RISE OF THE SWARM

The road stretched endlessly before them with no end in sight just a long stretch of dirt path, the sound of creaking wheels creaking beneath the carriage as hooves beat a steady rhythm into the dirt. It was then Liam noted there was no one managing the carriage it seemed to direct itself. He attributed it to Merlin, after all he was the Merlin the sage of ages, he doubted if there was anything he couldn't do.

Liam still felt the ache in his ribs, though the potion had eased most of the pain. Merlin's words still hung in his mind, prophecy, fate of the world, it reminded him of the silver haired woman, she had also spoken something similar, but he still couldn't believe it.

Prophecies were things of legends, of fire-stories, whispered to kids as they slept and shared between adventurers beside a fireside. To have himself caught up in one, it felt absurd, and yet Merlin didn't seem to lie after all he had no need to.

"What is the prophecy?" Liam asked, breaking the silence in the carriage.

His curiosity burned deep inside him; he needed to know what prophecy it was that spoke of him. Merlin turned to him quietly before turning to the imperial princess, whose brow furrowed once again. She opened her eyes, turning to Liam.

"You're far to weak to learn its contents, learning of right will do you no benefits. When you get stronger, it shall be told to you." She said coldy.

Liam frowned. He was growing to dislike this princess.

"What do you mean, it's a prophecy about me i reserve the right to learn of it's contents don't you think so?" Liam rebutted.

"And the prophecy came to me, I will tell you when I-"

"Evelyn, enough." Merlin interrupted her, his voice growing slightly colder, his previous warm appearance disappearing.

"He has a point, the prophecy does indeed contain him, so he does deserve to know it." Merlin said sternly.

Evelyn frowned, shooting a glare at Merlin, but there was little she could do; not only was he much more powerful than her, he was also her father's best friend as well as her teacher. So in the end, she relented.

"When the silent logic descends from the sky,

A thinking plague no flesh can deny,

Gods of Crystal with a single thought,

To bind all minds and conquer what they ought.

Then, from the void between the stars,

A breath of silence shall break their bars.

Not of spell, nor of steel, nor of rune,

But the un-making gift, the anti-typhoon.

The Blank Page in their grand design,

The Un-numbered, the undefined,

Shall be found where the Seeker of Dreams must pry,

And on his choice, all futures lie." She recited ominously.

Liam gulped; he didn't like the contents of that prophecy at all, its premonitions were way to dark for his liking. But something struck out to him, who was this seeker of dreams. He attribued it to be the princess.

"The prophecy came to me one night, along with it images of a destroyed world. Demons of metal and fire walked the earth, destroying everything alive, repurposing their corpses using them to power their horrific expansion." Evelyn continued her voice, nearly breaking. It seemed the dream contained something more, but it didn't seem like she would've liked to share it, so Liam wouldn't press onwards.

"Liam the power of this prophecy speaks of might be yours." Merlin continued his causal demeanor, slipping, revealing the formidable intellect he had.

"You see Liam, your power is unlike any magic that has ever existed. It is not of the elements, nor is it of the divine in any way that we understand." Merlin said, lifting his hand conjuring a ball of fire, water, earth, and wind.

"What is it, then?" Liam asked the question a whisper.

"It is is null," Merlin stated grimly, dispersing he ball of elements. Liam gulped once more, null magic didn't sound like a force of good at all.

"Your magic is the antithesis of creation itself. All magic imposes a will on mana, the worlds foundational energy. We shape it, command it. We create. Now you see what your power does is that it un-creates. It returns mana to its fundamental base, its inert state. It unravels the pattern of existence itself The trees you destroyed weren't burned; they were unmade. Those men weren't killed; they were erased. In other words, your power is a counter to every magic to have ever and probably ever will exist. Frankly, it's marvelous."

Liam felt a coldness seep into his bones that had nothing to do with his injuries. Unmade. Erased. The descriptions made the power inside him feel even more monstrous and alien.

"But doesn't destruction magic essentially do the same thing? They destroy things?" Liam's question, having remembered what he had been taught by his professor in the village.

"No, no, not at all. You see destruction magic, destruction dosen't erase things like yours does. No destruction magic merely rips apart mana changing it to another state, you're basically creating something new. Your literary erases that thing from the face of the earth" Merlin finished.

"This is a mistake," Liam insisted, a note of desperation creeping into his voice. "I'm nobody. I can't even control it! It's a beast that sleeps inside me and wakes up when I... when I lose myself." He looked from Merlin to Evelyn, pleading for them to understand. "I'm not a weapon. I'm an accident."

"The world rarely asks our permission before it reshapes our lives, commoner," Evelyn said, her eyes opening to fix him with a flinty, imperial stare. The illusion of 'Ell' was completely gone now, burned away by her cold intensity. "Whether you asked for it or not, you hold a power that, according to the very prophecy you now embody, could potentially destroy the world as easily as save it. Your desires are irrelevant. Your control, or lack thereof, is now a matter of imperial security."

Her words were like a slap. She didn't see a person; she saw a dangerous variable. And in a way, she wasn't wrong. The memory of that raw, uncontrolled power tearing through him was enough to make him sick with fear. What if it happened again? In a crowded street? In the heart of the empire itself?

Merlin placed a calming hand on the princess's arm. "What Her Highness means to say is that you are not alone in this. You need guidance. Training. The Imperial Academy has resources and knowledge that might help you understand this power. The first lesson for any mage is to master their own energy. For you, that lesson is infinitely more critical."

Liam looked between them: the legendary sage offering a path of knowledge, and the princess who saw him as a threat to be contained. Both, in their own ways, were right. The path of the simple villager was closed to him forever. His only options were to be crushed by the weight of this power, or to try and shoulder it.

He thought of the silver-haired woman's plea. 'You must get stronger.'

"The Imperial Collegium…" Liam said slowly, testing the words. It was the center of magical learning in the world, a place he had only ever read about in his master's tattered books.

"Precisely," Merlin said, a genuine smile finally breaking through his grave demeanor. "We will take you there. You will be my personal apprentice. Officially, you will be a rare talent I discovered in the provinces, a prodigy with a unique affinity for now, let's call it 'energy dissolution'. It's obscure enough to be plausible. Your true nature and the prophecy must remain a secret known only to a very select few. The panic it would cause would be rather catastrophic"

"And what if he cannot be controlled?" Evelyn asked, her gaze fixed on Merlin, bypassing Liam entirely. "What if the next 'energy discharge' occurs within the city walls? The responsibility would be on us for bringing him there."

"Then we will ensure it does not happen," Merlin said, his voice leaving no room for argument. He looked at Liam, his eyes holding a challenge and a promise. "Well, lad? The world has forced your hand. But you can still choose your path. Will you come? Will you learn to master the void within you?"

Liam took a deep, shuddering breath, ignoring the protest from his ribs.

He had been given no choice in his power, but he could choose what to do with it. He could choose to become stronger. To ensure that the destructive force inside him would never be unleashed by accident again, and that it would never again harm those that he cared for.

He turned back to Merlin, a new resolve hardening in his eyes, pushing back against the fear and the pain.

"Yes," Liam said, his voice firmer than it had been since he awoke. "I will."