The Seelie Court is contrasted with a lot of things. He meets Titannia and Oberon, along with a whole other cast of characters pulled from various places. He finds out that while the Unseelie Court forcibly takes you and makes no bones about it, the Seelie Court tricks you into wanting to stay, seduces you in. Alfred is susceptible to their magic, more so than most, because of the lack of magic to shield him. And they want him because his soul is so pure and beautiful to them. The concept of fae beauty is explained fully. Alfred also meets Mr. Bojangles dancing forever at the Unseelie Court, unable to break away. Alfred vaguely meets a Seelie Knight with bright red hair and multitudinous muscles.
Alfred stays for an unspecified period of time, until he is finally rescued by Puck, or Robin Goodfellow. Goodfellow offers to free Alfred if he will do him a favor. Favors are binding to the fae, and are taken seriously. After realizing what had happened to him, Alfred quickly agrees, and they set off through Seelie territory. Explanation of names of territories. Irish "Tír na nÓg" (country of the young) - Unseelie Court. Welsh "Gwlâd yr Hâv" (land of summer) - Seelie Court.
They track down a group of True Name Slavers, the leader of whom is named Hoek, who have captured people and control them by knowing their True Names. There are spells they have cause you to reveal your True Name. Puck calls in his favor to Alfred, and has him rescue a mermaid named Winderly. Alfred does, but wonders why he can do this, but Robin can’t. There is a big show of reconciliation and such as she doesn’t remember Robin initially due to another complication with her True Name. Robin kisses her (True Love’s kiss), and she remembers, breaking the curse. It is revealed that Robin fell in love a long time ago with Winderly, but neither side approved. Winderly gave a hag a lock of hair in exchange for fairy dust to give herself legs, like Puck, but when she went to meet at their regular meeting place, she was captured. Basically a fusion of Peter Pan and the Little Mermaid.
Puck says he will introduce him to someone who can get him to Midir’s if he waits with Winderly and protects her. When asked where he is going, Puck replies “I’m off to call in a favor with a cat. Cats are not easy to find if they do not want to be found. Fortunately, I’m me.” I’m glad I’ll get to write Puck later in my story, as he is one of the things I was looking forward to most in this story. He’s a lot of fun. Puck returns after a thorough description of Mer-society is done, during which Alfred and Winderly make another daring escape from Lord Anwnn, the Cheshire Cat in tow. The Cat is mysterious, naturally, in a way reminiscent of Adain, but less annoying and substantially more fluffy. Robin is now on a mission to get Winderly a new True Name before the slavers can get her again. The Cheshire Cat gives him the solution, which seems to be a series of impossible tasks. Puck immediately dismisses them as easy/normal enough, though he is puzzled when the Cat puts in the greatest poison ever to reach Underhill. Alfred knows this is his blood, and volunteers it. At the end of it, Winderly has a new True Name.
Winderly and Robin lead Alfred to Midir’s, meeting Nicholas Flamel along the way, and they actually reach it. Robin treats Midir with a mixture of deference, distrust, and envy. He reveals that he and Winderly are leaving all Courts, such as Midir did. But he still dislikes Midir. Winderly leaves Alfred with a scale from her old tail, as a gift of friendship. We first see Midir and Etain welcoming Alfred into their home. Midir has dark hair, black as coal. Midir sits Alfred down and begins to teach him fidchell. End of Alfred section one.
Cut to Matthew, attending the conference for Alfred, passively furious at his brother. Here is a bit written for that.
Matthew was pissed. Not that this wasn’t an ordinary occurrence, but he was well and truly angry at his brother now. Alfred was going to get it so bad when he got home from wherever he and Arthur were. Matthew had come up with a list actually of possible places, possible sunlit beaches where his brother was, which quite extensively included Thailand, Tahiti, one of his islands, Italy, Australia, Scotland, the West Indies, Spain, and of course merry old England. After the first week, Matthew had begun calling up each of these countries to try to figure out where exactly Freddie was, because if there had to be a top ten list of things he disliked doing, it was filling in for his brother at a meeting. And his brother was a complete ass if he thought he could just dump Matthew with the work. Cause it wasn’t going to happen this time. Matthew wasn’t going to do it, Alfred would look foolish and irresponsible and…
Matthew sighed to himself as he flipped through the pages of the Secretary’s report that his fax machine had spat out of the fifteenth. Of course he ended up covering for Freddie. Just like every time. He was surprised though that Alfred had chosen to miss this particular speech, because it was right up his alley; stuff about space and the eventual privatization of interstellar travel. Matthew skimmed a paragraph or two. Yep, the thing read like a science fiction novel. Why hadn’t Alfred come? Surely a month away with Arthur couldn’t be worth missing one of the few speeches he wouldn’t mind doing in a decade… Matthew scowled. Of course it was worth it to him. Alfred hated speeches on any topic, or it sure seemed like it with the amount of time he spend complaining to Matthew.
The surprising thing was that Connall actually was covering for Arthur like Alfred said. Matthew smiled. He had always liked Connall. But when he jokingly asked where Alfred and Arthur were, Connall had only shrugged it off, not meeting him in the eye. Now Matthew knew something was up, but pretended he didn’t know it.
Matthew picked idly at the “I’d rather be hiking!” sticker on the front of his binder, right next to the one of his flag. It was weird and horribly depressing whenever he covered for Alfred, because he got so much more attention that way. Everyone wondered where Alfred had gone. They might not care for Alfred personally, but boy did they notice when he wasn’t being the 800lb behemoth in the room. Matthew waved them away with a mumble about an island getaway…
When everyone went to break, he pulled out his phone for the umpteenth time in the past weeks and called Alfred again. It immediately went to voicemail, and Matthew ground his teeth in frustration and waited until Freddie’s voice stopped babbling something absolutely false about calling him back. “Hello Freddie, I only really have one thing to say… Where the hell are you? I swear, you owe me big time. Because Francis decided to invade England again, just so you know, in case you aren’t getting news where you are. I’m not sure if they have cable in Tahiti… anyways, so it’s Norman Invasion two-point-oh, and if you two don’t get back soon, missiles are going to start flying!” Matthew hung up with a scowl. If Arthur didn’t insist they come back for that, Matthew wasn’t sure what else would work. Alfred was in such big trouble. Really, his miserable message did not allow Alfred to dump all his work on Matthew.
Matthew did not enjoy Alfred’s speech. Honestly what did he know about privatization of space travel, especially since Alfred had discontinued the shuttle program with their Canadian made arms? He was sure that if Alfred had been the one delivering the speech, it would have been enthusiastic to the point of ridiculousness, but in Matthew’s soft monotone, it honestly sounded wooden. He hated doing this. Why couldn’t have Alfred asked Steve instead? Really?
Kiku had wandered over at some point, and politely asked when Alfred was coming back, apparently there was some video game night Alfred had missed. Matthew had no idea there was a game night, and he honestly didn’t care. And then Daniel had been wondering since Matthew was filling in for Alfred, if he would let him nuke Farhad instead (the answer being an aghast and very firm NO, along with a lecture about why that was a horribly bad idea.) Daniel had rolled his eyes at him, and mumbled something about a joke. Matthew almost groaned aloud when he realized that Alfred would just sling an arm around Daniel and talk about weapons technology instead in some sort of weird bonding moment or something. Of course it was some weird sort of inside joke. He had pressed his forehead into his palm at that. He hated his brother so much.
By the time Miguel wandered over with a question about Alfred’s Coast Guard, Matthew was at his wit’s end. What the hell, how the heck was Matthew supposed to know about his Coast Guard? Before Matthew could actually snap though, Steve had walked over, and drug him and Shane out to eat at their usual restaurant. Well, ‘their’ was more him, Steve, Shane, and then AlfredandArthur, (yes they were one word, don’t question it.) But as the latter… entity… wasn’t around at the moment, it was just the three of them in their weird sort of family.
“So when’re they coming back?” Steve finally said, twirling his fork in beef stroganoff. “It wasn’t very polite of them to not tell us they were leaving.”
Matthew sighed, and stared down at his Alaskan farm grown salmon on his plate. “I have absolutely no idea.” He sighed again. “He didn’t say.”
“Well what did he say?” Steve asked, and Shane leaned over in interest. “It’s more than any of the rest of us got.”
Matthew sighed (what was it about Alfred that made him sigh so much?) and pulled out his phone, and played the message. “Matt, hey it’s me, Al, um, not calling to say hi. Arthur’s kinda gone AWOL so I’m off to find him. Umm, you probably won’t be able to reach me once I end up where he is. So, if we don’t get back in time for the next world meeting, could you cover for me? I’m gonna ask Connall to cover for Arthur, so that should tell you that we’re not just taking some giant vacation or something. Trust me this time please. Thanks bro, I really mean it. Bye!”
Steve whistled and Shane nodded. “Yep, you’re screwed.” Shane replied succinctly.
The meal continued on relatively normally, well as normal as it was without Alfred and Arthur, until Shane began looking hard at Matthew. Matthew wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, hoping it was just some stray sauce or something. But Shane continued staring. Matthew laughed self-consciously. “I have something in my teeth, eh?”
But Shane shook his head. “Look, did you get a new haircut or something? It looks different, but I can’t tell why…”
Matthew shook his head. Perhaps he’d just been too distracted by his idiotic brother to notice. Seriously, Alfred needed to come back.
But by the time that a ton of people had come to talk to Matthew in Alfred’s stead, from everything from military and economy to airplanes and Barbie dolls, Matthew began to wonder. Alfred had missed so many engagements, so many commitments it was ridiculous. Even Alfred wouldn’t miss all of that, would he? Arthur wouldn’t let him, right?
Something must have happened, Matthew finally concluded while Ivan was talking about a Soyuz capsule. Even if he believed that Alfred would skirk off his duties so badly (which was surprising, honestly), he knew that Arthur wouldn’t let him. So something must have happened. What would make Alfred go charging off into the unknown? Had he gotten acid on his face and was so horribly disfigured he was waiting it out? Matthew got the mental image of Alfred as Quasimodo and smiled to himself. Really, if they were doing Hunchback of Notre Dame comparisons, Alfred was Phoebus, and Matthew was Quasi… Nope, not going to go much further on that thank you.
This had been going on far too long to be entirely comfortable, not that it ever was. Something was wrong. And Connall knew something. Matthew was going to figure out what exactly it was. But Matthew just couldn’t seem to corner him at all, and that was even more suspicious. AWOL, Alfred had said. So something military? Matthew spend Feliciano’s speech writing out Alfred’s phone message again and trying to figure out if Alfred had been trying to make some sort of code. It would be just like his brother.
End of section. Matthew then confronts Connall. Here is some written for that.
“One might’ve thought you’d be grateful for the reminder.” Connall spoke lowly, expression hard.
Matthew was about ready to tear his hair out. “No! I do not and have never wanted to be my brother!” That was only about half true, but Matthew really didn’t want to think about that right now, not when he was turning into him little by little, replacing him… “I’m Matthew! Not Alfred, not Arthur, not Francis!”
“Then who are you exactly?” Connall said harshly, making a broad sweeping gesture quickly with his hand. “What makes you so different from everybody else?”
At this Matthew opened his mouth to answer, and stopped when he found he wasn’t able to.
Connall apparently took this itself as an answer. “There, you see? The boy trusted you to take care of his people for him. You’re the best choice now that he’s not coming back –“
“What do you mean, not coming back?” Matthew said, jumping on that new fact. “What have you done with them? I know you don’t like Arthur, but—“
“No!” Connall overrode him firmly, eyes hard. “I did nothing! It was Crowe! Old Crowe!”
Matthew paused. The name tickled at the edge of his conscience, but he couldn’t remember much about it, except a vague terror that chilled him to the bone. He leaned over the other nation. “You will tell me exactly what happened, or expect that all direct investment in Ireland by both Canada and the United States to stop immediately, and for withdrawal of ambassadors.”
Connall stilled. “I don’t take kindly to threats.”
“Then you had best start talking, hadn’t you?” Matthew replied softly. Oh yes, he had his big stick indeed. He knew exactly what made Connall, or any nation really, tick.
Connall sighed, waved his hand, and the tension slowly ebbed out of the room. “Alright, alright, I was gonna tell ya anyways, boyo.”
“Just because I’m turning into Al doesn’t mean that’s going to work on me.” Matthew said as he sat in the loveseat, unwilling to listen to Connall’s slang at a time like this.
Connall rolled his eyes, and explained, clearly and without the slang.
By the time he was done, Matthew was barely keeping up. “So let me get this straight; this faerie named Crowe has been after your family for generations, and has stolen all of you, though you managed to escape, and now has finally gotten Arthur. During that kidnapping, he also stripped Alfred of his superstrength. Alfred went after him, but he has no magic, so you expect him to get captured and enthralled rather quickly, and therefore not come back. So why did you let him go?”
“Well, that same lack of magic does shield him from some spells and such. If the boy keeps his head, then he might be okay. Besides, he was determined to.”
End of written section. We now begin even more of the answer section. Also, so many face palms it’s not even funny. I didn’t have Matthew’s section fully planned, but a basic outline that was quite fluid, except where it intersected with Alfred’s story, thus there’s less detail here.
Matthew’s main character arc is finding out why and how he’s different from his brother, how he is unique himself as a person.
Matthew manages to convince Connall to go into Underhill with him, at least to retrieve Alfred if they are able. Connall takes another magic viewing amulet, and they use it to track Alfred. It, of course, leads them to the tree. Connall and Matthew come to the conclusion that Alfred must have been turned into a tree. So they decide to visit the resident expert on people turned into trees, Morgana, from Arthurian legend.
Morgana finds it odd that Alfred would be turned into a chestnut tree, as his tree according to the Celtic tree calendar is an apple tree. She gives them a spell to force a person from a tree. While there, they meet a beautiful fae with flaming red hair and a perfect complexion. She hesitantly introduces herself as Ginny. She is about to go on her way, when she suddenly asks if he is a man who has his feet in three oceans at once. True enough, Matthew says yes, and she immediately pledges herself to help him. Morgana is slightly disapproving, but says nothing to Matthew. He does issue a warning to Ginny, something about the ‘last one’. She takes Matthew and Connall to Trader Jack (Jack of all Trades), and buys a pair of six league boots (not seven) to get them back to the dryad forest. They lose Connall somewhere in here.
