THE MAGICIANS [t.r.]

SIX

act one, chapter six
autopsy of a morningstar

MYRDDIN WYLLT died for six pieces of coin and a kiss. it was sweet, like honey on the lips.

in the twilight of his life he sang his own eulogy as howl of pain while the flames melted his skin, he made the sonnet rhyme with every weil, and every verse began with her name:

            Judith, oh, Judith.

the butcher's daughter; pure, devoted and imprisoned by her own father. a girl who stood mesmerized by his magic instead of crying for the inquisition. she was of marriageable age but still had the features of a child (sixteen summers, seventeen at most) in those cheeks sunken by famine and the plague. Myrddin fell in love with her, even though she had no magic in her blood; the way she made his heart beat was magic enough.

he became the tarot's fool (reversed) when he ignored all the dangers and the signs: Judith had the dark marks of the black plague across her body, her mother died too soon and her father made of her a prey to hunt. she was desperate, dying. by teaching her the mechanics of magic he gave her f̶a̶l̶s̶e̶ hope and caused her deep pain: she made of her a Mozart, a musician unable to hear the music.

            in order to conquer
            the wonders of sorcery,

            Judith mained God
            for knowledge,

            she cursed knowledge
            for magic,

            she abandoned magic
            for power,

            a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶
            t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶u̶m̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶

then, death came knocking on her door and, before she could take her, lady darkness offered her a deal. six pieces of gold for the soul of another and the promise of forever if she could manage to trade with time. Judith accepted the deal, sealed it with a kiss. she told the inquisition about her lover and marked him with a kiss made of rosemary honey to hide the bitter aftertaste of betrayal. Myrddin accepted the kiss, he accepted the knife through his heart, he accepted the flames and the stake, and he accepted death without complains since it was a gift from his lover.

they met again, in the limits of the world. she gave him another name (Maelduin) and another life to waste serving her. now, his fingers are stained with charcoal and he can barely remember his true name. but when her eyes meet his he can still taste the honey on his lips, it's sweet and holy.

Tom feels the prying eyes of another wizard on him but he doesn't look away from Judith. if he had he would have noticed in Maelduin's wrinkled face the mortifying duality of a man both in love and afraid.

instead, Tom is watching Judith bewitched by her confession. he flinches outsmarted and tries to see past forward the blades of grass in her eyes. what she is (a magician), is what the wizards use as an example to why magic should never be exposed to muggles. she broke all the rules of the book and wrote her own on the edges with red ink.