Chapter 9

Beðian Winescipas

Disclaimer: I do not own either Danny Phantom or Merlin

"So what do you think of our young Danny?" Elyan heard Gwaine ask as the roguish knight took a deep drink from his tankard. As soon as Gwaine and Percival had returned from their hunt, Gwaine had immediately said they were heading out to the tavern. Elyan and Leon had been only too happy to accompany them; with the preparations for the visiting kingdoms entering their final stages, the citadel was becoming very overcrowded with people cleaning and preparing.

"He's a tough little bugger." Percival commented, quietly sipping from his own cup. "He actually managed to knock one of the serkets unconscious when he elbowed it."

"I didn't see that." Gwaine replied, an almost disgruntled twinge in his voice. "What was he doing when you stabbed the last one?"

Elyan watched as Percival shook his head confusedly. "He flipped it over so I could get at it. Fast reflexes that one has."

Elyan sighed, looking into his mug of ale. He'd been making his own observations during the week, and what he heard in passing now only seemed to confirm it. Danny was a brave and talented fighter, if it weren't for the fact he seemed to have imprinted on Merlin there was no doubt that any of them would take him on as a proper squire. But no matter what, every time Elyan looked out of the corner of his eye something stopped him.

"He reminds me of the druid boy." Elyan murmured, more into his mug than anything else, but Leon caught him.

"Pardon?" The red haired knight asked, his head cocked slightly sideways in curiosity.

Elyan briefly met the elder knight eyes before looking away. It was one of the things that still haunted him, nearly a year after the fact. It was one of the few horrors he'd faced alone, and one that his fellow knights had never truly understood. They hadn't seen what he'd seen or heard what he'd heard that day.

"He reminds me of the boy from the druid shrine." Elyan mumbled, staring into the pale liquid of his mug.

"How?" Gwaine asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

Elyan shrugged, unsure of how to explain. It wasn't how the boy looked, Danny was a lot older than the child had been, and they didn't look anything alike. Physically Danny looked a lot like Merlin, and Elyan had mistaken them for each other from a distance more than once. And Danny was a warrior, more so than the dead druid boy had been. But... maybe it was something in the eyes. The drowned child had had a strange power in his dead eyes, and sometimes Elyan could almost see that same look shining through in Danny's eyes.

"Don't know." Elyan replied dismissively. It was something unsettling, but he knew none of the others saw it. He didn't even know what it was, just that somehow Danny managed to remind him of the spirit.

"He reminds me of Merlin." Leon commented, gratefully taking the attention away from Elyan. "When he first came to Camelot."

Percival made a questioning noise. "Merlin was a lot more... outspoken then." The eldest knight replied, his words careful despite the two tankards that Elyan had already seen him consume. "He was brave, but foolhardy and more careless than he is today."

"And yet we love him all the same," Gwaine added. "Even after you lot got to him."

"Got to who?" Merlin's voice asked, coming through the tavern door. Elyan looked up, seeing the two dark haired boys coming through the worn wooden door and coming up to their table. Side by side they could easily pass as brothers, having the same gangly build and blue eyes. But Elyan still couldn't escape the feeling that there was something in the younger boy's eyes that was just that bit different to Merlin's lively blue ones.

"Merlin!" Gwaine called out cheerfully, managing to attract the attention of the whole tavern as he pulled the two across the room and plonked them at the table. Merlin ended up next to Leon and Elyan, but Danny somehow ended up wedged between Percival and Gwaine on the other side of the table. Barely a minute later there were two extra mugs at the table and a fresh flagon of ale had refilled their empty ones.

"Now that you're here, we can inform these two unlucky sods exactly what they missed out on today." The roguish knight declared, cheerfully slinging an arm around Danny's shoulders. Elyan just watched, he had never been one for being the centre of attention, preferring to just sit and observe.

