The Saint Gains Companions

When Merlin opened his eyes, he was in a white marbled room. In the center of the room was a tree about three times his size meaning it was large but still small for a tree and beyond that were eight white doors.

Don’t approach the doors.

A voice whispered in his head. It was a soft yet stern feminine voice. He approached the tree. Leaning up against it was a staff, a cloak, and a pack.

For your journey.

The voice answered his unspoken question. As he approached the tree it grew before him. He wouldn’t have thought it was an illusion. From underneath it’s long, lush branches it seemed to extend infinitely through the cloudy ceiling. A branch with a bushel of black pearls hanging from it dangled in front of his eyes.

No more than one.

The voice spoke up again, warning him. He pulled off one of the pearls and the tree shook as though in pain. The tree seemed to be alive somehow and it could feel pain. If pulling off one made it react like that then then entire bushel might just kill it.

He picked up the staff and put on the cloak and pack. He looked around for an exit and a brown door materialized.

On the other side of the door, Merlin found himself in a room full of weapons and armor and chests overflowing with coins. He grabbed a few pouches at random and headed for the far end of the room completely ignoring all the relics and weapons. In front of him was a small vault cemented into the wall. He put a hand over the keyhole then turned the handle. It opened. Inside was a grimoire, several potions in gold gilded bottles, and a stack of High-Platinum coins. He took the grimoire, three potions out of five, and 5 out of 16 High-Platinums.

“I’m ready to leave.”

Without responding back, a stone door materialized in front of him. He confidently strode froward and pushed open the door.

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Merlin stretched his arms wide and yawned. The warmth of the morning sun tickled his arms and face as it streamed through the window.

He didn’t have any particular time table or destination in mind but he felt he shouldn’t stay here another night as he might get too attached and wind up trapped.

He put on his gear and shouldered his pack.

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When Merlin got downstairs he was greeted by the smell of eggs and bacon.

“There you are!” Yelled Carrolly, “The girls were getting ready to go up there and bust down your door. It’s nearly 10.”

“Sorry about that, I’m not a particularly early riser.” Back in the church no one disturbed him before noon unless it was an emergency, though it was hard to tell the time since there weren’t any windows. One might think a saint would have to make appearances during services, but Merlin was so precious to Eden that they rarely let him. If someone had business with him it was arranged far ahead of time. On the rare occasion such as the Feast of the Eight Gods, he would be allowed to preside from a distance, a far distance, under heavy guard, nonetheless he still looked forward to it each year.

“Mr. Merlin?” Cate cut through his reverie.

“Sorry, got lost in thought.” He sat down at the table with Carrolly, Mei, and the girls.

Breakfast was simple and quiet. He noticed Lila and Cate kept staring at him as he ate but he pretended not to notice. Dinner was the only meal open to the public and right now there were only about a half dozen guests since it was apparently the off-season for them. Carrolly wasn’t hurting for money by any means but Merlin was still worried for her and Mei. He asked if he could withdraw some silvers from storage but she shook her head.

“I’ve already finished with the protections. It would take an hour to undo and two to put back. It’s a hassle and neither of us needs to go through the trouble.”

Carrolly explained that no one but her, Mei, or Ruth would be able to unlock the storage bracer and make a withdraw. Normally it actually wouldn’t take an hour but the protections had just set, so it was a bit fragile at the moment.

So, the matter was closed however he still planned to leave one of the ones he had on hand as a tip or perhaps as a down payment for Lila and Cate to stay a bit longer.

After breakfast Lila and Cate ran back to their room and Mei went back to the kitchen to do the dishes.

Merlin was now left sitting at the table with Carrolly… and Ruth. Ruth had popped in right at the end of the meal.

“She’s comes by so often, you’d think she lives here.” Carrolly commented, “Your place isn’t even close by.”

“You’re right, I walk all the way down here just to visit my cute Carrolly. These aging bones won’t keep me away. Heh heh!” She chortled.

“I wish you had at least a little of the common sense and restraint that your sister seems to have.”

“You’re talking to me about common sense and restraint?” Her eyes homed in on Merlin.

Merlin let out an uncomfortable chuckle.

Ruth finally settled in, “I actually came by cause I needed to give you something. Something you’ll need going forward.” She pulled out two pouches, one was green and one was blue.

