A few things must be explained before the start of this story. Firstly, Gaius is not Merlin's uncle (that part never made any sense to me, so in my world, it doesn't happen) he was a friend of Balinor, Merlin's father, who kept in contact with Hunith after Balinor had to leave. Secondly, I am rearranging some of the episodes, so in my season 3, episodes 1&2 "The Tears of Uther Pendragon (Parts 1&2)" are followed by "Love in the Time of Dragons", (Alice's episode! :-) and all of the other episodes following the original timeline. Thirdly, Alice is a few years younger, for reasons later explained. Either way…Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own a temperamental computer and lots of homework, and if I owned Merlin, then I would treat myself to a ski vacation in France. As of yet, my butt rests in the South, completely snowless…

A Simple Truth

"I will send word to you soon; there is something I must show you. Good bye my love."

Alice's words had bounced around in Gaius' head for the past month. What could she possibly have to show him that they hadn't talked about during her stay in Camelot? Hopefully not some other dangerous creature that would try to take over the kingdom; that would be decidedly bad. He thought of the letter received a mere three days before, telling him to come to the little cottage where they would go looking for lavender and mint, before Alice was exiled from the city. The matter at hand must have been a pressing one, if she would risk coming relatively close to the city after her previous encounter with the palace, and the King.

'Crack' 'snap' "AH!" Gaius was shaken from his musings by the clumsiness of his young apprentice, Merlin.

A muffled but cheerful, "I'm okay, don't worry!" sounded from the forest floor, "Just a tree root."

"I sometimes wonder how you've survived this long without permanently injuring yourself or someone else" Gaius mumbled under his breath.

"Hey, I heard that!" said a dirty, but upright Merlin. "Where are we going anyways?"

"To collect some more burdock, for the King's remedy"

Merlin was quite perplexed, not only had he just recently restocked the herb cabinets, this was not the direction that Gaius usually had him go. Something else was going on here, and he was determined to quiz Gaius about it as soon as they reached their destination, wherever it was. Hopefully this wasn't some sort of revenge the old man had concocted for the Goblin Incident, Merlin had a feeling there was more punishment to come as far as that particular adventure was concerned.

"Aha, here we go!" There was a small cottage, made of grey stone and possessing a straw roof; not very different from the ones that were in Merlin's village.

The two men called out in greeting as they approached and a young woman, two to three years younger than Merlin stuck her head out of one of the windows.

"Good morning to you sirs!" and pulling herself back inside of the house, "Alice, the visitors have arrived!"

"Wonderful dear, invite them inside" came the reply from the back of the house, presumably where Alice was picking herbs.

"Hello there, I'm Amiria. You would be…?"

Merlin and Gaius stood still staring at the young woman in front of them, though for totally different reasons.

Merlin saw a small, pretty woman, with blonde hair down to her waist and unsettling green eyes. Lovely in her own right, but definitely not one of the classical beauties.

Gaius saw a girlish version of Alice, from many more years ago than he cared to think about. Something about the way she held herself, and the way she looked at you, as if discovering the inner workings of your soul, reminded him of his beloved.

Amiria, for her part, was wondering why two fully grown men were staring at her as if incapacitated, and decided to break the silence before the situation became more awkward than it already was.

"I haven't got spinach stuck in my teeth, have I?" This seemed to have done the trick, as both observers shook their heads "no" and followed her into the house, sitting on the little chairs around the wooden table.

She returned to the soup that she had previously been tending to. "So you both work in Camelot, correct?"

Merlin answered first, "Yeah, Gaius works as Court Physician and I am his assistant, as well as the servant to his royal pratness the Great Pr- ow!" he was abruptly cut off by a quick kick of the shins, courtesy of Gaius.

Amiria laughed, "Glad to see that I'm not the only one who has problems pleasing my instructor" she said with a pointed look out of the window. "So, you never told me who you were"

"I am Gaius, as I am sure you already suspect," answered the aged scholar "and this young chap is Merlin"

Merlin flashed a goofy smile, which Amiria couldn't help but notice was quite cute, even when framed by those huge ears.

"I see you've finished the introductions, patinho?"

