Chapter 291: The Impossible Choice
3rd March 2013, Sayre Manor
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
Steeling my emotions, I spoke up, "Alright then! You have made your choice. I let a lot of your actions slide, when others like me would have killed you for your insolence. I was wrong to train you as my heir. I'm sorry that things have come to this, sister."
I started to do something that I haven't done in a very long time. I wave my hands and thousands of little runes appeared from thin air and flew towards the kneeling witch "Rose Potter, as your vanquisher, I bind you. You will forget Jasmine Potter's true identity, you will forget her secrets and never speak of her magics, and you will spend the rest of your days doing your best to stabilize the magical world."
With these words the magic took hold, Rose was bound and fell unconscious, and I lost a sister. I did my best to repress the tears that came to my eyes.
I stared at my former sister's unconscious body, hoping that this was all a dream, and that I hadn't just destroyed my relationship with my sister. I kept watching her using Death's sight. I was doing my best to locate her bond to me, hoping that there remained a small trace of anything connecting us, positive or negative, I just didn't care one bit. My relationship with my sister was complicated and Rose was very hurt by her brother's death and was probably devastated for her parents' sudden demise. There should have been something connecting us, and yet nothing remained, the magic I had cast was final and unpredictable. I couldn't take back what I had done, not that I even understood why I have done it.
These kinds of magic were very dangerous and I don't know what came over me when I used it on my sister of all people. She just kept blaming me for every misfortune she ever had, every crushed hope and dream, and in the middle of it, I realized that I couldn't trust her to act in my stead. This couldn't be how the future Queen of Avalon was supposed to act. She wasn't a young teenager anymore; she was an adult that was old enough to know better. And so, without even thinking, I did something dangerous and wild. I don't even know why I chose this kind of magic, but it doesn't matter now. I couldn't undo what has been done. The ink is dry.
It was a field of magic that I experimented on when I was younger and foolish. I called it evocation magics, where I used a mix of reality and mind magics to alter someone entirely. It could only be used on someone who is subservient to you, so either on a disciple, servant or vanquished opponent. I don't even know which one Rose counted as, to be honest. The magic alters the reality and mind of the victim while following the binding spoken by the castor. The more promises I make, the more intensive the spell is.
It was a quick and easy way to cast a reality spell, and it couldn't be undone. Well, it wasn't exactly easy, more like fast and without too many complications if you understand the concept, but you're never sure about the results since magic can do anything as long as the binding promises are met. You could use the same concept on objects to enchant them, but the results tended to be unpredictable.
I shouldn't have used something like this on my sister of all people, and I do regret it immensely. Lost in thought, I didn't notice Loki and Thor getting up from their bindings and walking towards me, looking worried.
The God of Mischief spoke up first, "Are you alright, Lady Morrigan?"
I gave him a grim smile, "Yes, I will be. I think I'll need some time to set things straight. Do you mind if I suspend your lessons for a few days?"
They nodded and Thor answered, "Take as much time as you need."
Remembering a detail, I snorted, "So, how did a mortal witch get the better of both of you? Rose was formidable, yes, but the two of you together should have been able to take her down without too many issues."
Thor looked sheepish, "She took us by surprise. She teleported in and kept attacking us. We knew that she was your sister. We thought her to be enchanted and did not wish to harm her."
I looked at Loki, trying to see if he would confirm the truth. Seeing his slight nod, I sighed, "Alright then. Next time if someone attacks you, try to apprehend them at the very least, no matter who they are. It's better to be safe than sorry."
The two boys looked down and I walked away to my room. I had a lot to think about. There was something wrong with what happened to Rose. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Before future Wanda messed with divination as a whole, I had seen the path that Rose would walk. She would be my sister; I would teach her everything that she ever needed. She would be the Queen of Avalon, after which I would retire. In almost all of the futures ahead, this was Rose's fate.
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She would have been great, and strong. And she would have led the magical world to a new golden age filled with progress and innovations. She would have destroyed the Court of Shadows and made a new system of magical government that wouldn't necessitate depowering children for the sake of stability.
It was the way I chose to pass the torch. She would have been a better leader than me, by focusing solely on the magical world, and mages would have been better for it. It was also why I had let a lot of her transgressions slide. She was a flawed human, but I was confident that she would be more than just that.
