Author's Note: I totally picked a fan fiction at random to update, so ta-da! I'm updating this one. So, I would like you to know that I am not going to write every episode into this story. I am only going to mentions the ones that are relevant to changes put into effect in this story. So, without further ado, read, review, and enjoy!

PS: I would have updated this earlier, but the website freaking out a little bit and wouldn't let me upload it, so I updated it now instead.

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It had been over a month since Merlin made it to Camelot. Between small, vicious, magical creatures and magical or otherwise assassins, he had been kept quite busy. Most of the things he went up against took little to no time to defeat and he could continue on with his Court Physician's Apprenticeship duties. Other things, such as Sir Valiant and the Afanc, were much more difficult. Merlin knew that Gaius had found something about the sorcerer(ess) who created the creature, but he had neglected to share the information with his young ward. Every night, Merlin would spend a half an hour recounting his day's adventure and his father and Nimueh would talk to him for a while, with a little bit of time left over to talk to Morgause.

He became fast friends with Morgana, Gwen (whom he had yet to learn her secret from), and the rest of Camelot's staff. Merlin knew that everyone on his list when doing rounds for Gaius looked forward to seeing him and he knew that the people in the lower town loved his occasional visits, friendly or on business. Overall, his life in Camelot was perfect, more than he could have wished for before. He had a lot more friends, too because the children of the Resistance did their best to avoid him, being the son of the leader. It was nice being normal for once.

Today, however, it wasn't so nice. Bayard and his men had arrived in the morning and brought a ridiculous amount of supplies with them. It was as if they didn't realize that there was already civilization where they were going. Merlin swore that he could stock three extra castles with what they brought!

As he was lugging a particularly large bag across the landing between stairs, a girl fell in front of him. Having been raised in part by Nimueh, he had the good manners to immediately set down his package and help her gather hers. She muttered a quiet, "Sorry."

When they've both stood up, he extends a hand to her and says, "Hi, I'm Merlin." The young warlock looks over the girl in front of him. She looks familiar, but he can't quite place it. The serving girl was wearing the colors of Mercia and had dark brown hair with lightly tanned skin. She was small and skinny and couldn't be over the age of thirteen. He knew he had never seen her before, but her bright, unnaturally blue eyes made her familiar. He just couldn't place them. He was shook out of her musings when she shook his hand and smiled to him, "Cara. I'm from Mercia, as you can probably tell. Sorry! I'm babbling. Thank you, Merlin. It was nice meeting you."

Merlin stared after her, still puzzling over where he had seen those eyes.

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Nimueh swept into an alcove, briefly musing to herself about all of the knights she had once seduced in such alcoves. She pushed the thoughts from her mind and pulled out a crystal. Her husband's face swam into view, smiling up at her. For a second, his expression morphed into panic when he didn't recognize her, for the face staring down at him was that of Cara, the serving girl. She swept a hand across her face and whispered a spell, removing the fake face. Balinor smiled fully at her and said, "Did he recognize you, my love?"

She smiled back at him and whispered, "No, not even a flicker."

His smile widened and he asked, "Is the poisoned chalice in place in Bayard's chambers?" Nimueh nodded to him. Balinor smiled once more and then his face disappeared into the milky depths of the crystal. The High Priestess heard the bells ringing, once, twice, three times, four, five, and finally a sixth time. The feast would begin soon. This was their final test for Merlin. So far, he had passed all of them. He never left a single thing out of his reports and he continued to give pointers on the best ways to attack Camelot. The boy had even gone so far as to show them a map he was creating of the castle. Soon, the true battle would begin and Balinor would be king. Magic would be free once more and everyone would live peacefully under their rule.

AAAAAA

Arthur was never particularly interested in treaty signing, or really interacting with other royalty in general. But now, after having Merlin as his Shadow for over a month, he had started to realize how truly shallow royalty was. He would never admit it, but he thought that Merlin might be changing him for the better. It might, Arthur admitted ruefully, even come to pass that they would be friends. He shook that thought away quickly. It was foolish and he didn't know why it even came to pass.

