Arthur stopped dead. There was a girl striding across the courtyard, examining what appeared to be a map. She was wearing a white dress with a girdle and a brown leather vest. Her hair was flowing out behind her as she walked, somewhat frizzy. With a toss of her head, she tucked a few strands behind her ear.

Morgana would've looked downright plain next to her.

Merlin had dropped the armour he was carrying; a helmet rolled to a stop at Arthur's feet.

"Ganieda!" He called.

She looked up and a look of pure joy spread across her pointy features. "Merlin!" Ganieda said, before running to him and throwing her arms around his neck.

Gwaine appeared at Merlin's side. Apparently he had a sixth sense when it came to pretty girls arriving in Camelot. "Someone you want to introduce us to, Merlin?"

"Yeah, how'd you come to know a girl this pretty?" Sir Kay asked.

Ganieda put her hands on her hips. "Merlin, you didn't tell them about me?" She asked in mock horror.

"Um, ah, I mean…"

She put and arm around his shoulders and tilted her head towards him. "Well, Merlin and I spent—what was it? Oh yes—eight or nine months with my legs wrapped around him."

Arthur found himself choking. "Ahem. Um, what?"

"I'm his twin sister." She laughed. "Get your mind out of the gutter, sheesh."

"But Nieda, you're not supposed to be here until Friday." Merlin said, recovering. His ears were still a bit pink.

She clapped a hand to her face. "Oh! I'm so silly; it seems I forgot that today is Friday. Dork." She added, ruffling his hair affectionately.

"Since when do you have a sister? And where was she when I was in Ealdor?" Arthur asked.

Merlin's freaking twin sister waved a hand in front of my face. "Hello, I'm Ganieda and I'm standing right here."

"It's official." Gwaine said, pulling Ganieda away from Merlin. "We like her better than you, Merlin."

"At any rate, Arthur Pendragon, I was being apprenticed to an apothecary in Cenrid's kingdom while you were in Ealdor. I did, however, hear the story of your time there. I daresay the bravery displayed in that battle will be forgotten by many, but not by me."

"Thank you…?" Arthur said, unsure of what else to say.

Anger flashed in her eyes, and Kay vanished. One by one, the other knights who'd gathered there left in a hurry.

"I wasn't talking about you. I was referring to the young warlock that revealed his magic in front of the son of the world's most hypocritical witch-hunter to save his friends at risk of his own life."

"Ganieda—" Merlin began, but she had pushed Gwaine away from her and stormed off towards Gaius's chambers.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Charming."

"Are you kidding me?" Gwaine asked. "That was the hottest thing I've ever seen."

"I'd better go talk to her." Merlin said.

Arthur reached out to grab his wrist and stop him, but the Prince's manservant was already turning the corner at the doors. "Merlin!" He called.

"Your list of chores can wait, for heaven's sake. You just pissed off his twin sister five minutes after she showed up, for heaven's sake." Gwaine said.

X-x-X-x-X

Ganieda was examining Gaius's to do list when Merlin came in. She heard him walk in, but didn't glance back or acknowledge his presence. She just found a vial of dried white flowers and dumped them into a mortar. Her knuckles were white with the force she used to clench the pestle as she ground them to a fine powder.

Finally she turned around and folded her arms.

"I—" She broke off, fighting back the scratching feeling in her throat. "I kept thinking that this would all make sense once I met the reason for it all. But he's nothing special. He's an arrogant human that spoke over my head without a second thought."

"He doesn't ask for people to die for him." Merlin said softly.

"Aye, but he doesn't thank them for it either."

"It's been drilled into his head not to be grateful to people who die for him. The point of royalty is that they're supposed to be worth it."

"Well, they're not. Will had it drilled into his head not to die for nobility. He had the strength to fight that instinct in order to be truly noble."

"This isn't about me at all, is it."

It wasn't a question. Ganieda laughed drily, without any real emotion. "No, it isn't."

"Will knew what he was doing."

"Will never knew what he was doing! He made it up as he went along and figured out what the heck he was thinking afterwards. Like when we decided to fell a tree without axes and nearly squashed Old Man Simmons."

"Point taken. But seriously, give Arthur a chance. I hated him at first."

"Oh?" Ganieda asked, but she seemed to soften as she picked up a jar of tiny black seeds and started crushing a tablespoon of those into the white powder.

"What are you making, anyway?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm just working on this mixture for Gaius. It's a basic remedy. Would you shed a light on something for me, though?"

"What?"

"Why does King Uther need heavy duty painkillers but no poultices of any kind?"

Merlin crossed the room quickly and took the list she was brandishing. Sure enough, there it was in Gaius's handwriting:

Increased dosage of Nonopherian's Powder—Uther

"Nonopherian's Powder?"

"It's a mixture of poppy seeds, willow bark, chamomile, and corpse plant. I've never seen a dosage this high, though."

The scrawled numbers and unit of measure meant little to Merlin, but the way his sister tapped the words with quiet significance told him it was important.

"Morgana didn't hurt him, though. Gaius said he was shaken and a bit undernourished, but not injured."

"Not injured physically, maybe. It's a variant of the standard painkiller to include herbs with calming properties. He's not exactly lucid if he's taking this regularly, and I don't think he should be making any major decisions for Camelot under the influence of this stuff. Oh, hand me that box. The one with the label 'White Willow Bark'."

He passed her the box wordlessly, still processing this new information.

"What? No brilliant plan? Aren't we running to your Prince and telling him his royal daddy's off his rocker?"

Ganieda realised something was wrong when Merlin didn't retort that Arthur was not his Prince and instead turned white and stared past her.

"Ah." She said, turning around to face an equally white-faced Arthur. "Hello again."