The Dark Queen of White 1.23

23.

Queen Morgana laughed at the meals served on the long table while her host, Queen Clarity seated on the other end of the table smiled. The later had just returned from the battlefield, where King Bannion had succumbed to his injuries.

“You are an amazement, my dear granddaughter.” Queen Morgan picked at the grapes from her plate dished out for her meal. “I am more of a meat eater, and found my diet of greens were the occasional peas or potatoes.”

“I just came back from the battlefield where they served nothing but chunks of meat from their captured animals, eating it with the whiff of burning flesh of the dead on the funeral pyre or the smell of rotting decaying bodies. I think I would stick to some fruits and greens to ease my appetite for a while.”

“Funny, how we view the appetite when confronted by such scenes.” Queen Morgana bite her red grapes and let the red juice sailed down between fingers. She licked at the flowing juice.

“No cherries? I guess that is something we won’t be concerned on.” Queen Morgan laughed. “Lord Falstof was my first, and he was a bull. All charges and no need for any ……”

“Grandmother, I am not keen on your amorous past events.” Queen Clarity took her bite of the persimmon. “I am inviting you here to tell you that the war is over. You may withdraw your army, from my land.”

“I have no need to withdraw them. I am handling it over to you. All of it, and my lands.” Queen Morgana smiled. “I did tell you before that I am dying. I am leaving my position as the Iron Lady, and passing it to you.”

“That simple? I was expecting a more lavish and gaily ceremony with the Lords and great leaders present to see the handover.” Queen Clarity voiced out her cynical remarks. “Isn’t that how it is done when a King abdicate the throne? How did you do it with Queen Helena?”

Queen Morgana lowered her fork and smiled. She recalled on her return from the forest, Queen Helena had called on her to see the Queen. The Queen was furious at her for taking that risk.

“Do you know the risk of the dark forest?” Queen Helena shouted at the younger lady but the later moved aside to show her the latest acquisition.

“Why did you bring the dwarfs? I know him. He is Ego.” Queen Helena took up her defense and called on the personal guards. The chamber which the Queen had met Lady Morgana then, was filled up with a dozen guards armed with spears.

“Hold your position.” Lady Morgana then cautioned her guests, and then glared at the guards. “They are here as my guests. They are not a threat. I repeat they are not a threat.”

“Queen Helena, it is my honor to meet you. You had given us a good fight.” Ego saluted the Queen. “We lost some good friends, but that all is the past now.”

“I would be damned with your friends.” Queen Helena told the dwarf off. “Your intervention into my affairs caused me to fight you and lost some good allies too.”

“Anyway, we are here on the invitation of Lady Morgana.” Ego replied. “Good bve then.”

“Hold on there.” Lady Morgana intervened in. She looked to the Queen.

“They can be our allies. They just broke ranks with their own.” Lady Morgana continued on. “They are offering to help me for the rewards of some gold.”

“Gold? I should had known that.” Queen Helena smiled. She dismissed the guards and got to know the dwarfs. Six seasons later, Queen Helena died in her sleep. She was not able to tell anyone how she died, but if they only knew, the three dwarfs would be executed. Upon the death of Queen Helena, the lands that belonged to her was given to Lady Morgana. Soon after, Lady Morgana had wedded Lord Falstof. It was a lavish wedding with many Lords in attendance like in her protégé, Queen Clarity.

“So, now that you are dying, you made me the next Iron Lady?” Queen Clarity raised a thought on that. “And leaving me your servants.”

The Queen motioned to the three dwarfs seated on the smaller table at the side, holding their own feast on the golden plates and mugs.

“The dwarfs joined me and changed their nicknames to reflect their …innermost characters; Greed, Influence and Killer. Ego had chosen Killer as he had killed more than a dozen targets for me.”

Ego had become Killer, Hiccup was Greed; as he does hiccup when in front of the ore, and Eirie became Influence; hid methods was questionable but the victims always speaks the truth sooner or later.

“They had been good companions; served their purposes, and now I am sending them over to you.” Queen Morgan looked to the three dwarfs. “Look after the new Queen as you did for me.”

Queen Clarity smiled and then asked them a cynical question.

“Do you still fear the Mirg Clan?” Queen Clarity asked.

Killer reacted with a spell of fire which he hurled at her, but the Queen Clarity had learned a lot from the old Queen. She had a spell of shield to protect her from the fire. She then hurled from her side, the spell of the icy stakes condensed from the water in the pitcher nearby. Greed had fashioned up a shield of converting the icy stakes into gold flakes.

“You are good, Queen Clarity but you would not last a day with the dwarfs from Mirg.” Influence told her. “Doc or Happy could have you wiped out easily. Or even Sneezy with his pollen spells.”

“So tell me, Influence, how could I even the odds?” Queen Clarity asked back.

"The mirrors of Wendell never lied.” Influence replied. It was also an indication that the mirrors were used for than soothsaying.