When Matthew and Ginny get back to the tree, they use the spell, and the dryad, very unhappy, comes out of the tree with the amulet around her neck. Now back at square one, Ginny gets the idea to ask a favor of a Cat. On the way to find him, they encounter Aengus and Adain, who mistake Matthew for something magicked to look like Alfred. They manage to find the Cheshire Cat since he wants to be found, and tells them that they can track his brother using his blood as a focus, since they are twins. Matthew dislikes thinking about how their bloods are becoming even more similar than that. But they do build a focus.
Matthew’s focus works much better, as it is blood, and they have a few side adventures on the way to Alfred, and Matthew falls in love with Ginny.
This is a Matthew stream of consciousness from this time.
Matthew, although he wouldn’t admit it, was jealous a lot of the time of Alfred’s and Arthur’s relationship. It wasn’t perfect, that was for sure. The amount of times that either of them had come to him seeking advice had made him want to start charging for marriage counseling. Alfred tended to view them as perfect, and Arthur as perfect, and usually had no idea why they had problems when they did have them. Arthur was more of a realist (pessimist), and didn’t understand the ins and outs of Alfred’s scattered mind sometimes. But they cared for each other, and they loved each other, and that usually pulled them through after some effort.
Matthew was forgotten by most people, overshadowed in the glory and the fireworks and the stars and stripes of his brother. And that didn’t lend itself very well to romance honestly. And if you thought too hard about it, Alfred and Arthur’s relationship was really weird. Matthew had been Arthur’s brother for a lot longer than Alfred had; it was only in the last forty years that he had truly come into his own, and Alfred hadn’t been Arthur’s adopted brother since the 18th century. And yet Alfred was his twin, his blood brother, and Freddie had been raised somewhat by Arthur. True, he had been cared for less than Matthew had with Francis, or later with Arthur, so Alfred felt that he’d raised himself. But still, if Matthew thought too hard, it was incest, and that squicked him out sometimes.
It didn’t help either that those two were ridiculously sweet with each other. And one of their stupid little things were those pickup lines. If they found one they liked, or made up, based on anything from Shark Week to the Shakespeare, they told it to each other in some weird sort of mating ritual. And Matthew had been lucky enough to be a sounding board for Alfred on how good certain ones were. Oh yeah, so lucky. Take these for example:
"Since distance equals velocity times time, let's let velocity and time approach infinity, because I want to go all the way with you!"
"If I was an enzyme, I'd be helicase so I could unzip your genes."
"You're like an exothermic reaction, you spread your hotness everywhere!"
“Honey, you’re my Superman; you have balls of steel!”
"If I was an endoplasmic reticulum, how would you want me: smooth or rough?"
“Baby, you’re so gneiss I’ll never take you for granite.”
Alfred did have a perchance for science related ones, which was more than a little annoying. Matthew had vetoed something involving projection vectors two months ago as too technical. Oh yeah, and that wasn’t the only revoltingly sweet thing his brother did. He’d once written an entire delta-epsilon proof as a weird sort of love poem to “prove” that Arthur and he belonged together. Arthur couldn’t understand the thing, which had made Alfred a little droopy for a couple days, bemoaning the state of mathematics in the world. Matthew had actually been a bit curious about it what with all the hoopla about it, so he’d secretly taken a copy to Ivan for interpretation, whom he was fairly certain wouldn’t spread it around. Ivan’s explanation hadn’t actually been that much better, math vocabulary wise, but after looking at the eight two-sided pages, complete with biological charts and mathematical graphs, Ivan had complimented it and called it “very good”. So underneath it all, Matthew knew it must have been pretty amazing.
Admittedly, Matthew hadn’t heard as many of Arthur’s share of the pickup lines, but the ones he had heard were always well thought out and put together, and then presented for maximum effect. For example: Arthur, Alfred, Matthew, Shane, and Steve all went out for ice cream during the lunch break at the UN. Apparently, Arthur and Alfred hadn’t seen each other in person for three weeks, and had been giving each other these ‘looks’ for the entire meeting. Matthew had known, he had known!, that it was all going to go downhill very quickly when Arthur had ordered a lemon ice pop. Matthew had attempted to ignore it, but honestly, couldn’t those two just go somewhere else? Arthur had taken a big long lick to catch Alfred’s attention. Arthur then proceeded to suck on the popsicle lewdly. Arthur had waited until Alfred had taken a big bite of vanilla and fudge, and then… “Oh,” Arthur finally had said lightly, face completely deadpan. “Don’t worry. It’s only a model.” That comment had sent a spray of Alfred’s sundae across the table, a vast majority ending up on Matthew’s suit. Matthew had been so annoyed that he’d voted against Alfred’s next big proposition when they reconvened just because.
So all in all, they were sickening, and Matthew was as jealous as a woodchuck in springtime. Not that he wanted either of them! That would be just… gross… plus Matthew was as straight as a ruler. He just wanted someone as well.
End of written section.
Matthew reaches the edge of the desert, enters into it and eventually finds Alfred. Here is a written section of that scene.
“Oh god…” was the only thing Matthew could whisper as he saw his brother lying face down in the sand, blood staining his normally red-gold hair deep burgundy. He barely heard Ginny’s choked gasp behind him as he rushed forward and knelt beside his brother’s body.
Alfred’s body was a wreck, his veins greenish in color standing out over his too pale skin. His substantial muscles were gone, all gone. Matthew touched his two fingers to just beneath Alfred’s jaw, prodding to find some resemblance to a pulse, but he found nothing, absolutely nothing. Matthew pressed an ear to his brother’s chest in a desperate effort to hear breathing, a heart beating, something! And then –
“Ginny, he’s alive! He’s alive, but barely!” Matthew cried out, barely daring to hope. Christ, thank god he’d got here when he did! “C’mon, you big lug.” Matthew grunted, and pulled Alfred’s surprisingly thin frame in a fireman’s carry. “Let’s get you somewhere better. Out of this sand.”
Matthew and occasionally Ginny carried Alfred out of the desert, but they couldn’t do anything about the creeping green filling his veins. After eight hours, they finally reached the edge of the marshlands. Alfred wasn’t much better, chest rising and falling sporadically, face alternately peaceful and pained in his unconscious state.
“Well, Freddie, this sure is a beauty.” Matthew said, touching the green lines on Alfred’s face gently. His forehead was burning up with fever. Ginny passed him a damp rag, and Matthew gently touched it to his forehead. His heart skipped a beat when Alfred’s eyelids suddenly slid open, and his irises were sickly green with poison.
“Arthur?” Alfred croaked out, and Matthew’s stomach dropped. “Is that you?”
“No, Freddie, it’s me, Matt.” Matthew said gently, taking one of Alfred’s hands in his own, and giving it a squeeze. “You need to get better, so we can go find Arthur.”
“Crowe, but that doesn’t matter, I found you!” Alfred’s unseeing eyes lit up.
Matthew squeezed tighter. “No, no Alfred, it’s me, your brother. Not Arthur.” Alfred was delirious, not, not an especially good sign…
“Arthur, come back with me, it’s not fun here. Bess and Amy are gone…” Alfred whined. There was so much sadness there, so much despair.
“Bess and Amy?” Ginny murmured to Matthew, and he had to cast his mind back, trying to find any sort of connection with Alfred and those names.
“I… I think they’re his guns, from World War Two or something, but I thought he lost those ages ago.” He said slowly, and Ginny reached forward to cradle his head in her lap. “No, wait, don’t, his blood is poisoned.” She paused, and withdrew her hand. “C’mon, Freddie. Sleep now, get better, I’ll be here when you wake up.” Matthew smoothed his hair gently.
“Arthur the Queen she’s taken you taken gone killed gone cursed, you have a curse I have to get you I have to break it, get it back, without you I can’t, I can’t –” Alfred was making absolutely no sense at all, now, and Matthew’s gasped as Alfred’s heart rate began to climb.
“Freddie hold on, just wait, don’t, don’t, just hold on, Alfred…” Matthew hauled Alfred bodily into his arms, trying to soothe him as he twitched violently.
“No no no you don’t understand I can’t you Arthur…” Alfred’s eyes shut tightly, and he was shivering violently. “Curse friend worst in forever Fuamnach I –“
Ginny gasped from behind him. “What? What is it?” Matthew half shouted, still trying to soothe his brother. “He’s just speaking gibberish now!”
“No, he’s, the Old Queen…” Ginny murmured. “How does he know anything about that…?” She gazed at Alfred in confusion.
“Alfred.” Alfred said, and gasped, gulping air. “America.”
“I know Freddie, just…” Matthew was at a complete loss at what to do. Perhaps Alfred was just going to have to regenerate then, if it was this bad. At least he’d wake up in no pain.
All at once, Alfred shuddered, and then went still. Matthew breathed out. So that was that then. They’d just wait a few minutes, and then he’d be fine, back to normal… Nothing. Nothing happened, no rosy cheeks, no blue eyes fluttering open, no smart aleck mouth. Matthew gaped as absolutely nothing happened.
And nothing happened for two. Fucking. Hours. Or five. Or seven. All of which Matthew kept vigil. “Matthew.” Ginny said gently, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I think he’s gone.”
Matthew stared at her for a moment before realizing that this was the reality of the situation. That Alfred was not coming back, that he’d never see his brother again. He wouldn’t charge in the front door, toting whatever latest movie or video game or constellation he’d made or played or found, respectively. No more pickup hockey games. No one constantly preaching about freedom and justice and liberty and all the ideals of what they all hoped to be. Everyone would see Matthew now, and Matthew only…
How could this happen? Alfred, Alfred wasn’t supposed to be dead, and he wasn’t supposed to look like this! Matthew looked up at Ginny, who had knelt beside him. “Please,” He begged her. “Please, please do something!”
“I can’t!” She choked out, and now she was crying, truly crying now, and Matthew knew he wasn’t far behind. “I can’t, he’s already dead, Matthew, and… and!” She lifted a slightly shaking hand, and moved Alfred’s dehydrated flesh into a better position. Like a corpse. Matthew couldn’t take it, he couldn’t take it anymore. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Alfred was the hero, and God, he was supposed to rescue his boyfriend and go home happy, back to overshadowing him from the South! With a choked gasp, Matthew began to sob in earnest. How could he have let him die? He just let him die, assuming that he would regenerate! He didn’t deserve anything, he’d rather it be him that Alfred… The world needed him more than it needed Matthew, anyways.
They sat like that in the cool night air for a long period of time, Matthew wasn’t sure how long, he didn’t care. Eventually he looked up at the girl he just might be falling in love with, who’s just seen someone die because of him… “What can I do with… with his body?” Matthew’s voice broke. “I mean… I need to go rescue Arthur now, and… and…”
Ginny’s bright eyes found his, and she placed a hand atop of his. “We shall place him with my husband. It is safe there, so, you and the brothers can, can, pick him up and take him home afterwards.”
“Yeah, Ginny, thanks.” Matthew forced out. He didn’t know what he would say to Alfred’s boss, and fuck, how the hell would they join the two countries, because fuck, Alfred had made him promise that it would be he who took his lands in the event that he did well and truly collapse. “Wait, husband?”
End written scene.
Turns out that not only is Ginny married, but she’s Gwenhwyfar from Arthurian legend. They put Alfred in the mausoleum with Arthur, Ginny thinking perhaps that when her husband returns to rule, he like the rest of the knights in the temple, will return to life as well. Matthew takes Alfred’s wallet as proof that he is dead, in order to convince a easily in denial Arthur.
Ginny tells her backstory pretty much outright. Here it is.
There was no Lancelot in their time. Lancelot was a questing knight going in search of Avalon in search of an apple to heal his dying father. He meets Gwenhwyfar (Ginny) and falls in love with her, even though she is desperately searching for a way to return to Arthur.
Ginny is a faerie, and was a minor novelty/noble in the Seelie Court, originally. She falls in love with Arthur, but in order to rule by his side, she must give up her faerie heritage. She consults Merlin in order to do so, and he approves the match, and helps her hide it. Darren is also in there somewhere, and he gives her a place to be a princess from in a King that has no children. Therefore she is the long forgotten princess. She spends some time with her father, learning human customs and such. The marriage seals the alliance with the Seelie Court. Her best friend Terence goes with her, and is Gawain's squire for the time. She initially rules well as Queen, much beloved by her husband and her people, who she loves as well.
Ginny and Arthur are both saddened when they find they cannot have children (Ginny's blood manifesting itself, reacting badly to Merlin’s spell), and although this does cause some momentary difficulty in their marriage, they still love each other. Ginny looks on Arthur (England) as a son and Darren as a brother, though it's different because she respects both of them greatly, and Arthur (England) is far too wise to actually be a child of his age.
But gradually, and especially after Merlin is whisked away, her faerie blood starts to show again. There is a reason why the fae were not meant to rule over humans.
This happens at a horrible pace after she finds out that Arthur had a bastard child (Medraut) with another woman before she even came into the picture, and in a rage, she denounces him and runs back to her home in the Seelie Court, who welcome her back with open arms, even if they do think she's a bit foolish.
Medraut is actually a decent guy here, and becomes a hero in his own right. He feels incredibly guilty about Ginny's flight, and he blames himself. Medraut's mother, however, is Mab, and she manipulates him and gives him the idea of going to war on the Seelie Court to get Ginny back, despite the long time alliance between Camelot and the Seelie Court.
Arthur pines for her, and desperately wants her back, and thus goes to war, where both he and Medraut fall. Medraut is given the option of going back "home" and becoming a Prince of the Unseelie Court. He refuses, and dies instead, while Morgana takes Arthur and weaves the spell of Avalon with a few of her friends to keep him mostly dead as opposed to completely dead.
They go into battle against the fae, and almost win, except the Seelie Court summons invaders from other shores, and Arthur's army goes back Aboveground greatly weakened and although they drive back the Saxons, Arthur dies, Medraut dies, and Darren is stolen away with Crowe.
Morgana was married to Urien but hated him deeply, and while a good older sister, never quite forgave Arthur for marrying her to him. She studied magic with Merlin, and they fell in love, and had an adulterous affair. Ginny is angered greatly by this, and casts her from the Court. It isn't Ginny's fault, for she is not quite human, so she is quick to anger and slow to forgive. She doesn’t have a soul. Morgana and Ginny hate each other after that. Morgana manipulates events somewhat so that Ginny leaves the court and renounces their love.
