When the meeting had adjourned Percival headed straight to talk to Mordred privately, he knew group settings could tighten one's tongue. Before he could reach the youngest knight of the round, he was pulled into a different hallway leading in an entirely different direction.

"What." He came face to face with his best friend Gwaine, who was smiling like an idiot. "I have to go-"

"You noticed too right?" The energy coming off the fair haired knight was enough to knock a man over. It was pure and infectious, Percival found himself smiling as he nodded confirmation. "I can't believe we're living in the time of the once and future king!"

Percival was taken aback by the declaration, Gwaine looked like a besotted page following a lady of the court for the mere chance she might look his way. Any disdain showed in the court room was nowhere to be seen.

"I thought you said they were fairy tales."

"Only the best kind of fairy tales. Gods it was hard keeping in all the excitement." Gwaine said. His cheeks had turned bright red from all the smiling. If he had been breathing any quicker Gaius would have to examine him. "Can't believe princess is the once and future king."

The information was a lot to process for the both of them. For Gwaine, the fact that his boyhood heroes were no longer the stuff of legends and were actually tangible in his life. For Percival, the entirety of the situation. All the names presented were completely new to him. He felt very out of the loop as his friend had never mentioned them even while drunk. Percival did not expect there was much he didn't know about Gwaine since they not only shared a cot, Gwaine talked in his sleep, Gwaine often got drunk, but also because they were so inseparable and Gwaine was ever the storyteller. Why didn't he just tell the council?

"You riled Mordred up!" Percival exclaimed.

"Just a bit." Gwaine's smile was unrelenting, proud of his handiwork. "He seemed apprehensive, just needed some incentive to share."

"Is there anything left out?"

"Quite a bit." He responded, but waved his hand was he continued. "But that's to be expected, every druid camp holds different views, the tales are countless. Sometimes I traveled just to find different versions."

The knight paused, face contorting into a frown. Some stray thought had pulled his attention away from his excitement. Percival was about to ask when he volunteered the information himself.

"I must say, I never thought the once and future king would be literal royalty..."

"Let me guess, you viewed yourself as the once and future king." Percival wondered just how much of Gwaine's life had centered around these tales.

"Yeah, who wouldn't love the story of the sword in the stone?" Gwaine asked. His friend's befuddled face was completely ignored as he continued. "I know most the druid's considered the poets of Ascetir to be kooks, but that story is gold."

"Sword in the stone..." The other knight trailed off in thought, a singular event coming to mind after years of being forgotten.

"Yes." Gwaine spoke quickly to fill in the gaps. "The powerful Emrys plunges a weapon mightier than any other into a stone deep in the forest. Only one truly worthy would be able to free it. Eventually, the once and future king is brought to it, and with his mighty strength and pure heart, he frees it from the stone. And all who look upon him shout 'long live the king'. It was the first story I heard about them back in my youth, I've been hooked ever since."

Upon finishing his story Gwaine realized how silent Percival had been through it all. The other knight was speechless, mouth hung agape and eyes wide.

"I know, right? Epic!" Gwaine chuckled.

"That's already happened."

As far as Gwaine knew Percival had never lied to him even as a joke or prank. Some things were just sacred between them. But this... this had to be a lie. If Arthur had pulled a sword from a stone that would be their go to story, would it not? Every feast was full of mirthful storytelling. Stories of past victories and epic quests. The sword in the stone would be among them.

"Perce... What patrol did I have to ditch in order to miss Arthur pull a sword from a stone." There was desperation in his voice. He needed Percival to simply say "Got you!" or indicate in whatever way that the taller knight was pulling his leg.

"When Morgana chased most of us out of the citadel-" Gwaine had stayed behind to hold her off. "we became scattered throughout the forest. Leon and I managed to meet up and gather a few people. We were just looking for Arthur when a few nights later Merlin found us. Said Arthur had to show us something. Merlin had gathered the whole lot of us, near triple our number, and brought us to a clearing. In the middle was the sword, Arthur's sword, thrust into solid rock."

"I thought that was just some fancy hunk of metal Princess bought to commemorate the victory."

Percival finished describing the sight to a now thoroughly miffed Gwaine. He also filled him in on the version Merlin had shared, the one about Bruta, the first king of Camelot.
Gwaine chuckled, he needed to employ Merlin on pranks more often if Merlin could convince the entire battlement of that hog's tale. This whole day was a mixed bag of emotions. One thing after the next telling him to feel something different. He scarcely believed that it was less than two hours ago they had declared Merlin missing. He was sure that Arthur was still solidly on the same warpath. But Arthur wouldn't be able to do anything the way he was going about it. Gwaine would have to clear the way.

"Arthur's not going to get anything from Gaius." Gwaine declared.

"Why not?"

"Cause, Mordred listed all those fancy titles, and crafted such a nice story, but do you know what the poets of Ascetir call Emrys?" Percival shook his head. "Servant to the king."

"Merlin..."

Percival had still been on the fence about all the prophecies, he had come from somewhere with many soothsayers and snake oil merchants, and thus wasn't hasty to trust proclamations of future. Merlin being a powerful sorcerer however, made perfect sense. How else would one defeat an immortal army, or survive a dorocha's touch? He always walked with an air of seemingly unearned confidence, but being able to kiss death time and time again had quieted any knight from speaking ill about his stature in earnest.

"Perce, how do you feel about convincing Arthur to lift the ban on magic?"

AN: I got sidetracked with child's play, and have scrapped where I was originally going with this one... I've got like 50 different directions I can go. Any directions in particular y'all want? High priestess and her pet dragonlord should be updated by saturday. ~Myrien