Woven Magic

Chapter 9

“You...you have m-magic?” Jacosa questioned with a stutter, her jaw dropping to stone floor. I wiped the tears out of my eyes and and nodded.

“We know.” Royse stated, “Well at least I did.” she shrugged and Jacosa stared at her like she was about to draw her sword on her.

“You...you knew?!” she exclaimed the line that was supposed to belong to me.

“Arthur told me. Merlin has magic too. He’s the reason the king is still alive today. He told me personally that Merlin has saved his behind more times than even he knows. And he helped him win against Morgana. After Arthur defeated her, he was fatally wounded. If it hadn’t been for Merlin who took him the lake of Avalon, the king would be dead.” Royse explained and my own jaw dropped in marvel at how much knowledge she had been keeping from everyone.

“Whoa...Merlin never told me that…” I commented, my eyes cast down. There was apparently a lot to Merlin that I didn’t know yet. And I certainly had a lot to catch up on. Maybe I should trust him more when it came to our training. That reminded me, I needed to get this spell reversed. Not just for Merlin but for all of Camelot. “Jacosa, Royse, I need your help!” I exclaimed, looking up at them frantically.

“Anything Mystra, what do you need?” Royse asked, her eyes widening in surprise at my outburst.

“Start from the beginning, what happened?” Jacosa braced me, hungry for an explanation on what was happening. I took a deep breath and thought for a moment. I didn’t have the time to explain everything. I need to get to Gaius’s work room in the castle. But I needed to avoid men. However I shouldn’t have to worry too much because half of the castle staff had joined the horde of raging horny men that were just chasing me down in the field and around the castle.

“I’ll explain on the way. Jacosa, Royse, I need you to help me get to Gaius’s work room here in the castle.” I told them and they both simply nodded and lead me down the corridor to the stairs.

“Okay, we’re escorting you there. So get to spilling.” Jacosa demanded and I nodded, putting my hood up to keep my face hidden from others.

“Alright, alright! Merlin is...he’s sort of my teacher. For magic I mean. Which is why we spend so much down time together. Which I guess isn’t really down time then, come to think of it.” I began my explanation and crouched down by the edge of the wall, peaking around the corner to make sure no one was around. We were in the lowest level of the castle which connected with the dungeons underground and now we were getting up to the guard’s post. We peaked around to find two guards sitting at a table, playing cards. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating. I chanted the spell Merlin taught me the first day in the field, that wind enchantment. I opened my eyes and they surged with the powerful magic within me. I watched as the entire deck sitting face down on the table blew off the table and scattered everywhere.

The guards looked at each other puzzled and put down their hand while they tried to gather all the stray cards. I motioned for Jacosa and Royse to go ahead of me and they obeyed, moving quickly but silently. I followed close behind them, crossing over to the second staircase entrance and pressed my back against the adjacent wall, ducking head back out to see the guards getting up and sitting back down at the table. I grinned in amusement at what I was about to do. I whispered the enchantment again felt my eyes tingle again. Their hands they had laid face down on the table to pick up the deck that had spread over the floor blew off and scattered in the same way. The guards looked at each other again, puzzled. They got up to pick up the cards once more. My eyes surged again, this time without a verbal command and I was able to do the spell again. And then a second time, and a third, each time blowing cards down the other direction of the corridor, watching the two dim witted guards chase after the fly away playing cards.

With the guards out of the way, we made our way quickly across the corridor and making our way quickly up the stairs. We almost made it to Gaius’s when Jacosa managed to drop her sword after tripping over her feet. Gaius opened the door, instantly saw me and the chaos began to happen.

“Hello beautiful lady!” he exclaimed, bringing me into his arms and I felt violated. He even started kissing my hands, leading up to my arms.

“Gaius, stop!” I exclaimed, looking over at Jacosa and Royse, watching as Royse walked over and hit him in the neck. He dropped almost instantly, completely knocked out and we quickly made our way into his room.

“We will guard the door, you do your thing.” Jacosa stated, hearing someone banging on the door almost as soon as the words left her mouth. “Go. Now!”

I ran into Gaius’s work room, looking for anything that could do something and started reading books upon books. I couldn’t find anything that had something to do on fixing love potions. There finally was a book that I found on one of the secondary bookshelves and I began reading into it. There was a small feather sticking out from under the cover, forcing me to pull the paper away from the binding. I found a paper, taking and opening it, finding Gaius’s writing.

“I found it!” I exclaimed, running into the room and finding those two sitting against the door.

“Good, now hurry!” Royse exclaimed, actually breaking into a sweat from holding the door closed. “Now!”

I ran to the preparation table and began the recipe for the reversal potion. I worked for a few minutes, going as fast I could, making sure everything was accurate. I needed this antidote to work and I couldn’t afford any mistakes on my part. I grabbed a knife and sliced a lock of my own hair off and dropped it in the steaming potion. The solution popped and cloud of blue smoke puffed up and I coughed from inhaling the smog it resignated. I turned to Royse and Jacosa and thanked them for all of their help. But I would need to go it alone from here on out. I needed to get this antidote into the towns water supply so I could reverse the spell for everyone else. I bottled the potion and slipped it in a safe compartment in my bosom. They held the door while I snuck out the window.

