Chương 119: 119

Christmas Day at his uncles' house was a magical affair. It was the worst Christmas Mark had ever had, and yet it was one of the best. It all passed in a blur for Mark, with too many small and large emotions and feelings of loss and love and new futures yet to be realized. But he was still present. He was still there. Alexandro loved the holiday and had decorated the whole big house in every way it could be decorated.

The base of the 3 story mansion was the same black and white marble minimalist extravagance as always, but the carpets were red and green, sparkly tinsel and garlands hung on archways, and three different giant Christmas trees grew here and there both inside the house, and outside in the main front yard. The whole place, but the trees especially, were decorated with mage lights that sparkled. Shiny orbs hovered and glittered, and the air smelled of cinnamon and gingerbread.

Snow layered the land outside, while a big fire bloomed in the main fireplace. Alexandro wore a red and green sweater with lights sewn into the fabric while Gabriel opted for red and white with reindeer made in puffy fuzz. They had a sweater made specially for Mark that was all white and green and not crazy-holiday at all, and one of the most comfortable things that Mark had ever worn.

Hot chocolate flowed and Inquisitor Willow and the other guards stationed at the house were invited for lunch, which happened at 2: 00pm, and which included way too much food for any 20 people, but there were only 6 people here. Soon, the leftovers got divided and packed away. Paladin Wendy was the first to knock off for the evening. Mark found out that Wendy always got sleepy after big dinners. Mark's uncles and their guards were close as family friends, so they knew things like that about each other.

Dad had been similarly close with Trace and Devon, but at Mark's first thought of the boat guys, Mark remembered how none of them had returned any of his phone calls or letters. They were alive, but they didn't want anything to do with Mark at all. Soon, the other paladins took their leave, too, and then it was just Mark, Uncle Alexandro, and Uncle Gabriel. And then it was time for presents! Just small ones. Mark had already told his uncles he didn't want anything, but they got him stuff anyway. Armor, mostly.

Or rather, a subscription to armor. Mark had stabilized at 6'6", 280-ish pounds, and he had a preset order on webweave underarmor that fit him well, and so Alexandro and Gabriel had bought Mark three new sets of that, and renewed his subscription to replace his armor pieces when they got damaged and needed replacing. It was good armor; tier 3 ceramic stuff that was painted black and which could be replaced when it inevitably broke, instead of letting Mark be broken instead.

It was 10k a month, though, and Mark was riding the line where he'd need to up his plan or take less trips into the wilds. It was still, by far, the cheapest option as far as 'good armor' went." You need more actual clothes too, Mark!" Alexandro said, smiling.

"But a young man should pick out his own actual clothes. So here's a bunch of gift cards." He handed Mark an envelope stuffed with plastic cards, saying, "It's 50k, so go wild! But not too wild." Mark's eyes went wide.

"I can't accept tha—"" The house is already yours and that was 1. 2 million," Alexandro said, his voice strong, as though he had prepared against Mark trying to deny the gift.

"And these cards aren't even money! They're places where you should go buy your own clothes! So go buy clothes." Gabriel handed over a single piece of paper, saying, "Here's a bunch of other places that you should go shopping sometime, too, Mark." Mark chuckled, feeling all warm and wonderful inside as he took the list, saying, "Thank you both, so much." And then Mark, uh, wondered if his own gift was good enough. But he was here, and it was Christmas, so he brought out his gift, saying, "And I got you these!"

Mark had gotten both of them mithril knives that he had inscribed with his own adamantium. He had gotten several mithril knives, actually. One for each of the important people in his life. All of them were high-quality 'smallknives', according to how they were called on Daihoon, each of them costing 700 goldleaf, and each of them only having a small part of them as actual mithril. They were basically switchblades, but with whorls and leaves and feathers on the grip.

Mark had spent some extra money and lots of time on spare mithril to figure out how to join adamantium to mithril, but he gave up giving these knives adamantium edges, because getting the edge right was impossible without actual forging practices. The mithril just didn't join to the adamantium, or maybe it was the other way around. Mark wasn't sure. But Mark could spare an allotted 10 grams of adamantium per knife to simply inscribe into the outlines of the metal handles. So that is what he had done.

Mark handed a knife to each of Alexandro and Gabriel, saying, "Thank you so much for being my uncles." Alexandro chuckled as he held his knife, and then he wiped away a tear and hugged Mark, saying, "I think you outspent me, Mark. I need to get you something better." Gabriel had a serious look to him as he held his knife and asked, "You didn't give up your weaponry to make these, did you?" Mark smiled and laughed as he hugged Gabriel in turn, saying, "I certainly won't be doing it every year!"

But he could give away knives like that every day, if he wanted. He currently had 1, 237 grams of adamantium to his name. He could easily meditate and make 120 grams of adamantium in four hours, or he could just do nothing all day long and make 25 grams per day. Maybe, one day, Mark could even make an entire armor set out of adamantium! That'd be nice. He could certainly make an armored box for Quark to live inside, though, until he could afford a proper AI housing. Mark didn't tell them about any of that, though.

… He wondered if he should? Maybe… Maybe later. Gabriel let it go as he hugged Mark, saying, "Okay, then… if you're sure. This is… This is a disastrous waste of money but that's fine." He asked, "You didn't weaken yourself for us, did you?"" I want you to have them, Uncle. Uncles." Alexandro smiled. Gabriel relented about the finances. Mark felt loved. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. It was nice.

