Moonlight Margin
"Tavlis, you trust the light spawn too easily. They'll betray you and mark you as a monster whenever they have the chance," Umbra thought with distain as he stood on the cold beach looking at the eternal moon.
"Never thought I would consider the old man's offer but it seems it's the optimal course of action." Umbra pulled something from his coat and stretched out his gloved hand in front of him. He opened his hand for a split second and when he clenched it, a lightless portal opens.
"The fanatical old fool is probably at that "graveyard" of his." The self-proclaimed historian thought as he disappears into the portal.
Sekeme Estate
Tavlis was searching through the cupboards and drawers of his and Yulia's room with a hidden sense of urgency. "Why didn't I let the one of the gargoyles hide the gifts instead of hiding it where I would forget the place of it? I thought I would remember, but I don't. They're not in the alcove behind the bedside chest….Yulia moved them, didn't she…."
As that thought struck Tavlis, he noticed the near unnoticeable presence of his wife sitting on top of the wardrobe, her legs moving back and forth with a grin on her pale olive face.
"Sir Tsuito, You should know out of all people that it's a bad idea to forget your 'going away' gifts and especially not tell the lady of the house about the gifts since she's your lover." Yulia asserts with a sense of mischief and disappointment.
Yulia. From Tavlis' perspective is a beautiful thin woman with dark brown hair so dark it looks like tinted obsidian thread. Eyes, a bright violet and she always seemed to wear a variant of an armored hooded cloak with black gloves and metal tipped nova-shadow skin boots. This current moment she's wearing a royal blue dress under her cloak with her special pendant with the void knight crest on it, a wedding gift from Tavlis.
"Where are the gifts Yul?" Tavlis responded as his hand subconsciously wandered to the charm with the Sekeme family crest under his chain mail laced shirt.
"Where would you want them to be? You can't say what I know you would, even if I would have enjoyed hearing it. But our little swordswoman and scholar are arguing right outside the door."
As if a spell of silence was broken, the sounds of the two siblings talking appeared. One a young anxious boy and the other a younger annoyed girl. "Nany, we should leave mother and father alone. Mother said she was going to give dad a special 'have a nice trip' gift," the female whispered with annoyance to her older brother.
"Unmei….I told you not to call me Nany, My name is I-nan-is Inanis it's not hard to say. Besides I wanted to know what the gift she was going to give dad is, because you talked about not being about to sleep two weeks ago when mother gave dad a gift, you said it sounded like a titan guardian being energy blasted while its channeling its own energy blasts." The boy replied with a reserved and supposedly knowledgeable tone.
As soon as the words were put into the air Yulia pouted disappointedly, but not a playful disappointment one that showed fatigue, motherly and baroness responsibility. Yulia snapped her gloved fingers and the door's lock clicked and flew open with swift grace.
"You two shouldn't be eavesdropping on your parents. I was discussing dad's gifts for you two, for when he leaves for a few cycles." Yulia declared with her arms crossed, a motherly air around her.
"Sorry, Mother!" Both children nearly yelled when they flinched from being discovered. Unmei, a four or five year old girl with dark almost obsidian ashen brown hair, violet eyes and a sword sheath on her back (it would be on her side if she was big enough). Inanis, a six or seven year old boy with pearl white hair, reddish violet eyes, a royal purple cap on his head and a scientific journal under his right arm.
"Well…since you two are impatient or curious enough to not wait till morning for their gifts, let's give them to you two now." Yulia divulged to the children staring at either one when certain words were said with a sense of unwanted stress in her voice.
Yulia walked over to her side of the large emperor size bed that she and Tavlis share almost every night. Crouching down to the lower part of the bedside and the near unnoticeable sound of a dial clicking with metal hinges being used with the sound of fabric and plastic rumbling when her hand is in the pseudo safe. She pulled out a blade with a midnight crimson handle and a tinted damascus metal sheath in her left hand and an old but extremely well kept and cared for encyclopedia sized book under her right arm.
