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Hope you still care what happens next!!
LADY OF THE LAKE
He had been standing on the wall for what seemed like hours, and still a part of him was not ready to accept what he was seeing. It was something Arthur had not seen before in his life. They had been arriving for days since the day of his victory over the Saxon horde.
They had been coming in small groups at first, no more than four or five.....now, from where he could overlook the surrounding landscape, their numbers were growing rapidly. Tiny black specks covering the green fields as far as the eye could see, like an army of ants moving slowly towards the wall.....Britons...woads; men, women and children making their way to the fort. The village of tents surrounding citadel was growing by the hour, stretching on and on....up to the woods. Gawain had even told him that he had seen people starting to build wooden shacks.
Arthur looked down on it all with mixed feelings of wonder and trepidation, watching the bustling activity and the woad soldiers walking through the lines, greeting him with respectful nods. A part of him could still not believe what he was seeing; the other knew that this was where it started, that he had passed the point of no return. Merlin's words, the decision he had witnessed Arthur make ........the news had travelled fast and swifter than Arthur could ever have thought possible.
He turned at the sound of steps and the almost inaudible squeaking of leather armour to find Lancelot walking towards him. After only three days of recovery, since he had regained consciousness, his friend moved with the natural grace of a born swordsman again. Only Arthur's schooled eye could detect how the knight sometimes slowed his movements to not upset the still healing wound.
Nobody should have recovered from a lethal blow this fast.......
Seeing his friend come towards him now, with his trademark smile on his lips, that held the potential to mean nothing and everything at the same time, Arthur could not quiet the little voice inside of him, which reminded him ever so often that his sister had to be a witch indeed.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost Arthur." Lancelot said as he reached him, only half- joking.
Arthur's face broke into a smile and he laid his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"You are lucky, Lancelot. I thought it too early to scatter your ashes into the winds just yet.....even if you are a plague at times!"
Lancelot laughed, shaking his head.
"What do you say to that ....." he motioned at the sea of tents and people they were looking out on. Arthur's eyes swept over the scenery one more time, taking in the movement on the hills.
He took a deep breath, crossing his arms over his chest, his face growing solemn and thoughtful.
"You were right, my friend. When we started our last mission you were angry with me and you told me that I had been fighting for a world that does not exist all those years."
Lancelot watched him carefully, nodding at himself. After knowing Arthur for so long, it was not hard for him to guess what was on his mind.
"So you will stay here and build that world?"
Arthur looked at him, thinking of how to put what he felt into the right words to not just make his best friend understand, but to persuade him too.
"If we don't try to make it so, if we don't try to shape this world for the better, who will?"
Lancelot laughed again, returning Arthur's serious look in earnest.
"You were always an idealist, Arthur."
Arthur's expression did not change, but his voice took on more urgent, crucial tone.
"That's why I need someone like you, Lancelot, to make sure I do not overreach myself.
You and my knights are one of the reasons I have to do this....."
He took a deep breath, putting his hands on Lancelot's shoulders, squeezing slightly as though to emphasize the importance of his words.
"I have failed you." He said, his voice still severe, but there was a strangled note mixing with the seriousness in his tone. "I have failed you and them so long, holding you to a promise that was given to Rome in duress, a service that Rome forced upon your forefathers. I need to make a world where no one will be forced into labour like that, a world where no man, woman or child has to be another one's slave."
"A world of equals, Arthur?" Lancelot asked, his face and voice filling with the affection he felt for his friend. Though the knight had to admit it was what Arthur had preached and believed in for as long as he had known them. It had been an ideal he had always held true. It did not really surprise Lancelot that Arthur would seize the chance to make this ideal reality, to make that dream come true. He only wished he had Arthur's strong beliefs, his conviction to not doubt that a world like that could ever exist. But for Lancelot that belief in justice and righteousness had died a slow death on his trip to England when he had still been a boy.
"Even you cannot achieve that."
"Maybe not...." Arthur divulged honestly, " ...but at least I can ensure that none of these people will be forced into service the way Rome has enforced it upon you. And maybe that will be enough. Is that not a goal worth fighting for?"
Lancelot returned Arthur's serious, inquiring look for a long time. Then his face split into a sincere smile and he nodded again, putting his hands on Arthur's arms.
"It might just be...."
Suddenly shouts could be heard from beyond the wall, loud and booming like battle cries.
Arthur and Lancelot looked around them, scanning the wall and landscape while instinctively drawing their swords in unison.
Gawain and Bors flew up the stairs to the top of the wall with weapons in hand.
"Are we being attacked?"
Lancelot chuckled as he detected the source of noise in the midst of the tents.
"I do not think so...." He told Bors, pointing at a group of six young woad warriors who stood looking up at the wall with their spears held high above their heads in some form of greeting.
"Are they saluting you?" Gawain asked in confusion, looking at Arthur.
Following the young men's eyes he slowly shook his head. Gawain exchanged a glance with Lancelot, gesturing towards the other end of the wall where another stairway led up next to the watchtower. Morgianna stood there, the hood of her cloak thrown back, looking out over the sea of tents much like her brother had done.
"I'll be damned....." Bors whispered to himself. He let his sword glide back into his scabbard with a disappointed grunt." I was looking for a good fight, you know ...."
Lancelot and Gawain laughed silently.
