Jim Lake Jr. x reader || Daylight

Ch.35: For The Glory of Merlin; James Lake Jr.

╔ ╗Jim's P.O.V ╚ ╝

I pressed my hand against (Y/n)'s lower back as she wobbled in her uneasy stance. The bags under her eyes made her look -- sad, yeah sad. And, just so overwhelmed.

I felt her lean against me for a moment, quickly straightening herself.

She had used magic, which always left her off, but she seemed...distant right now.

"Are you feeling okay?" She turned to me and the slightest spark of guilt crossed her beautiful (E/c) eyes. "I can feel him. Merlin, he's here."

The only reason we had even been here was for Merlin Tomb's, to find his staff. It seemed like everyone's mind had lost track of our original goal as we all still struggled to hide our heavy hearts. So much happened, so much lost, in such little time.

I turned for a moment so (Y/n) couldn't see me wipe the remaining tears that stained my cheeks, Toby seeing and resting a hand on my shoulder. Blinky was now asking where (Y/n) could feel Merlin, all of us now following her instinct, her leading the way.

"Here," She stepped away from where she pointed, looking uneasy. 

I stood behind her, wrapping my arm around her, trying anything to make her feel better. I felt her hand reach for mine but before I could hold her, a loud rumble in front of us created a swarm of dust and webs around us.

All coughing up the debris, we squinted at the spooky sight in front of us.

"Merlin's Tomb..." I breathed, (Y/n)walking forward with a shudder.

"It's him all right."

I stepped forward and took out my amulet, placing it into his chest where an opening sat perfectly just for it. Like a toy with new batteries, Merlin -- Merlin HIMSELF popped up like a possessed 'jack in the box.'

"Holy --!" We all jumped back as we watched in shock, Merlin starting to crack his back as if he had simply woken up from a nice nap.

"And who might you all be?" Merlin's voice wasn't what I had expected. I mean -- I wasn't even sure what I had been expected but for someone so ancient, seeing him well and alive seemed wrong.

Merlin turned to Tobey, "And what kind of Troll are you?" 

"No, no, I'm not a troll. I'm a Tobey." Tobes was quickly ignored as Merlin turned to (Y/n).

"Ah, and what is your name, my dear." Merlin's tone did a 360, now soft and respectful.

"(Y/n) (L/n)." She ran a hand through her grime-filled hair. Merline's eyes narrowed with a knowing look.

"An honor to have finally met a Destined Partner, and you," Merlin turned to me, his soft tone nowhere to be seen. "Trollhunter." He gave me a nod, somewhat filled with respect as he analyzed me.

"Not to be rude, but I assumed you'd be dead. You know, after all this time. How'd you even know we'd be here to wake you up?" (Y/n) attempted to not look so tired as she wiped her face a bit.

"Well, James Lake Jr, I must tell you," Merlin now stood up fully, already cracking every possible bone in his body. 

"I am your father."

Everyone gasped, (Y/n) quickly grabbing my hand as we all looked at Merlin in a mixture of shock and horror.

"Kidding!" Merlin chuckled. "I can glimpse the future. It's not a perfect gift though."

"You expected us to be older," I conclude. "And taller," Merlin added.

"Why were you sleeping in the first place?" (Y/n) asked what we had all been thinking. "It was the cost of battle, my dear." Yup, there goes that 'my dear' again.

"Battle?"

"The Battle of Killahead, of course." He said so nonchalantly. I could see (Y/n)'s eyebrows furrow together as she ushered around herself, clearly confused. I knew how much studying she had done on the subject so she must've known something was off.

"Excuse me, your wizard-ness," Blinky stepped forward and did a small bow, an awkward move really, caching Merlin's attention. "But, Arrgggghhhh and I were present for The Battle of Killahead and I don't recall your presence," Blinky made random motions with his hands. "And, I've read volume upon volume about the event and --"

"History is just an account of what supposedly happened, but it's rarely the full story, if ever." Everyone's eyes continued to grow larger by the second as Merlin created a whisp of green between his hands something -- a visual -- in the middle of it. Like a window.

"It looked just like my magic..." I heard (Y/n) whisper.

It in fact did, alarmingly. Why did (Y/n) have the same magic as a great and powerful wizard?

"What exactly are you doing?" (Y/n) questioned in amazement. Because, no matter how much magic had drained, she'd always want to know more.

"I'm creating a window to the past."

"This is going to be very cool if we don't end up dying." Tobes's words left us all with that one thought as Merlin's spell consumed us.

When we all regained our surroundings, we were in a forest. Something about it gave me an icky feeling.

As Merlin spoke, I took in everything around me. From gnomes to very large trolls, everyone was fighting. I could feel the heat of the situation, what they were fighting for. A part of me wanted to find a way to tell them that they had won...but the other part of me didn't want to have to explain that right now, Gunmar had even more power than before and that Angor was still somehow alive because you know, things couldn't get worse.

We all looked around still in amazement and of course, shock. Merli continued to explain his side of the story of what had happened, and what actually took place. (Y/n)'s face continued to look more and more fascinated as she soon realized that all of her history books had lied to her.

But, her look of fascination dropped, her now sticking to my side as she looked up with terror.

Morgana was mid-air, in the heat of battle. With Merlin himself.

"The Mother of All Monsters, The Pale Lady, Morgana."

"I could add a few more names to that list." (Y/n) angrily shuddered, me holding her steady.

"None of the history books even speak of this!" Blinky stared in bewilderment.

"Well, books don't talk for one thing," Merlin joked. "But," He stood in front of himself, who was too frozen in mid-air, his magic allusive in its state of frozen wonder.

"This was the true Battle of Killahead." Merlin spread his arms in exaggeration.

"You and Morgana?" I asked.

"She is as ancient as I am, perhaps more so." He paused. "Craving chaos, she sewed the seeds of dissension between humans and troll kind."

"I know her well. She was a pain in the --"

(Y/n) was quickly cut off. "Hence the eternal night. She realized if trolls could not survive in daylight, what if the night were everlasting?"

Merline then explained that the only reason he could beat her was to use all of his power to confine her. Things were finally starting to add up.

"Wait --" (Y/n) stepped in front of Merlin. "Confine? As in she can still get out? Like right now?" (Y/n), more than of us, knew why Merlin's words were concerning.

"We are doomed, history will repeat itself thanks to the work of Gunmar."

With a solid flash, we were back at Merlin's Rocky Tomb.

The rest of the day seemed to blur by. We all knew we had to somehow get out of the Tomb that was crumbling above us. And with everything, Merlin gave me that same icky feeling as earlier. Like I was missing something.

But, now home, the long, long, day finally took its hold on me. I plopped onto my bed.

(Y/n) had said she wasn't coming to bed anytime soon, that everything that had just happened was keeping her awake and that she wanted to talk to Merlin some more to get more answers to her millions of questions.

So, I lay by myself, letting my eyes close as my thoughts blurred from today's events to more peaceful things like (Y/n)'s smile...