The two heirs looked at their mother with equal excitement as curiosity flushed through their minds." Mei, this blade and sheath was crafted with the orichalcum from the shield of an old councilman of war, dark matter ribbons from the highest points in the moonlit sky, mythril, adamantine, and gale essence from the blade and body of one of our longest serving Orcus guards, with this they will see you as one of them and will train you. It's truly a blade for a knight, a leader, and especially an heir to the family name."
Yulia lowered the blade into Unmei's excited vambrace covered arms. "Thank you so much, mommy!" Unmei said as she hugged her mother with a deep smile on her face. After the embrace ended, Unmei sheathed blade in hand started running to the training yard outside the manor.
"Now for you Inanis, one of the three books used by your great-grandfather in his research about the realms and other worlds." Yulia assured as she pulls the book from under her arm and lowered it into Inanis' pale hands.
"Each book has the same words in it because the books are magically synced to write what additional knowledge was put into them. Uncle Umbra keeps one himself and another is locked in the library safe to keep it protected. You should feel honored to have such a source of realm breaking knowledge in your hands."
"Thank you, Mother." Inanis uttered and he slowly half-steps to the open embrace of his loving mother. Through the sleeves of her cloak Yulia could hear her son stating words of how he would always keep it safe, read through it and make new discoveries for the rest of his life.
"Now. Inanis go enjoy the journal as well as the new grimoire I put in your room." As the information left her lips, Inanis left her embrace and started to walk outside sight of the door, he happily waved goodbye to his parents with a grin on his face.
Tavlis sat on the side of the large bed waiting for Yulia's body language to imply the kids have gone a fair distance away from the room.
"M'lady what's the 'have a nice trip' present Unmei was talking about?" Tavlis remarked with a tone that showed he knew what was to come. Yulia sat on the floor and started to take off her gloves, cloak and boots after stripping to only in her stockings, dress, and undergarments she walked and with grace sat on the lap of Tavlis.
"Today has been tiring and stressful, I want my personal knight to make that go away" The countess of the Sekeme estate whispered in her lover's ear as she pushed him to the bed lovingly and lustfully. All illumination quickly left the room as the sound of lips connecting and clothing sliding off appeared.
As moonlight started to shine through the blinds of the windows in the bedroom, signifying morning for the realm. Tavlis was begrudgingly slipping out of the loving embrace of his near naked wife. As he stared at her sleeping form, he struggled to keep from staying in the bed with her. After Tavlis freed himself from the love laced chains on his mind, he slowly started to put his thickly padded underclothes on his body.
Outside, Tavlis noticed the large, moonstone sphere- a time keeper for the estate. It currently displayed a lit crescent (or the impending dawn for light dwellers).
"I have to leave quickly or I might not get there at the proper day depending on the time distortion of the portals…I don't want to feel the guilt of not satisfying Yulia this morning or …saying my goodbyes" Tavlis with a flex of his hand, his armor and four sheathed katana style blades appeared over his body.
With a flash of metal and an amber glow on an immediately sheathed blade, a blueish endless looking portal cuts open in front of Tavlis. Immediately after the portal open Tavlis launched all of his blades into the air and they hovered over the ground in front of him as some sort of platinum hover bike with a metal pattern that showed the blades warping and changing size to form the bike.
Tavlis climbed on to the glider and energy flashed from the end as he propelled forward through the portal. "I wonder how everything is going for Eraqus and his apprentices when I was away anyway."
?
"Ven. Get up! We're not done!" A tall, youthful nineteen bordering on twenty year old man with slightly tanned skin and spiky dark brown hair asserted with authority with tinges of annoyance in his words, key shaped blade in hand.
The young man wore a tight black shirt that showcased his musculature, tan armor layered hakama pants covered the bottom half of his body with a golden badge on his belt, with golden dark brown metal boots housing his feet. A dark grey and dark red sectioned gauntlet covered his entire left arm with a black fingerless glove on his left hand and a black bracer covering his right wrist.
"Terra, can't you give me a break. You hit really hard, at least hold back. I felt some of my coat's chain dent a little." The fifteen year old blonde boy alleged with obvious exhaustion as he lays on the stone tile ground, backhanded key shaped sword within reach of his left arm.
