The Daughters of Merlin
Chapter 6: Missing Zana

Two years passed by without incident. Everything seemed perfect and Merlin had allowed himself to relax.

That was until Zana disappeared.

Grace had come home from her knight training, Virgil having had to stay back at the palace for Lessons. As usual, Grace searched the house for her sister so they could play together. However, Grace found no sign of her. But she did replace her father in his room. Stuffing clothes into a pack.

“Papa, where’s Zana?” Grace asked.

“I sent her on an errand. I’m going out of town for a few days and I’ll be meeting up with her. I want you to stay with Arthur in the palace.” Merlin instructed, keeping his back to his youngest daughter.

Merlin had never left his daughters alone before, let alone sending them out of town by themselves on an errand, so Grace clearly knew something wasn’t right.

“Why? What are you doing?” Grace asked.

Merlin paused and he turned to look at his daughter. He could see his own concern reflected in her matching ice blue eyes. He sighed, knowing there was no hiding the truth from her.

“Zana was taken by . . . Well, technically she is my cousin.” Merlin shrugged to himself.

“What?!” Grace shouted, her eyes widening. “Why would they take Zana? Who are they?”

“Her name is Morgana Le Fey. She probably meant to go after you.”

“Why would she want me?”

“I’ll explain after we get Zana back. It’s best if you both hear it at the same time. If you want to come with me I suggest you go pack a few outfits.”

Grace nodded before running from his room. Once Grace had left, a raven came flying into the room carrying a blue hedgehog with rainbow colored eyes. The hedgehog belonged to Zana who she named Spark though that wasn’t the creature’s real name.

"I thought we wouldn’t tell them the truth." Spark said in a feminine voice.

“Morgana knows that they have returned. I have to tell them so they can properly prepare themselves. We won’t tell them everything though. Just enough to explain why Morgana is after Grace.” Merlin sighed, continuing to pack his clothes.

"Just don’t tell them about us. Maybe things will go better if they don’t know." The raven, who’s name was actually Raven, agreed, speaking in a masculine voice.

"You sound like Sunny." Spark said, rolling her eyes. ”Our job is to protect them. We never actually did that before but that’s what we should have been doing."

Raven opened his beak to respond, but was stopped by Grace who shouted from her room. “Papa, how long will we be gone?!”

Zana found herself chained to a chair in some sort of cabin. She had metal gloves on her hands, preventing herself from calling forth her Fire. She opened her mouth to say a spell but found that her voice no longer worked, preventing her speech.

“Well, look who finally woke up.”

Zana turned her head in time to see a woman wearing a plain black dress close a door behind her as she entered the room before turning to face Zana. The woman seemed a few years older than Merlin, with long, curly black hair which had a few streaks of grey in it along with vibrant violet eyes that felt familiar to the eldest daughter of Merlin.

Who are you? Zana mouthed, forgetting that she no longer could speak.

The woman chuckled. “I’m surprised Merlin never told you. I’m your mother.”

Zana raised an eyebrow at the woman. She saw no visible resemblance between them. “I don’t have time to explain all this to you and I’m not going to bother.” The woman walked up to Zana, leaning down so that their eyes were level. “You are going to tell me where Jynx is or else I’m going to have to kill you all over again.”

Again? Zana mouthed.

The woman stood up, rolling her eyes and sighing in frustration. “Really? It seems that I’m going to have to have a serious conversation with him after this.”

As the woman had stood up, Zana couldn’t help but glance down and she saw a strange scar on the woman’s chest. Zana decided to ignore it for now.

What do you want with my sister? Zana asked.

The woman chuckled. “I want to kill her. And this time I’ll make sure she stays dead! She doesn’t deserve to live instead of Mari! She needs to pay for ruining our family!”

When Zana saw the woman’s left eye twitch and the crazy look in her eyes, Zana allowed her confusion to lessen slightly, comforting herself as she told herself that the woman must be crazy. However, Zana still had a lot of questions. Before she could ask any of them, the woman turned to face the door. The woman thrust her hand forward and the door flew open, revealing a surprised Merlin.

“Ah, Grandson, how nice of you to join us. Did you bring my other insufferable daughter?” The woman asked, glancing behind Merlin.

“Morgana, they don’t know any of this. If anything, your battle is with me. Let my girls go.” Merlin said, walking into the room, revealing that there was no one else behind him.

“Oh, please. My battle was never with you. If it had been I would have killed you and your mother when she was pregnant with you. All I care about are my daughters.” Morgana replied, adding an edge to her voice.

"Kepas.” A familiar voice whispered next to Zana’s ear.

Zana smiled to herself. At last able to speak, Zana uttered the most simplest of spells, one that only ever worked for her, allowing her to unleash her most destructive spells. ”Fires of my heart; Ignite."

Zana’s metal gloves exploded into a thousand red hot pieces as she broke her chains, standing up from her chair. Morgana and Merlin both whirled around to face her. Zana’s hair was on fire as well as two fireballs appearing in each of her hands.

“You will never touch my sister!” Zana shouted.

She threw a fireball at Morgana who easily dodged it. As Morgana stood up straight, a spear had appeared in her hand which she then threw at Zana. Zana ducked down, causing the spear to sail over her head.

“You missed.” Zana said, smirking as she looked up at Morgana.

However, Morgana wasn’t looking at Zana. Instead, her arm was still fully extended, her lips pulled back into a snarl as she looked at something behind her. Zana looked over and saw that her father also had his arm extended, eyes glued onto the same thing Morgana was looking at behind his eldest daughter. Zana turned and her eyes widened at what she saw.

Grace was huddled against the wall, laying on her side. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the spear that was mere centimeters away from her chest.

“You can take Zanabelle! We never cared about each other anyways! She’s not worth my time! Jynx deserves to die!” Morgana shouted, not taking her eyes off the spear.

“She already died! You had your revenge!” Merlin shouted back through clenched teeth.

“She doesn’t deserve to live while Marielle is still dead!” Morgana screamed, taking a step closer which caused the spear to move two centimeters closer to Grace.

“Mommy, please. It was an accident.” Grace said, her eyes glowing as a blue upside down triangle appeared on her chin. At the sight of this, Morgana’s eyes widened slightly.

Grace placed her hand on the spear, a tear falling down her cheek. “I’m sorry mommy.”

Morgana’s eyes flashed to purple, becoming the same shade as Zana’s. In fact, her eyes were the same as Zana’s. Morgana let loose a scream before she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Once Morgana disappeared, the spear fell to the ground and Grace fell unconscious. The blue triangle disappeared from her chin.

Zana ran over to Grace’s side, being closer to her. Zana quickly checked her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the steady beating of her little sister’s heart. “She’s ok!” Zana said, turning to look at her father. Her relief disappeared when she saw her father on one knee, breathing heavily. “Dad!”

“Grab your sister. We need . . . to get out of here.” Merlin winced as he got to his feet.

Zana picked Grace up bridal style before rushing over to her father. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine. Morgana’s magic is a lot stronger than mine but after a little nap I’ll be alright.” Merlin assured her.