Prologue:

The saddest thing about betrayal isn’t how you get betrayed. It’s not even who betrays you. The knife twist comes when you know exactly who and why, and in your heart of hearts, you know there was no other choice.

Standing besides the withering remains of the orchard, Morgan stared out over the growing mist and tried in vain to see Avalon still. Instead all that remained was stone with Nimue’s final prophecy.

When the world is but one breath from extinction and Magik cries for help

The answer will awaken. 

The end will mean the beginning

Pain will mean joy.

She wanted to scream, to cry, to feel anything except this bitter emptiness. She had left for a mere few hours. Time to beg Merlin that his Greater Good was foolish and would lead to ruin. Nimue knew better. She knew that such an argument would never see Morgan as the winner. Merlin was the darling of their time, and Morgan was just the half blood sister of the muggle king.

Still, Morgan had never predicted that Nimue would seal her out of Avalon. Abandon her to this dying world. She was its Queen. That was her home. 

She felt her blue eyes flare with fire as a battle worn scream finally tore out of her throat. 

A tug began in her navel and she apparated back to their home in the mortal realm. It had been the base of operations while the rest of the council of 9 stayed in Avalon unless called upon. She refused to think what would happen to the Sisters left behind. At least the isle would care for them until eventually they’d pass from old age. And at least they’d have each other. 

Who did she have left?

Swallowing the pain of that question, she moved around their war room. While it was never clean, it was generally more organized than this. Nimue must have had trouble locating the spell? Strange, considering she had been the one to design it.

Looking closer at the chaos, Morgan began to notice a pattern. It was all of Nimue’s prophecies of events to come. For months she had been seeing war after war in the future, each more bloody and devastating than the last for both the muggles and the wizarding world. But Morgan was only seeing one prophecy repeat over and over again in the flurry of paper around her. One dated the 31st of July, 1980:

The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches

Born as the seventh month dies

And the dark lord will mark them as his equal

But they will have the power the Dark Lord knows not

And either must die at the hand of the other

For neither can live while the other survives

Quickly she scanned around, trying to find a prophecy dated after this one. She could find nothing. Was this the final ending that Nimue had hinted at, had warned would come? What happens after this though? 

Her current time was lost to Merlin. With Avalon sealed, she had no alternative to offer to his master plan. Tradition would continue to wither, slowly severing their ties to Olde Magik. Her greatest fears seemed to be coming true. She slowly stood up from the papers on the floor and strode to where they kept the Tome that belonged to every Lady of the Lake. She knew of only one spell left that could help. 

She would fix this.

She would go to the time Nimue had foreseen that Magik would give up on the mortal realm. She would save her people, even if they didn’t want saving. 

And if anyone got in her way again, they would find out the true powers of a queen of Avalon.