Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 21. Sheria

"Max...Max...ugh do you know how many kids there are registered under the name 'Max' here in our society?" Josh complained, "this 'Max' could be a 'Maxine' and or 'Maxy' or something else."

"Maxine is a girl's name," Dawnlight sighed. This was the third day we were still spending going through the paper files. We weren't allowed access to the digital records until we were older so therefore we were chasing the long and possibly even slightly outdated paper trails to find Heather.

"How about this one?" I pulled out a file and started reading, "His father is dead but his name was Eckhart Merrywell, mother named Mary Merrywell. Huh. That's a funny name. Mary Merrywell. This Max's name is Maxamus Merrywell."

Something lit up in Josh's eyes, "Eckhart was rather famous for doing work of the Lords, you may be on to something. That sounds like a good lead. Do you know where this kid is living?"

"Says somewhere in the Moonlight Caverns. Also says he has siblings but none are listed."

"Figures, Eckhart's documentation or anyone even related to him in any manner were either destroyed or missing large portions of information." Josh sighed once more, "He did some sketchy work. I think it's best we try the head of the Merrywell family before going in on his wife. They'll be able to tell us much more than his widowed wife will be able to tell us, if we get them to listen. If we tell them that there's a fire-user running around looking for him and we're trying to stop her they should open up rather quickly."

"Why?" I asked as I handed the file to Josh, "what do they have against Heather?"

"They have nothing against your sister personally; they just don't like fire-users. In one of the ancient scriptures, it was stated when they allow a fire user to enter the caverns the lords would be shaken and a family with great power will fall and a family with great power will rise. The Merrywell family already has great power and they don't want to lose it."

"Why do they think that they are the family that is going to fall if that happens?" I asked still a bit naïve on the subject.

"Eckhart. That's why." Dawnlight commented. "They don't know what to think about him. Family doesn't know whether to trust him or if he's doing actions against the lords."

"Our best guess is start there. We'll need to move soon if we want to beat her anywhere."

"But what if she is already there?"

"Nellie and Mary are old friends, I'm sure Nellie would've picked her up by now and brought her home. Our only thing is to continue after Heather until we find her or are told otherwise. Heather is powerful so a lot of people are after her. She can't end up in the wrong hands."

"What if she doesn't want to be found though?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Josh questioned me as he started to clean up files and put them away.

I looked up to the skylight in the file-library-room, "well, she ran away because she didn't wanna fight. So maybe she didn't want us to find her so she can be free, think, and not have to fight."

"She's had to fight at least once." A voice from behind us stated. We turned around.

It was Nellie.

Carmel blonde hair and a midnight blue sparking dress matched with matching shoes and her deep blue eyes, this was our leader, Nellie. She was all the more beautiful in person than in pictures.

"What do you mean your highness?" Josh questioned her.

"Two rebels were collected from a forest outside in the real world. Her powers were all over them. We just found them today. Heather is gone. She's heading west though. This was halfway across the real-world country."

"We know where she's heading. We're off to clear it with the Merrywell house so we can enter the Moonlight Caverns."

Nellie shook her head, "there's no time if Heather already entered them. She could have done enough damage already. I'll grant you permission to enter as long as you deliver this to the swords teacher there. It is from your aunt Cassie actually Sheria."

"Father doesn't talk about her. He says she was crazy."

"She's actually a nice woman, you should meet her sometime. She lives on the west coast in the real world."

"Do you think Heather went to go see her?" I asked.

Nellie shook her head and gave me a chortle and a smile, "I'm sure she didn't, Heather doesn't really know about her yet. I'm also sure that she probably is on her way to find him. By the way you've described her to me in the past she's motivated and self-determined."

"She's alright, right?" I asked again, "She wasn't hurt or anything from that fight?"

Nellie patted me on the head like the child I was, "she has to be perfectly fine. It looks like the shot was taken from a far range that they didn't get close enough to her. She had to have seen them coming."

Josh was relieved, "I have taught her well."

"She's stronger than you may have originally anticipated though. She was using weaker shots here and they did just as much damage as her larger shots. She's learning she's stronger than most people but she doesn't know what she's capable of. She has no sense of boundaries or where her power cap off."

"That's because her powers haven't capped off yet. They've just been growing. I would warn her to be careful but there was no need. They just kept growing."

"Mary has just reported the same thing about Eckhart's son. Unexplained power growth."

"Nellie! I thought I'd find you here..." A woman with dark brown hair that had a bit of a wave on the end of it and ocean blue eyes entered. Her outfit looked like she had thrown it all on at last minute without being very organized. She sighed before continuing, "Max can read the scriptures now. Fluently. He's been reading Eckhart's journals. I have a feeling he's starting to learn too much. I think he was bonded to someone but I don't know who I thought it was decided to keep the children out of matters like this."

I stood up, "wait...Max can read scriptures...and so can Heather..."

"I think we found our Max girls," Josh smiled, "I'm Heather's trainer. I think our Heather is after your son Max, I presume?"

"Why would anyone be after him?"

"Heather had a dream about him five years ago when she was like seven. She's been devoted into trying to find him ever since." I explained.

Mary, the woman's eyes lit up with fear, "That's about the same time Max was bonded, when he was seven, five years ago. You don't think..."

Josh shook his head, "but Heather's a fire user. A Merrywell uses water they're polar opposites."

Nellie denied this fact, "Which makes them all the much stronger if they were successfully bonded years ago. Usually people bond with a dead one that had recently fallen but it seems neither of them knew anyone so since they both had the will to live they bonded to each other. It doesn't happen often, usually only with sacrifices. However considering it has been known Heather has been watched over by Thalia—"

"Max has been watched over by Puggy and his sister Elizabeth." Mary interjected.

Nellie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, exhaled, and reopened her eyes, "then our lords must have some fate awaiting for all of us and it rests in the hands of these children."