Author's Note:

Hello all! ... all of you who decided to stick around, anyway. It has been... a long time? since I last updated D: Life's been hectic and I had a bit of writer's block for a while. But I'm back, which is all good. Hopefully it'll only take about a week for me to get Chapter 13 up :D

Warnings: AU after S1 Ep09, General spoilers for S1 and S2, and Spoilers for The Once and Future King by TH White.
Disclaimer: I own nothing! NOTHING! :D Well, actually, I only own Jenny, Adrianna, Lyssa, and Brittany. And any other original character that you happen across. Anything recognizable isn't mine.

And: Thank you to merlin's magi, Setari, sarahelizableth1993, and Catindahat. And of course to Wren Hightower for the beta. She is a punctuation queen! :D

Right. So, read, review, and enjoy :)

-- Chapter 12: The Sword in the Stone --

Arthur's day did not start out completely, totally, perfectly normal. This was because the impossible had finally happened. He didn't understand the elegant script on the metal and the craftsmanship of the hilt was unfamiliar. But it was beautiful and familiar. His.

There was a sword slicing cleanly through a rock. And it sang to him – like it was made for him, for Arthur to hold in his hands, for Arthur to wield.

His grasped the hilt and pulled.

I scrambled backward, keeping the blanket firmly around my shoulders. "No!" I said desperately, "Please, let me explain!"

Arthur had sprung away from me, the plate upended. I tried to get to my feet but I tripped over the blanket and fell onto my backside. "You! It's been you two all along, hasn't it?" His hand drifted toward his sword and I swallowed very hard.

"No!" I said again, "I swear, we don't know any magic!"

But his eyes drifted toward Merlin, who'd sprung up instantly to step in front of Adrianna. Adrianna's eyes widened a fraction of a second later, when she realised what was happening. She pushed Merlin away roughly, "I don't need protection, you idiot!"

"You've known about this, have you?" Arthur asked coldly and then he grabbed Merlin violently by the front of his shirt, pushing him roughly into the trunk of a nearby tree. My hands flew to stifle a gasp from my mouth. "You've been hiding sorceresses this entire time?"

"We're not magic!" I said, crying now.

Adrianna made to grab Arthur by the back if his tunic or something but I caught her arm – she was completely insane if she thought she had any strength that could match up to his.

"Sire," Merlin panted, trying to loosen Arthur's grip, "Do you really think I'd hide something like that from you?"

And, when my brain caught up with this statement later, I thought, so, so, ironic.

"How should I know?" Arthur asked.

Merlin just closed his eyes for a minute, "They're innocent. They are the girls but they aren't – they don't practice magic, I swear to you." His hands looked like they were itching to come up and attempt to remove Arthur's hand from his shirt but Merlin refrained himself.

Arthur searched Merlin's face for a moment before unclenching his fist and allowing Merlin to slide down the trunk of the tree and onto the forest floor. "And what would you know about magic, Merlin?" Arthur asked, his voice somewhere between angry, mocking, and maybe slightly relieved.

Merlin swallowed noticeably, "Nothing."

There was a very awkward, strained silence.

Arthur turned after a moment, his face hard and resigned. "I think everyone has some explaining to do," he said after a minute, looking around at us. Me, with my knuckles stuffed in my mouth to keep from shouting, Adrianna who looked very much like she'd love nothing more than to punch Arthur in the face, and Merlin who looked relieved and afraid in equal measures.

"What do you want to know?" Adrianna asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "We're not magic – clearly you grabbed the wrong people. What more is there to say?"

Arthur looked indignant. "You cannot possibly be telling me that you aren't the girls who appeared out of thin air. You were surrounded by a group of people, for goodness' sake!"

"Er…" I mumbled. Usually, I was pretty good at lying under pressure but there was something about the way Arthur was looking at me that apparently froze my brain.

Merlin spoke up, "I, um, they said a witch was keeping them captive and… there was something about a Mirror, right?" He was looking at Adrianna and me like we should say something.

My tongue caught up with my brain, finally. "We didn't understand it," I said, "Magic is complicated, right? I don't know what she was doing. There were, like, strange words and… stuff."

Lyssa would be ashamed of me, I thought again. I was clearly becoming a (bad) compulsive liar. Is this was Merlin felt like all the time? Adrianna was staring at me like I was insane and Merlin threw me a look – I wasn't sure whether this was supposed to be encouraging or not.

"And you've been in the castle, impersonating servants all this time?" Arthur asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. And then he rounded on Adrianna. "You've been working for the Lady Morgana! What's wrong with you?" he asked heatedly.

Adrianna looked angry. "It was Merlin's idea!" she shouted back. "I didn't even want to!"

Merlin shot Adrianna a horrified look and she snapped her mouth shut.

