A Stranded God

“So, I heard you lost your magic, huh? I’m… sorry to hear that.”

The Oasis bustled with the muted din of clinking cutlery and indistinct conversations. For the first few weeks after the incident with Nobelys, the people were shocked, frightened even. But things were slowly returning to normal, and this was especially evident from the lively dialogue that had begun to seep back into the Oasis’ dining room.

“Yeah, I guess. But I gave it up on my own accord, so you don’t have to worry yourself over it.” I cut into the steak that was laid out in front of me, but my movements were a little uncertain, as I averted my eyes from the person sitting opposite me. Martha seemed to noticed this, and she glanced up from beside me with a bit of an anxious expression. Meeting her eye, I breathed outwards, sticking the chunk of meat into my mouth. “But, putting that aside… how have you been?”

“This is the first time I see you in, like, three weeks, and suddenly you’re talking all formally? What, are you feeling guilty because I’m in this old thing?” With a little snicker, the man leaned back in his metallic wheelchair, resting his head on his arms. “Don, if you start to treat me any differently than you normally have, I’m gonna roll over there and smack you.”

“Are you sure?” I still felt my heart ache a little when I looked up at him. “After all, it’s my fault that you ended up getting hurt in the first place, Connor.”

“I told you, I’m fine!” Furrowing his brows, Connor reached down and flicked a little green pea off his plate towards me. “And it was my choice to put myself into danger to push Jasmine away. So, unless you want to be assaulted by more of my vegetables, you’d better go back to your old, cynical self. It’s honestly a little creepy seeing you like this.”

At the sight of Connor acting as energetic as ever, I released a breath of air that I wasn’t aware I was holding. And above all, he didn’t harbor any real animosity towards me, just poking fun like usual. Just knowing that was like a ten-ton weight off of my chest. Shaking my head, I smiled over to him. “You’re probably right.”

“You’re still looking a little gloomy, though. You know, this isn’t even that big of a deal!” Connor tapped his bony fingers on the side of his metal seat. “The hospital that I was transferred over to said that I was in relatively good shape, so I’d probably be back on my feet in a few months, and with any luck I’ll be able to start working again even sooner than that. In the meantime, while I recover, I get to enjoy being pampered like a king by Jasmine! What else could I possibly ask for?”

“Connor, are you actually… enjoying this?” Martha waved her fork over at him accusingly. “You know, with your absence, the rest of us have to work a lot harder than usual.”

“Hmm. About that… I have a proposition. Why don’t you just put all your extra work onto Don?” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Because of you, my beautiful body has now been ruined by this huge circular scar. If you want to show your remorse for hurting me so, so badly, isn’t this the perfect way to make amends?”

“That sounds like a great idea.” Martha nudged me with her shoulder, grinning. “What do you say, Don? You up to it?”

“I do feel apologetic, but even then, there’s a certain limit,” I groaned, massaging my temples. “If I have to unclog the toilets one more time this week, I’m seriously going to lose it.”

Connor stuffed another spoonful of pasta into his mouth, chuckling. But something seemed to come to mind, and he swallowed, gently setting down the spoon on the side of his plate. “Speaking of losing things. Martha, your apartment was… burned down, wasn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh.” Martha’s finger circled the top of her drink as she cast her eyes downward, the worn white bandages wrapped around the both of her hands starting to come a little loose. “Yeah, it was.”

“That must really suck.” His fist tightened around the metal fork in his hand. “Especially after everything you went through to keep that apartment, all this time…”

“Hey, I thought you were the one who told us not to drag the mood down, Connor. Look, it’s not all bad news!” Her eyes lighting up, Martha pulled up her purse from the side of her seat, rummaging around in it. She emerged with her cellphone, turning it on and scrolling for a bit before showing the screen to Connor.

Curious, I also leaned over for a look, before my eyes widened. “Hey, isn’t that…”

“Yeah. After hearing about what happened to my apartment, my father reached out to me for the first time in years. He’s even tried to send me money to help me recover.” With a smile, Martha retracted her phone, hugging it close to her chest. “I’m not sure if he still believes all those rumors about me, especially after all this time. But, at the very least, it means that in the end he still cares about me to some degree.”

