"Once you begin, there's no going back" said Cale, Cale Unsworth, it was the man who'd administered Crusch's magical aptitude test a few days prior that was standing before her now as she listened intently.
"The reasoning for this is simple, for the wands to be melded..they have to be broken..melted of sorts and mixed to form one" he explained, making a gesture of this with his hands, "This means that once the process starts you've essentially broken your wands, so..there's no choice but to move forward, do you understand?"
Crusch nodded.
"Good, a strong will power is needed to force this process and mold the wand into what you desire it to be; don't make it complicated" Once again, Crusch nodded. Seeing this, Cale made a small frown as though he intended to say something but the words quickly caught up in his throat and were stuffed away somewhere.
"Right, then sit down"
Crusch did as she was told, seating herself on the floor, the stone slab of a floor. Around her was a simple chalk made circle with no insignia's, symbols or the like, just a plane circle meant to encompass her.
"We'll begin the process shortly" Said Cale, he then bent down till he was eye level with Crusch and placed a warm hand on her shoulders, "Are you sure about this? There's great promise for you with either wand…"
Although Crusch had heard many sentences like this in the past day or two she spent 'Brooding' over the topic, she understood their feelings when she properly placed a great amount of analysis on the risks. After all, the consequences for failure would mean she'd become a defective Witch and although the reward for success was tantalizing, her chances were slim. It's why now, when Cale said those words did she smile with confidence.
"Of course, I'm sure I'll succeed" Cale half smiled and patted her shoulders.
"Of course! You'll do amazingly in this year's Preliminary Mage craft trials" Crusch's eyes slightly widened to this information.
"The what?!"
Yet Cale didn't answer, instead, he winked and stood up to ready the process. Seeing this she sighed inwardly and clicked a tongue in annoyance, then came a burning sensation in her heart that had her hands clasped in tight fist's around her wand's which Melissa had brought to the area before hand.
"Place the together at their tips and concentrate, once you feel the spell has broken the two…" Cale trailed off but Crusch knew well and nodded.
"Right!" She exclaimed, placing the wands together at their their tips.
The circle of chalk around her glowed, surrounding her in a ring of pale blue light as a warm feeling swarmed from her wand's to hands then, her whole body. To start the melding process the wand's had to be destroyed, such a task was not impossible to do, in fact, wands, if attacked with enough magical power and will were quite easily broken, destroyed in the conventional sense that the vessel housing the ability to channel magic wasn't operational.
This, however, did not mean that a wand couldn't be repaired or at least the vessel; the exterior of the wand. A wand was broken up into two parts, the exterior and inner workings. The exterior part of the wand was the wand itself, the wooden stick, crystal rod or metallic item that the wizard or witch swung and flicked around to perform spells. The exterior part of a wand wasn't all that important however, it was a vessel meant to house what was truly important inside.
Crusch could feel the wands seep through her fingers—the gaps in her fingers and wriggled, she watched, in quite amazement as what was now a liquidated form of her previously silver gleaming wand simply float as clumps of what seemed to be silver metal around her hand. The malevolent dark wand had become black in colour, its surface no longer tree like and of a sharp crystalline shard that also became liquid in nature and floated as clumps of that liquid around her hands.
Crusch was dumbstruck and amazed but only for a moment, there were more important things to do. The inner workings of a wand, where the wand's true magical ability came from was its core. Different wands had different cores made from the heart strings of magical beast's, some wands could have the same core as another being that they came from the same species of a magical beast but never could it come from the same said beast.
There was a bright burning glow coming from Crusch's left hand where her silver wands liquid form swirled around her first, it was deep color of bright orange and felt as hot as a burning flame but that was only a sensation not a pain, Crusch's hands were quite fine. Her other hand on her right however was emitting a eerie color of deep crimson, the dark liquid around her fist seeming violent and furious, like some caged animal.
Now, here came the hard part…
Crusch slowly closed her eyes and brought her two fists now holding the cores of both her wand's together.
Think of a wish
Think of a wish
Think of a wish
She recited in constant chorus in her mind, all the while the two cores began emitting bright and violent rays of light as some invisible barrier of sorts denied Crusch from placing them any further together than she already had, sort of like bringing the same poles of two different magnet's together. What was the ideal wand for her?
