Private Tales The Legend's Heir

[Serafina]

Sera broke the surface of the water with a soft gasp and pushed the wet tendrils of her hair off of her face as he made his joke. She threw him the type of withering look women for centuries would give men; it conveyed just how funny she thought he was. Even if the look he was giving her made her heart beat a little faster.

"You don't know how to relax, the last time you swum it was probably across a river for your life," she raised both brows as if daring him to disagree with her. The pool was too deep for her to stand on the bottom so she ended up rolling onto her back with a peaceful and contented sigh; the water was even more pleasant after hours in the snow.

"C'mon, you agreed."

 

[Solgrin]

It was not an untrue comment. Swimming had never been a form of joy, just a necessity. The nation he'd served had not had a navy, but he had served with the Allirians before his ascension and had needed use of the skill there.

"Alright." Solgrin said, once again folding into compliance.

The Bandit Chief slowly stripped himself, dragging away his tunic, vest, and coat before dropping his trousers. A press of warmth laved over his skin as he stood there, the heat of the spring washing over his body for a few seconds.

Then he dove into the pool.

 

[Serafina]

Sera smiled to herself when she heard the subtle splash of him entering the pool, though she didn't open her eyes. Unlike him, she found it easy to relax. Cares and troubles simply floated away as she inhaled deeply then let out a long, contented sigh. She could feel the aches of her muscles easing away, bruises dulling, her thoughts drifting further away from unpleasant things to nicer things. Like swimming in the pools during summer back home, or the feel of Nippers fur beneath her hands. Small, happy, cherished memories that she could wrap herself in to forget the other issues dogging their heels.

For Sol it would be much harder, she knew, but she would try her best to take his mind off of things for at least a little while.

"Just lay on your back," she said softly when she heard him break the surface. "And imagine a ball of light starting at the tips of your toes and working up your body. Everywhere it touches, your muscles relax."

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin did as he was asked, but such tactics had never quite worked on him.

Once, a man had come to the city and spoken of something called meditation. At the time it had seemed foolish to him, and any attempt had been met with simple frustration and anger. Eventually he had learned the trick to it, the point as it were.

He'd still been unable to do it, at least properly, but he had at least seen the value in such a thing.

As Solgrin lay within the water his eyes closed, a breath filling his lungs as he slowly allowed himself to lay back within the water. He did as Serafina asked, but relaxation did not come easily to a man like him.

Not even here.

 

[Serafina]

Serafina took her own deep breathe when she heard him settle himself in the water. Her heart began to pound. He had agreed to this but how far would he let her push it? Slowly she rolled onto her stomach, trying to keep the amount of noise to a minimum to not give him an idea of what it was she was doing. In three strokes she was by his head.

"That's it," Sera whispered softly and then gently laid her hands either side of his head, two fingers pressed to his temples and her thumb rested on his cheekbone.

"Keep your eyes closed."

The journals had been full of interesting information about the bond between a mage and keeper. Most of it had been about exactly how to harness a mages power and to care for the mage, but a healthy chunk had also been dedicated to the unique magic that a mage could perform on her keeper.

Solgrin would feel a warm glow much like the one she had described spread slowly throughout his body as Sera's eyes fell shut in concentration. She wouldn't see the way the golden light transformed the room into a cave of wonders. Her attention was focused on the man under her hands. Muscles loosened, hurts and sores vanished, but it was in his mind the biggest difference came. Thoughts were washed away and replaced with a warm feeling, an intricate and beautiful light show of golden ribbons that held even the most stubborn of minds in its snares, forcing it to watch and rest. The greatest secret to the spell was that it didn't seem to tired the mage, according to the book, but rather energise them both and the bond shared.

Serafina wasn't sure how long she stayed with him like that but eventually the lights faded from his mind and from the cave, leaving the pair with nothing but that same sense of calm as though nothing else in the world mattered.

 

[Solgrin]

The coming days were different, changed.

Perhaps it was the conversation, or their time in the cave, but Solgrin did indeed stick to his word when it came to working with Serafina. Both of them seemed to set about the training with a lax determination. It was important, but the Bandit Chief tried to impart a sense of calm to it all.

It was important, but he was also weary of pushing Sera too far too fast. If she got injured again, or worse burnt herself out, things would come to a grinding halt. That was a fact that couldn't be avoided, and Solgrin was careful to a line of paranoia.

Near two weeks later the two stood in the courtyard, snow once again gently falling upon the fortress.

Some of the Bandits were quietly milling about the yard, others stood in the towers of the Keep to watch for any new riders.

Lightning ran over Solgrin's arm as he spoke, sparks that jumped between his fingers and reverberated up his arm. "More."

