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tampered2007-10-15 01:14 am
charmingthief.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-10-15 01:14 am
Log; Completed
When; October 2nd (because life > me)
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Dark![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
charmingthief, Zaheela henkonasuisho
Summary; Zaheela tries to teach Dark how to regain magic manually. "Tries" would be the key word.
Log;
Dark touched down on the roof softly, his wings beating once more before dissolving into thin air. He clenched his hand and then unclenched it, looking at his hand as he opened the door to the stairway and went down the stairs. It felt good to use his magic once more, just to fly around the City and feel the air on his face...
Glancing up, he noticed he was in front of Zaheela's door. He raised a fist to knock but his knuckles stopped about an inch away from the wood. Dark tilted his head and closed his eyes, feeling the sensations through his hand.
He could feel the wards on the door; they were unfamiliar, a different type of magic. But he recognized pieces of it; in fact, if he removed this piece and replaced it with some of his own magic...
There was a rather loud thud as the wards on the door rejected his magic and pushed the intruder back. Dark hit the wall behind him and stared at the door blankly.
"Ow?"
----------
In, out… Breathe in and exhale, much like how magic was supposed to flow within you. Up the spine and through the hands, exhale. Zaheela needed to relax and let her system do what it did, though it forced herself to focus on her surroundings and not the fact that her hardwood floors felt like blocks of ice under her, even through the large pillows she had thrown down in a haphazard nest like mess.
However, with her apartment as tranquil as it was at that very moment, it was hard for anyone to miss the sound of a body hitting against the wall. Uncrossing her legs, she shoved her body upwards. Her quick pace was a tad bouncy as the oxygen rich blood cells being reintroduced to starved muscles, also known as the pin and needle sensation, was uncomfortable. Holding a tiny bell to the door, the wards flashed twice and the door unlocked itself.
She was fully expecting the sight before her as she opened the door and she leaned against the doorway.
“Didn’t your magic teacher teach you never to mess with sturdily made magic?” She asked, tone playful even though she was well aware of Dark’s ‘condition’.
----------
"Nope," Dark replied, checking the back of his head for injuries. Besides for a rather large bump, he seemed ok. "Never had a teacher to begin with, remember?"
He continued, "Besides, disabling wards isn't too hard. Just find the most explosive and dangerous piece and replace it." He made a move to get up but the hallway began to spin. "Uh, help?"
----------
“Not all wards have an explosive piece or weak point, if you know how to make the entire thing a solid barrier.” She retorted, tail perked slightly. “It’s just an absolute PAIN to maintain.”
Zaheela moved into the hallway and kneeled downwards, eyeing Dark as he stumbled with his attempt to stand up. The small crack in the wall and the bump on his head meant he could of suffered some head trauma. Taking his face into her hands, she exhaled, her breath warm as gentle energy gathered around her hands and seeped into his cold skin. It soothed away the damaged, leaving the area temporarily tender for a few seconds.
Standing up she motioned for him to follow. Her bare feet padded across the wood floors silently.
“Mind taking off your shoes? And careful, the floor is, for no reason at all, colder then ice.” It was an odd request, since normally she never asked any guest to ever take off their shoes in her household. The living room, however, was still the same. Simple, neat, and spartian in design, though the couch and table had been moved a bit to the right.
----------
She smelled nice, Dark mused, as he involuntarily closed his eyes when Zaheela put her warm hands on his face. Healing energy circled around his wound and he gingerly touched the bump once more, noting its smaller size. Opening his eyes and nodding his thanks, he rose after her, glancing around at the room.
He shrugged at the request and took off his shoes, testing the wooden floor before walking towards the couch. It was freezing when compared to the warmth of her hands, but it was nothing to his current body temperature... "So, how does this work?"
----------
Kneeling on the pillow, she slid her legs across each other and sat crosslegged on the large oversized pillow, tail limp behind her. Exhaling, she waited for Dark to sit on the pillow parallel to her.
“We can’t do anything until you learn to relax. I’m not sure that it is something you’ll be able to do, actually, due to your nature.” Her voice was low, as if she still held doubts about this.
