Chương 16: The Prydwen V

Entry II – Of the Salem Flames and Betrayal Reborn Alas! The promise faltered. In Salem, that cursed name, the fires of the Old World found new tinder. Witches - true and false alike - were dragged to doom. I was there, hidden 'mongst shadows. I watched as the flames rose, and Merlin watched beside me. Not a word passed his lips, yet his silence thundered more than any wrath. That eve, he turned his gaze skyward and whispered to no soul,"So be it." From that moment forth, his will was set.

And the world would never be as it was. Chronicles of the Sundering: A Personal Record by Mine Own Hand by Archmage Elowen Thorne, Keeper of the Black Flame, Scribe of the Meridian Vaults Everyone turned to look at the new interlocutor.

"Well, what would your take on it be?" Erik asked neutrally.

"I mean, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say murder is wrong." The sneering boy said from the doorway. He was tall and gangly, his arms and legs too long for his body as puberty had decided to stretch those aspects of his body first. His hair could only be described as 'wild', and was dyed green. His clothes were far more mundane than Erik's or Soras, and his eyes were flickering over everyone. Another girl was standing behind him, her arms crossed but otherwise staying silent.

"It sounds like you two are new here. Welcome! Join the Light side, we don't murder people or fuck animals. We're practically your neighbors, living on Earth, and we might actually, literally, be neighbors, depending on where you live. Let me introduce myself. Moon. Kevin Moon." Sora was half a heartbeat away from punching the smug look on Moon's face when Erik put a hand on her leg. Only part he could easily reach.

"Those are some pretty bold accusations." Erik said neutrally.

"Accurate and true, every word of it." Moon sneered back.

"You two should leave before you corrupt these two anymore. Everyone knows outcasts belong with the Light." Erik lifted one eyebrow.

"I mean, that's just as accurate as saying the Light deletes people's minds and replaces them with their own." Erik said, and Moon flinched at the words.

"I don't judge you by the absolute worst excesses of your faction, and I'd ask you not to do the same." Moon scoffed.

"Roko was a century ago, and we helped put him down. Magus Morsin was raping and murdering people a decade ago. The two are not the same." He refocused on Felix and Hazel.

"Look, are the two of you going to make good decisions about who you associate with, or can I just write the two of you off?"

"You're slimy and disgusting. I want nothing to do with you." Hazel declared.

"Ugh. Losers. Alright, speaking of Morsin. I figure nobody will mind much if he has an 'accident' and falls overboard. Do me a favor, tell me if you spot him. We can at least agree on that much." Sora couldn't be contained any longer. With an inarticulate scream of rage, she lunged across the room and punched a surprised Kevin in the face. There was a meaty crunch as his nose broke. Erik was half a second behind her, already reaching into his satchel.

"Sorry about that." He said as he tossed a small potion vial to Moon's minion. His other hand was already reaching for the 'close' button, and he slapped it before the minion could say anything. Sora whirled on Erik.

"What the fuck!" She said.

"Why'd you stop me?" Erik bonked Sora on the top of her head.

"Why are you starting fights!?" He yelled.

"They're just words, they don't matter! Be better than them!"

"I hate being better." Sora muttered. Hazel barked a laugh.

"You and me both!" She said with a shudder.

"Honestly, if you hadn't done that, I might've made him leave us alone."

"How?" Erik asked curiously.

"Errr… magic." Hazel answered, then blinked.

"I still can't believe that's a real answer."

"I can't either." Felix agreed.

"Looping back for a moment. Sora. You're getting into fights already? I need you here. I can't have you getting expelled. Plus, be a little more thoughtful. The idiot…" Erik trailed off. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I mean, it's kinda obvious you're the Morsin he was looking for." Hazel mumbled. Erik did a double take.

"Wait, really? How'd you figure that out?" He asked. Hazel didn't answer, just retreated back into her hoodie.

"What was he talking about?" Felix asked.

"No offense, but you look a little young to be raping and murdering a decade ago." Sora started laughing. She laughed so hard she had to clutch her belly, and started to pound on the table.

"Ha! I can just see it now. Little Erik with a huge axe, trying to swing it around. Rawr!" Erik's blush went all the way to his ears.

"Wait. That actually happened?" Hazel asked.

"Look, when you grow up in a weapon-rich environment, the older warriors found it hilarious to give the little kids weapons. Teaches us real quick that they're tools, not toys." Erik said. Felix chuckled.

"Right. As for what Moon was saying, he's not wrong, but he's talking about my father." Erik's face had thunderclouds on it.

"All I ask is to be judged on who I am, not who my parents are." The two orphans and the boy with a single parent immediately nodded.

"Yeah, that's easy enough." Felix agreed.

"Doesn't matter how nice or Light Kevin's parents are, the boy's a prick." Everyone sat back down.

"What was the thing with the animals?" Felix asked. Sora rolled her eyes.

"It's a difference of definition." She said.

"Oooh boy, this sounds a lot like 'age is just a number'." Felix half-joked.

"If you haven't figured out by now that Sora gives the worst possible explanations, I do-" Erik was cut off in the middle by Sora viciously kicking him in the shins.

