Title: Magic Thief
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: none
Chapter three
Where Did My Gift Go?!
The newcomer was male, just a few inches taller than her. If she had to guess, she would say he was her age. He was wiry, and his gray apprentice robes hung on his form almost as if they were bought too big for him, or he shrunk in them. His blue-gray eyes seemed to have more cheer in them than was even plausible for a human being, but there he was, smiling.
She smiled back at him and waved cheerily, deeming friendliness to be one of the greatest tools a woman could have. "Distressed?" she asked the black-haired boy. "Me? Hardly. Hey, do you know where to get the keys to our rooms? That boy Shippou didn't give me a key." Well, it wouldn't do to use her father's magic in front of him…
A wide grin crossed the boy's face and he stepped forward, bowing to her as one would do a suitor to a maiden. "I can help you." He said as he stood back up. He looked up and down the hall to make sure no one was around. No one was. Then he looked back at her and winked. "As long as you don't tell anyone, of course."
She nodded. "My lips are sealed," she promised.
He reached out for the knob and lock, placing a hand to the knob and with a burst of dark purple swirling around his hands, he sent that magic into the lock. With a hasty 'click' the door lock turned and she was able to enter the room. She watched him grin almost foolishly as he pushed the door open for her. "It's like magic," he said happily.
"That was pretty neat," she told him. "You'll have to show me how you did that sometime!"
"Of course, beautiful maiden. I would be honored!" he took her hand and bent over it, kissing her knuckles. She almost burst into a grin, but attempted to keep her smile more 'maidenly'. Her father constantly reminded her that she was too much like a boy, always wanting to do things for herself. He then added, "My name is Miroku. Might I know your beautiful name?"
Her lips twitched as she nearly burst out laughing, but with a brief glance at her name-plate, she said, "Higurashi. Kagome Higurashi. I'm from the Copper Isles."
"It is a wonder to meet such diamond in this unsalvageable junk yard. I hope to," he never got to finish.
"Miroku!" snapped an older, gray haired man swathed in white robes of mastery. His eyes almost seemed to be on fire as he swept toward the two. Miroku's back instantly went ramrod straight and he blushed.
"My apologies," he said lowly, "let us meet again!" He turned and—presumably—made a face at the old man before taking off the way Shippou had gone.
The old man tottered after Miroku, yelling all the while. "Miroku, you scoundrel! I'll be having your head for my supper!" Kagome thought ironically that the old man would have to move a lot faster to catch up to the speed-walking boy. She wondered what he had done, but then asked herself if she really wanted to know.
Probably not.
She entered her new chambers, amused how Miroku didn't even question whether or not it really was her room. She surveyed her new room. It wasn't terribly large. In fact, it was rather small compared to her old room in Raj'muat. There was a small frame bed in the corner, a small desk and chair opposing that. The room had a small charcoal brazier in a final corner. Other than bedding on the mattress, the room was free of adornment, and even the bedding was a bare gray color.
The shutters to the window were closed. She supposed that was better anyway, so that a certain stupid bird didn't get inside. She closed the bedroom door and made her way to the desk, examining the sack of items sitting there. All of her few belongings were there.
As a yawn hit her, she decided it was a good time to rest. She curled up on the bed, falling asleep almost immediately. She really did have a long day. And she would have to pay that stupid page back for the damage he'd caused her so intentionally.
-
The next morning when Kagome woke up, she found the things Shippou had promised to get for her piled up beside the desk in wood crates. She found cloth in a variety of colors along with a sewing kit. The gray Apprentice robes were folded neatly on her chair and a quick evaluation showed Shippou had gotten her the perfect size. She wondered how he managed that.
On the desk was a box of sweets and a note. "Beautiful Maiden," it read, and she immediately hazarded a wild guess that it was the boy she met the day before. She smiled ironically. It wasn't even her third day in Corus and already she seemed to have an admirer. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing. "I hope you will accept this small token as a welcome present from a neighboring Apprentice Mage. Should you ever desire company (or an alibi for a misdeed)," there was a smiling face drawn on the parchment, "my room is directly across the hall. Sincerely, Miroku of Goldenlake and Malories' Peak. P.S. you look really cute when you're asleep."
She blushed. She must have really been tired, because normally she wasn't a heavy sleeper. She opened the box and peeked at the sweets. Immediately she was hit with the scent of chocolate and caramel. The chocolate looked like tiny bowls filled with gooey caramel.
