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Chapter Text

𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑢𝑒 - 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝐸𝑎𝑙𝑑𝑜𝑟

━━━━━━ ✧◦☉◦✧ ━━━━━━

The sun undulated gently before her eyes, its rays reflecting off the surface of the water. It reflected off the blue of the lake and back into the blue of the sky. It was as if they were giving it back to each other. Something so beautiful, so strong, so elusive, yet trapped in the infinity of the world. Heaven sent to earth and earth sent back to heaven.

They give and they take.

The gentle breeze that had been caressing the water, creating tiny ripples on its surface, stopped, and in a few moments the oscillating water was so smooth it felt like you could walk on it.

Splash !

The surface of the water did not stay smooth and perfect for long. A pebble was thrown and the balance shook. Birds flew into the air and a frog jumped out of the rush to hide in the grass further away.

A single pebble had disturbed this peace. But the water would be calm again, the birds would sing and the frogs would croak. Harmony would return, forgetting that it had been disturbed. But the pebble had sunk to the bottom and would never rise again.

It was in the abyss, but at least it knew where it belonged. It wasn't trapped like the sun's rays, or frivolous like the fauna.

Millicent would have liked her sins to be like the pebble that sinks to the bottom of the sea and stays there forever. That she would be rid of them for good. That they wouldn't bring her back to the same place and make her look at the same stretch of water where she dreamed of washing away her sins, while it was there that it all began.

"Millicent !" Hunith's voice jolted her daughter out of her stupor. A slight start. A small movement of her shoulders, but it didn't escape Hunith.

Millicent half turned, following the sound of her mother's voice. "Mother." Her voice seemed to come from far away, as if she was still lost in her thoughts and didn't realise she was speaking. Then her eyes rested on her mother and her glassy eyes disappeared, giving way to a more animated look. It was as if her irises were suddenly more brown, her pupils more black and the light was back in her eyes.

Millicent broke into a smile that both transformed and lit up her face. But her sudden good humour didn't fool Hunith. Her daughter had always smiled in her presence since the day she had understood that Hunith would always be concerned at the slightest hint of worry in one of her children's faces. And she hated to see her mother worried or disturbed by them.

"There you are." Millicent understood that her mother was looking for her. She approached her daughter with a smile on her face, but she seemed to be troubled by something. In this case, her daughter.

Hunith looked at the lake and then back at her daughter. "Are you okay ?"

Millicent followed her mother's gaze. Her eyes lingered on the water once more before she looked for her mother. The smile on her face widened. "Of course," she reassured her vivaciously.

Hunith put a hand on her daughter's arm and squeezed it gently. "Come on. Let's not just stand here. Let's go and help your brother pack his things."

"And mine ? Don't you care ?" Millicent teased.

Hunith huffed amusedly before looking at her daughter. "I know yours have been ready for a long time."

Mother and daughter reached the house. Hunith entered first, while Millicent stopped as soon as she passed through the door, her attention also captured by her brother. Merlin was... She didn't even know what he was doing. He seemed to be struggling with his bag to close it. Millicent watched him with a raised eyebrow, thinking how ridiculous that idiot was.

Merlin noticed his sister's presence and looked at her. "Where have you been ? I was about to leave without you," he said simply.

Millicent chuckled, "Your things should be ready for this," she scoffed.

"They will be before yours anyway." As if to prove his words, Merlin finally closed his bag. He looked proudly at his sister, then stood still, a look of annoyance on his face. "Let me guess... Is it already the case ?"

Millicent nodded. "Yes Merlin, it is."

"We should say goodbye," Merlin suggested.

The brunette sneered and his brother knew she was going to be sarcastic before she said a word. "Ah yes, to whom ? Like old man Simon ?" she asked mockingly.

Merlin winced and shook his head sharply. "No, I have a feeling we can do without him. In fact, I'm sure he'll be celebrating our departure."

"Our departure ? Your departure, yes," she corrected him. "I would point out that he has no grievance against me. I'm not the one who nearly flattened him with a tree." Although old man Simon hadn't liked Merlin very much before that incident.

"Except that we're twins." Millicent looked at Merlin intently, wondering what kind of nonsense this simpleton was going to come up with, because when he started like that, he was always a big, soft idiot afterwards. "We're the same being." The brunette arched an eyebrow. That was something new. He was breaking new ground with his stupidities. "We're a team. Which means my problems are your problems."

"Oh that, believe me Merlin, I know only too well." Merlin frowned and narrowed his eyes, not liking the tone in which his sister had said that.

"Come on, let's not talk about it any more." Hunith interrupted their bickering. The incident with Simon hadn't made her laugh then, and she still didn't find it funny. It was one of the things that had made Hunith decide to send them away.

They fell silent for a moment. Hunith looked at her children. Even if their quarrels, from the most frivolous to the most serious, could be irritating, she realised at that moment how much this house was full of life thanks to them, and that once she was gone and alone, it would seem quite empty without them.

This thought saddened the woman for a moment, but she didn't want to show anything in front of her children, as she knew they would feel guilty leaving her alone in the village - although she would never really be alone, as she had good relations with the other inhabitants - so she decided to wait for them outside.

Merlin watched their mother leave, then looked at his sister with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "I was thinking more along the lines of... William." He had waited until Hunith was out of the house because ever since she had discovered that William knew about them, she had never been happy when they were with him and his name was now a source of anxiety for their mother, even though she liked the boy.

Millicent's air became more serious. "It's best to dispense with the goodbyes."

"Oh yes, to whom ?" Merlin hadn't been able to stop himself from answering straight away.

"It's the right thing to do, that's all." After her words, Millicent turned her back to walk a little further into the room to retrieve her bag.

Merlin could suddenly see her checking her things and making sure her bag was okay, even though they both knew it was. He couldn't understand his sister's behaviour, "Why ?"

"Why ?" She lifted her head. "You know why." She turned to look at him. "You haven't even told him you're leaving. If you turn up at his house without a care in the world and suddenly say goodbye, he won't take the news well. He'll want to know why and try to persuade you to stay, and that will plunge you into a long, difficult and pointless conversation because it won't change the outcome and it won't necessarily end on a good note. You know how he is. If we leave without saying anything, at least we leave things as they are."

She'd only talked about him. As if he was the only one who had a relationship with William. "What about you ?"

"I have nothing more to say to him. You know, he and I haven't spoken much since..." Millicent stopped abruptly. Thinking about it again caused her great grief. Merlin felt deep compassion for his sister at that moment, but Millicent only saw pity in his eyes.

The dark-haired man wanted to do something, if only to hold his sister, knowing that no words could comfort her, but he knew that the gesture would not go down well. Millicent just wanted to skip the subject and ignore it.

Before he could say anything, she turned and picked up her bag, slinging it over her shoulders before looking back at him and continuing in a confident voice. "Things are different now, he and I have drifted apart and now we're literally going different ways."

"He would still like the chance to say goodbye."

"Trust me Merlin, it's better if we don't have to." The brunette put her hands on the straps of her bag and headed for the exit of their house.

"Because you think if we leave without saying anything he'll take it well ?"

She stopped when she heard her brother's words. She looked at him with a hint of guilt in her eyes. "No, but he wouldn't have a choice. He'd have to deal with it."

"And most importantly, you wouldn't have to see his reaction."

Millicent had enough of this conversation that served no purpose for her. "Look, Merlin, if you want to go, go. Wake up the whole village and say goodbye, but it'll be without me."

Without another word, Millicent walked past Merlin. She stopped in the doorway and, without looking at her brother, said only one thing. "I've never liked goodbyes. It's not my thing and I'm not good at it."

"How would you know, you've never done it." Millicent heard those words and nodded. "All the more reason." Then she quietly left the house and joined her mother outside.

Merlin immediately felt sorry for upsetting his sister. Especially when they were going to be travelling for several days, just the two of them. At least he would have a chance to catch up, he told himself.

The boy wondered if he had been pushing his sister a little too hard. Sometimes he got the impression that she was a completely different person to the one he knew. Millicent had been incomprehensible of late. Not even members of his own family knew how to behave towards her since the accident at the lake. It was all down to that, he knew, and all he could do was wait and hope that things would go back to the way they were.

Before joining them, Merlin thought for a moment. There was truth in what his sister had said. Leaving without saying goodbye would surely be less heartbreaking. It was the easy way out, but just leaving the village was the easy way out.

"What is your brother doing ?" Hunith asked her daughter.

"He's making up his mind," she replied.

"To what ?"

"Nothing at all." Merlin joined them outside at the same time. He paused between the two women and looked at his sister. She held his gaze, questioning him with her eyes. "We can go."

Though to Hunith her son's words only signalled that they were ready to leave, Millicent understood him differently. He followed her lead and agreed with her.

Millicent turned to her mother and her face lit up with a smile as she came to embrace her. Hunith held her tightly, as if she were about to vanish between her fingers. When her daughter pulled away, Hunith ran a hand over her face and looked at her with a tender smile.

"I don't need to tell you to be careful."

"I'm always careful, you know me." And it was true. Hunith had always worried more about Merlin, but lately things had been different. "I'll look after him," Millicent added.

And she would. Her mother didn't doubt that for a moment. For even in the midst of their greatest arguments, they wouldn't let each other down.

"Don't shut yourself off, Millicent. The world is not your enemy. It just wants to be your friend."

Her words seemed to have the desired effect as she saw something happen in her daughter's eyes. Millicent's nose scrunched up, her throat tightened for a moment, making it difficult for her to swallow, and her eyes glistened slightly as she seemed to hold back tears.

Millicent said nothing. What was there to say ? How could she respond to such words ? She simply planted a kiss on her mother's cheek. "Goodbye, Mother."

"Goodbye, Millicent." The brunette quickly pulled away from her mother's embrace and left without waiting for her brother.

"Look at her, playing hard to get, we know she hurried her goodbyes so as not to cry," Merlin laughed softly as he watched his sister leave.

"Because you're not a bit sad to be leaving ?" Hunith teased.

"More to be leaving you."

Hunith laid a reassuring hand on his son's arm. "Don't worry about me. Besides, I know where to find you."

She hugged her son in turn, then looked at him without letting go, a hand on each arm. "It's not just your sister who has to make up for all your mistakes, Merlin. She may need you to pick up her pieces."

The boy chuckled. "We're talking about Millicent, what pieces can she have to pick up ?" He didn't seem to understand what Hunith had always known. Millicent was only perfect in her brother's eyes because their mother knew she had made mistakes too, but she picked up her brother's to keep him out of trouble, but also her own so that Merlin wouldn't have to.

Hunith sighed and smiled at her son. She ran a hand through her hair. Go and find the answers you want, but don't forget to be careful.

"Come on, Mother, you know me," Merlin chuckled again, grinning like a silly boy.

"Oh, precisely."

"I promise you. I wouldn't do anything to worry you or embarrass Gaius."

She was sure he meant it, but Hunith wasn't sure his son could keep that promise, even if he wanted to.

Hunith watched her daughter walk away over her son's shoulder. Merlin turned slightly to follow her gaze, then turned back to his mother. "I'm going to join her before she crosses the river without me."

But before she could let him go, Hunith gently squeezed her son's arms. "Merlin," she called to him earnestly. "Your sister tends to get lost more easily than you think."

"All the more reason for me to join her then."

"No Merlin, this... What I mean is... The darkest paths are sometimes taken without our knowing it. But even in the darkness there is light." Merlin was completely taken aback by his mother's words. "Help her to always find the light."

Merlin didn't understand the meaning of these words. He didn't even understand why his mother was telling him this, and why now. But he knew that he had to listen to her. He didn't understand, but he would.

Perplexed by this strange exchange with his mother, he finally said goodbye before trotting off to his sister. He took one last look back at the village and their mother before reaching Millicent.

When he reached her level, he slowed down to match her pace. He couldn't help but look at his sister, slightly worried, and Millicent noticed. She arched an eyebrow. "What's the matter with you ?" she scoffed.

"Nothing..."

"You look like crap. Are you feeling blue or something ?"

"I'm fine !" he protested. "You're the one who ran away so you wouldn't cry-" Before he could finish his sentence, Merlin was kicked in the backside.

"Well, if you're alright, then cheer up !"

Merlin looked at his sister in outrage as she moved forward more quickly. Then, with a glance, she knew. She flashed a smile before running off laughing as Merlin began to chase after her, giving her a taste of her own medicine.

Hunith looked ahead, a smile on her face, and saw her two children walking as they always did, two of them, together, united, laughing and teasing each other.

Chapter Text

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛𝑒 - 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝐶𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑡

━━━━━━ ✧◦☉◦✧ ━━━━━━

"Look, Milli ! That's Camelot, can you see it ?" exclaimed Merlin as the castle was clearly visible from the hills.

Millicent sighed and rolled her eyes. "How could I not see it ?" she replied wearily.

"That means we're almost there."

"Oh, I know that because you've been saying it over and over again for several leagues now," she said, turning to her brother, her look accusing and her tone reproachful. It was her way of telling him that he was annoying.

"The castle must be huge-"

"From what we can already see," Millicent added for him. He'd said it before. Twice. They'd seen the castle for a while. Now they could see the city gates, its edges, some of the roofs of the houses. The vision became clearer as the whole of Camelot drew closer.

"How grumpy you get when you're tired..." Merlin muttered with a little chuckle.

"I'm not..." She stopped suddenly and turned to her brother. Seeing the amused look on his face, she took a deep breath. "You know what ? You're making me tired."

He raised his eyebrows in response. Indeed. She really was grumpy.

"What if we ran to get there fast-" Merlin stopped talking as he felt his sister's murderous gaze on him. He glanced in her direction before cracking a goofy smile. "I'm only joking."

"I hope so." They resumed their journey when an idea struck the girl. "You seem to have a lot of energy today," she said to her brother.

"Oh yes, I've got energy to spare," the boy boasted proudly, not seeing the trap that awaited him.

That was all Millicent needed. She stopped and lifted her bag from her shoulders. "Here then." Merlin barely had time to turn before his sister's bag, which she had just thrown at him, hit him right in the chest. "This will tire you out," she added with a mischievous smile.

"You are exploiting me," the boy complained, though he kept the bag that had just been entrusted to him. He readjusted his grip on his sister's belongings and grumbled.

"I'm preparing you for what will probably happen to us when we get there," she joked, although there was some truth in her words.

At the moment, she and Merlin had an uncertain future. They didn't know what would happen to them once they got to Camelot. But one thing was certain, their daily lives would surely be very different from the ones they had in Ealdor.

He knew that they would both find paid work, and they wouldn't be complaining about it. They would take whatever came their way. It was bound to be something thankless, but hard work had never been a real concern given their former way of life in their village.

"I can just picture you mopping floors in taverns," Merlin began to tease gently.

Millicent imagined it and then a grimace appeared on his face. Working in a tavern ? Not for her. Coming into contact with people who drank too much too soon or too little too late and ending up serving certain customers whose hands would surely wander more than necessary. She wouldn't let that happen and she would be in trouble.

She shook her head, wiping the horrible image from her mind. "And you picking up horse droppings in the stables."

"Yes, well, the company of animals would certainly be more pleasant than that of drunkards," he continued to tease her with a sneer.

"I'd rather dip in beer than in-"

"Oh Millicent, don't be vulgar !" Merlin exclaimed with a burst of laughter that was as indignant as it was hilarious.

She raised her hands innocently to the sky and giggled. "You started it."

They looked at each other for a moment before laughing.

There was silence before Merlin spoke again. "I hope we can adjust to life in Camelot easily."

Millicent raised an eyebrow. Her brother's voice was a little higher than usual. Not like when he was lying, like when he had an idea in the back of his mind, or when he was venturing into dangerous territory. The brunette quickly realised that he was trying to broach a subject that she might not necessarily appreciate.

"Do you doubt it ?" she asked him without much conviction, more with the aim of continuing the conversation and seeing where Merlin was trying to take her. He and she were not very complicated. There was no reason why they shouldn't.

"The key to our living well in Camelot will be finding paid work," Merlin said, returning to the previous topic of conversation.

"Gaius has probably already thought of everything for you." Merlin shouldn't worry too much. « Their » journey had been planned for some time.

"Yes, since he knew I was coming." There they were. Millicent gave a discreet smile, almost amused by the situation. The way Merlin was trying to broach the subject of his unexpected addition to the journey was hardly subtle, but she said nothing.

"Are you worried that my presence will inconvenience him ?"

"No, I don't think so. But it would have been better if he had been warned before-" At the sound of her brother's moralising, Millicent sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You worry too much, Merlin. That's your problem." She cut him off, already running through a thousand scenarios in his head. "He's old, I think, so we'll just have to make him think that this was always planned and he's just forgotten or there's been a mistake."

Merlin looked at her, almost scandalised by her words. "You're really being dishonest."

"No, I'm simply avoiding unnecessary conversations for a result that will remain the same. Why get bogged down in details ? Might as well get straight to the point."

But Merlin didn't seem to want to drop the subject and tried a new approach. "It must be strange for our mother to find herself all alone..."

Millicent looked at her brother, then sighed, "She's known life alone before. She's known life without us, we're the ones who haven't known life without her, surely it won't do us any harm to depend only on ourselves. And neither will she..."

Millicent whispered her last words. Merlin did not hear them. To leave her mother alone in Ealdor. It was perhaps the only thing that could make the brunette feel guilty about leaving, but nothing could make her regret it. Deep down, though, she thought it might be a blessing in disguise.

Millicent was convinced that leaving would take a load off her mother. She didn't mention it to Merlin because he would protest, disagree and probably try to convince her that it wasn't true. He wouldn't be able to understand him the way she did. With the same distance she had.

