This morning, Seika had woken up feeling absolutely wonderful! Her body was refreshed, and she'd had lots of water to drink last night, but surprisingly did not need to go to the bathroom. Even Aphelia was being extremely agreeable; she didn't even scratch the girl's face when their alarm went off! All in all, the day was looking to be going great, and in fact Seika wasn't sure if anything could improve her mood from the perfect morning. As it turned out, Aphelia felt the same way. The feline was prancing happily across the guild hall, waiting for someone to open the refrigerator so that she could pull out her favorite packets of sliced meat. As far as Seika could recall, there wasn't any elk left, but thanks to her great outlook (surprisingly sunny, for the prickly cat) the mage guessed that Aphelia wouldn't mind for today, at least. In fact, the spirit did not make any noise of complaint, outwardly that was. Between the mind link that the bond mates shared, Seika could detect a bit of exasperation when her friend realized that all there was to eat was ham, or turkey. However, beggers couldn't be choosers- I'm not a begger, Seika, the feline hissed, reading the girl's thoughts. Snapping her mouth shut even though she hadn't even been saying anything, the girl made a movement of zipping her lips shut, locking them at the corner, then tossing away the key. Little did she realize that in thinking about a key in her hand concretely, she had unknowingly materialized the zodiac key belonging to the Gemini spirit. When she threw the make believe object towards the ground, it was an actual object, not just air. And immediately upon contacting the stone floor, a poof of smoke appeared and the two celestial spirit twins, Star-Gemi and Moon-Mini, popped out. Their expressions were scolding, even though Seika honestly didn't understand how deer could even look that peeved and threatening. Not threatening bodily harm, but... Seika was still afraid of the lash back she might get from their arrival. Wait, how had they even arrived in the first place? Did they summon themselves??
"Hi guys! I missed you, how have you been? I haven't seen you in so long! How did you even get here? Did Aphi summon you?" Seika asked curiosity, reaching over to pet them each on the head. Instead of allowing her to do so, Star-Gemi backed away, nudging his sister with him. "What are you doing. You dropped our key again," the male twin grumbled, looking around him to see that there were, in fact, no enemies in sight. The spirits had expected there to have been some kind of tussle resulting in Seika pulling their key out of her inter dimensional storage place. Knowing how clumsy the girl could be, they had assumed she dropped it in battle while trying to summon them. "Huh? I didn't drop your key! I don't even have your key or anything!" Seika held up her hands, palms facing forward, show casing their extremely empty state. The twins dead panned as they stared at her. "Yes, you don't have it. Because you dropped it," Moon-Mini finally said, the crescent shape on her forehead slightly glowing as she activated her magic. Nearby, on the floor, the shining zodiac key began to glow in the same way. The fawn's brother spotted the light and clambered around Seika to see what was there. Upon getting confirmation that indeed, Seika had tossed it away to land there, he turned back to the mage and snorted. "We'll just be de summoning ourselves, then," were the last words she heard before they poofed away in another smokey cloud of magic.
Blowing out a huff, the girl looked around for Aphelia, who seemed to have taken advantage of the momentary chaos to make her escape. Narrowing her eyes, Seika refused to let that happen. She shut her gaze off from the world and reached into her core, tracing out where that thin current of magic branched off from her own and connected the mage inexplicably to her bond mate. Aha! Eyes blasting wide open, Seika flashed a smile to all of her guild mates who were in the room, before she stumbled off into the direction of the pull. It was difficult to follow, a little, because well- it seemed like Aphelia was either trying to avoid her, or just moving around a lot. Like, a lot a lot. But since the feline would never deliberately try to escape the mage's notice, it couldn't be that. Unless...? Well, to think of it, they did play hide and seek an awful lot. Seika ran away from Aphelia, too, on missions and stuff. But she wouldn't do that the other way around! That just didn't make any sense. Shrugging to nobody in particular, she fluffed up her hair as she searched the city of Elysium for her feline friend. The trail was quite strong by now, or at least the bond was tugging at her magic with no small amount of force. Seika was just about to follow it up a hill, that led more outside of the underground city and up into Sin, when an enormous glacier fell out of the sky in front of her. Wait, the sky? There was no sky! There was just the ground, that acted like a rocky kind of ceiling, what with the civilization existing underneath the hollowed sort of cave thing that made up Elysium's sanctuary. Squinting up at the ceiling, then, Seika blinked with wonder when she realized that now there was a sky. It looked like the rocky top of the place had never existed. Even though the sky wasn't blue or anything, since the dark magic of Sin's monsters and the amount of death and decay had clouded the atmosphere so much, she could see what might have been the sun, filtering through all of the corruption in a very slight way.
