Gwen sat at a corner table in the village pub. She sat so she was facing the door and could watch the comings and goings. Over the other side of the bar, working a different shift so he could be there to keep an eye on her, was Elyan. He shouldn't have been working that day, he only did part time at the bar. Both he and her father had been against her coming to this meeting. Gwen was convinced it was the sheer element of surprise that had made her agree, after she had vowed herself that she was having nothing to do with any of them at the Pendragon house. Not after the way Uther had spoken to her.

She sat up straighter and stopped fiddling with her glass of wine, drawing designs in the condensation on her glass, as she caught sight of a flash of blond hair. Arthur came through the door and looked around. Raising her hand a fraction she waved timidly, feeling a surge of pleasure as two of the girls at the bar turned to look at Arthur in interest and then their faces flickered with irritation and jealousy as he ignored them completely and smiled when he saw Gwen, walking over to her. As he noticed the blond man heading towards his sister Elyan's eyes narrowed, and he stopped listening to the cluster of men who were chatting at the bar and watched Arthur instead. Once they realised Elyan's distraction they all took a long look at the newcomer.

It occurred to Gwen that no one else in the village had, until now, laid eyes on Arthur. They had no idea who he was. She hadn't even mentioned that Uther's son had returned home. Most of them probably didn't even know that Uther had a son, although some of the older villagers probably remembered Igraine, but Gwen wasn't sure if they knew she had been pregnant.

"Hi," Arthur said, pausing by the table. Gwen smiled up at him, feeling as nervous as Arthur looked.

"Hi," Gwen said. Arthur gestured to her glass.

"Do you want another?"

She had hardly drunk from it, so she shook her head. Arthur looked around, seeming a little lost.

"Do you want a drink?" Gwen asked. Arthur looked startled and then shook his head.

"No, I'll get one, I suppose I should have gotten yours."

"It doesn't matter, I was early."

"Okay, erm… I'll just be a minute." Arthur dumped the bag on the cushioned seat of the booth and headed over to the bar, dipping into his pocket as he did so. The girls looked at him again, flipping their hair about. Again Arthur paid no attention, and the girls glanced at Gwen, clearly trying to work out who Arthur was, what he was to Gwen, and both of them came to the conclusion that Gwen wasn't worth it. She felt a surge of temper and wondered if she should flirt with Arthur a little when he came back. Then she decided not to, Arthur might tell Lancelot. Although it didn't seem like she would be getting her date any time soon, now she had been fired.

Elyan served Arthur, pouring him a pint and eyeing him carefully. Again Arthur paid no attention, instead he concentrated on fishing a note out of the wallet that Uther had given him. Arthur could hardly comprehend the number of notes that had been put in it, and there was a credit card just in case. And if Arthur had been surprised at that, he was positively shell-shocked when Uther had let him come down to the village. Arthur wouldn't be surprised if someone was there in the village, subtly keeping an eye on him. He hadn't seen anyone on the walk down, but that didn't mean anything.

Gwen glared at Elyan as he put the pint down on the bar and took Arthur's note, a little abruptly. When he came back with the change he appeared a little more congenial but as he turned around to come back to Gwen Arthur quite obviously wasn't fooled.

"What's his problem?" Arthur asked, probably not really asking Gwen.

"He's my brother," Gwen said.

"Oh," Arthur said, shifting his bag along the seat a fraction and settling down opposite her. He took a sip of his pint and looked at her.

"Did you tell him about… what happened?"

"I kind of had to say that I was fired, he swapped his shift so he could keep an eye on me. Although no one has any idea who you are."

"Really? I suppose not," Arthur concluded. "I'm not entirely certain when my mother left, I wonder if I was even born."

They both fell silent for a moment and they both regarded their drinks. Gwen took a sip of hers and then put it down carefully on her beer mat. Arthur shifted his drink around.

"So what did you want to see me about?" Gwen asked. "I'm not going back to work there if that's why you've been sent."

