Krysia and Merlin were gathering mushrooms per Gaius's instructions, out in the woods. Krysia dropped the mushroom she had been lifting to her basket when she heard a screeching, and out of the trees came a creature she vaguely thought might be a griffin. Not hesitating, she ran, Merlin following her. After a few minutes of being chased, Krysia tripped, Merlin tripped over her, and she braced herself, gripping at the topsoil and waiting to die. Suddenly, a man came out of the trees and charged the griffin, sword in hand. The sword broke.

"Run!" the man cried. "Run!"

The man grabbed Krysia, helping her up as Merlin scrambled to his feet and the three of them ran. Krysia led them to hide behind a fallen tree and the unknown man was clutching at a wound on his side. She tentatively touched his arm.

"It's gone," Merlin gasped. "You saved our lives. I'm Merlin."

"Lancelot," the man muttered, shaking Merlin's hand and then promptly passing out.

"Let's get him back to Gaius," Krysia demanded. "Fast."

As soon as they got him back, Gaius did a careful consideration of the wound and began treating Lancelot vigorously. "The wound itself is superficial," he told a shaking Krysia. "The fever will pass. He should be fine in the morning."

As promised, Lancelot awoke in the morning healthy once more, and Merlin and Krysia got him breakfast as thanks for their lives.

"Ever since I was a child I dreamed of coming here," he told them. "It's my life's ambition to join the knights of Camelot. I know what you're thinking. I...I expect too much. After all, who am I? They have their pick of the best and bravest in the land."

"Lancelot," Merlin said, stopping him with a grin.

"Yes?"

"Merlin's got some hairbrained plan," Krysia explained, eating her own breakfast and grinning. "He seems to think he'll get the knights to accept you."

"Will they?" Lancelot asked, a bit nervous.

Krysia knew they would not if he talked of himself like a nobody. But Merlin didn't seem to understand how knighthood worked.

"I've seen you in action," Merlin said excitedly. "You could shame Arthur himself."

Krysia snorted and Lancelot graciously said, "I hardly think so."

"In fact," Merlin said happily, "you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to talk to him right now."

"You know Arthur?" Lancelot said, awed, as Merlin left the room.

"Oh, no," Krysia groaned, shaking her head and following Merlin out of the Gaius's quarters, sure that Lancelot would be well tended without her. Merlin, on the other hand, needed constant attention.

Krysia found Arthur and Merlin walking through the lower town, discussing the knights, unfortunately.

"Grummund's the third to fail this month," Arthur was complaining. "How am I meant to defend Camelot with rubbish like that?"

"Well, I think I might be able to help," Merlin said happily, and Krysia even snorted at how that sounded. Arthur laughed.

"You, Merlin?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "You haven't the faintest idea of what it takes to become a knight. Courage, fortitude, discipline."

"Of course he doesn't," Krysia said casually, smirking at Arthur. It was true, despite the fact that Merlin was more suitable than Arthur realized, that Merlin could never actually be a knight. He was afraid of swords, for one. "I think he had someone else in mind."

"Yeah?" Arthur said, obviously not expecting much, but it sounded like he was a bit desperate.

Merlin nodded.

"He saved my life," Merlin said.

"That's blowing it for starters," Arthur said, half joking. Krysia gave him a playful slap for good measure and he just grinned at her.

"No, no, no," Merlin said quickly. "He's really good. Honestly."

"That's great, Merlin," Arthur said dismissively, suddenly serious. "I'm sure he's terrific, but you forget the First Code of Camelot."

"Here we go," Krysia muttered, frowning.

"The First Code," Arthur said pompously. "Only those of noble blood can serve as knights. So unless your friend's a nobleman-"

"Oh, er, he - he is a nobleman," Merlin lied and Krysia fought the urge to hit herself in the forehead.

"Is he?" Arthur asked skeptically.

"Absolutely."

"Very well," Arthur said, eyebrows still raised. "Bring him to the training ground tomorrow. And make sure he brings his seal of nobility."

