AN:
At Guest: That's because FF readers (or rather writers) have learned to use paragraphs is if they were line breaks.
Left of the contrast button there is a button to adjust the line spacing (it's called story spacing). 'Expand' that a couple of times and things will be more readable for you.
Pawns
"You fired Gwaine?!" Gwen exclaimed.
The King had hidden the Knights departure from most people but she and Gwaine had evening talks on a regular basis and he had gone missing. Asking Arthur did not give her the answer she was hoping to find.
"I need people that listen to me and don't undermine me." Arthur replied.
The young maid shook her head in disbelief. Arthur could be thick but when did he become that thick?
"He wasn't undermining you. He wanted you to see the fault in your strategy."
"He wasn't listening." Arthur persisted.
"No, he wasn't taking your orders without a second thought. He's not a soldier, Arthur, he's a knight." She tried to correct him once more but he wouldn't listen.
The King of Camelot was heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"Out. This conversation is going nowhere." And with that, the door closed.
Many miles away, Merlin and Morgana sat by a campfire. They had left Nemeth not long ago but not before Morgana had changed back into her ragged black dress so her new dress would stay clean.
"Your plan is missing an army." She noted.
"I know. I had planned on hiring the Southorns but we can't outbid Arthur."
Morgana's head shot up.
"Arthur is hiring mercs? How can he afford them when he's already raised taxes?"
Merlin merely shrugged and replied "I have no idea."
A short silence followed in which both pondered several idea.
"Annis, Odin or Lot?" He asked.
Morgana frowned. None of the three options was particularly attractive.
"Annis has respect for Arthur, she won't fight him. Odin hates Arthur but he's reckless and he'd seize the first opportunity to kill him. Lot would be a gamble as well."
"And Nemeth isn't strong enough." Merlin finished.
"There are the Saxons." She suggested almost upbeat.
A small frown appeared on the warlock's face.
"I don't know much about them other than the fact that they're still north of Caerleon, it would take them a while to get here."
Morgana smirked, for once she knew more than he did.
"The Saxons are faithful to the Old Religion. They don't have an army like a kingdom would but neither do we need a large army."
"I'll speak with Annis if you think you can deal with the Saxons." Proposed Merlin.
"No problem."
Then Merlin hesitated for a moment but he decided to press on.
"One last thing." He said. "As long as you call yourself Pendragon, people will always see you as the bastard that wants the throne."
"Technically, I am." She deadpanned.
Merlin didn't let her reply diminish his spirit and continued. "But it's not about the throne or birthright. This is about setting free those with magic and people need to see that."
"You want me to stop calling myself Pendragon?" Morgana asked with a confused smile but Merlin wasn't trying to be funny.
"I want you to start calling yourself Le Fay again." He said in a serious tone of voice.
"Le Fay." Morgana repeated. It had been a very long time since the family name last rolled down her tongue.
The family name, Pendragon, had been haunting her. Her heritage was a very mixed blessing. Being an heir to the throne seemed like an advantage but all it had done was pushing her real goal out of sight. She had been so focused on killing the King and claiming the throne that she didn't realise she wasn't doing it for the people anymore. She was doing it because she thought she deserved to be Queen.
"I will." She agreed after a pregnant pause.
A day later, a man approached the citadel in Caerleon. The guards didn't recognize him as a servant and blocking his path.
"State your business."
The man fidgeted with his shirt as he spoke with panic in his voice. "We saw Morgana Pendragon, me and those of my village-"
One of the guards raised his hand so he would stop talking. The situation was quite clear.
"Follow me." Said the armoured man.
He was hurried into the citadel and then the throne room.
"My Queen, this boy says Morgana Pendragon is in Caerleon." Said the guard.
Queen Annis rose from her throne, almost in shock. The commoner wasn't as common as she had thought. She had seen him before and recognized him when he raised his head.
"I know you." She stated calmly.
"Then you know what I intend to ask you, ma'am." He replied.
There was an air about him that unsettled her though only those who knew her well would be able to see. The stories were truer than she believed them to be. A servant turning against Arthur was believable but not the manservant that had been working for him for over five years. This wasn't the innocent serving boy and Annis realised he probably never was. This was a dangerous man.
"Tell me, Merlin. Why should I care which Pendragon sits on the throne? Both are rash and have a temper. One's tyrany is against magic, the other's against those who refuse to give allegiance."
Merlin had expected her to do something like that.
He decided to start at the beginning of the end... of her husband.
