The Book of Avalon Eternal

Gawain and Nimue take their refreshed cups of herbal mint and lead forward towards the druid.

'This will take a long time, but I need to tell you all of it. Or at least most of it. There are many things that you do not know, Nimue, despite your diligent studies. Indeed, there are many things that I do not know. But what I can tell you, I will.'

And this is the tale that Caradoc told them.

For many centuries, tribes have struggled for control of Britain. Some have won for a time, only to have their gains reversed later. The gods blessed their favorites and plotted against those they hated, and their wills were often arbitrary. Working through witches and mages, the magic folk, the gods sought to exert their control, but they soon found that the magic folk they wished to use had wills of their own. So it came to be that there was conflict and war among the many gods, witches, and mages of Britain.

There were also other beings that lived in Britain and worked through the magic folk, often in contradiction to the will of the gods; and they too had their human favorites. These beings were not gods, but claimed to have come from a much greater god whom they would not name. They called themselves Fay, and they greatly perplexed the magic folk of Britain, for they seemed like gods but would not accept that title; and often they seemed even stronger than gods.

These are the beings that called and bonded Morgan, Arthur's sister. One named Mishawai has attached to her and remains so. He patronizes her and has helped her in many dangerous situations, though she has never spoken his name nor told anyone about him. But Merlin has seen this Fay, and spoken with him, and Merlin tells me that this Fay admitted to having Morgan as his own. I cannot tell you more at this time about what the Fay Mishawai said to Merlin, nor what Merlin said to him, but one day I will.

As for the final higher being that has involved itself in the affairs of Britain: its name is Yafashelor. I do not refer to it as a male or a female, for it appears as both at different times. In a very old and forgotten tongue, it is said that its name means the Shining One. The Fay reject Yafashelor, but it claims them as its own. Sometimes Yafashelor appears benevolent, but most of the time its purposes are opaque and seem dark to those who meet it, despite its name that indicates light; and Yafashelor's army are named the Tuadithai. The Fay also reject the Tuadithai, but these are insistent that they too are Fay; indeed, they insist that they are the true Fay who have not left the path of their kind, inscrutable to human minds though it may be.

From this maelstrom of conflict emerged a seer named Taliesin, and he had two younger brothers, both of whom were mages; and their names were Emrys and Merlin. The story of how they came to be born is a much deeper and longer tale that must wait for another time. And yes, it is the same Emrys that lives in the Oaken Fortress in the house next door, beside the High Druid's residence which I presently occupy. The lifespans of magic folks can become twisted and winding, especially if they have communion with gods and Fay, and so a mage like Emrys may appear very old but in truth is very young; while at other times he may appear very young while bearing the weariness of many years. Emrys has not spoken or allowed himself to be seen for many years now, and only his closest servants bring back of evidence of his continued presence.

Taliesin spent many years wandering in Britain, from the south to the north and back. It is said he traveled to Ireland and down the islands in the narrow sea. He became a great bard in addition to his aptitude for the second sight. In one of his poems, he speaks of an island far to the west to which he has traveled and where he saw wonders beyond description - although Taliesin tried very hard to describe them. Despite the inquiries of many, he has never said whether the realm to which he traveled was in our world or another - or within one of his visions which may be either real or unreal, although the distinction in that case becomes meaningless.

Taliesin spoke many prophecies and wrote even more poems before he disappeared into the east, far beyond Rome in the Mare Nostrum, and though he spent some time in Athens where he made the acquaintance of some of the first followers of the cult of the Christian god, he traveled even beyond Constantinople. His last letter came back to Britain with Merlin as its recipient, and Merlin has never told anyone from where Taliesin sent it except that it was many months' journey - maybe years' - past Constantinople.

Now Emrys came to know a man named Constantine in Britain who was both Roman and Briton. Constantine was the chieftain of a small valley and an alliance of several tribes. But through the advisement of Emrys, the blessing of the gods, and some degree of competence by Constantine, he became the overlord of an alliance of many tribes, and they called themselves the Comanorii.

Emrys has told me many tales of his time with Constantine and Uther, and he has told Merlin even more, which I would be most interested to hear if Merlin were with us. Emrys said that Constantine had two sons by Bronwen, a Briton princess of the Mathonni tribe that lived deep in the forest and hated the Romans fiercely. Bronwen would not have married Constantine except for the insistence of her own father who sought status for his family and clan. She hated Constantine from the first day of their acquaintance, thinking him preposterous and boorish. The first son Constantine named Aurelius, for he loved his Roman heritage and scorned his Briton ancestors. His second son, at the insistence of Bronwen, he named Uther, as a proper Briton name and one with a great and auspicious foreboding.

