"Yes," Morgan said as she and Galahad stepped through the doorway.Morgan added, "Galahad helped me through the last of it, when he found me somehow.I don't know how I would have fared without him, much as it pains me to admit that.When I find the conniving little bitch I know is behind this, her head is mine once and for all."
Lancelot sighed."I was so caught up in just getting through the mess, I never thought about who was behind it."Of course Ethelfleda was responsible for this nightmare.She'd had Morgan trapped in a graveyard, for the love of the deep.Ethelfleda loved her dramatic, showy displays of wealth and power.
"She was probably hoping the fog would get a couple of us," Galahad said, "but jokes on her.I have depression and anxiety, so it was just like a really bad day for me.Being stuck in limbo was a million times worse."He shuddered."Let's go help Morgan remove her head."
"Morgan can't even hold a sword correctly," Dred said.
Morgan rolled her eyes and shoved past them."Less gossiping, more working, please."
"Yes, Your Majesty."Lancelot overtook the lead, the others falling into the same formation they'd used before entering the fog."Iseult was here."
"We heard the music," Galahad said, "and followed it here, but then everything when completely dark as we reached the stairs, and it vanished."
"Same," Arthur said."Why is Iseult here?"
Lancelot described what he'd seen and added, "I think she might have been taken like Galehaut."
"No doubt," Morgan said."It would make sense he captured more than just one of us."
Arthur sighed."Damn it.Here's hoping we can save them all."
"We will," Dred said, "or Maleagant will be given all new fears."Their eyes burned with inner fire, a simmering rage that would destroy all it touched once it was freed.
Galahad stepped out of formation to grab his wrist and squeeze."Beloved, I'm fine."
"You nearly weren't," Dred hissed, "and that is not something I will be forgetting anytime soon."
Galahad rested a hand against his cheek."I did not survive almost being ghosted only to find you and lose you in the same day.Have a care."
Dred turned his head to kiss his palm."For you."
Smiling, Galahad dropped his hand, stepped back, and drew his sword again.
They moved onward, down the length of the hall."So how did everyone get into the castle?I used the old sewer grate."
"Where goeth water, so goeth Lancelot," Dred said."I burned through the nasty little trap in the gatehouse you probably chose to avoid."
Lancelot laughed.
"I climbed the wall," Galahad said.
Morgan scoffed at them all."I used my shadows to slip past the wall."
Arthur finished cheerfully, "I followed Dred's path of destruction."
"Typical of Your Majesty to do the least amount of work possible," Dred retorted.
"That's what you're for, it's true," Arthur replied with the same cheer.
Beyond the great hall were various storerooms and working rooms.Wine and beer took up most of the space, and there had been even more in the cellar.A lot of drying had been done here and in the cellar as well, meats, cheeses, and more.The kitchens were their own separate building just behind the keep proper, to reduce any damage should a fire get out of control in the kitchens, which happened all too often when flame and fats and more were involved.
There were also rooms for the seamstresses, weavers, and such.The bards and other performers had rooms here.This was the working part of the castle, versus everything around and above the great hall, where the nobles and guests resided.Servant quarters were in a dormitory also behind the castle, not because Arthur minded them being in the castle, but because it gave them a place to rest and relax where the nobles wouldn't harass them to death when they weren't working.
Through the doors at the rear was the secondary courtyard, surrounded on all sides by residential rooms on the second floor, and rooms for upper staff, like the seneschal, head cook, etc.on the first.Beyondthatwas all the outbuildings that served the castle.
They'd just reached the edge of the courtyard when everything went black again.
"Is it just me," Galahad said, "or does this feel like we're stuck in a fucking loading screen?"
