A/N: Yay! Second post this week! I'm very happy about this!
I'd like to say that the rating is so that I can have a little more freedom while writing this. When (if) this is finished, tell me if it truly deserves this rating or should I bump it down. (but not now!)
(Before I continue farther in writing this, I'd like to say that in this chapter, names will finally be given out. Curse Word's auto correct grammar!)
Without further ado:
"Hello!" The girl chirped to her two guests. "I hope my friends treated you well."
"We got your message," the lady said, frowning at the girl's cheerful demeanor. Was this really the person who had sent that letter? "Show me to Arthur."
"Ah-ah-ah!" the girl tutted. She grinned at them disarmingly. "It just so happened that my visit for today has ended. You two both missed my tale, too. Ah well. You two must be tired, no?" She didn't wait for their reply as she skipped off. "Tatiana will show you to your rooms!"
"You—" the lady took a threatening step towards the retreating enchantress. However, a tug on her sleeve stopped her.
"Excuse me, my lady, I will show you to your rooms," a small, bird-like girl said, her voice a sweet chirp. The lady's jaw tightened in anger. Tatiana hurried on. "Please excuse my friend's behavior; she really is a kind soul. It's just… fate has not been kind to her, is all. If you will follow me…?"
Still fuming, the lady and her knight followed Tatiana. Plants overran the small palace, and yet kept meticulously clean by the few servants that darted through secret passages. For some reason, each and every servant she saw reminded the lady of animals. Tatiana, for example, reminded her of a robin, with her ruby hair and twitchy, bird-like movements. Tatiana stopped in front of a set of doors.
"This one is yours, my lady, and this is Sir Knight's." She dipped her head to the two before darting off.
"…My lady," the young knight nodded to his sister of sorts and ducked into his room. It didn't surprise him that his travel bags were already here, placed just at the foot of the bed. However, what did surprise him was the bangle sitting on the desk, a note pinned beneath.
A gift from your hostess
-to be introduced
He frowned at the note, flipping it over to see the back. Nothing. Now, he turned his attention to the bangle. A polished oval jade sat intertwined in the branches of a leafless tree. Sensing no hostile magic, he slipped the too-big bangle onto his wrist. Is eyes widened as it suddenly became warmer, the branches shifting as it tightened. He tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't budge. He released a shaky breath. How had he missed the enchantment— And then he knew.
The girl must be an enchantress, or at least have one in her staff. Whoever it was, she had to have been powerful. This kind of subtlety required skill.
Hurrying out of his room, he knocked on the lady's door. "My lady—"
The door swung open, and he saw that she too, had received a bangle. She was muttering spells under her breath as she tugged at her bangle furiously. It wasn't long before she let out a curse and stopped.
"I see you have the same problem as I," she said. Her voice was tinged with anger, the knight noticed.
"Yes," he nodded.
Her bangle was composed of two feathers crossed in a lopsided X with a polished onyx in the center.
A timid knock pulled their attention away from the other's bangle. Tatiana stood at the door. "The lady wishes you to join her for dinner."
And like that, the lady's temper cooled to embers. "We would love too, right?"
"Ah, yes…" he said with slight uncertainty. It sometimes unnerved him his 'sister' switched moods from one to another like that.
"I'll take you down, when you are ready," Tatiana bowed and left.
When they arrived at dinner, they found their hostess chatting easily with a long-faced man with brown eyes.
"Hello," the girl stood in greeting, striding to meet her guests. The man also stood, but remained by his chair. "I'm glad that the two of you have accepted my invitation. Tatiana says that you don't… appreciate my gifts as much as I hoped you would."
"Yes, well," the lady said as the girl led them to their seats, "I find it hard to truly appreciate something when it cannot be removed."
"My apologies, truly," the girl chuckled lightly. "The stones are the center point for the enchantments. You have to channel a bit of your magic into it for it to be removable, like so." She demonstrated with her own bangle, the leaf-shaped bracelet loosening so that she could pull it off. "It is keyed to your magic, so that only you can wear it. It can also be said that the gems each contain magical properties." She pointed to the rainbow-laced white stone on hers. "Opals help one control or channel emotional magic. Onyxes ward against mind effecting spells and words, letting your thoughts be your own. Jade helps to calm spells that would have otherwise failed due to anger."
"That is… very kind of you, ah…" it was now that the lady realized that she did not even know the girl's name.
"Ah! Where are my manners!" The girl's cheeks flushed slightly. "My name is Astrid, and this…" she gestured to the man.
"I am Abelard." His voice was surprisingly high, and wavered slightly as he spoke. "Astrid's foster father."
"Um, it seems that I have forgotten your names," Astrid said awkwardly.
"My name is Morgana," the lady said.
"And I am Mordred," the knight said, following his lady's lead.
"Morgana and Mordred… It's nice to finally be introduced properly." Astrid giggled suddenly. "You know," she said as they began dinner, "There is this fascinating story I think you should hear."
"What ever is it about?" Morgana asked, feeling, for the first time in a while, relaxed.
"Well, did you know that the magic of this land is the exact same amount as it was a thousand years ago…?"
The food the guards brought them was just like their rations—by no means was it like the lavish things they ate at the palace, but it also wasn't the slop they fed to their own prisoners. In fact, they saw their guards eating the same stuff they were given.
The guard with luminous amber eyes and black tufts of hair sticking up like ears noticed their confusion. "We have no slop to give because everything here is eaten," he explained in a rumbling purr. "And even if we did, it's better used by the hunters. Waste not."
