A/N: This thing is getting pretty epic. o.O;; ah, probably should put the whole thing onto a site or something besides and devart. But yeah, not finished.

Chapter Twelve

Arturia found herself in a dark place, nothing all around her but black. She frowned and walked around; trying to find where the black ended, but found that she wasn�t even walking on something solid.

A figure walked toward her dressed in a dark gray set of robes, his hood drawn up and over his face, covering it. As he walked toward her, Arturia wondered who the man was, for she had never seen him before and the black nothing all around her was getting disconcerting.

The man lifted his head and Arturia saw a man, not more than twenty, with a very pale face. His black hair was relatively short, wavy and hung around his face slightly, almost hiding his eyes, which, to Arturia, looked like great black holes in his head. �What is this? What�s going on?� she asked him.

�Do you believe in Death, Arturia?� he said, watching her.

Arturia frowned at the question. Of course she believed in death, as death was a state of being one went into after their time on the earth was done, whether by human hands, ie murder, or by God�s hand, ie natural death. To ask this question puzzled Arturia and she looked at the man with a fair bit of annoyance.

�You should,� he said as he pulled his hood all the way off of him. The whites of his eyes seemed to disappear and Arturia thought she saw a pair of pointed ears, but she couldn�t be sure. It didn�t really matter, since his eyes alone caused her to jump backward.

�Why am I here?�

�Because I am supposed to send you either to heaven or hell, miss,� he said. His accent was also very strange, not of Briton, except very slightly, not of Scotland, not of Wales and most definitely not of Ireland.

�I am dead?�

The man looked to her before holding up a hand. �Yes, however, your body has healed itself. Your soul, however, detached itself before the body could heal.�

�Then, I am to be judged now?� she asked, steeling herself up for the big judgment of her soul.

�The Father doesn�t want you to be sent on, yet. The Creator wants you to continue living, for you are far too young and precious to Him to die yet. You are also very precious to your people and the people whose lives you have touched. Your time on Earth has not ended yet, but this is a minor set back. I will reattach your soul to your body in a few moments. I sort of have to deal with something before I can deal with you.�

Donovan turned and the black lifted away to show strange portals in boxes, each showing some different person. One portal had a strange brightly colored display on it and was attached to some long black rope to a box with another black rope attaching it to what looked to be like controls. The side of the box said �Nintendo 64� on it. She found it very odd indeed. When she looked up to the young man, she found he had taken his cloak off and was sitting in a chair and looking at portals, his body broad shouldered and muscled and his jaw strong and his cheek bones high. Indeed, once more, his eyes were back to �normal� and he was looking at the portals for something. He even wore strange clothes, a relatively tight shirt with no ties and no buttons that had short sleeves covered his torso in the color of black. His legs were covered in a strange faded blue material that looked as though it were quite thick and quite sturdy. A woman with long black hair walked in, gold eyes looking from the man to Arturia herself. �You�re showing someone this place, Donovan?�

The man known as Donovan waved his hand dismissively at the woman, who was quite tall and had a very pretty face. She wasn�t as beautiful as the Sinclair woman, but she had a very lovely face indeed. �Where�s my sister? You said you had felt her soul detach.�

�Ah! There she is. There�s our Ada.� He grinned and Arturia found his smile very boyish as well as very odd compared to his appearance a few minutes prior.

�You could have let Blain do it, you know,� said the black haired woman as she put her hand affectionately into Donovan�s hair and ruffled it. He rolled his eyes and tapped the portal in front of him.

�Blain is off with your sister Merope, at the moment, enjoying the same fun that our mother gets in life from dad,� he said gruffly and stood.

Arturia watched all this silently, assessing her surroundings and the conversation. What about this Ada? Was that not the name of Keirnan MacLeod�s wife? Were these people some sort of wizards?

