[Faye]
I open my eyes in a nearly dark room. I’m not sure how long I slept, but the fading golden hour glow slipping through the blinds tells me that it has been several hours. Other than the quality of light streaming through the windows, nothing has changed. The apartment is silent, with no sign of anyone else here. Arthur is still next to me, unmoving. I check his breathing, and his pulse, and both are still steady but slow. The edges of his lips are a little blue, but otherwise, he just looks like he is in a deep slumber.
“Arthur,” I nudge him with my hand, his body moving with my touch but giving no reaction, no clue that he can sense or hear me.
“ARTHUR!&rd
[Devona] It is with a sword to my throat that the Queen of Light greets her. "Faye Archer. Welcome to my home." And although Queen Mab smiles sweetly as she says these things, not a word of it is true. Only a fool would think that Faye is welcome here. There is nothing welcoming about the Court of Faerie under the rulership of Mab. Like all things fae, it is beautiful beyond compare--Avalon has always been a place of otherworldly beauty shining as brightly as any sun, its citizens all honey-tongues and courteous to a fault. These details have never been in question. But beauty does not equal kindness, and kindness doesn't always mean compassion. A person can kill with kindness.
[Faye/Morgana] "Let our queen go," Queenie threatens firmly as she calmly pulls a long syringe from within a large white bag hanging across her chest. The syringe is full of a strange green fluid that glows a faint blue in the candlelight. "This is a concentrated dose of the toxin he breathed when opening the box of flowers I placed on your doorstep. I will put this in his IV if you do not stop," she grins toothily, giddy with power, "Right now." Since embracing the darkness to find my loved ones, I have felt disconnected, and not quite myself. My movements have become much sharper, along with my hearing and my sense of smell. I can feel my muscles are stronger and faster than before, my movements are more swift and graceful. Also, the power, the power I could feel crackling under m
[Devona] I only realize I have fully returned when I smell the stench of rotting bodies and the weight of decaying flesh. I vaguely remember bleeding out onto the floor of the ballroom, watching my queen suffer as the false queen drained her divine power. Did she feel me die? Does she know how hard I am to kill? How impossible it is for me to stay dead? I am a part of Avalon itself, a truly fae creature. I can heal almost any wound as long as I am here, connected to the magic of this land. Not only that, I’m cursed to continue, never really dying, no matter how hard I try. Which makes it very curious tha
[Faye] I’m not sure why the queen has chosen to keep me alive. That is the first thought I have when I wake up in the bowels of the palace, the slick stone floor beneath me cold and wet. Shivering into the dark, I pull together what is left of my torn dress, glad that I am unable to see the stains created by the blood of my loved ones. Why won’t she just let me die? I’m not sure how much time has passed. Days? Weeks? Months? There are no windows, no way to mark the time except for trays of food that are placed in my room that I refuse to eat. I would rather die than be in her thrall. They have fo
[Embyr/Kay] My girl is going crazy. Not that I can blame her. It’s been quite a ride, and I know the queen has not been kind, partly because I was forced to play a part in it, serving as a double agent while I waited for Merlin to rise. I didn’t want to leave Arthur here either. This place is a horror house. “Not without Arthur,” Faye objects. “Never without Arthur.” “No,” Devona confirms. “It’s all of us or none of us.” “It’s a good thing then,” I hold up a ring of keys, jingling it f
[Faye] Queenie doesn’t have a chance to blow that whistle. Devona, even weighted down with holding onto me, was far too quick. Blinking, she appeared right behind Queenie. At first, I thought she might snap her neck, but Devona settled for slapping that bitch as hard as she could, right into the doorway, where she crumpled to the ground, her elegant red and gold velvet dress surrounding her like a pool of blood, completely unconscious. My choice would have been to push her down the stairs, but that probably wouldn’t solve anything. It would, however, have made me feel a little bit safer. As we cross the threshold of the room, Devona sets me down careful
[Devona] Faye releases our hands and takes a step back, allowing Arthur, Embyr, and myself to battle while she continues to struggle with the shadows. Our bond is still intact, still strong, connecting the three of us with the force of our love and commitment to one another. It is likely because I watched her step away from us that I even noticed at all, a small tug along our bond. Also seeing her hand guarding her midsection as she backed away clued me in. Once I realized what that meant, I began searching along our connection to confirm my suspicion. Allowing myself to focus on just that one thing, I can sense a tiny throbbing, the smallest little heartbeat. A heartbeat and a spark of light.
[Arthur] My love. Her body is barely more than bones as I lift her into my arms. Large burn marks mar the wrists and ankles of what had been her perfect skin. Her breathing is shallow, each breath shuddering through her body, shaking her chest with an ominous rattling. “What happened to her,” I turned to Merlin and the knights. “How did she get so weak? The last time I saw her she was very different?” “My King,” Embyr bows, which is weird to see, just as weird as the armor she now wears. “You have been unconscious for weeks. She has seen terrible things and had very terrible things forced upon her.
