#demetae canon divergence au

[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon

my AO3 fic has started its weekly upload schedule!

summary: Eight months after the repeal of the magic ban, Merlin and Arthur continue the rhythm of their status quo, with Merlin ever the constantly-ordered-around manservant to King Arthur. But when two diplomats are murdered in Camelot, Arthur must salvage relations with the mysterious ��Queen of Demetae,” even if it means brokering a marriage alliance between himself and a legendary sorcerer, Emrys.

aka Merlin's "Emrys" identity gets betrothed to King Arthur, and Merlin desperately tries to put a stop to it without exposing his secret magic or identity or any of the other hundred secrets he'd kept since becoming Arthur's manservant.

~ new chapter every Sunday ~

chapters posted: 2/18

word count (chapters 1 & 2): 10,094

read ch. 1 on ao3: “The Strangers from Demetae”

read ch. 2 on ao3: “The Deal with Demetae”

[kathreia]

i made this after the St Ignatius ghost files episode, which was when I first drafted chapter 3. ig it’s relevant to share now pftft

[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 5 - Annwn’s Grace

I posted this chapter on Monday to do proper final edits, bc it's one of my favorites and I wanted to do it justice :D enjoy and thank you for your patience!

also I just noticed that the Emrys-Arthur chapter titles have so far been “[etc.]’s [noun].” wow look at me (accidentally) connecting subject matter via syntax /lh

word count (ch. 5): 6,800

~ new chapter every Sunday ~

read on ao3

“Now, this…” a burly, broad-shouldered lord said with sweeping hands. Below an aged face and its looming gray-brown beard, the man wore an azurine tunic, clasped with four gilt roses. No doubt, he was Lord Elis ap Cledwyn, seated next to Camelot’s king. The lord’s decades-full (and seemingly decades-long) regales entirely commanded Arthur's attention.  

Correction: almost entirely.

Emrys proved as captivating as he was mythical to the luncheon guests. Everyone still gawked at him, whispered about him, tripped over their feet near him, wouldn’t shut up about him. And Arthur wasn’t immune. He would shoot glances over to the man seated at his right—his betrothed—probably every other sentence Lord Elis rambled.

“I remember riding home from Gawant more than twenty years ago—that was when I first learned of the attack on Neaferne,” Lord Elis said, somewhat detached as he sifted through his memory.

The cool breeze carried the savory smell of frittered fish and leftover meat dumplings. It started to annoy Merlin. His collar felt stuffy in his tunic, bearing turbid gray-blue designs and a reddish, earthy brown like a coveted foggy topaz. He wished that he wasn’t surrounded by—and dressed in—the memory of heat and attention. Merlin tilted his cup for a sip and noticed Arthur’s gaze flick over to him. He accidentally met Arthur’s weird look and he cursed his damn awkward life as they both averted their eyes.

“Inevitably, the road yielded fellow travelers, who yielded traveling mouths,” Lord Elis eventually continued. “Only then did I realize all that activity in Gawantian forges was to supply the campaign of another kingdom—Camelot!”

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[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 10 - The Grey March

aaa chapter 10 jumpscare !! college has calmed down for now, but I might change the upload schedule to every other Sunday. :D I hope you enjoy the chapter and mind the tags! 

word count (ch. 10): 6,421

~ new chapter every Sunday ~ (schedule may change)

excerpt cw: brief mentions of blood and unhygienic surroundings

read on ao3

The door atop the stone stairs was left wide and away. Merlin followed Arthur and Percival, his steps echoing shadows and sounds as their own lanterns and the lord heir brought the men half-underground.

Soil and sweat and cess and blood. Waste went unbothered in the dungeon.

The cells were built into the motte that upheld the castle structure, but no one tended to the cesspits or sewage. This was how Gavin snuck away a week ago. After all, the Lord Constable was Gavin himself, and they used newer, more guarded cells above the ground by the bailey barracks. The old castle dungeons were usually empty.

Coughing rang out as Gavin and Arthur’s people reached the end of the stairwell. Merlin, already tense, felt his chest clench as he heard the attempted silence. Breaths were loud. The noise of movement was timid. The self-suppressed voice in various chests escaping with hard gasps and jolts. Merlin raised his lantern, and froze.

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[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 7 - The Faith and The Fracture

look at me, posting to both ao3 and tumblr on Sunday! /lh enjoy the new chapter! in my outline, this chapter marks the end of “phase 1!”

