Gravitation

Mari watched as Zircon riffled through his cabinets. “Ugh where is it? Might as well start the water...” The wizard muttered, pouring water into a beat-up kettle. “So, you’re another stray that Az picked up, yeah?”He asked as he lit a small burner with a flame summoned from his finger. “Well, the term ‘stray’ is a bit harsh.” Mari commented, having no clue where to position her body. “I prefer to think of myself as a wanderer. But yes. We ran into each other and I decided I wanted to stay with him and that was that for me. Azreal was obviously really confused and looked like he was about to die of embarrassment when I said that I loved him, but he didn’t reject me. He took me back to his home and let me stay with him. And his grandmother and brother were so kind and, well, they’re my family now, since I never got on wellwith my birth family. Azreal was the reason I originally went to Teatris, but there’s more to it than just being with Azreal now. I found where I belong and where I’m happy.” Mari shrugged.

“Sounds about right for that idiot.” Zircon sighed. “Even when it’s foolish, he can’t just leave well enough alone if he thinks someone needs help. It worked out well enough with the old fart and little brat but, well...it hasn’t always gone well for him. People have tried to take advantage of his endless desire to meddle to either take him out since his work for the crown is inconvenient or to get revenge on him. In his first few years working for the king, he got the crap beaten out of him more than a few times after being tricked into letting his guard down."

“Why would anyone want to do that to Azreal?” Mari asked. ‘If you’re trying to take advantage of someone's kindness, you at least must know that they aren’t a heartless monster.’

“Huh? You got cheese for brains?” Zircon snapped, shooting her an incredulous look of annoyance. “You know what he is and what he’s done. The question is more who wouldn’t want to get in a few whacks at him? I don’t think you comprehend just how many innocent people were tortured and killed by the underground mercenary outfit that owned him. There’s a reason multiple kingdoms allied to go scorched earth and kill them off. They were demons in the guise of humans! At the point they were exterminated they were basically as powerful as an entire army and had no allegiance to anyone, no mortality and no respect for life. They wiped entire towns off innocent people off the map just for blood money from bad men! There are plenty of people living who lost loved ones to the mercenaries’ “work”. Azreal was the highest profile of the few pardoned, and the only one pardoned unconditionally. He was hired by the king, not forced into service to be allowed to live.” Zircon clenched his fist as he turned back to the tea. 

"But even with all the times it’s bitten him in the ass, that stupid grunt just keeps sticking his neck out for strangers in his off time. As if his mercenary work wasn't risky enough! I seriously don’t get it! I used to think he did it because he felt the need to prove his right to be alive or wanted to even the scales with the lives he took, but that's not it, even if those feelings might contribute a bit. I genuinely can’t understand what’s driving him. Humans exhaust me! There’s so many twisted humans, but at least they all have the same threads running through them! As sick as they are, I can understand them, at least as much as ‘you just delight in evil and make me want to vomit’ counts as understanding. But...there are a few good ones like Azreal and those are the ones that drive me up the wall and stretch the capacity of my mind.” He shook his head. “Oh, sorry to wax dramatic about humanity.” he apologized. “Anyway, your story sure sounds like Az. It bet he about folded like a deck of cards from your love confession.” He cackled. “God, what I wouldn’t give to see that look on his face!”

‘Eek, scary!’ Mari observed the wizard. ‘Yeah, I can tell he’s good, but boy does he not act like it at all! It almost makes me doubt my ability to see people’s true natures cause of how contradictory it is! Someone sure thinks everything sucks!’ She simply smiled and shrugged at the wizard. “You’re good. Azreal told me you’re an intense scholar and regularly go on weird tangents.” “Weird?” Zircon barked. “That asshole! So what if my thoughts are too high and mighty for mere mortals to comprehend and occasionally scare them?! That doesn’t mean I’m weird! Some people just can’t appreciate true genius!” The wizard huffed as he aggressively banged around in search of the tea tin. ‘Yep, very arrogant and full of himself! Azreal wasn’t overexaggerating.’

