Chapter 11: In which Merlin dredges up the past

Camelot could be seen coming to meet them just above the cloudline. Merlin poured as much speed into the flying ship as it could stand, making it give a frightful chiming whine. Their landing in the main hall was far more rough than the first time Merlin had flown them to the castle. He didn't even wait for it to slide to a halt before gathering up his apprentice and leaping clear.

"Nari!" he shouted, voice booming. "Nari, I need you!"

Her figure appeared high above at one of the balconies, then with a graceful leap she seized a pillar and descended using the artful carving of a dragon wrapped around it. At the bottom she bounded over to Merlin as he dropped to one knee, presenting her with his injured apprentice. Archie hovered close, not letting himself be more than one foot away from his friend for so much as a second.

Glowing hands outstretched, she gave a sudden gasp. "To the burial chamber, right away!"

They hurried off, Toby repeating "Burial chamber?!" in a horrified tone. Both trolls had come bursting in at the commotion. With his massive hands Aaarrrgghh helped them all down from the airship but looked back inside, head turning from side to side searchingly.

"Where Jim?" he rumbled.

Claire and Toby's worried faces were now coupled with misery. Zoe pushed past the questioning Blinky and ran to the door but halted in confusion when she saw the empty hallway there. Where had they taken him?

In the tunnels below, Merlin laid Douxie on the sarcophagus and watched attentively as Nari's vines folded around him until he was completely hidden. A warm rosy haze radiated from the plants as her magic went to work.

"He is fortunate," she sighed, eyes shut as she focused. "Perhaps a few more minutes and the worst damage would have been beyond the point where I could fully heal it. Broken bones are a simple matter, but organs are more complex. His liver, heart and lungs will need to be treated with much care. Though she cannot kill them directly, Bellroc prides herself on making mortals suffer excruciating pain for the remainder of their lives."

Merlin looked on, trying not to show his anxiety. "But why would she do such a thing to him?"

Nari turned, her large amber eyes filled with pity. "Merlin, it was not about your apprentice at all. Before I left, Skrael told us this boy could be the key to your downfall if you dared to interfere again. He had a plan. I wish now I had found out more before leaving."

Archie had positioned himself on top of the green cocoon, wings spread protectively over it as though expecting someone to come in any second and attack. Merlin's mouth set in a firm line as he fell into silence, lost in thought.

It was half an hour before Douxie opened his eyes, seeing Nari as she bent over him. He recognized the chamber, surprised to find himself lying atop the casket of the dead monarch. A few vines pinned his chest and arms down firmly while others swayed like snakes debating whether to strike or caress. It was unnerving.

"I suggest you not move, Dukes-ee," the little witch advised in her soft, deliberate voice. "The worst injuries still need time to heal. Perhaps another hour and you may rise."

"It would be easier… to hold still…" he said between breaths, "if it wasn't… so uncomfortable here."

A brighter glow of emerald-colored magic flared, followed by the sudden relief of his sore back. Merlin stepped into sight, stern as always, but the expected cutting remark on how useless Douxie was didn't come.

"I… I know it's my fault," he whispered, voice slightly stronger now. "I put them in danger."

"Do you think I had no idea what the five of you were doing?" Merlin said with an annoyed grunt that seemed more forced than natural. "Of course I would have preferred all of you to stay here, but it seemed harmless enough and you never stayed long—not to mention all of you ceased your eternal whining—so I permitted it."

"Are they alright?"

Merlin didn't answer, instead walking across the room.

Nari looked at the old wizard's back before murmuring, "The Trollhunter did not return."

Minutes after the escape, Skrael poised behind his sister as she leaned against one giant window of their fortress. He almost reached out to touch her shoulder, but Bellroc suddenly wrenched upright and uttered a piercing scream before slamming one fist into the saffron glass. The pane shattered, some fragments landing among the sizzling drips of lava that continued to fall from her eyes.

"Let me hide the disfigurement," he offered with a tenderness he only showed to his sisters.

Face twisting with unbound fury, she nonetheless allowed him to tie on a blindfold. Moments later lines of symbols on the cloth worked their magic and the flow of molten blood dried.

"Shall I help you with a surrogate charm?"

"Do not concern yourself," she said in a less furious tone, fingertips gliding along the bandage to ensure the reparative spell was fully embedded. "I can do it on my own."

A few yards away, Jim hung from a pair of manacles that bound him tightly to two pillars of rock. But even if he hadn't been strung up, moving would have been next to impossible. The onyx shard piercing his Amulet throbbed and pulsed like a stinger pumping poison into his body. Breathing was all he could manage at the moment.

