Just as the sun began to dip below the horizon, Emma spoke.
"Go get him." Merlin didn't need to ask who she was talking to. He made his way back to the shack. Mr. Terell was still unconscious. Merlin snapped his fingers and the sleeping spell left his body. The man looked up groggily, and then everything seemed to come rushing back, and he started to struggle against his bonds. Merlin stepped forward and the man's eyes fixated on him. His gaze was somewhere between fearful and pissed off.
"I'm going to untie you now. I know it's a lot to ask that you trust me and not try to get away just yet. I promise nothing is going to happen to you." Those words didn't calm William Terell down in the slightest, in fact now he just looked as if he thought Merlin had completely lost his mind, which scared him even more. Merlin didn't have any room in his plan for complications, so he laid the sleeping spell over him again.
"Sorry." He untied the ropes and then contemplated how he was going to get this man outside. He was taller and broader than Merlin, and certainly weighed quite a bit more. He decided that it was never going to happen without magic. He'd just have to take the chance that Emma wouldn't care.
"Supernatet en aere." William Terell's unconscious body floated upwards in a plank position until it was about waist height for Merlin. Merlin put a guiding hand on the floating man and led him out of the shack and back down the beach.
He could tell that Emma wasn't pleased by his use of magic, but she also wasn't stupid, and had probably expected it, considering there was no way in hell Merlin would have been able to carry this Arthur lookalike all the way down the beach.
"Put him in the center." Merlin guided the body until it was floating above the center of the pentagram, careful not to step on any of the lines. He didn't need that kind of bad luck right now.
"Finem." Terell's fell to the ground with a whump. Merlin winced. He had forgotten that ending the spell while the man was still in the air would send him crashing to the ground. At least he hadn't been very high up. Emma snickered and Merlin felt the urge to kill her again. It was a feeling he was getting very used to.
Merlin, Emma, and Iris stood side by side.
"Join hands," Emma instructed. They did so, Iris on Emma's right, and Merlin on Emma's left. Emma's hands were calloused, probably from all the sword wielding she'd been doing. There was a moment of silence, and then at the exact moment that the sun was halfway below the horizon, she began to chant.
"Mater omnium, mater nemo, tres adversus dea, meam audiunt, decere et respondere in genere.
Magus et rex, fabulas entwined.
Vita peribit brevior, a sorte implere.
Meam audiunt, placitum et patitur ut impleretur.
Hic me, et reducam Arthur Pendragon!"
In a normal ritual of necromancy, that would be it. Merlin moved to let go of Emma's hand, but she gripped his more tightly. She wasn't finished.
"Ego tibi hoc vas.
Ego praesens vos haec munera.
Ego patitur meum sanguinem, et sanguinem electi ad perficere circulum vitae.
Had oblationes, et praeconem in a new tempus.
Reditum Arthur Pendragon!"
Merlin had never heard this spell before, which meant that Emma had created it. He tried to translate in his head as she spoke the words, but by the time he realized what she was doing, it was too late.
"No!" He ripped his hand from her grasp, but it didn't matter. The time for handholding was past anyway. Emma dropped Iris' hand, and grabbed a dagger that was sitting at her feet. Merlin had wondered with it was for, but now he knew. She wasn't going to cut into her arm with a sword. That was just dangerous. He was ready to tackle her to the ground, but Iris beat him to it, and she had a knife of her own.
"Iris don't!" If Emma's blood watered the sand, the ritual would be completed. Iris, confused by Merlin's shout, faltered, and Emma seized the advantage. She swept Iris off of her feet. She landed on her back with a sharp exhale and a groan of pain.
A storm was gathering over their heads from the combination of Merlin and Emma losing control in the chaos. Their combined power could be enough to bring an actual hurricane. Merlin fought to get a handle on his magic. Emma wasn't even trying. She didn't care who got hurt. She raised the dagger and made a quick cut on the palm of her hand. That had likely not been the original plan, because that was an incredibly dangerous place to cut, but she didn't have much time now.
The blood stopped an inch above the edge of the pentagram and was flung upwards, landing farther up the beach. Emma growled, but it wouldn't matter. She had made a pretty deep cut, and her hand was dripping in blood. The next few drops found their mark, landing just at the edge of the symbol.
A flash of lightning lit the sky just as the sun dipped fully below the horizon. The wind picked up, whipping Emma's hair across her face. On the other hand, it no longer mattered how much of her blood watered the ground, and Iris seemed to realize that as she stood up. Emma's full attention was focused on Merlin, who had his hands raised and eyes closed.
