"Guinevere!" Arthur shouts, barreling into their shared chambers.
The queen looks up from the pile of parchment littered across the desk in front of her. The slight frown of concentration that had been on her face deepens slightly when she takes in her husband.
He looks… upset. Angry, sad, and confused, much like a child who has been disciplined without being told why.
"Arthur? What is it?" Gwen asks.
Her eyebrows raise as her brother, Leon, Percival, and Gwaine topple into the room behind their king.
"What's the matter?" Gwen asks.
"Does Merlin have a wife?" Arthur demands.
Gwen leans back in her chair, raised brows furrowing. "A wife?"
"Or, you know, just a girl," Percival says.
"A torrid affair, perhaps?" Gwaine asks.
"Not that I know of," Gwen says, frown deepening further. "What is this about?"
"Merlin," Arthur growls. "What else?"
Gwen rolls her eyes. "What about Merlin? Why the sudden interest in his romantic life?"
"He's really told you nothing?" Gwaine asks, voice tinged slightly with desperation.
"He mentioned someone, once," Gwen says thoughtfully. "But I was under the impression that he didn't want to speak of it."
"Because it ended badly?" Leon guesses.
"Threw him out, maybe," Gwaine muses.
Gwen sighs. "I believe you're projecting, Sir Gwaine. No woman would throw Merlin from her life if she could help it."
"Why didn't he want to talk about it then?" Arthur presses.
Gwen crosses her arms and answers, "That's Merlin's business, now isn't it?"
"It's important, Gwen," Arthur says.
"Why?"
"Because Merlin has a child!" Arthur roars, finally reaching the end of the patience.
He runs his hands through his hair, eyes wide with the remnants of disbelief and betrayal.
"He has a little girl," Arthur says, quieter now. "And he didn't tell any of us."
Gwen is stunned into silence. Elyan shifts on his feet, watching her face carefully.
"His uncle has been watching her, I think," he offers.
"Horrid man, from what we could tell," Gwaine adds.
Gwen gives him a disbelieving look.
Percival shrugs and interjects, "We're assuming that solely based on the fact that Merlin beat him to a pulp immediately upon seeing him."
"Merlin hit Gaius?" Gwen asks in disbelief.
"Gaius is Merlin's uncle?" Gwaine asks.
"Oh, you sodding fools," Guinevere groans. "What do you mean he has a child?"
The knights give a brief description of the scene they had witnessed on the training grounds. Guinevere's face does not change from its mask of impassivity throughout.
"And you're sure she belongs to him?" Gwen asks finally.
Gwaine sighs. "She's an angel. Big ears, big blue eyes, sharp chin. Looks exactly like a mini-Merlin, just with blonde hair."
"Has this weird seriousness about her, too," Percival adds. "In her eyes."
"Many children do," Gwen points out.
Leon shrugs. "Even to me it looks a lot like that look Merlin gets when he's about to be wise."
"She also," Elyan says, smiling, "tripped over absolutely nothing and took a spectacular tumble in true Merlin fashion."
"But it wasn't really any of that," Arthur says softly. "You should have seen the way he was with her. It was just…"
"Merlin," Gwen sighs. None can tell whether she is finishing her husband's sentence or bemoaning her best friend.
"So we thought we would ask if you knew whether he was courting someone, or had been courting someone," Elyan says. "Just to… confirm."
Gwen raises an eyebrow at him. Elyan shifts where he stands, uncomfortable under her stare.
"How old is she?" Gwen asks when she finally looks away.
Immediately, five different answers come to her: four, six, a toddler, an infant. Guinevere rolls her eyes.
"So all you know is that she's a child," Gwen says.
Gwaine lifts a shoulder. "I don't know much about children to be honest with you."
"And thank the gods for that," the queen mutters. A thoughtful look descends over her face. Her audience waits only somewhat impatiently.
"If she's three or four, the timeline may make sense…" she muses.
"For his paramour you know so much about?"
Gwen sighs, studying their faces. "Perhaps."
"Can you tell us anything about her?" Gwaine asks eagerly. "Like why she'd leave a Merlin and a child to fend for themselves?"
"They're basically the same thing," Arthur mutters.
Gwen sucks at her teeth. "If I tell you what I know, you must never bring it up. Especially not to Merlin. It's incredibly private."
A chorus of, "Of course, my lady"s, ring out across the chambers.
"A few years ago, I came across Merlin on one of his rare days off–" Gwen says, at which Arthur scoffs. She sends him a glare, then continues, "he had a strange assortment of things with him and looked… far away. So I asked where he was going, and asked if he was going to see a girl. He had flowers with him, and a few odd trinkets."
"So he courted someone in secret, beneath our noses?" Gwaine asks incredulously. "Why wouldn't he come to us for advice?"
"Perhaps because he was interested in keeping her around, Sir Gwaine," Leon jabs. "A man should only approach you for advice on women if they want to chase them away."
"Boys," Gwen snaps. Leon and Gwaine give her an apologetic and sheepish look respectively and shut their mouths. Gwen takes a steadying breath and says, "And he said, 'Kind of.'"
"Kind of?" Arthur echoes, screwing up his face. "How can you kind of be going to see a girl?"
Gwen's face falls. The knights watch as she wages some kind of internal battle, staring blindly at the papers before her. When she looks back up, her eyes are sad and heavy.
"That's what I asked," she tells them. "'Merlin, how does one kind of see a girl? You have flowers, and gifts.' Something about him on that day… he looked so sad. And tired. And he said that they were only kind of gifts. That they were offerings."
"Offerings," Percival repeats slowly.
Gwen nods. "He said her name was Freya, and that he loved her very much. And I asked where she lived, and he just said…"
"What?" Arthur asks.
"He just said that she doesn't. Not anymore," Gwen says, voice trembling. "He was going to visit her grave."
Silence descends over the room.