He told Serafina over the slight crackles of energy.

They had done this before of course, a small control of power. The journal had described that the use of magic was more difficult when it was forced either way. If she tried to push it onto him it took more exertion, if he took it he would seize far more than required.

Cooperation was the key to making them both stronger.

 

[Serafina]

"I can't..."

Beads of sweat trickled down her head and cheeks where they froze in the icy temperatures. The soft golden glow that surrounded her when she used her magic grew brighter. Whereas the handlers problem was not being able to feel the magic resulting in taking too much, Sera's issue came with trying to temper the storm of power. She had tried to describe it to him once after she had gone too far and given herself a mild fever for the night. The power was a large churning sea that was trying to pour through her. Her challenge was trying to temper the flow, control the amount that left her and entered him but the problem was it was like testing the sweetest drug in the world and despite herself she wanted it all to consume her.

Her jaw clenched and the magic spiked, lightning spikes suddenly growing stronger and more deadly. One loose bolt blew a hole through an already grumbling outbuilding.

This was the current problem; the longer she held it the more she lost control.

 

[Solgrin]

Fingers drew into a tight fist, arm drawing back to become slightly more guarded so that none of the errant bolts ran too far away from him.

There was difficulty in this. He controlled the magic she fed him, but when there was too much, when that strength was suddenly thrust down on him there was no controlling it at all. One of the lightning bolts suddenly lanced out and arched towards the wall.

A loud BOOM echoed through the keep. Rock and stone came blasting apart into a thousand pieces, and someone let out a yelping scream.

"Shit!" Solgrin swore, pulling more of the lightning in on himself so that it did not suddenly jump away. The arcs sparked onto his flesh, searing skin and blackening him as he dragged the power onto himself. "Stop."

He said through gritted teeth. "Cut it off."

Lightning and power arched through his body, surging through him with utter agony.

 

[Serafina]

Magic was a very easy thing to turn on but it was a different thing trying to turn it off. It wasn't like a tap. Sera would describe it more as trying to plug up a bursting dam. Her hands came up to grip her head as the song reached its crescendo, vibrating through her with every pulsing beat off its oddly delicious song. She could feel herself falling...

Then a sudden gasp as a pale of water was thrown over her and Solgrin both. The magic stopped and the lightning vanished as though someone had simply snapped their fingers. Violet held the bucket and gave her friend a wry smile even though concern laced her gaze. Sera sunk to into the snow, panting.

"Half an hour isn't a bad record," she croaked and gave a hoarse laugh. The walls were already lined with holes where they had reached the five minute and fifteen minute benchmarks.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin shivered slightly, his clothes now soaked. Cold quickly seeped in through them, his teeth clicking together as he hissed. "I keep telling you I don't need to be doused."

He always maintained control, mostly because it was much easier for him to do so than it was for Serafina. Lips thinned, teeth holding together for a moment as he closed his eyes and let some of the pain of his wounds now subside.

Flesh knit back together slowly, pulling over the burns and washing away some of the agony.

Another day lost. He thought to himself quietly. How many does that make now?

The understanding of that, the weight of his curse, did not put off any of the training though. He looked up at Serafina who croaked with hoarse laughter. "Let's get inside. Last thing I need is for you to get frostbite."

The snow was falling slowly now, but the sun was slowly beginning to set and it would get even colder soon.

 

[Serafina]

"And as I keep telling you, when your men stop paying me to do it I'll stop dousing you too," Violet smiled sweetly. There was a snicker from a few nearby Bandits though they turned sharply away when Sol looked at them. Sera laughed again and ran a hand down her face to wipe some of the water off. Despite the exhaustion and the under current of tense fear they were racing against a clock to be ready for an attack, she was enjoying these training sessions.

Violet helped her friend to her feet which wobbled for a few moments.

"I think this method worked better than the last," it had only been in the last minute she had finally cracked. Until then she had been able to feed him a steady stream of the liquid energy that powered the magic. "Fire spells are still the hardest," she let Violet wind an arm about her waist as they walked back to the keep. Snowflakes dotted her hair in a frozen fairy crown. The five elements, the journals had said, made up every spell: fire, water, earth, air and spirit. Water and spirit seemed to be Seras strongest followed by air and earth. Fire, and its sub sections, just went against her personality.

Of course they were the ones Sol preferred.

 

[Solgrin]

He nodded his head, keeping his teeth from chattering in the cold.

For a brief moment he listened along with Serafina, nodding his head as she explained how flame was still the hardest of the elements. It made sense, though was also frustrating. He had tried not to express as much, but that odd...bond that had formed on the wall that day.

