Krysia tried to listen to Arthur's report, but she was struggling to find a comfortable seat on her chair. Uther had surprised her by having her use Arthur's seat in the throne room when Arthur was away or giving report. There was a familiarity of hearing reports and petitions bedside the king that Krysia found comforting, but the strangeness of hearing them while seated, and while wearing a surprising number of layers in a ridiculously long dress, and with a maid behind her chair…. This was taking some getting used to.

"The bandits probably have a stronghold somewhere in the White Mountains," Arthur said. "How we escaped, I'll never know."

"Dispatch a patrol," Uther said. "I want these men caught and brought to justice."

"Immediately, father," Arthur said with a bow. He turned to Krysia, and she sat a bit straighter, nervous that her squirming had been caught out. He smiled and said, "I see you're settling in, my lady."

Krysia felt that was not at all what she was doing, but she forced a smile and said, "I am doing my best, my lord. Morgana felt you might not be returned in time for her birthday."

Morgana smiled, as did Uther, and Krysia let her body relax as the eyes of the court were off her again.

"It would take more than a bunch of thieves to keep me from such a feast!" Arthur said.

Uther laughed and said, "Tomorrow promises to be quite a night!"

/-/

Krysia was in her chambers—she still couldn't get used to them being her chambers—and she frowned at the duvet over her bed. It was beautiful, to be sure, but it was just…just not quite right. She pulled it off the bed and jerked the duvet into the air, snapping it largely into place, then going from corner to corner of the bed, checking that it was tight and even.

"What on earth are you doing?" an amused voice said behind her.

Krysia startled, then relaxed to see Geraint standing in the doorway of her chamber.

"I thought I closed the door," she said.

"It wasn't latched," he said. "I went to knock and it swung open. Are you really making your own bed? Where's your servant?"

"She did make it," Krysia said. "It's…I'm particular and it's comforting."

Geraint rolled his eyes, but he said, "I won't tell a soul, my lady. How are you?"

The question startled her with its simplicity and openness. She wasn't sure if anyone had asked that. She'd been asked if she was comfortable, if she was settling in, if she had everything she needed, and whether she was available for this or that, but she didn't think anyone had asked how she was since her whole world was turned upside down.

Geraint waited patiently, uncharacteristically seriously as she considered the question. She let out a sigh and sat on the edge of her bed.

"I'm exhausted," she said. "I have nothing familiar, I am constantly being told what I'm not allowed to do anymore, I have no idea what I'm meant to do all day except wear pretty dresses and be wherever the king is, and quite honestly, I don't know if I know how I'm supposed to feel about everything."

He nodded, but for a long moment, he said nothing. They sat in a companionable silence, and then he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault," Krysia said.

"Was there…was there anything you ever wanted to do when you…before, but you just never had the time?"

Krysia considered the question. When she was a child, she'd enjoyed picnics, swordplay, reading. She supposed she might enjoy some of those things again, if she had the opportunity. But the first two weren't typically done alone, and of all the people available to her, the only one who didn't usually have things to do was Morgana, and Krysia wasn't keen on being near Morgana at present.

"I don't know," she said. "I'd have to think on it. Was there something you needed, Sir Geraint?"

"Always just Geraint with you, my lady," he said with a weak smile.

"If I can be just Krysia," she said.

"Deal. Gaius was asking after you, and I thought you might want to visit him."

Krysia smiled, sweeping to standing and kissing Geraint's cheek before she hurried past him. Visiting Gaius would be just what she needed.

/-/

Gaius and Merlin had sat down to dinner when Krysia arrived, and they both smiled at her, Merlin scooting over so she could sit with them.

"How are you?" Merlin asked.

This time, the question was simply a comfort, and she said that she was doing her best.

"You look lovely," Gaius said, smiling sadly at her. "Very much like your mother. It must be a relief not to have to hide yourself anymore."

"I'm still hiding, so I'll let you know," she said wryly. "So how did you really make it out alive, Merlin?"

Merlin told her about a man he'd met, and a cave full of crystals, and dangerous visions he'd seen of Morgana.

