- Chapter 25 -
"I will share the air I breath
I'll give you my heart on a string
I just don't wanna miss anything..."
~ Secondhand Serenade "Awake"
As soon as Balthazar was out of the room, Merlin turned his attention back to his eldest and very first apprentice who was still standing at one corner of the room with arms across his chest. Maxim had been wearing a scowl on his face since Merlin started giving out assignments to the boys.
"If you keep scowling like that, boy, I could barely recognize you within an hour," said the sorcerer, almost jokingly.
"Just disappointed," replied Maxim, walking over to his master a bit closer. "You've just made Balthazar lead another assignment with a group of Merlinians where he'd be encountering Morgana when I could have handled it myself, perhaps even better than he could."
Merlin sat back where he was currently seated behind a wide table, keeping his gaze on the young sorcerer before him. "This is not about who could handle it better. I'm certain any one of you two will take any possible and/or necessary steps that's needed to be done for the mission to come out successful which of course includes most of the members coming out of it alive. The only difference is that the two of you had your own ways to do so."
"No." Maxim placed both his hands on the table and leaned over a little closer to Merlin. "You gave it to him because you didn't want me to have encounters with Morgana."
Merlin was silent for a few moments.
What Maxim had said was true, Merlin couldn't deny that. The only problem was how to convince the young sorcerer it was for his (Maxim's) sake.
"Horvath," started the old sorcerer, "there is a reason why I don't want you encountering Morgana. I'm hoping and praying that she may not succeed on it but, I need you to understand that it is for your own sake. For your own good."
"Is this about losing me to her?" said Maxim; it wasn't really a question. "You're underestimating me, Merlin."
"You're overestimating yourself," countered Merlin.
There was a tense silence between them for a moment or two as both sorcerers held their gazes. It was Merlin who spoke again.
"Have you forgotten what I've told you a year ago?" he said. "Anyone, everyone, can have both light and dark. And you, my boy..." Merlin pointed a finger towards Maxim. "You have the tendency to be darker."
Several heartbeats later, Maxim pulled away from the table and started walking towards for the door. When he did got to the door, he halted to a pause and looked over his shoulder to his old master, and said, "You know, I'm beginning to wish that we shouldn't have met, and that you shouldn't have made me your apprentice at all."
And with that, the young sorcerer left, closing the door behind him with a wave of his sword.
...
Three days later...
At Balthazar's arrival from his errand, he found that the only one there at his master's castle waiting for him was Veronica, who greeted him with her usual cheerful smile and a warm, welcoming embrace.
"Where's Maxim?" he immediately asked after pulling away from Veronica, looking around as though he'd see the older sorcerer.
"He went out moments ago," replied the girl. "But I'm certain he'll return shortly."
As though by chance, Maxim came walking in.
"There you are!" greeted Balthazar to his best friend. "We were just talking about you."
In return, Maxim only nodded, his expressions were not at all happy. At this, the blond-haired boy simply frowned.
"You're not happy to see me?" asked Balthazar.
The older sorcerer looked up. "What? No," Maxim quickly said. "Of course I'm happy to see you."
"Then what's with the face?"
At first, Maxim was silent and decided to sit down on a nearby table, where Veronica was sitting at reading a book of spells. She had made good effort of being very silent as though making herself invisible for the two male apprentices to discuss more on the matter, yet she couldn't help becoming interested herself with what the boys was discussing.
"I just...had a talk with someone, is all," replied Maxim.
Balthazar sat on the chair beside his best friend. "With Merlin?"
"No, Merlin left yesterday and hadn't returned till now," the older sorcerer said. "But I wish it could have been him instead."
The blond boy didn't say a word on the last comment, sensing that it was something better off left out.
Meanwhile, Maxim suddenly remembered the little "talk" with this "someone"...
...
"All by yourself, Lord Horvath?"
Maxim had went out to clear his mind on something, but having recognized that voice, as he turned around to face "her", he was beginning to think that perhaps he should have stayed inside.
"What are you doing here?" he said with a threat in his voice, having his sword already out, as Morgana Le Fay walked over towards him.
"I remember the first time you had that sword threateningly pointed at me," the sorceress said. "You were just a boy back then. And my, how you have grown indeed. How long has it been since the first time we've met?"
"Oh, not so long," replied Maxim, sounding braver than he felt. "Just eight years, am flattered though that you still remember that day."
"But my dear boy," chuckled Morgana. "How can I forget? No one had been ever that foolish to threaten me."
The young Merlinian sorcerer shrugged. "So Merlin kept reminding me." Once again, the sorceress chuckled.
"Do you truly mean to humor me?" she asked the young man. "Because I just can't help but laugh."
"Well then, glad I am to be able to humor Morgana Le Fay," replied Maxim. Inside him, he didn't know where all those words were coming from.
