10 March 2018: Hello faithful readers! I am back with the newest chapter on this silly story. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am writing it. A big thank you to everyone who keeps reading and commenting. I reply via PM to anyone who is signed in, but it has been a while since I've responded to any of my guest reviews.

Thank you to Jame Birdsong who is always a faithful Rayearth reviewer. Thank you, Ceres Ryu, for your lovely comment. I am glad you are enjoying this, and I too would like to be updating more often, but there is so much story to tell and I don't want to tangle things too much by moving too fast. Chapter 10 is half finished. Chapters 11 and 12 have been nearly finished for months. And the rest is scattered bits throughout the outlined 36 chapters.

Content Note: This chapter has been edited for both language and sexual content to keep it in line with FFN's teen rating. As always the full version is available on AO3.

Chapter 9
In which Clef shows Umi more of his vast tracts of land

"Do you want me to marry you?" were words Umi never expected to hear from Clef's mouth. It startled her so badly she nearly fell over her own feet.

Convinced she must have misheard him - because he could not have asked her that - she blurted an incredibly confused, "What?"

"Do you want to marry me?" Clef repeated, speaking slower, as though he wasn't certain he'd used the right word - or he wasn't certain she'd understood it. Which was true, she didn't understand his words, but only because he was the one saying them. She stared at him, feeling almost ill with the hope he meant it - and the sure, sickening knowledge he couldn't.

Even if he was serious in asking, even if they could have made that happen somehow, he couldn't do anything about it - he wasn't allowed.

Umi reached desperately for a way to make it a joke, willing him to play along so she could try to forget this conversation ever happened. He certainly wouldn't be her parents' first choice to help take on the family business, for a multitude of reasons.

"Do you even know anything about technology?" she asked.

"Only that I end up exploding at least one thing every time I visit Autozam," he said, with half a grin and Umi started to breathe a sigh of relief around the heaviness in her chest. But then Clef stepped closer, his face serious. "That wasn't an answer."

He couldn't be doing this. In so many ways he couldn't be doing this. What made it a thousand times worse what that she wanted to say yes. She wanted all of this - all of the past few days - to be her every day.

Maybe not the whole 'Cephiro falling apart' thing; she could live without that. But spending evenings together, curling up close to him to sleep, and - even if she'd only done it once so far - waking up to him in the morning.

"Clef, you can't even date me, so what's the point of discussing marriage?" she shouted at him, gesturing wildly. Tears pricked at her eyes as she continued. "Even if you could, I'm from another world. Marriage doesn't exist here! We don't even know if we could get you to my world, and then you'd need identification and things that you don't have and can't get for the paperwork. So, even if you wanted to, we can't!"

He still had the nerve to ask, "Is that a yes, then?"

His lips twitched up in the tiniest smile, almost a smirk, utterly infuriating. She was so tempted to slap her hand right across his face and wipe that look off it. Instead, she shoved him hard in the shoulder, sending him skidding down the path as she stormed off.

If Umi knew how to get back to the house on her own, she would have done it then.

Clef called, "Umi, wait!" His boots crunched along the path as he jogged to catch up with her a moment later.

Umi spun around so hard her feet threw up a spray of gravel. "You're an idiot!" she shouted. "A big stupid idiot!" Tears streamed down her face. "You're the most foolish man I've ever known!"

She slammed her hands into his chest when he reached her, resting her fists against his chest as he murmured her name, sounding contrite. It made the tears come faster still.

"You've spent months telling me that this can't be a relationship. I accepted that. I knew before I came here that, no matter what happened this week, we were going back to holding hands where no one can see and kissing behind closed doors." She curled her hands tighter, nails digging into her palms. "Now you're telling me you want more than that and you don't want to pretend. You've given me a promise-box and you're asking me to marry you. You can't have it both ways, Clef!" She thumped one of her fists against his chest again.

"I'm sorry," Clef murmured, stepping in closer. "I honestly didn't mean to upset you."

"Then don't offer me things I can't have!" Umi huffed out a broken laugh, leaning against him, pressing her face into the curve of his neck as his arms wrapped around her "You really are an idiot. Admit it."

