--Cold sunlight.

I spoke to no one of my new awen, besides it being highly frowned upon, what I felt, it carried no significance militarily. By the time I managed to suppress my frustrations at the early ended dream, the clean-up of Uxacona was completed, and the troops had dug in for the night. I walked the Caer, preserved apart from its hole-ridden wall. I wondered when the mighty buttress's of Uxacona had fallen, the small Caer was regarded as important in its position, and also unassailable, because of its uniquely enforced walls, with stone that was alien to our shores. I could not help but ponder endlessly on where the beautiful and invincible walls had gone, and why they had forsaken such safety for a planking of a wall that we wasted so easily. I would ask one of the inhabitants, but they were all dead. My stomach yowled up at me, both upset at the thought of the dead innocents, and that I had been throwing up far too often as of late. I sat for a time on the commons, running my hands over the unruly and dew kissed grass, the rain witholding for a time, a break in the clouds visible, and the tired stars yawning and stretching to me. My aversion to stars had lessened, but the comfort they offered was not there any longer.

"Hello Brother!"

I started, and flew up, unaware I had fallen asleep on the commons. Cath had been observing me sleep, and he flipped and cavorted away with giggles and guffaws, shouting "the captain awakens!". I had missed breakfast, and had to scrounge up cold meat from the previous night with hard bread, cramming it greedily into my face. I mounted my horse to launch the march, which would take us to our second target, the largest stronghold of the campaign, the ancient castle of Melandra. It was built on the small hump of land that stood out of a fen, older than the castle, and maybe most of the island. I heard told of monsters who grabbed un-attentive wayfarers, and that most who traveled to it vanished. Of course, those were due to Saxons, and their delight at finding a castle with such a terrifying visage and reputation to the Britons. The trip took the better part of most seven or eight days, and we managed to out-race the bad weather, dazzled by the clear blue skies, so different from the dark and menacing thunder-heads plaguing us. Spirits were high as we closed in on Melandra. The plan was the same as always, entrusting me and Cath to the destruction of the mighty walls. The only issue we encountered was that there was only one entrance and exit from the castle, a rickety plank bridge, in all likelihood decrepit, rotting, and not able to support the thundering war host. To walk/ride through the fen invited disaster as well. We mulled this over as the men set up camp a small ways from the beginning slope of the oozing, bubbling, primordial stink that called itself water.

I was alone in my advisors tent, staring at the muddy dented ground (we decided the conquest would be so short that striking camp properly was a waste of time and energy), brooding on my awen once again. She had refused her name to me, but claimed we would meet soon. I took no stock in myths, or religion, but the promise of the awen, once so greatly feared and worshiped held that all spoken of within one was to be true in our realm. I secretly wished that these fairy tales would hold true, and that I would meet her again, and truly feel her lips upon mine.

"Brother?"

I jumped in my canvas seat, nearly falling over, distracted by the wide-eyed and feral look that the angel had given me before my trance ended. My cheeks burned, but I arose, and saw Lucan was standing at the flap, smiling secretly, like he knew of my thoughts. I quickly blasted out of my head all things not related to the castle, and addressed him. He saluted, and waved in Cath, Bliant, and Aglaral. They sat down, and we said nothing for a time. Bliant's giant fist slammed onto the board, shattering my thoughts once again. I frowned at the fact that no one bothered to give me proper time to mourn the ending of my awen.

"I know what to do!"

I nodded, ready to hear just about any kind of scheme that Bliant hatched.

"We assemble an invasion party, no more than a few men."

I snorted. A "few men" storming a castle?

"But, Bliant, that castle is far more fortified, and we cannot use the liquid as before, it would cause the castle to sink into the fen with all that destruction and movement."

He shook his head vigorously.

"There is a grate, no taller than a child, it allows water to flow out of the castle, because of the constant leaking within it from the ground. We can blow THAT up, and storm the castle!!!"

I opened my mouth to shoot down the plan, but closed it instead. There was no feasible way to storm the castle, and significant movement in this kind of environment could drown and smother our entire army, or even worse, destroy the castle, the object of our work. I sighed, as always, mistress Fate threw me a ridiculous plan, and left me no choice but to say "yes" to it. I smiled wearily as Bliant's war whoop shook the thin canvas.

"Who are we to take on this excursion, brother?"

Bliant's eyes glowed, and he thought briefly.

"You, of course, Cath, Aglaral, myself...we will leave Lucan here, so he can babysit our troops..."

