Glorious Stories

Two Such as We, Part II

*****

Helias took up residence with Madiana’s family the very next evening when his work in the fields was completed.  Though the newness of this arrangement made for a nervous, awkward beginning, they soon eased into a rhythm of comfort, aided by her parents’ kind-hearted nature and Helias ‘s affable charm. He had brought a mandolin along, and the family was delighted to learn that he could play it well, and knew all the best ballads by heart.  

He was a hard worker, just as Micola had said.  Madiana found that he was always awake and working before she rose, even on her best days–and she was no sluggard.  He barely paused throughout the day, his vigorous persistence soon winning the respect and admiration of her father despite his efforts to remain carefully objective.  After less than a month, Madiana thought Papi was even more ready to give permission for her hand than Helias was to ask for it.  As for Mami, she swept kisses across Helias’s forehead every evening as if he were her own child, and made sure to pack extra rations in his rucksack when he went out to his other work so that he would have more than enough.  It made Madiana’s heart glow to see how they cared for him.

The knowledge that Helias had lied during their first meeting bothered her, but try as she might, she could not determine which part of his answers had been false.  Her initial impressions of him remained certain; he was good, and as each day passed, the fondness between them grew as she had known it would.  He steadily proved himself to be everything she had ever hoped for in a man: conscientious, diligent, earnest, and gracious…

…but there was something troubling underneath.  A shadow, a snag in the texture of his spirit which Madiana caught sometimes in small, fleeting moments with her inherent sight. It gave her pause, not enough for her to give him up, but enough to weigh heavily on her heart as she tried to sleep.  Though it had barely been a month, she wondered if it was the reason why he had not yet asked her to marry him.  

What could it be?  What would he hide, and why?

At first, she said nothing of her wondering.  But after time had passed and they had grown more comfortable with one another, she began to question him lightly, hoping to prod him subtly into confessing the falsehood.  Before long, she determined that the only area in which Helias’s answers were anything less than perfectly transparent was that of his life in his home village.

“It’s much the same as here,” he said one day after she had asked him again about home.  He lay back on the grass and stared up at the blue sky, squinting into the light.  Madiana thought he might have done it to obscure his facial expressions while answering.

“We’re a good bit further from the mountains, of course, but there’s not much difference.  We farm and craft have festivals every so often.  It’s small, like Casenga, but there’s enough people to make it interesting enough.”

Madiana sighed and rolled over, resting her cheek on his shoulder and tracing absent-minded patterns on his tunic.  “Were you sad to leave it, when you came here?”

“No,” said Helias.  

There was a lie.  She was getting somewhere at last.  

“You must have been at least a little sad to leave your home,” she pressed.  “Was there a girl there? You needn’t be afraid to tell me if there was.”

“No, no! Nothing like that,” Helias chuckled nervously, rising enough to look her in the eyes.  He was truthful, this time.  “No, there’s never been anyone but you, Madiana.  I know that may seem hard to believe, given how much people like me here, but back home hardly anyone liked me.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, there’s no accounting for taste.  I’m just glad you like me.”

            She could get nothing more out of him after that.  It wasn’t that Helias was evasive, not quite, but he always managed to redirect their conversations away from his home.  Madiana stopped questioning him on it overtly, fearing she would drive him away if she kept at it.  

            Micola and Pietro announced their engagement the following week, and Madiana was asked to stand with Micola along with Luca and Penina as her dearest friends.  To Helias’s surprise, Pietro asked him to stand with them as well, having grown to like him immensely during the work they shared during the harvest.  

             And so it was that when the day arrived, Madiana and Helias rose earlier than usual to prepare themselves for the celebration.

            Madiana donned her best gown and braided ribbons in her hair–a set of her very own, which Helias had bought for her as a present.  She emerged from her room to find Helias emerging from his room, hair combed and wearing his best tunic in the red that suited him so well, despite its many patches.  

            “You look wonderful,” she beamed, stepping into his arms and leaning up to kiss him.  

            “If you say so,” he laughed, grinning against her mouth. 

            “You’ll look more wonderful with this,” Mami said, dangling something between them.

            It was a new scarf, hand-woven with Mami’s distinctive touch, the same weave that made up all of Madiana’s clothes.  Like Helias’s scarf must once have been, it was of a deep burgundy, very close to black, and fitted with fine, twisted tassels at the end.  

            Helias gazed at the garment in surprise, clearly touched.  “For me?  Ah, Besina, you shouldn’t have…”

            Before he could finish his thanks, Mami had slipped his old scarf from him with deft fingers to replace it with the new.

            Helias froze–and so did Madiana and her mother.

