SS Deleted 12

Stories of the Scarlet Skye

Deleted Scenes – Interview with a Varlet





"Matthias, you're with me. We move, people! Back here in three hours, max!" Crim turned around and hopped over the railings.


Matt groaned in annoyance and hurried down a plank after the captain. It took him a full three blocks to catch up; Crim was tall and walked fast, which made for a lot of ground being covered in a short time. Matthias wondered absently how his sister ever managed to keep up with the bloke.


"I could think of several more productive things I could be doing than tagging along after you," Matt called breathlessly to Crim.


The captain paused, turned and waited for the former mage to catch up. "I'm sure you could."


When they were almost even with each other, Crim continued on again.


"You know," Matthias said, "I understand that you don't trust me, but there comes a point when one has to evaluate the usefulness of such extremes as these. Surely I'm going to do nothing but slow you down."


"Think of it this way," Crim said, not bothering to look back, "The more exercise you get, the easier outings like this will be for you."


"So you're planning to make this a regular thing?" Matthias made a horrendously disgusted face of disbelief.


"One day you might even be quick enough to pick up a weapon. Won't that be nice." Crim tried very hard to suppress a smirk.


Matthias let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't understand why she deals with you."


That got a reaction. "Because unlike you, Car works very hard to be useful."


"Pft! You have no idea how hard I work."


"You've never had to do anything but sit back and be daddy's little lackey," Crim scoffed. "Now shut your trap and move faster or I'm going to leave you behind again."


Matthias stopped in his tracks in protest. Crim kept walking.


After a few moments, Crim stopped, sighed and looked skyward. "Maybe they aren't so different," he muttered, and then turned around. "Move it!"


"Why?" Matt asked. It was obvious he was seething.


"Because if you don't I'm going to leave you here for daddy to find. How well do you think that will go over?"


Matthias still refused to move. Crim marched back to him.


"Look. I don't care how much pride you've got, you're under my leadership now. If you can't accept that, then I will leave you here. I'm not Car, and my compassion for you is very thin. So either suck it up, or get lost."


Matthias' anger quelled a bit, but was replaced with his old standby: a resentful sorrow. "So you're a wolf, too, then. And here I thought my sister was free."


Crim turned around and started walking again. "Move." This time he went slower, but only by an almost imperceptible rate. It was his way of showing a bit of mercy, though Matthias probably didn't notice it.


"There's only two sorts of people in this world, in the end," Matthias muttered. "Wolves and sheep. The wolves only look for what they can get from the world; look out for number one. The sheep are stupid and ignorant of how they're used."


"So which category do you fall into?" Crim asked.


"I'm in my own category. I see them all, and watch. I see the wolves move and how they manipulate others. And I see the sheep follow along to their deaths. Alas, I'm forced to go along with them all, as I have no power of my own. Even when I did, there wasn't much I could do."


Crim shook his head. "Loser. Only idiots give up."


"THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE I COULD HAVE DONE!" Matthias burst. "As I recall, you were resigned to the fate of your own death, as well! Isn't that giving up?"


"The mageling changed my mind," Crim said with a sneer at his brother-in-law. "She didn't give up on me, so why should I?"


Mathias blurted out a small laugh and said "Is that what she's hoping to do to me? It's a little late."


"I don't think she plans on anything for you. It's not how she operates. Besides, it's not like you keep it secret that you look down on her."


Matthias' interest piqued. "Yet you tolerate me. Why? For her?"


"Of course," Crim said. "I would have left you to rot in Glacia."


"Of course," Matthias agreed. "I'm a threat to your crew."


"And I can't have that," Crim nodded.


Matt sighed. "That's your role. I suppose I shouldn't hold it against you."


Crim was getting tired of arguing with Matthias. He wanted to get this trip over with and be done.


"You've all got your little roles that you nestle into so happily. That's rather why I thought of you as a sheep."


Crim allowed Matt an annoyed glance, but nothing more.


