The Return of Maeve 10
An Interlude
Rumina growled as she neared her father's new hideaway in the caverns they and the devil were staying in.
The cavern was large and spacious, she had to admit that as she hardly ever saw the damned beast anymore, but it was cold and damp. It made her skin crawl with cool shivers and even worse…it made her hair flat!
With the pitcher sloshing over her hands and drenching her new silk skirt beyond even magical repair, she growled even louder but swallowed it.
This wasn't what she had imagined her new life with her father would be like. Instead of them ruling Baghdad and Basra with a heart and hand of steel, they were constantly on the run; desperately trying to stay out of Dim-Dim's, Caipra's and Sinbad's way.
She wasn't scared of any of them, but her father had, in a fit of odd behavior, decided that they needed to hide and plan for the confrontation between them and the Nomad crew.
She just didn't understand her father anymore.
Before his death, he was confident and proud of his might and power. He killed with no discrimination of anyone or thing. He ruled with a clever ambition for the world to fall at his feet in supreme worship. She loved that part of his personality.
His drive to continue causing mayhem all around the world was an inspiration to her causing her to try and outdo him time and time again.
Unfortunately, she always ran into a pesky little problem every single time: The Nomad crew.
Her father had never shied away from a challenge and he never failed to cleverly come up with in depth plans that could outsmart even the wisest of sorcerers and men.
And then it happened; Sinbad defeated her father.
She felt a tear fall from her hazel eyes at the memory of her father's head falling from his shoulders. It had been the worst memory she had ever experienced in her very spoiled and pampered life.
She had never seen her father defeated before and in her rage, she lashed out at the crew in revenge.
Her lust for the crafty sailor, not withstanding, wasn't enough to stop her thirst for revenge and yet she failed time and again to stop them…she even teamed up with them once just to escape!
But when her father had been retuned to her, she had felt a happiness that she couldn't describe. It filled her with warmth that had amazed her and horrified her.
The warmth was something she had never felt before and it felt nice, but it horrified her as she couldn't cast a spell for three days afterwards.
Her father hadn't been amused by her affectionate loss of magic. No, she could still cast magic, neutral ones that needed neither positive nor negative emotions; she just couldn't cast dark magic.
Her father's return to the world would have been a surprise of the utmost grandeur, but he couldn't DO anything as she was powerless and his own magic was less than stellar.
Scratch, even while on a team, played to keep him at the advantage. While he did give Turok back his life and the Griffin's Egg did the rest, the devil had used Turok's own magic instead of his own demonic ones to reanimate her father.
It had taken her father months of saving his energies before he was able to do the tiniest of spells, and then he had to wait even longer to regain what he had used.
She had tried to help, but he just got angrier and more out of character as the year continued. As much as she cared for her father, he just didn't appreciate her like he used too. And so her powers lessened as well; and his anger grew even higher.
Then, two months ago, Scratch had finally crawled out of whatever hole he had found here, and declared that he had a plan to destroy Sinbad once and for all.
Her father had been intrigued by the thought of using the form and shape of Maeve against the sailor, but she knew it wouldn't work. Either he would see through the illusions or something would fail that would reveal the harpy before Sinbad saw it; it always worked like that.
She had tried to explain this to them both, but they ignored her and called her a child.
In a huff, she had stomped away and declared that they were both idiots who knew nothing of their enemies, and that she hoped they failed.
In her anger, her magic had sparked and arched through her body causing her to gasp in shock and awe. It had been a year to the day since she had felt the delicious darkness running through her veins.
She didn't tell her father or the devil though; she wanted them to continue to underestimate her; if there was anything she had learned from the peasant witch was that it was beset to be underestimated than overestimated because it let people drop their guards around you.
And when the devil's plan failed, like she had predicted it would, her father had concocted this little gem of his to kill the red head and destroy Sinbad and the crew all at the same time.
It had taken her father nearly three months of conserving his magic for this spell and ritual to work, and it would take him six months more to regain his strength; he was losing too.
Only Sinbad, Dermott, she remembered who he is now, and Maeve's tests were left to go.
They'd pass their tests easily. With Maeve's life on the line, Sinbad didn't fail to succeed, ever.
As she arrived with the pitcher of wine, she poured the liquid into her father's goblet and glanced down at the glowing seeing pool: Dermott was in the circle now.
She raised an eyebrow and thought, 'Interesting, what will young Dermott's test be?'
He didn't think.
He jumped off the chair he was resting on and glided into the circle and cocked his head impatiently.
He'd undergo the test next.
It might be his own inherent powers, but he knew Sinbad and Maeve had to go last. Somehow he knew theirs was the most important test and they'd undergo it individually and together at the same time.