Truthfully speaking, Crusch couldn't answer what was the ideal anything for her. Her entire life had been centered around adapting and coping to her environments, surviving so that she didn't fall victim to the jaws of her unfortunate circumstances. The thought of, what had she wanted was constantly drowned by what did she need? However, it wasn't like she couldn't dream, simply that it was an arduous task that made facing the realities that much harder.
Books and fantasies were her escape, yet that's all they were, escapes and nothing more. Were they the ideal world Crusch would've loved to live in? She was living in one right now, beyond her wildest dreams she would've never imagined it but…
'Who are you, Ludmilla?'
Who was she? Crusch struggled to answer, her gaze frowning in thought. She was Crusch, not Ludmilla…
'What do you desire?'
Crusch's eyes slightly widened, something spoke, a voice from seemingly all around her. It was almost ethereal but not, distant and bewitching while it spoke in a low whisper that its words dissipated like slowly falling mist. Was she hallucinating? Crusch's heart started to palpate wildly now, closing her eyes shut as she once again concentrated on the idea of her ideal wand.
'I REFUSE TO FUSE WITH THAT WRETCH!!!'
'huh?'
Crusch was taken aback, the shout was so jarringly loud that it rattled her head a bit as she slowly opened her eyes again only to find…
'New Master, do not be fooled by that demons words!! It teams of Evil!!'
'Ha! An Animal speaks!!'
What Crusch saw now was a dark void of infinite proportions, empty and seemingly absent of anything else but two brightly burning little stars in front of her…who seemed to be…arguing?
'Dear owner, this thing sees itself important in this discussion, I implore you teach it some manners…'
'MANNERS!? THE SPAWN OF A DEVIL'S KIN DARES TO EDUCATE ME ON MANNERS!?'
'Can this thing speak without shouting?'
Crusch was dumbfounded, what exactly was she witnessing right now? She took glances between the two stars ahead of her and just nearly wanted to call it a dream or some illusion but even she didn't have an imagination this spectacular, not to mention she was fully conscious and aware, not the least bit groggy and blurred.
'Um…where is this?'
The two arguing in front of her suddenly paused, they didn't have anything like a face to turn towards her but Crusch could visibly feel their attention drawn towards her more scutinizingly now.
'Ah, Master!!'
'Dear Owner'
The two stars suddenly glowed with new radiance, drawing nearer as they circled around her.
'Indeed, Indeed, there is truly something unique about you Master!'
'Two nature's, how odd…'
The red star which Crusch recognized to be the same color that had been emanating through her closed fists where her withered tree like wand had been grasped and then turned into black liquid, this was that insidious power in perhaps its true form?
'Are you—'
''Your Wand's? Yes'' The two answered in unison as Crusch stared a little flabbergasted.
'You two can speak?!'
Was this alright? No, wait, was this even possible? Wand's weren't supposed to speak were they? Crusch had indeed known of magical weapons in her past life from stories she read that spoke and said things, had personalities of their own and so on but a wand? That simply wasn't one of them, she looked at the two of them in horror and then recounted on her previous experiences with magical spells and warnings of it in this world.
'Can't you all just be normal!?'
'Ahem, Master, this is completely normal,' one of the stars, the brightly lit ember one, said as it swirled around her. 'We are the remnants of magical beasts after all'
'Magical…beast's?' Crusch asked, the red star now by her shoulder.
'Hasn't anyone ever told you what Lies as the cores of a wand? Where do you think all that magic comes from?'
'I…well, I'm not that well versed in all this yet'
'A newly bred Witch, my oh my' The red star came close, its form now pulsating with dozens of flailing crimson tendrils, 'Care for an education on the matter?'
'Su—'
'You'd agree to speak to a demon so easily!? New Master, have you no sense of caution?!'
The red star's tendrils retracted and Crusch could've sworn that she felt it roll its eyes.
'Clearly she'd rather talk to the sensible, sweet loving helper over a babbling false Saint'
'I am no—'
'That's enough!!' Crusch shouted, inciting both of their silence as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, 'I don't even know what's happening here, how I got here and why you two are appearing to me in this form'
She glanced at them and asked, 'Where am I?'
"Our Dreamscape"