“Me and Carrolly were talking about this last night, so I got up early walked to the bank manager’s place and forced him to make a withdraw for me.”

“Ruth!”

“It sounds worse than it is.”

“I told you to leave Mr. Meyers alone, you age him 10 years every time you meet.”

“Psssh. Anyway, these here are blue and green Malba.”

She then went to explain the worth of each variety of Malba. There were five different shapes: Circle, Square, Triangle, Small Rectangle, and Large Rectangle. All the coins also came in two different colors, green and blue. Small and Large Rectangles could also come in Red, and the Circle had a white variant.

A green circle, the smallest coin, was worth 10 Malba. The white circle, also nicknamed the King’s Coin, was worth 500 Malba.

Any coin made of metal was apparently super expensive with a copper coin starting at 450 Malba and increasing exponentially from there, and Merlin had been carrying around and offering Blessed Silver and Holy Golds like they were candies.

The Malba coins themselves were extremely cheap and easy to produce. They were made from the excretions of a docile monster known as a Malba. They would mold the excretion then run magic through it causing it to harden and change color. It had approximately the same density as Iron despite being thin enough to see through.

Green coins were the cheapest, then Blue, then Red. You generally only used Reds for bulk transactions.

Merlin felt overloaded by all the information. Ruth and Carrolly went back and forth explaining the value of each of the coins. Merlin remarkably managed to remember it all but felt exhausted afterwards.

Ruth handed him the bags of Malba and he thanked them and excused himself back to his room.

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Once at the top of the stairs he heard a knocking. Cate and Lila were at his door.

“Hey, you two.”

“Mister Merlin, we were umm…”

Lila was back to crossing her arms and Cate was once again fidgeting nervously.

“Did you want to talk to me?”

“She wanted to talk to you, I’m just tagging along.” Lila responded for Cate.

“I wanted to talk to you as well, as it happens. Both of you.” He unlocked the door as he talked and led them in.

They were back on the couch in same configuration as before with Merlin in the armchair directly across.

After a few moments of awkward silence Cate finally spoke up, “You didn’t finish the story.”

“Didn’t I?”

“She’s right. You told us that mother had a request for you but didn’t tell us what it was?” Lila correctly pointed out that Merlin had stopped before that part. It wasn’t intentional but there were more important things the needed to be said at the particular moment.

“I guess I did, sorry. Your mother wanted you to be safe but she also felt the Demon’s Eye might not be enough, and seeing me… I’m kind of an outlier in the world you could say, she thought it would be best if I took you in.”

He looked down at the table between them, attempting to avoid eye contact. He was generally a fairly outgoing person or at least that’s what he had been trying to project, however he’d lived an extremely quiet, reserved life up until this point without much to provoke any strong emotion within him. To be blunt he didn’t really have a personality, but he had a vision of who he wanted to be. Vulnerability was new for him and he didn’t quite know what to do with it.

“Is that what you want?” Cate asked.

“It’s what your mother wanted and I would feel bad not being able to honor her request. That said, I don’t have a destination in mind, I’m probably going to the capital next and then who knows. I may not be able to keep you as safe as she’d hoped I would. I have no idea what’s waiting for me out there and that unknown could kill you or even me. So, no, I don’t want to take you with me. I would like it if you could stay here for now. Mrs. Carrolly and Mrs. Ruth are good people and I can leave you with enough to stay here almost indefinitely, though I’d bet Mrs. Carrolly’d just as soon adopt you two.”

“Stop it.” Lila suddenly interjected, “What do you actually want? You’re sitting there droning on about the future and what mother wanted, all while looking at the floor. I want you to look me in the eyes and say it to my face!”

Merlin was surprised by her outburst but then again maybe it wasn’t all that surprising, she was quite the little spitfire. Merlin’s façade however had started to crumble away, revealing a glimmer of the passive person he’d been back at the church. Everyone else made his decisions for him and he was expected to go along with it.

“Yesterday you told us you were jealous of our bonds,” Cate began speaking, “you wanted a family like ours. I think you’re really cool, Mister Merlin, and uhh, I wouldn’t mind letting you be a part of our family.”

Merlin looked up his eyes wide.

“Like a brother, just to be clear. We’re not cheap and have no interest in older men!”

Cate, curiously, nodded slowly and looked away.

