I have lived through many a year, many great tides of men have passed, many kings have risen only to fall again. This very earth has shifted and changed faces, yet in the dark separate places she remains the same. I have seen it all, always on the edge of the lives of mortal men, I have watched them grow and evolve yet I had yet to find him, the once and future King.
In our time we were many things him and I. The witch and the golden king, an enchantress and a warrior, A wicked woman and a righteous man, A defeated priestess and a pillaging barbarian, I the keeper of the chalice, He ever seeking it, mother and father, enemies and lovers . . .For we played on a scale that has fallen from the understanding of modern man. He and I like old friends over a chess board putting into play, our great tale...
The Merlin, he knew us, he knew our truth, we were his greatest delight and his greatest pain. He chastised us and laughed with us in equal measure, He knew what we knew that for balance to remain, us two must always be, ever in our roles changing and rearranging but always so . . . He did all he could Merlin Of the Old Way, to bind our bond, yet the light of the once and future King was to great. It drew many lesser sparks to him, among them the Green Knight, he had his mother in him, water borne of the lady of the lake, and he was mutable! The most perfect knight! He and the King became as brothers and I watched, I fought and I hoped! Then she came, Gwenivire of the fair hair, the daughter of a far flung proxy lord, still I watched, I gave peace and I waited! She became the Lady of Camelot and still I watched, I bided my time, numbed the edge of my pain and I hoped! Then as she had enslaved the Golden King, so too she bent the gaze of his most faithful, still I watched for I felt the weight of fate upon me! She ended it all, she upended the board and flung our pieces to the four winds! Gwenivire the fair tore apart this Camelot, she didn't play her hand and leave to come again in another guise, she brought knight against King and father against son! At the end she had vanished and I stood in the ruins, the mother of a dead boy, the lover of a once and no more king.
The Merlin knew as did I that the world would not rise to the belief that the goodness of a man lies in his honour, with my King lay righteousness and good slain. The balance has been lost, and I Morgaine have sought him ever since, I have kept watch over the affairs of men, I am not one to weep and bewail my fate, as Gwenivire did, I simply know what I must do and I seek him!
And tonight all my magicks have brought me here and as I doff my cloak and enter the room, I spy the Merlin already here. I march up to the barkeep and he opens the trap door. I descend. The doors to the after-world may have shifted through time but the living may not pass here even immortals such as I fear to travail, but I am no petty humanling, I am the Morgaine and things of the dark know my name. I come upon things that would drive men mad, claw out their eyes to unsee those sights. I never waiver and my feet never leave the path. I am the Morgaine and no mere door will block my way. I kill things and rend their spirits, I make their flesh into my bread. I am the Morgaine and I descend even hell should fear my vengeance.
The once and future king is the end of my path, his body guarded by the sisters three, maiden mother crone. They turn to me and speak in one voice that is three: what seek you here Morgaine of Avalon? Seek you to revive your fatal foe, seek you to revive the murderer of your son, seek you to revive the man that broke your woman's heart? For know this daughter of dark, if u raise the once King, you raise all of Camelot, even Gwenivire will eventually rise. Know this Morgaine, We know you we see you sister and we will let you return unscathed, only if you do not claim the once King. Theirs was no empty threat for between the trinitrate goddesses was power enough to best even me, but I had eaten the fruits of the dead, I had come to the seventh ring of the after world, I drew Excalibur and it burned with blue flame. They drew back at this, Excalibur, their eyes following me, this they did not expect, I take Excalibur and I place it in his hands, the three cry out as one and such light fills the seventh ring as they have never seen!
He is rising I feel my blood quicken and my magick spring to life, the closer he comes the more spiral of power with in me grows. The three are gone, only one remains, she the crone looks at me with sad eyes, Morgaine Arthurs bane, you have brought your enemy back and he will be all he ever was. . . But this I give you for your courage: when this round of your dance is through, you will rest together him and you! I turn from the place, for Arthur lies on the slab no more. I fight my way and kill and maim, until I see the trap door, as I ascend, I hear his laugh. My skin quickens to the sound, as I pull on my cloak and turn to leave I feel it again, the world rebalancing, he is here!
Once again I will size him up from the other side of the board, we will fight, we shall fall we shall rise and this time on Goddess's vow, this time I shall rest besides him when it is all over. As I turn to leave, the Merlin, comes to me: stay he implores me, stay beside him, be the mistress of this Camelot, you are his match, his balance, he tells me!
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