Collection of Nonsense by Itsumademo

Prompt: Test

Monthly Prompt

March/April 2020

Title: A Fire in Your Eyes

Prompt: March – Guard ; April – Test

Rating: T

Summary: To summon a familiar was the first true test of all who wished to become full-fledged sorcerers. For Kagome, it was a lifelong dream.

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This prompt fill is mostly for April's prompt - Test, but i worked in March's - Guard, kinda. It's more like guardian/protector than guard.

The idea for this fic came about somewhat from just the visual of a summoned Sess, as well as inspiration from one of my older prompt fills - Prompt: Battle, titled: A Battle that Burns. Really the only thing they have in common is a vague theme of fiery eyes, otherwise, though inspired, the two have nothing at all to do with each other.

The magic, etc. depicted in this fic is based off a universe already created for a fic in another fandom, but i figured..it's my world, i can use its properties whenever and wherever i want. I might continue writing in this universe with later prompt fills, not sure, but it's a possibility as i like the idea here :3

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The leather was soft, beckoning touch despite the age typically barring such intimate handling. The cover had no words impressed or embossed onto the dark material, the spine likewise vacant of any title. Yet, while there was nothing textual to denote the contents, there were patterns, foreign things that had no apparent meaning to the everyday patron or hobbyist. However, to those knowing few, the thick tome was beyond precious.

Kagome Higurashi – age 18, class A; a determined second semester first year at the Academy of Mystic Arts was now permitted to conjure a familiar. An otherworldly companion that would share the five years of arduous training at her side, and should her skills prove worthy, the foreseeable future. It was the first real test of all budding sorcerers.

From the moment her power had manifested, the very second she’d read the words in every book she could get her zealous hands on, Kagome had yearned for the day she’d meet her familiar. Because without a doubt, Kagome was certain she would have one. It wasn’t that she was egotistic – she worked hard not to envy others, but instead celebrate their differences as her mother taught her; the confidence was merely a feeling. Bone-deep and unwavering. Somewhere her perfect companion waited to meet her, and someday that time would come.

And so, after living such a life of butterfly anticipation and impassioned conviction to reach said goal, Kagome was understandably now wracked with a rather strong case of anxiety.

Her fluffy pink rug had been rolled up and set aside, her scattered belongings collected and moved to assure the pale grey floor remained unobstructed—and thusly her painstakingly devised, drawn, and set summoning circle as well. Sorcery-applied geometry and physics had been a bit difficult for her to grasp at first, but her work was meticulous and eventually she caught on well enough – her other subjects included – to earn a spot in class A. True, she was the lowest ranked amongst her peers, but it was class A. Rising from class D to A in a single semester, possessing the lowest rank of the highest class was a very proud accomplishment.

Unfortunately the results of hard work did not equate to nerves of steel. Kagome liked to think herself a brave individual; she faced her fears and strived to overcome them as best she could. So this…she could do this. Kagome nodded to herself, stroking the grimoire a second time to help soothe and center the churning of her fevered soul. According to the headmistress, Lady Kaede, that very essence she possessed was apparently quite large and impressively resilient, abnormally so in fact, one strong and sure to be powerful given the proper instruction. Nevertheless, in spite of her efforts she still struggled to tame it and herself from wanting to dive in headlong rather than plan ahead.

Today, however, Kagome had very much planned. She’d spent months preparing, and the culmination of her labors would soon be reached.

The dim incandescence of flickering wicks within her room, each candle chosen with fastidious care, instilled a pleasant warmth not often characteristic of such a setting. Even within an academy of sorcerers she had friends who considered facets of their craft frightful or macabre. Personally Kagome thought it to be as comforting as the blaze of the sun or glow of the moon; both equally stimulated her spirit and heart.

In preparation for tonight Kagome had been sure to take a slow walk through the courtyard gardens at midday, and to tease the waters of a nearby lake beneath the radiance of the rising moon. The self-imposed ritual wasn’t a requirement for the summoning, however Kagome felt a pull toward the dual orbs ruling the glittering space of their orbit and sky.

Shutting her eyes, Kagome drew in a long, deep breath, centering herself, willing the flutters in her belly to calm so that her strength could shine through. She wanted to make a good impression. And it was due to that ridiculous desire that she had preened for an embarrassing three hours until the reflection in the mirror was satisfactory enough for the evening’s event. Of course even her willpower couldn’t fully smother her ever-ebbing self-esteem, a product of the shadow cast by her beautiful cousin—who boasted immense skill and brains to match.

Kagome huffed, pushing the thoughts aside to better clear her mind. Tonight was about her and her familiar, their bond, no one else and nothing more. Just them.