----------
He, more or less, plopped down on the pillow, lying across it. He propped himself up with a single arm and raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm relaxed. Rather comfortable if I say so myself."
Turning slightly so he was looking up at the ceiling, he continued, "Not even, 'clear your mind?' This is easier than I thought."
Dark paused for a second. "What do you mean, 'due to my nature'?"
----------
Easy… Right… If he managed to master this in under a day, she would kill him herself.
“Arcana are artificial life forms, who are created from energy or magic. The amount of magic compacted into one form is technically greater then any mage or creature could ever gather in one shot. But at least mages can just gather more energy with time.” She explained, though she wasn’t sure if the point would land on target.
----------
"Oh." He blinked once, then twice. He put his head back down in the pillow. "So it'll likely be harder for me to draw that energy, right?"
Dark sat up and looked at Zaheela. "Well, how do you do it then?" Maybe he could follow what she did and copy it that way...
----------
“Considering the city provided you with a false body, it’s somewhat strange I suppose.” Zaheela pondered before shifting in her seat. It wasn’t like it was visible to the naked eye, or even the trained eye, it was more like a feeling. There was a way to demonstrate… but it was Dark, and there were issues which caused her concern.
“It’s not visible to the naked eye… but… Promise me you won’t take advantage of this?”
----------
He was quiet for a second, searching Zaheela for a clue, a hint of anything. Slowly, he nodded, "If it's too much, you are more than welcome to refuse but if you do, I promise I will not."
----------
She made a usual face. It wasn’t that it was difficult or uncomfortable in any painful way… it was just that she would have to basically shove his face into her chest.
“As long as you promise.” Standing up, Zaheela crossed the icy floor and encouraged to at least sit up before standing on her knees and wrapping her hands around his neck, bringing him forward so that his face was pillowed. She tried not to squirm, though her tail did twitch before closing her eyes.
“Relax, it’ll be over soon. Just… try and feel the air.” She murmured before truly concentrating. To an outside, there was nothing, just a man and a woman embracing, but around her, he began to actively take in mana, the shapeless, elementless, pure expression of magic and spiritual fragments into her body, expelling older magic at the same time. It wasn’t like you could tell the direction or the shape, it just happened.
The Magi tried to stay calm, but part of her worried, because of how close he was. Also, because often this active exchange made being made of magic or spirit hungry, not for food, but for more magic. She failed to mention that magic formed creatures could increase their lifespans by ingesting the lifeforces of mages. Yeah, not a good idea.
----------
His eyes tracked Zaheela as she stood up and wrapped her arms around him, widening as he found himself pulled into her chest. He struggled for a slight moment before catching her words and was beginning to make himself comfortable before feeling a sudden difference in the air. He sucked in a breath.
It was like a first breath of air; he took one and kept taking more. Pure mana coursed through his being and his magic pulled at it all. Dark wrapped his own hands around Zaheela and breathed deep, his body as though it was on both fire and ice, hot and then cooling. His magic wanted more. He wanted more.
And then his magic started pulling on something different. He tried to force his hands to let go their grip and to remove his head from her embrace but he couldn't-
----------
Though her body was relaxed, her mind was not. His reactions weren’t entirely new, and at least she knew he was… to put it bluntly, feeding. When grip turned iron clad, she released her hold on him and jerked herself out of his grip, schooling her expression.
“Think it’s easy now?” She asked before sitting down on her pillow again, though her posture was a bit more defensive. The cold temperature of his body, the feeling of a greedy creature absorbing everything, it put her on edge. Her entire being wanted to slay him, on the spot, but she suppressed the urge; she was already used to it.
----------
He fell back on to the pillow, one hand on his face, his other already on a hidden pocket. It wasn't hard to feel the temperature in the room drop, despite his cold skin. Slowly, as if not to set off Zaheela, Dark sat correctly on the pillow, facing her quietly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I didn't expect-" he paused and gestured towards the air between them. "All of this. I guess."