“Still, though, I’m glad that Azreal met you.” Zircon added as he paused to tie back his messy hair. “It’s about time something good happened in his life. He’s had to deal with so much shit. It’s like the universe just decided he was its punching bag or something. You can sit, you know.” “Uh, where exactly?” Mari asked, surveying what may have been a table underneath the piles of books and scrolls. “...Oh, right. Give me a minute!” Zircon approached the table and, with flick of his finger, the clutter rose in the air and flew off into some unknown corner. “Okay, now you can sit.” Mari took a seat in a chair with some sort of taloned feet carved on its legs, forcing herself to not comment on Zircon using his magic to hide his junk. “As you can imagine, I don’t have many guests, so seating isn’t a priority of mine.” “Space to walk doesn’t seem to be one, either.” Mari added. “I thought we were going to get crushed to death before we made it back here! How do you manage to get anything done with this mess?” “It’s not a mess! Sure, it is a bit hard to find things sometimes, but it’s my workshop! I know this place better than the back of my hand and I have everything set up in a way that makes me comfortable!”

Zircon tapped his foot in annoyance. “Ugh, waiting for the water to boil is the worst part of cooking!” ‘He does know he could just use his magic to speed it up, right?’ Mari questioned Zircon’s selective obliviousness but didn’t think it was worth it to bring up. ‘He’d probably make excuses and double down on boiling it manually just to make a point.’ "So, how is Az taking it? You living with him, I mean. It usually takes a force of God to gain his trust, but you two seem close for having met so recently.”

 “I think he felt confused by me at first.” Mari thought back to her first few days with Azreal and his family. “He accepted my presence but he still didn’t know how to feel about it. And...he’s a human while I’m a being with divine powers who’s lived for hundreds of years. Between his trauma and my bad relationship with my family...there was a gap in communication there for a bit. We had a few fights because we didn’t understand each other. Honestly, a lot of it was my fault because I wasn’t thinking hard enough about human social norms before I did things. But...” She smiled and looked down at her clothes; the same ones he’d bought her after their first fight. “We’re best friends now! We just had to get used to each other. Sure, there’s still a way to go. I want to be a couple but Azreal isn't ready for that. It's not his fault, but Azreal feels like he needs to hide things from me and repress his feelings all the time. There’s still so much I don’t know about him, but he’s trying and slowly opening up to me. I still wish I knew more, though. I want to help him. He’s such a gentle person, but he’s hurting inside and either thinks he deserves the pain or wants to ignore it. But we are happy. I’ve seen and experienced a lot of new things with Azreal. I’d never have been able to admit it before, but I was lonely during my decades alone, even more so than how isolated I felt back when I was around my biological family. Someone finally decided that I was worth the effort to try and understand and I'm not lonely now."

“I figured it was going well.” Zircon nodded knowingly. “Azreal’s aura is less chaotic now and there’s a light in his eyes that wasn’t there before. His face looks more relaxed, too. Whatever you've been doing and however much you do or don't know about his past, it’s been good for Azreal.” Mari was surprised at what seemed to be as close to praise as she would get from the wizard.

“Honestly, I haven't done anything special. Every day is so much fun with him and Nanny and Sori, but it’s so normal. The four of us garden, cook and clean together. Azreal and I play with Sori and the other kids and visit our neighbors. We go shopping together and he lets me explore the town. We watch the stars together and sometimes we even hold hands!” Mari felt like her face was going to rip from her wide smile. “Like, a couple of days ago, we took Sori and some of the other kids to fish and play in the river and then Nanny had us throw a grilling party for the neighbors! It was one of the best days I’ve had in my entire life! And then Azreal, me and Sori all curled up together on the floor and fell asleep right away!" She looked down at her hands. "I'm so happy, but at the same time, we're just living life together.I feel safe with Azreal and his family. They’ve never once made me feel like I was broken or small. They’ve never denied or rejected who I was or called me weird. Not for real, anyways. I just want Azreal to feel safe and happy the way I do, that's all. I don't want him to hate himself or carry around his past pain anymore." 

