The Man in The Cave

Chapter 18

Morgana rose an eyebrow at the woman in front of her, her black hair neatly tied up, brown eyes puffy from crying and her hands closely knit together after she stood straight. She had already bowed as curtesy dictated but now she was standing as a child wanting to ask permission from her parents.

"I don't understand why you came to me" Morgana said after a few seconds of silence. She wasn't close in any way to Pelles and his interactions with him had hardly gone beyond the pleasantries required from members of different highborn families. She couldn't recall having any meaningful conversation with his daughter Elaine "I don't know what gave you the idea that I had the power to help you, your father as far as I know is quite powerful and has gathered his very own set of powerful allies, everyone in that council is ready to help each other, what help can I give you that none of them can?" Morgana tilted her head, a line forming in between her eyebrows.

Morgana saw Elaine's hands shake. The girl trying to focus anywhere else, from the banner hanging behind Morgana's back to the windows from which the sun got in, before a sob escaped her lips.

"Please, have mercy with me... I... I didn't know where else to go... my family they... they just can't know" She cried. Morgana stood up from her throne and rushed to her, putting a hand in her shoulder, trying to be as empathetic as she could with what little she knew.

"What can't they know?" Morgana questioned, taking her hand away. Elaine's cheeks got red, and her hands travelled to her stomach, diverting her eyes away from Morgana's. Her blue eyes grew wide open, and her heart sunk a little in her chest.

"What happened?" Morgana tried, giving a signal to the servants in the room to leave them alone. Elaine tried to clean the tears off her eyes.

"I thought he loved me" Elaine mumbled, her eyebrows knit together, the sadness in her eyes as clear as it could be "He... he swore he did, he said such pretty things about me being the most beautiful maiden in the entire tournament, and we laughed and he swore he had always admired me from afar and... he's so handsome, and he is a knight" A soft smile escaped Elaine's lips and Morgana thought she looked much younger than what she really was.

That brief sensation of happiness was apparently gone from her face, because the initial sadness returned just as quickly as it had left "...but by the morning he was gone and I felt oh, so stupid" Elaine broke down, Morgana's heart sinking a little bit further "Of course he couldn't have meant those things, yet they were everything I ever wanted to hear, because I've always admired him, me and all of my friends did, how could we not? It was Lancelot, the greatest knight of Arthur's court" Elaine laughed bitterly, looking up. Morgana felt her blood boil, her fists tightly pressed "and then the nausea began, I thought it was bad food at first, a little too much wine. It never went away Mor... your majesty, I didn't tell anyone, we both know how fast rumors spread. I spent nights were I couldn't sleep at all, trying to think what I was going to do, I couldn't just have a son out of marriage, with no potential husband, my family will be so disappointed, they could shun me out, and where would I go? And then I heard people talking about how Urien had gotten married and his wife was Morgana, Arthur's sister, a sorceress. I didn't know who else to go to, I could use a little magic to help me solve this problem"

Morgana nodded silent. She was aware that the people weren't always kind when talking about people like her. Many times she had heard people talk poorly of Arthur due to the fact that he kept her and Emrys near his court. King Pelles' son in particular didn't seem to even try to pretend friendliness towards her and Emrys during the tournament, staying as far as possible from where they were. She and Emrys would usually laugh at things like that, but now it felt more like a distant memory that pressed a hole in her heart.