Merlini Magia

[AurianaValoria1]

Kat sighed loudly, her frustration evident even as she felt pity for Ben's growing anxiety. The dark-haired boy seemed truly uncomfortable here, and she wondered if it was a case of claustrophobia he was experiencing. Deciding to take some initiative regardless of the danger of their current situation, she pointed down the westernmost corridor, "All right. Well...seems like we all came from different corners of the country, but I think it's best if we all leave together. It'll be a lot safer that way. Let's go."

 

Not long after she began walking forward with purpose (despite the darkness of the halls), she ran across a man in a three-piece suit who seemed just as lost as they were. Waving to him, she called, "Come on, join us! We're trying to find a way out of here!" She then continued on her way, a certain confidence strengthening her with every step. The would find out what happened here and they would find a way out. They had to.

 

"We all got here somehow," she said, more to herself than anyone else, "There has to be a way out."

 

But for the longest time, that way was not apparent. Every wall looked the same, every hall ended in a turn or a dead end. Every corridor was lined with the same number of flaming sconces, and every step of the way, the scenery did not change. With every turn and every vision of yet another long hall, Kat's burst of boldness faded bit by bit...

 

Until, suddenly, a more well-lit chamber was visible ahead.

 

"There!" she exclaimed, beginning to run forward with still-squelching sandals. It was precarious dashing forward like this, but the sight of something different up ahead filled her with a strange relief...

 

...but when she got to the chamber, a most unusual sight met her eyes. There, standing over some sort of equipment that almost looked alchemical in nature, was a woman.

 

Kat halted in her tracks, hands out to steady herself as she stared at the woman whose back was to them. The woman was old, white hair trailing down her back and almost to the floor, and she wore the most beautiful black and burgundy velvet gown that Katherine had ever laid eyes on. It was embroidered with gold thread in tight swirls and leaf-like shapes, belted with a golden sash, and there were golden tippets on the sleeves that fell to the ground. The bell-like oversleeves were nearly that long, and when the woman raised her arms, cream-colored under-sleeves were visible, which looped around her middle fingers to keep them from riding up. It was a costume Kat thought would fit right in at a Renaissance Faire...

 

"Um...excuse me...?" Kat began tentatively.

 

At that, the woman raised up and turned around. Her countenance was writ with a thousand wrinkles, her nose crooked and long, but her smile was warm and genuine. Her eyes, bright blue and shining with energy, glittered in the candlelight, and she held out her hands to the group of lost people with a welcoming gesture.

 

"Ahhhh, so you have finally arrived. I was beginning to wonder if my enchantments had failed."

 

Kat's mouth dropped open.

 

OK...She's nuts.

 

After Kat thought a moment, though, she could have sworn that the woman had a...Welsh accent?

Edited November 11, 2015 by AurianaValoria1

[FreemasonGamer]

Quickly following Kat's lead, Ben nodded briskly and followed behind her alongside his fellow companions while still relying upon the light of his smartphone to guide his footsteps. As the group traversed the seemingly limitless maze of foreboding corridors, Ben's fearful anxiety continued to plague him, but he did spare a brief nod to the well-dressed man when they encountered him; while he would have liked to share a few moments of discussion with the individual to hopefully better understand the situation, Ben's desire to escape overpowered any other concern pestering his mind. However, a spark of hope eventually chased away Ben's distress momentarily when they all ventured down a particular corridor where a light welcomed them at the end.

 

"Thank God, we made it." The young man sighed heavily in relief as he sped down the darkened corridor after Katherine, overwhelmed by the gleeful hope of seeing daylight again.

 

Much to Ben's disappointment, sadly, he discovered that the light at the end of the tunnel was only a well-lit chamber in which an elderly women dressed in some ornate costume dabbled with a bizarre machination that vaguely reminded Ben of equipment suited for a chemistry lab. Listening to the brief exchange of words between Kat and the elder, Ben quickly turned off his smartphone to conserve its energy at least while they were in such a warmly lit space. When the elderly woman's mentioning of enchantments reached Ben's ears, he immediately knitted his brows together in sheer confusion.

 

"Enchantments? Like, magic?" He noted abruptly before another realization erupted in his thoughts, "Wait, so you are the one who brought us here, lady? Why? How?!"

