A Mere Child

Neela had to admit that she never expected spending two days in a dungeon to have such a rewarding pay off. Everything in the Kou Palace beat the luxuries she could normally afford; even the beautiful inns that offered her refuge in years prior paled in comparison to this place. The bathes were clean and warm, the food was the second most delicious that she'd ever tasted, the beds were fluffy and comfortable, and she had more books than she knew what to do with. The only downside was the "servant" that Kouen had temporarily appointed to her.

"Why aren't you awake yet?"

Neela grunted as she felt a much larger body land on her back. She let out a soft groan—much like yesterday, it seemed that Judal had no intention of letting her sleep in. "Remind me to thank Myers for trying to kill me with her training regiment," she mumbled into her pillow. She wouldn't normally expect someone as big as Judal (at least, big in comparison to her) to be quite so light.

"What was that?"

"Nothing…why are you here?"

"Because I can be."

"Huh. Yeah…nice try, but no…" Neela turned as best she could to roll over beneath the magi's weight and looked up at him blearily. She squinted a moment, trying to focus on him while he sat cross-legged on top of her with his arms folded over his chest. "Are you…this is just a shot in the dark theory, but are you waking me up because you're hungry?"

"No!" Judal nearly shouted at her.

She raised her eyebrows in response, and he turned his head away from her. "Why are you getting embarrassed if that's not why you're here?"

"…Kouen said I couldn't have breakfast until you were awake…" he mumbled somewhat incoherently.

"…Don't you have five peach trees all to yourself in the courtyard?"

"He stationed guards around them!"

"Levitate?"

Judal glared down at her, and she closed her eyes before letting out a sigh and rapping the back of her hand against his chest as a signal for him to get off her. "Fine…just let me get dressed first…"

The magi's glare softened slightly as he hopped off the bed and sauntered towards the door. Neela sighed again before sitting up; she yawned loudly while moving towards the wardrobe. Princess Kougyoku had been kind enough to offer a few dresses to her, but she had respectfully declined in favor of some simple servant garbs. The princess hadn't quite understood the preference, no matter how many times Neela repeated the words "comfort" and "simplicity". It took her mentioning a slight disinterest in having Judal dress her for the girl to reach some level of understanding and drop the subject.

Neela smiled as she recalled the incident and chuckled at the memory of how disgusted Judal had been when she had dared to suggest the very notion. His lack of enthusiasm was all but expected, yet still amusingly animated. Neela patted down her plain skirts and moved to the door after Judal, who was leaning on the wall to the right of her bed chambers.

"Took you long enough," he muttered as she walked past him.

"And I suppose you could be faster?" she retorted with a smirk.

"Obviously."

"Really? You could change out of your night clothes, put on your pants, shirt, and jewelry, then do your own hair perfectly in under five minutes? All by yourself? I find that hard to believe."

"I definitely could!"

"Whatever you say, Ju."

"Don't address me so casually!"

Neela shrugged as she entered descended the stairs and walked towards the kitchen.

"Hey pipsqueak, the dining hall is in the other direction, where are you going?"

"To the kitchen, obviously. I detest formal dining, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but—but Kouen and Koumei are discussing the plans for our next battle in the dining hall!"

"Ugh, war plans," Neela wrinkled her nose, "All the more reason to steer clear."

"What, you have something against war?" Judal asked loudly as they turned into the kitchen. "Don't like blood and gore? Hate destruction? What is it?" The magi hovered over Neela as she scanned the pantry shelves for her morning meal. "What, do you have a stupid bleeding heart?" he teased.

"Hardly," she answered absently as she grabbed a small sweet roll from one of the lower shelves. "My distaste for war is based in purely selfish reasons, nothing more. You can go to the dining hall if you really want to, it's not like I need your help to eat my breakfast."

"But Kouen wouldn't let me in unless you were there!"

Neela let out a low groan as she finally turned her gaze back to Judal. "Please tell me you're joking." The magi shook his head, and she responded by craning her neck in exasperation. "For god's sake…fine, I'll make an appearance, but I'm not staying."

"Good, I don't want you to."

"And I'm taking three of your peaches."

"What?! That's too many!"

"Well it's that or you get to make my bed…maybe give me a massage later…or I could complain to Kouen about your insubordination."

Judal growled behind her, and she turned to smirk at him. "I hate you," he hissed, "So much."

"Aw, that's adorable," Neela replied, "I'd say the feeling's mutual but alas, hating you would require effort that is better spent on other things." She turned on her heels and continued to the dining hall, followed by a very disgruntled Judal. She had spent a limited amount of time with the royal family—she had, of course, met all of them, with the exception of the emperor, who was too sickly to make her acquaintance, and the empress, who was currently away, but her meetings with them were mostly limited to introductions.

Kouen and Kougyoku were the only ones who had made time for her otherwise, though Kouen usually only wished to discuss business, and Kougyoku spent more time bickering with Judal then actually talking to her. Hakuei and Hakuryuu had seemed quite pleasant, but often kept to themselves as much as she did, and Kouha had been friendly enough, but had made less effort to interact with her after she refused to let him play with her hair. Koumei had seemed as if there was absolutely nothing about her presence that interested him—though, to be fair, it didn't seem like anything in existence interested him. They were certainly an amusing family, if anything.

