"Hey, Gwen, have you seen Merlin? I checked in his room, but he wasn't there. God, he's my manservant and I have to wake him up in the morning."
"He's still in bed."
"Three guesses who's," Gwaine muttered to Elyan, who bit his lip to keep him from laughing.
"Alright, usually I would only be a little annoyed at that, but this is the day the three kings visit, and we can't have them caught." Arthur then walked to Morgana's chambers, the knights and Gwen following him. He opened the door and regretted it immediatly.
"My eyes!" he said in a dramatic voice. Gwaine looked into the room.
Merlin and Morgana were on the bed, their clothes spread all over the room. The blanket was at the end of the bed, so nothing was covering them, which wouldn't be a problem for them because it was summer and warm, but it was a problem for Arthur who was now telling everyone about the 'horror' he had witnessed. Gwaine didn't see it as a horror, seeing as Merlin and Morgana were both attractive in his eyes (not that he would EVER tell ANYONE that he found Merlin attractive, and that if there was ever a man...) and they made a good looking couple.
Merlin and Morgana were too wrapped up in, er, other activities, so they did not notice the group at the door, so they contiuned with their activities. Finally, Gwaine had enough, so he picked up Merlin's shoe from beside his foot and threw it at them. They both started as the shoe hit them. When they saw the six people staring at them (Arthur had his hands covering his eyes), they quickly dove for the blanket and covered themselves.
There was an awkward silence in the room.
Merlin cleared his throat. "Mmmm... It's the day of the kings visiting, isn't it? I guess I should go now. I was about to go, anyway," he said in a voice which clearly stated he wasn't about to go and he didn't want to now.
Gwaine gave a wolfish grin. "About to go, or about to come?" All the knights and, surprisingly, Gwen, burst out laughing at Merlin's blushing face.
"It's not my fault, she literally pounced on me, and come on, if a beautiful woman throws you onto her bed, the last thing you're going to be thinking about is visiting kings!"
"True. I wouldn't mind Morgana jumping on me, though," Gwaine said, winking at Morgana. Jealously flashed in Merlin's eyes, and he pulled Morgana closer to him.
"Relax Merlin, all of the kings are bringing their daughters in hope of marriage to Arthur Pratdragon." Gwaine winked. "Maybe I can deflower a few and save them from the horror of the Princess. I tried to save Gwen, but alas, I was too late."
While everyone was laughing, Merlin actually felt the kings and the people they brought with them enter Camelot. He had always been able to sense when someone entered Camelot, and after a while, he began to feel other things about the people entering Camelot. Like if they had magic, if they were male or female, if they were noblity or not, that sort of thing.
One of the people passed the border, and their presence made him stop talking and stop laughing. He was obvious to everything; Gwaine's outrageous jokes, Morgana and Gwen's blushes, Arthur laughter, Lancelot's sighs. Everything, except the presense of the person who just entered Camelot.
It was a girl. She was noblity, probably one of the kings daughter's. Another presense entered behind her, and Merlin almost gasped. This presense was male and very strong, no doubt a king. Both of the presenses had... something about them. Merlin felt like he had felt them before, but he knew he never had. There was something familiar about them, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Now that he thought about it, he HAD felt a presense with the mixture of familiarity and unfamiliarity, but that was so long ago that his brain only produced fuzzy memories of it. It was unclear and confusing, but he thought he saw where he was and what he was doing, he was-
"Merlin?"
Merlin blinked. He forgot what he was thinking, what he had discovered, and focused on Morgana, who had a confused expression on his face.
"Are you alright?"
He smiled at her concern. "I'm fine. I'm alittle tired, though."
Gwaine smirked. "Three guesses why."
Merlin laughed, trying to hide his uneasiness and disappointment at not discovering the mystery of the unfamiliar familiar nobles.
He tried to look into his memories for the rest of the day, but so many distractions made him forget what he was looking for. The distractions made him annoyed, the fuzzy memories of his earily childhood made him dizzy. He became very irrated, and was grumbling under his breath about stupid, unfair nobles when Arthur made him go to the throne room where the kings and their families would be introduced.
He was leaning against a pillar when the first king came through the doors.
The king had gold hair and a huge crown. He had a round face, a gold beard and dark brown eyes. He looked like he was fifty years old. He was holding hands with a woman his age that had long, curly brown hair that had a few grey hairs and grass green eyes. His son and daughter, who were obviously twins, walking in a dignified manner behind them. They both had there mother's hair and their father's eyes. All of them were quite tall, and they were all wearing white and gold, which Merlin assumed was the colours of their kingdom.
