Summary: After Camlann, life in Camelot has settled and Merlin decides to introduce Gwen to Aithusa.
I DISCLAIM EVERYTHING
AN: I didn't expect this to turn out like this. I had originally just wanted Merlin to introduce Gwen and Aithusa, but then this happened so I rolled with it. This is a post-Camlann fic, so if you haven't watched 5x13 there may be spoilers. Hope you guys like it.
Gwen walked down a flight of steps in the castle absentmindedly, pondering her duties for the day, when she heard Merlin call to her from behind. She turned around to face him and saw him in his servant's attire. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. He was the court sorcerer now and thus could afford lavish luxuries. He even had his own chambers in the castle yet, outside of court proceedings, he preferred his servant's garb. Gwen didn't say much about it because sometimes when she was alone, she'd reach into the back of her closet and pull out her old dresses and play dress up. Times were simpler when she was just a maid, much less heartbreaking.
"What is it, Merlin?" She asked as he got closer.
"I wanted to take you out." He said to her.
"I don't know. Amhara and Llacheu might wake up while I'm gone."
"That's why you've got my mother here. She's their governess; she'll care for them and if they need feeding there are plenty of wet nurses. They're you and Arthur's children, but they've got your temperament. Come with me." Gwen smiled with sadness tinged in her eyes. How she wished Arthur lived to meet their children. How she wished he was here with her now, that she could've saved him somehow.
"I suppose I can spare you a few hours." Merlin smiled and held his elbow out to her, escorting her to the doors and out to the courtyard.
Some people stared at Merlin, others did their best to avoid all eye contact with him yet there were some others who smiled and waved at him and others who bowed to both Queen Guinevere and "Lord" Merlin. Merlin didn't fancy the whole lord part of being the Court Sorcerer but for Gwen he took that role on. The people of Camelot still had reservations about magic after over twenty years of it being banned. Guinevere was easing the kingdom into accepting magic with Merlin and Gaius' help. She already had negotiations with the druids and there were many who now lived within the kingdom. Gwen had even invited some into court.
Iseldir, one of the druid leaders, was a close advisor of Gwen's and helped a lot with trying to reintroduce magic to the kingdom. Sefa had come back in the company of the druids. Gwen had pardoned her of her crimes as she now realized how misguided her father was to work with Morgana in the first place. Mithian had come to Camelot in the days following Arthur's funeral proceedings to offer her service and friendship to Gwen and had moved to Camelot, leaving her brothers, the heirs to Nemeth, with her father. Mithian had grown to be a close friend to the queen. Guinevere was certain something was going on between Mithian and Leon but decided to leave them to figure it out. She also thought Sefa's crush on Merlin hadn't abated and did her best to advise the situation without embarrassing Sefa.
Suffice to say, life in Camelot had calmed down considerably in the last year and a half following Arthur and Morgana's death. Gwen still felt the pain of all the losses she had sustained over the years: her mother, her father, Lancelot, Elyan, the old Morgana, Gwaine and Arthur. It was enough to confine her to bed at times and make her wonder if she was cursed but Leon, Percival, Merlin, Gaius, Hunith, Sefa, Mithian, Amhara and Llacheu were a huge help to her as was Kilgharrah.
The old dragon was near death when the knights and Gwen found him in the forest seemingly passed out. The knights wanted to slay him but Gwen forbade it. Instead, she invited Kilgharrah to live out his final days within the confines of the castle where he could be close to Merlin. Kilgharrah was too weak to fly without difficulty so he mostly stayed in the back gardens of the castle. The servants who tended back there no longer feared him and instead took it upon themselves to care for him. He wouldn't fully recover because there was no cure for old age. His death would come and similarly, so would Gaius'. However, he had proven shrewd council to Guinevere and an unlikely friend considering the fact that he tried to kill her once upon a time, not realizing she was the "Once and Future Queen." His riddles were annoying at times but once she sat down and thought about it, she always figured it out in the end. Merlin hardly ever deciphered Kilgharrah's words, even after all the time he'd spent with the old dragon. He still went to Gwen whining and complaining about Kilgharrah's cryptic advice. Gwen thought that a part of the reasons he came to her was because he spent 11 years with only Gaius to confide in and Gaius could be just as cryptic if he was of a mood, Gwen would be straight forward with him.
Despite how harmonious it seemed on the surface, there were still issues. Some of the kingdoms that opposed magic hadn't agreed with Gwen's decisions or thought that a common-born woman wasn't fit to be sole ruler. That opinion had been asserted in Camelot's own court and some even thought that the paternity of Amhara and Llacheu was questionable, never mind that despite their skin tone matching hers, with their blue eyes and various other features it was clear that Arthur was their father. Gwen was determined to finish Arthur's work and she knew she wasn't alone in her endeavors.
