Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. This is a not for profit fanwork.

XVIII.

Magic

Within a few hours Demyx was well enough to return to the castle. Lea offered to take him; he looked even more gaunt and tired than ever.

"So it looks like our little friend got you," he said. He had a small pouch in his hand, which he tossed up and down in an uncomfortably regular way.

Would Lea believe him? Or gaslight him as well? "I don't think it was a Heartless."

Lea scoffed. "Then what was it?"

Demyx crossed his arms. The wind blowing through the streets was cold. "I think it was one of the vessels."

Lea stopped tossing the pouch. His face remained blank. "Why do you say that?"

"I saw the coat. I'd recognize it anywhere."

The tossing resumed. "How can you be sure?"

"I don't buy the hallucination thing." He shook his head. The sky was still crowded with rainclouds. "It… they… looked at my eyes. I think they were checking for damage."

Lea shook his head. His smile seemed forced. "Then what about the puncture wound on your side? Can't make that up. I saw it. It was pretty gross."

"The figure probably poisoned me when they left."

Lea put a hand on Demyx's shoulder. "No big baddie came to get you, I promise. Yuffie said she saw the Heartless. If you're so worried, go talk to her."

He was starting to get dizzy. "Lea. Tell me you believe me."

"I believe you're going to be fine. Look. Here we are. Home sweet home."

The castle stared at them. "You're not going to come in?" Demyx asked.

"Nah. I'd love to mingle, but I've got too much to do." He was already leaving.

"Lea," Demyx said. He turned. "Please take care of yourself."

He waved. "Pot calling the kettle black." He disappeared into a dark corridor.

Ienzo was on him as soon as he was within his line of sight near the kitchen. "Oh, thank goodness. How are you feeling?" He grabbed Demyx's wrist and felt for a pulse. "Your color's still off… you didn't come alone, did you?"

"No—Lea walked me—"

Ienzo corralled him into a chair. "Let me see the wound. Where is it?"

"It was on my side—Aerith healed me—" Ienzo poked at Demyx's sides until he found the sore spot. "Ow—stop touching me."

He relented. "As much as I want to have faith in her abilities, I need to see it for my own eyes."

Demyx crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm fine."

"Nine." His eyes had gone dark. "Let me see it."

"If I do will you leave me alone?"

Ienzo exhaled, and nodded. He pulled up his shirt and undershirt just enough and let Ienzo prod him while slowly simmering in the exasperation. "No scar. No bruising."

"I said I was fine." He yanked down his shirt. Too many people had seen him exposed for his comfort.

"Any pain? Any discomfort?"

"I'm just kind of sore and headachy." He looked down.

"Not much can be done about that, I'm afraid." Ienzo sat down across from him.

Demyx was tempted to tell him everything. But he figured—given Ienzo's cold reaction when he'd told him about the reformation—that he'd hear the same thing he'd heard from Lea. "…Is there anything left in the cupboards? I'm starving."

Ienzo smiled. "Of course. I can fix us something."

"Well, I'm not helpless—" But before he could even move Ienzo was up.

It took him a few days to recover completely from the poison. The dry season had officially begun, and Demyx could feel it. The air was sharper and warmer, and his head felt fuzzy. His sense of water was vaguely muted, like hearing sound from another room. He headed to town, mostly to drop in on the committee and see what was going on. Leaflets had been posted on nearly every surface, showing that water rationing had begun, and the steps to follow. Water could only be used during a certain time frame. Everyone was advised to stay out of the heat, especially as the summer deepened.

He followed the trail of flyers and found Yuffie putting them up in the marketplace. "Must be a fun job," he said lamely.

She rolled her eyes. "Good to see you finally off your ass."

He wondered if that were some poor attempt at a joke. "I was just going to see what was up."

She shrugged. "Not a whole lot. There's still more work to be done on the vital systems, but there's not so much time crunch now that the rain's over." She walked down another few feet to post another sign.

