"I'm so happy for you Dad!" Said Alex embracing the rabbit girl.
Andy was surprised and hugged her back. "Thanks Sally."
"No- I'm Alex," She reminded.
Andy just laughed it off. "Sorry honey." she wasn't sure she could ever pick the two of them apart. Her husband managed it. Somehow.
The rabbit girl was just so overwhelmed. She never even thought it possible. She was really selected? Among all the other candidates they picked... the bunny-girl? True she did demonstrate her skills as a metal-wielder, but she was out of practice.
Was it really happening? During those dark days after being made redundant, she was certain she was just unemployable. Everyone had a sale by date right? But maybe... maybe everyone else had been right all along. She didn't get any job before because she had given up. She expected failure before an attempt. Thanks to the love of her family though, that was changing. Now she could go back and earn a living!
How much was she going to earn? Thank God she wasn't going to end up as some playboy bunny...
Sally had also congratulated her father. She was so happy for her. Maybe now things were really going to change. She was however still concerned of her sister's... issue. There was probably a little selfish relief that at least she could watch someone else go through it before she had to.
"We're going out to celebrate," Said Susan. "Let's have a really nice night out. A fancy restaurant, cinema, the works." the snake man grinned.
The two children grinned excited.
"Drink" said Morgana.
"Mph!" Kimi kept her mouth closed as the spoon approached her. She was still stuck in the vines, although at least the plants were supporting her weight a little.
"It's chicken soup." Morgana said rolling her eyes. "As well as a few other herbs. Unless you rather starve."
Kimi smelled the broth.. it certainly smelled like soup. She reasoned that Morgana wasn't going to harm her... apparently she needed her. Still that was no guarantee. Keeping her strength up was important. She took a few sips, her cough getting a little better.
"Good girl."
Kimi winced at that slightly, but maybe she could now try and get more information. "You gonna tell me what this is about?"
Morgana stared at her silently, as she then hunched back down to the camp fire she had set up. The witch-woman ate some food cooking there.
Kimi observed her silently. So she ate food... that had to mean she was mortal, right? "You might as well tell me your story. If you're gonna just get rid of me afterwards."
"My story is older then you can imagine, and too dark for your ears child." She remembered... never able to forget. Now it felt like she was just an echo of a long forgotten time. When things were... simpler.
"I'm older then I look."
Morgana emitted a chuckle. "My aren't you feeling brave..." still could her requested do any harm? She supposed not. "very well... my story..."
Merlin waited... He closed his eyes, hearing the sounds of battle many hundreds of miles away. The old man reminisced sadly of his creation. Camelot, where all beings of all worlds could co-exist. But man was just not ready to see all such wondrous beings as he had seen. No matter how hard he had tried.
This isle that was the last refuge or magic and it was dying. Now it was going to turn to the way of steel, forged by Rome. Soon, it will all be over. He had sent Priestess Brittany with the source of his power... and was glad that at least, she trusted his judgement. He knew this was the only course of action... but so much blood was going to be spilled in the centuries. So much... but he would give mankind their freedom to explore this new reality. It was no less real then the previous age, and he had faith that mankind would survive it- as they had every other changed reality.
He caught himself on that thought... they? Was he really that far removed from humanity... he hoped not. "Hello Morgana," He whispered, turning to the priestly woman that was his equal as she entered the stone circle.
The woman wore white robes and a single gold circlet. She had an amulet of some kind around her neck, signifying her high station. "I am told you have lost your mind," Said Morgana with an icy breath. "Hundreds have asked and prayed for me to help them. But I can not. I have seen families beaten- my own family gone. Use the stone and send these invaders away!" He had to undo this!
The wizened old man shook his head. "I can not do that Sister. Our age of magic has to come to an end."
"It has not!" Morgana shouted and approached him. This had gone on far enough. "What would you rather happen? Let our land get conquered?"
"It is simply time Morgana... existance requires a certain amount of understanding before we can use this power again. Otherwise we will destroy ourselves. " How many times had he tried to fix a problem only for it to result in three new problems? There were still questions in reality that had to be answered.
Morgana didn't buy it. "It was magic that elevated us above the level of beasts! What would you rather happen? We can never go back! You know that." What was Merlin thinking? "I could fight the soldiers. I can summon the Cardinal Numbers themselves! There are beasts out there that can fight these invaders. If you will not fight them, then I will."
Merlin looked at her silently.
"Listen! Can't you hear the towns fall to Rome?" Morgana was almost pleading to the wizard now. A rare thing for the proud woman.
Merlin softened his features a bit. "I do... of course I do. But the signs are all in place that this age is ending Morgana." He placed a kind hand onto her shoulder.
"I still hold the Ether Merlin," said Morgana holding the air-element.
"I know you do Sister... And it is your Final Right, to make one more wish. Just as I have... you have until the next sunrise, before the power must travel into the next age."
