In Paula Lafferty’s The Once and Future Queen, grief forces the characters to adopt entirely new identities. For example, Vera carries the weight of Vincent’s death and guilt, and this pressure pushes her toward a risky life in the seventh century. Her early moves resemble flight from pain, yet the book shows that real change grows out of shaping new purpose beside the memories she tries to avoid. However, Arthur’s response to loss offers a counterpoint, as his sorrow leads him inward and toward isolation.

Vera tries to smother her grief by enduring physical strain and by slipping into quiet obscurity. Her runs up Glastonbury Tor reflect this urge to outrun her unprocessed emotions, and she engages in “a desperate attempt to escape the pain of [Vincent’s] loss and her own guilt at how she could have stopped it” (3). Since she left Bristol, the city tied to Vincent, she has hidden in her parents’ hotel. This wish to remain a “forgettable background player” has become a way to move through her days without confronting the guilt that she attaches to Vincent’s death (8).

Merlin’s arrival gives Vera a drastic escape route. She agrees to travel 1,400 years into the past because she sees a chance to make up for what she believes she failed to do.