❝ The future was yet to be written, uncertain in every way except one: there will be fire.
When the dawn closed her eyes, she awoke in flames-a hellfire inferno burning as leaves on briar-thicket trees. A forest of thorns alight. A vision of the fut...
And that's exactly where Arthur found her, just as he expected.
"I assumed I'd find you out here." The sound of his voice was most unexpected, but if she was thrown by his sudden appearance, she didn't show it. "Still my face you're seeing on the target, is it?"
"Actually, it's Alistair's imbecilic face at present; you've already had your turn," she replied as she let another arrow fly, both of them watching as it burrowed into the wood a number of inches above the last. "But I'm close to giving you another. Perhaps it could knock you off your high horse."
"I suppose I deserved that."
"You suppose..." She huffed a laugh, shaking her head as her piercing eyes finally met his. "Is there something I can help you with, or have you come only to vex me further?"
"I fear the latter will apply no matter what I say."
"Given what I witnessed from you earlier, you're probably not far off the mark with that assumption." Archery was abandoned as she instead chose to focus on him for the time being. Her seething glare was as harsh as her words and he knew he was in for it. "What the hell was all that, anyway? What benefits do you reap from making a complete ass of yourself, especially in front of the very people you're meant to lead?"
Arthur resisted the overwhelming urge to roll his eyes, knowing that action would only stoke the flame of her already blistering temper. His words, however, should have been what he paid the most mind to. "The servant was incompetent and Merlin was out of line. He stood against me for all the people to see; it was practically assault."
"Assault? You—? Oh, Almighty help me," she muttered to herself in a torrent of words, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Morris is far more intelligent than all of your parasitic friends combined and the only thing Merlin did was stand up for what was right, as any man of heart should. The Arthur I grew up with would have done the same, because unlike the person standing before me now, he actually had a heart."
A certain gleam in his eye roused some guilt, but only fleetingly. Each word left a sting he couldn't deny, and as she often did, Aurora Tyndale stunned him into silence.
"No one wants a spoiled brat who gets off on the misery of others for a king. I know that somewhere beneath this icy exterior you've created, that heart still remains alive and beating. Act like it."
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Merlin...
Merlin...
JOSTLED FROM HIS SLUMBER by the sound of his name whispered in the darkness of his mind, yet finding no source, Merlin recalled the day before with utmost clarity. The brutes all but terrorizing the curly-haired lad into the dirt, choosing to heed his morality and stand against the mistreatment, landing himself in a dungeon cell as the ring leader turned out to be none other than the king's son. Despite where those actions landed him, Merlin didn't regret for even a moment. There wasn't much he truly loathed in the world, but above all was injustice; he wouldn't turn a blind eye, especially in its most petty form.
