Quick clarification(s) for anonymous reviewers, anthi35 and catherine10:
Anthi35: Morgause and Morganna are BOTH related to Uther and Arthur (admittedly, depending on the stories). A lot of it involves tricking people into sharing a bed, and it gets confusing after a point. However, what I can tell you is that in the original stories, the three only shared a mother (That's right, Ygraine was married toGorlois before she married Uther- not a plot point I'm using, but neat trivia); from what I can tell of the BBC, it's either the three share a father, which would explain why Uther wanted to get rid of her as a baby and why Morganna didn't know she had a sister; or Morgause and Morganna share a mother while Arthur and Morganna share a father, making Morgause completely unrelated to Arthur and Uther. For purposes of this fic, I have chosen the three sharing a father.
Catherine10: Remember Merlin's first chapter? Arthur guides him to Gaius, and then says he has to have dinner with his father. Merlin only knows Arthur's father is in Camelot, a noble and estranged from his son, not that he's the king. He only mentions Arthur's father in Lancelot's chapter because he thinks he is a noble and might have sponsored Lancelot. Also, in Arthur's chapter: he only refers to the king as his father around Gaius, and even then only when it's not official kingdom business (My father wants me for X vs The King has ordered I do Y).
More details in story.
MC: There was muttering, and cursing, and 'how the jello does no one notice who's a villain in this show?' along with 'Great, hire someone you know nothing about and get rid of the guy who has proven loyal, that's NOT a bad idea, at all.' It got repeated when I showed her episode 1 of season 2. (Yes, she said Jello, she meant to say hell. She does that sometimes, why she prefers writing to speaking.)
Gaius
He wonders sometimes, what happened to them all? When did they fall apart? Ygraine's death had only been the final catalyst in a split that had started much earlier, he thinks, remembering the way Balinor and Agravaine had drifted off once Uther was crowned king. (Or had it been further back, back when they'd had to leave Gorlois and Tristan to almost certain death in that Man's hands?)
Not that Gaius wants to go back to the days fighting battle after battle, always wondering if it was the last time he'd see them leave, or how wondering when they returned how much time before the next skirmish.
He doesn't reminisce to anyone about those days, sometimes he wished he could. Doing so, however, would open old wounds that were finally closing.
Gaius is 20 years older than his little sister Hunith. He'd been there for Merlin's birth and the next few months, before returning and staying in Camelot, though Hunith had written to him often.
Merlin doesn't understand his loyalty to Uther, no one does, not even Gorlois had, during the days of the Purge. Gaius doesn't have the words to explain that Uther was the one that granted him the pardon, he had not sought it out, had not expected it; Uther had simply told Gaius that if he would swear fealty in front of the court and promise to never practice magic, he would never harm him.
Gaius had hated Uther, when they first met; it's not a memory he enjoys, because it involves that Man, the one who would have misused magic to take over all the kingdoms, and Gaius' own gullibility and desperation.
Uther, then, had been more like Morganna now, clever and the most skilled swordsman of his time. The initial forgiveness had only come because they needed a healer for Gorlois. He doesn't even remember when the two had become friends.
His magic is more adept to healing than anything, but he knows more than a few spells to defend himself and his patients. He'd had to learn them, back in those days, where spells best left unsaid were used, killing their casters along with the victims, the druids and creatures of the Old Religion were driven into a frenzy by the way That Man had misused Magic, somehow turning it on itself. (Nimueh would gain a haunted look every time she'd try to explain it, and none of the dragons or dragonlords would give a straight answer. Balinor would just change the subject.)
Ygraine had been the only one of them who had survived the battles and war without losing her sweet nature. Gaius had learned that sometimes there was nothing he could do for those brought to him, save make them more comfortable, Balinor had decided that most people, including fellow dragonlords (and the one lady, she'd been on the other side, though, and no one had bothered explaining her existence) weren't worth talking to, spending more time with Kilgharrah and other dragons; Uther had learned that he could not fight in the front, instead he must be willing to send others to certain death in order to win the day; Nimueh had almost lost her life, finding out how far she could bend the rules and laws of the Old Religion to help them; Tristan had become more and more willing to fight; as had Gorlois, until the birth of Morganna; Vivienne, he remembers, had suffered for her husband's absences, he might have only eyes for her, but that meant nothing when he was eager to leave at the merest hint of a fight; and Agravaine's cheerful and playful nature had turned into something darker.
Loyal he was to Uther, he'd still stood aside and let other's escape: Alice, Balinor, Nimueh … he'd been unwilling to help them, but could not hinder them, and so he'd done nothing.
"Why are you loyal to him?" Nimueh's blue eyes had been accusing as she held up Balinor, weak from his brief but cruel imprisonment. "He'll turn on you, you know he will!"
Balinor murmured in the odd tongue of dragon magic, reaching out to Kilgharrah and sounding almost delirious.
"Get out of here." Gorlois ordered, standing next to him. "The next time we meet, it's as enemies."
Nimueh's eyes had darkened, then. "So be it, but you might want your wife's opinion on this, Gorlois!" And with a flash, she and Balinor were gone.
When Vivienne was revealed to have magic, Gorlois had begged for her life, but Uther had refused any mercy save they could choose how she died.