His eyes flew open and glowed a brilliant gold. Emma took a step back, not realizing that no actual spell had been worked. That step back took her close enough that all Iris had to do was plunge her dagger deep into the sorceress' back.
"That's for locking me in a cage," Iris hissed into her ear. Emma dropped the sword in her surprise. Iris twisted the knife. It made a squelching noise and Emma gasped, pain filling her eyes. Iris yanked the dagger out. Emma stumbled, then righted herself, the pain turning to anger. She whirled around toward Iris. Merlin lurched forward and grabbed the sword from the ground, and just as Emma was stepping toward Iris, hands outstretched as if to choke the life out of her, Merlin plunged the sword into her back, widening the wound made from the dagger.
Merlin removed the sword and Emma fell with a cry, the magic from the sword overpowering her own power. She had fallen on her stomach, but Iris knelt beside her, turning her over. She wanted the see the light go out in Emma's eyes. Emma was gasping, struggling to breathe, but she was also smiling.
"It doesn't matter," she managed to force out. Coughs racked her body and blood wet her lips.
"How do I stop it?" Merlin questioned. Emma's hand shot up, and she raked her fingernails down Merlin's cheek, drawing blood. Merlin cried out in pain and surprise, even as his wounds began to heal on their own. He could do nothing as Emma finally let out her last breath, and her hand, wet with Merlin's blood, fell to the sand, her wrist crossing the outside of the pentagram.
Lightning lit the sky as Merlin's blood sunk down into the sand, the last ingredient. The ritual was complete. Merlin looked to the unconscious man in the center of the demonic symbol. He was convulsing wildly, as if having a violent seizure. Merlin moved to go to his side, but as soon as he came into contact with the pentagram, the air sizzled and he was thrown backwards by a wave of heat.
He was powerless to stop the spell. He was too late. Merlin had failed. He seemed to do that a lot when it came to Arthur. He and Iris watched helplessly as William Terell stopped shaking and became still. The first drops of rain began to fall. The normally peaceful waters of the lake slapped against the sand violently as if driven by the currents of the ocean, miles away.
"What do we do?" Iris shouted over the howling wind. Merlin wished he had an answer for her. Instead, he just shook his head helplessly, but Iris had never been one for giving up, and before Merlin could stop her, she leapt forward, into the pentagram. Merlin waited for her to be blasted out, possibly burnt to a crisp, but nothing happened. Iris had shut her eyes tight, but now she opened them, almost cautiously. She locked eyes with Merlin. Merlin stared, open-mouthed.
"What do we do?" Iris repeated. Merlin could barely hear her, the din of the storm was so overpowering. Merlin wracked his brain. They had probably one minute. He couldn't do any sort of counter spell from out here, and he couldn't step onto the symbol. Iris didn't have any magic. That's probably why the warding hadn't effected her in the first place.
Merlin looked at the sword in his hand, and then his gaze snapped back to the two mortals in the circle, his mind refusing to accept what had to happen.
"No," he said audibly, although Iris didn't hear him. "No. There has to be another way." Less than half a minute now. Something was happening in the clouds above, as if they were swirling around a central point, a point right above the pentagram. Iris stared at him, waiting for him to tell her what to do.
Merlin tried to think of another way, but he came up empty, and he was running out of time. He glanced down once more at the sword. He touched in experimentally to where the invisible barrier around the ritual center was. It bounced off, sending a jolt of painful electricity up Merlin's arm. The sword was magical. Just like Merlin, it couldn't cross the boundary.
His eyes fell on the dagger that Iris had dropped. He dropped the sword and picked up the dagger. He wiped the blade as thoroughly as he could on his shirt, leaving wet streaks of red on the fabric. Then he gently tossed the dagger over the line. It landed next to Iris' leg. She looked down at it, realizing dawning on her features.
"There has to be another way!" She cried, shaking her head.
"He'll die either way!" Merlin shouted back, his voice growing hoarse. They had maybe ten seconds. A slightly red light had begun to appear in the clouds, as if a bold of pure fire was about to come down from the heavens like some sort of act of God. Iris looked at the dagger, then at Mr. Terell, then back to the dagger.
Five seconds. She picked up the dagger.
Three. She raised her arms.
Two. She hesitated.
