SIR LIRIO IRONSIGHTS, WAR JOURNAL

"Arthur was often vexed in those days, pacing around Merlyn's tents with a storm cloud behind his eyes. I was raised among the fae, and we had heard all of the stories of King Arthur and Merlyn as curious human heroes in whose lives we occasionally interfered.

But the stories were innumerable, and even among their own kind, in his own home realm, people could not agree upon the story of Arthur -- what were his victories, and where were his great defeats?

Which was possibly why Arthur walked around like a man who had been cast in a play in which he'd be murdered at the end. In a time of war, we needed nothing so dearly as we needed a leader with steel in him, but Arthur seemed nervous, like fate would jump around any corner and betray him as he knew (or claimed to know) that it would.

To understand this, one must know some things about the story of Arthur: King Arthur was a legend - - not merely a man who had come to OTHERWORLD to live. He was the culmination of every one of his selves, all men who fought their way to the land beyond. In every version of his story, every tale of his from every reality, he fights for his homeland of Britain and makes it nobly to Otherworld.

And in most of those tales, he will be betrayed by his own son, Mordred. They will fight.

And Mordred will kill him -- or he will kill Mordred.

So in those days, Arthur stalked amongst the encampments in the shadows of the siege towers and told anyone who would listen about the fearful tale of his strange son Mordred.

About the witchbreed mutants with the X in their blood that made them different, so like men and yet so unlike them -- uncannily so.

But I, too, had heard the story of Arthur, and sometimes Mordred's name isn't mentioned at all. Sometimes it's quite different. In some versions, Mordred is an ally, and in others, he is Arthur's own sins, back to haunt him. In even more, Arthur is a brute who rejects his loving son, but Arthur never much mentioned those versions himself. It's a funny tale, if you look into it, and I wonder if Arthur isn't himself canonizing the version of the tale he so fears by constantly wondering about it out loud.

We elves know story is a powerful type of magic.

And so we fought on against the witchbreed."

-- From The War Journal of Sir Lirio Ironsights

#mysticism