Wow its one in the morning and I work at six in the morning BUT I COULDN'T STOP.
I've been working on this chapter for so long that I think I've re-worded every single thing I originally wrote down. I want to say its been the most difficult one so far, but I'm sure I've said that about four past chapters :P But really, its just that dang Magus! He's so had to write. If you have any suggestions on how you write him, or other stuff... PLEASE oh PLEASE share them. Marle is traumatized. So if she seems unlike herself... well, that plays a big part in it- that and Magus' shifty ways. I promise she won't stay like this.
When Magus stepped from the darkness of the house and out into the fresh night air, he had been expecting to find Marle waiting for him, perhaps sitting at the foot of the porch or pacing back and forth in some kind of deep thought (as deep as that went for her, he supposed). But as the obnoxiously loud screen door came to a drawn out halt behind him, he stepped out onto the moonlit porch of the house and was met only with the unruffled silence of the fields.
She was nowhere to be seen. His brow arched.
The porch groaned under the stress of his step as he moved across the worn timber. He stepped thoughtfully into the moonlight meadow overlooking the ocean, which consisted mostly of dead trees and shrubs, and visually combed the area. Everything around him remained still as he looked about; even the wind seemed to hold its breath when he glanced in its direction. But despite the silence, Magus knew with all certainty that he had heard the squealing of that atrocious door not but a few minutes ago when Marle had left the house. She had to be out here.
Tapping his fingers lightly along his pale forearms, he closed his eyes and focused his keen ears to the silence until they began lightly twitching.
Without warning, he was moving towards a patch of wilting shrubbery, floating with effortless speed. "What kind of game is this?" he growled aloud at the unsuspecting plant. When Magus received no answer, he almost considered repeating himself before reaching down and tearing the bramble away. "You-" he stopped when he found only naked earth between his hands.
His brow knit; he knew what he had sensed. His eyes closed again, but before he could pick up on the soft breathing or the fluttering pulse, the squealing of the screen door screamed through his sensitive sonic perception.
"Hey now!" came a deep call from behind him. Irritated, Magus turned to find Lucca's father waving him down as he leaned over the pitiable porch. "You leavin' already?"
"What does it look like to you?" answered Magus with flat rhetoric, cringing with mustered tolerance as he gingerly touched at his ears.
"Well I wouldn't call creeping around m'house leaving..." Taban deadpanned. He leaned a little further and Magus hoped it would be enough to break the cracked wood. "What are you doin' out there? Lookin' for somethin'?"
Magus simply turned away from the man with a cold glare, stalking along the line of shriveled shrubbery as though he were a cat hunting a mouse.
"Excuse me young man," frowned Taban, who did not take kindly to being ignored. "I asked you a question."
"Did you?" replied the wizard sarcastically, not bothering to turn.
Taban crossed his arms at this. "Look kid- around here we address the people who address us." Magus looked up at him ever so slightly, seeming to size the man up, then went back to what he was doing. Taban's frown deepened. "If he's one a' Lucca's friends…" he sighed under his breath. "What're ya looking for out there?"
"That's of no concern to you, old man."
"Old man!?" huffed Taban, who proceeded to swing his hands onto his hips. The floorboards rocked under his weight. "Who are you calling old?"
Not having the patience for another brainless question, Magus was about to turn back to the bushes when a heavy clinking sounded behind him. He looked back to see Taban coming towards him with a load of mechanical junk, which the wizard realized was being held out for him to take.
Magus merely blinked at him.
"Ya know," Taban grunted. "I'm not one to go chasing fairy tales and such… but if what you said about the Mystics is true, then I figure Lucca could use this now more than ever."
Magus only stood there.
Taban's brow knit in confusion. "C'mon, you gonna take this or what?"
Magus merely crossed his arms. "You don't know the first thing about the Mystics."
Taban let out some sort of gruff, differing sputter. "I've sure heard a lot more than you have, kid."
A dark, ironical laugh bloomed within Magus' chest. He fixed Taban's dark, steely eyes with his razor red gaze, and smiled crookedly. "And what have you heard?"
"Er, well…" began the older man uncertainly. He bit his lip and scoured his memory for anything he had ever been told about the Mystics- something mildly believable, that is. He knew there were a lot of tall tales and ideas that went around, too tall to earn his belief, and he honestly felt a little silly talking about it; this was child's stuff to him. "They invaded Guardia four hundred years ago- at least, that the most believable tale I've heard. All that other magical stuff has just been plain ol' tangled in myth."
"Magical stuff."
"Eyeah, those bits about hoards of monsters invading and wizard kings- you've heard some of this stuff, yeah?" Taban's smile faded as Magus's grew.
There was a faint but sure light illuminating the wizard's crooked grin a flickering red. Before Taban could react, there was a sudden, hot explosion of fire which sliced through the darkness between them.
Taban startled backwards. "W-Whoa!" he exclaimed, dropping his load to the grass in surprise. It took him a moment to realize that the fire was not only controlled, but that it was controlled and suspended all within Magus' gloved palm. He blinked in disbelief at the sight, inching closer to inspect it. "How… are you-"
"You're ignorance will be your own downfall, old man." The wizard looked to the pile of metal on the grass. "Theses fools have been fighting Mystics long enough to know how to handle them without this worthless junk."
Taban looked offended, then further confused. "I thought Marle said you were a friend of Lucca's?"
"A title given far too liberally."
Taban took a slow breath, fixated on the wondrous, red flume. "What kind of trick is that?"
Magus let the flame grow. "You think this is a trick?"
He turned towards the dead shrubbery behind them and cast a small wisp of fire at it. Immediately it caught the underbelly of the sharable and the old branches burst into a full, roaring flame. Of course, it didn't take long for it to catch the surrounding dead vegetation.
"H-Hey!" stammered Taban in surprise. "What're ya doin!?"
"Magus!" cried a voice Magus quickly recognized as Marle, who seemed to come running out of nowhere (though he knew she had jumped from the bushes). She descend upon the fire like a moth to light, though perhaps lacking the same affinity for flame, and was just about to ice the flame into sizzling oblivion when she realized Taban was standing there, gaping wide eyed at both of them. Hands suspended mid air, she quickly caught herself. "Just what do you think you're doing!?" she demanded, springing towards the wizard like a wound up coil.
