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“Rest easy you two.” Douxie said, slipping the blanket up over Nari and Archie who were curled up together on the cheap sofa of the equally cheap studio apartment they called home for these last few days.
He’d never really considered whether or not an all powerful mystical entity such as Nari would even need to sleep, but after all the running, hiding, travelling, and disguising it took to get them into the city and off the trail of the remainder of the Order, he figured anyone would be exhausted from pushing through all of that. He certainly was, but other thoughts constantly waged war in his mind that refused to find him even a moment's comfort in this ramshackle flat.
He debated it for only a moment, but grabbed for his jacket and crept out into the hall, locking the door behind him as he wandered over to the roof access and found his way into the brisk night air.
He took it in, feeling the chilling comfort creeping into his lungs— or well— what fresh air made it past the overabundant sour stench of the city. Polluted air as ever, even more so than what lingered over Arcadia. Nari must surely hate it somewhere so industrial. That was the plan though. If anything, this would be the last place the other members of the Arcane Order would think to look for the speaker of the eternal forest.
Douxie let out his breath and let the cold air at least chill his skin if it wouldn’t refresh his lungs. He took a step and found himself looming over the ledge of the tall building, the rush of headlights and streetlamps forming a fog of golden glow an entire world apart from where he now stood. The sounds of the active humans below, so blissfully unaware of the fragile existence they had, and all of it based on his one task of guarding Nari.
“My burden to bear…” he told himself again.
It always was his burden these days, but the type of it seemed to change with the breeze. The truths he had to hold onto, the secrets he was forced to keep, lies that needed to be told, and rules that had to be broken. This was his duty, and sod it all if he wasn’t going to do it, but it was much harder than he thought it’d be.
“I never imagined I could be under this much stress in all my years, and I survived two plagues!” He almost laughed. “Is this how you felt, old man? No wonder you always acted like there was a pike up your rear.”
A soft chuckle turned into a slow breath, and then into a long inhale that shook his voice, though it was not the cold that caused his throat to tremble.
“I’m not sure if I’m making the right choices or not… but I’m trying. I wish you were here with me Master, I—” He broke off, wondering if it was even fair to be saying it aloud. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this on my own.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not alone.”
He turned at the sudden voice, recognizing it in an instant, but still coming as a shock all the same as he spun around to see a very familiar figure coming through the rooftop door.
"Zoe?!"
*SCRAPE!*
"Whoa!"
His heel slid off the side of the building and he scrambled forward in an attempt not to slip off backwards and fall an embarrassingly long length down towards the sidewalk. He barely had time to steady himself before bumping into his unexpected but not unwelcome friend as she helped catch his wrists and steady him upright.
"Zoe!” He said again, the shock still in his voice, but hiding now behind an embarrassed breath of laughter. “I don’t believe it! What are you doing here?"
"You've missed like three weeks of band practice, so I figured you were either dead by now or still in some sort of trouble."
"You... could say that…” He shook his head and made a face down at her. “But wait! How did you manage to find me?"
And could the Arcane Order find us the same way?
Her hand lit up in a pink glow just as he felt a small weight lift out of his jacket pocket. His cracked, and for all purposes, dead cell phone floating gently into her grasp as she let it fall into her hands.
"I've been tracking your phone.” She shot him a look. “I've worked on almost every cell phone in Arcadia, you think I wouldn't be able to track my own magic all the way to the city just because your phone died? What have you even been doing? Look at this thing!"
“Uh…” His face contorted at the rush of memories suddenly looping in mind. Landing on it multiple times in Camelot was a good start, then there was the fight with Morgana, the fight with the evil trolls, the fight with the Arcane Order, falling to his supposed death. Come to think of it, he had been in a lot of fights and near death experiences recently, hadn’t he? Too much fighting and falling for his liking to be sure. Then again, Douxie had only noticed the damage once he’d accidentally dropped it on the floor of the subway station three days ago. Could that have been the final nail in the coffin or was he overthinking it?
“Ugh!” She scoffed, seemingly seeing the gears turning in his mind as she rolled her eyes at him again.
In another glow of pink, the cracks in the glass and casing refilled themselves and the screen came back on in a successful beam of white, the battery filling all the way back to green as new life was charged into it before her magic faded away with a satisfactory sigh from the crafty hedge witch to follow.
“There we go.”
He smiled and began to thank her before reaching to take back his phone.
“Nuclear! Thanks a lot, Zo—”
She yanked it back behind her before he could get to it, and narrowed her blue eyes at him as her arms and hips shifted into that strict position she had whenever she was about to tell somebody off. Hisirdoux knew that body language very well after all these years with her, and was not entirely unsurprised that she might be mad at him given the last couple of weeks.
Blowing off their date with the Niffin-hunting and burgers was a poor start, but then the colossal wreckage of Hex Tech and suddenly leaving with little explanation afterwards probably were pretty sorry follow ups to that.
“Look, I’m sorry about the damages at Hex Tech, I know you told me not to break anything—”
“What?!” She nearly shouted. “You think I came all the way here because of that!?”