"—send troops to the east, where their defenses are the weakest, and then—"

"Ahem." Neela smiled as she entered the dining hall; all eyes were on her and as Koumei's monotone voice trailed off midsentence. "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

"Not at all," Kouen stated in his normal, overly formal tone. "Did you sleep well?"

"Quite, though, I do think the morning wake-up call could use some improvement. In any case," Neela's smile widened a little as she gestured back towards Judal. "He expressed some interest in your current conversation. I was informed that my presence was needed in order for him to be welcome."

"Yes, well…you missed breakfast yesterday, so I felt that he should escort you today."

"I appreciate the courtesy, your Highness," Neela bowed slightly as she spoke, "however if I may, I would much rather dine in solitude. At least in the morning, that is." A sea of soft murmurs flooded the room as royal and servant alike questioned her audacity to one another. It seemed that most were astounded by her willingness to oppose Kouen in any manner. "This is not to say that I find the meal or the company unpleasant," she clarified after a few more moments, "It's more a matter of what I am accustomed to than anything else."

"So I see," Kouen replied as his glare softened only minutely, "very well. I will allow you to eat alone this morning, however, the empress is returning to the palace this evening. As our guest, I expect you to attend every meal following her return. Is this understood?"

"Yes, your Highness," Neela said as she bowed again, glancing briefly up at the table before turning back to Judal. "You have the morning off. I won't be in need of your services until this afternoon."

"Thank Solomon," the magi muttered.

"I will be in the courtyard after the midday meal. Don't keep me waiting."

"Whatever you say, tiny," Judal sighed and pushed past her to join in on Kouen and Koumei's conversation. Neela watched him for a mere moment before departing for the courtyard. She really didn't care much what Judal did with his time. In truth, she really didn't even need that much help, but it seemed that Kouen was determined to make Judal pay for all the trouble he caused, even if he had to use her as a means to an end. She'd often found that during the man's brief inquiries the day before, he'd been attempting, not so subtly, to make sure that she gave enough orders to the magi.

Neela passed through the entrance to the courtyard and treaded over to one of the trees; she picked a few ripened peaches off the lower limbs and proceeded to pull out the notebook she'd stuffed into her garments on the way out of her chambers. Neela tore off a morsel from her sweet roll and popped into her mouth before turning to a new page in the journal and pulling out a small pencil. She was grateful to spend the morning without Judal, for she needed to sit down and review what she had learned in the brief time that she'd spent with the royal family the day before.

If she wanted to build a performance fit for the royal court, she needed to enrapture the whole family in the midst of the same show, and that…could be difficult. Kouen, Hakuei and Hakuryuu all seemed to appreciate tradition and formality, whereas Kouha and Kougyoku seemed more enamored by things that were new and exciting. Judging by his constant lethargy, Koumei would likely be pleased with something calming that he could easily sleep through. She had yet to meet the empress, but if she could manage to impress the siblings, then perhaps she would be pleased as well. Judal…probably wouldn't be impressed even if she performed to the definition of perfection. Knowing his opinion of her, he'd find something about the show to complain about.

Neela sighed as she looked over what she'd mapped out so far. Something old, yet new, exciting, and yet still soothing. A performance so impressive that even a temperamental magi who hated every fiber of her being couldn't find any legitimate complaints. Between the songwriting, practicing, any amount show magic that she was allowed to include, and even the creation of a new costume, Neela was starting to get the impression she wasn't going to find the chance to sleep for the rest of the week. An unfortunate case, but if it meant keeping out of the dungeon, she'd gladly forego a little rest. It wasn't as if she slept much to begin with.

She flipped to the next page of her journal and set to work on a song fit for royalty. Neela had asked for this; she would make it work. It wouldn't be easy, but she was going to earn back every speck of dignity she'd lost because of Judal. And once it was all over, she would walk free from the palace and pretend it was naught but a dream.

oooOOOooo

It lay on the other side of the courtyard, and no one had noticed it yet. Its meager growth barely warranted any attention, and yet despite its poor placement, it hadn't been trampled on. With barely enough sunlight and soil weak from constant rain, many would have thought the new life to be impossible, but that hadn't stopped the beginnings of a tree from popping out of the pit Judal had discarded a few weeks prior.

oooOOOooo

Your chapterly disclaimers:

1.- I do not own Magi or any of its characters, I only own my OCs

2.- This fic begins prior to the first Balbadd arc, and will center mostly around the development of a relationship between Judal and Neela.

3.- The plot depicted here will be slightly canon divergent in later chapters, be it in the edits to time passed, actions or outcomes, some things will happen differently.

4.- While Neela was initially designed for a different world than the Magi verse, this version of her exists solely within the timeframe of the current Magi plot line. While her base personality, name, and appearance are all the same, she has no knowledge of Blackcastle or any affiliation to it.

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