"I could ask you the same question," replied Magus irritably, crossing his arms as he glared down at her. The flames had painted one half of face a flickering red while the moonlight remained a stationary, soft blue on the other half. "Did you think I would play hide and seek with you?"
"Put this out, Magus." Magus smiled at her and she glared back at him. Taban was beginning to grow frantic behind them, looking around for something to douse the flames with. "I'm serious."
"I don't recall-"
"Magus!" she repeated, pointing sharply to the trees catching fire.
Relenting, Magus merely whipped his wrist to the right as though he was swatting a fly and a solid sheet of ice blanketed the flames. There was a loud sizzling as the melting of ice replaced the crackle of the flames. After a moment of great smoke and steam, a small silence settled and the blue moonlight overtook the last of the flicker of red lights from their eyes.
Behind them, Taban let out a relieved sigh.
"What the heck was that for?!" Magus shot her a dry look that she pretended not to see by turning back to the charred patch of vegetation, which ran half way up the trees. "Just look at what you did to Lucca's yard! What's wrong with you!?"
"I'm sure it won't be of much concern to them." The wizard gave the area a passing glance down his nose. "These people have little regard for maintenance of their shabby property."
Taban coughed, but neither of them seemed to hear him.
"You can't just do that to other people's stuff!"
"I can do whatever I please."
"Stubborn, stupid…" Marle frowned at him, mumbling under her breath and shaking her head. Without knowing it, she let her arms fall and the breath slink from her chest in a soft gust.
In that moment, Marle's new appearance caught his attention and he made an immediate study of her. He noticed first that her loose curls had been pulled back up into the usual high ponytail and her overall countenance seemed much more like it should be- that determined look was back in her eye, all right. But rather unlike her usual self, her outfit had undergone what he assumed to be a dramatic change for her. Her usually bare back was covered by some strange, dark fabric that was baggy around her shoulders and tight at her hips. A pair lighter of khaki shorts replaced her elegant and full length pants, stopping at her knees.
She looked like that scientist. Without her vest. Magus decided he didn't like it.
"Well. This is a new look for you, princess." Like he had thrown at stone at a mirror, Marle's mild composure suddenly shattered into dubious, horrified shock. Magus quirked his brow at her ever so slightly; had he insulted her? Offended her lack of fashion sense?
"P-Princess?" blinked Taban, sharing her expression of surprise. He looked between the two of them as though he were in some kind of pain before squinting more intently at Marle. "Princess Nadia?!"
"Mh," noted Magus with disinterest. "Your petty secret keeping-"
"Honestly, could you just-!" Rubbing her forehead in frustration, Marle's anger slowly seemed to deflate. For a minute she tensed and crossed her arms. Then, flustered, she sighed and turned to Taban. "I'll explain some other time, Taban. Just please… don't tell anyone. Okay?" She looked the older man in the eye desperately.
Taban was immediately caught off guard by this. Unsure of what to do, he awkwardly straightened up and put a hand to his forehead as though he was taking an order. "Er, yes your Mar- er, your majesty."
Marle sighed slowly and shook her head. Eager to be gone, she bent down, took the fallen metallic load into her hands and stumbled under the surprise of its weight.
Magus watched her pathetic attempt for a minute before speaking up. "We don't need-"
"It's not for you, you jerk," shot Marle through the load. She fumbled one last time before gaining some footing and moving forwards.
"What're you…" Taban began, but they had already moved too far to hear him. Shaking his head in unbelief and some lingering confusion, he watched Magus followed after her until they were long gone. Finally, he scratched the back of his neck and shuddered. "Hoo boy. I sure hope I didn't say anything too stupid... something that could land me in jail…"
When she was sure they were out of ear shot, Marle shot a glare at the wizard and snapped out, "and what did you have to do that for, huh?"
"Which part are you referring to?"
The princess' frustrated frown grew tighter as she bit her lip.
"Nadia, was it?" said Magus with sarcastic interest as they walked. She didn't even look his way, which he was rather displeased by. "I can see why you go by Marle."
Her eye twitched and she glared back at him. "You're impossible, you know that? Honestly! Don't you know anything about secrecy?!"
Magus didn't bother answering.
This only further angered her. "You know, I don't go around blabbing about how you're actually the Mystic leader from four hundred years ago- the one that tried to destroy the very country we're in right now."
"Of course you don't; no one would believe you." It was mildly satisfying to see that vicious glare return to her eyes. He knew that she could find nothing to say against that and so continued on. "Even so, it would be no matter if you did; it's no title that I uphold."
Marle turned towards him at this and found he was watching her, seemingly waiting for something. A reaction? She could swear she felt her blood go cold, but she took a breath and stopped walking. "I want you to show me this portal," she said firmly, eyeing him down.
"Portal?" he repeated.
"The one the Mystics came through- what you told me abou-"
"I saw no portal." Magus' gaze was fixed on her, studying her closely.
Her eyes quickly narrowed into suspicious slits. "What do you mean there was no portal?"
"That's not what I said," the mage began lowly.
"Well if you didn't see the portal, then-"
"I saw an army of creatures who do not belong in the place or time period and put two and two together."
"Yeah," insisted Marle hotly, "but if you didn't SEE the portal with your own eyes…" she circled him in slow, deliberate steps, as though she were a detective at a crime scene, scouring for clues. She wasn't particularly intimidating with that awkward load in her hands- not that she even had been. "You can't say for sure that they used a gate to get here, or that they-"
"Do you mean to test me?" he hissed. "I am not so apt to repeat information as you are."
"Well your information doesn't exactly have a lot of evidence behind it, does it? For all I know, you could be making this entire thing up."
The wizard lightly shook his head at her. "I could care less what you chose to believe; you can live in ignorance as always, or take heed."
"I do not-!" Marle cut herself off and took a slow breath. "Fine. Take me to their time gate."
"Are you hard of hearing?" Magus choked stiffly, surprised with himself for how well he was holding his tongue.
"You prove it, and then I'll believe you." The words were simple, but her stance was firm. Her lips were pursed into a tight line, teetering between suspicion and sarcasm.
Magus looked down at her with strained disdain. "Do you take me for your personal servant that you can command me about as you please?"
"No, actually; I take you for a liar."
