by J. M. Briggs
“Merlin! Listen to yourself,” Morgana snapped, and Alex could see a flush of red working its way up her teacher’s neck. Merlin stopped pacing, and Morgana exhaled slowly to calm down. “I’m worried too. I know I’m hard on the reincarnations of that pair, but they know what they are now. Besides; I’ve noticed no homosexual tendencies in Alex that lead me to be concerned about she and Jenny starting a doomed romance in this life.”
Alex kept herself from making a noise at that statement. She slipped a hand over her mouth to muffle any giggles and noticed Morgana glance towards the screen with a tiny smile.
“Perhaps it could go the other way this time!” Merlin still sounded agitated.
“Well, our observations of Lance are that he is a very polite, compassionate and intelligent young man, but he has been infatuated with Jenny since they first met, despite her dating Arthur,” Morgana said. There was a hint of a smile on her face. “For once those two actually seem to be making an effort at behaving like adults. Besides, Alex is fond of them and it is her decision if she wants to have them accompany her. Under the circumstances I highly doubt romance is on any of their minds.”
“Morgana… how can you be so calm about this? This is Alex; you were fond of her even before we knew she was the Iron Soul. That should have tipped us off: you were so fond of the girl. Why are you behaving so calmly like this?”
“We do seem to have traded roles,” Morgana agreed. “But to quote someone I know, ‘we can't keep her under lock and key. Need I remind you of how much some of her incarnations have chafed at the very idea?”
There was an odd note in Professor Cornwall’s voice, and Alex was certain that it was Merlin that Morgana was quoting. Morgana had a pleased little smile on her face and it was difficult for Alex not to giggle, but the revelation that they talking about her and her other lives helped still the impulse. Alex could hear Merlin huff and then sigh loudly.
“Touché Morgana,” Merlin agreed, still out of view. It was silent for a moment before he asked, “Do you think they can find it? You and I accepted the Iron Chalice lost to us a very long time ago.”
“That’s not entirely true; you did go on that three-year quest for it back in the 14th century, or was it the 15th century?”
“There was nothing important going on then, but I searched across Wales and even down into Devon. Galath hid it well.”
“Perhaps we lack the right perspective,” Morgana suggested. The professor leaned back in her chair and had a sharp look on her face that made Alex wish she could see Merlin’s expression. “Have you given much thought to the old stories surrounding the Iron Chalice?”
“Not recently; not since my rather ill-fated attempt to find some trace of it,” Merlin replied in a tired voice. Alex thought she heard him slump into a chair. “Dare I ask what you are thinking Morgana?”
“Bran Fisher has a great seer talent.” Morgana brought her hands up in front of her and folded them neatly. Her eyes were fixed on Merlin, and Alex once again really wished she could see the other mage. “And there is the similarity in his name that makes me a little curious.”
“His name?” Merlin chuckled warmly. “I won’t argue with his talent as a seer; if the boy was better at scrying then he’d be an immense force for our side. I can only hope that he’ll find the right medium for himself soon. But really Morgana, it is just a name, and a nickname at that.”
“Bran the Blessed and the Fisher King,” Morgana remarked with a raised eyebrow. “I can’t help but wonder. The story of the Fisher King has always been hard to trace. Perhaps magic played some role in how that tale began.” They were both silent, and Alex was almost afraid to breathe.
“We need to be worried about protecting Alex,” Merlin finally said. “Arthur is out there, and I fear he has some strange magic that he and his … mother are using to achieve these strange happenings. Alex is in danger out there alone. If Arthur finds her-”
“I half-hope he does,” Morgana countered sharply. “It would be interesting to find out which one of the girls would do the most damage: Alex, who he tried to kill after seducing, Jenny, who he used for years as a pawn or Nicki, whose friend is dying in the hospital.” Morgana glanced towards the screen and Alex. “Speaking of the hospital Merlin, I’ll guard Aiden tonight. I think your talents would be best spent trying to get more information on the Pendred family. Maybe their financials will reveal where they might be hiding.”
“Morgana?” Merlin sounded tired and shocked. “Are you truly placing greater value on saving Aiden then the life of the Iron Soul; on Arto’s current life?”
“Alex isn’t Arto,” Morgana’s eyes were locked on Alex’s through the computer screen. “She is the Iron Soul, but she is herself as well. We made so many mistakes with Gofiben because we were more concerned about protecting Arto’s legacy. I know we needed to save the sword, but we should have been worried about Gofiben too. If we had been, if one of us had stayed with him…” Morgana looked back towards Merlin. “Then maybe Alex wouldn’t be in this position.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Merlin said after a long moment of silence. “Do you think they can find the Iron Chalice?”
“I don’t know Merlin, I honestly don’t know, but I know that Alex needs to try.”
A deep sigh escaped Merlin. “Very well. You take the hospital tonight and I’ll see how far I can get with my magic on the mystery of the Pendreds.”
“Thank you, Merlin.”
