Mist's Jumps Part 39

Sam yawned as she woke up then blinked as she realized that she remembered another life or at least another year or two where she hadn’t lived in a tent in a forest near a homical king. She glanced over at her twin who was sprawled out on her side of the tent taking a nap. She asked in a whisper, “Are you awake?”

“I’m awake,” Emily replied softly as she rolled onto her side so that she could see her twin.

“I had a weird dream.”

“What about?” Emily asked curious how much of her old life Sam remembered considering she’d only been six when they jumped. Of course in theory they should remember everything from their old life like it was yesterday but she still wasn’t sure how everything was supposed to work if you jumped as a child.

“I dreamed I could turn into a centaur, weird, I know,” Sam admitted not sure if she was going insane or if her dream had actually happened.

Emily thought about her time as a cartoon then about the last eighteen years which mostly involved staying in the forest so they weren’t attacked by lunatics that wanted to kill them because they had magic. She did her best to ignore the memories of running through the woods as a child with her sister while knights chased them. ‘If Mist doesn’t kill King Uther, I’m going to.’ She forced herself to smile. “Considering you can, it’s probably just your memories coming back.”

“Oh, good, I was getting a bit worried that I was going crazy.”

Emily smiled at Sam. “What do you remember?”

“I mostly remember running around with Mist and the girls in Emond’s field when I wasn’t studying with Hermione.”

“Sounds about right.”

Sam smiled as she thought about Mist’s nice comfortable stone house in Emond’s Field and her room in Taren Ferry, both places didn’t have people trying to kill her which was better than being stuck in the forest worrying about a raiding party of knights. “When can we go back home?”

Emily considered the question for a couple of seconds, even though they’d lived in the forest for years, it hadn’t really felt like home even before she’d known about her old life and certainly didn’t now that she had her memories back. “If Mist doesn’t come and find us before dinner, I’ll open a portal back home.”

“Rose and Brook were with us before weren’t they?”

“They were...” Emily trailed off Sam froze in place. “Okay, that’s a bit annoying.” She reached out with her telepathy and sent a message to Rose and Brook, ‘Are you back?’

Rose mentally replied, ‘Yeah, we’re back, everyone just froze which means someone is playing with their stopwatch.’

Emily reached over and grabbed her skirt as she sat up then worked on putting it on as she replied mentally, ‘I know, Sam froze. Mist is probably dealing with the king.’

‘Hopefully,’ Brook agreed as she thought about the number of friends she’d lost over the years thanks to the murderous king.

‘If not, I’m going to murder him myself,’ Rose replied as she headed for Emily and Sam’s tent. ‘How is Sam doing?’

‘She’s frozen but seemed to be adjusting well enough before that.’ Emily finished tying the laces on her skirt then stood up and walked out of her tent. She glanced around the camp where her friends were frozen.

Rose smiled as she glanced over Emily’s less than stellar woolen outfit. “I think I like you better in silk.”

Emily snorted. “We weren’t exactly rolling in gold and even if we were, silk is exotic as hell in England at least in this day and age.”

“Point.”

Brook pulled her attention away from the frozen druids as she asked, “Do you think we can talk them into jumping worlds?”

Emily frowned slightly as she thought about her various friends. “We can probably talk some of them into jumping worlds but I imagine a decent number of them will want to stay so they can train the next generation despite the danger.”

Brook glanced back at the frozen druids who were her friends despite having never seen them before jumping into the world. “We should probably get back to where we were when things froze unless we want the rest of the druids to know something weird is going on.”

“Especially since we don’t know when Mist is going to restart everything,” Rose grumbled as she turned and headed back to where she was when everyone froze.

“Good point, at least I was in my room which means I can work on making skill books without anyone freaking.”

“Lucky you, we were in the middle of a conversion,” Brook grumbled as she turned and followed Rose.

Emily smiled as she walked back into her tent then created a couple of avatars to help her make skill books of everyone’s various talents.

0o0o0

Krya frowned slightly as she glanced around the dust covered chamber filled with gold chalices, piles of coin, books and creepy statues of ravens on stone pedestals that Chris had orbed them to. “You take me to the nicest places.”

