Excalibur's Seven - Chapter 11: Chapter 11

SINCE THE MOMENT THEY arrived in Fells, Morgana could sense the magic that dwelled within the village. Somehow, though, none of that magic had anything to do with the Folk. In fact, there wasn't a single entrance that he could feel, nowhere for miles where the two worlds blurred together.
It felt like cruelty to him, to watch these incredible beings live in such conditions. Everything they had they had to find for themselves, and they couldn't touch anything the King owned to get it. All the buildings were made of mud and sticks and old, brittle stone, built over the remnants of an ancient settlement.
The six of them crammed inside Chalice's home, a small, dusty cottage at the edge of the village. Luckily they lived alone, so there wouldn't be anyone else to squish in, but it was still small enough that the entire floor would become a mass bed everyone would have to share.
As fate would have it, Morgana was shoved between Giselle and the insufferable prince, while Chalice and Eurion squished together on the cot and Selene laid on Giselle's other side. Morgana tried to convince her to trade places, but Selene threatened him with a dagger, pleading claustrophobia. He didn't bother to fight her this time.
Kit appeared to be keeping as much distance as possible anyways, to his luck, leaning clear up against the cot and away from Morgana as he concentrated on a book and scratched his stubble. The faery had never seen a blonde man grow hair as fast as this one did.
"Can I help you?" Kit asked, pulling Morgana back to reality. He hadn't realized he drifted off with his eyes conveniently resting on the prince's barely covered torso, and he snapped his gaze back up with a glare.
"I was lost in thought, don't flatter yourself," he muttered, turning his back to him and laying down onto his side.
"What were those thoughts, exactly? Was it my 'stature,' perhaps?"
He was referring to their encounter at the castle, where Morgana had mentioned his impressive stature and Kit took it as flirting.
The faery turned his head to fix him with a glistening stare. He projected the thought of every violent act he wished to commit against him in that moment, and Kit threw up a hand in defense.
"My bad," he murmured, though he clearly didn't mean it. At least he was shutting up now.
Morgana curled up against Giselle, wrapping his wing around his shoulder as if it would provide him with a modicum of comfort.
"Poor Mog, did the big scary prince flirt with you?"
"Yes, and it's going to give me nightmares for the rest of the week, Your Highness. I'm afraid I'll never recover."
She stuck out her bottom lip, brushing back his hair. "Aww, what a shame. Poor child."
Selene chuckled from her end of the makeshift bed. She was picking at her nails with the tip of a hairpin, hair loose and hanging around her muscular shoulders.
Morgana didn't know what to feel about the Lady Knight. A part of him was inclined to hate her. She'd threatened to kill him more times than he cared to count, but she protected him from Kit's stupidity after they rescued Giselle and he still didn't know why.
Another part of him envied her. So many things tried to stop her from becoming a lady knight in a man's world, but there she was anyways, equipped with a carefully engraven sword and the most respect a woman could be given in her world. He wished all he needed was that kind of rebellion.
He'd been a knight once, long ago, before his sickness took his strength from him. He couldn't have what she had, but it was not because of prejudice. It was his own body's failure, and there was nothing a single soul could do about it.
His attention was pulled away from Selene when he felt Giselle's fingers brushing against his forehead. "You okay?" she hummed.
"Do I appear otherwise?"
She seemed to sense his anxiety, and continued their conversation only with her eyes. It was clear he didn't want to talk when everyone else could hear.
Her fingers brushed the cracks in his face, ran along the tears in his good wing, pushed his hair away from his face and neck, eyes gentle as they looked over him. As protective as he was over her, she was far more so over him, no matter how much he loathed to admit it. She was smaller, significantly less intimidating, but there was no denying she was the stronger of the two.
He felt his eyes fluttering shut at her soothing touch. He didn't need nearly as much sleep as his companions, but he hadn't slept since his last night in Faerie, and the urge to rest was pulling him down.
It was only now, wrapped in Giselle's arms, that he finally felt safe enough to close his eyes.
Eurion was not the first to wake up that afternoon, but she wasn't far from it. The cot was empty, leaving her with more room than anyone cramped up on the floor, but her muscles still ached all the same. She pulled herself from the bed and stretched, eyes scanning her sleeping companions.
Kit was curled up into a ball, facing away from the others. Morgana was lying on his back, hands resting on his stomach, head turned towards Kit. Even in his sleep, the Unseelie's brows knit together, as unamused as always. Giselle was turned away from the boys, facing Selene, arms wrapped around herself, and Selene was cuddling her sheathed sword.
Eurion smiled at the four of them in their big sleepy pile. They were probably the most exhausted of all of them, they deserved to sleep clear into the night if they needed to.
She turned away from them, ducking out of the cottage and searching for Chalice among the now bustling villagers attending to their daily tasks. She followed her nose to a large fire at the center of town, where a man was cooking several large fish, laughing along to an inaudible conversation.
As hungry as Eurion was, she was starting to get tired of fish. But she supposed it was what was available.
