No one said a word.

Bryn -Excalibur and Holy Grail still in hand- was frozen in place. There was an intruder in Avalon! Never before had there been someone in Avalon who wasn't specifically chosen by the portal at Stonehenge!

The voice belonged to a pale, young man with dark wine-red hair of medium length which was parted to the left, consealing the left side of his face somewhat.
He wore long black robes and his face was partially covered by what looked like cloth-binds, two of which came down from his hair line, crossed over an eye each, and went down to his neck --apparently leaving him completely blind.
The third came around from his neck, covered his mouth and went back to his neck across the other cheek. His forhead, most of his cheeks and his nose were left unconsealed. Despite his strange mask, his features were quite handsome and he looked athletic and fit.

"Relaaax Pendragon! I'm on your side! How's it been since Mordred stabbed you with that dagger Morgan gave him? Seems like you bounced back pretty well!" he said, reclining on the ornate chair, hands behind his head and feet up on the table. It was hard to tell due to the mask, but Bryn thought he caught a smirk on the stranger's face.

"Who are you?! How do you know my name??" he responded. He had vague memories of seeing this man centuries ago in Caer Avalon, while Morgan was tending to the injuries Mordred had inflicted on him.
The two of them probably had thought he was unconscious at the time -actually he had just been half asleep- and so he was witness to their, as it seemed, rather serious argument. The problem was, that they had spoken in a language completely unknown to him, so much so that he had doubted it was even human!
Until this very moment he had believed that to have been some sort of nightmare, but now that this mysterious figure was sitting there in his chair... there where a lot of questions in the detective's head he could barely stop himself from blurting out all at once.

"Oh we've met before! I was looking... older... though." he sat down properly in the chair and waved at Yuka. "Hey there Yuka! Long time no see! Still as beautiful a beast as one and a half millenia ago! Respect!" before she could respond the masked man turned towards Zin.

"And here we have the biggest surprise in the room -aside from yours truly of course-" he briefly pointed at himself with his gloved hands' thumbs, "Kuraak Varokzin Mahrokhorak, heir to the great royal Mahrokhorak family! If you would excuse the question your Highness, I just have to ask, how did you make it out of  Yuka's belly? Last time I saw you, she ate you! I'm sure it's a fascinating tale! I-"

"Listen here you! I don't know who you think you are, but I am going to show you some manners and then you'll explain yourself!" Yuka interrupted, clearly quite irritated by the man's behaviour and questions.

She took two dragon-sized steps toward him.

"Ah ah ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you!" he said, as if speaking to a child and waved a finger in front of her.
Yuka didn't care and proceeded to close in on the man in the king's seat.

Zin and Bryn watched in absolute speechlessness as the red dragon suddenly winced, her knees went weak and she almost collapsed right where she stood. She managed to stumble backwards and seemed to recover somewhat. "Yuka! What did you do to her?!?" Zin exclaimed, starting towards the red haired man. Yuka stopped him by putting her claws on his shoulder.

"Oh I didn't do anything! That's all on her! I warned her, but she didn't listen!" he got up from the chair, revealing himself to be about as tall as Bryn, his hands and feet also covered in black cloth. He streched his arms out to each side as if presenting himself for closer examination, "That should have given her some clues as to what I am though! Hm? Got an idea now, Drakyrian?"

His words seemed to have triggered a realization in Yuka. The dragon's eyes were wide open and she whispered:
"No.... that can't be..."

"What?!" Bryn and Zin asked almost at the same time.
"I do know what he is..." she said, her eyes focused on the still quite relaxed and unworried seeming man with an animosity that neither Zin nor Bryn had ever seen in her before. "He is Yinmera... I didn't see it at first because they don't usually look so human... but that pain... I've felt it before. Scouts have reported that for some reason some Yinmera are born into a humanoid body... nobody could quite explain why and how, and because we never managed to capture one before, we had no way of studying them... I didn't believe they existed at all, but I guess I was wrong..."

Bryn shook his head in confusion, "What?! What the hell is going on here? Can somebody please explain?" Zin lowered his head down to the detective, "The Yinmera are a species of crystal people, usually purple-ish. They have been at war with our people, the Drakyrians, for far longer than any other war on Earth ever lasted... I had no idea they could also turn out like this... The reaction Yuka just had to him was what gave his identity away more than anything. We can't get close, not to mention touch, them, otherwise we suffer excruciating pain and slowly become paralyzed."

