In a world without magic

[aria_di_celes]

In the months after Kefka's tower collapsed, the world changed rapidly. Though some of the damage to the land was irreversible,  life began to flourish once again. For the first time in years, the trees budded, flowers grew, and even the sky turned blue. Everything seemed to be heading back to the way things were, though there was something distinctly different about their new world. When Kefka died, so too did magic, and with it, many of the monsters became less aggressive, and some species died out completely. To the average person it wasn't entirely a terrible trade-off, since travel became safer, but still, things were different.

Few felt the difference more than Celes. Unlike most of her friends who learned magic from the shards of Magicite, Celes was genetically modified from a young age. There was hardly a time in her life that she could remember not at least feeling that presence of magic, to be able to call forth fire or ice at a whim. Even now, she could feel the incantations on her tongue, but there was nothing to fuel it. Like a lamp drained of all of it's oil.

For all of the changes in the world, the one place that stayed the same was the mountains of Narshe. Still abandoned since the cataclysm, the frozen peaks saw few visitors. Few, save for the two climbing a long and winding frozen path. Even though it was spring, the mountains were as cold as ever, maybe even colder. Maybe the loss of magic had more of an effect on her than she'd like to admit, but Celes couldn't remember feeling quite this cold before. She'd be the last one to speak up though, so she kept her arms wrapped around her center, trudging forward silently in the snow.

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[aria_di_celes]

She doesn't push him away, as she might have in the past. After over a year of travelling together, she wasn't just used to having him around, but displays of affection got easier, more natural to her.

"What would you do without me?" She even went so far as to tease back quietly, as she reached around him to tug the shawl back around both his shoulders, content to settle in close to him for now.

[lockpick]

Best-case scenario, without her he probably would have ended up with a pretty ugly scar for his troubles. (As it was, it still might scar a bit...he'd have to think up a suitably heroic spin to put to the story before anyone asked where he got it.) But that was the least of it. He hummed and pulled her closer into his lap when she asked. Locke was better, these days, when it came to dealing with the deep-seated fear and guilt he had harbored after Rachel fell. It was unlikely, however, that he'd ever be able to forget it entirely. Not any time soon.

Celes didn't object, so he went ahead and buried his face tiredly against the crook of her neck as she made herself comfortable, holding her against him to share his warmth and the length of her cloak.

"Your hands are cold," he observed absently into her shoulder. As if she hadn't noticed.

[aria_di_celes]

"And you're warmer than you have any right to be, in these conditions." But Locke always seemed so warm to her. He was the fire to her ice. She wrapped her arms around his sides, warming her hands against his skin. It was probably more comfortable for her than him, considering that her hands must feel like ice cubes, but she knew he wouldn't mind, he never did.

His earlier words came to mind, and her earlier frustration, both with the fire and his wound, "Do you ever miss it? Magic?"

[lockpick]

"I'm hot-blooded," he claimed boldly, though he hardly sounded it, voice rough and leaning on her and a little lightheaded from the wound. "All good adventurers are."

And indeed, even if he was the one who was half-dressed, he didn't flinch away from her hands as they huddled beneath the cloak. He was quiet for a spell after her question. Her magic wasn't as dangerous a topic as some. Not as taboo as bringing up Rachel or that fateful day in Vector, or anything like that. But it wasn't common for either of them to talk about it without cause. Even if he wondered, sometimes, when he saw her or Terra. He never asked.

"I guess," he said, finally. "Sometimes. But I always sort of felt like I was only borrowing it anyway, you know?"

Freely given, for the most part, but borrowed power all the same. Even Phoenix was little more than another pretty stone, now. Free of cracks, but powerless all the same. The espers had given their lives so they could gain magic from the magicite. And then magic itself had been sacrificed so they could save the world. As dramatic as it sounded, it was true enough. He reached over to take one of her chilled hands between both of his own before returning the question, carefully.

"What about you?"

[aria_di_celes]

She nodded, spreading out her fingers, palm up in his hands, "I would be lying if I said I didn't. I wasn't born with it, but I don't remember a time when it wasn't a part of me." It was a little sad to think that she'd never feel the tendrils of magic on her fingertips. "Sometimes it feels like I lost a part of me."

But she could never forget why she was given that power, and everything that's happened afterwards. Even when she was a child, the Empire sought to abuse it, and before Kefka even touched those statues, it tore their world apart.

She closed her hand into a fist, decisively, "But it's a small price to pay to make things right again."

[lockpick]

He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say to something like that. So he didn't say anything for a while. It was more than they've spoken on the subject in months. He didn't want to ignore it. He didn't want to make light of what she and Terra had lost. Because even if he'd had access to magic once, he couldn't understand what it meant to have it running through your veins for so long, and then to feel it die. Not really. Not even close.