It was something he still not quite understand, nor liked. He had always been closed off, even to those closest to him, and someone reading his emotions was...well, not something he liked. "Perhaps we can work on something else for a little while."

He pulled open the door to the Keep, letting the girls go first.

"Something...light." He had pushed her enough over the last few weeks, maybe it would do her good to understand the more subtle parts of the magic as well.

 

[Serafina]

"N-no," her own teeth had begun chattering now they were in the warmth of the keep. It was like her body had suddenly realised it was cold and thought it best to let her know in the most obvious way possible. Sera clenched her jaw in an attempt to stop it and gladly accepted the towel Violet always kept by the door for them both if the bucket was thrown. She began to rub her hair then tugged it around her and looked up at him.

"Y-you w-want lightning," she used a corner of the towel to rub her reddening nose. "We'll keep trying, I'll get-"

Violet rolled her eyes at the pair of them dripping in the hallway and butted in.

"Why don't you finish the discussion when you're both in dry clothes, go on," she shooed them towards the stairs before muttering about having just mopped those floors. Sera smiled faintly but began to trudge back up the stairs.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin frowned, then followed after quietly. The cold was seeping into even his skin now. Wet cloth stuck to him like a snail on cabbage, and he found himself shivering.

By the time they reached the landing of the steps he was beginning to strip off his soaked clothing, deciding that next time he would give Violet a taste of her own medicine when the time came. The clothes he dropped made a splotch sound as it hit the floor.

Thankfully, the bed chamber was warm. "Kress."

Solgrin swore quietly.

"Can't believe this place stays so freezing." He'd always figured the stone would keep some heat, but it never worked out that way.

 

[Serafina]

"I know," Sera agreed grimly as her frozen fingers fumbled with the lacing on her dress. She had wrapped up warm because of the bitter wind which had been howling round the keep but the downside was that the heavy fabric was almost an anchor when wet. It had been a workout getting up the stairs let alone out of the damned thing. Eventually she managed and stepped out of the sodden heap when it pooled about her feet. In her undergarments she practically skipped to the fire and threw on four more logs for good measure. The flames licked up the dry wood and Sera sighed as the heat seeped into her.

"Maybe if it was built by Templars they had some sort of spell to keep the heat in, like the warding," she rubbed her bare arms vigorously then held her hands out to the flame. For a while she just watched it, wriggling her toes as life began to return to her extremities. In the light of the flame her hair took on a more golden hue than the sun kissed blonde outside. Colour seeped back into her cheeks turning them the rosy shade of pink blossoms in the spring and the red on the tip of her nose began to fade.

"Maybe this is a better place to try fire spells, start small," she glanced up at him.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin slipped into place besides her, finding some warmth from the fire and none from contact of her skin. She was as cold as the stone. "Depends on when they built it."

He knew that at it's founding the original Templar Order had been vehemently against mages. That wall had been broken quickly, and the Order became more a force against all evil magics instead. Of course that didn't really help the civil wars...but such history was long passed.

There was no reason to dwell on it now.

"Maybe." He agreed with a nod. Looking around the room. "Maybe it's not about fire at all."

Solgrin suggested. "Maybe it's about heat."

He didn't know how to separate the two concepts, how to explain.

"About...controlling the warmth around the flame, not the flame itself." The very air itself.

 

[Serafina]

"Maybe," Sera's brows knitted themselves together in deep thought. What he said made sense but whilst he shaped the spell it was the odd in between part that she had to deal with. Fire spells were greedy and pushed at her carefully made restraints. Once it found a chink it surged through and her ability to temper it was gone. After a moment more of standing by his side at the fire Sera dropped her hands and walked over to the wardrobe. From inside she pulled out two large dressing gowns, one of which she tossed to Sol. With her back to him she peeled off the rest of her undergarments and then wrapped herself up in the robe instead.

A soft sigh of relief escaped her. Without the damp clothes dragging the heat from her she could feel herself finally begin to warm up.

On her way back to the fire she picked up a bowl of fruit and cheese she always kept to nibble on when her energy ran low and sat down on the moth bitten leopards skin that lay stretched out in front of the fire.

"I feel well enough to try, if you like?" she looked up at him from her cross-legged position and popped a piece of orange in her mouth.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin stayed in his small clothes, mostly because he wanted to take in all of the heat that he possibly could. Though it was also because he didn't have any robe in this room.

Briefly he wondered who had used this room before. He supposed it was likely the Chapters Grandmaster, or perhaps something close to it. It seemed rather opulent, though that might have been because of the furniture that they had chosen to put in here.

It was a silly, distracting thought really.

