Something Old, Something New

8

They walked for a long time, and though Merlin hated every second of it, they had to be silent. Puzzlewood welcomed him, but the initial feelings of happiness at being once more surrounded by magic had long since disappeared. The thoughts were creeping back in, the silence reminding him of how alone he was in the world, even with two people right next to him. He could have Arthur back. He could turn around and go home. He had been suffering in this world for a long time. Wasn't it about time he got something in return?

They passed their first cave, Merlin not even pausing. Iris and Johnson didn't question it, but Merlin didn't particularly care. He had almost forgotten that they were there anyway. He would know when they were in the right place. They passed cave after cave. They came across a few tourists, and they quietly passed by them, invisible, but as they got deeper into the woods, that happened less and less often, until it stopped happening entirely. The invisibility spell remained intact. One could never be too careful, and they might need it to sneak up on the witch. 

It really was a beautiful wood, vibrantly green, with trees reaching up toward the heavens and caves that sometimes looked as if they led right to hell. Merlin stopped at one of those caves, staring into the abyss silently for moment. 

"Here," he said confidently. Johnson and Iris remained silent, unsure of what exactly they were supposed to say. If Merlin said that Aithusa was here, then she was, it was as simple as that, and when he plunged into the darkness, they followed without a second thought. 

The darkness was total, and the only sounds were from the breathing of the three people who had just entered. The light from the outside world didn't extend beyond the tunnel entrance, which was incredibly foreboding, but that did not discourage them, and Merlin made no move to generate any form of light. That would rather defeat the purpose of invisibility, so they continued in the darkness. 

Iris kept expecting to run into a wall, or trip over a rock, or both, but she kept those thoughts to herself, taking comfort in the weight at her hip. Merlin and Johnson had magic, and they were going to confront a literal witch and save a dragon, but at least she had a gun. Iris had the slightly deranged urge to laugh, or maybe cry. She didn't normally mind the silence, but this felt crushing, ominous, as if the whole world was waiting for some other shoe to drop. 

The cave seemed to go on forever, until it simply didn't anymore, and Iris really did walk into a wall. She cursed very colorfully.

"Thanks for the warning," she snapped to no one in particular. Neither Merlin nor Johnson had walked face first into a wall. They had obviously known it was there through some weird magic sense thing, and they just decided not to tell her about it.

"It ends," said Johnson. Way to state the obvious, Iris thought.

"Yes," Merlin replied, and he didn't sound particularly concerned, just curious, and he was. He was positive that he was in the right place. Every fiber of his being was screaming that this was it. He felt along the wall, and also reached out tentatively with his magic, but found nothing. Just probing wouldn't be enough.

"Revelar secreta." He said it quietly, but the words still echoed in the vast cave. For a moment, nothing happened, and Merlin worried that the entrance would be warded, but then a light gold glow appeared in front of him, illuminating the wall slightly. It grew brighter, and spread out so that it was like a string, very clearly outlining the shape of a door. He looked to his right and saw Iris looking at the light in wonder. Johnson's face was neutral.

Probably steeling himself for his big betrayal moment, Merlin thought bitterly as the glowing string finished what it was doing. It was clearly outlining a door, but it wouldn't open the door for him, just show him where it was. There was fine print in every spell. Merlin felt along the edges of the outline, and finally his hand brushed over something odd in the stone. He pressed down and the entire wall moved to the side soundlessly. No way was it real stone, or it would have made much more noise. Merlin didn't have time to worry about that now.