Chapter 54

Max stayed seated after The Morrigan left.  The room she’d created hadn’t changed, and it would continue to exist for about another half an hour.  She’d told him when the structure began to fall apart, Max would be transported to Earth.  Apparently, it was easier to move him from this place than if he went back to his own universe first.

Lavinia appeared and wordlessly took a seat across from Max.  She did not use the chair that The Morrigan had been sitting in, which Max thought was wise even if the goddess was gone now.

Then the two of them, Summoner and Summoner-turned-spirit regarded each other for a while, the atmosphere somewhat awkward.  Max wanted to inspect the gifts he’d received from the Morrigan, but his relationship with Lavinia was the more pressing matter at the moment.

The spirit broke the silence.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Max didn’t play coy about what she was talking about.  “The fewer people know, the less I have to worry about who might find out.  I don’t even know how it happened or what the implications are.  Before now, I hadn’t told anyone.”

“But..,why?  Like, did you really think that I, your contracted spirit, would tell anyone?  Even if it wasn’t against my nature, also against my best interest, who would believe me?  Actually, who would even know what I was talking about?  Only people from Albion would know the name Chasa de Milo.   And also, I guess… I guess I thought we were becoming friends.”

That hurt.  Max let the words hang in the air, allowing the sting to linger.  He thought about how to respond.  “Do you know how I died?” he asked.

“You were killed in battle, protecting the city of Learnst.  When you and the Chosen Cohort were fighting against the Many-Jointed horde, you sacrificed yourself to save the others who–”   She saw Max’s expression.  “That was not how you really died, huh?”

“No.  So now I know they used the Many-Jointed as their cover story?  I figured it woud be something like that, one of the reasons I haven’t been in a huge hurry to look into it.”

Lavinia quietly asked, “How did it really happen?”

“The Many-Jointed were involved, but they didn’t kill me.  Alexi and his other traitors did.  In fact, we’d already broken the Many-Jointed empire a week earlier.  We were just mopping up.  That last battle wasn’t even all that close to Learnst.  We’d just used Learnst as our staging area.

“Alexi and his followers cut down those that were still loyal to me.  They’d been planning a long time.  Before I died, I saw them killing everyone.  They ambushed us, ambushed me, hit me with multiple formations, rune barriers, and suppression fields at once.  What really did me in was how they even surprised me with a fiend from a pit of some hell, a creature that sucked all the mana from the world around it.  I was stuck in a formation with that thing.  Either one of these tactics by itself I could have fought through, but not everything together.  Alexi delivered the killing blow.  I can still see his face sometimes, in my nightmares.”

“Alexi ta Pluestant?  Alexi the Just?”

Max laughed hollowly.  “Is that how he’s remembered? He wanted to be the Hero so badly, resented me for it.  He was always offended that I was not very nice all the time, but people liked me.  Meanwhile, he always tried to technically do the right thing, tried to be pleasant, ‘nice,’ but nobody liked him.

“Whenever I told him I didn’t care about the Hero title, was just trying to master Blade Sorcery, I meant it.  But I thought we were friends, thought we could be honest with each other.  I told him that cruel as it was, Albion would likely never see him as the Hero.  It’s ironic that it sounds likie I was right.  I bet even after I was gone, he was still too unlikable, too cold.  I made mistakes, but I always believed that what I was doing was right.  Alexi was more concerned with the letter of the law, not the spirit.  Except of course for when he orchestrated my murder.”

“I didn’t know,” said Lavinia.

“History is written by the victors.  It’s one reason I another reason I didn’t ask you about any of this when I found out you were from Albion.  Knowing what specific lie has been told since my death wasn’t going to help me now, and definitely wouldn’t make me feel any better.  Did you know that I left behind a child?  He was nine years old at the time.”  Max hadn’t wanted to talk about it, but now that they were having this conversation, he was compelled to mention it.

“Yes.  Legend has it that you married Jennice ta Pluestant, Alexi the Just’s sister.”

“Correct.  He was my brother in law.  But he was against me marrying Jennice.  His family had deep roots, noble for generations.  And I was born in the gutter.  Even after I was one of the most powerful and famous names in the world, Alexi didn’t believe in mixed blood children.  To be honest, I think he could tolerate it all until Plisto was born.  After that, he started acting differently.”

Lavinia didn’t say anything for a while.  Finally, she said, “The stories all say your son died when your estate was being attacked by vestiges of the Many-Jointed empire, operatives out for revenge.  The snuck into Haralhai and attacked before the guards could react.  Your lady, Jennice died protecting your son.”

Max laughed without humor.  He thought he was ready to hear this, but he wasn’t.  Hundreds of years had passed, but the rage and pain felt fresh.  He coughed and hissed, “The Many-Legged, aliens with military zero strategy–with the aid of their queen–snuck into one of the most heavily guarded cities in the Empire, queenless, and managed to overcome the security of my estate before guards could react.  Seems legit.”

“Seems legit,” Lavinia repeated, voice dull.

“I suspected but…”  Max’s voice trailed off.  “Jennice was strong, and even more paranoid than me.  I bet Alexi wanted our son dead, probably played tricks, but Jennice wasn’t having it.  And if the boy had lived, my line would have continued and been strong.  I had too much public support for too long, and with a mother like Jennice, my son would have been impossible to control.  In the end, there were probably assassins, and Jennice fought.  I hope she killed them all.”  His eyes flashed and a fresh wave of hate ran through him, like a physical sensation.

He was reminded of his pre-teens, when he’d remembered his past life, and had needed to struggle with child hormones in the face of adult grieving and hatred.  It had not been pleasant.  Resisting the urge to kill his more annoying classmates at school had not been trivial.  Maybe if he hadn’t needed years to get his head back on straight, process a lifetime of grief at the same time as dealing with a broken home, with the pressure he put on himself to succeed, and an ocean of depression just waiting for any chink in his armor…

When he’d been 12, Max had made the decision to live life like a normal, if somewhat gifted student.  At the time, he hadn’t had the ability to do more than keep pretending to be a well-adjusted kid, putting on a happy face for his family.  Becoming an exceptional child, starting his own businesses, figuring out how to beat the odds would have required pulling away from his family and maybe even losing who he was.  He hadn’t been willing to do that.

Better to be poor than to lose his soul.  Of course, he’d just sold his soul to a goddess.  He began to laugh.  Lavinia nervously laughed with him.

Max said, “Look Lavinia, I am going to apologize.   Not for omitting things at first, we didn’t know each other well and I didn’t know all the rules of Summoners and spirits.  I still don’t.  But I should have corrected that later on.  Just please give me some grace here.  I still don’t know why any of this happened to me, I don’t know who might be out to get me, and I wasn’t exactly the most trusting person in the first place in my former life.”

“I am bonded with a living legend,” Lavinia sighed.  She shook her head.  “If you wanted to stay hidden, why did you use real Albion terms for your martial arts on Earth?”

Max hung his head.  “Depression, maybe?  Guilt?  Maybe deep down I hoped someone would recognize the name, would…I don’t know, try to assassinate me?  Give me answers?  I don’t know.  Looking back on that time, my logic felt so solid in that moment, but looking back, I just don’t know.

“Times were rough.  I let things slip too far.  At one point in the past I decided to be a normal person, but I let myself be too normal.  So before I started teaching martial arts, before I started thinking about how I could make some extra money, I was staring at some bills on a table in my apartment, and I felt…guilt.  It was a moment of clarity.

“I realized that if I’d been a little tougher, if it hadn’t taken me so long to stop thinking about my wife and son every other minute, wanting to grab a sword and just kill…something…anything…  That’s one of the real reasons I never used to fight on earth, make money from boxing or whatever.  I was afraid I’d end up killing someone if I fought too often.  Shit, look at how easily it came back in the Quartet.  At least those people deserved it and they came back to life.  Well, maybe not the people I killed in the bathroom, but hey, they called me the Hero, not the saint.”  He chuckled without humor.

“Anyway, if I hadn’t been so swept up in my past as a teen, maybe I could have been a hero in the present, a hero for my family.  Then we wouldn’t have had to be so poor.  But I just kept doing the easy thing, trying to avoid feeling.  I just kept getting good grades.  That took no real effort, I took no risks, and I didn’t have to talk to people.  I failed my family.  In some ways I failed myself.  I only really started making real friends after starting teaching martial arts.

“And you know the worst part?  To this day, my family all thinks I was a good son and helped keep the family together.” A  tear rolled down Max’s cheek.  “How do I tell my mom that she never has to worry about losing me?  How do I explain to her…that I know what it’s like to lose a child, and I know she’s done the best she could for me, and I would never do that to her anyway?  How do I tell my father that I don’t blame him for not being strong enough to keep his marriage together? That I was so weak, so lost in grief I didn’t even use hundreds of years of knowledge and maturity to make things better for my family?

“They called me the Hero of Albion, but even then I was just a selfish Blade Sorcerer trying to be the best.  It’s why even though I knew Alexi’s attitude, I was callous and naive.  I never followed up.  Never watched my back.  I was confident, too confident.  And I just…didn’t even consider…just…  My failure cost me more than just my own life.  As soon as I remembered my past life, I knew my mistakes had cost me everything.  To this day I think I still fall into that old avoidance hole.”

Max took a deep breath.

“I was finally starting to get my shit together on Earth before the monsters attacked.  Money was coming in.  I was finally going to get some real footing, maybe enough to start my own thing, become rich, help those close to me.  But then the world literally ended.  And the next thing I knew, I was in the fucking Quartet.  That seemed fun at first, maybe I could finally have a more normal school time.  Maybe I could get away from the guilt for a minute.  But no.  The Quartet is just like the rest of the fucking universe.  Just short sighted assholes ignoring the big picture because they want more, more, more.”

