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Gwen looked up when the sound of a key scraping in the lock sounded. She looked nervously up at the amount of light that was streaming past the bars of the small window that she wouldn't have been able to reach unless she was a little over double her height. Earlier the afternoon before she had heard some of the guards talking about the fact that her execution had been moved up. But night had come and gone and now it was after breakfast, judging by the slant of the light. And she was still in cuffs in the awful cell. One of the two guards that stood in the doorway walked in and brought out another key that unlocked the heavy chains that were hanging from Gwen's wrists. She stood where she was for a moment, unsure what was going on. No one was grabbing her arms, and the guard that had unlocked her wrists simply walked out. That's when she noticed the group of people that was standing beyond the guards.

As soon as the guards were out of the way, Morgana, Merlin and a burly black man hurried through the door of the cell.

"Dad!" Gwen cried, rushing toward the last one through the door, not slowing down until she was tight against his chest.

"Oh, my little child!" Gwen's father hushed, pinning her tightly to him and stroking her messy curls.

Gwen let go of her father and turned toward Morgana, grasping one of her hands tightly between both of her own. "Thank you." she breathed.

"Don't thank me. It was more Merlin." Morgana smiled.

Gwen looked over at Merlin. "Really?"

"He's the real hero here." Morgana reinforced.

"I-I don't know what to say." Gwen looked at Merlin shyly.

Merlin shrugged and looked more uncomfortable than usual. "I didn't do anything." he half shook his head.

"I wouldn't say that's entirely true." Jaya protested, suddenly leaning against the bars that made up the door frame of the cell. "You very nearly got yourself thrown in one of these."

Gwen looked up at her and smiled. "Jaya." The tone of her voice alone was full of the gratitude that Gwen has already expressed to everyone else.

Jaya smiled at her and nodded.

Gwen's father looked at the three young people that were standing in and around the cell. "I-I'm grateful to you all." His voice cracked with emotion and he wrapped an arm around Gwen's shoulders. "Come on, Gwen."

Jaya stepped back out of the doorway to let them leave and smiled warmly. She followed after them a respectful distance after glancing at Morgana and Merlin. Some of the guards were so distrusting of magic, even if the King had decreed Gwen should be free they still might do something to make sure that she was caught 'escaping'. Jaya stopped halfway between the cell and the opening where the guards sat by their little table and watched Gwen and her father leave.

"Don't worry, Merlin." Morgana's voice drifted up toward her. "You're secret is safe with me."

Jaya looked back over her shoulder curiously and stepped back into deeper shadows closer to the cell and where her two friends were.

"My secret?" Merlin asked, sounding completely lost.

"Merlin, don't pretend." Morgana's voice sounded almost exasperated. "I know what you did."

"You do?" Merlin asked.

"I saw it with my own eyes." Morgana announced stoutly.

"You did?"

"I understand why you did it and don't want anyone to know." Morgana agreed.

Jaya paused for a moment to take a deep breath her heart was starting to pound so hard she could hardly hear. Why was she so nervous? There was no way that Morgana had been able to see Merlin perform the magic to destroy the Afanc. She had barely caught it, and she was looking for it.

"Well, obviously."

Jaya could just see his goofy grin and the shrug of his shoulders.

"But I won't tell anyone. You don't mind me talking to you about it?" Morgana asked, shifting so part of her was in Jaya's view.

Merlin stuttered and stammered for a moment. "You have no idea how hard it is to keep it hidden."

Jaya forced another breath. If Merlin was going to tell her about his magic right there and then she had to be calm enough to be ready for whatever came next. Don't be an idiot, Merlin.

"Well, you can continue to deny it, but I think Gwen is a very lucky woman."

Jaya very nearly collapsed with relief or hilarity. Morgana clearly had never seen Merlin around Freya…

"Gwen?" Merlin sounded like he was more confused than he had ever been.

Jaya balled up her fist and smashed it against her lips to keep from giggling out loud. Oh, she was going to have fun with this.

Morgana backed a couple of paces away from him and pressed a finger to her lips in a hushing movement. "It'll be our little secret."

