Chapter 12
Young Freya had a strange upbringing; very different to her cousins and other children of that era. She spent large amounts of time running and playing in the valley, both on her own and accompanied by one or other of her parents and most of her free time drawing. In the house she had lessons with Merlin and Morgana and, even when she reached school age, they continued to educate her at home – having no desire to insist a four-year-old kept silent about the numerous, important secrets her family held.
Whilst in the valley she was a lively, happy child but, away from it, she always became quiet and reserved; not especially interested in socialising with her three young cousins when in London – although it was quite a different matter when they came to Gloucestershire to visit her.
"You should send her to school," Uther said when they visited her cousin William's seventh birthday party – Arthur and Gwen's eldest child. "It's not right for a girl her age to be on her own. A brother or sister might help there too." He looked pointedly at Morgana.
"The size of our family is our business, Dad," she replied calmly. "Unless you'd really like to hear detailed accounts of what happens in our bedroom every night?"
"Moira!"
Merlin tried and failed to muffle a laugh whilst Arthur choked on the drink he'd just taken a sip of.
"Why don't you play with William and his friends?" Merlin suggested to Freya a little later as she sat on a large armchair sketching, whilst her cousin and his friends were playing noisy games next door.
"But they don't have magic," she replied quietly. "And I can't talk about it, so I find them all a bit boring."
"No-one else has magic," he said in a whisper. "So, you'll have to get used to that and find other things to discuss."
She shook her head and nodded at her handheld computer which showed her latest, highly detailed, versions of all her special characters. "They do," she insisted.
Any other parent might dismiss such comments out of hand, but Merlin now had plenty of experience in such things. "Who are they?" he asked, gently.
She shrugged. "I'm not sure. Sometimes I think I remember a name or where one of them lives but then... I forget."
"Why are you drawing them?" he pushed.
"So I can find them when I'm older."
"They have magic?" he asked.
"Some do. Others will discover it later. Most will come when Lady Fae calls them."
Merlin opened his mouth to ask the next, obvious question but quickly changed his mind. He smiled gently at his daughter, allowing her to return to her sketching, before moving over to Morgana, and passing the news onto her.
"I did wonder," she replied. "Those characters she draws are remarkably consistent. Still in some ways I agree with Dad. It is a shame she can't have friends of her own age."
So, when Freya turned eleven, her parents decided she was old enough to cope with everything and enrolled her at the nearest secondary school. It still required a long bus ride but, by this point, they had very little concerns for her safely – other than the usual.
"Now, Freya, don't forget..." Merlin begun as she left for school that first day.
"Yes, I know, I know..." she interrupted, with a long suffering sigh. "Keep The Magic Secret."
March 2084
The three sorcerers walked up the path leading from their house, which dragged slowly up through the old valley. Not that that was an entirely accurate term nowadays, not since Merlin and Morgana had physically lifted the whole area up several meters. The only hints of its past shape were to be seen in the dips that the various clay pathways still sat in as they wound up towards the Crystal Cave, now mercifully dry for most of the year.
"It's all wrong," Freya said with a shake of her head as they walked. "I've realised it for a long time but it's only now I'm starting to understand."
"What do you mean?" Morgana asked her. "What do you understand?"
Their daughter shook her head. "I'm not sure how to put it in words. It just feels as if this place is in limbo – currently neither one thing or another."
"The magic is still holding though," Merlin said. "It's stronger here now than it has been for some time, in fact."
"Yes," Freya agreed. "But it's not strong enough."
"So we raise it some more," Merlin said as they started to clamber up the very steep slope which lead to the cave mouth.
"No, I don't think so," his daughter replied. "All of this area needs to be... sorted. The cave needs to..."
"Yes?"
She shook her head again. "I'm sorry. I feel I should be able to make more sense of it."
"Well, there's no real rush," Merlin says as they entered the lower cave. "Here, lets look over all the drawings you two have made over the years and discuss it. I'd really rather not do anything until we're quite certain of the goal."
Morgana placed a large folder on a flat, stone ledge and opened it, carefully spreading the various paper drawings and print outs that she and her daughter had made over the years.
"Here..." Freya said after a while, picking up one of her more recent pieces of art. "This is what it needs to be. Not a valley but a hill."
"What are these lines?" Merlin asked, pointing.
"Lay lines?" Morgana suggested.
"Yes, in a sense," Freya replied. "But more like... magic conduits. They've been disturbed, see? I mean, they were getting weaker anyway, due to the lack of attention, but now, after the flooding and the shift, they're struggling to soak up the magic."
"Soak it up?"
"Yes!" She smiled brightly. "That's what we need to do. Not raise the valley but heal it. Give it back its magic and then let it grow by itself."
"Freya, sweetheart, you need to be more specific than that."
"No, I think I understand," Morgana said. "I've been trying to make sense of the visions myself. Magic will return here in the near future. Fully return. I've been dreaming it for a while but didn't fully understand what I was seeing."
"But this is the twenty-first century," Merlin disagreed. "How would the world deal with or cope with magic in this day and age?"