"Ven, I'll fix your armor, like always, after we practice for two more hours. The exam is tomorrow and I need to refine my 'earthen spiral' technique." Terra spun his key styled broadsword, Earthshaker in his hand with trained but imperfect finesse and stabbed it into the thick ground. He crouched down to help get Ventus standing.
As Ventus started to push himself up from the stone ground, taking Terra's outstretched hand "There's nothing I can say to you that would let me go take a nap in my room?"
"There's nothing you can say th-I'll tell Aqua "Ventus claimed, interrupting Terra.
"Fine. Go. But when I say we're training, we're training, got it?" Terra stated, tense from Ventus' escape tactic.
"Gotcha. Later Terra!" Ventus warped away his key shaped blade and quickly like the wind itself sprinted inside the smooth white stone building behind the two boys.
"She always prioritizes you every time anyway….. It's becoming that everything she says to me is scolding me about you." Terra thought audibly under his breath as Ventus sprinted away.
"It's refreshing to see your training for your exam. I partially expected you to just do push-up for hours."
Terra flinched at sound of the voice. It wasn't one of the few people that inhabited the Land of Departure. It… It was familiar….but Master Eraqus didn't say anyone was visiting for the exam.
Before Terra could finalize his thoughts, He heard the near silent sound of a blade being unsheathed, with fear and adrenaline surging through his veins Terra spun on his foot and swung his blade in a blocking motion to the direction of the sound.
As the blades clashed with each other, the attacker grabbed Terra's wrist and started to force Terra's arm weight, blade in hand towards the stone ground.
The adversary started to swing the pommel of his longsword to the neck of Terra, but Terra being a single arm styled fighter used his other arm and swung with all his force into his opposer's helmet, plates of dark copper metal coating his arm as his punched.
The assaulter stepped back hand on his helmet, laughing wholeheartedly. "You haven't dulled a centimeter, it's nice to see you've been improving since I was gone."
The voice was familiar…it was him wasn't it….It's "Master Tavlis! Why are you here?" Terra almost yelled in shock and excitement.
"Just call me Tavlis, besides I'm here to help you and maybe your fellow apprentices in preparation for the mark of mastery exam. Speaking of such, you have one minute to ready yourself. We're fighting until you want to pass out!"
Tavlis walked to the longsword he dropped on the ground after Terra's punch and as he grabbed the blade with two hands, it morphed into two katana style blades.
As he walked a distance opposite of Terra and readied himself into his single blade stance,
Terra breathed deeply and focused his lingering emotions using a technique Tavlis taught him. "Focus on your inner most desires and emotions and image or remember times and things to achieve and protect"
As Terra focused his inner energies, copper colored energy channeled around his right arm in armor like plates.
As the two swordsmen dashed at each other blades clashing, sparks of energy pulsed around as the two's swords clattered and bashed the opposing wielder. Tavlis with experienced grace quickly slashed to counter the force of Terra's mighty blows.
Each duel lasted seconds to minutes as the warriors swung to disarm and tire each other to exhaustion. Tavlis back stepped, dodging Terra's overhead strike and jumped over Terra using his blade as a jump point, jabbing the bottom of his blade's handle into Terra's neck.
Terra faded out of consciousness for a few brief moments as he fell to the ground on his knees, exhausted and defeated.
"Terra. You have impressed me. Now there is one more important thing we should practice, I've been indirectly training you about it, and earlier today showed me, you have very sufficient control of it." Tavlis declared as he lightly snapped his fingers causing a green glow to appear around him, his stamina quickly returning.
"Terra. Get up or do I need to get Aqua to kiss her precious boy toy better!?" Tavlis started to laugh vigorously at his humorous jab at Terra.
Terra's open hand clenched as soon as the name Aqua was mentioned. "I don't need her to do things for me...She's better than me at magic but that doesn't matter. When I'm a master, I'll prove to her and master Eraqus that I'm strong enough to protect all of them from any monster or enemy."
"Tavlis. Take back what you said!" Terra expressed with bitter anger, pushing himself off the ground and charging at Tavlis in a single motion with the feeling of more blood pumping in his veins.