However, Merlin is already stolen away by this time, and Morgana sets off on a journey to find him, which leaves Arthur even more alone than before. She is therefore unavailable to stop Mab's manipulations. She eventually finds Merlin trapped in a tree, and sacrifices both her long, beautiful hair and her ability to leave Underhill in order to make him be able to have a physical presence once a year.
She arrives at the battle of Camlann a little late and no one recognizes her with her hair shorn off, but she is able to save Arthur (mostly ish).
When Ginny finally figures out partly where Arthur is and swallows her pride to ask Morgana for help, Morgana sets forth a set of tasks for her, following an old spell based on Scarborough Fair. The only way to be Arthur's True Love again is to complete a set of impossible tasks. Tasks: weave a cambric shirt with no seam or needlework; find an acre of land… etc. This will turn her completely human(soul and all) and thus able to reach Avalon (no fae can get there).
Ginny's faerie blood has always had the effect of making good men of pure heart fall in love with her (must have no True Love of their own). Matthew falls for her, along with Lancelot.
England does not know of Ginny's origins; only Darren, Merlin, Arthur, Terry, and eventually Morgana know.
Ginny is on the last task, and due to a helpful seer named Circe, had found out that she needed the help of a man who stood in three oceans at the same time in order to harvest the heather on the acre of land on the sea strand.
Back in real time, Matthew is now determined to find Arthur and at least inform him that Alfred is dead. Matthew and Ginny set off for the Unseelie Court. On the way, they meet and gain the help of Ruby Ritter. Ruby Ritter is a Lady Knight who is seeking eternal revenge against the Unseelie Court who enchanted her lover to be an inhuman monster (the Big Bad Wolf). The three of them end up in Sherwood Forest, and meet the spirits of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Matthew figures out through all of this that while his brother may have been the lone hero of classic literature, Matthew too can be a hero, and win through his friendships and the people he surrounds himself with. After gaining their friendship, they devise a plan of action to deal with the Unseelie Court. Matthew will go in first, get captured, then open up the place at night for them. They recognize that so many things could go wrong with this plan, but they feel this is the best way to coordinate their efforts with the Kirkland brothers.
The plan goes wrong when Matthew is gravely injured in the capturing part of the plan. Cut scene when Matthew blacks out when he is captured.
Arthur’s part in this, I must admit, is the least defined of all of them, given I had put it off until last, as it was last. Thus the outline is even rougher than Matthew’s section.
Here is a written section with Arthur reuniting with his brothers James and Darren for the first time in two hundred and eleven hundred years, respectively.
“Arthur.” The breathed name jerked Arthur awake like a bucket of water, complete with a gasp. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut as quickly as possible. If he denied it, if he dared not open his eyes, it would still be a dream, and he couldn’t wake up now. Last night couldn’t have happened. It must be the dream.
“Arthur, come on.” Arthur’s heart plummeted like stone. He hadn’t heard that ridiculously sing-song voice in millennia. If he was actually there… For the first time in his life, Arthur desperately wished it was another trick of Crowe’s. His brother, his eldest brother, his stubborn fucker of an older brother Darren… “Basdad ich…” Soft Welsh curses were spouting from his right. Arthur took a deep breath through his nose and looked at the black insides of his eyelids, hoping they were the vast infinities of dreams, but knowing it wasn’t reality. Bollocks, it had been true then.
Arthur let his eyelids blink open in a soft haze. Above him were two faces, one with dark hair (black as coal, his brain supplied), and one a vibrant hue so red it would look dyed if it wasn’t so nostalgically familiar. Thick eyebrows decorated both faces. One was swearing, the other looked about ready to kill him. Yeah, these were his brothers. Two of the three. Arthur groaned.
“Och, what did you think you were doin’, Artie?” James’s voice spat and spake like the odd bastard child of a fountain and a stove fire, especially given the amount of saliva on Arthur’s face. Bloody disgusting, as always. Arthur struggled to sit up. “I thought ye were smart enough not tae get taken? But no, he mustae been distraected by somat! Or did he forget that his entire fam’ly was trapped here, and tha they wanted him too? All our protections and magics and the like, useless, apparently! Do ya know how muchuvan effort it was to get wee Connall out? Now you too!”
James was on a roll. Arthur groaned and rolled his eyes, and he licked his suddenly dry lips as a horrible thought occurred to him. Drat it all James, he needed information!
“Is… is this the Unseelie Court?” Arthur asked slowly.
“Aye.” James replied testily. “That’s where we all are, last I knew.”
“And… did they get Alfred too?” Arthur asked softly, hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t true, couldn’t be true… He’d made sure, he done the damn circles of protection…
“No.” James answered shortly, as Darren, who Arthur now noticed was covered in a light dusting of soot, rather like a Victorian chimney sweep, asked in confusion: “Who?”
Arthur wasn’t quite sure how to describe him, or their relationship, exactly… Practically married but not? No, not quite… Not that he wanted the teasing from his brothers anyways.
James decided to answer for him. “Tugolbyre.”
“What?” Darren breathed, utterly shocked. “The – the one without magic? You know him?”
“Aye. Artie found him, wee thing, took him as a colony, then he got
End written section. Yes I did decide to make James have a ridiculous accent. Darren’s voice is sing song because that’s what a Welsh accent sounds like to a lot of people. Or one of the Welsh accents, anyway.
Arthur discovers there is a prophesy that states that the Unseelie Court can only hold three of the Kirkland brothers at one time, else they risk defeat of everything. Arthur also reviews the escape attempts made up to this point. The brothers are held, it turns out, by their own magic. So the more powerful they are, the tighter the bonds. That’s why Connall, with the weakest bonds, was able to get out when Darren and James worked together. Darren did try a simple upward transportation spell once, and landed socked in coal. It’s unknown how he got out of that one, but the coal dust has clung to him ever since.
Mab asks Arthur to guarantee the weather at her garden party. He agrees, he has to, but in rebellion, he never says what he’d guarantee it as. Arthur, always being good at water magic, makes it pour, hard, all over Underhill. (See giant rainstorm earlier on.)
Arthur meets up with Clovehoof the Unicorn again at some point.
Arthur also sees his mother again, and she holds a high position in Court. She does not remember him, and he hates this. The brothers agree that if they could get their mother to remember where she is supposed to be, they could escape.
Court intrigue abounds, and a lot of comparing and contrasting between various cultures goes on. Various themes introduced include: the freedom of choice, good or bad; Forced into doing something or coerced; Gilded cage prisonership, etc.
Arthur fights a nobleman after he makes a move on his mother, and he is knocked severely unconscious. There he meets Alfred in the desert. We see that scene for the third time, from Arthur’s point of view.
One day, Matthew is captured and arrives at Court, in a bad state. Here is his arrival.
“What’s wrong with him?” Arthur cried, grabbing Matthew’s shoulders and shaking him violently. No no no this wasn’t supposed to be happening, not Matthew, not him, he wasn’t even supposed to be here he wasn’t how had this happened, it was all Arthur’s fault.
Suddenly, Matthew’s eyes flickered open behind his round spectacles. He looked surprised to see Arthur, and then he began choking, hacking, the red drops of blood staining his too white chin. “Al… he’s… he’s dead.”
“What?” Arthur gasped, and all his brothers stiffened around him.
Matthew seemed to steel himself. “I… I found him… edge of desert… poison… Laid him… to rest… safe now… he’s dead.”
No no no no no… Arthur blinked twice, willing it not to be true. “No, you must’ve been fooled, Alfred can’t be…”
Matthew’s face was pained. “Pocket… look in my… pocket.”
Arthur paused for a moment. Did he… did he want to see what was in there? Arthur was incredibly good at being in denial, especially if there was hope… His hand hovered uncertainly over Matthew’s coat.
With an exasperated noise, James opened Matthew’s pocket himself, and pulled out Alfred’s old, fat, beat up wallet, and handed it to Arthur. Arthur took it with shaking hands.
The leather was old and that odd, mud-colored shade that Alfred was fond of. Arthur opened the bifold slowly, and there were his five driver’s licenses, from California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois, all with a slightly different picture and all with a different middle name. Franklin, Fulton, Floyd, Frederick, Farrell… There were his two credit cards, and his security clearance, his FBI badge, his Costco and Kroger membership cards, his DVD rental card on which he only needed to rent twice more before he got one free, a gift card to Home Depot, his passport. In the large billfold was $67 in cash, and then £15, and a $50 traveler’s check.
And then onto Arthur’s lap fell several pieces of paper. Arthur opened the graph paper first. It was a list. Of pickup lines. “You’re so cute you make my zygomaticus muscles contract.” And “When you and me get together it’s like superposition of 2 waves in phase.” Oh god, then “If I was sin2x and you were cos2x together we would be 1”, and all were in his forward slanting, slashing, cramped, upward-sloping, heavy-pressed handwriting. He’d been saving them for him.
The last though, was not in Alfred’s hand, and that’s what finally convinced him. It was an old, oft folded piece of paper, yellowing slightly with age. And it was in Arthur’s hand. It was this letter that Alfred kept in his wallet, day in and day out. Oh God…
Dearest Alfred, I am generally better with the written word on these things than I am speaking them aloud, so I’m sending you this letter to express what I find I cannot in person. I am not sure of when it started, exactly, but I do know it was some point after the First World War, but before the Second. I think all of Europe knows of my feelings at this point, so it’s only fair that you do as well. But I want it to be known that it didn’t start when you were a child; it started long after that, when you were no longer my adopted little brother. If you ever were in some ways… I do admit that I wasn’t around much until you were already grown. But none of that matters, just that you know that I did not feel this way when you were a child. I know that I am in the waning days of my Empire and power in the world; you are simply waxing, growing every day and taking your place this time with a vengeance. I know that the sun is setting on me, but you are in the west, and it is simply rising for you. These will be dangerous times, for all of us can read that at least on the wind. Know that whatever happens between us, I will stand by you. I may be waning, but I still have power and influence in the world, I have military bases in strategic locations. I am developing my own nuclear weapons, and I will at least have some power in this new order. If you don’t feel the same way I do, simply ignore this missive, and if I do not hear from you, I will assume that this is your reply, and I will bury these feelings as deeply as possible so as they do not interfere with our daily interaction. All my love, Arthur Alfred had come up to his door, holding the letter in his hand, banging away, and asked him frankly, when he opened the door, what the hell this letter was and if he loved him. Then he had roughly grabbed him and –
Arthur couldn’t think. “How—how could he die? He must’ve healed.”
“He… couldn’t…” Matthew breathed.
End written section.
Arthur saves Matthew with the Nine Herb Charm and some quick thinking. Arthur does however go into a bit of a depression over the fact that he thinks he killed Alfred, leaving the escape planning to the other three.
Switch back to Matthew’s point of view. He coordinates the exit strategy with his outside forces through secret codes, using them as a bit of a tribute to Alfred in a way. Finally, the day for the escape comes. Arthur has woken up enough due to some brotherly intervention and an odd dream to be useful. He plays at submitting to Mab. Matthew opens the door, the forces infiltrate, including Connall and Adain, who had both found themselves with the invading forces. Prophesy fulfilled, check. Adain and Darren are immensely happy to see each other after so long.
And out pops Alfred, out of the blue, and immediately begins fighting, throwing a sword to Arthur, and echoing the dialogue from the dream in Chapter 15, but with better results.
Here is the dialogue.
Arthur: Alfred what in the bloody five ages are you doing here?!
Alfred: Saving you!
Arthur: What made you think I needed saving?
Alfred: Because… you belong on my hard drive… deep within my C drive!
Arthur: Oh Gaia… Al… as much as I love you, that's one of your worst ones yet!
Alfred: Well what do you expect? We're fighting for our lives.
Arthur: Speaking of… a sword… that's new.
Alfred: Yeah, I've had a bit of an adventure.
Arthur: Well I'm glad someone could succeed at the impossible.
Alfred: We've always managed to before.
Arthur: You're impossible. Did you know you managed to convince Matthew that you died?
Alfred: What? Matt's here?
Arthur: Yes, he apparently thought you needed saving too.
Alfred: Me?
Arthur: Yes, you. You always need saving.
Alfred: Isn’t that your job?
End dialogue.
Things seem to be going fairly well, that is, until Mummy Kirkland gets involved, and pulls a dagger on her own son (Arthur). Alfred attempts to calm her, to gain her attention. It works when he says something dramatic, in that he now knows all the answers.
Cut scene to Midir’s. This is part of the exposition.
Midir’s smile lifted slightly. “Here,” he said, “Let us play.” He set a board along the table.
Alfred eyed him warily. “Sorry, but I don’t know how to play. And I’ve been told that I shouldn’t play games if I don’t know the rules.”
Midir laughed, and it was dark but fatherly, like the harsh, blinding winds of an avenging storm that protects, and keeps predators away from prey in the night. “Good, you already know the first rule then. And I think you know the second. Well? If you don’t know the rules, and you must play, then what?” His voice hung silky smooth in the air, a threat to answer.
Alfred thought. “Well…” What did he have to lose? “Cheat, then, I guess.”
Midir stared at him wide-eyed for a second, and then burst out into laughter. “Well then, certainly an option, Bairn… certainly… you do like to do the impossible, don’t you?”
Alfred smiled, glad to be on familiar ground once more. “Of course. Not many people can walk on the moon.”
Midir simply raised an eyebrow at him. “What is so special about moon-walking? Diana used to host parties up there, you know.”
Seriously? “In my world at least –“
“I know, lad. Sit. I will teach you, and tell you all that I can tell you.”
“Why does the Unseelie Court want Albia and his family?”
“The better question, is, perhaps, why do they want Angharad and hers?”
Alfred sighed. “Alright, fine. Why do they want Arthur’s Mom and her kids?”
“What would you do, if your people were hurting badly, and only you could help them?”
“Help them, of course. At any cost.”
“Such is a nation’s lot in life, so I’ve been told. And Angharad knew hers.” Midir stood, and unlocked a chest. “Here.” He offered Alfred a glass sphere filled with smoke about six inches in diameter. “This will explain things. Put your hand with mine.”
Alfred looked between the sphere and Midir’s angular face. He could trust him, right? He extended his palm, and placed it on the sphere.
There was a flurry of movement, a swirl of color and magic.
Suddenly Alfred was standing in a grand throne room, surrounded by various magical creatures of all kinds. He spun, trying to see everything. Wow, was this…?