"Yes, and that's part of the issue," Freya said. "The old valley had curses to protect it from unfriendly eyes, but they stopped being effective a very long time ago."
"That's true," Merlin agreed. "They were weakening even when I was your age."
She nodded. "So we need new defences. Much like the ones you've already given it, Dad, but permanent. Self renewing."
"And you have an idea of how to do that?" he asked.
"Not exactly, but the valley does."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," she replied with another bright smile. "It's like a computer. We just need to give it power and programme it. Look, link hands and focus on the cave and you'll see what I mean."
Merlin really did wish he had more of an understanding of the process but, as he pushed his magical awareness out towards the cave, he begun to see a new shape forming, as if the area itself was trying to explain its wishes to them. He had to admit he didn't like this lack of control but, as he had only recently started to accept, his time as the Guardian was coming to an end and Freya was his heir – The Heir. It was therefore inevitable that she should be the one with the insights, not him.
"So we're not lifting it higher," Morgana realised. "Not exactly."
"Some of it, perhaps," Freya said. "We're just... shifting it, rearranging it... reforming the place."
"Into a hill." Finally Merlin felt he was seeing and fully understanding the vision. "It looks a little like the one at Avalon."
"Of course," Freya agreed. "But this will be very different. The hill will protect itself, you see. Not everyone who can see it will be able to reach it and most will not see it at all. As it gets stronger it will grow in height but, as it does so, it will also use its own magic to hide from all forms of scrutiny. It will not photograph or scan or register in any way."
"Just like the old Bermuda Triangle," Merlin mused. "That too was hiding an old magical centre."
"And Atlantis and Babylon and numerous other places which needed to keep their magic safe from the world as their civilisations developed," Freya agreed. "In fact, it's amazing this place survived for as long as it did in such a basic form."
"We have your father to thank for that," Morgana said. "No other magical centre has ever had an immortal guardian to protect it."
"So, once this is done, I may not need to live for as long as Dad has? I may not have to go through a cycle of constantly meeting up with old souls?"
"That I cannot say for certain," Merlin said. "It did say a new circle was opening, so you may well have your own long task ahead. Or, as you said, it could be that you can achieve what is required in a single life-time."
Freya nodded, thoughtful.
"I'm sorry that such responsibility has landed on your young shoulders," Merlin continued. "I know what it's like and I know it isn't easy. However, I do hope that I've prepared you for the challenge better than my teachers did."
"From what you've told me of Kilgharrah and Taliesin, I can't see how you could be anywhere close to as cryptic as they were," Freya replied.
"That's certainly true."
She grinned then, holding up another picture. A drawing of strange flowers and plants, with little fairies and other unusual creatures dancing around them.
"This is true too," she declared. "A magical centre needs magical creatures to populate it, but this new world will need to start small. It would take many thousands of years for creatures as large as dragons to appear again."
Merlin glanced over at Morgana and raised an eyebrow and she returned his sceptical gaze. Their daughter's declaration of a new world full of fairies and magic seemed to seriously contradict this current world of computers and technology. Never in his wildest dreams had Merlin imagined he'd have to wait this long to bring magic back to the world.
~o~0~o~
This final step took longer than before, but was nowhere near as exhausting. Freya, now fully understanding the plan, focused on the shape and the feel of the area, willing the lay lines to align, allowing the small amount of magic which was already here to be used to best effect. Merlin's main job was to 'supply the power', slowly allowing his own magic to seep into the area by focusing it through the crystals. As he did, he too saw glimpses of the future, the crystals at long last gaining enough energy to start offering visions again.
"Will I lose my power too?" he asked, almost to himself. "Lose my magic as well as my life?"
"You are magic itself. You cannot lose what you are."
The voice belonged to his daughter but with a strange deep tone to it, which seemed to echo Balinor's. Merlin's eyes filled with tears as he remembered that time when his father's spirit had appeared to him and willed his son to continue living. All Merlin could think about back then had been about that one battle of Camlann and whether or not it would be lost. It had seemed to be the only thing of importance at the time.
They had all been correct, of course – Kilgharrah, Balinor and Taliesin – that one fight had been both a passing skirmish and a vital passageway to a new, long future. All those events would lead to his gaining control of this cave and, from there, allow him to keep magic alive in this area – just barely – for all these long centuries, in order for his daughter to take over the task in the twenty-first Century.
For a moment Merlin felt the annoyance of the young man he used to be. All that stress and anguish and upset over such a small piece of the puzzle? But then, wasn't that everyone's destiny? Spending so long fretting over events which were so very important to them at that moment, but were just one small piece of the puzzle in the grand scheme of things?
He shook his head, dismissing such gloomy thoughts. He needed to be strong now. He needed to do his job. Give as much of himself as he could to the old valley – as much of himself to Freya. He may now be mortal, but Merlin would live on in Freya and Emrys would live on here, in this new magical Centre.
"You must lay me to rest in the Crystal Cave, Freya," he declared unemotionally.
"You're not going to die here, Dad. Don't be so melodramatic."
He laughed. "I know. Not now, not today. But when I do. Your mother too. Our magic is too precious to waste and New Avalon will need it."
