A Land of Flowers and Fae

A Beginning

Azura couldn't help the proud and slightly smug smile on her face whenever she saw Elina and Lavan together. She did not become a Guardian by avoiding the credit for her successes, and she had set herself the goal of helping Lavan make some friends with the eventual possibility of helping him find a partner. If he ever happened to decide he wanted one.

Achieving this goal was a long battle with many setbacks. As the biggest obstacle in the way of Lavan's happiness was, admittedly, himself. He didn't have the best history of socializing, and courtship? She'd thought she'd need a few decades of warming him up to the idea before he'd consider it. Getting him to attend her moon haze festival had been a small victory at the time. She promised him anonymity and a night to relax. Then, the night  turned into a greater victory than she could have calculated with him finding his actual soulmate.

She had to admit to herself, that was probably another reason she had managed to become a Guardian. Luck. She wasn't too proud to admit that, even with all her proper planning, coordination, and heart she had for her position. Every now and then you just needed that spark of luck, or perhaps fate, to get everything to come together.

Now, with her ultimate goal accomplished, it was time to set a new goal. Namely, getting Lavan out of his region every now and then and actually applying his massive amounts of power and knowledge to helping people instead of hiding in his big spiky palace. Benefits of this plan included seeing Elina more. Who happened to be an absolute gem.

"More milk?" Elina asked, nudging the serving tray forward with her magic. They lounged in a tea room in Lavan's palace. It probably wasn't originally a tea room. Knowing Lavan it was likely a workshop for studying fungal sludge or something. But the Wilderlands had seen significant domestication since Elina had become its Lady.

"No, thank you" Azura said with a smile "Though I must say you're getting quite skilled with your magic. Precision is difficult even if you have a great deal of power"

The younger fairy blushed a faint pink and smiled in embarrassment "I've been practicing a lot. Lavan doesn't critique me often but he's just so casually good at magic it drives me up the wall. It just makes me want to catch up to him I suppose" she giggled, softening the competitive edge to the statement.

Azura chuckled "You have already surpassed him in some ways. Your natural skills for undoing dark magic as an example. But he has studied magic for most of his life. And he is-frankly- obsessive about gaining knowledge. I don't think you'll ever fully surpass him in skill. Even if I think you could knock him flat with sheer power"

She tapped her chin in thought "I'm not sure I agree with you there. I believe in amount of magic we're fairly even. Then it would come down to skill"

Azura couldn't help her smirk "You beat Dahlia by punching her in the face and breaking her staff. She would have lost fair and square if she hadn't cheated. And you didn't even use a spark of your magic"

The younger fairy held up a finger "You forget, I distracted her with my explosion spell"

The Blue Guardian raised an eyebrow "One low level spell that hardly used more than a spark of magic. I'd say you still trounced her. If you ever happen to spar with Lavan I'd love to watch"

A deep voice came from behind them "You will never watch us spar because I know you'll tell the story of me getting thoroughly beaten at every banquet for the next century" Lavan floated in with a wry look on his face. "Having tea with my partner again Azura? I hadn't realized you could get away from your region so frequently. Are you sure you're not skipping out on work?"

The Blue Guardian shot him an overly toothy grin "For Elina? I make time. She has just SO MANY stories about your magic experiments blowing up in your face. She's a sheer delight"