Gus flipped his eyes open at the sound of hearing the door open to his room. When he looked over, he could see Marin entering.

“Marin! You’ve returned?” He asked.

Marin confirmed as he walked in and shut the door behind him. Gus noticed the sun setting through his window in the room. The day was nearing its end once again.

Gus sat up. It was a much easier feat than earlier that day.

“How are you feeling?” Marin inquired as he sat on the end of the bed.

“Much better.”

“Color has returned to your face. You look to be recovering at a good rate,” Marin noticed.

Gus nodded. He had gotten more sleep as Marin had been gone most of the day, and Eisen had done a fair job of taking care of him. He had been fed, and received several extra doses of medicine.

The bathroom at some point was even prepared for him, after a noisy encounter with some life form that Gus could only hear about from behind his closed door. Eisen had yelled several profanities at the monster while liquid noises could be heard splattering about.

He thanked God that he never witnessed whatever horror Eisen had created.

Besides that, Gus gave a good report on the doctor.

“That’s relieving to hear,” Marin stated.

“What about you?” Gus started. “Did you find your necklace?”

“I’ve made progress on that,” Marin was proud to report. “I have enlisted some help in recovering it. You’ll meet the man soon enough.”

Gus nodded. “That cross pendant must really be worth all this effort, huh?”

“Very much so. I have to get it back,” Marin responded.

“What’s so valuable about it? You can’t just have it remade?”

Marin thought for a moment.

That’s entirely possible. Why can’t I have it just remade? It’s an ordinary piece of jewelry. Am I being this sentimental?

...No. There’s a reason why it’s so important… And I can’t remember. There’s something more to that pendant than I can remember. I… I have to figure it out. I have to remember what it is. I must get it back.

Marin turned to face Gus in bed.

“Not this one,” Marin responded.

He refused to follow up further than that. Gus accepted that it was yet another thing that was not his business. If it was this important to him though, Gus began to think it was for a reason that was beyond sentimentality.

Gus began to blame himself for this entire fiasco. Marin should have just left him at home. He hated seeing his King in such a predicament.

Gus slammed his fist into the bed.

“What?” Marin said.

“It’s my fault. Everything this far has been my fault! Look at me! Look at how much I’ve impeded your mission! You should have never taken me!”

“Gus…”

“You’ve had to worry about me this entire time. I’ve been nothing but a liability this far. You would still have your necklace if it wasn’t for me. I’ve caused you so much distress and pain-”

“Enough!” Marin declared in a voice similar to the one he used during the rogue encounter. It was quite intimidating.

Gus fell silent.

“You need to STOP blaming yourself for everything! I knew exactly what responsibility I was taking on when I chose you to journey with me. I knew I needed to protect you, and in return you’d-”

“Protect me! Protect me because I’m weak, right?” Gus fired back.

“You’re not a weak person, Gus. Why would you look at it that way?”

“What other way is there to look at it? You explained to me what people are capable of! Compared to them I’m nothing more than a child.”

“That’s also the majority of people. You’re looking at the peak of a mountain when you’re already at the base of it. That’s still higher than the rest of the world living in the valley.”

Gus shook his head. He didn’t care for the metaphors Marin spoke in. There was only thing he wanted more than anything else.

“...What if I want to climb the mountain?”

Marin sighed. He knew exactly what Gus was talking about. The elements.

“I’ve given you that opportunity, but you deny it.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I deny anyone else guiding me up there besides you,” Gus pointed out.

“What do you want from me, Gus?!” Marin asked forcefully.

“I want you to teach me the ice element. I want to learn it from the best man I know. And if I knew it, maybe for once I could defend you instead of it being the other way around.”

Marin stood up. He went for the door. Gus was really starting to try his patience. In his first thought, Marin was ready to leave the room and let Gus think about the way he had been rudely making demands.

When his hand rested on the door knob to leave, though, he didn’t open the door.

Marin sighed again, and raised his head up in thought.

Gus stayed silent.

After a short moment that felt like a long one, Marin turned around, and sat back down on the bed.

“Why me? What do you see in me, Gus? What’s so special about me? I wear this mask, you’ve never even seen my face. You know almost nothing about my past. Who am I to you?”

Gus stayed silent for a moment as he thought.

“...You’re powerful, you’re wise, you care about me and all the villagers of Heroca. You saved us all from a raid, you used your wealth to rescue us and give us a home, even though we had never met you before in our lives. You’re a defender, not an attacker. You are a benevolent person, not one of selfishness.

