Chapter 57: Hardly Anything There
Castle of Glass, Linkin Park
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There were a thousand other things still left to do. Liberty’s progress, and Cassandra’s for that matter, in magic were both quite good, but Morgyn needed to figure out, first of all, how to get through the magic realm barrier. The blond was aware that the easiest way of getting through it was most likely to be going at it indirectly. The All wasn’t very good at attacks that were just slightly to one side.
Ezio would likely know this, too, so if Morgyn was guessing correctly, it was almost a guarantee that he’d gotten Sarnai into magic realm by now. The question was what exactly the All would do with that reality. The issue with the All was, on the one hand, it could kind of think for itself. On the other hand, it wasn’t terribly intelligent.
Morgyn shuffled around the cauldron, keeping the fire going and stirring the contents. Today was time to make another batch of those nice needs potions, of course. Because there were still more things to do. By this point, Morgyn’s brain was kind of consistently making a very loud grinding noise, and thoughts came to the blond too rapidly to entirely process or make sense of them, so Morgyn would think something, act on it, and then understand why.
It was sure darn hard to make plans this way, go figure.
Somewhere amid Morgyn stirring the cauldron and happily twirling around, the blond noticed Cassandra was there. She was a little unnerving sometimes, with that whole outward placidity thing she had going on. It was no wonder Ezio had fallen for her so hard. She was almost just like him. It was unnerving, and it was also comforting.
Amazing, that was. Morgyn smiled slightly.
“Do you have a plan?” Cassandra asked.
A plan? A plan for what? Oh, for Ezio? Well that was debatable. Probably not technically but currently Morgyn wasn’t really operating in technicalities or semantics, psh, who needed those? Certainly Morgyn didn’t have any use for any of those things. That was for someone else to worry about and Morgyn to unfortunately forget to think about and end up getting bitten in the ass by. At least the blond was aware of that, Morgyn supposed, but then that could also just make it all the worse.
“What?” Morgyn asked. “Me? A plan? I never have any plans. Well, I have plans of a form but they’re rapid-fire plans, the kind of plans that make you wonder if I’m actually planning anything at all, and chances are, probably not, but somehow I’m still alive. Why?”
Cassandra looked at the blond like Morgyn had grown an extra head. Or maybe that was the look one gave a misbehaving child. Morgyn hadn’t been one of those, a misbehaving child, in quite some time now so the blond wouldn’t really recall. That was hundreds of years ago, plural and everything.
“That is what I was afraid of,” she said, sighing. “Well, Drake and I can-“
“Oh no,” Morgyn said, head shaking. “No, you’re not helping, no you are not.”
“And why not?” she asked, looking more than a little annoyed. It was one of those looks women got just before they smited you, and if Morgyn was intelligent, the blond would take that back.
In most instances, Morgyn was very intelligent, but in this particular one, Morgyn was sleep deprived and probably unknowingly starving to death.
“Because,” Morgyn said, “it’s too dangerous. And probably too dangerous for you, and also me for that matter, especially when I’m like this but that’s really semantics and semantics are for properly-rested Morgyn to worry about, not high as a kite Morgyn so you’re really just going to have to get over that one because I am an immovable object. I will have my hands full trying to keep myself alive, I’m not being responsible for you, too. If I get you killed, your parents are going to skin me and then Ezio will resurrect me and kill me himself.”
Cassandra looked oh so unamused. “Good thing I wasn’t really asking for your permission to do anything, which, I will have you know, I don’t need.”
Morgyn started to argue with that, but then the blond found that there was no argument to have there in the first place. “… damn.”
“Cassandra 1, Morgyn 0,” Drake said, shuffling out onto the balcony.
“Hey, you tell her,” Morgyn said. “Tell her this is too dangerous for her!”
“She’s been practising magic with me,” Drake said. “And she’s actually very good at it. You also need all the help you can get, so suck it up. When was the last time you ate something?”
That was a very good question, come to think of it. Morgyn raised a finger, and went to answer, and then realised that the blond had no earthly idea. Hmm, what day was it, anyway, because now that Morgyn was thinking about it, the blond had no idea what day it was either.
“And you’re taking too long to answer,” Drake said, deadpan. The vampire shuffled across the space between himself and Morgyn, turning Morgyn around and gently pushing the sage to the door.
