Midnight Magic Read online

  "Every time I was scooped up, I thought it was different. I thought this time, 'my master cares about me.' They all cared enough to pretend, I suppose, but only to keep me in their sway. And I fell for it. But it's one thing to be discarded or ignored. The last time, the time that made me run... she humiliated me. Every awful thing I'd ever felt about myself, she threw in my face. All my insecurities, my doubts, my stupid inability to learn that they didn't care about anything other than the hat and robes. She talked to others I'd been in... service... of, compared notes. I thought they'd loved me, but they worked together to show me just how little they had ever cared. So I would know who held the real power in Atvalia.

  "So I ran. As far as I could and still be in the Empire, I ran. Ran and hid. I came in search of Oliver so I could afford to run even further. Hide even deeper, so I could forget I was a wizard. But now I can't even do that anymore. Moreso even than I was to those who'd betrayed me, I'm useless, and you deserve a lot better. When we're done... if I can keep my promise, I want you to go. Go see the world, live the life you deserve. I'll live the one I deserve."

  Aurelai's black eyes narrowed to horizontal slits. "What are you talking about?"

  "I'll stay here."

  "Absolutely out of the question! You will do no such thing!"

  Vimika's hands closed over Aurelai's, the trickle of magic now painful. "This place... a house in the middle of nowhere, completely isolated, cut off from the world... it's what I wanted before I came here. Can't you see why I would want to stay?"

  "No! Your friends and family are out there. I don't know your family, but I've heard the way Seris and Delica talk to you. They want to help you, but you won't let them. Why? Do you enjoy wallowing so much?"

  Vimika's eyes fell in shame.

  "I won't let you, you know. They can't force you to stop hurting yourself, but I can. You will not squander your potential or your life in my house, Vimikathritas Malakandronon. You will rise above your pain, the same as I did. You will not give up or surrender to your past, you will work for your future, a real future. Do you understand? Against my will I have lived what you wish to volunteer for, and I won't let you subject yourself to it. Whether your magic returns or not, I want you with me."

  Still cradling Vimika's face, Aurelai pulled her into a kiss infused with raw, naked truth. A lifetime of silence had made Aurelai's need to voice her feelings deafening, and she all but shouted them in her steadfast refusal to let Vimika pull away. She would not be allowed to retreat nor deny, she would be made to feel the truth of them as deeply as Aurelai did so she would know.

  And she did. As fundamentally as she had ever known anything, the truth of Aurelai's feelings flooded into Vimika, saturating her being and leaving her no choice but to breathe them in and make them a part of herself. Overcome by warmth and relief, her legs went weak under the weight of it and she fell to her knees. Aurelai followed without letting go.

  When Vimika managed to return the kiss, it was wet with the taste of salt. Through her tears, Aurelai held her, baptized herself in them, swallowed the hurt that poured into her, taking Vimika's burden within herself. She drank deeply of the tidal wave Vimika could do nothing to stop, even as another crashed into her coming the other way.

  Vimika took Aurelai's loneliness, her betrayal. The elation of being found, of being touched, of being seen. The wonder that accompanied every new sensation and the buoyant, overwhelming relief of her hopes made real.

  Twin rivers flowed in opposite directions but formed a single sea, and they swam in it together. The waters were warm, lit only by the stars, but all too soon it was time to come up for breath.

  When they parted, they each looked into the other's eyes as deeply as she could, far enough to see the brightness of her potential. Of their potential. Together.

  "I know... I know that there is nothing I can say to prove I am not like the ones who hurt you. To be lied to, betrayed... I can only show you that I would never inflict that which I too have felt so acutely. But for that I need time. Can you give me that much, Vimika?"

  Under the stars, shadowed by magelight, there was a spark within Vimika that had nothing to do with either. A flickering welled up from beneath the tears, fighting through a forest of pain, small yet, but growing by the moment. By the heartbeat.

  "Yes."