“Are you really sure you should be happy about this, though? I mean, he did abandon his daughter when she needed him most, without even properly listening to what she had to say.” Narrowing my eyes, I picked at a piece of the salad served next to my steak. “I wouldn’t be able to forgive someone like him.”

“That’s still my dad you’re talking about.” Martha shot me a dirty look, before shrugging her shoulders. “In any case, I’m just happy to even see him again. We can reconcile once we’ve talked a little bit more, and then I can give him a good smack upside the head.”

“Oh, that reminds me, though,” Connor said, rubbing his chin. “You said your dad wired you money to help you get back on your feet, which is fine and all. But you haven’t actually decided on a new place yet, have you?”

“No, I haven’t yet. I’ve taken a look at some of the cheaper apartments that I could realistically afford, but…” She shook her head dismally. “No luck so far.”

“Right. And if I remember correctly, Don was living with you at your old residence as well. Where are you guys living right now?”

“Ah. Well, at first we were thinking of just renting a room in some motel for a while,” Martha said, tapping her palm, “but Chris offered us a place to stay at his house when he learned about the situation with my apartment.”

Hearing that, Connor’s eyes flew open. “You’re staying at Chris’ house?”

“That they are.” As if on cue, Chris appeared next to our table, setting down the beverages on his tray. “A second beer for you, Don, and a lemonade for Connor.”

Pushing the empty can in front of me aside, I popped open the fresh can with a finger, kicking back and sipping from it with a satisfied look on my face. Seeing this, Martha raised her eyebrows up at me. “Are you sure you should be drinking so much of that stuff?”

“It’s fine. What am I going to do, drink and drive?” I smirked at her. “You’re still too cheap to buy a car.”

“Shut up.”

“Wait! Why is everyone ignoring me?” Connor waved his hands in a desperate bid to gain our attention. “Chris’ place only has one guest room, doesn’t it? And, that guest room only has one bed!”

“Yeah. So?”

“Then, does that mean…” He stammered, and his face reddened as he pointed a finger up at us. “A-Are the two of you…”

“Why are you the one with such an excited expression on your face? What are you, a middle schooler?” Sighing, Martha jabbed her thumb over to me. “It’s the same as it’s always been. Don is sleeping on the couch in the living room, alone.”

“Oh –” Freezing, Connor suddenly seemed to lose all interest, and he dropped down apathetically onto the table. “What, that’s it?”

“Don’t worry about me.” I waved my hand casually at him. “If I’m being honest with you, I’ve kind of gotten used to it by now.”

“That’s… kind of sad, dude.”

“I know.”

“Well, you say that, but…” Connor peeked up from between his arms with a sly smile. “You showed up like some kind of fairytale prince to save Martha from the grasps of evil, didn’t you? Surely something must have happened. Even I can tell that you guys have been acting more lovey-dovey than normal.”

“Hmm… now that you mention it, I think something did happen. Martha, could you be so kind as to remind me what exactly it was again?” I closed my eyes in profound contemplation, before they snapped open. “Oh, I think I’m starting to remember. When we reunited, didn’t you make a spur-of-the-moment decision to –”

“They –” Martha elbowed my stomach with her face flushed red, forcing the air out of my body, “don’t need to know about that.”

Connor sympathetically gazed over me as I wheezed breathlessly atop the table, probably feeling sorry for me but not nearly enough to incur Martha’s wrath. Martha herself had now turned over to Chris, and her expression had already changed to one adorned with a warm smile. “Shouldn’t you be off serving the other customers?”

“It’ll probably be fine,” Chris shrugged nonchalantly. “Even though the Oasis is steadily gaining back customers, we’ve still got more than enough waiters to deal with all their needs. I think I can afford to just hang around here for a while.”

“In that case… I should probably take this time to properly thank you.” Connor reached over and stole a french-fry from my plate, as I just hugged my stomach and watched defenselessly, struggling to breathe. “And not just about letting those two crash at your place. I mean, you’ve probably been hit hardest by my absence, right? You had more work to do than everyone else to begin with.”

