The White Wolf and the Wizard
Chapter 3
Marnie wasn't sure how long she sat against the stone walls letting out sigh after sigh of frustration as she stared at the obstacle blocking her way. After a while she considered simply giving up when, suddenly, another ghost like figure walked through the wall just like the first one had and she knew her time was running out. She'd need to head back soon because someone was bound to know that she was missing by now and she'd end up in a lot of trouble.
Maybe she'd got it all wrong. Maybe she was imagining things. Maybe she hadn't seen anything and she was going crazy.
"...Use your imagination..." she repeated, remembering what the man at the library had said. He'd seemed to know about the book she'd been reading and yet he hadn't told her anything useful, or so she'd thought at the time.
Why, exactly, she was suddenly thinking about what a nameless old man had told her, she had no idea, and Marnie thought she'd only end up looking like a fool, but she tried to imagine that the wall wasn't really there at all. It was better than going back to the group to face a telling off after all.
To her great surprise, her necklace started to glow again and the wall seemed to shake and crack until it opened like a sliding door for her to walk through. "...Wow..." she breathed, walking through it cautiously.
The two sides of the wall slammed together behind her and once she was over the shock, Marnie looked ahead again and saw an arched wooden door. She opened it and walked onto a small wooden mezzanine overlooking a large room.
It had a womb-like feel, with its dark, damask tapestries and embroidered drapes, the fur and persian rugs and the large, crackling open fire. Marnie strolled around the old wooden tables littered with bottled and chemicals, she walked past tables with candled and skulls and shining objects. She passed old picture frames, some of them empty, there were several suits of armour, swords and shields and scratched up old mirrors as well.
She eventually noticed the unusual looking helmet on a pedestal, Marnie walked over to it and reached out to touch it. A bright orange began to illuminate the cracks in the gold and she jumped back. She took a deep breath and put the helmet on and immediately saw her own bedroom as though she was standing in it. "...That's my..." she muttered with a frown.
Marnie lifted the helmet off and saw the castle room around her, them she put the helmet on again and saw her room once more, "This is my room...but how?" Taking the device off for the last time, Marnie put it down and breathed heavily as she realised that someone had been watching her.
"You took your time," a deep voice said.
Marnie jumped back and saw another cloaked figure standing before her. This one was holding a tall staff, but it looked much more real than the others she'd seen. The cloak was also like the one she'd seen in her dreams with gold runes on it.
"...Who...who are you?" she asked.
With one hand, the hood was pushed back and she could see the man's face clearly now, "It was you...you are that guy from the junk shop...and from the library...aren't you?" she asked. "Why've you been spying on me?! Who d'you think you are anyway?!" Marnie yelled, not more interested in why he'd be watching her rather than who he was.
"Do you know who I am, child? I am Michael Scot, alchemist to the Holy Roman Empire, translator of the ancients, a man of science, a man of logic. I am the mover of mountains, the shaker of foundations. And whether it be as an antiquarian, or as a professor in a library, twice, I have been forced to intervene to save you."
Though the man before her was both imposing and fearsome, Marnie forced herself to speak up, "You can add spy to your list as well...the way you spied on me," she cried pointing back at the helmet.
He said nothing to this, instead he took several slow steps across to her, and Marnie moved back slowly. "You really are the One," the man said, staring down at her.
Now very confused, Marnie watched as he turned away and walked back across the room by the fire, "Come, child, sit down," he insisted, "Come, come, sit down."
With reluctance as well as confusion, she warily went to sit in a chair nearest the fire and Michael Scot, if he really was Michael Scot, sat in the chair opposite her.
"So...what do you want to know?" he asked.
Marnie blinked, unsure where to start, "Well...how about that wall thing out there? There were these...people...they just walked through it but I..."
"It's only an illusion," Michael said, "The wall is there to deter unwelcome guests, and the people you saw were visions from the past. I had to give you a clue otherwise you'd have given up."
"You were watching me...of course you were..." Marnie muttered, "Then how did I...how did I..."
"Get through the illusion?" he guessed and she nodded, "The simplest answer is - with magic."
"With magic," she repeated incredulously, "Right...okay...well...next question, then...I...I keep having this dream...there's this wolf and I think you're there as well."
"That's no dream, it's a vision of the past, or possibly the future. The wolf, I assume, is white with gold eyes...and it attacks you every time."
"...Yeah..." she nodded slowly.
"It's been haunting me for over a thousand years," the man sighed, "Every time I think I've learned something about it..."
"What...what'd you mean?"
"It's no ordinary wolf, child, it's a lost relic of the worst clan of Druids..."
