Uther watched as the sobbing girl was escorted from the room. He had known from early on that raising Morgana to be a proper, eloquent lady of the court, would be an uphill struggle, but he had never quite anticipated just how hard he would have to fight over the most trivial things. Morgana was stood in the corner of the room, staring at the ceiling with her arms folded, attempting to look like the situation bored her. Uther sunk into his chair, sent the guards from the room, and called Morgana forward, before addressing her.
"Morgana this has got to stop," he sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, "this is the fourth one in less than two months."
"Look, I'm sorry but it's just so stupid!" Morgana flounced, "I don't see why I need a maidservant at all. Me and Arthur both got along perfectly well with the nannies and they never used to dress us or help us wash, not since we were tiny! It's not like we suddenly forgot how to do things for ourselves."
"Morgana, you are fifteen and it is customary that you should begin employing a maidservant. I have been very lenient and let you do almost everything you have wanted to do up to this point, but it is time for you to start acting like a lady."
"But why does acting like a lady have to mean having a maidservant?"
"It's convention. Nothing more, nothing less, and certainly not a slight on your character or abilities. It is simply unacceptable for you to treat these poor girls the way you have. You have frightened them half to death. The position of maidservant to the king's ward should be an honour, but it's quickly becoming one of the most feared positions in Camelot."
"Look I'm sorry about the girls but I still don't see why..."
"Because I said so!" Uther snapped, "You have been fighting this for years and, for years, I have let you do without but, I'm sorry, it is not appropriate for someone of your age and position to be without an attendant. I'm sorry Morgana, but you are just going to have to learn to live with this. You are my ward and that is a position that brings with it negatives as well as positives."
Morgana glared fiercely at her guardian before storming from the room.
"It's just not fair!" Morgana raged, "Does he think we have forgotten how to dress ourselves? Or how to take a bath? I mean why do I need some pathetic bore with an inferiority complex to do up buttons and brush my hair for me? At least the nannies used to let us get on with it. Some of them were even quite fun, or at least treated us like people rather than flawless deities, and with the really awful ones I had you around to wind them up with me. Now it's just me and my latest maidservant all day, every day. It's maddening!"
Arthur nodded and continued to fiddle with the quill on his desk as Morgana paced up and down his chambers. It wasn't that he wasn't listening to her, it was just that he had heard this exact same speech the day before. And the day before that. And the day before that and, in fact, almost every day for the last two months. It wasn't that he didn't agree with Morgana, he just wasn't as angry about it as she was. He had been preparing for the life of the heir to the throne for as long as he could remember and had long ago accepted that many of the personal freedoms he had enjoyed as a child would be lost to him as he grew older. Morgana had seemingly not accepted this. Arthur suspected it was because she did not have a destiny, or if she did it was to be someone's wife, which anyone who knew Morgana knew she would not welcome, or be particularly good at. In any case, having a personal servant seemed like nothing compared with what was to come... Arthur would almost go as far as to say he quite liked it.
"Arthur! God you're not even listening to me!"
"I am! Honestly I am, it's just that..."
"What?" Morgana snapped.
"I was just going to say that maybe you should think about picking your battles."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" she spat.
"Just that, maybe, you should let this one go. No, listen, I know it's irritating but, if you just try it, you'll get used to it pretty quickly. Is it really worth all this trouble?"
Morgana let out an exasperated sigh and swept angrily from the room. Arthur made a mental note not to try and reason with her when she was in that kind of state.
Morgana marched angrily back to her chambers and slammed the door. Uther was yet to replace her most recent maidservant so she undressed herself and, still fuming, flopped onto her bed.
The next morning Morgana took extra care over dressing herself; she realised that if she went down to breakfast looking a mess it was hardly likely to convince Uther she could manage on her own. At breakfast she tried to avoid conversation. She knew this could be seen as sulking but she didn't care. She wanted Uther to know that she was still irritated.
"Oh, Morgana, I've chosen you a new attendant," said Uther casually, "She's been sent to tidy your chambers. It might be nice if you went and introduced yourself after breakfast."
Morgana rose sharply and, without a word, headed for the door.
"Morgana," called Uther, not looking up from his food, "try not to scare her off too quickly."
Morgana knew slamming the door was childish, but she did it anyway. It wasn't that she didn't feel bad for treating these girls the way she did, she was just more angry than she was sorry. When she reached her chambers a small, mousy girl with a square jaw and eyes too far apart was making her bed. Morgana stood in the doorway, watching. After a couple of minutes, the girl noticed her and jumped about a foot in the air before dropping into a stupidly low curtsy that almost caused her to fall over.
