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Alexei stood at the back of those assembled, staring at the ground with hollow eyes. This was his fault; he should have gone and found one of the other Great Knights, just like Lancelot said. Doling out his own justice, however righteous it felt, was completely wrong. Now Percival was dead, Morgan was dead (though Morgan was... Morgan was an illusion, Morgan was false from the start.), and the gate was held by the Sidhe.

This could have been prevented. He was foolish for ever doing anything, foolish for being reactionary. Tears began to well up in his eyes; blood was on his hands, and it would stay there for a very long time. The sobs were choked, not allowed to be heard by any surrounding him.

He looked up at the table, staring where Gawain and Percival sat. The thought of sitting in Gawain's seat briefly flashed through his mind before he violently shoved it back; Alexei did not deserve to even be in this crowd surrounding the White Knight.

He wanted to leave, just get away from it all. Let the shadows take him, that was what he deserved. Yet, the will to live was greater than the desire to run from his problems.

Lancelot had asked for a report; and he would give it, despite everything. "I-I was with Gawain when Sir Percival came into the Banquet Hall and told us of what S.. Morgan was doing with the Mirror and the Gate. Gawain led us to the room with the objects, and the three Knights began to have a disagreement . It broke out into a fight, and some of us began to attack each other, or defend one of the three Great Knights. Some of us..." Lex cowed at this point, staring back at the floor and started to mumble. "Some of us attacked the Great Knights. Gawain started acting strangely - Percival cut him down, as Gawain began to attack us all, calling us corrupted."

He, or she, took a shallow breath. "Then the others began to attack and defend Percival and Morgan. Morgan threw down his sword, challenging one of us to kill him if that was what we really wanted. I was angry, and I blamed him for the death of Gawain and the state of the mirror room - so I struck him down."

Alexei backed away at that point, back into the crowd. The rest of what happened was clearly known and seen.

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OOC

My character's name: Lex
Character's journal link: [x]
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER Height, a massive chestnut beard, and a booming laugh equal one Lex Jamil. He is currently a she, no beard, very much a cutie pie.
Rank of character Knight apprentice
Sacred Points obtained: ???/100

zoobey

Escorted in front of Lancelot as they were, with the older knight berating and lecturing them, Wrath knew that he should have felt something. Shame, perhaps, for his actions, or remorse for the deaths of the two...or was that three? Great knights. He did not, however, grieve for them. He felt sorry that it had happened, had done what he could, in one case at least, to prevent it. And he was not ashamed of what he had done, how he had, in his own choices, altered the course of events for better or worse, because he had acted as he had thought, at the time, was most reasonable.

He still wasn't sure that he hadn't done what seemed was the right thing at the time. Replaying it over and over again in his head, he could not see how everything Morgan had said didn't make sense, or why anybody would have opposed him.

When others had had their turn to speak, Wrath stepped forward, clearing his throat, eyes scanning the room before going back to Lancelot himself, resting on him and him alone as he began, his voice booming throughout the room.

"I can tell you what happened from my point of view, but it will not give you a clear picture of the whole, for a fear I am not an overly intelligent man and their was likely much that I had overlooked. When Morgan called for us knights who had been fighting against the shadowy creatures to follow him, I saw but little reason to disobey him. He had professed a concern for seals that may have been broken, that, upon arrival, we saw was to be apt. Within moments, he had explained to us the necessity of using the mirror and gate that was held within the room. Percival arrived then, as did Gawain. They bickered for a time, and then, began to fight. There were those who did not raise arms against either the great knights or their fellow apprentices, and it is those, in my humble opinion, who should be given commendation. All of them." He took pause, then, gathering his thoughts, as scattered as they could often be, before continuing.

"Following Morgan's orders, and what I felt at the time to be the correct course of action, I and some few others, pushed the gate towards the mirror as we had been instructed to do. Others sought to stop us, using weapons against the gate, though in time there was no longer a need, as the gate and mirror came together. At that point, I believe it became obvious that the gate should no longer be touched."