"I introduce King Godfrey Neville," Uther gestured to the golden haired man, "his wife, Queen Fousafia Neville," he gestured to the woman with greying brown hair, "and his son and daughter, Prince Fabian Neville and Princess Rhianna Neville," he gestured to the twins, "of Lochbourne." Everyone in the crowded hall of people clapped. The four for Lochbourne on the left side of Uther, Arthur and Morgana.
The next royal family came in.
This king also had golden hair and a big crown, but this one had a thin and mean face. He was a giant of a man and he carried himself with a manner which showed that he thought he was better than everyone in the room, including the royal families. He had his arm around the waist of a gold haired beauty who must have been at most half his age. She had a sneer and she kept on winking at every handsome male that looked her way when the king looked in the other direction. A gold haired boy/man followed them. He was quite handsome, and carried himself in the same manner as the king, but he leered at the women, not caring who saw and who cared. A girl with tangled, ginger hair practically skipped behind them; she was obviously younger than all of the others, and her face glowed with her beaming smiles. They were all wearing blue and silver, which, again, was obviously their colours.
"I introduce King Alric Rowntree," Uther gestured to the giant king, "his new wife, Queen Jocelyn Rowntree," he gestured to the girl the king had his arm around, " his son, Prince Addison Rowntree," he gestured to the golden haired man who was still leering at the women, " and his daughter, Princess Emeline Rowntree," he gestured to the ginger girl who waved at everyone, "of Merrigate." Everyone in the hall clapped again as the four from Merrigate sat on the right side of Uther, Arthur and Morgana.
Uther kissed Queen Jocelyn's hand; her face rumpled in disguise, but when he raised his head, she smiled at him.
The next royal family entired, and Merlin gasped.
The king had raven black hair with serval grey hairs and a long beard. He was wearing a gold circlet. His eyes were sapphire blue and kind. A young woman walked next to him; she looked twenty, and she had dark brown hair and the same kind blue eyes. She was very beautiful, and almost every boy in the room eyed her with lust. Both of them were wearing red, white and black.
Her beauty was not the thing that made him gasp. In fact, her beauty didn't make him feel anything for her. Probably because he was so in love with Morgana that he didn't even notice other women. What made him gasp was their presense.
It was the presenses he had felt this morning. Now that they were so close, the memories suddenly made sense. Because Merlin had magic, he could remember things that normal people who forget in a heartbeat. The one thing that still amazed him about his long term memory was that he could sort of remember the day he was born.
The last time he had felt a presense like this was when he sensed his mother's presense for the first time.
"I introduce King Balinor Ambrosius," he gestured to the king with the greying black hair, "and his daughter, Princess Beatrice Ambrosius," Uther gestured to the beautiful princess, "of Belvale." Again, everyone clapped as the two sat next to the four from Lochbourne. Merlin's eyes widened.
Belvale was a kingdom on top of a cliff. Merlin had seen paintings of it, and it was truly beautiful. It was also a kingdom known for it's wealth, it's army that was at least twice the size of Camelot's... and it's royal family that were all born with magic. Belvale and Camelot haad been at war during the Great Purge, and the purge had stopped because Uther backed out of the war. Camelot and Belvale had been on bad terms ever since. Arthur had told Merlin that Uther was now more scared of magic than he had ever been before because of Morgause taking over Camelot a couple weeks ago and making Morgana her prisoner. He was now making amends with every kingdom that allowed magic, but trying to make them band magic at the same time. He had probably only invitied the Belvale royal family because they had such a big army.
The feast soon started, and instead of waiting on Arthur like he usually did, he and a kitchen girl, Alice, were waiting on the Lochbourne royal family. Princess Rhianna and Princess Beatrice spoke like old friends, even though it was clear that they had only just met. Prince Fabian spoke to Morgana for a bit, but then he joined in the conversation with his sister and her new friend. The feast flew by in no time, and soon, the royals were being escorted to their rooms.
Merlin escorted Fabian and Rhianna to their rooms next to each other.
"What is your name?" Rhianna asked him. Merlin smiled at her.
"Merlin."
Fabian smiled at him. "Thank you for your excellent service tonight." The prince held out his hand, and after Merlin shook it, he noticed that there was now a gold coin in his palm. He beamed at the prince.
"Thank you." Fabian smiled at him, and after bidding him a good night, Fabian and his sister went to their rooms.
Merlin turned the coin over in his hand. Arthur probably would have thought it was barely any money since he owned clothes worth over several gold coins, but this was the most amount of money Merlin had ever possessed. It was slightly cold and felt heavy. He ran his thumb over the ingravings. He had been raised in a village with next to no money, so even though this wasn't the first time he had seen a gold coin, he couldn't help the excitment and awe in his stomach.