MagiStream

Chapter 5

Calida laughed as the magi hurriedly shrank into the water. "You never cared before," she pointed out.

"That's different," Lachesis stammered. "You were a bird before!"

Calida lifted an eyebrow. "Is it? I'm still the same being, you know. But if it makes you feel better I'll turn around." She turned to face the wall. After a few moments' delay, Lachesis picked up her sponge again and scrubbed and washed herself as quickly as possible. It was quite possibly the quickest bath she'd ever taken.

As she hopped out of the tub and dried herself, though, her embarrassment was soon replaced by curiosity. "So..." she began carefully, "cinersi can turn into humans?"

Calida shook her head, still facing the wall. "Not quite. Or rather, yes we can, but only if we know the spell. And there are certain requirements that have to be met first. But any creature with sufficient power could assume a human form."

"Wait, so you mean--pretty much any creature can do it? Then why don't companions assume a human form more often?" Lachesis asked, confused.

"It requires a certain bond with a magi most of the time," Calida explained patiently. "No one's sure exactly how it works. But usually the magi must know the creature's name--or have given it the name in the first place. Besides, companions like having some secrets, you know."

Lachesis finished drying herself and pulled fresh clothes on herself. "Then, can magi turn into creatures? Oh, and you can turn around now. I'm done."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there's a spell of it," Calida said as she turned around. "But I would guess that each magi can only assume one form." She waved her hand at the water remaining in the tub, which rose in large plumes of steam. Lachesis ran to open the window to let the steam out. She whispered a simple spell, and a breeze whisked through the room, helping the clouds out the window faster.

"Does it have to be a spell?" the fire magi mused out loud as she watched her room unfog. "All the masters teach us that when a spell doesn't exist, willing something to happen works too."

"Within certain bounds," Calida said. "You're a fire magi, so you don't have much control over water without spells, will or not. And you couldn't, for example, just tell all the steam here to stop existing. It has to go somewhere." The cinersi gave Lachesis a long glance. "You're thinking of trying to transform yourself, aren't you?" Lachesis opened her mouth to reply, but Calida ignored her. "I would at least wait until you were a full magi, if I were you."

Lachesis shook her head, searching for a good retort, but found none. "You know me too well."

"Most companions know their magi too well. They just can't say so."




I'm kinda suffering from writer's block on this story, so here, have some badly-written infodump.

Great!I have no such great word to describe this!

More?

*bounces up and down*
Wonderful, as usual! Question: Did Lachesis tell Calida about the visions? Or is she keeping it to herself?

Thanks Lorelei! I'll be addressing that in the next chapter, but I'm suffering badly from writer's block at the moment. XP

More???? I can't wait to see what you have instore for us next!!!

Oh man, I'd almost forgotten about this since I had so many other things on my mind. Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone, I'll get back to it as soon as I figure out what to do with the next chapter! :tard:

Chapter 6

When the last of the steam had finally been cleared from the room, Calida closed the window and turned to look at Lachesis. "Now," she said, seriously, as the left the bathroom, "we need to talk about your affinity test."

"It went fine," Lachesis said quickly--a little too quickly. "Every bit as tiring as it's cracked up to be, but not too bad--"

"Lachesis." Calida cut her off and stopped walking, so that Lachesis nearly bumped into her. "Didn't you just say that I know you too well? I can tell something's wrong. Something's bothering you. What is it?"

Lachesis didn't answer immediately, turning to look out a window instead. "Calida," she began slowly, "you've lived a long time. Have you ever--has anything ever made birds fall out of the sky?"

"Normal birds, or companions?"

"Both."

Calida looked thoughtful. "That sounds...perhaps. Many lives ago, maybe, but when you have lived as long as I have the years blend together and memory grows fragmented. Why do you ask?"

"I...I see things in the fire." Lachesis turned away from the window to look at Calida. "Or, not in the fire. But whenever I use fire. It's been going on since the choosing ceremony."

Calida frowned. "Did anyone else seem affected?"

Lachesis shook her head. "No, just me."

It was silent for a moment as the cinersi-turned-human thought. "I believe, perhaps, the fire is trying to tell you something," she finally said.

"But what? And why me?"

"That's for you to find out," Calida said solemnly.

*

Lachesis awoke the next morning to a pair of beady black eyes staring straight down at her and bit back a scream as she jumped out of bed. The Tylluan glared at the magi as she was spilled from her perch.

"How did you get in here on your own?!" Lachesis demanded, glancing with annoyance at the tears in her blanket from the bird's talons.

"I let her in," Calida answered, striding into the room with a mug of warm tea. "I also took care of everyone already, so just get ready for your first day of class. She brought you this, by the way," she added, gesturing to the Tylluan and handing Lachesis a folded sheet of paper. "I think it's your schedule."

"Oh...thanks," Lachesis said, taking the paper and the tea. She took a sip of tea and unfolded the paper. Potions in the morning on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, followed immediately by Fire Studies. The Art of Language on Wednesdays and Friday mornings ("Just because you are magi is no excuse for shoddy writing," the language master had said with a scowl at his unenthusiastic class). Dueling on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, followed by Creature Lore. Object Enchantments on Monday afternoons and Non-elemental Magics on Thursday evenings.

"You need to leave soon," Calida said, glancing at the sheet. "Go have breakfast."

"I'm going to fail Fire Studies," Lachesis said, looking up from the schedule. "I don't think I could last a full class period of controlling fire."

"If I still had a beak, I'd peck you," Calida said severely. "Stop worrying. You'll get used to the images. Now go eat."

Yay! You wrote more!

(Okay, so I'll write a proper review later, once I'm less tired. I'm just glad this didn't get abandoned, as it's one of my favorite Keep stories.)