The Daughters of Merlin

A couple of months passed by without incident. Zana did not tell Grace everything that she had learned when she went with their father to the Nald fo Teh Kys Pepelo. But Zana had taken to calling Spark by her true name.

A month after returning, Merlin created a new eye for Grace out of magic. Whenever she got emotional or if it was dark, her new eye would glow. She took to covering her eye with her hair though she could still see through it just fine due to it being magic.

During this time, Grace and Virgil were officially courting. When Zana heard this she was relieved, not only because she would no longer have to watch them looking at each other awkwardly all the time, knowing they were in love with each other but neither knew it. Zana was also glad about this because Grace seemed a thousand times happier now with Virgil. Zana thought he couldn’t have chosen a better time to finally tell her.

Grace was happy. She really was. But unless she was sleeping next to Virgil, Grace always had nightmares. She would wake up in a cold sweat, sometimes shouting. Zana would still be asleep, cause that girl could sleep through a volcano explosion. Sometimes Grace would climb into Zana’s bed for the rest of the night. Zana would never ask why she did this, she just allowed Grace to do so.

Virgil began to notice Grace’s lack of sleep which had begun to take its toll on the young girl. Just when Virgil had finally had had enough and was about to talk to Grace about it, her sheep, which she had had ever since she was a baby, Cloud, died, despite Merlin and Zana casting spells over him to prolong his life. Naturally, this hurt Grace deeply.

Grace distanced herself from both Virgil and Zana, taking to visiting the library and reading books to deal with her grief.

“Hello, Ms. Grace.” Mr. Lyndyle greeted the young girl as she entered the library.

“Hello, Mr. Lyn. Have you got any new books today?” Grace asked, giving him a small smile.

“We’re supposed to get a shipment anytime now. You could reread another book or wait for it to arrive.” He answered.

“Uncle, the new books are here!” A girl shouted from further on inside the small building.

“Alright, I’m coming!” Mr. Lyndyle shouted back.

He stood up from his chair and walked towards the back of the store. Grace looked out the front window as he left, watching the few people pass by the window.

All of a sudden, Grace was brought out of her thoughts as something bumped its head against her leg. Grace looked down to see a golden german shepherd sitting at her feet, looking up at her with it’s mouth open as it panted, it’s tail wagging behind him.

Grace smiled down at the dog. He looked awfully familiar to her. Grace knelt down so she was level with the dog where she then began to pet him. As she did this, his tail wagged faster, thumping against the floor. This caused Grace to chuckle, smiling for the first time in two weeks since Cloud’s death.

“Sunny, there you are.”

Grace looked up and the dog turned to look back. It barked at the girl happily that walked over to them, Grace’s eyes widening as she recognized the girl despite never having met before.

The girl had long, vibrant curly red hair that matched the color of autumn leaves, her eyes the same shade of green as that of the leaves in spring. She was wearing a green dress with a brown apron over the top along with green flats.

“He’s not bothering you, is he?” The girl asked, walking over.

“N-no.” Grace replied, shocked to see the same girl from her dreams. The one Merlin had said was her younger sister, Marielle.

“Well, that would be a first. Sunny usually isn’t a people person, but he definitely seems to like you. I’m Mari’an by the way. Dyke Lyndyle is my uncle.” Mari’an said, smiling at Grace.

Grace chuckled at the closeness of Mari’an’s name to that of Marielle, her surprise disappearing. Clearly this was indeed Marielle reincarnated.

“I’m Grace Jynx, but you can call me Grace.” Grace replied.

“Well, in that case, you can call me Mari.” Mari’an responded.

When Grace got back home, she was still in a good mood, so much so that she played with Cloud’s child, Sky. Grace hadn’t played with the young sheep because they reminded her too much of Cloud.

No one thought to question Grace’s change in mood lest they remind her of why she was sad before.

Grace took to going to the library three times a week, staying for an hour to just talk with Mari’an and visit with her dog, Sunshine. Everyone thought that she was just helping Mr. Lyn take care of the books which she did along with Mari.

Grace did this for three months when during one of her visits she noticed that Mari didn’t seem to be entirely herself.

“Mari, is something wrong?” Grace asked, looking at her friend worriedly.

Mari’an sighed. “I didn’t want to make you sad. If I could I would gladly stay here with you, but I only came here for the summer to help my uncle. I’m going back home in three days.”

“Oh.” Grace looked down sadly.

Mari’an grabbed Grace’s hands, clasping them in her own, making Grace look back up at her. “I promise to write to you whenever I can. I consider you one of my closest friends and though I haven’t known you long, I love you. I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. I promise I will never forget you.”

Grace looked at Mari’an surprised. “You love me?”

Mari’an smiled. “Yes! Both Sunny and I do. From the stories you told me of your family I can tell that they love you very much and trust me, it’s not hard to see why. You are beautiful on the inside and the outside.”

“You sound just like them.” Grace said, smiling slightly.

“Because it’s true.” Mari’an replied.

Grace sighed. “I love you too, Mari. And I can tell you right now that I’m probably going to miss you more.”

This caused Mari’an to laugh before hugging Grace, both girls trying not to cry. “We’ll see about that.”

A year went by, and Grace would occasionally receive a letter from Mari’an, which she would reply to, but the letters did not come as often as before as time went on. Both girls had gotten back to their normal lives. It didn’t take Grace long to return to her normal self once Mari’an left, though she missed her friend, she felt at peace with herself after having met Mari’an.

It was nearing Grace’s sixteenth birthday, and because of this, Merlin had worked out an agreement with Freya that Grace would spend three days with her mother.

It was Grace’s second day away when Virgil walked up to Merlin’s cottage. Zana was practicing her magic in the garden. As Virgil walked up to her Merlin left the woods holding a small black wolf pup with purple eyes.

“Hey, where’d he come from?” Zana asked, looking at Merlin, not having noticed Virgil.

“Found him in a log. Think Grace’ll like him?” Merlin asked with a knowing smirk.

Zana returned his smile. “Well, she’s always wanted a wolf.”

“Just make sure he doesn’t eat Sky.” Virgil said, causing the two to turn and look at him.

“Virgil! What a pleasant surprise.” Merlin said, smiling at him.

“You realize Grace is still with her mom, right?” Zana added.

“I know. I came to talk to you.” Virgil answered.

“That’s a first.” Zana replied, jokingly.

“You want to ask for our blessing, correct?” Merlin raised a knowing eyebrow at Virgil as the mage cradled the small familiar looking wolf.

“Yes.” Virgil nodded, not surprised that Merlin knew exactly what he wanted to ask.

Zana looked over at her father, giving him a shrug. “The only other person I trust besides you and Blue to look after her is him.”

“Of course you have our blessing. When will you ask her?” Merlin replied, rolling his eyes at his eldest daughter’s remark.

“Father is throwing a huge ball for her birthday where I plan on asking her. I tried to talk him out of it but both he and Mother insisted.” Virgil shrugged, giving them an apologetic look.

“Well, he is the King.” Merlin replied, shrugging back.

“If anyone starts picking on her I’m going to burn them to a crisp and I won’t let you stop me this time.” Zana said, looking at her father.

“Well, hopefully they will have learned their lesson from last time. And you still succeeded in setting Banon’s dress on fire.” Merlin replied.

“She deserved worse.” Zana scowled.