Seika pulled her gaze back down, sliding over the giant ice berg until her eyes were resting on the part that was right in front of her, barely a meter away. She took one step forward, then another, until finally she was within arm's reach of the enormous hunk of ice. Maybe it wasn't ice? What if it was a frozen amount of spit that a giant who lived above Earthland had decided to freeze and throw over the island until it hit the land below? Seika, no. Nearby, Aphelia suddenly materialized into thin air. Her expression was disgruntled, as though she were disturbed by either the presence of the giant amount of ice that had fallen from the sky, or... "Oh my gosh, Aphi! You're here! Did you get bored of waiting for me? I was just about to come find you?" The feline deigned to look slowly in Seika's direction, before she said out loud, "I've been here for five minutes, watching you stare at this ice berg." Inside of their heads, Aphelia began to lecture her about how there was no possible way it was made of spit, and the amount of enzymes it would have contained to break through the upper wall, even with gravity, would be tremendous. After all, the guild protected this city of Elysium and had reinforced the area with such great magic that an attack like this had to have been an accident, or the work of a powerful force. The reason an accident was much more plausible was because the city was protected from natural disaster, but mostly magical defenses were directed at either savage creatures like the monsters that roamed freely in the nation of Sin, or premeditated offenses from hostile mages and the like. Because the barriers worked with intent, they could be circumvented by considering something an accident.
"Seika, get out of your head. Pay attention to the ice berg." The cat wheezed, suddenly overcome by a desire to smack her bond mate upside the head. Blinking in confusion, the girl pushed up her glasses and nodded with determination. "Right! Ice berg! Um... wait, but I was! Aphii, I was thinking about how it could have gotten into here! See, because I was thinking about how the defenses protect Elysium, and it must have broken through them in order to land here. Right? So I was thinking about the ice berg! Aphi, it's not fair of you to say that I wasn't," Sucking in a breath, the feline shifted out of her domestic cat form and into the Sibylline shape that resembled a human so much. Now taller than Seika and with proper fingers and opposable thumbs, the older girl clapped her hand over the mage's mouth. "Shh. I didn't say you weren't thinking about it. I said to pay attention and stop worrying with your brain." Slowly, she brought her hand away from the girl's face, waiting to see if she would keep talking. Thankfully, Seika obediently paid attention to the ice berg and shut her mouth, a scenario which the spirit took with a grateful sigh. Meanwhile, the giant mass of an ice floe began to shake slightly, until finally it erupted into a scattering of little shards of ice. Instinctively, Seika tried to angle herself and put her back to the explosion, but Aphelia had already pulled up a shield in front of them with magic. She held the girl in place to make sure she didn't turn away, because they needed to keep watching. "Oh! There's a person?" The girl's voice rang out with curiosity as she saw what could have been a man, or some other humanoid figure, slowly get to its feet from a place in the center of the rubble. From what Seika could see, they were shivering, probably from being trapped in the giant ice berg for some time. Ahh, it would be so terrible to be stuck in one of those for a long while! Seika shuddered at the thought. Ice made it so hard to do fire or spark magic; she wouldn't be able to live like that! Hesitatingly, the girl made a move to step towards the man, but Aphelia held her back. Rolling her eyes at the spirit, the mage tried to peel off her friend's arms, but the taller girl only tightened her grip and gritted her teeth at seeing her bond mate's attitude. "I'm protecting you, so don't move, idiot. We don't know anything about him," Aphelia hissed. At that, Seika just shrugged, the movement obvious even though her arms were currently being pinned. "He looks nice though! And cold. I would hate being cold. We should hug him to warm him up!"
