Chapter 4

...

Hello all!

I just came back from Wales and I've been to every castle that was nearby where I was staying and I'm feeling so inspired. Castle walls just hit different. I can't help but think how amazing the idea of time is and past and present and how castles have just stood there for hundreds of years and saw generations of people living and dying and I swear I was born in a wrong century. Why wasn't I born in idk, 3078 when time travel has been invented and I can just casually travel to 1200's or 1600's?

…

….

"Hermione come and look at this." Merlin's voice projected through the space as he called for her from the balcony just above the open atrium space on the lower floor, before retreating back to the library. Hermione was sorting out things stored in the first room down the corridor which connected the atrium with the west wing of the manor.

"I'm coming." She shouted back and put the book back on top of the pile, leaving the room in a hurry.

Energetically, she ran up the side staircase, slowing down midway through the balcony, going into the second room on the left, and through the bookshelf disguised door into a hidden library. The manor was full of hidden spaces and over the last two years, Hermione took to exploring the grounds whenever Merlin was busy and the weather would restrict what other activities could take place.

Hermione looked through the window she was passing by, but could not see a thing through the foggy curtain of heavily pouring rain. The stormy weather outside kept the sky dark for days as the grey mirage of bending trees blocked the sun from revealing more than the shadows.

"I'm here, what is it?" She asked with a gentle smile on her face.

Merlin turned to face her with a big grin on his face but just as he was about to tell her about his newest discovery, the lightning struck and the lights inside went out.

"That's odd." Merlin's eyebrows furrowed. "The lighting in this part of the Manor runs on magical fire."

"Well, perhaps it is time to install electricity." She suggested, but a thought of the treacherous fairy or rather a goblin she was tricked into freeing over a week ago entered her mind. He was a magical creature after all, but surely he couldn't have been so powerful to keep up such powerful storm going for over a week.

"Yes, perhaps that would-be best." Said the ancient warlock as he snapped his fingers and all the torches and candles lit up again. "But it is a wonder how the rain doesn't seem to stop. Mysterious ways of Danu still take me by surprise." He chuckled on the outside, but on the inside, he pondered whether it was his activities of the last week that have set this into motion.

"Danu?" Hermione looked at him with curiosity filling her eyes.

"Ah. You might know her as 'the mother nature'. She is the most ancient of the gods of Old Religion, a fundamental earth goddess of power and wisdom." He explained in the simplest words he could find.

"The Triple Goddess? She has a name?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that. One thing I wanted to speak to you about is related directly to this." He grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill, and began to draw a map.

"About 300 years ago, I found the lost scripts and works of High Priestesses who have passed many centuries before I was born. I came across them by chance, here on the Isle of the Blessed. I only read through some of them and left them there for their safety. I had nowhere to store them at the time and I wasn't sure if removing such precious things from a sacred place of rest would disturb those who put them there. - But, I went back there a couple of days ago, and for some peculiar reason beyond by understanding, the magical protection that guarded the scripts for well, thousands of years has significantly weakened. We have no choice but to bring them here, or they will be lost forever." He said with a tinge of concern in shadowing his voice.

"Can we go there in this rain?" Hermione turned her head towards the window while Merlin was searching for something on the upper shelf.

"Let's just hope it ends soon." He smiled, and passed a small silver box covered in Celtic ornament over to her. "Here, I think you should have this."

Hermione took the box, and carefully opened it, unsure of what was inside it and how delicate it was. She took the lid off and looked inside. A silver pendant, wrapped in a piece of silk was resting inside it. "It's beautiful." Hermione looked up at Merlin who was smiling sadly at her.

"It once belonged to the last High Priestess of the Old Religion."

"Really? Who?" Hermione asked excited.

"Morgana Pendragon."

"Morgana?" Hermione paused and looked up at him. "This was hers? And you're giving it to me?"

Merlin chuckled. "I know. Usually, I wouldn't, but I thought having something of hers would help you feel less lonely in all this. I know it's hard, and I can't always be there for you in the way you need. There are still a little over two years before you go to Hogwarts and have a chance to meet other witches and wizards your age. Until then, it's just you and me and I, obviously am nowhere near your age and – anyway! It's not you who I'm trying to keep away from Morgana, it is her who I'm trying to keep away from you. For your own safety."

"I know Merlin."

"I checked the pendant and it is relatively safe. Well, as safe as anything that once belonged to Morgana can ever be. Still, be careful and let me know immediately if you start to feel… unusual." He scratched his head.

"Unusual?" She asked as she struggled with putting it on.