Gwaine cheerfully launched into a retelling of their entire hunting trip, although Elyan suspected that he was embellishing on it a lot, especially when he started going on about the ten foot tall serket that he defeated bare handed. Merlin snickered into his ale as Gwaine finished up, a proud, almost challenging look on his face.

"As I recall," Merlin piped up, "The only one tackling those things without any weapons was Danny."

"Yeah, well," Gwaine said, not at all dissuaded by Merlin's biting remark. "I still got the stinger."

"Which you've been flashing around since you got back." Leon added dryly.

Elyan shook his head as he took a sip of ale, idly noting that his cup was nearly empty. "I think you scared the younger knights half out of their minds when you showed up in the armoury."

"Bunch of no good prissy nobles if they can't even handle seeing a disembodied serket sting." Gwaine complained loudly and sending a half mocking toast towards Leon – the only born noble in their circle.

"I fail to see how jumping out of the shadows and growling like one of the beasts serves as an accurate judgement of character." Leon commented, raising an eyebrow in Gwaine's direction.

"That's where you are wrong, my dear Leon." Gwaine retorted, a teasing smirk playing onto his lips. "See our greenie knights got scared off by little old me, when our Danny here actually managed to fend two off by himself." The knight took the opportunity to ruffle the younger boy's hair before surreptitiously refilling his cup.

"Have to agree with Gwaine on that one." Percival added on. "In the middle of the armoury with free access to any number of weapons and they were intimidated by Gwaine."

"With a serket sting." Elyan tacked on. "Remember, most of them ended up having to hide in the Darkling Woods six months ago."

"But everyone knows Gwaine." Merlin chipped in, blue eyes sparkling with humour and a touch of inebriation. "You lot aren't keeping them up to scratch if they're running scared from Gwaine and his new toy."

"Says the one who was hiding behind a tree. Again." Percival pointed out dryly.

"It was a good tree." Danny defended in Merlin's stead. "There's nothing wrong with that sort of tactical retreat." Elyan glanced curiously at the boy, taking a moment to look at him. His blue eyes were bright, but had a dull edge that seemed to have little to do with the third cup of mead he'd just consumed. He was only using his left arm, and Elyan idly noted a sort of damp patch on the top of his right sleeve, but Gwaine was being careless and there was a reason people tended to stay at least two feet away from Gwaine when he went to the tavern. Not everyone liked going home soaked in mead and ale and whatever else the man was splashing around.

Still, the boy was cheery enough, and even laughed along at Merlin's dismissive "I'll leave the fighting to the blokes with pointy stabby things, thanks." And soon enough the topic moved away from their repurposed hunting trip and onto other bawdier topics that managed to make both Merlin and the younger boy blush a bright shade of red. The tavern maid soon came around to deliver another flagon of ale, and Elyan really hoped the plan was to share the bill at the end of the evening.

It was relaxing though, to take a couple of hours away from the bustle of the castle to wind down. Gwaine seemed to be trying his hardest to get both Merlin and Danny drunk, Merlin probably because of the rarity of his visits to the tavern, and Danny because he was Gwaine's latest mystery. Elyan had never really understood Gwaine's preferred method of interrogation or of relaxation for that matter. His own preference was to sit in front of a forge and discuss things with an 'assistant' if necessary.

Still, by the time the candles had burned low in their holders he could feel a pleasant warmth on his cheeks. Leon had dismissed himself not too long before, anticipating that he would need to be up early in the morning. Elyan and Percival had gotten into a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of sleeves on chainmail; Percy was still stubbornly refusing to let him finish his 'mail. And Gwaine seemed to have silently challenged the younger boy into some kind of drinking match, neither of them showing any signs of needing to slow down.

It was when the owner of the Rising Sun gave a courtesy call saying that he was closing up for the evening that Merlin decided it was time to take the boy home. Danny got up with a visible sway, to which Gwaine hollered in victory. But Elyan's gaze was fixed on the boy's still sharp eyes. He wasn't drunk, but his eyes had taken on that strange edge again that managed to send a shiver down Elyan's spine. Merlin and Danny sent a cheerful wave goodbye, Merlin contributing a few coins as their share for the evening before leading the younger dark haired boy out the door.

