Chapter 16: A/N I do not own merlin or other characters of Arthurian legend. Also, FINALLY some headway between the two. Their burn is slower than Booth and Bones' and that's saying something. And, prank wars may be ahead, not sure just yet, My imagination is running out, and my brothers haven't given me any ideas recently.
"Sire. Cassie." Leon greeted.
"Will you take over, I've some duties I need to attend to."
"Yes, sire." Leon nodded.
"Cassie," Arthur said as goodbye.
"Goodbye, my lord." Cassie said with a curtsy.
And so he went off to the throne room where his father was likely to be. He was just thinking of how best to phrase that the girl needn't have a guard at all times anymore without arousing his father's suspicion. Arthur may have been in charge of the guard schedule, but Uther probably didn't mean for him to be one of the knights guarding her.
While Arthur was ruminating, waiting for the King to finish his audience with some Lords, Leon escorted Cassie to Gaius' so she could prepare the herbs for drying.
"You think Gwen's dad can make a trick goblet?"
"What's a trick goblet?" Leon asked, amused.
"A goblet where the drink disappears if it's filled past a certain point. My brother-ah! La tengo! Never mind. Silly question. Let's just get these herbs dried so I can do my rounds and finish for the day. That is if Gaius doesn't find me before then and gives me more work!" Cassie quipped.
"One of these days, I'll figure you out, Cassie. Just you wait." Leon said, shaking his head in amusement.
"I wish you luck with that, Sir Knight! Not even my brothers were able to decipher me!" Cassie said, shrugging her shoulders and skipping along the hallways happily. The servants they passed just shook their heads in amusement at the kind apprentice.
The two entered the physician's chambers to find Sir Owaine and Gaius speaking.
"Cassie!" Owaine cried nervously, sharing a look with the old physician.
"Owaine." Cassie greeted him with suspicion at his reaction.
"Were you able to finish what you needed last night?" Cassie asked, trying not to clue the other two men into their pranks.
"Yes. It's done. You?"
"Getting there." Cassie answered vaguely.
"Yes, well when you two are done with whatever conversation this is, we can dry those herbs and start on Lady Morgana's sleeping draught?" Gaius admonished, his eyebrow threatening its presence.
"Yes, Gaius". Cassie said blushing a little and removing the satchel from her shoulder.
"Since I am here, I'll dry these herbs, and you can take over the rest of my rounds. I've yet to see Adam, Mary- well Alex, Tom, Alyson, she's just a cut that needs redressing. And all of your patients." Gaius said, glad she beat Cassie back.
"Yes, Gaius. Let me just get my bag from my room." Cassie said as she made her way up the stairs.
She quickly closed the door behind her and grabbed her necklace worrying her lower lip. 'Lo hago, o no. Más bien no, tendré otras oportunidades para ver a Tom. Igual mas tarde saco el vaso de Tántalo para mostrarselo y ver si lo puede replicar.' So she grabbed the satchel, checked her hair and makeup, and returned to the main chambers.
"Let's go." Cassie told Leon.
"I actually have to train, I didn't mention it to Prince Arthur, but Owaine is free. He has training later in the day."
"Okay" Cassie nodded, looking expectantly at Owaine. "Bye, Leon. See you later Gaius."
"Bye, Cassie."
The two men and the petite blonde left the physician to his ministrations and headed towards the courtyard. Once they arrived, Leon bade them farewell and made his way in the opposite direction.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I told Morgana I was going to do one thing, but now I'm doing something else. All I can tell you is that it involves the prince, the lady Morgana, and obviously Gwen. Let's go to Adam's, his is the farthest. I can make my way back from his."
"Okay, I've got the scissors from the seamstress, the brushes from Eleanor-don't ask- and the dye from the market. Pell and Bruin's tunics are hidden in my room. Stop by later to help?" Owaine asked hopefully.
"As if I would miss this!" Cassie exclaimed affronted at the very idea. "Oh, It's going to be hilarious."
"Yea, hilarious." Owaine repeated softly, looking at the girl with wistful eyes and a smile.
