Bo awoke early the next morning and, being too keyed up to even think about breakfast, went straight to Elaine's guestroom. "Bo Dennis, reporting for Dawning 101," she said in her best perky voice when the druid priestess answered her knock.

"I'm surprised to see you here so early," Elaine replied, though she didn't look very surprised; in fact, judging by her expression, one could almost think she'd been expecting Bo. "When we spoke last night, my impression was that you weren't particularly eager to begin your journey."

"Yeah, well, the sooner I get started, the sooner I can get it over with, right? I want to get on with my life…plus, those anti-devolution potions I have to take now taste like mud."

One corner of Elaine's mouth quirked upward ever so slightly, and her pale blue eyes sparkled with amusement, but all she said was, "As I once told your mother, the Dawning cannot be rushed. Each phase will present itself to you in its own time. Make sure you are in attendance when your grandfather holds court today, and your first task will be revealed."

"In court? But all that ever happens there is people showing up wanting Trick to solve their problems."

"Yes, and perhaps one of those petitioners' problems will be your first test. If you'll excuse me, I must return to my morning devotions." With that, Elaine politely but firmly shut the door, leaving behind a rather perturbed succubus and her equally perturbed girlfriend.

"If we aren't going to learn what your first test will be for several hours, perhaps we might get something to eat?" Morgana suggested. "Or even go back to bed for an hour or two?"

"I don't know what you're grumbling about," Merlin said in an annoyingly chipper tone. "Arthur used to have me up much earlier than this every day, and when he gave me an especially long list of chores to finish before I began attending to him, I was lucky to even get a whiff of breakfast."

His cheeriness earned a sour look from Morgana. "Yes, we all know what an absolute joy Arthur can be. Just because our present situation could be worse, though, doesn't mean we should make it so."

"Good point," Merlin agreed. "We should eat something anyway; we want Bo at full strength for what lies ahead, whatever it is."

###

Bo tried to pay attention to the supplicants who appeared before Trick that day, to be alert for anything that sounded like a potential pre-Dawning task, but as far as she could tell it was just the same old business; in fact, she was almost certain that she'd seen a couple of those people before, complaining about the exact same stuff. Before she knew it, her mind started to wander.

"This is useless," she whispered to Elaine, who stood beside her, watching the line of people waiting to approach the throne intently. "How does Lord What's-His-Name's tax disputes or Duchess Who's-Its request for funds to hire more knights to defend her lands from rebels have anything to do with my Dawning prep?"

"Patience, Isabeau," Elaine whispered back. "When your task is presented, I will know."

Great, my new mentor just had to be the cryptic type. Bo let out a frustrated sigh and went back to what she'd been doing before, imitating Morgana's regal posture to the best of her ability while struggling not to fidget or let her boredom show on her face.

At last, there was only one person left, a minor noble whose issue had something to do with dwindling unicorn habitats on his land. Bo was barely listening by that point, so she only took in every third word the man said, but Elaine, whose focus had somehow remained razor-sharp throughout the whole tedious process, visibly perked up. The next thing Bo knew, she was standing beside Trick's throne, conferring with him too quietly for anyone to make out what she said.

Trick listened to her with a thoughtful expression, frowning and nodding by turns; then, when she straightened and backed away, he announced, "Stewardship of magical creatures who cannot speak for themselves is a serious responsibility, one that merits personal attention from the crown. Therefore, I will send my granddaughter to assess the situation and report back to me. Bo, you will begin preparations for your journey at once."

Startled out of the daydream she'd slipped into despite her best efforts, Bo blurted out, "Wait, what? My first Dawning test is to solve some problem with unicorn conservation? What the hell does that have to do with personal growth or enlightenment or whatever it is I'm supposed to be getting out of this?"

"I can't tell you that," Elaine replied, now standing by her side once more. "All I can say is that your first task will be staged in Count Vladimir's province. Fear not, Bo; I shall accompany you, to provide what guidance I can."

"Thanks, I think." As Elaine walked away, joining the throng of people streaming out of the throne room now that the court's proceedings were finished, Bo turned to Merlin and Morgana and asked, "Are either of you good with a crossbow?"

They both said that they considered themselves reasonably skilled at archery, before asking why she wanted to know.

