The Rise of Merlin

THE DRAGON'S CALL (4)

Hello to anyone who is actually reading this! Here is the last part to "The Dragon's Call." I hope you enjoy it. 

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Inside the castle, Merlin made her way up a spiral stairway until she got to the balcony corridor that one of the castle servants had directed her to. Since she came to Camelot, Merlin hadn't had the chance to enter fully into the castle and now that she had, she could see that the castle's beauty wasn't only limited to the outside. Merlin looked around in awe as she stepped off the stairs and made her way down one of the balconies. She found it beautiful how the light streamed in from the stained glass windows, washing over the corridors. After almost bumping into a servant due to being distracted, Merlin made her way down the corridor and entered an entryway that led to Lady Helen's guest chamber.

Stopping in front of the lady's room she knocked on the door, and waited for it to open, but after a bit of waiting it never did. Not knowing whether she should enter the chamber or come back when Lady Helen was present, Merlin stood in the hallway feeling indecisive. After a bit of debating, Merlin reached out, and opened the door only to find that it was unlocked. Looking up and down the corridor, and seeing that no one was there, she stuck her head into the guest chamber and called out for Lady Helen. When there was no response, Merlin stepped into the room and looked around for a place to leave the bottle.

In front of her, she saw a vanity table with a covered up mirror, which she found odd, and wishing to leave the room, Merlin quickly set the bottle on the table. There was something about the room that made her feel off, but she couldn't place her finger on it. The quicker she got out of the room the better, however, when she set the bottle down, she noticed an effigy made of straw lying on the table. Merlin picked the doll up and wondered why Lady Helen of all people would have such a thing in her possession. As she examined the effigy, Merlin could feel a form of power or something coming off of it and it made her even more curious. Setting it back down, Merlin noticed a piece of fabric covering what seemed to be a book.

Looking behind her to see if anyone was coming, Merlin moved the fabric away and found an intricate book lying there. Picking it up, she gasped when she felt power coming off of it just like the straw effigy. It was then that she realized that what she was feeling was magic. She looked at the book with even more interest, because now she knew that what she was holding was a magic book. Merlin didn't even think that there was even any spell books that survived the Purge, but here she was holding one in her hands. But why would Lady Helen have a magic spell book? And one that seemed to be darker in nature. Merlin could feel the dark aura coming from the book, and that puzzled her.

From what she had learned, magic books had no magic of their own. Instead they absorbed magic from the user every time they used their magic around a spell book. Sorcerers could even tap into the absorbed magic when they needed more power for spells that required more power than they usually had. Spell books were seen as an extension of a sorcerers power, it was why spell books were so personal, and a magic user would rather die than give it up. That would mean that for the book that Merlin was holding to be letting off a dark aura, its owner had to be practicing dark magic. Holding the book away from her, Merlin hoped that Lady Helen had just come by the book during her travels, because she didn't know what she would do if Lady Helen was practicing dark magic.

Before she could keep looking, Merlin heard someone coming from outside and she quickly tried to cover up any evidence that she had been going through Lady Helen's stuff. If Lady Helen was using magic, and dark magic at that, she didn't want Lady Helen to think that Merlin was onto her. She had just covered the book when Lady Helen walked into the room. She turned to face her and almost panicked when she saw Lady Helen looking to where the book was suspiciously.