Excalibur's Seven - Chapter 43: Chapter 43

MORGANA WAS NEVER AS confused as he was now. Every story he'd ever heard about Mab made him think that she would be a bit more... terrifying. Sure, she was a little intimidating, but in the way Selene was intimidating. She didn't look like a source of destruction and grief and darkness like he thought. She looked like a tired woman that just wanted to get on with her day.
She helped Eurion untie the chain from the dragon's horn as she listened to their request, soothing the beast before it tried to kill Eurion in its fury.
"An army," she repeated after Kit explained what he needed. "Do I look like I have an army to you?"
Kit swallowed. "Well, I... I just figured that a Queen would have an army is all."
"Son, I haven't seen a single soul in centuries other than my lovely Atla, but even she only visits on holidays," she told him. "I don't need an army. I have dragons and they keep me safe from anyone that might try to piss me off, but they've been sitting like ducks for a long time. Until you ballsy folks came along, that is."
Morgana studied her. Atla was the name of the Winter Queen, if he remembered right. But Atla got just as many visitors as Mab, he was sure. Why did she need an army, but not Mab?
"My reputation keeps me safe," she went on. "I let people tell their stories of me devastating villages and flooding my kingdom with vicious monsters. The Winter Kingdom has hardly any problem with vicious monsters, they know not to touch my people. But it's the best protection a woman can have."
"Why are you telling us this?" Morgana said. "How do you know we won't ruin all that for you?"
Mab paused and turned to him. "Because no one will ever believe you. And besides, I can say with confidence that a handful of humans and a couple Seelies wouldn't stand a chance against me."
"I'm Unseelie, I'm a winter faery," Morgana told her. How would she not see that?
"Really? Hm." She scanned him up and down. "You don't act like an Unseelie."
"I hang around with a lot of Seelies, but I'm one of you, I swear." He looked down at his wooden hand. It was getting harder to move.
"That'll explain why you're so conservative with your magic," she murmured. "You're Unseelie, don't worry about saving it. Use it to your heart's content, it's yours."
"I can't."
She gave him an odd look.
"I'm sick. No one knows what it is but it's always been there. My magic is finite, if I use too much of it, I spend all my strength," he told her.
"It's your strength that's finite, not your magic, learn to separate them." She said it like it was the easiest thing, and it frustrated him but he wanted to know more.
She nodded towards the palace, waving them along. "You've come all this way, come take a visit."
"Why?" Morgana questioned.
Mab turned around. "Sorry?"
"Why? Why are you inviting us in, what do you want?"
She shrugged. "I don't need anything."
"But--"
"Titania can lie. I can give and not have to take. We've both been alive for eternity, we just figured out how to get past different barriers," Mab explained. "I'm taking you to my house because I want guests and you lot look like you need a rest. I don't need anything else."
Logic didn't want to trust her, but Morgana didn't feel like he was being tricked. She could very well be tricking him into thinking that somehow, but it didn't feel like it. Maybe he was an idiot to follow her, but he did. The others hesitated, but followed suit.
Morgana walked only a few feet away from Mab, while the others were much more wary and kept their distance.
"It's great that you're making friends on the other side," Mab told him. "But you don't seem to know the depths of your magic when you're only with Seelies. You know how they are."
"I was raised by Autumn faeries. They taught me that glamour wasn't a limited resource," he said. "I just... I don't think I'm the same way. It's like something is holding me back. I hit a wall with my magic."
"Have you ever tried to break the wall?"
He paused. "How do you mean?"
"Sometimes you only think you reached your limit because you hit the wall. But if you break your limit, you might find that you have so much more freedom than you think. If you give up as soon as you hit a wall, you'll never get bigger." She pulled back a wall of vines, letting Morgana duck through. "Do you use it every day?"
"I used to," he said. He used it then, to return his hair to its natural white, soften his cracked cheek, make his eyes look normal, even gave his old hand back. His wings vanished altogether. "I walked around like this. I didn't need people to know that I was sick. Weak. But that got exhausting every few days, and eventually I just... didn't bother to do it again."
He let the glamour return, going back to his cracked and torn and broken self.
"Anything else?"
Morgana tossed his head back. "Him," he said. "He gave me his name, and I messed with him for years. Just little things. I couldn't ever curse his bloodline. And for awhile I used it to help him. I'm back to messing with him now, though, he's a dick. Stole his likeness the other day, but it backfired."
Mab laughed. "Now that sounds like an Unseelie," she told him. "But that's it?"
He nodded. "Mostly, yeah. Sometimes I skip around, hide myself, and I moved snow yesterday. But my magic is easier here, because I belong here."
"That's true," she said. "You'll have an easier time, because magic follows you. You need to learn how to get it to follow you everywhere else, though."
"How?"
She stepped aside, pulling back another curtain of vines. It opened up to a large clearing. And there it was, the Unseelie palace, towering above him and hidden between two cliffs.
"I'll show you," she told him. "Come with me."