"I haven't been sent," Arthur said. "And it was a bit about that but…"

He stopped fiddling with his pint and instead rummaged into the rucksack he had brought. Gwen watched him pull out another smaller bag, this one of a silky looking cloth. Arthur pulled on the drawstring and the material fell open. Gwen watched as a glitter of metal was revealed and she gasped as Arthur pulled the bag open, laying out the cloth to display the bracelet that lay underneath. She looked at the thick band, delicate designing and the jewel that lay in the centre.

"That's my mother's!"

"It's what Uther came for that night, when he came to your home."

"Why?" Gwen asked, she lifted her hand to reach out for the bracelet but Arthur's voice stilled her.

"You're probably best not to touch it too much."

"Why not?"

"It's not any old piece of jewellery," Arthur said. "It an Eye of the Phoenix, the shadow you saw was real. If this is worn too long it drains the life force of the person wearing it."

Gwen's eyes opened and her jaw dropped. Arthur looked uncomfortable, looking down at the bracelet and then back up at Gwen.

"But, that's stupid!"

"Sounds it, I know," Arthur said. "But you hinted to me that you thought something was up at that house, it's not quite that like. But you weren't wrong, the shadow you saw was real, it was the reflection of your mother's life being drained from her. She wouldn't have even realised it was happening, but that is what this thing does."

"And you believe that?" Gwen snapped.

"Yes, I do, and so do you."

Gwen tensed, biting down on her lip and looked down at the bracelet on the table between them. Arthur reached to wrap the item back up again, causing the sleeve of his jumper to rise up a fraction and expose the bandage on his right wrist. Arthur jumped as Gwen grabbed his hand and pushed the sleeve up further. By reflex Arthur yanked his hand back and used his left to grab the bracelet Gwen yanked the sleeve up on that arm as well.

"Arthur!"

Arthur swiped the bracelet and bag off the table wrapping the bracelet up and yanking the drawstring closed, tying it violently. With his hands under the table he could also get his sleeves under control. Gwen glanced away, just in time to see Elyan about to raise the flap on the bar to come round. She glared at him again and he paused. She carried on glaring for a little longer until Elyan backed up, then she turned her attention back to Arthur, who looked flustered and upset.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, it's fine. I'm fine."

"Is that what you came to tell me, my mother died because she was wearing a bracelet?"

"Yes," Arthur said. "Where did your mother get it?"

"Just some flea market place in one of the nearby towns. I saw it and thought it was pretty."

"You saw it?" Arthur asked.

"I wanted it, it was mixed up with some junk jewellery, and they weren't asking much for it. My mother bought it, but I was too small to wear it so I gave it to her," Gwen said.

"Do you remember where this was?" Arthur asked. Gwen glared at him. "Gwen, this is important, especially if you picked it out. If it was for you, why was your mother wearing it?"

"I gave it to her, she said she'd keep it for me until I was old enough to wear it. The stall holder said I should just keep it for myself, I remember that."

Arthur bit down on his lip. "It was meant for you."

Gwen blinked. "What?"

"It was meant for you, you might not have even needed to wear it."

"What are you saying, that it should have killed me?" Gwen leant forward, glaring at Arthur.

"I don't know, it's feasible all things considered."

"Next thing you're going to tell me is those sightings of giant scorpions are real," she snapped at him. Arthur raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"I can prove that one," Arthur said. Gwen sat back, staring at Arthur in disbelief. "Oh, come on, that is part of the reason you took the job at the house, you knew something was going on. There's no point now saying you don't believe it."

Gwen frowned, pondering the logic of that. No one else had believed her, certainly not her father or Elyan. Arthur looked as if he did. She wondered about the others at the house, and the mysterious wing she couldn't enter. They were certainly hiding something.

"Suppose I believe you, and that bracelet did something, and I saw that shadow. Why would anyone do that?"

