definewisdom | Apocabigbang: Fic: Postremus Regum Britanniae; Merlin; R; Epilogue

Chapter 11 - We Ride to War

Epilogue - Postremus Regum Britanniae

The world ended last week. Eight days ago. It shifted and crumbled before our eyes and it changed into something unrecognisable.

My name is Jeffrey and I thought that this needed to be written down so that someone knows, someone remembers in the years to come, that the world ended and then, after a week, it started again. Someone needs to record the names and the dates and the places. Morgana suggested it first; she said that it should be me. I’m not sure what she meant by that, but here I am, writing it all down. For posterity or whatever it is that will come next.

I always looked at those plaques on battlefields. ‘Here in some date a battle was fought between the armies of blah and blah’ I never though about what happened to make that plaque, what was written down to be remembered, who watched the people in that battle die and survived to recall how things went.

I never thought that I’d be the person creating that history, but legends need to be recorded or they will never become legends.

It feels insane to be even writing this, but insanity has become normal in the last eight days: yesterday we recovered Excalibur and King Arthur was reborn.

King Arthur, the stuff of legends.

In years to come, people might read this and think that I am exaggerating, using artistic licence to make the story more sensational than it truly was, but I assure you I am not.

Merlin led us to the place where Excalibur was to be found. There were armies of the undead and other creatures, small, large, all sharing the desire to wipe out the human race surrounding it. Creatures I had never seen before, even in books. I was sure as we walked that we were walking to our deaths, but we walked onwards anyway. We had no other choice.

But as we approached, there came the beating of wings, huge wings, a sound that we had grown afraid of in the past days, a sound that meant death. I thought, at first, that it meant death still, until Merlin turned to us, his eyes golden, and assured us that the dragons were there to help us, not harm us. They had, he said, pledged allegiance to Arthur.

With the dragons on our side and Merlin and Morgana, the armies before us were not as menacing. Magic and fire swept aside all of the dead and the beasts were kept away from us.

But when we got inside the building, a tower block of flats, things became more complicated. No longer could the dragons help us, confined as we were, if they were to breathe flame over the building they would kill us as well. So we were forced to fight.

I should list our names here, they should be remembered: the brothers, Gawain and Gareth, Percival, Lance, Gwen, Will, Morgana, Merlin, myself and, of course, Arthur. We were forced to fight in close quarters. We were armed with guns, but our enemies had magic. Fire seemed to dance from their hands, bolts of lightning would attack us or our entire bodies would feel as heavy as lead, and it was then that Merlin stepped forward, holding his hand outstretched.

I had never believed in magic until the day the world ended, but it is impossible to doubt something that you have seen that clearly. He kept away the worst of the spells from us with shields and fought the magic so that we could fight with our hands. Arthur never strayed far from him, though it was unclear who was protecting whom.

Morgana was a swirling mass of power, she seemed to suck the light in and her hair blew in a wind that I could not feel. She took down more of the enemy than I would have believed possible.

The sword was on a floor above us and, with the electricity gone; we had no other choice but to take the stairs. Gawain stayed behind to watch our backs and help to protect our backs. It was the last time I saw him alive.

Morgana stayed with him, to keep magical attacks back, and the rest of us made it up the seven floors towards the place where Excalibur rested. She, somehow, managed to survive.

The battle on the seventh floor was fast and I couldn’t swear to any specifics in the blur of activity, I knew that everyone was fighting.

However, I do remember first laying sight on Excalibur; it lay on a table, blocked from us by people and magic. I have not seen many swords in my life, but this was the best of any I had seen and, from the moment we walked through the door, Arthur was drawn to it.

The call of it was almost audible in the air. Like a hum, I can only imagine how much stronger it must have been for him. It is his sword.

We fought our way towards it and finally Arthur took the sword up and the ground shook. Wind blew about, howling past my ears, and time seemed to slow as Arthur turned and speared a sorceress through the chest, the blade passing through her as easily as it passed through the air. She screamed. A sound so terrible that I thought my ears might explode from it. It seemed to go on and on, worse than fingernails on a blackboard, worse than metal on metal. It reverberated, but Arthur did not flinch.

He was spattered with blood, almost painted red with it, and his face was firm. He looked like he had been born to battle.

As she breathed out her life the undead armies crumpled to the ground, returning to their rest.

She must have been their leader, though we never learnt her name, and at her death, the others fell back, scared for their lives, though I do not believe we have seen the last of them. In the silence of the aftermath, while my ears were still buzzing from the force of that final screech, I saw Arthur turn to Merlin, who looked as exhausted as the rest of us and the King, for none of us doubted that now, said two words that I will never forget, and I will never truly understand.

“I remember.”

-

The world ended eight days ago, and this is the record of what happened on that day and the aftermath. My name is Jeffrey and I swear on my life, and the life of my guitar, that every word I write here is true. This is the tale of the return of King Arthur, the chronicle of the future of the kings of Britain.

-*-