"I have been a complete and unmitigated prat," he said, his breath hot across the bare line of skin at her neck. "I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry."

Umi slid her arms around him and held on. Normally, she'd feel a little guilty for getting his robes wet, but it was his own fault she was crying in the first place. When she finally did pull back, Clef handed her a handkerchief, with another softly whispered apology. Umi dried her eyes but didn't actually move away again until a set of footsteps crunched on the gravel path behind her.

"We should talk about this later," Clef said, pressing a soft kiss to her temple before he pulled away from her and turned toward the new arrival. "Ah, Rio, how do things look further in?"

"It's still as spongy as your first attempts at that unusual confection of yours, but it should hold for now."

Wiping her eyes and just rubbing at her wet nose - she wasn't going to blow it in front of someone else - Umi turned around and found herself an utterly striking man. He was probably a head taller than either her or Clef, with ridiculously long hair that was loosely caught by his waist. It was the sort of hair you saw in illustrations, that never seemed to get tangled. His skin was golden, a few shades darker than hers, but it had the most unusual translucent iridescence.

"You're the water mage, I take it," he said, fixing his dark green eyes on her.

Umi just blinked at him, startled into silence, so it was Clef who introduced her. "This is Ryuuzaki Umi, the Knight of Water."

"Yes, of course, she is." Rio agreed. "I wouldn't expect you to have anyone else with you today."

Clef huffed, probably at the evidence everyone was apparently gossiping about them. "Holbio's going to ride back to the house with us. Would you also come back and help draft the report on this mess?"

Tilting his head gracefully, Rio looked hopeful. "Will there be any more of that confection at the house?"

"Not unless someone else decided to do some experimenting while we were out, I'm afraid."

"That's a pity," Rio sighed. "But I will return with you anyway."

"Thank you." Clef let go of Umi's arm and walked a few steps to pick up his staff. Umi hadn't even noticed him dropping it, too busy shouting at him. With a quiet word and a rush of magic swirling about them, his griffin appeared on the hillside and Umi couldn't help but smile at its curious eyes.

"Hello, old friend." She stepped beside Clef to stroke the feathers down the side of its neck. They were just as silky smooth as she remembered. The griffin bent his head and nuzzled Umi, knocking her off balance and into Clef, who caught her and held on until Getz and Holbio returned, Getz looking put out when he spotted Rio standing there placidly. The griffin was happy to carry them all.

.*.*.*.

The informal dining area was decidedly crowded that evening. Not only did they have two additional people, but Kalos and Brisa - who Clef had assumed would stay at their own house in the village as usual for this part of the week - were sitting at the table when they walked in.

"Why are you still here?" Clef snapped at them. "I thought you went home."

"Well, we did," Brisa said. "And since it hadn't fallen down while we were away, we thought we'd be safe to come back."

Kalos nodded. "We were afraid you might miss us if we stayed away too long."

At least they were without either of their apprentices. With Elysion and Aygo squeezed together onto one end of the table and Aveo summoning a few extra chairs they all had space to sit, just not a large one.

"What I miss is having a quiet house," Clef said, dropping into the first empty seat. "You're just here so you can have more to gossip about next week."

Umi snickered as she sat down beside him. Meanwhile, Getz fetched another stack of crockery, and Holbio set three more places. Rio sat down across from them, picking up a piece of bread as soon as there was a plate in front of him.

The original conversation on the hillside continued through dinner, after what had happened was explained to Kalos and Brisa. (Aveo knew already, of course. She wasn't Seneschal for nothing.) There was lots of complaining about bureaucracy, and a general consensus that something should have been done by now, but it was probably their own fault for not having been loud enough about it. Or rather, it was Clef who was blamed for not being loud enough, since he was the one representing the lot of them at the Council.

He pulled a face at Getz for that. "Well, forgive me for having two jobs I need to be doing, while also trying to have a life. It's not easy jamming Warden and Guru and myself all into one seat every meeting."

