I am not here and dying and also apparently the afterlife involves stalking your journal, BUT, in re 1. they all unravel -- It starts like this:
Uther's bloodstained kingship comes to an end not at the hands of any sorcerer, but those of the Sea Wolves, who raid the eastern shores, and the Picts, who pour down from the North. They steal the harvests, slaughter the village folk and ambush knights at the hunt for their spoils. No matter how strong Uther's son may be, as his army shrinks and the supplies he has to feed them shrink faster, Camelot's star begins to fall -- and all Albion knows it.
Uther rounds up every man, woman and child who has ever had even the slightest suspicion of sorcery attached to them. Raiding parties are sent into the surrounding lands, abducting druids, witch women, magicians. Both Gwen and Merlin are imprisoned: they disappear in the night, the circumstances mysterious. Uther demands of his captives that they use their powers to save his kingdom. One by one, they all refuse. Many have no magic. Those that do, probably not enough to help him. He begins their executions, one by one: perhaps the rest will be scared into power great enough to help him.
One evening, after the ninth of these deaths, Uther's ward comes to him in the throne room.
"There is one person you have missed, a sorcerer in your kingdom. I am a Seer. I see what shall be. I can use my gift to help you."
And Uther hates magic, but he loves his kingdom, and he loves, too, his ward, Morgana, as a father loves the daughter he has watched grow up, has loved her as a she-bear loves her kid when it takes its first step, and loves her now, though they are often at variance, as the land must love the rain that falls upon it, though that rain is sometimes harsh, and batters down hard upon it.
Morgana tells him: "You have only one escape from the ruin that threatens. Release all your prisoners, and I shall tell it to you."
He takes a day to deliberate, but it is mostly show. The next evening, the prisoners are released, and Morgana comes to him again.
"You must contact the Saxon warchiefs, Hengest and Horsa. Do this, send them gold and promise them land in your kingdom, and they shall come to your aid, and fight off the Picts and rebel Sea Wolves. Do otherwise, and this kingdom is doomed, and neither you nor your son will live to see the year's end."
He does as she tells him. But Hengest and Horsa, when they come into Camelot, like what they see of its fertile land. They and their men clear the kingdom of its enemies -- all its enemies except themselves -- and after the victory feast, they turn their men on what remains of Uther's own.
Seeing that he will never defeat the Saxons in open battle, Uther draws back his men to his castle and bars himself in, too thickly fortified for any Sea Wolf to batter down. But Hengest and Horsa gather wood and chop down mighty trees from the surrounding forest, which they pile all around. They start a great and roaring fire around the great castle of Camelot, and the stones glow red, and the smell of burning carries over the rich fields that tempted the Saxons to break their vows of friendship.
A small band escapes the castle, fleeing through a secret entryway as the timber is heaped about As they watch their home burn, Arthur, who would now be a king if his father had still had any kingdom, Arthur turns to Morgana and says,
"You knew this would come."
"Yes," she says, "but it was unavoidable. There was no future where Uther survived. You may not believe me, but this was the least worst way."
Arthur holds his sword tight in his hand and thinks, there must have been some other way.
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Uther's bloodstained kingship comes to an end not at the hands of any sorcerer, but those of the Sea Wolves, who raid the eastern shores, and the Picts, who pour down from the North. They steal the harvests, slaughter the village folk and ambush knights at the hunt for their spoils. No matter how strong Uther's son may be, as his army shrinks and the supplies he has to feed them shrink faster, Camelot's star begins to fall -- and all Albion knows it.
Uther rounds up every man, woman and child who has ever had even the slightest suspicion of sorcery attached to them. Raiding parties are sent into the surrounding lands, abducting druids, witch women, magicians. Both Gwen and Merlin are imprisoned: they disappear in the night, the circumstances mysterious. Uther demands of his captives that they use their powers to save his kingdom. One by one, they all refuse. Many have no magic. Those that do, probably not enough to help him. He begins their executions, one by one: perhaps the rest will be scared into power great enough to help him.
One evening, after the ninth of these deaths, Uther's ward comes to him in the throne room.
"There is one person you have missed, a sorcerer in your kingdom. I am a Seer. I see what shall be. I can use my gift to help you."
And Uther hates magic, but he loves his kingdom, and he loves, too, his ward, Morgana, as a father loves the daughter he has watched grow up, has loved her as a she-bear loves her kid when it takes its first step, and loves her now, though they are often at variance, as the land must love the rain that falls upon it, though that rain is sometimes harsh, and batters down hard upon it.
Morgana tells him: "You have only one escape from the ruin that threatens. Release all your prisoners, and I shall tell it to you."
He takes a day to deliberate, but it is mostly show. The next evening, the prisoners are released, and Morgana comes to him again.
"You must contact the Saxon warchiefs, Hengest and Horsa. Do this, send them gold and promise them land in your kingdom, and they shall come to your aid, and fight off the Picts and rebel Sea Wolves. Do otherwise, and this kingdom is doomed, and neither you nor your son will live to see the year's end."
He does as she tells him. But Hengest and Horsa, when they come into Camelot, like what they see of its fertile land. They and their men clear the kingdom of its enemies -- all its enemies except themselves -- and after the victory feast, they turn their men on what remains of Uther's own.
Seeing that he will never defeat the Saxons in open battle, Uther draws back his men to his castle and bars himself in, too thickly fortified for any Sea Wolf to batter down. But Hengest and Horsa gather wood and chop down mighty trees from the surrounding forest, which they pile all around. They start a great and roaring fire around the great castle of Camelot, and the stones glow red, and the smell of burning carries over the rich fields that tempted the Saxons to break their vows of friendship.
A small band escapes the castle, fleeing through a secret entryway as the timber is heaped about As they watch their home burn, Arthur, who would now be a king if his father had still had any kingdom, Arthur turns to Morgana and says,
"You knew this would come."
"Yes," she says, "but it was unavoidable. There was no future where Uther survived. You may not believe me, but this was the least worst way."
Arthur holds his sword tight in his hand and thinks, there must have been some other way.