Raven woke up with a start. Mana sat by her side holding a wet cloth to Raven's head. She was in the nurse's house Raven guessed. The bed was feathered and soft but didn't seem to ease her pain. Mana's black curly hair was tied back and her pointy ears stuck out. Her light blue eyes were filled with concerned but sparks of joy came when Raven awoke.
Raven started to sob again and Mana spoke. "Shhh Fitheach, everything is ok. Don't cry anymore." Mana dipped the cloth in the pail of water and squeezed the extra water out then reapplied it to Raven's forehead.
"But he's dead!! I'll never see him again!!" Raven tried to get up but her body betrayed her and fell back down. She growled in frustration.
Mana patted her head softly with the cloth and wiped lose strands of wet chocolate coloured hair. "And you can't change that. Crying won't bring him back. You can mourn all you want but don't hurt yourself. Look at you .you're a mess. It took me hours to find you. You can run pretty fast you know." Mana tried to joke but failed as she choked on her chuckle and a tear rolled down her cheek.
Raven looked at her friend in shock with her bright blue eyes then looked down at herself. She had scraps and bruises everywhere. Her arms and legs were bandaged but some cuts still showed. When she was running the tree branches hit her and scrapped her skin, but it was all a blur to Raven. All she remembered was seeing Merlin's body on the ground and the suffocating need to get away.
Sometime later the nurse released Raven. She found out she had been asleep for 2 days and it was currently lunch time. Mana invited Raven to her little house to eat and Raven accepted.
Her house was fairly small but big enough for one person to live in. Raven loved how everything was made by Mana and not bought at a store. Not that there was a store, there wasn't even money. Herbs and flowers hung from the ceiling sending out a beautiful mix of scents that blended to together.
The two friends walked to the small kitchen and Raven sat on a stool at the little wooden table as Mana prepared lunch. After a few minutes Mana put down a loaf of bread and a jar of jam and tea on the table.
As Raven chewed hungrily at the one of the jammed slices, Mana spoke softly. "The village delayed Merlin's funeral ceremony till today because you were ill." Raven slightly choked on her food as she bit her tongue. "Oh, and he left you a Will too. You're to see it today. I know it's sudden but. the villagers want this over with. I know it's heartless of them but they want to know what kind of things he left you. You are his greatest apprentice."
"I'm not his greatest." Raven now lost her appetite.
"Funny, he always said you were. He expected great things from you, you know." Mana smiled with a sparkle in her eyes as if she was remembering something Merlin told her.
"But how can I do great things if he can't teach me?"
"Hey, Merlin didn't start out great either. ok maybe he did, but that's not the point. He wasn't taught by any great teacher, and he mostly learned everything by himself. What I'm saying is.... you can still be great. Just try at least. I bet you anything he'd be proud even if all you learn how to do is teleport properly." She chuckled and Raven only smirked at her comment. Somehow what Mana said made Raven feel better, if only a little better.
Half an hour later Raven and a few of Merlin's close friends and fellow wizards were gathered in his cottage for his Will. Raven didn't want to come, and she didn't really want anything Merlin had, she just wanted Merlin. Then again, she didn't have a choice but to show. If Merlin wanted to give her something then she had to accept it.
A tall fairy with long blonde hair in a blue suit stepped into the room. He bowed to the people and placed stacks of books and a disc on Merlin's desk. Smiling at us the fairy introduced himself. "I'm foil; I'll be in charge of making sure Merlin's Will is carried out." He shook a few of the wizard's hands then grabbed the disc sitting on the pile of books.
The people exchanged glances as he placed the disc gently on the ground and whispered, "Fosgailte." A bright light shot out from the center of the disc and a scroll appeared. Foil grabbed the scroll and read it. He looked up at the gathered people and smiled his eyes lingering on Raven who stood there wondering what it said.
Foil cleared his throat, "Ahem, now before we begin I must tell you that after you receive your part of the Will you must leave." The people looked at him with confusion and some were even appalled. "Merlin's wishes are that you leave after receiving your part of the Will, and I hope you will respect that." The wizards glanced at eachother then gave in.
Minutes pasted then hours. Raven started to wonder whether or not she would even get anything. Not a lot of his stuff was left. The wizards received most if not all of his books and tools and his friends received a lot of his creations and inventions. The village received his land and the nurse received his healing potions and crystals. There wasn't much left of anything.
Finally the only two people left were Foil and Raven. Foil's smile widened as he looked at Raven who looked back at him with confusion. "Well Fitheach, shall I show you you're part of the Will?" He had a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he held out his hand. Reluctantly Raven took his hand and he led her to the cellar. It was like most old cellars, dark, dusty, and filled with cob webs. She started to wonder what Merlin could've possible kept down here and why Foil kept smiling back at her as he anxiously pulled her a long.
They stopped in front of a stone wall at the end of the cellar. The dead end only confused Raven more and more as his eyes traced the wall excitedly. He placed his hand on the wall and whispered "Fosgailte." A sudden gust of wind came and Raven found herself hugging Foil's arm as his blond hair blew back in the wind.
The wind stopped and the bricks slid open to reveal a darkened room. The fairy then whispered "Las." And the torches in the room lit up to reveal stacks of books and magical tools. Raven couldn't believe her eyes and blinked several times at the sight of it all.
