Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Bloody Skies	By : TokiMirage Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Slash - Male/Male Views: 44832 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: JKRowling owns Harry Potter. Everything else is mine. I do not make any money writing this fic.

Chapter List
- 24
- 25
- 26
Bloody Skies
oOo
Chapter Twenty-Five
oOo
"Now, as you know, we've been focusing on efficient channeling of magic from obvious casting sites such as the hands, and we only touched on other casting areas for a short period so you would be aware of the possibilities. Some of you used that opportunity to expand your wandless capabilities, while for others it was still beyond your current potential. We will now be returning to body casting for the week before and the week after study break," Catchpool explained briskly, her chin-length blond bob swishing back and forth as she paced slowly in front of the class. Her glasses flashed in the magic lights as she spun on her high heels and crossed in front of the group of students again.
"We will separate the class into two halves. Students who have studied body casting on their own time and feel comfortable with basic charms or curses and want to move on to more difficult castings, go to the far corner with the mats. The other half will be the rest of the class, and you will meet with my TA at the practice dummies." She stopped and eyed the group with sharp eyes. "Well? What are you waiting for?" she snapped.
As class burst into a shuffle of movement, Cyrus followed her across the large classroom to the mats. Any classes that required practical application of spells usually had no desks, or had a couple tables and chairs that folded up to rest against the walls. The room itself was large enough to be one of the many training rooms available to students at Shikaan, but as it was Catchpool's personal classroom, no one was allowed to use it without her or her TA present.
After all, Shikaan had the space, so why couldn't each teacher have their own room and attached office? The total population of the school never increased by a large margin, either, as the intake of new students was carefully monitored and screened, much like a university.
"Good. There are not too many of you," Catchpool commented as she looked over the seven people that had followed her to the mats. "We are going to be learning how to cast a full body shield today. There are quite a few variants in existence, but the version we will be using is the hardest to cast with a wand and the easiest to cast wandlessly. However, the yewenalin shield is not to be confused with the borrire contego, as the latter is more of a bubble shield that is relatively easy to cast but hard to maintain due to magical expenditure."
So, it was different than the full body shield he often used? "Why is the… yewenalin shield easier wandlessly?"
She eyed him, and Cyrus felt uneasy under the focus of that intelligence. "How much do you remember from the beginning of the year when I explained basic wand and wandless theory?" she asked everyone, and Cyrus relaxed slightly as her eyes left him.
"That with a wand the spell is… executed through the runes in the magic?" a female fae asked, her voice carrying a lilting quality. Cyrus couldn't remember her name, but he did know that you didn't want to be subjected to her voice magic. Her 'family' specialized in them, and she could do things with sound vibration that he had never even thought possible.
"Essentially. Runes are the conduit for ordered magic. They take the raw magical energy and bend it in a certain way to get a specific result. When a spell is created and cast for the first time, it is imprinted onto the magic of the world. It becomes part of an 'archive' so to speak. That is how we are able to able to cast spells. A word and wand movement are associated with the rune matrix, and intent plays little part in the casting." At Cyrus's bewildered expression, she smiled and continued. "Have you never wondered why, once you learn to cast a spell for the first time, it works almost every other time? Once our subconscious mind finds the pathway to the correct spell imprint, and associates the words and wand movements with that spell, we will almost always be able to find that same path again. It is one of the many reasons why ordered magic cannot be learned without some form of tutelage.
"However, unordered magic can. This magic is completely intent-based and relies on fine control and direct manipulation of magic. A child could learn unordered magic on their own if they believed anything was possible. However, as most magical children are either part of magical families here in Other Realm, or are conditioned to believe magic is false in non-magical communities in Human Realm, few of these 'prodigal children' ever surface. An example in Other Realm would be Karatys."
The six other students all gasped or made some noise of surprise or traded grins with each other. "Didn't he grow up with a magical family, though?" another student asked.
"Yes and no. If you recall, the demon's parents were killed during the last war, and he was left in the deepest woods of the Kantari region for quite some time before some hunters stumbled upon him nearly thirty years later. He was orphaned at a young enough age to not understand how ordered magic worked in the least, but old enough to understand that his family had done amazing things with magic. Which led him to believe that he could achieve the same things. And the rest is history. To this day he is still incapable of casting ordered magic, but he makes up for it with direct manipulation. He has done things that many spell crafters believed impossible due to his greater understanding of the behaviors of magic."
The voice mage was frowning. "How come we haven't read this in the books on wandless magic in the library?"
Catchpool looked amused. "Most of those texts are at least a hundred years old. You should always check the date of the books you learn from, as some are out of date or rendered obsolete from recent research, and Shikaan never disposes of knowledge. What I've just told to you is explained in greater detail in a book that is a joint project between me and the other two leading researchers in the field. It is currently jumping through the hoops of publishing and should be out by next school year."
Cyrus hummed thoughtfully. "Who would be a Human Realm example?" he asked.
Some of the other students looked interested, while some didn't appear to care at all.
"The most well-known is Merlin." Cyrus's eyes widened, and Catchpool's lips formed a small smirk. "I'm sure you know he used to use a staff for magic?" Cyrus nodded, listening intently. Accurate information on Merlin was sketchy at best besides the fact that he seemed to have known the Founders of Hogwarts. "In reality, the staff had no magical properties at all. As a child, he had seen magic cast with staves, which were popular before the techniques for wand crafting were perfected. Before then, they could just as easily have blown up in your face rather than cast a spell. However, before he could reach proper age for training, he was separated from his community of magic users and forced to reside in a muggle village. With his natural inclination to magic, much like Karatys, he crafted himself a staff that he had seen other wizards use and taught himself unordered magic."
Cyrus couldn't help but grin. So there was a reason Merlin had been so amazing.
Catchpool's smile was much more reserved. "Now that the history lesson is over… any more questions before we begin learning to cast?" No one said anything, so she continued. "Very well. Today we will be learning how to manipulate magic much like our bodies sweat. The goal is to expel magic from every pore of your body but not have it go farther than the surface of your skin. The body shield we are learning is easily hidden and difficult to detect unless you come into direct contact with the person. It is a technique that makes it much more difficult for an enemy to wound you with physical force, but will not deflect magic unless you absolutely perfect the last step. Today, we will be learning the first step, and unless you accomplish that to my satisfaction we will not be progressing further."
She motioned for the students to spread out and form a half-circle, and Cyrus obediently got into line as well. This sounded very useful.
"The first step is coating your entire body with magic without glowing. If you glow, you are wasting energy. The only time magic should be spent with this spell is if the shield has to reflect the kinetic force of a blow. Now, try."
Cyrus's eyelids drooped as he focused inward, expelling his magic from his entire body in tiny increments, careful to control every bit of it so nothing was wasted. It took him a few minutes to get the hang of it, but he was good enough at manipulating his magic that it wasn't too hard.
How come death magic couldn't be as easy to control?
"Very good, Mr. Obsidian," Catchpool said, and he opened his eyes all the way to focus on her without releasing his control of the magic. "I thought you would be good at this," she commented, poking his skin with her fingertips as if to test something. "Good. Even distribution. I'd say you're ready for the second step. You need to channel enough magic into the layer and compact it so that nothing can pierce through."
Cyrus frowned and closed his eyes, pouring more magic out and compacting it to try to make it… harder. It was hard to put to words exactly how it felt to manipulate the energy.
A fist hit him in the chest and he lost his balance, putting a foot back to catch himself. Eyes snapping open at the same moment, he gaped at his teacher in surprise. "What the- Why did you do that?"
She looked particularly smug. "Very good for your first attempt. The goal is for your magic to be able to completely protect you from any blunt force. The third step is to be able to protect yourself from fine blunt force – such as blades. The fourth step is reflecting magic. Keep practicing the second step for next class, and I'll see if you can learn the next-"
"Professor Catchpool?" a voice interrupted. Cyrus turned to look at the TA, a guy who had graduated from Shikaan a while ago and was working on his Mastery in Wandless Magic.
"Yes?" she asked, turning to her TA with a raised eyebrow, unimpressed with the interruption.
The TA had the grace to look uncomfortable. "It's… Pyrneihm again."
Her professional expression leaked a bit of annoyance. "Again? I don't see why he is still taking this course. He should have dropped it months ago."
"He… works very hard, though. Even though he's still not getting it."
But Catchpool wasn't as sympathetic as her TA. "He is already failing the class. He should have transferred into another course he could have succeeded in instead of failing at something for which he has no aptitude." She crossed her arms under her breasts and tapped a finger irritably.
"Perhaps if he found a tutor?"
She snorted. "There are few students in the upper years of my classes that would be able to help him, and those who are able would not want to."
The TA looked at Cyrus. "What about someone in the lower years?"
Catchpool followed his gaze, frowned, and then turned her almighty stare on her TA. "Obsidian? You think he would be capable of teaching that lost cause?"
