The Last Heir of Merlin

"You're Merlin!?" Jake outright demanded from him.

"Yes, I am Merlin. Well, not exactly Merlin..." he said, confusing Jake. Upon seeing this confusion on his face, Merlin began to explain, "You see, Witches and Wizards, when they die their magical essence escapes into the air, but if a powerful Witch or Wizard were to pass, like myself, or you in the future when you are meant to pass, that magic is contained within the body, because that powerful magic has the potential to suffocate others within a hundred meter radius. So the magic is contained inside the body, and will eventually phase out into a non-existent state like I am in right now. I'm here, but I'm not at the same time."

Jake blinked, "So... you're saying that your bodily projection is here, but not physically here?"

"That's one way to put it, yes. I was awoken when you opened my Small Book. Really, you could have opened any of them and I'd be here all the same. The message you read was written while I was still alive. I knew one day I would have a legitimate Heir to the Ambrosius name, I just didn't know it'd be almost Sixteen-Hundred years later," Merlin said, walking over and taking a seat on a chair near a window.

"Do you know why there was such a huge gap between you and myself?" Jake asked him, walking up to stand in front of him.

"No idea, but it is good to see my Tower remains intact and was not taken over by Norse Wizards," he said with a chuckle.

"What's all that equipment over there?" Jake asked, pointing over towards the glass objects on the table.

"Ah, that is my Alchemy Equipment, as pristine as the day I got it," Merlin said, almost reminiscing.

"Alchemy?" Jake had only ever heard it referenced once, and that was the year before when they were trying to figure out who Nicholas Flamel was.

"Yes, I don't believe it's as popular of a field of study like it once used to be, but it is still very prominent in modern times," Merlin answered.

"How do you know all of this? Things about modern times?" Jake asked him.

"I believe I already explained, didn't I?"

"About living on in a non-existent state like you are... yeah, you did," Jake wasn't completely satisfied with that answer, but saw no reason to demand more, because it didn't seem like he'd get an answer.

"So, how about I show you around the Tower?" Merlin offered.

"Okay, sure," he replied and looked at his bird. She didn't even react to Merlin's appearance, and she was content to stay up there and sleep until daylight.

Jake followed Merlin through one of the doors, and was led into a bedroom, and off to the right was a door leading to the bathroom, "Never used this that much, I always found myself asleep at my alchemy set, or away from my tower, aiding Arthur where needed."

"Arthur?" Jake asked, forgetting who Merlin was talking about.

"Arthur Pendragon."

Upon hearing the last name, Jake paled a bit, "Pendragon?"

"Yes, the man who became King Arthur, why?"

"I didn't know Arthur was a Wizard," Jake said.

"He wasn't, but that is not an explanation for now. I talked about it in one of my books, detailing all of that," Merlin said and led him out of the bedroom and to another door, "This is the staircase to get you up to the roof, or the ground floor, but the ground floor is farther away. Yes this tower only has one real room. The other doors lining the stairwell are all traps of varying degrees of danger. Some are harmless pranks, others will be fatal if allowed to be so," he laughed. Merlin led him to the roof, "This is where my astronomy equipment is, and there is an invisible barrier that protects from prying eyes and the weather. And there is a barrier around the Tower that has a mile radius, an Anti-Apparition barrier to everyone that is not you, or holding onto you."

"Awesome," Jake said, truly amazed at the sight of everything. He wasn't the most enthused about Astronomy, but having his own equipment made it a bit more awesome.

"I know I said the ground floor was the bottom floor, but that's not entirely true. There is a room below that, deep underground," Merlin said.

"What does it contain?"

"Funniest thing, I don't remember," Merlin said and Jake sighed.

"Only one way to find out, but I'll do that later."

"Splendid. Well, my time here is almost up. Fear not, the empty portrait above the fireplace is where I will reside for the rest of time, so I will still be able to offer you any advice or assistance that you need," Merlin told him.

"Alright, thank you for your help, Merlin."

"Anytime, my boy, anytime," Merlin smiled as his life essence faded entirely, before he walked out from around the edge of the portrait, "Ah, how wonderful to see you again. Although I must admit, being confined to this small window into the real world is not quite what I imagined."

Jake just laughed, "Well I'm going to go look at the Ground Floor and Basement, I'll be back soon, because I do need to sleep." Jake bid Merlin farewell for now, and left the Study area, going down the stairwell.

