Hooray for Thursday! Welcome back! Thank you all so much for continuing to read :)


"So, Merlin." Lancelot started, stumbling down the hallway, very nearly losing his balance and leaning heavily against Merlin for a moment before semi-regaining his balance. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Merlin shrugged it off, the warm feeling coursing through his body wasn't interrupted, so he didn't mind.

"Is there a lucky girl?" Lancelot wondered.

Merlin looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Lancelot started to head down the wrong hallway, but quickly doubled back when Merlin lightly grabbed his arm and pulled him the right direction, stumbling a little faster than was probably wise. "Well, if you haven't snagged Gwen yet, there must be someone you have your eye on."

Merlin looked at him and shrugged. "I don't know."

Lancelot looked at him shrewdly. "If you're sure."

"Yeah." Merlin nodded.

"Oh. Hello, Merlin." A quiet voice with a slightly embarrassed edge greeted.

Lancelot walked a step farther before stopping because it was only then that he realized that Merlin had stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around to find out who had addressed his friend. It was the girl that had been standing very close to either Jaya or Gwen while she was in the Great Hall. He didn't know her name, but he had started assuming, after she filled Jaya's cup a couple of times, that she was Jaya's maid. It struck him as strange that Jaya, as loud as she was, would have someone as quiet as the girl standing just in front of Merlin in her employ.

Up close she was pretty, in a shy, almost unnoticeable way. It wasn't that she was hiding from sight, though Lancelot would have been surprised if she didn't from time to time. Her big brown eyes were soft and had a spark of a well-hidden mirth that obviously only came out when she was around the people that she was most comfortable with. Merlin being one of the them. She was shorter in person. Or maybe she just looked taller in the hall because she wasn't standing next to such a tall dog.

"Hello, Freya." Merlin smiled slightly at her.

Lancelot cocked his head to the right a little. Was that shyness he heard on Merlin's voice? He had no idea that Merlin was capable of being shy around anyone. Lancelot wasn't blind. He saw the way that most of the serving girls looked at Merlin. He seriously doubted that Merlin noticed though. He seemed to be just friends with Gwen, by far the prettiest girl that Lancelot had seen, and was kind and helpful to the other girls. Quick with a joke or comment to make their days brighter or help them along. But around this girl, he watched Merlin blush and awkwardly bend down to ruffle the big dog's ears, what was it's name again? He shifted his weight slightly and watched as Merlin snuck a quick look up at the girl, only to be caught and blush a little again.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to get in the way." Freya smiled slightly and ducked her head.

Merlin looked at her like she was crazy and shook his head. "You're not in the way. You'd never be in the way." His voice was soft and gently chiding. His hand reached out like he was going to grab her arm and then quickly dropped down without making actual contact.

And in the moment when the girl blushed and nervously fiddled with the large dog's ears Lancelot had his answer. Merlin did have a girl that he had his eye on. One that, even Lancelot had to admit, was perfect for him. "What's his name? I heard it once but I can't remember." He wondered, inserting himself into the conversation.

Freya started and looked at the man who could only be Lancelot, going off who she saw at the party, and Jaya's descriptions. "Ridire. You must be Lancelot."

Lancelot bowed, though slightly unsteadily, and smiled warmly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, My Lady Freya."

Freya looked startled again and her unsure gaze darted toward Merlin's face a moment before she smiled. "So Jaya was telling the truth." she mused, her voice warm and a friendly sparkle in her eye. "I'm no Lady, Sir Knight. There's truly need to bow."

Lancelot looked like he was at a loss.

"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" Merlin wondered.

Freya dropped her hand to the top of Ridire's head, who shot her an adoring look and plunked his haunches down on the floor and leaned against her heavily. "I'm not really alone." she pointed out quietly.

"Sounds like something Jaya would say." Lancelot muttered.

"She got it from me." Freya almost whispered, her dark brown, doe eyes sparkling slightly when she looked at Merlin.

Merlin snorted. "Freya."

"I'm just taking him for a quick walk. Jaya has a headache, otherwise she would do it." Freya quietly defended. "I'm going back soon."

"I'll walk you." Merlin offered, almost cutting her off. "Lancelot won't mind."

Freya looked back and forth between the two of them. "It's really not necessary. And it seems that the two of you should get off to bed before you have to deal with the headaches that will be coming for you."

"It would be my pleasure to accompany you as well, My Lady." Lancelot inserted.

Freya looked at the two of them trying to decide if they were serious and if she could get out of it, and then nodded agreeably.


Jaya stifled a grunt when she appeared in the library her right shoulder bumping against a large bookshelf. Apparently, she had misjudged the distance between the wall bookshelf that was freestanding. She shook her head slightly and then peered around the edge and looked at Geoffrey.

He had a large tome in front of him, the page open and the scroll that was Lancelot's seal of nobility rolled out on the page opposite of the one that he was looking at. The look on his face was dark and calculating.

