The Life and Times of Morgan LeFaye (skip to part 2)
Once Upon A Time. . . in a multiplayer online RPG there was a wicked witch. The witch was a cold and empty creature that had no friends. The witch had eyes like coal, dark and pitiless. She was as prickly like a porcupine, even her hair was pointed and sharp to the touch. The wicked witch vanquished many heroes who sought to destroy her. Then the wicked witch met a dark fairy lord and together they were able to rule the world.
Prologue:
Merlin smoked his pipe and stroked his long white beard, he was the very
ideal of an aged wizard. Merlin knew that in the end it was history that
decided who were the heroes and villains, mostly due to the fact that
most real-life villains see themselves as heroes, helping mankind. Unlike
in fairy tales, very few real evil dictators rose to power proclaiming
themselves evil and singing musical numbers about their wicked plans.
Merlin knew that Morgan was the villain of the story. The prophesy that
would soon become a part of history had foretold that Morgan Lefaye would
destroy the world, unless Merlin could train a hero powerful enough to
stop Lefaye. Merlin prayed to the gods that Arthur was strong enough to
stop Morgan.
So the grand wizard's council had sent Merlin to stop Morgan's rise to power. He had traveled between the worlds to prepare a hero to stop Morgan and restore the balance between the worlds. Soon Morgan's magic would spiral out of control and for a short time Morgan would be vulnerable and that was when Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table would strike him down.
Two weeks had passed since Morgan had escaped into the human world. It had been unexpected, it appeared however that things were back on track. The girl was dead and Morgan was back in containment. Morgan's obsession with the girl had not been prophesized which meant that in the grand scheme of things the girl was unimportant. However, Merlin still felt sorrow for the meaningless death of the people that had been contaminated by Morgan. 'May the gods be kind to them and see them safely into the next life' he prayed.
Merlin also knew that soon Morgan's true escape would occur, and recapture would not be an option. Then the real battle would commence. Merlin was certain it would be the drain of power it would take to escape that would render Morgan mortal. It wouldn't be long until finally Morgan would be vulnerable, then perhaps they would be able to find peace.
Part 1:
In central Pennsylvania there was a quaint suburban neighborhood filled
with lovely houses and manicured lawns. On a sunny summers day, in the
bright blue swimming pool of 1003 Luck Lane floated a dead body. The body
was that of fifteen year old Ryan Teak. His death was dismissed as a suicide.
Two years before his death Ryan was in a terrible car crash. He was coming
home after a swim meet with his mother, and his brothers, David and Mike.
His mother and Mike were in the front seat, and died instantly upon impact.
David was badly injured, and Ryan was left paralyzed from the waist down-this
will be one of the many reasons his death will be deemed a suicide. Two
weeks before Ryan's death the girl living at 1017 Luck Lane, Sage Monroe
and her friend Missouri 'Zourri' Taylor were shot to death behind a bar.
It was determined to be a simple "mugging gone wrong ". Two
days after Sage's death her cat, Mr. Marmalade, died; he was crushed underneath
her computer desk when it fell over. Ryan, Sage, Zourri, several others,
and yes, even Mr. Marmalade were all murdered by the Knights of the Round
Table. All because they were contaminated by Morgan Le Faye. The knights
however made a fatal mistake-they thought by killing them they would die.
This is a common mistake made by most people.
Sage Monroe doesn't consider herself much of a 'heroine' or even a 'villain' not even a good supporting character. She wears her dark hair up in a spiky bun and it does not smell faintly of strawberries. She hates that all the heroines in the books she reads smell or taste of strawberries. The reason for this is that Sage is slightly obsessed with romance novels. She owns hundreds of the novels, little towers of books dominate the floor of her bedroom, stacked in her closet and underneath her bed.
The day she died Sage had been sitting on her bed wearing a pair of worn blue jeans and her favorite tee, that was at least two sizes too big. She was using a laser pointer to guide Mr. Marmalade through the maze of book towers that cluttered her floor. Mr. Marmalade was a Maine Coon cat; he had a long fluffy orange coat and a huge bushy squirrel like tail. He was easily the size of Sage's torso; Maine Coons being the largest domesticated cats, which Sage felt was an important fact. Sage liked facts. Before Mr. Marmalade began his quest to navigate the book maze, Sage had been packing the books up in boxes to go into storage. She was planning on moving to Atlanta with her best friend Zourri.