Cyrus wasn't sure he wanted to be angry about them talking about him like he wasn't there or to feel bad for the way they were talking about this 'Pyrneihm' fellow.
"Obsidian has the natural aptitude for-"
"Natural aptitude very rarely equates with good teaching ability, Hailan. Though…" Her eyes narrowed and she looked at Cyrus again. "There is... that." The TA, Hailan, looked lost, but Cyrus had a feeling he knew what she was talking about. His magic sensitivity. "Very well. Mr. Obsidian, would you be willing to tutor a student who has grossly fallen behind in the course material?"
Cyrus wasn't sure he wanted to devote his already little free time to tutoring somebody. He didn't even have time to research Other Realm politics for Merlin's sake, or look into his magic sensitivity in more depth, two things that he'd been wanting to get around to for months now but was unable to with homework, werewolf healings, Necromancy… it was just never ending. "Uh… Why hasn't he gotten a tutor before now?"
"He doesn't have the funds. His education here was prepaid many years ago."
The human frowned. Prepaid? Why would it be… and he had few funds. But that didn't make any sense. "Then how is he supposed to pay for a tutor?" Not that Cyrus even needed the money.
Catchpool still had that annoyed expression on her face. "I will pay you myself if you will agree to helping him and get him off my back. I have already reached the end of my patience and Hailan isn't much better."
Cyrus was beginning to feel distinctly awkward about the level of verbal bashing going on here. Wasn't stuff like this supposed to be… Weren't teachers supposed to be professional and not talk about this kind of stuff with other students? She didn't look like she cared at all. Maybe it was an Other Realm thing.
Or a Shikaan thing.
"I… don't really need money."
"Then I'm sure you can figure something out to trade." She said it as if it was obvious and he was stupid for not thinking of it himself.
Cyrus kept his mouth shut about that, though. "Right."
She smirked and motioned to the TA. "Bring Pyrneihm," she ordered, walking Cyrus away from the group of still-practicing students and to an empty corner. "If you can, try to teach him a method of learning wandless spells that doesn't require the constant help and supervision of another person," she said before walking back to her still-practicing students.
Cyrus looked over to see where Hailan had disappeared to only to pale at the sight of the demon that the TA was bringing over.
No fucking way. Yalmireth?
He was cursed. There was no other explanation for the shit he had to deal with. Damnit.
The TA happily left them both in their corner of the room, and Cyrus nervously licked his lips and wondered how he was supposed to deal with this one. Yalmireth wouldn't meet his eyes, his face perfectly blank. He put up a privacy and silencing ward in case this went south, fast.
"Uh, so Hailan said you're still having trouble with wandless magic?"
Yalmireth nodded silently, and his shoulders drooped slightly even as he refused to meet Cyrus's eyes.
"Did um… you've been trying to keep the magical flow steadier?"
The demon nodded again.
"Hasn't helped much then… huh…" Could this get any more awkward? "Well? Are you still not talking to me?"
Yalmireth finally looked at him, and the storm of emotions had turned his steel-gray eyes a darker shade. "Am I allowed to speak to you again?"
The human frowned. "What are you talking about? You could have talked to me whenever you wanted, but you-"
"You invoked garvich taneshka. I could not initiate contact with you unless you opened negotiations."
Now Cyrus was really confused. "What are you talking about? What's a gavish tanishko?"
And now Yalmireth looked as confused as he felt. "You… you do not know?" They stared at each other for a long moment before the demon frowned. "It is… a demon custom. When one wishes to cut all ties with an ally, they break and burn the table around which the allies convene."
Cyrus stared at him in shock. What? He- Yalmireth- what? "B-but, I just… I was just angry!" Yalmireth's expression was carefully blank. "The table… it was just an accident. And then I was angry, so I lit it on fire and conjured another one to replace it." How had something so seemingly innocent meant…
"It was not your intention to initiate garvich teneshka?" Yalmireth asked him carefully, as if he didn't quite believe it.
Cyrus crossed his arms over his chest. "No. I was just pissed at you for being a jerk. I wasn't trying to terminate our friendship or anything." What a clusterfuck of a misunderstanding.
"I… see." They stared at each other for a long, awkward silence.
"So… why did you explode like that anyway?"
Yalmireth twitched. "Are you and Ashawyn still dating?"
Cyrus wanted to smack his head against the wall with how subtle that wasn't. "What does that have to do with anything? Do you hate Ashawyn or something? Is that why you flipped out on me after you walked in on that stupid kiss?" Now Cyrus was confused. Yalmireth hadn't been avoiding him because he was jealous or had a crush on Cyrus or something? Or was that still the case?
Yalmireth looked torn. "It… it's complicated."
Cyrus crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, explain it. We've had enough fucking misunderstandings."
Yalmireth flushed slightly and looked down and to the side. He muttered something under his breath.
Cyrus frowned. "What was that?"
"I was… angry."
Well duh. "What for?"
Yalmireth looked very uncomfortable as he looked away, his blank mask beginning to crack. "I… well… I… I've never had many friends. And I just… he's a jerk. He's just interested in… in… sex, and… he'd make a terrible… he's a jerk."
Cyrus really didn't know what to say to that. "You don't even know Ashawyn," he said flatly.
Yalmireth twitched. "I know-" he began angrily before cutting himself off and taking a shaky, calming breath, so many emotions churning behind his eyes they looked like pools of gray water. "I know his type. I've… They find the most powerful, the prettiest… conquests. People like us are nothing but conquests to them. And once they get bored, they just…" His voice cracked, and he crossed his arms protectively across his chest. "They just leave," he said, glistening eyes meeting Cyrus's with a frankness and bone-deep belief that what he said was the truth. "He just left. And he didn't do it nicely. No, I had to find Ashawyn fucking my roommate in my own bed."
Cyrus's jaw just dropped and he stared at the demon in shock. "What?"
"Later I found out that he and my roommate had been… fucking for nearly a month before I caught them. And he didn't look the least bit guilty when he saw me watching and he just kept going until he- until he'd been satisfied. And when my roommate looked at me- he looked guilty, but obviously not guilty enough to not fuck my boyfr-" His voice cracked and he turned partly away, obviously wanting to hide his face from Cyrus but not wanting the entire class to see him either.
Cyrus just couldn't believe his ears. "Are you serious?" he asked softly. Yalmireth nodded and wiped his eyes furiously. "What… how did you two even meet?"
The demon let out a shuddering breath. "We went to the same private school until he graduated. I was in my final year when it turned from good friends to… more. He'd visit on the weekends…" He wiped his eyes again and crossed his arms in a slouch.
Cyrus frowned. But… when Yalmireth had burst in on Cyrus and Ashawyn kissing in his dorm room, Ashawyn hadn't acted like he knew the demon. But at the same time… Yalmireth didn't seem like the kind of person to lie about something like this. "How did you afford to go to private school if you can't afford a tutor?"
Yalmireth seemed to droop even more, steel-gray eyes turning to dull, darker shade. "My father died when I was thirteen. He was rather rich, though, so he'd already paid for my future tuition at Gilligan's – the private school – as well as Shikaan, but I can't access my inheritance until I'm an adult. He never even asked me if I wanted to come here, so now I'm stuck, and I'm failing wandless, and some of my other classes aren't going well either, and-" His voice choked off in a suppressed sob. "And then he had to turn up," he muttered bitterly, eyes flashing with anger.
Cyrus winced. That sounded… really shitty. And the silence was really awkward. What do you say to that, huh? Try to sympathize? "I understand how you-"
"Understand? You don't understand!" Yalmireth snapped, his normally soft voice turning sharp and biting.
Okay, perhaps that hadn't been the smartest thing to say. "No, I meant- Just give me a minute. I don't know what you went through, but I'm just… trying to say that you know, my life hasn't… my parents were murdered when I was a baby and I was forced to live with my relatives for most of… my childhood. They… my bedroom was the cupboard under the stairs until… until I grew too big to fit." The last of which wasn't true, but he wasn't giving Yalmireth any connections to Hogwarts. And… and it was only fair that after Yalmireth spilled his guts about something horrible that happened to him, that Cyrus shared, right?
He had no idea, really, but the way that Yalmireth stopped glaring at him and seemed to be listening was a good sign. Right?
"You're not having any problems in school, though," Yalmireth bit out bitterly.
Cyrus licked his lips nervously. "I'm not a book worm or anything – I work my ass off – but do you have any idea the shit I've dealt with in the past year? I mean, I just got thrown into Shikaan before even knowing what Other Realm was, let alone all this political shit I should know, my death magic's been going batshit ever since I awoke it, I've been dragged into a vampire Trial, nearly been eaten by zombies, molested, someone here's trying to kill me, and on top of that I'm sick with something even Svea can't make heads or tails of!" Cyrus found himself making angry motions with his arms and forced them to return to his sides, letting out a frustrated breath of air. Damnit. Now he was all worked up again. He'd been trying to forget all that shit.
