Work Text:
The 501st year After Calamity:
Marcille
The greatest student in the Northern Academy for the Arcane lugged the least hardworking one back to her room after a long day in the outskirts of town. The great Marcille Donato’s eyes had just been opened by this weird little country girl, yet in the same vein, hers had decided to stay squarely shut when it was time to get back to her living quarters.
“Well, I would hate to stay indebted...” she had said whilst gathering their things and carefully pulling this little bean over her shoulders. What a weak excuse it had been, as if she could repay Falin with such a banal action.
Still, she mostly remembered where she had come to pick Falin up earlier in the morning, even if she had to fumble with her key on some incorrect doors she, as always, (eventually) got it right. And not a moment too soon, for she would be an archmage, not a dragonslaying knight. Her muscles could not handle the strain of carrying a whole human being (ignore her size) for this long.
Said muscles tensed when the door slid open. The room was illuminated. Falin said she didn’t room with anyone...
The brave young mage put the sleeping child down and gripped the young seedling she had for a staff. School hazing was not uncommon, especially happening to girls from Fardomar, given the country’s military aggression creating schisms with children that had lost family in war. She would not let it happen to such a sweet girl, not under her watch!
She ran in, chanting for Fragarach as she did, before something collided with her chest, knocking her flat on the ground and disarming her. She quickly tried to reach for something, anything, to defend herself when a shadowy figure loomed over her... until it extended its hand with an apologetic:
“Sorry Falin! You usually wait for me to... you’re not Falin!” the boy in front of Marcille slinked back, as, his gaze quickly turning to the young tall-men girl Marcille had deposited next to the door. “Falin, are you alright?!” he cried out, rushing to cradle her.
Marcille could not be more confused. She reached for her staff and cast a quick light spell while she stood back up, and quickly found out that this... intruder, had trained a knife in her direction!
“Did you hurt her too?!” he yelled, eyes faking determination through fear. Marcille got a better look at him. He too, was a tall-man. He too had pale blonde hair and amber eyes, but unlike her, one of his was clearly blackened. Must be some brute. He didn’t really look anything like Falin even despite the black eye, but he was close enough that Marcille could guess they were from the same region. Friends? More? Was this some sort of betrothed that Falin was forced to keep in contact with?! More importantly...
“What do you mean by too? Falin’s being bullied?! Wait, are you the bully?!” Marcille’s worry for Falin won out over her survival instinct. The boy seemed just as confused as she was with herself. His hold on the dagger softened.
“She was... wait, are you Malusiel?” he asked, Marcille’s eye twitching at the pronunciation.
“It’s Marcille! Marcille Donato! And aren’t boys supposed to give out their name before asking?!” Marcille spat. Was this boy illiterate? Had he not read the classics?
“Oh. Sorry. I’m Laios! Laios Touden.”
Touden. Touden. Touden. It all resonated in her head.
“Wait. Falin’s married?!”
Laios guffawed, the tension in the corridor snapping just like Marcille’s confidence just had.
“She’s my lil’ sis! You’re the girl she wanted to be friends with, aren’t you?!” he questioned, meeting her gaze. He was nearly as tall as her already. Was he an adult?
“We’re already friends, thank you very much!” Marcille snapped back, hands on her hips. She had many questions for this guy. Why was he here? What had happened to Falin? Did he have no manners?! But, she pushed it back when she saw him extend his hand towards her with a genuine smile.
“I’m so glad! Please take care of her when I can’t!” he exclaimed and suddenly, the corridor felt a lot brighter to Marcille.
“Nothing I cannot handle!”
-*-
Laios
“How is she still asleep?” that dainty elf... Falin’s friend asked while he tucked his sister in. It was a sore spot for Laios.
“She only slept this well next to me…” he replied against his better judgement, nothing masking his disappointment, his inadequacy. He shouldn’t be feeling this way, Falin looked just so... at ease. But it had been someone else to do it. Someone they barely knew. It told him everything he needed to hear about his worth as a brother.
“Someone’s jealous...” the annoying elf prodded, eyes all smug and smile all pretty... and annoying!
“Am not!” what a weak excuse. Like himself.
“If you say so...” she skipped around him, so self-assured after beating him in a joust. She probably was like, a gajillion years old! Of course she won! “What were you doing here though? You do realize this is an all-girl’s school, right? How did you even get in her room without anybody noticing?”
