"Does anyone have more to say on the matter?" Arthur addressed his advisers, pausing a moment to allow for speech. When nobody answered, he nodded. "Then you are dismissed." The men sitting at the long table began to mumble between themselves as they stood and exited the chamber, leaving Arthur alone with his wife.
Well, not totally alone.
The castle's scribe sat at the far end of the table, scribbling furiously as she finished the minutes from the meeting. Her long blonde hair was tied in a messy bun to stop it from falling onto her work. She looked up briefly, then had a double take as she realised she was alone with the King and Queen.
"Oh!" she squeaked, jumping out of her seat. "I'm sorry m'Lord and Lady, I didn't realise, uh…" she rambled as she hurried to gather her parchment.
"Scribe." Arthur cut through her disorganised speech. She stood, staring at him with wide blue eyes and pink cheeks. "What is your name?"
"Naisa, m'Lord," she answered, attempting a curtsey but dropping a scroll from her arms. "Oops," she muttered, crouching to pick it up without dropping anything else.
"Naisa," he said, bringing her attention back to him as she stood up. "I will be needing the minutes from this morning's meeting. Could you have them ready for me?"
"Of course Sire. When should I expect you?"
Arthur glanced briefly at Guinevere. "I will be at the Library in twenty minutes."
The scribe nodded and turned to leave the room, pausing for a moment at the door to look back and nod respectfully at her King instead of attempting another curtsey.
Once out of the meeting chamber, Naisa rushed as fast as she could to the lower levels of the castle and towards the Library. The musty smell of old books and parchment greeted her as she opened the door into the dark room. She looked over to her mentor's desk to find Geoffrey asleep, and Naisa shook her head with amusement.
She placed her pile of parchment on a nearby table before lighting the lanterns that had gone out. Retrieving her stack, she snaked through the bookshelves to find her office. It wasn't technically hers, but she spent so much time there that it had become a second home. She placed the scrolls that had been referenced to during the meeting back where they belonged, then sat at the desk in the centre of the room.
Giving a sigh, Naisa lit the candles on her desk, idly scraping at the cooled wax that had accumulated on the wooden surface.
"Sorry if I'm a little early." King Arthur's voice from the doorway to her office made Naisa jump, accidentally flicking some wax at him.
"Oh my gosh," she stuttered, looking mortified. "I am so sorry."
The King gave her an amused smile. "No harm done, you don't have to apologise." Naisa's cheeks reddened. "Do you have the minutes?"
"Yes, Sire," replied Naisa, still blushing as she went to one of the lower shelves. Picking up one of the parchments, she turned back to her King. "Here," she said, handing it to him.
"Thank yo-" he started, before his face clouded in confusion.
Naisa blanched. "Sire?"
He showed her the minutes. "What language is this?"
Naisa immediately recognised the scribbles that Arthur clearly couldn't understand. "It's not a language."
"What is it then?"
"I call it shorthand."
"Shorthand?" King Arthur looked at the parchment's squiggles again.
Naisa nodded. "I use it during meetings so I can get the notes down quicker." She went to stand next to him, pointing at a particular swirl. "See, this one means G, and this dot above it is an O, so the word is go. It's just easier for me to write like this and then transcribe the notes into longhand later."
The King looked thoughtful. "Could you run me through the whole thing?"
"Sire?"
"It could be used for codes among my men." He looked Naisa in the eye. "Could you teach me?"
Naisa blushed again. "Uh, well, I suppose I could. But it might take you a while to learn everything, it took me nearly two years to come up with it myself."
"Then you have an understanding of it that I do not, and I'm sure that if you could teach me, you could teach my men too." King Arthur gave her a smile.
"Okay," replied the scribe. "Um. Let me get you a seat." Naisa dashed out of her office to grab another seat from somewhere else in the library. When she returned, she placed it next to her usual chair, then stood back to let her King sit down.
She sat down next to him, and began to run him through the details needed to learn shorthand.
A few hours later, the candle on Naisa's desk went out with a small puff of smoke. The sudden lack of light on the parchment made both scribe and king jump.
Arthur looked up at the candle stump with amusement. "Didn't think I'd been here that long. Guinevere will be wondering where I am."
"I'm sorry. I can get a bit carried away with explanations." Naisa rolled up the scroll hastily.
"It's alright. It's something you're clearly passionate about, and I like to see it when people take pride in what they do. Unlike a certain manservant I know," he muttered under his breath.
Naisa smiled – she didn't know the King's manservant very well, but she and Merlin had bumped into each other several times over the years.
"No matter," Arthur continued, standing up. "I should be getting back to Guinevere."
"Of course, Sire," replied Naisa, gathering her writing tools.
"Thank you for your lesson, Naisa," Arthur added, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I look forward to my next one. Is Thursday okay?"
"Thursday is fine."
"Then I shall be here at sunset." He looked at the scribe, who smiled shyly at him. "See you soon." He leaned over to Naisa and kissed her cheek gently before smiling at her and leaving the Library.
Naisa stood there, not quite believing that the King of Camelot had just kissed her. She raised a hand to her cheek as a smile spread across her face. She was definitely looking forward to Thursday.
A gift for Naisa for writing me a Mordred/Me fanfic. Hope you enjoyed and reviews are love, etc.