North America / Kingdom of Yorkania (Northern Road): January 21st, 1518.
It was an ugly day for the world. The sky was white, the roads were red, and the bells of yorkania rang not in fear, but in warning.
(Morgan's POV)
*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*
The bells screamed across the northern road.
Not church bells.
War bells.
Across the field stood the final army of the pope.
Red crosses.
White banners.
Priests with clean hands and soldiers with dirty blades.
Behind them stood joseph's men.
Brown cloaks. Black stag rings. Jersey steel. Bannerless raiders pretending not to be criminals because a king had paid them enough coin to feel official.
"How crowded." I said calmly with a snicker.
Percival stood behind me with a parchment in his hand and sweat forming and trailing down his face from his forehead and said very tightly "Your majesty. The front line is papal. The second line is jersey. The third appears to be smugglers and border men."
"Good." I said calmly with a wave of my right hand.
The field was silent.
Percival blinked in confusion and repeated what I said "Good…"
"Yes. I dislike cleaning one stain at a time." I said calmly while drawing my sword.
*SHSK*
Galahad stood to my right in black armor.
Isabella stood to the left with her shield women.
Michael Bailey stood behind the road wardens with his pitchfork.
Jonas stood beside him with a ledger strapped to his chest like armor and a bell in his hand.
John was nowhere to be seen.
Which meant he was exactly where he needed to be.
The papal legate rode forward in red robes and raised a cross.
"IN THE NAME OF GOD AND HIS HOLINESS, LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS." Said the legate loudly at the top of his lungs.
I stared at him.
Then looked at galahad.
"Did he speak to me." I asked calmly with confused eyes.
"Yes your majesty." Said galahad calmly with a nod.
"Very…what was the word. Sad." I said calmly.
A jersey commander with a black stag ring raised his sword high in the air and shouted "YORKANIA STARVES TODAY."
The Jersey men roared.
The priests screamed prayers.
It sounded ugly together.
Faith and hunger.
Cross and coin.
Rome and jersey.
The enemy charged.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
Their boots shook the road.
I waited.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer.
Percival swallowed loudly.
I glanced at him.
He went still.
Good.
Fear had manners today.
The enemy came close enough.
I lowered my sword while saying loudly "NOW."
The road opened.
*BOOOOOOM*
Hidden ditches swallowed the papal front line. Men screamed as sharpened stakes tore through legs, bellies and groins. Shields dropped. Spears snapped. Bodies folded into mud like bad parchment.
Jonas rang the bell.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
Road wardens rose from both sides.
Archers lifted bows.
Isabella's shield women moved.
From the trees behind the enemy, john's shadows appeared like night had grown knives.
"Archers." I said calmly with a signal of my right hand.
*SHK* *SHK* *SHK*
Arrows darkened the white sky.
They fell.
Men dropped.
Some died.
Some screamed.
Some prayed.
The road did not care.
I walked forward.
Percival gasped and said Immediately "Your majesty."
"Stay behind me and try not to make fear your final profession." I said calmly while gripping my sword tightly.
The first catholic soldier reached me with his sword raised too high.
Too angry.
Too alive.
I stepped inside the swing and drove my blade beneath his ribs.
*SHK*
*SPLAT*
Blood warmed my glove.
I twisted.
*SPURT*
He fell into the mud holding his stomach like his organs had betrayed him.
"One." I said calmly.
A jersey soldier came from my left with an axe.
Fast.
Smarter than the first.
Still dead.
I leaned back, caught his wrist, and snapped it.
*CRRK*
He screamed.
I cut his throat while saying calmly "Two."
*SHK*
A third tried to stab me from behind.
Galahad cut his arm off.
*THOMP*
The man stared at the stump.
Then galahad split him open from shoulder to waist.
*SPURT*
"Do not count mine, your majesty." Said galahad calmly.
"I was not planning to flatter you." I said calmly.
The armies crashed.
*CLANG*
*BOOM*
*SPURT*
The northern road became steel, mud, screaming and wet red breath.
A papal knight slammed into one of my soldiers and raised a mace.
I threw a dagger.
