TRACK 9
Sometimes the only payoff for having any faith
Is when it's tested again and again everyday
I'm still comparing your past to my future
It might be your wound, but they're my sutures
I am the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass
I'll try to picture me without you but I can't
(Immortals - Fall Out Boys)
********
Jim defended Claire, intent on maintaining the veil of shadow over them -so much so that she was uncovered- by tooth and nail. The winged monkeys were several, but even so, a few blows in the right places were enough to eliminate them.
Some were more persistent than others, some just more nimble or more intelligent, but that did not change that Jim would deliver blows with his blade to anyone that attacked, then left the corpses of the beasts lying on the ground, their eerie little eyes seeming to stare at him with animal hunger before fading inexorably. He would make his sword dance from foe to foe without a second thought, the blood splattering on the ground and thus staining it.
Having to wait before, not being able to do anything except listen and wait -because of the light, goddammit. He knew that that was gonna happen- trying to convince Steve, Toby, and Claire to not do anything stupid, had raised the desire to end everything as soon as possible.
From time to time, Jim would lean in to help Steve as well, who was just ahead and responding to the ferocity of the creatures between high-pitched squeals, ungainly kicks that threatened to bring him down more than anything else, hastily dodging and -even in a minor way- the bases they had tried to give him the previous day. They were a little dirty and inaccurate, but compared to the attempts made not even twenty-four hours earlier, they were going quite a bit better.
Jim helped him when he noticed him having trouble, even though he saw the slight injury to the blond's ego every single time. The fact he ended up ignoring it very soon. In any case, after doing what he had to do to keep Steve from getting into serious trouble, he would go back to Claire and reintroduce himself as her personal bodyguard.
And so he would return to attack, to respond to each beast with the same aggression that was reserved for him. His movements were extremely fast, so much so that he seemed to dart from one opponent to another in a blink of an eye.
From the position he was in, he could mostly see his surroundings very well. He could see his friends fighting, diminishing opponents as they went.
He could see Toby crushing the monkeys with the Warhammer, defending the unconscious Knight, causing big thuds and cracks in the ground... Something Jim thought would cause Merlin to complain later. Sure he would.
Not too far from Toby and the Heart of Avalon were Aaarrrgh and Blinky. They had each other's backs. The first Troll was doing more work than the second -although Blinky was trying his hardest- because it took very little for him to grab them and crash them to the floor as if they were basketballs, cracking their spines in the process if the noise caused each time said anything about it.
He then saw Archibald flying right and left across the room and setting the creatures on fire with large, powerful flames, gaining the advantage in air combat without even having to exert much effort. The only times he seemed to struggle was when he looked around, probably searching for his Wizard, then forcing himself to spin around again to avoid being hit by any attacks. He was somewhat reminiscent of a spinning top in doing so as if he were following a laser light that had appeared on the wall and was trying to catch it.
Douxie on the other hand...
'Huh? Where is he?'
The question almost distracted him, whether he wanted it or not. So much so that for a moment he risked not noticing another monkey about to throw itself at him. He still managed to hit it first.
Jim, before -but for a short amount of time- had felt extremely furious with the Wizard. The rage and the remaining little hint of dislike provoked by jealousy had flared strongly, making it hard for him to concentrate. But he still did, listening to the whole chat between him and the Witch.
He then somehow noticed that there had been something strange with how Douxie had been acting. He didn't know why. Probably because he had surprised him so many times the day before -between the actual feeling of liking that had been born instead- that it felt wrong and fake that he was acting like a dick, just how he had imagined him to be before. The whole controversy had been like a harsh slap to reality. To the point that he had sensed him lying even before the revelation. He didn't know how. He just did, even though he had not been sure. At all.
This is before the 'Cover the light source when I call you. Please trust me.' phrase, which had appeared on the floor and disappeared a few seconds after. And damn, hadn't he had problems stopping his friends from interfering before that happened. They all wanted to butt in inside the situation, without truly thinking of the risks -without thinking that they were three and no one else against a Witch, weird flying monkeys, and the dragon familiar as a hostage.
In any case, regarding the present, searching for the - very confusing- Hisirdoux Casperan between the chaos took Jim a while. Not for lack of effort, quite the contrary.
Only a little earlier he had been wounded, but helped by Aaarrrgh, which technically should have made him easy to find, but... Surely Jim would not have expected to find him on the ground, with the Witch standing over him, ready to strike.
********
Douxie, before Archie could shout his name again or get worried about him, raised his hips and pushed his legs as much as possible with all the strength he could muster. All to make the witch lose balance, falling onward. She, taken by surprise, did and he immediately slipped off from behind her, not having her weight on him anymore.
