Chapter Forty Three

The Right Path

MELODY

"Watch it. Hey!" Melody fiercely guarded her broken left arm as people pushed their way past her to join the queuing masses who were trying to get out of the auditorium. "Watch it!"

"Maybe sitting in the middle of the row wasn't a good idea." Tracy looked amused.

Melody groaned and rotated her body so her broken arm was faced away as another person inched past her. A dull pain throbbed in her arm as she moved, and she winced. The fight with Prometheus had really taken a lot out of her.

After Prometheus had broken her arm out of desperation and fled, Kristoff had found her in the stairwell. It was really easy, he had told her after she had woken up in Swynvort. After all, the two archers had trailed blood all across their fight, and all Kristoff had to do was follow the blood till he found an unconscious Melody propped up against the wall.

Somehow, he had gotten her back up the stairwell with her arm intact, and made a makeshift arm sling for her out of the fabric of his sweater. She'd woken up to numbness which evolved into a throbbing pain that made her heart thump and gave her a splitting headache. Her entire left side from her shoulder to her finger tips felt incredibly fragile, and she hadn't dared to come into close contact with anything, maintaining at least a few metres radius at all times. The Warriors had regrouped back in Swynvort with the Pilgrim subdued, and Elsa had evacuated all the young sorcerers back to Arendelle through a Crossing Point conjured up by Tracy. That was the night before.

Everything had blurred by since then, and now Melody and the Warriors had just witnessed Elsa and Anna deliver a public address regarding their late father's crime. The speech was an impressive one, to say the least. To an outsider like her, it seemed that the people really loved the queen and the princess unanimously in spite of their father's crime. That was a relief. One less thing to worry about, at least.

"You know," Maui suggested as the crowd showed no sign of thinning. "I could fly us out of here. We'll be at the castle in a jiffy."

"With everything the people have heard today, I don't think they can stomach another shocker." Melody said dryly. "Best to keep the supernatural to a minimum, at least for today."

"Oh, right." Maui shrugged. "Guess we'll have to take the long road then."

"Guys, I've a better idea." Tracy grinned impishly. "This way." She squeezed through the crowd and Melody had a hard time following, guarding her broken arm with her life. The trio emerged at the side of the hall, and entered a side door, and found themselves in a spacious broom closet away from the crowd.

"Really?" Melody looked at her.

"Could have sworn my idea was better." Maui muttered.

"Just wait for it." Tracy conjured up a Crossing Point in the empty broom closet and the trio stepped through it.

"Got to hand it to you. Didn't think of that." Melody admitted as the trio emerged from the other side and arrived in the foyer of Arendelle's palace in the blink of an eye.

"Hah." Tracy gloated, and took great pride in closing the Crossing Point exaggeratedly. "Still waters run deep."

"Indeed." Melody looked up to see a few of Elsa's palace guards approaching them. "The queen is expecting us."

The guards nodded and led them to the next floor via a broad staircase. Clearly they recognized the Warriors from their repeated visits to the castle. The Warriors were led to a large ballroom, which was filled with the sorcerers from Swynvort. The staff had set up a temporary holding area for them, placing huge round dining tables and comfortable chairs throughout the ballroom to accommodate the numerous visitors. Food and drinks were also laid out neatly on the tables for the sorcerers, and by the looks of it, the chefs and staff were going to have their hands full for quite some time.

"Elsa and Anna's got a full house here." Tracy remarked, glancing round.

"No kidding." Maui looked impressed.

"Hi," A blonde, freckled girl who looked like she was not more than seventeen, bounded up to the Warriors, and Melody backed away instinctively to protect her arm.

"Hello." Melody said cautiously, sizing up the girl who was small and scrawny. "Can we help you?"

"I was hoping I could help you." The girl squeaked. "I'm Holli."

"Ah," Melody looked at Holli, slightly confused. "Help me?"

Holli gestured at Melody's broken arm. "That looks bad. The makeshift arm sling could use some changing too. But I think I can do better."

"What do you mean?" Tracy asked.

"Some call me the witch doctor." Holli shrugged dismissively. "I heal wounds and injuries."

"Does that include broken bones?" Melody asked hopefully.

"I've never tried," Holli said. "But now's as good a time as any. With your permission, of course."

"Anything to take the edge off the pain." Melody consented, turning her body so that her broken arm faced Holli. "Just…be gentle please."

"Of course. Surgeon's touch." Holli wriggled her fingers and placed them delicately on the skin of Melody's hand that was not covered by the arm sling.