"Eurion!" Chalice greeted. She turned to see them stepping out of the library, walking up to her with a stack of books in their arms.
"Hi," she said, glancing down. "What are those for?"
"These are the books that might help us find the shards. I figured I'd better get some searching in while everyone slept."
"Did you come up with anything?" she asked.
Chalice handed the stack of books to Eurion but took one back, flipping through the pages until they found what they were looking for.
"In 'The Seven Shards,' it says one was taken to the island of Baz'Uil. I don't know where that is, but it's a start. That's what—" They pulled another book from the attack in Eurion's arms. "That's what this book is for. Maps."
Eurion was no longer paying attention to what Chalice was saying, something about the location of the island. The name was all too familiar, and she had to think hard to remember why she knew that name. It wasn't a terribly popular island, but a certain notorious group of seamen knew it well.
"If this is the island I'm thinking of, the shard probably isn't there anymore."
Chalice knit their brows. "You know about Baz'Uil?"
"Yeah." She was starting to remember now. "There was something on that island that a particular sea captain I know went through a lot of trouble to get. I can't help but wonder where he is now."
The druid's eyes lit up. "Eurion, you're a lifesaver. This is our first lead!" They took her free hand, pulling her into the library. "What's the captain's name?"
"It's, like, Conrad-something. I'm sure I'd know his name if I heard it, but it's been awhile since I dealt with him." She took the book of maps, looking closely at it.
She traced her fingers over a certain path in the water. "This is his usual trading route. He's not a pirate, really, but he'll follow money where he can get it. I'm sure he has a stash somewhere on his ship."
Chalice looked over her shoulder, memorizing the path with their eyes.
"If we head to this port town, we might be able to catch him. At the very least we can get our hands on some records and find out where he is. I might be able to sneak onto his ship and dig through his stash, but I don't have any idea what I'd be looking for." She sighed and closed the book. "Well, either way, we have a start."
Chalice nodded, taking the books into their arms again. "We should wake up the others and get a good meal in before we go."
Without another word, they left the library and went towards the man cooking the fish. Eurion took that as her hint to go fetch the others, as much as she loathed to wake them.
When she walked back into the cottage, Giselle was already awake and packing their things while the rest of them slept.
"Good afternoon," she greeted at full volume. Eurion didn't know whether to find her smile comforting or unnerving, but somehow it was both all at once.
"Hi," Eurion said. "I was sent to wake everyone up. There's food waiting for us out there."
"Anything that's not fish?" she asked. Eurion felt the same, though not because she was averse to eating animals, she was just sick of fish.
"Maybe. You'll have to go see for yourself."
Without saying anything else, Eurion approached the prince, leaning down to shake his shoulder. It took some effort before he finally stirred awake, rolling over and squinting at her with tired eyes.
"Oh. Morning, Eurion."
"It's afternoon, technically, but hi. Are you hungry?"
He pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his fist. "Yeah, I could eat."
"Excellent, there's probably something out there waiting for you if you get up now." She stood up again, moving to wake the other two while he forced himself up.
Something about waking Morgana felt painfully unappealing, but Giselle offered to do it for her, so Eurion went on to poke an equally intimidating Selene with the toe of her boot, jolting the woman awake. It took noticeably less effort to wake Selene than it took to wake the prince.
After her initial panicking subsided, the lady knight looked up at Eurion in confusion.
"Good Lord, how long did I sleep?" she asked, practically jumping to her feet. It didn't take much to wake get up, evidently. She already looked like she could take on an army if she had to.
"It's not long after three," she told her. "Probably a good nine hours, it looked like you needed it."
Selene pushed her long hair from her eyes, but it just fell back into its place. "Yeah, it feels nice. Last time I slept that long was when my husband took a trip and left me alone for two full days." She laughed. "You know, sleeping on the ground isn't fun but I'd sleep on the forest floor for the rest of my life it meant not hearing him snore ever again. I don't miss it."
The two of them gravitated away from the cottage, leaving Giselle alone to wake Morgana and making their way to the rest of their group.
"Kit once mentioned you never shut up about your husband, but this is only the second time you've mentioned him this whole trip," Eurion told her.
Selene gave her a look of disbelief. "Really? I've not complained about him the entire time?" She chuckled. "This is a new low. Who am I if not the chief hater of Sir Conan O'Leary, most insufferable Duke of Avalon?"
"Probably occupied with saving the kingdom, I'd assume."
It was refreshing to see the Lady joking around now. "I'm losing track of my priorities, Eurion. I'm afraid you lot are having a negative affect on my health."
Their playful banter came to an end as they reunited with Chalice and Kit, and eventually Giselle and a rather moody Morgana as well. Selene was the only one unbothered by fish, but the rest of them settled on honey-covered bread and berries and some of the best beer Eurion had ever tasted.
By the time they were ready to go, they were all a little drunk but for once, all in good spirits. Except for, of course, Morgana. But there was nothing unusual about that.
Their search for Excalibur had officially begun.