She looked up as Merlin offered her his hand and helped her up on her white horse. He fixed her burgundy dress so it wouldn't hinder her before hopping on a brown horse himself. The two rode their horses out of the citadel and into the forest with Gwen following behind Merlin. They rode about 20 minutes into the woods before they stopped. The trees and grass were a vibrant green in this area and Gwen could hear a lake nearby. The two dismounted from their horses and Gwen watched Merlin utter a spell. The horses walked away towards where the sound of water was coming from.
"They'll stay by the lake until I call them back. If there's any danger I'll know, don't worry." Gwen nodded at his reassurance.
It had been strange at first, watching him do magic, watching his eyes glow gold in that telltale way but she quickly grew used to it. She knew magic wasn't just a black and white entity. Whether it was good or evil depended upon the sorcerer or sorceress. However, she also knew there were volatile, dark spells out there that wrought evil. Then again, she acknowledged that it was evil people who created that evil magic. It had all been very confusing at the time of her pregnancy especially because Arthur had just died. It required days of peace, quiet and isolation on Gwen's part: rethinking all she knew of magic, thinking of how she would reintroduce magic to Camelot and if that was even within her power, thinking of how the people would take it, what Arthur would've said and done in this situation, thinking of Merlin and Morgana and even Mordred.
She knew grief and a blinding love for the wrong girl had pushed Mordred to Morgana's side. Fear had driven Morgana to Morgause in the beginning. After that it was a hunger, a lust for power that strongly resembled Uther's and caused her to turn her back on everyone who loved her. Gwen had recently been entertaining the notion that perhaps Morgause put a spell on Morgana to distort reality and make her think they'd all deserted her. She knew Merlin poisoned her and Gwen had been upset at that but she had never done anything against Morgana until Morgana betrayed her. Even when she learned of her magic, she didn't go running to Uther or Arthur but only told Gaius in her panic, knowing he wouldn't tell. Then Morgana tried to have her burned at the stake, she enchanted her to kiss Lancelot on the eve of her marriage, she turned her into a deer so Arthur would unknowingly kill her, she enchanted her to turn against the love of her life and as a result she killed Tyr and nearly killed both Arthur and Merlin, who were the two most important men to her following Elyan's death.
Her brother's death still stung as did Gwaine and Arthur's. Sometimes she'd still look out the window expecting to see Elyan and Percival horsing around as Arthur yelled at them to focus on their training. On her past birthday, she had expected to be cornered by Gwaine and given white flowers just like that first day they met. He would be there flirting with her in that outrageous, silly way he did that never failed to amuse her and caused the other nobles to stare at them disapprovingly and cause whispers of infidelity to flood the court. Arthur didn't really mind though. He'd just pout and grumble low under his breath the whole time.
'She doesn't even resemble an 'Esmeralda' anyway.'
She still half expected to wake up next to Arthur every day, but his side of the bed remained cold except for when Amhara and Llacheu slept in the bed with her. Their presence warded off the grief.
Gwen looked up as Merlin touched her arm, looking down on her with concern.
"You spaced out. Are you alright?" He asked.
"I was just thinking of Elyan and Gwaine... and Arthur. Them not being here, them being... dead. I just, I'm still not used to it." Gwen replied, looking down sadly. Merlin nodded his head in understanding.
"Yeah. I try not to think of it much. It's weird not seeing Arthur everyday and not having Gwaine pop up in my bedroom out of nowhere with that pitiful puppy dog face complaining about this or that." Merlin said, smiling a bit as he thought of Gwaine.
"He could be such a child when it suited him, couldn't he?" Gwen replied, with laughter in her eyes.
"Child is an understatement." Merlin replied, laughing a bit. Gwen smiled hearing it. He didn't do it enough. His mother's presence and the children's birth raised his spirits but he wasn't the same, none of them were.
"So what are we doing here?" She asked once the laughter died down. She was in much higher spirits. Even though Gwaine wasn't physically there, he was still cheering both Merlin and Gwen right up.
"While you were spaced out, I summoned someone to meet us."
"You summoned someone? Who?"
"You'll see. Oh, right on time." Gwen could hear something in the distance. Eventually she realized it sounded like leather slicing through the air. She'd only heard it when Kilgharrah had attacked Camelot.
"Merlin...?"