Arthur turned to his backpack and rummaged again, pulling out a cardboard folder. He flipped it open and pulled out several sheets of paper. Some were printouts, others looked handwritten, and some – the paper old and faded – were carefully protected in plastic wallets. He sifted through them and produced one handwritten sheet and passed it to Gwen.

"What's this?"

"Read it," Arthur said, continuing sifting. Gwen looked down at the paper, skimming through it. Arthur pushed a few more in her direction.

"There are a few different references, I don't think anyone else noticed them. Mainly there," Arthur said, pointing to a paragraph that he had highlighted.

"What's that name there…" Gwen asked, peering at the paper.

"It's Gwenhwy there, and there are a few other different versions, but narrowing it down I think they are all various versions of the name Guinevere. Or Guinevere is a variation on the original name. She appears quite a lot, but most of the information was obscure, I'm amazed Gaius didn't find it though."

"Hang on, there's a King Arthur in this one, and a Lancelot."

"It made me think, when I said we could set up a society of funny names, and what you said about your mother."

Gwen looked through a few more sheets of paper, glancing up at Arthur in shock.

"It's says in this one that she married this King Arthur."

"Yeah, also apparently has an affair and runs off with Lancelot, and there's a few others mentioned. Apparently this Guinevere is quite promiscuous."

Gwen glowered at him. "So what, you're saying that you are this King Arthur, and I'm supposed to marry you?"

"Not exactly. The way it was explained to me is it's a sort of heritage, we're not the exact people, because that would be stupid."

"What? So I'm descended from this woman? Oh God, in this one I sleep with Mordred!"

"Who?"

"You might not have seen him, he's a bit creepy, one of Lancelot's security detail, some cousin of Morgana's."

"No I haven't. No one mentioned him when I showed this to Gaius, maybe he missed it." Arthur reached into his bag and pulled out a highlighter pen. Gwen pointed to the relevant passage and marked Mordred's name.

"You're not keen on that idea then?"

"No," Gwen said with a smirk, reaching for her wine and taking a sip. They both paused for a moment, taking a drink and sizing each other up. When he put his pint down Arthur said.

"I don't think this time I'm particularly good marriage material, so I'm quite happy to encourage the running off with Lancelot thing. One version I found sort of hinted that Arthur engineered it."

"You are aware this sounds nuts?" Gwen said.

"Yet, you're listening to it," Arthur said. Gwen paused and looked around and then back up to Arthur.

"Was that true what you said, about being a rent boy?"

Arthur nodded. "Yeah, it wasn't exactly much of a choice."

"Is that what the bandages are about?" Gwen said. She couldn't see them now, Arthur's sleeves were carefully covering them, and he was making sure they stayed hidden.

"A little, maybe. After what happened it just felt like a point of no return."

Gwen gasped, "that's awful. Uther's a bastard!" she added venomously. Then she looked at Arthur with wide eyes. Arthur smirked.

"I'm not going to go out of my way to disagree with you. It's safe to say it's going to take a long while for any father and son bond to develop. If ever. I think we have to accept too much has happened, or at least try to."

Gwen leant forward. "Why didn't your mother hand you back to you father?"

"You make me sound like lost luggage," Arthur mused, and then shrugged, taking a swallow of his drink before answering. "I have no idea, she never told me anything, she never told anyone anything. She risked leaving me to fend for myself rather than tell my father, who was probably looking for me, where I was."

"Wasn't there anyone else?"

"No," Arthur said. "There was never anyone else, it was always just the two of us. We moved around a bit, which I now know was because my mother didn't want us found."

"But Uther must have loads of resources, no one can stay hidden for that long," Gwen said.

Arthur sat back, his eyes drifting down to look at his drink, for a moment his concentration drifted away from her, but it snapped back quickly. When he looked up at her there was a troubled look on his face.

"Unless someone made sure I wasn't to be found."

For a moment that disturbing thought was debated by both of them. Then Arthur looked back up at her and returned to the business in hand, gazing at her seriously.

