♠️ Exceptis Centrum ♠️ ✔︎

Chapter 31

Sitting down upon the soft grass in the Elder Tree garden that once belonged to his precious Arthur, Alfred stared at the strange little girl before him who had now revealed herself to be Guinevere, the very Elder Tree that sat in the centre of the garden, named by Arthur himself. It seemed hard to believe but after everything Alfred went through it all made sense. This whole time she had been the spirit of the very Elder Tree that existed in that very garden. It was strange that somehow he already knew who she was, he just never put it all together.

Guinevere stared at him sadly before sitting down next to him. “Are you alright?”

It seemed like stupid question to ask but Alfred responded by sniffling a little and nodding. “As good as I can get,” he muttered.

“I see.” Guinevere sighed as she brushed her hair back. “Are you... are you angry with me?”

“Should I?” stammered Alfred bitterly. His response was met with silence.

“I know you’re upset, but I need to tell you everything Alfred,” she said, “I need you to understand-...”

“Understand what!? That I was never going to see Arthur? That the whole thing was just a twisted game for you!?” Alfred glared at her. “You were sending me to him, knowing all of this! You knew how we felt about each other! You knew we were a hundred years apart! How the hell did you think it was going to turn out!?”

He wanted to continue shouting and screaming at her, only just realising that she too knew the truth about Arthur. However seeing her startled face wracked with guilt was enough to snap him out of his rage.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“It’s alright,” she sighed, “I knew you were going to be upset. Human emotions are still beyond my comprehension, but I assure what I did I did for Arthur.”

“How can you say that!?” Alfred cringed when he almost unleashed his anger again, though what she had said made no sense to him. “This hurt him more than me, and you know it!”

Guinevere looked down and fumbled with her hands. “It... got out of hand.” Looking back at him, her strange eyes looked ready to overflow with tears. “We were young, foolish, and blind to the dangers we brought on ourselves... and unfortunately we dragged you and Arthur into all of it.”

“We?”

“My brothers and I... all we wanted was to grant Arthur’s wish no matter what... I should start from the beginning.”

She readjusted her sitting position and wiped her eyes.

“When I was just a seed, my four brothers and I were taken from the Forest of Eternity by five daughters of Titania. Their task was to plant us in sacred lands so we would sprout and grow to spread our influence, far from the reaches of mortals. However they were young and naive, the five of them were caught in a trap set by an trickster. They were brought before what they believed was the Queen of Spades as a gift. They hoped that she would free them. However we were brought before a false Queen.”

Alfred didn’t even need to guess. “Maria Somerset?”

“Yes, the one you called the Last Queen decided to keep them as her own personal trophies, hoping that they would somehow make her disgusting beauty grow immensely. Thankfully she knew not of what the five daughters carried and merely kept them imprisoned in her chambers. They cried out for help, but no one could hear their cries... only one person did.”

The tale sounded familiar and it dawned on Alfred that he had heard the story before, only it came from Arthur.

“Arthur told me about this... but I thought it was just a fairytale he made up.”