Chapter 51: Martuska's Answers
"It seems that as the world becomes more fascinated with science and technology, the harder it is for people to believe in magic. But it is still there, if you peel back the layers of "scientific fact", that is all that's left."
Once packed Kurt shouldered his rucksack but didn't move. There was no point. He had nowhere to go. He could stay here and be tied up again by Franco and the others or go find persecution elsewhere. Suddenly all the good places in there world, his home (such as it was), Circus Gehlhaar, Father Dietrich's rectory seemed impossibly far away. And as he stood contemplating his options, his feet seemed to grow roots into the ground.
Kurt didn't know how long he stood there. Seemingly unable to move.
"I thought I told you to go." A voice said, issuing from somewhere in the darkness as though it belonged to a ghost.
"Martuska?" Kurt asked, trying to peer into the darkness to the source. He recognized her accent, so close to Margali's, yet on this nearly moonless night it was too dark for even his eyes to pick out any detail.
Martuska stepped out of the shadows. "You're still here," she said.
"I… I know." Kurt stammered. "I don't have anywhere to go. You have to help me."
Martuska laughed. "I can't figure out if you're very stubborn or very stupid," she said when she was done chuckling.
Kurt sighed. "Maybe a bit of both," he said.
"Why did you let Franco catch you?" Martuska asked.
The question caught Kurt off guard. Why? He had been overpowered. Just like on the beach, there was no way he could have run. "How?" Kurt asked, feeling more stupid than stubborn. He knew Martuska wouldn't have asked the question unless she already knew the answer, an answer he obviously didn't have for her.
"You can move yourself great distances in the blink of an eye, and yet you let three men bind you with ropes. Why?" Martuska asked. "Why did you let them?"
Kurt felt all the blood drain from his face. Why indeed? He had simply forgotten he could do it. She was right; he had let them catch him. There was no reason he'd had to endure any of that. Kurt shook his head.
"Never let people hurt you again," Martuska said, "not when you have the power to stop it from happening."
Kurt had been looking down at his feet, but now he looked up at Martuska. Why was she telling him this? Kurt nodded, still not sure what was happening. Was she actually going to help him? Or at least listen?
"Why me?" Martuska asked.
"I can explain everything," Kurt said, trying not to sound as desperate as he felt. "Just please give me the chance."
"I've sent them away, Franco and the boys," Martuska said. "Come. We will talk."
Kurt dropped his things and fell to his knees. "Thank you." Without thinking he reached for her hand to clasp in his own and she pulled away quickly.
"You forget yourself." Martuska said, whatever warmth that may have been in her voice a moment ago was gone. "Never touch me." She turned and began walking towards the camp.
"Hurry," she said, "There isn't much time."
Martuska's traveling home was more like Margali's old van, the one Kurt had grown up in, and even though his relationship with his foster aunt was tense, he felt instantly at home amongst the familiar furnishings and tapestries; the warm glow of oil lamps instead of the harsh 12 volt bulbs that powered the lights of their new trailer.
Martuska motioned for Kurt to sit down. He did so, thankful that the stools at her table had no backs so he didn't have to shift the chair to one side or the other to accommodate his tail. Martuska set a mug of tea down in front of him. Then she slowly lowered herself onto her own stool.
"You are persistent," she said.
"It's important," said Kurt.
"And you do know, that it is only because of your connection to my sister that I allow you in my home, Beng." Martuska added.
Kurt glared at her. "Beng" was the Rom word for demon and one of his least favorite insults. "Yes, I know. I'm all marmé." He said with a sarcastic sigh. "Can you at least call me Kurt?"
Now it was Martuska's turn to glare at him. "Do you mock my ways?" She asked.
"No," Kurt said, "I'm just reacting the way anyone would to being called "filthy" and a demon."
"So then tell me why you have come here?" Martuska asked him.
"I need your help." Kurt said.
Martuska smiled coyly. "And what makes you think I will help you?" She said.
"Because you said you believe in angels." Kurt said.
"Oh?"
Kurt took a deep breath, not sure how much of the truth he should tell. Wondering what the fine line between what would get him help and what would get him kicked out of the trailer was. There was an intense moment of debate in his head. "And because I've met Azazel." He said at last, unconsciously holding his breath.