"L-lady Morgana. M-my name is Rose. Um it will b-be and honour to s-s-serve you. I hope that, er..."
"Stop." said Morgana. She felt sorry for Rose and tried to mentally direct her irritation towards Uther instead. She failed. "I'm going out. If the King asks where I am, lie."
"B-b-but Lady M-Morgana m'am, if I lie t-to the King he could have me e-ex-e-executed."
"I hardly see how that's my problem."
Morgana left the increasingly flustered girl with a twinge of regret. She knew she was being cruel, but it wasn't as if Uther would actually execute Rose.
About two years previously, Uther had stopped Morgana training with Arthur and the other future knights. She hadn't spoken to him for six weeks but he was unrelenting. Feeling the unfairness of this, Arthur and his friend Leon had agreed to pass on their training to Morgana in secret. They even agreed to fight against her without worrying for her safety. They knew that she was more than an equal match for both of them in skill and technique, though they had the edge when it came to strength. Right now Morgana felt like working out some anger so she decided to hunt the boys down. She searched most of the castle, eventually coming to the stables and, seeing Arthur's horse was missing, decided he must have gone to Leon's. She saddled up her own horse and headed out of the city. It wasn't long before she spied Arthur and Leon on horseback ahead and galloped to catch them up.
"Hullo," Leon greeted her, warmly, " Arthur's just been filling me in on your maidservant drama."
"Don't." said Morgana, "This new one's worse than the one before. They're just so tepid! I don't know how I'm supposed to stand it."
"Come on, it's not that bad." said Arthur.
"It's alright for you!" Morgana cried, "You've got a manservant! Women are just so dreary!"
The boys fell about laughing at this.
"Alright, stop cackling," said Morgana, pulling a face, "I thought we were going to Leon's; shouldn't we be headed that way?"
"Nah, we have to visit one of the surrounding villages," said Arthur, "We've a hunt planned for tomorrow and Leon's horse has a loose shoe so we're taking it to a blacksmith."
"There are blacksmith's in Camelot." said Morgana.
"I know," said Leon, "but one of my mother's maids is married to a blacksmith. The family aren't very well off and can always use the custom. Also their son, Elyan, is a friend of mine."
They rode on for about an hour, ambling slowly for a while, and then racing to distant landmarks, before finally arriving in a small village. Leon led them to the blacksmith's where they dismounted and were immediately greeted by a short, friendly looking boy, who pulled Leon into a rough embrace.
"This is Elyan," grinned Leon, arm slung across the smaller boy's shoulders
"Elyan, Prince Arthur of Camelot and the Lady Morgana."
"Please, Arthur and Morgana." said Arthur, extending his hand and shaking Elyan's firmly. Morgana offered the same greeting and Elyan's eyes darted uncertainly across to Leon for approval, before gently shaking her hand as well.
Morgana's unusual greeting had rather thrown the blacksmith's son, but the initial awkwardness did not last long and, within a few minutes, the four were bantering and bickering as if they had known each other their whole lives. After about an hour of wandering around, play fighting and generally doing nothing in particular, Leon suggested they head back to Elyan's in search of food. Elyan protested but, after much pleading from the king's ward and claims that the heir to the throne was dying of starvation, he subsided, but asked that they wait outside.
"I don't understand why he doesn't want us to come in." Arthur mused, slumping against the wall of the house.
"Honestly Arthur, you are so out of touch." said Leon, "Elyan and his family live in three rooms. He's embarrassed."
"There's no need to be," said Arthur, "lots of people are poor, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"That's not the point, Arthur." said Morgana, "It's like, ugh never mind it's just complicated, ok?"
"If I may your highness" said a voice from the doorway, "I think that what the Lady Morgana is trying to say is that we don't want you to feel sorry for us. We have everything we need and we're happy enough. Having said that we don't want you to think we're simple just because we live simply."
The trio turned to see standing by the entrance to the house a pretty, caramel skinned girl with large brown eyes and a mass of dark curls escaping from their restraints to frame her face.
"Gwen!" smiled Leon, "Arthur, Morgana, this is Elyan's sister, Guinevere."
Arthur stepped forward and introduced himself. Morgana just smiled. She wasn't sure what it was about Gwen, but something told her they would get along well. She couldn't remember ever meeting a girl who she thought there was a chance she could grow to like.
Elyan re-emerged, bringing bread, and apologised profusely for not being able to offer them anything more. The others thanked him and ate it hungrily.
When they had finished Arthur suggested they all go for a ride.
"My horse won't be ready yet." said Leon.
