Author's note - as always, I publish this to get it out of my head. I know many people hate Cedfia and accuse fans of vileness, but I will defend myself by saying that never has Sofia been less than 18 in any of my imaginings. Cedric is usually pretty oblivious or in denial about Sofia being a woman until he gets hit over the head with it, and then he only succumbs to naughtiness under duress.
I have all these scenarios in my head, and I will be writing them as I have time or when I can't get them out of my head otherwise. I may not have the time to ever write all the segues needed to link them properly. Fill in the blanks with a vivid imagination.
Scenario 1 - The Last Binding Spell
Inspired by the amazing artwork of the Cedfia fandom - especially Jess Deaton. Thank you for sharing your talent!
Unbetaed - a always appreciate comments about typos or other mistakes. Comments are love.
Sofia sat in the crystalline boat that had once led her on her very first mission as a Story Keeper. The tunnel back to the castle was as beautiful and interesting as it had been on that very first trip over a decade past, but Sofia was blind to it all. She sat bent over, elbows on her knees, her hands over her eyes and her mind whirling. She needed the time to think. Normally, Sofia rarely if ever took this enchanted boat anymore, having long mastered transporting herself by magic the relatively short distance from the Secret Library to her bedchamber. Cedric had long ago altered the wards surrounding the castle to allow her free passage, given her predilections for getting into trouble.
Oh no, no thinking of Cedric right now, not with what she had just seen. She would blush a crimson so deep she'd look like a tomato for hours.
She took a deep breath, trying to relax her tense shoulders. She took the end of her long auburn braid, curling the end around her fingers in a nervous habit she thought she'd outgrown, given how often Amber called her to task over it. She didn't know how she would be able to look at anyone the same every again. She knew about sex of course, her mother had explained things. But to see it, hear it...
As she'd gotten older, the stories she had to finish were more and more challenging, less black and white. Often there was no perfect happy ever after. There was war and disease and prejudice. She'd learned a great deal about the world and wasn't quite the bright-eyed innocent everyone thought her to be. But she believed in love despite all. Love she'd seen in so many forms, if kept hope and happiness in her heart every day. Love between friends and siblings and parents and now, love between lovers.
The story to complete today had been of two lovers, Sila and Jayon, who had been kept apart by their warring families. The war had grown so evil, both families had been cursed to have no children, the land barren and cold until they stopped their petty war. And she'd had to reunite them, help them marry and she'd had to remain for the ceremony to "unite the land" and "ensure fertility." She had to watch them discover each other and make love. Yes it was behind a linen screen and she'd only seen shadows. She'd tried to keep her eyes averted to give them as much privacy as she could. But this was a far different culture than her own, a land of heat and rich scents and bared skin. This was accepted tradition here. But the sound of their kisses, their moans, skin slapping against skin. The scent of sweat and musk mixed with incense.
Her skin buzzed with longing. More than ever in her eighteen years of life. No one had ever made her feel anything close to this.
Well, maybe not no one. But, she hadn't understood the tightness in her lower abdomen, the heaviness of her breasts. She hadn't understood what her body had been telling her. She'd thought her love was sweet and true and just a bit hopeless.
She'd never guessed her love might be much, earthier. More primal. Much more.
When the boat bumped the dock, she gasped, her body so sensitive she thought she might simply combust like a potion gone awry.
She had gotten back to the castle just in time for dinner, and she had dressed in a dinner gown in a shade of soft green and tried not to think about how the rasp of the stiff material of her corset made her nipples ache. Fortunately, the object of her current perseveration was not at dinner - no doubt taking his meal in his tower as he usually did when engaged in some project or other. If she was quieter at dinner than normal, her family made little mention of it.
No doubt they attributed her introspection to the fact she was leaving in less than three days for a long Grand Tour. Part diplomatic training, part matchmaking whirlwind, Sofia was scheduled to visit over a dozen courts across the world, with plans for additional jaunts if the opportunity arose. The length and breadth of the trip at been at her own request - she wanted to experience the world and understand international politics so that she could take up the efforts that Aunt Tilly had once done for Enchancia - international relations and promoting peaceful trade. The opportunity for adventure was a bonus. Possibly finding a man who would take her mind off of the Royal Sorcerer was another possible bonus, though she was beginning to doubt it was possible.
