Chivalry ♛ King Arthur

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IT was over a fire that the woman looked at Ida with pursed lips that soon formed a deep frown. It didn't seem possible, but there was no other explanation for the strange sensation that had come over her since the moment they neared one another. Her name was Frida. That had been the name of her sister. The sister that she had sent away years ago. The sister she had spared from a life of being hunted.

The Mage looked into the flames and knew that her gut feeling had to be right, it always was. "Frida?" She asked, softly.

Ida raised her eyes from the dancing flames at the voice that spoke her name. A piece of her past clicked into place then. "Eydís?" Her sister nodded and looked at the brown eagle that landed at her side. The winged beast was her familiar. "You're a Mage?"

Eydís stroked the eagle's feathers and nodded. "Mother was wrong when she told me." Their mother had both told them that they would be Arcanists, it had been in their blood for generations. She tossed a piece of red meat up for the eagle to catch. "You are an Arcanist, though," she noted. Frida nodded.

♛ ♛ ♛

With another day and a half of riding, they arrived at their destination. A cave beneath large trees, half had been hewn from the mountainside. Percival and Rubio pushed the two of them forward. The entrance had been hidden by draping roots and leaves, pulled back by two men standing on the hollow hill.

One of them pulled off Arthur's outer coat, a precautionary measure no doubt. "Hang that up," Arthur remarked, mild contempt lacing his tone, "don't want it getting creased." He stepped over and wrapped his arm around Frida's shoulders.

Ida hugged herself, though, and stumbled forward on the uneven ground, wishing that she could be back in the warmth of Edwyn's bakery, making cinnamon buns or rosemary bread.

"So, you're the chap that turned in Goosefat Bill." The man said, peeling the shell off of a hardboiled egg. Frida recognized him as a bow maker. A handful of years ago, he had come into the shop, an old knight from Uther Pendragon's court.

"Unlike you," Art started, glancing around at the furnished cave, "he chose the wrong place to hide."

"You know he was the third most wanted man on the blackleg's list?" Frida knew that on more than one occasion when Jack's Eye had barged into the bakery that it was Goosefat Bill they were looking for. He was infamous among the blacklegs. "They've been trying to catch him for some time."

"Like I said," Arthur reiterated, "your man chose the wrong place to hide."

The man that was chopping some type of leafy vegetable turned. "So it seems." Frida recognized him from the wanted signs that had been posted around the city. It was none other than Goosefat Bill himself.

Arthur leaned back with a smirk that bordered on a smile. "I was wondering what happened to you." He had figured that a man with a history his would manage to slip through the cracks again. "I told you, you were in safe hands."

"You've made quite a celebrity of yourself among the blackleg ranks," Bill noted. Everyone in Londinium seemed to acknowledge that Arthur had Jack's Eye and his crew tucked away in one of his coffers. The only person that would say otherwise was Art.

"You've done very nicely on the back of your cozy relationship with your kingsmen." A name clicked with the man's face. Bedivere.

"You know, I'm a little old for finger-wagging and speeches. So, unless you're my dad which," Arthur paused and looked over the old knight with his deep umber skin and white goatee, "I believe, is unlikely, can you just get around to telling me exactly what it is you want?"

"What is it that you want?" The old knight asked, setting down his peeled egg. Arthur looked over his shoulder toward Frida. She was safe, but he needed to know what had happened to his other girls, to Back Lack and Wet Stick, and everyone else that he'd call a friend. "I want to get my arse out of here and see what's left of my life and the people in it." His eyes flitted between Goosefat and the knight. "But you're not gonna let me do that, are you?"

"And why aren't we?" Bedivere asked, setting down one of the peeled eggs.

"You just lost two men," Arthur reminded him. Those had been the two that covered their retreat from the crowd and up the scaffolding. The ones Frida had last seen with blackleg swords in their bellies. He glanced between Rubio, Percival, and the Mage, standing back in another area. "But you were prepared to lose five to save this pretty neck. So I'm not going anywhere, am I?"

"And where exactly were you thinking of going?" Goosefat Bill inquired. He waved his knife in the air as he shrugged. "You have no more home. It was razed days ago. You've no more life to go back to." Frida felt her throat constrict as she thought about the raid at the brothel. She didn't doubt that it was worse now. But it was Edwyn she worried for. The old baker did not deserve to be drug into this, and if he was, then it would be her fault.

"Like it or not, this is your lot," the old knight stated, though a hint of mirth worked its way to his expression in tone, "and even we don't like you. Do we, Goosefat?" He asked, looking over his shoulder. "But what we are interested in-" Bedivere stood and picked Excalibur up from the table "-is what you can do with this sword."

"Why don't you leave him with me for a minute or two, boss?" Goosefat questioned, slipping the ring off his right hand and onto the cutting board.

Arthur eyed him. "Put your ring back on, honey tits. You haven't had enough porridge this morning to talk like that." His attention turned back to Bedivere. "And if you like that sword so much, your lordship, you can keep it, to peel your grapes."

Bedivere turned and left, Goosefat Bill, trailing behind him. Though as he approached Arthur, he reared back and slapped him across the cheek. The sound seemed to echo through the cave. "Now that would've hurt a lot more if I left the ring on," the man stated as he walked away. Frida covered her mouth, trying to hide the fact that she was laughing. Arthur gave her a hard glare, but rose from his seat and followed after the other two.

"I see what you're doing," Arthur started, shaking his head, "you're trying to get me to do something razzle-dazzle with that sword." Frida stood next to her sister, arms crossed. "I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm not gettin' drawn into this mess. And there's an army of you, there's only one of me-" he glanced around at everyone in the cave, but reserved a sly wink when he saw Frida "-I haven't had a fight for years. And I'll talk. I'm happy to talk. But there is no way that I am fighting."

Ida rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming. For a brief second, it looked like they almost believed him when he said he wasn't going to fight. In a flash, he had hit Goosefat Bill in the neck, turned and kneed Bedivere in the gut, before head-butting Percival and ripping Excalibur free from its sheath.

Rubio and several others began to pull their own blades free, but Arthur motioned for them to stand down. He turned and smiled back at Frida. Eydís glanced at Frida, intrigued.

Goosefat pulled Rubio's sword free and came at Arthur, swinging. He parried and ducked under each swing with ease. Only moving defensively. Arthur kicked Bill away from him. "Is that it?" He asked, looking to Bedivere and Percy. Another man came at him, sword drawn but Art moved to a two-handed grip on the hilt of Excalibur, but was only able to maintain it for a brief second before it became too much. He stumbled backward.

Arthur dropped the sword and fell back onto the ground.  Shocked, Frida raced to his side.