“Don’t worry about it! I’d be a failure of a manager if I couldn’t handle this much.” Pumping his fist in the air, Chris seemed rather fired up. “Moreover… I still can’t forgive myself for not noticing everything that was happening between Martha and Marissa! Even though I had already witnessed a similar situation back at our school…”

“What? Me?” Martha looked a little flustered. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. It was partially my fault for never opening up about it anyway…”

“I know that, but still! If no one else, it should have at least been me to observe that something was wrong! The fact that I didn’t even suspect a thing frustrates me to no end!” Grabbing at his head, Chris groaned in annoyance. “Right. If I consider the extra work I have right now as a punishment for my incompetence, then this is nothing! I have to work even harder to make up for all that time you spent suffering!”

“Um.” Martha reached up and gave Chris a little pat on the shoulder in consolation. “It’s really alright, but… if you say so.”

“I was wondering what all the noise was about,” a familiar voice spoke up from behind. “I come back from a little trip to the bathroom, and find that everyone’s already gathered together without me.”

Jasmine stalked back to our table, before drying her wet hands on Connor’s shoulders. Holding up her smartphone, she paused the music playing through it, and pulled one of her earbuds out. “Though, are you sure we should be sitting together in such a big group? The commotion that you’re making might draw attention to us.”

“What’s wrong, Jasmine?” I spoke in a labored voice, though I had recovered from Martha’s sneak attack for the most part. “Afraid that people will see you and Connor together in public?”

“That’s not it, stupid.” She leaned in, lowering her voice. “It’s about you. According to what I’ve seen on every single news article, the cat’s out of the bag. After the attack on the city, the public is fully aware of the existence of magic now, and it’s no longer possible for the government to deny it. Isn’t the point for you to lay low, so that people don’t recognize you as one of those magic users?”

“Oh, about that.” Lifting her phone back up, Martha began swiping again, before she frowned. “Yeesh. It’s been almost three weeks, and magic talk is still making headlines on every news website.”

After a bit more typing, her eyes lit up, and she raised the phone up triumphantly. “Ah, here we go.”

The rest of us around the table then crowded in to take a closer look at the phone. Extending his arm across the table, Connor swiped downwards on the article, revealing several vivid images among the large chunks of text. The crimson dome of Tempest Field crumbling away, the scattered line of police cars strewn across a demolished street, and several censored images of an array of corpses. Flinching back at the sight of this, Connor slowly pushed the phone away with a finger. “What’s your point?”

“Haven’t you noticed?” She tapped on the screen with the nail of her index finger. “There are loads of pictures showing the magic in action, and a few of the various magic users, but not a single one of Don.”

“Oh… hey, you’re right!” Grabbing the phone back, Connor scrolled up and down hastily, his eyes flickering over the tiny text. “It says right here: ‘The perpetrator was found to be a middle-aged man with white hair, but the identity of the person who apprehended him remains unknown’. But why would –”

“It looks like the attacker went out of his way to destroy any security cameras that could have been rigged in the street or around the plaza. At least, that’s my inference, given the fact that there’s no footage captured from within the magic dome,” Martha said, before reaching over and plucking her phone out of Connor’s hands. “And… for one reason or another, it seems as though the guy that was caught never decided to reveal Don’s name to the authorities.”

Hearing that, the others glanced at each other with looks of confusion in their eyes, while I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes. Nobelys… is this a vestige of the ‘honor’ you spoke of?

“After Don destroyed that attacker’s magic, we escaped through a hole that had flaked away in the dome before the police had a chance to surround us. We must have made our way over to Ms. Owen’s clinic without being spotted, because there aren’t any photos of us fleeing either. But whatever the case is, it looks like the police haven’t linked Don to these recent magical incidents.” She powered off her smartphone, setting it down lightly on the table. “As of now the police have concluded that the recent appearance of magic is a fully isolated case that cannot yet be accessed by any normal humans on Earth, but they’ve also managed to connect this case to the small groups of magic users that were killed off by the silver-haired man, as well as the body of the man that had attacked on the day of our Christmas event.”

Jasmine raised her head. “Then, that only leaves –”

“The people that were at the Oasis the day it was attacked,” I said, finishing her sentence. “Aberon did call my name out for the whole crowd to hear, after all.”

