Winds of a Frozen Heart (private)

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

Alye retired to her room silently that night. After she closed the door to her room, she leaned against her doorframe and let out a sigh. Was that a wise decision she had just made? At the time, Alye felt that her words were just and true, but now that she dwelled on it, was she doing the right thing? Had her words been the right ones?

As Alye lay down in her bed that night, she shuffled to the side and looked out towards the moon. The night sky looked lovely through her large window as the moon bathed her room in pale light. Alye laid there for a while, staring at the wise moon. The ever present chronicler of the Earth's history for as long as anyone could remember. Slowly but surely, her eyes closed.

The sounds of birds outside made Alye rise from her slumber. Her eyes opened slightly, as the light of morning graced her pupils. The girl sat up and ran a hand through her hair before she leaned forward to see what time it was. 10:34. She had some time...

The girl got up, made her bed and went into her private bath to clean up. When she came out of her pristine bathroom, clad in only a towel, the woman took another look at her clock. 11:03. Still enough time.

Alye rose a finger towards the window, pushing the curtains closed as she let her towel fall. The white-haired girl walked over to her closet and picked out something different than her usual attire. Today was not going to be any ordinary day. Alye picked through her closet and found a white and blue form fitting shirt and leggings that she paired off with white combat shoes. She then pulled a thick white cloak with a blue cloud pattern adorned around the seams around her neck. Alye quickly ran her hair through twice with a brush before letting it fall gently to her shoulders. Another glance at the clock told the white-haired girl that she still had forty minutes to go, so she decided to stop by the guildhall's cafeteria for a snack.

When she was done there, Alye nodded her thanks to the ones that opened the massive guildhall doors for her before a gentle wind gathered around her and lifted her into the air. She leaned forward and the winds responded by moving her in that direction. When Alye straightened out, she gained elevation. She was quickly a dot in the sky from the guild's prospective.

When Alye arrived at the mountain side opposite of the guildhall, she was surprised when she saw Reiki leaning against a tree with a smile on his face, obviously waiting for her. Was she late? The girl looked up, but the sun's position on the sky told her she wasn't. "Well, if he's early that means he serious about this. And if he is, I will be too! She thought to herself as she gently touched down on the ground, grass whipping around in her wake.

"Hello there, Reiki. I brought us some lunch before we begin, would you like to eat with me?", she said with a smile as she held out a box that was tied in a bright red cloth around it. It was the color of his eyes, actually... To a Dragon Slayer, whose senses were keener than most, he could probably already smell the fried chicken and rice balls that she had brought for them both.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

"Well, first of all, you need to relax, Reiki. I...honestly have no idea why you seem so jittery. You know I don't bite!", she ended as she plopped her last chicken-and-rice ball into her mouth and wiped her mouth with a napkin. After she set her trash to the side next to her cloak, afterwards pulling her hair into a ponytail.

"If you aren't completely focused on what we're doing, you won't get the maximum effect of the training", she told him as she walked by him then waved for him to follow her. The two walked for a little while until they came to a barren clearing. The grass ended at the trees, and up ahead there was nothing but tanish brown stone ground. Alye stopped and placed a hand on her hip. "This spot should do. Reiki, stay right there for a moment, will you?", she said as she continued to walk forward.

The white-haired girl walked until she figured she was in the middle of the clearing. Alye stopped and turned towards Reiki, giving him a wave and a friendly smile. "I'll be just a second!", she called out to him.

In the space of a few moments, all was awfully quiet. Alye closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. Her leg raised into the air as a dense aura of silver exuded from her body. Alye brought down her foot swiftly, and when her heel impacted against the ground, the initial force and the shockwave from her stomp flattened out the ground in a smooth crater for almost three meters from the epicenter.

The intenser aura left Alye's body as she flicked her hand upwards. A bright blue magic circle appeared in her hand as a torrent of water shot out, Alye acting like a geyser as she began to hover in the air as she water filled the crater quite quickly.


When Alye was done, she had pretty much made a artificial lake.

