━━ ⦗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 thirty-eight! 038. daylight
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WARNING BELLSechoed, loud and deafening, through the streets of Camelot. The peasants in the Lower Town were shocked away from their every day errands, scrambling to the side in desperation to escape the man frantically forcing his way through. He seemed to glare and glint under the summer sun▬harsh and sharp, filled with a determined fury as he did his best to try and outrun the guards that were on his tail.
Sir Sulien Cadwallader of the Camelot Knights was unrecognisable without his scarlet red cloak. He had ripped the golden dragon from his shoulders far earlier to lighten his load. He has grown far from the young, fifteen-year-old greenly that his only goal in life was to prove himself ready for war. Just two years senior since then, he has seen enough war▬and now, he was running head first into another not even minutes old. This time, however, he was going to be on the other side.
"CATCH HIM!" he heard the guards shout behind him. He didn't risk glancing over his shoulder to see how close they were. Instead, Sir Sulien cried out for people to move out of the way before he'd barrel right through them. "THERE! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!"
The young knight▬in sheer desperation▬reached out for the wooden post of the nearest market stall. He tugged it forward and the owner bellowed furious curses, no matter how much Sulien shouted apologies before continuing on. He did not wait to see how many guards were tripping over escaped cabbages.
His day did not start like this. In fact, he did not expect this day to take the drastic turn it did. He thought as he opened his eyes to the fresh daylight, that he▬and the rest of the kingdom▬would be celebrating the birth of a prince or princess. An heir that for so long, they thought would never come from the womb of a barren queen. Instead, celebrations for Prince Arthur's birth were overshadowed by the horrific grief over the loss of his mother, Queen Ygraine Pendragon. Sir Sulien hadn't been called to council or asked to be at the King's side. Instead, Lord Vecentia under the King's order had called them to a meeting of war▬war against magic.
He had been shocked to silence▬much like many others. At first, they did not believe it. The King had sorcery in his court. The High Priestess Nimueh was a close advisor. They, themselves, had friends they knew to practice magic▬had family who were gifted so. Then Sulien watched in horror as Sir Lear, a knight with known ties to the Druids, was arrested right before his eyes▬and then executed when he struggled. He had been given no trial, no chance to speak his innocence▬no chance to ask why.
The King had suddenly declared war against all magic users across the entire Kingdom▬and then what followed had been chaos.
Sir Sulien, and his other knights, had been ordered to search the entire city and round up every known magic user for trial and execution under treason to the crown. Their friends, their family, innocent children, mothers, fathers, brothers ... each other. When he demanded to know why▬for them all to have an audience with the King, the Lord Vecentia accused him of hiding a pagan wife. Sulien naturally called him a wife-beater and now, here he was, charged with treason like the rest of them.