“No… I think that we’ve actually got that front more or less under control,” Chris suddenly spoke out, causing all of us to look over to him.

“What do you mean by that?” Martha titled her head inquiringly.

“I haven’t had much time to join in due to all the extra work that has been piled onto me, but there’s a small group of people from within the Oasis that have gathered to try to keep the situation under control. Whether it’s just to vouch for your innocence or to just keep the fact that you are a magic user under wraps, they’ve been going around and trying to convince the people that were exposed to do the same. They’ve even gone so far as to create an online group to reach out to people who could potentially try to expose this fact.” Taking out a phone of his own, Chris solemnly pulled up a group chat for us to see. “This small group is just composed of people who have worked alongside Don as members of the Oasis’ staff for a while now, who know that Don means no harm to any of us. After all, he did stand up and try to protect us when we were attacked by that man.”

“Really? That’s incredible!” Martha looked up in awe. “But if what you’re saying is true, who would go out of their way to do something like this? Seeing that this person doesn’t seem to be among the five of us.”

“Actually, it was Markus who first proposed this idea to the guests of the Oasis’ party,” Chris said with a low voice, sliding his phone back into his pocket. “He’s been so involved with executing this idea, I don’t even think that he’s been sleeping properly these past few days.”

“Markus –” My eyes widened, and I recalled the fearful expression that he had worn on his face. “But, why would he –”

“After the incident at the Oasis, he realized that you probably only did what you did because you were worried for Connor’s sake. And then, a little while after that, he heard from me that you had gotten hurt trying to rescue Martha, a close friend of his.” Looking down towards the tiled floor of the restaurant, Chris rubbed the back of his head. “That extra bit of knowledge made him rethink some of his actions. Because, according to him, he said some… hurtful things to you.”

For a moment, after hearing that, I just sat there speechlessly. But then I regained a little composure, before shaking my head. “No, he reacted like any normal person would in that moment. He shouldn’t blame himself for it, especially considering the way that I lost control so ineptly.”

“Well, the point is, this is seemingly his way of apologizing to you. You were just doing everything you could to protect us from harm, and yet he berated you harshly for it. He feels quite guilty about that, but considering his introverted attitude, he most likely wouldn’t be able to adequately offer his remorse to you in person.” Reaching a burly arm down, Chris extended an open hand. “He’s sorry for the way that he acted, but can’t bring himself to meet your eye. So, Don, will you accept this apology on his behalf?”

There was a brief pause, but then I gave a little grin, and firmly grabbed his hand to accept the handshake. “Sure, no worries. Relay that message over to him for me, will you?”

“Roger that.” With an amiable nod, Chris pat me on the shoulder and retracted his hand.

“Wait, hold on. If that situation has already been taken care of…” Martha started up, before her voice trailed off. Then, she looked around from left to right. “Does that mean we’re in the clear?”

The five of us grouped around the table were quiet for a few seconds, leaving only the chattering conversations in the background to be heard, before Connor’s voice finally broke the silence.

“Chris, my good sir. Could you do me the favor of bringing us all glasses of water?” With a smile, he held up his empty glass of lemonade, tapping it against the table. “Some of us don’t have any drinks yet.”

“You want me to get us water?” Chris furrowed his brows in confusion. “What for?”

Realizing he may have gotten a little ahead of himself, Connor leaned back into his seat, looking slightly abashed as he rubbed his head. “I mean, well. I was just thinking, wouldn’t this be a good time to raise a toast to Don? It’s true that he sacrificed his ability to use magic, but… if you look at it from another perspective, it’s like this is his chance to finally join us here at the Oasis as a fellow ‘normal’ person.”

“Oh, I get what you mean.” Tapping his fingers on the edge of the seat, Chris straightened up and hoisted his plastic serving tray back up. “Like a toast to his new, mundane human life, right?”

Seeing as they were all starting to get excited, I leaned in on the table, somewhat stirred up. “You guys don’t exactly have to go out of your way to do this, you know. I-It’s really not that big of a deal at all.”

