Well I finally found time to write some more. Well I didn't actually have the time, but wrote some more anyway. In this chapter you will find out who Merlin 2 is. I hope it's not too anticlimactic, but there will be some new ideas introduced which should be interesting. Is that actually a plot I see lingering in the distance? You may still have some questions after this chapter. It will take a couple more to clear up what's happened so far. Explanations will make way for some action by chapter 9 (according to plan).
Thanks for reviews etc. I know the last chapter wasn't that great. Not sure if this meets up to expectations either. I don't actually know what anyone's expectations were if you had any, but they seemed high – erk! Oh btw, unwréon means to uncover or reveal (I hope) and Heolstor means concealment/hiding place (noun) or dark shadowy (adj).
Enjoy!
Chapter 6
After going to his room and finally getting himself cleaned up, Merlin removed the book of magic Gaius had given him from its hiding place. He sat on his bed and unbuckled the clasp on the leather-bound tome. Resting it on his lap and flicking through its yellowing leaves, he wondered how he ever managed to find anything. He couldn't fault the presentation. The pages were beautifully transcribed and ornately decorated, but were infuriatingly arranged at random. A charm to cure boils followed a ritual to call forth snow. Some organisation certainly wouldn't go amiss. Apparently other sorcerers rarely found themselves in a hurry; in fact a spell that turned hair green strongly suggested that some had far too much time on their hands. Merlin was in a hurry.
There was an easier way to go about this, he decided. Magic. He'd done it before when Arthur was dying. Merlin stood and placed the open book on the crumpled sheets. He closed his eyes and silently willed the book to show him the information he needed. The pages flapped wildly. The first spell he encountered required an artefact belonging to the caster of the enchantment so that was no good. He searched again. The pages stopped on several spells were suitable only for illusions on living persons and a remarkable ointment that would remove most magical influences when applied to any person or object. Unfortunately, one of the key ingredients, an extremely rare herb, had to be picked at full moon, which was three weeks away. Also the final mixture carried a fifty percent chance of causing spontaneous combustion even when applied correctly, which was less than ideal. A flash of gold and a flurry of paper and Merlin eventually came across a handy little spell that seemed perfect. The text beneath the incantation indicated that this was a generic but powerful spell for dispelling illusions. It was certainly worth trying. Committing it to memory, he returned to Gaius's workroom.
"Find anything?" Gaius asked him.
"Maybe. How about you?"
"Not much luck, I'm afraid. If there are any clues, they too have been concealed. An internal examination may give some minor indications of age and background providing the illusion is only skin deep, but we may as well not resort to that until we have tried to remove the enchantment first."
Merlin nodded in agreement. He reached out his hand purposefully trying to visualize the effects of the spell in his mind.
"Unwréon," He recited, eyes flashing gold momentarily.
Nothing.
It was always frustrating when a spell failed to work on the first attempt. Especially to Merlin whose magic came as naturally to him as breathing. Concentrating again, he summoned his power.
"Unwréon."
This time there was a small change. The body still retained the basic appearance of Merlin, but it seemed this aspect had begun to separate and was now like a badly fitting second skin hanging on a figure of incorrect proportions.
"Unwréon," he cried out for a third time. This time his eyes stayed golden, a small fire burning fiercely in each iris as the magic welled up inside him. He directed it at his duplicate, fashioning it into a tool and probing for weaknesses in the enchantment, somewhere he could penetrate the mask. It was no simple task, but finally he found a place to bore through and he could begin to peel away at the illusion. That was when he felt it, an onslaught of power, vigorous and unquenchable, which was forcing him back. It was magic, but alike to nothing Merlin had ever encountered before. This was untamed and savage. But he wasn't about to give up now. He couldn't. He fought, pushing back against the invading power with his mind. A dam against the raging flood. With the flow of foreign magic temporarily halted, the strength of the illusion was already beginning to falter, becoming like a dry and cracking shell. If he acted quickly he should be able to break it before his barrier was overpowered. Merlin willed the person's true image to come forth and break through its disguise. As the spell broke, he felt a link slice in two and the vicious surge of power directed against him abruptly cease. He hadn't fully appreciated what a drain holding it back had caused him and he was thrown off balance. One hand darted out to support himself, the other clutched at his head.
Gaius rushed to Merlin's aid.
"Are you alright?" he said, concerned for his ward.
"Yes. Yes, it's okay. I'm fine." Merlin dismissed his help.
Finally they could look upon the true visage of this posthumous imposter. Eadric.
"Eadric?"
What Merlin had expected, he wasn't quite sure. Someone more familiar, or perhaps a complete unknown. He had thought that once he knew who this person really was, that everything would suddenly become clear. Instead it was still a mess. Some of it seemed logical, and at the same time there were gaps he didn't quite understand. Merlin was reasonably confident that by disguising the body as himself, someone was trying to set him up and that must mean that they knew of his magic. Someone wanted him out of the way and was willing to let someone else dispose of him on their behalf. Merlin flinched at the thought that they had almost succeeded. Did this mean that there was also a link to the accusations Eadric had made against him yesterday? Merlin wasn't sure.
Eadric obviously hadn't seen Merlin's double; he was Merlin's double. So either someone had made Eadric believe he had seen him using magic and had the misfortune to pick the one person in Camelot that Uther would never believe, or it was all coincidence. Eadric had been justifiably considered insane. Gaius had confirmed this and Merlin recalled overhearing the older servants gossiping about the most recent incident and recalling the time several years ago when Eadric had burst into the court insisting that Prince Arthur had been kidnapped by pixies and replaced by a shape-shifting demon. Once Merlin recovered from the mental image of Arthur's face at that moment – he had dropped the prince's armour and was unable to continue work for ten minutes – he realised that explained why the king was so quick to shrug off Eadric's claims.
