and all the shores between

But even then with the rush of emotions flooding over the young boy Markus was to tired to muster up any sort of real resentment towards him at this point in time, all his energy going into trying to recover the right Thesus. Because it was his fault Denian had strayed and gotten lost and he was sure of it. Although he’d die in here before he’d let Marius figure that one out. 

Briefly he debated just turning back around and leaving the kid to be unhappy on his own, but then again -- with Denian lost in here, Marius couldn’t well justify leaving behind his only chance of finding his grandkid. So. Unhappy Arcain kid it was, because no way in all the world was he going to leave Denian stranded in here. If the builder of the house had been insane enough to decorate the walls like this, there was no telling what might await them further inside the house, after all.

He took Marius’ longcoat and watched him study the suit, then his own shirt, not sure whether it would fit under the jacket probably. ‘Easy isn’t fun, I was going for creative,’ he teased back, and placed the long coat on his bed. ‘And yes, all of it. I can’t rate your handling of a suit if you only wear one part of it, right?’ He smirked then, seating himself on the chair next to the closet. ‘Go on, try it on.’ 

For a long moment Marius found himself considering the finer points of privacy -- then he shrugged and started stripping out of his pants. Thankfully Varamadras and he were not that far apart in height, so once he had them on neither pants nor jacket felt all that big on him. On that note. Damn the jacket. Now he did turn away from the Demon Lord as he muttered curses under his breath as he fiddled with the buttons, until they, no doubt fearful of his wrath, went where they should. 

He smiled mischievous, ‘to be honest, I’m pretty sure I’ll laugh, but it will be well meant,’ he said. Varamadras stood, leaving his tea on the table - which he hadn’t touched since he started talking with Marius. He would probably end up finding it cold later on. He walked into his bedroom, and gestured for the Captain to follow. 

He watched with a smile as Varamadras went about looking through the hanging suits. “If you say so, lord,” Marius replied, eyeing the suit handed to him with some trepidation. It looked a lot like just about every other suit in existence to him, which meant that he was going to look ridiculous in it, but--right. With a defeated sigh, Marius shrugged out of his own longcoat and handed it to Varamadras in exchange for the suit. 

He let his head hang for a bit. In the old days, Magicians hadn’t been such a powerful tool in wars, in the war before the war. Guild fought at random, but they had the choice whether they wanted to be included on either side. Now it was either the DracoMancers or the Knights of Jewantes. Those who weren’t picked for that would end up dying by fighting one way or another. The world had changed, but he didn’t think it was such a good thing either. Yet, explaining it to someone who had never known different, was not his intention. He liked Marius too much for that, he wanted to spare him the facts of what could’ve been. ‘It’s a natural thing, let’s agree on that.’

Arguing about something as transient and ephemeral as magic hadn’t been Marius’ goal, though, and when he saw Varamadras’ head dip he immediately felt guilty. Varamadras had been alive longer than just about anyone else, after all, and that sort of long life rarely came without its fair share of experience and regrets. It hadn’t been his intention to bring all that back up. Marius nodded vigorously therefore, and said, “Yes, let’s. Apologies, lord.”

He looked back at Marius. He had never been much of a intellectual, that was Tarac’s job, he just accepted everything for what it was. His intelligence was always outmatched by his stubbornness. But this subject somehow kept his curiosity in check for once. ‘Has Varamadras ever told you his ideas on Magical balance, or lets say Imbalance. When he taught me about my Magic, back in the day, he always repeated that the Gods gave us Magic, they picked who they wanted to represent them. Which is why I’m guessing some Magicians have similar personalities. He believed that through killing the Gods of Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire Magic he disrupted the balance of the amount of Magic in the Fifth Gate. Three Black Dragon Magicians and three White Dragon Magicians, they had to be kept in check as the most powerful Magicians in our world, but now there are few who are able to kill them.’ 

He looked pretty content for a moment. There was so much they didn’t know about Magic, he enjoyed being able to speculate. ‘Although, that Magic is returning, so maybe balance is returning though. Meaning, could be we loan it from the Gods. They are rising again, and so is the Magic they give out.’ 

‘Thanks, Marius,’ he said with a smile. ‘I think they just want a pretty face there in case they have to talk themselves out of something. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find you useful in fighting situations, you’re pretty grounded you know, despite being wavy and all.’

‘They weren’t mine either, to be honest. But man did Liv like to talk about them. They probably all ended well, at least the few that I heard. I can’t imagine reading those kind of stories every day, even if they’re not sad, the idea of heroes always winning is kind of depressing,’ he said, though he couldn’t explain why. ‘She was one of a kind though.’ He looked away, he thought in his first days as Shini that he left most of the feelings towards his old life behind, however, he could still feel grief.

