eachdraidh | video | open to both courts

[ Caer Scima had not been a place Ariadne had wanted to return to after the previous month. But when searching for the feathers and feather thief pointed the trail in that direction, Ariadne had returned both her mare and her bandersnatch to her manor. Bentley the imp would look after them, and with the offerings (offerings, of all things) being left at the gate, she doubted finding others to employ would be as difficult as she'd feared. She uses her ability to move through shadows again for the first time, and combined with the fairy ring, she is soon back at Caer Scima.

For the best, she supposes; she has to pick up Ser Pounce-a-lot anyway.

As she opens the locket, Ariadne twirls a blue feather in her fingers; another one she'll have to give back to the imps, though she wonders if perhaps she ought to see if she can turn into something decent at tracking. Catching thieves is hardly her strong suit. ]

I have a confession to make, [ she starts, forcing herself to look at the locket. The twirling of the feather is a nervous gesture. ] Last month, some of you encountered a large shadow creature -- horned, with giant claws. Some of you were injured by it.

[ Some saw others killed by it. ]

The creature attacked the Station, Caer Scima, and Caer Glaem. It was at Caer Glaem that it was brought down and returned to its true state.

[ She takes a breath. ]

Me. And I'd like to apologize for what I did as the creature; I didn't have any control over it, any conscious thought at all.

[ She would not, at least, have attacked the Station or Caer Scima or her friends. Caer Glaem... well, she had been there before because she had been ordered to. ]

I have already been punished for it; I was in the dungeons of Caer Glaem, and I'm sure I'd still be there now if things were different. [ If Razul of the Larks had not been sent for her. ] I just thought that I should explain.

So. Now you know.

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[ morgana looks tired when she appears in the image, though clean dark circles sit underneath her eyes, a painful contrast against her pale skin. ]

Are you well?

[ a question with many meanings. ]

I'm okay.

[ Alive. Not hurt. And emotionally... she'll recover.

Morgana, though, looks like shit. It's much easier to worry about her than to worry about the reception her confession might receive. ]

What about you?

Are you? [ hear that, it is doubt in her voice. GIRL SHE IS DOUBTING YOU HEAVILY. and she ignores the question directed at her. ]

I'm alive, somehow. They didn't torture me. And the rest...

[ bones splintering in her jaws, blood dripping down to the floor, screams and the squelching of flesh beneath her feet ]

I'll deal with it. I have to.

How kind of them.

[ the bitterness in her voice is undeniable. they needn't touch her in order to inflict harm, imprisonment itself is a kind of torture. ]

Do not heap too much onto your shoulders, your heart is kind it will crush you.

The worst, [ and she doesn't know why she's telling Morgana this; perhaps because of what she has seen of Aithusa, thrown into a pit and left, ] was that they wouldn't say anything. Not even to tell me to be quiet.

They did not torture you and they said nothing. [ did they forget they are in a war? ( she cannot talk, she had lancelot in her hands and healed his wounds ) ]

What did they do?

Took my things. Locked me in a cell and brought bread and water. Other than that? Ignored me.

[ a kindness, a weakness, yet morgana is glad she did not endure worse. absently she clasps a hand around the opposing wrist, scars throbbing with the memory of darkness. ]

You expected more.

If they didn't torture me, I thought they'd at least kill me.

[ She's still not sure why they didn't. ]

Ganondorf suggested that they might have wanted to present me to the monarchs at the next audience, but I don't think they would have been that stupid.

It would have been what one of our own number did if we did not kill them before hand.

[ a blunt truth. ]

Yes, but most of our number wouldn't have protested.

[ The implication, of course, being that the Seelie would have. ]

What happened in the end? Did they simply let you go?

Someone broke me out -- apparently he was paid to do it.

You do not sound so pleased to be free, Ariadne.

No, I'm definitely pleased. I'm just- tired.

[ A breath, then- ]

They touched something of mine, an onject, that no one else should have touched. It's... I'm not sure what to do, now.

Why shouldn't they have touched it?

They just- shouldn't have.

[ Right, because that's helpful. ]

[ her expression turns exasperated, that really is not helpful. ]

It must be an important object.

It is to me. But it only keeps its value if no one else touches it, if no one else... knows it like I do.

I doubt they spent the time to know it as you do.

I hope not. Still...

[ It's risky. ]

Don't let the fear consume you. [ TAKE YOUR OWN FUCKING ADVICE MORGANA.]

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