The Betrayal of Arthur & His Stay in Avalon

In those days, as our noble King Arthur went about responding to the egregious demands of Rome, Merlin continued in his habit of drifting wherever he was needed and lending the aid of his supernatural powers as he saw fit. Betwixt his aid lending, it came to be that Merlin saw from afar that King Arthur was soon to storm Rome in full to fulfill a prophecy that he had been advised was about him. Perplexed in knowing that he was not, in fact, the one spoken of in that particular prophecy that he himself had relayed to Arthur, Merlin set about returning to Britain proper. If not incentivised to do so, Arthur would not cease this escapade and return to where his attention ought to focus.

Upon returning, Merlin sought out confirmation of the knowledge he already secretly knew. He was invited to stay in the castle of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, where she and Mordred were managing in Arthur's stead. One day while under their hospitality, Merlin prodded Mordred for his intentions-the ones in which he was all but already sure of. "Mordred, you manage the King's lands so well even without him. I commend you for your diligent work! It is a shame, is it not?" Mordred slowed pace at this and now, in turn, questioned his visitor's intentions. It was that he had only now met Merlin, but that he had already heard of all of his tales and prophecies. In his mind, Merlin was both powerful and an enigma so he wondered if the sorcerer would serve to aid him or fell him.

"A shame, you say?" Merlin recognized the glint of conspiracy in his host's eyes and felt his suspicions confirmed. "That you should run his kingdom while he is galavanting in other kingdoms, but not get to reap the benefits. It is a shame. Alas, that is life." Mordred warily glanced about before stepping closer to the other man. "The course of a life has changed many a time in this country, though. I wonder if the tales of you are to be believed? Can I confide in you, Sorcerer?" With a glance about himself, Merlin gave a curious eye and feigned intrigue as if he had no idea of the other fellow's ambition. "But of course, I am your humble servant. What would you ask of me?" The other bought this in whole and asked for aid in devising a plan to crown himself and make Britain his own country. During this, Mordred asked Merlin to scry his future and how their plan would unfold. "The Dragon's scales lay scattered about and his blood flows like so many rivers. He has no mundane chance at recovery, and will not regain his lifeblood in this realm. I see the crown of Britain upon the brow of the Salamander, flames left in his wake." Though he prophesied in earnest, Merlin left out one key detail: that the crown was not simply on Mordred's head, but his severed head. After conspiring together, with one simultaneously scheming by himself in secret, they two had decided upon their best course of action.

As the next phase of this plan, Merlin approached Queen Guinevere. Unlike with Mordred, his intentions were initially as pure as his could be with her and he made her his confidant. He relayed to her how he wished to draw her husband back to their home in order to both keep him from trying to fulfill a prophecy not his own, as well as in order to remind him to put his attention to his own country. For her part, Guinevere understood what he was setting out to do and agreed with it as far as she could. However, she was concerned about her role to play if Mordred was to take the crown. As a faithful woman, she vehemently despised the very mote of a thought of having to either run away from her very home or worse yet having to become under Mordred's possession. "I intend for your plan to succeed and for the King to return home, but I cannot abide betraying him in order to do so." She spoke in earnest, desperate to help but at odds with how she fit into it all.

Merlin was not opposed to trickery though, and so convinced her that all would be well and that she would play no such part. He had committed his fair share of underhanded techniques in order to send his aid before, and he truly worried that her faithfulness would get in the way of Britain's best interest. Arthur would not be allowed to strive too far from home and Mordred had to pay for his own overambition. In all frankness, Merlin did not quite care as long as the result he wanted would come to pass. This is how he often operated and this is how he aided wherever he could. As for Guinevere, he convinced her to drink a magical concoction that he had himself brewed and watched her disposition completely alter. Having drunk the malign mixture, the Queen's memories were stirred about and confused, with her senses now receiving Mordred as her very own Arthur. Had she known she never would have drank it, but she had no inkling of what Merlin had done.

The very next day upon hearing what Merlin had done, Mordred delighted and commended him for his cunning. As it turned out, he had also been concerned about Guinevere's loyalty as well. Although he had no regret, Merlin was not too keen on how pleased it made Mordred. Merlin kept his tongue in place, worried that he may rashly spoil the plot he had been so careful to set into action. As for Mordred, he took the crown for himself in under a fortnight and in doing so wed the true King's very wife as his own. Unfortunately, the Queen had no way to fight back against the evil concoction that had warped her mind and thoughts so. Despite being present for it all in body, her mind was in a separate realm in which she thought she was side by side with her rightful husband. Truthfully, it might have been better for her this way.

Mordred and Merlin had conspired with various bishops and other such religious leaders in order to make the whole event as official and lawful as possible on every technicality that would be found. In doing so, they made Mordred's rise to kingship even more scandalous by the dual nature of how upset by this the common folk were. Afraid of the outsiders that Mordred had taken under his power, they did naught against him directly but instead attempted to send dire messages to King Arthur himself. Knowing this, Mordred had his men hunt and kill most of the messengers outright, but let one go due to his inflated confidence from the prophecies of Merlin. He had no reason to believe, even if Arthur would make it back, that he could successfully overthrow Mordred and give him his just desserts. After all, Merlin had kept from him a portion of his coronation prophecy-that the crown sit on his severed head.

It was through this overconfidence and the cunning of the sorcerer that when Arthur eventually did arrive and finally make it on land, it was not terribly long until he was departed of his head by the latter. At this, the concoction used against Guinevere had finally lost its grip and she was horrified and confused by what was taking place. She remembered not the fantasy dream that the elixir had sent her to, nor did she remember anything of what had taken place in the real world since her last conversation with her supernatural guest. Upon discovering that her actual husband had been taken off to Avalon with wounds so grim and her false husband had been killed in battle, she fled to become a nun to atone for the sins she couldn't remember and fight off the evil she thought she must have committed.

While Mordred had been slain for his overambition and striving for what was not his, Arthur had paid a price dearly for trying to reobtain what had been his. It was Merlin who, upon seeing his plan fall through on the very last step, took the King and brought him to the fae in Avalon to mend his wounds. He spoke with them and made deals in order to ensure that Arthur would indeed come back to rule and improve Britain when he was most needed, as well as requesting them to train Arthur to be an even braver and more honest king than ever before when he did so.

So the fae of Avalon treated his wounds with great care and made sure that his aging had also ceased for the time being. The process of getting Arthur able to leave his bed of down and other less identifiable soft materials alone took decades in the time of humans, although to the fae it was but a blink. They taught him a fresh style of fighting that was fierce but lighter on the feet, molding him into an even finer king than he had been before. Arthur, grateful to have survived at all and eager to prove himself worthy to return, drank each of their lessons like it was the living water. While ages have passed here in the human realm, scant months have passed in the fae realm of Avalon and Arthur continues his training to this very day.