With an airy word to her family implying her need to continue packing, Sofia plodded toward her chambers, trying to not think about how her skin felt too tight and her mind kept bringing up images like the notch where his neck met his chest, revealed to her only when she'd accidentally charmed his yellow cravat into becoming a small, very polite, yellow snake. Or the black and grey strands of his hair, worn somewhat longer lately, or the odd tattoos on his fingers, usually covered by gloves but glowing almost silver in the moonlight on her eighteenth birthday, when he'd performed for her coming out Ball and made the very stars dance among the revelers. She kept wondering how those fingers would feel on her skin, or the taste of that notch in his neck, the feel of his hair between her fingers or how their shadows would move on the walls of his tower chamber in the candlelight as she had seen in Sila and Jayon move in their tale.
She reached her chambers and shed her dinner dress, then immediately dismissed Violet, claiming a headache and a need to rest before tackling the last preparations before leaving on Tour. Then she lay in her huge bed, staring at the ceiling and missing Clover so badly in that moment her heart felt leaden in her chest. Though how she ever could have talked to him about this ache in her, she had no idea, her cheeks blushing at the very idea. She couldn't talk to any of her Princess friends, who had been trained to never admit to such feelings, even though she knew some of them did absolutely scandalous things with their suitors, and their servants. And Jade and Ruby would listen to how she felt, but they would never understand what kept her from revealing her feelings, or how she could feel such things for Cedric in the first place.
He always treated her as a somewhat annoying apprentice. Perhaps a friend occasionally but no more. He liked showing off to her, and she was quite she he'd managed to get over his tendencies toward evildoing and his obsession with her Amulet, but to consider her in a romantic sense - no, he still thought of her as the eight year old who'd dragged him out of his tower one too many times.
She sighed, climbing out of bed and sitting by the window, staring across the castle toward that gloomy tower and wondering what he was doing tonight. She'd been avoiding him lately, as he'd seemed a bit too excited about her Tour, asking her if she could find various ingredients or books for him, planning out what potions she might need to take with her. She wanted him to be just a bit more sad that she was leaving, perhaps a bit worried that he would be lonely or that she'd return an engaged woman with no time to study magic seriously.
The tower was usually quite dark this time of night, with the candlelight Cedric used for his late night research barely a flicker from his workrooms. But tonight, the tower glowed a soft green, with the odd blue or purple flickering out from his chamber window - and Sofia grew very curious what could be happening, much less in his personal chambers.
She crushed the small wry voice in her head that whispered that she just wanted to gamble on the possibility that Cedric would suddenly find her irresistible and quench some of the fire of arousal that still pulsed within her. No, she was checking on him. As a friend. She resolutely stood and retrieved her wand from her bedside table and before she could think too hard, or put on a dressing gown, she transported to Cedric's workroom.
The room was nearly pitch dark, with only the odd green-blue glow from below giving any light. The elderly Wormwood was either out for the night or deeply asleep in the rafters, for she could not hear or see him anywhere. She swallowed thickly, then turned toward the stairs down to his chambers - someplace she'd never actually been before.
The glow from below grew brighter and more complex as she tiptoed down the stone steps. She was truly worried about Cedric - worried that some magic had gone bad and he was injured or sick. The colors of the light were beautiful and unsettling and she knew with every bit of the magically sense she'd nurtured in her heart that the light was powerful.
The door to his chambers was closed, the light filtering through the wide gap in the bottom sill. She whispered under her breath to the Amulet, filling her heart with her worry for Cedric, and ask to be small. She scrambled under the door sill and remained tiny and unnoticeable near the door. Her eyes didn't need to search the room for her Sorcerer. They were drawn to him like a moth to flame.
She was more than ready to burn. The light was him. Coming from his skin, shimmering and pulsing in waves along every muscle, shining in the grey-white-black of his multicolored hair, and swirling away from the dark bands and curved letters of his tattoos covering most of his arms and back. His bare back and arms. She'd rarely seen a man without a shirt, and never had she seen Cedric with more than a sliver of exposed skin.
The tattoos where beautiful, accentuating the lean muscle underneath. He was no longer quite the scrawny man she'd first met as a child. He'd gotten caught up in too many of her adventures, and started up a regular training routine with the Enchancian Guard after one too many times unable to catch up with her. She'd never imagined it could have had so many benefits.
He was still tall and lean, but Lord he was beautiful. The want pounded in her chest, blossomed in her womb and seemed to throb with every flicker of the colors burning on his skin, green and blue and purple like dark fire. They seemed to flow around him, and flow toward the corner where she crouched, no bigger than a mouse. She was terrified that he would discover her, but he paid no attention to those remarkable lights.
