TRACK 23

You were pacing, I was insecure

Slip and fall I got the calls of the prison I was living in

Yeah yeah and it's okay

I tie my hands up to a chair so I don't fall that way

Yeah yeah and I'm alright

I took a sip of something poison but I'll hold on tight

(Helena Beat- Foster the People)

********

Alice had no idea how she had managed to maintain a calm expression and relaxed voice during the car call she had had with Douxie.

She had started out being so, but already upon receiving -at the first few seconds- the request to censor the entire conversation with her Oval Lithium-Mica Stone -which Munchkin knew full well that it was one among several gemstones she always kept between her pants pocket. It was with the heart-shaped Beryl and a few others, just as around her neck she always had a necklace composed of Pear Boji, Aquamarine, and Jade- had made her realize that something was wrong.

Hearing what the situation was had made her feel a cramp form in her stomach and her breathing quickened only to stop dramatically. Because that was bad. Really, really bad. She should have known that like yesterday. She should have tried to help out like yesterday, too. Holy crap.

Magical creatures, mostly Mages, who wanted to eliminate Human Beings. Just as some Human Beings had wanted to do with magical creatures before.

It seemed a constant circling in shared hatred. A constant bloodshed because of species differences that they could not get over. It was frustrating.

Was it so hard to accept each other? Was it so hard to realize that the world was beautiful because it was diverse and not simply locked into one repetitive, stereotypical category? Because, yeah, it became stereotypical when they forced you to follow a rulebook on which you had to base your entire existence. It was boring. And wrong.

Douxie was right. Something needed to be done. And as soon as possible, too, though she would surely have to ask her teacher to pause her training.

Alice did not even know how she was continuing to smile and pretend to be calm and happy in being surrounded by both Miss. Emerald and by the two witches to whom the woman had taken her. Not with so many thoughts going through her head.

They were both old women, strange but true. They must have developed their magic quite late or managed not to have Bursts somehow.

In any case, one of the two sorceresses, Helena, was very rigid, with a rather closed view of things -and a sour stubbornness. Not counting her long, venomous tongue about certain things, for how much she had gathered- but with a lot of precious stones, also quite peculiar and rare, perfectly manicured, so much so that their Core seemed to glow with purity -and she was the one who had partly taught Miss. Emerald about magic.

The other, however, was Minerva, a kind-looking apparently blind witch with a talent for wood magic only -or so she said- and with a pretty brown Owl as her Familiar. She kept trying to get her to eat some Kataifi as if it were a matter of vital importance -And as if she were her distant niece or the like, which was not possible, especially since her family had never been of that sort, unfortunately- and...yes, those treats were very good, but it was a little difficult to get anything down with a suddenly closed stomach.

"You look a little lost, Alice dear," jumped up Miss. Emerald, leading her to realize that she had become so entranced staring into the void that the two women had fallen into stark silence between one thing and another, the strings of stones attached near to the windows tinkling in the wind. "Something is bothering you, perhaps? Are we getting ahead of ourselves?"

"Ah... No, no," she said, even shaking her head. "Forgive me. I'm absolutely grateful for your support... For all of it, really. It has been such an amazing experience until now." She breathed in and out. "But I received some news this morning and they kind of upset me..." she started to fiddle with one of her own strands of green hair, coiling it around her own ring finger. "But I'm here, mentally, now... I really am. I swear. Go... go ahead, please."

"This doesn't seem to be the truth, sweetie," Minerva gently said, resting her left hand on her arm, her Familiar following her movement, going to reach up and tap her beak against her denim jacket sleeve. Almost instinctively, she found herself waiting for permission before patting his head.

The feathers were soft and the owl, Milo, was so flipping cute , closing his yellow eyes under her touch. Gosh, she wanted a Familiar too, but they were so hard to find and get.

"Your Aura is somewhat tense." Continued Minerva soon after -making her feel a bit self-conscious since she was used to covering it or with the Boji that absorbed it or the Kianite that covered it- tracing small circles on her skin with her fingertips. Almost as if her skin was made of wood and she was trying to count her years like this. Or something similar, really. Still, her touch was very gentle. "It has been from the first moment you set foot in this house."

She visibly darkened and winced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"No need to apologize." The other Witch commented, serious just like she had been before, crossing her legs under the table. She raised an eyebrow. "...There's more to apologize for that scandalous haircut and those piercings that you have."

Alice bristled at that comment.