He sat blinking at the door for a minute before realising that they were gone, and maybe the ale had muddied his thinking more than he'd thought. Still, Gwaine insisted on finishing the last cup, and all three of them ended up taking their own slow and cheery way back up to the castle. With the pleasant buzzing in his head Elyan even found himself forgetting the strange sort of power in Danny's eyes and instead settled back to listen to Gwaine's cheery retelling of one of his stranger adventures, something to do with a frog and a hedgehog and a pretty maid beside a pond. Despite it all Elyan had actually enjoyed the evening, so maybe spending a bit of time down in the tavern hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

Merlin frowned as he led the way towards the physician's chambers. Beside him Danny was silent, his face carefully blank, and Merlin hadn't been able to get the boy to say what was wrong. The hours spent at the tavern had been pleasant enough, and Gwaine had of course been overly enthusiastic about keeping everyone's cups filled. Merlin himself was already sporting the sort of light headedness that meant he'd have a serious headache in the morning. He was still able to think, but he didn't like how much his coordination had been affected.

What he could tell was that something was interfering with the boy's powers. And it didn't seem to be due to the alcohol he'd just consumed. The boy had been almost impervious to the effects of the ale, despite Gwaine's ever-so-surreptitious way of filling it three times for every drink Merlin had had. What he could feel was the way the cold magic fluctuated wildly around the boy, shrinking in and then flaring back out. They were both lucky that it hadn't had any noticeable effects, at least not yet. But Merlin didn't want to guess how long that could possibly last.

Subtly he picked up the pace, speeding up as he got closer to the safety of his home. Danny matched his pace silently, but a glance over his shoulder let Merlin see the slight sway in his walk. Merlin pushed open the heavy door, quickly noting that while Gaius was there, he didn't have a patient. Without a second thought he tugged the younger boy through the door and slammed it behind them.

"Okay, talk." Merlin said bluntly. Usually he'd try a less direct approach, but in this case his head was pounding too much for him to dance around the subject. His eyes slid over the boy, surveying him carefully. His eyes narrowed as they fixed on a slight damp patch on the boy's right sleeve, noting now the dark stain against the red fabric. His eyes softened. "What happened?"

Danny shrugged, but Merlin caught the flinch the movement caused. "The serket, back in the clearing... it would've hit Percival the first time it struck." Danny replied slowly. "I sort of... pushed him out of the way."

"Serkets?" Gaius gasped, dropping the book he was reading despite the late hour of the night. Gaius must have decided to stay up for them, or perhaps he'd just lost track of the time in the thick volume he was reading. "Merlin, was anyone hurt?"

Merlin shook his head. "No casualties. At least none we knew of." Merlin took another look at the boy, frowning. None of them had been hurt, somehow the knights always managed to escape with surface wounds at worst. But there was a sheen of sweat on Danny's forehead, and his pupils were slightly too dilated for the light they were in. But that wasn't possible; if Danny had been stung he should be long unconscious by now. But the dazedness of the younger boy's gaze was too severe for any surface wound.

"Danny, take off your shirt." Merlin commanded, tugging the boy over to the examination bed despite his protestations. It was only years in Arthur's service that actually allowed him to force the boy down long enough to wrestle the shirt off. For all that the boy had some of Merlin's reserved characteristics; it seemed he could be as much of a hard-headed dollop-head as any of the knights. But when the red cloth was pulled away Merlin withdrew in shock.

"Gaius." Merlin gasped, calling his mentor over. Merlin stepped back, but the sight on the boy's arm didn't fade from sight. His bicep had been slashed three inches across, but the flesh at the edge of the cut looked like it had been burned by some type of acid. The inflamed ring around it was blackened, and green tinged tendrils stretched out away from the laceration. Merlin knew what a serket sting was supposed to look like, but even in the final stages, right before death came, it didn't look like that.