Another pause, a deep breath taken. "It is then that I chose to go to Morgan's aid, defending the great knight against those who, without sound reason, chose to attack him with weapons, instead of using reason. I did not go alone. Na'ima," He sought the woman out in the crowd and pointed her out. "A woman of sharp wit, quick intellect, and, in my opinion, great beauty." He smiled, and winked at her then, "I sought her out for guidance in the matter, and it seemed that we were in agreement. Morgan was the only one that was not behaving in an erratic manner. He had saved many knights, earlier, from being eaten by a great serpent, and it seemed that his reasons for using the mirror were quite sound. We both defended him, as did few others, against an onslaught of attacks from our brethren, who, it seemed, acted out of sheer, blind ambition, and not out of logic."

He stopped again, one last time, before finishing. "I do take full responsibility for my actions, but I am not sorry for a single one of them. If my greatest fault is that I act out of loyalty, than so be it. Better that than the alternative."

Finished, he gave Lancelot a bow, his fist clapped against his heart, before he moved back into the crowd. He chose to leave out the part about Morgan, the mirror, and the butterflies. Many others had already given their version of events, anyways. What mattered most to him was that he let them know, that he let everyone know, that he did only what he felt was right, and that he still stood by those decisions.

Though some may have looked aghast at the snap response that Sir Lancelot was not there, Ignatius had to agree. Lancelot wasn't there. He hadn't seen any of this. That was why he was asking all of them what happened. If he had known what happened, then perhaps he would not have been so upset with a bunch of knight-apprentices who were left in a situation near impossible to navigate.

The protective knight, though, managed to bite his tongue and keep himself from scolding Lancelot for his words, realizing they would be of little use, and the point was already made. Lancelot had heard them. Ignatius didn't need to say anything else.

He needed to know his place, as it were, though he internally bucked against the idea.

Ignatius, in that moment, stepped forward, deciding to add what he could to what had already been said.

"After we helped Percival bring down the draw bridge, Percival led us down to the courtyard, where he left to talk to Gawain. I am not sure what exactly they discussed, but it seemed Gawain had already found out about Morgan's activities at that point. Percival said he had no choice, and that he had to bring us along as well, because Morgan was," he paused, "going to make an extremely foolish decision, as he said."

Ignatius shifted, unable to stop his fidgeting. It was a way to channel his jumpy brain, at best. "It seemed that Morgan's decision was to insist the gate and mirror should be pushed together. Some decided to follow him," he wouldn't name names, that wasn't fair, "and despite the best efforts to either destroy the gate, as Gawain suggested, or stay away and wait for the King, as Percival suggested," and as he had decided to do, "they were pushed together. The mirror absorbed the gate, the joined mirror and gate sunk down, taking some the treasures with it into a hole, and we could see... shadows moving around within the mirror." He bit his lip. Should he mention what he had seen when his eyes caught the mirror? It was personal and frightening, but perhaps he could refer to it in at least a vague manner. "Glancing towards the mirror caused me to see something nightmarish, for me; I don't know if it did for anyone else."

What else should he mention? Ignatius took a moment to pause, tapping his foot, running over the events in his head. "It was at that point some other apprentices were starting to act quite strangely, the ones near Morgan. He seemed quite happy about everything, himself. He kept cackling, even after Percival had to fell Gawain..."

He stood a little straighter, shifting once more. "When the mirror cracked, Percival tried to protect us, telling us to stay back." His leader was a great man, and it was admittedly hard for Ignatius to process what he had seen happen, so he decided not to, instead. "I think it was Morgana's intention for everything to happen as it had." Ignatius let out a small sigh. "After she was pulled through the gate and sent shadows out to Percival, she left. With the gate."

After that, he bowed his head respectively to Sir Lancelot, and went to rejoin the rest of the crowd.

