(Sry for the Late posting)
I walked to school after a very relaxing night. Ruby slept easily, Taury and Aoi also slept well. The bed was very comfortable, and Taury became her big form, blanketing me and Aoi with her wings. It was surprisingly plush, like a fancy weighted blanket. I could see why most pixies held their wings as the most valuable thing in their lives.
I was very awake, then I sat in math class.
“Alright, everyone, today, we are talking about triangles.”
“Sir, this is a college class.”
“You think I don’t know that? We are going past anything you’ve even been able to comprehend.”
Some people groaned, including Taury. She hated math, and she, just as everyone else, knew that that meant he was going to be saying a load of things that only like three of us would understand.
{Students, could you please come down to the auditorium for a pop culture seminar.}
Everyone cheered. Seminars never happened, but supposedly there was usually one a month last year...
‘Goodness. I brought so much trouble…’
I sighed and walked with everyone down to the auditorium, and Mrs. Jones was standing on the stage. Cherry had an annoyed look and sat in the front row.
I sat behind her.
“What’s the subject of today?”
“Doctor Who…”
I blinked.
“What, are we talking about Tardis or something?”
“Theres gonna be more, but that’s the start.”
“Apparently, these seminars are popular.”
“Yeah, because people like getting out of class free. That’s it… If people actually liked what was discussed then I’d be concerned.”
“What’s wrong with Doctor Who?”
“Nothing, but when my mom talks about it, she talks scientific inaccuracies, then goes on a tangent about the several new inventions she plans on designing to mimic things from the show. Then she shows off what she made over the previous month. Then she gets back to the show, only to get bored and walk off the stage. Then we sit there for about ten minutes until a professor tells us to go to our next class.”
“Ah…”
“Heard you got a new house.”
“Yeah, Brent’s group caused us issues, so they made up for it with that place. It actually has tardis rooms.”
“Coool. I’mma have to see sometime.”
“Yeah, it’s definetly cool.”
“How’s the fireball?”
“Ruby is having fun with some of the rooms, we have a babysitter.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah.”
Then, Mrs. Jones yelled.
“Alright everybody! Who’s ready!”
Everyone cheered.
_
Yeah, I could see why Cherry didn’t like these… She spent thirty minutes explaining how things like Tardis were impossible, which may have been interesting… if I didn’t have that kind of thing in my house.
Now she was talking about we*ping angels.
“Now, while the angels themselves are impossible to exist, we may eventually be able to make devices that do similar things.”
She looked at a watch.
“I mean, a creature that feeds off of lost time after using some sorta time magic is ridiculous, but it would make for an interesting weapon.”
Taury blinked.
“Wait, human culture has Time Shadows as well?”
Then I slacked.
“Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
Then Mrs. Jones continued.
“Though, I would not be surprised if a similar acting species existed, with it not moving when looked at, of course, it would probably be if you are looking at it’s face.”
“Definitely a Time Shadow.”
“Though, it could have 360 vision. That would make sense.”
Then she seemed to be lost in thought.
“What if I designed a machine that wouldn’t move when it could register an eye in it’s camera’s, and it made spooky noises. OOH, that would be perfect for a haunted house. If I modeled it after an angel…”
She began mumbling under her breath
“Okay, not quite a time shadow.”
“What is a time shadow?”
Taury kicked her feet for a moment and sighed.
“They’re kinda similar to these things from the sound of it, but they have various forms. Never seen one that looked like an angel, but they probably exist.”
“Do they turn to stone when you look at them?”
“Depends, I’ve seen one that turned into diamond before.”
“Please tell me that they’re killable.”
“Well, not in their stone form, the running theory is that if you see them in their true form, you could kill them, but who knows. Their almost as unknown as demons.”
“Do they hurtle people through time too?”
“Nope, they just turn people to dust, but they do use time dialation to move undetected before even people who can move at relativistic speeds can’t see them.”
“So… if someone could see their true form…”
“They’d either have to be even stronger than they are at time magic, or be able to move several times faster than light. Even Zeus wouldn’t be able to do that.”
“How common are they?”
