A/N: Apologies for the late update, I kept getting an error message when I went to post this chapter :( -shakes fist- fanfiction! Lol :) I had to use a sneaky 'content' and not 'properties' thing and urls...blah :(
~8~
Underestimation
Morning would find Marayna seated at the small table in Gaius's chambers as her uncle placed a bowl of what appeared to be white mush down before her. She took out a spoon, scooped up a bit...and watched as it fell in clumps back to the bowl. A semi-disgusted frown made its way onto her face which quickly became a neutral expression as her uncle turned to face her once more with two more bowls of mush. He set one down across from her and another at the end of the table before sitting down by the last one. A moment later Merlin emerged from the room he had come to share with his sister, stretching with one arm while rubbing his head with the other.
"Let me guess," Marayna began, pushing Merlin's food towards him as he plopped down before her, "Arthur bought you more than just one drink?"
"Errrg," he moaned, "No more talks of drinking."
Marayna laughed, "Sweotol heafod," she whispered, resting a hand on her brother's head.
Instantly he felt better, the fog and thundering in his mind dissipated, leaving him feeling as though he had been wide awake for a few hours rather than a few minutes with a terrible hangover, "Thank you," he smiled at his sister, realizing she must have learned that last night, he'd come back to the room to see her sitting on her cot with the magic book open, just looking at all the spells they still had yet to learn.
"Ow!" Marayna squeaked before she could reply as Gaius promptly hit her over the head for her blatant display of magic, "Uncle!"
"What did I just tell you both the other day!?" Gaius lifted his eyebrow at them.
"Aya got in trouble," Merlin chirped sing-songy...only to be cut off by a small fleck of bread being chucked at his head by his sister.
He picked up a bit of bread to retaliate when Gaius broke his concentration, "Enough, both of you! Honestly, must you act like children?"
"Sorry uncle," Marayna muttered, bowing her head.
Merlin echoed her, but as soon as Gaius turned to look down at his meal, he flicked the bread back at his sister who, expecting his actions after years and years with her brother, opened her mouth and caught the bread, swallowing it whole with a smirking-grin and a wink as he rolled his eyes at her.
Gaius looked up to see his niece and nephew sharing a secret grin and immediately thought the worst, "Something I should know about?" he asked, his eyebrow quirking even more, if that were possible. Both Marayna and Merlin looked at each other briefly before laughing and muttering a quick 'no uncle' as they went about eating their breakfast...or trying to, though they were quite certain it was alive and trying to escape their spoons given how it kept falling back into the bowl in clumps
'So,' Marayna heard in her mind, looking up to see her brother shooting her a teasing look, 'Enjoy your dance with Arthur?'
Marayna smirked, shooting back with, 'I'm not sure. Enjoy your dance with Morgana?'
Merlin chuckled silently as he recalled the events of the night before. Morgana had come up to him just after leaving Marayna and Arthur to their dancing. He hadn't even noticed she was standing beside him, being too busy glaring at Arthur, until she spoke. To his utter shock, she had asked him for a dance in her true forward manner.
If the shock of the actual question wasn't enough, he hadn't been able to answer at all as he took in her appearance. She was wearing a dark dress that brought out the natural paleness of her skin. Her eyes sparkled in the firelight and the smile she gave him, that coy smile that told him she already knew what his answer would be but thought it cute to watch him suffer was prevalent on her face. It was the smile that did him in and made him tongue tied, he swore it. Morgana had to be some sort of magic, she had rendered him completely speechless and dumb. He couldn't speak or even think of a reply as she stood there, waiting.
After a moment or two of his blatant gaping at her, she let out a bell-like laugh and took his arm, leading him onto the floor herself. Thankfully, by the time they reached the dancing area he had regained partial use of his limbs and managed to shut his mouth. He didn't dare speak during the dance, he was far too concerned with making sure he didn't step on her feet. It wasn't even that he was worried of embarrassing himself before a room full of nobles, no he had done that plenty of times already, it was more that...well, the thought of causing her discomfort, of causing her any sort of pain even the most miniscule amount, gave him a sort of tightening in his chest.
As a result he stumbled quite a bit during their dance but was proud to say he hadn't stood on her foot once. He even managed to glance up from his feet a few times to see her smiling lightly at him and even dared a look at the others dancing alongside them. He just briefly caught a glimpse of Marayna, who he knew had been looking at her own feet just as much as he had been, to see her in what looked like a serious conversation with Arthur. He was a bit envious of her grace in dancing, no matter how little the difference was between him and her, she didn't have to look down NEARLY as much as he had, but then remembered that she had had lessons while visiting their Aunt Elaine, not much and not in detail but enough to learn the basics, enough to get by if she really, really tried, not that she ever did. Perhaps he should have asked her for a few instructions before attending this feast, but then, how was he to know, or even guess, that someone as beautiful and graceful as Morgana would want to dance with a clumsy oaf such as himself? What noblewoman would ever want to dance with a servant? Though he had seen Arthur dance with Gwen once so he supposed it wasn't quite as uncommon as he thought.
He was truly surprised that Uther hadn't ordered him and Marayna arrested or something for dancing with Arthur and Morgana, but he supposed the celebration of it all and the all-around cheer was enough to keep Uther from issuing death sentences. Well, that and Morgana and Arthur seemed to have both picked the opportune moment to ask for a dance, Uther was caught in some discussion or another with a pair of the other knights who had participated in the tournament, they doubted the king had even seen Morgana step onto the dance area, let alone who with. He also doubted that anyone would dare comment about the king's son and ward's choice of dance partner within hearing range of said duo either. Morgana and Arthur could be...quite the fearsome pair.
When the song had ended, Morgana thanked him for the dance and was immediately swept away by another nobleman of the court. He was nearly certain that the man who had swept her away was a prat, he had to be, everything about him just screamed prat...much like it did Arthur. He walked back to where he had stood with Gaius, taking a bit of pleasure in the fact that Morgana didn't seem to be smiling at the man nearly as much as she had with him during their dance.
"I suppose Arthur didn't get all the girls?" Gaius had asked slyly, watching Merlin as he watched Morgana.
Merlin glanced over at his uncle, "He still gets all the glory doesn't he?"
Gaius had just laughed, patted him on the back, and made his way over to the king, leaving Merlin to his own devices. Merlin smirked a bit as he saw Morgana decline the next dance and move back to the main table to converse with Gwen and Marayna. He lost sight of her though when Arthur came over to talk to him, to hire him back.
'I suppose I did,' he replied.
Marayna smiled at the faraway look in her brother's eyes as he recalled the previous night. She had been delighted to see that Morgana had taken an interest in her brother. There was just...something about the noblewoman that she couldn't identify, she was different than what she expected of a 'Lady of the Court' and she just knew Morgana would be good for her brother. Morgana seemed very passionate and outspoken and brave, which she knew Merlin, bless his gentle heart, could most certainly use a bit more of. He was more for cracking comments than truly getting riled up about things, but she was certain he just needed to really...be around someone as unafraid as Morgana seemed to be.