"I cannot get these visions out of my head," Merlin said.

"You are extremely lucky to have seen the Crystal Cave," Gaius said. "Even before the Great Purge, wizards would talk about it with reverence."

"The man who led me there, who is he?" Merlin said.

Gaius raised his eyebrows at Krysia, and she hesitated before she said, "Well, if he is who I think he might be, he's been dead hundreds of years. Taliesin was a seer to the great kings, and the legends say that the cave was the source of all his visions."

Merlin hummed, then said, "Well, he told me…he said there is a reason. Why? It must be imminent. Morgana is going to kill Uther."

"Merlin, you must be careful," Gaius said. "The crystals are treacherous. What you saw may not be all that it seemed."

"So I do nothing?" Merlin said.

Krysia hummed and said, "You say imminent. Did you see anything that suggests that she really is about to kill Uther, tonight? Right now?"

Merlin thought about it, then said, "No…"

"So, do not let it get you off your soup," Gaius said.

"You're right," Merlin said.

The two men both looked at their soup, and Krysia had a sense of foreboding. In truth, this was something she didn't miss, the roulette of whatever Gaius had scrounged together. The luxury of being a lady was having food she knew was fit for a king. She could recognize everything on her plate for the first time in a long, long time.

"Come on," Gaius said, "eat up."

Merlin must have sensed what Krysia already had, and he said, "What is it?"

"Better not to ask, I think," Krysia said, patting his shoulder.

Gaius ate quite happily, but Merlin looked at the soup with suspicion, and Krysia took her leave, not wishing to keep the king waiting.

/-/

Leon was waiting for one of the younger knights to make his round of the courtyard to ensure that everyone was still in proper place when he saw Krysia walking by almost aimlessly. Her dress was familiar, reminiscent of the dress she often wore as a servant in its lavender hue, but the fabric was a rich velvet, with embroidered sleeves, collar, hems. The sunlight glinted off the fabric with every move she made, suggesting the shape of her body underneath, and the shifting of the belt at her waist drew his eye.

She saw him as she approached, and she smiled. Leon smiled back, like a reflexive response to her smile. She'd nearly reached him when a horse reared back whinnying wildly. They both turned to see Morgana soothing the creature.

"She has a way with them, doesn't she?" Leon said as Krysia stopped short of him. "A lovely day, my lady."

"Indeed," Krysia said.

"Have you given thought to what you'll wear to the Lady Morgana's feast?" Leon said.

"I…hadn't," Krysia said, smiling weakly. "I had a hard enough time knowing what to give her as a gift."

"What have you gotten?" Leon said, goading.

She sighed and said, "I wasn't even sure how much was appropriate to spend. As far as I know, I have no money. But the king assures me that I have as much as I could need or want, and he insisted that I select whatever I thought she would want in his name. I got her new riding gloves."

"A practical gift," he said, looking back to see Morgana mounting the horse. "One I'm sure she'll get a great deal of use out of."

Krysia nodded and said, "Everyone's going to be looking at me, aren't they?"

Leon realized what she meant. The night might be about the Lady Morgana, but this was the first feast that Krysia would be seated at the high table for, not serving. She had organized a great number of the details, he was sure, but it would still be uncomfortable for her knowing that much of the court would be waiting to see how she behaved and how Uther, Arthur, and Morgana interacted with her. She was still a novelty in court in her new position.

"My advice?" Leon said. Krysia nodded. "They're going to be looking so…prove you belong there. Wear something memorable. Behave with all the grace and confidence I know you're capable of. If there's nothing to whisper about tomorrow except how beautiful you are, you'll only ever be the focus of a feast in future if the feast is really about you."

Krysia considered his words and watched Morgana ride off. He had a wild thought of inviting her on a ride, even though he knew he didn't have the time, but she just said, "I suppose that's the best I can do, isn't it? Thank you, Leon."

He bowed, and he watched her go, unable to look away from the way the light played off the velvet. He silently cursed himself for his weakness, but who could stand not to watch her?

