Chapter 67: Maximilien and Mariel II

Maximilien sat under the light of a torch, nearing the end of one of his magic textbooks. It had been four days since Mariel had left him there, and he knew that very soon, the village would want to execute him.

When he finally stood up, he stretched his legs and arms. He had spent the last four days virtually sitting in one spot, reading all of his textbooks. When he finished stretching, he looked at his hands, thinking about what he should do.

To see if what he learned was correct, he decided to test the kind of magic he was capable of using. When he snapped his fingers, a flame appeared in his palm, letting him know that he could use fire magic.

Although he was satisfied with the result, he decided to see if he could use any other kind of magic. Sure enough, he found that he could also use wind magic, then water magic, and even earth magic, although he was less adept in using those three than fire.

As he created balls of fire, wind, rock, and water in his house, he heard the sound of a crowd in the town. When he looked out of the window, he saw an angry crowd holding torches and swords walking towards his house.

Not wanting to hurt anyone, he put his hand on the ground and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, a massive wall appeared in front of his house. When it was in place, he fell back on his floor, feeling drained of energy.

Unable to move, he remained still and hoped that the villagers wouldn't be able to break through the wall. As he lay on the ground, he began to hear the sound of the villagers picking away at the wall, knowing it was only a matter of time before they would break through.

Soon, he heard the sound of footsteps on the roof. Knowing that he would soon have to fight, he grabbed a rusty old sword he had lying around and stood in the corner of the room. He was still feeling extremely weak, so was also desperately trying to think of a way to escape.

As he thought, the person on the roof dropped into the room. When he saw them, he felt relief, as it was a familiar face. Mariel stood in front of him, looking out of his window, then back at him.

"Why would you create something so large when you just learned how to use magic?" She asked.

"I had to protect myself somehow." He said, chuckling lightly and falling onto the floor.

"Still, this is too much for you." She said, helping him stand up. "You should have just left this place."

"I have nowhere to go." Max replied. "I can't go to your land and as soon as anyone hears my name in another town, I'll be cast out."

"These people want to kill you..." Mariel said, her eyes beginning to glow.

"Yeah. Not much I can do about that." Max replied.

"I'll kill them." Mariel said, grabbing a sword that hung from her back

"What? No!" Max said.

"They treated you like trash for your entire life." She replied. "And now they wish to kill you even though you were the one who was hurt. They deserve to feel the pain they caused you all these years."

"They have families. I can't let them die." Max said.

"Do you not have a family?" Mariel asked.

"Well...not anymore." Max said after a slight pause. "They're gone."

"Murdered?" Mariel asked.

Max was silent, simply looking at the ground so that Mariel would not see his pained expression.

"Murdered by these people?" She asked again.

"Yes." Max said quietly.

She looked down at him, feeling pity, then looked back outside the window. She looked down at her hand, thinking about what she should do. She knew that Sasha would be unhappy if she interfered with the village, but she felt obligated to do it.

"Maximilien, I will build you a home." She suddenly said. "I will not allow you to stay in this foul village any longer."

"So you're not going to kill them?" Max asked.

"No." Mariel replied with slight anger. "However, I will make their lives more uncomfortable."

She put her hand on the ground and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, a pulse of magic shot out of her hand and spread throughout the village. She then stood up, helping Max stand as well, then jumped through a hole in the roof, landing on top of it.

"What did you do?" Max asked.

"I suppose you could say I've cursed them." Mariel replied. "I'm going to start running. Are you ready?"

"Wait, what?" Max asked, not knowing what she meant.

Before answering him, she jumped off the roof and began to run, making Max close his eyes from the wind. For about an hour, it felt like he was flying through the air. The feeling eventually made him lightheaded, causing him to become unconscious a few moments later.

When he woke up, he was laying on a bed in a very lavish room. Everything around him was made of wood and all the furniture was very soft to the touch. When he looked to his side, Mariel was reading one of his books about magic.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"Your home." Mariel replied.

"This doesn't look like my house." He said with confusion.

"I have built you a new house." She said. "You won't have to worry about persecution here."

