Excalibur's Seven | ✓ [LGBT]

~ 42 ~

MORGANA WAS NEVER AS confused as he was now. Every story he'd ever heard about Mab made him think that she would be a bit more... terrifying. Sure, she was a little intimidating, but in the way Selene was intimidating. She didn't look like a source of destruction and grief and darkness like he thought. She looked like a tired woman that just wanted to get on with her day.

She helped Eurion untie the chain from the dragon's horn as she listened to their request, soothing the beast before it tried to kill Eurion in its fury.

"An army," she repeated after Kit explained what he needed. "Do I look like I have an army to you?"

Kit swallowed. "Well, I... I just figured that a Queen would have an army is all."

"Son, I haven't seen a single soul in centuries other than my lovely Atla, but even she only visits on holidays," she told him. "I don't need an army. I have dragons and they keep me safe from anyone that might try to piss me off, but they've been sitting like ducks for a long time. Until you ballsy folks came along, that is."

Morgana studied her. Atla was the name of the Winter Queen, if he remembered right. But Atla got just as many visitors as Mab, he was sure. Why did she need an army, but not Mab?

"My reputation keeps me safe," she went on. "I let people tell their stories of me devastating villages and flooding my kingdom with vicious monsters. The Winter Kingdom has hardly any problem with vicious monsters, they know not to touch my people. But it's the best protection a woman can have."

"Why are you telling us this?" Morgana said. "How do you know we won't ruin all that for you?"

Mab paused and turned to him. "Because no one will ever believe you. And besides, I can say with confidence that a handful of humans and a couple Seelies wouldn't stand a chance against me."

"I'm Unseelie, I'm a winter faery," Morgana told her. How would she not see that?

"Really? Hm." She scanned him up and down. "You don't act like an Unseelie."

"I hang around with a lot of Seelies, but I'm one of you, I swear." He looked down at his wooden hand. It was getting harder to move.

"That'll explain why you're so conservative with your magic," she murmured. "You're Unseelie, don't worry about saving it. Use it to your heart's content, it's yours."

"I can't."

She gave him an odd look.

"I'm sick. No one knows what it is but it's always been there. My magic is finite, if I use too much of it, I spend all my strength," he told her.

"It's your strength that's finite, not your magic, learn to separate them." She said it like it was the easiest thing, and it frustrated him but he wanted to know more.

She nodded towards the palace, waving them along. "You've come all this way, come take a visit."

"Why?" Morgana questioned.

Mab turned around. "Sorry?"

"Why? Why are you inviting us in, what do you want?"

She shrugged. "I don't need anything."

"But--"

"Titania can lie. I can give and not have to take. We've both been alive for eternity, we just figured out how to get past different barriers," Mab explained. "I'm taking you to my house because I want guests and you lot look like you need a rest. I don't need anything else."

Logic didn't want to trust her, but Morgana didn't feel like he was being tricked. She could very well be tricking him into thinking that somehow, but it didn't feel like it. Maybe he was an idiot to follow her, but he did. The others hesitated, but followed suit.