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I deeply apologize for the length that it took for me to upload this chapter of the story. Issues had arisen that prevented me from doing so, and I will try my best not let this happen again.
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A loud crack of thunder roars through the air in the company of the dark clouds moving in overhead. The thunder catches the loyal knight's attention even more causing him to look up at the sky. As he looks, up a single drop of rain falls into his left eye causing it to shut on reflex. He looks back down at the body of his former king and reaches out to touch her.
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Arturia can hear the crack of the thunder above head and opens her eyes quickly. Upon opening her eyes she only finds darkness.
"What is this?" Her voice echoes. Moving her hands, the woman attempts to feel her surroundings, but her hands register nothing. "Where am I" Arturia's voice echoes again in the still darkness. Her state of panic begins to rise, but she is able to control it. "Alright, I just need to calm down," she says relaxing herself. "I remember fighting Mordred, Bedivere and myself riding through the forest on horseback, and …" she stops as a sudden pinch of sadness comes to her. "How could I have forgotten? I died from my injuries in that battle," she says standing still.
Suddenly the darkness begins to brighten up. The once dark areas in front of Arturia's eyes begin to take shape. Colors begin to show up in now visible area. Arturia now recognizes where she is.
"It appears that my vision has returned to me and by the looks of things I am still on the ground in the forest." Arturia blinks a twice and her vision is completely restored. Seeing the now visible sight of someone in front of her she looks on. "Bedivere, my most loyal knight," she says looking at the scene of Bedivere reaching in for her. Arturia lifts her tries to lift her arm to touch her comrade, but notices that her movements are kept only where she is. "I do not understand this. I move my body, but yet it does not move," she says still trying to make herself raise her arm, but still fails. She stands in her current position and thinks harder about the situation. "I am able to move my body freely, but I do not move them," Arturia says again seeming confused. She puts more thought into the situation. "I think I understand now. My life has come to an end, so I am unable to control my material body freely. Under that deduction, I am currently my soul."
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"It would be quite disrespectful to leave you out here in this weather, would it not?" he asks not expecting an answer back from the slain hero. He reaches down and puts his around her body in an effort to pick her up. Bedivere notions for the horse to lie down again as to make putting the body on its back less complicated. He sits the body on top of the horse and then places himself on the back of the mighty mare. He places Arturia's hands around his waste and grips her left hand to make sure that her body does not fall while on the short trip back to Camelot. Pulling on the reigns the horse picks raises itself from the ground. Bedivere hits the horses ribs with the back part of his heels and the animals begins motion in trot. The rain begins to fall more frantically the closer Bedivere gets to the city. The trek through the forest is short, as he exits the forest only minutes after departing from Arturia's previous resting spot. "Here we are…the great kingdom of Camelot…our home." He whispers to himself coming closer to the drawbridge.
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"Camelot is safe," Arturia says looking around to see that Camelot is in the same condition as when she and her army had set out to stop Mordred's army. Watching the rain beat down upon her surroundings she looks ahead and gazes at the two guards standing at the entrance to city.
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The two guards, armed with lances, stand at the entrance to the city watch as a figure on a horse slowly approaches them.
"Halt who goes there!" the left guard says not able to recognize the approaching man due to the heavy downfall of the rain.
Halfway across the bridge Bedivere shouts back to answer the guard.
"It is I, Sir Bedivere, a loyal knight of King Arthur and to the kingdom of Camelot!"
Both guards gaze at the man approach them to realize, when in at close distance, that the man is who he claims to be. Bedivere stops when he is front of the two. The guards look at him. The right guard notices that there is also someone else on horse with him.
"Who is the person that is accompanying you sir knight?" the right guard asks.
Bedivere pauses before answering.
"…I have brought back the body of our great King Arthur."
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"Bedivere's words have conformed my demise," she says shutting her eyes and attempts to listen to the conversation between the three men.
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The two lower their lances in disbelief of what has been told to them. They both step forward in unison to check see if slump body was in fact that of their king. Standing on both sides of the horse, they both come to the realization that the previous statement was true.
"Sir Bedivere," the left guard starts. "How…how did this happen? The king has gone into battle countless times with the mighty Excalibur and was never defeated."
"That is true good knight."
"Then, how was the king defeated? Did he not have his noble sword at his side?" the right guard asks.
"Our king did, in fact have Excalibur, but how it is that he lost, I am not certain. I arrived at the battlefield after the battle had ended," Bedivere answers. "You must excuse me good knights, I must return our king's body to the castle." Bedivere says to the two knights and begins his journey to inside of Camelot.
"Our king…is dead," they both guards say in unison walking back to their posts to resume their duty.
Bedivere trots the wet, vacant streets of Camelot.
