Alaia Skyhawk: Hehehehehe, I love writing stuff like this :D
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.
Music: The Forged Seal (Merlin OST)
"Whom History Won't Remember" Episode: N/A
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Chapter 65: Musically Disinclined ~Part 2~
The two young men faced each other, one grinning and the other staring at him like he believed him to be completely crazy. Where in the name of nature had Arthur gotten such a ludicrous idea.
Merlin pointed at the lute, shaking his head and crossing his arms stubbornly.
"You can not be serious! ...No, I won't!"
Arthur rolled his eyes, coming further into the room.
"Oh come on, Merlin. How hard can it be? Lord Asher's servant doesn't seem to find it difficult."
Merlin's response to that was in a deadly quiet tone.
"And if you'd actually talked to Gren like I have, you would know that he trained for five years to reach that standard as a bard, before becoming a servant because he couldn't find work as one."
There was silence, Arthur regarding him for several seconds before then cheerfully pushing the lute and music into Merlin's grasp. The warlock wasn't the only one who could be stubborn.
"You are going to learn it, or at least try. Worst comes to worst you're a complete failure at it, but if you're any good then imagine the reputation you'll gain around here. People will know that you're not as useless as you look." Merlin didn't dignify that with a response, and Arthur clapped him on the shoulder. "Now I'm giving you the afternoon off, so go... practice or something. I don't need you back until it's time to bring my evening meal."
Moments later found Merlin outside of the room, standing there with an unreadable expression on his face. After all they'd gone through in the months he'd been here, the number of times he'd made it clear he would not react in the best fashion to being made a mockery of, the warlock was not best pleased. Arthur was like a stream, flowing slowly and steadily towards being the king he was destined to be, and yet more often than was believable the flow defied everything and went backwards.
He looked down at the instrument and wad of song notations he held. He'd never touched a lute in his life before now, and being able to read books did not make him able to read the array of dots and squiggles that seemed to represent music on those sheets. This looked like a distinct attempt just to humiliate him, and if that was what Arthur wanted, then he, Merlin, was going to make it as painful for the prince as possible.
Highly irritated, Merlin stomped his way back to Gaius' chambers, taking a deliberately obscure route so no one would see him with the lute. Time off was time off, and if Arthur wanted him to waste his time slacking off in his room 'practicing', then so be it. However, whether or not he would make a serious attempt to do was still debatable.
His arrival at the physician's chambers startled Gaius considerably, the old man watching his ward walk past him with a distinctly baffled expression.
"What are you doing with those?"
Merlin turned and looked at him, smiling oh so sweetly.
"Ask Arthur, I'm sure he'd love to tell you."
"Ah..."
The physician said no more, leaving Merlin to trudge up the steps to him room and dump the lute and music on the bed. He then reached under it, determined that no matter what, not even Gaius was going to hear him practice.
Merlin put his spellbook beside the instrument, flipping through the pages in search of the relevant spell. When he did find it, thankfully it was one that didn't require materials, which just meant he had to hope it was one he could get right without too much effort.
"Hlemas widhinnan, ne gehoered begeondan. On thes frithgeard hie beoth dierne."
Eyes closed, hand outstretched he cast the spell before picking an empty wooden bowl up off his table. He then stood outside his door and threw it into the room to test if the spell had worked.
He didn't even hear the slightest clatter when the wooden bowl hit the floor, the item rolling to a stop against the end of the bed. Entering the room again, he picked it up and thumped it onto the table, assured that while inside the room he could hear himself, anyone outside could not.
Merlin picked up the lute and sat himself on a chair, placed so that while he couldn't be seen from the door of the main chamber, he could see if anyone started coming up the steps to his room. Safe in the knowledge no one could sneak up on him, he then began to pluck awkwardly at the strings of the lute, cringing when attempts to change the notes by putting his fingers over them along the neck resulted in some truly sour sounds. This was not as easy as Gren had made it look.
