“They used Hippocrates Bandages,” I explained. Owen nodded.
“So, what’s the verdict?” He asked, grasping my hand dramatically. I laughed, but that made my stomach hurt.
“Well, I had a dislocated shoulder, but they popped that back in, I have three fractured ribs, and they took a shard of glass out of my stomach,” I explained. Ryker, though still staring up at the television, clenched his fists and jaw. “I can’t do any physical activity for six weeks, and all I can eat is Jell-O for the next forty-eight hours.” Ryker let out a big long sigh.
“Oy, calm down,” Owen called to him. Ryker grumbled something and then glared at the television.
“He thinks it’s his fault you got hurt,” Owen said, turning back to me. Oh, how I loved Owen and his constant spewing of information.
“Bruh,” Ryker said in a sharp tone. Owen just shrugged.
“So what’s the verdict on you two?” I asked changing the subject. I’d talk to Ryker later, in dream world.
“We have scut duty for a month, and we both have to write apologies to Agent Rogers, Major Johnson, and the other agents involved. We also have to go to psych once a week for six weeks.” Owen rolled his eyes. It could have been worse; they could have been expelled.
“We’re a team.” Ryker snapped, “It should be the protocol for members of the team to accompany an injured team member.”
“Oh, and they’re suspicious of us as a team because of Ryker’s apparent feelings for you,” Owen added. Ryker gasped.
“Rogers words, bruh, not mine.” Owen reminded him. Ryker rolled his eyes and resumed his glare at the television. “So then hot-head over there lets it slip that you two pow-wow in dreamland.” I felt the shock sink in me like a cold stone.
“What?” I gasped, feeling my eyes widen.
“I didn’t tell them what happened there.” Ryker defended.
“Yeah, but every person in the room knew what you did there.” Owen grinned. I felt my cheeks heat as I realized that my teachers, my superiors, knew my most private experiences.
“They were going to disband the team if I didn’t,” Ryker said after a moment.
“We don’t know that,” Owen interjected.
“No, we do.” He glared at Owen for a long moment. I could see on Owen’s face that though he did not want to admit it, that was the truth. We all sat in silence for a moment.
“Well, we can’t let that happen.” I determined. “Ryker was right, we do whatever it takes to keep the team together.” It was true. I knew we all felt that we were supposed to be together, it was a universe thing.
“Which means you guys should probably stop . . . doing what you do in dream world, at least for a while.” Owen said gently. He was right. My plans would have to go on pause for a bit until we could figure a way around this.
After that, we worked to lighten the mood. Owen manifested a deck of cards, so we played a few rounds while making fun of the singers on the screen. Soon we were laughing, the wears of the day behind us. It was the first time the three of us had really had a chance just to have fun together, and it would forever be one of my fondest memories.
Later in dream world, to pass the time, Ryker and I redecorated. We couldn’t figure out anything else to do, and the tension was so thick that one could cut it with a knife, so to keep our hands and minds busy, we turned my lush garden into a fantastical mountain forest, complete with friendly woodland creatures. After a couple of hours, we stopped for a moment, assessing our work. It was beautiful. Tall pine and oak trees created a shaded canopy. The forest floor was covered in different candy bushes, and I sat on the soft, thick grass with a sleeping otter curled in my lap.
“We should put a house over there,” Ryker said as we sat next to a crystal clear stream. He pointed to a large clearing in front of us.
“A house?” I asked, petting the sleeping otter. “What would we need a house for?” I had never thought to actually build structures in my dream world. I’ve always wanted to be outside with my creations.
Before Ryker could answer, a woman appeared in the clearing across the stream. She just manifested, right before our eyes. She looked to be in her early forties, her long blonde hair hung in big ringlets all the way down her back and over her rear. She kept it pinned back with jeweled barrettes, and she wore a small tiara. Her wide, almond-shaped eyes tilted up slightly, and the irises were bright emerald green. She had a heart-shaped face, with pouty pink lips and she wore a long, deep purple, velvet gown that looked like something out of a Renaissance fair.
