Chapter Seven

Magus found it difficult to find any sort of peace in his solitude. For much of his life, he'd embraced the lonely company of the shadows, but they now only whispered doubts into his already troubled mind.

He felt he was taking an awful risk in offering the girl any sort of autonomy, but the irony was that he could not think of any other way to keep her under control. She'd proven to be much more cunning than he'd initially given her credit for and he knew that subtlety was the only way he was going to get anywhere with her. He was beginning to wonder whether she would be worth the trouble. There was no doubt in his mind that, alone, he could get to the Ocean Palace and Lavos, but the irrational emotional parts of his mind that he thought he'd silenced years ago now whispered tales of unfathomable possibilities.

Intelligence. Spirit. Kindness. These aspects of the young woman that frustrated and infuriated him so also reflected the qualities he most cherished in the only person he now held any love for. They reminded him that, for his schemes to succeed, he would have to face 'her' and maintain his facade. He would have to lie, manipulate, coerce, he may even be forced to harm 'her'. He would have to be willing to do anything for his ultimate victory. In the deepest places in his heart, he wondered if he had the strength to do what was necessary, if it came to down to the worst case scenario.

He chuckled as he considered the dilemma. The deepest places in his heart had held little sway over him in recent years. His rage had long replaced grief and sorrow as the driving factor in his quest for revenge. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd thought about 'her' before his return to the Dark Ages. Could she really still hold the kind of sway over him that he feared, or was his concern with the effect his love for 'her' would have on his quest for Lavos' death proof enough that his soul had become too twisted for her to have an effect of him.

Another laughable irony, he thought. His life had been a long string of such contradictions that it was hardly worth noting any more.

He stood up and breathed deep, but it did little to settle his mind. What had happened to set him so off balance? A very plain looking girl used her very modest endowments to try to bewitch him and suddenly he is too addled to think straight? No, he knew that wasn't it. Her little show had thrown him off guard, but the unease and uncertainty since had been self-inflicted. He'd been too afraid to show any emotion and she had seen it through his defenses and used it to rattle him. There had been one benefit to the embarrassment: it showed him how vulnerable he really was, no matter how hard he thought he'd become.

The shriek jarred him from his thoughts and gave him the distraction from his increasingly troubling thoughts that he craved. He stepped outside and looked down at the bottom of the cavern just in time to see Lucca rush into the cave on the left hand side. He immediately realized exactly what she was rushing into and glanced back into the room to see her weapon and armor lying neatly in a pile on the floor next to her bed. Alone and unarmed, it wasn't difficult for him to realize how slim her chances were.

To the warlock's surprise, his first urge was to go in after her. He stopped himself, as he'd trained himself to do through years under the thumb of the fiends and at war with Guardia. Was this impulse in his best interest? The worst case scenario was that the girl would die and he would be left to proceed without her: a convenient out of a growing potential problem. If she somehow managed to make it out alive, he could always deny that he was aware that anything had happened. At the very least, it would give him a measure of her abilities. The more he thought about it, the more appealing doing nothing became, but something nagged at him in the back of his mind.

She made him uncomfortable, of this there was no doubt, and though his initial impulse was to purge the irritant from his life, for good if possible, he also realized that it was a blessing in disguise. She would force him to confront things in himself that, if left unsettled, could prove detrimental to his ultimate goal. She would give him a reason to stay alert and vigilant. She would not allow him to grow complacent as he'd done with the fiends, which had been his downfall against her and her friends in the first place. He understood then that, begrudgingly, he needed her.

He leaped from ledge and rode the shadows to the ground floor.

Lucca stopped abruptly as the danger she'd just rushed into became apparent to her. The cave smelled of rotten flesh and there were broken and crushed bones littering the floor. There were no torches on the wall and the only light in the cave was that shining in from the village. She looked around for some sign of both the boy and whatever terrible creature lived in this place. When she found no sign of either, she realized she'd have to push further into the darkness.

She bristled at her fear, glad that Magus was nowhere near to see it. She imagined the smug look on his face: how his eyes would roll away from her and that arrogant smirk would crawl across his face. It angered her and that anger made her focus. She had gained an advantage on him and the last the she wanted to do was give it up by failing here. She calmed herself down and focused.

She held up her hand and pictured it holding a small flame in her mind. She could feel the magical energies flow from her body and up her arm into her palm. She could feel it grow and become warm. Suddenly, the invisible energy ignited and her hand burned, untouched by the flames that now illuminated the cavern.

One problem down.