Whoever you are… Whoever you were… Whatever true reason you wear that mask, even if it’s because you’ve done some bad things in your life, that’s all not a King Marin I know. And because of that, I don’t care, I see past that all. You’re my role model, I’ve decided. And I wouldn’t accept anything less than the best person I know to teach me.”

Marin sat with his head down, unresponsive.

There was silence for a while. It was a lot to reflect on. Marin had impressed too much on Gus, and he weighed it with himself if that was a good thing or a bad one.

“You’d be a hedge elemental. You’d have no certification of elemental status. No official-”

“That’s just a word to me, Marin. I couldn’t care less what people think.”

Marin finally took a sigh after another long pause. He grasped Gus’s leg over the blanket with his glove covered hand.

“Alright Gus. I will teach you. I will… But there’s a deal that must be made. You must do one thing for me if you want me to become your teacher.”

Gus couldn’t believe it. He had finally convinced Marin. “Yes, yes, my King. Anything!”

“I want you to make peace with your father. You must see him and make amends. That is my one requirement,” Marin offered.

Gus sat back in shock. That was the furthest stipulation that he could have imagined Marin would make. Why was that so important to him? He began to think if he could possibly swallow his pride enough to do it.

Gus began to slowly nod. Marin stared back with his expressionless mask.

“...Alright. Okay King Marin, we have a deal.”

“Very good.” Marin released his grip, and stood up.

“What’s next?” Gus asked.

“For you, nothing. Nothing but continuing to recover. If you are looking even better than you are by this time tomorrow, I’m sure Eisen will give a thumbs up on you being well enough to be back in action. Just try to get more sleep.”

“I will.”

Marin nodded, and went to leave. “Are you hungry? You said you’ve been fed well, but…”

“Not hungry at all, the doc fed me right before you came back.”

“Good. Alright then. Sleep well.” Marin opened the door and left, shutting it behind him.

Gus waited a moment to be sure that he was gone, and then raised his fists in the air.

He had done it.

He was going to become an elemental, and on his terms.

He pumped his fists several times in silence, ecstatic about what had just unfolded.

Marin walked down the hallway to the kitchen. Eisen met him halfway.

“Marin, I did not approve more house guests!” The doctor said. He was already adapting to having two new people come and go from his abode, but three was crossing his line of comfort. Seeing as he had isolated himself for so long, Eisen was not in any peaceful situation with other people wandering his home.

“Relax, doctor. He is necessary, and won’t be here long,” Marin tried.

“Three days, Marin!” Edward Eisen held up three gnarled fingers. “No, two!” A finger dropped. “You get two days of having an extra person in my house.”

“I will not waste your hospitality,” Marin replied.

“Also I’m going to a need a few samples of you,” Eisen announced.

“What?!” Marin responded.

“Very small ones. Just to study your cells. I need some from your skin and muscle.”

Marin had almost forgotten that he was a failed experiment to Eisen, his newest puzzle to solve.

“...I’d be far more willing to give you these samples if you’d be more willing to having Travis here.”

Eisen crossed his arms and tapped his foot. He began to realize Marin wasn’t obligated to do everything he demanded. He also couldn’t force the King, Marin was just as strong as Eisen if not stronger. This was going to be a give and take situation.

“I need you to be reasonable if you want me to be,” Marin added.

“Fine, your plus two can stay for however long you need him.”

The two of them entered the kitchen where Travis had been sitting, who at the moment, had still not come to terms with the state that Eisen kept his house in. There was noticeable distress coming from Travis, who did his best to keep himself composed.

The remains from the ooze monster that Eisen battled earlier still had not been cleaned up, and Travis dared not touch the globs of suspicious liquid that dotted the household from what it had squirted.

Upon seeing Eisen again, Travis became repulsed.

“I can’t believe you live like this,” Travis stated.

“I never asked you to come here!” Eisen replied.

“Alright, calm down everyone. Wait in the basement for me doctor, I will be down there later to give you my samples. I need to discuss some topics with Travis.”

Eisen wasn’t happy, but agreed and hobbled down the basement stairs, talking to himself in rants.

When Eisen was out of ear’s reach, Travis began. “This is where Frankenstein was made! I’m telling you! That dude’s nuts! This is not a place where anyone should be living. Why are you working with him?!”

Marin gestured for Travis to lower his voice.

“It’s not like I had much of a choice. My friend was dying. I had nowhere else to turn,” Marin explained.

Travis shook his head.

Marin cleared off a part of the table Travis sat at and produced paper and a pen. He rested it in front of him.

“What’s the plan?” Marin asked as he sat beside him.