"I accidentally hired a group of mages to kidnap someone. Please rescue them." His voice was low, and shaking just as his body was quaking. Still, it carried enough through the quiet area, the pulses of magic shifting around the pieces of the ice berg that were littering the area. Seika sniffed the atmosphere, only to recoil when a ton of frost magic hit her senses, apparently dissipating from the giant block of frozen water. Wait, what did he say? "Y-You kidnapped someone?? By accident? How do you even do that?? And wait, how did you get here? How did you break the top of the city, there's a giant hole in the ceiling!" Seika shrieked, and the man winced. Aphelia had no pity for him, though. She released her bond mate and stalked up to the man. "Why should we care?" Seika blinked at that. "Um, Aphi, actually, like if it's a person? They shouldn't be kidnapped, right? You would be mad if I was kidnapped! Right?" At that, the spirit gave her a humorless smile before turning back to the man. "Answer me." Still pale, and seeming to be barely standing on his feet, the man whispered, "I don't know who you are, or where I am. They- sealed me away inside of the ice. I can't tell you anything else- this is the girl, I made a mistake, I can't let her suffer for it-" he pulled a scroll out of his bag, and on it was a drawing of a young woman. Obviously very beautiful, even in grey scale Seika could see that she had dark hair and a striking appearance. Wait... "Hey, this kind of looks like Eva! Um, Ivara," the mage clapped her hands, overjoyed at the memory of her friend. Even though she had kind of fallen asleep at the end, or something like that, the mission had been a lot of fun regardless! Plus she had gotten a glittery key out of it. Aphelia also leaned in closer to the scroll, her eyes suspicious. "You kidnapped Ivara?" Her voice was soft, but threatening. The man waved his hands in panic, even though they were visibly trembling. "No! I mean- yes? I don't know who Ivara is! I wanted them to kidnap my wife, but they got the wrong person," he admitted, and Aphelia snorted. "There's plenty to unpack there, but we don't have time. You said they got the wrong person? It's likely an acquaintance of ours, who bears an uncanny resemblance to your wife." The feline pulled Seika away from the man, scanning him up and down. "Enjoy your time in the ice," the spirit hissed before she waved her hand, gathering up all of the slowly melting chunks that had broken away, sealing them back up into one giant hunk with the man still inside. Breathing heavily with disgust, the girl glared at Seika, her red eyes piercing into the mage's own. Nervously, Seika pushed up her glasses. "This ice is from the Silent Glaciers." That was all Aphelia said, but the girl perked up at the name. "Ooh, let's go! I wanna see Ivara again!" The spirit's eyes were dark as she told Seika that she was sure her friend wanted to see her again, too. Then in a whisk of blinding fire, they teleported away.
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"Hi guys! I missed you, how have you been? I haven't seen you in so long! How did you even get here? Did Aphi summon you?" Seika asked curiosity, reaching over to pet them each on the head. Instead of allowing her to do so, Star-Gemi backed away, nudging his sister with him. "What are you doing. You dropped our key again," the male twin grumbled, looking around him to see that there were, in fact, no enemies in sight. The spirits had expected there to have been some kind of tussle resulting in Seika pulling their key out of her inter dimensional storage place. Knowing how clumsy the girl could be, they had assumed she dropped it in battle while trying to summon them. "Huh? I didn't drop your key! I don't even have your key or anything!" Seika held up her hands, palms facing forward, show casing their extremely empty state. The twins dead panned as they stared at her. "Yes, you don't have it. Because you dropped it," Moon-Mini finally said, the crescent shape on her forehead slightly glowing as she activated her magic. Nearby, on the floor, the shining zodiac key began to glow in the same way. The fawn's brother spotted the light and clambered around Seika to see what was there. Upon getting confirmation that indeed, Seika had tossed it away to land there, he turned back to the mage and snorted. "We'll just be de summoning ourselves, then," were the last words she heard before they poofed away in another smokey cloud of magic.