The Yinmera had been nodding in agreement throughout Zin's explanation and then added: "Yeeeaaah, that pretty much sort of covers it for now... and the only reason we haven't kicked your scaly asses yet, is your numbers and your unfair tech headstart!" causing Yuka to growl threateningly at him. "Hey hey! I'm just kidding!" he said, putting his hands over his head for a few seconds as if he was surrendering.

"Okay so I think this is enough fooling around for now!" speaking with a slightly more serious voice, he sat down on a knight's seat. "Let's get down to business... The reason I came here is that I miiiiight need your help..."

Bryn sat down on his old chair, keeping his sword and chalice safely and readily at his side. He wasn't sure whether or not he could trust a single word this strange... being... said, but his curiousity pushed him towards wanting to hear more.
"Okay, well whatever you want, you will need to explain yourself properly!"

The dragons turned back into humanoid form for the rest of the conversation, and sat down as far away as possible from the masked Yinmera in order to avoid any major reaction their bodies might have to him.
Yuka kept looking at him with unveiled suspicion and distrust, and Zin eyed him with cautious interest.

"Oookay..." he began, "First of all, I am Khyrai Sa'Zoyin, former heir to the Zoyin Empire and-" Yuka's eyes opened wide again, the name clearly meaning something to her. Khyrai looked at her for a moment, noticing her facial expression, "Oho! My fame, or better infamy, preceeds me I see! Yes indeed, I am THAT Khyrai Sa'Zoyin, the Disgrace of the Empire, the Runaway, the Annoying Redhead, I've been called many names!"
"How about food?" Yuka murmured, trying her hardest not lunge at him. "Oh we both know that wouldn't go so well for you! At the very least, you wouldn't really be able to enjoy your food I don't think..." Khyrai countered with a wink that was barely noticeable due to the cloth bands over his eyes.

"Aaanyway, as I was saying.... I could use some help... There is a certain Drakyrian individual here on Earth I've been made aware of. Supposedly he showed up on someone's radar recently for a brief moment during which he caused considerable damage and was a danger to anyone around him. It goes without saying that I want to stop him from doing that again!" he looked -as far as one could tell due to his mask- at the three others sitting at the table, waiting for their reaction.

Yuka scoffed, "Actually, why would you even care what happens to the humans?", Khyrai hesitated a moment, but then responded: "My time on Earth has changed my views quite significantly, I-".
"You are the Phantom of New York! I knew I recongnized you from somewhere!" Zin interrupted excitedly. "Yeah that too." Khyrai waved it off. "The what?" Bryn asked in confusion. "Well the Phantom of New York! I mean have you been living under a rock lately? He is-"
"Hey! Could we talk about that some other time please? Will you help me with the matter I came here to discuss?" Khyrai in turn interrupted Zin, suddenly seeming much less happy to discuss that part of his career.

Head buried in his hands, elbows resting on the table, Excalibur and Holy Grail set down in front of him, Bryn mumbled: "Oh man, this is a LOT to take in! I will probably have to ask you about these things multiple times just to wrap my head around it..."

"Okay, okay! Let's just focus on this one thing and whatever questions might come into your heads along the way, we can answer on the fly! How about that?" Khyrai suggested, now seemingly wanting to steer the conversation back towards his mission. Everyone nodded in response, so the masked Yinmera returned to his explanation of what he had come to ask the three of them.

"Soooo.... about that rampaging Drakyrian I mentioned... well part of the reason why I sought you out Arthur," he said, looking at Bryn, "is that you actually met him before... I roughly retraced your life and what you've been up to and... it turns out you... kind of... dug him up when you completed your excavation of the Royal Tomb of... Akhe-something..." Khyrai seemed to have some trouble recalling the name, but before he could think about it much more, Bryn helped him out, himself rather unsettled at the mention of that tomb... Whatever had happened there, clearly it must have been of a lot more significance than he had realized.