Caipra sighed and said, "I'll need more time to rest Dermott…I grow weaker with ever casting I do…"
Sinbad blinked in shock at the hawk's decision and the old sorceress' words.
He was in shock because the staring match between him and Dermott ended rather abruptly, and yet he was relieved too.
He wasn't ready to face his greatest weakness just yet.
He would never be, and he knew it, but he also knew he would have to in order to save Maeve.
He would never let anything bad happen to her.
It had always been his promise.
He had broken his word only once, and he had no desire to ever fail her again.
Yet he knew he would in this; no matter how much he desired not too.
He simply wasn't ready to see what kind of demon he had become while she was gone.
He knew she wouldn't like what he had become.
She would turn him away in disgust, and he would let her.
He deserved it.
As his eyes flowed from friend to friend, he felt a stab of guilt eat away at his newly won confidence and absolution.
All of them had faced their tests courageously, and yet he could not.
Why?
Why couldn't he face his inner demons?
Did he fear the dark so much that he couldn't stand to see what was hidden in him?
Or did he fear it because he knew, unconsciously, what it was that he would see?
For he knew, had always known, since the moment he had met her, that SHE was his inner most soul.
He feared to see what she had become due to his sins against the words of Allah and the Mother she worshipped, for it wasn't his soul inside his body; it was hers.
They shared one soul.
His was deep within her, and hers was deeply ensconced in him.
He took a deep breath.
He feared to see what kind of devil he had made her into.
Caipra sighed heavily as she leaned back against the padded chair. She waved the silent concerns of the crew away mindlessly, for she wasn't in any danger just yet.
It was true that she was tired, but she had more than enough strength left in her to cast two more spells.
She just needed to rest and to meditate.
As she closed her eyes, she pondered on the balance that always weighed her down or lifted her up depending on the situation and how it affected the world at large.
She hated this aspect of her magic. It made her uncomfortable to know how things affect others and yet not know of the events that led up to them.
It always made her feel like she was an unwilling witness to some supreme beings manipulations of the world, and yet she was nearly powerless to stop those events from occurring.
She knew how it would affect those around her, and yet she could do nothing but sit and watch as it happened because she wasn't a key point in this fight.
She was an observer and nothing more.
The weight, the heaviness was slowly abating.
It was giving way.
It gave way with every success against Rumina, Scratch and Turok.
But they still had a long way to go.
The heaviness still coated their souls.
It smothered their lights, their souls.
It made sensing Sinbad and Maeve very difficult.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Bryn was worried.
She had felt it as her soul rose from her body.
She was positive that the guys were not aware of this facet of the ritual and test.
She wondered if this was a good thing for Dermott to undertake.
He was a hawk and not a human after all.
Firouz was curious about all the tests, but he held his mouth. He didn't want to be the one to end Maeve's life because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
He wondered, much like Bryn, how this would affect Dermott though.
Would this be a good thing for such a little thing to undertake?
Dermott was smart and a part of their crew; every bit at loved by Maeve as they were, if not more, but he was simply a hawk.
He couldn't do it, he had to ask!
Surely, it couldn't hurt since it was about Dermott and not Maeve?
"Will this be okay for Dermott?"
Caipra quickly assured him, "It will not hurt young Dermott, Firouz, fear not."
Firouz nodded.
He wasn't about to doubt her words; not after the test he had just gone though.
But, humans looked all but dead during the tests, how would Dermott look?
Doubar, unlike the others, was peaceful.
He did worry about the lass, very much so, but after undertaking his test, he knew things would work out all right.
They just had too.
He didn't panic over the questions that were swarming in his head…
Would they succeed?
Would Maeve be alive once all this was over with?
What would she do once freed?
Would she stay with them or leave?
No, those questions weren't as awful to think about as they once were.
Somehow Doubar knew it would all be okay.
Rumina continued to watch her father's seeing pool.
He and the devil had taken off to who knows where in this watery hell they had hidden themselves in, and found that she didn't care.
Now that her magic was steadily coming back with her anger at them both, she had no qualms with not knowing where they were.
Unlike her father's magic, where most of it was tied into keeping him alive on this plane, hers were regaining strength quickly.
She sneered at the Nomad crew.
How she hated them with all her being.
She slammed her fist against the iron metal bowl, and said, "Curse you Sinbad! I'll find someway of destroying you for what you've done to me!"
As the bowl settled down once more, she eyed the captain and began to grin a little.
Up until now, she had stayed out of her father's and Scratch's little tests, but with Sinbad and Maeve's test looming ever closer, she found herself drawn into it's magical web.
She knew she'd be partaking in these last two tests in their stead.
She couldn't wait!