Alpha found his steps slowing as he neared the base of the Denadoro Mountains. So much had happened to him here! He thought again of that fate-filled day when Cyrus and he had climbed this very mountain and Magus had so drastically changed his life.
A tree marked the entrance to the glen he had woken as a frog in. He deliberately avoided the turn that led to that place that held his darkest memories of his greatest pain.
Alpha sighed deeply and began to climb. The plateau where Cyrus had charged Magus and been struck dead beckoned him. He mounted the summit and knelt at the spot where he had held his friend as Cyrus had died. He rose and gazed toward the cliff face where Magus had stood. One part of his mind noticed that an ash sapling had grown near the spot, while in his memory he saw again that writhing mass of green energy that had engulfed him, thrown him off the cliff and changed his life forever. He shuddered.
From within a tree next to where he had triumphed those many years ago, Magus watched as Alpha fell to his knees, hugged his shoulders and rocked in agony. He winced as he comprehended how much evil he had wrought in Alpha's life. As if to imprint the image forever in his mind, the shadow of the tree he was hiding in crept over the despairing frog as the sun set.
Alpha uncurled as the cool evening breeze swept over the plateau. With a visible effort he got up, dusted himself off and walked toward the edge of the mountain. Magus panicked until he realized that Alpha, even though he seemed thoroughly disheartened, looked for the path down the mountain. He waited until Alpha had a good head start and then followed.
Alpha carefully picked his way down the mountain, paused before taking a seemingly unimportant turn and entered a beautiful lea. Magus melded into a willow tree and watched as Alpha, strangely enough, stood in the spray of the waterfall. Magus was too far to see if there were tears on Alpha's face, but even he could read the totally despondent slump to the frog's shoulders.
"Alpha?" Magus heard a soft voice call.
Alpha stepped from the cascade and gasped as Queen Leene entered the clearing.
"Oh...Alpha...I felt somehow that you needed me...I know...about you, about Glenn...I have a shadowy almost-memory of how you were, tall, handsome, heroic, kind...I remember who you should be...and I know what you are condemned to be..." Leene declared as she approached.
"Leene, my queen, thou canst not see'eth me thus..." Alpha began as he scrambled away from the queen.
"No!" Leene's call arrested Alpha's flight. "I remember what happened a few nights ago, but I don't feel that twisting confusion anymore! I know you have been like this, a frog in form, but never in heart; and I know that you have also, somehow, been Guardia's First Knight as Glenn and my own favorite knight as Cyril. I don't know why but these two sets of memories no longer cause me pain," Leene explained further as she neared to within touching distance.
Magus gaped inside the willow. He thought he had erased Leene's conflicting memories! Step by step he recalled the spell he had set within Leene's mind and realized he had never told her to forget her alternate memories, instead he had told her that her memories would not trouble her. He wondered if Cyrus had confused his intent to cause this effect.
"Milady, I am relieved that thou hath no further pain from memories of me; I grieveth that I hath brought thee pain at all. Now that I know'eth that thou canst withstand the sight of me, I canst return to thy side and be thy guard openly again and not guard thee unseen from the shadows...but I confess that I am not worthy of that charge for I hath not the honor or bravery of Cyrus who laid it upon me..." Alpha's shoulders slumped again.
Magus noticed as the slight golden glow he had learned to associate with Cyrus spread from the frog to Leene.
"Cyrus...was a dear friend as are you. I am certain he would find only honor in you, Alpha, and the decisions you have made..." Leene tried to reassure.
"Cyrus wouldst curse me for wasting his life and abandoning my charge!" Alpha cried out. "Thou art threatened by erasure from the very fabric of Time! I canst not bring myself to work with Magus who is the only one who canst saveth thee! I am so selfishly wrapped up in remembering who I hath been and what I hath lost...I can not bear to be this again...I can not go on..."
Leene reached forward and grabbed Alpha in an embrace. He struggled to escape but Leene tightened her hold until Alpha wrapped his arms around her and sobbed.
"Shh," Leene crooned. "I do not pretend to know the pain you feel. I don't have to. In both sets of memories I have of you, the handsome knight or the loyal frog retainer, you are my friend. You have every right to hate Magus and every right to avoid him. Even thoughts of him are enough to frighten me; a more evil man I have never met."
Leene's comment stabbed deeper than the sudden thrust of his ghostly Geas. Magus recalled that he had not altered Leene's memories of him, even though his feelings toward Leene had changed. It hurt that she thought of him as frightening and evil.
"Alpha...Glenn, you have borne more than anyone I've ever met. Cyrus was a friend, a great knight, and a hero of the kingdom, and I do not say this to dishonor him, in fact, I feel as if I'm saying this for him; you have taken more, been more honorable under more trying conditions than I think even Cyrus could have endured," Leene vowed softly as she held Alpha.
At being addressed with his true name, the Frog Knight sobbed deeper and clung to Leene. She tightened her hold and rocked Alpha as a mother rocks her child.
Magus found this sorrow of Alpha's to be even more difficult to witness than when Alpha had despaired at Cyrus' tomb. Leene's beautiful face streamed with tears as she offered what comfort Alpha could find in her presence. Cyrus' Geas burned within Magus, compelling him to admit that he caused this pain. Finally, Magus could stand no more.
He shifted from the willow by the pool to the ash on the plateau and stepped out.
"I see what I did! I understand what I caused! I am not a heartless monster who does not regret his actions! But understand, you pitiless specter, I can do nothing to undo Alpha's curse until I save my sister! You know I am needed to save her and if I do not save her, Leene will perish. Once Schala is saved and I return to you...and you slay me...Alpha will again be restored. Until then...please, please...stop...hurting me. My own guilt is enough without having to take your...punishment on top of it."