"How about a good cup of strong wine and a game of dice?" Lancelot asked, putting one arm over the shoulders of each of the two knights.
"So you think after cheating death you can cheat me out of my money?" Bors growled, clapping Lancelot firmly on the back.
"We shall see about that my friend!"
"Arthur?" Gawain asked.
"Go ahead....." He answered, still watching his sister. The wind had picked up and was playing with her hair and tugging at her woollen cloak. "I will join you in a moment."
He walked towards her slowly, taking her all in as he went. Her face was unreadable as ever, but there seemed to be an indescribable dignity about her. She stood very straight, eyes perusing the countryside and the hills on the horizon the way he had done.
The thought struck him that in another time, under different circumstances, she could have been a queen. She was not truly beautiful, but nobody could say she was unsightly either. She was fierce and proud like any warrior.There was something regal, something splendid about her that he could not deny and once more he felt that strange pull he had felt the night they had met in the mist and snow. Something in her was calling out to his blood.....and his blood answered.
He knew that she was not all she appeared to be, that she was holding something back.....he was not a fool. But he had not lied to Lancelot when he had told him, that her presence soothed him.
"I was asked not long ago what to make of this." He called out to her, gesturing to what lay beyond the wall with one hand.
"They are coming from all ends of this land, to pay their respects." She said, turning to him.
Looking at him, her lips curved up in the most subtle smile, her face blushed from the cool wind that was still playing with her dark hair. The smile and the blush made her look younger, almost girlish, but the look in her eyes was still grave. "They have come to swear allegiance and greet their king."
Arthur looked over the growing assembly for a moment, before his eyes fixed on Morgianna again.
"They have been coming since the day after the battle, how could they know I would not leave for Rome once the Saxons were defeated? How can hey know I will not send them home, now?" He shook his head. "How can they trust that I ...."
Arthur looked at her, exasperation evident in is face and voice."Why would they come from near and far? They do not know me, so why would they come?They only know me by name or reputation, from stories that might not even be true!"
"They come to see you, to see the man who will lead them. They trust you to guide them Arthur."
"Really?" Arthur took a deep breath, stepping closer to her until the fabric of her skirt brushed his legs and he could look directly into her dark eyes.
"Do not pretend with me, Morgianna. There is no reason for that between us. I am not an ignorant fool. I am aware that some of them come because Merlin called for them. That one reason I will be king is because Merlin willst it so....and because you say it so."
Morgianna stared back at him, her pale face empty and unreadable like the clear, blue sky.
When she opened her mouth to speak her brother held up a hand to silence her.
"You are more than just my sister to these people and we both know that I am not mistaken in this. The fact that I did not address it thus far does not mean that things have gone unnoticed by me."
Arthur reached out his hand slowly, letting his rough, battle- hardened fingers smooth the hair from her face. She had their mother's eyes, a deep, rich brown that seemed to burn with a light of its own, eyes that had seemed so gentle to him when he was a boy. There was still gentleness in their velvet depths now, but some of it had been replaced with something more solid, more clear-cut and hard. Her raven hair was just as soft as he remembered. For the first time there was something close to uncertainty in her gaze as she watched his face while he ran his hands through her hair.
"You are a force of your own." Arthur finally said quietly, not taking his eyes of her face.
"You hold power unlike any I have ever experienced or stood against.....unlike anything I could describe. You clothe yourself in it sometimes and it fills the air like silent thunder that makes your skin sing."
He put on arm on her shoulders and turned her back to looking out beyond Hadrian's Wall again. "When they look at you, they do not see my sister, and they do not see the woman....they do not see you like I see you." Arthur stated. "Tell me what they see, Morgianna."
She took a step to the side, holding his inquisitive gaze. Then she took another deep, calming breath, a look of defeat washing over her face for no longer than a heartbeat. She looked out over the green fields, the people arriving at the fort from far and wide. When she finally answered him, her voice sounded distant and formal, as though she was reciting a ritualistic speech she had given a hundred times before.
"They see the earth, the harvest, the sun and stars, air and darkness, land and sea. I am the mother, the daughter and the crone. I am the land's stalwart, their refuge, and their shelter in the storm. I am their guardian to stand against all harm. I am this land, the all- mother.....the lady of the lake."
Every so slowly Morgianna turned back to him.
"And you Arthur are to be king. Not because I deem it so or because any other man made it so.....but because you say it so."
She bridged the distance between them in one fluent, graceful step. She laid her hands around his face, leaning her forehead to his with closed eyes and he could feel her power breathing over him like a warm breeze, wrapping around him like a warm blanket or a tight embrace.
He gave a startled breath and pulled his head back to look at her. From up close her eyes were like wells of darkness.
"They come to you..." she whispered to him "They come because you will unite them and bring peace to this land."
Morgianna let her hands slide from his face, smoothing over his broad shoulders before she stepped backwards. Arthur stared at her in awe and bewilderment.
"I cannot change what I have become, but I did not deceive you when I said that I will be there if you shall have need for me. I will hold true to my word. I will rescind my duties and not return to them. I will stay here with you, if that is your wish." She told him warmly.
"But you should speak with you knights now, if you want them to stay. I think you will need them more than you will ever need me, their advice, and their strength. I see their hearts, their love for you. They too will follow you. If you will lead them, they will follow you wherever you may go. You have forged a union with them, made them a family. Now make a home for them, Arthur."