Her mother had spent more of the last few weeks worrying than doing anything else. She'd done it all her life. Mostly for Merlin, usually, and when it wasn't for him, it was for her. But since the accident, it had changed. It was deeper. The kind of worry that's too negative, that's bad for a person's soul. The kind that eats you up inside. And this time, even though her mother denied it, Millicent knew she was mostly to blame. She didn't want this.

Perhaps if she moved away, the worry would go away and Millicent would take away everything that could be harmful in her mother's life. Hunith was, in her daughter's eyes, a perfect mother. She always had been, and had never made her feel anything other than love, but part of Millicent had always wondered. About the fact that they might have been a burden to her mother without her even realising it.

But Millicent didn't want to dwell on such thoughts, or spoil the general mood. "Besides, I'm sure she'd rather have me away from her with you than with her and you alone," she added to reassure Merlin, a wry smile on her face.

"What does that mean ?" Merlin huffed, not sure he liked the implications of her sentence.

"I don't know, you tell me," Millicent teased him.

"I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself," the boy protested boldly.

"Oh, you think so ?" his sister teased a little more.

"Of course I do !"

"You wouldn't last two days without me !"

"Whereas without me, you'd last as long as a cockroach."

Millicent thought for a second before accepting the remark. "Thank you."

"It wasn't meant as a compliment !" the boy pointed out incredulously. But her brother's horrified expression only added to her amusement.

But Merlin was not fooled by his sister's veiled attempts to distract him from the original subject. He cleared his throat. "What I meant was that your departure was rather unexpected. It wasn't like we left one after the other. We both left at the same time, so it's normal that I'm worried about our mother."

Yes, about their mother, of course... "Well, if you feel so bad, come home."

"Hey ! It was my journey, I remind you. You're the one who came."

Millicent, unlike Merlin, didn't jump in with both feet at Merlin's provocations and taunts. She ignored them with phlegm. "And why should you have the honour of being the first to leave ?"

"I was born before you," he reminded her.

Yes, Millicent didn't react easily to her brother's provocations. Not the way he did with her. In theory. But this. This, he knew, was something that particularly annoyed her.

She, who had been walking ahead of him for several minutes, suddenly turned to face him. "A few minutes doesn't count, Merlin !"

"Yes it does."

"No, it doesn't."

"If you had been born first, it would have mattered."

"Of course it would !"

"Hypocrite !"

Millicent turned again in annoyance and walked briskly away. Merlin thought how ridiculous she looked at that moment. He had to trot to catch up, the two bags were starting to weigh a lot.

Millicent let out an exasperated groan and rolled her eyes again before suddenly turning her head towards Merlin. Merlin swallowed as he felt his sister's piercing gaze. "Say all you have to say now. Then we'll speak no more. Once we've passed through the gates of Camelot, everything that happened before stays in Ealdor."

"Fine." He sighed. He seemed a little worried. "I'm glad you're here with me." Those little words were simple, but enough to calm her. "But if my leaving Ealdor makes sense, because we both know I never really found my place there, but you... It was the opposite."

Unexpectedly, Millicent hadn't interrupted him yet. She was listening. He couldn't read what she might have thought of what he was saying, but at least she wasn't closed off yet. So, since she was still receptive, he continued.

"Everyone in the village loved you."

"No, no one had a grudge against me," she corrected Merlin.

"Come on, Milli. Don't be a liar. You got on well with everyone. You had your own dynamic. You had your routine. You liked the way you were useful in the village." In your village, everyone contributed. Everyone participated in the life of Ealdor. And at the end of the day, when you went to bed exhausted, you were happy to know that you had helped.

"Even the children loved you." He added.

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean, « even » the children ?"

"Don't take it badly. What I am trying to say is that you have found your place, unlike me. You had a boyfriend..."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Millicent cut him off. She didn't need him to go on listing the reasons why you should have stayed in Ealdor instead of leaving.

"Mother imagined you staying there forever. Only leaving the house to live with Williams after marriage." She choked up at the words.

Millicent looked at his brother as if he were mad. Marriage ? She shook her head slightly as she giggled nervously in disbelief. "Come on, Merlin, it wasn't that serious with William. You know Mother. She imagines things quickly. That's what mothers do. They extrapolate and put the cart before the horse. But marriage ? Seriously ? William and I have never even talked about it."

"Maybe, but if things hadn't changed, would you have left so easily ?"

She looked at him silently for a minute, not knowing what to say. Probably not. A lot of things would have been different. But one thing wouldn't have changed. One thing would have stayed the same no matter what.

Merlin saw his sister's face soften as her lips curved into a small smile.

"Listen, even if things hadn't changed, I would have come with you, Merlin. And leave you all alone out in the wild world ? Seriously, what an idea," she teased gently before becoming more serious. "William or not William. Boy or not. Nothing could have stopped me from coming with you." She insisted on that point. "I can't leave you alone. You're a social disaster." A soft chuckle accompanied her words.

Merlin rolled his eyes at being called « a social disaster », but he was clearly not annoyed. He knew it was somehow true. Even if he tried, he couldn't help but smile slightly, amused. He shook his head, faking annoyance.

"And no one, let alone a boy, could have separated me from you." It seemed important to his sister that he understood, so he nodded. The message was clear and Merlin would never suggest otherwise. Mostly because he knew Millicent wouldn't, but also because he knew she would be hurt and offended if he thought she would give up on him so easily.

Millicent sighed before adding with a half smile. "We're a team, remember ?"

Merlin chuckled. "Which means my problems are your problems," he finished, repeating what he had said to her the day they left Ealdor.

"And if I'm miles away, how can your problems be mine ?" He stretched out a smile, but suddenly he felt almost sad.

"Did you really leave Ealdor for me ?" he asked as guilt began to creep up on him.

"No, Merlin. It's for me." And even though she claimed that Merlin couldn't do without her, Millicent knew that as far as she was concerned, she couldn't do without him either. She didn't want to be separated from Merlin just yet.

"You know very well I had my own reasons for leaving." He felt genuine here in her words. She wasn't just saying that to make him feel better. And he understood exactly what she meant when she spoke of her reasons for leaving.

Merlin shook his hand negatively, making his disapproval clear. "You had no reason to leave." The brunette stopped immediately and turned to him. And the look she was giving him made it clear that the fact that he was extremely clumsy was no excuse for what he was about to say.

Merlin closed his eyes for a moment. Oh God, why did he never listen to her when she often told him to think before he spoke. He swallows, choosing his words carefully. "I mean... No one is blaming you, Millicent, so why are you blaming yourself ? It was an accident. You did the best you could. You couldn't have prevented it. No one wanted you to leave because of it. Ealdor remained your home even after that. William was there too, and did you see him leave the village ?"

The boy regretted his last sentence the moment it left his mouth. It was probably one too many.

"It's not the same Merlin."

"Yes, it is. I don't..."

"You don't understand." She cut him off suddenly. Her tone, hard and sharp. "That's the point." Her voice was louder, but she didn't shout. "You don't and you couldn't." Merlin opened his mouth to speak, but his sister took her statement before he could get a word out, making it clear that there was no place for conversation here. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't even want to hear about it, Merlin. Never again."

"I'm sorry." He murmured like a child. "I just..." He let his voice fade in the emptiness, knowing it was better not to make things worse by talking any more. He just wanted her to stop blaming herself, but it was as if the more people told her not to blame herself, the more she did. "Never mind." He finally gave up.

A heavy silence fell as they continued their journey.

They climbed one last hill. There were no trees around them and nothing to block their view. They felt a refreshing breeze blow through their hair. And in front of them was Camelot. They had a perfect view of the lower city, even though it looked like a mass of large shapes close together.

It was impressive, and you'd have to be shameless not to admit it. It was then that Millicent finally understood her brother's euphoria, excitement and impatience, and she shared it.

She turned her head to him and he grinned at her. He seemed proud that she was suddenly feeling what he was feeling. The brunette returned the smile.

Once they were down there, it would be as if nothing separated them from Camelot. All they had to do was walk straight ahead and they would be there. Millicent was far from sad that their journey was finally over.

She looked back at the town, then at her brother, then at the slope ahead of them. Suddenly she thought of the comment her brother had made to her earlier. She glanced in her direction and Merlin, too lost in his contemplation of the landscape, had not seen the small twinkle in her eye or the sly smirk on her lips.

Without warning, she tapped him on the shoulder and started running. "Last one down !"

Merlin was startled and didn't bother to understand before he ran off, cursing. "It's not fair ! I'm carrying the bags and you didn't tell me !"

Millicent was the first to reach the bottom, without much surprise. She almost twisted her ankle, but turned and stood proud and victorious on the slope as she watched her brother hurtle down. "And yes, life is terribly unfair !"

He nearly fell several times too, but miraculously made it to the bottom in one piece. He stopped short and let his sister's bag fall to the ground so he could bend over and lean on his knees to catch his breath.

He looked up at her. "I thought you were too tired ?"

"I said I didn't want to run, not that I was tired. And it was easy," she corrected him.

"Minimum effort, eh ?"

"Why should this be any different ?"

He muttered some unintelligible words between his teeth, probably a comment about how disloyal she was, but Millicent paid little attention. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he caught his breath. "I knew you were tougher than that."

"Do you know how much your bag weighs ?" the dark-haired man huffed. "And what have you put in it ?"

"Yes, because I've been carrying it for two days. And the bare minimum."

"Yes... I have my doubts." He was curious about what was in it. "And your back doesn't hurt ?" he wondered.

"No, because I'm not a wuss like you." The remark seemed to sting the boy. He gasped in indignation.

"Go on, I'll relieve you of your burden." She moved forward to pick up her bag, but just as she bent down to grab it, Merlin stopped her and straightened up. "No, it's all right, I don't need your help. I can carry it myself." Even if her helper here was to take back and carry what belonged to her. But if she could carry it, he would.

She rolled her eyes when she saw how proud this mule was. "If you insist." She stepped back and raised her hands as if to show that she would not touch the bag again - she had the impression he would jump on her neck if she gave him the insult of laying a finger on it - before straightening up.

They continued on through the trees and branches, Merlin in front. After minutes of pushing the branches back, he let go of one of them voluntarily, and it landed directly in his sister's face.

He stifled a laugh as he heard his sister scream behind his back. He offered her a false apology that did not fool Millicent. She wanted to lead the way, but Merlin refused, fearing she would retaliate by doing the same to him. After several minutes of pushing and shoving, they ended up walking side by side, bumping into each other because it was more practical to stay in single file in the middle of all those branches, but neither of them wanted to give up the idea of staying in front.

But this time, instead of being held back by the trees and bushes and getting hit in the face by another branch, there was nothing but emptiness around them. They turned to see that they had just left the narrow, wooded passage they had just taken, and when they looked ahead again, they realised that it was because they had just arrived.

The imposing gates of Camelot lay before them.

Chapter Text

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑜 - 𝑁𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐

━━━━━━ ✧◦☉◦✧ ━━━━━━

The town of Camelot was bustling as Merlin and Millicent made their way to the castle. Merlin was dazzled by what he saw. They both looked at all the people and buildings. Merlin looked around with wide eyes and a silly smile on his face. Millicent was also looking around, but more with interest than amazement. But she wouldn't deny that it was quite a view. It was clear that this wasn't Ealdor. It was much more alive. And she liked it.

"It's magnificent." Merlin said in awe of the place.

"I'll give you that." Millicent agreed. Something about this place fascinated her. She thought she might like to live here. In the lower town. In the middle of all that bustle.

"And it's so full of life," Merlin added, still admiring the city.

"Why, it's clear there are more people here than in our village." More than leaving Ealdor, they were leaving the kingdom of Cenred for that of Camelot. It was quite a change.

"This is wonderful." Merlin raved about the greatness of Camelot.

Millicent looked at him, incredulous at his brother's reactions. "Let's not get carried away."

Merlin sighed in exasperation before looking at his sister. "It would kill you to admit you like this place."

"We've been here five minutes, Merlin..." The siblings were diametrically opposed on this point. Merlin always got carried away and Millicent... she was more... cynical. And that annoyed her brother a lot. Always cutting off his enthusiasm.

But as every coin has two sides, so did a place. Millicent knew that. Yes, for the last ten minutes everything had been fantastic and almost perfect, now it was time to discover what the blemish of Camelot was.

As they approached the drawbridge that led to the castle courtyard, the sound of horns began to accompany the beating of drums. Merlin frowned, Millicent tried to see through the people in front of them. The boy looked at his sister and she just shrugged.

Surely this was your way to Gaius. It would only be a short stop.

Curious, they followed the crowd. Suddenly it stopped. Surely that meant they were arriving where whatever was happening was happening. Millicent looked around and understood that they were gathered in the courtyard of the castle.

Millicent found a way into the crowd to get among the people and get close to the centre of attention. Merlin followed his sister quickly, not wanting to lose her. She moved more easily than him with her slender body while he carried the two bags. He almost lost her in the crowd but he reached out and just managed to catch her arms before that happened, stopping her in her tracks.

She turned to scold him for looking at her, but not before a man spoke. A loud, deep voice could be heard. The twins both suddenly looked in the direction of the man. "Let this serve as a lesson to all." The man began his speech. At a glance, Millicent easily guessed that he was the King. The clothes, the crown, the posture, the tone, the way he spoke. A few words were enough.

"That man," Millicent only noticed the man being led in her direction by two guards. "Thomas James Collins," the two soldiers lead the prisoner onto a wooden platform. Millicent's eyes fall only on the log and in front of it a basket and not far from these two objects... a man. With an axe. Millicent understood the situation before the King continued.

They were attending an execution.

"Is adjudged guilty of conspiring to use enchantments and magic." At those words, Millicent froze and felt Merlin tense at her back. He straightened and his jaw tightened as he swallowed. They exchanged a glance before turning their attention back to the king and one thing came to Millicent's mind. One word.

Fuck.

They should go. They didn't need to be at an execution. Especially when it's about magic. Continue on their way as nothing. But somehow Millicent wanted to stay and watch. She wanted to know what this man could have done to be killed. How he had used his magic to do evil.

"And pursuant to the Laws of Camelot, I, Uther Pendragon, have decreed that such practices are banned on penalty of death." She felt her heart sink at her feet. Merlin's face hardened and he seemed disgusted by what they were witnessing. "I pride myself as a fair and just King," Millicent arched an eyebrow, perplexed. "But for the crime of sorcery, there is but one sentence I can pass."

A heavy silence fell as Millicent realised something. This man, Thomas James Collin - a name she was sure she would remember - had done nothing wrong. Nothing except use magic. The king nodded and, as the rest of the crow did, Merlin and Millicent shifted their gaze from the king to the prisoner.

As they knelt and the man rested his head on the log, Merlin tugged on his sister's arm. "Don't look." But nothing could stop her from looking at the injustice she was witnessing.

Her throat tightened as the drum began to sound again. The executioner raised his axe in a way that gave Millicent the impression that the scene was unfolding in slow motion. A knot formed in her stomach as a deep sense of anguish took hold. Part of her wanted to stop it, but she knew she wouldn't be able to. Then, following the movement of the King's arm, the axe fell on the neck of Thomas James Collins.

There were exclamations and gasps from the crowd in response. Millicent, herself, flinched as she finally turned her head to her brother's chest under the noise and impact of the execution.

Unconsciously, Merlin and Millicent moved closer together. They were pressed together and he still held her arm. He was pulling her towards him, his grip firm but not rough, and she was standing in front of him as a shield, as if they were protecting each other.

"When I Came to this land, this kingdom was mired in chaos. But with the people's help, magic was driven from the real. So I declare a festival to celebrate 20 years since the Great Dragon was captured and Camelot freed from the evil of sorcery !" The King continued his speech as if he hadn't just executed a man. And an innocent one in Millicent's eyes.

She watched the scene with disgust. But it had nothing to do with the execution. It wasn't the body or the blood that made her feel that way. She felt anger. More than that, rage. The kind that makes you want to vomit, so much that it grips you.

"Let the celebrations begin !" the king shouted.

The brunette wiped away a tear that she hadn't realised had escaped her eye. "Do you still think Camelot is wonderful ?" she whispered to her brother, who thought he detected a hint of sarcasm in her voice. The King went from talking about an execution to talking about celebrations. And it was revolting.

At that moment, Millicent wanted to take her brother and go away, run far away from this city, from this kingdom. Coming to Camelot was a stupid idea. Probably the worst idea ever. With their own abilities, coming here was like stepping into the lion's den.

There's no way of knowing if Thomas James Collins was really innocent. If he had committed a crime worth killing for. But given the King's speech, it was clear that the very existence of magic, the fact of possessing it, was a problem.

That was the blemish of Camelot.

Merlin made no reply. His eyes fell on his sister's face. He shook her arm gently. "Milli, stop looking at the king like you want to kill him." Merlin muttered between his teeth. He was pretty sure Millicent could be sent to prison just by the way she looked at him.

And she seemed horrified by the implications of her brother's words. As if she was scared of herself. "Relax, I know you wouldn't but it would be preferable if the guards think the same."

Just as the crowd began to disperse, a woman began to cry and scream, drawing attention back to her. A heartbreaking wail. Everyone stepped aside and Millicent and Merlin could see an old woman. A very old one, in fact.

"There is only one evil in this land and it is not magic. It is you ! With your hatred and your ignorance." Millicent raised an eyebrow. She knew nothing of this kingdom except that any form of magic was forbidden, but that didn't stop her from thinking it was madness to dress the king like that. Even if she agreed.

