Morgause swallowed a few gulps of her now-cooled cup of mocha and cleared her throat before narrating the legend.
"There is a world far away populated by graceful and beautiful winged beings. Among them were two sisters, Kayle and Morgana. Kayle and Morgana couldn't be more alike in appearance, and couldn't be more similar in having great leadership potential, but couldn't be more different in viewpoints."
"Like every other society, these angel-like beings faced numerous problems like poverty, war, crime, and so on. Kayle had an unconstrained vision of her species – that there was no limit to their core natures, which were malleable and could eventually be improved to the point of perfection. She believed that they were born free but everywhere they were in chains because the wrong institutions were in place, that all of their society's problems could be eradicated as long as they found the correct leader, a messiah if you will."
"On the other hand, Morgana viewed her people according to a constrained vision – that their natures were inherently imperfect and unchanging, and that this constraint meant that there would always be trade-offs to every policy. Attempting to change these inherent flaws would therefore merely worsen another flaw and create even more problems in the process. She believed that Kayle's concept of a messiah, if one did exist, could only manifest as a supernatural and omniscient being outside of their species, so no individual among them would ever have singular knowledge superior to the collective wisdom of society as a whole."
"To Kayle, selecting leaders for her species involved choosing anointed ones with the task of establishing strong institutions that would eradicate society's problems by forcing the unenlightened to obey the anointed ones rather than what these so-called unenlightened individuals themselves wanted to do. To Morgana, the intrinsic flaws within her species meant that no one had the absolute right or moral superiority to dictate what the whole society should do, so leaders should only have limited jurisdiction on the most basic activities necessary for society to function, while giving individuals the freedom to make their own decisions as they saw fit."
Morgause paused to assess Vi's reaction. The latter had a glazed look in her eyes, as though she could not make head or tail of what Morgause had said so far.
"That's a lot to take in," Vi commented. "Is this going anywhere? Because you were right just now when you said that this story is pretty boring!"
"I'm getting there," Morgause huffed. "The story gets more interesting later, but you won't be able to understand Kayle and Morgana's later decisions without knowing their motivations and why they see things the way they do."
"Continue then," Vi playfully threw her arms up in mock despair, drawing a chuckle from Morgause before she continued narrating the legend.
"The two sisters were born at a time when the leadership of the angels was very weak, causing the people to grow restless. However, Kayle and Morgana were both highly capable individuals, so both of them rapidly rose through the ranks of their society. They also grew extremely strong, both politically and in terms of raw power. Kayle mastered the spells and arts developed by her people over centuries, and was eventually bestowed with Judgment, the legendary magical sword conferred only to the strongest of her race. Morgana rejected the notion that her race had perfected their knowledge of spells and magic, instead preferring to research knowledge from other races in order to augment her skills."
"When the angels sought leadership renewal through a vote, both Kayle and Morgana were considered frontrunners. Kayle proclaimed herself as the judicator, a self-anointed being of perfect order and justice, fighting to unite the world under her law and strong central governance. Morgana called her a tyrant incapable of seeing the larger view, who would sacrifice individuality and freedom for the illusion of efficiency and safety under her misguided sense of cosmic justice. There was also a third candidate, Aatrox, who was the greatest warrior among the angels and had a small but loyal group of fringe supporters. His influence was significantly less than that of Kayle and Morgana, however, so he was considered to be out of the running very early on, leaving only the two sisters to contest the leadership position."
"As the date of the vote drew nearer, Morgana started to gain a very slight edge over Kayle. But Kayle had a Trump Card that Morgana didn't anticipate. She had been secretly negotiating with Aatrox and reached an agreement to make him her second in command. A few days before the vote, Aatrox pulled out of the race and backed Kayle, while Kayle herself spread rumours that the two of them were in a romantic relationship, leading to the public perception that supporting Kayle was equivalent to supporting Aatrox as well. Morgana was caught off-guard by this move and could not come up with a counterstrategy, resulting in her defeat when Aatrox's followers consolidated behind Kayle too."
Morgause paused her story for the second time, seeing that Vi was looking at her with a questioning look.
"How did Morgana manage to gain support over Kayle at first?" Vi asked.
"Morgana's views were simply more suited to her time," Morgause replied. "The angels had recently experienced such weak leadership that not many of them were receptive to the idea that a new leader could be trusted with the amount of power that Kayle wanted. Whenever the two publicly debated, Kayle simply did not have a convincing response to Morgana's argument that Kayle's centralised system was doomed to fail and that there needed to be a comprehensive system of checks and balances to prevent power from being held in the hands of a few."
"What happened after that? Did the two sisters work together and balance each other out?" Vi asked.
Morgana nodded at the question. She hopped off her barstool and wandered over to a low wooden drawer nestled in the corner of the room before bending over to retrieve something from it. Vi noted that Morgause appeared to be having some difficulty bending down, so she slid her chair out and was about to get off and help her when Morgause waved away her assistance.