Soon, Gabriel and Alexandro were on the couch, under a blanket, and Mark was on the big side seat to the side of them, sitting in front of the screen, all of them with sodas and big bowls of cheesy popcorn. It was exactly what Mom and Dad and Grandpa used to do every Christmas, and Mark struggled not to cry. He knew that Gabriel saw, but Gabriel just smiled a little, knowing that Mark just wanted to be alone with this particular emotion. Alexandro was cheerful and happy as he watched the movie.

Mark just started bawling and the movie stopped, but Mark stopped crying soon enough while Alexandro fussed and Gabriel quietly talked to him and soon Mark was stable again, though lots of 'Thanks' and 'I'm fine, really's and 'I miss them, too's had happened somewhere in all of that. They got back to the movie. The movie was one of those very same old movies that Mark, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa used to watch on Christmas. An old Christmas classic today! Miracles on Fifth Avenue.

Mark had seen it probably a dozen times or more, but he was happy to see it a thirteenth time. It was about some heroes who braved the wilds to get back to New York, under the floods and the devastation. They had to retrieve a treasure before some other people could, though they didn't know what the treasure truly was until near the end.

The movie itself was a shoot-em-up action movie, with both sides fighting over pieces of a puzzle and against the monsters in the flooded city, with the climax of the film having both sides put aside their differences and unite the puzzle and use the treasure to kill a kaiju instead of control the kaiju. That was the trick of the treasure. There was some stuff about natives versus invaders and Daihoonians versus Earthlings, and people going between cultures, but that was just background. It was a great movie.

But all the while, Mark felt like he wasn't being truly honest with his uncles. At the end of the movie, Mark told Alexandro and Gabriel that he was adamantium blooded, and what that meant for the knives. The air seemed to chill after Mark told them how he could just make millions of dollars per day, just sitting on his ass. Gabriel started asking questions that Mark answered, and the conversation got even more concerning, and deep. Alexandro shuddered a few times, and Gabriel had some harsh truths."

You're thinking of giving one of those knives to Sally, aren't you? Well you shouldn't." Mark scoffed.

"This whole truth of my situation is going to come out sooner or later. I want to give Sally something that means something. I want her to know I can trust her." Gabriel nodded a little bit, but he was just waiting for Mark to finish before he said, "And you giving her a knife like this does mean something. It means you can't keep a secret and you're too honest for your own good and I'm not even talking about Sally being untrustworthy, Mark. I'm sure Sally is trustworthy." He held up the knife.

"But the 10 grams of adamantium in this knife is over a quarter of a million goldleaf." … Yeah, it was a lot of money. Mark knew that. Mark was already apprehensive about telling Sally, but he was going to do it anyway. Sally was his best friend. They told each other everything!

He planned on partying with Sally on monster fights too, because he wanted to ask her to join his team, and she needed to know about what Mark could do, if for no other reason than to give her a good estimate of the danger of being around Mark in the first place… Which was already freaking him out. Mark had a target on his back, and it only got bigger with everything Mark discovered about himself, and the world." I don't see the issue with telling Sally," Mark said, absolutely lying.

Gabriel looked at Mark, some words dying in his throat. Alexandro stepped in, putting a hand on Gabriel's shoulder, gently saying, "He can do what he wants." Alexandro told Mark, "I sit on my ass and make millions per day, too, but not nearly as much as you. You should consider the List… But you're probably already on it." Mark was taken aback.

"People besides True Healers can go on the List?"" It's rare, but yes." Gabriel rumbled with a frown, but he said nothing. Gabriel wanted to say a lot about a lot. He was an accountant. He dealt with money all the time. But instead of saying anything else, he took a step back, and said, "Sorry. I overreacted. Alexandro tries to give money away all the time and… And this is clearly different from that… You know your friend better than us, too, so… I'm sure it'll be fine.""

Thank you," Mark said, though he wasn't sure what he was thankful for. The night moved on, and Mark eventually hugged his uncles again, one last time for the day. The hug lasted a while, but at least Mark didn't cry this time. Soon, Mark grabbed his own portion of leftovers and hiked through the snow, back to the house on the other side of the bare forest, away from the big mansion with the bright lights and family and decorations. The night was deep, and the sky was clear.

The moon had been full a few days ago, but it was waning now. The golden Demon City of Arakino shimmered in the sunless side of the moon, like gold inlay; like golden cracks and whorls in the black.

Mark got home and put tomorrow's dinner away in the fridge and then he thought of Mom and Dad, and what if Sally wasn't Sally anymore, or at least not like she had been, and if Eliot and Isoko were using him, too, and if he was too rich and he was going to get used by everyone, and then he took out the five other knives he had inscribed and wondered if he should just destroy them and not give them out at all. Was giving money to friends a problem?

Mark fully expected them to use these knives to pay for something good. Or maybe they would keep them! Who knew! Who knew anything at all! Emotions came like rain, and Mark ended up curled into a ball on his bed, wrapped up in blankets and feeling horrible, crying his eyes out because Mom and Dad weren't here. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he woke up the next day to the sunshine and fresh snow, and he couldn't cry at all anymore. He tried to cry. Mom and Dad deserved more tears.

But Mark couldn't cry anymore. Did that make him a horrible person? It probably did— An alert came through on the monster alert system, and Quark started reading off about whatever monster was out there, tearing up some place beyond the wall." Oh thank the gods," Mark said, happy to ignore his emotions for another several hours. He was going to meet Sally tonight, and Mark tried not to be too nervous about it.