The Return of Maeve 7
Firouz's Belief
In just a few short minutes, he was going to be put under a magical spell by a powerful sorceress.
In just a few short minutes, he was going to allow himself to be taken from his body to another place to be tested on something to save a friend's life.
He, a man of science, of proof, and logic, was going to place himself into the mercies of a force hitherto unknown to him except for what Maeve and his own observations of her practicing said magic had seen.
He was going to let himself be tested with this magic even though he had no real training in it.
How would this affect him once it was over with?
Would it even affect him badly?
Will he come back with some sort of understanding of this metaphysical world his female friends were apart of that he in the past had yet to comprehend?
He was nervous, scared, anxious, and excited all at once; he wanted this done; now.
He wanted this test over; not only because he wasn't comfortable with all the magical aspects of this test, but he wanted Maeve safe and with them once more.
And so…
Firouz paced back and forth.
This was a habit he had barrowed and then absorbed into his behavior as a close friend of Sinbad and Doubar's.
At first he hadn't paid it any attention as it was only pacing, but as the year crawled by on the Nomad and their adventures grew darker and more dangerous, he had finally caught on when he and Sinbad both paced across a small room and managed to cut each other off many times.
The captain, not his friend, hadn't been very amused.
He found it fascinating though, as it proved a theory of his that he had thought up years ago: that friends and family and environment ultimately influenced how a person acts.
It was a mixture of the two as opposed to the singular oppositions that other colleagues of his supported as the singular influence on a person's life.
Doubar sighed and said as he pulled off his turban, "Firouz you're making me dizzy, stop!"
The young curly haired scientist paused, looked up to meet his bigger friend's pale blue eyes and said with an apologetic shake of his head, "I'm sorry Doubar, but I've apparently inherited yours and Sinbad's habit of pacing while thinking things through."
Doubar blinked and groaned at that. While not as observant in the sciences as his friend (and all the prouder for it), he too had seen Firouz slowly but surely acquire his and his brother's habit of pacing when they were impatient or thinking furiously about something.
It made him both proud and annoyed at the same time.
Firouz sighed but paused and sat down on the floor beside Caipra's relaxed body.
The old woman smiled at him and said, "Only a few more minutes Firouz and then I'll be ready."
Firouz nodded but said, "I still find it fascinating though…"
Bryn gave him a puzzled look and asked, "What is fascinating Firouz?"
Firouz blinked but answered with awe and curiosity, "How magic, that is not in anyway shape or form physically real, can form from its metaphysical realm into our own through conduits such as yourself and Lady Caipra, my dear, and become a physical force of energy."
Bryn blinked at that; she thought magic was physical.
It felt very physical to her at least. She felt the drain of using her magic nearly every single time she used it. So how couldn't it not be a physical force of the world?
Firouz blinked and continued, "Point of fact, like with Maeve's control over fire. She has an almost instinctive control of it, but she had to work to control it at the beginning. Fire, as we all know, is a very violent and dangerous element to work with, yet Maeve can mold it to do her bidding without it harming her with burns and such. She can take those metaphysical attributes of fire and through her body, or the conduit, bring it out into this world as physically hot and dangerous fire to those who are our enemies. I have observed her and watched as the fire literally grew from her fingers to form her famous fireballs, and watched as with each and every one made she grew physically weaker and weaker….
And you, Bryn, you can make things like tornadoes and shoot bolts of light from your eyes. While your control isn't Maeve's because of your missing memory, you can control (for the most part) what you magically create in our physical world through the conduit of your body, and get weaker with each consecutive thing you make and the longer they are in the physical plain…"
He shook his head and repeated, "Fascinating…"
The others eyed him with glazed non-comprehending stares.
He sighed and said with a wave of his hand, "Nevermind…….."
Caipra smiled at him with glittering and understanding eyes. Firouz had a funny feeling she knew exactly what he was talking about and understood it all too.
He watched her as she stood up and said, "I'm ready."
He quickly scrambled to his feet and said, "Very well."
He marched over to the circle of white candles and laid down.
He fidgeted as Caipra intoned,
"From this hour until your return,
this candle of hope I will let burn.
My lord and lady, watch over you.
Keep you safe, from harms view.
From now until you return to me.
This is my will, so mote it be."
They watched as their scientist friend was enveloped in a white light. When it vanished, Firouz was as still as stone and if not for the minute rise and fall of his chest they would have though he was dead.
Caipra sat back down on her chair with a sigh and Sinbad snorted and said as a joke to break down the tension that was steadily growing in the room, "I'd give almost anything to see Firouz' face when he arrives wherever he's going."
The others snorted in agreement.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring up into a pair of pure golden orbs.
He shouted an exclamation and jumped to his feet. Automatically, his hand went to his side and grabbed the hilt his hand found there.
When he felt the familiar piece of steal and leather, his mind caught up to what his eyes had been seeing: a young woman with long reddish gold hair, pale skin, and pure golden orbs for eyes. There wasn't any other color there.