“Wait, no,” Morgyn protested. “I don’t have time to eat and sleep!”
“If you go at this with no sleep and starving, you’re absolutely doomed to fail and that does Ezio absolutely no favours,” Drake said.
Cassandra went around them, taking to finishing the potion for the practise.
“I don’t want to!” Morgyn argued.
Drake looked terribly unimpressed. “Yes,” he said. “We’ve established this. Unfortunately for you, I wasn’t asking what you wanted. Sometimes, we have to do things we don’t want to do.”
Morgyn pouted.
Drake sighed. “Look Morgyn,” Drake said quietly, as they got into the apartment and closed the balcony door, “I didn’t want to say it around Cassandra, but something happened and Ezio’s not even conscious anymore.”
Morgyn frowned, looking up at Drake. “What do you mean?” the blond asked.
“Exactly what I said,” Drake answered. “I can’t see what happens, so I have no idea what it was. It felt like a strong psychic attack maybe, but I can’t really be sure. Morgyn, I know this is hard for you. This is hard for us too, but Ezio needs you to be stable and able to think straight. You need to eat and get some actual sleep.”
Morgyn’s eyes narrowed, the sage glancing down at the floor.
“Cassandra made peanut butter and jelly,” Drake said. “It’s in the dining room. And when you’re done, you should go rest.”
The blond didn’t argue anymore, simply shuffled into the dining room.
* * *
Somewhere in here was something that used to belong to Aine. Or at least a picture of her (Morgyn remembered there being more than one picture of her in these photo albums, though admittedly there were very few of them). The blond had slept for far too long, in Morgyn’s opinion, and was now sitting on the floor in the room shared with Ezio, flipping through photo albums and rummaging through trinkets in boxes no one had seen in decades.
This time, of course, Morgyn had more of a specific goal in mind for this particular round of rummaging. Ezio mentioned this mystery photo that Morgyn didn’t remember was taken by a ghost, and Morgyn had to wonder about it. It felt very important, that feeling had never gone away. If anything, it only got stronger, and if Morgyn wasn’t imagining things, Ezio recognised it.
The eventual look in his eyes, Morgyn remembered it, if barely, and in hindsight, Morgyn thought it looked like Ezio knew exactly when this photo was taken, and perhaps, whose arm this was. But then, looking at it, Morgyn couldn’t help but wonder if it was Ezio.
He’d had a number of striped jackets back in the seventies and eighties. The trend had petered out in the nineties, when Ezio had started paying his inner goth the attention it deserved and begun evolving into his current form. But this begged the question of why he hadn’t said anything more about this one than he had at the time.
Ezio was still keeping secrets, it’d seem. Morgyn released a sigh, flipping through the album some more. Eventually, Morgyn found another photograph, tucked into the corner of one of the pages, of too-feminine Morgyn and Aine. As usual, she looked like she didn’t want to be there. But they weren’t touching each other, and were spaced apart a decent amount.
Morgyn frowned slightly, pulled the picture out of the album, grabbed a pair of scissors from the side table drawer, and carefully cut Aine out of it.
One thing that Morgyn had noticed, above all, in all of these pictures and memories that Aine happened to be in-there was absolutely no reason why she should be in them at all. Nothing was lost, if she wasn’t there to begin with. Morgyn found that rather telling.
Aine fell away from the picture, drifting slightly and landing on the floor, almost slipping under Morgyn’s bed. The blond put the rest of the photo back; too-feminine Morgyn was a time the blond would much rather forget, you know like how one had a rebellious stage they’d much rather forget about. That stage of life in which they had a terrible mullet and thought it was fabulous.
But, as much as Morgyn disliked the too-long period of the blond’s life when Morgyn had been too-feminine, that was still a part of Morgyn’s life all the same, and taking it out and pretending it had never happened didn’t seem like the right answer. Morgyn had considered it before. Maybe everyone that was transgender of some form had. Morgyn wouldn’t know, the blond was only one transgender. But if too-feminine Morgyn hadn’t existed, or Morgyn tried to block it out, what else would be lost for the absence?
That was what Morgyn thought. Too-feminine Morgyn was staying, even as it sort of made the blond cringe a little.
