Excerpt: Bird of Fire

"You're either born with it or you're not. And then one of three things happens...you have a tiny seed of magic that you can do little charms and maybe boil water with. Or you have a spark that you exhaust and train, and study, and memorize to use, and you may spend years doing this, and at some point you might get past parlor tricks and master real spells, things that are useful, or you've just got it in you, and magic just happens. You can just do it, and there's no explanation as to how or why, it's just there, an extension of yourself, and that will always have more power than any book will instruct you about."

- Shaozi, on Magic.

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He was standing too close to her in the empty reading room.

She wondered if this was normal for him, being so intimate with people, or if he only did so one on one and avoided the larger crowds. Kuan Yin closed her eyes, and listened to Shaozi slink around her with soft, padded steps on the plush carpet.

“Did you know-“ He purred into her ear, before moving in front of her as she opened her eyes, a startled expression crossing her face. “-that practicing magic topless will make it easier to focus?”

Huh?

Kuan Yin looked up, face flushed an embarrassing vermilion color.

“I’m serious.” He continued, a playful smirk playing across his features. His eyes were laughing, and she seemed to be out of the joke. He had to have been kidding of course.

Kuan Yin crossed her arms neatly over her chest.

“I’ll show you.” He offered, noting her dubious expression. Before Kuan Yin could protest, Shaozi’s arms were already neatly pulling his shirt off his lanky and toned frame. The planes of his chest dipped and chiseled until the muscles tapered off towards the waistband of his pants which was covered by a gold silk sash. He flexed his arms out- he knew she was staring now.

“I hardly see how this will get me to focus on levitating the candle.” Kuan Yin finally managed.

“Trust me. Really.” His arm reached out, and she watched the ripple of the movement under his skin as he did so. “Give me your hand.” He said, taking her slender palm in his larger and more calloused one.

“Now, put your hands on my chest.”

“What?”

“You can feel the magic this way.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kuan Yin scoffed, eying the door. Perhaps trying to train with her sort of magic wasn’t such a good idea after all…at least not with him. The playboy.

Shaozi made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat, then looked down at her. “Will you just trust me this one time? I am a teacher you know.”

“You teach children. And only when the hired teachers are late. Please, you’re just as spoiled as most boys are, it’s not as if you actually-“

“-Enough!”

Both of them paused to eye the other, then let out a sigh.

“Fine.” Kuan Yin said. “But this line isn’t going to work with any of your other body parts. No, ‘Oh Kuan Yin! Feel the magic in my—“

Shaozi chuckled. “—I think I get it. Just this…” He placed her hands on either side of his chest, and Kuan Yin noticed that he felt quite warm for the moment, and that his skin was quite soft aside from the well practiced hands—was he a musician and was that why his hands were like that?

“Watch.” He said, inhaling, and then exhaling deeply.

A strong tremor ran through his chest to her fingers, as if his heart had pulsed one thick time, creating a sudden chord of energy instead blood. Icy needles lept into Kuan Yin’s hands, and she started to jerk back until she saw what he had done.

It was snowing.

“Oh!” She gasped, watching as tiny, winking flakes fell to the floor.