He stared intently at the ground, sprinkling something that looked like black sand from his wand. He'd rolled up a carpet and created a circle on the floor in the center of the room. She couldn't see very well from the floor, and so she scrambled along the floor past bookshelves and tapestries and over thick lush rug with soft fibers that caressed her bare legs as she waded through the knee high pile. Cedric seemed to have a taste for fine things, and she was very curious to see his rooms, but not so curious that she could take her eyes away from him. She climbed slowly but surely up a stack of books next to his nightstand. Once she got to the top, she could see swirling script written painstakingly in black powder on the stone floor, a dark liquid that looked suspiciously like blood, and tiny bits of metal ore she recognized from potion brewing. There were runes of power in at least three languages, and possibly in another one she'd never seen.
She should be afraid. Cedric had once wanted power, had nearly taken the Kingdom, but…he was good. Deep in his heart, he was good. Selfish occasionally. Cynically certainly. But whenever it really counted, he was everything good and noble. This couldn't be the black magic it appeared to be.
He was shaking by the time he finished, the light flickering brighter over his skin and still reaching toward her. It seemed to have grown in brilliance and power, as though it was draining him of strength. The mysterious flames suddenly seemed to burn high, swirling straight toward her and she let out a squeak of fright before covering her mouth.
His eyes darted toward the nightstand, but he didn't notice her. Instead he seemed to swat at a particular bright green flame, muttering softly. "Stop that! You aren't getting what you want. Not this time, not ever if I can help it."
He looked down at the circles of script and nodded definitively. He'd trapped himself in the center of the circle, with no way out without disturbing all his hard work. How long had he been working on this?
Her curiosity burned hot, wondering what he could be doing, what he was trying to deprive the light of? What was the light? It was beautiful and compelling. Her fingers fairly itched to touch it, and all the flesh underneath. She bit her lip to keep herself from whimpering.
He threw his wand across the room, and it clattered to a stop not far from the stack of books on which she was perched. He breathed in deep, the muscles of his chest and abdomen rippling in interesting ways. Then he reached out his hands to either side, straight out from his shoulders, palms down to the ground. His voice spoke, deeper and richer than she thought it could be, and it sent chills down her back and over her skin, bringing her arousal once again to a fever pitch.
"Magic reaching out to find
Your match to capture and unwind
I forge these bonds to keep you in
Your magic mine, not meant for sin
Wind and blood, wood and bone
Metal and fire, for me alone
I forge these bonds to keep you in
I'm all you'll be, I'm all you've been"
He bit off the last words with a bitter, almost sorrowful wail, and she watched as the rings surrounding on the floor pulsed a bright vicious green. Then his fingers clenched as he seemed to pull with all his strength, the muscles in his arms corded with tension. The rings began to glow white hot, rising up in the air and merging, metal and black powder and blood mixing and merging with complex alchemy that had Sofia gasping. The sheer amount of power being expended to forge metal, liquid metal, was something she'd never even conceived of. The ring of silver-black liquid began to undulate and swirl around Cedric, who had beads of sweat upon his brow. She could only see his profile, but she knew he was in pain, his teeth clenched. The liquid began to lash at his skin, burning him here and there with an audible sizzle that left behind a rune here or there on his skin, mirroring his other tattoos.
What was this? Were all of his tattoo burnt on in his way? Sofia was horrified that he would endure such pain. Why? Why would he do this?
He cried out, his body beginning to shake, the green flames on his skin growing darker, more malevolent as they seemed to fight the liquid metal snake that slithered around his body. His eyes where clenched shut, and a long scream issued from his throat. Something was wrong. Something was going very wrong, and Sofia was terrified for him. He was in agony, and it had to stop.
She stepped forward, not even knowing when Amulet and returned her to her regular size. She reached toward him, silently begging the Amulet for help. Please. Please save him. The Amulet surged with rose colored light once, then dimmed, and Sofia felt as though something was jerked away from her skin - like Violet pulling the sheets from her body when she was trying to sleep in. It wasn't painful, but it was alarming.
It was even more alarming when lights - flames mirroring those on Cedric's skin, erupted from her hands and arms in pink and red, copper and gold. The flames flowed through the air, crackling with power merging with the metal snake, causing the snake to glow bright gold. Then the metal surged toward Cedric, the ring around him tightening and then colliding with the swirling storm of green and blue and purple flames. There was an explosion of pure color and booming sound. White light erupted through the room, blinding Sofia and causing her to scream in terror.
There was a moment of pure silence, and then there was only the sound of Cedric panting on the ground, and Sofia gasping for air from where she landed on the floor up against a bookshelf. They stared at each other in the glow of the Amulet, the only remaining light in the room.
Once that light faded, leaving them in utter darkness, Cedric began to curse, loudly and inventively.
"Morgana's mammaries, what were you thinking!"
