Tales of the Lorekeepers 01 - Rise of the Red Dragon

remembering the faint voice he had heard.
    “Trust me, brother,” said Ambrosius. “I have witnessed many strange things tonight. If Myrddin says there is a fairy among us, I am inclined to believe him. What about Malloy? What has happened to him?”
    “This dark man who Samuel fought, when he saw me, he … he …” Uther had to pause for a moment, in order to regain his composure. “He invoked the lightning to strike Sam, and then he turned toward me. He conjured a spell that would have killed me, but Malloy jumped in front of me and was struck by the spell instead. I should be the one lying in this bed right now, not this poor man.”
    “By all that is holy!” exclaimed Ambrosius. “Is there anything that can be done?”
    Myrddin stood up and left the bedside of Samuel to go over to Malloy’s body. He examined the poor, shivering man carefully, trying to determine the cause of his illness. Angeline flew over to him, hovering just above his shoulder.
    “He was hit by a spell of shadow poison,” she said. “He was lucky, since the spell was not made for him, but for Uther. Had the future king been struck by it, he would have died on the spot.”
    “Tell me how to cure him,” said Myrddin.
    Uther looked over at his brother, puzzled by the young child’s words.
    “Probably the fairy,” answered Ambrosius.
    For the next five minutes, Angeline explained to the boy who would become Merlin how to administer the antidote for the shadow poison. She told him that they would need boiled holy water, certain common herbs and the blood of a snake. When she was done, the boy quickly passed on the list to the new king, who dispatched the guards to find the items.
    “The poison itself is not hard to cure,” said Angeline to Myrddin. “It’s the initial blow that usually kills the target. Although the remaining effects are very painful and could eventually prove fatal, they are curable.”
    Myrddin turned to Samuel.
    “What about this one? Can you help him?”
    “I’m afraid I cannot. Samuel’s fate is out of our hands, Myrddin Emrys. In all the centuries I have been a fata for the Lorekeepers, I’ve only had a couple of deaths under my watch. Both times, the demise of my protégés was rather … violent. In this case, things are quite different.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Samuel was struck by a spell from the Yfel, one of the magical forces at work within our universe and others. These powers are present in every world that exists, interacting with each other and their environment in different ways. One force could be dominant here and almost absent somewhere else. For instance, the Yfel acts differently in this world than it does in Samuel’s native universe. Over there, it is far less powerful, because the inhabitants of his world have developed a strong resilience to it. This is why Keepers are typically selected from Samuel’s world. When they transfer to our world, their resilience to the Yfel, even though it is lessened, is usually still strong enough to protect them.
    “But then why did the spell put him in this state?”
    “That part of the equation is still a mystery to me. For the same reason we draw our Keepers from Sammy’s world, the Yfel also selects their agents from the same place. Although these people have a strong resistance to powers like the Yfel and the Virtus, guarding them against our spells and powers, they usually have very little aptitude for using it. Most of the time, they are not even aware such forces exist. This time, I guess, the Yfel found someone who could work the mechanisms of this power, enough to hurt a Lorekeeper, which makes him a powerful foe. This is a first for me, and I truly cannot say what will happen to our friend, Myrddin.”
    “It’s not fair,” said Myrddin.
    This time, Ambrosius answered before Angeline could.
    “It rarely ever is, young wizard. But even though the sadness of events such as these can put a painful veil on our grieving heart, we have to remember that, in the end, righteousness and justice always prevail. Only then can the eyes of our soul finally see the true meaning behind the sacrifices of our friends. When we see that meaning, their actions are suddenly transformed into acts of heroism, rather than meaningless deaths.”
    Angeline looked at the one the Britons now regarded as their new king. She felt a little peace in all this sadness, knowing that men such as he and his brother were worth the sorrow and all the