Donovan walked toward Arturia once more and nodded to her. �Now I will take you back, for my wife�s sister is there with you.�

�You have been granted permission to give life to human beings? Are you that close to the creator?� asked Arturia, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

�No, but a body can still function without a soul. There are worse things than dying, believe me,� he said. Arturia couldn�t fathom how a body could survive without its soul, but she let it go as Donovan took her arm gently and the strange surroundings disappeared entirely to that of the valley where they fought. �I heal the body so that it will continue living and then I reattach the soul to the body. The body can be healed to that even after death; however, you can�t reattach the soul unless you are me. Only He can actually create life.�

�But what you are doing IS creating life in an already dead thing, right?� asked Arturia.

�No, not really. You may see it that way, but I am not really doing any such thing,� he said softly. �I only usher souls to their rightful place, I rarely do this sort of thing unless He asks me to or if my family is involved. He knows where my heart lies,� he said, looking to Arturia once more.

She pitied the young man in front of her, for he had a difficult job to carry out and he did it with aplomb. When they reached the side of Ada MacLeod, she saw the young woman�s strange red eyes were glassy and staring up at the sky as her husband, Keirnan, held her fast to him. Beside them both was a silvery woman, Ada�s soul, Arturia suspected. When Arturia looked down at herself, she saw that she too was silvery like Ada�s soul. She really had died and this really was occurring before her!

Ada smiled faintly at Donovan. �I haven�t seen you for a while now, Donovan,� she said, �I kept forgetting to see daddy and everyone because of all the trouble happening.�

�It�s what happens when your tribe is loyal to Gryffindor,� said Donovan as he smiled faintly.

Keirnan looked up at Ada and Donovan talking and then looked to Arturia and smiled sadly, wiping tears from his face. �You�ll see the mourners over there, your highness.�

Arturia frowned and looked over in the direction that the beautiful man before her indicated. Over in the distance was a large group, all her men, those of Wales, those of Scotland and those of Ireland, gathered around something with helmets off and hands over their hearts. She frowned deeply in confusion as she looked back to Keirnan. �Why are you crying if you know who this man is and that he does this for his family?�

�Why would anyone cry when their beloved has been run through? Why would anyone cry when their pet has died, or when their family has gone?� He smiled a bit more and nuzzled the pale forehead of his wife�s body. �It is because you love them so much that the thought of them not being there kills you a little inside, breaks your heart and makes you weep.�

Arturia felt strange inside as she listened to the beautiful man speak to her. It was as though her own heart was breaking and she felt strange tears fall down her cheeks as she watched him.

�Now, if only my dear wife and her cousin would STOP CHATTING,� grunted Keirnan irritably.

Donovan rolled his eyes and held out his hand. Ada�s spirit was transformed into a ball of light and she watched it fly into his hand. He smiled faintly and pushed the ball of light into the body Ada before pulling out a potion and pouring it over her wound. The wound began healing before her, the clear liquid turning bright silver and then bright white light flashed from it.

�What is this potion you use?� gasped Arturia as she covered her eyes from the white light.

�Something my mother and my aunt help make for us to use when the body is so far gone that normal medicines can not bring it back,� he said. He stood up and nodded to her. �Come with me now.�

Arturia followed Donovan as he walked over to the crowd. She saw a very lovely young man, about her age, crouched low like a dog and leaning on his spear with his face half hidden in his arm. He was singing softly a strange tune that made her heart fall, if she had one. The very image of him was beautiful to behold and Arturia walked over and kissed his cheek impulsively. The young man jerked and touched his cheek, looking around. Arturia, by that time, had turned into a ball of light and gone into Donovan�s hand. He silently made his way through the crowd of people and touched the ball of light to Arturia�s body.

Bedivere had taken the arrows out of her body and had given her to her nephew to hold, who stroked her hair gently and kissed her forehead. �I�m glad to have met you, aunt,� said Gawain with a grin. �You were a good woman.�

Cuchulainn stood up, watching Donovan as he walked from the crowd. He had been taken out of his lament for Arturia by the feeling a girl kissing his cheek, like that of a fairy queen bestowing him a kiss of sweetness. He watched Donovan move away from the crowd and look over at him, smiling faintly and then fading away.

Then, there was a great cry from the middle of the crowd, Gawain�s cry. �You�re alive?! Everyone! Our Queen is alive!!�

Cuchulainn smiled faintly and attempted to move through everyone to see the newly resurrected queen, but found it most difficult. A few of his own men pulled him away and laughed joyously as they started singing about the defeat of the great king, picking him up as though he were nothing and parading him away from the crowd. He laughed heartily, happy that things had gone at least somewhat aright.