One. There was a crack that had Merlin covering his ears and closing his eyes. Then there was nothing. Complete silence. Merlin slowly opened his eyes, removing his hands from over his ears. Iris was slumped over William Terell's body.
"Iris!" He ran forward, not even realizing that he had crossed the boundary without being blasted off his feet. "Iris! Don't be dead. Please don't be dead." He gripped her shoulder and she shot up with a gasp, as if she had been given an electric shock. Merlin realized that in his agitation he hadn't reigned in his magic all that well.
"Sorry," he breathed, getting a better handle on it. Her hair was standing almost straight up, as if she'd rubbed the world's most staticky balloon on her head. She was looking around wildly. Her hands were still gripping the dagger's hilt, which was protruding from William Terell bloody chest.
Merlin paused for a second. She had done it. She had really done it. Then he wrapped his hands delicately around hers and pried her fingers away. Tears began to fall silently down her cheeks. Merlin didn't know what to say. All of this was his fault. Merlin had fallen for every single one of Emma's tricks. All of them. When she lay dying, he hadn't even thought about the fact that the ritual wasn't complete. So much had been happening. He hadn't thought about why she had needed him there. She hadn't needed him to kill William Terell, as Merlin had been led to believe. She needed him for his blood.
He'd let all of this happen, and now Iris had been forced to kill an innocent man. She was a police officer. She was supposed to protect people. Speaking of police officers. What the hell were they going to do? They needed a cover story, and fast. It needed to fool an FBI profiler, and somehow it had to explain how Jacob had died.
Merlin couldn't focus on any one idea long enough to flesh any of them out. He needed to take this one step at a time.
"Iris," he said quietly. She didn't respond. Tears were still falling silently, and she was staring off into the distance. "Iris," he repeated. Nothing. "Detective Campbell!" She turned to him, suddenly alert. She realized it was Merlin and looked around, confused. Then it all seemed to come rushing back to her.
"Oh my god," she said, her voice shaking.
"I know. We have to get out of here."
"Oh my god." She started shaking. They needed to get out of there, but Iris was in no condition to go anywhere at the moment. Praying that no one would come upon this bizarre scene, he opened his arms. Iris fell into them, already sobbing.
"Okay. I know. It's okay. We'll be okay. You did the right thing." Merlin wasn't concentrating on what he was saying, just trying to use as comforting a tone as possible. It had been a long time since he'd had to comfort anyone, or had anyone to comfort.
The last time he'd had a friendship as deep as the one he had with Iris was in 1915. He had been a soldier in the war. Elias was also a soldier, but he was fighting for Germany, which made their first meeting quite awkward. Elias had shot Merlin in the shoulder, which was very rude of him. Merlin had been trying to sneak behind enemy lines. It was just him. A bigger group would have given it all away. His goal was basically just to cause chaos. He couldn't die so he was in no danger.
He had just made it past the first group of enemy soldiers. A few of them were gathered around a machine gun. The second someone on Britain's side poked their head above the lip of the trench, a hail of machine gun fire would assault them. Seemed like a pretty good target. Then he felt a searing pain in his left shoulder. He bit down a scream and fell as silently as possible. He twisted as he fell, landing on his back, ready to take on whoever came at him. The wound wouldn't heal until the bullet was out, and he didn't have the time to deal with that.
Someone came charging out of a bush, rifle still raised. How had Merlin not noticed him? He had camouflaged himself, but not that well physically. He had basically just rubbed mud all over himself.
Merlin freed a throwing knife from his boot and sat up, raising it, and before the other man could fire another shot, he threw it. It lodged in the other man's leg, and he fell onto his face, not nearly as quietly as Merlin had fallen. The men who were manning the machine gun all looked in their direction. The wounded soldier opened his mouth to call out to them, as they couldn't see him from his place on the ground, but Merlin leapt on him, another dagger in his hand. He pressed it to the man's throat, warning him to be quiet. It worked.
No sound escaped the wounded man's mouth. Merlin knew he should slit his throat and be done with it, but when he looked into the man's -- not even a man really, he couldn't have been older than eighteen -- all he saw was fear. He didn't want to fight in this war any more than Merlin did. He had probably been drafted, forced into a conflict that he had nothing to do with. It is always the innocent who die first in the conflicts between the great powers of the world.
"If you scream, I will kill you," Merlin hissed in German, and he meant it. As much as he didn't want to kill this boy, he would if he needed to. The boy nodded, although he couldn't move his head very much with Merlin's dagger pressed to his throat. Merlin slowly removed the blade and slid it back into the lining of his boot. The boy did not scream.