There was the sound of someone crossing the room and then the door opened and closed. Morgana turned her attention back to the screen with a neutral and suddenly unreadable face. The professor gave Alex a small, rather forced smile. Alex wanted to ask why Gofiben’s brother had been so angry with them and what Morgana had meant by her statements to Merlin, but she had no words.
“Trust your instincts Alex. I hope for Aiden’s sake that whatever theory you’ve got forming in your mind about Bran is accurate and that it is enough to lead you to the Iron Chalice.”
“Thank you, Morgana,” Alex forced out. Her mouth was dry and her throat strangely sore despite her silence for the last part of the video call. “We’ll be careful,” she promised.
Morgana’s face softened and she smiled more warmly at Alex. “I’d be most grateful if you would Alex. Stay in touch just to let me know you’re safe. A simple text if you can’t manage anything more or an email.”
“I will,” Alex heard herself promise once again. “Thank you for your honesty.”
“Even when it isn’t useful, I will always try to be honest with you,” Morgana assured. “And who knows, maybe you’re right about this.”
“Don’t forget to scry for Bran’s head,” Alex added quickly, only to make a horrified face. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
Laughing, Morgana shook her head with a real smile on her face. “Get some rest Alex, and remember to follow your instincts, and if you are right then focus on following Bran. I’ll email you or call Jenny’s phone if I come up with anything.”
The video call ended and Alex collapsed back in the uncomfortable metal chair with a deep sigh and stared up at the ceiling unsure of how to feel about her life.
17
Welcome to Pembrokeshire
This train was not as nice as the other trains. It felt smaller and more confined, even though Nicki was pretty sure it was actually the same size. While the other train had lots of tables with four chairs around it so passengers could do things, this train had only one table in the whole car and was surrounded by those irritating traditional front-facing rows and rows of uncomfortable plastic chairs. Bran and Lance were on one side of the table with Alex and Jenny across from them. She was the odd one out sitting in one of the terrible forward-facing seats across from them. Five wasn’t a good number to travel with.
“So we’re heading for the biggest town in the area, but it’s still only like 13,000 people?” Lance gave them a dubious look as he shifted in the small seat. “Seriously?”<
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“This is Wales,” Bran said. “Europe really does have small towns you know.” He flipped through a couple of pages in the tourist guide he was holding.
“Anything in there we actually need to know?” Nicki leaned into the aisle trying to catch a glimpse of the pictures on the glossy pages of the guide.
“Well, Haverfordwest is the administrative center of Pembrokeshire; it’s the retail center of the area and has some distinct bluffs in the area. Oh, a village just to the south is called Merlin’s Bridge, interesting but I don’t think anything there is helpful to us.” Bran scanned through the page, his lips moving silently as he read through the information. “It’s a traditional market town and lots of the transit comes through there. The history of the area is a bit fuzzy as it’s a strategic location, but there haven’t been a lot of archeological digs in the area. Though there are traces of Iron Age and Roman occupation. The Iron Age stuff is a good sign for us.”
“I doubt this was where Gofiben lived,” Alex pointed out carefully. “Morgana probably would have been able to keep track of that with the landmarks.”
“Probably, but we might be nearby.” Bran shrugged a little. “I picked this as our first destination because it connects via train and bus to a lot of the other towns in the area.”
Nicki tried to ignore the hint of helplessness in Bran’s voice. She reminded herself that this wasn’t anyone’s fault and felt the knot trying to form in her chest loosening. Being so angry all the time was quickly becoming exhausting. Looking up, she caught Alex glancing her way and gave the other mage a reassuring nod. Bran kept flipping through his book on Wales and Nicki forced back a sigh as silence reigned in the car.
“This is so nice.” Jenny was looking out the window at the dark sky where only the faintest traces of sunrise were visible. “I wish we had more trains at home. Wouldn’t it be great if we could jump on a train to go to Portland from Ravenslake?”
“Sadly the United States is an automobile country,” Nicki said. She chuckled a bit, finding herself rather enjoying the relaxed smile on Jenny’s face. The other girl was really very beautiful, but she stopped that train of thought immediately. That was a can of worms they didn’t need open. “I doubt passenger trains will ever be as important for transit back home as they are here.”
“There’s a lot to be said for both,” Bran added. “Trains obviously have the advantage of people not needing cars and not having traffic issues, and depending on the train they are more environmentally friendly. Cars, on the other hand, provide more independence: trains can’t get you to really rural areas and you can set your own schedule with a car. I’m not sure that I’d prefer trains over cars, to be honest.”
“Uh, do you even have a car?” Nicki asked in surprise as she looked at Bran. “You always seem to ride with us… how has this never come up?”
Bran laughed.“I do have a car: Mom hated letting me drive in high school, but I was able to convince her that I needed to be able to drive myself with Aunt Haeun’s help. I don’t drive it much since it gets uncomfortable after about half an hour.” Bran gave her a look and asked, “How did you think I was getting groceries all last year?”
“I kind of just assumed that you only ate on campus,” Nicki admitted. She could feel herself blushing. “Okay, it was a bad assumption, apologies.”
