Pumpkin Mage

“I keep thinking of that phantom woman in the Cosmos dining hall. The lady with the slate blue hair and ruby eyes in the apple green frock coat. She looked and sounded so much like my mother on the source that it leaves me more and more uneasy the longer I think on it. I know it can’t be her. And it can’t be a past life. She is safe - I know it.

A slight resemblance would be one thing but they share an appearance and voice, her frock coat being her [his mother] favorite color and the man sitting across from her sharing similarities with my father~~ It all provided just enough of a distraction that the Exarch now sports quite the blacked eye I wasn’t able to shielded him from in time.

I’ve healed the wound since but the bruise and hemorrhage in his eye remain to fade with time.

Thankfully it wasn’t worse.

The Exarch had every right to be annoyed, yet if he was he didn’t show it. He merely asked if all was well once we were to safety. [in messy cursive] Makes it worse. [a drawn frown punctuates the sentence]

The distraction remains and I must find a way to [the following words are fuzzy from tears] purge it. That can’t happen again. What if it’d [another tear stain] been something worse. Or happened to one of the twins?

I miss my family. “

“Mizuki!” she heard someone shout.

Panic was starting to set in: she could barely muster the strength to hold onto her staff, let alone lift her arms to try and pry off Zenos’ hand. A gurgled cry fought its way past his grip as a long katana thrust through her stomach and was swiftly withdrawn. A look of contempt and boredom glazed over Zenos’ eyes. “I had high hopes for you,” he said as he hurled her away from him.

Mizuki hit the stone stairs with a thud, something cracked loudly and the whole world whirled around her as she fell tumbling.

-

No matter how great Aymeric’s skill with a sword, Zenos seemed to be merely toying with him. He parried all of Aymeric’s attacks until he grew tired, and only then began his own assault, his katana slicing through the air with such ferocity that a blaze of red followed it as he struck.

Aymeric felt blood seep through his robes, he didn’t falter how could he? After Mizuki had sustained far worse. Clutching his sword tightly he slowly rose to his full height staring down his adversary. I must protect her. He thought, a frown gracing his brow but just as Zenos lunged for a final attack something came flying from behind him, striking him in the square in the temple sending him off balance. Aymeric looked up to see a shimmer of aetheric blue light as the staff settled down into the hands of its owner, standing with blood pooling around her feet. “Mizuki-”

“I won’t let you take anyone else,” she snapped, her shoulders shuddering from the effort of simply standing. Without waiting for Zenos to recover she bombarded him with several large fireballs.

“Well now...you just won’t die will you?” he grinned, wiping the blood from his lips. “Humour me before I kill you,” he ordered with a dark smirk, turning on his heels and marching with elation back up to the grand hall. Mizuki gave chase, staggering as she went.

“Mizuki!” Aymeric called after her. He ran to catch up to her but a wall of ice appeared to stop him ascending the staircase. “Mizuki! Please-”

She glanced over her shoulder to him with a weak smile and he could just make out the words, “Goodbye, Aymeric,” before she turned her back to him and carried on up the stairs.

“Mizuki! Don’t go!” He banged on the thick ice wall with his sword, hoping to shatter it, until the sound of steel behind him brought him to his senses.

A very long snippet from

 Kiss Me Good-bye