II.5 Ducking and Diving

Witch Hunt

A man with two names – Henry of Louis – came to betray the king. A name for each of his faces (the Henry, the Person, in opposition to the Louis, the Position in the World Gone Wrong), and you were ready to kill him. You could have killed the Sheriff too, but then everyone in Nottingham would die. Everything is a choice. Matilda was horrified enough by Henry.

There was someone else with two faces. Except, really, it was always only the one. This was always going to happen. Allen-a-Dale is a conman. You knew that when you met him. The very first week you knew him he gave you two life stories, he gave the Sheriff two towns of origin. But it was all one face, only ever one face. His other face died in Nottingham, the only person you have ever not saved. Tom-a-Dale. That's when he stopped believing. He only looks like that man in your gang, the brave hero; people are always making that mistake, even you. This was always going to happen, one way or another. It's time to talk about it. He made everyone unsafe, Marian most of all, and you did not kill him. Everything is a choice. Why didn't you, you ask? Matilda was horrified enough by Henry.

Allen-a-Dale looks sicker every time he goes to meet Gisborne. Sir Guy killed Richard of Stoke, the fact that makes the betrayal that lost him Marian seem so silly. Because we have not learned: the alchemy isn't finished. He has only stabbed her twice, and each time is worse. Gisborne believes in progress and a twisted kind of science which he trusts will bring a magic weapon into his hands: alchemy demands three strikes. And the hollowness of his indifference is beginning to show. But Allen has come for money, in which he believes, just like everyone believes in money, and he gives Gisborne safe passage for a traitor come to tell where King Richard will land. Playing games like this is before Davita died and took the game with her.

When you realize why you missed the Messenger, your first thought was not the King, it was Marian. Because the main witch hunt is not for the wisewoman, it is for the spy in your gang. Djaq knew instantly, how long since you've thought of your men as she does? One by one, we have to talk about these things – just when you feel you have more important things to do. You let them stagnate when you had time. Everything is a choice.

You went first to Marian, told her to flee to the woods, before you went after the Messenger. Everything is a choice. You were lucky, he was stung by a bee and collapsed, allergic. The castle physicians were at a loss, only making him worse. But Gisborne was clever, resourceful, scientific, open-minded, and he knew a foul-tongued wisewoman who pissed off the physicians royally. That's the whole reason she took the job. Because Matilda (a name like Marian) couldn't be bothered with these fools and the whole lot of you and your games at all, because her daughter Rosa was having a baby. Her Locksley was very small, and it was never a question. She's the midwife who delivered you. And she wasn't going to let a boy she brought into this world kill her patient either. So she silenced him with a drug, made him talk nonsense, and was declared a witch by the Sheriff in his fury. She found the secret, long before you ever did. You could save Locksley and England at once – but the cost was yourself.

You tried to handle everything yourself, but that's the point where you couldn't. Because you were running about, keeping everyone out of the loop and in the woods. Much was heartbroken to be considered just like the others. It's heartbreaking no matter who it is, Much – although the others probably wouldn't have offered to chop off their own arms ("well, one, because then I can't chop off the other…"). He screamed petulantly, but to no more avail than ever, because he loves you more than even Marian ever could. And Little John kept ministering to other people's families, delivering the wisewoman's daughter's baby. The little girl Rosa named after his wife Alice, who was lost to him. Little John, who even people who have just met him understand deserves a family more than anyone, has no reason to betray you. But he wasn't the first to lose his family, that was Allen-a-Dale. But no one remembers Tom – save Djaq. And she went to Allen and offered forgiveness, understanding, by talking about that very boy. Tried to hold everything together even as you tore it apart to see what had gone wrong. And Allen stewed in the woods, wondering if it was too late for that.

Djaq is the only one who noticed about Allen. The focus always pulls to her when you go off with Marian. It's not because she's jealous. It's because she's the heart and soul of the gang in a way you aren't, and she steps it up when you leave. She knows them all. She sees Allen for who he is, and she tries to love him back across the line. She knows what Much needs and jokes him into contentment, she loves Will Scarlett into importance and at least once into forgiveness. She calms down Little John and gives him purpose. Things we do not have to talk about. Because of Djaq.

She can't hold it all together anymore. Not against the assault of your witch hunt.

There was clemency offered often during this tale, on which Robin Hood lore is silent. Forgiveness was offered only once, by Djaq.

Marian followed Guy and overheard that the spy was being given silver, not gold, because the "goods were damaged" through no fault of his own. But also because that is the bounty given any traitor – and Allen was about to pay dearly for his thirty pieces of silver. When he finally went to collect them at the tavern, you were there waiting for him.

Much spilled the beans in the forest, so everything was ready to go berserk when you arrived. You punched Will in the mouth, pretended he was the traitor. The most obvious, given last week's murder attempt, and the least likely, given the successful execution last week, to work for the Sheriff. And you prepared the trap for the traitor – so that your gang could go rescue Matilda the wisewoman. And the Sheriff's water plunging device was no better torture than your distrust – to an innocent like Much. To all of them. If you could have seen the pain on their faces when he first told them. Everything is a choice.

And the Sheriff brought Matilda to Locksley to drown, and that was poetic but also stupid, because of course you were going to win in Locksley. But first the family that let you choose England over them (despite the fact that their Locksley was so terribly small) had to suffer – though not through a death this time. Matilda's daughter gave birth without her mother, and the Matilda suffered but vanished from the Sheriff's madness – just as they always said a real witch would do. Funny old world, isn't it, Vaisey?

In the end, you had to kill Henry. After everything. To save Much's life as much as Richard's. The start of healing the wounds caused today. But first you saw Allen choke on the thirty pieces of silver when he saw just what they bought. But it was too late. You're not like Djaq, who could forgive England for invading her homeland and killing her twin, who could fight alongside two men who might have been the ones who did it for a country not her own. You banished Allen, and his repentance might even have been real. But you didn't realize that The King didn't mean the same thing to him as it did to you, and he didn't betray Marian or the camp. That's not bad for an a-Dale – betraying England but not Locksley. Everything is a choice, a truth screaming in his face. But Allen was right as well: you have everything if The King wins, and you promised Allen nothing. His brother is the only person you didn't save. He is a conman, and you couldn't give him enough to keep him from fearing the end of the Merry Men, which is only his most recent role in the ever-changing game. His favorite role, but only one of many. You knew his true name (an almighty trust for a conman), and you didn't guard it. You spared his life for the third time, but you granted no forgiveness.

And Marian ran around finding ways to heal your soul and your gang, and in return you had to watch her play Gisborne – who had begun to care again. And Djaq touched Will's face where you hurt him, going behind you to heal the gang. But it was Marian who helped you find the source of the bleeding.

There were three women, one called and proved a witch beyond the usual levels of veracity and the other two in danger by association. The Maid, the Mother, and the Crone. Maid Marian merrily playing Gisborne and her wiles for your truth, Rosa giving birth and inviting Little John back into the family he lost, and the foul-tongued, wonderful Crone Matilda hauling your soul back across the line. At least for the moment. They were all Marian. And with every face, she relied on you ultimately. And with every face, she would give all for you. Either she was of use to you, or she was dead already.