#wayward

This time, she’d been going through books that had been weeded in the local library. Which, sure, usually mostly consisted of novels and not that much non-fiction that she could use for her work, but she’d never baulk at the opportunity of cheap books, and sometimes she got lucky! Like this time, as she’d found an worn book of folktales that she quickly realised was a translation of a book she’d read as a kid. Not to say it was a kids book mind you, it was one of the ones Harriet had managed to get her hands on from the adult part of the library and would feverishly read under her sheets as if it would somehow open up the secrets of magic to her. There had been a time she’d been able to recite some of the tales in the book at the top of her head, though the fact that that time had long passed was probably for the best, lest it mess with Eddas ability to fully take in the tales in a new language.

Needless to say, she was in a good mood as she made her way through the woods. She always considered folktales excellent inspiration for her work, and the nostalgia factor was a pretty nice bonus. There hadn’t been any magic books for sale, but she did have that wizard tome Arthur had gotten her a little while ago, waiting back in the cottage for her to finally crack it open and scour it’s contents. And right now, she had all the time in the world to do it.

As she moved onto the small dirt path leading towards her home, she noticed the hoof print on the ground. Hoof prints, multiple.

She paused and took a long look at the road.

Yeah, that was definitely from more then one horse.

Not Arthur then, maybe it was the kids from the farm downhill? Had to be, they got into enough trouble to give their parents and the farmhands headaches for days, and most of their solutions since she moved in seemingly had become ‘let’s ask the forrest witch for help’ (she’d told them eventually that she wasn’t actually a witch, but she had at that point done enough magic in front of them that they didn’t believe her). All of them were also the kind of kids that would take any excuse to ride on one of the many horses that the farm seemed to collect.

Sighing to herself, she stalked forward. So much for having all the time in the world, but oh well, might as well see what they were up to this time, it wasn’t like she could hide from them.

As she stepped into the clearing around the hut, it wasn’t a bunch of kids on horses she saw.

It was a noblewoman and three knights, all but one of them sitting on a horse and watching as the one on the ground was looking through the front window.

She instinctually rested one hand on her dagger.

“And just what are you looking for sir?”

The knight jolted away from the windowsill like he had been stung and alongside the others spun around to face her.

He traded looks with the noblewoman who gave Edda a considering look, then gestured towards him to move forward.

“We’re looking for the woman that lives in this house.” He said, straightening his back, “might you know where she is?”

“Why’re you looking for her?” Edda tilted her head, one foot slowly sliding back as she considered the situation.

“Why do you think?” The knight scoffed, “the lady’s the lover of prince Arthur is she not?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Edda glared at the knight gripping the pommel of her dagger even tighter.

“Hold it sir Gawain.” The noblewoman raised her hand at the knight, making him swallow his words before they even got the chance to get out. She then urged her horse towards Edda, stopping to pose like a statue in front of her. “I assume you’re a close friend, but you don’t have to worry, we mean Edda no harm. As members of the court of Camelot we simply want to meet her since he’s been so secretive about her.”

“Yeah, well maybe he had a reason, ma’am.” Edda crossed her arms as she squinted up at the woman.

The noblewoman blinked at her, then raised one hand just in time to stop one knight who’d just started to shout something about insolence. She leaned back, eyeing Edda up and down again, and then a surprised smile spread on her lips.

“The locals warned me you weren’t one who respected titles.” She let out a soft chuckle, tugging her horse back a little, “you have to forgive me, I’ve seen the girls he’s brought back before, so I wasn’t, well, I supposed I had made a few prejudiced assumptions.”

“Right.” Edda spat out, her dislike of nobility getting the better of her, “I don’t suppose the locals warned you about some other things when it comes to me?”

“Miss witch! Miss witch!” The unmistakable sound of children shouts and hoofbeats paused the confrontation, and just as Edda turned her head two other horses had sprung into the clearing, bearing on their back two of the children from the farm.