Idly, once the photo sans-Aine was back where it was supposed to be, Morgyn’s hand brushed over the page. There was a picture under that one, of Morgyn and L talking in the green room. The blond vaguely remembered this one. L was doing research on one of their plants, because something had gone wrong with one, and Morgyn had decided to help. (It wasn’t like Morgyn had anything else to do at the time, because Aine was one of those ‘do as I tell you and if I didn’t tell you anything, do nothing’ types.)
And here, on the next page, Morgyn having fallen asleep reading a book against L’s side. She looked both annoyed and bemused.
Morgyn really missed her. No sense in being upset about it, though. The blond would eventually find her again, it was just a matter of fixing this mess with the All. Morgyn had thought some time ago, shortly after waking up, if it was possible to use Ezio as a catalyst to get into magic realm. Using vampiric mist form might side-step the issues with the barrier, too…
There was too much to think about at once, and Morgyn was going to look back on this mess and wonder how the blond had even gotten through it later.
Morgyn reached over, taking the picture of Aine that had just been cut out of the album. Maybe later, Morgyn would come back, and cut her out of everything, but right now the blond just needed something that held her likeness or had once been hers. It was easier to track and summon someone when you had one or the other. Preferably both, but Morgyn was a strong enough spellcaster that one should suffice.
The blond closed the photo album, sliding it back into its place, and then took the photo and stood up. Morgyn pulled out the blond’s phone. Caleb still hadn’t answered. By this point, Morgyn was quite sure something had gone seriously wrong in Forgotten Hollow, because Lilith wasn’t answering either, and it’d been over a week. Morgyn would wonder, but it didn’t really matter.
They both had their battles to fight, and Morgyn would never be so presumptuous as to think the blond could ever take precedent over Lilith, just like Caleb would never come before Ezio.
Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, Morgyn typed out, I hope you’re okay.
* * *
Drake was right, and on pain of being stared at and commanded to go eat, Morgyn was in the kitchen, making a bowl of cereal because it was probably a good idea to eat something else before getting busy doing anything else. The blond had plans for today, and Morgyn was quite glad that it was possible to execute these plans outside of Spire. The blond had a feeling, Drake wasn’t going to like these plans. Doing them somewhere Drake and Cassandra were not seemed like a good idea.
But neither did Morgyn think it was possible for the blond to do this alone. Morgyn was going to ask Liberty to come, even if just to be there.
Under normal circumstances, it’d likely be Ezio that would be there with Morgyn for this. But Ezio wasn’t here, and if Morgyn was thinking correctly, well, she knew why. Morgyn also wanted to know why, and anything else she knew about what was going on, because Morgyn couldn’t run on assumptions and guesses.
It was time Morgyn and Aine had a little chat, that was all.
Morgyn took the bowl, and headed out into the dining room. Along the way, feline mewls caught the blond’s attention. Morgyn frowned, setting the bowl down on the table, and following it. Mayor was at the front door, trying to get it open.
Now that Morgyn was faced with it, the blond realised it hadn’t once occurred to Morgyn how this was all affecting Mayor Whiskers. He was Ezio’s familiar, after all. Of course, that also meant the cat had a bond with Ezio that the rest of them didn’t. The science and semantics behind familiars wasn’t well understood, nor was their bond with their spellcaster understood very well, either.
Maybe Mayor would be able to find and get to Ezio. And maybe, with any luck, incidentally help Morgyn do the same thing.
Morgyn opened the door, and then reached over and pressed the ground floor button on the elevator. Mayor was intelligent enough to know how to ride an elevator. He just had some trouble getting the elevator to do the elevator thing. Once the door opened, Mayor would ride it down just fine.
Morgyn had seen the cat do it before.
“Be careful,” Morgyn said, heading back into the apartment.
Mayor didn’t even meow back, but somehow seemed a little insulted that Morgyn felt the need to tell him that.
“Hey, if you’re anything like Ezio, and I suspect you are,” Morgyn said, “you’re not very careful at all.” The blond’s head shook, the door closing with a slight click, and Morgyn went back to the dining room, settling down at the table to eat.
Morgyn pulled out the blond’s phone, setting it on the table and finding Liberty’s entry.