"Because," Bo answered in a tone that only halfway sounded like she was joking, "I really want someone to shoot me right now."

###

Traveling as a royal princess, Bo soon discovered, was a royal pain in the butt. Not only was the amount of clothing Olga insisted she had to take for what she hoped would be a relatively short trip staggering, she also learned that she would be accompanied by a full retinue of servants, soldiers, and even a couple of Trick's advisers. While she fully expected her entourage to do nothing but slow her down, at least it gave her an excuse to bring Merlin and Morgana along – although she was told that Count Vladimir generally did not allow humans in his castle, she hoped their presence would be less conspicuous if they were only two more faces among her already sizable coterie of companions – as well as an idea.

"If I have to take all these people with me," she said to Trick over dinner, "can I invite one more?"

"I don't see why not," he replied, looking pleasantly surprised that she wasn't making more of a fuss. "Who did you have in mind?"

"Evony. She knows this count guy better than I do, so I feel like she could help me get the lay of the land." Any help Bo could get with this test, which was so far outside her wheelhouse that she wondered if it was possible for whatever cosmic forces governed the Dawning process to make mistakes, would be welcome; besides, this seemed like a good opportunity to start making good on Morgana's promise of helping the future Morrigan become a political player in her own right, free of her father's influence.

Trick agreed readily enough, as did Claude-Henri when Bo requested that he allow his daughter to join her company (though this was probably because he still hoped to arrange a match between them, while remaining blissfully ignorant of Bo's true intentions), but Evony herself was more hesitant.

"You want me to help you solve the first task of your Dawning?" she asked doubtfully, frowning at Bo.

"Well, yeah. Asking for your help isn't something I ever thought I would do, trust me, but I thought we were in a pretty good place these days. Still, if you don't want to-"

"I didn't say that; it's just that I'm not sure whether initiates are permitted to seek outside assistance with their tasks, and I…well. I don't want to see you fail, that's all. I may not want to marry you, but believe it or not, I actually rather like you."

Bo blinked at her, surprised and oddly touched by her admission. It might not have been the most heartwarming declaration of friendship she'd ever heard, and Evony's tone of voice as she said it, as if she could hardly believe it herself, certainly didn't add much, but she sounded sincere all the same, which was more than Bo had ever expected to get from her. "Aw, Ev, I didn't know you cared."

Evony shrugged, apparently embarrassed at having allowed herself to show something approaching genuine feelings. "I don't know if I'd go quite that far…"

"She has a point, though," Dyson interjected. "I know you aren't much for following rules, Bo, but you can't afford to make any missteps with the Dawning. Esperanza told me what happened to a cousin of hers who failed his Dawning, and… Let's just say you don't want to experience it firsthand."

"Yeah, I already got that from the screaming nightmares Morgana can't even talk to me and Merlin about; I don't need you lining up to join her on the Doom and Gloom Squad," Bo said with an exasperated sigh. "Look, what if I ask Elaine – who's already helping me, by the way – whether using the 'phone a friend' option is considered cheating or not? If she says it's okay, then will you come with?"

"I suppose," Evony agreed. Then, not wanting to give the impression that she was too eager to do Bo a favor, she added, "After all, I've always wanted to see a herd of wild unicorns."

###

Fortunately, Elaine said there was no rule that forbade Bo from getting advice from others as long as she ultimately made the crucial choices in her tests herself, so when she set out early the next morning, Evony rode with her along with Merlin, Morgana, Dyson, and the most trusted members of the royal guard, including Esperanza, Gabriel, Mireya, and Zhadia.

The trip took several days, and while they got to see some truly breathtaking landscapes along the way, Bo was too impatient to reach their destination to really enjoy it. "I love postcard-worthy vistas as much as the next person," she complained to her friends when they stopped for the night after the second day of travel, "and I wish I still had a phone so I could send pics to Kenzi, but can't we move any faster? I could relax and soak in the scenery a lot better if I didn't have the threat of devolving into a drooling monster hanging over my head!"

When at last they arrived, Bo found herself facing another obstacle in the form of Count Vladimir, who was adamant that under no circumstances whatsoever would he allow two humans, or even one human and one half-fae hybrid, inside his keep. "You cannot possibly expect me to defile the hallowed halls of my ancestors by admitting such creatures!" he blustered when he saw who Bo had brought with her, having left Trick's castle while her complex travel arrangements were still being made in order to prepare his keep for her arrival. "This is an outrage!"

