It doesn’t take them long to find out that Camelot isn’t quite as magical and fantastic as the legends say. The Doctor tried to explain that it wasn’t really magic, really, just a bit of inter-dimensional flow of particles reverberating against the tympanic shield - or whatever. Given that they were chased out of the castle upon arrival and Gwen says they’re meaning to burn the TARDIS for sorcery - which, Martha supposes, truly would be sorcery to them. Still, she’s been through a lot with that ship and she’d be damned if she was going to let them burn her.
Gwen tells them it’s been like that since she could remember, that how there was a time before her mother died when sorcery wasn’t so terribly hated. That some of the older citizens had practiced it at one time or another - though would scarcely admit to it.
“So you don’t believe that magic is bad?” Martha asks. Gwen shakes her head, and she gets this far off look like she’s thinking of something or someone.
“All things have their bad and good, I think,” the young maidservant says before her. “Though most people disagree. They only remember Uther’s rage, so they’ll believe him when he says magic is evil - and even more when he says he’ll execute for it.” Martha spots that same hardened sadness again like the time Gwen talked about her father.
“Can’t you do anything about it? Hasn’t anyone stood up for what’s right?”
“Stood for it and died for it, but that was a long time ago,” answers Gwen.
And then Martha was struck by a truly insane idea, “What about you?”
“Me?” Gwen furrows her brows in disbelief.
“Yes! You’re Guin— well, you’re. From what I can see, the whole city knows you - they love you. And I think that’s amazing, because you’re one of them and you’re the best of them. So if something’s were to change, it’d be because of you.”
What if Guinevere wasn’t known for being Arthur’s wife, Queen of Camelot? What if she saved magic and brought Camelot out of its prejudice and hate?
And what’s better, what if she did it all on her own? (With a bit of help from Martha and the Doctor, of course.)
