Emrys: The Love And War Of Men And Their Gods:

Chapter 12: Battles Through The Years:

The first three years went by slowly, no sign of any of the enemy had been seen in the southern part of Albion, but up in the north movement of armies that held dark magic at their disposal were heading south.

During that time alliances had been made with kingdoms to stand and fight, but many refused. Emrys was unknown and it did not help that the Kings did not wish to be lead under one man, a newly crowned King who had little experience of real war.

Gwen and Lancelot had married and had been blessed with a child, a son they named Galahad.

Arthur had taken a while in healing. His body mended but he did not seem to notice the difference, he did not feel pain when his body was held down and shoulder pushed back into place as well as when his fingers were realigned in his hand.

The King was constalntly crying out for Merlin. Everything that Elaide had done so far had proved to be ineffective. She had travelled all over Albion, leaving her second in command Sir Kay in charge of rallying the southern armies.

Every sorcerer, every witch doctor, every spell. Nothing worked. She had called upon the dead in the passage of the spirit world in the Kingdom of Seaxe in the east. She had hunted down Anhora the Unicorn keeper in hopes of a purity spell. She had travelled to the seas of Bernicia in the north to seek aid from the mermaids of Gododdin.

Everything had failed.

Finally she had tracked down the mightiest creature of all. The last of his kind and a loose canon now that he was not being controlled by a dragonlord. Another downside to Merlin being lost to them.

Kilgharrah, the Great Dragon had sought refuge after Emrys had attacked him in the Dunbar Mountains of southern Wessex and was now residing in the mountains of Elmet in the Kingdom of Mercia.

Elaide had found him, convinced him to join the battle or all that he had been fighting for would be lost. That he would be hunted down and suffer for the rest of his immortal life, to never be allowed to die.

The Dragon was the wisest of his kind, his knowledge going back centuries to the beginning of magic, to the beginning of the Gods of Avalon. If anyone knew of a way to undo the magic that had twisted Arthur's mind, he would.

Kilgharrah healed Arthur, but the man was still not right. When he had came out of his psychotic trance he had fled, only to be brought back in an instance by the dragon. What Emrys had done was more that just magic, he had broken Arthur's spirit completely. Arthur would have to be taught once again who he was, what Merlin had helped him to become.

Memories of the world he had dreamt of remained as he slowly began to realise what had happened to him. Never forgetting the tender moments he had shared with Merlin, the man he loved still unconditionally so.

During the final two years Uther had at length died. Arthur still not completely better had went to bid his farewell to his father and watched as his father was placed within a tomb beside his mother.

No one knows what was going through Arthur's mind two months later when he was found suiting himself with armour. What had finally connected or snapped in his brain for him to finally see what he had to do. He joined in every training session, and walked with a sense of purpose yet talked with no emotions, a blank determined expression fixed permanently on his face.

Elaide saw the King turn into her. Finally all the grief had come together and left a shell of a man that he had filled with a soldier, with no emotion or link to what was going on around him. Only the knowledge that he had to defeat Emrys.

Seeing this, she had taken Arthur to Camelot forest where she told him her story. Of how she had witnessed her mothers death at the age of six, how she had joined her fathers resistance at 16 to become Captain at 18 when her father had died in her arms in battle. She had been fighting her whole life and such her life was no longer hers but a giant battle against evil.

"Destiny is a privilege but it is also a terrible burden. Everything that you are has to focus on that one goal that the prophets of the Gods want you to fulfil. You detach yourself from the world, from happiness and love, from death and grief. You place a shield around yourself and don't let anyone in because you're frightened that they will get hurt in the process of your journey." She had told him as he walked back from the centre of the lake, wet from the waist down and a sword now in his hands.

"This is Excalibur" she told him as he examined the sword, particularly the engravings on the blade. "You have a great destiny Arthur, greater than mine, greater than Merlin's."

"But I'm just me. Im no one." He shook his head, answering with little emotion.

"You are the once, present and future King. You are the man people will look to in times of darkness, because you are the one destined to unite the world, for every man, woman and child. You're the hero of this story Arthur."


Arthur had learnt all the things that Merlin had done for him and Camelot from the Great Dragon along with the details of his and Merlin's destiny and the prophecy of 'Dhá thaobh an bhoinn céanna', the two sides of the same coin.

The Dragon had told Merlin only one side of the story, that he was to help Arthur become a great King that would unite Albion under one man for magic folk and non-magic folk alike. Two souls bound together to become one.

However the bond would break if Mordred released the destructor that was the God Emrys. If that happened than a war between the two sides would take place. The King would then have to face his other side, unless the boy Mordred was killed before the King's crowning, before he could unleash the God of destruction. He would have to face Merlin. Where the two sides of the same coin would fight and only one side would be seen, while the other would lie on the ground in darkness forever.

At first Arthur refused to accept this. He refused to let these 'Gods' define what he had to do but then the alarm had sounded.

Five years had finally come to an end.

It began at Camelot.

Creatures of dark magic charged upon the city with a host of men, lead none other by Morgana. Gwaine and Lancelot had been stationed there with all of Camelot's armies yet that had not stopped the destruction that took place.

Within a day the city was over run. Camelot was burning. Arthur's people either dead or fleeing to safety.

The King now stood on the outskirts of the city, looking out to the once beauty of his world burning. Morgana no doubt staking claim within the throne room, the men ransacking the rooms as well as from the dead. Arthur worried for any survivors that had been trapped. His men had struggled to get everyone to safety, especially when the castle had collapsed in upon itself, dividing the magnificent building, but small hope sat with him, knowing that Gaius had stayed behind to take care of them, his old bones unable to keep up with the speed of the evacuation.

Once back within the safety of Draïocht Forest, Arthur was informed that every capital within the southern Kingdoms of Albion had been attacked. Some already lost; some still fighting. The men that had just came back; finally safe from the battle of Camelot now gathered their weapons and mounted their steeds once more. Determination to keep fighting for every innocent, for everything that was good. To stop the wickedness that Emrys would plague the world with. Arthur found himself thinking the exact same thing as he pulled Excalibur from its scabbard and rode of, leading this army of mighty men.


Translations:

Dhá thaobh an bhoinn céanna – two sides of the same coin