As his King and fellow Knights left through the portal, Sir Agravain felt the full weight of responsibility settle onto his shoulders.
This wasn't just his king going to France or to the New World for a little trip; this was his King going to war, a grand battle that would decide the fate of the world itself, and while he was supremely confident in their eventual victory,
He also knew that he wasn't left behind because he wasn't needed, no... he remained behind precisely because he was needed.
Camelot needed him, Albion needed him, and his King needed him.
Not to join them on the battlefield, no, he was needed to hold down the fort.
This might look insignificant compared to a war to decide the fate of the world. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Sir Agravain knew just how important his current role was, and he knew how much could go wrong.
He would never forget what could go wrong when the king was away on campaign. The last battle of Camlann, the fall of Camelot, the end of the kingdom...
All that stemmed not from the outcome of the campaign itself, but from trouble that arose at home while the King was away.
And while Agravain himself had died early in the conflict, he still knew that much of it had risen from his neglect.
Lancelot had caused the death of his brothers, had condemned the queen, and stolen her away, shattering the king's prestige, and giving the lords cause to join Mordred's rebellion.
Small things had brought about the end of the kingdom, and Agravain swore he would allow nothing to go wrong this time!
"Lady Belova," he addressed the leader of The Veiled Hand, Yelena Belova.
"Yes, Sir Agravain?" She replied, her words to the point and with respect, she knew who she was talking to, and how to act given the situation.
"I want your people to watch Lancelot at all times. I want him watched while he eats, while he sleeps, while he fucks. No matter what he does, your men are to be with him and report anything out of the norm directly to me," he ordered.
While he trusted Lancelot's loyalty to their king now, he still didn't trust him.
The Knight of the Lake was a romantic, an idealist who acted on his feelings, and feelings weren't logical. So if he were to, for some reason, find himself at odds with the king, he would just as surely betray them.
He wasn't being overly cautious; this was necessary. Lancelot was the most dangerous piece on the board left behind by the King. He had to be controlled.
"Understood," Yelena said with a firm nod. "The Knight of the Lake is not to be left alone. We will treat him like a VIP that we don't trust."
While privately she thought it was a bit much, she also knew there were plenty among the Hand who were all too happy to take on this task. Lancelot had plenty of fans, and given his romantic nature... Putting one of her agents in his bed wouldn't be difficult.
The bigger problem wasn't who to pick for that, but how to pick one without causing a fight with those not chosen. But that was her problem, not Agravain's.
"Good," Agravain said with a nod. "Now I also need your people to watch the ports. I want to know everything that enters and leaves Albion, from the smallest cargo to the largest passenger ship. I want to know who is on board, what they are carrying, and where they are going."
"Already done, Sir Agravain," Yelena said, a small, proud smile on her face. "The Veiled Hand has already established a network of informants in all major ports and harbors. We are keeping a close eye on all incoming and outgoing traffic."
While it was normally difficult to fully monitor all traffic coming and going from a nation, Albion was relatively easy to monitor because it was so closed off. With the many trade embargoes and visa restrictions, it wasn't too troublesome.
More so since the Veiled Hand had been allowed to insert itself into every layer of the Government, and given that all the systems had been made with their involvement, no other nation in the world could compare to them when it came to homeland security.
Agravain nodded, satisfied with the woman's professionalism. He would be the first to agree that he didn't trust women much, finding them too easily swayed by their emotions, but the Veiled Hand was acceptable.
"I also need you to keep an eye on internal issues. You can send Lancelot out as needed, same with Sir Dagonet, but try to keep Sir Gareth closer to home," Agravain said.
His words caused Yelena to raise an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? I thought the idea was to keep Lancelot in Camelot as the final reserve?" she questioned.
"I will be in Camelot myself, with the King gone, I will be here to manage the day-to-day affairs. I will be the final defense, not Lancelot," Agravain said, his voice flat and emotionless. He knew his decision didn't fully align with his King's wishes, but he simply didn't trust Lancelot.
Better to keep the man busy and watched than allow him to try anything. And if he were needed, it wouldn't take him long to move around, and even without him in Camelot, the city was still strong enough to deal with anything unexpected.
Agravain knew he wasn't the strongest of the Round Table Knights, but he was still confident in handling any threat, as long as that threat wasn't Lancelot.
"As you command," Yelena said with a slight bow of her head, she knew better than to question a Knight of the Round Table, especially one as notorious as Agravain.