Magus gave her a long, hard look. While he was beginning to grow tired of jaunting about here and there after the princess all night, he had nearly succumbed to the apathy of being along for the ride; there was nothing else of concern to him, after all. At least, not at this moment. The only matter pertaining to him in all of this was how quickly he could take his revenge on those pathetic Mystics and their embarrassing leaders for having followed him around so shamelessly.
"Very well." Magus turned with a flick of his cape.
Marle took a slow and deep breath to herself as she stood alone. Looking up at the sky, she shuffled the load in her hands before cautiously following the previous Mystic leader.
Resuming their way down the path, they walked along in silence for a great while, Marle always a few paces behind Magus' wildly tossing cape and Magus a few ahead of her loudly clomping feet (he thought), until Lucca's house was a merely speck behind them and the path into town opened full ahead. They walked and walked until the trees dwindled and they were greeted with the coastal path that allowed gentle spray of the sea to fall like dew on their skin. A vast span of dark sea stretched before them as they came closer to the east coast of Truce. The entire scene was perfectly dark, save for the few stray city lights which refracted like fragmented stars far out on the waters, rolling and dancing with each wave she could not see.
Only the sounds of the woods and the glistening sky full of stars seemed to exist in that silence. It was a beautiful sight, a sight Marle would have thoroughly enjoyed had it not been for the fact that she was sure she was following the devil himself.
As much as she didn't want to, Marle had, in fact, grown almost certain that Magus was either leading her into a trap, or lying. With all of the goodness of her heart, part of her wished to believe that she could give him the benefit of a doubt, but Marle could not shove the dread that something awful was about to happen away. Magus had to be involved somehow. She knew beyond a doubt that he was hiding something- she could sense it. She couldn't say what, but there was some plan, or intention; something that left her with that constant unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn't like it. On top of it all, his story didn't particularly match up, and she had no real reason to trust him.
And that look he kept giving her...
A short distance off in the still of the darkness, Crono's house appeared, nestled into the nook of the woods and the nape of the coast. Marle stopped short upon seeing it. "Wait, why are we going this way?"
He did not bother giving her a reply.
With the sudden realization of where they were going, she stepped backwards a foot. "Magus," she started as what meant to be a demand, though it came out more like a fearful question, leaping from her throat and through her filter before she could stop it.
"You wanted to see the time gate, did you not?"
"You mean to tell me… it was outside of Crono's house?"
"Yes," he clarified coolly.
Marle swallowed hard as the thought of her friends being in danger shattered her mistrust for a moment. She darted in front of him awkwardly. "Where?"
He motioned to the dark forest past the house.
Without thinking, the load she had taken from Taban fell from her hands and she ran towards the house. She stopped by the front door, panting, and reached from the door knob.
"Don't," came Magus' firm voice. "They're safe."
She looked back at him, a cross between skeptical and fearful. "Why should I trust you?"
"Because the problem isn't in there." He crossed his arms impatiently, knowing his words weren't enough to reassure her. He watched as she pursed her lips and peered in the though the screen door for a moment. She quickly recognized Lucca and Ayla, both sleeping on the floor contently with Alfador perched between them. She watched his glassy eyes shine in the moonlight as she contemplated whether or not waking them up was the best choice. She knew either option would cause problems. Sure, she could probably use the backup with this lying psycho… but Lucca was already stressed out enough. And what if she woke up Crono's mom by accident? Or Frog? She cringed at the thought of Frog slicing Magus' head clean off- she might not have trusted the wizard at the moment, but she would never wish that on anyone. So, content with knowing her friends were safe and asleep, she turned back to him with a firm frown.
"Alright then."
Magus brushed past her around the corner of the small house. Taking a deep breath, Marle took one last look at her sleeping friends and followed the wizard. It was a short walk however, for when she turned the corner, she found that Magus had stopped almost as soon as he had rounded the corner and was now standing there staring. Eager to see what had stopped him, she peered around his giant form and felt her jaw drop.
Unlike earlier that morning when she had looked with admiration into the vast jade and emerald hues of the woods along the coast, she was met with a dreadful sight. Where there had been tall and mighty pine trees before, there was now an immense clearing of space and an unnatural blackness cloaking the area. It wasn't just from the night or the shadows; it was from something coming from within the woods.
Or at least, what was left of them.
Marle let out soft gasp as she walked towards the forest line. "What… what happened here?" she asked, looking over her shoulder in disbelief.
Either Magus was a very good actor, or even he was not prepared for what he saw. He simply shook his head and stepped past her to where a good portion of the woods had disappeared. They had not been cut down or sawed or burned or trimmed; there weren't even any marks in the soil to show that they had been dragged away. They were simply gone. The only evidence that any trees had even been there in the first place was the dozens upon dozens of holes where the trees had been uprooted and torn from the ground.
Marle pressed a shocked hand to her open mouth. "What's going on here?"
"I don't know," was Magus' surprisingly honest reply. He moved towards the receding tree line in large strides and stopped below the closed up black hole he had left suspended a few feet in the air.
Watching him walk away, she quickly put her defenses back up and followed after him suspiciously. "What's that thing up there?" she asked, pointing to the vortex. "Is that what did this?"
"No. It's what kept them from doing this," he gestured towards the damage of the uprooted trees, "to the entire town. And all of you sleeping fools."
She seemed almost reluctant to speak. "What?"
"Stay there," he ordered. Stepping a few feet ahead, he lifted his palm and called the dark circle back to himself. There was a strange flash of darkness before an invisible wall flickered and seemed to melt away. The dark ball of energy fell into the wizards hands.
Marle watched him suspiciously.
"They must have sent another wave…" he said lightly, more to himself that her. "But how did they evade the vortex?"
"Wave?" echoed the princess slowly, keeping her eye on him. "Wave of what?"
Magus did not answer. He merely stepped further into the uprooted line of trees, studious and contemplative.
Marle followed after him without a moment's hesitancy. She followed him, studying him with an unsettled brow, watching as he walked thoughtfully from one hole to another. But after a short time, her curiosity got the better of her, and she too found herself studying the strange depressions. She moved past hole after rugged hole, squatting by one and kneeling by another until she stopped at an especially large puncture.
