bookworms and other pests | Glowfic Constellation

first-and-final

Given that Harry is sitting down, it's now actually feasible to look him in the face, or at least much more feasible than it is when they're both standing up. Milo makes use of this novel circumstance to smile at him.

fortheliving

Harry may have forgotten to break eye contact. His eyes are so pretty-

shit.

Harry needs to work on those reflexes.

first-and-final

His eyes are grey, pure grey, with considerable depth and texture but nearly no colour at all.

The landscape behind them starts out similarly, silvered in the light of a huge full moon. A lively river tumbles over water-smoothed rocks between round grassy hills and curves past a beautiful fairy-tale castle; nighttime breezes ruffle the calmer sections of the river and bat at the pennants streaming from the castle's towers.

Milo is a prince. It's right there in his soul. Duty, integrity, honour, responsibility, as firm as stone; charisma, leadership, the power to command and uplift and inspire, as strong as the clear moonlight that illuminates every detail of this cozy valley. Perception, intelligence, strategy, insight: as free and quick as the wind, as relentless and adaptable as the water.

But the vision isn't finished yet.

Over the hills, the sky lightens to azure and the sun begins to rise, casting a warm golden light over the valley that paints blazing colour across its every surface. The grass is a living green, the pennants brilliant blue, the stone walls a richly textured grey and the clay roofs orange-red. And this is the core of Milo's soul, the most fundamental part. Courage, determination, faith, will: as fierce as sunfire, as inevitable as the dawn. He has not yet been tested to the full extent of this deep strength, but when he is, he will not fail.

fortheliving

Harry's eyes are brown. Dark brown, almost black. They deepen and deepen, sucking Milo through a tunnel into-

ash. His soul is covered in it. Ash and char and still-strong stone. He's a fortress, one that's been blasted and besieged but not enough to bring it down. (A flash of knowledge - it will. It will fall and rise and fall and rise until there is more ash than stone, until spar litters the ground so thickly that no foundation could take root - and then it will be cleared away to make room to rise anew. He will come back. He will rise again. He was born to the stars and to the mother of kings for a purpose far too great to fall.)

There's a man, sitting on a parapet, who notes Milo's approach. He's like Harry, if Harry was better-dressed and better-groomed and dripping with ego. He leaps down from the wall, touches the ground as light as a feather, looks Milo up and down. "This one's decent," he mutters to himself. "I could live with that."

The ground falls away beneath them and Milo is deposited abruptly back into his seat.

first-and-final

"Wow," breathes Milo, slightly stunned.

fortheliving

"Hell's fucking bells, that was- something. Ow. That was my fault, I should've broken eye contact, I am very very sorry. You have, um, an excellent soul. And mine didn't make you faint, good, that's happened."

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"I have an excellent soul?" blinks Milo. "Um. Thank you? Yours is... sort of depressing, if I'm going to be perfectly honest, it makes me want to trace my route back home and bundle you off to Raxwell, except that then this world would be down both of us and that's just unacceptable, and anyway I definitely have no idea how to do that, so maybe I should just give you a hug instead."

fortheliving

"Depressing, huh. I have gotten that one before, though they usually go for 'horrible' or just straight to incomprehensible wailing. Maybe it's on an off day."

first-and-final

"Can I give you and your depressing soul a hug, though."

fortheliving

"Feel free. Gives me a chance to bask in your messianic radiance, and all."

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"I have messianic radiance?"

But he doesn't bother waiting for the answer to this question before he goes in for the permitted hug. Hugging Harry and Harry's depressing soul is very important.

fortheliving

"Yeah! You've got this very, uh, 'save the world' quality to you."

When the hug ensues, there's a hum as if of static electricity. Something snaps on Harry's skin.

"Ow! What the hell?"

first-and-final

"Um? I'm sorry," says Milo, letting go of him. "What was that? It felt sort of... I have no idea what it felt like but it was not something that normally happens when I hug people."

fortheliving

"Magical interaction. It happens the first few times two wizards touch, until their magic gets used to each other. You're not a wizard, though. For several reasons."

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"I don't believe I'm a wizard! Cath, am I a wizard?"

Cath meows several times, authoritatively.

"...Cath blames you for this outcome." Corrective meow. "Okay, 'blame' is a strong word, but she says it happened when we did the... souls... thing. Why is it always souls?"

fortheliving

"Why would a soulgaze turn you into- agh! You're like a little ball of chaos designed to make as little sense as possible! This should be so impossible!"

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"Sounds about right," says Milo.

fortheliving

"So I'll have two apprentices at once, I guess. Swell. Unless your sidekick has some expertise he'd like to impart from a long career of vampiring? Let it never be said that I'm unwilling to foist off work on somebody else."

first-and-final

"He says he knows a few things but I didn't get the impression that they added up to much," says Milo.

Cath meows. Milo eyes her, makes a thoughtful 'huh' sound, and doesn't translate.

fortheliving

"It's impolite to carry on private conversations in front of people, you know."

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"Cath really doesn't have another option. And it would be a really, really long explanation for a really short comment. But I can give you the whole story if you want."

fortheliving

"Nah, I'm just making fun. Might be able to hook her up to a speech synthesizer, if she'd rather be intelligible. I mean, Hawking's got one."

first-and-final

"A what?"

fortheliving

"Little machine that takes motions and translates them into words. Paralyzed people can blink in code and it'll talk for them. Cath could get one hooked up to her tail, or something. Or maybe just directly translate the meowing?"

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