"You took my son," they understood that the woman was the mother of the man who had just been executed. Millicent slowly closed her eyes as she let out a sigh at this revelation. She felt a pang of sadness, suddenly feeling pain for this woman. For a minute, Millicent couldn't help but imagine her mother instead of that woman, and Merlin instead of that Thomas.

The thought was unbearable. It was her greatest fear. But one thing was for sure, the brunette would never let that happen if one day her brother was caught for sorcery. She would rather see the whole kingdom burn than see Merlin executed in any way.

"And I promise you, before these celebrations are over, you will share my tears." Millicent frowned at this beginning of a threat. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Was she... "A son for a son !" the woman added after a brief moment of suspense. Yes, she was. She was directly threatening the king's son. But it sounded more like a promise than a threat. This woman wanted to see the prince dead as reparation for the death of her own son.

"Seize her !" shouted the king. For a second before he spoke, even if he had wanted to appear stern and unflinching, worry was palpable.

But before the guards could seize her, the old woman grabbed the pendant around her neck and began to speak incantations in a foreign language. Recognising the magic, everyone retreated in fear, creating a new stampede that pushed Millicent onto her brother, who winced as she accidentally stepped on his foot. The old woman immediately disappeared in a swirl of smoke.

After this display, there was a brief flutter before the crowd dispersed. Everyone left quickly, as if what had just happened was nothing. Millicent herself could not take her eyes off where the old woman had been less than a minute before, still stunned by what she had just witnessed.

"It is clear that this city is very busy." The brunette couldn't help herself. Her eyes then fell on the body of the man who had just been executed, still on the platform. "So full of life... that... I don't know."

When she looked at her brother, he rolled his eyes in annoyance. He was in no mood for her sarcasm. Her using his own words to prove once again that she was right. Yes, it was particularly irritating at the moment.

"Let's not stay here." Merlin gave her her bag back and pushed his sister's arm to make her follow him. She didn't protest and nodded, but as they both walked away, Millicent couldn't help but turn her head to take one last look at the scene.

She lifted her eyes to the castle and caught sight of a girl at one of the windows, who also seemed to find it difficult to take her eyes off the courtyard before she too moved away, disappearing between the walls of the castle and out of Millicent's sight with a sad expression on her face.

Neither of them spoke. Neither Merlin nor Millicent seemed to want to. They didn't talk to each other about what they had just witnessed. Millicent had the feeling that her brother had already chased this event out of his mind, as she thought about what it foreshadowed for what would happen next.

Merlin spoke to two guards posted on either side of a door to help him and his sister find Gaius. They showed them the way. Millicent raised her eyebrows at their friendliness, or rather lack of it, but Merlin made his sister move on before she had time to make any comments that might have upset them.

The two siblings passed through the door where the two guards were stationed and reached the bottom of a narrow staircase. They were in a tower. A small one, perhaps, but a tower nonetheless. Millicent thought this was the wrong place. Maybe the guards had misunderstood her. But no sooner had she opened her mouth than her eyes fell on a sign on the wall indicating the Court Physician's quarters.

She looked at her brother in disbelief. "They really put the court physician's quarters at the top of a turret ?" She couldn't help but think that was the stupidest thing ever. Really handy if you broke your legs or something. And even for the nobles. She hoped they'd never catch anything serious, because she was sure that by the time a servant ran through the castle to get the doctor, the patient would be dead.

Once up the stairs, Merlin and Millicent arrived at the half-open door to Gaius' quarters. The younger raised a suspicious eyebrow before looking at her brother. "Look inside."

"Why me ?" He protested.

"Why not ?" Speechless at her nerve, and unable to find a valid answer, Merlin decided to look inside the room.

He slowly leaned forward and poked his head through the door. Millicent was losing patience. Merlin looked inside but not a sound came out of his mouth. Looking in should not take this long. Especially when it was obvious there was no one there.

"It looks empty to me," she commented, something that annoyed his brother.

"Shut up for five minutes."

She threw her hands up in the air. "Very well."

Merlin knocked on the door. There was no answer. He said "Hello ?" No answer. After a minute and a glance, they decided by general consensus to enter. They looked around carefully. The room was full of potions, herbs and other strange things.

"Hello ?" Merlin called again.

"Well, it looks like you can walk in here at will." And considering all the equipment here, it wasn't exactly wise.

"Why Milli, it's the court physician's quarters, that's the purpose." Millicent huffed, not at all convinced by Merlin's comment.

Looking around, they saw an old man, who they assumed was Gaius, on a stage high up. "Gaius ?" Merlin called out to him directly, but it still didn't seem to get his attention.

Millicent thought the man was definitely deaf and probably too old to be practising physics. Merlin looked at his sister, a little embarrassed by the situation. She rolled her eyes and decided to announce themself.

She cleared her throat loudly. Not very elegant for a woman, she'd give you that, but she didn't really care. And he finally heard her, but what happened next was quite unexpected. Surprised by their presence, Gaius fell back, breaking the balustrade in the process.

At first, by reflex, Millicent made a step forward before stopping herself. Seeing that his sister was finally not going to act, Merlin took matters into his own hands and slowed Gaius' fall.

When Millicent saw Merlin using magic, her eyes opened wide. That idiot. She turned to take the first thing that fell into his hands on the table, in this case an old book, and threw it with all his strength and disconcerting precision against the door, which slammed shut.

Millicent turned to Merlin angrily. She could see him looking around for something. The brunette's eyes landed directly on the bed in the corner of the room.

"The bed," she pointed.

In his panic and haste, Merlin seemed to have difficulty finding it. She pointed directly at it with her finger. The boy immediately moved the bed under the old man, who was still falling in slow motion. But before he could stop slowing down time, Merlin saw a pillow on the floor and moved it onto the bed. Time then returns to normal and Gaius falls onto the bed instead of the floor.

When the dark-haired man turned his head to his sister, who looked at him as if to say, "Seriously ," his proud smile immediately vanished. He simply shrugged sheepishly before adding in his own defence. "I have an eye for detail."

Millicent seemed furious. Merlin could see in his sister's face that she was seconds away from shouting at him, but this time he refused to be pushed around because he was angry too. Not as much as his sister, but enough to argue with her for a few minutes before dealing with her justified anger.

"You could have helped me !" he shouted. Her passive behaviour had not gone unnoticed.

She frowned, outraged that he dared to be angry with her after that demonstration of magic, even after what they had just witnessed a few minutes ago. Millicent crossed her arms and straightened, taking a defensive stance. "I did." She tilted her head with both arrogance and nonchalance. "I showed you where the bed was."

"If you had seen it before I did, you could have moved the bed yourself, or perhaps stopped him from falling." His tone was really accusatory and Millicent didn't like it, but she could answer anything.

Their argument was interrupted by Gaius. "How the... What did you just do ?" He asked as he struggled to his feet. At the same time, Merlin and Millicent turned their heads towards him. The young man seemed to be searching for words, while his sister was content to remain silent for the moment. "Tell me !" the old man insisted.

His eyes darted between the two siblings, not knowing which was which. If Millicent seemed unperturbed, the boy was not, looking nervous and stammering like a guilty man.

"I have no idea what happened." Merlin finally said.

"If anyone had seen that..."

"No !" exclaimed Merlin, a little panicked. "That... Ouch ! That was... That was nothing to do with me." He finally pulled himself together, managing to sound more confident after being elbowed in the ribs by his sister. Merlin glared at her. "With us !" he quickly corrected. Millicent rolled her eyes. For God's sake, could he stop acting like that ?

"I know what it was !" Gaius clearly didn't believe them. "I just want to know where you learnt it. And which one of you did it ?" Millicent frowned. Now the old man was lumping her in with him, even though she had nothing to do with it because she had the intelligence not to use her magic, unlike her stupid brother.

"Nowhere !" replied Merlin under pressure. Millicent sighed, disillusioned, and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Everything was starting well. "Bloody idiot," she muttered.

"So how is it you know magic ?"

'I don't." Merlin protested. He turned to Millicent for a second, his eyes pleading for help. "We don't."

Gaius paused. By the time the twins had exchanged a look, wondering if he had been convinced by Merlin's unconvincing words, the physician resumed a little more calmly. "Where did you study magic ?"

Feeling that he was losing control of the situation, Merlin decided to try his sister's method, which seemed to work very well for her : silence. But Gaius lost patience as soon as Merlin became silent. "Answer me !" he shouted.

Immediately, Merlin's determination vanished as he panicked again. And this time he said too much. "We've never studied magic or been taught."

"So it is you two."

Merlin cursed himself mentally as Millicent glared at him. Declaring that he had done enough damage already, the brunette decided to take over. She spoke for the first time since the incident. "No."

"Are you lying to me ?"

"What do you want us to say when you contradict every word that comes out of our mouths ?" It was clear that she was standing up to him with more aplomb than her brother.

"The truth." Millicent held back a sneer. He could jump in a lake !

"We are born like this." Merlin finally spat it out.

Millicent turned to him, scandalised. "Merlin !" she cried indignantly.

"That's impossible," Gaius exclaimed before looking at both of them in confusion.

But at that moment none of the others were listening. Merlin was just trying to defend himself before his sister killed him for good. "What ? He got it !"

Millicent threw up her hands in resignation before turning to Gaius. "Who are you two ?"" He asked her.

"Oh, I have this letter." Merlin held out the letter that could probably save them from this whole situation.

"I don't have my glasses."

"Very reassuring from the court physician." Millicent muttered. The sarcastic remark didn't escape Gaius, who seemed stung by it. "I still know how to treat people." he snapped at her.

Millicent remained speechless, surprised by Gaius' character. Merlin, he, found it really amusing to see someone shut his sister's mouth like that.

"I'm Merlin," he finally introduced himself, flying to the rescue when he saw that his sister was upsetting the old man. "And she's Millicent."

Gaius' expression suddenly brightened as he looked delighted. "Hunith's children ?"

"Yes !" Merlin exclaimed playfully, his silly expression returning to his face.

"But you're not meant to be here till Wednesday."

"It is Wednesday." Millicent said.

Gaius seemed as surprised as he was embarrassed when he realised. "Ah." Millicent glanced at her brother, wondering if their mother had sent them to a madman. But he was welcoming anyway. "Very well then. Well, you'd better put your bags in there." He pointed to a door at the back of the room.

Millicent didn't hesitate and headed for the room, but as she passed Gaius he called out to her. "And you were supposed to be here ? Unless I misunderstood what your mother told me."

Millicent and Merlin froze at the same time. The girl turned around with a broad smile on her face. "Yes, I was." she said with such confidence that even Merlin, who knew she was lying, could begin to doubt it.

"Ah..." Merlin looked at his sister worriedly, as Gaius seemed to think. "I wasn't prepared for two people." He muttered to himself.

Millicent exchanged glances with her brother. Okay, now she was starting to stress.

After another minute in his thoughts, Gaius suddenly straightened his head and clapped his hands. "It doesn't matter," he declared. The place will be small for the three of us, but we'll manage. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the situation.

He pointed again to the room at the back where the two siblings would store their things and also sleep. He told Merlin that he would have to set up the spare bed for him, while you would have his bed for greater comfort.

The relief they both felt at being together was quickly replaced by another argument, started by Merlin, who was outraged that it was his ungrateful sister who had the bed. He muttered through his teeth how unfair it was. After carrying Millicent's bag half the day, he deserved to sleep in a comfortable bed. She simply replied with a petty smile. "I'm the girl." She took on a fragile air that fooled no one in that room.

Millicent finally turned to Gaius, worried. "What about you ? Where are you going to sleep ?" She began to feel guilty as she realised they would be staying in Gaius' room.

"Here." He announced. "As you noticed so quickly, I have a bed here." Seeing that the young girl was not very convinced, he reassured her. "I often sleep here and I'd arranged for your brother to be in my room anyway."

"In that case..." Without further ado, she headed for the bedroom, but suddenly stopped, thinking of a more than important detail. She turned back to their uncle, but Merlin seemed to have had the same thought and beat her to it.

"You won't say anything about..."

"No." They both felt relieved. It was a weight lifted from their shoulders. "Although, Merlin, Millicent. I should say thank you."

As Gaius give them a grateful smile, Millicent pointed her brother. "Thank him because I probably would have let you fall." She said before leaving for the bedroom.

Gaius looked at her in amazement as she disappeared. Merlin''s eyes widened as he heard his sister's words before he looked at Gaius and smiled sheepishly. "She doesn't mean it. She's joking." He said with a nervous laugh. Then he almost ran to join his sister in the bedroom.

Once inside, he closed the door behind him and glared at the brunette. "What ?" He raised his eyes in a hopeless look. "At least you can't say I'm being dishonest this time."

🎕

Evening had come and Merlin and Millicent were now fully settled in the bedroom. The room was in semi-darkness, lit only by candles. Millicent lay on her bed, leaning against the headboard, while Merlin stood at his end, looking out the window.

Millicent threw her pillow at her brother to get his attention. "You look like an idiot." He gave her a grimace in reply before throwing his pillow back at her, which she caught without difficulty. She placed the pillow on the bed before getting up and moving to Merlin's side.

She gave him a merciless shove with her bum. "Make room."

"I was here first."

"This is my bed."

"It's Gaius'."

"Now it's mine." He sighed resignedly. As she was smaller than him, he let her pass, but leaned against her in revenge, his arms on her shoulders, something he knew annoyed her greatly.

But Merlin was in too good a mood and too enchanted by the view to argue with his sister at the moment. Millicent found herself in the same contemplation and understood her brother's stupid face a little better. It was quite a view.

They could see a large part of the city, the houses lit up and the full moon shining over the countryside. Yes, it was the kind of view she could get used to looking at before going to sleep.

Seeing the town so quiet and peaceful, Millicent couldn't help but think back to the execution she and Merlin had attended. Who knew it had taken place here. And on the same day.

No. She would not allow that event to haunt her. Camelot was supposed to be a new beginning. Besides, witchcraft was generally frowned upon, so what did it matter if it was forbidden ? She and Merlin were going to behave as normally as possible. And for a normal person, Camelot was perfect.

So for a minute she would think about the future as if she were just another girl.

Yes. Life in Camelot could be good.

Chapter Text

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 - 𝐴𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑘𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡

━━━━━━ ✧◦☉◦✧ ━━━━━━

Millicent.

Millicent.

Millicent.

"Shut up, Merlin." She groaned as she stirred slowly, her eyes fluttering open groggily. Sunlight filtered through the window, casting a warm golden glow over the room. She shifted, her muscles protesting slightly with an unpleasant ache, a reminder of her and Merlin's journey.

As her senses gradually returned, her vision became clearer. She looked down and saw Merlin, still sound asleep. She frowned. She swore she heard him call out to her. That was part of what woke her. That voice.

Surely she was dreaming.

She got out of bed and walked over to Merlin, sinking her feet into his stomach without apology. Merlin woke suddenly with a clatter of pain as her sister left him breathless for a minute.

As he struggled to regain his composure, staring at the ceiling with the eyes of a dying man and cursing her, Millicent quickly dressed before leaving the bedroom first. She greeted Gaius, who held a bowl of porridge for her. Of liquid porridge. Very liquid.

She held back a grimace as it seemed rather disgusting, but she just took the bowl with a forced smile. She sat down at the table and took a first spoonful. She swallowed slowly, apprehensive.

Well. It could have been worse.

"I got your brother water. He didn't wash last night." Speaking of the devil, they heard the bedroom door open as Merlin came to join them.

Gaius was carrying a large bucket of water to put on the table, but he deliberately put it on the edge. Gaius « accidentally » bumped into it as he walked by the table.

Millicent's eyes immediately went to the bucket, but she just watched it fall. Merlin, who was putting on his jacket, raised his head just in time to use his magic to stop the bucket before it hit the floor, its contents already half spilled on the floor.

Millicent stopped her spoon in mid-movement. Merlin stood up and Gaius and he shared a look of astonishment. Gaius' gaze shifted from Merlin to his sister. Then they all looked back at the bucket which suddenly continued its fall. The water spilled all over the floor.

Gaius gave the boy a questioning look before turning to his sister. "Don't you know how to do what your brother does ?" the old man wondered at the brunette's inaction. He didn't give her time to reply, still amazed at what he had just witnessed, before turning back to Merlin. "Doesn't she know how to do what you do ?"

"No, I mean yes, it's just... Well..." Millicent watched the two men exchange words about her as if she wasn't there. She looked at Merlin with interest, curious to hear what he was going to say. "It's Milli. She's like that."

"What does that mean ?"

He took a peek at his sister and nodded slightly with a sigh. "You'll understand soon enough," he contented himself with answering.

Gaius looked sceptical but stopped insisting. "How did you do it ?" he finally asked Merlin. "Did you incant a spell in your mind ?"

Merlin shook his head animatedly, trying to explain himself while his sister continued to eat as if nothing had happened. "I don't know any spells."

"So what did you do ? There must be something."

"It just happens." Uncomfortable with the situation, the boy turned to pick up a mop and began to clean the floor. Millicent stopped eating and stood up before taking the mop from his hand. "Eat, I'll finish."

Millicent went back to her brother, but he had done most of the work. She cleared her own dishes and the table around Merlin, who tried to finish his plate with as much gusto as his sister had done before him.

"We better keep you out of trouble."

"Don't worry about Milli, she has a talent for it," Merlin replied with a hint of mockery in his tone.

"And for you, Merlin ?" he asked, his tone quite denunciatory of what the old man could already observe in Merlin.