"Your late husband, may he rest in peace, was to sign a humiliating peace treaty for his life. It was Agravaine's idea and I urged Arthur not to do it. Arthur knew he would never sign it but believed that leniency was weakness and thus he chose Agravaine's way. Arthur thinks too much of the opinion of other kingdoms. He is a vain and arrogant man who does not foresee the consequences of his actions. In my opinion, such a man is not fit to rule."
"You only speak of Arthur but Morgana is equally rash. She is more like Uther than you realise. She condemns those who do not side with her and even the druids, the people she claims to fight for, fear her. Both rule by fear and I do not see why I should care." Annis was not a Queen who merely sat at her King's side. She had a mind of her own and she would challenge him.
"Morgana..." Merlin almost began speaking of how Morgana only wished to bring back the Old Religion but Annis did not care about that. "She wasn't always like that. You knew her when she was a child, when she was Morgana Le Fay, and I got to know her as Uther's rebellious ward. I've seen her inspire a great deal of people and they weren't just druids. The woman I saw then would make an excellent queen. She can still be that woman but only if she's given the chance. She's not asking for an army. She's asking you to give her a chance."
Annis wasn't one for melancholy. She didn't live in the world of yesterdays or in the kingdom of could be.
"Is she? Because I don't see her asking. Is she too proud or too afraid to ask me herself?" Annis tried to taunt him but he didn't give in to it.
"She's busy. Kings and Queens are not the only people in power." He replied.
The Queen of Caerleon caught a glimpse of the man that got Arthur so riled up. Merlin wasn't just a sorcerer and a great actor. There were indeed other people with great power. The Southorns Arthur had hired were one such power and there were bound to be others, possibly more faithful to the old religion. His words definitely weren't Morgana's so he wasn't stupid either. Annis decided to push him one more time to see just how good he really was.
"Did she bed you? You changed allegiance very suddenly and you're quite persistent." Her words entertained him but he kept his seriousness.
"I thought Arthur would one day allow the Old Religion once more and I've fought Morgana all that time. Never did I expect him to betray me." During the last sentence there was a crack in his mask that showed sadness.
"So now you follow her instead." He nodded and she continued. "I need time to consider your offer."
"Then I will take my leave of you until tomorrow." Replied Merlin.
Just north of the country Caerleon, Morgana had defied the blizzard that ravaged the mountain. A small portcullis stuck out of the mountain and the witch knew by instinct that this was the hideout of the Saxons. The guard looked at her with big eyes. It must have been rare for him to see anyone seek them out at all. They were feared by some of the outlying villages, she had gathered as much already. It didn't surprise her that the guard opened the portcullis before she reached it and she almost ordered him to bring her to Ruadan.
Morgana stood in a great hall of sorts. Some of the men had gathered here for a drink and a game of dice. There were few women and it was possible that not all of them liked the weather or the altitude of their camp. The guard told her to wait and she scrutinized the druids. It came as a surprise that the guard did not leave the room to fetch Ruadan. Morgana had expected a muscular warlord, sitting on a throne and drinking wine or ale. Ruadan, it seemed, was not muscular at all. She didn't know what he looked like and thus didn't see him playing a game of dice with his men.
The balding man, presumably Ruadan, approached her with the guard standing next to him.
"Ruadan, I presume?" Morgana greeted him with a small, confident smile.
"Morgana Pendragon, the presumed last High Priestess."
She didn't know why he said it the way he did but that didn't matter.
"It is Morgana Le Fay but that's beside the point. If you know who I am, then you know why I'm here."
He no/dded and his demeanour towards was quite clear already.
"You seek an army, we have no such thing."
"I seek between fifty and a hundred disciplined men who can ride horses."
Those numbers weren't staggering. They were actually quite manageable.
"What exactly do you need them for?" The curiosity in Ruadan's voice was clear now.
"Ambushing a small army in an open field." She said plainly.
"Arthur Pendragon does not have a small army." He criticized.
"That's for me to worry about, not you."
"They're my men and I am responsable for every one of their lives."
Morgana bit her lip in a smiling fashion as she rejoiced over the idea that just formed in her mind.
"Have you ever heard of Emrys?" She asked.
"According to the Catha, he's one of the most powerful sorcerers in Albion."
"The most powerful. He's also one of my allies."
"Then what do you need us for?" Ruadan briskly replied.
"Making sure no one survives."
AN:
We've got the pawns, now to put them in place.