'Can I do what I want with my appearance without having people poking around or criticizing like this? So many flipping mumpsimus.'

It was absurd. It was absurd that she couldn't be who she wanted to be without having people annoying her about anything, even among Mages themselves. The way she looked wasn't right. How she dressed wasn't okay, so much so that sometimes they called her a whore -without a specific reason other than the fact that she was slightly more uncovered than what they saw as consensual, though it wasn't like she was showing who knows what. Her intimate parts or her chest were perfectly covered.

Her sexuality, especially, was not okay, for so many of them . Being bisexual, but mostly into women if she had to fall for someone, was not right, apparently. The bi-phobia was idiotically stuck inside some people's brains, to the point that the first thing they said was ' It's just a phase.' The stupidest thing she ever heard.

How she saw certain things in the world was not okay, too. And what the flip. Couldn't they get off their high horse, live, and let live? Was it really that complicated?

She would not go and criticize their way of being. She always tried to avoid it, even when she didn't appreciate something -like those awful flannel sweaters in rotten colors. Those were just hideous- why did they have to do it with her, then? Why?

"Helena...!" hissed Minerva, scandalized in both expression and tone of voice. Almost scaring Milo off. "Don't let such petty things get to you, come on."

"Petty things?" She repeated, visibly piqued. "The Mages of today are no longer the serious and pristine ones they used to be! There should be more control over one's looks, avoiding passing over ridicule, but no." she huffed. "Yesterday I found myself in front of that wretched witch, all full of stupid tattoos from the arms down and with her hair completely dyed. Nice figure, that one. Nice way to seek attention." The sarcasm in her tone was obvious.

'Funny how that would be the first reason why I'd like her, instead,' she thought, rolling her eyes and continuing to pet the Owl without saying a word, looking at the two of them surreptitiously. She kinda questioned mentally how Helena would react if she had seen the ADP tattoo hidden by the jacket sleeve. And the fact that she would have gotten more if she had enough money to get them.

They continued to argue for a while, almost repeating the same arguments over and over again. Helena's stubbornness was really an absurd thing.

"Back to the main topic," said Minerva after a while, showing a vaguely annoyed expression, while the other looked upset and crossed her arms, probably wanting to say something else. "If you need to throw something out, go ahead, sweetie."

She swallowed at her phrase, remaining silent for a couple of seconds, not having the faintest idea of what to reply, exactly. That was before she turned her head and dwelt on Miss. Emerald, who was staring at her with a furrowed brow, giving her full attention. Had Alice not been sure that she was incapable of using Legilimency, she would have wondered if she was trying to read her mind.

Part of her would have wanted to confide about the situation. She would have liked to talk and talk and talk some more about what was going on, but -as much as she respected the talents of Witches more experienced than she was, as much as she would have done anything to repay Miss. Emerald for the help with her magic... she had promised herself that she would keep quiet about the matter.

She would have done so only with whom she was really bonded to, to the extent that she knew perfectly well that she could trust them. She had promised herself not to involve people out of fear of what would happen next because she was scared that her expectations would be betrayed.

And as much as she didn't want to admit it, as much as she didn't want to pay too much attention to it, Alice had already been betrayed more than once by someone close to her. And it had left a mark.

"I think..." she murmured, moving a lock behind her ear with her free hand. "I'm really sorry, but I think I'll have to go home soon. It's urgent... and complicated."

A shocked look was painted on Miss. Emerald and on Minerva's face. Helena simply arched her eyebrow and went to get up from her chair, disappearing into the next room only to return with a note, a kind of small gold crest to which was attached a key, a wooden box, and a bottle with some greenish substance in it. She placed the latter on the table, while she kept both the note and the coat of arms with the key.

"Could you stay at least a little more? We would like to show you something first if you are willing to attend."

********

"Excuse you?!" Claire said angrily, unable to restrain herself, feeling her own arms shake with anger. She had tried. She had seriously tried to shut up and keep it down since earlier, but there was a limit to everything. It had been a mixture of the general nervousness churning in her stomach and seeing the hurt expression that had been painted on the raven-haired boy's face at the Sorcerer's words. "He's just trying to help out! Why do you have to be so rude to him for something like that? It's not like you're getting that many results of your own, anyway!"

"It isn't a matter for you to take interest in, Lady Claire," replied the man, almost in a detached tone, even -As if talking or trying to make her understand was useless because she was too young to understand. That alone made her blood boil in her veins- as he sent a new spell against the creatures. The rescue shuttle flew fast, but not fast enough to get them off their backs.