“Oh, they are so rare in this realm, and luckily, they can’t use a tesseract, so as long as you don’t enter a realm with a lot of them, I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
“Can they appear out of pictures?”
“No.”
“How do they reproduce?”
“... Heck if I know. I’ve only ever seen two. There are a total of three in this world.”
“Can we at least lock them by making them look at each other?”
“Why would that do anything?”
“Just hoping they were partially like the weeping angels in that way.”
“They’re all in the Vatican, so I wouldn’t worry.”
“Huh, what did the two you saw look like?”
“One, the diamond one, looked like the David statue by that Michelangelo guy, and the other looked like a child. The third hides even more than the other two, so almost noone’s seen it.”
“Are they detectable?”
“While frozen, no, and they can shift their appearance, they can’t change materials though. The diamond one usually hides in the catacombs.”
“Yeah, it would be too noticeable.”
I sighed.
“Do they talk?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never heard one.”
I sighed deeply as Mrs. Jones started sketching a blueprint of a weeping angel. Fake fangs, wings, high-powered motor, along with magnets for propulsion, and several other specifics. Having a tinkerer as the principal was quite entertaining.
“Hm… perhaps for our halloween event near the end of the fall semester… what of making a haunted house to increase budget. Ooh… get the students to help. Have them design a haunted house… hmmmmmm….”
Then she started muttering so quietly that even I couldn’t hear. Though, it seemed like she was coming up with a cool schoolwide project.
_
At lunch, Aoi, as usual, got over twenty servings. The cooks set up a megapack for her. Everyday, she walks up, they hand it to her, she walks away.
Brent was thinking.
“We need a way to fight the demons.”
I nodded.
“Yeah, our strongest, together, are on par with the Hunter, and apparently this leader of his is supposed to make him look like a puppy dog.”
We thought for a bit as I reflected.
In the past, a major problem was that Taurael’s name was known, now that wasn’t a problem, but only a few people knew that. But, we still had to deal with the Hunter’s power, and potentially the other demon commanders, some of which may be even stronger than him.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Roman thought that Zeus would have potentially been a match, but I sincerely doubt my demon form could beat someone who could use the Hunter as a lackey, and Zeus was obliterated. We needed someone powerful, and the only person I could think of was Ruby, but I was not having a child soldier.
Of course, if it came down to it, we could probably reach out for the Artifact. Arty, while strict about following the rules, has broken them on our behalf before, and, if Ruby was any indication, she was likely thousands of times stronger than all of us. Especially since she confirmed that she was stronger than Zeus…
“How strong is Zeus actually?”
Taury looked at me.
“Immensly? What do you mean?”
I sighed.
“Well, Ruby is clearly stronger, me in demon mode is stronger, Arty is stronger, Gaia was stronger since he was cowering in that painting. While I know he’s strong compared to us, but these beings we’ll have to face… would even Gaia stand a chance?”
Taury sighed deeply.
“You’re right, honestly, I’m having trouble with seeing how we could possibly win with how strong we are. The Hunter alone is seemingly indomitible, but he’s possibly a lesser commander… how are we supposed to beat his leader.”
Then she thought… Then her eye lit up.
She hopped up with a smile.
“I know who we could get!”
We looked interested.
“Who?”
She smiled.
“I never met him, but… Mordred’s godfather.”
“He had a godfather?”
“Yeah, neither me, nor Morgan met him, but according to Arthur, he was strong enough to flip the Hunter like a toy. He was supposedly the strongest warrior he’d ever known. I even heard from Arthur that he took on Zeus and won.”
I smiled.
“We could use someone like that. Do you have any clue where we could find him, or if he’s still alive?”
“No, but Morgan will likely have at least some clue.”
I smiled.
“Then we have what we need, after school. Me and you are going to her.
_
“Sorry, I have no clue.”
“What?”
We met with Morgan and decided to ask her what she knew of Mordred’s godfather.
She sighed.
“Look, I already considered that possibility, but Arthur never gave any specifics to his appearance, his magic, or even his name. All I know is as much as wings, that he’s an incredibly powerful warrior with equally powerful magic that pummeled Zeus.”
