- Chapter 23 -

"I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight as not inspiring."
~ Otto Von Bismarck

Mordred stood all alone by the balcony over looking the garden. He wasn't in much of a fine mood since at the moment, and thinking about the events earlier that day wasn't entirely helping much to improve his mood.

He just challenged Lancelot to a duel, a friendly swordplay so as to see just how the good the knight really was. Mordred learned that the hard way. Lancelot was better than he had ever thought and known, he wondered if he could ever have a chance if he were to use the Excalibur itself. He even wondered whether his father wielding mentioned enchanted sword would even have a chance against the knight.

Ah, now there's a thought. King Arthur in swordplay with his best friend, Sir Lancelot. A fight to the death.

Ridiculous! The king had a full trust on Lancelot, and the only way to get the two into a fight to the death is if that trust should ever be betrayed.

"Good evening, Mordred."

Mordred turned around to see where the voice was coming from. It was a womanly voice, and it seemed familiar.

"Who's there?" he asked, as his hand reflexively reached for the hilt of his sword.

The dark figure at one corner of the balcony finally stepped into the light.

"Oh, Lady Morgana, it's you." Mordred relaxed as he loosened his grip on the hilt and finally dropped his hand to his side. "Good evening."

"My dear boy, you may just call me Aunt," replied the sorceress, her smile wasn't friendly. "Why aren't you asleep then? It's pass your bed time, you are still a young lad after all."

Said young lad looked away, his gaze towards the garden once more.

"Not for long," he said. "Once I become a knight of the Round Table, when that day comes, I won't be a young lad anymore."

Morgana had come to stood beside the lad as she looked down on him before looking out into the distance. "Of course, but as for the moment, child, you should be training for that day."

"Of course I will!" Mordred almost spit out the word, risking a fleeting glance up the sorceress. "And when I become a grown man, I'll have my revenge on my father, the king."

The latter part somehow made Morgana look back on the lad, her smile vanished almost immediately.

"I don't even know why I'm able to call him 'father'!" The lad had said the last word with a great disgust. "One day, when I got the chance, I'll take everything he now has; his beloved wife, his beloved kingdom, his beloved crown, everything."

The boy's hatred was apparent in his words, Morgana felt it.

"But you're father have allies," she said, once again taking her gaze off the lad. "You must consider that if you plan on doing exactly that."

"Then I'll look for allies of my own," the lad simply replied, a venomous scowl on his face.

Morgana allowed herself a soft chuckle. "You realize that he has a sorcerer as one of his closest ally, don't you?"

For the first time, Mordred smiled. Or was it more of a smirk?

He looked up to the sorceress still standing beside him and said, "You've always had this rivalry with Merlin, haven't you, dearest Aunt?"

Morgana met his gaze with an equally unkind smirk on her face.

"Is it possible for me to ask for you to be my first ally?" the boy asked.

The sorceress once again looked away, then slowly made off to leave. Mordred followed her with his gaze, and waited for her answer just as she stopped to a halt in her tracks.

"When you're older," she said, "much older, dear nephew, perhaps then we'll talk again."

With that, Morgana disappeared once again into the shadows.

"I'll be expecting you by then," said Mordred, almost to himself, though his words were directed to the sorceress who had just left.

"I think I still have to practice more on my water containment spell, don't you?"

Balthazar stood within seven feet away from Maxim, forcing to smile at his currently drenched colleague.

His water containment spell was still in the process of polishing, since he hadn't perfected it much seeing how he had the older apprentice drenched from the hair dripping wet to feet soaked with water inside the boots. Though he had tried his best to look as apologetic as possible since he didn't mean to, Maxim continued to give him a dark, half-hearted glare.

Moments later, Maxim had cast a spell on himself to get him dry within seconds. As he sheathed back his sword in place, he waited where he stood as he watched the blond haired lad walked over towards him till they stood face to face within a foot from each other.

"That's alright." Maxim's face softened, finally giving relief to Balthazar. "I can't say I wasn't expecting it, though."

The playful smirk that slowly appeared on Maxim's face made Balthazar finally smile.

"When you finish your apprenticeship," Balthazar said suddenly, "we won't be doing this a lot anymore."

The younger apprentice's smile slowly turned into a sad one, and this didn't go unnoticed by Maxim. He knew what Balthazar meant.

"We're hardly able to do this a lot even now," Maxim said, his gaze away from the blond haired lad. "Very unlike before. Whatever happened to those days?"

Not even Balthazar knew the answer to that, but he suddenly found himself unable to stop when he said, "They say that the only thing constant in this world is change."

At this, Maxim closed his eyes and felt his lips slowly turning into a small smile.

In his thoughts were of the many events that happened in the past years and had led to where he stood in the present. They were so young back then, and things were much different. He couldn't help but ask, 'whatever happened to those days?' But he had to agree with what Balthazar said, the only thing constant is change, and they could only hope things would change for the better or perhaps at least in a good way.