"Don't worry." Gwen watched as a familiar white dragon landed into the clearing. It wasn't much larger than when Gwen last saw it. It looked healthier, well fed. It was still deformed from its time with the Sarrum but it looked wholly more docile than their last encounter.
"Gwen, you two haven't officially met. May I introduce Aithusa? I hatched her. I'm her dragonlord. Aithusa, this is Queen Guinevere Pendragon. The wife of the great King Arthur Pendragon. While he's the Once and Future King, she is his Once and Future Queen. She restored magic to Camelot and finally freed us and all other beings of magic and she's working at uniting the lands of Albion and ushering in an era of peace. She's the queen of legend and prophecy." Gwen blushed and scoffed a bit at Merlin's grandiose introduction. She didn't know about all that. She was just doing what any good wife and proper Queen would and was continuing her husband's good work and fulfilling his destiny like she felt she should as she was the Once and Future Queen. She felt it was her duty to uphold Arthur's destiny. Perhaps that was her destiny.
"Hullo Qu— Queen Guinefair." The young dragon stuttered out in a high bell-like voice. Gwen stared with a smile and couldn't help but laugh at the adorable display. The young dragon looked a little embarrassed and Gwen was quick to reassure her. She stretched her hand and stroked the dragon's face.
"Don't worry. That was a very good try, but you can call me Gwen. It's easier."
"Gwen." She chimed up, trying out the word. From the resulting light in her eyes, Gwen figured she liked it.
"I've been teaching her how to speak. In the night, I bring her to Kilgharrah for some history lessons." Merlin told Gwen while Aithusa skipped around the clearing saying 'Gwen' over and over.
"Why didn't you introduce us before?" Gwen asked, watching the young dragon curiously sniff a flower and accidentally snort it up her nose, causing her to sneeze and then fall on her back from the force of it. Gwen giggled at her antics.
"Trust issues. Aithusa had them after the Sarrum's torture and whatever poison Morgana spewed in her ears. Kilgharrah and I's inattentiveness towards her in the past didn't exactly help either. It took a while before she trusted me." Gwen nodded as she watched Aithusa bounce about the place, muttering to herself.
"Gwen. Queen Gwen. Nice Gwen. The Great Mother." She chimed in.
"What was that last one?" Gwen asked politely.
Aithusa seemed to blush at the direct question and then answered shyly.
"Killi-gharrah say that you was the "great m-mother" and that you was going to give birth to three great things." She said. Gwen raised an eyebrow at that one. She looked to Merlin and he shrugged.
"Never heard that one." Gwen thought on that.
"Give birth to three great things. Two of them is obviously Amhara and Llacheu. Kilgharrah has told me enough times that they will do great things, but what about the third?" Gwen wondered aloud.
"Isn't it obvious? The thing that this has all been for. The thing Arthur, Gwaine, Elyan and Lancelot died for. The thing you're fighting to build now. You'll birth Albion. You'll unite the lands. You're the Great Mother of the Golden Age." Merlin said with pride.
"All these titles you and Kilgharrah come up with for Arthur and I: the Once and Future King and Queen, the high King and Queen of Albion and now the Great Mother of the Golden Age. I don't think I'll be able to live up to these expectations." Guinevere said, her voice tinged with insecurity.
"You can. You aren't alone, remember? You've got Emrys by your side and Amhara and Llacheu to fight for. Plus, you've got the last Knights of the Round Table: Leon and Percival at your back and the druids, Kilgharrah, Gaius, Sefa, my mother and Mithian among others."
"And me!" Aithusa exclaimed running to Gwen's side and nudging her a bit with her head.
"I help Queen Gwen too, right Merlin?" Aithusa said, looking to Merlin. Merlin smiled at the dragon. Following the death of Freya and losing Morgana to the darkness, Aithusa was the closest he'd ever have to a child besides Amhara and Llacheu. He vowed to protect her better than he had in the past.
"Right. See? You aren't alone in your destiny, Guinevere. You never were." Merlin assured. Gwen got up and launched herself into Merlin's arms.
"Thank you, Merlin. For everything." Merlin nodded holding Gwen tightly. Suddenly they felt Aithusa nudge both of their hips.
"I want to play! Will you play with me, Queen Gwen?" She exclaimed at first before asking Gwen shyly. Gwen smiled at her.
"How about you hide and I'll count to ten and I'll try to find you. Alright?" Aithusa nodded before running off. Merlin watched the two play and knew that even with Arthur gone he'd be okay. They all would as long as they had each other.
AN: Reviews are always welcomed. Mistakes in Aithusa's speech were on purpose.