Alaia Skyhawk: lol, I'll mention that while Merlin will quickly get the hang of the basics of sword-fighting, he's still never going to be a pro at it. He lacks the upper body strength that someone like Arthur has, as would anyone who hasn't specifically trained for combat like our dear prince. But anyways, on with the chapter :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Music: The Forged Seal (Merlin OST)

"Whom History Won't Remember" Episode: N/A

~(-)~

Chapter 41: Staff of the Sidhe ~Part 2~

Merlin didn't need any prompting from the rooster that hung around by the castle stables, he was already awake when it began to screech its lungs out at the hint of false dawn. Within moments of hearing the first crow it uttered, he was up and out of bed and pulling his clothing on as fast as he could without falling over in the process.

Sat on the edge of his bed, pulling on his socks, he glanced to where his boots were propped beside the door.

"Aet cume."

The boots jolted up into and through the air a little, and flopped down onto the floor beside him, prompting him to look under his bed and confirm that the large movable section now under there really didn't look any different from the rest of his floor. Dressed and ready to go, he went to pick up his sword only to notice it had somehow ended up on the floor. He frowned and retrieved it, leaving his room quietly and grabbing a piece of yesterday's bread for his breakfast, before departing from the chambers to the sound of Gaius still snoring. He'd be awake when he got back.

Merlin smiled to himself, chewing on his bread and sword in hand. Smiled at the irony of him wanting to get up before dawn. But then, he supposed it was down to motivation. He wanted these lessons, so he didn't mind getting up early to have them. As it was, he finished his breakfast before he arrived at Arthur's door, inwardly amused that Arthur wouldn't be getting his food until after the lesson was over. Good thing the time of day for these was his choice, or he might have complained about it.

He opened the door and peered in, surprised to find that Arthur too was already awake. The prince was rummaging through the closet near the dressing screen, trying to find a pair of socks, and he'd ended up with several items of clothing strewn on the floor in the process.

Merlin sighed, knowing he'd have to tidy all that later, and strode over to the set of drawers, opened the top one, and practically shoved the resulting pair of socks into Arthur's face.

The prince almost went cross-eyed when they seemingly appeared in front of his nose, before accepting them and glancing at his servant.

"Thanks."

Merlin went to get the boots from near the door, smiling.

"No problem, Sire, just doing my job."

Little else was said as they set off for the armoury and helped each other into their gear, although Merlin did mutter under his breath again about the weight of what he was wearing. He wasn't all that bothered by the strangeness of the prince giving his servant sword lessons, but Arthur... Arthur clearly wasn't entirely sure about it if his uncharacteristic lack of snide comments was any indication. No, instead he kept his mouth shut until they were out at the field again, before turning to Merlin with a businesslike manner.

"Right, let's see how much of yesterday's lesson has sunk in. Start circling me like I showed you, and react to how I move when I step forward as if to strike at you."

Merlin grinned, settling into the starting stance. After making the hiding place for the staff last night, he'd spent a couple of hours practicing the stances and steps, using some simple incantations as chants to memorise the rhythms... Which incidentally meant he also got to mess around with his magic in his room for two hours. Sufficient to say, he'd quite enjoyed it, almost as much as the look of surprise on Arthur face. Yeah, he wasn't by any means perfect, nor would he be without a huge amount of practice, but he was determined to make it obvious that he was paying attention and really wanted to learn this.

And Arthur was surprised, although he hid it reasonably well. It was definitely clear that Merlin must have practised last night, and that he wanted to be taken seriously. He didn't see this as a game, he saw this as something important that he wanted.

The prince, feeling a bit compelled to respect that, decided that instead of making Merlin work on the stances again like he'd planned, he'd start work on the guard and strike positions now instead of tomorrow. With that in mind, he stood straight, causing Merlin to frown.

"Did I get something wrong?"

Arthur shook his head.

"No, you got something right. Come here and draw your sword. I want you to copy each of the moves I'm going to show you, and we're going to repeat them over and over while also using the stances. Same thing as yesterday, by repeating the same things many times, you teach your body and muscles to make the movement without you having to think about it too much. It becomes instinct. Now hurry up and draw your sword."