/-/

Uther startled at the sight of Krysia entering the banquet hall. For a moment, he thought he was staring at a ghost, but the cut of the dress wasn't quite the same as he remembered. She stood still for a moment, taking in the room in a red gown with gold braiding and a long gold braided belt. She had clearly let her maid do her hair, and it was delicately curled with a jeweled headdress resting on her brow. The angles of the cut of the bodice were distracting, as Zosia's dresses had often been, and he wondered if there was a way to say that she reminded him of her mother without letting on just how enticing her mother had always been.

Best not mention it, he decided.

He realized that she was auditing the layout of the room, the place settings, the details. She was viewing the feast with a servant's gaze, and while he understood that she took great pride in her feasts, her attention to detail, he didn't think it was healthy to let her dwell in that past. He gestured to her, and when she realized he was watching her, she bowed her head slightly and walked the length of the banquet hall.

She even moved like Zosia, and the sleeves of her dress flowed as she moved, almost floating around her arms. She paused to give her best wishes to Morgana, who leaned forward to kiss her cheek in thanks. Then she bowed to Uther, and he gestured to her seat, on the other side of Arthur.

Krysia took her seat, and Arthur engaged her in conversation as the hall filled. Uther wondered if this was how he and Zosia had looked, conversing, when they were young.

Best not to think on it, he decided.

When the room was full, Uther stood and raised his glass.

"To the Lady Morgana!" he said.

"To Lady Morgana!" the assembly toasted.

Uther presented his gift, and then Arthur his. Morgana seemed particularly delighted with the jeweled dagger Arthur had given. Krysia's gift came next, a pair of fine (if simple) riding gloves, which Morgana took her time to pointedly appreciate.

Uther turned to see how Lady Krysia was doing, and he realized she wasn't smiling. She sat correctly, she knew where to look at she knew with whom she was expected to speak, and possibly to the whole of the assembly she looked the part perfectly. But Uther had seen that very look on her mother's face, and at the time he hadn't recognized what it was. He assumed everything was fine, until Zosia told him she was in love with someone else.

He wasn't sure yet what he had to do, but he knew that Lady Krysia was not settling in well, and he needed to find a way to make her smile when no one was watching her, or perhaps history would repeat itself.

/-/

Krysia slipped into Gaius's apartments after the feast, where Merlin and Gaius were already discussing what Arthur had gifted to Morgana.

"Do you not see?" Merlin was saying as she closed the door behind her. "It's started! It's coming true."

"We cannot be certain about that," Gaius said. He turned to Krysia for support, but she wasn't sure she agreed.

"We have to stop her," Merlin said.

"How are we meant to stop something if we only have flashes of information?" Krysia said. "And more than that, how are we supposed to stop it if we don't know whether it's something that must be? There are things that might be and things that must be. Do we know which this is? What do you propose?"

"We have to watch her!"

Gaius looked startled and said, "Night and day?"

"I was shown these visions for a reason."

Krysia crossed her arms and said, "But what reason? Merlin, you don't know if you're meant to stop it or help it or simply to help clean up the pieces once it's happened."

"We'll take it in turns!" Merlin said, not listening. "She cannot be left alone!"

He hurried out of the room, and Krysia and Gaius looked at each other in silence for a long moment.

"Remember," Gaius whispered, "you still need to be careful, both around Morgana and around Uther."

"I know," she said. "Somehow, this feels worse. I feel like I have fewer excuses to be places in the castle, I feel like I have to dress in a way that means everyone notices when I'm around, and I feel like Uther might be watching me more closely than he did before."

Gaius hummed.

"Do you think he suspects?" she said.

Gaius frowned for a moment, and then he said, "Uther was very close to your mother. Her father fostered him in a difficult time of his life, and she knew him perhaps better than anyone else in the kingdom. When her sentence came, he'd lost his wife, he'd lost his best friend, and Zosia wasn't speaking to him. She'd blamed him for her sister's death, and quite publically so. Even with that distance, he had made unspeakable sacrifices for her, so the reports of magic from Malgrave were…" Gaius hesitated.