Arthur was looking between the three of us, his jaw line hard and his eyes narrowed. After a second, he turned on his heel and marched off in the other direction. I watched Merlin to see if he was going to go after him but he just shook his head, leaning back more fully against the trunk of the tree.

So, a quick inventory of bad things that have happened, I thought as I forced myself to lie down on the ground. One, at the top of the list, Arthur had found out that we weren't actually servants. He wasn't currently talking to anyone so we had no idea what was going on in his head but I was certain that it wouldn't be good. Two, somewhere lying just under my and Adrianna's impending doom, was the entire ordeal at the Crystal Caves (which is what I dubbed them in my head). Of course, the Crystal of Neahtid was lost forever to Ninniane. Arthur hadn't commented on this. Yet. He must've realized that the Crystal wasn't actually on the Isle of the Blessed, he must have been wondering if Adrianna and I had it. Three, very bluntly, we were both worried about Merlin, who I'm sure was more than worried about himself. And Four, which was more like a constant headache floating around somewhere near the nape of my neck, now that we knew where the Mirror was, how did we get to it and how did we use it?

By the time Arthur had calmed himself down enough to make his way back to the spot where they decided to stay the night, he'd gone through at least a dozen scenarios in his head. Some of them were ridiculous of course and some of them made him wince. He didn't like the idea that Merlin was lying to him the entire time and he hadn't even noticed – usually, Arthur thought, Merlin was an open book.

Someone had gotten a fire going in his absence (probably Merlin, he thought, because if the fire Jenny and Adrianna attempted when they'd found them was any indication, the girls sorely lacked any such skills). Then he noticed it was actually quite dark out. He frowned, not quite sure where the time had gone.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered to himself. He was angry – very angry. And he should be, Arthur assured himself. He knew almost certainly that there was no way Jenny and Adrianna could have been sorceresses. If they were, they would have done something in the two months his knights had been looking for them. But there were big, gaping holes in their story – the kind that he could have ridden a horse through. It didn't add up, they were lying about something.

The crystal, them following Arthur and Merlin, and for goodness' sake, where in the world had the rumour involving the Isle of the Blessed come from in the first place, then? He really doesn't want to know (except that he really, really does) but he has to – it's his duty to Camelot.

Arthur had half a mind to wake the girls up, huddled together in the bedroll Merlin gave up for them but Merlin looked at him and smiled warily, and Arthur sighed, resolving to wait until morning when they could all think straight again. After all, they looked a bit pathetic lying there – two plucky teenage girls (Arthur reminded himself that they were probably at most two (?) years younger than him but there seemed to be some kind of experience gap between him and them – fitting no doubt in the gaps in their story somewhere, he was sure).

Adrianna had pretty much come to the conclusion that camping without a tent was not like camping at all. It was so much worse. There were bugs and her back hurt and, oh my God, she'd never be able to get the knots out of her hair. Jenny snuffled beside her in her sleep and Adrianna pushed her roughly.

Today was going to suck. And she felt vaguely like she was going to be sick. Also, if anyone ever asked her back home, she'd tell them rabbit was absolutely disgusting.

Somehow, she thought, pulling her hair apart (the ripping sounds weren't healthy, surely?), they needed to, what? Guide Arthur to this mysterious other sword? She was beginning to believe Merlin when he said that destiny was fond of playing sick jokes on people. Because going back in time and landing in the middle of the Arthurian legend – probably not a coincidence.

It was only when she stood up that she noticed she wasn't the only one up. Arthur was still awake, seeing to the fire and probably watching the horses. He was shooting her looks that she interpreted as some mix between friendly, curious, and hostile – and she wasn't quite sure how these expressions mixed, only that they did. "Erm," she said awkwardly. Because yes, she was a little star struck, though she wouldn't admit it under pain of death of course. Plus, the guy was clearly a complete prat (and if she picked up calling him that from Merlin, she wasn't going to admit that either).

"You're not planning our executions are you?"

He cracked a smile, surprising her. "Somehow," Arthur said, glancing at Jenny, "something tells me that you just don't know magic."

For some reason (why? Good question) Adrianna found this statement offensive.

"Have you noticed," Adrianna said to me later, "that everything lately is epic-ish?"

"Epic-ish?" I asked, glad that we were slow and Arthur and Merlin were a decent distance in front of us. Besides, I really didn't think they were listening.

"Yeah," Adrianna gestured vaguely with her hand behind me (and I thought, don't let go! The horse was definitely still scary). "You know with the scary black knight guy and then with Vivienne, right? And, God, Ninniane was scary. You weren't there but –"

"You," I said, cutting her off, "Are probably the only person I know who would expect going back in time to be boring. And I say this having had experience dealing with Lyssa."

Adrianna shrugged and leaned toward me - I just knew she was grinning mischievously. Next to my ear, she said, "You like him…" in a singsong voice.

"What?" I hissed back. "What are you talking about?" My cheeks felt hot.