"Then why am I dreaming about it?" she asked quickly, cutting of his explanation much to his chagrin.
"When it first started appearing, a soothsayer told me that..."
"A soothsayer?"
"A fortune teller, now, you must let me continue," Michael sighed, "They told me that the Wolf was after power - it finds people with latent power and steals it before it can manifest. If we can find these people people it does, then we have a chance of saving them, but that's why it wants you. You have powerful magic...or...you will have, and I was told that I would have help in the last days of this war."
"...Whoa...wait a minute...what makes you think I can do anything about this..."
"I'm not sure you can," he admitted, "But I had a vision, it was on your birthday, and that night, the Wolf would've attacked you. You're alive because I stopped it in time."
"You...had a vision?"
"I did," Michael said, "Which is strange in itself. I haven't had a vision in centuries."
"...Right...yeah...that's a...a big problem, that..." Marnie rolled her eyes, and Michael frowned.
"What exactly am I saying that you find so amusing?!" he yelled, a strong gust of wind blasting out at Marnie in his frustration.
"Erm...nothing...sorry...sir..." she muttered.
"Hmmm," Michael raised an eyebrow.
"...Erm..." Marnie breathed, settling back in her chair, "But...I...I really think you've got the wrong person, I mean, I..."
"You think so?"
"...In case you hadn't noticed," she began, her confidence growing again, "...I'm just a kid, a kid who's not even from around here a kid from the States who knows exactly zip about you and your history or about 'magic'," she shrugged, "No, it's all too crazy," she finished, walking back towards the stairs, "I can't deal with this..."
"Like mother, like daughter, hmm?" Michael suddenly said, turning round in his chair. He'd, quite effectively, stopped Marnie dead in her tracks half way across the room on the stairs.
"Are you saying that...you knew my mom?" the girl asked, slowly turing back to face the old wizard who nodded once, "And, did...did she believe you?" Marnie asked.
"...If she could've helped in any way, she would have," Michael said.
"...My mom...is dead," Marnie cried, "Look...I don't know you...I don't believe any of this..." she said. "You can take this back," she added. Marnie took off the necklace and put it down on one of the tables and walked off towards the stairs again.
"Marnie!" Michael called, "Marnie," he repeated, pointing his index and middle finger out to cast a spell. It fused the stone of the stairs to the girl's shoes and she couldn't move from the spot no matter how much she tried.
"Let me go!" the girl cried, trying to bring her feet up from the stone. She jolted back when the wizard appeared right in front of her in a flash of light, kneeling on the steps before her.
"Listen to me; this war, this quest, it's not just your only hope. It is the worlds' only hope. You're in danger every minute you're out there. This is here to protect you," he said, raising his hand. In it, was the necklace which he now held out to Marnie. "You need to learn to use your gifts, until you do, this'll help...take it."
"...No..."
"You must," Michael insisted, "Your dreams are warning you, you feel it and you must believe it."
"It's all..."
"People have died. People are dying and this thing, this Wolf, even before I was born, its destructive powers were growing, they grow even faster now. And perhaps it is unfair, that an eleven year old girl who knows 'zip' about history should be the one to help change it. But who ever said life was fair?" he said.
"I..." Marnie began.
But Michael waved his hand over her eyes before she could continue, "Tell no one of this. Think only of the quest. Let your heart decide," he said, sending her back to the corridors outside the Sanctum.
"But I..." she said, stopping when she saw that she was in the dark corridors again. With her hand, she reached up and found the necklace back around her neck.
After a second she realised that she was probably more than a little late and she started running but she ran straight into something. "Arghh!" Marnie screamed, jumping back.
"Arghh!" Laura screamed.
"Laura," Marnie exclaimed, standing back.
"Marnie, am I glad to see you," the girl sighed, "Come on," she said, lightly dragging her friend back through the tunnels where they cam face to face with their less than amused teacher.
"Ah, ladies," Mrs. McKay exhaled.
"Sorry, miss, we..." Marnie began.
"I don't want to hear it, now, come on. We're half an hour late as it is," the lady frowned, watching them both sheepishly join the group.
"Find who you were looking for?" Ailsa quietly asked Marnie.
"...I..." Marnie blinked and chose, wisely, not to answer.
"We're all here, now everyone on the coach," their teacher spoke out.
High above, behind the battlements of his castle, Michael Scot watched the school children leave. He watched his student, Ailsa and he watched Marnie. He knew she could be the key to ending the war he'd been fighting for eleven hundred years but he didn't have much time. The wizard knew that the girl needed to believe him, and she also needed to learn to harness her gifts before they were stolen by the Wolf.
"Until next time, child," Michael whispered, his voice carrying off on the wind.