Jaya bared her teeth a little. This was not looking good. And it was looking more and more like she was right about what Merlin had done. She wasn't sure what to do with that information. While she was contemplating whether or not she would have time to go find Merlin and demand to know what was going on, Geoffrey hummed thoughtfully and looked at a smaller book before starting around the corner of his desk, intent on heading out the door. Jaya looked frantically for the time candle that she thought that she had seen when she was down looking for the book originally. Ah, there it was. She had 45 minutes before midnight. It would probably take about five minutes or ten for Geoffrey to make it to the throne room at the pace that he was walking. Ohhhhh, she hated doing this. She reached up and tipped a rather large book over the edge of the shelf that it was sitting on and watched it hit the floor with a loud thud and a surprisingly small poof of dust. Her wince when it hit the floor was bigger than that, Jaya thought wryly.

Geoffrey halted and looked around sharply. "Hello? Who goes there?" he demanded.

Jaya leaned slightly out of the shadows and waited to see if one book was going to be enough.

Geoffrey shrugged and started lean like he was going to keep walking.

That would be a no then.

The next book fell with a loud bang and brought Geoffrey back with a speed that Jaya hadn't expected, but wasn't completely unprepared for.

"Careful with those books, whoever you are! They're in the King's Library. I shall report to him-" Geoffrey paused and looked down at the two books that were laying on the floor all by themselves, looking like they had simply jumped off the shelf.

Jaya stayed in the shadows and her eyes flashed silver. She almost didn't have enough time to rush forward and catch the Librarian before he went completely slack under the sleeping spell that she had put on him. She grunted and her lips pursed as his weight strained against her muscles and pulled on the snake bite scars in her shoulder. With a small groaning grunt Jaya pulled the slumbering Geoffrey back into the shadows that she had just been in and quickly returned the books to their positions on the shelf with an apologetic look. Oh good, more than a half hour to find Merlin and demand some answers. Where was he? That was going to be the tricky part. She took a couple of steps and rolled her shoulder. The scars were stinging slightly.


Merlin walked down one of the many hallways in the castle with Freya. Ridire between them, Lancelot on his left, closer to the wall. For one of the few times in his life he was completely at a loss as to what to say. He thought he remembered someone saying the ale was liquid courage. He decided whoever that was was wrong. Freya was more beautiful than he remembered her being and now here he was, trying so hard to not be so distracted by it that he wouldn't be able to say something to pass the time. They had just turned the corner back into the hallway that lead to Jaya's quarters when the princess herself seemed to appear in front of him. He didn't have enough time to react to the fact that she hadn't been there a moment before, before he found himself being dragged along by his shirtfront, doing his best to not trip over his feet. "Where-?" he started.

"Not another word." Jaya slung him into the first chamber of her rooms and pointed at him before walking back out of the doorway and coming in a moment later with Lancelot behind her, his eyes locked on her hand that was wrapped around his right wrist like a vice. She let him go and pointed toward two chairs that were sitting near the fireplace on either side of the bearskin rug. "Sit. The both of ya." she ordered, though her voice wasn't unfriendly.

Freya walked in and quietly closed the door behind her. "Jaya."

"They'll be fine. I just need to know what's going on. Thank you for taking Ridire on a walk." Jaya walked back over to her and gripped both of her shoulders. "You may go." her smile was warm and she squeezed her tightly before letting go and turning back to the two men that were sitting in the two chairs, looking at her in trepidation.

"Where did you come from?" Lancelot wondered.

"Didn't you have a headache?" Merlin wondered, tilting his eyebrow in his best mimic of Gaius.

Jaya folded her arms and looked back and forth between the two of them. "Is there something the two of ya want to tell me?" she wondered. Her voice taking on a conversational tone.

"I thought you had a headache?" Merlin repeated, wondering if she heard him.

"I got over it." Jaya shrugged. "Now, I'm sure there's something you should tell me."

They looked at each other and then at her, eyebrows up.

"Oh, come now. Don't be shy." Jaya coaxed. "Merlin?" she looked at him.

Merlin started slightly and then shook himself. "I'm glad you're better."

Jaya folded her arms over her chest and kicked her right leg out so that she was balancing it on her heel and most of her weight was on her left foot. "Something about Sir Lancelot?"

Lancelot cleared his throat and shifted.

"Merlin told me once that you're not a noble." Jaya looked at him, her long, loose hair, the top part still pinned from the evening's festivities, sliding over her shoulder and swinging across her back, curls bouncing.

"That's right, My Lady." Lancelot nodded.

Jaya looked back at Merlin. "Then how is it that you have a seal of nobility?" she wondered, looking at Merlin the whole time.

"Well, see-" Merlin started.

"Because in order to be the fifth son of Lord Eldrid of Northumbria that would mean our Lancelot would have to be a noble." Jaya interrupted.

"How did you know that?" Lancelot wondered.

"I hear things." Jaya looked at him and smiled slightly. "Arthur mentioned it at the training field." she looked back at Merlin. "Let's have it, Merlin. I've only got a few more minutes."

"A few minutes before what?" Lancelot wondered.

"Before Merlin finds himself in more trouble than he's been in to date." Jaya responded, not missing a beat.

"We bent the First Code of Camelot." Lancelot answered before Merlin could fully form a thought.

"The First Code?" Jaya wondered.

"Only nobility are allowed to be Knights of Camelot." Lancelot answered again before Merlin could say anything.

