Torchlight flickered against the damp cave walls as the woman dressed in a ragged brown cloak rocked back and forth on a wooden chair. She absent-mindedly stroked the soft hair of her infant son. Poking from underneath the thick wool blanket that kept him captive, the boy's spiky blond hair poked from its wraparound and his emerald green eyes glistened from the reflecting light.
The woman's hand moved to gently stroke her son's face. She leaned down and allowed her long dark brown hair tickled her precious son's cheeks. "What's the matter, my dear Mordred?" She whispered. "Can you not sleep?" Her only response was sleepy green eyes peering back at her. Mordred opened his mouth and yawned loudly, earning a small chuckle from his mother.
His mother leaned back and murmured, "In that case then, I'll sing you a lullaby." She sifted through her mind to find a lullaby that fitted this situation, but she couldn't find anything. She pondered a little while, thinking of anything that could inspire a song, but then a familiar face with red hair and green eyes flickered past her eyes and she cringed at the thought of that man. The reason she was forced into hiding.
Anger made her hands shake, but then an idea popped into her head. She smiled at Mordred and whispered, "Okay Mordred, I finally made up a song for you. This will lure you to sleep but it will also tell you about your past." Looking down at her son, blue eyes to green, she began to rock back and forth and sing in a low and clear voice,
Hush, child, darkness will rise from the deep
And, carry you down into
Sleep, child, the darkness will rise from the deep
And, carry you down into sleep
Already, she could see Mordred's eyes drooping and she could see the shadows that were present in the room reach up with their mysterious hands and brush against her sons cheeks.
Ignoring the shadows, which were her companions she created, she continued to sing, thinking back to the days before her son was born.
Guileless son, I'll shape your belief
And you'll always know that your father's a thief,
And you won't understand the cause of your grief,
But you'll always follow the voices beneath
Bitterness swam over her at the thought of her half-brother. How dare he steal the throne and her land from her? It was rightfully hers. When she tried to get it back, though, he exiled her and her son into solitude where she had to live the rest of her days. She scoffed slightly at that. I won't stay here forever, Arthur. I'll return to Camelot and Mordred will usurp the throne from you.
Her shadow companions began to form into the shapes of human figures, their pitch black forms drifting across the cave walls like smoke. In a low voice joining together in harmony with her lullaby, they began to chant:
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, only to me
Guinevere and her had used to be friends. She remembered the days when they were children, they used to sneak out of their homes at night and go out to play in the flower meadow under the moonlight. Guinevere's long, braided brown hair and sparkling green eyes flashed past her eyes and she let out a wistful sigh. They were once the best of friends. Until she married him.
Guileless son, your spirit will hate her,
The flower who married my brother the traitor
And you will expose his puppeteer behavior,
For you are the proof of how he betrayed her loyalty
Arthur. That traitor. The woman's lips almost contorted into a snarl at the thought of her half-brother. He lied to her. Deceived her. Yet, he made everyone believe that she was the one that deceived him.
He promised her that while she couldn't, her son would be able to become his heir if he was the one that sired it. She was a fool to believe him. He took her, used her body, and then tossed it away when he was done and told lies about her. She remembered the day vividly when he told the round table about her 'deception' when she discovered she was going to have another child.
Painfully, she remembered how Guinevere's eyes filled with rage upon learning this as she glared at her. She was swamped in to much grief though to care at the moment, because Arthur had the nerve to take away her four other sons, Mordred's half-brothers, and raise them by his own worthless hand. She missed them all. Agravain, Gaheris, Gawain, Gareth. All of them.
She chuckled darkly. Ah, but those weren't their names anymore. Arthur, that wanker, had the nerve to rename Agravain as Jock, Gaheris as Jason, Gawain as Patrick, and Gareth as Seth. He even tried to name Mordred after himself, but she refused to let her sweet son become poisoned with that name.
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, only to me
Glancing down, the woman gazed at her infant son whose eyes were now fully closed. However, she knew that despite his serene expression he wasn't asleep. She let out an inward sigh and continued to sing the lullaby that told him of his past.
Hush, child, darkness will rise from the deep
And, carry you down into
Sleep, child, the darkness will rise from the deep
And, carry you down into sleep
The woman watched as her son's consciousness slowly faded and she smiled softly along with the shadows. Her son looked so cute when he slept. However, even though she was finished with telling of his past, she wanted to tell him her final request.
She knew that she wasn't going to live for long. Her son would eventually exceed her and take her land for himself. But even so, she wanted him to put an end to his father's life so that he and his brothers could decide their own fates instead of being under the rule of King Arthur for the rest of their days. Even if it meant her own destruction as well.
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, only to me
The woman gently brushed her hand against her son's cheek and whispered, "Be true to your heart, my dear Mordred. Be loyal to those who you care for most and love." For come reason, as she said that, a man with wheat colored hair and sky blue eyes with a cocky grin flashed through her mind. She paused and wondered in confusion of who that person was.
She shook her head and smiled lightly. Perhaps that's who Mordred was going to care for the most. Happiness flickered in her chest for the first time since she was exiled, but before she could relish it, more gruesome and cruel images flashed through her mind.