At this, Morgana's lips broadened into a smile with a silent "Hm" from her. The young sorcerer in front of her couldn't understand what that look in her eyes was, but if ever he needed to know, it was a look of fascination.
Yes, Morgana was fascinated by him, making her want him more by her side. Maxim had proven as a strong Merlinian sorcerer, imagine what he'd be capable of is he were to become a Morganian, and be loyal to her. Furthermore, the look in his dark eyes hadn't changed, in fact, it had darken if Morgana's observations are true.
Before it was just dark, but through the years it had become simply black that could be compared to her powers, or the same as even.
"I'm not here to fight, boy," said the sorceress. "I came to see you, and how have you been. What I'm seeing now is enough, but we both know this won't be the last we see each other, don't we?"
Maxim said nothing and continued to eye the powerful sorceress.
"We'll be talking again...for another time. And perhaps by then, we can talk some more."
Morgana turned to leave, but she paused for a while to say a few last words to the young sorcerer.
"Remember this, Horvath: when the right time comes, you will take my side."
And just like that, she walked off into the trees, and disappeared.
...
"Aren't you going to ask me how my errand went?"
Balthazar's voice pulled Maxim away from his thoughts of what occurred and back to the present, as he found himself looking down on blue eyes.
He forced a smile.
"Alright then, tell me about it."
Making a sharp turn at an alley, Maxim was able to save himself from getting burned by the fiery breath of a dragon.
It had been a long time since all three of Merlin's apprentices went to an errand together, and yet it appeared to be a lot of work.
They were to look for a particular Morganian sorcerer in the village they were currently on, and said enemy sorcerer had somehow cast a spell on a small stone statue of a dragon bringing it to life and making it real. Not to mention having turned it into how big a real dragon should be.
While Maxim was trying to battle out the dragon since among the three he was the one with more experience fighting dragons, Balthazar and Veronica was helping the villagers to come out of the way and into safety. The two were also trying to put out fire on a few burning houses. Unfortunately, Maxim could use a little help at the moment.
"Balthazar," he whispered, placing the glowing hilt of his sword close to his mouth as though by doing so, his colleague would hear him.
Six blocks from where Maxim was, Balthazar turned around as though he heard something, causing Veronica to look up to the blond boy.
"What is it, Balthazar?" asked the female apprentice.
"I heard him," replied the other apprentice. "Horvath. He's in trouble."
Immediately, Veronica's eyes flashed with concern for her brother-by-bond. "Why? What's wrong?"
"This way," said Balthazar, taking Veronica's hand in his as he led the way to where his ring was telling him. But when he did caught sight of his best friend, the dragon's fiery attack prevented him from getting close.
"Maxim!" shouted Balthazar from where he and Veronica was trying to get away from danger.
"I'm afraid I'm in need of assistance!" shouted back the eldest apprentice. "Care to give a helping hand?"
"What do you need?"
"Distraction!" Maxim coughed. "Can you do that?"
"What about me?" shouted Veronica. "I want to help."
"You watch Balthazar's back!" said Maxim and Veronica's answer to that was a nod.
Immediately and with great skill, the apprentices did each of their parts, with the dragon having been defeated from behind with a powerful spell from Maxim. And as the dragon fell dead on its stomach, slowly disappearing since the spell cast upon it had been lifted, Veronica was unaware that she was in trouble.
Her leg was slightly burned as she did her best to heal it with a spell, unknown to her that within five feet away from her was the Morganian they came for and was about to cast an attack spell towards her. Fortunately, both male apprentices saw this and quickly ran for the girl to save her. Since it was Maxim who was too far from where Veronica was, it was Balthazar who got to her in time before the attack spell could ever hurt her. Or worse, killed her even.
Seeing Veronica having been saved gave Maxim relief, but a feeling of something else grabbed at his chest to the fact that it was Balthazar who had saved her and not him. But ignoring such feeling at the moment, he turned his attention to the Morganian and made off casting an attack spell powerful enough to kill an enemy with just one shot. Needless to say, that because of Maxim's anger towards the enemy sorcerer of ever trying to hurt Veronica, the Morganian didn't stood a chance against the younger sorcerer.
Meanwhile, Balthazar propped himself up on both hands only to find Veronica underneath him. The two looked at each other a little surprised of having found themselves in such a position. They remained silent and didn't move for a moment until Maxim's voice came.
"Ahem," said the eldest apprentice, having successfully caught the attention of his colleague whom both looked up to him, as he stood there looking down on them. "Do you two still have any intentions of getting up?"
The two immediately scrambled to their feet and dusted themselves, their faces both went red because of what the elder apprentice said.
...
Four hours and fifteen minutes later, outside the village and somewhere in the forest...
"Why didn't any one of you two at least tried to save the horses?" said Maxim to his two colleagues, a scowl was on his face.
Apparently their horses were killed during their encounter with the dragon in the village and so they were left with no choice but to walk their way back to the castle. None of them was happy with the predicament but it was Maxim who seemed to be the more displeased.