“Accepted.” Bran looked like he was trying not to laugh.
“I’d still like to see more trains,” Jenny insisted stubbornly. “I don’t care much for flying and airport security, so if trains were more convenient I’d probably take them more than not for long trips.”
“Speaking of trains, whose idea was it to take the 5:30 AM train?” Alex asked as she rubbed her forehead. Sighing, she leaned against the window. Jenny patted her arm with an amused little smile. “I mean, what have you got against sleep?”
“It’s December 18th,” Bran said. He still gave Alex a sympathetic look. “We’ve got to focus on finding something that can help us.”
“I know,” Alex said. “Sorry, I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
Nicki could believe it. She’d been awake for part of the phone call with Morgana despite her exhaustion. The chance to overhear whatever information Morgana had was just too tempting to resist so she’d stayed silent underneath the blanket. Now she kind of wished that she hadn’t listened in. Her exhaustion from healing Lance had ensured that she’d fall asleep eventually, but Alex had dark rings under her eyes and a far off dazed expression.
“Right there with you.” Bran closed the book, using his thumb to keep his place. “I had a hard time sleeping myself after someone put some very worrying notions in my head,” he said pointedly with a look at Jenny.
“What?” Jenny huffed with a small pout. “You can’t deny that it’s a pretty serious coincidence. Too much of one!” Jenny looked at Alex. “What do you think Alex?”
“I don’t know,” Alex replied. “I was up for hours thinking about it, questioning what I’m prepared to believe about magic, but… I just don’t know. It seems a bit much to hope that things would align like that for us, but at the same time it is hard to ignore that Bran seems to be a walking reference to the Fisher King myth.”
“Speaking of references,” Nicki said as the tension became a little too much, “I’ve got some homework for you missy.” She opened up her backpack and pulled out the sheets of paper. “I printed this off at the hostel this morning; start reading.”
Nicki handed the pages across the aisle to Bran who took one look at them and snorted. He handed them to Alex with tightly pressed lips as he struggled not to laugh. Leaning forward, Nicki positioned herself at just the right awkward angle to see Alex’s face as she read the first lines of the printout. The blonde’s expression was a mix of amusement, disbelief, and curiosity as her gray eyes widened just a bit. A loud giggle escaped Nicki and she settled back in her chair properly with a smug smile.
“Really Nicki?” Alex asked pointedly with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “I really don’t think this is going to help me.”
“Genre savviness is important Alex,” Nicki informed her, maybe feeling a touch too smug. “That’s simply the combined knowledge of the mistakes that villains and heroes make most frequently. The Evil Overlord List!”
“I can’t see the Sídhe Queen putting me in a death trap rather than just killing me,” Alex replied.
“But isn’t that why you got out of the tunnels last time?” Bran pointed out. He was smirking and Nicki sort of wanted to give him a high five or a fist bump. “They left you alone and you escaped.”
“No, I fought my way out thank you very much, and there was a guard!”
“Do I even want to know what that stuff is?” Jenny questioned. She looked at the grinning Bran and pointed at the papers in Alex’s hand.
“Not unless they try to make you read them,” Alex muttered, though she did drop her eyes down and start reading the list.
“Okay then, have fun with that.” Jenny sent a cautious look towards Nicki that just made Nicki smile. It pleased her in a small, nasty way that the other girl was still nervous around her.
Then Jenny looked away and turned her attention to Lance, who gave her a warm soft smile. For a moment the pair seemed content to just stare at each other. Nicki might have felt her heart beat a little faster and her cheeks heat up a tiny bit at the look. There wasn’t anything sexual about the look, just… supportive. Lance was looking at Jenny like he had the entire trip; softly and affectionately, but now Jenny was returning the look. It set off a bunch of emotions that Nicki wasn’t sure what to do with.
“So do we have a plan once we get to… Havers- the town?” Jenny asked. “Or do we have a timeframe for heading north?”
“Actually, I’m thinking I’ll try meditating,” Bran said. He shifted nervously. “It helps us connect with our magic, so if we’re in the general area of something useful then maybe it will trigger a vision.” He shook his head in frustration. “I was so optimistic i
n Cardiff when I saw… well, I’m not sure what. I don’t know how useful the town proper will be to us.”
“What about the general area of this town?” Lance asked. “Anything useful there?”
Bran opened the guidebook again and flipped through a few more pages. “Well, the coastal regions of the area pretty much make up Pembrokeshire National Park. The north section of the park has some Iron Age sites that might be useful to us. If Haverfordwest is a bust then heading north will probably be our best bet, but after that, I’m not sure.”
“So we really are just relying on your visions?” Lance grimaced and shook his head. “No offense man, but that’s a little unnerving.”
“I don’t know,” Jenny said as she toyed with a strand of her hair. “I bet that Bran’s supposed to find the Chalice; maybe that’s the reason for the similarity between him and myth.” Jenny paused and looked a bit conflicted for a moment. “Maybe he’s even a reincarnation of Bran the Blessed.”
