As they turned to leave, the fomorian lumbered towards them charging down the hall. It stood about ten feet tall and weighed about a ton. They had no idea how it got through the solid bulkheads. It had ripped part of a security barrier down and was using the post as a club. The guards all opened fire, the lasers hitting it but not doing significant damage. They switched to impact cartridges and it started lumbering backward with each impact. The old man walked towards it.
"Stop, that thing will kill you!" yelled Lady Chelsea.
"Nonsense," said the old man. "It's just tired and needs to rest, isn't that right friend?" he said as he approached it. They had stopped firing for fear of hitting him. He went up to it and placed his hand on it. "The Earth misses her child. You should return to your mother. She needs you. Go now, find Gaia and sleep. You've been awake a long time and have earned your rest. Sleep friend," he said gently, and the creature started sinking into the floor. It dropped the bar it was using as a club and it slowly continued to sink until it was gone. "Now then, we were going somewhere?" he asked.
"How the hell did you do that?" asked Sir Sebastian adding, "That was...incredible whatever it was."
The old man looked at him. "You've forgotten. You've both forgotten, haven't you? You have no idea who you are. What you just saw was magic and you used to be good at it. Not at the level of a Mastermind you but you were learning. Sending a fomorian back to the Earth would have once posed no challenge to you but now you point noisy sticks at them and hope they run away. The world has truly changed since we cast the Seal but now it's undone and we're back where we started."
Lady Chelsea looked annoyed. "I'm going to ask one more time. Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?"
"My dear, you have forgotten so much since we last spoke at Camelot. I am Merlin, head of the Council of Masters," said the old man.
"Sure. I guess I'm Morgana, right?" she said mocking him.
"Of course, not my dear. You look nothing like my wife. You are Guinevere, wife of Arthur," he said pointing to Sebastian.
#
"It is done but will take some time for full power to return to the world. The Earth has been starving for Arcane energy for a long time and many creatures will absorb it as it floods back like a sponge soaking water. I will not be at full power for some time and I can feel at least one Master has already awakened. The others are soon to follow. Go now, start building our army. We will once again wage war upon this planet and conquer or destroy those who stand against me," Mordred told the dreb.
"As you command," it said as it bowed and left.
Mordred spoke again, quieter and to himself. "Father. I thought you dead yet here you are. This is an interesting development but no matter. You ran from me when last we met. I won't let you get away next time."
#
King Arthur inspected the repairs. All was going well, and the castle should be back to full repair by summer. Guinevere was due any day and spent most days now in the castle resting. As he walked the grounds, he passed Sir Gawain training the new knights to replace their fallen brothers. The best of the best had been recruited and now they would be turned into something more. Gawain was a master of his craft and even he no longer could fight without his sword arm, Arthur had absolute faith in his ability as a teacher. He watched them drill for a few minutes, pleased at the progress they were making. His pleasure was short lived as he thought of the devastation the world had suffered outside the grounds of Camelot.
Outside their walls, they were doing what they could to restore order to Britannia and bring the lives of his fellow Britons back to some semblance of normalcy, but it was going to be a long and difficult journey. The Masters were gone but their legacy remained. So many lives had been touched, for good or for ill by the war of the Magi and now they were all gone, and the mortals left to pick up the pieces, heal the shattered land and go on living.
The Masters could not live without the Arcane, so they left to hibernate throughout time until they sensed the return of magic and could safely awake. Many other magic users remained but all were now devoid of their connection to the mystic. Arthur himself was one of those and where once he could imbue his blade with power, summon the elements to fight or even just boil the water for his soup, now he had not even a spark of that left. In an instant, it was gone, and the world shattered by its departure.
The havoc wreaked by that single act, that single spell, was devastation in its purest form. The Earth shuddered and quaked, the seas poured onto the land and the mountains spewed fire and magma. The skies were darkened for a short while, but it passed after a few months.
The cost to his kingdom was high. Crops were lost, herds killed, farmers and laborers and nobles all perished. Station offered no protection from the shattering. Arthur had appointed new nobles representing who he considered to be the best of humanity. He tried to avoid the old way of rank coming from wealth or power but instead, from the quality of the person's character. He hoped that trend would last after his eventual death.
There were still monstrous creatures walking the Earth, things created by magic that didn’t need it to survive or had their own internal store that wasn't yet exhausted. Those were not Arthur's immediate concern though. The Wardens were created to handle them and while the Wardens reported to him, he left them to be mostly autonomous. Occasionally a creature would breach the borders of his lands and he would send knights to dispatch it but even in those cases, they often arrived to find the Wardens had already dealt with it.
The Wardens were the last and possibly the only good thing the Council did though much of that was due to the surreptitious actions of a few. He had put tremendous effort into forming the Wardens once the Council gave the order and with the help of his wife along with Boudicca and Morgana they had managed to contort the Wardens from vassals of the Masters into a force for the protection of humanity. They maintained their original charge of guarding the sleeping Masters but were now so much more. It was his hope they would stand the test of time and continue to work as the guardians of humanity long after he passed the mortal coil.