"I'm not begrudging you the life, mate," Getz said, spearing some meat with his fork. "Because - believe me - you could use a bit of levity, but perhaps it's not as urgent as holding the blasted world together."

Umi shifted uncomfortably beside him and Clef reached out to her to take her hand, actually glaring at Getz now, who fidgeted in his seat. "I've been loud, anyway. It's not my fault the neither the Guild nor the Council will listen to reason."

"It was only a little bit of the world, anyway," Holbio said, cheerfully. "And not a part of it that we're actually meant to be looking out for, either."

Rio didn't stop tearing the newest piece of bread he'd taken, but added, "There will be trouble should Honda fall. We are connected too strongly to escape it."

Like most of Rio's pronouncements, it was true, and slightly uncomfortable to think about. Clef liked Rio, but he did have a habit of disconcerting everyone. Sometimes months after the relevant statement.

"It's not like there is ever a good time to push through any of the current repeals," Aveo said. "Even the ones that are more dear to particular Council members. There's too much work to do and not nearly enough time to do it in, trying to rewrite the rules of the entire world before they cause too many interesting problems."

After the fruit plate went around the table one last time, Clef stood with a heavy sigh. "Let's get this over with."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Umi asked. "I mean, I was there too."

"You'd probably rather do something other than watch us argue the wording of a report for the next few hours." It wasn't that he wouldn't like Umi to keep them company, but he'd rather not subject her to Getz's helpful comments, or the general grumping and occasional shouting that always seemed to happen. "This lot can tell me how it started. That's the bit we need to possibly get some sort of assistance."

"I'll see you later then." A cloud of disappointment drifted over Umi's face for a brief moment before she smiled and said, "Brisa was telling me about some dice game the other day. Maybe we can play it?" She cast a glance at Brisa who nodded brightly.

"Be careful playing Hazard with Kalos," Getz warned. "She cheats."

"Do not!" Kalos shot back, before turning to Umi. "Don't listen to him. He's just a sore loser."

"Nobody gets sixes that many times in a row!" Getz called as he followed Clef, Holbio, and Rio out of the room, and up to the ground floor where Clef's public office was located near the front door. Getz was still muttering "She totally cheats" when he dropped into one of the spare chairs.

Holbio was the first to pick up a pen from the organised chaos that was Clef's desktop. "Why don't we start from when this began today," he said, turning to Rio.

.*.*.*.

They were still in the middle of debating the final wording (and whether it should be the same for the Council as the Guild of Mages) when Umi peered in the doorway. Her skin was flushed pink, and the little wisps of hair around her face were damp, presumably from a hot bath. She had changed her clothes as well, and was now in another of those dresses from her world. This one was a bit more modest than some, the straps nearly three fingers wide and the skirt brushing the tops of her knees.

He still couldn't look away from her.

"Good evening, my Lady," Holbio said, smiling as he turned to Clef. "We can finish this. We've kept you from her long enough." His hand was in the middle of Clef's back, pushing him toward the door before he even had a chance to argue.

"Oh, go on," Getz laughed, as Aveo rolled her eyes next to him.

Clef nearly stumbled into Umi as he was all but shoved out of his own office. The door shut firmly behind him, a flicker coming down over it as Aveo cast her own ward to keep him out.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Umi said, glancing behind him at the closed door. "If you need to keep working, I can leave you alone."

"I don't think they'll let me back in." Clef waved a hand behind himself. "We were almost finished anyway. Was there something you needed?"

Umi's already pink cheeks went a brighter shade of red as she chewed on her bottom lip and looked at him. Her eyes only stayed on his face a briefly before drifting down the length of his body only to snap back to his face a moment later, her lips twitching. "Um…"

"That wasn't what I meant," he said, but he was grinning too, and Umi laughed aloud, leaning in to press her lips to his cheek.

Without another word, Clef slipped his hand into hers and led her back toward the stairs. They were nearly up to his bit of the house when he slowed down, stopping at the top of the stairs to say, "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Ignoring me all evening, or asking me to marry you when you can't?" she looked at him with a serious expression on her face, but her tone of voice was almost playful.