Yalmireth was looking at him very oddly. "You… wow."
Cyrus snorted. "Not even half of it."
"You were molested? Is that why you… kept flinching?"
Cyrus scowled at the memory and nodded jerkily. "Yeah. It was… yeah. Tara… helped."
The demon nodded slightly, but Cyrus could see the tension slowly start draining out of him. "Are you… still going to date Ashawyn?"
Cyrus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I have no clue, honestly. Maybe he's changed since he…"
Yalmireth scowled. "I doubt that."
The human gave him a look. "Are you going to flip out on me again?"
Yalmireth had the grace to blush and look embarrassed. "I'm… sorry. For exploding, and… I thought you had initiated garvich taneshka, otherwise I would have come and talked to you earlier."
Cyrus sighed. "I don't know any of these demon customs, so next time I do something unwittingly, talk to me about it first before assuming that I get it, alright?"
The demon acknowledged it with a small nod. "Are we… friends again?"
Cyrus smiled. "Yeah. Now, on to the tutoring. I don't want any money," he said, seeing that Yalmireth was about to open his mouth. "But is there something that we could trade instead? Like, I teach you something, you teach me something? Or if you have anything else…"
Yalmireth tilted his head to the side in thought. "Well… you seem to know nothing of demon customs, which is something I am rather familiar with."
A grin spread across Cyrus's face. "That's perfect! How about we make a study time? Let's see… Today's Tuesday… I have Charms after this class, but maybe after that? That way it's still fresh in our minds. I'll teach you for an hour, and then you teach me or an hour, and if we want more time we can just schedule more." And then Cyrus remembered that he had spring break under little red man's abusive stick and a bunch of homework to finish before then. "Wait, crap. I'm going to be away for study break next week and I really need all the time I have to catch up before then. Can we start after that?"
"If that works better for you."
Cyrus smiled, and then the bell signaling the end of class sounded. "I gotta go to my next class. See you at dinner?"
The demon nodded in acknowledgement.
oOo
When Yalmireth joined them at the table on which Tara had long since staked a claim for their use later that night, there was a long, awkward silence before conversation picked up again. Well, until Tara decided she couldn't wait until later to do her customary interroga- er, 'information gathering.'
"So, you two finally kiss and make up?"
Cyrus choked on his lemonade in surprise, and he could tell by Tara's smirk that she'd timed it that way on purpose. He and Yalmireth traded looks over the table, a dark gray blush covering the demon's cheeks. Seeing that Yalmireth wasn't going to start explaining, he set down his drink with a sigh. "Well… yeah."
She raised an eyebrow at his rather lacking explanation. "So… how? You finally pull the sticks out of your asses?"
Cyrus rolled his eyes. "No. Apparently, there's this demon custom… thing. Basically… fight plus breaking table plus burning broken table equals a null friendship. Right?" he looked at Yalmireth questioningly.
The demon nodded. "Garvich taneshka. It is a rather rare custom among my people, but all children learn about it."
Tara's eyebrows rose and she leaned forward curiously. "Really? I've never heard of it before. How's the whole custom work?"
Xanthir snickered. "What's this? The know-it-all Library TA Tara doesn't know everything about everything?"
Tara hit him over the back of the head, driving his face into his spaghetti and meatballs with the force of it. The werewolf had adopted a fascination for Human Realm cuisine in the past couple weeks, though Cyrus had no idea why. "Do I fuckin' look like a demon culture expert, asswipe?"
Xanthir pulled his head out of his lunch and grinned through the sauce covering his face. "Pussy cat."
"Figrish."
"Fairy."
She smacked him again, this time sending him flying across the floor and crashing into someone's chair. She watched with an amused smirk as he had to profusely apologize to the angry goblin whose chair he'd crashed into in order to keep those gnarly hands from snapping his neck.
Cyrus grimaced.
"So," Tara continued, as if nothing had happened in between. "What about this custom?"
Yalmireth, who had been watching the werewolf with a grimace himself, turned his attention to the rather volatile vampire. "Um… If one wishes to completely cut ties with an ally or friend, they… invoke garvich taneshka. After doing so, it is only the invoker who may reestablish ties."
Her lips formed a little 'o'. "So that's why you never talked to Cyrus after that?" When he nodded, she burst into laughter, smacking Cyrus on the back. "Y-you never c-cease to get yourself into this shit, do you?" she got out in between her explosive laughter. "The Obsidian Curse strikes again!"
Cyrus glared at her, but she remained completely unaffected as she continued to howl in laughter, finding far more amusement in the situation than was really necessary. Some of the other students in the hall even started giving their table weird looks.
The human sank in his seat, glaring sullenly at Tara, wondering if she would pick on him less if they weren't so comfortable with each other. He and Yalmireth didn't have that kind of… rapport. Hadn't gone through the same trials through fire that he, Tara, and Xanthir had experienced.
The buzz of his magi-com in his pocket disrupted his train of thoughts, and he pulled it out with some measure of dread. It was either Remus, who had finally gotten his hands on a magi-com, or Ashawyn. Everybody else who would phone him was currently sitting at the table with him.
It was a text, thankfully.
Hey Cy. Want to get together
tonight? I know you're busy
with homework, but everyone
deserves a night off. :)
Ash
Cyrus stared at the message for a moment before snapping the device closed and slipping it back into his pocket. What the hell was he going to do about Ashawyn? He'd been trying not to think about it since yesterday, but now he couldn't avoid the issue any longer. The fae had cheated on Yalmireth a few years ago. Had Ashawyn changed since then? Was he already cheating on Cyrus too? How much did the fae even care, anyway? They'd had sex a couple times, yeah, but apparently the human sex drive didn't match up to that of a fae. Or maybe it was just Cyrus.
And then there was that project that he had agreed to help Ashawyn out with in just under three weeks. Fuck.
"Tara, can I talk to you about something?"
The vampire turned her intelligent, assessing eyes on him and stared him down for a moment before nodding and standing. "We'll be back in a bit, guys."
Xanthir, who had sat back down again looking not just a little ruffled, blinked. "Where you going?"
Tara gave him a look. "If I wanted you to know, I'd tell you." She grabbed Cyrus, who had stood as well, by the arm and pulled them into the shadow of the table. The world spun in darkness for a moment before Cyrus found himself in a room he was only vaguely familiar with. Tara's room. He'd been in it once after the debacle at Shelby's Blood Bath the night Dalesh was killed.
"What's up?" she asked, sitting on her desk and swinging her legs. Cyrus just barely avoided being flashed, as her skirt was so short today.
"I… well… Okay, it's all kind of fucked up. I talked to Yalmireth, and apparently he and Ashawyn used to date until Ashawyn cheated on him."
Her eyebrows rose. "Oh daaaymn." She laughed. "Poor bastard. So you're wondering whether he's cheating on you, too?"
Cyrus shrugged. "Well, it crossed my mind. Really, I don't know what I want to do with the information. Confront him? Leave it? And then there's Yalmireth, again. What if the demon gets pissed off if I just ignore it and keep dating the guy?"
Tara made a thoughtful sound. "First off, you gotta realize that most fae and faerie are not faithful to one partner. Their races are highly polyamorous, even more so than any other species in Other Realm. Chance is he's already fucked someone while he was dating you, unless you've been having sex with him every night."
Cyrus grimaced. "Er, no. We haven't."
She nodded. "In fae culture it's odd to restrict oneself to one partner if there are others that will satisfy as well."
The human scowled and ran a hand through his hair pensively. "How come you don't know as much about demons?"
"I'm never gonna live this one down, am I," she drawled sarcastically, glaring at him. "I'm familiar with demon culture on a superficial level. Fae culture, on the other hand, I've had more experience with." She grinned. "They throw a mean party."
Cyrus felt like smacking his head against the wall. Of course. They partied. So did vampires. "Right. So, if you were me, what would you do?"
Tara shrugged. "Depends what you want out of the relationship. Demons are very loyal, to the point of obsession. Polyamory in demon culture is about as rare as it is in human culture. Fae and vampires are far more flexible sexually. They… the best way to describe it is this: they cultivate sexual relationships like humans do friendships. They have many, and each has its own flavor, flaws, and flame."
Cyrus stared out her large window thoughtfully. He was attracted to Ashawyn, yes. He found the fae very hot, and the sex was good, but… Well, sex wasn't everything, and he didn't even know the guy as well as he knew his friends, and neither Tara nor Xanthir were terribly forthcoming about anything personal. A sigh of annoyance escaped him before he could contain it.
Tara chuckled, drawing his attention back to her. "You look so pensive! Why not just take the sex and leave it at that?"
He scowled. "Because I'm not like you." At her insulted look, he hastily continued, "I mean, maybe I'm too human to date a fae."