She herself was quite outspoken, but more in a brash, sometimes even vulgar way. Having been raised in a village, outside the courts, she just...didn't care for nobles. She didn't care what she said or how it came across, to her...they were people, same as her. Who cared if they'd been born to privilege? Until they did something to earn her respect she treated them as if they were another person. Cendred, the king of the lands that Ealdor resided in, was a king as well...and a terrible one. Why respect someone who didn't respect others? She had always believed that it was the mark of a man how he treated his inferiors instead of his equals. She held no love for arrogance, though she herself was just a bit arrogant, she could admit. But there was a difference between being proud of yourself for something you worked hard at, than being proud of something you had no control over, like being born a prince or a noble. She had met nobles who hated their station for the hypocrisy of it, how they were meant to be these great people, defenders of the realm...yet they hardly cared about the peasants. She had also met commoners with more noble qualities in their pinky than most royals had in their entire bodies.
It was the person inside that she considered, not title and not station. So she said what she thought and what she felt, when she thought or felt it. If the noble in question had an issue with her vocalizing that, well...she was but a lowly peasant, wasn't she? Hardly worth listening to. That seemed to be the curse though, a noble would absorb every bit of praise they could from anyone, but deal them a criticism and they'd put you in the stocks. She'd just come to...not care, really. Yes, she'd try to watch what she said around those that could do her true harm, like Uther, but others...well, why hold her tongue when she saw something wrong?
It was, perhaps, why she had enjoyed Morgana's company last night. When she'd realized Morgana had wanted to put her in a dress...she'd tried to escape. Naturally. But Morgana had seemed ready and had had Gwen lock the doors to her chambers. They'd gotten into a bit of a tiff, back and forth with Morgana trying to convince her to wear one of her old dresses and her refusing. Morgana had actually threatened to send her down to the hall wearing nothing if she selected nothing to wear. She'd fully agreed to do just that, much to Morgana's amusement, catching the woman's bluff. And then Morgana had, quite evilly, countered that then she would have to select the most horrid, frilly, uncomfortable dress to her name and have Gwen hold her down till they got her into it. They'd stared each other down for a full minute with narrowed eyes...till they'd laughed and she'd picked the gown she'd worn.
Morgana amused her in how...open she was with her words. She amused her all night when the woman had snuck looks at Merlin, with Merlin doing much the same while he had a drink with Arthur. Thankfully, after Arthur had asked her to dance, no one else had (it didn't seem very common for nobles to ask servants (not that she was one just yet) to dance, for which she was grateful). She still hadn't gotten quite the hang of dancing and had very nearly stepped on Arthur's foot at least three or four times in the course of their dance. Instead, she was able to stand with Gwen and discuss the feast and duels with Morgana.
It had been…nice…to be able to speak with other girls about the tournament. Often times, when she would bring up even the idea of fighting around other girls, they would turn their noses in the air and say it was 'a beastly sport that women should show no interest in' and then go off on tangents about how handsome the fighters were though. Here however, both Gwen and Morgana seemed interested in the fighting itself, the actual technique and weaponry. It was understandable for Gwen, her father had made many of the weapons the knights had used, but from Morgana, it was a bit of a surprise. She was even more shocked to learn that Morgana herself had a weapon hidden away in her room, a beautiful bow that Gwen's father had made her as a birthday gift when she had turned 16.
She made a note to ask Morgana a bit more about archery, perhaps ask for a few lessons. She could already feel a bond forming between the three of them. She only hoped they would still look at her the same way should they discover her secret, discover her magic, not that she ever thought they would. She and Merlin had kept it a secret for nearly 20 years and only 1 person had ever found out besides their mother. They had a fairly good track record.
The sound of Merlin standing and moving to wash his dish off drew her out of her thoughts. She realized she too had finished her meal, thankfully without tasting it, and rose to wash her dish as well. As soon as that was done she and Merlin made their way out of the room and headed towards Arthur's chambers. The castle was fairly silent, only the servants being awake as the royals were to be woken by the servants most of the time.
"Thank you," Merlin said out of nowhere, disturbing the silence that had befallen them.
"What for?"
He sighed, "I know what you did to Arthur," he replied, "I could see the bruise during the feast."
He smiled as his sister had the decency to blush a bit at that, "I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about."
His smile widened, "I thought you promised you wouldn't do anything bad?"
"You can't say punching the prat was bad," she defended, "You know you wanted to do it too!"
He laughed, "So you admit it!"
"I…" she started, before realizing she had been caught, "Fine, yes, I admit it. I punched him. And, if it's any consolation, my knuckles hurt for hours after."
Merlin was full-out laughing by the time they reached the prince's chambers though a glare from his sister sobered him quite quickly. He knew not to try his luck with her. Unlike Arthur there was nothing to stop her from punching him and possibly doing much more harm to him after the initial punch as she wouldn't be afraid of being executed for 'murdering the prince of Camelot' with him.
Having fun at her expense was far worth it though.
Marayna rolled her eyes at her brother before pushing the door to the chambers open, she had learned from her brother that the prince was greatly annoyed whenever Merlin would enter and not knock, so she took it upon herself to do the same. She wasn't at all surprised to see Arthur still lying in bed. She could tell he was awake by the fact that he wasn't breathing as slowly as she had come to associate with those who were actually asleep. Instead, he had an arm draped over her eyes, trying in vain to block out the small increments of light that filtered in through the cracks in his curtains.
Her thought that he was indeed awake was proven correct as the prince groaned, "Didn't I tell you to knock before entering?" he removed his arm to glare at his two servants.
"You may have told Merlin," she countered, crossing her arms over her chest as Merlin went to open the curtains, "But, as of yet, I am unaware of the proper morning procedures."
Arthur returned his arm to his eyes and groaned again, too many big words for so early in the morning not to mention the blinding headache that had assaulted him upon waking. This was the last time he let Merlin talk him into 'having a few drinks,' a few being far too many if it caused such a headache. Marayna nearly took pity on the prince, there had been a time or two when she herself had had far too many drinks and woken up with a pounding headache, but then she remembered the events of the day before and the look of hurt on her brother's face and instantly felt better about the prince's pain. Good, the prattly prince should suffer if just a bit. Merlin may have forgiven him, but she had yet to and she could hold a grudge longer than anyone she knew.
Arthur removed his arm once more and looked at the girl before him. She stood there with a look on her face as though awaiting instructions. She wasn't kidding about not knowing what to do for the mornings. Clearly she had never been a servant before.
He nearly groaned again at the thought of training another Merlin, but instead he sighed, "This is how it shall be for mornings," he started, sitting up a bit more in bed, wincing slightly as the movement spiked a pain in his head, "Merlin shall draw curtains, you shall draw my blankets down. You will then lay out my clothing which Merlin shall dress me in while you make my bed. You will both then inform me of the day's events," she raised an eyebrow at him, "What now?" he nearly rolled his eyes, or he would have if he weren't 100 percent certain that doing so would cause him to start seeing stars.
She smirked, "Nothing," she glanced at Merlin to see him smirking as well and shaking his head, clearly thinking the same thing she was, "Nothing at all."
"Well get to it then," Arthur commanded, in no mood for private jokes or sass that morning.
Marayna shook her head and moved to draw Arthur's sheets down so the prince could get out of bed, sending a small mental question to her brother, 'He truly can't do ANY of this for himself?'
'Apparently not,' he answered, laughing.
It took Marayna all of two seconds to pull down the blankets before she made her way over to Arthur's cupboard to sift thought his clothes. She and Merlin, well, she since she was the only one sober at the time, had been instructed that the following day Arthur would dine with his father, inspect the market place for the crafter of Valiant's shield, and then test the knights. They had no idea who had made Valiant's shield and so the king wanted to ensure that it was no man in Camelot who had. He also wanted to re-test the knights to know for sure that none of them had won their place though magic as Valiant seemed to have.