Simply pure gold that burned with power.
He shook as tremors of 'something' rolled over his body and seemed to claim all his attention.
This woman, creature, thing simply stared at him and despite his courage it had deserted him and he found himself fidgeting even worse now than he did whilst in the circle of candles in Caipra's home.
The woman was surrounded by a horribly bright and warm golden light that seemed to emanate from all around her, but most predominately from her eyes and her hair.
Her eyes were wise and innocent,
They were soft and hard,
They were angry, they were sweet,
They were malevolent, they were benevolent.
Firouz couldn't stand to see those eyes staring straight through him. The very fact that they were watching him sent shivers of fear and horror through him.
The woman opened her mouth and asked in a strong, terrible, and marvelously uplifting, loving voice, "Who are you?"
Firouz felt a jolt of 'something' again roll through him as he stumbled backwards due to the strength of this 'something', and stuttered out in a cracking voice full of nervousness and fear, "I…I…am…m…m…Fir…Firo…Firouz."
She was silent.
She simply watched him as he fiddled with his shirt.
He knew she was waiting for something, but for the life of him he didn't know what!
He raised his head and asked slowly, "Wh…where are…are we?"
She blinked slowly and answered in that terribly awesome voice, "We are in the essence of your fiery friend."
Firouz blinked and tilted his head.
They were where?!
He blinked and asked again as confusion blocked all other avenues for his fear to consume him, "We're where?"
She blinked again and answered slowly, "We are in the essence of your fiery friend."
She added once more, "Who are you?"
He stood straight and answered once more with confidence growing, "I am Firouz."
She tilted her head and asked, "Why are you here Firouz?"
He blinked and replied in an obvious tone, "I'm here to help rescue Maeve by taking some sort of test."
He continued more eagerly as he took a step forward, "Do you know where she is?"
The woman shook her head. Her hair, as golden as the sun in the high noon, glittered with inner light as she continued to stare at him with unblinking eyes.
Firouz's eagerness waned as he took a step back and gulped as she asked once more, "Why are you here Firouz?"
He huffed loudly as he sighed and repeated, for he was getting impatient with all these inane questions that had nothing to do with rescuing Maeve, "I'm here to save my friend!"
She gave him a hard look and asked pointedly, "Why, you do not believe in her essence, so why are you here?"
The young man's mouth dropped open as he asked in disbelief, "Do not believe in her essence?! What are you talking about?!"
The woman rolled her golden eyes, how he knew he wasn't sure as there was no color to show a difference, and said in a telling sort of way as if she was talking down to him rather than at him which caused him to bristle in annoyance and anger, "You Firouz, claim to be a friend of Maeve, yet you do not believe in her essence, you do not believe in the magic that lives inside her heart, mind, blood, and soul. You constantly try to explain away all that you see, and you dismiss all that you do not, so why are you here when you do not believe in the core that which is your friend, Maeve?"
Firouz felt anger bubbling up inside him.
How DARE this…THING…tell him what he should and shouldn't believe!
He was a man of science!
He wasn't one of magic!
He knew the existence of magic was real, Maeve, Bryn, Caipra, and even Rumina were proof enough that it is.
He might not understand the laws that govern magic, as he did the laws of the physical world that they lived in, but he never dismissed the magic in their world.
He had to see it, to physically touch it and study it, to know that it was real.
Those things he could understand.
Magic was of the metaphysical.
He couldn't feel it so much as he could see it.
He wasn't one to simply trust his feelings as they had proven false many times in the past.
His eyes, he could trust to tell him the truth; whereas his heart and soul could easily fool him with longing and wondrous things.
Magic was only physical because a few people had the ability to manipulate those metaphysical lines that were all around them (as Maeve had once said). They, sorcerers and sorceresses, were simple conduits that let the magic course through their veins into the real world.
To believe was to have faith in it yourself.
To have faith in it you had to believe it to be really there.
To Maeve, Bryn and Caipra, who had those skills to draw out the metaphysical powers, those were real.
They could see it,
They could hear it pounding in their hearts,
They could smell it with their noses,
And they could touch it with their very beings deep within their hearts and souls.
To touch it was to feel it; they could feel it.
He could not.
Therefore, if he could not feel it; could not touch it, he could not believe it was there.
Without the belief there was no faith for him to use (not that he could) or feel it.
It was a vicious circle, and he was, unfortunately, one of the many hundreds who had not the skill to feel, to touch, to believe, or to have faith in it (magic).
But, he had seen magic with his own eyes.
He had seen the drain on his friends as they used those magics he couldn't believe in.
He had seen the power behind them all, and knew it was a truly powerful thing indeed.
He might not have belief and faith in this metaphysical thing called magic, but…
But…
They were what he believed in.
They were what he had eternal faith in.
They he could see.
They he could touch.
They he could smell.
They he could hear.
And if he ever had the desire too, he could taste them too (which he wouldn't as Sinbad would maim him for even thinking it about one, and murder him for thinking it about the other-friends or not).
