Morning came late, because the high cliffs blocked of the sunrise. I woke up to Argus’s low grumble. He and Sage were sitting apart, talking.
“Your babe’s fine,” Argus was saying. “Your diaphragm was bruised, not the womb.” I heard Sage let out a shaky breath.
“Thank you,” she half-sobbed. They were being quiet, so I guessed that I wasn’t supposed to hear. I sat up anyway. Nearly everyone else was asleep. Heather had fallen asleep crying into Pete’s shoulder, and they were still entwined on the ground by the fire. Landon was fidgeting in his sleep, kicking at the dirt.
I suddenly remembered what had happened. I suddenly remembered hearing Sage’s voice call me from over the water, and then the confusion when she was screaming right next to me. I remembered seeing her, a dark beauty, standing in front of me. I remembered her eyes, dark with Black Magic, and her skin, smooth and flawless, and her arms, reaching out for me. I also remembered how she transformed into the hideous Siren.
“Morning, Freeman,” Sage said, sitting down next to me. She had a mug held out to me.
“We have coffee?” I asked, eagerly grabbing the mug. She snickered.
“It’s just strong tea. It has the pick-me-up, but not the brewed taste.”
“What a rip-off,” I sighed. She gave me her half-smile. “Are you alright?” I asked.
“Jae,” she huffed warningly. I remembered her feelings yesterday, only yesterday, morning.
“Forgive me for worrying. I know that you are perfectly capable of climbing mountains and taking down hideous Sirens and fighting werewolves,” I corrected myself. “Sage the indestructible, Sage the powerful, forgive me.” She snorted at me, but I got a brief, full smile.
She looked around the sleeping and dozing questers. Her eyes stopped on Pete and Heather.
“She found strength in the bay,” she muttered, smiling. “Those two will be good for each other.” She absentmindedly put a hand over her baby, as if reassuring herself that she had someone, too.
“I heard Argus say that you bruised your diaphragm,” I started to say. “Were you worried that you’d hit…”
“Yes, I was, but I was wrong,” she interrupted calmly.
“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure.” It was a touchy subject for her. “Well…” I sighed.
“Well what?”
“Well,” I repeated, “have you thought of a name?”
“A name? That hasn’t really been the most pressing matter to me.”
“Well, it’s important, isn’t it? I mean, a strong name, like, uh, ‘Jae’ for instance, makes a person seem notable right away.” Sage scoffed and rolled her beautiful spiced-coffee eyes. “And you don’t want to choose a weak name, like ‘Amelia’, because it makes a person seem, I don’t know, girly and fragile.”
“Is that why you’re so concerned for me all the time? Is it because I originally told you my name was ‘Amelia’?”
“Yes, in fact,” I teased.
“I noticed that you didn’t use my actual name,” she smirked.
“You were named well; I can’t find anything wrong with ‘Sage’. You still didn’t tell me what you’re going to name the baby.”
“I honestly haven’t thought of it.”
“Well, let’s think of it now. If the baby’s a boy, you could name him after the strongest man you know.” I winked at her, teasing. She suppressed a smirk and looked confused.
“You want me to name my babe ‘Peter’?” She was teasing, but a twinge of jealousy came through me.
“Of course that’s what I mean,” I said, instead of pointing out every flaw that I could find in Pete, instead of pointing out that he had gotten over her.
“What if my babe’s a girl?” She thought for a while, trying to think of a serious name. Her eyes roved over and rested on Serenity, who had woken up and was making tea, looking over at us. “If she’s a girl, I’ll name her Hazel.”
“What?” I asked, not seeing how Serenity could inspire ‘Hazel’ by making tea.
“Hazel,” she said quietly, “is used for long life, wisdom, and for serenity. It’s what I want for my… my child. Not this, not this hell that we live in.” I noticed her stutter. She still wasn’t used to the fact that she was pregnant, even if she had the protective mother instincts already.
“It’ll be alright, Sage,” I said hollowly. I knew that I couldn’t promise that, and so did she, but she nodded her thanks.
“Here, Sage dear, I brought you some tea,” Serenity said.
“Thanks,” she replied. “How are you doing, Serenity?”
“As well as can be expected, I suppose,” she replied.
“Sage,” Landon said, walking over to us. “Carson had this in his bag. I didn’t know if you wanted me to snap it or save it.” It was Carson’s wand.
“Save it. When we get back, we’ll give it to his family,” she replied automatically.
“Carson’s family is dead,” Serenity said quietly. “They were killed by trappers. It’s why he joined.” Sage sighed, rubbing her head into her palms.
“Alright, then we’ll give it to Emily’s family,” she decided. Landon gaped and Serenity nodded solemnly. “Do you doubt that it should go there?” Sage shot at Landon.
“No, I guess not,” he stammered. “I mean, I don’t doubt it. You’re right.”
“I know I’m right. Anyone who saw them together would say that I’m right,” she snapped.
“What’s the big deal about giving his wand to Emily’s family?” I asked. Landon answered.
“There’s an old, mostly unused, tradition from when mages married mages and men married women. Basically, when a mage loves another mage more than they love themselves, they present that mage with their wand. If they exchanged wands, then they were basically bonded as one. The thought is, since a wand is specified for one person, and they share wands, they are one person. That ties into another old myth.”
“What myth?”
“Well, they say that humans were originally made with four arms, four legs, and two faces. They were too powerful, however, and were split, each human making a man and a woman. Now each person seeks the one who completes them, to form the original human,” Landon explained.
“So, since Carson and Emily were soul mates, basically, his wand should be given to her family,” I summed.
“Yes,” Sage responded resolutely. Landon’s mouth went into a thin line.