Millicent sneered discreetly. "Well, I'm here," she simply replied. An answer that didn't reassure the court physician at all. Merlin didn't even protest because there was only truth in his sister's words. She was the one who kept them out of trouble.

Gaius suddenly seemed lost in thought as he looked at the twins. After a minute he broke his silence. "Merlin, you could help me until I find some paid work for you." Merlin nodded, wanting to be as discreet as possible from now on.

Then Gaius turned to Millicent and seemed less inspired. "Well, I may have an idea for you, we could find some paid work for you more easily."

Merlin frowned. "And until you do, what is she going to do ?"

Gaius looked at the windows. "Camelot is a lively city, you could visit, I'm sure you'd find something to keep you busy." Hearing this, Merlin opened his mouth in indignation at the injustice, but didn't say a word.

First the bed, now she gets to have free time and he doesn't, when all she'd done since they arrived was act selfishly and she wasn't the synonym for lovable when he was. But Merlin didn't really have the time to be falsely angry at his sister for all her advantages, or at Gaius for what the boy would consider favouritism.

Millicent suddenly spoke. "On second thought, I've realised that the three of us can't live here."

She didn't even let Gaius protest. The old man wanted to reassure her, to tell her that it might be an organisation that would take some getting used to, but that it would be all right. But as soon as he tried to speak, she spoke again.

"This is fine. Don't worry about it. I just want some paid work and a little more of your help in finding a place to live, then I'll go."

Surprised, Gaius didn't know what to say. It wasn't Merlin's case. He protested thoughtlessly. "Leave ? What are you talking about ? You don't have to." He turned to Gaius. "Gaius, tell her."

Gaius' eyes darted between Merlin and Millicent. There was some truth in the girl's words. Not wanting to put Gaius in the position of having to choose between emotion and rationality, Millicent spoke again.

"I will stay in Camelot, Merlin." She calmed the situation, understanding that her brother was genuinely disturbed by the thought of the two of them not living together for the first time in their lives.

"It will be better for all three of us."

Gaius finished with a nod to indicate his agreement. He placed a hand on Merlin's arm. "That won't happen now. She needs a job and an income first. She'll stay with us for a few more weeks."

At these words, Merlin felt a kind of release. In a few weeks they would have settled into a routine, he would make his sister see that they could live here together and persuade her to stay. But he should know her well enough now to know that this was the kind of decision she had made and that she would not go back.

Gaius changed the subject by telling Merlin his task for the day. Some potions to give to some nobles of the court. Before they both left he called to them. "And, Merlin, Millicent, I need hardly to tell you that the practice of any form of enchantments will get you killed."

They nodded in response. They could only take one step when the court physician called them once more. Millicent lifted her eyes and barely held back a sight that, at the right moment, drowned out all her annoyance.

"And here." But when she turned back to see Merlin taking two sandwiches held out to him by Gaius, her irritation turned to rapture. The twins shared a smile before leaving.

At the exact second the door closed behind them, Merlin handed one of the sandwiches to his sister before they both ran for it. The boy devoured it while his sister savoured every bite.

"That porridge was disgusting." Merlin said once he had wolfed down his sandwich.

"You're damn right, it was." They chuckled before heading down the stairs. "So, who shall we go and see again first ?"

"We ? And why are you here again ?"

"Did you think I was going to stay in there with Gaius all day ?" Without really giving him a choice, Millicent left with her brother. After a while they found their way to Sir Olwen's apartment.

"Remember Gaius said he couldn't take it all at once."

"I know, I don't need you to remember. I can do it myself." Merlin paused at the door to Sir Olwen's chamber, hesitating for a second before deciding what to say. He repeated several sentences in his head.

Millicent sighed, then pushed her brother aside and knocked on the door before walking back. Merlin didn't even have time to curse his sister when the door opened, giving him no time to think.

"I brought you your medicine." Merlin said simply, before holding the potion out to him. But being blind, he couldn't grasp it. Merlin finally put it in his hand before turning back. He looked at his sister, proud of himself.

"Merlin you didn't-" She had barely begun to speak when Merlin turned to inform Sir Olwen of the tip-off Gaius had given them. However, the two siblings watched as the old blind man swallowed his potion in one gulp.

Merlin took his sister's arms and pulled her away, walking down the corridor. "I'm sure, it's fine," he said to her.

"Are you saying that to reassure me or yourself ?"

"You. Me. Maybe both of us. Definitely both of us."

"Well then it's the moment I leave you before you find a way to kill Lady Percival." She taunted him. "I don't want to be a witness to anything and I'd have to cover you."

"Yeah, go, I'd probably be better off without you anyway !" he shouted as Millicent left him.

"Yes, yes," she waved, brushing his words away. "I'll meet you outside the drawbridge," she told him. "Don't go into town without me."

She didn't give him time to answer. Or rather, she walked away before she could hear him answer. Surely he said something about being able to go his own way. No, he couldn't. She was sure he would be able to get himself into a lot of trouble, because he had a talent for it.

She was on her way into town, across the courtyard. A man she assumed to be a knight almost bumped into her, chatting and laughing with men who were surely knights too. Millicent avoided the man, glaring at him before leaving the area.

Knights.

After a few minutes, Millicent left the main avenue of the town, which led straight to the drawbridge and the castle, and wandered haphazardly through other streets, guided only by her curiosity to explore the town.

She walked aimlessly. She went down one street and then another, wandering through small alleys before returning to the larger streets. She discovered the lives of its inhabitants. The houses, the public places, the people - many of whom seemed to know each other in one way or another - the different shops, the different activities.

She also encountered guards on several occasions. They often seemed to be walking around the citadel. The city looked quite safe. Maybe that's why life there seemed so peaceful, once you forgot all about magic and the "threat" it posed to the kingdom.

She stayed in the upper town, deciding to wait for Merlin before going to the lower town. Surely he had completed his tasks and she should find him now. But in the midst of her discovery of the city, she found it difficult to leave the area and return to the drawbridge.

As she walked down a street leading to the main avenue, she saw a stall owner in a rather animated conversation with someone standing on the other side of the stall.

"I can't close my shop for even a few days," the owner said as Millicent heard the conversation more clearly as she got closer.

"So at least limit what you sell." Some of the words exchanged faded before Millicent could make out any new words spoken by the owner. "Anything can be used for an ointment, a poultice or a potion."

"Don't you dare say that." The woman she was talking to looked around in panic before turning back to the shopkeeper. They exchanged a few words before the woman left, leaving the owner of this little shop alone in her stall.

Millicent didn't quite understand the subject of the conversation or what it was about, but she had the impression that it had something to do with magic and its use. That should have convinced her to continue, but her curiosity had been piqued.

The brunette only realised that her gaze had been too persistent when the gaze of the woman running the stall locked onto her. And it was too late to continue her journey as if nothing had happened when the woman called out to her.

"You're not from around here, are you ?"

Millicent was about to leave when the saleswoman called her back. "I sell plants for all sorts of things. Remedies. Perfumes. Embellishing tincture. Flavourings for food, most have medicinal properties, you can make potions."

The woman gave her a broad smile as she showed her stall. Millicent sighed, then approached slowly, looking carefully at what the woman was proposing. "So you're a godsend," she finally said, forcing a smile from the woman.

While she could have pretended to look and then walked away, Millicent's curiosity was too piqued by the little scene she had witnessed. The fruit never falls far from the tree. And in that moment, she did what her brother might have done.

"May I ask what the problem is with your business ?" The woman seemed surprised at the sudden question from the youngest. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be indiscreet, but I heard your friend's advice as I came down the street."

"When did you arrive ?" the woman asked suddenly.

Millicent hesitated for a moment before answering. "Yesterday."

"Then you witnessed what happened in the courtyard."

"Yes, I arrived at that very moment." Millicent nodded, deliberately omitting her brother's presence at her side. She couldn't help replaying the images of the execution in her mind. "A very sad sight," the witch added in a whisper.

"Not everyone thinks so." The shopkeeper, who had not missed Millicent's words, retorted immediately. "Don't say that out loud, the walls of Camelot have ears."

Millicent nodded, realising her mistake and cursing herself for her carelessness. The saleswoman resumed her monologue. "Some people are suspicious," she said, explaining that when Thomas Collins was arrested for witchcraft, his house was turned upside down and searched from top to bottom for incriminating evidence.

On the spot they found - or placed - an ointment. A simple ointment. But an ointment was found in a sorcerer's house. What was immediately assumed to be a magical ointment, without knowing whether it really was or not. An object of witchcraft. And Millicent understood the problem. His eyes swept over the stall. Most of the things she sold could be used to make ointments.

"In the villages, people don't necessarily have access to a physician. In the villages, it's common for ordinary people to make their own ointments to treat their sick children. The plants are readily available. But more and more, they no longer dare to make and use it unless it has been made by a physician for fear of being mistaken for witchcraft."

"But they're just plants. It was completely stupid."

"And with what happened yesterday, I'm in for a few weeks of bad business." She sighed heavily. "It happens every time. People avoid herbalists for a while when something like this happens."

"It's ridiculous." Millicent couldn't help saying it.

Millcent was about to say something when the woman she was talking to cut her off. After a quick glance over the brunette's shoulder, she looked down at the various plants on her stall. "Don't turn around," she said, "If we behave normally they won't come this way."

Millicent was surprised at first, not understanding what it was all about, but then she began to hear metallic clanking noises, like the ones she'd heard whenever she'd come across soldiers making their rounds in the city.

But these sounds didn't go away - on the contrary, they came closer until a man's deep voice was heard, making it impossible for the two women to ignore their presence.

"Ladies."

"Soldiers !" the saleswoman exclaimed in an exaggerated manner, not allowing the man who had just spoken to say another word. Millicent had turned to look at them, tensing up more than necessary, but managing to maintain a nonchalant air.

"What brings you here, have you come to contribute to my trade ?"

"No, we haven't come as buyers, but we are interested in your business."

Millicent felt utterly obsolete, and she clearly was in the eyes of the two soldiers who acted without considering her presence. They scrutinised the stall and the woman holding it.

Millicent didn't say a word, didn't try to leave. She didn't move to make herself as invisible as possible. She didn't know what was going on yet, but she knew it smelled bad and she didn't want to get involved in case she had the misfortune of talking to the wrong person.

"What are you looking for ?" asked the shopkeeper, trying to hide her growing nervousness.

"The accomplices of Thomas James Collins."

Millicent froze and looked at the shopkeeper who seemed petrified. "A.. A... Accomplices ? Accomplices, you say ?" she babbled.

"Yes, as you may know, the sorcerer was arrested after a magical ointment was found in his house. We're looking for anyone who might have helped him."

"Helped him?" The woman almost choked on the word.

"Yes. By providing him with what he needed, for example. Anyone who dealt with a sorcerer is an accomplice." And just as the saleswoman seemed to be breaking down, the soldier added a final sentence that seemed to be the final blow. "It is said that he gets his supplies in Camelot. Some people have seen him in the area."

Suddenly, everything the woman had told her before made even more sense to Millicent and she finally understood why the woman's friend had advised her to close the stall.

Millicent looked at the woman who had turned red. Innocent or not, she looked guilty. At least that was how the soldiers looked at her. But perhaps this woman had nothing to feel guilty about. Perhaps she was afraid of being condemned without even seeking the truth of her possible guilt.

Millicent had talked to this woman and she seemed intelligent. Too intelligent to still be selling her products if she had anything to do with this witchcraft case.

The day before, she had witnessed the execution of someone she believed to be innocent. It had turned her stomach, angered her and hurt her. If this woman was taken in for questioning, guilty or not, Millicent felt she would suffer the same fate as Thomas James Collins.

She couldn't let that happen.

The other soldier leaned over the stall, restored some of the plants, showed them to the saleswoman and asked for explanations. And the woman's confidence was slipping. She struggled to justify herself.

"And that, what is that ? If it's not dangerous, you should be able to explain it to us," he said, waving a creamy white umbel in front of her eyes.

"It is meadowsweet." The shopkeeper and the two soldiers suddenly turned their heads towards Millicent, who had just spoken in a clear, confident voice. In a burst of confidence, Millicent took the plant from the soldier's hands. "It's a medicinal plant. It helps with fever."

She put the flower down before picking up a few green leaves and showing them to the soldiers. "Wild mint for stomach aches."

Milicent sensed that she had caught their attention and continued her little act. She replaced the wild mint with another plant. "Mugwort for... You know," She put her hand to her mouth and whispered, as if revealing a secret. "Ladies' problems."

The soldier suddenly sat up uncomfortably. Millicent held back a smile. She had made him uncomfortable. It always made men uncomfortable and that was the point. The brunette then moved on to the second part of her plan : to flood them with information. Send them such a deluge that they'd get bored, forget why they'd come and just run away from this conversation.

"Lemon balm is used for nausea during pregnancy." She put the plant down and looked around the stall for something else she knew. There was angelica, which some people said helped with the plague, but Millicent decided it was better not to talk about it, as for others only magic could have an effect on such illnesses.

So she picked up some pretty flowers. "Poppy."

The guard who had first called out to her straightened up as his eyebrows furrowed. Millicent pursed her lips, wondering what she could have said wrong. "Isn't that supposed to be a sedative ?" he asked in his hoarse, suspicious voice.

"Can you blame people for wanting to make the suffering of their loved ones more acceptable and their deaths easier, perhaps you could have a word with the King about access to the services of the court physician ?" Millicent's tone was more aggressive than she would have liked. But the common people's lack of access to medicine had always affected her deeply. She had seen the consequences many times in her village.

For a second, Millicent thought her accusatory tone would get her into trouble, but instead she saw the two guards exchange glances before furtively lowering their eyes.

She had only been here a day. She knew nothing of Camelot. The fact that the lower classes didn't have access to medicine was just an assumption, but Camelot was a city like any other and it was the same everywhere. She knew she was very lucky to have hit the mark, judging by the reactions of the two soldiers.

"Gaius is doing his best," one of the men replied in a calmer voice.

"I know he's my uncle," Millicent took the opportunity to slip in this information. The three people around her looked at him in surprise as one of the guards straightened. It seemed to her that his gaze had just changed. It was as if this kinship had suddenly given her more credit.

The older guard cleared his throat. "Really? I didn't know he had a family."

Then Millicent suddenly turned back to the stall and pointed to several plants. "These are tincture plants."

"We get it," the man who had been looking at the plants a little earlier replied in an annoyed tone.

They were still there, so Millicent thought they didn't get it enough.

While the youngest of the soldiers seemed ready to resume their rounds of the town, the oldest did not seem to be finished with them. "And this ?" he asked, showing red berries. "Looks like poison."

Millicent took one of the berries and squeezed it between her fingers. "It's for the lips !" She spread it on her lips and then offered them her brightest smile.

"Court ladies don't use this."

"Perhaps, but they are rich. There is no good fruit, but they make their mark."

"Once squeezed, these berries can be placed on your lips," the woman, who had been silent since Millicent's first intervention, suddenly intervened. She supported the young woman's words. "These are only harmless tinctures for a little embellishment."

"And this, sir, it's lavender, women use it as perfume to smell good. To please men..." Millicent brought the lavender close to the inside of her wrist, then paused before finally pressing it to her neck, hard enough to get the scent but leaving a red mark.

"Do you want to smell ?" She held out her hand and gave him a flirtatious look, hoping to charm the soldier enough to make him consider her harmless, but not enough to make him want to continue this conversation.

The soldier played along, and after a few more words, they set off. As they rounded the corner, the shopkeeper sighed with relief. "Phew, I thought they'd never leave."

The smile that had been on Millicent's face from the start suddenly disappeared and she turned to the woman. Millicent wiped her mouth and spat on the floor. There was nothing friendly about the look she gave her.

"As you've seen, I can tell a lot of things. I think it would be wise if you listened to your friend and closed your stall for a while. And when you reopen it, it would be best if you got rid of some of these products."

The woman's face became more serious. She had got the message.

"You know a lot," the woman remarked to her.

Millicent sighed before she spoke. "My mother knew a lot. I never thought I'd need it. Then one day my brother got sick. My mother was the one who took care of him. But she fell ill too."

Millicent felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered. She was nine and terrified at the thought of losing her twin brother and her mother. To be alone. And in Ealdor, the nearest physician was at least three days away on horseback.

"My mother was one of the only people in our village who could read. She taught us. Some of them have a few rudiments, but let's say at six we already read better than most of them."

Millicent looked up at the sky before continuing. "She had a book. The sort of book my uncle had. The kind of book you would want. I had to find out how to cure them myself." She shrugged before adding, "I had retained one or two useful things I read."

🎕

Milicent arrived not far from the drawbridge and did not see her brother, but given the time she had spent in the streets of the city, she was sure he was finished with the tasks Gaius had given him. She sighed, imagining that he hadn't waited for her.

She approached several people, asking if they had seen him pass. But apart from a few sidelong glances, or other people simply ignoring her, and one woman who replied with a sorry smile that she hadn't seen anyone of that description, it wasn't very glorious.

Millicent sighed and put her hands on her hips as she looked around. Her gaze fell on a puny boy standing just outside the drawbridge at the entrance to the town, next to a group of knights. The boy kept staring at her, and when he saw that she had noticed him, he looked away.

Millicent squinted. She was sure the boy knew something. She approached him with a friendly smile to put him at ease. "Hello," she said. Her voice was surprisingly friendly, friendlier than it had been since she had left Ealdor.