"You know, this looks awfully familiar." She poked at the wet soil with her fingers. "A lot like what happened in Fiona's forest. Except there aren't any stumps left behind this time. It's like they just sucked them out of the ground this time." She looked around at the undisturbed ground around the holes. "Into thin air, it seems…"
"It must be up here," said Magus from somewhere behind her.
The princess blinked. "What must?" She shot up and looked around, catching sight of the wizard just as he disappeared behind a large tree and into the darkness. "Hey!" she cried, startled at the thought of being alone in such a place, and then again at the thought of him disappearing on her. It occurred to her briefly that he would take this opportunity to attack. "Where are you going?!"
It was not the most confident thing she had ever done, but Marle wasted no time in bursting after him though those trees. She was sure she would fly into the darkness of the forest and find herself alone, the wizard having slipped away or worse yet, set a trap for her- he must have been planning it the entire time! She burned with anger at the thought! But she couldn't let him get away either, and if she could stop him now…
Yet when Marle crashed through the trees, she did not crash into the emptiness she had been expecting. With all the spastic sprints and dramatic darts she had made that night, she should have known full well that she would run straight into the wizard's back, and should have known better than to do so at full speed.
But currently, Marle was not thinking clearly.
She slammed into Magus' back with surprising strength and caught him off guard, which was just as surprising to her as the speed at which she was moving. She slumped down his back as he fell forwards. Knowingly, she braced herself for the impact of the ground and the taste of dirt in her mouth and even the startled, flustered anger Magus would unleash at her when they crashed.
But none of these came.
Instead, she was met with a different sensation- the sensation of being lifted; of being thrown through space and time at alarming and terrifying speeds. It was a dreaded limbo which she was very familiar with, but when she was spat from the time gate, she was shoved to the ground in a place not quite so familiar to her. There was sand. And sun.
And Magus.
"You idiot!" spat the wizard, who was somehow directly parallel to her where she was laying in the sand. Confused, she looked briefly about to find that Magus' two angry fists were planted like rocks beside either side of her head, keeping him from landing on top of her. She could feel the deep breaths of his chest on hers and the tips of his long and surprisingly soft indigo hair which hung down between them and tickled her cheeks.
"I-I," Marle tried, blinking rapidly at the sensation. "W-What just happened?!"
"You pushed us through the enemy's time gate, you fool!" The wizard grunted and pushed himself up into a crouch to look around.
Still shocked, Marle rolled onto her elbows beside him and looked around. To her surprise, they were on the banks of some coast near a town that she had never seen before. It was a small town with quaint, white washed buildings and little puffs of smoke popping out among the dense green hills. Farther north, an old brick castle overrun with vines and vegetation loomed over the peaceful town like a weary shadow- Marle noticed instantly that it looked much older than the town itself. Behind them, the waves lapped against the white, glassy beach, which nearly blinded her.
"Where are we?!" she demanded suddenly, getting to her feet and attempted to shake the sand from her toes. It was in vain. Looking back, she noted the portal they had fallen through with a hot brow. "What kind of trick are you playing on me, huh?"
He looked up at her blankly. "I could ask you the same thing."
This answer did not seem to satiate Marle. She stomped over to him and put her hands on her hips. "You brought me here on purpose, didn't you!?"
"Do you really think you are in any place to be accusing me of anything right now?" he growled back. "You pushed me through the portal, you fool. We should not be here."
"I'll say! None of this should be happening! I shouldn't have followed you and fallen for this- I should have just gone right to my father and told him about you- about all of this!"
"Even you can't be stupid enough to think that I'm still responsible for this," he clicked between clenched teeth. "Haven't you listened to a word I've said?"
"Stupid?" cried Marle, stomping in the sand.
He watched her childish action with a low brow before getting to his feet. "I've said more than enough, and I think you've seen more than enough now to know that-"
"You take that back," interrupted the princess sternly.
Magus looked down at her blankly.
"I am not stupid." She set the tip of her finger at his metal breastplate. "And I'm tired of you belittling and insulting me all the time!"
His mouth opened, but Marle was not finished yet.
"I'm serious," she said, looking up at him with her flushed cheeks and dirty hair and strange clothing. She might not have looked like herself in the moment, but the look in her eye was unmistakable even to Magus. He knew that she was on the edge of snapping. She hadn't truly been herself since he had dragged her away from the woman's house and to the fountain, and the fact that she did not trust him didn't help any.
It was too bad Magus didn't care.
He swatted her hand away and tiny spears of ice went flicked from her fingertips. He wasn't sure if that had been intentional, but he knew the next attack definitely would be aimed at him.
Her glare was fixed.
The princess' hands flew open and another circle of iced spears went sailing by his ear, nearly nicking them. He did not so much as flinch. "We don't have time for this," he began, his crimson gaze fixed on her.
"I think we do," replied Marle coldly. She sent another round of flying sphere at him and he dodged them effortlessly.
Magus scoffed. "If you wanted to use me as practice for your pathetic aim, I suggest-"
Magus stopped short when a large, cold wall slammed into the right side of his body. Surprised and caught short of breath, he looked up and realized too late that another block of ice was sailing straight for him. It slammed into him again with surprising force and he stumbled into the sand dune with a grunt. Seeing another rise from the ocean, he sneered and disappeared into thin air before it too could slam into him. The chunk of ice flew into the sand where he had been kneeling and shattered as though an explosion had gone off. Grains of sand and ice flew through the air as Marle took a deep breath and tucked a straw hair behind her ear. The small granules shifted around her feet as she waited for the wizard to reappear.
"I'm done playing your games!" she yelled. There was another massive block of ice floating around her in a large circle. "I don't know what kind of sick plan you have, but-"
In the same moment she felt a wind at her neck, a wave of dark energy pulsed from the shifting sand and flew at her. The princess spun on her heels just in time to swing the ice chunk up like a shield. She slid back a little when the force hit it, but the ice took the brunt of the hit. It rolled around the block, dancing in the cold steam, and disappeared.
"Careful," came the voice from somewhere she could not pinpoint. "Mid-battle monologues have been the downfall of many a man, princess."
