Maglor in the 1848 French Revolution by Aprilertuile

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July 1847

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Maglor was cleaning tables after the lunch rush, enjoying the fact that the food was starting to be a bit more consistent again, and the price of bread actually lowered for the first time in months, which allowed Ismérie to share more freely with him for his work.

Maglor knew that Louis also appreciated that.

More to share around meant they were less starving and wondering less if they shouldn’t try their luck, or lack of thereof in Maglor’s case, somewhere else than Paris. If nothing else, in the countryside there was always the chance to pick up edible food in nature when necessary. It didn’t mean it was easy, but it was at least possible.

That and the few great houses that had been burnt down in several regions meant that the rich merchants had more problems than to try and control foraging. So long people put in the work…

Of course, those houses burning down meant that the soldiers had been called and there were more than a few people put under arrest, put on trial and executed for rebellion against the state.

Really Maglor had picked the worst time possible to go back to being sociable. He should have waited a dozen years. Or picked… Italy or somewhere. Perhaps he should have tried to cross the ocean.

That thought brought him the idea of stepping into a ship and he snorted: ships and he were not friends, thank you very much. There was enough land to discover on foot. Or not on ship at the very least.

The door of the tavern opened on a woman who looked just that close to crying that Maglor looked around to see if Ismérie was available. He didn’t want to deal with whatever the problem was, he had enough of his own.

The woman’s eyes however found him and she walked straight to him:

“You’re Louis’ friend.”

“I am one of Louis’ friends, yes. Might I know who you are and how you know Louis?”

“My name is Joséphine and I was… I was Louis’ girlfriend 4 months ago.”

That had Maglor wince. He didn’t want to deal with that, whatever that was. Not at all. Ex-relationships, or even current relationships issues were NOT something he had had to bother with in… Quite a while and he liked it that way. Really.

“My name’s Max. What may I do for you, Miss Joséphine?”

“My father… My father put a stop to my relationship with Louis. I… Louis isn’t exactly rich you know, and I… My full name is Joséphine Saleon.”

That had Maglor come to a stop. Even he had heard of the Saleon: they were one very rich family of Paris. How on earth had someone like Louis met the daughter of such a family?

There was nothing wrong with Louis, of course, but they didn’t, couldn’t, run in the same circles… It was impossible. 

Though… Maglor didn’t have the family name of the “rich asshole” who gave a room to Louis in exchange for his work… They might have met there…

“Right. So why are you here Miss Saleon?”

“I’m… Not anymore a Saleon.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“I’m pregnant. I only… I only ever had a single lover. I thought. I wanted to… I had hoped to marry him one day. I thought… I thought my father loved me enough that he’d want me happy…”

That had Maglor snort. Kids. Of course the girl’s father would never have let such a union stand. Families like this one worked only by being known and well known by the rest of the rich and powerful, and one didn’t keep a good reputation in that crowd by allowing their daughters to marry poor students without a name to back them up.

And he wasn’t the one born and raised in this time and place so how could both Louis and this girl have forgotten or ignored this?

“My father threw me out. I bring too much shame to the family. He said I was now dead to them.”

Maglor must have looked particularly alarmed when Joséphine started crying on his shoulder, holding on to him, for Ismérie came to them looking torn between curiosity, alarm and a sort of wicked amusement.

That woman was cruel; there were no other words for it. Instead of taking Joséphine off his hands, she took his arms and placed them around the crying girl. Like he actually wanted to encourage her to cry in his arms!

He could console a crying friend. He could take care of a sick friend. He could even give up his food and shelter and whatnot and give it all to people he loved. BUT HE DIDN’T ACTUALLY KNOW THIS GIRL!

“Right. Hm… Why did you come here? I mean… Shouldn’t you be looking for Louis?”

Saying that, Maglor felt a kind of heartbreak he had known would come one day, just not quite that fast. Or not quite in this fashion.

She nodded pitifully, and her hands held on tighter on the fabric of Maglor’s vest.

“My cousin is the one that gave him the room. He said Louis spends a lot of time here. Most evenings even. He said I couldn’t wait in his house in case dad would learn of it, he doesn’t want to be thrown out as well. But he said I could wait here.”

