Intangible [ One Piece]

// Chapter Forty Four \\

Marco's POV

It had been a few weeks since Talia and Thatch had woken up and Talia was finally starting to look like herself once again. True to her word, Talia had been training endlessly constantly pouring herself over books and trying to lose herself in trances to see if she could force herself to remember spells she had seen when she was younger. Her spell weaving was flawless, but just as I had expected, it took a lot out of her. Thatch and I took up rotating shifts with her training to make sure she didn't push herself too far.

Though everyone was worried about her involvement in rescuing Ace, no one could deny her strategic knowledge, already with her attending meetings we had a solid plan. When Talia wasn't training, or strategizing she spent her time locked away in the library and I noticed many of the rookies bringing in tons of writing supplies, paper, ink and quills. She wouldn't tell anyone what she was doing, but said it may come in handy for Ace's rescue. When we questioned the rookies they merely shrugged and said she was writing but they didn't know what.

The sun mercilessly beat down on the deck of the ship, the temperature had skyrocketed in the past few hours. The weather was always unpredictable out on the harsh seas. Talia was sitting beneath the mast tracing imaginary symbols in the air, she'd been trying to find a way to cast her spells without having to write anything down or have a tome with her.

She uttered strange words under her breath as she continued tracing the strange shapes in the air. From the tone of her voice, I could tell she was getting flustered with herself as nothing was happening and sighed as I headed over to her. Perhaps it was time to take a break, her skin was pale, her cheeks were flushed and she was sweating quite a bit thanks to the sweltering heat.

"Talia let's take a brea-." I froze as thorn covered vines shot from the deck at her feet climbing higher and higher into the sky creating a strange prickly barrier around her. The thorns came alive as she waved her hands and moved with her like giant deadly serpents.

"I did it!" Talia cheered as the thorns dispersed and I felt my heart drop as I spotted blood dripping from her nose. She jumped as a drop of blood splashed onto her bare legs and quickly wiped at her face.

"Come on, let's take a break." I sighed as I swept her into my arms and carried her off toward the galley for some cold drinks.

"I can walk." Talia blushed.

"I very much doubt that." My voice sounded harsher than I had intended and I threw her an apologetic look, "You're shaking. That took a lot out of you."

"It's probably just the heat." She whined cutely. "That one wasn't even that hard of a spell."

"It's probably not when your casting it from a book or writing it out. Doesn't this add a level of difficulty?" I questioned her.

"Well yes, but it's not that bad." She avoided my gaze.

I bit my lip to keep from arguing with her, it would just upset her. This was something she wanted to do and learning the spells made her feel closer to her mother and the majority of the spells she'd perfected could be quite useful both offensively and defensively. Fire seemed to be the easiest and most natural for her to wield and didn't cause her too much stress. The nature spells, earth and weather seemed to be the most difficult for her to grasp and had strong side effects.

"After lunch I want to see if I can make a cyclone." Talia said softly.

"That sounds safe." I noted sarcastically.

"I won't hit the ship." She promised.

"That's really not my concern." I sighed as I set her down at an empty table.