"Heh… guess I was right about him having control and potential. " Tavlis muttered under his breath as he unsheathed two blades and readied himself for Terra's impact.
Terra leaped into the air and changed his center of gravity towards his front as his broadsword propelled downward.
Tavlis, knowing Terra's usual body speed and combat style delayed his reaction till Terra was just above him. Tavlis rotated his body out of Terra's attack moments before it would have hit him.
Tavlis waited for the second of opening after Terra's blade hit the ground but the muscular young man's blade never hit the ground. After the diving strike Terra immediately chained his earlier attack into momentum for his horizontal slash to counter Tavlis' dodge.
Tavlis was shocked from Terra having the stamina to do two full strength attacks in moments especially the dive attack as that always made Terra need a moment to slash his broadsword in a lifting slash.
As the shock withered from Tavlis, the duel melted into a melee. The two swung their blades at each other until the other yielded or if necessary fell unconscious.
Every time Tavlis went for a finishing blow dark copper plates covered Terra's body to protect him from the force and energy of the blow. Tavlis determined to end the fight, dropped his blades and struggled with Terra as he tried to pry the long blade from his grasp.
Terra, the more strength focused of the two was winning the struggle until Tavlis instead of trying to control the blade forced it to motion to the ground as he swept Terra's thickly armored leg causing him to fall.
When Terra hit the ground, Tavlis immediately started to straddle him and punch him in the chest and face. After the first set of punches Tavlis lifted himself from Terra and went to stretching his sore body.
"Terra. You are a talented fighter, one who I'm proud of to consider my family. I'm going to talk to Eraqus about the duration of my visit and then take a nap."
Terra, too tried to say any meaningful sentence without panting through it just nodded in understanding.
"Also, we could train later today or we can just go spend time with your friends instead. Okay?" Tavlis declares as he walks inside the building not expecting an answer. Leaving Terra to stretching and cool down his sore body alone.
Time passed and the sky's vibrant glow faded into a massive web of stars. A blonde boy with windswept hair, Ventus awoke from his uncomfortable sleep. His dreams simmering into the far reaches of his mind.
He turned his head to the open window just above his bed and saw stars falling through the sky at an alarming rate. The flashing stars brought excitement to the teenager as he couldn't help himself from get closer to the window.
"A meteor shower! It's been months since the last one." Ventus ideates internally and externally as he pushes himself off his bed and starts to sprint outside the citadel that was his master and friends' home.
As the apprentice stopped at the courtyard outside the building "I can't see much from here" he stared at the sky and in disappointment acknowledged he has to go further out.
"What a coruscated boy…..he did mention one of them is a lightspawn." A graceful voice mutters, the voice's owner simply faded away with a flash of dark violet mist as the blonde boy ran to the overlook in the inner hills.
Ventus within a minute had ran past the training totems and up the hill to the overlook. He moved his head upward towards the meteor filled sky. "…wow…." The neophyte moved to the edge of the overlook next to a marble bench and laid on the well-kept grass. "Why does…this seem so familiar?" Ventus started to feel the warm embrace of sleep overtake him.
Sounds of metal rubbing against the grass appeared as Tavlis walked towards the outlook, fresh from his discussion with Eraqus and "Magic" lessons with Terra. He welcomed the quiet, clear, and starry night.
"Eraqus, you really do care about them, like they were your own children…." The knight walked to the end of the overlook and saw the sleeping form of Ventus. "What a lazy boy, he better mature. He won't age much anyway." Tavlis grumbles under his breath as he puts his legs over the stone edge and watched the stars move at fast speeds and fade.
Another chunk of time passes before a blue haired young woman in a blue and black high collared halter top with two dark pink straps crossed over her upper body with a silver crest in the center, disconnected white bell shelves with blue tinted armor covering them, similar colored metal boots and tan fingerless gloves covering her appendages appears from the curve of the hill.
She noticed the sleeping form of Ventus and walked towards the boy. Said boy woke from the sudden movement nearby and yawned from the sudden puncture of his sleep. As he opened his eyes and saw the sky, Ventus started to get up from his sleeping position and as he went into a sitting posture, he was surprised with the presence of his only female friend and pseudo mother figure Aqua in front of him.