"The Royal Tomb of Akhenaten. I never really found out what happened in there or what they did with the strange sarcophagus I discovered... And you're saying it was... this... Drakyrian's?" Khyrai nodded in response. Yuka and Zin just sat there listening, Zin because he was intrigued, Yuka because she was busy keeping herself from just attacking one of the worst enemies her people ever had --it's what she'd been trained to do.

"Yes. The data I have on him is... well it could be better. But I have a rough idea of who he is and why he was sent here, which leads me to believe that him going on a rampage all of a sudden is due to someone else's manipulation!"
Bryn raised an eyebrow at that. Data? That didn't sound very mystical or magical at all...

"He was sent here? Who is he and who manipulated him?" he asked Khyrai, who sighed and said: "Yes... this particular Drakyrian didn't want to come here. They also sent him in a remote controled ship, which could mean that it was punishment... I can imagine that being sent to Earth could be a form of exile. No idea who's manipulating him though... just seems odd that it took so long for him to be noticed again. Not all Drakyrians have been able to blend in with the humans as well as our two here have!"

Bryn supported his head with his hand as he went over that information again. "And do you have a plan of how to find him? I mean we don't necessarily have a huge amount of resources here... not to mention that I am homeless once again, not even this mantle is mine!"

Khyrai chuckled, "Sort of... Honestly I've been wondering about your outfit for a while now Arthur... it's not really your style!"
"You seem to be about my height," Zin said, "We could stop at my place back in Swansea and at least solve the clothes problem."

The detective smiled and nodded, but then suddenly remembered something: "Wait...  about a month ago before Baraas blew me and my apartment building to bits, I received a mysterious message on my phone... It seemed to be just another cryptic client at the time, but he or she mentioned Stonehenge. I am starting to think that person might be linked to all of this..." Khyrai, Yuka and Zin all seemed very concerned about that.

Yuka asked: "Who could he or she be? I mean Stonehenge hasn't been used as a portal since... well pretty much since you left after 'King Arthur's Demise'..." "That would imply that anyone knowing about this must have been alive and in your proximity back when you still where the King of this place." Khyrai continued the thought.

Bryn simply nodded and got up from the table. "It might very well give us more information about this Drakyrian, or it might just be another Stonehenge conspiracy theorist... Either way I think it would be a mistake not to investigate at least a little."
Yuka got up and pulled him to one side a bit further away from Khyrai and Zin.

She whispered: "Think about this. We still don't have much of a reason to trust this guy, so why should we help him?"
Zin, who had apparently been able to here everything she said, came over and whispered: "We have a pretty good reason actually. If you had kept up with some interesting reports and articles from America, you would know who he is! Maybe not necessarily that he is a Yinmera, but definitely the kind of person he is! He has been something of a superhero over there, saving people, fighting crime, the whole deal!"

Yuka still didn't seem completely convinced, "Doesn't sound like much of a Yinmera to me... Why would they care about humans?!" "He said his time on Earth changed him! Also didn't you hear the names he listed just a moment ago?" Zin said. "What? The Annoying Redhead? Yeah that does fit him!" Zin shook his head, one hand at his forehead. "No! The Disgrace of the Empire! The Runaway! What if he is here in some sort of exile? Maybe he isn't welcome anymore at home, maybe he turned on them and allied himself with the humans?"
"Hard to imagine why they wouldn't want him at home anymore..." Yuka commented sarcastically.

"Yuka..." Zin started.
"Stop! We'll work with him for now!" Bryn interrupted. "Keep your eyes and ears open, if he causes trouble or you think he is betraying us, feel free to let me know. Right now, I think we should work on making sure that no one with your level of destructive power is running around out there unchecked!"

The two Drakyrians nodded. Yuka looked back at Khyrai. He had reclined comfortably in his chair again and waved at her when he noticed her looking over to him. The Yinmera clearly wasn't blind, so she stuck out her tongue at him and moved a finger from left to right over her throat to send a clear message.
He simply countered with a thumbs-up and a grin.

Bryn, Yuka, Zin and Khyrai all made their way back to the beach together, crossing the meadow and passing through the fog. They didn't say a word the whole way, Bryn mostly because he was trying to order events in his head.

