The Guardian

Chapter 4: Ben

Innocent

I do not remember my time as a Guardian clearly, simply because my memories are not organized in a linear fashion. I just know that my clients are big chunks of my memory in a random set of time.

I do, however, remember my innocents... or should I say my clients?

In the year 1945, I helped a little boy aged twelve escape to the United States from Germany.

He survived the holocaust, but lost his entire family as he was separated from them in the beginning of the war. Before all hell broke loose, he lived with his family in Warsaw, Poland. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, the war had erupted while they were on a trip from the Czech republic returning back to Poland in 1939, and they were intercepted by a group of Nazi soldiers en route. By that time, Adolf Hitler had already invaded Poland. The soldiers asked for their paperwork, and saw crests of the Jewish religion strewn across many of their clothing. That was the day that boy's life had changed right before his eyes.

He was brought to Munich, Germany. There, the Nazis had a factory where they exploited children of age six to around thirteen. They took advantage of their small hands and dexterity and made them assemble machines that needed small fingers. Hours upon hours the children were worked, and as soon as they were of a better physical stature and had grown to about 10 or 11, they were sent to other camps to do manual labor. Back breaking manual labor.

Benedykt was his name. I arrived to extract him from the mess that was the manual labor camp on the same day the second world war ended in 1945. Unfortunately, he was already injured permanently by the labor. His back was affected. But that didn't stop him from accepting my healing magic.

You see, it's an interesting phenomenon, healing. If the person's body is not accommodating of magic (receiving), then the magic, especially healing magic, would not work. Unless it is an offensive style magic, then accommodation wouldn't matter. But that's another story.

Oh right, so what happened to Benedykt?

I posed as a social worker taking Benedykt under my wing and locating his parents actively. And search did we do. In times when he was asleep, I'd scry for his family in the small towns and villages, even cities, whose names he recalls hearing in his childhood, no matter how hazy those memories were.

But after a year of scrying and empty results of search throughout Poland, the Czech Republic and West Germany, I was sure his parents suffered the cruel faith of the holocaust.

During that year of my protection, I made sure to teach him things that he probably would have never heard nor learned from had he stayed in the camps. I showed him what manners were like, what kindness was, what respecting others could bring him. It was a subtle way of showing him that despite all of the cruelty he had seen and felt, that he didn't need to use those to weight himself down in life. And most especially, what hard work could reward one with if they kept kindness on their sleeve.

Benedykt was a happy and optimistic young man anyway. He was a very kind and pure soul.

Which brought me to the ultimate decision of bringing him to the United States. I connected him with a good family with no direct connection to the war in New York. I made all necessary arrangements.

I made sure to stay in New York and the general vicinity upon him settling down. I found other clients, but generally kept tabs on Benedykt.

I congratulated him on his medal for winning a science fair at his high school.

I gave him a bouquet of flowers on his graduation from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied Genetics and later on received a double Ph.D. from Harvard Med in who knows what.

I eventually became an aunt-figure in his new family. They were a good choice.

Kind. Supportive. Accepting. Strong willed. Disciplined. Never treated Benedykt as an outsider.

He even asked me how to propose to his wife, Genevieve. I was more than glad to assist.

His back became a problem again. I thought I had cured him completely, but it wasn't the case. But he pushed on through, despite the pain...

And again, asking him to remain optimistic despite the pain, I told him that perhaps this pain was just to remind him of all the difficulties he'd gone through already, and that anything else in the future would be bearable, merely because of the comparison. He smiled at that.

But eventually, I had to move on, and so I told him I had to move back to Europe... it was bittersweet.

But that same boy, the one I was drawn to to protect and guide to the light? He went on to become a top research scientist in genetic studies, and eventually made his own company that produced the first synthetic insulin for people with diabetes. Ground breaking research.

Little Benny, with blue eyes as bright as the sky.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Walking down the streets of Camelot was very...earthy. Suffice it to say, I was used to the finer things in the 21st century, like cemented roads and sidewalks. But walking around Camelot was refreshing, nevertheless.

"And this right here, is the market place!" Merlin piped, almost a little too cheerfully, I saw.

"Yes, milady. This is where you and I stroll through usually on Wednesday afternoons. You usually prefer to buy new ribbons for your hair each week..." Gwen spoke as she walked with me side by side.

"New ribbons weekly..? Sounds a bit excessive," I hummed.