She staggered while trying to get up. She involuntarily let go of the weapon before, too, which got stuck in the ground at a short distance from her right arm.
She, however, was still ready to try again, like a vicious snake. Nemain, once she found her balance on her feet again, in no time launched herself at him another time, her sound playing aggressively, almost out of control, without a proper rhythm. He barely managed to dodge her, falling and rolling on the ground before returning to rise to his feet.
The Witch threw herself into another attack shortly after. And another. And another again, failing to hit him, but always coming very close. Too much for his taste.
After a while, she seemed to have run out of Magical Energy as well, her moves were more physical than anything else and her sound became low, almost imperceptible. She even tried to punch him in the face, she missed it but her punch was so strong that it whistled through the air.
Douxie was breathing heavily, his oxygen was going in and out too fast, and the beating of his heart almost blew out his eardrums. He felt weak and slow, slower the more time passed. It was frustrating, but the fatigue was getting to him.
He was tired. He was so, so tired. The lack of sleep, the almost continuous use of his magic, the hallucination, the stress that kept piling up... It was a while since he hadn't felt so tired.
When she tried to attack again, he received a blow in the middle of his stomach, which made him wince and spit out some saliva.
Nemain gave him no respite, for she immediately attacked again, hitting his jaw. Then, she was ready to break a few bones in his spine if the position of her leg said anything about it. Even though he didn't want to end up with such an injury, he knew he probably would not have been able to avoid it. Every single movement of his was torture at this point.
But then, fortunately, before she could do it, a huge green root went to envelop her, so large that it looked like a Sea Monster... or any octopus -kraken for the size- green tentacle, preventing her from any slightest movement. And that went and embedded itself in the wall, having a life of its own even without being powered by Magical Energy. The melody was clear and lively, alive.
Violin notes cheerfully sang a hymn that would make anyone dance. He felt hugged by them. He smiled, grateful, and then noticed a square piece of orange paper that had fallen on the floor from Nemain's cape and made him grab it to look at it before placing it inside the pocket of his jeans.
Then a blinding green light eliminated the last remaining Chimeras, playing coldly, almost opera-like. It left him looking around breathlessly, and he saw Master Merlin. A big sigh of relief escaped his lips.
'Oh, thank you...' he thought. That was before he noticed his death stare, which caused him to wince as it landed on him. He grimaced, already feeling the psychological pain. It was going to be so much worse than he was ready for. 'Fuzz me. I'm done.'
Douxie sighed again, this time not in relief. And he groaned, slamming his hand in his face. "Could you first help Sir Galahad and then kill me, please?" He asked, running a hand through his hair nervously.
Merlin said nothing at first. "You are bleeding," he then commented, before bringing his attention to the unconscious Knight.
'Okay. Need some bandages, then.'
'You don't say? ' Archie jumped up, sounding irritated.
'Oh, hush.'
********
Claire let go of the shadow after the old Wizard closed the pierced wall with a quick wave of his hand.
She felt weakened as if she had run ten laps in a row. Her arms barely trembled and her head seemed far too light compared to the norm, but that weariness reassured her: she could see Jim, Aaarrrgh, and Blinky unharmed. And as a fact, that was enough for her for the moment. But still, she lost her balance. And even almost her senses.
She was, however, supported by her boyfriend, who grabbed her just in time.
"Are you okay?" He asked with a worried expression.
"Yes, I'm... I'm just a bit tired," she replied, smiling at him.
"Are you sure, Claire?" asked Toby, approaching at the same time as Steve. "You look a little pale."
"You've held up to a resistance control spell," asserted Archibald, intruding on the conversation, flying around her a couple of times, but casting glances at the door. "You should sit for a while to get your energy back. And catch your breath as much as you can."
"Okay, thanks Archie," she replied, taking the advice without a second thought and letting Jim help her sit up, her back leaning against the wall.
"Claire did good," Aaarrrgh said. She blushed and smiled at the compliment, thanking the Troll.
Then she returned, albeit slowly, to look at the unknown Witch, paralyzed and intent on staring at Nari with her eyes wide, as if she were seeing a ghost, ruining some of her tranquility. The woman hardly breathed and seemed to search in vain for words to say, finding herself more like gasping on the spot. That was until she had recovered sufficiently from the shock.
"Nari of the Eternal Forest," she murmured with something of awe and admiration at the same time, perhaps instinctively bowing her head. "Am I seeing right?... Is it really you?"
Nari returned her attention, looking back at her. She nodded in response with a graceful movement.
"What are you doing among those-" the Witch seemed to bite her lower lip, stopping herself from saying something really stupid. "What are you doing here?" She asked then. "Aren't you supposed to be among your siblings?"