“What are you talking about? We’re all fine with it,” Jasmine smirked from the other side of the table, her arm resting on Connor’s shoulder. “You don’t get to weasel your way out of this one, Don.”

Returning with his tray stacked full of drinks and a smile on his face, Chris set a glass down in front of each person. As the others grabbed their respective glasses of water, my hand hesitantly closed around the frosty beverage, feeling the cubes of ice clink softly against each other. Taking a sip from the glass in front of me, I was about to protest against drawing so much attention to us once again, but then my eyes crossed their energetic faces. It may have been because I didn’t want to inhibit all the fun they looked like they were having, or it might very well have been because I was taken in by their energy myself, but I found myself unable to open my mouth in complaint.

“You don’t have to listen to Jasmine. We don’t have to if you’re against it.” With a hearty grin, Chris waved his glass of water over at me. “But, if you let us, we’re waiting for your thumbs-up.”

Sighing, I lowered my glass of water with an exasperated smile. “Whatever. Suit yourselves.”

“Great!” Stretching out his arms, Connor looked around the table. “So? Anyone want to start us out?”

“I can go, if you’ll let me,” an unexpected voice spoke up.

Martha? I glanced upwards in surprise as she pushed herself up from her seat, but she gave me a quick pat me on the shoulder, so I gave in and fell back. The other three looked on intently as she stood there with her glass of water in hand, each with expectant looks on their faces.

“Okay, I’m not going to make this anything too long or formal, because I know that this troublesome guy here would be against it,” Martha began, nonchalantly pointing down to me with her free hand. Before I had a chance to speak out against her, she continued. “When I first met Don, I wasn’t exactly in the best of places, financially or emotionally. But even though he seriously didn’t know what the heck he was doing most of the time, after a while, he proved himself to be quite a reliable guy. Even though his antics would constantly get us into danger, he still brought some excitement into my bleary life, one way or another. And, for all his idiocy, he really is… a good friend.”

With her eyes closed, Martha’s voice slowly died down. But she suddenly seemed to remember that everyone was still staring at her attentively, and her face turned a little red as her hand tightened on her glass of water. “A-Anyway. Um, what I’m trying to say is…”

Taking a deep breath, Martha turned her head over to me, and for a moment it was like everything else faded away. The others across the table, the overlapping conversations in the background, just leaving the sound of her voice. Holding up her glass, Martha gave me a little smile. “Thanks for being by my side all this time, Don. And… here’s to working with you again in the future.”

And then everything came flooding back all at once, as the restaurant was once again awash with a burst of enthusiastic noise. And through it all rang the crystal-clear tone of five glasses, merrily clinking up against each other.

“Cheers!”

###

As Martha and I walked side-by-side on the tiny sidewalk at a leisurely pace, the frosty winter air breezed past us, making me shiver. The city had gotten rather quiet during these later hours, while the only source of noise came from the few cars that lazily drove by on the central street beside us. The wind increased in strength as we turned a few corners, and I zipped up my coat more tightly, my cheeks stinging from the cold.

We passed the local supermarket, the setting sun highlighting the flat building with an orange tint, and my eyes unconsciously drifted to the mismatched paving of the parking lot. The damage that had been dealt to it had been hastily patched up with a layer of cheap concrete, but the colors of the original pavement and the new material were slightly different, giving the whole parking lot a rather disjointed feel. But the customers didn’t seem to be bothered by it as they went about their days, their metal shopping carts clattering lightly along the concrete.

Walking for a few more minutes, we arrived at the empty facilities of Mauveberry Park. Cutting across the park as a shortcut, we passed through the wide plaza with the stone tiles. Compared to the supermarket, this area was less regularly in use, and thus might have been a lower priority to fix up. The smaller cracks had already been sealed, but the largest chunk of damage had merely been crossed off by a few orange cones, sloppily lined with drooping yellow warning tape in order to caution passerby not to approach. Avoiding the crumbling tiles, we made our way out of the plaza and back onto another little sidewalk. Making one or two more turns, we crossed Dr. Owens’ tiny clinic on the other side of the road, the little sign behind the glass now flipped to ‘closed’.

