by James Riley
“I didn’t say that,” Merlin told him. “But what you’ll need isn’t something I can teach you myself. Still, I might be able to provide some guidance. Come back here when your dragon problems get worse, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Dragon problems? But Damian was under his Spirit magic. What future problems was Fort going to have with him?
“You’re not going to be around to do any of this!” Cyrus shouted from the other room. “I’m going to figure out how to turn this thing off, and that’ll be the last any of us have to hear from you, old man!”
As strange—very strange—as all of this was, Fort actually felt most surprised by how annoyed Cyrus was acting. He’d never really seen his friend so irritated, or even anything besides laid- back. What was it about Merlin that was putting Cyrus in such a bad mood?
“You know, you once told me that King Arthur wasn’t real,” Fort shouted to Cyrus in the other room.
Merlin snorted.
“He’s not,” Cyrus said, coming back in, glaring at the hologram. “Not the version you know from stories, at least.” He flopped into his chair, looking frustrated. “I don’t think the communicator that’s running him even has power. I hate this future tech.”
“You say that now,” Merlin said. “But wait until you’re my age. It’s just the thing for these old bones, getting waited on hand and foot.”
Cyrus dropped his head into his hands. “Isn’t it time you left, Merlin? We have some things to take care of here.”
Merlin’s eyes seemed to go unfocused for a moment. “Ah, of course!” he said, turning to Fort. “The future war over the books of magic, right. I remember now.” He lowered his spectacles to take a better look at the book of Spirit magic in front of Fort. “Dangerous magic, that. The Pendragon so feared the book that he insisted it be returned to Avalon with him when he passed. He didn’t trust even his most loyal men to have its power. Are you sure you’re up for it?”
Fort glanced at Rachel, but she still had her eyes locked on Merlin.
“I hope so, sir,” Fort said to the old wizard. “If you have another way to stop the war from happening, though, I’d love to hear it.”
Merlin sighed. “It’s either that or your father, I’m afraid. Your friend Ellora isn’t wrong about that.” Ellora sat up straighter in the corner, a slightly vindicated expression coming over her face. “But choose wisely between the two, as both actions lead to futures you won’t necessarily like.”
The playfulness of the past few minutes crashed to a halt with that, and Fort nodded silently, his hands resting on the book. With all the strangeness of Merlin’s cottage, he’d almost let himself forget what would happen if he didn’t fix things using Spirit magic. “I’ve made my choice, sir.”
“Then I hope it works out for you,” Merlin said, then stood up. “Now, children, I expect to see you all back here when the current crisis is finished. We’ll have quite a bit of training to do, Jia and Rachel, and even you, Forsythe, will have some tasks if we’re going to get you into shape for the storm that’s to come.”
“Don’t tell them anything else!” Cyrus shouted, standing up as well and jabbing a finger right through the hologram’s chest. “They can’t know or they’ll mess it all up!”
“Oh, my boy,” Merlin said, giving Cyrus a mysterious look. “You of all of them should learn to behave yourself. We both know you’ve got a lot to learn.”
“That’s none of your business, old man,” Cyrus said, giving Merlin a death look.
The old wizard just laughed. “Well, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, my boy.” With that, he began to fade in and out. “And now, the boy’s right. I should let you get back to things. You’ll have some hard times ahead of you, but I have faith that you’ll all come out okay.” He threw a look at Cyrus. “Well, most of you.”
Cyrus sighed loudly. “Just go, please?”
Merlin winked at him, then disappeared in one last glitch.
For a moment, they all were silent, probably thinking about the old man’s words as Fort was. Rachel and Jia were going to be trained by Merlin, Rachel to fight an Old One, and Jia to learn magic without spell books? And Merlin even wanted Fort to return, after this was all over? What did it all mean?
“It all means that we’ve wasted way too much time on him,” Cyrus said to Fort. “William and the others won’t be able to keep the dome up for more than another twenty minutes or so, and once the dome goes down, there’s going to be a lot of very angry soldiers coming after everyone. So can we please get back to saving the world now?”