Wait here? In the tavern? Until evening?

Maglor’s mind seemed to freeze for a moment there. He didn’t want to deal with the crying Joséphine for one second more, let alone hours.

Maglor however took on his most agreeable and harmless wandering minstrel attitude, and offered to give her access to his room, since Ismérie had let him keep the otherwise unused servant room until there would be enough paying customers that she’d have need of the room to rent it to occasional drunk patrons.

Joséphine nodded and let Ismérie who finally, FINALLY, took pity on Maglor, pull her out of his arms, and led her to his room. Maglor would make a point to stay safely out of it for the rest of the day until Louis arrived to take care of his own mess.

Ismérie stayed a long moment in the room with the girl, and when she left it, she had a sombre face, and went straight to Maglor.

“Thank you for your help.”

“I noticed you were useless indeed.”

Crying women hadn’t been something he dealt with easily enough when he was popular; it wasn’t going to be any better now that he spent most of his time avoiding company.

“Are you aware this girl has no chance of a good future?”

One, no, and two, how on earth was it his concern? What did Ismérie want him to do? Marry her? She could find a husband herself. Or why not a job? She could even start an argument for women’s basic right to live by themselves without a husband, father or son to hold their hands if she wanted to.

That’d at least have the merit of shaking a bit that mess that the French culture was when it came to gender rights.

He’d known a few powerful and independent women who’d raze the country to the ground with the limitations those people put on women in this age. It was entirely too ridiculous.

Maglor merely raised an eyebrow.

“All due respect, Ismérie, you are aware that I am in no way concerned by this mess right? I didn’t push Louis and her to have a relationship, I’m not responsible for said relationship breaking, and I can do nothing about the current laws.”

The last point was obviously a good thing or there’d be a whole other kind of messes going around. Been there, done that, Maglor was not in a hurry to do it again.

“Louis should do the right thing by her and marry her.”

“Louis is an adult and well able to make his own decisions. They were both adult enough to have a relationship and end up in this mess, they’ll be adult enough to resolve this situation without my input.”

What did she take him for? If Louis wanted the girl… If Louis wanted the girl of course he’d encourage them to marry. He wasn’t about to try and separate lovers, but he wasn’t about to try and tell Louis how to live his life either.

“They were lovers before.”

“Yes, before the girl’s father, which I’m NOT, stepped in. Since then it’s been 4 months, Ismérie. You know as well as I do that at their age 4 months is a lot, and feelings come and go. It’s their mess and they’ll set it however they want to but I’m NOT responsible for any of it, or for Louis.”

“Just keep in mind that Louis loved her once, and perhaps he’d be more receptive to it if you were to speak to him. Or if at least you point to him that his relationship with Joséphine is more acceptable than… The life of a single man living alone or with another man.”

Maglor had serious doubts about what Ismérie was insinuating. Again, what did she take him for? Actually what did she think his relationship with Louis was?

Sure, he had come to love the little impulsive idiot, but he was pretty sure that Louis was neither aware of it nor interested.

Louis could be rather endearingly clueless at times.

“Ismérie, what do you think I’ll do? Kidnap Louis and keep him locked in my nonexistent castle? If he loves her, hells, even if he doesn’t love her but just wants to do right by her, and they find an agreement, I will not stand in their way.”

For one, Louis didn’t deserve to have his life messed up by an immortal being who will need to move away in a short few years before someone could realise he never aged. And the current period wasn’t kind to people who sought out a relationship that wasn’t purely a man and a woman together.

No matter how many times passed, or the race it was, intolerance and bigotry seemed to be a universal, eternal truth, alas.

Maglor stayed around the Tavern all afternoon, but stayed out of his rooms. The more he thought about it, the less he actually wanted to deal with the tears of Louis’ ex-lover. And considering he started that reflection by wanting to leave far, fast and screaming…

At Louis’ usual time, the student arrived, with what looked like a bag of clothing, and his usual bag of books and class notes. Louis looked tired but he smiled when he saw Maglor. However he lost his smile swiftly as he seemed to be studying the elf carefully.

Maglor was apparently more transparent than he thought when it came to the young man.

“Did something happen?”

“Miss Joséphine came. She’s in my room. You might want to talk to her.” Maglor told him gently.

