Bound
Annis knew, even then, that she had been driven into that war by suffering. She knew, while she gathered her army, that it was grief that forced her hand and led her troops. Yet, the King is a father for their people, and they had lost their father, so, surely the man wanted their revenge?
It was too easy to lose herself in her feelings, she reminded herself, looking at the witch that kept her company. The pain could drive you away from yourself, as Morgana showed quite well. She remembered her as a young woman, full of life and laughter, so different from the dark figure she made now.
So it wasn't all that hard to understand when Arthur came to her tent, to ask for a single fight in order to settle the dispute. What was hard for her to understand was why he bothered to protect the life of his servant – the second favor he asked seemed somehow bigger than the first. Trying to avoid bloodshed and grief was a service Arthur would pay to his own man, but even more than that, a service to the women and children that wouldn't be left to mourn their loved ones, to the fields that wouldn't rot for the lack of man to see them properly.
That was a service to the land he was bound and to her land as well, and she accept it gracefully – honestly, she was thankful for it, deep in her heart, for she didn't want anyone to go through what she had gone through.
It was easy to lose herself in her own bitterness, but she had been wrong when tried to make Arthur pay – she would be only spreading her suffering through those she sworn to protect, and this was something she would not do.