Alexander can't help but look at Verila's lips as her smile grows wider with the next plate. Each copper plate outlines a set of runes with slight improvements. Because the form she is making is consistent he can write down which ones work better than others.
It starts with the darkness of the blade. The shadows first flow with a deep dark grey and then a vanta black. It almost seems as the darkness grows with every itteration that a glow begins to form around it as the orange and arcane light across his room bends into it. For a moment he is reminded of the hole that was created in space when he saw his magic for the first time.
Verila's darkness was different though, it's as if it fed on the light, consuming it in whisps. They could both see as the second dagger form, although the detail wasn't as vivid, it's darkness attacked the strips of light hitting it.
Verila couldn't believe her eyes. A simple projection of mana was acting like a complex spell that would have otherwise wasted all her mana. Verila looks at Alexander and into his soft dark brown eyes.
'Does he know,' she wonders.
Alexander is stumbling into something dangerous. However much she cares about that she can tell him later. The dagger is what she really worries about. Her eyes twinge with a desire Alexander hasn't seen before. Something he didn't know she had. Something more real than when she teased him during their week together.
The ornamental dagger that intrigues Alexander with every second it exists within the shadows. He wonders what the jewels would have looked like if it wasn't covered in darkness, or the shine of the blade. He thinks about even what the metal would feel like.
He knows she is thinking the same.
The third and fourth copper plate, with it's subtle improvements allowed a balance of that absolute darkness and the detail of the first plate. For a moment the shadow would catch the light and it would bounce off of it, giving the illusion of a metallic shine.
"It's so beautiful.." Alexander whispers to himself.
The darkness folds over itself repeatedly as if the shadows were following the way a craftsman would forge the blade. Each inch becomes sharper and more focused. It continues to bend the light and the black it forms underneath it seems to glow at the edge. The golden orange light breaks apart as it's eaten by the darkness until all that is left is a white glow around it's edges. Alexander wonders if he could touch it now.
Would it feel soft and firm like Verila's chest felt against him or would it be hard like the wooden desk she pushed him into when she kissed him.
Alexander tries to shake those thoughts. However even with the dagger in front of him and it's beauty he is drawn to her grey lips.
"V.. You are," He lowers his voice before the words in his stomach can escape him. He feels stuck between his feelings and his goals. If I was powerful like Ceasar maybe I could have both.
Verila breaks her focus from the dagger when she hears him. Her long black hair is still wrapping around her shoulders and into her shadowy figure. However he can see where her mana is draining. It strips itself from her like tearing fabric revealing undergarments. Something he isn't expecting. Just around her shoulder he can see a strap leading down to her chest.
She didn't wear that before. He thinks to himself.
Verila notices Alexander lost in thought and his wandering eyes. She nudges him lightly pushing him on his chest with her fingers.
Alexander quickly looks back at her. Verila looks at him with this knowing smile and her eyes turned down as if she is reveling in the fact that a little skin is all it takes to get him heated.
"Ehem," He quickly gets back on task, "The dagger is coming out nicely, is it getting closer to the picture in your mind?"
Verila looks him up in down before answering. She eats him with her eyes and lets him sit with the silence. Alexander doesn't squirm. Verila lights a competitive spirit in him. The way sword fighting did when he was younger. Before he wanted true power.
Alexander steps closer to her. "Here if you want to look," He stands just inches from her and draws her eyes up into his, "Does this help V."
He begins to comb Verila with his eyes. Her smile quietly turns into a blush under her grey skin. Alexander smiles as he sees her ears tinge lightly.
Verila is almost embarrassed that someone so young is getting to her. Has it really been that long since I was flirted with. He's barely a man and i'm letting that work on me.
Verila pushes him back lightly and quickly grabs a quill and piece of paper to write on. She avoids looking into his eyes and it makes Alexander even more ready to tease her.
"Really? Now you don't want to look at me," Alexander's smile begins to match the same one Verila gave him earlier, "Even after we had been in the same bed."
Right when those words left his mouth Alexander could see her jump and her long pointed ears twitch. She quickly shoves the paper she wrote on into his chest and looks at him angrily. She puffs out some air.
Alexander chuckles and then looks at the note.
'It's better. Closer. Any more flirting though and I might even stab you with it.'
"Scary," Alexander grabs the fifth copper plate. The one where he started using longer more specific concepts. "Although I don't know how much I'd hate being stabbed by someone so beautiful."
Verila quickly knocks him in his shoulder and moves to the crystal a couple feet away from Alexander.
"Alright. I got it. More work less talking." Alexander laughs and begins to take down the runes in his notebook.