[note on chapter drafting / future] I will notify in author notes on whether or not to expect a week-long hiatus following a future chapter update, since I would need to deal with intensifying college workloads as the semester continues. 

I might also use Tumblr for any notice about a week-long hiatus, but I’ll try to notify in advance through author notes, because only a couple of readers found me on Tumblr—also hi to tumblr readers, I appreciate you!

word count (ch. 7): 5,079

~ new chapter every Sunday ~

cw for excerpt: blood

read on ao3

“Mortar and pestle,” the queen’s personal physician, Claron, pointed at a cupboard—without looking away from Kara’s convulsing unconscious body—and Merlin rushed over to retrieve his tools for him. Merlin also handed the physician a few herb jars for pain relief that he’d identified from Gaius’s mentorship.  

The queensguard, who’d received Morgana and her bloodied party upon return, then carried Kara to an empty cot and Claron set two fingers to check the girl’s pulse, instructing the guard—Sir Laureion—to keep her tormenting form still.

Claron drew Kara’s sleeve up to her elbow. Her skin was like shattered glass. The surging, stained view between the cracks was quick, warm blood.

Morgana approached the cot, physician between herself and Merlin, who carried out the physician’s steady stream of instructions as a paste formed in the mortar’s rough bowl. The midday light from the windows afforded everyone a clear sight of the red routes that split Kara’s skin in jolts, always followed with screaming shudders of agony. A shred formed on Kara’s right cheek, from ear to eye.

Would it be a death by a thousand cuts? Merlin’s breath caught. The injury was sudden and unreasonable, and the cause was blurry—a curse from Kara’s aunt?—but Morgana said she didn’t sense Berna’s magic on Kara. But Merlin saw Morgana’s panic—her widened, then narrowed eyes, with a scowling mouth and brow, that Merlin knew was fear in an exceedingly serious situation. And the situation only looked more and more lethal.

“Let me help.” A woman’s modest, cool voice pulled Merlin’s gaze. He saw Gwen, shutting the door behind her, moving to the cot as she pushed her sleeves up. “My arms are stronger than yours, Merlin.”

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[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 6 - The Murder of Morwynd

word count (ch. 6): 8,219

~ new chapter every Sunday ~

read on ao3

“Kara of Morwynd, your grace.”

Morgana didn’t look at the queensguard who announced Kara’s presence, even as she heard the door’s wooden heave. Morgana made a point of it. She only leaned over the desk in her study, unyielding eyes on an unyielding ancient tome.

“Thank you, Sir Laureion,” Morgana dismissed. Then the creak and thud of a door lodging back into the frame.

Morgana stayed silent for a few more page-turns. The beige of papers warmed with orange and yellow under the black, time-worn ink in the room’s flinching candlelight. Despite Morgana’s supposedly determined scrutiny, the content of the second half of the book wasn’t very concrete or practical. It mainly discussed the mythos in this part. Something about the mythological dichotomy of Old Magic—the Dire with fear and the Neahtid with love. But there were many variations on this concept, and Morgana couldn’t tell whether it was nuance or incoherence. Was fear, so-named in the text, not a complex emotion, part of the Neahtid-given human capacities for consciousness and magic? The book didn’t mention fear as part of the Triple Goddess’s regime of the Dire, and the Old Magic powers of the Triple included life, death, and fate—not fear and not any other emotion. But the text did begin to mention fear as part of the Dire once Neahtid created time and the capacity for magic and complex emotion.

Really, only the first half of the book improved Morgana’s vague idea of the logic relating to the Old Magic practices of the Dire times. Most usefully, it mentioned the withering of the Fisher Kingdom as an example of the Dire’s supposed connection to the manifestation of souls and, relatedly, the essences of magic—the latter of which legends would almost always claim were gifts to humanity from Neahtid.

But now, what Morgana truly wanted to learn was which was more powerful: Kara’s patience or Kara’s propriety.

“You asked for me, your highness?”

Obviously.

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[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 3 - Myth’s Requite

happy holidays and merry christmas to those who celebrate! today’s a sunday, so here’s a shiny new chapter. 

super snazzy thank you to @lordstormageddidnt for proofreading chapter 3 (and the fic’s first chapter)! you’re my lord (stomageddon) and savior /lh /pos

I hope you enjoy the shenanigans and the “first” meeting of Arthur and Emrys!

word count (ch. 3): 6,473

~ new chapter every Sunday ~

read on ao3

Finally, after three days of travel, there it was: a surprising, complex sprawl of urbanity. Arthur was silently overcome with a need to see it up close, but that impulse was impractical. To prevent congestion, a group of Demetaen men-at-arms met with the king and guided his retinue along a more elevated mountain road around the city.