Sofia felt a moment of fear, and then she let indignation rise in her like a fire. She stood and flicked her wand at the bedside table and a brace of candles burst into light, revealing Cedric pacing back and forth over the now bare spot on the floor, his hands in his hair and muttering vile things under his breath.
"I was thinking that you were about to die in a blaze of deadly magic. I was thinking I could help you, you you….ungrateful…..man!"
She really needed to work on her insulting skills if she didn't want to continue to sound like a child. He whipped his head around to stare at her, and she felt his eyes flicker over her body. Belatedly she realized she was actually scandalously underdressed in only a thin nightshift that was really too short - her better nightclothes had all be packed away in the many trunks that would accompany her on her Tour.
She could feel the blush rising from her chest, and she watched Cedric as he watched the blush rise up her neck and bloom on her face. The look in his eyes - was that anger? Hunger? She had never seen his eyes so incredibly dark.
"What are you playing at, little girl? Coming here in your nightdress? Did you think to get one more lesson from me before you left? Planned to learn skills to practice on all those Princelings you'll be courting?"
Her mouth dropped open in shock. What? What did he…. "Oh! How dare you! Do you think me so low? Some kind of…of whore?" She stepped toward him, ready to beat her fists against his skin but he backed away.
"Princesses are bartered and sold off in marriage to the prince or duke or emir with the best offer." His voice was cold, but his eyes were still hot on her skin, his focus now on the pebbled nipples that strained against thin silk.
"And you think losing my purity with you would raise my price?" She tried to sound disdainful and not interested, but her voice came out as more of a purr than full of cutting derision.
"What I think doesn't matter. I'm just a lowly sorcerer." He turned away, padding across the thick Tangu carpets he had strewn across his chambers toward what must be his wardrobe. He pulled a robe off a hook nearby and threw it at her. "Here, wear this. If anyone comes up to investigate the noise…"
"I will transport back to my chambers and no one will be the wiser." Sofia just let the robe fall to the floor, crossing her arms under her breasts and watching him swallow as he stared at the result of her breasts being pushed together, her cleavage more impressive than usual. It was then she noticed the new tattoo.
She walked toward him and he backed up, comically crashing into his wardrobe, knocking a hat he never wore off of the top and on to the floor. She pressed her hands into his skin, touching the new shape on his skin, still hot to the touch. He sucked in a breath as she touched him, but she ignored him, examining the magically created tattoo with rapt attention. It circled his neck, a silver so dark it was no wonder she mistook it for black when she'd seen all the others on his arms and back. It was a like necklace, or a chain of office, thick links of chain etched into his skin, and over the center of his chest, an oval that looks remarkably like her own Amulet, all rendered in liquid metal. Steel - she realized. Steel embedded into his flesh, voluntarily. All of them, every one of the tattoos he bears is this dark metal. A binding. All of them are binding him, binding that green blue flame inside of him.
"Charcoal and iron and blood. Magical steel to seal in my excess magic," Cedric whispered in a forlorn voice. "I did my first binding when I was thirteen. My magic threatened to blow up my home, and my father was terrified of me."
"For you. I'm sure he was terrified for you." She stroked her hand over his chest, trying to give comfort, but he pulled away, sweeping down the the floor and picking up the robe she had refused to don, thrusting his arms into the sleeve with a viciousness the garment didn't deserve.
"Of me. No magic user has their magic flare like that so young or so strong. I was dangerous. Am dangerous. I would try to bind another to me, most likely against their will, unless the magic was controlled. Father found the first spell of binding. I created the others. They set me free to be myself, alone."
Then he was stalking toward her, and then it was her turn to be pressed into the wardrobe door, his hands clutching her shoulders, her skin burning even through the cotton wherever his fingers touched. "You have likely just undone years of effort, young lady. Whatever magic you pulled from yourself to finish this damn spell - you probably bound part of yourself to me." He shook her, then let go suddenly, pacing across the room as far as he could get from her, his hands once again buried in his hair and pulling at his scalp as he sat on the edge of his large, four poster bed.
"Well then, it wasn't against my will then. I wanted to help." She wanted to be brave enough to follow him across the room and into that bed, but she seemed frozen in place.
"You want your magic bound to mine? Your very life force bound to a second rate wizard who is twice your age."
"You aren't twice my…"
"I'm thirteen years older than you, Sofia. I'm not a royal. I'm not even very nice." He stared at her from his perch on the bed. "You deserve everything good in this world, Princess Sofia. you deserve a happily ever after, more than any princess who has ever existed. You need to find the love you want, not to be bound to an old man."
"I have found the love I want. I want you."