"I want you to come up to the house tomorrow, I haven't told anyone else this, well, only Uther. Somehow you're part of this."

Gwen shook her head, "no, no way. Not after last time. I can accept he's a bit abrupt and hardly notices me most of the time, but I didn't do anything wrong, and it was just so… awful."

"I know, I'm sorry," Arthur said, then he didn't seem to know what else to say. He appeared to be in complete agreement of what she wanted to do, stay the hell away, and probably his information hadn't helped. Arthur was just relying on the fact that he was backing up her suspicions rather than actually telling her anything new.

"Why should I?" Gwen eventually challenged him.

"To be perfectly honest, I have no idea, other than the fact that you want answers, and I think we can give them," Arthur said. "Plus, I want you to come back, you're the only sane person I know."

Gwen's mouth quirked with a semblance of a smile. Arthur took that as a good sign, and pushed the papers back into the cardboard folder before easing it across the table towards her.

"Take that, and give it a look over. If you want to get involved, then come up to the house for about two o'clock tomorrow, we'll talk about it then."

Arthur drank the rest of his pint and looked at her. Gwen wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. Arthur wasn't going to push her, he had just told her something utterly incredulous, and yet, it seemed so believable, especially coming from Arthur. He shuffled out and slung the backpack up over his shoulder, making sure he kept the cuffs of his sleeves under control at the same time.

"Think about it, okay?"

With that Arthur sauntered out, leaving a trail of curious locals in his wake. Gwen gathered up her two thirds drunk wine and wandered over to the bar. Elyan was looking at her in disapproval.

"You didn't agree to go back did you?"

"No," Gwen said, not lying, she hadn't. She tucked the folder tighter to her side and held her glass out for Elyan to refill.

"So who was that anyway, I haven't seen him before."

"That's Arthur."

Not even the eavesdropping locals reacted to the name. No one knew who he was.

"Arthur who?" Elyan snapped. Gwen huffed in irritation.

"Arthur Pendragon," she snapped without thinking. "He's Uther's son."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

She wondered if the controversy she caused was the reason that she was walking up the driveway. It had sent everyone who heard her into a frenzy of gossip, and no doubt the entire village now knew. Although they knew nothing more than the fact of Arthur's existence. Most of the running gossip presumed he was illegitimate. Some of the older residents knew Uther had been married, and brought up the hints that Igraine Pendragon had not been able to conceive. There had been miscarriages and fertility treatments if the grapevine had been correct.

Gwen didn't know if that was true or not. The only person who could probably answer that was Uther himself. No one else would know the real truth of what had happened between the husband and wife, and why Igraine had felt the need to remove her son from the environment. Gwen had looked over the information, reading it with increasing disbelief. Yet, so much of it rang true deep within her. Arthur was right, she had taken the job because she wanted to find something, and now she had found it. There was no purpose in her now saying that she wanted to walk away. So instead she walked towards it.

She paused as she reached the open space by the front steps. Arthur was waiting for her, sipping from a can, wearing sunglasses and his hair almost glowed in the sunlight. He raised a hand as he saw her and she carried on walking, until she stood in front of him. Arthur hadn't moved, he just continued to sit on the steps.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello."

"Changed your mind?"

"I think it was already made up."

"No one is going to think less of you for coming back, actually it makes you the better person."

"I don't think Uther would agree with you."

Arthur shrugged. "I don't know if he does or not. I did tell him though."

Gwen smirked.

"I did," Arthur said. "I think we have come to the understanding that we are never going to like each other, I am never going to entirely trust him, and he's always going to hate what I am. I'll give him that, he's good at accepting things as they are."

"That sounds really sad," Gwen said. "He is your father, and it isn't as if he abandoned you."

"I suppose," Arthur said, draining his can of cola. Then he looked at Gwen and took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"

"I'm not sure what for."