He leaned back and made another series of facial expressions that revealed he was about to choose his next words with the utmost caution.
“No...?”
She shoved the phone into his hand and paced back towards the door with an exasperated groan before darting back over to him, finger drawn like a weapon as she closed the gap between them again.
“I knew you were in trouble when you came in looking to hide at work, I don’t blame you for what happened to Hex Tech, and I don’t care about that!” The finger stabbed into him so hard that he took a step back. “But you just ran off, Douxie! Gone for days, without even a text! You could have at least tried to make time to contact me before disappearing. You know I’d help you with whatever it was, especially if it was this important! Do you have any idea how worried I was when I went back to check on you and found the place thrashed?"
“I— I’m sorry?” He said, genuinely, but there was also a hesitation to it that neither of them liked.
His brows came down despite himself. She had no idea what he’d been through these last few days. Of course, that was because he’d never told her what he was doing, but that was for her sake. This is the last place she needed to be for her own safety.
"What I’m doing here is dangerous, Zoe. I didn't want to risk getting other people involved."
"Yeah, and how well has that worked for you?”
He threw his arms out.
“I’m the last hope of saving all of humanity, magic and mundane alike, and to do that, I needed to get as far away from everything else as possible. I didn’t have the luxury of turning in my two-weeks notice or saying some long goodbyes. We’re being hunted every second by beings more powerful than anything I’ve ever seen. What if I lost someone else to the Arcane Order, huh? It would be Merlin all over again!”
His rage clipped as soon as he’d said Merlin’s name and his face fell into a tired expression of stress and anguish that made Zoe likewise pause her argument and reach out her hand to touch his cheek.
“Merlin? What about Merlin?”
He looked up with a sadness she hadn’t seen on his face in years, if ever, and it made her stomach drop.
"Merlin’s dead, Zoe…”
Her brows shot up, eyes rocking as she attempted to process the mere thought of that being true.
“What? N-no, he can’t be. Maybe he’s just sleeping again? That could be it!”
Hisirdoux appreciated the thought. He knew that Zoe never really liked Merlin, and that was fair. Merlin had a personality that was hard to like some of the time… or well… most of the time. Still, she knew how much he’d meant to him, and the way she tread now into the possibilities so carefully as to not damage him any further almost made him feel a little bit better when describing the grim explanation to follow.
“The Arcane Order resurrected King Arthur and used him as a tool to kill Merlin.” A tear slid out and he shook his head, voice breaking, though he tried to mask it behind a smile and failed miserably to hide his sorrow. “I was there by his side when he died. H-he turned to ash right in my arms. He’s really gone, Zoe. He’s just… gone.”
“I don’t believe it...” She shook her head, still in shock, though she reached up and rubbed his tear away, letting the other hand come up to cup his face in her hands. “I’m so sorry, Hisirdoux.”
He fell forward and hugged her as she rubbed against his back in soothing little circles. It really did help, and he took a breath to ease some of his tension before continuing on with the rest.
"To make matters worse, I met up with Charlemagne the Devourer, destroyed Merlin's staff, gathered the Genesis Seals, and then pretty much handed them over the the Arcane Order so I could save my friends. Now the only way to keep the world safe is to keep Nari away from the other two members who won't rest until they've tracked us down. It could be any day, any moment, and then all of this will fall apart."
“That's heavy! You’ve really been put through a lot the last few weeks. It’s no wonder you look so tired, you and Archie must be exhausted.”
He chuckled and pulled back a little, feeling the cold eminently clearer on the cheek where he’d shed a tear.
“Yeah… Arch practically went into a coma the second we got in the room. He’s been guarding Nari day and night while we’ve been travelling. I could never have gotten this far without him, but I still wish we had Merlin here to help us out. He always knew what to do. I’m the one that came in and messed everything up. Now I have to find a way to fix it myself, but I don’t know how long I can keep this up.”
"Then let me help you. You don’t have to carry the weight of the whole world on your shoulders alone, you know? There are people who care about you that will help you out. Me, Archie… Oh, I don’t know? Any number of the friends you’ve made in the last millennium!?"
"But Zoe—"
She slammed a finger up to his lips.
"Don't you "but Zoe" me, Hisirdoux Casperan! I didn't spend two days on a charter bus hunting you down in the city, just for you to tell me to go back to Arcadia and eventually wait for the world to end. We're in this together whether you like it or not! That’s why I came out here."
He started to chuckle, muffled a bit thanks to her index finger sealing his mouth closed.
She tilted her head to the side, a grin forming despite herself because in that moment, she was just happy to see him smile again.
"What's so funny?"
"You know, for a minute there you almost sounded like Merlin."
She rolled her eyes, albeit softer than she usually did, her scowl of disgust somewhat less so as she looked back to him sympathetically and placed her arms behind his neck, pushing his head down far enough that he’d have no choice but to look directly at her face.
"We'll figure this out. You're the best wizard I know, Doux. Together, I'm sure we can find a way out of this mess you may or may not have caused. This isn't a burden you have to deal with alone."