"Where, exactly, is here?" He asked, standing up and looking out of the window.

"About one hundred kilometers away from the village." She said. "We are very near the border with Tristain."

"Was I asleep for days again?" Max asked.

"Only a few hours." She replied.

"Sorry about that." He said. "Umm...thanks for building this for me? I could make you some food, if you like."

"I will hunt with you." Mariel replied. "You are still quite weak, so I'd prefer to make sure nothing happened to you."

She stood up and began to rummage through one of the wardrobes in the room. She pulled out a bow made of a red wood with a bright luster. It had gold tips and the bowstring seemed to glow white. She then handed him a white quiver filled with bronze tipped arrows.

"These are yours now." She said. "Look after them."

"I couldn't take these from you." Max said. "You've already done so much for me."

"I insist." Mariel said, forcing the bow and arrows into his hands.

"Why are you doing these things for me?" Max asked. "I mean...you don't owe me anything."

"I owe you nothing, I know. But we are friends." She replied. "Helping you...makes me feel happy."

Hearing those words come out of her mouth made his heart flutter, although he did his best to remain as composed as possible. He gave her a hug, then quickly put on the very comfortable boots she had brought for him.

When they were both prepared, they walked out into the woods to hunt for food. For reasons that Max couldn't understand, Mariel was exceptionally good at tracking animals. Within an hour, they found a boar that was large enough to satisfy both Max's, and Mariel's massive appetite.

It was when he fired his bow at the boar that he realized that it was infused with some kind of magic. Although he was sure his aim was off, the arrow pierced the animal's heart with ease, seemingly being guided through the air. Choosing to ignore this, he began to make a sled for them to drag the boar home with.

"What are you doing?" Mariel asked.

"There's no way we'll be able to carry a boar that large, so I'm making a sled for us to pull it home." Max replied.

However, when he turned around to look at her, he saw that she was carrying the dead beast over her shoulder with no effort at all.

"A-Are all Elves this strong?" He asked in slight fear of her.

"No, just my little sister and I." Mariel said nonchalantly. "Come. Let's go home. It's getting late."

On their way back, Max stared at Mariel for a few minutes, making her wonder what was going through his head.

"What is it, Maximilien?" She asked.

"You're not a normal Elf." Max said.

"No, I am not." She replied.

"Could you tell me how you got so strong?" He asked.

"Through pain I will never let you feel." She replied, obviously referencing something that happened to her.

"You were a warrior or something?" He asked.

"I was...a failed experiment." She said after a slight pause.

"A failed...experiment?" Max asked.

"Forgive me, Maximilien, but I would prefer to speak of this after we have eaten our fill." She replied.

"It's okay. I understand." Max said.

They spent the rest of the time walking back in silence. When they got inside, they began to help each other prepare their dinner. They were both fantastic cooks who took a great amount of enjoyment out of being creative with their dishes, so they were enjoying cooking together.

As they ate their several boar based dishes, Max started to think about the question he asked Mariel earlier, but before he could ask, she started to ask him questions of her own.

"So...what about you?" Mariel asked in a muffled voice, shoving a large peace of meat into her mouth.

"What about me?" He asked in an equally muffled voice.

"Your past." Mariel said, having swallowed her food.

"Oh..." He began, putting down his fork for a second. "Well, what would you like to know?"

"I dunno." She replied, seeming much more childish than normal.

"Well, how about if I tell you about myself, you tell me about yourself too?" He asked.

"Fair enough." Mariel replied, after a moment of consideration.

"I was born to a fairly wealthy family 18 years ago." He began. "We had everything we could ever want, but we were hated because we may have been descended from Elves."

"Then how come you are so poor now?" She asked.

"One day, when I was coming home from school, I saw smoke coming from my house." He continued. "Of course, I ran towards the house to see if my parents were okay. But when I got inside the house, it was filled with smoke. It was hot, I struggled to breathe, but I decided to press on to my parent's room to see if they were okay. When I got there, I saw both of them on the ground...dead. Not from smoke inhalation. I could see that they had been beaten and their throats slit. Obviously, it was horrifying for me to see, so I ran away."

