a/n: i love writing terra. that is all.
SpellStricken
Chapter Two
"Don't look so surprised to see me," Aqua said with a small laugh, a joke in reaction to the way Terra tensed whenever she came near, despite the fact that they had known each other for so many years. Though the fact that she was on a warhorse, trotting up beside him like she had been riding all her life, might have also caught him off guard.
He cleared his throat, straightened his back and gave an affirming nod. His jaw was clenched as he stared at her with that hard expression of his. It was a rare moment when she saw Terra smile. Really smile, with the warmth from his heart shining through. A smile that reached his eyes. Aqua had sometimes wondered what it was that had made his heart so serious, and sometimes she felt saddened by it. But Terra was far too closed off to ever reveal that to her, and she she hadn't bothered to ask.
"Morning, Princess," he said, bowed his head, and looked straight ahead of himself. So stiff, he reminded her of the empty suits of armor that lined the hallways in the castle.
Terra was a good man. That much was clear, otherwise her Father wouldn't have chosen him to be his Knight, and the one that watched over Aquas as well. As much as her Father cared for his family, he cared for his people, and that was a trait the three of them shared at equal proportions.
But Aqua had a feeling Terra had a bit of a problem having to take direct orders from her. He was forced to place her on a pedestal, and she felt the animosity he had for her, like an instinct she felt. And it was for the fact that if there was one person he had to obey, it was her. She could ask him to bend this way and that, and he would, even if he didn't have the means. A single-jointed man doing a contortionist's work, he'd have to comply with no disagreements.
She wondered if that animosity would be quelled if she could become more of his equal. She wanted the respect he gave, not to the Princess, but to his fellow comrades. The only time she ever saw him smile in that way.
She felt differently that day, wearing her suit of armor, atop her chestnut horse she had just learned to fully ride. For once she felt as she were equal ground, with her discarded dresses and crown.
"I-if I may...what are you doing, Princess?" He asked, glancing at her for a second, then looking away just as quick.
She smiled, lifted her visor, and nudged her horse just a step closer to his. He still managed to flinch, a nervous blush creeping across the bridge of his nose. "How many times do I have to tell you, please call me Aqua."
"With all due respect, Princess," he said, and the word dug into her sometimes like a dagger, "I would feel much more comfortable calling you be your title. As I should, right?"
She saw, even dressed as she was, it still wasn't enough to take his edge of. It still wasn't enough to warrant any type of humanity. He still wasn't able to call her by her name. Because her identify was wrapped up in that of a princess gown and crown, after all, wasn't it?
"Even when I ask otherwise, but I suppose," she said, quirking a brow as she watched Terra nod his head, and directed her horse to trot faster.
"We have surveyed the perimeter, as your Father asked," Terra said, his horse walking up beside her, and said, "if that's what you came to check on."
"It was quiet at home. I thought I'd help."
He stuttered over his next words, and finally said, "Everything is taken care of. I assure you, Princess." There were dark undertones in his voice when he said, "Since when have you not trusted us?" And she was sure he thought she was trying to challenge him.
"I trust you guys with everything. Me and my Father have for years. I just thought it'd be good for me, if I try to help if I can. With whatever I can help with. I've been learning archery as well so that I can become more useful." She saw Terra's brows shoot up, a confusion scrawled over his face.
"Archery is all well and good," he challenged, "but you'll need me when someone comes at you with a sword."
She wasn't sure why an alliance with her had put him on the defensive. It was as if he was threatened, just by her mere act of learning, and she wondered if it was the fact that she was the Princess, or for the sole fact she was a woman.
"Master Eraqus is training me in the ways of sword fighting," she said, turning to him with a smile as she pointed to the sword that hung from her hip in its hilt. "Maybe soon enough we can spar," she said, and before she gave Terra the opportunity to answer she motioned for her horse to run, in the direction of where her Father was, over a ways at the edge of the surveyed fields.
"What was that all about?"