Gorlois had made him swear to protect the life of Morganna, and the next day, Gaius was called to examine their bodies. The two had drunk poison, and Uther took Morganna as his ward as he promised.
Nimueh then kidnapped Arthur, though at the time they hadn't known that. It was only when Kay mentioned to Bedivere (while being patched up after their brawl with Mercia's knights and time in the dungeons) that he'd seen the servant woman before, around the time Arthur came to them, and wanted to know who she was, that Gaius connected the dots.
He didn't tell Uther, it was bad enough he'd had to tell him that Nimueh had tried to poison the well and might have been behind the attempts to sabotage the treaty, he didn't need to add that as well.
Arthur, at least, has turned out to be more like his mother, despite the fits of temper that are much like Uther's, and the stubbornness in holding a grudge. (Ygraine's loyalty and Uther's stubbornness is a combination that many once feared, and Gaius is especially fearful for what it means for Arthur to have both.) Gaius respects his wishes to not acknowledge the king as his father, but makes sure he acknowledges that he does have a father in Camelot.
(He does not explain the situation to Merlin beyond Arthur being estranged from his father, because Uther the father is a very different man from Uther the King. Besides, that's Arthur's secret to tell when he's ready.)
Uther's always had a temper, made worse by concern for those he cares about. It had taken Ygraine, Gorlois and Gaius to calm him down then, now it's only Gaius, and Gaius is not surprised when Uther dismisses him in favor of a man who will cure his (secret-illegitimate daughter) ward, and does. It is the nature of a king, to reward those that serve him and dismiss those who are not capable at their jobs.
Uther's worst enemy has always been himself, though, so Gaius does not leave when he's told to, and he never will. He swore his loyalty to Uther on a bloodstained battlefield, and no matter what Uther does, Gaius will never break that oath. (Uther knows that, sometimes, when the rage and pain doesn't blind him. He once told Gaius to leave him rather than let Uther take advantage of Gaius's loyalty.)
He can't explain to Merlin or Arthur why he's still loyal to Uther, why he weathers the King's shifting moods when so many others eventually turn on the king. It's the same reason that he didn't obey Uther's orders to kill Morgause when she was born, instead passing her to a lesser priestess that followed Nimueh to raise. Why he keeps Uther's betrayals of Ygraine's love secret, and why he will never tell Morganna the truth of her dreams and parentage. Why he insists Arthur calling Uther father on occasion, while never telling him the truth of what happened to his mother and never explaining to Merlin the reason he's never seen Arthur and his Father together when Merlin questions it.
It's why he scolds Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and Morganna when he discovers they've not only hidden the injured druid boy that the king wishes to kill but are planning to help him escape. Especially Arthur, once they've gotten a chance to speak alone.
"Arthur, you out of all of them know better!" Gaius scowled at the young man, who accompanied him back to his chambers while Merlin went off to get them food.
"Yes. I do. I know Uther would have killed me without a thought if whoever kidnapped me had hidden me in a druid camp." Arthur agreed, and Gaius flinched, recognizing too late he'd said the wrong thing. "Do you know what he said to that? That we were fortunate it didn't happen, and I dwelt too much on the past. I will grant that once, I did just that, but Druids are for the most part peaceful people. They take in children and adults from villages that are destroyed, they will heal even the knights of Camelot, and will disavow those druids that turn to violence against us. It may have cost me my knighthood, and this may end with my imprisonment or banishment, but I will give that boy a fighting chance to survive." Arthur looked at him, a perfect mix of his mother and father, and for a moment, Gaius saw the king he will be. "I'm being foolish, I have so much to lose and little to nothing to gain, and I will most likely not save the boy from execution if he is found in favor of protecting Merlin and Morganna, Gaius, so don't think for a moment I haven't thought this through."
Gaius knows his strength is starting wane. He knows some will view him a coward for not saving the lives of other magic users.
He knows he'll never be able to explain his loyalty and devotion to a King who may one day treat him will and the next order his banishment or execution.
But worst of all, he's not going to be able to explain the feeling he gets when he sees Merlin and Arthur speaking together, and how, perhaps, his long-buried hopes have shifted to them. Uther will always have his loyalty, the loyalty of a servant to a king, but Merlin and Arthur have his love and hopes for the future, the love and hopes that a parent has for their children.
Ah, Gaius, I love him. Just not his habits of keeping secrets that have a horrible way of coming out at the absolute wrong time.
I skipped over Gates of Avalon, mostly because those two need Arthur as a prince, and that's not well known fact about him. (most just assume he has the same name as the prince, and given the utter lack of perception in the realm of Camelot, it's probably valid.)
MC: Yeah, you all were warned about this. SV made my brain hurt with the idea that Gaius is loyal to Uther no matter what, and that he (and Ygraine) were the most loyal to the group. We've also added Vivienne, and Ygraine's brothers Agravaine and Tristan to what I've started calling 'Uther's Round Table'. SV's a big believer in the idea that War changes people, and not always for the better.
This isn't the last of the mentioning of 'Uther's Round Table' either. SV's come up with some interesting ideas for them, eventually, 'that man' Gaius does not want to remember will be named, but a cookie to those who guess it (hint: his banner is a white dragon) … We may have to go back and re-do a bit of Nimueh's first chapter. Then again, she might not have interacted much with the three above. Thoughts?