Act 1, Drought.

It all started with the Augans, the Augans which trickled down in number until the religion practically flatlined.

The Augans, worshipping the God 'Agus' who pillaged lands, eating herds of livestock to cure insatiable hunger, or so the written lore dictates. The line between fact and fiction blur due to lost scrolls and parchments or faulty word-of-mouth.

Kacper thought it was a rather drab subject, a religion lost to time didn't really spark his interest, but he still wrote his notes as told, his finger tips smudged with black ink. Though, the way his classmate, Emily Florence, leaned up into her desk like it was the most infatuating subject in the world caused him to become flustered at his own ignorance.

Even he, a male, was bewitched by the trends which Emily inadvertently made popular - if being a good student was a trend, that is. Everyone seemed to like her, no surprise she was a kind soul - that and she was independent. He'd seen no one like her before, long white hair and pink-ish eyes.

He yawned, time crawling past at a snails pace - his eyelids heavier by the minute..

His eyes grazed over the whiteboard, something about trees? He was still acclimating to the way English words were written, his mother tongue being Polish. He continued to lazily scan the words in front of him.. one child born of Agus, described as Pure, the other described as Rot - directly translated from French articles on the religion... his only thought was 'freaky..'

The bell drilled, way too loud causing the sound to seem as if chiming throughout his skull before he pushed himself clumsily up, hoping to avoid crowds trying to get home as soon as possible.

He managed just to push himself up, letting out a soft grunt as the hoard of classmates scrambled past him as if the building was burning.

He found himself deflating back into his chair with a huff, willing himself to stay still until the classroom was empty (it felt like a constant struggle in this school, even just to exit it), spare one peculiar girl - Emily Florence, still tucking her belongings away into her messenger bag. He couldn't help but find himself flushing again, a lot of boys must've felt this way about her...

He heard a light cough, he snapped out of his daze to find her looking his way - damn.

"Hey...?" She offered, voice acutely hesitant as she slung her bag over her shoulder, looking slightly awkward, Kasper offered in turn "Um, hi.." his voice sounded more like a croak - Gods this was embarrassing.

Emily looked side to side, scanning the classroom before cocking her head, "Waiting on someone?" she followed up with a soft smile.

Kasper was quick to shake his head, pushing himself back upright "Ah, no, just-" it was his turn to glance around, albeit bounds more awkwardly "The... people," he stammered.

Emily's smile wavered slightly, before it bloomed back to life "Well, there's no more crowds now!" it was a small thing, a correction, but to Kasper it felt all the more humiliating "Right.." he mustered

He pushed himself up slowly, grabbing his backpack from under his desk and slinging it over his shoulder, remaining quiet, avoiding eye contact.

There was a strange nagging in his stomach, drawing his eyes up and up until they locked onto hers-

His body felt cold. A shiver clawing up his spine and settling at his shoulders, a type of indescribable yearning, he felt like this was where he was supposed to be.

The tension snapped like a wire when she pushed her chair in, causing a loud rumble across the wooden floors, causing Kasper to blink owlishly at her, his mouth forming a caught off guard 'o'.

She encouraged him with a small step towards the door, causing him to step in tow with her, exiting the classroom together, a small awkward stream of conversation fizzled as they wandered down the long hall - white upon white with blue carpets, motivational posters that felt drained of life when pit up against the dated trophies the school had claimed.

Turning left down a small flight of stairs, crossing through a much shorter warmly lit hall and then down a main flight of stairs into the office is when Emily decided on a more important line of conversation, apart from the usual drawl you would talk about when you barely knew someone - "You are new, right?"

Kacper hummed, giving a nod, shrugging open the office door and holding it for her, following behind her out into the main reception. She smiled, bowing her head in thanks before continuing "You are quiet, most of the boys here are, well, boisterous."

Kacper's eyebrows furrowed together 'boisterous?'.. - upon seeing his gone-out expression she elaborated "Like, uh, loud. Rowdy." She gestured vaguely with one of her hands, eyebrows tilting up, his chin tilting up in recognition "Ahh... well, uh, i guess, well-" He sighed "I'm just like that.. i think, shy, i mean."

She made a restrained 'ah' sound, reaching awkwardly back behind her to pluck the sunglasses from her bag as they exited the reception and transitioned to outside, followed next by what seemed to be a parasol, this obviously confused Kacper, as his face screwed up - it was cold out, so it seemed redundant.

Emily, once finished with the action of expanding her parasol and slipping her sunglasses on, let out an amused sound, responding to Kacper's confusion with a simple : "I am sensitive to the sun,"

In the span of his first interaction with Emily to now it seemed like their bond was almost infinite, stronger than any friendship - or God forbid relationship - she has or would have. She seemed that way too, her posture open, a far cry from the awkward posture she held earlier when she had caught him staring.

It was relieving. Like all of his thoughts had stopped and he could focus on just her. Like this was fate-

"By the way," She seemed to know just when to interrupt his thoughts.. "You can call me Eve," She smirked, lip hooking naturally upwards, her smile not at all forced, Kacper swallowed, before responding quietly "I'm Kacper, with a 'c'.."

He offered a small sheepish smile, she giggled in turn. In a pair they walked up the stairs to the main gates- since they had waited a few minutes before leaving there was only stragglers left, no pushing or shoving to deal with.

At the top of the stairs she paused, turning to him, she tugged her bag up her shoulder before using said hand to point behind her over her shoulder, "Well, I go this way," she smiled again, that lovely smile of hers warmed Kacper's soul, every minute moment seemed to build their bond, it felt like an invisible string was tethering them together.

"I see," He said, letting out an awkward laugh of his own before pointing over his own shoulder "Well, this is *my* way".

Complete opposite paths, it seemed.

She departed after shared goodbyes, it was in this moment he could truly appreciate her - her white hair looking akin to spun silver through the slivers of sun that passed through the parasol, her skin so white it was almost transparent, the veins under her skin visible, he felt giddy thinking about her, his heart pounding.

After he, too, started walking home, he spent his time pondering why her nickname was 'Eve', he hadn't much else to do, and by the time he reached home he chalked it up to the fact it might be akin to Eve from the bible.

Another tether, Kacper *De Maria* and Emily, or *Eve* Florence.

The bond bloomed further.