To be clear, I name a character after myself in almost ALL of the stories I write. This Maya is nothing like yours truly, though! This chapter took a while because I wasn't happy with the ending I'd written for it and it took me until now to work myself up to fixing. Enjoy!
Seth
Seth had spent the entire morning first running, then walking due north. He only had a vague idea of where to find Professor Marzett’s home. He recalled that he was retained by Hem Academy as a magical instructor, but was not actually a spellwarrior, so the knowledge of where he lived was considered privileged information. From the few personal discussions he’d had with the man, he only knew that he lived to the east of Beldor. Karatal seemed like a good option, but the professor had always seemed too sickly to tolerate the smog that filled the holy, and industrious, city.
x
So, he would have to find him magically. He could recall the feeling of his magic and it was this very same sensation that led Seth further and further, off Southerly Road and into the wild plains. He remembered with a jolt what had happened the last time he had wandered off into the wild, but he didn’t think he even had the ability to feel fear anymore since his sense of panic had worn off.
As morning turned to afternoon, the magical signature of Hector Marzett grew stronger. He could feel another presence supplementing it, but it was no one he recognized. Finally, he felt a rush of cool air which let him know that he’d just crossed a barrier. He began to scan the area; he had just wandered to the edge of a grassy valley. Wild silverthorn bushes dotted the area with their grey leaves and, at the very bottom, a young woman with hair as dark as his own waved desperately to him.
Feeling compelled to help a person in need, but also to avoid personal contact until he could have his curse broken, Seth was torn in his decision. Therefore, it took an indecent amount of time for him rush into the valley and stop three feet away from the woman. To look at her, she appeared to be nursing a broken leg. As the spellwarrior approached, she gave him a smile of relief. “Thanks for stopping by! I was wondering if you could give me a hand.”
Seth did not move from the spot in which he had chosen to stop. “Sorry, but I can’t come any closer.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not seriously going to ignore the plight of a helpless, injured girl, are you? I bet you’re not much of a spellwarrior!”
That response startled Seth. She’s in trouble, but she’s so calm. “How do you know I’m a spellwarrior?”
This time, she rolled her eyes. “Because if you were a mundane, you wouldn’t be inside this barrier. Nonmagical folk would have passed through to the opposite side as if this place wasn’t even here. Also, I can see your seal.”
The cherry wood seal that served as a badge for the members of the Hem Order would have given any spellwarrior away, but he wasn’t wearing his. He had thought to bring it in case he needed it for some official purpose, but it was sitting in his pocket. Well, she basically admitted to having magic. I can’t pretend to be surprised.
“Listen, I really need a break here,” Seth mumbled, not necessarily to the witch. “I just woke up from a coma, I have no idea how long I’ve been out, and I’m pretty sure I’m cursed. I want to help, but I’m afraid you’ll be worse off if I even touch you.”
As Seth ranted, a frown spread across the stranger‘s face. “I’m sorry to hear that. Look, do you have any medical mysticism training?” When Seth nodded, she said. “Well, you’re not going to hurt me. Could you maybe just heal my broken leg? Then I can take you to my father and see what he can do.”
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Seth, brought up by memories of his discussions with the professor. “Are you Maya Marzett?”
The witch nodded as pain brought a wince to her face. “The one and only. I guess you already know my father.”
Seth tentatively knelt over the witch and proceeded to heal her leg. He nearly stopped when he accidentally bumped her shin with his palm, but she only winced yet again. Feeling reassured, he replied. “He was one of my favorite teachers.”
Maya chuckled. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear anyone say that about him. All I ever heard about his students was how much they hated him.”
Seth shook his head as the bones in her leg cracked back into place. The patient gave a little yelp, but the pain seemed to have subsided quickly as Seth stood up.
“He must not have talked about me much, then,” he said with perhaps a touch of hurt in his voice, “He’s pretty much the biggest reason I managed to graduate.”
Maya stood up gingerly and sighed with relief when she realized that she could once again put her weight on the freshly-healed leg. “Then I bet he’ll be happy to see you again. Come with me.”