This Khyrai, he seemed to know a lot of things about him when he still was the King of Camelot, but had to "retrace his life" in order to find out about the excavation at the Royal Tomb of Akhenaten.
The detective concluded that that meant that Khyrai had to have been on Earth back during his time as King Arthur Pendragon, but then left some time after he had been seemingly fatally wounded at the hands of Mordred and therefore didn't have any information about his life since then!

Another thought entered Bryn's mind. Khyrai's appearance was quite peculiar, fairly noticeable during the medieval, superstitious and religious time of his reign as well as in modern day society. That would imply a need for a disguise, he thought, which he then dropped during his argument with Morgan Le Faye! Khyrai knew Morgan Le Faye so well that he would trust her with his secret! Or... -Bryn's eyes widened- Morgan knew who Khyrai was all along!
Just a month ago he was doing detective work, solving mysteries and discovering truths had been much less of a mind-boggling thing to do back then...

Just as Bryn thought about that, the group arrived at the misty beach of Avalon.
Before anyone could say the words to open the portal, Khyrai stepped forward and addressed them with almost child-like excitement: "Ouh, ouh! Let me cast the spell'!" he made air-quotes with his fingers, "Back then I never was allowed to do it because there was always a Knight of the Round Table present to steal the show!"

Since no one objected, or rather no one objected quickly enough, Khyrai turned around and called out: "REYAK YA CYLRA YIROYI!!!"

Bryn was about to voice his surprise at hearing the Yinmera say the exact words of the spell, confirming with almost absolute certainty that he had learned it back during his reign as King Arthur, but then the familiar feeling of the portal magic reached him and he was flashed away with the others.

They stood on the field at the center of Stonehenge again. There was a fair amount of light as the early morning hours approached. Bryn found himself standing behind the others, they were looking at something in the grass at their feet.
Khyrai said: "Ugh... that's nasty....damn...", Yuka and Zin just seemed to be speechless at what they saw.
Bryn made his way around them to take a look and what he found was a body laying on the ground. It was burned beyond recognition, but the clothes it wore, those he could easily identify.

"Is that...?" he began, "Yes...", Yuka said gravely, swallowing hard, "that is Amaru..."
"Since when does the portal burn people alive Arthur? What the hell happened?!" Khyrai asked Bryn.
It took the detective a few seconds to respond as he slowly, step by step, got closer to the corpse of the man who had
-more or less- pulled him from the rubble of his previous home and helped him to get back on his feet. He had not known him for very long at all, but when he spoke, his voice was almost a whisper, such was his schock.
"It... doesn't... I mean... it never did. I don't understand..." he shook his head. This just didn't make any sense!

"I think I have an idea..." Yuka suddenly said, her eyes still fixed on the body. Zin, Bryn and Khyrai turned to her, waiting for her to elaborate. "The spell... the spell you use to open the portal... it sounds frighteningly like Drakyrian words! Now I know it could be just a coincidence... but... it just fits too well now that I see Amaru like this!" she swallowed hard again, cleared her throat and said: "The words the spell sounds like, are: Holy, Fire, Smite and Shadow. Shadow... or evil..." "You mean in old Drakyrian?" Zin asked her, his voice betraying that he did have an idea what Yuka was getting at.
She nodded in response.

"Yuka... what... how...? You mean the spell is possibly of Drakyrian origin?" Bryn could barely wrap his mind around that. "But if those are the commands we gave out every time we used the portal... I  mean was it more like password then? Doesn't sound like an actual spell..." he thought about it for a moment, "And how does that... why would that make it attack Amaru like that? I thought you said Baraas was gone!"

"Baraas?" Khyrai asked.
"It sounds Drakyrian-ish... It could indeed have been a password, but also a security measure to bar beings like Baraas from getting into Avalon." Yuka explained.
Khyrai raised a brow at that, but didn't say anything.
"But Baraas is long gone! Isn't he?" Bryn asked Yuka. "Well... it's not quite as simple as that. What Baraas did when he first met Amaru... at least based on what Amaru told us and what we saw while helping him here... It's more like Baraas... fused... with Amaru. He actually changed him physically."

Bryn remained silent and turned back towards Amaru. "And now, after whatever horrible thing Baraas was... I kill him... just like that..." Yuka put a hand on his shoulder in an effort to console him.
He kneeled down next to the burned corpse. "I am so... so sorry Amaru. If I had known I...", "Don't do this to yourself Arthur... you couldn't have known..." Khyrai kneeled down next to him and put an arm around his shoulder, suddenly showing completely sincere compassion.

