Better Next Time | Michael and Marius
So, the jokes were off the table. He could’ve expected that. Being a Magician - or having been one - Magic was such a vital part of who a person was, a large and indescribable part. Imagine living with only two of your senses, all the others prone to Magic, and suddenly they vanished. Not that Michael had noticed that at all, after all… Magic was a special kind of thing. He had learned that after he died. ‘It’s been long. I’ve not had my Magic since I… well, since I died. I don’t think Magic is eternal. We have it in loan, soon as we die, it returns to the world itself. And well, my Magic transferred into… Semiel right?’
‘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.
‘You waiting for a special event?’
“Right, right, you lot and your special magic – though would you’ve lost your magic as well, you think, if you’d had one of the more normal kinds? Or would it have gone to someone else as well?” Marius paused for a moment. “If you’re right and it really is something that’s sort of on loan – real intriguing thought there, by the way; you should go talk to Tarac about it – would that in turn mean that all magic is, in the end, limited? For one person to have it, another has to die first?”
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.
“Nothing like that, don’t be silly. Just–I don’t know.” With a dismissive shrug, he went on, “Are you on some divine mission to stop me, or is it just normal concern?”
‘I was chosen to be special, clearly,’ he said, looking up at the sky and pursing his lips. ‘I don’t know, could be right. Magic is a thing of this world, or of the world of the Gods. I wouldn’t be surprised if what goes for Black and White Dragon Magicians goes for all the other Magic types too. Or at least... you know it did.’
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.
‘Oh wow, can you imagine. The Gods sending me back to the world to stop you from drinking. No, I think what the Gods want from me is a much simpler task,’ he said with a grin. ‘I’m just concerned. And who knows, maybe the Gods will let me have my own agenda, I can solve little Mancer problems.’