Merlin sat back on his heels, and they stared at each other for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. Then, mechanically, the boy stood up and limped back into the trees, turning his back on Merlin. He hadn't given him away, and he hadn't forced Merlin back into his own territory. His debt to Merlin for sparing his life was repaid. That wouldn't be the last time the two of them saw each other.
The boy was captured by some British soldiers a few months later. Merlin spotted him, shackled, but clean, in the line for food. Both sides treated captured soldiers with respect. It was common courtesy, and although their countries might be at war with one another, that didn't mean that the men themselves had anything against the other side. This wasn't always true, but it was still common.
He and the boy locked eyes, and Merlin stood up. He walked over. He held out his hand.
"Merlin." The boy gave him an odd look, and maneuvered his shackled hands so that he could shake Merlin's outstretched hand.
"Elias."
"Merlin, you can let go now," Iris said timidly. Merlin came back to himself and let his arms fall back to his sides. Iris pushed gently away from him. Her gaze was fractured, but it wasn't broken. Iris was strong, and she would not break. She took a deep breath.
"Here's what we're going to do." She then outlined a plan that she had somehow come up with while sobbing into Merlin's chest. She was truly remarkable, Merlin thought.
Iris hotwired a car that had been parked in the parking lot. Merlin didn't know where the owners were, but by the looks of it, the car had been there for quite some time, so he didn't think anybody would miss it. Merlin used magic to lift Emma Johnson and William Terell's bodies into the trunk of the car. Then, he and Iris took care in covering all evidence of the ritual. Luckily, it was all sand, which meant is was fairly easy to wash away. The things that couldn't have been simply washed away went into the trunk with Terell's body. Merlin cleaned the sword and the dagger in the lake, watching as the water turned pink around him.
Iris drove back to Puzzlewood, but had to take a detour, because when they saw the entrance in the distance, they saw that everything was cordoned off. The police, and most likely the other FBI agent had found Merlin's car. They could only hope that they hadn't found the cave yet. It depended on how long they'd been here.
They parked the car on the side of the road at a different part of the Forest of Dean. Once they were sure no one was watching, Merlin laid an invisibility spell on himself and the bodies, and floated both of the bodies into the woods. Iris drove off in the car. She was going to bring it to a junkyard. It would probably be crushed sometime during the next day, depending on how backed up they were at the yard. Merlin waited a few paces into the trees. He tapped his foot impatiently on the ground. If the police were already here, it was only a matter of time before they found something. Of course they likely wouldn't find the cavern, as it was located behind a secret door in the back of a different cave, but who knew what else they might find. Emma had returned covered in blood. She might have left a trail. Although Merlin did think she was a bit too smart for that.
Iris returned a little under and hour later. She was wearing gloves, although Merlin had no idea where she had gotten them. She had also stolen another car to get back here, hence the gloves. Of course she had likely still left some DNA behind, hair or something, but she assured Merlin that this car, which looked to be barely capable of running, had already been abandoned. It would be impounded when it was found on the side of the road. No one was missing it, so no one would bother to check it for fingerprints, let alone little hairs or skin cells.
They walked deeper into the forest, Merlin letting his magic guide him.
"Aithusa?" He called out in his mind.
"Merlin!" Her response was immediate. "Are you okay?"
"We're both fine. We're on our way to you now." Merlin severed the connection. He had just wanted to let her know that he was alive.
He and Iris walked for a long time. He had expanded the invisibility spell to cover her as well, but they could still be heard, even if they couldn't be seen, so they walked in silence.
By the time they reached the place where The Forest of Dean became Puzzlewood, the moon was high in the sky. They kept walking, until, finally, they reached the cave. They had seen two police officers canvasing the area, but they were quiet, and passed by without incident.
They went through the secret door, down the staircase, and throw the winding tunnels. They reached the cavern where Iris had been kept and kept going, moving to where Merlin had been kept, and then, past that, they found Aithusa. She was huge again, and the cage had broken, likely when she expanded. Evidently, Emma's death had brought the reversal of her spells.
"Merlin!" she exclaimed. Some rocks fell from the ceiling and the ground shook. She tried to stay still, even through her happiness.
"Do you mind?" Merlin asked. Aithusa didn't need to ask what he meant. She nodded, giving permission.