"Morgana was a seer, a lot of her jewellery was made for neutralising her nightmares, so you shouldn't sleep with it on." Merlin took the ends of the chain and brought them behind her back, slipping the hook into the circle and securing it in place.

"Got it. Thank you, Merlin." She smiled at him, grateful.

"You're welcome."

…

…

Few days later…

Merlin and Hermione stood in the middle of a ruined courtyard surrounded by a ring of vertical standing stones, the megalithic druidic circle. This part of an isle has been hidden far behind the gardens adjacent to the west wing of the manor, hence Hermione has never seen it through any of the windows. She was spending her time mainly in the east wing where the main library was, and never thought much about the west wing at all. There was very little there beside the conservatory and tea rooms.

Today the weather finally calmed and Merlin woke her up before the sunrise. Today was the day Merlin would for the first time, take her into the most mysterious part of the island that she was explicitly told to never venture into on her own.

Which she did, and lived to regret it.

Well, not quite that part of the isle, but that other part she did go to was still very much a no no. Thankfully, they wouldn't be going anywhere near the Marble Mountains as they were the opposite way. But, it's not like she was never going to tell him what happened, she just wasn't going to do it today. Or this month. She would tell him eventually, when he is in a good mood and she is about to leave for Hogwarts. This way he would have forgotten all about it by the time she is back for winter break.

"The Isle of the Blessed, the most sacred magical place of the Old Religion." Merlin stated as they walked through the arched stone portkey.

"Although the columns, stairs, the temple decayed over time, this place still has strong bonds to the core of all magic. Priests and Priestesses of the Old Religion used to live here, spending decades nurturing their skills, practicing ancient rituals, enchanting, conjuring, duelling…" He was telling her about the place as they were moving through its tight corridors.

It seemed that they entered into the very centre of the isle. Ruins of once great and powerful city, its magic still embedded into the stone walls that still stood after surviving countless centuries. Wild plants and trees were slowly overtaking the crumbling remains of this sanctuary. Looking around, it felt like the place was frozen in time. Collapsed pillars were resting on disintegrated walls. Fragments of staircases and columns were scattered around, as if a strong wind has blown it all away.

She was following Merlin through the stone labyrinth of all that remained, a bare skeleton of various rooms.

"Careful on the steps, Hermione. Some of them might be unstable." Warned the warlock as he extended his hand to help her down. She slipped on the second step before the last one, but Merlin was quick to catch her.

They were walking down a narrow path, barely a meter above the water that surrounded the entire place and filled majority of the entrances to the underground tunnels they were attempting to access. This water formed into a lake that extended to the grounds of the Manor.

"Can you swim Hermione?" Merlin asked once he saw her staring into the depths of the lake.

"Not very well."

"That's okay, mermaids will teach you. You just need to befriend them first." He said as he jumped over the one meter hole in the path, that used to be a small five step stair but has collapsed, exposing water.

"You have mermaids? They're real?" Hermione asked surprised as she grabbed his hand mid-way jump, for Merlin to pull her towards him.

"Not have them, they're not my possession. I'm their neighbour but we stay out of each other's way. They are very shy you see. I've only encountered them on a number of occasions over the many years I've lived here. They don't like outsiders very much. I suspect it has something to do with the rituals Priestesses performed here. I know very little about them, but I am certain they lived in those waters long before I was born."

"I thought mermaids were mythical creatures from bedtime stories."

"All myths and legends have an element of truth in them."

Finally, they reached a wooden door with a small druid symbol of eternity carved into them. Merlin pulled out a very old looking pendant of the symbol's shape from under his shirt and placed it in the door like a secret key. This is what he was looking for when he came across Morgana's necklace he gifted to Hermione.

"Aliese duru rýne." His eyes turned gold and the door unlocked.

They entered. Following carved symbols on the walls, Merlin swiftly took them through the tunnels into the one that led to the hidden archive deep within the treasury. He found them much easier to follow the third time around, having become more familiar with the place.

"Are we going to take the gold as well?" asked Hermione looking back at the big piles of treasures they left behind in a crypt opposite to the little room they were in.

"It doesn't belong to us, we must return it." Said Merlin, collecting and packing up the written records, scrolls and parchments. "Much of the gold and treasure was taken from Mermaids. They want it all back and we have little use for it. The knowledge in those books are much more valuable to us."

Hermione nodded and continued packing. Some of the books were in a very bad state, but others were in pristine condition. You could see how the protective magic began to wither away from the way some parchments began to chip away and fracture, and how some book covers began to crack and break and their pages were becoming loose, some already having fallen out.

