AN: More than anything I blame this chapter for holding me up in posting. It took me several weeks to get this written but I think it is an important part of the story. I hope it turned out as good as I hoped and that you enjoy it!

Lenaya marched through the castle ignoring the stares of everyone who saw her and the whispers and gossip that broke out at the Princess' sudden reappearance after having disappeared for so long.

She did not stop her frantic march until she walked into the throne room where her mother sat. Upon seeing her daughter Guinevere jumped to her feet and swept across the room.

"Lenaya!" she cried, tears coming to her eyes causing Lenaya to feel only the slightest twinges of guilt.

Guinevere wrapped her arms around her daughter and pulled her close, not seeming to care about the mud and dirt sullying her own ornate garments.

"I was so worried," she stated and the sound of her nearly breaking voice once again brought back the pang of guilt.

"I need to talk to you," Lenaya stated a little coldly. Guinevere pulled back inspecting her daughter curiously but nodded to the other nobles in the room who swept out the doors, shutting them behind them.

"What is it my darling?" she asked.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lenaya asked, the guilt once again being chased away by the anger swirling in her belly.

Guinevere only managed a confused frown in response.

"Why didn't you tell me about him?" Lenaya cried, tears coming to her eyes.

Guinevere huffed and turned to sit in the throne, looking at her daughter with a face only a mother could make and speaking in a patronizing tone.

"My darling how can you expect me to explain anything when I have no idea what you are talking about?" she asked.

Lenaya took a step closer, her glare bordering murderous.

"Why didn't you tell me about Merlin?" she asked, her voice low and accusatory. The effect of those words was like a slap to her mother's face. The patronizing look disappeared to be replaced by one of horror and shame.

"Who told you that name?" she asked, standing up and walking closer to her daughter.

"Answer the question!" Lenaya screamed hysterically, backing away from the queen. The tears in her eyes ran down her cheeks.

Guinevere breathed in deeply and turned away from her daughter to stare at the throne behind her.

"After your father died," she began slowly "I… I was so angry." Her voice shook but Lenaya could hear the underlying strength. "I did many things I was not proud of." She turned around to look at her daughter.

"Instead of banishing the law against magic, I enforced it. I drove away my closest friends and did not even try to search for Merlin, the man who was my closest friend before anyone else." She dropped her gaze to her folded hands. "The year afterwards was the most bloody and violent year of my reign."

Lenaya watched her mother with wide eyes. She had never known this, whenever people had told her stories they always said that after her father's death the ban against magic was raised. She never heard of this bloody year.

"What happened to change you?" Lenaya asked, her voice significantly calmer.

Guinevere smiled. "You," she stated simply bringing her eyes up to look into her daughter's.

"The night you were born we were preparing for our greatest attack yet, a day that would rival the days of King Uther." Tears slipped down Guinevere's cheeks. "When you were born I did not want to see you right away, I told the nursemaids to take you away," she chuckled slightly. "But the physician, Gaius, would not hear of it, he forced you into my arms and made me look at you."

Lenaya remembered the old man who smelled like herbs and used to tell her stories… stories of a prince and his servant who got into all sorts of trouble… She realized suddenly who those stories were about.

"You were the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on," Guinevere stated breathlessly, staring at her daughter as though she were once again looking at her for the first time. "And you opened your eyes and looked at me, and it was like your father was looking at me." A sob tore from Guinevere's throat and Lenaya rushed forward to embrace her mother.

"I was so ashamed," Guinevere sobbed. "I knew I had not done his memory justice in the things I had brought to Camelot." She cried for a moment longer and then took a breath and pulled away. Playing with the curls in her daughter's hair. "I called off the attack immediately."

"I began to open myself up again, to the people around me, I accepted the guidance of my friends and Camelot prospered once more. I thought it too late to search for Merlin, the trail would have long gone cold."

Lenaya was much calmer now as she spoke. "But why did you never tell me?" she asked.

Guinevere's lip trembled slightly. "I was ashamed, I had abandoned a close friend, and…" she breathed in a trembling breath. "I was afraid."