If this were given to me in the heat of Raj'muat, she thought wryly, it would be soup by now. But it wasn't an unpleasant gift, and indeed, when she tried one of them she found it to be very tasty. The caramel was sweet and the chocolate was just a little bit bitter and together the taste of it seemed to become a delicacy. I'm so spoiled. She grinned.
She set the chocolates down and moved to check more of the wood crates Shippou left for her. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to get her more than just the cloth, sewing kit, and Apprentice robes. She found loincloths, a pair of sturdy boots and a pair of regular footwear, socks, breast bands (how did that little boy know what size breast band she wore?), and a variety of toiletries she would need.
Shippou was indeed very thorough, she supposed. She was grateful for it, but it had been unexpected. The remainder of her money was on the desk with a key to her room. She was indeed pleased as she pulled on one of the Apprentice robes. The gray color contrasted nicely with the pink of the outfit she'd been given the day before, and though her pink outfit was wrinkled, she hadn't worn it very long and figured it could survive at least another day.
She pulled the robe over her head and only three inches of pink hem showed beneath the gray robe. The robes were much better quality than what they had in the Copper Isles. The sleeves billowed out leaving plenty of room for her many bracelets to jingle and tinkle, and buttons ran half-way down her chest. She didn't button it, so her pink outfit showed there as well in a 'v' shape. Connected to the robe was a drawstring hood, but she left that down.
From her lockbox she got her shiny comb and ran it through the snarls in her hair. She didn't bother with shoes—she didn't like them. They annoyed her greatly. She picked up her room key and stuck it in the pocket of her robe, then had no idea whatsoever about what the heck she should do next.
Eventually with much wandering around, she made it to the page's mess. That was around noon. She made it there just as everyone was filing in for their lunch and finding Miroku was easy: she just stood there and it seemed the boy migrated to her.
He took her hand and bent over it, placing a kiss on her knuckles. "Ah, beautiful maiden, I did miss you so at breakfast!" He grinned.
Kagome grinned in return. Somehow, he was easy to get along with and she could already tell she would be great friends with him—unlike with a page she already met. "Call me Kagome," she urged him. "I did wake up hours ago, but it took a while to find my way here, and I'm pretty sure I have no idea what I'm doing here."
Miroku blinked but the grin remained in place. "Well, I'm certain lunch is in order then. Come on. Classes started a month ago, but after we eat, I'll skip just for you to show you the ropes." He led her to the lunch line and they took a place in it.
"Don't skip on my behalf." She urged him.
Miroku laughed. "Who said I was skipping because of you? I was looking for an excuse not to go to my afternoon classes today anyway." He grabbed a tray from a rack and she followed suit. A few steps later and they were able to start piling food on their trays. At the end of the line, they grabbed cups of juice and Miroku led Kagome to an already packed table.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed 'Page Fushiro' was entirely alone at a very empty table. He didn't seem to care; he simply ate his food using one hand and had a book propped open in front of him, turning the page with his other hand. Why did he prefer to be alone, she wondered.
She and Miroku sat down as other Apprentice Mages moved to make space for him and her. She sat across the table from him. "This table," Miroku said before she had a chance to ask why he wanted to skip classes, "is where most of the exchange students sit." He poked the girl next to him in the ribcage and she yelped before glaring at him. "Kikyou is your next door neighbor from the Yamani Islands."
Kagome was surprised when she looked at Kikyou. The two looked mostly identical except Kagome had slightly darker skin and dark blue eyes whereas Kikyou's skin was a lighter shade of tan and her eyes were chocolate brown. Kikyou had long black hair just like Kagome, but hers was straight and Kagome was a little curlier. The shape of their faces, the high cheekbones, the almond shaped eyes and the dainty noses were the same for the both of them.
Kikyou tilted her head in acknowledgement, though she said nothing of what she thought of the entirely weird coincidence. She seemed strangely friendly for a Yamani; Kagome had met a few in the Copper Isles and they never showed any emotions but Kikyou didn't seem to be hiding her emotions at all.
"Pleased to meet you, Kagome." She smiled. "As long as you're a quiet neighbor at night, we'll get along."
Kagome smiled at the girl. "I'm sure it won't be a problem, and it's nice to meet you too."
Kikyou then rounded on Miroku and poked him in the upper arm multiple times. She started speaking in the native tongue of her home country. Kagome was able to follow their conversation rather easily. She really was fairly fluent at many languages. "How many times do I have to tell you?" she snapped, "Don't poke me!" She kept poking him.