"That tank that trains Nathan… He's you friend, right? If he weren't removed from the picture, he would be like a brick wall around you and my sister. He sees what you don't and guards you from it. It took forever to find something we could distract him with."


Matthias leaned his head back and watched the sky as he walked. "And then there's the drunk. He was good for reminding you that others rely on and value your leadership, in the beginning. After that he was just a nuisance as extra fighting hands. It was rather convenient that he stayed in Glacia with the king."


"So you think you've got us all pegged, then?"


"Then there's the healer woman. Her and the new maps man weren't as tightly attached to your core crew, but there was still a degree of devotion that we had to spend a long time on figuring out how to overcome. Appealing to her need to help her fellows seemed like such a mundane and simple plan. I was surprised it worked as well as it did."


"The rabbit girl is a bit of a pest, but she's not overly dedicated to any one particular thing except her own interests. That makes her a very minimal threat. The same goes for the dragon. His interest in your affairs seems vague and detached. I suppose it comes from having so many years to become calloused."


"Then there's the old man," Matthias said, narrowing his brows. "He's a bit of a problem. We thought we could keep him out of things if we insisted on Carmine becoming an arch mage before he had the chance to train her, or in spite of it. Either way. But he's stubborn as all hell. Since he's determined that he's going to bring her up properly, he's not letting go."


Crim raised his chin and glanced at Matthias. "Odd. That seems like a plan you're still working towards, judging by the way you and him are still clashing heads these days. But if it were still in the works, would you be able to speak of it?"


"Indeed not," Matthias chuckled. "Our plan to nudge Emrys out of the swing of things ended when he fought the red phage."


"Then why do you still insist on arguing with him?" Crim asked.


"Because he's so old school!" Matthias blurted. "Everything he does takes the long way! We operate totally different than human mages! There's no need for Carmine to learn things the slow way that he teaches them!"


Crim chuckled. "I thought you looked down on her."


"I do! But listening to her struggle with his lessons is insulting as hell! She's already slower on the uptake than me at everything, so why make it harder?! She'll never be able to manage a damn thing at this rate! It's exhausting to put up with!"


"So you do care, then?"


Matthias paused. "No, of course not. Little brat had an easy upbringing while I had to study my days away locked up."


"She'd kill you if she heard you call it easy."


Matthias scoffed.


"I can't fathom it, either."


Matt looked over at Crim. "Hm?"


"Growing up on the streets? Living in that old building? Never knowing where your next meal was coming from?" Crim shook his head. "She's tough. I grew up taking care of my sibs and doing my studies the same as any other kid in my neighborhood. In my down time I trailed around after my relatives to see which ones of them were interesting and wondering how I could take the skills I learned from them and work them into adventures for me and my friends." Crim laughed. "We got in so much trouble growing up because we knew skills that only the artisans should have known, but we used them for less noble and more mischievous purposes. Car, though" the laugh dispersed from his face. "She already knew a lot when I found her, but it wasn't because she wanted to. If she didn't know how to exist as a sneak, a thief, and a fighter, she wouldn't have survived as long as she did." He turned to look at Matthias. "Think you could have managed it?"


Matt raised his brows. "Hm?"


"Living on the streets for the first seventeen years of your life? With no one to show you the ropes or put you on the right path to learn what you wanted to learn? She told me once that she tried to teach herself how to read. She did so horribly at it that one of the local library ladies had to help her."


Matt smirked. "That I believe. She's horrible at studies."


"So do you think you could have managed?"


"Oh." Matt chewed on the inside of one cheek and thought it over. "I suppose not. I'm a book worm."


"And a watcher, not a doer," Crim said.


Matt smirked. "I guess you've got me pegged, too."


"Well, I'll give you a tiny, tiny bit of credit."


Matthias blinked. "Oh? For what?"


