The Return of Arthur

Chapter 4

"The letter!" Merlin screeched from beneath the pile of books. "Kilgharrah we forgot entirely about the letter!"

Kilgharrah had barely looked up from the old Sanskrit scripture Wendy was holding earlier when Merlin launched himself across the room. He was still rifling through a monstrous stack of papers and scrolls they'd brought down from the attic when Wendy entered from the kitchen with a steaming mug. "Merlin, what on earth are you looking for?"

"His letter," Kilgharrah replied dryly. A knowing smile played on Wendy's lips as Merlin panicked around the room.

"Where on earth is it?" Merlin shouted again, "I can't have lost it!" Wendy cleared her throat and stepped carefully over a teetering book pile. Wendy unceremoniously reached around Merlin's body and pulled the letter from his back pocket. She waved it in front of him like a treat in front of a hungry dog, "Found it." She left the stunned looking Merlin and plopped herself down on the couch beside Kilgharrah, they were close enough that their thighs touched - not that Kilgharrah was complaining.

Kilgharrah shook thoughts of Wendy from his mind as he set down the book, "What does the letter say Emrys?"

Merlin tore through the envelope like a child on Christmas morning, occasionally fumbling the thing and nearly dropping it twice. "It says, As a great good is brought into this world, a great evil shall follow. Arthur Pendragon will rise from that which he was born, so long as the mortal heir of Pendragon willingly sacrifices blood over his ashen bones. Two great sorcerers and a young priestess will aid the young Pendragon as he battles the great evil that will come to be unleashed, but the great evil cannot be vanquished until our king has found peace will all three. As it was Orion who rose up over the great Avalon when the Once and Future King fell, and it will watch over the great Avalon when he rises. If the young Pendragon is not resurrected the cycle will begin anew, and all will be lost."

"That is the prophecy I heard before Arthur fell," Kilgharrah sat forward in his seat, "I did not think it possible for another priestess to be sworn in after Morgana's death. Unless-" He turned to Wendy, "You don't happen to be a priestess of the old religion, do you?" Wendy shook her head rapidly, "I don't even know what that means."

"Well then, now I'm certain I don't know who the priestess is." He flopped back into his seat and stared gloomily at the lake from which Arthur was meant to rise.

Merlin frowned at the thin paper in his hands, "Kilgharrah, who do you think could have sent this?" He turned it over, examining the thin black writing and the elegant gold 'M' on the front.

"How is it written?" Kilgharrah asked over a book.

Merlin froze, "In English?" Wendy snorted.

Kilgharrah rolled his dark yellow eyes, "I meant is it typed or hand written?"

"Hand written."

"Let me see," Wendy said as she snatched it out of Merlin's hands. After a moment of observation, she spoke, "Female, right handed." And handed the letter back to Merlin, "If that helps any."

They both stared at her in shock, "How did you know that?" asked Kilgharrah.

"Well, the tails on the 'y' and the 'g' are too long and too perfect for it to be left handed, and also it's far too neat to be male," She explained as if it were all too obvious. "Also, she must be watching us."

Once again, the men stared blankly at her. "How else would she be able to deliver Merlin's letter specifically to him without us intercepting it? She must have seen Merlin enter the kitchen and then she planted it."

"Are you saying she was using magic?" Merlin asked.

Wendy shrugged, "It seems likely. I don't know very much about magic or how it works, but if I were trying to deliver a secret letter to someone it would certainly be easier with it."

Kilgharrah and Merlin muddled through their thoughts, adding Wendy's insight. Who could it be?

"The priestess." Merlin finally spoke, "If she's given us the prophecy then she must be helping us, therefore it must be the priestess."

"Emrys, there can't be another priestess. Morgana was the last priestess of the old religion. She wasn't able to pass the torch before her fall." Kilgharrah sounded both exasperated and tired.

"Kilgharrah it has to be! Who else could it be?" Merlin sighed, "Everyone who helped us before is dead."

"Why don't we try to track her."

Merlin furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"I used a tracking spell to find you," Kilgharrah pulled an old and tattered red neckerchief from his pocket and threw it onto the table, "All you need is something they once had and from that you can locate them."

"So we use the letter?" Wendy asked. How did he get this? The last time I saw this was in Camelot.

Kilgharrah nodded, "As long as she touched the letter, we'll be able to find her." He passed the letter to Merlin, "You'll have to do it Emrys, I'm not strong enough in this form."

Merlin nodded and held the letter, "The enchantment?" Kilgharrah passed him a slip of paper from his pocket.

Merlin read over the paper, and returned his focus to the letter. The words of the enchantment fell easily from his lips, but Merlin struggled to grasp onto the person. He caught small glimpses of her; her long, dark hair, the curve of her lips, her collar bones, but nothing concrete. Nothing that gave her away.

Merlin spoke the enchantment again, and again, and again until the sun had fallen far past the horizon and the moon took it's place in the cloudless sky.

Wendy had long since gone home when Merlin finally placed the letter on the coffee table.

"I don't understand Kilgharrah, why can't I see her?" He groaned and dropped his head into his hands. Merlin's mild headache began long ago, now it was beginning to throb.

Kilgharrah placed two Aspirins on the table along with a glass of water, "I don't know Emrys, she is more powerful than we anticipated." Now it was Kilgharrah turn to groan, "Maybe she really is a priestess. There's a very slim chance that Morgana was able to complete the ceremony to swear someone in as a priestess, but we know Morgana. She may have gone to extraordinary lengths to complete it before the attack at Camlaan."

"So according to the prophecy, there is a possibility that the priestess that Morgana created will be the one that will help us destroy her?" Merlin asked.

Kilgharrah shrugged, "The future is not yet written Emrys, all in good time."