Clusters of glowing eggs were scattered throughout the room, guarded closely by a few niffins who hissed and flared their wings every time they looked his direction, but the creatures didn't attack. It was shocking how many there were. From where he was, Jim could see at least two hundred eggs, and judging by the size of the cavernous room, that was only a fraction of them.

"Why did you bring the Trollhunter?" Skrael wondered.

"I refuse to let him get away with mutilating me," the Keeper of the Flame seethed in her double-toned voice. "The child will suffer a hundredfold!"

"He will make a good attack dog," someone else said from behind, "when his soul is mine."

The Green Knight's words sent terrified splinters into Jim's mind, but he could do nothing as the Order's champion approached. His raven-colored sword aimed at the onyx shard, making it glow, but although there was a new flash of pain… that was all. The tortured throes of agony Jim had experienced before never came.

"What did he do?!" the dark figure shouted in sudden rage. "Merlin shouldn't have been able to beat off the corruption!"

Skrael turned, annoyed at the knight's tone, and approached to see if he could understand the puzzle. Eyes glittering, he observed their prisoner a few moments.

"Though the Trollhunter reeks of Merlin's magic, his corruption was touched by a different source. That of Excalibur… wielded by the boy wizard."

"Him?!" He spat out the word as if it was dirt in his mouth. "How could that weakling have done it?"

"Apparently he is gaining ground. Unforeseen, but it is of no consequence." The ice wizard came even closer, black tips of his fingers reaching out to feel the Amulet and making Jim shudder with the abrupt touch of winter. "Hm. Something has changed. Bellroc, you say this one managed to summon the Trollhunter blade?"

"He could not have harmed me otherwise," she scraped out, the red glow between her hands settling on the pair of clasps at her shoulders. They blinked in the imitation of eyeballs and roved the room.

"It should not have been possible. If Excalibur hampered the spell and the Trollhunter managed to use his blade… the two magics found a balance. This mongrel will likely not surrender to the corruption, but neither can he ever be free of it."

Jim staunchly glared up at Skrael as he spoke with such indifference, but inwardly the revelation sent his mind reeling. He would be trapped with this onyx curse forever?

The words impacted the Green Knight too and he punched one stone pillar, a noise issuing from his throat that bordered on hysterical. His gauntlet cracked. The Bringer of the North Wind raised one eyebrow curiously. Flakes of greenish black rock littered the floor when the knight moved it, revealing two fingers, thinner than Jim expected.

"It seems you have less time than I thought. The onyx armor can only shield you so long. He must die soon if you wish to remain unharmed by the abrasion of this world."

"Why did Bellroc not think to bring him instead of this useless patsy?!" the Green Knight gestured with the partly-broken gauntlet at Jim. "He's worth nothing to us now! I'll kill him and—"

A blur of frigid blue came slicing down between Jim and the Green Knight, the staff silencing him. Skrael's expression had grown dangerous.

"It is not your decision to make. Take one single action against our wishes and I will ensure your life ends in torment the likes of which you cannot imagine. You are not in control here, foreigner. You are to make no demands or suggestions and you will not second-guess us."

The scythe whirled, striking the Green Knight's helmet and making it fly off. Skrael's weapon came to a sudden stop at the base of his throat, its edge emanating a deadly coldness that matched his voice.

"If I so command it, you will ignore the boy even if he lies beneath your sword. Insult my sister again and I will strip that armor away piece by piece to watch you die miserably. It would not be considered murder, after all, since death is only the natural consequence of your presence here. Obedience is your key to survival."

The Green Knight took two steps back and bowed stiffly. "I understand."

Jim stared at the bare face of their enemy. It… it couldn't be…

"If I hadn't given in and brought them to the surface Jim would still be here!"

Head shaking vigorously, Douxie defied every attempt at reassurance. Archie's words slid off without leaving any impression and Nari's continuous warnings against moving only seemed to incense him more. He uttered a noise between a choke and a sob.

"You left me everything—your libraries, artifacts, Camelot itself—and I've done nothing but make mistake after mistake for centuries!" He stared blankly at the green maze of lines twisting about on the ceiling. "I wish you hadn't taken me in that day. You had no reason to. I'm nothing and I always have been!"

Nari tried to keep him still, more green tendrils starting to wrap around him, but he deflected them with a bold flash of blue magic. The young wizard continued to implore his master.

"Why would you pick me as your apprentice when you could have chosen any wizard in the entire country? Why?!"

His master stepped forward to stand over Douxie. For the first time since he could remember, Merlin looked at him with a somberness that spoke of veiled pain. "Because it's my fault your family is dead."