When the rounds had been completed, lunch eaten and any odd jobs Gaius had given her were done, Cassie made her way to the Lady Morgana's chamber, accompanied by her ever-present escort, currently Sir Bruin. He made it difficult to enact her devious revenge. True, it was over-reacting, but she just couldn't let it go. Gwen had told the guy she liked she'd never been kissed! The horror of it; no she must face the pranks. While she had been at Gwen's place checking her father over, Cassie had swiped one of the bottles of skin lotion that Morgana had gifted Gwen and scooped some into an empty vial she grabbed earlier. She was planning on getting Arthur to beg for her help in making the powder-which is more likely than him doing all the dirty work himself- and then telling Morgana her new plan. Moving everything around, while effective, just wasn't very creative. And she wanted to save that for someone who really deserved it. Moving everything is time consuming, and can really drive others to tears (Trust me my brothers have done it to me, hate them for it. But i love them for the inspiration!).
The knight and the apprentice reached the Lady's door and knocked thrice, waiting for a response.
"Enter."
"My Lady" Cassie said, curtsying.
"Gwen", she greeted with a smile. "I've just been to see your father, Gwen. He seems better than when I saw him yesterday during my rounds." Cassie said, trying to discreetly get Morgana's attention.
Luckily Morgana noticed and sent Gwen for a drink. This gave Cassie the time to rush over to her friend and tell her of the change in plans, reassuring her it was harmless and only lasted about half an hour. The knight just stood at the door, wondering what they were whispering about conspiratorially, but afraid it was just girl talk.
It seemed that's all they ever did; talk about hair, makeup, shoes, boys, dresses, boys. Bruin had quickly gotten used to The lady Morgana having a midday tea-time with Gwen and Cassie. The topics rarely ever changed, but to be honest, he tuned out after fifteen minutes of hearing talk about the dress that Lady Sophia was wearing, or how Lady Katherine had styled her hair or the likes. Now he just observes, but let's his mind wander to his betrothed. His beautiful Caelia. So for the next hour or so the three women sat and gossiped, for the first thirty minutes anyway, after that they were sure Bruin's thoughts had wandered. Then they really could speak about the clandestine training sessions Morgana and Gwen had when they went riding. Because of the knight always by her side, Cassie couldn't go with them, but she loved to hear them talk about it.
After bidding her two best friends farewell, Cassie made her way back to Gaius' chambers with Sir Bruin, thinking about how she could get the bottle of lotion to Arthur.
"Would you like to stay for dinner. I'm cooking?" Cassie asked with a friendly smile on her face, door half open.
"No, thank you. Caelia's expecting me for dinner."
"I get it. Who wouldn't rather be with the woman of their dreams, then with a simple friend." Cassie fake sighed. Bruin just rolled his eyes, used to the same response every night.
"Good night, Cassie." Bruin said affectionately.
"Good night, Bruin." Cassie said, trying so hard not to die of laughter. It had been so long since she pranked someone, she was losing her ability to keep a straight face.
Cassie turned inside fully and closed the door after her, greeting her adopted grandfather on the way in.
"What are we going to have tonight, my dear?" Gaius asked as he was poring over some tome or other.
"Don't you worry about that, Gaius. It's under control." she said. "You just keep reading whatever that is." Cassie said pointing at the book. She got to work cooking up the meal from the scanty ingredients there were, stew again. Once they had finished eating and cleaning up, Gaius retired to bed for the evening, and Cassie made her way to her room, excited about sneaking out to help with the prank. After sufficient time had passed, and Gaius' snores were constant, Cassie slowly made her way down the stairs, minding the squeaky floorboards, and made her way stealthily through the door. Once in the corridor it was easy work to sneak over to Owaine's room and knock on the door quietly. Owaine opened up with a mischievous grin and beckoned her inside.
"Finally! I thought you were going to come sooner. Have you had dinner yet?" Owaine asked, closing the door quietly.
"Yes, I have, thank you. Had to make dinner for Gaius, and wait for him to fall asleep. You ready?!"
And so they spent the rest of the evening together, painting the backs of Pellinore and Bruin's tunics and joking around. Laughing at nonsense and speaking openly. Cassie told Owaine of her plan to get Arthur involved had gone well. All they needed was to get the vial to him and wait for him to take the bait. Sometime during the painting and talking, the two fell asleep. They woke up before dawn the next morning, wrapped in each other's arms. They both bolted upright in bed, blushing bright red and stealing coy glances from each other.