The half-goddess did not answer the question, appearing sad for a second. Instead, she laid her gaze on all of them. "I can yield some of my energy to the Heart of Avalon if needed," she said, mainly in Merlin's direction.
"No, Nari. The damage fortunately was not so extensive as to provide real problems for its Core. A few hours and it'll have recovered," he said, looking first at her, then toward the door, in the direction of Galahad -who was still showing no sign of waking up, but who was not really in any danger, or at least that was what Merlin said. And that he had been moved quickly to a crib in a nearby room that could barely be glimpsed from there- and then his Apprentice, who entered the room just then, his wounds covered by bandages and wearing new clean clothes, looking down with anxiety written on his face. Archibald flew immediately beside him, coming at him with a nervous expression, too.
Claire saw the Sorcerer's expression bend several times -a fact that would have made her break out in a cold sweat if it had happened to her, since he never actually showed so much emotion before, though she would have then responded to it with pure irritation- before he started in the direction of the raven-haired boy with large strides after fully meeting his gaze, while Douxie took an instinctive step backward, but did not move more than that.
Although he had earlier brought his left hand to one of the bandages, checking it quickly to make sure it was holding well, he ended up lowering his arm.
Merlin grabbed it. "Come with me immediately," he ordered, giving him no time to respond and starting to pull him forward in such a way that -already barefoot, while the red all-stars were practically in the center of the room, which Archie recovered, taking in his Wizard's appearance, leaving them all staring, quite shocked- he even risked slipping. And then they were outside the room.
"For more than one reason, I wouldn't want to be in his place," mumbled Toby after a while, accompanied by a nervous chuckle.
"...Neither do I, but I want to know what he says to him," intervened Steve instead, immediately quickening his pace and trying to leave the room in turn.
"Wait... What? Do you want to eavesdrop? You'd get noticed instantly!" asserted Claire in a voice that was a mixture between a whisper and something shrill, wanting to follow him right away, but not being able to. Toby, on the other hand, succeeded without a problem. But they both stopped just beyond the door, tearing her slight confusion.
"They're already gone," said Steve, answering Claire's silent question.
"...Magic?" asked Toby. His tone of voice made her smile.
"I know where they are anyway," asserted Nari, leading the two to turn in her direction and the others to look at her. "I can also let you hear what they say. But perhaps it would be seen as improper by you?..."
"Uhh... a little," admitted Claire.
'Curiosity kills the cat.' she thought, though her curiosity did not diminish at the idea either. Merlin was probably giving Douxie an earful for whatever reason he could think of, but at the same time who knew, exactly, that he didn't talk about something else? No one.
"Well, yes, but Mr. Magic Man will never tell us what he said to the bro and I don't think the bro will tell us what they talked about. And I didn't understand a damn thing about what happened exactly, except for the fight with those weird monkeys and the fact that the bro acted like a Secret Agent for a sec."
'Yeah.' Thought Claire, biting the inside of her cheek and looking down at the floor, feeling the coldness of the wall across her skin. 'So much so that if it hadn't been for the little blue writing that suddenly appeared on the floor... '
She did not finish the thought. The phrase 'I felt the hate in you.' rang in her head, interrupting the rest.
"It would still be a breach of their privacy. And from what I understood..." Blinky cast a glance at the Witch, who seemed to have lost years and years of life, appearing almost in a coma without all her vitality, her almost dull grey eyes staring into the void. She did not even seem to be listening to how lost she appeared. "It's not something Mr. Casperan would appreciate."
Steve made an offended sound. "Oh, come on! He wouldn't know that we know anyway! And if the Creepy Woman tries to tell him, let's change the subject before she does! Easy, right?"
"I'd like to know what they're saying to each other, too, to be honest," Jim suddenly said, surprising Claire a little. "But maybe we really should let it go... It's their business, after all."
"Really, Lake? For a minute there I thought you and I understood each other!" The blond boy started to wave his hands in the air left and right, a pout plastered on his face. "Doesn't it seem unfair that they leave us waiting in the car while they keep all the good stuff? We're here too, and yet they don't include us!"
"Yeah, it's called a private conversation, Steve," Claire said, wanting to elbow him.
"Okay, but it's still not fair!"
"You're partly right, but only if it's something important because we should be informed too," Jim said. "I don't think it is. Merlin isn't talking to him about technical things we should be informed about..." he cringed. "He seemed too angry for it."
"He was, but about what? It doesn't seem like the dude did anything that wrong to me!" Steve gesticulated again.
"Well, just in case, I already have the seed ready here if you change your mind," Nari said, interrupting the conversation. "I put several all over the Castle just before we intervened in the fight. Merlin had asked me to do so, and I thought I would listen to them in general just in case, some before, some after." She had a slight smile. "Yes, it's not fair, however, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It helps to avoid touching raw nerves when they come back, the way I see it. But if you want, I can ignore that one and move on right away."