Magus paced a few steps as if to escape both his raw emotions and pitiful plea.
"Do you think I haven't learned? I see, I admit I misused my power in the past on Glenn and on Leene...but understand this is not my time...this is not the life I should have had...I should have lived my span eons ago in the Land of Magic...been a mage and studied there with my sister. Instead, I was cast as a child through a Time Gate to a hostile land with nothing but half-remembered lessons and a talent for spells. I hated Lavos with all that I was. He...it destroyed my mother, my homeland, my life...I learned fearsome magic to try to kill it for all it had done to me and those I loved..." Magus stripped some leaves off the tree and tore them in his hands.
"Now Lavos is dead...my sister is in danger and through her Leene and other relatives I never knew I had...once I save her then what? I have no home to return to. I am just as much an outcast as Alpha! I'm even starting to angst as much as he! In a way it's good that I have your doom over me. I really have nowhere to go..."
Magus wasn't sure when it had happened, but he noticed the pain from the Geas had eased and only his own guilt burned in his soul. He spent some time composing himself and then, reluctantly, shifted back to the pool side willow.
Leene, bathed in a brilliant golden glow she was apparently unaware of, cradled Alpha's head in her lap. She pulled his cloak over his shoulders and stroked his head very gently. Alpha seemed to sleep, worn out once again by powerful emotions. Magus watched in awe as the moon rose and washed silver light into the glade. Leene seemed to absorb that pure light. She smiled gently down on the Frog Knight as he slept on in her lap.
"Alpha...Glenn, I can't help but feel...everything will be made right. I can't explain why I feel this, but I do. I think...the future holds much happiness for you. I would make that my wish if I could...that you find happiness. You deserve so much! You accuse yourself of broken honor because you cannot abide Magus. If you only knew how much honor you really have! Strangely, I feel that Magus brings you your happiness...that somehow he is connected," Leene pondered the meaning of her own remark and then shook her head ruefully.
Magus shivered within the willow, sensing that the queen was manipulating great magic. He felt certain that Leene herself was unconscious of her own ability. The moon rose higher and, as the silver light flowing into the glade muted to white, the raw magic ebbed. Leene sighed.
Magus lost track of time as he watched the queen, in a weird reversal of roles, guard Alpha. He had all but forgotten the strange golden aura until it flowed from Leene to Alpha.
"You and Cyrus are my favorite knights," the queen whispered to the sleeping frog. "Remember that always! And, while I admit that you, as Glenn, are quite fair to look at, it is your friendship, loyalty and honor that I treasure more."
Alpha stirred and woke.
"Oh, my lady! I shouldst not...thou mustn't...I..." Alpha struggled to his feet and helped the queen to rise.
"Alpha!" Leene laughed. "It is okay! I have been honored and amused to serve as your guard this night. Whatever happens, however you appear when your quest is over, return to me. There shall always be a place for you at my castle, my friend."
Alpha bowed.
"Further, I think you will find you can now think of working with Magus. You don't have to like it, but I think you can manage it. You have more strength and forbearance than you realize."
"Thou may'eth be right, my queen," Alpha admitted in a low tone, "It doth not make sense, but I feel'eth...comforted; I feel'eth that I am not abandoning my memories of Cyrus to work with Magus. I shouldst seek him out, discuss with him what hath happened..."
"Alpha, remember that you only have to work with him. You do not have to like him, or what he has done. You have to steer him in the right course for now. I have vague memories of discussing Schala with you...something about reality being threatened?" Leene responded.
"Yea, to saveth reality, and even more to saveth thee and Ariel, I can work with Magus," Alpha vowed. He looked toward the east and noticed the first rays of dawn.
"Milady, thou hath spent the night watching o'er me! Thou must need sleep thyself. I shouldst escort thee back to thy castle..." Alpha recriminated himself.
"I am tired!" Leene admitted.
Magus waited until Leene and Alpha had left before stepping from the willow.
"I should head back toward the frog's home, set up a camp somewhere so that he can find me for our 'discussion'," Magus said out loud.
He carefully eased from the glade and down the last few yards of the mountain. A huge boulder offered him cover as he looked around it to make sure Alpha and the queen would not see him. Alpha stood defiantly as four of the queen's guardsmen confronted him.
"So, you kidnapped our queen? I always knew you weren't to be trusted you cold-hearted frog!" the lead guardsman jeered.
"That not be..." Alpha started.
"Can't you even speak properly? You really are a pitiful creature!" another guardsman pointed out.
"Stop! Alpha is my friend! I came here of my own free will. I will not hear you slander him!" Leene commanded.
"As you wish, my queen. We should take you back to the castle. You must be exhausted from your ordeal," one of the guards offered unctuously as he took her elbow. Another man took her other arm. She promptly shook their hands off her.
"I am not a child to be so treated. I am the queen! I command you to leave Alpha alone!" Leene stood at her full height and tilted her chin at a challenging angle.
"I shouldst leave now, my liege. I know'eth these guards will taketh excellent care of thee, e'en though they do not trust me. Thy memories shall bear me out," Alpha looked sorrowfully at these time-shifted versions of friends he had made before reviving Magus. He turned resolutely and walked toward the woods.
"Remember to return to me, no matter what!" Leene called after him. "You are as true and honorable as Cyrus ever was!"
"He must have her under a spell!" a young guardsman muttered.
"Stop speaking nonsense!" Leene snapped. "You could do a lot worse than to have Alpha as a model! Now, attend to me, if you will, and return with me to the castle. And I better not hear any more talk about Alpha 'kidnapping' or 'ensorcelling' the queen or I shall put you on scullery duty and give the maids a week off!"
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Author's notes -
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