"Ah, of course," Krysia said sarcastically, which seemed to be lost on both of the boys.

"Thanks, Arthur," Merlin said happily. "You won't regret it."

No, Arthur would not, Krysia thought miserably. But she was getting the distinct feeling that she was going to.

As they returned to Gaius's quarters Krysia said nothing, knowing that Merlin would understand the folly of his behavior soon enough without her help.

Lancelot looked at them eagerly when they entered.

"Well?" he asked. "Did you speak to him?"

"Oh, he spoke to him," Krysia grumbled, sitting down at the table and mashing some herbs for Gaius.

"And?"

"And…"

Merlin put on a face that suggested disappointment, and Krysia rolled her eyes. He wasn't even a very good actor. Surely Lancelot would see through him.

"No," Lancelot sighed, sinking to the bed once more, shaking his head.

Apparently desperation and illness meant not seeing through Merlin's terrible acting skills very easily.

"He said he would like to meet you," Merlin then said with a grin and a laugh.

"Yes!" Lancelot cried excitedly. Krysia decided he was very attractive when he smiled. "Thank you. Thank you!"

"Oh that bit wasn't even hard," she drawled, looking carefully at the herbs she was mashing. "You're not a nobleman by chance, Lancelot, are you?"

Of course he wouldn't. She knew all the noblemen in Camelot by heart. None of them or their sons were named Lancelot.

"A nobleman?" he asked, confused. "No." Then he laughed abruptly and said, "Good lord, no. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that there's this…"

Merlin trailed off and Gaius popped out from the other room, a vial in hand, frowning.

"The first code of Camelot states that only those of noble blood can serve as a knight," Gaius explained. Uther created the knighthood to protect the kingdom from those who wished to destroy it. He knew he would have to trust each of his knights with his life. So he chose from the families that had sworn allegiance to him."

"The nobility," Krysia clarified, still not looking up, thinking of her father's brilliant red uniform all stained when he returned from some battle or another. Perhaps he'd been killing witches. Many knights did that in those days.

"And thus the First Code of Camelot was born," Gaius continued to explain, "and ever since that day, only the sons of noble families have served as knights."

"But that's not fair," Merlin argued.

"Not many things in life are actually fair, Merlin," Krysia said, looking up from her herbs, thinking of her mother's smile, of her father riding her into the woods and instructing her on how to survive when the rest of them were killed. "This is just one of those things, and it is what it is. I'm sorry, Lancelot. I really am. But we must live in the real world."

Later that night, Krysia was about to knock on the door and enter, because now Merlin was sleeping on the floor in their small room and Lancelot was sleeping on his bed. She didn't want to walk in on their guest changing. She raised her hand, poised to knock, but then she heard Merlin's voice.

"Why do you want to be a knight so much?"

"When I was a boy," Lancelot said softly, "my village was attacked by raiders from the northern plains. They were slaughtered where they stood, my father, my mother. Everyone. I alone escaped. I vowed that day that I would never again be helpless in the face of tyranny. I made swordcraft my life. Every waking hour since that day I devoted to the art of combat, and when I was ready I set forth for Camelot. And now, it seems, my journey ends. Everything I fought for, wasted."

Krysia closed her eyes, seeing her own father's shining face. Her stomach turned when she realized that Lancelot understood her pain, the lone survivor of an unjust slaughter. Except the slaughterers in her case were not raiders. They were knights. She felt the urge to tell him her story, to make him realize that evil and tyranny were everywhere, even in Camelot. But he was not the man from her dream. So she bit her lip and waited.

"I give you my word," Merlin said sternly, "whatever it takes, I will make this right."

And she knew that somehow she was going to be pulled into another harebrained scheme and she sighed.

Indeed, Krysia found herself in the court hall of records with Merlin, looking for a book under the watchful eye of the Geoffrey. He raised an eyebrow at Merlin as he took a book off the shelf.

