Chapter 27: An Overdue Conversation

November 1st 1994, Hogwarts

It was when I was walking towards my room, that I heard a very loud gasp. I look around to look at a ghost. A ghost with a very familiar face.

“Mama??”

“Mordred??”

I couldn’t believe she was here all this time. As a ghost no less, her regrets must have weighed on her so much that she chose to remain as a shell of herself, a remnant, rather than to pass on. I didn’t like seeing her suffer like this, for so long, alone.

“How can you be here, how are you still alive after all this time. Why did you leave me?” She asked

“Mordred, my child, I have missed you so much. The answer to that question is a long story, but you have to know that I would never abandon you.”

“So, what happened?”

I never did tell one the entire truth about me but I guess she deserves to know some of it, to achieve closure and pass on. “I once told you that I was older than I looked. I may have neglected to tell you how much. I’m old, Mordred, so very old. I was there when the pyramids were being built, I was there when Zeus killed his father to get his throne, I was there when Rome was birthed, I was there in the battle of Troy. Hell, I was there when Atlantis fell, when the Asgardians battled on our world. I have seen things you would not believe, I fought enemies that could destroy the planet in seconds, gods, demons, aliens. I have lost things you will never understand. I have protected this world from annihilation time and time again. I hunt those that break the natural law, I am the Morrigan, the mistress of death.”

Mordred floated next to me, she looked so lost, so heartbroken.

“Did I mean anything to you, or was I something you could satisfy your curiosity. I have grieved for you so much; I didn’t even know your real name. Was any of it real?”

“Of course, it was real. You know what the worst thing about being as old as me? It’s the loneliness. I was completely alone and I had nothing to do. History is exciting for people during their great events but you never notice how far in between they are. I needed someone to keep me grounded and then I saw a girl who was being tortured by her mother. I could see no love between them, just a greedy woman and a scared child and it broke my heart. No child should have eyes with so little light and so I took you away from her. The next decade was one of the best of my life. I have loved you with more passion than I had ever thought possible and for the first time in my life I wasn’t alone anymore. I worked out a way to make your life longer. I wanted us to be mother and daughter forever.”

“Then what happened?” she asked curiously.

“Then Myrddin happened. He was an old apprentice. One that I hoped would stop me from being lonely. But he was selfish and deluded. He was impatient and righteous but worst of all he was arrogant. He foresaw your fate killing Arthur and destroying everything he had built and decided to kill you before you became a threat. He didn’t know that I already destroyed your fate when I took you from Morgause and so he attacked you, creating the enemy he wished to destroy.”

“You knew of my fate and didn’t tell me?” she asked angrily.

“Yes and no. Time is flexible but there are fixed points. I knew what would happen if I didn’t take you from Morgause but not anything after. If your fate was a fixed point, I gave you the tools to deal with it.”

“What tool?”

“The sword, Mordred. Anduril was a magnificent blade but its most powerful attribute was its ability to make fate shift to the wielder’s favor. It was my ultimate weapon to protect you. Not that it worked in the end.”

“What about your fight in Myrddin. Why did you disappear?”

“I was very short sighted during the fight and didn’t really take it seriously. Myrddin was wielding a weapon. Remember the amulet with the green gem?” She nodded. “Well, it’s very powerful and dangerous artifact, one he didn’t truly understand but could use somewhat. And I was afraid. Afraid for your safety, afraid to kill Myrddin because the amulet would be lost forever and that was not an option. But most of all, I was afraid of being seen, my true self, by you. What would you think? I was so lonely for so long and I wanted to be normal and so I fought like a normal witch. A very skilled normal witch but normal nonetheless.

In the end, he caught me off guard with that last attack, I got him back don’t worry and I somewhat shielded against his last spell but not perfectly. I was frozen in time. I got to you as fast as I could but it was too late, you were gone.”

Mordred was crying now; I could see the two streams of water going from her eyes.

“I’m so sorry Mama, I don’t know what came over me. I thought I killed you. I lost my way without you. I was so angry, so hurt. Morgause found me, used me to her purpose and, I guess she got her weapon in the end. I knew deep down that what I was doing wasn’t something you would want. And when I was dying, I didn’t think you would be happy to see me, so I resisted. I don’t think I could handle you hating me. So, I chose to stay. I roamed the world for a while then I saw that Camelot had turned to a school for some reason, so I stayed here.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I could never hate you, Mordred. I did far worse things than you, kiddo.”

“So, you’re the Morrigan, huh? You had a reputation you know. Your legends alone stopped people from doing abominations using magic. Even when Morgause wanted to create a spell to resurrect and enslave Ser Lancelot, she decided against it in fear of you hunting her. Tell me, what did really happen with the Asgardians? Because some of the stories are absurd.”

“Now, Mordred, some things should stay secret. You didn’t think it would be so easy did you.” I answered with a sly smile on my face.

“Anyway, I’m guessing you’re not going by Morgan Le Fey now. That would raise some flags.”