"Whoa!" Ventus quickly got to his knees and faced Aqua. She chuckled at his energetic show of surprise. "Gimme a break. Aqua." Ventus sputtered in response. "Ven, you hopeless sleepyhead" She affectionately responded.
"Nice to see you're not in another coma, kid." Tavlis declares, shocking Aqua as she wasn't aware of his presence or him being here in the first place.
"Oh. Master Tavlis, I didn't know you were visiting?" Aqua asked politely, keeping eye contact with Ventus as she was never completely comfortable with talking to the occasionally brash man. "Ven. is there something on your mind?"
"Just a dream. I think. Did I just dream that place up? It really felt I've been there before…looking up at the stars…" Aqua motherly rubbed Ventus on the head and chuckled. "'Cept you've always lived here with us." "Yeah….I know" Ventus replied in a melancholy tone.
The two apprentices trudged to the stone edge of the overlook to watch the stars. "So. What did you two do for the day exactly?" Tavlis question with an obvious smile on his face as he moved himself to the left side of Ventus on the stone overhang.
"I just sparred with Terra, he almost crushed my armor. I was sooo tired but Terra wouldn't let me go sleep until I said I would…umm..never mind." Ventus with his hands behind his head, cheerfully mentioned until he stopped, and quickly looked at Aqua like a child trying not to be punished. Aqua sighing in annoyance throughout Ventus' description of his day.
"I was developing my magic. About a week ago I achieved being able to cast Blizzara without even focusing on it, today was trying the same with Fira. Surprisingly it was easier after Ven almost pushed me and all of my books to the ground when he was "running" to his room after supposedly sparring with Terra." Aqua gave Ventus an annoyed look as she mentioned Ventus' annoyingly unending stamina. "I was also theorizing on ways I could increase the utility of the spell. Decreasing the speed to instead develop the force behind, multiple sources or just flat out making it have a large area of effect and quickly burst as well." Aqua describes with an unsuppressed scholarly passion.
"Um…Aqua. I was curious about something?" Ventus asked meekly from just seeing the passion that he only knew about from Terra's usual but shockingly emotional talks about her.
"Yeah, Ven?" Aqua calmly acknowledged, her previously shown passion pulled back into her body.
"Y'ever wonder what stars are? Where light comes from?"
Tavlis laughed "My brother could tell books' worth of theories and answers to those questions, but the simplest answer is a saying that I can't remember at this moment. I think it's that..."
"Every star up there is another world." A partially deep voice quickly announced. "Hmph, you're finally here." Tavlis muttered almost inaudibly.
Aqua and Ventus turned their heads towards the speaker. "Terra." Aqua blurted out with a sense of happiness in her voice.
"Yep, hard to believe there are so many worlds out there besides our own. Tavlis has come from another one himself. The light is their hearts, and it's shining on us like a million lanterns." Terra declared as walks closer to the earthy edge of the summit, Tavlis laughing at Terra's choice of words.
"Each star is the light from the radial energy barrier that works as a pseudo sun for about every world, giving life, energy, and no reason to understand other worlds for centuries." Tavlis explained in a very teacherly manner.
"What? I don't get it." Ventus mentioned, confused at Terra and Tavlis' explanations.
"In other words, they're just like you, Ven." Terra declared, on par with Tavlis' explanation.
"What does THAT mean?"
"You'll find out someday. I'm sure."
"But, I wanna know now!" Ventus demanded.
"You're too young and innocent to know now."
"Quit treating me like a kid and what do you mean innocent?" The two boys bickering caused Aqua and Tavlis to start laughing, Aqua's featherweight and Tavlis' heavy.
"Hey, what are you laughing at?" Terra wondered annoyed at his bickering with Ventus.
"I can't help it. You two would make the weirdest brothers." Aqua started to laugh even more.
The boys were puzzled at Aqua's word choice as the two already viewed each other as brothers in anything but blood. "Aren't we all family? Terra the father, Ven the child, and Aqua the mother. I'm the uncle and Eraqus is the grandfather. You guys always reminded me of my family respectively." Tavlis jovially announces as he wrapped his arms over the two boys shoulders in a sideways hug, laughing even more happily. The laughter started to spread and soon all four of the stargazers were laughing.