Martuska sat up straighter, narrowing her eyes. "Azazel." She said. "Now that is interesting."
She hadn't kicked him out yet so Kurt allowed himself to exhale. "He follows me and I don't want him to. I love God and wish to serve Him, but I can't if he's around. I have to keep him away somehow." Kurt said.
Martuska stood up abruptly and Kurt wondered if now was the part where she kicked him out of her trailer. Instead she went to a cupboard and pulled out a large dusty tome. She flipped the pages absently as she thought. Finally she settled on one that seemed to satisfy her.
"So it is true," she said. "You are a scion of Azazel."
"I don't know." Kurt said. "I think so. He told me I was. But, I don't want to be. I need you to help me get rid of him."
Martuska laughed. "You can't 'get rid' of a demon," she said. She gestured at Kurt. "See, I couldn't get rid of you."
Kurt rolled his eyes.
"What makes you think I can free you from his presence? Why didn't you go to Margali for help?" Martuska asked.
It was a good question and Kurt didn't like thinking about the answer. Of course he would have preferred Margali's help, at least, in the past he would have. But now Margali was cold and distant to him. He wasn't sure if she would have bothered. "I don't know." Kurt said. "Something's wrong. She…" He trailed off, not sure if he wanted to tell Margali's sister how she had stopped talking to him, how Amanda suddenly wouldn't even look at him.
"She is angry." Martuska announced.
"Angry? How would you know? Why would she be angry?" Kurt asked.
Martuska returned to her seat and leaned towards him.
"Because Margali made a terrible mistake." Martuska said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "A mistake that cost her everything and one that you are partially responsible for."
"Me?" Kurt said in surprise. "What did I do?"
"Oh, it wasn't intentional on your part." Martuska said, leaning back. "I have always known that Margali would make the mistake someday. She was too blinded by her love for you."
"What's wrong with that?" Kurt asked.
Martuska smiled. "Nothing, unless one is a member of my family."
"Azazel said you were 'seers'." Kurt said.
"Yes, the scions of Enoch, the first man to hear to the voices of Angels and therefore forever linked to Azazel's kind." Martuska said. "You must see where the danger lies."
Kurt shook his head.
Martuska sighed. "It seems that as the world becomes more fascinated with science and technology, the harder it is for people to believe in magic. But it is still there, if you peel back the layers of "scientific fact", that is all that's left."
Kurt smiled. "Father Dietrich says the same thing," he said.
"Well, then perhaps he would understand the position that both you and Margali have placed me in."
"Placed you in? You weren't even there." Kurt said, growing more confused by the moment.
Martuska laughed. "You don't even know." She said as she chuckled to herself. "You understand nothing."
Kurt frowned. That wasn't true. There was plenty he understood. He understood the danger he faced in coming here. He understood that if he hadn't come, that Azazel would soon force him to bend to his will; possibly even putting Father Dietrich in danger at the same time. He understood that he had been alienated from the family he loved even if he didn't understand why.
"By all rights you should be dead." Martuska said.
Kurt's frown deepened. "But I'm not dead." He said. He was tired of hearing this.
"No. You are very much alive due to the sacrifice made by your mother and her daughter. And by myself." Martuska leaned forward again, her face just barely inches from Kurt's own. "And for what you now possess, I should kill you where you sit so that I might take back what is not rightfully yours."
Kurt jumped back out of his seat. "Why are you threatening me?" He asked. "I haven't done anything."
"Not intentionally." Martuska said. She motioned for Kurt to sit back down. "But you have most definitely done something, and act which threatens to remove the balance that my family and your kind have enjoyed for eons."
Kurt threw up his hands in frustrations. "You and Azazel both!" he shouted. "Riddles, prophecies, pronouncements, will you never just speak in plain sentences?"
Martuska gave a smug laugh. "Fine." She said. "You did die. And when she saw this, Margali blindly, stupidly, attempted to sacrifice a portion of her life to give you back yours."
"Ummm. Okay. Can Margali do that?" Kurt asked. He'd never seen Margali perform any magic beyond a bit of slight of hand with tarot cards.