He started paying attention again when Vivienne rose from her seat to welcome the incoming king to the feast prepared in his honor. She began a speech about the former years of war and all of the people who had died. She spoke about the final battle and the eventual bid of peace. She finished off with a comment about now letting any more die in this pointless war. Bayard signed the treaty and then gave the quill to Uther with a hand flourish.

Arthur quickly got bored again and looked out over the sea of faces, only to catch sight of Merlin talking quietly to Gwen, making her giggle silently. The prince felt a strange stirring in his chest when she giggled and he couldn't quite figure out what it meant. He frowned before deciding that the feeling made him too uncomfortable and turned away. It was at that moment that Bayard announced, "As a symbol of our goodwill and of our newfound friendship, I present these ceremonial goblets to you, Uther, and to your wife, your two sons, and your daughter, in the hope that our friendship might last."

No one noticed that Arthur cringed inwardly when Bayard said 'two sons', which was lucky. He looked up and noted offhandedly that Merlin had disappeared. The prince looked over at Bayard again just in time to grab hold of the goblet. He smiled at the older man and he smiled back. Arthur was about to take a drink of the wine, but he realized that Bayard was still talking.

They continued to talk, each member of the royal families giving out toasts for the drinks and quite frankly, Arthur just wanted to drink the stupid wine! When they finally, finally were able to drink, Merlin of all people comes and snatches the chalice out of his hands, shouting, "It's poisoned! Don't drink it!"

People started shouting and standing up in their seats, crying out in outrage. Bayard himself pulled out a sword, his knights following suit, and started yelling about them accusing him of something. Then Camelot's knights and guards started to pull out their swords. It was just mayhem in general. And it was all caused because of a certain black haired physician's apprentice. Finally, Vivienne stood up. Arthur was a little awed at the fact that everyone in the room became silent and turned to look at her. Morgana was staring up at her mother with an expression that clearly read that she wanted to be just like her some day. Vivienne said calmly, facing Merlin, "On what grounds do you base this accusation?"

Arthur watched the boy as his back grew straighter and he bowed his head in deference to her position (and why didn't he ever do that with Arthur?). If he had been at the table with just his father, Arthur would have gotten Merlin to back off on his own, but that wasn't possible with his step-mother around. Merlin said, "He was seen lacing it."

Bayard's face turned slightly purple with anger, "Who?! Who told you this?!"

Merlin bowed his head, "I can't say." Arthur ground his teeth in frustration. What was wrong with the idiot?

His father raised his head and said in a loud and clear voice, "If this does turn out to be poisoned, I want the pleasure of killing you myself. He'll drink it." Uther pointed a gloved finger towards Merlin, who was still standing there stupidly with the cup.

Morgana finally stood up, crying out, "But if it's poisoned then he'll die!"

Uther nodded seriously and said, "Then we'll know he was telling the truth."

Arthur couldn't just sit here and let Merlin go through this embarrassment, or worse, the death that would come of it if it was poisoned. He grabbed for the goblet, saying, "Merlin, apologize. This is a mistake. I'll drink it." Merlin simply shook his head no, a steely glint in his eyes. He raised the chalice in a mock salute to the monarchs and then drank some of the wine.

For a moment, he just stood there. He blinked a little bit and looked down at himself as if to make sure that he was all there. He looked back up at Arthur and the prince was about to make some scathing remark about the boy's intelligence, but then Merlin's eyebrows scrunched together in consternation. He started to choke, dropping the goblet and putting both hands to his throat. His eyelids fluttered for a second and then he fell, landing on the floor with a sickening crash. Arthur is frozen. This can't be happening. This cannot be happening! He only unfreezes when Morgana calls out to him, "Help us carry him!"

The prince runs to the unconscious form of his Shadow and picks him up, bridal style. Morgana flutters behind him, carrying the cursed goblet; Gwen had run to the well to get some water, something about a fever.

