Archive of Our Own ^beta

Maritte had to move fast. A floating skull was staring her down, readying its piercing gaze. Maritte never figured out if they shot lasers or simply wethered her with the intensity of the stare. Regardless, she knew how to move out of the way, having dodged similar attacks many times in the last few days. She slides to the side, avoiding the gaze (lasers?) with ease. Unfortunately, this leads her in front of another skull. It opens its mouth, unleashing a toxic green cloud in front of Maritte. She stops herself mid slide and reverses course, only inhaling a small amount of the fumes. It stung her eyes, but was not nearly enough to overwhelm her. Finally, the floating purple book turned its attention to her. Maritte readied herself as she saw three pages float up into the air. She easily avoids the first two, twisting her body to force them to fly aimlessly through the air next to her. As the third page flew directly at her, she flicked her wrist. The page caught fire in mid air, burning away any remaining danger. This simple use of magic allowed Maritte to start preparing her counter attack. At first, she had only blindly and instinctually brought the flames to her hands and unleashed them on the cursed beings in front of her. But now, she focused the magic into her hands, producing white hot flames which came together into a decently sized ball.

-Woo, turning up the heat Maritte!

Maritte felt her face go flush as she released the fireball. Unfortunately, getting embarrassed while trying to throw a large fireball at a cursed book wasn’t a good idea. The fireball wobbled instead of going straight as she intended. It merely grazed the purple cover of the frowning book in front of them, leaving only a scorch mark from an attack that should’ve obliterated the book.

-Could you please let Maritte focus and save the flirting until we’re not fighting some poor cursed creature?

Ima was exasperated. This was the third time ze had to tell Gilda to stop distracting Maritte in a fight. Ze used zir magic paint to splatter the three with some regenerative magic, knowing that Gilda was gonna run ahead again to impress the target of her affection. Although run wasn't quite the right term for it.

As if on cue, Gilda giggled before being gone in a flash of light. Ima’s eyes weren’t fast enough to follow the trail of lightning Gilda turned into, but knew where she would end up regardless. Right behind the cursed book and in front of the two floating skulls behind it. Gilda laughed in delight as her sudden appearance surprised her enemies, allowing her to charge her next spell. Electricity began to crackle around her as she prepared to send a shockwave to the enemies surrounding her. But as she was about to send out the wave, a voice rang out

-Electrifying move Gilda!

It was Gildas face turn to go red. What was meant to be a huge wave of lightning crashing against her foes turned into a small speed bump, barely touching or shocking the three floating enemies. Gilda quickly recovered however, her shocked face changing quickly back to her normal grin, seemingly somehow larger this time.

-I’ll stay electrifying if you keep turning up the heat!

Maritte smiled widely and tried to stay cool, but it was very clear her iq points were rapidly dropping. If she wanted a witty comeback, it would have to be quick before her head emptied and she truly embarrassed herself. Unfortunately for her, that time had already passed. Ima simply looked exasperated, hoping these two figured it out before they started flirting in front of something truly dangerous and ancient. Maritte was gonna make zir believe that it was impossible.

-I’ll stay hot if you stay gorgeous!

Maritte had never really been the fearless, bold kind of person. That had always been her sister's domain of expertise. Ever since she had arrived at Ikenfell though, she had definitely been more confident in herself. And her fire powers encouraged this, making her more bold than ever before. It had driven her to go deeper into Ikenfell and after her sister than she had thought possible. And, apparently, bold enough to drop all subtlety and puns and simply call her crush gorgeous. And now, all that confidence and boldness left her body as an awkward silence filled the library. It seemed like even the skulls and the book were respecting this silence. It only seemed this way however, as the enemies had been preparing attacks of their own. The cursed tome did not care for the teenage drama unfolding before it and suddenly, it launched more pages from between covers, sending them flying towards a still processing Gilda. Two of the pages hit Gilda’s arm, giving her decent sized cuts. The pain jolted Gilda awake as she was able to move mostly out of the way of the third page, but it still hit her on the side of her abdomen. She collapsed to her knees. Marittes eyes went blank as she started floating slightly. Flames began to appear in the air around her hands, allowing her to build significantly more fire magic than for a normal fireball. She launched a white hot ball of pure inferno forward towards the book. The pages erupted into flame, burning away any trace of magic that might’ve brought the book to life. The once purple cover fell to the ground, now burnt black to a crip. The skulls tried to run away, scared of the immense power coming off Maritte. Ima rushed forward, quickly painting a volley of arrows. Ze unleashes three waves of deadly multicolored arrows, demolishing the skulls in quick order. Maritte, now back safely on the ground, suddenly filled with concern as she rushes to Gildas' side. The girl had not gotten up yet.

-Gilda, I’m so sorry, please be ok

Gilda looked up, stars in her eyes and shouted

-I’m better than ok, I’m gorgeous!

Maritte smiled, still embarrassed, but flooded with relief that Gilda was ok. Ima was also relieved, but knew they shouldn’t stop for too long.

-If you’re ok to keep going Gilda, we really should keep moving. We need to find Bloodwyn
Maritte offered her hand to help Gilda get back on her feet. Gilda gladly took it. Maritte surprised the two of them for the second time in the last few minutes by pulling Gilda in for a hug. Ima, Bloodwyn, it all could wait. They simply stood there for some moments, happy in the embrace.