"No!" The blond boy jumped up. "Steve wants to know and Steve listens." He immediately flanked the half deity, from whose hands were indeed sprouting what appeared to be like a small glowing seed.
"Nosy," said Aaarrrgh with an unimpressed look.
"That's not true! And she said it herself that it's better that way, didn't she?"
Despite their attempts to show privacy, some more tentatively, others almost immediately -maybe a bit hypocritically after how much they had insisted that it was not correct, but they were all far too nosy , it seemed- they took the opportunity practically at the drop of a hat, surrounding Nari. The half-goddess, to make things easier for Claire, decided to move over and have them all sit beside her. Which Claire thanked her for.
Nari stood in the center. The others stood around her, forming a small circle. The bright seed seemed to barely pulsate.
First, there was almost complete silence. Faint footsteps interrupted it. Then.
"Mas..."
"Tell me, have you gone mad?!" Exploded Merlin suddenly, almost making them jump for how loud his voice was, leading both Steve and Toby to look around as if to make sure the Sorcerer had not returned to the room.
"I can explain," said Douxie quickly, appearing more than a little agitated and uncertain only by his tone. His voice was decidedly lower than his Master's, so much so that this one was hard to hear, instead, leading them to huddle around the seed. "Yes, I didn't call you. I didn't call anyone, to tell the truth. I was stupid, I know."
"You were more than stupid!" Merlin blurted out, still showing the same anger. Fortunately, he did not scream again. "You could have botched it up, do you realize that? No Heart of Avalon, no Camelot, Hisirdoux! The Castle would have crashed to the ground and we would no longer have a way to keep us away from the Order except the rescue shuttle and little else!"
A gasp escaped them all, practically simultaneously.
Just the mental image of the situation gave Claire chills... and she probably wasn't the only one who sensed them running down her spine.
"I know, I know!" He quipped, before making a frustrated noise. "I realize that, all right. But Master..."
"And don't 'but master' me!" He aggressively blocked him. "You are still irresponsible! You not only endangered everyone, but yourself in the beginning. And all because of your obsession!"
'Obsession?' Wondered Claire to herself, biting the inside of her cheek again.
Douxie was silent for a couple of seconds. Merlin did the same. Claire wondered for a moment if the weird audio bug-seed that allowed them to eavesdrop had already been noticed, but before she opened her mouth to share the hypothesis with Nari, the talk resumed.
"It's not that," said Douxie, his voice so low it sounded like a mumble... and so brittle it seemed ready to break.
A strange silence hovered in the group as they stood almost clinging to each other. Steve opened his mouth to say something but suddenly closed it again.
"I was stupid, okay. I've said it and I'd repeat it three hundred times if I had to," asserted Hisirdoux. "But the Staff and the Master title have nothing to do with it. I..." more silence, but less long than there had been previously. "I heard a hint of Aura last night. A few notes and nothing more. I wasn't sure if it had been there for real or... or if it was maybe simply a feeling."
"It wasn't." Merlin's voice emerged again, this time calmer and more restrained if still cold and almost reproachful, accompanied by a sigh. And probably by a rolling of his eyes, shaking his head in disapproval. "You should have followed your instincts."
"At that moment I didn't know that! I wasn't sure I was right, and I just wanted to... to avoid waking up the whole castle over a feeling I thought was stupid," a snort was heard. "Especially without having any real foundation. And if I had, you would have been angry anyway, because I wouldn't have had the palpable evidence to show you."
Merlin seemed to ignore the last sentence as if Douxie had not said it at all. "But in the end, you didn't call anyone. Last night you heard the Aura. This morning you were still fighting her."
"I didn't have the time to!" Douxie sounded somewhat annoyed.
"You had a whole night, how is it possible that you failed at something so simple!"
An irritated grimace painted itself on Claire's face and she closed her hands into fists, feeling a distinct instinct to curse. Why did Merlin always have to be like this? He had a talent for instilling guilt and shame in people.
"The Witch was in his head until this morning. She trapped him in a hallucination." Said Archie, inserting himself into the conversation and audibly sniffing. "She was trying to extrapolate where the Heart of Avalon was."
"Nemain touched me while I was investigating," Douxie added, sighing. "Even if I had wanted to warn anybody, unfortunately, I was unable to."
Merlin was silent for several seconds. Then. "What about you, Archibald? What do you have to say for yourself?"
The dragon did not take long to answer. "I think if anyone should take the blame for what happened, it's me. I felt something was wrong with Douxie and went to check it out myself, telling Claire to leave it. Then I got caught."
