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It still has a purpose, though.

[ Regardless if the sky above is not real.

One day, however, she would love to see the real stars. She used to be able to create them; suns, to float beside her like lights. That power is absent in this world, taken from her. She doesn't know why, but it's become incredibly more lonely because of it. She wishes to see real stars again. It's been so long.... ] It protects.

[ Leading him further away from the temple, they turn about this street and that. ] And... can't you make wishes upon even false stars?

[Well, she's not wrong- it does certainly protect, and that's something he can appreciate. His father's shields have always given him comfort, even if they also caused a great deal of anxiety as he grew and began to understood what it was doing.

At her question, his head cants slightly to one side, confused and curious.]

I... don't know. I've never actually wished on a star.

[Is that a thing? Do people do that??]

[ With one hand, she waves towards the false heavens. ]

Try!

[......why

why would people wish on stars? stars mean night, and night is bad because daemons?

He blinks owlishly at her for a moment, trying to parse the logic of it before finally shrugging it off. It makes about as much sense as anything she expects of him.

Looking up once more, he focuses on the fake stars and calls up,]

I... wish I could learn actual magic?

[He glances back at her, briefly. Like that? Just a wish?]

[ ...What.... What was that.... ]

[ She can't help but laugh. ]

You sound so.... so uncertain! [ She manages to speak between giggles. ] The stars can't hear you like that!

[....

UUUUUGH. He just. buries his face in a hand.]

The stars can't hear anything, they're not even real!

[ Her giggles continue to ring softly in the night. ] Or maybe they're so old, they've lost their hearing. You have to speak up.

[--UUUUUUUUGH--

With a frustrated exhale, he tries again, louder this time, a shout that echoes down the streets around them.]

Hey! Stars! Give me magic already!

[If he can yell at his own gods then he can yell at fake stars made by other gods, sure.]

[ There it is, a wish so powerful that he must shout it out loud. That's the vigor he needs-- the same vigor that will help him fulfill his own wish. She laughs, delighted with the result, swinging their hands happily...

And at last she turns to face him. They're in the plaza where they first met. ]

Okay. Now we're ready to begin.

Edited 2019-11-22 06:30 (UTC)

[Huh... that was weirdly cathartic, in retrospect. He remains focused on the stars for a long moment after as the echo of his voice fades away, daring them to do anything. They don't, of course, but when he looks back down he is surprised at their location. They'd been walking, but it hadn't truly clicked where they were headed until they arrived.

Okay. Here we go, then.]

What's step one?

[ Here, she lifts his hand that she has in hers, bring her other around to lift it up between them. There, she spreads his fingers out, palm upward.

Calloused, and yet... he carries no weapons.

Recalling when he had mentioned before to her-- about there being a "pocket" from which he draws his power and other objects-- she wonders if whatever he wields comes from there. In that case, she had been completely wrong to ask him to bring anything.

Pyra steps away, releasing his hand. ] You have to call your power forth.

[ Then after a moment, she adds: ] Tell me if I must stand back further. [ THis, she suggests because she doesn't know how dangerous it is or how accurately he wields it. ]

[Not knowing means she might not like his immediate answer. He shakes his head, unconsciously calling for the Crystal's pull - even if it isn't here, something responds. His whole body pulses with a soft blue glow, lighting up in the dark, there and gone again in a second.]

You're fine where you are. My power's mostly reactive, though- can you throw a punch?

[A beat, before he realizes how that might sound, and then-]

Or- throw something, either's fine. I promise it's safe.

[ She tilts her head. Reactive... as in it is difficult to channel otherwise? The spark of blue, was that activating his power in preparation, or is it that he cannot sustain it...?

Regardless, that flash of light just then had been brilliant, not unlike the breath of a star as it sparks its first fusion, finally coming into being.

Despite her unvoiced questions, she leans down to pick up a pebble. Light, round, and marbled-- it probably comes from the tiles of one of the buildings nearby. ]

Mm. [ A nod, then she tosses the pebble at him. ]

[A pebble isn't much for an attack, but he's been fighting Niffs long enough that he's gotten used to dodging bullets, so it's the same core concept. As the stone comes close to hitting him the blue glow returns, his form shifting to pure energy for a split second, a brilliant ephemeral light glittering in the dark in a shower of sparks. His body moves as the pebble soars through the spot he was just a moment ago, and suddenly he's standing a few inches to the left, the glowing afterimage gently fading out of existence.

A dodge isn't much of a demonstration, he knows, so he stretches a hand out and pulls from within. That same light flashes again, this time forming into a longsword that materializes out of nothing, blue at first before it too phases into reality. He lifts the sword and flings it as hard as he can towards the nearest building; the blade tears past where Pyra is standing and slams into the stone. As it flies, Noctis shifts into energy and follows it, a split-second's pace, not even the timeframe of a breath taken. In the spot where Noctis began is the blue frame of energy that echoes his posture from the moment he'd warped away, frozen in place like a phantom statue. That sharp strand of blue energy streaks past her as well, and when the sword sinks into the stone, Noct is just there now, hanging from the wall by the grip of his sword, his free hand lifting to wave at her.]

See what I mean?

[The entire demonstration takes a matter of seconds, and he's gone from one side of the plaza to the other. In the aftermath, there's a softly-electric feel lingering in the air, magic essence centralized between the transparent blue outline and himself. As the seconds pass, so too does that feeling, along with his "double".]

[ A breath escapes her when she witnesses the first display of his power, the slight shift in space itself that leaves the spot in which he had been standing empty save for his after-image. Her eyes remains onto his silhouette of bright blue light, the outline of which wavers with the lingering impulse of energy used for the dodge.