***
Seth should have been surprised to learn that Hector Marzett lived in a cave, but he couldn’t manage to summon that feeling. Maya had pulled aside a trapdoor located under a silverthorn bush and dropped into the hole. When he followed her, he found himself in a tunnel in which the stone itself glowed with ethereal light formed into runic patterns. As awed as he was to discover this tunnel, the home itself was another story. They had proceeded through an ordinary-looking wooden door--itself an oddity in this subterranean haunt-- and into what looked like the entry hall of a lavish mansion.
Seth looked around bemusedly. Finally, Maya clarified, “It’s an illusion. We’re still in a cave. But that would be boring to look at every day, don’t you think?”
“Most people would get around that by not living in a cave,” Seth said.
Maya laughed. “Of course, but it’s not so bad here. Father says it’s better to be isolated from ordinary people. A lot of people tend to misunderstand people like us.”
Seth looked at Maya in disbelief. “What do you mean?”
Maya looked startled as she answered, “Well, you know. Us. Magic users. The mundane masses are afraid of us.”
“That… hasn’t been the case in years. Have you ever even seen a non-magic user?”
Maya shook her head. “No, my father wouldn’t allow it. If we didn’t need to rely on the mundane for sustenance, he wouldn’t venture out into their world either.”
Seth couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. To her, the world was a much smaller place than it actually was. To be isolated from the majority of the world seemed cruel, and if what Maya had been telling him actually made any sense, it might have been necessary. But in this day and age, magic was just as much a part of the collective consciousness as the gods who produced it. Why was she so ignorant of this basic fact?
“Well, it’s not all bad,” he said replied feebly. “The thing you need to understand is that magic is easy to hide from… the mundane. Once you get the hang of that, life is actually pretty simple.”
“I wish my father was as certain of that as you are,” Maya said wryly. “Hold on, and I’ll go get him.
Maya never returned, but the tall, wizened form of Hector Marzett swept into the room, looking grumpy. When he saw Seth’s face, however, his expression lit up. He nearly clapped Seth on the shoulder, but the spellwarrior recoiled. This brought a grave expression to the old wizard’s face.
“Mr. Midas. I’m impressed that you managed to find this place. I don’t believe I’ve ever told anyone at the Academy how to find it.”
“I didn’t need to find this place. I just needed to find you,” Seth replied softly. Only now did he realize how exhausted he was. “I’m cursed.”
“Oh? Let’s take a look, then. Esia.”
The incantation for magical sight caused Hector’s eyes to glow with a dim blue light. He mumbled incomprehensibly as he looked the spellwarrior over thoroughly. Finally, he asked, “Do you know how it happened?”
When Seth had finished relaying his story, the old man frowned. “Interesting. Well, I can’t speak with any authority as to the origin of this curse, but it seems to be a powerful one. The slightest touch could be fatal for the poor soul who makes contact with you.”
This was just as Seth had suspected, but something didn’t add up. “Um… your daughter. When I met her, she was injured. But I accidentally grazed her while I was healing her wound. So, maybe there’s some delay to the reaction?”
Hector shook his head. “Make no mistake. Contact with your skin would be instantly fatal. Maya would only have survived because she is a master of the Death Ward.”
Hector had once mentioned this spell, but refused to teach it to the young spellwarrior. As he recalled, the Death Ward is a spell that keeps the user alive indefinitely. While it wouldn’t prevent or heal any injury, it would allow a magic user to survive one until a healer or medic could intervene. This effectively made whoever used the spell impossible to kill through any means besides decapitation.
“Oh, good. So, can you break my curse?”
Hector shook his head. “I’m sorry. The power in this one’s too strong even for me.”
Seth began to hold his head in his hands. “Well, you’re probably the strongest curse breaker there is, so if you can’t, I may just be screwed.”
The wizard succeeded in patting Seth’s shoulder this time and gave him a sympathetic smile. “It’s a terrible thing, but this curse doesn’t mean your life is over. You can still protect the people around you by wearing gloves and…” he trailed off, realizing how feeble that sounded.
“It doesn’t matter,” Seth said in a disheartened mumble. “Not if I can never touch anyone I care about again. I’d rather be dead.”