"What... No! It's not your fault, Arch!" Retorted Douxie much louder than before, his tone somewhere between shocked and angry. "I was already confused. I can only imagine what the hell you were hearing from my side."
"I didn't get that one," Toby interjected in a mumble, cracking the blanket of attention and general listening.
"Relationship between Wizard and Familiar," replied Nari, smiling. "It is always different and very weird. It seems that Douxie and Archibald share emotions."
"I should have warned," said the dragon again, stubbornly. Not listening to the Wizard at all, it seemed. "Had I done that, the situation would not have bent in such a way... Had I done that, you would not have been hurt at all."
"It's just scratches, nothing that won't go away in less than a couple of hours with the magic flow and a decent breakfast."
"Would it be possible that they also read each other's minds?" Asked Claire in a whisper. "They have given me that impression at times..."
Nari nodded, "It could be, yes. Their bond is very strong."
"It was going to eat your face!" He insisted, snarling and hissing. "And those aren't just scratches. A little more and he would have cut you open in two. Or, as a matter of fact, in three."
"It hasn't been able to. And the cuts no longer hurt or bleed. That's good enough for me." Douxie snapped. Archie sounded like he was about to protest again with his growling, but the Wizard interrupted him. "And it's my fault anyway. I was distracted. I allowed Nemain to get there. I should have resisted more, she was in my head after all..."
"With the memory you had chosen? You had already worked miracles, Doux!" Interrupted Archie with something that sounded very upset. "I was the one who told you to do everything to throw her out! Of course, I didn't intend for it to come to that, but I also didn't think that..."
"Enough! Both of you!" Intervened Merlin, jerking them back up and probably having the same effect on the two in question. His voice almost seemed to boom inside the seed. "Both of you are to blame. End of story," he said.
Claire, had she been there, included for real in the conversation, would have given him a nasty answer. Neither of them had been to blame, in her opinion. Who would have imagined that a Hallucination-loving Witch would have decided to target the castle out of the blue? They had done what they could.
"We're lucky it didn't end badly, it seems that fortunately, it didn't slow us down too much. Tomorrow we'll be in Laos by midday," Merlin said. Then he paused. "That doesn't change the fact that you already broke so many of the rules I gave you. More importantly, you broke the worst of them all."
Claire practically paralyzed on the spot at the last sentence, as a second chill ran through her. She sensed anxiety begin to flow through her, causing her to swallow hard. Her heart lost several beats, then sped up all at once, causing an avalanche of them, totally devoid of stable rhythm.
'He knows...' she thought, tightening her lips.
"You have entered Morgana's room, even though I especially told you not to..." his voice was so damn loud that Claire felt the shiver running through her entire body.
"I...I'm..."
"You have taken the Shadow Magic book..."
"Yes, but Master..."
"Do not 'but master' me, again! I thought I taught you better than this, Hisirdoux."
"But I..."
"You are teaching Lady Claire how to use Shadowmancy!" Merlin shouted. Douxie audibly let out a frightened gasp. Archie started growling in the background. "What on earth were you thinking?"
"She needed help," Douxie whispered. "I just wanted to..."
"Help? That would be helpful? You should know very well that that kind of magic only leads to suffering!"
"That's... not true," Hisirdoux said, slowly. Almost as if he was trying to stop himself from speaking, or as if a thought was spoken instead of staying inside his head.
"What did you just say?" Hell. Merlin sounded so venomous that Claire felt her stomach roll and twist with fear. And she wasn't in front of him. She could only imagine how Douxie was feeling.
"I said that that's not true!" he responded, weirdly raising his voice a little, being suddenly able to catch a bit more courage, instead, taking her by surprise. "You've convinced yourself of that because of what happened to Morgana."
"And that's not concrete proof for you?!"
"No! It is not!" Douxie had definitely raised his voice this time. And she could hear the anger in it, which almost made it tremble. "Claire is not Morgana Le Fay!"
"She has the same magic! She will become exactly like her! The thirst for control, the desire for power over humanity, and her unstable emotions will get the better of her. Sooner or later it will happen, and it will all be your fault for trying to help her out!" The last phrase was mocking him.
The girl opened her mouth, as if trying to say something, but without even knowing what exactly. She clenched her fists once more, feeling herself barely shaking. More fear and cold anger began to tear through her chest, taking her breath away.
Her eyes settled on Jim, hoping that his presence might relax her at least a little, enough to silence the buzz of pure horror that just wouldn't leave her alone, putting her thoughts in total disarray. The anger, too, was stronger than ever. She felt it run inside her so strongly that she wanted to punch Merlin in the face.
'Pedazo de mierda.' she thought. 'You're putting him at fault for things that he isn't guilty of. You're putting him already at fault for things that would be my fault, instead!'
