Afraid this shadow being was going to attack me, I reached instinctively for my water magic, calling to the stream that cut the clearing in two. The familiar tingle rose from within me—connection, purpose, identity—but something faltered. The water trembled, uncertain, held in tension between us.
I focused everything within me on the water and watched as two identical pillars rose from the current—twisting serpents that mirrored each other perfectly. They climbed through theair in unison… then shuddered, convulsed, and collapsed in a thunderous splash, soaking the earth at my feet.
I flinched as the failure struck me, the sensation of my magic's rebellion sending a sharp ache through my chest. The familiar comfort of water responding to my call—that constant I had relied on since my powers first manifested—was gone, replaced by something fractured and uncertain.
My jaw clenched with frustration as I gathered my will once more, every muscle in my body coiling with determination.
Obey me,I commanded silently, thrusting my consciousness toward the stream with all the force I could muster. The mental effort felt like pushing against a wall of thick glass, my power meeting resistance where none had ever existed before. I could sense the water's presence, feel its potential thrumming just beyond my reach, but when I grasped for it, the droplets I had managed to lift only quivered in the air like frightened creatures, trembling between opposing forces before losing cohesion entirely and splashing back down into the current.
“Your magic is divided becauseyouare divided,” the shadow purred. “What power can you wield when you don’t even know whose cause you serve?”
The truth of the words landed like a heavy rock in my gut. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
Because the shadow was right.
I didn’t want to serveeithercause any longer.
“Sworn to Merlin,” the shadow continued, circling closer, “but drawn to Arthur. Playing knight while serving as a spy. Laying with Lancelot while lying to him.”
“That's not—” I tried to defend myself, but I couldn't. The words were hollow, brittle with guilt.
Each protest I tried to voice only seemed to nourish the shadow before me, each stammered denial adding substance toits shifting form. I watched in horrified fascination as my words—my desperate attempts to justify myself—were consumed and transformed into something darker. The shadow expanded with each lie I told myself, growing more solid, more real, as if my own fractured certainty was the material from which it built itself.
It fed on my lies like a parasite, growing fat on every contradiction that lived within me. The more I fought against its accusations, the stronger it became, drawing power from a war I waged with myself.
The shadow didn't strike with blade or spell. It flayed me with memory: I saw again my home the day I fled to Annwyn—leaving behind my adoptive parents—my guilt riding me like a phantom. Then came the lies I’d told in Camelot. The trust I'd accepted and then twisted into weapons. Every manipulation I'd justified in the name of a greater good.
“You claim the moral high ground over Arthur,” the shadow said softly, devastatingly, “but what name do you give your own deceit?”
I staggered. My breath hitched in my chest.
“You let Lancelot love a lie,” the dairy maid version of me said.
“You let himfightfor a future with you,” Lioran added. "When there is no future to be had."
"You wrap your betrayal in gentler words and call it mercy,” the third version of me—Merlin's ward—finished.
And the shadow waited.
Each comment pierced the armor of justification I'd woven around myself, each word sliding between my ribs like a well-placed dagger, finding those tender, vulnerable places I'd hidden even from my own reflection. The weight of my deceptions was undeniable now, and I hated each and every one of them—hated what they had made me.
Something fundamental shifted within me then, as understanding began to dawn—not with the brilliant flash of sudden revelation that illuminates in an instant, but with the slow, inexorable, and deeply painful burn of true reckoning. It was a brutal awakening that stripped away every comfortable delusion I'd wrapped around myself.
This trial wasn't about demonstrating mastery over my elemental abilities, wasn't about proving my magical prowess or showcasing the tactical brilliance Merlin had spent months drilling into me. It wasn't even about defeating this shadow-thing that spoke my doubts.
No—this was about something much more terrifying but necessary. This was about self-confrontation in its rawest, most unforgiving form. It was about excavating every carefully buried lie I'd called 'necessity' and holding each lie up to the light. It was about unearthing every uncomfortable truth I'd told myself in order to justify my actions.
The shadow hadn't come to destroy me with magic or blade. It had come to force me to see myself clearly—every contradiction, every rationalization, every moment when I'd chosen the easier path and called it righteous. The battlefield was no longer the space between Logres and Annwyn. It was inside me, where it had existed all along.
"Yes." The word came out bitter, dry as ash on my tongue. "Yes, I have betrayed those who trusted me. I’ve manipulated Lance’s feelings in the name of this mission. I've doubted Merlin even as I followed his commands. I’ve painted Arthur as a villain, even when he revealed signs of goodness. And I did it all so I wouldn’t have to question the mission I thought I was born to serve."
As the admission spilled from my lips, the shadow recoiled—as though rebalancing itself. Its edges blurred slightly, the sharp certainty it had worn now dulled by my honesty. I, meanwhile,felt as if I could breathe again—not deeply, not easily, but enough to speak without choking on the guilt.
"Better," the shadow said, its voice no longer cruel but testing. Measuring. "But acknowledgment without understanding is merely confession. Growth requires depth. So tell me:whydo you contain these contradictions within yourself? What lies at the root of your divided loyalties?"
I faltered.
"I… I don’t know." My voice cracked around the words because I was fairly sure they weren't the right ones. But they were true—I didn't know why I was the way I was or thought the way I did.