"'Creatures'?" Bo repeated, her voice dropping to a dangerous hiss as her temper, which always seemed to be quite close to the surface these days, boiled up.

Recognizing the warning signs of an imminent explosion, Merlin and Morgana swiftly seized her by the arms. "Don't let him upset you," Merlin said urgently into her ear. "He's not worth it; it doesn't matter, really."

"Of course it matters!" Bo snapped, turning an incredulous glare on him. "You don't seriously think I'm going to stand here and let some pompous asshole talk about you two like you're not even people-!"

"Merlin is right, Bo," Morgana chimed in. " You don't honestly think either of us care about the opinions of this arrogant, self-important little toad, do you?"

While they attempted to talk Bo down, Evony stepped forward to address the count. "I agree – letting humans stay in your house as if they're honored guests rather than putting them in the kennels where they belong is a serious breach of tradition. My father would certainly never allow it," she said smoothly, causing Count Vladimir to puff up with pride at hearing that the much wealthier and more powerful archduke of House Marquise would side with him on this issue. "However," she continued, "my father also knows that it would be a far greater outrage to refuse hospitality to an envoy of the Blood King – one which is likely to carry grave repercussions."

At that, the count deflated like a balloon that had just been stuck with a pin. "I would never dream of doing such a thing – you know that, my lady," he protested in a wheedling tone. "The princess and her companions, including yourself, shall of course be afforded every luxury I can offer, but her pets-"

"Are known to accompany her wherever she goes," Evony interrupted. "I know it's hard to believe, but I've seen it with my own eyes. If the Blood King himself permits her to keep them in her chambers in his palace, who are we lesser nobles to tell her otherwise? After all, it would hardly do to compromise our standing with the Blood King, possibly that of the entire Dark faction, over such a trivial matter as the princess' overly indulgent attitude toward her pets."

Though she didn't come right out and say it, her meaning was clear: if Count Vladimir insisted on picking a fight with Bo, he shouldn't expect any help from Claude-Henri, who would most likely use his considerable influence to ensure that no other Dark Fae came to his aid either. Faced with the prospect of incurring Trick's wrath without the support of any more powerful nobles whose intercession on his behalf might carry enough weight to persuade Trick to be lenient with him, Vladimir folded faster than wet cardboard.

"Well," he said rather feebly, "yes, I suppose that in this instance… One must of course make certain exceptions for royalty… Please allow me to show you in, your highness; I've had my best guest chamber prepared for you…and your, ah, companions."

"Don't worry," Mireya chirped as the count led them into his keep (which Bo couldn't help thinking he'd exaggerated in calling a 'hallowed hall' since she was pretty sure she'd seen bigger closets in Trick's castle, though admittedly she wasn't feeling very charitable at the moment), "they're housebroken. I made sure of that myself when they first arrived at the royal palace."

###

Bo slept badly that night, though she wasn't sure if it was due to lingering annoyance with her host, whose obnoxiously obsequious fawning over her throughout dinner had gotten on her last nerve, anxiety over beginning the first task of her Dawning, a fun new side effect of pre-devolution, or a combination of all three. By the time morning finally arrived, she was more than ready to end her futile efforts at getting some rest and move on to the reason she was actually there. "After all," she reminded her group over breakfast, "the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can leave."

So, as soon as everyone finished eating, they mounted up and rode out to a lovely little meadow that used to be an ideal place for wild unicorn herds to frolic (they even glimpsed a few of the elusive creatures as they approached, much to Morgana's and Evony's delight, though the unicorns soon melted into the surrounding forest as they got closer) but had recently lost a lot of the wildflowers they liked to graze on. Vladimir launched into a long-winded explanation of the factors he believed might be responsible, which ranged from soil degradation to too much river water being diverted to irrigate nearby farmland. While he recognized that the loss of grazing habitat for unicorns was terrible, he didn't know how he was supposed to forbid his tenants from watering their crops without sparking an uprising…

Bo did her best to pay attention, but try as she might, her mind wouldn't stay focused; the count's droning voice kept fading in and out, like it was coming through a walkie-talkie with a bad signal, until at last she couldn't stand it any longer. "I'm just gonna take a look around," she said abruptly, cutting the count off midsentence. "Check out this degraded soil for myself."

