Merlin's Lost Treasures (David McKinnon)

Erika doubted a small amount of blood would work. Not with what she had seen.

Admittedly it was probably something she should have mentioned before. "Sorry but you left in a hurry and there were a lot of spells to remember! It's just I remembered that the first use of golems recorded came from Jewish mythology. They were created by Hebrew words. If you knew the root word imbued in them you could manipulate it and alter its form. That's what my sword did to make it weaker. It changed the root of the the word at the heart of it," she remarked, in case they should come against other ones. "I saw how one of the mages altered that one," she added unnecessarily.

She closed her eyes, trying to recall what came next. "Okay...Three floors. Three does seem to be a particularly special magical number. The first floor wasn't supposed to be particularly special. Some showy golems and outside spells and wards...It was meant more as a distraction. It was supposed to physically exhaust mages by fighting, drain them through use of basic magic spells. Second floor is much tougher. Lots of mind magic type things involved."

"I can't guarantee the order. I think spells alternate...But...I believe there's some sort of isolation spell so even if a group comes down the people are separated." The mages in her vision had been separated when they originally came down together. She doubted that was something they had chosen for themselves.

"A straight line of various rooms, you have to go through, break them spell by spell. There's a room with magic that attacks your mind, makes you hallucinate, shows you your worse nightmares. Another room where there's a double of you that you need to defeat but it's complicated. The other you has all of your powers and your way of thinking but it's not exhausted, drained the way you are. And if you hurt your double, you're hurt in the same location," she began in a rush, trying to recall what else was on this floor. There had been so much magic and she'd gone through it rather quickly in the vision. And when she pulled them up again she'd been looking for location and names, not specific spells.

This was the floor she would have a lot of difficulty with. She figured her imagination fueled magic wouldn't be particularly helpful with tough mind magic. And she hadn't really had any lessons about any of this.

Erika simply nodded and followed behind him. The whole explaining her visions to people was new. She had been taught not to do that as people had a tendency to tell her she was nuts. She had almost been committed to an institution once. Since she'd didn't have practice describing what she saw she wasn't particularly sure what was relevant. And although her visions were never good at giving her a specific location or time frame that wasn't to say there wasn't a ton of information crammed in her head in a small amount of time. Sorting through everything could be dizzying. One hour of examination wasn't really enough to pick everything apart.

She didn't take offense with his advice. It was useful. And sorting out all of the spells would likely be impossible. If she remembered something significant or she felt something she'd mention it at the time. She'd be the one who would need the extra help with mind magic anyway.

As they moved forward it was like she had feared. One moment her teacher was standing right next to her and then she was in another room entirely, isolated. This...Was not going to be fun.

Although she was alone at the moment there was nothing that seemed to be attacking her, no scary visions assaulting her mind. She tried to figure out what the deal with this room was. And then the wrongness hit her. She didn't know how it was possible...It shouldn't have been possible but she felt...extremely cut off. It was suddenly as though there was simply no more water to access. No water in the air...or around her...She felt isolated from even the intrinsic connection she had with the water in her own body.

She tried to summon water to her side and...nothing. What was this? Some sort of ward to prevent people from using magic, disconnecting them from their element? Then what? That couldn't be all there was to the room. Something must come for her while she was floundering, trying to figure out how to break through the spells and wards when her magical essence seemed to be...suspended.

What...What in the world was she supposed to do in a situation like this?

Erika had been thinking too simply. There would be no physical monster she needed to contend with. Instead voices started flowing into her head. Voices of people long dead. Most belong to dark, cruel mages, the ones that had helped construct these wards and barriers. Some that had freely and willfully helped and others that had been dominated to do so. Not all were mages. Some voice belonged to the victims, the people sacrificed to create this work and there were so many of them.

Violent murderous thoughts buzzing around her head. Anger. Hatred. Malevolence. Desires not fulfilled. Curses. It was hard to keep a grasp of who she was. So many powerful voices that did not belong to her. So much loathing and enmity. So much malice.