Dark sighed but looked into Zaheela's eyes. "That magic at the end. Was that yours?"
----------
“No.” She lied, though her eyes did not break away from his. “It’s just that you got used to taking it in.” She smiled softly. She forced herself to act relaxed, flicking a bunch of hair over her shoulder.
“Magic and spirits, in all forms can be eaten or drawn in. The more abundant it is, the easier it is to draw it in. In a magic starved world like this, spirits and the earth horde as much magic as they can. It makes it harder for us to regain it back.” Her tail thumped against the floor, the look on her face guarded.
“I’m sure that there are variations depending on creature to creature, style and form, worlds, as well as several people able to create their own without the aid of things like spirits and souls, but food, the concept is the same. You need a resource to draw on to use. It is something that artificial forms cannot do, having the limit actually set.” While she explained something needless, she felt the sensation of fear ebb away and became truly relaxed.
----------
He didn't believe her completely but nodded anyway and returned her smile with one of his. He felt himself slightly stiffen as she mentioned that he needed a resource.
"A resource?" Dark looked at the blank ceiling. "I'm not really liking this idea too much." He glanced back to Zaheela. "There seems to be too much of a risk."
----------
Her face turned blank before she grabbed a small couch pillow and threw it at his face.
“The only risk here is the risk to my floors and furniture.” She deadpanned, eyebrow twitching. “The resource is the energy around us, not a sacrifice like your thinking. Magic is alive, and works with us. YOU are an example of that.” She continued by getting up and into his face, another pillow at hand to smack him with if he said something stupid again.
“Understood? The faster you understand that fact, the faster we can start with the lesson.”
----------
Dark let the pillow bounce off his head and grinned at Zaheela, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. Got it. Magic works with us." A thought appeared to him. "Would it be possible for you to use me, since I am made of magic, to cast spells?" He laid a hand open and a ball of glowing darkness pulsated.
He closed his hand and it extinguished. "And I understand now, Professor."
----------
Cue Pillow two, with very little force. This was a sure sign that she was comfortable with a person, however, in the quirky say before a smirk appeared on her face and she sat down heavily on her own pillow and muttered about sarcasm and uppity students. When the orb of darkness flickered into life, she considered it. In the truest sense of the word theory, it could be considered possible, if she compacted the power into an inert form, but that would be a form of murder.
“No.” She said as the orb of darkness disappeared.
----------
He caught this one easily and flung it easily back at her. "That's good to know. So, shall we start the lesson?"
----------
She caught it with one hand and set it down beside her. She crossed her legs once again and she played with the idea of holding off on the next lesson. Her home was protected enough, but with that show of greed, she was aware that she could be putting herself at risk. But that would be bothersome, seeing as it would take more time.
“First, relax your body and resummon your wings. While most can draw in energy from any point of their body, I think the only part of you that can is your wings.” She fumbled with something in her pocket and slipped on a simple gold band and motioned, tiny crystal statue on her desk flashing once before screens popped in front of her. Fingers darted across the largest as she opened what looked like a file and the rest disappeared. Leaning back, she scanned Dark’s info, and then pressed a button. The last screen compacted itself into a little orb which flickered back and forth, before landing itself on her tail. A sharp flick of her tail removed it for a moment, before it resettled back on her tail.
“Then try to imitate what I did.” She continued, flicking her tail again.
----------
He didn't move as his wings sprung from his back, the black feathers surrounding him. Instead, he watched her and thought of what she said. Imitate her? What the hell had she done in the first place? Closed her eyes and concentrated?
Dark closed his eyes and allowed his other senses to push out. He concentrated on the air, on his surroundings.
No luck, he felt only pulses of magic from Zaheela and his wings. His brow furrowed; there was a slight feeling around his wings...
Opening his eyes, he glanced at the wings before wrapping them around him and concentrated once more. He could definitely feel a current, a different type of wind around his wings now. He exhaled and took a deep breath.