“Miss witch!” What looked like the eldest of the farm kids tumbled off their horse and ran up to her, “it’s Rod, he’s gotten cursed! You gotta come help him.”

“Rod?” Edda turned fully to the child, she was fairly certain Rod was one of the farmhands of the farm, one of the ones that cared for the farms vegetables if she remembered correctly, she’d talked to him a while back when she was helping with an unnatural ant invasion in one of the farmhand cottages. “How did he manage to get cursed?”

“It was a mandrake!” The boy clinging to the second horse said, which made Edda realise that he wasn’t one of the usual horse kids. Now that she looked at him his clothes looked plainer then the clothes the horse kids would usually wear. Maybe he was from a smaller farm or maybe he was simply the son of a farmhand. Edda was still trying to get a hang of the smaller nuances of the common folks social structures. “He was out harvesting carrots and then he just collapsed when he was pulling out one of them!”

“Was there others around him while he was working?” Edda asked.

“Yes! They all saw it!” This time it was the eldest kid, ”gotta be a mandrake!”

“I doubt it was a mandrake, those things should have stunned anyone close to him while he was pulling it out as well.” She explained. Plus she was fairly sure an experienced farmhand could tell the difference between the leaves of a carrot and that of a mandrake. Then again she supposed he could have tried to pull up a mandrake in an attempt to deweed the field…

“He didn’t pull it out completely.” The boy muttered, evidently miffed that their explanation was getting rebuffed.

Edda sighed, and turned to her hut.

“Give me a moment to grab some things, and I’ll go have a look at him.” She faced the noblewoman, momentary startling at the reminder that she and her knights was still there, and then waved them aside. “Are we done here? I got work to do.”

There was a gasp behind her as the two children only now seemed to have registered the fancy spectacle that had dragged itself to her doorstep.

“Oh, who am I to stop you from saving this man, go ahead.” The noblewoman moved aside, with a strange smile on her face, that… felt oddly familiar. “I hope you won’t mind us observing your work.”

“Fine.” Edda snorted out, “just don’t get in my way.” She trudged into the hut and closed the door just as she heard the start of the children's interrogation. Good, let the nobles explain themselves on their own, save her some time.

…Unless they were the kind to slap commoners for ‘insolence’ she supposed. She stood still and listened for a moment for any raised voices outside, before moving to grab her things. It seemed relatively calm so far, but it was probably not the best idea to let them be for too long. Grabbing her sack of medical herbs and potions, a few warding charms and after a moments of hesitation, the iron tong by the fireplace and an enchanted pairs of earmuffs.

She had just stuffed the earmuffs in as there was a loud clatter from outside, making her freeze and then jolt out of the house with her dagger drawn.

“See I told you,” one of the knight said, kneeling by the boy, longsword laying discarded on the ground in-front of them. “It’s heavier then it looks, you have to train up your arms a bit before swinging one of these.”

“Me next! Me next!” Yelled the eldest of the farm kids, “I betchu I can swing it no problem!”

A bit of tension left Eddas shoulders as she sheathed her dagger. Arthur had said something about the knights in his court being held up to a high standard, so maybe she shouldn’t feel as on edge around them as she did, but still…

“I’m ready to go.” She stalked forward, disrupting the scene.

The noblewoman was quick to offer one of the knights horses, but Edda was as quick to decline, instead struggling into one of the horses the kids had brought as the two shared the other one. It was one of the more good natured of the farms horses, the more patient one often taken out for riding lessons for the local children. Edda still found herself gripping the edge of the saddle for her dear life as the horse flew over the ground to the farm, following behind the other horse with the two children. Her last riding lessons had been years ago when she still was a child, so saying that she was rusty was an understatement.

She got off the horse as soon as possible as they arrived to the field where the incident had occurred, the farmhand cottages sitting just by the edge of it. There was some curious chatter coming from the noblewoman and her tin men, but Edda tried her best to shut it out. What the woman’s aim was with this whole thing wasn’t hard to guess. The good old classic ‘gawk the the weirdo and all of these quaint commoners’ routine, maybe with a dash of ogling the strange little freak that had somehow attracted the attention of a prince. Scratch the first one, she was definitely doing the latter thing, she’d said as much.