"Painful?" Krysia prompted.

"I do not think he anticipated such a betrayal," Gaius said. "And I do not believe anything has been harder for him than announcing the sentence."

Krysia snorted and said, "He passed sentence from days away to burn women and children to the ground."

"Yes. Because I believe if he'd had to look her in the eye and pass judgment, Uther would not have had the strength to follow his own laws," Gaius said. "We all have our weaknesses, Krysia, and dear childhood friends are a painfully common one. Do you think Sir Leon would have been able to condemn you to death, if he knew?"

Krysia thought of the fear on Leon's face as he begged her to gather her things and run with him. He'd not only been willing to steal her away, but he was intending to go with her, with nothing but the clothes on his back and his horse.

But then, he didn't know what he'd been protecting. If he'd known that she was a sorceress, would he have been so eager to smuggle her out of the city, to go with her? She couldn't imagine it.

Gwen burst into the room before Krysia could think of an answer, and the urgency on her face said everything. Krysia helped Gaius gather a medicine bag and the three of them hurried after Gwen without a word.

/-/

Morgana was brought back to Gaius's chambers and laid out on the workbench. Krysia cleared the desk for Arthur to put Morgana's unconscious form.

"I need water and bandages," Gaius said.

"I'll get that," Gwen said.

"And yarrow," Gaius said as she hurried away. "We need to stop the bleeding."

Krysia went to Gaius's herbs while Arthur arranged Morgana. She handed Gaius the yarrow and leaned over Morgana to check her pulse.

"Gaius, she's not breathing well."

"Dianthus?" Merlin said.

"Yes," Gaius said, "and a preparation of pulmonaria."

Merlin looked puzzled, and Gaius clarified, "Lungwort, Merlin. Quarter of an ounce, ground fine, and mixed with viola."

"What happened?" Krysia said to Arthur.

"I need room here," Gaius said.

"Yes," Arthur said, concerned, "of course." He cleared his throat. "Anything you need, just tell me."

Krysia glanced over her shoulder at Gaius before she led Arthur away.

"She had a fall," Arthur said. "I don't know where she was going, but she was on the stairs, and she had a fall, and I…"

"It can happen," Krysia said, although she had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to the story. "Accidents happen, and there's no rhyme or reason. Come, Arthur. Show me where she was found. If we look for loose stones, perhaps that will be a useful activity to occupy us."

Arthur nodded, leading Krysia away to the stairwell in question, and she hoped that whatever they managed for Morgana, if she woke again, that she wouldn't know that Merlin had nearly killed her once more.

A/N:

To SarahELupin:

You're not wrong. She's very uncomfortable. I hope that's coming through clearly. She'll find her footing and figure out how to use her new position to her advantage, but it's going to take coming through those strings and figuring out how to avoid being pulled about.

To fantasy.92:

A C Plot is a film/television term. So the A Plot is the primary point of an episode, film, or series. So Merlin's A-Plot is nearly always something about Merlin protecting Arthur, with some exceptions. The B-Plot is the main side story in an episode. Sometimes there's multiple B-Plots (in a film), but they give a little more depth to side characters. This could be a love story separate from the main action, like Arthur & Gwen often being a B-Plot in Merlin. The A & B plots can be seemingly separate but come together at the climax of the episode, or they can be very closely intertwined. C-Plots don't always really exist, but sometimes they're there to give a little extra color, or an extra thread one of the major plots will need. Sometimes they're a shadow of an ongoing story (like a romance they want to keep nodding to, but it doesn't really give anything to the episode plot). Often, they're used as comic relief if the A & B plots both have to be pretty serious and there's no good place to interject humor in them by the tone of the show.

In this case, the C-Plot is a side character storyline I'm interjecting that doesn't have bearing on the main plots of the story, but is more to amuse myself. It's based on a more obscure Arthurian legend, and since nobody's noticed it yet, I'm guessing it's one that y'all aren't familiar with, but if anyone figures out what it is as it builds, I will dedicate a chapter to them. I'm super curious to see if anyone picks it out!

-C