Morgana paused as she stood at the entrance to the Crypt of the Ruling Family. Her father was down there as well as her brother. She thought about her family. She knew there was few more members of her family, laying in the stone holes she had created over the many years she had been in charge of maintaining the Crypts. Her eyes stared into the seldom darkness. Her heart thundered in her chest. She didn’t want to visit the ghosts of her past. She never did like coming to the crypts for many reasons.

  A figure appeared several feet within the crypt. It stood out against the darkness as the figure raised its head to look at her with a pair of familiar blue eyes. She knew who it was.

  “Hello, Arthur,” she called out. She took a shaky breath. She saw the figure of her long dead brother give her a sad smile. She knew the reason why he hunted the crypts. She tried to take a calm breath, but she inhaled it, shakily. He opened his mouth to reply, but she didn’t hear his voice nor a sound. Thank the gods, she could never hear him. She was pretty sure if she did, he would haunt her and speak to her non-stop. She took a step forward onto the crypt stone steps. Her knees shook as she took another and another. She continued her way down the steps until she reached her brother.

  “The curse took another, four days ago.” She watched Arthur nodded in understanding. He was the first one the curse claimed. He knew the pain of the parting. Both of them also knew there will be another roaming through the crypts soon as his body joined the other previous Kings.

  Arthur waved her forward. Morgana tipped her head to him and started walking to the stone hole where Melissa, King Uther XI’s first wife lay, peacefully. She had noticed long ago, none of the previous Queens haunted the halls of the Crypt, only the Kings. Morgana saw the Kings of Old stare at her, with a questioning look in their eyes.

  Has the Curse been broken yet?

  She couldn’t give them any hope. Arthur’s mouth opened and she watched as the Kings’ face fell. One by one, they drifted through the hall and disappeared into their stone prisons. Her eyes fell to the floor as she continued her walk to where Uther was going to be buried in a couple days’ time. It didn’t help as she felt the accusing eyes of the Kings of the past.

  It was one part of the curse neither magi expected. They managed to find out about it when her brother started to walk among the castle like he was still alive. Morgana felt a smile tugged at her lips, remembering how they found out.

  Morgana’s head swam a bit as she lend against Merlin’s side. His arm was wrapped around her waist, helping her stay on her feet. She knew she shouldn’t have had that last goblet of wine, but after all that happened within the four months since her brother’s death, she needed to relax. She glanced up at Merlin and saw the glossy look in his eyes. He needed to relax, too.

  She glanced up at the starry sky. It was a clear night. The moon was bright and full. She heard music playing from the Great Hall which had transformed into a ball room for King Godric Whitehall's coronation ball. She directed her gaze back to Merlin. He gazed at her with an emotion Morgana couldn’t identify.

  She didn’t know how they reached her rooms in the small tower nor how fast their clothes disappeared. She was lost in the emotion Merlin was pulling out of her. She cried out in pleasure when he worked his magic on her core.

  “Ahh!” a male voice rang out, through her rooms, “I really don’t need to see that!”

  Morgana blinked, coming out of her pleasure haze, and looked around her room before Merlin landed on top of her and let out a deep growl. That vibrated in her chest. He looked around the room. When she caught the look on Merlin’s face, she felt a strange emotion. However, it quickly left her mind when she spotted the ghostly figure of her brother.

  “I will admit I am not surprise you two got together,” Arthur commented, dryly, “I just didn’t expect to find out this way.”

  “Arthur…” Morgana breathed, “How?” Arthur shrugged.

  She shook her head, trying to get rid of that particular memory. She had gone to her former master for comfort. While she agreed with him they didn’t have to go that far, she didn’t regret spending that time with him. In fact, there had been several times over the years, they had sought each other out for comfort.

  Morgana let out a sigh as she reached where Melissa of House Drake, formerly of House Wood, rested in peace. The Black Mage took a deep breath, wishing she could put this off for another week while she recovered, but knew she couldn’t. Once the Pope arrived that night or in the morning, the Castle would resume preparations for King Uther’s Funeral Ceremony.

  She mentally prepared herself and opened her mouth, starting to cast an expansion spell, enlarging the small room to a medium size one to allow Uther’s coffin to rest peaceful beside his first wife. The ancient words flowed off her tongue as she felt the power struggle to gather from her magical core and raise up to fill her, traveling down her hands to her fingers. It came to a stop at her fingertips as she tried to pull more and more of her magical powers. Sweat slid down the sides of her face. Her body started to throb with the strain.

