The bartenders cousin was a stocky man by the name of Degregory. In exchange for an autograph on his first edition copy of ADVENTURE, a long running comic book series starring none other than Magnus himself- and hearing about Magnus's current goal, he agreed to help them avoid the knotty problem of Magnus's identity.
"Y'know." he confided to Potts as he readied the plane, "The fan sites are gunna flip. The Mag-nif shippers are gunna love it. Returning hero, first visit and all."
"... Mag-Nif? Nevermind. Do you know if anyone from his era that's still kicking around other than the dragon?"
"Elsimore the Archmage. Probably. Though he hasn't been heard from since he did that kickstarter four years ago, so who knows."
"Oh yeah. I backed that. I guess dying would be a pretty good reason to miss your deadline and not make a post about it... And about the only one I'd accept at this point."
"Mhm. The Lady Fortix and Master Ceres are both currently off world on the Artemis exploration mission. Pictures of the outer planets and all that. The elemental Cinatra is on tour. Of the other long-lived people he knew, hard to say. But I'd imagine if they hear he's returned, they'll be easier to find."
Potts blinked, a little stunned.
"You know an awful lot about this."
Degregory reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Pulling out a card from behind his drivers licence he showed it to Potts.
"... You're a Magnus fanclub member?"
"They have their annual booze up in the old pub.... Somehow I ended up getting drawn in one year."
Potts paused, not quite sure where to take the conversation.
Mercifully, Magnus returned- holding a comic book and his godlike face looking distinctly puzzled.
"Degregory, your chronicle sheets are well made, if strange in style... and yet, this one seems to be far from the truth even by a bard's standard."
Potts and Degregory glanced at each other, wondering how to approach the topic.
Magnus flipped the pages and pointed to a panel showing himself and several of his companions in an undersea city.
"It shows us fighting the Psioctopus and the mind controlled Sergallian citizens, and freeing the city Pearl-of-Seas-Beneath-Waves, but why does it stop after that?"
"The rest?" Potts pulled out his phone, "Let me check the cliff notes on the novel version. You free the city... The Kininister was dead so, it fell to the Primecess to rule the city. She gave you the heart of the ocean as a token of her eternal favour but you refused-"
Magnus held up a huge hand.
"I refused at first, yes. But! She insisted after, and I relented. Alas, it had been a scheme by a devious Cuttlefolk warlock. The moment I'd left with the heart, he struck. All along he'd planted the idea of taking the city in the Psioctopus's mind, and it was he who had sent envoys for our help- all with the intention of having the heart leave her hands. The heart can only be given willingly and is a powerful defensive talisman; however, his impatience was his undoing. I heard the Primecesses cries as we were bade goodbye by her retainers at the entrance to the Nautalace, and rushed to her chambers.
I found the Warlock attempting to invade her mind- and her trapped within a cage of ice."
Degregory gulped and motioned for Magnus to go on.
"And then, what happened?"
"Naturally I struck the Warlock down where he stood. Alas I'd acted in haste. With his final gasps, he unleashed a most ancient and terrible hex, that turned the Primecesses prison from cage to solid coffin of ice. I tried to shatter it with my fist, but, the scratch I left upon the surface closed in but a moment. Nothing we did could free her- though we vowed to her retainers that we'd search for a way to do so, and I declared that upon freeing her, I would return the heart so that this would not be repeated."
Potts had been scrolling on his phone throughout Magnus's retelling, and gave a gentle cough.
"Well.... The Wiki has none of that on there. In fact, the Heart of the Ocean is currently held by Queen Astrid who presumably is the descendent of the Primecess you were talking about. So I guess while you were gone they unfroze her?"
A range of emotions passed across Magnus's face.
"That's impossible."
"Why? It's been a long time. Magic and Science have both progressed. Why couldn't it be undone?"
Magnus shook his head. "Impossible is impossible. Observe."
Magnus's scarf, which had been quiet until then, billowed out, expanding and curling- until like a magicians conjuring trick, it shrank back in an instant and what remained was a crystal of glassy ice, shrouded in white mist. The coffin was shaped like a hexagonal gem- like one a certain green-capped hero might find while cutting grass- but it was at least two and a half meters long.