"Well Fitheach? What do you think of it? It's all yours." He rocked back and forth on his toes as Raven scanned the room wide eyed. There were six walls in the circular room and two of the walls were filled with shelves and shelves of books. The third wall was filled with many kinds of crystals, stones, and amulets. The fourth had weapons of all sorts, mostly swords and daggers. But it was the last two walls that stunned her the most.
Carpet-like fabric hung from the top of the wall and down to the floor. From what Raven could tell the drawings on it told of a story of some kind. Foil stepped beside her and looked at it in awe. "Do you know what it's about?" He asked and she shook her head no. A light chuckle came from his lips. "It's the legend about oillteil sgàil coisiche."
"The shadow walkers you mean?"
"No, Thee Shadow walker. The one who started all of it."
"But wasn't that just made up? The shadow walkers don't really exist or the fairy realm would've been destroyed."
"It would've been destroyed if their leader hadn't have disappeared." Foil looked at Raven who was giving him questioning looks. "Let me start at the beginning." He pointed at the very top of the drawing where the legend began. "Once upon a time there was a powerful wizard that experimented with all forms of magic, including death magic or should I say necromancy. Anyway, the Faes and other wizards didn't agree with his use of magic and he was banished after refusing to stop. The wizard then went to the farthest ends of the fairy realm where monsters and hideous creatures lived. There he learned how to use his soul magic, his soul released magic of such a magnitude that it sent out a wave of blackness that destroyed everything it touched. With it he created a new magic called shadow magic. It aloud him to sink into shadows and travel through them. It also aloud him to turn other beings into shadow being who could only walk in the shadows and darkness."
"When he had his army of shadow walkers he sent them out to destroy the fairies and wizards that banished him and anything else that was alive. Soon villages with the wizards and fairies were being attacked and never did a single being survive. The fairy realm was about to give up hope. The last of the great wizards and fairies gathered at Crystal Point. The grand castle made of pure crystal. Night came and the shadows gathered around the city, with the dark wizard up front. The last of the wizards and fairies came up to him and begged for him to spare the city and take their lives instead of the millions. He refused their offer and sent his shadow men after them. Battle wagged on both sides losing many men but there was no doubt the shadow walkers would win."
"Then out of no where a bright flash of light covered the city and destroyed most of the shadows. The light faded and a young girl in a white robe stepped forward to where the dark wizard was standing." Foil pointed to a picture of a beautiful girl with long straight black hair. "No one knows for sure what race she was exactly because when the two both used their soul magic they both disappeared in a gigantic explosion of black and white magic."
"What was the dark wizard's name?" Raven asked Foil.
"No one knows. All who knew his name died and all his records were destroyed a long with over half of Crystal Point." He answered. "Not very many survived, maybe a few hundred of each race out of the whole fairy realm, but that was thousands of years ago and all damage has been repaired and forgotten."
He then went to the shelf with amulets on it and picked up a small choker. "This was the one thing the young girl with soul magic left behind." Foil handed it to Raven who hesitantly took it into her own hands.
"Why are you giving me this?" She asked in awe at the beauty of the choker and the crystal at the front of it.
"Because the shadow walkers are back and you're the only one who can save us and the human world."
"The hu-human world?! You mean they're going to attack earth too this time!!"
"I'm afraid so." He sighed.
"B-but I'm not strong enough!! I can't save two worlds!! I can't even cast a good defense spell!!" Raven cried and sat on one of the comfy chairs in the room.
"I know, what do you think I'm here for? Just to tell you Merlin's Will? He sent me here before he died because he knew they were coming and would come after him first. He wanted me to watch over and teach you incase he couldn't." Foil placed his hand on her cheek and smiled. Raven looked up at him and their eyes met but only for a second as Raven quickly got up.
"So you're saying I have to face this powerful no name wizard and find out how to use a magic no one has used for thousands of years? When I'm only an apprentice with no teacher? How can you possible expect anything from me?!!"
Foil stepped beside her. "Well for one thing, Merlin believed in you and you alone. He said no one else was like you and if there was anyone who could do it, it would be you."
Raven sighed. "But I don't know how to.. What if I really can't? Everyone will be so disappointed in me, I'd fail everyone."
"Then let's hope you find out how to use soul magic." He squeezed her and winked. "C'mon, we better go. Time for Merlin's ceremony. Afterwards I'll help you move all this stuff out and into..where ever you live."
The ceremony went horribly beautifully. Merlin's body lay peacefully as the unicorns carried him in. Then the pixies each grabbed one of the many ribbons that lay under his body and hosted him up into the air and onto the stone table. The elves and fairies neatly placed logs of wood around him and buried him in twigs and branches till his body was buried. A torch set fire to the wood and smoke rose to the sky. No one was to talk during this time. It was a time to remember, to think about him, and to mourn. Raven hugged Mana as they both sobbed and cried with everyone else in the village and other people who traveled miles to attend to ceremony for the death of one of the greatest wizards of all time. Foil sat at the back but he didn't seem to notice the man in black robes sitting at the end of the row. Neither did he notice his hand drawing out his sword from inside his black robes.
