Magus watched as the queen and her four guards departed for the castle and reflected that, despite the queen's generous command to return, Alpha had no place to go in this time either. It disconcerted him that he and his enemy had so many points in common. He remembered Prime's advice to think of Orion and Alpha as allies and realized that he did think of the big-hearted kid with the wild hairdo and potent lightning magic as an ally, almost a friend. He wondered why he had not made the same shift in perception toward Alpha. He shrugged his shoulders and entered the woods.
A week of following the frog had given Magus a good instinct for how long it would take for Alpha to stumble upon his "camp". Magus had just put the last few touches to his camp before he heard the very slight noise Alpha made walking through the woods.
"So...here you are," Magus commented drily as Alpha came into view.
"Magus! What art thou doing here?" Alpha demanded.
Magus stood up, tossed his stick into the fire and brushed his cloak off.
"Waiting for you, of course," he answered amiably enough. "You and I have much to discuss, frog."
Alpha closed his eyes in weary patience. "Magus, I need to help thee in any way that I canst, to saveth thy sister, Schala, my friend, Ariel and my queen, Leene. That is a situation I canst not change, nor canst thee. Must we...endure insults and make such a venture so much more taxing than it must be?"
Magus cast as neutral and blank a stare as he could for a long moment and then turned away.
"I...find I need your help. I don't like it anymore than you do. Fate...doesn't care that we have a rather...adversarial history," Magus gazed intently at a small inoffensive shrub even as his Ghost-given Geas screamed in his soul. Violently he stamped down the pain. It unnerved him that Alpha hadn't responded so he glanced at the silent frog with an affectedly bored look.
To his surprise, Alpha caught his gaze and then looked hastily away.
"There was a moment when I...desired thy death beyond all things. I...respond'eth to that urge and...took thy life. Fate decreed that it not be so and I wast allowed to undo that. Thus far, I've not regretted that," Alpha admitted.
It shook Magus to realize that Alpha had felt guilty for slaying him. One part of him could not believe that, in one timeline he had actually been dead, even though he had read the promise of death in Alpha's eyes during their fight on South Cape. It seemed wrong that Alpha was apologizing to him, given all he had done to Alpha.
The Geas within him and some small part of his own soul cried to him to make a like apology; that he would undo all he had done if he could, but the old, bitter attitude refused to give way. He thinned his lips and gazed into the distance just over Alpha's left shoulder.
Alpha's eyes blazed in disappointment and his features settled into a hard expression that reminded Magus of Alpha's face during their duel on South Cape.
"You and I must work on combining our magic if we're going to try to save my sister, and your friends. We can't avoid it any longer," Magus noted aloud. He turned to look Alpha full in the face and in as patronizing a tone as he could manage said, "Let's not have any more useless sulking, shall we?"
He quailed inside at the fury he could all but sense from the Frog Knight, but was relieved that the last of Alpha's despair seemed to vanish. "If he has to hate me to get over his depression, well, so be it!" Magus thought to himself. He noticed the burning from the Geas lifted.
"I suppose I shall have to supply the magical charge to your weapon, since the water magic you wield is the weakest of the elemental magics. It's hardly worth it to combine my scythe and your water spells. We'd almost be better just keeping our techniques separate," Magus noted in a taunting voice.
"For someone who
is doomed if we do not combine our magics, thou art imprudent!" Alpha
shot back as he stalked off.
********
The Geas remained relatively quiet for the next few weeks as Magus strove to develop fighting strategies with each of Orion's friends. As he had thought, he combined most easily with Prime. The similarities between his Shadow magic and Prime's futuristic weapons made it very simple to align the forces properly. Surprisingly, Orion's Lightning magic was the next easiest one for him to work with. Elora's Fire magic followed that and lastly, the Water magic from Alpha.
Magus realized that all the combined spells they devised that he was a part of were destructive and further realized that the only magic he used routinely was destructive as well. The closest thing he had to healing or assisting magic was the sleeping-potion-aided spell that he had used on Leene, and even that was unreliable. He found himself studying parts of his magic tomes that he had only glanced at before.