The girl flew back over to Reiki and landed silently next to him. "Now Reiki, I want you to freeze the water all at once, as fast as you can", she said with a plain look on her face, as if it didn't even phase her as to what she just did.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

Alye watched Reiki closely as he performed the task that she had given him. She watched not only how he gathered his magic power, but how he released it as well. She then followed the spell as it impacted the water. The initial impact sent a lot of water flying, but as the chill reached the water, it froze completely about four seconds later.

"Hm...", she said as she looked at the water for a little while longer. Alye walked towards the frozen waters edge and kneeled down, running her hand across the surface. Alye closed her eyes as she felt the ice until she felt a slight crack. With that, Alye raised her hand and brought it down hard into the ice, breaking through easily. The force of Alye's blow revealed that Reiki had not fully froze the lake, but the surface of it.

She stood up and took a piece of the broken ice in her hand. It was cold - of course - but also felt weak as well. It was crushed easily in her hand with the slightest of force.

"I see the problem now", she said as she walked back over to Reiki. "First of all, have you ever heard of magic quality control?", she said as she gave him a gentle look.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

The girl chuckled at Reiki's response. So, he didn't understand. Well, Alye could explain it for him then. "Alright. So, if you've at least heard of it before, then you should know about magic quality. If not, I'll explain it anyway. Magic is not only classified by it's type, you know, Caster or Holder, but also in ranks, like us as wizards. Just like us, magic is graded on a D through H scale. As you also, spells are ranked this way based on their power".

Alye opened her palms to Reiki as she conjured up balls of wind in each hand. "In my right hand is a what would be considered a D-Rank ball of wind. In my left hand is what would be considered a C-Rank ball of wind", she said before she brought them closer together. "Notice how the C-Ranked ball is a bit bigger and more thicker and opaquer than the D-Rank? That is because C-Ranked magic is of a higher quality than the D-Rank. Catching on yet?", she asked him.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

Alye chuckled at Reiki's antics. At least he was trying to learn. She gently blew a warm breeze onto him, getting rid of the film of ice over his skin. "Well, that brings us to our problem. You see, your magic is of a very high quality naturally, as all Slayers are like that, however, your problem is how you gather magic and how you regulate it. Meaning, your control over how much magic power you release at once is not very refined. For example, when you roared just now, you felt a little winded didn't you? That is because you used a massive amount of low quality magic power to do what you wanted. That is why the water did not freeze completely", she said before she walked back over to the water.

"Look closely at the ice, Reiki. It took you about six seconds to freeze this water with the quality of magic power that you used. What I expected of you was that you would flash-freeze the entire lake in a second or two. Notice how the ice closer to us is smoother than the ice farther out on the lake? That is because the water had some time to react before it was frozen as well".

Alye raised her hand towards a tree to their left. "I am going to cut down that tree over there, alright? I want you to look at the quality of the spell, it's speed, and how much it took for me to cut down the tree, okay?".

A gray magic circle appeared in her hand as she called out her spell. "Storm Art: Air Slicer!", she called out as a churning wind pulsed from her hand and flew right for the tree. The wind then condensed loosely and made a thin blade of wind that flew almost lazily towards the tree before impacting against it, leaving a light mark on the tree's trunk, making it shake ever so slightly.

"Alright, one more time, but this time with higher quality magic", she said as another magic circle appeared in her hand. "Storm Art: Air Slicer!", she called out once more. Same as before, the winds churned out of the magic circle and then condensed into a blade, but this blade was thicker than the last one and moved much faster. When it hit the tree on the opposite side of the first mark, the tree shook violently and almost fell as a deep gash was inflicted on it.

"Notice the difference between the two? The D-Rank slicer was less sharp, less big, and less faster than the C-Rank one", she said as she pointed out the two cuts.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

 

Alye stood back and placed a hand on her hip as she watched Reiki do something that she hadn't seen him do before. Which was concentrate. In the short time that Alye had known Reiki, she had only seen him blindly run into a battle and simply dominate his opponent into submission. Now? He was exhibiting concentration, and Alye could see it paying off. She quickly noticed how one of his ice constructions was more well-formed, sharper, and larger than the other. Alye raised an eyebrow as she watched him more. He's getting it... She thought to herself as she then watched the aftereffects of his magic. The higher quality ice left a deeper gash in the wood, and when the ice exploded, it embedded itself much deeper into the wood than the other ice. Alye thought that was what was supposed to happen, but when he got frustrated and almost knocked the tree over with one punch, she thought differently.

