Chaos is known as the being that never became a star. It is everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time.
Neither good nor evil, the ultimate expression of nothingness. The antithesis of the cosmos, creation itself.
Although Chaos claims to be the very state of existence from which the first entities appeared, it cannot form into the entity it wants most.
So it has been cursed to stay in the form of a dark and shapeless void. Floating between existence and nonexistence.
Longingly watching as stars are constantly born and lives are lived. The seeds of malice had been planted, flourished and transformed Chaos into the purest form of evil.
It wasn't something she needed to think too hard about. She needed to try her best so that normal people didn't get wind of magic. But at the same time she needed to practice magic to improve. Thus it was important to be prepared with locations where one can practice without the average person unwittingly stumbling upon where she was.
The Louvre was one such place where the conditions she needed were fulfilled by quite a number of spots. Most of the more well-off citizens of New Paris stayed away unless they really had to pass through there for some reason. As for the local slum dwellers, they knew better than to stick their noses in the business of upper class people who do show up, because them dropping by there often meant something dangerous or unsavory was afoot.
Frankly, Erica with her looks and hair would normally stand out too much walking around there. So whenever she took a stroll in the area, she had a long coat on and a hat to hide her features. Today's destination was the rooftop of a certain abandoned building. It was one of many places and for today's agenda, she was willing to give up this one location to meet some certain obligations.
She stared at her watch. She was a little early for their meeting but that was fine. Hopefully they'd find their way their without too much problems. Walking over near the edge of the rooftop, she stared at the view. She was about ten stories up. The roof of the buildings next to this one were just close enough to hop on over if anyone felt like it. But for now she was the only one up there for at least the entire block.
Celeste walked through the slums, keeping her hood up and her eyes down. All around her, people were living in destitution, ragged and extremely worn clothing hanging on to emaciated bodies. No doubt the ugly side of the New Paris revival project. How the poor always suffered when the rich profited. Though, she had to admit that the current degradation of the place was working for her favor. With all these buildings falling apart, with no-one willing to meet each others eyes, this was a good place to hide something or someone. Maybe even something magical; Erica had chosen a good spot indeed.
She had memorized what instructions she had been given and followed them to the letter weaving through buildings and hovels careful not to disrupt anyone or bring attention to herself. It should have annoyed her how well she appeared to be fitting in with the locals. She had borrowed a sweater from her father, a massive man who worked nigh constantly. The hoodie hung off of her clearly being far too big for her. It was covered in grime and poorly patched holes and seemed to be falling apart at points. If she was being honest, it was more filthy than most of the clothing people around her were wearing. Combining that with a pair of sweat pants that she'd used heavily for the past 7 odd years and she fit right in.
Aha. She had finally managed to find the building she had been directed to. She ascended the stairs, checking her phone to find herself only a minute or so before the arranged meeting time. She sighed, apparently it had taken longer to get here than she had thought. A long standing tradition of being early for work had been pounded into her psyche from the collection of odd jobs she had worked over the past few years. She picked up the pace treating the stairs like a work out and emerging onto the roof exactly on time. She spotted who she was looking for easily enough and addressed her, keeping her head down and panting a bit from the exertion.
Erica turned around and clapped her hands once as the person she was expecting finally arrived. The girl was just on time but she was panting. She wondered if she had difficulty finding the place and was in a rush. Well, that didn't really matter now. What was important was that she was finally here and Erica could finally fulfill her end of their little promise, or at least do so to he best of her ability.
"I'm glad you made it. I've just been enjoying the view. We're quite fortunate the weather is nice and clear."
As she was going out of her way to arrange this little session for them, it would have been terrible if factors beyond their control spoiled the occasion. Erica wanted to be sure they could proceed smoothly. Fortunately the weather reports of this time were almost always accurate. There had been a few showers here and there in the past days or so, and rain would have made the rooftops unnecessarily dangerous.
"So, did you manage to get in touch with your magical friend? I expect some things are a little clearer to you now. Not that I can't explain things myself, but I'm sure it would give you more peace of mind if what I say and what your benefactor said matched up."
