By the time he reached Arthur’s house he was extremely tired of walking. His legs felt like lead weights. Maybe he should have spent more time exercising after all. Apparently, it did have its uses. Why had he not realized that after reading so many books about heroes?

Finally, he buzzed the house. Really, he buzzed the mansion. Something as big as Arthur’s house should never be called a house. Castle maybe. House never. One of the house servants recognized his name and buzzed for the gates to open so he could continue down the driveway.

Dang. Seeing where Frank lived and then where Arthur lived was like a slap in the face. How could society let something like that happen? One child lived alone in a makeshift shack with no water or electricity while another lived in the lap of luxury. It was so unfair. His parents worked two jobs each and they were struggling to make it. Merlin was certainly starting to understand Robert’s anger better.

Reigning in his frustration with how things could be so unfair, he knocked on the door. After a different servant opened the door, Merlin was ushered to Arthur’s room. Actually, it wasn’t so much a room as a wing of the mansion. Sheesh. He hadn’t been to Arthur’s home in years. Looking around, he realized why. He hadn’t felt comfortable around such opulence then and nothing had changed there. It was a different world to him.

Arthur greeted him warmly when they reached Arthur’s room. “Come on in,” he said, motioning Merlin to go into his room. “You haven’t come here in years. I’ve always gone to your house or Robert’s house.”

Merlin nodded, “That’s true. How are you doing?” He didn’t want to just jump straight to the point and be rude, so he might as well get the pleasantries out of the way.

“I’m doing well. And yourself?” Arthur did look well. In fact, he looked better than ever. If anything, Arthur looked like he had put on a few pounds of muscle and lost the excess weight. He even looked like he had gotten more attractive. No, there was no thinking about it. Arthur actually was more handsome. Even Merlin had to admit that. Instead of getting a wife because of his money, he might actually be able to get a wife based on his looks instead.

What in the world, Merlin thought to himself. He didn’t remember King Arthur being overly handsome. Then again, he hadn’t read a lot about King Arthur. Merlin took a moment to see what else had changed with Arthur.

“I’m doing well also,” Merlin said. “I was a little worried about you. I hadn’t seen you since, well, you know when.”

Arthur gave a kingly nod, “Things have changed a lot I imagine. As you can see,” motioning to himself.

Merlin nodded in agreement. “That was one reason I wanted to talk to you. I think something is wrong with Shirley and some of the others.”

Arthur cocked his head to the side, “Really? Such as?”

“For example, Shirley is acting really strange. Even her parents are worried. I think the mirror did something to her mind. That’s why I want to use the mirror piece we have and see if I can help her.”

Arthur made a pained expression, “Alas, we might have a problem there. Someone broke into the house and stole it. I don’t know how they did it, but the very first night someone took it. I don’t even know how they got past all the alarms.”

Had Merlin not been warned by Shirley that Arthur would betray them, he would have believed Arthur without question. Instead, he found himself doubting Arthur’s story. He hated the thought that he might not be able to trust that Arthur was telling him the truth. Either way, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“Man, that’s terrible,” Merlin said, trying to figure out what to say or do about it. He couldn’t accuse Arthur of lying. About the only thing Merlin could do was act like Arthur was telling the truth.

“Yeah,” Arthur said. “It was probably Ruth, Mr. Prince, or Ms. White. Who knows what happened to it by now? I was going to tell you guys, but there wasn’t much we could do.”

“That’s true. I guess I will need to find another way to help Shirley,” Merlin said.

Arthur strode toward one of the chairs and sat down. “Well, if you need anything, let me know,” he said, reaching over to take a book off the table next to the chair.

Realizing that was Arthur’s way of dismissing him, Merlin blinked. Uh, okay. Apparently, the king in King Arthur was starting to affect Arthur as well. “Actually, there is one more thing. I saved some lunch from school to give to Frank. He’s still not feeling well and hasn’t recovered enough to leave the bed. I also found out he is homeless. I was hoping you could let me have any extra money you can spare to help him out.”

Arthur looked at Merlin as if he didn’t know him. “I’m sorry, but he deserves whatever happens to him. There is no law that says I have to help him. In fact, if I were in charge, he’d be paying for his crimes right now. As it is now, I don’t have the power yet to change things into how they should be.”

Merlin stood there, stunned by what Arthur had said. What in the world? Everyone given powers by the mirror was changing, and not for the better. How in the world had he not started to act crazy as well? Was he acting crazy? Maybe he had already gone crazy and just didn’t know it yet.

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Was he wrong in asking Arthur for some money to buy things for Frank? Maybe they did ask Frank for money too often. Then again, he asked them for help with school. Was it so different? Was he mad because he thought they only liked him for his money? It wasn’t true, but how could he convince Arthur of that?

