Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character names, save my own original creations. I do not wish to be compensated for this work, nor do I wish to infringe on any copyrights held by any stakeholders of the movie King Arthur. This work is an original creation, based on the legend of King Arthur and his knights.


Scribe Notes:

All: The reviews I have gotten for these two chapters has truly been overwhelming! I want to say here that I appreciate each and every review I get, and I love the interpretations you have of my work. From these reviews, I have created five more chapters. All of you truly do move my pen. Here is the next one, ready to post.

Ailis-70: You are welcome. You see that Tristan and Lancelot are not as different, as do I. Secrets such as this are not bad, and Tristan may yet divulge them to others. I am so very gald that I was able to make you happy with my chapter. It was part of my intention! I am anxiously awaiting the next installment of your story.

Nitestar: thank you for your kind words! My talent? That is a wonderful compliment! Writing is my passion, my profession and a lifelong ambition to be better. Emotions are the most important part of being a writer. If you cannot feel what your character feels, the words and actions are hollow. I feel when I write these passages. It's exhausting, but so therapeutic. That is part of why I write. It makes me better.

Sokorra Lewis: It is our actions, and the fear of making the wrong decision that often puts us into that wrong decision. I had a friend who once told me "You can make a right decision, and you can make a wrong decision. but you cannot live with indecision." I believe that.

Wrong helps us see what is right, and strive for it. As you can see, our pair are quickly being overwhelmed at not making a decision to voice and show their love openly. It's the decision to do so that they fear, and the fear that it will be the wrong one when they make it. How many times I have done this in my real life, I cannot even begin to count. Thank you for your compliments!

LovelyHeidi: Busy is good! Busy keeps us moving and alive! I do not mind. Thank you for continuing to read! Here isa pivotal chapter for you to nourish the quiet side of your busy life.

Calliann: Rhia does help Lancelot, as this chapter will show. Tristan's help will come soon, don't want to give it away! I am glad you enjoyed them, and as always I enjoy your enthusiasm! Thank you!

Lilstrummrgrl527: Yes, Cerys is great at denial. All through this story she has been the queen of such.Not lovers to each other yet, but to everyone else around them, they have been for some time. The fun part of this is writing the reactions of their friends around them, to their seeming blindness to it.

et cetera et cetera: Thank you for your reviews! I am very glad you enjoyed and hope that you continue to do so! These men feel so deeply, and would perhaps be the equivalent to today's adrenalin junkies. An emotion is intensified simply because of the way they live. I have tried to portray that, without giving them a metrosexual feel. Men did not confide their feelings directly then. They do so with humour, anger, and actions with one another.

History2: I shall say it again. You get me.

Cerys' father was a knight with Arthur's father, and as such, was a big part of how she views her knights. This I want to bring in more soon. it's exciting this part of the story and I can't wait to share it!

I wanted to develop Tristan a bit, the Tristan-centred fics I am reading here, especially Ailis-70's,have piqued my interest. It's a side story, but I hope to have it help Lancelot in this way, showing him that he's not the only one with doubts about his character, and his idea that he does not deserve. Wynn is important to Tristan, but he is not ready to show her the side of him that exists at the fort. he is afraid it will make her not want him.

Thank you for your review. I treasure them, they give me insight into my own writing and it helps!


Chapter 30: Gift of Understanding

Rhia was still sitting by the fire when Lancelot returned. She was holding a young child on her lap and telling him a story, her thumb and forefingers alternately twisting on top of each other as she climbed an imaginary rope with them. Lancelot sat on a bench close to them and watched.

The fire was casting lights across the young child's face, his joy in the story evident. Rhia's eyes were sparkling as she spoke in their native tongue. The child clapped.

Rhia glanced up and caught Lancelot's eyes. He cleared his throat, and looked to the fire, em­barrassed at his open staring of them. For some reason that child's face was entrancing.

He decided that he had drank too much of their strong wine. He perhaps needed to find a soft spot and sleep.

"Knight, you have intelligent eyes, yet you have trouble seeing." She said as she patted the child's bottom and sent him on his way.

He wrinkled his mouth and looked up to her. He felt lost this evening.

"And what should I be seeing Rhia? I fear I do not know what I should be looking for."

She chuckled and leaned back behind her to grasp a small deerskin bag. She rose slowly, hands on her thighs, and sat beside him on his bench, patting his knee once she was settled. Lancelot thought to Cerys yet again, and how she was always patting knees and thighs when she was sit­ting with the men.

She opened the top drawstring once it was on her lap and she rummaged slowly, muttering under her breath in her own language. Small sounds of objects rattling together came out of the bag.

"Is this your bag of tricks?" Lancelot asked, peering in. She chuckled again.

"Just an old woman's belongings. Nothing more. Here they are..."

Rhia made a happy noise as she pulled out a set of hair pins. They were curved and smooth, carved from what looked to be deer horn. Flat and wide at one end, then tapering to a fine point at the other. They were a brilliant shade of blue, dyed from what Lancelot assumed was woad.

They were beautiful and intricate. He had never seen anything like them.

"These were made for me by my husband." She said sadly, turning the pins in her old hands, rubbing them fondly with her thumb. "He carved them from a stag he killed, when we were young."