Are you busy today? Morgyn sent.
Debatable, Liberty sent back a few minutes later. I’m out with my sister right now, but in a bit we’ll be going back to the parents’ place and I think I should probably leave before Charity’s moodiness drives me up a wall.
Morgyn snorted. Sorry about that, the blond sent back. I was hoping you could come by soon.
Absolutely, Liberty answered. Nice excuse to cut things short and go do something besides deal with Charity’s moodiness. Maybe she’ll be in a better mood in a few days and we can try this one again then.
What were you two doing? Morgyn asked.
Supposed to be going to see some new movie she was all excited about, Liberty answered, but we get here, and she’s not interested anymore. Wonder if something happened to make her change her mind.
Well, that was hard to say. Morgyn used to be a teenager once, but it was so long ago, the blond understood teenagers probably many times less than most.
Hey, are you okay? Liberty asked.
Trust her to ask that eventually. That really did seem to be just a default Liberty thing. Maybe that was how she made herself feel better, in a sense, by checking up on her friends, and making sure everyone she cared about were okay. Morgyn couldn’t fault her that.
Yeah, Morgyn answered. Better and worse, I guess. One day at a time, right? Got sleep and ate finally. I just need to do something, and I could use someone’s support.
Good that you slept and stuff, Liberty said. Doing something difficult then?
Yeah, Morgyn said. I should’ve done it a long time ago, I think. Too late for shoulda coulda woulda. Something like that.
Gotcha, Liberty answered. I’ll definitely be there then. Give me a few hours and I’ll be that way.
Morgyn smiled, sending a little heart emoji. I still appreciate you more than words can express.
Stop that, Liberty said. You’re going to make me permanently turn the colour of a tomato at this rate.
* * *
The sky had randomly decided to open up and start unleashing torrents of rain. Somewhere down below, Morgyn could see the water rushing in torrents for the bay, flooding the streets just enough for it to be a little dangerous to try going anywhere the normal and mundane way. Good thing Morgyn could teleport. Teleporting was most definitely an advantage.
Morgyn sat in front of the large windows, huge panes of solid, uninterrupted glass. They were almost unnerving, but the view was really nice, if you were into not being able to see Alto Apartments from where you were. Morgyn just loved the rain.
And storms, because Morgyn had always been one.
The elevator dinged, and Morgyn turned over, finding Liberty in the entryway. Her hair was soaked. Morgyn smiled slightly, and then gestured that the door was open. Liberty shook the water off, wrung her hair out, and opened it.
“That storm treat you well?” Morgyn asked.
“Oh haha,” Liberty said, her nose wrinkling. “It wasn’t so bad. The rain kind of felt nice. It’s getting warmer now.”
Yeah, summer was close. And then it’d get too hot to exist. Well, for most people. Morgyn was going to greatly enjoy it.
“One thing before we do anything,” Morgyn said, looking up at her as she wandered over and sat down next to the blond on the floor, “try not to do anything that’s a really bad idea, okay?”
Liberty raised one eyebrow, just slightly, head turning to the side a bit. “And define ‘bad idea,’ exactly,” she said.
Morgyn had to try not to laugh. No wonder she fit in so well. Liberty was about as much of a disaster as the rest of them were. The blond’s head shook. “You know, if I could, I would almost decide you’re my successor as sage.” It was nearly a shame that wasn’t exactly how sagehood worked. Maybe the All would agree with the blond, though. With any luck.
Liberty looked confused. “You can’t?” she asked.
“No,” Morgyn said. “Well, I can say, this is the person I would like to follow in my footsteps, ideally, but the All chooses the sages. We just kind of go along with it.” Of course, Morgyn had always wondered why that was. Why were things how they were?
Why was the source of all magic something people could get to and abuse? Why was it in magic realm? Who decided the sages are things? How was the All sentient? Wouldn’t the source of magic be like a metaphysical something-or-other instead of a literal physical thing that exists and is apparently capable of thinking for itself? How did it think for itself? Presumably inanimate objects didn’t just suddenly start thinking.
It wasn’t like it really made any difference one way or another, Morgyn assumed. It was just that, these were questions that Morgyn had for a long time, questions that, even after thirty years as the sage of untamed magic, the blond still had no answer for. And at this point, it seemed that the blond would never have answers for these questions, and Morgyn was just supposed to accept that.