Blowing out a huff, the girl looked around for Aphelia, who seemed to have taken advantage of the momentary chaos to make her escape. Narrowing her eyes, Seika refused to let that happen. She shut her gaze off from the world and reached into her core, tracing out where that thin current of magic branched off from her own and connected the mage inexplicably to her bond mate. Aha! Eyes blasting wide open, Seika flashed a smile to all of her guild mates who were in the room, before she stumbled off into the direction of the pull. It was difficult to follow, a little, because well- it seemed like Aphelia was either trying to avoid her, or just moving around a lot. Like, a lot a lot. But since the feline would never deliberately try to escape the mage's notice, it couldn't be that. Unless...? Well, to think of it, they did play hide and seek an awful lot. Seika ran away from Aphelia, too, on missions and stuff. But she wouldn't do that the other way around! That just didn't make any sense. Shrugging to nobody in particular, she fluffed up her hair as she searched the city of Elysium for her feline friend. The trail was quite strong by now, or at least the bond was tugging at her magic with no small amount of force. Seika was just about to follow it up a hill, that led more outside of the underground city and up into Sin, when an enormous glacier fell out of the sky in front of her. Wait, the sky? There was no sky! There was just the ground, that acted like a rocky kind of ceiling, what with the civilization existing underneath the hollowed sort of cave thing that made up Elysium's sanctuary. Squinting up at the ceiling, then, Seika blinked with wonder when she realized that now there was a sky. It looked like the rocky top of the place had never existed. Even though the sky wasn't blue or anything, since the dark magic of Sin's monsters and the amount of death and decay had clouded the atmosphere so much, she could see what might have been the sun, filtering through all of the corruption in a very slight way.
Seika pulled her gaze back down, sliding over the giant ice berg until her eyes were resting on the part that was right in front of her, barely a meter away. She took one step forward, then another, until finally she was within arm's reach of the enormous hunk of ice. Maybe it wasn't ice? What if it was a frozen amount of spit that a giant who lived above Earthland had decided to freeze and throw over the island until it hit the land below? Seika, no. Nearby, Aphelia suddenly materialized into thin air. Her expression was disgruntled, as though she were disturbed by either the presence of the giant amount of ice that had fallen from the sky, or... "Oh my gosh, Aphi! You're here! Did you get bored of waiting for me? I was just about to come find you?" The feline deigned to look slowly in Seika's direction, before she said out loud, "I've been here for five minutes, watching you stare at this ice berg." Inside of their heads, Aphelia began to lecture her about how there was no possible way it was made of spit, and the amount of enzymes it would have contained to break through the upper wall, even with gravity, would be tremendous. After all, the guild protected this city of Elysium and had reinforced the area with such great magic that an attack like this had to have been an accident, or the work of a powerful force. The reason an accident was much more plausible was because the city was protected from natural disaster, but mostly magical defenses were directed at either savage creatures like the monsters that roamed freely in the nation of Sin, or premeditated offenses from hostile mages and the like. Because the barriers worked with intent, they could be circumvented by considering something an accident.
