Part Three

Choices and Consequences

Half a year went by, almost as if in the blink of an eye. He found himself settling down more, although he never felt at home, nor did he ever feel at ease while walking through the halls. The first month he had spent familiarizing himself. He still didn't know the full layout of the building, nor the city, but it seemed to be enough for him to navigate without seeming out of place.

He had been faced with a couple of tough decisions, one being the relationship with Freya. It didn't feel right, but yet, at the same time it did. Things had undoubtedly grown more strained between them, yet they weren't as estranged as one would suspect. He found himself enjoying their interactions, yet he managed to hold himself back enough so that he would not fall completely head over heels with the woman once more.

Morgause did not seem quite as trusting as she once had been. Perhaps she had sensed that there was something off about him, something that was not quite right. It did not help that he was avoiding their encounters as much as possible, and skipping out on the council meetings as often as he could without coming across as negligent. More times than not he weaseled his way out of the long, boring meetings. He realized that he would have to attend more of those meetings, if he didn't want the woman growing even more suspicious than she already had. His reluctance to punish those without magic did not exactly aid his cause.

Truth be told, the woman wasn't all that bad. She even had a sense of humor, if you looked hard enough. Although he never let his guard down around her, he could see why his counterpart had trusted the woman as much as he had. It seemed like she cared, but he wasn't fully sure if it was completely genuine yet, or not. She was incredibly skilled at seeing through his lies, but not good enough. Six months in, and she had not discovered that he was different, suspicions put aside.

After the incident with the girl and her family several months back, there had been a few similar cases, where he had passed the same judgment. The council men did not agree, and he found them arguing back against him more than they had done in the earlier days.

It seemed as though a seed of dissent had been sowed through his actions, or rather his reluctance to act. He still wasn't quite sure as to how he was going to handle it, but he felt more sympathy towards Arthur now, knowing more personally what it was like to govern a city. He could hardly imagine the stress it must have been to govern a kingdom, not to mention the boredom. Oh the boredom was even worse. Hours spent listening to old men drag on about about the same matters, over and over again without a doubt the worst part of these meetings. He should have been more annoying back when he served Arthur, because he had wished on more than one occasion that there was an annoyance breathing down his neck, to keep him on his toes.

Things could've been better, that was for sure, but everything wasn't all bad. Of course, his inaction towards non-magics had caused a rebel group of sorcerers to arise. They called themselves The Red Ravens, though he wasn't exactly sure of the origin of their name. They demanded that he stepped down, and claimed that he didn't have the sorcerers best interests in mind. Perhaps they were right.

Morgause had tried to issue escorts to follow him through the Sanctuary, being afraid that the Red Ravens may choose to attack him directly. He had refused, of course, but he wasn't sure if the attempt had been out of genuine care and concern, or if it had been an attempt to keep track of his movements.

The Red Ravens had been responsible for more than one attack on Camelot in the last few months, and their active numbers were estimated to be in fifties of sixties, but surely their numbers were higher than that. He had tried to condemn the attacks, saying the Sanctuary had no hand in them, but despite his correspondence, tensions were higher than ever between the two sides. He feared that if things kept going the way they were going, that they may have a full blown war on their hands, and he did not want that to happen. He had already gone through one war in his lifetime, and he didn't feel the need to experience a second one.

His correspondence with Balinor had come to an abrupt halt. He simply did not know how the letters had been delivered, nor how they had been received. No matter how much he wanted to continue exchanging letters, it simply wasn't possible. But perhaps it was for the best. He didn't know how he'd explain away the letters if they were intercepted, and with Morgause's suspicions of him, writing to his father was not a risk worth taking.

A month ago, he had realized that his counterpart had been having the same type of dreams as he did. It had suddenly been very evident in the way his counterpart had acted in his world. The change in behavior after he himself had made a mistake, or after the Red Ravens had attacked Camelot for the second time. Their connection also seemed to be getting stronger. He could physically feel his counterparts pain upon his body. An injury he suffered could be felt as an ache upon his own body for days after the vision. It may have something to do with solar eclipse getting closer and closer. It seemed to affect his counterpart the same way.

It made sense for the connection to go both ways, but the developments considered, he wasn't sure of where he ought to take it from there. Maybe he'd be able to communicate, to get some answers, and to let his counterpart know what was going on. It was something he'd have to look into in the future.

He couldn't really afford to make many more mistakes, without losing the support of Morgause, and without getting kicked out of the council, which would be devastating. Though, he doubted that would happen for as long as they thought he was a dragon lord.. Which he was, but wasn't supposed to be.

He was used to keeping secrets, but compared to this, keeping the secret of his magic had been a piece of cake. There were quite a lot of lies and altered truths he had to keep track of, to the point where he found himself keeping a journal in order to keep track of it all. He hid it away with the letters underneath the stone slab. Sure, it was risky, but it was necessary.

He had to be careful moving forward. But despite it all, he still had a burning question, even after all these months. Why were these two worlds so different? He knew what had caused it, which had been the death of his mother, at the forced hand of Arthur, but he didn't know how it came to that. How did Uther find out about his magic? What had he done, that caused his secret to be revealed? He didn't need to know, but he wanted to learn what had happened.

The months to come weren't going to be easy. Having to deal with a rebellious group within his own walls, war on the horizon, a suspicious Morgause, dissent in the council and an estranged wife, he didn't see himself having an easy time going forward. He only hoped that he wouldn't mess everything up more than he had.

**A/N: Found myself stuck for the longest time on how to go forward with this story, and thus I decided to rewrite the time skip chapter, and take a different approach to how this story is going. Sorry for the incredibly long wait. Semi-frequent updates will come. At least once a week. Thank you all for being patient!**