Ignatius remained silent as he followed Ravage, but he was anything but calm and confident. Since when is Ravage on the same side? What's her game? What will she do when she has her magic? Betray us all by handing us over to Shadow or Dark Weaver on a silver plater or, worse, kill us? I doubt she can be used as leverage against Shadow, but that is a benefit if she really is against Shadow. Secondly, what's their connection between her and Moryuu? Ignatius shuddered to the thought. He only read and knows in theory how the magic transition works but doubts that he has the strength to enable it. In addition, it has to be done with an amount of trust, and Ignatius has none of that for Ravage. Soon his mind wanders to Magpie, knowing she has the strength to pull it through, but trust will be her issue. Magpie, hold on where ever you are. Hopefully, all this will be over soon. I hope she will volunteer in Jayden's plan, but I'm sure she won't like it. Ignatius bit his lower lip and balled his hands into fists.365Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9TXLG7gCG
For a long silent moment, Magpie stared into Kieragh's amethyst eyes. Soon her eyebrows knitted as she stepped back as she withdrew her hands and crossed her arms. She bit her lip before she spoke calmly. "If you are my father, why are you here? What brought you here?"
"For what reason do you think? To find you." Answered Kieragh softly.
Magpie remained quiet.
Kieragh stepped closer. "And now I've finally found you." He stroked few hairs aside from her eyes with a soft smile. His eyes were brimming with tears, and he soon embraced her.
Magpie froze stiff for a long moment as her mind went blank and felt something within her chest stir an old feeling that she had forgotten to have felt before. It was warm, fuzzy and comforting, yet it made her eyes water with tears, and a sob escaped her lips. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around Kieragh and took in his embrace.
For a long time, they held in each other's embrace, and Kieragh began to stroke her short hair. It felt familiar, but she couldn't place it where she once felt it before. "The last time I saw you, you were only a few days old, a little bundle of joy that I could easily hold in my hands. And now you're a grown woman; I've missed an enormous part of your life and would like to make it up now that I've found you."
"But if- but if you are my father, meaning an elvanshee, does that mean I'm half-human and elvanshee?" Whispered Magpie, barely able to find her words, and her hands gripped tighter to Kieragh's sleeves.
"Yes, magic is a part of you. That is why our magic signatures are similar. You don't need the spells to cast them. I'm sure your friends must have noted on that more than once." Kieragh placed a hand to her cheek and wiped with a thumb away the rolling tears.
"Friend." Corrected Magpie with a smile, but that smile soon vanished. "But it always felt different, not unnatural but not natural either. It's hard to explain." She looked down in shame.
"It feels like a spirit with its own will within you?" Wondered Kieragh.
Magpie looked up, amazed and blinked.
Kieragh grinned. "Only great casters and those born with magic have that feeling when it comes to magic. Embrace it; it's a part of you, but don't force it. Spirits live of freedom. Sometimes it is like a fire burning, other times it can come in other forms like a plant growing from a mere dry seed, the limit is endless as far as you allow it to." He paused. "The other benefit from my blood is having a tad sharper reflexes and senses than a normal human along with a longer life span. You age slower than others. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you should be in your mid-thirties, yet you look ten years younger."
Magpie looked up in wide-eyed shock and slowly began to shake her head with knitted eyebrows. "No, you must have miscalculated. I escaped the slave traders on that one night I slipped a sleeping drug into their beer as I was merely 13. From there, I grew up on the streets, learning how to survive from one day to another."
"Are you sure you were 13 at the time then?" Asked Kieragh thoughtfully.
Magpie opened her mouth but soon shut it as she began to doubt. The pain, the darkness, the dirt, blood and sweat were something that she will never forget, but it was all a blur. It could have been an awfully long year; ten years was her calculations, or was it more? She tried to recall how many winter and summer years she went through in chains. Each time Magpie counted, the results were different but mostly more than ten years.
Kieragh placed a hand over hers that she held up to count. "No matter, it's in the past, and we've found each other." He smiled warmly.
