Asha sat on the ledge overlooking the courtyard to Land of Departure. She was happy her long purple hair was up in a ponytail today, as a strong wind swept by. She held her red heart pendant in her left hand while looking up at the clear blue sky. All the fluffy clouds had been swept away by now.
"Not a cloud to be seen." She said quietly to herself, before leaning forward and summoning a keyblade in her right hand. The bright sun made the stained glass on the blade and handle shine rainbows on the ground below. The glass portrayed the pathway all keybladers take when they dive into their hearts to move forward. Stars embroidered the blade in various places, and the key section held a giant crescent moon. She jumped up and swung it before pacing back and forth.
"I know I promised..." her voice drifted off because she knew she didn't want to tell Clover she was a keyblader herself. She threw the keyblade to the side and let it disappear. Asha would give anything to go to Disney's Castle to watch the exam, but she didn't want the king to recognize her. They met only once upon a dream, and she was very young at the time, and she couldn't be sure if it was really him, as he had only been described to her. Stories of worlds of sleep, and the ability to travel through them, seemed like such a strange and foreign concept, it made her paranoid of all her normal life like dreams. Asha finally let go of her necklace and stopped pacing. She placed both hands on the ledge and looked at the many grassy hills. With a sign Asha resigned herself to sitting once more.
"It would be bad if I got caught anyways. Even if none of that was 'real'" She remained antsy, but she was still mostly convinced it was real, after all she gained the ability to wield a keyblade in that dream, and had been able to in the waking world ever since. Asha balled up her fists before bringing them up to her chest.
"Ugh!" She stood straight up, and threw her right hand to the side and opened a corridor of darkness. "Just a peak. Everyone will be too busy to notice me." The black heel of her boots tapped on the ground as she hesitated. The wind seemed to answer her, as it blew against her back towards the portal. She nodded before racing forward knowing she wouldn't convince herself to be brave if she waited any longer.
Asha was incredibly tired by the time she reached the castle gates, she couldn't portal anywhere remotely near the castle because of the cornerstone of light. Not to mention she didn't make a habit of going between worlds. She was laying on her stomach looking through a bush at the two guards in front of the open gate. Picking at the red apple in her hand subconsciously she made her plan, in hopes of sneaking within and finding the group of keybladers before the exam started. Little did she know it was already underway.
Basil and Rose were fighting against Terra and Riku, and Plum and Clover were fighting against Lea and Aqua. Sora, Ven and King Mickey were to be the judges of this match, to determine if the young pupils had passed their mark of mastery exam or not. Strings of music danced in the air, as Clover strummed on his piano keyblade. As the cream white keys were struck green musical lines would appear and shoot forward, and in this case, it was mostly against aqua, in an attempt to stop her own long distance magical shots. He quickly found long distance fighting would get him nowhere with aqua, as she was far too fast for him, and was able to cartwheel out of the way easily, and counter against him. Unfortunately he found his partner, Plum, wasn't doing much better. Her keyblade only allowed her to stun her enemies momentarily, if they should look upon the eye emblem that was embedded in the key, but it certainly wasn't enough to stop Lea, or if it did, it was only to allow her a brief moment to get out of the way of his fiery barrage.
King Mickey shook his head, as he looked over to Basil and Rose. Basil was attempting to take Terra down with brute strength, and even though Basil was wrong, he wasn't stronger then Terra. While the lad refused to stay down, he'd take a hard beating by the end of this. Rose and Riku however were at even odds. If she couldn't defeat Riku by the time Basil was on his last knee, then she'd have to face both masters at once, and would surely fail. It seemed like all four of the pupils would fail.
Asha found herself out of breath and standing with both hands on her knees outside of two giant doors. She had tried to enter the castle stealthily but found everything to be entirely too tall to climb. It wasn't a good day for all the guards of the castle she came across. While she was mostly sure none of them had seen her before she used magic to attack them or distract them, there was no absolutes. She looked down the hallway, and while the doors were also tall they were thinner. She caught her breath and straightened up, examining the doors. Surely there was a way to the throne room without opening the giant doors, if that was indeed what was beyond them. Asha blinked confused for a moment, before realizing she was hearing piano music beyond the door, and just as well, she noticed a faint rectangle outline on the giant left door, tall enough for a normal person. She scratched the corner of her chin, before leaning up against it, and pushing as lightly and slowly as she could, so it was merely cracked open. She could see the fighters but couldn't see the ones whom were judging.
Clover had shifted his focus from Aqua almost entirely. While he was still using his magic to keep her at a distance, his true fight wasn't with her any longer. Clover was splitting his focus, and would send a lightning strike at Lea whenever he would charge at Plum. This was allowing her, to get out of the way, and use her paralyzing magic, to create an opening for her to attack or heal, rather then constantly being on the run and getting pulverized. Clover hadn't realized Lea was purposely allowing himself to get hit by Clovers attacks, and slowly getting closer to him. It wasn't until Lea blocked his magic that he realized what was going on. Aqua used healing magic on Lea, as Lea charged Clover. Plum wasn't able to intersect the two, and Aqua made quick work of Plum, as the boys fought.
Asha held her necklace as she watched, she was so focused on the fight she didn't hear the sound of footsteps coming calmly down the hallway. Clover waited calmly for a break in Lea's barrage, for him to get back so he could use his fire magic. He clearly caught Lea by surprise, as he strummed against his keyblade upon that moment, instead of his music magic attacking, it wrapped itself around Lea, just in time for him to use Lea as a shield against Aquas long distance shots. He released Lea and handed him finishing blows. Aqua had decided to close the gap as she didn't want to risk harming Lea anymore, and that worked to Clover's advantage.
Asha shifted her attention to Rose, whom was fighting valiantly against her two assailants. Even though Rose stood a chance against Riku, and had almost defeated him, as the battle had clearly gotten to him, the battle was over as soon as Terra was close enough to engage. Asha snapped out of it as she heard a light clank of metal against the ground behind her.