“Tir na nOg.” Midir answered for him dispassionately. “When I had the throne. It was beautiful, wasn’t it? And that is Fúamnach, my wife and Queen.”
Alfred turned, and there sat two glittering figures upon the throne; Midir, ageless as ever, and a woman his equal, hair black and curly, yet wild and free.
“Here we were happy, powerful, content, thirsting for more and more as we ever do. But I owed a favor, a favor to Oberon, so long ago that I had nearly forgotten. But he called it in one day. It turns out he had had a child with a peasant girl, and Titannia was furious. Midraed the Wise had foreseen that the child would be great, and thus he charged me with caring for the child, and making sure it came to no harm. But the thing was… I never expected ending up loving the child as my own. During the days I would entrust the child to Angharad, for she loved him as much as I, and at nights I would leave the castle and care for him myself. It was only for six years, enough to get him self-sufficient. After that I entrusted the Court to Fúamnach, and made this place, a shimmer between worlds. If you left through one of the garden gates, you would be in Tir na nOg, the other in Bru na Boinne, for that was where his mother lived, his real mother. And I groomed him to take his rightful kingdom one day, to be a great hero, for how could I do any less? Angharad loved him too. And so Aengus grew up safe, and happy, and loved. He took his rightful place as King.”
“But then I fell in love. With Étaín, the princess of a neighboring kingdom. Aengus had loved her for a long time, I later found out, but I never knew. And his foster sons, these pages Aengus was mentoring, blinded me when I came. So for my debt, Aengus had to convince Étaín to marry me, the Faerie King. And he did, even though he loved her.
“Needless to say, Fúamnach was… displeased by the course of events, and she—“
“She cursed me into a puddle of water, so that would evaporate and die. But I survived, perhaps my magic manifesting or some such thing, and I went to Aengus, for he was warm, real, and so very not fae. He hid me.” Etain broke in.
“And they were lovers. But… well, our marriage was in shambles back at Court, and our power was not what it once was, for we were now divided, and I wanted to hurt her so badly, for I knew that Étaín had died by her hand. Angharad tried to soothe things, but she… well, there was only so much she could do, and she accidentally let slip that Étaín was alive to Fúamnach.”
“She turned me into a caterpillar, about to transform into a butterfly, and Aengus too thought I was dead. And he, bless his soul, his good soul, he tried to avenge us all, and went to kill Fúamnach.”
“He did, he killed her by beheading, and he remains the only human to ever kill a fae, even though this statement is false, as I and only a few others know that he is half-fae. This set everyone off, demanding his blood, even the Seelie Court, even Oberon, for this danger, this one who can kill immortal fae cannot be allowed to live. They demanded I do it, for they thought I had the best chance, being his brother now. And… and that I was to marry Mab, for throne lines travel in the female line. I couldn’t marry her, not Mab, so I…”
“He went to find Aengus on his own on a solitary quest, a solitary Hunt, and stupid men…
“You killed her! Why did you kill her Aengus? Now I have to kill you!”
“I’d like tae see you try. I’ve killed one fae, don’t put it past me tae do it again.” Aengus growled. “If only you ‘and’t married ‘er, she wouldn’t be dead!”
“You stupid men, just… STOP!” The word of power threw them both back. “Don’t you see what you are doing, I can’t, I can’t watch this anymore, my brother and child… Midir, have you even Looked at him?” Angharad cried.
“Why would I need to look at him, I’m sure he reeks of death and destruction—“
“Like you’re any better!”
“Look. If you ever loved him, stay your hand and Look.”
“…Angharad. How is he like this?”
“Like what?”
“Aengus… you’re immortal.”
“Death wishes are very powerful things, and Fúamnach packed quite the punch.”
“But… but why would she give me immortality?”
“Look deeper Midir. I haven’t been able to get it off. Never seen anything like it.”
“Aengus… and I think I’m reading this right… but you’ll be a ghost once you die, unable to move on, and you’ll sleep, sleep for a hundred years, awake for a year and a day.”
“What?” Aengus croaked out, disbelieving.
“I can’t kill you.” Midir choked out, but straightened determinedly. “I won’t sentence you to your fate early. You will have a long and happy life if I have anything to say about it.”
End written text. Here is a more concise summary.
After Étaín is cursed by Fúamnach, she runs back to Aengus, and becomes his lover, familiar with someone and something she knows. She stays there for a year and a day, during which Midir mourns for her, not knowing she is alive. Midir and Fúamnach's marriage is in shambles. There is great unrest in the Court, and their power is not what it was when they were unified. Fúamnach blames Étaín for this too, and through a slip in Angharad's tongue, finds out that she is still alive. She finds them, and transforms Étaín into a bug ( a caterpillar about to turn into a butterfly, actually). Aengus too thinks she is dead, and not having the constraints of a Faerie Court to deal with, sets off on a path of revenge for the three of them. He manages to kill Fúamnach, the only human to ever kill a faerie. This of course sends both Courts into an uproar. They demand that Midir kill his foster brother. Fúamnach's younger and somewhat more devious sister Mab is heir apparent, and a marriage between Midir and Mab seems imminent. Despairing, for he does not like Mab a whole lot, Midir sets off on a solitary quest to hunt Aengus. When they finally meet, they are evenly matched, and a lot of blame grief talking occurs. Angharad steps in, and stops them from killing each other. She demands Midir look at the magic surrounding Aengus, and thus he discovers Fúamnach's death wish; that after Aengus dies, he cannot pass on, but is instead immortal as a ghost, who shall sleep for one hundred years and be awake for a year and a day. He finds he cannot kill Aengus, and lets him go. Angharad has known for a while what she must do -- she must cut off Underhill from Aboveground entirely, and to do that, she would need to leave this land, and become the personification of Underhill. Therefore, she needs a child. She and Midir have sex, and nine months later, Darren is born. Aengus lives out his life, but Étaín is reborn, and Midir goes into hiding. Mab takes over the Court. Midir wins back Étaín through some complicated trickery. As Angharad becomes gradually more fae, she has more children. James's father is a Seelie Knight. Connall's father is a half fae-half human, the son of Étaín's second husband's daughter. By the time she realizes she needs one more (fourth time's the charm?) she is almost completely fae, and Arthur's father is Marcus (Rome).
Darren would sometimes visit Midir and he always enjoyed it, though he never knew that he was visiting his father. Midir and Étaín know that Darren is Midir's son, but they never tell him, nor does Adain know. When Alfred arrives at the Seelie Court, he spots a knight that he initially mistakes for James. Darren has Midir's dark hair, but that's about it, so he doesn't realize it. Connall's father died in the backlash from some dark magic, so Angharad bound his magic secretly.
Crowe married a girl once who was a very powerful magician. She had heard tales of him leaving the woman he married, and she desperately wanted him to stay. She secretly laid a curse on him to make himnot be able to live without her, which is very powerful dark magic. He does leave her because she wants their children back and she forgets her comb. She fails the test because she didn't know she was being tested, and is still looking for her children in ghost form, unable to rest because of her spirit. Crowe is no longer himself, and desperately tries to get her curse lifted from him; thus partly why he kidnaps Angharad, for since she is in theory everyone in the nation, she can possibly also life the curse. Also Mab wants her.
Alfred’s sword is Durandal, from the Matter of France. I would’ve gone over my version of the legend in the story, but it seems a bit much here.
Back in present time, Alfred demands that Mab let them go. She demands he physically fight one of her knights, and Arthur quickly agrees for him, not knowing that Alfred’s super strength is gone. Not able to back out now, Alfred agrees to the agreement, on the condition that they have a battle of wits after.
Alfred ends up fighting and losing badly to Crowe. Since Alfred is still alive, simply too weak to move, the battle of wits begins. Since Crowe won the fight, he has first test. Crowe begins to try to pull his soul out of his body using his True Name. Alfred simply grins, lets him try and watches him fail, before he pulls out his final trump card: he doesn’t have one. A True Name, that is. Alfred gets on his soap box and does this long speech about how he doesn’t have a True Name, because he defines himself.
For Alfred’s test, he pulls out an apple from his bag, tosses it to Crowe, who looks at it, then hands it back. Alfred then takes out his knife and chops it in half. One of the halves is poisoned, he says. Crowe picks, they both eat, and Crowe dies as the apple from the tree that was infused with Alfred’s blood leeches all of the magic out of him.
Pandemonium ensues when Ginny leaps forward and cuts a lock of Crowe’s hair, the heather she needed to get to gain her soul. Now vulnerable, she is almost killed by the Unseelies, but Matthew saves her, and tells her to be happy with Arthur.
Then Lord Anwnn releases the Hell Hounds. Arthur gets the idea to channel magic into Alfred to open a gewind, and asks Alfred if he can do it, even if it will dull his soul slightly. Alfred doesn’t care, and Arthur does it, opening up a portal. The brothers tell them to go, as Alfred is now the one they want.
Alfred and Arthur do transportation spell after transportation spell, tearing them all over Britain. The last place they arrive is Stonehenge, and they meet up with the rest of them, as they had followed through. Surrounded, they are prepared to fight, when finally, Angharad wakes. She becomes aware of everything, and uses her power as the personification of Underhill to squash the actions of all the fae there, saving their skins.
There is a teary reunion, and then Angharad demands the diamond on Mab’s neck, and gives it to Arthur. It contains the stripped away superstrength. Angharad must stay in Underhill, and now that she is fully the personification, can seal the worlds away from each other forever. Although the Kirkland children are reluctant to let her do this after having only just gotten her again, they accept it after she spews a line about choosing their own destinies. Adain asks if he can stay, and if he could now be regular size again. Angharad agrees, but gives him a choice in size, as being miniature would probably help in the modern world. She gives Arthur the ability to open one more gewind, and tells him to use it well. And then she disappears, and the magic seeps back into the soil.
There are a couple of different ways I was considering this going. Alfred could have been forced at one point to give up his ability to love in order to save Arthur. But here is the happy ending. There is one epilogue. Here is part of it.
Three men walked quickly and efficiently up to a circle of monoliths in the grass, mist and fog obscuring them slightly as their shoes squeaked in the grass. After they reached the center, they stopped as one without a clear signal from any of them.
One of them – the shortest – breathed in the air, a look of relief and joy on his face, as if reveling in the familiar smell of ancient magic and air. The other two looked to each other, smiled at some private joke, and then waited.
Once the first opened his eyes again, one of the other two (the one with the sword strapped around his waist) asked: “So this is it, then?”
“Most certainly.” He replied. “Now, Matthew, you’ll need to hold it open, but make sure nothing comes out afterwards. I… I haven’t done this in a while, in – ”
“In a hundred years.” The other two chorused together. The one with a lazy, loving smile continued: “We know, Arthur. Trust me, I was there.”
Arthur glared at them, though there was definite fondness in the look. “Well, then, forgive me if this takes a bit.” He sighed. “You know, Al, Matthew, it’s very disconcerting when you two do that. There are times when I do wish you hadn’t unified.” He flipped open his wrist screen and began to mutter the words on the projection.
Alfred and Matthew looked at each other and shrugged. They knew better than to interrupt Arthur when he was casting.
Finally, after about a minute of careful spellwork, they all felt the telltale invisible wind of a Gewind. “Shall we, Al?” Arthur held out his hand.
Alfred grasped it with a grin. “Lead on.”
With two steps, they were Underhill. Alfred looked around in amazement as they set off towards the North. Nothing had changed in the last one hundred years. The trees still giggled at the two of them, and he was fairly certain there were sentient rocks here as well. It was all very familiar, and Alfred looked over to see Arthur’s quiet smile.
It was all the same, unlike Aboveground. Alfred’s mind wandered back to the events of the last one hundred years. It was… quite the jumble. Space colonization, Martian independence, comet landings, blasting away the asteroid that was about to hit them with a nuke like a pro… wow that was old slang. Better not mention that to Arthur, else he’d be treated to Shakespearean slang all afternoon. But there was also Yao’s rise in power, and climate change and everything. Those two were most important for Alfred, because he and Matthew had unified into the North American Union because of them. There were the droughts, and the oil… Alfred and Matthew had benefitted mutually from it, becoming together the most powerful supernation in the world. Then Yao’s fall, and Ivan’s rise again… But their country had remained on top for most of the century. Alfred’s concerns now revolved somewhat around the threeway conflict about to happen about mining rights on the asteroids…
Alfred shook himself, grinning a little at his own foolishness. This wasn’t about all that right now. They were here for a purpose. Alfred squeezed Arthur’s hand once, and received a squeeze back.
Alfred and Arthur’s relationship had remained strong, which was something he was grateful for. They still had their disagreements about things… that fight midcentury about Alfred’s overreacting paranoia and Arthur’s misinterpretation lingered in their minds as a reminder of what they had to lose. Like the sex. The sex was still fantastic. And now that they could get over the Atlantic in one and a half hours, they could live together mostly full time.
Alfred knew that Arthur dreamed of uniting and leading Europe to greatness, to a supernation status like his and Matthew’s. They never spoke of it, but Alfred wished for it too in a part of his mind. He wanted Arthur on an equal status with himself, something that hadn’t happened in the entire time they’d known each other. It had always been one way or the other. Arthur had been gradually growing closer to Europe in the years, though all of them were firmly entrenched in what the others referred to as the ‘Anglo-Saxon sphere’, which was himself, Matthew, Arthur and his brothers, Steve, and Shane. Their little family. But Alfred knew Arthur wanted to be great again. He just wasn’t sure how Arthur would do it, especially since most of his leaders hadn’t been very charismatic at all.
Alfred also knew that he had mellowed somewhat in the century, though he remained as scatterbrained as ever. It was actually really nice to share a country with someone, therefore they shared the work generally, and Alfred had more time to piddle down in his lab. Though he was still the one they paid most of the attention to.
Finally descending down into the ground, Alfred took the lead, trying to remember the path from that fateful expedition a century ago. A brief encounter with a dwarf led to the surrendering of his final silver apple, and they were allowed into the caverns. After reaching a certain passageway and double checking his memory twice, Alfred and Arthur sat down to wait.
Their guess was fairly accurate, and they only had to wait two days, before a silver ghost-like figure gradually faded into existence, stretching his limbs and yawning. At first he looked at them in horror. “What? You two’re still stuck down ‘ere?”
After a quick explanation, Aengus was so happy to see them, and there was hugging and handshaking all around.
End written text. It is not finished, but it would’ve ended on a really heartwarming note, and them pulling out a solution to let Aengus finally pass on.