Zourri hated central Pennsylvania; it was boring, cold, and full of uptight Yankees. Before Sage met Zourri she hadn't realized people still used words like 'Yankee'. Back when Zourri lived with her nomadic parents they had lived in Atlanta for almost an entire year. Zourri had loved it; she had loved the heat and excitement of the bustling southern city. Zourri's grandparents had passed away last year, leaving Zourri to finish school living alone in their rundown trailer at the Greenside Trailer Park. The day they graduated Zourri announced she was moving to Atlanta in August.
"Why wait till August?" Sage had asked knowing that Zourri was eager to leave PA.
"Cause I'm taking you with me, and you don't turn eighteen till July. You don't want to stay here with Kay and Phil do you?" asked Zourri.
Kay and Phil were Sage's adopted parents though Phil was Sage's blood uncle, her biological father, Danny, was Phil's younger brother. Danny had been working as a locksmith to pay his way through school. He had gone out late one night on a call and had been robbed and murdered. Sage's mother Irene had been young and terrified. Irene and Danny had been engaged, she didn't even find out she was pregnant till after Danny was dead. So a young scared Irene was more than happy to give up her unexpected baby when Phil and Kay offered to adopt her. Irene never tried to contact her daughter, at least not to Sage's knowledge. Phil and Kay had pictures of Danny on the living room mantle but no pictures of Irene.
Sage had always wondered what Irene looked like. Sage had her father's unmanageable spiky black hair, which she managed by wearing it in a tight spiky bun at the back of her head. Danny was tan and smiling, he had the light blue eyes that seemed to dominate the Monroe family. Sage was pale and she had an awkward smile that was ready to run off her face at the first sign of trouble, and dark brown almost black eyes. She was also the only one in their family that wore glasses. She assumed since none of these traits were evident in her family, she must have inherited them from her mother.
Sage didn't hate Phil and Kay but she didn't particularly like them either, or their real daughter Elaine. Sage was skilled in ambiguous emotions and a general lack of interest of people in general. Sage did find Elaine annoying and Elaine didn't care much for Sage. Sage and Elaine had developed an unspoken agreement early on that whenever possible they would politely ignore the other's existence. Elaine had spent their childhood working hard to distance herself from her freaky little sister. And Sage had always tried to stay in the background and generally far away from Elaine. Now Elaine was married to her college sweetheart Matt. At the wedding she had made all this fuss about how silly she had been, and now that they were all grown up they should be friends. Sage had given Elaine her best wobbly smile and agreed with Elaine that they should become closer which had been a lie. Sage had no intentions to forge a sisterly relationship.
So when Zourri had asked Sage to go with her to Atlanta, Sage had only one question. "Can Mr. Marmalade come too?"
"Sure, bring the furball maybe we can even get him a little girlfriend." Zourri had laughingly replied.
Mr. Marmalade grew tired of chasing the red dot of the laser pointer and rolled onto his back knocking down two of the book towers. Sage put up the laser pointer and went back to packing up books. She still had over a month before their moving date, but Zourri had said the books had to go before Morgan came for his visit.
Morgan was one of Sage's online friends from her favorite multi-player online game, Mythos, a role-playing adventure game. Sage could count her real life friends on one hand but online she had too many to count. After Zourri he was her second closest friend. She had met them the same year too. She had known Morgan for almost four years, at least online she had known him for almost four years. Within the last year they had started an online romantic relationship however, today would be first time she would meet him in real life. Online Morgan had always seemed very interesting.
Phil and Kay had not been happy about Sage inviting an online friend to visit. Especially not an online boyfriend, and Elaine had been particularly disapproving about Morgan. Zourri had been thrilled that Sage was going on a 'hot date' with a guy. Sage herself had mixed feelings about meeting Morgan in real life. But then again, if it annoyed Phil, Kay, and Elaine, then maybe it was worth it.
Sage heard a knock on the front door and tried to navigate her way out of her room without knocking down the remaining book towers. She opened the front door to find Zourri holding several folded cardboard boxes under one arm and a tape gun in the other hand. Zourri was looking impatient wearing a red halter top and tight blue jeans with matching red platform heels and a messenger bag slung over her shoulder. Her curly auburn hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and her hazel eyes gave Sage a quick once over.
"Really Sage, you've got like less than two hours before you have to pick up lover boy at the airport and you aren't even dressed."
"I am too." Sage said looking down at her favorite Mythos tee it had a picture of a dark elf mage holding up a potion with the caption 'got solu'.
"You are not wearing that! Have you finished packing those books yet?"