Melody winced a little in the anticipation of the pain, and was pleasantly surprised to feel a soothing warmth spread through her arm. She could feel the tendons, sinews and bones bind themselves back together by an unknown force, which she guessed was Holli's magic. Within a minute, her arm felt so much better, the pain greatly reduced to just a soreness that made its presence known whenever she moved it about.

"How is it?" Holli stepped back, nervous with anticipation.

"This," Melody straightened her arm slowly in awe. "This feels great." She beamed at Holli. "Thank you."

"It's the least I could do." Holli said. "After what happened to you in Swynvort. You have to know that the League," she glanced at the many sorcerers in the ballroom. "We're innocent."

"We know." Maui assured her. "The Pilgrim is to blame."

"She's warming a cell now, don't worry." Tracy added, grinning at Holli. "She can't hurt any of you ever again."

"That's a relief." One of the boys with a Molcorran accent, came forward to join Holli. "We want nothing more to do with her. I'm Vonco, by the way." He extended a hand to the Warriors.

At least this is a good start, Melody thought to herself as Vonco and Holli introduced them to a few other sorcerers. Their first real interaction with the sorcerers could have been a lot more awkward or hostile, but it seemed to be going well…thus far.

After a round of introductions and friendly conversations with the League's sorcerers, Melody found Maui comparing muscles with a large young man called Cornelius and rolled her eyes. She waited nearby politely till Cornelius noticed her and excused himself.

"How's your arm?" Maui asked, gesturing at her once broken arm, which now bore no trace that it had ever been injured.

"So much better now." She stretched her arm and tensed it, gladly aware that the soreness was beginning to fade. "That Holli girl works wonders."

Maui laughed and nodded. "Our judgement of the League was way off."

"You're right. They're not evil murderers like we thought they all were." Melody chuckled in relief. "Quite the opposite actually."

"But what happens to them now?" Maui motioned at the ballroom full of sorcerers. "Now that they're out from under the Pilgrim's control, many of them have nowhere to go."

"We'll wait for Elsa and Anna to come back before we figure that out." Melody turned to Maui. "I'm more concerned about you, actually."

"Me? Why?" Maui sounded puzzled.

"In all the chaos, I never really got a chance to find out how you were coping. You know…after…" Melody trailed off, knowing that Maui knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Oh." Maui's face grew more serious. "That."

"Yeah," Melody felt a little awkwardness creeping into the conversation. "That."

"I don't know, actually." Maui admitted. "The guilt is still there, I guess. I feel like a monster at times, like I don't belong among humans. I don't think something like that's gonna go away anytime soon, but at least it feels like I've done some good here to atone for my mistakes. It feels…satisfying."

"It does, doesn't it?" Melody agreed. After all, who better than her to know about seeking redemption? She had sought after it for six years, and had finally found satisfaction after helping to prevent the world from being destroyed a few months back. "Being with the team helps. Especially since we know the Warriors is a force for good."

"Yeah."

"You know," Melody nudged him amicably. "It was you who started me on the path to redemption. You reached out and gave me that chance to make up for my mistakes."

"Feels like a such a long time ago."

"Right?" Melody laughed. That's saying something, considering that it's coming from an immortal demigod who's lived for more than a thousand years. "Even though it's only been….what- slightly more than two months?"

Maui nodded in agreement.

"Point is," Melody continued. "I'm glad that I can be here for you as you find your own slice of humanity. I know you're not all together there yet, and it's not going to be easy, but we'll all be here for you."

"Thanks, Princess." Maui grinned at her. "I guess I'll stick around with the Warriors for a while. Beats living in the desert among the lions."

"I bet it does." Melody patted him on the back, and he reached out to pull her into a friendly hug.

"Watch the arm." She flinched instinctively. "Can't be too careful."

"Hey guys!" Tracy dragged one of the Elemental Sorcerers, Jade, over with an arm around her shoulder and a bottle in hand. The other two, Deirdre and Jordan trailed a short distance behind.

"Are you even old enough to be drinking?" Melody stared at her.

"Yeah," Tracy said indignantly. "Look, watch this!"

Jade hurled a long electrical charge at Tracy, who blocked it with a purple barrier of her black magic. The purple barrier evolved into a tiny globe, absorbing more and more of the electricity until it exploded with a loud poof, raining down little bits of purple matter laced with electricity which made the collision look like fireworks. This obviously attracted the attention of many in the ballroom, and the ones closest to the "fireworks" shifted away, creating an empty space around Tracy, Jade and the others.

Melody rolled her eyes. "Couldn't you have done that outside?"