"How do we know it's not poisoned," the king asked.
The cat-like man rolled his eyes, trading his untouched meal for the king's. They were identical. "Again, I say waste not." At this, he bit into the bread roll.
Slowly, the captives began to eat, the servant humming as he did so. The others gave him questioning looks, and he blushed.
"It's all fresh," he explained as he motioned to the meal. "Nothing's stale."
"Good eye, boy," the other guard, a doe-eyed male with blonde hair that was pulled back into a low ponytail, said. "Cook makes only two meals a day, one mid-morning, the other at dusk. She knows the exact amount of people she cooks for, and makes just enough so that no one will be at risk of being brained by her ladle. Nothing is wasted here, as my friend said."
Feeling somewhat brazened by their friendly manor, the manservant pushed on.
"So what are your names?" He asked, ignoring the warning looks from his companions. "Your… friend didn't make it seem as if it matters if we know them."
"Ah, you know, I think she wanted us to give you and your king something," the cat-like man said. "I'm guessing that she means you and not the armored knight here." He and his friend stood. His eyes glowed brighter and the two cells unlocked and swung open.
The king lunged to his feet, arms outstretched to wrap the chain of his shackles around the doe-eyed man's throat. His rebellion was stopped short by one of his knight's cries of "Merlin!".
Faster than he should have, the king whirled to his manservant's cell. The cat-like man held a dagger to the boy's throat, amber eyes glowing in the light of the torch. "I wouldn't." His voice was a sadistic purr. Gone was the friendly man who had chatted with Merlin not minutes ago, replaced by a panther ready to spring. "It'd end very, very badly for you, and then I'll have to explain to the Lady why her guest's throat is slit. Your move, king."
But it wasn't his move. It was the doe-eyed man's. His arms were seized from behind, a plank of wood slid into the gap his elbows made so that the chain was pulled tight over his stomach.
"I think you should do him, first," the doe-eyed man nodded to Merlin.
"I was planning to," the cat-like man rumbled, slipping a shining bangle from his pocket. "I really don't understand her sometimes," he muttered as he slipped it onto Merlin's wrist. The many crystals shimmered as the bangle tightened on his wrist. He pushed Merlin back into his cell, before turning to the king. "The bangles are harmless. The lady wears one herself. So you can ease your worry."
"…" The king glared as his own bangle was placed on his arm, shivering as it shifted to be almost unnoticeable to him.
When he was pushed back into his cell, he spent time examining the bangle. It was made of silver that was polished to mirror-like perfection and yet didn't reflect bright lights, mostly because of magic. The silver was crafted into a dragon shape, the gemstone set in the gap between its tail and jaw. The stone was a polished Tiger's-eye that seemed to give off warm, thought-clearing pulses. It was the center of the enchantments, then. On impulse, he ran his fingers over the stone, and was rewarded with the bangle loosening just enough so that he could remove it safely. He didn't, repeating the motion to tighten it again.
The king sighed, leaning his head back against the wall.
"Are you alright, Arthur?" Merlin asked. When he looked up, he found his friend peering at him through the bars with worry in his eyes.
"Yeah," he nodded, still looking at the bangle. "You?"
"Is that worry I hear?" a knight teased. "From the Princess?"
"Shut it, Gwaine," Arthur scolded at the knight.
The mood lifted. The guards were conversing near the door, the occasional laugh from the doe-eyed man being heard. The captives lapsed into a warm silence, their bellies filled for the moment. However, someone had to ask the inevitable.
"So what do we do now?" The dark-skinned knight asked.
"Escape?" Gwaine answered.
"I believe Elyan meant 'how'," a curly-haired knight retorted.
"Leon's right," Arthur sighed. "We need to find a way out of here—without alerting our 'hostess'."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Gwaine challenged.
To that, Arthur had no answer. It was clear that the enchantress had guards that were, he admitted in embarrassment, more competent than his own at the palace. The cat-like one clearly had magic, and despite the jovial, if slightly stiff appearance, he was an experienced fighter. The doe-eyed man was also not one to sneeze at, he thought. The dagger (a dangerous, curved thing the length of a forearm) the cat-like man had used had actually belonged to the doe-eyed man; its twin sitting at the man's other hip. They were warriors, he realized. He had no doubt that if they were to go toe to toe with his palace guards, they would win. And if the enchantress had a whole castle of men like that…?
"I…" he began, but then his manservant interrupted him.
"I think I know a way how," Merlin said, hesitantly, as he peered at the guards. Before Arthur could ask him to share, he called out to them. "You know, you didn't answer my question earlier."
It took the guards a second to register this as they lapsed into silence.
"The name's Leo, kid," the cat-like man said.
"And I am Ayalon," the doe-eyed male stood tall, his height matching that of Percival's.
"Merlin," he grinned. "Nice to meet you."
The two men chuckled.
"And I you."
A/N: And that's a rap! 2046 words in all (not counting the Author's Notes)!
Special thanks to stormus for being the first reviewer! I was about 800 words into this chapter when I saw your review, and it inspired me to write the rest of it. Reviews inspire me, guys, so please! If you want more, tell me! I'm notorious for letting story ideas die…
On another note, apologies for any OOC-ness in this chapter, especially by Morgana. I really need to re-watch the series again, but my attention is grabbed by Arrow at the moment and still mourning Sherlock ;. ( *hears 'Sherlock is a great show!' in the background*. It truly has been a while since I've seen Merlin, so I'll try my best to work something out!
Review!