Chapter 10
Two months had passed since we took back Camelot from the Southrons. I can't remember why, but I had always imagined the situation in Camelot would get instantly better after it was freed from the enemies. Instead, it got only slightly better at first and then even worse. It was nice to be free again, but the city and the people in it were still in danger.
Many knights had been killed in the first attack, been executed by Morgana afterwards, or died when they tried to retake Camelot. Arthur had lost almost a third of his trusted knights and of those who weren't killed, many were wounded and not fit for duty. A lot of them died after the battle, even though Gaius did whatever he could.
One might imagine that with this many losses, it wasn't easy to regain order within Camelot's borders.
The surrounding kingdoms, though they had renewed their treaties with the King, were another steady danger. Rumours had it that some of the kings were plotting an allegiance against Camelot and it's young King, now that its defences were down to a minimum. After all, Arthur was inexperienced and if there ever would be a chance to strike against him, it was now.
Bandits (possibly paid by these kings to destabilize Camelot even more) were roaming the woods freely, attacking many merchants who were on their way to the city with goods and stole the food off of them.
Worse still, the surrounding fields were mostly plundered and the crops had simply been burned by the retreating Southrons in a last act of hatred. The people weren't starving, not yet, but the situation could've been better.
These, among many others, were reasons why this day was so important to us all. Camelot's citizens needed something to get the worry out of their heads, and what would be better to do this than the wedding of their beloved king with one of their very own.
Today was the day Gwen and Arthur would get married.
If Gaius had been surprised to find me with Gwaine, he didn't show it. I can only imagine what I must have looked like, sweaty all over, eyes red-rimmed, face swollen from tears, hair messed up and voice hoarse.
The physician took one short look at me, made sure Gwaine was all right and then dragged me out of Merlin's room.
He made me sit down at the table and made a tea, shoving the cup into my hand when it was finished and then just waited for me to start talking.
And I did.
I told him everything, about my profession, about the mission I had here and the moment I decided I would do otherwise and why.
I told him about all the worlds I had been to before.
I even spoke about my Black Knight, something I had never been able to do before to anybody.
He never interrupted me and calmly waited until I was finished, saving his follow-up questions for when I was ready. I couldn't answer them all, but he didn't seem to mind.
It was evening when we finally stopped talking.
Gaius promised silence, not a word even to Merlin, and asked me not to tell him anything about what would happen in the future. As I intended to change the future anyway, I was happy to oblige.
Gwaine was still recovering from his wounds and had difficulties with some movements. He also tired fast, which was the reason I had brought his armour to his room for him.
Gaius predicted that he would be his own self again before long. While I fastened the last straps on my own armour, I kept glancing at Gwaine warily. Over the last few weeks, I had learned not to ask him if he needed any help, because if I did, he would stubbornly keep trying himself. If I just sat back and waited, he would eventually ask for assistance.
The knight unhappily fiddled around with his armour and finally, with a frustrated smile, he asked: "Will, would you mind?"
I fought down the urge to tease him about being a whiny old man or something, grinning to myself when I thought that this was exactly what he would've said if the situation was reversed, and walked over to him.
I had been sitting in the armoury, sharpening my sword, when Merlin, almost scaring me out of my wits, burst into the room. He was out of breath, his hair dishevelled, but he was beaming and his eyes, though red-rimmed and with dark circles underneath them, shone happily.
"Gaius sent me to tell you – He woke up! He will make it!", he called, and was out of the room again in the next second, certainly off to the tavern or the training area to tell Leon and the others.
Judging by his face, he would probably even tell the whole city that his friend was going to make it, whether people would listen or not.
I sat back onto the chair, the smile getting ever bigger on my face.
I had no need to ask who 'he' was. In the last few days I had been visiting Gaius' chambers and the wounded Knight whenever I was not on duty. Gaius knew how much Gwaine's recovery meant to me.
When I finally ran out of things to tell the physician, he started to divide the errands he needed run between me and Merlin to keep my mind off of things.
Merlin didn't seem to mind how often I spent time with his mentor and he certainly wasn't unhappy that Gaius took some of his chores off of him. Arthur was keeping him busy even more than usual, a sign that told those who knew him a bit better how nervous he was about the marriage.
When Gaius noticed my interest in medicine and the art of healing, he willingly shared his knowledge with me, teaching me simple things and skills I hadn't learned yet. I could also tell him some things I had learned in the last world, in which the medicine was more advanced.
