Chapter 21—Blood and Birth

Lara sits back in a chair in her house, her feet on the table casually as she drinks from a canteen filled with water. She is still wearing her Mortis' attire, unsure of whether she should come up with one lie or the other.

She could go with "I went to visit my sick aunt! It was urgent. She passed unfortunately…" or "I was praying." Though the first seems more plausible the second is more likable and less morbid. She smiles darkly. Morbidity can't be avoided for her now.

Lara doesn't tense when Arthur comes in. She pulls her mask down.

"Gordyn is not angry about Aldren's death. Only sad," he says without much emotion. "I told them I killed him in self-defense. Mortis was lost in the darkness…" He looks at her. "Merlin is preoccupied with where you are—Lara, that is…" Arthur sees her unsettled expression. She stares at nowhere and then a dark smile creeps up on her lips.

"You know that when I was a child I wanted to grow to be a great horsewoman?" she says smiling. "I wanted to breed them—have the best ponies and unicorns in the whole kingdom."

She smiles at the thought then her smile fades. Her brow creases as she stares at the past. "I didn't understand when…" she fades off. "I didn't understand when we moved from village to village. I was two when we left Cenred's kingdom and we went from Odin's to Necron's and Uther's... When they told me we needed to move to keep me safe—because I wasn't affected by magic, I thought I was strange. Different from everyone else to the point of taboo. That no one wanted me in their village and that's why we kept moving…When we settled in the west, we thought we were safe—such a small village wouldn't be…bothered by anyone…"

She felt a strange prick behind her eyes and burning in her throat. "They—they just appeared," she says, aghast as she relives it over again. "I was only five—I didn't notice they had been watching, practicing the rumor to be true or false…They just started killing—it was unprecedented and so…brutal. When my mother tried to save me they fought my father…He never stood a chance—he was only a farmer before. But still they killed him…then her…Then they took me, dragging me through the slaughter even as the knights arrived to die themselves."

Arthur swallows at the story—he never imagined such a thing. Her face is skewed like she is going to cry, but her eyes remain dry.

"My first kill was a young man," she says, her face full of emotion but her voice betraying none of it. Only lack of fathom. "I don't know anything else about him other than the fact that he had green eyes. They were so wide."

Arthur stares at her, his arms folded across his chest. "How old were you?" he whispers.

Lara's eyes shoot up at Arthur. "Seven."
Arthur swallows and clenches his jaw. "I thought that all Gorinians volunteered to be trained," he says quietly.

She looks down at the floor. "I'm the exception," she says darkly. She thinks. "I can't tell Merlin."

"Yes, I know," he says. "But everything will be a little easier now that I know."

Lara can't rebuke. She just stares forward, trying to remember a time before blood.

-Lara walks back through the courtyard toward the servant's quarters. Gwyn's eyes go wide when she sees her appearance—Lara has a yellowing bruise on her face from her fight with Aldren and a cut bandaged on her arm. Her cut hands are hidden by her long, flowing sleeves

"Dear God, Lara!" Gwyn exclaims while dropping what she's doing to take Lara's hands. "What happened to you? Where have you been?"

Lara squeezes her hands and makes a solemn face. "Cardynleau," she says. "I had to go immediately—my cousin came to Camelot to find me. My aunt was sick with fever." Lara looks away. "She passed."

"Oh, Lara, I'm so sorry," she says. Gwyn hugs her and Lara squeezes more than necessary. Gwyn pulls back and smiles politely. "Were you and her close?"

Lara nods. "She's in a better place now, though," she says. She touches her bruise on her forehead. "Unfortunately, the bandits I ran into on the way home didn't help my grief."

"How did you escape?" she says drastically.

"Sir Beckett," Lara says. "He appeared as if from nowhere and got me away from them."

Gwyn shakes her head and touches Lara's shoulder. "You shouldn't have gone riding all the way from Cardynleau to Camelot by yourself," she says.

Lara smiles a little. "I had a knife with me," she says innocently.

Gwyn smiles and shakes her head. "You're hopeless, my friend," she says. "You've had us all worried sick."

"I'm sorry," she says. "Really, I am. Thankfully that Sir Beckett came. I had never seen him until then, but he said Merlin sent him, so..."

Gwyn smiles, containing information from her. "Well I'm glad you're safe," she says.

"Have I missed much?" Lara asks. Gwyn presses her lips together and nods.

"You can tell me later," Lara decides with a smile. "For now, I'd like to just get back to work."

Gwyn is reluctant to let her leave to change sheets around the castle. Lara goes, nonetheless, down the upper corridors to the courtier's rooms.

"You play your part well."

Lara turns and nods to Arthur, looking him in the eye for once as Lara. Arthur unfolds his arms and walks up to her.

"Mortis will have to return sooner or later," Arthur says.

"I will," she says. "But only when I'm needed."

Arthur smiles and looks over his shoulder where a tall, thin figure approaches, unaware of whom Arthur is talking to.

"It seems you're wanted right now," he says. Lara can't help but smile and look over his shoulder.

Merlin pauses then comes forward. As Arthur walks away, Lara drops her sheets and hugs him. He hesitates then wraps his own arms around her, smiling in spite of his lack of security.

"What happened to you?" he asks urgently over her head. She sighs.

"It's a long story," she says.