ANTHEA || Hisirdoux Casperan

07 | If You Love Her

Douxie exhales as he sits down on the stone step leading to Merlin's desk within his tower. He has once again failed to retrieve the Time Map. Not only that, but Merlin found him out and released his younger self from the armoire and the sleeping spell.

"Have you any idea what you've done?" The elder wizard shouts, "I knew you were an ignoramus, but traveling through time?"

Douxie sinks lower in his seat as the wizard continues. His younger self lingers on the farthest side of the room trying to stay as far away as possible from the scolding without actually leaving the room.

Then Merlin turns back to Douxie, "Explain yourself, but withhold as many details as you possibly can."

"In the future, we were attacked—" Douxie breathes, resting his face in his hand, "By a force stronger than all of Camelot. We were surprised and you wanted to steer us through a time rift to this time. However, the plan went sideways— uh, quite literally— and myself and three others landed here."

Merlin taps his finger on his staff impatiently, "Well, you must have botched it up. My planning is flawless."

Douxie drops his face into his hands as the elder wizard opens the Time Map.

"The timelines are in complete disarray!" He grumbles, "And now, the future as you know it might be completely erased."

Douxie looks up at the past version of his master, shocked. How can a prison break affect history so much? He stands and steps beside Merlin.

"Let me fix this, please!" He pleads.

Merlin scowls, "Your meddling has already wreaked enough havoc on history."

Douxie cowers slightly, afraid that if he says anything more that he'll mess up even more things.

Archie, sensing Douxie's uneasiness, jumps up onto the table and sits down beside the boy, "Surely we can use the Time Map to fix history. That way it'll be as it was."

"It's not that simple!" Merlin snaps, "The Time Map isn't a map. It only forecasts possible futures created by the decisions we make now, nothing is set in stone."

"It can't be that bad!" Past Douxie finally speaks up, stepping up to the table on the other side of Merlin.

Merlin huffs as he scans the possible timelines. However, just as he flips to another possible future, the map glows red and brings up an image of King Arthur lying completely motionless on the ground. The elder wizard gasps and turns back to present Douxie.

"My beard! Not that bad, you say!"

"Oh, fuzz buckets!" Past Douxie curses, glancing at his future self.

Douxie averts his eyes

"Your little dungeon break must have changed fate itself!" The Wizard grumbles loudly, "Now unless I stop it, the king will die!"

As soon as he finishes, a soft knock sounds at the door.

"What is it now?" He questions angrily.

The door peaks open slightly to reveal a slightly breathless Anthea. She must have run up a couple of flights of stairs, "Master Merlin."

"Anthea, what is it?" Merlin queries, softening his tone.

"Um..." She begins before noticing both Douxies, "Uh... It's King Arthur, he's requesting your presence."

"Of course he is," Merlin exhales, "You—" he points at Douxie, "Stay here, I can't have you meddling with anything else and don't—"

"But, Master—"