The Tragedy of the Lady of the Lake

"Then, how long do we still have until the end of the world?" Oleandra asked worriedly.

"Give or take, a few billion years," Viviane answered. "Our World Tree isn't nearly as badly infected as that of the Six-Faced World, which was so unstable it collapsed upon itself."

Gah! Oleandra wanted nothing more than to strangle the Lady of the Lake's delicate neck at that moment. At this rate, the sun was going to expand into a red giant and destroy the Earth before chaos took the world!

"Are you being annoying on purpose?" Oleandra asked.

"A little," Viviane answered with a slight smile. "Fairies can't lie, so we find it funny to trick others; it's sort of like a challenge, isn't it?"

Oleandra had to admit that she very much enjoyed executing her plans behind people's backs. She had also quickly adapted to her new condition over the past month, telling half-truths and misdirecting statements in order to keep her intentions secret.

"However, the issue of magic is still a serious one," Viviane continued. "It has everything to do with our mission as Fairies from Paradise."

"I'm listening," Oleandra said tiredly.

"Don't worry, there's not much left to explain," Viviane reassured. "Going back to our tree metaphor, allow me to explain the pruning phenomenon. When a branch is infected with chaos, the world will try expunge it by itself. Oftentimes, this happens by itself when Wizards attempt to change the past, but it also occurs when magic is steeped too deeply in the land."

The shadow women, Oleandra's past incarnations, had grown deathly silent. Unless this was another trick to annoy her, then this was likely going to be important.

"Two thousand years ago, the Greater Fairies lived peacefully on the Isle of Avalon, off the coast of Somerset. But those happy days couldn't last," Viviane said sombrely. "One day, there was a storm unlike any other; it raged with such fierce intensity that it blew our island far away from the shores of the British Isles. When the storm abated, we found that it had sent us such a distance away that we were no longer even on Earth."

"…"

"And for about five hundred years, we knew not what had happened to us," Viviane continued. "When it arrived in the Other Place, Avalon was beset by shadows and mists, making it impossible to explore the surrounding area. We were trapped."

"…"

"Until one day, when Caer-Ys— the City of Ys— in Brittany, France, was swallowed up by the sea," Viviane continued. "This we learned when it reappeared a few miles away from the Isle of Avalon; and for some time, the mists receded, allowing us to discover our new world. A world of boundless sea and mists, in which we found the ruins of the continents of Mu and Atlantis— its inhabitants dead, twenty millennia ago."

"…!"

"Fortunately, a spatial tunnel was formed when Ys arrived in this strange world— though it wouldn't stay open for long, and nothing living could make its way back through it. We determined that the only way to save ourselves was to open the way from the other side. Similarly, the Wizards of Ys arrived at the same conclusion, with two different prophecies:

High King Arthur of Tintagel, son of Pendragon, once and future King of Britain, will fight and die in vain to save Albion, but will one day return to unite the country once again and bring magic back to the land.

The City of Ys sank into the sea for its transgressions, but there is but one hope for its return; Ys will rise from the sea when Paris is swallowed by the waves."

"And thus, the Fairy Queen selected the strongest among us, me and my sister, Anna, to send back through the rift, along with the invincible sacred sword Excalibur and its scabbard. This scabbard was quite special, as it could heal its user's wounds, no matter how severe."

"The voyage back to Earth through the spatial tunnel tore our mortal bodies to shreds, so we needed to incarnate into new, human bodies and grow up all over again. I was reborn as the niece of the Duke of Burgundy, in France, while Anna was reborn in Tintagel, Cornwall, as the Duke of Cornwall's and Ygerne of Tintagel's daughter."

"The only problem was, the Wizards of Earth also had a prophecy about Arthur of their own, but their aims were different; they truly wished for Arthur to succeed on his first try. Before we had even grown to adulthood, Merlin had already tricked Ygerne of Tintagel into having a child with High King Pendragon in order for Arthur to be born out of wedlock, and had him sent to Rome as a child to be trained as a leader before his father had him killed; Pendragon the elder was a nasty piece of work."

"By the time Arthur returned from the mainland in his teenage years, Albion, or rather Britain, was in a terrible state; High King Pendragon had perished, the tyrant Vortigern taking his place as High King; the various countries under his rule had claimed independence; Saxons were invading, and Rome was powerless to stop them and protect the citizens of Britain."

"But you see, according to our prophecy, Arthur needed to first half-succeed, before truly succeeding upon his return."

"I joined Arthur's and Merlin's camp to support them, where I proved myself to be a formidable Sorceress in battle and a resourceful Enchantress: I gave him the magical sword Excalibur and the enchanted scabbard to replace his previous sword, the Sword from the Stone, which had shattered in battle."

"Meanwhile, Anna, who was by then known and feared as Morganna le Fay, did everything she could to bring him down to ensure that he did not completely succeed. I also planted a knight of my own, Lancelot, at Arthur's side, just to make sure he didn't die by accident and to create chaos should Anna not prove to be dangerous enough."

Indescribable sorrow filled Viviane's face.

"Everything was going well…" she cried, warm tears dripping from her face. "How could I have ever guessed that my own sister would betray me?"

"What happened?" Oleandra asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"I failed to notice that my sister truly hated Arthur, her human incarnation's half-brother," Viviane said. "Through no fault of his own, just by being born, he had torn Anna's human family apart. She had grown to love them more than her own people."

Oleandra was very close to her sister, but she knew very well how even the strongest bonds could be so easily shattered.

"On the night before the climactic battle of Camlann, which would determine the future of Britain, I went off to seal Merlin using a spell he had just taught me," Viviane sniffed. "I didn't want him to interfere, and I hadn't known it was his plan to allow himself to be sealed at the time. I suppose I should have guessed when he taught me the perfect spell for the job."

Oleandra kept quiet, listening very closely to the end of the story.

"If only I'd been at Arthur's side," Viviane wept. "I would have noticed that Anna had her son Mordred steal his scabbard from him right before the battle."

Oleandra could guess the rest of the story.

"Without the scabbard that made him impervious to injury, Arturus suffered a terrible wound at Mordred's hands," Viviane finally managed to say through sobs. "Even then, Arturus still believed in me. He dragged his body to a nearby lake and returned Excalibur to me, so that nobody could abuse its power. And then… he died."

Viviane took a deep breath, even though she had no lungs.

"I failed at being a friend. I failed at being a sister. And I failed at being a Fairy. Avalon is doomed— unless you, Oleandra, can finish my mission. Our mission."