Artemisia

Choice

He stared at me with eyes that said he longed for this moment. Although the look he gave me was loving, I felt put off by it.

When had I ever felt so disgusted by an emotion that was obviously directed toward me?

"Alice." His voice was sickly sweet, but I knew that the name that left his mouth was not the one that he had wanted to say.

There were obvious hints of pain on his face when he said my name. This person standing before is the one and only Merlin Ambrosius, the tactician and loyal court magician to the legendary King Arthur. He was the one who disappeared from the world, held captive of his own free will by the Lady of the Lake.

I took a few steps back, wary of the situation.

"There is no need to worry, I will not harm you in any way. I am only here to answer your questions."

"What happened to Mason?"

"That boy is now asleep. However, he will awaken with memory of this conversation. Step forward, my child."

I was hesitant to do so, but there was no reason to fear him because I didn't feel any malice from him at all.

The intentions were there, but I did not feel completely comfortable around this man. I stepped forward into the light so I guess he could have a good look at me.

"Only hold yourself in mind. Ask what you wish to ask and I shall answer for you."

There were too many questions that I could ask and I didn't know where to start. I settled on one.

"How are you here?"

Honestly, I hoped the answer that he was going to give me would be that everyone is a reincarnation and I would have to wait for a meteor shower to accept my fate and stop Mordred from plunging the world into the dark ages.

However, that was my wishful thinking and I was also lacking sleep so I was a bit delusional.

"Because of a spell." Merlin answered me vaguely.

I motioned for him to continue.

"A spell was cast that cursed us all. The souls of Camelot shall be reborn over and over again awaiting the arrival of their one and only king. I had seen a prophecy that King Arthur will return and reclaim their throne ending the cycle of reincarnation."

I took in this information quite easily, but I felt that he was leaving something out.

He continued while pacing a bit, "The cycle of reincarnation is destined to stop this time around. Mordred is coming for you."

"Me? Why me?"

"Have you honestly not figured it out? Have you not had dreams every single night since you became fifteen?"

"How did you know about that?" I asked obviously knowing that he is Merlin and he probably knows everything.

"That was the time that Artoria became no longer human, the moment that she pulled the sword from the stone, everything was set into motion."

"So are you trying to say that..."

"You are the reincarnation and the body that houses the soul of the once great king of Camelot."

I took that in. I was really hoping that he would just say that I was her descendant who has her traits or you know a child that was protected until I could be born safely but kept safe as a fetus.

You know, deep down I had hoped that I would be like Athanasia from Who Made Me a Princess, a child that was blessed by the world tree or you know someone reborn into a body that had a horrible fate she had to fix for herself and eventually everything would fall into place.