The Whumps of March 2024: "Twins"
A series of vignettes based on Arthurian legend, collected on AO3 here.
Morgan had never loved Urien. Years later, she would muse that she never had a chance to. Uther had arranged their marriage. It didn't matter how good of a husband or a man Urien was; Morgan was doomed to hate him. He was one more enemy to fight, one more target for her smoldering resentment.
The twins were her only consolation.
From the first moment that she held them in her arms, it was a shock how much she loved them. Yvain, already rambunctious as a toddler, always trying to prove that he could do what he shouldn't try. Morfydd, gangly and awkward and placid, but with a hint of steel underneath. Each so different, each so wonderful and infuriating and perfect in their own way.
And they were hers. She could see bits of herself in their looks, their personalities, and she could sense, ever so faintly, a bit of her own magical power running through their veins. Her children. It meant so much, when it seemed like nothing in her life was ever truly hers. Each was a balm in her life of loneliness.
And yet, there were bits of Urien in them too. Traits that she loved in isolation, but turned bitter when she remembered where they came from.
She might have made her move sooner, if not for the twins. She knew that Urien's death would hurt them. It made her hate the man more, but it stayed her hand for a while.
And then, when she finally decided to act...as she stood over Urien's sleeping form, prepared at last to end his miserable life, they burst in. Morfydd screamed, Yvain grabbed her hand, and, and, and—
She fled. Soon everyone knew that Queen Morgan had tried to kill her husband, and it wasn't long until they discovered that she was behind Accolon's rebellion and the theft of Excalibur, too.
It was freeing, really. After all these years, she no longer had to play nice with Urien or Arthur or any of them.
But her twins, left behind at Garlot...the look of horror on Morfydd's face, and Yvain's rage...
They were her children. So how could they have chosen her enemies over her?