Gaius prodded the wound, eliciting a sharp pained breath from the boy. Merlin saw the questioning glance Gaius sent at him before the silver haired man looked back to Danny. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened." Gaius ordered, leaving no room for questioning. Danny sent a fleeting look at Merlin before his eyes went back to look at Gaius.

"When the first serket attacked, Percival was about to be hit. I pushed him out of the way, but I guess the sting grazed my arm." The boy blinked musingly. "It looks worse than I thought it would."

Merlin watched as Gaius blinked. Twice. "You do realise that the only known cure for a serket's sting is magic. You should be dead."

Danny made a strange movement, halfway between a nod and a shake of his head. "Right. But that's for humans, yeah."

"I've been stung by serkets before, and the only thing that saved me was Kilgharrah's magic." Merlin replied, worried at the boy's blasé attitude.

"Yeah, but..." Danny paused, a slight frown on his face. "I'm already dead, in the most technical form of the word. And it's pretty hard to destroy a full ghost."

"You think you have some resistance to the venom by virtue of being half ghost?" Gaius surmised. And Danny nodded.

"It stings, and I'm well aware that I've been hit." Danny replied. "But I've survived worse, and even if this is a different sort of pain than I'm used to I can manage." Gaius looked at him sceptically and Danny sent Merlin a pained look.

"Seriously." The boy repeated. "This isn't much worse than when Skulker tries out a new ecto-bazooka. It'll probably be gone by the morning."

Merlin sighed, shaking his head tiredly as he looked down at the boy. While the references he was making didn't really make sense to him, he could see that the boy was going to be stubborn about it anyway. He shouldn't have taken him out to the tavern; they should have just come straight home. Now, Merlin didn't know how much damage the serket sting could have done with how long the venom had been in the boy's system. And if Danny was anything like the knights, Merlin realised that all he could do was keep an eye on him and make sure it didn't get any worse.

"I shouldn't have taken you out tonight." Merlin commented, looking tiredly across at his mentor.

"I'll put some honey on it." Gaius commented, ambling over to his workbench and giving Merlin and Danny some space.

"Why didn't you tell me you'd been hurt?" Merlin asked, trying hard to keep the disappointment out of his voice.

Danny shrugged, looking up at him with weary blue eyes. "I'm used to having to hide it." He replied. "Back home... I can't really talk to mom and dad about getting treatment, they don't know. It's not like I can explain how a broken arm magically fixes itself overnight. And it's just easier to pretend I'm okay otherwise so my friends don't worry."

"That's stupid." Merlin commented, sending him a scathing look as he took a bowl of water off his mentor. Gaius was back with supplies to help clean the wound, and was already washing the injury out with a swath of clean cloth and water.

"You've probably done the same thing." The boy retorted, sending Merlin a knowing glance. "How do you explain an injury when the only possible source is magic, especially when you've built an image of being the clumsy weakling?" The boy rolled his eyes. "Besides, there's no point worrying them when there's nothing they can do."

Merlin was about to retort when Gaius interrupted them. "I've done what I can, but I don't like the looks of the green in the wound, I've never seen anything like it."

Danny frowned, looking down at the injury at the same time as Merlin. Now that the area was clean of sticky red it looked a lot worse. Some of the flesh had turned a rotten shade of black, but the green tendrils were highlighted even more on the boy's pale skin. Danny however seemed to be seeing something different, shaking his head dismissively.

"I think it'll be alright." He commented. "My ghost side is taking care of it. It looks sort of like the time I got bitten by a hydra ghost, and that healed up okay."

"I'll be checking on it in the morning." Gaius commented. "Even if you believe it's alright to run around untreated in your home, I won't abide that sort of thing here. You are currently living with the court physician and if nothing else it reflects poorly on me if one of my charges is running around sick."