"Really, Bo," Morgana chided her, "don't you think you should-"

"You should go," Elaine interrupted, eyeing her with an inscrutable look. "Follow your instincts; if they are guiding you elsewhere, perhaps that is where you need to be."

Bo was grateful for the chance to take a break, though as she admitted once she, Merlin, Morgana, and Dyson reached the relative privacy of the woods, she was afraid Elaine might be overestimating her instincts. "To tell you the truth, I don't feel like I'm being guided anywhere; I was just getting a major case of brain fog listening to that guy. Is it just me, or is it way too hot today?"

"It is a bit warm, yes," Morgana agreed, shooting Merlin a worried look behind Bo's back. I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it hot , though. Are you certain she took her potion this morning?

Of course I am. If word ever reached Gaius that I let a patient skip an important dose of medicine, I'd never hear the end of it, he replied silently, before suggesting out loud that they go to the river to cool off.

Everyone thought that was a splendid idea, but before they could remove their boots and wade into the clear, sparkling water, they were distracted by the sight of a unicorn drinking just a short distance up the bank. The women were enchanted (Merlin and Dyson also acknowledged that it was an incredibly beautiful creature but didn't feel the same urge to squeal over it) and Morgana wanted to offer it an apple, but as she and Bo inched forward, the unicorn suddenly wheeled and darted off into the trees.

Even though they knew that, realistically, they had no hope of catching up to it on foot, they couldn't resist following. The unicorn almost seemed to be playing a game with them, staying just within sight but always moving away when they tried to get closer – until, in the blink of an eye, it vanished altogether.

"Where did it go?" Morgana called out breathlessly, spinning around to look in every direction.

"I don't know…" Bo began, then froze as a new sound reached her ears. "Wait, what's that?"

"Not the unicorn," said Dyson, whose wolfish hearing had also picked up the distant noise. "Sounds like at least three people on horseback…shouting at someone."

The quartet set out to investigate, and soon came upon the mounted party, which numbered three just as Dyson had surmised. There was a fourth person with them, however – a man in filthy, ragged clothes with a burlap sack over his head and his hands bound in front of him with a rope, the other end of which was tied to one of his captors' saddles so that he could be dragged behind the man's horse. The prisoner was of course the target of the verbal abuse Bo and Dyson had overheard, as the other men yelled at him to move faster.

"Hey!" Bo called out loudly, her companions swiftly moving to flank her as she stepped into the horses' path. "What the hell do you think you're doing with that guy?"

The men froze – even their horses froze – and looked the newcomers up and down. Morgana and Dyson were both wearing their armor and carrying swords, Bo wore the black leathers and leggings she generally preferred for combat, long rides, or any other situation that qualified as roughing it and was also armed, and Merlin was in the same clothes as always. They looked formidable enough (except Merlin, whose blue scarf and lack of visible weapons weren't exactly intimidating), but they didn't necessarily look like a princess and her entourage.

"Not sure I see how that's any of your business, my lady," one of the men said in a voice that held only the thinnest veneer of courtesy, while openly leering at the cleavage exposed by Bo's tightly laced corset.

"Who are you anyway?" another chimed in.

"She's the granddaughter of the Blood King," Dyson snarled, placing a clawed hand on the hilt of his sword and baring his fangs. "Answer her!"

The three men exchanged tense looks. They hardly knew whether to believe that, since everyone knew the Blood King's granddaughter had vanished without a trace when she was just a baby – inventing wild stories about what might have happened to her was a popular pastime among fae commoners, but since word of her reappearance hadn't yet trickled down to every farm and village throughout the land, there were still plenty of people who never thought she would actually come back – but they figured it was probably better not to cross her, just in case it might be true. Besides, they definitely didn't want to fight an angry wolf-shifter over the issue.

"This here's a dangerous outlaw, your ladyship," the third man said, much more respectfully. "We're taking him up to the castle so the count can pass sentence on him."

"An outlaw, you say? What crime could warrant such brutal treatment?" Morgana demanded.

"He stole food from our village."