“A brother?” He turned the words around in his head, he felt his head buzzing as it rammed around his skull, words like “Big Brother” and “Little Sister” caused his eyes to light up. He felt a happy surge of energy he hadn’t felt since he landed on this new continent.

“Really, you’d be okay with that?” He asked cautiously.

Lila’s face suddenly went red, same as Cate’s but they both nodded.

“Yippee!” He hopped up from his seat and ran around the room in excitement.

“It’s not a big deal! Don’t be weird about it!” Lila warned but Merlin was over the moon and couldn’t hear a word she said.

“He’s more like a kid than us.” Cate laughed. Lila cracked a smile as well, “You’re right.”

He suddenly stopped and turned to them, his elated features dropped. He was now in serious mode, “That means I absolutely must protect you and ensure your safety.” He dove under the bed and came out with his rucksack. He dug around in the pack and pulled out two golden vials.

“Take these” He handed a bottle to each of them. Cate and Lila took them. They seemed expensive but Merlin wasn’t at all concerned with such things, so he didn’t quite understand their trepidation, “drink them.”

He hovered right in front of Lila’s face as he ordered them to drink it. He was in a very scary mood.

Cate and Lila looked at each other then drank it. Their faces flushed an even deeper shade of red. Cate’s eyes suddenly turned completely black and Lila’s turned gold. They both started coughing.

“It hurts!” They both cried.

“It’ll only last a few minutes, probably.” Merlin reassured them.

Their limbs slowly grew longer, their hair lengthened, and their chests filled out. Their clothes stretched and seems ripped.

“Do you feel better?” He asked.

They both clutched their heads.

“What the hell?!?” Lila shrieked, “Who are you?”

“Wh-what do y-you mean?” Cate asked.

They looked at each other up and down. The two kids were replaced with full grown adults.

Lila’s hair had darkened and her face was more defined but she mostly looked the same as when she was a kid, aside from her height.

On the other hand, Cate looked drastically different. Her hair was long, crimped, and golden, and breasts were definitely above average size. She was also incredibly tall and had glowing, cat-like blue eyes. She still fidgeted nervously in the same way.

Merlin gawked for a moment at the two beauties before him. It occurred to him that he hadn’t ever been in the same room with a woman, let alone anyone as scantily clad as them. It wasn’t really their faults as they had been wearing children’s clothes before, but the were no longer children. He shook the thoughts from his mind.

“What! Did! You! Do!” Lila fumed. “Akk!” She tripped over her new feet.

“Lila!” Cate attempted help her but face-planted in much the same way.

“The potion I gave you is derived from the Ambrosia Pearl. It’s extremely watered down of course, you’d die within minutes if you consumed a Pearl whole and probably take an entire city with you. This is a growth potion as you can see. It multiplies your stats by a factor of 10 and as you can see it, umm… accelerated your growth.”

“Who told you, you could do that?”

“It’s for your protection. I need to do whatever I can to keep my sisters safe!”

A knock at the door, “Merlin? Girls? Is something wrong in there?” Mrs. Carrolly must have heard them fall to the floor.

“Yes!” Lila yelled.

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To say Mrs. Carrolly was vexed would have been the understatement of the year, she, Mei, and the girls sat at one of the dining tables.

Cate and Lila were now dressed in clothes from Mrs. Carrolly and Mei’s wardrobe respectively. Mrs Carrolly generally dressed in business casual attire so Cate was in blue one-piece dress with white frills, while Mei was a bit more trendy which meant Lila had on a mesh undershirt with a black shirt over top and a black skirt with fishnet stockings. Mei even gifted Lila some purple hair clips.

The entire table held their heads in their hands. The aura of disappointment and regret was palpable, luckily no one seemed to be coming in.

“It was for their safety. I didn’t think it through.”

“Clearly.” Spat Lila.

“It was my duty as their big brother.” He said it like a rallying cry, though crying was the only thing anyone felt like doing.

“I’m confiscating it!” Mrs. Carrolly held out her hand.

“I don’t have another one on me, it’s in my bag.” Merlin said the second part quietly.

The entire table let out a collective sigh, aside from Cate who swung her legs under the table while clicking her boots together playfully.

“Putting that aside, what do you plan to do?” Asked Mrs. Carrolly.

“We need to do some training so they get used to fighting and using magic and then we’ll probably head to the Capital.”