At the centre, the Primecess was frozen- looking oddly peaceful, considering her circumstances.
"Her retainers decided, and we agreed, that it made more sense that we took her with us while we searched for a solution. They would say she'd travelled with us when we left and it would be no lie, and so long as we were able to free her-..."
Magnus trailed off.
"If I had to guess..." Potts spoke cautiously, "I'd say they decided that you weren't coming back and decided to install a substitute with a replacement 'heart' to keep the nation from becoming unstable- especially considering that, although it's never been confirmed officially, unofficially, it's believed that she died with you... during childbirth. And that you returned the half human child back to the palace one night, along with the Heart of the Ocean. And that he was your son."
The awkward silence that followed continued on well after, as Magnus stowed away the princess within his scarf and the plane now fuelled, was wheeled out onto the runway.
Magnus only barely fitted into the back of the plane, while Potts sat in the copilots chair.
"You're fortunate I already had planned to make a run up this way." Degregory commented as he finished preflight checks and started the engines.
Magnus's scarf wrapped itself around his ears. Potts glanced back and saw that the Hero was tense. Rigid even.
"Don't worry. These things are pretty safe. Just try to take a kip and we'll be there in no time at all. Right D?"
"D?" Degregory glanced back at the hero and then nodded, "Nothing to worry about. Just sleep."
Magnus grimaced and then contorted his hands and fingers in a complicated pattern.
"Was that magic?" Potts asked, rather curious.
"Nah, Drow handsign. Used to be a secret language but now, it's used by nerds to communicate at concerts.... He said 'how can I sleep with this noise?' "
"How do you- Nevermind. Let's just get going."
Potts took the initiative during the flight to start looking into hotels at their destination- wincing a little at the expense, until a revelation hit him.
"Say, Degregory, you know many fans in the city. I was thinking that we might hit them up for help."
Degregory scratched meditatively, "Problem is, nobody'll really believe its him. Not unless he proves it in front of them."
"He has a frozen princess, magic items up the wazoo and he's built like a golden god, what more proof do you need?"
"Plenty. But I have an idea. We can have him radio-carbon dated. I sometimes fly specimens to a professor at Henderson University. I think he'd be interested."
Magnus looked up from his comicbook. "Raidial car-bone what?"
"A way of telling how old something is by looking really closely at it."
"That technique seems dangerous. I've had many a companion who is touchy about their years."
"It's not.... Anyway. We'll figure it out once we touch down."
A single fuel stop was all they needed. The Veil of night had already spread across most of the horizon, when the city of New-Castelon came into view.
Magnus's scarf tapped him on the shoulder until he turned and caught sight of it out the window.
"... Is this the hub of the world? It looks as if it's been set ablaze by magic."
"Uh.... New-Castelon, or NC, is a tourist hub. Famous beaches, casino's, theatres, geothermal springs and other stuff."
"You're a knowledgeable one Potts."
"Uh, I just got all that off the tour guide. Conference is being held in the High Waters. See the ring of light there? It's an artificial landscape built on a platform atop four hotel towers each twenty stories high.
Each tower pumps up thousands of litres of water to maintain the waterfall that runs off the edge of High waters and into the river below. It's the size of four football fields."
"Does it fly?"
"No."
"Why does it need to be on the top of the towers?"
"I guess it looks pretty?"
"Why not simply make it in the large flat area in the cities surrounds?"
"Magnus, I dunno, I'm just reading aloud here."
Degregory ignored them and made the landing.
The private airstrip was more crowded than usual, but it presented no problem for Magnus, who simply lifted up the plane and 'parked it by hand' before striding off towards the entrance to the strip. Degregory and Potts had to hurry to keep up- which is perhaps why they only joined the dots after the well armed guard stepped out of the gatehouse.