By the time Serafina made her way back towards the fire his thoughts had already drifted away towards something else. "Sure."

He told her as she sat herself down again and crossed her legs.

 

[Serafina]

Sera nodded and finished off her orange.

She decided to take it right back to when they had first begun exploring the magic and how they needed to work together in order for the magic to work to its full potential. Firstly, she took a deep breath to centre herself. The book said it was an important exercise for the "recently leashed" to be grounded when practising their magic so as not to harm the handler. With her mind clear she focused on the fire she could feel to her right and slowly opened herself to the fury of the amulets power once more.

It was a sliver of a gap but even so the power that rushed forth made her shiver. Clearing the temptation from her mind she did as he had suggested and thought of the heat instead and turning the power inside of her into that.

Then she opened herself to Sol to take it.

 

[Solgrin]

Just as he had promised Solgrin did not try to seize the entire gamut of strength all in one go. He did not try to forcefully bend and shift as he had done with the lightning.

His touch was instead more subtle.

The Bandit Chief took in a breath, and with that breath came heat. Serafina would feel it, not in herself, but within him. It coiled and ran over his skin, drawing from the fire and pooling within the Bandit Chief for a few seconds.

Solgrin closed his eyes, and then the warmth poured from him just as it did the hearth.

It seeped into the room, a tidal wave of pleasant heat.

 

[Serafina]

Maybe it was being near the element itself that was helping her, or perhaps thinking of the spell in the way Solgrin had suggested was what worked but unlike before when she ventured into the fire related spells she did not feel the power juddering under her hands like an out of control horse. Instead it pulsed like a living heart. Unlike the river of lava that would usually flow through her this one didn't burn her to touch and direct, though it did draw more on her energy. She took a deep breath and with tentative care she opened the gate to the power a little more and a little more.

She wasn't entirely sure how long she managed to keep it going. It felt like hours, at least according to her body, but the sun hadn't dipped fully below the horizon when she abruptly cut the power off and flopped backwards with a relieved sigh. Sweat slicked her skin and plastered her hair to her forehead and the elegant curve of her neck whilst her heartbeat banged out a sluggish, uneven beat.

"How was that?"

 

[Solgrin]

The heat seeped into the room.

It permeated the air now.

Not hot, not too warm, but almost perfect. It was as though he were turning a dial, controlling the careful change of temperature within the room. His eyes were still closed as he concentrated, using some of his focus until finally she had enough.

Breath flowed from him. "It was good."

Solgrin said as he opened his eyes and looked down at her. The room was pleasantly warm now instead of that odd cold dampness that seemed to usually hang around.

 

[Serafina]

Serafina's eyes had fallen shut and her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths. Against the firelight the beads of sweat stood out stark against her skin like little diamonds against white sand. A smile wound itself lazily across her face though at the hint of impatience she felt beneath his words. This man wanted the world in his hands yesterday, but he was doing well to not push her so. She wondered how much of her exhaustion he could feel through this odd bond that had developed between them. There had unfortunately not been much in the journal about such a thing forming naturally, not without some sort of magical connection between the leashed and the handler. This seemed unique to Marcell's magic.

Neither of them had brought the topic up.

"Do you think you could form it into bigger spells if I gave you the base like that?" she was after all the energy source, not the one in control. She didn't bother to open her eyes when she spoke, nor move from her position on the floor. She just needed a few moments...

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin nodded his head. "Aye."

Forming the spells had been...interesting. The few times before when he had used her magic it had been instinctual. He had lashed out, seized what he needed and then simply been done with it.

That had been the wrong way to go about it. Though she was the conduit, it had become clear to Solgrin that it did not mean she was the only one who could handle the power. He was the one shaping and giving it form. Intricacies and small woven lattices could change how things worked.

It became more difficult when there was too much strength. Too much magic.

"With practice." That was what they were here for after all.

Slowly Solgrin leaned back against the stone besides the hearth, letting the heat saturate his body as drag away the cold from having been doused in icy water. "With practice."

 

[Serafina]

Serafina's breathing grew softer and slower as the heat from the flagstones bore into her back and relaxed her muscles. She could feel herself drifting into sleep but she knew doing so down on the floor would mean aching muscles for a week. With effort she rolled first onto her side and then to her feet. When the room rocked she put a hand on the wall to steady herself and took a deep breath which turned into a large yawn.

"Tomorrow," she promised with another yawn and then gently tugged on his hair to make him look up at her. "You need rest, too," something she kept needing to remind him. Her fingers ran from his hair slowly down his bearded jaw. That odd tug again twisted in her gut. He needed to be strong, she needed him strong.

"Why don't you stay? Your room will be cold."