            At the base of his throat, concealed until now by the scarf, was a patchy scar that wrapped all the way around, as if left by burns that had only recently healed.

            Madiana’s hand flew to her mouth, and she looked up to find Helias cringing with a look of sorrow and shame.  He hurriedly took the new scarf from Mami and wrapped it around himself, concealing the marks once again.

            “Thank you, Besina,” he said hoarsely, looking at the floor.  “You’ve always been so kind.”

            Without another word, he made for the door.  For a moment, Madiana wondered whether he was going to the wedding as they’d planned, or going away entirely.  She rushed after him, casting a helpless look at Mami as she passed.

            “Helias!” she called, reaching for his arm.

            He let her, thank the fates.  Once her hands were holding him, he slowed his pace.  She didn’t know what to say, and her abilities gave her no insight this time.  For once, she wanted desperately to make them work.  

            Helias was silent for several minutes as they walked toward Casenga, until he finally spoke, and when he did, it was with such forced composure Madiana wanted to shake him until he let himself loose.

            “I’m sorry about that back there,” he said with a smile that was too casual for what had just occurred.  “I didn’t expect it, that’s all.  I hope you don’t think anything bad about my neck.  There was a silly accident before I came here–a stupid mistake.  The marks won’t last forever.”

            Madiana’s thoughts whirled, but she truly didn’t have any words to offer at the moment.  She hugged his arm tighter and kissed his shoulder instead.  “I love you.  We love you, do you know that?”

            Helias said nothing, his gaze fixed on the ground again.  But he nodded.

*****

            Three weeks later, Helias did not come home in time for supper.  The family waited for a long time before finally eating without him and setting his usual portion aside for when he arrived.  Madiana waited by the window afterward, peering through the gaps in the paper to catch sight of him, wanting nothing more than to throw on her cloak and go out looking for him, though she knew it would be both ridiculous and dangerous to do so in the wintery cold.

            It was after midnight before the sound of footsteps finally woke Madiana from her dozing in the chair by the fire.  Starting up, she hurried to the window.

            Through the slim gap, she saw Helias standing with his jacket and scarf pulled tight, standing before the cottage and staring at it miserably.  

            She seized her cloak and went out, shuddering against the bracing chill, and approached him.

            “Madiana,” he murmured wearily, shoulders slumped.  “You should be asleep.”

            “I was waiting for you.”

            He swallowed, closing his eyes.  “My uncle is dead.  Longfever.”

            Unexpectedly, he sank to the ground, his long legs folding as he buried his face in his hands.  His breath stuttered as if he were holding back sobs.  “Oh, Madiana…” he whispered.

            She sank down with him, spreading her cloak around his shoulders and pulling him into her arms.  She held him as he wept, and cried along with him.  He wanted to say something, she could tell.  He wanted to, but felt he couldn’t.

            “Helias, please,” she said, stroking his face.  “Please tell me.”

            A bitter laugh escaped him through his tears.  “You know, there’s something, don’t you?  You always know.  That’s your power, isn’t it?”

            She looked at him, stunned.  He had told her never to mention that, and here he was the one to bring it up.  “Yes.  I know things when I look at people, sometimes.”  She paused.  “What is your power?”

            With a grave expression, he met her eyes.  “If I focus, I can make people do what I want.  Most of the time, I can even make them think it’s their own idea.”

            She stilled.  

            Well.  Little wonder that he’d wanted to keep that power secret.

            “How long have you known about your abilities?” asked Helias, his gaze sliding away. 

            “I suppose I’ve always known,” Madiana admitted.  “Ever since I can remember.”

            “It wasn’t like that for me,” he said.  “I only discovered mine two years ago.  It was subtle, at first.  I didn’t know whether it was my imagination.  Then when I knew it was real, I wanted to study it.  Do you understand?  I’ve always wanted to know more than I do.”

            He swallowed, his eyes widening with revulsion.  “So I experimented.  Test after test to see what all I could do, how far I could go.  Nothing nasty, but definite pushes on people’s wills, shifting them just because I could.”

            Madiana listened, pieces falling into place.  Her heart sank as she understood the burden he carried all this time.

            “I had good intentions–most of my influence I used to help my family, seeing what I could get for us.  Making people pay more for our goods, causing them to favor us, or offer respect.  But I went too far, and people started to notice.  They–”

Helias paused and touched his throat.  “They called me a witch.  Some of them tried to hang me, but my father begged them to let me down and said they couldn’t prove anything.  I was so grateful, but when he brought me home he just gave me that scarf and banished me from the house.”