Alye thought back to other times he used his magic in front of her, and then back to the ice on tree. She then thought back to initial impact of his ice... That's it!

Alye raised her arms and looked at her elbows. "Hmm... Let me see if I...", she mumbled to herself as she closed her eyes. She opened her arms to the side as a magic circle appeared on either side of her. The magic circle slid down her arms, amassing water, positioning it in the form of a blade, and flash-freezing it all in the matter of seconds. Alye let out a slight sigh as she let her arms fall and walked over a tree next to Reiki. She did exactly as he did just a minute ago, bringing her arms down quickly. However, there were two different effects. You see, Alye's ice didn't break, and after a moment of silence, the tree splintered and fell to pieces in a X-formation. "I see", she said as she opened her arms once more and dispelled the ice.

"I see your problem now, Reiki. The whole problem. Why your ice is breaking and why you're using way too much magic for simple spells", she walked over to him and put a cool finger to his chest, her finger right over his heart. "Your heart isn't in it, and if your heart isn't in it, you can't perform to your fullest. You're doubting yourself, which is causing your body to waste unnecessary strength. Ice, no matter the type, is one of the strongest yes most delicate magics of them all Reiki. You aren't trusting your magic just as you aren't trusting yourself. If you keep this up, you might accidentally get yourself killed Reiki. I am going to tell you once more, you need to calm down", she said before she dropped her hand back onto her hip.

The girl began walking back to the lake and waved for him to follow her. Once the two were back at the icey lake, the girl snapped her fingers and the rest of his ice simply shattered as she immensely increased the air pressure above it for a second and then returned it back to normal. With that done, she turned back to him. "Alright Reiki, sit down and empty your mind of everything. Don't think or worry about everything. Just take a deep breath and let it aaaall out. Now, I'm going to slowly freeze the lake back over, okay? Don't do anything but watch the ice form and think back. Think back to your dragon. Let...the memories...flow..", she said as she dipped a single finger in the water and began to slowly freeze it over, allowing Reiki to see the lone ice crystals as they spread forth and claimed more of the water.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

 

Alye raised an eyebrow at Reiki's request, but she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was quite serious. The girl closed her eyes and reached out with her magic, breaking down the ice crystals just as fast as she had made them. Alye looked over to Reiki once more. His face, his body language... Alye quickly jumped backwards a couple of feet. As soon as her feet had left the ground, she could feel the temperature in the air suddenly plummet. As the white-haired girl stood there, her mind flashed back to the day before...

...Reiki smirked, taking stance. Bending his knees, Reiki leaned his torso over forward, his hands stretched out to his sides, bared like claws. With one finale exhale, Reiki began inhaling deeply as Alye called out for her spell. As Reiki was inhaling, a familiar voice speaking in an odd tongue began ringing in his mind. The voice started out small and meek, but grew louder with each time it spoke. Louder and louder, repeating the same phrase over and over until it was literally shouting in Reiki's mind.

Reiki threw back his entire torso just as a large pillar of green tinted water fell from the sky, stopping the fire mage dead in his tracks. As soon as Alye shouted, it was Reiki's turn. "IIZDOVAH", he shouted. As his chant echoed, it was as if time itself froze for those next few moments before the final word of the chant. With his eyes consumed with a glaring white light, Reiki threw himself back into an upright position chanting the final word of the spell. "REIN!!". With that, a massive beam of ice shot forth from his mouth. Freezing the ground and grass in its wake, the beam blasted its way forth towards the helpless mage. It exploded on contact with the pillar of green water as a dragons roar echoed throughout the mountain range...