"I'm trying to educate him," Krysia said with a sweet smile.

She dragged Merlin off to a table where he opened the book to a page of Northumbrian nobility. Her eyes grazed the page nervously as he pulled out a piece of parchment and cleared his throat.

"Ic us bisen hræd tán hwanon."

She watched as the page copied, and Geoffrey wandered over, still watching them carefully. She snapped the book shut as Merlin stuffed away the parchment. Geoffrey cleared his throat. Merlin handed him the book.

"It's a…real page turner," Merlin lied as Krysia dragged him away, looking back to see Geoffrey looking at the title. She was getting a bad feeling, but at least she had an alibi forming in her head if things went wrong.

They went back to the physician's chambers where Lancelot was eating when Merlin walked in, waving the parchment, Krysia quickly closing the door behind them.

"What's that?" Lancelot asked.

"It's your seal of nobility," Krysia sighed, pulling her organizational work toward her. One of her serving girls was pregnant and would need to be replaced by the end of the month. She was redistributing her until then.

"I don't understand," Lancelot said nervously.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Merlin said proudly, "I give you Lancelot, fifth son of Lord Eldred of Northumbria."

"No, Merlin," Lancelot said, catching on and full of fear. "No."

"Oh, right," Merlin said, not truly dampened, but putting it on to guilt Lancelot. "So you don't want to be a knight, then."

"Of course I do!" Lancelot cried.

"Merlin believes that if the rules aren't to his liking," Krysia said lazily, "that he should circumvent them. In this case, I'm nearly inclined to agree with him."

"But it's a lie," Lancelot said to her beseechingly, as if she should side with him against Merlin after facilitating this whole mess. "It's against everything the knights stand for."

Well, there was that.

"You have as much right to be a knight as any man," Merlin insisted. "I know it."

"But the rules, Merlin," Lancelot sighed.

"We're not breaking the rules," Merlin reasoned. "We're bending them, that's all. You get your foot in the door. But after that you will be judged on your merit alone. And if you succeed - if they make you a knight - it'll be because you've earned it, noble or not. I can't change the way things are done around here, but you can...if you let me help you."

Under Krysia's recommendation, Merlin took Lancelot to Gwen to have him fitted up as a proper lord's son. She was an excellent seamstress, and she was the sole of discretion. Not to mention the fact that they'd saved her life at least once. When Merlin came back, though, he muttered in Krysia's ear, "Lancelot has a crush on Gwen," and Krysia was even more glad she'd suggested it.

He was less likely to muck things up if he wanted to stay near Gwen.

She had work to do while Gwen and Merlin introduced Lancelot to Arthur, which really only further distanced her from the whole mess that she was still almost certain the whole affair was bound to be, in the end.

When Merlin came back Krysia was sitting on a bench across from Gaius, sorting the herbs he'd had Merlin gather a week ago. She had to decide which were sufficiently dry and which needed more time before preparing.

"I'm sorry about Lancelot," Gaius said kindly. "I see you were upset."

Krysia held her breath.

The worst thing about helping Merlin with anything was always having to lie to Gaius or hide things from Gaius. With everything he'd done for it made her feel sick to keep things from him.

"Oh, you know," Krysia said with a shrug, glancing up at Merlin, waiting for him to come up with something, anything.

"That's life," Merlin said, shrugging as well. "You win some, you lose some."

"You're taking it very well, I have to say," Gaius said, preparing the herbs Krysia pushed toward him. "Very mature."

That should have been the first clue that it was a lie. Merlin was far from mature.

"Thank you, Gaius," Merlin said, sitting beside Krysia, watching her sort the next batch.

Just then, Lancelot stumbled in covered in dirt and mud and manure. She winced, looking determinedly down at her herbs.

"How was it?" she asked casually, focusing on the stem of the lavender in her hand as if it was the most important thing she'd done all day.