"What?" She said, furious and incredulous, finding herself moving forward several steps, always holding on to the rail to avoid falling or otherwise losing her balance from the jolts that shook the craft as it moved.

"What concerns me and Hisirdoux concerns me, him and Archibald only. No one else. Do not interfere."

"That's stupid!" She immediately rebutted, exhaling heavily and shaking even more. "And so what... you expect no one to say anything when you first order him around and everything and then treat him like this? As if he had finished his task or something and you can simply discard him?"

"Claire is right!" Jumped up Steve, as Toby verbally agreed shortly after with a "Exactly! Why so mean and rude to him for no reason? He is not doing anything wrong. All those scary flying insects are still not disappearing anyway!"

Aaarrrgh nodded, and both Jim, Blinky, and Nari simply squared Merlin with a furrowed brow. Instead, the Knight brought only his own drink to his lips, gobbling down several sips.

"It's not a matter of being mean or rude, chatty." He asserted, visibly annoyed. The Old Sorcerer then grimaced, returning to cast a new quick spell. It made the entire row of stones before they returned to their original state in about twenty seconds. "You just cannot understand."

"We can't understand it... or maybe your meaning only makes sense to you?" Jim questioned pointedly with a hardened stare.

Merlin Ambrosius' expression became painted with fury. "As I have already said..." he said, seriously, his gaze almost zapping them all -except Nari, the Knight, Archie, and Douxie himself- which she did not let herself be frightened by, returning it. "These are not things of your interest. And in any case, I don't need his help."

"Oh, you can really tell!" Claire shot back, scowling and going to point to the mass of creatures with her index finger. "Don't be so full of yourself! We're in danger, and your random sticking to your own pride is not helping anyone!"

"I'm not sticking to my own pride. With or without his assistance, nothing would change," he asserted coldly. Unnervingly cold. "Stop rebutting on it."

A new wave of irritation gripped her from head to toe, such that a good part of her would have liked to retort again, raising her tone, that he was still the same obnoxious and stubborn old man, but she did not make it in time. Even Toby barely was able to say "Oh, come on now...!" before he was interrupted.

"Doesn't matter. Please calm down," commented Douxie instead, jumping back into the conversation after staying utterly silent. His gaze first was set outside where all the creatures were, but then he looked back in their direction again in a calm manner. So calm that it seemed that this whole conversation was not about him but about someone else. As if he really did not care. "This is not the moment to argue. And... Master is right, actually."

"But bro..."

"No, seriously. Even if I tried something it probably wouldn't help anyone. I have been insisting too much. Could have avoided it. That's all."

Claire would have liked to counter. She would have liked to tell him that it wasn't true at all, that there was seriously nothing wrong with his offering to cooperate, but she found herself meeting the gaze of Archie, who barely shook his head in a silent ' Just don't. '

The Dragon was deadly serious; his gaze thinned, his entire body stiff and taut as a violin string, and his tail being waved every three by two, showing visible rage... But he wasn't saying anything. He was simply perched beside his Wizard, casting glances at him from time to time.

Claire bit her lower lip, forcing herself to keep quiet and swallow her frustration.

It almost seemed to her that some poison was lurking in her throat and that in holding back the discussion -allowing it to run through her mind for how she seriously wanted to throw it out- it was also reaching her belly, turning in on itself in all its negativity.

It was not the right time to argue, yeah. That much was obvious. As much as Merlin's attitude was seriously getting on her nerves, continuing to argue could have led to risks, especially with those things on their tail.

She therefore closed her fists hard, letting only her arms rest on the spacecraft to keep her own balance and avoid slipping, looking crookedly at Merlin. He was drastically ignoring her, continuing to lift his own scepter into the air from time to time.

Claire huffed loudly just before returning her attention to Douxie. His gaze was mostly detached and empty, but it still betrayed a hint of worry and nervousness while he looked at the creatures, just like his hands were squeezing the surface of the shuttle.

She ended up looking at the swarm, too. It continued to emerge unharmed from each spell.

The Sorcerer threw what appeared to be green lightning at them just then, but nothing could be done. They were so unharmed that it really seemed they were impossible to bring down. It was absurd.

The stings on the girl's arm continued to be a major annoyance. She was trying to ignore them as much as she could, too, but it was rather complicated. Feeling the swelling was a rather unpleasant sensation and... touching those subspecies of blisters that marked her skin was almost revolting. The idea of having even more was even worse. Especially if her entire body was covered with them, not just in a few scattered spots.