So there it is. That’s the plot. Most of the big questions I posed were answered. If I've forgotten any, let me know!
I will answer any questions posted below. Please feel free to ask them! :) I love you all, you’re the most supportive people on the meme.
This is another awesome fill of saving another nation from the fae, the other being 'Croatoan'. After reading that, I have always wanted to read a fill where Alfred saves Arthur instead of the other way around... and there's this fill. I love how you do the story, how you make it as Alfred's POV in the beginning and then changed it to other POV later on... which is really nice.
All in all, I don't really mind the ending, at least you satisfied readers from curiosity on whether Arthur is saved or not. Although the fact you managed to do them all is really great, which I see that if you truly write all the scene, I'm sure they'll reach 15,000+ words.
I started to ramble here, so yeah, although I want to know what will be your pen name for your books. I know you are really, really good in writing, which can be seen in this fill, so, yeah, I do hope I'll see them in bookstores!
Wow, this was a monster. I understand why you dumped everything at once, but it seems a shame that I'll never be able to fully comment on everything. I don't begrudge you your ambition though, I wish more people did something with their talent--as much as I enjoy the gift-culture of fanworks. Sadly, whatever original work you make, it won't be the same as Al and Arthur. Not that you can't have nation avatar/nation goddesses..
Ha ha, knew it was Durandal. (Flame of the West, ho ho)
Love your notion of living minerals. CS Lewis had that too, but he never fully went into it. So much of Narnia is unknown to us..
Those are some pretty corny lines BTW. Almost as bad as puns.
Gah, I love the idea of Wales being Mithir's son. Makes me want to open my Chronicles of Prydain books and try to imagine Wales in his own native sort of adventure.
Your spellchecker has some funny miswordings. I think one was making 'penchant' into 'perchance'.
I swear I've run across Angharad in some faerie book before, possibly something about a kidnapped mortal woman. It tickles me to think of her as Mother Britain.
Hetalia has opened so much to me. Since finding out about the Material of France, I'm curious about that, and after Fan Arguments about Holy Roman Empire, I understand a little more about Aquitaine and how all the folklores sort of mix together at some point. And that's just Europe!
Can't think of any questions in particular, but good luck!
You skipped telling us how Alfred suddenly shows up out of the blue alive. I presume it's supposed to be part of his time with Mithir, but he doesn't even seem aware that he died again.
I was curious what aspects of Alfred did Matthew take on? The ahoge? The eye color? Mental tweaks?
Just what is the faerie aesthetic? (Just seems like a lot of mortals would fulfill the Lack of Magic thing.)
Just happened to check this after so long, wondering what had become of the fill. If it had been finished. I can totally understand your wishes for ending it like this. Even though, it's not quite the same as everything unfolding like it had in the first parts. But, again, I understand your reasons for it, and don't begrudge you them at all. I'm just glad that you didn't drop it altogether and shared the rest of it. Thank you for that. This was a very special, fanciful, and enchanting fill. I really enjoyed reading it, and I'm glad you decided to do this fill. I hope you do well with the alternate version that you plan to develop and publish and I hope I get to read it someday--though it won't quite be the same as having the main characters Alfred and Arthur. I really liked Matthews role. You explored a lot of good, deep themes that I wouldn't expect to find in most fills or fanfiction in general.
And, I love that I totally called the name of Alfred's sword all that time ago. It was a very sweet ending. Other than those asked by the anon above, I don't have any other questions that I can think of. Only praise that would continue exceed the character limits. I feel kind of bittersweet about this being my last comment for this fill. So, I'll just stop my review here with more general good wishes and additional thanks for a truly memorable story that I plan to bookmark and reread again some day.
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Crowe END/j
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:33 am (UTC)(link)Alfred stays for an unspecified period of time, until he is finally rescued by Puck, or Robin Goodfellow. Goodfellow offers to free Alfred if he will do him a favor. Favors are binding to the fae, and are taken seriously. After realizing what had happened to him, Alfred quickly agrees, and they set off through Seelie territory. Explanation of names of territories. Irish "Tír na nÓg" (country of the young) - Unseelie Court. Welsh "Gwlâd yr Hâv" (land of summer) - Seelie Court.
They track down a group of True Name Slavers, the leader of whom is named Hoek, who have captured people and control them by knowing their True Names. There are spells they have cause you to reveal your True Name. Puck calls in his favor to Alfred, and has him rescue a mermaid named Winderly. Alfred does, but wonders why he can do this, but Robin can’t. There is a big show of reconciliation and such as she doesn’t remember Robin initially due to another complication with her True Name. Robin kisses her (True Love’s kiss), and she remembers, breaking the curse. It is revealed that Robin fell in love a long time ago with Winderly, but neither side approved. Winderly gave a hag a lock of hair in exchange for fairy dust to give herself legs, like Puck, but when she went to meet at their regular meeting place, she was captured. Basically a fusion of Peter Pan and the Little Mermaid.
Puck says he will introduce him to someone who can get him to Midir’s if he waits with Winderly and protects her. When asked where he is going, Puck replies “I’m off to call in a favor with a cat. Cats are not easy to find if they do not want to be found. Fortunately, I’m me.” I’m glad I’ll get to write Puck later in my story, as he is one of the things I was looking forward to most in this story. He’s a lot of fun. Puck returns after a thorough description of Mer-society is done, during which Alfred and Winderly make another daring escape from Lord Anwnn, the Cheshire Cat in tow. The Cat is mysterious, naturally, in a way reminiscent of Adain, but less annoying and substantially more fluffy. Robin is now on a mission to get Winderly a new True Name before the slavers can get her again. The Cheshire Cat gives him the solution, which seems to be a series of impossible tasks. Puck immediately dismisses them as easy/normal enough, though he is puzzled when the Cat puts in the greatest poison ever to reach Underhill. Alfred knows this is his blood, and volunteers it. At the end of it, Winderly has a new True Name.
Winderly and Robin lead Alfred to Midir’s, meeting Nicholas Flamel along the way, and they actually reach it. Robin treats Midir with a mixture of deference, distrust, and envy. He reveals that he and Winderly are leaving all Courts, such as Midir did. But he still dislikes Midir. Winderly leaves Alfred with a scale from her old tail, as a gift of friendship. We first see Midir and Etain welcoming Alfred into their home. Midir has dark hair, black as coal. Midir sits Alfred down and begins to teach him fidchell. End of Alfred section one.
Cut to Matthew, attending the conference for Alfred, passively furious at his brother. Here is a bit written for that.
Crowe END/k
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:34 am (UTC)(link)Matthew sighed to himself as he flipped through the pages of the Secretary’s report that his fax machine had spat out of the fifteenth. Of course he ended up covering for Freddie. Just like every time. He was surprised though that Alfred had chosen to miss this particular speech, because it was right up his alley; stuff about space and the eventual privatization of interstellar travel. Matthew skimmed a paragraph or two. Yep, the thing read like a science fiction novel. Why hadn’t Alfred come? Surely a month away with Arthur couldn’t be worth missing one of the few speeches he wouldn’t mind doing in a decade… Matthew scowled. Of course it was worth it to him. Alfred hated speeches on any topic, or it sure seemed like it with the amount of time he spend complaining to Matthew.
The surprising thing was that Connall actually was covering for Arthur like Alfred said. Matthew smiled. He had always liked Connall. But when he jokingly asked where Alfred and Arthur were, Connall had only shrugged it off, not meeting him in the eye. Now Matthew knew something was up, but pretended he didn’t know it.
Matthew picked idly at the “I’d rather be hiking!” sticker on the front of his binder, right next to the one of his flag. It was weird and horribly depressing whenever he covered for Alfred, because he got so much more attention that way. Everyone wondered where Alfred had gone. They might not care for Alfred personally, but boy did they notice when he wasn’t being the 800lb behemoth in the room. Matthew waved them away with a mumble about an island getaway…
When everyone went to break, he pulled out his phone for the umpteenth time in the past weeks and called Alfred again. It immediately went to voicemail, and Matthew ground his teeth in frustration and waited until Freddie’s voice stopped babbling something absolutely false about calling him back. “Hello Freddie, I only really have one thing to say… Where the hell are you? I swear, you owe me big time. Because Francis decided to invade England again, just so you know, in case you aren’t getting news where you are. I’m not sure if they have cable in Tahiti… anyways, so it’s Norman Invasion two-point-oh, and if you two don’t get back soon, missiles are going to start flying!” Matthew hung up with a scowl. If Arthur didn’t insist they come back for that, Matthew wasn’t sure what else would work. Alfred was in such big trouble. Really, his miserable message did not allow Alfred to dump all his work on Matthew.
Matthew did not enjoy Alfred’s speech. Honestly what did he know about privatization of space travel, especially since Alfred had discontinued the shuttle program with their Canadian made arms? He was sure that if Alfred had been the one delivering the speech, it would have been enthusiastic to the point of ridiculousness, but in Matthew’s soft monotone, it honestly sounded wooden. He hated doing this. Why couldn’t have Alfred asked Steve instead? Really?
Crowe END/l
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:35 am (UTC)(link)By the time Miguel wandered over with a question about Alfred’s Coast Guard, Matthew was at his wit’s end. What the hell, how the heck was Matthew supposed to know about his Coast Guard? Before Matthew could actually snap though, Steve had walked over, and drug him and Shane out to eat at their usual restaurant. Well, ‘their’ was more him, Steve, Shane, and then AlfredandArthur, (yes they were one word, don’t question it.) But as the latter… entity… wasn’t around at the moment, it was just the three of them in their weird sort of family.
“So when’re they coming back?” Steve finally said, twirling his fork in beef stroganoff. “It wasn’t very polite of them to not tell us they were leaving.”
Matthew sighed, and stared down at his Alaskan farm grown salmon on his plate. “I have absolutely no idea.” He sighed again. “He didn’t say.”
“Well what did he say?” Steve asked, and Shane leaned over in interest. “It’s more than any of the rest of us got.”
Matthew sighed (what was it about Alfred that made him sigh so much?) and pulled out his phone, and played the message. “Matt, hey it’s me, Al, um, not calling to say hi. Arthur’s kinda gone AWOL so I’m off to find him. Umm, you probably won’t be able to reach me once I end up where he is. So, if we don’t get back in time for the next world meeting, could you cover for me? I’m gonna ask Connall to cover for Arthur, so that should tell you that we’re not just taking some giant vacation or something. Trust me this time please. Thanks bro, I really mean it. Bye!”
Steve whistled and Shane nodded. “Yep, you’re screwed.” Shane replied succinctly.
The meal continued on relatively normally, well as normal as it was without Alfred and Arthur, until Shane began looking hard at Matthew. Matthew wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, hoping it was just some stray sauce or something. But Shane continued staring. Matthew laughed self-consciously. “I have something in my teeth, eh?”
But Shane shook his head. “Look, did you get a new haircut or something? It looks different, but I can’t tell why…”
Matthew shook his head. Perhaps he’d just been too distracted by his idiotic brother to notice. Seriously, Alfred needed to come back.
But by the time that a ton of people had come to talk to Matthew in Alfred’s stead, from everything from military and economy to airplanes and Barbie dolls, Matthew began to wonder. Alfred had missed so many engagements, so many commitments it was ridiculous. Even Alfred wouldn’t miss all of that, would he? Arthur wouldn’t let him, right?
Crowe END/m
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:35 am (UTC)(link)This had been going on far too long to be entirely comfortable, not that it ever was. Something was wrong. And Connall knew something. Matthew was going to figure out what exactly it was. But Matthew just couldn’t seem to corner him at all, and that was even more suspicious. AWOL, Alfred had said. So something military? Matthew spend Feliciano’s speech writing out Alfred’s phone message again and trying to figure out if Alfred had been trying to make some sort of code. It would be just like his brother.
End of section. Matthew then confronts Connall. Here is some written for that.
“One might’ve thought you’d be grateful for the reminder.” Connall spoke lowly, expression hard.
Matthew was about ready to tear his hair out. “No! I do not and have never wanted to be my brother!” That was only about half true, but Matthew really didn’t want to think about that right now, not when he was turning into him little by little, replacing him… “I’m Matthew! Not Alfred, not Arthur, not Francis!”
“Then who are you exactly?” Connall said harshly, making a broad sweeping gesture quickly with his hand. “What makes you so different from everybody else?”
At this Matthew opened his mouth to answer, and stopped when he found he wasn’t able to.
Connall apparently took this itself as an answer. “There, you see? The boy trusted you to take care of his people for him. You’re the best choice now that he’s not coming back –“
“What do you mean, not coming back?” Matthew said, jumping on that new fact. “What have you done with them? I know you don’t like Arthur, but—“
“No!” Connall overrode him firmly, eyes hard. “I did nothing! It was Crowe! Old Crowe!”
Matthew paused. The name tickled at the edge of his conscience, but he couldn’t remember much about it, except a vague terror that chilled him to the bone. He leaned over the other nation. “You will tell me exactly what happened, or expect that all direct investment in Ireland by both Canada and the United States to stop immediately, and for withdrawal of ambassadors.”
Connall stilled. “I don’t take kindly to threats.”
“Then you had best start talking, hadn’t you?” Matthew replied softly. Oh yes, he had his big stick indeed. He knew exactly what made Connall, or any nation really, tick.
Connall sighed, waved his hand, and the tension slowly ebbed out of the room. “Alright, alright, I was gonna tell ya anyways, boyo.”
“Just because I’m turning into Al doesn’t mean that’s going to work on me.” Matthew said as he sat in the loveseat, unwilling to listen to Connall’s slang at a time like this.
Connall rolled his eyes, and explained, clearly and without the slang.
By the time he was done, Matthew was barely keeping up. “So let me get this straight; this faerie named Crowe has been after your family for generations, and has stolen all of you, though you managed to escape, and now has finally gotten Arthur. During that kidnapping, he also stripped Alfred of his superstrength. Alfred went after him, but he has no magic, so you expect him to get captured and enthralled rather quickly, and therefore not come back. So why did you let him go?”
“Well, that same lack of magic does shield him from some spells and such. If the boy keeps his head, then he might be okay. Besides, he was determined to.”
Crowe END/n
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:36 am (UTC)(link)Matthew’s main character arc is finding out why and how he’s different from his brother, how he is unique himself as a person.
