It was three months after the wedding, and Morgause was still fuming. She couldn’t comprehend how her first son could betray her trust and marry someone against her will. She felt much older and weaker since her son abandoned her.

Although Morgause was weaker then before, she was still very powerful and just, if not more, cunning. She still plotted to overthrow Arthur though trickery and deception. With her sons back home (they had attended the wedding and had taken a while making the trek back) she was ready to once again plot to exterminate Arthur once and for all.

“Now that you have returned, we will finally put out the annoying flame that has consumed this land since Arthur took over,” Morgause said with a twisted smile.

“How will get rid of him?” Agravaine asked questioningly.

“I have not yet thought of the right plan, but it will come to me soon.” Morgause said as she began pacing the room. “What we need is something that has never been thought of before, so as to prevent the old charlatan, Merlinnus, from interfering…”

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Meanwhile, back at Cadbury, Merlinnus was taking a well deserved rest when he felt a slight tickling feeling in his wrinkled back. With a start, Merlinnus jumped up and swiftly walked out of his room, towards the throne room. As he walked, he wondered what Arthur had done this time to harm himself. As he neared the corner towards the entry door to the room, the smell of blood and wafted around the corner and made Merlinnus sprint the remaining distance, despite his elderly age.

Nothing could prepare him for the scene that met his eyes. As he rounded the corner, he saw that a pool of blood surrounded the two bodies of the guards guarding the door. Looking past the guards, his eyes met a gruesome scene where Arthur was bravely fighting four strangers dressed in all black. With a quick round of his wrist, his sword killed one of the men as Arthur dodged a sword strike at hi side. Another man bravely thrusted his sword at Arthur, which proved to be a mistake as Arthur twisted the sword out of his hand. While the second man engaged Arthur, the other remaining man ran behind Arthur and stabbed him in the back.

Merlinnus spoke two words of death and the spell killed the two remaining men, but Merlinnus had forgot the energy he had used to run here and the energy used for the spell was more energy than he had. As he fainted, he thought he saw the grim shadow of Morgause coming towards him with a dagger in her hands, and he knew that this was the end…