As would be expected, as soon as the sword was added, Merlin began to fumble the steps a bit, except when he started muttering something rhythmically under his breath while concentrating on the sword. His footwork became a bit more coordinated after that, even if it was still pathetically sloppy by professional standards. He was clearly becoming tired already, arms trembling a bit from the strain of holding the sword in various positions while also contending with the weight of his armour, but he just gritted his teeth and persevered. And Arthur hadn't forgotten that Merlin was also having to deal with badly bruised ribs on top of all that.

Arthur watched his servant carefully as he started showing him the next guard and strike, a low one to rest his arms a bit. To be completely honest, he had to admit he'd seen beginners who were far worse than Merlin was being. In fact, were Merlin someone joining the army, he'd be pegged as a good middle-of-the-range sort of guy. Someone with the sense of movement and determination to be decent with a sword, but who just needs to work out a bit and build up his physical strength and fitness. He soon moved on to showing Merlin the best ways for fighting both with and without a shield, before concluding the lesson and returning to the armoury. When he sent the rather tired Merlin to go get his breakfast and take it to his rooms, he found himself entrusted with his servant's clearly treasured sword.

He arrived back at his chambers, musing over the blade he held. It was of good quality, drawing it and examining the steel confirmed that, but it was by no means the finest of blades. It was fairly average in terms of its appearance, having a standard hilt and a plain leather-wrapped grip, albeit with Merlin's name engraved onto the crossguard. But even so, it was no small gift to give for a man of Tom's means. He was a good blacksmith, but a sword like this would be worth enough to feed the man and his daughter for about a week, maybe more.

Arthur sat down at his table, laying the blade on the surface and gazing at it. To think about what his servant had done to earn this, it epitomised the kind of man Merlin was. It was just a shame that, as a servant, Merlin was not permitted to carry and wear the blade for his day-to-day duties. Rare would be the opportunity for the servant to ever wield it. Chances were, most times when he would be needed to fight, they would be out on patrol and again, he would not be permitted to carry it for that because of his position. It was a shame... It was a good blade, and it was clear that even if it hadn't been used before now, Merlin had been using his knowledge gained from his job to take good care of it.

The prince sighed, returning the sword to its sheath and heading to the window, to ponder the mystery of why someone like Merlin had chosen to remain a servant, when quite possibly he could have been much more.

~(-)~

"Have a good lesson this morning?"

"Yeah, it was fun."

Gaius smiled at his ward, when Merlin came rushing into his chambers with his sword in hand mid-morning. The physician was holding a broom, in the process of sweeping up some shards of a glass vial that had somehow fallen on the floor. Merlin glanced at them, but didn't show much interest. Accidents happened, and they were nothing to make a fuss about.

He reached his door, opening it only to stop in surprise, his sudden stillness catching Gaius' attention.

"Is something wrong?"

Merlin stared into his room, before slowly looking over his shoulder.

"Um, Gaius... has anyone been in my room this morning other than me?"

The old man shook his head.

"No. Why?" He joined his ward at the door, both of them now staring at the array of items strew about the floor in there along with the bedding. "It looks no different from normal to me."

Merlin jolted, irritated.

"Hey, I'll have you know that I keep my room tidy now! If I don't it becomes a pain to find my herbs and stuff when I'm practicing that kind of magic." He gestured to the mess. "This... was all tidy when I left here this morning."

Gaius frowned, seeming to become suspicious about something.

"Come to think of it, things have been falling off tables in here fairly regularly all morning... Merlin, have you been fooling around with your magic again?"

Merlin began to grimace.

"Well, I was using some spells as chants last night, to help me get the rhythm of moving in those sword stances right. Most of them were spells to make things move or levitate."

Gaius let out a resigned sigh, turning and descending the steps to the main room.

"Then it looks like you've inadvertently fixed them to something and now they're hanging around... I'll purge your room while you're out, to fix it, but don't even think of complaining about the smell afterwards. It's your own fault."

Merlin cringed, remembering the stench in here after Gaius had told him he'd had to 'purge' a broom that thanks to him had developed a habit for randomly sweeping a section of floor all on its own every so often.

"Uh, yeah... I'll be off now. Got chores to do."

He dumped his sword on his bed, hurrying out of the main door and leaving Gaius shaking his head in bemusement. The physician then muttered to himself a little, gathering a specific mix of herbs. He put them in a small brazier and walked into Merlin's room, setting it on the floor. He'd not let Merlin see him do this, the boy knew he used to be a sorcerer, but not that he had resumed dabbling in magic on rare occasions. This spell was a easy one, used by many a tutor of magical students, to clear the mishaps that sometimes resulted. Certain everyday objects, due to the materials they were made of or just from familiarity with the student, could sometimes catch hold of little bits of spells from amateur sorcerers. Thankfully, making them let go of unintentional and untutored magic was not difficult.