Chris snorted. “As long as you stay away from the blue heart shaped diamond on the sarcophagus’ chest and the pressure plate, I think you’ll be fine.”

“Isn’t that one of the things we came to find?” Krya asked with amusement.

“That’s why I brought gloves.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I’m going to use it to enchant a book that contains all of his knowledge and none of his will or at least that’s the theory. Worse case, I’ll banish his crystal to the afterlife or teleport it miles under the Earth where no one will ever find it.”

“Point.” She looked at the creepy raven statues. “Do we need to keep the creepy ravens?”

“I doubt they’re worth much of anything to anyone that isn’t a historian and even then, the guy was an evil warlock powerful enough to still be feared hundreds of years after his death…” he trailed off as he felt a pulse of magic from Krya and all of the raven statues turned into water which immediately deformed and sloshed onto the ground. “That’s one way to do it.”

“They were looking at me funny.” Krya pulled a bag out of her inventory as she looked around at the various treasures the evil warlock had left behind. “Do you want to grab the books or call Hermione?”

“I have an avatar covering for me so even if time starts, it’s not a big deal.”

“In that case, we might as well make sure things aren’t cursed before we call Hermione to sort through his stash of books.”

“Works for me,” Chris agreed as he started using his various abilities to check the loot for curses and traps.

0o0o0

Mist frowned as he glanced between the frozen knights and the king. “Just as well that none of you are actually looking at him right now.” He opened his inventory then pulled out a copy of his magical armband that prevented status effects and put it on Uther’s arm. He made a mental note of where Uther’s feet were positioned and how he was standing then took a couple of steps away from the king and turned invisible. He pulled a soul gem out of his inventory then stuck it in his pocket. He felt around for his stopwatch then depressed the button twice rapidly to start then stop time.

Uther finished his step then paused as he realized the guards around him were frozen in place. “Sorcery!”

Mist smirked at the man that bore a striking resemblance to Giles as he half heartedly clapped his hands a couple of times and turned visible. “Bravo, bravo, you aren’t quite as stupid as you look.”

“You’ll die for this sorcerer!” Uther replied as he drew his sword.

“How?”

“What do you mean how?” Uther asked as he lunged forward to stab the sorcerer.

Mist reached out and caught the king’s blade with his gloved hand, stopping it cold. “I mean you’re a washed up knight without any supernatural abilities and I cheat.” He gestured with his left hand and froze everything below Uther’s neck in place.

“You’ll never get away with this!” Uther shouted hoping that someone would hear them and send help if he stalled long enough.

“How do you figure?” Mist let go of Uther’s sword and took a step back. “No one else saw my face and all of Camelot is frozen.”

“That’s impossible, no one has that kind of power.”

“Believe me or don’t, it doesn’t matter. Normally, I’d just kill you but Nimueh has a nasty habit of bringing people back as wraiths and your wife is dead.”

Uther glared at the sorcerer. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you were told that magic always comes with a price and you still pushed Nimueh to cast her spell. You got your son and magic took your wife in payment.”

“Which is why I banished magic from my lands, it’s evil.”

Mist snorted. “Oh please, you killed a lot of people and creatures with magic but it takes magic to fight magic and there are still a lot of rather nasty magical creatures in your lands that you have no hope of killing or even containing. You’re a failure as a king, as a father and a husband and you will never see your wife again when you die.”

Uther stared at Mist horror as his words sunk in. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m going to rip your mind apart for secrets then I’m going to trap your soul in a gem until the end of time, you’ll be alone forever. Once I’ve done that, I’ll temporarily swap my appearance for yours and no one will know the difference.”

“Arthur will notice,” Uther replied unconvinced of the words he was saying but hoping that he could make the sorcerer angry enough that he lost his concentration or something.

Mist snorted. “Arthur is a spoiled brat right now, as long as I don’t do anything completely out of character, I doubt he’d notice much of anything.”

“So, what, you’ll remarry then kill him?”

