Ascension of the last Celestial

"Like that?" Valerian said with a smirk.

Seraphine and Valerian were close, closer than she had ever been to someone who wasn’t her family. Their shoulders were lightly touching. He could feel the warmth of her sleeveless skin through his clothes.

Seraphine was stunned; she didn’t expect him to just teleport her directly beside him. But her magic-obsessed brain snapped to the fact that she didn’t even feel the teleport. The nausea that would accompany every time her father used space magic wasn’t there; it was a clean change in position.

’I couldn’t even feel a change in the atmospheric mana before he activated the spell. Amazing.’

As Valerian looked down to his left, at her face, instead of the flustered princess he expected, he saw her face in deep concentration. One of her hands was stroking her chin, and he could see the gears behind those golden eyes turn.

"Do you want to see more?"

At the sound of Valerian’s voice, Seraphine seemingly was taken out of her thinking mode and she began to notice the feeling of her shoulder touching soft fabric. When she turned her head to her right, she looked directly into Valerian’s cosmic purple eyes and she let out a fake cough.

"Yes, that would be very kind. Can you show me something else besides teleportation?"

Trying to cover up the fact that she completely zoned out while he was sitting directly beside her, she asked for another demonstration, but she didn’t move away and stayed in her seat beside him.

"Sure."

With that, he put his hand in front of her with the palm facing her. "Would you do me the honor and take my hand?"

Even though she looked at him with a confused look, she moved her hand to put her palm against his.

"Huh?"

Seraphine looked at his outstretched hand and tried to move her hand closer to his, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t touch him. There seemed to always be a distance between both palms that she couldn’t bridge.

"It’s a defensive spell I created a few years ago. You see, I created a small layer of space around me with the sole purpose of expanding once something tries to enter it. The only way for you to get past it and reach me would be to use space magic yourself. But I can, of course, control what can reach me and what doesn’t."

With that, Valerian disabled the spell, and he crossed the 2 cm distance to her hand and interlocked his fingers with hers. Her hands were soft, so soft that they felt like she had never done anything laborious in her life and had only been holed up in her room.

Seraphine didn’t react to the sudden physical touch, once again lost in her mind world, processing what she had just seen. And Valerian didn’t disturb her, using the time to study her face more up close. The conclusion he came to was:

’Holy fuck, she’s pretty, like a literal doll. I could look at her face for hours.’

Meanwhile, Seraphine had other thoughts.

’Holy fuck, that’s so cool. Stretching the space around himself infinitely so that no one can cross it and touch him. The pure mastery required to keep that up is off the charts. Is he really my age? I want to see more of his magic. I want to see more of him.’

"Now it’s your turn. I showed you two spells. Aren’t you the elven genius? Show me."

Looking up from their still interlocked hands to his face, Seraphine again realized that they were holding hands, but she didn’t forcefully pull her hand away.

"I need both my hands for that."

Hearing that, Valerian let go of her hand. His hand now felt strangely empty, so he reached into his space pocket and pulled out two chocolate bars. Opening one, he looked at Seraphine. "Want one?"

"Later."

She took the bar and put it on the table, now focusing fully on her magic.

She reached downward with one hand and touched the marble floor. From the stone, a rose began to form. Once it turned into a full rose, she leaned back. Holding the stone rose with both hands from below, white lines began to move upwards, starting from the stem and moving to the petals. Once they reached the stone petals, they turned into transparent crystals. The light coming in from the sun began to reflect in the rose in a beautiful display of different colored light.

Valerian looked at the rose with shining eyes. "That’s beautiful."

Hearing his compliment, Seraphine had a proud smirk on her face.

"Now the second one!"

Seraphine had a knowing smile and looked at him. "You’re already seeing the second one, dummy."

Valerian looked with confused eyes at her. "What do you mean?"

Her smile only widened. She raised her hand and put her right hand, which now felt slightly different than before, on his cheek and pushed his head to look at the other end of the pavilion. There, sitting with crossed legs and a proud smile, was Seraphine, eating the chocolate bar he gave her.

Valerian’s eyes widened, and he snapped back to the Seraphine that was sitting beside him and touching his cheek. But instead of the beautiful elven princess, now there was only a warm stone hand touching him.

"Whoa! You used light to create an illusion and turn yourself invisible? That’s so cool!"

Hearing his praise, the proud, confident smirk just didn’t seem to go away.

Valerian was shocked. Yes, he wasn’t in an alert state, so he didn’t pay much attention to the mana around him, but still, he was the [Child of Mana] and he didn’t feel a thing. That was only possible because Seraphine herself is [Loved by Mana] and an expert at mana manipulation. If it were anyone else, Valerian would have noticed the change in mana without paying much attention to it.

"You used stone and light at such an expert level. Are they perhaps your affinity?"

Seraphine’s golden eyes met his purple ones, and she looked deep into them, contemplating if she should tell him. Letting out a sigh, she arrived fast at a decision. "How about we both write our affinities on a piece of paper and then exchange them at the same time?"

Slightly confused why she made such a big deal out of it, Valerian tilted his head but complied nonetheless.

Seraphine could have stayed at the other side of the pavilion, but she moved back to her seat next to him—again sitting close enough that their shoulders barely touched—and took out two pieces of paper and pens.

They each began to write their affinities on the paper, and Valerian noticed that she took longer than him.

"Okay, I’m finished," Seraphine announced and put her paper on the table facing downwards. Valerian did the same and pushed his paper to her, and she hers to him.

She took his paper and flipped it. There, standing in neat handwriting, was:

Space, Cosmic Fire, Void Lightning

’Cosmic fire and void lightning? I have never heard of them before. Haaa, I want to know more!’

While her inner researcher took over, Valerian was staring blankly at the piece of paper.

’She can’t be for real? There is just no way! But why would she lie? I don’t know her that long, but I don’t think she would lie about something like that.’

The reason Valerian was freaking out internally was what Seraphine wrote on the paper. There, standing in beautiful, trained handwriting, was:

Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Light, Darkness, Solar, Life

"Seraphine?"

Hearing her name being called, she turned to Valerian, who was still staring at the paper. She knew why he was acting like that; everyone was like that. They wouldn’t believe her, accusing her of lying. Even if the maids wouldn’t say it to her face, she heard them calling her a liar behind her back. It never bothered her; she never cared for the opinion of others. She just wanted him to be different.

She looked at him with nervous eyes, and when he turned to her, all her fears washed away like dirt under heavy rain, because in his wonderful, beautiful purple eyes was no accusation, no jealousy, just pure awe. Awe at someone who is so blessed and seemingly even more amazing than himself.

That single look made her feel like a heavy weight was released from her chest, and happiness took over.

"Seraphine, you are insane! Eight affinities! Eight! And I thought I was too overpowered, haha!"

Seraphine looked into his eyes, and without saying a word, she moved closer, placed her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his shoulder.

Valerian, completely caught off guard by the sudden hug, didn’t know what to do in the first second, but soon his wits came back to him and he placed his arms gently around her back, completing the hug.

They didn’t say anything; they didn’t need to. Seraphine was overwhelmed with joy that this boy she had just met barely an hour ago wasn’t doubting her, and only had awe in his eyes instead of the jealous or accusing look most had.

And he wasn’t sure why she suddenly hugged him, but it felt right to him. Over the years, Valerian had built up a dislike to being touched by people outside his family. But the small touches he shared with her today and the hug didn’t feel forced, didn’t make him feel repulsed, it felt right.