Morgana staggered from the crypts. Her entire body ached. She half snorted in amusement. That’s what she got for passing out on the stone floor. When she had woke, the ghostly form of her brother-King was still there, watching over her. Many of the other Kings had drifted close by when she woke up and once she got up, they moved away. It was like they were standing guard over her, making sure nothing on the realm of the spiritual supernatural pry on her while her guard was dropped.She moved slowly toward the Queen’s Tower. She yawned, closing her eyes. She managed to recover enough magic to wake up and move about on. She needed to stop pushing herself this hard. She knew it will eventually cost her the ability to breath. In a way, it would be.

  Morgana spotted Merlin standing at the drawbridge, looking at the town, outside of the Castle Inner walls. He looked puzzled over something. He turned to her. He always had that annoying ability to sense things that no one else couldn’t. He used to whisper to her and her brother-King Arthur about the energy strength of some creatures. She had totally forgotten about it until nearly 50 to 60 years ago when a pair of sisters wondered into Camelot with that ability. They had defeated an enemy the magi would have difficulties defeating. The sisters had tried to teach Morgana that ability, something called spirit energy, but she never got a hold of it. She understood the theory, but she couldn’t use her spirit energy.

  Merlin, according to the sisters, could use his spirit energy, but it would eventually cost him to do. The one with the name meaning ocean or waves, Morgana couldn’t remember which, had claimed that Merlin’s spirit energy was tied too close to his life force that he couldn’t use it without it taking any from his lifespan. The battle mage didn’t like hearing that. He was too excited to learn a new martial art to fight with, just like a kid on Christmas Morning, but he had deflated like a balloon once he heard the news. However, he could sense others spiritual energy which had came in handy during the Era of the Kingless Kingdom which Camelot’s enemies had managed to sneak up on the people of Camelot.

  Merlin’s eyes widened before he hurried over to her as she paused, lending against a pillar. Her breathing came out in pants. Her knees shook as she tried to stay on her feet, but she slid down the pillar. Merlin reached her and knelt beside her, grabbing one of her hands. He held it tight in his hands as his eyes ran over her. He spoke, “What happened?”Morgana gave him a weak smile, before she explained, “I went down to the crypts after I went down to see how things were progressing with the Undertaker and his methods of preserving King Uther’s body. I still had to expand Uther’s resting place.” Her ears picked up that Merlin had cursed under his breath. He let go of her hand and slid an arm around Morgana’s shoulders while he repeated the motion with her legs. He shifted his stance before he stood in a smooth motion, picking Morgana up in his arms. Her eyes widened as she automatically reached out to his shoulders, trying to steady herself.

  Merlin gave her a wide smirk. His eyes glittered with a mixture of pride and mischief. Morgana narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. He shifted her slightly in his arms and started to walk to the Queen’s tower. She let out an annoyed sigh. She already knew no matter what she said, he would refuse to put her back onto her feet. She felt the eyes of the people Merlin walked past land on her and Merlin as he walked by them.

  “Relax, Gana,” Merlin muttered loud enough for her to hear, “The rumors are going to spread no matter what we do. Might as well have some fun with it.”

  Despite herself, Morgana did let out a chuckle. They did that in the past so many times, it eventually became a running gag for them. She relaxed in Merlin’s arms and placed her head against his shoulder. A small smile crossed her lips as she closed her eyes.

  Morgana didn’t fell asleep, resting her eyes, while Merlin carried her to the Queen’s tower and up to her room, but she listened to the various conversations they passed. Some of it was interesting and some weren’t. She heard the rumors of Kalliope being pregnant and who could be the father. She knew it wouldn’t take long for the average member of the Court to start discussing that development. There was some talk of strange noises in the night, coming from the kitchens, late at night and one of them already reported it to the Head Cook Sanji. That must have been a few of the Kitchen maids.

  Once they had reached Morgana’s rooms, Morgana opened her eyes and reached down to grab the door handle and pushed the door open. Merlin walked across the room. He placed a knee upon the edge of the bed and set her in the middle. She yawned. She knew doing expansion would take a lot out of her since her magical reserves were drained from renewing the wards on the castle.

  “I heard something interesting through the grape vine today,” Merlin started. She opened her eyes, looking up at him. “Apparently, Genesis stormed into the Knight’s Tower.”

  Morgana raised an eyebrow at that and gave her former mentor a questioning look.

