Winterfall

~ Maria Point of View~

I woke an hour later to find my connection to Théoden's vision broken, but our bond was still in place. We had the ability to break connection whenever we were telepathically communicating or if we were watching the other.

It didn’t bother me but it did surprise me not waking up and seeing his reality. I looked out my window and the sun was starting to set. So, I would put the time to be around 6 pm. A whole day in my room. Yeah, this was never going to happen again.

We shall see about that, Maria. I am glad you are awake dear.

It was only an hour. Were you worried I was going to rest before you?

Perhaps, I was looking forward to that dream.

Would you have woken me if I went past the hour?

Nope. You needed the rest.

Ugh…well I am glad my body knows when to wake up. However, I missed dinner.

There should be some food outside your door. I asked Roland to bring it up to you.

At the mention of food, I dropped the connection briefly and looked out my door. The food still seemed hot as there was bits of smoke rising from it. I took the food into my room and closed the door.

I picked around certain things on the plate. There was chicken, which I did enjoy. Then the greens, which wasn’t my favorite thing in the world. Fresh fruit which wasn’t horrible and a few sweets which I inhaled.

Are we still up for magic training?

We can, if you really want to.

The ring is pretty charged, I think it might be safe for everyone if we do.

Alright. I heard him sigh, meet me in the colosseum at 8.

At 8, I went to the colosseum training area that we had been using. He was already there doing some minor stretches.

“You know, you should do some of these as well.”

I sighed, “Do I have to?”

“No, but it might help you with dodging.”

He had a point there. But I wasn’t about to cave in just yet. “Why weren’t you going to train today?”

“Both of us had a bit of a hangover today. Thought it would be best to wait until we were fully recovered.”

“I feel fine.” I said as I glanced down at my ring and activated the red gem. “Besides, you took most of it away from me.”

I made my notation with my hand and in a flash a roaring burst of liquid lava darted towards Théo. Théo managed to dodge my surprise attack with grace. “Maria! Give me a moment to put up my shield.” He grunted as he fixed his balance.

“Why? In battle you may not have a moment for your shield right?”

He glared at me. “You're right but this is practice for a reason. I want to see how much damage you can truly do and a way to do that is through the shield.”

At this point I saw the shimmer of a magic seal around him. “Ready now?” I asked.

“Yes.” He said, “It’s not over-channeled. However, I want you to try to over-channel one of your spells. I would have suggested fire but you used some of that energy already.”

I glanced down at my ring and selected the navy blue gem. “How about this one for over-channel?” I questioned him. However, I still wasn’t quite sure how to over-channel, so I just thought about how much energy I wanted to put into the spell and released it in his direction.

His eyes went wide when he saw which one I over-channeled or attempted to. “I hate this one…” Théo said as the spell came barreling towards him, bringing a wave of darkened storm clouds above him. Not one. Not two. Not three. But four lightning strikes followed the poisonous rain. Using the Poisonous Storm spell.

The rain pretty much had eaten away at his shield leaving him pretty much defenseless against the four lighting strikes. The first one, finished off the shield. The last three impacted him directly. One to each shoulder and one to his left thigh.

“Damn it!” He grumbled. “There’s got to be a better way of protecting myself without over-channeling every time!” Over-channel meant more energy was used in the creation of whatever spell or ability was being used. More energy taken meant you got exhausted quickly.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it too much Théo, you still manage to dodge a lot of attacks.”

That was true but that wasn’t always how he saw it.

“Whatever the case is Maria, my shields need to get stronger. I feel them growing slowly against your magic but they aren’t growing fast enough.” He healed himself a bit using Healing Touch.

“They will Théo. Be patient.”

Théoden glared at me, “aren’t I the one always telling you to be patient?”

I smirked, “That’s my point.”

“Whatever. Let me put up my next shield. I know you have already used the red gem once but I want you to try to use it again. You have been angry a lot recently.”

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever you say.” I waited until I saw the barrier and activated the red gem again. I focused what energy I could into it.

With a single motion, another roaring blast bolted down the arena, hitting Théoden’s shield. His shield remained as the spell dispersed around it.

“Feeling better already.” I mumbled as the red gem was now able to soak up more anger and hatred. Whereas the navy blue one had already started pulling from sadness and depression.

“Great. The shield can take one more hit. Why not try a new one?” Théoden questioned me.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

I glanced down at the ring and found myself drawn to the yellow one. If I remembered correctly this one was a poisonous spell, called Liquid Death.

The bolt of poison rushed towards Théo instantly breaking any remaining shield, smacking him square in the chest. Any normal person, this probably would have had them heaving on the ground and moaning in pain. However, since Théoden was immune to poison the spell had very little effect on him.

“Really? You chose that one?”

“Well, I knew your shield would have disappeared so I wanted to make sure you didn’t get hurt anymore.”

He smiled at me, “Maria, I appreciate that you worry about me but it should be me worrying about you.”

“I know but someone has to worry about you.”

“Thanks Maria. Look, I know you have only used three gems and they are the same ones you used the last time but can we call it? I don’t want to be too exhausted for our dream tonight.”

He had a point there. If we were to do anything in our dreams tonight, then we shouldn't’ overwork ourselves now. “Alrighty. Let’s head back to the castle-”

“I will teleport you back. Until we get confirmation from Quinn about who is following us we probably shouldn’t do anything too strange without caution. I am going to have a couple of items made for us. To protect us against divination magics. Rings and an orb we can place in the location that we are in. However, until those are complete, we need to use caution.”

“Fair enough. See you soon then?”

“Definitely.”

He gave me a quick kiss before he teleported me back to my room once more. I got undressed and dressed into a shirt of Théoden’s and as I went to lay down in bed a gentle knock came at my door.

“Damn it.” I muttered and went to my door and opened it.