He looked at the science of magic from a new perspective and made some discoveries. Shadow was the most destructive magic of all, Lightning next, then Fire. Water he had always counted as the weakest magic, and from an offensive point of view it was, but it was also the most versatile. The strongest curing and aid-giving magic existed in the element of Water. No healing flowed from the discipline of Shadow. From this he postulated the difficulty with combining with Alpha stemmed. Alpha's magic and the way he used it was totally alien to Magus. He had never expected that the frog would teach him anything about magic.
Interspersed with his logical and in-depth examination of magic was a thorough revulsion of one aspect of Alpha's magic. Every time that Magus was injured, Alpha would used that damned Slurp of his. He became so fast at tagging Magus with his tongue that his Slurp Cut was becoming formidable. Alpha routinely beat Prime out for the task of healing Magus. It got so that Magus had begun to cut a recognizable path to the stream, so often did he trek there to clean up.
He found that he really couldn't blame the frog. The week he spent following Alpha had showed him more of Alpha's heart than he had cared to know. The Geas made sure that he realized each and every day what he had done to Alpha. The pains and aches that were Cyrus' mode of communication had started to change Magus' behavior. He began to endure the Slurp Healing with only narrowed eyes and a grimace of disgust...until Elora noted it.
"Hey, Magus, you aren't goin' all soft on us are you? I haven't heard a peep out of you at all today!"
Magus couldn't understand Elora's animosity. True he had tried to kill all of them when they came to stop him from summoning Lavos, but they had invaded his castle. He didn't care for anyone to think that he was going soft.
"Fortunately, I haven't required any so-called healing today and so haven't had to endure the frog's odious touch," he retorted.
The Geas beat at him with frightening force and to distract himself Magus watched the reactions to his comment. Alpha's shoulders slumped and he stared at Magus dully for a moment before moving off through the trees. Prime shot a complex look that combined reproach, disappointment and an obscure understanding Magus' way before following Alpha. Magus was amazed that he had read all that on Prime's metallic face and part of him was astonished anew at Elora's accomplishment in adding this to Prime's abilities.
Elora herself glanced daggers at Magus and muttered darkly under her breath. Orion watched each reaction even as Magus did with a level, assessing expression. He turned toward Magus with that gaze and nodded as if deciding upon something.
"Elora," the note of command, so rarely used, was in his voice. "I want to speak with you at Alpha's pad. Go and wait for me there."
Elora looked at him, thought about quipping something, thought better of it and walked off in the direction of Alpha's home.
"Magus..." Orion started in that same level voice.
Magus looked at him with a neutrally challenging stare and adjusted his right glove casually. Orion bared his teeth in a mirthless smile at that almost-threat.
"I know that this isn't easy for you or for Alpha," Orion continued. "Elora's comment didn't help...but," Magus found steel in Orion's hard, blue gaze, "back off!"
Magus didn't quite nod but he saw that Orion read something in his eyes. Satisfied, Orion followed Elora.
Magus paced about in the now deserted clearing and thought about the past few weeks. He had studied the softer side of magic, come to understand some of the strengths and weaknesses in each form of it. He had learned to act cooperatively with others, at least part of the time. He had found at least one...person...in Prime whom he almost considered a friend and he suspected Orion could be a friend as well. Shadowing Alpha on his search had opened his eyes about what he had done as nothing else could.
"Perhaps I am going soft," he noted aloud. "Oh, I wish Schala were here!"
He paced the clearing again.
"Soft...me? I can't be...I've come so far, lost so much...I can't lose the one thing...that...If I start to...need...people, how can I survive? I am Magus, I warred on Guardia, damn near won, too...I command dark and powerful magic, people fear me...they wouldn't trust...I can't need people...I can't, I won't go soft!" he whispered fiercely.
********
The next day Magus made certain to be as unreadable and cranky as he had ever been. Even though the Geas pulled on him painfully all day, he snarled at everyone and was as rude and churlish as possible. His head ached with the pain from the Geas and the unexpected effort it took to behave so obnoxiously. He used that pain to maintain his bad mood.