She sighed. "Yes, I understand and I'll remember. No need to bring the subject up ever again, all right? You're both living to at least one hundred, do you hear?"
"Of course," he replied with a smile. "And, as you mother's daughter and a seer in your own right, I trust you to know for sure."
~o~0~o~
"Is it done?" Morgana asked some time later.
"Yes.. and no," Freya replied with a small frown.
"Helpful," Merlin mumbled, sarcastically.
"I think your job is finished," she said quietly.
"Oh." He took a deep breath. "Right."
She turned to him and bit her lip. "Will you show me the Crystal Cave now?"
He looked upwards to find the back entrance had now disappeared and it was no longer possible to sneak in that way.
"It's healed," she declared. "Most of damage done to most of the magical parts of the old valley have been repaired and returned to their original state."
"So, we'll go in the front way," Merlin said. "And you will only be able to enter if you are allowed to."
"And I assume I will not?" said Morgana.
"I think there was only ever one reason you were allowed to enter it before," Merlin said.
She nodded. "In order to conceive Freya."
"Yes."
"Information your daughter did not need to hear, thank you very much!"
~o~0~o~
The scene the family emerged to was totally different to the one they'd left behind. Merlin thought perhaps he recognised a couple of old trees, one or two unique rock formations but, other than that, it was as if the whole place had been... redrawn. As if each individual plant and stone had been lifted up and then relaid in a far neater, more pleasing position than before.
"It's beautiful," Morgana breathed. "Even more beautiful."
Merlin and Freya moved around this new, amazing woodland hill mostly on instinct. Not knowing exactly where the cave entrance would be but simply following their inner senses. The fact that Freya took each turn at exactly the same time as Merlin convinced him that she would be allowed entry and that this was the time he was truly going to pass on the inheritance.
The pair of them stepped into the glowing crystal cave and Freya gasped. Merlin closed his eyes, bathing in the light, revelling in the sense of its renewed power. It was beautiful and entrancing and so very strong.
A small sob next to him reminded him of what he himself had told Freya some years ago. The sensations in here were overwhelming for a young sorcerer no matter how well he had prepared her for it. He turned to her and held her shoulders, forcing her to look at him.
"I know it's tough, love. I understand. My predesesor wasn't that sympathetic but I remember and understand. It will get easier as your power grows but, right now, you need to try. Just look briefly into a crystal." She shook her head. "Just one look and then we can leave. I'll be here all the time and I'll be around afterwards to talk to you about what you've seen. Just once and then it's done. If you follow my path then you won't need to return here for a while and, when you do, you'll be strong enough to cope."
"I know. I understand," Freya sobbed. "I know what I have to do but..." She took a deep breath and turned to look at a crystal. Merlin hated watching, hated seeing her go through the same pain as he'd experienced, as the visions slammed into her head, occupying every part of her brain and body and taking hold of every single emotion.
As he briefly glanced at a crystal, however, Merlin felt nothing but a warm surge of magic as a series of rapid visions flashed before his eyes, one after the other. Far too much information to fully process but not enough to disorientate him. Then it too seemed to grab him harder, the visions coming faster and faster. So much knowledge of the future, so many important messages and then...
Silence.
Another sob from Freya distracted him from the sudden emptiness and he turned to hug her close. "Enough," he decided. "That's more than enough for your first time. Come, let's get out of here."
As he walked back to the entrance, still clutching his daughter close to his side, Merlin took one more look at a nearby crystal and focused hard.
Nothing.
Only his concern for his daughter allowed him to take those last couple of steps out of the cave and, for the next hour, he tried to forget about that strange fear he'd felt as he'd left. He took Freya back to her mother, with strict instructions to give her a sedative to let her sleep deeply, and then, without further explanation, ran back towards the cave.
He returned back home a few hours later in tears.
"Merlin, whatever is the matter?" Morgana asked.
"I couldn't find it," he sobbed.
"What?"
"The cave. I walked around and around that hill but felt nothing. It's not going to let me back in."
She sighed, holding out her arms to embrace him. "I think you knew that was going to happen."
"Perhaps I did, but it's still a shock."
"I understand. But you still have your magic?"
He nodded, smiling weakly.
"It's all about Freya now," Morgana continued. "You still have a lot to teach her."
"Yes and I was granted visions before I left which I still remember. Enough to keep me busy for many more years, I would think."
"Well then, time for you to get some rest and then, in the morning, you and Freya can have a long talk about everything you saw and experienced in there."
"It's over," he whispered as his wife held him in his arms and hugged him close. "I'm no longer the Guardian of magic. I'm no longer Emrys."
"That may be true," Morgana said. "But, the other way of looking at it is that you're no longer Destiny's slave either. You can live your own life now. Whatever you want that to be. We both can."
~o~0~o~
A/N: Basically the end of the story, although I have an epilogue for you to round everything off completely. It's already written and edited so I'm thinking I might be able to get that out before Sunday. Perhaps Good Friday barring RL commitments.
Oh dear, as I started to write young Freya's story I realised I had a whole, strange Merlin/Original AU on my hands. Did anyone else get that feeling? :P