The Mage Returns

by Christina D Stewart

  Merlin smiled softly with the message that simply said "Child's play."

  Merlin drank the last half of his beer in a single gulp. It was as if he poured it down his throat. Still holding the glass, he turned to the server and raised it slightly, and said "Another, please."

  He sent another message to his staff asking if the power outages could be created and maintained while they were away so local fae friends could move safely around the city?

  The staff was silent for a few seconds and then it said that a spell to do this shouldn't be too difficult as it would randomly target some of the actual generating equipment and not the software that controlled it. The staff continued and explained the AI running the power grid would respond quicker and quicker to the problems as it learned what was causing them. With an element of sadness, the staff sent the message it could succeed for a brief time but the AI was faster than it was with mechanical things over the long haul.

  His fresh beer arrived and Merlin raised it the server. "Sláinte," he said.

  Merlin received a smile and a nod in return.

  Ross finds Merlin

  A few days after Merlin's success with disengaging the power to the CCTV cameras, Ross's phone vibrated in his pocket. When he pulled it out, his security friend Freddy's telephone number showed.

  "Freddy," said Ross. "What've you got for me?"

  Ross listened while his friend explained he'd found only one example of a moving dark pattern in the entire United Kingdom. It was a large one, by zone instead of individual camera. And for whatever reason, that pattern was up in Aberdeen, Scotland.

  "Thanks Freddy," said Ross. "I owe you one."

  Ross thought for a moment, and wondered, what was up in Scotland his mysterious quarry wanted? Not only that, but how had he gotten there without being pinged by one of the cameras? There were too many unknowns about this case, he thought. Too many unknowns.

  But it looks like I'm on my way to Scotland, he said to nobody in particular as he stood up from behind his desk and walked briskly to Smithers' office.

  Ross Going To Catch A Fairy

  Officer Ross had received orders to continue the search and to assume command of the rapid response team in Aberdeen. The orders had been sent both to him and to the officer in command in Aberdeen, who was not overly pleased with having been replaced. The fact that he was replaced by a fellow Scot made it slightly more palatable.

  Ross hugged his wife, kissed her chastely on the mouth, looked into her deep brown eyes and said, "We have an observer." She laughed, put her head on his chest and hugged him tight. "This is the best place for me, I love hearing your heartbeat." And then she pulled back, a twinkle in her eye and said, "Have a great trip. But don't forget you have another person to say goodbye to."

  He leaned forward, kissed her on the forehead, and said, "this shouldn't take too long. We're tracking him on the cameras and we hope it's just a matter of picking him up. It has to be done quietly and once we get him I'll be home the next day."

  He turned to his daughter, reached down, picked her up and swung her in a broad circle around the room. After the circle, he pulled her to him and gave her a softer hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Daddy has to go up to Scotland and catch a bad man. But I'll be back in a day or two." He said.

  "Don't be silly, daddy," she said. "You're going to catch a fairy."

  Ross felt his pulse soar. He looked down at his daughter and asked, "a fairy?"

  "Of course, daddy, we all know that," she said. "I do have to tell you though, my friends aren't too happy with you right now."

  "What friends aren't happy with me?" said Ross.

  "My fairy friends," replied his daughter.

  Ross thought about this for a moment, and then said, "Oh, those friends."

  "Oh daddy, they said you wouldn't believe me," said his daughter. "But I told them you would. They were right," said his daughter in a sad, low voice.

  Ross sought about this for a second, looked at his daughter's serious face peering up at him, and then said, "Well, maybe he is a fairy. I won't know until I catch him, will I?"

  "You're silly daddy. You won't catch him, unless he wants you to. He's a very important fairy."

  "Okay sweetheart, that's good. If he's a good guy, we should just have coffee and talk shouldn't we?" said Ross.

  "My fairy friend say that's a good idea," said his daughter.

  "Okay, sweetheart, that's what I'll do," said Ross. "I'll just talk to him."

  And with that, Ross gave his daughter a good hug, a final short tickle to which she laughed and giggled.

  She stood there, put her hands on her hips, and said, "You remember daddy, he's a good fairy so don't hurt him."

  Ross looked down at this delightful little girl. Something inside him smiled and wondered where that information was really coming from and who was sending it to his daughter. It was only a brief thought and soon forgotten amidst the mental checkpoints of making sure he was properly packed and ready for anything the weather and his quarry might throw at him.

  With a final kiss to his wife, Ross went out the door and down to the waiting car that would take him to the train station.

  It was only on the train, and and hour later that he considered his daughters instructions. And the small voice in the back of his head asked whether she might be correct and where had she got the idea that he was chasing a fairy?

  The thought didn't stay in his brain for long.