It was also why I left the Court to her. It would have been her crowning achievement, her ascension to the Queen of Avalon and protector of the magical world. But the woman that I saw wasn't the leader that I envisioned. She wasn't the protector that I tried to train. She was just an angry bitter woman who hated that everything didn't go the way she wanted and blamed me for it. Something had gone wrong; someone had meddled somehow. Someone didn't want Rose to ascend to her role and I needed to know who.
It doesn't matter really; I would have never allowed Rose to ascend if she had continued her path. I had a test ready to see if she would have thrived as I was sure she would have. But lately, she was so angry, so spiteful, so ungrateful, so mortal. I guess in many ways this wasn't too surprising, I am thousands of years old, and I was still dealing with my immortality.
I had planned to offer Rose immortality, or at least a lifespan similar to an Asgardian's. But with the way she was behaving, she would have lost herself quite quickly. She would have fallen into the same trap that I did long ago, and she would have broken. There was a reason I tried to desensitize her to murder, to isolate her from the other mortals, and it wasn't out of cruelty or greed, it was out of kindness.
Getting attached to people was just so easy, so beautiful, and yet so heartbreaking when they die. Having this happen constantly would drive anyone mad. It would have driven me mad without Selene. She was my rock, my anchor. No matter how many people I lost, she was always there, comforting me. She might resent it, but I know that her love for me trumps any pain at seeing my heartbreak every time.
Perhaps, Selene was right all along. I have tried my best to pretend to be human, to be mortal. I constantly lived among them, but that was because I had to. I was bound by time and fate to follow certain roles, meet certain people, and get attached. But I was free now, wasn't I? The time loop was over, my shackles were broken, and yet I was still shackled by attachments.
I had convinced myself for so long that I was just a mortal with a long life, for the sake of my sanity, but no more. I am not a mortal, I am not human, no matter how much I wished I was. I am more, I have always been more, and I will not hide who I am, what I am.
With that realization, I spoke up. I didn't know why I did so; I was alone in my room. But it just felt right, "I am more than the last Atlantean, I am more than a warrior, an Asgardian. I am more than just an immortal. I have ascended, becoming more than a being of flesh and blood. I am the Morrigan, and I will not hide. I am the Morrigan, and I am free!"
With this proclamation, something unlocked inside of me. I felt a burden lift from my shoulders, and everything felt lighter, and more colourful. The war warring inside me, trying to solve the conflict of my nature was gone. I was always fighting my own nature, trying to pretend to be mortal, to not be alone, but now I have accepted the fact that I am unique. No one has walked on the line separating life and death as I did. With my statement, my internal war was over, and I was free.
And with that done, my mind felt clearer. I hadn't realized how much this internal war was clouding my mind, and affecting my decisions. I looked back and saw my foolishness. I did not use my cosmic powers, choosing to be as inefficient as possible and turn it into magic and then teach it. I did not need to protect the magical world, they were their own civilization, and should they wish to ruin themselves, they are free to do so.
I didn't need to save the mutants; they should have saved themselves. I didn't need to be attached to a single civilization, for I have survived many more before them. The duties that I have forced on myself, have been nothing more than just shackles, to bind me to humanity. This planet was nothing more than a populated rock, no different from the millions if not billions of them across the stars, and humanity is just a race. And what is different between them in the end? A mortal is a mortal after all. The only threat that mattered was Entropy and afterwards, I will leave this cursed rock and explore the universe. There had to be more out there than this planet.
And now, looking back, I can accept that my judgement of Rose was sound. She was no longer my sister. She is still a disciple who will do her best to stabilize the magical world as I have bound her to do. She will use my magic to protect it, defend it, perhaps even rule it. Evocation magic was very wild. Perhaps, if she does a good job, I'll allow her to regain her title as Queen of Avalon, but we would be strangers then, and she would be nothing more than a successor of an aspect of my duties.
The question that remained was, who was the one that killed the whole Court of Shadows? That level of planning, of resources, to kill all the members at the same moment, was impressive. I needed to examine the corpses, to determine the methods and causes of Death. Rose's fall shouldn't have happened in the first place, nor should her parents have died. Someone engineered it, someone, who knows about her future role as my heir and wanted her out of the way.
I'll need to resolve this mystery quickly; the convergence was nearing and Odin's help with Entropy depends on Asgard's freedom from 'Those Who Sit Above in Shadow'. I didn't have the luxury of messing this up.
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