"You can borrow one of my father's." said Elyan.
"That's settled then." grinned Arthur.
"What about Guinevere?" asked Leon. "It doesn't seem fair to leave her behind."
"Oh don't worry about me," smiled Gwen, "I've got lots of things I should be doing."
"Do you not ride Guinevere?" asked Arthur.
"Forgive me, sire, but when would I have been taught to ride?"
"No, right, of course." mumbled Arthur, "Elyan, could she not ride on the back of your horse?"
"I suppose..." Elyan said, begrudgingly.
"She can ride with me." Everyone turned to Morgana. Having a passenger on the back of the horse would slow the rider down, prevent any galloping or jumping, and generally make for a much more boring ride. The last person anyone expected to volunteer for this was Morgana.
"Oh no, my lady, I couldn't..." began Gwen.
"Nonsense, come on." said Morgana, matter of factly, "we should set off or it'll be too late to be worth going at all."
So Elyan, Arthur, Leon, Morgana and Gwen set out. The boys raced ahead but Morgana, conscious of the delicate girl clinging to her waist, kept a steady pace.
"So what do you do when you need to go somewhere?" asked Morgana.
"Well I don't very often, my lady, but if I do Elyan or my father take me."
"Have you never wanted to learn to ride?"
"Well I suppose I did; I've been around horses since I was small and the idea
had occurred to me once or twice, but it's not particularly important."
"Right," said Morgana decidedly, "I'm going to teach you."
"What? Oh no I couldn't possibly ask..."
"It's not up for discussion. I will teach you to ride and then I will teach you to fight. We women have to stick together. It's not fair that we should miss out just because we happen not to be men."
"Oh I can fight." said Gwen rather quickly. Then, remembering herself: "What I meant to say, my lady, is that my father taught Elyan and I when we were small, with the swords from the shop."
"I see." said Morgana, smiling to herself, "Are you any good?"
"Not too bad."
Morgana looked around. The boys were now out of sight. "Right well let's put that to the test."
She dismounted, helped Gwen down, then got out her swords.
"I always carry two." she said, "Just in case."
She threw one to Gwen "Let's see what you can do." She swung her sword around in her hand, "I warn you," she said, "I was trained by the best."
She lunged. Gwen blocked.
"And I was trained with the best," grinned Gwen, "I know as much about swords as any knight of Camelot. If not more."
Morgana's sword came from above; again Gwen blocked it with ease, this time pushing the King's ward backwards and thrusting her own sword quickly forward. Morgana only just blocked in time.
"Oh so it's like that is it?" Morgana chuckled, again striking only to be swiftly blocked by the other girl.
Again and again their swords clashed, crashing together at every angle as the girls became increasingly absorbed in the fight. Each became rapidly more animated, running and dodging, ducking and diving, until after twenty minutes of relentless combat Morgana faltered, mistiming a shot that allowed Gwen to knock the weapon clean from her hand.
The girls stood opposite each other, panting. Each steadily returning the others gaze.
"Truce?" Morgana asked, breathing heavily.
Gwen grinned, dropped her weapon and slumped down onto the ground against a tree. Morgana collapsed next to her and they sat in silence for a few minutes catching their breath.
"So," said Gwen, "I beat you."
"I'm sorry?" replied Morgana, indignantly, "you did not beat me, I slipped. And besides we called a truce."
"You called a truce," said Gwen, "so technically you surrendered."
"I did not surrender!"
"If you say so."
Gwen was grinning, her head resting against the tree, eyes closed. Her cheeks were still flushed a slight shade of pink from the heat of the fight.
"Gwen?" asked Morgana, tentatively.
"Yes?"
"Leon said earlier that you and your family were... struggling a little with money."
Gwen sat up. "Did he? Right, well like I said, my lady, we've got enough and we're happy. There are many considerably poorer families who would benefit much more from you charity. I assure you we won't be needing it."
"What? No I'm not offering you charity, I'm honestly not. The thing is that the King is forcing me to employ a maidservant and all the ones he's assigned so far have been so incredibly dull and awful and I know it's probably rude of me even to ask but I was wondering..."
"Yes," said Gwen, abruptly, "it would be an honour."
A smile tugged at the corners of Gwen's mouth. Morgana beamed from ear to ear.
"Wait," she said, suddenly troubled, "you're not just saying yes because you're scared to say no, are you? Because I don't want to force you into anything. I'm asking you to leave your friends, your family, your whole life..."
"I said yes." said Gwen getting nimbly to her feet, "look here come the boys, we should probably think about heading back. It'll be dark soon.