The four sat on the rock edge of the summit watching the stars twinkling and meteors flash through. Terra sat on the right most point, Aqua to his left, Ventus left of her, and Tavlis at the end of the group.
"Oh, Yeah. Terra, you and I have our Mark of Mastery exams tomorrow." Aqua got up from her spot, moving her hand from Terra's and grabbed three charms out of one of her waist pouches. "I made us good luck charms" she than tossed the orange one to Terra and green one to Ventus respectively, both thanking her with their individual kind of thanks, one an approving smile and the other multiple words of thanks and wonder.
"I don't get one?" Tavlis questioned knowingly. Getting a look of awkwardness from Aqua that obviously meant "sorry". "I'm kidding, it's fine I have a kind of something like that." Tavlis pulls a charm that looks like two pieces of smoke hooking together into a spiral with four almost crescent white gold pieces making the edges. "This is the crest of my family. A gift from my amazing wife...let's move the conversation somewhere else."
The silence passed when Aqua broke it by explaining what inspired her to make the way finders. "Somewhere out there, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit…" "Sorry to interrupt but I think you're talking about a paopu fruit, it's a special fruit that only grows on a world called Destiny Islands. It's mainly used to complete the ties after a marriage ceremony, since it has properties to provoke the consummation of about every single couple."
Aqua tried to hide the blush from the thoughts that went through her mind (strangely, her head looked in Terra's direction) after Tavlis' explanation of what the star-shaped fruit was. "Well….uh…the fruit…to my knowledge, represented an unbreakable connection…..in more ways than one." "So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it. Nothing can ever drive you apart. You'll always find your way back to each other. Technically, I think you supposed to make them with seashells. Heh. But I did the best with what I had."
"Oy, sometimes you are such a girl." Terra retorted upon which Tavlis wrapped an arm around his shoulder and quickly whispered "Terra, do you understand the connotation of when a female very close to your age gives you a paopu fruit?"
"I don't know. Friendship, she gave one to Ven."Terra quickly murmured back.
"Well…for when a person older gives one to a younger person it's usually a sign of familial love, but when it's people close to the same age it's usually an indirect way of showing love unless directly said otherwise." With those words said Tavlis released Terra and went to sit in the marble bench near the overhang. Terra having a slightly embarrassed look on his face.
"Hey, Terra what do you mean. "Sometimes" and what were you talking about with Master Tavlis?" Aqua quipped strangely over annoyed at Terra's remark.
"So this isn't a real good luck charm?" Ventus asked out of curiosity and possibly with intent to interrupt Aqua and Terra's discussion.
"Well. That's yet to be seen. But I did work a little magic on it." Aqua mentioned her annoyance replaced with her usual motherly air.
"Really? What?" Aqua held up her crystal blue way finder, a slight smile growing on her face and lifted it to face the stars. "An unbreakable connection."
A few long moments of the trio looking at the sky with their new way finders pass until Terra moves towards the open plain of grass on the summit. "Whelp, Tomorrows the exam. Anybody wanna spar?"
Ventus remembering his promise to Terra immediately responds. "I can take Yah!" Ventus ran to the other side of the clearing to face Terra within seconds.
Ventus started to charge at Terra and pushed his legs off the ground for a leapping strike, for which Terra, blade already in hand moved to cover himself from Ventus' strike. When Ventus' blade hit Terra's. For a split second, a layer of bronze energy coated Terra's blade as he used his blade to launch Ventus back a few meters.
"You're not going to win unless you stay on the offensive. " Ventus mentions as he repositions himself for another charge.
Ventus charged, Terra immediately dashed out of the way and then dashed towards Ventus, blade forward to jab him with all his momentum. Terra than followed up with whirling side slash that made Ventus lose his footing. An uppercut slash followed and then he spiraled the blade around himself and with all of his momentum slammed Earthshaker and Ventus into the ground.