“Oh yeah. Imagine Dumbledore’s face when her realizes that the darkest witch of all time, Morgan Le Fey is in his school. Well, my school. I did help found it. Like what we’ve done with the place? I was kinda petty after you died and took Camelot. I didn’t have anything to do with it so I suggested to the other founders to use it as a school. Of course, I didn’t tell them what it used to be. They would have had a heart attack if they knew. I took the name Jasmine Evanshade or Jasmine Potter if you want to, for this time.”

“Jasmine Potter, as in Nathan Potter’s sister?”

“I didn’t know ghosts gossip this much. Please don’t tell me you’re not a fangirl or something.”

“No! I know the boy. He welds my sword. I helped him slay a basilisk with it.”

Huh, so that really happened. I told Salazar not to prolong the life of his familiar. I said it would drive her mad. Now look, the weapon that was supposed to protect the school attacked its students. He never listened to me; I swear.

“Really, now, isn’t that interesting.”

“I have been training him. Teaching him how to use a sword, like you taught me. He is my descendant and Anduril found him worthy.”

“I don’t mind you training him, I guess skills are supposed to be passed on.”

“So how are you Jasmine Potter? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Jasmine Potter is what I was once, what I could have been if things went differently. I wasn’t born in the past Mordred. I was Jasmine Potter but when I accidentally got back in time, I chose to be the Morrigan. Jasmine Potter is not my name, not even my true name. I am the Morrigan now and always.”

“Nathan told me what happened to his sister. What the muggles did to her. I’m sorry.”

“I am not the only one that suffered. You did too, so did many other. It’s been so long; I don’t even remember them anymore. There comes a time in a person’s life where he has to accept what happened and move on.”

20th of November 1994

The first task was near and you could tell from the energy in the castle. Everyone was anticipating the event. Everything so far was going great. Rose’s training is going very well, she even surprised me a couple of time how fast she’s learning. Definitely faster than Myrddin. I wonder what her reaction would be if I told her she has surpassed the ‘Mighty Merlin’.

Oh yeah, the wand weighing ceremony happened and I gave Ollivander my old wand. One he couldn’t even identify the core. The wood being Yew unsettled everyone of the competitors. The core was actually one of my hairs since I am considered a magical creature by now. It’s a better match for me than any other possible core. Not that I use the thing anyway. It’s like asking an Olympic cyclist to ride a bike with training wheels.

I checked the wards and everything was fine other than someone creating wards to suppress mine and the other founders blood wards. Adding the fact that the castle’s consciousness itself was somewhat suppressed so it couldn’t protect the school properly. There was no permanent damage, I’ll handle it later.

The fist task was dragons, like I expected. I felt them the moment they were near. Dragons have a majestic aura to them, even the downgraded ones today have a remnant of that. I can immediately sense them, especially since I spent some time with the elder dragons.

Anyway, an interesting thing happened. Nathan told Rose about the dragons and asked her to tell me. Kinda sweet considering that he was avoiding me since I got to Hogwarts. Not that I care, it’s his problem.

I focus on the lesson I’m going to teach Rose. My specialty: Runes. My sister was sitting in front of me, giving me her full concentration.

“Runes are one of the most flexible and powerful fields of magic. It’s also extremely underrated. What is a rune? A rune is a written command that manipulates magic to make something happen. A true master of runes can make anything possible. You don’t even have to use your magic to power the spell but other’s or even a ley line, although that’s very delicate work. Any type of energy can be used to power a rune. The rune, absorbs the energy, converts it if it’s needed and shapes it to fulfill its purpose.

But why does a certain language matter? What gives a rune meaning? For a rune to exist, it must have made an impact with reality. Meaning, that reality must recognize the symbol and give it power and to get reality to recognize something, an enormous number of people must either believe it or have faith in it. The first rune was built with faith in mind. Of course, us humans don’t like waiting for something, so we were able to create rituals by sacrificing slaves, to make them have meaning. We replaced faith and belief with life force. The Aztecs, the Mayans, even the ancients Egyptians used this method to create their runes. There are other rumored ways to create runes. For example, in Norse mythology, their runes were created by Odin when he sacrificed one eye for it. Odin is a god or at least a very powerful being, so sacrificing his sight permanently was theoretically enough to create some very powerful runes that we use to this day.”

“But how does this help in a duel? I understand if someone wants to be an enchanter it would be important, but I don’t have time to write or carve things in a duel.”

I laugh, to her obvious confusion.

“Now that is an interesting question. Over the years, rune masters have developed their own ways to fight using runes. Usually using artifacts, they created themselves with premade runic spells carved into them, only needing a bit of magic to work. In Japan, there are legends of a man that could teleport anywhere to his knives using fuinjutsu or sealing, their own type of runes. And when I mean anywhere, I mean through any anti apparition ward, or even from them. They say he killed a thousand enemies with just his knives, no other magic. “

“Whoa!” She said gaping.

“But the pinnacle of fighting using runes is more than that. It’s called rune casting and that’s what I’ll be using in the first task.”