Looking though the cupboard, Marayna had no idea what would be suitable for breakfast with the king and training with the knights. She doubted Arthur would wish to change his outfit during the day unless it became utterly filthy and she couldn't imagine that happening as he merely walked through the market. Finally she settled on a simple red tunic and brown pants. It was similar to what she had seen him wear the first day she arrived in Camelot. It would have to do until she learned what was 'proper' attire for various activities.
She carefully folded the clothes and set them on a wooden chest at the foot of Arthur's bed, not even bothering to wait for his approval before moving on to make the bed, if he didn't like the clothes then he ought to have picked them out for himself. It was actually a decent set up when she thought about it though. Her back was turned from Merlin as he dressed Arthur while she made the bed, that way she wouldn't have to suffer through a semi-naked Arthur. She finished the bed just as Merlin pulled Arthur's shirt over him and straightened it. Merlin stepped away from Arthur as Marayna stepped beside him with the prince looking at them both.
"Well?" he asked expectantly, but Merlin and Marayna just stared at him blankly. He sighed, "What am I to do today?"
"Oh," Marayna nodded, "Your father requests your presence at breakfast, then you are to search the market for anyone who could have crafted Valiant's shield, and then inspect the knights to see if they too used sorcery to attain their rank."
Arthur gave a curt nod and strode out of the room, both servants following after him.
~8~
Breakfast went by painstakingly slow for both Merlin and Marayna. Merlin was expected to fill Arthur's goblet whenever it was low with some sort of juice while Marayna was to retrieve whatever food Arthur wished from the middle of the table for him to choose from. It was rather irritating, she had the sneaking suspicion that Arthur had no intention of eating half the food he requested but did so anyway just so she would pick it up, carry it, hold it out, and then return it just as heavy as it was when she first picked it up.
Just as Arthur made to stand to leave and see to his duties, Uther called him over to the chest of gold coins that he had won during the tournament. He handed him a velvet pouch which Arthur filled with a handful of coins should he find something in the market he wished to possess.
He strode past Merlin and Marayna, who both merely rolled their eyes and followed him out. Marayna couldn't help but rub her arms a few times as she followed her brother to the market. Stupid Arthur and his stupid inability to get up and get food for himself. Honestly, did those tables HAVE to be so long? Why couldn't they be shorter so that whoever wanted food could just reach out their arm and pluck it up? It was a pointless setup.
'He must be the laziest royal in the land,' she muttered to Merlin.
'I tend to think Uther is a bit worse,' Merlin laughed in reply.
"Merlin!" Arthur snapped, apparently he had called his name quite a bit in the last few seconds and was rather peeved that his manservant was ignoring him.
"Yes, sire?" he turned to Arthur, unable to mask his grin from what his sister had said.
It was Arthur's turn to roll his eyes, "I want you to take some of these coins and go to Gwen's father's forge," he instructed slowly, taking a handful of coins and pressing them into Merlin's hand, "Gather some weapons for my trial with the knights."
"What sorts of weapons? I assume swords and shields, anything else?"
Arthur pondered it a moment, it was actually a decent question, "Whatever else he has lying around will do. I might as well test them in various modes of combat."
"Yes sire," Merlin replied before turning to glance at his sister, 'Behave Aya.'
'Don't I always?' she answered as Merlin shook his head and headed off to Gwen's, "And what errand shall I be running?"
Arthur grinned evilly at her for the question. He was still rather miffed by her lack of proper respect for a royal of Camelot. Not once had she called him sire or my Lord...in a context and manner that didn't come out sounding as though he were the most vile man to walk the planet, and he was about to see to it that she be punished for it, "You shall accompany me to the seamstress's."
"Why?" she raised an amused brow, "Need a wider shirt hole to fit around your enormous head?"
He narrowed his eyes at her, "Not at all," he gave her a tense smile, half-speaking through his teeth, "It seems you are truly unprepared for the traditions and ways of Camelot. I have overlooked it these last few days, for you were not my servant then, however I feel it cannot be ignored any longer. Especially now that you are my servant and I can't have my servants dressing as such."
"Dressing as what?" she looked down at herself, she was wearing her usual clothing...tunic, belt, leggings, and boots. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
"We shall have you fitted for a dress."
If it was possible, Arthur's grin widened.
"You're joking," she stated flatly, but he simply shook his head, "But you can't be serious! A dress!?" she HATED dresses! They were long and got in the way and took far too much looking after and and she always tripped on them and now he wanted to force her to wear them? Constantly? What sort of hell had she entered in becoming a servant?!
"Of course. It is only befitting a woman to wear a dress, especially one who will appear at court quite often in the service of the Prince," he smirked at her staring at him in open-mouthed, wide-eyed horror, "Now, come along, we haven't all day," and with that, he reached out and took her arm, leading her through the various lanes of the market.
"But...but...but what of the shield maker? Your father will be furious to learn you spent your time buying dresses for a servant rather than looking for a sorcerer!"
Arthur laughed at that, "I highly doubt Valiant secured the shield here in Camelot. Not only did he already have his shield with him when he arrived in the kingdom, which leads me to believe that he had it crafted in another realm, but he was in the castle the entire time and would not have had a chance to seek out anyone in the market. And, judging by his utter lack of honor, I'd wager he used the snakes on the creator, which would prevent any other enchanted shields of the sort from being created."
She cursed silently to herself, he had it all figured out didn't he?
~8~
Marayna groaned as she carried a package of bundled cloth in her arms, the new dresses that Arthur had bought her. She was scowling as they walked through the busy market. It wasn't that she was entirely against wearing dresses, she could if she absolutely had to as she had proven during the feast last night. But, given that she was as servant, she felt like the dress would just get in the way more often than not. The king had male servants and Morgana was a lady so it made sense that she would have a maidservant. Arthur though, he was a male, he should have had only male servants.
No doubt Arthur would have her mucking out the stables and fixing his armor and what not. And even if he gave her menial chores like mending clothing she would still get herself to the stables to help muck them out. It wasn't fair to her brother to have to do manual labor while she sat around stitching things. No, they would both have an equally hard share of the chores...not to mention sitting around all day sewing would drive her absolutely mad. But if she was going to be mucking out the stables, a skirt would not do. Gwen wouldn't need worry about her dress getting soiled, Morgana, being a lady, would most likely only have her do more domestic chores.
She had learned from her life in Ealdor that working in the fields in a dress was far more difficult than in pants. She had no idea how her mother was able to do it, or how any other woman was able to. She much rather preferred her leggings to a skirt, especially if she was to do actual labor. She would wear a dress or skirt if the situation called for it, but if she could, she would wear her leggings as often as possible. She knew it was greatly frowned upon for women to wear men's attire, but she'd rather wear simple leggings than have to scrub manure out of a skirt every day.
That would get tedious and she was rather sure that she'd end up attempting to smother Arthur in his sleep for it.
She didn't expect Arthur to understand that though, he had probably never done a day's labor in his life let alone had to touch manure. In fact, the closest he probably came to the substance was catching a whiff of it outside the stables.
"You'll not be getting rid of those clothes," Arthur called from beside her, "So you'd best remove the scowl from your face. Wouldn't want to seem ungrateful would you?"
She rolled her eyes but said nothing at all, managing to warp her features into a somewhat neutral expression.