She scowled, but didn't call him on it. "Well, if you're going to survive dating someone outside of your species, you're going to have to learn to be more flexible. This'll be a good learning experience for you!" She gave him a condescending, amused grin.
He glared, but she was completely unaffected. "How do I talk to him about something like this?"
She made a thoughtful sound. "He should have known better, choosing to date a human. It may not have even crossed his mind that you'd be angry with him. My suggestion? If you ask him about it, be prepared for the more likely answer. If you decide to leave it, then you still get great sex whenever you want it."
But that wasn't what he wanted. He'd already come to the decision that sex wasn't high enough on his priorities list that he would settle with a… fuck buddy, as Tara would call it. He scowled, irritated with the whole situation. Maybe he should take this as a lesson – don't date a fae unless you're sure you're the only one sleeping in their bed.
Tara patted him on the shoulder, a small smile on her face. "You'll figure it out. Just use your head and try to be open minded. You're in Other Realm now."
He nodded and let her pull him back into the shadows to return to lunch. Well, at least now he knew that it was basically a given that Ashawyn was cheating on him. Now he just had to make sure.
oOo
By the time classes had finished for the day, Cyrus still wasn't sure how he was going to approach the topic of Ashawyn cheating. He'd never been good at diffusing potentially disastrous situations. You'd think with the amount of them he'd been tossed into recently that he would have gotten a little better at it…
"Hey Cyrus! Were you waiting long?" Ashawyn asked as he came to a stop in front of the restaurant Cyrus had told the fae to meet him at.
The human shook his head and let Ashawyn gently lead him inside with a coaxing hand on the small of his back. He watched the fae's handsome, good-natured expressions as he spoke to the waitress in an unfamiliar language and got her to give them a seat by the faerie lights fountain. She blushed a bright red as she led them to their table and gave them menus before bustling away. Cyrus couldn't help but feel just a little annoyed at how easily his boyfriend had charmed the waitress, but then he could just imagine Tara smacking him over the back of the head and telling him he was being stupid.
He sipped his water and drew lines on the fogged surface of the glass. Even if he was being stupid, it didn't get rid of the iron ball sinking in his gut.
"How were your classes today? You get piled under more homework?" Ashawyn asked.
Cyrus nodded. "I have a lot to get done before the break. I'm keeping on top of it so far, but…" He shrugged. The only reason he was here and not doing homework was because the 'what if' kept eating away at him. He needed to know.
A hand reached out and grasped his own, keeping him from doodling more lines on his glass. "You alright?" Ashawyn asked. When Cyrus continued to stare at his glass of water, fingertips caressed his skin. "Did I do something?"
Cyrus told himself to stop being such a pansy and just get it over with. "I heard something that I'm not exactly sure I like."
Ashawyn frowned, looking honestly bewildered. "What was it?"
Cyrus wetted his dry lips. "I have a friend, Yalmireth, who said he dated for you a while, and that you cheated on him." Was that too blunt?
The fae blinked slowly, eyes searching his own. "What is cheating?"
Cyrus felt dizzy for a moment with shock. Did the fae honestly have no idea? Wanting to be a hundred percent sure of Ashawyn's honesty, he sent healing magic into the hand in his own to monitor heart beat. While not fool-proof, it was the least obvious way for him to tell, as unordered magic was much harder to detect and trace.
The fae's heart beat steadily.
Cyrus resisted the urge to sigh. Why couldn't the fae have just been lying and made his life easier? Then he could dump the guy and leave already. "In human and demon culture, it's customary for two people engaged in a sexual or romantic relationship to be loyal to one another."
Ashawyn blinked at him, icy blue eyes glowing slightly in the faerie lights of the fountain. "But I am loyal."
Cyrus shook his head. "No, I mean… faithful." When the fae continued to stare at him blankly, he spelled it out. "Only having sex with that one person."
The fae's eyes widened in shock. "What?" he asked incredulously. "Wha- how- but- that's unnatural!"
It was Cyrus's turn to stare. "Unnatural?"
The fae nodded emphatically. "Yes! What fae stays with one person for the duration of their relationship? That's just… not done."
Cyrus continued to stare. "What about your parents when they had you?"
Ashawyn laughed. "They chose to bond to have children, but not to stay… 'faithful' to that one person. They are loyal to each other as spouses, but they have many other relations." He smiled boyishly, the faerie lights showing off his handsome features in a good light.
Cyrus didn't like how the fae was making him feel like he was the weird one. Was the species gap this large? He wanted to pull his hand out of the fae's, but if he did, he wouldn't have a lie detector anymore. "Ashawyn," he said seriously as the fae began to calm down. "While fidelity is uncommon among your people, it's an important- it's a fundamental aspect of human culture. Have you been having sex with other people while we were dating?"
The fae sobered abruptly, as if only suddenly realizing where this conversation was going. His hand tightened in Cyrus's, and his pulse raced under his cool skin.
"There's no right answer to that question," the fae said quietly.
Cyrus's eyes slipped closed. So the fae had. Carefully, he tried to remove his hand from Ashawyn's, but the fae wouldn't let go. He frowned, opening his eyes again in confusion.
Ashawyn was watching him with serious eyes, foregoing his usual carefree and boyish good humor. "That can't be it. You're just going to leave?" the fae asked, cold expression cracking a bit to show the sadness and hurt beneath.
As if Cyrus wasn't confused enough already. "What do you want me to do? Just ignore the fact that you were having sex with other people while you were dating me? You should have found out more about human sexual customs before you started dating one."
Ashawyn frowned. "I didn't think it would be that different. And since when is the entire responsibility of this on my shoulders alone? Surely you could have found out more about my culture in turn?"
Cyrus bit back a nasty comment at that. As much as Cyrus didn't want to admit it, Ashawyn had a point. "Why did you decide to date me, then?"
Ashawyn tilted his head to the side curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Why, if you're not doing the normal human boyfriend thing, did you want to date me?"
The fae stared at him. "The sex is great, of course."
Cyrus cleared his throat. "Yeah, but is it any more than that?"
Ashawyn seemed genuinely perplexed. "I… enjoy hanging out with you?"
"…"
"Uh… the thing you do with your magic is hot?"
Cyrus frowned. "What? What thing with the magic."
Ashawyn grinned. "You know. When we had sex the first time, and you did that… magic thing."
Cyrus's eyes widened slightly as he remembered the whole magic-sucking incident. "You found that hot?"
"Very."
Oh. Well that was… interesting.
"So… are we okay?" Ashawyn asked hopefully.
The human honestly didn't know what to say to that. "I don't know."
The fae pouted slightly, reclaiming his hand and rubbing a thumb tantalizingly over the skin. "What's there to not know? You enjoy the sex, right? Why does it have to be any more complicated than that?"
Cyrus shrugged. "I think it's a human thing. I just…" Was it wrong to just want one, faithful person to be with? Was that unrealistic? Was he expecting too much from someone who just didn't understand? Could he even explain it to Ashawyn so the fae would understand?
"You just what?" Ashawyn prodded. "What isn't working for you?"
Cyrus let out a frustrated sigh, trying to put to words exactly what he was looking for. "I want someone for just me. Someone faithful to just me. And…"
Ashawyn tilted his head to the side curiously when Cyrus ran out of words to articulate his convoluted feelings. "And…?"
An image of Severus leaning over Remus's shoulder to glance at the paper came to mind, two coffees in hand that the vampire had prepared for them both, knowing exactly how Remus liked it. The comfortable ease as they sat in the living room, reading books or just enjoying each other's company over a glass of wine. The way conversations passed between their eyes when Cyrus was in the same room, the two of them following it with the ease of a couple familiar with each other to a point of… He wanted that. He wanted that connection, that understanding.
But how could he explain it so Ashawyn would understand?
"I want someone who knows when I don't want to talk. I want them to help pull my ass out of the fire when I do something stupid. I want them to…" To care about him as much as he cared about them, and say those cheesy words that everyone laughs at but really wants to hear. "I want someone who understands me."
Comprehension slowly dawned in Ashawyn's eyes, and the fae looked both disappointed and slightly guilty. "I see… You're looking for a bonded." Slowly, a nostalgic smile spread across his lips as he finally let go of Cyrus's hand. "I don't think I can give you that. But, I'd like it if we could still be friends in spite of our misunderstanding."
Cyrus nodded, feeling as though a weight had lifted off his chest. The human understood what he wanted now, and Ashawyn wasn't it. Even though the fae hadn't been a bad boyfriend, he might make a better friend. "Yeah."
Ashawyn grinned. "Great. And if you ever change your mind about the… well, you know where to find me."
Cyrus couldn't help but snort and roll his eyes with good humor. Of course the fae couldn't help but slip in a pick up line. But really, he should have expected it by now.