I jumped out on the ledge, telling myself over and over not to fall and not to look down. I edged myself little by little to the next window. I hoped to the Gods that there was not a soul in the next room. There shouldn’t be, considering they were my old chambers. I ducked in and looked around to make sure there was no one around and seeing that there wasn’t I eased myself down from the narrow ledge and safely into my old room in the castle. After catching my breath for a moment I creaked the door open and glanced out into the corridor. The guards that were pounding on Gaius’s door had broken it down and were flooding his office. With everyone on this level distracted, I could slip out and hopefully make my way out of the castle unnoticed.

I slid out of the room and started descending down the secondary stairs that not a lot of people took because it was rumored to be haunted. The stairs were also featured with a large series of windows that followed its length with a perfect view of the practice field. Guards had claimed to see figures in the windows from the field before but I had never seen such hallucinations. I fell down the stairs, holding the serum against my bosom to make sure it didn’t fall and shatter on the stone steps beneath me. That was very last thing I needed.

I got down to the middle of the stairs and glanced over out the window at the field and the treeline. A splash of red caught my eye and I flashed my gaze to the source. There was a woman ghosting along the treeline near the entrance to the woods. She had long wavy dark brown hair with a red auburn tint and these fierce, bright yellow green eyes. She was barefoot and her long flowing gown hugged her luscious and desirable curves with a matching hooded cloak trailed behind her in riveting swirls of dark crimson. I stopped dead in tracks and gazed out at her as a great white and silver wolf emerged from the forest entrance and joined her by her side. She stopped held out her hand for the wolf and he gladly rested his snout in her palm. She turned slowly to gaze up at me, our eyes connecting. She knew I watching her. A wicked grin spread across her features and I was almost knocked to the ground the amount of dark power she was emitting, even from a distance. She wanted me to see her. For some reason, she wanted me to know she was here. I knew in an instant that this was the woman I had seen in the woods earlier. And then it hit me right there on those steps. She was behind this madness. But the question was, why did she infect the entire town’s water supply with that love potion matching specifically for me? How did she get her hands on it? And what kind of message was this lady trying to send me. Was this some kind of a threat to Camelot? Or to me specifically?

I was distracted by a clatter coming from the top of the stair and I whipped my head around to see if I had been caught. Not yet. I didn’t see anyone coming but I didn’t have any time to waste. I gazed back out the window to find the woman the wolf gone, having vanished with a trace. Had she really been there? Or was I just losing my mind. Another clatter and some shouts sounded from the top of the steps once more and forced my legs to move, descending down the stairs once again.

As soon as I made it outside and put my hood back up and made a break for the stables, knowing I wouldn’t get far on foot without having to sprint to the main well. I saddled up one of the horses Merlin had taken a liking to and she behaved quite wonderfully. I mounted her and snapped the reins as she took off out of the stables, heading towards the middle of downtown. I accumulated another cloud of raging insane men going gaga over me again of course and I cursed Merlin for making me tune the potion to reflect me. I thought it was bad enough that he was in fake love with me. I never imagined how terrible it would be if every man was crazy about me. I never wanted another living soul to call me a beautiful woman again!

Finally Beauty (ironically that was the horse’s name) and I reached the well downtown and and hopped down off of her, quickly pouring the contents of the antidote potion into the well. Eventually things go back to normal because it was only a matter of time before these men got thirsty from chasing me around everywhere. Not to mention a human could only go 3 days before dying of thirst so if I could just find a safe place to hide out until then…

“Mystra!” Merlin’s voice called out and I whirled around to find him standing there behind with his arms crossed and his eyebrow raised in suspicion. He didn’t look very happy with me.

“Oh...Uh, hi Merlin!” I greeted him nervously. “I’m guessing the potion wore off?” I asked. He advance on me quickly and picked me up bridal style, taking off down an alleyway. I dropped the vial somewhere but it didn’t really matter since I had emptied it in the well already. “Merlin, what are you doing? Slow down!” I exclaimed and he glared at me.

“You want those love stricken shlups to catch up with you? They haven’t drank the antidote yet Mystra, they won’t stop coming after you. And for your information, Gaius caught on to the fact I was under a spell when he came home and I was making a fool of myself, drawing you with hearts everywhere and writing your name over and over again all over everywhere. I’m in big trouble because of you!” Merlin snapped and I winced at the tone of his voice. He had never sounded so upset with me before. I guess this was kind of a mess. “Anyways, Gaius whipped up an antidote himself and practically forced it down my throat, which was nasty by the way. I’m assuming that was an antidote you just emptied into the towns water supply?” he questioned after setting me down once we made it to his and Gaius’s house. We went inside and Merlin turned around to lock the door. “Hope no one saw us come here.”

“Oh...and yes, that was the antidote. Look Merlin, I’m really sorry about all of this. I-I don’t know how this happened but someone must have gotten ahold of the potion and emptied it into the water supply in the water supply in the first place.” I explained to him and his eyes softened a bit and he seemed to relax a little as he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Alright. But it isn’t safe for you to leave this house for the next three days, am I understood? Give the antidote enough time to take effect. We have to be more careful Mystra. With great power comes great responsibility...Gaius always says that saying will catch on one day. I tell him he’s full of it.” Merlin stated, leaning against the dining room table. I managed to crack a small smile and he returned it.

“Wow, really?” I asked and Merlin nodded as we both burst out, breaking the tension with laughter. “So now we wait...for three days?” I asked and Merlin pursed his lips.

“Now we wait.” Merlin stated as I made my way over to sit down next to him. Three days I would have to be dead to the world. Kind of like Jesus. This was going the be like the longest resurrection of Christ Camelot had ever seen.