The boy turned and looked around before realising she was talking to him. "Hello..." he replied, between embarrassment and shyness. He looked at the group of knights. Millicent followed his gaze, assuming that he worked for them and couldn't possibly be chatting, but since the knights were in the middle of a discussion of their own, and since in her opinion the knights were far too self-centred to pay attention to a servant, she thought they wouldn't notice this conversation.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a boy, have you seen him ? He's about my age, about this tall," she put her hand more than a head above her head. "He's dark-haired, his hair is darker than mine, you can get the impression it sometimes turns black," she continued. "He's skinny and He walks around with a perpetual look of «nincompoop» on his face."

It was clear to Millicent, the more she spoke, that the boy had definitely made Merlin's acquaintance. She didn't have time to add another word to her description before someone intervened.

"You mean that idiot ?" As the boy regained his composure, Millicent turned to the group of knights who had approached. One of them, a blonde, had broken away from the group and was facing her.

She blinked for a moment. It was the idiot who had almost bumped into her earlier.

"An idiot ?" she asked. Compared to a few seconds earlier, Millicent's face was devoid of sympathy. She didn't like the idea of her brother being called an idiot, even if he was one, and she hoped to hell it wasn't him the blond boy was talking about.

"Yes, that boy tried to hit me." The boy said this with an astonished laugh, as if the idea that anyone would want to hit him was completely ridiculous.

Millicent was rather relieved to hear the words. It couldn't have been Merlin. Merlin was not a violent man. Stupid, sure, but not violent. But the blond boy didn't stop there.

"Yes, I was having fun with my friends, you see," Millicent crossed her arms and listened to him with a bored look on her face. There was something about him she didn't like, apart from the fact that he was a knight. It was the way he spoke. "We were training and this boy misinterpreted the situation. He thought I was bullying my friend here." The blond pointed at the boy she was talking to and asked him to intervene. She followed his gaze and the boy forced a smile.

«His friend.» She wasn't so sure. She was convinced that he had to martyr this boy. And she didn't like that information. Because even if Merlin wasn't violent, he was the kind of person who would intervene if he saw an injustice or a group of boys bothering someone weaker.

"Just when I was about to set things right, to calm him down," the blond man put his hand dramatically to his chest. "He started insulting me."

Millicent arched an eyebrow and couldn't help but look mockingly dumbfounded. "Insulting you ? You who are so sympathetic."

"Isn't it ?" The boy had obviously missed the irony in the brunette's words, and that was no bad thing. "What was his name again..." The knight seemed to think, looked up and snapped his fingers a few times. "Ah yes ! Merlin."

Merlin.

Hearing her brother's name, Millicent froze. She slowly closed her eyes with an exasperated sigh before pinching the bridge of her nose. "I see he's managed to make friends already," she muttered to herself.

She was going to kill him.

She took a deep breath to stay calm and straightened up, regaining her composure. "So you saw him."

"Yes. Before I sent him to the dungeons."

Millicent's eyes opened wider, she even unconsciously reached out as if to make sure she'd heard right, and her jaw almost dropped. "To what ?"

The knight completely ignored her question and continued his monologue. "He took himself a bit for..."

This was too much for her. When she realised that her brother was actually in a cell as she spoke, she couldn't help but make a scathing remark. "And you, who do you think you are to send him to a cell ?" she asked, stunned.

Her brother might be insufferable, but not enough to put him in irons. Besides, the boy was only a knight. She was pretty sure he couldn't do that.

"For the Prince. Arthur. Arthur Pendragon. The King's son." Arthur said the words with satisfaction and a hint of contempt as he grinned. As for Millicent, she thought she felt her eyes leave their sockets as the announcement had the effect of a bucket of cold water on her head.

"The prince..." she repeated in a small voice, still in disbelief. She took a deep breath and raised her eyes to the sky, feeling a nervous breakdown coming on. "How on earth could he have beef with a prince ?" She whispered to herself.

She thought about Gaius' words. And she thought about why she had told Merlin to wait for her at the drawbridge. To avoid something like this, but letting him go to the drawbridge alone was obviously giving him too much independence.

If their mother knew...

Arthur continued his explanation, going into great detail, but Millicent only listened with one ear. She didn't recognise any of her brother's personality traits in what he was saying. Naturally, she was convinced that he was distorting events. The prince sounded like a complete moron. But moron or not, she wanted to kill her brother for putting himself in such a situation.

"Are you his girlfriend ?" Arthur asked suddenly, snapping Millicent out of her thoughts.

Of all the things she'd heard so far, it was the most startling thing anyone had ever said to her. "His what ?" She almost choked on the words. "If you come out with that kind of nonsense, I can understand why he called you an idiot."

The words had come out of her mouth and she regretted them when she saw the look of confusion on the prince's face. "I beg your pardon !?"

To be clear, she meant every word she had just said, but she did not want to get into the same trouble as her brother. So with all the strength she could muster, she painted a smile on her face and looked like a fool. "Excuse me, sir, we come from a small village and you know girls like me don't have the same education, I don't know good manners." But even the kindest smile couldn't remove the note of sarcasm from his voice.

Arthur studied her for a moment. Millicent psychologically prepared herself to find herself in a cell next to her brother's for having touched the wrong person's ego, but surprisingly the prince let it go.

"Anyway, a boy like him couldn't have gone out with a girl like that." This remark provoked comment from Arthur's knightly friends. Millicent assumed it was meant as a compliment, but didn't take it as such and did her best to suppress a grimace, but her contempt was evident in her eyes.

"If he's not your boyfriend, who are you ?"

"His sister."

"Ah..." he exclaimed with a chuckle, looking over his shoulder at his friends. Did he really need an audience for his antics ? "That explains a lot," he added.

Millicent raised an eyebrow as she felt her patience wearing thin. She was beginning to understand why Merlin had wanted to beat the boy, even if she still doubted the veracity of the information. "What exactly do you mean by that ?"

"Your arrogance. I mean your arrogance. You have the same"

Millicent laughed. Condescension personified calling her arrogant. She almost choked as she fought the words from her throat. She wore an arrogant smile - she might as well prove him right now - before correcting him. "Please, my prince," her tone was more than mocking and this time Arthur understood and seemed to be annoyed at the way this girl was behaving towards him. He was not used to it. "Don't insult me, I taught him arrogance."

A mocking sound echoed in Arhtur's throat. "A girl who shapes a boy's personality, eh ?" The prince's companions chuckled at the remark, while Millicent felt her face tighten.

It was official, the son was worse than the father.

"Perhaps I should send you to the dungeons instead of him, then."

"Maybe... But you won't." Arthur seemed surprised at this cheeky reply. "I wouldn't ?" He chuckled. "What makes you think that ?"

"I just know, that's all. And you have no reason to."

Arthur laughed in his face, something that annoyed Millicent deeply, but it was clear now that the mere existence of this boy annoyed the brunette. Everything about that boy was annoying. She hadn't thought she could be so annoyed by anyone.

"I could do it because I want to. For my own pleasure."

If this thought was meant to frighten or intimidate Millicent, it didn't work. In fact, it had the opposite effect, making her even more shameless.

"And your people will know that their future king is a tyrant." Millicent uncrossed her arms and spread them out, pointing to what was around them. Arthur noticed that some passers-by had stopped to watch the road.

The Prince's smile faded and when the people realised that the Prince was watching them, they all continued on their way. Millicent could see that the Prince had been affected by this, even though he was doing his best to pretend that he didn't care.

Arthur forced a smile that looked a little petty on his face. "You're going to see your brother, I suppose ?" Millicent didn't answer, figuring it was none of his business what she was going to do. But he took her silence as a positive response. "Perhaps you'd like me to show you the way ?"

Millicent sensed the underlying threat behind his false sympathy, but it also seemed to be tinged with something else.

"No, thank you, I can find my way. I'll just have to start by looking where you won't be," she replied with a wide, falsely friendly smile on her face.

Without another word, Millicent walked away. As her footsteps echoed on the stone of the drawbridge she was crossing, Arthur addressed her one last time, raising his voice to make sure he was heard. "What's your name, Merlin's sister ?"

Millicent did not stop, nor did she even glance over her shoulder in the direction of the prince. She merely raised her voice and replied simply. "You didn't need to know it as we will never talk to each other again." Arthur watched her walk away with panache, flabbergasted, her long brown hair swaying behind her back, her long skirt moving in time with her footsteps.

She had just left, without a glance at him. No one, let alone a girl, had ever behaved like that to him. He cast a dumbfounded glance at his fellow knights as Millicent clung to the firm belief that she would never speak to this prince prat again.

Little did she know that she would never be so wrong in her entire life.

Chapter Text

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟 - 𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑎

━━━━━━ ✧◦☉◦✧ ━━━━━━

Merlin sat on the dirty floor of his cell among the straw and threw a pebble at the wall opposite the one he was leaning against. He paused for a moment, raised his head and turned to look at the bars of his cell when he heard echoes.

He got to his feet and curiously approached his cell door. Suddenly Millicent appeared in front of him, startling him. He didn't know how she had found out he was there, but he didn't dare ask. He remained silent for a moment, trying to gauge his sister's state of mind.

They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments and suddenly Millicent lunged for the bars, thrusting her arm through to grab her brother's shirt. But he, who knew his sister by heart, barely managed to jump back. "Ahah !" he shouted, proud that he hadn't been caught.

If he had any doubts, this action made it clear to Merlin that she was furious.

"You're not going to get away with this Merlin, I'm going to kill you," she said, confirming what he had already thought.

Attracted by the noise, one of the guards came up behind Millicent. Merlin looked at him. "Is this solid ?" The guard didn't seem to understand. "Are the bars solid ?" The guard looked at him, stunned. Was he asking that in order to escape ? Because if so it was the stupidest thing he could have done.

Merlin understood what was going through the guard's mind and shook his head in the negative. "No, no, I don't want to get out, I want to make sure she can't get in."

The guard glared at Millicent before looking in turn at the two wizards, understanding nothing of what they were witnessing. "Twins," Millicent said simply, enlightening him to the situation.

A low chuckle rang out from the soldier's throat in reply, and he gave Merlin a sympathetic look before walking back to the dungeon entrance, leaving him alone with his sister.

"I can explain," he began to justify himself.

A guttural sound came from Millicent's throat. "You better. But you see, I thought about it on my way here and I couldn't find a single acceptable explanation for you trying to hit a prince. A prince, Merlin ! For God's sake !"

Merlin didn't know how she knew that, but once again he didn't dare ask. He should defend himself first. "A prince, perhaps, but an ass, I can assure you."

"I know," she whispered, annoyed.

"You met him ?" he asked, surprised. "You met Arthur ?"

"Prince prat ? Alas, I did."

"Is he still alive ?" Merlin almost worried.

Millicent rolled her eyes. "Of course he is, Merlin !"

"I was just asking..." he murmured, feeling that the more he talked, the more he was getting on his sister's nerves.

"I'm not like you," she said with an ironic and knowing smile. Merlin gave her a sheepish smile that caused her to raise her eyes once more.

Then he had the hope that she would be more lenient with him, now that he knew she had met that jerk. "You've met him, you should understand. Except maybe if he acted differently with girls."

Millicent sneered, not at all amused. "Believe me, he acts worse with them."

"Then you can't be mad at me, right ?" Merlin swallowed as he saw his sister's gaze as stern as ever, perhaps even more so. "Right...?" he tried to ask again in a small and unnaturally high voice, pitiful.

"Oh, can't I ? You think I can't ? I'm more than angry Merlin, I'm furious !" she snapped. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Do you remember everything Gaius told us ?"

"Oh, roughly..." Merlin said nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

"You did the exact opposite !" She exclaimed again. "At everything ! From his quarters to the drawbridge, you managed to find yourself in a cell !"

"But he's going to get me out, isn't he ?" He asked, suddenly worried about his fate.

"I hope for your sake he can. I haven't spoken to him yet. But you must stop acting like this, Merlin. Stop being selfish and start thinking about others and the consequences of your own actions."

"How can I be selfish when I am in a cell ? "

"We live with Gaius, the court physician. Our actions affect his name by example. You haven't even thought about it. That's what I mean by selfish." The more she spoke, the more ashamed Merlin felt. Then she softened a little and sighed. "And think of me. I am not going to help get you out of situations like this every day. You're going to kill me with worry one day, Merlin..."

"I'm sorry..."

"Listen, don't move..." Merlin looked at her, showing the walls around him. She grinned, sorry. "I mean... Don't speak. To anyone. Please. And let me handle this. I'll talk to Gaius."

He nodded, and as she started to leave, he called her back. "Millicent." She stopped and turned back to him. "Thank you."

🎕

"I've found you a paid work !" exclaimed Gaius with a big smile on his face, his hand raised, happy to announce this to his niece as she walked into his quarters.

Millicent froze, finding nothing more to tell him about what had just happened. "Merlin's in jail."

She looked at him with a forced smile, waiting for his reaction, not knowing what else to say. Gaius' smile faltered and he let his arms fall back around his body. "He what ?" he asked before shaking his head. "I... He... How ?"

"Well, funny story," she began nervously. "He saw a knight playing a little too rough with a servant during a training session, if I'm not mistaken, but it wasn't really a knight. It was..."

"Arthur ?" Gaius said with a sigh, closing his eyes and cutting her off.

"Oh, so he really is like that with everyone." Millicent snorted a sarcastic laugh.

"He's a prince."

"Yeah, he liked to say that."

"Wait, you met him too ? You were with Merlin when it happened ?"

"If I was, do you really think Merlin would be in a cell right now ?" she asked as if the answer was obvious. "No, I had the honour of meeting Prince Prat after that little... row ?"

"Little row, eh ? I hope, for Merlin's sake, the King sees things the same way you do." Gaius said before heading for the door to his quarters.

"So you'll help him, won't you ?" she asked as she followed on his heels.

"Of course I'm going to help him. And you, you come with me."

🎕🎕

"I have very little time for you Gaius, for as you know Lady Helen is coming soon, so speak and be quick." Millicent, standing a little further back beside her uncle Gaius, faced the King in the huge throne room. The king sat on his throne. And not far away was the beautiful girl with the long black hair she had seen through the window of the castle the day before at the execution of Thomas James Collins, and behind her was another girl she assumed to be her maid.

"I won't be long." Gaius cleared his throat, he glanced at Millicent and for that moment she had a bad feeling, but she had no time to wonder as Gaius spoke. "As I'm sure Lady Morgana has already told you, I have offered her the services of my niece as her maid."

At these words, Millicent suddenly turned towards Gaius, trying to hide the surprise on her face. That was a low blow. Working for the nobility. Suddenly, the idea of working in a tavern, as Merlin had imagined two days before, seemed much more acceptable to her.

Millicent's eyes fell on the girl standing not far from the king with her servant. The famous Lady Morgana, she guessed. The girl gave her a discreet smile.

Millicent stood up straight, feeling the king's stern gaze on her. Uther placed a hand under her chin. "As I told her, and as you know, Gaius, Lady Morgana already has a maid, in addition to all those who serve at the castle."

Morgana frowned slightly, as if displeased by what she had heard. She suddenly looked innocent before turning her head towards the King and giving him her beautiful, ingenuous smile. "Well, I'm the king's ward, so two wouldn't be too many. Besides... it would give Guinevere more free time, and if they're more rested they'll be more efficient."

Uther frowned slightly as he watched the one Millicent assumed to be Guinevere. "Guinevere is bad at her job ? Doesn't she suit you ? We can replace her if she's not efficient."

Guinevere's face began to drop, frightened at the thought of losing her position. Morgana shook her head sharply, immediately correcting this misinterpretation. "No !" she exclaimed. She cleared her throat and regained some composure. "I mean... Everyone knows that Guinevere is the best maid in all of Camelot."

"Then why would you want a second ?"

Seeing the King's behaviour made Millicent understand even more why Arthur was such an ass. The apple had obviously not fallen far from the tree.

"Do you know how complicated it is for women to put on and take off clothes ? An extra pair of hands wouldn't go amiss," Morgana tried to be humorous now. Millicent was even surprised that it was so complicated for her to get what she wanted. She thought a woman like her could have anything she wanted.

And she wondered why she was going to all this trouble to get the King to accept her. After all, he had a point. She already had a maid. Guinevere.

"And most ladies of the court get by with less than you have at your disposal, Morgana."

"But I'm your ward, don't you think I'm entitled to more than most ?" She looked up at him with doe eyes, batting her eyelashes with a tender smile. "Please... There will be nothing for you to worry about. Guinevere will teach her everything, all we need is your approval."

Uther sighed before looking at Gaius. "Is your niece a responsible person ? You know I want only the best for Lady Morgana."

Gaius straightened up, his posture haughty. And he nodded solemnly. "I will vouch for her." Millicent was surprised by Gaius' support, as he didn't know her very well and she had been far from showing him the best side of her personality since her arrival. But the fact that he was willing to take risks for her warmed her heart and made her smile discreetly.

Uther looked at Morgana again. "Very well then. As you said, Morgana, you are my ward and you know I can't refuse you anything."

Morgana contained her joy as she shared a knowing smile with Guinevere. "Thank you, Your Grace," Gaius said with a nod. He glanced at Millicent who imitated him.

Uther looked at Gaius as he cleared his throat a second time. The king wondered what his physician was still doing here. "Gaius ? Do you have anything to add ?"

"Well..." He sounded nervous.

"Speak at last, Gaius."

"My niece has a brother, Merlin. And due to an unfortunate... misunderstanding, he was sent to a cell... by Prince Arthur, sir."

"Yes, I've heard that my son sent a boy to the dungeons, and you tell me he's your nephew ?"

"Alas, sir," Gaius sighed, jaded. "I'm afraid it is."