Not soon from now gossip about her would fill the court.

Edda straightened her back, and strode up to the cottage holding the stricken farmhand.

If there was going to be gossip, then she might as well make it the kind that made it clear she wasn’t to be messed with.

Rod appeared to be in some kind of deep sleep, the other farmhands already having almost tried everything to wake him up to no avail. Looking over him she saw no obvious signs of standard poisoning. Pulling up his eyelids showed his eyes completely glazed over, a slight, nearly missable, shimmer over them.

Asking the other farmhands (after having to force the knights out of the cottage) they actually described having heard some form of screaming coming from the plant being pulled out, before Rod simply slumped unto the ground. Hence the children's mandrake confusion Edda assumed, though the other farmhands where pretty confident it wasn’t a mandrake, even without taking the rest of the farmhands standing unaffected into account.

“I don’t know exactly what a mandrake looks like, but I know what a carrot looks like, and I know what can look like a carrot but isn’t.” One of the farmhands explained, before glancing out on the field, “that said, I don’t think that whatever’s out there is a normal carrot. They don’t tend to scream, you know?”

“Yeah I know.” Edda looked out the window at the field. “It’s still out there then?”

“Of course! I know that I’m not going to touch it after what happened with Rod, and I’m sure everyone would agree with me on that.” The other farmhands in the cottage made noises of agreement with her.

“Good instincts.” Edda responded, reaching into her bag. “I think I want to have a look at it myself in that case. I have a hunch of what this might be about.” She pulled out the iron tongs, clapping them together a few times.

Opening the cottage door she was just able to catch a knight staggering back from it, clearly having been listening in. She stalked past him with a glare and followed the farmhand showing her the way to the strange carrot.

“Stay off the field!” she yelled back at the knights, “we don’t need you to trample all the vegetables!”

The knights turned to look at the noblewoman, who held up her hand to them and pulled up her skirts before wandering into the field on her own.

At least it seemed like she was walking along the paths in between the vegetables, Edda supposed as she turned her attention back to the carrot with a snort.

From what she could see the carrot looked perfectly normal, at first. Using the tong she carefully poked at the leaves and the dirt around the root, and it quickly struck her how… Perfect it looked. The leaves where unmarred from insect bites, looking unnaturally healthy with not a single withered leaf among them, not to mention the stems lacked any patches of brown that you’d find on any standard carrot.

Letting out a hum, she turned towards her audience of two, noting that both where standing a decent distance away from her. Good.

“Hey.” She muttered giving the carrot a poke, “anyone home in there?”

No response. Alright, they can’t say she didn’t try.

Adjusting the charm she was carrying around her neck and slipping on the earmuffs just incase, she clamped the tongs around the carrot and pulled it out of the ground.

“What!? How dare you! How dare you!” A high pitched voice shrieked from the carrot, “Wasn’t a thousand years of sleep enough?! How about ten thousand years then!”

The carrot glimmered unnaturally, unmistakeable fairy magic surrounding it, and trying to curl around the tongs.

Only for the magic to slip off, unable to get a proper grip.

There was a few more indignant screams from the carrots followed by yet more glittering and magic slipping off the tongs. When that still didn’t work, sparks begun flying off the carrot, but failed to reach Edda, whatever fairy resided in the carrot was obviously relying on being in some kind of touching distance in order to curse someone.

“You’re wasting your time!” Edda said as loudly as she could in order to make herself heard over the irate fairy. “I’ll put the carrot back into the earth, but if I do we’ll have to talk about what you did to the last guy who tried to pull you up.”

The fairy went quiet for a moment.

“Are you… a hag?” The fairy finally said, a slight hint of caution entering their voice.