"Horreat hoc draco." Aithusa shrank until, on all fours, she was about the height of Merlin's shoulder. She leapt at him, slowing down just enough not to knock him to the ground with the impact. He wrapped his arms around her, her snout was resting on his shoulder.
"I'm glad you're okay," she breathed, her very hot breath singing the hairs at the back of Merlin's neck.
"Right back at you, old friend." They separated. Merlin wasn't quite sure where to go from here. There was either left or right, and he had been unconscious, as had Iris. He looked at her. She shrugged.
"You go left, I go right?" she suggested. He nodded and they went their separate ways. The cavern he found himself in was much smaller than the previous three. It was lined with shelves carved from the rock. There were potion ingredients on the shelves. Some normal, a variety of herbs and such, and some not so normal, Merlin was pretty sure he saw a human heart, the eyes of a toad, and a few tongues belonging to a variety of animals. He wanted to look around around some more. He was sure there were some pretty interesting things to be uncovered in here, but he heard Iris calling his name. If he was in here, then Iris must be in the cavern that housed Jacob Johnson's body.
He glanced around one more time, then left, Aithusa trailing behind him. It was clear that she didn't want to leave his side. He didn't blame her, but she was going to have to in a little while. He couldn't very well have her with him when he and Iris heroically stumbled through the trees, survivors of a horrible ordeal.
Iris was standing a little ways away from what was definitely Jacob's body. Merlin sighed defeatedly. Now that they knew where he was, there was nothing to do but set the stage. He had let go of the invisibility spell when they had gone through the secret door, but now he gently let the two bodies that had been floating on either side of him down onto the floor.
Merlin and Iris' regarded the cavern. This would have to be perfect, or they were both going to be arrested. SSA Michael Smith had already been suspicious of Merlin before. He was going to be the one they really had to convince.
"Where do we start?" Merlin finally said.
"We'll need to get both Jacob's and Emma's blood on the sword. For Emma we'll have to fully stab her again, so that the blood-spatter pattern matches up with what would have happened if you had stabbed her here. We'll have to do the same with my dagger, but only for Emma."
"Won't Bailey notice that she's been stabbed four times when he does the autopsy?" Merlin questioned.
"Not if we're careful, and you do some fancy magic stuff." Merlin nodded.
"I should also increase the blood where it lands. She's not going to bleed as much the second time, considering her heart's no longer beating." Iris nodded. For all of Merlin's joking about Iris' morbid tendencies, he hadn't ever really expected them to be in this situation. He wasn't surprised that she was good at it though, which was kind of worrying in itself.
"How do we explain why we stabbed her a second time in the first place. Normally, one stab with your dagger would have been perfectly sufficient. I can already see Smith thinking overkill," Merlin stated. Iris thought for a moment.
"Maybe she had my gun and was going to shoot me, so you picked up the sword and stabbed her again. You were saving my life." It was weak, but it was all they had.
"Okay." Merlin used magic to move Emma's body a little ways away from Jacob's. He marionetted her so that she was standing up straight, facing him. "This is the weirdest thing I have ever done," he muttered. And that was saying something. He had once chased a goblin-possessed Gaius around the physician's quarters. Iris had put the dagger back in its sheath, but now she removed it. Taking a deep breath, she examined the wound.
"How do I tell what's from the dagger, and what's from the sword?" she asked, hesitating. Merlin shrugged. "Thanks." Sarcasm laced her voice, which brightened Merlin's spirits considerably. If she was being sarcastic, then she was at least a little bit okay. She moved to carefully push the dagger into Emma's wound, but then stopped. "We should probably find my gun first." Merlin knew she was stalling, but she was also right.
"Go into the cavern that I checked for Jacob. That seemed to be her study of some sort," Merlin suggested. He hadn't seen the gun, but he had had other things to pay attention to at the time. She nodded and followed his instructions.
"Aithusa, can you tell if anyone is close to finding us?" Merlin asked. Aithusa, being a dragon, had excellent senses. She looked up at the ceiling and sniffed, then she cocked her head to one side.
"I would say we have about forty-five minutes before the outer cave is discovered." Merlin nodded. It would take them at least an hour to find the secret door, if they found it at all. They had plenty of time. At least one thing had gone right tonight. Iris came back in, and she was holding her gun. They didn't have to worry about her fingerprints being on it. It was hers, after all, but she hadn't taken the gloves off yet anyway, so it didn't matter either way.