Yet another spell was cast, but nothing. There was only a big sound, like a bang and the spacecraft even seemed to speed up, so much so that all the strands of hair in its bangs began to flail in the wind even more than before... But the chase continued anyway.

Those creatures were stubborn and aggressive. Claire could not understand why they were like that. They hadn't done anything to them, had they? Unless they saw them entering the Dimension as the main problem. And it could have been, yeah. They were another way to carry the Keeper of Balance's defense. To keep him from being found.

But why hide to that extent? Why go to such lengths not to be found? What was so bad that he could not want anything else than escape from it? The mages of the Crucible? Other mages or... Maybe situations he had been involved in? Wanting to escape from possible impending responsibility?

The questions disappeared at the exact moment when the shuttle had a new jolt. It was bigger and more aggressive than the previous ones and caused her to shake to such an extent that almost all of them lost their balance, ending up with their butts on the ground and struggling to get up except by clinging to the railings again. Claire managed to stay on her feet by a whisker, pressing herself as hard as she could against the surface.

"This is not normal!" She heard Archibald shout to Merlin. The latter did not answer him verbally, about to summon a new spell, although Claire did not see him.

The girl, from the position she was in, found herself staring down instead of up. Her gaze darted to a hint of smoke. And more red insects appeared on the sides of the shuttle from under it.

The realization struck in little time, causing her to widen her eyes and gasp, unable to recover oxygen.

"It's the engine!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. "They're trying to block the gears of the engine!"

And there was nothing they could do to make them stop unless they figured out how to defeat them for good. That is if there had been any.

It was a disaster. A real, terrible disaster that worsened second after second, becoming heavier to the point that it was getting hard to breathe.

********

"Emerald said you have a powerful attunement with the stones and their Core," Helena said, leading her down the long staircase at a rapid pace. Minerva had stayed up with her teacher, saying they would wait for them.

"So she thinks," she replied, nodding. "It takes me some time, but usually after I connect to a specific stone for the first time, I have it pretty easy."

"How long?" She asked, her inquiring gaze resting on her. She still looked disgusted by her entire aesthetic -flipping holy crap- but at least she was trying to get over it, it seemed.

"Uh... Between two and three days, with the easier ones. A week or two with the more complicated ones."

"A week or two?" Helena repeated. She seemed surprised, so much so that she blinked several times and stared at her in bewilderment. And then her eyes lightened a little, making her look almost amused by the news. Which was... weird?

Alice still found herself nodding in response and watched as she ran her left hand over the white silk of her shirt sleeve, fixing it.

"... I see," she added after a while, not ceasing to advance in her descent

The more they descended, the more that long corridor looked as if it were to reach the Underworld. It was darker, much more dark... It was filled with stalactites, stalagmites, ice and crystals. Their cores started pulsing with magic after she reached the last three flights of steps.

The Aura that came from them was shared, being reflected by each one, but still incomplete for what she sensed. They were probably many pieces of one specific body, a body that she still had to see.

"How long have you been able to connect to stones so quickly?" Helena questioned.

Alice arched her eyebrows at the question, having no idea what to answer.

In the early days, especially as a child, she had always taken the same stones from her mother's jewelry collection, putting them back in the drawer before she or her father could come home to berate her for it.

Her magic had been activated and developed after her sister's very hurtful reaction to her refusal of their parent's wishes. She had struggled a lot to use it for the next twenty years or so and... She had continued to fight with it until... until she had met Zoe for the first time. But still, it had always taken her a long time to connect to newly bought, unknown stones.

She had seriously started getting into it after entering the Limbo, and after connecting to Douxie's Mana for the first time, trying to link it and stabilize it better to the spirit world. All to interact nicely with Martha's Ghost.

"Uh... For almost half a year now?" She asserted, albeit uncertain, finding herself resting her gaze on the bottom of the staircase, where there was a huge black doorway oozing with the Aura of Crystals. "I think?"

The Old Witch looked at her again, but remained silent this time, perhaps thinking about it more carefully, perhaps just letting the matter drop. Her eyes shined less now, for whatever reason.

And in that almost complete silence, they reached the door. Helena placed the crest on the surface of the wood, causing both the object and the area it touched to glow.

When she removed it, a lock had appeared. Before putting the key inside it, the woman looked at the paper, then stuck it inside, made it turn seven times to the right, three times to the left, and nine times to the right again.

