rogueinladysclothing | A turn of magical events [Tagging Viatorus]

The buzzing alert stirs Viatorus from his light sleep. He almost passes over it except for the second text. Somewhere in his mind he starts to think that if someone is texting him this much at whatever hour it is, it must be important.

Amelia's messages confuse him, which isn't difficult in his fuzzy-brained state. He sits up, rubbing his eyes as he texts back:

Did what?

Well, he's awake now, he might as well get up. Slowly. Very, very slowly while he waits for the reply.

It takes her a minute to respond, but not because she accidentally almost set a tiny fire. Never!

Magic! I really did it!

She can hardly contain her excitement, but she doesn't even think to call him. Which, really, is better for his eardrums at this point. There's no way she could keep her voice down to a reasonable level right now.

"Magic?" He mumbles aloud to himself, squinting as he thinks that through. Amelia... did magic? Amelia? But she hates magic, or is at least scared of it.

The idea of someone so easily scared by magic using it kick starts his brain again. He throws on some clothes, grabbing a jacket and heading to Amelia as fast as he can. When he knocks on the door it's with light, but fast, rapping. He's a little out of breath but doing his best not to show it.

"A-Amelia?"

The door to her room is open before he can finish saying her name. She doesn't look any worse for wear or the same kind of sad or nervous as she was at his birthday party. In fact, she looks... happy. It's a strange thing to see, given her usually sullen and downtrodden moods.

"Viatorus, I did it! I did it! Look!" She moves out of the way and points excitedly to a lit candle on her desk. After a beat, she shakes her head. "Wait, no, hold on."

Without more than a wave of her hand to invite him in, she rushes over and snubs the candle between her fingers. The room is completely dark in the absence of the small light. "Now, watch." Taking the candle holder in her hands, she holds it in front of her chest and smiles brightly in his direction as the candle lights without the use of any matches or a lighter.

"See? Magic."

The initial excited gesturing to the candle gets a blank, vaguely worried look from Viatorus, but she's quick to set about giving him a demonstration. He steps into the room, closing the door quickly to join her in peering at the candle.

His eyes barely have time to adjust to the darkness before the candle flickers back to life. Magic. Somehow he still doesn't quite believe what he's seeing. Amelia is using magic.

"Fire, elemental magic..." Eyebrows up and eyes wide, he eventually pulls his gaze back to hers. "How did you do that?"

"I'm... not exactly sure. I think it has something to do with not drinking the tea, though? I... haven't remembered to do so in over a week." Despite her slightly somber answer, she can't stop smiling. The candle is set aside carefully before she turns back to him.

"I've been studying, though. For three months now! And tonight? Tonight I finally did it! I needed some light in the room and when I grabbed the candle, it just lit! And then, when I tried again and again, I figured out how to light it without thinking about needing the light and almost... telling the candle to light instead." A beat, which feels like a long pause compared to her fast paced rambling. "Does that make sense?"

The tea...? His eyes flicker back and forth in the way they do when he's thinking through something. Ideas and hypotheses spinning past... Oh it's too late at night for this. He rubs his temple and she's off again, explaining a familiar feeling.

"Mm," he confirms with a nod. "It's intuitive magic. Exerting your will over the world around you without physical, verbal or spiritual aids... But I thought you didn't have magic. That you'd never had magic. That no one in your family's history had every had magic. How...?"

"Sheer force of will?" Realizing how utterly silly that sounds, she laughs and shakes her head. Dreams, it feels so good to have him around for a discussion like this. "Honestly, I don't know. Maybe... maybe it is in my blood somewhere, but no one ever knew because magic wasn't something people on my world did for hundreds of years? Perhaps... perhaps one of my ancestors was a distant descendant or relative of a wizard on my world, but no one knew or remembered because it wasn't written down because of the danger?"

So many possibilities and not enough time to think through them all right now like she wants to. "What does it matter, though, now that I have it? Don't you see, this is a huge leap forward! If I can do this without really thinking about it already," she gestures to the candle to make sure her point is clear, "think of how much more I could learn - and how quickly I could learn it! I... I could finally be enough." It seems as if that last part might have been for herself, given the way she looks down at the floor pensively, but it's impossible to tell. Amelia's moving at full speed and speaking at full volume right now, making everything seem like it's meant for anyone who can hear her.