She painfully clutched at her head, trying to silence the voices, trying to make it stop. It wasn't her. These thoughts weren't her own. But the longer the voices roared and droned the harder it was to think of herself as her. She lost sight of Erika and was instead filled with the stories and ambitions of men long since dead.

A tiny spark of her old self remained. Enough to realize that this wasn't right and that she would lose herself completely if she allowed this to continue. But what could she do? She was still a she wasn't she? It was blurry...groggy...indistinct...Something about magic...Magic she couldn't use...Water?

Her eyes rolled back into her head and she found herself in the throes of another seizure. Normally she'd realize what this meant but the voices...It was confusing and they in turn seemed confused...All but one...Merlin's voice understood.

Seer. The word was branded in her head, like burning flames before her eyes. That word..Merlin's voice. It was the last she heard. Then everything faded, including the voices and she was somewhere else entirely.

But she knew...This...This was different from anything before. The way the air smelled...It was different. This wasn't something that might come to pass. This was something that had already happened.

Erika was always somewhat aware of herself as she saw whatever it was her premonitions had to show her. Aware of her surroundings, no. But she understood that she was Erika seeing something. And despite her earlier grogginess, that concept, that sense of self was back; and, she was very much confused. She had never seen the past before.

Two finely dressed people having a heated argument, both radiated strong magical energies. As Erika saw both paused in their discussion and looked around, as if searching for a disturbance. Searching for Erika? Was that possible? Her physical body wasn't even in this time period. She had never believed her visions left behind any substantial trace of anything. She just saw. She was simply somewhere else. But were these powerful sorcerers somehow sensing her presence?

The two quickly muttered some spells and confirmed that they were alone. They still looked slightly troubled; but, they resumed their argument.

Names were dropped or rather screamed in frustration and irritation. Merlin. Morgana. The two could not come to a consensus.

Emotions boiled over. Merlin was the first to cast a spell. Spells...chanting...non-verbal magic too...the room was a barrage of battle magic. Merlin tried to ensnare Morgana's mind, fill her heads with voices and desires that did not belong to her. She stumbled but her will was too strong. Rapidly chanting counter curses. Exhausted but victorious.

The battle went on and on. But eventually it was Morgana who dropped dead and Merlin who stood over her corpse, looking anguished but determined.

Erika's eyes snapped back into place but she couldn't see. Blood was pooling from her brown irises . Such a strong vision. She was completely blinded by the red for a moment. And the voices...They came screaming back.

But that vision had given her a moment of clarity. It had reminded her of who she was and what she was here to do. And Morgana....Morgana had used spells to cleanse her mind. Erika didn't possess her magical control but she wasn't dealing with the real flesh and blood Merlin either. The severity of the spell would be much less. But her magic...At least she wasn't able to use her water magic.

Or was she? Was it an illusion? All in her head? She was definitely dealing with mind magic here.

She closed her eyes and as clearly as possible tried to recall the spells Morgana had cast to diffuse the voices and desires. It wasn't easy. The nagging voices in her head tried to overrule her action, distract her. Could she summon the force of will to remember and then act with all this mental shrieking?

Shrieking. Screaming. Wailing. Eyes still bleeding. But she still had a grasp on her sense of self. She was Erika Danielles, sister of Jun-kun, daughter of a dead mage and a drunken surgeon. She mentally repeated her name again and again as she concentrated on her vision. It was tricky and sluggish work but she slowly recalled bits and pieces of the spell.

Eventually the spells were extracted and memorized. She ignored the fact that she seemed to be cut off from water. Instead she focused on the image of Morgana, powerful sorceress, incredible healer, Lady of the Lake.

She slowly began to chant the spells, hoping she'd have the necessary will power to deter the voices from bugging her if not outright expel them.

She was trying to tune out the voices and only concentrate on the spells when a new voice grabbed her attention. Her teacher! He was back! Maybe he could help her!

But first...She should finish. She nodded in his direction, indicating she was aware of his presence but this was important. She was almost done. A few more lines and she'd be able to determine the success or failure of what she'd done.

The voices were growing more discontented and angrier. There was a horrible buzzing sound, as they all tried to scream profanities and curses at her, distract her from her work. Was that a good thing? Did that mean she was accomplishing something?