Zircon stared at her silently, as if he was scoring her response."Crap!" The mage snatched the kettle off the burner as it suddenly began to bubble over. “Okay, now where is that tea blend I made? You’re going to like this,” he promised over his shoulder to Mari as he resumed his search “I heard you, you know! You hate tea, but I promise that you’ll like this. It’s made with moonberries..a special type of berry used in potions that you can only find four times a year in specific areas in specific climates if the moon is in the right position.” He added after seeing Mari’s blank face. “It’s a rare ingredient that only the most decorated mages and scholars have access to. It’s better than normal tea and you’ll never get a chance to try something like this again!” 

“Wait, if it’s that rare, should you really just be drinking it?” Mari asked in shock. “Isn’t that just a waste? You might as well just be drinking liquid gold!” “Quit whining!” Zircon snapped. “I’m treating you to a once in a lifetime experience here, so be grateful! It’s not like anyone is going to suffer because I like moonberry tea! I’m the one who has to go through the process of harvesting them for my supply, so I damn well deserve to use them how I want! If I want a nice drink once in a while, what’s it to you?” Mari shrank back at his sharp words. “Okay, fine, I'll try it. You don’t have to be so nasty about it.” Zircon rolled his eyes. “Okay, this needs to seep, so maybe I can conjure up some snacks?” He muttered to himself, ignoring Mari. “Let’s see what I have to work with...” He wandered over to a large oak desk and opened its drawers. “Got any complaints about food?" he asked loudly. Mari shook her head. “I love eating! I’m not picky about food.” The mage sighed. “Good, we can just have what I like then.”

Mari eyed the mage. ‘Why him? What about this specific man made Azreal consider him his first and only friend? What sort of friendship can even exist between two people who are even more opposite each other than me and Az are? I can’t see it.’ “So, Azreal considers you a friend. The first friend he ever had, actually.” Mari propped her chin up on her hand. “What about you? Do you actually consider Az your friend?” “Real subtle, aren’t ya?” Zircon narrowed his eyes at her. “Why do you want to know? What’s it to you?” “Because I don’t know how to feel about you. You’re pretty mean.” Mari figured there was no point in trying to be nice. Zircon wasn’t dumb, so she might as well just let him have it. “How am I to know that you don’t secretly hate him or that you don’t treat him like crap? You’re a mage and you work for the king, so what’s to say that you aren’t manipulating Azreal?”

The two stared at each other intensely, refusing to break each other’s gaze. Mari could almost feel the electricity cracking off of Zircon, but she refused to fold first. Suddenly, Zircon burst into laughter, breaking the tension. “You got me!” He cackled, holding his forehead. “You got guts, unicorn girl! I like you!” He leaned back on the desk. “Good on you. Given how Azreal has been used and how much he wants to be able to make up for his past, you should be worried about people using him. But, no, I’m not. The King isn’t, either. Yeah, I’d call him a friend. The only one I have aside from the King. I’m not much for formalities or other people, so everyone usually leaves me alone unless they need something.” He looked up at the ceiling. “As far as the why...hmmm...I’m not entirely sure myself. I mean, I go out of my way to avoid others and would rather be alone. I wasn’t planning on liking Azreal when we first met. Hell, I hated his guts! It's shameful to admit, but I thought he was a monster at first, too. But he changed my mind fast. And being around him isn’t that bad. We just are friends, somehow.”

He gave a small, genuine smile. “Us weirdos...people who others dislike...we just have a way of finding each other, don’t we?” Mari recalled how she had first encountered Azreal. A split-second decision made in boredom; her thoughtless impulsiveness giving birth to the single best thing that had ever happened to her.

“Yeah, you’re completely right, Zircon. There’s definitely some unseen force that moves us towards each other before we even know what’s happening.”