They reach Gaius' chambers and he instructs them to put the raven-haired boy on the bed. Arthur turns to make sure the door is open for when Gwen returns with the pail of water, but instead sees something strange. Hovering just inside the doorway was Mordred. He was staring intensely at Merlin, as if the boy on the ground were the answer to every question the universe had to answer. Then his younger brother looked up at him and turned away, his green cloak swirling around him. He left. Arthur turned back to Merlin and saw that he was now covered in sweat and shaking uncontrollably. Arthur turned to Gaius, "Is he going to be alright?"

Morgana looked up from where she was worrying her hands to hear Gaius' answer. He said, "I won't know until I've identified the poison." There were several tense, worrying moments as he flipped through one of his numerous books. Gwen came in just as he cried out, "Ah-ha! I've found it. The petal comes from the Mortaeus flower. It says here that someone poisoned by the Mortaeus can only be saved by a potion made from the leaf of the very same flower. It can only be found in the caves deep beneath the Forest of Balor. The flower grows on the root of the Mortaeus tree. It is guarded by a Cockatrice. Its venom is potent, meaning a single drop would mean death. Few have made it back alive. This says that Merlin had maybe four, five days until the poison kills him."

Arthur's lips pursed and he started walking towards the door. Gaius looked up in surprise, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go find this flower and I'm going to help Merlin." He replied, still heading towards the door.

Gaius stood up and frowned at him, "It's too dangerous. Even if it wasn't, your father would never let you go!"

Arthur nodded jerkily in agreement. Then he said, "That's why I'm not going to my father for permission." Morgana smiled, understanding what he meant.

The prince went to continue out the door, but then Gwen cried out, "He's getting hotter!"

Arthur turned back and saw Gaius check his forehead and turn to gather some materials. As he turned however, he caught sight of a red, dotted circle in the center of Merlin's forearm. The old physician gasped and went to look at his book again. Arthur asked hesitantly, "What does that mark mean?"

Gaius swallowed thickly and looked down at his ward with fatherly love, "It only occurs in the final stages of the poison, which means that he only had two days to live."

The young princess next to Merlin stood up and all but shouted, "You said he had four to five days, not two! What happened?"

The old man winced and Arthur saw the look of guilt flicker across his half-sister's face. Before she could apologize, however, Gaius continued, "The book says that the effects of the poison can be quickened by use of an enchantment." Here he frowned and looked at Merlin again and then at his book and then back to his ward. He muttered, and Arthur only heard bits and pieces of it, "She wouldn't… what could she… gain from this? So close… castle… tell Uther."

Suddenly, the physician started walking out of the room and said, "I must talk to the king. Gwen, Morgana, please keep Merlin's temperature down as much as you can. Arthur, please don't do anything too foolish. Merlin would kill me if he knew that I let you get yourself killed." And then he was gone, sweeping around the corner in a manner that reminded Arthur strongly of Mordred.

Arthur nodded to the girls and left the room, donning his chainmail and sword and heading quickly to Vivienne's room. He figured that she could still technically give him permission for this hunt and that she was much more likely to do so than Uther. He swept into the room and opened his mouth to ask her, but she raised a hand to stop him. She smiled and said, "Do what you feel you must for this boy. I sense that he is needed here in this household. But stay safe. Be careful, please. We don't want to lose you."

Arthur stuttered out a, "Thank you." He then turned and walked quickly back to the physician's chambers. He reached the door and put a hand on the knob, turning it silently. He meant to tell Morgana and Gwen of his success and to warn them that he would be leaving soon, but he heard them whispering.

He had caught the tail end of their conversation with Morgana saying, "I think we definitely should let Merlin join the Diamond of the Day. I think that he would agree with our cause, especially after Uther just treated him. He could be a great asset and he deserves to know about it at the very least."

Arthur stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword, and ground out, "What, exactly, is the Diamond of the Day?"