When her eyes again opened, the blue fire within cast a brief shine throughout the room, dancing with each candle’s flame and settling like a haze of commencement over the perfect circle before her crossed legs. She carefully set the book on the clean carpet and used a touch of magic to turn aged page after page until finally reaching her aim. The words scrawled like delicate fibers into the old, vanilla scented sheet were small and intricate, woven into loops and rhythms like a dance rather than a paragraph. Unlike some of her fellows, reading the script was something she excelled at, a natural affinity similar to her innate skill of calling forth her power like an extension of her being.

The air thickened as she read aloud, her voice sounding distant and melodic in a way still indefinable to her ears no matter whether it were herself or another who spoke the spell. Her skin tingled, the dense atmosphere of the room charging like static before a storm and growing heavy like the tempestuous churn of great waves. It beat against her steady form and the slip of space that slashed an entrance into two worlds now crackling within the confines of the circle. A thrum of abstruse power that bound them together for the moment in time when their souls called out.

It was more strain than she’d expected. The force of her words increasing and her own power strengthened as it twisted and pushed through the crack, surely caught on another being but struggling to bring it forth. She couldn’t be certain, but the other side, the bind her soul knew intrinsically was hers, was not cooperating. As if her opposite fought against her call, denying her.

The realization was sharp, a sudden pain that ripped into her chest, shooting down her limbs to the tip of every digit, the end of every curled raven hair. Kagome’s hold wavered in that shock, the chaotic habit returning to shatter the mirror above her vanity, the glass of water on her nightstand. There were snaps and splinter screams that burst into the liminal ether of the room in that instant of momentary agony.

Yet. Somehow. Impossibly, perhaps. Despite the loss of control, no matter how marginal or brief, her hold did not break. On the contrary, the tether seemed to have wrenched and pulled with a vengeance hidden beneath her sorrow, a fiery temper she typically kept buried within the optimism of her smile.

Kagome set her eyes like daggers on the vortex conjured within the summoning ring, seeing another layer of the world only privy to those with power enough to reach it. The burn of blue unleashed a flare into the slash, it thickened the tie of their bind and she growled in a voice like the resounding pitch of her spell as she commanded her opposite through the divide.

A pulse echoed back to her then, strong, very strong, incensed and inquisitive it no longer struggled against but now returned the command. It fought to reach her; it denied her dominance and pushed back with fervor. The sudden, intense shift between them had Kagome’s skin prickling with goosebumps, a rush so vibrant and alive imbuing their bond it was as though the countless times she’d basked beneath the rays and glows of the sky no longer sought to comfort but to fuel. It was an almost chilling fire that beckoned her with desperation as strong as the one she’d previously endured.

When her opposite reached the slash, they torn past the break in the realms with an explosive vibrancy too great for her eyes to handle. The air simultaneously dissipated and swept in too strong and pure, her lungs had her gasping along with the collision of their dynamistic souls.

It took time for the world to return to her, a ring in her ears, an aura in her eyes, and a need to fill her lungs as her body vibrated from the impact. However, as she came back to herself, she could sense the presence of her summon, she could hear the low, heavy breathing, feel the charge of the air, the weight of a wholly overwhelming force of power. It both suffocated and invigorated.

At last, feeling her body calm enough to handle the change, her butterfly gut ignored as she knew nothing could hold the flutters back when faced with the moment she’d dreamed of since childhood. Opening her eyes, her hands tightly gripping the soft fabric of her favorite blue leggings, she found her gaze joined like a crack of lightning to a pair of piercing golden orbs. They burned, a terrible brilliance that reminded her of the time she’d tried to see her own when igniting her power. It was a shock she hadn’t expected to unnerve her as greatly as it did. Finding a comparative set of fire made a little of that earlier pain she’d experienced melt away. Just a bit.

It didn’t occur to her until several long seconds afterward, that her neck was craned up high, and those eyes that stared her down were set into the face of a man. Beautiful, in a way that was almost terrifying. The lashes that lined his incomparable gaze were pure white, the lids slashed with a streak of rich maroon. Broadening her scrutiny, she found his cheeks were likewise emblazoned with markings of the same color, two on each, and his forehead bore a crescent moon, this one a bold violet that seemed to her a significant symbol rather than mere tattoo. Framing his painfully lovely face was hair glistening silver in the candlelight, a white that reflected the luminosity of the moon to match the sunlit blaze of his eyes. That hair looked silky, long straight strands that reached down, down, down…

Kagome’s face went pink, then red, her eyes so wide and her cheeks so hot she couldn’t bring herself to turn away when she knew she absolutely should.

The man, if he could truly be called one, was standing before her stunningly and unabashedly.. naked. Naked. N a k e d. There was a very attractive man in her room, a very naked attractive man alone with her in her bedroom. She knew, logically, that this was no ordinary man, this was no ordinary situation, and they were most definitely not an ordinary couple.