Morgana looked at her air bubble. It was entombed into an amulet. "This is not fair Merlin!" She screeched. Her power was sundered just because it was time?!
"Your quest for fairness is unhinged, the moment you consider using magic my Sister. I thought as you once but..." the wizard sighed. "You introduced chaos as a dire consequence for crime. "
"It was necessary!"
"No it was not. Law is the realm of men alone... magic for crimes of magic- where such laws can not reach."
"You believe Rome's law is any fairer? Have you seen the enslavement and utter barbarity they perform just for mere sport? What of the force of Death itself. We can use our power to command the Grim Reaper into our bidding! He will not strike the innocent babe or the good man." How many people could pass that up?
"We are still beings touched by gods, not gods themselves." reminded the wizard. "The interactions of our wishes can not be predicted. Every wish made on this stone has re-shaped humans and our very reality. Physically, mentally, perhaps even spiritually. If we can not even predict our own desires, how can we run the cosmos?"
Morgana gritted her teeth.
"What you forget Morgana.. is that we are part of that same cosmos. We are just as important as the gods in our own roles." He glanced up at the sky. It is time for the Final Rite, Morgana" said the wizard, gesturing to her air-element. The rite of the final wish was when each person who held an element, made a final, world changing wish. When the stars were in alignment... as they were, now.
Merlin's book had a list of all those rules that were essentially binding for all reality forever more. No wish can be undone... they became laws of nature. But for each wish that was made, it was almost as if mankind invented a new kind of sin that went with it- or a new paradox.
Morgana looked at her air bubble. She didn't have long... she had some of her own power still in the Great Land far across the ocean. A grove that she had long known will be a source of magic in the next age... if she could somehow... continue the task. Merlin has given up... she will continue. She did not want to give up her power! For too long mankind had been at the whim of unknown forces. It was time to take the battle to them! To become the gods!
Merlin waited patiently, as he considered all the other wishes made during the Final Rite.
The earliest bearers wished to be warriors... and so that is what they became- within the limit of the beasts they knew to exist. It was something every human had in potential. They were the most dominative beasts in all of creation now. A human could take on almost anything... an army of humans, applied correctly, was nearly unbreakable. But there were other wishes too. The next wish was to simply be able to understand...
So with domination and understanding came Merlin's realisation that this was going to bring disaster in the long term. Men would understand more ways of destroying and just keep on destroying. So he made a new wish... he wished that there was always something to confound them...
It was probably the only gift he could give to try and help the situation... to let people get ready for the next age and survive all possible wishes. With the unknown always there, man would always be held at the brink just before destroying themselves- poised to learn something new, but just as quickly find another more complex riddle. Humans as tenacious as they were, could never leave a puzzle unsolved. So he hoped anyway. There were so many ways such a wish could go horribly wrong... but with all the other wishes in place, he was confident it was the right wish to make.
That still left Morgana's wish on her air element. It did not affect the world in the same way. They were subtle, affecting the way outer worlds interacted with the Earth, or even how their world touched others. It could open doors or close them...
"I need... time," She said in the end.
"Take all that you need sister..."
"So... what did you wish for?" Asked Kimi.
"It's... personal," she said evading that question. She got up a moment and dusted her robe. "Imagine if you had the power, to make death fair. If you could make bad things happen to bad people... good things happen to good people..."
Kimi bit her lip. Morgana was almost speaking with a very juvenile mind on the complexities of the world. Still, didn't that technically happen to herself too? She was a bad person... now she was cursed in this body. This form. It was a punishment she didn't know how long she could bare... yet it also brought Farun- even if he wasn't real. "You would be a god," said Kimi in the end. She might even beg her now to change her back... if she could just let her go...
"A god? Ha... gods are stupid. Believe me child. Even in my time, human brutes were smarter then them."
"So you want to replace... God?" Kimi asked hardly believing what she was saying.
"Doesn't every human in some way?" Smiled Morgana. "The only difference is... I just might. But I need an army. And if I am right... the next age might be my best chance."
After all, it was foretold it would be an interesting age.
Billy was now on a really narrow path... this dream was weird and getting more surreal as it went by. Twisted paths and he felt like he was about to fall- suddenly as if just thinking about it was enough, he fell off the path. He clutched onto the edge of the small platform, when just as suddenly, he felt... lighter?
Strange soapy lights brightened the path and his body. He felt himself change... she was a squirrel girl again. However she still couldn't quite get herself back on. She felt her grip slipping, until a hand reached out to her.
"You promised to hold my hand remember?" Said Bruce, that odd wolf boy as he helped her back onto the ledge. For some reason that contact made her blush.
LIlly woke up startled. Just... a dream. A weird surreal dream. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Urgh... did she just dream of a boy that saved her life? No way... just.. yuck! And Bruce of all people!?
She needed some fresh air...
