#heatt

Gracias por todas las cosas que hiciste por mi, hoy puedo verlas, gracias por amarme y cuidarme tanto.

Una parte de mí siempre estará contigo, protegiéndote, deseándote lo mejor, amándote en silencio.

La vida sigue y tú sigues aquí tan dentro de mi...

Espero que no me olvides nunca, te prometo que yo no lo haré.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, @inkoutsidethelines! 

Matt guessed that the royal treasury itself probably wasn’t as well guarded as Fisk’s garden was.  Sneaking in was far more difficult and time consuming than he expected.  He doubted he’d manage it a second time.

Then I’d best make sure I get it right this time.

At least the heightened security indicated the information Matt had gleaned was likely correct.  Whatever the source of magic Fisk had somehow been getting his hands on, it was in the high walled, well guarded garden.

Thankfully, the garden provided plenty of places for Matt to duck out of sight as he worked his way deeper in, with trees and overgrown flowering bushes.  The pathways were overgrown, the thick grasses making it easier to keep the sound of his footsteps soft and unnoticed by guards who seemed more bored and tired than anything else at this late hour.

The lax attitudes worked in Matt’s favor as well; likely, no one else had ever dared to sneak into the garden.  The reputation Fisk had built for himself over the past decade was far too dangerous for anyone to try.  Even the king was too wary of Fisk to boldly act against him these days.

Someone had to take a stand against Wilson Fisk.  And if no one else was willing to do it, then it would have to be Matt.

The sound of humming reached his ears.

Matt paused, listening.  He’d past the last line of guards, as far as he could tell.  Their routes seemed to avoid the innermost part of the garden.  The humming was coming from ahead of him, the lighter tones of a woman’s voice.  He heard the gentle ripples of something moving through water.

He moved carefully in the direction of the voice, which went from humming to singing snatches of a song Matt didn’t know.

“Catch a falling star,

Put it in your pocket,

Never let it fade away…”

As Matt drew closer, he was able to figure out more about what was going on.  It was a woman, leaning back on some large rocks that boarded a pond, her head tilted back to study the sky, her legs swishing slowly through the water.

No.  That wasn’t right.

It wasn’t legs trailing through the water.  And when she shifted positions on the rocks, the sound wasn’t right for cloth or skin.  And the smell that reached him had a distinctly fishy undertone.

She’s a mermaid.

So that was Fisk’s source of magic.  Humans with any sort of affinity for magic were incredibly rare, but if he’d struck some sort of deal with a mermaid, she could provide him with all sorts of spells.

Suddenly, the mermaid stopped singing and turned, looking directly Matt’s way.  He didn’t know what he’d done to reveal himself, but she didn’t seem alarmed at his presence.  At least, her breathing and heart rate didn’t change.

“Are you here to kill me?” she asked.

A flicker of surprise shot through him, both from what she asked and the calm way she said it.

“Are you expecting someone to kill you?” Matt asked.

The mermaid shrugged, a hand reaching up to brush against the close fitting necklace around her neck.  “It’s how this curse was always meant to end.  I suppose it will happen sooner or later.”

She sounded more resigned than frightened of the possibility, and uneasiness worked through Matt.  “Curse?” he questioned.

She let her hand drop back in her lap.  “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

Matt shook his head slightly.  “Should I?”

The mermaid shrugged.  “Oh, I don’t know.  I’ve no idea what Wilson has told anyone.  But I’m Heather Fisk; Wilson’s sister.”

Sister?  Matt had nearly forgotten that Wilson Fisk had ever had a sister.

“Heather Fisk has been dead for ten years,” Matt said.

She shifted, and Matt tensed, ready to move quickly if she was going to try and cast a spell or call out for the guards.  But she merely curled her tail up on the rock.  “I suppose that could be true, from a certain point of view,” she said.  She let out a soft, bitter laugh.  “The curse certainly felt like dying.”

She’s not lying.

Her heartbeats were steady, and there’d been no pauses or catches in her breath to indicate she was thinking about her words before she spoke.  She was telling the truth.  But why would Fisk curse his own sister –

Humans with an affinity for magic are rare.

But there were beings who were magic down to their bones: merfolk, the fae, dragons, and other spirits.  They were dangerous and difficult to deal with, and even more difficult to capture and hold prisoner.  But if Fisk had found a way to curse her, to change her into a mermaid instead of a human…that would give him easy access to magic with none of the risk that usually accompanied it.

“How did he curse you?” Matt asked.

Heather reached up and tapped her fingers against her necklace again – only now, as she tapped it, Matt realized it wasn’t simply a close fitting necklace.  It was a solid metal band.  A collar.

“He told me it was my birthday present,” Heather said.  “Then when I put it on…”

The rest was easy enough to fill in.  She’d only been, what, thirteen? If he remembered the story correctly about when she was supposed to have died.  And likely trapped in the garden pond ever since.

She asked if I was here to kill her.

Matt’s conscious recoiled at the thought.  He’d gone to the garden intending to stop whatever Fisk was doing to get the spells he’d been using against people.  But Heather was as much one of Fisk’s victims as anyone else he’d ever harmed.  There had to be a way to fix this that didn’t involve hurting her.

“How can the curse be broken?” Matt asked.

“The only way to break it is to remove the collar,” Heather said.  “But the latch vanished when I put it on.”