Miroku held his hands up in mock surrender. Kagome got the distinct impression that it was because of him that the girl wasn't exactly like other Yamani women. Of course, there may have been other factors (she wasn't in the Yamani Islands so maybe she felt like being different?) but either way it was the same result: she seemed nice enough. "Dear heart," he teased Kikyou, "if I listened to everything you told me to do, I would have jumped off the highest tower of the castle thirty-two times already."
Kikyou sent him a scathing glare. "Oh, go jump off a balcony or something," she said finally before turning back to her lunch and a propped up book.
"Are you a Yamani?" Kagome asked Miroku then. He looked like he could be at least part Yamani. She thought back to the story Shippou had told her about Miroku being adopted by a one Lord Raoul.
Miroku glanced at Kagome and smiled. "How did you tell?" he chuckled, not really expecting an answer to that. "I am. My father was a corrupt priest in the Yamani Islands and my mother was an acrobat in a traveling circus. Most of my life was spent with the circus, but a few years ago Lord Raoul decided to adopt me. Poor old goat," Kagome assumed he meant Lord Raoul, "doesn't even know what he got himself into."
Miroku said it so seriously that Kagome couldn't help but burst into laughter. When she was able to calm down, Miroku asked, "What about you? I can't help but notice you and Kikyou look fairly similar."
Kikyou's ears perked toward the conversation but she didn't look up from her book. Kagome explained, "My mama was a Yamani seamstress and my papa's a scoundrel from the Copper Isles. I don't know why we look so similar, since I know mama didn't have a second child."
"Well, that explains it," Miroku nodded decidedly. "You're both Yamani. Anyway," as they talked more, they ate. Miroku introduced her to others at the table. She met a few people from Carthak, Maren, and the Yamani Islands. She committed their names to memory though she doubted she would have very much interaction with them since they didn't seem to like Miroku very much. She couldn't imagine why; he seemed like a fun-loving guy, although he did like to poke Kikyou a lot, and Kagome had a distinct impression (after it happened for the twelfth time) that he wasn't 'accidentally' bumping feet with her underneath the table.
After lunch, Kagome knew a little more about Miroku and Kikyou. The two were a very odd match of friends. Kikyou had joined the exchange program two years prior; one year after Miroku was adopted by his guardian. She was detained in the hall outside her room by Miroku and given a flowery speech about her beauty, grace, and poise. (Kikyou had snorted her disdain at that point of the conversation, almost like she thought the speech completely ridiculous, at which point Miroku pointed out that Kikyou practically acted like she had a stick up her behind when they first met—and that retort earned him a shove off the bench.) As for their actual friendship, neither of them really knew how they ended up friends.
True to his word, Miroku did skip his classes, but not only that, he convinced Kikyou to do it as well, though she grumbled about it and said, "If I miss anything important in class, I'm going to shove you off the highest tower myself." The two of them gave Kagome the full tour of the castle; Kagome noticed some people from the chase the day before (they didn't seem to recognize her).
As they were touring one of the page's courtyards, Kikyou noticed Kagome's bare feet and asked, "Why aren't you wearing shoes?"
Kagome looked at her feet, blinking at them in surprise. "Oh, I don't wear shoes very often. I got used to leg-lace sandals or simply nothing at all. Like I said, my mama was just a seamstress. Didn't have a lot of money for shoes growing up."
Miroku asked curiously, "Then how did you get the money for the exchange program?" They had paused and were standing in the shadows of the page courtyard. The pages were training with staves, and the air was filled with clacking noises and shouts from the supervisors. Some of the pages yelped when their fingers were pinched. Not all of the pages seemed to be visibly male—one tall page was quite obviously unable to bind her breasts completely.
"My Aunt and Uncle on my papa's side of the family are very influential. Generally if they want you to do something, it gets done or there's a high likely chance you'll be smited." Miroku raised his eyebrow at her choice of words. Kagome simply shrugged. "My Aunt can be real freaky."
"I see," Miroku said dubiously as Kikyou just shook her head. "Hey, Kikyou, do you still have those sandals from this summer? Or did you toss them already?"
Kikyou thought for a moment before saying, "Yes, I believe they're at the Ambassador's townhouse in the city."
Kagome knew where they were going with the conversation. "Oh, don't worry about it," she told them. "I do have money now if I want to get shoes. I just don't want to."
Miroku smiled and patted Kagome's shoulder. "You're misunderstanding us," he told her. "We have a very crazy professor who will go completely ballistic if you're not wearing shoes. Plus, it's a safety hazard."
"Oh." Kagome said.