The words weren't exactly the same, but the effect sure was. Alye watched as a magic seal appeared in front of his mouth that resembled the head of a dragon. She threw her hands up in front of her face but still managed to look as the water, all of it, froze immediately. This roar was so powerful in fact, it condensed the water vapor in the air and froze all of that as well, creating a massive ice tower in their wake. Alye, how had a slightly bewildered look on her face, looked over to Reiki with a smile. "You're starting to get it, Reiki! That roar was C-Rank at least!", she said with a glimmer in her eye.

Alye walked over to Reiki and patted his shoulder before she snapped her fingers. A yellowish gray magic circle appeared in the air above Reiki's ice. In the space of a moment, a lightning barrage hit all the ice, melting and evaporating it in an instant.

"We will come back to this later! Now, we'll start something else!", she said as she lead him away from the hole. The two walked for a little until they came to the actual side of the mountain. Alye, who was in high spirits over Reiki's last success, decide to make use of it and do something she knew he would be good at.

Punching stuff!

"Reiki-kun! Hit that mountain side with the hardest punch you can muster!", she said as she point to the soon to be crumbled mountain side.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

 

This was getting easier by the minute! Alye smirked after Reiki walloped the stone, leaving a mighty crack where solid rock once was. After he posed his question, Alye nodded to him. "Exactly. As you know, everyone has natural physical strength that varies for the person. However, depending on the nature of one's magic, they can bolster their physical strength to unimaginable levels. This ability is mostly exclusive to those that use some form of elemental magic. Take my Wind Magic for example", she said as she lifted her hand into the air.

Alye's hand began to shimmer with a grey aura as a slightly visible layer of wind wrapped around her raised appendage. "If you can concentrate your magic on a small area on your body, you not only make that area stronger physically, but you also increase that area's attack power of you can use it for such a thing. Allow me to demonstrate", she said as she walked over to the mountainside.

Alye cocked her magically enhanced hand back and then shot it forward. When her fist impacted against the stone, it began to crack immediately, large chunks of it shooting forth before it began to break away altogether. What was left was a crater in the stone about six meters deep and seven meters tall. In truth, Alye was holding back, but Reiki didn't need to know that. Not now at least.

"Notice how focused magic-enhanced attacks do more precise and smooth damage than purely physical attacks", she said, pointing towards his strike zone and hers. "However, there is one form higher than that type of magically enhanced attacking. Like I said before, the more concentrated area of magic that is covered, the more power behind the attack. However, the more time to you waste erecting and constantly maintaining that magic infused area can get you killed, and wastes a lot of magic power as well. Therefore, there is a method where one can concentrate magic power to a single small point on their body, but form it at the exact moment of their strike. Which means it all must happen in the space of a few seconds, really. Let me show you just what I mean", she said as she a couple feet away from Reiki and crater she had made.

Alye stared at the mountainside as she took a deep breath. Her legs tensed for a moment before she shot forward, her hand raised. As she rocketed towards the wall, and began to bring her arm down, her raised hand could be seen with a faint glow upon her knuckles until she bashed her hand into the rock. What followed was the same as her last punch but on a much grander scale. At least three times.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

 

He was making progress, that is for sure. Alye watched him demonstrate his Ice Dragon's Shotgun on the suffering cliffside. Alye analyzed his spells and use of magic power as he ripped into the stone, expending some of his power. It indeed was more powerful, but it was coming out in the wrong form... The white-haired girl had an idea.

She walked up next to Reiki and put a hand on his shoulder. "I think you're thinking about this in the wrong way, which is okay because of the style of your magic." The girl opened her hand and formed a ball of gleaming ice that was about the size of a basketball. "Munch on this and watch and listen to me, alright?" Alye walked in front of him and sat down on the ground. She gestured for him to do the same. When he followed suit, she told him to think back. A gentle wind washed over them both as Alye spoke. "Solid-based magics are very hard to minimize because of their state of matter. However, magic power and magic are two different things. Magic power fuels magic, which are our spells, but magic power can be drawn out without turning into magic. Do you remember that time Kyll had just finished making Thanksgiving dinner and you came in and didn't realize what day it was and ate it all before any of us could have some? Do you remember Kyll's reaction? That yellow energy leaking from her body was her magic power. Kyll's punched you before, but do you remember how that punch she gave you whilst that energy leaked from her body seemed ten times stronger? She flawlessly synced her magic energy into her fist and sent you flying. That is what I mean Reiki. You need to look past spells at the moment. We will get to that later. If you learn how to draw out your magic power, your physicality will be...immense.'' She tried to let him soak it in.

