The King Of Spades

Igraine Part II

(TW: Child death, Infertility, Hints at SA, and gory detail) TW parts will be marked by the start and end of the Asterisk (***)

497 AD:

***

Never had she felt such a pain as this.
The child had been gravely ill from the moment she was born. Ellayne was a bairn of only a month old, and yet illness had still taken her in her sleep.

Igraine had sobbed. She had screamed. She had thrown things.
She had tried every spell she could find in the old libraries.
She had begged the old Gods too, the Gods of blood and earth and soul.

But nobody listened.

Her hold on her own abilities lessened, and she began losing control more often than not.

Gorlois had cried too, she had seen him in the nursery just yesterday. He bawled and when Igraine entered silently, she held him in her arms and cried with him.

They both reclined into silent solitude of their own volition. Igraine slept away her days, counting small hours off her hands like sheep before a dream.

Gorlois retreated to his father's old study, then when the books and the quiet became too grim to bear, he took his attention to training his own soldiers in hand to hand combat.

Then, finally, once the overwhelming tiredness drenched him to his bones, Gorlois would find his way back to his wife. Igraine would melt into his arms the moment he crawled back into their bed. And he did not leave her.

Now, on the stormy cold fields of Tintagel, stood the mourners. Cador, with the help of Uther and Igraines mother, had organised it all. They hadn't the strength to do much else but lay in bed.

It was a different kind of torture. Slow and quiet. Seeping through to her very marrow.

Even now it had been a struggle for Igraine to walk from the castle to the open lands just beside it. She had only just recovered from the birth itself and even with her magic, she was feeling rather weak.

Ellayne's burial site was marked in stone and daisy's. And when everyone went home, Igraine and Gorlois stayed.

***

499 AD:

"Morgause," She whispered, holding the child in her arms. "Her name is Morgause." Annis smiled, and the court nurse and physician excused themselves.

"It's a beautiful name, for a beautiful girl." She hummed. Igrained nodded in agreement.

Not a moment later, her husband poked his head round the door to their Chambers and entered crimson faced and dishevelled.

It had been a long night for everyone but it was midafternoon now and igraine had only just woken.

She had suffered painfully and had lost a lot of blood. More than normal. Her own mother had been handed the child almost as soon as she was born.

Igraine had passed out from her injuries and fatigue and Gorlois had been kicked out of the room, much to his protest.
Annis was so worried, she had ran to fetch a second physician all the way from the mainland.

Gorlois was only allowed back in their bed Chambers once she had been deemed stable enough to make it through the night. Though she should be watched very closely until the morning.

"Are you alright, my love?" He asked, leaning down to kiss his wife's forehead. She felt cold and clammy, and she was still far too pale.

She smiled weakly, "Better now."