He relaxed, a tension he hadn't realised he was still holding melting out of his shoulders. "Both?" Clef offered. "Definitely both."

"Prove it," Umi said, grabbing hold of his head and tugging him into a sharp kiss. The rush of magic pouring off her sent him staggering into her, she stumbled back a few steps before bumping into the wall. Her hands never left him, and she never broke the kiss. Instead, she opened her mouth and urged him on with lips and teeth.

"I didn't ask you to marry me," Clef said, breathlessly, his entire body was trembling as he pressed another rough kiss to her cheek, then one below her ear.

Umi arched into him, her fingers tightening in his hair and on the fabric of his robes. "Sure sounded like you did."

"I wanted to know if you were interested in the idea," he said, then nipped lightly at Umi's neck, and she let out a shuddering gasp. "If we could -" He pressed another feather-light kiss to her skin "- if you would want to keep me?"

"I'm not answering that question until you can actually follow through with it," Umi said, her voice trembling almost as much as she was.

It was probably as much of an answer as he deserved. He kissed her again, until they were both breathless and nearly vibrating with the need to be even closer, skin to skin. Blindly, he reached sideways for the door handle of the nearest bedroom and opened it.

This still wasn't talking, but they could always do that in the morning.

.*.*.*.

The next morning, Umi woke up alone, in a strange room, wearing nothing but the bedsheets. Clutching them to herself as she sat up, she blinked at the sunlight coming in the open curtains and looked around, disappointed that Clef wasn't beside her.

The room was like the bedroom she'd been given, but slightly smaller, and far more utilitarian. Aside from the bed, there were two small side tables and a single wardrobe, none of it decorated like the things in most of the rooms. Just simple clean lines, well made. A little table sat in front of the window, the same as it did in her room, with a covered dinner-tray sat atop it.

Umi stared at the tray, remembering how they had stumbled into the closest room instead of reaching either of their bedrooms, the corridor apparently too long for them to wait. She'd not been paying attention to the room or to anything but Clef, the way they touched each other with an intensity like they were trying to stake a claim on one another.

At the foot of the bed lay one of her dresses from home and fresh underwear, along with a dressing gown, presumably so she could get along the corridor if she wanted something different. It was strange to think of someone else picking her clothes when it wasn't for a special occasion… but then, given Clef had made their armour, it wasn't precisely the first time he'd done similar. She grinned at the thought as she picked up what he'd left her, content with the little grey dress.

She was happy to find a towel, soap, and even a new toothbrush and toothpaste waiting for her in the en-suite.

Were all the upstairs rooms fully supplied for guests? Probably - and yet Clef never invited anyone to stay with him. She snickered at the thought all the way through her shower.

Once clean and dressed, Umi sat down to investigate the breakfast tray. The moment she touched the handle, a spell arched off of it with the snap of a static shock before dissipating in a shower of glittering sparks; an alert spell of some sort. The food was more interesting. Her meal consisted of thinly cut strips of smoked fatty meat - basically the Cephiran idea of bacon - that had been fried until crispy, more flatbreads with two choices of spread, a bowl of the diced vegetable salad that came out every meal time with a dollop of a rich creamy dressing, and a large glass of fruit juice.

She was about halfway through the meat and bread - the spicy fruit spread went really nicely with the two as a sort of sandwich - when Clef opened the bedroom door with a perfunctory knock as he walked in.

"Good morning," Umi greeted him, brightly.

Clef laughed. "It's past midday."

"Close enough." Umi shrugged, asking "Why didn't you wake me up?" before taking another bite.

"I thought you could use the rest." Clef sat down in the other chair and set down the tea tray he was holding. "You didn't miss much. Just a meeting with most of the Circle to go over what happened yesterday, a long call with an officer of the Mage's Guild, and another with Dokker, Dacia's Warden." He poured two cups of tea, adding a spoonful of the honey-like sweetener syrup to his cup and giving it a stir. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, actually." Umi picked up her cup of tea and looked over it at him. "How many rooms do you have up here, anyway - are they all bedrooms?"