“Oh, I just climbed on Falin’s sheet-rope before she left!” he explained, still feeling proud at how quickly he had climbed to the second floor for no one to see him.
“You... she... wait, you’ve been here since morning?!” Marseille replied, looking around the room. “Don’t you have anything better to do?!”
Laios crossed his arms. Falin wasn’t awake, so he didn’t know how much she could tell this person, still, there was something he could tell her. Pumping out his chest as much as he could, he announced:
“As her big bro, I gotta make sure she’s being treated right! She always keeps quiet about what’s going on at school so I had to check for myself!” he opened one eye and peered out, just to see her looking past him with a snide smirk on her ace.
“Huh... huuuuuh. Is that why you’re looking over her textbooks?” she was teasing him, he could tell. How he should respond, he couldn’t.
“Uh... uh. Well, some bullies at my school ripped a couple of my book’s pages off, so I was checking if they did the same!” Laios spouted out, immediately regretting ever coming here. This girl was going to find out he was just as useless as his father though he was!
“They... Oh, I’m sorry to hear that Laios.” Marcielles face contorted into concern and that just made everything worse for Laios. Now she could tell the entire school that Falin’s brother couldn’t protect her from them. “Can I take a look at your eye?” she reached out to touch him, he could see the whisps of mana start to gather around her millennial hand.
“Don’t!” he reflexively yelled, falling back first into the wall behind him.
“I’m trying to heal you, you dummy!” she huffed out.
“That’s the problem! When Falin heals me it hurts more than just letting it stay!” he whined, covering his eye in case she got any ideas.
“Falin is just starting! She has to practice somewhere. I thought a grown-up like you would be less whiny!” Murcille exclaimed back at him, taking the opportunity he had unwittingly given her to slide past him and right in front of the table. “Really? Summoning? Isn’t that a bit advanced for someone like you?” she chuckled when she saw what he had been reading.
“How was I supposed to know what was advanced or not? I just opened the one that had monst- I mean, that seemed like it would earn the most money!” that was close, he thought, as the elf girl was already raising both eyebrows when his real objective began leaking.
“Why do you even need money? The Academy isn’t cheap, I doubt your parents are strapped for cash.” she asked. Why was she being so nosy?!
No, calm down Laios. This is Falin’s first friend. You can’t ruin it for her! With that in mind, he saw no reason not to tell her the truth. “Their money doesn’t matter. They wanna marry Falin off to someone who’s been making her cry for years now, so I gotta make enough money to get us a home far away from them before Falin graduates!”
He expected a look of pity to come his way, disgust maybe. He didn’t expect her eyes to light up in such an honest and excited way.
“Wow! That’s so gallant! I also hate the idea of arranged marriages! I had no idea tall-men attempted to marry their children off so young though!” she looked in Falin’s direction and then back at Laios with a smile so wide Laios didn’t think an elf could produce. “She’s such a brave girl for not letting it get to her!”
“She is... too brave, I think. It should be the Big Brother’s job to make sure his sister doesn’t need to be brave.” he sighed, letting himself slide down the wall. “I tried to enrol with her but they didn’t even let me into the building!”
“I mean, this is an all-girls school, you know?” the girl replied, Laios shooting her a completely blank stare. “Of course you don’t... were you even listening to me?” she went quiet for a while, looking over Falin’s textbooks while stealing glances at Laios’ sister and at him from time to time. She crossed her arms, dangling her head side to side, massaged her forehead and groaned. Whatever she was thinking about really was taking a toll on her. He had to stifle a laugh at the kind of expressions she made. Suddenly, with nod, her eyes shot open locked onto Laios’, a green glow piercing through his soul. “Laios, what do you think of magic?”
“Why are you asking?”
“I asked my question first. Also, be honest. I can tell you’re a terrible liar already.” she answered, Laios hated how right she was. It was his time to think. Unbeknownst to him, he was just as exaggerated, if not more, in his thoughts than she was.