So much death had come from the war and even though the Wardens would often kill the monstrous, they also protected natural life and made the world safer for the mortals unlike the world of the wizards where non-magic using humans were nothing but fodder for their war or toys to be used and cast aside. The Wardens were a good thing in Arthur's opinion. Stopping a fey no longer meant sacrificing innocents for the 'greater good' as Merlin had called it. The Wardens made every effort to avoid any innocent being harmed in the pursuit of their duty.
Had things been different and he not been discovered as magic sensitive as a child by the great wizard Merlin and raised in the craft and primed to lead the Knights, he might have been there with the Wardens now, vanquishing that which threatened the world, the monstrous remnants of a time now gone. But his place was here, with his wife and new child and that was where he would remain. He promised to keep her safe for eternity and now that magic was gone, eternity was no longer possible, so he would at least keep her and his child safe for the length of whatever mortal life he had.
#
“That was...I don’t know what the hell that was. You made that thing vanish into the ground or something,” said Chelsea.
“You really don’t have any memories of your life do you, my dear. The fomorian are spirits of the Earth. Druids called them when their goddess, Gaia, was threatened. They are made from the Earth’s spirit and are beautiful and powerful creatures but can’t remain apart from her for long. After a time, they begin to suffer from their separation and must return. If they don’t, they twist and contort into the beast you saw, a dream turned nightmare. They only need to return to the Earth to restore themselves but cannot do so on their own,” said the man calling himself Merlin.
“And you opened a hole in the Earth’s spirit to allow them to rejoin her,” said Sir Sebastian.
“Yes, Arthur. You do remember. Very good,” said the old man.
“I don’t remember anything and I’m not Arthur. It just seemed logical. That’s all,” he told him.
Lady Chelsea spoke up. “We can play fairy tale make believe later. Right now, we’re in the open and there are two ogres among other things on the other side of this corridor and unless you can magic them in the ground we need to move.”
As if on cue, the remaining humanoids came around the corner and charged them. The old man tapped his staff on the ground and several pulses of light came from it blinding everyone. When the light cleared, the remaining brutes were unmoving on the floor.
“How did you do that?” demanded Lady Chelsea then added over her comm, “Someone, find out where these things are getting out of their wing and close the hole.”
“Lady Guinevere, I could go over the nuances of the magic involved and while I’m sure you are more than capable of comprehending it, it would be a lengthy discussion and one better saved for later. For now, this place appears to be a dungeon of some sort and I suspect your other prisoners are of similar nature. While I am a Master, I’ve spent the last eighteen hundred or so years as a ghost and don’t have my full power yet. Teleporting here and those spells I just used drained me and I would prefer not to push myself again. Can we adjourn to a safer location?” he asked her.
She stared at him a moment. He seemed so familiar, yet she was certain she had never seen him before. “The name is Chelsea. Lady Chelsea. Not Guinevere. Everyone, fall back to the station,” she ordered and they withdrew.
After they were back behind the barriers, Lady Chelsea again started to question their new arrival. “Okay, we’re in a safe place. Now tell me the truth. Who in the Hell are you, how did you get in a secure facility and how did you do those tricks? We’ve not seen tech like that before. Are you with the Lunar Liberation League? The Allied Liberation Front? I will not have a rogue agent threatening my people. Who are you, really? TELL ME!” she yelled.
The old man smiled. “You always were quick to the defense of others. That was what Arthur first noticed about you. Do you have any food?” he asked.
“What?” she replied. “Food. I have not eaten for the better part of two thousand years. I am a bit famished,” he said.
She dug around in the emergency provision cabinet and found a box of protein bars and some vitamin water. He ate and drank with gusto.
“Do you actually like those things?” asked Sir Sebastian.
“Not at all but I am very hungry,” he said as he ate another, bringing his total to five, then drank a second bottle of water.
“Okay you have a full belly now answer my questions,” ordered Lady Chelsea.
“Of course, Lady Guinevere. I mean Lady Chelsea. I am Merlin, Master Wizard and head of the Council of Mages and the one who created the order of Wardens you now serve. I am not entirely certain how I got here. I felt someone needed me here, so I came though I don’t understand how you consider this facility secure. There are no wards, no teleportation barriers, nothing. I suspect you and Arthur being in danger is the pull I felt. We always considered you our children and I could always tell when you needed me. I don’t know who those Lunar people are. I am with no group. I’ve gained much knowledge of the world in my journeys but things in the spirit realm are hazy and hard to interpret.
“So, you expect us to believe that the Seal of Solomon is broken, magic has returned to the world and you’re a two-thousand-year-old dead wizard?” she said.
“Four thousand,” he replied.
“Four thousand? Four thousand what?” she said.
“Four thousand years old. I was well over two thousand when the war began. Only Master Ra is more ancient than me,” he said matter of factly.
Lady Chelsea looked at Sir Sebastian. “What do you think?”
He looked at the old man. “I think he’s telling the truth,” he replied.
“You think he is telling the truth? You’re serious? You’re not joking?” she said.
