The Will of a Pendragon

Excalibur Blossom

    Lucille's words have been swimming in my head since she walked away. All I have right now is sitting in my head. It never occurred to me that either of them felt that way. She's right. My father had failed in a lot of things. His knights stand between him and those failures. He didn't fail just as a king but as a friend and I seem to be following in his footsteps. 

    "I'd like to talk to all of you before we go to bed," I called out. My father and Mr. Lancelot walked away. 

    "Is everything okay?" Lucille asked. I smiled and nodded. I removed the visor covering my eyes and I heard them gasp. 

    "A lot of you have been blaming yourselves for this. You're wondering why. I'm sorry about that. This wasn't your fault. I don't even know where to begin with this. I'm not like all of you. I don't mean that because I'm the princess or whatever. My parents, my fate. I guess is a better term for it. I have this power and I thought that if I hid it from everyone, it would be safer for all of you. 

    "I don't summon things like Grayson. I create them. My eyes, they were able to scan things. The structure of things and I can replicate them. Not just objects. People. Animals. Everything. I recreated my grandfather and my great grandfather inside of the Blood Fountain. It wasn't because of some spell. That was a lie. 

    "This ship. It's exactly the same as one I scanned when I was on Meteora. If Alyssa and Mordred get a hold of this. It can be catastrophic for everyone. I thought that removing my eyes would destroy the problem," 

    "Did it?" Preston asked. 

    "No," I shook my head. "It only amplified it," 

    "You can see?" Talia asked. 

    "Not always. But when I can, I see everything. Your circuits, the circuits of the ship. The water, the crystals. Everything. The air. The sky. It's like being inside a computer. Everything is dark but everything is so much more clear," 

    "Did you think we wouldn't protect your secret?" Leon asked. 

    "I know you would. I know you would have given your lives up for it. Which is why I didn't say anything. I figured that it would be safer for all of you not to know. I'm telling you now because she knows. Guinevere figured it out and they're going to come at us harder. She also wants Rose. Rose can predict where something will be next and if she can sync her mana to the cup. We can find it," 

    "f**k," Leon shook his head. "Is that all or are you hiding anything else?" 

    "Why don't you shut the f**k up?" Young blurted. Everyone turned away from me letting me breathe a little easier. "You have no f*****g idea. You're all mad and for what? Was it you who had to gauge your f*****g eyes out? Was it you who was planning ahead to make sure that everyone else but you were safe? I don't f*****g think so. You have no right to be mad," 

    "They have every right to be mad," I reached for him. My fingertips grazed his arm when he held it up for me. "I thought it was the safest way. The outcome was a failure. I wasn't able to keep it to myself anyway. I'm not asking any of you to stand in front of me. I'm telling you what she wants. I also wasn't finished," 

    "Of course not," Leon scoffed. I stopped Young from getting to him. 

    "No," I whispered to him and pulled him behind me. 

    "Fine," is all he said. 

    "Alyssa can resurrect souls," 

    "What the f**k?" Meerlyn blurted out. 

    "She told me the night I lost my sight. She said we were meant to be together forever," I shook my head. 

    "You can recreate bodies and she can successfully put their souls into it. How is this possible? The mana for something like that would have to be godly," Riley stepped forward.

    "You're not wrong," I can hear the smirk in Young's voice. They all turned to look at me. I can feel their eyes on me. Their auras are stronger. A little more scrutinizing than before. "She's a creator. All the nice s**t we've built. Everything we've used on missions. They're stronger and sturdier because she's made them that way. She can alter certain things to give us a better advantage. While you're sitting there being pissed about not being in on the secret, think about all that she's done to for you up until now," 

    "Stop," I dismissed him. "This power is really strong. I discovered a few days after getting here and it scares the hell out of me. Now more than ever. If people find out about this, they'll come for me. They'll want me to bring back people and I can't do that," 

    "Why not?" Lucille asked. 

    "It's not natural. Necromancy is a lot more difficult than it sounds," Meerlyn sighed heavily. "She was right in keeping this from all of us. The dead need to stay dead. It's one of our lessons as knights. Fight for the future. Not the past," 

    "Is Alyssa a Mordred?" Riley asked. 

    "I don't know. She's using soul magic. From what I've learned from the Durnedal and Excalibur archives, she can be a number of things.  What I do know is that she's somehow changing the mana inside of the Red Knights. She did it to Guinevere and she did it to Will. I scanned Will when my eyes first starting doing that. His mana is completely different. It's altered his personality. His soul. It's tainted somehow," 

    "The red Queen's hearts," Gab whispered. 

    "The Red Queen's hearts? That sounds scary," Camilla shook her head. 

    "I thought my mother was the red Queen," I looked over at Gabrielle.

    "She is but she wasn't the first. Before the Pendragon and the Mordred Bloodlines became the dominant magic. There was a woman. Supernova. She would take the hearts of powerful mages and put them inside of her to ferment them with her own blood and power," 

    "That's a myth," Young shot back. 

    "Yeah, well so are we," Bann scoffed.

    "She killed mages?" Riley asked ignoring the two of them.

    "No, she replaced their heart with the one inside of her. It corrupts all of the magical circuits. It changes the mage completely. It was thought that she could bring men back from the dead. Which is how she was able to switch the hearts out without killing her victims," 

    "You think it's the same person?"  I asked. 

    "She might be. She might be a descendant. Regardless of that. If he did change. Then that's why Will and Guen are the way they are. She corrupted them," 

    "Those are water legends written by a-" 

    "Stop," I waved Young off. He groaned and didn't say another word.

    "Would you be able to fix her- and him?" Lucille asked. 

    "If she did give him a different heart I can rebuild his. Re-establish his circuits. But I didn't meet Guinevere before this. I don't have an original scan. I'd have to find her heart or remove all of the memories that she has at Alyssa's side," 

    "You can do that?" Riley asked. 