Behind him, Zack appeared just as quick as Aqua left atop his horse, his helmet already discarded, his eyes inquiring just as he did. "Details, come on,"
"Nothing, I just...she said she wanted to help us...she is even getting lessons from Master Eraqus on how to train with a sword," he said, a confused tone in his voice, and he couldn't even identify where it came from.
"Hey, girls are fighting now a days," Zack said as he reached over and patted Terra on the shoulder. Even behind the armor, there was a shocked expression evident in his face.
"You're starting to sound like Merlin," Terra said with a laugh.
"What? That old cook? No way. I'm just telling you how it is. Aqua's a tough girl, and I guess you're going to have to learn to accept it."
"Yeah, well I hope her Father puts an end to it sooner rather than later."
"Why don't you show Kingy what you're made of then, huh?" Zack said, a fierce look behind his eyes, and as Terra looked past, over towards Aqua and the King, he wondered just how much Aqua could change things.
"Devil!"
"Witchcraft!"
"We don't want you here!"
There was a lot of chanting; chanting that turned into yelling. Yelling amongst laughter. A laughter that was harsh and cruel.
There was the scratch of pebbles, the hollow thud of a stick falling against cobblestone, and Aqua heard a man's voice, laced with a tone of desperation, but not fear? No, there was no fear in that man's voice. And Aqua couldn't help but think that the voice sounded awfully familiar.
It didn't matter, stranger or friend, as a Princess, she thought it right to step in and help. She urged her horse forward, and it trotted around the corner with a flare and grunt of her nostrils.
She turned the corner, and took in the sight of a crowd of children, with their muddied feet and dirt-streaked face. They pointed their sticks at a man huddled in the corner, arms covering his face.
She didn't have to do much to get their attention, since few beside the soldiers and guards rose horseback throughout the village, but as soon as they did see her, they froze, stepping back and away from their discarded sticks and stones as if to claim their innocence.
"I-it's the princess. Shoot."
"We're in trouble now."
She leaped from her horse, and walked forward, her hands on her hips, and for every step she took forward, they took two steps back.
"This isn't the kind of behavior they're teaching you in school, is it?"
"N-No, your highness," one of them stammered while he fumbled with the hem of his shirt. He looked like a dog who had be scolded, head down and tail between its legs.
"I would hope not. In this Kingdom, we do not treat others with such a blatant lack of respect. We treat them with dignity, just as we wish to be treated. Understand?" She was soft-spoken but firm, getting on her knees to reach their level, flattening her dress over her thighs.
"Yes, your highness," they said almost in unison, and she sighed, patted one of them on the shoulder, and stood to her feet again. She wasn't sure if she had reached them, most likely they just wanted to get in good graces, but she knew there was little else she could do.
"Run along now," she said, and they ran from the scene of the crime as fast as they could.
"Thank you, your grace."
She recognized that voice, and she saw the shore, the ship, and she realized it was Merlin. She turned around, watched as he dusted his robe, took his hat from atop his head and walked forward. He looked weary, tired, and he bowed to her, as everyone did in her presecence.
No matter how many times it happened, she still never truly became used to it.
"As the old saying goes, boys will be boys, but I for one see that sort of behavior to be quite unacceptable."
"I would agree, sir, and would have hoped they would have learned better. No one should be treated badly."
"Even those as different as, say, me?" Merlin asked, and she looked to his long hat that was put back to rest on his head. She looked at his floor-sweeping beard that farmed his smiling mouth, and the colorful robes he wore. She laughed, putting a hand to her mouth before pardoning herself.
"No harm done," Merlin said with a smile as he reached forward, taking Aqua's hand in between both of his. "But thank you, my dear, for coming to an old man's defense. Quite noble," he said as he gently nudged her with his elbow.
"I wouldn't say noble. Just doing my duty." She laughed and a stray piece of her hair behind her ear, and she couldn't help but be a bit taken aback by the comfort a stranger showed in her presence. She didn't like it, not at all, when most people stiffened when they saw her, smiling and acting the utmost respectful, but deep down she knew they were nervous, just by the mere sight of her.