“I think it’s the, second, coolest thing. Like, I don’t know much about it, but if mages can do half the things they can do in the stories that the villagers tell us to make us afraid of it, then I really, really wish I could use it. Don’t tell Falin but I was suuuper jealous when she got hers. She can understand and be friends with ghosts. How cool is that?!” he exclaimed, his eyes and soul becoming more and more open when Marciel’s smile grew more and more at his answer. “It would be so cool to have summon monsters! Be able to fly with them! Who knows, maybe I could even make a dungeon with all the nice ones!” the girl’s eyes nearly bulged out, then she laughed. At first Laios recoiled, shades of the villagers laughing at the two of them coming back to haunt him. But he soon realized that there was no derision in that laughter. No mockery. It was a laugh unlike anyone else’s. As she cleaned the tears from her eyes, he found himself meeting her smile with his. Even before she said:
“I like the way you think. Say, since tomorrow’s Sunday, me and Falin were going back to the dungeon she found. Wanna come with? The mana concentration there would make it easier to test.” She told him as she grabbed onto her stick staff thing.
“I mean, yeah, the dungeon’s cool, but what for?” he replied, a bit proud Falin had shown it to him before anyone else.
“What else silly, to test your aptitude for magic!” that girl replied, poking the top of his head with her stick. Suddenly Laios’ bruised eye erupted in a momentary burst of pain, much worse than Falin’s! But it was faster to come and go... if that was any consolation.
“I told you not to heal me! And isn’t this an all-girl’s school?! What’s the point in seeing if I can do magic?!” Laios cried out, clutching to his eye while taking wild swings at the smug looking elf.
“Don’t be such a baby! What would Falin say if she saw you like this?” she teased. Laios immediately, instinctually, straightened his body and pushed back the pain. The girl giggled at the display. “Anyway, don’t worry about it, not yet. If you do manage to impress me then... I’m sure I can make things work out.” For the first time since they had met, the girl truly looked and talked like what Laios imagined elves to look like. Calming, serene, caring, honest, the picture of perfection. She reached out her hand and tilted her head along with a gleaming smile. “Just trust me, okay?”
“Falin does, so... I guess I can too.” Laios told the girl, Marcille. Shaking her hand on it. Then she pulled. “What are you doing?!”
“Falin will be in big trouble if they find an adult man in her room! I’m taking you out of the premises!”
“I’m only thirteen!” Marcille turned around and eyed him from top to bottom.
“Tall-men...” she mumbled, greedily adding. “Well, guess I’m your senior in more ways than one then. Let’s go kiddo!”
Laios regretted correcting her already.
-*-
Marcille
“Stop staring at the slime and get back to reading!” Marcille regretted offering this chance to him already. When put together, these siblings really seemed to light up, and that was both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, this was the first time she had ever seen Falin pick up a textbook, let alone read it. And Laios was just as into them... until they weren’t. Any time the slime popped out, or a bat passed by, or... really any natural occurrence happened, the siblings would just oooh and aaaah in its general direction until Marcille smacked both with Ambrosia. Anymore and her little seedling would start growing bent!
“But this is a lot! Falin didn’t need to read all of this before she started using magic!” Laios exclaimed back, Marcille raising her eyebrow and looking at Falin.
“Big Bro was in danger, so I just went Kapow, then turned to the spirit and went Pshaaaa!” Falin exclaimed proudly, mimicking a sword swing or something.
“Well, I guess Falin is a prodigy like me. That bodes well for you Laios, prodigies rarely pop up in families with zero aptitude!” Marcille replied, eyes thinning when she saw the incredulous expression Laios was giving her.
“You, a prodigy? Are you sure you didn’t just spend ten times the time we’ve been alive for, studying?” he asked, disbelief staining his entire being.
“I’m only thirty-seven, you dolt! I’m not even an adult yet!” Marcille screamed, Falin’s eyes opening up fully for the first time since they met.
“Woaaah! You’re older than our Ma and Pa!” she exclaimed with wonder in her voice and eyes. Marcille wanted to slink into the earth and become compost.
“Look, we age differently, okay! I wasn’t nearly as developed as you were when I was thirteen!” she pointed out, leaving out just what kind of things she was up to at that age. Poor Mr. Ant. “I only joined this school a couple years ago. Elves aren’t considered adults until they’re eighty!”
“If you say so...” Laios mummed, still not fully believing her, but enough to drop the subject.
“Anyway, it’s only been a few hours since we started, and we took a break for lunch. Aren’t you used to spending at least this much time in your boarding school’s classes?” she asked Laios, who immediately returned his glance to his books again.
“I don’t go to classes that often anymore…” he mumbled, clearly embarrassed, hurt possibly. Marcille was starting to put together a lot of this kid’s past with the little he had given her and the black eye he seemed so used to having.