    "She can do a bunch of crazy s**t," Young whispered. 

    The feeling from the night Rose was attacked returned. I turned around as my heart began to race. My newly established vision began to pick up on everything. I turned back to Leon who instantly rushed inside for Rose. There's a sinister aura manifesting in the air. They're not here but they're about to be, a whole lot of them. 

    "Prepare yourselves. They're coming," I lifted my hand pointing in the direction that they're coming from. 

    "What is it?" Young asked. 

    "More of those things," my dad answered when he and Leon came over to us with Rose. Rose screamed. 

    "Rose, Rose," I stopped her. My ears are extra sensitive right now. "Calm down. Meerlyn, Leon. Get her out of here," 

    She rushed over to them and a few seconds later they disappeared. Excalibur materialized as they approached. 

    "How are we supposed to fight what we can't see?" Drago asked.

    "Shh," I hushed them. I shut my eyes concentrating my mana to try and sync it with theirs. I shivered when I was able to connect to them all. That's a lot of power.

    "What the f**k?" Riley blurted out. 

    "Holy s**t, what are those things?" Cameron called out. 

    "Your targets. Kill them all," I jumped up on the cabin roof. 

    "Li," Young called after me. 

    Excalibur began to draw power from inside of me. A lot of it, without taking from them. I can see the vortex they're coming out of in the darkness. A red cloud of electric power is swirling around those things, spitting them out in groups of six. 

    -We have to close it- Excalibur's voice rang in my ears. 

    "How?" I asked. 

    -Use your power through the sword. Just like we trained-

    I held my sword tightly for an instant preparing myself for the attack. I can hear Lucille and the others behind me. I let out a deep breath and I swung as they tried to reach for me. Their screeching cries are nearly deafening. I have to buy myself time so that Excalibur can fully charge into the second form. I can't use it without wasting the energy it's gathering with each attack. 

    I materialized Durnedal while Excalibur disappeared into my armor. Preston and Brice jumped up ahead of me. The three of us pushed forward as the demons coming out of the portal came at us. Durendal easily slices through these things but he can't completely destroy them. He sends them back to where they came from only for them to come back. 

    "You have a plan?" Brice asked. His back smacked against mine. The two of us are now fighting in the dual formation we were trained in when we first met. 

    "I have to get closer to the red swirly thing," 

    "Then what?" he asked concerned. 

    "I'm going to blast that thing with Excalibur Blossom," I called out. 

    "You don't know how to control Excalibur Blossom," Young shouted from below. 

    "I don't have to control it. It has to close that thing or more are going to keep coming," I called back. 

    I felt Excalibur's blade reach the limit to Blossom. There are different levels to the sword. The first is Excalibur's Blossom. The will of the person wielding the blade bleeds into the attack opening the light inside of the sword for a chance to eliminate dark attacks against the wielder's spiritual will. 

    Young is right. I haven't been able to control this become my will is a little chaotic with both Red and Blue magic coursing through me. The first time I tried to charge the sword to make it Blossom, Durenal stopped me from destroying the red magic in me or as Excalibur likes to call it. The darkness in me. The fact that Durendal isn't opposed to Excalibur's demands right now means that I might be able to finally pull this off. 

    Excalibur moved through my armor and materialized in my hand. I motioned Brice and Preston to get behind me. The two of them retreated as I jumped up using my mana to use the magic in the air to push myself up higher. I didn't know I could do that until now. I can see exactly where I need to be stepping. 

    -Now- Excalibur demanded. 

    I held my sword out to my right as pushed forward and jumped without using my mana to hold onto anything. I turned my body giving my attack more swing as I brought the sword up with a cry. The energy inside of it burst out of the edges of the blade. A bright blue beam of light formed and charged towards the red cloud. 

    For a moment, there was a pause, right before the blue beam clashed with the red. The straight blue line opened up in the shape of a star or maybe an orchid, surrounding the red cloud. Obliterating everything coming out of it. An explosion of light swallowed the red cloud before bursting into millions of sparks. The impact erupted along with the explosion pushing me back towards the water. I can't move. My body is in shock from the impact.

    The air was knocked out of me as soon as my back smacked against the surface of the ocean. Water instantly surrounded me. Darkness descended over the sight I had been momentarily granted. I don't know which way to go. I ping is panic is trying to make me take a breath.

    From under me, something massive moved. Before I could try and swim away from it. It pushed me and I broke the surface of the water. I gasped for air feeling the thing under me. It's slick. Like wet rubber. It began to move like a snake. 

    "Sassy?" I choked out. 

    "It's me, Lily. You hit the water really hard. Try not to move around, Princess." Sassy, Young's water serpent answered me. 

    "Li," Young's voice called to me before he came over to me and lifted me off Sassy's back. "Thank you, Sass," 

    "Master," she greeted him. 

    "Are you okay?" he asked me. 

    "Yeah. That hurt a lot," 

    "You just back flopped into the water going over fifty miles an hour. You could have died," Drago laughed nervously. 

    "Our first mission and we almost lose the princess," Brice chuckled. 

    "Shut up, lizard boy," Young waved him off. "You f*****g opened Blossom. It was a success. You can officially purify demons with your sword now," 

    "Where's Rose?" I asked. 

    "Right here," she answered.

    "We stayed inside the portal so they wouldn't be able to locate us," Meer informed me. She came over. She and Young helped me up. 

    "I'm in a lot of pain," I groaned trying to curl back to get some kind of relief on my back. 

    "Ice bath. You can't lay on your back for a couple of hours," she instructed as the walked me inside. I place my hand on the wall and let out a surge to fix whatever was damaged on the ship. 

    "Did you see that?" Bann called out. "I love it here,"