Good morning. Today I bring the second part of the really important chapter 19.

First, I have to say some important things that concern this chapter. The first one is that in this chapter will bring some things from the series, you will see. The Key to Wisdom will appear, but I have to say that won't be as in the series, it will be different. It will be hidden in the mountains where they are and it won't be like an alien (is so weird to me).

The second thing is that will appear Cornelius Sigan (the idea of weirdhead), but not as in the series (I don't like that much that Sigan puts into the body of Cedric, honestly), it will be different, you will see.

And that's it, you will see it in this part of the chapter and in the next one.

Enjoy it!

I'm not own from Merlin.

"He's alive"

Merlin didn't understand anything. How could Telvar not be alive? Should he be dead? Is he dead? Merlin didn't know why he thought that last stupid question. Of course, Telvar was alive, he himself had seen him in the flesh, and since he was seven years old, he had come to visit him.

Merlin looked at Hilda's face, hoping to find there the solution to the doubt he had. Seeing that he could not decipher anything, he turned to the next step, which was as easy as asking.

"Hilda, why did you think Telvar was dead?" he asked softly, fearing that if he spoke too loud, she would do something unexpected, or even she would break like a glass with his words. All he didn't want at the time was to scream and behave the way he'd behaved in the last few days. He had to be calm, be patient. It was thinking that when another thought came to mind. "Did anyone tell you he was dead?"

Hilda looked at him, a lost and hurt look that said it all about her, and after a few seconds, when Merlin imagined she would say nothing, she nodded slowly, as if fearing that someone would see her movements.

"Who?"

Hilda took a few moments to answer, apparently thinking about what to say and remembering the past.

"He. It was him. He did it," Hilda replied, and for a moment Merlin thought she was delirious, for she began to strain his face and slightly tighten his jaw, as one who has been betrayed long ago.

"Who is he? What happened?" Merlin asked, losing patience.

There was silence in which Hilda seemed to think again and began to speak moments later.

"You know Telvar was born in this very town, right?"

Merlin nodded. He seemed to see through the eye grid that Arthur and Morgana did not seem to believe what they were hearing, and it seemed that they were increasingly suspicious of the old woman.

"Well, it all started when he arrived."

"Who?"

"Cornelius Sigan."

Hilda said that as if it was something very dangerous and great, but Merlin had not even heard that name in her life. He thought of Gaius and that surely if he would be there, he would tell him everything he knew, which used to be a lot. But he wasn't there, so he tried not to show much confusion.

"He came to town when me and Telvar were twelve years old," Hilda continued, speaking the words slowly as if she wanted everything that she was going to tell to be understood well. "Telvar and I had been friends from birth, but when that filthy man arrived, everything changed. I don't know where he came from or why came to this miserable town, but what I did know from the beginning was that this man couldn't bring anything good.

"And I was right. Oh, yes, how right I was. This Sigan came with his father, a man with a steely, hard-looking man. It looked like those men who go to war disguised in armor and sharp weapons that I think call swords" Before that, Merlin could see how Arthur seemed offended by it. "Yes, only that man wasn't wearing any armor. He didn't have a mother, apparently, and I didn't really be surprised, having a man like that. And it wasn't because of his physique, oh no, it was the way he treated people like it was rubbish. And thank God I have to say, even if I sin of insolence, that he died a year later from illness. I'm not one of those people who likes to wish bad to people, but that man I have to say was an exception.

"The problem began when Sigan approached Telvar, making them extraordinary friends. They both had a lot in common, or so Telvar used to tell me when he came back from being with his friend. But I wasn't so sure, oh, of course not. I already knew this Cornelius guy wasn't up to anything good."

"Well, it all went on with both being very happy together, being the best boys in the town known to everyone. The weird thing about them was that you never knew what they were doing. Telvar and I, who had shared a great friendship and even always thought it could get to something else, seemed to gradually fade away. Every time, Telvar would visit me less to spend more time with the that Sigan. And that couldn't mean anything good, oh no, of course, it couldn't."

