Arthur glared at his laptop. He had expected to hear from Aqua today; he needed to hear from her. But he had been staring at the screen for thirty minutes and… nothing. She wasn't going to write today. They had fallen into some sort of rhythm, Aqua wrote in the evening and he wrote in the morning… they had been doing so for weeks now.
He had finally found out that Aqua was a girl, and she had written one day about the fact that she might be in love and he'd teased her about the fact that she seemed to fall in love quite a bit. They had shared their fears about the strange illness that had befallen Camelot and also the strange knight who had challenged the knights to duels. All in all, Phoenix and Aqua were actually becoming very good friends, he shared his frustrations about his father with her and in return she shared hers with him, all without actually disclosing their true identities.
They communicated every day except that time when Arthur had been under some sort of spell and had eloped with Sophia. After he had regained his senses he'd found many worried emails from Aqua and he had been able to tell truthfully, for once, that he had under some of sort of attack and couldn't write. Indeed of the two of them, Aqua was the more faithful writer of the two of them so her lack of communication was worrying him.
In addition to that, all his friends had gone off to Ealdor to help Merlin, whose home village was under attack from some raiders led by a man called Kanan. When Hunith, Merlin's mother had arrived Arthur had taken her to Uther who although sympathetic to their plight had refused to send them any help. Arthur had disagreed with his father's decision but he was helpless to do anything and had watched as Merlin, Morgana and Gwen had gone off to Ealdor to do what they could.
He stared at the computer again and then shut down. He would join his friends and help them, they really needed all the help they could get; Merlin could barely fight and Morgana and Gwen were just girls. His mind made up, Arthur packed some things and sent off.
000
Gwen watched as Arthur pretended to eat the food that Hunith had prepared for him. She remembered a conversation, if it could be called that, which she'd had with Phoenix. She has written to complain about Arthur or the 'prat' as they called him; again, that man took up too many of her thoughts. Phoenix had told her to talk to him, to tell him where he was going wrong and when she'd replied that she couldn't possibly do that, Phoenix had insisted that if it was beneficial to him then she should help him especially since she felt so strongly about it and him. Gwen had denied it of course but that didn't stop Phoenix from teasing her.
"Arthur hasn't eaten anything," Hunith said.
"I'll take it to him," Gwen took the bowl and went in search of Arthur.
She found him sitting on a fallen tree staring into the distance. "Hunith, made you some food," she told him.
He took it from her, stared at it and muttered, "Thanks." Gwen nodded and was about to leave him be when he added, "I think."
With Phoenix's words running through her mind, Gwen decided to speak her mind, the worst that Arthur could do was to tell her to shut up.
"Food is scarce for these people, you shouldn't turn your nose up at it," she said. She couldn't believe she had spoken like that to the Prince and she apologised immediately. She should have kept her mouth shut; she had no right to talk to him like that. No right at all.
"Gwen," Arthur said but she walked off. She had spoken out of turn and she had to leave immediately.
His "Guinevere," stopped her in her tracks and she turned around to face him. There was something in the way he said her name. "Thank you," he continued, "you're right. And you're right to speak up; I should have listened to you and Morgana. We're going to need all the help we can get."
His defeated tone had her walking towards him. "We'll be fine," she told him.
"How can you be so sure?" he asked.
"Because I have faith in you." Gwen couldn't believe she'd actually said that aloud to Arthur. It was all Phoenix's fault making her think there were …feelings where there were none. "I mean we all do," she amended.
"Thank you," Arthur told her. And she left as quickly as her feet could carry her wondering and hoping that Arthur was too taken up with the impeding battle to give any credence to her words. She couldn't believe she had actually said them.
000
'Dear Phoenix,
I'm back. I doubt you even noticed that I was gone. You were probably too busy doing what you do. Anyway I'm back and I wish I could tell exactly where I was but all I can say is that it was beautiful and I did actually manage to have some fun inspite of the seriousness of the situation I was in.
You'll never believe what happened. I actually spoke to the 'prat', I spoke to him and he actually listened to me. It was quite scary and liberating at the same time and I must tell you that I blame you entirely for it. Did I mention that he knows my name? He actually called me by name.
Aqua.
Ps. This is not another hint for you to ask me what my name is.'
0
'Dear Aqua,
Of course I noticed your absence but I won't say anymore about that because I don't want you getting a swollen heat about it. I've also been away from home for a bit but now I'm back and I must say it's great to be back although I also had a very surprising time where I was…but enough about that.
I totally accept the blame because I know that you are happy that you spoke to him. If he's anything like me then he must be happy to have someone like you in his life.
I will ignore that postscript and keep asking, you know what they say 'ask and you shall receive'.
Phoenix.'
Gwen read and re-read the first paragraph. Phoenix had also been away from Camelot for a while and from his email she assumed that he had just returned. She wondered idly if Merlin was Phoenix but dismissed it, she was sure that Phoenix was a native of Camelot. As for Arthur it was even ridiculous for her to consider him, he couldn't possibly have the time to write emails. Could he?
000
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