Jaya pulled back into the deepest shadows and paused her breathing for a moment and waited for Morgana to walk by, not even half an arm length away.

Merlin watched her go and sighed heavily in something akin to frustration.

Jaya waited where she was. Merlin wouldn't stay there long. He couldn't hardly hold still after all.

Merlin looked around the cell one more time and started off toward the way that Morgana had gone. He yelped slightly in surprise when a hand reached out of the darkness and closed around his upper arm tightly.

"So you're in love with Gwen now, are ya?" Jaya asked, her voice strained from trying to keep from giggling. "Do you want to tell Fey or should I?"

Merlin blanched slightly and shook his head vigorously. "You heard that?" he demanded.

Jaya grinned at him and tilted her head slightly, a few strands falling out of her braid and bouncing across her face. "Playing at more than one Lass, are we Merlin?" she asked, starting to giggle slightly.

"I am not. I don't think of Gwen like that." Merlin protested, his ears burning red.

"But you do about Freya." Jaya agreed with a small nod.

"I do not!" Merlin protested, his ears flushing bright red to match his neck kerchief.

"You're ears tell a different story." Jaya pointed out, following after him as he walked quickly away from her in an effort to make sure that she could no longer bother him.

"Ears don't tell stories." Merlin scoffed.

"That's not entirely true. Yours just turned bright red. That means that you're embarrassed." Jaya pushed, smirking at the guards, momentarily including them in the conversation.

They hadn't heard much before the two of them walked through, but they grinned anyway and elbowed each other with small chuckles.

Merlin stomped up the stairs and wondered to himself if Jaya would go away if he ignored her long enough.

"You know, Merlin. It's really not a bad thing to have options. But I should caution you, playing with the hearts of two women is risky business."

"Leave me alone."

"Especially when it seems like they both see you for the handsome devil that you are." Jaya trotted up the last two steps to ruffle Merlin's shaggy black hair, though he was a little taller than her and she had to stretch to do so.

"Hey!" Merlin protested, ducking away from her hand and half glaring at her.

Jaya just grinned. "Though I must warn you, if for some reason you decide to break some hearts, I strongly suggest you keep in mind that one of them is my responsibility to protect. And the other...you'll have to face Morgana. And we've all seen what's she's like when she's angry."

Merlin sunk his head down between his shoulders, wishing with all his might that he could just spirit Jaya away from him until she could find something else to talk about. He looked around for a moment. There wasn't anyone around them.

Jaya suddenly stopped. She had been walking next to and just a little behind Merlin, but it felt like she had run into an invisible wall. Her eyebrows shot up for a moment and she stepped to the side, more where Merlin had been walking and put her hand out. The wall was there too. She narrowed her eyes at Merlin's back.

"Merlin." Jaya warned.

No response. He just kept walking.

"Don't take it so hard Merlin! It was just a joke!" Jaya tried to reach him again.

Merlin didn't respond and only a small hitch in his step indicated that he had heard her.

Jaya shrugged and quickly tossed a spell out to break down the invisible wall that held her back. She put her hand up and felt the air in front of her. "Merlin!"

Merlin turned to look back at her with a sly grin and then disappeared around the corner.

Jaya's eyes flashed again. She was sure now that he was going to hold her there until he was well away from her. A small gap opened in the wall that held her and slipped out of it. She wasn't sure where Merlin was going, but making sure that she appeared ahead of him had suddenly become something of a goal.


"Really, Merlin. Did you think that it would hold me for long?"

Merlin nearly jumped out of his skin and tripped. He would have stumbled to his knees if Jaya hadn't grabbed his nearest arm and hauled him up to help him regain his feet. "Where did you come from?!" Merlin asked.

"You get the drop on me once and suddenly you think that you're the only clever one in Camelot?" Jaya asked, humor heavy in her voice.

Merlin frowned at her. "I was going to let you out soon."

Jaya snorted. "You might want to take it down, Laddy. The last thing you want is some poor, over-worked serving boy to run full tilt into it."

Merlin's eyes flashed gold and then he pulled his arm from Jaya's grip and started walking quickly away from her.

"Merlin! Merlin don't be like that! I was only teasing!" Jaya protested, trotting a few steps to catch up with him.