His books also were of great comfort to me. The familiar shape and smell were calming and helped me to sleep at night, because after the events with the Southrons, my nightmares had returned worse than ever.
The physician was a sympathetic man, who was patient with me, and his small gestures helped to ease my fear and calm my mind.
I wasn't surprised at all when I learned that Gwen and Arthur would become husband and wife in the gathering hall in the lower town where the common people were married. Gwen had chosen this place and Arthur, knowing how much this meant to her, only too happily agreed.
Most of the younger knights now were on duty, either patrolling just outside of town or warily keeping an eye on the citizens, many of whom had come to line the streets. A stranger with bad intentions could hide himself easily between them, so they were extra careful.
Arthur originally was against special security measurements, but he finally was persuaded to be cautious, if not for his own safety, but for Gwen's.
I expected to be given duties, too, but instead Gwaine arrived at my room in the morning and informed me that I was invited to the wedding.
It was obvious that he had pulled some strings for me, knowing that I really wanted to go, and if I hadn't had to act like a knight, I would've hugged him now or started to cry, but so I just nodded and gave him a friendly, manly punch to the shoulder.
One of the first things Gwaine did after Gaius allowed him to get up and move around was to take me to the tavern, to thank me for 'saving his life' – which I didn't, not even technically. It had all been Gaius' work. I had been a useless, whining little girl back in the dungeons. But well, Gwaine had been unconscious then, and Gaius wouldn't tell him, so I had to go.
I had a clear idea what I thought this evening would be about (Gwaine getting drunk and dragging me along as an alibi), but I was surprised. Gwaine didn't drink as much as I would've guessed, barely enough to slur his speech, and he stopped me when he believed I had had enough.
As this was his first night out after getting wounded, I thought this would be one time only, but again I was mistaken. Gwaine seemed to be determined to befriend me, no matter how much I, at first, tried to keep my distance.
He took me by surprise with this entirely and even more so when he started to bring me along to meetings with the inseparables, too.
Strangely enough, none of them seemed to mind me accompanying him whenever they met in the tavern. The inseparables were inseparable, yes, but it wasn't that hard to get to know them.
After a few weeks it was difficult for me not to miss them when I hadn't seen them for a few hours.
So, the day Gwaine woke up was the day my whole life in Camelot changed. It got indefinitely better, but it also got worse.
Now I wasn't the nameless knight any more, but had people who cared about me and by getting closer to them, I got ever more afraid they might get hurt.
When I noticed how much I started to feel like part of their group, it scared me. A lot.
I talked to Gaius about this, but the old physician just grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze: "I'm sure this is for the best. No one should stay alone for long, and you don't have to be just because you feel guilty about something that you can not control. Besides, you need protection as much as they do, Will, don't forget it."
When Gwaine and I entered the hall, I thought it natural to stay in one of the last rows. Just as I was about to settle down, Gwaine grabbed my arm and pulled me with him to one of the rows close to the front, so that I sat between Gwaine and Leon, who gave me a reassuring smile and a nod before fixing his eyes on the two chairs sitting at the end of the hall. A grin was hovering on his face. I guessed that he was thinking about Gwen and himself in their youth. Who could've imagined that one day, she would become his Queen?
In the two months since the Southrons were defeated, I pieced the story together as much as I could because I felt the urge to know as much as I could about what had happened, and filling the bits I didn't know about felt like closure.
Elyan and Leon did make it to the woods and were joined by Percival later, who had narrowly managed to fled the castle without being imprisoned by the Southrons. Elyan had been wounded, though not as severely as Gwaine, and his only comment about the whole affair had been that he was really sorry that due to his wound he had not been able to accompany Arthur and the others when they retook Camelot and had missed all the action.
Percival, who had led a group of knights that should free the lower town, had faced Helios. The knights accompanying him reassured me that the fight had been fierce, bloody and had almost ended badly for the knight. In the end, however, he won. Percival himself never boasted about killing the leader of the Southrons and kept silent about the whole affair, no matter how much I pressed him.
Gaius confirmed my theory that he had tried to accompany Arthur and Merlin on their way to Ealdor, but was captured by Morgana's soldiers and then tortured with the Nathair. The old man spoke about it without showing any emotion, but I could see in his eyes how guilty he felt about giving up the position of his ward and the King.
Arthur and Merlin had experienced the same story I had already known, following the original storyline closely, including meeting Isolde and Tristan, their stay at Hunith's, the reunion with Gwen, and Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone. I really regretted not to have witnessed that moment.