----------
The damn recorder refused to leave her alone and actually focus, and it was starting to irritate her. That was the price, she supposed, for mixing Magic and scientific programming together, when she realized how… open Dark was leaving himself. That would lead him nowhere. Silently getting up, she padded over to him, around him, and then poked him in between the wings.
“You’re doing it wrong.”
----------
Dark glanced up at Zaheela, unfolding his wings. "I am?" he said, confused, "I can feel this current thing running across the wings. It feels like the pure mana that you were giving me before..."
He snuck a quick look at the recorder bouncing up and down and resisted the urge to smirk at her. "What did I do wrong?"
----------
Her tail cracked like a whip and the recorder spell went flying. She could hear it giggle in delight as it bounced off the wall before reclaiming it’s throne, and her eyebrow twitched once. Watari must have been rubbing off on her.
“You’re leaving yourself open, which is submitting. Focusing too much on the mana and too little on everything else.” She explained, catching the orb without even looking behind her. She placed that hand against her hip and her freehand pinched the bridge of her nose. Suddenly an idea popped into her head.
“I got it. Every time you do that, I’ll stop you.”
----------
Scratching his head, Dark made a face at Zaheela. "So I have to take it instead of asking for it? I mean, I can feel it, but it's just not coming to me..." He chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Taking control of the mana instead?"
A sudden feeling of foreboding accompanied her last comment. A clear image of Zaheela hitting him over the head with a hammer came to mind. He backed up a little involuntarily. "Um, use the plastic one please?"
----------
“More like form a partnership on equal ground… or it uses you as much as you use it.” It was hard to try and explain something that had been ground into her to the point it almost became the same thing as breathing. At the mention of the hammer, Zaheela looked confused for a moment, and then a sly grin just bloomed on her face. She’d keep that idea incase it DIRELY needed it.
“I hadn’t even considered the hammer. No, not this time. I promise not to use anything that could cause any kind of physical damage.” It almost came out like a purr. Ohh this, and future lessons would be fun. She’d just have to make lots of ice cubes.
----------
Dark paled slightly; her oath of no physical damage would only promise more inventive and likely more embarrassing ideas. He took a quick breath and tried to change the subject.
"So, a partnership, eh? Let's try this..."
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Dark
charmingthief, Zaheela henkonasuishoSummary; Zaheela tries to teach Dark how to regain magic manually. "Tries" would be the key word.
Log;
Dark touched down on the roof softly, his wings beating once more before dissolving into thin air. He clenched his hand and then unclenched it, looking at his hand as he opened the door to the stairway and went down the stairs. It felt good to use his magic once more, just to fly around the City and feel the air on his face...
Glancing up, he noticed he was in front of Zaheela's door. He raised a fist to knock but his knuckles stopped about an inch away from the wood. Dark tilted his head and closed his eyes, feeling the sensations through his hand.
He could feel the wards on the door; they were unfamiliar, a different type of magic. But he recognized pieces of it; in fact, if he removed this piece and replaced it with some of his own magic...
There was a rather loud thud as the wards on the door rejected his magic and pushed the intruder back. Dark hit the wall behind him and stared at the door blankly.
"Ow?"
----------
In, out… Breathe in and exhale, much like how magic was supposed to flow within you. Up the spine and through the hands, exhale. Zaheela needed to relax and let her system do what it did, though it forced herself to focus on her surroundings and not the fact that her hardwood floors felt like blocks of ice under her, even through the large pillows she had thrown down in a haphazard nest like mess.
However, with her apartment as tranquil as it was at that very moment, it was hard for anyone to miss the sound of a body hitting against the wall. Uncrossing her legs, she shoved her body upwards. Her quick pace was a tad bouncy as the oxygen rich blood cells being reintroduced to starved muscles, also known as the pin and needle sensation, was uncomfortable. Holding a tiny bell to the door, the wards flashed twice and the door unlocked itself.
She was fully expecting the sight before her as she opened the door and she leaned against the doorway.
“Didn’t your magic teacher teach you never to mess with sturdily made magic?” She asked, tone playful even though she was well aware of Dark’s ‘condition’.
