Mist



chpt 11



Her eyes widened and then the Queen burst out laughing, a clear

delightful laugh, the laughter warred with the tears, and through the

tears and the laughter the generations seperated by more than years

found a measure of peace once more.



 "Yes child you may call me Aunty, now hush I have more to tell you"

she sobered up, "after your Mother died we pieced together what had happened,

your father who was an honorable man had died trying to save your Mother from

the massacre, he managed to send a warning note to her and she used her powers

to escape, some sympathetic humans hid her until you were born, after that when

she regained her strength she went to a monastery in a neighbouring country,

there she stayed until you were about a year old, and she had gained enough

knowledge to attempt a dangerous spell, what she intended was to transport

herself and you back our realm, somehow the spell went dreadfully wrong and she

not only transported herself in space but in time, some 1500 years after we

assumed she was dead, she appeared in our time her powers almost exhausted, that

was when the Swyth found her possibly she may have lived, possibly not, such a

spell would be hard for me and I am much stronger now than she was, as it was we

were too late"



 "Through the years I have kept an eye on you, or more importantly

Mathwer has kept an eye on you, I must admit to a little bit of

interfering, I made it possible for your Guardian to meet with the

King and have encouraged certain things, even though I was remote I

did want you to have a comfortable future, that was until last year

when once again our seers and magicians reported that someone was

trying to break through our defences once more, this time we knew it

was with evil intent, tell me Guinivere do you know this man?"



She clapped her hands, and a mist bubble like Mouser's only larger

formed to hover in her hands, Guinivere looked closely and she saw a

man wearing a dark cloak, talking to her Guardian and Lancelot, she

turned to her Aunt and said.



 "Yes, thats Earl of Romney, Arthur's uncle and adviser to the king, why?"



The Queen sighed and Guinivere could see she was tired, she may be

immortal or close to it, but emotions affect everyone differently,

Guinivere herself was tired and she was a healthy mortal of but 20

years.



 "For years the Earl has worked in many ways, secret ways to

destabilize your land, he or his henchman are behind all of the

current problems that the King is experiencing, now that the King is

ill he relies more and more on the Earl and Arthur trusts him

implicity, unfortunately the Earl has another side, a darker side,

greed and the lust for power drive him on, this lust has driven him to

seek out those who can give him the power he needs, but at what cost,

observe the bubble child"



Guinivere looked closely at the bubble, the mist swirled and shimmered

then it went black, Guinivere blinked all she could see was pin points

of light, suddenly a fire flared, light reflected off the walls of a

cave, seated around the fire were several figures, one she recognised

as the Earl, the other was clothed in black from head to foot and the

face was obscured by a cloth, the rest well they were vaguely

humanlike but had pointed teeth and she could see the long length of

spittle hanging of their chin, the Earl handed over a bag of gold and

the black figure suddenly lashed out and casually disembowelled one of

the humanoid figures, it screamed once, the figure picked up a loop of

gut and cast it on the fire, then he flung some powder on it, the fire

leapt up and the figure seemed to be reading something in the flames,

when the flames died down the Earl seemed pleased, then he handed the

black figure another bag of gold, the figure handed over a bottle

which the Earl uncorked, lifting the bottle in toast to the dark

figure, he swallowed the contents.



The Queen clapped her hands and the bubble disappeared,



 "And that my child is how evil begins, and how it spreads and how a

good man turns to bad, and so it goes on, even now the Earl is telling

your Guardian and Lancelot that you have been kidnapped, murdered even

by the Daoine Sithe, he seeks to restart the wars between us, but now

you know your true heritage you can forstall this, however the Earl

must NEVER know your true parentage, not even your Guardian knows the

full extent of your ties to us, it is best we keep it this way. Come,

you have had a tiring day, it is time to meet the rest of your family."



Guinivere started, tears springing unbidden to her eyes, family, she

hadn't had a family before, suddenly her mind made a connection, if

the Queen was her Aunt, then that would make Mouser her cousin, a

wave of nausea swept over her, she had laid with her cousin, even the

One Lady cautioned agaisnt cousin laying with cousin, madness lay that

way, nausea she couldnt control bubbled in her belly, up her throat,

she opened her mouth to speak and a thin stream of bile gushed out of

her mouth and down her front, her Aunt looked at her with great concern,in

halting tones Guinivere told her Aunt of her shame.