Because she was the Princess after all, and they wouldn't want to accidentally offend or disrespect her.
It was nice to not be treated so fragile.
"Well, I bid you good day, your highness."
"Wait." She grabbed the sleeve of his robe just as he turned away. He had answers, answers she had always wondered about, been desperate about. "So, you're from across the ocean, right? Surely there is no question as to why you came here," she said, her expression darkening.
The King who ruled the land across the sea was a wretched man. He obsessed over himself, and wished to cover his land in darkness; to leave no trace of light behind. It was a wasteland, where anything that went there went to die.
"Unfortunately, so. That Xehanort is no king of mine. I care a lot for Ven, he is like my son. I wanted so badly to see him safe. And when I thought of the many families there, I knew there was something I had to do. I had to get them somewhere safe. And so I set sail, it was the only thing I knew to do."
"What a journey that must have been," she said, and watched the sadness that overtook his eyes. It hurt her heart, to imagine her land filled with such unhappy souls. The last thing she refused to see. "I'm glad to have learned you all made it here safely."
"Hm, well with a bit of magic to aid you, nothing is impossible," he said as he threw her a quirky smile.
There had been rumors circulating. That someone had caught Merlin practicing magic. Engaged in a spell that left the person amazed, so much so that they went and let their mouth be unfiltered to whoever it was that would listen. That was how the rumor started, and she was sure that was why those children had been taunting him.
"Do you really mean what you say?" she asked. "That there is magic in this world, and you are capable of it?" Though the idea of magic was a prospect frightening and mysterious and so exciting all at once, there had been no one she knew who had ever been capable of such feats. But as she looked at Merlin she thought, if anyone was capable of it, perhaps he was.
He laughed, and it was like a wind gust, the bark of an oak tree being rapped against by someone's knuckle, all of nature and everything around them all at once. And her breath caught in her throat when he leaned in and whispered against his hand, "Yes, magic is real. Very real indeed. Though, it is a part of our mental capacity as well," he said as he pointed to his temple and smiled.
"Wow," she said, her lips growing wide into a smile, the kind of smile that children have when the world is at their fingertips and the possibilities are endless as their parents remind them of their potential in this life. Merlin had opened up another world to her, and all that she could do within its confides.
"Princess," he said, his voice gravely yet with the whimsy of a whistle, and he reached forward to clasp her hand in his, and the warmth of his smile reached his eyes, and it was then she knew this man was special.
"It feels..." she said with a gasp, as she felt an energy spread throughout her limbs, course through her very veins that functioned every steady beat of her heart. "Is that what magic feels like?"
He nodded. "Princess Aqua, I see a light here. A strong light. One I hadn't thought I'd see again. At lest, not in my home town." He patted her hand and continued, "It feels good, so good to see it once again." And she could have sworn she saw a tear in his eye that he blinked away, and it was gone. "I don't want that light to go away. I don't want Master Xehanort to claim it."
"But, what can I do?" She asked as she looked at her fingertips. There was no magic there. Her fingers didn't carry the same energy as his. She blinked away the tears, her eyelashes moist, and she wasn't even sure why.
"Princess, you can do anything you want, and I can teach you."
Could he really teach her magic? Was magic something she could even learn?
She bowed at the waist, and said, "If you would teach me, I'd be honored to learn," and he grabbed her elbow, pulling her in a direction with a laugh.
"I was waiting for you to say something like that," he said, and she followed, heart caught in her throat as many questions ran through her head, but she wondered if maybe she was meant for something like this.
"The ocean," Merlin said, as he gazed out onto the lapping blue waves, minerals sparkling under the radiance of the sun. The ocean responded with a gentle wave, pushing against the sand when he made a gesture with his hand. He commanded it, and Aqua could only stare and watch at the marvel of a man moving an ocean. She had never imagined such a feat possible.
