All Creatures Great and Small

[DragonSong]

Both Galon and Brix shot wary looks at him for that--Galon significantly more wary than Brix, admittedly. Still, both left with quick nods toward Krysta.

The pixie left behind huffed quietly before spinning in place to face Ivan. "You're sure some fruit will be enough for now?" she asked, wringing her hands together in front of her body. "I'm afraid none of the three of us are much good at hunting, but we could...I mean, I could try to sneak you some food from...home."

Sneaking into the castle kitchens wasn't the problem--it was the idea of sneaking back out again with enough food to feed a creature Ivan's size that gave her pause. Pixie dust or no.

[MadEmperor]

The great beast shook his head. He couldn't ask for her to go through such trouble when she had already done so much for him. Not to mention what her people would do if they found out about him in such a way.

"You need not get yourself into trouble for my sake, not when you've already saved my life. I will be fine once I gain the strength to hunt for myself." At least, assuming anything short of meat would allow his strength to return.

[DragonSong]

Krysta nodded and bobbed over to perch on a small lip of earth jutting from the wall of the den. "Alright, if you're sure."

She drew her legs up onto the lip and yawned, then shook her head briskly. "Ah--sorry. Using that much magic takes it out of me, I'm afraid," she chuckled lightly with a tiny shrug.

[MadEmperor]

"I would imagine so. The energy has to come from somewhere after all. I may not understand the finer points of magic, but I know you can't get something from nothing," Ivan responded with what almost passed as a small smile.

He grew quiet. "I feel it, you know—the magic coursing through this body. It feels like a roaring flame, warming me from within and begging to be used. Should I submit to the temptation, I would turn my back on everything I have been taught—on everything I thought was important."

[DragonSong]

Krysta frowned slightly as she folded her legs around in front of her body. Her wings fluttered a bit, though not with the same energy as when she had been using them to hover around him.

"That...what do you mean, exactly?" she asked slowly, confusion clear in both her expression and tone. "I'm assuming you didn't have magic before...well, this, but surely you could find someone to teach you?"

[MadEmperor]

Ivan let out a heavy sigh. His honest nature had betrayed him and now there was no option but to explain himself. "I... I was taught that using magic is a sin. More, that it drains energy from nature itself and will eventually destroy all life if we let it. I've known no other way. But I now find myself questioning that belief, and I don't know what to do with that."

[DragonSong]

Krysta gaped at him.

Her education as the heir to her realm had been extensive, but did not focus overmuch on affairs outside of their forest. She knew mortal folk had almost as many varied opinions on magic as there were types of mortals. She even knew that some of them forsook it entirely, for one reason or another—but none of those reasons had ever been explained to her. And that was just...

"But that's idiotic," she blurted without thinking.

So much for all those lessons in decorum and diplomacy. Somewhere, she was sure her mother's eye had just twitched.

"I-I mean, that—but it..." She floundered, then trailed off, unable to come up with something remotely kind to say to that particular ideology. She shook her her in complete bafflement. "Do you also believe the seas will dry because we must drink water?" she found herself asking with an incredulous laugh.

[MadEmperor]

Ivan crossed his arms forelegs defensively. Those outside Connloath never understood. "My people once fled from a land destroyed by magic, where magic itself is still twisted to this day. What are we supposed to think when such a place exists to remind us of the dangers of magic? If it wasn't for Ansgar, we'd have perished long ago."

[DragonSong]

Krysta blinked at him. "Yeessss," she said slowly, as though humoring a child, "and sometimes the river floods. A hurricane blows in off the ocean. Nature is destructive, but not out of malice. We also need it."

She frowned and shook her head. "Magic isn't some--some parasitic force against nature, it is nature." She thought furiously, trying to come up with a more concrete example. But the very idea of what he was saying was just...antithetical to her existence! It felt so obvious to her--she'd never had to defend it before.

"Oh!" She straightened up, fluttering her wings again with a smile. "Where does the new magic come from then? If it was really draining away at the world, we would see it, wouldn't we? Either the magic would start to dry up, or the world would. But it doesn't."