Magpie forced a smile, but she had a feeling it was all wrong. Something was off, and she couldn't put her finger on it. Would any loving father do and say this? How can she know when growing up as an orphan on the streets? It felt too good to be true, especially here in this dark world that is slowly falling apart outside this pillar.
Is Kieragh a part of the pillar? An illusion? Or sent by Shadow? She looks down at Kieragh's warm hands; no trace of Shadow's tattoo, nor did hers light up at his touch. How can her father be here when no one from her world was sent here by Shadow?
That question sent a cold shiver down her spine as she realized that it felt right, the truth. Slowly Magpie begins to shake her head as she makes distance from Kieragh. "There is no we, and you are not my father." She began to gather her emotions, turn that stinging pain into a blaze to fire to awaken her power from within her chest. Violet flames licked her hands and fingers as the air around her grew static, cracking small violet bolts.
"Magpie." Gave Kieragh astounded and widened his eyes.
"If you are my father, then say my real name!" Tears rolled from her cheeks, hoping this wasn't her father, yet her heart cried otherwise. "Say it!" Magpie sobbed.
Kieragh opened his mouth a few times and shut them before looking to the ground in shame. Suddenly a deep sinister snigger emitted from him, and his broad shoulders shook. "You nearly fell for it, so eager to have a father." He held up a hand to his face and soon held a mask that represented Kieragh's neutral face; the long red hair slid off his head like a wig. "Everyone else yearns for power, fame, riches but not you." He looked up to face her. A pair of crimson eyes shone, and a broad white smile split his face. "Despite your powers and possibilities, your fear, your trauma is holding you back. But I'm curious to see your limits since no one else is here to save you."
Without hesitation, Magpie shot a ball of flames at him with an angered grunt.
The stranger lept aside with a maniacal cackle, and his voice shifted to that of Shadow's. "Remember, dearie, it's all in your head." His voice came from everywhere. Magpie looked around nervously with her flaming hands poised and ready to produce more fire shots and spells. "The fears, the limits, the memories and the lies you tell yourself. Keep telling them, and they will become true, you know." Shadow whispered into her ear; his lips brushed her ear.
Magpie gasped and rapidly turned while grasping an arm to spread the flames and send a shock through his body.
Shadow cried in agony and fell to his hands and knees. He grunts and grimaces but manages to look up to Magpie with a grin. "I wish I could say that tickles, but your magic is indeed strong. You kill me, and you won't be any better than me."
Magpie mustered her courage and walked up to him. "That's where you're wrong; you're not Shadow. You're an illusion."
Suddenly Shadow threw at her thick dark smoke to lose her orientation in the labyrinth. His snigger echoed from everywhere, "yes but to be exact, an illusion caused by your mind. You detest Shadow, yet here I stand." Magpie felt his breath brush at her neck and ear. She spun around, but no one was there. Shadow laughed.
Quick-witted Magpie muttered a curse under her breath and sprinted off while engulfing the hedges with violet flames. Due to its heat, the smoke began to lift a little, but she couldn't see where she was heading. Magpie spoke the arcane words to produce wind, not letting her fear of magic hold her down. The flames on her hands died, and a strong gust of wind blew around her. As the smoke was lifted, she spotted among the burned hedges the black-purple marbled door.
Suddenly an ice-cold hand gripped her wrist. "Leaving so soon, Magpie? You know what lies in store out there." Shadow smiled at her maliciously from ear to ear with glowing red eyes. Magpie shot a ball of flames mixed with tiny bolts of lightning square at his chest and twisted her wrist to liberate herself. He sailed over a few burned hedges before sliding on the burnt grass.
Magpie sprinted off towards the door as fast as her legs could carry. New branches and vines emerged from the ashes, trying to grip her feet and legs.
"Remember, dearie, you may have grown stronger, but your past will always be there like a shadow!" Called Shadow before Magpie reached for the door.
