Politics.

Rissa hated dealing with it, but as the uncrowned High King, she had to. They weren’t even real politics! At least, they weren’t the politics of the outside world. Rissa complained to Serenity a few times, though most of the politics seemed to pass as a slightly unreal time; Serenity wasn’t certain if that was the fact that he was a sword or if it was the dungeon abridging the parts that weren’t part of its main plot.

Sir Ector and the Archbishop shepherded her through the first few days, until Emrys arrived. The Archbishop called him Merlin Emrys. Neither Rissa nor Serenity were surprised, somehow; he seemed like he was the Merlin of the story. He seemed even more the Merlin when he started teaching her by turning her into animals. It didn’t seem to match the lessons in either the T. H. White or Disney versions (at least, she didn’t remember a sheepdog), but it was still similar.

She could talk to Serenity during those lessons, which helped. :How long do you think we’ve been in the dungeon? I know you told Jacob it could take a couple days, but it’s been weeks, hasn’t it?:

:I don’t think it has. Consider how often you were making decisions and how often there were simply things you “knew happened”. Which scenes are clear?: Serenity was calm and reassuring. :Only the things you had choices in matter; the rest is stage-setting. It’s like you being a child; that’s temporary. Story dungeons are strange; I know there were people who thought none of it was real, because that’d be far cheaper than changing everything, yet it can affect things on the outside sometimes … things you learn or do.:

Rissa concentrated on rounding up the last of the straying sheep. :What am I supposed to learn from this?:

:Probably something about kindness and caring for others. Or being strong in a group.: Serenity sounded uncertain. :It’s hard to be certain, since people don’t always see the intended message. As for time … I think we’re still under a day. Probably.:

When they returned to the castle, Kay had “Ari” come to a training area for fighting practice. He first made her practice with a wooden sword, but after an interminable period swinging a wooden sword at a dummy, he had her pick up “Caliburn”. “You need to know what swinging a real sword is like. Try it against the dummy for a bit, then we’ll spar.”

Caliburn - Serenity - was far lighter than the wooden practice sword. Rissa doubted that was true of other swords; it was probably because Serenity didn’t really have a blade. He was manufacturing it out of magic, which was far lighter than metal. In the dungeon, it looked like a real blade, but Rissa knew it looked like ever-changing light normally.

As she swung, Serenity corrected her movements. :Relax. You’re slowing yourself down by being tense. You need to move only the muscles that are needed-:

Rissa’s body moved smoothly through the motion Serenity was trying to teach; she didn’t feel like she was the one in control, but she could feel every bit of the movement; Serenity’s words made more sense as motion than they had as words. :You can guide me? That helps a lot.:

:Apparently?: Serenity sounded confused. :That felt like I was moving myself.:

Rissa’s lack of movement wasn’t missed by Kay. “Done over there? Come here, let’s see how well you picked up the movements.”

At first, it was rough. Rissa had to start with only her own skill since neither she nor Serenity was certain how to replicate what he’d done to help her. Even without that, though, having Serenity call out things she needed to notice or even simply the pattern she was trying to perform made it far easier.

Kay acted like the dummy to begin with, parrying or blocking her strikes. He called out changes he wanted her to make, then started telling her which strike to use. Rissa relaxed as she followed the directions; she didn’t have to think about what she was doing next, so she could concentrate on simply doing each strike as best she could.

“Good. Stop now.” Kay stepped back and Rissa lowered her sword into the “guard” position he’d shown her. “Now we’re going to spar. I’ll keep it slow; this is just to get you used to what you need to do. You can use anything you know; it doesn’t have to be something we practiced today.”

Rissa decided she might as well start at the beginning, with the first attack Kay had shown her. She started to move and she felt Serenity correcting her posture and motion; they were all tiny corrections, but when she followed his guidance, it felt easier and more natural.

Kay parried the attack, then slowly swung his sword at her. Rissa belatedly recognized it as an attack that was easily blocked by something else Kay had shown her, but as she started to move she found her body had moved ahead of her.

The spar continued. By the time Kay said they were done, Rissa was exhausted.

Serenity celebrated, and he insisted on telling Rissa about it. He’d handed control over to Rissa repeatedly, and she’d improved faster than almost anyone he’d ever taught, including herself when he’d taught her previously. It had to be because she could feel exactly what she needed to do; replicating it wasn’t easy, but at least she wasn’t practicing it wrong.

The days blurred together, with only a few isolated moments of clarity. Rissa knew Kay was continuing to teach her, but she couldn’t really remember anything specific other than “we went out and trained”. Merlin’s tutoring about the political situation was similar; only the times when he’d take her on fun shapeshifting adventures really stood out.