She looked about with a steely, cold breath, but Marle could not decipher where the wizard might be hiding himself. Feeling vulnerable, she threw the melting block of ice into a sand dune and ran into the cool ocean where she materialized another. It rose out of the water and, with a snap of her wrist, the ice was shaved back into thousands of tiny ice spheres which she held in mid air like an army waiting to strike. She scanned the beach for any trace of the wizard. She could sense him, but she couldn't see him…
Growing fearful that he might have already stepped foot off the sand, she sent the line of icicles sailing across the beach horizontally. She was immediately rewarded with the sound of a sharp thud and reappearance of Magus.
Except now he actually looked angry.
"Enough!" he shouted, rubbing the tender red mark on his left temple. Of course, Marle wasn't going to listen. She began firing medium sized pieces of ice right off the block at him in a rhythmic motion, one after another- all of which he dodged perfectly.
When the ice block was gone and Marle made to draw up another, Magus acted quickly. Flicking his cape behind himself, he shot two pointed and very quick burst of fire- blue fire- towards Marle. They were too fast for her to do anything more than flinch at. But when the fire hit her, she quickly realized they were not an attack, for the two blasts merely simmered at her balled fists, melting the ice from her hands before seemingly evaporating around her. She looked at her hands in surprise; there was no burn and she wondered if the flame had even really touched her.
The princess was startled but not stopped. She made to jump at the seething wizard, ready to send another barrage of ice at him, but something stopped her.
She couldn't move.
"Wha-?" she gasped, trying desperately to budge from her frozen state. Magus walked slowly towards her and she realized what was happening. "What are you doing to me!?"
"Listen to me, and listen well," Magus breathed, blocking out the glare of the sun as he stepped closer. "The mystics are most likely hiding in some surrounding area and using this portal as a highway in time's steam. Hanging around here is simply asking for trouble."
"You're asking for trouble keeping me held up like this!" she retorted, still trying madly to move as the waves lapped against her bare legs.
"I'm not the one in the position to be asking for anything right now, am I?"
"Oh please," she spat. "You're not even playing fair!"
Magus shook his head. "As entertaining as this isn't, I really don't have the time to keep you from hurting yourself right now."
"Oooooh," she growled between clenched teeth. "You let me go and I'll show you who's gonna be hurting who." The wizard held his ground in a firm silence. "I'm serious, Magus!"
"Do you think I'm not?"
The princess fixed him with a livid look, her tongue seething like a burning coal between her teeth. When she realized that she was too angry to look at Magus without hurting him, she looked off at the town in the distance and closed her eyes. "Fine," she finally relented, knowing she had no other option. "Fine! Let me go already!"
As though she had been chained to a wall, all of her tensed limbs relaxed and her body lunged from its suspended state. She sunk to the gentle tide, breathing unevenly and rubbing her wrists.
"We need to-" began Magus.
"I don't need to waste my time listening to you." Marle got to her feet with some struggle and stood up to him with a firm frown, not intimidated by the fact that he was a full head taller than her. "I'm going to that town to see what the people there know about this whole Mystic evasion."
"No," the wizard deadpanned, grabbing her firmly by the arm and dragging her along. "You're not. We're going back and sealing this portal. Right now."
"H-Hey!" she yelled, pushing against him savagely. "You can't-"
But Magus wasn't interested in listening anymore; it was time to act. He hauled the wreathing princess towards the gate, his grip tightening around the dark sleeves covering her arms.
"M-Magus, stop!" she yelled, trying to wrench herself away in vain. "Let me go, you double-crossing, pretentious, backstabbing-!"
"…worthless excuse of a leader!" laughed a strange voice from somewhere over their heads. Marle gasped and Magus quickly snapped his palm over her mouth.
"Stop moving," he ordered in a sharp whisper, which did little to calm her squirming or the pitiful attempts at biting his hand. Shaking his head, he pulled her towards himself and held her firmly against his chest as the sound of footsteps rustled closer and closer through the grass above them.
"Ya' got that right!" came another unfamiliar voice. "I don' know why we ever followed his orders. But this prince- what's-his-name 'as some serious skills."
"Naw, he's just a show off," answered the first voice, a scratchy and guttural tone. Marle stopped squirming long enough to watch with wide eyes as two Mystics, both smaller Henches, slid down the grassy slope and into the sand just across from to them. They turned with a huff.
"I bet he don' even know that we're 'ere working f…" started the second one, a greenish-grey creature with bristly black hair. He jumped up and screamed suddenly. "H-Hey!"
Marle cringed, but Magus' grip on her was solid as iron. In all reality, she knew she couldn't get away from him in time- not with Magus on their side. They would cut through her in seconds.
"What is it?" hacked the first Hench, looking about wildly in alarm. Its white wispy hair flew around with its flailing head, which was a good half a foot taller the other's.
"I… I think I left m'blade at the camp!" complained the latter as it patted itself down anxiously. "Le's go back for it!"
"What!" screamed the first, who proceeded to cuff the other over the head. "And nearly risk being seen by those humans again? Are you as stupid as Ozzie?! You're lucky I don't report you for… for stupidity!"
Confused, Marle peeked through her tightly shut lids. Not more than six feet in front of them in perfectly clear sight, the two Mystics were arguing senselessly, going on and on like a bickering couple as though they were the only ones on the beach.
"Do you know how hard it was to haul all those supplies to camp without being seen?!" hollered the first one, who seemed to have some sort of rank over the other by the way it carried itself- or maybe it was just that it was a little bigger. "And if someone from town saw us, we'd 'ave to scrape the town dry, and attract all the unwanted attention again!"
The second whined miserably and patted its head where it had been hit. "Yeah, if they figured out about the castle bein-"
"Shhh!" scolded the first in a hacking fit. It scrambled to cover the other's mouth, and clamped it firmly shut. "You stupid?! You know we're not supposed to say that out loud!"
"Ptff," the second grumbled. "'S a dumb rule. Besides, there's no one here anyway!"
The other seemed to relax a bit at that, but not enough to dry its savvy remarks. "Twa, yeah, but even if there was you'd be to fraid' to fight em'!"
"Nuh uh!" defended the little Hench. "All I said's was we shouldn't a' been doing this during the day!"