Firouz felt his heart freeze as an epiphany shot down his spine.
Then his heart jolted back into life and pumped ten times faster to make up for its missed beat.
He could feel his limbs bursting with new life as his epiphany continued to scorch a path straight down into his heart and soul…
…he DID have faith and belief in Bryn.
…he DID have belief and faith in Maeve.
He raised his eyes back to the woman, who still stood there with apathetic eyes, and said with a straight back full of belief and faith in his own words as he answered her question, "I DO believe and have faith in Maeve because I know she is of the metaphysical. I have seen and felt her power. It is a frighteningly beautiful element, and I'm constantly in awe and fear of her because of it."
He hurried to explain himself for those words hadn't come out of his mouth right, "I'm not scared of 'her' per se, no not at all; Maeve is a wonderful, kind, generous, marvelous, skillful, stubborn, beautiful woman full of fiery grace and allure which no doubt you gave her. But, as I do not understand the metaphysical world she lives in, that you live in My Lady, I fear that which I do not know."
An inkling of the answer she wanted whispered itself in the back of him mind; he shivered with eagerness because he wanted to say this answer that he newly found within himself.
He licked his lips and ended, "I am here, to find and protect Maeve from the curse that holds her captive. I have a firm belief that she is hale and whole and simply waiting on us to come and get her. I have faith in her to hold on until we reach her since she is as powerful and stubborn as…as…as a phoenix that brings light, hope, and love to those you believe in their powers."
He sighed and ended, "I might not understand it, but I believe in her inherent goodness. I believe in her fire, I believe in her feelings, and I…"
He paused there, looked this woman straight in the eyes, and said sincerely as a finger came to rest on her forearm, "…I might not be able to see you out there, but I see you now…I feel you now…I can touch you now…I believe in you…you, who are Maeve's core essence…that which makes Maeve the person we all know and love."
There he ended his monologue.
He was done; epiphany over.
It was all up to her now.
She sat there in silence simply staring at him.
He felt like she was weighing his words against him, and hoped that she knew or felt the sincerity in them.
He truly meant it.
He might not be able to call upon those of the elements like Bryn, Caipra, or Maeve could, but he knew now and understood.
That seeing isn't believing, and that believing is seeing.
She blinked and her whole visage changed.
The golden light of her hair and eyes grew warmer and lovelier.
It filled him with a warmth that he had never known before.
Firouz felt like the sun had come out for the first time.
He reveled in it.
She smiled lovingly at him and said in her terrible, loving voice, "You have passed."
Firouz smiled as the white light enveloped him once more.
*******************
Caipra opened her eyes and said, "He's done."
The crew watched with wide eyes as the white light dwindled into nothing and then vanished.
When the light was gone, Firouz's eyes opened and he sat up.
Sinbad saw the reverence in his eyes and wondered just what it was that Firouz had been tested on.
Whatever it was had caused his logical friend to seem more…more; like Bryn and Maeve and Caipra were more than normal people.
He snorted quietly to himself.
Firouz was not a man of magic, but all the same…
His thoughts were interrupted by Caipra as she said, "He finally understands."
Firouz met each and every person's eyes in the room; Dermott's included, and simply said in a very serious yet wondrous tone, "Yes, I do."
The silence after his profound words that caused them all to pause at the significant meaning or emotion in those words was thick.
Caipra sat back down and said, "Again, I'll need an hour to rest."
She looked back up at them and asked, "Who is next?"
The crew of the Nomad looked at one another.
Rongar and Firouz seemed more at peace than they had ever been before, but who would be next?
Doubar bit his lip and decided then and there to just do it, "I will."
Deep within a mountain, hidden by layers and layers of rock and surrounded and pushed down by hundreds of thousands of kilos of water, a young woman smiled; she knew they were close all she had to do was wait and pray.
Elsewhere, a man with dark black hair, pale skin, and even darker more potent eyes furiously paced back and forth.
His plans to kill of the peasant witch weren't going as he had planned!
It had seemed so easy too.
All he had to do was cast the spell and offer up a sacrifice to the god of the sea, Poseidon.
The spell was ease enough to cast, and the sacrifice of a small virgin girl from a nearby island made a wonderful gift the Patron God of the Sea.
So, what had gone wrong?
He frowned; DimDim, that's what went wrong.
His old enemy, even castaway from this realm by magic, still managed to interfere at just the right time.
DimDim had saved the girl, and protected and nurtured her.
So much so, he now feared the power he sensed shining brightly for all to see.
Unfortunately, he couldn't undo this spell to fix the problem he was now facing.
Unlike other spells, once this one was cast, it can't be undone till the spell ran its course.
The spell would end once the tests were fulfilled.
Two were successes; four more were left; five if you counted the peasants test too.
He sighed in defeat.
He had gamboled on DimDim not interfering and lost.
He'd just have to wait for her to awaken before killing her off.
It's a good thing he was a patient man…