Anybody But You

26

Chapter Twenty-Six

Vibe: Feel It by Gia Woods

"You're really getting good at that!" Lucy called out to Alice from the balcony above the training grounds.

Alice grinned, shaping a glowing sphere in the air in front of her—the ball was supposed to be so hot that it felt cold to the touch.

It had been about a year of training and she was finally able to master the spells that not many could. Besides actual training and learning, magic was largely dependant on talent and how much control someone had on things outside of them. The more sensitive one was to others, objects, and events such as phenomenons that were around them, the more one was able to succeed.

While Alice was far from being one of the greats, her natural ability was quite astonishing to see when paired with her determination, stubbornness, and will power. Even though she hadn't yet tried out any forbidden spells (mostly due to being on royal grounds), she was equally nervous as she was curious to know if she could do it.

She felt the energy around her buzz as she concentrated on growing the ball. The spell she was doing wasn't a particularly tough one, but it was great for working on concentration and learning how to focus on multiple details at once—if one calculation was off (i.e. how much energy she put into it, what type of energy, how much of each energy, all the while growing and shrinking it in unison) the ball would sizzle out. Or worse, explode.

By a miracle she hadn't exploded it yet, but she heard it was a very painful thing to experience—magical burns that appeared like frostbite would cover where you got hit. However, thankfully because it was only magic and not real heat or cold, the burns healed completely by the next day. It was completely harmless except for giving temporary pain—even if you were hit head to toe, you'd survive. Hence why it was a popular training spell even for beginners.

"Once you master it, you have to teach me the basics, okay?" Lucy called out again, nearly distracting Alice as she nodded with a smile.

The ball was bigger than she had ever gotten it before—the brilliant colours of yellow and orange and even some blues wicking around it like lapping flames. She liked to imagine it as a little sun that she herself grew.

"It's so big!" Lucy yelped in excitement, again, almost making Alice lose concentration. "Make it bigger!"

Chuckling nervously as the sweat dribbled down the side of her face, she complied to the princess's wishes—making it out to be almost the same height as her.

"Feel the power, Alice! Destroy the world!"

Lucy's excited and ridiculous shouts began to blur into the background; her head feeling as if it were about to explode as she carefully pulled in more and more energy. It was like a building pressure that she could feel even in her teeth.

"Isn't that danger—"

Alice yelped out blasphemous words as her concentration and calculating fluctuated just as a certain dark haired prince decided to make his appearance after almost a full month.

The explosion covered Alice as she hid her face and braced for the pain. The coldness hurting so bad she almost felt relief as the burning on her skin began—only to feel like she was being torched to death by her own cute little sun seconds later.

She just wanted to know how many more times she would have to experience death until the gods were satisfied.

Meanwhile, not understanding what sort of magical spell Alice was practicing, Narcisse began running towards her as if her life was in real danger. Lucy, on the other hand, was laughing her butt off up on the balcony. Alice had asked her to try to distract her, and the accident and what caused it was all very very amusing to her.

"Alice!" Narcisse practically dived towards her rolling body on the mulch—in his white uniform and all.

Alice was crying, rolling around the cold ground to try and stop the horrible sensation from continuing. It had weakened from the initial explosion, but she was still not having a very fun time.

Pulling her into his arms, Narcisse gave her a worried look, "What can I do to help? What hurts?"

Scrunching her face up, the blonde whined up at the familiar face staring down at her, "Seriously getting tired of saying this but, literally anybody but you. No one else would have distracted me." She complained, letting out fake sobs as she hit his chest. "Why did you choose now to stop avoiding me?"

Narcisse, having eased his worry thanks to her whiny complaints, watched her curiously, "You're turning purple."

Sure enough, she lifted her thin arms, watching the magic burns showing up, she was indeed turning purple.

With a pout as Narcisse stood up from the dirty ground with her painful body tightly in his arms, Alice swatted him again, "Stupid prince. It's only temporary."

Laughing a full bellied laugh for perhaps the first time in front of Alice, he looked down at her with shimmering dark eyes and a dazzling pearly white smile, "I think blue's more your colour, Miss Alice."

Alice was thankful for the purple as she felt her entire body turn pink from seeing such a happy and bright look on a face she thought she had already known.

What else was the Narcisse of this world hiding? Was that something she was allowed to find out? Or did she owe it to her past self to continue to hate him?

~*~*~

A.N.

*sigh* this guy again.

A wild Narcisse appears!
The Narcisse used CONFUSION!
It's supper effective!

Thanks for reading hehe :)