Arthur wasn't sure which was worse, having her scowl at him or look at him with no hint of any emotion at all on her face. He sighed, stopping and forcing her to stop as well, "Here," he handed her five gold coins, "You might as well get something you actually like."
She stared at the coins in her hands, then up at Arthur, an annoyed expression now on her face, "You think that paying me off will make me happy?"
Arthur's eyes widened in shock, he had certainly not expected that. He had always thought women relished in receiving gifts and having money to spend on pretty ribbons and such. Yet, here was a woman actually telling him that she wouldn't be happy just because he gave her money. Well that was a first, "If you don't want it…" he started, reaching out to take the money back.
She withdrew her hand, "You've already given it," she muttered, "Would it be proper to take it back?"
He nearly smirked, so she did want the money.
He watched her look around and did so as well, unable to help but wonder what she was going to buy. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her stop looking and focus on something a little ways away. He followed her gaze and saw a stall with various assortments of flowers, a small group of rather dirty children huddled against a wall, and another stall of fish. He hoped she was staring at the flowers, fish always smelled funny to him and if he had to be near it he wasn't sure he would keep his honor in not taking the money back.
Abruptly Marayna turned to the left and walked in the opposite direction of the flowers and over towards a stall that was selling bread. His brows furrowed in confusion as he watched her buy nearly three coins worth of bread, two coins worth of cheese, and a small amount of apples with the left over change. She seemed to be struggling with the cloth and the food so he made his way over to her and took some of the loaves from her. She looked up and nodded her thanks at him. He nodded in return and began walking back to the castle...when he noticed she hadn't followed him.
Instead, she had started in the direction of the flower stall. He had no idea what she was doing, she hadn't any money left over and he doubted the woman selling flowers would be willing to barter bread and cheese for flowers, "Marayna," he called, taking a few steps towards her, "The castle is this way."
She looked at him as though he were being daft, of course she knew which way to the castle, it was quite hard to miss with it looming in the distance, "Be that as it may," she waved off his comment, "That is not the way I am going."
He sighed and shook his head, already digging into his pockets for a few spare coins to pay for the flowers she would undoubtedly want to buy. Honestly, women, they were so…
His thoughts were cut off when, instead of stopping before the flower stall, Marayna knelt before the children. He couldn't hear what they were saying as Marayna was speaking in hushed tones for they seemed a bit startled by her. She glanced over at him and waved him over almost impatiently. He headed towards her, utterly confused as to what she was planning. She stood up, took the bread from him and carefully handed a loaf to each of the children along with a bit of cheese and an apple. She set the leftover bread down on a small stone with the rest of the cheese on top of it.
The children looked reverently at the food in their arms before staring up at her with tears in their eyes. Arthur was about to speak when what appeared to be the eldest child hugged her tightly, mumbling words of thanks in her ear. She patted him on his back, ruffling a hand through his dirty hair without a care for how soiled it was, and stood, leaving the children to their feast, pulling Arthur away with her.
"What was that all about?" he frowned, she had just wasted a bit of his money to give some little urchins perfectly good bread and cheese. No doubt they were pick-pockets and stragglers the lot of them! He was rather stunned, though, when he felt a sharp sting in the back of his head where she had just slapped him! HIM! The Prince of Camelot, "Ow!" he winced, glaring at her, to see her glaring right back, "What was that for?!" he hissed, unintentionally mimicking what Merlin had said just the other day.
"That was for you being a royal prat," she nearly shouted, but kept her voice low for the sake of not drawing attention to them.
"Well I wasn't the one feeding the street urchins."
"Street urchins?" she scoffed, "Is that what you think they are?" when he didn't reply she continued, "Arthur, they were orphans."
"And how do you know?" he countered, there was no way she could tell that they were orphans just by looking.
"They were dirty, their clothes barely fit and were torn, they didn't have shoes, their hair was filthy, and they were far too thin for their own good," she listed, "Honestly, don't you think that, if they had parents, they would be out there with them, begging for food? And if, in fact, they WERE urchins and pickpockets, wouldn't they have been more hidden and not sitting there miserably?" he hadn't thought about that, "They were probably starving, not used to being out on the streets just yet and I wanted to help them even if it was buying them just a bit of bread."
"That still doesn't prove they were orphans," he murmured.
"I asked them," she shook her head at him, "You know, it doesn't hurt to actually talk to your subjects, no matter how young or poor they are. I asked, where their parents were, and the look in their eyes was enough to tell me they had either died or been killed by something, recently too if I had to guess. They are without anyone. I've seen plenty of children like that in my village."
"So are you going to venture out every week and feed them with your wages?" he questioned a bit harshly, he didn't enjoy being put in his place not only by a servant but by a woman, he got enough of that from Morgana.
"I won't be able to," she admitted sadly, "I wish I could but...I wouldn't make enough to feed even one of them for very long," she sighed, running a hand through her hair as he was starting to get the impression she did when she was frustrated, "I wish Helena was here."
"Who?"
"Helena was a woman in my village who took in the orphaned children. She gave them a home and food."
"How did she support them? It couldn't have been easy."
"It wasn't," she agreed, "But...that's the beauty of a small village like Ealdor, everyone helps and everyone pitches in. Every week or so she would visit everyone in the village and ask for anything they could spare. Pieces of cloth, an old shirt, spare food, extra coin…anything that could help. She would go to the craftsmen, the few we had, the farmers too, and see if they could take a child or two as an apprentice, so they would have a craft when they grew older. It wasn't just about taking them in but hoping to provide them a future as well."
She looked away, a far off look on her face, a very sad look with hints of what Arthur could see was disappointment, a disappointment that made him shift, feeling uncomfortably like it was directed at him even though she wasn't looking at him, "What?"
She sighed again and turned back to him, "Why didn't you help them?"
"What?" he repeated, a hint of a scoffing laugh to his words.
"You won a tournament the other day, 1,000 gold coins and what did you spend them on?" she shook her head, "Weapons for training and clothes for a servant? You wouldn't have even spared a coin if I told you I wanted to buy a loaf of bread for those children, would you?"
He wanted to say he would, that of course he would, that he wanted to take care of his people, his subjects...but he knew in his heart, had she asked, he probably would have laughed it off and told her to let their mothers care for them. He wouldn't have even considered that they could be orphans, it just...it didn't fit with his ideal of Camelot. Urchins and beggars yes, but...orphans? He...he honestly hadn't given a thought that...that it was possible for there to be orphans in his kingdom. Camelot was just so beautiful and thriving a place, that to imagine children shivering in the cold, without family to care for them...it didn't fit into his image of his kingdom and he just...hadn't considered it. He utterly loathed himself now even having thought that. It was...stupid, of course there would be orphans! Given all the magical attacks that happened here and there and the casualties that they sustained in their soldiers and knights alone...it was a fool's dream to imagine none of the peasants had been harmed in a similar way.
But as he looked down at the girl beside him, he couldn't help but think, perhaps there was still something he could do to change that, to make...some sort of difference now that he was aware of it...
~8~
Marayna dropped off her clothing in hers and Merlin's room before rushing out to the armory where Merlin had just returned with the weapons Arthur requested. She had asked that she and Arthur stop at the forge and see if Merlin needed any help with the weapons when Gwen's father, who Marayna now knew was called Tom, said Merlin had just left.