- THIRTY-SEVEN -
CYRUS HAD A POINT: SINCE stopping Damian hadn’t changed the fact that the world would go to war using magic they acquired from studying Fort’s father, they couldn’t worry about anything else right now. After they’d fixed things, they could think about Merlin and the Old One of Time.
“What exactly do I need to do to make sure the war never happens?” Fort asked Ellora. “Who do I need to use Spirit magic on to fix things for good?”
“Lots of people, unfortunately,” she said, and began ticking them off on her fingers. “The TDA leadership. Your president. Our prime minister. China’s president. Japan’s president. Brazil’s president. The president of the EU.” She paused to take a breath, but Fort put up his hands in surrender.
“That’s a good start,” he said, wincing slightly. Even with just that list, this was going to take a while, no matter how fast he teleported around. After all, he’d need to break into some of the most highly secure places in the world.
And that wasn’t taking into account how much Spirit magic he’d have to cast. The magic had nearly taken over his mind after one spell on Damian. Who knew how hard it’d be to resist after using it on dozens of world leaders?
But if it came down to resisting versus losing his father, he’d find a way to be strong enough.
“Cyrus, I know Ellora said there was no other way, but just to be sure, you don’t know of anything else we can do either?” Rachel asked, her excitement from meeting Merlin now having faded before the coming use of Spirit magic. “I really don’t want to do it this way.”
“Ellora’s right,” Cyrus said, shaking his head. “It’s either this, or remove Fort’s father.” He gave Fort a pitying look, and Fort had to turn to the floor to hold himself together.
“Is there any way to keep Spirit magic from affecting Fort when he uses it?” Jia asked. “I think that’s what Rachel’s most afraid of.”
“That, and destroying people’s free will,” Rachel said quietly.
“From what I’ve seen, Spirit magic has that effect on any human who uses it,” Cyrus said. “Other beings, creatures more resistant to magic in the first place, can use it more easily.”
“Like dragons?” Rachel said, wincing. “Not that I’m suggesting we give it to Damian. That would unleash a whole lot of trouble.”
“Damian should be able to use it without giving in to it, yes,” Cyrus said.
An image of Damian burning down Buckingham Palace, then destroying London in the form of a giant monster made of Spirit magic flashed through Fort’s head, and he sighed. “Not from what we’ve seen. Maybe it’d be easier for me if I knew what was coming, so I could brace for it. Is there any way to see ahead?”
He looked over at Ellora, who shrugged. “It’s involving the book, so it’s too foggy for me to see. Cyrus?”
He tilted his head thoughtfully. “If you add your magic to mine, I might be able to break through the chaos.” He sighed. “Guess there’s only one way to find out.”
* * *
The first Spirit spell went easily enough. Fort teleported back to the Oppenheimer School with Ellora, then waited while Ellora froze Colonel Charles, Agent Cole, and even Dr. Ambrose. When she was done, he used Create Devotion in a Living Creature on all three, relearning the spell between each one.
“You will never give magic to adults,” Fort commanded them, and they all nodded, eager to follow his orders.
“And if any other country wants their book of magic back, you will give it to them!”
Colonel Charles seemed to struggle with this last bit, his face contorting at the very idea, but eventually he fought through it and smiled, promising he’d do as Fort said.
“And even more importantly,” Fort continued, “you’re to give my father all the best care he could possibly get, and never threaten to expel me or my friends, or take any of our memories away ever again.”
Again they made their promises, and Fort let out a huge breath. “So far so good,” he told Ellora. “I mean, I’m really tempted to make Colonel Charles beg me for forgiveness, but I’m able to resist it, so that’s a good sign. Who’s next?”
Over the next half hour, they made their way down her list, stopping to look up any presidential house or office they needed pictures of, so that Fort could teleport them in and out. It turned out to be a whirlwind tour of the most powerful places on earth, from Zhongnanhai in China’s Imperial City to Strasbourg, France, and the president of the European Parliament’s office in the Louise Weiss building, to Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street in London.
