Happy New Year!
"So you're an ancient knight," said Cu Cuhainn. He was already three tankards into the first of a few massive barrels of strong booze, and it wasn't even noon yet.
"Yup," agreed Arieen...or rather Mordred, as he had come to learn.
"And you faked your death at Camlann, because the battle had to happen due to it being a fixed event in time."
"I would have scarpered the first chance I had away from that mess otherwise," agreed Mordred. She had already polished off a barrel by herself. Mostly because she needed half of one just to explain the full details of her conception...which really explained why she was able to outdrink an entire tavern's worth of hardened alcoholics.
If he had learned such horrifying details about how he was born, he'd be drinking heavily whenever it was brought up too.
"And you're really a fairy," he said slowly.
That was the part he was having trouble with, honestly. He couldn't see her as one of the fair folk.
Mordred looked a bit sheepish.
"That part I can explain. After she left the sleeping body of her king in the fairy lands, she spent countless years among the Wild Hunt. So much time in fact that she just needed to undergo the final conversion process."
"I'm still trying to figure out the extent of my new abilities," said Mordred cheerfully.
Cu Cuhainn was well and truly drunk at this point. Scathach had a proper buzz going on, and Mordred was happily on her way to being three sheets to the wind.
Which was why he suggested something that normally he'd never consider if he were sober...or the two women.
None of them were in any condition to a proper sparring match, but the type of sparring he had in mind wouldn't need that much coordination anyway.
Scathach woke up with a hangover and fully prepared to inflict hell on her student for somehow convincing the two women into a threesome.
To be fair, this wasn't the first time she had slept with Mordred. It was just the first time they'd bothered with getting a man involved.
(And as it turned out, it would not be the last.)
Arieen looked at the babe in her arms. Her child.
It was awkward enough realizing she was pregnant. Scathach had avoided this headache, but to be fair neither of them had realized Arieen was the sort of fairy that could conceive a child.
Needless to say the second she found out she was pregnant, she had abstained from drinking. At all. Which had sucked on so many levels, but the small one in her arms was worth it. Her son was worth it.
Since it wasn't unusual for Arieen to disappear for long periods of time, no one noticed anything.
That is, until Arieen appeared at Cu Cuhainn's new home with his lady-love Emer with a child.
One perk to having to live through history, no one really questioned paternity too hard so long as the child looked enough like the male in question. The fact he clearly remembered sleeping with Arieen around the right time period didn't hurt either.
With the child safely in his care (the lad knew how to visit his mother whenever he wished), Arieen decided to start the unofficial training under the fairy king.
Oberon and Titania wanted a vacation, but couldn't leave the fairies undefended. She was more than strong enough to handle most issues, was of royal blood, and had the right mindset.
To that end, they would train her on how to handle their throne while they were away. It was a win-win for everyone. They got a vacation, and Mordred was finally legitimized as proper royalty and would now be on equal standing with her on-again, off-again lover Scathach.
Some time later...
Arieen looked at the ancient crone before her. There were a few ravens perched in the trees above.
It didn't take a genius to realize that this was likely the Morrigan, which meant pissing her off was a very, very bad idea.
She remembered all too well what happened to Cu Cuhainn for turning down her offer.
Mordred was nothing but respectful to the goddess. Though she was no longer beholden to any pantheon after she gave up her humanity, divine entities could still make her life hell if they were so inclined.
There was a reason she avoided Greece, after all.
Morrigan was rather pleased when the first thing Mordred did was break out the better booze and proceed to share it with her. The fact Mordred showed her nothing but respect helped as well, as did the appreciation she showed to her ravens.
That being said, the goddess hadn't approached her idly. She was bored and Mordred seemed to be the right sort of chaotic to bring her entertainment.
"So let me get this straight...you want me to serve a king not of English origin...why?"
"Boredom, mostly," she admitted.
Mordred perked up at that, even as she winced in sympathy. She could relate to how dangerous boredom was.
Mordred grinned at her.
"What sort of entertainment are you looking for? Since Titania and Oberon are back from vacation and my son has long since settled down with his grandkids, I have nothing but time and no reason not to cause some chaos."
Morrigan smirked at her. Such a good child.
This would be the beginning of the Crimson Knight.
England, Several centuries later...
A young woman in a maid's outfit walked calmly through the forest. Most people would be incredibly leery of going through Sherwood so brazenly.
The woman was not most people.
She had a basket of foods in her arms, and looked entirely unconcerned about the dangers of the forest.
The young woman paused after a while, and looked up.
"Hey bird boy, I brought food and medicines," she called out.
"My name isn't bird boy," grumbled a voice. However there was a note of gratitude in his voice.
A figure in green dropped down from the trees, his auburn red hair peeking from the hood.
"You've taken on the moniker of Robin Hood. Ergo I can call you bird boy," said the girl flippantly.