"Nothing," Adrianna said, a smirk in her voice.

If this is how they talked in the popular group that always huddled together in the cafeteria, I most definitely was thankful I was never part of it. "Yeah? Well, you like –"

Adrianna had her hand clamped in a vice-like grip on my mouth, "If you finish that sentence," she said quietly, "I will so very cheerfully beat you to death. It is not true. If I hear it again, I will kill something. And it will not be quick, it will be painful."

"Okay," I squeaked.

Adrianna was really scary. From what I heard about Morgana, they were a good match, servant and Lady.

We were getting dangerously close to Camelot and there was still no sign of any cave. Merlin looked like he was starting to get worried but I agreed with Adrianna - what's the worst that could happen if Arthur didn't get the sword right away? It's not like he'd never get it.

Also, Arthur hadn't said anything about the crystal or asked why Adrianna and I were out here at all. Was he intending to ignore it entirely or were the guards going to arrest us immediately as soon as we passed through the gates?

The tension was making me anxious.

Adrianna wasn't helping the matter. I was sure that this wasn't an appropriate time to mutter mocking comments in my ear, intentionally making me blush and stutter. Arthur was probably beginning to think I had some type of mental disorder.

Because of course I didn't like Arthur. The Arthur I liked only existed in T.H. White's version of the legend. Right? Plus, plus, I thought, that Arthur was way too old for me. This Arthur wasn't though.

I pressed my lips together – this train of thought was clearly not helping me.

"What was that?" Merlin said suddenly.

Adrianna, slowing the horse and swatting me on the arm, brought me out of my daydream unpleasantly. "Pay attention!" she scolded in a whisper.

"What?" Arthur asked, "I didn't hear anything."

Then we all heard it. A high-pitched wailing seemed to fall from the sky. Nothing human could have possibly made that sound.

Arthur was off his horse straight away. "It's coming from somewhere in the forest," he said, gesturing at the trees.

"Why can't we ever have a normal adventure-type-thing?" Merlin complained (this, I thought, signalled his relief. Of course this was the sword. What else could it be?).

Arthur rolled his eyes as Merlin helped me off the horse so I wouldn't accidently kill myself. Adrianna slid off gracefully. I hated her. "And we're just gonna go after it – in there?" Adrianna asked. "It was just a sound. Do you usually chase after random threatening-sounding sounds?" Her expression was the picture of exasperation. At least she wasn't star-struck anymore.

Arthur glared but basically ignored her. I was beginning to wonder if most men were like this or if it was just knights. (Maybe it was just Arthur. That thought was not comforting.)

"We're …coming with you, then?" I asked, following him and Merlin into the threes.

Arthur rolled his eyes, "I can hardly leave you to watch three horses in the middle of the road, can I?"

Thoughts about how he could've been less rude about it were pushed aside. It was dark and I was glad that Adrianna was leading the horse because I could barely guide myself as it was. Random patches of sunlight burst through the ceiling of leaves and branches and splayed onto the floor, a rough path sketched ahead for us.

And there it was, a small opening into the side of a hill. It wasn't like Ninniane's cave or Vivienne's lake. It was painfully ordinary, dull rocks carved into the side of the hill and a dirt path leading to the mouth, the grass worn away by footprints.

An unexpected thought occurred to me, then. I wasn't sure how I'd not thought of it before. I swallowed thickly, a very good guess at what was in the cave pictured in my mind.

We secured the horses to a tree, where they shifted restlessly.

The cave smelled like earth and wasn't deep. It looked like someone had deliberately carved it out of the hillside with the sole purpose of –

A narrow shaft of sunlight came from a small opening overhead and I was reminded forcibly of the 1963 Disney movie, the Sword in the Stone. A long, bright sword was severing a smooth chunk of rock in two. There were no angles, just shiny stone and metal gleaming in the stream of light.

I glanced at Arthur, who looked like something had just knocked the breath out of him.

I breathed out and in again slowly, stopping myself forcibly from hyperventilating. Who so Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of England, I quoted in my head, only realizing I'd whispered the words aloud when Adrianna gripped my arm hard enough to bruise. Neither Merlin nor Arthur had even noticed.

The moment had only lasted thirty seconds, maybe less, but it broke when Arthur pushed Merlin forward and he stumbled. "Try to pull it out," he ordered.

Merlin looked at him dubiously and then glanced our way and I shrugged; it wouldn't matter either way. The sword would only slide free for Arthur, after all. Looking as though he felt like an idiot, Merlin grasped the hilt and tugged. The sword didn't even move.

I bit my lip, hands clenched tightly into fists. I didn't understand why there was a sword in the stone at all. Arthur was all ready Crown Prince. It had been meant to symbolise that he was Uther Pendragon's son, having grown up away from court completely and in Sir Ector's castle. There was no need for that proof here. Yet, as Arthur stepped forward to examine the sword without touching, I could see the letters glittering on the blade. It wasn't in English but I would have bet my life it read the words I'd spoken aloud.