Jim returned her gaze with concern. She boiled silently, ending up staring at the floor a little bit later.
"You... You still don't know that!" Douxie sounded hurt. And angry. And scared, too. "You say that because that's what happened to you! You're saying it because you cared and it hurt you to see her fall apart. Because you are stopping yourself at what you saw her do!"
"Hisirdoux, I do not accept such insolence..." a low warning. Incomplete, though.
Douxie, in fact, drastically ignored it, interrupting him. "No! I don't care what you think about her! Claire is not Morgana, Master." A pause. "Magic does not delineate people, just as people do not delineate magic!... You're the one who taught me that!"
"There are exceptions." Retorted Merlin, coldly. And still angry, but not screaming anymore at least.
Douxie made a sound that was the interlude between a snort of frustration and an angry shriek. Such that the girl could almost imagine him slamming his hand down on his face. Were it not for the background of anxiety and fury that ran through her from head to toe, she might have even laughed a bit.
'I don't want to become her,' whispered a little terrified voice in her head at the same time, with horror pouring out of every single word.
She shuddered, clutching herself just at the idea. And she then sensed both Jim's and Toby's hands resting on her arm. Then those of Blinky, Aaarrrgh, and even Steve were on her shoulders. She bit his lower lip and tried to smile at them, even as she felt the maggot grip her throat.
"Her sound is different!" Returned Douxie to say in her defense, somewhat exasperated and almost panting from the effort. Which appeared a little strange to her on the one hand, but between facts she ended up removing from her thoughts. "It barely has two notes in common with her, and the rest doesn't even resemble her in cadence!" He continued. "You see the color of her Aura and dwell only on what you think is in common! How can you not notice the scale of opposite shades? Or the smell? I have no idea what her magic smells like, but I could bet it's not the same in that either!"
A hint, albeit slight, of the terror still stirring in Claire's veins hushed at those sentences.
'...Really?'
Merlin didn't respond. There was the sound of quick footsteps.
"What made you so easily prejudiced? And when did it happen? Since she was freed? Or at the Battle of Killahead itself?" Asked Douxie then. His voice was soft as silk, and sad. Almost mournful.
Merlin remained silent again, which was weird counting how loud he had been before. The Apprentice was silent in turn, perhaps waiting for the answer. Then a sigh was heard. He probably realized that he would not receive it.
"I'm sorry if I've failed you, Master," he said, cracking the total nothingness, but saying it almost in a whisper. "I'm sorry if I keep relentlessly disappointing you ... I'm sorry if I've almost ruined everything." He sounded sour and bitter in every smallest letter. And Merlin Ambrosius' silence became almost loud in some ways. The girl could feel her heart hurt for Douxie. She closed her hand in a fist.
"...But I'm not sorry I decided to teach Claire. If it were not for her, none of the Trolls could have fought against the Chimeras. And if it hadn't been for Aaarrrgh, like Archie said, I'd probably be dead by now," a pause. Very brief. But one that seemed endless to her. She barely swallowed. "You said earlier that last night I should have followed my instincts. I didn't, and I'm calling myself stupid once again if it pleases you..."
"He insults himself quite often," Steve said, covering part of what he was saying with his voice. They all shushed him in chorus, leading him to raise both his hands in the air.
"...doing it in this case. And I'm sure I won't regret it."
"And let's hear, for what reason?" returned Merlin's voice, in an almost ironic tone.
'Dios, I want to slap him,' she thought.
"Because I believe in her, " he said, matter-of-factly, without even thinking about it for a second, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world, so much so that it made her eyes widen in surprise. "Just as I believe in all of them. Shouldn't that be enough?"
"People let you down, Hisirdoux," Merlin commented. And sighed. "You should know better... unless your naiveté has taken over your judgment."
"They are going out of their way for Nari!" He sounded even more exasperated than before. Understandable with the hard head that was the Master Wizard. "They defeated Bular and Gunmar... Fuzz me, you turned Jim into half a Troll, even! What else do you need as proof to evaluate them as individuals?"
Something in Claire seemed to utterly soften. That something that had partly stiffened in the talk Hisirdoux had had with the Witch, albeit in a tiny and almost imperceptible way. Nothing so much as to bend his image, but a hint nonetheless, yes.
Perhaps because of the frightening, almost all too natural ability to lie that he had displayed. Perhaps because Claire had believed for a moment that he was betraying them, with the sentence Nemain had said and the fact that Archie was in danger.
Of course, on the one hand, she would have understood his need to protect his Familiar -their bond was very strong, Nari had said it, too. It was the obvious response to the situation he had found himself in- but just the idea had made her feel betrayed. As if she had sought too much in him and had been burned as a result.