“Nah, I was thinking about hiring a royal fool to knock some sense into him, once I’ve done that, I’m planning on having Uther die by tripping down some stairs while drunk or something suitably ignoble. He’s welcome to the crown, he can’t be a worse king than you were.”

“That wouldn’t save magic, Arthur will continue my work.”

“Maybe but I know Morgana won’t and she’s your daughter.”

Uther winced as he realized that the other man wasn’t guessing. “How did you learn that?”

“Magic in a box,” Mist replied with amusement as he thought about watching the show with the girls. “Either way, I’m planning on having Morgana and Gaius look into the effects of changing the laws.”

Uther snorted. “That would just prove that you’re not me.”

“Not if I spin it the right way, Morgana was deeply disturbed by the magic user’s death today, she’ll likely confront me about it, you’d brush her off and shout, all I have to do is coldly tell her to look all of the facts up herself and give me a reason to change. I’ll simply tell Gaius that I expect her to see things my way once she’s seen the evidence.”

Uther winced as he realized that Gaius might buy that excuse barring other examples of strange behavior. “If you’re just going to kill me, why tell me any of this?”

“Because I’m fairly sure you’ll be spending eternity alone, I want you to think on your failures and know that you’ve lost in every sense of the word.”

Uther glared at the man. “Get it over with then.”

Mist gestured and orbed Uther and himself to the square near the headsman’s block. “I regret not being able to let everyone see your execution but it seems only fair to kill you in the same way you ordered the death of so many innocent people.”

“They weren’t innocent, they used magic,” Uther snarled.

“Just like your friends back in the day or your daughter.”

Uther stared at Mist in horror. “What?”

“Oh, right, your daughter has magic.” Mist used telekinesis to force Uther’s head down on the block.

“You’re lying!” Uther shouted as he struggled in vain against the magic forcing him to kneel with his cheek on the headsman’s block.

“That’s the best part, I’m not, Morgana’s half sister also has magic.”

“Her half sister is dead.”

Mist reached down and took Uther’s blade from his frozen fingers. “No, she’s very much alive, you ordered her killed and Gaius snuck her out of Camelot and gave her to Nimueh. Unlike you, he’s not a monster. Yet another old friend that betrayed you, funny how that works.” 

Uther snarled. “You’ll never get away with this.”

Mist frowned as he realized he was going to have to change his plans because he really didn’t want Uther’s memories floating around in his head. It might be a little more difficult to fake being Uther without them but he was still a telepath which meant he could fake things decently well. “On second thought, death would be too easy.”

“Too easy?”

Mist gestured and pulled Uther back to his feet. “Let’s take a walk.”

“Why should I go anywhere with you?” Uther asked angrily.

“I can still kill you.” Mist focused on the world he wanted to travel to, a world where Merlin had been delayed in showing up in Camelot, one where Uther had slapped Morgana during their argument and she’d stumbled out of the window and broke her back when she landed wrong and where Gaius had fallen to his death thanks to a faulty railing when a frightened servant had burst into his office/home to summon him to help Morgana then opened a door to the courtyard in the other world.

Uther stared at the strange almost hole in the air that showed him a scene of Morgana sprawled on the cobblestones with various people staring down at her including him. “What is this trickery? Conjuring illusions to twist my heart?”

“It’s not an illusion, it’s a portal to a world where a version of you slapped Morgana and she stumbled backwards and fell out the window.”

“Is she?” Uther trailed off not sure what to believe.

“Dead? Not yet, she has a broken back and probably won’t live through the night but she’s not dead yet. There is still time to save her.” He wasn’t actually sure she’d die that quickly but given the lack of medical care in Camelot and the fact that Gaius was most likely dead, he doubted she’d live more than a couple of days at most.

“Why show me this?” Uther demanded.

“Because I don’t like hypocrites and I happen to like magic. You hate magic and have banned its use on pain of death but you’d use magic to save your family without regret then try to kill the magic user that saved them if you could get away with it.”

“Magic is evil.”