It had been a few days since their last meeting and plenty of time for Celeste to sort out her thoughts and ask the questions she needed. Erica hoped those days didn't go to waste.
Celeste slipped off the large and grimy sweater, being sure to fold it before setting it down on a cleaner portion of the roof. This revealed the black track suit she had been wearing underneath fully prepared for the day's exertions. Having kept her eyes down the entire way here, she took the moment to appreciate the weather and found herself nodding in agreeance with Erica's opinion on the matter. Though her next question demanded a few more words than just a yes or no answer. Mentally she prepared herself to reply, subconsciously attempting to hide behind a scarf that she had left home for fear of it being damaged.
"Yes.. We talked at great length and I asked every question I could think of. I had misunderstood many things but I believe everything is cleared up now. I'm not in trouble or under a deadline or debt, merely working for personal gain."
It had been a very long conversation indeed, straining the relative patience of both parties. It had taken a great deal of effort for the normally timorous Celeste to not only start the conversation but to stay reasonably aggressive enough to wrangle the answers to all her questions out of the creature. After which she had promptly gone directly home and refused to have anything else to do with other people for the rest of the day just to recover. An experience she would not want to repeat any time soon with anyone. At least Erica wasn't trying to weasel out of the conversation at every period.
She contemplated telling Erica in detail exactly what she learned, but it seemed more like it would be a waste of time. The girl was clearly well versed in the various details, and she had already dumped her problems on Erica once already. It would not do to make a repeat of the action. Instead it would be better simply to focus on the activities of today and what she had planned.
"So, while it is good to see you again, I trust you had something in mind for us up here?"
Celeste's updated state of arrangements sounded much closer to what Erica imagined a contract would be like. This was good news. The last thing she needed was worrying about unnecessary drama involving lives and high stakes. From here on out, proceeding is solely of Celeste's own volition and not because she was forced to.
"That's good to hear. No one wants any unneeded load or pressure on themselves. Magic is supposed to lighten your problems and not make them worse."
Despite looking a little tired, Celeste seemed eager enough to begin as she easily transitioned to asking about what exactly they were doing that day. In Erica's mind it was a bit of a strange question though since the very reason they were here was because of Celeste's request. But perhaps she was just wanting more specific details.
"You asked me to help you become a better mage. I believe I explained on our first meeting why that was... difficult to promise and guarantee. Still you insisted, and so today the main agenda is figuring out if there's some basis for your belief."
"We have a lot of space to work with here and are also away from prying eyes. So let's see it. What exactly is your magic and what kind of help do you need to improve it? How much I can assist will depend on how much you are willing to show."
Celeste nodded once more, it made perfect sense after all. Though a part of her wondered if she should show Erica what she could do. Then again, she really needed to test the things the evoker had spoke about. With a few steps she closed the distance between the two of them in order to show Erica in detail, still unsure if it was the right thing to do. She shook her head, dispelling the moment of indecision and rolled up her left sleeve placing her hand on the bare skin. While she could draw the weapon quite quickly, this time she proceeded quite slowly to detail the full movement.
"I hope this won't startle you too much." She said conversationally before dropping her voice to a whisper that her scarf would normally keep secret. "Pluvia Sanguinis"
She drew the sword slowly from her arm, her exposed arm showing in full detail the veins popping up in the skin as if she had been drawing blood from them. The sword slowly took shape the handle first and slowly the blade. All around the sword as it seemed to be leaving the skin tiny droplets of blood stayed near where one would expect a wound to be. Celeste knew exactly what it looked like, she had screamed the first time she tried the magic after all. This time however her eyes watched Erica, trying to discern with her extremely limited understanding of people just what the girl was thinking. Was she about to panic, was she sickened, or was she just thinking.
Celeste finished drawing the blade, its tip leaving her skin and all the tiny droplets vanishing back into the skin while her veins once again vanished into the depths of her arm where they belonged. She held the sword like a display piece in one hand, allowing Erica to look upon it as she wished but not in a threatening manner. In the interest of confirming that what she had just shown was indeed exactly what it looked like Celeste spoke of it.