Crim stopped. "We made it here in record time." He indicated a shop on their left. "I thought with how slow you walk it would have taken us at least another ten minutes. You're improving; just needed a nudge in the right distracting direction."


Matthias blinked. "You manipulative son of a bitch!" He laughed.


Crim clapped a hand roughly across Matthias shoulders and gave him a forced grin. "See little bro, the difference between me and your dad is that he's only out to improve his own situation, where as I'm out to improve the situations of anyone I interact with." He gave Matt a gentle shove towards the store. "Now go pick out what you need for the trip. You're on a budget, though, I'm not dropping too much on materials for you when the kids need new boots."


Matthias stopped at the door and read the sign. It was an apothecary store. He turned around. "What made you think I would need things from here?"


"It was Mara and Emrys' suggestion. If you don't need anything, we can move on. I've got other places to go."


Matthias smiled and shook his head, opening the door. "Five minutes. You coming in?"


Crim heaved a dramatic sigh. "Oh right, I'm supposed to be buying."


Once they were in the store for a few minutes with Crim casually following along behind Matthias, he spoke again.


"You left out Amy and Phaeton."


"Did I?" Matt asked.


"Is there a particular reason for that?" Crim asked. "You and your dad aren't still planning on trying to pry Car and I apart by using those two, are you?"


Matthias laughed. "If only it were that easy. You two are too stubborn for a tactic as simple as that."


Crim took a deep breath. "Well that's a relief."


"Besides," Matt said, "they're both of little consequence right now, anyway."


"Is that so?" Crim asked.


"The blue knight is air-headed. Being off on his own little adventure suits him. He might learn to deal with his own consequences better, this way. And I say that speaking as Elder Mateo, not as Matthias," he said. "The cat girl," Matt picked a bottle of brown powder up off of a shelf an examined the fine print on the label. "She's a watcher, like me. I suspect she's almost given up on life, too. It seems like she's in the midst of quietly reevaluating what she wants from her life. Your daughter seems to be doing well for her."


"Heh," Crim grinned. "Yeah, Rosie loves to play dress up with Aims."


"If she ever gets herself out of that little vat of depression she's in, she might make a useful addition to the team as a support-magic user."


Crim nodded. "That she might. That she might."


"You're in no rush to make her one, though," Matthias observed. "How come?" He finished making his selections and headed toward the store's clerk's counter.


"Aims is not strong. She fancies she is. She made her way on her own, and for that I give her credit. But she always takes the safest route in her ventures and tends to get way too comfortable in her surroundings. She needs to learn a little more flexibility and adaptability."


"That is true," Matthias nodded.


"She'll come around," Crim said. "She just needs time to realize her own potential." He paid the clerk. Matthias took the bag. "Now you," Crim said.


Matthias flinched. "Please don't speak of me as though I'm simply some piece in a puzzle you're assembling."


Crim roughly tousled Matthias' hair. It was coming in longer these days, but wasn't yet as long as it had been in his previous body. At least it was still the same signature shade of blue. Like father, like son, Crim thought.


"You will fit in nicely once you stop holding yourself in such high regards." He eyed Matt carefully. "You are not so far above everyone else as you think simply because you're an arch mage."


"Ex-arch mage," Matt sighed.


"See? You're damaged goods, too. Everybody's got problems. So stop looking down on the others and me. We all try our hardest, no matter what part of life we're walking through. Living life to the fullest is the most any of us could ask for. And you sitting back and 'observing' everyone is not considered living. Car wanted you to come along so you'd have a chance to not get killed, but at the rate you're going, you may as well have been. Start putting some effort into it."


"Into not dying?" Matt asked.


"Into living. Find something that makes it worth it and get to it!"


Matt stared at Crim, the captain, his brother-in-law, the leader, for a moment, contemplating what he'd said.


"Oh, and just so ya know," Crim added. "The old man is checking your bag when we get home to make sure you didn't buy something that's going to kill us all in our sleep."


Matthias tripped and landed face first on the pavement.