"Get it through your tin-plated head, robot!" he found himself saying. "You're a machine! Why anyone would have use for you as other than cheap labor, I cannot fathom!"
The wounded look in Prime's mechanical green eyes made him want to take back everything he had just said but he wouldn't let himself weaken. Prime finally turned and walked away. One by one Magus brutally severed any tenuous connection he had made with anyone that dealt with anything other than power and rescuing his sister. He found a curious reluctance in him as he did so, but he resolved to do away with anything that might weaken him or make him soft. Ozzie had taught him from early on that to show softness or weakness was to give power to your enemy...and everyone was an enemy.
Elora walked around and gave Orion significantly smug looks. Prime avoided Magus all together, even so far as to walk in the other direction if Magus showed up in his line of sight. Orion himself had a confused, rather lost look about him. Alpha watched Magus almost constantly with one hand resting on the hilt of his sword and a totally alien look in his golden, slit-pupiled eyes.
On the third day the strain got to even Magus. He woke with the rest of them, found his stomach couldn't take another day of behaving so evilly and simply walked into the forest as if disgusted with everyone.
"You might as well claim me now," he thought fiercely at the Ghost. "It's obvious I've pushed away any who could help me find Schala. They can probably do a better job of rescuing her without me anyway. I'm a villain, not a hero!"
The Geas remained quiet. Magus stalked almost blindly through the forest, unaccustomed tears stinging his eyes. He wasn't even certain why they were there.
He missed his footing and tripped over a fallen tree on the side of the faint trail. He felt a sickening shock and heard a loud snap. He cried out hoarsely in agony and fell, clutching his broken leg. His effort to ease the pain by cradling his leg caused the world to swim alarmingly. Magus knew why he was crying now.
He rued that he did not have healing magic and that he had probably so disgusted his companions they were unlikely to come looking for him. He tried to pull himself over to a tree to stand, but the pain of just sliding his broken leg across the ground forced him to stop before he passed out. Magus admitted he needed help, without it he could possibly die out here.
"Magus! What hath happened?" Alpha cried as he saw the mage crumpled next to the path. Magus's leg bent sideways just below the knee at an angle that would have told anyone that his leg was fractured.
Magus looked up at the frog knight and read the concern in his eyes. "Alpha..." To his disgust, he couldn't even form the request that might ease his pain and looked away in shame.
He heard movement and looked back to find Alpha crouched next to him. Eyes of purest, pale gold met his. The alien, sideways slit pupils gave no clue at the thoughts behind them. For the first time since North Cape, Magus feared the frog.
"Art thou injured but for thy leg?" Alpha asked neutrally.
Magus couldn't help it. He shook his head no, scrunched his eyes tightly closed and braced his shoulders for the odious assault of healing he knew was coming.
A few interminable seconds passed. The lightest, softest flick of a touch came to rest on his arm and the gentlest warmth pooled in his leg and eased his pain. He felt the bone knit itself back together and the throbbing, sickening ache disappeared.
Utterly surprised he opened his eyes and locked gazes with Alpha. This time, the frog knight's humanity glowed in his alien amphibian features.
"Why?"
"Thou art not mine enemy. I hath come to see thee through new eyes," Alpha observed quietly.
Hating pity even more than the Slurp, Magus searched Alpha's face. He found respect, affection and compassion in those wide set amphibian eyes, but no pity. He realized that Alpha did not see him as soft or weak.
"It wast not until thou began to behave so awfully that I realized that thou had really changed. Seeing the return of the old Magus madeth me realize that there wast more than just the old Magus. Thou had formed a friendship with Prime, one wast starting with Orion, e'en Elora would hath come around. It wast her comment about softness that changeth all of that, wasn't it?" Alpha noted.
Magus was shocked that Alpha could figure that out about him. He had never credited him with that much perception or intelligence before. Alpha smiled sadly at him with his ridiculous frog mouth, easily following the train of his thought, and gazed over his shoulder.
"I...I wish'eth Cyrus had found Janus instead of Ozzie," he noted softly.
