For the next six months, Arthur barely saw Guinevere alone for more than a day or so. The last hold outs in the north were eventually coaxed out with promises of safe passage and no further action. Some were held for atrocities against the inhabitants of Harrogate, rape and assault were the main crimes, but murder wasn't unheard of. Arthur had decided the fate of all of those accused of major crimes. Only one was spared the noose, and that was because there were no witnesses alive to prove the charges. Sadly for the man, he was let go, straight into the arms of his victim's families. He didn't see the sunset.
Now that all of the cities and small towns were free of the Loyalist soldiers, Arthur and his confidantes turned their eyes to London. There were a great many small towns and villages that they would have to clear on the march to London, but the Intelligence division had informed them that for the main part, the Loyalists had retreated to the areas around London. The map as it stood had a very Royalist flavour to it, with only the South-Eastern corner of the country stilled held by the Loyalist followers of King Harold the First. It was only a matter of time before the entire Loyalist Military collapsed. As it was the entire Loyalist fighter fleet had been blown out of the sky, and there was very little left to throw up any resistance. Arthur had banned any aerial attacks because of the high risk to the civilian population. The Loyalists had taken advantage of his reluctance to attack civilian areas by moving Divisions into the suburbs and ensuring all communications and command structures were too close to hospitals and the like to keep them from being targeted.
The Royalists had rolled up the resisting Loyalist forces very quickly, nothing sapped a man's courage faster than a lost cause. The Royalists had taken Ipswich in the west without a shot fired, the Armoured Corps had taken Cambridge with a very minimum of resistance. The Armoured Infantry had taken the Cotswolds' and were camped just outside Oxford where they were negotiating the surrender of the University town with the commander of the Division entrenched there. Six Divisions of Armour supported Infantry had taken back Winchester and Southampton, so for all intents and purposes, the Loyalists were hemmed in by a ring of steel.
Nothing had been seen or heard from Harold in months, but it was theorised that he was bunkered down and running his end of the war from the bunkers under the Palace. Arthur had been moving from place to place, being seen, and lifting spirits where he could, just that small show of concern made all the difference to his troops and those displaced by the Civil War. In London, the rumblings had begun in earnest, some of the more vocal Loyalists had gone conspicuously quiet. The press was more interested in what would happen if and when Arthur took the Throne. The Palace guard had closed the gates and all were turned away, even those commanded to attend the Palace had to go through unprecedented security checks.
It was clear that Harold was slowly, but inexorably losing his grip on the Empire, and his subjects. The only question left to be discussed was when? When would the inevitable occur and a new Monarch take the Crown? For the first time in the years of Harold's reign, protests were taking palace in areas long thought to be so committed to the King that it would be unheard of to see people chanting for change in the streets. The police had taken a hands off approach, mainly because a vast majority of them were sick of the dictatorial attitude of the Military and the Intelligence Agencies. So many people had been disappeared by these autonomous units that the public had finally said enough is enough, and demanded that these killers be reined in. One poor sod had a uniform that roughly resembled the secret police, and a crowd set upon him and he was beaten to death. It turned out he was simply a trumpet player in a reserve unit band, but the attackers didn't see the difference. Now only active and armed soldiers could where their uniforms outside the Barracks.
Arthur's own Special Operations recon teams had infiltrated deep into the heart of the Loyalist territory and were reeking havoc amongst the loyalist battalions. More and more loyalist soldiers were deserting and trying to make their own way home, for the most part, the Royalist troops allowed them to pass. But occasionally there was an individual that was well known for their cruelty and abhorrent behaviour towards the citizens of the British Empire. Those people were arrested and put on trial for their crimes. But in the eyes of the commanders on the ground, if the loyalists were falling apart, there was no way they were going to prevent it, if anything they would do all they could to hasten the rot.
*****
Junior Wizard Le Fay sat in her cell, her heart broken, her head spinning as though it was sitting in a top. She had just learned something that had destroyed her faith and her life as she knew it.
She had started the morning as she had every day, she went through her exercises and after bathing went to the commissary to have her breakfast. She had just sat down to her meal when a Wizard she had never seen before sat across from her. She looked up and smiled politely, but she wasn't one for chatting as she ate, as she continued to eat, she noticed that the Wizard was watching her closely. If there was one thing that she hated, it was people watching her eat, it was an intrusion that she always hated. Slowly, she placed her utensils on the table and looked up, straight into the eyes of the aged man sitting across from her.
"Is there a reason why you are intruding on my private meal time, Sir?" She asked testily.
"Ah the King's daughter speaks, and with as much respect also." The Wizard snapped back.
"I have no need to be civil to those that seek to intrude on my personal space, as for who my father is, well, I wasn't there and had no say in who raped my mother. So, if you have finished trying to be an arse, please leave me alone." She ripped back at the stranger.
The old man looked at her for a moment and then laughed, his head thrust back and he wailed with laughter, in fact he was so loud everyone in the room stopped and looked at them. La Fay sat back and her faced flushed with the embarrassment of being the centre of attention.