"You've been in my study, Umi, so, no. They aren't all bedrooms. There's also a sitting room in the middle which I fail to use. Including our bedrooms and my study, there are thirteen rooms on this corridor."

"And they are your private wing?" she asked, wondering why he needed over a dozen bedrooms.

"I told you the house was built on the memories of the one I grew up in. This is the family wing. Our rooms would have been my parents', and my study is where my old bedroom was."

Umi raised an eyebrow at him, while trying not to smirk. "And whose bedroom would this be?"

"One of my sisters," he said.

"Older or younger?"

"Older. I was the youngest of eleven."

"Wow, that's a lot of children." Umi blinked at him, trying to imagine how someone could end up with eleven children. Hikaru being the youngest of four still made her flinch sometimes. Mama had said one was enough, and Umi still wasn't entirely convinced by the whole pregnancy and baby thing herself. It seemed… uncomfortable. "What was your mother thinking?"

"Probably 'Shit, guess that potion didn't work' or something along those lines." Clef picked up his tea and drank it, looking wistfully out the window over the garden.

"Sorry, I didn't mean -"

"Oh, it wasn't that they didn't want me when I arrived. Just… well, my closest sibling was a few centuries older, and they'd planned to stop with her. They were getting on in years, and - well - I had barely finished my apprenticeship before they passed on."

"I'm sorry." Umi looked down at her hands, feeling awkward.

"I don't mind talking about them." He put his hand over hers and smiled gently. "Still. While I don't mind talking about my past, you might rather I teach you why your shields aren't working?"

Her head shot up. "Wait. What happened to you not teaching me any magic?"

"I still technically have about a dozen lessons worth of leeway before you're my apprentice by default." He grinned. "I wasn't planning on getting anywhere close to it. One more won't hurt."

Umi thumped him on the shoulder. "And it took you this long to decide to tell me?"

"When else have I had time for a proper lesson? I was going to suggest it yesterday afternoon, but things got… complicated. I'm only offering the one, mind, not a dozen. But I'll make it as thorough a lesson as I can manage in an afternoon." He set his cup back on the tray and waved at her now mostly empty plate. "Are you finished?"

They gathered the dishes together and headed out.

"Hey, Clef," Umi said as they walked toward the kitchen. "How long does it take to get a new law through the Council?"

"The quickest bills take eight sessions from Introduction to Ratification," Clef said, "but I think the average has been around ten sessions lately. Things keep getting held up in committee debates."

"That's months!"

"And that's after the few weeks it usually takes to argue something onto the agenda if enough of the others don't think it worth bothering with yet. I mean, there are plenty of laws that need reworking. The stuff about the weather is still getting tangled."

"I still can't believe there are laws controlling the weather," Umi muttered.

Cephiro's government met once a fortnight unless there was a pressing emergency. Ten council sessions was five months. Literally, as there were exactly four weeks to every Cephiran month. With thirteen months a year making a grand total of twenty-six scheduled meetings, it was amazing how much they had gotten done since the reformation.

Well, they didn't just argue one bill at a time. There was just so much to get through and - how was Clef going to get the other two laws repealed anytime soon?

Wait, five months to get one bill forward meant Clef had argued that onto the schedule within weeks of her kissing him. He really had been working on this from the beginning.

"You actually did spend the past few months making it legal for us to have sex, didn't you?"

"It's not like I had a choice in the order," Clef grumbled. "I would have rather gotten this next one out of the way first."

"Isn't that one just feelings?"

"I happen to have feelings, thank you. And perhaps I'd like to be able to hold your hand in public, and not have to hide us away to kiss you."

"And not have to invite me out to the middle of nowhere so you can sleep with me?"

"I didn't-" He flushed bright red. "Don't you think about anything besides sex?"

"I like magic," Umi told him, grinning. "And sex and magic go pretty well together."

"Oh, come on." Clef shoved his handful of crockery on the kitchen counter, grabbed her hand, and dragged her out the door.

.*.*.*.

"Why do I even put up with you?" Clef said as he led a gleefully cackling Umi up the hill.

"Because you like me?" She drew out the third word like one would a childish taunt, before casting a glance back at the house. "Hey, why aren't we using the training room for this?"