The final stop was the Oval Office, which Fort didn’t need a photo reference for (not to mention he’d accidentally teleported inside it when he was first learning Space magic). After using his magic on everyone present, including the president, vice president, and the joint chiefs, Fort sent them all out of the room, first asking the president to grab him a soda while he sat down behind the desk to see how it felt.
“What are you doing?” Ellora asked him, looking worried.
“Just resting,” Fort said, smiling widely as he put his feet up. “That was a lot of magic in a short time. Did we get everyone?”
“I think so.” Her eyes went black, and she slowly began to smile. “Yes, we did it, Forsythe! I can’t see any war in the future, not anymore! We actually stopped it from happening!” She began to shake slightly and rubbed her arm over her eyes. “I can’t believe it, after all this time—”
Fort nodded slowly, glancing at some of the paperwork on the president’s desk. “Yeah, it’s pretty great, I guess.”
This seemed to take her aback. “What do you mean, you guess? We saved the world!”
“From the war, maybe,” Fort said as the president brought him his drink. “Oh, thanks, Mr. President. Can I get some snacks, too? Popcorn maybe?”
“Of course, sir!” the president said, and quickly left the room.
“Wasn’t that the whole reason we did this, to stop the war?” Ellora asked.
“Yeah, but I’m starting to wonder if you and William didn’t have a point,” Fort said. “I mean, what are we doing here? I’ve got the magic to completely change the world, make everyone care about each other, end violence, that kind of thing. Isn’t it almost worse to not do it, if I have the power?”
Ellora seemed even more unsure now. “But before, you were against that. I think the magic might be changing you.”
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” Fort said with a shrug. “But am I wrong? I could make it so no one ever goes hungry again. I could make sure all the homeless have shelter, everyone has a job, no one hurts anyone else. Maybe the magic’s just opened my eyes, you know?”
Ellora slowly nodded. “I wanted to use it for that from the start, but I still don’t like this. This is why you wanted Rachel to watch over you, to make sure the magic didn’t affect you.”
“Eh, she’ll never know,” Fort said. “Not unless it works. And then she’ll be too happy to care.”
“I don’t think she will be,” Ellora said. “Listen, I think we should go back to the cottage and talk this through. Just so we’re sure you’re sure.”
Fort smiled. “We’ll just start small. That way we’ll know if it works, and then we can talk it through. Deal?”
His hands glowed orange for the slightest of moments, as did Ellora’s head. And then the light disappeared, and she matched his smile. “Okay, fine, deal,” she said. “I’m not even sure why I’m arguing with you.”
Fort nodded. “Me either.”
The first thing they did was have the president order all nuclear warheads to be disarmed, just to see how it went. A few military generals tried to argue, but Fort used his magic on them as well, and it was smooth sailing after that.
When that worked so well, they teleported to Moscow and ordered the same of the president of Russia and his military. “And make sure never to attack anyone again!” Fort shouted as they teleported away.
“This wasn’t exactly starting small,” Ellora told him. “Not that I’m complaining!”
“Well, it was working, so I figured, why hold back?” he said. “I bet Rachel feels completely differently about all of this when she sees what we accomplished. What’s next?”
The next few hours became a blur, teleporting from corporations to dangerous dictatorships, doing whatever they could as quickly as possible. Soon, they’d set up regular shipments of food to poverty-stricken countries, freed the people from some of the most dangerous leaders in the world, and even made sure hungry kids had free school lunches back in the U.S.
“Maybe we should head back to the cottage, just so they don’t worry about us?” Ellora said as they lay on top of George Washington’s head on Mount Rushmore, resting between visits. “They’re definitely going to be wondering where we are by now.”
“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Fort said, and his hands glowed orange again. “Honestly, I don’t want to hear it from Rachel if we go back now.”
Ellora laughed. “Right? She’s such a rule follower. Lighten up, Rachel!”