“His ideas on Magical Balance? Not specifically, but he never really talks that much about magic with me to begin with. But I suppose it’d make sense, the gods choosing people to represent them with their magic.” He shrugged. How and why exactly he’d ended up with his magic wasn’t something Marius had spent all that much time considering -- save for when it came to cursing the gods for it -- and he figured that, in the long run, the reasons for it didn’t really matter all that much. The results of it were already in effect, after all. A thought hit him then, and he glanced at Michael with a grim smirk. “Suppose you’d somehow managed to kill all the gods, though. D’you think that’d mean there would be no more kids with magic being born?”

With a shake of his head, Marius leaned back on the bench, stretching slightly “You sure are getting philosophical on me here, kid,” he said with a half-hearted groan. “Heroes always win, that’s the whole damn point of having them. Of course the writer of the story always determines who gets to be the hero, and one writer’s hero is another’s villain and--” Marius stopped, shook his head. “I was going somewhere with that, I’m sure, but I can’t remember where exactly that would be. Nevermind. Point is that Liv sure had a real specific taste in books.” She’d even liked the tiny booklets detailing the adventures of Sir Seagull, Sailor Extraordinaire when she’d been a kid, and if that wasn’t saying something then Marius didn’t know.

What is this face you are making?

‘So no, not really awful. Though, if I were to have it right now, I wouldn’t mind much.’ He grinned. ‘I would love to be able to fly again, even if I was never much good in it.’ 

‘Oh, what is that look? Knights crashing the party, doesn’t mean you have to go each time right? Or did you get some kind of promotion, Dras liking you so much he wants you to follow every bit of action?’ he grinned. 

The mention of Liv crushed him. The casual way he said it, hiding the grief of her dead. It has been many years ago, and despite having lost most of the feelings he had for his former life, he recalled Liv very fondly, and the sadness for her dead could not be burned from his soul, even by the Gods. 

‘Oh man, she loved those. But… in the end, did the hero survive? You know the Hero always survives, it would be a bad story if they didn’t.’ He had tried reading one of those novels once, but he had way too little attention to read those kind of books.

He was beginning to ramble, he knew, but even so it was difficult to stop. In itself magic moving on to someone else wasn’t a half-bad concept, actually; though Marius didn’t even want to begin to guess at what it might mean for the Dark Souls. For Michael, though, it must be awful -- clearly the magic-cycle thing hadn’t taken Shini into account. “For what it’s worth, Michael, I’m sorry.”

“If it’s a promotion I must’ve missed it entirely,” he laughed,”I think it’s just my charming personality that gets me sent everywhere, really. For moral support and all that. I can be real, ah, supportive if I put my mind to it, wouldn’t you know.” 

He smirked at the memory of piles of books slowly but surely covering every free space in Liv’s quarters. Said, “I wouldn’t know, honestly -- they weren’t my kind of books, truth be told. Gods only know what Liv saw in them, but you know she wasn’t one for sad stories.” Marius made sure to smile extra brightly and hopefully real reassuringly when he noticed Michael’s reaction to the mention of his daughter -- he should have expected it, really. Michael had always been close to Liv, and where Marius had had twenty-some years to get to terms with her death, Michael’d never gotten that. 

He laughed. ‘Oh, how they would’ve feared me. After so many years of haunting their memories, I could do with a good scare of our friendly Knights. Aside from revenge though, I would not have my Magic with me to fight those bastards like I did back then,’ he said, looking dreamingly into the air. Somehow he could remember how he had loved being respected for his prowess in the field. 

‘Sure the Goodlands are moving some trade ships up and down the Masadur for you to hassle with? Unless of course those odd jobs are no longer to your liking?’ He sometimes felt bad for Marius, most Mancers knew about living on their own, without family. But Marius had been given one, and they had been taken away from him all over again. Living through something like that twice scared Michael, and he could only imagine what it had done to Marius. Even if it had been years back, the death of Marius’ daughter and her husband was still fresh in his memory. 

The concept shocked him more than he let on -- magic was so deeply ingrained in all of them, practically from birth, that to suddenly be without it? Almost like losing a limb, but even more personal. Marius couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must be like. Had the gods done it on purpose, he wondered, or was that one of the side-effects of being a Shini? Curious, to say the least.

Letting his head hang -- not terribly difficult given the situation--, Marius shot Michael the most ridiculously downtrodden look he could manage. “Trust me, Michael, I’d love to set sail again -- yet it seems that just about every time I try to, the Knights dig up something new for us to deal with. I step on my ship, news comes that they’re up to something. It’s ridiculous. Did you know we had to race them for a magical artifact, not that long ago? In a desert temple,” Marius added, emphasizing the last words. “Gods beyond, it was like something straight out of those cheap novels Liv used to devour.” The ones featuring mysterious temples of doom had been her favorites too, he recalled with a fond smile.