The ocean was a living, breathing thing in and of itself. It moved on its own accord, unpredictable in its moods, and so how could one person control its temperament?
"It's like a channel, Aqua. A passage. A life flow, if you will." He took her hand and held it out, palm down, and her fingers splayed. "If you can control the water...you can control those who may leave, and who may enter. And that is not something to take lightly."
She shuddered, feeling a energy strong enough to make her gasp, pulsating at her fingertips. It radiated from her fingers throughout her entire arm, and she looked back at Merlin, an uncertainty in her eyes.
As a child, Aqua hadn't been afraid to try new things. And that fearlessness followed her into adulthood, where she felt nothing in the face of a bellowing Wyvern or with a sword pressed to her cheek during a spar.
But..."Who says I'm ready for that kind of power?" she asked. She was just a normal girl. Yes, a Princess, of course, but still, who was she to control anything? And yet, she knew control was all part of being a Princess after all. One day, she would be in control of her Kingdom, her people. All decisions left up. One day, she would dictate fate.
And that terrified her.
And maybe that was the reason she was so ready to retract her hand, and she would have, had Merlin not kept a steady grip on it as he smiled warm and comforting.
"You have a great deal of responsibility on your shoulders. And lucky for you, a clear head at that. You helped me. And you would have gladly put your life on the line on that day I first came to shore."
He must have noticed more than she had thought, and it was true, she would have put her life on the line if need be.
"And there lie the makings of a girl, no, a young woman, who can lead her people. I'm just here to aid you with a gift."
She nodded as she looked back towards the ocean, her hand trembling with fear or with energy, she wasn't quite sure.
"First, it'll just be a trickle, but then, you can move a tide. And eventually, the ocean. Just focus."
"Focus." She closed her eyes.
"And just breathe."
She did just that, inhaling the salty air, hearing the serene deep breathing of the waves, feeling the wind caress her cheek like it was her mother's hand. She let go, relaxed her skittish heart and troubled mind.
And she focused. Focused the energy surging from Merin's fingertips, and into her own. Her arm felt light, as if it were an extension of metaphysical power.
She told herself she could do it. Repeated it like a mantra in her head. If she willed this water to move, it would move. And all she had to do was focus, breathe, believe that it would move.
And when the water moved, lapped against her foot, she laughed, releasing a shuddered breath as she blinked back the tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.
"I did it," she breathed, smiling and laughing as she looked to Merlin. The way he smiled, was like a mirror of her father.
All she ever wanted was to prove something to herself. That if she believed, then she could achieve anything. All her hopes and dreams could become a reality. That was why she had her armor, that was why she learned to ride a warhorse. She was destined for greatness, she could sense it. She had a purpose far pass what the term 'Princess' meant.
She tested the waters, literally, moving her hand limber like the neck of a swan. The ocean stirred and the droplets of water glittered underneath the sun.
"This...is amazing," she said, letting her hand rest and the water rested. She turned to Merlin with a smile, giving a small bow in respect. "Thank you for showing me this."
"I would be a fool not to," he said. "Be smart. And practice as much as you can, Princess," he said as he held her hands in between his. Whenever he touched her, she felt a powerful energy, and she wondered just how powerful Merlin really was.
"Aqua," she corrected.
"Alright then, Aqua," he said, and she was surprised. Most others refused to call her by her real name, finding it disrespectful, when all she wanted was to be on equal terms in casual settings. "But I shall warn you. The more powerful you become, the weaker you will be. Using magic takes a lot of energy, so be careful."
She knew there had to be some sort of limits. Otherwise couldn't Merlin have just washed away all her Father's soldiers before they could have even prepared an attack, if he wanted? Instead he had held back, barely causing a ripple in the water, even if the energy and power practically radiated off him.
But a limit was a good thing, lest she get too carried away.
She knew of the responsibility she now possessed, but in the back of her mind, she wondered if there was a chance she might abuse it.
And she wondered, if she could stop her Dad from leaving to fight the war, even if it meant the safety of her people, would she?