Magus was stunned yet again. He had come to know how much Cyrus had meant to Alpha. In a way, Alpha was trying to give Cyrus to Magus. Magus smiled tightly at the irony. He had more of Cyrus than he cared to stomach! And yet, unless he was completely reading it wrong, Cyrus or at least his Ghost, seconded Alpha's wish. Magus wondered how his life would have turned out if Cyrus had found his younger self instead of Ozzie.
In spite of himself, Magus found tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He knew in his heart of hearts that Alpha was the True Hero. Such generosity of spirit is no easy feat.
"I...fear I have sorely used you...Glenn," Magus' voice was rough with emotion. "...killing Cyrus, turning you into a frog, the way I've been treating you..."
"I admit I've not been overly gentle with thee. My Slurp Heal wast never so messy an I useth it for thee!" Alpha chuckled a little.
"Alpha...Glenn, I would restore you to your true form if I could...undo that part of the damage I've caused in your life...but I don't know how..." Magus noted the tight, sad look that flashed across Alpha's face even as Alpha laid a hand on his arm.
"Be...at peace. There are advantages to being as I am now. I...am accustomed to it. Those who truly know me do not care how I appear'eth. That is all that matters."
From tailing him on his quest, Magus knew what it cost Alpha to be a frog and knew that the cost would continue to be exacted. He reflected that if Alpha could bear up under that, he might be able to bear it if some thought he was soft or even...weak.
"How am I...I'm rotten at apologies and I don't really know how to be a friend. You and Orion..." Magus stammered out and found that opening up to Alpha was easier than he would have dreamed possible. He wondered if having part of Cyrus well, possessing him, had anything to do with that.
"Each friendship is a unique and valuable thing. My friendship with Orion is quite different from the one I have with Prime," Magus winced inside at how he had hurt Prime just the other morning, "and each friendship with one of the girls is different from that. Thou and I will find our friendship together...if that is what thou want'eth."
"Unfortunately, sarcasm and quips are more my style than quiet heart-to-hearts or being...nice," Magus noted dryly.
"Sarcasm can sometimes be...friendly, and quips do not always have to hurt. Elora calls me 'froggy' with great affection and I take no offense," Alpha admitted.
"You mean I don't have to be sweetness and light to be a friend?" Magus asked.
"Is Orion?"
"No, but when he teases you it is obvious that is what he's doing. When he speaks his mind or heart no one laughs at him," Magus said slowly.
"Hath I laughed at thee?" Alpha asked.
"No...but I'm afraid the others might or might feel superior...Magus, the evil sorcerer brought low, defanged, made good!" Magus admitted in a low tone.
"Magus, defanged? Thou?" Alpha laughed in mock amazement. "Seriously, while some of what thou hath done is evil, I doth not believe that thou, thyself are evil. There is good within thee. Thou could hath slain me rather than transforming me. Thy search for Lavos was for vengeance for a wrong it had done thee, not power. E'en now, thou search'eth for thy sister. These acts art not wholly evil and at least one is wholly good. With Lavos gone, thou must change. It dictated thy life long enough. Now it is time for thou to decide who and what thou are." Alpha looked intently into Magus' face and saw that his words were having some effect.
He leaped up and offered a hand to Magus. "We shouldst rejoin the others."
"Hop along, Sir Froggy," Magus replied accepting the hand up. His leg took his weight and seemed whole. It was as if he hadn't broken it at all.
"Why is it everyone picks on the frog and maketh silly jokes at my expense?" Alpha muttered half to himself.
"It's just your lot in life, my...friend. Huh, that wasn't so hard!" Magus declared.
"Come on, Mad Mage, we shouldst return to the others," Alpha replied as he slapped Magus across the back. Magus crouched defensively and eased up with a sheepish grin.
"Okay, I've got some learning to do!"
********
"Powdering your nose, Magus? What took you so long?" Elora asked peevishly. "Alpha went looking for you over an hour ago!"
Magus bristled reflexively. He felt more vulnerable than ever before in his life and found he couldn't tell the truth of what had happened between himself and Alpha.
"I fell...and broke my leg. Alpha found me and...you know I always have to clean up from the frog's Slurp."
