Scene 17 - December 19th

Interior “Higgins Museum”, Continuous

Abraham Armstrong

As I had suspected, Max was in the great hall, sitting in a throne and somehow looking more handsome than ever. He was leaning forward, hands propped up on what looked like a long, ornate wand but could only be Excalibur, and said, “Ah, you’ve finally...” Then he frowned, and his voice was angry as he asked, “Where’s Peregrine?”

I exchanged a quick glance with Anima. As we had guessed. “Sorry, Max, Peregrine couldn’t make it. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”

He stood and vanished in a swirl of flame, reappearing in another burst of fire a few feet in front of us. “I’m never disappointed to see you and Keeper, Navi,” he said, smiling at me and Emilia - suddenly calm again, even pleased. “And you too, Anima,” he added.

“Glad I’m an afterthought,” she said dryly, leaning against the wall. “Max, what exactly are you thinking? This plan is...”

He rolled his eyes and lifted the wand, resting it across his shoulders. “Obviously I’m not really declaring myself king, that’s a ridiculous notion. No one would accept it, no matter how good a ruler I’d be.” I... didn’t think he was being serious, but... “I just needed to attract Arthur Peregrine’s attention.”

Emilia shifted into a parrot and landed on my shoulder. “To ransom Excalibur for the book you were looking for?” she asked. “Peregrine said it wasn’t useful anyway.”

“I must say, I expected it to look more like a sword,” I commented.

“It changes shape to fit its bearer,” he casually explained. “And no, I have no intention of giving up this beauty. Excalibur, really?” He twirled it around his fingers. “A great many things became clear to me once I drew it from the stone, but that wasn’t one of them. It makes sense, though...”

I narrowed my eyes. “What sort of things became clear, Max?”

He smiled at me - the same loving but slightly-condescending smile he wore whenever he told me about magic. “Nothing you need to worry about - just magical puzzles that had been stumping me for years, now.”

“If you weren’t going to trade Excalibur to Peregrine,” Anima cut in, “why did you want him here?”

“To show him that I’m not as incompetent as he believes,” Max said, his voice going hard. Something seemed very off about him, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what. Perhaps it was how fast he was bouncing from one emotion to the next. “He rejected me, did I ever tell you that? I was down on my knees, begging to learn magic from him, and he cast me aside.”

“He didn’t think you were incompetent, Max,” Emilia said, her tone almost pleading - she was seeing the same instability as I was, a mercurial shifting of moods that Max had never shown before, I could tell. “We talked to him, and he said that his style of casting wasn’t compatible with yours, and that’s why he didn’t take you on.”

He laughed, amused once more. “Is that what he said? No, he simply didn’t see my genius.” He leaned Excalibur against his shoulder again. “And you know, perhaps he was even right, then. Certainly I’m far greater now than I was before.”

“Max,” Anima said, her voice filled with pity and concern, “Excalibur is affecting your mind.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Is that what he told you?”

“He said that the blade is dangerous,” she summarized, “and that, yes, it’s probably messing with your head. Please, Max, give us the-”

Max casually flicked the wand, and a massive metal cage suddenly coalesced around Anima, trapping her - I sank into a combat-ready posture, and Anima flapped off my shoulder to become a leopard again. “Don’t,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, “even ask it.”

“Max, please,” I begged. “You don’t have to do this!”

He turned to face me, and flame began to flicker around him - a fiery aura casting a dangerous light on his features and making me squint to keep looking at him. “What would you do?” he demanded, his voice rising and becoming more and more frantic. “Comparing me without this blade to with it... it’s like night and day. I was nothing without it - like a regular person! What would you do, if someone proposed to take your powers from you!?!”

My voice caught - he couldn’t know, could he? How could he possibly know - there was no way! Max... he had worked with the Ambrosia Company at least once, I knew, had received magical tutelage from them - but he couldn’t know that my powers came from the same source, could he? Or that they could be taken away as easily as they had been given to me?

“Max...” Emilia said, and in my brief panic I hadn’t even realized that she had taken bird form and perched on my shoulder yet again. “The night may lack the sun, but there’s still the moon. There’s still the stars. Even if you’re less without this sword, you’re far from nothing. You were an amazing person without it - you can be again.”

Max stared at us, still with a wild, frantic light in his eyes, then down at Excalibur. He... fuck, he actually seemed to be considering it.

He looked down at the wand in his hand, then back at us. Then at Anima in the cage he had placed her in, then back to the wand, then us...

“...no.” He said, finally.

“...no?” I asked.

“No.” Then something was flying at my head and I was dodging, unsure of what had gone wrong.