Mist wasn’t surprised that Uther didn’t bother to deny the accusation about killing any magic user that helped him. “It’s not evil Uther, it’s merely a force of nature, it can be used for good and evil in equal measure much like fire, there is a balance to this world’s magic that you ignored.”

“If you’re not going to kill me what are you going to do, bore me to death?” Uther asked snidely.

“I’m going to banish you through the door to the other world then close it.”

“That’s it?” Uther asked in disbelief.

“I’m fairly sure that’s enough.” Mist gestured and floated Uther through the doorway. “You’ll be appearing out of thin air in Camelot and you’ll look like the king. What would you do if you saw someone that looked like you?”

“I’d order him executed.”

“Exactly. All things considered, it’s the least you deserve.” Mist teleported his armband back to his hand so that Uther would freeze when he started and stopped time again. He gestured and cast soul trap on the king then twisted it so that it would last until Uther’s death. He pulled the black soul stone out of his pocket then orbed it into Uther’s pocket as he created an avatar. “Ready?”

“Give me five seconds.” The avatar gestured and changed his clothes to match Uther’s clothes then teleported back to where he’d grabbed Uther.

Uther felt his heart break as he looked down at his broken daughter. His voice hitched as he asked, “Can you save her?”

“Yes.” Mist finished counting to five in his head then reached into his pocket, grabbed his watch then pushed the button which unfroze everyone. He gestured with his left hand and orbed Morgana to him then pushed the button again and stopped time. He smiled as Uther froze with the rest of the crowd. He reached down and put the armband on Morgana’s arm then closed the door to her world. “Not sure if I should wish you luck or death Uther.” He quickly pushed the button twice so that Morgana wasn’t frozen then reached down, touched her face and healed her.

Morgana blinked as the pain vanished and feeling returned to her legs. “What happened?”

“You fell from the window and I healed you with magic,” Mist replied with amusement as he helped her to her feet.

“Magic is banned…” Morgana trailed off as she realized that everyone other than the young man and herself were frozen in place. “What happened?”

“I stopped time so we could have a discussion.”

“You stopped time?” Morgana asked in disbelief.

“More or less. I’m Mist o’Shadows, warlock extraordinaire at your service.” He wasn’t going to try to explain how his watch worked, mostly because it boiled down to anime bullshit that he didn’t really understand.

“Why take the risk?” Morgana asked in disbelief.

“Risk? I can stop time, no mortal weapon can hurt me and I can teleport. I’m not terribly worried about Uther’s knights.”

“You should be, some of us have a mean right hook,” Jack said with amusement as he walked out of the inn carrying a glass bottle of cider.

Mist turned to look at his son. ”Point.”

Morgana turned to look at the knight she didn’t recognize. “Who are you?”

“Jack o’Shadows at your service my lady.” Jack bowed toward Morgana.

Morgana glanced between Jack and Mist. “Why aren’t you frozen like the rest?”

“We’re immune to time stop and most types of magic. I was having a nice mug of hot cider when everyone froze so I figured I’d come see what was going on.”

Mist glanced around the small collection of frozen people in the courtyard. “That reminds me, we should probably find somewhere a bit better than the courtyard to play with portals. I also need to pick up the other Merlin before he gets himself killed.”

“Other Merlin? What’s a Merlin?” Morgana asked curiously.

“Merlin is Merlin, he’s a warlock and the son of an old friend of Gaius’s.”

“You want to bring a warlock to Camelot?” Morgana asked in disbelief as she turned to look at Mist.

“We don’t really have a choice, if we leave him in your world, he’ll tick off Arthur or Uther and die or get tossed into prison for life, without Gaius, he’s looking at hard times at best if he stays in your world.”

“My world?  What are you talking about, we’re in Camelot.”

“We’re in Camelot, we’re just not in your version of Camelot. Let’s take a walk, I don’t think you’ll believe me until you see the other Morgana.”

“Other Morgana?” she asked warily wondering if she’d hit her head when she fell and this was all just a strange dream.

Jack held out his hand toward Morgana with a smile. “Shall we?”

Morgana smiled at the handsome knight then took his hand. ‘At least they’re attractive figments of my imagination.’

