Chapter Twelve

Unusually, Tarreiz allowed them to sleep in later than seven thirty. Lucca supposed it was because they no longer had to hurry to rescue Marle before anything nasty happened to her. She also suspected that Tarreiz had known that Marle was in no danger, but had pushed them all the same.

She rolled over in the single bed to see Magus sprawled on his back over the bed next to her and couldn't suppress a smile. If the once-evil warlock had ever looked cute, it was when he was asleep. The ever-faithful Alfador was curled up on his chest. Lucca remembered how the cat had gone to Magus instantly when he had returned for him. The wizard had been gone for years, but his cat still remembered him. Lucca smiled again at the thought. When he wasn't trying to kill you, Magus had a soft spot a mile wide. He had changed a lot from the arrogant warlock whose mind was filled only with revenge. Then again, as far as they knew, he was still as determined to get his revenge against Lavos as ever. At least he had his sister and his cat back. That was probably what had caused him to change the most.

Lucca was in two minds about having a bed to herself for the first time in almost a week. It was nice to have some space to herself, but she had very much enjoyed spending her nights snuggled up to Magus. She supposed that on the trip to Kelke's castle or wherever it was that he lived, she would get the chance again.

She was happy to see that Crono and Marle had finally managed to get together. True, she had been a little jealous of the blonde princess at first - Crono was her friend, had been for all her life, and she didn't want to share him with anyone - and she had had a crush on him a few years ago, but she had since managed to get over it. It had been so obvious to all of them that the two were attracted to each other, but neither seemed to have made a move previous to this.

Obvious? That made Lucca wonder how obvious her attraction to Magus was. In her mind, there was no doubt that she was very close to being in love with him. She didn't know if he returned her feelings and she had no idea how to find out. He seemed to enjoy her company, and that was a start, but she didn't want to be friends with him. She wanted to be more than friends. She wanted to... to marry him and settle down somewhere and have mini-Maguses...

"Mini-Maguses," she said to herself softly, and grinned. "Dear God, no." Marriage was looking too far into the future at the moment, anyway. She needed to concentrate on surviving the battle with Kelke that they all knew was coming, and once they were back in their universe, she could sit down and have a big think about Magus. Well, a longer think than usual.

Struck by a sudden, horrible thought, Lucca threw off the covers, tried to get out of the bed, fell over, rose to her feet hoping that no one had noticed that, and went to where her clothes were piled neatly. (She was wearing pyjamas that Tarreiz had acquired for her in the village seemingly known as Jebraska.) There was a positively horrible and terrifying moment when all her pockets were empty, then she remembered her pants and checked the pocket there. Her fingertips felt something and she drew it out of the pocket, breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of the lock of orange hair resting on her palm. Without that bit of hair, she couldn't make a Taban-finder. Without a Taban-finder, she couldn't get them back to their own universe.

She replaced the precious bit of hair and patted the pocket absently, then glanced up at the door when it opened with a slightly guilty expression (although she hadn't done anything wrong).

"Get Magus and Schala up," Tarreiz instructed, not at all surprised to see that Lucca was up. "We have to get moving."

"Why?" Lucca asked. "I don't mean to be a pain, I'm just curious. It's one of my main faults. Why do we have to move so quickly?"

"I want to get you pointed on the right path before Kelke discovers that I am with you," Tarreiz responded. "I am breaking one of the rules of the Mages and when I am found out, none of the Eight will be particularly content with me."

"The mages? What - " Lucca was too late; Tarreiz had already closed the door.

They breakfasted on hot porridge that morning. It was utterly delicious, and Tarreiz promised the obliging innkeeper that she would repay him eventually. Lucca wondered who this magician was that she was so well known. After that they set off on their journey once more. Crono walked with Marle almost possessively, as if challenging anyone to take her away from him again.

Her curiousity again stirred, Lucca increased her pace to walk on Marle's other side. "That man - "

"Tarkyn," Marle supplied the name.

"Yes, him. He called you 'mage-touched'. What do you suppose that means?"

"I don't know. When did he call me that? I don't remember that."

"You were... otherwise occupied," remarked Lucca, and Crono turned a very satisfactory shade of red.

Marle shook her head. "I don't know what he meant by 'mage-touched'. It might be that I've been exposed to the Mages before the rest of you. Do you know anything about the Mages?"

Lucca and Crono both shook their heads.

"Well," began the princess, "they - "

"Lucca, may I ask if you have a way of returning your group to your own universe?" Tarreiz called back.

"If I can get the parts, then I can make a device that will lock on to a person in my universe, and if the Epoch still works, then we can transport ourselves there," Lucca answered.

