Fire and Water: Water

Aeilus watched Kael boredly. It was the second day the two of them were in this world, and they'd barely spoken. Which, if Aeilus was really thinking about it, it made sense Kael might not want to talk to him. But sitting around in an inn doing nothing was driving him crazy. Which meant he definitely needed a solution. What he really wanted to do was get out of the inn, go explore this new world. They'd only left once, to visit the local library, and Kael had been very reluctant to let him come at all. Gods, he wanted to go out. But that clearly wasn't going to happen, not while Kael had anything to say about it. So, that left pretty much one option for what to do.

"Whatcha doing?" Aeilus asked, walking toward the desk where Kael was sitting.

"Things." Kael replied icily. Despite his calm tone and neutral expression, a red tint had appeared in the roots of his hair. Aeilus had quickly learned that red meant frustration or anger. Probably the best option right now would be to back off and deal with boredom. But he'd been dealing with boredom for so long already. Getting yelled at by Kael would be better than sitting around doing nothing at this point. 

"What kind of things?" He leaned against the desk, jostling the cup of water Kael had set near himself. 

Kael glared at him. "Things I don't need you help with."

"But I can be helpful! Here-" Aeilus reached for a leather-bound journal next to Kael's arm. Unfortunately, that water cup was right in the way, and it toppled over, sending water splashing at the journal.

"No!" Kael yelled, throwing a hand out as if to stop the water.

And, to the apparent surprise of both of them, the water stopped. Kael stared at it, unmoving, and a streak of yellow (meaning alarm? surprise? worry?) appeared in his hair. 

Aeilus didn't move, staring at the water. If Kael's normal magic made his hair change color, then there was no way it was water magic. Which meant he'd have to be incredibly powerful to control water accidentally. Greenwings didn't have that level of magic. 

His train of thought was interrupted by the cup rolling off the desk with a quiet noise. The noise seemed to snap Kael out of whatever stunned state he was in, and he slowly moved to pick up the cup with his free hand, setting it gently back on the desk. Then he shakily moved his hand up. The water responded to the movement, and Kael quickly set it back into the cup. He pulled the journal closer to him, still staring at the cup.

"Is that normal?" Aeilus said finally.

The yellow was beginning the fade from Kael's hair, and the red was spreading. He glared at Aeilus. "What does it matter to you? You can probably do things ten times more impressive than that with your special Bluewing magic" He said 'special Bluewing magic' the same way one might say the name of their least favorite food. 

Aeilus realized he was fidgeting with his pendant again, and dropped his hand. "Y-Yeah. I can. I was just curious how a Greenwing..." He trailed off, not quite able to finish the lie.

Kael huffed, returning to the book he'd been pouring over. "You really want to be helpful? Use your magic to decipher this." He jabbed a finger at a passage written in a different language.

Aeilus shifted his weight between his legs, staring at the ground and trying to think of a reason he wouldn't be able to. 

Kael rolled his eyes. "If you don't want to actually help, go back to sulking in the corner."

Aeilus met his eyes. "I just, can't do that."

"Bluewings are supposed to be able to do anything with their magic." 

"Yeah, well..." Aeilus moved his gaze to the floor again, mumbling some half-hearted excuse about being young. When he looked up, Kael was watching him, with an unreadable expression. It was another moment before he spoke.

"Prince Aeilus, do you have magic?"

Aeilus opened his mouth to protest, to say that of course he had magic, what fairy didn't have magic? Especially a Bluewing! But he couldn't quite force the lie out. His lack of response seemed to be all Kael needed. 

"So the royal family's just been lying to everyone? Is that why you guys wear those stupid pendants? Do your parents even have magic?"

"Of course they do! It's just... it's just me that's defective."

Kael shook his head, and returned to his books, apparently done with the conversation. Aeilus, after lingering for a moment, returned to his spot on his bed.

 

It had been half an hour since Kael's conversation with Prince Aeilus, and he hadn't been able to get any research done in that time. He'd read this one passage about thirty million times, not taking in any of the information. He couldn't get his thoughts off the cup and the water. Back home, he'd been able to move water, sure, but that required pushing his magic. It wasn't something he could randomly do to protect his father's journal. Maybe the water was weird? Or maybe magic was just easier in this world. He sighed. It was clear he wasn't getting any more work done on finding a portal home until he figured this out, so he gently pushed the books aside.

He glanced back at Aeilus, but the Bluewing was too busy pouting to notice anything Kael was doing. Good. He didn't want an audience while he experimented with magic.

He pulled the cup of water toward him and hovered a hand over it. He closed his eyes, searching for the water. He found it easily, feeling it as if his hand was already submerged. He grabbed it and pulled upward. When he opened his eyes, he found that he had, indeed, pulled the water out of the cup. He brought it closer to himself, holding it in an orb-shape close to his chest. He cautiously moved control of it from hand to hand, moved it into a couple different shapes, and split it into two orbs, before depositing it back into the cup. It all felt as easy as his color magic.

Right, that was the next experiment. He placed a finger on the cover of his journal, watching flower patterns expand outward from his fingertip. So that was still normal. He picked up his hand and let the patterns fade. 

He glanced back at Prince Aeilus again. Their eyes met for an instant before the prince's gaze shifted. Kael had to contain a sigh. So the prince was watching him now. Fine, whatever. He still had an experiment in mind. 

He placed his hand against the wooden top of the desk and closed his eyes. The magic humming through the wood felt distant, even with his hand resting on top of it. Like there was some sort of barrier. It felt foreign to him, its heartbeat out of sync with his own. So far so normal. He reached for the magic with an imaginary hand, pulling at it to shift and grow in the way he wanted it to. When he opened his eyes, a small flower had sprouted out of the wood. He felt slightly tired out, as if he'd just sprinted a little ways to catch up with someone ahead of him. Which was normal for borrowing magic that didn't belong to him. 

So, everything was normal except that he suddenly had water magic for some reason. Did stepping through the portal change his magic? Was this a weird fairies-and-portals-don't-mix sort of deal? If it was, the prince would have new magic, wouldn't he?

"Did you figure out what's going on?" Prince Aeilus sounded like he was trying very hard to sound disinterested.

Kael should still be mad at him, he knew, but all the experimentation with his magic had made his anger mostly vanish. "Something about the portal must've given me water magic."

An excited look passed over the prince's face. "Do you think I got magic too?"

Kael shrugged, and Prince Aeilus looked at his hands. "How would I know? How did you find out you had magic the first time?"

"I just accidentally changed my hair color when I was little."

The prince wilted. "Oh."

He had a stupid puppy dog eyes disappointed face. Kael hated people who had puppy dog eyes like that. It made it so much harder to not want to help them. He sighed. 

"Just try poking around with your magic. Maybe something'll happen."

He perked up a little at that. After giving it a moment of thought, he sat down on the floor, criss-cross-applesauce, and closed his eyes. A look of concetration fell over his face. Kael turned back to his work, definitly not watching the prince to see what would happen.