As he said these words, he felt a heavy force on his back, as if someone had punched him. He looked around in a bewildered frenzy. “What the hell, Professor?”
“What?” Hector said, his eyes arranged in a look of genuine shock.
Whatever had happened, Hector did not seem to be the cause.
“I feel like I just got punched in the back!”
“Maya!” Hector roared.
The young witch returned in a hurry. “What?”
“Did you do something to our guest?”
When Maya shook her head in disbelief, asking why she would want to do that, Seth had no trouble believing her. Do not be afraid of your power. Those words did not seem to have come from anywhere in particular, but he was sure they were his own. And as he reflected on them, he remembered the teachings of Ragos.
“Power is a burden. Power is a blessing.”
The two Marzetts raised their eyebrows at Seth, but he was ignoring them now.
“The scope of blessings and burdens are ours to determine.”
“Seth, m’boy. Are you feeling alright?”
Seth nodded and smiled. “These are the fundamental truths of Ragos. If I can’t break this curse, I’m just going to have to use it. Giving up isn’t what Ragos would want me to do.”
Maya raised her eyebrows in bemusement, but Hector laughed. “You Chaotics can turn any problem into a simple one, can’t you?”
Seth chuckled in agreement. “Maybe. But am I wrong?”
Hector nodded as he fixed him with appraising look. “Well, even if you frame your curse as an ability to kill by touch, I still wouldn’t want it. But as you really have no choice in the matter, I suppose it’s fine to try to make something positive of it. So what are you going to do now?”
Seth let out a slow sigh and shrugged noncommittally. “Well, I’m stuck with this curse for now, so I’m going to go home and start working on protecting other people from it.”
Hector clapped his hand to his mouth and began to cough. This fit persisted for a few seconds before he managed to reply, “If I…” He began to cough once more.
Seth furrowed his eyebrows as he looked on. “Are you going to be alright?”
Hector ceased his coughing and cleared his throat. “Quite ill, in fact. But you’ve more important things to concern yourself with at present time. As I was saying, I would suggest you return to the Academy instead and seek the elders’ counsel.”
“Why? What can the elders do that you can’t?”
The former teacher chuckled briefly before a single cough punctuated him. “You give me far too much credit, m’boy! I will gladly claim to have the best cursebreaking skill in the order, but the Elders can assist you in other ways. Besides, don’t you think they ought to know what has happened to you, one of their own?”
Seth nodded reluctantly. “I guess it’s still hard to think of them that way. This all happened so soon after my graduation that it’s still hard to process that I’m one of you guys now.”
Hector extended his arm, then quickly retracted it. “You have worked hard for your seal, Mr. Midas. The elders will help you if they can.”
Seth had heard enough of his mother’s drunken rants about Hem Academy’s elders to be skeptical of this claim, but it wasn’t as if he had an alternative. In fact, it didn’t hurt to have one more hope of wiping away the curse quickly. “Alright, I’ll see what they have to say. Thanks for the advice as always, professor.”
Hector let out another another hacking fit that lasted longer than the previous two. When he finally relented, he murmured. “You are quite welcome. But now I hope you would consider returning the favor for a change.”
He’s never asked me for anything! “Anything, professor!”
“I know that I have always appeared to be the wisest person you know, but the time has come for you to understand that I have been quite the fool for such a long time.”
At this, Maya began to laugh. “That’s not true! You may as well have just told him the sky is purple!”
The professor shook his head sadly and replied. “I’m afraid it is, my dear. The fact that you haven’t set foot beyond the bounds of my warding is evidence of that.”
The witch looked confused as she said, “You said that I can never go outside because mundanes are afraid of us!”
“Actually, we just call them people,” Seth interjected.
“That was a lie, my sweet lily,” Hector mumbled as his hand floated to his mouth again in anticipation. Having apparently managed to suppress the coughs this time, he continued, “The truth is that magic has been accepted by the kingdom for years.”
Seth could tell that Maya looked hurt as she asked, “Why, then? And why wouldn’t you tell me the truth?”
“The truth is that I’m a coward,” he replied.