She practically ran back to Camelot so that she could go help her brother with his chores, hoping if she was quick enough she wouldn't have to change into her dresses just yet. They had to prepare the training arena for the knights and set up all the weapons on a small table for them to choose from. Unfortunately, no one had bothered to straighten up the arena from the night before and she and Merlin had a wonderful time disposing of the two snake carcasses and their dismembered heads.
"So was this the first time you saved Arthur with magic?" Marayna asked her brother as they got to raking the arena for splinters and stones to make it smooth for training, making her way beside him to nudge him a bit, "Or did you save him before with your own brawn?"
"Ha ha," Merlin laughed sarcastically at his sister's joke at his gangly appearance. He couldn't be too mad though, being gangly seemed to run in the family as she was just as much as he was, "If you must know…"
"I must," she interrupted, smirking.
"There was a sorceress who wanted Arthur dead, she threw a dagger at him, I slowed down time, and pulled him out of the way," he paused his racking when he noticed his sister had stopped and was staring at him with a hand on her hip, "What?"
"That doesn't explain anything Merlin," she rolled her eyes, "Tell me the whole story."
He smiled, shaking his head, "Well, I arrived in Camelot to see Uther about to execute a man for using magic. The man's mother, also a magic user, swore revenge on Uther, I believe her words were 'a son for a son' or something like that. I then went to see uncle. I think I surprised him a bit, he fell off his loft."
"Was he hurt!?" Marayna cut in, fear in her eyes. Why hadn't uncle told her he was hurt? Did he not want her to worry? Had he used magic to heal himself? Had he…
"I slowed down his fall and moved his bed underneath him just in time," Merlin laughed at her concern, his sister, while a bit suspicious and wary of strangers was always worrying and protective of their family and those she held dear, "I hadn't even realized I was doing it till after Gaius landed," he smiled, recalling it, "He started after me about if I was using magic or not and where I learned and so on. I gave him mum's letter and explained I was Merlin and then he recognized me."
He looked up to see her smirking at him, "Uncle likes me better," she sang, "He recognized me the moment he saw me."
Merlin rolled his eyes, "That's just because you look exactly like you did just...bigger, while I," he puffed out his chest, "Have filled out quite nicely, if I do say so."
"You have," she agreed, "Mostly."
"Mostly?" he shot her a playful look.
She lifted her rake to clank against his, "Your ears still need a bit of doing."
He laughed heartily at that, "Anyway," he continued, "I was out walking and met Arthur basically torturing some poor lad with throwing knives and I told him to stop. Called him a prat too."
"I take it that didn't end well?"
"I ended up in prison and Gaius got me out…only for me to end up in the stocks," he ignored Marayna's snort of laughter, "When I was in prison I kept hearing someone calling me."
"Who was it?"
"I had no idea, it wasn't till later I found out it was the Dragon," Merlin shrugged as though it were an everyday occurrence to find a Dragon below a castle, "Gaius told me of the Dragon but I didn't know it was the one calling me till later."
"What is the Dragon's story?" she asked, leaning against her rack, "Why is it here? How did it even get captured? I'm sure a Dragon as large as that one couldn't have been easy to seize."
"I don't know," Merlin replied honestly, "All Gaius told me was that Uther had set out with a vendetta against all magic, including magical creatures, like Dragons."
"He didn't!" Marayna gasped, seeing where the conversation was going.
Merlin nodded sadly, "He had every Dragon, except the one in the castle, killed."
There was silence for a moment or two, "It must be very lonely," Marayna remarked for the Dragon, beginning her racking again, "To be the last of your kind."
"I imagine so," Merlin agreed.
She shook her head, not wanting to keep on that topic, "What happened after that?"
"Well," this time Merlin paused in thought, trying to remember the exact events that happened. It all seemed like a blur to him, it had happened so fast, "I went to see the singer Uther had invited to the castle, Lady Helen, to give her some sort of potion from Gaius."
"It wasn't Lady Helen was it?" she guessed.
"How did you know?" Merlin stared at his sister in awe but she just shrugged. He shook his head, he should be used to this by now. His sister always had a way of knowing things. Mother had called it woman's intuition, though Merlin had the sneaking suspicion it was more magical intuition than the fact that she was a woman, "No, it wasn't her. The sorceress from before, she killed Lady Helen and took her place to get to Uther and Arthur."
Marayna nodded as Merlin took a breath, "The next morning I got into another fight with Arthur. He, uh, he actually beat me pretty good."
He reached up to rub a hand on his shoulder, where Marayna guessed he had been injured during that tiff. She could feel her anger at Arthur rising yet again. When would that prince cease to be infuriating?
"It was that night I met the Dragon," she heard Merlin say.
"What did he tell you?" she asked, curious. If it was her destiny to marry Arthur, she could only imagine the horrors that Merlin's future held.
"Arthur is the Once and Future King, whatever that means, the man who will unite the lands of Albion and that he and I are two sides of the same coin," he grimaced, "I'm supposed to protect him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid to get himself killed before he's king."
Marayna mirrored his grimace, "You have your work cut out for you. Arthur's an idiot."
Merlin couldn't help but laugh at that, her words mirrored his feelings on the young man as he had told the Dragon that nearly a week ago, "It could be worse," he smirked, "I'm not the one who's going to marry him."
"Neither am I if I have anything to say about it," she muttered, glaring at the ground as though it were the source of her problems and racking it with a vengeance.
Merlin walked over and took the rake from her, they had finished and now just had to set up the weapons, "Lady Helen gave a performance the next night, ended up putting everyone to sleep."
"Was she that bad?" Marayna smirked as she gathered up a few swords from the pile off to the side and placed them on the table as Merlin did the same with a few maces.
He smiled, "It was a spell Aya," he picked up a pair of sais and placed them on the table, "She cast it so no one would be awake to stop her from killing Arthur."
"But you were," she reminded him, placing a staff along the long side of the table.
"I had enough sense to cover my ears," he grinned as she laughed, placing an ax on the table as well, "I saw her try and throw her dagger at Arthur and made the chandelier crash down on her."
"Ouch," she muttered, picking up some clubs.
"Ouch is right," he gathered up some shields and laid them against the table, "Everyone started waking up and saw that Lady Helen was really the sorceress. Didn't stop her from trying to kill Arthur again though."
"People seem very determined to do that, don't they?" she mused, "And that's when you slowed down time and saved him?"
"Right," Merlin stepped back to admire their work, "Gaius gave me the magic book that night so I could study it and learn to control my magic."
"Good thing he did," Marayna quipped, "You have about the same control over magic as you do with the amount of gin you drink."
"I am not that bad," he defended, laughing as they saw Arthur enter the arena with his knights.
~8~
The training was remarkable.
Marayna couldn't help herself from squealing a few times as she watched the knights face each other in combat. It was just so exhilarating to see them reacting and counteracting each other with weapons. It didn't appear to her that any of Arthur's men had achieved their ranks though magic, but rather hard work and massive amounts of training.
Eventually each and every knight had faced at least one other knight in combat, a few even facing Arthur himself. And each one had proven their worth as a knight, which seemed to satisfy Arthur quite a bit as he turned to his servants giving them a look that clearly meant they were finished for the day and to clear the weapons away while the knights chatted about the day's training.
Marayna walked about the arena to gather up some of the weapons that had been discarded after combat and not returned to the table. She reached out to pick up a sword that was lying on the ground when someone grabbed her hand with a vice-like grip, "What do you think you're doing?" a gruff voice asked to her right, "Weapons aren't for little girls to play with."