"Yes. It would be a stupid thing to try to do, to anyone, and for you it was nearly fatal, not just for her, but for every living female member of her family. I'm shocked she even attempted to perform such reckless magic."
"What? Why?" Kurt asked in surprise. It didn't make any sense.
"I thought you said you met Azazel." Martuska said.
"I did. He didn't say anything about women. Just that you were seers."
"Yes all may hear, but the women hold the path, the way. It is the lineage that forms the line between the planes of the angels and ours. We are both a wall against the darkness and a path to knowledge. And Margali's attempt to save your life was a foolhardy, she risked far too much." Martuska said.
Kurt was silent.
"When Margali released her life force to you, for a moment the ethereal plane and the earthly plane were linked. And though your physical being was devoid of life, the part of you that walks on the opposite plane was very much alive.
And so like a drowning man being offered a branch, you nearly pulled your savior into the water with you." Martuska explained.
"But I wasn't aware of any of that." Kurt said. "I don't even remember Margali doing it."
"Of course not. But that is the danger. It was this very fate that I attempted to warn Margali of when I saw she had taken you in." Martuska said.
"Warn her?"
"Yes. When it became clear to me that she either didn't know or care who you were, I left messages for her attempting to warn her of your identity."
"The symbols on the door?" Kurt asked. Martuska nodded her head. "But I thought those were to frighten me away."
Martuska laughed. "If they were they certainly didn't do a very good job. No, they were warnings to Margali. All but one, that was a test to see if you could read your own language. Thankfully you could not."
"But why would you need to warn her in the first place? I mean, what's the problem with it?" Kurt asked.
"There is an undercurrent of power that surrounds those of us who stand on the path. Even if we are unconscious it is still there, providing one half of the balance. The other half comes from angel kind, and to a certain degree, from you?" Martuska said.
"Me?" Kurt asked. He was getting confused. This was so far outside the realm of anything he believed in that he wondered if Martuska wasn't simply making it up. Then again, he had no reasonable explanation for why Margali and Amanda were suddenly treating him differently. Could there be truth in Martuska's words, he wondered.
"Yes. You can't help it. And that is precisely why Margali should have never taken you in in the first place. The combined nexus of two magical beings with opposing power living together would be incredibly strong. I suspect that is exactly what attracted the two of them to you in the first place."
Kurt shook his head. "Azazel told me he called to Margali."
"I mean afterwards. Just being near you would have given them an incredible surge of power." Martuska said.
Kurt frowned. "But then what about me. Wouldn't I have been similarly attracted to them?" He asked.
"But you were." Martuska said. "Particularly to your sister, the end of the line and therefore the most powerful." She smiled knowingly. "An attraction beyond what is expected of a family member." She added.
"She's my sister, that's all", Kurt said defensively.
Martuska gave him a long look. "Have you forgotten I'm a seer?" She asked.
To change the subject Kurt pulled from his pocket the paper on which he had copied the angelic alphabet, wishing he still had the bible he'd always kept it folded in. He smoothed it out on the table. "I always liked them," he said.
For the first time Martuska smiled a real smile, not to mock him, but the recognition of a homesickness that he didn't even know he had.
"So, then what happened? Why was Amanda so angry?" Kurt asked.
"Once she became aware of her mistake, Margali did the only thing she could to save herself and her daughter, she gave up her place on the Winding Way to you. Now the path has twisted back on itself as I alone attempt to stay the positions once held by three people."
"I'm on it?" Kurt asked.
Martuska shrugged. "For all the good it does, yes."
There was the sound of wheels on gravel and a pair of headlights crossed the wall. Martuska stood up suddenly, knocking her stool to the ground.
"You must leave now." She said urgently.
"But, I…" Kurt stammered. Surprised by the change in her demeanor.
"Franco and his sons have returned. If they find you here, they will burn this trailer down with both of us in it. Go!"
Kurt gathered his things and ran for the door.
"Idiot!" Martuska shouted. "Not that way. They'll see you. Go your way. Find me again in the morning when they are gone"
For a moment Kurt was baffled. His way? Then he understood. He quickly glanced out the window, catching sight of a spot where he wouldn't be seen. And then he was gone, leaving Martuska alone with only the lingering scent of his teleportation.