----------
"Nope," Dark replied, checking the back of his head for injuries. Besides for a rather large bump, he seemed ok. "Never had a teacher to begin with, remember?"
He continued, "Besides, disabling wards isn't too hard. Just find the most explosive and dangerous piece and replace it." He made a move to get up but the hallway began to spin. "Uh, help?"
----------
“Not all wards have an explosive piece or weak point, if you know how to make the entire thing a solid barrier.” She retorted, tail perked slightly. “It’s just an absolute PAIN to maintain.”
Zaheela moved into the hallway and kneeled downwards, eyeing Dark as he stumbled with his attempt to stand up. The small crack in the wall and the bump on his head meant he could of suffered some head trauma. Taking his face into her hands, she exhaled, her breath warm as gentle energy gathered around her hands and seeped into his cold skin. It soothed away the damaged, leaving the area temporarily tender for a few seconds.
Standing up she motioned for him to follow. Her bare feet padded across the wood floors silently.
“Mind taking off your shoes? And careful, the floor is, for no reason at all, colder then ice.” It was an odd request, since normally she never asked any guest to ever take off their shoes in her household. The living room, however, was still the same. Simple, neat, and spartian in design, though the couch and table had been moved a bit to the right.
----------
She smelled nice, Dark mused, as he involuntarily closed his eyes when Zaheela put her warm hands on his face. Healing energy circled around his wound and he gingerly touched the bump once more, noting its smaller size. Opening his eyes and nodding his thanks, he rose after her, glancing around at the room.
He shrugged at the request and took off his shoes, testing the wooden floor before walking towards the couch. It was freezing when compared to the warmth of her hands, but it was nothing to his current body temperature... "So, how does this work?"
----------
Kneeling on the pillow, she slid her legs across each other and sat crosslegged on the large oversized pillow, tail limp behind her. Exhaling, she waited for Dark to sit on the pillow parallel to her.
“We can’t do anything until you learn to relax. I’m not sure that it is something you’ll be able to do, actually, due to your nature.” Her voice was low, as if she still held doubts about this.
----------
He, more or less, plopped down on the pillow, lying across it. He propped himself up with a single arm and raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm relaxed. Rather comfortable if I say so myself."
Turning slightly so he was looking up at the ceiling, he continued, "Not even, 'clear your mind?' This is easier than I thought."
Dark paused for a second. "What do you mean, 'due to my nature'?"
----------
Easy… Right… If he managed to master this in under a day, she would kill him herself.
“Arcana are artificial life forms, who are created from energy or magic. The amount of magic compacted into one form is technically greater then any mage or creature could ever gather in one shot. But at least mages can just gather more energy with time.” She explained, though she wasn’t sure if the point would land on target.
----------
"Oh." He blinked once, then twice. He put his head back down in the pillow. "So it'll likely be harder for me to draw that energy, right?"
Dark sat up and looked at Zaheela. "Well, how do you do it then?" Maybe he could follow what she did and copy it that way...
----------
“Considering the city provided you with a false body, it’s somewhat strange I suppose.” Zaheela pondered before shifting in her seat. It wasn’t like it was visible to the naked eye, or even the trained eye, it was more like a feeling. There was a way to demonstrate… but it was Dark, and there were issues which caused her concern.
“It’s not visible to the naked eye… but… Promise me you won’t take advantage of this?”
----------
He was quiet for a second, searching Zaheela for a clue, a hint of anything. Slowly, he nodded, "If it's too much, you are more than welcome to refuse but if you do, I promise I will not."
----------
She made a usual face. It wasn’t that it was difficult or uncomfortable in any painful way… it was just that she would have to basically shove his face into her chest.
“As long as you promise.” Standing up, Zaheela crossed the icy floor and encouraged to at least sit up before standing on her knees and wrapping her hands around his neck, bringing him forward so that his face was pillowed. She tried not to squirm, though her tail did twitch before closing her eyes.