“I’m whatever you want me to be, so long as you’re willing to play nice.” Edda tilted her head at the carrot, trying to ignore the weird ‘Hm!’ that the noblewoman failed to muffle behind her.

“Fine, just put me down!” The fairy exclaimed, and then let out a contented sigh once the carrot was returned to the dirt.

“I’m sorry about disturbing you, really.” Edda begun, falling back on her ingrained need to be polite to magical creatures as she crouched in front of the carrot, “but I had to get your attention in some way. Besides, you are in a carrot in the middle of a large field, humans usually grow vegetables on field's like this to later pick them up and eat them. It’s not really an ideal place for you to set up shop, and it’s not fair of you to curse people for trying to harvest a carrot they planted.”

“But I made it mine!” The fairy exclaimed, “have you seen the other carrots here! None of them are as good as mine, and that’s because I made sure that mine would be perfect! I earned this carrot!”

“It is a very good carrot,” Edda agreed, “I still don’t see why cursing a guy into sleeping for a thousand years for touching it would be very fair of you, from the way I heard it you didn’t even take any time to explain anything before cursing the poor guy.”

“But if i didn’t curse him he would have pulled me up!”

“Sure, but cursing him brought me around and you got pulled up regardless.”

The fairy just grumbled something under it’s breath.

“Look, I get someone pulling up your home like that couldn’t have been nice, but I think there’s a better solution to this then throwing curses around.” Edda tried reasoning with the fairy, “how’s about you take back the curse you cast on that guy, and I’ll see that your carrot gets planted in a spot where it won’t be disturbed in that way.”

“…A good spot, with sun?” And then after another moments of thought it added, “and regular manure and watering?”

“You might have to run that by- oh when you speak of the trolls!” Edda saw the owner of the farm rushing down the field towards her.

“Is everything alright!” She exclaimed, “I heard someone got hurt and now there’s knights running around here!? Is that a noblewoman!?”

“Easy there,” Edda stood up to talk to the winded farmer, “the lady’s here because she wanted to watch me work or something, it’s got nothing to do with you or the farm.”

“Oh, thank the gods.” The farmer let our a sigh of relief, before she realised there was something Edda hadn’t mentioned, “but someone’s still hurt!?”

“Cursed, you’ve got a fairy who’s made it’s home in one of the carrots.” Edda nodded down at the carrot in question, “I’ve talked to it and it’s willing to take back the curse if you find another good spot for it’s carrot where it won’t be picked.”

“With good sunlight and regular manure and water!” The fairy yelled, startling the farmer a little.

“W-well there’s the small herb garden near the house.” The farmer said hesitantly looking from the carrot towards Edda and back.

“I’m sure that it would be willing to share a little of it’s magic to the rest of the plats around here if it’s treated nicely.” Edda said, gesturing at the carrot, “just see how it’s managed with it’s home.”

“I won’t do all of these to all the other plants!” The fairy protested, “…but I might do something if I feel like it.”

The farmer crouched down to look at the carrot and then glanced up at Edda again with wide questioning eyes.

Edda just nodded.

“A good spot, yeah I think we might be able to clear one out.” The farmer nodded looking up at the farmhand near the noblewoman, “can you go tell the maid to move the basil to another spot?”

The replanting of the carrot went relatively smoothly after that, though the fairy had demanded to see it’s new spot before it undid the curse. Thankfully it seemed to be pleased with what the maid had prepared and Rod was soon stumbling out of the cottage with a groggy expression on his face. Edda took the time to look over him for any side effects, but the curse had happily not lasted long enough to cause any serious damage aside a sore back. She gave him a potion to help with the aches and told him to avoid any activities that included picking things up for the day. The last thing she did was run by the whole thing with the farmer, and recommending tips of how to handle the fairy now living on the land, but also giving her a protective charm just in case.

Once she stepped out of the farmers house the noblewoman and her knights were waiting for her, the lady practically beaming, for some reason.

“What a performance!” She stepped forward and grabbed Eddas hands, “and to think I was worried about a common crone marrying my son! You would make a fine queen!”