Uther hummed thoughtfully. "That is unfortunate indeed. But I do not have time to deal with it tonight, Gaius, we are waiting for Lady Helen."

Gaius sighed and looked forlornly at Millicent. He walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, indicating that he should go with her. "Come, we'll sort this out tomorrow," he whispered to her.

Just as they had decided to leave the matter in abeyance, the king seemed to reverse his decision. He raised his hand to stop them as they were about to leave. "Wait, Gaius."

"Sir ?"

"You have been a loyal friend for many years, and it gives me no pleasure to see you leave so upset. Perhaps I could spare you a few minutes before Lady Helen arrives to sort out this unfortunate problem."

"Believe me, sir, I wish to resolve this matter as quickly as you do."

"It has been brought to my attention that your nephew has insulted and attempted to physically assault my son. Therefore, Arthur have decided to put him in a cell. Can you explain to me how you think this is a misunderstanding ?"the king asked.

As Gaius thought of an answer for Uther, Millicent took a step forward. "If you'll allow me, my lord..." She paused and bowed her head slightly, a sign of false submission to the king and, more importantly, to avoid her uncle's gaze.

Uther motioned for her to continue. "I was not present when it happened, but I had the great honour of meeting your son, the Prince." Millicent tried to keep the slightest hint of sarcasm out of her voice, even though every word she had just spoken almost scratched her vocal chords.

"And after talking to the prince and my brother, I can easily retrace the event. My brother witnessed a scene which he misinterpreted. On his way to visit the magnificent city outside these walls, Merlin thought he was rescuing a young boy. While your son was simply training with knights, accompanied by his servant, my brother thought he saw a boy being martyred by bullies."

Uther sat up slightly on his throne, surprisingly attentive to Millicent's words. She could feel the pressure building as she realised she held all the cards to get Merlin out of this mess.

Millicent saw the king raise his eyebrows. Surely he had not appreciated the comparison between his son and a bully. The witch tried to make up for it quickly. "Of course, if he had been more attentive, he would never have had the audacity to confuse the prince with a simple bully."

Uther seemed to reflect before speaking again. "Indeed, it looks to me like a misunderstanding. And I would hope that Gaius would not have brought someone dangerous to court, but I cannot overlook the violence he intended to show."

Millicent nodded as if she agreed with everything the King had said. "I agree completely. Violence is no solution. And my brother is not a violent man. We were brought up by our mother alone, my brother and I have only known the gentleness of a mother, and he is not a warlike person."

Was she suggesting that her brother was a big girl's blouse ? Well, sort of. Was he ? Not really. Would Merlin kill her if he heard the way she described him ? There was a good chance. Was that the worst she was going to say ? No, the worst was yet to come.

"And to tell you the truth, sir, my brother is someone... How can I say this..." Millicent deliberately fidgeted with her fingers as if nervous, searching for the words she had already chosen in her mind.

"Well, speak up, he's not here to hear anyway," the king grew impatient.

"Let's say... he's rather... slow on the uptake."

Gaius' eyes widened, as did the King's, and even Lady Morgana and her maid's, understanding the undertone Millicent had deliberately placed in her words. "Oh..." The king fell back in his chair. "You mean that..."

Millicent nodded sadly with a downcast expression. "Yes."

Yes, Millicent had just made her brother out to be a mental retard who was more like a woman than a grown man, and she'd done it shamelessly. And she would do it again in a heartbeat if she had to. For one thing, it was the only solution she could think of, and for another, he deserved it. She was the one who had to get him out of this mess, so he would have no say in how she did it.

"Even in my small village, we have heard that you are a just and magnanimous king, and I dare hope that you will show mercy to my brother, who has seen an act meant to be heroic turn into an unconscious mistake." Gaius looked on in astonishment, not knowing her to be so eloquent, and a certain admiration for her intelligence, tinged with a slight fear at the manipulation she was displaying.

Uther ran a hand under his chin before resting his eyes on Gaius. "Well, I suppose I could let him out, but he still needs to be punished to understand the consequences of his actions."

Millicent nodded. "You are quite right, Your Majesty." But a slight fear came over her. "And just what kind of punishment are you talking about ?" She hoped her brother wouldn't have his finger cut off like the thieves. That would be most unfortunate.

Just as the king seemed to be thinking, Gaius intervened again. "Allow me to make a suggestion, my lord."

"Go on, what do you have in mind ?"

"Perhaps the pillory would be more than enough."

The king considered the matter before nodding. "It seems reasonable to me. But I don't think I can arrange it before tomorrow."

"Oh, let him spend the night in the dungeon," Millicent said suddenly, surprising herself. She'd been completely out of character for a moment, having just thought that spending the night in the dungeon would teach her brother a few lessons. Now the King and Gaius had turned on her.

"I mean... I told you, my brother takes a long time to understand, but he always does in the end. I'm sure a night in the dungeon will make him think. And he's wasted enough of your time and your son's already."

Millicent held back a small, petty smile. Gaius could see that she took great pleasure in convincing the King to leave her brother in the dungeon for the night.

"Well, Gaius, at least you have a responsible niece, that's remarkable. It's a shame it's the girl who's inherited that trait though." Millicent's smile froze at the comment. She forced it back onto her face.

"Well, I will try to instil that sense of responsibility in my brother and share it with him," she barely managed to articulate between her clenched teeth.

What an obnoxious jerk.

Millicent and Gaius bowed one last time before leaving the throne room. "You're really cruel, you know that ?" said Gaius in a whisper, but with a smirk that betrayed his amusement. He said that about everything she had just said about her brother.

"I know," she huffed with a slight sneer.

Morgana watched Gaius and Millicent disappear behind the huge door of the room before turning to Uther. "Can I go too, just for a few moments ?"

"I told you I wanted you to be with me to greet Lady Helen," the King replied in his stern voice.

"Please, I'll be quick."

The King sighed. "You'd better be here when Lady Helen arrives." She didn't even let him finish before Morgana walked out, Guinever at her heels.

As Millicent and Gaius made their way to his quarters, Millicent heard a voice calling out to her. They both stopped and as the brunette turned she saw Lady Morgana hurrying towards her.

Before she realised what was happening, she heard Gaius shy away from her. "I'll wait for you in my quarters." She glanced at her uncle, hoping he would not abandon her in the face of the king's ward, but he was already on his way.

Coward.

Looking ahead, Millicent saw that Morgana had reached her, her maid behind her. Millicent bowed, trying to make a rather dubious curtsy. Morgana gestured to stop her. "Oh no, no need for that," she said with a smile.

Millicent looked at the King's Ward, wondering what she had come to follow her for, and she quickly cleared up the mystery. "You're going to work for me and we haven't even had time to exchange a few words."

Morgana wanted to get to know her new regular maid, but Millicent believed that Morgana had come to give her instructions or something, not to exchange pleasantries. Yes, it had to be said, Millicent had a very strong opinion of the nobility.

Millicent pretended to be more grateful than she really was, seeing her new position as more of a poisoned chalice than anything else. And as they faced each other, Millicent couldn't help but ask the question that had been burning in her mind, feeling that she could speak more freely to the young woman than to her guardian.

"I thank you for that, I assure you, but... may I ask why you accepted ?" This question seemed to take Morgana by surprise. Millicent then explained her reasoning. "You must understand that I am unfamiliar with all these customs and I am in danger of being a very poor servant. Especially compared to Guinevere," she added, indicating Guinevere with a wave of her hand.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Guinevere replied with a comforting smile. "We all started somewhere."

"All maids could be considered bad compared to Guinevere," Morgana said in praise of her maid, which surprised Millicent. She was rather pleasant at the moment. Which surprised her, given that she had grown up surrounded by the Tyrant King and the Prince Prat. "She's been doing this for a long time and she's very good at it."

"Then why ?"

Morgana's expression softened further. "Gaius helps me a lot, so it makes me happy to return the favour. And obviously you're already in a lot of trouble with... what's his name ?" she asked, slightly confused. "Your brother."

"Merlin."

"Yes, Merlin. So if there's anything I can do to help, I'd be happy to."

Millicent frowned slightly, taken aback by all this kindness. For apart from Gaius, all of Millicent's encounters since arriving in Camelot had been rather tumultuous. "We are strangers."

Morgana had no time to reply when a guard came to call her, informing her that the King wanted her back at his side. She looked at Millicent and felt sorry. Without warning, she placed a hand on Millicent's, which surprised her. "I'm really sorry, but I don't have much time for you now."

Now that sounded a bit more like any highborn lady. She was just a servant now, and even without that title she was just a common girl, so why should she bother to grant her anything ? But what disturbed Millicent most was that the King's Ward seemed sincere in her words and genuinely disappointed that their exchange had to be cut short.

"But I want us to get to know each other better, okay ?" Millicent nodded slowly, confused, and then Morgana released her hand before walking away. But unlike when she had come to meet her, Guinevere was not hot on her mistress's heels. She was still there, facing Millicent.

"You look troubled."

"Well, she's..."

"Kind ?" Guinevere's question wasn't really a question. She looked at Millicent with her head tilted slightly, a soft mocking smile on her lips.

"Yes," Millicent admitted.

"And that surprises you ?"

Millicent arched an eyebrow as if the answer to that question was obvious. "Well, yes." She was even surprised that it seemed so normal to the maid.

"I see, nobles..." she said in a knowing tone.

"And besides, she grew up with Prince Arthur, so..." Millicent couldn't help adding. She had expected a female namesake of the Prince, not his opposite.

Guinevere seemed horrified at the comparison between the two. "My God, don't compare them. Arthur is a bit of a bully."

"He's a prince."

This remark, both bold and sincere, drew a soft laugh from Guinevere. "Your brother's deed was brave." Millicent looked curiously at Guinevere. "I saw what happened from one of the windows in Lady Morgana's chambers," she explained.

Millicent sighed, "I would have preferred to say stupid, but that's what he is."

Another light chuckle left Guinevere's lips before she gave Millicent another polite smile. "I have to go."

"Of course," Millicent acknowledged with a bow of her head. She straightened, clasping her hands in front of her as if to ground herself.

"And don't worry. I'm sure you'll get on well with Morgana and I'll be there to help you."

"Thank you, Guinevere."

"Oh, call me Gwen, please," she insisted, a gleam of amusement in her eyes.

"Call me Milli then."

"See you later, Milli." Gwen gave her a final nod of encouragement before turning away, her skirts swishing softly as she walked down the corridor, leaving Millicent to catch her breath before facing her new duties.

🎕🎕🎕

Guinevere came to collect Millicent from Gaius' quarters in the early hours of the morning, just as the castle was waking up. The young woman was to spend the day with the King's ward's maid, absorbing her habits and daily routine.

The first few hours were strange for Millicent. She tried to be discreet, not to get in the way, not to disturb. So much so that at times she felt like a silent shadow following in Guinevere's wake. Truth be told, she felt more useful as a decorative plant than in any other role. She watched Guinevere's every move, analysed the way she spoke to others, noted every detail : what she did, how she did it, why, for whom, when. So many things that might have seemed insignificant to an outsider, but suddenly took on crucial importance.

Fortunately, the first part of the morning did not end with this quiet observation. Guinevere, aware of her new apprentice's discomfort, took the time to talk to her. She told her of her daily life, not only in the castle, but also outside, in the lower town. She spoke of the busy streets, the stalls she sometimes visited and the people she knew. She spoke with a simplicity that made Millicent think she had glimpsed another world, far beyond the stone walls of Camelot.

As the two young women strolled through the busy streets of the city, Guinevere completed the explanations that Millicent had missed on her first visit. Millicent listened with interest, but suddenly there was a gleam of mischief in her eyes. She turned her head towards Gwen and smiled.

"Tell me, Gwen, would you mind if we went to see my brother at the stocks ?"

Guinevere paused for a second before shaking her head in amusement. A smile spread across her face. "Not at all, a little support wouldn't do him any harm, I suppose."

Millicent let out a small laugh before muttering to herself, her eyes already turned towards the public square. "Support, yes..." To tell the truth, she was thinking about something else than just comforting her idiot brother.

Millicent arrived at the stocks as her brother was being pelted with tomatoes and other vegetables that were no longer fit to put on a plate. She didn't even pretend to feel sorry for her brother and shamelessly let a sneer escape from her mouth. This sound, which Merlin knew by heart and would recognise anywhere, caught his attention.

He made the mistake of looking up to find his sister in the crowd and got some rotten cabbage thrown in his face. Running out of things to throw, the children ran off to quickly fill their baskets again.

"You're enjoying yourself, aren't you ?" Merlin asked his sister, already knowing the answer.

"That's an understatement," she said with a mocking smile.

"I suppose it's deserved."

"I wouldn't argue with you on this one, Merlin."

"I'm touched that you took the time to come and see me," he joked, preferring to laugh at his situation now that he realised he couldn't escape. He would have to suffer his punishment until someone deigned to come and release him.

"And miss this show ? Never."

"Say, that's a bit itchy on my face there," Merlin tried to point to a particular spot on his face with his bound hands as a remnant of tomato fell from his hair to the floor. "Could you..." He stopped his question before he had finished, seeing the expression on his sister's face. "Or at least wipe my..." Once again, his sentence died in mid-sentence as he realised he wasn't going to get any help from the brunette.

"And get my clothes dirty ? I've gone to more than enough trouble for you already." She scanned her brother's face, which had seemed rather unaffected so far. "These kids have pretty bad aim."

"That's what you say. I'm the one who gets kicked in the back of the head with vegetables," he complained, but Millicent paid little attention to his complaints.

"That's what I'm saying, they've got a bad aim."

"I find getting lettuce on my hair bad enough, so I wouldn't complain about their lack of skill." As he spoke, Merlin saw Millicent looking over his shoulder. He started to straighten up, forgetting for a moment that he was stuck, but without another word he saw her walk away. The boy panicked, "Hey, where are you going ?" he called worriedly, "I don't like that look !"

Guinevere, who had remained in the background during this exchange, took advantage of Millicent's absence to introduce herself and speak to Merlin, inadvertently distracting him from what his sister was preparing.

Millicent returned a few moments later, followed by the children, who ran back to finish what they had started. She paused for a moment, level with the children, and looked at her brother in amusement. She was prepared to swear that he and Guinevere were flirting rather awkwardly.

Her attention was caught by one of the children tugging at her skirt. "There, you're at a good distance, ma'am," he pointed out.

She offered him a smile. "Thank you." Then she started bouncing a tomato in her hand and looked at her brother. "Now it's just the two of us."

Merlin, who had just finished talking to Guinevere and noticed the children had returned to look after him, noticed his sister standing out in the middle of them. His eyes fell on the tomato in Millicent's hands and he looked at her, offended. "You won't dare ?"

Seeing Millicent's smile widen in response, Merlin sighed in resignation before closing his eyes. He knew something that few people knew about Millicent, and that was that her aim was good. Very good. So good, in fact, that she was the only woman in her village who had ever accompanied the men on the hunt when times were hard and they had lost all their cattle.

Not surprisingly, the next thing he knew, the tomato his sister had been holding in her hands just moments before hit him right in the face. The tomato crashed into his nose, then slid gently down his face until it fell off and hit the ground.

Merlin winced and Millicent came to his side, making sure she was out of range of the children's shots. "Why did you do that ?" Merlin asked.

"For being an idiot," she replied with a knowing look. She rubbed her hands together before placing them on her hips. "Well, I'll leave you to it, I know your fans will look after you." Millicent merely winked at her brother and left without another word, joining Guinevere.

"Poor Merlin, you're not taking it easy on him," she said with a soft laugh, full of sympathy for Merlin.

"We had a disagreement to settle, he and I," the witch replied simply.

"And ?" Genever asked curiously, even though it was clear that Millicent was not going to push the matter any further.

"It's settled."

🎕🎕🎕🎕

After visiting Merlin at the stocks, Gwen talked less about their role as maids and more about the court and its customs. She shared details with Millicent that she herself might have preferred to ignore. The court, the nobility... Millicent could never have imagined that this world would one day mingle with her own. And, to tell the truth, she would have preferred that it had never happened.

Guinevere mostly mentioned Uther and Arthur, but especially Morgana. Millicent quickly realised that Gwen spent most of her time with the King's ward. A detail that intrigued her. Was she just resting ? As far as she could tell, Guinevere spent far more hours with Morgana than was necessary. Not because she was forced to, but because the young noblewoman constantly requested her presence.

They were friends.

The information took Millicent by surprise and she made no attempt to hide it. Gwen noticed immediately. "What's the matter ? Something seems to be troubling you, Milli," Guinevere gently urged her to tell him what she was thinking.

"I don't want to be rude or hurt your feelings, Gwen," the brunette began carefully. "But... how can you be sure that she thinks of you as a friend when she treats you like a maid ?"

"Which I am." Yes, Guinevere was Morgana's maid, and that was what made the line between Guinevere's position and her friendship with her mistress difficult for Millicent to grasp. "But she does it respectfully."

"Isn't she just respectful then ?"

Guinevere stretched a smile. "You'll understand yourself."

Millicent scoffed, held back a louder sarcastic laugh and rolled her eyes. "Oh, I doubt she and I are going to be friends."

"Why is that ?"

"Well..." Yes, that was true. Why's that ? Millicent wasn't convinced that Morgana would give her her friendship, but she didn't care because she didn't even want it. She could do without it. "I'm not the type to make friends," Millicent concluded, playing with her hands as if she were wearing rings, but her fingers were devoid of jewels.

"And yet we have become friends !" Millicent raised her head in surprise and met Guinevere's sparkling eyes. Her words were sincere and she was full of spirit. You had only met the day before and the young woman already considered you her friend ? Surprised, Millicent did not answer, and her silence almost made Guinevere uncomfortable. "Aren't we ?"