Ignatius remained silent on the whole journey as Ravage led on the way to where she last saw Magpie. It was a graveyard and from among the tombstones stood out a door that shimmered purple yet was marbled in black and purple. In every step they approached or blinked, the marble shifted. Ignatius tried to figure the source of the shifting, but all he could sense was strong magic pulsating to the ground like roots of a tree beneath his feet. He felt Magpie's magic near.
"So this is the place you last saw Magpie?" Wondered Vandal critically and looked around with a hand hovering above his pistole.
"Yep." Chimed Ravage and pointed to the door as she placed Magpie's sword over her tiny shoulder. "She went through there as I began to play rough on her."
Ignatius raised an eyebrow of doubt due to Ravage's choice of words and seeing Magpie's sword in her hands. "You better didn't hurt her." He muttered.
"What?" Blinked Talon wondering if he heard right.
Ravage chuckled, and a flash of sharp teeth revealed as her grin splits her face. "Just a few minor cuts but nothing bad-"
Suddenly the door flashed brighter in purple, and out collapsed Magpie onto the grass. The door began to tremble and groan like wood on an old ship; cracks crawled across the surface. Magpie panted and slowly got up on all fours as she caught her breath. Ignatius' heart leapt with joy at the sight of her. He stepped up from the group to approach her.365Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXgOndVclZ9
Magpie gasped sharply to the sound of footsteps, and the first thing she saw wasn't Ignatius but Ravage holding her sword. Magpie's nose crinched as she snarled. "Get away from me!" And shot a ball of electric fire in Ravage's direction.
Everyone dodged the shot by leaping and hiding behind gravestones.
"Gods damnit! Magpie! It's us!" Shouted Vandal.
"Magpie, we're here to save you," Ignatius spoke softly and stepped out from a gravestone. He smiled, relieved to see her alive yet amazed at how stronger her magic had grown. Her violet eye shimmered brightly with life and magic. "Ravage has changed sides which I too have some difficulty to understand at the moment but-"
A lightning bolt struck into the grass before Ignatius nearly touched his toes. Magpie got up to her feet, her glance was cold, but Ignatius sensed she was struggling behind that calm facade. Soon she held up a hand as if pulling something out into the air, and her eyes glowed violet. Before Ignatius knew what happened or could counteract her magic, roots had his arms tied. As Ignatius looked over to Vandal and Talon, they were caught in the same situation as he was. Ravage was perching on a gravestone with a mischievous smile whilst holding the sword in her right hand.
"No Ravage! Don't!" Shouted Ignatius.
Magpie panted, and drops of sweat rolled from her brow. "I'm getting fed up with illusions and tricks." She hissed. "How about you and I fight? That's a notch higher than playing, don't you think?" A cold smirk curved upon her lips.
A shiver went down Ignatius' spine of the words Magpie addressed to Ravage. Is Magpie caught in an illusion or some spell? Quickly he produced the analysis spell to check. His brown eyes glowed orange, and he saw in Magpie only her violet magic flowing strongly through her entire body, from the tips of her short hair to the toes. No spell or illusion. He clenched his teeth in dread to that knowledge and began mutter beneath his breath the arcane words, but they made no difference. Damnit! Ignatius will have to take this with a different approach; any form of magic won't stop Magpie, yet this fight can't commence at any cost! "Magpie! Please, stop! We're here for you! I'm here for you."
Magpie scoffed, unimpressed. "Any illusion can say that."
"I know your real name. The nightmares you see in your sleep. The song you love to hear." Ignatius wriggled and struggled to liberate himself from the roots but to no avail.
Magpie blinked over to Ignatius, surprised. Ignatius grinned as their gazes met, knowing he was reaching her with his words. "Shall I say your name in front of everyone, or will you come closer?"
Magpie took a deep breath and squared her shoulders as she walked up to Ignatius.
"Your real name is Elyza, and you love the magpie song." He whispered and drew his face closer to Magpie, nearly leaning against her forehead. A few of his dark hair tickled Magpie's face.
A shuddered gasp escaped Magpie's lips, and the roots collapsed into bits of earth. Without thinking, Ignatius embraced Magpie.
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