…

What.

Eddas brain went foggy, it took all her focus to see the hands grasping hers, the face in front of her. The awfully familiar smile that shone from her face.

“I’ll have to start the marriage preparations the moment I’ll get back to Camelot!” She continued, “get one over those so-called ‘advisors’.” She scoffed a little, the smile never leaving her face. “I can’t wait to be your mother in law, you will make Arthur so happy, I’ve already seen how much he loves you as a lover. He wouldn’t even consider taking someone else as his wife when it was brought up to him!” She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss on Eddas cheek. “You’ll do great I just know it.”

There was a muffled sound of hoofbeats and the yell of a familiar voice. She was just able to catch the shape of Arthur appearing out to the corner of her eyes, and the grip over her hands went away. A small argument erupted near her, but she couldn’t tell what anyone was saying, instead she reached up and touched the spot where the noblewoman- the queen- the fucking queen of Camelot, had kissed her.

“Edda? Love?”

She focused her gaze the best she could at the face in front of her, his soft warm eyes, the concerned expression, the slight probably unintentional pout to his lips. His hands hovered near her, asking a silent gentle question.

“You alright?”

Her voice hitched a little, and she tried to get a grip on herself.

“Y-yeah, just- just a bit surprised.” She leaned against one of his hands with her arm, prompting the other one to come up and cup her face. It was warm and comforting, as always. “You’re here early.”

“Noticed that mum had gone off and managed to get one of the knights to tell me what she was up to,” he explained, “figured I had to follow her in case she made a mess of things,” he let out an embarrassed huff, “she means well, I just don’t think she understands your, uh, feelings that well.” His thumb brushed against her lips. “‘M sorry.”

He had a look in his eyes that Edda wasn’t fully able to place, embarrassment, regret, longing, something along those lines.

“Have- have they been trying to get you to take a wife? A future queen?” It was a stupid question, of course the court and his parents would eventually get concerned about him securing his line of succession. She just, wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.

She wasn’t expecting that the end of their relationship would rear it’s ugly head already.

“Yeah,” Arthur grimaced a little. “They started pushing me about it earlier this week, gave me a list of possible brides and everything, even had bloody portraits prepared.” He sighed softly, before smiling at her, brushing hair away from her face. “Don’t worry though, I’m handling it. I’m not going to leave you to marry some other lady.”

He said that now, but how long would he truly last while under the pressure? How long would he hold onto her when princess after princess, all more beautiful and far more capable of filling the role of a prince’s lover. If there was anymore princesses like Snow, kind, beautiful, capable, vying for his hand, what chance did Edda the magician ever have? And in the end who would blame him, she certainly wouldn’t. Love, no matter how strong it once was, could and often did erode with time, she should count herself miraculously lucky that it had lasted as long as it had. It was a miracle he even saw her in that way in the first place.

But still…

The light caught in his eyes as he looked at her with such sweet and gentle concern, his hands seeped comforting warmth wherever they touched.

The smart choice, her mind told her, was to cut him off now. The fun was over, better to go before things turned ugly. But there was another part of her brain, a louder one, telling her one thing over and over again.

She couldn’t just let him go now, not yet.

Glancing over his shoulder she saw the queen standing a bit away, looking at them with a concerned, yet still hopeful expression. At making eye contact her face broke into a kind smile and gave Edda a gentle nod.

A knot tightened in her stomach.

Marriage was off the table, she couldn’t go back to the royal life, it would kill her, maybe not physically, but it would sink her mind into a deep darkness that she was certain she couldn’t escape from a second time. She could already see Signe smiling at her, crooning over her dear sister finally finding her way back and into the arms of a future king no less! The thought made the back of her throat taste like bile.

Still, there had to be something she could do right? Putting her own attachment to him to the side, it didn’t feel fair to leave him to deal with this stuff on his own after all that he had done to help her. Surely, there was a way to fix this-

“Edda?”

