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1. What was Built Before by cookxenya

   Fandoms: Heralds of Valdemar – Mercedes Lackey, Saga of the Skolian Empire – Catherine Asaro, crossover - Fandom, Roadverse/Sueniverse  

   • Not Rated
   • No Archive Warnings Apply
   • Gen
   • Complete Work

   01 Jan 2026

   Tags

   • No Archive Warnings Apply
   • Sue & Kyrith
   • Sue & Kurj (Complicated)
   • Sue & JC & Asher (Emotional Ghosts)
   • Sue (OC)
   • Kyrith (Companion)
   • Kurj
   • JC
   • Asher
   • Treyvvan
   • Ninki
   • Priest of the Heart
   • Firesong
   • Crossover
   • Adult Trainee
   • Companion Bond
   • Long-Distance Choosing
   • Psychic Static
   • Empathy overload
   • Healing Gift Complications
   • Bardic Gift Resonance
   • Mage-Sight
   • Fetching Problems
   • Firestarting Problems
   • Multi-Gift Tangle
   • Power Awakening
   • Identity Reconstruction
   • “Sideways Memories”
   • Anunnaki Bloodline
   • Gryphon Mentorship
   • Calibration Not Control
   • Herald Training
   • Magic School But Existential
   • Emotional Overclocking
   • Cosmic Scale Gifts
   • Accidental Power Displays
   • Space Politics
   • Diplomatic Disaster
   • First Contact Gone Sideways
   • Kurj Is Not Ready
   • Sue Is Too Ready
   • Ninki Is Calculating
   • Valdemar Is Not Prepared
   • Skolians Are Not Prepared
   • The Universe Is Not Prepared
   • Psychic Bonding
   • Empathic Projection
   • Adult Coming-of-Age
   • Found Family
   • Slow burn EVERYTHING
   • Canon Divergence
   • Worldbuilding Heavy
   • Character Study
   • long fic
   • No One Is Okay but They’re Trying
   • Protective Companions
   • Protective Gryphons
   • Protective Skolians (Eventually)
   • Sue Breaks The Sky On Purpose
   • Mythic Undertones
   • Sovereign Power
   • High-Stakes Intimacy
   • Psychic Nausea
   • Kurj’s Loneliness Is A Gravitational Force
   • Sue’s Empathy Is A Weapon
   • Julianna Echoes
   • Identity vs Memory
   • “I’m Not Her”
   • Psychic Recognition
   • Training Arc With Teeth
   • Power Scaling Problems
   • AI assisted

   Summary

   Sue arrives in Valdemar at thirty‑six expecting peace, not the shattering truth that her “daydreams” were memories and her “Static” was a long‑distance Companion bond. Kyrith stabilizes her, but her Gifts—Healing, Empathy, Bardic, Mage‑sight, Fetching, Firestarting—aren’t separate. They’re a single, sovereign engine waking up.
   When a Skolian ship is ambushed in orbit, Sue’s “sideways” self takes over, and she deletes an Aristos strike fleet from a mountaintop. Kurj survives the fall—furious, freezing, and suddenly aware that the weapon that saved him is a woman in a grey trainee tunic.
   Valdemar isn’t ready. The Skolians aren’t ready. The Anunnaki absolutely noticed. And Sue, tangled, exhausted, and terrifyingly powerful, has eight years to learn how not to break the world.

   Series

   • Part 21 of Anchor of Reality: a Multi temporal Canon of the Great Road
   • Part 8 of Beginnings: the Sueniverse Prequels

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   14,776

   Chapters:

   1/1

   Hits:

   5