Helias had no sooner finished his sentence before he doubled over in silent weeping.  Madiana’s heart broke, and she covered him with her body, holding him until his sobs subsided.  

Helias sat up, scrubbing at his face with soiled hands.  “I was never sent to look after my uncle.  I told him he needed me to care for him so he would let me stay.  Madiana, I don’t know how much power I have.  What if I–?”

“You didn’t curse him,” she said firmly, gripping his wrists, squeezing him tight.  “Longfever is common near the mountains.  I had it last spring myself.  There’s a witch in the wood who scrapes out a living offering a cure for it, though few of us in Casenga have been fool enough to take it.”

Helias made a choked sound that was half relief and half disbelief.  

“It’s true,” Madiana insisted.  She hugged him again.  “Whatever you may have done in the past, it’s over now.  You are with us, and you are good, and you are the one I love.”

“Don’t you want to ask whether I’ve used my power on you?  Your parents?”

She shook her head, and held his face, forcing him to meet her eyes.  “Helias, when I looked at you for the first time, I knew what you were.  There was much I did not know about you, but you were and always will be a good and beautiful man.  And I will not give you up.”

He gazed at her in shock, tears crystalizing on his cheeks.  

“Come in,” she begged, tugging at his wrists again.  “Come home, Helias.”

With a sigh, he surrendered, and followed her into the waiting warmth of their home.

*****

            In the springtime, after the grief of his uncle’s passing eased, Madiana and Helias were married.  Now that the burden of his secret was lifted from his shoulders, Helias was like a new man.  His manners remained the same, but the shadow on him was gone, and he moved with more freedom and contentment than ever before.  Madiana had thought him amiable when she first knew him; there was now no gentler nor more admirable man in all of Casenga in her eyes.  

            Micola stood for Madiana at her wedding, beaming proudly as if she herself had arranged it.  “I told you he was meant for you, didn’t I?” she crowed good-naturedly.  

            “Yes, you did,” Madiana conceded.  “My clever friend, what a gift you are!”

            The change to married life felt as natural as Madiana could have hoped.  She could hardly believe she’d once been afraid of change.  They took Helias’s old room and fitted it to receive the children they would bear.  Papi taught Helias how to make a cradle, and beds that would stack atop one another to save space.

            The house was full of delight when Madiana discovered that their first child was soon on its way.  Papi clasped Helias’ shoulders and crushed him in a fatherly embrace, openly tapping the bridge of his foot this time.  “Great news, my boy!  Great news!”

            Their firstborn came on a day of fresh snow, the flakes as gentle and delicate as they had been when Madiana and Helias first met.  They named him Iulio, after Helias’s father, and cherished him with everything they had.

            “Do you think he is like us?”  Helias asked, gazing at their son as he held him one night.

            Madiana looked at the infant, the breaths from his tiny nose noisy and precious as he slept.  “Perhaps,” she said.  “It’s not clear to me yet.  Though with two such as we, it would be surprising if our children didn’t have some form of magic in their blood.”

            Only time would tell.

            And time did tell, though it would be another seven years.  While Iulio did not overtly show any latent mageblood, the second child, Daniela, certainly did.  Her first real tantrum when she was a year old made the earthen pot on the table shatter without her ever touching it, startling the poor child right out of her ill temper.  Little Iulio hurried to console her as she began to cry.  “It’s alright, ‘Ela!  Mami, can I take her outside?”

            “Yes, please show her the flowers until she calms down,” Madiana said, trying not to show her surprise at the girl’s sudden display of ability.  Her son was perceptive, if not magical, and who knew that might become as he grew.  How much more might this become, if Daniela could already make her magic so visible?

            She showed the shards to Helias when he came home.

            “We must teach her self-control,” he remarked grimly, holding the broken pieces in his hands.  “Things can break so quickly when magic is involved.”

            “Helias, her gift is powerful.  It’s different from ours, can’t you see that?”

            He frowned, his worry evident.  “Let’s not borrow trouble before it comes.”

            Madiana said no more until later, when they lay in bed.  “She may have enough to be noticed by the royal mages when they come to do the tests.”

            “They won’t test here,” Helias answered without stirring.  “Not in our house.”

            “No?”

            “No.”

            Madiana wanted to press further, but stopped when she realized what he meant.  “Helias… are you sure that’s right?  She could have the chance to learn with them, to study as you always wanted.”

            He clasped her hand and brought it to his chest.  “If our children manifest powers in full, we will find someone to teach them.  It is nothing that two such as we cannot do.”

            Madiana considered, focusing all her mind and heart on his words, and after a moment, she knew it to be true.

*****

The End