0o0o0

Selena glanced around the inn room at the frozen villagers. “Do you want to stick around and try to figure out more about the stone or do you want to hit the next target?”

Abby raised her eyebrows as she put the Tauren’s magical amber stone into her inventory. “Do you really want to have to look up the command words?”

“I know the words to turn metal into gold from the show but it might be able to do something more interesting than turn things into gold or reflect spells.”

“In that case, leave an avatar and let’s hit our next target.” Abby opened a door near her next targets then stepped through. 

Selena created an avatar to read Tauren’s mind when time restarted then walked through the door. She glanced between the well dressed rather attractive girl and the slightly overweight bald man with a white goatee. “Nice magical staffs. Is that why we’re here?”

“One of the reasons, Sidhe staffs are rather powerful and I want to more sources to combine with the one Sam bought. Aulric and his daughter were banished from the fae realm and turned human or at least stuck in human shells. I’m not sure how much magic they had originally but they still have a decent amount.”

“Which means we can copy it.” Selena studied the attractive girl. “How evil are they?”

“He’s an arrogant, quick tempered bastard, she’s rather vane, sly and arrogant but she loved her father so she’s not a complete sociopath. We might be able to rip out her negative traits with the mind garden or the Ferula Gemina then copy her. If nothing else, it might be worth making a copy of her to mix and match to see if we can get something useful.”

“Right, who did they try to kill in the show?” Selena asked curiously as she carefully stole the staffs from the human form Sidhe just in case Mist restarted time.

“They needed the soul of a prince so they tried to charm and sacrifice Arthur and Merlin stopped them which is where he got his staff.”

“Fun,” Selena replied sarcastically as she stuck the staffs in her inventory. “Let’s make a couple of skill books while we wait, unless you remember anyone else that needs to die?”

“Nothing we need to deal with right now or even today. I’ll work on Sophia’s power.” Abby sat down and started working on creating a skill book of Sophia’s magic that would hopefully give her access to Sidhe magic.

“I’ll get the old man,” Selena replied as she found a nice dry patch of dirt to sit on so that she could work on a skill book.

0o0o0

“Other words…” Morgana trailed off as she opened the door to her chambers and saw her doppleganger standing in front of her mirror. “Same, hair, same face, same dress… you weren’t lying about being in an alternate world were you?”

Jack said, “Magic can do great and terrible things.”

Morgana walked over to take a better look at her doppleganger. “How are you going to explain my presence?”

“We could try for the lost at birth angle but Gaius was probably there so I doubt that would work.”

Mist shook his head. “I have a better idea. Let’s stage a scene with a portal and an evil sorcerer, as long as it’s not our fault, I doubt Uther would condemn someone that looks like his ward to death just for being screwed over by magic.”

Morgana raised her eyebrows as she turned and looked at Mist. “Where are you going to find a sorcerer willing to risk their lives?”

“I was thinking of using an illusion for that part. We’ll fall through, then the evil sorcerer will step out of the portal, make a bit of a speech to set the scene then I’ll heroically toss a dagger at him which will cause him to stagger back into the portal.”

Jack snorted. “Heroically huh?”

Mist grinned. “If I’m going to pretend to be Morgana’s knight and guardian, being known to be heroic and skilled would help keep her safe.”

Morgana asked, “What about my servant? A lady rarely goes anywhere without one.”

“That’s what we have your world’s Merlin for.”

“What happens when this falls apart on us?”

“If everything falls apart, we’ll just go somewhere else.”

Morgana smiled slightly as she looked at her double. “I always sort of wanted a sister.”

Jack grinned. “That’s the spirit, let’s head to the guest rooms so we can unpause time and steal a Merlin.”

“Works for me.” She wasn’t sure how well things would work out but Mist had healed her and for some strange reason she trusted him to take care of her. She took one last look at Morgana then she walked out of her alternate’s room and closed the door behind her. She was just hoping Mist’s plan worked and that Uther didn’t suspect them of using magic. She turned and started walking down the hallway toward the nearest guest rooms, they were reserved for some of Uther’s closest and oldest friends so they weren’t used much.