This would prove to be an 'interesting' friendship.
oOo
The rest of the week passed with high tension all around. People gossiped about the amount of werewolves dying, as not everyone had a contract with the Aengar to get treatment. Cyrus suspected that the poisonings were the root of the problem, but with no one in those packs confirming the problem, some very odd theories began to spread. Some of them were pretty out there, but others had started connecting the dots with the amount of poison cases at the Aengar facilities. Personally, Cyrus wished the vampires trying to hunt down Dorcas would find him and kill him already. If the poisonings persisted, he'd end up spending more time with the Adelphos Pack than at Shikaan. He felt a little guilty at not healing all the other people who were dying, but he knew that he couldn't save everyone. There was also the problem of people wanting to take advantage of his abilities. Putting himself on the radar at this point, before he had even finished his education, was not a wise decision.
Thursday's practical with Claerant went well enough although Cyrus had screwed up or forgotten some of the curses, but since she hadn't been pissed at him, he knew he'd done a good job. She was temperamental that way. If someone didn't put their full effort into her class, she'd threaten them with curses too obscure to know the counters for and then blame their rotting limbs or dissolving eyelids on their lack of work ethic.
When Necromancy class with Mikhail on Friday was finally over, Cyrus got a text from Yankovich on his magi-com telling him to go to the demon's office for his 'spring break in paradise'. Having already prepared his stuff ahead of time (read: packed everything he could think of needing into his bag), he paid a quick trip to his room to pick up his things before apparating in front of Yankovich's door.
Lifting his fist to knock, he was surprised when the door swung open before he could even touch it. The little red man from earlier stood there, cane in hand, scar-twisted face even more twisted by the smile on his lips.
"Come, human," the gnarly old man said through a thick accent, turning around and wobbling farther into the room.
Cyrus did as instructed, curious and worried at the same time. What if it was impossible for him to learn control? What if the little red dude didn't like him? What if he blew them both up?
"Silent. Chaotic mind is too loud, must be quiet." The little man tapped his cane on the ground. "Lessons will begin now. Hand," he commanded, holding out his own.
Cyrus stared at it for a moment before grasping it with his own. The world disappeared in warmth and fire.
oOo
"No! Silent! Must be silent. Are too loud!"
Cyrus shivered his ass off under the water fall and poured more power into the spell currently keeping him from hypothermia. How was he supposed to stop thinking when he was fucking freezing his ass off?
The walking stick hit him on the arm, and he grunted and moved with the attack to lessen the impact. This was worse than lessons with Yankovich already. "How am I supposed to meditate when you keep hitting me with that bloody stick of yours?"
It smacked him again. "You must work harder to not be distracted!"
"How is meditation supposed to help with this? I've already tried learning how to meditate! It doesn't do anything."
He found himself kicked out of the waterfall and sent flying into the freezing cold water of the river. Sputtering, since he had never been a very good swimmer, he used his magic to force the water to part for him and walked up to the shore.
The little red man was sitting there, cross-legged, with a mighty scowl on his face. Cyrus wasn't sure exactly what the guy was pissed about, but he could guess.
"Sit."
He sat on the damp grass and tried to keep a matching scowl off his face as he evaporated the water off him with a spell.
"You will tell me about self. How you learn wandless magic. This 'meditation' you have done."
The human blinked in surprise at the rather abrupt change in tactics. "Uh… okay. My guardian tried to teach me Occlumency and I failed miserably. Meditation never did anything for me, and I never understood why I was doing it and why it was supposed to help me 'find my mind'. In the end he had to show me how to find my magic before I could find my mind."
The old man hummed thoughtfully, tapping his cane against his knee. "Had to find magic first… hm… How have you found wandless magic? Easy? Hard?"
Cyrus shrugged. "Easy for the most part."
"Hm. Is unusual for human to find easy."
Cyrus frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The little red guy didn't look the least bit sorry for insulting him. "Humans learned magic. Fae, elves, demons… always knew magic. Have better connection with magic. You have good connection with magic. Is unusual for human. You know reason why?"
Cyrus frowned in thought. What was different about him that could explain that one? "Well… I'm a magic sensitive, and…"
The scarred face tilted to one side. "And?" He impatiently prodded Cyrus with his cane.
"Well…" He nursed his new wound. "I don't know if this makes a difference or not, but there's something wrong with my mind. What did Rivehn call it…" He wracked his brain for the word, but couldn't seem to find it. "Fra… fractured… fractus mens? Something like that."
"I know not Latin. Explain."
Cyrus frowned. "Um… I'm not exactly sure what it means."
The little red man tapped his cane impatiently again. "You will show me," he said decisively, putting his hand on the human's knee.
The world exploded into darkness.
Cyrus 'woke' to find himself floating in his magic, confused as all hell. Spreading out his senses, he found the red guy's 'consciousness' floating around examining him. Knowing he wouldn't be able to communicate like this, he found his submerged mind web in his core and pulled it out into the empty space that it used to occupy. Just as he was about to hit the clasp to unlock it, he found the red guy 'watching' him and conveying question. Knowing they wouldn't be able to talk until he had the mindscape set up, he hit the clasp and watched as the mind web exploded into the space around them, flexing and stretching before it 'settled'.
With a mental tweak, he brought them to his mindscape.
The graveyard had changed slightly since he'd last seen it, but for the most part it was familiar. He found the little red guy poking around curiously.
"Don't damage anything," Cyrus warned cautiously. "The headstones and scenery are representations of the web that you saw earlier. If you blow something up, it directly damages my mind. The nodes you saw earlier are my memories."
"Hmm," was all the man said for a moment, poking things. "You are… unique case. I read about this." He let loose a string of that demon language that made no sense to Cyrus. "Have adapted new way of protecting mind, too." He nodded decisively. "I will change teaching. Have not had student like you before. You are magic sensitive, yes? Can feel magic everywhere?"
Cyrus nodded. "For the most part. I've been getting better, but I don't really know what I'm doing. Haven't had anyone train me." Though, he did have those lessons with Catchpool that he could start once he got back. He'd have to make sure he gave Yalmireth two hours next week, though, before he could collect on his time with her.
The little demon nodded. "We will leave. I will show meditation through magic." With a pop, the old man disappeared from his mindscape.
Cyrus let the graveyard disappear in order to recompress and sink it before leaving the 'not space' to return to the real world.
The rest of the day passed with Cyrus trying to learn how to 'become one' with the magic in nature instead of just in his own body, which felt like trying to turn his head to the right and left at the same time. It wasn't until they'd spent three days exercising his awareness and 'communion' with the natural and death magics around him that Gyrdrich finally let him try a raising, though.
"Focus. Raising figrish takes little energy. Use only drop." The little red man, who Cyrus had learned was actually a fire demon, prodded the dead, flying pig with his stick.
Taking in a deep, Cyrus sucked his normal magic back into his core and let the death magic escape. It did so in a rush, not having been used in a long time. Cursing out loud, he tried to get it back under control, reaching for his Linmeyelle.
"No Linmeyelle. Is crutch," he heard Gyrdrich's voice as the fire demon moved through the roaring cloud of his death magic as though it was smoke and he had a bubble charm around him. "Death magic is unhappy that you do not use it. Channel it into death magics of nature."
"How do I do that?" he shouted, watching as it leached into the earth and started killing all the grass around him. Why was Gyrdrich just standing there?
"You can sense death magics! Use sense and figure out!"
Cursing under his breath, Cyrus tried to remember everything they had covered in the past three days. Stretch out the senses for the leylines and flow of magic. Synchronize with them and feel the flow of life and death energies…
Awareness was slow to come at first, with all the death magic flying about and confusing him. Ignoring it for a minute, he sent his focus into the earth and looked for the death and natural magic that was continuously cycling within.
Abruptly, he hit the network and almost lost himself in the ripping tide of power beneath his feet. Gathering his own death magic, he directed it into one of the 'death' streams and watched as the surplus happily left him to rejoin the earth until he finally had just a small amount left. Letting out an explosive breath as his death magic hummed happily under his skin, he opened his eyes.
And promptly stared in shock at his absolutely decayed surroundings. Everything within thirty feet of him had been killed, except for the little patch of grass on which Gyrdrich stood.
The red demon didn't look fazed in the least. "You are like raging Tariknach. Must teach control and restraint."
As Cyrus looked around at the blackened earth, he couldn't help but let out groan of dismay. Wasn't that the truth.
Gyrdrich devoted the rest of the week to enhancing his control, and teaching him how to channel excess magic into the earth without killing everyone around him. It took a lot of time and effort, but slowly his explosions of power became less volatile and destructive. It was with great reluctance that he left at the end of the week.
"Keep practice. Much to learn before become necromancer, but much potential there is. Is not gift that can be ignored."
Cyrus bowed in thanks to his new 'master', as he'd been trained to under threat of stick. "Thank you Master Gyrdrich for taking the time to teach me this past week."
The demon made one of those noncommittal, thoughtful hums as he pulled at his white beard. "I be speaking to Yankovich through fire. Much more I will teach before you are ready to be apprentice of my pupil."