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✖ SKIES TURN INTO STORMS.

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away. 'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday.

 

She smiled over to him. He had connected the concept! Alye was inwardly perplexed that he had gone into Dragon Force mode, though. They'd never told her about that. But... there were things that Alye hadn't told them. She didn't hold it against them. However, Alye did imagine what it looked like and how Reiki acted while he held that power. She had heard stories of Dragon Slayers becoming addicted to the high that came with Dragon Force. They would tear their bodies apart trying to get into that state. She hoped he wouldn't turn out like them...

She spoke once more. "Exactly. The most common instance that magic power can be drawn out is when one is expressing extreme emotion or the exact moment before a spell is released. Since you're kind of new at this, we can try it the emotional way first. I'll try and show you, but, I...can't do it for long..." Her last words held some meaning as her eyes dulled a bit, but she caught herself and closed her blue orbs before her face betrayed her wishes.

She sat Indian-style and brought her fists together. She took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose. A subtle change in the air came forth that Reiki could note with his acute awareness to the cold. As the air around Alye's skin seemed to shine duly, the sky above seemed to get heavier and heavier for some reason. If Reiki would have looked at Alye he would see that her face had become rather...sullen. The shining light coming from her was starting to emanate, but it was just a faint glow, giving her entire body a rather sad and fragile look about it. The rumble of thunder in the distance would give note to what emotion Alye was bringing forth.

Sadness.

She was thinking of her family, the friends, the innocents, everyone that she's ever had to let go because of fate. The inner turmoil that she felt about her fault in killing her parents - it never really went away. It just bubbled in the back of her heart, bringing itself out whenever it seemed cruelest. The light from the sun was dulled by the emerging dark clouds overhead. A shivering wind swept over the landscape, thick with water vapor. Alye's hair slowly began to move with the wind as the sky became a dark place.

And then it started to rain.

The water fell from in sky in a sad, pathetic sprinkle. It fell upon the area like a blanket of regret. It avoided Alye and Reiki, however. She had simultaneously caused a cone of high pressured air to envelope the two mages so they wouldn't get wet. The rain just fell around them as the aura around Alye sparkled on.

But then something changed.

The dull light shining from Alye suddenly began to get brighter. The strands of energy rippled forth and exploded outwards. The look on Alye's face had changed from sadness to anger. And the weather responded. The light rainshower suddenly became a powerful torrent. Reiki and Alye were safe from the elements, but the surrounding forestry was being whipped back and forth by gale force winds and thickets of heavy water. It was like a hurricane had appeared in the space of mere moments. The aura around Alye was bright and intense. It whipped around just as fiercely as the winds around them were. The white-haired girl was thinking of when she saw someone messing with innocents. When she saw the strong picking on the weak for no reason. When she felt helpless to do anything about it.

She took another deep breath and then exhaled.

The aura around her began to weaken as Alye reined in her emotions. The response was immediate. The weather suddenly began to lighten. The winds slowed and the rain ceased altogether. It was as if nothing had even happened. Alye took another breath and the clouds began to break apart. Beautiful rays of sunlight broke through to the surface and gleamed off the watery land. A solid beam began to shine around Alye and Reiki, illuminating them. Alye opened her blue eyes. They gleamed in the sunlight. "Using one's magic power like that can strengthen you, but as you can see, you have to be careful. Your power will affect everything around you. That is why minimizing it is so important. The more you rein it in, the less collateral damage you might do. Remember that Reiki. Your magic is especially dangerous. One slip up and you might flash-freeze everything and everyone around you."

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