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Magilou could still remember that day as if it was yesterday. She and Velvet had talked about what would happen the day before. In truth, neither of them knew what would happen, but somehow, deep down, Magilou had always suspected that whatever the outcome would be, it wasn’t exactly what one would call a happy conclusion. As fate would have it, that had indeed been the case.
She had wished for Velvet to be selfish, for her and their sake, yet she had been the one to seal Innominat’s hunger away to give the world another chance of sorting itself out. She knew that it was the right thing to do, yet in her heart of hearts, she had wanted to scream and yell for Velvet to return to them -- to her. She had been the one to make her feel again, and make her want to see what life had in store, only for the cruel hand of fate to tear them apart.
Many years had passed since that tragic day and the world at large had moved on. As for Magilou though, she for once hadn’t let go of her feelings. She had tried for the sake of her own sanity to spark any sort of interest in other people, but at best it had been only skin deep. It had been Velvet that had ignited her will to live, and she’d be the only one who got to see what Magilou was truly like as a person behind her act of jokes and odd smirks.
The shrine of Maotelus was still under construction, but Magilou was one of the few people who could get something for climbing all the way up. Hopping her way over the piles of finely shaped rocks, the witch eventually found her way on top of the soon to be shrine.
“Hey kiddo, you there?” She asked, looking around as if expecting to see the version of Laphicet she knew the best. The winds around her started to blow and Magilou grabbed a hold of her hat so it wouldn’t be taken away by the sudden strong breeze.
At first, nothing happened, but soon enough a giant silver dragon appeared seemingly out of thin air. Holding tightly onto her oversized hat, Magilou waited for the winds to calm down before speaking up: “Been a while, hasn’t it?”
Laphicet, or Maotelus as he was now more commonly known, laughed softly in response. “It has indeed.” Despite his outwards scary appearance, Magilou was still completely at ease. In her eyes Laphicet was still the sweet kid that she had seen grow during their journey together.
Fixing the position of her hat, Magilou coughed before continuing: “So, I know that you’re very busy and all, but I have a small request for you.”
Maotelus leaned in a bit closer, the giant dragon head now but few inches away from Magilou. “Please, do tell.”
“Well…”
*
The next visit on Magilou’s list was Eleanor. Being the goody two shoes that she was, it didn’t exactly surprise Magilou to see the exorcist gone bad in a position of leadership. Not just any position, either, but the new Shepherd. Not only that, Eleanor’s clothes couldn’t hide the fact that she was already forming a rather sizable baby belly as well.
“Well, you’ve been busy in more ways than one, huh?” Magilou chuckled before taking a sip of her tea.
Eleanor couldn’t exactly hide that fact anymore, yet still bringing it out made her blush a bit. Taking a sip of her drink, Eleanor nodded a bit hesitantly. “Well, I have never been really good at hiding my feelings, so naturally it extends to other areas of life as well.”
“So, is the daddy around here too? I do kinda need to talk to him too,” Magilou said. Gazing at the walls alone made it quite clear who the father was, as sets of rare weapons were put all over the house as if they were paintings.
“I’m afraid that Rokurou isn’t here at the moment. He can’t exactly ignore his daemonic side, no matter what sort of treatments I’ve tried to come up with, so that is his way of staying in control of his own nature, rather than letting that side get the best of him.”
“Understandable,” Magilou nodded. In truth, she had expected the unlikely couple of exorcist and daemon to get together even back when they had travelled together, and seeing that suspicion come true did make Magilou smirk a bit. “I’m glad you two found a way to work it out. Not all of us were so lucky…” Normally Magilou hide her true feelings behind layers and layers of sarcasm and jokes, but now that she was alone with someone she trusted, she was willing to show her true feelings, even if only for a fleeting moment.
“Magilou…” Eleanor sighed. Holding her stomach as she got out of her chair, Eleanor put her hand on Magilou’s shoulder before tugging the witch up against her. For someone who didn’t really know the concept of intimacy before she found herself exchanging kisses with the long haired Lord of Calamity, the mere act of a hug still felt foreign, but oh so welcome. “I’m so sorry for what happened. If only there had been a way to--”
“Oh shush it,” Magilou interrupted. Turning her gaze away from Eleanor for a few seconds, she quickly wiped her eyes clean before turning to look at the exorcist once more. “Thanks for your sympathy and for this tea, but there’s an actually another reason why I came here other than just to gossip and catch up.”
“Oh…?” Eleanor asked, tilting her head a bit.
“I need to ask you for a small favor.”
With a nod, Eleanor sat back down. “Oh, anything.”
*
Recording history was something Magilou found surprisingly interesting, as she got to see events unfold without her influence. In a weird way, it was like watching a play, only now she wasn’t an actor, but rather an observer. Everything she deemed worthy of being remembered, she scribbled down. On one of those journeys, she finally bumped into a certain soon-to-be father.
“Look at you, killing daemons and knocking up ladies. What a life,” Magilou chuckled.
“Hey, not ladies, just one,” Rokurou said with a smirk on his face while cleaning up his blade from stained blood. “Wait, how did you know about that?”
“Well, I did pay our goody two shoes a visit sometime ago. You ought to get back to your misses soon. She was in a pretty round shape the last time I saw her.”
“Oh shit, you’re totally right. Sometimes you just get kinda absorbed into the whole killing thing. It’s a daemon thing, you probably won’t understand.”
“Point taken,” Magilou shrugged. “But before you hurry up back home, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”
Rokurou raised one of his eyebrows a bit before gesturing for Magilou to continue: “Go on, I’m listening.”
“Good. It won’t take very long, I promise.”
*
The last visit on Magilou’s list was none other than Eizen. Given how the world had changed, seeing him was that much harder or downright impossible for most people. Magilou, on the other hand, was anything but regular. Where most people saw nothing, it didn’t take much for Magilou to be able to see the familiar black trench coat hugging Eizen’s rather massive and muscular form like it had all those years ago.
“Been keeping busy? How’s that little sister of yours holding up?”
Eizen simply grunted in response. “I wish I could say that things have taken a turn for the better, but that’d be lying. Not being able to see my crew has taken a toll on me. As for my sister, I’ve yet to go back to her. The last thing I want is to hurt her. While part of me wants to be selfish, I know that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
“I feel you there, big guy…” Magilou replied, her voice surprisingly soft and wavering as it missed the usual energy that was pretty much Magilou’s trademark. “I’d love to stay and chat, but sadly I’m a pretty busy girl these days. But I didn’t just come here to catch up with you, as I do have a small request for you.”
“Well, spit it out then,” Eizen said.
“Straight to the point, as expected,” Magilou smirked.
*
Growing old wasn’t exactly something that Magilou found hard, but seeing those she cared about aging most certainly was. Thanks to the artes that Melchior had taught her, Magilou could cheat death for as long as she stayed true to her oath, but others weren’t exactly as lucky. One of the last times she had talked with Eleanor had been about her new situation as Mayvin and her adopted apprentice. Just why was she doing this? Eleanor knew that Magilou had changed a lot over the years and now she did unselfish things; be it with her own unique twist; but just why?
She had never been able to give Eleanor a clear answer.
“Magilou, can I ask you about something?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you still believe that she’ll return? Isn’t that why you’ve decided to stay alive?”
Magilou had played that one for laughs, but she knew that she couldn’t exactly hide the truth from someone as perceptive as Eleanor. Of course she had sidestepped the topic entirely, but she knew that Eleanor had seen through her. Had she become that easy to read over the years?
Years turned into centuries. The world changed as the very elements themselves were becoming unstable. It was called the Age of Chaos, which was a fitting name for it all. Yet the humanity persisted, and so did Magilou. There was but a singular thought that kept her sane, no matter how impossible it felt.
Being a mother-like figure or more like a teacher was a role Magilou had fit surprisingly well, but that alone couldn’t have kept her will alive for thousands of years alone. She knew that her son was more than capable of continuing the legacy of the Mayvin family and the path of preserving the history so that humanity wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes it had made in the past. If that alone were the reason for Magilou to live, she would have passed the torch completely ages ago.
No.
The truth was, she still believed.
She hadn’t seen Velvet die and there was still a chance that she’d return.
She knew that as long as it’d take her, she’d be there waiting for her.
*
The city of Aball was but a distant memory of the horrifying past nowadays, yet it was a place Magilou liked to visit every now and then. She didn’t personally have that strong of a connection to the small town, but she knew just how much it meant to Velvet. Sitting down, she used her artes to see what the town was like back when Velvet and rest of her family were alive.
It was so vibrant and full of life.
Magilou had never quite mastered illusions quite like her mentor, but she could make them feel more than lifelike when she truly pushed herself. Closing her eyes, she could feel the old winds up against her face, she could hear the children fighting and adults gossiping. In the midst of it all, she saw a young woman with long, black hair. There was no mistaking who it was.
Magilou didn’t really know the girl she was talking with either, but after listening to them talk for awhile, she gathered that this was the girl Niko Velvet had mentioned a few times. She had been Velvet’s first crush. She’d tried to keep it hidden, but ultimately failed when the two had been caught kissing behind a marketstand.
Magilou was so absorbed in the dream that when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she first mistook it for one of her illusions. Simply altering her illusion, she should have been able to get the person out of her dream, yet the hand stayed on her shoulder. The grip was strong. So strong, in fact, that Magilou snapped out of her dream only to realize that the grip was still there.
Nothing in the entire world could have prepared Magilou for what she was seeing now.
It took a lot to scare someone like Magilou, who had over the centuries almost lost all sense of feeling. She had seen empires rise and fall, she had seen backstabbing and plotting for power, yet none of them had made her feel anything but apathy. Now, she was scared. So much so that she felt her heartbeat for the first time in ages. She felt alive.
The figure behind her was no other than Velvet. Had she lost it completely? At times, her illusions did get the best of her, but she eventually always snapped out of them. Snapping her fingers, Magilou tried to get the tall, towering figure to disappear, only for it to remain standing still.
“A-Are… A-Are you…?” Magilou gulped. For once, she was left speechless. She was scared, excited, anxious. In that moment, she felt everything that human beings could feel. In the span of a second, she changed from empty to the complete opposite.
Kneeling down to Magilou’s level, the figure pushed away her black hair from covering her face. Behind it all, there was a smile she had seen but mere moments ago in her dream. This was the Velvet Crowe without all that hate in her heart. This was the Velvet Crowe who had lived in this small town, who only wanted to have a peaceful, simple life.
“I’ve missed you too, Magilou.”
The moment she heard her voice, Magilou cracked. She had been unable to feel anything for so long she had doubted the fact that she was even a human anymore. She felt hunger, she felt sadness, but over time, she had grown numb to it. Nothing made her feel anything, only for it all to come rushing back. Suddenly, her eyes were like a pair of waterfalls. Her hands were shaking as they wrapped themselves around the figure with the ragged black cloak.
Magilou didn’t say anything, for there were no words that could describe how she felt. For all this time, she had doubted herself and felt delusional. Had she been simply torturing herself? Thinking that perhaps the stories of a witch and the former Lord of Calamity weren’t finished yet? For so many years, she had thought so, but she had persisted. Seeing those she cared about all leave her one by one had taken its toll on her, yet she had persisted. Every year, she had made herself a simple promise; live one more year in the hopes of her coming back.
Magilou’s hold of Velvet was strong. Thousands of years of urges and needs were all coming to the surface at once. The tears didn’t stop flowing as Magilou felt herself become whole again. All those years ago, it had been Velvet who had ignited her will to live, and now, after what could only be described as eternity, she did it again.
Velvet’s hold of Magilou was just as strong. The two had been known to be affectionate mostly in ways that didn’t involve clothes initially, but now such thoughts didn’t even cross their minds. Longing like this was a communication not with bodies, but with that of souls. They were in every meaning of the word an unlikely pair, yet they had found solitude in one another. Their shared pain and negligence about their respective futures had made them understand that they weren’t alone with their pain and struggles. In a selfish world that more often than not seemed to cast aside those who didn’t fit its strict mold, finding someone who understood and supported you was hard, but also a blessing.