This was no sleepy rent-a-cop on the verge of retirement, nor some disinterested part-time student with spotted face and ill-fitting jacket. No. Instead the lady who stepped out was wearing body armor underneath the high-vis jacket that came with the booth. Her close cropped hair, backlit cybereyes and clearly augmented physique looked more suited to punching through walls than holding a clip-board; and in her hip-holster was a handgun of the kind of calibre more commonly used to injure trolls or punch through tanks. The two ordinary humans present couldn't help but gulp and try to tear their eyes away from the weapon as they took stock of the situation.
They'd just landed at a small airstrip in a city where a major international event was taking place. Therefore, it shouldn't have been surprising that the local authorities had taken precautions against hostile elements seeking to infiltrate the city during that period.
"Welcome. I'll be needing to see some identification before you go any further. You'll take me to your aircraft and you will consent to your vehicle, yourselves and any extradimensional spaces under your ownership to be searched. If you are unwilling or unable abide by these terms, you are welcome to lodge a formal complaint with the city and remain in protective custody while it is processed."
It was clear at this point that no fake ID or fast-talking would pass muster and the lie Degregory had been preparing died on his tongue. Naturally, neither man could control their expressions perfectly, their nervous tics were clear to the guard. Rather than comment, she casually lowered her arm to her holster and flicked the cover open with her thumb.
Training and augmentation had sharpened her senses and she prided herself on her intuition, but right now behind her impassive facade, she was on the verge of panicking.
She could handle the two yobbos in front of her in her sleep- not to mention the full team of backup that was providing overwatch on standby. She was confident that against most professional mercs or assassins she could probably hold her own long enough for her squadmates to bring them down. In fact since the conference had started, they'd caught more than a couple of corporate assets trying to smuggle in weapons, scrolls and explosives.
However, right now, for the first time in years, she could feel death breathing down the back of her neck. The silent one before her, who glanced around without a hint of worry, was by far the most dangerous 'thing' she'd ever seen. Not even on the rare occasions that she'd met dragons had she felt so overwhelmed.
Magnus seemed to wake up from his daydream. Reaching into his scarf, he pulled out his adventurers card and handed it over.
The guard looked down at the antique in a daze, as Magnus gave a helpless smile.
"I remember when showing this was all I needed to enter a city. But back then, our watchmen were brave but not nearly so excellent. Might I hear your name? With guards like the eight of you, it's no wonder that the world is at peace in these times...."
"Catalina Engram, SecOps Branch two!" Catalina answered reflexively, her mind a mess- only to latch on to an unexpected detail.
"Sir. Eight of us?"
"Are those two not yours?" Magnus pointed to the hill behind the airstrip, before cocking one eyebrow- "They're running. Should I perhaps stop them? Modern folk have extraordinary senses to hear me from such a distance. Unless they were perhaps magicians?"
Catalina tapped her wrist- "Danse, Alistar, Linda- spooks, 180*, slope, probably with a parabolic. May be armed."
A response sounded inside her ear a moment later.
"Already on it. Was that who I think it is? And if it is, can you maybe get his autograph?"
Catalina snorted. Danse was an unashamed fan of Magnus- not that she was much better. Back in her teens, there had been a clear theme to the posters she plastered above her bed.
Addressing the man who might be the greatest hero to have ever lived, she saluted without fear.
"Sir. If you could wait, some time will be needed to check your identity. You can wait with your plane, or we will provide you with a free lift and accommodation in Hestia Hotel."
Strictly speaking, this was a service that had been setup for VIP's arriving incognito who needed subtle verification and authenticity checks- but right now, Catalina was certain that as impossible as it should have been, the man before her was truly Magnus. If he didn't qualify as a VIP, who would!
Some two hours later, Potts and Degregory still couldn't quite figure out what had happened. They'd been seconds away from being busted, but now they were in luxurious digs sipping complementary beverages. Granted outside the door were two steely-eyed watchers of the black-suit and shoulder holster persuasion- and certainly there were going to be some difficult questions later.
But for now, both of them were content to kick back and enjoy the canapes. Meanwhile, Magnus had occupied the gym- and was being 'guarded' by woman who'd tagged along.