“Relax, it’ll be over soon. Just… try and feel the air.” She murmured before truly concentrating. To an outside, there was nothing, just a man and a woman embracing, but around her, he began to actively take in mana, the shapeless, elementless, pure expression of magic and spiritual fragments into her body, expelling older magic at the same time. It wasn’t like you could tell the direction or the shape, it just happened.
The Magi tried to stay calm, but part of her worried, because of how close he was. Also, because often this active exchange made being made of magic or spirit hungry, not for food, but for more magic. She failed to mention that magic formed creatures could increase their lifespans by ingesting the lifeforces of mages. Yeah, not a good idea.
----------
His eyes tracked Zaheela as she stood up and wrapped her arms around him, widening as he found himself pulled into her chest. He struggled for a slight moment before catching her words and was beginning to make himself comfortable before feeling a sudden difference in the air. He sucked in a breath.
It was like a first breath of air; he took one and kept taking more. Pure mana coursed through his being and his magic pulled at it all. Dark wrapped his own hands around Zaheela and breathed deep, his body as though it was on both fire and ice, hot and then cooling. His magic wanted more. He wanted more.
And then his magic started pulling on something different. He tried to force his hands to let go their grip and to remove his head from her embrace but he couldn't-
----------
Though her body was relaxed, her mind was not. His reactions weren’t entirely new, and at least she knew he was… to put it bluntly, feeding. When grip turned iron clad, she released her hold on him and jerked herself out of his grip, schooling her expression.
“Think it’s easy now?” She asked before sitting down on her pillow again, though her posture was a bit more defensive. The cold temperature of his body, the feeling of a greedy creature absorbing everything, it put her on edge. Her entire being wanted to slay him, on the spot, but she suppressed the urge; she was already used to it.
----------
He fell back on to the pillow, one hand on his face, his other already on a hidden pocket. It wasn't hard to feel the temperature in the room drop, despite his cold skin. Slowly, as if not to set off Zaheela, Dark sat correctly on the pillow, facing her quietly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I didn't expect-" he paused and gestured towards the air between them. "All of this. I guess."
Dark sighed but looked into Zaheela's eyes. "That magic at the end. Was that yours?"
----------
“No.” She lied, though her eyes did not break away from his. “It’s just that you got used to taking it in.” She smiled softly. She forced herself to act relaxed, flicking a bunch of hair over her shoulder.
“Magic and spirits, in all forms can be eaten or drawn in. The more abundant it is, the easier it is to draw it in. In a magic starved world like this, spirits and the earth horde as much magic as they can. It makes it harder for us to regain it back.” Her tail thumped against the floor, the look on her face guarded.
“I’m sure that there are variations depending on creature to creature, style and form, worlds, as well as several people able to create their own without the aid of things like spirits and souls, but food, the concept is the same. You need a resource to draw on to use. It is something that artificial forms cannot do, having the limit actually set.” While she explained something needless, she felt the sensation of fear ebb away and became truly relaxed.
----------
He didn't believe her completely but nodded anyway and returned her smile with one of his. He felt himself slightly stiffen as she mentioned that he needed a resource.
"A resource?" Dark looked at the blank ceiling. "I'm not really liking this idea too much." He glanced back to Zaheela. "There seems to be too much of a risk."
----------
Her face turned blank before she grabbed a small couch pillow and threw it at his face.
“The only risk here is the risk to my floors and furniture.” She deadpanned, eyebrow twitching. “The resource is the energy around us, not a sacrifice like your thinking. Magic is alive, and works with us. YOU are an example of that.” She continued by getting up and into his face, another pillow at hand to smack him with if he said something stupid again.
“Understood? The faster you understand that fact, the faster we can start with the lesson.”
----------
Dark let the pillow bounce off his head and grinned at Zaheela, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. Got it. Magic works with us." A thought appeared to him. "Would it be possible for you to use me, since I am made of magic, to cast spells?" He laid a hand open and a ball of glowing darkness pulsated.
He closed his hand and it extinguished. "And I understand now, Professor."