"It's a nice day," Clef answered. "And you'll like the warmth of the sun a lot better after our third soaking, I'm sure."

"You just don't want to clean it up if it gets soggy, do you?" Umi bumped her shoulder against his as they slowed down near the top of the hill.

"Well, there's that too." He stopped them a little way above the uinka orchard; the runoff would probably be good for the trees. "Why did you want to know about the Council, anyway?"

"Oh, I just wondered if there was a chance of you getting the next repeal through in the next six months," Umi said breezily, but not quite looking at him.

"Any particular reason why?"

"I was giving everything a lot of thought last night - you know, while you left me all alone," Umi said, and Clef couldn't help but roll his eyes. She'd won a fair bit of money off Kalos and Brisa while she was 'all alone', from what he'd heard that morning. "You know how I said I want to go to the Academy after I graduate from school?"

That was enough of a lead-in to get his full focus. Not that it took much for Umi to get his attention these days. "Yes?"

"I know there are student halls and I also have the room I share with Hikaru and Fuu," she continued, her voice going slightly higher pitched as she sped up in a rush to get her words out. "But would it be alright - would you mind if I stayed with you instead?"

The entire world went quiet as he stared at her. "You want to move in with me?"

"Don't look at me like that! You were the one talking about marriage yesterday." She rubbed her face, her cheeks bright. "I just want to - I like this, you know? I like me and you - the whole together thing."

"You ridiculous person." Clef let out a startled laugh. "Why did you think I was asking you that?"

"I know, but -" She pulled a face at him, and he let out a proper laugh. "Oh, shut up! I mean I can wait until the third law if it would get into the whole you - what is it - 'supporting me' thing?"

"No, it should be fine. All students and apprentices receive a stipend for necessities, you wouldn't be reliant on me, just… cohabiting." He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her with what had to be an absolutely silly smile on his face. "So long the second repeal is through and I don't try to use you moving in as an excuse to extend my rooms, no one should mind."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes, of course, you can move in with me. I have no idea why you would want to - I'm a grumpy old clod - but I would be happy to have you."

.*.*.*.

Umi was practically buzzing with the emotions tumbling through her. This wasn't an impossible future like marriage was. This wasn't Clef putting her off or saying it was a bad idea. This was a concrete plan for their future - together!

Bouncing forward two steps, she threw her arms around Clef's neck and kissed him, combing her fingers through the soft wisps of hair at the nape of his neck

A few lingering moments later, Clef pulled back just far enough to speak. "Do we need to forget this lesson, and just go back to the house?"

The temptation to say yes was terribly strong. But Clef had finally agreed to another magic lesson, and she wasn't going to let him talk his way back out of it now.

"Shields. You're teaching me shields," Umi declared. "And I'm not letting you convince me otherwise."

Umi watched Clef try to pull a serious expression onto his face as he took a step back, but he kept lapsing into a grin the moment he forgot he was being a serious teacher.

"The thing you need to remember is that the spell itself is not exclusively for shielding, it can be used for a number of things, such as wards on doors and objects. You can even use it as a monitoring or alarm spell."

"I don't need an entire theory lesson," Umi groused.

"Who's teaching here?" Clef said. "You need to know what you can do with a spell. If you plan to actually take proper lessons -"

"I know! But you made it sound like this was going to be a practical lesson."

"So picky."

Umi stuck her tongue out at him

Clef laughed and took another step back. Running his fingers over her shoulders and down her arms with a ticklishly light touch he took hold of her hands and lifted them up toward him. "Hands like so."

"Obviously," Umi said, half tempted to give him a shove since her hands were so conveniently placed for it, but he stepped out of the way immediately. He moved to stand behind her, his fingertips trailing back up her arm as he went, giving her goosebumps.

The kiss he pressed to the side of her neck had absolutely nothing to do with the spell. Umi shook him off, laughing. "That's not shielding."

"Just testing your concentration," Clef chuckled in her ear as he ran his hands down to her forearms, his magic humming strongly against her skin.

"Tease."