Affable and chatty, her cautious questions about him and his adventures had over the course of a limo ride awakened the long dormant spirit of a teen fangirl within her. If her team had been here to see it, they'd have doubted that this was the same impassive leader they knew.
"So... um, can I ask you another question?"
The hotel's gym was absolutely World Class. Magnus had amused himself for a few minutes with the freeclimbing walls and fitness machines, aided by Catalina's explanations. Right now he was sparring against a robot, and despite it being a contest of skill instead of might, dents were still occasionally appearing on his opponent.
The robot was loaded with dozens of different modern and traditional martial arts, but it was simply outmatched physically and in skill. Without a true AI, it could only be as good as the masters used to record the moves- and they were absolutely unable to reach Magnus's standard.
"Ask away." Magnus caught a jab and turned it into a throw. The robot reacted by unnaturally pivoting on its elbow-socket and attempting to deliver a back-kick to his stomach. Magnus pulled it closer instead of dodging, preventing it from gaining any momentum to put force behind the kick.
"So, well, I, people have wondered for a long time now. What was the first martial art you ever learned?"
"I was first tutored by the masters at Iron Mountain."
"Really? So that was where you first learned to fight!" Catalina could see it now, a well-built young man becoming a talented disciple, meeting injustice with his fist, training shirtless every day...
"Ah... not quite. I was ten and eight years more when I became a pupil- but I first raised my fists in my youth to battle wild beasts. It wasn't what you'd call martial arts."
"Could that be, the Magnus Unrivalled Invincible Fighting Style?!"
Magnus failed to control his strength and sent the robot flying out of the ring.
"In what world would I name such a thing?"
"But, it's true that it was your own unique style?"
"Indeed it is."
"And you never lost?"
"…" Although Magnus didn't deny it, Catalina failed to pick up on the change in his mood.
"So it was your fighting style, which was unrivalled and invincible!"
"I... is that really what people called it?" Magnus had begun to feel that even if his companions had said his legend would echo forever, this was a bit much.
"If you let me spar with you, I'll show you your web pages!"
As a strangely (one sided) passionate sparring session began in the hotel gym, the wheels of authority were turning. Fingerprints and fibers lifted from the limo and the plane were couriered to the city forensics labs as emergency calls were made and an ever growing number of people were pulled out of meetings, dinners and warm arms in hotel rooms by the call of authority.
Footage from the Hestia hotel was analysed, the backgrounds of Degregory and Potts interrogated, their origins unearthed and the whole story pieced together with a growing level of fervor.
There were many beings still alive from the time of Magnus, but the man himself had only grown in fame since he vanished. He was the template upon which the world defined heroism and the echoes of his presence existed in countless books, films, shows, comics and games.
And now he was here. Each hour and each round of checks, they reminded themselves that this wasn't the first time for impersonators, to show temperance- and each hour they gained more and more feedback that pointed to him being the real thing.
The ripples spread further.
A man in a formal suit knocked gently on the black double doors of a luxurious office.
The door unlocked moments later, swinging open to reveal a dark, wide room, floored with marble, walled with glass- looking out at the ever flowing waterfall and bright lights of the city beyond it.
His employer stood in an open backed dress, simple and elegant, with a wine-glass in her hand as she faced the window.
"Ma'am. We think he's back."
"I'm aware." The voice that responded was as soft as velvet.
"Should we bring him in?"
"… Not yet. I want to see if that lump of muscle still has principles. You may go."
Dismissed, the man backed out of the room, leaving the beauty with cyan eyes and sapphire hair gazing at her own reflection.
Finally, she looked down at the communicator in her hand- unable to supress a scowl. He was there, looking puzzled as he posed in a selfie with some guerrilla of a woman. As far as she was concerned, the big lug was absolutely unforgivable, turning up out of nowhere, fighting with some stranger and…
Azura the Media Mogul, Niflsora the Blue Dragon, her past and present sighed together as the ice around her heart began to thaw a little.
"You're late." It was barely a whisper, but even that was hard for her to voice- in the dark she closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
"You're late. You lied. I hate you. So come back to me quickly."