Danny nodded, appearing suitably chastised. And Merlin briefly wondered if this was the first time an adult had taken responsibility for him like this. From the sounds of it, the only people who knew his secret were close to Danny's own age, and wouldn't be able to fill the role of a parental caregiver the way Gaius had for him. Merlin felt a sudden wave of gratefulness for his mentor, he hadn't realised just how much he relied on Gaius's support until he imagined trying to live without it.

Silence settled around them as Gaius finished cleaning off the sting, bandaging it tightly in clean cloth before sending the two of them to bed. Merlin found himself yawning as he ascended the stairs, the pleasant buzz from their time at the tavern having faded into a definite headache. He shook his head, sending a careless look towards the younger boy as he slipped into his nightshirt. The dark haired boy looked weary, and even in the darkness Merlin could see circles under his eyes. Whatever confidence the boy was able to force out, just looking at him told a different story.

Despite his reassurances, it was clear that the boy was in pain, and Merlin could still feel the way the boy's icy magic flared in response. But no doubt the boy would continue being stubborn about it, refusing to rest until he was sure that everything else was alright. Merlin shook his eyes, crashing down into his own pillow. "Onslæp nu" he mumbled tiredly, sending the boy to sleep instantly as he caught the boy between magical flares. He didn't feel guilty about it, he himself was too tired to care, and if Danny wanted to be as stupidly stubborn as the dollop-heads, then Merlin didn't mind occasionally treating him like one.

Merlin yawned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head as he drew into his pillow, finally letting the calming arms of sleep embrace him after a long and busy day. His eyes fluttered closed lethargically, weighted by both exhaustion from 'hunting' and the dizzying after-effects of the alcohol. Yet despite the taxing nature of the day he settled in to sleep with a soft smile on his face. After all, it wasn't often that Arthur even let him have an evening off.

Gwen smiled as she walked through the bustling streets of the lower town, waving to some of the citizens as they went about their morning jobs. It had barely been six months since she had married Arthur, and even still she found solace in wandering through the lower town. The people there were her people, hard working and living in a world far away from the demands and trials of court life. Gwen knew that she was managing, but she still sometimes felt a bit out of place when she was dealing with the council or talking with the Ladies of the castle.

Plus there was a sort of charming simplicity in the lower town, something that none of the nobles ever really saw when they kept the people at arm's length. Gwen didn't want to be one of them, and thoroughly enjoyed whatever time she got to spend with all of Camelot's citizens. Gwen smiled as she made her way past a small market stall and saw a couple of children playing on the street. The two young boys were pretending to be knights, each playing with wooden sticks as though they were real swords.

Her smile widened as she walked past the bakers and she purchased a couple of bread rolls which quickly joined the fresh flowers in her basket. The children's game had moved further down the street, and now featured the fearless King Arthur facing the Great Dragon. As the 'monster' was defeated she walked up to the two young boys, handing each of them a bread roll each and earning an appreciative smile from their watching mothers.

Gwen loved the people, having lived with them for all her life. And her love for Arthur would never make her forget her roots. Even now life in the lower town was becoming fairer for the people who lived there as she and Arthur both fought to make Camelot a just place for all its citizens. Shaking her head she walked onwards, heading back towards the citadel so that she could get changed. The first delegation was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon, and Gwen was well aware of the need to present a united front to their guests.

As she was nearing the gates she heard a note of mocking laughter and the telltale spattering of fruit that indicated someone's sojourn to the stocks. Biting her lip as curiosity got the better of her; Gwen altered her path towards the source of the noise. She blinked, twice, a strange sense of familiarity as her mind turned back to a similar image nearly seven years before.

In the stocks was a young boy, raven hair damp with tomato splatter and soggy lettuce juice. His wrists were bound in iron shackles, even as his arms and neck were locked in place by the heavy wood frame of the stocks. But he was laughing, a childish smile lighting sparkling blue eyes as the boy was pelted with rotting fruit. It looked so familiar to her, a strange resurgence of an event from those happy years.