"No, I can do this one!" She took in a deep breath, then held it. The three of them waited. And waited. Sora finally let it go.

"Okay, right. So Erik's right, I'm not good at explaining this. If a Tidecloak heard me, I'd probably get drowned. Don't repeat, I'm using some words that would be considered rude, but are good for your understanding. Light, Dark, Grey. Different cultures, different takes on things. Dark's all about magic. We are magic. We live in a magical world. Magic, yay!" She punched both fists up like she'd just scored the winning stravolux goal.

"This includes magical creatures, and quite a few of them are pretty close to humans. A selkie without their skin looks exactly like a person. Centaurs are clearly half-human. A person could look like a dryad with a spell and glueing on an excessive number of flowers and other vines, etc. The Dark, culturally, views them as valid to marry and have children with. We're all humanoid, we've all got a little core inside us saying we're magic and, technically, not entirely human in the first place. Why not, right?"

Sora shrugged. Felix was interested, but also busy fantasizing about mermaids.

"Right." Hazel said.

"Light, and some Grey, doesn't agree with us. Calls them beasts, monsters, and creatures, and has quite a number of rude things to say as a result." Sora shrugged.

"I'd say I'll let you decide, but some people get real prickly about being called or seen as 'subhuman'."

"What would you say is the biggest legitimate complaint about the Dark?" Felix asked. He'd read a similar question in a book, and felt inordinately proud that he not only remembered it, but asked.

"We don't care about noonies." Erik promptly answered, almost like he'd been expecting it. Hazel squawked.

"No, it's true. They live in a different dimension, one that we don't visit or go to. We're not going to meet them, we're not going to live with them, and they spent literally thousands of years trying to murder us. I'll be the first to admit we do use them for a number of things, but culturally, the Dark does not give two hoots about our former hunters that live in a different dimension."

"Not entirely human in the first place?" Hazel asked. Sora slowly shook her head.

"Man, I thought I was going to be at the bottom of the rankings. Third place, here I come!" Erik swatted the back of her head.

"If you were paying attention, you'd see that Felix already has his textbook out and is dutifully studying it. Hazel… is going to do quite well herself." Erik and Hazel traded a quick look, and his face was utterly placid. The two silently stared at each other for a moment, before Erik broke away and kept talking.

"Sora was hinting at it earlier. No human started with magic. We're not sure exactly who the first mages were and how it happened, but it was before the Egyptians. Before civilization. The absolute most sanitized version of events was a god falling in love with a mortal. I don't think anyone believes that's what actually happened."

"Hang on, I'm realizing I've been an idiot." Felix said.

"Let me grab my stuff." Sora and Felix did the 'get the inside person out' shuffle so common on airplanes and other packed seating spots, and Felix went to raid his luggage. Hazel stared out of the viewport, the unearthly blues of the underwater continuing to stain the cabin. They all sat back down a minute later, and Felix had a new notebook. $8. 99 for a set of 6.

"This is so much new stuff, and I'm so exhausted I know I'm going to forget most of it… tomorrow? Later today? After I sleep. Bloody timezones." He muttered.

"Might as well write it down and see what I can remember later." Erik pointed to Felix.

"Not going to be the bottom of the class." He said pointedly to Sora. Erik wasn't quite sure why he was spending so much time here instead of getting to know everyone, but eh. They were nice, they weren't judgmental, and they were rapidly becoming friends. Plus, there were still hours and hours more until The Prydwen arrived at Avalon.

"Every wixen has a magical core inside of them. It's a physical structure. The core is where magic comes from. It's what generates magic, it's what stores magic, everything can be traced back to the core. Broadly, if someone's asking you what core you've got, they're asking what creature or being it's associated with."

"I'm a bluejay." Sora happily added in, and grabbed some of her hair.

"It's why my hair's got a blue undertone to it."

"Wait, how does that work?" Felix asked.

"Cores can slowly change over time." Erik said.

"Best we've been able to guess? One of Sora's parents had a bird, one of them had a being with blue skin, and poof! Broombrain here's a bluejay."

"About as smart as one too." Hazel teased. Sora retaliated by sticking her tongue out, and Hazel's face lit up.

"Erik's being modest. He's lucky, he's got a white hart." Sora said. Erik snorted.

"Luck's got nothing to do with it. Some families ritually bind their bloodline to a specific core, so all their descendants will have it. To an extent. It's actually a lot more complicated than that, and it's why we're not all running around with the same core, but I'm giving you the simple version. The Morsins are the white harts, and there's all sorts of complexities that go into it."

"All hail the noblecore!" Sora pretended to drink a toast, then started to paw at Erik's bag.

"Hey, hey, can I get a drink to actually toast with?" She asked.

"And before you complain, I did offer to carry it."

"They're selling drinks and food on the fourth floor." Erik said.

"And I'd need money for that." Sora promptly answered. Felix had been busy writing notes the entire time.

"Question." He said. Which was when there was another knock on the door.

"Does anyone actually stay in their cabins?" Hazel wondered as Erik got up.