Alpha started. "Why that ungrateful...that was the gentlest...I'll show him cleaning up the next time he needs healing! Just wait!" he promised himself as he smiled wolfishly.
Orion noted it and shot a puzzled look at his friend as they walked deeper into the woods looking for monsters.
Orion noticed some peculiar things starting from that day. Firstly, every time he opened his mouth Magus hung on every word almost as if he were studying Orion for some reason. Orion sincerely hoped the mage wasn't trying to decide what vile thing he was going to turn him into.
Secondly, the "evil" Magus seemed to have disappeared entirely. For instance, Orion noticed that Magus seemed to be trying to grab a private moment with Prime. Orion decided to interfere and bring that meeting about. As if by accident, he assigned both Magus and Prime rear-guard on their march and then set a slightly faster pace so that Magus and Prime could fall back for a bit out of earshot. He looked back after awhile and noticed that they had closed the gap. The easy carriage of the mage and springiness in the step of the robot and the closeness between them told him his instinct had been right. Magus had mended whatever had damaged his friendship with Prime.
Truly remarkable was the teasing Magus piled on Alpha. The most amazing aspect was that anyone could see that it was teasing. There did seem to be a genuine respect in Magus now toward the frog knight. The fact that it troubled Alpha not at all, and he gave at least as good as he got, was not lost on Orion.
Elora was just as untrusting and acid of tongue as usual toward Magus, but most of the time he would just smile rather sweetly and change the subject. His quips and jibes, while just as dry and wryly funny as ever, were less like insults and more often amusing things that everyone could laugh at.
Orion wasn't quite sure what he was witnessing, but he did admit that Magus was becoming part of the team. This thought did not panic him as it did before. In fact, it began to comfort him. He realized that a powerful Mage, skilled in many magics could be very handy in rescuing Ariel and Schala. Orion wasn't sure where he himself stood with the reformed mage (he hadn't forgotten the rough way he had treated Magus, and was fairly sure Magus hadn't either) but he decided to let Magus determine when they would discuss that.
On one foray he fell back to pace with Alpha who was rear-guard. "I guess I'm getting used to Magus. He's not such a bad seed after all," Orion noted quietly to the pensive frog knight.
"He still possess'eth many rough edges. Perhaps a liberal application of water shall smooth'eth them down," Alpha noted in a low tone.
Orion really didn't like the smile on Alpha's face.
"Alpha, are you...feeling
okay? I know you two have been joking with each other lately...but...you
have this...well, evil smile when I mention Magus. You aren't going
to kill him again, are you?" Orion felt compelled to ask.
Alpha stopped
suddenly and looked searchingly into his friend's worried face. He
smiled the uncomplicated, wholesome smile Orion preferred. "Be at
ease, my friend. Magus is safe in my webbed hands, far safer than
he hath e'er been in his life. He just won't like it much."
Alpha smiled that wolfish smile and let Orion see the mischief behind it.
Orion wasn't sure if he was reassured or not as he walked back toward the front just as Elora startled some T'poles.
********
Magus ruminated about how odd life could be. He had felt hardly a twinge from Cyrus' Geas since Alpha had healed his broken leg. He found that he very much enjoyed being with these people, able to be himself for the first time in a long time, in fact since he had been dumped through Lavos' Time Gate as a child. He had been raised in such a hostile place and Ozzie had expected so much from him, that he was never able to become what he wanted to be. He hadn't actually considered what he wanted to be before. Alpha's wish that Cyrus had found Janus forced Magus to confront truths he would rather have avoided. How much of who he is was decided by Ozzie the power-mad mystic and how much was what he wanted to be?
Magus admitted that it was actually a pleasure to blend his magic with the others to efficiently dispatch monsters. He ached to level such destructive energy at whomever threatened his sister, but recognized the wisdom of Gaspar's plan that he learn to work with these heroes. He found the seeds of genuine liking for each of his team mates in his soul...even the frog. Maybe especially the frog. Even as he wondered who he would have become if Ozzie hadn't warped his childhood, he wondered who Glenn would be if he hadn't cursed him so long ago.