Clef hummed happily in agreement before adjusting her posture again. She wasn't sure she needed to be pressed that firmly back against him for this, but she was enjoying the steady thrum of his power enveloping her. "Now you need to concentrate on pressing the magic out of your hands at a steady pace. Too fast and you'll lose control of it, and both of us will be soaked in the blowback."

Umi reached for the centre of her magic. The cool well in her chest still felt a little shallow after the work she'd done the day before, but she grabbed hold of it and felt the sensation of it rolling down her arms, catching momentarily on the touch of Clef's hand, the spark of the meeting sending a small tremor through her.

At the front of her mind were thoughts of ice and glass, and that was what she was making as she pushed the magic out - a thin, curved sheet of ice."It doesn't need to be frozen," Clef murmured. "Just concentrate on holding the water around us."

"But ice is solid," Umi argued. It made more sense to use ice. What was wrong with ice?

"And doesn't flow. The best shields are moving - think of Fuu's," Clef said, and she concentrated until it was water coalescing in front of them. "There, that's better. Now, this spell can be pressed into walls if you can tap into the raw power - obviously, you don't want to put actual water into the walls."

"Think of the mould." Umi giggled, her hold faltering and the sheet of ice shattered at their feet.

Water was easier to guide out, but it kept getting excited and splintering - possibly because Umi kept getting distracted. It took three tries to get a fairly stable sheet of water held up in front of her. About five more - maybe more like fifteen, but Umi wasn't going to count a few of those tries - to curl it around into a cylinder she could just about hold steady. Getting it to become a sphere was even more difficult, not helped by the strengthening pulse of Clef's magic against her own, and the way he kept trailing his lips over her neck, against her ear.

Finally, Umi snapped, dropped her spell - showering them in a downpour of cold water - and turned around in Clef's arms to kiss him hard, only pulling back a moment later to complain, "You're an awful teacher, you can't even keep on task."

"You should probably find someone else, then." His hands held sparks against her hips as he pulled her closer.

"But my current teacher teaches me so many things."

Clef choked on a laugh. "You're the awful one."

"I never said I wasn't." Umi grabbed hold of his hand and dragged him back toward the path. "And I hope you're happy because I'm never going to be able to concentrate now."

Umi looked at how far the house was - possibly a half mile away. Then she glanced over at the orchard, the trees casting deep shadows in the late afternoon light. That was close enough.

She hauled Clef off the path and practically slammed him against the nearest tree trunk. His magic flared up so strongly he let off a visible shower of sparks.

"You really like it when I do that, don't you?" Umi pressed his shoulders back and leaned in, her lips brushing against his neck as she spoke, drawing a long shiver from him.

Clef swallowed, breathless. "Maybe - a little."

"The holding you down? Or the bossing you around?"

"Both?"

"Okay." She said before whispering in his ear about exactly what she wanted him to be doing.

There wasn't a word for the startled noise that Clef made, the pulse of his magic strong enough to light the clearing about them for a second."We have a bed, Umi. We have two beds!"

"They're too far away, and you already told me the house is shielded to keep people from translocating into it. Even you." Umi argued. "If you're going to spend the entirety of our magic lesson turning me on, you're going to take responsibility for it."

.*.*.*.

A short while later, Clef was spent and sank breathlessly to the ground, Umi coming along with him.

"I wasn't sure you'd actually do it," she laughed.

"I shouldn't have." Clef dropped his forehead against hers and huffed out a soft laugh of his own.

"Because we're now going to be late for dinner?" Umi nudged him with a finger.

Her body was still trembling, but he could hear the tension in her voice. She still wasn't satisfied, and that just wouldn't do. He was going to have to correct that immediately.

"We're going to be missing dinner," he said, standing and helping Umi up to her feet. He paused to close up his clothing, and Umi went in search of her underwear.

"It's all muddy," she declared a few moments later, holding something up. "Wet and muddy." She thrust it out at Clef. "Here. I don't have pockets, and I'm certainly not wearing it."

"What, so I can have mud inside my pockets?" he said, pushing the little sodden thing back to her.