Bryn mustered a weak smile to try and show that he appreciated the gesture. He went to try and close Amaru's eyelids, but when he drew them to close, they snapped back open!
His eyes turned a solid blood red and his burned, dead hand snapped up to grab Bryn's arm, sending Khyrai falling backwards and the Drakyrians gasping in shock!

Bryn froze as what they had believed to just be an inanimate corpse looked straight at him with those demonic seeming eyes. He felt his energy being drained through the part of his arm Amaru was clinging onto with a force that he swore could have crushed steel. Getting tired and more and more exhausted, Bryn started to panic. He couldn't hear the others around him, his mind was being dominated by the pain and the almost hypnotic pull of the glowing red eyes.
As his vision slowly faded he suddenly had an idea. He had taken Excalibur and the Holy Grail with him from Caer Avalon!

He managed to weakly pull the chalice out of one of the pockets of his mantle, already seing the liquid come into existence inside of it. Bryn wasn't quite sure who it was, but someone helped him drink from it --probably Yuka, he thought.
Only seconds after drinking some of the liquid, energy returned to his body in the same surging way it had so many times before! The drain of Amaru's hand on his arm continued for a few more seconds, before suddenly stopping as Amaru let him go.

Bryn fell over onto his back, he was dizzy, his mind reeling from that experience and he couldn't get up.
He faintly heard the voices of the others.
"A-Amaru..?" came from Yuka, and then it sounded like Khyrai more or less whispering: "Hooooly shiiiit..."

When the detective then could slowly and carefully sit back up again, what he saw blew his mind.
Amaru sat there, propped up by Zin, Khyrai and Yuka at his side, completely unharmed!
There was not a single scratch on his body! He looked like his clothes had been spraypainted with some sort of coal-like paint, but aside from that, he might as well have fallen asleep while he was waiting for them to return and just woken up, surrounded by people with utter shock plainly written across their faces!

Bryn tried to stand up and walk over to Amaru and the others, but didn't manage much more than a sort of crawling movement. Yuka noticed him and hurried over to help him. She was strong enough to carry him one-handed, so Bryn just let her sit him down next to Amaru as he pathetically -in his own opinion- attempted to make his way towards them.

Now sitting right next to the black haired young man who had just risen from the dead, he weakly said:
"Amaru... what just happened? Did you... did you do that? I thought... we thought you were dead!"

Amaru coughed, but then, with a weak smile, answered: "I... ugh... I don't quite know... too be honest... I have died before... at least something like that... but back then... I had Baraas. I know he was a horrible... whatever he was.... but one thing I could rely on was that no matter how much I tried to bring it about myself, he would never ever let me die, let me end it.".
He groaned, "So I concluded he needed me somehow... to this day I don't really know how that worked, and when we... got rid of him... I wasn't sure what would happen the next time I'd get caught in the crossfire. I thought I might just die... like normal people. Turns out I don't get off that easy!"  Amaru finished his sentence with a little chuckle and sat himself up a bit more straightly.

Yuka looked at Zin and then back at Amaru. "So this is kind of like the first time we met! Back when Baraas was still there and you defended me Zin and Ava from the people who were hunting us! I thought I saw you get blown to pieces and then re-assemble yourself!" she paused to think for a moment.
"This time it's like your body didn't have enough energy, so when Bryn touched you, it was like a vampiric reflex! You needed a crazy amount of energy though... only after drinking from the Holy Grail did he have enough to get you back!"

All similarly mind-blown by her words, Bryn, Amaru and Zin all went: "Woaaaah!" in unison.

"Sorry to interrupt the theory crafting session, but we have incoming!" Khyrai's voice came from the other side of one of the Stonehenge monoliths. The sun had been steadily rising and of course people would be arriving at the monument soon, Bryn thought. He stood up, propping himself up a little with the help of Excalibur, but quickly could stand on his own again thanks to the hyper-accelerated regeneration the Holy Grail liquid provided.

