“But the woods have changed recently,” Genevieve murmured, still looking disturbed.  “So many geists have been seen, and some more Others, too.  Things that even the knights struggle to defeat.”

I shrugged, not about to inform her that geists left me alone for their own safety.  Not as long as I was hiding that I wasn’t human.  “They are attracted to populated areas – more potential prey there.  A lone cabin in the woods isn’t particularly of interest to them.  Besides, under that argument, we would have been in as much danger even if my mother was still there, yet Arthur wouldn’t have dragged us both away, would he?”

When she didn’t answer immediately, I frowned.  “Would he have?”  I demanded.

“Not exactly.”  She sounded like she was trying to placate me, while gently offering the truth.  “He had planned to ask your mother to come to court and be one of his advisors.  It was part of his plan to present a kingdom where people are treated equally – one of the first things he did was to announce that mages and knights would now include women as well as men.  That was quite revolutionary to several of the nobles, but he wasn’t done.  He respected your mother a great deal and said she seemed very educated, so he’d hoped to have her as a woman advisor – something that would definitely bother more nobles, but be another step towards our goal, plus she was someone whose advice he could respect.”

“Could he?  Really?”  I doubted this personally.  “I told him what she said, and he ignored it.  He did the opposite.  She wouldn’t be happy that he brought me here if she knew.  And no, she wouldn’t have gone along with the idea of coming here as an advisor.  Not even if he offered more money or whatever he planned to offer.  And if she’d said no, do you think he’d have brought her here anyway?”

Genevieve didn’t have an immediate answer for this.  “I think he believed she would be happy with the offer, especially because she could provide a better life for you.”

I rolled my eyes yet again.  “A better life?”  I snorted.  “My mother was educated, as he guessed.”  Her education wasn’t a normal human one, but she knew more than most human scholars did.

That happened when you were several hundred years old and when you had been groomed to be the ruler of your people.  My mother had been expected to take over one day – until she’d married my father.  Then everything had changed.

“She shared with me what she knew,” I told the human queen-to-be.  “She taught me to read and write in several languages, she taught me history, she taught me philosophy, and religion, and science.  Engineering even.  More than I expect most of your nobles know about topics like that.  And she wouldn’t have let any man budge her position on what was best for me.”

Genevieve was clearly startled now, not expecting me to have listed out an education likely more comprehensive than that of most scholars, especially given my age.  She didn’t know that my learning system involved knowledge intake much faster than that of humans, but that would be hard to explain.

“You,” she paused, then tried again, “surely, in such a case, it would be better for you to be amongst people where you could use that knowledge, or obtain further knowledge your mother doesn’t have.  Are you interested in being a scholar?  That is something we can offer here, something your mother would have been limited in – she could only teach you what she herself learned, and new things may have been discovered since then.  New science, or fabrics, or world discoveries.  If you like learning, perhaps living here can offer you more scholarly pursuits than you’ve have available in the middle of a forest, no matter how educated your mother was.”

I nearly objected, then I reconsidered.  She wasn’t wrong about my mother not knowing everything.  My mother’s knowledge mostly dated through about half a century ago, meaning I wasn’t as much aware of events or discoveries within the past 50 years, minus more local occurrences such as Uther’s reign.  I did like learning.  I wouldn’t call myself a scholar, not truly, but I was curious about how my mother’s knowledge could be built upon and whether things had changed a great deal since her last information.  Also, did humans even know everything my mother knew?  Did they have different accountings of history or other information?

Genevieve spotted the interest on my face and seemed relieved.  “I know you’re upset about being brought here, and I know you disagree on whether your mother would have approved.  But maybe we can put that aside for now.  You’re here, and while I understand that you’re not a fan, I also understand Arthur’s fears in allowing someone your age to live alone in a known area of Other sightings, regardless of the difficulties of living on your own.  So maybe we can instead focus on the positives.  I’ll introduce you to our local scholars and arrange to have them supplement your education.  If you’re interested in other things, too, we can also arrange for you to have introductions to them.”

“Like blacksmiths?  Lockmakers?  Clock makers?  Goldsmiths?”  I must have looked more intrigued than she expected, because she was taken aback.

“Um, those are interests of yours?”  She tried, without success, to not sound slightly appalled.

Ah.  Right.  Those wouldn’t be careers that most proper young ladies of the court would be attracted to.

I, however, was not afraid of fire or molten metal.  Besides the part that it wouldn’t burn me, or that I could heat it without a forge, I found metal working fascinating – the ability to take metal from a rock and turn it into something potentially intricate was honestly more intriguing than learning about new medicine techniques or architecture styles.  And, in fact, my interest wasn’t necessarily unusual, because metalworkers were common among my kind.

“Those were something my mother couldn’t provide me on a regular basis,” I pointed out.  “So if you’re talking about reasons why I should consider this a positive thing – which, by the way, I will say that any positives don’t outweigh being kidnapped from my home in my mind – I’d say that is on the list.”
“Uh, well, yeah, we can, um, see about that.”  She seemed way out of her depth on this concept, but rallied fairly quickly.

