Information :
Author : M.J.L.S
Rating : T
Title : Sweet sacrifice
Summary : Raised by Romans. Born as Sarmatian. Without memory, who is she? Where is she from? Will she recognize the knights when they arrive after three years of searching for her. Will she recognize them? Will she still remember them? Without her memory, at the arrival of the knights, will she return to who she was meant to be?
Pairings : Arthur/Guinevere…Lancelot/OC….
Disclaimer : I don't own King Arthur...I own Luana and that's all.
Chapter 1 : The beginning
A young girl sat on a large wall made of stone. She was looking to the sunset in the distance, hoping she would escape from the place she called home. She was young, beautiful but sad.
She was raised as a Roman daughter, raised to be royal and polite, but her heart longed for the wild life outside of the walls. Her heart longed for a life full of battles and fighting. She still hadn't got all her memories back, only small fragments.
Ever since she was a small girl, she had been practicing to handle all kinds of weapons. Against her fathers will, she learned everything about fighting and surviving. Her teacher had been more of a father to her then her birth father had been.
She had gone to him with all her troubles, leaving her father alone with his roman business. However, from the moment she had woken up with her memory loss, she had never seen him again.
She looked at the sun, how she longed to be free like that. A soft breeze touched her face, she smiled and walked back inside the large mansion. She sighed, no matter how much she wished that her father ignored her, he didn't. She was his only daughter and he wanted her to walk, talk and dress perfect. Even if she was alone.
"Luana...what are you wearing!"
"Father...I'm wearing-"
"Peasants clothes...I thought I told you to wear dresses !"
Luana rolled with her eyes, knowing she had this conversation a thousand times a day. She looked around, trying to find her mother. She sighed when her father kept talking about her clothes. In the mean time, her fathers hand had found it's way to her pulse and he was holding it hard enough for her to feel the pain coursing through it.
"You are roman...you shouldn't dress like this!"
"I know...I was just on my way to put on a lovely dress you bought for me father." She said through gritted teeth as she tried to ignore the pain in her wrist.
Her father's gaze on her didn't change one bit as said this. She looked him straight in the eye and hoped he would let her go. The pain in her wrist was beginning to show on her face. Slowly, his hand released her and she walked past him, straight to her room while holding her wrist. She fell on her bed, sighing and looking at her wrist for the first time.
It was slightly blue, easy to cover with long sleeves. She got up and picked one of her dresses. She had a lot of them, mostly with long sleeves for the cold winters at Britain. But dresses with short sleeves or even without them were in her closet for when the warm summer reached the island.
For tonight's dinner, she picked out a simple white dress with long sleeves. It was one of her favourites and she knew her curves came out perfectly in the dress. She smiled at herself in the small mirror at her room.
The sleeves hid the bruise well as they ended in a triangle. She walked out of her room. Her shoes making a soft clicking noise as she walked down the empty corridors of the so much larger mansion. She nodded polite to the two guards at the dinner room and entered it. Her hair was in soft curls and her brown eyes shined with wisdom beyond her years.
"Luana...you look beautiful my daughter."
"Thank you mother." She placed her sweetest smile on her face as she sat down at her place.
Her father looked at her numbly. She ignored his eyes and began to talk with her mother about the new dresses that had appeared in her closet. Her mother smiled at her daughter.
She had grown so much.
Marius looked at his daughter, he was planning something for her. Alecto looked at his father and then at his sister in concern.
He had the feeling that her future wouldn't be like she planned it.
"Come. Let's leave Roman business to Romans." Lancelot decides, taking a sip from the golden goblet.
The knights look tired, yet confused. It's the day that they are to be freed from the Romans. It's the night that they can celebrate their freedom. That they can finally return home after 15 years.
"Let it go, Bors. " Dagonet pats Bors softly on the shoulder before following the rest of the nights who are to celebrate their freedom. Behind their backs, the bishop smirks and turns to Arthur who watches his men leave the room.
"Rome has issued a final order for you and your men. " The Bishop breaks the silence.
"Final order? " Arthur questions, his voice heard in the whole room.
"You are to travel north to rescue the family of Marius Honorius and return in particular with Marius' son, Alecto and his sister. Alecto is the Pope's favourite godchild and pupil. It is his destiny to become a Bishop. Perhaps even Pope, one day. " The bishop smiles at the mention of the pope. Arthur glares at the bishop
"For what purpose do you need the girl?" Arthur asked
"She shall have her own destiny that doesn't concern you Arthur." The bishop said while looking past the commander of the great Sarmatian knights.
"On this day. You ask this of my men, on this day? " Arthur's stands up and starts pacing around the round table. He began to think how he should tell the news to his knights, his brother in arms.
"They have risked their lives for fifteen years for a cause not of their own - and now, on the day they are to be liberated, you send them on a mission that is far more dangerous than any other they have undertaken. You tell me, Bishop. How do I go to my men and tell them instead of freedom, I offer death? "
"If your men truly are the knights of legend, perhaps some will survive. If it is God's will. Your men want to go home. And to get home, they need to cross the entire breadth of the Roman Empire. Deserters would be hunted down like dogs. Will you defy the Pope, Arthur? Rome? God Himself? "
"Everything I've done has been for the Church and for Rome. Do not mistake a loyal soldier for a fool, Germanius. " Arthur yells to Germanius, his loud voice echo's in the round room. The bishop's eyes widen, he stands up from the round table and faces Arthur who looks with anger and betrayal in his eyes.
"Would you leave a defenceless Roman boy, destined to lead our Church, at the hands of the Saxons!? Fulfil this mission, and your men will receive their discharge. Their papers will be waiting here the moment they return. You have my word." He packs the box and prepares to leave when Arthur stops him with his last words.
"You think very hard upon our vow, Bishop, for I will hold you to it." The bishop stops and turns around to face Arthur who looks angry but serious at the same time "Break it, and no Roman legion, papal army, nor God Himself will protect you...That is my word."
Arthur leaves the room, the bishop looks at the box in his hands and walks further, a little sign of concern and fear is shown in his eyes. After all, Arthur never breaks his word, and never lost a battle.
R&R please. Reviews make me smile and I cannot lie…