[Kaydence]I place a hand on her wrist. "Stop."She blinks up at me. In my mind I trace the rune for "peace" and watch in amazement as her body begins to relax, the flames melting away as her breathing stilled.Queenie's first reaction is relief. Her face goes still, every crease leaving her features. But then just as suddenly her relief turns to anger."How dare you!" she screams pushing over the table and running for the back door. The other players stand in a rush as drinks, cards, and chips go flying. Shouts chase her retreating form as she dashes between players."Balance," I call out, tracing the rune with my hand and watch in amazement as Queenie falls backward, her arms pinwheeling."Tranquility," the room goes still, everything stopping as if time itself couldn't be rushed. The people who were once angry and pushing their way towards us stopped moving. Soon Queenie and I are the only ones moving."Grace," I finish the incantation, moving with the speed and agility of a dancer,
[Queenie]We are getting low on supplies. It takes quite a bit of baneberry juice to make the sleep potion. Because we need to keep him perpetually asleep, I need a constant supply. In Torq, baneberries are not very common and the cost of exporting them is stretching our finances thin, even with Mab’s hidden stash of gold.“This is why we should have stayed in Delas,”Mab argues.“We didn’t need to buy anything when we were still there and…”“It was teeming with knights. I had to stay indoors the entire time,” I argue. “Torq is better. I can actually go outside and talk to people here.“You
[Kaydence]The morning is bright. Too bright. My eyes hurt from too much mead and not enough sleep and I find myself for not the last time wondering why I let Devona trick me into this quest.I must have been getting on her nerves. Either that or she just needed me to find something to do so that she could focus all of her attention on the queen. It doesn’t matter.“Are you still with us, Sir Kay?” Gawain is annoyingly chipper. He’s a morning person. He also has this annoying habit of deadnaming me that is getting under my skin.“It’s Kaydence, you dumb ass,” I grumble, blinking at him while I shield my eyes, my other hand firmly placed on the pommel of my saddle.He
[Kaydence]It's been two months since we lost Arthur in the battle for Avalon.Two agonizing months since my best friend fell into an enchanted sleep. I watch my mentor, Merlin Devona, cry over her every night. She tries to hide it from everyone else, but I know. How could I not? We spend most mornings together working on my skills as a paladin. I'm getting stronger, and more skilled, but not nearly as strong or as skilled as I was in my past life as Sir Kay. Kay had a lifetime to learn. I've only been at it a couple of months, and I know this, but it still doesn't keep the whole situation from feeling pointless and frustrating."Tell me why I have to do this?" I whine as Devona grinds some herbs in her pestle. "This has nothing to do with fighting.""All g
“Good night, my love,” I kiss her brow before sitting by her side in an old wooden chair, its velvet cushion long shredded with time. Faye does not respond, her eyes closed tight, her breath shallow. She has been like this since the night of the battle, unresponsive and unmoving, preserved by her own magic, for the last three months. Technically we won; Mab is dead, her forces are scattered, and I am serving as regent, bringing the powers of Avalon back together once more as we work together to reconstruct our world. But we also lost. Arthur is gone, missing. I cannot feel him through the bond, not since I saw Mab pierce him through the heart with her bone blade. Nobody is sure why his body was taken. Some suspect that Mab had one final plan in place and that somehow he plays a part in it. We are searching for him, following every lead throughout this world and the next, but each time we th
[Faye]I can't breathe. Something is in my throat. Choking, I sit up. Monitors in the room begin to ding erratically as I continue to gag, my heart beating fast."Hold on, Mrs. Drake" an agitated voice advises. "We just need to remove your breathing tube."Breathing tube?"Heart rate is elevated," a nurse records. "All other vitals seem to be within normal ranges."The long tube is removed from my lungs and I almost vomit at the pulling sensation. Like a fish caught on land, I begin to gasp."Breathe, Mrs. Drake, breathe," a calm hand rubs my back. “You’ve been incapacitated for a few days. We had to put you on a ventilator when you stopped breat
[Queen Mab] The moon is rising full and bright over the fields of Camelot. My head is light, heady with the power of nearly a thousand souls, freshly harvested. The blade I carry was crafted from the very bones of my enemy, Morgana, whose rotted corpse lay buried beneath the tower itself, along with her granddaughters, the famous oracles who predicted my doom. There is something satisfying about destroying their legacy with their own bodies that provides me with a sense of peace. Stretching my limbs, I feel invincible, unstoppable, as I prepare to move through the battle. My agents have served me well. Guinevere, ever the loyal servant, was more than eager to take her position mixed amongst Arthur's trusted advisors, staying invisible, passing the corruption of my curse onto those two gullible knights as she waited for my signal to attack. She knew that she’d
[Arthur]A page helps me into form-fitting leather armor I’ve never worn in this lifetime as I suit up and prepare for war. It doesn’t matter that I am only 19 years old. I am the king, whether I want to be or not. I was born to this, it is my destiny. It doesn’t matter that I have no memory of living this life. As soon as I pulled Excalibur through time to my hand I became the leader of these troops in the fight that has been building for centuries. No, millenia. Now the enemy is sitting just beyond the gates, setting up camp, watching and waiting for the right opportunity to strike.It is my duty to lead these soldiers, these knights into battle. But what do I actually know of war? I have tried to access the memories of my previous life, but unlike Faye and Kaydence, I do not have a deep connection to the King Arthur I was. I have flas
[Lance]Holding my head, I scream, falling to my knees.“Camelot…Camelot…Camelot…Camelot…Camelot…Camelot”“Monsieur,” a hand shakes my shoulder, “Est-ce que ça va monsieur?”“Non,” I shake my head, “non…non…non…non…”The earth starts to shake. Glasses on tables begin to rattle, some falling to the stone floor of the cafe. People sitting at tables continue their conversations, laughing as if they do not see or hear everything else happening around them. Even my screams, echoing through this restaurant, are something they are trying to ignore.On the edge