Canterlot High Magic Club

by Luminous Comet

Interlude: Communion of Shadows

The still night air had picked up into a cold breeze when she reached the flat roof. He stood at the edge, his hands in his pockets, the jacket and tie of his suit billowing as he looked out over the sea of lights that was the city beneath them.

"I see you still have the same flair for the dramatic."

"And you seem to have lost some of yours." He turned to her with a courteous smile. "Owing to your circumstances, I would hope."

She sneered. In this body, it had taken her long enough to make it here, she barely had any patience left for this conversation. "I had hoped you called me out for more than gloating jabs at my condition."

"My dear, I know we've had our differences. But I consider you a kindred spirit, in a fashion. I assure you, I have deep sympathy for you. Call me sentimental, but I would rather you had a more... malleable host."

"And you thought a teenage amateur would do," she concluded with barely concealed bitterness.

"Granted, it didn't work out the way I had hoped. But in a way, didn't we catch a bigger fish with this bait?"

She crossed her arms, tightening them against her torso against the cold. She hated this sensation, this need for warmth that reminded her how alive this body was in a way that was only just out of reach for her now.

"Sometimes a victory arrives in an unexpected form," he continued. Of course he did, he loved to talk. He always did, as far back as her memory still served her. "For instance, the presence of magic surely did you some good."

"And cost quite a lot to wrap up, no credit to you."

"And, of course, we have a broader group of candidates now. Could you really say you'd have found them without my gentle push?"

"So you failed with one teenager and you're just going to slip the next one another artifact?"

He hummed, like he was considering the option. All rhetoric, of course, he had already made his choice long ago. "I think my next approach is going to be more direct. It just so happens I found another host you might find suitable."

He retrieved a small picture from his shirt pocket and held it out to her. She took it and turned it over to have just a short glance at it. "You have a disturbingly narrow taste."

"She's for you, my dear, not for me." He made a show of looking at his expensive watch. "Just wait and see. You're fed now and soon you'll be able to stretch someone's legs again more consistently."

She watched him head to the roof access door, biting down the irritation boiling in her throat. Fed. Like she was some kind of pet, a foundling that needed someone to ration her food. She turned to look out at the streets below as the door fell closed behind her.

As much as she hated it, she would take whatever he offered. Once she commanded a body's will again properly, she wouldn't owe him anything anymore.

Comments

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

I wonder who those 2 mysterious people were?