Full Summary: Galen and Aurelia Pendragon are twins, best friends, and nothing alike. While Galen pores over books in the library, Aurelia is training to be a Knight of the Round Table. Yet, they are both haunted by the same shadow: their late father, the legendary King Arthur.
It's been nearly twenty years since Arthur died in the Battle of Camlann, and peace has since prospered under the regency reign of Queen Guinevere. Camelot has grown into a bustling trading hub and Albion is flourishing. But not everyone is happy with Camelot's growing power...
When abbeys start burning and relics go missing, a war like no other looms over Camelot, and Galen and Aurelia are forced to face the harsh realities and lies their mother has tried so hard to shield them from.
"Don't adventures ever come to an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story."
—Bilbo Baggins, "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R Tolkien
The attenuated cries of two infants pierced the black miasma of exhaustion. The young woman on the bed was slumped motionless against the pillows, her eyes closed, her skin sallow and perspired. At the babies' cries her eyelids fluttered shut, but didn't open, and she sank once more into merciful oblivion.
After seeing to their queen, the three women in the stifling bedchamber worked quickly and in silence. When they were finished they left the room soundlessly, closing the door behind them.
More than three hours passed before Guinevere emerged from her stupor. She was soaked with sweat. The room was like a furnace, the windows tightly closed, the fire blazing in the deep hearth. She heard whispers and with a soft moan tried to raise herself on the pillows, but her body ached as if she'd been racked, and she had barely sufficient strength to open her eyes.
"Gwen, you're awake." It was the voice of her husband—her Arthur.
Effortfully Guinevere opened her eyes. The young king peered down at his wife, his blue eyes shining with such love and admiration for the frail woman on the bed. The very same woman who had just labored for some twenty anguished hours to bring forth their children.
Children.
Plural.
Twins.
"The babies," Guinevere said, her voice coming as if from a great distance through her cracked lips. "Where are my babies?"
Arthur said nothing for a moment, and there was a rustle of skirts as a woman joined her husband at the bedside.
Frightened now, Guinevere gazed up at the two faces bent over her. Her heart felt squeezed. "Arthur? The babies." Panic rose in her voice this time around. "Where are my babies?"
"Shhh, Gwen. The babies are fine," he all but assured her, causing Guinevere to close her eyes on the tears that were beginning to fill them—on the despairing weakness that was starting to swamp her. She had been preparing for the worst... But they're alive, and they're healthy.
"I want to see them," she said with fervor. For months she had been dreaming of this day—of holding the product of her and Arthur's love.
Guinevere had endured the last weeks of her pregnancy amid one of the hottest summers in recent memory; Arthur could not find it within himself to deny his wife. Soon, the newly-made parents were seated next to each other on the bed, their arms filled with the tiniest of cooing bundles: a boy and a girl.
"Oh, Arthur... They're perfect," Guinevere sighed contentedly, staring down at their children.
"They are, indeed," Arthur agreed, pride swelling in his chest. "And they are ours."
Ours.
Guinevere very much enjoyed the notion.
It was decided upon by the king and queen that the boy would be called Galen and the girl would be Aurelia.
And there was nothing else for now. The love that Arthur and Guinevere had for each other was their only other companion in that very moment, and it filled the chamber, overpowering and rich, as they allowed the rest of the world to slip away, if only for a moment.
A/N: Just a short prologue. I promise that the following chapters will be longer! :)
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!