"Okay," she said. She placed the gun gently on the ground for when they needed it, and stood being Emma once more, dagger in hand. "Okay," she repeated, steeling herself. Then, gently, she slipped the knife in. It made a squelching sound, and Iris looked like she was going to vomit. Merlin didn't blame her. She removed it quickly, and they watched where the blood-spatter landed. Merlin turned Emma around. Iris placed her gun in Emma's hands, and Merlin allowed her fingers to tighten over it. The corpse of Emma was not decidedly pointing a gun at Iris' face. Merlin took the sword, which he had strapped to his back with a makeshift harness thing, and carefully stabbed it into Emma's back. Again.
They watched the blood-spatter, then Merlin let Emma slump to the floor, allowing her to land naturally. Merlin looked at the blood around them. There wasn't much, which was expected.
"Augeri per dimidium." His eyes glowed gold, and every drop of blood increased in size. They couldn't make it exact. They could only pray that Freya, and whomever else, didn't notice any small discrepancies.
"What do we do with this guy?" Merlin asked, gesturing to the still-floating body of William Terell.
"We also need to put some of Jacob's blood on the sword," Iris stated. "I'll do it," Her voice was trembling. She held up her gloved hands. Merlin nodded, deciding that she probably didn't want him to say anything, which was just as well, because he had no idea what to say. He handed over the sword. She knelt beside Jacob's body and took a deep breath. Then she stuck her gloved fingers into his wound, and rubbed his blood on the blade.
When she decided there was a sufficient amount, she stood up, gagging slightly, and handed the sword back to Merlin. He held it out, as if he had just finished stabbing Emma, and dropped it, letting it clatter to the cave floor, as if he had dropped it in shock.
"As for him, we'll need to do the same thing we did with her," Iris stated. Merlin nodded. They went a little ways away, as if Emma had killed him in front them. William Terell's body drifted down until he was on his back. The angle of the stab would show that that had been how he was killed. Iris held the dagger above his chest, shaking. Merlin took her hands. He couldn't touch the blade. There was no reason for his fingerprints to be on it, but he guided her hands down, plunging the dagger into the innocent victim's chest. Iris choked on a slight sob. They took the blade out and Iris brought it over to where she had been standing before. She made sure her feet were in the same exact place, following the footprints that were imprinted on the dusty cavern floor. Then she dropped the dagger in the same way Merlin had dropped the sword. Merlin increased the blood surrounding Terell's body.
"Now what?" he asked Iris. She worried her lower lip with her teeth, thinking. Merlin looked around. He was missing something, but he couldn't figure out what.
"Body temperature!" Iris exclaimed suddenly. "When Bailey checks for time of death, he'll know that they were killed hours ago." Merlin knew that that wasn't what he'd been trying to remember, but it was important. He looked at the bodies. He would have to be careful with this spell. He couldn't just warm them. It had to be specific. He licked his lips.
"Calida, ut si adhuc viveret, si esset solum iustus transierunt in." His eyes glowed gold, the only indication that the spell had even worked.
"Okay," Iris said. "Can you think of anything else?" she asked. Merlin wracked his brain. He was missing something. Something important. Something that could send this whole scheme crashing down around them, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't think of it. He shook his head, defeated.
"Ready?" he asked. She nodded, and together, they began the walk back up to the forest. With every step, more of their individual masks came into place. They became weary, a bit broken, full of grief, Iris even developed a slight limp. They were masks, but in a way they reflected more of the truth than how they had been minutes before.
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Merlin and Iris had already left the beach, so as they were limping through the trees of the Puzzlewood, praying to both God and the Goddess that their plan would work, nobody was watching the Lake of Avalon.
Therefore, nobody was there when a peculiar ripple started from the center island. Nobody was there when it grew to more than a ripple, and waves began lapping at the shore, much larger than normal for a lake. Nobody saw when the source of those ripples breached the surface, or when it began to trudge up to the shore.
But if anyone had been there to see it, they would have seen a man, backed by the sun that had just started to rise; a blond man, wearing medieval armor. A man out of time.
Said man reached the beach and looked around, visibly confused, with only one thing on his mind. He opened his mouth, and a single word escaped his lips before he collapsed on the beach.
"Merlin."
FINALLY. As promised, a very long chapter, lots happening, and more will continue to happen. Sorry it took so long to get this out. I've been moving around a lot this summer so I haven't had much time to write. I'll try to get the next one out ASAP.
xoxo
-Sierra <3