Ventus pulled himself off the ground another time this day, breathed deeply a few times, stretched and then seemed completely fine.
"Well. That works fine if you're fighting one on one, but you need to know how to handle a crowd too." Aqua announced, taking Terra's place as opponent to Ventus.
The blue haired Mage stood equidistant to Ventus and waited for him to try to blitz. As soon as Ventus moved his left foot, Aqua subconsciously spun her blade Rainfell in her hand and rapidly muttered words under her breath. As soon as Ventus got within a meter of her, her words stopped and crystal blue bubbles formed out of the tip of her blade, which continuously impacted Ventus at such force and speed it sent him about three meters into the air.
The silver haired knight just watched the apprentices spar with an approving smile. "They'll pass the exam. I have enough confidence in their abilities that they'll pass without issue."
Terra walked closer to his two sparring partners "Okay, let's wrap this up." The next hour passed with the three all fighting each or just dueling till one yielded. When Aqua and Terra fought, she immediately went to launching ice crystals and spheres of fire at Terra who slammed them back at her with his energy covered broadsword. When Terra was open, Aqua went in for a stabbing dash that followed with her signature aerial spiral.
Terra leaped over Aqua's next fire spell and bashing her to the ground and when Terra was going to help her up Ventus casted an aero spell which caused Terra to spiral on his back in the air. Ventus then proceeded to help Aqua up from the ground.
The two then dashed to knock Terra to the ground. Terra tightened his position and orange energy formed around him in a circle as the other two put their feet in the circle, Terra spiraled instantaneously and sent the duo flying to the ends of the clearing.
Aqua casted a thunder spell on Terra as she flew head first on her back into the ground, Jolting Terra as Ventus went behind him and slammed his blade into the brunette, a flurry of strikes that sent Terra to his knees.
"Told Yah, I'm good!" Ventus cheered, spinning his backhanded sword in his left hand. As the other two apprentices got up from the ground and caught their breath. "Trust me guys, you're ready. You're gonna clean up at the exam tomorrow."
"I hope it's that easy" Terra sighed exhaustedly as he walked closer to Ventus.
"It's like the master said, power is born within the heart and when the time is right, you just need to look inside yourself, and you'll find it there." Aqua quoted calmly but still exhausted as Terra.
"All of you were impressive, but you all still have your own flaws, Aqua you should start considering a more agile and stronger stance, like one of a fencer, also start combining your spells to improve utility, I know your a gifted enough to achieve that level of magic prowess." Tavlis declared with approval and acceptance. Aqua gave an appreciative nod as Tavlis gave his advice.
"Ventus, I know you have more time to improve than the others but you should try to consider spells and techniques that involve momentum, aerial movement, and defense. You're fast. Benefit from it." "Thanks for the tips, Master" Ventus replied.
"Terra. You are like a younger brother to me, I would have viewed you as a son, but I have a son and he's about a third of your age. Use more magic or energy based techniques. You need to stay unpredictable to your enemy. If they can predict you, they can counter your strengths and press at your weak points. You have a lot of potential and I hope to see you grow. Now all of you take a breather!"
The three students spent the next half hour resting and talking about techniques the trio could synchronize together.
"Hey, Ven. We're going to head back." Terra shouted to Ventus as he, Aqua and Tavlis started to walk across the clearing to the path down the hill.
"Yeah, me too." Ventus walked after the group. Strangely Aqua stopped walking and strolled to the overlook's edge to supposedly get one final look at the stars.
Aqua pulled her crystal blue wayfinder from her waist pouch and held it between her fingerless gloved hands. "Together. Always."
"You're a nice girl, smart, agile, and bright, really bright. That light will cause unwanted things, Maiden... You'll need a guardian angel…" A featherweight but borderline arrogant feminine voice whispered near Aqua.
Said mage looked around in confusion only to see dark violet mist fading from her back for a few brief moments. Aqua immediately checked all of her energy reserves in her body and found nothing altered. "It must be stress or something. Maybe hidden magic connected to my emotions? I'll look into some spell tomes about it in the morning."
The blue haired maiden broke herself of her daze and started to walk after her two precious boys. Each special to her in their own ways.