Sword Stories Part 1

Fated Swords Story Part 1

There once was a forge master known only to the nations of the world as Lady. Little was known about her upbringing or past, but her weapons were something of a cosmic telling of her strength. The four swords she breathlessly danced across battlefields with were Clarent, Excalibur, Aura, and Nyx. Each sword having their own history and by right each one having their own story.

Clarent and Excalibur were gifts from a civilization that was lost to time. The great mage Merlin had enough of outside influence affecting his garden “world” inside. He began murdering the royal family first. Stealing the powers and lives of King Arthur and Queen Morgan Le fey as they rested. Slitting their throats afterwards in their sleep and moving onto the round table. Lady was a squire of Lancelot and appointed retainer of the round table. However she was the only one that never devolved into an aristocrat under the leadership of the mad king.

Merlin called it the cleansing. Devouring the sky in black while he began his summoning, channeling as much mana as he could, just like the former teacher and court mage Cain before him. “In order to restore peace, there has to be war.” Something Merlin never liked it but he understood his teacher all too well when he said it. At the time the scholarly boy couldn’t even begin to grasp the concept. The idea of the immense power needed was a gamble to begin with, one needed concentration that was only possible by emotions. Another thing that had its icy grips and bone like claws in magic was the most profound and destructive emotions that carried them. It was carnage that caused Merlin to go down this dark path of insanity. Carnage caused by a King that was too far gone and a queen that set her claws in the clutches of Camelot so deep that nothing in the world had been able to stop her from turning people’s heads away from the kindness of the heart and focused more on the greed of mere animals. Devolving into mere “animals” that were an effortless plunder.

The people of Camelot and Atlantis had become monsters after the wars. The “wars of The tower” they once called it, Le fey was certain that she could win. Even as her people starved and lay wasted on the side roads and crowded alleyways. Even as her bastard children fought for affections that never came and love that never would have coaxed the fires that she forced her kids to fuel by their own emotions. Merlin was confident he wanted to end it all, his own powers were beginning to become Tainted corrupted even as he eventually became the sole survivor of his people. Even as others fled and many more punched their ticket out Merlin was beginning to lack his own feelings. Destruction began to sound….. beautiful…..to the archmage of Camelot. Beautiful and Absolutely world ending.

Merlin constantly felt his mind slipping. Demons calling to his dreams at night and tempting him into a life of wonderful servitude. “Only give us your heart~.” They would say, their voices sweet like honey but Merlin knew the truth. Knew it was Morgan Le fey sent here to trick him, claim the last mind that still held out hope for a better tomorrow. The castle corridors that once housed hundreds now felt hollow and abandoned after the screams of everyone else in the castle were etched into the wall.

“I summon thee, demons of the plains beyond. I summon thee to take house and nest and use my power for your bidding. My will has become your will. My mind will remember you…. The shackles of magic bind me to you and you to me. Grant me strength! Allow me to burn down this imitation paradise!”

Merlin felt…. At ease. Finally letting the voices that screamed for his magic win and take over him. Granting them access to the one thing that he was the guardian of. Avalon, the garden of limitless possibilities and purest magic. The one place he swore nothing would happen to now held red skies and blood soaked flowers in its fields. However Merlin no longer cared, his new mission was simple. Conquest. His home, his people….. his new world order. It was going to be done, the demons would see to that. All Merlin had to do was sleep, close his eyes and open his mind. The new destruction and disaster awaited.

Lady had been given clear instructions in the form of a letter. It was bloodstained as she picked it up from the floor outside of her office. She never stayed true to following orders and the king had nearly dishonored her. Leaving her to rot in this “room” while absolute carnage was right outside her door. The screams were indistinct to her now, all she heard now was the beast that once was a man that walked the halls. She heard it so often that the sad expression that plagued her eyes held one of anger and rage.

The beast she once knew as Merlin. Once admired as her teacher had fallen victim to the violence that followed the Queen of the castle. She had thrown her sword at the queen, voiced her anger and rage over the king being so shallow to pick her. But he didn’t listen….no one did. No one could grasp the horror that she was subjected to. The reason it was forbidden to speak her name and only call her Lady. “A knights honor” she scoffed at the thought of it. Mocked the very foundation of this country and the black hearted aristocracy that it stood for.

She walked out of her room careful to avoid the beast that now wandered the halls. She wished she could reach out to him, feel the great Merlin’s magic course through her mind and body one more time. But business never fails and for her, business, that was all she knew. All she wanted to hear for the next thousand years. An immortal like herself, all wasn’t lost though. As she traveled to the last light of hope that she could think of. She arrived at the lake, the same one that kept the great swords sheathed and protected. “Great spirit!” She called out. Knowing there was barely an answer. “Please heed my call….” She paused for a moment, hearing the howling of the demonic beast and how far out it was she knew there was no time. “….Fly with me.”

She felt the waters greet her at the edge. Such a soothing calm washed over her as she watched the guardian create a portal, a way out. However, as she was turning to go through she heard the growls of an army. Something demonic began approaching until there were red eyes dotting the tree line from where she stood.

“You who are not of Camelot’s people have come to claim our most sacred treasures……Why?” Merlin spoke as if he spoke from any and every angle. His voice was the same honey tipped poison that he complained the demons spoke with.

“Your last rites are with me Merlin! I will keep these weapons safe from harm.” She looked at him with a hurt expression. He looked more like a werewolf than a man. She reached out, pressing her hand to his cheek as she moved in closer. However the sentiment wasn’t mutual, his cold eyes watched her every move as if he hadn’t ever known her in the first place. It was sickening, knots formed in her stomach as the aura of his now cursed magic began to creep up on her in the form of tattoos. She heard the voices sweet lies and beautiful deceptions.

“He is gone Little light. He has joined his dear friend in the dream scape and fled.”

She widened her eyes in horror. Watching him leave for traveling expeditions was one thing, but this time she had felt the anguish of loss. The beast wrapped its claws around her throat and held her in the air, his black and red eyes locking onto her black and blue ones like a predator. One hand held her neck as if one crack from it would give her sweet death while the other made a mockery of her. Clawing through her clothes and armor as if it were paper while she screamed out. Le Fey’s torture was nothing like this, however she saw something in the beasts eyes. A flash of guilt took over it as it stared back at her bloodied and scared, it didn’t take long for her to realize that Merlin had woken up for the last time.

“Take the swords and go Lady! One day…. One day I’ll come back for you! Ahhh! Just go! It’s too late for me!” The great mage Merlin tore his necklace from its chain and threw it through the portal before throwing her in there after it. Tears began welling up in her eyes as she was thrown through. The final screams of her love were washed away by maddened laughter as the beast returned. “Hahahaha! We will take good care of him LaDy. Very good care of him….”

She wanted to go back. Save him. Hold him in her embrace one last time, but she knew that only flames could help Camelot now. She looked for the necklace that Merlin threw into the portal only to discover two swords in its place. “Excalibur and Clarent.” They both looked magnificent, gold etching on them both and a both swords having the words for peace and power etched into them. Excalibur exuded a cool white light, but Clarent felt as though it was tainted somehow. Only exuding a deep red glow and a menacing aura. She held both blades against her and curled up, hoping that the light from her magic could comfort both blades while she slept. The voices quieting to no more than a whisper as she held onto them. “The gods will make this right. I promise you that.”