Jumping at the burn of light magic on the air, Lyra scrambled to the side, wincing at the ache of what would definitely be serious bruises in a few hours. The tree she'd been thrown against burst into orange flame, a follow-up curse already lancing in toward her. Pushing herself unsteadily to her feet, Lyra caught the curse on a shield, red-trimmed black segments dispersing the magic easily. She paused a second, giving herself a moment to breathe, as Cæciné continued pelting her shield with...weak little jinxes. Were those stinging jinxes? What was she doing, just trying to pin Lyra in place with filler so she could approach again, or heal something, or what?
Actually, there was something kind of odd about these stinging jinxes...
Another jinx struck her shield, little ripples carrying across the surface, then another, and then another — and then, another stinging jinx hit one of the segments right in the middle, the interference built on the surface by all the little jinxes suddenly shattering her shield, the backlash of the clashing magical forces sizzling through her magic and scratching against her skin...
What the hell...
Before Lyra could react, a pale orange spellglow sailed through the haze of the decohering magics, striking her directly over the heart. The light magic burned through her, a sudden wave of weakness dragging over her head to toe, she fell numbly to her knees, didn't even feel the impact, her head swimming, black splotches narrowing her vision.
A stunning spell. It was slow to act, because interference from too much dark magic and cheater godly mind magic, and it wasn't one Sirius had used on her before, but it was close enough she could tell, that's what it had to be.
...How had she done that? Lyra definitely had to ask her about that later, because she was pretty fucking sure that thing with the stinging jinxes shouldn't have been possible...
Despite herself, her head light and sluggish from the stunning spell, Lyra smiled — so this was what that felt like from the other end.
The stunner acting slower than it normally should, Lyra had enough time to react. Also, she was a fucking cheater — focusing as hard as she could while half-unconscious, she reached for the place in her mind where Eris lived, and pulled. Black magic deep and pure, stubborn and vicious, flooded into her, the light hex overwhelmed in an instant.
She could have just subsumed the stunner apart, of course, but it was light enough that would have seriously hurt, so. Cheating.
Cæciné obviously felt that. She'd turned her back on Lyra, facing toward the rest of the fight — where Katie was still standing, spellglows flying around in a thick maelstrom that was totally meaningless from this distance — but now she was looking over her shoulder, her eyes wide. The black magic coursing through her veins, cool and tingly, intense and ecstatic, invigorating energy intense enough it almost hurt but instead just brought a helpless grin to Lyra's face, she channeled it up and out, forcing it into a spell of some kind (instinctively, not really thinking about it), tossed it toward Cæciné. It came out longer and thicker than spellglows normally did, sinuously contorting through the air, shifting shadows and a vibrant dancing green (like the bonfire at Walpurgis) and the steady steely white of the stars...
Her eyes going wide, Cæciné...did something, Lyra wasn't even certain what. The ambient magic around her twisted, surged, for a moment seeming almost alive, too focused and energetic. It leapt up at Lyra's mystery black spell, clawing away at it, multicoloured sparks sizzling into the air as the spell fell apart. There was still enough of it remaining by the time it got to Cæciné she had to step out of the way, but soon afterward there was nothing left at all, save a few more stubborn sparks drifting away on the wind. Except, not completely gone, there was an echo of it in the earth, dark and tingly, like the curse had been drawn down under their feet and dispersed...somehow.
Her voice slightly shaky, Cæciné shouted, "What the fuck was that?!"
"Family secret. What the fuck was that?" she asked, pointing at the ground under Cæciné's feet.
Cæciné glared. She was trying to look annoyed, perhaps disapproving of tossing around serious magic like that — though, chances were nobody would know what she'd just done, just that it looked scary. (Which was fair, Lyra didn't even know what she'd just done.) But it didn't quite work, an intense edge to her gaze, a giddiness on her magic around her, her lips twitching a little. Because she was having just as much fun as Lyra was. "Family secret."
Her voice breaking into another breathless giggle, she could barely get the incantations out, Lyra cast another elemental shattering curse — which could easily kill someone — and a liver-shredding curse — which would definitely kill someone.
Cæciné split the shattering curse with a charm of some kind, both wands swirling, thick bands of red-purple light slicing through the air toward Lyra, smoothly sashaying out of the way of the point spell, while Lyra was busy shielding the dense web of severing curses Cæciné had somehow managed to cast solo — which would definitely kill someone — blue-white fire sprung from both wands at once, a wave of calōre vindicāns rising to crash over her — which could also easily kill someone.
When the air cleared, the fire dispersed by wind and shimmering black rain, Cæciné met her eyes through the swirling steam, grinning ear to ear.