[MadEmperor]

"I've seen many horrors brought about by the abuse of magic. Even if what you say is the truth of things, there is reason to resist its influence. At least among mortal kin. We are better served doing things without magic as a crutch," Ivan answered, trying very hard to remain civil. It was only logical that the Fae had such a perspective; they lived and breathed magic and couldn't exist without it. Why else would they avoid Connloath?

[DragonSong]

Krysta rolled her eyes theatrically. "Stars, where do you get this stuff?" she huffed, more to herself than to Ivan.

Were there really mortals who thought this? Well—obviously there must be. Ivan didn't sound like he was spouting it off the top of his head. And he'd said something about being "taught".

She shrugged and shook her head. "Well. I suppose it doesn't really matter if you listen to me or not—it won't change the way the world works. Magic just is."

[MadEmperor]

Nobody had ever questioned his beliefs so directly. He had never had to defend them to anyone either, so for a moment he was at a loss, flabbergasted by the  blatant disrespect his faith was getting.

"What, pray tell, makes you such an expert that you can call an entire nation, the technological leader of all Le'raana, so completely wrong about the nature of the world?" he said, his voice full of injured pride.

[DragonSong]

A small, self-satisfied smirk started to curl its way across her face. "What makes me the expert?" she repeated, wings buzzing into a brighter glow for just a moment. "Gee, it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I am literally made of magic. Like my entire species. Nooooo, that couldn't possibly be it, could it?"

[MadEmperor]

"And humans are mostly water. That doesn't mean we understand the intricacies of sea life," Ivan countered with diminishing patience. He didn't enjoy sarcasm on a good day and while it was a better day than he had experienced in weeks, it was not a good day.

Then, it hit him that he could no longer count himself among humans in such a way. He, too, was now a creature of magic. Which he could use. "And I'm magical now. I don't have any better understanding of it than I did before."

[DragonSong]

Krysta rolled her eyes. Maybe --probably--she should have been more worried about irritating a newly-magical creature many hundreds of times her own size, but somehow after even their relatively brief acquaintance she was finding it difficult to be properly wary of him. He was just...rather like a cub, in an odd way. Clearly unused to the world, or at least the version of it he now inhabited.

"To be perfectly honest, I don't know much about how...your type of magic should or would work, but..." She shrugged. "I'm sure someone back home might have an idea. Though telling them about you might be...err, complicated. Maybe I should just check the library..."

[MadEmperor]

"I don't really want to know," the creature sighed sulkily. He didn't want any of this; he just wanted his life back. There was nothing he would not give to be back with his betrothed. Oh, how he wished he could have brought himself to take on less dangerous duties, as she had begged him to.

"But I suppose that if I don't learn the nature of it, it will only express itself in dangerous, uncontrolled ways." Learning about magic was no sin, only it's use, though it does increase the temptation. He had never been on the mage end of that law, always the magicless end. To actually be able to use his studies into magic was a frightening concept.

[DragonSong]

"Well...yeah." Krysta gave him a sidelong frown. "That is how it works." She sighed and rolled her eyes, leaning back. "My tutors have been trying to teach me better control for years. Bit annoying, really."

[MadEmperor]

"You do seem to be rather headstrong and impulsive. That's not always a bad thing, though. I..." Ivan began, hesitating before deciding he might as well talk about his old life. "I was to wed such a woman. She refused to be bound by her station, which I found endearing. She certainly wouldn't have agreed to marry me if she let her social standing dictate her life."

He sighed sadly. "And now I'll never see my Maerwynn again. Not as long as I stay like this."

[DragonSong]

"...I'm sorry," Krysta offered, the smirk bleeding from her tone. She didn't have much experience in the field of romance--or, well, any--but she'd certainly seen a lot of it, both as it unfolded between her two closest friends and in the way her parents were nauseatingly besotted with each other.

Which meant she didn't really know how to offer condolences for this sort of thing. "She, ah...sounds nice?"

[MadEmperor]

"She is... the most wonderful person I have ever met," Ivan answered fondly. Sadly, he added, "But even she would be hard-pressed to accept what I've become. Nor would I ask her to throw away her life to try. She would... She would be happier forgetting about me."

The realization visibly hurt him, but it was the undeniable truth of things. He knew that, even if he found a way to break his enchantment, his life would never be the same. He now possessed doubt in everything he thought was true because he had expected possessing magic to feel more unnatural.