Ryker inhaled a deep breath. I noticed that his eyes were watery with emotion, and his jaw was locked as if he was trying to hold it all in. Without a word, he raised his hand above his head. I heard the crashing of thunder as Excalibur entered the room through the hole in the ceiling. She flashed red and gold lightning as Ryker caught her hilt.
“I, Ryker Pendragon, legacy of Arthur Pendragon, King of Knights, Leader of the Order, and protector of the realm, swear to never ask that you compromise your honor or morals in my orders. I swear that I will never ask you to break the law of the lands or the Code.” Ryker then recited.
The room erupted with cheers. The sound was deafening, as I stood on my feet again and cheered with them.
“Long live the king!” We all shouted together as Ryker stood on the small stage, Excalibur in his hand, and his crown on his head. He looked like what I imagined Arthur would look like. My powerful King of Knights, always standing with honor and dignity.
“We have one more order of business, my King.” The admiral then muttered to Ryker. Ryker nodded and then waved his hand to silence the crowd. He then gestured for the admiral to go on.
“The Lady Morgana has officially stepped down from her role as Queen of Sorcery.” The Admiral started, holding up a piece of paper. My heart jumped as my stomach flipped. I wasn’t dressed for this. In my sleepy stupor this morning I had barely managed to wear business casual let alone the outfit that I wanted for my coronation.
“We have taken a vote and have decided to crown Ivy Le Fay, legacy of Morgana Le Fay, Queen of Sorcery, Commander of the realm.” The room cheered as a pair of hands pushed me onto the stage with Ryker. A couple of young knights came in then with a white gold crown, a gigantic emerald embedded into the front.
“I’m not ready for this,” I whispered to Ryker, hoping he would stop it. I didn’t even know what my responsibilities were.
“But they are,” Ryker replied.
That was when I realized, it didn’t matter what I wanted. For some strange reason, the universe had picked me for such a powerful and influential role, which meant that my life was not my own. As I glanced around the room of knights, I realized I would do anything to protect them as well. Although many of them were arrogant assholes, and there were even a few traitors, they were my knights, and I felt that responsibility set on my shoulders.
“Queen of Sorcery,” the Knights of the Round Table started, in much the same fashion as they did with Ryker. “We swear to you our protection and sword, we pledge our loyalty to you and the King.” Then the other knights followed, chanting much of the same. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have this memorized like Ryker did. Admiral Gilgamesh set the crown on my head – I wished I had decided against the ponytail that morning.
My panic started to spike as the crowd began to quiet down. I had no idea what to say, and they would expect me to say something. I felt someone nudge my hip. Owen was kneeling in front of me, a piece of paper folded in his hand. I took it, thanking all the gods in the universe that I had such a great friend.
“My knights.” I read, “I swear to only use my magic in service of the King. I pledge that I will ask you to break no laws or the Code. And I am honored to serve the Order in any way I am able.” The crowd cheered as they started to chant, “Long live the Queen!”
My heart thumped in my chest as I then realized that I had an army of knights at my disposal. I wasn’t really familiar with the roles and practices of the knights and the Queen of Sorcery, but I knew that Arthur established the position to better balance the system. Knights tended to be volatile, and sometimes they needed an outside perspective. The Queen of Sorcery was for that purpose.
After the ceremony was over, people who just wanted to congratulate us and shake our hands rushed us. People had told us of the rumors flying around, about how we had taken on an entire insurgent enemy base on our own, how we had protected the city from the flying monsters and the Dark Knight. It didn’t feel that way, but I suppose that was true. That wasn’t our intention, we were just fleeing as much as anyone, but we did lead them away, and we did stumble upon the base, and we did take it down.
This was the first time that I had been congratulated on my own merit. Usually, I got attention because I was Morgana’s granddaughter, or I was part of Team Camelot, but people were actually complimenting my work and me. It was the first time in my recollection that I remembered actually feeling powerful. Everyone told me I was, but until then, I hadn’t felt it.
After an hour or so of socializing, we excused ourselves to go to HQ. I opened the portal for the science team, and they made quick work of checking out Harriet. She was a good girl all the way through and got a special treat of raw beef. Agent Circe assured me she would contact me with any of the results that her tests would produce. Apparently, she worked at both MBIA and MBIU as the head of the natural sciences department. After that, we changed out of our nice clothes. Yoga pants and a t-shirt had never felt so good. We stopped by Agent Roger’s temporary office as per his request. When we entered, he told us to sit in the chairs in front of his desk as he shut the door.
“Let me start by saying that I am not supposed to discuss this with the three of you. In fact, what I am about to say is highly classified.” Agent Rogers said as he walked around the desk to sit in his chair.
“Then, don’t tell us,” Ryker said, giving him a long look.
“I am telling you because you are my King and Queen and if anyone has a problem with that, I’ll tell them to take it up with you.” Agent Rogers said, giving him a long look. Ryker sat up straighter, holding his head high. It shocked me again how much power Ryker and I had gained in one morning. Where I felt formidable, I could tell Ryker felt overwhelmed.
“The information that Ivy had managed to stow away in her dimension was highly useful.” Agent Rogers started, leaning back in his chair. “Though I will not tell you all of it, there is something I want the three of you to be aware of.” He paused for a long moment. “Have the three of you ever heard of the Black Cauldron?” I glanced at Ryker and Owen.
“You mean, the mythical Cauldron said to be made by the Fates themselves?” Owen gasped.
“It is said to be a powerful weapon of mass destruction,” Ryker added.