The following morning, after being told just to do the necessary chores and then go practice, was when Merlin started to get a bit suspicious. Arthur seemed awfully intent on getting him to learn to play the thing as quickly as possible, and to be doing that purely to embarrass or ridicule his servant seemed a bit beyond the lengths the prince would usually go. Why use something so complicated to get your own back for something, when you can just make your servant muck out your stables or have him put in the stocks and be pelted with rotten vegetables? No, there was something more to this, and determined to find out what, Merlin went in search of the one person he could ask who might know something.
It took all of thirty seconds to walk from Arthur's chambers to the door of Lord Asher's guest room, and knowing that the visitor had just gone out riding with the prince, Merlin knew if anyone was here it could only be Gren.
He knocked, waiting for a reply, and getting one a few moments later when the other servant opened the door and regarded him in surprise.
"Merlin? Is there something I can help you with? If you've a message for Lord Asher, he's..."
"Just gone out riding with Prince Arthur... I know, I was the one who prepared their horses."
At Merlin's flat interruption, Gren hesitated a little before speaking again.
"So, what can I do for you?"
Merlin, clearly annoyed about something, folded his arms and answered.
"You wouldn't have noticed anything odd going on between Arthur and Asher, would you? I don't know, some kind of competition maybe?"
Gren winced, almost like this was something he'd been dreading.
"Um, yeah. It's not really odd from my side, but for you... My lord was quite cheerful this morning. Seems he thinks he'll soon be winning a bet."
Merlin felt annoyance become overwhelming irritation.
"I knew it! What was the bet?"
Gren looked furtively down the hall, making sure no one was around to hear before murmuring it quietly.
"Prince Arthur bet that in one week you could learn to play the lute, or sing, as well as I do. The winner gets ten gold coins."
Merlin went quiet, his expression one that expressed his extreme desire to stick something 'unpleasant' into Arthur's bed tonight.
"Ten gold is nothing to Arthur, he's doing this to either out do Lord Asher, or to humiliate me. More than likely, it's both."
Gren seemed similarly put out.
"If you find this irritating, then I can tell you that so do I. It doesn't matter where we go, Lord Asher does this at every opportunity, in some form or other."
Hearing that, Merlin suddenly smiled slyly.
"If you find this annoying too, then how about you and me try turning this around?"
Gren regarded him for a moment, making another furtive glance.
"How?"
Merlin chuckled consiprationally.
"No one says I have to be able to play lots of songs, so how about you teach me to play one of them as good as you. I've no idea how good of a singer I might be, so we'll just have to find that out. But if we can pull this off, you get to see Asher lose the bet, and I'll make sure I get my own back on Arthur before I wipe the smirk off your lord's face."
After a moment he wasn't the only one chuckling.
"Get your lute and come back here. We have three hours right now before they come back from riding."
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"Come on, Asher! I thought you were supposed to be a good rider!"
Arthur's horse charged down the trail, wielding round at the prince's tug on the reins and circling back to where the visiting lord's mare struggled to keep up. It wasn't really fair to be honest, since there was no way Asher's Mercian nag could compete with an Ulwin-bred stallion. The poor thing was already sweated from the attempt while Arthur's mount was barely even breathing hard.
Asher knew it too, and was clearly a little annoyed.
"No matter how good the rider, if the horse is lacking then in a race he is doomed to failure." A small smirk worked it's way into his smile. "A bit like your servant. I've heard much about him already, about his laziness and slacker attitude. No matter how you push him, he'll never beat my manservant at music."
Arthur returned the smirk, nudging his horse in the ribs and sending it charging ahead again and calling back confidently.
"Give it until the end of the week, and you'll see."
A pity he was starting to doubt those words...
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Alaia Skyhawk: Yep, this is where the spell he uses early in motives comes from. It means "Sounds within, not heard beyond. In this space they are secret." As for part 3... (starts to giggle)