What Markus wouldn’t give for a cigarette right now, with a nice big fat cloud of of nicotine to bury itself deep in his lungs. But he’d smoked his last one on the way over, passed between Denian and himself as they readied themselves for the horror of what would await them in the Demon Generals house.

If they had been smart they would have stayed outside. 

But they hadn’t. No they had just plunged forth into the fray like idiots, with the voices coming from everywhere, everyplace. And Somehow they’d gotten separated in all the whisperings, with Markus knowing now that he should have kept a hand on his brother in arms at all times. 

So this was how he found himself, wandering lost in a giant mansion filled with things he didn’t recognize, trying not to let horrible thoughts fill his mind. “DENIAN” Markus called out for what seemed like the thousandth time. But he knew it was no use, the magical faces plastered on the walls were too loud with their whisperings of false advice drowning out anyone else. 

He made his way to where the shouting was coming from, making a point on the way there to sneer at the faces lining the walls whispering things Marius didn’t care to pay too much attention to. Real gaudy decoration, there; he wasn’t quite sure what exactly but clearly the Demon General who’d built the twindamned house had been compensating for something. Or the guy’d simply had real lousy taste, but then again: there was a line between that and malicious intent, and it’d been crossed about twenty faces in.

He smirked at Marius’ reply, good to know people still saw him as a powerful Magician. ‘I fear, no matter how much I want to agree with you on that, the world has only been getting weaker.’ He wasn’t trying to generate a sense of horror that moment, but he did feel as if he had to tell a story, like he used to do to those he taught. He put his tea down and made himself comfortable on the couch. ‘You know how much of our Magical knowledge has been lost? Maybe not during this war, maybe even in the one before. And in all those years, there is one thing I know we’ll never have again: strong magicians. The magicians of old, they were powerful, powerful and unlimited like Torque. Even Jewantes, I know not if he ever became Phase One or not, but he was able to make the ground form him a castle.’ He smiled then. ‘At least Jewantes’ time knew some mighty Magicians.’ He paused. ‘Though coming back to your statement,’ and he laughed then, ‘the world has moved on.’ 

Last battle aside, they hadn’t actually lost anyone in years -- and even there the numbers had been a lot lower than they could’ve been. Magicians casually flinging around Phase One powers meant a lot of random casualties, a lot of graves to be dug. Marius preferred things like they were now, even if it meant that not a whole lot of people could pull off feats of legend at the drop of a hat. He shrugged again, this time meaning it. “So. Yes. The world’s moved on, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

He very much agreed with Marius, his fear of Jewantes was just that: fear. He had no real reason to be afraid, for the man himself was a Shini like the three others, he could roam wherever he wished, and if he wanted to do anything to him, he probably would’ve already taken that chance. He smiled at that, however, the memory of beating Jewantes, leaving after the battle, and being send back the corpses of his brothers, didn’t make the victory much of a victory. ‘Yes, I once did already. I’m not easily beaten.’ It was very likely he wasn’t. He hadn’t been in many fights, the last one had been when Rast betrayed them, but he had won that one too. 

Which, to put it plainly, raised all sorts of alarm bells. But as things stood nothing bad had happened -- yet -- and so Marius was glad to hear that Varamadras wasn’t taking it all that badly. Bigger battles to fight, and all. “You really aren’t,” he agreed, “and besides: Jewantes’s been dead for, what, ages? Real long, in any case. The world’s moved on -- everyone else has been getting stronger, and he’s just been, well, dead.”

All jokes aside, it was good to hear that Michael was taking the whole coming-back-from-the-dead thing with at least a bit of humor. Death couldn’t be particularly good for your psyche, Marius figured, but then again if anyone could come out on top of an event like this it’d be Michael. “I suppose the Knights should count themselves lucky you ain’t out for revenge,” he added with a shrug and a pat on Michael’s shoulder.

He turned to Marius and studied him. he tried to smile, but he couldn’t find the strength to, all this talking about dead friends made him feel sad. As if he wasn’t sad already. An other feeling that completely seemed to shut off the Smoke, for now at least. ‘I’d like to see him too, but I too have no idea what to say. It wasn’t even that long ago that he died, but it feels like centuries. And I still fear somehow for the other one that came back, whether being a Shini keeps Jewantes from wanting to take revenge on the one who took his life.’ Of all the Shini, Jewantes had been dead the longest, but no matter the side they once stood on, the Shini could travel wherever they wished, and that scared him a bit. 

Inclining his head, he asked, "Don’t you think, lord, that if Jewantes was in any way inclined to pursue revenge he’d have come for you already? Ain’t anything to hold him back now, is there, what with having died once already and all.” Brought up the interesting but at the moment fairly irrelevant question of whether Shini could be killed -- would they just come back right there on the spot, like some sort of god-sent piece of moss, or would they stay down? Things best left to wonder over another time. “Plus you beat him once already, yeah? Nothing to fear!”