The decision to study the Keys of Solomon had opened a Pandora's box in Umbria. The forbidden knowledge, though tempting, was also disturbing. Students and teachers alike faced moral dilemmas, unanswered questions, and the constant threat of corruption.
Merlin, aware of the danger, kept a close watch over his students, guiding them with a firm hand but also with a growing melancholy in his gaze. Sleepless nights spent deciphering the cryptic passages of the grimoire brought back memories of a past he had tried to forget, a past linked to the Keys, magic, and love.
One night, as Aria performed a complex summoning ritual under Merlin's watchful eye, the old wizard became absorbed in his thoughts, lost in the dance of the flames that illuminated the room.
"Master," Aria asked, interrupting Merlin's meditation, "what are you thinking about?"
Merlin sighed, slowly returning to the present. "In the past, Aria," he replied. "In mistakes made, in loves lost."
Aria, who had come to know Merlin as a wise and imperturbable mentor, was surprised to see the sadness in his eyes.
"Mistakes?" he asked. "You, Master, are the greatest wizard of all time. What mistakes could you have made?"
Merlin smiled bitterly. "Even the greatest wizards are human, Aria. And we humans are prone to error, to passion, to love-blindness."
Merlin then related a story he had kept hidden for centuries, a story that explained, in part, his deep knowledge of the Keys of Solomon and his reluctance to use them.
"Long ago," he began, "in the time of Camelot, I loved a woman. A woman of unparalleled beauty and even greater magical power. Her name was… Morgana."
Aria was surprised to hear the name of the sorceress, now a member of the Umbral Council, spoken with such reverence and sorrow.
"Morgana Le Fay?" she asked.
Merlin nodded. "But not the Morgana you know now. The Morgana of my past was different. She was passionate, ambitious, with a thirst for knowledge that rivaled my own."
Merlin and Morgana, in their youth, had been inseparable. They had studied magic together, explored the boundaries of knowledge, dreamed of building a better world. But their love, as intense as it was, was also destructive.
Their obsession with magic, and particularly with the Keys of Solomon, had led them to experiment with forces they didn't fully understand. They had attempted to summon powerful entities, sought control over the elements, and defied the laws of nature.
"We believed we could master magic," Merlin said bitterly. "That we could use it to create a paradise on Earth. But we were wrong. Power, unchecked, unwise, leads only to destruction."
Their recklessness had triggered a series of catastrophic events, which had endangered Camelot's very existence. They had unleashed dark forces that threatened to consume the kingdom, and had stirred distrust and hatred among the inhabitants of the Round Table.
"The war, the betrayal, the fall of Camelot… it was all, in part, our fault," Merlin confessed. "Our blind love, our boundless ambition."
It was then that Merlin, desperate to save what remained of his world, had resorted to the most extreme solution offered by the Keys of Solomon.
"I created the vampires," Merlin said, his voice a whisper. "Not as we know them now, bloodthirsty creatures of the night, but as guardians, as protectors against the darkness we had unleashed."
Using the magic of the Clavicles, Merlin had transformed a group of loyal warriors, granting them supernatural strength, speed, and stamina. But the process had been imperfect, and the vampires, though initially fulfilling their purpose, soon became uncontrollable, consumed by their new nature.
"It was Dracula," said Merlin, "the first of the vampires, the most powerful, who helped me correct my mistake. He developed the concept of the Punishers, vampires who would feed only on evil, who would use their powers to protect the innocent."
But the price of creating the vampires had been high. And the price of stopping the darkness he and Morgana had unleashed had been even higher.
"To save Camelot, I had to do something terrible," said Merlin, tears welling in his eyes. "I had to erase Morgana's memory. I had to remove from her mind all the memories of our love, our magic, our mistakes. I had to turn her into... someone else."
Dracula, with his ability to manipulate minds, had helped Merlin perform the spell. Morgana had been sent away, to a safe place, where she could live a normal life.
Evil, free from the burden of her past.
"And ever since," Merlin said, "I've lived with the weight of my guilt, with the pain of my loss, with the hope that one day, Morgana might find the peace I stole from her."
Merlin's revelation left Aria speechless. She understood now the sadness in the wizard's eyes, the melancholy that sometimes gripped him, the weight of responsibility he carried on his shoulders.
At that moment, Morgana Le Fay entered the room. She had heard part of the conversation, and her normally serene face was pale and tense.
"Merlin?" she asked, her voice trembling. "Is what you said true? Did you and Dracula... erase my memory?"
Merlin stared at her, unable to deny the truth.
Morgana staggered, as if struck by a blow. "Why?" she asked, tears welling in her eyes. "Why would you do something like that to me?"
Before Merlin could answer, Dracula, who had been listening silently from the entrance to the room, stepped forward.
"We did it to protect you, Morgana," the vampire said, his voice deep and resonant. "To protect you from yourself, and from the power you had unleashed."
Morgana looked at Dracula, then at Merlin, then at Aria, as if searching for an answer, an explanation, a way to understand what was happening.
"Who am I?" she asked, her voice a whisper. "Who was I… before?"
The question hung in the air, unanswered. The past, like a sleeping beast, had awakened. And the consequences of that awakening were still uncertain. The truth had come to light, but instead of bringing peace, it had opened old wounds, sown doubt and mistrust, and jeopardized the fragile alliance that had formed in Umbria. The battle against Eleonora and Poimandres was approaching, but now a new battle, an internal battle, threatened to divide the forces of light.