Merlin looked at her sideways and frowned.

Jaya's face sild into a serious look and she cleared her throat. "I only pick on you because I like you, Merlin. If I didn't, I wouldn't waste the time."

Merlin seemed slightly appeased at that and snorted. "For the record, I don't like either one of them."

"Either one of who?" Freya's voice asked behind them.

Merlin spun around so fast that Jaya almost couldn't keep from laughing. "What?"

"You said you don't like either one of them." Freya repeated, a reminding tone in her voice.

"Oh. Uhhhhhh." Merlin cast around for an idea, looking at Jaya for help.

Jaya just raised her eyebrows and waited.

"Training sessions and hunting trips." Merlin smiled shyly at her.

"..Training sessions and hunting trips." Freya repeated, a small smile on her face.

Merlin nodded looking proud of himself. "Hate them both."

Freya nodded like she understood and after another small smile for Merlin and a warm, familiar one for Jaya she walked around them and toward the kitchens.

Jaya waited until Freya was out of earshot. "Training sessions and hunting trips?" she asked, her voice going up a couple of octaves.

Merlin pursed his lips and glowered at her.

Jaya held up her hands and chuckled to herself. "Oh, Merlin. You are entertaining to be around."

Merlin sighed and shook his head. "Glad to amuse you, Your Highness."

Jaya narrowed her eyes at him and scoffed. "Don't you go doing that now, Laddy. There's no reason to be calling names."

Merlin grinned and after a small wave he walked away towards Gaius' chambers.

Jaya watched him go and shook her head. She wasn't going to make his life miserable, but it certainly would be fun to tease him about Gwen in Freya for the next little bit. But as it was, she was going to be late for training, and she didn't want to miss out. She needed to get back into good enough health that she wasn't forced to magic herself in order to catch up to Merlin. It was embarrassing how quickly she had run out of breath. For a moment anger flared within her again. Valentin hadn't crossed her thoughts since she had wrote the letter to her father telling him what had happened. Now that she thought about him, she was sure that if she had had the chance she would like to take a swing at him. She should have hit him in the stable yard when he insinuated that she was just a stablehand, or made him kneel in front of the other knights when he had caught sight of her when he turned away from the sign-up table. Jaya shook herself and quickly headed down the next set of stairs that would get her headed in the right direction for the training fields.


Arthur looked up from the squires that were standing in front of him. He closed his eyes for a moment, the thought wandering across his mind if he had been so terrible when he was just starting to learn how to fight with a sword. Lord's sons. He took a deep breath and started to look back at his pupils, but was distracted by the flash of deep blue and white across the field, closer to the trees.

Jaya was squaring off with the hanging bag again. The poor bag.

"I don't see why we have to start like this. We're fighting like girls!" The biggest boy complained, looking at his wooden sword in disgust.

It was everything that Arthur could do to keep the look of irritation off his face. Barret. Lord Cornwell's youngest, and most prized son. According to court gossip Barret wasn't supposed to be born. And when he was, it was expected that he wouldn't live past the first hour. And it turned out that the doctor had gotten the death wrong. Barrett's mother had died within the hour. And now Barret was the only thing that reminded Lord Cornwell of his wife, it seemed, and he showered the boy with much more favor than the other three sons that he had. All spoiled in their own right. For some reason it didn't really surprise Arthur that Barret was the one whipping up the squires to protest everything done or said today. Though Arthur was starting to wonder which sin in particular he was being punished for by having to teach the menace to be a knight. "It's not fighting like girls. It's practise. This way when you make mistakes I don't have to explain to your fathers why you're missing an arm or why you bled to death on the training grounds." Arthur explained, doing his best not to sound like every shred of his patience was being tested.

"You say that like you expect us to fail!" Barret exclaimed.

Arthur's eyebrows rose and he tilted his head to the right slightly. "It's the first day of official training. I don't expect from you what I do from the knights."

Barret looked around at the boys standing in a loose line half a step behind him. "You hear that?" he wondered. "He thinks that since it's the first official day of training that we're going to get ourselves hurt!"