The beast's cave possessed none of the structure of the cavern that Algetty was built in. There were dozens of nooks and alcoves that lead nowhere. There were no side caves big enough to serve as a room, but there were plenty of places to hide, for both the boy and whatever creature called this place its lair. She stayed cautious, keeping in mind that her only concern was the boy; she wasn't there to hunt monsters and it was with that thought that she realized how ill equipped she was to do just that. No gun, no armor, not even her helmet. The only time she could remember feeling more vulnerable was when she was in the battle with Magus, which had nearly cost her her life.

The fire in her hand flickered in the force of a roar from deep within the cave. Loose rock shook free and piles of bones collapsed. Lucca circled, straining her eyes as she followed every slight movement. She knew that the deeper she went, the more danger she was in.

"Mommy!" she heard a voice sobbing from one of the alcoves and it was there that she found the boy, crying, with his face in his hands and his stick-sword laying on the ground in front of him. She placed her free hand on his shoulder and he jerked away at first before seeing that she wasn't a monster.

"It's alright, I'm here to help you." She said in as soft and reassuring a voice as she could. The boy looked at her warily, but seemed willing to trust her at first, but just as he was going to take her hand, he wrenched back and screamed.

She knew she'd made a mistake. She should have heard it come up behind her, or at least felt its heavy footfalls as it drew close. Now she could feel the edges of it's breath as it stood just a couple feet away.

Before the start of her adventure, Lucca would have wasted valuable time turning to get a look at what was behind her, but her trials had taught her how to react in when cornered like this and without a moment's hesitation, she turned and hurled the fireball in her hand in the direction the boy had been looking, where it landed squarely in the face of a now angry beast. It flailed about angrily, but the attacks were defensive. Her strike had blinded it, at least temporarily, which gave her time.

She closed her eyes and tapped into the well of power within her. She could hear the creature roar and smash against the rock and the crunch of bone beneath its feet, but she pushed all that aside and drew from the fire burning within her. She could feel the energy flowing all around her, circling her body. A flowing stream of fire burned around her, growing faster and faster until its head caught its tail and it burst into a wave of flame that threw the creature back and off its feet.

The effort had drained her and she dropped to a knee when the spell was done. She took a few deep breaths and composed herself. She felt weak, but as she saw the burnt husk of the beast, she couldn't help but swell with pride at her accomplishment. She turned to see the boy stagger out of the alcove, unsure of whether or not he should be afraid of this woman who had burned the cave and killed the creature, but was reassured when she smiled at him. He helped her to her feet and the both started to make their way back to the village when another, much deeper roar came from behind them.

This one was bigger than the other one had been and was fire red. It was coming from the back of the cavern, charging at full speed. The pair started to run and though she knew she didn't have much energy left, she drew what she could into her right hand; it wouldn't be much, but maybe she could blind this one like she had the first. As they ran, she twisted and tossed the flame. Her aim was true, but it merely burst off the beast's face and it continued to charge as if nothing had happened.

Whether is was from the shock of her attack's failure or the drain of the magic, her legs lost their strength and she stumbled. She boy turned back for her, but even with his help, she knew she would never get back to her feet in time. She urged him to leave her but he wouldn't and all she could do was watch as the creature bounded toward them. She could feel the ground tremble as it bounded, the raw power of hits body unleashed with every spring. She closed her eyes as it seemed it was making its final leap, bracing herself for the crushing force and realized, after a moment, that it wasn't coming. She opened her eyes and saw the beast fighting for its life, struggling to escape from a pit of shadow that was pulling it in. She turned around and saw Magus, his arms raised, standing over her and chanting in a language she didn't recognize. The beast screeched in terror as more and more of it was sucked into the shadow until nothing remained except the last echos of it's final, terrible wail.

They emerged from the cave and returned the boy to his very relieved mother, who wept as she held him as close as her strength would allow, before returning to their own room. She sat down on the bed and immediately fell back onto it, closing her eyes and readying herself to endure his taunts and mockery.

"Are you okay?" He asked. The question seemed odd coming from him.

"I'm fine. I just didn't have enough energy for the spells I cast." she answered.

"We'll have to work on that." he said, without the judgment or sarcasm, or even anger that she had expected. "You did well."

Lucca's eyes burst open with the compliment, subdued as it was. She sat up to look at him. He was obviously uncomfortable, but he was trying.

"I was reckless." She said, as much in admission as it was a test to see if he would pounce on the weakness.

"Perhaps," he said with a smile that faded as quickly as it appeared. "but it doesn't matter."

"Thank you." she said, smiling at him.

"Get some rest. We're leaving in the morning."