Lancelot watched her turn them sideways and run her fingers over the length of them lovingly. He could see intricate carvings when the sides were held together properly, what looked to be lettering. He tilted his head to see it more clearly as she did so.

"What does that say?" He pointed to the wording.

"Knight and Lover as One."

Lancelot smiled softly. "He must have loved you a great deal."

Rhia nodded, her old eyes misty for a moment, remembering. She grunted and sniffed, holding the pins out in the firelight. She put the two flat sides together so that they joined to reveal a new carving. Lancelot looked with amazement as the lion head he wore as an emblem on his riding armour stared out at him.

"So, knight, what do you see? " Rhia asked quietly as Lancelot looked. He squinted and moved his head closer to see the carvings.

Rhia flipped them over and lined up the flat sides again. This time they showed a cameo of a woman. Lancelot blinked.

He looked at Rhia and then back at the pins she was holding together in front of the fire. His mind was playing tricks on him, it was late and he had drunk too much wine. Either that or...

Lancelot took in a sharp breath as Rhia nodded her head.

"I may be a seer in some things, but not all. Only you can interpret what your eyes see. These hair pins, I think they may be the start of your journey."

Lancelot gently took the pins out of her hands and held them in front of him, holding the flat sides together. He flipped them back and forth a few times, not understanding.

"Your husband carved these?" He asked. "How could he have seen this?" He pointed to his crest.

Rhia chuckled. "I saw you ride in and recognized it. My husband worked as an armourer for your King's father before returning to this village with me to live out our days with our family. That is his work." She reached over and tapped a finger on his chest where the same lion looked out.

Lancelot suddenly remembered the old man who had made his first set of crests, and he stopped and remembered. Sabin-something-or-other, wasn't it? A retired knight who took up making ar­mour at the fort. Gods, the world they lived in was small.

"Sabin?" He asked. Rhia nodded.

He was a kind man from what Lancelot could remember, and had given Lancelot the pick of the emblems in his stores. Lancelot had picked the lion. It had looked magnificent, and as an arro­gant young man faced with a long career fighting, he had wanted to look as ferocious as possi­ble. So Sabin had made his greaves and crest up with the same lion, and ever since, it was Lancelot's signature.

When Sabin had left, Lancelot had learned to recreate the crest himself for when it needed to be repaired. It was relaxing and exhausting work, beating heated bronze into a clay mould he would carve out. Then, waiting, and cracking off the wood and mud to reveal the piece.

Frivolous, he always thought, but interesting work to take the mind off other things when be­tween battles. He was looking forward to spending some time with Hywel and his apprentice. He had some new ideas he wanted to try this winter. Hywel would use the pieces he created to put on shields, armour and even decorations for walls. Cerys had a small disc with the relief of a tree punched into it, that Lancelot had made the previous winter. He had given it to her at last winter solstice.

She had hung it on her wall above her bed, and said it caught the morning light and shone on the opposite wall. She had loved it.

He blinked away the memory. This still did not explain the girl on the other side. He flipped the pins over again.

"But what of this? I do not understand how she could be on these pins."

"Ahh. You see someone? Someone special?"

Lancelot nodded, his brow furrowing. "Rhia, if these were for you, then this should be your face I see."

She nodded and again patted his thigh. She sighed deeply and rose, her hips creaking as she stood. Lancelot handed the pins up to her but she put her hands up.

"No. Keep them. I think you have a better use for them than I. My hair is much too thin now to hold pins such as those." Her eyes crinkled and she bobbed her head.

"But..." he began.

"No knight, they hold meaning for you. I told you, my task is not to tell you what will happen, only to guide your thoughts, then let you interpret them. Your understanding is yours to act on as you see fit."

Rhia picked up her bag and pulled the drawstring closed. "Thank you for your company this night. You have made an old woman happy to remember her husband."

Lancelot was turning the pins over and over in his hands. Incredible. He was a bit overwhelmed at the evening, and this bizarre meeting had made him weary of thinking.

"These... Are you sure you do not with to keep them? Give them to your daughters? Your sons for their wives?"

"I have none to give them to. Sabin would have wanted to see them go to someone he respected. Your lions showed me that you were, by him. They are yours to give to her." She pointed to the relief of the girl that Lancelot had again brought together with the flat sides of the pins.

'I still don't understand how..." He faltered.

Rhia smiled and rested a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to her and she winked, then turned away.

"Knight, look inside yourself and see around the fighter and killer. Then you will be able to un­derstand that anything is possible." She chuckled, and disappeared into the darkness.

Lancelot sat until morning, holding the pins in his hand. He just kept turning them over and over, reading the inscription, looking at the lion. Staring at her face.

Knight and Lover as One.


Dear Reader:

There is always a point at which we suddenly see. Lancelot saw his love for Cerys when in his rooms with her. She saw when on the wall. The rest saw long ago. Will this be enough to make Lancelot give in and act on his love? Rhia sees, and she pushed. She should push Tristan too, or has she and he is just more stubborn? I leave that to your imaginations.

As always, thank you for your time and I look forward to your reviews!

Cardeia