All Moons Dream in Color

Chapter 6: elevator to the moon

The day that follows the full moon is a Saturday. Exhausted after the night's events, Kai's willing to spend the remainder of the day in bed, fatigue clinging to his very bones. But there's a voice in the back of his head that argues otherwise, insisting that there are more important things than napping.

He ignores this voice for a solid thirty minutes before eventually slithering into some clean clothes. When he joins Wilma in the main suite, she looks about as exhausted as he feels, her fur still tinged with the power of the moon. He brushes this aside before reaching into his cloak for a wand and a spellbook. “It's been long enough for some of the magic to've dulled," Kai explains through a yawn as he draws open a portal between them. “We should go take a look, see what we can do to help speed up the process."

There's an eagerness buried deep in Wilma's eyes as she stares at the portal, a detached sense of excitement that Kai can't quite decipher. “You sure it ain't still toxic up there?"

Kai takes a moment to tug up his hood, the soothing cotton fabric a comfortable presence against his bald head. With a jerk of his head, he then guides his rain boots over to him, slipping into them with ease before extending a hand to Wilma. “It'll be…rough. Wardmagic's pretty strong so stick close to me."

When she accepts his hand, her mind seems elsewhere, captivated by the portal magic wafting through the air. And though it goes unspoken, Kai can't help but notice how easily, how quickly she seems to slip her hand into his own. Choosing to dissect that at another time, Kai takes a step forward at the same time as Wilma until they've disappeared between realms.

Lunar magic, a swirling mass of gray, red, and blue spirals all around them. Pillars of the stuff stretch further than the eye can see, loop-de-looping and helixing until the world itself becomes a canvas of intricate patterns and shapes.

Now, portal magic is such an ordinary part of wizard life that Kai rarely ever considers it to be anything more than a method of travel. But when he looks at Wilma, hoping to provide some reassurance in a strange environment, he finds her staring with wide eyes. Blue fingers cling loosely now to his own, and if not for his own grip, she might've drifted off entirely.

“What is this?" she asks, her voice full of wonder and awe.

Kai just blinks, his wand and spellbook temporarily forgotten as he watches the world of magic unfurl within her eyes. “It's the inside of a portal," he explains, that familiar warmth returned to his stomach; in spite of himself, he gives Wilma a gentle tug before propelling them towards the exit port just above them. “Some scholars theorize portals like these were magic's original nesting grounds."

“It's potent here." Dragging a hand through a lunar cloud, Wilma smiles to herself and hums quietly. “I'm guessin' there's a reason y'all don't come here more often."

The exit port peels open like a flower in bloom. With a drawn “X" pattern of his wand, Kai peers out through the resulting portal and sighs at the sight of a Moonwater rooftop. “It's a thousand times stronger than wardmagic. Stay here for too long, anything could happen. Come on. This is our stop."

Humming inquisitively, Wilma crawls out of the portal before casting a look back Kai's way. Only once he's made it through does she relax, and even then, she's still holding his hand.

The roof is barren, save for the occasional glyph or two etched into limestone. That and the area just beside the fireshed, where a tattered tent lies forgotten amidst the lonely rooftop. Unbidden, Kai imagines Wilma the night of the incident: burrowed beneath her colors, zipped away in her little tent, cozy as one can be atop a chilly Hotel. And just when she'd begun to drift off to sleep, she was ripped through several floors, rotten magic clawing at her flesh until she came to an abrupt, painful landing in his apartment.

“I never apologized," Kai says after a long moment. “Did I?" When Wilma just turns, confusion bright in her eyes, he lowers his head to stare shamefully at the ground. “This was your home. And I…I took it from you."

The scoff that greets him is exasperated. Fingers still intertwined, Wilma drags him closer to her tent. “If you're torturin' yourself over an accident, you can cut it out," she says with something of a reprimanding tone. “You couldn't have known I was on the roof."

“Maybe not. But I've known for a while now that my wards need some work. And I never got 'em fixed." He tucks his other hand into one of his cloak pockets, lips pursed as the brand of the moon seems to burn as hot as it had all those years ago. “So I'm sorry."