  Staff Makes Tech Breakthrough

  Merlin forced himself to get out of bed the next morning after having a few beers too many in the pub the night before. The music had been good and he had been loathe to leave until last call. Forcing himself to stand upright, he got control of his legs, stopped rocking, walked to the window and stared unseeing out over the city. He had his energy field well under control and had pulled it in tight and close to himself. He didn't want to send any message to the fae hovering just outside of his power zone. It wouldn't do to let the lesser folk know that he had too many beers last night, or he had been discovered and was being searched for by the humans

  Merlin closed his eyes, turned to lean against the window sill and allowed a string of curses and one of the oldest languages of man to roll off his lips.

  "Well, that feels better," he said. "But it doesn't do much."

  A spark in his mind asked for attention and given that it was coming from his staff, he willingly granted it. He looked over at the length of oak lying on the end of the bed and focused his attention on it.

  The message was clear and the words bounced happily around in his head as he tried to grab them and assemble them in some meaningful order. "Would you slow down?" he said he said out loud.

  The staff did not apologize, but it did tamp down its layer of enthusiasm and excitement to a level that even a distracted Merlin would understand.

  The staff described in excruciating detail how it had made a basic breakthrough in understanding modern technology. The staff apologized for how slow and how long it had taken it to fully grasp the simplicity of the new language. It described how it didn't matter which language a human used to talk to a machine, the machine interpreted that language into one of two signals. At the basic level, it was either a plus or a minus, or a yes and a no.

  So just as any sentient being would have a word for yes, and the word for no, so did the computer languages of man break down into one of these two choices.

  Merlin remained still for a moment as he grasped the basic concept the staff had outlined. After 30 seconds of silence, he understood the staff had more to tell him. He sent the silent message, and…?

  The staff said its heartwood and the magic that animated it, were incompatible with the technology of the humans. It needed a space to store the languages and the data it was learning.

  Merlin didn't like the tone the staff was using, it filled him with a deep sense of foreboding and he felt the edge of a long night approaching.

  "What is it you want, my old f
riend, and boon companion?" he said.

  The staff's request flowed into his mind and was immediately followed by waves of apprehension and fear from his staff.

  Merlin took a deep breath. He was silent for what seemed like eternity, but then he said out loud, "First, you have nothing to fear from me and all you'll ever receive is my love and my companionship to whatever end is our fate. But understand this, it will be our joint fate and not one that either will take alone. We belong to each other and there is no request that you could make that would shake the foundation of our story together. Second, you want my finger. Right?"

  Waves of love mixed with relief and agreement with the request followed from the staff.

  "So if I understand you correctly, you cannot store all of the languages because the computing machines are incompatible with your living heartwood. And you have discovered how humans use DNA to store information. So you need one of my fingers as a storage system. Have I got that correct?" Said Merlin. "And no, I'm not outraged by the request. I am simply amazed at what you and the humans can understand."

  The staff started to explain the details of what the humans were doing with their technology when Merlin stopped it.

  "You don't have to explain all of this to me. Perhaps at some point in the future you and I can talk and you can teach me about this. But for now, let's simply assume that you are the expert in this area and if you need a finger, then you will have it."

  Merlin thought for a second, "Will it hurt?"

  A trilling laugh filled Merlin's soul with delight, and the response, "This won't hurt at all, said the doctor before doing the surgery," from the staff had both of them giggling and laughing at each other.

  Merlin walked to the bed, grasped the staff firmly and leaned his forehead against it. "Take my little finger on my left hand," he said aloud.

  His finger felt as if it had gone to sleep, it tingled, but there was no pain. And then the tingling stopped.

  "Done. Not only are we soul-joined, we're finger-joined," sent the staff in a joyous tone of voice.

  "Has anyone ever told you you have a weird sense of humour?" asked Merlin. He didn't get a direct message, but he got the sense his staff was working to unfold and decode an entire world. And he wondered at how that might all fit inside his baby finger.

  Lawrence and Arthur Fight

  Merlin had given up on sitting in the park, he'd decided that if security was tracking him, he didn't want to draw attention to the boys. He didn't want to be associated with them in any way that the computer systems could draw inferences.

  Every second or third day, he would briskly walk through the park absorbing the sounds of movements of the boys and all of the fae that hung in the trees along his expected routes.

  That was one more thing he wanted to prevent. He didn't want the fae knowing what he was doing or any of the smaller details. He knew you just couldn't trust some members of fae with any thing this important. In fact you couldn't trust any member of that community with something this important.

  As he marched through the park, he noticed that Arthur and another young man of about the same size were face-to-face and yelling at each other. He overheard Lawrence proclaim a foul and that the other young lad was denying the charge. And like young roosters everywhere, they'd puffed up their feathers and were almost chest bumping as they worked to establish the dominance in the pack. Merlin noticed they hadn't quite got to the chest bumping or fist raising part yet, so he slowed down his walk to see what would happen. Even Security wouldn't blame a casual passerby for watching a potential fight.

  He watched as the two of them made initial contact. Saw the first push and watched as the other boy started swinging wildly while Arthur easily blocked the punches. Against all the rules, another boy reached in and grabbed Arthur's shirt and an obvious attempt to impede Arthur and help his friend.