 

Running his hand through his greasy black hair, Ben fought the urge to pace back and forth as a flood of uncertainties drowned his conscience. After rapidly recalling his recent experiences with the brewing storm over his grandfather's mechanic shop, his odd awakening in this nameless place, and his false hope felt when racing down the latest corridor towards a welcoming light, a mortifying consideration blossomed in Ben's mind that challenged his fortitude, his stance becoming feeble.

 

"We're not... dead, are we?" He asked worriedly as an ashen colorlessness consumed his facial features The light at the end of the tunnel... Ben thought to himself as his heart began to race. "T-The light at the end of the tunnel..."

Edited November 12, 2015 by FreemasonGamer

[Macman253]

Andre took his keys and scraped some of the sandstone from the wall into a tube he often kept for such samples. The historian tucked it into his pocket and followed his compatriots. When the light appeared he smiled wide, the fear of being trapped in the expanse of hallways and rooms faded. He noticed the woman in full and crossed his arms.

 

"She looks like my grandmother." He thought, when she mentioned enchantments his curiosity was piqued. He smiled and looked to Ben. "We must have some value to her obviously." Andre said with a shrug.

[Zephyr2011]

The rag tag group of individuals met Aaron on his way towards them. He greeted them briefly and fell in towards the back of the group, everyone was obviously tense, but also rushed. Aaron was a little too disoriented still to exercise his normal charisma and get to know everyone, so he just snagged a torch from a wall sconce and followed along. The light wasn't much, but it helped to dispel the literal gloom some, as well as a little bit of his emotional gloom, he hoped it did the same for the others.

 

After what seemed like an eternity, they came upon a bright, large room with some dark haired woman talking about enchantments and magic. Everyone else's eyes were on her, but Aaron's were darting around the room rapidly, a boyish grin on his face taking in all of the glassware and solutions. There were alembics, and retorts, mortars and pestles, several distillations running and a pleasant aroma that was a strange mix of cinnamon and a field of flowers in spring time.

 

"How did you get such fine glassware? These pieces look expertly crafted. And the aroma! Are you synthesizing ethers? It's a different set up than I would have expected, but this is marvelous! What reagents are these? Are these used in the enchantments?" Aaron couldn't help himself, the science- or was it magic?- was so fascinating to him. In that moment, he didn't care where, or when, he was, he just wanted to know about this mysterious woman's intricate craft.

[AurianaValoria1]

At the sudden barrage of questions, the woman's countenance bore subtle signs of irritation; holding up her hands to stop them from asking anything else, she replied, "One question at a time, if you please. First, it would be to your benefit to know that things are not as they appear to be, here. Second, I advise that you be not so hasty with your curiosity, nor jump to quick conclusions. Observe and listen carefully to your surroundings before speaking your minds or making assumptions - such a lesson in behavior should be kept in mind in all of your future interactions."

 

The woman then folded her fingers together elegantly and took a step forward, one black-slippered foot peeking out from under the hem of her dress. She looked at Ben with a wry expression, "Yes, child, I brought you here. And yes, by magic...something you have a distinct lack of in your world, much to my great disappointment. No, thank God you are not dead. You are here because you must be here. Because I have watched and observed you all carefully, and the threads of prophecy tell of your saving Britannia from certain destruction. Thus, it became my prerogative to bring you here as quickly as possible, and it has drained my power significantly to accomplish this task. Yet, it was a necessary sacrifice..."

 

"Britannia?" Kat asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically as she was certain this woman was truly mad, "Magic? You speak as though this is a time gone by, or as though we're in some fairy-tale fantasy."

 

The woman chuckled, "To you, you might be, young teacher of our legends. Yes, Britannia, girl. In your world, what you now know as 'Britain' never was such a place of chivalry and valor that you read about in your tales. In my world, however, it is as your storytellers wished it were. This is the empire of Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon...a place your authors and orators only touched in dreams. They wrote of this place to put dreams to words, but it never existed in your world as it does here. Your historians misconstrued it as being reality in your time, in your universe. But they were wrong. Those stories of Arthur you harbor in your libraries are but feeble attempts to put fragmented visions together into a coherent story...a way to make meaning of the mind's reaching other times and spaces..."

 

Kat threw her hands in the air, "You're insane."