"Afraid?" Lenaya asked. "Of what?"

"Of myself…" Guinevere admitted. "Of the anger that once consumed me and nearly destroyed Camelot and all it stood for. I thought maybe if I spoke of him again, if I told you of what he had done, if I relived those days, the anger would return." Guinevere met her daughter's eyes again. "I see now that it was an irrational fear. In all truth I miss Merlin with all my heart and do not blame him for what happened to your father. It was Morgana's evil doing and the evil of those who followed her. No one else is to blame, certainly not Merlin who sacrificed so much."

Guinevere inspected her daughter who would not meet her mother's eyes.

"I met him," Lenaya said quietly.

Guinevere's eyes widened. "Who?" she asked.

"Merlin," Lenaya nearly whispered.

Guinevere drew a hand to her mouth, "Where is he?" she asked.

"He lives by the Lake of Avalon," Lenaya murmured. "He has not left King Arthur's side, even to this day."

Guinevere stared in shock at her daughter and then brushed past her. "I must find him. I must tell him-"

Lenaya gently took her mother's hand, stopping her from moving.

"You will not find him mother, he does not want to be found," she stated calmly.

"You found him though." Guinevere protested.

"Well…" Lenaya amended, "I am Arthur's daughter."

Guinevere looked like she wanted to protest more but finally she relaxed and reached a hand to cup her daughter's cheek. "Yes…" she murmured. "You are."

Lenaya smiled at her mother, feeling a wall break between them that had been there as long as she could remember, but the wall had not fallen completely. There were still more secrets.

"Tell me about the old, abandoned blacksmith's shop," she urged pulling a chair over to the throne and sitting in it. Her mother gave her a sad smile and sat down in the throne that was once her father's.

"When I grew up I spent much time in that shop…" Guinevere murmured. "My father owned it, the best blacksmith there was… even better than the royal blacksmith though few people knew it. That was where I first met your father. He came in one day to get his sword repaired. The royal blacksmith was away on business and Arthur had damaged his sword doing something foolhardy. He barely spared me a second look then but I'll admit I thought he was the most handsome man I had ever seen."

Lenaya could not help the grin that spread across her face hearing her mother talk about Arthur.

"When he left I snuck after him, watching him, I saw him picking on some of the younger village boys and immediately I did not think he was so handsome." Guinevere was still smiling even as she relayed Arthur's arrogance to her daughter.

"What did you do?" Lenaya asked, finding it hard to believe that her mother would just stand by and watch.

Guinevere laughed loudly. "I've never told anyone this… not even Arthur."

Lenaya frowned at her mother. "What?" she asked.

"I…" Guinevere hesitated. "I threw a rotten tomato at him…"

Lenaya gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "What did he do?" she asked.

"He never figured out who did it! As soon as it left my hand I hid as fast as possible! He was furious!" Guinevere was laughing so hard she had to clutch her sides. Lenaya could not help but laugh along, she had never heard her mother laugh like this before. "But no matter how hard he looked he never discovered who did it. I went back inside, my face was nearly as red as that tomato… I think my mother knew what I had done, she had that scolding look on her face that only mothers can give. That was when she started taking me and my brother with her to her work as a maid in Sir Leon's household, though he was just a boy then."

With that first question the dam broke and stories spilled from her mother's mouth. Lenaya sat for hours listening to her mother tell stories of the father she had never known and how he had been a bully, about the father she had grown up with and how he always had a noble heart, and about the uncle she never even knew she had. But she most enjoyed the stories of the gangly, clumsy boy who found trouble wherever he went. A boy who was more loyal to his friends than any person who had ever lived before and never sought recognition for his deeds, a boy named Merlin.

AN: Okay so everything after "Yes… you are." Just kind of exploded from my fingers in ten minutes flat… I love it when stories do that to you sometimes, other times its just annoying. Hope you guys liked the chapter and the little story I made up about Guinevere and Arthur's meeting. As always leave a review!

God bless!