"I'm not just going to carry my underwear all the way back to the house for everyone to see," Umi argued, and threw the garment at him. Clef dodged, succeeding more because knickers didn't exactly fly straight than because he had any kind of coordination back yet. Both of them turned to stare into the gloom.

"...Well, at least you have other underwear at the house," Clef murmured. "I don't think you're finding those anytime soon."

"Not if you're not going to help! You could summon a light or something?" Umi said, what he could see of her expression looking unenthused at the prospect of hunting through the dark trees for her clothing.

Clef grabbed hold of her wrist instead and threw magic around the both of them, slapping them both down on the ground just outside the main door of the house.

Umi stumbled when they landed. "A little warning next time!"

"Fine," Clef agreed absently, leading Umi up the steps and inside. The door thumped shut behind them, and they didn't stop until they reached Clef's room.

Umi's dress was off by the time they hit the bed, and Clef's robes were abandoned on the floor with his muddy trousers before he slid down the mattress, pressing kisses against the hollows of Umi's hips.

.*.*.*.

It might have been the earthquake that woke Umi, but Clef's startled yelp as he flung himself out of bed was a pretty close second. Especially combined with the bright flash of light of him summoning his staff.

Umi clambered over the bed and found him kneeling on the floor in his nightshirt, eyes closed, staff held before him, the mismatch somehow frightening. The stone was glowing bright enough to light the whole of the room, enough power in the air to raise goosebumps on her arms.

She crawled off the bed and dropped down beside him. "Clef? What is it?"

He reached out and grabbed her hand, clapping it onto the staff under his. The sharp rush of his magic washed up her arm and over her body as the bedroom disappeared around them.

They didn't reappear anywhere else. Umi had anticipated a dark hillside, or a field. They would have been a sight; in nightclothes and bare feet, outside in the middle of the night. Instead, it was like they were floating, looking at Cephiro from above. Only not Cephiro as she knew her, rocks and dirt and trees. The land below was awash in a brilliant glow, the actual power which made Cephiro exist suddenly visible to her, with all its eddying currents and the framework of willpower which held it steady - a frame which blazed with the same feel as Clef, beside her, but not him alone, locked in place by points she could feel spaced along the border.

New forces awoke around her periphery. Warm and solid, she recognised Getz and Holbio, other soft and bright sparks near both of them, all woven into that framework just as Clef was. And behind them somewhere was the steady constant that must be Aveo, anchoring the whole thing so the rest of them could throw their attention out to where the glittering land was fractured and blinking out in bits and pieces.

That must be Honda. The steady framework ended, a thin extension of lines thrown out over the peninsula not enough to keep it from jolting, hard enough Umi felt the ground trembling below her knees so hard she was almost pulled from the spell, or whatever this was.

There was a steady push of power coming from the circle of presences around them, trying to spread out beyond the points where it was pegged down at the edge of Mazda to hold Honda onto it, but it didn't seem to be doing any good.

Then she saw them.

Out on the side - the coast halfway along Honda's far edge - there were two tiny, but bright, pricks of light.

"Clef?"

His voice sounded far away when he answered. "I know. I'm trying to get them." The light beneath the two pinpoints flickered suddenly. "Can you throw some power at the ground beneath them, hold them steady while I try to latch on?"

Umi reached out. Her power slid over the land and into it. The water was laughing as it splashed against the coastline, meeting the water which seeped through the ground in an enthusiastic rush. Rio's magic was there too, trying to hold on. There was someone else with him. Someone Umi had never met, but who was trying hard to hold on, despite the land crumbling like dough rolled too thin, too dry, to stretch so far.

"Clef!" Umi cried, as the ground she was trying to support rippled and began to tear.

His response was drowned out by the roar of magic in Umi's ears. She reached out with all of her might and grabbed hold of as much water as she could, and yanked on it with everything she had.

Magic took hold and she couldn't breathe. The ocean was a weight on her chest, dragging her down until she went under with it.

.*.*.*.

To be continued... in Chapter 10: In which Clef faces the Council

Thank you for reading! All questions comments and happy thoughts are welcome and appreciated!