At first the mana begins to form the same way as the other copper plates. It forms from the tip of the blade just an inch from the copper plate. The shadows fold into itself repeatedly forming not only the ten inch blade but then the hilt and handle. Alexander could see the gems better now. The darkness cut into the gems and he could see the different shapes. The center was a bezzel cut with three gemstones to either side. They rest in a delicate metal and the hilt was wrapped in what looked like to be a fabric.
Alexander thought it looks similar to the fabric of her bra. His eyes dart over to Verila for a moment, seeing the bra more and more as the shadows stripped from her. It was black.
Verila caught his eyes again but this time she couldn't give him the same teasing look as last time.
Neither could he.
They both look at the dagger again. Alexander could see the pommel of the hilt was made of the same darkness as the blade and it gave it a similar metallic effect. While the other blades looked like black fog trying to form into a blade. This one seems like a blade made of the blackest darkest metals.
"Is this.." Before Alexander can finish Verila nods her head. She is staring right at the blade. It sits perfectly in air being held up by the mana still pouring through. The projection is lasting longer than the others.
"Grab it. We need to compare it's strength then." Alexander sees her hesitation in her footsteps forward.
Something was weighing on Verila. The meaning of the blade.
Verila moves infront of Alexander and reaches for the blade. She holds it and can feel as her mana connects with it seperating it from the apparatus. Alexander sees the darkness from her body meld with the darkness in the blade. They were different qualities. The blade overpowered it, ate at it and leaves only her grey skin in her right hand.
Alexander grabs some metal plates he had lying around from another experiment, dealing with alchemical transference of mana, the one that led to making the machine.
"V. If you would?" Alexander holds the plate up and faces it towards her.
Verila slashes at the metal plate. It cuts a small incision and then rips through the plate. What they both thought was a normal slash sends Alexander flying.
Two feet.
Then four feet.
Then right into his bedframe on the left side of the room.
His back feels the pain of the copper bedframe. Then his butt feels the light softness of the rug under his bed and then the cold hardwood floor under it. At least he knows no one will come check on him. He had a room in the farthest wing for that very reason. He always made too much noise late at night.
Alexander groans in pain and Verila rushes to his side. She looks over him worried. The dagger is dissapated and her hand is still uncovered when it touches his face.
"I'm fine V. I've gone through worse sword fighting." Alexander looks at the bedframe behind him and the slight dent he formed with his body.
Verila helps him to his feet and Alexander groans again from the lingering pain.
"At least we know it's powerful," Alexander grabs his back and straightens himself up as he continues talking towards the aparatus. "I'd say a power increase of at least ten to twenty times. Enough to cut mana emmission by at least half, maybe more."
Verila passes him a note without him realizing. 'Do you think that's the important thing right now. I could have killed you.'
Alexander looks at her and back at the machine. "You didn't. What's more important is to know that my runes work. The next copper plate is even more important now with that power."
Alexander sets up the copper plate and Verila gets into position. She doesn't have the same smile or focus anymore. Alexander knows it's bothering her.
"V. Could you tell me why the dagger? It's..beautiful and i've been curious since I first saw it."
Verila pauses. She knows he's just asking to get her mind off of almost killing him. Alexander wasn't the type to needlessly comfort her. They both know it's not her fault and Verila wanted to tell him this.
Alexander watches as Verila moves to sit down at his desk. In his mind it proves how serious she is about this and how serious the dagger is. He watches as the sentences leave her hands and when she hesitates. The moments the ink sits on the page too long and the letters thicken show where she thought long and hard whether to tell him. Alexander could tell she might have never told anyone this. Especially a human.
'It is ceremonial. Elven. My family long ago made this one. Each family would have one. It would pass from Father to Mother and down to daughter or son. It is used when we come of age, for marriage, for death and for magic. They use it to also show what magic you are attuned to. However from birth they knew. For me the flecks of black and grey skin denoted me. It also,' She paused, 'outscasted me. To be attuned to darkness meant to be unnatural in the eyes of my people. My father would say that darkness was the shade from the trees. He was Chief of our people but that didn't matter in the face of tradition. One day I left and I had to leave that behind. Along with my voice.'
"I'm sorry V. Have you ever thought of going back?"Alexander asks.
'Yes, but it has been centuries now. Not long for our people but long enough for relationships to die. Now I have duty and vows that must be kept.'
"You don't deserve to be kept by such things. When I become heir I will free you from that service. I promise." Alexander says confidently.
Verila looks up and nods painfully. Although she believes that he means it. Verila wasn't sure if she ever would be free.
Free from foolish pacts she made in her youth.