“You’re not even halfway through a semester yet…” she sighed, but sat in the middle of the two and took the book. “Alright, maybe it’ll be easier if I’m a bit more practical with you two.”
It was strangely effective. The Touden siblings trailed on every word she said with utmost interest, and they even questioned things the book left out for the sake of not bombarding beginners with too much info and put out guesses far more advanced than what you’d expect from someone who was but a ghost in regular classes and someone who hadn’t even casted a spell yet. They weren’t nearly as dopey and slow as they looked to be at a glance.
In no time flat, Laios had seemed as ready as one could be expected to be from theory alone, which was saying a lot given than Marcille expected to only be testing him by sunset.
Putting aside her own reticence, she reached into her bag and pulled out the ceremonial knife she used for her… more obscure researches.
“What are you doing Marcille?!” Falin shouted, unsurprisingly worried, but it seemed to be entirely set on her friend, not on her and her brother. Laios already had put himself between his sister and her. She couldn’t blame him. “Why do you keep a knife around?”
“Well, we need something for Laios to heal, and this is easier and safer than trying to get the bats to bite us. As for why I keep a knife around. Well, some magic uses blood...” Marcille cringed immediately. She could have just said it was for self-defence or something like that! Thankfully, they didn’t seem to think much of it. To keep the ball rolling, she clenched her teeth and slashed at her palm, whimpering momentarily and dropping the knife. She had to get used to this eventually... “O-Okay Laios. How, hold my hand...” she extended her bloodied hand and the tall-man child took it. “Are you ready?”
“Always!” he proclaimed, Marcille liked that about the kid. A go-getter.
“Focus, close your eyes. Become one with your environment. The mana in this dungeon is thick and concentrated, you should be able to feel it seep in and out with every breath...” Marcille closed her eyes as Laios did so. “Let it seep in, course through you, like blood through your veins. Feel it fill your body, from head to toes, will it to your hands as you synch your breath with mine.” the two of them slowly connected, sharing outgoing and incoming mana. Marcille could feel it. This kid. This kid could do it! “Repeat after me. Sperea…”
“Sperea...”
The temperature on their hands synched as well. He was instinctually affecting the rest of his boy. He was not as different from Falin as they thought.
“Yeptum…”
“Yeptum…”
His pulse synched as well. It wasn’t a matter of if he’d be able to use magic anymore. Just how well he would.
“Rufermus...”
“Rufermus...”
Marcille could feel the mana in her body he pulled to his. The spell only needed the spark.
“Vilal...”
“Vilal...”
Her body started trembling. Something was attempting to affect it. Marcille let her magical barriers fall.
“Eurekant...”
“Eurekant...”
Laios tensed. Marcille bit into the side of her mouth. It was coming.
“Oonzu!”
“Oonzu!”
Laios’ flame was born. And just like that, all of the pain that Marcille would have felt whilst letting the cut heal hit her all at once. She screeched, falling on her back and accidentally kicking Laios directly in the same eye she had healed not a day ago. At this rate, she’d need to heal him again.
The pain went as fast as it came. How peculiar. Marcille looked on at her hand and gasped. No scar tissue. No scab. Just a very itchy hand and a single couple of places dribbling out minute amounts of blood.
“Ow, ow... Oh. You’re bleeding...” Laios anger became shock and then became despair. “I guess I’m just a...”
“Genius!” Marcille yelled, taking both his hands and shaking them vigorously. Falin gawked and glomped both her brother and her first friend at the declaration. “I expected you to like, stop the bleeding! The scar was long, and I cut deeper than I expected! Instead, I just got some over-acting follicles! For your first time, this is nothing short of extraordinary!” his darkened amber eyes quickly became aglow at the information. He joined in on the hug, and while this would not be the most appropriate of reaction for a man in most of the world, in the north, this kind of display of affection was a lot more normalized. Marcille’s village would have you kiss both cheeks. As such, she didn’t give him any flack and just patted him on the back.
Once the celebration was over, Marcille stood back up and looked at the sky. It wasn’t sunset yet... they probably still had time.
“Laios...” the Touden siblings stopped chattering and looked at her. She had pushed back her pride and her relief and peered at him as she asked: “Magic is a cold and dangerous road. Many communities hate the very thought of it. Many powers that be ban and regulate practices for no other reason than to keep us in check. The benefits are great, but the risks are probably greater. Knowing this, are you still willing to take the plunge?”