"Yes, sabio, of course; I've also finished the soup." The quick exchange between Alice and her apparent student revealed a tender sort of love, akin to that of mother and daughter, very similar to the relationship between Gaius and Merlin. There was sadness about the exchange though, as if the two women were longing to hear a title that they knew would never be spoken.

"Very well then," said Alice, snapping out of her reprieve, "let us eat"

Merlin would never remember much of what was said during the awfully awkward supper, there was little conversation to be had, to be honest. The two lovers were staring at each other between their bites of soup and the two apprentices looked everywhere but at each other, blushing when their eye's met and hurriedly looking away.

After everyone had eaten, Amiria stood to take the bowls to wash them when Alice suddenly spoke.

"Why don't you let me take care of those, dear? You can take Merlin here to get us some more juniper?"

"But we just picked some-"the words died on Amiria's lips at her mentors gaze, which clearly said 'Do what I say and don't ask questions, or else.'

"Well then, Mr. Merlin, I suppose we should go find ourselves some juniper!" and with that Amiria strode confidently to the door, stopping only when the cloak she had intended to grab in one smooth motion got stuck on the peg it was resting on.

Merlin couldn't help himself, though he really did try; but the clumsy and foolish do find it awfully amusing when suddenly they aren't the ones being clumsy and foolish, and he started laughing. Not even mild little chuckles, but great huge guffaws that had him doubled over with a bright red face. He was laughing so hard that Alice and Gaius couldn't help but laugh a little (okay, a lot) too.

Amiria, by this time very humiliated and quite red herself, was finally able to pull her stubborn over garment off of the peg and march outside. The echo of laughter ringing in her hot ears, she almost missed the call of the initiator of her embarrassment.

"Amiria! Hey, Amiria, wait up!" Head down and hood up, she kept on walking.

"Amiria," he was right behind her now, "I'm sorry about that, back there. Trust me, I know how that feels, but you were giving this impression that 'I'm completely unfazed by anything' and it was funny to see you break that whole…routine?" he finished awkwardly.

She finally turned around to look at this strange boy that had arrived in her temporary house, presumably to upend her life and make it miserable, again. However, in that moment she was shocked by brilliantly blue eyes, both innocent and sad, as if the weight of the world was held in them; in those eyes there was hope, promise, faith, love and a deep stubbornness that Amiria immediately knew would cause problems between the two of them.

"'I'm completely unfazed by anything' routine? That's the best that you've got?" The eye gazing moment now over, Amiria smacked Merlin over the head and shook her own before turning to continue walking towards the dark and looming forest.

"Women" Massaging his head, Merlin followed after her.

Back at the cottage, Gaius and Alice were in an odd state of discomfort, waiting for the other person to start talking, until Gaius couldn't hold in his curiosity any longer.

"So who is she anyways? The girl."

"Amiria, oh, well she's my apprentice I suppose. Though that is one of the reasons I asked you to come here today."

"One of the reasons?" Questioned Gaius, quirking his eyebrow.

"Yes, one of them. I want you to take her into Camelot, teach her all you know. The Powers That Be know that I have tried my hardest, but some of the finer nuances of magical theory and principles escape me, and she wants to know everything. Since she was a little child, always asking questions; What are stars? Where do they come from? Why is there one sun? What could happen if there were two? And so on. There were times when I wished she would find someone else to bother, but she is my-"

Suspicions aroused by circumstances and similarities, Gaius stood waiting as Alice stirred the soapy water to wash the dishes around in the large cleaning pot, purposefully avoiding his gaze.

"What I mean to say is- she is magical, more than I, though less than Merlin. I suppose that arose from the circumstances surrounding her birth. I asked you to come here today to tell you to say that the spells and potions worked. Amiria is your daughter.

Soooooooo, how was it? Are we hauling out the tomatoes? Or can I live? I have vague ideas about where this is going, but I don't know how often I will be able to update, as I am a full time student :/ Anywho… tell me what you thought! Drop me a review, if you have the time, it would really help to know what everyone else thinks of a story I think is absolutely perfect (That was sarcastic, I can find a million and one things wrong with my poor mutant baby of a story, but I love it anyways! 3) Also, thoughts on Amiria, love her? Hate her? Feel free to tell me! -Zlitzen321