"And little girls aren't for knights to play with either," she muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" the grip tightened, causing a wince of pain to shoot up her arm.
"I am merely doing my job Sir Knight," she replied, biting her tongue to keep from saying something to make her situation worse, "Now if you would kindly...release my hand?"
He let go, pushing her arm away from her with such force that she stumbled a bit, nearly falling into the wall of the arena. She straightened herself before reaching down to pick up the sword when the knight grabbed that instead. She clenched her jaw before turning to face the man once more, "Sir, if you would?" she held out her hand for the sword. When he made no move to hand it over she glared, "Sir, if you do not give me that sword and let me do my job, I will be forced to take it from you."
The knight stared at her a moment before bursting out laughing. He pulled his helmet from his head so she could see him clearly. He had been dressed in brown, with red hair and brown eyes. There was a scar on his left cheek running from his cheek back to his ear.
She glanced around her to see that many of the knights had ceased their discussions at the sound of the one knight's laugh and were now looking at them. She fidgeted slightly, uncomfortable with the attention.
"And what," the knight's voice drew her back, "What do you think a little girl like you could do to get the weapon from me?"
She heard a few chuckles from the other knights around her and felt her cheeks flush from a mixture of anger and embarrassment, 'Aya,' she heard her brother in her mind, 'Don't.'
She ignored him though and reached out to take the weapon. She managed to grab the hilt and pull it towards her before the knight even realized what she had done, clearly not having expected her to even attempt such a thing, and grabbed her wrist once more.
"That," he muttered darkly, "Was not a wise thing to do."
She stared at him defiantly and tugged her arm out of his grip, sword and all. She turned and walked back to the table when a shout resonated behind her, "Don't you walk away from me while I am speaking to you!"
She paused and glanced over her shoulder, "Just because you speak, does not mean I must listen."
She began to walk away again when the knight grabbed her elbow this time and spun her around, "I'll have you know, I'm one of the best knights here at Camelot. You'll show me some respect."
"I will show you respect when you come to EARN it," she shot back, seeing Merlin glance at Arthur to see the young man standing there, stony faced, it seemed not even he couldn't deny that this knight was one of the better ones, "And apart from that, being one of the best is not being the best. There may yet be someone out there who could best you."
He let out a barking laugh, "Oh, like who? You?"
"Maybe," she answered defiantly, cutting off his laugh, a challenge in her voice (a challenge she was quite sure she was going to regret...she never did know when to quit).
He glared at her, her unasked challenge lingering in the air. He was about to reply when Arthur finally spoke, "Sir Urry, that is enough, you've had your fun," the prince stepped up, "She meant no harm by her words."
"I'd say she did," Urry insisted, "And I say we settle this matter with a duel."
"Urry!" Arthur shouted only to be cut off by Marayna's, "I accept."
"Marayna!" Merlin exclaimed, this could not end well. His sister was...well, she had always been a mouthy little thing, her mouth getting her into all sorts of trouble. She never knew when to stop and when to back down and when she felt like she was being challenged she always seemed to feel the need to rise to it. It was one of her worst faults, her mouth, and it took a lot of doing just to get her out of the various situations it got her into.
"Let us make a little wager out of this shall we?" Marayna added, "The loser must muck out the stables for a month."
Urry glared, "That isn't quite fair, is it? You will be mucking out Arthur's stables anyway, you're his servant."
"I did not mean Arthur's stables," she explained, "I mean the stables for the rest of the knights."
He actually grinned at that, "You'd best be ready for some tremendous work. We've yet to have a decent stable-hand muck out the stalls yet."
"You as well," she reminded him that the challenge went both ways.
"And the winner?" Urry questioned, "What shall they win?"
Marayna shrugged, "Honor, glory, isn't that what knights always win? Perhaps...the pleasure of humiliating a woman?"
Merlin frowned, watching her. He knew his sister well enough to know she was baiting the man. Tempting him with the thought of humiliating her...it was like she WANTED him to fight her. He knew, he'd heard her silent curse in her mind the moment after she'd accepted the challenge, that she had realized her chances of winning against Urry were slim, that she had wanted to back out, but for all her pleas to try and change Arthur's mind...she could be JUST as stubborn as the prince was in not backing away from a challenge. She hadn't wanted to fight Urry, but now...now she seemed almost...eager for him to accept...
She was planning something, wasn't she?
Urry nodded, clearly enjoying the prospect of putting the girl in her place, "I agree."
Marayna nodded as well, "The weapons?"
Urry thought a moment, "Whatever you wish, I shall choose mine, you yours. I wish to make this as...fair as possible."
The knights, however, knew this would be far from fair. Urry was well skilled in various forms of combat, with many different weapons, the poor girl didn't stand a chance.
Marayna nodded, stepping back and gesturing at the table to allow him first choice. As he examined the weapons Marayna could hear a small presence in her mind of Merlin trying to warn her away from this but she determinedly ignored him. So instead, he turned to Arthur, "You can't let this happen!" Merlin hissed.
Arthur set his jaw, "I can do nothing to stop it," he remarked, "A challenge was made and accepted."
"But she's a woman!"
"I hadn't noticed," Arthur responded sarcastically as he glared at his servant, "It makes no difference, especially with Urry. Other knights would back out, concede defeat on the grounds of not wishing to face a woman in battle, but Urry is too proud. I can do nothing."
Merlin frowned as he watched Urry step back with a sword in his hand and make a mocking gesture for Marayna to step up and take a weapon. She glanced at the weapons, confusing Merlin for a moment, there was only one weapon she knew how to fight with but there she was, making a show of taking in the other weapons, a slightly worried frown on her face, as though she had gotten herself into something far too great for her to handle.
'Aya?' he wondered in her mind.
He could almost feel her smirk at him, 'Urry is the most arrogant sod I've ever met. He'll underestimate his opponent,' she answered, 'I'm just...helping him along.'
It took everything in his power not to smile as he realized her plan. She knew she wouldn't be able to beat Urry by skill alone...so his crafty little sister was going to be tricky as well. Well done.
Marayna picked up the two sais, holding them just at the bottom of the hilt as though she were scared to hold it any closer to the blade. The knights around the arena laughed at the sight of the girl holding the sais that way, knowing she didn't have a proper grip or leverage to use them, and taking her place to face one of the better knights of Camelot.
Urry barely waited for her to be situated before he ran at her, swinging his sword. She lifted her left hand just enough to have the sai in it clang against the sword as she jumped away. This repeated quite a bit with Urry swinging and Marayna trying to jump away while using the sais to block her jump. Growing quickly impatient at the girl's lack of fighting, Urry swung twice as hard as he had, knocking both sais out of her hand. She quickly scurried across the ring towards her weapons as Urry and the other knights laughed at the sight.
Arthur's heart was hammering in his chest as he watched the girl trying to block the incoming attacks and rush off to reclaim her weapons. He wasn't sure whether he should be worried about her or furious that she was embarrassing him in front of his knights. Her attitude towards Urry had been nothing less than rude and the challenge was one that he felt should have only been given if she even stood a chance of winning, which she clearly didn't. He turned to look at Merlin, who must have been in a much more frantic state than he was, only to see the man grinning slyly as he watched his own sister participate in the so-called fight. He furrowed his brows in confusion, shouldn't he be a nervous wreck by now? Something was most certainly wrong here, but Arthur didn't have time to think on what it could be as he heard Urry shouting.