But at that moment, with that speech, as it added up to the events of the previous day...she began to think again about what had happened from a different light.
Douxie had played a part in front of the woman, just as Claire was used to doing in the theater.
He had protected them all and had managed to distract and turn the enemy around, improvising everything on the spur of the moment, trusting them to understand him. Trusting her to do what she had to . He had to be as convincing as possible, even though he had known that one wrong word could blow up the stalemate he was in with the Witch and thus make everything worse rather quickly, especially for Archie.
Claire remembered what he had told her the day before. The talk about pulling out any plan that could have had as much effect as a complicated spell, albeit one that was less likely to succeed. Kind of like a bet.
'It did have an effect,' she thought, looking at the woman, still there, who seemed to have lost consciousness-Claire didn't know if she was faking it or not. She would keep an eye on her, she promised herself.
Even though what she said was strange, maybe he had already turned her over in his head, too. Or maybe it's something else, she didn't know, but...
'He trusted us.'
Total respect ran full through her chest. For she knew that if she had to decide between someone she cared about and the Heart of Avalon, she probably would not have made the right choice. And she would not have fought the stress so easily.
Even the fear lessened in her, though it did not disappear completely, remaining in a little corner of her chest in a vague, indistinct presence.
'He believes in me,' she thought, resolute. 'I will not betray that. I will never become like Morgana.'
"...Do as you want." It was the simple reply, ever so rather dry, from the older Sorcerer, breaking the silence. Cadenced footsteps followed.
"W... Wait, Master!" The boy's voice rose again. "I wanted to..."
"If you wanted to apologize one more time, you can avoid doing it. What is done is done now. The Heart of Avalon will recover."
More footsteps were heard, some more uncertain, then the opening and closing of the door, albeit with such delicacy that it made almost no noise in its movement except for a slight creak.
Nari had the little seed put out rather quickly, not hiding it, merely stroking it with her fingers. Then they waited, some returning to take yet another look at the Knight who had not moved an inch from the bed where he had been left.
Claire leaned her head against Jim's shoulder, who had remained there with her.
'We should trust him, too.'
********
Merlin, having just returned to the room several times later -Douxie and Archie a little further back in position from him, as if they wanted to keep a safe distance from him after the scolding they had received- did not take twice to order Nari to move the Witch from the wall to the floor. When the half-goddess did so, he put what appeared to be a metal collar around her neck.
"With this, she is unable to use magic," he said, responding to their confused expressions. "I'll take her to the dungeon." He cast yet another glance at his Apprentice -who had not taken his gaze off him for a second, his brow furrowed- and then rolled his eyes. "If you care about questioning her, do that later. But she will be dropped before we move to Shenyang to avoid further problems." The two simply nodded.
He then allowed Nari to release her from the plant only after he was sure she was seriously unconscious, adding handcuffs to both her arms and legs.
"Regarding Sir Galahad, I'll prepare a potion to wake him up from his hallucination, in case he doesn't already do it himself within a couple of hours." He then said once he had finished the task. "In any case, we will reach the next stop shortly after 6:00 in the evening. I want you all on alert. Nari will be with you for a while, then I will come in person to retrieve her. Do I make myself clear?"
A chorus of "Yes." rose, accompanied by nods and a few -a couple- of annoyed expressions. Claire's especially. Then, Merlin, dragging Nemain away, floating her in front of him in a position reminiscent of a sack of potatoes, returned in the direction of the door. But before he left, he went back to look at his Apprentice. He merely observed him, as if he wanted to add something... and sighed before finally leaving the room.
"Well. Uh... I would be a little bit hungry," asserted Toby, almost immediately after he disappeared, to break the ice. "How far along was the breakfast preparation?"
"Huh?" Confusion crossed Jim's face for a moment with a frown. Then his eyes widened. He had seriously forgotten about it with the general mess. "Oh, yeah! The Raspberry Roll and Coulis!"
'Good thing they weren't timed foods, maybe to put in the oven, but...' Jim thought.
The rumbling of someone's stomach was heard. It was unclear whose it was exactly, and no one expounded, which made Steve automatically remove himself from the equation. But then there was one more, and Claire's distinct blush was quite obvious.
"Um. Shall we go?" She asked, quite embarrassed.
The question led them to hurry to get out and to the pantry as quickly as possible. For the first time, Douxie and Archie stood at the back of the line. In the front were Jim and Toby instead. Claire, Nari, Aaarrrgh, and Blinky were in the middle. Steve was right behind, but before the duo, barely whistling, casting glances at them.