The black door completely lit up, the light so intense that it made her curse under her breath, covering her face with both hands. It took a while before she could look again, but by the time she could, the color of the door had changed from black to white. It was slowly opening on its own without even making a sound, too.

"You are talented with the Stone Cores." Helena suddenly observed, speaking again. And it felt like the biggest compliment ever, even if just for a second. "But what relationship do you have with the Orbs made of precious stones?"

Alice found her eyes widening.

She did because of her question, for the sight of what was beyond the door, and for the enormous amount of magic that was born from it, which rose around her like a tsunami, freezing the blood in her veins just as it passed. Her hair stood on end.

'It can't be real. I must be daydreaming or something. It can not be true. This is... This can't...' she gaped, almost falling to her knees. 'No, it actually is. Holy crap.'

Among numerous crystals that arose from the most disparate points of what seemed like a dark cave, several enormous globes floated and revolved around a very large column composed of precious stones. Stones that she had never seen before, except in a few of the GDT books, where they were treated as legends and little more.

Mordrax's Crystals. One of the Wizard of Miracles' most prized possessions.

Mordrax. The one who had managed to enter the Beyond. The one who had seen and interacted with the Nemeton. The one who had escaped death nine times and who had mastered a level of magic that was nothing short of unthinkable, so much so that when he actually died, first turning into soot, he then became a star in the firmament-or at least, that was what the stories had told about him. How much had been a tale and how much had been the truth was unclear.

Still, crap, those were the stones. The ancient runes written on them were clear proof, even though she did not understand them. She had barely started to know them because of Douxie. She remembered a few shapes and a little more.

"How did you find them? And why..." she swallowed hard, feeling her heart thundering in her chest to the point that it seemed like her ribcage would give up at any moment. "Why did you bring me here?"

"These stones have been here for millennia now. They were buried in the rock. Sensing their energy wasn't difficult." She said, in complete tranquility. "No Geomancer has ever managed to move any of the Orbs that protect them. If you managed to connect with at least one of them, their defense would give way, since, as you have probably perceived, the energy in them is shared."

"Okay, but... These are stones of unknown and unpredictable powers. And they shouldn't be touched. They're like..." the Hearthstone of Arcadia. Which was destroyed by the stealing of all its magic. "They have..." she couldn't complete the sentence.

'They are difficult to control, especially since they would have to be made up of the excess Mana that was accumulated when Mordrax came into contact with the Nemeton.'

They weren't just stories. Oh, Gods, apparently they weren't. Not even a legend among legends was just a story, even if it had been defined as such by the Wizards themselves.

'Is this pure magic actually composed of Mordrax's Mana, then? Is it what remains of him on Earth?'

"They are only unpredictable if you lack caution while using them," Helena said kindly. As if she was trying to soften her up, one way or another, noticing how stiff she had become. "But their powers can be controlled. Their powers can be used and shared from Wizard to Wizard. They are unknown, yes, that's true. But studying them could bring to light many almost extinct Magics. Or disappeared species like those of the Fairies. They could perhaps take us to impregnable places." she paused. "And change the world that exists today. In the best way possible."

"Impregnable places?" Confusion crossed Alice's face.

"Those you don't know where they are, exactly, but you know they exist. Those whose appearance you don't know, but you just need the idea, the concept to reach it. The desire for it." She said, her expression drooping repeatedly, before muttering a simple, "I'm tired of waiting."

"Waiting for what?..." she questioned slowly, her voice very low, almost a whisper, suddenly feeling very, very nervous. The old Witch's gaze flickered over her with an almost trapped animal look at that question. Crazed and scary. Absolutely out of her mind.

'Crap, crap, crap, crap... I don't think I like where this is going anymore.'

Alice took an instant step back.

"Nothing." She blurted out, dryly. "Nothing that matters to you. You just have to try to connect with the crystals that make up the Orbs."

"I..." she licked her lips, taking another step back, giving a look at the stairs. "I'm sorry, but I won't... This kind of magic is too risky. I would like to bring back the Fairies, too, but not with worse consequences for other people."

"It's not a question," Helena said, serious and collected, just tilting her head. There was a weird sound when she did it. "It's an order."

Fear exploded inside her and instantly it moved to Beryl, Boji, and Jade's Cores. The Energy of two out of three flowed inside her body, rushing around her blood like pure adrenalin, but the third stone did not let it show in any way.

