The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 4: The Pendant of Light

Prologue: The Banishment of Morgan le Fay

Prologue: The Banishment of Morgan le Fay

     There have been a great and many accounts and legends that have been conjured regarding the Banishment of Morgan le Fay. Over the passing of an age I have heard many of the fantastic and varied accounts about what happened when the Great Sorceress was exiled to the Realm Beyond. A portion of such accounts have been relatively tame. Others have absorbed the facts then twisted them to concoct an entirely new image of what took place; an amalgamation of the truth flavored with a flare of the romantic or idealized into a wonderful fantasy of awe and wonder. Several of these accounts surpass the truth with intrepid and tremendous imagination, transforming the real account into an impossible tale of dragons, knights, and hordes of soldiers fighting for two opposing sides traditionally attributed to a force of good versus an army of evil. I recall one specific story that was told to me by a fisherman that depicted four gods stepping down from the Mountains of the Titans unleashing their wrath and vengeance upon the Great Sorceress. That was a particularly interesting tale, yet it was further from the truth than any of the other tales I have heard in my years since the events occurred.

     My utmost purpose in writing this account, therefore, is to dispel the fiction from the truth; to separate the grain from the chaff, so to speak. Though it has been many decades since I stood before the Veiled Archway and raised my wand in defiance of She-Who-Brought-Forth-Darkness, my mind is hale and my memory of those most turgid of events still clear as the morning. I purpose to detail my experience of those fateful events here so that my son, and my progeny for generations to come, will know what transpired in the honest light of history and not from the fractured shadow of speculation.

     I, Archelaus the Bronze, the First of that Name, Son of Agrippa the Lesser, Bearer of the Pendant of Death, Grand Magician of the Pharaoh Lands, Vanguard of Alexandria, and Chief Warlock of the Egyptian Wizengamot, shall start from the beginning:

     Tucked away in the unseen folds of the Earth, far from the reaches of ordinary men, unnavigable by conventional means, beyond the veil of an enchanted mist charmed with disillusionment and madness, separate from the realms and kingdoms of the kings of old, lies the mystical and legendary island of Avalon. The island of Avalon was a lush and vibrant land enriched with magic in its very soil. The island provided for the inhabitants with the necessities suitable for survival. The land produced grain, grapes, and apples plentifully and bountifully without the need to till. Not a plough nor a trough had ever been used on the earth of the island, for the island’s very soil was imbued with magic cast upon it by the Nine Sisters. The Nine Sisters were the governesses of the mystical land. They were fair maidens each, skilled in the magic arts, wise and far-sighted, tall and long-lived. Each was given an aspect of the island to govern and manage. They wore the raiment of beauty unrivaled beyond their land; their skin was white as alabaster, eyes as blue as the seas, lips as red as the apples that grew in their enchanted orchards, hair as black as the moonless night. Though they were fairer than any living person in any land, they were not fully human by any means. Their race was called the Fay. They were descended of a race of beings legend called the First Born (of which little else is known and I will only make mention here). They lived many hundreds of years, protected from the sands of time and the weathering of the skin by the magic that sustained the island on which they had made their lasting abode. They were infused with magic in their blood. They required no wand, though some did indeed carry a wand. They were the last of their kind, the Nine Sisters. The eldest of them was the most powerful and the wisest among them. Her name was Morgana. She was known to the wider world by the name Morgan le Fay. Nothing was done on the land without her explicit knowledge of it. No one was permitted into the magical realm of Avalon without her permission and guarantee of safe passage. Morgana was not a tyrant by any measure, for she was stern but gentle upon her people, and would take counsel with her sisters when it was needed. She often allowed envoys from faraway lands to trod upon the ever-green grasses and share in the fruits of the island’s soil. They would feast at her table and sup with the jolly people of the lands and marvel at the power and majesty of her halls.