"You're not even holding them right!" the knight bellowed.
Marayna looked down to see that she was holding one sai with the blade running parallel to her arm, tip towards her elbow and the other was being held by the prong alone, "Oh," she muttered, "I supposed I should hold them by the hilt?"
They knights laughed hysterically at that.
Urry was about to tell her she should just give up...when his words caught in his throat and the laughter immediately ceased as Marayna nearly expertly swung the sais around by the prongs until she was holding them correctly in her hands. She shifted a bit to take on a more generic, but defensive stance, allowing Urry only a moment of stunned silence before she rushed at him. She swung the sais at him, leaving him only a single moment before he reacted to defend himself. They fought for nearly a minute, with Urry trying to block her blows but with Marayna striking in one place and then another only a second later, utilizing both sais in a way a single sword could not be. He had always been a one-sword man, but now he was starting to see the genius behind sais, he was having a difficult time blocking one thrust while not getting stabbed by another.
Marayna quickly tried to strike his left side with her left hand which he blocked by bringing his sword down on her sai to try and knock it down. This was just as she had hoped for as she moved her right sai to catch the sword between the prong and blade, twisting it slightly back to the right as Urry's arm bent with it. She jammed the hilt of her left sai into his wrist, forcing him to drop his sword. He reached out to grab her wrist, hoping to wrestle her into submission now that his weapon was gone, but she seemed to have expected a move like that from him and stuck her right foot behind his leg, tripping him. He fell backwards, landing with Marayna crouching over him, her left sai pressed against his neck with him grabbing her wrist to keep it from getting too close.
"I think I win," she smirked.
He snorted, "There's not much this wee blade can do to harm me," he explained. While the sai may have been pressed against his throat, it would do little in terms of beheading him, and with his grip on her wrist he could easily keep her from doing more than pressing it against his throat.
"I have to wonder, Sir Urry," she spoke out loud, a musing look on her face, "Which head would you miss more?"
He stared at her, confused, before he saw her glance flicker down then back to him. He lifted his head to see that she had her other sai hovering just spaces above a very important part of his lower anatomy.
It was at that point where three things happened...
The first, were the knights bursting out with laughter at the predicament their fellow comrade was in.
The second, was Arthur choking on air at the vulgarity of Marayna's statement, completely unbefitting a lady or even a woman, and staring at Merlin, who was quite used to his sister's humor and manner of speech.
And the third...was Sir Urry realizing he had lost to a woman, been humiliated before his peers, and swearing revenge.
~8~
Merlin and Marayna sat in the armory, among the various weapons that had been used that day, cleaning them as Arthur had instructed. After Marayna's defeat of Urry, he had tried to get out of his agreement to muck out the knight's stables, but Marayna, prepared for this possibility had innocently asked if it was common for knights to break their oaths. Merlin laughed as he recalled the look on Urry's face when he realized he had been trapped. He could either muck out the stables and be a laughing stock of the knights for having been beaten by a girl or not and suffer the stigma of being an oath-breaker, which was not something knight's aspired to be.
'What's so funny?' Marayna asked, hearing his chuckle.
'Urry's expression,' he answered, his shoulders shaking as he thought on the memory.
Marayna laughed as well though...she knew she had been VERY lucky to manage to win that match. Urry WAS very skilled and, had it not been for his own pride, arrogance, and hubris, she was sure he would have bested her easily. She wasn't exceptionally skilled with sais, she knew the basics, she knew only what had been taught to her, and she hadn't been able to practice in years. So...she'd had to resort to trickery to help her chances. She'd baited the knight, she'd tricked him, and she'd made him underestimate her as much as she possibly could, till he'd let his guard down and thought himself already the victor.
It had been a risky move, she knew, the moment she had accepted the challenge she had realized she could NOT win any other way. She wasn't a weapons expert and despite the fights she'd gotten into over the years, she was aware and understood her skills, what level they were, and what she could win and not win...and Urry far surpassed her. She had truly been very lucky the man really was the most arrogant sod she'd ever met, she wouldn't have been able to fool him the way she had, to lull him into a false sense of victory and then attack while he was most surprised and unprepared.
It had been Urry's own arrogance that did him in, NOT her minimal skills with sais.
"I still don't understand," Arthur began as he walked into the room, moving to lean against a table, "You looked as though you had never seen a weapon before, much less had any experience with sais of all things," they truly were quite the uncommon weapon.
Marayna shook her head, "A few years ago there was a small group of knights stationed near our village. They were only there a fortnight but they decided to teach us how to fight so we could defend ourselves from raiders and bandits and such. They didn't have many weapons available so we gathered as many as we could find throughout the village to practice with."
"They taught us to ride also," Merlin added, "Pretty much just the basics we would need to know. It was up to us to improve on our own. Marayna's far more talented in fighting than I am."
"I could have guessed that," Arthur remarked as he thought back to how easy it had been to fight Merlin and win.
Marayna, sensing the direction of Arthur's thoughts, glared at him, then turned to Merlin, "I may be more talented in fighting, but you're much more talented in other things."
"Like what?" Arthur asked, "Being a clumsy oaf?"
Both Merlin and Marayna blatantly ignored him, "You're just as good as I am," Merlin countered, both of them aware they were speaking of their magic. Marayna had always been more of a spitfire, ready to physically fight off the bullies of their village, mostly because her magic was a bit more controlled so it didn't pop up so unexpectedly very often, whereas he had been more quiet and passive, using magic instead as it tended to happen on its own more often than not.
'No,' she whispered to him, 'I'm not.'
'I do a lot of accidental magic,' Merlin retaliated, 'You have more control than me so it doesn't happen as often.'
'I still think you've the stronger magic,' she commented.
'Probably,' he smirked.
"Then you are just as good as me in fighting," she replied, realizing that Arthur was staring at them during their silent exchange, likely waiting for them to speak.
Arthur snorted, "Merlin? Good at fighting?"
Marayna rolled her eyes at his laughter, "When you practice with him, what weapons do you use?"
"A sword," Arthur replied, shaking his head in confusion, "Naturally."
"As I said before, there weren't many weapons to choose from and practice with. Many children in the village had to pick a random weapon besides a sword."
"So what are you saying?"
"You should never cross Merlin when he has a staff," she smiled proudly at her brother as he blushed slightly from her praise.
"I'm not that good," he mumbled.
"Need I remind you, you almost won."
"Won what?" Arthur questioned, not liking how he had no idea what they were talking about.
Merlin sighed, "Before the knights left, they had a little...mock tournament where the winner could keep the weapon they practiced with."
"Merlin almost won," Marayna added.
"I take it you won then?" Arthur looked at Marayna, no doubt in his mind that she had won after the display of skill she had shown.
"Do I look like I have sais with me?" she answered with another question, "No, one of our...friends in the village won a sword."
Merlin and Marayna carried on in silence, finishing up the last of the weapons as Arthur thought on what he had been told. Apparently Merlin and Marayna could both fight, just with their weapon of choice. Well, that wouldn't do. He supposed Merlin would always be able to find a large stick or something to use as a staff, but what would Marayna do? Break a stick in half and poke someone with it? No, he had to make sure that they were more prepared than that, he'd have to train them in swordplay and other weapons. After all, it wouldn't do to have his servants so ill-prepared that HE had to come to their rescue ALL the time.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a series of clangs. He looked up to see Merlin and Marayna collecting the various weapons they had cleaned and move them towards a weapons chest. He waited till they were finished before walking back to the castle, them following close behind.