  Aurelai's eyes were almost impossibly expressive and utterly beautiful as they searched Vimika's own. They were open, just as much as her feelings, and in a moment, all of Vimika's doubts and fears seemed small and unworthy in the face of it. Tears still streaked down her face, but she found herself smiling. Here, in this incredible place where time didn't matter, was an impossible alien girl, and deep within Vimika impossible alien feelings were rising in response.

  The chains strained to hold them back.

  "Yes," Vimika said again. She needed to. To make it true, to confirm it. It didn't matter why, she just needed to hear herself say, "yes!"

  "Thank you." Aurelai kissed her again.

  The bindings that had been withering Vimika's heart shattered, and she gave herself over completely, allowing feelings to geyser up from deeper places within her than lust or loneliness, to arc across the bridge of magic that suddenly soared between them, sharper and more glorious than ever. Unshackled from fear, it roared in her ears, burned through her veins, guiding her hands as they threaded through Aurelai's hair, pulled her closer. Closer until there was nothing at all between them. No hesitation or misunderstanding, no tentativeness, no questions.

  No doubt.

  Vimika started as Aurelai grasped a handful of hair and tipped her head back. The pressure of her lips built until Vimika had no choice but to lean over backwards. Strong hands held her as they guided her downward until she was forced to sit. Still cradling her head with one hand, Aurelai slid the other up Vimika's bare leg, bringing the hem of her dress with it. Cool night air flooded in and her breath hitched, grip tightening. Only when Vimika was completely exposed did Aurelai relent and finally break the kiss.

  A thin gossamer strand hung suspended between them, and they both snatched at it at the same moment, pressing their lips together again until they quickly parted in stifled laughter.

  Aurelai smiled down on Vimika as she supported her with one arm, another display of her beguiling hidden strength. Vimika surrendered without question as it lay her flat on her back, filling her eyes with the night sky, with midnight sable, with shining obsidian.

  Cool skin lovingly displaced cool air, and Vimika sucked in a sharp breath. Aurelai's fingers were slow and unsure at first, but followed Vimika's every reaction, every twitch and movement until they were deftly matching her needs without a single word being spoken.

  Black eyes looked down on bronze with unfettered exhilaration as Vimika writhed, neither willing to break eye contact even as Vimika clawed furrows into the dirt. Her back arched, already steaming with dew and sweat as she drove herself against Aurelai's ministrations.

  Aurelai met her happily. Vimika's breaths grew shorter and closer together, her eyes increasingly hard to focus. Sweat beaded her forehead, wordless noises of encouragement streamed from her mouth and Aurelai took them, learned from them. Soon Vimika's every fiber was afire, muscles and tendons tensing against the need for release, but Aurelai kept it just beyond reach, slowing when Vimika's eyes were begging for speed, soft when she desperately craved hard.

  Aurelai watched Vimika's face contort in exquisite agony as her legs kicked out, shoulders thudding into the ground. On the edge of mercy, her vision narrowed to nothing, lungs filling with the scent of grass and dew.

  "Aurelai!" Vimika cried at the final surrender, and all that was black exploded with light.

  Blinding and beautiful, the world was set ablaze with color as Vimika clutched helplessly at Aurelai, grasping for anything to anchor herself to as she was taken by something far more intense than just pleasure. The night sky was rendered shocking blue, every star as bright as the sun. Every tree, every flower, ev
ery blade of grass erupted in bright green, while Aurelai, her beautiful Aurelai, shone a pure white so bright she was illuminated from within. She was glory incarnate, too intense to look upon, but even when Vimika shut her eyes, she remained a shining beacon.

  Vimika slowly spiralled back into herself from her dizzying peak as the tension holding her taut began to wane, only for her breath to be snatched again when the first cool drop of realization spattered across her parched tongue.

  The alumita. Mana. Animata.

  Magic.

  A second cry erupted from her as she threw her arms around Aurelai. Panting into her shoulder, Aurelai blazed white with magic, brighter than any wizard Vimika had ever met, and it took a moment to remember how to compensate, longer for her body to respond, occupied as it was.