"Umm…." Sage began biting her nails nervously. "I started to but-"
"Whatever." Zourri said bustling past Sage to her bedroom. Sage followed behind her envious of her ability to move so gracefully in the red heels. She wondered if Zourri had to practice or if she was just naturally graceful in stilettos. Once Zourri had taken her out to a dance club, and Sage had been astounded that not only could Zourri gracefully walk in the scarily sharp heels, but she could dance never missing a beat even after drinking a bottle of some unknown white liquor. Zourri set the boxes and her bag down and began taping up the bottom of the boxes. She handed the box to Sage with the order to fill it up. Sage began dismantling the book towers and filling the boxes. Mr. Marmalade enjoyed jumping in and out of the boxes while destroying the book city. It didn't last long, Zourri was a fast packer and shortly the book city was packed up and loaded into a van.
"I knew all these books wouldn't fit in our cars so I had a guy I know loan me his van. Pretty smart huh?" Zourri said patting the side of the van. Zourri always seemed to know 'a guy'. Sage wasn't sure who 'the guy' was, but there seemed to be multiple 'guys' with different talents none of which appeared to have names, other than of course 'a guy' or sometimes 'the guy'.
"Come on, lets get you ready to meet lover boy," said Zourri laughing.
Sage followed Zourri back inside, where Zourri dug through Sage's closet and found a pair of unworn black skinny jeans that Elaine had given Sage for Christmas, and then she grabbed a black top out of her bag and ordered Sage to change. Sage sulked off into the bathroom and changed into the jeans and Zourri's black scoop neck top. She shuffled back to her room where Zourri gave her a critical look.
"Not bad, now we just need some accessories." Zourri went back to her bag and pulled out a black leather belt with silver studs and a matching pair of high heels. Sage teetered around the room on the heels using the furniture to balance.
"Shoot, that would have been cute, but you'll fall and break your neck in those." Said Zourri, going back into Sage's closet she reemerged with a pair of knee high black boots that Sage rarely wore since she preferred sneakers. "The boots make the outfit a little goth-tastic but they'll be better than chucks." said Zourri evaluating Sage.
Zourri pulled out her make-up bag and went to work. Sage sat at her desk chair trying to be still and patient. While Zourri puffed and patted and gave orders like, look up, eyes closed, eyes open, go like this, look this way. Sage didn't see a remarkable difference just that her dark eyes looked even darker and her lips looked like a blood stain against her pale face.
"You have good bone structure, but you're just sooo pale and your hair is sooo dark, but you look nice, kind of like a gothic Snow White." Zourri said admiring her handy work. "So, what are your plans with loverboy?"
"Well, David invited me to his big birthday party. His little brother Ryan plays Mythos with Morgan and me. So, I thought Morgan might like to meet him too. Then maybe we can do some gaming-"
"No gaming. The whole point is to do non-computer activities, after the party bring him by the bar to meet me, we serve food late on Fridays so you guys can get some dinner." Zourri worked in what could loosely be considered the city. There were a few bars/clubs on Main Street, Zourri worked at two of them. She worked at Corner Pocket a bar/pool house during the week, and on the weekends at O'Leary's an Irish pub. Tonight she was at O'Leary's, the food there wasn't authentic Irish cuisine, but they did make a killer potato soup.
"I guess we could do that, and then maybe tomorrow we could go see a movie or the zoo. They opened a special tiger exhibit. Did you know tigers are the largest of the big cats?" Asked Sage smiling up at Zourri.
"Fascinating, so what does this guy look like anyway?" Asked Zourri who wasn't much into gaming, and hadn't been to a zoo since elementary school, and had minimal interest in Sage's virtual life in Mythos. Zourri liked real men, real men in the real world to buy her real drinks in real bars. Now that Morgan was coming for a visit Zourri had become interested about Sage's online love life.
"Oh, here." Said Sage turning on the computer and tapping on the touch screen.
"That's his game person thingie isn't it? I meant a real picture." Zourri said looking at Morgan's Mythos' avatar. His avatar was a thin pale fairy with hair that was tipped in blue-green and transitioned to a vibrant violet at the roots that perfectly matched his violet eyes. He was wearing shiny black and silver armor with dragonfly like wings sprouting from his back.
"You guys do that online chatty sky thing right?
"Skyping, and no we mostly just chat through Mythos"
"But you have at least seen a real photo of him, right?" Zourri gave Sage a look of utter disbelief.
"Well, no, but we both use our avatars for all our online site photos, so he hasn't seen me either. So we're even." Sage explained not understanding Zourri's concern or the importance for a 'real photo'.
"Seriously Sage, he's not going to look anything like this. You don't even really know how old this guy is, or if he is a scary troll man. Or he could be a chick pretending to be a dude. Do you even know if Morgan is his real name?" Zourri rubbed her temple in frustration.