The first answer she offers is met with a raised eyebrow, but her latter suggestions find him conceding the possibility with a nod of his head to one side. They're all possible, though not possibilities he'd considered before when he really should have. Different worlds and their different reactions to magic... It's unlikely he'll ever keep that fully in mind.

Just when his muddled mind is about to relax, Amelia has to go and start him worrying again. His brow furrows and he shakes his head. "No, Amelia... You... You don't learn magic quickly." Sighing and trying to smooth out his brow, he runs a hand through his hair as if it might help him think. "Magic isn't something to be rushed. Especially fire magic. Fire is one of the most dangerous kinds of magic for beginners. You don't even understand how you did it, which means you don't understand how to control it. And you need a good control of fire to use it."

"You... You need a study plan. A guide to make sure you learn this safely and thoroughly."

She rolls her eyes at him. "No, no, I don't want to learn fire magic. It's just the starting point, the means to an end. I want to learn defensive magics: wards, barriers, that sort of thing. It's what I've been studying, what I've been trying to do for so long. But until now, I... couldn't do anything." Her lips draw into a thin line and she crosses her arms in front of her chest, finally taking a pause that's longer than a few seconds to think. It's surprisingly hard at this particular moment.

"You're right, though. I need..." A beat and a frown. "Fuck, I need a lot of things to make this work. I need more time, patience, and energy than I have to get through all of this on top of a plan so I don't get overwhelmed. Dreams, I need so much more time!" She makes a small noise of frustration and begins pacing the room, pulling down her hair from its normal position to brush it out slowly to keep her hands busy.

"I'm never going to find it, you know." Her eyes track over to him as she paces the tiny room, her steps carefully moving around the books and papers scattered on the floor. He'll note that some of them look a little singed in places. "A guide, I mean. A mentor... whatever you want to call it. No one's going to take the time for me. I'm not naturally gifted like you. I don't come from a magical family or any of that. I'm rash, impatient, stubborn, flawed - I'm nothing." She stops suddenly, her hands falling to her side and her hair pin clenched tightly in her right hand. Slowly, she shakes her head and settles her eyes on the floor in front of her. "There's no reason to believe I'm not doing this alone."

He's about to explain to her the many dangers of magic, all magic, when she changes the subject. Some small part of him settles at her agreement on her needing a tutor. The rest of him despairs faintly at her berating herself so readily.

"Rash, impatient and stubborn are three of my sister's finest qualities," Viatorus comments with a small smile. The books finally catch his eye and he bends down, picks one up, before standing again. "And she's the family favourite."

"Besides, yesterday you couldn't do magic at all. Now you're doing it. And in a multiversal space on top of it all, which I bet you didn't imagine existed when you were younger. Never say never," he tells her, waving the book at her gently before it gets a closer inspection. And it's back to frowning. "... Did you burn this?"

"I am nothing like Isidor." She says it without thinking, with a stern look on her face. "It's an insult to her to even suggest it." If she's come to learn anything recently, it's that she's not even close to the person she thought she was, which means she's nothing like the forceful patron.

She sighs softly, but before she can add to that thought, he's asking about the book in his hands. Amelia looks over at it then rolls her eyes as she walks over and takes it from his hands. "Singed it, thank you very much." She sets it and her hair pin aside momentarily to gather up the others books and things from the floor. "I got so excited that every time I tried to write in something, or even touch it with the end of my pen, it started to... smolder a little." A beat and she looks over at him to make sure she has his attention before she continues. "But I put everything out before it got even more than a little singed, I swear!"

If he looked uncertain before he looks downright horrified now. "You did what? Oh gods, but you could have... You might have..."

He catches himself about to half warn, half scold her when he realises that this is an oddly familiar thing. Except that it was him as a child and his tutors doing the lecturing. That felt like an age ago now. He'd forgotten what it was like.

Taking a deep breath, he clears his head as best he can and then looks at her seriously. "No more magic except under supervision. You need guidance. Or at least someone to help you put any fires out." He runs another hand through his hair and rubs his scalp a little. "You need to learn how to control it. I'll help you as much as I can and you can look for a proper teacher in the meantime."

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