She stood still, her expression blank. Then, before Helena could move or close the door behind her with magic, she moved forward only to deck her in the face. And she started running.

********

Douxie felt absolutely, excruciatingly useless.

Master Merlin didn't want him to try to use his magic. No, he didn't want him at all. He didn't need his help, he had said. And it still hurts just thinking about it.

The situation was getting progressively worse and worse, and there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was watch a new group of red bugs overhead in masses from below, his hands trembling, his armor weighing down on him to the point that he struggled to stand with all the shaking. He had already fallen twice, skidding to the bottom of the boat and nearly crashing into it, being held back by the bags.

The barrier was close. Very close now, but with the novelty of the creatures that were pointing to the engine... there was some doubt that they would get there. If it got broken at any moment, they would hold very little. His Master could not go against those beings and lift the shuttle steadily. Giving a little bit of power to the craft was one thing. Maintaining it until they landed safely to cross the barrier, well, wasn't easy to do. At all. And still, they had no idea what was beyond the barrier and whether it would block the creatures or not.

They did not seem to be composed of magic. They had no sound. So maybe it would not work against them. Unless they knew how to hide it. But why would they have known how to do that? They were insects! They could have all the intelligence they wanted, but... Was it really possible that they knew how to control and hide their Mana? He doubted it.

Douxie cast a vaguely desperate look at Merlin. If he had at least allowed him to power the boat with his own magic... Maybe, just maybe, then....

Before he ventured to open his mouth, rising to his feet with difficulty, the Sorcerer gave him a look that testified one hundred percent to how he had not changed his mind at all about the matter. Douxie flinched.

'... Bloody hell.'

Why? Why didn't he want him to help? What had he done so wrong this time? Why, all of a sudden, was he refusing him to try? In part, he had already refused his help against the Shadow Mephits, but not like this! He had put on his ' serious and annoyed expression' because he had set them on fire in the bloody library -yeah. Not the best thing ever, thinking about it. But they had been vulnerable to fire. So what else could he have done?- but he had not made such a scene!

Why then? Why now? Just... why? He didn't understand it.

He was concentrating in every possible way and with all of himself on avoiding taking it as a total rejection of him in his essence, of his Mana. Of him being his Apprentice, from whom he should have asked for support, at least in a minimum way. He was making a desperate effort to look for a proper reason and not to see it immediately as a confirmation that he was not enough and that Merlin actually regretted choosing him.

The problem was that he could not grasp this reason. He could see nothing clear. On that day, nothing his Master had come up with had been clear to him. It was all so bloody confusing!

One moment he had made him feel as if he actually wanted him there. He had said he wanted him near him, hadn't he? That had to mean something!

But then there had been the order of fixing the castle and, okay, it had made him feel like he had gone back nine hundred years and that he was the Errand boy all over again. Then there had been the novelty of the armor that, oh, he didn't know whether to see as good or bad. It probably should have been good, or at least, it certainly was for Merlin and for preventing him from ending up breaking something -a bone, his nose, a hand, his fuzzing everything - very easily.

But now this? He could not use his magic. Didn't he want his help? How was he supposed to interpret that? How?

Was it a way to maintain his own strength as much as possible? No. Could not be. Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked him to fix the whole castle, a useful thing to do or not.

Was it the fact that he wanted to figure out what exact spells he would use to make a list of those not to be repeated? Plausible. But then why would he not allow him to power the engine of the rescue craft, instead? That one was not important in the list of attack performances!

Douxie saw no other possibility. And it hurts. But he had to ignore that blatant rejection because they were in utter fuzzing hell right now. Feeling his eyes burn when the vehicle carrying them was literally about to drop them and plummeting to the ground was not in the top ten best choices for public survival. Absolutely not.

But even if he wanted to, he couldn't do anything because that refusal wouldn't let him! Bloody fuzzing hell!

He could only stand by and just watch! Again! Like the useless him of nine hundred years earlier! If not perhaps worse, because despite everything his running back and forth for materials was something, as much small as it was.

It felt like karma. Indirect karma for minding his own business the night before and for lying to Master Merlin. For putting the Guardians of Arcadia in danger. For doing it mostly to escape his mind and the avalanche of negative thoughts that had attacked him so aggressively. He was selfish and toxic, maybe he deserved it for real... But this karma session could end with everyone dead. Hell. It was so wrong.