“I’m completely serious. Chelsea, I sometimes have these daydreams when we, when we were...you know,” he said, and she giggled at him. His bashfulness always made her laugh. He continued. “Anyway, when I... finish I sometimes have what I thought were daydreams. In one, we were in front of a golden castle and you were pregnant. You were leaving on a wagon and we spoke one last time and I swore to be with you for eternity and keep you safe and you replied in kind. Then tonight, we spoke those same words again. If it were just me, I would have thought maybe it was just my subconscious from the daydream, but you couldn’t have known about it and then you said the same words,” he said.
“Coincidence. I just repeated you,” she told him.
“There is more. When the Seal was formed, writings of the original Wardens reference the world shuddering and massive natural disasters, specifically quakes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions which is exactly what is happening now. What if breaking the great Seal has the same effect as creating it? And the old man, I can’t say why but I believe him, and I think if you think about it and be honest with yourself, you believe him. You saw what he did. That wasn’t technology and he’s obviously not with Trip-L or the ALF” he said.
The old man interjected. “A golden castle with a pregnant Guinevere getting on a wagon to leave? That wasn’t a dream, it was a memory. That was just before we cast the Seal. Camelot was evacuated, and Guinevere wanted to stay by your side and fight but couldn’t because she was with child. You say you swore an oath though? That probably explains why you’re here. You weren’t Masters but you both had a significant ability in the Arcane and if you swore an oath to each other and swore it for eternity at a time and place when magical power was surging at unheard of levels as we channeled for the Seal then you’ve likely bound yourselves together. Oaths are not to be taken lightly when imbued with magic and spoken with faith in the words and a powerful binding agent, and love is one of the more powerful, you created a powerful spell, not just words. With magic bound by the Seal, there is no way you could have ascended so I suspect reincarnation. It's rare but not unprecedented. I wonder how many times throughout history you’ve been reborn and drawn to each other?” he said. “I wonder how the child turned out?” he added.
“I know you think I’m Guinevere but I’m not. I’m no mother. I’ve never been pregnant, and I can’t get pregnant unless I choose to do so thanks to the wonders of modern medicine. I would know if I had a baby. Trust me on this,” she said, starting to get irritated.
He laughed at her. “My dear, not in this life, obviously. Who knows how many times you two have lived and died throughout the centuries and how many children of Arthur and Guinevere have walked or do walk the Earth maybe without even knowing their royal lineage? It's hazy but I recall impressions you were crowned after my death.”
Lady Chelsea scoffed. “I don’t believe that but it’s not worth arguing about right now. We have more important things to deal with like finish securing the cells. Since our new friend here seems to be able to handle these things better than we can and felt we needed him, by his own words, then let's need him and put him to use. How do you feel about being a Warden for a day?” she asked him.
“My dear, if you want to be factual, I created the Wardens. In essence, I am the father of your order. I created the Wardens to follow in my stead once I was gone so effectively I am the first Warden,” he said sounding proud of the statement. “I can see you don’t believe me. I don’t really have the power to spare but I guess I will have to prove it.” He looked at the two of them, smiled and clapped his hands together and a flash of light temporarily blinded everyone.
Lady Chelsea and Sir Sebastian opened their eyes. They were in a room surrounded by monitors and people moving about frantically. “General, Seditionist forces have taken Peking,” said someone to Sir Sebastian.
“Send in the 48th and give them full satellite and tactical support. We can’t lose China,” he heard himself say. He saw Lady Chelsea standing near him at a panel.
“Reports are in the from the siege of Taiwan. Seditionist forces are in full retreat,” she said.
The light flashed again.
They were in a large tent surrounded by stretchers and people in medical uniforms. Sir Sebastian was talking to Lady Chelsea. “Doctor, the new treatment is successful. The results show full eradication of the virus. You did it!” he said excitedly.
“Enough people have died to this disease. I only wish it could have been sooner,” she said.
The light flashed again.
Sir Sebastian was helping an older man into a wagon. “I know you’re tired, but you have to keep moving. If they find you, then they’ll hang you. You’ll be in the safety of the North by morning,” he told him.
“Here, take this,” said Lady Chelsea. “It’s not much but it’s enough food and water for you and your family to get to the safety of the free states,” she told him handing him a bag of food.
The light flashed again and again. Each time, the two of them were together somewhere in the past. They were always helping people in some form or fashion and always had the mark of the Wardens, Solomon’s Knot. Sometimes it was a tattoo. Sometimes a pendant. Sometimes a scar or brand but always there. The light flashed again, and they were back in the security station. The old man was weakened, and guards had drawn their guns on him. Lady Chelsea ordered them to stand down.
“Curious. I meant that spell to show our lives at Camelot not your lives since. My power is not at its peak though. See my friends, you are not only bound for eternity but your essence, like mine, is unchanged. Some people become a Warden, for others like us, it’s our nature,” Merlin told them.
Lady Chelsea was visibly shaken. “I... whatever you did...I don’t know let’s just handle the situation at hand,” she told them. “We’ve cleared the wings. Tactical reports the remaining brutes are trapped in the stay-foam and so we only have one cell left. None of us want to deal with it but we must check it. I want everyone not on patrols with us. Let’s do it,” she ordered.
The Seal of Solomon Page 12