We all supressed snickers, Lucan was not combatively inclined, which we joked and prodded at on occasion, unable to resist making fun of a war-council member who did not wage war himself. Lucan shrugged it off, but we could see a small smile break his face as he took a theatric bow.

"Hrmm...that leaves...Cabal, he is almost as fleet footed as Cath-"

Cath laughed audibly, everyone knowing no one came very close to how well Cath moved and flitted about. Bliant waved him off.

"I was also considering Dagonet, his archery is superb, Lynette is an artist with the flail, and Agravain, he has a cool head, and a keen blade."

I nodded slowly, these men were acceptable, and they were known to me by some marvelous feats on their parts. I sighed and stood up, going to seek out my armourer.

"Very well, brothers, we suit up, and set out for castle Melandra shortly."

There was the customary war shouts, and I sent my courier to round up the men Bliant had named. I felt unease once again, but I brushed it off, living with my doubt and fatalistic point of view was not something I relished, but I understood the need that feelings could not trump logic. The unease lifted when I was weighed down my plate armour, feeling secure, if not a bit encumbered by the casing. I sheathed my sword, and grasped my shield, walking to the beginning of the bridge, slightly alarmed at how the gentle breeze from the valley above us shook the bridge so badly. I tepidly put a toe on it, hearing it screech out loudly like a wounded horse. I sighed. Sneaking up on the Saxons on a bridge like this would be as if we were dancing and shouting as we went. My doubts did not shrink once I was flanked by my men, now eight strong, and I knew the Saxons would be awake by the time we were a quarter of the way there. We ran as fast and quietly as we could, though even Cath and Cabal, both very able and fleet-footed, winced at how creaky and loud the bridges protests were. I shot Bliant a dirty glance, but it was lost on his helm, pulled down, and him in his warrior trance I was sure.

The bridge ran up to a gap, several feet across, which was spanned by the drawbridge when it was lowered. We encountered no such luck, and there was a gap quite far over the bubbling and belching steam rising from that accursed ground. I shivered, finally placing my unease with the location. It reminded me of that horrid spit of land that I had abandoned with no remorse, Llyonessse. I shivered at the mere thought. We stood there for a time, no solution presenting itself. Cabal, a headstrong young man from North of the wall, studied me, and I knew I looked small and childish in my full armour.

"What are we to do now, my liege?"

I ran my hand through my hair, sighing loudly.

"What wyrd calls for, wyrd must receive." I mumbled to myself. I still did not question the universal power of wyrd, but sometimes, even I could not follow its course unnervingly. I did not even notice Cath waving us over from the other side of the moat until Cabal promptly leaped over the gap too. I slammed my face into my palm and groaned. I was not coordinated, nor very agile when it came to jumping. The fact that Bliant roughly grabbed me, slung me over his shoulder, and barely made the jump, almost tipping me face first into the slime did not help my mood either. Everyone laughed quietly as I mumbled and kicked at the stone embankment. I sent off Cabal and Cath to scout this grate that Bliant somehow knew of. Dagonet, the quietest of our group suddenly spoke in a soft whisper.

"Something here is not right, my lords."

Bliant laughed roughly, and I saw Aglaral, never a man for religion or feelings grunt, trailing to follow the two young ones, leaving our conversation. I did not say that I shared this feeling too. Dagonet turned his bright green eyes on me as if sensing my hesitation.

"You have a gift, my lord. You feel it too."

I swallowed and nodded slightly, as if afraid that I would be judged by the rest waiting by. They knew of and respected this 'gift' I somehow found myself receiving. I would not have noticed the hair rising on my arms and the back of my neck if the deathly chill had not stolen itself over me first. I gasped loudly, and slammed my back onto the wall, sliding into the marshy ground. Dagonet and Bliant rushed to my side while the other two, Lynette and Agravain looked tense, both gripping their weapons tightly. Dagonet heard it first, his head snapping up, his hands smoothly drawing and notching his bow, pointing it directly out at the bridge. Then we heard it too. The laughter floated on a stale wind, like pages of a book scraping across the ground when barely any draft catches them. I recognized it instantly, and wanted to start screaming and shouting. My jaw locked though, and my mind reeled, racing to her again. Dagonet noticed.

"My lord?"

I shook my head rigidly.

"Whoever is the fastest, run and grab Cabal, Cath, and Aglaral NOW. We are leaving."

No one moved, and I had trouble turning my head far enough to catch Lynette's eyes.

"You will go fetch them NOW."