Recalling the memory, we had rushed here to tend to Martha’s wounds immediately after the encounter with Nobelys. We needed to reveal to her what had really happened so that we could be adequately treated, but Dr. Owens had accepted the news of magic’s existence surprisingly easily. Instead of freaking out, she was actually rather relieved at the explanation, because it gave her answers to questions that had been bugging her for over a month now. As such, she had agreed to keep her mouth shut about my use of magic.

But I couldn’t keep track of my train of thought, because I kept noticing that Martha was staring at me whenever I looked away, which broke my concentration. It had started from around when we were crossing the park, but I finally couldn’t hold it in anymore, and turned to her pointedly. “What? What is it?”

“Um, nothing much.” That was what she said, but she continued to glance up at my head as I skeptically turned away.

“Is there something on my face?”

“No…” Raising her hand, Martha gestured up to her own head. “I just noticed your hair for the first time.”

“My hair?” Self-consciously dragging my hand through my hair, I checked to see if it had gotten tangled or out of shape. But I didn’t notice anything particularly off about it, at least nothing noteworthy enough to be stared at. “What about it?”

Frowning, she placed a hand on my shoulder, bringing me to a stop. “Mm. Hold still.”

Reaching up, she looped a single strand of hair around her finger, before gently tugging the fine fiber out of my head. Wincing, I was about to protest when she brought the strand of hair in front of my face for me to see. I frowned, since everything that I observed was normal for the most part, but then something caught my eye. The strand of hair was mostly a familiar electric blue, but for a tiny section at the end, the color had changed to a rich black.

Holding the strand out between my hands, I stared down at it in contemplation. “This…”

“And it’s not just that strand, either.” Martha circled around me, observing my head from all angles. “The sides, the back, the top… it’s happening everywhere.”

“Well… I’d say it’s probably because my superhuman magic potential was erased. After all, that was the reason the ‘blue’ coloration occurred in the first place.” Closing my fist, I tossed the strand out into the wind. “I guess I really have just become a normal person now.”

“Hmm… what do you think? Would you be up for dyeing your whole head black right now? That would probably look better than having your head half –” Martha froze, and her words trailed off into the air.

“Martha? What’s wrong?” Stopping as well, I looked down at her with a concerned expression.

“I –” Grabbing her head, Martha let out a cry of anguish. “I forgot to buy the freaking cat food again!”

I relaxed my posture. “What?”

“Ahh, I knew there was something wrong when I passed the supermarket!” Shaking her head, Martha prodded my in the chest with her index finger. “But you just had to go and distract me with your stupid, discolored hair!”

Biting down on my lip, I held back a retort. “Can’t we just go back? We can probably still make it before the store closes.”

“No, we’re too far away now.” With a sigh, Martha slouched down, defeated. “Whatever. I give up. There’s probably still enough food for Chestnut to last until tomorrow, anyway.”

“Are you sure that’s what a responsible owner should be doing?”

After a bit of thinking, Martha’s eyes suddenly lit up, and she turned to me. “Hey, you think that Kin could go and buy it for us?”

“Was that a joke, or were you being serious just now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, really!” Martha said with a grin, making little hand motions in front of her to get her point across. “Like, have him transform into his humanoid form, and then go to the store disguised as a human. With one of those huge trench coats and everything.”

“You’d have to go and buy a trench coat first,” I sighed, before rubbing my stomach. “Forget about Chestnut, I’m the one starving here. What’s for dinner?”

“My signature macaroni and cheese, of course!” She nodded proudly.

“Right. Can’t go wrong with that.” I walked a few steps, before turning back to her. “You know, I’ve actually been wondering for a while. Is macaroni the only thing you know how to cook?”

“What?” Caught off guard by the accusation, Martha averted her eyes away from me. “N-No.”

“Those instant noodles from the convenience store don’t count as cooking, either.” I pat my hand down on Martha’s head with a laugh, which she shook off in annoyance. Sticking my hand back into the depths of my warm pockets, we continued walking down the sidewalk in silence. As I looked down at Martha’s little figure in front of me, I suddenly felt the blood rush to my ears. I found it a little hard for me to open my mouth to initiate a conversation with her through the silence, but I managed to force the words out. “H-Hey, Martha.”