Matthew manages to convince Connall to go into Underhill with him, at least to retrieve Alfred if they are able. Connall takes another magic viewing amulet, and they use it to track Alfred. It, of course, leads them to the tree. Connall and Matthew come to the conclusion that Alfred must have been turned into a tree. So they decide to visit the resident expert on people turned into trees, Morgana, from Arthurian legend.
Morgana finds it odd that Alfred would be turned into a chestnut tree, as his tree according to the Celtic tree calendar is an apple tree. She gives them a spell to force a person from a tree. While there, they meet a beautiful fae with flaming red hair and a perfect complexion. She hesitantly introduces herself as Ginny. She is about to go on her way, when she suddenly asks if he is a man who has his feet in three oceans at once. True enough, Matthew says yes, and she immediately pledges herself to help him. Morgana is slightly disapproving, but says nothing to Matthew. He does issue a warning to Ginny, something about the ‘last one’. She takes Matthew and Connall to Trader Jack (Jack of all Trades), and buys a pair of six league boots (not seven) to get them back to the dryad forest. They lose Connall somewhere in here.
When Matthew and Ginny get back to the tree, they use the spell, and the dryad, very unhappy, comes out of the tree with the amulet around her neck. Now back at square one, Ginny gets the idea to ask a favor of a Cat. On the way to find him, they encounter Aengus and Adain, who mistake Matthew for something magicked to look like Alfred. They manage to find the Cheshire Cat since he wants to be found, and tells them that they can track his brother using his blood as a focus, since they are twins. Matthew dislikes thinking about how their bloods are becoming even more similar than that. But they do build a focus.
Matthew’s focus works much better, as it is blood, and they have a few side adventures on the way to Alfred, and Matthew falls in love with Ginny.
This is a Matthew stream of consciousness from this time.
Matthew, although he wouldn’t admit it, was jealous a lot of the time of Alfred’s and Arthur’s relationship. It wasn’t perfect, that was for sure. The amount of times that either of them had come to him seeking advice had made him want to start charging for marriage counseling. Alfred tended to view them as perfect, and Arthur as perfect, and usually had no idea why they had problems when they did have them. Arthur was more of a realist (pessimist), and didn’t understand the ins and outs of Alfred’s scattered mind sometimes. But they cared for each other, and they loved each other, and that usually pulled them through after some effort.
Matthew was forgotten by most people, overshadowed in the glory and the fireworks and the stars and stripes of his brother. And that didn’t lend itself very well to romance honestly. And if you thought too hard about it, Alfred and Arthur’s relationship was really weird. Matthew had been Arthur’s brother for a lot longer than Alfred had; it was only in the last forty years that he had truly come into his own, and Alfred hadn’t been Arthur’s adopted brother since the 18th century. And yet Alfred was his twin, his blood brother, and Freddie had been raised somewhat by Arthur. True, he had been cared for less than Matthew had with Francis, or later with Arthur, so Alfred felt that he’d raised himself. But still, if Matthew thought too hard, it was incest, and that squicked him out sometimes.
Crowe END/o
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:37 am (UTC)(link)"Since distance equals velocity times time, let's let velocity and time approach infinity, because I want to go all the way with you!"
"If I was an enzyme, I'd be helicase so I could unzip your genes."
"You're like an exothermic reaction, you spread your hotness everywhere!"
“Honey, you’re my Superman; you have balls of steel!”
"If I was an endoplasmic reticulum, how would you want me: smooth or rough?"
“Baby, you’re so gneiss I’ll never take you for granite.”
Alfred did have a perchance for science related ones, which was more than a little annoying. Matthew had vetoed something involving projection vectors two months ago as too technical. Oh yeah, and that wasn’t the only revoltingly sweet thing his brother did. He’d once written an entire delta-epsilon proof as a weird sort of love poem to “prove” that Arthur and he belonged together. Arthur couldn’t understand the thing, which had made Alfred a little droopy for a couple days, bemoaning the state of mathematics in the world. Matthew had actually been a bit curious about it what with all the hoopla about it, so he’d secretly taken a copy to Ivan for interpretation, whom he was fairly certain wouldn’t spread it around. Ivan’s explanation hadn’t actually been that much better, math vocabulary wise, but after looking at the eight two-sided pages, complete with biological charts and mathematical graphs, Ivan had complimented it and called it “very good”. So underneath it all, Matthew knew it must have been pretty amazing.
Admittedly, Matthew hadn’t heard as many of Arthur’s share of the pickup lines, but the ones he had heard were always well thought out and put together, and then presented for maximum effect. For example: Arthur, Alfred, Matthew, Shane, and Steve all went out for ice cream during the lunch break at the UN. Apparently, Arthur and Alfred hadn’t seen each other in person for three weeks, and had been giving each other these ‘looks’ for the entire meeting. Matthew had known, he had known!, that it was all going to go downhill very quickly when Arthur had ordered a lemon ice pop. Matthew had attempted to ignore it, but honestly, couldn’t those two just go somewhere else? Arthur had taken a big long lick to catch Alfred’s attention. Arthur then proceeded to suck on the popsicle lewdly. Arthur had waited until Alfred had taken a big bite of vanilla and fudge, and then… “Oh,” Arthur finally had said lightly, face completely deadpan. “Don’t worry. It’s only a model.” That comment had sent a spray of Alfred’s sundae across the table, a vast majority ending up on Matthew’s suit. Matthew had been so annoyed that he’d voted against Alfred’s next big proposition when they reconvened just because.
So all in all, they were sickening, and Matthew was as jealous as a woodchuck in springtime. Not that he wanted either of them! That would be just… gross… plus Matthew was as straight as a ruler. He just wanted someone as well.
End of written section.
Matthew reaches the edge of the desert, enters into it and eventually finds Alfred. Here is a written section of that scene.
“Oh god…” was the only thing Matthew could whisper as he saw his brother lying face down in the sand, blood staining his normally red-gold hair deep burgundy. He barely heard Ginny’s choked gasp behind him as he rushed forward and knelt beside his brother’s body.
Crowe END/p
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:38 am (UTC)(link)“Ginny, he’s alive! He’s alive, but barely!” Matthew cried out, barely daring to hope. Christ, thank god he’d got here when he did! “C’mon, you big lug.” Matthew grunted, and pulled Alfred’s surprisingly thin frame in a fireman’s carry. “Let’s get you somewhere better. Out of this sand.”
Matthew and occasionally Ginny carried Alfred out of the desert, but they couldn’t do anything about the creeping green filling his veins. After eight hours, they finally reached the edge of the marshlands. Alfred wasn’t much better, chest rising and falling sporadically, face alternately peaceful and pained in his unconscious state.
“Well, Freddie, this sure is a beauty.” Matthew said, touching the green lines on Alfred’s face gently. His forehead was burning up with fever. Ginny passed him a damp rag, and Matthew gently touched it to his forehead. His heart skipped a beat when Alfred’s eyelids suddenly slid open, and his irises were sickly green with poison.
“Arthur?” Alfred croaked out, and Matthew’s stomach dropped. “Is that you?”
“No, Freddie, it’s me, Matt.” Matthew said gently, taking one of Alfred’s hands in his own, and giving it a squeeze. “You need to get better, so we can go find Arthur.”
“Crowe, but that doesn’t matter, I found you!” Alfred’s unseeing eyes lit up.
Matthew squeezed tighter. “No, no Alfred, it’s me, your brother. Not Arthur.” Alfred was delirious, not, not an especially good sign…
“Arthur, come back with me, it’s not fun here. Bess and Amy are gone…” Alfred whined. There was so much sadness there, so much despair.
“Bess and Amy?” Ginny murmured to Matthew, and he had to cast his mind back, trying to find any sort of connection with Alfred and those names.
“I… I think they’re his guns, from World War Two or something, but I thought he lost those ages ago.” He said slowly, and Ginny reached forward to cradle his head in her lap. “No, wait, don’t, his blood is poisoned.” She paused, and withdrew her hand. “C’mon, Freddie. Sleep now, get better, I’ll be here when you wake up.” Matthew smoothed his hair gently.
“Arthur the Queen she’s taken you taken gone killed gone cursed, you have a curse I have to get you I have to break it, get it back, without you I can’t, I can’t –” Alfred was making absolutely no sense at all, now, and Matthew’s gasped as Alfred’s heart rate began to climb.
“Freddie hold on, just wait, don’t, don’t, just hold on, Alfred…” Matthew hauled Alfred bodily into his arms, trying to soothe him as he twitched violently.
“No no no you don’t understand I can’t you Arthur…” Alfred’s eyes shut tightly, and he was shivering violently. “Curse friend worst in forever Fuamnach I –“
Ginny gasped from behind him. “What? What is it?” Matthew half shouted, still trying to soothe his brother. “He’s just speaking gibberish now!”
“No, he’s, the Old Queen…” Ginny murmured. “How does he know anything about that…?” She gazed at Alfred in confusion.
“Alfred.” Alfred said, and gasped, gulping air. “America.”
“I know Freddie, just…” Matthew was at a complete loss at what to do. Perhaps Alfred was just going to have to regenerate then, if it was this bad. At least he’d wake up in no pain.
All at once, Alfred shuddered, and then went still. Matthew breathed out. So that was that then. They’d just wait a few minutes, and then he’d be fine, back to normal… Nothing. Nothing happened, no rosy cheeks, no blue eyes fluttering open, no smart aleck mouth. Matthew gaped as absolutely nothing happened.
Crowe END/q
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:38 am (UTC)(link)Matthew stared at her for a moment before realizing that this was the reality of the situation. That Alfred was not coming back, that he’d never see his brother again. He wouldn’t charge in the front door, toting whatever latest movie or video game or constellation he’d made or played or found, respectively. No more pickup hockey games. No one constantly preaching about freedom and justice and liberty and all the ideals of what they all hoped to be. Everyone would see Matthew now, and Matthew only…
How could this happen? Alfred, Alfred wasn’t supposed to be dead, and he wasn’t supposed to look like this! Matthew looked up at Ginny, who had knelt beside him. “Please,” He begged her. “Please, please do something!”
“I can’t!” She choked out, and now she was crying, truly crying now, and Matthew knew he wasn’t far behind. “I can’t, he’s already dead, Matthew, and… and!” She lifted a slightly shaking hand, and moved Alfred’s dehydrated flesh into a better position. Like a corpse. Matthew couldn’t take it, he couldn’t take it anymore. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Alfred was the hero, and God, he was supposed to rescue his boyfriend and go home happy, back to overshadowing him from the South! With a choked gasp, Matthew began to sob in earnest. How could he have let him die? He just let him die, assuming that he would regenerate! He didn’t deserve anything, he’d rather it be him that Alfred… The world needed him more than it needed Matthew, anyways.
They sat like that in the cool night air for a long period of time, Matthew wasn’t sure how long, he didn’t care. Eventually he looked up at the girl he just might be falling in love with, who’s just seen someone die because of him… “What can I do with… with his body?” Matthew’s voice broke. “I mean… I need to go rescue Arthur now, and… and…”
Ginny’s bright eyes found his, and she placed a hand atop of his. “We shall place him with my husband. It is safe there, so, you and the brothers can, can, pick him up and take him home afterwards.”
“Yeah, Ginny, thanks.” Matthew forced out. He didn’t know what he would say to Alfred’s boss, and fuck, how the hell would they join the two countries, because fuck, Alfred had made him promise that it would be he who took his lands in the event that he did well and truly collapse. “Wait, husband?”
End written scene.
Turns out that not only is Ginny married, but she’s Gwenhwyfar from Arthurian legend. They put Alfred in the mausoleum with Arthur, Ginny thinking perhaps that when her husband returns to rule, he like the rest of the knights in the temple, will return to life as well. Matthew takes Alfred’s wallet as proof that he is dead, in order to convince a easily in denial Arthur.
Ginny tells her backstory pretty much outright. Here it is.
There was no Lancelot in their time. Lancelot was a questing knight going in search of Avalon in search of an apple to heal his dying father. He meets Gwenhwyfar (Ginny) and falls in love with her, even though she is desperately searching for a way to return to Arthur.
Ginny is a faerie, and was a minor novelty/noble in the Seelie Court, originally. She falls in love with Arthur, but in order to rule by his side, she must give up her faerie heritage. She consults Merlin in order to do so, and he approves the match, and helps her hide it. Darren is also in there somewhere, and he gives her a place to be a princess from in a King that has no children. Therefore she is the long forgotten princess. She spends some time with her father, learning human customs and such. The marriage seals the alliance with the Seelie Court. Her best friend Terence goes with her, and is Gawain's squire for the time. She initially rules well as Queen, much beloved by her husband and her people, who she loves as well.
Crowe END/r
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:39 am (UTC)(link)But gradually, and especially after Merlin is whisked away, her faerie blood starts to show again. There is a reason why the fae were not meant to rule over humans.
This happens at a horrible pace after she finds out that Arthur had a bastard child (Medraut) with another woman before she even came into the picture, and in a rage, she denounces him and runs back to her home in the Seelie Court, who welcome her back with open arms, even if they do think she's a bit foolish.
Medraut is actually a decent guy here, and becomes a hero in his own right. He feels incredibly guilty about Ginny's flight, and he blames himself. Medraut's mother, however, is Mab, and she manipulates him and gives him the idea of going to war on the Seelie Court to get Ginny back, despite the long time alliance between Camelot and the Seelie Court.
Arthur pines for her, and desperately wants her back, and thus goes to war, where both he and Medraut fall. Medraut is given the option of going back "home" and becoming a Prince of the Unseelie Court. He refuses, and dies instead, while Morgana takes Arthur and weaves the spell of Avalon with a few of her friends to keep him mostly dead as opposed to completely dead.
They go into battle against the fae, and almost win, except the Seelie Court summons invaders from other shores, and Arthur's army goes back Aboveground greatly weakened and although they drive back the Saxons, Arthur dies, Medraut dies, and Darren is stolen away with Crowe.
Morgana was married to Urien but hated him deeply, and while a good older sister, never quite forgave Arthur for marrying her to him. She studied magic with Merlin, and they fell in love, and had an adulterous affair. Ginny is angered greatly by this, and casts her from the Court. It isn't Ginny's fault, for she is not quite human, so she is quick to anger and slow to forgive. She doesn’t have a soul. Morgana and Ginny hate each other after that. Morgana manipulates events somewhat so that Ginny leaves the court and renounces their love.