"Merlin?" She asked confusedly, walking closer to the apparatus as the children took a break to restock. But she paused when she got closer she realised that the boy was in fact not Merlin. He was too young and his eyes had a different light in them than Merlin's did. There was, however, a striking resemblance between them, and if she didn't know better she would have said that this boy was Merlin's younger brother.

The boy looked up, blue eyes looking curiously at her. "Hi." The boy said, apparently having heard her as she came up to him. "No, not Merlin. I'm Danny."

Gwen's eyes closed in accepting realisation as a smile tugged onto her lips. All week she'd been hearing about Merlin's new ward, predominantly through her husband who didn't know what to make of the younger boy. Danny had made quite an impression on both the king and the knights, but the most common was the observation that he seemed to be like a younger Merlin.

"I shouldn't be surprised that you've found your way into the stocks then." Gwen replied with a warm smile. "I'm Guinevere."

The boy blinked, before a tinge of embarrassment blushed onto his cheeks. "Your Majesty..." he said sounding surprisingly flustered. "I mean... My Lady... I mean"

Gwen held back a laugh. "Gwen will do fine, Danny. And if you can get it through Merlin's head, all the better. He still insists on calling me 'My Lady' even though we've been friends for years. Now what did you do to get yourself put in the stocks?"

Danny bit his lip uncertainly, apparently shy about the reason. "Come now," Gwen comforted, keeping half an eye on the growing crowd. They wouldn't start up again until she had gone, but she caught the cheeky brown eyes of Sir Gwaine loitering towards the back. "You've been running around after Merlin all week, I very much doubt that there's anything you could have done that Merlin hasn't exceeded over the years."

The boy bit his lip before beginning a cautious explanation. "Merlin may have sent me to get the Kings breakfast this morning since he was still sleeping off last night." He didn't sound guilty, precisely, but there was still a strange note in his voice. "And I may have ended up saying that it was weird that he didn't know how to dress himself, being king and all."

Gwen pressed a hand to her lips as she bit back a laugh. "Oh, Danny." She breathed. "Sometimes Arthur is just a bit hopeless; he usually only lets Merlin get away with that sort of comment."

"But..." Danny almost pouted, "I mean, he's nearly a decade older than me."

Gwen just shook her head fondly. There was certainly something of Merlin in the boy, the first thing Merlin had ever done was insult Arthur and he'd ended up in the stocks for it. But at the same time Danny was a very different person. Arthur had been quietly impressed when he came back from his hunting trip, and that was not the easiest thing to do.

She bade the boy farewell, happy to have finally met him. He seemed like a nice kid, perhaps slightly more self confident than Merlin had been at that age. And he also had that strange indescribable extra something about him; the curious sparkle in the eyes as though he was in on some private joke that the rest of the world had yet to catch up on. Although while similar, Gwen somehow knew that whatever it was, it was completely different to Merlin's warm glimmer.

As she walked away she smiled, glad that Merlin may have found something of a kindred spirit in the boy. She'd noticed that sometimes Merlin would draw away, as though he felt like an outsider in their little family. As her oldest friend it tore at her heart when Merlin did that, but it was somewhat inevitable, especially now that she'd been crowned queen. She secretly hoped that Danny would be good for Merlin, not in the educational way Arthur anticipated – some nonsense about teaching Merlin responsibility – but in helping Merlin felt like he wasn't alone.

Gwen sent a knowing glance at Gwaine as the knight walked through the crowd, a pail full of rotten tomatoes in his hands. "Don't be too hard on him." She murmured before walking away and back up to the castle, pointedly ignoring Gwaine's cheerily sarcastic "Never, My Lady" in response. She sighed as she walked through the doors to her chambers, knowing that her morning out had cost her more time than she really had in getting ready for the arrival of the delegation from Nemeth.