After a good while, the two eventually let go of each other just enough for them to pull themselves together. It was unlikely for both of them to see each other like this. Back when they shared a bed, they had kept their feelings mostly in check. Now, though, things were clearly very different.
“How did you know I’d be here?” Velvet asked, cleaning up her painfully red eyes against her ragged cape.
Magilou chuckled weakly in response. “Honestly? I don’t know. I just… I just liked to come here to… see what it used to be like. You and Niko and Laphicet and--”
Putting her finger up against Magilou’s lips, Velvet silenced the witch before leaning in for a kiss. Usually, when the two had kissed, ‘heated’ had been the most accurate way to describe it, but now there was a whole new element of softness and longing in their kiss. What usually lasted but a few seconds lingered on for minutes. Just when one of them was about to stop and pull out, the other one dragged them right back in. Both of them found themselves caressing each other’s hair, with the long blond and black mixing together seamlessly.
“I suppose that my memories of this town were so strong that this is where I was put after the cycle had finally ended. Good thing it’s still intact.”
“Yeah, you can thank me for that. I’ve been… sort of trying to do the right thing all these years, keep tabs on whatever has happened in the world and not meddle with it, but this little slice of land is… well, let’s just call it my personal safe haven. As long as I live, the village of longing stands. I’m a romantic like that,” Magilou smirked as she in turn tried to clean her eyes from the stained tears.
“It’s beautiful… it’s just like I remember it.” Velvet said, looking around the city. Of course she knew that almost the entire town was constructed with illusions. The structures had collapsed during the age of endless storms, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. For Velvet’s sake, though, Magilou had preserved this part of history for them to enjoy. “Did you… stay alive all these years for me?”
Magilou had expected Velvet to drop the big question sooner or later, but clearly she still had her sharp edge, despite the fact that anger no longer reflected in her eyes. With just about anybody else, Magilou would have danced around the topic and tried to lie her way out of the sticky situation, but with Velvet she knew that she was worthy of nothing but the truth. “Yes. I tried to find other reasons for my existence, but over the years, they all simply vanished. In the end, it was the thought of seeing you again someday that made me want to see if the next year would be the one where I finally get to see you again.”
It had been hard to really read Magilou in the past. Even when the two had been close, they had still been divided for the longest of time. Intimacy and openness had been hard for people like them, yet over time they had realized that what they had was more than just a case of friends with benefits, or best, best friends as Magilou liked to jokingly put it.
Eventually, though, it had become clear for both of them just what they were feeling. It had been scary for both of them to open up, as loving someone was exposing your weakness. Magilou didn’t even know she had a heart to share, and Velvet felt like the only emotion she could embrace was vengeance. In the arms of someone who knew what it was like to lose it all, the two had found the acceptance and love they had forgotten even existed in the world.
“Magilou, I… I love you,” Velvet said, her voice a whisper as she held the shorter woman close to her. It was an obvious statement, but hearing it right now of all times made Magilou’s lips curl up into a bright smile. She couldn’t remember the last time she had genuinely smiled, but now she felt like she could keep up such a look for the rest of her life.
“Well, I suppose my feelings for you are pretty clear too at this point, huh?” Magilou chuckled softly before giving in to her desires to kiss Velvet on her lips. The soft embrace of their lips lasted for a good few minutes, before eventually Magilou pulled back a bit. Gesturing for Velvet to sit still, she stood up.
“I know this maybe isn’t the best time to bring this up, but it probably has dawned to you that our friends are… well, you know--”
“Yeah, I figured out as much,” Velvet interrupted, knowing that even talking about this topic must have been hard for Magilou, who had to see it all unfold, unlike her. “But please, go on.”
“But… there is something I did before that happened, just in case something like this happened, so…” And with that, Magilou snapped her fingers.