"I...I'm sorry." Mariel said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay." He said, holding her hand. "After that, I had no choice but to live on the streets. I ate scraps of food or stole it when I could. After a while, I met an old woman who would bring me food from time to time. She was the only crumb of happiness I had to hold on to. But about a year later, I found out she passed away. Luckily for me, she left her home to me. That's the home I took you to when I shot you."

"Now I see why you're so attached to that place." Mariel said with a hint of pity.

"Yeah. I see now though that I had to leave eventually." He said, lamenting his troubled past. "Anyway! What about you?"

Mariel sat back in her chair, thinking about where to begin.

"Well firstly, I was born 5,599 years ago." She said.

"You're kidding..." Max said in shock.

"Not at all." She replied. "Back then, the nations you know today didn't exist. Their were the kingdoms of the Elves, Dwarves, Fairies, and Anioły. The humans at the time were composed of several warring states all competing for power. I was born into a low class family, but our living conditions were far superior to even the human's high class society. When I came of age, I decided to venture into one of the human countries to observe their culture. When I was there, I met a certain man..."

"So you already have someone..." Max said, feeling his heart sink.

"Hardly." Mariel said with some anger. "I came to hate that man with time."

"Who was he?" Max asked.

"A very charismatic and ambitious man." Mariel replied. "His name was...Brimir."

Max stopped eating when he heard that name. He had seen it several times in his magic textbooks. Even before he began to read those textbooks, the name Brimir was known in every household.

"You knew Brimir? The void mage?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Mariel continued. "I allowed myself to be wooed by his charming words and gestures of affection. I eventually allowed myself to fall in love with him. When that happened, he started to show me some of his 'work'."

"What work?" Max asked, not knowing Brimir's true nature.

"Although he was charismatic, he was also extremely bright. What even an Elf would call a genius." She said. "He told me he dreamed of a world where all races were equal, and that to do that, he would need a partner with a strong body. Because I loved him, I decided I would help him. I let him perform experiments on my body. Terrible, painful experiments. They were, for the most part, successful, making me much stronger than before. I was so blinded by love and strength that I didn't realize I was being turned into a tool for him."

She was becoming increasingly more agitated, with the room they were in beginning to shake. Birds outside flew away, feeling that there was a threat coming from her. Instinctively, Max held her hand, which, much to his relief, snapped her out of her anger.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"It's okay. You don't have to keep talking about it." He replied, looking into her eyes.

"No. I made a promise, so I will keep it." She said. "One day, he said he wanted to perform one last experiment. He wanted to create a vessel out of me that could contain the power of...certain beings. Powerful beings whose strength could not be used by any mortal thus far. At the time, they were known in Halkeginia as Cataclysms."

"That's a dramatic name." Max said.

"Dramatic, but fitting." Mariel replied. "They were very much capable of destroying Halkeginia if they were provoked, but they seemed to be rather docile when left alone. In recent years though, they had disappeared, and I found that the reason why was because Brimir had managed to trap them away in other realms. I foolishly accepted his request to become this vessel, but when he began the process, my body rejected their power. This rejection nearly killed me, but rather than help me or even be worried about my well being, Brimir left me in the dark to die alone."

"That's awful..." Max said, feeling very sorry for her.

"I crawled out to a road nearby, but didn't have the strength to continue to a town to get help." She continued. "Luckily, a group of Fairies traveling on that particular road helped me recover. I traveled back to my home in the kingdom of Elves. Upon arriving, I learned that my little sister followed in my footsteps and chose to travel the world. At the time, I thought nothing of it. With the benefit of hindsight, I now wish I had gone after her..."

There was a long pause between them as they thought about the stories they had just told each other.

"So...what happened to Brimir?" Max asked.

"That is a story only my sister can complete in detail." Mariel said. "For now, I think I have said enough."

"I understand." Max said. "It's dark already. Would you like for me to set some bedding aside for you?"

