I had to be careful not to kill Lancelot as I broke him. The solution came to me as I dragged his limbless body through the streets of Camelot, Phantom Form. I pulled out Mab from my side and after a few minutes drew some runes on Lancelot’s forehead. They would let me peer into his thoughts and see his memories. Of course, he blocked me out but that would be handled easily enough.

“Phantom Form,” I said turning my body incorporeal.

My fingers drove through Lancelot’s chest and he jerked out of his pain filled fugue. The barrier around his mind flickered but held. I dug around his chest with immaterial fingers while his body bucked weakly, unable to put up any real resistance without his arms or legs. I pulled out my hand as I rematerialized.

“Phantom Form,” I said again.

I drove my hand into his chest again feeling his mental barrier loosen again. Time and again he resisted me, and I retaliated by rending his soul. His will was strong, but no one came to save him and in the end he broke. I delved into his thoughts. He didn’t know exactly where Guinevere was, but he knew several locations where she might be taken too. There was another location I found interesting, someplace Guinevere wouldn’t be taken but other members of the royal family would be.

I dragged Lancelot behind me as I opened a portal.

Arrows bounced off my Nemean cloak as I dropped Lancelot and cut through the defenders. I smashed open a door and looked at the target I had come to collect.

“Dominion,” I growled out.

Lionor reached up to her throat as white brand of chains appeared around it. She clutched a infant to her chest.

“How did…?” her eyes went wide when she saw the limbless body of Lancelot and his defeated eyes.

“Tell me where Guinevere is,” I commanded her.

She only tried to resist for a moment then the brand around her neck brightened and she winced and relented.

“They are at Castle Lanerva,” she said.

“What are they doing?” I pressed, sensing there was something further that she was holding back.

“They are holding the wedding ceremony for Guinevere and Arthur,” she said trying to resist me but the words being forced out of her throat as the pain increased. “Merlin has prepared a trap for you with the ring you gave Guinevere.”

I frowned. “How?”

“I don’t know,” Lionor said. “He seemed to think he could use it to draw you into a trap.”

“Foolish,” I said shaking my head. “Was he not able to read its description? Only someone I trust can use the ring.”

I turned my back on her not waiting for an answer. “Follow me,” I commanded and opened a second portal.

I’d seen Castle Lanerva in Lancelot’s memories and opened it the castle throne room, if there was one place the wedding would be held, I felt sure it was there. I grabbed Lionor and pushed her through the portal in front of me dragging Lancelot behind.

“Wait!” I heard Arthur shout and a line of spears halted as Arthur limping took a step away from the altar that had been placed before the throne.

“Mordred! Run….” Guinevere screamed but then her voice was cut off and she couldn’t speak anymore.

I looked around, Merlin and King Arthur were there along with dozens of other nobles I vaguely remembered seeing at the ball. Lionor stood before me blocking any clear attack they could make on me.

“Let her go,” Arthur demanded his voice panicked and desperate but I could see he had no strength to back his words.

“I will release her, your son and Lancelot in exchange for Guinevere,” I said.

There was silence and I could see Arthur wrestling with himself.

“You once said there was not cost to great to kill me,” I said. “Well, your son is part of the cost now.”

“You bastard!” Arthur raged. “You’d use a child as a shield?”

“It wasn’t me who broke the rules first,” I said. “You should have died like a hero in the arena, these are the consequences for your failure. I wouldn’t have gone this far if you hadn’t pushed but now… there are no limits.”

“No,” King Arthur said.

“Father!” Arthur protested. “That is my son! That is Lancelot!”

“A bastard son and crippled champion are not worth the price of the humiliation giving the Dutchess of Camelot to the Warlord would bring us,” he said his voice impassive and unrelenting. “And there is the alliance with my brother we must secure.”

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“This isn’t worth it!” Arthur protested raging but I could see his legs shaking with weakness. “We cannot let your grandson die for the sake of the agreement between us.”

“He is right,” Merlin said.

I instantly went on edge. Lionor had warned me of a trap and Merlin giving in didn’t seem like him. My eyes darted around the multifaced pupils I had roaming and searching for whatever trick he was about to pull. Merlin smiled meeting my eyes and raised the ring in his hands, he couldn’t use it so I had no idea what he had planned.

An inscribed circle formed around me and I felt the ring on my finger draw in my mana.

You have been afflicted with Mana Binding; your own mana will restrain you for the next hour (reduced by Troll Hide to 36 seconds)

“Damn it!” I swore as it happened again.

