Chasing Stars: Wizards of Arcadia

Time Travel?

Merlin seemed to think the answer to their 'Green Knight' problem was to go back in time.

Maia desperately wanted to tell him otherwise.

How could someone's problem ever be solved by going back to when it never existed? You may have bought yourself some time, but you're only delaying the inevitable.

"Your Highness," Merlin said, interrupting her train of thought. "Your thoughts on the situation?"

Maia turned to look at him in surprise, flinching when she noticed all eyes on her (even the troll with six of them). "Now you want my opinion?"

"It would be greatly valued, yes."

"A thought, wizard. If you leave someone on a floating rock for nine hundred years, they might not be inclined to give you one," she told him bitterly, before turning to look out the window. The clouds were still a stormy grey, and she could just barely see Galahad up on one of the battlements, keeping an eye out.

"Princess Maia, as much as I would love to strike up an argument about whether or not I was right in what I did, I need you to put that aside. The fate of the world is at stake!"

"Well, I wouldn't know," she said airily. "I haven't even seen this world."

"Princess—"

"No, no. I'll give you my opinion when you finally want to let me off this god-forsaken rock," she said, before getting up and slamming her amulet down on the table, walking out to the throne room and standing at the foot of her father's throne.

Even empty, it still made her feel he was still there with her, in a sense. Sure, King Arthur wasn't the best in terms of parental figures, but he loved her and that was enough. She would choose him over Merlin's gruff controlling any day.

"He'll let you off eventually," Douxie said quietly behind her. "Have you really been up here for nine hundred years?"

"Oh, yes." Maia turned around to him, arms folded tightly over her chest. "It's been a really fun time."

He held out her amulet, gently pulsing a soft pink in his hand. "Here."

She eyed it for a moment, then shook her head. "Keep it. Just for the meantime. I would rather it be safe with you than..."

"You tried to throw it away?" he guessed.

"Several times. It didn't work."

He chuckled, a sweet sound that was like music to her ears. "You're brilliant, Maia."

"Thank you?"

"Hey, tell you what? When we go back down, I'll buy you dinner."

"Dinner..." Her stomach growled. "Sounds good."

"Have you eaten anything today?" he asked, moving closer and scanning over her worriedly.

"Not today, no. But then again, today has been a rather unpleasant shock to the systems." She patted her stomach. "I shall go grab something to eat later."

The castle rumbled, the sound very reminiscent of thunder. As the ground beneath them shook, Douxie quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her away just as a large piece of stone crashed into the ground where she had been standing. "We should go check on Merlin."

"You think that was Merlin?" Maia asked, staring at the smashed rock wide-eyed.

"Was Merlin, caused by Merlin, practically the same thing." He pulled her away and they ran back to Merlin and the others. Judging by the angry look on the old wizard's face, it wasn't of his doing.

"Archibald?" he asked.

"Merlin?" Archie asked tentatively from his spot on the table. Overall, he didn't look fazed by the imminent danger so much as thoroughly bored.

"Get the princess to safety. Hisirdoux, with me."

"Merlin—" Maia tried to protest, but was rather effectively shut up as Archie put his tale over her mouth. She spat out stray bits of hair and glared at the cat-dragon hovering beside her with a smug grin. "You little hairball."

"Insulting," he retorted, flying behind her and nudging her towards the door as the castle shook again. "Come on, we'll go to your room."

"I can fight, Archie," she pleaded, still following the little cat-dragon out of habit rather than obedience. "If there's something going on, let me help."

"I hate to say this, Mai, but the one thing Merlin and I can agree on is your safety." He glanced back at her and offered a half-smile. "So. until this all blows over, you're going to stay somewhere nice and safe."

Maia stopped in her tracks. "No."

Archie turned around, eyes narrowed through his spectacles. "No?"

"I am the princess, Archie, and I can do what I please."

"Just...just come on." He nodded down the corridor as another shock ran through the castle. "Otherwise Merlin will spell you into doing it and none of us want that."

She sighed. There was no way to win this fight, at least...not head on. "Alright, fine. I'll go. But you should head back to help."

"Maia, if this is another of your tricks—"

"No tricks." She shook her head, trying to portray herself as innocently as possible. "I'll go to my room and wait until the danger's passed. You should go help Doux."

He dropped to the floor, giving her a narrowed look. "I'll be back in five minutes. If you're not here, I'm telling Merlin."

She nodded, watched Archie fly around the corner, then proceeded to follow him. She knew he wasn't going to spare a glance back, trusting the princess to do what she had to, and that gave her the upper hand. 

When she got to the window and glanced out, at the massive skull ship and ice bridges connecting the two masses, the shadow mephits being blasted off by the dozens, she sighed.

"Nothing to fight," she muttered. "Of course there's nothing to fight."

And then she noticed a glowing greenish portal to the right, low enough that whoever owned the skull ship would not be able to see it and...

Camelot. She could see Camelot, the forests in which the trolls used to inhabit before the war. And in the distance, the very same castle she happened to be in. Merlin's time idea was really going to work.

And...then it didn't. She saw several people fall into it before it sealed up like a wound. Not that she recognised who fell, they were too far away to get a proper look.

She raced for the nearest battlement, watching the horror that followed. Fire and ice streaming out from the skull, the so-called 'Green Knight' standing on one of the ice bridges, taunting Merlin...Where was Douxie? And the troll-boy in stasis? Or the girl and the blonde idiot?

Oh...They were the ones who fell.

"Archie!" she yelled. "Archie, where are you?"

"I thought I told you to go!" Archie yelled back, swooping in and knocking her to the ground just as a ball of ice flew above them. "What are you doing out here, it's dangerous!"

"Your familiar fell through a time rift so excuse me for caring," she shot back. "How are we getting out of this one?"

"He what?"

"Fell." She gestured over the side of the wall to where the time rift had been. "Through a rift. Into Camelot."

"Of course he did." He glanced over the stone wall too. "Well then, I'm hoping Merlin has a plan. Otherwise..."

"We would be stuck if he didn't."

He hummed. "And that's what I'm worried about."