"Come with me," Arthur said, slowly getting up. As they went into the hall Arthur darted sideways into the lounge area and deposited his can into the bin before moved down the hallway to the right of the staircase and he pressed the buttons to open the door to the west wing. Gwen shifted her feet feeling the first traces of nerves, but she couldn't help but follow, looking around in interest as Arthur stepped through and held the door open for her, before closing it firmly.

"We need to go up to the briefing room on the next floor."

"Briefing room, you make it sound like MI5 or something."

"Well, MI5 crossed with the X-files I suppose. She's with me," Arthur added to Percival as he came out of a door and stared at Gwen. Gwen smiled at him and then hurried after Arthur. He went up a flight of stairs, turned left and opened a set of doors, going into the lab where Gaius kept his 'zoo'.

"Oh my God," Gwen said as she looked at the huge scorpion. Arthur watched her reaction.

"That one stung me."

"This isn't possible."

"No, but it's real. It's through here."

He took her through that room, past the Bastet and then across the corridor through to the briefing room. The rest of them were coming down the corridor and they all ceased chatting as Arthur walked out and then so did Gwen. She looked at them and ducked her head a little. Arthur opened the door to the briefing room and let her in.

"Sorry," he said to Gwen as the door swung shut behind them. "They're early."

"Are they already coming? I told them quarter past," Uther said from the far end of the room.

"I was running a bit late," Gwen said apologetically. Uther looked at her as Arthur carefully put her in a seat, not too close, but not at the far end of the table.

"Guinevere, I…" Uther started talking and Gwen knew, he was about to apologise, but as the others came storming in he looked away from her. Arthur's hand on hers tensed, and looking up she realised he was angry. Uther had been about to apologise to her, but he was going to do that because Arthur wanted him to. So he would do it in front of Arthur and that would be the only time she would hear it.

Instead the others came through the door, probably wanting to know why she was there. They were all now staring at her, and Gwen looked away, glancing up on occasion but feeling very uncomfortable.

"Do you want coffee or tea or…" Arthur asked.

"No, I'm fine," Gwen said.

"I wouldn't recommend it anyway. I made it," Merlin said going to the table and starting to set up cups.

"No need to bother with that, this part of the meeting will be very short," Uther announced. "And it's about this."

He unwrapped the bracelet from it's silken wrapping. Merlin turned his head violently, eyes fixed on the item, stepping towards the table. He stared at it and then his eyes snapped to Gwen and then back to the bracelet.

"Merlin?" Gaius asked.

"There's magic, I can feel it."

"Guinevere, would you please put your hand over the bracelet."

She did as Uther asked and the gem glowed, she felt a rush of heat and almost grabbed it but Uther grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand clear.

"You should not touch it. This was something I removed from the Loedgrance household when Guinevere's mother passed away. It is an Eye Of The Phoenix, it consumes the life force of anyone who stays in contact with it, but it can be bonded to someone, that person appears to be Guinevere."

Gwen blinked and looked around.

"How did your mother get hold of it?"

"It was too big for me to wear, so she told me a story about how it would be something that would become an heirloom, she would wear it, then I would and then I could pass it to one of my children. Then I saw the shadow, around her, just… I can't describe it. I just never knew it was that doing it."

"Where did you get it? How did your mother find it?" Uther asked, leaning forward on the table.

"I saw it at the flea market. It was on the edge of the table and it glowed so brilliantly that I wanted it, and the woman on the stall sold it to my mother. She just thought it was a bit of junk jewellery, she said it wasn't worth much but money wasn't important, it was the meaning."

"Did your mother say that, or the person on the stall?"

"I can't remember, I wish I could!" Gwen covered her face with her hands and started to cry. She mumbled something but Gwen wasn't even aware of what she said.

"Enough for now."

She heard Uther's voice at the back of her mind and then the sounds of people moving around the room.

"Gwen, it's okay," Arthur said. She nodded a little but she didn't want anyone to bother her now.

It was real, what she knew, what she had known was real. She felt better, and she felt worse. And she also felt, just a little bit, understood.