"Well they look very lovely on you," Gwen replied.

"Thank yo-" I replied but got cut short, as I felt a tug on my skirt.

"Hi!" a toddler of 3 years said. His eyes shone so bright blue and his hair a sand blonde.

A mother yelled, "Ben! I'm so sorry, milady!"

"It's quite alright... is your name Ben?" I asked the little one. My heartstrings were tugged as I remembered my own little charge from what felt like aeons ago. My little Benedykt.

"Yes! You pretty, your name?" he grinned all toothily as he pointed his cute baby finger at me

"Well then, aren't you a charmer, I'm Morgana... say it with me? Mooore-gaaa-naaa," I cooed.

"Muh-GANA!" the toddler giggled.

"Milady, I'm really sorry about him... we were just sitting over there and all of a sudden he ran to you out of nowhere..."

"It's really fine, don't worry a thing. You said you were sitting there?" I pointed to the corner with things piled on top of one another.

"Yes..." the lady looked down, ashamed a little.

"Oh... I see," I turned to tell Gwen and Merlin something but stopped short, when Merlin walked towards Josefine, the mother of Ben.

"Here, ma'am, these are for you and Ben," Merlin stuck out his pack of snacks for the day. It was a pack set by Gaius for him early in the morning.

I blinked in surprised. I hadn't expected that from Merlin. It was heartwarming to see his generosity without any hesitation.

"Thank you!" the mother exclaimed.

I couldn't help but feel such affection for Merlin that was easily blossoming into bigger proportions.

"Gwen, Merlin, why don't you walk around whilst I entertain the little one and Josefine here, hmmm?" I asked the two.

They both agreed. I just didn't notice Merlin's extra second of a fleeting glance when I turned back to Benny.

"Josefine, I am sorry to be so forward, but what happened as to how you ended up living on this street here?"

Josefine sniffed and replied, "my husband was accused of sorcery in a nearby village and was executed not two months ago... I couldn't even stay there because as a beggar there, there was nothing anyone could give us. So I moved us to Camelot..."

I hugged her fiercely. I can read body language, and this one was a moment that called for it.

"It'll be alright, I'm sure of it. But I am sorry for your loss," I said to the mother.

"Thank you, milady," she replied, with no tone of awkwardness at all.

And when I pulled back, I smiled at her and was rewarded with one of her own.

We watched little Ben as he spoke his few words to us, bragging about things he knew as a three year old. I took advantage of this time to take out my pouch of gold coins in my pocket, placed it behind me, and obscured it from view. Well, that's what I had hoped - good cover. I wouldn't learn till much later that I wasn't as covert as I liked to think.

While Josefine was focused on Ben, I turned to look at the gold coins' pouch and my eyes flashed gold as I enchanted the money to quadruple in amount. A small fortune, enough for this woman to start her life back again, with some to spare for a year.

"Josefine, please take this and choose a village of your choice to live in," I said as I handed the woman the pouch. "I'm sure Ben would prefer to enjoy his childhood in such an environment."

She took one look at the coins and promptly covered her face as she cried tears of joy and said thank you to me over and over again.

"Please... live your life to the fullest, despite the passing of your husband. I am so truly sorry for your loss, but I want you to remember that goodness still exists around you. And I want that to be what Benjamin grows to remember as he reaches adulthood as well... all I ask is for you to remember is that in your darkest moments, your light shines the brightest as long as you have faith that things will turn out alright."

xxxxxxxxxxx

Without Morgana's knowledge, Merlin was looking from a nearby corner, flabbergasted as the blatant magic she had done with the gold coins.

Merlin was thinking that there was definitely more to Morgana than the evil path he thought she was on in the first place.

Hope blossomed in Merlin tenfold, as well as a new found respect for the other magic wielder. He was too busy appreciating Morgana's act to realize her abilities now are as different to the ones she had the past as a seer, as day is to night.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

author's note:

uhhhh if there's anything weird i wrote anywhere, review and yell at me? LOL sorry it's 4 am again when my creative juices flow but my body's NUMB! night peeps.

about the synthetic insulin thing? that's the only thing i made up LOL! as far as WW2? I skimmed the interwebs as far as dates go and was on google maps for germany and poland...so if i screwed up...SORRY! that was just for literary pararellism! or creativity errr...i claim my english-is-my-second-language card. ciao for now.