Merlin cleaned the knights' armour quickly and inconspicuously by magic so that he could get back to the castle to see what was going on. He arrived just as Enya and her father were leaving the meeting room.
"Merlin! Merlin I get to stay for a while! Father and our guards and servants are going home tomorrow but Ginger and I get to stay!" Enya gasped, embracing Merlin tightly. He hugged her back with all of his strength.
"That's fantastic news! I'm so happy you're sticking around!" he answered enthusiastically, "I should go tell Gaius, would you like to come?" The princess nodded, letting him lead her by the hand back to Gaius' house.
"Gaius," Merlin practically sang as he entered the small house, "guess who's staying in Camelot for a while." The old man spun around and hugged both Merlin and Enya at once.
"That's fantastic news Enya, I'm sure Merlin will love having a special friend around so that he doesn't feel so alone," Gaius emphasized the words meaningfully, however both of the younger adults assumed he simply meant magical.
"Here Enya come help me with this potion will you? It should be familiar to you," Gaius added distractedly, beckoning her over to the concoction he was mixing in a vial.
"Oh Gaius are you trying to embarrass me in front of Merlin?" she murmured in response, recognizing a familiar sleeping draught that her father used to take when her mother first passed away. Gaius chuckled.
"Never My Lady, it's just simply the fact that your voice sounds a whole lot better than my frog's croak."
"What's going on?" Merlin asked, eyes darting between the two. Enya rolled her eyes but smiled at him.
"This particular sleeping draught is often called Nature's Lullaby," Enya explained, skillfully adding ingredients as she spoke, "and this is why." She took a deep breath, parting her lips and she began to sing. The lyrics were almost indistinguishable but her voice flowed through the air, making it almost crackle with magic. Merlin was entranced as he listened. All too soon, in his opinion, it was over.
"What was that?" he whispered, "was that magic?" Enya laughed, traces of her voice still seeming to float in the air, giving it a musical tint.
"No Merlin, the ingredients in the potion absorb the singing, it helps them work quicker. Anyone can do it, magical or not. Like I said, I think Gaius is just trying to embarrass me in front of you." She put a stopper on the vial and passed it to Gaius, who was smiling.
"I'll be back soon, I have to deliver this," he said, taking the vial and donning a cloak before leaving Merlin and Enya alone in his house.
"What do you mean embarrass you? That was amazing, I've never heard anyone sing like that…" Merlin's voice trailed off.
"Thank you, Merlin," Enya said softly, avoiding his gaze. Merlin took her hand and led her to his room, lifting up a floorboard to reveal a giant book covered in runes.
"Your spell book," she whispered, kneeling next to him and pulling the book onto her lap. Her brow furrowed as she read over a page, Merlin couldn't take his eyes off of her. He loved looking at her when she was completely distracted by something else. She reached under her dress into a pocket in the breeches she always wore and pulled out a tiny notebook, no bigger than the palm of her hand. She ran her fingers over the blank cover and suddenly the book came alive with runes and spells.
"This is for you, Merlin. This book Gaius gave you is wonderful but it's bulky and hard to hide… this book, it's a copy of my own. It can only be read by me, and now you. You can keep it anywhere and anyone who doesn't have your permission to read it will only see blank pages," she whispered, carefully placing the book in his hands and peeking up at him to see his reaction. Merlin was speechless for a moment, before reaching out and pulling the princess into his lap, hugging her.
"Thank you so much Enya," he whispered in her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. She wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or pull away, so she did nothing. He released her after a few moments anyway.
"Do you love Arthur?" he asked abruptly. It took Enya a moment to process the question, then she laughed.
"Did Arthur put you up to this? Or Ginger?" she took a moment before continuing, "Merlin… My mother died in front of my very eyes. To this day, it still… could have been my fault. A man tried to assassinate her in front of me, I was only six years old. I was scared and angry and I released the magic inside of me that had been building up for years. It exploded and killed the man. There was a wound in her chest but some physicians believe… it wasn't deep enough to kill her. So it may have been my magic that had done it," she wiped tears from her eyes and cleared her throat, "ever since mother died, I taught myself to control my emotions so that my magic could never unwillingly kill someone ever again. Arthur is a Pendragon, the most important prince in the world. It would be foolish for me, a princess from a tiny kingdom, to fall in love with him. The Pendragons hate magic, therefore even though he doesn't know it, Arthur hates the core of who I am. He could never love the whole me, the real me. Therefore I will not allow myself to fall in love with him."
There was silence between the two friends before she continued, "besides, from what I know about love, there shall be someone out there who will make me lose all of the control I have over what I feel. That's the person who I will love for my whole life."
"I didn't know about your mother… I'm sorry," Merlin murmured.
"I was so young, I don't remember much about her. But I will always want to be better at magic, so that if it was my fault… she didn't die for nothing."