Thanks for looking at this! I constantly feel like my writing is a bit too slow and tedious to read so I wanted to try writing a bit from Magnus' perspective and not just Alec's. Finger's crossed! :D

Magnus Bane plucked at the invisible strings hanging in the air, bored out of his mind. As he did so, the sounds of a gentle harp chimed through the carriage. Catarina, his ever loyal friend, gave him her famously stern look that said 'you shouldn't waste your magic like that.'

With a jolt from the carriage slipping off the road a bit, Magnus loses his concentration and the strings let out a guttural noise. Magnus pouts at Catarina's satisfied 'I told you' look.

"Cat, are we there yet? You know I can't take sitting still this long," Magnus says, throwing his hands above his head dramatically.

Catarina turns the page of her book, not bothering to look up at him. "Magnus, I need you to look outside the carriage."

Tentatively, Magnus peeks through the window in the door. "Right. . . Okay," he says not seeing anything in particular.

"Tell me what you see," She says, again flipping the page of her book.

"There're trees, I guess. Some rocks."

Catarina looks up at Magnus quickly with wide eyes and mock surprise. "Really? Then I guess we aren't there yet!"

Magnus huffs and slumps back into the seat, petting between the ears of his cat. "You're awful, Catarina."

The two sit in silence for a solid thirty seven seconds before Magnus starts humming. Catarina's mouth hardens into a tight line as she chooses to ignore her insufferable friend. She almost manages it too, but of course Magnus has to pick the cat up and slow dance with him while humming 'Beautiful Dreamer.' It wouldn't even have been so bad if he weren't completely tone deaf.

Deciding enough was enough once Magnus decided to teach his cat how to 'cha-cha,' Catarina reaches over to him, grabbing the cat from him, before giving him another 'look' and saying "go ride with Ragnor." Swishing her hand and distorting the air in from of her, she forces open the door and tosses Magnus from the carriage, barely hearing him yell "but he's so mean!" before closing the door again.

Catarina settles back into her seat, Magnus' cat purring softly next to her. "I know, Chairman Meow," she says, absently patting his head and smiling slowly. "So much better."

Magnus lands with a thud on the dirt road and in the trail of dust, making him cough. "Some friend she is, stealing my cat from me." Magnus stands while patting off the dirt from his clothes, grimacing at the tear in his pant leg. "I just got these, too!" He looks back down the road for Ragnor's carriage trailing about a hundred metres behind. When it nears, he climbs the step and throws the door wide, greeting his green-skinned friend with a wide smile.

Ragnor opens one of his eyes, makes a frown, and closes it again. "No, Magnus."

Magnus puts on his best pout for his for his best friend. "Oh come on Raggy-Baby, Cat magicked me out! If you kick me out too, I'll have to walk the rest of the way to Alicante!" He flops onto the seat, resting his head on Ragnor's lap. "And then I'll be tired and dirty and I won't be any fun at the party and everyone will laugh at me for not having my own carriage! Me, a high warlock!" Ragnor's eyebrows furrow, missing the long gone tranquility of his space. Magnus, oblivious as usual to Ragnor's wants, continues. "I mean if it were you it would be fine!" eye twitch "People expect that sort of behaviour from regular warlocks-" eye twitch "- but me? I'm a HIGH warlock! A certain level of respectability comes the tittle!" full facial spasm

Magnus watches as Ragnor slowly opens his eyes, his smile – in Magnus' humble opinion – looking much too evil.

Brushing himself off for a second time in the trail of dust, Magnus gawks at the tail end of Ragnor's carriage. "Honestly?! People have such little respect for greatness!" He kicks at the rocks on the side of the road. "I'll show them," he mumbles, stepping off the path into the woods. "I'll cut through here, take a short cut and be there before they even get to the castle walls."

Despite his initial motivation, Magnus quickly finds himself a tad lost and tired of his adventure through the forest. He had to admit it though, the woods of Idris were really beautiful. They weren't particularly magical but Magnus felt the stoic beauty of the giant cedar trees that seemed to stretch to the sky.

