After waking up, Ivan immediately went to the bathroom to clean himself up, before he wanted to test the communication spell. As there was not much to do for me at this point, I patiently waited until he came back from the bathroom.
When Ivan emerged, he was neatly dressed as usual, albeit a bit more casually, forsaking his usual blazer and only wearing a purple satin shirt with the top button undone. As a lover of fashion, I had to concede that Ivan's outfit choices were always to my liking.
Heat slowly crept up my face when I remembered that I was still staring at him, so I quickly averted my eyes to avoid him catching me staring.
“Come over here, Rêve.” he called, and I quickly obeyed, though I couldn't help feeling a little nervous as Ivan watched me with expectant eyes.
Now, both of us stood in the middle of his bedroom, and I grew more nervous the longer it took for him to start his showcase. Wordlessly, Ivan rolled the sleeve of his shirt up to reveal a turquoise tattoo on his right wrist. It hadn't been there yesterday when I met him in the pharmacy or later in the night when I had woken up, so he must have applied it in the bathroom.
“Do you see this here?” Ivan asked, pointing at the turquoise scripture on his wrist. As I looked at it more closely, I could see tiny, neat letters that formed the complex spell. This revelation put Ivan's neat handwriting into a whole new perspective; he had to write meticulously for his spells to work effectively.
Another belated revelation was that I could read the old language in which Ivan had written the spell. It wasn't as unfamiliar to me as I initially thought. I attributed this to the times when I used to help my sister create the old language for her stories. We had so much fun crafting our own language back then, and it brought a wave of nostalgia, which brought a faint smile to my face.
For a brief moment, Ivan looked over at me, catching my smile, before he continued his explanation with a cheeky smirk, “Using a normal spell didn’t cut it for the range we needed, so I had to create a new one from scratch.” He lightly turned his wrist during his explanation, showing off the tattoo.
“Now we only need to apply one of these to you. That is, if you want to; these tattoos are not permanent if you’re worried.”
Would this even work on me? Doubts immediately overcame me, but I decided to trust in Ivan and his skills as a mage. “Sure, I believe in you.”
"Stretch your right hand out to me," Ivan urged, reaching into his pocket to pull out a tiny bottle filled with a turquoise liquid, the source of his magical tattoo. From what I remembered, the liquid was likely monster parts and other components mixed together, which was a cool detail. I complied, extending my hand towards him, intrigued by what was about to happen.
With ease, Ivan opened the bottle and made a graceful motion with his left hand, moving from the bottle towards my arm. The turquoise liquid began to flow out of the container, forming a swirling pattern around my wrist. With a focused expression, Ivan started chanting a spell while carefully circling the liquid over my ghostly pale wrist, repeating the process over and over again.
At first, I feared that nothing would happen, but to my relief, the magical ink slowly started to form ancient tiny letters across the surface of my wrist. The sensation was tickling, with each new letter and symbol attaching itself to my skin, but I managed to remain calm. I watched Ivan work with curiosity, as it was the first time I had seen him cast a magical tattoo on someone. His frosty blue eyes seemed to glow slightly, appearing even lighter than usual, reflecting the magic that emanated from them.
After a few minutes, the magic glow in the atmosphere dissipated, and my wrist now bore an identical magical tattoo to Ivan's.
Not missing a moment, Ivan closed the bottle and spoke. “How are you feeling? Anything different?” He took a step closer, concern written all over his face as he carefully examined me.
His sudden proximity caught me off guard, and I stuttered in my reply, “U-um, I’m fine! How do we test if it works? Should I go out, so we can test? I don’t think you should go out yet, Dragan would probably ask questions.” I babbled on in an attempt to mask my sudden embarrassment.
Though it seemed Ivan wasn't entirely convinced by my reassurance, he didn't comment on it. Instead, he teasingly asked, "Do you even know how to use it?"
I cringed in embarrassment, knowing that he was right—I had no clue.
“You’re really playing unfair, you know that?” Ivan’s eyes lit up with his usual mischievous glint, but he pouted before taking on a more serious expression.
“Tap your tattoo twice with your other hand and call my name when you're ready and in position.”
I nodded in understanding and quickly fled the room. If their flat had been on ground level, I could’ve walked out of the wall right here, but since that was not the case, I had to walk through the exit. After two minutes, I stood across the street from their flat. This distance should be sufficient for a short test. I looked down at the tattoo on my wrist and found myself growing increasingly flustered about this whole situation.
Why was this an issue now? I thought I had left the phase where I got embarrassed by every little thing behind me!
A pitiable sigh escaped my throat, as I collected the courage to do what was expected of me. I poked at the tattoo twice and called Ivan’s name, being grateful about the fact that no one could see me now.
A few seconds went by, and just as I started to grow nervous that it didn’t work, Ivan’s voice echoed through my head “Yes, Darling❤︎?”
My heart almost jumped out of my chest at Ivan’s unexpected greeting and it took all my willpower not to yell back at him. The only reason holding me back was the thought that I didn’t know how uncomfortable yelling would feel if it was directed at your mind.
Instead, I tried to reprimand him in the most reproachful voice I could muster. “How about you keep such flirtations for someone you like!”
…In the end I sounded more wounded and upset than anything else. To say I regretted what I said was an understatement.
Shit! I grew even more embarrassed and wished for the ‘call’ to end, so I could hide somewhere. Did I get up on the wrong side of the bed today or why was I so sensitive?
Before Ivan could say anything else and force me to embarrass myself more, I decided to ask him something instead.
“It seems to be working. How do we cut the connection? Tap it again?”
“I do-”, Ivan cut himself off in an unusual fashion and answered me in a weird voice.
“Yeah, just tap it once and then come back here.”
My guilty conscience grew, as I had the feeling I had made a mistake. In fear that I would lose my chance if I didn’t act now, I called out to Ivan once more.
“I’m sorry, Ivan. I didn’t mean to -” I hesitated when I didn’t know what to say next for a while, but I knew I had to say something!
“I was…just embarrassed…I didn’t mean to snap at you like that over nothing,” I confessed truthfully and hoped that Ivan would accept my apology. Anxiety bubbled in my chest, until I heard Ivan laugh lightly.
“It’s okay.” Ivan finally said, sounding more like his regular self, which relieved some of my anxiety.
“It was my fault. I shouldn’t have called you like that in the first place, when I know how much you dislike my teasing. Sorry, Rêve.”
His apology hit me like a ton of bricks and I was unsure how to respond again. The atmosphere had shifted in a strange direction after I had replied to his greetings and this was way over my limited experience.
“U-um, it’s fine. I’ll hang up now.” I pressed out and quickly tapped the tattoo in a strange mixture of feelings.
Confused about the last few minutes, I deliberately spent some extra time outside before I decided to go back. When I entered the flat again, Ivan and Dragan were both sitting in their living room and eating breakfast, which meant I had lost my chance to speak to Ivan face to face before he went to his pharmacy.
I awkwardly avoided Ivan’s gaze and retreated into the hallway leading to his room, seeking solace in the dimness. Slowly, I sat down and pulled my knees closer to my face, seeking a sense of security in that position.
Spending the next few hours apart would probably help soothe this strange awareness that I was feeling right now. Then I could talk to Ivan normally again.
Soon, I'd be back in my normal body, and all these weird emotional imbalances would end, right?
My current condition was unbearable; every emotion and uncertainty I felt seemed to be heightened, causing too much mental anguish. Even Ivan's mind protection spell couldn't shield me from my own internal turmoil once it spiraled to a certain level.
“Rêve…”
My name got suddenly called out in front of me, but I didn’t feel like showing my messy face right now.