I sighed.
“I thought Zeus said I was the first to hurt him.”
She smiled.
“Yeah, that atronach ignores all events of his harm. Almost like he blocks them from his memory.”
I sighed.
“Is there anything he would have written in that may at least cover that time?”
Morgan thought for a moment.
“He… no… I’m not lending them to you.”
Taury stood.
“You’re thinking about the journals, aren’t you?”
Morgan snapped, standing up.
“Listen, I’m not lending you them and that’s final.”
Then Taury let into her.
“Listen, the Hunter can beat both you and me without using magic. Together, even with William’s help, we may lose. But, this man managed to demolish the Hunter, and crush Zeus. There are going to be commanders stronger than the Hunter, and that’s not even starting to mention the leader. If we are going to win, then we are going to need Mordred’s godfather.”
Morgan sighed and sat back down on her throne.
“Fine… but only the one from that point in time.”
Taury smiled.
“Thank you, Morgan.”
_
I sat in the mead hall, the fires in the corners somewhat relaxing to me. Ruby and Aoi loved the sauna by the pool, Taury liked the meditation room, me, however, I chose the mead hall.
I was reading the book that Morgan lended, but I was having trouble with finding anything about the godfather.
Then I noticed something surprising. A burnt page…
“Why is their flame residue...?”
It was mostly not there, but I could tell. It was burnt to the seam, almost as though it was meant to be entirely removed.
I sighed. I half wish that I had time magic, so I could restore the pages, but the only way I knew of was a time shadow, and I most certainly was not going to go after one of them.
“Let’s see if he missed any.”
But, why would Arthur burn pages in his journal… like he was hiding something.
Then I saw it, a partially burnt page. Almost like he thought about it.
[Taury made a move. It was quite interesting, maybe my quip about them being lovers wasn’t entirely baseless. He won’t tell us much of anything, but she keeps ogling him. I wonder if we can actually-]
The page was burnt there, but more was further down. I noticed a few words in the burnt section, like “Taury” and “Excalibur”
[It’s odd, he can not only wield Excalibur, but when he gave it back to me, it felt like the blade actually rejected me for a second. Just what is he?”]
“So, he could weild Excalibur.”
“What are you talking about?”
Taury fluttered up.
“I found some pages that I think Arthur burnt off, but he left this one… partially intact.”
“Huh, interesting.”
“The oddest thing… was there someone other than Arthur and you that could wield Excalibur?”
“No?”
“Then I think that this godfather may have memory manipulation.”
“Interesting, not the rarest power, and it does line up with the idea that he was incredibly powerful.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, once you reach a certain power, minds are more malleble. I have minor memory manipulation, as does Morgan, so for him to be able to simply wipe all memories of him from us, then he either has to be incredibly powerful, or he has to have magic like yours, so he could possibly be related to you.”
“Maybe, but the idea that he could wield Excalibur is interesting.”
“Yeah, that means that he was a righteous person. There were a lot more of those back in those days, but there was still a threshold, and it seems that not only did he pass it, but he was more righteous than Arthur.”
I’m now even more curious about this man, if he could potentially be related to me… could… Could my gramps be Mordred’s godfather?
_
The next day came and another announcement came as I sat in the library, looking at fairy tales, trying to see if I could find anything accurate to real life. I liked asking for clarification on the reality of tales and history, so I’d always find new stories to ask about.
{Student’s on free period, please come to the empty classroom.}
I sighed and stood up, placing the book back on the shelf as I walked towards the exit.
I walked down the hall next to Amy. She had a tired look. I knew why, she was taking a nap during her break. She was not a peaceful sleeper. She was one of the funniest looking when she was asleep.
“So, what do you think it will be?”
Amy looked thoughtful. I shifted the floor under her to prevent her from running into a wall as she looked up and didn’t pay attention to where she was walking.
“I don’t know, but knowing Mrs. Jones, it’ll probably be helping her invent something.”
“Like what?”
“Well, given yesterdays seminar, I’d say she may want us to try to model some rip off we*ping angel.”
