Algernon Black

(Chapter 6) The Top of the World, Looking Down

"I've never danced before, ever," Lucy confessed, trying to follow suit of the people around her which just made her clunky moves more awkward and outlandish.

"It shows," Rasmus spat, as he pushed on her back to straighten her posture once again. "You need to loosen your hold," He said when she gripped his hand so tight it felt like she was cracking bone. "And follow my lead." He ordered when Lucy got distracted by the first order and forgot to move her feet. "But don't move your feet so much." He said after Lucy almost tripped over herself with the next step. "And don't look down, look at me." He added, as Lucy looked back up instantly, but with no confidence in her eyes. "And keep your back straight." He said through gritted teeth as her posture fell once again.

Lucy was earnestly trying to do all he said, but found it just as complicated and unnatural as when Jared tried to teach her dark magic.

Jared watched on from the side, not at all happy with what he was seeing and only looked away when he felt something off. To his side he saw the back of a man who had light brown hair, making his way through the guest with garments too common to be part of high society. Jared started searching for the man without even knowing why.

By the last good king's grace, the song came to an end and Lucy immediately excused herself as she had never felt so much tension in a single moment as she did dancing with that man.

"Dancing is not something you take too easily," Rasmus said, as he followed her to the corner in which she was hiding. "I thought it was prominent in Emora that ladies learn to dance." He spoke while gesturing for a servant to bring over drinks.

"Probably," Lucy said, taking a fluted glass. It was wine when she wished it was water, but still she drank. "I wasn't educated in Emora but by my brother. And the necessity for dancing never came about."

"So instead of dancing, he taught you how to catch bugs."

"Amongst other things," Lucy said. Jared had also taught her how to call upon the four magics left to man by the gods, though she was still really only a novice at all of them. She did have a special way with light magic, and creation magic she had just started to become better at, but destruction magic still confused her, and dark magic completely eluded her.

"Strange for someone from Emora," Rasmus said, swirling the wine in his cup but not yet drinking. "As I recall Emorians are said to be the most well-educated in the world, in grace and magic. Isn't that what that grand school of yours is all about anyway?"

"Attwood," Lucy named it, recalling Jared's stories.

"Yes," Rasmus replied rather annoyed to hear its name known by just about the entire world. Something he envied since the last king who ever ruled in Emora lived over a thousand years ago and his palace was still the most revered one on the planet. And the students who graduated from there now were more respected than as a prince of his. It made him jealous, just as much it made him want to surpass it. "Why did you not attend?"

"If I was permitted to attend this would be my first year," Lucy said, and knowing as little as she did about Attwood, she at least knew you first entered at eighteen. "But that is reserved for only the most special men and women in the country. So, for now I'm traveling with my brother while he pursues different cultures' uses of magic that he one day hopes to bring back to Emora." She looked down at her wine as she felt that longing for home. "If that time ever comes," Lucy never liked to complain about her life, but there was a huge part of her that longed to be somewhere welcomed by people who saw her for more than just a passing foreigner. Attwood had become a dream for her stemming from that yearning, as she imagined making friends and beginning adventures with people that would become as important to her as she was to them, but she never dare let her hopes get too high. And at least she had her brother.