"Seika, get out of your head. Pay attention to the ice berg." The cat wheezed, suddenly overcome by a desire to smack her bond mate upside the head. Blinking in confusion, the girl pushed up her glasses and nodded with determination. "Right! Ice berg! Um... wait, but I was! Aphii, I was thinking about how it could have gotten into here! See, because I was thinking about how the defenses protect Elysium, and it must have broken through them in order to land here. Right? So I was thinking about the ice berg! Aphi, it's not fair of you to say that I wasn't," Sucking in a breath, the feline shifted out of her domestic cat form and into the Sibylline shape that resembled a human so much. Now taller than Seika and with proper fingers and opposable thumbs, the older girl clapped her hand over the mage's mouth. "Shh. I didn't say you weren't thinking about it. I said to pay attention and stop worrying with your brain." Slowly, she brought her hand away from the girl's face, waiting to see if she would keep talking. Thankfully, Seika obediently paid attention to the ice berg and shut her mouth, a scenario which the spirit took with a grateful sigh. Meanwhile, the giant mass of an ice floe began to shake slightly, until finally it erupted into a scattering of little shards of ice. Instinctively, Seika tried to angle herself and put her back to the explosion, but Aphelia had already pulled up a shield in front of them with magic. She held the girl in place to make sure she didn't turn away, because they needed to keep watching. "Oh! There's a person?" The girl's voice rang out with curiosity as she saw what could have been a man, or some other humanoid figure, slowly get to its feet from a place in the center of the rubble. From what Seika could see, they were shivering, probably from being trapped in the giant ice berg for some time. Ahh, it would be so terrible to be stuck in one of those for a long while! Seika shuddered at the thought. Ice made it so hard to do fire or spark magic; she wouldn't be able to live like that! Hesitatingly, the girl made a move to step towards the man, but Aphelia held her back. Rolling her eyes at the spirit, the mage tried to peel off her friend's arms, but the taller girl only tightened her grip and gritted her teeth at seeing her bond mate's attitude. "I'm protecting you, so don't move, idiot. We don't know anything about him," Aphelia hissed. At that, Seika just shrugged, the movement obvious even though her arms were currently being pinned. "He looks nice though! And cold. I would hate being cold. We should hug him to warm him up!"
"I accidentally hired a group of mages to kidnap someone. Please rescue them." His voice was low, and shaking just as his body was quaking. Still, it carried enough through the quiet area, the pulses of magic shifting around the pieces of the ice berg that were littering the area. Seika sniffed the atmosphere, only to recoil when a ton of frost magic hit her senses, apparently dissipating from the giant block of frozen water. Wait, what did he say? "Y-You kidnapped someone?? By accident? How do you even do that?? And wait, how did you get here? How did you break the top of the city, there's a giant hole in the ceiling!" Seika shrieked, and the man winced. Aphelia had no pity for him, though. She released her bond mate and stalked up to the man. "Why should we care?" Seika blinked at that. "Um, Aphi, actually, like if it's a person? They shouldn't be kidnapped, right? You would be mad if I was kidnapped! Right?" At that, the spirit gave her a humorless smile before turning back to the man. "Answer me." Still pale, and seeming to be barely standing on his feet, the man whispered, "I don't know who you are, or where I am. They- sealed me away inside of the ice. I can't tell you anything else- this is the girl, I made a mistake, I can't let her suffer for it-" he pulled a scroll out of his bag, and on it was a drawing of a young woman. Obviously very beautiful, even in grey scale Seika could see that she had dark hair and a striking appearance. Wait... "Hey, this kind of looks like Eva! Um, Ivara," the mage clapped her hands, overjoyed at the memory of her friend. Even though she had kind of fallen asleep at the end, or something like that, the mission had been a lot of fun regardless! Plus she had gotten a glittery key out of it. Aphelia also leaned in closer to the scroll, her eyes suspicious. "You kidnapped Ivara?" Her voice was soft, but threatening. The man waved his hands in panic, even though they were visibly trembling. "No! I mean- yes? I don't know who Ivara is! I wanted them to kidnap my wife, but they got the wrong person," he admitted, and Aphelia snorted. "There's plenty to unpack there, but we don't have time. You said they got the wrong person? It's likely an acquaintance of ours, who bears an uncanny resemblance to your wife." The feline pulled Seika away from the man, scanning him up and down. "Enjoy your time in the ice," the spirit hissed before she waved her hand, gathering up all of the slowly melting chunks that had broken away, sealing them back up into one giant hunk with the man still inside. Breathing heavily with disgust, the girl glared at Seika, her red eyes piercing into the mage's own. Nervously, Seika pushed up her glasses. "This ice is from the Silent Glaciers." That was all Aphelia said, but the girl perked up at the name. "Ooh, let's go! I wanna see Ivara again!" The spirit's eyes were dark as she told Seika that she was sure her friend wanted to see her again, too. Then in a whisk of blinding fire, they teleported away.
2,348 Words