"What did you do, Merlin?" Jaya asked, her voice exasperated.

"It's not entirely his fault, Your Highne-" Lancelot quickly dropped off when Jaya looked at him sharply.

"Aye, but it's mostly his fault. You may have agreed to this charade, but he came up with it." Jaya shot a withering glance at Merlin. "Merlin, do you remember not so long ago when I told you that you should warn me before you do something like this?"

"Yes, well-" Merlin started.

"But did you do it?" Jaya wondered.

"No, bu-"

"Do you know why I wanted you tell me, Merlin?" Jaya asked, looking at him sternly.

Merlin tipped his eyebrow at her sharply and started to open his mouth.

"So you didn't go and do something stupid. That's why." Jaya pinched the bridge of her nose.

"It was not stupid the First Code is wrong! Lancelot is better than the Nobles that Arthur has had to choose from for months. You know that as well as I do." Merlin defended.

Jaya looked at him around the knuckles of her right hand before letting it fall down to rest on her left arm. "You can't just create a new son for a Lord that Uther knows personally, Merlin. He's bound to notice."

"He didn't." Merlin shook his head.

"Oh, but he did." Jaya countered. "He sent one of the Ladies of the Court down to Geoffrey to see if the seal was correct. And he doesn't think it is." She shifted and looked back and forth between the two of them.

Merlin looked confused. "Who doesn't think it's real?"

"Uther!" Jaya snapped, looking at him like she couldn't believe he wasn't paying attention. "Do you realize, that as of this moment, we are going to have to come up with a plan as to what to do to make sure that a very illogical and homicidal King does not take off both of your heads for this." Jaya looked away from Merlin finally and then looked at Lancelot pointedly.

"How much time do we have?" Merlin wondered.

Jaya looked at the candle that was burning close to when she needed to get back to the library. "About five minutes. And it has to be something good."

"Why only five minutes." Lancelot looked up at her, somehow making it sound like a statement and a question all at the same time.

"Because that's about all the time that I have before Geoffrey will be very very late for his meeting with the King." Jaya looked sharply at Merlin. "And from what I saw, he isn't going to have good news for us."

Merlin stared at her for a moment. "What?"

"Merlin." Jaya sounded like every shred of her patience was being tried, and that Merlin's only saving grace was Jaya's self control.

"Lancelot deserves this Knighthood! More than any of the others that have been trying out lately. You know this better than me! I shouldn't have to apologize for doing the right thing and bending the rules to do it." Merlin snapped, standing up, and quickly catching himself on the back of the chair because his legs weren't quite up to the task of holding him so quickly.

Jaya sighed heavily. "Merlin-"

"Jaya, you have to go. You're going to be late." Freya's quiet voice quietly interrupted.

Jaya looked over at Freya and then back at the two boys. "Stay there." She pointed at the two of them.

Lancelot nodded and then looked at Merlin and then blinked in confusion.

Jaya walked out the door and closed it quietly behind her.


She whirlwinded into the library and quickly walked back to where she had left Geoffrey. Jaya looked around where she was and then quickly ran out toward the rest of the library. She skidded to a stop and frantically looked around. "Dragons and sea monsters!" she hissed just above a whisper. "Lepricons and..and…" Jaya fumed. Her eyes flashed silver and she began to search the castle from where she was. "Where? Where is that stuffy old man?" she demanded of the room. Just when she was about to give up, she saw where he was and quickly transported herself to the back room just off of the throne room.

It took her a moment before she was sure that she could open the door without it being heard. It only took two short steps and then she was quietly closing the door and gliding up to a pillar that would hide her from the rest of the room.

"Ah, Geoffrey, thank you for coming so quickly." Uther's voice was tight and controlled.

Geoffrey slowed to a stop and bowed slightly. "I'm glad to be of service, Your Highness."

Jaya rolled her eyes. Why did everyone always talk to Uther like he was the greatest thing that they had in their lives? There were very few among her father's subjects who talked to him like that.

"What do you have for me." Uther demanded.

"Your suspicions were correct as usual, My Lord." Geoffrey bowed again.

Jaya had to work hard to make sure that she did groan out loud when Uther's face darkened and he looked so hotly at Geoffrey that the old man quailed slightly.

"I knew Lord Eldrid only had four sons!" he fumed. "How is it that I was not sure when I first saw the seal?"

"It's a clever forgery, My Lord. I was not sure myself until I searched all the record books. But I am sure that Lord Eldrid never had a fifth son." Geoffrey placaded.

Jaya turned and leaned her back against the pillar and tipped her head back until it hit the pillar in frustration. She was too late, and there was no way around it. If Uther didn't get to him first, she was going to kill Merlin herself for his stupidity.

"Guards!" Uther's voice roared, reverberating off the walls of the throne room.

Jaya started and her eyes flew open wildly. She slowly slipped her head around the corner of the pillar, looking out of the shadows created by the candles that were burning brightly. "Goblins." she hissed to herself under her breath.

A small handful of guards rushed into the room helter skelter and ground to a halt in front of Uther, looking at him expectantly with different variations of "Yes, My Lord?"