"Peh," spat the first, tossing its hair over its shoulder. "You tell that to the prince. He seems to have everything backwards. 'Attack in secret', 'don't tell anyone who you are,'" The creature stopped to mash its hands together in frustration. "That's not what the Mystics do! That's jst not right! N' fact, he hasn't been right about much yet! He said that washed up wizard wouldn't know about us, but now we have to cover our tracks and find a way around that black hole he left as a parting present!"
Marle's eyes widened, and she tried to look up at the wizard, but he squeezed her shoulder firmly.
The second began pounding its fists rhythmically. "Grr… he might be a better leader, but he's too focused on that castle, if you ask me! He's not thinking straight."
"Which means we gotta do the job right and take care of this sorry traitor and his little pack a' cretins," finished the first, who turned and walked towards both them time gate intently. Marle flinched, sure that they would finally be seen.
"Well I guess we better get goin' en'" finished the little green Hench, who turned towards the portal and looked blankly at Magus and Marle. He scratched his head.
"Aweh shoot," grumbled the first from behind him. "Great. Jus' great. This is a problem."
"I'll say!" laughed the second, who crossed his arms loosely. "I still don' have my weapon on me! How'm I gonna scare anyone screaming the catch phrase without no sword? 'Death to the Mystics' enemies!'" it taunted dryly, waving its empty hands about in a lifeless, limp example.
"We don' use one that'n anymore ya idgiot, remember?" He gave the other one more good smack over the head. "Besides, I don't have that thing we need to open the portal!"
"Huh?" grumbled the second angrily, rubbing at the second goose egg on its head.
"That key! We need it to- aw, why do I bother explaining these things to you? Waste'a time, it is. C'mon let's get back to camp and grab it."
Marle's eyes shifted to the portal, swirling directly behind them.
The first one frowned, taking its finger from its ear for a moment. "But I thought you said going back was-"
"I said we're going back!" hollered the bigger Hench, who grabbed the other by the collar and dragged it kicking and swinging back up the sandy slope. They argued and bickered until their voices were distant grunts carried off by the wind.
Marle let out the breath she had been holding, and Magus released her.
"Why didn't they see us?" She looked down at her hands then to the wizard. Magus had already turned to the portal and seemed less interested in talking than Marle. He was fixated on the swirling mass. Marle noted this and stepped hesitantly towards the gate. "Did… you make us both invisible?" she asked slowly, watching the wizard with some manner of perplexity. "Can you really do that?"
"Must you always ask questions with such obvious answers?" The wizard took a step towards the portal and stretched his arm out. When nothing happened, he frowned. "Of course."
"What's wrong?" asked Marle, who still seemed unsure of whether she should even be speaking to the wizard.
Magus sighed and stared deep into the blue time rift. "It's not going to open."
Marle's concern was immediately evident. "W-What?! Why not?"
He turned to her dryly. "We don't have your pendant."
"Right…" She habitually reached for what should be the pendant on her chest. Her hands closed in around the emptiness and she looked to the ground for a minute, then jumped at a thought. "Wait, if I don't have the pendant, then how did we get through the gate in the first place?"
The look on Magus' face indicated that he had already considered the same question. He studied the portal for anther moment, then turned his crimson gaze to Marle.
"What?" she asked after a moment.
She jumped in surprise when she felt the mage wrapped his hand around her wrist and pull her forwards. "What're you doing?" she asked warily. Slowly, as though something would explode, Magus drew her open palm towards the portal and held it there. Her pale fingers slowly began to glow against the stark darkness of the portal until, finally, a spark of light surged from her into it. The gate spittzed and sputtered before slowly crackling open.
Marle's eyes widened in shock. "H-How?!"
With the portal opened wide, Magus did not hesitate to step through it. Still shocked, Marle found herself moving passively along as he pulled her in, watching the dark blue swirls pick up feet up from beneath her. She looked back just as the portal was closing and took one last look at the castle off in the distance before everything began spinning and she lost touch of Magus' grasp.
-v-
When Marle was thrown out of the portal, she landed on the soft, pine covered soil of Truce's east woods. She looked around to find Magus, who had landed on all fours like a cat just a head of her. He sat up and looked back to be sure she had come through.
"How did you do that?" she asked immediately, jumping up at him with less aggression and more curiosity.
"I didn't do anything," he replied coolly. "You did it."
"You made my hand glow like that and… and open the portal!"
"If I could have done that on my own, I would not have involved you."
She blinked at him. "But… I don't understand…"
He walked back to the portal and frowned. "You might have opened it, but I'm going to make sure it stays closed."
Marle watched as he conjured a small, swirling mass between his palms. There was a little flash of light, and when Marle looked back, she saw the familiar magenta prism formed around the gate. It was the one he had used to close them off from Zeal as the Prophet.
He turned back to her in silence.
"How did you know I could open that gate?"
"I didn't," the wizard replied simply.
She narrowed her brow at him a little in confusion. "Then why-"
"It was a guess; before you ran into me, I couldn't open the portal. When you hit me, it opened and sucked us in." Marle stared at him blankly, before turning away. She walked back into the clearing and moved along the torn up ground. "You were not aware you could do this?"
"No…" she mumbled, rubbing her elbows at the cold night air. "I-I don't get how I could have possibly done that."
Magus watched her silently, rocking his jaw. She slid her fingers along the mighty trees that had been left behind, feeling the rugged nakedness of where they had been scratched and torn at.
She turned back to him with a different look in her eyes. "This is how Fiona's forest disappeared overnight- they took it through a portal."
The wizard did not answer. He seemed to be genuinely deep in thought.
"Fiona said she saw someone leading the Mystics in the forest the night it disappeared," Marle began. She stammered for words. "They sounded… familiar. Like you."
His dark eyes turned towards her silently. "You're still blaming me for this?"
"Well," she sighed, tucking her hands behind her back. "No. Not anymore. But she described one of your henchmen that sound a lot like you, so I thought..." she trailed off and Magus waited for her to continue. She simply shook her head. "It was the girly one, I think."
"Girly one," Magus repeated dryly.
The princess couldn't help but crack a smile at that. "Yeah."
His eye twitched ever so slightly- not that he would ever admit it had. "They're all male, you know."
Marle shrugged and tried very hard not to let her smile get any bigger. "Hey, I'm just going by the description Fiona gave me."