He said nothing, and bolted off, his flail clinking and rattling as he retreated. The air was sinking in degrees of coldness, and what was once a pleasant night became cold very quickly, our exhales becoming frost in the air. I stood shakily and tried to stop my entire body from being wracked by panick.

"We need to leave now, gentlemen, leap across, and start out, tell the men to be at battle ready."

Bliant peered at me curiously as Agravain wasted no time scrambling down the slope and leaping to the other side.

"Bliant, it is her, from Gaer. The dark lady."

He said nothing, but I could tell he knew of who I spoke. He nodded stonily and went on his way. Dagonet stood with me, his arms relaxed and holding his notched bow, steadily aiming it in front us from the fount of the laughter. It danced and floated around us, whispering and jilting me still further as it persisted.

"Who is she, my lord?"

I shuddered and shook, the cold frosting itself over me. I tried vainly to remember my dream, to find myself floating in that warm bath of water, and the warm depths of her arms. The frost receded slightly, and I pushed that much harder to hold the image of her in my mind.

"She called herself...Nimue. I fear for what she wants of me, and that she may follow me so far from Gaer."

We heard a shuffle in the murk behind us, and whirled to meet what I half expected to be a dragon, ridden by Nimue. It was Cabal, looking scared witless, and Aglaral trailing with a slight limp, Cath slung over his shoulder. My heart caught in my throat, and saw that Cabal had a wound on his chest, my first thought was Saxons, and that somehow they had conjured spirits and magick from the Otherworld.

"Something came from the air, brother, it threw Cath to the wall, bit Aglaral, and tried to carry me into the sky."

I said nothing. We stood, dazed and confused, looking at each other and the earth around us as if we knew nothing of it, and had never seen it before a day in our lives.

"There was...something else."

I looked warily to Aglaral, and saw the slightest tremor shake his massive frame.

"We cracked open the grate, and peered inside the courtyard to see how many Saxons there were..."

I swallowed nervously.

"Someone had...mounted their heads on stakes...and the bodies were strung up by the feet...upside down all around the citadel."

I heard nothing else, if he had continued in his elaboration. I motioned to the moat, too stunned so speak, and watched as Cabal and Aglaral cleared it, preparing myself to jump next. The moment my legs unloaded and pushed me into the air, I felt a force slam into my side, much as the time when a Saxon charged blindly into my shield arm. I heard something crack, and cursed as I plunged into the mud. Imagine the stench of dead bodies which had been on a field for more than a week, combine wet dog, and then burned flesh, and that aroma does not even COMPARE to the stinking rot that flooded my mouth and nose, seeking to creep further into my throat. I was sick more than four time before I realized I was sinking. The force was also on my shoulders, perched as a bird would have been, driving me deeper and deeper. I heard panicked shouts from the side that I took to be the bridge, and strained to move my limbs enough to gain leverage on the marsh. I felt the mud give slightly beneath me, and squirmed my right leg forward no more than a few inches. The imaginary bird on me drove down further, talons finding the meat below my shoulders. I groaned in pain and sunk further, till my chest was nearly under. I was not afraid, if wyrd deemed I die this day, then I would, bleeding and choking to death on the stank of a million dead bodies. The one regret I had, as the mud filched deeper, sucking up my chest and creeping icily up my neck, was that I would never meet her, that angel. The hours I had spent, wishing to have her lips on mine, it seemed like a waste now, and I regretted deeply that I would never know, in this world or the next, what it would be like to love an angel.

"BROTHER!!!"

I heard it bellowed from several feet in front of me, but relinquished the slight kicking I tried to use to propel myself forward. It was Bliant, and I knew he would be too late. I wanted to cry at the thought of never meeting her. Just as her face, so perfect in that place where sunshine flowed like nectar, flashed into my mind, the pressure withdrew, and I heard faint screaming in the air above me. I lost thought just as a big bear paw clasped my shoulder, sending horrific jolts of pain through the talon wounds. I awoke in my tent on my canvas bed, my arm reset and my shoulders bound in thick gauze. My entire body ached, and my ankle was slightly swollen when I tired to move it. Needless to say, I was not pleased. Lucan entered quietly.

"My lord, is all well?"

I barked a harsh laugh, but could not blame Lucan for asking.

"I am fine, how fairs Cath and the rest?"

"Cath awoke this morning, he remembers nothing. Agravain...he ran ahead into the fog, Dagonet said, and we have not found him. Everyone else is fine."

I sighed, my heart sinking.

"And the castle...?"

I dreaded the answer, perhaps missing the castle and its enchantments swallowing my army whole. Lucan's frown only deepened.

