Ch. 11~ Explanation

"Your…cousin?"

"Yes, you dolt, my cousin. How in the world could you ever think that I'm in love with her?"

Merlin was suddenly taken back to that day of him and Arthur's second fight, when she had come into his room to heal him. What was it she had said? "In love with Arthur? El Pequiño Rey? No, I do love Arthur, but not in the way you're thinking." Oh, crap. That's what she was telling him. Not that she was romantically involved with the prince, but that she was part of his family. "Wait…how does that work? I thought she was from España. She came here as part of a slave trade, didn't she?"

"So, you did actually learn something all these months." Arthur went and leaned against the table. "Yes, Celestia was brought here as a slave from España, but her lineage was royal. Her father, Wilhelm, is my father's younger brother. He left Camelot before I was born, searching out new lands to claim for his king, my grandfather at the time. For the longest time, Father had given him up for dead. We never received any news to prove otherwise, and he never returned here. According to Celestia, he sailed to southern España and met her mother. Long story short, they married and lived happily ever after…

"At least, they did for a long time. When she was eight years old, a band of slavers attacked their home. They killed most of her family and beat her father half to death in front of her eyes. She managed to get out of one of the men's hold long enough to get to Uncle Wilhelm, and held his hand as he lay there dying. Apparently, a snake came out of nowhere and bit her father, poisoning him. If one of the men hadn't grabbed her, it would have killed her too."

That explained so much about her. "What happened after that?"

Arthur's eyes darkened. Whatever came next was much less than pleasant. "They came here. The slavers had many young girls on their ship…and they took advantage of their youth and weakness."

"You mean…"

"Yes." The prince finally met his eyes. "They raped her, beat her, and subjected her to tortures that have been banned from Camelot since the reign of my grandfather. And when they got here, and asked for a troupe leader for a dancing group, someone who spoke English, she was the only one who did, and she stepped up to protect the others. As a result, they marked her skin in such a way that it could never be removed. To this day, she wears it as a reminder of the pain she went through, a reminder of the protection she gives to everyone else. And that explains why she stopped me from beating you to death. If she hadn't gone through all of that when she was younger, you would not be here right now."

"And the snake?"

There was a troubled pause. "Celestia has always been afraid of snakes, even more so after that day. She can't see one without freezing up in a panic. That is her worst fear."

That's what Kilgarah was talking about…but what did it mean, that her worst fear was wrapped so tightly within her? There was too much to process at the moment, but he had to fix his mistake. "I have to go talk to her." He rushed towards the door, then stopped and looked back at Arthur. "I'm really sorry about all of this, Arthur. If I had known…about any of it, I would have never even thought about saying anything to her."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, Merlin. If you're really sincere about this, you need to tell her, not me." Merlin nodded and ran out the door.

"Um, Arthur?"

"Yes?"

"What time is it?"

"I don't know, why?" Suddenly, the bell started tolling. They listened for a moment. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11… "Oh, no." They ran out the door after the young manservant.

Tia's Room

Knock knock knock. "Miss Tia? Are you in there?"

"Who is it?" she called from far inside the room.

"It's Merlin. Look, I know you said I should stay away after what happened this afternoon, but I really need to talk to you."

"Go away."

"I wanted to apologize, I know you don't want to see me, but I…I heard what had happened to you all those years ago. I know what those men did to you and-" he was cut off by a muffled sound of pain coming from within the room. "Miss Tia, are you alright?"

"I said go away, Merlin. Please, just leave me alone, I don't want to talk to you right now. I can't."

"No, I'm not going away until you tell me what's going on." Another held-back cry of anguish. "Miss Tia?" There was no response. "I'm coming in!" He tried the door, but it was locked. Making sure there was no one around, he focused on the lock. "Tospringe." There was a tell-tale click of the door unlocking, and he pushed it open. Bursting into the room, he frantically searched for the woman who was whimpering in pain. Suddenly, a vase came flying out of nowhere. He managed to catch it with magic and quickly acted like he had done so with his hands, putting it aside as her voice came from the other room.

"I told you to go away! Why can't you ever follow directions properly?"

"Because I know something's wrong with you. Kil-I mean, I know that you've suffered from so much, and I want to help."

"I don't need your help, Merlin. You've already caused enough damage. Just leave me alone."

"No! I can't do that. How can you not understand that I can't just leave?" He moved forward in emphasis, towards the pillar and drape she hid behind. "I want to help you, in whatever way I can." He reached forward for the drape, pulling it aside right as Arthur and Gwen ran into the room.

"Merlin, no!" the prince ran forward to grab him, to keep from seeing the truth that they all tried so hard to hide.

But it was too late, time seemed to slow. Merlin pulled the curtain aside, looked down, and saw her. He saw why she was in so much pain, why she couldn't let him carry her to her room after the feast. Now he knew why she always disappeared to her room before 11 o'clock, and no one was allowed to see her. Sitting at the base of the pillar, clutching her torso with tears running down her face, was Tia.

Her hair and skin were being replaced with scales, her eyebrows raised and her eyes slit-pupiled and turning yellow. As she grimaced, he saw her teeth slowly receding and her canines becoming fangs, fine pointed and deadly as poison began to gather at the tip. He briefly saw her tongue, thin and forked, when it flicked from between her teeth, tasting the air. She was halfway through a transformation…

"Oh." Merlin watched in amazement as she slowly turned into that which she feared the most, a snake.

"I told you to stay away. I didn't want you to see me like this."

"Gwen, close the door." Arthur knelt down beside her. "I'm so sorry, Celestia. If I had known it was so close to time, I would have stopped him."

"It's ok, cousssin. I know you had a lot on your mind. It'sss too late to change it now." Her voice was beginning to become more snakelike, with more hiss to it. "Merlin, you have to promissse me that you won't tell anyone about thisss." She turned her strange eyes to him. "No one can ever know that a member the houssse of Pendragon isss cursssed."

"I won't, I would never, ever, tell anyone about this. I promise." He turned to the others. "How many people know about her transformation?"

"Just me, Gwen, and Gaius."

"The king doesn't know?"

"How could we ever tell him about this? If he knew, he would have her killed."

"But she's the victim, not the sorcerer. I very much doubt she would do this to herself."

"Gwen, could you turn my mirrorsss around, pleassse. I didn't have time to do it myssself."

"Of course."

"It doesssn't matter whether I wasss a sssorcccerer, Merlin. Uncle Uther hatesss any kind of magic. Even if it'sss hisss own kin. That isss why he can never know."

"But…how…how did this happen to you?"

"A woman in my village. When my father came to Essspana, there were many young women who found him attractive. It jussst ssso happened that one of them practiccced the old waysss. When my mother agreed to marry him, she wasss very unhappy. And, when I wasss born to the happy couple, she came to congradulate them. Her true intensssionsss were to curssse me. Every night, at the witching hour, I would turn into that which I mossst feared. In other wordsss…"

"A snake." She nodded. "Well, you don't have to worry about anything from me. You've been extrodinarily kind to me, and I don't betray kindness. You have my word that I won't say a word."

"Thank you, Merlin."