"Ic torforlaetee gan iarraidh drylac."

The herbs in the brazier started to smoulder, releasing a mist of pungent vapours that would fill the small room and banish any spells that hadn't been laid down properly, that is all small spells that were accidental. That task done, Gaius went back to his desk to resume researching that High Priest and his staff, a staff he now knew was called the Staff of the Dunaelfena.

~(-)~

Outside, darting down the stairs and unaware of the magic Gaius was using, the old man's ward had found himself almost bumping into a certain maid in the hallways close to those chambers. He had been in such a rush he nearly didn't see her in time, and even so the past couple of days he'd been trying to avoid her.

Since he was responsible for Morgana thinking her prophetic dream was just a nightmare, that she'd been overreacting, and that Gwen too had been caught up in that. He felt a bit guilty about it, especially seeing as Gwen had stood by Morgana even when there was the possibility the noblewoman really could see the future, a form of magic. It had made him realise that were he to tell Gwen about himself, she'd be surprised, but she'd still trust him and keep his secret. Lying to Morgana would make taking to her a bit awkward for a while, should the topic of conversation ever turn to the stuff about Sophia.

Faced with the maid now, and not wanting that subject to crop up, he pasted an apologetic smile on his face while also making sure to look cheerful.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there."

Gwen, who had jumped back a step to avoid being bumped into, just smiled.

"It's fine, it happens all the time in this castle." She noticed his cheerfulness. "You seem to be in a good mood. What happened?"

Merlin grinned.

"That's because I got Arthur to do me a favour, in return for getting put in the stocks to cover for him. I can't believe I actually managed to talk him into it."

Gwen, a bit surprised and sceptical of the idea too.

"You did? What did you ask him?"

Merlin folded his arms, raising his head proudly like he was trying to show off a bit.

"He's giving me a few lessons on how to properly use that sword you and your father gave me." He relaxed from that posture, now both looking and feeling a bit sheepish to admit this to her. "I um, wanted to be able to do it justice, and not wave it about like an idiot, so I used the chance to talk Arthur into it."

Gwen blinked in surprised for a moment, before regarding him clearly touched by his words as she began to smile.

"Oh, Merlin. Thank you for thinking like that, just make sure you don't hurt yourself with it."

Merlin winced, replying with false sarcasm.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." He chuckled. "Arthur says I'm not actually half bad for a raw beginner. I get the impression he's seen worse."

Gwen nodded in amusement.

"I should think he probably has, given that he regularly inspects the new recruits joining the regular part of the army. The last time he did that, before you arrived here, it was the talk of the castle staff that it had been a particularly bad batch. He got back from the garrison with a frown that could have curdled milk."

"Doesn't he look like that all the time?"

She stared at him for his joke, before bursting out laughing.

"Merlin. I honestly don't know how you haven't gotten yourself fired yet, for the way you talk about him."

Merlin grinned.

"It's because he knows I'm only joking, and firing me would mean admitting that he cares what I say about him. He won't do that, because it would be like me winning."

Whatever remark she might have made to that was interrupted by a crash from a small nearby storeroom, the two of them hurrying around the corner to it and looking in. Several things had fallen off the shelves in there, and the stack of brooms and mops in the far corner had fallen over into a pile on the floor.

Gwen just shook her head and started to put everything right.

"Looks like one of the servants has been getting sloppy in putting things away properly. How hard is it to stack things so they won't fall?"

She didn't notice Merlin's nervous expression, or the way he gulped. She had no idea of the sinking feeling he had that his 'accidental magic' in the nearby rooms one floor up was to blame.

He quickly helped her sort out the mess, before hurrying away to do his chores for the rest of the day. But he kept coming back to the storeroom every so often, finding it strewn about again two more times before evening came. And to make his nerves worse, that night, when he was trying to sleep, his uneasy slumber kept being disturbed by random objects moving around his room, causing him to roll over disgusted that it looked like Gaius' purge of the chamber hadn't worked. Which meant that in the morning he was going to get told off for messing around with magic... again.

~(-)~

Alaia Skyhawk: (Whistles innocently) Hee hee :)