Galahad claimed the right to confront King Morpheus on his own and no one would disagree or attempt to stop him for all saw his passion for the encounter was so great. After all, he had earned the right to finally dethrone the King, it was his hope and faith that got them all to this point after all. 

The gates to Castle Phantasm were already open as if inviting Galahad in and he did not hesitate to enter. Through the main hall he went and finally into the throne room that he remembered, revered and once loved. It was now lined with black cloth everywhere and the once beautiful statues and paintings we defaced and horrible. The chamber was lit with sooty torches adding to the depression of the place. At the far end was Morpheus and the casket of Ionia as Galahad had seen her the week before.

Galahad released his sword and approached the Dread Dicator who did nothing at all to oppose him. As Galahad drew near Morpheus started to giggle. He explain that Ionia was not dead, but rather sustained by Morpheus’s exquisite malice and hate, and that if he should die, then the sad Queen of Tears would die too. Galahad did not believe him and Morpheus removed the high collar from around his neck. Beneath was a cut from ceratoid to jugular exactly as was on Ionia. The cut was not deep but it was dramatic and he explained that the two were joined, for how else could she be his Queen of Tears otherwise? Still Galahad did not believe.

With that Morpheus unsheathed a trifle of a dagger, not much more that a simple eating knife, and cut the palm of his hand. With that blood welled up under Ionia’s had too. The two were indeed linked, Galahad could not kill one without killing the other.

Furious, Galahad swung his sword and brought it down on the throne of King Morpheus, spreading the sac cloth, charred bones and rotting hides all over the raised dais, but he did not touch the Foul Despot. Morpheus scrambled away from Galahad, his righteous anger hurting him by proximity.

Galahad was at a lose of what to do. He had already lost Ionia once, or thought he had, and to loose her again would be torture. But he could not let the evil king live either, could he? But he had to.

He called for his brothers to come and shackle, gag, and bind Morpheus and take him to the tower that once housed Ionia. He then bade that minstrels should come and play happy tunes and bring him wholesome and good food to eat. Galahad decreed that Morpheus should always have gladness around him, thereby torturing him all his days until he was a changed man and could be trusted or agreed to break the spell over Ionia. Galahad was not above some retribution, and this was fitting.

Eventually, as the gladness of Galahad invaded Morpheus, the spell on Ionia weakened and she would wake will Morpheus would sleep. The cuts healed and soon she was the maiden of gladness once again.

Galahad was right in his belief that Ionia was the one woman for him in all the land and before long the two were wed. But though they were happy and their house was always light and joyous, they were never graced with children. All thought this was one last curse from the dread Morheus.

The Land and Skye cleared and returned to former glory and health. The people were again contented and the harvests were bountiful. In all ways the realm was returning to health. But the land did not have a king.

The people offered to Galahad the throne of the Land, for it was only he who had the faith and courage to finally fight for the good of the Land and the people, but Galahad refused. He was the people champion, not their ruler. And with that the knights formed a counsel to ruler the land until a rightful heir could be found.

Many years later, Morpheus escaped from his dark tower in the castle and no posse was sent to find him. Honestly, the guard had grown weary of watching him and the spell with Ionia so faint that is really did her no harm.

No land was perfect, and with Morpheus loose this was certainly the case. But the flaw can be so small that is not noticed. So tha land lived on and all the people were happy.

To the reader:

This was a great experiment for me. As some of you may know, I am a wannabe writer, but when I write my science fiction it is heavy with dialog. I have been told that I write very good dialog, and knowing that, I wanted to try something different. With this short story, I have used exclusively narrative to tell the story as you may find in a traditional fairy tale. For me this was not easy. So many times I wanted to slip into dialog to help things along, so many times I had to force myself not to.

There was also another reason for this story. That was as an illustration to another members of our little community of what perseverance could bring and that to be rescued may not be a bad thing. That if one has faith in ones self, can look beyond the hardships, and keep an eye on the future, incredible things can be done by the power of your own will. If you want it bad enough, you can make anything happen.

Along the way I have showered the story with many allusions, iconography, parables, and symbology to help it along, some of it on point, some of it as side comments. Like much of my writing, there are deeper messages written within.

This is also the fastest I have ever written anything of this scale (and when I say scale I include the depth of meaning and not just the word count.) It is, as presented, largely unedited and I am sure that the technically minded amongst our readers will find that there are tense problems, word meaning errors, typos and assorted other maladies that to be honest with you I have a hard time correcting myself.

Do I plan on continuing the story of Galahad, Ionia, and King Morpheus? I doubt it. I think this story will stand alone and I will leave it at that. Would I rewrite this as a longer story, with more description and complete dialog? Maybe. There are a lot of things about this story I like and there are elements that I am not happy with and maybe a rewrite could help, but then again, maybe not.

So for now I am going to let it rest. I have a lot of other stories to tell in my more serious writing (Truth Inc., Levis’ New Genes, Sands of Time, Celestial Mechanics For Hire, etc.) that I may not have time to get back to it. On top of that there is my “Tower” series that I want to write, Forces of Reath (a least 4 or 5 volumes, and big ones at that) that took me twenty years to tell and I would bet that it will take me twenty years to write. I have a lot on my plate, we’ll see where it all leads me and if I can get back to it.