Mist waited until they got to the guest rooms and Morgana closed the door behind them then opened a portal in front of Merlin. He reached into his pocket and pushed the button on his watch to unpause time. “Merlin, I’ve got a job for you.”

Merlin jumped as a portal appeared in front of him between one second and the next. “What?”

“A job, you know, coin, gold or shiny things?”

“That’s magic.” He stared at the edges of the door, trying to figure out how it was made.

“So are you, which is why I’m offering you a job. Your world’s version of the castle isn’t a safe place right now.”

“What do you mean?” Merlin asked warily.

“Gaius is dead, Morgana is missing and Uther is looking for anyone to blame other than himself.”

Merlin twitched in surprise. “Gaius is dead?”

“Which means your letter of introduction won’t help you get a job.” Mist felt slightly bad about springing everything on him but he remembered how the start of the show went, Merlin had stumbled into Arthur and called him on his bad behavior and it had went south from there.

“Great, how did you know about that?” Merlin asked warily.

“I’m a magic user, I know a lot of things.”

“If you’re a powerful magic user, why do you need my help?”

“I don’t technically need your help but I need someone to help protect Morgana,” Mist gestured toward Morgana, “when I’m not around and to be her servant, at least for a few weeks.” He figured he could find someone else if things didn’t work out with Merlin being Morgana’s servant.

“Servant?” Merlin asked warily.

“Do actually have any other useful skills?”

“Magic.”

Mist snorted. “Which you can’t actually admit to in Camelot without getting your head cut off or set on fire. In exchange for being Morgana’s loyal servant, I’ll help you learn magic and pay you quite well.”

“You can help me control my magic?” Merlin asked hopefully.

“Yes, if nothing else, I know where to find an entire library of magical knowledge that should help you on your way to being one of the greatest wizards the world has ever known.”

Merlin considered his options, without Gaius’s help, finding a job wouldn’t be easy and he was almost out of money and food. Besides, it wasn’t like going home was an option right now. That and he really wanted to know how to open portals so he could visit his mother. “Agreed.”

“Excellent, step through the portal, I’d rather not leave it open longer than I have to.” Mist waited until Merlin walked through then closed it behind him. “Welcome to the team.”

Morgana asked, “Now what?”

“I’m going to need the rest of the day to set things up for the other Merlin and to check in with some friends which means we should probably show you to the library while we’re waiting.” Mist opened a door to his slice of heaven near Pandora. “Hey, Pandora.”

Pandora blinked as she turned and saw the group with Mist through the door. “What’s going on?”

Merlin’s jaw dropped as he saw the naked gorgeous girl in a pool through the portal.

Mist said, “I picked up a Merlin and Morgana, I need to stash them somewhere for a day.”

Pandora smiled at Merlin and Morgana. “Sure, welcome to paradise, we’ll get you cleaned up.”

Jack chuckled as he ‘gently’ pushed Merlin through the door to get him moving. “Best of luck, don’t break him.”

Morgana blushed as she followed Merlin through the door, she could certainly understand why he was staring at the girl considering she was gorgeous and naked in a pool. “Pleased to meet you.”

Mist waited until Morgana was completely through the portal then closed it, trusting Pandora and the rest of the kids to take care of Morgana and Merlin. “You should go back to your patrol or whatever you were doing, I’m going griffin hunting.”

“Griffin hunting?” Jack asked warily.

“They’re nigh indestructible and would make a great feast for the royal family if I loan Arthur and Morgana the perk that lets them get abilities from eating monsters.”

“Are you trying to make Merlin’s job easier or something?”

“Would that really be a bad thing?” Mist asked with a touch of amusement as he thought about Merlin having to save the prince nearly every couple of weeks.

“Probably not, Merlin could use a break,” Jack agreed.

“On that note, you should head up to the slice of heaven and let the girls know the plan and which world we jumped into if no one else told them.” Mist orbed to the forest outside of town.

Jack orbed ‘up’ to the slice of heaven to check on Merlin and Morgana and let the rest of the people know what was going on and which world they were in.