Constantine unashamedly favored Aurelius and often taught him the deeds of the emperor Aurelian, for whom Constantine had named his son. Constantine was a great admirer of the emperor Aurelian for his sternness and ruthlessness in enforcing peace at the end of the Roman civil wars. Constantine grew up listening to the stories of his grandfather Trofnos, who had been a praefectus overseeing the camp of the emperor Aurelian's most trusted legion when they traveled in Italia and through Dacia and Pannonia. Trofnos even claimed to have spoken with the emperor on many occasions, although Constantine always felt this would have been unusual for a praefectus. But he believed his grandfather's tales, because he loved his grandfather, and he did not care if the tales were true or imaginary. They made Constantine feel that his ancestors were Roman, and that therefore he was Roman; and Rome mean honor and power, unlike his Briton ancestors to whom he often referred in private as barbarians.

Contrary to how he treated his son Aurelius, Constantine denigrated his son Uther at every opportunity. He placed much love and care into his older son, while his heart became hardened and cruel against Uther. Bronwen intervened many times on behalf of Uther, but Constantine grew to hate her and would often strike her when she spoke for Uther, and Uther in turn grew to hate his father with all his heart.

By all accounts, when Uther came of age, he was the handsomest man among all the Comanorii, and he drew the attention of many minor chieftains who petitioned Constantine that they might introduce their daughters to Uther. Constantine in turn was driven to rage by these requests, and by how they ignored Aurelius, and despite Emrys's advice that Constantine exercise patience and consideration, he refused each chieftain with such hostility that they stopped coming to him.

There came a day when the great Roman general Stilicho attended the court of Constantine to beseech him to lend the armies of the Comanorii towards the defense of Rome against relentless raiding from the Saxons in the east, the Picts in the north, and the Irish to the west across the narrow sea. There was little agreement among the Comanorii as to whether their support should be thrown behind Rome, or in support of the rebels, or withheld altogether. Among those who believed in supporting the rebels, Uther became the reluctant standard-bearer for their cause.

The day that Stilicho arrived with his large contingent of bodyguards and trusted men, Constantine went out on horseback to meet them on the road, with Aurelius on his own mount following behind. Constantine proudly adorned himself with the old Roman armor his grandfather had given him, while he dressed Aurelius in the cloth of dark blue, gold, and crimson that marked the royal family of the Comanorii. Uther and Bronwen watched from the balcony of their stone-built palace as Constantine dismounted and greeted Stilicho in the traditional clasping of arms. Although they could not hear what Constantine said, they saw him gesture towards Aurelius, who in turn bowed before Stilicho and greeted him in the same fashion as Constantine.

That evening after the sun had set, Stilicho and his men sat down to dinner with Constantine and his under-chieftains. To his right, Constantine had seated Aurelius, while to his left sat Bronwen, and furthest away from him on the other side Bronwen sat Uther. Emrys sat to the right of Aurelius at the corner of the table, a seat of honor for a mage who advised a ruler. The great hall in which they dined was made of stone stacked high and covered in a pitched wooden roof, and from the rafters hung the banners of the royal family, which mirrored the outfit Aurelius wore: a dark blue field with a golden eagle in the middle, akin to the Roman eagle, and the banner was outlined in a rich crimson. Hanging above the banners were chandeliers of a wood reinforced with metal, and these held many candles that were lit by servants each morning who climbed into the far reaches of the hall on thin ladders that barely held their weight.

The banquet began jovially, with a toast from Constantine and a generous welcoming speech from him to Stilicho; and Constantine also raised Aurelius from his seat so that the young man could speak some words of honor to Stilicho and the other Romans. Aurelius was not a confident man and being only a few years beyond the age at which he could grow a beard, he felt unprepared to speak before such illustrious personages and faltered in his words; and for this, Constantine was deeply embarrassed. He stood again to support his son, and Stilicho maintained respectful attention towards them both.

Then Constantine heard low whispers from his left, and when he looked in that direction, he saw that Bronwen was speaking into Uther's ear. She saw Constantine looking at her, and though the room had quieted to a near silence at Constantine's sudden pause, she continued whispering into her son's ear with her mouth tucked between Uther's thick blond hair and his great blond beard which made Aurelius's beard look like the scraggly underbrush of late autumn.