"…Oh." He followed her. "Listen… thanks for helping me out."

She smirked. "Say it. "For saving my life.""

He exhaled. ""For saving my life.""

"Yeah, yeah. It's my job." She continued to post signs and he trailed her. "I'm done gloating. Is there something else you need?"

Here, in the shade between buildings, it was a little cooler. "Well… I just wanted to ask something. Lea said you saw the Heartless that hurt me."

She turned to face him for the first time. "I mean I think I did. It was raining hard and I saw a shadow and smelled darkness. If that's not a Heartless, I don't know what is. Why?"

"Well, I thought…" there was no point in telling her. "No reason."

She raised an eyebrow. "I know it was weird between us, but I wouldn't actually hurt you."

"I… I know."

A shopkeeper came out of the shop that Yuffie had been putting flyers on and struck up a conversation. Demyx began to walk away. What if he really had made it up? What if he'd just—?

"Hey!" Yuffie shouted across the square at him. She darted over to him. "I just got a message. Merlin's back. You should come meet him."

"Who?" He gave her a look.

"Merlin? The guy whose house we're always in?" She put her hands on her hips. "The reason why there's magic stuff everywhere?"

"I thought… I thought Cid lived there."

"No! Cid lives in a dump near me. Come on. We're gonna be late!"

She moved so fast by that by the time they got there, he was breathless. The door hadn't even shut behind them before Yuffie was yelling. "Merlin! Where've you been, you old coot?"

"Yes, well, I've—let me put my bag down first. In due time." Merlin was very old, with a long white beard and powder-blue robes. Demyx put two and two together. He'd known, once, that a wizard worked with the committee, but had never caught his name before. Aerith, Cid, and Leon all crowded him as well, peppering him with questions. Leon's low, measured voice clashed with Yuffie's brash one and Cid's chuckling. He wasn't sure what to do with himself.

Merlin stepped slightly away, and caught sight of him. "Oh, yes, I remember you." He adjusted his glasses. "Lea's told me quite a lot in our travels."

"You know Lea?" Demyx asked.

"Know him? Why, I helped him get that Keyblade of his. Who else knows temporal magic these days?" He reached into the bag at his feet and started to pull out books and various objects from long-term travel—pots and pans from camping, clothing, empty potion and ether bottles. Demyx didn't know how he fit it all in that one small bag.

"…You've lost me," he said.

"Well, of course the Keyblade chooses its wielder, but one can sort of… manipulate the circumstances, and train the student. All of this takes a very, very long time and we didn't have a very, very long time. I created a pocket where time flowed more slowly. It was beautiful work, if I do say so myself." Merlin looked at the table in the center of the room. "Did you move everything?" He asked the rest of the committee.

"You said make yourselves at home," Cid said.

"Yes, well, I thought—bother—" He pulled out a long bone wand and waved it. Tables, chairs, books, and magical instruments floated from respective spots in the room. Dust rose off of everything and vanished. The stacks of committee reports on the table lifted, organized themselves, and fell into neat piles next to the computer. "Much better."

"Pretty neat," Yuffie remarked to Demyx.

He'd seen all sorts of magic in his life; the Organization's elemental powers, black magic, white magic. This was different. It seemed less plausible.

"You shouldn't leave all this out in the open, you know," Merlin said to Leon, gesturing to the reports. "You never know whose hands it might fall into."

"It's all data from the castle's computer. There's no way else to store it. It's not as if he doesn't know."

They bickered softly for a moment. Demyx noticed a small blue butterfly, glowing softly in a small jar, on a table nearby. It fluttered its wings weakly.

"The last remnants from one of the worlds I visited," Merlin explained to him. "It was all I could save aside from myself. See the withering on its wings?" He pointed to grayish tinge on the butterfly. "If I let it out of its jar, the temporal stasis will break, and the darkness will consume it."