 

The woman laughed aloud this time, "Hah! Am I? When you are blatantly ignoring what your mind is telling you is true? You have been thinking it all along...how can so many people have been taken from so many places all at the same time and miraculously end up in the exact same location, which sports such antiquated architecture from a time long past in your world?"

 

The woman then raised her chin, "You have been brought to an another universe, if you will...a twin of yours in which Arthur Pendragon is king of all of Britannia, in a timeline not adjacent to your own, in which magic exists where it does not in yours. Where alchemy," she gestured to her laboratory and smiled at the suited man, "is a legitimate profession, and where chivalry means more than an ideal."

 

A frown then tugged at her thin lips, "But it is also where a strange curse has been wrought that has turned the world itself on its head...this alone should tell you all: I am Merlin."

 

Kat blinked. Once, then twice. There was something so awful that was gathering in the pit of her stomach; it was as if her instinct knew all of these words were true, and on some level, it was like living a dream. And yet, on the other hand, her thoughts were screaming that this was insanity and that it couldn't be possible...

 

Or could it? Could the scientists actually have bumped up against something real when they theorized that alternate universes really existed? Was all of this proof of such things?

 

Or were they all just stark-raving nuts?

 

"Oh my God..." she put her head in her hands and shook it back and forth, "Oh my God..."

[FreemasonGamer]

What the bizarre and arguably mad woman suggested effortlessly sent Ben's mind spinning wildly like a children's top. Magic, prophecies, alternate reality; it all seemed like a concoction of utter insanity, as Kat freely accused it all of being. Holding his head in his hands, Ben finally succumbed to his innate urge to pace stressfully while mumbling audibly to himself, "No, no, no, no... This is nuts, it is nuts..." It was all too surreal for Ben to comprehend all at once, but a nagging truth fought for his attention in the buried depths of his mind.

 

As he began to internalize what shreds of sense he managed to pull out of the air, Ben soon realized what was at stake if they were actually in a different reality altogether, set entirely apart from their reality of origin. His revelation crushed his pounding heart in a vice and froze the blood in his veins, and his stomach coiled and knotted like a hangman's noose. Then, the chilling stiffness that overcame Ben for a brief moment exploded with his abrupt outburst, "Why us? Why me? I'm just a mechanic from Walker County! I can't help, my family needs me!"

 

Once again, Ben's fingers found themselves entangled in his oily locks of soot black hair as he thought of his grieving mother, two younger sisters, and baby brother. He imagined how devastated they must be by his disappearance if this was all truly real. This can't be real, he thought to himself fearfully before his gaze met Merlin's. "Lady, or sir, whatever you prefer, you have to take us back; I didn't ask for this—none of us did—and how could we be helpful if you're such a powerful wizard?"

Edited November 14, 2015 by FreemasonGamer

[Lisnpuppy]

Rose chewed her bottom lip and reached into her bag and pulled out a Snickers Bar. The woman's announcement that she was Merlin actually gave her some relief. No people with knives or guns. No one doing anything harmful yet. She could work with this. She didn't know if these words were true or if they really were somewhere "else" or this was a mass hallucination or what. She didn't care. She just wanted to keep moving through all this. Meanwhile Rose just kept thinking of her Gran saying those Shakespeare words. More that in her philosophy indeed.

 

Ignoring Ben's almost panicked words to Merlin she made a decision.

 

Looking over the woman, her garb, the strange boiling bottles full of one color thing or another. Rose always wondered if Merlin was more title than person. It would be interesting to see how this played out perhaps...even if it was some elaborate joke. Rose titled her head and took a breath. Carefully tearing a portion of the candy, Rose slowly offered it out to Merlin.

 

"I don't know if what you say is true...but if it is I'm pretty sure you don't have this. This is a little bit of magic from our world. At least it is magic to me" Rose gave her best 'I'm game' grin and just decided to go with the flow for now. She didn't get any bad vibe though Rose was sure she heard a strange laugh coming from somewhere in her head.

[GrueMaster]

Ardan simply stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him, trying to process all this new and rather dramatic information out loud. "Merlin... as in, the wizard of King Arthur's Camelot? THAT Merlin? And you need us to save the world?" He stifled his building hysteria as best as he could, finding this entire situation highly amusing and ironic, despite its supposedly grim outlook. Hey, Ma, Pa! Look at me, I'm going to save the world! He thought to himself, his muffled laugh nearly making him choke as he imagined telling his parents what he was up to.