Gawain laughed and held his aunt close, rocking back and forth. �We were so worried for you, Aunt Arturia. We thought for certain you had died!�

�She did! But she came back to us!� cried Bedivere happily.

Arturia didn�t have the strength to tell them about her bizarre adventure, so she resigned herself to being hugged and stroked and kissed by her comrades and her nephews. She sort of felt like a child being paraded about by happy parents who had always wanted one. For the first time, she felt genuinely happy inside.

When she dressed herself, she was greeted in the main hall of her castle by all the men that she had fought with. Keirnan and his wife Ada stood side by side near the fire, snuggling against each other for warmth. Keirnan�s sister was nearby, talking with some of her men. The Welsh commander was bandaged up and laughing, speaking in Welsh to his men as the Irishmen spoke avidly. She wondered where the blue haired young man had been, who had been weeping and singing for her, for she didn�t see him in the hall. The men all turned to her and cried out as one, hurrying over to her and congratulating her on the victory, calling her genius for using the wasteland folk as a barrier for which Gilgamesh would be too repulsed to go near. It had only been a portion of her plan, but not all of it.

She finally caught a name floating about, the Irish in awe of their fair commander Cuchulainn who turned their hearts and sent them straight in as he too rushed in. So her Irish commander that she had met was indeed the famous Cuchulainn? But didn�t Fergus and Conochbar both say he was her age?

She frowned as she listened to them chatter away, but finally had to go to the kitchen to find something to eat as the men had all already eaten. Merlin came in then and watched her. �You were dead,� he said.

The cook looked from between Arturia and Merlin and smiled faintly. �Ah, she came back, though, just like our lord Jesus, a bit, aye?� said the older woman with a grin. Merlin chuckled and Arturia simply stared at her in confusion as she saw that the joke was at least received by Merlin. Then, she went off to cook Arturia something simple to eat.

�As I said, you were dead,� said Merlin again, though softer this time, watching his pupil.

Arturia looked away from him. �I was near death, but Avalon saved me.�

�No, you were dead. Avalon healed the body as you were not fully gone, but you were dead.� Arturia looked up at him as he spoke and he sighed. �What sort of dream did you have?�

�I� dreamt of a man� death� telling me it wasn�t my time. I saw the men gathered around me and joined my body,� she said.

He sighed again and shook his head. �Truly, humans only see what they want to see,� he muttered and left. Indeed, she had only spoken part of what she saw, for she wasn�t certain of what she saw. All she knew was that the entire world seemed somehow a great deal bigger when she saw what she saw.

There was a bang of the main doors opening and the Irishmen all started calling out to the person who had walked in suddenly. She walked out quickly and saw Conochbar, covered in snow and panting. �He came? Hold on, one at a time! Who said he had come?� said Conochbar frantically to one of his countrymen.

�The hound, he came and he fair tore up the field!� laughed one of the men.

�Aye! And then he went into his war spasm and ripped them apart!� called another.

Conochbar seemed shocked at the last one. Arturia watched him carefully as she walked toward him slowly. �Where is he now?�

�He left! When he saw that the little queen had come back to us from the dead, he smiled and then just left!� said an older man.

�He said he was going back to train more,� called another.

Arturia frowned. So the hound went back before greeting her properly? She didn�t find it terribly rude, however, since she did interrupt his training to plead for his participation in the battle. She walked to Conochbar and smiled faintly at him. �King Conochbar, it is good to see you. Thank you for the men you sent to me. They were indeed needed, every single one. Especially Cuchulainn.�

Conochbar stuttered for a moment before smiled sheepishly at her. �Ah, yes, you�re welcome, Queen Arturia.� He bowed and looked to his men as they all grinned. Arturia smiled faintly and went on back to the kitchen.

When next she saw Conochbar, he was far more collected and was telling her that trouble was brewing in Ulster, that Cuchulainn�s chosen bride was being forced to marry someone else while the boy was away and that all the men refused her hand after they realized she was the one that Cuchulainn was choosing to marry. Her father finally locked her up and told her to never leave and this was distressing him for he knew there would be a battle when Cuchulainn came back from Skye to claim his bride.