"He said Morgan Lefaye is his real name, that's why he uses a fairy avatar because Lefaye means the fairy, it's French."
"Isn't that the name of some kind of villain?" asked Zourri
"Morgan Lefaye was King Arthur's half sister and enemy, that's why this Morgan is so into Arthurian myth." Explained Sage biting on her nails.
"Uh-huh, so Morgan Lefaye was a French chick?"
"Um, no I think she was from England, anyway Morgan is a boy. He told me so."
"Uh-huh." Zourri gave a Sage a worried look, and said a silent prayer that her best friend wouldn't be raped, robbed, and murdered by some online psycho.
"I'm going to be late getting to the airport if I don't leave now." Sage said effectively ending the conversation.
"Ok, go, just make sure you have your cell phone, and call me if things go bad." Zourri said shaking her head, she wondered how a girl as smart as Sage could be so frightfully naïve. Sage grabbed her laptop bag and patted Mr. Marmalade.
"You're taking your laptop?"
"All my stuff is in here." Sage replied defensively hugging the bag.
"Of course it is." Zourri rolled her eyes and hopped into
the van and drove off leaving Sage to venture to the airport alone.
**********
Sarah Newcastle stood outside of the dining area of the Nimuite facility.
The Newcastle family are members of a small group of people that call
themselves the Nimuites. They are hidden away in an undisclosed underground
base in Europe. Sarah hated the facility. It was like living in an underground
school, with fluorescent lights and cement walls covered in thick off-white
paint. she had been living underground for so long she couldn't even remember
what the outside world looked like.
Sarah also hated her parents, her brother and his friends. In general she was an angry young girl. Her brother Roger knows he's the hero of the story. He was certain of it, just like the sun rising in the East. Roger has sandy blonde hair, a winning smile, and lively blue eyes. Sarah has spent her life as a background character and unlike Sage who is quite fond of the lack of attention Sarah hates it. She keeps all her hate bottled up afterall you can't hate the hero. Especially if the hero is your handsome, charismatic, brother who is destined to save the world.
Sarah plastered a smile over her braces and walked in the dining hall. She got in line to get her morning dose of runny eggs and burnt bacon, and then went to sit by her mother. Roger came in to the dining hall and patted Sarah on the head messing up red wiry hair. She hated that, but she turned and gave him a smile. Even in the sickening fluorescent lights Roger looked great. His wet hair was slicked back from his morning shower, so he had probably just finished his morning martial arts training.
"Good morning Mom, morning Sarah."
"Morning honey." said their mom getting teary eyed. The closer they were to big battle the more their mom seemed to cry. Sarah always hated that she was compared to her mother 'you look just like your mother', because it was a horrible lie. Her mother was beautiful like a red headed movie sta,r but Sarah was already twice freckled as her mother. She felt like a bad tween show stereotype.
"Mornin." Sarah desperately wanted breakfast to be over, there was no class today so she could spend the whole day playing Mythos. The only friend she had in the complex was Luke but when his brother, Paul, died he had to take Paul's place on Roger's team. Now Luke was part of saving the world, and Sarah was left with only her online friends. Sarah focused on shoveling her runny eggs into mouth and occasionally nodding she had developed a survival skill of instinctively responding to her Mother's and Roger's conversation.
"I have a test dive next, some weapon training before lunch, then me and the guys have to take some tests, then we get the rest of the night off."
"I'm glad they are giving you some time off."
"Only a couple of weeks till the big day."
"I'm done, so I'm gonna go study. Umm, good luck with your training." Sarah said standing up.
"Sarah its rude to leave until everyone is finished." said her mom.
"Mom, let her go. Don't be so hard on her, after all she's just a kid." said Roger.
"Fine go, but I want us all here in the dining hall for a family dinner."
"Yes, mom." Sarah said walking out of the dining hall she turned and waved at Roger. That was the annoying thing about Roger, perfect. Perfect hero, perfect son, perfect brother, he was a constant reminder of all of Sarah's imperfections. She walked back through the white halls to their living quarters. There were four bunk beds and four desks, the empty set had been her father's before he died during a diving experiment. A third of the Nimuite Group had died perfecting the dives. Sarah didn't know much about the dives and when she would ask she was only given vague answers. The only thing she knew for certain was that she wasn't good enough for dive testing.
Sarah turned on her computer and logged on to Mythos. Her best friend Rhyanna Ragewind was online.
"Hey, Selena ready to go beat up some orcs?" Selena Bluestar a level 81 black mage was Sarah's avatar, her friend Rhyanna Ragewind was a level 89 berserker.
"Yes, lets go kick some orc butt!"
*****************
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