The point he made was a good one; if LuminiĆŁa had been drawn here, then it wasnât completely unreasonable that the rest of them would be, too. She couldnât imagine the joy of seeing not only her dear friends, but her beloved again. The thought of Shelly, so far away, was almost too much to bear. What if, in LuminiĆŁaâs absence, she forgot her? What if she decided she had simply gone forever, and moved on?
âYouâre right. Thank you, I think I needed to hear that. Itâs easy to dwell on what might be, and difficult to focus on whatâs here, and now.â
âSo you believe yourself to be evil?â What an awful thing for anyone to think of themselves without justification. He seemed, to her, so young, barely more than a child. LuminiĆŁa couldnât fathom the evil she hunted dwelling in him, anymore than she could fathom it in her own heart. It was unbelievable.
âI have no reason to hurt you. If I hunted all that were touched by dark magic, I would have fallen to my own blade years ago. Where I come from, tieflings such as myself are believed purely evil, but that couldnât be more wrong. What cause have you to believe yourself as irreclaimable as people would call me?â
âThe past is in the past - the future is yet to be. However, today is a gift! You see - that is why it is called the âpresentâ! Mwa ha haa.â Overdramatic laughter at his own weird sense of humor aside, he patted the small kitten and lifted her into his cape pockets once more to keep her from wandering too far, before nodding. There was not an ounce of hesitation when he gave that response to her enquiry of what he thought of himself.
Yet the otherâs musings of having to destroy herself if she truly did strike down all those touched by Dark Magic resonated with truth - he did also sense that in the otherâs aura of power, but light seemed to be a lot stronger in it, which made sense. Light always beat Darkness.
âTo explain the cause...allow me to tell you a story. Once upon a time, long ago in a far-off land: there was a town full of magical people. A place of wonder - yet also cruelty, for anyone who did not fit in that âboxâ of owning magical powers was shunned, treated as not even worth noticing. One boy was such in lacking apparent magical talent. He became dramatic, in the blind hope someone, anyone, would pay attention to him.â
A pause, before he shook his head. âYet nobody cared other than his darling mother. In fact, the bullies themselves, one day, had enough - and outright told the boy it would be better for everyone if he didnât even exist. Despairing from such cruel words, the boy ran - and fell down a portal by mistake, that only appeared once in a blue moon in the forest. He fell into a world where he was forced to fight against horrid monsters to survive. Eventually, he found a magical sword, that said it would help him fight the monsters, should he beat it in battle and prove being worthy to wield it.Yet the sword also said it was the boyâs choice whether he chose to fight it or not, and warned that if he did, nothing would be the same. He fought, and won: and it was then the sword unlocked the magic heâd always been fated to learn. Yet it was Dark Magic.â
Looking at the sword in itâs scabbard, Schezo continued: âDark Magic, back in the boyâs home realm...was even worse than having no magic at all. It was considered horrible, black magic, and anyone who specified in it was âcursedâ - once you learnt one Dark magic spell, it was so cursed it would override any other spells, and be impossible to get rid of. Anyone who held it...was treated as a monster. Not only that...but everyone hunting down those of dark magic back home meant that the boy knew - if he returned home, his mother would pay the price. So the boy had to...abandon his mother. Such an awful boy, who acquired dark Magic and abandoned the only person to care for him...does he not have the right to claim he is irredeemable?â
...So the boy in the story was Schezo himself, then....