The Mage Returns

by Christina D Stewart

  It suddenly struck him that even if these two were friends at the moment, the introduction of the third party, whoever she would be in this age, would upset the delicate balance these two created.

  It would be, as always, about the woman.

  With that thought, Merlin's sighed and understood that his geas would be no different, except in the form and surroundings of a modern age. There would be no swordplay, there would be no nunnery, no burning at the stake - he shuddered at that story. He knew this modern computer age would somehow find a way to show him its equivalent.

  Understanding this, Merlin took a deep breath and relaxed. He released his tension with a large exhalation and leaned back on the bench, crossed his legs at the ankles and his arms over his chest to enjoy the outpouring of youthful energy on the playing field.

  For one brief moment in time he forgot about quests, those who would aid him and those who hunted him. For this one brief moment of watching youthful energy, all was right in his world once again and all important decisions were far in the future.

  And then he saw the Raven sitting at the top of the large pine tree looking down at him.

  Ross Creates A New Search

  Officer Ross sat in his office chair reviewing reams of paper reports detailing the computerized search results from the last 12 hours as the CCTV cameras and AI searched for Merlin. The incongruity of using paper to report on an electronic, computer system issue didn't escape him and he had tried, successfully, to hide his amusement when the first paper report arrived at his desk.

  There was something quite odd with the fact that the cameras could not pull Merlin up from out of the system. This meant that either the man had gone to ground and was doing his best to hide or that he had a way of avoiding the ever-present video cameras.

  Ross also reviewed the reports of Merlin entering the committee rooms and the effect he'd created and had on those in the room. Every one of the seven people, all experienced and highly regarded in the security field, had filed individual reports both on paper and on the video. And it was these videos that Ross currently reviewed looking for the smallest traces of deceit or prevarication. He found none.

  What he did find was a massive confusion and a growing disbelief in the events of the meeting. Ross evaluated and examined any discrepancy between what the highly trained officers reported. While there were small differences, there was nothing out of the ordinary or that could be expected from human memory.

  Ross also evaluated the summaries of the national searches for Merlin. Merlin's image from the meeting had been plugged into the database and it was searching for any appearance within the last 48 hours. The cameras showed him entering the park and walking down into the St David's spring area, but after that he disappeared completely.

  Ross stared at the lack of information and wondered if the old man was smarter than they assumed. He picked up the phone and dialed a friend of his in the programming section. "Freddy, I would assume that at any given time some of our cameras are broken. I would also assume this would mean a dark spot in our coverage. Would that be a fair assessment?" he asked.

  When the young technician responded in the affirmative, Ross hesitated for a second, and then asked, "is it possible to scan all of the malfunctioning cameras over time to determine if there is a pattern when these cameras go offline? In other words, I want to see if there is somebody who can hack the camera and the recording by disabling the camera. And, can we identify any pattern he's creating such as in one town or section of town?"

  In response to a question on the other end of the line, Ross said, "Yes, I'd be looking for a null report. I want to know if the cameras create a pattern of not responding. And sorry, Freddie, but I need it UK-wide and it's a priority-number-one search. We're not sure where to hunt next. And no, I can't tell you who we're hunting. Sorry. What kind of authorization do you need to set up a search on those terms?"

  In response to the answer Ross said "Super, when can you send me anything you find?" A few seconds later, he said, "Excellent, I'll look forward to seeing that as soon as you can get it done."

  Staff Can't Quite Get The Hang

  After Merlin watched Ingrid and both boys walk from the field, his staff – it's remained in the form of a cane – enlarged its link with Merlin. The message it sent was a simple one. The staff was learning basic programming and might be able alter some of the technology that was impinging on their physical selves, but it was finding it next to impossible to learn machine language and code. Translating what the machines said and did into terms it could understand would be a long and extremely painful process. If it could be done at all.

  Over the centuries, the staff had learned multiple languages spoken by the common folk. One by one, it learned all of the languages used by fae and humans from every culture and part of the world it had explored with Merlin. It might be said that the staff was a specialist in human behaviour and language.

  But, if the staff could have been embarrassed, if it could have felt shame, it would be doing both at this point. Despite hours of study, it found the technical languages of man beyond its understanding. There was little of humanity in those machine languages and those who spoke them fluently often seemed to be reflect their machines more than their fellow men.

  While it reported quite dryly on its inability to master the various computer languages used around the world, it became animated when it discussed the effects these languages had on those who spoke them. It was as if they lost part of their humanity staring at video screens. And, slowly but surely they seemed to lose the memory of what it meant to walk outdoors, to feel the wind on their faces, and the heat of the sun to warm them. Their long exposure to artificial lights changed their moods and their behaviours towards each other and not for the better.

  The most unsettling thing the staff reported was that the practitioners of these technological dark arts understood these changes and did nothing to avoid them. They were willing to give up their ancient heritage of a shared humanity. And worst of all, they were proud of doing so.