Well, one fucking problem with that; Morgyn was an Ember. And Embers were not good at doing what they were supposed to.
“What’s the All, anyway?” Liberty asked. “It keeps being referenced.”
Morgyn looked over at her. And the blond released a sigh. “You know Libs,” the blond answered, “truth be told, I have no earthly idea.”
Liberty raised an eyebrow.
“The histories of magic realm tell of how the All is the source of all magic,” Morgyn said. “That the magic we can use is borne of the All, but magic is only borrowed, and when the time is right, we give it back. Magic realm was established around it, to act as a safe-haven for spell casters and magical folk, those that are different, those that are other, because humans have never been so good at accepting that others exist.
“The five families, of which your family is one, the strongest spell caster lineages in history, pooled their magic together to create magic realm around it, and protect the All from those that would seek to use it for their own gain. The three sages, as I’ve mentioned, are chosen by the All to protect magic realm, and guide the next generation of casters.”
Morgyn shrugged. “But the more I think about it, the less sense that story makes.”
Liberty frowned slightly. “I think it makes sense,” she said, leaning back on her hands.
“Well, sure,” Morgyn said. “But it only makes sense on the surface. Why is the source of magic something we even have direct access to? It seems like that would be a more abstract concept. Especially since in the magic books and things from before magic realm, and there is a before magic realm, we know that the ancient casters, they never mentioned anything like the all.”
“So the All just kind of showed up one day?” Liberty asked.
“It seems that way,” Morgyn said. “Just suddenly, at some point, right around when magic realm was established if I remember rightly, mentions of the All entered magical texts. Before that, casters connected with the natural world, the original, primal sources of magic that have existed since the beginning of time.”
The blond waved a hand, and a notebook and pencil fell into Morgyn’s lap. Morgyn picked both up and started to sketch symbols onto the paper.
“These primal sources of magic were formed through natural events, absent of humans,” Morgyn explained as the blond worked. “Things like the power nexus in Forgotten Hollow, formed where ley lines cross one another, places where the energies of a certain magical force is strongest are scattered all over the world. In these places, magic of a certain type is easiest because of the specific convergence of natural elements. Magic was performed by tapping into one of these convergences and directing the energy in a specific way.”
Morgyn set the notebook down so that Liberty could see what the blond had sketched out. The symbols of the primal, natural sources of the elements. Not the elements themselves, but where they lived. Sky, earth, ocean, sun, moon… in these places, the element was easier to find and channel, at least, from what Morgyn had eventually managed to translate from the rocks with the runes on them and the fancy towers of stone scattered across Europe.
There was a bonus to being a literature nerd. No literature was off-limits.
Liberty frowned slightly, fingers tracing the symbols. “Magic doesn’t work that way anymore,” she said.
“No, it doesn’t,” Morgyn answered. “And now I’m beginning to wonder why.”
Liberty looked up at Morgyn. “You said the All started being mentioned around when magic realm was established, right?”
Morgyn nodded.
“Maybe the All was made when magic realm was,” she said. “It didn’t already exist there, and magic realm wasn’t really built around it, so much as with it. Like they’re two parts of the same whole. You need one to have the other. I don’t really know how that’d work, exactly, but it sounds plausible?”
Morgyn blinked. That had never once crossed the blond’s mind. But then if it was man-made like magic realm was, then how was it sentient? No, maybe that was a question for future-Morgyn to worry about. One thing at a time.
“Is it… possible for humans, if you had enough powerful ones,” Liberty started, sounding unsure, “to create an artificial original source?”
Morgyn snorted, head shaking. “What?” Morgyn asked. “No. Don’t be ridiculous, no, of course not.”
Of course not.
Of course.
“Anyway, I guess it doesn’t really matter that much,” Morgyn said, closing the notebook and setting it on the coffee table. The blond set the pencil on it.
Liberty looked like she wanted to argue, but she stayed her tongue. “I guess not,” she said. “You had something you wanted to do, anyway.”
“Yeah,” Morgyn answered. “I’m just… nervous.” And truth be told, Morgyn didn’t really want to deal with Aine, not now. But Morgyn wanted Ezio back more than the blond didn’t want to deal with Aine.