“The Cauldron is a dimensional artifact that allows the user to open a permanent portal from one dimension to another.” Agent Rogers explained.
“It’s been gone for thousands of years.” Owen shook his head.
“Well, according to the extracted information, they are looking for it.”
“Why?” I demanded. Agent Rogers gave me a long look, his dark eyes giving nothing away. He then turned to Ryker.
“The Cult of Usual’s sole mission is to bring order back to the universe. They will stop at nothing to achieve that.” His eyes bored into Ryker’s as he spoke.
“Order back to the universe? Is it in disorder?” I demanded. The three of them fell silent, and I hit the desk in frustration.
“Tell me.” I saw the green light flash on my finger. Agent Rogers started to open his mouth as Owen stood and waved his hand over him, the blue magic flashing in his palm. As Agent Rogers spoke no sound came out. Owen muted him. I stood, my anger flooding my system as I glared up at Owen.
“Don’t Command answers that you don’t want to know.” Owen snapped before I could say anything.
“How do you know what I do and don’t want to know?” I demanded.
“Because you don’t know what you don’t want to know and if you did, then you’d already know it.” Owen snapped. I took a step back, allowing his words to seep into my mind. Ryker took my hand then.
“You don’t want to know.” Ryker then said, setting his honey colored eyes on me.
I accepted that for now. I trusted them, unquestionably, and therefore, I knew they would never keep anything from me that they didn’t have to.
“If I had all the answers, I could put together the picture.” I then said.
/> “Not this time.” Owen shook his head. He then set his hand on my shoulder, a sympathetic look softening his face. “The Universe will tell you when its time. Before then, though, the consequences could be disastrous.” He was absolutely telling me the truth.
I let the subject drop and stepped out of the room while Agent Rogers, Owen, and Ryker discussed whatever it was they wanted to keep from me. I could have spied, but something inside me told me not to. Whatever it was, perhaps they were right, I didn’t want to know the answer.
We piled into Ryker’s father’s truck as he was flying out for another mission that evening. I laid in the back seat, letting my eyes drift closed as I listened to the music quietly streaming through the speakers. We were all quiet, as we all had our own thoughts to decipher through.
“We’re lucky we weren’t court-martialed,” Ryker said after we were out of the city.
“We can’t be court-martialed,” Owen pointed out, as none of us were in the military.
“I can be.” Ryker pointed out.
“Instead, you were crowned king. I say it’s a win for the day.” Owen replied. I knew Ryker well enough to understand the mental dilemma he was facing. On the one hand, he acted, in his mind, dishonorably as he had lied and was barely able to withstand the enemy. If it weren’t for the Fates intervening, I wasn’t sure what would have happened.
“I don’t deserve it.” Ryker said after a moment. Owen let out a big long dramatic sigh.
“Dude, you have got to loosen up.” Owen snapped. “You’re going to give yourself a stroke by the time you reach thirty.”
“Knights can’t have strokes.” Ryker gasped. Owen rolled his eyes.
“We won today, enjoy it.” Owen then said after a moment. Ryker let out a deep breath.
“Just because it wasn’t the victory you wanted, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a victory.” I offered. Ryker glanced at me through the rear-view mirror.
“I just wish Toby didn’t have to die,” Ryker muttered after a moment.
“You didn’t kill him.” Owen pointed out.
“My presence did.” He then said, giving Owen a long look. The two stared at each other, locked in some nonverbal debate.
“There’s nothing we can do about that,” Owen said after a long moment. “We’re on the path that we’re on, there’s no going back.” I didn’t understand what that meant, but Ryker grunted and nodded.
“So can we talk about that shield thing?” I asked after a moment.
“Oh, right! That’s the most badass thing I’ve ever seen!” Owen nodded. Ryker let out a chuckle.
“It’s your magic.” Ryker then said to Owen. I could sense the Emrys magic in the tattoo as well.
“Man, Merlin broke the mold when he made that. I can’t even fathom how he did it.” Owen said with excitement.
“Are we going to find the Black Cauldron?” I then asked. The two exchanged a glance.
“Luckily, no one can find it.” Ryker replied, “At least for now.” I see. So our side didn’t want it, we just wanted to keep it from enemy hands.
“I’m actually worried if we tried to find it we’d actually just lead the Cult right to it.” Owen added, “Perhaps, it’s better that we don’t get involved.”
The car ride was lighter from there. We discussed our plans for the next two weeks before school started. We were going to hang out at Ryker’s father’s house, enjoy the pool and get some much-needed R&R. I wanted to go shopping and check out a few of the museums in the area. Owen wanted to spend most of the time in my dimension, figuring out more secrets to his magic. I glanced down at my ring. I should probably put some time into that as well.
As we pulled off the interstate and started on the weaving back-roads towards their suburb, we really started to relax. We were bumping to a popular rap song, rapping to the beat. We were making each other laugh with our ridiculous dance moves. At that moment, I knew that no matter what happened, the three of us would be okay as long as we stuck together. I still felt unsure about not knowing the big secret they were keeping, but as we all laughed and rapped along, I also knew that I trusted them unconditionally. If they thought it was best, then I would banish it from my mind.
Now all I had to figure out was how to tell my parents.
End.
Table of Contents
Chapter One:
Ryker:
Chapter Two:
Ivy:
Chapter Three:
Owen:
Chapter Four:
Ivy:
Chapter Five:
Ryker:
Chapter Six:
Ivy:
Chapter Seven:
Owen:
Chapter Eight:
Ryker:
Chapter Nine:
Ivy:
Master of Magic Page 15