Devil's Ambition - 4
My goodness! Thanks for the reviews, faves, and follows. Didn't think this rare pair would get that much attention.
Her eyes widened upon seeing the inside of the airship. It was just as marvelous as the outside.
The outer side of the hall was stripped of the uniform black metal that she had seen before. Instead it was gutted much like a fish, the gears spinning freely inside the ship. The sound of metal grinding away surrounded her, along with an occasional whistle of smoke from somewhere deeper in.
This. All of this really was amazing.
She had never seen anything like it, and she had seen plenty of things her classmates didn't. Things they didn't know existed and now she was getting to experience so much of those things at once before anyone else. If she didn't know she was on an alien planet she might have mistaken this place for heaven.
"You mentioned before that you know of magic."
"Yes." She turned quickly to look at Kuja, unable to suppress the grin that was starting to become permanent.
He merely raised a hand - the same one he had just been holding her hand with - and motioned forward to the narrow passage ahead of them. "Come," Kuja said, walking forward and leaving her to follow along as he continued speaking above the whirring of the airship around them, "I find it a bit hard to believe that you know any magic, myself. Yet you say you were conjuring earth and then you appeared at the Earth Shrine; so I can only assume that you know what you're doing when it comes to magic."
"Well," Luna started out slowly, unsure how to respond to such a statement. It was phrased so oddly and she didn't particularly want to think it but he sounded almost... flippant when talking about her casting magic. Like he found it impossible to believe she was capable of such a thing. It didn't seem like him to be like that even after the short time she had known him. He was much too pleasant, like a gentlemen - or a prince - to say such a thing and mean it in that way. "Like I said before, something went wrong with the spell. It was my first time casting with one of the basic elements, and yes, I chose earth for it, but it was the best starting element in my mind. The book I had described it as being the easiest to control. Fire is much too wild for someone just dabbling in the ancient magics-"
"Ancient magic?" he questioned, glancing at her from over his shoulder. "Fire is hardly ancient magic. Many mages here use it on a daily basis to defend themselves from the creatures that roam this land or even for basic utility like making a fire. It's hardly a magic that is hard to control. The most wild of elemental magic would have to be thunder. It's fast and could leave you with much more than a burn to take care of if it gets out of control."
Thunder? Wouldn't that be a part of the wind element? "I could only imagine what handling a bolt of lightning must be like." Considering thunder was just the noise for it she could only assume he meant what came before the usual loud bang that rang out for miles afterward.
"It's really nothing special," Kuja replied, tone flat; but he raised his hand once more, fingers flexing as a thin stream of lightning dispersed from his thumb to connect with the tips of every other finger. The streams of light crackled as they continued jumping around above his palm, from one finger to the next.
Luna found herself staring at the display of magic as it danced right in front of her eyes. It was beautiful. Everything here was beautiful. "Is thunder a basic element?" It had to have it's own sub-category at the very least. She found herself regretting not reading the book through to it's entirety before trying any of the spells within. Maybe then she wouldn't have mucked up her first spell.
His hand clenched briefly and the sparks dissipated, leaving thin trails of smoke in the air. "There are four main elements when it comes to magic: black, white, blue, and sword magic. Black magic is used offensively and deals with the elemental magic: fire, blizzard, thunder, and water. White magic on the other hand is used defensively to heal and as support by putting up things like barriers. Blue magic allows a mage to 'eat' a creature's ability so they can copy it, like making earthquake or hitting with the strength of a goblin. Sword magic is just black magic refined for those that use swords and other implements to fight; for instance, it allows them to surround the blade in fire or lightning when attacking a creature."
The sword magic sounded a lot like her own, but without just the label of black magic attached to it. Her wand could do a lot more then just spout flames from it's tip. "So that's how magic works here?"
Kuja glanced back at her for a moment. "No. It's simply how magic works." Luna blinked, shaking her head as she tried to discern what he had just said. He stopped in his tracks a moment later though and she nearly bumped into him with her head clouded by all the thoughts running through it. She managed to get out an apology while watching him twist a handle to open up a door, a series of metallic clicks coming from beyond it. "Why do you refer to it as ancient magic?"