  Merlin grinned, “Tristan was hiding Genesis’ sister. Not Natalie, I think that’s her name. A mysterious sister of the White Hall Twins.” Morgana’s eyes widened. “Valentina White Hall.” That sound familiar. She frowned as Merlin paused. “Yes, I know it sounds familiar….like it feels…”

  “Right.” Morgana whispered, “She could be important.”

  “Somehow,” he agreed, “Anyway, General was searching for her in Tristan’s rooms.”

  “Oh my,” she smirked, “How scandalous.”

  Merlin laughed, lightly, “Maybe we should start another scandal.”

  “You know Belladonna already thinks we have been recent relations,” she rolled her eyes, “I’m surprised she had tried to order us to have a shotgun wedding.”

  He snorted, “She don’t have that kind of authority.” He flopped down beside her. “Your bed is a lot comfortable then mine.”

  She giggled, “Well, if you don’t place all of your study books on it, you might be able to find your bed.”

  Merlin pouted and gave her puppy eyes before he commented, “Thanks for calling me out, dear lady.”

  She giggled, sat up and reached down by the foot of the bed and grabbed a blanket, pulling over her. She snuggled on her left side and said over her shoulder to Merlin, “Could you be a dear and start a fire? It feels kinda chilly in here.”

  “Yes, dear,” Merlin’s voice held a sarcasm note, but the bed shifted and she heard him walking across the room and went through the motions of starting the fire.

  Genesis sent a scrawl toward Merlin and Morgana as he spotted them. Merlin carried Morgana in his arms as Morgana appeared to be either ready to pass out or already did. He turned away from watching the magi and went back to staring over the small city outside the inner wall. Everything appeared to be in order. Nothing wrong had happened. It was another boring night. He knew he should be heading to his quarters in order to be fighting shape for tomorrow.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The word already went out that the Docks men had spotted the Pope’s ship and it would appear that they would be arriving in the morning, shortly after first light. It meant Genesis would be have to be down there with a group of his men, ready to greet the Pope and his bodyguards. The red head general already knew how it would go down. It was the same every time Camelot was visited by an highly important person. The difference this time, the Pope decided to visit the Kingdom for the King’s Funeral and could possible stay until the end of the Chosen Ceremony.

  Genesis’ eyes ran over the empty streets. He mentally noted the red head figure moving through the streets. They wore a long black cloak with the hood up, but strands of figure’s hair poked out of the hood. In the dimming light, he thought he saw a circle on the back of the cloak. He couldn’t see anything else about the figure. A thought drifted through his head.

  That could be his sister sneaking around the castle and possible the town. He sighed. He didn’t have time to search for her after he found out she had left the Knight’s Tower, not when his position forced him to take care of the security for the city. The Pope was due to arrive within the next couple days and there were still more people pouring into the city when the city gates closed for the night. He knew the line would be large, once again, come morning when the gates opened.

  There were times he hated being one of the three Generals of the Camelot Military forces. Whenever a family crisis came up, he couldn’t attend it for various reasons. The most recent family crisis was Natalie being kidnapped and held for ransom a couple months ago, but a Knight of Camelot, Sir Anakin…he frowned, thinking. It was a name that started with A. He shook his head. His father had also reached out to the Hidden Bark Village for a team of Ninja to be dispatch to bring her back. The Knight managed to save her while the team of Ninja worked behind the scenes, making sure the man in question

  He turned away from the town and left the wall, heading toward his quarters. He strolled over to the staircase and climbed down the stairs. He noticed movement from the corner of his eye as he entered the tunnel that went around the inside of the inner castle wall. He turned his head and spotted Reno approaching.

  “Sir,” Reno greeted Genesis as the second in commander of the Fire Brigade brought his fist to his chest in a salute and his heels snapped together.

  The General nodded in reply before he asked, walking past Reno, “How are the men doing in their drills, Reno?”

  “They have improved a lot,” Reno answered, fell into step beside his general, “I’m sure you have heard about the Pope’s ship being spotted?”

  “Yes, I have,” Genesis said. He eyed his second. The torchlight in the tunnel flickered behind him. “It means you and I will have be down at the docks at day break.” Reno’s face fell. “Don’t give me that look, soldier. Have three units ready to come with us. Assign the units tonight.” He paused, thinking. He also need to let his men know the rotation of guard until the next king was chosen. He didn’t want to take the chance of having security light during this time. He didn’t want to experience another Kingless Kingdom Era. The last time, that was bad enough and he had been only 6 at the time. “We need to assign a guard rotation until the next king has been chosen.”

