when someone new enters abyss, it's only a matter of time before it reaches them. every wall has ears and every building has eyesâtrue anywhere, of course, but perhaps in the underground city especially where so many hide. and yuri's good at asking, because people trust them enough to answer. how long, after all, have they safeguarded their home? perhaps too long, but never long enough either.
so yuri hears, inevitably, when she arrives. when someone arrives, at least, but the whispers that float to their ears paint a familiar enough picture that they set off to seek her out in time.
âmost people don't wander this far out through the tunnels, you know. lots of them look the same; they get all turned around. but fancy that. it really is you...â the heel of their boots click against cobblestone, echoing down the hall. they'd shooed off the kid they asked to point the way toward her ages ago with the promise of sweets snuck down from the dining hall for dinner, and so they meet her alone. yuri's not keen on having an audience, really, and somehow they doubt that she'd welcome one either. â...sara.â
it's not their business why she's hereâyuri never asks, not unless it starts to cause too much trouble. this time, though, they do. because they were there, so it's half their business; because they wonder if it really was what led her here; because it had been her magic that stopped them from cutting evette's throat, even if she still died in the end. âwhy are you here? because of that last mission? abyss isn't a place to rewrite endingsâit's where they come to disappear.â
they shrug. âso if it's guilt that brought you here, you'll fit right in. if it's not...well, you'll still fit right in. and if you got thrown in here, then no gold stars for guessing what i'll say next.â they rarely meet people on the surface first, then again in abyss. it's a bit strange, but she's here now. it won't matter for long. now, she's just another abyssian, so they offer the same they would for anyone else: âif you need anything, let me know. or don't. just don't cause any trouble and i'll have no reason to bother you. we already get plenty down here and no one wants more of it.â
there are so many peculiar sounds and sights to investigate in the subterranean labyrinth of meandering tunnels that sara nearly forgets this punishment disguised as recess reeks of conspiracy, that another wrong move could have her expelled from fodlan or worse and those on the surface would be none the wiser. she spent the earliest days of her youth trying to escape one hole in the ground only to land in another, but she can't be all that mad when the welcome committee appears to include a person who always has an answer for everything.
their steps, almost soundless when coming and going, resemble that of a phantom and spirits very much love to whisper. they likely already know the passage ahead doesn't lead anywhere but a cold, dead end, making it as good a grave as any to bury a secret or two.
entrusting her back to the darkness, she turns to yuri with a matching retort, "i'd ask the same of you if i hadn't come to learn you're quite popular among abyssians."
the underground city is a living organism in its own right and sara has long held an uncanny ability to keep an ear on the pulse of things of that nature.
"though rumors do not interest me so much as the truth." a sigh. "and i'm as uninformed as you as to the reason."
in a world where no deed goes unpunished, sara expects no sympathy from any man or god, but yuri's offer could easily be mistaken as concern. regardless of whether they are working an angle, an offer to help is an offer to help.
"still, i thank you. i will be looking into that reason until i find it. i make no promises to stay completely out of trouble, but i won't get in your way either. it seems to me that you, too, must have a history to end up here, so you should understand i shall do only what i think is right."