Ryker and I both stood, the otter skittering into the stream and floating away. I had never seen her before in my life, which meant that she was most likely a real person. She stared at me for a long moment.
“Hello, little niece.” She said in a high-pitched voice. Ryker stretched his arm in front of me, instinctually protecting me.
“I don’t have any aunts.” I shook my head, taking a step back.
“Oh, yes, you do.” She sighed. “But that’s neither here nor there.” She started to casually pace, taking time to admire the forest.
“This is lovely,” She said after a moment, “Looks like something she would make, my sister Morgana.”
“Morgana doesn’t have a sister.” Ryker snapped. The woman turned, her eyes sparkling with emerald green magic, I felt the power coming off her. Though some of it was dark and twisted, I did feel a similarity with her in energy.
“You know nothing, King of Knights. You’re just a baby, with no idea what happened back then or what is about to happen now.” She snarled towards Ryker. We were agitating her, and I didn’t think we were strong enough to take her. Even in my dream world, she was making the energy pulse. I grabbed Ryker’s arm, setting it down and giving him a long, sure look.
“Let us apologize.” I offered her, “We were just surprised. What is your name?” The more information I could bring back to Grams, the better.
“Morgose Le Fay.” She replied, seeming to set her agitation aside.
“Where do you reside?” I asked, wondering why I had never met her before, and how she became immortal.
“A long way from here.” She said cryptically. Technically, everyone lived a long way from my dream world dimension.
“So, I see the two of you found each other again,” Morgose said after a moment. Ryker and I exchanged a glance.
“I’m not sure what you are referring to,” I said politely.
“Of course, you don’t.” Morgose sighed. “Morgana has, predictably, told you nothing.” I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just gazed at her. Ryker still had his hand on my arm, ready to grab me out of the way if needed.
“Anyway, this will be a quick trip this time, sweetling,” Morgose said after a moment, gaining a regal air around her. She looked at me as if I was just a parasite, and she was a queen. Ryker was so beneath her that she never gave him a second glance.
“Tell your Grams, that’s what you call her, right? Grams?” I nodded, “Tell your Grams that her sins are catching up with her.” A sinister smile took over her pretty face. With a wave of her arm, green magic surrounded her and then she was gone.
Ryker and I gawked at each other for a long moment, both trying to grasp what we had just seen and heard. I had never heard of my Aunt Morgose before. From the legends, Morgose was an evil sorceress who assisted Morgana in her take over of Camelot, but there had been no record of Morgose or her legacy since. Most people thought it was just made up.
“How did she know who I was?” Ryker asked after a moment.
I hadn’t thought of that. Of course, she would know me because it was my dimension, I was the heir to Morgana’s dimensional magic, of course, I would be there. Besides, I was starting to understand that Le Fay women all looked similar, with their blonde hair and green eyes. Ryker, however, should not have been on her radar at all. She should have been surprised to see him here, but she wasn’t. What did that mean?
Chapter Five:
O
wen:
Twelve Weeks Later:
“Alright, let me get this straight. “ I started, “You broke up with Beth so you could be with Ivy, and now you’re not even going to be with Ivy.” Ryker glared at me across the table. We were in the gigantic library, five stories, tens of thousands of square feet, millions of books. I have heard the sales pitch about a hundred times. The MBI academy had the most extensive collection of Mythos works in North America. Ivy had flitted off to go find a book. We were cramming for finals.
“I did not break up with Beth to be with Ivy.” Ryker replied, “I broke up with Beth because my visiting Ivy in dream world was unfair to her.”
“Even though you can turn that on and off now.” I countered. Ryker shushed me, looking around to make sure no one around us heard.
“Shut up.” Ryker snapped. “I can’t turn it on and off.”
“Bull.” I glared at him. We had been friends long enough for me to know when he was lying to me. Morgana, after hearing about the visitor in their dreams all those weeks ago, had made sure that Ryker understood precisely what brought him to Ivy’s dimension every night – his own desire to do so.
“It’s not something I can just turn on and off,” Ryker argued.