  Reno frowned, “Chosen?”

  Genesis mentally cursed. It was not common knowledge since the last few decades, the Holy Sword has chosen the heir to the throne by blood, not at random. Exiting the tunnel, stepping into the court yard, he went on, “You will know soon enough. I want you to make the guard rotation heavy. I don’t want to experience what happened 20 years ago, again.”

  Reno nodded, “I figured you might have say something like that. I already took the liberty to start creating a guard rotation for our sector of the military. I know Zack and Auron are also doing the same.”

  Genesis nodded. He glanced up at the darkened sky. The stars were coming out. The crescent moon shone brightly. In the distance, clouds were rolling over the horizon. He spoke, “Send majority of the men to dinner. After wards, we will assign the men to the units that we will be taking with us at day break.” He glanced at his second, “Dismissed.”

  “As you wish, General,” Reno tilted his head toward the red head general before he went off toward their training yard to give the news to the men, leaving Genesis behind.

  Genesis blinked as he stared at the darkening sky. He frowned as his mind drifted back to the figure he had saw in that black cloak. That circle on the back of the cloak had a familiar color to it. It was a shade of pink that none of the current resident house crests in Camelot had. There had been several houses in the past that had pink apart of their family crest, but they hadn’t been seen in Camelot for a long time. He frowned, thinking about that. He was sure a few of them were non-human houses and thanks to the current laws of Camelot, they weren’t allowed to be caught within the borders of the Kingdom.

  He closed his eyes, shaking his head. He released a sigh. He still had work to be done. He needed to eat, visit the training grounds, figure out where Reno had assigned men, and get cleaned up before he went to bed. He opened his eyes and strolled to the Great Hall, where he began to tackle his to-do-list.

  However, the moment he entered the Great Hall, he knew he made a huge mistake. Genesis had forgot a feast for the Court had been scheduled and he had just walked in on it.

  He spotted his cousin, Rosemary, talking with Sir Steven. A pleasant smile crossed her face as she sipped on what she had in the goblet. She glanced toward him and her expression lit up, crying, “Cousin!” she turned to Sir Steven, said something before walking to him. She slipped an arm around his and almost dragged him to the refreshment table. She lend over and whispered, “Thank you for showing up when you did. I don’t know how much longer I would have been able to stand Sir Steven’s flowery words.”

  Genesis snorted, “I will admit, Rosie, I didn’t mean to walk in here.” They reached the refreshment table. He grabbed a goblet and handed it to Rosemary before he grabbed one for himself. “To tell the truth, I forgot this event was happening.”

  “It explains why you showed up in your General attire,” she commented dryly as she scanned the room, “But it would appear it won’t be hurting your chances of finding a wife, if you wished to find one before Granny finds you one.”

  Genesis groaned into his goblet, took a drink, and shallowed before he replied, “Don’t remind me that she is doing that.” He paused and turned to face the crowd. He spotted several women eying him with interest. “I will admit your idea has merit.”

  “Hmmm,” Rosemary took a sip of the goblet of wine, “Should I start spreading the rumor that you are finally decided to search for a wife?”

  He looked down at the goblet he was holding. The idea had some merit, for various reasons. The most important was love. He would be able to chose his own wife to love, just like his father did before him. He had grown up on the love stories his mother and father shared with him until his mother left, taking two of his sisters with her, but his father told him, his younger brothers, and remaining sister stories afterwards. It was worthy a Court Bard’s song.

  The second important thing to him was the freedom of the choice. He knew his grandmother had his best interest at heart, but he had been gone from the Estate for too many years. He couldn’t remember when was the last time he had visit the Estate for a long stay. It was probably before he entered the Military, back when he was still deciding if he should try for Knighthood or not. While he trusted his grandmother, but he still worried she would chose to strengthen their alliances through a political based marriage with a less then attractive woman who could make his married life worst then hell on Earth. He had seen several of his age group trapped in a cold loveless marriage and knew they weren’t being faithful to their wives. He sighed. He just hoped his grandmother would understand his decision. He turned to Rosemary and finally replied, “Go right ahead, little cousin. Have fun spreading the rumor I’m finally ready for married life.”

  Rosemary gave him a toothy grin. He fought the feeling of dread spreading through his veins at the sight of that grin. He was going to be in so much trouble. He just knew it.

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