“It’s how this curse was always meant to end.”

“May I examine it?” Matt asked.

She shrugged.  “If you want.”

Matt moved to her and crouched down to be more on her level.  Heather made no movement to stop him as he reached out and let his fingertips trace along the collar.  The metal was cool, and engraved with the stylized shape of lotus flowers.  Aside from the engravings, the collar was completely solid, with no latches or locks or even a hint of a crack.  The collar hugged her neck too tightly for him to fit a finger between it and her neck to see if there was anything different on the inside.

Dread settled in the pit of his stomach like a rock.  The way to break the curse was to remove the collar.  The only way to remove the collar was to remove her head.

“Why did you come here tonight?” Heather asked, voice barely more than a whisper.

“Fisk has been using the spells he gets from you to oppress the people and amass power for himself,” Matt said.  “I came to stop him.”

“Ah,” she said.  “Then you are here to kill me.”

No.

That couldn’t be the answer, there had to be another way.  But what else was he supposed to do?  He couldn’t just carry her out of the garden; he’d barely managed to sneak in on his own, he had no illusions about his odds if he tried carrying a mermaid out.  It would only end in his death and Heather still trapped in the pond.  Perhaps he could manage it if she was human again, but that was impossible.

Unless…

Old lessons bubbled up in his memory.  Curses always had a specific solution for breaking them.  Often – as in Heather’s case – very painful, costly solutions.  But there was another option, a deeper magic, written into the very foundations by the King Beyond the Sky when curses and dark magics started seeping into the world.

Any curse could be broken by an act of sacrificial love.

“Love is not about feelings.  It is about choices.”

Matt didn’t remember the exact circumstances that had prompted Father Lantom to say those words all those years ago when he’d still been a boy at the orphanage.  But the words had stuck with him.  Love wasn’t a feeling.

It was a choice.

“No,” Matt said, in answer to Heather’s statement.  “I’m not going to kill you.”

He pressed a hand over his chest, feeling the pendant he always wore under his shirt, a simple disk engraved with a dove – the symbol of the King Beyond the Sky.  On the chain next to the pendant were two unadorned gold rings.  His parents’ wedding bands, and the only thing he had inherited from them. 

I have to mean the vow, or this won’t work.

He couldn’t bluff his way through it – there were no loopholes for the deep magic.  Could he say them honestly?  Could he make that sacrifice to save her?

“It’s how this curse was always meant to end.”

“There’s another option to break the curse,” Matt said.  “But you have to agree.”  He tugged the chain with the pendant and rings from under his shirt and heard Heather’s intake of breath.

“Do you really think that would work?” she asked.

“If we mean it,” Matt said, “I believe it will.”

She paused for a long moment, then slowly nodded.  “Okay.”

To do things in the proper way, they should have a priest present to bless their vows, but that wasn’t exactly an option at the moment.  The King Beyond the Sky would be the only witness, but that Matt felt would be sufficient.  It was the King Beyond the Sky who would hold him to his vow anyway.

Matt undid the chain around his neck and slipped the rings off.  He’d witnessed Father Lantom blessing enough weddings in his youth that he could recall the vows easily enough.

“I, Matthew Murdock, take you, Heather Fisk, to be my wife.  I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.” 

As he recited the words, the world fell still.  The buzzing of nighttime insects faded away, the wind stopped blowing.  Anticipation seemed to build in the air, like the moment just before a lightning strike in a storm.  Matt didn’t doubt the moment was being witnessed.

He gently raised Heather’s hand, slipping his mother’s old wedding band on it.  “Receive this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity.  In the name of the King Beyond the Sky, and the Son.”

The feeling of stillness and anticipation didn’t lesson.  The sacrifice wouldn’t mean anything if Heather refused it.

She didn’t have the vows memorized the way Matt did, but with some quiet prompting from Matt, she managed to repeat them.  She slipped the ring on his finger, and Matt felt the weight of it there far more than he’d ever felt it when he’d worn the rings around his neck.

The moment the last syllable fell from her lips, Heather stiffened.  The collar around her neck crumbled, falling away with a rustle like spilled sand.  An energy lanced through the air that raised the hair on the back of Matt’s neck, and she crumpled.

Matt immediately reached for her, scooping her up from the rocks and realizing as he did so that her tail was gone, replaced by legs.

“Oh,” Heather gasped clinging to him.  “Oh, it worked!”

Relief flooded through him, followed quickly by the weight of new responsibility.  The curse was broken, but the work wasn’t done.

It’s basically February right now, right?

Wilson cast a sharp glower in Matt's direction, his gaze only softening, then hardening again, as they passed over her. But he didn't fight the police and didn't make a scene.

She was part of the bargain, after all.

Matt wouldn't expose Vanessa if Wilson went to prison. And he'd make sure Heather was protected from any of Wilson's enemies.

Heather wiped at her eyes and Matt put an arm around her shoulders; she rested her head on his shoulder.

"It's going to be alright." He said.

Heather nodded.

"I know." She replied softly. "He- he chose this."

He squeezed her shoulder and Heather let out a controlled breath.

"Whatever you need. Just say the word."

Heather reached up and squeezed his hand back. She took a moment to let herself find comfort in Matt's warmth. In the timber of his voice and the vibrations from his chest when he spoke.

She shifted to look up at him and he somehow mirrored the soft smile she gave him.

"Let's go home."