━━ ⦗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 fifty-four 054. the great purge
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SIR SULIEN CADWALLADERof the Camelot Knights could not say whether he was being followed or not. The Darkling Woods were treacherous at times, and tranquil in others▬but with the threat of execution and treason weighing heavily on his shoulders, every rustle in the trees and every scuffle from some woodland animal made him grow tense with fear of another Camelot Knight showing himself out of hiding. He encouraged the gelding he had stolen onwards through the brush of a path he hoped would be unseen▬a place Irvetta had once told him to be secret known only to them. He prayed on that belief▬hoped it was true. He hoped that there would be some magic that would keep him safe, at least for the time being, from those who wished to persecute it.
Once he reached his destination, guiding the gelding through a grouping of trees and into a small clearing of wildflowers and a pond where frogs leapt across lilypads, Sir Sulien felt a breath of calmness over him. His heart stopped pounding, and he could take a moment to think on what he had to do next. He did not stop to think until now about anything else except escaping. He had not thought of where he would go, what he would do, how he would protect them▬he could not return home where his mother, father and brother would surely hear of his treason; any claim of nobility he had now meant nothing. He was no longer a Knight, either. He was a runaway▬a lone man trying to survive.
But he would not leave without her.
He tethered the horse to a nearby tree and ran his hand down his neck▬admittedly attached to the gelding that may have saved his life. Then, Sir Sulien walked towards the pond and crouched down at its shore. His fingers ran across the grass and the small plants at the water's edge, searching for the exact one she always told him to use. His fingers found the stem of the water lily and carefully bent it towards the water▬never to harm anything of this earth unless there was a means for it to grow back; Irvetta taught him that, too.
When its petals touched the water, he watched the surface of the pond ripple ever so slightly. Sir Sulien knew no magic, but there was a deep connection that he felt to this place▬to the games he played here earlier in childhood with the woodland fairy which he knew he would give his life to protect.
"Irvetta," he whispered as the water rippled, sending a message across the pond as it moved.
It would not take long for her to find him. The Druids that lived here never strayed far from this enclosure▬it was sacred to them, just as it had become sacred to Sulien.
Out of the trees on the other side of the enclosure, Irvetta emerged, pleasantly surprised to see him. A small, playful smile tugged on her beautiful features▬lips so red like rose petals. "Charming," she teased him, having not yet noticed the frantic pain in his eyes. "This is a wonderful surprise. Could you not stay away?" she grinned, as playful as the day he met her.