But just as they passed the great hall, Arthur stopped them, "Merlin, I am not in need of your services tonight, you are excused. Marayna," he turned to her, "Might I have a word?"
Marayna glanced at her brother only for him to shrug, apparently he had no idea what Arthur wanted either. He turned and headed down the hall toward their chambers while Arthur held the door to the Great Hall open for her to enter.
As soon as she was through he shut the door and strode over to the chest that held his coins from the tournament, "I wanted to show you something," he said quietly, lifting the top to reveal...an empty box.
She stared at it a moment, blinking, before looking at him, "I'm not entirely sure I understand."
He smiled at her, "I had Morgana go to the market and see to it that something be done for the children who had lost their parents, she's much better at organizing things than I am. I gave her the rest of the gold coins to set up a housing arrangement for the children and buy some food to start them off on caring for them. According to her, she found a few women who had recently lost their children and still wished to care for others. She even managed to speak with some of the craftsmen of the village to see about having them take on apprentices from the group of children already gathered," he glanced at her to see her staring at him, wide-eyed, "I found your story about the woman in your village very inspiring really. I thought…it might make Camelot a better kingdom. I know it's very basic and…"
His words were cut off by Marayna throwing herself into him and hugging him. He froze for a moment before tentatively reaching up and placing his arms on her back. As soon as he did that, though, Marayna seemed to realize what she had done and quickly pulled back. Neither Arthur nor Marayna could look at each other, which was a fairly good thing considering they were both blushing quite profusely.
"Thank you," she murmured after a while.
"For what?"
"You listened to a servant," she answered, shrugging, "You...you heard what I said and truly listened."
She let out a breath at that, as though just realizing how much of a feat that really was. She'd met more nobles than she cared to know who didn't hear a word that anyone else had to say so this...it was...not something she had been expecting. She'd assumed he would, being the arrogant prat that he was, just ignore her little story about Helena, that he'd roll his eyes and think it a waste what the woman did. She hardly thought, after his display of nearly refusing to listen to even Merlin the other day, that he'd listen to her. She most certainly didn't think he'd actually DO something about it like that. It was...unexpected, it truly was. And...surprising, in a very good way.
She had truly thought Arthur was just like his father, all the stories she'd heard of the brute, what he'd done to magic users, to the creatures of magic. She thought Arthur would be the same way but...here he was, the prince, using the spare gold (not that he didn't already have enough gold to spare) to try and...help children. Because of something SHE said. She shook her head, she...could admit when she was being biased, and she still thought him a prat, but...perhaps he wasn't...entirely...selfish and arrogant and dim.
Perhaps there was just a tiny sliver of...something...in him.
She smiled a bit at that, yes, maybe there was a tiny sliver of Not-Uther in him, "That is...the making of a great king," she remarked, "One who cares about even the smallest voice," she looked up at him, "Keep going like that and you might just make this a stronger and better kingdom."
He thought a moment on what she had said, she hadn't outright praised him. She had merely remarked he'd done well in this, he'd made a small improvement she wasn't falling all over him in worship and...that was good, because in the grand scheme of the kingdom...there truly was MUCH more to do to make Camelot as great and strong as she could be. She had just...reminded him of little things that helped as well, and reminded him about what he COULD do even as a prince. He had to smile at how she kept the perspective of it all in mind, but still...he felt a bit warm to hear her think that he stood a chance of improving the kingdom, "Thank you Mara, I…"
"Mara?" she questioned.
"I..." he blinked, as though just realizing what he'd called her, "Uh, I just, well, your name is rather long, and I just…"
She laughed, "It is quite a mouthful, isn't it? Why do you think Merlin calls me Aya?"
He sighed, relieved she wasn't irritated by the nickname, he'd tried go call Morgana 'Gana' once and she'd slapped him in the back of the head with the book she'd been reading, "Well, thank you. I...I can admit that I wouldn't have even noticed the poor state some of the children are in had you not pointed it out."
She nodded and they fell into silence once more, till she glanced around to see it was dark and fairly late, "If that is all, sire?"
"Oh, yes, yes that's all," he replied, "You're excused."
She nodded and walked away, a soft smile present on her face. Perhaps...perhaps she had underestimated Arthur, like Urry had her. Maybe he wasn't entirely a prat after all. No, no she was quite sure he was, but...
There was certainly hope for him yet.
A/N: I can't promise every original chapter will be a continuation of the prior episode, but this one was :) I wanted to sort of see what Marayna's first day as a servant would be like :) Pretty easy compared to what I think Merlin's would have been lol ;) I can promise though that Marayna isn't some exceptional fighter, she really and truly only beat Urry because she riled him up and got him to really underestimate her :) She'll be more of the...seeing where she's weak and trying a trick or two to make up for that sort of person :)
Please let me know what you think of this chapter, I always get really nervous with original ones and...this series will have more original ones than I've ever done before, nearly 51 in total :)
But I'm glad you're all liking Marayna so far ^-^
Sweotol heafod - Clear the head (according to an Old English translator, not sure if it's entirely correct :))
Some notes on reviews...
Marayna is the younger sister ;) It was mentioned once or twice in the prior chapter ;)
I think Marayna's magic will be as strong as Merlin's but in a different concentration than his is. I'm going to be dividing up the types of magic into 3 or 4 groups that we'll learn about later :) But yup, she'll have her own Druidic name ;)
I can't say what type of magic Marayna has just yet, we'll find out though :) I think Merlin and Marayna are pretty evenly matched, but just stronger in different areas of magic :)
I sort of wanted Marayna to find out right when she got there, to sort of be like...she just arrived, met this arrogant prat, and then finds out she's supposedly going to marry him!? O.O lol, she's definitely not going to be very agreeable to that at first. And it parallels Merlin learning his fate as well fairly soon after arriving :) I'm going to definitely try to build up their relationship as naturally as possible, which is why I added original chapters to give more flesh and realism to it :)
Marayna is pronounced (at least in my head) Mah-Ray-Nah :) There'll actually be a part of an upcoming chapter where we'll get that along with a few mispronunciations of it :)
I don't think it's strange, given how Marayna interacts with Arthur, I'm very excited to see her interact with Uther too ;) Plenty more bonding and fighting to come, Marayna will get the best of Arthur in quite a few ways ;)
I was debating a riddle for Marayna's destiny, but there'll be a bit of an ongoing joke that that was the clearest help the Dragon'll be giving them and it frustrates her to no end that he just had to tell her THAT clearcut but nothing else lol ;)
Aww thanks! I'm glad you're liking it so far :) I'll definitely try to be as consistent in updating this as my other stories :) I will be continuing Sherlock to yup, there's a note up on my profile in Leena's section that it will be updated on January 19th with Welcome Holmes ;) I've already got Empty Hearse and Many Happy Returns written up ;)
Morgana in the later parts of the show doesn't want Arthur on the throne you're right ;) But this is still series 1 where she has no idea she even has a claim and just wants to see Arthur be a better man than his father is ;) Things will be...very different with Marayna around. I think, with two people looking after Arthur, it'll leave Merlin more time open to notice...other things ;)
There won't be any love triangles in this story (I find them cliche and they just don't work for me :( ) But there will be oodles of jealousy on Arthur's part as Gwaine will have a very close relationship with Marayna ;) This will be updated daily, it was FF glitching and keeping all authors from updating today :(