The gruff librarian sighed and gestured over to a chair next to him as Gaius looked at Geoffrey over the large desk. "Yes?"
He avoided the library as often as possible, carefully guarding the books he could and those he needed often in his own chambers, it was one place he just couldn't avoid the shadows of people long gone, and nausea rolled through him. "The king is considering a betrothal for the young prince, it would seem."
Geoffrey nodded stiffly, "It would certainly be a strong point in favour of any treaty, a stake in the succession, it could go a long way to ending the war."
Casting an eye over the documents covering the table Gaius schooled his features, "Isn't the prince a little young for such a thing?" He looked pointedly at the old genealogist.
"No younger than Odin's boy and Mithian are for theirs."
Oh dear. "Who are the candidates the king is considering, if you'll pardon my asking." The physician cringed, he had expected longer to consider his choices for this particular dilemma.
Geoffrey snorted, "Almost any girl of appropriate standing, provided the family have no history with magic or fertility problems. There are a ridiculous number of girls he wants me to look deeply into, though so far he seems to favour the young princess Elena and Lady Vivian."
There was a heavy darkness that seemed to suffocate Gaius, his eyes closed as he took a deep breath, "There must be a way to delay this."
Finally noting the sombre tone of his friend's voice Geoffrey strode to the door and bolted it, pulling shut the heavy curtain to muffle the sounds within. "No Gaius."
"One day he will realise, and we will both stand accused of lying to the king."
Geoffrey avoided looking at Gaius and handed him a cup of fortifying wine. "Well telling him what he does not wish to hear hasn't been working out well either, has it. To anyone who knows the old laws it will be clear enough, they know what to expect, and despite his complete rejection of the Old Religion, Uther learned them as well as anyone else."
"I doubt that somehow, and if Uther does he is most certainly in denial if he intends to force a betrothal through the council."
"Gaius, the blood has flowed in our home like rivers. We cannot destroy the fragile hope of the people for a lasting peace." Gaius looked anguished, burnings were still common.
"A hope that is false and we both know it. Is it not cruel to raise the prince in ignorance?
No matter how much blood Uther spills, the deal only ever traded one life for the potential of another. A dynasty cannot be bought with the years granted a single barren woman. These documents aren't history yet Geoffrey, they are the lives of little girls."
"Indeed they are. So help me build a profile of needs so that we can recommend one with the necessary strength, the heart to complement Arther's, who will neither topple Camelot, nor crumble as dreams of children, family and long loves turn to ashes. The land will not survive another bitter ruler left alone. The king has made the decision to raise the boy in ignorance, and you've taken oaths Gaius. You could never explain these consequences without explaining the circumstances of his birth and his mother's death. The king would declare this element a perversion of magic," he whispered the word, "despite the absence of any, and another wave of deaths would follow."
"You are certain we should be silent on this my friend?" Gaius kept his voice low.
Geoffrey sighed, suddenly feeling very tired, and older than his years. "The end of the bloodline and inevitability of never seeing grandchildren? Yes I am certain. If he does not wish to acknowledge it then I have no desire to lose any more friends in yet another witch-hunt, or listen to stupidity reign in council about the malice of high priestesses. Perhaps the king can be encouraged to wait a little longer to arrange a betrothal, perhaps play Gawant and Olaf against each other. It's a pity there isn't a daughter to offer in exchange or double bond with." This was why no one would play chess with the old librarian anymore. He couldn't simply leave the machinations to others, and yet looked completely harmless.
The physician's craft had taught him long ago that the worst fatal illnesses or poisons often looked the most innoccous at the outset. The most dangerous were always those that could pass unnoticed and not catch attention, it held true for people.
"Do we not risk history repeating itself if we leave it shrouded in silence? The problem will be equally difficult and significant for the son as the father."
"Then I suppose we must inform our successors should we survive to have them, and pray that they are wiser and cannier than we were this time."
Gaius snorted, "I don't intend to train one after what was done to my last apprentice. I'll try to save as many people as I can until the breath leaves my body, but 'physician' is a title the men die for quite literally these days. I won't willingly do that to another."
The old librarians eyes softened, "Yes you will. You care too much for your prince to leave him without protection you trust, even if you curse yourself all the while for burdening and risking them in the castle."
"They can bring someone from another master in then." he couldn't quite keep the bitterness from bleeding into his tone.
Geoffrey shook his head, "My dear Gaius, you'd be too stubborn to die, following them everywhere and wanting to check their reasoning and diagnoses. Plus you wouldn't trust their loyalties. The court will always need someone to heal wounds and illnesses, they wouldn't realise they need a record keeper until I am gone." Unable to honestly refute that, Gaius was completely still for a long moment breaking his silence so softly that Geoffrey almost didn't hear.
"A life for a life. If it had been Uther's life.."
"But it wasn't."
"If it had been though."
"It wasn't Gaius. No one can change time, or the laws the world is built upon. If someone could choose, could control whose life was used in the exchange, what would it make them but a god among men?"
Gaius sank into a convenient seat. "Thank you Geoffrey. I know you are right, it just seems that each day brings more darkness, more secrecy. I wonder if, by the time I pass over, there will be any of my soul left to pass on."
The librarian scowled, he understood, like no-one else could, "They do. The truth is hidden and the lies are taught, this world we live in is wrong, but to preserve all that we can will consume us both."
As negotiations dragged on, Uther was carefully convinced that any betrothal should be saved for a more critical treaty, the prince perhaps dangled like bait in front of potential allies, a ploy that appeared to work. It was one he would later use shamelessly with another child in his household, one who might have ensured the survival of his bloodline had he ever been able to take responsibility for past sins, but Uther Pendragon had never been one to accept consequences publicly, and Morgana was a living, breathing daily reminder of exactly those sins.
All of his flaws personified in a pretty little package, on the outside the image of her mother.
Just like his son looked at him with Igraine's eyes, Morgana saw through him and held her head high when she raged. Had two old men known of their king's infidelity, so many wrongs may have been averted, but it was far too late for that, and the court of Camelot stood already on a foundation of lies.
One more could surely make no difference...