A few moments of reflective silence was spent watching the pages until a loud bell rang and the pages raced out of the courtyard and stumbled over each other into another practice yard. "Eh," Miroku said, "this is another courtyard, and there's a whole bunch more around here."
"Hey, there's Sesshoumaru," Kagome said, pointing to a silver-haired figure at the back of the group walking away from them. For a moment, she almost thought she saw Sesshoumaru pause in his step as though he'd heard her, but then he was walking again and she couldn't be sure that it had actually happened.
"You mean, Page Fushiro." Miroku corrected her in a soft voice, sharing a look with Kikyou.
"Whatever, it's the same thing," Kagome said.
Kikyou shook her head. "He's an Immortal, Kagome," almost as if that explained everything. It didn't really, but Kikyou and Miroku both grabbed one of Kagome's arms and began dragging her away.
Kagome cast a long last glance at Sesshoumaru's back as she said, "So what?" That time, she knew Sesshoumaru stopped. He turned his head, and she could have sworn their eyes locked for a moment as she was pulled after her two new friends.
Miroku explained, "Kagome, he's practically royalty. There are very few Immortals who will even think his given name, and even less who will actually say it. The numbers of mortals who say it are in the zero numbers. I get chills just remembering what happened to the last guy who called him his given name."
Sesshoumaru turned and continued after the others, so Kagome turned to face forward again. "Okay, what happened?" Kagome asked. If it was a really bad thing, maybe she ought to forget that he'd used her as a source of amusement by sending servants chasing after her.
Miroku shuddered and Kikyou paled slightly. "He raised his eyebrow."
Kagome stumbled in surprise. She would have fallen over if the other two were not hanging onto her arms. "Pardon?" she squeaked. That would have been the last thing she would have ever thought of. She'd been thinking more along the lines of a random guy getting maimed or killed or eaten.
"It's a scary look, Kagome!" Kikyou insisted. "It's like he can see straight through you, and he knows all that you're afraid of. And it's like he knows exactly how to make your worst nightmares come true!"
Miroku nodded his agreement. "And that look wasn't even directed at us, we were just off to the side, but you want to know where that guy is now?" Kagome rolled her eyes at their behavior but she nodded anyway. "Dead!"
"Uwah…" Kagome breathed in amazement and turned to look at Sesshoumaru again, but he wasn't there. He'd already gone. Of course, being the daughter of a high stakes gambler, Kagome ended up with some of his high risk habits and she decided she wanted to eventually see if that were true.
"Anyway!" Miroku chirped as they reentered the castle. He smirked and Kikyou groaned.
"Oh no. Miroku, we don't need to spend all night in the Gallery waiting for you."
"Waiting for me?" he asked innocently. Miroku beamed brightly with that smirk somehow still in place. "Come along, Kagome-darling," he said, dragging her along with him. "You must see this wonderful gallery of portraits!"
Kagome looked to Kikyou for an explanation. Kikyou trotted to catch up and then sighed. "The hall of past and present kings and queens of Tortall," she said. "I swear, if one could love a portrait, he would have married at least thirty times."
"Thirty?" Kagome gasped in shock. That was a lot!
Kikyou added, "A day."
"Thirty times a day?!" Kagome's jaw dropped.
"For the past two years, at least," Kikyou finished. Kagome glanced at her new friend, wondering of his sanity. How does one love a portrait anyway?
-
It was official. Miroku was in love with a bunch of pictures. He knew practically everything about the royalty in the portrait and they couldn't leave the Gallery until Miroku had listed everything about the queens from their favorite colors all the way to how faithful (or unfaithful in some cases) they were to their king and what their political stand on most issues were.
Kagome wasn't even sure if anything Miroku said was true or not, or if it was all in his very active imagination. Kagome would have loved to leave, but unfortunately Miroku kept a death grip on her arm until they left the Gallery close to midnight.
She was only too grateful to get back to her room. By that time, they found they'd missed supper because of Miroku's ranting, but Kagome was too tired to care. She just wanted to go to the bathroom, brush her teeth, and be done with the night.
Connected to her room—just like most other Apprentice rooms, she supposed—was a small privy. A servant had left a bowl of clean wash water in the privy which she took liberty to use. She looked through her crates of items for a clean breast band and loincloth, changing into those.
Tomorrow, she promised herself she would sew together a simple bit of clothing so she didn't have to keep re-wearing the pink skirt and petticoats and tunic. She took those off to sleep, hanging them over the back of her desk chair so she could save it a few wrinkles. She did have plenty of changes of her Apprentice robes, but she still carefully hung that over her chair too.