"Beg pardon, Sir Lancelot, but I have something I would like to say", Kari called out, trying to keep her composure despite how a corner of her mind wanted to vent out her frustrations that everything had gone so horribly wrong. Damien had been overly emotional in his explanation, but Kari honestly couldn't find fault in his words. Sir Lancelot hadn't been there, so who could say whether or not he would have succumbed as well. Kari certainly wouldn't have believed Sir Gawain had fallen had she not seen if for herself. "While I agree that some people might not have made the best decisions, we only did what we thought was the best in the midst of the chaos. Yes, it may not have been right, but we were adapting to a bad situation. While I was in the Treasure Room... it felt like there were forces at work, something beyond our control or comprehension, that was the driving force behind the horrific events that transpired. Sir Morgan, Sir Gawain, and Sir Percival all fell into that madness alongside the other knights by attacking one another. Our three Great Knights, the three who were supposed to lead and guide us, were among those who lost themselves. I'm unclear as to what you would expect of us other than to use our own discretion when our leaders were no longer viable models for appropriate action."

She felt she needed to say it no matter how out of line it seemed. They had all contributed, yet it seemed pointless to lay blame now. She deeply felt that something had been manipulating the group from the shadows, which seemed quite possible in the midst of Morgan's betrayal. In that, she felt that Sir Lancelot's words were too rash. "If you still feel that we could have done better even given our circumstances, and really feel the need to punish those who took the actions they thought most prudent at the time, then...", Kari took a steadying breath as she did what she thought was right, "...then you should punish people like me, as well, who did nothing to stop the proceedings. When our three Great Knights began attacking one another, rather than join the fight or try to stop anyone, I left the Treasure Room hoping to seek the council of others who were still of sound mind. In a way, I retreated from a battle that I felt was not my place to fight, which may very well be considered a sin of itself."

"I'm not asking you to forget the tragedy that occurred here, I just ask that you listen to our reasoning before condemning our actions.", she finished, hoping that her words were enough to convince Sir Lancelot to consider their situation before making a decision on what was right or wrong.

"We're meant to be knights." Ollie was neither composed nor easy-going: he was only a youngster of fifteen or sixteen, perhaps, and it showed in the unwisely combative posture, in the furious tugging of dark brows together in the middle of his forehead, and in the slightly-too-high-pitched tone of his voice. He was young and he was frustrated, because no matter what any of them had done, it hadn't helped. No matter how hard they'd tried to follow instructions or make their own decisions.

"What are knights supposed to do, just stand around and watch while a big fight goes on?" He also wasn't eloquent, nor terribly bright. He jerked his shoulders in a frustrated way and thrust his chin out, four-foot-eleven but making the absolutely most of it. He didn't quite go up on tiptoes, but don't think he didn't consider it.

"We're supposed to take action, and in this case, there was some kind of craziness with a mirror and a gate and monsters and no one could tell us what was going on. You say we should have come and gotten you but where were you? Why weren't you here?" He sniffed a bit, just a bit of the aggressiveness going out of his pose as he melted, just a bit, back toward nervous teenager: half-turning in place to survey those around him and realizing all at once that they didn't all agree. Oh well: they didn't need to. He was who mattered in his own mind.

And Galahad, a bit.

Ollie bit his lip, folding arms over his chest in a protective way, and he knew full well that he probably should have retreated to the courtyard to help his pledged knight with the cleanup duty, but he'd picked a fight and it was too late to run off now. "We're here to fight, so tell us who to fight."

Being scolded by her leader made Nkosazana instinctively wince, but all the same, she deserved it. She had failed to save Gawain. She had failed to save Percival. She had failed to prevent the gate and the mirror from joining. The only thing she had managed to do was save some poor souls in the Great Hall, and while that was certainly important, she had failed to stop the Camelot-shaking events that had happened in that deep part of the castle.

Her shoulders shrunk in, and she looked down, wondering what she could possibly offer to Lancelot in any way. She certainly could not commend anyone for anything--Nkosazana simply did not know anyone well enough to make any attempt in that manner. And what could she possibly offer to Lancelot aloud that other, much braver souls, had not already offered? He certainly had been able to decipher the events by now. She certainly could.

Nkosazana shivered, crossing her arms and pushing them closer to her body like she was cold.

As she listened to the others, Nkosazana pondered if there was anything she could add to this, at all, that could be useful to anyone. Was she capable of being useful, still? Perhaps she should just lock herself away in an infirmary and stay there. She wasn't meant to be a knight. This was not the place for her.

It struck her, though, that perhaps something had not been mentioned, and with Mordred being missing...