"Cool, isn't it?" Jade grinned, and Melody couldn't help but smile a little. The Elemental Sorceress and Tracy seemed to take to each other now that they weren't fighting in the Crossing Zone anymore. In spite of her mild vexation, Melody was relieved that the Elemental Sorcerers were getting along well with the Warriors.

"So," Melody asked after she had pulled Tracy away from her new sorcerer buddies and out to the balcony overlooking the fjord. Maui had taken over her place, chatting amicably with the Elemental Sorcerers. "What happens next?"

"What d'ya mean?" Tracy asked, taking a long slurp from the bottle, and burped.

"I mean," Melody said. "Now that the threat of the Pilgrim is dealt with and Anna is reunited with Elsa, what are we going to do?"

"No, no," Tracy tipped the bottle and gulped down another mouth of alcohol. "What you mean is, am I going back to Denmark to continue working as a merchant's assistant. Am I done with our adventures with the Warriors. Right?"

Melody flushed, even though she wasn't the one who was drinking. "Yeah."

"I think the real question is," Tracy set her bottle down and looked at Melody. "Are you going back to Copenhagen High?"

"I-I don't know." Melody admitted. "I was certain of it, at first. I knew I was done with our adventures and just wanted to return to a normal life. But like you said back in Atlantica, a part of me felt missing when I was away from the Warriors."

"What about now?"

Melody took a deep breath and sighed. "From the looks of it, there's still a lot of work to be done here. What with all the sorcerers without homes, and-"

"So you're staying with the Warriors, right?"

Melody laughed. "Yeah. I guess."

Tracy snorted and gave her a playful punch. "Of course you are. We need our best fighter."

"Hah." Melody picked up the bottle and sniffed. She took a cautious sip and found that she liked the taste. "Best is subjective."

"You beat Prometheus, didn't you?"

"He got away." Melody said dryly.

"From what I heard from Kristoff, you broke his nose and sent him fleeing."

"That was before he broke my arm." Melody lifted her once broken arm, and realized that it wasn't exactly a good representation of what Prometheus had done to her. "Still, he did seem pretty desperate to get away. He didn't want to kill me, even. Elsa did mention that he wasn't completely evil, whatever that meant."

"Y'said it yourself. He broke your arm."

"I know, but that was only because he was in a rush to get out of Swynvort." Melody took another sip. "I think maybe there's more to him that we don't know about."

"Do you think we'll ever see him again?"

"I don't know." Melody pulled a long drink from the bottle, finishing it up.

"You beat him once, you can do it again."

"If we're keeping score, I think it's one to one. Or two to zero. I don't know." Melody grinned. "But I'll be ready."

There was a long pause as the two Warriors stared out at the fjord, enjoying the calm of the cool afternoon.

"And what about you?" Melody broke the silence.

"What about me?"

"You singlehandedly broke the Pilgrim's hold over the entire League." Melody said. "That's something."

Tracy snorted again. "She's not that scary."

Melody chortled. "So you're certain now?"

"Of what?"

"Your path." Melody reminded her.

"Ah." Tracy drawled uncharacteristically. "I guess. Meeting my brother in Eiden really put things in perspective." Melody stayed quiet, and Tracy continued. "When you left the club to find the Qa'nneth, Harry and I got into an argument. It helped me to see that I've really changed a lot since we last saw each other."

"You have." Melody agreed. "Even I think so, and we've only known each other for not that long a time."

"Harry was pretty disgusted with my allegiance with the Warriors at first. We left things kinda intense, but then he agreed to help me save you from Orkando, and before we parted, he admitted that he was proud of how I turned out." Tracy rolled her eyes. "Yeesh. Just saying it feels cheesy."

"But he's right, you know." Melody said. "You've forged your own path. A heroic one. And in some capacity, I think you inspired Harry to do the same. Otherwise, he wouldn't have helped us turn the tide against Orkando and liberated Eiden from his tyranny."

"Yeah," Tracy's cheeks flushed a little, and Melody knew it wasn't from the alcohol. "I was worried that being a Ha'naeth, I would turn out just like the Pilgrim. She said that she used to be like me, and I was genuinely afraid that I was on the path to becoming a real witch like her. But being in Eiden and fighting alongside the Warriors in Swynvort, I'm sure of one thing now. That I'm not becoming like the Pilgrim. I'm on the right path. I'm one of the good guys, and that's not gonna change."

"For what it's worth," Melody put an arm around Tracy's shoulder. "I think your mother would've been proud of you too."

"I'm not so sure about that, but I'll take it." Tracy said.

The two Warriors gazed out into the fjord again, enjoying each other's company and savouring the moment of triumph, for however long it might last.