Her head snaps to him when she catches a second flash. Another image carves into the space before him. Light solidifies into metal, summoned from seemingly nothing to form a defined edge, and he swipes the resulting weapon out of the air as if selecting the sword from a rack. It's not over.

Noctis tosses the sword like a javelin, and she nearly gasps when he vanishes before her to follow through its trajectory. Blue light vectors after him like an afterthought of lightening, shimmering in the air like snow suspended in moonlight.

Pyra steps forth. In the darkness, the trailing glow appears even more brilliant, illuminating a direct path from where he had been to where he is now; it's a link between what once was to what is, from the past to the present. She lifts a hand to the trail of light just as it vanishes, catching the last bit of glimmering particles of blue-white as it fades. His summoned sword, his attack-- this power is a weaver's edge through the canvas of space itself. And it feels...

"Look.... Mythra, come look at this..."

Her lips part, lifting her gaze to see where Noctis hangs from his greatsword. ]

[ She's here. She's watching. And she's doing the same, stepping up to the trail and running her fingers through it. With the image suspended within her mindscape, the recreation only shifts slightly with her touch. It's not the same at actually feeling it, though, as Pyra does in reality.

Through Pyra, she feels a... magnificence to the energy, something that hints towards a beyond. The ephemeral afterglow of the blue-hued light is deceptive, beautiful as it may be. Soft though the light may appear, the lingering buzz of power she feels is harsh and unyielding, more refined than the strongest steel, far sharper than anything man-made, and-- heavy, dense, profound, boiling, bright-- brilliant, overwhelming.

She had likened Noctis's god-runes as if he had been touched by three different stars. With this power, she feels as if it's a star that impossibly never loses mass when it lends its light. Except unlike the chaos of the stars, all of it is refined. All of it is precise. And all of it strikes at the core of her own energy like phalanx, a legion of blades whose edges refract an august light, threatening to blind anyone who looks upon it.

That impossibility is how she knows it is divine, and it-- it feels wonderful. ]

....Noctis!

[ She takes a few steps forward. He's all the way at the other end of the plaza. Come back, she waves, her eyes alight with amazement. ]

That was... incredible. How is it--

[ She seems to start to speak again, stops, thinks, and then continues. ] ....You... you are not afraid... of using this power?

[He opens his mouth to respond, but thinks better of it; it's hard to talk while she's all the way over there. The blue of his body pulses again, and the sword disappears back into the ether, allowing him to fall towards the ground. It only lasts a second before he's called the sword back, now free of the stone, and he pitches it into the ground where he'd started, a few feet away from her, following in a streak of light to drop down into a crouch, the blade vanishing yet again now that its job is done. The light echo of his body remains suspended by the building, a street lamp in the shape of a man.

He stands up to face her, brows furrowed at her question now that he's close enough to parse it, his head tilted slightly to one side.]

I'm not. This is just- it's normal for me. Do you think I should be?

[It's a strange thing to imagine. He grew up feeling somewhat inept and ineffective, a lesser version of his family's power, worlds below the skill level of his father or even the Kingsglaive, whose powers were borrowed from Regis while he lived. He can't help but find it strange that someone would be impressed by it when they already seem so wise to the ways of magic and power in general. ]

[ --! He does it again! The warping! In a flash and a burst of light, the sword strikes, an impulse of energy follows with him manifesting before her as if he were born of that blue-light himself. She can't help but marvel for a few more seconds as the particles of that energy lift and disperse from him, illuminating him within the darkness and dancing within his eyes. But what's more astonishing is-- Do you think I should be?

She's not sure if that comes from ignorance or otherwise, but regardless, he accepts the power that has been granted to him. He wants to learn more of it, he wants to use it.

He does not fear it.

Her eyes widen briefly, lips parting as she almost appears thoughtful, humbled... ]

[ Then her whole expression softens, and she smiles.

It's enviable, how he doesn't fear that power. She also envies whatever entity blessed him with it, because they have someone who may now wield their power to its fullest potential, without the restraint of fear.

How beautiful is that?

Pyra shakes her head. ] I think not fearing it, accepting it for what it is,... is the key to unlocking your greatest potential.

[ She steps forward. ]

The way you maneuvered... that dodge, and how you flew through the air-- it's like watching a particle dance through the air.

[Well- she's smiling, so he'll accept that as a good sign. And while he isn't entirely certain of the accuracy of her claim - accepting his power for most of his life hasn't done much to grow it until the several months that followed his leaving home - he accepts her praise with a quiet smile. Yes yes, he's very impressive, do go on.]

Never thought of it as dancing before. It's just combat skills- get in fast and get out faster. Don't get hit. The basics of surviving a fight, y'know...

[Sometimes the crossing of blades is described as a dance, mostly in Gladio's bodice-ripper novels. The ones he usually sleeps through.]

[ She continues to watch him with a smile as he explains.

The basics, as he says, does indeed include to not fall prey to an enemy's attacks. His technique has served him well this entire time, since-- childhood, when he had first started training, she assumes. ]

[ ...She falls into thought. He has two goals with expanding his power: learning how to utilize more of his "magic", and then extending that power to others, so that they might be able to do the same.

Shifting her weight from one leg to the other, her eyes roam from him to his hand, then back to him. He had mentioned a pocket, into which he can place not just one object, but multiple objects. He must have more than one weapon. ] Can you summon one of your swords again?

Only--... before it solidifies. Would you be able to keep it in its phantom image, if you concentrate?

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