----------
Cue Pillow two, with very little force. This was a sure sign that she was comfortable with a person, however, in the quirky say before a smirk appeared on her face and she sat down heavily on her own pillow and muttered about sarcasm and uppity students. When the orb of darkness flickered into life, she considered it. In the truest sense of the word theory, it could be considered possible, if she compacted the power into an inert form, but that would be a form of murder.
“No.” She said as the orb of darkness disappeared.
----------
He caught this one easily and flung it easily back at her. "That's good to know. So, shall we start the lesson?"
----------
She caught it with one hand and set it down beside her. She crossed her legs once again and she played with the idea of holding off on the next lesson. Her home was protected enough, but with that show of greed, she was aware that she could be putting herself at risk. But that would be bothersome, seeing as it would take more time.
“First, relax your body and resummon your wings. While most can draw in energy from any point of their body, I think the only part of you that can is your wings.” She fumbled with something in her pocket and slipped on a simple gold band and motioned, tiny crystal statue on her desk flashing once before screens popped in front of her. Fingers darted across the largest as she opened what looked like a file and the rest disappeared. Leaning back, she scanned Dark’s info, and then pressed a button. The last screen compacted itself into a little orb which flickered back and forth, before landing itself on her tail. A sharp flick of her tail removed it for a moment, before it resettled back on her tail.
“Then try to imitate what I did.” She continued, flicking her tail again.
----------
He didn't move as his wings sprung from his back, the black feathers surrounding him. Instead, he watched her and thought of what she said. Imitate her? What the hell had she done in the first place? Closed her eyes and concentrated?
Dark closed his eyes and allowed his other senses to push out. He concentrated on the air, on his surroundings.
No luck, he felt only pulses of magic from Zaheela and his wings. His brow furrowed; there was a slight feeling around his wings...
Opening his eyes, he glanced at the wings before wrapping them around him and concentrated once more. He could definitely feel a current, a different type of wind around his wings now. He exhaled and took a deep breath.
----------
The damn recorder refused to leave her alone and actually focus, and it was starting to irritate her. That was the price, she supposed, for mixing Magic and scientific programming together, when she realized how… open Dark was leaving himself. That would lead him nowhere. Silently getting up, she padded over to him, around him, and then poked him in between the wings.
“You’re doing it wrong.”
----------
Dark glanced up at Zaheela, unfolding his wings. "I am?" he said, confused, "I can feel this current thing running across the wings. It feels like the pure mana that you were giving me before..."
He snuck a quick look at the recorder bouncing up and down and resisted the urge to smirk at her. "What did I do wrong?"
----------
Her tail cracked like a whip and the recorder spell went flying. She could hear it giggle in delight as it bounced off the wall before reclaiming it’s throne, and her eyebrow twitched once. Watari must have been rubbing off on her.
“You’re leaving yourself open, which is submitting. Focusing too much on the mana and too little on everything else.” She explained, catching the orb without even looking behind her. She placed that hand against her hip and her freehand pinched the bridge of her nose. Suddenly an idea popped into her head.
“I got it. Every time you do that, I’ll stop you.”
----------
Scratching his head, Dark made a face at Zaheela. "So I have to take it instead of asking for it? I mean, I can feel it, but it's just not coming to me..." He chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Taking control of the mana instead?"
A sudden feeling of foreboding accompanied her last comment. A clear image of Zaheela hitting him over the head with a hammer came to mind. He backed up a little involuntarily. "Um, use the plastic one please?"
----------
“More like form a partnership on equal ground… or it uses you as much as you use it.” It was hard to try and explain something that had been ground into her to the point it almost became the same thing as breathing. At the mention of the hammer, Zaheela looked confused for a moment, and then a sly grin just bloomed on her face. She’d keep that idea incase it DIRELY needed it.
“I hadn’t even considered the hammer. No, not this time. I promise not to use anything that could cause any kind of physical damage.” It almost came out like a purr. Ohh this, and future lessons would be fun. She’d just have to make lots of ice cubes.
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Dark paled slightly; her oath of no physical damage would only promise more inventive and likely more embarrassing ideas. He took a quick breath and tried to change the subject.
"So, a partnership, eh? Let's try this..."