Memories are strange. In those memories he was someone who didn’t even exist. Perhaps what he hated the most was how he had been able to change others. The rest could change, though there was little difference. He wanted to believe that it could be changed. To change the world was the same as taking all the sand he could gather from the beach with a shovel and a bucket. The amount was staggering and no one could stomach it. He opted to use the resources available to him in hopes he could change the outcome.

You may not be able to truly change the world if you try to influence it through subtle actions. He had noticed that such actions do not produce the results he wanted. He was naïve and that led to his parents death. Mavin could still smell the air back then, that horrible stench as his failure to convince them led to their stand in the city of Jorvi.

Mavin found hope in some places. Though he did find them, there are lapses, times where he would doubt his methods. Times where not even the boons could help him go through the ideals he would keep. To Mavin there was only one goal, and that was to prevent whatever was going to happen in those memories. However, to achieve those goals alone would be troublesome, so he had to deal with these people in hopes he could use them. To do whatever he wanted without question.

He was able to achieve things, however, without the same people that helped him. He would be powerless. Mavin knew that abandoning the burden of rule to Count Derrick was a surprise, some would call him the greatest fool for it. His cousin earned that title, and  Mavin wanted Lazon to have a rule that could actually rule. He would spare them of a ruler that was not right. Nonetheless, he still holds power over some of the affairs of Lazon as an Enforcer. However, they had placed a limitation on what he could wish for. Not because he would use them, but to preserve his life. He had proven himself in the field after serving in the war for almost seven-years. He had become someone who was feared because of the rifle he wielded, adding to the merit.

But all of it was because he was prepared.

What would you do when faced with a strange vision of a burning world?

To be told that your world was close to this vision of a future written in moving pictures programmed to create branching scenarios. How he had dreaded that all of it must be some sort of dream. He was glad that no one saw how he despaired on that hill. How he screamed at the thought that the All-Maker was playing a joke.

He had stopped doubting such powers when he saw one of the boons. Some of the boons increased his strength to peak physical levels, and enhanced his survival. Some of the boons that he had were one-time uses only that allowed him to cripple the Imperator’s Mark.

In the memories they used the same method. In those memories they told of the chaos that would envelop as the age of magic dies, bringing forth the reign of an advancing world. Mavin was not generous to think that he would be able to change what would happen later on.

Maybe he was being arrogant, to hold the weight of the burden upon this land. No one asked him to do so. He could run away, and find a place east of Holmia where the troubles wouldn’t reach. He had thought of it once. How he would throw it away, run away from it, and let fate do its job.

Let it all burn.

But Mavin found out that he was soft-hearted weakling.

That he couldn’t let go of the faces that he knew and held dear.

The memories told him of the very core of their hearts. They know how they would react based on those ‘profiles’ that the ‘memories’ had allowed him to remember. He felt like a bastard knowing that they are fond of and how to speak to them, nudging them in the direction that he wants. He might not be able to change their minds, their beliefs so easily, but he could influence them to believe that their goals are aligned.

He felt like a bastard. They thought of him as some grand schemer, the way the Emperor looked at him as if he understood his schemes sickened him. Nonetheless, he could play the role, the ‘Mavin Tomas’ that could stay still in a prone position for hours, shooting heads, and having enough kills in his name to be feared by those who fear his steel-barreled scythe. But the boy that was sleeping, the one thrown on the back of his head was crying. He tried to snuff out that crying boy, sharpening his mind, and letting it decide.

There are days where he wanted to throw it on Rene or Kristine. Let them take care of the affairs of the world as they should be. They were chosen by this world after all. It wasn’t his job. It was not his duty. But the Mavin Tomas that had started this couldn’t allow it.

He had the knowledge. He had the means. He had the ability to do so.

What kind of bastard would he be if he would stay silent in the face of evil? To not do anything about what would happen to the world and his home was evil itself. He thought of it greatly in the times where he could stay still. Yet he grew fond of them, and was unable to treat them as the same.

Mavin felt like a fool at the thought of them. He rooted for them to reach a better ending than those ‘memories’ foretell.

He saw what could happen.

How Kohl could reach Maria.

How a despairing father did not have to die and be the cause for the lives that would be lost for a war that would continue. It was a small price to pay for whatever worst that would have come.

Once they get the resources from the Duchy of Wilde, he could get the Emperor to lend him the pawns that would allow him to destroy the evil that rests in the mouth of Pustalo. His hounds were ready and the Juggernauts he had created would be able to desecrate that nest.

