Forbidden Love (Rewritten) | Arthur Pendragon

15 • THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN

"Do you still have dreams?" Gaius asked. He was doing some experiments at his desk, mixing some colored liquids together and heating up a beaker.

Eowyn, who was adding more detailed information in her note - how to treat sword wounds and arrow injuries - looked up from the schemas she was drawing. She put the quill back in its stand.

"No, not anymore," she said.

"It's stopped?" Gaius said, surprised, as he looked at her. "Why?"

Eowyn shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because I got answers to some of my questions?"

"Like?"

"My parents are- were most likely Ljosalfars which are prominent in Usad's legends. So, I suppose my birthparents were from Usad,"

"Hmm, it does make sense," Gaius removed the beaker from the fire. "Perhaps your dreams were callings,"

"Callings?"

"Yes. Perhaps they had a purpose: lead you back to your homeland. Ulric will surely attend the tournament, so it'd be the opportune moment to ask him,"

A jousting was organized and all the best knights were coming from all around the kingdom to participate, and of course, the people were thrilled to finally get some entertainment. Eowyn, akin to the knight tournament of the year prior, did not understand the appeal of such events. But she was no one to judge. She simply was not the intended audience, she was well aware of that. But watching men aiming lances at each other on running horses was hardly amusing to her, and the idea of cheering at the potential, very probable wounds the knights would get, was quite gruesome. One could get impaled. Or worse.

But it was also an occasional moment where the people could come together and forget the hardness of life to have some fun. No carrying heavy sacks, no bending over and over again to pick up vegetables, no getting prickled by needles while sewing garments, just days of much-deserved amusement.

"Why wasn't he here for last year's knight tournament?" Eowyn asked.

"Well," Gaius turned off the fire and put the beakers away. "Prior to yours and Merlin's arrival to Camelot, Usad had begun attending events less and less,"

"Why?"

"I don't know. In West Usad, a resistance against Cenred has started causing quite some trouble and Uther suspects Bearach to have formed an alliance with them to also lead a resistance against him,"

"But Camelot's army outnumbers Usad, it would be suicide to go against Uther now,"

"I think so too. And I think Bearach shares this thought as well as Ulric attended Arthur's coronation. I still wonder why Bearach himself ceased coming to Camelot but the relations between the two kingdoms have been very severe and complex for the past twenty years,"

"You think he'd tell me if I ask Ulric directly?"

"I doubt. He hardly talks politics outside of official meetings,"

Eowyn had had no news of Ulric since Arthur's crowning. He had perhaps come to Camelot to deliver to fine but if he had, she had not seen him. She had to admit, she was quite curious about him. Especially as he was the Prime Minister's son, and not just a regular knight. There had been a sort of mysterious aura around him but nothing that worried Eowyn or the wind would have warned her. The mystery around him was an inquisitive one as if he knew more than he let it appear. And it intrigued her.

Also, having Ulric in Camelot would be the occasion to ask him more about Seidr and Galdr. She had made no advancement at all and as he was Usadian, he surely possessed the information she was seeking. Of course, she would have to keep the specifics a secret. Though Usad had been once called "The Promised Land for Magical Beings", she did not want to risk getting caught. The fewer people knew, the greater her life expectancy was. And as she had a destiny to accomplish, it was better that way. It felt quite arrogant and egotistical to say, but the lives of many rested on her shoulders. If she perishes and does not help make Arthur king, magic could truly disappear from Albion.