When he came to a shallow valley with a stream running through it, Magnus let himself get distracted by a full-looking bush with little golden berries on it. After casting as quick spell for to check for poison, he began eating them quickly, his stomach only now reminding him how much energy his little parlor-trick spells cost.

He had somehow managed to nearly pick the bush clean when he freezes at the rustling of foliage in a glen some distance away. Magnus stands slowly, swallowing his mouthful and cleaning off his hands as he creeps toward the sound. He was feeling stupid for going through the forest now that he heard the sounds of the creature ravishing its prey. He had heard the forest of these parts, despite their mundane qualities, could actually keep some of the more vicious creatures known. Preparing his magic to defend himself, Magnus crouches only a short distance from the sounds of crunching.

He puts his hand through the thick greenery, his heart racing in preparation for a fight. Parting it to get a glimpse of the beast and sighing with relief, Magnus leans forward and sticks his hand out to the beast. The beast being an abnormally fat bunny.

"You, mister bunny, gave me quite the fright," he says, trying to get the thing to hop closer. "Chairman betrayed me for that blue woman, so I may as well betray him."

The bunny makes a cute face like it understood him, making Magnus smile brightly and squeal internally. "You, you adorable little thing, must let me hug you." The bunny hops a bit closer to his hand sniffing the air.

Magnus moves to close the distance, but just as he nears its fur, Magnus feels his hand covered in something warm. A bit confused, he looks down at his hand seeing it now covered in warm blood. His eyes go wide as he gawks at the adorable bunny now adorned with a slender arrow through its neck, its blood seeping into its white fur.

Magnus falls back and sits on the ground, stunned for a minute, before snapping out of it at the sound of someone moving quickly through the greenery. He prepares himself to berate whoever it is for killing such an adorable creature, but as a boy about his own physical age stands startled in front of him, Magnus finds all of the fight in him melt away. The boy's Face was mostly covered by a hood but he could see a strong jaw and delicate looking pale skin, and he could tell he was looking between the body of the bunny and Magnus' hand covered in blood, seemingly having troubles connecting things together.

Before Magnus has a chance to say anything, the boy turns his gaze toward his feet and plays with the hem of his shirt. "Sorry."

Cute, Magnus thinks before furrowing his eyebrows. This guy just covered you in blood and you think he's cute? Deciding to play with him a bit, Magnus steps over the carcass so it was no longer between them. "You shouldn't be sorry," his tone serious, "I'm unarmed so now's your chance to hit your actual target."

The boy's hand grips his shirt tightly, no longer fidgeting. "I really am sorry, I promise I wasn't aiming for you." Magnus takes note that his voice is wavering just the slightest.

Smirking at the boy's nervous behaviour, Magnus takes a few steps closer to the boy. "Darling, I don't think you almost killing me is any way to say you like me." The boy's face immediately looks up at Magnus, completely shocked, blushing intensely, his eyes wide. And that's when Magnus saw them. The boy had the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. Big and blue and swimming with life, Magnus found himself gazing at the jewels hidden beneath his hood.

"I - I wasn't trying to say I like you - I didn't even know you were there!" The two keep their eyes locked for a minute until the boy bites his lip and looks away. Really cute! Magnus mentally slaps himself for being weird.

The two stand awkwardly for a while, neither entirely sure what the etiquette for conversation is in the middle of the forest. Magnus takes the first move, sticking his hand out to the boy. "I'm Magnus by the way. Magnus Bane." The boy takes his hand cautiously. Magnus notices how soft his hands are despite obviously being a hunter.

"Nice to meet you," he mumbles. "I'm Alec Ligh-" Magnus curiously follows Alec's eyes flitter between things laying in the forest. "Deadrock," he finishes. "Alec Deadrock." Turning around, Magnus looks between the dead rabbit and a large rock nearby, before giving him a questioning look.

"I'm going to ignore your blatant lying and move on." Alec Deadrock blushes and avoids Magnus' gaze. "You don't happen to know which way the castle at Alicante is from here, do you?" Magnus raises an eyebrow when the boy blanches and starts to fidget again.