Douxie went back to casting his gaze at those giant insects, then at the barrier. The eyes were always there, huge, all fixed on him as if they knew every single thing that was going through his mind at that moment and were judging him for that. But it wasn't important.

They were so close. So close to crossing it! So close!

It was bad. Beyond the barrier, they would not be able to use Magic and they could not afford to slow down to lower their altitude. They could not afford to calmly descend and go over from the ground... They would have collapsed into the void and the lifeboat would have crashed, smashing into who knows how many pieces. It was not necessarily going to be easy to repair.

Sure, it would have been easier to fix than the mechanisms to go back in time, but, not a quick fix. Nor was it certain that they would arrive unscathed. It was unlikely.

But still, Douxie could not help but hope that those creatures would disappear with their passage, even if he doubted it anyway.

Merlin cast another spell at the same time that the shuttle's engine made an unpleasant sound, a log that resonated in the worst way and made everything shake again.

Something broke in the shuttle engine, exactly at that moment. A feeling of frost took hold of Douxie, running through his insides.

"Master!" he found himself shouting with all the voice he had in his throat, still hearing it break in mid-word.

'Tell me what to do, please!' he thought, desperate. He almost fell again. ' Please, Master...'

"Lady Claire, create a portal to descend to the ground!"

Something broke in him at these words. Like an utter crash. Worse than both of the sentences he had said before, combined. He felt himself staring into nothing and into everything at the same time.

Another rejection. This time it was so blatant, so blatant that he really couldn't, no, he couldn't quite lie to himself in his desperate search for anything that would testify to the opposite of what was happening.

As long as he didn't have him in the way, as long as he didn't have him to ruin everything again... he preferred to seek help from the very source of magic that Merlin himself had started and kept despising. That the Master had said he had done wrong in trying to teach Claire.

A pang went to crush the center of his chest, hot and suffocating, causing him to hold his breath. His eyes burned even more.

Merlin did not need his help.

He did not need his magic.

He did not need him. Not even a little bit.

The whole stay by me after the barrier seemed almost like a dog treat at this point. A way to keep him better on a leash and prevent him from whimpering or crying out from lack of attention given. And the armor was a way to avoid making him an even worse dead weight.

He didn't need him, no. He didn't want him at all. Douxie had hoped for too much, and he had no reason to. The anguish attached to that thought was devastating.

He forced himself to go through it a second time, even as the internal bitterness exploded like a bomb. He forced himself to remain calm, feeling slightly soothed as he saw the Shadow Portal Claire created appear, leading them to safety. It was not big enough for the spacecraft to fit through it, but it was big enough for them to jump in it.

Douxie found himself assisting the group as they hurriedly grabbed the bags before starting to throw themselves in utter disorder into it, one by one. He was one of the last to jump into it, before his Master, Jim and Claire. And in the blink of an eye, he found himself landing on the ground, a stone's throw from the barrier's side.

The three who were left arrived just as quickly... and Hisirdoux found himself unable to meet the Sorcerer's gaze. Rather, he ended up casting a glance first at the rescue shuttle that was free-falling and then at the swarm of insects, which was already changing direction, first circling a bit on themselves, then probably realizing where they had ended up.

"Hurry up! Over the barrier! Now!" shouted his Master.

He did so without a second thought, trying not to hear the little voice in his brain that kept repeating almost in a loop in fact that he had no more value to him, so it didn't really matter if he got over the barrier or not, at this point.

Merlin Ambrosius no longer wanted him. And that Douxie could do absolutely nothing about it. Why was he here, anyway, really?

The magic dome engulfed him, making every part of him more fragile, even heavier, more helpless, and cracked. More weakened.

He could feel something pull and already begin to fracture. He could feel his Magic gradually fading away, as if being grabbed and yanked strongly, then covered by a chain with several padlocks and countless keyholes. The feeling was always so horrendous and hard to bear... He almost could not stand it.

And a second after he had done so after he was totally over the barrier, he found himself being teleported. His whole body was whipped by an invisible current right and left. He felt all the movements in their complete entirety, the soreness tracing every single part of him.

And then he found himself still, but just for a second. He was up five meters in the sky, with nothing to stop his fall and the violet river under him.

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(The other 2 ADP member btw🥂)

Updates from now on are once every 2 weeks (one yes, one no, one yes and so on)

Thoughts? Hypotesis? 👀
Random ideas for *why* Merlin might be acting like an utter prick except that he is Merlin? Lol.

Well, anyway. Thank you for reading!

-Killian