Liberty reached over, taking the blond’s hand. Morgyn looked up at her, and she smiled, softly and encouragingly.
“I won’t leave your side,” she said. And Morgyn believed her.
* * *
Incidentally, one of the many places in Windenburg where magic was easiest to cast was Morgyn’s destination for this particular venture. Liberty trailed behind the blond, glancing around at the trees and the many bunches of stone scattered around. When Morgyn came to a stop, in the centre of one of the stone circles, Liberty wandered to one side, one hand brushing over the runes, almost worn out of the stone by now but still vaguely visible.
Ezio and Morgyn had long ago studied these stones and figured out what they said. There was a reason that Morgyn had chosen this particular circle of stones.
She scooted back over to Morgyn, and Morgyn held the photo of Aine out. It suddenly lit on fire. “Trahere Vitae,” Morgyn murmured. The stones’ runes lit up and glowed, loosing a soft hum, and then Aine fell into the grass.
“Oh, ow,” she grumbled, raising a hand to her head and sitting up. Then, she looked over at Morgyn, Liberty just slightly behind the blond.
Morgyn’s expression was rather flat, all things considered, nearly unreadable.
Aine released a sigh. “Morgyn,” she said. “How… nice to see you again.” Aine shifted, and stood up, brushing her skirt off.
“Don’t pretend we’re still chummy, Aine,” Morgyn said, tone flat.
At the statement of her name, Liberty blinked, eyes going wide and she turned to look at the blond.
“Aren’t we?” Aine asked. “You were my best student, you know.”
“Oh sure,” Morgyn answered. “I was your only one because no one else could stand you. You do also have a notable habit of being awfully disrespectful towards me, so cut the crap.”
“I have not,” Aine argued. “That’s a very unfair accusation. You were like one of my own, still are. I wonder from time to time, how you’re doing. How are you doing?”
Morgyn snorted. “You got me into whoring, didn’t stop me, just to survive. You had an income and could’ve bothered feeding me until I could do it myself, I wasn’t one of your own-or maybe I was because I doubt you could keep a water bear alive. You brushed off and invalidated my feelings any time I had any, you constantly called my own self-perception and internal image into question, you made me question and turn against my brother on more than one occasion. You still consistently call me she! Have I left anything out?”
Aine’s eyes glanced to one side. “I also ruined any chance you ever had of having friends by keeping you way too busy for no reason besides you were annoying.”
Liberty drew a breath in, one hand crackling with electricity, and started to move. Morgyn held one arm out, stopping her. She didn’t seem to like that, but she did stop, the sparks dying down.
“That’s cute,” Aine said.
“Where is Ezio,” Morgyn asked, “and how do I get to him?”
Aine made a humming sound, her head tilting back. “I see absolutely no reason to tell you that,” she said. “He was always more annoying than you were.”
“You will tell me,” Morgyn said, “or I will kill you. It’s that simple. I have no reason to want you alive anyway, I’d be doing the whole world a favour to just kill you right now, so be glad I’m being kind I guess.”
Aine laughed. “Oh please,” she said. “You can’t kill me, Morgyn.”
“I’m a lot stronger than I used to be,” Morgyn said.
“Oh no, silly,” she said, waving a hand. “Of course you are physically capable of killing me, you’re sage of untamed magic now, of course you are. No, I wasn’t questioning that. But I wonder if you can, knowing that I am the only hope you have of saving Ezio. I made him what he is.”
For some reason, the way she said that, it made a jolt of anxiety shoot through the blond. No she wasn’t, presumably Ezio was in magic realm, and Morgyn could figure that out eventually, if the blond had to do so. Morgyn had simply figured Aine would have answers that were faster than trial and error.
Unless she was lying, which, of course she would. Well, no. Now that Morgyn was thinking about it, she may have been rude, conceited, misgender the blond on purpose, and uh, what was it, prone to gaslighting? But she’d never really lied for the sake of lying.
One, lone virtue, the blond guessed.
“What do you mean?” Morgyn asked.