“Training, aye?” A wild Ruth appeared. She was sitting at the table to our right.

Merlin hadn’t sensed her come in and it seemed like no one else except for Mrs. Carrolly had noticed her before speaking up.

“Where did she come from?”

“Is she a magician?”

Lila and Cate were blown away by her stealth.

“Well, I don’t mean to brag but this old gal knows a few tricks.” She threw a wink at Merlin. He didn’t know how to take it but he felt weirdly unsettled.

“So cool!” Lila was clearly excited.

Merlin smiled at his cute little sister.

“As it happens, I know a guy who may be able to help you. He’ll be able to point you to all the best spots and you can earn some Malba too while you’re at it.”

“That sounds great.” Merlin was thankful he’d met these two ladies, “You’ve both shown me and my sisters such kindness, I’m very lucky to have met you.” Merlin bowed.

“No need to thank us, you’ve already dropped more coin on us than we’d know what to do with.” Malba signs flashed in her eyes like neon signs, “Heh, heh!”

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The three of them spent the rest of the day preparing to depart. Mei took Cate and Lila aside for “Girl Talk” as she put it. They were in her room for nearly two hours and came out with steaming heads and flushed faces.

Then, Mrs. Carrolly and Ruth, had a talk about finances with them, and quick math lesson before dinner. Lila nearly passed out, but Cate seemed absorb the information just fine.

Dinner was much more lively than the previous night and everyone went to bed in much higher spirits.

Later that night there was a knock at Merlin’s door. He opened it expecting both of his sisters but this time it was just Cate.

She moved a lot more naturally than before. She took a seat on his bed.

“It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?” Merlin asked.

“Yep.” She clearly wanted to talk about something but couldn’t quite work up the courage.

“It was unfair of me to do this to you. Children should be allowed to grow up at their own pace, it shouldn’t be forced on them.”

“W-was that something Mrs. Carrolly told you?” Cate had hit the nail on the head.

“Ha! Yes. She did.” He smiled, “While you were with Mei, I was downstairs getting scolded. It seems age and experience have little to do with each other.”

“How old are you?”

“I don’t really know, but much older than I look, I can tell you. I drank the same Ambrosia potion as you except I didn’t have a choice. I was just a baby when they fed it to me. Can you imagine a baby in a man’s body? And after that It was years of tutors and training and then when I’d learned all I needed… that was that. I was left on my own for the most part.”

“Sounds sad.”

“Mmm.” Merlin didn’t really want anyone’s pity, he’d spent so long feeling it himself that even sympathy left a sour taste in his mouth.

“My mom was really nice, but I don’t think she was always that way.” Cate clutched the Demon’s Eye necklace, “She was a demon, right?” The reason she was here finally clicked.

“I couldn’t say.” Merlin sat down on the bed next to Cate. She looked up at him, clearly surprised by his answer, “Demon’s are hard to define. There are naturally occurring ones and then there are the creatures that are lumped in with them. You mother was a Djinn which aren’t technically “Demons” but even demons have autonomy to choose their own path. You’d be surprised to know that Demons are just another race of people, they just happen to fall on the wrong side more often than not.”

Cate stared at him, still waiting for an answer, it seems she wanted something a bit more concrete from Merlin.

“What I’m trying to say is your mother is exactly the person you looked up to and loved. She will always be as you remember her.” Her eyes softened and she smiled.

“Does that answer your question?” Merlin asked.

“I think so.” She quickly brought her lips to his cheek and kissed him then ran out of the room leaving Merlin in a catatonic state for the rest of the night.

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Morning came and Lila and Cate said goodbye to Mrs. Carrolly, Mei, and Mrs. Ruth. Merlin stood at the bottom of the steps waiting. Finally they all stepped out into the street.

“Make sure you all take care of each other.”

“And stop by my shop.” Ruth added.

“You have to tell me about your adventures and keep me updated about that thing.” Mei told Lila as they hugged.

“I will.” Responded Lila in a slightly more reserved manner than usual.

“And don’t forget when you get to the guild, use my name and ask for Mr. Isaiah Thompson. He’ll get you what you need or he’ll feel my wrath and you tell him that.” Mrs. Ruth was as spirited as ever.

“We’ll do just that, Mrs. Ruth.”

With all the pleasantries over with Merlin and company waved goodbye to their new friends and set off on a new adventure.