Cyrus frowned slightly. "Apprentice?"
The demon whacked him with his stick. "Yes, apprentice! Cannot be such powerful idiot student and not become apprentice! Would be waste."
The human nursed his wounded shin with a groan. He hadn't even been thinking about who he was going to apprentice to, if he was going to apprentice to anyone at all. His top priority at the moment was just surviving his four years at Shikaan. "But what if I wanted to apprentice in Runes or something else?"
He got another whack for his question. "Idiot! Can apprentice in two things. Hard, but can do. I not be spending weekends for next years so idiot can choose not to be Master Necromancer!"
Eyes widening slightly, Cyrus wondered if he'd heard that right. "Wait, what? You're going to keep teaching me?"
The stubborn little old demon nodded decisively. "Yankovich and I be talking. Is bad news and good news."
A cold ball of iron dropped into Cyrus's stomach. "Talking? What bad news?"
Again with that ponderous beard-petting. It – and the silence – were beginning to drive the human crazy. Finally, just when he was about to blow up and ask again, the demon spoke. "You pulled from Necromancy at Shikaan. No more class. Instead, you be having lessons with me on weekends." When Cyrus's jaw dropped in shock, the little red man continued. "Class was stupid idea. I tell Yankovich this. I tell him you danger to students, and will learn more, better, as single student. When you been taught control, maybe Yankovich take you back in class. Maybe."
Cyrus was fighting between being pissed and being hurt that Yankovich had just abandoned him like that and kicked him out of the class. Could he even do that? Biting his lip, he forced the indignant response he wanted to let loose back inside. Gyrdrich didn't take kindly to what he viewed as petulance or immaturity of any kind. "Do I have to pay you or something?"
The demon laughed, and it wasn't pleasant in the least. It sounded like he was trying to cough up a lung. "Money? Look like need money?" he coughed, motioning to his little hermit shack and the surrounding forestry. "No, pay no money. What do is this – work hard, become Yankovich apprentice, and do favors for me. Student teacher favors. None of vampire crap idea of favor. Understand?" Cyrus nodded. "Good. Now leave, Tariknach! Before you kill more trees," the old man barked in dismissal.
The human couldn't help but smile slightly as he bowed again and disapparated. If there was one thing he'd learned in the past week under Gyrdrich's tutelage, was the little red-skinned demon was a brilliant, crotchety old bugger.
oOo
"Cyrus! You're back!" Tara exclaimed excitably after he apparated into his room. He barely managed to avoid the first full-body tackle, but on the second attack he wasn't nearly so lucky. Groaning as he was sent crashing to the floor, he stared at the top of Tara's head incredulously.
"Honestly. Who gave you drugs?"
Tara giggled and snuggled his neck, pulling down his body suit so she could sink her fangs into it. "I missed your blood Cyyy. Tastes sooo good~"
Xanthir watched from the bed with an 'I'm-glad-she's-attacking-you-and-stopped-harrassing-me' expression on his face. "The idiot fae she last drank from has been consumin' a wide variety of drugs to stay conscious for a really important test he's gonna be takin'. He didn't think to tell Tara this before she drank, though, so she's pretty… high."
Tara finally pulled her fangs out and licked the wound clean, healing it with magic. Giggling, she stumbled to her feet and left Cyrus on the floor in his daze. Letting her drink from his addictive blood while in this state probably wasn't a good idea.
"Look Xany, I can flllyyy~"
"Tara! Get down from the window!"
Cyrus watched Tara bounce across his walls and nearly knock over his book shelf before he got sick of it. Wandlessly opening his window, he waited until she was directly in between him and it before sending a concussive force of magic that sent her flying out the window.
Xanthir stared at him for one long second of comical shock before running to the window. "Well look at that, she really can fly. Nice job, Cy! Why didn't I think of that…" the werewolf muttered to himself as he whistled a happy tune and skipped out of the room.
Why had Cyrus decided to come to this school again?
Fortunately, Xanthir dragged Tara home before she could destroy his rooms, leaving him to an eerie peace and quiet as he finished up the last of his assignments. The absence of a roaring waterfall made his thoughts nostalgically return to his last week of death magic training, but he forced them back onto the task at hand.
Well, he tried to. But his brain kept running that last conversation he'd had with Gyrdrich over and over again. Kicked out of Necromancy. On the bright side, he had one less class to go to and do homework assignments for. But on the downside, all that work he'd done so far was basically flushed down the toilet. Fucking Yankovich.
Letting out an angry huff of air, he finished up his homework so he could go to bed and ignore the world for a bit.
The morning came faster than he wanted it to, though that was hardly a surprise. He got his ass handed to him by another werewolf student in Weapons & Battle, which did little to alleviate his already foul mood. On the bright side, he only had two classes for the entire day (W&B and Runes), since he'd been kicked out of Necromancy and he'd dropped Animagus ages ago. Rivehn had a pop quiz for them in Runes, but it wasn't particularly hard for anyone who'd actually been doing the work so far. He left for lunch in a moderately better mood.
Cyrus was the first to their table, and since he'd had to usual table. Cyrus murmured a greeting and quickly ordered some food to fill his grumbling stomach. He'd had to skip breakfast to make it to classes that morning, so his first order of business was to fill the empty pit.
Xanthir, who had stayed behind to ask Rivehn about something, met them at their table when Cyrus was already halfway through his lunch. "So, apparently we're going to be touching on Wards in the next month or so."
Cyrus nearly coughed up a lung as he choked on his lasagna. Taking a large gulp of water, he tried to clear his wind pipe and wash down the phlegm. "Seriously?" he rasped. "I thought we weren't going to look at that until next year in Warding."
Xanthir shrugged. "I dunno. It wasn't on the course outline, but apparently learning pycarian theorium isn't really important anymore. Rivehn said something about some guy doing his thesis on disproving how legit it was, and most of the Runes Masters approved it."
Cyrus frowned. "What?"
Tara, who had thrown herself into a seat while Xanthir was explaining, snorted. "Honestly, Cyrus. You know nothing about the academic world, do you? New shit's constantly being figured out, and old theories get tossed out the window all the time. It just so happens that the latest breakthrough fucked up Rivehn's curriculum, so he replaced it with something else until shit settles."
Cyrus said nothing to that for fear that he sound like an even bigger idiot. Just because he wasn't into all that academic crap didn't mean that he was stupid, though Tara certainly made it sound that way sometimes.
"If you wanna be a Master at something in the future, you gotta keep up with current events and research, Cyrus. Better to get in the habit earlier rather than later."
The human grumbled and stuffed some more lasagna in his mouth. Yeah. Just like he had to somehow teach himself a shit load of other stuff that his friends couldn't help him with because they were just as busy. There was a reason Tara usually charged sex or money for her time. She was doing a triple masters or some crazy shit, and Xanthir had to work twice as hard as Cyrus to figure things out in Runes class, which was his focus for after he graduated.
He was so signing up for those summer culture courses. He'd finally looked into it a bit last night before going to bed, and apparently most of the seminars, camps, or classes were held at prestigious private schools or equally stuck-up specialized schools.
"Hello," Yalmireth greeted softly as he sat down at their table. Everyone else responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Cyrus just nodded his head, as his mouth was full of more lasagna. "Cyrus, could we talk after lunch? About Wandless?"
The human nodded, swallowing his lasagna. "Yeah, sure." For a second there he thought the demon was going to say Ashawyn. That would have been awkward. They'd avoided that topic for the most part so far, though apparently it had gotten around that he and the cute Necromancy TA (Ashawyn) were no longer dating. How that happened when no one had been there to witness the break up was beyond Cyrus. Maybe Ashawyn was already dating someone else publicly?
After everyone had finished eating, Yalmireth and Cyrus headed automatically back to the human's rooms. "So, is this about the tutoring?"
The demon nodded. "Yes. I was hoping you'd be able to help me before class tomorrow."
Well, he didn't have Necromancy anymore. "Yeah, sure. I could tutor you right now if you wanted."
Yalmireth frowned. "Don't you have class?"
"I… it's complicated. I'm just not taking it anymore."
He could tell by the look on Yalmireth's face that the demon wanted to say more, but thankfully he respected Cyrus's privacy on the matter. Instead, they made their way to one of the smaller rooms designed specifically for magic training. A couple people were already inside, as was inevitable, but Cyrus simply cast a privacy ward around them to deter all but the most stubborn of ears.
"Alright, so what exactly have you been having trouble with?"
Yalmireth flushed a darker shade of gray. "Everything."
The human blinked. "That's a bit broad. Think you can narrow it down to something in particular you want to work on?"
Looking thoughtfully at one of the spell dummies, Yalmireth paused for a while before coming up with a response. "I've made my magic distribution more even, like you suggested the first time we met. It helped some things, but not others."
Cyrus hummed thoughtfully. "What did it help?"