Louis frowned at that.

“Joséphine? She left me months ago on order of her father. I know she was apparently disowned or some such, apparently because of me, according to her cousin but still…”

“Please, Louis, go and speak to her.”

Louis grimaced but went to the room. Ismérie came to stand beside Maglor, a tray of empty mugs perched on her hand, an empty jug of exceptionally bad wine in her other hand.

And yes, Maglor did check and it was wine and not vinegar. Curiously enough…

“He didn’t seem happy to see her.”

“Neither would you be if the boy you loved left you on order of his parents, and came back 4 months later, intruding in your life without a warning. Maglor pointed out.”

“He loved her.”

“And she chose to leave him once. I’m not saying they won’t get back together, that’s always possible, but he has the right not to be happy to see her depending on how she went about leaving him.”

Ismérie grimaced at that.

“All that nonsense those idiots in power engage in. If the man didn’t want his daughter to stray, he shouldn’t have let her go places alone.” She grouched.

“Since when are women pets to keep on a leash?”

“Society says we barely have any rights at all, as you should know.” Ismérie snorted.

She’d know. Keeping the tavern after her husband’s death had been an exercise in stubbornness and light cheating.

“It’s not a reason to encourage that behaviour.”

Also if he ever started to agree to that very human opinion on women, if he ever got to see his family again, his mother, Aredhel and a good number of others would kill him, period.

Maglor cut the (very much unwanted) conversation by going to serve a couple of patrons in a corner, happy to see there was bread available again that night. Fresh bread at that.

A rare treat that everyone enjoyed. And the price of flour having started to decrease, the price of the bread had also decreased. It meant that Maglor and Louis both could afford to pay for it now.

Later that evening, when Maglor was cleaning glasses in the kitchen, Louis joined him, looking bothered.

“She has nowhere to go.”

“I gathered that much.” Maglor nodded.

“Ismérie says she can’t shelter more than one person even now.”

Maglor raised an eyebrow at that. Was Louis really asking what he thought he was asking? Oh Max, I know we’re friends and all, so could you please go live on the street so my ex-girlfriend that I got pregnant could have a roof over her head and a job, your job that is?

The kid was lucky Maglor liked him or he’d have just laughed at him there.

“Hm… I guess she can’t indeed. If only because if prices stay reasonable she’ll soon be able to rent rooms again, so she’ll need the place.”

No one ever said he absolutely had to help him along. He could be nice, but he wanted at a minimum to hear him ask properly.

“You’re a man.”

“Really?!”

Louis snorted at that, and shook his head.

“Alright, let me start again. I’ve been thrown out of home by Joséphine’s cousin. Apparently I’m too much of a risk and he doesn’t want to risk ending up disowned. So would you agree to try to look for a place to live with me so Joséphine could stay with Ismérie instead since she is a woman and disgraced by her pregnancy and being disowned by her family and hence would be unable to find a place easily?”

Well at least it was honest and straightforward this time.

“I can. I suppose I just lost my job while I was at it?”

Louis winced at that.

“Ismérie said… It depends on you.”

Maglor shook his head.

“You lot I swear… Yes I’ll stop working here and leave the place entirely to your girlfriend.”

“Ex. Ex-lover. Not… Not current. Not again, and never again.”

“Are you sure of that? Because for her sake alone you just asked me to risk ending up in the street without so much as a means to earn money. That seems awfully involved of you to save a woman who is but an ex.”

“She’s in this situation partly because of me. I can’t do nothing to help her.”

“My point was… Are you sure you don’t still have feelings for her?”

“She dumped me because her father said so. She chose to not even try to give us a chance. She made her choice, Max. Not me. If her father comes tomorrow and tells her to abandon her child and go back home, she would do it. I’m not… I refuse to live my life waiting for her to get a message from her family and decide they’re worth more because they make life easier.”

Well, to be fair to him, Maglor could hardly blame him for that.

But neither could he really blame Joséphine for her decision. In a purely patriarchal society it took a strong woman to become independent, and it never went without the kind of sacrifices that not everyone was willing or ready to make.

And at her age… He could hardly think her ready and mature enough to stand her ground in front of a beloved father. Not the way she appeared at least.