Around them now circled their closest friends. There was Eleanor and Rokurou side by side; Eleanor still pregnant at the time; Laphicet the way Velvet remembered her, and Eizen as well. They all stood still, but after another snap of her fingers, Eleanor started talking.
“This is going to be a bit weird, but I’ll try to do my best anyway,” Eleanor’s figure said. Velvet soon realized that these were all recordings that Magilou had preserved all these years. “Velvet, I know that you’ve had a hard life. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you, so I won’t even try. But… what I do know is that you have earned your happiness, despite everything that you’ve done. As you can see--” the hologram stopped talking for a moment, as it pointed at it’s own enlarged stomach. “--happiness can come from the most unexpected of places, and at times, with the most unexpected of people. When I first heard that you were a daemon, I never could have imagined that someday I’d be fighting by your side, let alone call you my friend. You were--are--my good friend. All I truly hope for is that you let yourself be happy. And just as a final note, you two were awful at hiding your little romance. At very least close the door or muffle Magilou… but I forgive you, even though I think that to this day I’m catching up on all those lacked hours of sleep.”
“That was so like her,” Velvet said with a bright smile on her face. “Thank you for this, Magilou.”
“Oh, don’t thank me just yet,” Magilou snapped her fingers again and now the figure of Rokurou started to speak.
“Hey, so this is Rokurou, just as handsome as ever, or even more handsome if you ask Eleanor,” Rokurou chuckled. “I don’t really know what to say to you, other than I admire you. You were always true to yourself and you stuck with what you knew to be true to the very end--” The figure stopped talking for a moment, as something or someone seemed to interrupt it. “Sheesh Magilou, no need to poke me with a stick. Oh, right, right… just scrap that part about the very end, because someone here seems to insist that you’re still alive and kicking, so I guess I’ll start believing that too.”
Another snap of her fingers this time awoke the tallest figure of the bunch; Eizen. “What would I say to Velvet when she returns? That’s simple. Live your life to the fullest. Stay true to yourself and never doubt your actions. You’re strong, even when you don’t feel like it, and you led us to save the world when it wanted to see you dead. I’ll be telling stories of you to my little sister for ages to come. Take care of yourself, Velvet.”
Last but certainly not least, the smallest figure of the bunch lightened up.
“Laphicet…” Velvet said, her voice shaking as she saw the young malakhim holding onto his compass and apple much like he had done in the past.
“Velvet,” Laphicet started, unsure of what to say. He remained quiet for a moment before continuing. “You’re the one who said that I should live my life to the fullest, and to see everything there is to see. Well, you know that I’m a rebellious boy, but I did do just that... or, well... I’m still doing that. But you know, advice isn’t all that good if you don’t follow it yourself, so what I want to say to you is that… you need to listen to yourself and do the same. I remember how you used to tell me that I need to make my own decisions and start to live my life, and now, I’m telling you to do the same.”
With a snap of her finger, all the figures turned to look at Velvet. In unison, they all said the same thing: “Velvet Crowe, will you marry her?”
Velvet’s eyes widened when she realized why Magilou had been kneeling in front of her. Holding up a small container in her hands, Magilou lifted up her head a bit to see the look on Velvet’s face. Truly, the wait had been worth all these years to see that radiant smile. If her heart had been cold for centuries, Magilou couldn’t feel any of that anymore, for now she only felt warmth and love.
“I do!” Velvet shouted, kneeling down to pull Magilou up for the tightest embrace she had given her.
One last snap of her finger, and all the figures surrounding them started to clap. “Good thing you said yes, because I only recorded their reactions if you said yes,” Magilou chuckled.
“Hey, you waited for me for an eternity… and if I may be truthful, in my dreams, I did dream of seeing you again.”
“Oh?” Magilou inquired. “Was this reunion as good as you dreamed?”
“Well…” Velvet pondered that question for a moment. In her dream, she was surrounded by everyone and they were still alive, but it was just that; a dream. “Maybe not, but hey, it’s the second best thing. I guess the big question is now, will you be called Magilou Mayvin or Crowe?”
“How about we have that discussion in your bedroom?” Magilou chirped.
“Mm, I do like the sound of that.”