“It’s an old tradition, and most people don’t even remember it,” he stated.
“Everyone remembers it,” Sage argued. “No one follows it, that’s the problem.” Now everyone was awake and listening to the argument. Pete spoke up for Sage.
“My dad taught me about it, but it’s hardly used because mages and non-magicals fall in love all the time.” He absentmindedly ran a hand over Heather’s arm.
“We should still keep it,” Sage stated. She stood up and went to Carson’s bag, pulling out one of his shirts. She took the wand from Landon and wrapped it in the shirt, then set it carefully into her own bag.
“You really do stick to traditions, don’t you?” Landon asked.
“Yes,” Sage replied bluntly, “But I’m not so dumb as to put them before other things.”
“I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Landon backtracked.
“I know, I know,” Sage sighed. “Calm down, Landon.” She rubbed the talisman in her hair, gazing at the ground. After a while she seemed to snap out of it and took a sip of tea. “We should get going,” she stated. “We have seven tasks to go.” She got us all up and moving. Austin and Serenity passed out food to eat as we walked and we moved on, down the path and whatever horror awaited us next.
~*~*~
“Hey, Heather,” I said, slowing down to walk next to her.
“What’s up, Sage?” she asked.
“I just realized that I’ve been shirking on my best friend duties,” I admitted. I hadn’t gotten a lot of time to just be with her. Admittedly, it was nearly understandable under the circumstances.
“Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” she confided. She slowed us down so we were at the back of the group. It felt odd, but nice, not to be in the lead. “It’s cool with you that Peter and I are, um, getting together, right? I mean, I can see that you’re totally into Jae now, but I wanted to make sure.”
“What?” I asked, shocked. Argus and Serenity, who were closest to us, looked back briefly. I looked up and saw that the men we were talking about were way in the front.
“Heather, I’m over Pete. He’s amazing, but you two are perfect together, okay. As for Jae, I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Even as I said it I felt the seed of the lie inside me. I thought back and realized how much I had come to rely on Jae, how much it hurt that he looked at me as if I were fragile and needed help.
“You’re arguing with yourself; I can see it,” she smiled. I couldn’t answer and she laughed. “Listen, Sage, he’s a good guy. I’ve chatted with him and Pete says only good things about Jae.”
“He’s a good man,” I agreed hesitantly. “I can’t really think about that right now, though. I mean, with everything else going on…” I mentally shook myself. I really and honestly shouldn’t be thinking about this sort of thing.
“Aw,” Heather pouted through a grin, “but I miss girly chat. Of course, you weren’t much into that even before-” She immediately stopped talking and looked at me, afraid that she’d stepped over some line in the sand.
“I forgot to ask, did you hear from Kyle recently? Is he still abroad?” Her elder brother was working for some scientist halfway across the world.
“He writes about whatever their working on, but I don’t understand what it means,” she laughed. “He also met a girl. He didn’t come out and say it, because of the taboos and such, but I’m pretty sure she’s a mage. He found her eyes ‘enchanting’ or something, so I’m pretty sure that’s what he’s hinting at.”
“Good for him,” I smiled.
“I think that means he’s not coming back any time soon, though,” she sighed. “I mean, if they actually stay together, they can’t come here, or, home.” I put my arm around her waist and hugged her.
“He sounds happy.”
“I think he is,” she smiled. “I just miss him, is all. Oh, let’s think of something happier.”
“Like what?” I chuckled darkly.
“Um, how about your baby shower when we get back and everything is all peaceful again?” she asked. I crinkled my nose in disgust. “Come on! As the godmother I get to plan it.”
“Heather, I can’t keep the babe, you know that, right?”
“I guessed,” she nodded, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t be happy about it. You can find an adoptive mother and she’ll be part of it too.” I glanced at Serenity, who had walked up the line and was out of earshot. I sighed.
“Yeah, that works,” I smiled.
“We have to know the gender,” Heather stated. “Argus, can you tell the gender?”
“Not without charms I left at home,” he said. “Austin!” The White Magic mage looked back and Argus waved him towards us.
“Do you want to know?”
“I don’t see how it’ll hurt,” I shrugged as Austin walked with us. “Can you tell the gender of the child?” He nodded. “I’d like to know.”
“You’re having a girl,” he told me, smiling a little. “She’s healthy and happy.”
“Thanks,” I smiled. I looked down at my stomach, which appeared a little distended to me. It may have been because I was use to bone-thin and starving. Underneath the skin I was carrying a little girl, Hazel.
“No problem,” Austin shrugged, jogging to reach Landon, Pete, and Jae.
“I’m naming her Hazel,” I told Heather. Her eyes grew wide and she beamed.
“I’m telling everybody. Hey, everybody! Sage is having a girl named Hazel!” I looked down, embarrassed.
“What’s her middle name?” Landon called back. I shrugged, I’d only thought of the first. Landon came back to walk with us. “I have an idea, if you don’t mind me butting in.”
“I’ll hear it,” I said.
“Montana,” he said. “My mom had a miscarriage a while ago. My little sister didn’t get a chance to be born. She was going to be named Montana. It tore my mom up, when it happened. I always imaged the girl as someone kind and intelligent, you know, a better version of me.” He blushed a splotchy red. “It’s all personal, but an idea.”
“Hazel Montana,” I said. “It sounds nice.” He coughed awkwardly.
“I looked the name up; apparently it means ‘mountainous,’ which is kind of obvious, I suppose.” He walked away, back to the rest of the guys.
“And here I thought he was like a computer, smart and unfeeling,” Heather said. I chuckled a little.
“People surprise you, I guess, when you let them.”