“Maybe, that would be fun, though, according to Wings, there is a fey equivalent of them.”
Amy sighed.
“Why am I not surprised?”
“I think we’re at the stage that we’re just numb.”
“Speaking of, where is she?”
“She wanted to spend the day with Ruby.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah.”
We entered the room and noticed a tarp and Mrs. Jones smiling. A few other people were in the room, but the only other I knew was Aoi, who had the same schedule as me.
“So, students, as you may remember, yesterday I considered making we*ping angels for the Halloween event, unfortunately, I was made aware that we could get sued if we did that, so instead, I’m making a different version. Your assignment is to make model ideas. I bought this thing called a time shadow statue to give you ideas.”
…
Why was I not surprised?
She removed the tarp, revealing a stature of a little boy, smiling, with a sword in his hand. Instantly, I recognized the magical energy radiating off of it. This was definitely a time shadow. It’s flesh was made of bronze, and it seemed to be wearing a medieval style shirt. It’s eyes, while unmoving, surveyed the room. I blinked before jumping.
It was looking straight at me now. It recognized me as a threat, just as I did, it.
“Amy, do you mind keeping an eye on that thing while I draw my model?”
“Why, it’s not like… it is… isn’t it?”
“Yeah, and it seems to have marked me as a target.”
“Sure, but be fast.”
I began sketching a model. What I drew was a kid with a doll. It could stand up and maneuver, so, upon being initially seen, it would get up as people looked away, then it would dash.
“Swap.”
I looked at the thing, but there was a split milisecond that we were not observing it, so, it’s head was moved towards us.
The principal seemed to notice the statue’s changed state.
“Huh, that’s odd, I thought it was facing forward… oh well.”
Mrs. Jones, while smart… had too much disbelief in magic to consider that it had actually moved.
Of course, Aoi had a look of suspicion at the statue, it seemed that she felt the movement.
The shadow observed me with a dark look of promising death.
“Students! How’s your progress going?”
I looked at her to see the other’s progress.
I realized my mistake a second after I made it.
It was halfway across the classroom by the time I looked back at it.
I stumbled out of the seat in shock.
“CRAP!”
They looked at me in confusion, then Aoi followed my look.
“Um… I don’t mean to sound stupid, but how did it get there?”
Mrs. Jones looked at the statue and muttered. A massive look of confusion flickering on her face.
“How did it get there...? No matter, I’ll put it back.”
She moved forward to return it to the proper placement. Then I noticed it.
It seemed to smile, then I recognized the gathering of magical energy.
“MA’AM!”
She stopped and everyone looked at me.
“Don’t worry, I can get it.”
They all, except Amy, looked at me in moderate confusion. While she didn’t have as much awareness of the danger, she knew enough.
I made a thin covering for my hand to pick up the statue. I picked it up and began to move it back.
You are a half demon…
I froze…
Don’t worry, you can respond like me.
“What are you?”
I am a shadow. A harbinger of time. How do you touch me?
“Thin layer of earth.”
Impressive… I can not absorb your life, for you have no limit, child of hatred.
“What does that mean?”
I’ll have to administer a different way of disposing you from my presence.
“A different way?”
Normally, my kind will age a being to when they are no more than dust, but your kind is immune to that. I cannot feed if you keep your age, thus I simply need to dispose of you.
“What, are you going to snap my neck the moment I look away?”
Oh, nothing so brutal, you shall see when it happens.
“William? Why are you just standing there?”
I looked over at Mrs. Jones’ question, but snapped my eyes back in the nick of time.
The beast’s hand was right next to my neck. It’s sword lowered, not even making an effort to hide, apparently it was that threatened by me. Though, it was interesting that demons and those with demon marks were immune.
My breath stopped, I was so close that if I even breathed, then I would brush against it’s hand.
“Willi-… What?”
The student’s looked over and saw the beast’s new position, a look of annoyance showed on it’s face.
You’re fast. Almost caught me off guard… you truly are dangerous.
I was frozen, someone walked up to it.
