The Wicked Day [Open!]

An uncharacteristic cynicism floated through his mind when she related others’ experiences to his own. While he was shocked to hear that others – including Phoebe – had been taken from their homelands to come to this place, part of him doubted that they had experienced the same thing he was going through. Of course he wouldn’t say such a thing aloud. While he believed that his experience was perhaps a bit more extreme, he wouldn’t wish to lessen the severity that anyone else might have been feeling at their own life interruptions. ”Yes, Camelot,” Arthur said, a sudden longing in his eyes. Home. ”A kingdom like no other. It is a time of peace; my dear friend once called it the Golden Age. Everyone is friendly and warm, people are prospering, and there is peace like there hasn’t been in generations.” She would perhaps notice that he was speaking in present tense, at odds with her past tense description of her own home. Phoebe may have let go of her past, but Arthur held tightly to his, not allowing it to be his past. When she asked if he was a knight, he glanced down at his attire with a breathy laugh that clouded in front of his face. ”I was a squire actually,” he said, matching her past tense for that single sentence. ”Things changed, though… I am Camelot’s king.” The Once and Future King. He gave her a smile again, his eyes warm after describing his kingdom. His heart lied with Camelot: he had worked harder than he thought possible to usher the kingdom into her golden age, so to be apart from her with what people thought was no way back… It was a pain he didn’t recognize. ”You understand my urgency in returning home?” arthur The Once and Future King