He smiled, and her hands slid back down onto his shoulders before finally settling on his chest.
"Thank you Zoe, I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Sounds like “end the world” at the rate you're going." She teased softly, shooting off a smile just to drill in the sarcasm in her tone.
He chuckled, giving her that point before reaching up and brushing a bit of her pink hair off to the side. He rubbed a lock of it between his thumb and forefinger as they met eyes and for that single moment, there wasn’t a terrible thought to the world. It was just pure, peaceful comfort.
“You know…” She started slowly, eyes calmly tracing his face as the corners of her lips twisted upward. “The guys at the cafe don’t know when you’re coming back, and with the bookstore burned to the ground, and you missing, half of Arcadia thinks you set it on fire and skipped town with the insurance money.”
"Wait!” He exclaimed softly, the confusion in his voice almost comedic. “They think I burned the bookstore down!? I mean, I guess I kind of did? It was magic fire though, and that building was still intact when I left it, I swear! Fuzz-buckets! Is the record store alright?”
“Chill out man. My store’s fine. It was just the bookstore. The cops are blaming the damages on whatever new thing decided to attack the town that week. People saw those Arcane freaks trashing Hex Tech, and we have footage to prove it, so anyone with half a brain just figures it was them. You know how people like to gossip though, and you have been missing in action since the whole thing went down, so it puts you in a pretty easy line of fire for that sort of thing...”
“I guess?”
“You’re going to have one heck of a welcome party once all this is over and we finally get back to Arcadia.”
“No kidding.”
They waited there another moment, so close that they could feel each other’s warmth in the otherwise frigid city air. There was a connection there, a scrap of comfort that Douxie had been missing for a long time now. He was glad she had found him here, glad she’d talked some sense back into him and listened to what he had to say. More than anything right now, he was just glad there was something keeping him tethered to a feeling that wasn’t near-constant dread of the unknown future that lay ahead. She reminded him of home, of his home and his life that he’d built for himself in Arcadia. In all the chaos, he’d started to forget what that was like, and now the mundanity of it all seemed like the sweetest dream to look forward to.
Their eyes met one more time and before either could overthink it, they each leaned in for a kiss, not their first, but definitely one of their better ones. Douxie felt the weight of the world melt off his shoulders and for a few moments, nothing else in the universe mattered except this small speck in time and space that was this kiss.
*SMACK!*
Zoe suddenly slammed both hands against his chest and he let out a shocked groan as hands flew up to inspect the area of his sudden assault with a newly confused look on his face accompanying the sudden drag back down to reality.
"Alright, time for that after we figure out a way to save the world!” Her face almost matched the hue of her hair, but her voice conveyed all the certainty that they could succeed at this without any of the added fluster. With a final clap, she turned and led him back to the stairway. “Let's get a move on! I only have one week of vacation time to burn and I just wasted two days of it on the bus ride here."
Still rubbing his sore chest, he smiled at her back as he reached out of his pocket and looked over his newly resurrected phone. When they were just at the door’s exit, he suddenly got an idea and perked up, rushing to cut her off before they could make it inside.
"Hey, Zoe! You said you can track any phone in Arcadia, right?"
"Sure, so long as I set it up at work? I do most of the activations up there. Why?"
"Because I know of a few people that should be able to help if we could get them altogether. I said I didn’t want to get them involved, but now I’m thinking you’re right and we should use the strength in numbers to our advantage."
"These wouldn’t happen to be those kids you brought to the store, would they? They tried to fight off the two that wrecked Hex Tech. It was pretty hardcore."
"Right, those and a few more." He nodded. "They're capable defenders. I don't exactly know their numbers though. Everything going on, and it just never occurred to me to ask."
"Typical Douxie.” She gave him a sideways grin. “But fair enough. If you think that's a good place to start, then let's find some kids and send out a few messages."
"Really?"
"Don't underestimate a hedge witch, Casperan. Now you got some names and faces I can look up, or what? It helps if I know the person I’m looking for."
"This means the world to me, Zoe. Literally! "
"You're lucky I've known you long enough to almost sort of like you." She rolled her eyes this time with a cheeky grin, and then snatched his phone from him. "So who's first? "
"Claire Nunez! She probably has most of the others' contact information, and can use her shadow portals to get them all here quicker than the public transport."
Zoe whistled.
"Wait, you mean the councilwoman's daughter? One with the streak in her hair? I know her, she used to come into the record store nearly every week, but I haven’t seen her in a few months. Makes sense if she’s wrapped up in all this nonsense with you. Still though, transporting multiple people this far away from Arcadia? That's some pretty impressive power for someone her age. I never would’ve pegged her for a shadowmancer."
"I've kind of been showing her the ropes, training her in what I know. Claire even said that I might be a pretty great teacher."
She shoved him at his braggy tone and he chuckled.
"Alright, alright this should be an easy one. I'm patching into Claire's phone now, and I can hold the magic long enough for a quick conversation, so either talk fast or actually get a phone number to call her back with, got it?"
"Nuclear! I'm ready when you are!"
"Alright then, here we go…"