"Of course we are !" Millicent exclaimed, not wanting to hurt Gwen's feelings. To tell the truth, she had answered automatically, but now that she had given the question a little more thought... A gentle smile formed on Millicent's lips. "It's just that it's the first time I've made a friend so quickly." She said these words in a low voice, revealing a hint of vulnerability that Guinevere would not have imagined in her new friend.

"Why is that ?" Guinevere asked, a little surprised. Millicent may have been reserved, but Guinevere found her rather easy to befriend. She seemed to be a woman of great spirit.

"Oh, it's not necessarily other people's fault," Millicent admitted. "It's just that I'm rather..."

"Wild ?" Gwen had answered without thinking, seeming surprised herself that she had said her thoughts out loud. Millicent smiled as she saw her new friend embarrassed by the situation. "At first glance, I mean !" Guinevere tried to make up for it, fearing she had offended Millicent, but instead a burst of laughter escaped Millicent's lips.

Reassured, Gwen let out a chuckle before slipping her arm around Millicent's and pulling her along with her into the corridors of the castle. "You'll see, I'm sure you and Lady Morgana are going to be very good friends."

Chapter Text

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑖𝑣𝑒 - 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡

━━━━━━ ✧◦☉◦✧ ━━━━━━

"So you take advantage of your situation to talk to pretty girls."

Merlin, his head bowed over a bucket of water, shirtless, his soaked hair dripping as he washed, looked under his arm to see the upside-down silhouette of his sister. He stood up and turned to see Millicent standing with her arms crossed in the frame of the open bedroom door.

"I saw you talking to Guinevere earlier," she said, raising an eyebrow as she approached him.

Merlin shook his hair, sending drops of water onto Millicent, who hid behind her hand for a moment before giving him a moralising look.

"Guinevere ? Oh no, I wasn't flirting with her !"

"Yes, of course." Millicent tossed her brother a towel to wipe his hair.

"It's true !" he insisted, clearly embarrassed.

"Anyway, it's not like you know how to do it."

As Merlin wiped his hair, he straightened up, frowning, clearly offended by his sister's remarks. "What are you trying to say, that I don't know how to talk to girls ?"

"You're the one who says it..." she said with an innocent look, taking malicious pleasure in annoying him.

"Millicent." Guinevere's voice echoed from behind her, the young maid standing at the entrance to the court physician's quarters.

Millicent glanced at her new friend before turning back to her brother. "I must leave you Merlin, I have things to do."

Merlin frowned. "Things ? What kind of things ?" It was almost lunchtime. The sun had reached its zenith, what could she possibly have to do ? And most importantly, what was she going to do without him ?

"Things, Merlin," Millicent repeated, a grin on her face, leaving her brother in the dark. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. See you at dinner."

Without another word she left her brother and joined Guinevere before leaving the tower.

Millicent accompanied Guinevere to Lady Morgana's apartments as it was time for dinner. She needed to stay with her to see how things were going. Guinevere informed her that Morgana could dine with Arthur and the King in the Council Chamber, but that they could also dine separately, each in their own rooms. It might even happen that the King, overwhelmed by his duties, would not eat at all.

Frankly, Millicent found it hard to feel sorry for him, for she could easily imagine that one of his meals was equivalent to three meals for his people.

Much to Millicent's delight, she would not have to see the Prince again, or the King for that matter, as Morgana, apparently angry with the King, had decided to have her dinner alone in her room. Millicent didn't know what the argument was about, but she was willing to bet that Morgana was right.

Millicent had tried to wriggle out of the task the first time Guinevere had mentioned it to her, telling her that the most competent of the castle's maids would hardly need a novice like her at her side to bring in a simple dish. But beneath her angelic exterior, Guinevere was a girl more stubborn than Millicent could have imagined.

She had insisted, mainly on the grounds that it would please Lady Morgana to see her. Frankly, Millicent couldn't see why. But Guinevere was such a person, so kind, with such a good heart, that it was hard to refuse her anything. And Millicent had finally given in.

Not to mention that Gwen had come up with an unstoppable argument in case her smile wasn't enough to convince her new friend. Since Morgana had done her the pleasure and honour of taking her into her service, Millicent couldn't afford to avoid her. And even if she did, she wouldn't be able to do so indefinitely, so she might as well face the issue now.

Gwen told her that she might even be treated better than the other servants who did all the work in the castle. Serving one person has its advantages. Since they were with her most of the time, there were some opportunities.

Millicent was not very convinced by the way Gwen tried to sell her work as something wonderful, but she did not contradict her.

As Guinevere and Millicent entered Morgana's quarters, Morgana was sitting by the window, her gaze lost in the distance. When she heard the door open, she turned slowly towards them, smiling at Guinevere before turning her gaze to Millicent.

"Ah, there you are at last," she said as Guinevere set the table. It was true that although she had spent most of the day with Guinevere, she had barely seen Morgana and had not exchanged more than a simple greeting.

Millicent raised an eyebrow, unaccustomed to being greeted with such interest.

"I doubt my absence has been so burdensome, my lady."

Millicent had not been able to hold back the comment, though she had tried to make it as non-ironic as possible, but Morgana did not seem to take offence. On the contrary, she let out a small laugh. "Perhaps not, but I thought Guinevere had kidnapped you for herself."

"She's persuasive," Millicent admitted, glancing at Gwen with a smile on her lips, both amused and proud to have dragged her friend all the way here, as she finished serving dinner.

"Oh, I'm well aware of that," Morgana replied amusedly. "She has a gift for making us believe that everything is simpler than it seems."

Gwen smiled and placed a plate in front of Morgana before turning to Millicent. "You should sit down, there's no need to remain frozen like a statue."

Millicent's eyes darted from Morgana to Guinevere in a split second. Sit down ? Why should she sit down ? She was only supposed to serve the meal. Or rather, watch Gwen do it. But she quickly realised the trap she had walked into. She had been brought here to talk.

At no point was it supposed to be part of the job.

Millicent hesitated, glancing at Morgana who gave her an encouraging nod. Then she took a seat opposite her, feeling a little strange sitting down when she was supposed to be serving.

Morgana took a bite before turning her attention back to her. "So tell me, how do you find life at the castle ?"

Stressful, exasperating, restless.

"Is it living up to your expectations ?"

She hadn't imagined anything. And yet it was worse.

Millicent thought for a moment before answering, choosing her words carefully. "I suppose it depends on what expectations we're talking about. But to be honest, I never thought I'd end up here." She opened her eyes a little wider, staring at the wood of the table, her gaze slightly lost, as if suddenly annoyed by the thought. "Even less as a servant," she added in a murmur intended only for her ears, with obvious irony.

Morgana raised an eyebrow in fascination, not having missed a word of what the brunette had said. "And what would you rather have been ?"

Millicent replied mechanically, without realising it, her mouth speaking before her brain could even think. "Free, I think."

Millicent was still thinking when she said those words, and once they were out of her mouth, she realised the situation. She looked at Morgana, who had a smile on her face. She was... different from what the witch had expected. At the King's ward's attitude, Millicent allowed herself a wry smile.

There was a moment of silence, then Morgana nodded, a hint of understanding in her gaze. "I think I understand."

Guinevere, sensing that the conversation was taking a more serious turn, intervened gently. "Millicent is still getting used to it, but I'm sure she'll do an excellent job."

Millicent took advantage of Guinevere's intervention to leave her chair and stand up.

Morgana looked at her for a moment before turning back to Millicent. "I have no doubt. But I'm not only interested in her work, I'd like to get to know her. After all, we're going to be spending a lot of time together."

Millicent met Morgana's gaze and nodded slowly. "In that case... I suppose we'll have a chance to talk about it."

Morgana smiled in satisfaction. "I suppose so, yes."

Millicent began to fidget with her hands again, as if nervous. She took a breath before speaking to Morgana. "I know I haven't been working for you very long, but... I'd really like to check on my brother."

Liar. She had just done it.

Guinevere raised an eyebrow and looked at her, but said nothing. Millicent decided it wasn't a lie. Yes, she had checked that Merlin was still in one piece, but she had not, strictly speaking, checked on him.

Morgana nodded in understanding. "Yes, go on, I understand. And besides, I don't need you at the moment. I don't think Gwen has had time to explain everything to you, so you can go."

🎕

Millicent arrived in Gaius' quarters to find him and Merlin sitting at the table. "Am I late for dinner ?"

"Not at all," Gaius replied as he served her a plate. "I was about to ask Merlin if he wanted some vegetables with that ?"

Merlin glanced sideways at his sister as she giggled, then glanced back at Gaius, but couldn't help but join her in laughing. "I know you're still angry with me."

"If he is not, I am," Millicent said.

"Yes, I would have thought so. Did you like it ?" asked Merlin, his tone a little accusatory, referring to the tomato his sister had thrown in his face earlier in the day.

"Very much, it was very satisfying," Millicent replied without a trace of remorse before taking another spoonful of her food, ignoring her brother with a glance.

Gaius didn't know exactly what was going on, but he could easily guess. Merlin didn't seem angry. In fact, it made him laugh a little. He knew he deserved it, so he wouldn't reopen the case.

"Your mother asked me to look after you." Millicent and Merlin stopped their teasing as soon as they heard Gaius mention their mother, the conversation taking a more serious tone.

"Yes," Merlin whispered in a guilty tone, understanding the message behind it. He had to be more careful.

"What did your mother say to you about your gifts ?" As soon as Gaius uttered those words, Merlin could feel his sister withdrawing into herself.

Knowing her well enough that she wouldn't answer, he took the floor. "That we were special." Millicent rolled her eyes at the words.

"You are special," Gaius confirmed. He stopped himself when he heard a sarcastic sneer. He turned his head to look at his niece. "What ? You don't believe it. Yet you use magic."

"Used," Millicent corrected him abruptly, as soon as her uncle spoke. "We're not special, just a few wizards among others."

Gaius shook his head negatively, obviously disagreeing with his niece's words. "No, believe me, I can assure you, you are special, both of you."

Millicent shook her head slightly as Gaius spoke before suddenly slamming her hands down on the table, startling Merlin and Gaius. "I don't want to be special, okay ?" Her voice seemed to be taken over by emotion for a second before she regained her composure. "I want to be normal." There was a silence before she spoke again, loudly and with an anger deep inside her. "Being special ? That won't get me too far. And for something illegal here, you talk a lot about magic !"

After her outburst, she stood up, almost knocking over the bench she and Merlin were sitting on, almost causing her brother to fall, and left the table, her plate still full, before walking into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Merlin slowly closed his eyes as he sighed. Of course she had to react that way. Gaius, still in shock at his niece's reaction, remained silent. He could never have imagined Millicent struggling so much with her condition.

Gaius gave Merlin a questioning look. "It's... it's complicated." Merlin could only answer that because he didn't know much more than Gaius. "It was just... complicated."

After an awkward silence, Merlin broke it to satisfy his curiosity. "You said we were special..."

"Yes, the likes of which I've never seen before."

"What do you mean ?" Merlin asked, intrigued.

"Well, magic requires incantations, spells, it takes years of study. What I saw you do was... Elemental. Instinctive." Millicent, leaning against the other side of the bedroom door, could hear their voice faintly.

Instinctive... If only Gaius could know how much that wasn't such a good thing.

"What's the point if it can't be used ?" Merlin seemed at once flattered and mostly frustrated.

"That I do not know. You, and your sister are a question that has never been posed before, Merlin."

"Did you ever study magic ?" asked the boy, fascinated. Gaius seemed to know a lot, even Millicent noticed. How ? And yet he was close to the king who had banned magic. The latter knew all the knowledge his court physician had on the subject.

"Uther banned all such work 20 years ago."

"Why ?" Millicent, still listening to the conversation through the door, didn't like the hint of interest she could hear in her brother's voice. She abhorred the way the king treated sorcerers and witches, but... she could perhaps understand why he banned magic. Perhaps if he did, it was for a good reason, and that was another reason not to use it.

"People used magic for the wrong end at that time. It threw the natural order into chaos. Uther made it his mission to destroy everything from back then, even the dragons."

"All of them ?"

"There was one dragon he chose not to kill, kept it as an example. He imprisoned it in the cave deep beneath the castle. Where no one can free it."

A dragon in the cave deep beneath the castle...

Suddenly, Millicent couldn't help but think of the voice that had woken her the day before and returned to disturb her dream last night.

"Now, eat up. When you've finished, I need you to take a preparation to Lady Helen. She needs it for her voice."

Merlin stood up. "Before I'm going to take Millicent back."

When she heard that, Millicent almost jumped on her bed and pretended to look through the windows as Merlin entered the place. She looked at him. "What ?" she said in an annoyed tone.

"You need to eat. And I promised you no more talk of the forbidden word."

She got up and walked beside Merlin to the table. "All right, but only because I'm hungry."

As Millicent sat, Gaius turned to her. "Millicent."

"Don't worry, I fully intend to accompany him." She said of accompanying Merlin as he took the preparation to Lady Helen. Gaius, surprised that the girl had read his mind, understood that she had heard their entire conversation.

"Do I have a babysitter now ?" began Merlin, slightly vexed by this lack of trust.

"No good behaviour, no choice," Millicent declared, leaving no room for debate. Gaius nodded in agreement and Merlin sighed in resignation before finishing his meal.

🎕🎕

Gaius placed the preparation for Lady Helen in Merlin's hand. He looked at his sister, still annoyed. "Don't look at me like that, look how it ended the last time I left you alone."

"I don't need to be watched over."

"Oh, you think so ?"

Gaius interrupted again, the twins arguing. "Do you not have duties to Morgana ?"

"Not today."

Merlin shot a questioning look at his sister. What the hell had happened in his absence ? "I'll explain, you missed a lot," Millicent replied simply, before pulling on her brother's arm and dragging him out of the room.

When they reached Lady Helen's chamber, Millicent waited outside while Merlin crept into the room to give her the preparation. Millicent could easily tell that Lady Helen was not in her apartment, for she saw her coming directly in front of her.

Lady Helen slowed her pace when she saw Millicent standing by the open door of her room. "What are you doing here ?" she asked, suspicious.

"My brother..." Millicent didn't have time to finish her sentence as Lady Helen's eyes moved from her to the open door and suddenly rushed into her chamber.

Millicent frowned slightly. "Okay... That was weird," she whispered to herself.

A few moments later, Merlin came hurrying out of the room, looking a little worried. He stopped beside his sister and looked over his shoulder at the door. He seemed confused, disturbed and uncomfortable.

Millicent noticed it. "Are you all right ?"

"Yeah, it was..." He looked at his sister, hesitant to share what he had seen. "Nothing, it was just weird."

Millicent wasn't entirely convinced, but Merlin's attitude changed. "Come on, let's go for that walk in the city we couldn't do yesterday." Without giving her time to react, he took his sister's arm and led her as far away from the door, the room and the person sleeping in it as possible.

🎕🎕🎕

"So you're going to serve this Morgana ?" Merlin sniggered, hands deep in his pockets, a mocking gleam in his eyes.

The cobblestones echoed under their feet as Millicent and Merlin walked through the busy streets of Camelot. The smell of warm bread wafted from the shops, mingling with the more pungent scents of the working smithies. Millicent kept her eyes straight ahead, trying to ignore her brother who, judging by his mischievous smile, was enjoying the situation a little too much.

Millicent rolled her eyes in exasperation. She didn't need him to lay it on thick.

"Yes," she whispered with a weary sigh, resigned to her new situation.

He couldn't believe it. His sister, a maid. And not just any maid : the King's ward. He knew better than anyone how much Millicent despised the nobility and everything it stood for. And being the King's ward meant being close to Uther and Arthur. He could already imagine his sister being forced to rub shoulders with them, and he didn't know whether to laugh or feel a pang of pity. After all, he himself avoided these authority figures as much as possible. But the thought of Millicent now trapped in this castle, doing the bidding of a noble lady, made the last twenty-four hours a little more bearable.

Merlin shook his head as if he could hardly believe what he had just heard.

"And you ? You accepted ?"

He paused, glancing at his sister, who was striding along with her shoulders slightly stiff. He knew what that meant : she was swallowing her pride.

"You cannot refuse, Merlin."

Millicent kept her gaze fixed on the path, her fists clenched in the folds of her tunic. She had tried to find a way out, of course. But between Guinevere and Morgana, she quickly found herself trapped. And deep down she knew it was pointless to fight. Her situation was already far from glorious, so it was better to serve one person than to be at the beck and call of the whole castle.

Merlin let out a mocking little laugh, shaking his head with undisguised amusement : "Serving a high-born lady, that's a first."

He savoured the moment. He turned his head slightly towards her, expecting a scowl or a sharp retort. Millicent, on the other hand, gritted her teeth, took a deep breath and remained silent, even though she desperately wanted to ram her elbow into his ribs.

As they walked side by side, Merlin and Millicent saw Arthur Pendragon approaching, once again accompanied by some acolytes, but this time also followed by guards.

Millicent immediately turned to look at her brother. "I-"

"Don't worry," he cut her off. "I'll pretend he's not there, royally ignore him, and we'll continue on our way."

Millicent wrapped her arm around her brother's, partly to maintain some control over him, but also because the gesture brought her comfort. Not to mention the fact that she enjoyed physical contact with those closest to her.

She nodded firmly. "Exactly. And don't look at him."

Surprised by her remark, Merlin raised his eyebrows slightly before turning his head towards her. "Why is that ?"