The two of them continued to discuss the details of their plan for the next hour, with Yelena offering her insights and suggestions, and Agravain giving his orders. A meeting of efficiency. With the King at war, the kingdom didn't need romance, nor did it need heroism. No, what it needed now was cold logic.
Agravain was a man who had few friends, but he was a man who understood the importance of duty, and he was a man who would do whatever it took to fulfill that duty. He would not let his kingdom fall, not again.
He would not let his king down, not again.
He would not let the people of Albion suffer, not again.
He was Agravain, the Knight of the Pure Pitilessness, a Knight of the Round Table.
And he would not fail.
Once all the details were settled, Yelena left, leaving Agravain alone in the throne room. He looked at the empty throne, a sad, lonely feeling in his heart.
-----
While an unknown current stirred in Camelot, and while the Goddess Rhongomyniad led her Knights to protect humanity from demons and worse, the nominal protectors of the Earth, the Illuminati, were having their own headache.
The situation in Wakanda was a complicated mess of political interests, making it hard to resolve.
The battle had already ended; that was the easy part. Magneto hadn't wasted a moment there... but to turn the forcefully enforced ceasefire into peace was far more difficult.
And it wasn't something power and force alone could solve.
Tony Stark was a genius; he could build a suit of armor that could take on a small army, he could hack into any computer system in the world, he could even fly.
Reed Richards was equally smart, a genius that few could hope to rival. Not to mention Doom and Charles Xavier, they all had degrees aplenty, but other than Xavier, the rest were people of logic.
They saw a problem and came up with a logical solution, but this conflict wasn't entirely logical, and those involved cared little for it.
The world saw the benefits, saw the wealth of Wakanda and its advanced technology, and they wanted it.
While Wakanda was just protecting itself, which logically meant that the united forces of Africa and their backers were the bad guys... but that wasn't entirely true.
Because they did have an excuse to hide behind as they lusted over benefits.
Wakanda's past actions and inactions.
They had kept their amazing technology a secret for centuries. In that long, long period of history, they had stood by and done nothing. They had watched as countless conflicts raged across the continent of Africa, conflicts that could have been ended, or at least mitigated, by their technology.
And to keep their secrets, they hadn't hesitated to kill, assassinate, and sabotage all around the world.
There were enough confirmed cases of such things that it was nearly impossible to figure out which claims were real, and which weren't.
So when someone claimed that Wakanda had killed a researcher who found the cure to cancer, it was hard for the Illuminati to just wave away such things and claim unilaterally that Wakanda was in the right here.
And so, after weeks of learning about Wakanda, the members of the Illuminati were once again gathered in a meeting room aboard their floating headquarters.
"Charles, have you gotten anywhere?" Tony asked, taking a sip of coffee as he stared at the large holographic screen in the middle of the room.
It was a map of the region, showing the positions of the various forces.
Charles Xavier, looking tired, was one of the most important members of the council. His ability to read minds allowed him to gather intelligence that even the best agencies in the world would envy. But it wasn't all roses and rainbows.
He would be the first person to tell anyone that telepathy wasn't the great gift many imagined it to be. The human mind was a wonderful place at times... and at others, it truly showed just how dark the human heart could also be.
"While the royal family and many other important people have the ability to protect their thoughts, the vast majority have no such ability, and I'm sad to say that there seems to be no good way to satisfy everyone. Most consider the outside world beneath them," he reported with sadness in his tone.
"So even the common people are as arrogant as their leaders," Magneto scoffed, "hardly a surprise." The old mutant wasn't known for being kind or patient.
"That's not fair," Tony retorted, "They are isolated, and I can kind of understand why, after all, every outside country they've had contact with has tried to steal from them. I would also be hesitant to open my gates after that."
"While I can see your point, you also need to understand that to a person in a neighboring country who is starving, dying of some illness, and all of this is happening right next to a hidden utopia that has the cure for what ails him... you can't expect that person to be happy about it," Reed argued logically.
The two geniuses could understand the thoughts of both sides, but that didn't mean they knew how to solve it.
The world was not a simple, logical thing that could be solved with a formula. They might have godlike intelligence, but that didn't mean they were infallible.
As everyone was trapped in a dilemma, one that had stumped them for weeks now, an alert suddenly startled them. It would appear that before they had solved one global crisis, another was requiring their attention.
(End of chapter)
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