Constantine scowled at Bronwen and Uther, and when she persisted in speaking to her son, Constantine's anger increased. But when Bronwen finished speaking, and the content of her speech remained unknown to Constantine and all in the room, Uther laughed. The laugh was soft enough that if a normal level of conversation was occurring then it would not have been heard at all. But since silence prevailed in the hall, Uther's laugh seemed to echo from the stone walls and from the rafters where the banners hung.

Constantine's anger ascended into rage as his face drained of color, and he took on a strange white pallor like unto that of a corpse. Stilicho stood halfway from his chair, raising his finger to speak, but Constantine did not see Stilicho. His attention was totally absorbed by his wife and younger son. Bronwen looked up at her husband, and seeing his rage, she set her jaw in defiance of him. For she had felt his rage many times, and her heart was hardened towards her husband, and she was weary of his presence after so many years of unhappy marriage.

'Woman! Submit to me!' shouted Constantine at the top of his voice, causing Stilicho to wince from the sound and from the building sense of vicarious shame one feels when witnessing another person losing all sense of dignity due to the white-hot flame of rage. In response to her husband, Bronwen began to stand from her chair, but before she could push the chair back completely from the table, Constantine struck her across the face with the back of his hand so forcefully that the blow caused Bronwen to sprawl backwards onto the stone floor where she hit her head and did not move again.

Now the entire dinner party sat frozen as well as silent. Uther stared at his father with shock, before hurriedly kneeling beside his mother who had begun to rouse from the blow and allowed Uther to raise her into his own chair so that she did not sit on the floor. Aurelius rushed to Uther's side to attend their mother as well, but before he could kneel beside Uther, Uther stood and met Aurelius with his two great hands wrapping the folds of Aurelius's robe. And Uther lifted his brother from the ground as though Aurelius was a child and threw him effortlessly into the body of their father who had begun rushing towards his sons when Uther raised Aurelius from the ground.

Aurelius and Constantine fell backwards from Uther into a great heap on the ground, and seeing this disgraceful scene, Stilicho averted his eyes while his men who sat around him gasped in surprise. But the disgrace was not complete, and it still had several moments before it was finished. Constantine scrambled to his feet, pushing Aurelius down as he did so, and came to stand before his son Uther. Uther was half a head taller than his father, causing Constantine to look upward into the face of his son. Constantine sputtered with rage and drew his hand back in a fist which he brought towards his son's face. But Uther was quicker and raised his own hand, catching his father's fist in the middle of its swing, and squeezing it so that the cracking of Constantine's bones could be heard throughout the hall.

Constantine shrieked, a high-pitched noise that was cut short when Uther grasped his father by the back of his neck, kneed him in his stomach, and pressed his face down into a full cooked goose that sat before Constantine's place at the table and that still steamed from the roasting fire. Uther held his father's face there as Constantine squirmed under the grip of his son. When Uther removed his hand from the back of his father's neck, and Constantine raised his face, it was covered in dripping goose fat hot enough to cause pinkish red streaks as it slowly seeped down his face. There also the honey dressing that had been inside the goose now covered the rest of his face and the front of his head; and to the honey dressing adhered many goose feathers.

Now Stilicho and his men were speechless and completely overcome with the shame of what they witnessed, so far removed from Roman dignity as to seem almost like a farcical play put on for coarse entertainment. Stilicho stood from his place at the table to leave the hall, not knowing what else to do, and his men stood with him. Before they could leave, their attention was again drawn to the horrible scene at the head of the table which was apparently still unfinished.

Constantine pushed himself back from the table, shoes scrabbling for purchase on the stone floor. Uther stepped back from his father, his face oddly calm. In his hurry, Constantine knocked over his chair which fell backwards at Uther's feet. One final time, Constantine rushed at his son, while Uther with something like pity in his eyes received his father almost as though he would take him into an embrace; but instead, he lifted his father from the ground and threw him downwards onto the side of his fallen chair, causing Constantine to strike the chair in the middle of his back.

The sound of Constantine's back breaking was louder than the sound of his hand breaking. His shrieks, louder than before, filled the hall, while Stilicho and his men fled the hall and the unspeakable scene they had witnessed. They mounted their horses and rode off into the night in the direction of the large Roman encampment to the east, and never again did Rome come in peace to visit any realm in which Uther ruled.