Not sure what else to say, Merlin muttered something about it being good to see Arthur again before being escorted off the grounds by one of the servants. First Shirley, and then Robert. After that, Belle and Peter. Finally, Arthur. What was happening? Whatever it meant, it couldn’t be good for him.

By the time he had reached Frank’s place, he was more worried than ever. Carefully opening the door, Merlin glanced inside. Frank was sitting up and didn’t seem that surprised to see him.

Motioning towards his face, which no longer needed the metal mask to keep the swelling down, he said, “Welcome to my humble abode,” while making a welcoming gesture.

Merlin blinked, not used to Frank ever showing any sense of humor. Maybe he had never really gotten to know him, however. “Hi there,” Merlin replied.

“I wanted to thank you for helping me yesterday,” Frank said, motioning for Merlin to take a seat in the one chair in the shack. “Ruth told me what you did when you were here yesterday.”

Merlin frowned, “Huh? How does Ruth know what I did?” He looked around, as if she might suddenly appear.

“She’s resting under the ground right now. In fact, the second spell you did made it much harder for her to get out from under the house. Apparently, she needed a crack to really move around. As it was, she had to dig her way out the hard way.”

Not sure if she was there again, Merlin looked to the ground and said to the air, “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. She knows you meant well. We were actually hoping you might be able to help us out some more.”

“Oh?” Merlin asked. “What do you need?”

“We want to use the mirror to reverse what happened to us. While nothing bad has seemed to have happened to me, yet, at least,” Frank said, “I’m sure that is only a matter of time. Ruth and Lucas are the ones I am really worried about.”

“I thought it might be something like that. In fact, I was already thinking along some similar lines.”

“Oh really?” Frank asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Unfortunately, we have a small problem. The person who had the mirror said someone stole it. Since that apparently wasn’t you guys, that means either Mr. Prince or Ms. White took it. Either that or the person who told me is lying.”

Frank sat on the makeshift bed for a few moments, seemingly at a loss for words. Finally, he said, “Hmm, Lucas has been keeping an eye on Ms. White. He hasn’t said anything about her going anywhere. In fact, she seems like she has been pretty preoccupied with your Mr. Prince. Apparently, he found her again.”

Merlin thought about that information for a second, then asked, “What are they doing? Are they fighting? Did she capture him?”

“They seem to be old friends. He comes by each day, and they talk for hours until it gets late. At that point, he leaves. It’s quite odd, Lucas says.”

“That is weird,” Merlin agreed. “Maybe we need to head there and confront them. It sounds like our only option if we want to break the curse.”

Frank definitely didn’t look happy with the idea, “Not my first choice, but at the moment, I don’t see a better option. Fine. Let’s do it. We can leave tonight or tomorrow. I don’t know how much longer I can keep on feeding Ruth my blood anyway.”

Merlin kept his face neutral, realizing that might have been one reason for Frank’s condition. He had been recovering from his own wounds but was a good enough friend to give up his blood even when he was already injured.

Not sure what to say, he changed the subject, “I brought some food for you,” handing over the food and milk. “I know it isn’t much, but I was hoping to get more before I got here.”

Frank took the food and shoved it into his mouth as if he was starving. “Thank you,” he mumbled through bites.

Not knowing what else to do, Merlin just sat there and waited quietly while Frank ate. Since there wasn’t that much food, it didn’t take long. In fact, it was over in a matter of seconds. He must have been really hungry.

Finally, a thought came to him. “I can’t stay here. My parents will be home eventually. Since Ruth can’t go out during the day, we need to leave tonight. Why don’t I go home and let my parents know I am going to spend the night with you? After all, there isn’t any school tomorrow anyway because of some teacher education days.”

“Yeah, don’t you just love November? We get two days at the beginning of the month when the teachers are doing teacher training, and another week later in the month for Thanksgiving.” Frank smiled at the thought of missing so much school.

“I know, and don’t forget December. Two weeks of class and then two weeks of vacation.” Both of them smiled at that thought. Yep, November and December weren’t the worst months of the school year.

“Try to get back as soon as you can though. I’m still not sure about Ruth being away from here come morning.”

“I will,” Merlin said. With that, he waved and slipped outside. By the time he got home, his parents had already picked up his sister and arrived home. Gathering a few items he might need, he let his parents know he would be staying with Frank.

As he was walking out the door once again, he wondered if maybe he should be worried about how easily he could just say he was going to some friend’s home without his parents batting an eye. He kind of knew the reason though. They trusted him. Also, the fact that once they got home from working so much, they didn’t have a lot of energy left. One less mouth to feed was an added benefit.

By the time he had made it back to Frank’s shack, it was turning dark. That meant Ruth would be waking from her rest before long. It sounded like her rest wasn’t so much a rest as just laying around waiting for night. Sheesh, that must be boring, just lying in the ground all day long doing nothing. Maybe that was another reason she wanted to get rid of the curse. More and more, he wondered how he had gotten away without paying a price for his powers.