“Maybe she’d have a point,” Fort said, looking at his fingernails. “Do you think I’m losing control here, Ellora?”
She snorted. “Of course not! You’re completely in control. If you want to stay out here forever, fixing the world, I’m with you!”
He touched his chest with his palm. “Aw, thank you! That means a lot. But maybe we should go back and bring Rachel, Jia, and Cyrus in on this. Feels mean to leave them out, huh?”
“But what if they don’t think it’s a good idea?” Ellora asked.
“Then I’ll make them, ” Fort said, his hands glowing orange. He grinned again, then opened a portal back to the cottage. “And anyone else who tries to take this power away from me. After all, I’m the one saving the world. They should all be bowing before me!”
A few feet away, a translucent Fort dropped to his knees, feeling like he was going to puke. “This is what I become?” he whispered to an equally translucent Cyrus, who stood next to him, watching the future Fort and Ellora teleport back to Merlin’s cottage. “Rachel was right—I can’t handle the magic! Either it completely changed who I am, or this was somehow … inside of me all along.” He dry-heaved at the thought. “But whoever this is? It’s not me. It can’t be!”
- THIRTY-EIGHT -
SPIRIT MAGIC IS THE MOST powerful of all the types, in some ways,” Cyrus said quietly, tired after fighting against the fog of the book of Spirit magic. “And it has a greater hold on the wielder than any other kind, by its nature. Humanity just can’t control it, Fort. No one has been able to. Even King Arthur fell victim to its charms eventually. But that doesn’t mean you still couldn’t use it to stop the war—”
“I don’t want to use it!” Fort shouted. “I thought that I’d be able to stop before, but look at what that version of me just did! Look at what I did! How do you know I’d stop this time, when I didn’t here?” He gestured at the spot where his future self had stood.
“Because now you know what’s coming, like you said back in the cottage,” Cyrus said. “So you can prepare yourself.”
“Can I?” Fort shouted. “Future me just used Spirit magic on a friend, and was about to use it on three more, including one who hated the very idea of it, not to mention you. What kind of monster does that?” He gritted his teeth, not able to wipe the memory of Ellora agreeing with everything he said out of his mind. “I kno
w I wanted to do good, and I still think all those things would help the world. But right now, it just all feels so wrong, so disgusting!”
“You stopped a war and saved countless lives, Fort,” Cyrus said. “No matter what you did, that was a good thing—”
“But to do it, I took away people’s free will!” Fort shouted. “I put them through the same thing Rachel went through with the Old Ones. Did you see their faces, how they all looked at me?” He thought back to Damian bowing to him and how he’d liked it at first. “How far do I go, Cyrus? What comes next? You can see it, can’t you? Tell me.”
Cyrus looked away. “You don’t want to know.”
“No, but I need to,” he whispered. “Show me. Please, Cyrus. Please.”
Cyrus sighed, and Mount Rushmore changed to what looked like a throne room, one covered in red wallpaper and velvet curtains. Buckingham Palace, the same spot Damian had burned down in another future vision.
And there, in one throne at the end of the room, an older Fort sat with a crown on his head looking incredibly lonely. Chad, Bryce, and Sebastian all stood by his side, but clearly under his Spirit magic from their expressions.
As for the rest of his friends, they were nowhere to be found, Spirited or otherwise.
“You take over, Fort,” Cyrus said at his side, as Fort just stared in horror. “You’ve got good intentions, but too many people try to stop you, and you can’t resist the magic. So you take over everything. You name yourself king and eventually turn on everyone, friends and enemies alike, until it’s just you alone.”
“This can’t be real,” Fort said, staring at himself with the worst disgust he’d ever felt.
“It is,” Cyrus said sadly. “You protect all the people of the world, but only by making them follow your every order.”
Another wave of bile hit Fort, and he almost threw up. Whoever this version of him was, he couldn’t let him come to pass. He couldn’t allow any of this to happen!