“Oh okay, well how many nights in the past four months have you actually spent by yourself?” I countered, already knowing the answer. Ryker rolled his eyes.
“Two.” He muttered.
“Yeah, and that was months ago.” I pointed out. Ryker shifted nervously under my gaze. I was probably the only person on the planet that could get him to do so. Usually, he was steady, unreadable, but I knew better.
“It’s not like we do anything anymore.” Ryker tried to argue. I also knew that was a lie because of Ivy. I could always tell when she had a good night because in the morning she would hum to herself and be extra super happy. I just glared at him. What he had in honor he doubled in stubbornness.
“Uh-huh,” I replied in a dry tone. When he didn’t say anything more, I grew frustrated.
“Alright.” I started, leaning over the table to get closer to him. “I’m going to lay it all out for you. You like Ivy, you like her company, you like her body, you like everything about her, and I don’t know why you don’t just go for it already. What’s the difference between doing it in dream land and doing it here?” Ryker hated it when I commented on his personal life, but it was my duty to protect the Pendragon heir in all ways, not just physically. Merlin was Arthur’s greatest confidant and advisor in all matters, and that was how it had been for millennia.
“There’s a huge difference, like the fact that they could split up Team Camelot.” Ryker snapped.
“They’re not going to split us up.” I countered. In the last couple of months, we have proven ourselves in every field test and exercise that they had thrown at us. Even with Ivy down for a few weeks, we had managed to always land on top.
“The-powers-that-be have been waiting for our little trio for millennia, they’re not going to split us up because two of us like each other a little too much,” I argued.
“Is that a bet you’re willing to make?” Ryker demanded. With a swirl of my finger, the stacks of rule, protocol, and policy books that had cluttered Ryker’s desk in the dorm appeared on the table between us. I knew what he was looking for: a loophole.
“Look, it’s just not a good idea. Alright? Let's just drop it.” Ryker said, leaning back and showing his forfeit with his hands, palms up. This was nowhere close to over, but I did let it drop. Ivy was returning to the table anyway. Before she arrived, I swept my hands over the books, returning them to Ryker’s desk, because I’m a bro.
“I feel confident for the field test and the analyzation exam, but Agent Circe is going to kill me with all these scientific terms.” Ivy sighed, setting a large tomb on the desk as she took a seat next to Ryker.
“Why don’t we give up for now?” I asked. I was bored, and I knew we were all prepared for these damn tests the next day, Ivy was just a perfectionist, and Ryker would follow her like a lost puppy. Ivy gave me a long look.
“What?” She asked. Standing, I closed the book in front of her.
“You know this, you’re just freaking yourself out now,” I said over her protests.
“Let’s go get some food before the assembly.” Ryker then offered. The only thing that could distract Ivy from studying was food; we had learned that lesson during midterms.
“Fine.” She sighed, “I’m hungry anyway.”
We packed our things and headed out of the library towards the cafeteria. The campus was busy as people hurried from one place to another. The atmosphere was tense from the stress of finals, and seeing a person nap in a random place became the norm. I buttoned my jacket, the air was frigid, and that wind was cutting.
“What do you think our winter project will be?” Ivy asked as we walked across campus. The assembly that evening was to explain our winter projects, an assignment that we had to complete before school started for the spring term in mid-January.
“It’s different every year.” Ryker shrugged.
“One year they had students bring back proof that they had slain a legendary creature,” I said in excitement.
The winter project actually saved me from spending a month alone in an empty house with my bastard father. Ivy was down to travel with us, but she did demand that she had to spend Christmas Eve and Day with her family. Morgana even invited us for the festivities. I hadn’t had an actual Christmas since I was a kid, before my mother. . . Well, it had been a while, so I was looking forward to it. Ryker was relieved as well, though he had a better relationship with his father than I did, he still wanted to be around the general as seldom as possible. Turns out, Ivy had saved both of us from an uncomfortable holiday.