Millicent straightened slightly and walked with a sure and measured stride, looking ahead and ignoring Arthur who was dangerously closing in. "The look in your eyes says a lot about what you're thinking."

Merlin let out a small chuckle and shook his head in amusement. "And you're the one who says that to me ?"

Millicent smiled wryly, aware of the irony of the situation. "Well, I'll grant you that.. I'm the same," she admitted.

Their paths finally crossed. Millicent and Merlin passed Arthur and walked through the middle of the group without saying a word. Millicent quickened her pace slightly, as if to put some distance between them and the subject of their conversation, still holding her brother's arm tightly.

But it could not have been that simple. Arthur recognised them, a smile appearing on his face as he followed them with his gaze before finally stopping to call out to them. Or rather. To provoke Merlin.

"How's your knee walking coming along ?"

"Ignore him," Millicent whispered into her brother's ear.

Millicent could see that Merlin was trying hard to listen to her, but that was without expecting another comment from Arthur, a theatrical side to his way of speaking. "Oh, don't run away."

That was all it took. Merlin stopped suddenly. Millicent turned to him and shook her head vigorously. "No."

Merlin looked at his sister and she could see the anger in his eyes. Merlin clenched his jaw, even biting his tongue. He fought not to open his mouth. Millicent almost begged him with her eyes.

"From you ?" Merlin finally replied.

Millicent rolled her eyes. And there they went again.

"Oh, thank God, I thought you were deaf as well as dumb."

No sooner had Arthur spoken than Millicent turned halfway round, glancing over her shoulder to give him a withering look. It had to be said, he knew how to drive people mad. He was annoying and provocative, but as long as Merlin hadn't turned to face Arthur, who had taken a few steps forward, Millicent still clung to the hope that her brother would remain in control and they would avoid another incident. But that damned prince wasn't making it easy.

But when she saw the smile that had just appeared on her brother's face, Millicent knew it was too late. Arthur was approaching again, his friends still following, when Merlin replied in the same tone as the blonde. "Look, I've told you, you're an ass. I just didn't realise you were a royal one."

To underline his comment, Merlin turned to Arthur and locked eyes with him. Millicent stifled a small chuckle, for even though the situation was disastrous, Merlin had made a very good comeback and, most importantly, he was right. She turned as well, still standing beside her brother but letting go of his arm.

Arthur raised his eyebrows and looked over his shoulder at his mates. Merlin could have stopped there. He should have stopped. But he didn't.

"Oh, what are you going to do ? Get your daddy's men to protect you ?"

In any other context, Millicent might have been proud of her brother, but now she felt like knocking him out with the first thing she could get her hands on.

Arthur burst out laughing, his two friends behind him also giggling, probably more to keep up with Arthur or to make fun of Merlin's stupidity rather than really being amused by the situation. Millicent was resigned to the situation. She had to deal with a mixture of stupidity and male ego.

"I could take you apart with one blow."

"I could take you apart with less than that."

"Are you sure ?"

Merlin didn't answer. He seemed to be thinking. And after a brief and strange silence, he suddenly began to remove his jacket, provoking chuckles from Arthur and his friends. Millicent's eyes widened and her eyebrows raised. Was he serious ? He was really going to fight and stoop to this level of immaturity.

Millicent wrinkled her nose and looked at her brother, stunned and as embarrassed as possible. At that point, she understood why Arthur was making fun of him. It was completely ridiculous, and from the look on his face, it was easy to guess that Millicent was judging her brother harshly. She would have expected that from any boy, but not Merlin.

And for the first time since the beginning of the exchange between Arthur and Merlin, she spoke. "Merlin, what are you doing ? You don't even know-"

"Please don't say that in front of him," he cut her off, preferring not to give Arthur another element to make fun of. But Millicent ignored his plea.

"It won't change the fact that you don't know how to fight."

Merlin threw his jacket at his sister, who stepped back and watched it fall to her feet. Yes, it had just lost its effect, but if he thought for a second that she was going to pick up his jacket like a good little girl, he was kidding himself.

Arthur laughed before throwing a weapon at him, which he caught clumsily and miserably. "Here you go, big man. Come on then." If it had been ridiculous before, it was now becoming dangerous to engage in this fight. Millicent didn't even know the name of the weapon.

Millicent stood facing Merlin, her back to the prince. "If it was stupid before, it's getting suicidal now !"

"It can't be that hard," Merlin said, trying to convince himself at the same time.

"Then why do you think he's been training for years ?" It was clear that Merlin had no acceptable answer.

"And you, get away, you don't want to get hurt."

Millicent turned to Arthur, who was waving his weapon over his head in exasperation. "Excuse me, I'm talking to my brother." She shook her head, annoyed, before turning her attention back to Merlin.

Arthur opened his mouth slightly, a little indignant at the way the girl had just rebuffed him, but he just smiled. He lowered his weapon and looked amused as he crossed his arms in front of him and began to wait impatiently.

"Your sister is worried about you. And she's right." Millicent breathed loudly through her nose, annoyed that the prince was trying to interfere in the conversation and especially that he was talking as if she wasn't there or didn't exist.

"I warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth," he continued. Millicent rolled her eyes in disgust at such pretension and arrogance.

Surely he had received a prestigious education, had they never taught him to be quiet ?

"Wow, and how long have you been training to be a prat ?"

Arthur shook his head, both amused and baffled, and chuckled to himself, wondering if this boy knew how to remember anything. "You can't address me like that."

"Sorry. How long have you been training to be a prat, my Lord ?"

The Prince's friends let out little gasps, pretending to be impressed. Arthur nodded with a sneer and suddenly pulled Millicent's arm, catching her off guard and off balance, and shoved her behind him to bring his weapon down on Merlin, who dodged brilliantly.

Millicent fell on Arthur's friends, who caught her. She got to her feet immediately and shook them off. "Don't touch me," she said unpleasantly, without thanking them, before following Arthur and Merlin, who had walked down the street without interrupting their confrontation.

There was a large gap between the two fighting boys, and Millicent quickly positioned herself directly between them. This time she had her back to her brother, her hands outstretched towards Arthur as if to signal him to stay away and stop. She closed her eyes for a moment, afraid that Arthur's weapon would hit her, but it didn't. The prince threw the large spiked ball at the end of his weapon backwards.

Millicent breathed a sigh of relief before straightening up, regaining some composure and tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I'm taking the liberty of intervening again. I know he can be really stupid and he's a real idiot, but I really prefer my brother alive, so you understand I can't let you kill him."

Arthur feigned a concerned look. "Oh really cute, your sister is protecting you Merlin." This mocking phrase, phrased in a way that made Millicent feel invisible, annoyed her greatly.

Merlin wanted to shove his sister. "Let me kick his ass."

She turned to him, stopping him with one hand. "No, Merlin. Apologise and give up. Remember what Gaius said. If you are in trouble, you can sully his reputation."

"Your sister has a point," Arthur intervened again. If he went on like this, Millicent would take that strange weapon from her brother's hand and kick the prince's ass herself. "I see one is smarter than the other, but Gaius is a loyal friend of my father's, so you need not worry."

Every time she found an argument to convince Merlin, Arthur came up with a counter-argument. He was clearly eager for this fight. And he clearly didn't know as much about the art of not interrupting a conversation as he did about the art of holding a weapon.

Millicent turned to him. "Allow me not to trust your words entirely." Then she turned back to her brother. "Apologise."

Merlin took a step back. "What ? Never. Why would I ?"

"Whether he's an ass or not, he's still a prince, Merlin."

Arthur frowned, staring at you, shocked at the way you allowed yourself to talk about him. "You..."

Millicent looked over her shoulder at Arthur. "Oh, sorry," she cut him off. "He's a royal ass, we all get that, but it won't change anything if you fight with him. And this time you're the one provoking him."

"What ?!" Merlin was outraged. "But he's the one who..."

"Ok, he made a stupid comment, but you're the one who started insulting him. You asked for it."

Merlin looked at his sister in disbelief, feeling deeply betrayed. "Oh really, you're on his side now ?"

Millicent rolled her eyes in annoyance. Why was she involved in this mess again ? "Oh, stop being such a crybaby. I'm just saying that this time you have a reason to apologise."

Merlin seemed to hesitate, and Millicent's hope that he would make the right choice was rekindled. All it took was one last push, just one. She clung to his arm a little tighter, her voice becoming more urgent. "Merlin. Do it."

A mocking sneer reached them, cutting through the air with contempt. "You take orders from your sister ?"

Merlin clenched his fists, but his jaw remained clenched. "No, I don't."

"Are you sure ? From where I'm standing, it looks like you do. What kind of men are you, to need your sister to protect you."

Millicent could feel her brother's body tense. She knew exactly what was going through his mind at that moment, and it was exactly what she feared. She tightened her grip on his arm, trying to distract him.

"Ignore him." Her voice was meant to be firm, but reassuring. She met his gaze, trying to anchor her calm in his.

Merlin looked at her and she could see that he was really pissed. "He's insulting me."

Millicent took a controlled breath, holding back the anger that threatened to overwhelm her as well. Her brother had always been impulsive, but in this situation the slightest mistake could cost them dearly. "And he will probably not be the last one. Are you gonna fight with each stupid person you meet ? Royal or not ?"

Although deeply annoyed and her nerves tested, Millicent managed to find the strength to calm herself as she felt her irritation rising. Merlin was unable to do the same. Millicent kept her cool. And in the midst of this commotion and this more than compromising and chaotic situation, her voice emerged as the voice of reason and Merlin managed to focus on the calm but firm voice of his sister.

"If you are man enough, Merlin, be my guess."

Millicent gritted her teeth. She could see her brother wavering, caught between his anger and his reason. All it would take was one word too many, one provocation that was just a little too well placed, for him to take the bait. She took a breath and anchored her feet to the floor.

"Merlin, if you respond to their provocations - which only hurt one thing at the moment, your ego, but it won't last if you fight with him - you will be no better than they are."

She saw her brother blink, as if her words had brought him back to reality for a moment. But the other one wasn't going to stop there. "Come on, show me you don't take orders from a girl."

Time seemed to stand still.

Millicent froze. A heavy silence fell, so heavy that even the sounds of the city seemed distant. She straightened up, lifting her chin slightly, and a dry chuckle escaped her lips.

Merlin, who knew her better than anyone, felt his stomach tighten. The irritation that had bubbled up inside him a few seconds earlier suddenly evaporated, replaced by a much more urgent alarm. His blood ran cold.

Shit.

He felt his breath catch. Why did he have to say that ?

"What did he just say ?" Merlin winced. It wasn't a real question.

"Milli, don't-" But she didn't even give him time to finish. She ignored him completely, her attention focused on the other person.

"What have you just said ?"

Arthur was a prince. He could have been gallant. Or, failing that, intelligent. But no. He made the fatal mistake of replying when it would have been better to remain silent. "Didn't you hear me ? If it wasn't for your brother, I might have wondered if he was deaf." Millicent blinked in disbelief. Was he really digging himself in deeper ? He continued unperturbed. "I said that..." He finally stopped himself. "Never mind, I didn't mean to offend you, but you're a girl and..."

Merlin closed his eyes instantly, feeling a wave of despair wash over him. He was fucked. He could almost hear the gears turning in his sister's head, just before she decided to explode.

With a sharp movement, Millicent raised her hand, cutting Arthur off in mid-sentence. "Shut up."

Arthur's eyes widened as if he couldn't believe his ears. "Excuse me ?"

"Stop talking, I've heard enough," she said coldly before turning her head towards her brother. She fixed her gaze on Merlin and ordered with unrelenting calm, "Kick his ass."

"What ?!" the two boys exclaimed in unison, equally stunned. Millicent, who had worked hard to defuse the conflict from the start, was now ordering her brother to fight ?!

Arthur, still in shock, tried to regain control. "You can't talk to me like-"

With a sudden movement, Millicent turned towards him, a false angelic smile on her lips. "Sorry," she said in a honeyed tone, before turning her attention back to Merlin. "Kick his royal, conceited ass."

Merlin blinked, still incredulous. "But I thought..."

Millicent waved away his hesitation impatiently. "Forget what I said before. Teach him a lesson," she repeated relentlessly. Merlin stared at her, dazed. She was serious. She really wanted him to fight.

"You said yourself, I did not know how to fight with that," he said showing the flail, suddenly finding his previous idea of fighting with Arthur very bad.

"Well, it didn't seem very important to you a moment ago." He, who had insisted so much, could not refuse now that his sister was asking him. Millicent moved next to him to look at Arthur, then fixed her eyes on the weapon. "Do your best, it can't be that difficult," she added before patting him on the shoulder in a sign of encouragement.

Merlin looked at his sister in disgust, still not comprehending the turn of events and her sudden change of behaviour. A few minutes earlier, when he had had the audacity to make similar remarks, she had wanted to tear him apart. Now she was encouraging him.

Millicent stepped aside, no longer standing between the two boys. "Go on, I won't stop you this time. Kick his ass. Make him eat dust." She moved a little further away, then looked at Arthur. "You can start again."

Arthur exchanged a startled look with his companions, then, without further thought, raised his shoulders and eyebrows before charging again at Merlin, who was caught off guard.

The fight resumed and moved to a small square not far from where there were several stalls. Arthur didn't care about the equipment, he attacked and it was up to the others to get away. A small group of people began to form in the area, watching the fight and shouting at each attack, which were only attacks by the prince.

So far Merlin had done nothing but dodge the blows, and fortunately for him, as Millicent let Arthur's weapon break the surface of the wood of one of the stalls, she imagined what it would do to the bones of her brother's body. She winced as Merlin narrowly dodged a blow. He was doing... miserably.

Arthur didn't seem to be joking. He continued to chase her brother around the small market, not caring much for the food he was wasting when his weapon struck a cabbage. Millicent's eyes flashed as she saw this.

She held her breath as she watched Merlin fall to the ground, unable to dodge the next blow. But as if by magic, Arthur's weapon wrapped itself around two sickles. Millicent opened her mouth slightly before looking at her brother, who gave her a look of despair. He knew that if he came out of this fight alive, she would kill him.

He had just used magic. In front of everyone !

And he was doing it again.

Millicent had to admit that it was very satisfying to see her brother regain the upper hand, somewhat ridiculing Arthur in his series of blunders, and to see people starting to support her brother. The witch allowed herself to think that people were too focused on the fight to notice anything out of the ordinary, whereas perhaps her brother could make an exception for once and the use of magic wouldn't be harmful.

Millicent crossed her arms and let a small chuckle escape her lips. Suddenly she was startled by a voice she recognised. "What's going on ?"

Millicent turned her head in horror to see Gaius beside her. She tensed immediately. "Well..."

Gaius didn't really want to know any more, he could see the situation clearly. "Why didn't you stop them ?'

"I swear I tried," she defended herself immediately, although she felt a pang of guilt as she said the words. It was only a half truth. Or a half lie. No, it was both a truth and a lie.

It could all have ended very satisfactorily with Merlin regaining the upper hand, Arthur falling, at the mercy of Merlin who, instead of attacking him, asked him to surrender, but Merlin had the misfortune to look away from the blonde. He saw Gaius standing beside his sister and his face froze. Millicent grimaced a sorry smile.

Embarrassed, but most of all ashamed to make such a spectacle of himself in front of Gaius, Merlin paused for a moment. Millicent saw Arthur stand up. "Wait..." But before she could warn her brother, he was dealt a treacherous blow to the back.

"Coward !" Millicent shouted angrily, forgetting that she was addressing someone of royalty.

Soldiers came to put Merlin on his feet, ready to arrest him. Millicent looked worriedly at her brother as Gaius grabbed her wrist to stop her from interfering. Surprisingly, Arthur ordered Merlin to be left alone. Millicent immediately felt an immense sense of relief.

Gaius joined Merlin as the crowd began to disperse, disappointed that the fight was over. Arthur, meanwhile, was about to leave when he passed Millicent. He slowed down, then stopped. "You must be disappointed that he didn't «make me eat the dust», but he did pretty well for a crap."

Millicent turned her head towards him, locking eyes with unfeigned confidence. "Perhaps it's only a matter of time."

Arthur chuckled softly and shook his head. "So you're threatening me now ?"

She shrugged slightly, putting on a false air of innocence. "When have I ever done that ? And me ? A girl. Threatening you ? Who would take that seriously ?"

Arthur smiled. Well done. He probably deserved it.

He paused for a moment before continuing, curious. "I suppose you still won't tell me your name."

Millicent raised an eyebrow, an amused smile playing on her lips. "Why should I ?" she challenged him.

"I am your prince," Arthur blurted out as if it were an unanswerable argument, but his tone betrayed a hint of mischief. Millicent, for her part, still seemed unconvinced. "I didn't have your brother arrested."

"But you did yesterday."

Arthur sighed slightly. "He deserved it."

"Maybe today, but not yesterday." She paused, staring hard at him. "And you pushed me. I won't forget that."

Arthur crossed his arms, putting on a false air of hurt. "I was protecting you," he corrected her.

Millicent laughed in disbelief. "From your own attack."

He sneered again and looked at Millicent as if fascinated. "You and your brother really are two strange birds, Millicent." As he said her name, almost in a whisper, he leaned close to her ear. He straightened and smiled with a certain satisfaction at the surprised look on the girl's face, then walked away without saying anything more.

He knew her name. Then why all the fuss about her telling him herself ?

She turned to follow Arthur's gaze. Merlin brought her back to reality as he passed her, scowling, followed by an angry Gaius, presumably on his way to the castle.

Oh, she and Merlin were going to have a really bad time.