  Merlin listened carefully to the staff's story and as he did so he took the images of those people working in technology and associated them with the military personnel he had been dealing with over the past few days. The people he dealt with were passionate about working with and protecting their country, but indeed – when he thought about it – there were dead spots within them as well.

  An image of a garden with encroaching grass and weeds around the edges came to his mind, and he acknowledged the image the staff had sent as it clarified for both of them what their real enemy was in this time and age.

  It wasn't the individuals. The Dark in this age didn't appear as a powerful warlord or horde of ravaging warriors. It appeared slowly but surely as a slight improvement in code or an extremely small and easily-explained infringement on an individual's freedom. It was spreading slowly but surely to engulf and swallow the light.

  "Thank you, my old friend," said Merlin holding the staff up against his forehead. "Once again, you have provided the things that we truly need to know." Merlin was silent for several minutes, and stood motionless.

  Bringing himself back to the present, he sent this message to his staff. "Our job, no, our duty is to find those who possess real humanity and encourage it. At the same time, we must fight back against the technological genocide that is engulfing our people and the humans. I confess, and only to you in the quiet of our minds, this is going to be the most difficult challenge we have ever faced. And I suspect if we fail, not only will there be a seventh council but a never-ending dark will settle upon this world if we lose."

  Merlin could feel nothing but agreement from his staff.

  "Continue searching for a way to disengage the cameras. We'll need this ability sooner or later. If not now, getting rid of the cameras and surveillance will be essential for our survival in any conflict. And the sooner we can influence them, the better" said Merlin.

  Attention Deficit
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  "Can we talk about something else?" repeated Merlin. "Of course," he said to his staff. "What's on your mind?" He listened for a second and then said, "You want me to sit down?"

  Merlin stopped pacing and sat in one of the hotel room's overstuffed arm chairs, the flower pattern on the upholstery screamed for being changed, he decided, then forced his attention back to the staff.

  "That's what you mean?" asked Merlin. "What?" he said in his seldom-used confused tone of voice. "The humans call it 'computer attention deficit syndrome' and it means I'm trying to force too many things into my brain at the same time so my brain doesn't have a chance to integrate them. What kind of psychobabble is this?" he said with one of his generous eyebrows rising to emphasize the question.

  Merlin listened again as the staff explained that a human brain - and it pointed out that Merlin's brain was essentially human - stored things in a memory system that needed links established from one fact to another so when you needed to remember something, you didn't pull out an independent thought. Instead, what you did was remember the association, follow the links and find the fact you needed. Without those links, your brain didn't work very well."

  "Great. My brain is just a big computer to you. I'm not sure you're really learning something useful with all this computer code stuff you've been studying," said Merlin. "No, my voice doesn't sound annoyed… Well, OK, maybe a little," he said. He took a breath. "Yes, I'll let you finish now."

  Merlin sat and listened as the staff explained that by trying to shove too much into a human brain, the associations didn't have time to form and humans wouldn't be able to remember things without those associations. Merlin was trying to learn too many things too fast and not taking the time to associate individual facts with other facts he already knew. He was old and for most of his life, information had slowly come along and he stored it and remembered it. But now, it was as if a firehose of information was trained on his brain and nobody in his right mind could make sense of it or remember it all."

  "Explain that in some way I can understand what you just said," said Merlin. He listened for three seconds and then laughed.

  "OK, I got it. The house is too full of books and I just keep adding them in here so I can't find the one I want to read. If I put them away properly on the shelves like I'm supposed to, I'd find them easily," said Merlin. "So my brain is a like my bookshelves. All the books are still there, but I can't find them easily because they're scattered everywhere instead of in alphabetical order on the shelves."

  Merlin laughed louder and in a more relaxed than he had in months. "So I'm not getting old and losing my memory, I'm just trying to cram too many unrelated facts in there. I'm not "shelving the books" so to speak," he said.

  When the staff confirmed this possible diagnosis, Merlin took a very deep breath. He let it out and marveled at how much better he felt. It wasn't he was getting old - well, he was getting old - but it wasn't that he was losing his marbles. He was just trying to learn too much, trying to keep up with too many things.

  He thought about this for a second and then asked, "What do the humans do with this?" He listened incredulously. "They don't care?" I'll bet the older ones care - they probably think their brains are going soft - just as I did" He walked to the window, looked outside to a dull overcast day with rainclouds scudding across the sky, and said, "How do I fix this?" A few seconds later, he heard the staff admit the only way it knew to fix the problem was to slow down and start eliminating all the unnecessary distractions of the human world.

  Merlin snorted in disbelief, and said, "As if humans are going to do that." He thought for a second and said, "I can't even do that if I'm going to work with them." The staff told him an increasing number of humans were already cutting back on computers for just this reason. Or, they were using their phones as a primary memory system.

  "How will this help us right now? How can I cut back in the middle of an emergency?" asked Merlin. "Oh, it's always an emergency, isn't it. I see your point."