"It was as Aglaral had said. The men refused to linger, I do not blame them. There is something in that fen that is not of our world, and trust me brother, that force, it meant us harm."

I bit my lip, feeling exhausted, and anger welling inside of me.

"And the king...?"

"The swiftest messenger in our ranks have been sent, the king is expected within a week or two at latest."

"What of the castle then? I am not forcing my men into that hell-mouth."

Lucan nodded grimly.

"We destroyed it with a portion of our powders. No one benefited from its existence."

I smiled slightly, happy at that ending at the very least.

"What now, brother?"

Lucan shrugged as if the question was not the most important thing to consider now.

"Rest I suppose, and try to keep your body whole enough for the king when he arrives."

He punched me gently on my uninjured arm, retreating quietly. I felt the frustration and anger boiling inside of me, what the king asked of us, without the proper information, such as Uxacona, and with Melandra, that had been horribly irresponsible of him. I was still stewing when Cabal came to see me. I barely noticed him, he stepped so softly. I looked up to see his eyes red-rimmed, and looking as if he had had not slept in many days. I did not ask why he had come, it was obvious it had to do with the castle, and what had occurred. I waved my hand, and he sat heavily in my canvas chair, staring blankly at the ground.

"I saw...something, Ashley."

I let him go on, his body trembling.

"It was above you, when I heard you splash, I saw it. It was above you. It came down from the sky...it landed on you, I saw it see me..."

His voice cracked, and he looked absolutely petrified. I said nothing, the dark lady had let him see her familiar. This was some ploy on her part. This would not bode well.

"Cabal..."

He looked up, desperate for help.

"Do you believe in god? Or perhaps...some elder gods? Even just an idea?"

He smiled weakly and withdrew a silver necklace from under his tunic with a stained red cross. I smiled back at him, feigning interest.

"Your belief in good, in light, in love, will protect you against Nimue, and her familiars. It was no accident you saw that demon she summoned against me, nor that it would shock you so badly. Take solace in your faith, and she will never be able to touch the shield your love creates."

He smiled widely, and seemed to relax slightly, his hand clenching the cross so hard I feared it would puncture his skin. I laid a hand on his knee, squeezing it lightly.

"All will be well young one. You are well protected with your brothers. Fear no evil."

He nodded, his eyes suddenly looking a tad heavy. He shuffled out, to undoubtedly sleep off his terror. I smiled to myself, at least I did one thing right in this campaign besides get injured or enter a mythical trance. I slipped into sleep, and while I rested peacefully, she conjured a dream, different then an awen, and visited me. I found myself in the dark forest, seated upon my boulder by the small brook towards the center, a pad in my hand as I sketched a deer and her baby in the meadow no more than a stones throw away. I felt warm soft arms encircle my neck, pulling me backwards into a solid wall of her. I closed my eyes and angled my head up, feeling her soft lips on my forehead. Even in the dream, she felt so comforting and warm, I wished to weep at the realness of this dream. I opened my eyes to see her, staring at the deer, a soft melancholy on her features. I frowned, and rubbed her arms with my free hand. She gazed down at me again, then walked around the boulder, setting my drawings aside and resting on my lap.

"I am sorry I was not there to protect you."

She trailed her fingers along my shoulder, and down to my arm, whole in my dream, but so shattered and mangled in the real world. My skin rose up to meet her gentle touch, and her weight resting on me made me feel ten degrees more real than in the waking world.

"It is no matter, wounds heal in time."

She rested her head gently on my shoulder, as if it were still injured and she feared to hurt me. My hand brushed through her hair, though up last time, now down and hanging in sheets and as soft as down on a hind.

"You thought of me."

I nodded, her arms coming to clasp around my neck. I felt complete, like a circle newly drawn and finished, and the feeling made me want to sob aloud.

"I wished to meet you in our world. My world I mean. The thought of never seeing you, it scared me quite badly, my lady."

She nuzzled her face into my neck, the warmth in that moment encasing me like a cocoon of love and devotion. I wrapped my arms around her tightly, breathing deeply.

"I came to you when you thought of me. If you ever need me, think of me, and I will find you, and protect you as best I can."

I smiled into the curtain of her soft hair.

"No one has ever offered me protection before my lady. I cannot in good faith take your offer. That would be to take from you, and give back nothing."

She drew back slightly, resting her forehead on mine, her eyes sucking up the plain of my vision, and expanding before me.

"You will give me the greatest love this country will ever know. "

She leaned in to kiss me, her mouth so close and tempting. My dream ended to crashing thunder and screaming men.