She took a single step forward and he held up a hand and laughed darkly. "You are mostly like under the influence of very powerful magic at the moment. Your damn Amulet has taken a sliver of your magic - how I don't know, as you've never shown the tiniest flare in my presence, and I would have noticed if you had - and bound that sliver to my own magic. The rest of your magic is probably very interested in binding completely, regardless of how you would feel in the morning." His gaze moved down to the bed on which he sat very deliberately, and she suddenly had a remarkable insight into how such a magic binding would be achieved.
She stood up straight and took a few more steps across the room, "I wanted you this afternoon. And this morning. And the week before that and the year before that. I know my own mind, my own body and my heart. You are…"
His voice was ice, "I have never wanted to bind my magic to another. I have no desire to see into your pathetic soul or to give you access to mine. You are no doubt an awkward little virgin, and tears have no place in a binding. Get out of here, little girl, while I try and figure out how to undo this debacle before it drives us both insane."
Hot tears stung her eyes, and she turned away, unable to withstand those cold eyes looking at her another moment. She ran up the steps, bit off the transport spell and arrived in her room dizzy and disoriented. She collapsed on her bed and cried herself to sleep, the Amulet singing a soft, almost apologetic song in her mind.
The remaining days before she was due to leave passed so slowly she thought she might indeed go insane. She saw no sign of the Royal Sorcerer, and she was glad. The arousal that had coursed through her veins had turned cold in the night, and she felt none of the unquenchable need he seemed to imply she would feel if their magic was bound. Perhaps he had unbound them without her knowledge, and everything was back as it had been before. Except she would never be able to enter his tower as an apprentice or a friend again, he'd made sure of that.
Dressed for travel, it was very early in the morning when Sofia walks one last time through her favorite gardens, despite a soft cover of fog. She stopped to pay homage to all the tiny graves she has made for her animal friends over the years. Her fingers drifted over the surface of her amulet as she remembered each of her tiny friends, and she wondered for the twentieth time if she should leave it in the royal treasury as Aunt Tilly had done when she began her adventuring. But Tilly said the Amulet would let her know when it was time to part ways, and Sofia had felt nothing of that sort - in fact the Amulet felt warm and soothing to the touch each time she stroked it, like a comfortable blanket that surrounded her. She was glad she would have it with her on this journey.
There was the softest cough behind her, and she spun around, seeing Cedric seem to appear out of the fog, his hair just a bit wilder than usual, his robes swirling around him as though swathing him in protective wings. They stared at each other for a long still moment when not even the birds sang in the dawn's light. This would likely be the last time she saw him for a very long time, and something within her refused to give up completely.
She stepped toward him, but he spoke first. "I'm sorry, Sofia. I'm sorry to have been so harsh with you. You didn't deserve that."
She smoothed a hand over the dark green bombazine of her skirt, unable to look him in the eye. "No - I didn't. And I'm sorry that whatever magic I did seemed to compromise something so important to you. It was never my intention to bind us against your will."
He actually whimpered, and her eyes rose to his, alarmed. He shook his head, biting his thin bottom lip as though he was trying to keep words from escaping. "We are not fully bound. It is not something insurmountable. I…it will not prevent you from taking a husband of your own station."
Anger tore through her. "And what exactly is my station? A princess in name only, with no royal blood. I don't fetch much on that auction block, and I refuse to think my duty to my family and my country could be served in such a way, to marry for politics and not for love."
She crossed the few feet of grass separating him and put her hands on his chest. She had grown considerably, ending up taller than her sister Amber, and not so short compared to Cedric that she couldn't reach his lips. And he stayed stock still and she lifted herself on her toes and pressed her lips to his, tasting his surprisingly soft warm lips with her own. It was only a moment, but it was filled with something akin to the static charge before a thunderstorm.
She backed away, knowing that Bailiwick would be searching for her soon, despite his bad knees. She had to go to Tangu, her first stop and a long coach flight away.
"Don't…don't give up on us, Cedric. Don't go and bind yourself to anyone else, not until you give me a chance to prove to you that it's you I really want." She spun and dashed into the fog, turning a corner into the hedges and stopping - wondering if she should return for one more kiss, one more try to get him to understand, when she heard him whisper into the fog.
"There is no one else I would ever, could ever be bound to. I'm yours, you silly girl. But you could never be mine."
She heaved a sigh, then smiled softly. Foolish foolish man. He needed time to forget her youth, her perceived status. If she insisted on their relationship now, her family would never understand. And she needed time to grow, to cease being the unknowledgable little girl Cedric spoke of - she wanted to know her body as well as her magic before she offered him her heart again. She walked quietly toward the castle and toward a long series of tearful goodbyes, before stepping into her coach and into her longest adventure yet.