Robin sat hard on a nearby boulder, and rolled his eyes. He still accepted the food and medicines though.
"You're such a brat, Arieen," he complained.
"You're the one who decided to fight a one-man war for people who don't appreciate it," Arieen shot back.
It was an argument they had had before.
Arieen would give him information via the fairies (how, he still couldn't figure out) and bring him food and medicines. He never understood what she got out of the entire deal, and she wasn't his type.
"Why are you here? Normally you have the faeries make the deliveries."
"The villagers are going to turn against you soon. They're scared of the nobles acting against them because they might be supporting you," she said bluntly.
He winced, as he had expected this to happen at some point. He just didn't expect it to happen after two short years.
"Why tell me?"
"The faeries like you, these people don't deserve you, and honestly you are useful enough that I think it's worth making the offer," said Arieen.
"Offer?" he repeated.
Arieen smiled, and that strange aura that had drawn him to here in the first place was only amplified.
Her voice gained a strange ethereal quality to it as she said in a sing-song voice...
"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
He stared at her, mouth agape.
"You... you aren't human are you?" he asked slowly. Suddenly a lot of things made so much sense.
"I was, once. Then I made the choice to turn away and become something more. You have the right affinity to join me," she replied.
"Wait...join you?"
"Humans can become fairies. And honestly you're wasted on these people. Fighting a one-man war simply isn't worth it if the support isn't there, trust me I know," said Arieen.
Oh boy, did she know. The ridiculous horcrux hunt was still vivid in her memory despite it being a lifetime ago. The entire thing was a disaster from the get-go, and had nearly cost her everything.
He looked as if he was seriously considering it. Honestly, what did he gain from sticking around protecting people who didn't care and shunned him his entire life? Arieen was the first person who treated him like an actual human being.
"What do I get out of this?" he asked.
"Sometimes a knight needs someone who can act when they can't. To perform dark deeds in the shadows while they uphold the image of chivalry," she replied.
"You're not a knight. Last I checked, only men can be knighted," he shot back.
Arieen snorted.
"Tell that to the Irish," she retorted. "They at least don't discriminate against something as ridiculous as gender... Just looked at Scathach!"
He looked dubious, but humored her for the moment. She was literally the only friend and ally he had left.
As she warned him, the next time he went to visit the peasants he was protecting, they shunned him almost as much as they did before he took on the mantle.
When he saw her again, he jokingly asked what he would need to do to take her up on her offer.
Arieen simply held out her hand.
"That's it?"
"It'll take me a bit to create a patsy, but I don't think anyone is going to look too closely at the body so long as the 'hunter' is dead and the attacks stop," said Arieen cheerfully.
He considered his options...honestly, what was the point of sticking around Sherwood at this point?
With that in mind, and the fact she had never treated him unfairly, he took her hand.
"Is Arieen your real name?" he asked, as if he hadn't just signed away his humanity.
"It's the name I use among the humans," she replied. "My true name is Mordred."
He stared at her.
"Mordred. As in..."
"That Mordred, yes. I'll tell you the full story once you've converted into one of the fairies, because otherwise you'll die from the alcohol poisoning," she replied cheerfully.
"The what?" he said baffled.
"I refuse to explain the full details without enough alcohol to knock even a god on his ass," she replied.
"..."
A few weeks later, the 'villain' known as Robin Hood was dead and no one looked twice at the corpse.
When he woke up again...he felt different. Lighter.
Herne glared at his king. Fortunately, he was not the only one giving her the stink eye. Scathach, Queen of the Land of Shadows, was a little annoyed with her as well.
"Mordred, I love you and all...but what the actual fuck," hissed Scathach.
Mordred simply cackled.
"Is this normal for her?" asked Herne exhausted.
"I wish I could say it's not..." said Scathach, "But that would be a massive lie."
What had happened one might ask?
As usual, it started with heavy drinking. With Mordred, that was practically a given, at some point.
However, some uppity noble decided to take offense to the loud, brazen female who was out drinking with two friends because she offended his delicate sensibilities on how a woman should act.
Normally, Scathach would happily teach the idiot his place in short order...except Mordred beat her to the punch.
They had to make a quick retreat out of the tavern, and the second Mordred saw his fancy carriage she couldn't resist the urge to steal it.
Which had lead to the situation they were in now. The two horses were fine, as Mordred had been quick to cut their leads allowing them to run. The carriage, not so much as they had gone over a small cliff and landed in a river. The thing was badly damaged, the items inside utterly ruined save for the chest of gold the idiot noble was supposed to deliver to the church. All three of them were sitting on the roof until they felt like getting off...preferably once they were far enough downstream that they couldn't be tracked right away.
Herne was exasperated, Scathach was just done with her friend for the week, and Mordred was still cackling like an idiot because now that noble would have some major explaining to do to the clergy about where their gold went and what happened to his fancy ass carriage.
It was a good night.