“For Falin, I’d do that an-”
“No. Laios. Are you willing, interested... hungry for magic?” she asked. She knew too much about dedicating one’s craft to another. Her mother’s magic had seemingly died with her father. Died when it wasn’t enough to save him. Maybe she too, was following in her mother’s misguided footsteps. She wouldn’t have this boy do the same.
“I think it’s the best way to be able to do a lot of things I wanna do. And again, there’s so much I don’t know about it! Of course I’m hungry for more! C’mon, you can’t just tease me with the appetizer and hold the rest of the meal hostage!” he stood up for himself, now standing eye to eye with her. She could see it in her eyes. A flame that very few in this academy had. One so very similar to hers. It would be a shame to snuff it out.
She took his hand.
“Do you trust me then?” she asked. She didn’t expect the answer to be as emphatic as...
“With my life!” he replied with a huge smile more akin to a Golden Retriever than a boy. The fact that Falin nodded along made her question their priorities, but they were just too earnest to refuse.
“Alright then, follow me!”
-*-
“When I heard my former top student needed to talk to me, I confess, this would never have crossed my mind.” Headmistress Bogglefoot stated, making her way to the chair behind her desk after opening up the door to her office herself. The elder gnome was not the closest teacher to Marcille, but she had been more than supportive of Marcille’s abnormal academic path. The younger half-elf just hoped she would be at least this once more. “I had heard of a tall-man boy just attempting to enrol a few months back, has been quite a recurring gag with the staff. I assume this is him?”
“Yuppers!” Laios proclaimed with not a hint of shame or awareness. Marcille sighed, but at least this would show determination.
“Does the fact that he seems to have gotten into a fight recently have anything to do with it?” the older woman asked, rubbing her silver scalp while she awkwardly pointed at the now swollen right eye. Marcille poked it with Ambrosia and muttered a single word. Laios jolted in pain and fell to his knees, clutching the eye. “You really have to work on the humane side of your magic Marcille.” the half-elf took a small bow at the suggestion, even if it was pushed to the back of her priority list. “So... what’s this about? I doubt you came here to ask me to enrol a boy, that considers himself a boy, into an all-girls school.”
“Headmistress. I read through the researcher’s manual yesterday and I noticed that there’s no age delimitations on anything I can do, correct?” Marcille asked, her trail of thought being assaulted by a gawking tall-man.
“Wait, you’re a resear-” Ambrosia smacked his now-no-longer-healed-eye again.
“Shush!” The faintest hint of a smile took the former teacher’s silver eyes as she watched them both.
“That’s right little one. The debate of what age each race is considered an adult is a topic of hot debate, and especially on hybrids such as...” Marcille cringed. “Mistress Gwyn.” both her and the headmistress sighed in relief at the quick save. “As such, we grant you all the benefits of adulthood, for all intents and purposes in terms of our facility, if you are able to finish the base curriculum. As you so skilfully have done.”
“That’s very thoughtful. Then...” Marcille took Laios hand and raised it over both of their heads. “I want to put up a formal application of apprenticeship in Laios’ name!” Laios’ eyes nearly fell off his sockets, and Bogglefoot’s stance tensed. “Of course, with me as the Master. After all, males are not strictly prohibited in the premises, only from enrolling, correct?”
“You. Are actually quite the scamp, aren’t you?” the Academy’s principal mused, tracing her fingers down her pronounced wrinkles. Laios’ shock and nigh horror became a look of admiration and more than a bit of mischief. “Plus, since your graduation exam is at the capital and the Academy just validates your enrolment in it, it stands to reason that...”
“A Master can apply him for the slots reserved for apprentices!” Marcille completed, just to show both of them how much she had thought this through.
“Well, well, well. You sure you’ve only been thinking about this for a single night?” Marcille nodded, proudly. She had gotten used to all-nighters; she still had a few hours before her body just shut down for twelve hours in a row. “But do you understand the potential consequences of this little loophole of yours?” the amusement drained from the woman’s face. Laios seemed out of his depth, but Marcille had considered some.
“I understand that many would see me as too young to take an apprentice. And Laios is within my development bracket, which is also frowned upon.” she replied, shaking her head. “But if that is all-”
“That is not all, young woman. You graduated this Academy in record time. That was already enough to turn heads. Now you’re about to do what many will consider exploiting our rules to get what could very much a random boy into our walls. I don’t think I have to say what people will assume two teens’ reason for this would be.” the Headmistress said. Both Marcille and Laios rolled their eyes.
