The Whumps of March 2024: "Drowned"
A series of vignettes based on Arthurian legend, collected on AO3 here.
People would come to believe that Morgan was "evil." She was not. She was someone with a very strong sense of justice—something which many seemed to lack. And she could certainly be kind. She was not at all averse to helping people in need.
Like Manasses. He was a kinsman of Accolon, so already she felt a certain affection for him. And who could come across an acquaintance who had been beaten and bound, about to be drowned by some common bandit, and not step in to offer aid?
She cast a spell, and in a trice Manasses was free, and it was his attacker who was now tied and gagged, letting out cries of muffled confusion.
It was only now, as Morgan tended to the Manasses' wounds, that she heard the actual story. This man was no bandit—he was a friend of Manasses, or had been, until recently. He had invented an affair between Manasses and his wife, and had dishonorably attacked him with intent to murder.
Morgan's kinship with the man only grew with this knowledge. She certainly knew what it was like to be betrayed.
She offered advice. He seemed eager at first, but grew reluctant at the moment of truth.
"He's unarmed," Manasses murmured, as his prisoner tried to scream through the cloth in his mouth.
She scoffed. "So were you. Will you waste honor on a recreant? Release him, so that he may murder you tomorrow?"
He still looked conflicted. The fool in the bindings continued his noise.
Morgan leaned over Manasses' shoulders, staring at the little rat.
"Are you saying he doesn't deserve it, for the way he treated you?"
Manasses considered. His foe had stopped screaming, and stared at his former friend with wide-eyed terror.
And then, with a furious cry, Manasses grabbed the villain and pushed him, face-first, into the water.
The pair watched him struggle, trying to swim like a limbless snake. His thrashings only lasted a few seconds before he sank into the water, and soon he was to deep to even disturb the surface.
People would have called them murderers. But Morgan smiled to herself.
It was always so satisfying to see justice served.
