Sell you a Bridge chapter 328 (Patreon)

July 2nd 2016 Traverse Town, 12:00 PM EDT

This  cavern inside the door...didn't make much sense. It appeared to be be  deep underground, despite the other side of the wall it was in being in  the middle of a city, and there was a small house on an island in the  middle of the water logged cave, with most covered rocks creating a  picturesque path to the shore of the large patch of rock the little  shack was resting on.

Looking at it though, I was almost  positive that I recognized that aesthetic. I only knew one person who  decorated inanimate objects with giant wizard hats. "Wait." I said  suspiciously. "This isn't Master Yen Sid's summer home or something is  it? Because if that shack is some kind of spatially displaced entrance  back to the damn tower I'm going to shit bricks."

Cid  looked confused. "What? As in the great wizard Yen Sid? No, he doesn't  live in Traverse Town. This is Merlin's house." My eyes widened in shock  at that, but he wasn't lying. I'd have been able to sense the  deception.

Zee had stopped in her tracks, staring at him  in awe. "Shut the fuck up." At his confused look she said. "Merlin? As  in, THE Merlin. Greatest wizard of all time Merlin, fall of Camelot  Merlin, Sword in the fucking Stone King Arthur Merlin?" Her voice rose  in pitch with ever word, to the point where my ears were starting to  ring at the screech.

"Damn baby be cool." I said with a  wince. "It's not like we don't know anyone who knew King Arthur. Hell,  we fought Morgana La Fae, and regularly spend time with Nimue. Blood was  a knight of the round table or something too. You don't need to blow  out all the windows in a ten mile radius."

She just  scoffed. "Nimue is a brilliant sorceress, but this MERLIN. How are you  not literally squealing in joy right now?" Her eyes were glued to the  shack as we hopped across the rocks, pulling ahead so far I had to jog  to keep up with her. "Oh my god, oh my god, I can't believe this is  happening! I'm going to meet Merlin. The Merlin. Holy fucking shit!"

At  this point I'd just given up on try to bring her back down to earth and  was just hopping after her as she bolted for the door of the house.  When she got to it, she looked like she was about to pound on the door,  but then she stopped, cleared her throat, and very politely tapped her  knuckles on the aged wood. "Come in." Said an affable but fairly  weathered voice.

Swallowing hard, Zee looked back at me in  a panic, clearly not knowing what the fuck she was supposed to do here.  I smirked at her and leaned forward to turn the knob and push open the  door. Then I gestured for her to enter. Drea and Rana had hung back with  Roxas, Namine, Cid, and Leon, leaving me to deal with my starstruck  girlfriend. Assholes.

When we entered, I was kind of  surprised by the inside of the house.  It was ridiculously cluttered. In  the center of the stone hut there was a raised circular platform with  stone steps leading up to it, on which sat a round table with a white  clothe, set with tea and a single candle on a sconce beside it. Around  the room there was a large desk covered in papers and potions, a tidy  bed with old but soft looking covers, and a giant ass PILE of books.  Like...stacks and stacks of tomes taller than a person all shoved  together into an area the size of a palette from wal-mart or something,  though much taller.

"Dude." I said matter of factly. "You  need to get some bookshelves." Zee whirled on me, outrage on her face  and cheeks flushed with embarrassment that I would DARE to tell of the  master of all magic.

Merlin (because who the fuck else  would the tall white bearded old man with the Dumbledore glasses sitting  in Merlin's house be) just gave an affable chuckle. "Ah yes. The rising  Endless. Just as disaffected and amusing as I remembered. Quite right.  I'm afraid I do have a habit of being a bit scatterbrained. It cane be  difficult working in so many different temporal vectors at once. I'm  afraid I let things slip in the three dimensions most people see in."

Having  dealt with void magic often enough, I could sympathize. "It's cool.  Though by temporal do you mean you're a time traveler? Because that's  pretty badass. Thought it's damn convenient. I take it you know why  we're here then?" This would save us so much time.

Sadly,  his good natured laugh did not inspire hope for a quick resolution. "I  know why you think you are here. As well as several other things. Though  what I know and what I can share are very different things. I'm afraid  too much information about certain things might lead to a divergence in  the timestream and perhaps a paradox."

I groaned. "Of  course it would. Because none of you higher being types can ever make  this shit easy. Fair enough. So what hoops do we need to jump through to  earn the information we need. Should I bring you a shrubbery?"

That  got a bark of laughter from the old wizard. "Oh very good, my boy.  Alas, while a nice two level effect with a little path running through  it would really brighten up my yard, I'm afraid not. Still, you have no  need to be upset. You will meet the one you seek soon. In fact, you've  already been told the conditions for that meeting. Simply aid your new  friends here in discovering the root of their current problem."

He  gestured to Cid and Leon, the latter of whom visibly recoiled. "No  way." Spat the brooding brown haired man. "We are not bringing a bunch  of kids with us on ANOTHER mission. It worked out last time, but  statistically this sort of thing has to fall apart eventually. I will  not be responsible if they die."