He couldn’t deal with the nest if the agreement in Flost didn’t go well. He needed the peace that would happen, and even though the Holmian-Webman cooperation was already on his sight before long. It can be said that it was fortunate that he would be able to take care of the Magi and Nuller early. He had ideas of allowing them to help the problems regarding the nest, but they were folks whose pride are taller than mountains.

He had to destroy their powers and prevent them from interfering when he could. There was no way that he would hesitate to destroy the Mark. He had seen the potential and disasters of what the Mark could do. How it brought nations down and made people kneel in front of such a mark.

It didn’t matter if the person who the Mark was decent or had changed.

What mattered was that he could remove the Mark before it could be done.

Mavin rid himself of thought for now. He got off his bed, took his coat, and wore his holster. As he went to the living room of the ancestral house, he spotted Natalya playing around with her silver arm. She noticed him. She gave him a glance and extended that silver arm to him.

“Help me.”

Mavin moved towards her. He slid the plate on the silver prosthetic, adjusted the gears, and tinkered with how she could control her fingers.

“That’s enough,” she stopped him. She clenched and unclenched her silver prosthetic. “A masterwork isn’t it? A lovely work of art. So, off to do what you do?”

“Yes.”

“I see,” Natalya retracted her arm. She tightened the straps on her left shoulder. “I hope you will spare my family. They are still my family, after all. I love them.”

“I’ll never do anything that would kill them.”

“Yes, you only maim and leave scars after all.”

Natalya reached out to the wine she was tasting. “Old Fred looked gloomy when he came down a while ago. He left to take care of business in the Webman Company. Also, it is really okay for you to leave me behind like this? I could run away you know?”

“Maybe, you have the freedom to do so.”

“Easy to say when you don’t have the Hounds of Lazon and the Royal Huntsman around watching your back. Then again, I do understand that as a part of your ‘family’ now I have the right to live. I have nothing much to say other than I hope that you would treat my family well. My elder brother, he might be a bastard, but he is still my brother. I dearly love them, even if they do not share some of my sentiments. I did go to war because I want to protect them. If anything, this is rather passive-aggressive for the Empire, when they could just gather forces to force my home to pay for the reparations. None of them would bat an eye right now.”

“How’s your left arm?”

“Did you even listen to what I was saying? It’s fine. You don’t have to give me that face. I already told you that I share the same sentiment. I know what this power can do, and you have every right to fear it and take it away from me. Mavin Tomas, you are the kind who seeks affirmation, when we meet you seem always confused why I couldn’t hate you, that you would have every right. If I am to pull a pistol on you, that would be too kind of me. You would want that. You would want a justification, a reason to give up. I will never give you that affirmation, you can spend some time asking why I don’t hate you. Why I don’t loathe and spit on your face. You’d want that, you’d be fine after that, and that is why I won’t do it. It bothers you isn’t it? It is my greatest weapon against you, and I’d be a fool to let go of that weapon.”

“You are so sure of me.”

“Because I am. You would come running to save me if given the chance, you would do it to some stranger, not because you have a kind heart. I’ve figured you out a long time ago, Mavin Tomas. You are an empty man that finds happiness in others because you think that you have lost that right. Old Fred tells you that you have lost something on that hill. I don’t know what that is, but it must be the reason why you could be like this. No decent human would abandon their own happiness, and I saw how you looked at the Princess. That desire on you was enough to light a fire on your eyes. You don’t have this look on your right now when you stare at her.”

“When did you?”

“Does it matter?”

She took a sip. “One day you would burn out after cutting yourself from that desire of yours like this. You are consumed by your task, and once you are worn down, when your strength fails, and you would break. I’d be there to stand beside you, would I be laughing? Would I be taking pity? Who knows? Be good, husband. I hope that you achieve what it is that you desire. But do not forget what I said about my family. That’s all I ask out of you.”

“I will.”

He turned around and went to the door.

“Mavin,” she called. “Return to me once you are done with whatever you are doing. I’ll have you take responsibility for all of this, and don’t you think that you could escape this. You owe me more than you think. Do not forget, Mavin Tomas. You choose this, all you need to do is run away. I wonder...will you?”

There was a cruel knowing smile on her. As if she could see something that he did not. Mavin suppressed such thoughts for now, bottling them up.

Mavin did not understand. He searched his ‘memories’ and yet it didn’t give him an answer. The ‘Viola Whitefall’ in his memories were far too different from what she was now.

It bothered him.

It made his stomach turn.