Such profound thoughts occupied him so much that he failed to interpret a signal correctly when they were attacked by T'poles. He was supposed to dodge right, collect Elora's Fire spell on his scythe, dodge left and accept Orion's Lightning spell as well and whirl three times to take out all the monsters in one triple-powered attack. He dodged left.
Orion's second strongest Lightning spell set his nerves to screaming and Elora's Fire spell sent that pain spirally toward a crescendo he very much wanted to avoid. Dimly he noticed Prime's lasers whine into the foul creatures. The ones still standing from that fell to Orion and Alpha's sword work.
Magus looked up as Orion approached him. Orion slid his sword into the scabbard at his side as he neared.
"Oops. I think I zigged when I should have zagged!" Magus admitted with a low laugh.
"You look terrible," Orion said flatly. "What were you thinking of?"
"This and that. These burns hurt! Can't you chide me later after I'm all healed?" Magus asked.
Orion chuckled and gestured theatrically as he stepped aside. Magus saw both Prime and Alpha standing before him.
"Next time, Prime," Magus promised. "Okay, frog-face, Slurp me!"
Magus was totally unprepared for the spray of slime accompanying Alpha's Slurp. Alpha thoroughly Slurped Magus up one side and down the other. Magus was sopping wet as the brutally punishing heat of the healing made him reel back, igniting his temper.
"Why you!" He jumped up in his anger and summoned one of his more potent spells. Orion noticed the ominous purple glow and planted himself firmly between Magus and Alpha as he drew Rainbow.
"Magus," Orion suggested in a low, dangerous tone. "You should seriously reconsider where you're planning to aim that!"
Magus aimed straight up and sent the raw, ripping magic screaming skyward.
Orion sheathed his sword and stepped aside again. A slight smile touched Magus' lips. Orion glanced back in time to see Alpha wink toward Magus. Orion, unsure of what he had just seen, rubbed his eyes and shook his head.
By the time he looked back, Magus' perpetual scowl was in place and even Alpha looked rather grim.
"I thought..." Orion began.
"I doubt that!" Magus snarled as he pushed by him.
"Uhm...Alpha, just how long is your tongue?" Elora asked quietly. "I didn't think you had that much fluid in your entire body!"
"Now that thou mention'eth it, I am rather parched. Shall we stop at the tavern this evening?"
After dinner, at the tavern, Elora and Prime strolled off so that she could repair some minor damage from the day's exertions. Orion sauntered up to where Alpha and Magus were talking on back porch of the tavern.
"Not to interfere," Orion began conversationally. "But just what in hell is going on with you two?!"
"Going'eth on?" Alpha repeated.
"Are you implying that I am treating Sir Froggy any differently?" Magus asked sweetly as he adjusted a glove. "Because if you are...What could I do to him, Alpha? I don't really want to spend any energy hurting him. Occasionally he is almost...useful."
"Oh, I know'eth not. Thou couldst ask'eth me to Slurp him as I do thee, I suppose," Alpha mused seriously.
Orion grinned
in amazement at their easy, bantering accord.
"Truly, a fate
worse than death. I'll leave that honor exclusively yours, Magus.
Forget I said anything," Orion walked toward the tavern door.
"Oh, and Magus," Orion turned his head as he grasped the latch. "Nice to have you on our team...most of the time."
Magus shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I'd nothing better to do...and a little frog told me my sister needs rescuing..." Magus gazed at the floor grimly. Orion thought Magus looked lonely and realized that Magus missed his sister.
"Don't worry. We'll find her!" Orion vowed quietly.
Magus looked him full in the face. "I know," he said simply. "I realize I would have no chance to save her on my own. You have no reason to help me...thank you."
Before Orion could say anything expressing his amazement at Magus' confession, Alpha spoke up.
"I am not little!" he said fiercely, drawing up to his four foot height.
"I don't know...I'm half again as tall as you!" Magus noted, swirling his cloak around his over six foot frame, "That makes you fairly little in my eyes!"
-------------
Author's notes -
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com