After rummaging through the drawer for some time, Morgause fished out a white envelope and lightly kicked the drawer shut before shuffling back to Vi. She placed both hands on the counter, pushing down on it to ease herself back onto the barstool.
"Are you alright?" Vi asked worriedly, seeing that Morgana looked quite exhausted.
"Don't mind me," Morgause reassured her. "I'm just feeling a little tired and my legs fell asleep after sitting for too long. Time seems to fly when I'm chatting with you."
"Do you need me to leave? I think you should rest a bit, you're looking a little pale."
"No!" Morgana exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly. "Please stay, I insist! I haven't enjoyed myself this much in a long time. I'm perfectly fine, really."
"O-kay, sorry to impose then."
Morgause opened the envelope and showed Vi the letter that was inside. Written in neat cursive handwriting was a short poem.
Cooking beans over a flame
The beans are letting off steam
Born of the same root and name
Why cause each other such pain?
"Unfortunately for Morgana, she failed to anticipate something else: Kayle's vindictiveness, which as Morgana soon found out, would make itself apparent more than once. Kayle saw Morgana as a threat to her form of justice, so the first thing that she did when she gained leadership was to redefine the definition of 'dark arts' to include Morgana's class of spells, which made it illegal for Morgana to use more than half of her full repertoire of spells. Morgana could no longer use her spells as effectively as before and was demoted as a result. To make things worse, Kayle was still fearful of a future leadership challenge from Morgana and hired someone to keep her under watch at all times, on the basis that there was a high risk of Morgana practising illegal spells. The poem you just read was written from Morgana to Kayle, asking her why she would torment her own sister so badly."
"What about Aatrox? What became of him?" Vi enquired.
"Good question," Morgause smiled. "That forms the next part of the story."
"Aatrox was primarily a warrior, not a leader. He was the kind of being that could slice through legions in a style that was hypnotic to behold, but he did not possess the charisma of Kayle and Morgana. Don't get me wrong, he enjoyed having power too, but he had no desire to shoulder the responsibilities that came with leadership over the angels."
"Now, in spite of Kayle's decision to lie about being in a romantic relationship with Aatrox, the truth was that she despised him because he too did not fit with her vision, though she was forced to keep up a façade in order to obtain the support of his followers. The animosity was mutual on Aatrox's part because some of his own spells had been banned by Kayle's policy. He also detested her for repeatedly pulling rank and overruling him whenever his views differed from hers. So when Kayle's irrational fear and distrust of Morgana resulted in a command for someone more powerful to keep watch over the latter, Aatrox immediately volunteered. Both he and Kayle were thrilled to be outside each other's presence."
"Unbeknown to Kayle, however, Aatrox and Morgana shared an immediate mutual attraction once they met again in their new setting. This time, they were meeting not as political opponents, but as two outcasts who were disillusioned with the state of their society under Kayle's leadership. It was not Morgana's intention to seduce Aatrox or the other way around. It just happened. Pre-fall Morgana and Justicar Aatrox were actual kindred spirits and soulmates. Their first day ended with a kiss. Their third night was spent consummating their relationship, which eventually became an everyday activity between them."
"Kayle, as expected, eventually found out about their relationship and immediately redistributed Aatrox away from Morgana's side. While she grew even more fearful that Aatrox and Morgana would team up against her, Kayle held absolutely no affection for Aatrox and did not care enough to pursue the matter further as long as they were prevented from communicating and that their previous tryst was kept under wraps so as to not undermine her leadership."
Morgause paused for the third time to entertain a question from Vi.
"This Kayle, was she really as bad as the legend suggests?" Vi asked.
"Probably not," Morgause conceded. "Morgana is my idol, after all. I am partially named after her and these synthetic wings of mine were inspired by her depicted appearance, so my account is probably biased in favour of her. Morgana herself actually felt that Kayle was primarily an ideologue who had good intentions that were misplaced."
"So between Kayle and Morgana, who was right?" Vi questioned.
"There is no widespread agreement," Morgause replied. "If you accept the unconstrained view of your species – that forcing everyone to obey an enlightened individual would solve all of humanity's problems – then you would side with Kayle. If you believe in the constrained view that no individual has knowledge that is superior to collective wisdom, and that the best you can hope for is to minimise the damage caused by the flaws of human nature, then you would agree with Morgana."
"I don't like this type of no-right-answer conclusion. This is Cupcake's specialty. She could easily talk up a storm on your topic," Vi complained.
"Fair enough," Morgause commented. "I'm sure you do have some sort of opinion though, since visions, unlike interests, are the implicit assumptions that influence our perspectives. But first, let me finish up the last part of the legend."
A/N: If I could be this inspired every day, then Married to the Enemy would have been finished long ago. Story overran the chapter again. Next one will definitely be the last.