Lancelot groaned in response and went into the chamber he'd been sharing with Krysia and Merlin. Gaius raised his eyebrows at Merlin and Krysia and she felt sick to her stomach all over again.

"He found work at the stables," Merlin offered.

"I see," Gaius said slowly, frowning. "And the truth before I lose my temper?"

"He's, er…" Merlin sighed, giving Krysia an apologetic look. "He's trying out for the knights."

"The First Code of Camelot has never been broken for any man," Gaius replied sternly. He turned to Krysia. "What have you done?"

She looked up at him with wide eyes. How did he assume that it was her?

Of course, Merlin knew too little about nobility to pull it off on his own, whatever he had done. She sighed.

"Well, we bent the rules a bit," she said nervously. "But we've not really hurt anything, and Lancelot would make a great knight, Gaius."

"You bent the rules?" Gaius said, stunned. Perhaps he'd expected that she'd gone to someone to twist things, but she'd given herself away unwittingly. "Using magic?"

Her heart was pounding. Would Uther trace this back to her?

"It was nothing, honestly," Merlin said quickly. "It was more a trick than actual magic."

"Your magic is not a toy, Merlin," Gaius said. "It's not for you to use and abuse as you see fit. Especially when you involve Krysia. Even if she does no magic, you're putting her life in incredible danger."

"I know," Merlin said, apologetic. "I know."

"Then why did you do it?" Gaius demanded.

"Because we owe our lives to Lancelot," Krysia said softly, looking back at the herbs as Gaius turned his eyes to her. "And this is the only way we have to repay that debt. He deserves this, Gaius. He deserves this more than any of the knights who are currently under Arthur's command. It was my plan. If you're going to punish someone in this, punish me."

She looked at Gaius resolutely, knowing he would not do so. He knew better than anyone that every decision involving magic caused her to punish herself more than he ever could.

The following day, Krysia heard the tolling of the warning bell and she dropped the linens she was folding, rushing out to the square where she knew Gaius would expect her.

Because the bell as it was tolled meant someone was taking refuge, and refugees were often in need of medical attention.

Merlin was helping an injured woman to sit next to Gaius in the square when Krysia arrived.

"You're safe now," he said. "I promise."

Gaius was tending another woman when Krysia sat beside him, dabbing a cloth into a bucket of water and proceeding to clean a wound on the woman's hand.

"How is she?" Merlin asked.

"She's going to be all right," Krysia said, doing a quick assessment. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. What had happened that caused all these people to take refuge?

Lancelot ran into the square, seeing the three of them and hurrying over.

"What happened to these people?" he asked, looking at the wound Krysia was tending.

"Their village was attacked by a winged monster," Gaius explained.

Merlin, Lancelot, and Krysia exchanged dark looks. It might have left them alone, but it wasn't gone.

In order to ready all the knights to hunt down the beast that had been making the attacks, Arthur had decided to move forward Lancelot's trial, which was successful. Krysia watched him be knighted and left the feast in his honor, sick to her stomach with worry at the way Uther looked at him.

Uther wasn't perfect, but he wasn't a complete fool, and she should have picked a lord who was less closely related to her. Lord Eldred was her mother's cousin. What if in investigating Lancelot Krysia was discovered as well?

She walked carefully over to where Merlin and Gaius were standing.

"Look at him, Gaius," Merlin said softly. "Does not Lancelot deserve this moment?"

Krysia could still feel the fear coursing through her veins.

"That's really not the question," Krysia whispered. "I'm not so sure anymore that we did the right thing, Merlin. Sure, we gave him what he deserves today, but what about tomorrow? We are not all-powerful."

Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I don't know what it said on your invitation, but on mine it said celebration," he told her, and Gaius chuckled, but Krysia wasn't in the mood for jokes. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"I'll leave you young people to the party," Gaius said, smiling at them. "Don't come back too late."

"We won't," Krysia said, and as soon as her own duties were done for the night, she would go straight to bed. If there was any sleep to be had when she felt so terrible.