Arturia listened and frowned faintly, somewhat confused. Why would Conochbar still call the man �boy� when he was old enough to be Conochbar�s age? What was this war spasm that she heard the men say Cuchulainn went into on the battle field?

Everything was so confusing and she didn�t feel like trying to question the man, for he had worse troubles on his hands. Nobles fighting was a foul thing to try to calm, especially over marital affairs.

And so, she left him to his meal and let him sleep in her castle for the night. In the morning, Conochbar left with his men, the Welsh lord left with his men and the Sinclairs and MacLeods left as well. Soon, all was quiet at Camelot. The people in the village celebrated their brave queen for her rallying up the forces of all of the four kingdoms and defeating their greatest foe yet to date. Arturia allowed a small celebration to be held in her castle for her knights and soldiers. She did give a ceremony to actually knight her knights during the celebration. Gawain, Agravaine, Gaheris and Bedivere were her four knights that would start her counsel of knights.

She commissioned a wood worker to build a table that would be round for her counsel chamber, where her knights would be equal to her so she might better judge each situation they would discuss, and so she received the table soon after the celebration.

Gawain looked upon the table with narrowed eyes. �Why is it�. Round?�

�No head and no end. Everyone has a say as everyone will be equal to me,� said Arturia.

Bedivere was very pleased by his queen. �Our lady is intelligent, Gawain, very smart and clever indeed.�

Gawain snorted and touched the table. �Equal to the queen, eh? So we get a say in all things?�

�Yes. I wanted my knights to be closer to me than the soldiers. That was why I was so selective of you four. Agravaine and Gaheris bring to me great joy as do Bedivere and Gawain. All have minds that are different from the others and all have opinions I wish to know.� She sat down in her place and placed her chin on her hands. �Here, we will be better judges of what we should do should such a problem exist that we must come here to discuss it.�

Bedivere smiled warmly toward his queen and sat down next to her. �I am glad to serve you, Queen Arturia. You are brave on the battlefield and in practice; you show a good mind when plotting a battle and think far ahead your enemy.�

Arturia blushed faintly and looked away. �I�m glad you think so, Bedwyr.�

Once again, Arturia had used his true name, a sign of affection toward him he felt, for she only did it when she wanted to be more personal toward him. Gawain sat on the other side of her and grinned. �My cousin is smart because she doesn�t have the same dad as mum does,� he chuckled.

�Gawain, you should be nicer toward your grandfather. My father was a cruel, selfish man, someone I hope to never be,� said Arturia. �Be thankful for your lineage, for it is a good one.�

Gawain eyed his aunt with a soft expression and nodded. He remembered the night when she slept in his home. He remembered her huddled under the blankets, whimpering for her mother to gaze upon her, knowing she wouldn�t. His mother had been loved because she was the child of his grandfather. His aunt, however, had been shunned and he had not known about her until he had inquired about his mother�s other siblings and then had to coax out that Arturia was indeed his aunt from another man who forced himself upon his grandmother with the appearance of his grandfather.

Bedivere watched Gawain for a moment, narrowing his pale eyes at the nephew of his queen. Gawain was a hard one to judge, for his valor was true, but he could be careless. He also put up the visage of a happy-go-lucky young man while things brewed inside of him that never let anyone know. Something had occurred the night when they stayed at Cannick manor and Bedivere knew that it had something to do with Gawain being in Arturia�s room while she slept. He had seen the young man leave when he looked out of his room to find who had entered Arturia�s. The look on the young man�s face was a serious one, one of pity and of sadness. What had he heard or seen while he was inside his aunt�s room?

When things began to settle down, Arturia�s true job started. She started ruling over diputes among her villagers, her nobles and her soldiers. She did the various jobs that a king would have to do and did it with all of her being. She had been groomed since a child to become king of all the land and so she did exactly that.