"The problem was that no one, not Telvar's parents, me or anyone who knew Telvar and Sigan well knew what they were doing when they weren't in town, which was the vast majority of the day. Around noon, they disappeared from the village to be seen again in the afternoon. They could disappear in more or in less time, depending on the day, but the important thing was not the time, but what they did."

"I had already suspected since then, but I could never draw any conclusions, for every time I tried to follow them, they seemed to fade into some corner that I crossed or through the vegetation, which at the time was abundant."

"Magic," Arthur murmured low as if he wanted those words not to be real but just a mirage.

Hilda looked at him, not with fear or anger in his face, as Merlin thought to see, but with some curiosity and kindness.

"Yes, I suspected that, yes."

Arthur looked at her with some confusion and mistrust in her face, surely thinking negatively about it. Anything that contained the word magic was a negative thing and made Arthur an aggressive, borderline man, like his father. Merlin hoped that one day he would reconsider for it and open his blind eyes.

"You will know that magic is forbidden here in Camelot, right?"

"Yes, it is. But at that time Constantine III, father of Uther Pendragon, reigned and magic was permitted."

Merlin assumed that it was rare for Arthur to hear his father's name without being recognized before, as he did not wear anything to symbolize or represent Camelot, he simply wore a banal armor, in order not to be seen as the prince of Camelot during the voyage. For a moment, Merlin thought Arthur was going to do something silly, like saying that he was Prince Arthur and that they were both under arrest for talking about magic, but luckily his threaten became nothing.

"Well, the day came when I spied on one of his late-night conversations, and what I heard I never told anyone. But see if I tell you, gentlemen, that I almost dare tell you, strangers, who are going in Telvar's name, and that you could perfectly be lying. But I believe in you, and what you need to know is that they were looking for something: the Key to Wisdom.

"The Key to Wisdom?" Arthur asked, who looked a little intrigued, something strange about him.

"Yes, the known key to give any answer. It's the center of knowledge. Anyone who wants to know something that is impossible to know more than dying, ask him. But I assure you, it's not easy to get."

"As I have heard, it hides in these same mountains, perhaps in the deepest caves," reported Merlin, who had heard stories and legends of the same key hidden by the same mountains they were in. Again, he thought of Telvar and the different caves in which he had lived, moving all over the mountain, looking for something...

"Yes, but exactly in this very village," Hilda replied with a mysterious air.

"You mean where they were going was just the depths that lie in this very town?" Arthur asked.

"According to legend, this town was once habited by the Wodrem, beings who say, and only say, that they came from fire and darkness. As I have heard, and I say this because there are probably different versions of the legend, they came from the depths of these mountains, and once they got here, they settled down and built...

"...the Cursed Town..." ended Arthur.

Gwen looked at Arthur with a cat face locked in a cage as if the more she fulminated him with her gaze, the more she could undo that truth. Merlin had already known it from the beginning, but he had not known it was by the so-called Wodrem. He, ever since he learned the truth of Telvar's story, thought it was Telvar himself who cursed the village once he left for being expelled for murder. He didn't understand why he lied to him like that.

"Yes, that's how some people call it," Hilda accepted with some heaviness on her face as if she had a hard time accepting the truth.

"And that's why it's almost all burned?" Morgana asked.

Hilda looked at him strangely, as if she did not know that there were more people in her house.

"No, as I said, in my younger times this was like a jungle, but that's when the dragon came that everything burned.

"A dragon?!" Arthur exclaimed, without being able to believe it.

"Yes, the so-called Great Dragon."

A lot of reveals in this chapter. You will see that all will be connected in the end, also with Merlin/Emrys, Morgana, Kilgarrah, Sigan, Balinor... It will all be connected. Also, I have to say, because I have realized I haven't commented about it, that the daughter of Telvar, that is real and not only in the story from him, is someone that, if you think a little bit, you'll know who is her.

Well, I hope you liked it. It is true that in this chapter is going to be lots of information (really important information) and not so much relation with the characters. But don't despair, it will have a bit of everything.

Next Part: Mystery of Wirgen. What happens with the Great Dragon? What are the Wodrem? Why did Hilda think that Telvar was dead? Why is important Sigan in this story? And Balinor?

LegolasHV