His eyes fixed her. "You're forgetting that the woman lives in the same time period as Ozzie. He doesn't need to utilize a time warp to move his forces to a neighboring continent when they can use the mountain pass. The Mystic's had just claimed Zenan Bridge using that pass only a few nights before your group found it."
Marle frowned and rubbed her arms. "But how else could the forest have disappeared like that? A whole natural habitat can't just up and move overnight; it makes no sense!"
Magus scoffed again. "I only said he doesn't need to use a portal, but that doesn't mean he won't. Ozzie isn't particularly keen on sense. You needn't be so generous with him."
"But…" she dropped her chin into her palm, then looked back at the portal behind them. "But how is he opening portals in new places? There was never a portal here before, and I've never even seen that place it took us to."
"Perhaps there was one here all along and we weren't aware of it." Magus said as he began to move towards the trees. "There is no explanation as to where these portals come from, unless it truly is Lavos' doing."
Marle began to follow after him but he motioned for her to stay where she was. He took a few steps, mumbled something under his breath and produced another swirling, pulsing black hole between his palms. When it had drawn enough energy from him, he released and it sailed far above their heads, suspended like a dark star. He stepped away from it and a shadowy wall appeared in his wake, encompassing what was left of the woods and the ocean behind it.
Although somewhat hesitantly, the princess inched towards where the wizard was standing and looked up at the large mass of black energy above their heads. "What is this thing, anyway?" she asked.
"A black hole."
"Why ar-"
"As a safety net. If they manage to break through the first barrier, this will activate and consume them."
"The Mystic army?" frowned Marle.
"Anything that comes out of that portal." His hand found its way to his hip and planted itself there. There was a cool find rolling over the ocean, tossing his cape to the west.
Marle blinked at him with a skepticism that was much less comical and much more genuine. "You… put it there before, then? That other one you took down before we went through the portal?" Magus gave no answer, and that was her answer. She looked between him and the black vortex as though she had lost a bet.
She took a deep breath and turned away. "I'm sorry, Magus."
This actually caught Magus off guard. He turned to her with an arched brow, as though she were speaking a language he did not understand.
"I'm sorry for being so mean to you…" she wrung her hands with what seemed to be nervousness, then tucked them at her sides. "And for blaming you for all of this. I… I didn't know if I could really believe that you would try to help us out of your own accord. But, I mean, you probably saved that woman's life tonight… and ours. I really owe you." He watched her gaze turn to the hefty castle looming in the distance. "But Guardia is in trouble- much, much more than I thought."
The mage watched her with a questioning eye. "You're wasting your time worrying for anyone's safety tonight." He moved down the grass soundlessly, his cape tousling her shoulders as he walked by. "They won't be getting past this, and hadn't moved past the town in their first attempt; there's no way they've breached the security of the castle."
"How do you know that?"
"Their stench lingers. If you can't see their wake of destruction, you can smell it."
Marle turned back to the vortex, silent and thoughtful, but he knew that she was not content. "Guardia might be safe tonight, but that's no good come tomorrow, or the day after." She gave him a strange look, but her determination quickly returned. "Ozzie won't stop till he's leveled us. If he's truly found some way to travel through time, my father needs to know. There's no way Guardia is ready for something like that- and I don't just mean their army!"
His arms crossed over his chest, and the fabric of his gloves squeaked against his leather breast plate. "You must truly relish wasting my time."
"Well… I didn't ask for your help." She habitually reached for the cross bow at her back, but found only its absence. With a frown, she rubbed her arms and turned back in the direction of the castle, which was gradually disappearing into a fog rolling in from ocean. "Besides, you've been more of a hero than any of us today." She laughed a little. "That's kind of ironic."
"I wouldn't call it being a hero."
The princess' lips parted, then closed again. She looked down and turned to him with a curiosity too close for his liking. "Why did you bring me to save that woman, Magus?"
"It would cause trouble for the kingdom to find one of their people dead in the morning," he deadpanned flawlessly, so flawlessly that Marle almost believed him for a minute. "I did you a favor."
"Yeah, well you saved my life too." She let a tired but genuine smile slip. "Thank you, Magus." The wizard crossed his arms, watching silently as she turned and gathered herself. "Just let everyone know that I'll be back by tomorrow afternoon- It's a bit of a journey from here."
"We don't have that kind of time. Tomorrow has enough problems of its own."
"I'm afraid they'll have to wait a little longer," was her firm reply as she walked off. She hesitated for minute, for the full weight of that decision was still fabricating in her mind. "Tell Lucca that I'm sorry for holding us back a bit…"
Magus watched her retreating figure for a long, long time. He watched her walk down the incline of the hill Lucca's house was situated on, then down the slope towards the Guardian woods. The princess walked the familiar path with a determined stride, not stopping once and not looking back. She walked and walked, then broke into a run and eventually returned to a walking pace until she was nearly a spec off in the distance.
"This is pathetic," he grumbled, materializing out of thin air beside her.
She jumped away from him as though she was being attacked. "Magus?" she sputtered. "W-Where did you-"
"There's a faster way."
She blinked at him, still unable to process the fact that he was standing before her. She was sure he hadn't followed her. "Uh, if there were a faster way, I think I would be taking it. I know every route in and out of this castle that there is to know of!"
"Well, I know something you don't," he stated, taking hold of her wrist.
She looked at him suspiciously. "What're you-"
"Do you want to get there faster or not?" his voice teemed on dangerous impatience and dull annoyance.
She didn't buy it. "Yeah," she smiled.
Magus blinked very slowly, so slowly that Marle wasn't sure he would ever finish blinking. It was a strange thing seeing him like that, and had she not been so flustered, she could have laughed at how strange it made him look- that is, until she looked around and realized that everything around her had come to a grinding halt. The trees remained motionless, the clouds in the sky still, the wind-blown hair of the wizard eerily stationary. Even the breath in her chest seemed to have stopped.
Then, before she knew what had hit her and before she realized that she herself had even blinked, she heard the wind ripping through Magus's cape and her eyes fluttered open. To her surprise, she was standing upon a set of great, stone stairs. She felt Magus release her wrist as she stumbled away.
"Wha…?" she looked around her, shocked to find herself half-way up the massive stairway to the castle. There was a gentle fog about them, lifting from the ocean and hanging about lazily. Realization hit her, and she looked to the wizard with inquisitive excitement. "How did you do that?!"