"I suppose you have the good fortune of it raining sire. If not, the streets would be filled with people mourning you on your way back in." Bedivere says with a straight face. "I wonder what you are doing right now your highness." A giant structure breaks Bedivere's thoughts. "We are home," he says looking at the castle as he still slowly rides up to it.
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"The castle…" Arturia says gazing at the giant structure which has been her home since she had become the ruler of Camelot.
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Bedivere enters the long torch lit hallways with Arturia's body in tow. He comes to a wooden door a lightning bolt like symbol etched into the door. Bedivere uses the hand supporting her legs to knock on the door.
"Is anyone in?"
Silence is the only answer. He decides to knock one more time.
"Master Merlin….are you in?"
He hears silence again, but not for long. Bedivere can hear soft footsteps quietly make their way to the other side of the door. When the footsteps cease the door slowly and noisily opened to reveal and aged man, in white, with a short white beard looking at him.
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Arturia gazes upon her "father" and slightly marks at the sight of him. "I see that Merlin is the same as ever."
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"Sir Bedivere, what is it that brings you to my humble, place of resident this early in the morning," he asks. His eyes sight slowly moves down to examine the content that the knights has in his possession. Merlin's eyes widen a bit. "My dear Arthur!" he exclaims slowly holding his aged hands out towards the body of his "daughter". Merlin stops himself and tries to regain his composure. "Please come inside."
"Thank you sir," Bedivere says bowing his head and enters Merlin's room.
Merlin leads him to a large table in the back of the room. He gathers the papers that are present on the table into his arms and places them in a chair sitting beside the window next to the his bed.
"Place him down there." Merlin instructs Bedivere pointing towards the now uncluttered table. Bedivere does as he is instructed and places the body on the table slowly, ensuring that her body fit comfortably on the wooden table. Merlin looks down at the body of the fallen king with a tear coming to his eye. "And so your journey now comes to an end Arthur." Merlin places a hand over Arturia's forehead and leaves it there.
"She did live a life befitting of a king master. Even though the circumstances of her life were very antagonistic towards her development, she developed into a fitting ruler," Bedivere says placing a hand on Merlin's shoulder.
"Do not make sure heinous remarks about the our king," Merlin says shooting him a death stare.
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"Even in death he tries to keep my secret from even those that were "close" to me," Arturia says looking down at her naked self.
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"I do not make any false assumptions about our king," Bedivere says only looking into the eyes of old wizard.
"I would advise you to take back that ridiculous statement before I am forced to defend the integrity of our departed King Arthur," Merlin says turning to face the taller man still staring him down.
Bedivere is not surprised at the old wizard's decision of making him change his mind.
"Master Merlin, who would know of this situation better than the one that raised our king for sixteen years of her life," he says still looking firmly at the old man. "However master, if I have offended you, I would gladly be willing to withdraw my previous finding if you could do one thing for me."
Merlin's curiosity is touched as he relaxes his gaze from Bedivere.
"What is it that you ask for noble knight?"
Bedivere displays a miniature smirk.
"I will retract the previous statement if you can swear to me, on our king's honor, that he is physically male."
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"It appears that he has bested you Merlin," Arturia says releasing a small chuckle.
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Merlin sends Bedivere his death gaze once again knowing that continuing on with this charade will only shame Arturia's integrity.
"You are indeed as observant as they say," Merlin says dropping his gaze from Bedivere and turning back to the body on the table and placing his hand back on her forehead.
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"No he was not observant, he just had his hand in the wrong place," Arturia says closing her eyes as though she were attempting to fall asleep.
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"Master, I bare no ill will towards knowing this information. My king is my king…or queen and that bares no influence on the idea of whether she was a competent ruler or not."
"Watch your tongue knight," Merlin says not taking his gaze from Arturia's body.
"Both you and her and are alike," he says releasing a small chuckle. I only wish to give her the proper respect master. Remembering everything that she has done for me and this kingdom, I think that it is only fitting that I be able to do that at least." Bedivere says moving to stand beside Merlin to gaze at the body on the table.
"You are an extraordinary man, Bedivere. Even knowing this, you go against the cultural acceptance that a woman should not be able to rule alone."
"She is an example that not only men are able to rule over people." Bedivere says.
After Bedivere utters his last statement, Merlin feels a sharp, electrical pain run through his hand and up his arm. The wizard quickly removes his hand and violently shakes it in an attempt to rid himself of the pain.
"What was that?" he asks trying to recover.
"What was what?" Bedivere asks him clueless to what is going on.
Just as Bedivere asks, Arturia's body slowliy begins to illuminate with strange, red glow. Seconds later, red lines rush to her hands, head, and feet. Merlin quickly steps back beside her body. He casts a spell that causes all of her clothing to vanish. Bedivere turns his head after seeing the undisputable proof of his king's gender. Merlin can see the lines clearly with nothing obstructing his view. The wizard stares at the markings on his "daughter's" body and examines them to best of his ability. His eyes follow the red streaks and notice that they lead to her stomach. Upon gazing at her injured abdomen, he sees a vibrant, pulsating glyph.
