Forbidden Love - Merlyn [2]

Chapter Two: Cornelius Sigan

Merlyn entered her chambers clearly dejected. It had been one hell of a morning already for Merlyn and she was just annoyed and fed up. And Gaius could tell. The man was sat at his desk studying a scripture he had found but he stopped his actions when Merlyn entered the room.

"What's wrong?" Gaius asked from his seat. Merlyn sighed as she stopped in the middle of the room, dropping her bag to the floor.

"I saved Arthur's life, someone else got the credit" Merlyn explained before she moved her way over to him. "Just the usual. What are you doing?" Merlyn leant against the table, looking over Gaius' shoulder. The physician was holding a piece of parchment that had a collection of letters upon it but Merlyn did not know the language. And from the fact that Gaius was looking through a language book himself it seemed Gaius didn't know what language it was either.

"I found this inscription on the sceptre that was in the tomb" Gaius explained.

"What language is that?" Merlyn questioned, as she frowned at the letters. She could not read it to save her life.

"I don't know. Sigan would have known many languages" Gaius replied. Merlyn's ears perked up at the name she recognised the name.

"Sigan?" Merlyn questioned.

"It's his tomb" Gaius answered as he compared the letters to others in the book before him.

"Cornelius Sigan? The most powerful sorcerer to have lived, the figure of nightmare for people who grew up in Camelot. That Sigan?" Merlyn asked as she sat beside Gaius her eyes wide.

"Yes" Gaius replied placing the parchment down and looking towards Merlyn with confusion. He did not know she knew about the sorcerer.

"Wasn't it said he could change day into night, turn the tides, and that his spells helped build Camelot itself" Merlyn said, reciting the words she had read in one of Gaius' many history books. "But in the end, he grew too powerful and the king at that time ordered his execution."

"You know your history" Gaius said proudly. Merlyn smiled.

"Been working on it lately" Merlyn said. It had been part of her plan to learn more about the world and history of it, especially the magical world. "But he's dead, why are you so worried?"

"Sigan couldn't bear the thought that his wealth and power would die with him, so he became obsessed with finding a way to defeat death itself" Gaius explained. Once again, his words caused Merlyn to remember more information about the mysterious and powerful sorcerer.

"Wait I remember that part of the story ... err, Sigan cursed Camelot claiming he would return to raze the city to the ground" Merlyn said, the words not exactly settling well with her. "You think he might have succeeded?" Merlyn's eyes were wide with worry; this was not something that Merlyn wanted to face. From all the legends and stories about this sorcerer, this man would be the strongest sorcerer Merlyn had ever come across. A man who could beat death was not a man to mess with.

"Let's hope not, for all our sakes" Gaius said, making Merlyn feel even worse. None of this was going to end well.

~8~

The last few months had been hell for Arthur. Ever since that moment that Merlyn took a breath in his arms, he hadn't wanted to let her go and for the rest of that day he basically hadn't. But at night the prince's mind had raced. She had given her life for him and he couldn't go through that again, he couldn't lose her forever but he knew as long as they were close ... as long as she loved him she would give her life for him. So Arthur had made it his task to push Merlyn away, to get Merlyn to hate him and he hated it. It hurt like nothing before and sometimes just breathing was painful but he had to keep her safe.