━━ ⦗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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter thirty-four! 034. in order to kill a king
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
THAT EVENING,Guinevere decided to make her way back home. Merlin was hesitant▬he could only just begin to understand what she was going through, but even then, he was sure that heading back into that house, alone, worried him. He was scared that it would hit her too hard. Only just two days ago, her father was smiling and laughing under that roof. Now, Guinevere would step inside an echoing silence within those four walls. But she insisted. Merlin supposed she wanted to keep moving▬to keep her mind occupied. "I must clean and gather the dresses from the line," she had said to him in the quiet, timid voice she had recently▬sounding as if she wasn't entirely there as she took the basket of food Adelynn had left for her.
He wasn't the only one who was concerned. Merlin hadn't been too surprised to find Ronyn hovering. He had found some excuse to Gaius that he was growing a fever, but they both knew he had wanted to see Gwen off. Merlin kept quiet▬it was strange of him to do so, but he knew it was the best. Just one glance at the Lord Vecentia and he understood how he felt about the Lady Morgana's first handmaiden. Instead of sending him off on his way, Merlin gave him a soothing concoction Gaius kept for mild fevers that wouldn't do any harm and whispered his unsure mutterings about Gwen's state.
Despite it, Merlin felt a little better knowing that Ronyn had listened▬that he was determined to keep an eye on her. Even if he could not escort her himself, the Lord Vecentia reassured Merlin that he will do the best he can to make sure she wouldn't be entirely alone if something happened.
Truth was, none of them knew what was going to happen, now.
Merlin stayed up late that evening after Ronyn took his leave, feeling this familiar emptiness▬he couldn't help but be reminded of Will. It struck him painfully all over again, and he could not close his eyes without seeing his childhood friend stare back at him, terrified and crying▬pleading to Merlin to help him: Merlin, I'm scared, Will was saying to him once more.
Something else weighed down on that emptiness in his chest as he lied awake in bed: the realisation that Tom the blacksmith truly was dead. He would not wake up the next morning and find him wandering with his wagon of metal scraps back to his forge, greeting everybody passing by with a bright smile. It was a moment that almost stunned him▬made him winded.
Because things like this▬losing people like Tom ... like Will ... it made Merlin see just how brittle and unforgiving life actually was. How fleeting ... how ruthless like the deep sea; for one moment its calm waters could switch and overturn with the overbearing tide.
Two days ago, Guinevere was a darling daughter of a humble blacksmith. Now, that same darling girl was a heartbroken orphan▬the daughter of a criminal who died running from his crime of treason.