Just then, as he opened his eyes once more, he smiled down on Balthazar. "We still have time before dinner, don't we?" he asked. "Let's take a swim in the lake. It's been too long since we've done that together."

Balthazar was more than willing to agree, as he nodded and smiled.

Moments later, the boys had their clothes off and raced each other to the lake completely naked.

The boys hadn't returned yet, but it wasn't like Merlin was worried.

'They grow up too fast,' he had thought to himself. But as his gaze fell upon the dark haired girl looking out of the window, his thoughts suddenly altered into, 'Yes the boys have, but she hadn't... Not yet.'

Veronica had grown to have quite an attachment to both of the boys, which had meant that she had also noticed how some things had changed between her two colleagues. And somehow, though she may not be quite aware of it, she had been affected by this matter about the boys herself. A thing that didn't go unnoticed by Merlin of course.

While the boys try to catch up with those old days, she was a witness to how they had become strangers to each other in a way.

It was hurting her some way, no matter how small or no matter how much she'd keep it to herself. But it didn't quite surprised Merlin because it was bound to happen ever since she became the only thing that kept the boys in line when he wasn't around. The boys indeed became her brothers, while she became this sweet, little sister.

"Veronica, would you help me with this?" the old sorcerer asked from over his shoulders. He didn't even had to look back at her, as he sensed her approaching, quite hearing her footsteps that was clearly moving towards him.

He was currently setting the table for dinner, without the use of magic of course. The girl helped in all the same in silent, until they finally finished.

Merlin wiped his hands on the side of his robes "You must go get the boys now," he said and looked down on his female apprentice, "we're ready for dinner. Off you go, then."

The girl nodded and went along in silence, out of the door and through the back to the direction where the lake should be found.

Both Maxim and Balthazar were laughing as they finally left the lake, their hair both dripping wet and already cold from their little swim.

"Well, we best be in a hurry," said Maxim, stopping short in his tracks, also causing Balthazar to a halt. "It's almost dinner time."

"But it is dinner time," replied Balthazar with a smile.

As both boys made off to continue with their tracks and go fetch their clothes, they found themselves once again taking a halt as they found a dark haired girl within eight feet away from them.

It was Veronica herself. And they were still completely naked.

The very moment Veronica turned her back on them with a bright red blush on her cheeks, the boys were on the move to find a hiding place. While Maxim hid behind the huge boulder not far from where he stood, Balthazar hid behind the nearest tree he found.

While both boys were pocking their heads out from their hiding places, it was Maxim who spoke first. "Uh, Veronica, what are you doing here?"

"I-I...The master," stuttered Veronica, still keeping her back on the boys not even risking a glance. "Dinner."

Apparently she was in a lost of words as well.

"Yes, we were just on our way," replied Balthazar. "But, we still need to get, um, dressed."

Veronica nodded in response, aware that the boys may be looking at her.

"You can tell Merlin we're on our way," said Maxim. "Just please do leave out the part about 'getting dressed'."

With one last nod and taking in one short moment, Veronica left to go back into the castle, never looking back as she ran as fast as he feet could. But, even after the girl disappeared, the boys stayed put behind their hiding places for a bit longer.

"I don't think I'd still be able to look at her straight in the eye after this," said Balthazar almost to himself.

"I understand the feeling," was the only thing that Maxim had to say.

Dinner at the castle had started from being very silent, and Merlin was beginning to wonder what was wrong among his three apprentices. All three kept their heads down, their gazes on their respective plates, eating silently with only the sounds of spoons and forks on grating on the plate as the only sounds heard in the dinning room.

Wonderment had slowly become into being worried as the minutes passed on by. Everything was getting awkward and more awkward even for Merlin, that suddenly, he found himself asking before he was able to stop himself; "Can any one of you tell me what's wrong?"

The three apprentices had stopped from whatever it was they were doing almost at the same time at once in hearing the question.

"Has the three of you gotten into a fight while at the lake?" asked the master once again.

The mere mention of 'at the lake' made all three apprentices cringe almost automatically, their faces turning into slight grimaces.

"Well..?" insisted Merlin, quirking up a curious brow.

At the same time, all of his apprentices spoke, their words not making sense, it was complete unpleasant noise. The moment they had stopped also at the same time, it was Maxim's last word that only made sense.

"Right," murmured the oldest apprentice.

Merlin, shocked and almost unable to react to what he had just witnessed, he exclaimed, "Good heavens, I didn't understand a single word!" Calmly returning to his food, he said lastly before putting a spoonful of meat into his mouth, "I suppose it would be for the best, because if this is how you all reacted then I'm not certain whether I'd want to find out anymore, whatever it is."

That had came as quite a relief to the apprentices.

A/N: "Phew! Short one this chapter. Can't get my writing groove back with S.A. 'cause I'm busy with another fic at the same time. R&R!" ;D

- sankage