But he knew what it was like to lose. He'd lost a piece of himself when he lost Rachel. Spent years trying to hold himself together with the hope of fixing something that was already gone. Because the thought of moving forward without it was too much to bear. Losing that hope all over again had only hurt all the more. Celes knew better than that. She always was smarter than him.

"...I'm sorry." Quiet, and he folded her hand in his again to warm it. Back then, he'd always thought it was the ice in her veins that made her feel so cool. It could just as easily be the chill in the air from the storm. Maybe it wasn't that complicated. Maybe it was just Celes.

saaaaaap warning

[aria_di_celes]

"Don't be." She shook her head. It wasn't uncommon for Celes to reject pity, but it wasn't just that, "I'm not."

As wonderful a gift as it was, Magic, and the greed for it's power was dangerous. Even though things were starting to return to normal, some things would never be the same. There wasn't a person alive who hadn't lost a part of themselves in the cataclysm. Even before that, how many lost family, like Cyan or the brothers Figaro? Or loved ones, like Locke? How close had she come to losing everything?

It was nowhere close to losing a loved one, she knew that now, after the time she spent on the island. Unlike Locke, and so many others she got her chance to make things right again, and find those she had lost.

When she thought of it that way, magic was a small price to pay. After the first War of the Magi, the Goddesses must have realized this too. It's why they sealed away their power. Because as wonderful as magic was, there was no comparison when it came to friends, family, and homeland.

And what really had she given up? The ability to create fire on a whim? A fire that, because of magic's nature to protect it's caster, never really felt all that hot to Celes in the first place. It was a dull heat compared to the warmth in Locke's hands around hers.

Realizing this, she offered Locke a small smile, "I have no regrets. Given the chance, I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

lets not kid ourselves that applies to like, this whole thread

[lockpick]

How's that for self-sacrificing. No regrets, but that wouldn't stop him from worrying over it. Loving Celes wasn't the same as loving Rachel. He'd realized, deep down, that he ought to stop comparing Celes to her. But it was easier said than done. Sometimes he just couldn't help it. The differences sometimes struck him like a blow to the gut. A harsh reminder of what he'd lost, as unfair as it was to either of them for him to dwell on it like that. As if Celes really was a replacement. As if Rachel ever could be replaced. The similarities were more like a bolt of lightning. Rarer, but shocking in intensity when they came out of the blue. He honestly couldn't say which hurt more.

For now, he huffed a laugh, breath misting out between them, and leaned his forehead onto hers. Reluctant to move overmuch, because yeah, it's cold, even in here, and he was as close to comfortable as he'd be with his shoulder aching and his head spinning (and he's still lacking a shirt, let alone anything warmer than the cloak he's sharing with Celes.) They were going to need to build up the fire again before long, though. Eventually he brought her hand up to press a kiss to her knuckles.

"You're really something, you know that?"

hahaha yeah true

[aria_di_celes]

Thanks to the cold, her cheeks were already red, but his comment managed to make her flush. Maybe it was modesty, or just not being used to letting someone be so close to her, maybe she wouldn't ever be used to Locke treating her like something special.

"It's not anything that you wouldn't have done." Or anything that anyone else did. Terra was dealing just fine with the loss of her magic, seemed happy about it sometimes, even. Not waiting for an answer, she ended up pulling away, turning towards the fire, "We need to get some more wood." As always, dealing with work that needs to be done was the easier thing to do.

doing this on a psp is difficult, but I can't sleep anyway

[lockpick]

She turned back to the fire, but Locke didn't seem inclined to let her go right away. More wood, huh?

"Time and a place Celes, remember?" he snickered into her ear. Biting cold or bloodloss be damned, he still seemed to be feeling well enough to be a pain in the ass. He'd survive. She did have a point, though. He carefully began to unwind himself from around her. "Does this mean you're done putting me back together?"

:'|

[aria_di_celes]

That just made her blush more, and she gave him a light shove- on his good shoulder of course.

"You're acting well enough, I estimate a fast recovery." Not that much could keep him down for long. She was relunctant to move away from his heat, but once he unwound himself, she pushed herself to her feet.

"Stay here, I don't want to risk you running into more jagged spikes."

[lockpick]

"I see your wit hasn't suffered from the loss of your magic," he said, slowly stretching out the injured arm with a bit of a wince. You say that like it was his fault. (It was his fault.) But Locke was always quick to bounce back. She might need to sit on him to be sure he didn't try to bounce too far too quickly.

"Luckily, I already cleared the path for you." By stumbling through it. "A torch oughta keep the critters away."