Slowing down again, she waited for me to catch up to where she was walking. “What’s up?”

“I, uh…” Swallowing, I tried to take a few deep breaths to steady myself. “I know he was just joking around like usual, but… what Connor said got me thinking. A little.”

Martha’s caramel eyes stared up at me through her brand-new pair of glasses. “About what?”

“Just, um, what he said about… things happening. Between us.” Fidgeting with my fingers behind my back and curling up my toes uncomfortably, I felt like I was burning up despite the frigid weather. Tiny beads of sweat forming on the back of my neck, I turned away from her, feeling each individual beat of my heart within my chest. “And, uh, w-what you did before. Right now… what are we?”

Hearing this, Martha’s eyes opened a little wider, and her cheeks became tinged with a light red. “You mean, whether or not we’re… actually in a relationship? I guess you have a point, since we never really did make anything official.”

“Yeah.” I just couldn’t bring myself to look her in the eye.

“What I did before, that was just something I did in the moment. And, right now, even I don’t fully understand how I feel yet. I guess that makes sense, seeing as I’ve never been in any kind of relationship like that before. I don’t even know what something like that would entail.” Breathing outwards, Martha’s fist tightened around her jacket. “But, having said that…”

With a jolt, I felt something cold slide in between my fingers. Looking down in surprise, I found that Martha had slipped her hand into my pocket, and was now holding mine in her grasp. Glancing away in kind, she spoke again, her face a little redder than before. “Um, if being in a relationship just means I get to spend more time with you, well… I think I’d be up for it.”

I was a little startled at first, but as I quickly got over my initial surprise, I gave a smile and drew my hand out from within my pocket. It was an odd feeling; her hand was cold as ice, and yet it still managed to send a warm feeling spreading throughout my body. “I think I’d be up for it as well.”

“But, just so you know, this is about as far as I’m ready to go right now,” Martha said, shaking the hand that she held me with. “If you try anything funny, I’ll have Chestnut scratch you.”

“I’m sure you would,” I said, nodding my head soberly. “Though, I doubt you’ll have much to worry about. I mean, you were the one to break my bad habit of taking my clothes off without warning.”

“True. I’m glad you grew out of that phase,” she said with a smirk.

“Those were some dark times.” With my free hand, I tapped on my chin. “But, still… I have to admit that this does feel a little weird. You say we’re in a relationship, which is cool and all, but… it doesn’t feel like anything has really changed.”

“Well, I’d say that doesn’t really matter. Who cares if we’re not doing it correctly right now?” With a cheerful expression on her face, Martha beamed up at me sweetly. “If you’re staying here on Earth, we’ve got all the time in the world to get it right, don’t we?”

With a contented nod, I gave her a smile. “Yeah. That’s right.”

Karsis… as much as I hate to admit it, you win. What was that prophecy of yours; that I’d end accomplishing my ultimate goal? I guess you’re not as much of a charlatan as I thought you were.

Because, well, he was correct. My final goal may have ended up different than what I had started out expecting, but I did end up breaking my Manalite necklace to accomplish that goal: saving Martha, and along with her, my mundane life as a human on Earth. It might not have seemed like much of an ‘ultimate goal’, but it was a life that I was content with, and one that I wanted to protect.

And though my time on Earth was so much more prosaic compared to the life I spent as Donnelius Conqaide, the all-powerful magic caster, I cherished every little moment. Working at the Oasis, poking fun at Connor and Jasmine. Exchanging little remarks with Kin, helping Chris out on his newest extravagant project. Chowing down on cheap food with Martha, and succumbing to sleep with her by my side. Every passing day would continue to be another series of enjoyable little tidbits haphazardly strung together, a never-ending flow of wonderfully humdrum memories. My life became packed with all the everyday occurrences of a stranded god.

And, thinking back now, was I ever upset with my decision? Did I ever regret discarding my luxuriously magic-filled life in exchange for one where I lived paycheck-to-paycheck, spending my days cramped together in the same tiny apartment as an arrogant fox, a bothersome cat, and a plain-looking girl?

Nope.

Not even once.