  Merlin nodded thoughtfully, stood and started pacing back and forth in the living room. The staff went silent and gave Merlin the mental space he needed to wrap his mind around these new thoughts. After five minutes of pacing, Merlin stopped and addressed the staff again. "I need to cut back on the number of things I read and I'm going to need your assistance in doing this. I need somebody to help me decide what to read and how often." This plea received an instant response.

  "Shut down Facebook. It's that simple? Oh, that's just the most important step one and that will eliminate a ton of stuff. After that, we see what other distractions compete for my brain. And we see how my mood improves? Really, you think my mood needs improving? Listen to myself? What are you talking about? Replay the last twenty seconds of the conversation," said Merlin. "Oh, I see what you mean. Sorry," he said. "Yes, I can see where all that bad news really makes me angry," he said. He took a breath and a thought occurred to him.

  "Do I have a Facebook account?" he asked suddenly. "Oh, you were only using that as an example," he said. "No. OK, I get it. But how fast does my brain take to kick back into gear? Right. It's a government answer - it depends. In my case likely several months because I do try to remember a lot."

  After the staff had gone back to its work of sorting out computer technology and programming, Merlin sat in the ugly, overstuffed chair and allowed his mind to wander around the modern landscape of the effects of computers on the human mind and society. It wasn't a pretty picture.

  Memory Exercises

  Merlin occupied a small cafe table in front of the large window overlooking a quiet street in Aberdeen. A cup of tea and salmon sandwich - cut corner to corner - sat in front of him. An extremely thick, comic-sized book occupied a spot to the side of the plate.

  "What's this? Memory exercises?" said Merlin out loud. "You've brought me memory exercises? Seriously." Merlin looked at the book with a black and white crossword puzzle graphic on the cover and the words "Crossword Puzzles" circled in red ink. "Love the red ink, that's new. But you want me to play geriatric-human, memory games?" he said tossing it onto the empty cafe table beside of him.

  "Oh… you do," said Merlin. He looked down at the book on the table beside him, picked it and started leafing through it. He put it flat on the table and said, "Yes, I'm doing it. I'm looking at it. Relax if you please."

  "You won't relax and you want me to have four of these puzzles done by tonight. And I'm not to use magic."

  Merlin's mood was dropping like a stone off a tall bridge. It was a sheer drop and straight down for a very long way.

  "Seriously?" he asked in his grumpiest possible voice.

  A research report about how beneficial it was to do puzzles suddenly appeared in the air. Merlin squinted to read it. "Oh," he said when the staff reviewed their conversation and his concern about losing his memory as he tried to read the extremely small text. "No, I do not need glasses if you'd make the print the right size!"

  He grumbled a few choice words and when the staff did not respond. Merlin decided to push his luck a bit further. "And I'm not supposed to complain about doing this. But tell me, what exactly do you think you can do to me if I don't do this today?"

  Merlin's triumphant smile disappeared immediately after finishing the question. "You wouldn't." He took a deep breath and then said, "Well, OK. I see you would. I'll get it done but don't push me…. It is NOT your job to push me! I did not tell you to push…. OK, so I did." Merlin knew better than to grumble any further.

  He put the book on the table in front of him, smiled triumphantly and said, "I don't happen to have a pen with me."

  "Which pocket?"

  Merlin surrendered and started on the puzzles. His tea grew cold.

  Staff Sends False Signals

  Later that afternoon, puzzles completed, Merlin decided to avoid what seemed like an ever-present, cold misting rain and took refuge in a small pub. He'd spent much of the day walking around Aberdeen, checking in with a few resident fae a
nd sorting out a few small issues, He took a seat in a booth that allowed him to look through the front window and watch anybody who happened to come in the door. He wasn't about to be surprised by any security person who might have tracked him to this spot. He queried his staff, still in the form of a cane resting beside him, and asked how close the security forces were to actually finding them.

  Upon hearing the report from the staff indicating MI5 didn't have a clue where they were, he smiled.

  Merlin then asked about the staff's ability to hack into and control the CCTV camera software. He was quite disappointed when his ancient friend confirmed that it had not been able to break the software and control it to their benefit.

  Merlin took a deep breath, held it for two seconds, and then let it out softly as he relaxed his body after hearing the negative report. His heart beat faster however when the staff suggested it might have an alternative method for hiding themselves. "And now, what would that be?" asked Merlin silently.

  "We simply kill the power that's running them," suggested the staff. "We unplug the cameras."

  Merlin thought about this for a second, "Brilliant!" He said out loud. He turned to the bar and caught the eye of the server staring at him. He shook his head smiled at her and said, "Just a random thought, ignore me." She nodded.

  So we can kill the power, thought Merlin knowing the staff would pick up his thoughts. But we can't do it one by one as we move through the city or security will be able to track us by the lack of a signal. We have to do it in a much wider zone, or do it into zones so they don't really know where we are. He thought about it for a few seconds and then silently asked if the staff could do random power outages across the city. There would never be a consistent signal to fully track the pair of them. Could the staff do this?