━━ ⦗the swan princess! ⦘
❝ you're beautiful!
thank you, but what else?
... what else is there? ... ❞
███████████ 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝
the courageous odette teaches the
once and future king a less...
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chapter twenty-six! 026. the birth of excalibur
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MERLIN WASrunning out of time. By the morning, this Black Knight will take Arthur's life▬and even then his vengeance would not be fulfilled. This wraith could not be destroyed by his magic, nor could he persuade Arthur to withdraw. He was running out of time, and he was running out of options. He found himself furious. Because despite how impossible something might seem, no matter what furious insults Arthur will shout at him in his anger and no matter how dangerous the thing he will face is, Merlin was still expected to go out of his way and save the Prince's life. His destiny required him to make the impossible probable and never receive gratitude▬it required him to sacrifice already, and he didn't even know what that meant in regards to how much he will continue to sacrifice.
He found himself venturing into the castle library in the midst of the night. With a breath of a charm, the door opened itself to him and he slipped inside, lighting a candle to show a dim pathway before him of many books and no answers. But he still searched them. He still dragged his flame across the many spines, looking at titles▬some in languages he could not even read▬in hopes to find something that might just help him.
Though, he didn't even know what he was looking for.
Merlin fumbled with a book▬a few of them tumbled to the floor and he cursed. Crouching down, he went to pick them up when a pair of feet stopped him. They stood before him and slowly, he glanced up only to purse his lips, sheepish to find Sir Geoffrey of Monmouth stare back down at him.
There was a small stare off. Merlin swallowed harshly. He clutched one of the books under his arm.
"How did you get in here?" asked Sir Geoffrey of Monmouth.
"The door was open," Merlin quickly lied.
"No," he said, "I locked it."
"Well someone else must've opened it then."
"And you thought you could come in and help yourself?"
Merlin shuffled back to stand on his own feet, hunched up at the old knight's scowl. "I▬uh▬I was looking for a book," he decided to say. "For Gaius. He thinks the Black Knight is a Wraith."
Sir Geoffrey of Monmouth's miffed anger of Merlin's trespassing disappeared the moment he said those words. "Then Arthur is in grave peril."
"Which is why I'm here," Merlin hated how he sounded a little breathless (and desperate) as his time started to draw to a close. "I need to find a weapon that will kill something that is already dead."
Sir Geoffrey frowned in thought. Merlin watched him, and his brows listened when he seemed to give him answer, "Well, I have read of such things in ancient chronicles."