Thankfully, so very thankfully, Kagome’s eyes were drawn away from the difficult to ignore nudity to the swish of more silver white hair. It momentarily puzzled her until she caught on to the subtle rhythm. It was a tail. He had a tail. A long, sleek, canine-like tail that swept through the air behind his strong bare legs, two slashes of magenta on each toned thigh that threatened to redirect her improper gape again.

Giving a tiny, curt shake of her head to remind her wandering thoughts to keep her observations composed, she followed the curiosity the tail revelation inspired. Her eyes went straight to his head in search of a matching pair of poised white ears. However, she did not find them, instead she discovered a pair of naturally placed ones that elongated to elegant points. By now if nothing else was telling of her quite unorthodox summon, those ears triggered the comprehension like a punch.

Now, your typical familiar was a form of spirit—though an arguable term. This was certainly not the case for all forms, but most sorcerers found themselves meeting varying degrees and appearances of such beings when calling forth their potential opposite and forming contracts. Animals or personified objects of significance were the usual way familiars later presented themselves regardless of original form. The chosen shape was decided upon contract but was not a permanent enforcement forbidding their natural state.

Beyond the norm, there were more peculiar entities that could be called. Some were of incomprehensible being, physicality vastly differing from our own—they were the rarest to manifest. Others were creatures unlike any that existed in our realm. And within this bracket of unusual and rare possibilities were a race humans had termed Daemons. All daemons that had been called forth throughout the ages had not given a name for themselves, and neither did they protest the human-ascribed designation. Thusly, that’s what they became. Daemons were the most unpredictable and the most powerful of summons, making them devastatingly dangerous if poorly matched or handled.

Kagome stared at the man.. creature.. daemon before her. She stared, and in spite of the wonder and trepidation flooding her every corner, her lips parted on:

"Kagome."

His eyes flashed, focusing again more deeply on her. He tipped his head slightly, something curious and searching in the gesture; it reminded her a bit of a dog. Considering the tail, the idea nearly had her releasing a soft giggle. And yet, the fierce presence he exuded and the sharp intelligence of his golden stare spoke of a shrewd predator studying potential prey. It strangled her humor and inspired her obstinacy.

She refused to be prey.

Inclining her chin up, she forced the strength of her own eyes into his.

"And your name?" She’d meant the question to be more commanding but it still came out a bit too genuine to be intimidating.

Slowly he tilted his head again, this time to the opposite side, a swish of his tail registered in her periphery but she ignored the urge to look. When he finally moved, when he walked forward one measured, even step after the other until he knelt, perched at the very edge of the circle and right before her sitting form, she ignored the urge to retreat. Conversely, more precarious than any escape, was the conflicting impulse to lean forward; a desperate, soul-carved yearning to be near him imbuing her senses as powerfully as the instinctual, lizard-brain cry to run. This too she ignored, though barely.

There was a lure in his very nature; it was almost taunting in its intensity as they hovered less than a foot from the other. Kagome could feel the collision of their powers erupting again like the furious maelstrom of crashing waves. It pulled her closer rather than force her away into a drowning sea.

Inexplicably – incredibly – when she noticed the slight forward lean of the daemon, his power’s ferocity crackling against the barrier of the summoning circle, she realized the explosive force she’d experienced from the very beginning flowed just as strongly through him as it did her.

She wasn’t wrong in her call; she hadn’t mistaken the accuracy of their perfect bind. Kagome had succeeded in summoning her true opposite – her soul’s mate, her familiar, her guardian, …her friend. Well, perhaps friend was too early to say, but Kagome was impressively stubborn when her mind was set.

This daemon was hers, and as was implicit to any contractual union, she was his.

Kagome lifted her hand to the barrier, drawn by instinct more than reason. The daemon matched her movements, his hand raising to align with hers.

"Sesshoumaru," the man’s lips suddenly parted, moving so fluidly it was nearly unnatural. The quality of his voice was like velvet and rung with the faintest reverb that wasn’t quite an echo but more a whisper of something incomprehensible.

It was mesmerizing, the golden pierce of his eyes working in concert with his rich baritone.

"What?" she murmured, a flutter of her lashes breaking the fog she’d fallen under.

"My name."

"Oh," she leaned just a bit closer, "Sesshoumaru."

It was a single breath that broke the barrier then, the tips of their fingers, the brush of their palms touching against the crackling vortex, shattering the wall with soundless recoil. The pair of them almost fell forward with the rush of the unfettered crash of their powers, their hands now flush yet hardly registered.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you." She could practically taste the hot breath he released between them. The flavor was like the impossible twine of fire and ice.

He nearly closed the gap, his head titled ever so slightly yet again, his eyes burning as he leaned into her space.

"Yes." The sharp, careful tip of a claw traced along her bottom lip. "I think perhaps it will be."

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~itsu