Hi! How are you? Still here? That means my little twist in the last chapter didn't scare you off. Yay! So sorry for posting late, that is, if you are waiting for this update. Life called and demanded for my attention, and as much as I would love to ignore it... alas, I could not. Thank you again for the reviews and views! You have no idea how much those brighten up my days! Chapter Ten is up and sprinting!
Disclaimer: The joy of owning of BBC Merlin will never be bestowed upon me. Sad.
Osric pointed the blade towards the King and grinned, his silver eyes glowing, "Worthy now, am I?"
With one fluid motion, the King sidestepped, pulled Osric's arm forward, and crashed Excalibur into Merlin's prison box. Both blade and box shattered. Its sound was deafening. No one moved for a second, their shock numbing their senses.
Merlin was first to recover. His eyes flashed gold and the sorcerer was bound in invisible chains. The sorcerer yelped and fell to the floor, struggling against the magical binds. The chains would bind Osric's magic and it was intentionally used for magic-users who abused magic and broke the law. Perfect time to use it right now, he thought. Then Merlin unmuted the knights and released them everyone. It felt good to have his energy back.
"My desperation may ruin me, but your pride is the reason why you've failed." Osric glared venom at Merlin. "How do I put Arthur's soul back together?"
"Like I would tell you."
Gwaine surged forward, "If you don't tell us, would you like to meet my fists?"
"Woah, there Gwaine. We can't just punch him." Leon held his friend from punching the living daylights out of the sorcerer.
"I'm fairly sure that if people can be hanged for treason, they can be punched. Multiple times. With lots of force."
Elyan proposed, "Or we can bring him back to Camelot and interrogate him then."
It was a good suggestion, but it would be better if Osric cooperated. No muss, no fuss.
"Alright, no games, sorcerer," the King walked up to him. "How do we put me back together?"
The sorcerer snarled, "Why should I answer? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
"I won't fool you; I'll be honest. If you do not help me, you will be hanged for treason and when you die, you will be labelled as a traitor. But you will never know if your theory worked. That will haunt you for the rest of your dead days." Arthur One said.
Osric turned his head away in defiance.
Arthur One smirked, "Come on, great sorcerer. Don't you want to tell us your ingenious plan?"
"I won't let you goad me into telling you the solution."
The King crouched down, "I'm not goading you; I'm asking you. Get the satisfaction of revealing a bit of a secret, and watch us fumble our way in darkness, knowing that you are superior in this situation. Besides, if you tell me, I might not hang you when we get back to Camelot."
Merlin really had enough of his chit chat. He tightened the invisible chains until the sorcerer gave a little cry of pain. Then Osric broke. "... Look at the things the knights have found."
Percival found the ring, Elyan found Excalibur, and Gwaine had retrieved the necklace.
Lancelot said, "I found his shell of a body, I guess, in my tunnel."
"And I found a huge hourglass." Leon said. "It was too large to move it." Apparently, the hourglass was trickling sand to the bottom. What time schedule were they on?
Look for the things that the knights had found. What kind of magic did he need to do using those objects? Especially that one was now shattered to thousands of pieces. Merlin picked up the pieces of Excalibur by levitation and tried molding them together. His magic had done its job; the sword was fixed. However, Excalibur's power was gone; there was no hum of magic radiating from it.
"Lancelot, lead the way to my… shell." The King wrinkled his nose. Percival hauled Osric to his feet, keeping a firm grip on the captor.
Lancelot and Merlin led them out of the throne room, down the hallways, pass the library and dungeons, and back to the six tunnels. Then they went down Lancelot's tunnel. At the end, there was, indeed, Arthur's body shell lying on a wooden table. It was weird to see Arthur so still and silent and so… dead.
Arthur One inched closer to the body, "This is a little disturbing."
So how were they going to do this? Why did Osric tell them to look for the things already found? What was this riddle? Osric must had a reason to intentionally plan out the tunnels. But again, why, and how did it relate to their predicament? Merlin glared at the sorcerer, hoping the answers would magically appear.
"Hurry up, won't you? If you don't, we'll all die here!" Osric sneered.
What do you think is the solution? I was so tempted to say that Leon had found a vial of glue, then all they had to do was glue Arthur's souls back together XD. On a more serious note, we are almost at the finish line. Hang in there!