Even knowing that locking the door wouldn't keep Miroku out, she still locked the door that night. She slept peacefully that night and forced herself to wake up early so she could start organizing her few items in the room. The next day after a quiet breakfast, Kikyou and Miroku showed Kagome to Reeve's office in Accounting. Things like scheduling had all been taken care of for her by Headman Cooper, but she'd lost the parchment labeling her classes in the shipwreck so she had to have another copy made.
Reeve really was a stuffy old goat, just like Shippou had said, but he was quick and efficient (and made Kagome pay for the additional schedule, saying, "Maybe next time you'll think twice about losing your schedule!") and the three Apprentices were on their way again before the first class of the day started.
Kagome was two years behind Kikyou and Miroku in age, but she had most of her classes with Miroku since he was two years behind Kikyou in his work. Both of them were seventeen, and Kagome was fifteen. Miroku did have two classes with Kikyou. His Gift allowed him to both Heal and Destroy. Kikyou's Gift took her down the path of being a Healer. Kagome's Gift was just weird. She personally couldn't explain it, but sometimes it seemed it depended entirely on her mood whether or not she could heal or destroy.
It really wasn't the same as Miroku's Gift, because sometimes the Gift she had from her mother's side of the family simply wasn't there at all and all she had was the weird magic from her father's side of the family which she didn't exactly classify as a Gift. It wasn't a curse, since she loved to use it, but it too was very weird.
Still, she found out quickly that the first half of her day was taken to lectures from various subjects at various times on entirely random days. Then depending on the time in the afternoon, and what day it was, she had lab in the afternoon where she could practice actually using the Gift she had. It got to be very boring by the time lunch rolled around and Kagome simply could not imagine why Miroku would choose to skip the afternoon classes.
After lunch and by Miroku's request, Kagome put on shoes. The shoes Shippou had gotten her were dress shoes, a simple gray in color. He probably chose them to match her Apprentice robes, but either way it worked nicely. They weren't all that comfortable but that was another complaint entirely. Since they were Apprentices, they didn't have to wear normal shoes, and aside from that, most of Tortall was all about fashion. Kagome guessed if there were a shoe requirement, it would be lost in translation.
By the time Labs were over, Kagome almost felt like crawling into a hole and remaining there. Miroku had seen what a lot of other Apprentices had and a lot of people were teasing her for it.
Today ended up being one of the days when her Gift didn't seem to be there at all. Everyone knew there was a definable difference between having the Gift and being unable to grasp a concept…and not having a Gift at all.
Of course, she understood what the lesson was, and definitely could picture her Gift doing it, but that was only under the exception that the Gift was there to begin with. She could barely face dinner, which was saying something since it was only the third day. And there she was, responsible for the honor of all the Copper Isles' mages. She wasn't doing all that well at it.
"Are you okay?" Miroku asked her worriedly as he fell in step with her on the way to the page mess hall. Kagome didn't answer him as yet more of the Apprentices passed her and Miroku, giggling about how 'great' the Copper Isles mages were.
Kikyou met them outside the mess and silence consumed them as they made their way into the dinner line. Kikyou had heard of Kagome's troublesome afternoon—most of the pages probably already knew as well, since it was the height of gossip at that particular moment.
The mages wouldn't let her sit back at their table. They made room for Kikyou and Miroku, and pretended to be shifting until Kagome's two friends were seated. There was no leftover room anywhere else in the mess hall either, since people were cramping so they didn't have to sit at Sesshoumaru's table.
Miroku was very offended. "Make room, guys!" he said.
Kagome knew better than to argue with that many people. "I'll talk to you later, Miroku," she said and went to sit at Sesshoumaru's table. She sat at the opposite end from him, not knowing if he would laugh at her too if she got too close.
I'm off to a great start, she thought, slouching over her meal. Third day's a charm.
"Dear Aunt," she prayed softly, her head bowed, "I hope you're happy, because I'm not." She sighed and picked up her fork, scooping up her vegetables before they could get cold. "So mote it be," she whispered and ate the vegetables.
Thanks mega loads for all the reviews guys/girls! I just want everyone to know that this story is purposefully written in a wacky manner. It's for the pure purpose of me having a story that isn't too angsty (most of my stories turn out that way) so please don't be mad that there is OOCness in it!! I love you all, and still want your feedback. Just don't be too hard on me, okay? Hehe...
PS. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I accidentally got addicted to Naruto fanfiction...