  It wasn't until Vimika managed several deep, steadying breaths that she could filter out the animata of the daughter of the most powerful wizard in history. That she was strong wasn't a surprise, but seeing for the first time just how strong left Vimika hanging limp from her shoulders.

  All around her the world was naught but magic, the most brilliant concentration she had ever seen. It was beautiful and horrifying, and made it impossible to let Aurelai go. Weak as a kitten, Vimika needed Aurelai's strength just to draw enough breath to get her senses back into working order.

  Tears of untrammeled joy and relief soaked into Aurelai's shoulder as Vimika looked out on this new world in wonder. Her head was buzzing with a symphony of positivity, but the single dissonant note of why she was surrounded by so much magic kept her clinging on for a little while longer.

  They sat leaning against one another in silence until Vimika found the energy to lift her head, gazing into dark eyes that were now lit from within as they always should have been.

  Parting strands of Vimika's sweat-soaked hair, Aurelai smiled a hesitant little smile. "Did I do it right?"

  The kiss that followed was raw magic, a torrent that gushed between them with a force that only made them want more. Blending and binding them, tasting the way jumping into a hot spring after rolling in snow felt, intense to the point of approaching dangerous, but Vimika didn't want to stop.

  Starved for so long, she gorged on Aurelai's magic, so strong she could taste it. Sharp and metallic, she drank until she was dizzy.

  Aurelai jerked away, putting two fingers to her tongue as if she expected to find blood. "No?"

  "Yes!" Vimika exclaimed. She snatched up Aurelai's still-wet fingers and pressed them against her own temple. "Here. It's back! My magic is back, Aurelai!"

  A quick Look confirmed it, and Aurelai was left speechless, eyes searching.

  "I can See you now," Vimika said, even if it hurt to do so directly. She'd gotten used to Aurelai as she was physically, but now with her magic's return, it was a bit of an ask to start Seeing her as the magnificently gifted wizard that she truly was. What would she be when she was finally free of this place?

  Aurelai ran the backs of her fingers from Vimika's temple down the side of her face. She nuzzled them, intoxicated by the magic coursing within and between them. Even two fingers worth of contact sent Vimika's heart racing. How could she ever have thought about giving Aurelai up before knowing what she truly was? For all the worries about what Vimika had felt like, she had completely neglected the fact she was just as ignorant of how Aurelai should have truly felt. It was though Vimika had only known her shadow until now. Her ghost.

  But she was very real, and very much alive. Vimika's skin tingled as Aurelai took her hand.

  "How do I Look?"

  "More beautiful than I had imagined... oh, and yes, you did very well." Vimika placed a chaste little kiss on Aurelai's forehead.

  To Vimika's delight, Aurelai blushed.

  "After all that?"

  "It tickled!"

  Just as Vimika had thought she'd regained control of her body, she lost it again, falling against Aurelai as they laughed together in pure, unbridled joy.

  CHAPTER NINE

  OUTSIDE, IT WAS the height of winter. Inside, an entirely new spring had come, layered on top of the one Aurelai had created so long ago. But this one too was her doing, and even more than the one that kept her from freezing to death, Vimika was thankful.

  Though blanketed in more snow than ever, the Speartip Pines that ringed their little world burned mana green for the first time since she'd stumbled through them, and she would steal unfiltered Looks at Aurelai to bask in the bright white of her animata for no other reason than she could. Then she would do it again for a lot of other reasons.

  The magic that buzzed between them when they touched was heady and more intense than Vimika had ever experienced. The long drought had been followed by torrential spring floods, and vibrant green shoots were sprouting from places within her that she had long thought fallow. Aurelai was an excellent gardner after all, and tended these seedlings with utmost care and attention.

  Likewise Vimika, as shepherd and guide for all things new, led Aurelai down paths she had never thought open to her, the friend and companion she had so long hoped for.

