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He really wasn't a dark wizard after all.
Compared to the textbook definition of a dark wizard standing in front of him, he was practically a saint.
"So, Professor, can you now tell me who exactly that skeleton, the god who made a contract with me, really is? What's their identity and origin?"
Ian knew how to seize the moment.
While Morgan was in a good mood.
He immediately asked the most critical, and also the most likely to be denied, question. But Morgan was indeed in high spirits at the moment and didn't choose to keep playing the enigmatic riddler.
"Look up at the sky, little one. I told you before: That god is the Sun." Morgan stood on the steps outside the palace hall and looked up once more. In the clear blue sky, a golden sun hung high above, like a benevolent giant, generously shedding warm and radiant light.
That golden light didn't just illuminate the earth; it filled all living things with energy and vitality.
"When I found that skeleton, there was a similar sun in the sky too… though it was blood-red," Ian recalled his experience at the mysterious tower.
An entire kingdom… Had fallen into the Twilight Zone. And now it seemed, it wasn't just that kingdom that had fallen.
"This place, and the place you encountered, they both come from the same origin. The same civilization…" Morgan had already learned about Ian's encounter at the tower through Ariana's unstable messages.
She wasn't surprised.
Clearly, she had known parts of the truth for a long time.
"Many of the fairy tales you're familiar with all come from that era, that civilization… Its remnants echo even into the era I come from." Morgan explained slowly and calmly.
"I know this one! Snow White and my beautiful, evil senior sister," Ian blurted out, trying to be the first to answer.
"Yes, exactly. So for convenience, we'll call that civilization the Fairy Tale Civilization, since no one really knows what its official name was. If back then I had spent a little more time in the tiny kingdom where your senior sister lived, I might have learned more about that civilization. Unfortunately, I was caught up in other matters at the time." Morgan's tone carried both regret and an unwillingness to reveal certain things.
Ian didn't pry further.
Right now, he only wanted to uncover the truth about the black-robed skeleton.
"If Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and the beautiful Merfolk all lived in that civilization, it must've been a glorious one. And the god who once protected and nurtured it shouldn't be a nameless nobody, right?"
Ian tried to ask directly about the skeleton's true identity.
His teacher didn't let him down.
"How much do you know about Celtic mythology?" Morgan's question was clearly full of meaning.
"Um… not much."
Ian hit a knowledge blind spot. Hogwarts' library had very few records on that kind of mythology, and he hadn't thought to connect it before.
"Then go back and learn more. The god that's latched onto you came from there." Morgan wasn't surprised, after all, she'd studied the current magic world through Ian's hands.
"Sun goddess?" Ian murmured in thought.
Morgan lightly nodded in response.
Then, out of thin air, she conjured a book and handed it to him.
"???"
Ian was confused.
"Forgot how to study?" Morgan gave him a teasing look.
"Ugh… fine." Ian sighed helplessly, took the book from Morgan's hand, and began cramming on the spot. Sure enough, in the Records of Celtic Mythology, he found the information he'd been seeking.
In Celtic mythology, there indeed existed a sun goddess named Arianrhod (though here she's rendered as "Aurwen"). Her name meant "Golden Wheel," symbolizing the radiance of the sun.
According to legend, no matter where Aurwen walked, four white clovers would bloom beneath each of her steps. Because of this, she was also nicknamed "the White Footprint."
This goddess emerged from the darkness, and with every step, she scattered the flowers of spring across the land, awakening new life from the death of winter. Her golden wheel united heaven and earth, and her flame-gold cloak touched the sky.
The plant most associated with Aurwen was the hawthorn tree, symbolizing magical wisdom, fertility… and immortality.
"No wonder it told me… it couldn't die…"
Ian finally unraveled the mystery that had puzzled him for so long. Perhaps the black-robed skeleton had truly forgotten its own identity, but clearly, it hadn't forgotten the divine authority it possessed.
Just as Ian was diving deeper into understanding the Sun Goddess and was eager to learn more about Celtic mythology,
"Come back with me first. You have plenty of time," Witch Morgan suddenly glanced into the distance and, without warning, grabbed Ian's arm with her long, pale hand.