“But see, there are some good things about moving to Camelot.  Maybe it’s not what you wanted, but maybe it can help drive your future.”

Camelot, the center of the free world.  A city alert, a dragon breathing fire.  Knights in combat.  The king standing, holding his sword, facing a horde of enemies, a hooded figure at his side.  And when the smoke clears, Camelot still stands.

I blinked, startled at the vision, but Genevieve thankfully didn’t seem to notice my brief moment of distraction.

A vision?  I’d only had one before.  They were uncommon, even among my own kind, and the one I’d had – well, it had been of a young knight in the snow.  Crying.  It had led my mother to find Arthur on the day they’d met.

I’d been young, very young at the time.  Probably five years old, maybe four.  I hadn’t even known what I’d seen was a vision, but I’d started talking to my mother, confused about the knight and asking where he was and what he was doing.  I could remember her own confusion before she realized that I was talking about a vision and then she’d questioned me until she figured out where the young knight was, leaving to go find him before he died.  She’d even told me she might not have bothered, especially given that this was Uther’s son, without that vision.  All she knew is that visions weren’t to be ignored, and a vision was important.

But – this vision, what could it even mean?  It didn’t seem to be a warning, and it didn’t look like any time soon.  More just – just a glimpse into the future?

I paused, Genevieve’s last words sinking in.

A glimpse into…my future?  Did that mean Camelot was my future, whether I liked it or not?

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, because I had planned to return to my green forest when able, or at most to freedom away from these stone rooms, but…well…visions couldn’t be ignored.

Maybe it was time to pay attention to whether magic was telling me something.  Maybe, even if he didn’t realize it and even if I didn’t like it, Arthur had brought me to my future.

And if that was so, maybe I needed to learn to like Camelot whether I wanted to or not.

~~~~~

I was given a room.  Another box of stone, with a window and a bed and a wardrobe that Genevieve promised we’d fill.  I wasn’t looking forward to that process, but at least I had a place that was technically mine.

Unfortunately, I was also given a Johfrit.  Well, not given, exactly.  He showed up and told me he was the castle steward and was going to be teaching me etiquette.  He was an older human, with a permanent look on his face as if he had just smelled something bad or seen something unpleasant – or maybe that was just around me.  It only took one look at him, and no visions, to know that he and I weren’t going to be friends.

“We will begin with lessons in how to properly present yourself.  It is important that you represent the king well.”  His look at my bare feet and simple clothes spoke utter disdain.

I folded my arms across my chest and looked up at him, fully willing to fight if I had to.  “No.”

He drew back, confused.  “Wha – no?”

“I am not in the slightest inclined to represent the king in a kindly fashion,” I informed him frostily.  “That is the last thing I want.  In case you’re not aware, the king kidnapped me.  He brought me here against my will, solely because he has an incorrect view of my mother and of me and an extremely inflated view of his own importance and need to intervene in other people’s lives.  I will not do anything to make him look better.  I won’t actively make him look worse,” I conceded, because I wasn’t that petty, “but I am not changing who I am and what I am willing to do for a man who has shown no respect for me or my wishes.”

Johfrit was, for a moment, rather tongue-tied at this.  “It is not proper – ” he began again.

“I’m sure it’s not, but I don’t care.  I daresay there are already rumors about me being a wild, uncivilized creature – those aren’t going to disappear just because you attempt to make me look like everyone else here.  One, I never will.”  I had spent too much time outside for my skin to ever look as pale and soft as most of the women here.  In addition to my skin, though, I had deep black hair, something unusual amongst nobles.  I was going to stick out even if I wore the pretty – but utterly impractical – dresses like Genevieve.

“Two,” I went on heatedly, “even if I dressed in the fancy dresses, that wouldn’t change who I am.  People would still see me behaving like myself, and the rumors would continue.”

Johfrit, however, was rather unruffled at this.  “That is why I will teach you to behave in a proper manner.”

He wasn’t getting it, was he?  “No,” I repeated.  “I am not about to play fancy person just to placate a bunch of stuffed-up nobles.  Arthur brought me here without my consent, he can deal with the consequences of having a wild person as his ward.”

I left the room and a speechless Johfrit, but I did hear his explosion as I got down the hall.

“King Arthur.  King Arthur!  That girl is disrespectful and rebellious!”

I didn’t wait around to hear the rest of his thoughts on me, instead wandering down the halls.

Genevieve had promised to arrange a tour of the castle and to take me to the scholars’ library, but she was busy this morning dealing with the realities of running a castle.  She’d promised to help later, or maybe she thought sending Johfrit would help, but since I’d opted out of his lessons, I decided to just explore the castle on my own.  Although – maybe not like this.  Maybe not as a human, because I’d stand out too much.  If I really wanted to understand the castle and what it was like, I needed to be invisible.

Or at least, invisible to human eyes.  I picked the form of a sleek black cat and began trotting along, ignored by nobles and servants alike as I began to familiarize myself with the castle.  There were plenty of cats around, real ones – the ones who were there to help keep the mice and rat populations under controls.  I wasn’t going to join in that particular activity, but a cat walking around definitely didn’t draw any eyes.