"That's a lot of 'if's," Magus commented.

"What, don't you trust me?" Lucca asked with mock hurt.

Magus raised an eyebrow. "I've seen some of your inventions. That robot of yours at the fair almost broke my foot."

"Well, not many people kick it."

"What else could I do? I couldn't hold my scythe and I couldn't use magic!"

"Yes, never underestimate the power of the scytheless, magicless wizard," Schala teased.

"Damn right!" Magus agreed.

"That reminds me, we need to work on that technique," Crono remembered. "You know, where someone puts magic on Magus' scythe and he swings it? If he has to be the one to deal the final blow to Kelke to regain his magic, then we're going to need to get it right."

"We'll practice it tonight," Marle decided. "And maybe Frog can demonstrate it for us. Hey, Frog, how come you and Magus can do that so perfectly?"

"I do not know," Frog answered. "Perchance it is because we have previously encountered the other and I have had the misfortune to spend more time with him in a time-line than any other in our group."

"Hey! Are you suggesting that sharing a time-line with me is a bad thing?" Magus demanded.

"I had to share a palace with you, and that was bad enough!" Schala put in.

"Nobody loves me!"

"Oh, I think you'll find that Lucca does," Crono teased, and it was Lucca's turn to blush.

"Well - " she began, but stopped. "Marle, what are you doing?"

"Athing thnowfakes oh mah hung," Marle responded. She was walking with her tongue stuck out.

"Is it snowing?" Schala held a hand out as if to test for snowflakes.

"In Marle's world, it certainly appears to be!" was Magus' comment.

The group kept up the steady chatter, banter and teasing until Tarreiz stopped them for the night. "I think we have gone far enough this day," she said, casting a worried glance at the horizon - or at something that the others couldn't see. "We must start early in the morrow. You should work on the technique about which you spoke. I will start the fire," she said and wandered off to do so.

Crono flexed his fingers as if he would call on the lightning then and there. "What do you think of Tarreiz?" he asked Marle.

"I think she's a Mage," answered Marle, taking a drink from a water bottle. "Ah! Cold!"

"Yes, it's snowing," remarked Magus acidly, wrapping his cloak about him for any scrap of warmth that he could get.

Marle wrinkled her nose at him but otherwise ignored him. "She's one of the Eight Mages. I can't think of which one, though, but she's definitely a Mage."

"Yes," Lucca agreed, "she's a magician, and so is Magus. Magus the mage... couldn't you think up anything better?" she asked Magus.

He shrugged. "I was disorientated and very young when I found myself in the middle of some crazy place that definitely was not Zeal. So no, I couldn't think up anything better. Come over here, I'm cold!"

As Lucca went to him, Frog asked Marle, "Doth thou possess information of the mages that could enlighten us? I have heard just enough of them to pique my curiousity but not nearly enough to sate it."

"There are eight of them," Marle began, for that was something she could definitely remember. "Forest, Sun, Moon, Water, Fire, Shadow, and I can't remember the last two. I think they're very powerful and very magical beings, and apparently their purpose is to protect this universe. Remember how I told you that Lavos is coming here too? Well, the Mages say they can create a shield that will bounce him away from this planet to an uninhabited one, but they need all eight Mages to do it. They only have five, and apparently the last three still have to be 'awakened'. Or called, or something. The Eighth Mage seems to be the most mysterious. Maybe Tarreiz is the Eighth? Tarkyn is a Mage, by the way, the Forest Mage. He was the one who told me all this."

"What makes you think that Tarreiz is a Mage?" Schala asked curiously.

"She's very powerful and she knows a lot," Marle shrugged. "I heard Tarkyn mention some place called Altrisiac, and seeing her there. I think Altrisiac is some place where the Mages meet. I wonder if she is the Eighth? I just have this... feeling about her."

"Mage-touched," said Lucca to herself.

"She's definitely one of the three that we have to find for them," Marle continued. "So we have two left to find."

"Wait, wait," Crono objected. "We have to save our own world, too. We can't spend forever here, tracking down these Mages."

"But we can look while we're here," Marle pleaded. "I feel we have a duty."

Crono nodded reluctantly. "We can't just leave them defenceless, I agree. Okay, everyone, keep your eyes peeled for anyone you think might be a Mage."

"Kelke is a Mage," Magus put in quietly. "We've named him as one. Everyone calls him that. Kelke is the Shadow Mage."

"You mean...?" Crono let his voice trail away.

Magus nodded. "That's right. We're up against one of the Eight Mages."