Aine smiled, her head tilting to the side. “What does it sound like I mean?” she asked. “Only I know how to save him. Not from this, oh no. This is a simple matter, and frankly I don’t know why you bothered me at all, you were never really stupid, you could figure this one out eventually, given time. Ahh, not that I really want you to, but that’s neither here nor there.”
Morgyn frowned. “Aine, what are you talking about?”
“Only I know what I did to him,” Aine answered.
Morgyn only looked more confused. What she did to him? What was that supposed to mean. Liberty looked over at the blond, just as confused.
“Oh come now,” Aine said, shuffling off to one side. “You didn’t think Ezio had simply started dying, do you? Please. Of course not.”
Morgyn’s head snapped up, gaze staying on her. “Aine, no, don’t tell me you-“
“Of course I did,” Aine said. “The little whelp was the only thing standing in my way, of having complete control of you. I’d break you down and he’d undo weeks of work, of course I wanted him dead. Alas…” she turned the other way, her voice calming down some into more even tones.
“It turns out Ezio is much harder to kill than I anticipated,” she went on. “Humans are quite easy to damage, you see, it wasn’t anything to mess his heart up in the first place, but he kept going somehow all the same. I tried every other spell I could think of, and even when it worsened, still he stayed standing. Now here we are. He’s been dying for centuries, and the mother fucker just won’t quit.”
What?
Morgyn could only stare at her, could only stare, as her words sank in. Things she’d said, done, books she happened to have lying around at any given time, the particular set of herbs she grew on the balcony at magic realm, it all made sense suddenly. Everything clicked into place. The photo, even.
It was Ezio’s arm. Aine was casting magic at him. Apparently, trying to kill him.
Fury rose rapidly and uncontrolled, like a tsunami that came from nowhere. The blond’s breathing went out of balance, eyebrows furrowing deeply, and then the most unearthly scream Morgyn had ever heard from anyone unleashed and it came from the blond. Before Morgyn knew what thoughts were running through the blond’s head, Liberty was pulling Morgyn off Aine.
“I trusted you!” Morgyn screamed. “I loved you! How could you do that to me!“
There was nothing but the sound of Morgyn’s rage and pain thundering in the blond’s ears. She did it, she did it, she killed Ezio, it was all her fault, but of course it was. How could Morgyn be so blind? Because Morgyn wanted more than anything to love her, wanted her to love Morgyn back and all she did was take and take and take things away until Morgyn had nothing left.
Morgyn unleashed another scream-shriek, fighting against Liberty’s grip harder than the blond had ever fought for anything. Aine scooted backwards on the grass, away from the sage. Morgyn pulled a little harder, maybe still screaming, maybe not, Morgyn couldn’t hear the sound of it anymore over the roar of rage, breathing a burst of fire in Aine’s direction. One more great tug, and Morgyn and Liberty both fell over into the grass.
Liberty scrambled to get a hold of Morgyn’s wrists, pinning the sage’s hands onto the grass. “Morgyn no!” she squealed. “You’re not thinking straight, you’ll only get yourself killed!”
“YOU HAD BETTER RUN!” Morgyn screamed, snarling and hissing and trying so hard to break free of Liberty’s grip. “YOU HAD BETTER RUN, AND PRAY TO WHATEVER GOD DARES LISTEN TO YOU THAT I NEVER FIND YOU! I WILL DESTROY YOU! I WILL RIP YOU TO PIECES!”
Aine stood up, watching Morgyn roll around in the grass under the girl, and turned and disappeared.
Morgyn still hadn’t stopped screaming. Liberty was quite sure the blond wasn’t going to be able to talk very well for a while, for all the damage this was doing to the blond’s vocal cords. Morgyn’s skin started to radiate heat, so much so it was painful to touch the blond, but Liberty didn’t let go. Launching at Aine blindly would only mean they ended up losing both Embers, instead of perhaps neither.
Her heart hurt, and somewhere amid Morgyn’s heartbroken screams, she’d started to cry, resting her cheek against the blond’s hair.
And then, Morgyn loosed one more strangled shriek, and slammed a fist into the ground repeatedly. “Why, why, why, why why…” The screaming slowly turned into something else. It took Liberty a moment, to recognise the sound of crying. She closed her eyes for a moment, as Morgyn curled up underneath her, and released the blond’s wrists, her arms wrapping around Morgyn and holding on, instead.