasant to see you again, Corbeau. ❞ Homura's voice rings out, pleasant and perhaps a bit too calm. She wasn't sure where to place Corbeau exactly, but... She decided to choose a quiet library in the depths of a museum, hoping the soothing environment wouldn't be too much of a cultural shock. Homura's time in Europe was... not her best of times, so Homura wants to try to make Corbeau have a much more easier time. She chose to wear her uniform, the very same outfit that Corbeau met her in.

❝  I do apologize for not bringing your sisters with you, but— I wasn't sure if I could trust them, if I'm being honest. Fear not, they are safe. ❞ As someone without any siblings to call hers, Homura realizes her phrasing might be a problem. She tries to sound reassuring, though she doesn't know how effective she is until she tries.

She wanted to address the missing sisters as quick as possible, not wanting to potentially cause a potential fight to break out. It would be horribly awful for the poor books to get hurt.

❝  I'm sure you must be very confused, judging by your staring... ❞

Homura is risking a lot with her gamble with fate, but she is more than prepared to control the situation if a confused Corbeau decides to attack her to gain the upper hand. The self-proclaimed devil knows the chances of her gaining any allies is slim, so she has decided to enlist the help of witches. It's why she brought Corbeau to her time, after all. It's entirely selfish of her, she knows that, but what is the harm? Well, it isn't a complete selfish seed... Homura also brought her back because she did desire to repay Corbeau for her act of kindness.

❝  I have an important question for you, so please refrain from yelling at me for just a moment. We're in a library, after all. Now... Do you remember me? ❞