Agravaine had disappeared. Gaius hinted that Merlin had done something to him when they fled Ealdor, but the physician wasn't sure if Merlin had only hindered him from following them or if he had killed him. Merlin wouldn't say, but as Arthur's treacherous uncle hadn't bothered us until now, I believed, and hoped, it to be the latter.
Morgana had escaped. No one knew how, but she managed to get out of the castle without anyone noticing her. It wasn't that surprising really, considering that she had spent her childhood in the castle and knew every hidden way in and out. Nonetheless, it was obviously hard on Arthur to have again missed the chance to try and win her back or stop her for good this time.
While we waited for the ceremony to begin, the knights were fooling around, trying to drag me in, too, but I couldn't join in whole-heartedly. There were too many thoughts in my head that I would've liked to discuss with Gaius now, but the physician was sitting a few rows before me, talking quietly to Merlin, who was loo king around sheepishly in his new clothes.
Then Arthur entered the hall, with the cloak blowingaround him while he walked. His face was solemn and earnest, the crown looking heavy on his head. I couldn't even guess what he would be thinking about now.
Maybe about his father, who wouldn't approve of this marriage. Or maybe he was worrying something would go wrong in the last minute.
When the king had reached the steps leading to the platform on which the chairs stood, he stopped and everyone fell silent, heads turned to the now again closed door.
The whole of Camelot's unscathed knights had been summoned to the courtyard to be part of the memorial for Tristan. Arthur thought this was the right way to thank the man that had helped to free Camelot and had lost his life in doing so.
I had the impression that Arthur had had some kind of speech at hand, but when Isolde walked up to the front row, her face blank, seemingly composed, but pale and her eyes full of pain, he never said a word and simply offered a burning torch to her instead. She took it, gave him a tiny nod, and set fire to the wood.
We all watched in silence as it began to burn.
When Isolde swayed, her shoulders shaking with tears, Gwen, who had been standing somewhere between the servants, walked over to her and took her free hand, then pulling her into another embrace.
Arthur's and Gwen's eyes met over Isolde's head. They held each others gazes for what seemed like eternity. It was Gwen who broke away first, but Arthur kept staring at her with a determined expression.
A few days later they made their engagement public and the preparations for the wedding began.
It was Elyan who walked Gwen down the aisle. The Knight was beaming proudly beside his sister who, in a simple blue dress and with flowers in her hair, looked more like a Queen than Morgana in all her fancy dresses and with the crown on her head ever did.
For a short moment when Guinevere entered the hall, everyone was simply staring at her. Then we all rose, like one man, and it was so quiet you could've heard a needle hit the floor.
Arthur's and her eyes met and both of them stared at each other for a few seconds. Then Arthur started to smile widely and tears rolled over Guinevere's cheeks. I was sure that Arthur too was nearly crying, but he would never have admitted to that.
Their eyes never left each others faces and when Elyan and his sister finally reached the two chairs at the front, Arthur grabbed her hand and held it like he would never, ever let go of it again.
I'm pretty sure none of the people present listened to Geoffrey of Monmouths words. I surely didn't, because I had trouble to keep my own tears back. I thought of all the things these two had to go through for this day to happen.
Their love had survived it all, even Morgana's wicked scheme with Lancelot.
While I watched them kiss, I silently renewed my promise to myself that I would keep Arthur alive. After everything, this was not only what they needed, this was what they deserved.
I knew deep down in my guts that this would be the last world I would visit.
Who knows what the council will do to me, I thought, but, everything considered, the thing that mattered now was that I might change this world. There were years ahead of me in Camelot and I would cherish every minute, even the bad ones.
After the wedding ceremony was over, the newly-weds left the hall, slowly followed by those who had been in it. They led the way up to the citadel, where Guinevere would be crowned Queen in a few hours.
To be continued.
A/N: I always felt the wedding itself was missing in the series – if I am correct, than a King first marries the woman and she then gets crowned Queen, right?
I have no idea why the writers would skip it, but we did see a 'real' wedding with Uther and 'Catrina', so the crowning isn't the same as the wedding.
I also guess that Arthur would've done things differently than his father, so I decided to write it this way. I thought it fitted in with the epic ending of season 4!
I hope that there are no more loose ends that I forgot to explain.
I hope you enjoyed this 'episode' in all its wordiness.
Now I will start to re-watch season 5 (yay). My head is already full of ideas! But boy, do I hate the ending... :D Well, I knew from the beginning I would have to do this when I started writing :D
