[ Magical autonomy is something Grace hasn't had for a long time, and it's always with envy (envy, and something that toes the line between dislike and hate) that she regards the witches of Amyranth. How nice must it be still to be able to cast your own magic?
(She remembers crafting flames with her bare hands, and she remembers shards of ice. It seems like a lifetime ago.)
Daniel, given the nature of his gift, is the exception. It doesn't make them much closer — he isn't being tapped for his magic — but it's something. When he calls, she turns, one hand raised to shield her eyes, a makeshift guard against the whip of her auburn hair. (Where once her beauty had been bright and unfettered, it has faded into something a little harder to catch; apt for the grey that colors the sky and the cold that nips at one's heels with the roll of the tide.) ]
Yeah, Grace. [ Then, almost absently: ] He's busy. [ Both answers seem more like asides than anything else, though the second bears the same sort of odd on-off teasing quality. (Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, either way it bears asking what she's doing alone.) It's a little while before she says anything else. Sorry, she thinks, maybe. It's been a long week. Something like that.
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(She remembers crafting flames with her bare hands, and she remembers shards of ice. It seems like a lifetime ago.)
Daniel, given the nature of his gift, is the exception. It doesn't make them much closer — he isn't being tapped for his magic — but it's something. When he calls, she turns, one hand raised to shield her eyes, a makeshift guard against the whip of her auburn hair. (Where once her beauty had been bright and unfettered, it has faded into something a little harder to catch; apt for the grey that colors the sky and the cold that nips at one's heels with the roll of the tide.) ]
Yeah, Grace. [ Then, almost absently: ] He's busy. [ Both answers seem more like asides than anything else, though the second bears the same sort of odd on-off teasing quality. (Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, either way it bears asking what she's doing alone.) It's a little while before she says anything else. Sorry, she thinks, maybe. It's been a long week. Something like that.
Or maybe not. ]
You're Daniel.