0o0o0

Mist sighed as he stuffed the hindquarters of the griffin into his inventory. If the griffin hadn’t been a dangerous mostly stupid flying magical beast he might have felt worse about sneaking up on it while invisible and hacking its head off while it slept. The hardest part other than skinning the beast had been the scrying spell he’d used to find it and even that had taken less than ten minutes. He gestured at his clothes and cleaned the blood off with a touch of magic. 

He glanced around the small forest clearing as he considered the other Arthur’s fate, without Merlin the old witch would very likely kill him in revenge for Uther killing her son. If she’d limited her revenge attempt to killing Uther he wouldn’t have cared, he might even have wished her luck but she’d gone for the pain in the show by trying to kill Arthur in some twisted eye for an eye revenge kick. “Let’s see if we can fix this crap.”

He opened a door under the witch from the second world that opened ten feet above the ground. He ignored her startled scream as he caught her with telekinesis before she could hit the ground then focused his magic suppression eyes on her so that she couldn’t escape. “Greetings.”

The witch glared at Mist. “Why have you brought me here?”

He reached out with telepathy and scanned her surface thoughts. “I can understand being angry about your son’s death but you clearly understood the king’s laws, no sorcery on pain of death.”

“He killed my son for saving a village from a monster. You should understand that he must be stopped.”

“And if you actually cared about stopping him for being a bastard you would have done it years ago or at least tried. You had twenty years to leave the country and go elsewhere and yet you stayed because you took pleasure in selling your ‘cures’ and potions and laughing at people convincing themselves the cures weren’t magic. Uther is a terrible king and a worse person but he is the king of the land which means he makes the rules.”

“He has no right to ban magic.”

“He has gold and knights which gives him whatever ‘rights’ he can take. Either way, you’re planning on murdering an innocent girl and the king’s son in revenge because your son was too stupid to flee, I find myself having to object to your plan to kill the prince. If you want to kill Uther, best of luck, the prince isn’t his father.”

“Traitor! You’re siding with Uther.”

“No, I’m…” Mist trailed off as he realized there was no reasoning with her, she’d been a decently annoying and spiteful person before her son had died and his death had pushed her over the edge. “Sorry, better luck in the next life.” He pulled his sword out of his inventory then blurred forward and cut off her head. He tried not to shiver as he gained access to her knowledge of magic. “Rest in peace.” He let the door close then walked over and looked through her pack until he found her grimoire. He stuffed the book into his inventory then looked through the rest of her belongings and grabbed her magical necklace. He gestured and transfigured the body into water then stepped back and opened a door to the caves under Camelot in the other world. “Hey dragon!”

Kilgharrah twitched as he realized that someone was in his cave that he couldn’t sense. He shifted his massive bulk as he stretched then spread his wings and flew up to the large rock that looked down on the landing that connected to the passage to the castle. He tilted his head as he saw a strange nonmagical rectangular portal that showed a forest and a man in black clothes. “What do you want?”

“I’d like to make you a deal Kilgharrah.”

“What type of deal?” the dragon asked suspiciously.

“The type of deal where I release you from your chains and kill Uther in a way that doesn’t frame magic in exchange for a couple of years of service.”

The dragon tilted his head as he studied the man. “I’m listening.”

“Morgana Pendragon had no future here thanks to her ‘accident’ so I healed her and took her to a world where she can live a full and happy life without Uther driving her insane. I also stole Emrys because with Morgana’s disappearance and Gaius’s death, there’s no place for him in Camelot.”

Kilgharrah glared at Mist. “He has a destiny.”

Mist shrugged. “Destiny is overrated and often painful as hell. That said, without Emrys around to save the prince, I doubt Arthur is long for the world which is why I’d like to offer you a deal.”

“You want me to protect the prince, don’t you?”

“Basically. If you promise not to attack Camelot for as long as Arthur is king and do your best to keep Arthur safe for five years, I’ll set you free, give you the ability to change into a human like form so that you can walk around without scaring the hell out of people and help you kill Uther in such a way that no one suspects magic.”