“Stupid and a coward? Are we both learning something new about you or have you gone temporarily insane?” Seth quipped.
The mask of guilt in Hector’s face twitched slightly at Seth’s remark, but he chose not to acknowledge it. “I have kept you in this place because your mother was killed by someone with no understanding of magic. Even then, anti-magic sentiment had fallen into the fringes of our society, but we were unlucky to have met some bad people. I have kept you here because I thought I could protect you from all of the random violence of this world and used the dying bigotry of your mother’s killer as an excuse. I lied to you because I didn’t want you to romanticize the outside world and make it harder for me to keep you here.”
He sounds like the opposite of my mom.
“But that ends now,” the professor continued. “I know that you are not happy with this life, and it is time for that to change.”
“I’m personally relieved to hear that,” Seth said awkwardly, “But… didn’t you want something from me?”
Hector nodded to Seth and said, “This is relevant to my request. You see, as I have mentored you when you were struggling with your magic at the Academy, I must ask you to pass this favor on to my daughter.” He turned to Maya and added. “Maya, it is time for you to learn the truth about the outside world, and if you both agree to the idea, I would like for Seth to be your teacher.”
“What changed?” Maya snapped, somewhat testily. “You’ve been so eager to hide me from everything and everyone until now, and I’ve been able to make a Death Ward for years!”
Hector looked almost beaten as he said, “It was a mistake for me to believe that I could keep you happy by shielding you from the world. I am truly sorry for that, not only because your desire to leave has been apparent since you were a child, but because I won’t be around forever.”
“Is this about your illness?” Seth asked with his eyes widened with surprised. No way! It’s just a cough!
Hector nodded gravely. “I have less than a year left to live and, to be frank, I have no interest in discussing that hollow subject.”
Maya nodded understandingly. “You don’t want me to worry anymore.”
“Precisely! The time is rapidly approaching when you will have to go on in this world without me. But you can’t wait that long to learn how to do so. You have so much to learn!”
For several tense seconds, the father and daughter looked into each other’s eyes. All was quiet until Maya sighed and said, “Damn you. I want to hate you for lying to me for so long, but in your own way, I know you were only doing what you thought was best.”
Hector slumped a little as he said, “But I was still wrong. So go. Whether you find satisfaction out there or decide to come home, I will only be able to pass into Fadal without regrets if I can leave you with your mother’s smile.”
“You will father,” Maya mumbled. Seth thought she looked close to tears.
Hector looked over to Seth once more and said, “I know that it is a lot to ask Mr. Midas, but can I trust you to guide her as I’ve guided you?”
Seth nodded resolutely. “I’m not going to lie. This is a weird time to be taking on such a responsibility, but I owe you everything, sir. If Maya wants to come along with me, she can.”
“Thank you, Mr. Midas. And Maya, I am sorry once again. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” Maya said while giving her father a deep hug. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore. You taught me more than you’ve given yourself credit for. If my magic is really okay out in the world now, I have nothing to fear, right?”
And so, after retiring shortly to her room to both make and pack a travel bag, Maya clambered out of the cave that she had called home her entire life behind Seth, whose mind now raced with nerves. He didn’t fully understand what he’d just agreed to, and was soon overwhelmed with thoughts of his next move. Did she plan to follow him? Was he expected to give her lessons like the professor had done for him? The only thing that was sure to him at this point was Hector Marzett’s last piece of advice for him. So, he turned north and began to walk in earnest.
As they wandered along in silence, Maya grabbed his hand. Seth jumped at this sensation, not least of all because of his curse. He relaxed upon recalling the spell she had to protect herself from him, but was still confused.
“What are you doing?”
“When my father first started taking me outdoors, he would hold onto my hand so that I wouldn’t get lost. This will be my first time leaving my father’s wards, so I just thought… is that weird?”
It’s warm. “No, it’s fine. This is all new to you right? I can understand you being a little nervous.”
Without letting go of her hand, Seth continued his long walk to Hem Academy in silence. Eventually he would have to think of something to talk about, but his curse and the fate of his greatest mentor left him with too much to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment