Another Agravaine chapter, althought this one is more focused on his siblings. I've always wanted to know more about Ygraine and Tristan, so this is my take on everything! After this one, we'll be back to Merlin's pov because I miss him lol, so enjoy the last of Agravaine (for a while at least)!
When he was a child, Agravaine had thought his older sister and brother would always be by his side. He was too young to truly understand things such as knighthood and marriage, and he'd naively believed that nothing would ever come between the three of them. That none of them would ever need anyone but each other. Their parents may have been distant, and their remaining relatives envious of their status, but Agravaine had never been unhappy, nor wanted for anything in his young life. There was no problem his brother could not solve, no hurt his sister's hugs could not soothe, no dream the three of them could not reach together. During those golden years, everything had been so simple. Agravaine and his siblings had been so bright and innocent, then; they had known no suffering, and their lives had stretched on endlessly before them. On good days, Agravaine remembered Tristan as he was, powerful and arrogant and so completely certain of his place in the world, so determined to become a knight and let nothing stand in his way. He remembered Ygraine's quiet strength and conviction, her commitment to her ideals no matter what people said. So many had foolishly mistaken her kindness and compassion for weakness, only to be proven wrong.
When Agravaine remembered those days now, they almost seemed like a dream. Then, Tristan left to begin his knighthood training. Then, Ygraine was married off to the king to advance their family's position. Had she been afraid? Agravaine could not remember; all he'd known at the time was that he was being abandoned, and Ygraine had spent the months leading up to her wedding comforting him. There'd been no one left to do it after she was gone. He'd lost her to Uther, and Agravaine had thought he knew what it meant to hate, then. He'd been so angry, so lost, without his siblings that he refused to visit them for years. How much time had he wasted in his jealousy? He'd missed so much of the most important part of their lives, and he hadn't known then that he would never get the chance to make up for it. Eventually, though, he had gone to visit them, and for all that his relationship with his parents had been rocky at best, Agravaine would always be grateful that they'd pushed him to see his siblings one last time before they were both lost to him forever. He had gotten to see his brother, proud and fearless in his armour; his sister glowing at the start of her pregnancy, so elated to finally be with child that she spent hours every day talking his and Tristan's ears off about her plans for them. Frustrating as it was, neither of them could begrudge her her joy, especially not when she had to live with Uther.
The three siblings had an unspoken agreement not to discuss Uther Pendragon, after they'd had one too many fights over it. Neither Agravaine nor Tristan believed that such a man could ever be worthy of their sister, but it upset Ygraine to hear them say that, for she had hoped to at least try to have a happy marriage, even though it had been arranged by their parents. She was good like that, always trying to make the best of things, and it seemed to have charmed Uther- for a time at least. The king showered her with gifts and subdued all of the vicious gossip about her when she failed to produce an heir for so long, and the people said she was the kindest queen Camelot had ever had. It was enough. Ygraine was happy, and so her brothers swallowed their pride and played nice with her husband.
Until the king, too, learned what so many others had- that Ygraine never backed down, that she always did what she believed was right. Agravaine had not even known what happened that day, when he'd been told the queen was facing off against the knights in the lower town. He hadn't really cared in his panic, as he'd rushed to find her, but Tristan had explained everything to him later. It had all started because of a peasant, who'd rejected the advances of a nobleman with a powerful position in Uther's court. The man was pathetic enough to complain of it to his king, and Uther was disdainful enough of commoners to have his knights try to arrest her for her audacity in refusing to offer her services to a noble. It was repulsive, but Agravaine did not think a commoner's life was worth his sister's. He was the only one who thought that way, though, out of the three of them; Ygraine had often preached justice and equality, and Tristan had always hidden a kind heart beneath his loud and arrogant attitude. And so Agravaine was not surprised that Ygraine had been so quick to take the peasant's side. He had arrived at the lower town to his sister standing proudly before the woman, heedless of the knights surrounding her. They'd been uncertain, hesitant to move against their queen but unwilling to defy their king. One had even tried to reach around Ygraine, but she'd spread her arms wide and shielded the peasant woman with her body. Oh, how Agravaine had tried to dissuade her, how the knights had pleaded with her to move aside, but his sister had remained firmly in place and told them in that calm tone of hers that if they wanted to arrest that innocent woman, they would have to go through her. Almost an hour later, the knights gave up; the woman wasn't going anywhere, after all. They figured they could come back for her later, and so they trudged back to the castle and spoke with their king. They complained to him of the queen's disobedience, and they did not know that, at that very moment, Ygraine was smuggling a woman out of the city. Their search of the lower town the next day came up empty. The king was furious; he demanded Ygraine tell him where she'd hidden the woman, but none of his questions were answered, and soon all of Camelot knew that their queen had openly defied the king.
Then, things changed. Uther grew cold and harsh with Ygraine. The court started whispering once more about the lack of an heir- the barren queen, they called her snidely. The king visited Lady Vivian while her husband was away; Agravaine did not know it then, and he would not find out for many years, but Uther betrayed Ygraine even then. Uther ordered his court sorceress to give him an heir.
Ygraine died. She died, and all of a sudden, Uther decided that he loved his wife, despite his betrayal. She died, and her grief-stricken brother tried to avenge her, but followed her to his death instead. She died, and the king slaughtered hundreds in her name, until no one thought she was the kindest queen Camelot had ever known any longer. She died, and they cursed her name for his sins.
She died, and her son lived. Agravaine would never forgive him for that.
He'd let himself get distracted by that serving boy. Merlin needed to be put in his place, of course, but Agravaine could not lose sight of the bigger picture. Later, when Arthur was dead and gone, he could do as he wished with the boy. After all, Agravaine had waited almost twenty years to have his revenge on Uther Pendragon. He could be patient.
For now, he and Morgana would make sure Arthur was reunited with his dear father. Ygraine and Tristan would be avenged if it was the last thing Agravaine ever did.