Connecting the dots

The new religion

It truly was a weird sight to behold. Farmers, druids, the rich, the poor – all kinds of people. From the kingdom of Essetir, Nemeth and Caerlon -
They were all visiting the kingdom of Arthur Pendragon: Camelot. This itself was hardly shocking, to be honest. It was the number of people and the wide degree of their status that caught attention.
They all had just a few things in common: they wanted to see Emrys.
They had all heard the stories and they had been so captivating that it caused a movement.

Arthur and his folk were in a slight state of panic.
They had so much to do with taking refugees and trying to find some places for their visitors that nobody noticed the absence of one important member of the council.
And I say council, because it was not a knight, as many of you might have expected. But more about that later.

For those who traveled the streets of Camelot, it truly was a weird sight to behold.
Because it was hard to distinguish who was of which kingdom. The royals had all dressed in red cloaks and fake armor, cosplaying the knights of the round table.
While the poor had resolved to old clothes and decided to go as one particular manservant.

It was some kind of uniform. As today a special event would hold place on one of the biggest fields around the castle. Not that the king knew any of it. Or his servant.
It was even funnier, because literally everyone was invited. Bandits and druids just as much as kings and queens.
And they all came for this one occasion. Only Arthur, Merlin and the knights knew nothing of it.
Only one of them would find out. As he had just had a very pleasant night with a lady far below his status from one of the neighboring kingdoms.
Of course, this time I do speak of Gwaine.

Gwaine has created a legend. However - he never expected it to travel this far.
He never imagined he would create a new religion.

The lady had invited him to come along to this special event. And never had he seen anyone so excited for anything. So he agreed to follow her.

What he saw, when they reached the fields, left him breath- and speechless.
The gathered crowd was so big, they couldn't all just have arrived here. There were people who had made camp a little outside the center. How many days they had been here, nobody really knew. All Gwaine was certain of was that the refugee problem had started a couple of weeks ago.
And yet, it was possible to travel right through them.

In fact – in the center of the crowd, there was a lot of space left, where not a single person stood. Well – maybe that was not entirely correct.
Twelve – precisely twelve men stood or rather vouched there in a circle. One man in a black cloak standing between them, handing out necklaces.
Gwaine couldn't see what the necklaces looked like, but he wasn't really focusing on that either way.

No – it were the men who caught him off guard. All of them were dressed like servants ... Well, many people here were, but these men and women all wore the exact same clothes. And they were very familiar. As they looked just like what Merlin, Arthur's manservant wore.
They all looked comfortable and excited in their position. And their position was quite extraordinary.
To make this image more clear to you: They all were in the stocks.
Gwaine's mouth was wide open at the sight, not sure whether to be scared or amused.

"What the hell are they doing?", Gwaine whispered to the young lady who was hanging from his arm. She wore his red cloak.
But she as well, wore a necklace, much like the ones the men and women in the stocks were just receiving.

Only now did he take a closer look. It was a coin. Not one of metal, as she was poor. But it was made of wood and covered in a silver like substance. Some of the color was already fading, so you could see the wood underneath, but the symbols were carved deep into the wood.