 

Wiping the smile from his face, Ardan calmed himself and looked at the ancient woman before them. "Magic, eh? Well, I always believed there was something behind the legends of my Irish Celtic ancestors, so I think I could wrap my head around this to an extent. Although...:" the red-head looked down at himself. "I don't know quite what a ninja-wannabe could possibly add to things, as Ben pointed out." His forehead creased with mild bewilderment, though, as he looked at Merlin with a raised eyebrow. "Wait a moment... isn't Merlin supposed to be a guy? I mean, no offense, but..." Ardan gestured towards the wizardess. "You don't quite fit the descriptions we have of you."

[AurianaValoria1]

Kat dragged her hands down her face and watched as "Merlin" seemed to grow more exasperated with their own disbelief and frustration. Crossing her arms, the elderly woman replied to Ben's outburst, "No one asks to be called to their destinies, child! And regardless of whether or not one wants to heed it, heed it he or she must." She paced back and forth, "As for taking you back, I have no way to make that happen; my power is nearly depleted. I was weak enough from escaping my prison, and now that I have brought you here, I am as good as useless." Pointing at the red-headed boy among them, she added, "And there you strike the matter of the curse itself, Irishman. It has swapped the sexes of everyone in the realm! The kingdom is in an uproar...the roles of every man, woman, and child have been turned upside down. The Round Table's strength has been sapped as it has been divided and weakened...and this objective, I think, was the main aim of it all. That is why you all are so important. You are unaffected by this curse, and thus you will be able to help us find where it originated before the kingdom descends further into utter chaos."

 

The woman then sighed, "I have done everything I can to pinpoint who or where it might have come from, but something is blocking my scrying...which, I must add, is not a difficult thing to do with me in this state."

 

When suddenly presented with a piece of candy bar, Merlin reached out and carefully took it, turning it this way and that in her hand very slowly before moving to put it in a small stone dish on one table, "Yes...hmmm. This...I think...is worth examination. I will return to it later."

 

After a moment of awkward silence, Kat took in a deep breath and let it out loudly, putting her hands on her hips, "So. We really are stuck in Camelot, then?"

 

"Britannia, dear girl, you should know this," Merlin corrected, "Camelot is Arthur's capital, and it is to this city you must go to present yourselves to the king."

 

"Yes, well," Kat blushed deeply with embarrassment, still hardly believing what she was hearing, "Where is it and how do we get there?"

 

"It is many, many leagues to the southeast. In good weather, it will take you at least a week to reach it. In poor weather, longer. I have requested that Sir Gawain and Sir Dinadan be your escorts; despite their now being of the fairer sex, they have not forgotten how to fight," Merlin replied. "They will also be the most receptive to you and can help you...acclimate, to your new environment."

 

"Also," the elderly woman turned and produced several silver pendants, which she handed to each of them, "The only way you will be able to communicate properly with our people is if you have these around your necks. I have one myself, which is why you are able to comprehend what I am saying to you right now. It seems our languages differ greatly from yours, region to region and estate to estate. These medallions will enable you to understand and be understood by anyone...my first and only gift to you, I fear."

 

Kat took hers and carefully put it around her neck, settling the pendant on her breastbone, "Ah...thank you. I'm sure these will be invaluable." If what you say is true and not total madness, she thought.

 

Merlin smiled broadly, "I'm sure. Now, we have wasted enough time here; I cannot see you off a moment too soon. The knights should be awaiting us not far from here. Come quickly!"

 

Unable to do anything else, Kat straightened her blouse and followed the elderly woman as she began to ascend a flight of cramped spiral stairs. The professor's sandals squelched a little less now, and as she walked she could not help but think...

 

...Now to see if what the woman says is truth, or just the product of senility...

[FreemasonGamer]

Ben adorned the silver pendant as he listened quietly to the exchanging conversation between his companions and the lady Merlin, and he was still obviously skeptical of the entire situation. Regardless, he was relieved when the word was given that Merlin was anxious to see them on their way to their knightly escorts. As the old lady scuttled towards what Ben hoped to be the exit, he quickened his pace to match his fellow destined heroes. Having voiced enough of his own concerns, the young man remarked aloud with a nervous tinge of sarcasm, "I have a sneaking suspicion the first thing I'm going to do is tie a key to a kite and hope for a thunderstorm as soon as possible."