━━ ⦗the swan princess! ⦘
❝ you're beautiful!
thank you, but what else?
... what else is there? ... ❞
███████████ 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝
the courageous odette teaches the
once and future king a less...
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chapter twenty-five! 025. the lament of uther pendragon
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OWAIN LANDEDa blow, Odette was sure of it. No one else seemed to have seen what she did, but that didn't deter her. She had seen the blade pierce the Black Knight's chest, and she had seen Owain stagger with surprise when his opponent seemed to not have been harmed at all. That blow should have been a mortal one. It should have killed the Black Knight. But it didn't.
While others mourned and grieved, Odette didn't. She kept moving▬she did not stop to think about the sight of his dead body, or to think that perhaps if she stopped, she might not even feel the need to mourn anything else except pity he didn't get the chance to realise his mistakes and become a better person. She didn't want to stop, because she was sort of worried about how easy she could leave Owain to rest with little care.
Instead, she left Morgana once her services weren't needed anymore and rushed to find Merlin. She knew that if anyone else might've seen what she had, it would be him.
She remembered the look on Uther's face▬there was history behind that gaze; and a dreadful one, too.
Odette was so lost in her own dreadful thoughts she didn't realise she had found Merlin until she ran right into him. Though, this was quite a normal way the two often meet. She barged into his chest just as he and Gaius stepped out of the Physician's chambers.
As soon as he steadied her, exclaiming her name, she met it with: "Merlin!"
She glanced over his shoulder at Gaius, and then around them to make sure that the three of them were alone. Odette tugged her friend's sleeve to gather his full attention to whisper, "I must tell you something."
They frowned at her. Merlin shared a brief glance with Gaius before pulling Odette a little closer to be sure no one overhead. "What is it?" he asked her.
At the looks on their faces, she was sure they already knew▬and there was some relief within her amongst her fear. "It's the knight," she whispered as quietly as she could. Merlin and Gaius listened intently. "No one believes me, but you must▬I know what I saw. Owain struck a blow to the Black Knight▬I know it, I saw it. He should be dead, but he's isn't. There's something strange about him," her breath hitched slightly, still horrified from the morning's events. "He▬he doesn't move, he barely even talks, and I just ... I don't know, he doesn't seem▬?"
"Alive?" muttered Gaius back.
Odette frowned at him, but she nodded. "Yes," she said. "He doesn't seem as if he's alive, at all."
The Court Physician pursed his lips before gently reaching out to guide her down the hallway in the direction they had been heading previously. "I fear you may be right, Odette."