*SHK*
It sank into his eye.
He screamed.
I grabbed his helmet and dragged him down while saying calmly "Pray quieter."
Then shoved my sword through his mouth.
*CRUNCH*
His body went limp.
The soldier he had knocked down stared up at me.
"Get up.The ground has enough useless weight." I said calmly.
He scrambled up and screamed loudly "HAIL."
"HAIL." Said the soldiers loudly in unison.
The jersey line tried to break east toward the grain wagons.
Jonas rang the bell again.
*DING* *DING*
Carts slammed into place.
Chains pulled tight.
Spike boards dropped.
Michael stepped forward with his pitchfork and blood on his bandages.
"This road feeds us." Said michael hoarsely.
The commoners roared.
The jersey men hit the wardens and stopped.
Not because the wardens were stronger.
Because they were ready.
A woman drove an axe into a raider's neck.
*SPURT*
Michael stabbed a man through the thigh.
*SHK*
A boy threw a stone into a soldier's mouth.
*CRACK*
Isabella and the shield women smashed into the jersey flank.
*BOOM*
"Yorkania had shield maidens before rome remembered how to wash its ass." Said Isabella calmly as she drove a spear through a man's chest.
Bagdemagus's laughter roared from the rear with his arms spread wide open "GYAHAHAHA. BREAK THEM, GIRLS. MAKE THEIR MOTHERS QUESTION BIRTH."
I parried a sword and said calmly "Someone remind the royal uncle this is war, not tavern entertainment and why is he here and not watching the throne."
A spear cut across my right arm.
*SHK*
Pain burned.
The soldier smiled.
Briefly.
I looked at the blood.
Then at him.
"You damaged royal property." I said calmly.
His smile disappeared.
I grabbed his throat and slammed him into the mud.
*BOOM*
His head hit stone.
*CRACK*
I stepped on his skull.
*THOMP*
His body jerked once.
"That is why one should not smile at work." I said calmly.
Merlin's voice suddenly came from behind me "Your majesty, your arm."
"Later." I said calmly while swinging the blood off my sword.
*SPLAT*
"That is not how blood works." Said merlin with a sigh.
"It will learn." I said calmly with squinted eyes as I watched the enemy soldiers fall.
The catholic center tried to regroup.
The jersey rear tried to retreat.
Both failed.
Galahad broke the papal shield wall with the bronx men.
John's shadows cut the rear.
The road wardens closed the exits.
The shield women crushed the left.
The commoners held the wagons.
The battlefield became a closing mouth.
The papal legate finally understood.
The black stag commander finally understood.
Rome and jersey had not invaded a weak kingdom.
They had entered a machine morgan le fay had built from fear, hunger, roads, bells and angry people.
"RETREAT." Said the legate loudly.
"No." I said calmly while lifting my bloody sword.
The bells answered.
*DONG* *DONG* *DONG*
"Close the throat." I said calmly with my voice raised in pitch.
Yorkania moved.
The final force broke before noon.
Not because they lacked men.
They had men.
Not because they lacked faith.
They screamed enough of it.
They broke because faith could not carry grain, repair roads, read maps, stop arrows, or explain why every village they approached already had bells, smoke, wardens, women with shields, boys with sharp eyes and soldiers moving like teeth through the countryside.
The papal legate was dragged before me.
Beside him, the black stag commander was thrown into the mud with one arm hanging wrong.
Good.
Evidence should breathe.
The legate lifted his chin and said with gritted teeth "You cannot win against rome you evil spirit."
The field went silent.
I stared down at him.
"Strange.You are kneeling like someone who arrived late to that conclusion yet you have not registered the result." I said calmly with my arms spread at the situation.
Bagdemagus burst out laughing.
The legate's jaw clenched.
"You are a godless woman ruling a barbarian kingdom." Said the legate with anger as he grinded his teeth together.
I looked at percival.
"Write that down. Rome has discovered adjectives while losing." I said calmly with a snicker.
Percival wrote with a twitching mouth.
"You will answer to his holiness." Said the legate so anger.
"No. His holiness will answer to logistics." I said calmly with smiling eyes.