"Ahh, Child, you have no concept of who you are and how you came to be. Shall I enlighten you? Are you interested in the story of how your mother and father came together and why?" He looked at her with a stare that was dark and filled with malice and hatred. "You have been lied to, kept in the dark and then used by the very people you look up to, there is nothing accidental or unplanned about you." He lectured. Her face was flushed with anger now and she was on the verge of losing her temper. It was something she held in check with every ounce of her mind, for if she did let it loose, the consequences would be dire.
"I know all about you, Wizard La Fay, more than you know even about yourself. Everything you know, everything you believe is based on lies and deception, all done to bring about the very situation that ravages this country as we sit here." La Fay looked at him and was suddenly caught by his words and the look in his eyes. He was being truthful, everything he was saying was true, but she needed to know more, she needed to know what he was talking about.
"What would you know about who I am and where I came from, Old Man." She snapped.
"Now we see the intelligence break through." His tone was arrogant and dismissive.
"So, you are just speaking rubbish to haze a new Wizard, a fool who has no life other than the pain of others. Go away you old fool." She responded.
"Oh I do love the arrogance of youth, it makes me so happy I am not as young and stupid as the young." He snickered. "Ask that fool Merlin about the witch in the cave, ask him why you were offered to her? Are you a prize for knocking down the pins at a county fair? Ask him why the King had you raised in the palace with every advantage, and yet you were nothing more than the bastard child of a commoner?" He sipped from the tea he cradled in his hand. "Why would a worthless bastard child deserve all that you received? Ask yourself why? Can you answer that question? Who are you, La Fay?" The old man stood and turned away without another word, leaving La Fay lost and confused, a head full of questions and no answers to go with them. She pushed her plate away and stood from the table and ran after the old man, but as she entered the hallway outside the commissary, it was empty, no one was to be seen in either direction. Who was that bastard, she thought to herself.
Satanicus sat on the picture rail that ran the length of the hall and watched La Fay stand there looking for the old man that had just rocked her grip on the world. He smiled, it was fun to mess with the humans, they were so gullible and easy to influence. Taking human form and playing with their lives was one of his greatest pleasures, and this was going to be one of his best yet. He wanted to laugh and dance as the stupid human ran from one end of the hall to the other, searching for him, desperate to know the answers to the questions he placed in her head. It was too funny to watch, the results would be delicious, and he would laugh as the ground swallowed her and that meddling wizard Merlin up completely. He laughed, and with a thought he disappeared without a sound.
Morgan La Fay, Junior Wizard, bastard child of a king, daughter of a dead mother, walked through the halls of the Academy. Her head swam with questions, questions about her life, her mother, her father and most importantly, what did Master Merlin have to do with everything. How could everything go so badly? For the first time she had felt that she was on the verge of being something, someone that would have a voice in the world. Now, it was all falling apart, and she didn't know what to do. La Fay sat on a bench looking out over the court yard in front of the Academy, the trees were green and flowers bloomed across the gardens. The simple beauty of the place was lost on La Fay as she tried to digest what was happening, who was she really? Why would her mother hide her true history from her, the one person that she had always felt she could rely on to tell her the truth? A sudden cool breeze blew across the court yard and raised goose flesh on her arms, something was coming and she felt the terror of those that stood before it. The deep, dark, irresistible horror of evil channeling through the walls that protected the common folk from the depths of despair coloured by the blood of their loved ones.
The darkness that approached was pure and without soul, seeking the frail and unprotected souls of those that were ignorant of it's true nature. This darkness rarely broke through the gossamer shield that protected the lands of the living, but when it did, the horror and hatred that made up it's body feasted upon those that could not protect themselves from its hunger. La Fay spread her mind out, seeking the beast, wanting to know the souless darkness that drove this beast on. Her minds eye caught glimpses of the deformed thing as it probed the shield, poking, prodding, thrashing like a banshee. It was unable to find a weakness, at least at the moment, but it would never give up, never stop seeking a tiny flaw in the shield that would allow it to gain a hold and begin to tear away the protections that imprisoned it behind the shield.
La Fay couldn't understand what was happening, her mind was torn in so many directions at once that she didn't know what to do. Her conscious mind kept telling her that there had to be a reasonable explanation, and this is one old man spewing vitriol for the sake of it. But her unconscious mind was pushing her in directions that she didn't understand. Shadows of memories were thrown up in her mind, of thing's she knew she should recognise, but, they were like watching a movie for the first time. No matter how hard she concentrated, images and ideas, shadows of ideas, flowed through her mind unhindered. Faster and faster the images splashed and dashed across her forebrain, like someone or something was rewinding and then playing everything buried in her brain back at ten times speed. La Fay tried to take note of the images, but they were flowing too fast, everything was becoming a blur.
Suddenly, it all stopped and she was in a dark cave.
"So Little King, you have the price I see, I am surprised. Bring her to me." She commanded.
"Not before I get my half of the bargain, Witch." He countered.
"So not only do you demand information from me, but now you accuse me of deception? Take your girl and be gone, Little King, you shall have nothing." The Witch squealed at Harold.