“How did it-”
I flipped a hand, blocking him from touching it.
Upon seeing my eyes, he recognized that I was being entirely serious.
Then Amy spoke.
“Guys, we need to get out of here.”
Even Mrs. Jones nodded.
“What’s going on though?”
Then I tapped with morse code using a pebble that was in her shoe.
:No Time Leave:
She jumped, but realized that something was talking.
“Okay, out, everyone… William, will you be okay?”
I made the rock hover to a desk, then it tapped out.
:Don’t worry. Plan.:
Upon realizing that I was controlling the rock, her eyes widened for just a second, then she guided everyone out.
Now, you are alone…
I grabbed it on the side and lifted it over my head before throwing it as hard as I could into the whiteboard, I began running towards the door as I heard the crash. Then I reached the door.
“Close the do-”
I faceplanted into a body of water. The speed of collision causing me to flip before I splashed and began sinking.
Then I felt a webbed hand pick me up before I was slammed into the dirt coughing.
“Human, why do you intrude here?”
“Silence, Simial, can you not see how hurt it is.”
Simial? Where did that thing send me? How was I at the lake?
“Probably because he dived in at a high speed.”
I coughed. My voice a raspy mess, as my magic was drained by the transference.
“Simial?”
“Yes, lowly primate, I am Simial, Guardian of the Lake.”
I gasped and tried to stand up, before he slammed me back into the dirt. Blood flowed from my mouth as I struggled to breathe.
“Simial!”
“What?! It’s a human, and an intruder to boot.”
“How do you know he wasn’t just slammed into the lake by some fey pulling a cruel trick. Why would a human purposely trespass here. Everyone in this and Morgan’s kingdom knows it would be a death sentence.”
“Does it matter? It’s here.”
“Why not let the Lady decide?”
“The Lady isn’t here.”
“Then, let’s send a missive, she does have the nexus point.”
“Don’t bother her with such trivial matters. Alvane, tell your foolish sister.”
“Uh…”
“Alvane?”
“I may have sent a missive the moment that human showed up.”
“Dang it, Alvane! Why would you disturb her?”
“Because she needs to be aware of everything relating to the lake.”
“But, this is so miniscule that-”
“Simial, you aren’t to decide what does and doesn’t warrant my attention.”
“My Lady!”
Each mer kneeled before the person.
“Now, human, state your name and reason for being here.”
This presence, so familiar, but I knew it was different. Another, unfamilar presence was beside her. It seemed far weaker, but it still showed, like through shear willpower, he was able to be seen.
“Princess, come on, does it look like that guy could stand?”
“Don’t address the Lady so casually, human!”
“Simial, silence, I allow him too. Remember, he can wield my blade, therefore he deserves consideration as at least an equal, plus he is a king. Maybe not of my or your kingdom, but a king nonetheless, don’t address him as a mere human. Now, back to subject.”
I smelled lavender as the familiar fey approached me. Her body glowing as though the lake mimicked the forest she grew up in.
“Stand and explain your presence.”
I slowly stood up, coughing as blood spattered from my mouth. I was careful to angle my head away from the water. My leg began wobbling.
“Alvane.”
Alvane nodded and grabbed onto me to support me. Her look wasn’t quite of concern, but of a doctor looking at a basic patient.
I looked at the approaching pixie and smiled at her beautiful face. Her wings spread far, like she intended to impose fear, but instead, I could only see how pretty her wings were. Her eyes shimmered in a beautiful fashion, exposing her curiousity, yet unfamilarity with me. She attempted to show herself as taller than she was, even in her large form, recognizing my strength. Her power radiating in a threatening manner. She clearly recognized how strong I was, and that I was an unknown to her.
Besides her was a tallish man with a smile, attempting to look friendly but menacing at the same time. I could sense fire from him. He was readying in case I would attack. His blond hair, along with his slight scottish accent betrayed his identity. On his hip layed a blade that held the strength of the lady standing before me.
“Pardon me, milady, but I don’t actually know how or why I am here.”
So I stood before Taurael, the Lady of the Lake, and Arthur Pendragon… King of Camelot.