“Puhleaze. This guy/girl? Hey! What’re you implying?!” they said in unison. Bogglefoot nearly planted her face on the dusk.
“You do not make it hard to believe, I tell you what.” she groaned. After that display, this was enough to get a bit of colour on Marcille’s face. They would have to work on ways to signal the fact that they were in a strictly professional relationship. “Regardless. There’s more than your reputation at stake here. Our Academy’s is as well. As the Headmistress, mine is as well. The ones at the Council are quite long-lived, if this boy ends up being a screwup, you will not escape this stigma for a few hundred years. Do you really want to risk your career on a boy you barely seem to know? Is he even remotely good enough?”
“To that last question, yes. Absolutely!” Marcille stated without a hint of hesitation. As for the previous one, she stumbled. Just enough for Laios to speak up.
“Marcille, I didn’t know the amount of trouble I could be putting you. It’s alright, I have other ways to earn money for Falin. I can join the army and-” Marcille knew he meant well, but she still felt a bit hurt.
“Laios, where’s your enthusiasm? Your guts? Your dedication to Falin?! Didn’t you say you trusted me with your life?!” she exclaimed, putting both hands on his shoulders and giving him a good shake. “What Master would I be if I didn’t put up something of equal value?” she added with a smile as she let go. Laios still looked a bit apprehensive but slowly nodded.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Did say I trusted you.” a stamp hit the headmistress’ desk.
“Well then. Guess that settles it. Paperwork will take a week, same for the uniform. So, scamper off you two. The boy better stay out of the premises ‘till then!” the Headmistress seemed to be all smiles again, and more than a bit convinced if Marcille could say so herself.
“Really? A week?! I expected, at best, next semester!” Marcille gasped. The gnome adjusted her glasses.
“Here at the Northern Academy for the Arcane Arts, we pride ourselves on swiftness. That and I’m quite intrigued by this pair in front of me. Reminds me of a couple I met a few decades ago on a backwater village.” she added with a wink. Marcille felt like she was missing something obvious, but she would not look at a gift horse in the mouth.
“Thanks a bunch Headmistress! Laios, be courteous too... Laios?” at the lack of response, his soon-to-be-Master turned around to see Laios’ eyes making spirals as the colour drained from his face. Oh. Oh right.
“There’re so many cool monsters in this roooooom. I wish I could move to greet them...” he croaked in the midst of his dizziness. Marcille grabbed his hand and started pulling. “What’s happening Marcieeeeeee-”
“It’s Mana sickness Laios! You never casted magic before.” she saw his cheeks start to expand. “No! Hold it in! Not on the premises. Especially not on the Headmistress’ office!”
It was too late. Far, far too late.
She would have to clean up for him as he lay in the corner, recovering from having been half-foot into the grave for a simple recovery spell.
-*-
Laios
This last week had been tortuous for Laios. Well, more than usual. The light at the end of the tunnel just made the rest of it seem that much darker. It was like they could smell something was off. But he would not let it... them, get to him anymore. Falin had helped him sneak out his things from his dorm during the night, and all three of them were now out of town and heading towards the outskirts where the Academy was located.
“I can’t believe we’re going to be studying together Big Brother!” Falin exclaimed, clutching onto Laios’ right arm, both siblings warming up inside now that they felt safe again.
“I’m not sure how it’ll work out since I’m not exactly a student but... I do hope we can attend the same classes!” he remarked, rubbing his head on the top of Falin’s. He was carrying too much on his other hand and back to hug her back despite wanting to do so really badly.
“We’ll just have to ask Marcille about it!” Falin stated, breaking off her brother’s arm to open the map Marcille had given her the previous day. “The entrance to the campus is right over there, so we should turn left about... now.” She pointed to the woods just before the academy. “Huh, weird. I didn’t know there was anything there.”
“Hey Falin... why do you think Marcille’s doing all of this?” a week ago, Laios was too excited to question it, but unfortunately, seven days was plenty of time for paranoia to build up. “I mean, she’s apparently a super big deal, right? Not even a student, she’s a researcher! She just... talks to you one day, befriends you and the next day is going around the school’s rules to get your brother in? Isn’t it a bit too... convenient?” Laios looked around at this strange, isolated path they were now on, more and more suspicious. Wouldn’t have been the first time someone they trusted took them to a place where they could...
