The Stain of Mordred part 25.

Mordred.

Mordred stalked back up the caverns, his rage bristling beneath the surface, upon finding the mirror in the bottom cavern destroyed he had killed the four followers who had come down with him as his rage boiled over. He had brought them down with him when he had felt the surge of power deep underground. Their burnt and charred bodies would forever stay within the cavern as he had collapsed the roof as he left. As he entered the empty cell where the Mage should be his rage exploded anew and he only regained control of it when he almost brought the ceiling down on his own head and had to make a hasty exit back up to the house as the cavern system became unsafe.

He now sat in his office brooding as around the building his servants were tiding up the damage his subterranean outburst had caused to the manor house. He sat going over his meeting with George trying to work out how he fooled him and then had managed to not just escape but how he had known about his mother Morgan Le Fay, who had been trapped in the mirror, a secret he had kept to himself. Very soon he would be ready to open up the gateway and release the Dark Gods and somehow he had let a Mage of apparent great power escape from his clutches.

Mordred has spent centuries influencing these islands through war and conquest and later through the destruction of it’s natural habitat to weaken the earth power that flowed through the islands. His need for revenge for not been chosen to be the champion of those from beyond the mists still burned as strongly as when they had sided with Arthur for the Battle of Camlann, even though Arthur was betraying them for the new religion of the Nazarene. Arthur had ruined the golden age after the defeat of the Saxons, lost his wife to his best friend and then allowd his knights to be sent off to die on the foolish quest for the Holy Grail. Yet still the Lady of the Lake supported him over Mordred who wanted to fight for the Old Ways.
It was as he lay dying on the battlefield that the Dark Gods had come for him and offered him a deal, revenge and the span of years unending until he released the Dark Gods who would march into the mists and destroy the world of Avalon.
While his lust for revenge still burnt bright, fuelled by the anger of the Dark Gods the centuries of life had created another need in him. In the quieter times, when the influence of the Dark Gods slept he longed for an end to it all, to finally die. Only his father and the sword Excalibur could now kill him and only the return of the Dark Gods would wake his father from his slumber in Avalon. Only by releasing the Dark Gods could he face Arthur again and die at his hand as the world ended. The Dark Gods had known how to make the deal to trap him until the bitter end and prevent any future change of mind.

At every turn in his life his loyalty had been repaid with betrayal and rejection. He had held true to the Old Ways at his fathers court but that had brought him scorn, Queen Guinevere had hated him, seeing him as a child of sin and an unholy union. Yet it was her and Lancelot who carried that burden of sin. His loyalty in going to his father as he told of their affair had actually soured any chance of a relationship with him. He resented Mordred far more than his wife and friend once the truth was out.
With the influence of the Old Ways fading in court he had gone to his mother, Morgan Le Fay for help. He told her he planned to raise an army and remove the threat of this new god from the lands of Briton. She had refused to support him and had gone to the Lady of the Lake to warn her. He was fighting for the Old Ways and Avalon yet they sided with their King Arthur against him.

After the battle his mother had found him out at Tauroc Castle and it was then, with the power of the Dark Gods at his command he had imprisoned her within the copper mirror. They had fought for hours releasing their powers at each other in a battle far more deadly than the one he had fought against his father. When he had finally trapped her in the mirror the castle was in ruins, it’s walls and buildings destroyed as even the stone was aflame. It was then that Mordred went into hiding with the mirror, his mothers powers as a priestess were too powerful to waste and would aid him in the times to come. She became his unwilling eyes to the world and a play thing to the Dark Gods whenever he needed to punish her for disobedience.
Now he realised that even the Dark Gods had betrayed him, using him as a tool to gain their freedom far before he made the deal as he lay dying.

For years beyond count his mind had know only anger and resentment, insanity and pain, yet now his thoughts had begun to clear. His meeting with the healer George and the escape of the healer with his mother had brought him calm and a resurfacing of old feelings he thought were gone forever. His immediate response to their escape had been fuelled by the Dark Gods but in the following hours he came to understand why. The mirror wasn’t just a way for Mordred to see the world, it also acted as an anchor for the Dark Gods to control Mordred’s thoughts, to feed him anger and hatred. He could now see how everyone had used him his entire life. For the first time he could remember he had clarity of thought but could not change his fate. His treatment in his fathers court had given the Dark Gods the foothold on him they needed to divide him from his father. Knowing this though couldn’t alter the future, mankind would fall, Avalon would burn and he would finally know the peace of death as his father killed him.

To be continued.