'If you want to be discreet, you're failing miserably,' thought the Trollhunter after looking at the blond for only a couple of seconds -and noticing the puzzled looks Archie was sending back to Steve, while Douxie was rubbing a temple with his hand from time to time, not even noticing the situation, as if he were in his world- before turning his head and trying to get back to following the signs on the walls.
"How are the injuries, Mr. Casperan?" Asked Blinky suddenly, perhaps noticing in turn the attitude and wanting to avoid the blond being the one to let slip of their eavesdropping.
"Huh? Oh... They are fine, Mr. Galadrigal," a pause. "They just pinch a little," he said.
Archie snorted at the sentence. Douxie glared at him, but it was short-lived.
"How was... Uh... The talk with Merl...?" Steve questioned.
They all cringed and were almost paralyzed on the spot.
'What the heck, Steve ?' Jim thought, sending him a quite bewildered look.
"...Could have been worse. And better." Douxie said, shrugging. And not wanting to talk more about it.
Claire was starting to regret the eavesdropping. She kinda wanted to try to say something because of how distressed he had sounded before. And how tired he looked right now, too... but doing that... Well, he wouldn't have understood. Or he would have, something that probably would have been worse.
"Well, uh. Jim prepared breakfast for all of us, Teach." Claire intervened, smiling at him. "You don't have any allergies, do you?"
"Only peanut butter and soybean," he answered, responding to the smile. That, too, was short-lived.
A few seconds later, he frowned and grimaced. He shook his head and blinked a few times, then forced himself to slow down. Something the dragon noticed, leading him to stiffen like a plank of wood over his shoulder. And Claire too, who frowned and opened her mouth to say something, failed to.
"But how can your wounds just pinch? It's not normal as a thing," asserted Toby, looking straight ahead and not behind him. Not realizing. The questions in part would have been a good thing because the total lack of them would probably have seemed rather bizarre and suspicious -especially on Steve and Toby's part- but on the other side it wasn't. Not at that time. Not for Archibald, nor for Douxie.
"I heal fast," he said, his left hand trying to lean against the wall for support as he stopped walking and his right hand resting on his forehead. This time, Nari turned around, tearing confusion from Blinky and Aaarrrgh as well and leading them to do the same.
"How fast is that? It must have been what? Half an hour? About twenty minutes? Or even only ten? They were claws, not toothpicks."
"I don't..." he barely began to say, before stopping himself from even speaking "...I don't know."
Archie stood in front of him immediately. "Do not move," he ordered dryly. It was a single sentence that caught the rest of them all off guard, causing them to stop and turn as well.
Douxie chuckled softly. "I'm not about to faint, Arch," he muttered.
"Not right now, but you're not far from it," blurted the dragon, before changing form.
He took on the appearance of a tall, all-muscle, dark-skinned boy with short fire-red dyed hair and brown eyes -which in all honesty some of them seemed to have seen somewhere before. Maybe in Arcadia Oaks- and took him in his arms bridal style before his Wizard could protest. Or lose consciousness, ending up falling backward.
Douxie, however, was too tired to say almost anything. Arguing was much harder than that. He merely leaned his head against the Familiar's shoulder. He saw everything in almost uniform spots, splashes of color sailing before his eyes in total disarray. And he could feel one side of his forehead throbbing, even more than before.
He could still hear Nemain's screams echoing, making his ears ring. He could still feel the panic buzzing inside him.
"What..." Claire was the first to approach, her concern already crossing her entire face before she settled her attention on Archie almost instinctively "Is he okay?"
"He has emptied his magical charge. And rejected resting," replied Nari immediately, taking two steps forward -or backward, counting where they should have gone- "Like the Bones Witch."
Looking human, Archibald made a strange, somewhat irritated expression -an irritation evidently due to the mere mention of Nemain, so much so that had he been in cat form he might have lowered his ears before snarling, wagging his tail and showing claws- then looked back at Claire, albeit trying to show a modicum of self-control.
"That tired feeling you experienced earlier? There, that's one of the two stages before the one he's undergoing now. If you hadn't listened to your body's needs and continued to use magic to the bitter end or to exert yourself physically, the same thing would have happened to you," a pause. "Douxie overdid it, as usual." he said.
"...I heard you," muttered the boy in an offended tone, pressing his face more against his shoulder.
"Good. At least you're listening to me now."
Hisirdoux said nothing at first. "Recklessness in starter pack moves?" He then asked in a slightly joking, but very, very weakened tone. That one sentence tore several confused expressions.
"At the highest level," agreed Archie, sniffing. And resuming walking, clutching more tightly to his Wizard, who huffed.
"What?" Asked Toby with shock, after a scant moment of silence. Neither of them answered, as the Familiar seemed to be too preoccupied to pay attention to anything else, while the Wizard was barely awake.