“I mean, it is pretty nice of her, but do you really need a reason to help people?” his sister asked, blessing him with a rare moment of her eyes opening up, the light from them and her pure whites dispelling the shadows from their past that clawed at Laios’ mind.
“I guess my life wouldn’t be worth much if I stopped trusting her now.” he shrugged, realizing he too had already fallen under this sorceress’ spell a long time ago.
And as if the woods had heard their agreement, the dark path they walked on opened up into an idyllic clearing, blessed by the morning sun. At its centre, a cottage, tall and twisted, with smoke exiting it’s spiral chimney. It even stood next to a small pond. While not as large as their original home, Laios and Falin couldn’t help but look on with wonder, even as the strangely S-shaped door opened up to reveal an elf girl, already in her school uniform, but with a new, fancy sorceress’ hat.
“You’re early! Breakfast isn’t done yet...” Marcille pouted, twirling her foot. “I was going to surprise you two!”
And just like that, Laios’ fears were dispelled. No. Blown to smithereens. This girl couldn’t betray them if her life depended on it!
“We can wait. Can’t we?” Laios turned to his entourage. Falin nodded. He nodded. Marcille screeched.
“What’s that?!” she pointed at his companion. His fluffy tail wagged as he saw her. He approved!
“Oh, this? This is Dustrag! He was living with me in the boarding school, used to guard my stuff! He can be our guard dog!” Laios exclaimed, petting the mixed mutt on the top of his head, his already dopey looking eyes melting into barely a line of black.
“You have to warn me before! I filed for this cottage to be a cottage for three!” Marcille exclaimed, Falin and Laios tilting their heads. Marcille groaned. “They may not let your brother sleep in the premises, but nothing says you can’t sleep in one of the staff’s cottages. Since I’m officially a teacher of sorts, I get to request one!” Falin’s eyes opened again, twice in record time!
“Hear that Laios, Dusty?! We can all live together again!!!” she screamed, hugging Laios’ torso before jumping on Dustrag, who had laid on it’s back waiting for the girl to pounce.
“Hey! Don’t think I forgot how you guys just snuck a whole dog up on me!” Marcille exclaimed, side eyeing Dustrag.
“Aw, come on Marcille! He’s family! And he can pull his weight! He’s been our family’s guard dog for three years now!” Laios told her, leaving out how that was a title in name only, Dustrag couldn’t hurt a fly.
“Yeah Marcille! What would you have us do? Abandon Dusty?!” Falin just went for the throat there, didn’t she? Even Dustrag made the cutest whining sound he could. Marcille began biting her lip. It was time.
Triple Touden Puppy Stare!
A forbidden technique, sealed away by their parents over in ages past. Such was it’s power that Marcille was knocked right off her feet, gasping for air as she beheld it’s shining brilliance.
“Too... cute... can’t...resist! aah darn it all! I’ll file in an extension!” she screamed, crying in a fetal position, knowing defeat when it came knocking.
“Yaaaaaay!” all three Toudens jumped and hit a high five in midair over their fallen comrade.
The sound of a kettle broke them all of their reverie, and Marcille off her doom. If there was one universal language, it was that of food.
“We can talk about our ground rules during breakfast. You tw-three will need some rest before we go get Falin’s things.” Marcille did her best to regain her composure, even if she was still a blushing mess. “Get in. This is our home for the next few years!”
Falin and Dustrag whipped in happiness and skipped inside. Laios watched go blissfully, only to turn and see Marcille doing the exact same. He had misjudged her so much.
“Marcille...” he gained his attention. “...thank you... for all of this...” he barely managed to eke out before he started to taste his salty tears. He was this close to breaking down. Without skipping a beat, the Lord of the Cottage walked down the step to the house and hugged him.
“It’s alright. You’re all safe now.” she whispered, not questioning what had made him break down like this. “Now, let’s get some food in, I made caffe latte with pancakes!”
Laios wiped away his tears at the sight of her encouraging smile, couldn’t have Falin see him like this, after all and rushed in, saying:
“Can’t wait to have a taste of Academy Food!”
As Marcille chased all three of her new roommates, they would all bond over the best breakfast they all had in years.
Ah, Academy Food.
Oh, Academy Meshi!