Observance

[weatherfeather.livejournal.com]

Author: weatherfeather
Title: Observance
Rating: PG
Pairing/s: Canon-Arthur/Gwen
Character/s: Merlin, Arthur, Morgana, Gwen
Summary: Post-"Diamond of the Day" elegy written by Merlin.
Warnings: Canon major character deaths
Word Count: 206
Prompt: #462 Ceremony
Author's Notes: Elegy because why stick to precedent?




In battle he was wounded,
His awareness lost.
In a forest he awoke;
His honor there was tested.
We moved together across the land;
He found out many things.
Our fairest foe neared victory, but
With one blow the war was won.
He pushed on, though his wounds were great,
But could not anymore.
I held him in my arms at the last;
I tried to keep him here;
Better than I did he know
That his body failed.
From grass to dragon to a shore,
I took him far, and fast;
He breathed his last there on that beach,
Alone but for one man;
There could be no ceremony fit for a king,
So I did all that I could:
I laid him out in a boat
Far away from his home, –
But he had no family by his side,
Had not his queen to tend him;
The kingdom could not stand below his window,
Their candles weeping with them. –
His breath is gone, yet now he waits
Suspended, with the fae.
Resolved was our land's conflict,
Yet our story is unfinished.
Suspended, too, I wait until
I can be complete again.
I write this not to tell his story,
But to lament he's gone.