  Her fingertips glowed softly then slowly brightened as her blue eyes watched the walls start to slid back, slowly. Her head pounded in tune with her heart. Her chest heaved. She didn’t know how much longer she could be able to keep this magical strain up. She knew there was a chance she could pass out. She already could see darkness creeping in on the edge of her vision, but she saw the wall reached a point where there was enough room in the now medium size room where two coffins could sit comfortably. She started to pulled back on her magic, allowing it to drain back to her core.

  Morgana’s knees buckled underneath her. She barely felt the sharp pain that rippled through her legs when her knees connected with the stone floor. She placed her hands in front of her, panting harshly. She stared at the stone floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her ghostly brother kneel beside her. A cold feeling exploded from her right shoulder as he placed a hand on it, silently asking if she was alright.

  “I’ll be alright, Artie,” Morgana said, “Merlin and I finished restrengthening the wards a couple days ago. Some of the wards hadn’t been strengthened in a long time. It just took a lot of out myself and Merlin. I just haven’t fully recovered from that, just yet.” She turned her head, looking at her brother. He nodded once he saw her attention was on him. She knew he remembered how drained the magi of old were after they had placed the protection wards on Camelot. He didn’t know there were laws in place that prevent training more magi. If he did, Morgana was pretty sure he would try to haunt the King and the Ruling Family into changing the laws to be more magi friendly while Morgana and Merlin would secretly get a kick out of him haunting the Ruling Family. “I will be alright. I think I will just lay here for a bit,” she said, shifting to lay down on her left side. Her eyes slipped closed and she drifted off into darkness, using her arm as a pillow, before her head touched her arm.

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  Tina silently cursed as she glanced up and down the hallway with the white rug. She didn’t mean to spend hours, searching for a disguise, but the various dresses she had saw, she couldn’t help playing dress up, trying to figure out which dress was simple enough for a low ranked lady or a royal servant. She knew there was a chance the dress she had chosen was not a simple enough one that she could be overlooked in the halls. Once she saw how it looked on her, she couldn’t say no to wearing it for a few hours. She had grabbed a cloak to wrap over the dress. It had been a long time since she indulged herself by trying on various clothes.

  The dress was an bright blue color that simmer whenever the sun hit it. Tina thought it could be the same shade as a turquoise. The bodice of the dress flowed over Tina’s torso like liquid and flared out once it reached Tina’s hips, expanding out. The arms of the dress reminded the red head of the arms of the Elven dresses she had seen at cos-play conversation. It hugged the upper arms until it reached the elbows then expanded downward, following the length of the skirt, only stopping around the knees. The dress even came with matching shoes. However, Tina decided against wearing those. The shoes were more like slippers then an actually pair of shoes. She stored those in her hiking bag with her clothes. She hoped the shoes didn’t become ruin from being stored with really dirty clothes.

  Tina reached out for the cloak she had snatched. It was a solid, non descriptive black. She threw it around her shoulders, wincing as the movement caused the still healing skin on her back to stretch uncomfortably. She hooked the heavy clasped of the cloak together at the bottom of her neck, by her collarbone. She let it go. The clasped was heavy enough to hold the front of the cloak down in place, without chocking her.

  She grabbed the hood and tossed it over her head, covering her red hair and a good portion of her face before she left the room she had been hiding in for hours. She hurried over the white rug, trying to remember the way she had came, earlier. She tightened her grip on her hiking bag. She still hadn’t found a safe place to store her bag. As for her weapon belt…her rapier bounced against the skirt and her legs, hidden under the black cloak. She knew if someone saw her, it would raise eyebrows to see the weapons belt, but by the time, they would raise an alarm, she planned to be long gone.

  Tina roamed through the halls until she reached to the large courtyard. She saw there was a few guards roaming through it. Music drifted through the air from an open door at the far end of the court yard where people were roaming around in the room and gathered in groups, talking. She directed her gaze toward the stone wall. She spotted a drawbridge just behind an archway with two guards on this side of the archway, while there were at least six more on top of the wall.

  Security was tight, she mused. She knew it was the result of the King’s death recently and they probably need to show they can still protect everyone in the castle. She watched the two guards for a while as the sun disappeared over the horizon and servants appeared, drifting to torch to torch, lightening them. She spread her spirit energy out, trying to figure out if there was any hidden figures she was not aware of. A strong presence caught her attention. She blinked as she mentally ranked the presence as a strong B Class Level.