"Choosing to steal rather than work for an honest living is a serious offense," she agreed, frowning. "Nevertheless-"

"Work for it?" the first man interrupted with a contemptuous sneer. "You out of your mind? Who do you think would hire the likes of him?"

"If no one will give him a chance to earn his living fairly, then you can't really complain about him turning to thievery when his only other choice is starving to death," Merlin pointed out.

"And I get that stealing is bad when you can't just run to Walmart and buy more food to replace whatever was taken, but I'm not sure it's bad enough to justify dragging someone behind a horse," Bo added. "Why don't you untie him, and we can all go see Count Vlad together?"

"You don't understand – this man's dangerous! If we let him loose, there's no telling what he'll do!"

"It wasn't a request," Dyson growled, drawing his sword. "If you won't release him, I will."

The men pulled out their own knives and spurred their horses forward, obviously intending to run him down, but with a whispered incantation from Merlin, all of their girth straps suddenly broke, sending them crashing to the ground as their saddles slipped off. Freed from their riders' control, the horses galloped off in every direction, while the men picked themselves up and prepared for a fight.

Bo, Dyson, and Morgana obliged them, engaging them with fists and blades (and magic, in the latter's case) while Merlin also used his sorcerous talents to help out. Since he was now among people who were fully aware and accepting of his powers, he didn't have to be as subtle as he used to when guarding Arthur's back without the prince's knowledge; without such constraints holding him back, the fight was over in roughly five minutes, with Morgana playfully complaining that he'd barely given the rest of them a chance to do anything.

While her boyfriend and girlfriend pretended to bicker, Bo went over to the man whose predicament had prompted the whole altercation, who was now trying to feel his way to the discarded saddle his bonds were still connected to, and yanked the sack off his head. "It's okay, you're…safe…"

Her voice trailed off as he looked up at her, blinking in the sudden brightness, and she got her first look at exactly who they had rescued. His face was streaked with dirt and grime, and he didn't yet have a star tattoo beneath his left eye, but there was still no mistaking Vex, the mesmer who had worked as an assassin for the Dark in her original timeline. The sight of him brought on the now-familiar shock of recognizing an earlier version of someone she'd known in the twenty-first century, immediately followed by horror and disgust that she had led people she loved into possible danger to save him.

"My lady," he babbled, "how can I ever thank-"

But Bo didn't want him to thank her; what she really wanted was to jump back in time again by just a few minutes so she could leave him to his fate, but since she couldn't do that, she settled for cutting off his outpouring of gratitude by slamming her fist into his face, knocking him out cold.

###

"Bo, I don't understand why you're being like this."

Her guards had come looking for her, having decided she'd been gone too long, and with Mireya's and Esperanza's shifter ears picking up the commotion of the fight with Vex's captors, they had arrived on the scene just as Bo punched him. With their help, everyone had been rounded up and taken back to the keep, where Count Vladimir, after being told that Vex was a mesmer, had ordered him thrown into the dungeon (with both hands chained tightly, of course) while the men who had treated him so roughly were released without facing any consequences whatsoever…and Bo hadn't uttered a single word in protest.

Instead, she had simply swept out of the main hall as Vex was dragged away and returned to her guest chamber, and Merlin and Morgana had no choice but to follow her – once Trick understood and accepted that they were an important part of Bo's life, he had let it be known that they were allowed to come and go as they pleased, but things were very different here. Just because they were unable to take a public stand on Vex's behalf, however, didn't mean they couldn't confront Bo about her uncharacteristically harsh attitude in private.

"No, you don't understand," she retorted when they attempted to do so, "because you don't know him. I do, and trust me, he's not a good person."

"You mean that you knew him in the future, a thousand years from now, don't you?" Morgana asked as realization dawned on her and Merlin simultaneously. "Haven't you said that people can change a great deal in that amount of time, though? The Dyson, Trick, and Evony we know are all rather different from how you remember them, aren't they?"

"Besides," Merlin added, "it wasn't that long ago that you were the one telling me I shouldn't condemn Mordred because of a prophecy, and you were right."

"This is different; I'm not just going off what some dragon with a hidden agenda told me about what Vex might do, I'm talking about things I know he's done!"