I strained against the bindings as Merlin advanced forward towards me lazily not hurrying his movements at all to capitalize on my immobility.

Mana Bindings refreshed; your own mana will restrain you for the next hour (reduced by Troll Hide to 36 seconds)

I snarled in wordless rage but just like last time I couldn’t fight my own mana.

“You were a fool to think you would ever have my daughter,” Merlin said raising his staff.

“Except she’s not your daughter is she,” I said.

It was just a guess but the look of rage I saw in him confirmed it.

“I found it interesting that your world’s version of a paternity test is to check the abilities of your children to make sure they match up or versions of both parents,” I said. “But then I wondered what would happen if someone else with the same abilities were to sire a child.”

Guinevere stood on the stage, and I saw the look of dawning realization on her face.

“Silence,” Merlin commanded striking his staff across my jaw.

“I thought you people were weird enough with your cousin marriages,” I said my jaw flexing as I snapped it back to place. “But siblings that’s really fucked up…well half siblings.”

“Father is this true,” Arthur asked turning around his fist’s clenched.

“No,” King Arthur said staring me down with his own look of murderous rage but I could see the guilt hiding behind it. He walked forwards and stood before me and knelt down to my eye level.

“He’d say anything right now,” King Arthur said. “He has already poisoned Guinevere’s mind and now he seeks to poison ours.”

“Let…him…go,” Guinevere said her voice straining to get the words out.

“I think you need to be taught the error of your ways daughter,” Merlin said lowering his staff from where he had been about to bring it down on my skull. “You will be the one to kill him.”

Guinevere slowly descended the staircase from the altar taking her blue blade sword. Her body trembled and shook as she fought the control exerted on her body. She moved forward her graceful movements now stiff and jerky.

“Stop this, father,” Arthur said this isn’t right.

“Stand down son,” the king said. “This is necessary for Guinevere’s instruction.”

A black leather band with silver plates riveted to it appeared in Guinevere’s hand when she was five feet from me. She placed it around her neck and it fastened becoming a dark chocker necklace. She stepped forward standing over me and raised her sword.

“I’m sorry, but I have to do this,” she said and thrust her sword forwards.

--

Guinevere strained against the oaths that bound her but just like Mordred was currently immobilized by her own mana so was she if less literally. Her feet dragged herself forwards as she desperately strained against it her hand grabbing her sword in passing. She tried to let go of it but her body was not her own to command right now.

All their moralizing about being better than the Warlords of the past and they bound people to their will just like they did. Guinevere desperately searched for something, anything to stop herself from obeying the oaths that bound her.

System, she thought. If I have anything that can stop this show it to me.

Would you like to use your custom Tier IV artifact now?

Yes, Guinevere screamed mentally grabbing onto the hope.

Lists of items and their descriptions began scrolling past her vision but she didn’t have time to read them, her body still moving forwards. Arthur and others were speaking but she didn’t have time to listen to their useless words as she blinked past the notifications.

Anything to let me bypass these oaths, she told the System. Just pick something and give it to me.

A soft weight appeared in her hand, and she looked down at the object.

Amulet of the Black Temptress, Type: Jewelry (neck) (Artifact IV): Any binding oaths effecting this creature are canceled and nulled. While wearing this amulet you are immune to Domination, Mind Control, Mind Reading, Emphatic and truth telling abilities and spells.

At the cost of 100 mana the wearer or one creature they touch can break free of any entrapments, binding or snare holding them. Cooldown 1 hour (each rank you have will reduce the cost for this effect by 5 mana and the cooldown by 5 minutes to a minimum of 5 mana cost and cooldown of 5 minutes)

Members of the opposite sex are inflicted with Lust* while in your presence making them susceptible to control by you.

This amulet can only be removed once you are dead.

Weight:

1 lbs.

The last two effects seemed more like curses but there was no time to second guess or hesitate, she raised the amulet to her neck, and it fastened itself there. Instantly she felt a sense of relief as control returned to her body. All it had taken was a cursed amulet, but she finally had some control over her own life and actions for the first time in her life. Mordred was still trapped, and they were surrounded by the most powerful men in the kingdom.

Guinevere looked at her father, her real father, a man who had been as cruel and distant as Merlin had her entire life. He would have forced her into marriage with Arthur despite knowing the truth all to suit his own power. What she was about to do was one of the greatest of sins but not doing it would be as great an injustice.

“I’m sorry, but I have to do this,” she said and thrust her sword forwards through her father’s chest.