The elderly wizard extended one hand above him while Douxie's eyes grew wide in shock. A half-formed shout died on his lips as the sleep spell took hold. Archie yowled angrily, but Merlin kept the cat from attacking with a green glow that left him immobile.

"You deserve to know that much, Hisirdoux, so I will show you the truth. Perhaps you will hate me afterward, but at least you will understand."

Outrage at being forced asleep boiled inside Douxie. Why would Merlin do this when he wanted answers so badly?! But then he looked around in confusion. He stood in a wide valley, the heights just barely touched with a red dawn. As far as the eye could see, all was blasted rubble—a combination of ice shards, bits of hissing lava and ashen vines.

In the center stood Merlin. The Arcane Order surrounded him, their staffs flaming with colored light as they hurled attack after attack at the dome shield he'd conjured. Douxie stumbled back in surprise as the earth heaved amid blazes of his master's magic, whips of emerald light lashing out to beat off the primordial wizards.

Sunlight spilled over the hills behind them and an ethereal golden mist began to creep up from the broken ground. The Keeper of the Flame uttered a convulsive scream as her magic drained away.

"This is your last chance, Merlin!" Nari cried as her feet transformed into glittering scales of light that scattered and dissipated. "The balance is already upset. Do not make it worse."

"If you will not cease your attack on magic-kind," Skrael growled, the mist now at his waist, "the Genesis Seals will be our only option. You know what will happen then."

"Morgana remains our champion," Bellroc hissed at him from behind her bird skull, "and what power I retain, I gift her!"

"As do I," her siblings each added before the mist enveloped them entirely and swept away, leaving nothing behind but the faintest sparkle of dust.

Merlin dropped to the ground, lying there weakly as the sun rose higher. From where he stood, Douxie could tell he had pushed himself to the limit keeping the Arcane Order at bay long enough for their time to draw to an end.

A blur overtook the world. When it grew clear once more, Merlin sat in a library, head in hands. Somehow Douxie knew many years had passed, but his master was still recovering from the final fight with the Order.

A knock broke the silence and he rose up, assuming the demeanor of a mighty wizard as several people entered.

"Merlin Ambrosius," a white-haired man began in a thick French accent, and Douxie squinted at him, sure he'd seen him somewhere before. "You did not répondu our messages."

"I did," he replied. "You did not like my answer."

"We are désespérés—desperate!" he cried, fear making him drop to his knees pleadingly. "We fled la Royaume de France to escape persecution but now your king demands we help him in sa guerre! How can we fight our own countrymen?"

"Don't beg like a dog. You should have more pride than that." Merlin expressed his displeasure with a frown as the man hastened back to his feet. "And you came to my refuge to get me involved? As if I don't have enough problems already. If anyone followed you, King Uther would have me in his sights as well."

"We meant no harm by coming," one of the two women present hurried to say, her words not as thick with accent. Douxie blinked as he recognized some of his mother's features in her face. "But the king has threatened to brand our family traitors for refusing to follow his command. They have already captured my brothers!"

"Deal with it yourselves," Merlin insisted, unmoved by their words.

"S'il vous plaît! We are hedge wizards," the first man protested even more strongly. "You know how little we can do to défendons ourselves!"

"Morgana le Fay's powers have grown in recent years and I cannot afford to waste any resources, whether it be in defending the country or protecting random peasants. The realm itself is far more important." He stared out the window into an ill-kept garden. "The one I am destined to guide on the throne has barely been born. Another battle looms and I must be ready. There is no choice but to bide my time and gather what strength I can or all will be lost."

"At least take my daughter, Merlin!" the woman begged, fumbling for the coin pouch at her belt. "I'll give you all I have! Take her as your apprentice so she'll be safe from—"

"I will not take in a mediocre Casperan out of charity," he snapped. "Go your way and do not return."

His iron-hard gaze intimidated their protests into silence and they reluctantly left, the woman now beginning to weep.

"No!" Douxie shouted, grabbing for Merlin's arm only for his hand to pass through it. "Don't let them go! Don't abandon them!"

He tried to cast a spell, frantic to keep them from leaving. But his magic didn't work. As their heavy steps carried them through the door, a new wave of change passed over the library.

When the blurriness faded once more he saw the fifteen-year-old version of himself shuffling cups on a sidestreet in Camelot, calling out in the cracked tone of a boy whose voice was changing. A few people gathered to watch the shell game that was only partly sleight of hand.

Having just seen the family he'd always wondered about kept Douxie from being able to enjoy the crowd's surprise when their guess was always wrong.