"He hasn't done them yet," Merlin pointed out in a maddeningly calm, reasonable voice, though his eyes were bright with emotion. "Right now he's just a person who was born with powers that make the people around him uncomfortable, who's been treated like an outcast all his life because they fear him just for being what he is, whether he's done anything to deserve it or not…like me."

"You're nothing like him," Bo said at once.

"Because my mother sent me to Camelot. Gaius protected me, taught me to control my magic and use it for good, helped me see that being born different didn't make me a monster. If I'd stayed in Ealdor, with everyone looking askance at me no matter how hard I tried to fit in, only tolerating me out of respect and friendship for my mother… Who knows how I would've turned out, especially when she wasn't around to defend me anymore."

"Not like Vex," Bo insisted. "I don't care how shitty your neighbors were, you would never be best buds with a psychopath who kept a basement full of girls that people could pay to act out their twisted Hostel fantasies with, or use your magic to make a guy cut his own heart out, or force a woman to drown her stepchildren just to punish her for being a fae who committed the unforgivable crime of marrying a human."

By the time she finished ranting about Vex's past (or future) wrongdoing, Merlin and Morgana both looked extremely disturbed, and more than a little repulsed, particularly when they considered that Morgana's mother could easily have faced a similarly horrific punishment for falling in love with Gorlois if Trick hadn't let her off lightly at his wife's urging.

Sensing that their sympathy for Vex – who admittedly looked harmless and pitiable at the moment, so that even Bo acknowledged that she would have felt sorry for him if she didn't know what he was capable of – was wavering, she delivered her closing argument. "And don't tell me that we don't know what happened to him between now and then to make him that way, because anyone who can do that kind of sick shit has to have been born with something seriously wrong inside them, and there's nothing time or circumstances can do to change that. Some people are just evil."

They stared at her in silence for a long moment, until at last Merlin spoke up again, albeit with much less conviction than before. "Even if you're right about Vex, Count Vladimir doesn't know any of this; he's just planning to execute him because he doesn't like mesmers – or at least cut his hands off, which according to Vex would mean a slow, agonizing death once he can't feed by using his power. I know you saw his future self do terrible things…but does that really make it right to do something just as terrible to him, when the person doing it isn't even trying to stop him or punish him for what he'll do later? When he's only acting out of fear and prejudice?"

His words seemed to strike a chord with Bo, but then her eyes hardened again. "Sure, if it was up to me, I'd go with something quicker – but sometimes, when you're dealing with someone as depraved as Vex, maybe it's better to take any chance you get to save their future victims, even if it means letting someone do the right thing for the wrong reasons." With that, she turned away sharply and stalked out of the room, where they couldn't pursue her unless they wanted to make trouble with the count's guards.

Still reeling from her unsettling revelations, Merlin and Morgana turned to face one another uncertainly. "Do you think she's right?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," Morgana replied fretfully, wringing her hands together. "I can certainly see her point in wanting to spare the people this man will go on to hurt, and it does seem that he ends up becoming a monster, that perhaps the seeds of it are already inside him, but still…"

"Still, it's not like Bo to let someone suffer for crimes they haven't committed yet…or to be so cold about it," Merlin finished with a troubled look in his eyes.

"No, it isn't. She hasn't been the same since this Dawning business began, and now…now I feel the same way I did during our journey across Albion…as if she's slipping away from us bit by bit."

She buried her face in Merlin's chest, and he put his arms around her and did his best to comfort her, but deep down he couldn't deny that he felt the same way, as if Bo was even more distant from them right now than when she'd been locked in a cursed sleep, her life ebbing away with each day that she was unable to feed. And this time, he had no idea of what to do about it.

So here we have another familiar face popping up…and it's not one Bo's happy to see. For reference, the murders Vex personally committed were revealed or occurred in 1x08, and his psycho friend Ba'al appeared in 1x11. And yes, I know Bo saved Vex's life in 2x06, which did happen before this fic diverged from canon, but she was motivated by Evony promising to help her secure Lauren's freedom if Bo solved her case, and I still don't think she was terribly thrilled about having to do it. Plus, at that point it was too late to help any of Vex's victims, whereas here Bo's thinking that Lou Ann, Siegfried, and probably a bunch of other people she doesn't even know about will be spared if she lets Vex die before he gets the chance to kill them. Time travel is wacky that way.