after that, Merlin cast it on himself.
Once Merlin had left the cottage, Marbella had consulted her mirror and learned that her plan had worked as well as she had hoped for.
As the years slowly passed, Merlin had never discovered Marbella for what she really was, and several generations later, Marbella—after she had switched bodies with a younger sorceress for the fourth time after Merlin’s birth—had discovered that her modified incantation was slightly flawed. On every third generation among Merlin’s descendants twins were being born, which had weakened the line further.
To counteract this unforeseen blunder, Marbella reintroduced a forgotten ritual that a wizard would use to steal powers from another wizard, thus causing the Wizards Wars among Merlin’s descendants that lasted for centuries.
“Are you Harris Bradley, the brother to Tanya Anderson?” he heard a man ask after he had sluggishly answered the phone as he continued to lie in bed.
It was the first Tuesday of October at 3:58 A.M., Savannah, Georgia time within the first two decades of the twenty-first century, and the phone call had awakened Harris and his wife Allyson.
The twenty-six-year-old man glanced at the alarm clock before he answered with his British accent, “Yes. Who is this?”
“This is Detective Sykes of the Kansas City Police Department. Your sister Tanya and her husband Michael were involved in a serious auto accident. I’m sorry, Mr. Bradley, but your sister and brother-in-law had died soon after reaching the hospital.”
“My God!” Harris uttered as he shot up into a sitting position, along with swinging his feet around until they were touching the floor.
“What is it?!” Harris’s twenty-three-year-old wife asked worriedly in her southern accent as she too sat up.
Harris gestured for Allyson to wait as Detective Sykes continued with, “The doctor was able to deliver your sister’s daughter in time though.”
“Oh God, that’s right!” Harris uttered in a tone as if the memory of his sister being pregnant was brought back suddenly. “She was eight months pregnant with a girl. How is she?”
“What’s going on?!” Allyson demanded.
Harris again gestured for Allyson to wait as Detective Sykes replied, “In spite of her being born premature she’s doing excellent; however, according to my paperwork, you, your wife and Michael’s sixteen-year-old sister Ellen are the only ones listed as being Tanya and Michael’s next of kin.”
“Yes, well, we are the only ones living within the States,” Harris said. “To Tanya that is. Ellen does have relatives, but I don’t know where or how to get in touch with them.”
“Okay, well, Ellen is a minor, and so I’ll need you and your wife to come to Kansas City and claim custody of Ellen and your newborn niece. Otherwise the two will be placed in foster homes.”
“Yes, of course. My wife and I will be there as soon as humanly possible,” Harris assured Detective Sykes.
“Where will we be as soon as humanly possible?” Allyson again demanded to know.
When Harris again gestured for Allyson to wait, Allyson just grunted her annoyance of not being answered.
“Okay, I’ll see you and your wife when you two get here. Bye,” Detective Sykes said during Allyson’s grunt.
“Bye,” Harris said in a low and distant tone.
As Harris was hanging up the phone, Allyson demanded, “Will you tell me what in hell is going on?!”
In the same low and distant tone, Harris said, “Tanya and Michael were in an accident.”
“Oh my God!” Allyson uttered as her worry deepened. “Are they okay?!”
“No; they’re not,” Harris said. “They both were killed, but the doctor was able to deliver their daughter before it was too late.”
“Oh my God!” Allyson uttered in a shock tone.
“We have to leave for Kansas City tonight,” Harris informed as he went to stand up.
“Yes; of course,” Allyson said as she quickly stood as well. Harris went to put on his pants as Allyson went to put on a robe. “I’ll pack and you can call the airport for flight schedules.” Once Harris put on and buttoned his pants, he stood introverted as tears filled his eyes. “Harry?”
Harris came out of his thoughts and looked at Allyson. As tears flowed down his cheeks he said, “Tanya’s dead.”
Allyson moved to and gave Harris a consoling hug. As she gently stroke Harris’s hair, Harris cried harder.
After a few seconds Allyson told Harris, “Tanya still needs you, Harry. Her daughter needs you.”
Harris broke the hug and as he collected his composure, he said, “Right.” He then gestured towards the bedroom door. “I’ll call the airport.”
When Allyson gave Harris a sympathetic nod, Harris turned and left the room.
In Kansas City, Missouri, at a two-story house within a nice neighborhood, an attractive and socially liked sixteen-year-old girl—a girl who actually looked slightly younger than her actual age—had been awakened from her sleep from the noise of someone pounding on the front door.
As she moved from the stairs towards the door with a baseball bat in a ready-to-strike position, she yelled out, “I called the police!”
“We are the police—I’m Detective Bradshaw of the Kansas City Police Department!” a male voice shouted back. The teenager went to the peephole and saw three men who were each dressed in a business casual manner. “Ellen Anderson?! Did you hear me?! I’m Detective Bradshaw of the Kansas City Police Department!”
“Hold your badge up at the peephole to where I can see it,” Ellen ordered.
“For Pete’s sake,” Ellen heard before watching one of the three men holding up a badge. “There! Satisfied?”
Ellen slightly hesitated and without verbally answering Detective Bradshaw she put the bat down and went to unlock the front door.
Once the door was open, Ellen demanded to know, “What’s this about?”
“Can we come in?” Detective Bradshaw asked politely.
“Can you give me a second so I can stash my drugs?” Ellen jokingly requested. When the three shot her disturbed looks she quickly continued with, “Come in and look. I’m joking. I don’t even do drugs.”
As the three men stepped in, the second man said, “Yes, well, all joking aside, we’re here on serious business.”
“I didn’t think you woke me to sell me tickets to the Policemen’s Ball,” Ellen retorted as the third man shut the door. “And I know I didn’t do anything wrong, which brings me back to my recent question—what’s this