Wilma's response doesn't come for a long time. And when it finally does, there's a mild bite to her tone. Tufts of blue fur sprout up through the surface of her skin, tickling the inside of Kai's hand in its pursuit of growth. Fangs descend far past her lips, and a yellow hue clings to the very edges of her eyes. “It was my own damn fault. Gettin' distracted, procrastinatin'. I should've never been up here in the first place. So you got nothin' to be sorry about." With that, she pulls her hand away from his, arms wrapped around herself as she stares mournfully at her old tent. “Anyway. How are the wards lookin'?"

Fearful of her exposure to raw luna, Kai discreetly opens his magic to her and allows waves of his internal magic to settle over her like an umbrella. He clears his throat, then kneels to the ground. Fingers gray as the magic that pulses within his vein press lightly against the limestone, and Kai lets out a drunken sigh. It washes over him in waves, each more powerful than the last until at last his eyes have gone bloodshot.

“Kai." There's a hand on his shoulder, and when he swivels his gaze to the right, he finds Wilma watching him with eyes full of worry. “You okay?"

“Mmmm. Yeah. Yes, I'm fine." With a sniffle, Kai offers her a smile before pressing an open palm against the ground. His moon wards, familiar as the face he sees in the mirror, reach out for him in longing, and it takes everything in him to gently push them away. “They're a…little stronger than I was expecting, but they're better than they were when I first put them up."

Shoulders drooping in relief, Wilma joins him on the ground. Her ears are stood upright, a slight fogginess to her own eyes when she says, “Let me see if I can see somethin'."

Capable of little more than a sluggish nod and hiccup, Kai scoots aside and watches as Wilma spreads her hands out against the limestone. Blue skin gone hairless with the onset of the moon seems to struggle under the force of his wards, but she maintains her control all the same. A series of inhales and exhales seem to settle her before she presses her forehead to the ground. Kai can only stare in astonishment as his wards, once anxious and unsettled, seem to fall silent, as if listening.

“What are you doing?" Kai asks, drawing his cloak tighter around him as a stray gust of wind washes over them.

Ease seems to descend upon Wilma, and something about it both intrigues and worries Kai. “I don't know," she says after a moment, raising her head as she spreads her palms-turned-paws further out against the limestone. “I don't have any magic myself but…sometimes I can hear it."

Willing his nerves to settle, Kai braces an arm against his upturned knee, lets out a whistle, turns his gaze skyward. “You'd make one hell of a wizard, Wilma. What are they saying?"

Amusement pricks at her lips. She closes her eyes, a gentle smile toying at her lips as she continues to listen. “Well, they're excited for the Blue Moon Festival."

No shocker there. All three species celebrate the Festival, but wizards are the ones that went and turned it into a spectacle. Whether or not this is a good thing is up for debate, though Kai can't imagine how anyone could think otherwise.

“...and they think we're datin'. They haven't decided if I'm a step up or not from your last partners."

All at once, Kai finds himself sprung back into sobriety. His eyes have gone wide when he turns to look at Wilma, who simply smirks in amusement at his overt alarm. “Well, w-we're not dating," Kai says, staring unknowingly at the limestone beneath them. “I mean, I barely know her for one thing."

Wilma just rolls her eyes. “And you're probably the biggest snob I've ever known in my entire life."

Ignoring this playful jab at his expense, Kai brings a hand up to the collar of his cloak. Gray glitter clings to his fingers, and he stares at them for a moment, anxious as he gives voice to his thoughts. “You know, so long as we're living together…we probably could get to know each other more."

That elusive glint returns to Wilma's eyes. She sits back on her haunches, humming to herself as she watches Kai tuck his wards back into place. “We could," she muses. “But we probably shouldn't…you're a nice guy, but there's a reason that we don't know that much about each other, and that's cuz I prefer it that way."

And Kai can respect that. After all, this is only meant to be temporary. The moment he gets these wards clean, Wilma's going back up to the roof or beyond, if she prefers. He can't expect her to want anything more than that, it's just…sometimes, he thinks she does want something more than that. There's just something that always pulls her back before anything more can come of it.

But he won't push her. Clearly, something's got her indecisive, and who is he, of all people, to judge her for it? Kai rises to his feet and nods. “All right," he says with a kind smile. “Well, I think we've been up here long enough. We should probably head back."

Wilma just lets out a grunt and starts back for their portal. “You just don't want your wards to embarrass you," she calls out over her shoulder, earning a snort and eye roll from Kai before he follows after her.