The White Wolf and the Wizard

Chapter 6


Marnie raised her eyes from the paper after a while and looked across at the wizard sat opposite her. For a while she couldn't speak and it was difficult not to cry.

"My mom trusted you," she said later, "She says you were friends."

"Your mother was...a remarkable woman," Michael told her, "I wish I could've done more for her."

Marnie folded up the letter and stored it safely inside her blazer pocket as she regarded the man in front of her. "If...I I did want to help...what would I have to do?" she asked after a minute.

Michael looked up at her, barely able to keep the surprise from his face as he answered, "You need to know your powers," he said.

"And how do I do that?"

"Usually it takes time, but time is something we don't have," the man sighed.

"Then how do I..."

"My students will meet me here tonight, I will bring you here then and I will teach you...if you are willing to learn," he said.

"...Okay..." Marnie nodded.

Michael held his hand over her eyes and when she opened them again she was standing in the same corridor as before.

"Marnie, I've been looking everywhere for you," Laura said walking over to her.

"I was just..."

"Have you done your painting yet," she asked but Marnie shook her head, "Well, you better pick something quick."

They wandered the house for another few minutes before Marnie drew one of the rooms and when she'd finished she went off on her own. She had time left before they were supposed to meet up to leave so she decided to explore the old house until then.

As she moved she could feel a dark presence following her and she was looking over her shoulder every minute even though she saw nothing unusual. A minute later, she knew why when she walked outside and stopped in her tracks when she saw the White Wolf standing by one of the large stone pillars.

"Hello, Marnie," she heard a voice in her head say.

It wasn't the voice of Michael Scot that she had heard in her mind before, this was a much more different kind of voice. It was eerie and made her blood run cold.

"It's you, isn't it?" she whispered, staring at the animal, "...You're talking..." Marnie took a step back and she could hear nothing over her own heavy breathing, "What do you want with me?" she asked.

"To offer you a choice," the voice said, "Willingly give to me your powers, or face the consequences; my patience runs thin, decide now."

Marnie, although she wasn't sure why, knew that there was something distinctly wrong about this creature. She couldn't describe it, but there was a dark aura that followed it. She clutched her necklace in her fear and before she knew it, she vanished from the courtyard and reappeared inside the house. "How did I..." she muttered to herself.

She was standing alone in what looked like a small library or a study, but she wasn't alone for long. The Wolf appeared before her in a dark cloud of smoke and she ran behind the wooden desk, keeping it between her and the animal. "Leave me alone," she cried.

"Grrrr!" the Wolf let out a growl as it jumped onto the desk and stared her down.

A second later, a spark of white light hit the animal, knocking it back and Marnie looked around, expecting to see Michael, and surprised to see Ailsa standing across the room, holding out her hand which was crackling with energy.

The Wolf was sent flying across the room and Ailsa let loose another spell, this time turning it into a harmless rat which she picked up and tossed out of the window with a smile.

"Whoa..." Marnie sighed, "Erm...thanks..."

"How was my master?" Alisa asked quickly closing the window.

"...Not too good..." Marnie answered.

"As power fades quickly, so do ours."

"What...what'd you..."

"Michael is keeping us, myself and my fellow students, and McTaggart alive, it takes a lot of energy. He doesn't have long," Ailsa explained.

"You...you mean he's going to..."

"Not if we can help it," she replied, "Now, come on, we're leaving soon," Ailsa added, leading Marnie from the room.


That night, Marnie sat at her computer, nervous, wondering just when Michael planned to bring her to the castle. She jumped in shock when her father came in and sat on her bed.

"I just got a call from the school," he said and Marnie braced herself but her father smiled. "When were you gonna tell me you won the painting competition?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded.

"Well, you must've got that gene from your mother because I can't even paint a wall. She'd be proud of you though, I know I am."

"Thanks, dad," Marnie smiled.


Meanwhile, all of Michael Scot's students were gathered in his Inner Sanctum while the great wizard himself sat by the fire, his lethargy increasing. McTaggart and his students were all sat around the fire apart from his son who was extremely tense and bitter.

"An eleven year old girl!" Wolfgang hissed, pacing in front of the fire, "A child is to be your Chosen One!"

"Calm down, Wolfgang," Edwin frowned, "The girl was chosen..."

"By who?! By what?!"

"By fate," Michael answered.

"Fate!" Wolfgang scoffed, "The girl has no power! She has no chance against the Wolf!"

"Her power grows quickly," Ailsa said, "I've seen it."

"We've had eleven hundred years to perfect our own powers, we don't need a child to end this war for us!" Wolfgang replied angrily.

"The prophecy was made long before any of us," Michael sighed, rubbing his eyes, "Marnie is destined to bring an end to our war, and that time is upon us."

"Prophecy!" his son repeated incredulously, "Some great wizard you are father, you'd rely on a child to end your own war!"

"Right, that's enough," McTaggart cried.

"Angus, ever the faithful servant. You've seen what your master can do, d'you really think he needs a child to help him?!"

"I can't do everything. You never could understand that," Michael scoffed, "My power is fading, I know you can feel your own strength fading with it. The girl's magic is tied to my own. Only if she chooses to fight with me, only if we defeat the Wolf, will my strength return."