"How many?" Yuka whispered over to Khyrai.
"Just one actually, a young girl! She's about 20, a bit short for her age, blonde with some black strands in her hair... oh and she has one green and one blue eye! Her skin is rather light and she is wearing a pink jacket, a white blouse a-" "That's Ava!" Amaru exclaimed and got up in a hurry to greet the young girl.

Bryn was utterly confused. How could Khyrai determine that much about her from the center of the monument? She had to be pretty far away! And also Amaru apparently knew the girl... Yuka and Zin also seemed to have some sort of  connection to her --they had followed Amaru almost immediately.
He decided he might as well go with them, they couldn't stay in the stone circle anyway...

"Maru-Maru!!!" the girl cried out, tackle-hugging Amaru, which almost had him lose his balance as he caught her. She gave him a kiss on his lips and then -Bryn could have sworn her eyes increased by half a centimeter in diameter- she looked at him with worried eyes. "Where have you beeeeeen!? You didn't come home last niiiiight!!"
she pouted at him and poked him in his chest.

To Bryn she ended up looking more cute than actually angry, but he understood she was doing her very best to express that she was worried and angry and required and explanation. "And what happened to your cloooothes?? Why is that confused looking person over there wearing your mantle?! I neeeeed answers!" the girl demanded adamantly.

Bryn looked back at Khyrai who was still more or less hidden behind one of the center circle monoliths. Both of them shared an equally confused look and Khyrai simply shrugged at him, signaling him he had no clue who that was.

"Ava..." Amaru tentatively began, "See... this is a little complicated... I-" but Ava didn't let him finish. As soon as she spotted Yuka and Zin approaching, it was as though a new wave of excitement hit her.
"Yuuuu-Yuuu!! Ziiin-Zin!!" she called over to them, "How aaaaare youuuu???"
Both of them smiled politely and walked over to her to talk to her more quietly to avoid attracting attention in case more people would come within hearing range.

Bryn had stayed behind, still utterly perplexed by the girl's behaviour.
"Come on Arthur! Let's introduce ourselves to the lady!" Khyrai's voice came from behind him.
He passed by Bryn, but all of a sudden didn't look like he had presented himself in the chamber of the Round Table in Caer Avalon at all! His hair was suddenly chestnut brown, his skin not quite as pale as before and his clothes had magically been exchanged for a black leather jacket, jeans with some rips in the lower legs and around the knees and a white shirt which had a face on it that was repeated in a circle with different facial expressions. The face looked like it was meant to be his.

The only aspect of this new appearance that in any way hinted at him being anything special, was the colour of his eyes' irises. They were a slightly luminescent purple.

"Uhm..." Bryn responded, but then just shook his head, nodded and followed Khyrai.

"Oh okay... that's why you were here... it's very nice of you to give Bryn your mantle. I am very proud of you Maru-Maru!" Ava said as they got closer. They just about caught her pushing Amaru's nose with one finger like a button on a machine, apparently teasing him.

"Awwww! How cuuuute!" Khyrai teased Amaru.
Yuka, Zin and Amaru recognized Khyrai in his new appearance after a few seconds of just staring at him, but still seemed to be rather confused by the sudden change in appearance.

Then Zin was about to speak, but Ava was faster, both of them had apparently noticed the same thing.
"OoOoOoOoh!!! Ken Sahor from Ken and the Phantoms!" she turned to a completely baffled Amaru, his face rather clearly spelling out 'WHO?'. "I didn't know you knew Keeeen! That is so awesome! I loooooove his musiiiiic!"
Amaru murmured: "I didn't know I knew him either...", but it seemed like Ava didn't hear him.
She had already let go of him and moved towards Khyrai.

"I have been a fan from the beginning!! Can I hug you?" and before "Ken" could answer she had already caught him in a tight hug, pinning his arms to his side. He stood there like a pole with legs. And an Ava attached.
Then she let go, leaving Khyrai moderately paralyzed. "Okay thaaaank youuu. Now I only need your autograph oooooon..." she considered this question with a seriousness most would apply to choosing the correct path out of a burning building until she then burst out: "My friend Annabelle!"

Khyrai looked at her with unveiled confusion until she produced a life-sized, pink bunny from her small white backpack and then went: "Ah yeah! Of... course...", he took the plush bunny and used transmutational magic on it as he traced what he wanted to write onto it's fabric, leaving behind writing that looked like it was professionally integrated into the plush animal with white cloth.