The cafeteria was crowded as everyone was trying to get their evening meal over with before the assembly. The winter project was always a game of sorts. Whoever brought back the most, or most impressive, or whatever the challenge was, won. The team that won got a significant advantage for the next semester. Plus, we got to gloat, which was the best part.
“Oh, it’s going to be a good day.” I grinned, seeing that there were chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and brownies on the line.
“Made it just for you, sweetheart.” One of the line ladies that I had befriended winked at me. I loaded up my plate, and we found a table. Ivy totally ruined the opportunity with her salad and a few chicken nuggets on top. I noticed she did that a lot, ate fruits and vegetables with just a little meat. Ryker got his food from the knight line, which served high protein, high-calorie foods. Today they also got chicken nuggets and mac and cheese, but his plates were three times the size of the regular line.
“I’m so tired of eating.” Ryker sighed, staring at the mountain on his plate. Every major meal looked like Thanksgiving on his plate. He eats seven times a day.
“How long do you have to adhere to it?” Ivy asked.
“The rest of my life.” Ryker sighed. I didn’t know why he was bitching; he’d been doing this since we were twelve.
After our meal, we moved along with the crowd to auditorium A. Crowding five hundred teenagers into one room was asking for disaster, especially since most of us could use outward magic. Paper airplanes flew through the air above us, trolls were taking turns forming into different people, the fairies tried to blast the airplanes out of the air, overall total chaos. The three of us found seats in the back with the other legacy Knights of the Round Table. All twelve of them sat down the row, saving the three places for us. Throughout the last couple of months, the instructors have also put Ryker in situations where he has to lead his fellow knights. I still couldn’t believe that all twelve of them were part of our generation.
Agent Rogers called the chaos to order, and the room quieted down.
“I know all of you are excited about your winter project,” He started, “So we’ll get right to it.” A screen lowered behind him, and a projector fired on. The ligh
ts dimmed in the room, and a list came into view.
“What the hell?” Ryker whispered, glaring up at the list. It was a selection of every “lost” artifact known to man. Everything ranging from the Holy Grail to Pandora’s Box to Poseidon’s Trident. It was in alphabetical order. Several names caught my eye; Caliburn was the one that I was most interested in. Legend read that Caliburn was the sword Arthur drew from the stone to prove he was the rightful heir to the throne. Merlin, in his grimoire, had explained that he was the one who set the sword into the stone and he used his magic to help Arthur raise it. Caliburn was actually Merlin’s sword, given to him by the last dragon in existence. Excalibur was also on the list, but no one had seen those swords since, well Merlin and Arthur.
“Each artifact is labeled with points, bring as many back as you want, but you need 100 points to pass.” Agent Rogers went on explaining. There were at least a hundred objects on the list. The slide changed into a ranking system. Mjolnir, Excalibur, the Holy Grail, and Pandora’s Box were automatic wins. Instructors started to pass packets of papers down the rows. They were just copies of the slides, but at least we got to keep the list.
“The rules are, there are no rules. Don’t do anything illegal, don’t get caught, trust your research, and do not put yourselves in danger.” Agent Rogers ordered. To me, that sounded like rules, but then I realized how he contradicted himself. Old Rogers was worried about us.
“If you return in January without an artifact on this list you and your team will immediately be expelled.” He warned. Whispers wafted around the room. No one said that everyone made it through MBIA. This was an exclusive thing for a reason. Judging by how many artifacts were on the list, and the percentage of possibility of actually finding them, dividing that by how many groups were in our class, I’d say that about two hundred and fifty people were about to be culled from the program. That was half of the original group.
Agent Rogers spent the next hour giving detailed instructions on the resources that were available to us and advised us on how to play the game. He suggested not focusing on one artifact, but instead to try finding a handful that are relatively geographically close together and focus on those. I already had several ideas and didn’t feel the need for the lecture. Besides, Ivy sat next to me, her notebook balanced on her crossed legs, as she scribbled everything Agent Rogers said. I learned that since she had a photographic memory, she often could not remember information that was spoken to her. If she saw it, she could remember it, but auditory was a weak spot.
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