"Charms mostly. Easy ones. But I still can't cast any offensive or defensive magic."
Cyrus turned Yalmireth towards the spell dummy and put his hand on the demon's casting arm. "Cast a charm that comes easily to you," he commanded quietly, focusing on his magical senses. His week with Gyrdrich had done more than just help his channeling of death magic – his understanding of his magic sensitivity had also increased significantly. In order to teach him some things, Gyrdrich had had him use his magic sensitivity to feel what the red demon was doing. He was hoping that, by doing the same thing, he would be able to 'feel' what Yalmireth was doing wrong.
He felt the magic charge under his fingers, pooling in the arm in preparation for the spell casting. Before the spell was even cast, Cyrus was already frowning. He'd never cast spells this way himself. Pooling the magic and then casting? He'd always just measured the amount it took and used it directly from his core, channeling it through his pathways. So the question was, did he break Yalmireth of this habit or let him continue it?
The charm itself was cast successfully. The pooled magic was all used up in the spell, and Cyrus frowned again. He knew where this was going, now. "Yalmireth, try to cast an offensive or defensive spell next."
The magic pooled in the arm again, except when the demon tried to cast the spell all the pooled magic was used and then the spell shorted out. He could see it now. "Well, your first problem is that you shouldn't be pooling your magic in your arm like this before you cast the spell. By pooling it there and casting it from that temporary reservoir of magic, you unintentionally cheat the spell you're trying to cast out of how much magic it needs. Spells must be cast from the core, not from a pool of magic that you create in your limbs. Now, do the charm again, except this time pull the magic directly from your core."
Automatically, magic started pooling in the arm again, so Cyrus told him to stop and try again, which resulted in ten minutes of frustration before Yalmireth threw his hands up.
"I'm not getting it! I don't understand what I'm doing wrong! I mean, I understand what you're saying, but I don't understand how to do it the way you want me to." The demon was breathing heavily, frustrated with himself, Cyrus, and probably his magic too. "It sounds so simple when you describe it, but I still can't do it."
Cyrus was beginning to understand what Severus felt like when he was trying to teach the human Occlumency. "Listen, Yalmireth, this isn't something you can just give up on after ten minutes. We're trying to break you of a habit. You're used to doing it this way."
The demon looked about ready to kick the spell dummy, but he refrained. "I wish I could feel it as you do. Maybe then I would understand how to change it."
Cyrus opened his mouth to answer, but froze as his brain caught up with the idea Yalmireth had just spouted. Well… why couldn't he? "You want to try that? See if it works?" he asked hesitantly.
The demon turned to him with an unreadable expression on his face. "What do you mean?"
"The whole… feeling thing."
"I can't sense magic like you can, Cyrus, or even other demons can. I've always been…" The demon crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively. "It is a weakness I have fought with my entire life. It is the reason I do not succeed easily in areas of magical study."
Cyrus made a thoughtful sound as his brain churned over some epiphany he hadn't quite vocalized to himself yet. He knew… he just had this feeling that he could do something. Sure, Yalmireth couldn't sense magic worth shit, but he could sense his own magic enough to use it, right? So maybe he just needed to be shown how to do it right. But if he couldn't feel how Cyrus moved his own magic, maybe… maybe he could feel how Cyrus moved Yalmireth's magic!
"I have an idea."
The demon looked up from his brooding with a hopeful look on his face.
"I don't know if it'll work, but it's better to try than to not try at all." Cyrus walked towards the demon and held out placating hands. "But you're going to have to trust me." When Yalmireth bit his lip and nodded hesitantly, the human continued forward and slipped around behind Yalmireth, avoiding the wings. "This is going to feel weird, but you have to let me in, okay? Don't fight it, or I'm going to be in a lot of pain."
Seeing the hesitant nod again, Cyrus quietly ordered Yalmireth to stay relaxed as he pressed his front to Yalmireth's back. The demon jerked at first as Cyrus made contact with his wings, before remembering his promise and trying to relax. Slipping his hands around Yalmireth's wrists, he brought the arms up and forward, aiming them at the dummies. Slipping his fingers between the demon's own, he mentally checked that their channels were aligned before he gently 'knocked' on the door between them. Yalmireth jerked again, before remembering and calming again. Focused entirely on his task, Cyrus slowly nudged the door open between them before walking through.
Yalmireth's magic was much different than his own. The flavor was unique and spicy, if it could even be called a flavor. Maybe it was more of a feeling? Either way, Cyrus got a good feel for the demon's channels before searching for the core.
It wasn't much smaller than his own when he compared them, but when he tried to pull the magic up for casting a spell, it was far more… thin. Not quite as densely compact as his own. Already knowing how much magic it took Yalmireth to cast that color-changing charm, he pulled it forward, through the channels, and cast it directly from the hand.
Or rather, he would have if Yalmireth hadn't freaked out before the spell could be complete. Letting out a yell of pain, Cyrus pulled back into himself and pushed away from the demon, feeling as though someone had raked over him with many sharp forks before flattening him with a frying pan. He felt… achy and stingy.
"Cyrus! I'm so sorry, I was- I didn't expect- I'm sorry!"
Forcing his eyes open through the waves of pain, he saw Yalmireth kneeling next to him looking nearly beside himself with concern. Blinking hazily through the pain, he forced himself into an upright position and grimaced as his sore body complained. Damnit. He'd been hoping to avoid this.
Yalmireth was still apologizing profusely, so Cyrus held up a hand to silence him. "It's alright. Calm down. Just… try not to do it again, okay? You need to be completely relaxed and let me take control. If you try to fight it… well, this happens." Massaging his temples, he looked more closely at his friend beside him. Yalmireth's face was a lot darker than normal. Was he blushing?
"O-of course. I'm sorry."
Cyrus let the demon help him to his feet, and he brushed some of the dirt off his ass once he was steady. "Okay, let's try that again. Ready?"
Yalmireth nodded, but said nothing, turning his back to Cyrus quickly. Frowning at the odd behavior, the human shrugged it off and resumed his previous position. Getting inside Yalmireth's magic was a lot easier this time, now that the demon knew what it was supposed to feel like, but Cyrus was far more careful once he got his hands on the magic.
"Okay, now I'm going to cast the charm," he warned, cautious. "Try to remember the feel of it being cast directly from your core instead of pooled in your arm."
Moving slowly, much more slowly than he was ever accustomed to casting, Cyrus drew the magic from the core in a solid rope, leading it to the hand. Since it was connected to the core still, and not in a pool, it would be far easier for him to compensate for the spell depending on how much magic it took. "Alright, I'm casting it now."
The magic formed to his will with ease, as if he'd been manipulating Yalmireth's magic for months. It came alive under his direction and happily jumped forward to form the charm he was asking of it. The spell execution was flawless, and the leftover magic 'rope' returned to the core with a gentle nudge from Cyrus.
"Did you feel that? Can you see how it's different?"
Yalmireth swallowed and nodded, eliciting a frown from Cyrus.
"Uh, good. Do you want to try something a little bigger now to get the feel for it?"
Again, the demon just nodded instead of speaking, so Cyrus brushed it off and focused his intent on a stupefy and drew the rope forward again. "This time we're going to cast it from your left arm. With wandless magic, it makes no difference where you cast the spell from, as long as you direct it properly and give it the right intent. Like Catchpool talked about before, wandless magic is all about will and intent, but you have to be careful not to force your magic to do things the way you think they should be done. If you focus merely on the intent, often your magic will flow in the correct way without you having to force it. It's when you try to control every single step of casting that you begin to run into problems. Once you figure it out the first time, your brain and body remember it, so you don't need to think so deeply about every single spell you cast." And so with that little lecture, he cast a stupefy from Yalmireth's left hand with ease. It felt a lot different than his own magic, but since Yalmireth wasn't fighting him, he didn't have any difficulty directing the magic. "Your turn. Try to cast it. Remember, intent."
Keeping his hands and body where they were, he watched with careful senses as Yalmireth pulled a shaky rope up from his core. "Keep it stronger. Be sure of your magic when you manipulate it. If you're worried and tentative, it will be worried and tentative." Slowly but surely, the rope began to strengthen and smooth over until it was nearly as good as Cyrus's had been. "Very good. Now, cast the spell. Remember – intent. Your magic will do the work for you, so just let it. Trust it."
The first spell sputtered and died in Yalmireth's hands, and he felt the demon tense. "Relax. Trust it. I've shown you that you can do it, you just need to have the same faith in yourself."
The demon took a deep breath and tried again. This time, the spell was successful and missed the dummy altogether. "Not bad. That was good. Now, focus on where you intend for the spell to go, as well as how powerful you want it to be. Keep in mind, though, that certain spells can only be overpowered to a certain point before the magic shorts out."