"Why is her magic tied to yours?" Bruno asked, "I know it's in the prophecy...but why?"

"Because she has the potential to be my equal, maybe even my superior."

"And I suppose we do not," Wolfgang scowled.

"I know you're angry, and I know you're bitter, my son," his father met his eyes with a calm expression. "But if any of us could have defeated it, we would've done so a long time ago."

"But an eleven year old child!"

"You think I'm easy in my mind about this?" Michael snapped, "Everything I've seen and done...only to be humbled by a child...making a child choose this...I never wanted this."

"We know that, master," Edwin said, frowning at Wolfgang, "He's only jealous."

"Only jealous!" the man scoffed, "Am I not your son?" he said to his father, "Have I not done everything you've ever asked of me?"

"Yes," Michael said insistently, "Yes, you have and more...and you know that. But if I am defeated..."

"Then we all fade away, I know."

"I've told you before," Michael began, siting up in his chair, "I will not teach you that spell," he said. He knew his son desperately wanted to know how to support his own life force, rather than rely on his father to keep him alive. "It will corrupt you, I won't do that to you, to any of you."

"But you would, quite willingly, put our lives in the hands of a child?" Wolfgang scoffed.

"Have you learnt nothing in eleven centuries, Wolfgang? There are many things beyond our control..."

"And yet you can cheat death."

"No, no..." the wizard sighed, "My time will come...I'm no god, my son," he whispered and Wolfgang, for the first time that night, really saw how worn his father was.

Despite their occasional disagreements, he did actually care for the old man, so he chose to back down. "...Well then...the girl..." Wolfgang waved a dismissive hand.


Marnie was lying in her bed in her clothes and she was just nodding off when she heard it. Her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright.

"Marnie," Michael's voice said in her mind, "Marnie...open your door..." With a look of confusion, Marnie did as he said, putting on her jacket and shoes to see the crackling fire she'd come to associate with the Inner Sanctum.

Around the fire sat Michael and McTaggart and four people she recognised from her mother's painting. She assumed that these were Michael's students and they looked just as out of place as she did in their modern clothes...and that the woman was Ailsa.

"...So you're the real Ailsa?" she asked.

"I am," the woman nodded. She was a fairly young individual with long red hair and sharp green eyes. "And this is Edwin, Bruno and Wolfgang," she said, glancing at her fellow students in turn.

Edwin was a lanky, middle aged man with greying hair and a short goatee beard, while Bruno was more bulky than his friends with a kind, open face. Wolfgang's features were angular and slightly stern as he gave an almost imperceivable nod in Marnie's direction.

"...Hey..." Marnie breathed, somewhat awkwardly.

"Sit down, Marnie," McTaggart said, gesturing to a vacant chair.

"You realise...I won't be teaching you things for nothing...there will be a battle..." Michael said to her.

"...Yeah...but that thing won't leave me alone...it's not like I have much of a choice."

"So speaks the voice of wisdom," Wolfgang sighed.

"Wolfgang," Ailsa scowled at him.

"The Day of Reckoning approaches," Michael said heavily, "...Although just whose Day of Reckoning it is, I don't know..."

Wolfgang and his fellow students gazed at their ailing master as his words faded and Marnie felt a deep wish to be anywhere but here. It was like watching her mother wasting away all over again.

"So...erm...what'll you be teaching me?" she asked quietly.

"We'll be teaching you," Ailsa said, stepping forwards, "...As much as we can...we'll start with the basics," she added.

Michael glared over at her. He understood that she, like his other three students, was worried about him, but he didn't want to be treated like a helpless invalid.

"You need to rest, master," McTaggart said, easily reading the anger forming on the wizard's face.

"He is right," Wolfgang spoke, "Don't waste what power you have left."

"...You're all against me," Michael murmured, leaning his head back into the fur throw on the chair.

"Of course we are, sir," the man rolled his eyes, "...A wee boy, I'm telling you..." he muttered under his breath to the others.

Marnie couldn't help but smile a little as they tried very hard to hold back their chuckles of laughter as their master sighed in irritation.

"Right then," Edwin clapped his hand together, trying to break the tension. He picked up a book and dropped it onto the table, flicking forwards a few pages. "We start at the beginning...what do you already know?" he asked her.

"Erm...well...I..." Marnie stammered nervously, "...Nothing really...sorry..."

"Oh, well then, it really is at the beginning," Edwin smiled, turning back the pages he'd planned on skipping through.

"Get on with it, you great bag of wind," Ailsa rolled her eyes.

"Right, well, yes..."

"The main aim of Alchemy, though by no means the only one, was the transformation of base metal into gold, although that might short change us a little bit," Wolfgang told her.

"Yes, exactly what I was going to say," Edwin nodded.

"Oh," Michael sighed deeply. Though he cared deeply for his students, the one reason why he still regarded them as such rather than individual, powerful alchemists, was that in some ways, not one of them had matured to a standard he'd have liked. McTaggart often accused him of being too harsh on this issue and he supposed he was, but he could tell that this was going to be a very long night, especially if he had to listen to his students butcher the teachings he'd spent so much effort drilling into their heads.