Merling tutted at Leon,  frowning softly at him as he tilted his head down to look over his  glasses. "Now, now, my boy. No need for such talk. I assure you these  fine lads and ladies are quite capable. They'll be no hindrance, and in  fact, will be necessary for the resolution of your current problem.  Despite her immense skill, I'm afraid your Miss. Aerith isn't equipped  to deal with this problem. Or has her healing shown results against the  virus?"

Leon's scowl was answer  enough, but he still shook his head before answering. "No. It doesn't  seem to work at all. We're lucky we've gotten to the infected so  quickly. The virus doesn't just make them rabid, it makes them STRONGER.  Not up to our level, not yet anyway, but the older ones are close.  They're not stupid either. We need to figure out where they're coming  from, because if any of the older ones are hiding, they're going to be a  huge problem for us in just a few days."

Far  from the affable old grandpa image he'd had a minute ago, Merlin's face  was deadly serious. From the way his lips were pressed together I could  tell he wanted to say something, but couldn't. I knew enough about  temporal shifting from some of the stuff in the void grimoire that I  actually didn't blame him. If he told us what happened then we might not  do the same things we did before. If the fight had been close then even  a small change could mean our deaths.

Which  meant we needed to do what we'd done last time, presumably help them  like Merlin was saying we should. Time travel was annoying and I hoped  I'd never need to deal with it again. I turned to Leon. "Ok, if we're  supposed to help we need to know what's happening. What virus is this?  What the hell does it do?"

With  a grimace, Leon slumped back against the wall, folding his arms.  "It's...recent. We don't know where it came from. The virus is strange.  It warps the infected. Their skin turns rough and grey and spikes of  bone cover their flesh like tusks or horns. It starts slow, the eyes are  the first thing to turn, Red, no iris. From there people become angry  and vicious, their skin pales and roughens, eventually turning grey and  their strength grows over time."

"How  do they infect others? Is it airborne, touch based? Fluids?" The whole  thing sounded weird. I didn't recognize the effects of any of the  symptoms, but if Merlin said we could help there wasn't really any  reason to doubt the old man. He was the expert after all.

Leon  gave a helpless shrug. "We have no idea, really. We THINK you have to  come in contact with fluids. Injury or something. You can hurt them  easily before the bone spurs. We've taken to firebombing the ones that  show up. That seems to help, but more keep getting infected. The initial  rage doesn't fade, but they seem to get smarter as they progress. We've  tried treating them, restraining the weak ones to try to heal them, but  healing magic, no matter how strong, doesn't seem to have an effect."

That  didn't sound ideal. I was hoping my armor at least would seal me off  from infection, so if it came down to it I should be able to fight them  head on, but slaughtering an infected town seemed like a last resort  thing. I turned to Merlin. "This will lead us to Sora? It'll help on our  mission? I don't mind helping out, especially if Sora is around here  and might be in danger, but I need to know I'm actually accomplishing  something."

"You  have my word." He said gravely. "This particular incident is something  you are qualified to help with, and it will certainly advance your  goals." He sighed sadly. "I can speak no further on the subject I'm  afraid. My involvement must be limited. You have the tools you need, you  have simply to follow this series of events to its conclusion to arrive  at the thing you seek."

Cryptic,  but fine. "Alright." I told Leon. "Lead the way. I should probably see  one of the infected, or at least the place you kept one." My aura sight  would give me more details of how this whole thing worked. The sour  faced brown haired brooder nodded shortly and turned to leave. "Up we  go." I threw a protesting Zee over my shoulder. "Thanks for the help  Merlin. We'll stop in  after this mess is over so my girlfriend can  grill you about mystical secrets."

He  gave an affable chuckle. "Quite right, my boy. I'm always happy to  discuss the arcane arts. Simply come and find me when you're done. Oh,  and do close the door on your way out. It's warded to only open for  specific people. It should isolate me from the contagion. I daresay no  one wants ME infected with some sort of rampaging bone person virus." I  shuddered at that thought, and agreed as I carried Zee out.

"Damn  it Morgan!" My sorceress cursed. "Put me down! That's MERLIN, MERLIN. I  was good and let you have your conversation, but I want to talk to him.  He can teach me so much!" I chuckled at her writhing annoyance, but  didn't put her down until we were outside, when a quick burst of flame  closed the door behind us.

We  followed Leon, ignoring my love's complaining. We finally reached a  house nearby, and Leon let us in, gesturing us inside. "We're staying  here." He said. "Aerith is inside and can probably tell you more about  the virus than I can. I'm not really a research guy." He gestured at the  room off to the side. "That's where we were keeping the infected we  tried to heal. He's gone now. Can't contain them for long." I nodded,  stepping into the room to look everything over, and froze.

There  was a familiar symbol of a bat painted on the wall in blood. "Oh." Leon  said. "Yeah, they keep painting that on things." I swallowed hard. The  bat symbol was bad, but it wasn't the worst part. After all, I didn't  know why the symbol would be surrounded by Superman's shield, but it  couldn't possibly be good.