Eadric's whole life had been spent declaring the magical activities of others to the king, whilst of sound mind and afterwards. It was perfectly probable that Merlin was just next on the list of many who had been 'falsely' accused. If the sorcerer behind all this merely wanted to make people believe Merlin was dead, then it wouldn't matter whose appearance they changed. Eadric could have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, it begged the question, why would a sorcerer capable of such magic choose to kill their victim with a knife to the throat? This much was still apparent now, after the falsehoods surrounding the murder had been dismissed.
Merlin was about to voice his thoughts to Gaius, but the man seemed more concerned with Eadric. He had found something, a grey power, liberally sprinkled all over the body. With great care, he began to scrape it off Eadric's torso and into a small vessel.
Merlin came over and peered curiously into the bowl. The contents looked like finely ground stone. Knowing better, but feeling an overwhelming compulsion to touch this strange substance, he cautiously took a pinch of the powder. He recoiled as a wave of magical energy exploded up his arm and into his head. He dropped it on reflex but could still feel the residual energy throbbing inside his skull.
"Merlin, what is it?" Gaius asked anxiously, immediately dropping what he was doing.
"It's nothing. That was stupid of me, but I'm fine now. What is this stuff?" He said examining the bowl more closely, taking care not to touch the contents this time.
"Merlin." Gaius wasn't willing to let the matter drop this time.
"Gaius."
"Merlin it is important that you tell me. You felt something didn't you, now and when you lifted the illusion on Eadric."
"Yes," he replied simply.
"Describe it to me."
How could he describe what he'd felt. He wasn't sure he had the right words for it. He tried anyway, feeble though he sounded compared to the intensity of what he'd experienced.
"Powerful magic. The strength behind it was incredible, but I couldn't sense anyone controlling it, just raw energy surging toward me. It felt...fierce. Not evil per se, just wild."
"Then there is but one place this could have originated," Gaius reasoned.
"Where?"
"I only know a small amount," he said gravely. "There are no written accounts. The town of Heolstor was kept secret for a reason."
"What reason?"
"There are certain places where magic is generated, or rather renewed, from within the very Earth itself. The remote town of Heolstor was built next to such a place and the cliffs overlooking the town were said to be charged with magic. Centuries ago, using ancient knowledge, the high priests of the old religion constructed a great column in the caves within the rock face, at the point where the magic was at its strongest in order to harness that power for their own. This was raw magic, as yet untamed by word or ritual or blended with the personality of chosen individuals, but the structure they had built gave them control. Heolstor became a place of magical learning, particularly in the art of illusion. Stone taken from the cliffs was used as a tool, providing a link to the source of power and channelling that energy into creating stronger spells. It is rumoured that illusions created with its aid were more that merely visions and sounds. They could get inside a victim's head, adapt to a person's expectations and fears. Despite having no physical substance in reality, to the person experiencing the illusion they could feel quite solid to the touch and even cause pain."
Merlin shivered. He didn't like where this was going. He let Gaius continue.
"There is little known about the events once the old religion began to die out. Until recently the town was still believed to be but a myth. It's existence remained a secret to most until the time of the Great Purge when it became a refuge, hidden by magic, for magic users hunted by Uther. It survived through that until about 10 years ago, when its location was betrayed to the king. A small army was sent to wipe out this enclave of sorcery. The town was razed and everyone they found was killed. The caves were then searched but nothing was found, no survivors and most significantly no sign of the Pillar of Heolstor."
"So this powdered stone has come from Heolstor cliffs, and it is linked to a centre of raw magic, which is what I felt," Merlin thought aloud as he rationalized things in his head. "But if the Pillar doesn't exist, how is someone controlling that power?"
"They cannot. Therefore it must exist."
"So someone did survive the attack, and hid themselves and the Pillar using magic?"
"I think we can assume as much."
"And now they are trying to have me killed."
"If that is the case then they must know about your abilities, see you as a potential threat and want you out of the way. Yet if they knew you well then I doubt they would have been so careless." Gaius stared sadly. "Either way, I fear this is only the beginning."
Meanwhile, Arthur paced his chambers thinking. He was contemplating what he would do if they couldn't prove that the incident with Merlin's body was a sham. There was, quite literately, more to this than met the eye and that signified a substantial threat to the kingdom. A threat about which, his father should be told. It was his duty to Camelot. He could prolong the inevitable, but not indefinitely. He knew the dangers of magic. His inaction could lead to the downfall of the kingdom, but if he revealed what he knew, what would that mean for Merlin. So many conflicting feelings swam around inside his head gnawing on his conscience.
Arthur's thought's were interrupted when he heard a polite knocking on his door and so he went to answer.
"Hadwyn?" Arthur said, surprised at being visited personally by one of his knights. Sir Hadwyn bowed his head respectfully.
"I know you were close to your manservant," he began. "I thought you ought to know, a man has just confessed to the murder last night."
I couldn't leave it without confusing you still further. No idea when I'll have the next chapter completed. I keep my profile updated with my progress so far to give you some indication.
If you've any questions, feedback or random crazy theories I'd love to hear them. I may not always give a straight answer if I think I might spoil something but ask anyway. It helps me judge how well my ideas are coming across and I may well have missed something obvious and stupid.