The field went silent.
I leaned forward slightly and said calmly "Your fleets failed. Your road men failed. Your priests failed. Your poison failed. Your hunger failed. Your traitors failed."
My eyes moved to the black stag commander and said calmly while pointing at him "And joseph's hidden hand failed beside you."
John stepped forward and placed evidence on a blood stained shield.
Papal seals.
Jersey payment notes.
Lancelot's maps.
The black stag ring.
Catholic storehouse letters.
Names of jersey officers.
Lists of grain villages.
"Your invasion is no longer holy. It is documented." I said calmly with smiling eyes.
The legate swallowed.
The jersey commander looked afraid.
"Bring Lancelot." I said calmly with my eyes squinting.
Soldiers dragged him forward in ruined velvet.
Still beautiful.
Still smiling.
Even with blood at his lip.
"My dear niece. You look radiant in wartime." Said lancelot softly.
I stared at him for a moment and said calmly "You look cheaper than usual."
His smile widened.
"You wound me." Said lancelot with a sigh.
"Not yet." I said calmly with my eyes squinting.
The field went silent.
Percival stepped forward.
"Lancelot de' brooklyn. You are accused of treason against the crown, conspiracy with Rome, conspiracy with Jersey, smuggling, secret military passage, attempted starvation of Yorkanian roads, the deaths of Yorkanian citizens, and being generally unbearable in public." Said percival with his voice raised in pitch.
Bagdemagus nodded solemnly.
"That last one is severe." Said bagdemagus with a sigh and his eyes closed.
Lancelot chuckled and said with his eyes opening subtly "You cannot kill me, morgan. Brooklyn will fracture."
I leaned on my sword.
Blood dripped from the tip.
*SPLAT* *SPLAT*
"Brooklyn will be administered by the crown until it remembers how to behave.Your estates are seized. Your trade routes belong to yorkania. Your private docks are closed. Your name is stripped of authority." I said calmly.
Lancelot's smile faded slightly and said softly "There she is. The real you."
I walked closer and said calmly with almost whisper like tone "Did you think betrayal was romantic because you smiled through it. No. Betrayal is simply incompetence wearing perfume."
The field was silent.
I looked at galahad and said calmly "Take them all."
Lancelot's eyes narrowed and asked "To death."
"No. Death is quick, and all of you have been expensive." I said calmly with my eyes smiling.
The air went cold.
"You will live long enough for yorkania to count what you cost." I said calmly with smiling eyes.
Galahad bowed.
Lancelot, the papal legate and the black stag commander were dragged away through mud and blood.
John appeared beside me from the smoke.
"The last enemy banners have lowered. Joseph's men are dead, captured, or running without weapons into our wardens." Said john calmly with cold eyes.
"Good." I said calmly with a cold look in my eyes.
The army breathed.
Not relief.
Not yet.
Survival.
Michael stepped forward and bowed, his pitchfork planted beside him like a peasant's spear and said with a sigh "Your majesty. The villages ask what this war will be called."
The battlefield went silent.
I stared at the road beneath my boots.
The northern road.
The western route.
The storehouses.
The villages.
The blood.
"The War of the bleeding roads." I said calmly.
Percival wrote it down.
The name settled over the field like a crown made of scars.
I looked at jonas.
The boy stood stiffly with his ledger held in both arms.
"Can you spell bleeding." I asked calmly.
Jonas stiffened and said Immediately with a stutter "Y…yes your majesty."
"Good. If you embarrass the war ledger, I will haunt your handwriting." I said calmly with a sigh as I looked up at the sky.
Bagdemagus wheezed laughing.
Merlin stepped closer, his eyes moving briefly to my bleeding arm.
"Yorkania has changed." Said merlin calmly.
I looked at him and said calmly "No. Yorkania has begun."
The field went silent.
Outside the road, bells rang across the kingdom.
Not pretty.
Not gentle.
But alive.
And somewhere beyond the sea, rome would learn that hunger had teeth.
And somewhere in jersey, joseph burlington would learn that teeth could bite back.
…
THE END…