"While I was there fighting off that over-sized lizard at least one of you should have kept an eye on the bloody horses!" complained the elder apprentice. "Now we had to walk all the way back to Merlin's bloody castle! Do you realize how far is that from here? We reached the village in six bloody days on horseback! How long would we take on foot?"
"Silence yourself, Horvath," said Balthazar, beginning to get annoyed. "None of us here wanted this, but how could you have expected us to save the bloody horses when me and Veronica were busy helping the villagers? Not to mention putting out fire."
"Why don't you two stop complaining about this predicament we are in and just keep walking, would you?" Veronica said, walking way ahead of the two apprentices. She halted to a pause for a moment and looked up to the sky. "We need to find a shelter before it rains." And with that, she walked on once again.
Both the male apprentices looked up at the sky too, having seen black and gray rain clouds were forming.
Fortunately they found a cave the moment it started raining, as the three of them settled in.
"We need to get warm," said Veronica almost to herself.
"But there's not even a single wood or dry leaves inside this cave to make fire with," commented Maxim, looking around the bare cave.
At that moment, Balthazar thought for a moment, then he started shuffling through his bag. He pulled out a book and threw it to the ground then cast a spell on it that made the book burst into flames.
"What's that?" asked Maxim, having noticed the fire.
"Just a book," replied Balthazar. "Not actually one of mine, I just got it back in the village."
"I thought you like books," said Veronica, coming to sit down near the fire along with Maxim.
"It was from a man I failed to save from a burning shop," answered the blond-haired teenager.
Surprisingly, there was no such emotion in his voice when he said that. And that was what exactly surprised his colleagues. It was Maxim who was strong enough to ask about the matter.
"What happened?" Balthazar shrugged at the question.
"Didn't you remember?" said the blond. "The first stop I went to when we reached the village was a book shop. I found that book interesting and was about to pay for it when the attack happened. It was a struggle but I got the shop owner out, unfortunately he was already dead."
Silence then fell between the three until Maxim opened his mouth as though he was about to say something to comfort his brother-by-bond, but when he saw Veronica reached a hand and placed on top of Balthazar's own hand, Maxim slowly closed his mouth. That uneasy feeling came grabbing at his chest again from that sight. It made him clench his hand into a fist as though he'd punch someone.
"I'm certain you did your best to save the man," said the female apprentice, looking at the blond's face. Balthazar only nodded.
Silence again.
"Well," Maxim cleared his throat. "It would appear as though we'd be spending the night here." He nodded towards outside of the cave. "It's getting dark outside already and the rain hasn't stopped. We'll journey again tomorrow. Now, who has the bread?"
When it was time to sleep, Maxim used his cape as their "bed" and laid on the ground of the cave, casting a spell on it to make it large enough for all three of them to lie down. While the boys used their bags as pillows, Veronica used her cape as her pillow, which made Balthazar gave her his own cape for her to use as a blanket.
They didn't bother putting out the fire, furthermore since it was fire made out of magic, the fire would at least last all through the night.
And so Merlin three apprentices slept, with Veronica having the position of being in the middle.
It was probably already in the middle of the night when Maxim felt the weight of something on his right arm. He winced a little when he consciousness slowly came as he shifted on his side saying, "Balthazar, move. My arm's getting numb already," as he rubbed his eyes with one hand. When he opened his eyes, he found not Balthazar, but a dark haired girl fast asleep with her head rested on his arm.
He froze immediately when the moment he set eyes on Veronica's sleeping face, that he thought he was seeing a peaceful face of an angel without wings, sent down from the heavens above.
He was right after all. Veronica would grow up into a beautiful woman indeed. Seeing just how peaceful she was, Maxim didn't want to move an inch anymore. As if he'd want to stay awake all night watching her like that, and that was not an entirely bad idea. She has changed, physically, not the girl he once knew before. A few years more and nothing about her would be called a girl but a woman.
Suddenly, his gaze fell upon her slightly parted lips, giving him the sudden urge to kiss her.
Slowly, and carefully, he leaned in closer to her face. He could feel her warm breath.
Closer.
Closer.
Then he froze.
What was he doing? This is Veronica!
Carefully, Maxim decided to pull his arm out under Veronica's head, as he placed the female apprentice's folded cape in place of his arm.
She had grown, and very beautiful, she's a respected colleague and dear friend. But what was this he was feeling? Could he have fallen in love? No. With Veronica? Could it be? It wouldn't be easy. They see each other almost everyday. They live under one roof.
At that moment, Maxim remembered his words of so long ago. When Veronica was still in the process of moving on with her entire family's death. Still getting use to being one of Merlin's apprentices. Getting use to being with them.
"...We have to treat you like a sister. Falling in love with you would be...say...complicated."
He rolled to look away from Veronica.
Complicated? This was just the beginning.