It read: "From Ken" on one side, "For Ava" on the other and even had the multiple faces with multiple facial expressions -his band's logo- on the back of the bunny. It looked like it was factory made that way, which made Ava glow with happiness.

"I have no idea how you just did that... but... Thank you soooooooooooo much!!" she exclaimed and turned back to Amaru to excitedly show him what Khyrai had done. The Yinmera was left laughing awkwardly: "S-sure, it's nothing!" he stammered.

'Looks like even a Yinmeran prince isn't above the charm of a cute Earth-Fangirl!' Bryn thought as he grinned to himself.
Then Amaru, who was very amused by Khyrai's reaction, threw his line back at him: "Awwww! How cuuute!" and winked.

The group decided to move away from the monument to avoid attracting attention.
They went to a local pub to have some breakfast and catch Amaru up on what happened in Avalon.
It took them a good hour to roughly communicate the developments and introduce Khyrai to him. Since Ava was already in on what Amaru, Zin and Yuka were, they didn't try to hide anything from her during the conversation.

It turned out that that would have been superfluous anyway, Ava seemed rather preoccupied with cuddling either her plush bunny Annabelle or Amaru who of course was sitting right next to her at the table. Once in a while she waved at Khyrai and grinned broadly and once in a while she made Annabelle wave at Khyrai and bounce around happily in her lap.
The Yinmera smiled awkwardly in response and focused either on the conversation or on the food --apparently he could consume human found, though he never let on whether he needed to or not.

"Phew... wow... this is... I mean I suppose I shouldn't call it crazy, considering that I have lived in one body with a demon for millenia... but damn..." Amaru said, resting his head in his hand and taking a sip from his drink.
"Yeah" Bryn agreed, "Believe me... I have certainly not had an uneventful life... but this stuff... makes you wonder how many people like you and me are out there... and how many others like our friends here..."

Khyrai then leaned forward and said: "Okay guys! Now we can start working on my mission, right? How about I get to work on some stuff, prepare a few things, and you go check out what's up with that message you got about some sort of Stonehenge-case?" despite her not really being intentionally addressed by Khyrai, Ava nodded fervently and made Annabelle bounce about in her lap.

Bryn nodded, "Yeah we really should get moving. It would be a catastrophe if a Drakyrian's rampage got international attention and possibly even video coverage..." Yuka, Zin and Amaru nodded.
They paid the bill, left the pub... and noticed that Khyrai was gone. He apparently had taken the initiative and simply vanished to tend to whatever he wanted to prepare...

Since it would be too risky to fly in dragon form during the day, everyone else simply took the train back to Swansea.
Bryn could finally get a full set of clothes and return Amaru's mantle to it's rightful owner.
A few hours later then, Yuka, Zin and Bryn had reached the hotel mentioned in the mysterious message Bryn had received about a month ago --Amaru and Ava had stayed at home, saying that Amaru'd join them later on.

Checking his brown leather jacket's pockets for his phone, Bryn approached the door of the hotel. He quickly realized, his phone had been vaporized with all his other belongings and sighed --he hadn't lost all of his things like this in a very long time.

"The Dragon Hotel? Great name!", Yuka commented as they entered, eyes on the Welsh Dragon above the name of the hotel on the wall of the building. She didn't even try to hide how proud she was that it was her likeness being printed onto all of the Welsh T-shirts, souvenirs, flags and even buildings!

"Makes it seem like whoever sent the message chose this particular hotel on purpose..."  Zin added.
"Yeah..." Bryn nodded, "...and it's a bit more than a month after I received  the message that invited me to this place... if the person who sent it is still here, then I think we can be sure it's someone from the time of my reign, someone who has got something pretty serious to discuss..."

As the three of them stood in the lobby of the very modern and polished looking hotel, suddenly there was a male voice in Bryn's mind, that seemed strangely familiar.
"Finally... Damn whoever pulverized you! Made me wait a whole month!" the detective turned his head in an unsuccessful effort to locate the source of the voice --eyes wide open in shock.