She reached up and grabbed his hand, threading their fingers together, and tugged at it as she begun walking away from the farmers house. Thinking was easier when she was on the move, and this wasn’t something that she wanted to discuss right outside someone else’s house.

Arthur seemed to recognise her need to move and whistled his horse over, leading it by the reins with his free hand. Movements behind them told her that the queen and the knight was gearing up to follow them.

“What can I do to help?” She whispered, leaning towards him.

Arthur frowned down at her.

“You don’t have to do anything love,” he said, “I’m handling it, like I said.”

“I don’t want you to be handling it alone.” Her grip on his hand tightened, “tell me what I can do to help.”

“I don’t know,” Arthur muttered, “you have won mum over, so she’s probably going to set a stop to having potential brides pushed at me, but…”

“But she wants me to marry you.”

“Right.” He shot her an apologetic look, “she was actually a little upset at me when I mentioned that I hadn’t proposed to you yet.”

“Was that what you were arguing about earlier?”

“No, uh, partially I guess, she brought it up again,” he let out a soft laugh, “it was a few days ago though, got upset because she was worried I was stringing a poor commoner along.”

“Huh,” Edda hadn’t really expected that, she supposed she could see where the woman was coming from in that regard, there was a certain power imbalance. “And then you told her I did magic?”

“Yeah, only made her more concerned of you believe it.”

Edda snorted to herself, fair enough, less of a power balance, but now here was a risk of a scorned lover that knew how to curse people. Maybe the whole kingdom even.

They walked in silence for a few seconds, muscle memory leading them to the path back to her cottage.

“What do you think she would do if I told her I don’t want to get married?”

Arthur seemed to think over this for a bit.

“Don’t know if she would let it go, she seems awfully keen about it right now.”

“She told me she would begin preparing for a wedding as soon as she got back.”

Another pause.

“I can see her doing that, yeah.” He sighed, “I’ll tell her not to do it, might need time to really convince her about it though.”

“Might not take as long if I come with you?” Edda suggested, making Arthur immediately stop in place.

“Come with me?” He repeated, “I live in a castle love, you hate those.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

“It wouldn’t be that long though, just enough to, convince her to drop the marriage idea, hell maybe enough time to get them to drop the idea of you getting married anytime soon, you know, generally.” Hey, she could dream.

“But this is a castle, and you know, royalty things.” He gestured vaguely with the hand holding the reins, “You don’t have to get involved with that kind of stuff anymore,” he shot her a hurt expression, “I don’t want to be the reason you’d have to get involved.”

He made a compelling argument, she wouldn’t lie about that, but… well she did kinda sign up for some royal bullshit when she decided to stick by him after his curse was broken. She appreciated him making the effort to keep her out of all the court nonsense going on back at his home, but… at least this time she would have to risk it.

“Hey,” she pulled his hand toward her chest, and made direct eye contact, “I want to get involved in this with you.”

This obviously didn’t convince him, his lips pressed into a frown, eyes shining with concern.

She let out a huff, and decided to throw him a bone.

“I’ll just be there for three weeks,” she told him, tugging on his hand to make him start moving again, “once those three weeks are up, I’ll be out of there, I promise.”

“…one week.” His frown didn’t drop yet, but his shoulder slackened just a bit, and begun walking again just as the band of knights and the queen was closing in on them.

“How about two?”

“Fine.” He sighed, “just, don’t push yourself, alright?”

He looked at her with that soft caring look, and Edda knew that she would go through fire for him.

“Please, I held out for nineteen years, what’s two more weeks.”

~~~

End notes from ao3:

And that’s the first chapter! Though it was actually not the first thing I wrote for the fic, since I at first write this to help myself flesh out what triggers a later part of the fic, and then I decided that I should probably let it be part of the fic as well.

The fairy isn’t based directly on a fairy tale creature, though I think I was inspired by having read Emily Wilde’s encyclopaedia of fairies at the time, and I don’t doubt it that there is a creature out there that would act as the fairy in the carrot does.