The people, outraged that their king had run from a battle, were coming to him, near rioting, that he should battle the foreigners again, that they should do what he had set out to do originally, but he could not. The woman kept a leper colony as a barrier to him and that thought alone caused him to quiver. He was immortal until he grew sick or was killed with a weapon so dangerous that nothing could survive it. With that in mind, becoming a leper for thousands of years did not appeal to him at all.

The bound concubines were not very receiving of him, either, for they didn�t want children of a cowardly king. It did not matter, for he hated the lot of them anyway. They were simply a part of the package when he made himself king. He was offered these women to be his wives so he would produce heirs, and he had produced a couple, but they all offended him with their filthy bodies and their horrible personalities. Each one was nasty and didn�t appeal to him at all. None of them were educated, none of them could even rouse his interest except mildly and none of them really was worth the trouble they caused him.

There was one; he had not tried, yet, however. She was a noblewoman from the Far East, China. She was not beautiful beyond his wildest imagination, no, Arturia had been that. She had a rather pointed face that was always frowning. She took more than her fair share of wealth and demanded she had the finest silk to make for her strange clothing. She put her long black hair up in a strange style with ivory and ebony combs laced with the pearlescent insides of sea shells and dangling beads of red and gold. She kept her hands hidden underneath sheer sleeves of her robes and hid her face from him with a fan or her sleeve whenever he happened to be nearby. The only thing he could ever see of her face on a daily basis were those almond shaped gold eyes of hers, which were the usually narrowed in suspicion toward the people around her. She had been an offering from the emperor of China to him to show his support of Gilgamesh being such a strong king.

He didn�t even remember her name. He only knew her at first glance because she was so obviously hard to miss. None of the other women dressed in such clothes as hers, none of them put their hair up in such wild ways. The other women ranged in the way they dressed. The more conservative ones, most likely coming from families of the old religion, dressed from head to toe with long veils over their hair and clothing that showed very little skin, but did seem pretty with the patterning on them. The others were usually dressed in little clothing, their hair unbound and uncovered and wearing the finest gold they could buy with the money they had for allowances. He himself wore very little usually, wearing a white or red or blue cloth around his waist that he would belt with a gold belt. His chest was usually bare and was covered in red lines that were his tattoos from when he ruled Babylon before.

He was fairly apathetic to the concerns of the people, as well, when they came to him to sort out differences of opinion and take payment as well as many other things that had to do with ruling a country. His advisors would take over, as they wanted to in the first place, and he would go into his room and sulk.

It was on a rather odd day for him, deciding that he should just walk the halls of his palace to rid his head of his terrible defeat against the forces of the Briton countries, that he saw the strange concubine from China opposite of him in the hall. He eyed her with annoyance and crossed his arms over his well muscled chest. She beckoned him with an unveiled hand. He saw her nails were rather long, though not overly so. �What is it, concubine?�

She hid her face behind a fan and beckoned him silently once more, gold bangles on her wrist showed she had indeed begun to assimilate some of his country�s culture, for they were locally made. He had seen the same design on all his concubines. He walked toward her and towered over her imperiously. �What is it you want?� he said, unamused by her being so silent.

She took his hand and blushed faintly as she did so, pulling him down the hall. He let her lead him to what seemed to be her room before he snapped his arm away from her. �What is it you want from me, woman?� he growled.

She moved to the door to close it and lock it, but he slapped the fan from her hand angrily and pulled her away from the door. He closed it himself and leaned against it with her against him so she wouldn�t be able to move. �Stop with that blasted fan. I hate not seeing someone�s face when they look at me!�

She looked up at him indignantly, glaring much like Arturia glared at him, cold and doll like. He blinked at her in surprise. His concubine and the woman he wanted to marry were rather similar in their dour expressions, except hers was more sour than cold. She was indeed very pale skinned and her face was not beautiful, but pleasant enough. Her ears stuck out slightly, making her resemble a monkey a little. Her face and lips were painted, her face powdered and lips reddened. �Let me lock it, please,� she said, unphased by his show of power.

He raised an eyebrow and let go of her, moving aside slightly so she could get by. What sort of woman could look at him and act as though she were bored to tears and irritated he wasn�t following her orders? The only one that had come to mind was Arturia and she was thousands of miles away. She locked the door behind him and moved away, moving to pick up her fan.