Lavinia rocked back before sitting upright again.  “That is…a lot.”

“Yeah.  Sorry, but I figure if you’re wanting my secrets in exchange for yours, well, be careful what you wish for.  And I do owe you.  Like you’ve said, we’re in this together now.”

“Well…thank you.  And I think I understand.  Let’s consider it all water under the bridge and start over.  We don’t need to hash it all out right now, don’t have time anyway.  But I just have one more question.”

“Shoot.”

“Is it true that you were ten star mana body Blade Sorcerer?”

“Yes.”  He gave a wry smile.  “There’s a reason they had to go to such lengths to get rid of me.  And I still killed a few.”

“Wow.  And now you’re going to have a third Path.”

“Supposedly.  Are we good now?  Can I look at this stuff?  We only have a few minutes left.”

“Go ahead.  I’m glad…thank you for telling me everything.  There is a lot that I understand much better now.”  Slick hugged Max’s ankle after she got done speaking, the little spirit showing its support.

“Thank you both,” said Max.  He swallowed, centered himself, and took out the first gift he’d gotten from the Morrigan.

The system actually displayed information when he picked up and examined the first artifact.

[Hidden Twilight Eye]

Who created this artifact is lost to time, as well as why.  All that is sure is that it has a strong strengthening effect on all sight-based powers and abilities, allowing deeper meaning to be gleaned with added protection from backlash.  Its built-in ability to remain overlooked can be bolstered.

Extra effect 1: Hidden

Extra effect 2: Hidden

Extra effect 3: Hidden

“Well, the necklace is basically exactly what the Morrigan said, but it looked like there are three extra, hidden abilities.  It wasn’t made specifically for Summoners, which makes sense I guess.  After all, Morrigan is not even from our reality.  But how did you know anything about this, Lavinia?”

“Legend,” said the ghost girl.  “Remember what the goddess said?  Her existence has pressure, or depth to it.  I suspect items of power this strong do too, because I’ve read about something very, very similar in myths and stories.”

Max nodded slowly and slipped the necklace over his head.  As soon as it was in place, he knew without doubt that it would become even harder for others to spot.

“Okay, next is this thing.”  Max held up the Mana Vault.

[Mana Vault of WD Arand]

Simple in its concept, complex in its execution, this mana vault is capable of holding many times more mana than even the strongest similar artifacts to be discovered.  In any environment with mana, it will passively absorb ambient mana using a complex series of layered spacial techniques, not drawing only from its surroundings.

Once charged, the mana vault can be triggered to release its stored mana.  Release can be adjusted for flow.

Capable of functioning while magically hidden or even in most storage arrays.  Once its owner is chosen, it will find its way back to its owner as long as they are alive.

Current owner:  Max Cunninghame, Champion of The Morrigan

Extra effect 1: Hidden

Extra effect 2: Hidden

Extra effect 3: Hidden

“This one has three hidden effects, too.”  Max frowned.

“The stories do say that the gods love series of three,” offered Lavinia.

Max slipped the mysterious ball into his pocket and held out a hand, palm forward.  The Path Spart zoomed to him from where the goddess had left it hanging in the air.

The moment it touched his palm, Max began absorbing it using his Summoner ability.  It didn’t take long to integrate with his spirit, and despite some slight discomfort at first, the new Seed easily, almost eagerly took its place.

Max looked inward and made a face.  “What the hell?”

“What is it?” asked Lavinia.

Max read aloud what he was reading.  Unlike his Blade Sorcerer path or when he’d become a Summoner, the system had given him a synopsis of his new path.

[Bead Sorcerer Path]

One of the more unique magic systems of all known Paths, Bead Sorcerers used combinations of mana-infused beads as components of their incredibly flexible magic system.

“What the hell is a Bead Sorcerer?” asked Max.

“No idea.  First I’ve heard of it.  Good thing you have an entire set of memories about it.”

“Yeah, but I can’t access everything at once,” said Max, looking into his spirit. “It’s layered, and right now I can only access the first layer.”  He hummed as he began trying to understand what he could see and feel.  “This is definitely going to be a process.”

“No such thing as easy power, at least not for the good stuff.”

“Yeah,” said Max, distracted.  He was excited that he was officially a three-Path challenger now, but he still wasn’t sure how he felt about his new powers.  As he was thinking about it, the walls of the room began to fuzz.

“It looks like we’re about to leave,” said Lavinia.

“Yeah, I see it.  You and Slick should ride piggyback just in case.”

Both spirits nodded and disappeared as they joined with Max’s soul.  The the space truly began to melt.

Max felt a gentle transition, one that seemed to last a while.  He saw nothing but endless darkness, and at first he found its power and complexity interesting.  It grew in weight the longer he studied it, though.  He eventually closed his eyes.  Whether something was out in the endless nothing, or it was truly empty, he’d decided he didn’t really need to know.