Shyly, Nkosazana attempted to get Lancelot's attention, speaking up when she was certain she had gotten it. "I was with Sirs Gawain and Percival, in the Great Hall, when Mordred arrived. He looked quite worn out, and his clothing was torn, and he had a head wound." She gestured to her head where she could remember Mordred bleeding, before she lowered her hands to wring them nervously. "He wanted to go with Gawain and Percival, but Percival told him to tend to his injuries...

So Mordred went to rest, and Percival and Gawain led us down to where you all found us..."

After that, Nkosazana went quiet, attempting to blend back into the crowd.

Yuki was honestly at a loss of how he should have felt.

There was a sense of dread of what was to come, of course. There was the fear that without Percival and Gawain everything would be immensely more difficult and... What if they couldn't defend the castle without them?

He did not mourn Morgan. The only regret that he had was that he had been unconscious when the man met his end. In result he'd failed to witness so much more. The Queen Sidhe, Morgana's release... Percival's grisly end... He'd awakened to the shock thereafter, pain, and to a brand on his body that he had yet to figure out. The unnatural burn on his skin was hidden under his clothing, his shoulder wrapped where his arrow wound had been tended to. It was strange that the brand would be so uncomfortable, when his shoulder barely hurt anymore at all.

But he hadn't mentioned it to either of his friends, and he was in and out of his senses when he was being mended after the incidents in the treasure room.

Despite believing that he was in the right, attacking only Morgan, it still made Yuki uneasy to witness how angry Lancelot was. Should he have acted of his own will against Morgan? Was it the wrong thing to do? If he had gone for aid instead, maybe the battle would have ended faster. Fewer would have been lost. Perhaps Percival and Gawain wouldn't have been killed, the Sihde Queen still without the gate, and everything would have still been safe.

There were many within the hall, and Yuki wanted to find Jason and Riley. Last he had seen the young woman, she was unconscious and neither of them were in good shape. Jason, he hoped, had more easily recovered from any physical or emotional damage he had sustained.

When he saw Riley, it was when she was approaching Lancelot, and with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, he'd tried to edge his way closer to hear what she had to say.

While he hadn't pressed in close enough to hear her every word, he arrived in the moment to hear his own name, which confused him, and the words that followed had his heart leaping into his throat. 'My death?' Why was she speaking as though she was about to die? Missing the entire point of her words, although he still would have been likely to respond similarly either way, he hurriedly stepped up to kneel at her left side.

It might have looked like he was kneeling to the Great Knight Lancelot, perhaps as if he were about to speak, but instead the only thing he did was circle his arms around Riley's shoulders and sought to pull her to her feet.

"What are you doing?" He whispered, quiet but firm. "Get up... Please."

Maybe she was still shaken. In shock. She didn't need to break down in front of the Great Knight that she followed, and Yuki certainly wasn't about to let her believe that she deserved execution.

Jason was tired, battered, but he stood there solemnly and listened to what Sir Lancelot had to say, knowing what the Great knight was saying was true. He had acted foolishly, attacking the gate and then doing nothing when he could have done something to stop this tragedy, or perhaps saved Riley from having to experience something so horrible.

Keeping his head down cast, he listened to others, only looking up when he heard Riley step up. It hurt to hear her speak so lowly of herself, and when he heard her request to take her life he couldn't just say nothing.

Clearly Yuki had the same idea, as he saw him step up as well, even going so far as to kneel in front of him. Quietly he stepped towards them as well, trying to not let his nerves get the better of him. He could see Yuki try to pull Riley down from his position, so he chose to speak to the great knight, bowing low and then raising his head.

"S-sir Lancelot." He closed his eyes in frustration at his own timid voice, then spoke a little louder. "Sir Lancelot. I know it is not my place to say. B-but I would like to request leniency. M-Morgana is a powerful foe, and I would imagine her ability to trick others into doing her biding would have been more then what many could resist. H-had she not fooled everyone into believing she was worthy of being the Red Knight Morgan?"

He then continued. "I would also like to commend Yuki's actions. He was one of the few who doubted Morgana from the start, and when he sought to take down Sir Percival and Sir Gawain Yuki fought with everything he had, even refusing to fight others who had clearly been possessed and seeking to hurt him."