"What? Are you okay?" Yuka asked, a mix of worry and surprise in her voice.
Bryn simply nodded as he caught himself again, motioning for Zin and Yuka to follow him to a corner of the lobby that had less people in it.

"Did you not hear that? That voice?"
"What voice?" Zin whispered. The detective sighed and shook his head. "Oh well, it seems like the one who sent the message to me is still here... and he is magically inclined it seems... spoke to me using some sort of telepathy. And I think I know him... I just can't quite put my finger on who it is. I haven't heard that voice in so many centuries!"

Yuka and Zin looked at each other as if they were not quite sure that there really was someone talking to Bryn.
Yuka then suggested: "Okay... so... can you... like... think back at him?", which made the detective scratch his chin and shrug. "Yeah I suppose I could try that!"

'Who is this?' he thought and the voice immediately responded: "Now that is a question best answered face to face, don't you agree, old friend?" it did not sound like whoever spoke to him had friendly intentions. "How about you come to my room to see me? I am in room 221, leave the others outside, you can't be killed anyway, so there is no need for guards!"

Bryn swore he heard a telepathic chuckle.

He was entirely aware of the likelihood of this invitation being a trap, but he still decided to enter the room on his own.
"He told me to go see him on my own. I know that it probably is a trap, but either way, we have to find out who this is and what exactly he wants. He knows about my ability to regenerate... not many people know that about me..."

Yuka and Zin nodded and as Bryn thought a bit more about what he now knew concerning the telepathic stranger, they followed him right up to room 221. The detective had a growing suspicion of who might be waiting for him there...
"Okay, this is it. Come in if things turn violent, should be audible through these doors." Bryn instructed the Drakyrians.
"I don't like this... but at least the guy can't run anywhere once we confront him in there!", Yuka responded.
The detective nodded and turned to open the door, but when his hand got close, it opened by itself.

There was a man standing on the other side of the room behind the king-sized bed, looking out the window. When the door then suddenly closed behind Bryn, he turned around to face him.
"Long time no see, brother" he said in a warm tone, putting the emphasis on "brother".
"Mordred!" Bryn gasped.

For a few moments there was only silence.

"I know, I know, who would have thought?" Mordred chuckled. His blonde hair was a bit shorter than Bryn remembered, now tucked behind his ears and just shy of touching his broad shoulders.
Mordred looked slightly taller and a lot more muscular and fit than when the two of them had seen each other the last time. The last time also being when Bryn had rammed Excalibur through Mordred's chest...
"I-I... killed you..." Bryn stammered, his suspicion was confirmed --as unbelievable as it had seemed to him.

"About that..." the blonde man straightened the formal suit he was wearing.
"I am actually quite grateful! It seems like being stabbed by Excalibur was exactly what I needed!" he grinned, which did not look like he was amused as much as he had been looking forward to this moment.
"But.... how could you possibly..." the brothers looked at each other in silence for a few moments as Bryn struggled to speak. He had seen the life leave his brother's body, he had been completely sure he was dead!

"It seems to be in the family... you never gave Excalibur to anybody else, but I think it is undeniable that it is what made you and then me... special..." Mordred took a few steps closer to his brother.
"How convenient it is that you happen to have it with you..." he said, eyes fixed on the simple leather bag in which Bryn was carrying the sword and the grail.

Bryn put a hand on Excalibur's grip, preparing to defend himself against Mordred --never would he let his brother betray him again!
With frightening speed Mordred's hand shot forward towards the legendary sword, but what neither brother saw coming, was another hand intercepting the attempt to reach the blade. Out of nowhere Khyrai had appeared and was now gripping Mordred's wrist!

"WHAT?!?" the blonde man exclaimed, staring at the Yinmera who was back in his black robes and mask.
"Long time no see Mordy!" Khyrai countered, which caused Mordred some obvious confusion.
"Who the hell are you? Let me go, at once!"

"Awww, you don't remember me?" the Yinmera teased Bryn's brother. "I'll admit I am also a bit surprised to see you here..." his voice then suddenly, for the next sentence, changed into that of a light-hearted sounding old man.
"Did I play my role convincingly, young Aeron brothers?"

In disbelief, they both spoke at the same time: "Merlin?!?"
Mordred turned to look at Bryn again. "Huh... Old friends, old foes!"