[2] WEEPING MONK║you're not what I was looking for

58| Up In Smoke - 𝐈𝐈

[TW// Brief mention of implied weight loss/under-eating]

Ari takes back control of her camp, no matter the consequence. And Lancelot is put in a difficult situation between his head and his heart.

Goliath happily went off to rest amongst the remaining few horses in the paddock, the others being out on the midday patrol. Lancelot had other plans than catching up on his sleep. He needed to find Ari and with the thickening scent of unfallen rain hanging in the air, his senses were taxed. He headed to the armoury first to return his bow and quiver, crossing paths with a friend in the trail outside.

"Elyan, have you seen—"

"The Queen?"

Lancelot nodded.

"She called the council to the den." Elyan's attention fell to his grey monk's surcoat and he frowned, continuing with caution, "You just missed them."

Nothing else was said by Lancelot, other than a thank you, before he walked around the blonde and deposited his bow and arrows in their appropriate places in the armoury. He thought that he should probably change out of his old tunic, but meetings were only called in the den at any time other than dawn when something had happened — a development, be it good or bad. So he didn't.

After where he'd been and what he'd done in the night, he needed to hear what was being said, and he knew how to get close enough without being seen, since he was not supposed to be in the den unless invited. So he did.

The shadows of a lesser used tunnel kept him hidden. If he bowed his head, then his entire figure drowning in grey and black blended with the damp earth wall. He stopped just around a sharp bend, enough for him to see the open den fifty or so paces away, but the harsh contrast of the den's light with the tunnel's darkness blinded him to much detail. So he listened, and it seemed like he had arrived just in time.

"Close off our border. Nobody is to move in or out of this forest."

It was Ari's voice which rose, giving the same commandment as the old king did when she had been asleep. Though her tone was harsher than her father's had been.

"Perhaps a vote would be wise, your Grace?"

Olynn. He was one of the few who never lost his temper, even when a situation was dire. Lancelot didn't yet know what kind of problem had unravelled whilst he was gone. But given how Ari dismissed the Sky before he had finished speaking, he knew that whatever had happened was serious.

"There will be no vote." Lancelot felt the tension swell even from this far. "Those who do not agree to these terms have until sundown to go," Ari said and he frowned tightly.

Go?

"Ari you will not force people to leave," Gawain tried to say.

"Has the concept of authority escaped you or are you forgetting that I am your queen?"