He gripped the hilt like it would shatter any second and pulled the sword free without any catch. The metal flashed in the light. Arthur glanced at us, first at Merlin and then at me and Adrianna, his expression complete disbelief.

I smiled though the knot of worry in my throat.

The return to Camelot seemed disturbingly quiet after the past two days – the longest two days yet in my life. I was unconvinced that I would ever have a longer day.

I went back to running food and Adrianna went back to attending Morgana. No one came to cart me, Adrianna, or Merlin away to the cells so I guessed everything was okay in that sense. Of course, I still had an uneasy feeling but that was more to do with the future than anything.

Arthur had a new sword he didn't know what to do with. And Merlin had told me that Geoffrey Monmouth (and when I discovered that he was their librarian, I promptly had a small, powerful mental breakdown) couldn't translate the lettering we found on the blade.

The Mirror was so close yet so far, as they say. It was right upstairs, sitting harmlessly in Morgana's room. Adrianna saw it every time she went to turn down her bed or give her the potion for her nightmares, which had gotten worse. Adrianna offered, I think, to sleep in the antechamber connected to Morgana's rooms as Guinevere had once done but Morgana had said something that made Adrianna return in tears. She wouldn't talk about it.

Merlin seemed nervous about that. "It's not like her…" he said, when Adrianna had slammed the bedroom door in his face.

"Who?" I asked, "Morgana or Adrianna?"

He rolled his eyes, "Morgana. Adrianna's usually dramatic, isn't she?"

I thought about it for a second. "Yeah," I conceded.

Merlin glanced over at Gaius, who was suspiciously not commenting on what we were talking about. Then again, I was pretty sure that Merlin didn't want to be heard, exactly. We ended up going for a walk through the corridors of the castle.

"I think I want to stay here," I said. At the same time, Merlin started, "I'm worried about Morgana."

We paused, "What about her?" I asked after a minute as we resumed walking. "She's upset about Guinevere, right? She must actually think that she's, I don't know, dead?" My voice cracked on the last word.

Merlin bit his lip and sighed. He glanced around to make sure no one was within hearing distance. "She has magic," he whispered. "I think. Or at least, she dreams and then they come true."

I failed to be surprised and almost said something sarcastic but stopped myself when I saw his face. Adrianna was clearly having a bad influence on me. "And, what?" I asked after a minute in a hushed voice. "She's afraid of Uther finding out?"

Merlin shook his head, wringing his hands worriedly. "I don't think she knows. Gaius said it would be better for her not to."

"I… don't know what you want me to tell you." I said sighing loudly. "I wish I knew more but everything I know doesn't seem to apply and –"

"Merlin!" We turned around together and were met with the sight of Prince Arthur making his way toward us. Instantly my heart decided to speed up a couple of beats per second.

When he drew level with us, he stared at Merlin like he was expecting something. "Erm, yes Sire?" he asked.

"Don't you have things to be doing?" Arthur gestured in the vague direction of the stables out of a nearby window and Merlin pulled a face.

"Oh, of course," Merlin answered sarcastically. "Never mind that I just did them yesterday!" Absentmindedly, he pulled at my wrist for me to follow him.

Before I took two steps, Arthur's hand on my arm stopped me and Merlin glanced at him, looking afraid. Arthur rolled his eyes before jerking his head toward the stairs with an expression that said, well, I'm waiting. Merlin pressed his lips together and set his jaw before taking off in the other direction. I would have bet my life he was standing on the other side of the wall waiting for me and eavesdropping.

I chewed at my bottom lip. "Yes, Sire?" I asked taking a few steps backward.

"Where's the other one?" Arthur asked, "Adrianna?"

I felt my forehead crinkle in surprise. "She's not feeling well," I answered.

Arthur sighed, shifting his weight. "You're not the sorceresses," he stated.

"No," I agreed.

"And you don't know any magic."

"None," I said.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, "And is there any particular reason you followed us out to the Isle of the Blessed then?"

This was the question everyone had been waiting for. I could do this two ways. The first involved saying, What? We didn't follow you. I said we were lost, remember? The second was more along the lines of: We followed you because we stole the Crystal of Neahtid and had to give it to Ninniane the goddess of Life-Death-whatagain? In exchange for information that was ultimately redundant. There was a third option, possibly, and I scrambled for it.

"If I told you that you wouldn't believe me, could we pretend this never happened?" I asked a little desperately, flattening my hair against my face again. "If I said I'd tell you one day. Everyone has secrets, don't they?"

Arthur stared at me. His eyes were very blue. "I'm not sure this conversation is going the way I wanted it to," he confessed slowly.

I stepped back again, my heart hammering, "I know what you mean, Sire."