It was barely under an hour later that she was washed and dressed in an almost excessively opulent red dress, waiting on the front steps of the citadel for their guests to arrive. This would be the first time she met King Rodor and his daughter Mithian, and she was not sure what to expect. Mithian had been Arthur's intended briefly while she herself was in exile, and Gwen did not know how Mithian would react to meeting her, or how she was expected to feel about meeting the woman who had very nearly married the man she loved.

But that was not important at the moment; instead she focused on the task at hand, catching Arthur's hand in hers as they waited together on the front steps. Arthur had determined that in this case an informal greeting was most appropriate, and Gwen had agreed, knowing that he had more experience in this sort of matter than she did. Behind them the knights of Camelot stood proud, forming a unified 'V' shape down the stairs, cloaks of Camelot red and gold flickering in the wind. Off to the sides a number of servants were waiting, but it was only years of having stood in the exact same spot that allowed her to find them in their hidden alcoves.

Ahead a trumpet sounded, and the clatter of horseshoes on stone alerted them to the arrival of the delegation. The first thing Gwen saw were the two leading knights, cloaked in green with a black unicorn painted proudly onto their green shields. But her eyes flicked further back, ignoring the armoured knights for the two riders towards the rear of the line. Even from this distance she could tell that the princess had indeed accompanied her father.

"King Rordor." Arthur commented warmly as the two dismounted, although Gwen could hear the cautious nervousness in her husband's voice. "Princess Mithian. You are most welcome to Camelot."

"Arthur." The elderly king replied, smiling as he caught Arthur's wrist in a firm handshake. "It is good to see you on such terms." The man then turned his attention to Gwen, and she felt the evaluative gaze pass over her. "And this must be the lovely young Guinevere." Rodor continued with a wide smile as he caught her hand and touched his lips to her fingers. "Please accept our apologies in not attending your wedding."

"It's quite alright, Rodor." Arthur stepped in, mercifully saving her from the political nightmare that could inadvertently be caused by her replying. "The ceremony was held only shortly after Morgana's defeat. We welcome your presence now and trust that this only leads our kingdoms on to greater friendship."

"Quite so, my boy. Quite so." The elderly king replied. "It is an audacious endeavour you've set about, I wish you success."

"It is an endeavour I believe in, this is a time for peace and for our kingdoms to form not simply treaties, but genuine friendships." Arthur replied, and Gwen could feel the conviction in his voice. He didn't expand on it, he didn't need to. Months of preparation and organisation came down to this, and in her heart Gwen truly believed that Arthur could do what no other man had done before; unite the kingdoms in the name of peace.

Gwen felt relieved when the welcoming party began to break up, the knights being led to the barracks where all the foreign dignitaries' knights would stay, and the servants coming out to assist in carrying the bags. Arthur of course offered Merlin's services to Rodor and Mithian, and Gwen was quietly amused to see Danny following behind him like a little lost duckling. She smiled once more at her husband, releasing a small surprised yelp when he wrapped his arms around her.

"It's really happening, isn't it?" Arthur asked, his blue eyes looking lovingly into hers and she felt the world melt around them.

"It is." She replied, leaning forward just enough to kiss him on the nose. "And you're going to be brilliant."

Arthur beamed at her, and it was as though the rest of the court didn't matter. In that instant there was only the two of them, gazing into each other's eyes as Arthur built the Camelot he'd always dreamed of. And Gwen's heart filled with joy as she realised that she had even a small part of the great future that Arthur was building, not just for the people of Camelot, but for the entire population of Albion. And despite all the troubles in their past, and the no doubt countless difficulties in the path yet to come, Gwen couldn't help but feel that somehow this was the beginning of something truly great.

AN; Okay, sorry for the wait, this really didn't want to be written until I changed my mind about the scene order. But... we got the tavern scene, and the plot is finally moving along. Gwen has met Danny, finally, and now the first delegation has arrived. We're getting somewhere.

Translations;
Beðian Winescipas – Warming Friendships
Onslæp nu – Sleep now

Anyway, I love you all, but have had slightly too much sugar today and so am going to leave off before I bore you to death.

Cheers,

Bluerose