  And more.

  Something had happened the night Vimika's magic returned, but she still wasn't entirely sure what it was. Her heart felt like it was doing half as much work as it used to, and every time they touched, no matter how innocently (or not), it felt right. Whether it was the solidifying of the full magical connection or something even more profound, they would let time determine.

  But that time could not be spent idle, as loathe as they were to untangle themselves from one another. When the high of being together morphed into a plateau, they strode across it hand-in-hand to find that it ended in the same place the old one had: the forest. Within it, their relationship could grow deeper, but no wider, forcing them back to the chill reality that lay beyond the warmth of their double spring.

  Blissful though their isolation had become, it was still isolation.

  Vimika, with the full return of her magic, was a wizard once more, and after another night spent in Aurelai's arms, she emerged from the house with a burning need to earn those precious moments, to pay back the weeks she'd borrowed and fulfill the trust that had been placed in her. They'd barely known each other when Vimika had made her promise, but now, if they were to be more than just friends, she needed to prove herself even more.

  The sun was shining, and she'd just hacked apart a priceless gown to make the world's most expensive headband, leaving her feeling particularly aggressive in her drive to solve problems.

  Vimika began her assessment by walking around the perimeter of the clearing over and over, passively absorbing everything she could magically to get a true sense of the place for the first time since arriving. The constantly shifting yet repeating perspective helped her get a sense of the scale of what she was standing in the center of.

  Fortunately, it was just big enough to engage her need to figure it out, rather than to take a rock to her head in order to regain the blissful ignorance she'd been living in.

  On an academic level, one that had spent several years at a school specifically designed to drill all aspects of magic into her so deeply she still had dreams about it, she'd known roughly what would be necessary to knock the magic out of her head after thwarting Aurelai for two centuries, but she was entirely unprepared to See it.

  There was nothing that could have prepared her, as magic like this simply didn't exist anymore.

  It wasn't a spell. It was dozens, interweaving and overlapping, a latticework of spiderwebs that were not only intricate, but dense as well. Having essentially soaked into the ground over the course of two hundred years, they were deeply rooted into the forest and as much a part of it as the trees. Taking a shovel to the place would be the closest anyone could get to being able to scoop up magic itself. It was very clever, and would allow the illusions to to feed off the mana of the trees themselves almost indefinitely. The tree line was a hard border between the gentler climate spells and the twisted horror of the
illusions, leaving no question as to who had made which. For all the trouble the latter had given Vimika on the way in, Seeing it now made her realize how lucky she'd been to only have temporarily lost her magical senses.

  "I don't understand how I made it through there without losing my mind entirely," she said, pacing just beyond the reach of the ring of shadows the forest cast across the grass. It would be awhile before she trusted those again. "These spells have been feeding off of one another and interacting without maintenance for 200 years. They should have collapsed ages ago, but they've only reinforced each other. Where do you even start pulling something like this apart without activating it? It's like trying to take the shoes off a horse while it's kicking you in the face."

  Aurelai kept even more distance from the shadows of the trees, and one eye constantly on the boughs above them, even as Oliver trailed behind, showing interest in, well, anything for the first time since Vimika's arrival.

  But Vimika's concentration was for the forest. The more angles she Looked at it from, the longer she spent doing it, the deeper and more detailed the mental map she could make. It wasn't a uniform concentration, more like bubbles that grew out from each tree and weakened with distance, with unstable eddies and whorls appearing around trees that were old or dying.

  Only when her 'map' was built up could she make out faint traces of white that had nothing to do with snow.

  "There are threads of animata in there!" Vimika suddenly exclaimed with a stabbing finger. "That's... I'm really tired of saying impossible."

  It meant that what she'd seen in Not-Vimika hadn't been an illusion. Ghostly white threads wound through the green of the mana, faint but unmistakable. And yes, impossible. Supposedly. Plant life didn't have animata, and could't use it, what the hells was it doing weaving through a forest of Speartip Pines?