"I really must return home." Mariel replied. "Little sister won't be happy if I disappear for an entire night."

"Okay..." Max said, a little saddened.

She noticed that he was very obviously saddened, so she gave him a hug, which surprised him enough to jump slightly at the feeling of her body. As startled as he was, he enjoyed the feeling and hugged her back.

"I promise I will see you soon." Mariel said as she pulled away.

"Y-Yeah..." Max replied, blushing red as his gray eyes met her emerald ones.

He felt his heart start to beat extremely quickly, which made her start to chuckle. She held his face in her hands and gave him a kiss on his forehead before standing up to leave. When she finally disappeared, he laid down on the soft bed that was made for him. He recalled the hug he just had from Mariel, thinking that she smelled of flowers.

For the next several months, Mariel would visit his home and they would hunt and tell stories together. One day, Max walked through the woods alone, wanting to get some fresh air. Soon, he realized he was getting close to his old village.

Putting on a mask, he decided to walk through it and visit his old home. As he walked through the entrance of the village, he noticed that everyone seemed far less healthy than when he last saw it. Several people came to him to ask for food, even though he clearly had none at the moment.

He decided to find the leader of the village to ask him what may have happened. When he reached the town center, he saw that the mayor of the village had become very skinny and ill, but was doing his best to keep the people calm.

"Excuse me. What happened to this village?" He asked when the mayor was free to be spoken to in his office.

"We seem to have fallen into bad favor with the gods." The mayor said. "Any food we eat is rotten or poisoned, even if it's freshly harvested nuts or hunted meat. Our water is foul. Disease plagues our streets. Insects bite us in our sleep."

"That's terrible. What caused this?" Max asked.

"I do not know for sure, but I have an idea." He replied after a large amount of coughing. "There was once a boy who lived here. We thought him to be descended of Elves, and so he was mistreated. He disappeared several months ago, but I believe our mistreatment of him has caused us to fall out of the god's favor."

"Why do you think this?" Max asked.

"The home where he used to stay is the only healthy part of this village." The mayor said, coughing again.

Confused, Max bowed towards the mayor, thanking him for the information. He then made his way towards his old house. Just as the mayor said, the house and the area surrounding it was a paradise. Trees grew that bore fruit. Rabbits hopped around the area. Birds sang in the trees. A small pool of crystal clear water sat near the house.

"Don't bother trying to go there." One of the passing villagers said to him.

Max recognized him as one of the burly men who used to beat him, which made Max feel a little bit of anger and hatred. He was much skinnier now with unhealthy pale skin that was scarred where he was bitten by insects.

"Why?" Max asked.

"No one in this village can go there." The man said. "When we try, we are repelled by some kind of field. Only the kids seem to be able to go there."

"So the children are okay." Max said. "Why can they not bring you food from inside."

"Any food we eat turns rotten. You must not be from around here." The man said, coughing.

"I will take my leave." Max said, feeling rather satisfied that the village's children were healthy.

As he walked by the man, he moved his mask aside slightly, letting him see who he was. The man's eyes widened, but before he could say anything, Max seemed to disappear, using his magic to cloud the man's vision.

When Max returned back to his home, Mariel was waiting inside for him. He gave her a hug, then sat down on a chair.

"The village is doing quite poorly." He said. "Well, except for the children."

"I have given them the life they gave you." Mariel replied. "Does that not make you upset?"

"Not at all. As long as they remain alive and the children are healthy, I'm happy." Max replied. "Anyway, I'm surprised you're here so early today."

"Well, I won't be here for long." She said. "I'm stopping by on my way to Tristain."

"Oh. That sucks." Max said. "Do you have to leave right now?"

"I'm afraid so." Mareil replied. "I will visit again soon."

"Okay. I look forward to it." He said, smiling wide.

She smiled back at him, then disappeared, leaving him to continue his daily activities, which mostly consisted of practicing his magic. As he practiced, he sensed that someone else was nearby. When he looked behind him, however, he saw no one.

When he turned his head back, standing in front of him, only a few meters away, was Mariel's younger sister. Sasha.