The wizard took to the shadows of the giant garden statues, leaving her standing alone on the giant stairway. He stationed himself cross-armed along the base of a large, towering statue. "It seems you never tire of that question. If it gives you any assurance, I could not tell you."
"Why not?" she asked.
The wizard looked off in the distance. "It is not in your nature to understand."
She tried to follow his gaze into the blackened woods behind her, then to the castle before her. Finally, she smiled. "Okay well… thanks!" She darted up the stairs before seeming to remember something and running back down to Magus. "Oh, you're not going to come with me?"
"No."
"How come?"
He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and took his time answering. "You're going in to stop this 'invasion' you have cooked up in your mind, correct?"
She frowned at him. "This is a real threat, Magus!"
"Do you believe that bringing someone who nearly destroyed your kingdom four hundred years ago will help that?"
Marle shook her head. "Yes. You've helped me a lot already."
Magus simply blinked at her. "It's better that I stay here."
She fixed her eyes to his for a moment, and it made him uncomfortable. "Ok, if you say so. I'll be back as soon as possible." With that, she turned up the stairs and disappeared out of sight.
Her footsteps faded into an echo, and only the gentle hum of the wind was left to keep Magus company.
Under the shadows, unseen and unheard as he often preferred, Magus took the time to stop the spinning of his head. Pulling himself through such a distance was generally easy enough, but he had no idea that transporting another person with him would drain his energy so severely and leave such annoying side effects- he had never transported anyone else before. Now, for the first time in years, he actually felt a touch sick. It was a strange nostalgic feeling, for he had often been sick when he had learnt how do use much of his magic for the first time.
When his head and stomach finally settled, Magus began to relax. Of course, he quickly grew bored of this. With nothing to do save practice his ice magic, he began testing and tempering himself as to how long he could hold the cold power in his hand until it left no sensation whatsoever. Covered in frost, his gloves crackled and nearly chipped under the cold.
He looked from one hand to the next; one hand was covered in ice while the other remained empty. Yet perhaps empty was not completely accurate, for there was something else itching within his naked palm; desire. Longing. It was a longing to be filled with power, a longing to create and produce the thrilling stir of magic. His fingers twitched under the pressure. Splitting his focus, he drew a small flame into his left hand and poured his focus into it until it would stand on its own. He held the two elements side by side for a minute to examine them. The ice sparkled in the light the fire gave off, and he fought to keep it from melting. Realizing it was a battle he could not win, he let his hands fall to his side, naked of their magic.
Soft, gentle clouds were beginning to appear against the backdrop of the midnight sky, dancing with the slight wind that grazed here and there. The forest- spanned out before him- was silent and still, full of natural night life like crickets and bats. A soft, comfortable silence had enveloped the entire area. Truly, there was no sign of danger, no tell tale signs or warnings that a threat lingered on the horizon. Just the soft twinkling of the stars among the clouds.
Still, Magus knew better. Though distant now, black wind had been screeching in his ears all night.
As much as he had deemed the princess' pathetic worrying for her castle to be a waste of time, he could not help but wonder what Ozzie truly wanted- other than to have the wizard removed from the picture. The stillness and clarity of the night sky settling about him was no consolation to the eerie fog rolling in.
The sudden thunder of footsteps quickly caught his attention, and Magus realized first that he had been in a daze of thought. Quickly after this realization came the next- that the clamor of footsteps was rather metallic in nature, accompanied by the odd shout or order yelled out.
"Magus!"
He turned to see Marle running down the stairs at full speed with a trail of what looked to be fifty soldiers in hot pursuit and he wondered how long he had been standing there.
"I take it your meeting didn't go so well," he noted dryly as she sprinted past him. He followed with ease, and they disappeared into the deep darkness of the woods.
"No," she panted, stopping as she came to the first turn. "This way."
Although it has seemed peaceful and silent on the outside, the woods were really no place to take a jaunt though in the late hours of the night. Strange noises and creatures blurred past them, but nothing dared to jump out at them.
"It's this fog," Marle panted over her shoulder. "The creatures in the woods don't like it any more than I do."
The wizard followed her sure path through the hazy, winding trees, neither of them stopping for even a second lest the heavy feet and shouting men in close pursuit catch up. Just when she was sure the dark branches and endless roots would never end, Marle burst out of the forest and gasped at the fresh air.
"D-Did we lose them?" she panted, looking quickly over her shoulder.
Placing a dark blue barrier over the entrance they had just bolted from, Magus dusted his hands over his breastplate. "I would say so."
Still catching her breath, she heaved a sigh. "Thanks."
The wizard watched as Marle slumped onto a large rock, laying flat and breathing deeply.
"It was awful," she whispered, running her fingers through her hair. "I went up to the gates and…. The guards grabbed me like I was some kind of prisoner or criminal and they took me to the chancellor. I guess I made a pretty big spectacle looking the way I do, though I had no choice. I demanded to speak to my father, but he said such an intrusion was unacceptable and refused to wake the king… unless…" she sighed, placing her head in her hands. "Unless I agreed to return to the castle permanently and turn Crono in for his 'crimes.'"
Magus shifted his weight.
"I can't do that…" Marle declared firmly. "Crono might be the only one who can do anything about this now, and I can't just hideaway in the castle and leave you guys to figure things out on your own. I told him that Guardia was in danger of the Mystics', but he called me crazy right in front of everyone…" she growled and straightened up suddenly. "He's gone out of control. I don't know what his problem is!"
Magus' lips remained in a pressed line. "In other words, another pointless trip."
Marle sighed. "No. Some of the soldiers believed me when I told them about the danger. I mean, I might have looked crazy, but most of the castle staff has no respect for the chancellor; he's really given himself a bad rap, even if he has too much power to be trifled with. So… I guess it's up to the knight captain to take action."
"Great," drawled the wizard. "Now I can sleep at night."
Despite herself, Marle smiled a little. "Yeah, well I guess it's long past time for that by now…" She laid back down on the rock and sighed. "You're going after Ozzie tomorrow, aren't you?"
"Yes," replied the wizard simply, tapping his fingers along his arm. It sounded familiar to her somehow, as though he were keeping beat to a song she had heard before.
She smiled to the sky. "I'm coming with you."