Six

The immediate aftermath of the incident wasn’t all that dangerous. Emmanuel, Sage and the rest of the town gave us supplies for the rest of our journey, and apparently Emmanuel knew who we were. He told Donatello and George that “Nathaniel is a bit immature, but with time he’ll make an incredible king,” which was banter that we all needed while travelling. That and me beating up George. 

    About a week later, we set up camp in the woods, and George asked me to help him get dinner in a nearby stream. As we were fishing, George brought up the light incident and thought that I called on Merlin to help Emmanuel. This assumption shocked me, since I had never come in contact with Merlin in my life. The conversation turned into conspiracy theories about Merlin’s true nature and his magical abilities in terms of how widespread they could be, and George brought up his childhood to lighten the mood. 

    He was only two when his father introduced him to my father. Apparently he was so nervous about meeting the prince that his voice cracked four times in three minutes. He swore to protect infant me at all costs when he first met me at twenty-three years old. I was a very adventurous baby, and that caused him a lot of trouble. The good kind and the bad kind. 

I told him that my father would’ve been proud of him given the situation, which made him a tad bit happier. I then caught my first fish ever and was extremely excited about it too, and all he said was, “You really are your father’s daughter.” and we both cracked more jokes and laughed as we fished. 

    When we were preparing to go to bed, we heard a rustling sound coming from the woods and we all stood at attention. I remember Joan asking, “What now?” as the stirring in the bushes grew closer and closer. 

*****

    We all stood ready to face another enemy, but were surprised and relieved when a small corgi popped out of the bushes. Everyone else was a bit apprehensive, since the corgi’s master could’ve been close by, but I recognised it. It was the corgi from my dreams. George asked me to prove it was indeed that corgi and not someone else’s. I picked it up to see if it had any distinct features that would set it apart., and we heard someone yell out to us. 

    I put the corgi down and turned to face the threat, but we didn’t know in which direction the voice originated from. We then heard the voice say, “down here.” and it came from the corgi. We turned to it, and Joan said that it couldn’t have been the dog, because “dogs don’t talk.” To everyone’s surprise, the corgi replied, “this one does.” Donatello exclaimed at the talking dog, and he corrected our pronouns and told us his name was Arthur.

    Donatello and Nathaniel took the most interest in Arthur and as they were talking to him, I asked George if there was anything I could do to help with fighting. He told me that I was the most important person in the group, since I would become the queen of Pasiphae if anything, gods forbid, happened to Nathaniel. I kept badgering him until he yelled at me to drop the conversation, which I did. George had raised his voice with me many times in the past, but that time there was a bit of fear in his voice. It was even more evident when he apologized five minutes later.   

    I went to my tent to sleep and asked Arthur all sorts of questions as I was dozing off. Like who he was, how I found him, why he was in my dream, but he dodged all of them. That or I just don’t remember what he said. I expected to see him in my dream, but he wasn’t there, so I went to find my parents. A little while after I found them, I heard a voice behind me calling to my father.

*****

    I turned around and saw George and Arthur staring at my parents in disbelief. He walked up to us and bowed, but my father told him to rise and embraced him. I asked him how he was there, and Arthur told us that at the moment, our hands are interlocked in the real world, so I brought him into my dream with my magic. My father’s tone shifted from jovial to worried at the mention of magic.

    George noticed and asked him if he knew what happened in that ballroom, and he told us that after I stormed out of the room, a young man walked in with Paul. He raised his hands and cast a spell that made every guard's eyes develop a red reflective cataract. He then turned to him and told my father that he was to suffer as he did. He told us that my power was the only thing that could destroy the sorcerer. 

We told him that we were going to find Merlin and ask him for help, but he was extremely against it. When George asked why, he didn’t give us a clear answer. He instead told us to go to Ceres and get Elizabeth’s help. George asked if the man was the same person from 3 years ago, but he remained silent and George told him that since he’s passed, he would become my guardian until we arrived in Ceres. 

My father mumbled a “thank you” and pressed on about going to Ceres and forgetting about Merlin. The atmosphere became icy. When we heard Donatello’s voice and knew it was time to go. We all hugged out the tension and woke up. I sat with George as he kept watch and I told him the weird dream I had. After I told him about the dream, he told me that he’d teach me basic self-defense, and that we were going to find Merlin.