He could sense the frustration behind him as Mab led him to the palace. Giselle took his wrist and spoke in a whisper.
"Morgana, what are you doing?"
"She's teaching me," he said. "I feel safe with her. I want to know more."
"We need to leave."
"Then leave," he told her, pulling his hand from her grasp. "My deal is done. I took you here, I got you in. She doesn't have an army, you have your answer, you're free to leave. I'm staying. Or did you forget that I'm not on your side anymore?"
Giselle looked hurt, but he didn't let himself get heartbroken over it. He shoved down any feelings he thought he had and caught up to Mab again.
"You're not on their side," she observed.
"I was in chains, but Atla let me out. I was their prisoner, just holding up my end of a deal," he said.
"But you don't hate them." Mab pushed open the doors and led him inside.
"What makes you say that?"
"You love that girl. And you like the rest of them, at least."
"I hate the bloody prince," he scowled.
"But you aren't apathetic," she replied, taking him by surprise. "Love and hate aren't opposites, they're just two sides of the same coin."
"Well, you're right. I'm not apathetic. I want to rip him apart and feed him to a pool of water witches." His eyes we cold as the others filed into the palace with him and Mab.
"Excuse me, Your Majesty?" Giselle cut in gently, taking Mab's attention once again.
"Yes, my dear? What's on your mind?"
Giselle fiddled with the bracelet from Selene, avoiding eye contact with the Queen. Morgana had never seen her so bashful before.
"I know you said you didn't have an army," she started. "But I think maybe you can still help us."
"How so?"
"Well, this battle we have to fight... it's against King Wylan. We sought the help of Atla's army, but we don't think it will be enough." She looked up, trying to raise her chin and regain her confident composure. "The Seelie Queen will be among them. I have reason to believe she intends to bring harm to both realms."
"Tell me something I don't know," said Mab with a dismissive wave. "What do you want me to do, then, love?"
"We need someone who can take her. If we only have to worry about Wylan's army, I think we could do it with Atla's help. But we can't take Titania alone," she explained. "If you could at least hold her back, you could help us save thousands."
Mab sat on the proposal, screwing her lips together in thought. "I have a few conditions. First, I will not fight the humans. I will help with Titania only, because it's about time she faced her due consequences. If the humans kill you, then they kill you and I will not help you with your own battle."
Giselle nodded. "Reasonable. What else?"
Mab looked at Morgana. "You let this one go."
"No," Kit protested.
Mab tilted her head. "No? Why not?"
Kit's eyes burned into Morgana, but he didn't give him the satisfaction of acknowledgment.
"He'll be fighting against us, against you. If he sides with Connor and Wylan, he sides with the Queen and he knows that," the prince told her, but his eyes never left Morgana. "If you release him, he'll give us hell."
"Then I guess our deal is off," she said. "If you can't handle having to deal with his scheming, you can't handle a battle with Titania and you might as well let your kingdom fall."
Kit opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Morgana finally made eye contact, returning the prince's glare with a smirk of his own.
"You bastard--"
Mab held out a hand to stop Kit before he could lunge at Morgana. It felt nice to have someone on his side for once, and he took advantage of that. Kit wouldn't be able to punch the smug look off his face as long as Mab was on his side.
"It's a deal," Giselle said before anyone else could protest. "If you deal with Titania, we will fight our own battles. Even the tough ones."
The look she gave Morgana wiped the amusement right back off of his face. It was a look of disappointment and disdain, the look of a woman who will never see her best friend the same again.
I'm just trying to save you.
She could read his eyes, too. She shook her head, gentle enough that only he could see.
Mab noticed the tension in the room again and broke it with a clap of her hands. "Right, then. Are you all hungry? You seem like a hungry bunch. Especially you, my child of the snow."
"He's been starving himself out of protest," Selene said, and Morgana sent her a glare.
"You held him prisoner," Mab said. "You can't blame him for being angry."
Without another word, Mab led them along into another room. It was a dining hall, already filled with warm food. For a woman who lived alone, there were certainly a lot of chairs lined up, enough for all of them to sit. There were two empty chairs by the end of it, including the one next to Morgana. He sat at the end of the table, next to Mab who took up the head.
Kit already started reaching for his utensils, but Mab stopped him. "Hold on a minute, we're waiting for one more."
Mab pulled out a pocket watch and checked the time. "She's late."
"I'm never late, you're all just early."
The familiar voice startled Morgana, and he wasn't alone. Eight heads turned to follow the voice, met with the sight of the terrifyingly elegant Queen Atla, who settled into her seat at the end of the table, propping one leg over the arm of the chair.
"Be polite now," Mab scolded.
"They don't mind," Atla mused.
"Whatever," Mab grumbled. "Well then, everyone. My daughter is here, you can dig in now."
Morgana froze, and Giselle dropped a fork.
A Grand Queen having a child was unheard of.
The Unseelie Queen was full of surprises, and Morgana didn't think for a moment that this would be the last--or biggest--one she had in store.