The ring and the black raven
He was a black raven, according to her family books. Black raven were the ancestors of Phoenixes.
Apparently, when Merlin and Morgana separated the magical and non-magical world, many being who had relied on free magic in the air, either bound themselves to other beings to feed on their access magic, died or mutated.
Phoenixes were a mutation of black raven and white doves. Niffler were a mutation of mamster, who are also ancestor to hamster, moles, guinea pigs, and so on. There were only a few creatures who didn’t have to change their way of live at all to survive. Most had too, even if it was just moving or having an instict to stay away from non-magical. It sounded worrisome, especially because it was the better outcome.
According to journals written by Merlin, Morgana had to build a time clock, which allowed her and Merlin to travel several decades back in time. Magic had been dying out in their previous timeline.
They could've simply killed the squib-born who had been so jealous, he had started to transfer the magic of other beings to himself, but Nimue, a being who saw the future, informed them, that it would merely change the date of the apocalypse. And it wouldn’t necessary be further in the future.
The three of them had worked together to ensure the best outcome, with the most survivor and a stable balance. Together they had chosen Arthur to lead the non-magical world into a healthy future. The original plan, according to the journal, had been that Merlin and Morgana would rule over the magical side together, ensuring the balance between death and time, change and monotonie, but when the moment of their birth arrived, Morgana had only been able to connect his memories to his baby self, before both parts of her disappeared into nothingness.
Merlin had not been able to find out what exactly went wrong, he had dedicated the rest of his live to finding out more about time-magic. He had built a building in which others had started researching dangerous subjects of magic as well. The people had started to call them the unspeakable, because they were doing unspeakable things behind looked doors. Truth was, Nimue had told Merlin to ensure the secrecy of those he would work with, as she had seen people, who would travel back in time to stop Morgana from ever interfering with time. Nimue also told him, to let the people paint Morgana in a bad light, as it was easier to accept the separation of the magical and non-magical world, if you had a guilty party to blame and a hero who just wasn’t fast enough to stop them.
Merlin hated it, but Nimue had always given him good advice. And he trusted her. The two of them had gotten a child together, but because they never bonded as Merlin was still missing half of himself, the child did not inherit Merlin’s family magic. And after Nimue died at the age of 111, when the child was just 7 years old, Merlin decided to leave the choice to her.
The girl once reaching her first magical maturity with 11, and therefore making it possible for the ritual Merlin had created to connect their magic, decided against it and told him that a time would come in which another apocalypse could occur. That the Oldest would end up creating another pair of twins. Those twins would need to inherit the royal lines, once their reached maturity. So, Merlin and his daughter, with the help of a handful of trusted others worked together to ensure the royal line would end up in the right hands.
In case you wonder, Merlin and Morgana had been twins. Bastard children to the last Monarch, the one who had been born without magic and had become jealous and cruel. He had been called Mordred and even during Merlin’s life, the people had started to separate Mordred and the Monarch, as well as Merlin and Mordred.
Ares had already collected several history books which mentioned them, and was fascinated how history could change over time. She hadn’t mentioned her having those journals to anyone. Not even her brother, though he could read the books in their mind-library. She hadn’t wanted to burden him with something like that, because he most likely would think that another apocalypse was about to happen, and they were the only ones who could stop it.
Ares didn’t believe, she had to do everything herself. She didn’t believe she had all the answers. She knew Hades didn’t believe he had all answers as well. But his upbringing had made him into a loner. He wasn’t able to simply ask, because it wasn’t simple for him. He wasn’t able to trust other without having to checked himself. They were working on that, but it was an on-going process. Ares had to concede, that she couldn’t really trust others without checking herself. She always knew if people were telling the truth, facts, their opinion or if people were lying, omitting, believing their opinion as fact. She still tried her best in not using her sight to make the people around her as clear as glass. Mostly because she had already found out more about the production process of children, then she ever wanted to know. But still, she did try to let them keep their secrets. The trying counted, especially if you knew someone like Hades who would not let anything but the truth prevail, and wouldn’t stop until he found the truth, the full truth.