Merlin walked down the cobblestone street, not even sparing him a glance. But then the irate cry of "Magic!" made him look back. Archie had transformed from the ball in the shell game back into his cat form and leaped away in fright. Panicking at the aggressive faces now beginning to overshadow him, the young Douxie threw out a smoke spell and darted into an alley.

Curious now, the white-haired wizard followed just in time to see the hapless rogue at the point of a sword. There was a sudden glow which caused everything to stop except for him and his familiar. The pair looked around, baffled.

"You would do better to practice your scams in a city that is less intolerant," Merlin advised, coming up behind him as he held the surrounding area in a brief time-freeze bubble.

"Merlin Ambrosius!" the wide-eyed teenager exclaimed as he dropped down on one knee. "I-I would have been done for if you hadn't—"

"Don't let me catch you out here again. Magic is no plaything and shouldn't be wasted rigging games, young one."

He was already walking away when the boy said a little indignantly, "My name isn't 'young one'. It's Hisirdoux Casperan."

Merlin came to a stiff halt. Standing in a new vantage point now, Douxie observed the abrupt change in his master's face that he hadn't noticed that day nine hundred years ago—the ghost of past guilt mingled with shock. But none of that seeped into his words as he addressed Douxie without looking back.

"Any family?"

"I… I'm looking for them," came Douxie's mumbled answer.

"Well… I happen to be in need of an apprentice, and though you don't exactly fit the bill, I'm willing to bend a little this time. We'll see whether you have any talents worth fostering." He started off, beckoning in a business-like manner. "Come along."

The younger Douxie was too excited about the prospect to suspect anything odd about Merlin's reconsideration. The older one could only stare, finally understanding after all this time.

A rough tongue scraped Douxie's nose with a similar texture to wet sandpaper, making him pull back with a cry of disgusted alarm.

"Arch, knock it off!" He shot up and nearly smacked his head on the ceiling of the sleeping alcove in his room. The sky through his windows was still dark. "Wait… when did I get here?"

"Merlin brought you in about fifteen minutes ago," his familiar informed him, looking relieved. "You were sleeping too long so I decided to give you a wake-up call."

"You're a little git, you know that?" he said, giving a revolted face and rubbing off any trace of saliva. A moment later he sobered and leaned hard on his knees. "Did… did Merlin say anything?"

"…He said you were welcome to come see him whenever you felt ready. And if you did not wish to, he understood." The cat placed his front paws on Douxie's lap, yellow eyes searching his face. "You don't have to tell me what you saw if you want to keep it to yourself. I felt it."

"You can't feel everything," the wizard said, standing. Firm intention hardened his features and he strode from room, familiar hurrying to keep up.

Merlin heard the workroom door open, but he remained seated with his back toward it. The pale lamps spaced around the room kept everything dim, but even so, the old wizard sat holding a large book and writing in it.

"Do you blame me, Hisirdoux?" he wondered, feather quill pausing.

There was a dense silence for several moments. Finally Douxie walked past his master, Archie remaining in the doorway. One hand reached out to touch the stained glass window of a moon, muted but still visible by the real moon's light behind it.

"I blame you about as much as I blame myself for not being born a healer-mage so I could have saved Mum." He let his hand drop, turning to meet Merlin's gaze. "I always knew I was the last Casperan. I just wanted to know why. There are no records, no evidence but hearsay that they were traitors. And you refused to say a word about them when I asked you back then."

Nodding slowly, Merlin set down the book with utmost care and steepled his hands. "King Uther knew the Casperans could be valuable informants since many groups of hedge wizards had openly aided the Franks in the previous war—prior to the ban on them. When they turned him down outright, Uther snapped, singling the entire clan out as French spies. Even their children were not spared the sword."

This appeared to weigh on him the most as he sat there, gazing through Douxie with an unreadable expression.

"I don't know why I was so sure they would find some way to escape. Everyone I spoke with said the whole family had been wiped out. Over thirty years later, to finally find out I was wrong… I should have kept looking."

"You thought I was nothing but a 'mediocre Casperan' at first, didn't you?" Douxie asked.

"It was quite the surprise to find out you had ambient magic, but I would have taken you in anyway." Placing his hands on the book, he made it vanish in a shimmer of green mist. "There is something that's been on my mind for some time. Come."

The three of them proceeded to the throne room. Douxie stepped inside, habitually noting the circular pattern in the floor where the Round Table lay at rest. On its surface was a vague map of where Camelot had once sat on England's coast. Or Angleland, as it had been called back then.

Merlin dropped to one knee at the edge, apprentice following his lead. Six colored gems were embedded in the picture at irregular intervals, appearing to the untrained eye to be nothing more than decoration, but Douxie had always known they were much more. He'd been young when he last knelt here gazing at them, though. Now he could easily sense the secretive power thrumming deep inside, waiting patiently to be released.