"I do. I'm going back there now." Magnus smiles brightly at Alec making the red come back to his face. "Perfect, you can take me with you!" He motions for Alec to get walking but instead he goes to get the rabbit. "I can't leave this to waste, I promised to bring something back to the kitchens."

Magnus grimaces as Alec ties the carcass in burlap clothe and clips it to a strap over his shoulder. Then, before they set off Alec reaches for Magnus' hand making him startle, shocked at Alec's forwardness. "You still have blood on your arm," he says, wiping away the drying substance. Oh, he thinks, blushing just the tiniest bit for jumping to conclusions.

As the two walked through the woods – in a direction Magnus would have thought to have been the wrong way, he might add – he got a good chance to look at Alec with his hood down. Magnus had to admit that his stomach did a few flips every time he looked him over. Pale and delicate skin, dark hair that was messy but still kinda hot, his body obviously fit from the way his clothes lay. That was one of the problems though. His clothes were boring. Not overly ugly or anything, but just the regular looking forest green and brown outfit of the common huntsman. Magnus sighed outwardly thinking about how great it would be to dress the boy up in his own finery.

Alec glanced in his direction biting his lip. "We're almost there. When we get to the walls I'll direct you to the gates and I'll take the back way in."

Magnus gives him a genuine smile. "Its fine I'll take the back entrance with you. I'd rather not have the court see me covered in dirt and blood."

Alec keeps looking ahead, the beginnings of a smile pulling at his mouth. "So are you here for the party tonight?"

"That I am, I came as part of an envoy representing the warlocks." He smiles at Alec's shocked expression.

"You're a warlock? Why didn't you say something earlier?" He blinks a few times before giving a pointed look. "'Unarmed' my ass. You could have taken me out before I had an arrow strung. Plus you could have just used a clairvoyance spell to get out of the forest!"

Magnus laughs and nudges Alec with his shoulder. "Firstly, I was feeling lazy, and secondly I have a strong belief that one should never break pretty things." He smiles and winks at Alec, eliciting a nice blush to cover his cheeks. Officially too cute.

Eventually they approached the high white and blue walls of the Alicante's castle, separated from the rest of the city by about a kilometre of woods. Under the shadow of the walls, Alec pulls his hood back up and avoids the gaze of passing guards. When they get to the rear courtyard between the stables and the kitchens, Alec stops to turn to Magnus, shifting his weight between his feet and looking around nervously.

"I'm sorry again for almost shooting you today in the forest."

Magnus smiles for the umpteenth time at Alec's adorableness. "All in all I think seeing such a cute creature murdered in front of me was actually alright considering I got to meet you because of it." He smirks at Alec and takes his arm, hovering his other hand over it. As sparks start to lick at Alec's pale skin, he starts to panic a bit. "What are you – oh." Alec stares at his arm seeing a tree with acorns hanging from it pictured on his forearm. When he looked at it straight on he could see the leaves and branches move a little bit, like his arm movements were jostling it. "It's. . . Beautiful. But why?"

"So that I can find you tonight at the party, even if it is a masquerade."

Alec blanches, trying to rub away the artwork. "I'm not going to it. Servants aren't allowed to go."

"Rubbing it isn't going to work so you may as well stop trying." He half smiles at Alec's exasperated expression. "And I don't know why such a pretty noble like you is gallivanting through the forest hunting cute, innocent bunnies, but you and I both know 'Deadrock' is the worst fake name in the history of fake names. But I digress. You're something else, Alec Deadrock, a mystery just too alluring to let alone. And you can only blame yourself for that."

Alec opens his mouth to protest but the sound of people walking across the courtyard stops him. He glances over to see a woman with blue skin walking briskly toward them, pulling a grumpy looking guy with green skin behind her.

"Uh oh, I gotta go. I'll see you tonight at the party. Even if you deny that you're going." Without a second glance, Magnus runs to meet them half way leaving Alec alone at the entrance to the kitchens.