Neaferne, the capital of Demetae, spanned both sides of the west-running Essen River. But as Arthur and his people proceeded to the castle, which sat on an elevated land within the modest vale, the main city was doubtlessly on the river’s northwestern side. It had ideal flat terrain for an expanding city center, a community invigorated by the flow and find of water channels throughout. But the most wondrous feature was the waterfall by the castle, where a tall stone bridge connected across the chasm from the castle’s lower ward.

As they trudged up the castle’s slow hill, Arthur could also see the view across the river. It looked more serene. There was heightened land, parallel to the castle’s, crowned with a grand structure amid a collection of time-old buildings. It looked like an abbey—Freyes Abbey, perhaps?

Unlike Morgana’s “welcome” in Camelot two weeks before, the arrival of King Arthur’s retinue met with true liveliness.

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[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 8 - A New State of Affairs

ooops im quite late to posting my chapter updates to tumblr! thank you for your patience, and enjoy!

word count (ch. 8): 6,893

~ new chapter every Sunday ~ [week-long hiatus after chapter 9].

read on ao3

Morgause knew she was on her back, jarring and jostling on rough wood, and wholly covered by a crude, woolen thing.

Last she knew, she had just transported herself away as the throne room collapsed. As her magic collapsed. Then, her consciousness fled. And here she was. Unable to move and only able to feel crushing, cracking agony under her skin, which seemed somehow humid and wet. Her cheeks rubbed against the scratchy fabric. It made her skin burn worse. Added fun, that. Reminding her that she was wretchedly close to sleeping under a fine eiderdown instead.

Ah, well.

The wagon—it must be that—rumbled to a stop. Then, there was nothing to hear but the hush of trees and the soft snuffle of a horse. It was so quiet, but Morgause ignored her unease. There’d be no point in becoming unnerved. In her current state, it wasn’t like Morgause could do anything beyond breathing, and she couldn’t even count on that.

A hand grabbed Morgause’s ankle and pulled. Graceful as a grain sack, Morgause and her loyal companion—that damned wool—simply fell onto the mud. Morgause couldn’t move her head much. She stared at the gray sky and the grayer withes. She supposed they’re the once familiar sight of willow branches, though they were starting to become leafless from the cold.

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[kathreia]

Ascent of the White Dragon | Chapter 4 - Freyes Abbey

happy new year! The new chapter was posted on Jan. 1, so, yeah, I’m late to posting about it on tumblr (whups). get excited for chapter 5 coming this sunday!—it’s one of my favorites.

word count (ch. 4): 7,201

~ new chapter every Sunday ~

read on ao3

…Tsk tsk …

The lit fireplace seethed perfectly like its mistress. But the queen was not the only one in her chambers, seated by the warmth of the inglenook. Gwen, Lancelot, Arthur, Merlin. It was awfully nostalgic, Merlin thought. Morgana sat quietly, leaning against an armchair, hair loose and unadorned, clothes just a simple shift, modestly swathed in a silk robe. It’s not “queen” Morgana, who’d sit forward or straight like the other party should prove themselves worthy of her august glance. But she wasn’t carefree.

No one was.

…Tsk… tsk…

Arthur cleared his throat. “Morgana…”

“I have nothing to do with it. The hour is late. I do not understand the reason whereon you insist a discussion,” Morgana said stiffly. She glanced toward the sunken hearth, the flames there twisting within the image of her eyes. Merlin leaned forward, hoping to earn her fire-dwelling gaze. She should see, if only she just looked, that Merlin was earnest, if not pleading, to work together.

Morgana raised her chin, a lily-ash linn from the sharp route of her jaw. She said, “I haven’t seen her since I’d left.”

Merlin relaxed and nodded. “That makes sense,” he offered. Merlin just hoped his support would make Morgana act less like a cornered mongoose. “Morgause’s major attacks focus on Camelot. Morgana even helped stop Morgause the first time. It’s likely that Morgause still thinks Morgana isn’t an enemy or an ally.” Morgana’s gaze eased. She looked nostalgic, and Merlin was relieved to see a gentle tug at her lips.

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