"Which one speaks to you, Hisirdoux?" Merlin asked after a minute.

Douxie started, so wrapped up in the glaze of magic he could finally feel with such clarity that he'd completely forgotten he wasn't alone. "I… I'm not sure. They all seem the same."

"Do they? It took me a millennium to gather them, each one harmonizing in a slightly different way." Merlin leaned forward, placing his hand on the image of a river that had been set with lapis lazuli. "This means more than you realize. It is not chance that there are precisely six gemstones here, nor does this picture have no relevance. I pray you may never need to know what this truly means nor be forced to use it."

"If it's so important then why not tell me so that I'll know when the time comes?" he wondered with a trace of exasperation, going over to the yellow gemstone and letting his magic resonate gently. It only had a faint response.

"Some burdens are too great even for a master wizard. Especially a new one."

The words caught Douxie's attention. His head jerked around and he scrambled upright, staring at Merlin in questioning wonder. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"Why would I be?" Merlin stood. "You've made decisions I would consider folly, only to somehow solve the very problems I could not. Yes, you extended your youth far beyond what was prudent, but what does that say about you? It shows me steadfast determination and centuries of fortitude. How many wizards a fraction of your age could boast of such self-control?"

Hands clasped behind his back, Merlin walked around his apprentice who continued to stand there, stunned at the unexpected praise.

"But… but I failed. Bellroc took Jim. I… wasn't able to do anything."

"I have always believed one learns as much from failure as success. And if you wish to speak of success, you took on a student whose magic was beyond your ken, yet managed to teach her so that she is well on her way to becoming a great sorceress."

Archie came flying over, landing on his wizard's shoulder. "You knew he was Claire's teacher?"

"And who else would it have been? Regardless of how I may feel about her specific type of magic, the fact that she is growing most capable speaks for your methods. Now." He cleared his throat and gestured to the Round Table. "Which one speaks to you, master wizard? Which gem will be set into your staff?"

A/N: It's really annoying to me how often we see the Round Table but it only had one small role to play by providing the gem for Douxie's staff. In the "Wizards" intro alone it's shown three times (once in the first couple seconds, then later during one of the scenes that zooms in on Camelot, and again where Morgana is attacking Arthur), then it can be spotted in every single episode up to Killahead Part 1 since it's there in the floor of the throne room. For an object that really didn't have much impact on the story itself it got way too many cameos, even in "Titans" when it's used as a regular table for the group to chat around. In addition, the gems are not spaced symmetrically which means they are noting specific places on the map. So someone tell me why this thing isn't important. It's featured too often to just be a piece of furniture, and yet that's basically all it is. I am totally fixing that.

I did have an extra piece that didn't seem to fit anywhere and dragged down the narrative too much. In short, during one of the days where everyone's hanging around being bored, Blinky approaches Douxie and snaps his fingers, saying he finally figured out who he reminds him of. Then he addresses Douxie as 'Bricklewort', commenting that a young lady troll who loved his cat-like musk was devastated when he didn't return over a hundred years earlier. Our favorite wizard is naturally embarrassed (he wasn't very proud of the troll-illusion he'd used on himself) but the two of them reminisce about events they'd both taken part in, ending up with Douxie sharing a bit about his own history.

A couple of the jobs Merlin assigned him were to watch over the assorted libraries/reliquaries he left behind and to keep in contact with the Trollhunter. Douxie was the one who first brought a group of hedge wizards to Arcadia before it was even a fledgling village (they were the only ones willing to do so since most wizards would consider the task beneath them). Their purpose was to protect the trolls from aboveground, specifically from any nasty beasties who hounded them like niffins and goblins and the like in return for castoff gemstones and precious metals the trolls didn't want. Kanjigar knew who Douxie was, but he was asked to keep it confidential.

Douxie and Archie moved here and there throughout the world—mainly in Europe, Mesopotamia, Canada and the U.S. since there were specific spots Merlin had previously set up as places of power that he needed to look after. They'd spend a few years in each location, sometimes moving on because of boredom or some magic-related incident (more often the latter). To keep from attracting too much attention by returning to the same place 40+ years later and being recognized by people who met him long ago, he formed a habit of pretending to be his own son. By the time our story rolls around, he's up to Hisirdoux Casperan the XIV.

The last time Douxie was in Arcadia was 1985 when he had a falling out with the group of wizards who were living there at the time. He refused to go back until long after they had been replaced by the current four who run Hex Tech. What did they argue about? Hmm... not sure. Suggestions?