Light Headed

It was cold and sharp, and it took her breath as she entered the room. Winds created from potent magic that rushed over her no different than the winds themself.

Wind magic eluded Hellena, it was so close to light in terms of technique and ability and yet a wholly different beast. The cutting winds that had just rushed over her were nothing more than the practice of Edwin, probably the best in their year at wind magic. It wasn't a matter of pure power or talent either; he was very skilled at the technique involved, evident from the intensity of something he called practice.

Walking further into the room she saw half the class ready for the rounds of sparring. Some like Edwin practising swings of his sword, others stretching, and others still chatting or generally strewn about the room. Hellena personally took these moments entirely for herself, she went and sat on the floor next to the full length windows just breathing as she lazily twirled and refracted the midday sunlight through her hand, like a coin through her knuckles.

Sunlight and moonlight had always recharged and relaxed her; it was as though she was less a user of light magic and more its vessel. It always felt so complicated to explain to other magic users, seemingly not a feature of interacting with their magics source. Hellena wasn't too sure about that though, more she leaned on the side of it being a resonance one had with magic, a resonance that most people never held, one reserved for those of high skill or talent. The only thing that led her to this conclusion was that Edwin would refuse to come inside until the last possible minute whenever heavy winds were deemed hazardous.

She had seen him once right before, or rather during one of these wind storms. He seemed somewhere in between resigned and meditative, maybe content was the right word. Either way she was pretty sure he felt then as she did now, how she was permitted to feel most days and nights of good weather. A far more frequent occurrence than his perhaps required harsh winds.

Her sunlit reprieve from the day's classes so far ended swiftly and with no notice as their instructor entered the room and blacked out the windows without even uttering a spell. 

“Today spar’s will be conducted to simulate night.” He announced, much to the class's dismay.

Not only did this make it harder to fight, it also made it harder to observe. What was the point of watching spars that you could barely see? It just didn’t make sense in a room like this where only one match could go on at a time.

“Yes, you will have to pay closer inspection, and yes it will be difficult on both sides of the class, however it is important you know how to fight and how to observe in the darkness.” He explained as the students not in seats, such as herself, made their way over.

“We are also going to start off easy, Hellena you're up first and your opponent is…” He let his words draw out as he scanned the sheet in front of him, “Edwin, both of you to the front.” He said with a clap.

Hellena course corrected away from the desks and towards the mat. She unsheathed her sword, a blade of impeccably carved crystal as to best refract her light magic in a fight. Her sword skills were not great but her magic was incredible and it had been enough to win every fight she’s had in the year and half she’s been at the academy. Merely holding her sword ran light through its facets edges creating a ghostly glow around her sword alone in the dark; illuminating not even her hand, for no real magic was in it, just the knowledge that it was wielded by a light mage. 

Edwin, on the other hand, had his sword sheathed, in what was more work than it would have been to forgo the sheath as he had yet to put his sword away when the darkness settled, and had all but immediately been called to fight. It felt far too hard to understand both as someone who was not particularly good at sword combat alone, (maybe there was some importance to the sporting nature of it she did not understand.) but also as someone who had made her way through many a fight through trickery.

Mighty shows of power were easy. A stoic and cold face, that was easy. Wielding a crystalline glass sword as though it were a pen and she a poet, second nature. All together it depicted her as an overpowered monster, not the chosen by light heroine many tried to make her out to be, all together, and put simply her greatest weapon was not her magic but the fear she could instil. She knew that. She counted on the expressions and actions of her opponent to know what was working and how to hold her deceit. 

Her greatest strength nullified and her opponent sending her with his very first action in their bout. She was glad no one could see the tension on her face.

“Begin!” The Instructor exclaimed.

Her breath was stolen before she had realised what had happened. She felt the wind rage past her as though it had no intention of hitting her but rather splitting the second before. 

Edwin had used the moment he had brandished his sword, the motion and the power latent in that motion served to bolster his power. He had sent gale forces at her in the fraction of a moment his sword had touched the air he turned into said wind. There was a beauty in it she hadn’t felt in someone else's magic before.

Footsteps brought her back to the fight as she set the light in her sword. Liquid light, a core of pure light flowing like the river over the joins and corners of its glass shell as if they were the rocks that made up the rapids.

“Fuck.” She heard as Edwin jumped back from his closer position.

She raced towards him, sword across her body ready to strike. It was different to all the other fights she had been in, she wanted this moment to last, this was not a chore of a class she could win with one spell, undermining the point of sword play. Why did she care all of a sudden? Why did she want to feel the rush in the power of his magic again? Why was her heart racing in a way she had never felt before?

Their swords clashed with an awful sound of steel grinding on crystal yet it somehow sounded like music to her, and she could have sworn the same about him. In the brief moment her light illuminated his face she saw a smile she hadn’t in spars of his she had cared to watch before. Was she smiling during this too? Was this the first time a fight was fun? Was it supposed to be like this all the time, because if it was she could see the joy others found in a fight, in one like this.

She stepped back to get the momentum to swing again. With her step his wind pushed her further back and it was like she was breathing his magic and it made her feel light headed like he had removed the oxygen in the wind he threw at her.

He came at her. She moved the light in her sword to refract right into his eyes. He flinched away shielding his eyes with his non dominant arm.

A back and forth she had yet to experience, one she had only just realised she had longed for. With every advance one of them made the other quickly pushed back. With every burst of his wind she felt she had less and less breathable air and it felt amazing. It felt like how others had described drunkenness. Her heart was racing with every second, every moment of the spar. She was sure she was smiling and she didn’t even care she had no clue how to end this.

She felt his magic race all around her in a rapid spiral swell. Her head rolled with it, it relished in the pure power she was so delighted to feel in his winds. She wasn’t sure she would ever feel anything like this again, anything this beautiful again. Then all of a sudden the darkness of the room became blackness.

…

Bright lights practically assaulted her vision as she blinked back into reality.

“What happened?” She groggily asked, holding her hands to her eyes to stop the light's harshness.

“You don’t remember?” Erica asked her. Wait Erica, why was she here she didn’t take this class?

“You’re not-” She started.

“You collapsed during your sparring class, Hellena, remember?” She prodded.

“No, I was, it was, no.” Hellena stumbled over her words trying to figure out what had happened between what she remembered last and now.

“I was sparring Edwin, it was…” She trailed off as she sat up properly from the bed she was laying in. 

“Come on.” Her friend held out her hand. She took it and they walked off together, Hellena still squinting a little bit.

Stepping outside and into the light felt more healing than any rest ever would. She was enjoying the perfectness of the light of the sunset and Erica explained to her all of the reactions, theories and speculation as to what caused her collapse. Some people going as far to believe that she was some kind of inverse vampire, allergic to darkness as they are sunlight.

It was sweet and good, the best she could have asked for in the moment. But then she felt what she could only name as power.

Her breath caught and her heart raced and she found him in the distance before she even recognised what this was. It was Edwin's magic. It still felt glorious even when not in a fight, yet she had no clue what caused this reaction. She was too far away for his magic to affect the air and yet she felt it right before it stole her breath and her heart racing when he was too far to be a threat. 

It was as though merely the thought of him left her lightheaded, let alone the damage his magic could do to her. That his magic was actively committing against her.

Yet she couldn’t help but long for the next time he would steal her breath.