“That’s it? A promise?” Kilgharrah asked suspiciously.

“I can either trust you to keep your word or I can’t. He isn’t his father, he actually has honor, I’m guessing that came from his mother.”

“Why would you trust me?”

“What choice do I have? Even if I was willing to return Merlin and I’m not, he doesn’t know enough to fill in for Gaius as court physician and doesn’t have the connections to get close to Arthur to keep him safe. I have my own world to manage which means that I’m not going to be around to babysit Arthur. As for trust, I’m going to trust in your desire for revenge.”

The dragon blinked. “How so?”

Mist smiled slightly. “You could take the deal then rip Camelot to the ground once I’m gone and no one could stop you but I’d like you to consider something, which is the better revenge, burning Camelot to the ground or helping Arthur turn it into a place of learning and magic that will last another thousand years?”

The dragon laughed as he realized the man in black had a point, destroying Camelot wouldn’t hurt Uther nearly as much as helping his son turned the kingdom into a magical paradise. “If you can free me and kill Uther in such a way that no one blames it on magic, I’ll do my best to keep Arthur safe while I train him to be the best king he can be.”

“Deal.” Mist opened a small door to his warehouse then reached his hand through and summoned the enhancement rod to his hand.

Kilgharrah studied the strange man as he pulled a magical rod out of another portal that he couldn’t sense any magic from, it was more than a little disconcerting. “What is that?”

“This should give you a supernaturally powerful humanoid form, no point in giving you a human form that you won’t use.” Mist pointed the rod at the dragon and activated it. He smiled as the dragon changed into a muscular six and a half foot tall man in his twenties with wild red hair that came down to his shoulders. He put the rod in his inventory as Kilgharrah stepped out of the shackle that had been holding him for the last twenty years. “That was the easy part.”

Kilgharrah frowned slightly as he looked down at his outfit. “What am I wearing?”

Mist looked at the dragon’s tunic, well crafted leather vest and pants. “It’s basically your armor.”

“My armor?”

“The magical ability I gave you changes any armor you’re wearing into a set of magical clothes with all of the properties of the armor you’re wearing when you change into your human form. I’ll teach you a spell to conjure some really nice armor after we deal with the king, assuming you’re still willing to hold to your agreement?”

Kilgharrah glanced at the chasm that separated him from the landing. “How do I change back?”

“You just sort of shift back, it should be easy enough once you get the hang of it.”

“How are you planning on killing Uther?”

“I was thinking of giving him a heart attack with one of my powers, it doesn’t leave a magical trace, not that anyone is around to check. Considering his heartbreak over Morgana’s disappearance and Gaius’s death, I doubt anyone would find him dying of heartache to be out of the question.”

Kilgharrah snorted. “He’d have to have a heart. It’s less messy than I’d like but less suspicious than burning him alive with dragon fire.”

“It also won’t turn Arthur against magic and make your job a lot harder than it needs to be.” Mist opened a small door into Uther’s chambers so he could see the king. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel as he watched Uther study his reflection suspiciously. He reached out with telepathy to check what the king had done with the other Uther. He wasn’t terribly surprised to find out that he’d had the other Uther beheaded for impersonating him with magic though some of the things Uther had said had rattled the other Uther. He opened a small portal near the back of Uther’s neck then poked his finger through, touched his neck and stopped his heart. He pulled his finger back and closed the small door so that Uther’s body wouldn’t fall backwards into it. “As promised, one nonmagical death.”

The dragon watched Uther fall to the ground clutching his chest. “What are you?”

“I’m jumper, we basically jump between worlds and pick up interesting tricks.” Mist gestured and orbed Kilgharrah to the landing. He focused on his bound armor spell then conjured a spellbook that would teach the dragon to conjure an entire outfit of bound armor. “Best of luck taking care of Arthur.” He orbed the book to Kilgharrah’s feet. “Just open the cover and you’ll understand.”

The dragon/man nodded. “Best of luck changing Morgana’s fate, you’ll need it.”

Mist smiled as he stepped back from the door then let it close. “Win or lose, you’re on your own Arthur.”