  She had learned about the various classes during the Black Moon Tournament. Most of the time, it was a reference to how strong a Demon was, but there had been a few times were a human held strong spiritual energy to rank on the scale. The humans she had worked with for the tournament were the perfect example of this. She had ranked on the scale as well, but a low B class. She probably dropped in class ranking since she didn’t keep up her strength over the last few years or train at all. She wouldn’t surprise her if she did drop into the C class.

  She redirected her focus and noticed the strong presence paused, several feet away from her before it started to move toward her location.

  Tina’s eyes widened with horror. Her heart leaped into her throat. She drew in her spirit energy and winced as pain rippled from her back. She silently cursed as she stepped toward the archway with the drawbridge. She needed to get away from the courtyard before the strong presence tried to track her down. She knew she couldn’t fight that strong presence in her condition. She still needed to gather information about this kingdom and double check what Tristan said was true or not.

  She approached the drawbridge. Her eyes darted between the two guards as she walked past them and onto the drawbridge. They didn’t stop her from crossing. She heard her boots thumped against the wooden drawbridge. She didn’t dare to look behind her until she reached the other side of the drawbridge. She sensed the strong presence stopped where she had been standing. Their eyes scanned the courtyard.

  Tina took a deep breath, trying to keep her spirit energy under control. One flare and that strong presence would know her location. She stepped off the drawbridge and joined a crowd traveling to the right. She glanced behind her, across the drawbridge to see a tall man with black hair, staring the crowd she just joined. Even at the distance she was at, she could tell he held some unearthly appeal, being fair skinned and almost beautiful. Her heart jumped into her throat when her eyes meet his blue eyes.

  She watched as he took a step toward the drawbridge. She turned her attention to the crowd and moved through it as she allowed her spirit energy to raise to the surface, covering her back again. The pain drifted away. She moved a lot easier as she quickly moved through the crowd. She spotted a side street, on the left hand side of the street. She headed toward it and hurried down it, trying to disappear from the strong presence’s sight. She glanced over her shoulder. The drawbridge was no longer in sight, but a good portion of the castle’s walls were. She weaved through the town’s street until she lost sight of the castle walls.

  Tina turned to face the castle and sensed the strong presence, but another had joined him. They didn’t appeared to be moving toward her. She let out a breath. She looked around in the section of the city she found herself in. She pushed back her hood, allowing her hair to fall about her shoulders and she started to walk through the emptying streets.

  Mothers were calling their children in for the day. The various vendors gathered up their wears and piled them in a weapon or a cart before they started to drift away from the edge of the streets, heading for home or where they were staying for the night. The noisy town slowly faded away.

  Tina spotted a group of kids as they darted through the streets. She thought the group was the same one she had watched stealing a rolling pin yesterday. They were laughing, bright grins spread across their faces, despite the fact they were covered in dirt and looked unfed. She watched them play fight as they roamed. One of them, the youngest in age and a boy from the looks of it, tripped over the edge of higher then the rest of the street cobblestone and fell, face first.

  Without thinking, Tina rushed over and managed to grab the youngest arm before he landed on his face. She steadied him and knelt down to meet his eyes, asking, “Are you alright, sweetheart?”

  “Yeah,” if it was possible he grinned wider and more brightly, “Thanks to you, miss.”

  She glanced toward the rest of his group, saying, “You should be getting home to your parents, little one, it’s getting dark and I’m sure your mama is worried about you and your friends.”

  “Brothers,” the boy said, “They are my brothers and we don’t have parents. Don’t need them.” She blinked at that. “But yeah, I need to keep getting back to them.”

  “Luke!” the name rang out and the boy, Tina assumed who was Luke, looked toward his brothers. “Come on!”

  “Coming, Ichigo-anki,” Luke replied, and started to run past Tina, but paused. He turned to her and bent at the waist, bowing at her, “Thank you for making sure I didn’t fall on my face.” He straightened up, spun on his heel, and ran off.

  Tina slowly stood up, watching him rejoin his brothers and most of the group ran off, leaving the one called Ichigo-anki behind. He nodded at her, before he followed. She hummed, watching as he disappeared after his brothers. Ichigo-anki. The -anki meant Big Brother in the Japanese language. She wondered if Ichigo was from Japan or at least knew enough of the language to speak it fluidity as he spoke English or what she assumed as English.

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