However, Merlin is already stolen away by this time, and Morgana sets off on a journey to find him, which leaves Arthur even more alone than before. She is therefore unavailable to stop Mab's manipulations. She eventually finds Merlin trapped in a tree, and sacrifices both her long, beautiful hair and her ability to leave Underhill in order to make him be able to have a physical presence once a year.
She arrives at the battle of Camlann a little late and no one recognizes her with her hair shorn off, but she is able to save Arthur (mostly ish).
When Ginny finally figures out partly where Arthur is and swallows her pride to ask Morgana for help, Morgana sets forth a set of tasks for her, following an old spell based on Scarborough Fair. The only way to be Arthur's True Love again is to complete a set of impossible tasks. Tasks: weave a cambric shirt with no seam or needlework; find an acre of land… etc. This will turn her completely human(soul and all) and thus able to reach Avalon (no fae can get there).
Ginny's faerie blood has always had the effect of making good men of pure heart fall in love with her (must have no True Love of their own). Matthew falls for her, along with Lancelot.
England does not know of Ginny's origins; only Darren, Merlin, Arthur, Terry, and eventually Morgana know.
Crowe END/s
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:40 am (UTC)(link)Back in real time, Matthew is now determined to find Arthur and at least inform him that Alfred is dead. Matthew and Ginny set off for the Unseelie Court. On the way, they meet and gain the help of Ruby Ritter. Ruby Ritter is a Lady Knight who is seeking eternal revenge against the Unseelie Court who enchanted her lover to be an inhuman monster (the Big Bad Wolf). The three of them end up in Sherwood Forest, and meet the spirits of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Matthew figures out through all of this that while his brother may have been the lone hero of classic literature, Matthew too can be a hero, and win through his friendships and the people he surrounds himself with. After gaining their friendship, they devise a plan of action to deal with the Unseelie Court. Matthew will go in first, get captured, then open up the place at night for them. They recognize that so many things could go wrong with this plan, but they feel this is the best way to coordinate their efforts with the Kirkland brothers.
The plan goes wrong when Matthew is gravely injured in the capturing part of the plan. Cut scene when Matthew blacks out when he is captured.
Arthur’s part in this, I must admit, is the least defined of all of them, given I had put it off until last, as it was last. Thus the outline is even rougher than Matthew’s section.
Here is a written section with Arthur reuniting with his brothers James and Darren for the first time in two hundred and eleven hundred years, respectively.
“Arthur.” The breathed name jerked Arthur awake like a bucket of water, complete with a gasp. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut as quickly as possible. If he denied it, if he dared not open his eyes, it would still be a dream, and he couldn’t wake up now. Last night couldn’t have happened. It must be the dream.
“Arthur, come on.” Arthur’s heart plummeted like stone. He hadn’t heard that ridiculously sing-song voice in millennia. If he was actually there… For the first time in his life, Arthur desperately wished it was another trick of Crowe’s. His brother, his eldest brother, his stubborn fucker of an older brother Darren… “Basdad ich…” Soft Welsh curses were spouting from his right. Arthur took a deep breath through his nose and looked at the black insides of his eyelids, hoping they were the vast infinities of dreams, but knowing it wasn’t reality. Bollocks, it had been true then.
Arthur let his eyelids blink open in a soft haze. Above him were two faces, one with dark hair (black as coal, his brain supplied), and one a vibrant hue so red it would look dyed if it wasn’t so nostalgically familiar. Thick eyebrows decorated both faces. One was swearing, the other looked about ready to kill him. Yeah, these were his brothers. Two of the three. Arthur groaned.
“Och, what did you think you were doin’, Artie?” James’s voice spat and spake like the odd bastard child of a fountain and a stove fire, especially given the amount of saliva on Arthur’s face. Bloody disgusting, as always. Arthur struggled to sit up. “I thought ye were smart enough not tae get taken? But no, he mustae been distraected by somat! Or did he forget that his entire fam’ly was trapped here, and tha they wanted him too? All our protections and magics and the like, useless, apparently! Do ya know how muchuvan effort it was to get wee Connall out? Now you too!”
James was on a roll. Arthur groaned and rolled his eyes, and he licked his suddenly dry lips as a horrible thought occurred to him. Drat it all James, he needed information!
“Is… is this the Unseelie Court?” Arthur asked slowly.
“Aye.” James replied testily. “That’s where we all are, last I knew.”
Crowe END/t
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:41 am (UTC)(link)“No.” James answered shortly, as Darren, who Arthur now noticed was covered in a light dusting of soot, rather like a Victorian chimney sweep, asked in confusion: “Who?”
Arthur wasn’t quite sure how to describe him, or their relationship, exactly… Practically married but not? No, not quite… Not that he wanted the teasing from his brothers anyways.
James decided to answer for him. “Tugolbyre.”
“What?” Darren breathed, utterly shocked. “The – the one without magic? You know him?”
“Aye. Artie found him, wee thing, took him as a colony, then he got
End written section. Yes I did decide to make James have a ridiculous accent. Darren’s voice is sing song because that’s what a Welsh accent sounds like to a lot of people. Or one of the Welsh accents, anyway.
Arthur discovers there is a prophesy that states that the Unseelie Court can only hold three of the Kirkland brothers at one time, else they risk defeat of everything. Arthur also reviews the escape attempts made up to this point. The brothers are held, it turns out, by their own magic. So the more powerful they are, the tighter the bonds. That’s why Connall, with the weakest bonds, was able to get out when Darren and James worked together. Darren did try a simple upward transportation spell once, and landed socked in coal. It’s unknown how he got out of that one, but the coal dust has clung to him ever since.
Mab asks Arthur to guarantee the weather at her garden party. He agrees, he has to, but in rebellion, he never says what he’d guarantee it as. Arthur, always being good at water magic, makes it pour, hard, all over Underhill. (See giant rainstorm earlier on.)
Arthur meets up with Clovehoof the Unicorn again at some point.
Arthur also sees his mother again, and she holds a high position in Court. She does not remember him, and he hates this. The brothers agree that if they could get their mother to remember where she is supposed to be, they could escape.
Court intrigue abounds, and a lot of comparing and contrasting between various cultures goes on. Various themes introduced include: the freedom of choice, good or bad; Forced into doing something or coerced; Gilded cage prisonership, etc.
Arthur fights a nobleman after he makes a move on his mother, and he is knocked severely unconscious. There he meets Alfred in the desert. We see that scene for the third time, from Arthur’s point of view.
One day, Matthew is captured and arrives at Court, in a bad state. Here is his arrival.
“What’s wrong with him?” Arthur cried, grabbing Matthew’s shoulders and shaking him violently. No no no this wasn’t supposed to be happening, not Matthew, not him, he wasn’t even supposed to be here he wasn’t how had this happened, it was all Arthur’s fault.
Suddenly, Matthew’s eyes flickered open behind his round spectacles. He looked surprised to see Arthur, and then he began choking, hacking, the red drops of blood staining his too white chin. “Al… he’s… he’s dead.”
“What?” Arthur gasped, and all his brothers stiffened around him.
Matthew seemed to steel himself. “I… I found him… edge of desert… poison… Laid him… to rest… safe now… he’s dead.”
No no no no no… Arthur blinked twice, willing it not to be true. “No, you must’ve been fooled, Alfred can’t be…”
Matthew’s face was pained. “Pocket… look in my… pocket.”
Arthur paused for a moment. Did he… did he want to see what was in there? Arthur was incredibly good at being in denial, especially if there was hope… His hand hovered uncertainly over Matthew’s coat.
With an exasperated noise, James opened Matthew’s pocket himself, and pulled out Alfred’s old, fat, beat up wallet, and handed it to Arthur. Arthur took it with shaking hands.
Crowe END/u
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:42 am (UTC)(link)And then onto Arthur’s lap fell several pieces of paper. Arthur opened the graph paper first. It was a list. Of pickup lines. “You’re so cute you make my zygomaticus muscles contract.” And “When you and me get together it’s like superposition of 2 waves in phase.” Oh god, then “If I was sin2x and you were cos2x together we would be 1”, and all were in his forward slanting, slashing, cramped, upward-sloping, heavy-pressed handwriting. He’d been saving them for him.
The last though, was not in Alfred’s hand, and that’s what finally convinced him. It was an old, oft folded piece of paper, yellowing slightly with age. And it was in Arthur’s hand. It was this letter that Alfred kept in his wallet, day in and day out. Oh God…
Dearest Alfred,
I am generally better with the written word on these things than I am speaking them aloud, so I’m sending you this letter to express what I find I cannot in person.
I am not sure of when it started, exactly, but I do know it was some point after the First World War, but before the Second. I think all of Europe knows of my feelings at this point, so it’s only fair that you do as well. But I want it to be known that it didn’t start when you were a child; it started long after that, when you were no longer my adopted little brother. If you ever were in some ways… I do admit that I wasn’t around much until you were already grown. But none of that matters, just that you know that I did not feel this way when you were a child.
I know that I am in the waning days of my Empire and power in the world; you are simply waxing, growing every day and taking your place this time with a vengeance. I know that the sun is setting on me, but you are in the west, and it is simply rising for you. These will be dangerous times, for all of us can read that at least on the wind. Know that whatever happens between us, I will stand by you. I may be waning, but I still have power and influence in the world, I have military bases in strategic locations. I am developing my own nuclear weapons, and I will at least have some power in this new order.
If you don’t feel the same way I do, simply ignore this missive, and if I do not hear from you, I will assume that this is your reply, and I will bury these feelings as deeply as possible so as they do not interfere with our daily interaction.
All my love,
Arthur
Alfred had come up to his door, holding the letter in his hand, banging away, and asked him frankly, when he opened the door, what the hell this letter was and if he loved him. Then he had roughly grabbed him and –
Arthur couldn’t think. “How—how could he die? He must’ve healed.”
“He… couldn’t…” Matthew breathed.
End written section.
Arthur saves Matthew with the Nine Herb Charm and some quick thinking. Arthur does however go into a bit of a depression over the fact that he thinks he killed Alfred, leaving the escape planning to the other three.
Crowe END/v
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:43 am (UTC)(link)And out pops Alfred, out of the blue, and immediately begins fighting, throwing a sword to Arthur, and echoing the dialogue from the dream in Chapter 15, but with better results.
Here is the dialogue.
Arthur: Alfred what in the bloody five ages are you doing here?!
Alfred: Saving you!
Arthur: What made you think I needed saving?
Alfred: Because… you belong on my hard drive… deep within my C drive!
Arthur: Oh Gaia… Al… as much as I love you, that's one of your worst ones yet!
Alfred: Well what do you expect? We're fighting for our lives.
Arthur: Speaking of… a sword… that's new.
Alfred: Yeah, I've had a bit of an adventure.
Arthur: Well I'm glad someone could succeed at the impossible.
Alfred: We've always managed to before.
Arthur: You're impossible. Did you know you managed to convince Matthew that you died?
Alfred: What? Matt's here?
Arthur: Yes, he apparently thought you needed saving too.
Alfred: Me?
Arthur: Yes, you. You always need saving.
Alfred: Isn’t that your job?
End dialogue.
Things seem to be going fairly well, that is, until Mummy Kirkland gets involved, and pulls a dagger on her own son (Arthur). Alfred attempts to calm her, to gain her attention. It works when he says something dramatic, in that he now knows all the answers.
Cut scene to Midir’s. This is part of the exposition.
Midir’s smile lifted slightly. “Here,” he said, “Let us play.” He set a board along the table.
Alfred eyed him warily. “Sorry, but I don’t know how to play. And I’ve been told that I shouldn’t play games if I don’t know the rules.”
Midir laughed, and it was dark but fatherly, like the harsh, blinding winds of an avenging storm that protects, and keeps predators away from prey in the night. “Good, you already know the first rule then. And I think you know the second. Well? If you don’t know the rules, and you must play, then what?” His voice hung silky smooth in the air, a threat to answer.
Alfred thought. “Well…” What did he have to lose? “Cheat, then, I guess.”
Midir stared at him wide-eyed for a second, and then burst out into laughter. “Well then, certainly an option, Bairn… certainly… you do like to do the impossible, don’t you?”
Alfred smiled, glad to be on familiar ground once more. “Of course. Not many people can walk on the moon.”
Midir simply raised an eyebrow at him. “What is so special about moon-walking? Diana used to host parties up there, you know.”
Seriously? “In my world at least –“
“I know, lad. Sit. I will teach you, and tell you all that I can tell you.”
“Why does the Unseelie Court want Albia and his family?”
“The better question, is, perhaps, why do they want Angharad and hers?”
Alfred sighed. “Alright, fine. Why do they want Arthur’s Mom and her kids?”
“What would you do, if your people were hurting badly, and only you could help them?”
“Help them, of course. At any cost.”
“Such is a nation’s lot in life, so I’ve been told. And Angharad knew hers.” Midir stood, and unlocked a chest. “Here.” He offered Alfred a glass sphere filled with smoke about six inches in diameter. “This will explain things. Put your hand with mine.”
Alfred looked between the sphere and Midir’s angular face. He could trust him, right? He extended his palm, and placed it on the sphere.
There was a flurry of movement, a swirl of color and magic.
Crowe END/w
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:43 am (UTC)(link)“Tir na nOg.” Midir answered for him dispassionately. “When I had the throne. It was beautiful, wasn’t it? And that is Fúamnach, my wife and Queen.”
Alfred turned, and there sat two glittering figures upon the throne; Midir, ageless as ever, and a woman his equal, hair black and curly, yet wild and free.
“Here we were happy, powerful, content, thirsting for more and more as we ever do. But I owed a favor, a favor to Oberon, so long ago that I had nearly forgotten. But he called it in one day. It turns out he had had a child with a peasant girl, and Titannia was furious. Midraed the Wise had foreseen that the child would be great, and thus he charged me with caring for the child, and making sure it came to no harm. But the thing was… I never expected ending up loving the child as my own. During the days I would entrust the child to Angharad, for she loved him as much as I, and at nights I would leave the castle and care for him myself. It was only for six years, enough to get him self-sufficient. After that I entrusted the Court to Fúamnach, and made this place, a shimmer between worlds. If you left through one of the garden gates, you would be in Tir na nOg, the other in Bru na Boinne, for that was where his mother lived, his real mother. And I groomed him to take his rightful kingdom one day, to be a great hero, for how could I do any less? Angharad loved him too. And so Aengus grew up safe, and happy, and loved. He took his rightful place as King.”