"Sorcery," he says quickly turning around and scanning every corner of the room. He finds nothing upon his search. "There is only one person that would use a forbidden magic such as this." the old man whispers to himself.
"What is the matter master?" Bedivere asks turning back around making sure to eye Merlin and not the nude body of Arturia.
Merlin closes his eyes and begins to chant. A vivid, blue light appears at the end of his right index finger. After the spell is completed, Merlin then touches both of his eyes with his right index finger.
Moments after applying the spell, he searches the room once again. Even with his magically enhanced eye sight, he still is unable to see anything out of the usual. Merlin turns back around to face the body. As his slight moves back to around to examine the remains on the table, the corner of the magician eyes catches something. He slowly moves his vision to center on whatever it is. Merlin looks down at Arturia's feet and sees a dark figure slowly making its way out of the wall and towards him.
"What is your business here foul beast!" Merlin shouts stepping forward to block the creature's path. The figure slowly steps towards him.
"Master Merlin…who is it that you are speaking to," Bedivere asks him confusion once again.
Merlin carefully examines the creatures. The monster standing six feet tall, eyes crimson red, skin as broken as rock, chains dangling from its hands and legs. Merlin places his hand erect in front of him in to begin casting a spell. The creature walks through Merlin as though he is not present. After the apparition fazes Merlin's hand falls to his side followed by his body hitting the floor. Bedivere rushes to his side to check on his condition.
"What is the matter Merlin?" raising his back from the floor and supporting him with his arm Bedivere is still confused.
"A creature…is in the room. I suppose it has some sort of invisibility spell on it which makes you not able to see it your naked eye." Merlin sits still and tries to regain his strength. "I can't believe that thing devoured most of my mana and energy by merely walking through me."
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"What is going on?" Arturia asks herself curiously. Opening her eyes she begins to examine the room. No sooner had she begun, she noticed a figure standing next to her. "What the hell is that?"
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"What business does it have here?"
The figure slowly moves itself over to Arturia's body and begins to look at it. Slowly it raises its up right arm up over her body in the position where the chain is dangling directly above the glyph showing on her stomach. The creature closes its eyes and lowers the chain to the glyph. As it comes in contact with the strange mark, the figure's chain seems to go inside of it.
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Arturia's new body freezes as ghostly creatures, extension is lowered into her corpse. "What has this thing done to me," she asks herself once again trying to move her limbs, but finds it impossible to do. Suddenly, she notices a small, white dot forms in the front of her. Shortly, another white forms next to the first one. This process repeats itself until there are five spheres side by side. Shortly after the five spheres are present, the objects begin to slowly rotate. The more that the objects rotated the bigger they seem to get. Suddenly, the lights short towards her taking the form of spears. Arturia is taken aback by the sudden burst of speed that objects in front of her used. Then, each object pierces a part of her "body". One enters though her neck, another into her left wrist, another, into her right wrist, another into her right, and the last enters her left shin. "I'm getting so tired," Arturia says as her eyes begin to lower and become dull. Slowly, the ends of the spears begin to form into shackles ensnaring all five of the effected entry points.
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"What is this creature after," Merlin asks himself watching the apparition continue to fulfill its objective. Merlin watches as it now begins to tug on its chain. "Don't tell me that is why this thing is here!" Merlin mentally yells to himself as he tries to stand up to prevent the creature from accomplishing its goal, but is unable to due to his fatigue. It begins to pull its chain up again. Now Merlin is able to see something white and round come into view. The creature pulls hard one last time, causing it to move place its leg a step back due to force of his tug. A pale, transparent figure drops down on the floor in front of the old man with a loud thud. His eyes travel to examine the object that is in front of him. The shackled hands, legs, torso, head, and arms of the figure lay motionless on the cold stone floor. The green eyes of the girl the woman he raised look at him emptily.
"Ar…..tur….ia," the mage weakly says looking at the motionless woman on the floor attempting to reach his hand out to her, but is still unable do anything requiring that much effort.
"Mer…lin…" a whisper comes from Arturia's lips.
The figure turns and begins to walk away. The shackles on Arturia's arms dart above her head and she slowly begins to move away from the knight and the wizard.
"Damn it….Arturia," Merlin whispers again before he passes out.
"Mer…lin…" she whispers again distance spreading between the two of them growing greater every second.
Just then Bedivere could hear someone shouting in the hallway.
"An army is coming from the south! Prepare for combat!"
"How unlucky we are. All of the other Knights are still away at other battles."
"Bedivere…" Arturia says before she is pulled through the wall from whence her captor had entered the old man's room.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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