"Merlin, how come the Isle of the Blessed was abandoned? What happened here?" Hermione asked, looking through one of the newer books.

"I was hoping the answer to that would be in one of these." He pointed to the books Hermione was packing up. The most recent and oldest books were the most precious and useful in piecing together the lost history of tragic events that have befallen the once unconquerable Isle of the Blessed.

Few hours later, there was seventeen bags and many more boxes of all kinds of written records waiting to be transported to the Manor. Merlin opened up a portal that led into the great hall, the one biggest and emptiest space in the entire Manor. Spacey enough to quickly dump all their findings before the portal closed unexpectedly.

Usually, Merlin would have no trouble keeping it open for days, weeks even, but on the Isle of the Blessed, so deep in those tunnels which were excessively secured against any magic use, and only recently shown to have significantly weakened protective barriers, Merlin was lucky to be able to open a portal at all.

"Now Hermione, go!" He shouted, pouring all his energy into keeping the portal open long enough for Hermione and house elves who waited on the other side of the portal, to bring all the bags and boxes through.

…

…

A bit of a more, casual but chapter here. Just some of Merlin and Hermione going on a little adventure together.

Below you will find all your answers to your reviews! I thought it might be efficient to do it like this and from now on I will reply to all reviews at the end of each chapter.

…

…

Reviews & Answers

Lillen20: Holy crap! Can't wait for more

A: I will try to write faster for you haha

Suzululu4moe: the Great Sage equal to Heaven… isn't that the title of Sun Wu Kong from Journey to the West? For someone who is stuck there how'd he even know that ?

A: YES! The money king! Except he's not, he's something else I'm mixing up two mythical beings to spice it up. (But I couldn't tag him because there is no tag for him and he's more of a guest appearance for now) He's sort of an inspiration for this character, he will not appear in the next few chapters but he will come back and you'll get to know more about him.

Mother-of-hooligans: Omg! This a kdrama crossover! I loooooove it!

A: Not entirely but yes! I was hooked on the Korean Odyssey when Netflix released it and Son O'Gong was just what I needed to spice up the storyline. And I needed to ground Cillian in an existing character I was already familiar with, to not lose my own aim for his development and that.

Ainokea2810: What an interesting idea. I'm excited to read more.

A: Interesting, that's me. Haha. I'm excited to write more.

12poppi: Very promising!

A: Thank you.

Guest: I will be looking forward to Hermione's adventures with merlin behind her. :)

A: They will keep coming I promise. Hermione and Merlin are the main focus of this fanfic, in a comforting story kind of way. This is what I wish would happen if Merlin tutored Hermione from a young age and helped her grow. (In my universe in which Merlin lives in a magical Manor house and Hermione is Morgana's descendant lol)

James Birdsong: Good two chapters.

A: Thank you.

uqiam: I really like it so far. Good work!

A: Thank you!

MMax: Could it be Morgana?

A: No, it couldn't have been. I considered it but it'd be a cliché and it's way too early in the story to even think about throwing her into the mix.

Guest: Cliffhanger?! Why?!

A: For more excitement!

LunaMoon123: I'm so excited! I can't wait to find out who Hermione has found d!

A: I hope Cillian didn't disappoint.

medusa's descendant: Okay but the magic, the history, the world building, the cliffhanger, I am hooked! This is amazing! I absolutely love it, and your writing is so beautiful, please take your time and don't burn out, because I will wait for this amazing story, thank you for writing it!

A: I'm so in love with your review, it made my heart stop haha. I'm pleased you like it so much, I started writing it as a comfort story for myself and only posted it as a way to revise it, but I plan to continue it because I'm curious where this story ends up going.

medusa's descendant: Oh that is so precious! And your Merlin is so perfect, it's actually BBC's Merlin weighed down by a thousand years, from his inner musings to his spoken words, he's so amazing. Oh this is so great thank you for writing it I can't wait to read the rest!

A: That's the greatest complement because Merlin has been my biggest childhood crush, I was 7 and absolutely in love with that wizard, and all these years on I still re-watch some episodes.

Annadallen: eeee I am soo excited for this! it looks/sounds awsome!

A:Thank you thank you I hope you shall continue to read!

cheyeneb:Please continue I would love to see where you take this!

A: Yes, me too. I hope you continue to read.

Ihavefirestolight: I can't wait for the next chapter!

A: Thank you for waiting. I hope you're enjoying new chapters.

Guest: I. Need. More!

A: I. Will. Write. Faster. For. You!

MMax: Hope you will continue.

A: I will do my best!