After Magus' defeat, Ozzie thinks on the war between the mystics and the humans.
It was a bitterly cold night, and the musty old keep they had moved their base to was plagued by drafts. Ozzie was glad that Flea had deigned to light a fire before running off, though he would have expected Flea would need to warm himself after he had been out scouting.
Ozzie was enjoying the heat of that fire now. He had the half-devoured carcass of a young boar spread out in front of him, and a second kill was roasting over the fire. It would be ready when Slash and Flea came to their senses and came looking for food. Ozzie could hear sizzling as bits of fat dripped into the fire, and the creaking of one of his skeletal puppets as it clumsily tended to the meat.
There was little Ozzie enjoyed more than fresh-charred flesh. Maybe setting some of his skeleton children on a pack of squealing humans, but that was such a satisfying pastime that little could compare with it. It would be a long time before he could do that again.
It was such a waste. His beautiful, bloody revolution brought to heel by a few measly humans. Ozzie missed those days of power and plenty. He had even enjoyed battle, though he had never forgotten to keep one eye on his escape route. Better to flee and fight another day than to stand solid and be destroyed.
Magus had never understood that. The boy had been an explosive terror since the moment Ozzie found him. He looked aloof, but he completely immersed himself in his grisly work. That kind of single mindedness was acceptable only as long as he could handle the assassins sent after him.
After the humans brought down Magus' castle, Ozzie had first suspected that Magus had taken a lesson from him after all and fled. He had been wrong about the much. If Magus had left of his own will, he would have regrouped with the rest of the Mystics long ago.
Or perhaps Magus thought his powerful position was forfeit, even if he did reappear now. Slash had a strange flair for honor, and he probably wouldn't forgive Magus for such sudden cowardice. Flea would never forgive Magus for abandoning him, if he wasn't in contact with him now, and Ozzie watched Flea well enough to be sure that he wasn't.
When Ozzie had first found Magus, he had suspected that the boy had been thrown out by someone else. Most likely they had found him utterly worthless, since Magus' control was so unrefined. Ozzie was not wasteful by nature, and he wasn't about to give up such a powerful weapon just because it lacked training. It was no matter that Magus eventually grew out of being his student and his tool, and decided he wanted to be Ozzie's better.
There was one lingering scrap of Magus' influence that Ozzie let himself be grateful for. He had forced Flea and Slash to work together for so long that they had grudgingly gotten used to it. At least now Ozzie didn't have the two of them at each other's throats all the time.
Both of them were too preoccupied with their petty sulking about the past and each other to see what needed to be done now. Now was not the time for revenge or flair, it was time to regroup. Their war against the humans would not die with Magus. They might have been weakened, but Ozzie believed that their cause would eventually be rewarded.
Ozzie sucked a bit of grease off his fingers, enjoying himself. Some of the Mystics had taken a liking to human meat, but Ozzie had never taken to it. It was filthy meat. He privately thought of humans as junk food, not fit for his palate.
They really were good for nothing, those humans. At least their skeletons had some use after death. His puppet clacked its bones together clumsily, as if agreeing with him.
Without Magus' power, Ozzie didn't think this war would end while he was still fit enough for battle. Maybe in his lifetime, but probably not under his command. It wouldn't truly end until the humans were on their knees, until they realized that the Mystics were the superior beings.
Ozzie gnawed the last scrap of meat from the bone he was holding before biting down on it, twisting it until he heard a satisfying snap. He tilted the broken bone to suck out the marrow. He was going to enjoy his food and his fire as he looked to the future of their revolution.