Outside the Mirage

#25: Bennett

The man who hobbled out of the shack was not really who Vanessa was expecting. When she had heard this man was Merlyn's mentor, she expected to see some old man with an air of confidence and menace, the kind of mentor from a fantasy epic. Instead, however, she saw a pot-bellied, weathered man leaning heavily on a cane as he slowly made his way down the few stairs from the front door to the ground. The man had almost no hair left on top of his head, but he did have a long, steel-colored beard that seemed to naturally split at the end.

"Alistair Merlyn," the man wheezed, his voice raspy and deep. "It's been a long, long time."

"Bennett," Merlyn growled.

The man nodded seriously. "What have you come here for?"

"Let us go and I'll tell you," Merlyn said confidently.

Bennett shook his head slowly. He took a seat on the steps, setting his cane down by his side. "You misunderstand the situation, Alistair. As usual, you're too brash. What did you think would happen when you approached the home of a rogue mage? You thought you'd make it to the front door like an old friend?"

"I am an old friend."

"You're a member of the Department of Containment," Bennett said. "You haven't come here for biscuits. So I'll ask again, what have you come here for?"

Merlyn glared at his old mentor.

Bennett shrugged. Suddenly, the snow around them began to swirl rapidly, moving around in strange ways. After a few seconds, Merlyn found himself in the same position he was in, but upon looking over at his apprentice, found that she was suddenly surrounded by a series of spikes made entirely out of snow.

"Don't you dare hurt her," Merlyn hissed angrily.

"Tell me why you're here," Bennett said. "I won't hurt a hair on her pretty little head if you do that."

Looking from Bennett to Vanessa, Merlyn closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "We're trying to stop the Cultists."

"The Cultists?" Bennett asked. "I've never heard of them."

"Well, I have reason to believe that you are connected to them," Merlyn said.

"What reason?"

"A vision."

Bennett frowned. "Mages don't often receive visions, Alistair."

"It's the only one I've ever gotten," Merlyn said. "My conscious seemed to travel to moments from the past."

"Strange," Bennett said. "The Veil works in strange ways, sometimes. What did you discover in these visions?"

"Well, I saw the day that Benedict was brought in," Merlyn said. "How the other three facilitated the whole ordeal and lied to me about it for the last five years."

"Ah, yes," Bennett said. "I didn't think you'd like that very much. John agreed with me, too, at the time, although I had kind of hoped he'd tell you anyway."

"John and I have been in a long-standing disagreement," Merlyn said.

"Why?"

"It's personal," Merlyn growled.

Bennett rolled his eyes. "Is it about the stupid Don Cheadle thing still?"

"Yes, it is, because Terrence Howard should've been in all of the movies."

"What about that vision brought you to me?" Bennett asked.

Merlyn sighed. "In that vision, you showed up after Benedict had been handled. You fought the three of them briefly."