  The next phase of the fight seemed obvious to Merlin and he wasn't at all surprised when Lawrence grabbed the interloper, tripped him up with a very simple leg kick and as the boy fell Lawrence swung himself on top of the boy to land on top of him and push all the air out of his lungs. Lawrence jumped to his feet took two steps back and derisively said "Don't jump in where you're not wanted."

  In the meantime, Arthur had been pummelling his opponent and it was only a few seconds after Lawrence jumped up that Arthur's opponent put up his hands, backed away three paces and's said, "This is stupid. There's two of you, you can't fight fair at all."

  Arthur laughed at him and said, "You started it, you needed help, crap face over there came and gave it to you, so Lawrence whacked him. And now you say there's two of us? Lawrence didn't have to help me, you're the ones that look like they needed help."

  "Oh get lost," said the other young men.

  Arthur just laughed at him. Waved his hand in dismissal, flipped him a middle finger and said, "Come on Lawrence I don't feel like playing with idiots."

  Together, the two friends strutted off the field while the rest stood and watched mutely.

  Ross comes to Aberdeen

  "Freddy, hey it's Ross, and I'm hoping you'll get this message and do me a favour. I'm looking to see if there are patterns in the outages and if you would map those for me. So for example, is there a pattern today that is the same as yesterday's? Or are we looking at a variety of patterns? Is that something you can run through the algorithms and then send to me overlaid onto a map of Aberdeen? I'd really appreciate it buddy, thanks," said Ross to MI5's voicemail system.

  Ross looked it around his hotel room and noted he had likely reached the pinnacle of hotel accommodations funded by government expense accounts. Which meant, he noted wryly that this was one step above a rent-by-the-hour room.

  Ross unpacked his laptop, plugged it in to recharge, and smiled as the high-security system opened up asking for both a retinal and fingerprint scan before it would open and give him full access to the security network.

  Once online, he checked his messages to find that Freddy had come through almost instantly. Three maps were attached to an email that simply said, "I'm ahead of you again." Ross chuckled aloud. Freddy was one of the best, one of the smartest techs he had ever known. Ross simply hoped he'd stick around in Security long enough so they could both retire together but he knew the odds of that happening were small given the poaching that went on by industry for the best and brightest computer technicians.

  One by one, Ross opened each of the maps and examined them for any common locations. There were almost no overlaps and he was impressed with this. That meant is quarry might have some basic field training and may be a bit harder to apprehend. He looked at all three patterns and noticed there were only two only common spots. One was the Hotel Queen Victoria and the other a park.

  "Gotcha," he said aloud. Ross knew that even the brightest and smartest often made rookie mistakes like this. After all, who wanted to change hotels every night?

  All I have to do now is find a spot outside the door of the hotel and track this guy to see where he walks and hesitates and what he notices along his route.

  Gwen Moves Into Area

  This was Merlin's day to power walk and as he marched through the city streets exploring further and further from his hotel room, he continued to monitor the local fae and their reports about Arthur and Lawrence. For indeed, he had recruited the fae from every part of the city and of every form and shape of magic to monitor and report back to him about the two young men.

  One of the smaller sithich, they were mostly used as simple messengers because of their speed and their love of dashing madly about, approached him. This characteristic of appearing and disappearing at breakneck speeds combined with a willingness to disappear if they were given something to do they found unappealing and classified as real work, meant that being a messenger was an ideal task for the small and mischievous sithich.

  One suddenly appeared floating beside Merlin. Merlin wasn't sure at first glance whether it was a male or female. It asked whether it coul
d land on his shoulder to deliver the message. It sent along the thought that that would be a considerable privilege to be able to touch the oldest and most powerful fae in the world.

  Not feeling flattered, but being in an extremely good mood, Merlin granted the wish. In its excitement, the sithich landed on Merlin"s shoulder and carefully reached over to lean against his ear. Merlin felt the sithich shiver when it touched his ear and got a sense of Merlin's immeasurable power.

  "What's your news, little one?" asked Merlin.

  "My Lord, there is a new girl," said the sithich.

  Merlin felt his heart beat faster and his attention focused solely on the small, quivering being perched on his shoulder. "Why are you sent with this message, little one?"

  The sithich's voice quivered, and it hesitated, before answering. "My Lord, the others are afraid that if they are wrong, you will punish them. We don't know if this is the one you seek, but she is new and so we reported."

  "And you my little one, are you afraid of me?" asked Merlin.

  "Oh yes, great one," said the sithich. "I am the smallest of my family, and the most expendable. And so I was sent. There was no one else to volunteer, my Lord Merlin."

  "And, are you afraid of me now, at this moment?" asked Merlin.

  "Oh yes, great Lord," said the sithich vibrating faster and faster in spite of itself.

  "Little one, from this day forth you have no need to fear me in anything, or at any time. And I will take on the geas of granting you one favour at any time should you need one," said Merlin

  "My Lord," said the sithich in an awed tone of voice. It disappeared in a tiny sparkling of light.