"You must know a lot about time," Demyx said. He couldn't take his eyes off of the bug.

"Not enough, I'm afraid." He shook his head. "I should like to speak with you, and with your friends."

"My… friends…" It took him a moment to realize Merlin meant Ienzo and the others.

"I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help your conditions," he said. He offered a kindly smile. "If it can be fixed, it'll help all of us, don't you think?"

Demyx didn't see how a time specialist could save them, but Merlin's magic was something new. He knew he shouldn't let himself hope, but a small ember burned anyway. "Uh, sure."

"We'll call a meeting as soon as possible," Leon said.

"Perhaps not right now," Merlin said. He stretched. "I've been traveling such a long time. One can't simply just jump dimensions when one gets older." He laughed wryly. "Quite bad for my arthritis."

"I've already got some remedy with your name on it," Aerith said.

"Oh, you're too kind, my dear, too kind."

"So, tomorrow morning, then," Leon said.

Demyx tried to imagine being old enough to get arthritis. Or gray hair. He couldn't imagine even being an adult. He didn't think he'd get a chance. "I should head back… tell the others," he said. None of them were really paying attention; they were too busy talking. He slipped out the door.

That night it was only he and Aeleus at the dinner table, picking over bland soup. Aeleus's arm had, in the past few weeks, regrown all of its bones, but he was still in rigorous physical therapy to get the coordination back, and Demyx could tell from the way he held himself that it still hurt.

"…You ever think about being old?" Demyx asked him.

Aeleus shrugged.

"Like, real old. Old enough to have gray hair. Or, like, grandkids." He didn't even want to think about that.

"Why do you ask?"

"Merlin the wizard returned. He… it's dumb, but he said he might be able to help us. I didn't imagine surviving much longer." He stirred his soup weakly. "Is it dumb to hope? He's… he's pretty powerful…"

Aeleus's expression was smooth.

"It probably is dumb," he conceded.

"Hope is never dumb," Aeleus said.

"I can't imagine myself grown up," Demyx said.

"You are grown."

"You know what I mean. Older. Like thirty. What would that be like? Would I work somewhere? Would I… be with someone? What would I do?" The more he spoke, the dumber he felt, but the thoughts expanded from their repressed spot.

"Will you stay here? If you are healed?" Aeleus asked.

"I don't know. What if it turns out that I have family somewhere?" He remembered that hot flash of memory, his mother still in her bed, as though asleep… Something in him tightened. "I'd have no way to get there."

Aeleus nodded solemnly. He was trying to eat with his weak hand, and the spoon trembled in his grip.

"What about you?" He asked. "What is here for you?"

"Dilan, Even, and Ienzo."

"Right. You knew them for a lot longer than I did."

Aeleus nodded. "This is our home."

"Dilan didn't agree. The last time I talked with him, he said that everything that made this place home was gone."

"I can see how he'd think that."

Demyx waited for him to elaborate. "…What did he lose?" he asked.

"His sister and his partner died in the fall."

"…Oh. That's awful." A long moment of silence. They picked at their meals. "Are you going to fight?"

"If the rest of you do, I will protect you."

"I'm so scared," he admitted.

Aeleus nodded.

"You're so naive."

Dilan's voice put his heart through his chest. He almost choked on his mouthful of soup.

"I expect this from him. But you, too, Aeleus?" He crossed into the room and opened a cabinet.

Aeleus said nothing. He kept trying to eat.

"You'll all be killed. I'm trying to save you."

"As am I," Aeleus said. "If this continues then we will have no home or lives to speak of."

Dilan shook his head.

"Where do you recommend we go?" Aeleus asked. "To the other worlds we destroyed?"

Dilan scoffed and strode from the room.

"I can't understand him," Demyx said.

Aeleus shrugged.

He stood up and pushed his bowl towards Aeleus. "I'm not hungry anymore. You can have it."

This chapter is mostly a product of me forgetting that Merlin actually existed in KH.