Alaia Skyhawk: Thanks for all the reviews guys! I appreciate the "welcome back"! Here is part three :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Music:

~(-)~

Chapter 30: Determined Sacrifice ~ Part 3~

The cruel laughter was almost gleeful, as Aelle loomed over the maps before him and took note of the area he now controlled. While it represented but a small part of Albion as a whole, it was equal to any of the largest of the remaining unconquered realms and far more densely populated. With a coastline full of many good harbours, and dominance over most of the trade with the mainland that relied on them, it would take only the smallest of raise in the taxes on such trade to fund his rapidly expanding army.

And few merchants would dare to complain about those taxes, when Aelle's many ships were constantly either patrolling the sea between Albion and the mainland, or ferrying yet more mercenaries from there.

Cissa left his father to his gloating, and returned to his chambers to study the latest reports from the spies he'd sent into the realms around Sussex to judge their reaction to the conquest.

They made for sombre reading, and made him ever more thankful that Morgana was keeping him up-to-date with the fates of the surviving Prince and Princess of Sussex. He honestly viewed that as the only thing keeping him sane at this particular juncture, what with his father's brutality back in full force and worse than he'd ever witnessed it.

The past months in Kent, when this invasion had been in its planning stages, Aelle had seemed almost reasonable much of the time. It had kindled the hope Cissa had of turning his father back from his doom when the 'key moment of fate' Morgana had described arrived. The point where all realms would unify with Camelot, but before Aelle's death was assured. Seeing the man laughing at the rotting corpse of Sussex's defeated former king, had once again raised the shadowy spectre of concern that Aelle would charge right past that critical point before his son could stop him.

And it seemed the surrounding realms were just as concerned, for a thickening line of patrols was forming along the entire border of the area that Aelle now controlled. Enough so that Cissa's spies now heavily relied on the charms he had requested from Morgana. Charms that allowed the wearer to slip by the notice of others so long as they didn't make themselves too obvious.

He needed the information, he couldn't maintain his place of respect without it. If only the fact he could still get informants through those patrol lines in these circumstances didn't bloat his father's confidence even more.

He was fighting a losing battle with his father's fate, and after nearly two years of trying to steer things he was starting to truly realise it.

Cissa entered his temporary chambers, here in the castle that stood over Sussex's capital. Moving to the window, he gazed out over the city and its surrounding farmland. The pastures had been commandeered as camp grounds for the part of Aelle's army that had accompanied him this far, and a number of crop fields had been trampled over as well. Fragile spring shoots crushed before they could mature. There would be lean times for the local farmers this year, if they couldn't get replacement crops into the ground soon.

Everything about this seemed such a waste, and all for the ego and desires of one man. And the more and more Cissa thought about this campaign and its aftermath, the more he realised his family were strangers to him.

He took a shuddering breath as he backed away from the windows to go sit at the nearby desk, heartsick and on the edge of denial. Aithusa had given him the initial hope of saving his father, Morgana had supported that hope by telling him it would only be possible once the path of fate had tipped towards Albion's unification behind Arthur, but now...

Now he found himself wishing to save his father less and less with every passing day, as it became more and more apparent just what a monster Aelle was. And the conquests had barely begun, it would take at least several more to cause the cascade.

Cissa picked up one of his quill-pens and started taking notes from the latest reports, a cold resolve beginning to settle over him. Not enough to quell his sense of guilt for the path his thoughts were now taking, or his guilt at making this decision.

That as long as Aelle remained as he was, a man who would desecrate and discard the remains of a king who had made such a noble and determined sacrifice to spare his people, then he wasn't worth saving from his doomed fate...

...And that he, his son, was now the one most likely to act the moment he had the chance to bring that doom crashing down on him.

Cissa clenched his fists, the quill he held crushed by his grip, as he then curled over and sobbed silently to himself. Grieving as one would when their entire family is lost to them.

-~O~-

Morgana jolted to awareness, her gaze turning in the direction of the castle even as unexpected tears welled from her eyes. A wave of someone else's sorrow washing over her, as the paths of fate once more shifted before her Sight.

Aelle's path remained unchanged, as did those of Wlencing and Cymen, marching onwards towards their doom beneath Arthur and Merlin's destiny... But Cissa's position had changed.

He now stood with her, symbolically in the background of the events playing out. No longer an active and true ally of his father. Taking part only as much as he had to, providing assistance only to speed his family down their path. His loyalty shattered.

And it was with that realisation that Morgana's tears became her own, and not just an echo of those she knew Cissa currently shed. For his hope of saving his father had been crushed far sooner than she had ever expected, and now he suffered a pain she had hoped to spare him as long as possible. And now he would need her help more than ever, not for his spies, but for his regrets at giving up on his family.

She had gone through the torture that was to be utterly and emotionally broken, and she would do everything in her power to spare him from breaking the same way. On this path where he had now sacrificed his feelings for his family in the name of his belief in the future Arthur and Merlin would bring.

And in that they were now both the same. Two souls who had given up dreams made impossible by fate. Even more, they would now stand together.

-~O~-

Alaia Skyhawk: Gah this episode really was so freaking depressing! I really need to give Cissa a hug, because while he's made his decision he's not going to forgive himself for it for a long time.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this one. I've got new shifts at work now, so maybe it'll be easier for me to set a time I can work on a bit of writing each week. No set timescale for the next "episode", but I certainly don't intend it to be a long as this one took!