The question startled her all over again and she glanced to him, stepping through the door a moment later when he motioned her inside. "Because that's what it is," she began, trying to figure out the best way to explain her own brand of magic to him. The magic she had grown up with. "In the wizarding world we started out with the elemental magics, but then we moved onto things like alchemy and transfiguration. Now a days alchemy is referred to as potions where we simply mix ingredients together to make a substance that could do a number of the things you mentioned or do something as incredulous as faking a person's death." Luna paused long enough to sit down on a plush couch, watching as Kuja sat on a similar comfy looking chair across from her after having shut the door. "Transfiguration can alter the form or appearance of an object, like changing a tea cup into a mouse," she continued. "There are many other forms of magic as well that do a variety of things like looking into the future or defending yourself from dark magic. Transfiguration is the one I would use now to conjure the earth, but I wanted to study the ancient magics and do it the way my ancestors did years ago before we used wands-"
"Wands?" Kuja was staring at her with such intensity that she found her jaw locked for a number of seconds. "What's a wand?"
She had to bite on her lip to stop the cold shiver that had suddenly run down her spine. "A wand?" Luna shifted on the couch for a moment before locating her wand in one of her pockets and pulled it out from the depths. "This is a wand." She presented a thin piece of wood to him, gaze flickering between him and the wand as he looked at it with a critical eye. "It's what we use to cast those spells. It's not absolutely required, but when you're learning it helps direct and control the magic. That's not to say there haven't ever been accidents." She could clearly remember quite a few fires starting in her years at Hogwarts when something went bad. The main reason most people found the element so wild even now she supposed. "We also say the spell when we cast it as another method to control it. Usually the two are used together, but once you know a spell well enough you can drop one or both and still be successful at it. It's a lot more common for people to stop saying the spell and just using the wand though when casting a spell."
His brow rose slightly. "A twig helps you cast magic?"
"A wand," Luna corrected, not that it made much of a difference apparently in his eyes. She supposed if she had just heard it herself it would sound equally ridiculous as it did to him at this moment; considering he had controlled lightning without speaking a spell or waving a wand. He must see it as an accessory to her magic more than anything else.
Kuja leaned forward, plucking the wand from her fingers and bringing it up to his face, looking it over with ice blue eyes. She watched silently as he weaved his fingers around it, as if looking for something. "Surely there's a spell on it that makes it more like metal, no? Unbend-able."
She bit down on her lip simply cause there wasn't and if he made one wrong move it could snap. "Please be careful with it. I don't have a backup on me."
"No?" He glanced over at her before his attention was drawn back to the wand in his hands. "Your magic," he began in a sort of low drawl. "It's very delicate, is it not?"
His hands clasped together towards the middle of the wand and Luna practically leaped forward to grasp as his wrists. "Please, don't do that."
"Do what?" he questioned; a small gleam in his eye.
"Snap my wand. I need it to get back home."
"Do you?" Kuja stood up, causing her fingers to lose their grip and slip from his skin. "I have a theory. If I may?"
That chill was running down her spine again and suddenly she wished she had listened to her mind before when it told her to run. She was in a small room at the moment, there was no place to run and she certainly couldn't leave without her wand. "The theory doesn't involve breaking my wand, does it?" she asked, the corners of her lips tugging up into an awkward smile. Surely he couldn't be planning to do something with it; like breaking it.
His lips simply curled up into a smile though at her question. It looked like a genuine smile, but now she was no longer certain what to make of him. If she should trust this beautiful stranger. Still, did she really have anything to lose by letting him try some theory? He hadn't broken the wand before when he had the chance.
"Okay. What's the theory?"
"You." She blinked, confused as he leaned forward, resting a hand on her shoulder. The same hand he had used just minutes ago to conjure lightning. Luna had to force herself to stay still rather than back away. She needed that wand, whatever this was she could deal and once the airship landed she could make a run for it.
A soft glow came from the hand, not golden like before but white. It weaved itself around her upper arm and his hand, a stream of magic moving back and forth. Then she felt it, her limbs becoming heavy even though she was sitting on the couch. Her eyelids threatened to flutter close and she had to fight to keep them open, to keep an eye on him as her whole body became drained of energy.
He withdrew his hand moments later, the light no longer pulsing from his palm, but she had seen the flow of the spell. It had been redirecting her energy - her magic - to him. "Sleep well, moon girl." Kuja was grinning when he turned and walked out the door, taking her wand with him.
When the door closed behind him she could see the metallic pieces clicking back into place, locking it just before her vision went dark.