Arthur glanced back over their heads. Jaya had landed a hard enough punch on it to poof dust out of the top. She danced back a couple of steps, swinging her thick braid over her right shoulder and dancing back to land another set of heavy blows against the cowhide. He glanced at the angle of the shadows. Five minutes he had been listening to Barret about this. Five minutes. He suddenly had a plan. He glared at Barret, cutting off his most recent protest about being taught to fight like a girl and fixed the rest of the new squires with a hard look. "Listen up. I'll be right back. And I expect all of you to stay right where you are. Do you understand?"

Barret had the decency to pull back slightly to the other boys.


"Jaya."

The bag rocked slightly and the impact jolted up Jaya's arm and into her shoulder muscles. "Aye?" she looked at Arthur, the slightest bit of sweat starting to glisten on her forehead.

"I need your help." Arthur folded his arms over his chest.

Jaya looked at him and then at the squires who were looking toward them. "With them?" she wondered.

"One in particular. He keeps saying that I'm making them fight like girls." Arthur allowed himself the eye roll that had been begging to happen since Barret had started talking.

Jaya's eyebrows knit together and her head reared back slightly. "Does he now. And I suppose you want me to make a point?"

"I'd owe you." Arthur shifted slightly.

Jaya's lips twitched up into a smirk that almost bordered on evil and nodded. "Introduce me to this boy. And we'll see what he thinks of fighting like girl."

Arthur gestured for her to walk in front of him and followed after her, smirking to himself about her pants and bright green, flowing shirt. Suddenly training was going to be so much more interesting. He quickly caught up to Jaya and when they walked around the boys he smiled at them. "Listen up, training just changed a little." He announced.

"Who are you?" Barret asked, one of his eyebrows raised.

"You're new sparring partner." Arthur looked at him and smiled. Like he was glad that the boy had decided to speak up.

Barret looked at Jaya for a moment and then at Arthur. "She's a girl." he sneered. "I don't want to hurt her."

Jaya looked at Arthur and her eyebrows rose before she looked at the squire again. "You think you could hurt me, Laddy?" she wondered, her voice skeptical.

"Girls don't fight." Barret shrugged like it was a universal fact.

"Girls don't fight." Jaya repeated, looking at Arthur.

Arthur folded his arms and waited. It was actually fun to see Jaya work while not being on the receiving end of her pushing for a fight.

"Well, I suppose if that's true it shouldn't take you too long to prove to the Prince here that you deserve to fight like a man, ah?" She pointed out.

Barret scoffed. "I don't know why you're insisting that I duel with you. I really don't want to hurt you."

Jaya smiled. "Why don't you let me worry about that, Laddy. Choose your weapon." she gestured to the table of weapons with one of her wrapped hands.

It was like Barret suddenly caught sight of her wrapped hands. "If you insist. We fight like men." he tossed down his wooden sword and marched toward her, balling up his fists.

"Wait! If you're going to do that, wrap your hands first." Arthur interrupted.

Barret worked his jaw, but allowed two of his friends to start to wrap his hands up.

Jaya stood where she was, hip cocked, watching as the young squires wrapped up their leader's hands. She left her hands hanging loosely at her sides, fingers tapping slightly against her brown material-clad thigh.

Arthur walked over to her, his back to the boys. "Jaya, do your best to go easy on him. He doesn't have hardly any training, he just has a big mouth."

Jaya looked at him and smiled. "Like you then?" she asked.

Arthur pursed his lips together and narrowed his eyes slightly at her.

Jaya held up her hands slightly. "I'll let him do all the dancing, how about that?"

Arthur nodded and looked over at Barret to see if he was ready. "Ready?" he asked, somehow making it sound like an order.

Barret nodded and half shoved the boys away from him. "Yeah."

Arthur looked at Jaya. He knew she was ready. She had already been swinging at the bag when he had asked her for the favor. "All right. I don't want a messy fight. Quick and clean is the name of the game."

Jaya still hadn't moved. She knew that Arthur was mostly talking to her. He was only looking for a point of be proven, not for a young boy to get hurt. She wasn't planning on doing any real damage. Just maybe a couple of bruises to remember her by.

"Fight!" Arthur ordered, stepping out of their way.