Goatie Tales - [The Bored Wizard] Chapter 5 - The Crusaders

Goatie Tales - [The Bored Wizard] Chapter 5 - The Crusaders

Hey everyone, I'm Goatie from Server 73.

This is Goatie Tales, a collection of short stories set in the world we all know, with a bit of humour and chaos mixed in.

This story is The Bored Wizard, following Merlin, an immortal who poked the wrong thing on purpose and is now dealing with consequences that have opinions.

The team is in the field. The gnomes are no longer acting alone. And something ancient is pulling the strings.

Now, uninvited guests have arrived.

Welcome to chapter five.

Chapter Five: The Crusaders

The Hall of Immortals had not been this tense since the Bakans.

Merlin stood at the centre, arms folded, staring at the three figures who had stepped through a portal nobody had opened.

Not his portal.

Somebody else's.

Leonidas had his shield raised before the light even faded. Theodora's hands glowed quietly, ready. Alexander had his sword out and was already smiling.

Three men stood on the other side.

The first was tall, broad across the shoulders, armour heavy and deliberate. A red cross marked his chest. His expression suggested he had opinions about everything and intended to share them.

Richard I.

The second was quieter. Darker robes, composed posture, a curved blade resting at his hip with the patience of someone who had never needed to rush. His eyes moved across the hall slowly, reading it.

Saladin.

The third wore a mask.

Not a ceremonial mask. A practical one, covering the lower half of his face. His eyes above it were calm and sharp, his posture carrying the particular stillness of someone who had learned to lead through pain without advertising it.

Baldwin IV.

Richard spotted Merlin immediately.

"Wizard," he said. "Explain yourself."

Merlin blinked. "You walked through my hall uninvited and you want me to explain myself?"

"Your hall is connected to something dangerous," Saladin said, his voice measured. "We felt it from a considerable distance."

"That is," Merlin paused, "actually concerning."

Baldwin said nothing. He was looking at the far wall, where the stone had not quite finished repairing itself from the last fight. His gaze moved slowly, reading the damage like a map.

"You have been attacked repeatedly," Baldwin said. Not a question.

"Recreationally," Merlin replied.

Baldwin looked at him. "No. Something drove them here deliberately."

The hall went quiet.

Leonidas lowered his shield by half. Theodora tilted her head. Alexander, remarkably, stopped smiling.

Merlin studied Baldwin for a long moment.

"You know something," Merlin said.

"I know what organised pressure looks like," Baldwin replied. "I have held a kingdom against it for years."

Richard stepped forward, because Richard always stepped forward.

"Whatever is directing those creatures has been active longer than your little boredom project," he said, gesturing broadly at the hall. "We have seen its reach elsewhere. Kingdoms moved without knowing why. Battles that served no obvious victor."

"Invisible hands," Saladin added. "Familiar ones, if you know what to look for."

Merlin unfolded his arms slowly.

"You three came together," he said. "Voluntarily."

A pause.

Richard and Saladin looked at each other with the specific expression of two people who had agreed on exactly one thing and found it deeply inconvenient.

"We are not friends," Richard said.

"We are aligned," Saladin corrected.

"Temporarily," Richard added.

Baldwin sighed quietly. It was the sigh of a man who had spent considerable energy keeping two very large personalities pointed in the same direction.

Alexander leaned toward Merlin. "I like them."

"You would," Merlin said.

The floor shuddered.

Not a crack this time. A tremor. Deep and deliberate, rolling through the hall like something enormous had shifted its weight far below.

The unfinished wall cracked again.

Then the runes flickered.

All of them. At once.

Theodora's light intensified immediately. Leonidas planted his feet. Alexander's smile returned, sharper than before.

Richard drew his hammer without ceremony.

Saladin's blade cleared its scabbard in one clean motion.

Baldwin stepped forward quietly, placing himself between the others and the flickering runes, shield raised, stance completely unhurried.

"It is testing the hall," Baldwin said. "Not attacking. Testing."

"How do you know?" Merlin asked.

"Because if it were attacking," Baldwin replied, "we would already know."

The tremor faded.

The runes steadied.

Silence returned.

Merlin looked at the three of them. At Richard, sword still drawn, jaw set. At Saladin, blade ready, expression unreadable. At Baldwin, calm at the front of all of it, holding a line that had not broken yet.

"You did not come here for shelter," Merlin said.

"No," Baldwin said.

"You came because whatever is out there is moving toward something specific."

"Yes," Saladin said.

"And you think it is moving toward here."

Richard sheathed his sword with a decisive click. "We know it is."

Merlin was quiet for a moment.

Then he turned back toward the hall, hands clasped behind his back, eyes distant.

"Six," he said to no one in particular. "That is a better number."

Leonidas looked at the new arrivals. At Richard's certainty, Saladin's precision, Baldwin's steadiness.

"They hold ground differently," Leonidas said.

"Yes," Merlin replied. "They hold it together."

Theodora studied Baldwin in particular. "He has been doing this a long time."

"Longer than is fair," Merlin said quietly.

Baldwin turned slightly, as if he had heard. Said nothing.

Alexander clapped his hands once. "So. The thing pulling strings is coming here. To us."

"Apparently," Merlin said.

Alexander looked delighted. "Good. I was getting tired of chasing it."

Merlin turned back to face all five of them. The hall glowed steadily around them, runes settled, marble holding, the portal humming with quiet patience.

"Something old is moving," Merlin said. "Something that has been watching since before we started. It knows this hall. It knows this team."

He smiled.

"Perfect," he said. "Then it already knows what is coming."

The portal flared once.

Deep below, something shifted again.

And waited.

That is chapter five of The Bored Wizard.

Richard arrived with opinions. Saladin arrived with answers. Baldwin arrived and immediately understood the problem better than anyone else in the room. The Hall of Immortals now holds six, and whatever has been pulling strings knows it.

The gnomes were never the real threat. They were a message. And now that the full team is assembled, the message has been received.

So who do you think is behind it all? An immortal the team already knows? Something older than the hall itself? And did Baldwin earn his place as the quiet centre of this chapter?

Drop your thoughts, theories, and predictions below.

This is Goatie Tales, and whatever comes next is no longer hiding.