Guileless son, each day you grow older,
Each moment I'm watching my vengeance unfold
For the child of my body, the flesh of my soul
Will die in returning the birthright he stole
A boy that looked about ten with spiky blonde hair, bushy eyebrows, and dull half-closed green eyes was laying down as a bloody mess at her half-brother's feet. King Arthur looked down at the broken image of his son with no emotion in his green eyes. Her merely proceeded to stroke the dried blood out from out of his red hair.
From behind him in the vision, the woman could see four men gazing at King Arthur with looks of pure hate and anguish in their eyes. Gawain was crying uncontrollably while Gaheris struggled to comfort while trying to glare at his father at the same time. Gareth's already to pale face was ghostly white as he stared at his half-brother's body with his eyes glazed over in pain. Agravain had silent and angry tears pouring down his cheeks, looking as if he was going to kill someone. Preferably King Arthur.
The woman stared at the scene in front of her in horror, knowing it was just a vision, but couldn't seem to shake it out of her mind. "My sweet Mordred." She whispered. "Is this really you're future?"
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, Loyalty
Loyalty, only to me
A hand rested itself on the woman's shoulder and she jumped slightly and turned her head to see her older sisters, Morgause and Elaine, the personifications of Sussex and Essex standing behind her chair. Judging from their tearful, mournful looks, they saw the vision as well.
Elaine, Essex, walked over and hugged the woman, wiping of tears that trailed from her sad light green eyes. Morgause soon joined the two woman and hugged her younger sister tearfully.
The woman glanced between both of her sisters and choked out, "Is there anyway to stop that from happening?" Will Mordred lose all of his memories like that and forget about everyone? About me?
The very thought made her shudder. All of the older nations, not the younger ones, knew that when persona's died for the first time, they were resurrected and forgot all of their memories. Nobody knew why, it was just the way it was. But as time went on, nation's began to develop a natural cause of death for their birth, which means that when they are born, they immediately died so they couldn't forget anything even if they died in the future. However, nations were sometimes born without the natural cause so when they lived many long years, they died from some appending forces and lost their memories.
Sussex shook her head to answer her sister's question and hugged her tighter. "I'm sorry, sister, but there's nothing you can do to avoid this fate and make Mordred keep his memories. It's either kill Mordred right now and let him forget things that he would barely remember in the first place, or have him die on that day and have his memories wiped clean of his family." Morgause sighed and gently patted her sister on the back. "Don't dwell on this too much if it's to painful. Just forget about this for now, okay?"
She watched as both of her sisters left the cave room before she allowed her own tears to fall. The clear liquid dripped down onto Mordred's blanket as she shakily began to sing the last lines of her lullaby.
Hush, child, darkness will rise from the deep
And, carry you down into
Sleep, child, the darkness will rise from the deep
And, carry you down into sleep
Her voice faded along with her shadow companions when the last line had been uttered and she fell into a pit of despair and clutched her tiny son tighter against her. Sussex's words echoed in her mind, "Don't dwell on this too much if it's to painful. Just forget about this for now, okay?"
The woman laughed lightly and bitterly at this. Forgetting was something she was not allowed to do, for she was Morgan Le Fay, the personification of Mercia.
Hey everybody! As it turns out, I'm not dead! I just lost the inspiration and drive to write anything so I wrote this as a writing exercise. This was based of the amazing song by Heather Dale called 'Mordred's Lullaby' (who would of thought?) so I decided to conjure up a song fanfic!
BTW, I thought this story was kind of confusing, so I put who was who in this story and a small summary so people can understand what the f*** was going on the whole time they read this (P.S. Almost everyone in here was a persona, so yeah)
Who is who-
King Arthur- England's dad, Morgan's half-bro - Personification of Wessex
Morgan Le Fay- England's mom, King Arthur's half-bro- Personification of Mercia
Mordred/Arthur- England
Agravain/Jock- Scotland
Gaheris/Jason- Northern Ireland
Gawain/Patrick- Ireland
Gareth/Seth- Wales
Elaine- Morgan's older sister- Personification of Essex
Morgause- Morgan's older sister- Personification of Sussex
The sense to this story (Warning: Contains slang and a not-so-serious summary)-
Morgan was forced into exile because she was tricked into having s** with her brother so her child could become the heir to Camelot and get her share of land (Because they got it from their parents). However, King Arthur was a douche and broke his promise and told everyone that Morgan cast a spell on him and deceived him like she was the one that wanted to get it on with him in the first place. So then, Arthur exiled her along with his wifey, Queen Guinevere's (who was just a random human) who was pissed off because her best friend just slept with her husband, and was double pissed because their related. But apparently, King Arthur decided to keep Agravain and the rest of that lot because they weren't his kids and wanted their land to himself, but chased off Mordred (England) and Morgan. So Morgan was really, really, mad because she had to stay in a crappy cave with her infant son who was her only company so she made the shadows come to life and all that jazz and started to sing the lullaby to make Mordred fall asleep. But when Mordred did fall asleep, she got visions of the future, when Mordred fought King Arthur and died. That did end up happening in the future and England lost his memories of his mom. The End.
Reason why they can't remember anything when they first die-
I always figured that when they died their first time (since they always go into wars and stuff and get shot, beheaded, burned, etc.) that their brains go through some sort of shock that wipes out their memories (Ahem, I'm a Holy Rome is Germany believer) So I thought that instead of that only happening to Germany, it happened to everyone else too.
Thank you for reading this long arse AN (if you did) and now, you kind sir's, deserve virtual cupcakes (shows foods)