�I said don�t hide your blasted face behind that fan again. I want to see your face when you speak to me,� he said.

She picked it up and stowed it away inside her robe. She then calmly looked at him and clasped her hands together under the overly long sleeves of her robe. �I have important information for my lord.� With that, she bowed down to the ground, sitting on her knees with her head bowed.

Gilgamesh was surprised by the young woman. She showed much practice in dealing with rulers and groomed to be the wife of a noble with every movement she made. He smirked faintly and relaxed against the door, watching her. �And what could a concubine bound to me have to tell me that would be so important? Having problems with your weird hair?�

She didn�t budge, nor twitch. �You are being conspired against, my lord. Your people loathe you for coming back a failure and call you a coward for not pressing further through the leper colony. I, however, understand why you did not. No one would want to, with that filth in front of them. It would be suicide. We have many lepers in China and they are outcasts as well, kept at the border to keep away from the main cities and keep others from coming in. It is a terrible disease and would cause my lord to fall apart slowly, piece by piece. I do not think I could stand to see my lord suffer such a fate.�

�What is your name, concubine?� asked Gilgamesh, interested now in this young woman.

�Mei,� she said.

�So, tell me, Mei,� he said softly, �What is it you hear whilst you walk through the halls of my palace and in the streets while you shop?�

She looked up at him finally and gazed at him with those gold eyes of hers. �The people have begun to form a resistance group. They whisper in the halls of your own palace, whisper on the street� They are planning on poisoning you at supper, my lord, so that you would be incapacitated. Then, they will come in and behead you and put your head on a pike outside the walls of the palace for the people to throw rotten cabbage at.�

Gilgamesh stiffened and looked around. �Who did you hear this from, Mei?� He pulled her up so she would be closer to him and smelled her. She smelled of something foreign to him, flowers that he had not smelled for many years.

She gazed up at him through her dark lashes. �Your advisors. They are the ones I heard. They will poison your supper and kill you with everyone watching and you will be unable to do anything about them had it not been for me saying something to you, my lord.�

�And why should I believe you, Mei?� he hissed, holding her wrist tighter in his hand. He blinked when he felt something on her arm and pulled her tighter against him, moving her arm up so he could see what he felt. He pushed her long sleeve down as she gave a small protest and saw a contraption that was spring loaded. It held a strange sort of knife on it and he gathered that when she moved her hand a certain way, the knife would dart into her hand and she could then use it. �Now isn�t this interesting. A woman with assassin�s gear. Why should I trust you when you so clearly look as though you were an assassin?�

�It was how I was taught as a child. I was taught the ways of the assassins, using knives and daggers as my main weapons to kill my opponents deftly and with little noise,� she said softly. �You have no reason to trust me after seeing these; however, I do speak the truth.�

�But why would you wish to save my life? Wouldn�t that give you a chance to go back home to your country when I am dead? Especially with the skills you say you have��

�I do not wish to go back, though this place is ugly and repugnant with its overbearing heat and overbearing men,� she said. �However, I have grown,� she said and then paused, blushing faintly and looking away, �to be very fond of my lord. He is beautiful and strong, bold and makes my cheeks grow hot when I see him walking down the hallway. He does not notice me, for I do not usually want to be noticed, however� I have wanted my lord to notice me now for since he came back from that cold north land.�

It was the first time since he had met Arturia that a woman didn�t repulse him like the natives did. She seemed very intelligent with how she spoke and did not flinch at his presence. He lowered his gaze to her painted lips and moved closer, licking them slowly. While he could taste the bitterness of the paint on her lips, he could also taste the tea she had been drinking before coming to see him. She flushed scarlet as he tasted her lips and looked very displeased when he moved her away from him, too confused by his own thoughts. While he wanted to spend the time he was having with her, he needed to deal with the usurping advisors. He smirked when he came up with an idea. �I�ll send word to you when I want you to come to me in my quarters,� he said softly. Then, he gave her his most charming smile and walked out, for some reason feeling a lot better than he had before. The next task was to get rid of his little problem and then he could relax with this very interesting concubine!