"I've never read a fantasy book with blood magic before, so I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I only know that skill because the contractor told me of it. Yet an eerie red blade is hardly subtle in anyway. It's fine when the fight begins, but before that it's not very useful."
She let that thought sit for a moment before she thought of a question she had been wanting to ask for awhile. "What kind of magic do you have?"
Erica was convinced that this girl was really a novice with how easily she agreed to showing her cards. She had not even heard yet was Celeste's actual problems were, but Erica thought she might as well make a mental note of the problems Celeste herself wasn't aware of. That was the least she could do.
As for the actual demonstration, it was mildly disappointing to say the least, though Erica kept her poker face. She had already seen this sword before. It was certainly nothing new. But maybe the method of conjuring the blade was a bit unusual. It appeared as though blood was being drawn from the girl's body to form the weapon. And true enough Celeste confirmed that it was indeed blood magic. When she further mentioned that she had not read any fantasy books with blood magic before hence her lack of other abilities, Erica couldn't help but make a mental facepalm. Did this girl not have any imaginative bone in her body? She stopped at that thought. After all she wasn't supposed to be making fun of others. This was definitely an eccentric case she had to deal with though.
Before Erica could comment, Celeste followed her explanation with a rather silly question, and Erica figured this was probably as good a time as any to address her first problem.
"I'll have to stop you there honestly. I know I said how much I could help you depended on how much you were willing to show. But it's actually quite troubling how open you are. I suppose I just don't feel I've done anything to earn this level of trust. It... puzzles me."
"Your contractor must have told you that there are some rather unpleasant beings in this world. You would do well to be more guarded about the secrets of your magic if you seriously wish to survive. Allow me to demonstrate by politely declining to answer your question. But who knows. Perhaps if you try hard enough today, you might force my hand to show you something."
The conversation probably took an odd turn from Celeste's point of view. Being told to do something and then suddenly being told not to. But Erica couldn't do all the thinking for her. At this rate she might be mistaken as someone trying to take advantage of a poor newbie.
Celeste tilted her head to one side somewhat confused with what Erica had been saying.
"When we first met, I was really quite desperate in my lack of understanding. I should think that if you wanted to take advantage of me or my situation that would have been your moment. You could have setup any number of situations that served to your advantage alone using my fears against me. Instead you gave me advice that would help and made good sense to me. Do these seem like the acts of someone not worth trusting to you? "
It should go without saying that Celeste's grip on her blade tightened more for emotional support than anything else. There was something soothing about holding the blade, like possessing a crystallization of her will. Of course it could also be the amount she had been practicing with it recently in the hopes of getting even slightly better. She felt confidence in her ability to smash skeletons with much greater ease now.
"Naturally and of course I haven't shown anyone else or told anyone else, nor do I intend to. Knowing what I know now after talking to my contractor should keep me from having to be that desperate for information ever again. Furthermore it does little good to hide anything from you at this point."
Her request for information was 'politely' denied she noted. There was really nothing polite about it in her opinion. It was like the kids at school asking for who your crush was and then not telling you when it was their turn. The kind of thing you do to someone you don't really trust at all. She turned the blade in her hands and pushed it down into the roof an inch or so, the eerie blade biting easily into the roof. As for trying hard enough, that just felt insulting like a goal post that could keep moving back every time you got near it. While she was somewhat irritated by the notion of it, internally, she took notes. Though there was one detail she would have to ask about again, one of the reasons why she had asked in the first place.
"Very well, I suppose that's your right and all though I would like to at least know what your limit is. At what point can you not heal the damage dealt to you? It would be dreadful to see you get hurt in combat or even a spar because I didn't know that you might need to stop or be assisted."
Celeste's grip on the handle had intensified even further, all this talking was very uncomfortable.
The skin LIGHTS OFF was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
HALATION was created by KOJIHIME. Images belong to their respective artists. All codes and scripts belong to their respective coders. Please DO NOT take anything without the owners' permission.
