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A long time ago in a kingdom far away, a brave knight found his lady love and took her to his high castle. Their names were Gorlois and Vivienne, and she always thought her life had begun with him.
Gorlois took her to his roaring seas, his kings and their wars. Vivienne has refused to leave his side ever since. In war or on a ship, in Camelot at a gathering of lords and ladies, Vivienne followed Gorlois like a bird that knows its true north. She refused to be caged within the castle walls, her soul was not disposed to be left behind.
Morgause's birth hadn't changed much, only now Vivienne didn't stay in a tent on the battlefield, nor did she draw her own sword to fight alongside her husband.
That autumn, her little daughter has been here with her, in the estate of one of Gorlois's friends, as close to the front line as they could get.
Morgause was playing peacefully in the garden while Vivienne sewed her new dress by the window.
A misty measow and dark forest looked out at her from there. Somewhere beyond it a bloody battle was going on. Gorlois was fighting Uther's enemies, and they were many: druids, barons, rebellious brigands, but Gorlois always managed to throw them all at his best friend and king's feet. His honour belonged to Uther as his heart did to Vivienne.
She looked down and found no her daughter on the lawn. "Morgause?"
A moment later the girl flew into the room, and rushed to her mother. "Mama, there's some man out there! A scary man is coming this way!"
Vivienne knelt down before her and took her face in her hands. "What man, love? I'm sure you're just imagining him."
Vivienne had suspected that Morgause had magical abilities sleeping in her. Priestess Nimueh had been dropping cryptic hints, but Vivienne, again and again, refused to give it a thorough and honest ponder. Magic meant their family would never know peace. There was great beauty in it, but also great danger.
"No, I've seen him!" Morgause mumbled stubbornly. "He is here!"
And that was how Uther found them when he entered the parlour. Vivienne, tall and lovely, with a crown of black braids on her head; and the sapling of a girl, her amber eyes filled with unchildlike wary and distaste.
Vivienne bowed in a deep curtsy. "Your Majesty! How unexpected your coming is, how welcomed!"
Uther, even in his dusty cloak remaining regal and handsome beyond measure with his stormy eyes and sharp jawline, planted a kiss on her hand. "I didn't expect to make it this quickly either. I've come to join Sir Gorlois in Sharewood. He is here?"
"I fear we're alone here, Your Majesty."
Uther nodded, and got down on one knee before Morgause, and smiled. "Hello, child."
But Morgause hid herself in her mother's skirts.
"Pardon her, Your Majesty, Morgause is worried about her father."
"Sure." He stood up, strangely offended by the obvious dislike of this tiny child in a blue dress. But her mother's affectionate smile healed the abrasion.
And so Uther Pendragon, the young king whose path has always been lined with roses and glory, happened to be left alone with the wife of his best friend.
Perhaps Gorlois's troop was succeeding without King's knights, for his departure for Sharewood was getting delayed again and again. A day, another, a third, Uther was sitting between maps and books, training on the front lawn; he didn't go.
Morgause always ran away when he entered the room; Uther was rather glad.
"You must be so lonely here, Vivienne." He said earnestly to her one evening. They were sitting in the dim firelight, the only ones awake within the old walls. "Gorlois leaves you alone all the time."
"The reason he does is here next to me, dear friend." Vivienne smirked, but like her husband and their whole circle she believed in the new Camelot that Uther's wanted to revive from the ashes; even though it came with a price.
She walked to the window, looking for the red and gold on the horizon, her heart a dove over Sharewood Forest, keeping her knight safe from any danger, guiding him to the light.
"I too know what it is to be lonely and with no one to warm your freezing heart... When there's no one to understand you, I have known the pain..."
Uther suddenly stood very close by. He reached up and brushed an unruly black curl away from Vivienne's cheek, then leaned in and left a trail of kisses from her ear down to her collarbone; so tender and calling for sweet surrender.
"Uther!" Vivienne recoiled from him, shuddering violently. She pressed her back against the stone sill. Not with desire and love her eyes met his, they burned him out with green fire. Decades later, he will find them again, judgemental, hateful on another woman's face. His curse.
"What are you doing? Please don't ruin what was good between us..."
"Don't be afraid. No one will know. No one will judge us."
"But you're engaged!"
Uther hummed. "Lady Ygraine, it's nothing but a marriage of convinience. How can I love her? She is only the mother of my future heirs." He placed his hand on Vivienne's forearm. He has always felt there was a bond between them, something more than a simple friendship through Gorlois.
Vivienne lifted her chin produly. "What if love isn't something that chooses you, what if you choose it? What if love is action, not feeling? I love Gorlois and I will never betray him; whether you burn me at the stake or cast me out, I will be reborn and return to him!"
The grip on her hand grew a little tighter, Uther leaned closer. "Vivienne, don't be like that..."
"I will not be your consolation, your plaything, Uther Pendragon!" She spat out.
"What if I want to be yours, Vivienne...?" His hot breath hovered over her lips. She closed her eyes and turned away. A moment, and Uther's face, the face of a hero in love, hardened into a cold mask.
He recoiled from her and left the parlour. He will choose Ygraine, oh, he will; but not today, not tonight.
Vivienne allowed herself to breathe.
The king departed, and just that same night, Gorlois returned. He passed into his wife's chamber, and enclosed her in a heated embrace.
"Gorlois, my world, have you returned in victory? We did not expect you so soon..." Whispered Vivienne as his hands caressed her body, getting under her shift.
"I won't stay long, I just missed you so damn much, Vivienne... You've bewitched me, I don't belong to myself anymore..."
"Oh, my poor knight, did you know my grandmother was a sorceress?" Vivienne laughed and hugged him tighter.
That night, she had a dream: she turned into a bird, a silver dove. She flew out of the bed where Gorlois slept beside her human form, and out of the window. She flew through the darkness to the light; to the torches in a vast dark forest. Down in the clearing, surrounded by his knights, Gorlois was too.
He left at dawn.
Three days later, her husband was back again.
Morgause found her mother crying at her usual spot at the window. But what should she wait there for, Papa was already back, mused the girl. She went over and put her arms about Vivienne, circled her with the little arms. "You're crying, Mama."
"No." She sobbed.
"It's the scary man, isn't it? Has he hurt you, Mama? I'll punish him."
Vivienne quickly wiped away her tears, and stroked Morgause's golden curls. "It's all right, daughter. Don't tell anyone that you saw Mama like that. Tell no one. Don't talk about the scary man at all, alright?"
"No one." Morgause pretended to lock her mouth shut and throw the key out the window.
Vivienne hugged her daughter, her little chick with sharp claws, hid her under her big grey wings, and closed her eyes.
It was just the beginning.