Rissa liked being a hawk. Flying was awesome.

Rissa didn’t like being a minnow. For all that swimming seemed like it should be like flying, it wasn’t the same. Being surrounded by thousands of other minnows didn’t help.

Eventually, Coronation Day arrived. People -well, nobles - had been arriving for weeks, but that didn’t really matter to Rissa. What mattered was that both Serenity and her were expecting something to try to stop the coronation. There had to be a reason the story wasn’t over yet.

They hadn’t seen anything more of the raven or Mim. Rissa was certain it would be one of those, maybe both.

Rissa wasn’t supposed to wear a weapon for the coronation itself. Arguments about protection hadn’t worked at all; after all, she was surrounded by actual knights, but since the sword was her proof of legitimacy, she managed to talk the Archbishop into allowing her to have it displayed near her.

As the ceremony began, she expected something to happen. Nothing did. She would have preferred if something did happen; the ceremony was scheduled for the entire day.

As she was thinking that, she looked up towards the cathedral ceiling. She’d never noticed the carved raven on the-

It wasn’t a carved raven. Why had she thought that even for a moment?

She warned Serenity about it, then kept an eye on it as much as she could. There wasn’t anything else she could do; the only person who might take her concerns seriously was Emrys, and he wasn’t present for the coronation; he’d said he’d meet her afterwards. She hoped he’d show up if something happened.

The final part of the ceremony was a reenactment of pulling the sword from the stone, followed by the crowning. When she walked out into the churchyard and stuck Serenity back in the stone, everything was fine, even if the raven was back on the gate.

As Serenity finished sliding into the stone, the raven made a loud, harsh noise. Rissa whipped around and stared at it.

For once, everyone else seemed to have heard the raven as well. Much of the crowd was looking towards the entrance when the already-open gates clanged against the fencing. It should have been a dramatic entrance.

It probably would have been if the person entering had been anyone other than a short, fat old woman dressed in eye-searing pinkish-purple.

Mim seemed happy with the attention she was getting, but it didn’t stop her from yelling as loud as she could. “Artura Pendragon, if I’d known it was YOU that asked me for help that day, you’d have gotten something OTHER than my assistance!”

Mim’s voice was far louder and angrier than before. She must be boosting the volume somehow; the people near her were scattering with their hands over their ears.

Rissa could only look on in amazement. Telling her to get in a cage before dinner was assistance?

Mim screamed towards Rissa, “You will get what I should have given to your father, if he hadn’t run like a coward and hidden behind his falcon!”

What did she even mean by that?

Mim’s form began to stretch and deform. The few who hadn’t run yet scattered, screaming about a witch as they ran. The only people left in the churchyard were Ari, four knights, and the Archbishop.

The Archbishop clearly could not do much about Mim, but he quickly muttered “bless you my children” as he sketched the sign of the cross.

Rissa pulled Serenity back out of the stone, then turned back to Mim. She’d finished changing shape.

She was now a purple dragon.

She looked almost exactly like the version from the Disney animation and almost nothing like Serenity. She even stood - or sat - on her hind legs instead of getting on all four limbs like a normal dragon.

The one thing she wasn’t, however, was even half as whimsical as the version from the Disney animation, and there wasn’t a Merlin to distract her. Mim took a deep breath, dripping with fire, and Rissa called out “Scatter! She’s going to-”

The fire was already heading towards them. The knights did exactly as Rissa suggested, but the Archbishop didn’t move. Rissa turned to him and tried to pick him up, but he was far too heavy.

“We’ll be fine, young Pendragon.” The Archbishop smiled at her while holding a hand out towards Mim. “God’s power is not so easily overcome in his own yard.”

The fire splashed off an invisible barrier in front of the pair.

“Now you go out and slay your dragon. I’ll be fine back here.” The Archbishop smiled and gestured for Rissa to move.

At least that was one person she didn’t have to worry about.

Rissa charged out into the center of the yard. The ground was hot where the dragonfire burned it, so she moved onto the unburnt ground. Kay and Ector came at the dragon from one side, while two knights she didn’t immediately recognize came at her from the other.

“Keep her busy!” Kay yelled towards Rissa. “We’ll get her from behind!” it was Rissa’s first chance to get a scale for the dragon; she was less than twice Kay’s height, small for a dragon but still plenty large enough to be intimidating.

Rissa didn’t think it would be that easy, especially not with an opponent that could hear and understand, but it was worth a try.

Mim the purple dragon seemed to have a similar opinion; she swatted Kay away as he approached her, leaving him sprawled across the ground, several feet from where he was when the swat started.