The next spell was even better, and managed to hit the dummy on the arm instead of miss it altogether. It was still weak overall, but that was probably due to the fact that not only did Yalmireth's magic have less volume than Cyrus's did, it was also not nearly as densely packed. After all, if someone had Cyrus's amount of magic and it had the same density as Yalmireth's, the core would have exploded past his body years ago.
"See? You're doing it!" Cyrus cheered on behind Yalmireth with a grin. Slowly extricating himself, he watched as Yalmireth cast the stupefy over and over again, becoming more and more confident with each successful casting.
Finally, after nearly two minutes of continuous casting, Yalmireth stopped and turned to Cyrus with a bright smile on his face that lit his eyes up like stars. "I can do it!" he exclaimed, excited.
Cyrus returned the smile with a grin. "Yep. Want to try a few other spells you've been having trouble with?"
The demon nodded eagerly.
oOo
Yalmireth made leaps and bounds in Wandless since they'd figured out his primary problem with the larger spells. He still had a lot of trouble figuring them out the first time, but all the spells that Cyrus had shown Yalmireth were remembered. Of course, since Cyrus wouldn't always be there to show him each spell, their next hurdle was helping Yalmireth figure it out on his own.
They continued their tutoring sessions for the next few days, since Yalmireth was on a roll. Even Catchpool had come up to Cyrus after class and congratulated him on 'teaching the blind how to see'. He thought that was a little harsh of her, but she didn't seem to care that she was bashing a student in the least. It seemed to be a theme at Shikaan.
Things flowed smoothly enough until Thursday, when Cyrus started feeling woozy during lunchtime. He wasn't sure what the heck was wrong with him, but he tried to push through it and go to Wandless with Yalmireth. Thankfully, the demon was excited enough that he didn't notice that Cyrus wasn't exactly 'all there'. If there was one thing that made the human feel awkward, it was people getting up in his face about his health. At the Dursleys' he'd been forced to fend for himself, and now that he actually knew how to heal himself, he avoided going to Svea for most things.
And this was no exception. He made sure to drink a lot of fluids, but the headache and dizziness wasn't going away. Every exam he did on himself came up with nothing that he could see, however, so he dismissed it as a bug and decided to go to bed right after his last class for the day. He probably had the flu, or his weird illness was acting up again.
He nearly stumbled out of Wandless at the end of the period, using every ounce of his strength to keep himself upright and somewhat steady. Yalmireth was watching him with concerned eyes now, but Cyrus brushed off his questions with a smile and an 'I'm fine' before he continued to his last class of the day – Charms. They were learning the basics of how weapon enchantment worked, so he didn't want to miss it.
Sitting down on one of the chairs strewn around the half-circle of tables, he rubbed his forehead and cast another diagnostic charm. What the heck was wrong with him? He couldn't figure it out, and all he wanted to do was sleep, but the enchantment…
"Are you going to cure that or what?" a quiet, sharp voice spoke beside him.
Blinking blearily, Cyrus turned to his left and saw a familiar face next to him. Where did he know… oh right. This was that vampire he'd saved and who'd bitten him. "What?" he asked eloquently.
The vampire looked annoyed. "You haven't even noticed?"
Cyrus opened his mouth to ask what he was talking about, but then Professor Dugasse came inside and they all instantly shut up. He wasn't the most cheerful of teachers on a good day, so everyone was always on their best behavior. He had no compunctions with hexing his students into silence.
"Today we're working on magical enchantment. I hope you've all brought silver or gold blades like I told you to. If you're rich, you brought an expensive alloy that was actually designed for this shit. Now, put them on the table in front of you and follow my directions exactly. If you want metal shrapnel exploding in your face, don't listen to me. Kindly aim your stupidity away from the other student, though. Common courtesy and all that." He snapped his wand at the board and a complex list of instructions appeared. "Now, as I was saying last week…"
But Cyrus couldn't seem to get himself to focus. His head was starting to fill with cotton, and stomach was bugging him.
A hand slapped down on the table in front of him, startling him out of his thoughts. "Mr. Obsidian. We all know you're good in this class, but even you will fuck it up if you're not even listening to me." When Cyrus just stared at him, he frowned. "Hello? Anybody home?"
The rest of the class was beginning to snicker, but Cyrus ignored them as he felt his stomach begin to churn painfully. Damnit. What the hell was wrong with him?
A hand grabbed him and yanked him to his feet, shocking him out of his pain-filled daze. "Excuse us, Professor. I think he's not feeling too well at the moment," Cyrus absently heard the quiet but smooth voice say as he was lead from the room and into the hallway. The abrupt movement sent his stomach roiling unpleasantly, and as soon as they were outside the classroom he had to conjure a bucket and empty the contents of his stomach into it. Merlin, why did he feel like shit?
"This wouldn't have happened if you'd taken care of it earlier."
Something sliced his hand, the only available skin not hidden by his suit besides his face, and he let out an outraged "Hey!" Or at least, that had been his intent. It came out sounding thready and weak. He watched through bleary eyes as the vampire did something with it, casting a series of spells and watching the resulting flashes of colour. Slowly, two black eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Do you realize how lucky you are to be alive?"
Cyrus frowned, fuzzy brain trying to comprehend the situation. He was still lost. "What are you talking about?" he asked impatiently, irritable with the way the vampire had manhandled him and his ever-growing headache.
"You've been poisoned, idiot," the vampire drawled. "How you could have not noticed is beyond my comprehension."
Cyrus's frown grew. "Poisoned? But I already checked for that."
"Obviously not thoroughly enough. Or by the time you noticed, your brain capacity had already dropped to a point where diagnostic spells were useless."
Had Cyrus's intelligence just been insulted? His headache was getting worse. He spaced out for a second before he found himself being manhandled again, this time to lean against the marble wall of the corridor.
"Sit still and shut up," the vampire muttered, pulling out his wand and casting a series of spells. "Hmm. This is… interesting."
Cyrus blinked languidly. "Whazintristing?"
"Your body… is fighting off the poison. I don't know if it would have managed to completely neutralize it, but let's not take that chance." The vampire reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, wooden box. Opening it, he searched inside for a moment before pulling out a tiny vial. With another cast spell, it enlarged. "Open your mouth."
Cyrus gave him a look. "How d'I know y'aren't gon'poison me too?"
The vampire sneered. "If I wanted you dead, I would have left you to slowly melt from the inside out."
Now that was a logic that couldn't be easily disputed. "Why help me?" he asked, still not sure he shouldn't be going to Svea instead.
"Because I don't like being in someone's debt," the adolescent said before shoving the vial into Cyrus's mouth. The human swallowed without further questions, not that he could speak around a glass vial in the first place. It tasted nasty enough to be a legit potion, at least.
He hated potions.
Though, after a few minutes, he had to admit his head was clearing up, and he didn't feel quite so hot anymore. Turning his magical senses inward, he tried to look for the poison that he'd missed the first time.
He caught it this time. Well, it was hard not to when it was trying to dissolve his cells and fighting against the cure at the same time. Well, as much as a poison could fight. Or whatever. Obviously his brain still wasn't functioning at full capacity…
"How many fingers am I holding up?" the vampire asked him.
Cyrus gave him an incredulous look. "None."
"You'll live," he said. And then began to walk away.
"Hey, wait a minute!" The dark-haired vampire turned back around, yellow eyes questioning, and the only thing Cyrus could think of to say was, "What's your name?"
"Pyralis," the vampire said before he turned around and walked away without another word.
Cyrus frowned, staring after this new quandary with confused and curious eyes. What, were they 'even' now or something? Vampires were so weird.
Before he could ponder on his new… acquaintance, however, his magi-com started buzzing impatiently in his pocket. Letting out a sigh, he pulled it out and flipped it open.
It took a couple of moments for the text message to register, as his brain was still fuzzy from his near-death poisoning… thing.
Hey Cyrus, just wanted
to remind you that this
weekend is my test that
you said you'd help with.
I'll come pick you up at
your room at 1 pm on
Saturday.
Thanks, you're a life
saver!
Ash
Aw shit. He'd forgotten all about that. Now he not only had to spend a weekend with his ex-boyfriend-still-friend, but he had to suffer the presence of Mikhail-Mr.-Creepy. He'd been hoping, with his being kicked out of Necromancy, that he wouldn't have to see that elf again.
Damnit.
-Toki Mirage-
This really took a while. :P Sorry for that peeps! Had the last stretch of school to finish, and travel, and then the editing… But it's done now. And chapter 26 is already on the way.
I'd like to thank Roos and Marms for musing/editing the chapter. Even if they taunted me at the end there. (glares) You know what I'm talking about.
Ehm… for those of you who think that Cyrus was too accepting and stuff about the break up – he was being more mature. And Ashawyn's not an asshole. He's just… obtuse about human culture and a flirt. I don't know why everyone hates him. (sniffles)
Thanks for reading!
IF YOU WOULD LIKE ALERTS, THIS STORY IS LOCATED ON FF.NET
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