He passed by all the trap rooms and made it to the bottom of the stairs, entering into the foyer. It was mostly barren and void of any objects, except for a table with an empty vase on it. He had no idea what it was meant for, but he ignored it and went to the only other door down there. Upon opening it, Jake saw that it went deeper into the ground. He realized that there was no door to the outside, probably because one was not needed.

He walked down and found mostly nothing but darkness. He pulled out his wand and said, " Lumos Maxima !"

The room lit up in a grandiose display of blinding light, which was made all the worse because of the dampness of the entire basement, and Jake saw there wasn't much of importance down there, until he turned and saw another door. He figured storage space is what most of this could be, and then walked over to the door. He opened it and some candles inside flickered on. He extinguished his wand using Nox and let the candles set the mood lighting. The room was damp as well and gave off an eerie feeling.

He walked towards the Wall and noticed that something was supposed to be there, given how the candles were placed on either side of where something was supposed to be.

A chandelier above him suddenly lit up and he saw the faintest indication that one of the stone bricks could be pressed. Curiosity getting the better of him, he pushed it, and the wall began to open up. What it revealed was another door. Jake was starting to feel like he was back at his Vault in Gringotts.

He opened the new door and was taken to a marble white room that looked like it belonged in a Noble's Castle. There were porcelain objects all over the place, a glass display case that held some old looking objects in it, and the most important thing in the entire room, possibly even the whole Tower, was a massive painting, but not just any painting. This was a Family Tree.

There was a ladder off to his right and he noticed that it extended almost indefinitely, "Thank you magic." He immediately climbed it all the way to the top where Merlin Ambrosius was listed as the Progenitor to the Bloodline.

Below him was a man, only one, indicating Merlin only had one child, but while he was an Heir, he was not Merlin's True Heir, "Cennydd Ambrosius."

Cennydd had two children: Gareth, a son, and Garwen, a daughter. Garwen had a son, Cadfael, but he died at the age of three, and she never had more children, so Merlin's blood was carried on through Gareth.

Beside each name was the Blood Status listed, and when Jake eventually got down to his name, it did in fact say Pure-Blood, so he had no doubt now. He rejected the Pure-Blood Supremacy that most Slytherin displayed, like the Malfoy's, he'd already made up his mind about that. The only question he had about that was, 'Who was his biological Father?'

He looked and saw that the surname changed to Ambrose not long after 1650, by then they had already moved to America. It would explain why Ambrosius was still used at Gringotts for his Vault. He then saw his Biological mothers name listed, "Christina Ambrose..." he only just now saw that each person had a birth and death date, "1958-1980..." she was only twenty-two when she died. To Jake, that gave him two plausible causes of death: she was either murdered, or she took her own life.

His heart was heavy for a woman he'd never met. She had her reason for giving him up, and she knew that being put with a Muggle family was the safest option, until it wasn't. He also made the decision to keep his last name, the name of his Muggle parents. Sure, his father was among the worst humanity had to offer, but there were a couple of reasons: 1) It was just easier on him to keep the last name Fernandes. 2) He wanted to keep it a secret for as long as he could from most of the Wizarding Population that he was Merlin's descendant.

He returned back up to the Ground Floor and then proceeded to make his way up to the Study, "Ah, you're back," Merlin said, as though waiting for him the entire time, "how was it?"

"Useful. There is a Family Tree down there, showing everyone that descended from you through your son, Cennydd, and then his son, Gareth. It went on for not as many people as I expected, considering where it started," Jake said walking up to the portrait.

"Sometimes," Merlin said, his gaze looking beyond the Tower's wall, "I can still see Cennydd... I was already rather old when I had him. A young Witch had fallen in love with me, a much older man. I never saw my grandchildren."

"I'm sorry..."

"Oh, don't be, it was literally centuries ago, I'm just glad I can have interaction with my True Heir. Being able to talk to you has brought me the most happiness I've had since my own son's birth. Well, I won't keep you any longer, you have to be exhausted from everything that's happened," Merlin said thoughtfully.

A wave of exhaustion suddenly hit him like a freight train, "Yeah... I'm going to go clean up and get to bed... it was nice talking with you, Merlin."

"Likewise my boy," Merlin said to him before turning and walking out of frame.

Jake sighed heavily and went towards the bedroom door, ready to get some rest before the rest of Summer started.