One second he’d been in the throne room at Whitespire, and the next… well, for all he knew, he was still in Fillory. Just in the forest somewhere. A forest. Of some kind. Holding a broadsword in his right hand that was dripping with the blood of the God he’d just casually run through with it.
“...fuck. Oh...um. Fuck fuck fuck.”
Q breathed and nervously dropped the sword, his eyes scanning his surroundings for anything that might seem familiar. “El...Eliot?” he called out, looking. Nothing. Don’t be stupid, Quentin. No. He was definitely not in or anywhere near the castle right now. And the air… it was different. Wrong. No opium.
“Where the hell am I?” he asked, groaning in frustration as he crouched down, running a hand through his hair. “Jules?? Anyone?”
Q.
Julia sat straight up in the chair where she had been reading on the ways the various covens tapped into Vallo's magic in a time period she was now rather familiar with, when she heard his voice, distinctly and felt his confusion and frustration as if it were her own.
Could it really be Quentin? Alive? And in Vallo?
For only a split second she hesitated at the improbability of his presence coupled with her own fears that she'd one day discovered the worst of Margo's words had been true, lingering in the back of her mind and never fully gone. But then trusted the same instinct that had taken her to Kady when her best friend had found herself surrounded by those corrupted vultures, magic failing.
She stood and focused her mind on the sound of her name in that familiar voice she'd known since she was young, transporting herself to Quentin somewhere out in Vallo's woods. She spotted him, and her heart started racing.
"Q!" she said, almost running to him but spotting the fallen sword first. Had he just…
Well. Might as well pick up the sword or something and start walking to figure out where you are, huh, Coldwater?
He sighed and pushed himself back up to his feet, reaching to grab for the sword when he heard her voice. It was immediately forgotten and he looked up and then over, spotting her immediately. “Oh shit, Jules!” He had no idea when or where he was, but she was here and thank fuck for that.
Quentin left the sword where it was and closed the distance that had remained between them, immediately reaching for her, pulling her into a hug. “I am so glad to see you. One minute I was in the throne room and the next, here. Wherever here is. Are we even in Fillory or is this just some more weird… whatever?”
The moment Quentin reached for her, Julia threw her arms around him, burying her head into his shoulder in relief. Even if he'd been drawn in from a point earlier than all of them, he was here, and he was alive, and there was no reason to even contemplate the future as long as those two things remained true.
When she stepped back she had to dab away the tears threatening to spill over, while the absurdity of the situation along with his question made her laugh. "Definitely on the some more weird whatever side of things," she informed him.
She glanced around, wondering where the nearest waypoint might be. "We're about to have a welcoming committee who would normally explain it all to you but I think you might want to skip that for now? Grab the sword?"
The way she hugged him felt… different. In a way that he wasn’t sure how to respond to, if he were being honest. He knew her hugs. This was the sort of hug you gave someone you hadn’t seen in a long, long time. Or… maybe even someone you weren’t sure you were ever going to see again?
No, there was no point in thinking on that. He tightened his squeeze for a moment and pressed a quick kiss into her hair before pulling back just enough to look at her, eyes briefly trying to read her expression.
“A welcoming committee?” Uh. That didn’t sound like fun. He nodded and turned back to grab the unfortunately bloody sword, gesturing at it a little. “Not sure I should really be going around with this thing though. Might cause some looks. Do you think there’s somewhere safe I can store it? I don’t even know if it’s still enchanted or not.”
"Yeah," she nodded. They could take it to the cottage and deal with it there, but first she wanted to explain what was going on to him, and his arrival there wouldn't allow for it. Selfishly, she also wanted time with him to herself, before they surprised the rest of them with his presence.
But that also meant avoiding the official welcoming committee, and rather than waiting for their arrival to say she had it covered, she teleported both of them to one of her favorite spots in the woods, out of range from whoever may have been dispatched.
"So this isn't Fillory…" she began, before giving him a quick rundown of Vallo, leaving out non-essential bits like how some of them had traveled to the past, but mentioning that the woods were prone to strange creatures attacking as that seemed relevant. And then she told him who was there with them, all from different points in time, only neglecting to mention when or that everyone had arrived from later in their timeline than him.
"Most of us are staying at the Cottage. Which is here." Because that was just one more thing to mention that didn't make any sense.
Yup, cool. That was a lot to try and wrap his head around in such a short amount of time, though having to do that wasn’t exactly a new thing for him. He hadn’t even had a chance to get any questions in before she’d started in on Vallo, who of their friends were there, but not going into much detail of when their friends were from.
And of course the Cottage was there. Why wouldn’t it be? At least there was something familiar in this whole place and he really couldn’t wait to get there and see them.
Even if he had just finished killing Ember in his timeline.
“I… okay, right. Got it. Vallo, sort of like Fillory but not really, the Cottage is here, people we know are here…” He nodded a little and then furrowed his brows a bit, letting the shock wear off enough to look over and ask her seriously. “Um. How long ago for you has it been since everything happened with Ember and Umber at Whitespire?”
"Yeah, the city is nothing that you'd find in Fillory," Julia commented absentmindedly, still somewhat in awe that Q was there. "We should probably go to the office and get you set up. They'll give you a phone on the network, money… Before we go to the cottage and forget all about it. I can take care of the sword."
It wouldn't be too unusual to see here, outside of the blood on it. But better to not have to answer questions all the same.
She tensed up slightly at his question, unsure of how to answer that. "A while? Stuff had happened back home and then I've been here since the middle of March. It's the end of May here, by the way."
That was one way of not giving him any more information. "That's… that all can wait, yeah? Let's go to the Department of Outlander Affairs and then I'll take you over to the cottage? I'll show you the waypoints."
No, the city definitely (probably) wasn’t like anything in Fillory, but he’d find that out soon enough. Find out that it’s more like New York with unhidden magic and magical creatures; the best of both worlds, really, in its own way.
Q eyed her briefly, taking her word for it but also knowing that she was definitely leaning more toward vague than anything else. One of the pros of knowing someone so long.
“That’d be good. Going to this Outlander Affairs place. They just give you money?” And a phone. That was kind of a wild concept to him, but he still laughed at it a bit. “Hopefully it doesn’t take too long, I’d… really like to get to the cottage sooner rather than later.” He needed a drink. And his bed. His bed was there, right? He also needed to see everyone. That was a top priority more than anything else. “Wait, so we’re called Outlanders here? Guess that’s better than Children of Earth.”
"It shouldn't take too long," Julia agreed, reaching for the sword for Q to hand it over. There was a benefit to being a goddess and having access to different sorts of magic. Of course, they all had access now, but she refrained from mentioning the various people and places she knew Q would be interested in.
Like Hogwarts.
No, all that could wait, though she hoped she was able to see his reaction to some of it. That was also one of the benefits of knowing someone so long. Knowing that Quentin Coldwater was going to have a field day with all the information he'd soon acquire. But most importantly of all, he was in Vallo now.
"Are you ready?"
One thing at a time for Quentin Coldwater because so far, he’d had his mind sufficiently blown. Maybe not quite as much as when he found out Fillory was real, but this was a damn close second. Finding out Hogwarts was there might actually make him drop dead right that second.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” She took care of the sword -- sure, maybe it wouldn’t stick out too badly in a place like this, but it was going to be a pain in the ass to lug around that much. Broadswords weren’t exactly lightweight. So with a wave of her fingers, the sword vanished and, well, hopefully it would be clean and at the cottage waiting for him.
Or it was dust. Maybe back in Fillory. Who knew?
“So, these Waypoints…” And before he could even ask the question, she’d guided him through one and to the DOA for his proper introduction to the new world he found himself in.