“But then I fell in love. With Étaín, the princess of a neighboring kingdom. Aengus had loved her for a long time, I later found out, but I never knew. And his foster sons, these pages Aengus was mentoring, blinded me when I came. So for my debt, Aengus had to convince Étaín to marry me, the Faerie King. And he did, even though he loved her.
“Needless to say, Fúamnach was… displeased by the course of events, and she—“
“She cursed me into a puddle of water, so that would evaporate and die. But I survived, perhaps my magic manifesting or some such thing, and I went to Aengus, for he was warm, real, and so very not fae. He hid me.” Etain broke in.
“And they were lovers. But… well, our marriage was in shambles back at Court, and our power was not what it once was, for we were now divided, and I wanted to hurt her so badly, for I knew that Étaín had died by her hand. Angharad tried to soothe things, but she… well, there was only so much she could do, and she accidentally let slip that Étaín was alive to Fúamnach.”
“She turned me into a caterpillar, about to transform into a butterfly, and Aengus too thought I was dead. And he, bless his soul, his good soul, he tried to avenge us all, and went to kill Fúamnach.”
“He did, he killed her by beheading, and he remains the only human to ever kill a fae, even though this statement is false, as I and only a few others know that he is half-fae. This set everyone off, demanding his blood, even the Seelie Court, even Oberon, for this danger, this one who can kill immortal fae cannot be allowed to live. They demanded I do it, for they thought I had the best chance, being his brother now. And… and that I was to marry Mab, for throne lines travel in the female line. I couldn’t marry her, not Mab, so I…”
“He went to find Aengus on his own on a solitary quest, a solitary Hunt, and stupid men…
“You killed her! Why did you kill her Aengus? Now I have to kill you!”
“I’d like tae see you try. I’ve killed one fae, don’t put it past me tae do it again.” Aengus growled. “If only you ‘and’t married ‘er, she wouldn’t be dead!”
“You stupid men, just… STOP!” The word of power threw them both back. “Don’t you see what you are doing, I can’t, I can’t watch this anymore, my brother and child… Midir, have you even Looked at him?” Angharad cried.
Crowe END/x
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:44 am (UTC)(link)“Like you’re any better!”
“Look. If you ever loved him, stay your hand and Look.”
“…Angharad. How is he like this?”
“Like what?”
“Aengus… you’re immortal.”
“Death wishes are very powerful things, and Fúamnach packed quite the punch.”
“But… but why would she give me immortality?”
“Look deeper Midir. I haven’t been able to get it off. Never seen anything like it.”
“Aengus… and I think I’m reading this right… but you’ll be a ghost once you die, unable to move on, and you’ll sleep, sleep for a hundred years, awake for a year and a day.”
“What?” Aengus croaked out, disbelieving.
“I can’t kill you.” Midir choked out, but straightened determinedly. “I won’t sentence you to your fate early. You will have a long and happy life if I have anything to say about it.”
End written text. Here is a more concise summary.
After Étaín is cursed by Fúamnach, she runs back to Aengus, and becomes his lover, familiar with someone and something she knows. She stays there for a year and a day, during which Midir mourns for her, not knowing she is alive. Midir and Fúamnach's marriage is in shambles. There is great unrest in the Court, and their power is not what it was when they were unified. Fúamnach blames Étaín for this too, and through a slip in Angharad's tongue, finds out that she is still alive. She finds them, and transforms Étaín into a bug ( a caterpillar about to turn into a butterfly, actually). Aengus too thinks she is dead, and not having the constraints of a Faerie Court to deal with, sets off on a path of revenge for the three of them. He manages to kill Fúamnach, the only human to ever kill a faerie. This of course sends both Courts into an uproar. They demand that Midir kill his foster brother. Fúamnach's younger and somewhat more devious sister Mab is heir apparent, and a marriage between Midir and Mab seems imminent. Despairing, for he does not like Mab a whole lot, Midir sets off on a solitary quest to hunt Aengus. When they finally meet, they are evenly matched, and a lot of blame grief talking occurs. Angharad steps in, and stops them from killing each other. She demands Midir look at the magic surrounding Aengus, and thus he discovers Fúamnach's death wish; that after Aengus dies, he cannot pass on, but is instead immortal as a ghost, who shall sleep for one hundred years and be awake for a year and a day. He finds he cannot kill Aengus, and lets him go. Angharad has known for a while what she must do -- she must cut off Underhill from Aboveground entirely, and to do that, she would need to leave this land, and become the personification of Underhill. Therefore, she needs a child. She and Midir have sex, and nine months later, Darren is born. Aengus lives out his life, but Étaín is reborn, and Midir goes into hiding. Mab takes over the Court. Midir wins back Étaín through some complicated trickery. As Angharad becomes gradually more fae, she has more children. James's father is a Seelie Knight. Connall's father is a half fae-half human, the son of Étaín's second husband's daughter. By the time she realizes she needs one more (fourth time's the charm?) she is almost completely fae, and Arthur's father is Marcus (Rome).
Darren would sometimes visit Midir and he always enjoyed it, though he never knew that he was visiting his father. Midir and Étaín know that Darren is Midir's son, but they never tell him, nor does Adain know. When Alfred arrives at the Seelie Court, he spots a knight that he initially mistakes for James. Darren has Midir's dark hair, but that's about it, so he doesn't realize it. Connall's father died in the backlash from some dark magic, so Angharad bound his magic secretly.
Crowe END/y
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:45 am (UTC)(link)Alfred’s sword is Durandal, from the Matter of France. I would’ve gone over my version of the legend in the story, but it seems a bit much here.
Back in present time, Alfred demands that Mab let them go. She demands he physically fight one of her knights, and Arthur quickly agrees for him, not knowing that Alfred’s super strength is gone. Not able to back out now, Alfred agrees to the agreement, on the condition that they have a battle of wits after.
Alfred ends up fighting and losing badly to Crowe. Since Alfred is still alive, simply too weak to move, the battle of wits begins. Since Crowe won the fight, he has first test. Crowe begins to try to pull his soul out of his body using his True Name. Alfred simply grins, lets him try and watches him fail, before he pulls out his final trump card: he doesn’t have one. A True Name, that is. Alfred gets on his soap box and does this long speech about how he doesn’t have a True Name, because he defines himself.
For Alfred’s test, he pulls out an apple from his bag, tosses it to Crowe, who looks at it, then hands it back. Alfred then takes out his knife and chops it in half. One of the halves is poisoned, he says. Crowe picks, they both eat, and Crowe dies as the apple from the tree that was infused with Alfred’s blood leeches all of the magic out of him.
Pandemonium ensues when Ginny leaps forward and cuts a lock of Crowe’s hair, the heather she needed to get to gain her soul. Now vulnerable, she is almost killed by the Unseelies, but Matthew saves her, and tells her to be happy with Arthur.
Then Lord Anwnn releases the Hell Hounds. Arthur gets the idea to channel magic into Alfred to open a gewind, and asks Alfred if he can do it, even if it will dull his soul slightly. Alfred doesn’t care, and Arthur does it, opening up a portal. The brothers tell them to go, as Alfred is now the one they want.
Alfred and Arthur do transportation spell after transportation spell, tearing them all over Britain. The last place they arrive is Stonehenge, and they meet up with the rest of them, as they had followed through. Surrounded, they are prepared to fight, when finally, Angharad wakes. She becomes aware of everything, and uses her power as the personification of Underhill to squash the actions of all the fae there, saving their skins.
There is a teary reunion, and then Angharad demands the diamond on Mab’s neck, and gives it to Arthur. It contains the stripped away superstrength. Angharad must stay in Underhill, and now that she is fully the personification, can seal the worlds away from each other forever. Although the Kirkland children are reluctant to let her do this after having only just gotten her again, they accept it after she spews a line about choosing their own destinies. Adain asks if he can stay, and if he could now be regular size again. Angharad agrees, but gives him a choice in size, as being miniature would probably help in the modern world. She gives Arthur the ability to open one more gewind, and tells him to use it well. And then she disappears, and the magic seeps back into the soil.
Crowe END/z
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:46 am (UTC)(link)Three men walked quickly and efficiently up to a circle of monoliths in the grass, mist and fog obscuring them slightly as their shoes squeaked in the grass. After they reached the center, they stopped as one without a clear signal from any of them.
One of them – the shortest – breathed in the air, a look of relief and joy on his face, as if reveling in the familiar smell of ancient magic and air. The other two looked to each other, smiled at some private joke, and then waited.
Once the first opened his eyes again, one of the other two (the one with the sword strapped around his waist) asked: “So this is it, then?”
“Most certainly.” He replied. “Now, Matthew, you’ll need to hold it open, but make sure nothing comes out afterwards. I… I haven’t done this in a while, in – ”
“In a hundred years.” The other two chorused together. The one with a lazy, loving smile continued: “We know, Arthur. Trust me, I was there.”
Arthur glared at them, though there was definite fondness in the look. “Well, then, forgive me if this takes a bit.” He sighed. “You know, Al, Matthew, it’s very disconcerting when you two do that. There are times when I do wish you hadn’t unified.” He flipped open his wrist screen and began to mutter the words on the projection.
Alfred and Matthew looked at each other and shrugged. They knew better than to interrupt Arthur when he was casting.
Finally, after about a minute of careful spellwork, they all felt the telltale invisible wind of a Gewind. “Shall we, Al?” Arthur held out his hand.
Alfred grasped it with a grin. “Lead on.”
With two steps, they were Underhill. Alfred looked around in amazement as they set off towards the North. Nothing had changed in the last one hundred years. The trees still giggled at the two of them, and he was fairly certain there were sentient rocks here as well. It was all very familiar, and Alfred looked over to see Arthur’s quiet smile.
It was all the same, unlike Aboveground. Alfred’s mind wandered back to the events of the last one hundred years. It was… quite the jumble. Space colonization, Martian independence, comet landings, blasting away the asteroid that was about to hit them with a nuke like a pro… wow that was old slang. Better not mention that to Arthur, else he’d be treated to Shakespearean slang all afternoon. But there was also Yao’s rise in power, and climate change and everything. Those two were most important for Alfred, because he and Matthew had unified into the North American Union because of them. There were the droughts, and the oil… Alfred and Matthew had benefitted mutually from it, becoming together the most powerful supernation in the world. Then Yao’s fall, and Ivan’s rise again… But their country had remained on top for most of the century. Alfred’s concerns now revolved somewhat around the threeway conflict about to happen about mining rights on the asteroids…
Alfred shook himself, grinning a little at his own foolishness. This wasn’t about all that right now. They were here for a purpose. Alfred squeezed Arthur’s hand once, and received a squeeze back.
Alfred and Arthur’s relationship had remained strong, which was something he was grateful for. They still had their disagreements about things… that fight midcentury about Alfred’s overreacting paranoia and Arthur’s misinterpretation lingered in their minds as a reminder of what they had to lose. Like the sex. The sex was still fantastic. And now that they could get over the Atlantic in one and a half hours, they could live together mostly full time.
Crowe END/aa
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 09:47 am (UTC)(link)Alfred also knew that he had mellowed somewhat in the century, though he remained as scatterbrained as ever. It was actually really nice to share a country with someone, therefore they shared the work generally, and Alfred had more time to piddle down in his lab. Though he was still the one they paid most of the attention to.
Finally descending down into the ground, Alfred took the lead, trying to remember the path from that fateful expedition a century ago. A brief encounter with a dwarf led to the surrendering of his final silver apple, and they were allowed into the caverns. After reaching a certain passageway and double checking his memory twice, Alfred and Arthur sat down to wait.
Their guess was fairly accurate, and they only had to wait two days, before a silver ghost-like figure gradually faded into existence, stretching his limbs and yawning. At first he looked at them in horror. “What? You two’re still stuck down ‘ere?”
After a quick explanation, Aengus was so happy to see them, and there was hugging and handshaking all around.
End written text. It is not finished, but it would’ve ended on a really heartwarming note, and them pulling out a solution to let Aengus finally pass on.
So there it is. That’s the plot. Most of the big questions I posed were answered. If I've forgotten any, let me know!
I will answer any questions posted below. Please feel free to ask them! :) I love you all, you’re the most supportive people on the meme.
Re: Crowe END/aa
(Anonymous) 2013-04-16 10:53 am (UTC)(link)All in all, I don't really mind the ending, at least you satisfied readers from curiosity on whether Arthur is saved or not. Although the fact you managed to do them all is really great, which I see that if you truly write all the scene, I'm sure they'll reach 15,000+ words.
I started to ramble here, so yeah, although I want to know what will be your pen name for your books. I know you are really, really good in writing, which can be seen in this fill, so, yeah, I do hope I'll see them in bookstores!
Re: Crowe END/aa
(Anonymous) 2013-04-18 07:06 am (UTC)(link)Ha ha, knew it was Durandal. (Flame of the West, ho ho)
Love your notion of living minerals. CS Lewis had that too, but he never fully went into it. So much of Narnia is unknown to us..
Those are some pretty corny lines BTW. Almost as bad as puns.
Gah, I love the idea of Wales being Mithir's son. Makes me want to open my Chronicles of Prydain books and try to imagine Wales in his own native sort of adventure.
Your spellchecker has some funny miswordings. I think one was making 'penchant' into 'perchance'.
I swear I've run across Angharad in some faerie book before, possibly something about a kidnapped mortal woman. It tickles me to think of her as Mother Britain.
Hetalia has opened so much to me. Since finding out about the Material of France, I'm curious about that, and after Fan Arguments about Holy Roman Empire, I understand a little more about Aquitaine and how all the folklores sort of mix together at some point. And that's just Europe!
Can't think of any questions in particular, but good luck!
Wait, I have questions!
(Anonymous) 2013-04-18 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)I was curious what aspects of Alfred did Matthew take on? The ahoge? The eye color? Mental tweaks?
Just what is the faerie aesthetic? (Just seems like a lot of mortals would fulfill the Lack of Magic thing.)
Re: Crowe END/aa
(Anonymous) 2013-06-11 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)And, I love that I totally called the name of Alfred's sword all that time ago. It was a very sweet ending. Other than those asked by the anon above, I don't have any other questions that I can think of. Only praise that would continue exceed the character limits. I feel kind of bittersweet about this being my last comment for this fill. So, I'll just stop my review here with more general good wishes and additional thanks for a truly memorable story that I plan to bookmark and reread again some day.