"We have a deal, Witch. Live up to your half of the bargain."
"Or what, King Harold the First? Will you banish me from my cave?" She laughed an evil and ear splitting cackle.
"No but I can order my men to seal this cave for all eternity, how will you trick lost travelers into your web then?" He countered.
"You are a sly dog aren't you, Little King." She replied, a small chuckle escaping her lips. "I like you, Little King. But the rules of the game are set by me, if you choose to ignore the rules then I shall ignore them also, have you forgotten where you are? I am the ruler in this cave and I can make it so you never leave and your Little Kingdom will fall." She threatened. Harold realised that he had not completely thought out his threats. "Now bring her to me before I lose my patience."
Harold moved forward slowly, Morgan walking without encouragement beside him. The Witch leapt off her pedestal and walked toward them also, her hands reaching for the girl. Harold stopped just short of the Witch, causing her to keen with disappointment.
"Your half of the bargain, now!" Harold demanded.
"The boy you seek is in the Far East, he resides with his guardian in the city of Hong Kong. Now hand over the girl, or I shall imprison you here and I will be far less generous than you will be with the boy." Harold gave the girl a shove. "Come my lovely girl, we have much to do."
La Fay was stunned at the revelations of the memory, who was this Witch and why did she want me so badly, she asked herself.
Inside the cave the Witch walked around the girl, she was deep in thrall to the Witches voice, so she simply stood there silent. Her hand reached out and caressed the girls flaming red hair and her milky smooth cheek. A light appeared in the Witches chest and began to spread across her whole body. It became so bright even the girl moaned in pain from its brightness. The light began to fade and the girl let a small sigh of relief. The Witch was gone, there was a tall stranger there behind her, his deep blue robes to dark to be seen in the scant light of the cave.
"Don't worry little one, I will see you safely back to your mother's arms. Then we shall see how deep those powers of yours go." Merlin said as he waved his hand forward. Two women in similarly dark robes approached and stood before the Mage and the young girl. "Take her to the Academy, her mother should be there now and begin the preparations for the rest of her training."
"She is as perfect as you saw Master Merlin." The first woman spoke.
"Yes, I just hope this is the right path to take."
A tear slowly rolled down her cheek as the reality of the circumstances of her coming to the Academy started to sink in. She was at the centre of some sort of deal. A deal between Merlin and the King, only Merlin appeared as a haggard old witch. It was all so confusing, everything was some sort of weird and confusing game that she was the final prize in. Her heart broke in that moment and she lost her desire to lead the life of a Wizard, all the people she looked up to were a party to this obscene game. La Fay stood from the bench, she was determined in her mind, she turned and walked back to her cell and sat on her rack. A sudden overwhelming sadness over took her and the tears started to roll down her cheeks. This was the first place where she was considered her own person, the only place where she could ask a question and be told an answer, not told to sit down and shut up. But, that was before she met the old wizard, and heard the story of her existence. It was at that moment she realised that she was reacting to a story, something someone was saying who she did not know and had never even seen before. What was wrong with her? She was acting like a fool believing everything this old man had to say, not proving anything, just talking and she lapped it up like a fool. No, she had to talk to Merlin and find out the truth, only then could she make the right decision for her future.
All of the memories poured through her mind, bending her like a branch in a hurricane, whipping her back and forth at the whim of the torrent. She was slowly losing control and she couldn't see it because of the hatred that grew in her heart as the experiences she had forgotten, either on her own, or with the influence of others, took up their rightful places in her conscious mind. Never had she felt the despair and loss that the memories overwhelming her brain were depositing in the forefront of her mind. Suddenly she was remembering the cave, the beatings from tutors at the castle, her mother crying alone in her room at night, it was all back. Suddenly she was five years old, and her doll had been snatched from her hands by the teacher and was ripped into pieces before being thrown in the rubbish. Her young tears no more than a source of derision and amusement to the heartless woman teaching her to write. Then she was ten years old and she was locked in her room because her mother was entertaining the King again, or when she was fifteen and the guard Captain tried to rip her clothes off, only for her mother to smash the man over the head with a vase. A week later the Major Domo of the Palace came in and looked at the pitiful young woman and said, 'your mother is dead.' and walked out. La Fay gaped at the news and collapsed into a dead faint.
A dark emptiness was gripping her soul, drawing her deeper into despair as the realisation of her very existence became murkier and more complicated. The anxiety in her gut was getting stronger and stronger, as though something was gripping her insides and squeezing. She desperately wanted to curl into a ball and scream until she was hoarse. Nothing was as it seemed and no one was what she thought they were, everything was too complicated and the things she was sure about were smoke and mirrors. How could the man she trusted as her mentor and saviour treat her like she was nothing more than a piece on a game board to be used and abused without the slightest care about her feelings. She needed answers, she couldn't stand this any longer, it would destroy her mind. She stood, smoothed out her robe and strode out the door, Merlin would answer her questions, if he didn't, she didn't know what she would do.