"Zzzzz~"
A portal appeared before the two of them.
"But I haven't claimed the bounty yet." Ian looked back unwillingly. Inside the great hall, the frozen king and queen still remained in the exact same posture. He was very curious about the reward from that royal couple.
"I was the one who froze this place in time. Can't you guess what that implies?" Morgan sighed helplessly, but noticed Ian's gaze still sneaking glances behind him.
"This place has always been a fixed and erased past, directly removed from reality. You can't change anything here, and you won't be able to gain anything from it either."
Morgan's words crushed Ian's hopes for a reward but they didn't extinguish all of his curiosity.
"But they were people I could interact with…" Ian remembered his conversations with the king and others.
"Just like I said, it was always meant to happen that way." Morgan started dragging Ian toward the portal. Her gaze kept shifting toward the distant horizon.
"But I haven't even seen Sleeping Beauty yet!" Ian still wasn't giving up. He'd been curious for a long time about what she looked like. It was like a hundred little cat paws were clawing at his heart.
The desire was overwhelmingly strong.
So strong, in fact, that he couldn't even explain why.
"Be good. I'll conjure up a fairy tale book for you when we get back, it'll have both the beginning and the end of this story." Morgan, realizing she couldn't drag him otherwise, started coaxing him like a child.
"…"
Ian wanted to argue, how could a storybook compare to seeing it with his own eyes? Could he poke Sleeping Beauty's nose in a storybook? But when Morgan started pulling harder, he could only give in and take the second-best option.
"Can you teach me how to stop one of these echoes from the past from playing out?"
Since he couldn't see Sleeping Beauty, Ian figured he should at least learn something useful to make up for it.
After all,
This was already the second time it had happened.
There was no telling if he'd run into a similar situation again in the future.
"That's very simple… of course, the precondition is that nothing within the echo exceeds your own level of power. Otherwise, it could result in extremely dangerous consequences."
Morgan, for once, chose to compromise as she led Ian through the portal she had opened.
The two of them returned to the familiar castle.
And just as their feet left the "story," that fixed, immutable tale, with an ending long since determined, began to flow once again.
The wizard who had "ridden the wild wind" had vanished.
But the story, even though it had been "interrupted," continued without a hitch, as if it had simply been rewound and replayed from an earlier moment.
"Is that the wizard who came riding the wild wind, descending amid the roar of the skies?"
"Sounds like a pretty cool title."
"Honored wizard, welcome to my kingdom."
"I'm here for the bounty."
...
"Oh right, what about that black witch? Is she living nearby? I want to see if I can capture her for study. Of course, if you could give me the locations of the other twelve witches too, that'd be perfect. It's all for the sake of saving your daughter, Your Majesty. Don't worry, I'll handle it. No loose ends, guaranteed." Ian said eagerly.
"I'm the sage of the forest, the philosopher of the hidden valley, the hermit of the misty city, the light's apostle sworn against all dark wizards, how could you slander my pure reputation so, Your Majesty?"
...
Everything began playing out again, as if it were a rerun of a story long since told. Everything seemed to be playing out all over again.
However,
Ian's figure…
Was replaced by a raven summoned from the horizon with an Accio, it stood there, speaking the same words, doing the same things, even using the exact same tone.
"This… Honored wizard, if we seek your help, what price must we pay?" The king continued a conversation Ian could no longer witness.
"Your lost daughter spent thousands of years speaking with me in my domain. She made a pact with me, so she has already paid the price she was meant to pay…" The raven was speaking.
The king and queen's expressions were filled with concern.
"Can we know what the agreement was?" The queen asked cautiously.
"Do you know Hogwarts?" But the raven replied with a question of its own.
The king and queen looked utterly confused.
Then it spoke again, quietly.
"That will be the final fairy tale… And the beginning of something new for me."
This was a past that had long since happened.
And at the end of the story, the prince never came.
There was only a raven, arriving as promised.
(End of Chapter)