Luck Of The Claw - Episode 12.

- Episode 12 -

"Well I can see the two of you are both in one piece," Mal pointed out as they approached the door. "Either you haven't met Percival, or you know some secret trick nobody else ever has. I don't think I have ever seen anyone other than me that he would tolerate, quite frankly - period." Curious, Mal arched one eyebrow up and narrowed his gaze right at the children. "Mind sharing with me just how you managed it?"

Camden had no clue how his sister had pulled that little miracle off. Actually, he had been betting his sister would have been limping her way out of the barn. He was sure there had been zero chance of him not getting mangled by that muscled monster of a horse. "Yeah, how did you managed that Trin?" Camden decided to ask as well. Now even he was getting curious.

Trinity opened her mouth to answer them but something in her face must of given her away. Mal seemed to be able to read the doubt written on her, the very fact she herself wasn't even sure was somehow obvious. "I am not really sure," Trinity stumbled to explain. "I think I might have sang him a little song."

Apparently Camden thought the answer was hilarious, but then again he had often made fun of her singing. Mal though, he just nodded and told them to hurry in and eat before the food was cold. It was her turn to notice the look of deep contemplation etched on his brow.

And then for some strange reason something came to mind, it was the name of something that she had seen in that book. As they all began to set down to eat she could hear herself ask the question before she even knew what she was doing.

"Have you ever heard of something called the 'Vault of Echoes'?" Mal's heart skipped a beat and his plate fell to the floor. His voice became a coarse whisper that barely slipped from his lips. "How do you know of that place?" the old knight implored of them.

When Trinity answered him, he could hear it in her voice this child had no idea what she was asking about. "I read about it in a book," she stated before repeating the little rhyme. Mal recited the passage along side her word for word:
Virtue is the key for any who desire to enter me.  The Vault of Echoes shall mirror forth that which is within and weight your worth.

Memories flooded back to the retired hero, he could still see clearly the dangerous things he himself had locked away inside the Vault under the orders of the King. It had been a long standing mission of the Knights to seek out anything too dangerous in power that was out there and lock it away for the safety of the realm. Mal himself had even seen to removing all the records of the Vaults location so no one might seek it out. It was one of his greatest reliefs that the kingdom could rest easy knowing that so many terrible threats were buried never to trouble them again.

"This could be very, very bad," Mal said more to himself than anyone else. "You are going to have to tell me everything." Camden and Trinity wasn't sure why but they did as he asked and told him everything. It took awhile, since they started with as far back as they could remember but they did eventually work their way up to how they found the strange items.

Long before they did, Mal had already decided two things. One was that it looked like he was going to come out of his retirement. And the other was that these two kids needed someone to look after them. In fact, they deserved it. Well, Mal figured he still had a few more adventures left in his old bones and it looked liked duty was calling once again.